Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Lutetia City: Lupaix

as written by Knosis

At the mention of food, her stomach responded for her. When had been the last time she had eaten, she wondered. "I'll try to pay for repairs.." She smiled, relief on her face at seeing he had healed well enough during the night.

"I can try walking.." She murmured, slowly sitting up. Part was because of the glass, part was her body was still screaming at her. "Do you have a shirt at least..? I'm afraid I've shreaded the clothes you guys gave me.." She said quietly. She more forced herself up on her feet by shear stubbornness alone, refusing to let her ego be crushed any further in the dirt than it had.

She seemed mobile enough though. She held her ribs and looked up at him, shame in her eyes. "Perhaps your friend is right then.. I'm a danger to keep around it seems.. Once your pack hears about my newest incident.." She couldn't bring herself to finish that train of thought.

She may as well kiss freedom goodbye and possibly enjoy her last few hours of life. She was sure she was a dead man walking, and in a way, she was almost relieved at that thought.
 
as written by Tiko

"'elp yourself to me closet. I'll be upstairs," Desmond answered.

He grabbed his holstered gun and cellphone off the shelf where he had put them last night. He didn't trust her that much yet. He trudged up the steps with a yawn, and despite Chloe's deteriorating anxiety over the situation, Desmond had seemingly gone the other direction entirely.

It was as if they hadn't just woken up in the pile of rubble that used to be his bedroom, and she could hear him humming to himself upstairs.
 
as written by Knosis

As soon as Desmond was out of sight, Chloe's strong reserve faded and she leaned heavily against the wall, her breath catching. After a long few moments, she gathered up her strength again and moved for his closet. Surprisingly, he didn't have a lot within it except for clothes, and one lonely shoe box. Ignoring the box, she grabbed the first clean t-shirt she could find and shoved it over her head. It was rather baggy and covered her entire frame, and that's all that mattered.

Slowly she made her way to the stairs, the prospect of food being the only driving force to get her to go upstairs. She did find it odd, his good mood after facing her not once, but twice now. Perhaps he was plotting how he was going to skin her?
 
as written by Tiko

By the time Chloe made it upstairs, Desmond was well on the way to fixing breakfast, which apparently consisted of breaking open an entire carton of eggs into a large frying pan, while depositing a mountain of bacon into another. It was a meal that would have made any human's arteries clog up just from looking at it.

For a hungry werewolf though, it might as well have been butter and toast.

"'ere," he said as she appeared at the top of the cellar stairs. "We'll 'ave a seat an' eat, an' then we'll talk about last night," he told her. "Soun' fair? There's some plates in the cupboard there next to you."
 
as written by Lialore

Brendan was a usually happy man but this morning he was particularly cheerful. With everything that had been happening recently, it was quite a change to feel so light. It had been a busy past few days, a flurry of work had found him, and the rent and bills had to be paid. He drove back from his client’s house. A nice woman, a little older than him, she’d needed some plastering done, and a bit of painting. Safe to say they’d hit it off.

He tapped his fingers off the steering wheel as he drove, humming to himself as he did so. His phone lay on the passenger seat, now dead, jammed with missed calls and messages.

The sound of sizzling met him as he went inside, wafts of bacon threatened to make his mouth water as he hastily kicked off his boots near the door – something which no one else did.

“Moooooornin’” He called, making his way to the kitchen, preparing to start a monologue of his great last night endeavour as he passed into the room. “Guess who go-“

“O’” Brendan’s eyes flickered between his brother and the stranger. His eyebrows then rose. Looked like he wasn’t the only one who’d got lucky. But on closer inspection, those surprised eyebrows drew closer together in curiosity at their states. Not the disarray. But the injuries.

“Care to tell me what’s ‘appenin here?”

Still, he wasn’t distracted enough to not have his stomach grumble at the sight of breakfast.
 
as written by Knosis

Chloe was able to sit before Brendan appeared inside.

And she fell silent, lowering her gaze away.

