Fallout
"Are you sure you want to work today?"
It took every ounce of Halibel's self-control not to scowl bitterly at the overwhelming stupidity of the question; if only the silly human knew that wounds like these meant absolutely nothing to her. Still, she turned away slightly so that the other woman couldn't see her bruised and swollen left eye, hoping she would take the hint and leave her be.
Of course, there was still a long gash along her right cheek from the wooden sliver from her door that Tyn had used as a dagger, not to mention that her bottom lip was swollen.
The gigai was capable of healing at an accelerated rate compared to humans, but it was painfully slow to what she was used to in her spirit form. Still, the regeneration was working; when she'd first gotten up this morning, her eye had been so swollen that she couldn't see out of it, and now her vision was perfect once more.
By tonight, all of her injuries should be gone.
The physical ones, anyway; the emotional ones would probably take a bit longer.
"I'm fine," she said, forcing a smile despite her annoyance. Really, why the hell couldn't people just mind their own business?
"That punk roommate of yours did it, didn't he?" asked the big man who served as the bouncer, Dunc, cracking his knuckles. "I'll break his little nec—"
"Stay out of it, Dunc," she warned before tacking on a polite "please" at the end. "I started it, not Tyn."
"No, you didn't!" exclaimed Kishiko, one of the waitresses. "All battered women end up hiding behind excuses just like that! It's not your fault!"
Tia twitched at that, and she knew it to be a very visible reaction.
"Battered woman?" she asked, turning to face Kishiko slowly. " Do you honestly think for one second that I would simply allow someone to beat me?"
It was a rhetorical question, one that her coworkers weren't meant to even attempt to answer, but Sachi, the other waitress, spoke up anyway.
"I'm sure you tried to fight back, but abuse—"
"Tried to fight back?" Tia spat, whirling to face her now. "Tyn looks worse than I do!"
"Still—"
"Look…" she said finally, holding up a hand to silence everyone, "I appreciate your concern, I really do, but you don't know the whole story. Want a short summary of it? For eight months, I have been abusing him: screaming at him, insulting him, threatening him, even beating him…and he's taken it all in stride. Last night Tyn told me he was tired of it, said he was going to move out to get away from my constant abuse, and I lost my temper and came at him again, and this time he finally fought back."
There was silence as her three coworkers looked at her in disbelief as Tia went back to polishing the slick wooden surface of the bar. It wasn't the entire story, but she hoped it would be enough to get the humans to all shut up about it.
"He shouldn't have hit you, though…" said Sachi slowly.
Not this again…
"What, so it's okay for me to hit him, but he should never hit back just because I'm a woman?" asked Halibel, irritated at the logic being displayed by the other woman. "I'd rather him consider me an equal and hit me back than treat me like I'm delicate and inferior just because I have breasts!"
"Never realized you were so feisty…" said Dunc, a hint of amusement in his voice. "I think you might actually have a bigger mean streak than I do!"
"You have no idea…" said Tia, giving a thin, humorless smile as she narrowed her eyes darkly, dissolving Dunc's gentle chuckle into an uncomfortable silence. She was pretty sure he was just now starting to see some of the truth about her, about how dangerous she could truly be.
"So what happens now?" asked Kishi as Sachi went back out to the floor to check on a customer at one of the back tables. "Do you go back to him, or—"
"Why do you keep making it sound like we're a mated pair or something?" asked Tia, sliding a mug of beer down to a waiting patron at the far end of the bar.
"Mated pair?" echoed Kishi. "You mean a couple? I thought you two were…"
"We're not," Tia said icily. "Never have been, never will be. We're just roommates, nothing more."
"Okay…but what are you going to do now?"
"I don't know…" said the blonde, placing her palms flat against the countertop and leaning on them heavily. "I really don't know."
"She kicked your ass good, didn't she?"
Tyn scowled and swatted at the annoying sexta, narrowly missing as Grimmjow stepped back out of the way, still laughing at the massive bruise on the right side of Tyn's face where Tia had clobbered him with a table leg.
