Angelic Destructions v.8 Solitude

Thursday, December 21, 2006
Automatic Paranoia - Chapter Two

Apollymi avatar You know, somehow I didn't realize Treeboy knew how to drive. I always figured, you know, he sat down in the car and one of the drivers just showed up. A weird thought, I know, but somehow it made sense in my head at the time. But the blue, an idiot could have guessed that. Obsession much?

He didn't say a word, which somehow was what struck me as really odd, though. Weird, huh? Treeboy was never been a big talker, but when you were waiting to catch crap... Well, it could go either way, which would be worse: the waiting or the actual conversation (read: argument) that was inevitably going to ensue. Really, it was just as well I had no intention of letting him give me the other marks: if I were his human servant, I'd have to kill him within a few months.

We were out of the gates and pulled onto the main road before he finally opened his mouth. "You realize Rebecca just won the bet."

Talk about unexpected. The idea that Treeboy even knew about the betting pool was actually kind of amusing; I didn't think he lowered himself to keep up with little things like that. "She was the only one who bet on Yami?" He nodded, and I smirked for a second before realizing it hurt too much to bother. "She must have cleared a fair share then."

"Over fifteen hundred American." Wow. I'd be impressed if it weren't for the fact I knew they were betting my temper would snap first. And I couldn't deny it came close a few times. But there was no way I was taking a swing at anyone, at any of my people, not after Oyaji. I'd seen what happens once you start hitting people close to you -- I'd lived it and I had seen its consequences; that's why I could hold myself back.

And I remembered the way I'd blacked out once I started hitting Oyaji with that fireplace poker. I couldn't hit him because I didn't know if I'd be able to stop.

"Who all betted?" Not that I was plotting revenge or anything. Perish the thought. Who would ever think I'd want revenge?

"All the wolves, most of the cats, Varon, Mokuba, Noa." He made a turn that felt like ninety degrees; holy shit, did he learn to drive from Akito? I just found myself a lot more interested in buckling in and finding something to hold on to. "Ishtars One and Two couldn't decide which weapon you were going to use, so they didn't bet. I believe Yuugi bet double."

"The midget's in for it," I managed to grit out between clenched teeth, pretty sure there would be impressions of my fingers on the arm rest for all time. "I can't believe he'd bet on his brother getting his lights punched out."

He shrugged. "You aren't known for your self-restraint or thinking things out before you do or say them." And then my teeth were clenched to keep from growling, and I was holding on to the arm rest to keep from grabbing him, shaking him, and demanding to know what the fuck that was supposed to mean. And who said I had no self-restraint? "Or will Kisara find a body upstairs?"

"Asshole."

"Which I'm assuming means no." I released the arm rest long enough to flip him off. He didn't seem to notice, which meant he was concentrating hard on the road -- which probably meant he was about to do something he didn't want to -- which would probably be the lecture we both knew was coming. "So what brought it on?"

"The fight? He's had some ghosts following him around since the kidnapping that he never bothered to mention."

And that got me Kaiba Frown Number Three (so named because many of the Kaibas use them): confusion. "Did he know about them?"

I shot him one of the deadliest glares in my arsenal, which happened to be improving the longer I spent around the Kaibas, the masters of the deadly glare. But that also apparently meant they were immune to them because it rolled right off him. "Yes, he knew."

"So that's what started the fight." Shifting slightly was the only indication he gave of this being an... uncomfortable conversation for him. Otherwise he was a rock, and God damn it, it made me want to hit him even more. But moving at all meant he really didn't want to be doing the 'personal' talk, which any other time would have made me want to antagonize him the details... if it wasn't my life we were discussing. "So what led to the punch?"

"Nothing that's any of your damn business." Great, I'd been kidnapped to talk about my relationship. If I hadn't been in fear for my life with the way he drives, I might have been tempted to let him have it. As it was, I just wanted to survive the ride. "He brought up Amane, why he hadn't know about her." And why the hell was my mouth moving without my brain? "I told him that I didn't tell Malik about her till I'd known him two years."

"And that's what set him off?" I couldn't help but think that Yami's IQ just went down about twenty points in Treeboy's book. Not that he thought too highly of Yami's intelligence anyway. "Why?"

"The nutjob and I had a thing together, back before I left Tokyo. Five years ago," I added for clarification. Like he didn't already know. As anal as Treeboy was, he probably had dossiers on us to put the Tokyo police, the military, and the American FBI to shame. "I told Yami about it a few months ago." I turned my attention out the window at to the scenery whipping by. "To say he took it badly would be an understatement."

