Ruin sat as still as he could while Skill tsked. The needle hurt like fuck as Skill sewed up his shoulder. He couldn't breathe, either, his nose was so swollen.

His ribs ached, his stomach was mottled with deep bruising, and his cheek felt like it was on fire.

And, goddamn, his shoulder hurt ( Read more... )

The door to the bar closes behind them.

Ruin wraps his arms around Miniver's waist as they stand in the living room. It's tasteful -- furniture carefully chosen, colours ideal, and outside the massive, clear windows roars the green-blue ocean.

He nuzzles Miniver's neck, smiling wickedly against his skin, and murmurs, "Welcome home, darling."

Mary Anne isn't home yet ( Read more... )

Night had just fallen and snow drifts down onto the ground and on the various buildings surrounding him as he walks. Prague was a place of heavy memory for him. He pauses in front of the Týn Church, staring up at the great structure, and sighs. He remembers, vividly, slipping into the church long after night services, when only one priest remained ( Read more... )

He's asleep.

Sleeping the sleep of the once-truly drunk.

His left arm is slung heavily over her stomach so she's held tightly against him.

Ruin, newly married and still very much passed out, is blissfully ignorant of their previous activities.

They'd been out on the strip most of the evening ( Read more... )

It hadn't been much of a walk from their alley to the doors of Caesars Palace.

Where else would Ruin stay?

His arm around Mary Anne's waist, he checked them in (signing everything R. Perte) and they were escorted to their room. After tipping their escort, he closes the door and looks around the massive suite. He tosses their bags onto a nearby ( Read more... )

He leads her from that room into the dining hall where all the cards have gathered ( Read more... )

He had thought to let Moon retrieve her.

Just meet them at the castle--

(castle... what respectable anthropomorphic personification lives in a damn castle with battlements? None, that's what I say...)but Moon had given him a Look before she went off to prepare things at home. Choice would be doing the actual deed. Only the Major Arcana could, and ( Read more... )