[FIN] Tonight's Gonna be a Good Night

[BlackFireKitsune]

The Zevran that opened the door wasn't the easygoing, flirtatious one Sonia was used to seeing around Abel. No, this was a much more serious one, serious and thankfully unhurt - relatively, anyway - and with that heightened sense of alert that always seemed to accompany dangerous, lethal things.

It was a combination of things she'd seen time and time again with Abel whenever she accompanied him on hits.

The Zoroark stepped forward and sniffed at Zevran briefly, giving him a once-over to ensure that he really wasn't injured much beyond his nose, and once assured he was fine she stepped to one side to peer past him at the lifeless body on the floor, her expression and entire demeanor devoid of emotion. There was no need for it for the stranger's death - the stranger that obviously attacked him.

There was emotion when a knock at the door pierced the silence, shortly followed by a muffled, familiar voice announcing his return. A quiet gratefulness and relief filled her expression as Sonia immediately turned and loped to the door, whose knob was mercifully much easier to open than the locked bathroom door's.

"Hey, I got the ice," Abel announced in his usual tones as he slipped inside the room, but stopped before he said another word. The feeling in the room, the body language, everything -- asking if everything was okay seemed like a silly question. Something had definitely happened in the short while he'd been gone, and something was definitely not okay. "What happened?" He asked, his brow promptly furrowing as he closed and locked the door behind him, while the bucket of ice hung more or less forgotten in his other hand.  

[TawnyAngel]

As Sonia moved to the door Zevran tensed, ignored Amigo's fluttering at his shoulder. Since when did he go unarmed? Since when did he just walk into a room, any room, without caution? When had he forgotten what he was? He had wanted to forget, so very badly.

When Abel entered the room Zevran turned his head aside and kept his gaze lowered. "Close the door," he said, his voice quiet but sharp-edged. Once he heard it closed he wiped his hand over his face again and turned to look at the slumped body again, tried to reconcile it with the woman who'd wandered over to offer them a drink. She had seemed so nice, and so too had he on so many occasions. What kind of monster could so casually fool a person that way and then take their life, leaving their lover unaware in the hall? Abel could have come back to find him lying there on the floor as she lay there now. How dare she be that way? How dare he try to be with Abel having done just the same himself?

"She waited until you were gone, to try to kill me that is." He looked up then, amber eyes cold and devoid of emotion. "She was a Crow."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Confusion and concern warred for dominance in his demeanor, but Zevran's words, his tone, his stance; whatever had happened was serious indeed for him to.. He was bleeding. He was bleeding, his nose -- his side, a bit, not as much as his nose... Abel wasn't aware of dumping the ice bucket on the nearest table as he passed it on his way to his boyfriend. He wasn't even aware of the quick strides that brought him there, just that one moment he was by the door and the next he was in front of Zevran, one hand reaching to gently curl around his shoulder and the other to hover near his elbow. "Are you serious..." The words were less a question of if he was or not - because he obviously was; he wouldn't have just killed a complete stranger with a knife Abel was quite sure he wasn't carrying - but spoken more out of disbelief.

She was a Crow.

Those words carried a heavy weight, one that hit him and sunk in with the force and speed of a large rock crashing into an otherwise peaceful, pristine lake. So much for the calm waters they'd been enjoying these past few months.

Abel inhaled, held the breath for a couple seconds, then exhaled, the action serving to ground his thoughts and pull the various threads of thought back into proper alignment, back into a better order of priority. Charlie's dead body - if that even was her real name, which he suspected it wasn't - received hardly any attention at all, less because he was squeamish or anything else and more because he was far more concerned with his boyfriend at the moment. "Are you okay? How bad did she get you?" He asked gently, his brow furrowed still as he glanced from the rather bloodied part of Zevran's face down to the red oozing through his crisp white shirt.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Mmh." Zevran's brow wrinkled and he brought a hand up to touch his injured side, ignoring Abel's touch to his shoulder for now or rather- not ignoring but unable to process. "Not bad," he said after a moment, "that will stop bleeding in a couple of minutes. Ah, s**t, I hate cleaning up bodies." Seen as his shirt was already written off Zevran rolled his left sleeve down and pressed it against his nose as he turned to look at the body again. How could he look at any stranger now and not wonder if they were here for him too? s**t. "Out of the window I suppose, tomorrow they will assume she just skipped the bill. There will be nobody to report her missing, of that I am quite sure. As for the remains themselves," he took his sleeve away from his nose again and looked up at Abel again, and he smiled but it did not reach his keen yet empty eyes. "I think Estoque can deal with that. She was so very keen to do so to me when we first met after all...."

