The sun was well past its nexus point in the sky, having begun its descent for the day and signaling the imminent dusk. It was half past four in the afternoon, and though night was still a few hours away, shops were beginning to wrap up for the day. The average person in Fiore had a relatively set work schedule, though this was not usually the case for Rune Knights. Jove was a unique case, in that he believed in a firmly expressed work-life balance. For that reason, he attempted to enforce his schedule as strictly as he could. He would begin his day at nine in the morning, get off at five in the evening, and without any sort of breaks during the day that would equate to a full eight hour shift daily. He would occasionally work some overtime, as needed, but otherwise would enjoy his time off. There was no reason to work hard when medium effort would do, after all.

Eastern Fiore was home to dark and shady regions that might hint towards the need for extra work, such as Dahlia, but it also contained gems. Hargeon was home to Blue Pegasus, a light guild that had traditionally made the work of the Rune Knights much easier. There was also the guild he knew next to nothing about, Empyrean Divine, situated in this city. Whether or not they would add to his workload was something he had absolutely no idea about, and wouldn't bother focusing on.

Instead, he'd just focus on finishing out his day. He was dressed in his usual work attire. Sunglasses on his eyes, his hair slicked back in a sort of messy controlled look. His undershirt was a royal blue that matched the Rune Knight colors, and over top of that was a white button up. His pants were also a creamy white, a black belt keeping them in place. His right wrist had a simple watch, and his shoes were brown dress shoes that looked as though they wouldn't be practical for movement, though they were.

His face was deadpan, as usual, and he found himself simply walking the streets. He was an unknown in the world of Wizards, though that was a good thing. An A rank mage, but a Page in the Rune Knights and no sort of fame to speak of. Anyone who met him would likely think he wasn't anyone of significance, unless caught off guard by his self assured level of exhaustion that he always carried with him. That was the best way to describe how he looked, and how his voice sounded; Exhausted, but confident.

Stopping into Sultry Heights, home to Hosenka's resorts and hot springs, he decided that this area would likely be as good as any to end his shift, and to do a final sweep of the city for any sort of problems that would need his help being resolved. Slowly making his way through the resort area, he did his best to stay aware of his surroundings, though the chances of him coming across anyone he recognized was slim to none.

Sultry Heights was not a single spa or resort, but rather a legitimate section of Hosenka that took advantage of the active geothermal vents built into the mountainous city. Hot springs sprung up all over the place, with restaurants and bars littering the district like sirens in the night. They lured people in, promising them enjoyable nights and fun memories, and acted as traps to drain individuals of as much money as possible. It was fun, it was a guaranteed way to make memories, but it found a way to monetize every single one of those moments. It was genius, but one of the reasons that Jove would never be the one to suggest a vacation here.

It was why he had been brought here on business, not for pleasure. Removing the tint from his eyes, he folded his sunglasses up and put them back into their protective container, sliding them into his pocket. With dusk whittling away and night making itself more and more prominent, Jove had finished his shift. Looking at his watch, seeing it officially hit 5PM, he rolled his sleeves up and sighed. Another day down, and he could finally relax.

Walking through the district, he went to make his way out of it when he heard something. Just barely making it past one of the many insignificant alleyways, something caught his attention and made him freeze. A noise, something potentially benign but still out of place for the area. He heard something, it sounded almost like a dulled thump, coming from the alley. He looked back at the dark hallway, face expressionless and body frozen but poised for sudden movement. He waited for a few seconds, and for a moment one would have to ponder as to what was going on inside his head. The truth?

Whether or not this was worth overtime.

Finally sighing and running his left hand through his hair, he stepped back towards the alleyway. Looking into it, an impenetrable blackness staring back, he immediately decided that going down this way was not the move. Instead, he'd call out.

"Hello? Is everything alright down there?"

Jove stared into the shadows for only a few moments, yet that time seemed to stretch out much longer. His breathing was normal, his body was not yet pumping him full of adrenaline. He was an unknown in the wizarding world, but that didn't mean that he was an amateur. False alerts happened all the time, and he'd yet to be given anything that really signified danger. There was a random noise that didn't seem to fit the area around him, and it had caught his attention enough to make him hesitate. That was it, yet as he was ready to turn away from the alley, he heard a noise.

It was subtle, only distinguishable due to the fact that the walls amplified the sound and pushed it outwards toward him. He pivoted his back foot, using his leading leg to turn his body to face the alley, but hadn't been able to so much as speak before he heard actual words.

”You should’ve minded your own business.”

