Belle
Seth stopped the squad car outside the gate to the Random Play parking lot. The expansive canopies Ellen Joe had installed creating the impression that the lot was soon to be some sort of outdoor beer garden.
Which… come to think of it… wasn't a terrible idea! If she and Wise sold drinks and did movie watching parties out there…!
"Please wait a moment, Lady Belle. Mister Lowell. I will open the gate. Mr. Lowell, if you would be so kind as to drive into the parking lot so that Lady Belle may disembark under appropriate cover."
"Yes," said Seth with simple acceptance.
Belle said nothing, suddenly engrossed in a fantasy about the Random Play Beer Garden and how much she could charge for entry and drinks. Could Sjal promote it? Was there any city ordinances to worry about? Perhaps Fairy could do a quick check…
Lycaon exited the vehicle by opening the door as narrowly as possible. He slipped out nimbly, his injuries apparently no detriment to his current mobility. After some work on the gate and a check around the premises, he waved Seth into the lot and opened the door for Belle to clamber out of the squad car.
"Thank you for the ride, Constable," said Belle and Lycaon murmured a formal addendum of his own.
"No problem! Stay safe, citizens!" said Seth with a beaming grin and he drove the squad car back out onto the public road while Lycaon closed and locked the parking lot gate behind it.
Lycaon returned to her quickly and hovered behind Belle's shoulder as she unlocked the back door to Random Play.
"The lobby is empty and the front door is secure," said Lycaon.
That was not totally a surprise. She imagined Wise and Nicole would be shut in Wise's room for some time. It wasn't Nicole's first visit, by any means, and they usually watched three movies so far as Belle could calculate- or spent three movie's worth of time behind a closed door, anyway. But upon entering the lobby, there was a surprising object on the front desk counter that caught Belle's eye.
It was an old-fashioned manila envelope with Belle's name on it. Belle reached for it instinctively, but Lycaon gently reached out and grasped her arm- holding it still in an iron grip. She looked up at Lycaon in surprise and tried to tug her hand away through simple instinctive action, but her arm might as well have been trapped in solid rock. It was only trapped for a brief moment, as Lycaon released her almost instantly when he perceived her backwards motion, but still- for that instant- Belle had felt the stark reality of Lycaon's physical strength relative to her own.
"Please," said Lycaon with a carefully controlled tone of voice. "...Lady Belle. Refrain from reaching for mysterious objects that have your name on them."
"Oh," said Belle, feeling a little foolish. It was kind of a dumb thing to do in her present circumstance. "Right."
She waited in a brief moment of silent shame as Lycaon took out a device from one of his cybernetic legs and waved it over the envelope. He seemed satisfied and picked it up, held it to his nose, and sniffed. His nose vibrates back and forth, and he then he held out the envelope to Belle.
"It is from Miss Nicole Demara, I believe," said Lycaon.
From Nicole? Belle pursed her lips and opened the envelope. Inside were some printed paper documents with various names highlighted upon them. The first document was a historical article about the Ether Dawn project, something off Knott-Pedia, a public reference database. Belle had read this article many times herself, but she saw that Nicole had highlighted the name of a specific scientist: Satoshi Nakamiya.
Belle knew that name, too. Satoshi Nakamiya was one of the more mysterious members of the Ether Dawn project because very little of his professional history survived Hollowfall, and nothing at all about the man's fate after the fall of the old government.
Belle set the Knott-Pedia article aside and stared at the next item for a moment, trying to figure out what it was. After a few seconds, she realized it was an investment securities filing with the old government for a corporation called Integrated New Energy. Belle had never heard of this company, which was no surprise- millions of documents like this had survived Hollowfall, but the vast volume of them all made them unwieldy to search through, and most records were behind various paywalls anyway- college and university databases and the like. This seemed to be one of those non-free ones. Nicole had highlighted the name of one of the company's executive officers: Satoshi Nakamiya.
Belle pursed her lips. Nicole was leading her somewhere here. She flipped the page.
