Detection
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"Hey Faye, cya tomorrow night, and bring that cute Andy guy too!" I mentally groan at the mention of Andy's name, all the girls swoon over him like he holds up the damn planet Mars or something. Celia should just keep her damn mouth shut, I am not dating Andy, I just happened to bump into him…besides, I have lost my fervor for dating…ever since ten months ago. I sadly smile, I hate to admit it to myself, but no one, not even Shin or Andy, compares to…him.
"Celia if you want that samurai idiot Andy; you can have his ass." I tiredly sigh as I put on my red jacket over my vinyl black outfit. The style is the same as my old yellow one; the only thing that changed was the color. Mac, the owner of the 'Neon Line' strip club, decided that if I wore a black outfit that I would attract more men as 'biker bitch' as he referred to it. Anyway, I promptly slapped him, but only before actually taking his advice, I need all the money I can get if I am going to start over in this city.
I step out of the dressing room with my small handbag, too tired to say goodbye to anyone, and walk out the dark back door into the ebony entrenched alley of east side Phoenix. Lonely twin lampposts shine enigmatically into the night, barely piercing the asphyxiating feeling that I am being followed.
I feel the bulge of my pistol against my thigh and I feel confidence radiate through me once more, I may have lost someone I loved, but that sure has hell doesn't mean that someone can just take advantage of me! What I do for a living is different, I am not a prostitute, I drew that line a long time ago, back when I got my memories back, that I promised would try to preserve that innocence and hope.
A tired smile slips onto my face, one I have not worn in a while. I remember I used to live in Tokyo Japan, but we moved to the spacious, beautiful house in Southern Italy, where I was beginning to learn Italian. I grin as I remember that I spoke in Japanese anyway and my Italian teacher would make me learn extra words, like the seasons, and weather and the months. I wonder if I have totally lost that carefree, happy part of me, or it is just too jaded and exhausted to continue. I exit the elliptic alley, uneventfully, the darkness replaced by a musty glow of the dirty street lights.
My stiletto boots click staccato against the worn concrete as I walk the half a block to my brothel, Indigo Moon, I suddenly feel alone, yet watched. The hairs prick up on the back of my neck. I narrow my faded emerald eyes as walk faster towards my brothel; Sonya and Yuki are still out in their outfits, on the dismal, dimly-lit corner, looking for any 'potentials'. As I turn the corner, the normal, non-sexual, voice of Sonya, pipes up.
"Hey, some handsome, yet creepy jackass was asking about you, I think he has like silvery hair, although it looked a little blue to me, anyway he is looking for you." I felt my heart speedup like a greyhound's after a track race, there is just no way…She must have seen some really drunk guy…that couldn't be him. I mean even after all that Indian chief-witch doctor guy said about how his star might not have fallen; it still isn't possible he is alive. Sonya's big brown eyes narrowed into a pensive state, Yuki just looking around frowning at the speeding zip crafts.
I feel a knot constrict itself in the pit of my stomach, like butterflies only something much more. It has been ten months since I last felt an emotion as strong as this really, since I felt any emotion worth getting worked up over. I immediately hand Sonya my jacket that I had over my shoulders and sprint up to the brothel, It's been so long since I have last sprinted like this, like the time I remembered where I lived. I feel the smoggy wind rustle through my stressed violet locks as I feel my stiletto heels pound quickly against the concrete up to the crumbling stoop of the Indigo moon.
I burst though the front double doors, creating quite a stir, but I could careless, I never really liked the people in this brothel anyway. I stumble as I turn the corner in an emotional haste. On the shaky landing I jump up to my second floor apartment. I let myself catch my breath as reality sinks in.
'C'mon Faye did you really expect him to be in here?! He cant even get in without a key, and guys are not allowed unaccompanied into a room, so he would have been spotted. And even if that all happened, Prin would have heard an intruder and attacked, causing Carlos, the landlord, to go crazy and come up to see what was going on. Faye, you just got worked up over nothing…nothing at all he isn't here.'
He is dead. Vicious, the silver haired enigma that wanted everyone to believe he was cold and murderous, just to make his suffering and his revenge seem easier. Too bad I saw right through that, when I close my eyes I can still feel the sight sensation of his pale lips against mine, and his flowing words echoing in my ears. There is no way he was as murderous as he wanted everyone to believe. I take out the key in my handbag and open all three heavy-locks. Instead of being greeted by an over excited-irritated one-eared dog, I am greeted to silence and clammy darkness.
I feel the weight of the glock against my thigh as I step cautiously inside, in spite of all my logical thinking, and feel for the light-switch. I don't get the chance, all of the sudden I feel my arm twisted roughly, tightly behind me and I am flipped haphazardly against the wall, my back and head hit the plaster wall. A knife blade is held to my throat as the face of my attacker is still cloaked in darkness.