His eyes began to widen as his legs pushed his body to the side. He had barely even moved from his place when a crimson blur shot from the shadows. Her body barely came into contact with his own, knocking him further back and ruining his sense of balance. He felt his center of gravity change, and suddenly he was falling to the ground. His eyes sharpened as he realized his mistake. He hadn't assumed, not even for a second, that whatever that noise had been was something that far outclassed him.

Before he had even hit the ground he felt weight on top of him, one that was far too light for the strength it possessed. His vision was half clouded, preventing him from seeing the surrounding buildings, due to the red curtain of hair that had fallen around his face. Her face was intense, a rage behind her eyes and a fury behind her animalistic like expression. Yet there was something else about it, a humanity, that outweighed the beast.

Her breath carried a distinct smell of iron, and he found himself wrinkling his nose and turning away, his arm immediately going up and putting itself in a coiled state around his neck and chin, protecting some of his vitals. It was most likely a useless endeavor, especially if the brief contact they had made was any sort of indication to her real strength or speed, but humans were fickle like that. Ready to fight for their lives, even in the face of the impossible.

"It's fine. You're safe now."

Jove hadn't seen into the alleyway. He was a human, and his eyes were not well adept to these dark alleys and corners as black as pitch. He hadn't seen the body, hadn't seen the death that this woman left behind in her wake. As oriented towards business as he was, and as devoid of emotion as he often came across, he was not a heartless man. He didn't see a predator, threatening a meek lamb beneath its grasp. He saw a woman, terrified of whatever was behind her and unable to yet trust the thing that laid beneath her. Despite her immense power, his first instinct was to help her, not assume malicious intent or harm.

As her state of heightened vamprism seemed to die down, he watched the changes happening on her face and made mental note of it. He had pieced together the race she likely belonged to, and it'd be good to know how they changed in states of perceived threat. Knowledge was power, after all. As her teeth shrunk back and her eyes retook their ivory glisten, he released the tension from his arm that was protecting his neck. She asked him who he was, but he didn't yet move or respond to her words. Instead his eyes continued to stare at her, arguably through her, for an indication of who she was and whether or not she would be any threat to him from this point forward.

It was what she said next that grabbed his attention. She sounded curious, though not very touched. Enough emotion to convey that she found his actions weird, but not enough that he thought he moved her or swayed her heart to pity him. Even though she asked him questions and seemingly invited him into conversation, he wasn't completely sure as to what was going on here. She was still straddling him, and from his previous experience with her charge he wasn't sure he could throw her off even if he wanted to. Still, knowing how strong and fast she was, it was a statement in itself that he was still alive to be thinking this all through.

Lowering his arm with a painstaking slowness, revealing his mouth, he let his arm drop lazily to his collarbone, revealing his mouth and part of his neck. A subtle sign, but one that signaled he wasn't identifying her as a threat. With that, he spoke.

"It terrified me. You came after me faster than anything I've ever seen, and I'm pretty sure our mild impact fractured my ribs." He spoke matter-of-factly, yet his tone sounded almost as if he were scolding her. "Still, someone as powerful as that could have killed me before I ever knew to raise my guard. It's hard to consider you a major threat when you've intended to spare me from the beginning." A silence fell between them like snow on slated rooves. It seemed to absorb the noises from the nearby bars, the hot springs, the joviality that carried on well into the night in Hosenka. Then, Jove intended to break the silence again.

"Can you get off me now..?"

Her hair was long, crimson, and if it had been neatly done before it certainly was not now. The high speed movements she had made to close the gap, the sudden lunging and tackling she had done, not to mention whatever it was that had taken place in the alley. Her makeup was smeared, as if she had wiped something on her face, and yet the incomplete work suited her features. She was one of those women gifted with an appearance that'd make anything look good, and though he had certainly noticed, that didn't change anything. He went to stand, and as he did so winced slightly. She might have actually fractured his ribs, and they were at the very least bruised enough to notice.

As he stood, and she introduced herself, he also made a mental note of exactly how small she was. She was shorter than him, petite, and looked more fragile than the average person. The energy she emitted, however, was something that certainly did not fit her appearance. She felt like something that he shouldn't stand against, and the rune knight was one who was not willing to risk his life for an impossible fight. As he could get a better look at her and stand, his mind started to piece things together.

Her name made it easier. He was a rune knight, one who intended to eventually make some money hunting bounties of dangerous individuals. The woman who stood before him, he realized, was one of the most dangerous of them all. She had been thought to have disappeared completely, yet now here she was. She had given him something that gave him the advantage in information, and it would be wise of him to not make the mistake as to give her more information about himself.