The next page was a screen capture of a satellite image of a cityscape. After a moment, Belle recognized it as the area around Ballet Twins Plaza, thanks to the shape of the river. There was a notification PIN with a geo-location address on it, and Belle recognized the PIN-icon shape and the capture image of the computer cursor. This was a screenshot from Wise's computer, and he was targeting the location of the office building that had contained the OldKnott server this morning- before it had grown legs and walked a few blocks to the west.
Next page: Belle blinked. It was public records of a more recent variety: a New Eridu public record request for land ownership records in a certain area. Specifically, the plot of land that the office building had been built upon. And several dozen decades down the long list of various purchases and sales was a highlighted company name: Integrated New Energy. The company had survived Hollowfall!
Belle felt a surge of excitement. Wise had been multitasking today! He must have given Nicole some coordinates and she'd perhaps used her own expansive ledger of off-the-books favors and debts to secure some hard to get public records- gifting Belle with a revived lead!
Belle had thought her trail had died with the destruction of the second server today! She excitedly turned to the next page and found a listing of properties owned at one time by Integrated New Energy, and after that, a map obviously supplied by Wise with those various coordinates circled in present day New Eridu.
It was a map of historical Integrated New Energy properties! Yes!
A surge of affection rolled through Belle's mind. Wise was so mellow that it was often hard to know what he was thinking, and he didn't generally announce what he intended to do- he would just go off and do it in the natural prerogative of an older brother. And this time, he'd found a way to leverage his relationship with Nicole to get this treasure trove of information for his sister. Belle's opinion of Nicole went up a few notches, too. How had that pink-haired ditz gotten her hands on this stuff so fast? Fairy probably would have struggled with this search due to the creative jumps in associative logic required.
Well, if there was one thing that Nicole was probably the best at: it was following the money. So why was she so interested in Wise? Belle tapped the paper in her hands thoughtfully. Could Nicole… legitimately like Wise? As a person? Hmm..
It was a question to mull over later. Lycaon was standing nearby, still in his torn pop-star clothing. It was becoming obvious that he wouldn't see to himself until he had Belle herself settled and safe, and there wasn't anywhere to go but upstairs.
Lycaon
As Lycaon came up the stairs, his ears picked up a wet, rhythmic sound that caused him to pause briefly in confusion and then as realization dawned, he balked again.
"What's up, Lycaon?" said Belle from behind him on the stairs.
Well, this was a dilemma. He knew what those sounds were, but it hardly seemed dignified to advise Belle what he was hearing from her brother's room. She'd specifically said she'd rather not know about her brother's activities in the house. Also: Belle's sense of hearing was weaker than his own, a disadvantage of the human condition relative to a wolf thiren, so perhaps she would remain safely in ignorance if Lycaon said nothing.
"Nothing, Lady Belle, just checking a sensor. I apologize for my halting pace."
He continued up the stairs and headed for his temporary cot which was closer in proximity to Wise's room door. Lycaon ignored the faint noises and rummaged through his gear, pulling out his first aid kit- one of the more bulky parts of his luggage as he always came fully-equipped against the possibility of injuries.
"Can I help you?" said Belle as Lycaon opened the kit and considered what he would need. Abrasions were obnoxious to work with because his fur got in the way. An extra pair of hands would be useful. But that was a dangerous proposition. If he was surprised by pain- well, there was no telling what he might do. He could lash out, bite, any number of things. He could not risk hurting Belle.
"I can manage, Lady Belle," said Lycaon. "You need not trouble yourself over-"
"But I am troubled, Lycaon! You're hurt because of me! I want to-"
A rather loud, feminine moan emerged from behind Wise's door and both Lycaon and Belle looked in that direction, Belle's expression aghast. Lycaon wasn't sure Belle could hear it, but the rhythm he'd been hearing earlier was increasing in intensity. Belle looked up at him.
