[FIN] Surprises in Store

[TawnyAngel]

He didn't resist when Abel jerked him out of the line of fire, he didn't do anything at all for a moment or two. It was them. Them! They hadn't been taken back to Antiva, they were here, they were safe! "It's the apprentices!" Zevran hissed when his mind unfroze and as he spoke he reached for Estoque's pokeball, knives and bullets would not trouble her if the young crows pushed for a fight. The boy hadn't shot him, was that because he hadn't wanted to or had he just frozen?

//We're not here to hurt you!// Zevran called, glancing up at Abel and squeezing his hand to - hopefully - assure him that he wasn't saying anything bad. "Why are you here?" he added in English, hoping to cue them into the same language so that Abel would understand too.

There followed some hushed whispering in Spanish from within the room, and then a young male voice snapped in angry, tremulous tones; "We could ask you the same! ******** off, we're done with you and your Crow bullshit, and don't think I won't shoot you if you come into that doorway again - you or your ******** monsters!"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Once Zevran was out of the way and safe - not shot, not dead - the wheels in Abel's brain started turning again, spinning a mile a minute it felt like. The apprentices, they were here, not back in Antiva, they were here and safe and not suffering from whatever the Crows felt like subjecting them to!

They also had weapons, and though he hadn't really seen the terrified look on their faces in the brief second he looked into the room, he'd have to be deaf not to hear it in the boy's shaking voice. Given the circumstances the first time they'd met them, Abel couldn't even be remotely surprised.

He squeezed Zev's hand in return, thankful for the reassurance that he was alright - for that's what he interpreted it as - and did his best to calm his voice as he spoke, though he didn't reach for any of his pokeballs yet in the hopes he wouldn't need them. "We're not here for you, we're here to pick up some of Zevran's stuff he left -- he used to live here. We didn't even know you were here, we thought you went back to Antiva with - ah - Luciana?" Here he shot Zev a querying glance, uncertain if that had been her name or not. He thought it was though. Did it really matter in the end though? Probably not.  

[TawnyAngel]

go okay?"

"Yea," came a very slightly steadier and rather more accented female voice. "******** off!"

Zevran ran his tongue over his dry lips and looked up at Abel again, confusion and worry written plainly across his face. "We can't leave them here," he murmured tightly, "they're just kids." Kids already trained to kill people just as he had been but this was no place for anyone especially and kind of child no matter what their capabilities... But what could they do instead? He had not the slightest idea.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Fu--

Abel's brows creased as he frowned thoughtfully, trying to recall what exactly had happened and in what order the night Zev got shot. After he'd gotten shot... he'd pulled him down to relative safety and then took care of Diego, and then saw that Estoque had taken care of the other man and Luciana had left. Were the apprentices still there when he'd looked? It was difficult to remember, he had been a little preoccupied with worrying about Zevran.

"We'll... do something," he whispered to his love, although his uncertainty was evident in his face and his voice. What could they do though? Neither of them sounded inclined to let them anywhere near them, let alone close enough to help.

"Did she just... leave you guys here? To fend for yourselves?" He asked next, raising his voice enough for them to hear in the other room and not bothering to hide the incredulous tones in it. ...also did they even know what stuff it was? Probably not, they were probably just trying to get rid of them as quickly as possible, but they at least seemed much more inclined to yell at them from within the room and that was infinitely better than being shot at.  

[TawnyAngel]

There was some Spanish whispering from the room, soon followed by;

"How should we know? We thought she was dead, we thought all of them were, and Zevran too."

Zevran chuckled cheerfully, but in the gloom of the corridor his expression remained flat. "Ah close! But no cigar. Abel tells me she fled, we thought that she must have taken you back to Antiva.... You are glad she did not?" It sounded that way, they wanted nothing to do with the Crows but they also wanted nothing to do with him. How were they supposed to help them?

Silence came from the room, then whispering, then; "How's that your business?"

"Yeah! Not yours!"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

If they weren't so terrified and didn't have lethal weapons Abel would've laughed, but they were and they did so he didn't. Instead he said, "You said you were done with Crow bullshit; Zev's been done with it for a while. But you're right, that isn't our business." How could they help them? What could they do? "But what is our business is the stuff Zev left here." What to do, what to do...

A thought struck him then, and he tilted his head a little. "We're not here to hurt you, just to get his things. If I show you my hands are empty, can I come in? If my hands aren't empty then you have my permission to shoot me, if it makes you feel any better about it."  