"Jove Augustus." His voice was the same as it had always been. His face had not changed at her name, no look of sudden realization or shock, and his voice was just as deadpan as before. He brushed off his rear, stood tall, and looked down at the girl in a way that would allow his gaze to rest upon her own. Yet as he did so, it felt suddenly like she attempted to avoid his eyes. She hesitated, and she asked him a question.

There was a part of Jove that wondered whether or not she was calculating what to do here. Whether or not to kill him, here and now, and to be done with it. To protect herself from the hell that would come from a witness to whatever happened, and with that question and the other clues he'd been given, he could assume what it was that made that previous sound.

Another piece of him, however, humanized the girl that stood before him. He hadn't known her for more than a couple of minutes. It was idiotic to assume he knew anything about her, and yet he had made a few assumptions already. She hadn't killed him when she easily could have. She let him stand up, which was likely just as much her understanding of their difference in abilities as it could have been anything else.

"No, but I can guess. The sound of something hitting the ground, the smell of iron on your breath, the fangs and bloodshot eyes." He hesitated, closing his eyes for a moment. It was a demonstration of vulnerability, perhaps a request for trust. Then he sighed and looked at her.

"That doesn't change anything though. My job is to protect people, not avenge them. I obviously am outclassed here. So long as you can assure me you won't kill anyone else tonight, I'd much rather get off work and go back to my hotel, if you don't mind."

Her words drew his gaze quickly; the closest to catching him off guard that she'd come tonight, which said something. "I'll keep that in mind..." His voice was quiet, though it didn't exactly sound shy. She would likely have noticed the momentary change in his demeanor, though it wouldn't be something easily repeated. For better of for worse, Jove was fairly set in his ways. He was the type to enforce a relatively strict distinction between those he called friends and those he was suppose to fight against. With that in mind, he'd have to go ahead and end their meeting here.

”I see you’re a knight, huh?”

His gaze lazily found itself back to the vampires eyes, seeing her stare at him with a confident curiosity. The woman was expressive, her doe eyes and facial expressions conveying far more emotion than Jove was capable of. He noticed, as her face scrunched in concentration, little wrinkles on the bridge of her nose. When she chuckled, he noticed how delicate she sounded now compared to how she was just a few moments ago. She was one of those people who could wrap people up in her life just by existing, and make them lower their guard. It was a dangerous trait to have, at least for such an already dangerous woman. He'd already made his decision though.

Things wouldn't work out so simply though. Almost reactively, he responded to her request while looking ahead and past her. "That should be fine. It would probably be for the best if I keep my eye on you for a little bit anyways." With that, the two began walking away from the alley. He made a mental note of the location, knowing he'd have to return later to deal with the body or to send other knights in that direction.

Glancing at Venus, however, he knew that now was certainly not the time to get in contact with the knights. Even if she had decided against all odds to trust him right out, contacting the very people she was avoiding would throw up red flags.

Still, he realized this was a chance he wouldn't get often. He was dealing with a girl who was once one of the most wanted women in all Fiore, and one of the most feared. He had experienced first hand how much raw output she could possess, and that was without any sort of magic circles. There was a very real chance that this girl hadn't even tapped into her magic, and at that point she'd be an entirely new monster all together.

Yet here she was now, a goddess among the mortals. She walked along the streets, laughed at the inconsistencies, and kept giving him a look that screamed of normalcy. He wondered, for a moment, whether or not humanizing the woman he may one day need to fight was such a good idea.

"Is it out of necessity?" His words broke the silence, just a few moments after they began walking forward with one another. "Not that it's any of my business at this point, you're just strange." His words may not have been innately kind, but they lacked any sort of sting that would come from backhanded comments. He spoke as if what he was saying was simply a matter of fact, which helped prevent his words from coming across as rude. He was one of those people that made it clear through his tone that he was not intending to insult, or irritate.

"You don't have to answer. However, since we're walking together anyways, maybe you could help me understand."

He wasn't sure how it happened, nor when, but it seemed as though the once tangible stress between them was completely gone, evaporated with the tone that Venus had chosen to set. As she made a joke, equating him to a stalker, he simply looked ahead and straightened his lips into a line. It was a literal response to her obvious joke, a tendency that would probably cement itself in their relationship. He hadn't said anything to ruin the mood, nor reacted in a negative way. Just a disagreeable expression that was closer to a frown than anything else, yet seemed to convey a strange sense of comfort.