Another sharp turn, and I was officially in areas of town I wasn't familiar with. And damn it, I was not getting a bad feeling about this! There was no way... Well, no, fuck, there were plenty of ways this could all go wrong, but thinking about them just tended to make the whole situation worse, and it was bad enough as is.

"Why do you stay with him?"

I didn't have to look at him to know he wasn't looking at me. He would have his eyes locked on the road. He probably hadn't meant to say that out loud, but it was out -- and I'd be damned if it didn't need an answer.

"Because you so enjoy his presence. I'd hate to deprive you of that."

"Bakura..." And that had been growled. Score one for me; I made the Ice Prince lose his cool. "If you didn't have the first mark, we'd probably be taking you to the hospital right now."

"That's pushing it a bit, Treeboy. Yami's human. There's no way he could hit me that hard."

"Nonetheless, you have the first mark and therefore are harder to hurt, and he still managed to do that to you." He reached over with one hand and flipped the visor down. A mirror was there, believe it or not. There weren't any at all in the house, so I didn't think there would be any in the car short of the rear view. "Take a look."

"Okay!" It was all I could do not to scream the words. "Just put both of your hands back on the wheel!"

Once he'd complied, I did look, and okay, yes, it did look pretty bad. But it was far from the worst bruise I'd ever had -- and it had only been one punch. Oyaji had usually doled them out in sets of ten or more. Not that the number of hits discounted the fact he'd hit me at all, and I was still steamed about that. Even more so, since it was Treeboy giving me the lecture. Still, it was a fairly bad bruise: it was already turning weird colors and starting to swell. It probably wasn't going to be bad enough to impair my vision, but I was definitely going to be uncomfortable the next few days. Maybe Treeboy did have a bit of a point: ordinarily, I'd have been at least knocked out by this. And if this was with the first mark in place, how bad would it have been without it?

New rule: Yami could punch like a son of a bitch, so if there was something I needed to tell him that I thought he wouldn't like, I wouldn't tell him. Not too big a deal; it was not like my life was an open book for him or anybody to read. I still had secrets no one, not even the brat or Malik knew, not the least of which being the real story about what happened last Halloween.

And he caught me staring at the mirror. "So why do you stay with him, Bakura? I can have him thrown out in half a minute."

Was that a Treeboy-ish offer to help out? How... interesting. I guess he deserved an honest, non-joking answer after that. "Most of the time, I enjoy the fighting, at least when punches aren't being thrown. It's fun because we're such total opposites. I like making up after the fights. And..." How to put this? "He makes the voices stop."

It was a damn good thing no one else was on the road this time of night: he skidded across the road when he whipped his head around to stare at me, from what I was catching out of the corner of my eye. Well, that was odd. There should still be people out, walking if not driving, this close to the sun going down, but the streets were utterly deserted. Maybe this part of Domino actually shut down at night? Every window we passed, whether it was a shop or a home, was black. If the streetlights weren't on, I'd have wondered if there was a power outage, but with them still functioning...

"Voices?" For all his surprised turn to stare at me and the road skid, his voice was amazingly calm. Had no one told him, though? I certainly didn't recall it if we had. In fact, the only conversation I could remember Treeboy being present for was Kitty's extremely abbreviated one two years ago, before we'd known he was Master of Domino, and that was just that I could sense ghosts. Nothing about all the fun extras. "What voices?"

"Ghosts, mostly. Spirits, that sort of thing."

"I thought you just sensed them." He paused to shudder very slightly, almost imperceptibly. "And using them to tear things apart."

I snorted. "Just sensed them? Yeah, right. They do everything but knock on the front door when they want to be noticed." In fact, a few of them had even done that, but there was no reason for him to know that. "I can see them, hear them, and you already know I can call them." I laughed, completely humorlessly, and he stared at me like I'd gone over the deep end. "I can even tell you exactly how many people have died in your house."

If vampires could go white, he probably would have then. "Would I want to know?"

"Probably not." The number was almost definitely higher than he'd be comfortable with, even with the laws against hunting humans that had been passed about four years ago.

He straightened the car onto the correct side of the road again, his entire demeanor relaxing. Damn, now that would be a neat talent: the ability to look completely calm no matter what. Probably one of those useful Kaiba talents they'd never share, though. "So you can hear, see, and summon these ghosts?" I nodded. "Those are the voices Yami stops?" Another nod, but a bit more hesitant than the last. I couldn't really decide if I should tell him about The Voice, as I still thought of it even knowing its name, or not. Somehow he caught the hesitancy and asked, "What else?"