"You do look pretty terrible…" commented Starrk from the window as he made change for a customer.
"And the worst part?" asked Grimmjow, giving a malicious grin. "That swollen lip will make it hard for the two of them to kiss and make up!"
He laughed at his own joke, clutching at his sides as if it were the most hilarious thing ever, but a decidedly less-amused Tyn took a stack of four frozen beef patties that were stuck together and hurled them at the other man's face with all of his gigai's might.
*WHAM!*
The frozen beef found its mark and slammed into Grimmjow's face, busting his nose and upper lip, sending blood splashing, some on the floor, some on the wall, and most of it on the hamburgers.
"You son of a bitch!" roared the bloodied arrancar, tackling Tyn to the ground in rage.
Starrk moved away from the drive-through window as he watched the other two arrancar roll about on the floor punching each other senseless, with Grimmjow focusing the bulk of his attacks on the giant bruise on Tyn's face. The redhead reached up, trying to grab a weapon of some sort, and succeeding in grabbing the handle of the spatula sitting on the hot grill. He pressed the hot, flat metal surface against Grimmjow's forehead and nose, the sound of sizzling and the scent of burnt flesh filling the kitchen area.
An injured Grimmjow released his hold on the quinto and rolled off to the side, trying to climb to his feet while clutching at his burnt face. Tyn dropped his impromptu weapon to the floor and hopped to his feet, grabbing Grimmjow by the back of his red Burger World employee shirt and ramming his head into the giant stainless steel freezer door twice before Ulquiorra finally came out of the manager's office and broke the two of them up.
"That's enough!" barked the cuarto, actually raising his voice for once as he physically stepped between the two brawling arrancar and pushed them away from one another.
Tyn and Grimmjow stared angrily at each other for a long moment before each finally turned and walked away, with Tyn retrieving the spatula and the bloodied, frozen hamburger patties from the floor while Grimmjow retrieved a frozen chicken patty from the freezer to hold against his burnt forehead.
"Didn't you do enough fighting last night?" asked Ulquiorra as he eyed the redhead with obvious disapproval. "Are you trying to alert the Soul Society that we're here?"
"Back off," growled Tyn as he pried the tainted, frozen hamburgers apart and plopped them down on the grill. "You weren't there and you don't know what it was like."
"I know you used your Soul Candy. I know you were prepared to destroy half the city to kill her."
"Been talking with Urahara, haven't you?" asked Tyn sourly, sprinkling a touch of salt on the hamburgers as they cooked.
"I have," Ulquiorra confirmed. "It is very possible the Soul Society is looking for us now, and he has asked Lady Yoruichi to go investigate what the Seireitei knows, if anything."
Tyn said nothing, glancing up at the order screen instead of at the cuarto. Grimmjow walked by, still grumbling, and Tyn snatched the frozen chicken patty away from his face, tossing it on the grill.
"Hey! Give that back, you bastard!"
"You really want it back now?" asked Tyn, watching the meat in question sizzle against the steel surface.
The sexta growled and went back to the freezer to grab another frozen patty as Tyn pressed the chicken against the grill with his spatula. It still had some flecks of the gigai's flesh stuck to it, but he figured the customer waiting at Starrk's window should feel lucky to be getting the extra meat.
"You're not at least going to wash the chicken off?" asked Ulquiorra, and Tyn spit on the chicken quickly, smearing the clear liquid about the patty's surface with his spatula and letting the grill bake it into the meat.
"There, it's clean. Happy?" he asked bitterly as he finally removed the chicken breast from the grill and put it on a bun before wrapping it and tossing it over to Starrk.
"Perhaps you should not have came in today… You are still acting angry and irrational."
"I wonder how many health violations we commit on a daily basis here…" asked Starrk, walking away from his currently customer-less window and trying to draw attention away from the scowling quinto, who had begun to fidget underneath Ulquiorra's interrogation as if he were close to losing his patience.