"Fuck, get off me!" I side-kick whoever in the hell decided to ambush me, I feel the attacker groan and wheeze heavily as I see the silhouette of the body crouched on the floor in my apartment, scrambling to regain his footing. I quickly un-strap my gun and click the safety, but too late, the man already has his out, recovering from the attack too early and holds his gun at my forehead, far enough away so that I can't kick him. I suddenly feel a wave of powerlessness wash over me, had I been tricked? This obviously isn't Vicious, who is he and why does he want to kill me?!
"Faye Valentine, I don't care who you are, how old you are, or what in the hell you did, all I know is that you are worth 8 million woolongs and I need them." The sharp fiery voice sneers through the darkness. The safety clicks, and I feel like this whole death thing wasn't nearly as dramatic as Spike made it out to be. I just don't think I want to die here right now, if I could go up against a whole Syndicate, I can go up against this idiot. Even though I'm alone, after what happened 10 months ago, I still have the right to live.
"Sorry pal, but today isn't your lucky day." I laugh and he sneers and pulls the trigger, I dive to the right, with both arms extended, fire twice with my smoking gun before I land in a tuck-roll. I see the man's knees buckle beneath him and he lands face down on my living room floor. Direct hit. Something still bothers me…why was this guy trying to kill me?! I flip on the lights to see muddy footprints on the floor, the man was dressed in a trench coat and is bleeding all over my floor! I just swept it too…
I sigh, a long sigh. I got this worked up about some hitman-bounty hunter. I look over the guy's body; sure enough, blue hair with silver highlights, and a bullet-hole through his skull. I notice his legs and sides are bleeding, and that reminds me of Princess. I quickly holster my gun and step over the dead guy to my bedroom.
"Doggie…come here if you are alive…" I look in my cramped, dusty bedroom, on the bedside-table is a picture of Bebop: Spike, Ed, Jet, and Ein, a small picture of Shin, and a larger one of …him. I had Ed hook me up with a mug-shot when Shin was taking a nap after the incident. He looks really pissed off in that picture, his hair is in disarray, and his eyes look as if he wanted to burn the camera. It makes me reluctantly inwardly smile each time I look at it.
I pause when I hear a scratching noise coming from my closet, I open the door to reveal Princess with a plastic bag bound around her face… she is flipping about the three foot by three foot closet, scratching at the heavy bag like a break dancer with epilepsy . 'What a sick-o suffocating my dog!' I take off the bag, careful not to touch her missing ear; she gets all pissed when someone does that.
"There you go Prin…now I'm gonna call Shin about that asshole who tried to kill me." The dog looks up with a weary thankful expression. Then she bolts up immediately and starts wagging her stump of a tail. She hates Shin…why would she be happy about him? Then I feel the hairs on the back of my neck prick up again…did I not kill that guy?!
"I cannot believe you still have that dog…" That voice…it cant be real…it must be a dream. I put a finger to my wounded neck and feel a small bit of blood trickle as it stings. No, dreams don't hurt, that means…I whip around to face this enigma, this apparition.
"I was late, I thought he would have taken you by now, I am glad he didn't." Silver haired, katana wielding, those deep gray eyes that I thought I would never see again. His alabaster skin, the slight smirk plays on his face like a taunting veil.
An overwhelming emotion surge through my veins, one that makes me want to cry and laugh at the same time. A feeling that makes me want to scream and curse him and hug and hold him simultaneously. How dare he stay alive and not tell me? I cant believe after all these months of feeling so isolated and lost, that he is back, the one man who I thought deserted me…is actually alive. But why keep it a secret?
"Vicious…" I try to hold my composure, I try my hardest not to run into his arms I need to hold my ground…what happened to my tough façade that I could hold against anyone?! The only person I can't hold it against is him. As he takes a step foreword, I can see his face fully. The light from the lamp that I turned on glimmers off his silver hair and his once cold gray eyes, concealing an emotion I can't put a finger on. My breath hitches suddenly as his eyes widen slightly.
"I see he hurt you…I wont be late again." He takes another step closer to me; the dog bolts away into the hallway of the apartment building. I barely notice Prin as he closes the gap between us to a few inches. I look up to him, my hand going to my scratch on my neck from the guy's knife.
He takes a square of fabric from his black cloak and presses it over my wound gingerly, his slightly warm hand brushing against my hand. A few of his silver locks intertwine with my violet ones as he leans down, I feel my heart beating so hard, so fast that must hear it. My stomach is a hot air balloon, and I am in the sky flying. He is here, he is alive….after ten months…he came back.
"You're…alive." I can't hold it anymore, I fling myself childishly into his unexpecting person, enveloping my arms around his smooth yet muscular chest, just to make sure he is real, that he is warm and not some ghost.
