Blood and Soul
It was a quiet evening... peaceful, silent, chilly and blown through with fresh air.
The newbuild neon lights that gave off light to the streets of the city formerly known as „Midian" gave off a dark shadow as Seras passed by.
This shadow deeply represented her true self.. a shadow that would never ever fade again.
But today, she didn´t care about these things... she just wanted to have some fun in this night.
Althrough she never guessed that this wish for entertainment could seal her fate for the next months, years even.
Fate certainly told her to go to this preticular cafè at the edge of the Londoner downtown district.
After being rebuild, the city became a lot bigger, and the Big Ben, once the symbol of Londons pride, was drowned in the flood of new skyscrapers.
This cafe was one of the many of the stores and shops in England, it stayed open all day and night.
Seras, being dressed in her ususal nightwear, as she called it, which was a sleeveless red top, two long red handgloves and a black miniskirt, decided to just drop by there, to be under people again.
After the newfound trouble with Iscariot, things were getting rather bothersome and stressful, so she needed it, too.
Ordering the ususal cherry slushy ice, which reminded her of iced blood for obvious reasons, she sat down and thought about the night as it had happened so far.
An exhausting mission to start it, then Lord Integra stareing at the room where she kept the old coffin, as everyday, and finally, getting some time off... all in all a pretty regular day for her by now.
Her eyes gazed over to the guy on the opposite end of the room... He looked rather thoughtful just now.
Sratching out her ice, she kept looking over, stareing sometimes to see what he was doing.
She knew that wasnt nice, she knew it first handed the way people kept stareing at her sometimes, but somehow she found it fun, just the way he acted.
Studieing the chart, looking out the window, running through his hair.
At the last part, she caught herself actually trying to eat a pierce of the plastic cup the ice was delivered in, as she had ate it all without thinking.
"Ugh, im so silly sometimes." She muttered quietly, but since it was dead silence, he could hear it, and looked over for a second.
Seras noticed that, and looked back over. "...What?"
"You were watching me for longer just now, werent you?" He asked, with a slightly bored voice.
"Uh, yeah, I kinda did. Sorry bout that." She apologized, but he didnt seem to care.
"Its okay. I guess its just some kind of entertainment at least."
That was true, Seras thought. It was kinda entertaining.
And so, they got into talking a bit, talking about the weather, politics, the icecream of course and other regular themes. They sort of were at similar opinions on most things, too.
After Seras ordered a second slushie, being thankful that anything related to stomatch functions werent important anymore, he went up with an more important question.
"...So whats your name?"
That caught her on the spot, and she stayed silent for a moment. She had three options. Tell the truth, and engage in a flirt. Tell him a fake name, and keep talking about politics, or, just tell him to screw off, but she wasnt into that. He seemed nice, and whenever she could she tried not to be curel to people.
So that was out of question. And as she couldnt make up any good fake names, she decided to just tell him her first name, and nothing else.
"Seras. Im Seras." she said, working on her ice.
"Oh.. a kinda rare name. But nice neverless."
Again, this caught her. It was a rare name. In fact, she never met a second person with that name, so if he knew conspiracy stories well, he could even identify her.
Thankfully, he didnt seem to, and Seras avoided any further talk about her name, by asking about his.
"And yours? I could guess that it isnt an English one... you do kinda have an accent, dont you." She said, pointing at him with the spoon.
He smirked, and nodded. "Toby isnt an english name, thats true. But I was in fact born here, just my parents arent english."
Seras smiled a bit. "Ah, too bad. You mustve been teased in school for that, I bet. All these stories about germans rumoring in the past were bad."
Two hours passed, and the two stayed on good therms, while Toby started to wonder why she didnt feel strange after five slushies with cherry flavor.
Actually, she did feel strange, but it was just the sugar hypering her out. She was starting to talk about girl groups, was making jokes (Something she was bad at, to be added here, just a few dirty ones she had learned from Pip), and bounceing up and down in her seat.
Finally, when he had to leave, she decided to go as well. He didn´t seem to mind.
They paid, and left... but then, a shock got through Seras.
A cold, stunning shock, making a sharp pain in her left chest.
Her entire view became red, the night seemed like bright daylight, and all her senses focused on Toby.
Before he could ask what was going on, she had pulled him into a corner, yanked his head to the side, and bit down.
Part 1 end.