Lilah was breathing hard after her morning jog. She pulled the earphones out, Undead Hollywood blasting and clearly heard down the hall. Lilah had been put in a room that connected to Storm Shadow's, and had been seriously updated in the last week. What had been a blank, white room was now filled with movies, purple walls, a splatter painted black bed set, and an awesome Blu-Ray player with an X-Box system not too far away.
What surprised Storm Shadow the most, however, was her collection of books when he saw it. She had been granted permission to go out with Firefly, buying a ton of books that she hadn't read and old ones that were her personal favorites. She even had a corner of manga collections. That was also when she got everything else. Firefly reported that after visiting a clothing store, she had about three thousand dollars cash that disappeared when they stopped by the ice cream shop next to a postal service.
Lilah had been at the base for a week, had read about ten of the fifty books she bought, and was itching to watch a horror movie with someone. Lilah had to admit that she was a little bitch when horror movies were involved. But she loved the stories that came with them. She was close to getting Storm Shadow to have a movie night.
Lilah was surprised by the emotions she saw in Storm Shadow. She thought he would be a stuck up dick, but he was a bit more than that. He was ruthless, but there was something he deeply regretted. Lilah was smart not to pry into that sort of thing. Besides, it was during those times where she got to see the man behind the arrogant grin, when it happened a few times, and the mask of indifference.
Firefly seemed to be exactly as she met him. Over a holographic call with a man named Zartan, who she mistook for the President, Lilah found that things were a bit tense sometimes between both Firefly and Storm Shadow with Zartan. When Lilah asked Storm Shadow, he refused an answer and left. When she asked Firefly, he laughed in her face and patted her head and said not to worry about it. So Lilah tried to get into the data base.
Her three attempts were in vain. She tried to do it in her room, Storm Shadow caught her. She tried to do it on an outing with Firefly, he kept enough of an eye on her to know, though he didn't tell Storm Shadow. The third time, she couldn't find the damn base from her phone, the only electronic left.
The blonde was sketching in her room when the door opened. Lilah became very well aware that Storm Shadow was the only one who could into her room and that he knew when she was changing or not. She blamed the Ninja Sense. "Lilah, would you like to come with me?"
"Where are we going?" Lilah asked, getting up and closing the notebook. Storm Shadow held a hand out for it. "Dude, it's a bunch of drawings. I promise it won't threaten your future as ninja king." He didn't back down and Lilah bit back a biting remark. It would so not be in her best interest to piss him off. But he wasn't going to see it.
Lilah went to the fireplace, holding it for him to see. "Either believe me or this will burn just to prove it to you. It has nothing to do with a professional life and all to do with a personal life." Storm Shadow had a hint of interest as he pulled back. Lilah placed it on the mantel. If she had had to burn it just so he wouldn't see, she might have killed Storm Shadow.
"I suppose it has to do with where the three thousand dollars went?"
"Personal life means no information, Storm," Lilah replied. "So fuck off." Lilah moved past him, waiting for him to give her a direction to go. That felt like the only thing she had done for a while, especially since she arrived at Cobra. Waiting for a hand to point her in the right direction. Storm Shadow moved in front of her, and she followed behind him.
Lilah soon recognized the hallways to a particular room she had been held inside. She stopped as soon as she saw it. "Why are we here?" Storm Shadow opened the door. "I asked a question. Why are we here?"
"Someone chose to wait in here for you."
"Aw, hell, Joan." Lilah knew that Joan would find her eventually, but she hoped it would be for a long time. The blonde stepped through the doorway to see the brunette she knew for so long. "Joan, I thought we had a deal when Cobra or the Joes were involved. We leave each other alone and toss them to the dogs."
"It wasn't just for you!" Joan said in her defensive manner. Joan was always defensive and never thought things through. Lilah knew the latter part was why they were friends, but Joan could be worse than Lilah at times. "I got worried, so it was for me!"
"But you were worried for me," Lilah pointed out with a smirk. Then she saw Storm Shadow in the corner of her eye, worry and panic filling her. "You are an idiot, my dear friend. You should've just left. Do you know what Cobra does when things don't go their way?"
"Yeah, the people are recruited," Joan said, pointing at Lilah. The blonde shook her head. "What is the big deal? We always end up together. I sped up the process."
"No, Joan, you didn't." Storm Shadow pushed Lilah out of the room. He was riding to get her out, a real bad sign. "Joan!" She spun around, struggling in his arms. "Let me go, Storm! Let me fucking go!" Joan stood up, immediately alarmed before she fell to the door in convulsions. "Joan!" Storm Shadow let her go, and she crawled to Joan. Joan smiled up at her before she fell limp, her eyes opening to show the tears in her eyes. Lilah shook her companion once before getting up.
"I tried to tell Storm-" Lilah cut off Firefly with a nice whop to the noise. There was a long string of curses behind her, deliberately ignored. They killed Joan. They disgraced her. Joan had the view that if you killed someone like herself and Lilah that it had to be with a knife or a gun or something that didn't kill you internally. Something that made it savage, like you really were. After all of the pain Joan knew she caused, Lilah thought Joan felt it was a way to compensate for everything she did to anyone, dead or alive.
A hand caught Lilah's bicep, pulling her to a stop. Lilah swung. She wasn't sure what happened next, but she was on the floor and looking into dark eyes. "Lilah, listen. Please?"
Lilah never heard Storm Shadow say please, but she wasn't having it. She didn't want to answer him. She didn't want Joan dead without a mark to show murder. She didn't want to be in the same room as the people who killed Joan. She wanted to run away. She wanted for someone to mourn Joan in a way no one mourned her. She wanted for Joan to have someone to remember her. She wanted Joan to be somewhere up the ladder to heaven, even if it was impossible. She wanted to cry for a friend she lost and be alone while she did.
"I hate you." Lilah may have wanted to be away, but she wanted to hurt them too. It wasn't just that though. It was the first time in a long time that she actually meant it. Lilah looked him dead in, zeroing on to him. "I hate you."
Storm Shadow didn't bat a lash. Lilah struggled against him, and he sighed before letting her up. "We couldn't do anything for her, Lilah."
Lilah scrambled to her feet before bolting off to her room. She crawled into her bed, grabbing a notebook and a pencil. Tears blurred her vision, and she wiped them away to get a better look at the paper. They slipped down onto the paper, making Lilah throw it across the room with a yell.
A while later, Lilah was staring at a movie, a homemade one that she brought with her everywhere. She pushed it under her pillow as the door opened, the disc secured away from sight. She knew who it was. There were only two people who cared enough to go into her room to see her. And they had killed a dear friend. "So, Lilah, wanna have that movie night you been buggin' Storm about?"
Lilah didn't reply. It infuriated her all the more. They killed Joan, and the only thing they could think about was a damned sleepover? What was wrong with them?
"Lilah, you can't ignore us. I think it's about to drive Storm Shadow mad."
"Let him! I don't care!" Lilah pulled the sheets over herself.
"You are acting like a teenager," Firefly sang.
"Fuck you."
Storm Shadow pulled the blanket from her face. There was something there, just as she had seen before. Regret. "I will not be blamed for another death. We didn't kill Joan."
"Then who did, Storm Shadow?"
"We're still trying to figure that out. In the meantime, you need to get your act together. We're going to get the Commander out, eventually, and when he learns what you did, you have to be prepared to prove yourself to him."
Everything before seemed a game, but now it wasn't so much. It was all serious and real. She just didn't want to admit it to herself; it would only have scared her more. Lilah looked at Storm Shadow, a bit speechless. "That movie sounds pretty good now, right?"