"I ceased keeping track long ago," Ulquiorra admitted as he looked up at the other man, and Tyn favored Starrk with a slight nod, thanking him for diverting the conversation to another topic.
"I call thirteen," said Grimmjow, checking his reflection in the freezer door to see if the burn on his forehead was starting to heal yet.
"Not that many…" said Starrk. "I'm going to say nine."
"Fifteen," guessed Tyn.
"The highest I counted before I gave up was twelve," said Ulquiorra, and Grimmjow grinned in triumph.
"I was closest, so I win! Suck it, losers!"
"Traditionally, it's supposed to be the closest without going over…" said Starrk. "So actually, I win."
"Then here's your fucking prize!" spat Grimmjow, picking up a fresh patty that had been sitting at room temperature long enough to thaw, wadding it up and hurling it at the primera's face.
Starrk easily plucked the ball of beef out of the air and flattened it back into a semi-round shape before walking over and dropping it into the grill as Ulquiorra finally retreated back into the manager's office.
"Truthfully," he said to Tyn as soon as Ulquiorra was out of earshot, "I always thought Grimmjow would be the one dumb enough to break out the Soul Candy."
"Hey, fuck you, buddy!" snarled Grimmjow, giving the other man the finger as he went to the front register to attend to a customer.
"Yeah, yeah…" said Tyn. "I know I screwed up, and I'm sorry for endangering everyone. If we can get through this crap without being caught, I won't be so careless again."
"I believe it. You're not Grimmjow; you actually seem to learn from your mistakes," said Starrk, going back to his window as the sexta scowled at him from over at the register.
"Shut the fuck up, Starrk!"
"Holy shit, this place is more of a dump than my apartment!"
Halibel winced under Grimmjow's words and mocking laughter, embarrassed to have him and the others all crowded into the apartment to survey the damage. God damn it, couldn't anyone respect that this was a private matter between her and Tyn?
"Oh, not the TV, too!" exclaimed Lilynette. "It's a better TV than we have, and you broke it!"
"Love the new paint scheme…" said Starrk dryly, examining a small red splash on the white wall, and Halibel rubbed the faded, almost-healed slash on her cheek, feeling pretty sure that it was her blood.
"The landlord says insurance will cover the damage to the apartment itself… I managed to convince him it was all caused by the 'gas explosion' that tore up the street and the café across the road," said Tia from her side of the couch, glancing over at Tyn at the far end. "We'll have to replace the furniture ourselves, though."
"No more end-tables…" said Tyn, refusing to look in her direction. "They're stupid and pointless as long as we get a new coffee table."
"Agreed," said Halibel, rubbing her back that was still bearing a faint bruise from having gone through one of the end-tables.
"And I thought things between me and Rukia were rough…" said Ichigo, leaning up against the far wall and scratching the back of his head. "But you two have got to be the most dysfunctional couple I've ever seen."
"We're not a couple!" the duo declared simultaneously, each sounding offended by the very suggestion.
Ulquiorra lightly rapped his knuckles against the large sheet of plywood that was temporarily covering the broken sliding glass door that led to the balcony, examining it.
"Your presence is not required here, Kurosaki," said the cuarto, looking over at the teen who had came straight from school. "We are quite capable of handling this ourselves."
"The hell it's not!" challenged the part-time shinigami. "These two nearly destroyed the town last night!"
"A reckless exaggeration," said Ulquiorra dismissively. "The damage done to this single apartment unit, one street, and a small café hardly constitutes 'destroying the town,' as you put it."
"Want me to throw him out?" asked Grimmjow, psychotically grinning at Ichigo as he began to crack his knuckles threateningly. "I'd be happy to do the honors!"
"Leave Ichigo alone!" huffed Orihime. "He's the shinigami assigned to protect Karakura, so he has a right to be here and help sort this out!"
"Oh, give me a fucking break!" said Grimmjow, rolling his eyes. "The only way to 'sort this out' is to let the two of them fight to the death; whoever wins keeps the apartment, and everyone is happy!"
"Stop trying to get me killed," growled Tyn. "Just because you couldn't beat me, you're wanting Tia to do it for you."