It was when she began answering his questions that he really tuned in. He glanced at her as she pursed her lips, an obvious sign that she was deep in thought, and crossed her arms. It seemed like she was trying to come up with an answer, but not at all in a way that felt forced or fake. It seemed more like she had never really considered the question before, and given the opportunity, wanted to give a legitimate response. It was a subtle gesture, but one that he noticed and appreciated immediately.

When she finally answered, he let out a deep hum of acknowledgement, and turned his gaze upward.

She was a lion. A huntress in a land where she had reached the epitome of the food chain, and ruled over it with a sort of cold indifference. She expressed wanting to have fun in the act, and he wondered what that meant. Lions toyed with their prey sometimes, not with malicious intent, but because it was normal to them. They were hunters, and they had captured their prey. It was a matter of fact, a simple approach, and one echoed by humans. It was a little bit hypocritical to judge her as evil for such a basic thing. For all he knew, she had never been given reason to believe her actions were wrong. Intent, in Jove's mind, was important.

"I haven't met anyone in the Rune Knights seems to be as strong as I am, and I wouldn't consider myself as a danger to you. Even if I were the type to do that, it would be a suicide mission." Turning his gaze to her and looking at her from the corner of his eye, he continued. "Besides, you asked me to walk with you and I told you that I'm off the clock now. We're just a man and woman walking the city right now."

It was her next question that really made him think. He took out a box from his pocket and held it up for her to see, a small pack of cigarettes. "Do you mind?" Assuming she'd say it was alright, he would take one of the sticks out and place it between his lips. Placing the pack back into his pocket, and retreating back with a pack of matches, Jove took his time lighting his hit of nicotine. Taking a deep drag to help light it, he took the eventual death from his lips and turned his head upwards, exhaling smoke in a slow but thick cloud.

"You are." It was an anticlimactic response, one that was followed with a pause that felt permanent. He let it sit between them, until the point where it was uncomfortable, and then he continued. "I know who you are. Venus Rosé, Vampiress, one of the most wanted wizards in all Fiore. Cold; Heartless; Cruel. A monster not to be trifled with, or confronted. Someone who could destroy cities if she chose, and who has left death in her wake wherever she's been." He spoke deliberately, letting one word fall after the other in a way that made it clear he was going somewhere with all of this.

He stopped, taking another long drag off his cigarette, before exhaling it to the side and looking back at her. "Yet here you are. A woman, standing before me as an equal. You could have killed me, but you chose not to. You could have left without me ever seeing you, but you chose to confront me. I don't think you're the things that people think you are. It's not adding up. So I want to get to know you for myself, to see for myself, and to decide for myself."

He dropped his smoke, using his foot to stomp it out. As he lifted his foot away a scorched mark stained the concrete, but there was no sign of the cigarette he had just dropped to the ground. Walking up to her, and stopping beside her for a moment, he glanced at her once more. "You would attract more men if you just let them get to know you." And then he continued their walk, and admittedly, he hoped she would continue to join him.

She had made a joke about them being on a date, and his face did something awfully peculiar. It did not scrunch up or strain itself to make any sort of face or acknowledgment, nor did he let out his normal verbal queue of having heard what she said. Instead his gaze continued forward, his expression unwavering. "Perhaps." It was a simple response, one devoid of the usual hesitation or emotion that would indicate the seriousness of his words, or whether or not he was joking all together. Perhaps it was due to his inexpressive ways that his true intent would be impossible to discern.

She had accepted one of his cigarettes, getting it within close proximity of his own and using his own red hot cherry to light her own. As she did so, he continued on with what he was saying. Her actions had trounced on any semblance of personal space he may have had, but his words were trampling over any distance that had been between them, and so in his mind the two actions evened themselves out. He was essentially voicing not only all of the stories he had heard of her, but also his own interpretations of both those stories and now the reality that stood before him.

"You're a perceptive man." Her words began short and concise, drawing in his attention and arresting his gaze. She explained herself, opening up further as well. There was a moment, in the furthest depths of his mind, that pointed out how odd a relationship this had become. A stranger he knew for no more than half an hour, and here they were opening up about their lives.

Or at least, her life.

As she said that he likely wouldn't understand, his vision finally broke off from hers. While she found the sky, an endless expanse of possibility stretching before her in which to find her thoughts, he found the earth. His eyes had dropped down, locking eyes with whatever patch of ground was a few feet before them, and he found himself contemplating her words. Perhaps he wouldn't understand; perhaps he simply couldn't. Still, when she questioned his motive, he was quick to correct her.