"It's mostly the ghosts, but," I had to take a deep breath before I could say it, it sounded so outlandish, "there is one other voice. I just don't hear it as often, only when when something bad is happening. Sometimes I can stop it myself, but sometimes Yami is the only one who can." There was no point in telling him the only times I'd controlled it myself, I'd either rode it out till something (like Mini-Me suddenly being alive) surprised me or I'd been rendered unconscious.

"What kind of a voice?"

I shook my head. "I don't really know. I first felt it the first time I summoned all those ghosts at Pegasus', when we found out about you being the Master, then when Cynthia was shot. Then I heard it a lot louder when I... took care of Oyaji. The worst, though, was last Halloween."

That caught his attention. "You heard it then too?"

"Right before I got bit." And as I recalled it, the only thing that shut The Voice up that time was my head hitting a wall at high speed, not an experience I'd like to repeat any time soon. I didn't think he really wanted to hear that either.

And damn it, I refused to start having a bad feeling! Because I wasn't! Not a snowflake's chance in hell. There was no way I was going to have a bad feeling before he even parked the car.

"Any ideas on what it is?" So he wasn't even going to bother asking if I was a few more steps around the bend than usual? Well, that was refreshing. I could get spoiled on non-reactions... which would be why I hadn't mentioned The Voice to Kitty and begged Mai not to mention it to the other wolves. Non-reactions were pretty much an exception to the rule where Weres were concerned.

"Not really. That first, the ghosts reached for it because of how powerful it is -- and I think it was in Tokyo, somewhere underground. It's coming knocking on my mind here in Domino every time since then. It said a name last Halloween, but..."

He waited a moment before prompting, "But?" I kept my gaze fixed on what I could make out of the scenery rushing by. There were fewer and fewer buildings, all of them dark. That just couldn't be good. And the flickering streetlights just cast an even more ominous feeling.

"It told me to say its name and it would destroy all those creatures. I don't think saying its name would be a good thing. Do you know where the hell we are?"

"There's a church a few blocks from here. I believe that's where we're supposed to meet this person. If I could find a way to block the voices--"

"Kaiba." I think he blinked; I know he swerved slightly. "Yeah, I can call you by name. I know you mean well and all, but lay the hell off." From the look on his face, I had to guess no one had ever said anything like that to him before. And he'd dated Kitty how long? "I'm pissed at Yami, but I'm also rather attached to the little asshole Pharaoh. Yes, you have a mark on me, and I appreciate you saving me the weeks of healing and putting up with Varon's shit it would have taken otherwise. But that doesn't put you in charge of my sex life. And if you try to pull Master of the City rank, I will yank the tree out of your ass and stake you with it."

Well, that actually felt pretty good. He looked stunned for all of a minute, then the expression slowly graduated to pissed off, not that it was a huge difference between the two unless one knew what to look for -- and I did. You couldn't go by the face because that rarely changed; it was all in the eyes, now I could meet them at least. The thought briefly struck me that I was sitting in a very small enclosed space with a master vampire who I was doing a rather thorough job of cheesing off, but I let it pass right on by. Pissing off said master vampire and not getting snapped in half like a twig was one of the perks of being among said master vampire's people; we might annoy the shit out of him sometimes, but he'd sooner walk out in the sunlight than betray one of us. I knew the feeling; I was much the same way.

No, what concerned me was that the angry expression changed again, this time to something more indefinable, something I couldn't recall ever seeing cross his eyes before, and he started slowing the car, finally bringing it to a halt at the mouth of a thin street between two abandoned-looking buildings. Metal piping that might have once been bicycle racks in a better life stood between us and the alley; if I were the poetic sort, I'd have said they were like sentinels standing guard.

He opened the door, and that was when it hit me like a metaphysical punch in the gut: death, old, recent, and fresh all clamoring for attention at once. In fact, one of them seemed so fresh that Treeboy must have caught the scent of the blood... because even I could almost smell it. The feeling I was picking up, the death, it was so strong that it was almost overwhelming. Someone -- or more probably several someones -- had died painfully here in the last few nights.

To my own surprise, I didn't want to find out. Hell, I didn't even want to follow Treeboy out of the car, but at the same time, I had to know. I damn sure didn't want to so much as contemplate reaching for the souls that had to be nearby (it's a rare ghost that leaves the scene of its murder), but it wasn't like the Ice Prince was going to turn it up on his own. So I reached -- then froze.

