Uncut
By: Windgale
Disclaimer: I don't own Pavi, Shilo, the side streets of GeneCo City, or anything other Repo related thing I've mentioned in this chapter.
Shilo scuttled around the dark, cold streets of GeneCo City. She had no place to go, no one to turn to, not even a place to wash her father and godmother's blood off of her. She had no knowledge of the street, and no particular skills, apart from getting herself into horribly sticky situations. She slumped against the wall of a particularly dirty side street and buried her head in her knees, which the protectively pulled up to her chest. She thought about crying, but it would only attract attention from junkies and quicken her impending death. She shivered and hugged her body. It was cold. She closed her eyes, giving up. She was either going to sleep, or die.
"Hey, I've been looking all over for you." a high pitched voice said. A warm hand covered Shilo's shivering shoulder. She didn't have to look up to know it was Pavi Largo. She kept her head down, waiting for the knife to slice or the gun to shoot.
"You gonna look at Pavi or are you dead?" he asked. Shilo mechanically lifted her head and looked at him. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying at the opera, and dirt was smeared all over her body from running through the streets. Pavi leaned down to look at her from eye level. He sighed to himself and picked her up. She grunted and struggled.
"Let me go!" she squealed. She knew she was going to die, she just didn't want to give Amber the satisfaction of dying in her hands. Her voice was too raspy and cracked to attract any attention, so she swung her foot and nailed him in the ear. Maybe she had picked something up from the streets after swore and nearly dropped her.
"Jesus kid! Pavi's not gonna hurt you! I'm saving your life! Sooner or later Amber's gonna find you, and she is gonna cut you dead. And even if you could avoid her forever, you;re not going to be able to live out here like this. Either way, you're dead, so why not put a little faith in me, okay?" Shilo blinked. He had a point, though she had just begun to accept the thought of death. She decided that, for the moment, she'd leave things to fate. She buried her head in his chest, seeking warmth, and waited to see how the night would pan out.
He obviously hadn't driven, as he didn't get into a vehicle. Shilo watched the streetlights brighten and fade as Pavi walked under them. She coughed a few times, and looked up at Pavi with bloodshot eyes.
"Why do you care?" she wheezed. "Why don't you just kill me and take my face?" Her eyelids were growing heavy- she hadn't slept in days.
"That-" Pavi started. He could try to explain his mind to her, but she wouldn't understand. No one would. His mind worked in ways that no one could truly understand. Instantly he shortened his response. "Is a very good question, and mostly none of your business. It's not like you're in much of a position to ask anyway. I doubt you can even stand anymore. But, since you so desperately crave an answer, I'm keeping you for observation. You have never been operated on before, no? Think of it as a science project."
"So you came out here in the middle of the night to save my life just so you could keep me in a petri dish? That doesn't really add up." Her voice cracked. Pavi shook his head. He knew she wouldn't understand. Faces were like coins to him. Trivial little things to collect. It didn't make him insane, it meant he had a hobby.
"Again, you're not really in any position to be adding things. Now try not to talk. When was the last time you drank something? I don't want you ruining your vocal chords." he said sternly. She thought about kicking him in the face again, but she knew she didn't have enough energy to even do that.
They walked for what Shilo vaguely estimated was thirty minutes. Soon, the shadows around them grew darker, and she knew they were in the wake of the giant GeneCo lived on the second highest floor, so he knew that if he could sneak her to the private elevator he'd be safe. He couldn't risk Amber finding them, She'd kill Shilo, then himself. He suddenly felt her go limp in his arms. She had fallen asleep, he found after a moment of closer inspection. He was hoping she'd sleep, seeing as she looked like she hadn't for weeks. He had no idea how to take care of her. He'd never been sick himself, but he'd heard bed rest took care of most common ailments.