"I'm trying to find reason behind my decision to let you remain free."

His voice was too matter of fact, too deadly serious in its begrudgingly realistic tone, for his words to be taken as anything other than truth. She could still find a way, certainly, to bend what he said into meaning something else. However, what he said was entirely true. He had already made the decision to let her roam free tonight, but now what he was looking for was proof that his decision was the right one. That proof would only come from further getting to know her, to understand the noise that went bump in the night directly from the source.

As was her tendency, she shifted the topic away from the deadly serious. She hinged instead on his final comment, looking at him with a sense of feigned astonishment, responding that she was attractive enough as she was, and returned her words back to him. She emphasized the same thing she said previously, implying heavily that he needed to learn to relax.

"Perhaps," he began, "but it seems to be working just fine already."

The implication of his words were, if one were to dare assume him even capable of such a thing, threatening flirtation. The question then was what he meant by it, and whether that kneejerk assumption was even correct. Jove was known by many things, by many people, but someone who would casually try to flirt with anyone, let alone a stranger, was not one of those things.

Venus wouldn't be given the time to consider it. Instead, a mere moment after he had spoken, he spoke again.

"I might not understand, you're right about that. That doesn't mean that attempting is worthless. Besides, isn't getting to know one another the entire point of a first date?"

No likely it was a strange situation, hearing words like these without inherent shifts in tone or any of the normal indicators of intent behind the words. Whether or not he was saying them to match her tone, or she was someone who genuinely caught his eye, or even if he was just quick witted despite how he spoke and carried himself, knowing for sure was nearly impossible.

Their walk had taken them away from the alley in which they first met, from the evidence that lay in a crumpled mess on the cobbled floor. The noise of the hot springs faded into the distance, and the evidence of activity declined until the two walked a path illuminated only by the moonlight, and deafened by the silence between their steps.

"Why are you still here, Venus Rosé?" He decided once more to be the one to encroach on the silence, and on the distance between them as people. She had said it herself that this might just be an elaborate ambush, or some way he had planned in order to try to arrest her. She knew that, yet her she was, still walking alongside him down the streets of Sultry Heights. He was curious, as she seemed to be, as to why his supposedly natural enemy was choosing to continue her night alongside the knight.

"I could just as well regret arresting you, assuming I'd even be able to manage that." His words came out as if they were a matter of fact, without hint of trying to convince neither her nor himself. "I already said you seem like a decent person. I like to hope that when you satisfy your needs, you're not doing so on just anyone you come across. Or at least, that it's a potential solution."

It wasn't as though he was desperately looking for a reason to validate his decision. He wasn't someone so emotional or attached to every intricacy of his decisions. Perhaps when he was younger he was a bit more ambitious, driven by a desire to do well by others so powerfully that he would be filled with ill-gotten emotion should it backfire. Now, however, he understood that the world was a bit more intricate than that. Even should his decisions lead to dire consequences, it would not cause him immense grief or suffering. Regret or reflection, perhaps, but not internal damnation.

They continued to walk, and before long she had finished her cigarette. He glanced as she took her last drag, tossing the still burning filter behind her and letting the smoke cascade from her ruby lips. He knew his gaze was lingering, and yet he did nothing to stop it.

He was quiet, introspective to the point that it may make others uncomfortable. That was no indication that he was socially inept, however. He was not someone who had never felt the tug of the heart or the burning desire to get to know one of the opposite sex. Their introduction had been intense, and despite his calm demeanor, of course his heart had been made to race. He wasn't one immune to emotion.

So as she spoke, and as she continued her question, he had almost seen it coming. She had asked what he thought of their date so far, and he closed his eyes. His footsteps fell in unison with hers, and perhaps it was due to his temporary loss of vision, but his path drifted ever so slightly. Over the course of a few steps the distance between the two dwindled. He was was but a meter away from her now, and his eyes opened again. He didn't rush. The answer mulled in his head, and he finally began to speak in the same self assured drone his voice always seemed to be carried upon.

"I'm glad I'm getting to know you. There was a lot I could have never known about you, about vampires, without meeting you. To hear descriptions is one thing, but to experience someone and their mannerisms and tempo is a completely different experience."

He didn't answer her question, but the way he spoke and ended his sentence with that abrupt sign of being finished hinted he wasn't going to go further on it quite yet.