Abel. Abel was here. Zevran looked away again, his jaw tensed against emotions that were trying to well up inside him. "What must you think of me?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ah, his injury wasn't that severe. "Good," he said with a small nod, and now that he was assured of Zevran's well-being his gaze shifted to the body on the floor when Zev mentioned it. That was one thing he never really had to do, thankfully, due to the nature of his work - or rather thanks to the weapon he used - but that didn't mean he hadn't seen his fair share of them. It was never a sight he enjoyed seeing, but one he'd unfortunately become rather accustomed to. "Mmh, we'll have to take her things out too then," he added with a quick glance around to see how much stuff she'd left out; hopefully not too much. It'd be lucky for them if she lived out of her suitcase rather than spread everything out like some people did. "It'd be suspicious if she wasn't here but all her things were. Estoque would probably do a good job, yeah, though preferably not anywhere that anyone would see..."

What must he think of him?

The question gave him pause. It wasn't one he expected but really he should've, he supposed, but either way it needed no thought to respond to. Without hesitation his hands lifted to gently, gently cup Zevran's face and he leaned his forehead against Zev's softly. The tension in his jaw was perfectly obvious. "I think the same of you now as I did before."  

[TawnyAngel]

"No."

Zevran stepped back quickly, his shoulders hunched and an arm raised defensively to ward off Abel's gentle touch. After a moment of blank stillness he looked briefly surprised at himself, then confused, then blank again as he shook his head and said; "Let us deal with business first. Check the bedroom, I will take care of the bathroom."

"Fweeee?" Amigo trilled, worried and confused and fluttered close to Zevran with his antennae twitching.

"Ah, away!" Zevran snapped and swatted at the Butterfree. "I am busy so keep away or I will put you back in the pokeball and lock you there, comprender?" Away, he had to go far away from here and leave all of them behind. Abel would look after his pokemon he was sure and Abel would be fine too, he was of no interest to the Crows. Once this situation was dealt with he knew what he needed to do.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel quickly pulled his hands away as Zev stepped back, confusion clouding his features and furrowing his brow again, but he didn't try it again. Zevran was right, they had more important things to deal with for the moment... But that didn't stop the uncomfortable feeling settling like a cold, heavy rock in the pit of his stomach. "Alright."

And now he... was snapping at Amigo. Hm. "C'mere Amigo, come help me look out here, yeah?" He suggested gently, beckoning with one arm towards the Butterfree to encourage him to leave Zev alone for the moment. "The bathroom is too small for you to help him look." Either way he headed back to the bedroom to find whatever personal effects of hers that he could, Sonia following along behind him to help.  

[TawnyAngel]

Amigo made another unhappy noise and made as if to follow Zevran anyway but a moment later he relented and fluttered after Abel instead.

In the bathroom Zevran started to gather up the scattered personal effects; toothbrush, makeup kit, hairbrush, washcloth... Washcloth. Zevran damped it under the faucet and then crouched beside the body. After a few moments of inspection he rubbed at the dead thing's left arm with the cloth, clearing away a layer of make-up to reveal the curving black lines beneath.

"Stupid," Zevran muttered to himself - at himself - and then retrieved the phone from the woman's pocket before turning away to finish packing up the items around the room into the compact bag that rested on the side of the sink.

"She was Arainai too, my own house," Zevran reported as he stepped back into the bedroom. "The mark," he gestured at his own left arm, "no mistaking it." If he lived long enough he was getting that tattoo altered, he wasn't sure why he had not already done so. Perhaps part of him had known he couldn't really leave them behind? Perhaps.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

When Amigo agreed to follow him without issue, Abel offered the Butterfree what he hoped was a reassuring smile - he didn't feel very reassured himself though, given the circumstances, but he hoped Amigo wasn't too upset about Zevran's tone - before he set about rummaging through the various drawers to see if she'd left anything in those. A bag with clothes was obvious enough, and any of the various items she'd left out he grabbed and stuffed in there. Her purse he grabbed and tossed on the bed next to her bag, though as he was more concerned with simply removing all of her things from the room, he didn't bother to open it. All that remained was the cafetiere and... "Ah," his brow furrowed at Zevran's words, his movements slowing to a halt. That... had to sting. He wasn't sure how much, but it definitely had to sting at least a bit. "You didn't know her, though?" As he asked he carefully stepped past Zev into the bathroom, ignoring the body on the floor as he rinsed out the cafetiere and grabbed a towel to wipe it down with so it wouldn't leave coffee or water wherever he threw it, which quite possibly would just be in his car...