Eventually, they made it to the GeneCo building. He snuck sleeping Shilo to the private elevator, pressed the button for floor 299, and prayed it didn't stop on Luigi's floor first. Luck was on his side, as the door opened on Pavi's floor. Each member of the Largo family had their own floor to use as an apartment of sorts. Each floor had several rooms, and its own assignment of genturns to do the housework. Pavi walked to the master bedroom where he himself slept and laid Shilo down on the right hand side of the king sized bed. Had Shilo been awake, she would have demanded that he change the sheets fist. She had heard about his Pavi pulled the black covers up to her shoulders and stood back to look at her. She looked extremely close to death, which in truth made him a bit uneasy. Perhaps he'd get her something to eat then let her sleep it off.
He left the master bedroom, closing the door quietly behind him. He found the head of the genturns assigned to clean his floor. He vaguely remembered her age being 42, simply because she was the only genturn Pavi would try to seduce out of work. He couldn't really remember her name, which bothered him, because he was usually good with names. He didn't want to use some filler name, so he tapped her on the shoulder ot avoid names altogether.
"Do the Pavi a favor, alright?" he said. "Keep all the floor genturns out of my master bedroom. Just, make sure Amber and Luigi don't find out. I'm doing a kind of experiment in there and I don't want anyone to find out about it." The genturn raised her eyebrows in question, but meekly nodded and continued to dust the tables that were on either side of the couch in Pavi's living room. Pavi thought about Shilo having to get up in the day time while he was out, and wandering around to take showers and use the bathroom. He closed his eyes and put two fingers to his temple in thought. This girl was already causing trouble and she wasn't even conscious.
"Wait, wait. On second though, just keep them all off my floor completely. I'll clean it myself, Just.. just go." he stuttered, trying not to sound to insane. Despite his feeble attempt, the genturn looked extremely worried. She thought about asking him what he was planning, but if there was one thing she learned in her 20 years of employment to the Largo family, it was not to question them, especially when they looked extremely worried, guilty, or confused. So instead of questioning him, she nodded again and reassured him all the genturns would be off the floor within the hour.
After she left, he went to his kitchen and quickly made a sandwitch for his guest, then poured a glass of water for her raspy throat. He quickly returned to the bedroom and put the food and drink on the table next to her side of the bed. He glanced at the digital clock that also resided on the table. It was 3:00am. He had wanted to wake Shilo and made sure she ate, but she looked peaceful, and she could use the rest, as could he. He had spent too many nights up far too late looking for that girl.
He remembered that he had a family press conference at nine that day. That only gave him about five hours of sleep. He groaned inwardly and rubbed his eyes through his face mask. He regretting staying up far too long past his curfew too many nights in a row. He carefully unclasped his face and placed it in his respective drawer.
Then, a problem occurred. Pavi hadn't owned a pair of pajamas since puberty, because of his far too active sex life. He'd either slept in boxers or nothing at all. He thought it would be a bit awkward to sleep next to his guest in that state, but he really didn't have much of a choice. He stripped down to his boxers and climbed into bed, leaving a sizable gap between himself and Shilo. He looked over at her briefly to make sure her chest was still rising and falling, and it was. She coughed in her sleep.
Pavi hated how sick she looked. He hadn't taken it seriously at the time, but he though that she probably couldn't stand on her own. Her eyes had pitch black circles under hem and were completely bloodshot. She coughed and wheezed way too much for Pavi to feel comfortable with. Her face was extremely pale and it looked like she hadn't eaten in weeks. Pavi leaned over and pressed the palm of his hand to her forehead. She was burning up. Trying to ignore the urge to rush her to a hospital, Pavi rolled over on his side facing away from her and quickly fell asleep.
A Note: This story was requested by Jaden – Cyber Incision.
Author's Note- I love how this story is going. I am halfway done writing chapter two, and It will be up as I feel like finishing/ typing it. Be sure to R&R. Especially to tell me if this chapter was too long, or short, because I have no gauge on things like that. Also, my typing program's spell check was being an asshole, so forgive me if there are a few typos.