He had accepted the octopus without so much as a smile. Yet something about the way he took it from her hinted at, perhaps, a crack in his armor. As he took it, his thumb slowly traced on the face of the creature. She said it looked like him, and he looked at its aspirated expression and found it disturbing how he couldn't argue it at all.

It was her final question that made him freeze. He stopped walking, and stared down at the octopus which had been rolled between his fingers during their walk.

Unlike her big doe eyes, his own were smaller and more pointed. They had a type of intensity that was always there, yet for a moment they looked softer. "It's not an interesting story." His tone was no different than ever before. "I had simply worked as a salesman before this, aiding merchants in finding better deals and sometimes dealing in property. It was boring, repetitive, and cloaked in rules for the sake of rules. If one has two options which are both equally terrible, one should take the option in which they are more suited for."

It was a long and elaborate way to say that what he was doing before was also boring and dry. However, there was a shift in his demeanor when he responded. It was so subtle that it wouldn't be noticed if anyone else had done it, but for a man as unaffected as Jove, it would be clear as day to this woman who had just shared part of the night with him, especially since the two had been analyzing one another so closely up until this point.

His eyes drifted up and locked with hers, and what came next was perhaps the biggest shock yet.

"What do you think of the date so far, Venus. Well enough to grant me a second?"

Their walk had lasted only a small part of the night, and during that time they had found themselves engaged in conversation for the most of it. Jove was a man of little words, not a man of silence. It wasn't as if he desperately clung to a mute atmosphere. Rather, he didn't care for the idea of small talk in the slightest. Silence, when natural, should be embraced rather than shunned. There was no need to bridge the gaps in conversation simply for the sake of doing so.

While most found it boring, Venus seemed rather enraptured. She had stuck with him this long, inquiring into his life and his choices. She wasn't one to mince words, immediately telling him how boring and mundane his reasoning for being a knight was. Her words struck true. He knew he wasn't some wannabe hero, nor an individual destined for, well, anything. He had the belief that if destiny was real, it were merely a guiding hand. It gently pushed individuals in the direction that all previous actions had led up to, and it was the power of an individual to change that destiny or to embrace it.

However, that also meant that the actions of others could change ones own destiny. This wasn't a belief that drove him to an idea of great responsibility, or a need to dominate his own course. Rather, it was the most sobering realization he'd ever had in his youth, and it was that understanding that made him into who he was. He didn't put too much stock into any one idea or the next, and he wouldn't tiptoe around others inability to cope with the reality before them. Rather than wrapping it all up in an over-the-top desire for change, he simply went through the motions of life. He'd react to each new situation as it arose, even if the reaction meant deviating from any plans he'd set.

For someone who seemed so obstinate, he was surprisingly fluid.

Perhaps that was why he got along so well with the redheaded vampire before him. She was much more extroverted, quicker to voice her thoughts than he was. She was also someone who found a way to bridge silence in a manner which didn't come across as shying away from a comfortable stillness. She was a truly comfortable person to be around. It was this aura about her, this level of genuine curiosity in the world around her and in the people before her, that made him believe she was a better individual than perhaps she knew how to give herself credit for.

That was why, when she agreed to meet with him again, his face changed. His lips curled upwards. The lines in his forehead disappeared. His gaze softened, and what breath had been held in his lungs flowed out in a sigh that seemed content.

They came up to a fork in the road, and Jove stopped. He turned his expression to her, his face still more relaxed now than it had been at any other point of their meeting.

"Be careful. You might find out that there are no walls, and that this is all you'll get." He had this uncanny ability to say things that were difficult to read. Even now, as relaxed as he was, his tone didn't carry with it the weight of truth nor the joviality of a joke. It was statement without impact, and yet that made it so much heavier.

"It makes me happy to know we'll meet again. You're an interesting person. This is where we part ways though." He turned towards the road on the left, when she had continued to veer right. Yet now, had she stopped, they'd both be frozen at the fork.

He spoke once again, his voice softer now. His rich voice sounded soft for a moment, relaxed. "I'll make sure our next date is a bit more than just a walk through the streets. We'll see how you plan to scale my walls then." A joke. A clear joke, and if she paid attention, his voice almost carried the sound of amusement.

"Until next time, Venus Rosé."

With that, he began walking. He didn't glance back, but simply looked ahead and followed the street into the distance and out of her view. His natural tenseness returned, his eyes hardening and his ears once more straining for the sounds of the night which surrounded him. He was off the clock, ready to be finished with work, and honestly was completely exhausted. Yet despite all that, the curl on his lips remained.

[EXIT]