This wasn't her place to explain.
 
as written by Tiko

"'ey. This is Chloe. Chloe, me brother Brendan," Desmond said over the stove before he moved to start shoveling food onto the plates. "Chloe is uh... stayin' wi' us a few days while the pack is sortin' some stuff out. Mainly 'er fascination wi' tryin' to maul me face off."

"Oh an' we need to go shopping for furniture later," he added.

The door to the cellar stood open, and one look even from up here would afford Brendan a clear view of the damages strewn all about floor down there.
 
as written by Lialore

as written by Lialore

He wasn’t sure ‘nice to meet yer Chloe’ was the right thing to say with what information he’d been given. So he just offered her an amused kind of smile and a nod.

“O’, she is now? Well, I weren’t aware that we were runnin’ a home for delinquents, as lovely as they may be.” Brendan said, he meant it in good humour, but it was a little heated. “I think elaborating a bit mig-“

Furniture shopping?

Brendan glanced around, looking for the broken chair. Instead, he found the doorway to the basement. He took in the splinters of wood, torn fabrics and the blood which splattered it all.

He didn’t even need to ask who was paying for that. It was lucky he wasn’t an angry man.

One deep breath later - which he’d done after closing his eyes – he turned his attention back to the two breakfasters.

“Somethin’ tells me this ain’t a case of a serious love hate relationship. What’s yer story, Chloe?”
 
as written by Knosis

She gave a sheepish smile at Brendan. "Well.. I have been awfully stressed lately, I sort of lost it I guess, heading from work and I sorta.. Kind of almost bit Desmond's arm off.. He shot me... A few times.." She coughed. "Long story short, I was brought here.. Lost it again.. And I promise I'll pay for the damages.." She sighed.

She bit her lip. The smell of the food made her stomach growl loudly. She winced and looked down, shamefully.
 
as written by Tiko

"It was just a nibble, no 'arm done," Desmond told Brendan. "Though me jacket is done for."

He gave Chloe a side-long glance.

"Well don't just sit there," he said as he pushed the plate over in front of her. "You look like you're about to keel over on us again."

"An' I 'ave a proposition for you, once you have some food in ya," he added as he started shoveling food into his own mouth.

The man was unnaturally cheery at the moment.
 
as written by Lialore

No way would she be paying for damages that weren’t her fault. Even an extremely unimpressed Brendan wouldn’t allow for that. His brother’s new jacket wasn’t coming out of his next pay cheque though.

“That’s now how you get people to like yer’, guys. Bitin’, shootin’, a ‘ello usually does the trick.”

He took up a position leaning on the counter with a bit sigh that made his lips flap; he was ready to scavenge whatever he could. He was also interested in the proposition. It sounded like the girl was having problems with her forms, dangerous enough, enough to not want her wandering the streets. Especially not on their land. He’d be happy to help in whatever way he could.

“Excuse me, miss, but is there no one wantin’ yer Chloe? I mean, family, colleagues. Everythin’s gonna be at a halt while we figure out what ter’ do, and I’m sure you understand we want the best. Someone gotta be lookin’ for yer’ some time.” He eyed Desmond. “We don’t want people worryin’.” A straight stare. "Do we?"
 
as written by Tiko

"Ah... about that," Desmond hastily interjected. "It's a bit complicated. She's with the Ardelean Society and they don't really know we 'ave 'er 'ere. The pack is sortin' it out. Things got a bit 'eated last night, an' I didn't 'ave anywhere else to take 'er."

Wasn't any real graceful way to tell Brendan that they where holding Chloe here, not entirely of her own free will.

He opted instead for distracting his brother with a plate full of untouched bacon that he slid towards him.
 
as written by Knosis

Chloe was too busy wolfing down food to have answered Brendan right away anyway. Manners was thrown to the side as spoonful after spoonful the woman shoveled eggs into her mouth.

