cont.

[bloodandflowers]

"He shouldn't get away with it," she snarls, but the fire dies and her hands begin to shake. More dizziness, she tries to push it down. It will pass. "He shouldn't--"

But her words die away as the world dims and goes black.

It's what he's dreading, but it's also what Kell expects, and he catches her shoulders when she sways, stoops and swings her into his arms when her knees give way. The short display has attracted quite a following, but Kell ignores them all, striding to the wall to paint a symbol with the still fresh blood eking from one of his wrists.

He presses his palm to the mark and steps forward and through, not into his cramped, secret room near the park, but into the bedroom of his own apartment. Kell lies Lila on the bed and loosens her collar, listening for a moment to her breath and then her heart. It isn't good, but neither is it very bad, yet, and he heaves a sigh.

He fetches a bowl of cold water and a cloth and returns. Kell places the dampened cloth on her brow and sits in the chair next to the bed, watching her as the minutes tick by. The blood, he leaves. Lila's earned that reminder.

*

Slowly, the world comes back into focus. Lila blinks a few times and takes stock of her surroundings. A ceiling, walls, a bed. Kell sitting next to her looking stern. Perhaps even more than usual. It makes her smile despite the pounding of her head and the dryness of her mouth. She licks her lips, tasting blood, and lifts a hand to remove the wet cloth she feels on her forehead.

"Well, at least you haven't tied me up," she tells him, thinking back to when they first met.

If Kell is relieved to see her conscious again, he gives no outward sign, and neither does he let the smile he feels tugging at the edges of his mouth take root. Let her recall their first meeting all she likes - she's nearly killed herself in the meantime, and the reminder is all Kell needs to regain his frown.

"Lie still," he says. "The dizziness will come again."

Comments

[best_thief]

Lila rolls her eyes and sits up against the pillows to spite him, despite the dizziness that comes just as he said it would. It's a rush that makes her nauseous, but she manages to keep from vomiting. That's good, she would hate Kell's I told you so look if she'd puked all over his bed.

"You're overreacting," she tells him. "I hope you didn't forget my helmet."

[bloodandflowers]

He hasn't, though Kell refuses to give her the satisfaction. He watches her fight down a rush of bile and sits forward, reaching for the cloth to rewet it.

"You fainted in the middle of a fight in which a man quite rightly wanted to kill you," he says, extending the cloth. "About which part is my reaction too severe?"

[best_thief]

Kell has a point, but Lila refuses to acknowledge it. She gives him a flat look instead, and bats away the cloth.

"Lucky you were there, then, hm?" she says and smiles sweetly. "Anyway, he deserved what I did, admit it. He was a pig. I hope you set his hair on fire before you left."

She knows he wouldn't have, but the thought of it amuses her.

[bloodandflowers]

Kell doesn't reply, his eyes tracking the quick bat of her hand. Reaching forward, he wraps his fingers around her wrist and draws it near to him, lips parting for an unhappy breath.

"And this?" he asks, looking away from the spidery black that marks the once blue veins of Lila's skin. "Is this me overreacting, too?"

[best_thief]

Lila blushes and has the decency to look at least slightly cowed. She doesn't even pull her hand away, though she wants to, but the sight of how dark her veins have turned combined with Kell's concern makes her go still in her unease.

"It happened with the stone and I lived," she finally says, knowing it's a weak argument even as the words leave her mouth.

"What do you want me to say, Kell?"

[bloodandflowers]

"I want you to admit you're out of your depth," Kell answers, keeping his grip on her wrist carefully light as his own stomach lurches. "I want you to admit that you don't know what you're doing, to me and to yourself."

Kell strokes his thumb along one dark vein, as tender as the sight is grim. "How do you think that stone came to be, Lila?"

[best_thief]

Lila's mouth falls open and the tiny, shivery tingles from Kell's touch aren't even enough to keep her from yanking her hand away. "I do so know what I'm doing," she says, scowling with her hands clenched in Kell's bed sheets. "I had to listen to a hundred lessons about how magic is like a wave and a door and a conversation. I can use fire and water, and I think air as well."

"You can't compare me to that stone just because I used a little too much magic today. Just because I'm powerful doesn't mean I'm corrupted."