I feel arms wrap around my body, enclosing me slowly, almost unsurely as I foolishly bury my face in his gray-shirted, warm, chiseled chest that I missed for far too long. I feel the same feeling of belonging rise up within me. For a timeless moment, I feel like nothing is wrong, that everything is perfect, everything is right with the one person I never would have expected to see again. I am happy, for the first time in ten months.
"It would take a lot more than a little bullet wound to kill me." His voice vibrates dryly, with an encrypted sense of humor. I then think of the man with the silver highlights, and why he tried to kill me. I remove myself from his chest, trying my hardest not to blush at the sight of his slightly smirking face.
"Yeah…why didn't you come back till now…I thought you really had died…" I let my eyes sink to the floor as he sighs slightly.
"I didn't know until a few days ago that you were alive either." He states matter-of-factly as I tilt my head up and stare into his magnetic gray blue eyes. He leans into me and whispers something in my ear…my heart skips a beat as I feel his warm breath radiating throughout my ear.
"I came back, to make sure you will stay alive." My mind reels…what is happening and…does he really like me that much to want to protect me?
"Why was that man after me? You know what's going on, tell me." It cant be that bad, perhaps a few loan sharks are after me and Vicious just so happened to hear about it. I mean, there is no way that Vicious is involved somehow, he changed…I know it. I look into his eyes for silent reassurance, but all I find are floating blue puzzle pieces in an endless sea of gray.
"The Red Dragon Syndicate has been sending out their hit-lists to employers, obviously, a number of hitmen have been hired to kill you…and Shin. It would not surprise me if a bounty was dropped on that imbecile cop friend of yours either." He doesn't look at me straight in the eyes, he looks almost right through me, a strange feeling comes over me and I slowly back up from his ominous expression.
"How do you know all this?" I say suspiciously, although probably more breathlessly than I intended. I push my violet hair behind my ears and a few silver strands criss-cross his forehead. I see him, a surge of emotion flashes in his eyes, turning them a tint of blue before turning straight back. A frown etches onto his chiseled features, I do not like the way his face has now turned hard.
"I have been hired to kill Shin, and a man named Vincent has been hired to kill you." I clutch my fists together; I knew there was something amiss. He hasn't changed, he hasn't become humane…he kills people for a job! He takes out people for a fucking cash-card. I cant believe I just fell into his arms…so cliché, so romantic novel stereotype.
"You…how dare you come here! You haven't changed you are still a mindless killer! Have you ever done something in your life that hasn't involved killing someone else?!" I narrow my hard emerald eyes into slits as he stands up straighter and peers into my eyes, looking for fault, searching for something.
"You haven't changed either. You sell your body for money, how is that not as destructive? Whether you want to admit it or not, there is little that can be changed in this world." He hisses coolly at me, like a winter wind. I feel my blood boil and my heart sink
"I'm a dancer not a prostitute you ass! Besides, at least I don't hurt people, and at least I have a fucking identity! I am Faye Valentine! Who are you? You don't have anything… except your stupid sword and meaningless pride!" The moment I yelled those words into the blankness of my bedroom, I regretted them. His gray eyes widened and hardened, cracking like diamonds. His mouth turned into a flat, almost invisible line, his hair hangs limply. He looks so frustrated and angry. After a moment his mouth opens ominously, for a minute I thought he was going to kill me.
"Inverno. My name is Vicious Inverno and I do still have something." He narrows his eyes calmly, and flies from my apartment like an apparition, like a bodiless ghost. I see Prin look at me like a confused child whose parents just fought. I slumped down on my bed, cradling my head in my hands. Warm crystal tears pool in my eyes, tears that would be of no use shed.
"Inverno…Italian for winter... yet so close to Inferno. I've fallen for a guy whose last name is winter." I frown at the sheer simplicity of the whole situation, am I asking too much? Am I asking for the flowers to bloom during winter, or the icicles to melt, or the temperature to be 87? Vicious is not like Spike was, or Shin, he is totally different, but that isn't bad... I just want the idiot to give up murdering people, is that too much to ask?
Vicious and Spike were affected differently by the Syndicate...and Julia.
Perhaps he's trapped doing one of the things he was trained to do, create ice confict. Winter is not only ice and gray. Winter is more complex than the other seasons, you have to look through the frosty panes to depict the true meaning behind the season winter. What the meaning of winter is I don't know. I just want to enjoy the snow. Life could be easier and I like a guy who was already warm and caring, but I think fate deemed that to be too easy. Yeah, I just had to love a guy whose hobbies are lopping off heads of his enemies and kissing girls after death duels. I almost laughed at that thought; a syndicate killer stole my heart away.
-You are singing-
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Hey there! Sorry this chapter took so long, I have had a horrible week, anyway here is the fic chapter I hope you like it, I wrote it late one night so if it has grammatical errors in it, I am sorry. Anyway, I will respond to reviews next chapter and there will be split POVs.
Anyway this will be a short AN: im too tired to write more.
BTW my Inu fic is on hold for now...ill come back to it when school ends...*^^*