"Hey, fuck you, lizard-boy! I'll stomp you—"
"Instead of being a pain in everyone's ass, Grimmjow, why don't you make yourself useful and start cleaning up the mess while the grownups talk?" asked Halibel coolly, and the sexta turned red in the face with anger.
"Watch your mouth before I kick—"
"Shut up and get to work, Grimmjow," said Starrk, letting some of the authority that came with his rank seep into his voice for once.
Muttering colorful curses under his breath the entire time, Grimmjow took a garbage sack and began picking up the broken bits of glass, plaster, drywall, and wood, being sure to give each person in the room a hateful stare.
"Raptors are more like birds than lizards, anyway," Lilynette told him matter-of-factly. "I learned that in school last week."
"Oh, shut up!" snapped Grimmjow, swatting at Lilynette as she ran and hid behind Starrk, making sure to stick her tongue out at the sexta for good measure.
"Anyway…" began Orihime, smiling as she ignored Grimmjow and sat down on a small footstool in front of Tyn and Tia, "Why don't we try some counseling to help you two get over your problems?"
"We're fine now," said Tyn stiffly, still refusing to look at his roommate.
"There's nothing to be ashamed of," Orihime assured them, "Plenty of couples go to therapy together—"
"We're not a couple!" barked Tyn and Tia together again, eliciting a light chuckle from Starrk.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," apologized Orihime. "But still, I really think this will help you. Now, first I want you to take a minute to think about it, and then I want you to tell me one thing you like about each other."
"Do we have to do this?" asked Halibel, curling her lip back as she looked at Tyn, with the raptor finally looking back over at her and narrowing his own green eyes darkly.
"I got nothing," he said, turning away again and ignoring the irritated growl coming from the blonde.
"We're not leaving until we make some progress here," said Orihime firmly. "Now think; there's got to be something you like about each other."
There was a long pause as they looked back at one another, making eye contact.
"He's not Grimmjow," said Tia finally.
"She's not Grimmjow, either," agreed Tyn.
"Hey, assholes, I'm right here, you know!" yelled Grimmjow bitterly, tightening his fists as he considered assaulting the both of them until Ulquiorra gave him a warning look that silently told him to shut up and go back to cleaning, or else.
"I think Orihime means something more like personal habits or looks," suggested Ichigo from his spot against the wall, ignoring the pissed-off panther.
"I can't think of a goddamned thing," said Tyn stubbornly, looking away from Tia.
"His hair…" she admitted softly, looking back at Orihime. "His real hair, not the gigai's; the bloody crimson is…unique."
"That's wonderful!" exclaimed Orihime happily. "That's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for!"
Tyn finally looked back at Halibel, arching an eyebrow in silent question, but she chose to ignore him as she crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to actually say something positive about her.
Bloody hell… he thought, wishing for some sort of major disaster, natural or un-natural, to happen right about now: flood, earthquake, volcano, hollow attack, Godzilla, anything.
"Her scent…" growled Tyn finally. "There, we're done. Now everyone can just go away."
"Her scent?" asked a confused-sounding Orihime, and Grimmjow began to laugh at her as he finished filling up his first garbage bag and retrieved a second one from a cabinet in the kitchen.
"You humans and your pitiful senses!" he chuckled, shaking his head. "You're all pathetic!"
"We have better senses than humans…" Ulquiorra explained, casting another glance back at Grimmjow to silence him. "Even trapped inside our gigais, we still retain superior senses to humans, and each person has their own unique scent."
"You smell kind of like oranges, Orihime," added Starrk. "Grimmjow smells kinda like ammonia, and Ulquiorra is like a musty old attic."
"Tia smells like vanilla…" muttered Tyn, looking away. "I like it, even if she is a pain in the ass."
Orihime was grinning ear to ear now, obviously feeling as if they'd made a major breakthrough of sorts, although her two "patients" would both vehemently disagree. In fact, the only thing they were willing to agree on at the moment was that they had successfully fulfilled their end of the stupid therapy session and that everyone should leave them the hell alone now.