"Gross!" said Belle quietly with a red tint to her cheeks. "We don't need to be here, listening to- to- This! Lycaon!"
Belle seemed to hesitate and waiver back and forth a moment. Then she looked at Lycaon, still blushing.
"I guess there's no other option. Why don't you come into my room, for now? We can use my couch."
Into Lady Belle's room? That made sense. There was a rather thick amount of stone between that room and the other, so it should cut off most of the sound, especially with a closed door. And as a butler, it was certainly necessary for Lycaon to venture inside Belle's room regularly for cleaning and services, so it was a practical enough solution to their current social dilemma.
"That is workable," said Lycaon.
He closed up his case and followed a jittery Belle towards her bedroom. He entered and she scrambled somewhat around him to close the door behind them, cutting off the sounds emerging from Wise's room for Lycaon, as well. It was somewhat of a relief, Lycaon had to admit to himself. There were certain things he would rather not know, too.
Belle and Lycaon regarded the couch. It was perhaps half as wide as Lycaon was tall, and the height of the seat would obviously force Lycaon's legs into a scrunched up position. It was furniture for a smallish human woman, not for a large-ish wolf thiren. Belle's hands went to her hips and her head raised slightly, and Lycaon followed where he imagined her gaze to be going: to the slightly raised platform that contained Belle's bed.
Uhhhh….
"Well," said Belle. "The couch won't work. But my bed will. Let's use that."
Tenet #9. Tenet #9. Tenet #9.
"I could not dirty your bed, Lady Belle," said Lycaon, hearing a bit of urgency in his own voice. "I am unwashed. I have wounds and-"
"You can dirty my bed anytime you want," said Belle. Then she blinked and her cheeks went red. "I mean! I'm not worried about it, Lycaon. I can do laundry. Let's just get your wounds cleaned, all right? Don't read into it! It's just my bed!"
Lycaon imagined himself laying down in Belle's bed and having her hands touching his chest. He felt a strange mix of personal allure and professional aversion, decidedly confusing himself. "What could I be reading into, Lady Belle? It's simply not an ideal solution-"
"What other option do we have?" said Belle. She frowned, still blushing. "Is this kind of like the thing with your tail? Is this forcing you to do something you don't like?"
Lycaon took a deep breath, his mind suddenly filled with the memory of Belle's hand stroking along his tail. "That, and this, is not a matter of forcing me, Lady Belle, I assure you. And it was not a matter of me not liking your touch but-"
Lycaon's mind caught up with what he himself was saying. He asserted he wasn't being forced. Which was an indirect admission that he had wanted Belle to touch him this morning. And now he'd flatly admitted to himself and to Belle that he'd liked her touching his tail...
What was the matter with him?!
Tenet #9!
"But-" said Lycaon again, floundering. His words were failing him. His butler persona was somehow beyond his reach. He mentally reached for his detached professionalism, but after two days with an hour's sleep, with added physical excretion and injury, and the latent stress of a drastic change to his lifestyle- Lycaon couldn't quite find his usual center. He was lost.
Belle took on a stern expression and pointed at her bed. "Lycaon, lay down on my bed. Now."
The tone of a direct order was a clear note in a cacophony of Lycaon's warring logic. At its core, Victoria Housekeeping existed to serve. And in most cases, to obey.
"Yes, Lady Belle," Lycaon heard himself say. He watched Belle's bed get closer. It was unmade, so Lycaon paused to make it up and smooth down the fold of the comforter. Belle sighed audibly behind him, so Lycaon abandoned the rest of his smoothing efforts and stiffly eased himself down onto Belle's mattress. It was the same soft firmness that he favored, as it happened.
Belle set his first aid kit onto the mattress near his legs and opened it. She frowned in consideration, and Lycaon broke the spell over himself to lean forward and pull out the bottle of disinfectant and the sterile wipes. Wait. What was he doing? She wanted to help him, but she didn't know what to do. He was letting the simple innocence of laying in Belle's bad, for lack of any better option, get into his head!