I guess I was standing there in shell shock a few seconds too long because Treeboy prompted, "Bakura?" That snapped me back out of it.

"Several people died near here."

He nodded, looking away, down that dark alley that oddly seemed like something from a nightmare to me. "I can tell that much."

"They died... but there's no souls left."

posted by Apollymi @ 12:41 PM

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Sunday, December 03, 2006
Automatic Paranoia - Chapter One

Apollymi avatar Heads are going to roll.

I swear to God, I'm going to find responsible parties - or even people who look vaguely responsible - and rip them limb from limb. Whoops, bad analogy, given my current situation.

You know, it wasn't too many nights ago that Yami, the brat, Mini-Me, and I were on a couch laughing at a bootleg horror movie, with characters caught in a situation very much like the one I'm now finding myself in. And, somehow, the only thought that keeps circling through my mind is, oddly enough, I didn't think it would smell like this. Weird. I'm probably not too far from being torn limb from limb myself, and I'm more concerned about how the things about to kill me smell. Oh well, the brat always did say I'm the odd one, though, as I recall it, he didn't use those exact words.

"Somehow this is all your fault."

I hold back a growl - barely. "I hate you. This is not my fault. You were the one who got the invitation, not me. I just tagged along to be nice."

"You don't know what that word means, Bakura."

"Like you do?"

Okay, just how the hell did we get here?

"Excuse me?"

If there's one thing living in the Kaiba household for the past two years taught me, it was never taken anything, even a 'hello', at face value. I turned slowly and looked up. I'm not short by any means, but the burly guy in front of me with the beat puppy look might have topped Treeboy for size, not the easiest thing to do by any stretch of the imagination. He was also more built than Magnum and darker than the nutjob - and neither of these were easy feats either. And that didn't make me particularly happy. And no one could say I was a cheerful person, even on my best days, few and far between though they might be. "What?" I demanded. A polite, young Japanese boy, I would never be.

He let out the loudest, most annoying sigh of relief I'd ever heard in my life. "I've been trying to speak with you for the longest time." Great... Another basket case. Just what this house needed. Like we were running short on our quota or something. He cast me a desperate look and leaned down with imploring eyes. "Look, I just made the sandwiches! I didn't do anything to end up like this!"

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask "Like what?" when he reached down to grab my shoulder -- and I felt a distinctive familiar chill go through me. I still don't really remember jumping back, but I do distinctly recall that I howled, "Holy shit! You're dead!"

And he nodded, like it was elementary, like I should have known it from the moment he appeared before me. "Of course. Could you ask him to let me go? I just made the sandwiches! I didn't want anyone to get hurt!"

Okay, I had my suspicions already. There were only a few people in Japan who could do anything with the dead, and only one who could do such high-quality ghosts. Still, better safe than sorry. "Ask who to let you go?"

"Atemu-san."

I knew it. I fucking knew it. Only Yami could do ghosts of this caliber, that look life-like enough to fool even me. "Of course," I forced out through clenched teeth. "Who else would it be?"

Don't get me wrong. Yami was one of the best things in my life, right up there with my siblings, but there were times when stuff like this got to being too much for me to take. I was never polite under the best of circumstances, but a lack of sleep -- due to the guy I was in bed with having nightmares every night for the last week -- only made me more irritable and short-tempered. And Yami had had one of those screaming bloody murder, sheet-ripping ones the night before; that didn't help matters any at all.

"So... could you ask him?"

With a world-weary sigh, I cast around till I found the guy's signature... then frowned when I turned up a couple others. "How many of you are there?"

"Three," he admitted, sounding a little sheepish. Good! I've never liked being surprised.

"I'll do what I can, but I'm going to need some info to work with here, like how the hell did this happen? What's your name? And are you who I think you are?"

"My name is Karim. I was... one of the people involved with the Mutou kidnapping five years ago. As for how it happened, I'm not certain, but I believe... Atemu-san pulled our souls from our bodies in revenge for what happened to young Yuugi-san."

"I can't say I blame him. You guys shot his little brother right in front of him!"

"I didn't shoot anybody! I didn't even know they were planning on kill him! I just made the sandwiches."

"Yami described them as the most horrible things he'd ever eaten," I had to chip in helpfully. I always had to make things worse.

