Vulpe and Jono
Vulpe was going to New Orleans, she really was. But she wanted to go to this school first. She wanted to meet this people who made Mouse's eyes light up and made her laugh at the memory of them. Vulpe broke into the school quickly and silently. She wandered the halls, keeping to the shadows. Everyone was asleep and no one noticed the passage of a Thief through the corridors.
One room had a man who smelt of darkness holding a guy with golden blond hair. Well, they were both blonds, but the younger man was the one who was natural. She was pretty sure that shade of white didn't occur in nature...and she could smell the bleach. A black leather duster was draped carelessly over a chair and the scent of sex hung in the air like spices. She widened her nostrils slightly, then slipped out again, nudging the door closed behind her.
Spike opened his eyes for a moment and caught the rank wild scent of a fox. He dismissed it as a dream and held Vortigern closer, reclosing his eyes. Vortigern mumured in his sleep and hooked one leg over Spike's. The two fell back into dreamfilled slumber.
Vulpe watched from another room. Girls. Quite a few of them sleeping dorm style. She caressed the wood of the door lintel, then turned with her brush shining dully for a moment in the light of the moon that showed through the window. Demetria could have sworn she saw a tail go past the door, but that couldn't be right. And she closed her eyes thankfully again and fell asleep.
The foxgirl found nothing else of particular interest. Just sleeping people. She wouldn't steal here, she wouldn't be game. Gambit had left several quite emphatic signs around the place that it was off limits to any of the Thieves Guild. She wasn't that foolhardy that she'd take on Remy and Jean-Luc LeBeau. Or that stupid.
One room smelt of blood and despair, with an undercurrent of pot. She gazed in on the two girls. One slept curled around her pillow, sleeve slipping down to show where the blood scent had come from. The other looked like nothing at all bothered her. Vulpe bared her teeth. She hadn't even talked to that one, and she disliked her intensely already. She slipped upstairs to the attic. A light was on. How interesting. She nudged the door open with her foot, and cocked her head to the side. "Buona sera, gufo di notte. And why are you awake when all the house is sleeping?"
Jonothon stopped typing and swung around. A girl who looked uncannily like a fox, right down to the black tipped brush of a tail and black gloved hands and stockinged feet. And fangs. 'Ello. I thought I'd met everyone 'ere...
"I just arrived." Supremely unselfconscious, Vulpe breezed into his room and sat down crosslegged on his bed. "I broke in. Topa would be most upset with me." She smiled serenely at the boy with the bandaged face. "I'm Vulpe, or the Vixen. Voi?"
Jono. Or Chamber. Jonothon turned back to his typing. Vulpe yawned.
"D'ya mind if I curl up on your bed for a nap?"
Suit yourself. I don't sleep.
"Boun." Vulpe laid down and snuggled under the covers.
So...why are you 'ere?
"Decided to make a sidetrip on my way to New Orleans. Mouse talked so of this school...and the people she'd met in it. Sparked my curiosity." Vulpe smiled fondly. "Poppa says that's one of my worst traits. I always stick mio naso where it don' belong. Difettoso Vixen!" She mockslapped her wrist, grinning.
Jonothon chuckled. He liked this girl, he decided. She'd taken one look at his bandages and he could already seeing her tilt her head to the side and just go 'So? Pull youself out of your selfpity. Bite me.' Or something similair in Italian. Like Skin. He had a feeling she wouldn't let him pity himself. /So, you a bad girl?/
"Are you a bad boy?"
Depends on who you ask.
"Same for me, gufo."
What's a gufo?
"Ah, a night bird. They go hoot?"
An owl?
"Si. Athena's bird." Vulpe nodded. "Wise. All seeing. Birds of the night. Eaters of prey."
And I remind you of that?
"Si. You're a little bit...bitter about something. And you like loneliness. Why would you be up here all alone if you didn't? Very owl-like. High up and all alone." Vulpe turned on her side and gazed at his back. Jonothon's chuckle echoed through her mind. "Y'know, you've got a very sexy voice," she commented.
I do?
"Si." With that Vulpe rolled onto her back and closed her eyes. "Buona sera, gufo."
G'night, fox.