[bloodandflowers]

"Having power is not the same as being powerful, Lila," Kell returns, sitting back as she snatches her hand away. "You think you are using your magic, but it is using you as well. It is balance. If you take too much, it will take from you."

Kell nods down at her dark laced veins. "That is only a start. Kings," he snarls with sudden vehemence. "Who was your teacher?" The way she speaks, someone must have been, but they haven't done Lila any favors in letting her run rampant. "You should have come to me. You should have come back and let me help you."

[best_thief]

"I was in the middle of the fucking ocean, Kell," Lila snarls back, his own anger only making hers rise. She doesn't want his concern, she doesn't want him to care. If she didn't think she'd fall on her face she'd leave his apartment right now and never look back.

"His name is Alucard Emery, he was my captain. And a triad, by the way, entered in the Essen Tasch, so I think he knows what he's doing. Even if his lessons were intolerably cryptic," she adds in a mumble.

[bloodandflowers]

Kell feels himself grow cold, his cheeks strange and numb when he swallows. He knows that he's gone from pale to white in the way Rhy used to tease him for when he was truly upset, and the thought of his brother only makes the pit in Kell's stomach open wider.

He hears a crack, and distantly Kell is aware that the floorboards beneath him have splintered. "I know what he is," he replies. Of course Alucurd fucking Emery entered the Essen Tasch. Where better for a peacock to spread his obnoxious feathers? "He's left you deaf and blind. He is either cruel or a fool, take your pick, Lila."

[best_thief]

Lila watches the way Kell's expression transforms, the way what color he has leaves his face. She jumps at the sound of cracking, and peers over the side of the bed to see what's happened.

"Jesus, Kell," Lila breathes, eyebrows furrowed. "What's this about? And don't tell me it's magic lessons."

He'd been upset before, but now he's furious and she doesn't think it's all directed at her.

[bloodandflowers]

Kell doesn't answer her, though some color finds its way back to his cheeks when he sees her glance at the floor. Trust Emery to destroy his apartment even when a world away.

"Of all the ships," he murmurs. "Of all the ships and you have to end up on his. He's not equipped to teach anyone," Kell grinds out, meeting Lila's eyes at last. "Look at what he's done to you. You deserve better, Lila."

[best_thief]

Lila doesn't let her thoughts linger on Kell thinking she deserves things. He's just mad about Alucard for whatever reason, and she intends to find out why.

"Well, he's not here now to continue them, is he?" Lila asks, crossing her arms. Plainly put, she didn't even think she needed continued lessons, but she has a feeling she won't be able to escape it now with how worked up Kell's gotten.

"What's Alucard done to you that you're so angry?"

[bloodandflowers]

"Is being a shit teacher not enough?" Kell asks, and for a moment he's filled with all the righteous indignation he wants to be. Emery is a rotten, spoiled cur, hurting anyone he likes and getting away with it. Lila is just another in a long line of undeserving souls in his path.

The windows give a rattle, and Kell breathes in deeply through his nose until they stop. "Emery does what pleases him, no matter what," he answers at last, repeating more softly, "No matter what."

[best_thief]

"I don't think he intended for me to get hurt," Lila says, just a little indignant. No matter what Kell thinks of him, or what happened between them, Alucard wasn't trying to ruin her. Maybe he was a shit teacher, but she has a sneaking suspicion that it was her thirst for magic and power and her impatience to gain both that's what did this.

Not that she'll say so.

Frowning, Lila waits for Kell to regain control of his magic. "Kell. What happened?" she asks, not scared of his power, but of how soft his voice goes.

[bloodandflowers]

"I doubt he intended anything but to impress you," Kell replies. Of course Emery managed to give her the most cursory of lessons, yet dropped into common knowledge that he was a Triad. If a man could break himself rolling his eyes, Kell would be doomed.

"He hurts people, Lila. No matter who they are, or how undeserving." Unthinking, Kell lifts a hand to his chest, rubbing at the mark there over his shirt.