[TawnyAngel]

Whispering, and then a girl's harsh laughter. //He's done with it? He is it!// "Hear this? You are Crow bullshit! We nearly died of a monster- with- for- bullshit!"

A bit more whispering happened, the girl's half audible voice sounded more angry than scared and the boy's sounded more scared than angry. Eventually they fell quiet.

"Alright," the boy said hesitantly, "you can come, but don't even think of touching those apricorn capsules. I will kill you if you do, you would not be my first. Zevran stays where he is, whatever he calls himself now he's inked and so we don't trust the ********."

Zevran winced and shrugged at Abel. "Give me your pokeballs? Just in case they...." He shrugged again. "I understand their mistrust, of me and you. Please be careful." The boy wouldn't shoot would he? He might. He might well. Should he try to just drag Abel out of here? But if they left now the kids would probably vanish, and they'd never see them again, and... And he felt somehow responsible for them.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel waited patiently as they talked - he didn't blame them for being scared, although he wasn't too sure about the anger - and when they ceded he... couldn't relax. It was good, he knew it was, and yet he couldn't help but feel apprehensive. "Alright, that's fair," he said loud enough for the young crows to hear as he removed the handful of pokeballs from his belt and offered them to Zev to hold onto.

Once his hands were free, he lifted his hands to his boyfriend's cheeks and gently held his face as he leaned in to press a kiss to his lips. Normally he tried to avoid such gestures of love and affection during stressful situations because they generally weren't well received, but ******** if he was going to walk in there having a gun trained on him without kissing his boyfriend first. "I understand it too. I'll be careful," he promised in a soft whisper, gently running his thumbs over Zevran's cheeks for another moment and staring into those brilliant amber eyes of his. "I love you."

But then he pulled away and stepped towards the door. If he took too long they might get suspicious, or they might change their minds, and even despite their threats he felt the need to help them. "Alright," he called through the open door, "I'll show my hands first so you know they're empty, and then I'll come in. Just me, Zev's staying out here." After waiting a few seconds - because he had absolutely no intention of just waltzing in there without warning and possibly being shot because he startled them - he did as he said he would and gingerly held his hands out through the doorway where they'd be able to see them - completely empty, as he'd promised - and then waited to see if they objected or if they'd start shooting at him before he'd even fully entered their line of sight.  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran returned the kiss fiercely and met Abel's gaze intensely when they parted. It was not the last, he wanted to say, there would be many more and... and... And he was still afraid. "Te amo." And then Abel stepped into the doorway.

Halcon gritted his teeth as the stranger stepped into view but he was unarmed as promised and so he lowered his gun a little. "We don't have the things and we don't want any trouble with you either so will you just go? You can't need this place anymore, you've not been here for weeks, so let us keep it."

"Yes, go!" Salome snapped, holding her knife as menacingly as ever. "We leave you alone, you us." Part of her hated that they lived here behind a door with that mark on it and yet another part could not imagine living anywhere else. It was constance, it was a rock in a confusing world, it felt like it was part of her soul.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel kept his pace slow and careful as he stepped further into the room but keeping well away from them, refraining from moving too quickly or abruptly, and held his hands palms-out and at chest level rather than hook his thumbs into his pockets like he wanted to. Every second that passed with his heart hammering in his chest was another second he remained uninjured, and that at least was promising, even if he did still have a gun more or less pointed at him. "We don't want any trouble with you either, I promise," he told them, keeping his voice calm and his posture as non-confrontational as possible. Getting shot was not on his list of things he wanted to do today. "We don't need this place, no, you're more than welcome to keep it. The only thing we want is to get Zev's stuff from here, that's all." As he spoke the last sentence, for the first time his gaze left the pair of young crows to sweep across the interior of the room quickly, trying to spot anything of Zevran's. Unfortunately he... had never been in here before, and so didn't know what his boyfriend had kept his belongings in or where in the room, or how much he even had. s**t.  

[TawnyAngel]

Halcon grimaced and shook his head. "The stuff isn't here except the hammock, the rest we sold. ¿You want to take the hammock away from us," he waved his gun at the hanging bed near the window, "fine, have it, but forget the rest. You tried to kill us!"

Zevran grimaced too and found himself flexing his hands, would his speaking make it all worse? He feared it might but he hated standing here saying and doing nothing of use. All he wanted was for him and Abel to walk away from here alright and....

That was a lie.