"Okay, you're making great progress!" Orihime exclaimed cheerfully. "Keep going; name something else you like about each other."
"I like that he's probably as fed up with this as I am…" said Tia, tired of this pointless exercise.
"Damn straight!" agreed Tyn readily. "Why don't you all just go home and let us sort this shit out for ourselves?"
"Because I don't want you to destroy the town!" snapped Ichigo, coming away from the wall to stand in front of them, dragging his backpack with him. "Look at how well you did on your own last night! Karakura doesn't need a repeat of that! It's too dangerous to leave you two alone until you've calmed down!"
"We're perfectly calm," stated Halibel flatly. "You, however, seem to be quite agitated."
"Because I have a bunch of former Espada living in my city and you've demonstrated some major anger-management problems, so yeah, I'm just a little agitated!" exclaimed Kurosaki, raising his voice further. "First Grimmjow attacks me at the beach, and now you two let your personal squabble spill out into the streets and endanger innocent lives!"
"Hey!" snapped Grimmjow as he dumped another dustpan full of drywall into the black garbage bag, "Leave me out of this shit!"
"Fair enough…" said Halibel to the Soul Reaper as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a very familiar-looking green pill.
"Don't do it…" warned Ichigo, reaching for his substitute badge, but Halibel merely looked at him as if he were a complete moron as she handed her Soul Candy over to Ulquiorra.
"Ulquiorra will keep our Soul Candy until he is convinced that we are no longer a risk to the town," she said, crossing her arms once more before looking over at Tyn and silently prompting him to follow her lead.
Reluctantly, Tyn fished his own Soul Candy out of his pocket and dropped it into Ulquiorra's waiting hand, and the cuarto quickly tucked the dangerous little pills away into his own pockets, safely putting them out of sight and out of mind.
"Alright, I guess that'll do for now…" said Kurosaki, not sounding entirely convinced. "But still…"
Meanwhile, his backpack began to unzip, seemingly by itself as he continued talking, unnoticed by anyone.
Kon slowly raised his stuffed head out from the backpack looking around cautiously. He'd followed Ichigo to school hoping to see his dear Rukia, but alas, she had not shown up, and so he had nestled himself into the bottom of the backpack and taken a little nap until a few minutes ago when he heard raised voices. The mod soul couldn't quite make out the words from inside the backpack, with all the notebooks and folders around him that acting as additional soundproofing, but he was quite sure they weren't home yet. Curiosity had gotten the better of him, and he very carefully looked around, taking in his surroundings and hoping no one noticed him.
He didn't recognize all the guys, although whoever they were, they seemed to be aware of who and what Ichigo was, so Kon assumed them to be Soul Reapers. He turned a bit and saw his sweet, busty Orihime talking to someone, and Kon looked to see who…
"Hallelujah, amen…" breathed Kon in awe as his nose began to bleed somehow, despite the stuffed body not actually having any blood or organs to speak of.
The woman Orihime was speaking to was an absolute knockout, with her gorgeous sea-green eyes, perfectly-tanned skin, golden-blonde hair, full lips, and a bust that was at least as big as Rangiku's.
Her white button-up top had the top few buttons undone, giving Kon a very scenic view of her considerable cleavage, and the pint-sized pervert suddenly found himself developing an acute sense of tunnel vision; there was nothing else but her magnificent chest right now, and he began to climb out of the backpack, operating solely on autopilot as he felt a magnetic pull towards her glorious breasts.
"Come to me, my sweet, sweet goddess!" he cried, launching himself from the backpack towards her oh-so-inviting chest.
He found his mark and buried his face inside her cleavage, savoring the feel of her soft flesh against his head as he began to rub his face across her skin.