Regardless, Belle helping him with his wounds was inherently dangerous. Without Ben Bigger holding him earlier, he would have bit Anton's face off when the man set his arm back into socket. What if he reacted that way to Belle?!
"Lady Belle…," said Lycaon again, feeling intense misgivings. "I'm not sure this is wise to-"
Belle gave him a concerned look. "What is it, Lycaon? If I'm not forcing you, and you don't dislike my touch. What are you so worried about? Do you think you are going to bite me, or something?!"
"I would never!" said Lycaon, aghast. It was such a direct question, but it was true: the idea of him biting Lady Belle was absolutely absurd.
He would never!
Would he?
Never!
"Then let me help you," said Belle, laying her free hand gently on Lycaon's forearm. He could feel his arm muscles quivering with tension under the soft pressure of her touch. Belle continued: "Try to relax. You believe you will never hurt me. I believe you will never hurt me. So.. what are you so worried about?"
Lycaon felt deeply troubled, but he took a deep breath, his injured chest filling with air and then shrinking again with a deep sigh. His forearm loosened slightly.
"Very well, Lady Belle. But please be cautious."
As Lycaon opened the seal of the disinfectant bottle, Belle watched him with intent eyes. "What can I do?"
What could she do? What did Lycaon want her to do? He took a deep breath and considered. For all their verbal assurances with each other, there was always the danger of him lashing out at a stranger when he was in pain, so when it came to the most painful thing, the application of the disinfectant, Lycaon needed to do it himself.
So, Belle's small hands would be useful if she…
"Lady Belle, if you would be so kind as to part my fur away from my wounds? I will clean them."
"Yes, okay, where do you want to start?" said Belle, her eyes focused on his abdomen with serious intensity.
Lycaon wanted her first attempt to be far from his mouth, so he indicated one of the minor scrapes across his belly. "We'll start low and work upward. Please help me with this one first."
Lycaon indicated his wound and Belle's hands reached out, palms flat, hesitant and shaking slightly. Lycaon steeled himself. He might react poorly to her touch. He had only just met her, and her proximity to his wounds might very well trigger his instinctive defenses even if she didn't directly cause him new pain. This moment was the test. If he reacted too strongly, it simply wouldn't be safe to have her help him like this.
Belle's soft skin pressed gently into the thin fur on Lycaon's stomach, his abdominals flinched away instinctively, but not because of pain- but because of the novelty of someone else's touch. The vengeful aggression that Lycaon had expected to fight off from within himself never appeared. Belle's touch didn't set him off… it… calmed him.
It had been a long, long time since someone had touched him in such a place as his bare stomach. Belle's hands felt tiny and pleasantly cool against his wound-heated flesh; her touch was a gentle weight that was only vaguely sensible through Lycaon's own fur, but that light sensation tumbled through Lycaon's consciousness like a cooling brook. Belle's hands were even trembling slightly for some reason, so it was like she was rubbing his belly in a small, tentative way. Lycaon's mouth opened in mild shock and he forgot what he was doing for a few seconds. If he didn't do anything else and simply lay here, feeling Belle's hands on him- that would be healing enough.
Her blue-green eyes peered into his soul. "Lycaon? Are you okay? I'm not hurting you, am I?"
"N- no," Lycaon managed to say. He closed his mouth and moistened it with an empty swallow. Half in nervous haste, half in desperation to distract himself from Belle's touch, he liberally dribbled disinfectant upon the abrasion and welcomed the acidic fire as it burned away at his scraped flesh. He gritted his teeth and applied more, then a rinse, and inspected this part of his belly. That was good enough.
Not so bad, but that was the shallowest scrape of them all. There were deeper wounds to handle next- but… before he poured the disinfectant, he would get to feel Belle's hands…
Belle
"Good," said Lycaon, haltingly business-like, after he peered at the first scrape. "Let's take care of the worst one, next, then."
