He knocks, and she answers the door looking completely different than when he had seen her, just an hour ago.
She's wearing makeup, war paint, she'll correct him later. It's warpaint. She goes to do battle every night. She's wearing the steel toed boots and jeans that don't restrict her movement. Dark colors and she's armed to the teeth. He asks if she has any of those vervain bombs her former history teacher was so fond of making. She laughs, remembering the first time he had been acquainted with one. She nods and hands him one.
Things have changed. For one, Elijah isn't wearing a suit, and he looks at her differently. It's still a dark coat, the collar is high. She remembers that she's rarely seen more than his neck and hands exposed. She'd get too hot wearing that much.
"Both." She answers as they walk out of her apartment. He almost wants to call her a walking weapon, she has two knives in each boot and a stake in each sleeve- not to mention all of the things he had seen her fit in her tiny purse. He nods in approval. He does like his hair. She won't admit it if he asks, but she likes his hair too. It's a little different than a few years ago, he looks younger. She wants to laugh at the thought. He's still over a thousand years old.
He looks better than when she had first met him. He looks happy. Or at least, happier. She supposes making peace with his brother did that. Having all of his siblings alive and well in their own domains around the globe must be nice for him, she thinks as she walks. She allows herself to be on a slightly lower guard, Elijah has better senses than she does.
She stakes a vampire before he can say anything, and she looks oddly satisfied, he notes, as the younger vampire's skin grays. The body slides down the brick wall of the alley. She doesn't bother doing anything other than removing the stake. She explains when he arches an eyebrow.
"The sunlight will hit there first. He'll be ash in the morning." She says and he nods. He asks if she'd consider letting him train her with different fighting styles, or let him read what she writes. She agrees to both, she never turns down fighting knowledge and Elijah must have quite a bit of it. It'll be handy when she's cleaning up the mess that removing the head vampire will make. She tells him she'll give him some of her writing after they kill the vampire she used the favor for.
They walk back to her apartment at sunrise, she had to kill one vampire who had recognized Elijah, the Original had assured her he had no attachment. He had walked into her apartment, tired. She offered her guest bedroom and he had taken her up on that deal. Her apartment was safer than his hotel room, after all.