He looked so put out that it took every ounce of willpower I had not to laugh out loud in his face. "They were perfectly healthy and well-balanced."

"And you gave healthy food to fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds? What the hell were you smoking?" But I was just babbling on to kill time while I traced the bond linking all three signatures to Yami. "So if you've been following Yami around since the kidnapping.." I trailed off with a slight growl.

"We don't look at you guys having sex or anything!" Nice to know I could even get a spirit all riled up.

"Okay. I'm cutting all three of you off from Yami. It might take a little while for you to pass on or whatever, since it looks like you've still got a good bit of juice left in you. I'd give you a week, tops."

And more than likely, for that week, I'd have to deal with a hyper Yami again. It probably wouldn't be too different than that time with Mini-Me: he didn't know just how much energy he was pouring into Mini-Me, but once he suddenly wasn't, it was like this huge energy spike. He bounced off the walls for days on end. Nonetheless, I had no interest in this guy trailing me, nor any of the rest of those kidnappers, so I cut the link without another thought.

I'd been getting better at it, really. Two years of (relative) peace and quiet allowed for a good bit of time to improve on a lot of things, not the least of which being my dealings with the dead. Still this incident was going to require a long conversation (and probably a yelling match) between myself and my boyfriend. That... wouldn't be fun, but then, it never was.

Two years of peace and quiet, all over in a single moment. Again. And all thanks to Yami, also again. I enjoyed being with him, really I did, except in moment like these where we were screaming at each other almost loud enough to wake the dead. It was only 'almost loud enough' before none of the vampires had yet to come down and inform us we'd awakened them from their beauty sleep.

"What I don't get is why you're so upset!" he yelled back at me. I'm not sure what I said that set him off with that, but then, we'd been yelling at each other at least a good hour, so it was really all starting to run together.

"Why? Because you knew there were a fucking merry trio of ghosts following us around all this time -- and you didn't say anything! What else am I going to find out again? What else haven't you told me about?"

"Oh, like you not telling me about having a sister?"

He would bring up Amane... He just could never let that drop. "Maybe because I knew you'd never let it go! And you aren't!"

"So it's all right for you to keep secrets, but not me?" he yelled back.

"Don't put words in my mouth, Yami," I returned in a hiss. At my side, I could feel myself clenching my hand into a fist and releasing it over and over. It was helping keep me from really losing my temper. Actually hitting him was at the bottom of my list of things to do; I'd probably never regain the privilege to have sex with him ever again. And I'd never forgive myself either, since I'd done so well dismissing the ghost of my father within me.

"It's what you said." It was probably a bad thing that he finally stopped pacing in front of me.

"Yami, I barely knew you then!"

"We'd been together two months!"

"I'd known Malik two years before he ever laid eyes on her!"

And that was the wrong thing to say. We'd had one of our only multi-day fights when I came clean with the fact Malik had been something of a friend with benefits back in Tokyo. We'd run together for years, and in the last year or so before I took off with the brat, we decided it'd be better to be together than chance what could happen on the street; it was safer with a friend. 'Fuck buddies' was the best term for what we were back five years ago. It's not like there was any real affection beyond our strange friendship we'd had for years and the camaraderie the gang provided between us, but Yami never seemed to get that.

I had half a second for all that to rush through my mind before there was a sharp pain throbbing on my left cheekbone and a weird ringing in my ears... and Yami standing in front of me looking as stunned as I felt. Had he just--? It was certainly far from the worst punch I'd ever received, but it was a bit shocking. I mean, he had hit me. Last I heard, the running bet was that, if and when our relationship would ever turn aggressive, it'd be me doing the knocking around on him. I wonder who just won this pool.

"Kura...," he floundered. "I--"

"I guess I earned that?" Even I could tell my voice was deadly quiet.

"No! I didn't mean--"

Oh God, the temptation to hit the shit out of him was so fucking strong, but that would get us nowhere, except in more trouble. Okay, I needed to clear my head, and that meant getting out of the room for a bit. I turned on my heel and started to march out of the room when he spoke up again, "Where are you going?"

"I have to get out of here and calm down." Before I wake up and find myself killing you. I glanced over my shoulder at him, and My God, he looked more miserable than I felt. "I'll be back in a while." With the look on his face, it felt a bit like kicking a puppy, but in this case, one that had already bitten me. I mean, I love him, but I spent most of my life getting the shit kicked out of me by Oyaji; I wasn't about to start taking it from anyone else and especially not someone I cared about as much as Yami.

