[open] He’s a good time cowboy casanova Leaning up against the record machine...

[godofcologne]

Characters:  Thomas and anyone wandering around Chicago
Time: Daytime, Valentine's Day
Location:  Bars, parks, bookstores, coffee shops, garages, his hotel room. Seriously, anywhere in Chicago
Content:  Hiding from Alice Valentine's Day. Birthday blues.
Format:  Prose or commentspam, poster's choice
Warnings: Beware of Thomas.

[OOC: Choose which of the

Comments

[doomedtheworld]

Vin was waiting for him when he got back to his car after completing his job and, like him, she was looking more than a little drowned when he got there. Outwardly she gave no sign of being bothered by the rain at all, inwardly she couldn't wait to get back to her hotel room and into something dry. She would have done as much already but it had taken a lot to convince herself to even come to see the vampire, if she left now because of a perfectly reasonable excuse she might not be able to do it again.

"We need to talk." She said, stepping away from her place leaning against the car when he came close.

[godofcologne]

Normally, the storms that rolled over Lake Michigan were an annoyance and an irritant, but today Thomas welcomed it despite the fact that the storm plastered his clothes to him like an unwieldy second skin. As he approached the car, rain dripping into his eyes, Thomas noticed a familiar, if not particularly welcome, figure waiting.

He swallowed down the instinct to reach for the gun at his back, instead approaching with a calm, deliberate swagger (how he managed that while squishing about in his shoes was probably yet another white court perk). "Must be important, if you're waiting in the rain for me," he answered.

[doomedtheworld]

Vin, of course, had both her knives on her as well as the improvised bits of metal she carried to use with Steelpushing. She had seen the speed and grace Thomas could move with when he fought and she never intended to go into this conversation unarmed, or off-guard.

"It was now or never." She said, edging around the side of the car as he approached. "You came to help when the others and I were kidnapped. Why?"

[godofcologne]

Running a hand through his hair didn't do much for keeping the water out of his eyes, but it gave Thomas an extra second to consider his words. Because family told him to. Because Skavis and Malvora were the enemy. Because somebody had to make sure nobody got themselves killed. Because he considered at least one of them a friend. Because he couldn't abide poachers. There were far too many answers to that question, and most of them held some small grain of truth.

He shrugged as he leaned against the hood, contemplating his answer.

"Because nobody else knew what to expect."

[doomedtheworld]

Nobody? No, that wasn't true. After being kidnapped, Vin had made a point to find out just who had been behind it all. Months ago, Harry had given her all the information she needed to know about the White Court and she didn't believe that the others hadn't gone in there forewarned.

Besides which, there were other people in the city from the same world as Thomas and the vampires. She wasn't buying that explanation.

"Is that the only reason?" She asked instead, ignoring the rain plastering her hair to her forehead.

[godofcologne]

'Knew' was an interesting word when it came to the White Court. By now, Thomas had no doubt that Charity Carpenter and Clare had warned the entire city about his kind, which meant they all knew what he was capable of. And yet very few of them knew exactly what it was like to have their emotions twisted, played on, by the demon's presence. The only ones he knew for certain would be able to overcome that touch was Harry and Elaine. And he'd insisted they both go, not that it'd taken much convincing.

He shrugged again, as if the gesture was enough to deflect Vin's insistence. "What, you want me to say something soft and cuddly about how I was doing it just to help?" he asked. There was, surprisingly, little sarcasm in his voice. Little emotion, either, but little sarcasm. "It was family business, sweetheart."

[doomedtheworld]

Except Vin did know. She had spent a day in that box with the weight of the despair from that vampire pressing down on her, seeking to crush her. She had felt worse than that when she stood before the Lord Ruler and he had buried her under his insanely powerful Soothing. Hope and defiance smashed and swept away like tiny, meaningless things. Yes, Vin knew that kind of power

[godofcologne]

Whatever Thomas had expected from Vin, it hadn't been thanks. The mask of careful neutrality slipped for a moment, revealing genuine surprise, before he caught it and up the mask went again.

It was an uncomfortable, familiar feeling, one he hadn't felt since his return to the family fold: a spark of hope, of warmth and quiet pride that maybe he had done something right, something to make up for the lingering death and addiction that his kind left in their wake. The feeling that he'd done something his brother, and his mother, might have been proud of.

Pushing the thought away with every ounce of willpower he had, Thomas instead dug in his pants pocket for the keyfob to his car. "You're welcome," he said gruffly, refusing to meet Vin's eyes. There was a moment of silence while he fumbled with his keys and unlocked his car, but then Thomas spoke again, his hand already on the door handle. "She's not going to be doing that to anyone else again, if that's worth anything."

[doomedtheworld]

"It's worth something."

There were a lot of things people took for granted in life. Food, clean water, a place to sleep... most of those were things Vin had never had the luxury of being able to expect from life. Another of those things was the expectation that there would be somebody to turn to when you were in trouble, somebody who would come when you needed help. Vin was still getting used to that last one.

She and Thomas weren't friends, would probably never really be friends, but he had come for her and that meant something to her. She owed him something in return, and all she had right now was the benefit of a doubt.

"That's all I came to say." She turned to leave then paused, looking back at him from the corner of her eye but there was a small hint of a grin. "Just so you know... this still doesn't mean I like you very much."

[godofcologne]

Having lived his entire life surrounded by lies and misdirection, Thomas couldn't help but find Vin's casual honesty refreshing. "I'd be worried if one little kidnapping was enough to change your mind," he shot back. A smile, small but genuine, tugged at the corner of his lips. "But thanks for the lack of death threats today."

[doomedtheworld]

Vin shrugged a shoulder. "There's a chance I might be rethinking the death threats anyway. Just please don't make me doubt that." A hint of sincerity crept into her voice at that last part as she let a coin slip from her fingers to the sodden ground. Without waiting for another comeback she Pushed off the coin and shot backwards into the air, quickly vanishing behind the sheets of rain.

Her last thought on the subject, before she turned her attention to safely navigating the wind and rains, was that maybe Thomas really wasn't the monster she'd originally thought him to be after all.