I'll help you."
The voice comes from the seat across her and she stiffen because they are quiet, so, so quiet she can't feel them. A part of her immediately assumes an illusion. Luce looks up and almost has a heart attack.
"...Excuse me?"
The man is familiar in a distantly vivid way. It is not the first time she sees him, and she takes a moment to confirm that his edges aren't blurred and his flesh is solid -to assure herself this is reality and not within her dreams. Or as much as she can without touching him.
She knows this man's heart as much as she knows his cruelty, his sadism.
"Help. I'll help you. You'll need it, I want it, it's a win-win."
She smiles faintly, professional as she is when within the council room, not bothering to look perturbed by the abrupt and seemingly senseless offer.
"And you are?"
He briefly tilts his fedora to her, "Renato. You must've heard of me," he grins, something sly and teasing in it, "or perhaps seen me around."
Luce doesn't understand the pointed look- no, that's not entirely true. A big block of missing something is keeping her from jumping to conclusions because, just, how?
"I'm sorry but what do you want?" She asks, politely curious, "I have nothing I require assistance with right now."
He blinks, pauses, and then frowns to himself, "No? Am I too early?"
Luce tilts her head to the side, considering the man across her. Despite herself, she can barely keep herself from going breathless.
This man is hers.
Her ally, her friend, her family, even if it's yet in the distant future.
Her mind flit to the others, scattered across the globe, oblivious of their fates- of her.
God, she adores them.
She can easily see herself growing to love them. She fights to keep herself from revealing anything in her expression.
"...well, suppose early is better than late... though..."
Renato looks up, onyx eyes boring into her.
"It's a nice day, isn't it? Don't you just feel the urge to set up a picnic with family under the rainbow?" he leans back, pulling up a leg over the other, "Or you know, it's also the perfect day for time travel."
Her thoughts screech to a halt. A woman walks by them to a table by the window, heels clicking against the smooth tiles of the hotel lobby. A child giggles in her drink, spilling orange liquid as his father chides him gently. The waitress sets a meal of roasted pork and mashed potato by a business man on the next table over and he absently thanks her over a newspaper.
...well.
She can't quite help herself. Evidently, he knows her, and she knows him and she can't think of a reason to pretend otherwise.
She heaves a sigh, deflating in her seat, "Oh, Renato, the things you get yourself into."
He snorts, a gleam sparking in his gaze as he looks at her and there's that at least. If he hasn't forgiven her for the betrayal that is yet to be, at the very least his fondness for her far outweighs any anger.
She can, cautiously, hope that he's not made all the effort to twist space and time just to kill her in a pre-emptive measure.
"Hardly. Couldn't have done this without Verde's penchant to misplacing volatile and definitely not experimental knick knacks."
_
"Why not just wait for Checkerface's summon?"
"Because then it'll be a job. The relationship will be greatly professional and distant. We need trust beyond just the one assignment, we can't afford otherwise."
"..who dies first?"
"Died." He corrects her because that's his past and if he has anything to say about it -which he does- then it'll be no one's future. "Skull."