[best_thief]

Lila doesn't miss where Kell's hand wanders to, like a tell someone would unknowingly give during a card game. So Alucard hurt Rhy in some way. It shouldn't be surprising that they know each other. Alucard comes from a noble family that probably runs in the same circles as the royal family, but the odds of Lila joining Alucard's ship seem impossible. Or, perhaps, fated. Not that Lila buys into such a thing, even though she felt the same sort of odd luck when the opportunity to become Stasion unfolded. Maybe the same could even be said of her running into Kell in that alley so many months ago.

Whatever it is, whatever happened, Kell is brooding.

"He did try to seduce me for information, once," she says in some attempt to alleviate his mood, like she's on his side about Alucard the cur. "You're a better kisser, for the record."

[bloodandflowers]

Kell has no idea what effect Lila intends to have with the words, but his stomach gives a sickening lurch, and for a moment Kell thinks he might actually be ill. He doesn't contest the account - it is absolutely something the Alucard he's known would do, and Kell gets to his feet.

"You need to eat," he says, looking anywhere but the bed until he manages to get his feet moving towards the door. Kell's not an idiot. He knows his fury is directly entirely at Alucard, but he can't say the same for the sudden ache behind his eyes. "I'll make you something."

[best_thief]

Lila sighs. Well, that hadn't worked. She thought it might take his mind off Rhy and inspire him to kiss her again, but instead he walks away. It's probably better he does, she's foolish to want things like kisses from someone like Kell. He's already too important to her.

She slowly swings her legs around to the edge of the bed, touching her feet to the floor and testing her balance to make sure that if she stands she won't fall over. "Don't worry about it, I have food at my place."

[bloodandflowers]

Kell blinks out of his unseeing stare in the kitchen, turning towards the sound of her voice. "Do you?" he asks without particular judgment this time. Perhaps he doesn't truly know her after only a few days, but Lila doesn't strike him as the type to keep a stocked pantry. She doesn't strike him as the type to stay anywhere long enough to have a pantry at all.

"Let me feed you," he says, returning to the bedroom door. "Then you're free to go anywhere you wish." Kell swallows. "Please, Lila. It's important."

[best_thief]

"They give you money here," Lila points out, looking back at him. "I have a few things."

She can't cook to save her life, so there isn't anything elaborate, but after she found the market she bought enough to live on. It's nice, not having to steal food. Or having to depend on Lenos' cooking.

Lila just looks at him a good long moment. "If you insist," she says, and stays seated for now. Her lower lip is throbbing dully, she pokes at it experimentally and winces. She touches her face for any other wounds. She's probably bruised. She can feel the caked blood below her nose and picks up the wet cloth Kell had brought her, scrubbing away the blood, dirt, and sweat with it.

[bloodandflowers]

Kell nods and returns to the kitchen, gathering the supplies for a simple sandwich of meat and cheese for her. He'd prefer to toast the bread, but with her split lip it will be difficult enough to eat already, so he leaves the bread soft. He pours her a glass of milk as well, ignoring his own bottle of spirits at the top of the fridge. Later, he suspects he will drink of it deeply.

Kell brings the sandwich and milk to his bed where Lila sits, glad to see her a little less bloody after the cloth. "I didn't see all your fights," he says. "If anything is broken, I can heal it if you wish."

[best_thief]

There's an unsettling moment where Lila's dragged back to her childhood. Of being five and ill in bed, her mother bringing her food on a tray, just like this. It's only a moment, and it passes, but it leaves her feeling hollow out afterward.

Her mouth quirks at Kell's comment, brought forcefully, gratefully back to the present. "Nothing broken, I don't think. Just banged up." She tongues at her lower lip, tasting a hint of blood. "I wouldn't mind if you could fix this cut, though," she says, eyebrows drawn in question.

[bloodandflowers]

Kell looks down at her mouth and forcefully does not think of Alucard anywhere near it, focusing instead on the ragged cut that must have been made by her own teeth. "You know how I must do it," he answers, lifting his eyes back to hers.

He thinks of the club, of her sharp teeth on his own lips and wonders if she'd actually been after a taste of his blood. He'd have given it to her. "Is that alright?"

[best_thief]

"I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't okay with it," Lila says, dryly.

And then, in a belated moment of selflessness, she adds, "Unless you don't want to cut yourself. I've had worse injuries, I'll live." She brings the glass of milk up to her mouth and ignores the pang of pain to prove her point, and to shut herself up.