She only took a moment to breathe, nodding in agreement to Desmond. "I have no family in Lutetia. I don't have anyone but my work, actually.." She muttered, but swiftly went back to the plate, attacking the bacon next. "Its fine though.." She said while chewing. "Don't think they'd actually be looking for me at the moment anyway.."
 
as written by Lialore

“She’s with the ARDELEAN SOCIETY?”

“The pack is sortin’ it out? It should’ve been sorted. I mean, before we kidnapped her.”

Of all things holy, what was Baron going to get back to.
There’d been enough to worry about without this.

It took quite a bit of effort to stop himself from throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation.
The peace offering slid to a halt before him. He snatched the plate up and settled at the table.
Too late now, he couldn’t fix what had already happened. Might as well try to make the best out of this situation.

‘It’s fine though’, she’d said.

He ran a hand through his hair which definitely needed to be cut.

“So, not just yet. But maybe in the next few days our door is gonna get kicked in, right?” He said it as though it wasn't an issue. Brendan picked up a piece of bacon and let it all into his mouth at once. The corners of his lips turned up in a sarcastic smile as he chewed away.

A gulp.

“I give up. I really do.”
 
as written by Knosis

"Its not a kidnapping if I went willingly." She said, stuffing the last piece of bacon into her mouth.

"I was in trouble. Desmond and his friend helped me out while I was unconscious. Obviously I'm still injured, so Desmond thought it be best to keep an eye on me over night and I just now regained consciousness, and I've lost my cellphone which explains why I haven't called in yet."

She seemed to be trying to make up a cover story for the both of them. Her green hues locked on to Desmond. "If I wanted to leave, I would have already. I owe Desmond my life. Sounds like VINDEX owes you two boys, doesn't it?"

She already seemed tons better. The color had gone back to her face and she didn't look like death warmed over so much anymore. Some of the smaller bruises and cuts seemed to be healing before their eyes. "What's your proposition?" She changed the subject.
 
as written by Tiko

"Uh... yeah, what she said," Desmond answered around his mouthfuls of food.
 
as written by Lialore

“Oh, yeah? Well, excuse me for thinkin’ that your pals down at the Ardelean Society won’t see it the same. It’s just whether or not you get a chance to explain before they start paradin’ around lookin’ for trouble since we have their missin’ lady.” He went off in a meaningless grumble and stabbed at some more bacon.
 
as written by Tiko

"'ey now, I'll take care of it," Desmond reassured his brother.

Of course, those five words probably accomplished everything but reassuring his brother.

"As for that proposition. There's somewhere I want to take you. Baron's bail 'earin' is tomorrow. If you stick wi' me for the day, I'll put in a word for you wi' Baron when he gets out. Sound fair?" he asked. "An' no questions about where we're 'eadin' either."
 
as written by Knosis

Chloe raised a brow. She didn't have any reason to not trust Desmond, but at the same time she didn't have a reason to trust him either. To just blindly follow him could lead her into further troubles. But if she was going to get out of trouble with the pack, this was her only means of doing so.

She was silent for a long time, weighing the pros against the cons and silently judging Desmond.

"Alright. Fine then.. I'll go with you. And I won't ask." She murmured.
 
as written by Lialore

“Alright” Brendan said, entertaining Desmond and his newly found responsibility. “You take care of it. Take care of ‘er, too. And I’ll take care o’ the mess.”

He finished the rest of his breakfast and got to his feet, giving them both mildly irritated stares. No doubt his slight resentfulness would have disappeared by the time he finished showering.

“I’m shattered. Y’know been busy workin’.” He dumped the plate into the sink, adding to the pile of washing up that he’d have to do later. “Have fun on yer’ date, try not to kill each other. They say fire an’ passion really add to a relationship but not so much when yer’ ripping each other’s faces off. I’m just the house keeper. I’ll call if we’re bein’ fucked by VINDEX.”

“Nice to meet you Chloe” he added as an afterthought.
This hadn't been the best way for Desmond to introduce his new girlfriend to his brother.

And with that, he headed upstairs to shower and sleep and forget about his rare spell of ruined good-mood.
 
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