"...You will be back though?"

"When I'm calmer." However long that might take.

The sun was down. That was fairly easy to tell immediately as I closed the door to our room and stepped into the hallway: Mokuba and Noa were out and about, they were definitely drastically active. I've never said I didn't live in a madhouse. No sign of the taller two Kaibas, though, but no surprise there. Seth and Treeboy were usually holed up in the office downstairs as soon as the sun went down; I'd have to walk right by them to go to the den to crash for a bit.

And surely enough, they were in the office, arguing loudly enough that hearing them through the walls and the closed doors wasn't really an issue, even for an almost regular human like me. Guess it was time to check up on my vamps, whether they liked it or not. As per usual, I just barged right in without bothering to knock, not that it seemed to make any difference; they seemed too far into the argument to notice me right away, so I just dropped down into a chair to sit it out.

Predictably, at least for Treeboy, it didn't take long before hard blue eyes settled on me. "What are you doing here, Bakura?" Woah, I couldn't tell if there were fangs in that, but if there weren't, then they weren't far off.

I shrugged easily. "Just checking in on my favorite vampires, seeing what all the yelling is about."

He frowned a bit, and that was how I knew just how bad half my face was starting to look. Live with Treeboy a couple of years, and you start picking out the meanings of his many varieties of frowns. This one, for instance, was annoyed with a half side of concerned. I might be a bit harder to hurt now, but that didn't always mean anything. "Nothing important." Just like that didn't mean too much coming from him.

"Bullshit." Gratifying, to see how fast he could go from perplexed back to the default stoic/pissy look. "Coming from you that means exactly two things: jack and shit. It's your standard answer when you don't want someone getting involved. Seth, what the hell's going on?"

There was a longer debate behind darker blue eyes, and for a moment or two there, I almost thought even Seth wasn't going to say anything, at which point I would have had to resort to more drastic measures, which may or may not have included beating it out of one of them. Thankfully for them, though, it seemed to be confession time. "Seto's been getting some strange letters lately."

"'Weird'?" Well, that opened up a lot of possibilities when it came to people in this house. Weird could range from actual fan letters to death threats. Yami had gotten more... Not thinking about Yami. "Define 'weird'."

Wordlessly, Seth handed me over a sheet of paper. It was handwritten in a spidery script, nothing I recognized. It was good thing I'd been in this house for over two years; it made reading weird handwriting in English a less difficult, though definitely not easy. "'Meet me. I have information about what happened a year ago'?" I read aloud carefully, at least partially to be certain I was getting it correct. "The hell?"

Treeboy shrugged. "All I can guess it means is other vampires we met at Halloween." And the less said about that, the better. No one knew about the mark or the ass-kicking we received -- and frankly I think we were both happy with it staying that way. He shrugged again. "We do need to find out what caused them."

"Are you fucking mental?" If looks could kill, I think Treeboy would have just planted me. "I know what you're thinking, and you are not going alone. We just got you broken in. I don't want to have to train a new Master of the City."

Mister Smooth-as-hell Seth jumped in right then. "Why don't you go with him then?" I'm pretty sure my eyes nearly fell out of my head when I goggled like that at the man. Apparently Treeboy's better than I realized at only giving the bare bones of a description. It's either that or Seth was sending us out to off us both. "The two of you did pretty well with that situation last year, and as you said, Seto doesn't need to go alone."

Well, it was not like he didn't have a point, and there wasn't any way to argue it without revealing what happened last year. Treeboy didn't look any happier about the matter than I felt, so it wasn't like I wasn't going to get a chance to make someone fucking miserable. "Fine. I suppose Treeboy does need a keeper after all."

Damn, I must have been slipping; all I got was an eyeroll. "Whatever. Let's get out of here." I got a half-hearted push towards the door. "Come on. It'll do you good to get out of the house." Which, given the glare he sent upstairs as we headed out the front door, I was guessing to be Treeboy-speak for I needed to spend some Yami-free time. Great, one little mark and he starts to think he could run my life.

Oh yeah, guessing who was definitely going to get lectured on the car ride to... Where were we going anyway? "Do you even have any idea where you're supposed to meet this guy?"

Rather than deign himself to give a real answer, he thrust a slip of paper at me. I caught it reflexively and glanced down at the address on it. No building name or anything, and it was an area of town I didn't recognize. "This was in the envelope with the note."

This would not go well. "Okay, but if it's a trap, don't blame me."

posted by Apollymi @ 5:19 PM

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