Don't Cry for Me, Argentina (Owl to Ivy from Rachel)

[racheltherunner]

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[tamwood]

Ivy, of course, had noticed the fact that Rachel was missing - and had scoured the castle in search for her. Twice. Eventually she came to the conclusion that while Rachel was good at hiding, she wasn't that good, and she must be somewhere else.

She hadn't been so infuriated and so worried in a very long time.

Hence why the random bird landing on her shoulder and dropping a package at her feet was definitely not what she'd expected. Especially when she was halfway to Hogsmeade for some... business.

The reply was written on a crumpled bit of paper Ivy had had in her pocket, and a pen that had probably seen better days. And the painting was so confusing that she'd thank Rachel later, once she had any idea of why Rachel had given it to her.

--

Rachel,

By the Turn, where the HELL are you? Do you have any idea how much I've searched this freaking castle for you?

- Ivy

[racheltherunner]

Oh. Ivy was mad. Freaking great. Sighing, I blew back a strand of hair with an impatient huff, and wiped some sweat from my eye. I was crouching outside a bar in the bushes, trying to look inconspicuous, while I waited for my mark. Not the best time to be conducting correspondence, but it'd have to do.

And I was not at all thinking about the fact that Ivy had looked through the castle for me. Apparently more than once.

--

Ivy,

I'm fine. And sorry, I had to get out of got called away. Suddenly.

Sorry.

Do you hate me?

- Rachel

[tamwood]

Obviously, a bird flying between Argentina and Scotland would take considerable time - so by the time Ivy received the next letter, she was already sitting at the nearest pub. The painting was up on the bar next to her, and no matter how many times she looked at it, she still didn't understand why Rachel had brought it for her.

At least now she had a ready supply of fresh paper.

--

Rachel,

Sure. I know you have an addiction to danger, Rachel, but sometimes this just gets out of hand. Let me guess - you went looking for the most 'interesting' run you could find, didn't you?

If you come back in pieces, I'm not sewing you back together.

Where are you? I'm not going to come running after you, it just... makes me feel better knowing.

- Ivy

[racheltherunner]

Wow. Ivy was...wrong. It was amazing, incredible even, but her great Tamwood senses were way off base on this one. If it hadn't been so sad, I might have laughed.

I didn't leave to go find the most dangerous run I could, like some adrenaline junkie. I'd picked a random flight and gotten on it so I wouldn't be there anymore. So I would have as much physical distance as my bank account could allow. The runs I was doing? Just something to pass the time.

Speaking of...

"I'm not a hooker!" The one line I'd learned in Spanish. Who knew that leather pants, halter tops, and hoop earrings translated half a world away to 'lady of the night'? But, having successfully shoo'd off my would-be johns, I settled back down to keep watching for my mark and reply to Ivy.

---

Ivy,

Yeah. That's me all over.

Don't worry, I'm not coming back going to be fine. No sewing needed.

Small town. You've never heard of it. Look, I just wanted to let you know I was all right. So...now you know. We good?

No, seriously. Are we good?

- Rachel

[tamwood]

Nursing a glass of orange juice, Ivy spent her time keeping a casual eye on the occupants of the bar. This was probably the hardest thing about being a practicing vampire - sometimes it was so hard to find a willing person. Especially when she might have been a little rushed.

Worrying, it seemed, made her completely forget that she had other needs.

Rachel's latest letter prompted three replies - two drafts, and the version Ivy actually sent. The drafts included lines like Please, just come back and I'm scared of what I might become without you to tether me down.

Unfortunately, the final version was much less revealing.

--

Rachel,

We're fine. Mind telling me about the run? Or, for that matter, exactly why a sunny painting of a woman beside the ocean reminds you of me? And exactly when you're coming back?

- I. Tamwood

[racheltherunner]

Ouch. It wasn't so much the overall tone of the letter as the 'I. Tamwood' at the end that got me. I was being shut out. Not good.