"Urk!" he croaked as the goddess in question grabbed him with one of her oh-so-smooth hands, squeezing Kon's stuffed body so tightly that it threatened to burst some of his seams and he found himself being pulled away from the heaven that was her breasts. He forgot all about the pain as he continued reaching towards the breasts, trying to touch them just once more, until he was brought up look the blonde woman in the eyes. Kon didn't think he'd ever seen such rage in someone's face before, not in Rukia, not in Rangiku, not even when he'd hurled himself at Yoruichi once!
He watched her pull a fist back and he gulped in terror as he realized his mistake…
Ichigo turned his back to the scene, tuning out the cries for help for a few minutes.
"I'm sorry! OW! Please-OW! forgive-OW! me! It's ju-OW just that-AHH! you're OW! so beaut-EEEK!-iful that OW! I couldn't YAHH! help myself!"
When Ichigo finally turned back around, Kon was pulling himself across the floor with his one remaining arm, trying to get to the safety of the backpack. His legs were in tatters and one of his little beaded eyes was hanging out and the seams had burst at numerous points on his body, letting his cottony-insides spill forth.
"Jesus, "said Ichigo, picking Kon up off the floor.,"You look worse than when that pit-bull down the street got hold of you."
"I feel worse than when that pit-bull got finished with me…" Kon admitted using his good arm to try and stuff some of the soft, white cotton back into his body before grinning lecherously. "But it was so worth it!"
"You little—" snarled Tia, reaching for him again, but Orihime moved to get between them.
"Don't kill him!" pleaded a tearful Orihime, opposed to the prospect of further violence.
"Is it even possible to kill that thing?" asked Starrk, scratching his chin thoughtfully.
"We're about to find out…" growled Halibel, and Kon yelped fearfully before diving from Ichigo's hands into the backpack and hiding.
"No killing Kon, even if he is a stupid, perverted moron," announced Ichigo, picking up the backpack.
"Thanks for sticking up for me—" began Kon, and Ichigo punched the backpack, resulting in a muffled exclamation of "ow" coming from the bag.
"Shut up in there!" he barked at the mod soul. "You're in enough trouble as it is, so just stay quiet!"
"Fine!" yelled Kon. "I'll be quiet, but you make sure and wake me up when we get to the nerd's house!"
"You little pain in the ass…" growled Ichigo, shaking the backpack roughly. "One of these days, Uryū is going to stop patching you up for free, you know!"
Kon didn't bother to reply as Ichigo finally zipped up the backpack once more and slung it over his shoulder as he prepared to leave, with the others mercifully doing the same.
"Look, just try not to kill each other or anyone else…" said Kurosaki as he looked back at the two arrancar still seated on the couch. "Next time you feel a fight brewing, just take a deep breath and walk away from each other…"
Tyn and Tia exchanged glances like two scolded children who still had a grudge to settle.
"No more of this," Ichigo finished, gesturing to the trashed apartment.
Halibel finally looked away from Tyn, shutting her eyes.
"Or come over and talk to Ulquiorra and me!" offered Orihime cheerfully. "We're always willing to help out, aren't we, Ulquiorra?"
"I suppose…" said the cuarto as he thrust his hands into his pockets, sounding decidedly less-enthusiastic than his roommate.
"You want to stay at our place for a couple of days? Don't have an extra room, but we have a new couch," Starrk asked Tyn as Lilynette playfully poked at Ichigo's backpack, giggling at the muffled groans of pain that came from it.
The raptor took a long, hard look at Halibel as he considered his answer, noting that now Tia wouldn't look at him, choosing instead to avert her eyes. He was pretty sure that the fighting was done for now and all that remained was diplomacy.
"Not tonight…" said Tyn finally. "I think we need to talk on our own first. I'll get back with you tomorrow, okay?"
"Suit yourself. Come on, Lilynette; you still need to do your homework before bedtime."
Starrk led Lilynette out into the hall to go home, with Ichigo leaving with them to head to the Quincy's house to fix his perverted stuffed animal. Ulquiorra headed for the door as well, with Orihime and Grimmjow falling into step behind him. The sexta nearly left the two garbage bags he'd managed to fill behind, but another look from the Demon Bat forced him to pick them up and haul the trash down to the dumpster on his way out.
