Chapter One: The Meeting

[backinthsaddle]

Homework, the bane of nearly every student's existence.

Cole's sitting on the couch, surrounded by a modest stack of textbooks, a notebook balanced on his thigh as he takes notes. He's deeply involved in his studies, and has been ever since he got home from class an hour ago. It gives him something to do when he's not out running, or at track practice, although he's still not so sure about his major. But then, what guy his age is? It's not like he's had a long time to focus on what he wants to do as a career.

Comments

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"It's nice to meet you. Um. Ah. Wanna sit down? I guess... you probably have questions and stuff."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"You don't have to tell us anything right now." He does sit, though, on a completely separate piece of furniture.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"It, it doesn't matter. It's never gonna get any easier, and the, um, the reality itself isn't ever gonna shift. Tomorrow, a month from now, a year from now, what happened woulda still happened."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

Now Cole doesn't know what to say, how to respond to that. "At least... take the chance to rest first?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I'd made my peace that I was gonna die back there. He gave me a choice, and I chose it, rather than...." She just needs to get a little bit out. She needs to talk through this, figure out what happened, she's in some shade of shock.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Why'd he even have you in the first place?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I was... collateral damage. The friend of his enemy. The first time he took me, I was seventeen. Then he got me again. This most recent time I turned twenty on his table. I was really strong for a while."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

Cole shoots a look at Liam, seriously disapproving of his friendships.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

Liam shrugs helplessly, like, 'what else can you do. I'm not my screwbuddy's keeper.'

Victor takes another sip of her sugarless tea.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Well we won't let him get to you again."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"He's gonna," she says. "It's just a question of when."

"No. No, he's not. I'm going to have a little talk with him."

"I've been through this before. When you 'talk' to him, please don't kill him or otherwise maim him. I don't want that on my head."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

Cole's not sure how he feels about this. He doesn't really know her, but no one deserves whatever happened to her. So he says nothing, letting Liam handle it for the moment.

((ooc: sorry for the slow tagging, I am just wiped out today))

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I just, I don't want anyone to die."

Liam makes a noncommital sound. "I'll just talk."

"A guy once killed him for me, even though I asked him not to. He survived in the body of a rat, 'til he could switch. And it just made him hate me more, and...."

Liam flops onto the couch next to her. "Kid. Kid, it's okay now. You're okay now."

((That's okay!))

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"No one's going to die."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

She shakes her head sadly and curls into her cup of tea, taking one sip, another, another. She's going to die. Her number is so up.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"No one," Cole repeats, firmly. He means her, naturally.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

After a moment of silence, two, those big brown eyes shift over to Cole's face and slide away again. "How can you be sure?"

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Because we said so. Isn't that right, Liam?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"That's right," Liam confirms, placing a hand on Victor's back. Her fingers twitch hard, violently, and Liam pulls his hand back again slowly, the way he'd pull his hand away from a dog that snarled when he pet it.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"I know you don't know me, but trust me. You're safe."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

She pushes her sleeve up to start scratching at the scars on her arm, maybe the first time she's ever done this. And what scars. They fill so much of her skin. "I'm... trying to believe you. People've told me that before."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Well, that took some of the wind out of his sails.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"No, oh gosh, no, don't fret. I'm sure I'll be okay, until I get killed," she says, putting on a big, forced, optimistic smile.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

Gee, that's totally comforting, Victor. Cole just kind of half-smiles uneasily, not sure if that was meant to be a joke.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

It's always hard to tell when Victor's joking, and in this case it's only partially a joke. Mostly she's serious. "I appreciate that you folks're letting me stay here."