...God, what was she doing, there? Feeding? On whom? Someone special? Someone like Skimmer?

I so did not want to think about that.

I got halfway through the letter when my mark decided to show. Big guy, part troll. The wrestling him to the ground part was great on my jangled nerves and built up tension. The knife to my arm? Not so much. It wasn't a deep wound, didn't even hurt that much, but it bled a bit before I got it wrapped up. The half-troll was knocked out, cuffed, and shoved into the back of a van before I got back to my letter.

---

Ivy,

It's not so much a run. More like 'continual work'. Lots of people, not a lot of runners willing to do the suicidal stuff for cash. Not bad work.

It's...you know, you. How you look when you're playing the piano in the church. When you don't know I'm around. Free and...I don't know. Peaceful. It's (Here the writing jerks off suddenly,

[tamwood]

The smell of blood tended to fade pretty quickly, but when it was Rachel's blood, Ivy picked it up right away. At first, she didn't even read the words, just traced her fingertips over the faint stains and wished that things weren't so difficult between them.

Hunting for blood was postponed, for the moment. Now Rachel had her complete attention.

And, despite her attempts to keep her emotions hidden behind short sentences, the explanation of the painting made Ivy smile. A very rare, heartfelt smile that was directed only at a bit of a paper. Rachel could get to her like nobody else, sometimes.

Not that she wasn't still infuriated with the witch.

--

Rachel,

As long as you're not going looking for trouble. What, did Scotland suddenly run out of people breaking the law?

And thank you for the painting. It's beautiful, I mean it. I'm just still a little surprised about

Fine. Don't tell me. Just... you're okay, right?

- Ivy

[racheltherunner]

Was I okay?

God, that was a question I didn't even remotely know how to begin answering. I was sitting in some crappy dive of a bar, surrounded by people chattering in a language I didn't understand, so lonely that it had settled into a physical ache I ignored. My dad had said, time and time again, you had to rely only on yourself. I'd ignored his advice and now look where I was. Half a world away because I'd messed up so bad, and wishing I could find some way to go back.

My arm ached, I was hungry, and the beer I was drinking tasted like warm piss. Was I okay? As a piece of paper settled in front of me, listing another run (my contact liked to keep me hopping, the slave driver), I suddenly knew the answer.

No. Turn it, no, I wasn't.

Too bad I couldn't tell Ivy that.

---

Ivy,

No, Scotland just got very...claustrophobic. And you know me - I never look for trouble

[tamwood]

At least this letter didn't have goddamn blood on it. That was... well, it wasn't reassuring at all, really, but at least Ivy didn't have to smell it.

Ordering another orange juice - even though she was paying no attention to the crowd anymore, and hardly thinking about blood - Ivy sighed silently to herself. Rachel wasn't fooling her. She wasn't okay, but Ivy couldn't do anything about that.

All she could do was hope that Rachel came back soon. Even if it led to more awkwardness and more drunken mistakes (although she still wasn't convinced it was a mistake, because it had been so good, if alarming).

--

Rachel,

Sorry, you know me. Can't keep my nose out of other peoples business.

I didn't mean to make you feel closed in, I just Drunk wasn't the way I wanted it to happen, and I know you're not okay, don't lie

Goblins? I've only encountered them a few times, actually. All I really know is that they're very ugly, don't settle down anywhere, and can be a pain in the ass. And they have a hell of a temper.

- Ivy

[racheltherunner]

I could have gone to sleep. Could have curled up on the narrow cot in the room I was renting and tried for some shut-eye. That would have been the smart thing to do.

Since when was I smart?

My goblin was living in a two-room shack just outside of town. Luckily, there was a place to park my van so I could keep watch without alerting the neighbors. Now I was curled up in the front seat with a thermos of coffee and some tortilla wrapped mystery meat. Ivy's letter was an almost welcome break from the boredom.

---

Ivy,

Yeah, regular Chatty Kathy.