Lycaon indicated the deepest gash across his right pectoral muscle. "If you could help me here, next, Lady Belle…"
Belle's hands were slightly wet from stray disinfectant, but she supposed that was fine. She reached out and gently pressed her hands into Lycaon's chest, spreading away the fur from the wound. This time Lycaon grunted and his lips curled back on one side of his snout, revealing a long line of sharp teeth. But before Belle could react, the teeth were gone and the usual serious control that was Lycaon's normal expression was all she could see. She felt him take a deep breath, her hands rising with the expansion of Lycaon's muscular chest, his muscles bulging slightly under her palms. He was soft and hard and warm, and nearest the wounds, alarmingly hot to the touch.
Lycaon poured disinfectant in this wound, the deepest and most expansive. He stopped to pick out a few small bits of gravel out, and then poured more disinfectant, grimacing all the while.
"Your quilt is getting soaked, Lady Belle," Lycaon grunted breathily, and indeed, the spent disinfectant was running down his sides into her comforter.
Belle's mind was filled with the sensation of Lycaon's moving body under her hands, so her brain was only half working when she responded: "No worries. I get my bed soaked all the time by myself."
Belle's mouth froze half open. What- what the hell was she saying?!
Lycaon didn't seem to take any particular note in what she said, for which Belle was very thankful. He was gritting his teeth and carefully pouring his way down his wound. "Well, perhaps it is from a poor choice of the shape of your glassware. One with a lower center of gravity is harder to tip over and spill."
Belle took a relieved breath. "Y- yeah, you're probably right, Lycaon."
"It need not be crystal, of course. A fine, but heavy duty glassware with a deep base, similar to a brandy sniffer, with a flat bottom, might be ideal for resting upon a soft surface while remaining stable…"
Belle listened to Lycaon ramble on about the admirable qualities of certain glasses, realizing he was keeping his own mind occupied as he picked out little stone after little stone from his big wound. Belle felt his chest quivering slightly under her hands as he dug in for some stubborn bits of grit. With a final pour and a flat statement about how crystal was somewhat overrated for anything but a well-windowed room, assuming there was no live flame to consider…
It was time to do the left side of his body.
The left side of Lycaon's abdomen was a bit too far away to easily reach, so Belle had to climb up onto the bed with Lycaon, and he scooted over closer to the wall to give her a place to rest her weight on her knees. She had to lean over his body to part his fur, and felt her bare knees press into the warm fur of his side as she did so. She wasn't quite kneeling atop him, but it reminded Belle of her dream last night, when she'd been astride Lycaon in a somewhat similar configuration…
Belle felt her cheeks heat up as the sultry allure of that dream returned to her with vivid realism. She took a deep breath and raised her head to look at the ceiling of her room. What was wrong with her?! That would never happen! First, Lycaon was only here because it was his job to be here. And second: a man like Lycaon was assuredly married, or at least seriously involved with someone. Right? I mean, look at him!
"Are you all right, Lady Belle? Is the chemical smell too strong?"
"It's fine," said Belle, thankful for the provided excuse for her skyward look. But- perhaps she should take the opportunity to ask Lycaon a few personal questions in a subtle sort of way.
"Um-" said Belle, as Lycaon continued his work. "Who usually helps you when you are wounded?"
"Rina, mostly," said Lycaon, immediately. "If I'm in the field, she's usually at headquarters. So when I get back, she will assist in patching me up."
Belle felt a pang of defeat. "You and Rina? Are close? I imagine?"
"Yes," said Lycaon, sending a dagger into Belle's heart. But then he continued: "We've worked together a long time. We share the same rank."
"Oh, so she's just your co-worker then?"
"Of course, Lady Belle. What else would Rina be?"
Lycaon was frowning and finishing up on the last of his wounds. Belle was running out of time. How to get to the information she wanted to know? If not Rina, then perhaps someone outside his organization?
"Would any non-co-worker help you? Someone outside Victoria Housekeeping?"