Finally alone, Tyn and Tia sat in silence for several long minutes, each reluctant to look at the other.
Instead, they carefully looked at the remains of the apartment, and the few remaining piles of broken glass and wood that needed to be cleaned up and thrown away. Broken chunks of wood still connected to the metal hinges were the only indication that Halibel had ever had a door to her room, and there was still a gaping body-sized hole in the wall between Tyn's bedroom and the small kitchen.
The smashed television sat on the entertainment center silently, with the busted blu-ray player in the floor. With it were strewn the cases of movies, some of which had been busted open during the fight, allowing for the discs inside to be shattered. The red splash on the white wall stood out, begging to be cleaned off, although neither individual could find the motivation to do so at the moment.
A small draft came around the sheet of plywood blocking the way to the now-destroyed balcony and the broken sliding glass door, filling the living room with the chilly night air from outside.
The dent in the refrigerator door would likely never be fixed, and there was now a thin crack running through the Corian countertop on the bar that hadn't been there before the fight.
The couch was mostly intact, although a few pieces of the broken glass and wood had managed to slice open the exterior cover in some places, revealing the soft stuffing underneath. The twin end-tables were history, and all that remained of them were various pieces of wood, including the broken table leg Tia had used as a club, and she noted a red stain on the end that had impacted with Tyn's skull.
She looked back at him and the massive bruise covering the right side of his face that was still healing, noticing the now-closed gash in his forehead for the first time.
"If you still want to move out, I won't stop you," said Halibel softly, trying to remain unaffected by the chaos around her.
"Do you want me to move?" asked Tyn gruffly, looking back at her.
"I…don't know," she admitted, her facade of confidence faltering slightly.
"Maybe I should, before we kill each other."
"You don't have to…" said Tia softly, remorse weaving itself into her tone. "I'm done, Tyn. No more screaming, no more abuse. That's not me, not really…you know it's not me, and I'm sorry it came to this. I'm sorry for everything."
"So am I…" said Tyn, standing up. "I think I'm going to go to bed… It's been a long fucking day for both of us."
"Yes, it has," she nodded in agreement. "I'm going to take a shower first to get that thing's scent off, and then I'm calling it a night."
Scent… she thought, remembering what he'd said earlier.
"Tyn, did you mean it when you said—" she asked, but he simply vanished into his room and shut the door behind him without another word.
Shaking her head, Tia headed to the bathroom to take her shower, trying to forget about it as she turned on the hot water and began to disrobe; what did it matter what he thought about her scent, anyway? It wasn't like she actually wanted his approval for anything!
She sighed as she stepped inside and let the hot water course over he body, taking extra care to wash where that awful little beast had touched her earlier before washing her hair. Her keen ears thought they heard Tyn's bedroom door open and then shut once more a minute later, but she shrugged it off; he was probably just getting a drink of water before bed.
Of course, he could have simply used the hole between his room and the kitchen for that…
Regardless of what he was doing, it didn't concern her and she pushed it out of her mind as she finished up and stepped out of the shower, drying off and re-dressing herself.
Her hair was still damp as she went to her bedroom and changed into her shorts and loose t-shirt that was her nightwear, keeping an eye on her doorless-doorway in case Tyn should happen to wander in on her for some reason, although she was fairly certain he would never walk in on her unannounced for anything. Maybe tomorrow they'd be able to talk more and reach an agreement of some kind. Maybe tomorrow they could finish cleaning the apartment, and maybe the maintenance people could patch up the massive hole in the wall and fix the balcony.
She pulled back the covers on her bed, noticing something resting on her pillow as she did so; an object of some kind and a folded sheet of paper. Carefully, she picked up the white, triangular object, turning it over in her hands as she examined it.
"A shark's tooth?" she murmured to herself, confused. She placed it on the nightstand as she picked up the piece of paper and unfolded it, reading the scratchy handwriting of the note silently.
Found this at the beach, thought you might like it.
Sorry for trying to murder you.
…mostly.