He wanted to make sure the apprentices were alright too, he felt responsible, and he had no idea what to do with any of that.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ah, s**t, so all of his stuff really was gone. Except for the hammock. It wasn't Abel's to give away, but, "No, you guys keep the hammock." If Zevran wanted another hammock he'd gladly buy one for him; a nice new one, one that hadn't been sitting in an abandoned warehouse for who knew how long. He didn't need a hammock to sleep in anymore, not when he had a nice large bed to share. The two young crows though didn't look like they had much of anything besides that. How could he agree to take away one of if not the only comfortable thing they had here? He couldn't.

As for the rest though... What could he say? Zev's things obviously weren't here, he could see that now, but how could he just leave the two of them here to fend for themselves? No doubt they were trained how to do any number of things, but he'd also learned from Zev that they'd probably been provided with what had been deemed necessary. They'd found shelter for themselves, sure, but what about food? And clothes? His brows furrowed a bit as he considered what to say next. "The only thing I tried to do was help Zevran through - ah - that whole thing," he said vaguely, feeling safe in the assumption that they'd know what he meant. He refrained from mentioning that if either of them had tried to shoot Zev he would've shot them first. "But that doesn't change the fact you guys were in danger, so I'm sorry for that. Were either of you hurt at all?" As he posed his question he glanced between the two of them, but apart from the anger and terror they both looked alright physically. Were they thinner than they'd been before, or was he just imagining it? He'd not paid them much attention back then and it had been weeks ago, so he couldn't really tell one way or the other.  

[TawnyAngel]

Whispering, then from the girl-

"Ohh, help him. With death shadow. Right! I so understand!"

"We weren't hurt," the boy put in warily, his eyes flicking to the side of the doorframe where he knew Zevran was. "Just some scratches, if you really care. Now you know that though you can go, and we don't need to meet again."

Zevran rubbed the back of his neck and shot Abel a helpless look, he didn't know what to do! What could he do to make them feel safe?... What had made him feel safe at that age? "Are you hungry?" But it sounded like the girl didn't speak English well so - //Are you hungry?//

Salome's eyes narrowed and her hand visibly tightened on her knife, but Halcon merely look warily at Abel seen as Zevran was not visible. "Maybe? Why do you want to know?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Death shadow? Abel's brows furrowed yet again as he repeated the word almost silently, but realization struck him a moment later. Sonia and her illusion; she'd been working with Elizabeth belching out smokescreens for her to work on copying for ages, and while he knew it wouldn't hurt them, they didn't know that. Should he mention it? He wanted to, but now didn't seem like the best time for it.

His arms were getting tired the longer he kept them up in the air, but he didn't dare lower them just yet. No, not while they were still wary and the boy had a gun pointed at him. Knowing that they weren't hurt did hive him some measure of solace, so he nodded his head a little, "That's good." He would've felt bad if they were hurt but again, should he say so? Would they care, or believe him if he did? What could he do or say?

Zevran's voice lifted his heart a little and if he weren't busy staying still and calm so he wouldn't be shot, he would've gone over to kiss him. Food, food was a perfect idea. Would they agree to get food just like that though? Probably not. It wouldn't hurt to try though. "If you're hungry, we could buy some food for you." They probably wouldn't agree... Abel cast his mind back to his earlier experiences with Zevran for a moment before adding, "It could be to make up for almost getting hurt, or in exchange for letting me in here to see that Zev's stuff is gone. You didn't have to let me but you did -- I'd feel better if I could give you something for it." Zev always stuck to thinking of things as debts needing to be paid after they'd first met, because that's what he'd learned back in Antiva. Perhaps these kids would feel the same? And at least if he phrased it as paying them back, then hopefully it'd prevent them from feeling as if he was just trying to get them to owe him a debt. Maybe. Hopefully.  

[TawnyAngel]

The teens glanced at one another; Salome hissed something under her breath and shook her head but Halcon looked doubtful and made a vague gesture with his free hand as he replied to her. After a few moments Salome seemed to relent and jerked her chin at Abel.

"Order something to come here, then go."

Zevran exhaled quietly and shifted his stance a little, he wished he could see the kids - their expressions, the way they held themselves - but it sounded as though they were going to be reasonable. It also sounded like they'd accept a free lunch, which they probably needed. For however long they had been with the Crows they had been used to having things provided to them, and though he suspected they'd been taught to pick pockets and locks getting by couldn't be too easy for them....

They couldn't just leave them here.