Lycaon grimaced as he poured the final bit of disinfectant. "I fear I am somewhat a recluse, Lady Belle, due to my work."
"I see," said Belle. The dagger in her heart was long gone and in its place, there was now a sort of floaty, vague excitement. Lycaon was single as hell!
Not that it really mattered, of course. He was her bodyguard. There was nothing between them and nothing ever would be. She was just playing games with herself.
In his movements, Lycaon's forearm inadvertently brushed across the outermost section of Belle's chest, the friction clearly felt through Belle's T-shirt and through the stiff fabric of her bra. A little instinctive thrill ran through Belle's body, but Lycaon seemed to not have even noticed the event- his eye focused intently on removing a tiny bit of sandy grit from the last bloody part of his chest.
Belle felt her cheeks heat up and her heart was beating strangely fast. But that was just because it was mildly strenuous to kneel over in this position for so long. Yeah. It was surprisingly hard to do over a longer period of time. That was all.
"Done," said Lycaon with a sigh. "Can you hand me the second-skin bandages, please, Lady Belle? They are the green parcel."
Belle handed them over and Lycaon rolled out the material like packing tape and carefully adhered it all along his wounds. She knew the stuff. She'd used it on Wise's childhood injuries a few times- like after his first bicycle crash. The stuff acted like an artificial skin layer and naturally was absorbed into the body's own healing process. It was really cool stuff.
"There," said Lycaon with a sigh. His crimson eye focused on Belle. "Thank you for your help, Lady Belle. And for your bed. Let me up and I will do the laundry and-"
Belle blinked. Lycaon wanted to get out of her bed already!? To do her laundry?! For some reason, she didn't like that idea.
She held up a denying hand and Lycaon blinked at her. "Just relax for a while, Lycaon. You're wounded. You can rest here. Tts certainly better than your flimsy cot. And I think the ambient noise is probably more agreeable."
Lycaon blinked at her. "I-.. yes. I suppose so, Lady Belle. Thank you."
"Just relax, Lycaon. I'll clean up your medical kit, and you just lay there for a bit. I know you didn't sleep much last night."
"But-"
"Just chill, Lycaon!" said Belle, mildly waspishly.
"Yes, Lady Belle," said Lycaon, with strange meekness and he settled back into Belle's pillow.
Satisfied, Belle carefully gathered up all of Lycaon's medical gear and repacked it into his kit, secured it, and lifted it off her bed and set it on the floor. By the time she looked back at Lycaon, her suspicions were confirmed: Lycaon was fast asleep, his eye closed and his chest rising and falling in slow rhythm.
She knew it! Lycaon had been pushing himself since before he'd saved her two days ago. A comfortable bed in a secured location, a lack of immediate threat… and he was out like a light. Even the apparent alpha bodyguard of Victoria Housekeeping was mortal, after all.
Belle watched him sleep for a moment. She felt a little tired, too. She looked over to her couch and decided she could nap there for a while. She moved to get off the side of her bed.
Lycaon's hand grasped her forearm softly and pulled her back down towards him.
"Eeep!" said Belle in soft surprise.
She got a quick glance at Lycaon's face, surprised at his actions. But! He was asleep! She was sure he was asleep!
But all the same, he pulled her, wide-eyed, down to lie next to him, holding her against his side with a strong, protective arm. Through lack of options, she found herself curled against his chest, her head resting lightly on his uninjured shoulder, the fur of his torso in her face and softly touching the tip of her nose. It smelled of lots of things: coconut and soap, mainly- likely his hair tonic. But more subtly and deeply of masonry dust- and also of a deep, subtle muskiness that could only be Lycaon himself.
Belle took deep breaths and wondered what she should do. But she was comfortable. And warm. And held. And safe. Maybe she should be very careful to keep from waking Lycaon up. That would be rude, after all. Right? She should just lay here and be still for a bit.
Belle closed her eyes. Her nose filled with the smell of Lycaon with each deep breath.
She fell asleep.