Wasn't just you

Ever think that might be all I

I'm not okay, but there's no way I can

Sounds like a party. I guess I'll just go wake up this guy with my winning personality, then. Wish me luck.

-Rache

[tamwood]

Yelling "You pigheaded witch!" in the middle of a bar full of witches probably wasn't the greatest idea Ivy had ever had. It won her more than a few glares, but she quickly put them to rest by glaring right back - it helped that her pupils were dilated due to hunger. Nobody wanted to piss off a hungry vampire in a pub full of people.

Seething, Ivy read the letter once, and then twice. Rachel had just been in a fight, and now she was planning on going after a goblin? They're weren't exactly the most dangerous of creatures, but still.

--

Rachel,

You can't be that hard-pressed for money. Just wait until tomorrow, give yourself time to rest, for god's sake. If you're going to not be here, not be okay, and do runs, the least you can do is make sure you're not going to die.

If you really need money that badly, I can wire you some, you know.

- Ivy

[racheltherunner]

Well, that had been...bracing. Turned out that goblins? Didn't like to be woken up in the middle of the night by a witch shouting 'Wakey, wakey!'. Who knew?

After a brief struggle - and a dislocated shoulder, so thank god for emergency rooms - I'd cuffed my goblin and gotten him to the appropriate authorities. Okay, and maybe I'd beaten the shit out of the little guy way more than was strictly necessary. But hey, girl had to get her frustration out somehow, right?

Ivy's letter came when I'd finally stretched out onto my cot. Luckily, the goblin had attempted to swing me out of a plate glass window by my left arm - my right one, though still sore, could write just fine.

And once again, a swing and a miss for our favorite vampire. But there was no way to tell her that without going into why I really had run away. And, to be frank, I was getting kind of sick of the owls. Mainly because they were telling me nothing

[tamwood]

Seeing as this letter had taken a lot longer to come through, Ivy had occupied herself by mixing among the crowd. It turned out that people were willing to forgive random insulting yelling if a woman smiled at them in the right way - and Ivy wasn't above using seduction to get her way

[racheltherunner]

Passed out, the bird had to literally peck me awake. He got a beak full of grumpy witch and a shoe tossed at him for his trouble. There was another letter waiting for me too; this one detailing a run. Involving living vamps.

During the time I'd been in Argentina, I'd deliberately avoided any runs involving vampires, living or no. But what the hell. After reading Ivy's little love note, I was in the mood to kick some bloodsucking ass.

---

Ivy,

Oh, yeah. It's a fucking postcard come to life.

YOUR HOPES UP? BY THE TURN, TAMWOOD, I

I'll give your regards to the Martinez family. I'm paying them a visit today.

Have fun doing whatever the hell it is you do. Try not to bind anyone, okay? Last thing we need is a pet.

-R

[tamwood]

Heavy-lidded and quite satisfied, Ivy didn't even frown at the letter waiting for her on the table. She sat down, opened the letter, and licked blood off her knuckles as she read. Anything that Rachel said, Ivy was in a much better frame of mind to handle right now.

It didn't take her long to recognize the name Martinez; she'd met a few. Unfortunately, it only narrowed down where Rachel was, it didn't pinpoint. Apparently, Rachel was either in London, Greece, Argentina, or the Isle of Mann. Interesting choices.

Ivy left her own bloody fingerprints on the reply, though they definitely weren't with her own blood.

--

Rachel,

Watch out for Oliver, if he's there. He's been pining for a good challenge. He has a bit of a fetish for fiery young witches - his last one died because he forgot to feed her for too long. He's not quite right in the head, if I recall.

And don't worry. I'm very specific in who I claim.

- Ivy

[racheltherunner]

Oh, God. Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God. Not good. Not by any measure or any reckoning was this good. It was probably funny, on some level, that I knew just by the handwriting and the way her sentences were put together how Ivy's voice would sound. Or how her eyes would be that soulless depth of black. She'd vamped out but good, and that meant nothing but bad things for anyone who crossed her path