...would it be in his car though? Or were they going to just toss all her things in a dumpster right outside? Something to address - in a minute. "I think I grabbed all her stuff that was out in the bedroom," he added as he toweled off the cafetiere and tossed the towel onto the sink counter.  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran turned to look at the body again and shook his head. "No, I have never seen her before. It could be that she came from another house, a smaller one we absorbed? I do not care to look for other marks however." He looked blankly at the still form for a few moments more but then shook his head and added her washkit to the other possessions Abel had collected.

With this done he moved to the bed again and messed with the sheets to give the impression that the bed had been slept in. "I suppose that is all then, other than our departure. Mmh. Shouldn't be too much blood now if I remove the knife." What was the point of all this? He might as well take the knife and drive it into his own heart; at least that would be a fairly swift end, he doubted the others - there would be others - would be so merciful to him after he had killed one of their own.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

So one house could absorb another, smaller house... They were separated into houses? How big was this organization? Did he even want to know...? No, probably not. Dismissing the thought for now, Abel opted for a simple, "Alright." It wasn't important, anyway. At least not in the face of what they had to deal with at the moment.

Ah, was that all? Well it looked like they'd grabbed everything, so... "Sonia, would you carry her things and cover for us when we head out?"

"Zor," the dark-type agreed readily with a quick nod of her head, then stepped over to begin collecting the dead woman's items. Two bags wasn't much, anyway.

"D'you think we should leave it in there for now? I know it acts kind of like a plug if you leave it in, though I haven't had much experience with blades before," Abel admitted with a shrug as he peered over at his boyfriend. A brief, displeased look wrinkled his nose. "No good experience, anyway." Being on the receiving end of the sharp end of a blade was never good.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Mmh," Zevran shrugged, "she might ooze a bit but no heartbeat, no bloodflow. May as well leave it though I suppose, I will probably not need it immediately. Probably." Were other Crows even now watching the building? Zevran fetched the dead woman's phone out of his pocket and pressed the side button, which brought the screen to life. When prompted to input a password Zevran entered 'Arainai' without hesitation; being able to access a comrade's comms could be vital some circumstances, if they died for example.

As the device surrendered itself to him Zevran frowned slightly, there were a great number of messages in a group chat which he assumed was being used to control the mission. The mission to kill him. When he called it up and glanced down the recent messages his frown deepened. "That is... odd. She has not been responding to messages today, all of these from the last few hours are demanding..." A name caught his eye and his eyes widened. "Demanding an update," he murmured distantly.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"That's true," he added thoughtfully, though it still wasn't a very good thought. The whole thing bothered him, and it was still difficult to wrap his mind around the fact that she'd just been acting to try and get Zevran alone to kill him. Not that he didn't believe his boyfriend of course, but it just... were they really that set on killing him? Apparently so. "I doubt you'll need it at all, Sonia'll cover us when we leave. No one will see us, relevant to this or no."

Ah, her phone. That was probably a good place to start. Especially since it seemed Zev could get into it no problem, but his reaction was a bit... unnerving. With a frown crossing his features and furrowing his brow, he took a step closer to his boyfriend and looked down at the phone, whether or not he could actually see the screen. "What kind of update...? That she succeeded or something, you mean?" Why hadn't she responded for the last few hours? She certainly had the opportunity to do so, so why...  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran's distraction was evident from the way he held the phone out for Abel to read despite everything being typed in Spanish. "Any update. She stopped communicating at lunchtime. I... suppose that means there are probably no Crows around." Zevran swallowed, ran his tongue over suddenly dry lips, tasted the metal tang of blood once more. "Taliesen," he pointed to one of several instances of the name at the head of a chat bubble, "Taliesen is here, in Kodo, looking for me. I- s**t. We need to leave, now."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ah, now he could see... that.... everything was Spanish. Nothing he could understand, then, but it was still interesting to see. "Huh... why did she stop communicating that far back? She didn't approach us until late this evening..." ...did that mean... What did that mean? Did she stop contacting them once she found Zevran? If so, that would mean she'd been following him since lunch. Following him, stalking him, waiting for an opening to get him alone to kill him.

Taliesen? "Ah." Abel's gaze focused back on the phone once more, leaning in close so he could look at the name Zev pointed to. That, at least, he understood. While he would've liked to stand around and puzzle out why she'd done things the way she did, they had more important things to do. "So he probably knows she's staying here, then, and could come check on her here at any time to see why she hasn't been responding. Right then," the taller blond's tone hardened a bit and he gestured to Sonia, his hand spinning in a circle, "let's go. We'll take her out and we can bring her to the car so we can take her somewhere for Estoque where no one will see, and Sonia will cover us. How's that sound?"

At the gesture Sonia made a noise of agreement, slung the larger clothes bag over her shoulder, then grabbed the purse and held onto that before stepping over to the door to await the pair of humans.