Victoria's boots clicked slightly on the sidewalk as she left through the back door of the semi-sleezy strip joint. The night air hit her hard and she shivered almost violently. It was always warm in the back room of the club too, after all, most of them would get back there after their dance half, or more, naked.

Curtis wasn't there though... So she had decided to stay to get a little more to make up for what her best patron would have given her.

So by the time she stepped out onto the sidewalk, into the street light, it was nearly three in the morning. Luckily she didn't have to be at Petit until noon... That was always a good thing, she could still at least sleep a bit.

Granted she wasn't tired now, but a small peanut butter sandwich, a warm shower, she'd be ready for sleep.

She gave a slight hiss of pain as she moved her wrist slightly. Jason had nearly crushed it last night... It was a good thing he hadn't broken it or bruised it at all... She didn't need people asking questions. But the painkillers one of the other girls gave her was starting to ware off...

Oh well, it would be better soon.

Shivers ran down her body that had nothing to do with the cold... Someone was watching her... She could feel it... Damnit... Why hadn't she worn her sneakers today? Change when she left so she could run if she needed to. She clutched the tote bag to her tightly, the one that held her normal clothing. She hadn't changed because she only lived fifteen minutes away and didn't think she would need to.

Well... Maybe she was just imagining things...

The autumn air would’ve been crisp and refreshing if some part of Lyre hadn’t known that it shouldn’t be autumn; in Brisbane, it wasn’t autumn. He’d been in tune with the seasons there, maybe more than most folk, spending the amount of time he had out in the wild. Even when he hadn’t been allowed outside, he’d still known on some level what the weather was like, and what he should have dressed like any given day to be prepared and comfortable.

Still, it was a nice night. Or morning. Whichever. He sunk his hands deeper into the pockets of his black coat– or at least of the coat he was wearing, as he never seemed to have clothes long enough to think of owning them –and snuggled his face down into the softness of the scarf wrapped twice around his neck. He wasn’t walking anywhere in particular. Paget was off schmoozing with someone who claimed to be an officer of the Ishak coven, and had turned him free for the night because he’d been “weighing down the atmosphere”.

He’d known at the time that he should’ve burnt that New Age book the moment she brought it home, but it was too late now. Everything was energy-this and karma-that; her killing people for the past century had brought about the bad karma of them having to flee Australia. But her “saving” him had made just enough good karma to get them out alive.

He snorted softly to himself, and then glanced up at the sound of the clatter of heels on asphalt. There was a woman heading up the alley in front of him, having apparently just left the strip joint that opened out into it, judging by her outfit. He stopped where he was and studied her, thrown off by the fact that his initial reaction to such a sight was not even that of a lustful male spying a fresh tart unescorted at three in the morning; his first thought was of vulnerable prey without a herd.

He shook his head sharply, twice, or at least as sharply as the restricting scarf allowed. Disgusting.

Lyre resumed his intended path, calling out carefully while still several paces away, “Hey, you need money for a cab home or something?”

One of the guys had offered to walk her home... She should have taken it... She really should have...

Victoria was walking faster as she felt the eyes.

But she stopped as she heard the voice. He... He was offering help... Her head whipped around, her ponytail flicking her face. "Huh? Oh... Oh no... no thank you." She said with a soft smile.

She didn't really want charity...

"I'll be okay. Really. This place isn't as bas as where I used to live yeah? And I don't have to go too far." She added quickly.

But what if he offered to walk her home... What would she say then? Well it would be good to have an escort really. And... And It wasn't like Jason would see her with the man, so he wouldn't get angry that it wasn't one of the guards at Connie's.

But she could still say no, even if he did. But...

But if he didn't offer, that just made everything simpler didn't it? Of course. She thought, smiling her perfect fake smile. The one she always used. "Thank you for the offer though, it's very kind of you. But I promise it's not necessary, these boots act as great weapons if I need them." She forced a little chuckle out before turning to walk on the way she was. But it seemed like the man was heading the same direction...

Lyre made an attempt to return her smile, and then realized that the part of his face best needed to portray such an expression was hidden behind the scarf. He tugged the garment loose and let it fall open to hang stylishly down his front, and then tried the smile again. Much better.

“I don’t doubt that, but it’ll take less time for some thug to knock you off them than for you to make a weapon out of them,” he pointed out. Even less time if said thug happened to be a vampire that wouldn’t give too much concern for a stiletto heel in the groin.

He jogged the last couple steps that separated them, privately hoping that she didn’t have any pepper spray handy.

“If your place isn’t too far off, then I’ll walk you there.” The offer was made as he cast a nervous glance toward a loud clatter in the shadows to their right. A quick sniff of the air told him it was just a rat acting on the prehistoric ability to sound forty times larger than it actually was in the darkness, but the sudden sound had nonetheless put him on edge.

“I insist,” he added, looking back to her with another smile that he hoped was completely non-threatening.

"I can take care of myself..." She said softly as she heard a slight noise, turning her head, her hair whipping around again. It... It was probably just a cat or something.

"Huh?" She tightened the hold on her bag as he drew closer. He didn't seem aggressive, but... She still didn't want him too close. She couldn't help but step back a few feet. "No, it's okay, really." She said as she shook her head slightly.

"Besides... If my boyfriend finds out that a guy I didn't know walked me home... He'd be really mad. He's been known to cause trouble and I wouldn't want someone else getting in trouble because of me." She said as she turned away and began to walk again.

She just had a bad feeling... Something would happen to get him in trouble or... Maybe even hurt. He wasn't nearly as big as Jason... And he didn't seem to be the fighting type... And simply because he was good looking, Jason would assume she'd slept with him or was going to leave him for this new guy.

Yeah, he was like that...

And maybe she would leave him... If she could someway leave town too... Run from him and everything so she'd never have to see him again.

But like that would ever happen.

Now, were Lyre a normal vampire, there would have been a train of thought that went something along the lines of, ‘I can handle myself in the face of trouble’ or, ‘he won’t know how much trouble he’s getting himself into if he tries something with me!’. Sadly, Lyre was not a normal vampire, and so he was tending to agree with the woman’s suggestion to just leave her be and make her own way home.

Coward, accused a voice in the back of his head.

Lyre agreed with that voice too.

“If you’re sure,” he replied, doubting that she heard him, but not actively following her anymore either.

He watched her walk for a few minutes before remembering something; he could still escort her without her knowing it. Make sure that she did get home without anything happening, while remaining unseen to whatever territorial man-hound it was that she called her boyfriend.

What kind of boyfriend leaves his girlfriend to walk home alone at 3 AM anyway? he wondered to himself as he began an attempt to stealthily scale a drain pipe, the ultimate goal being to follow her from the rooftops. And furthermore, if he’s too lazy to meet her himself, he should be grateful that at least someone is willing to make sure she gets home safe.

He grunted as he missed a step, and slid down the pipe to land right back where he began. He sighed slightly and dusted off his coat before deciding to attempt to pursue her from the shadows, safely at ground level.

She had been at least waiting for a response from him... But when nothing came, she glanced over her shoulder.

"Wha..." She stopped and looked around. Where... Where did he go? He was just there! Where did he go, out into the middle of nowhere?

Okay. Something was wrong...

She shook her head, looking away from the spot where he stood a moment ago and continued to walk, but this time... She walked quickly, almost ran, down the street. That wasn't right. She... She had just seen him there and now he was gone. She wasn't hallucinating, she wasn't sick and she knew it. He had just honestly been there, he was watching her.

And... And again there... There it was again!

Something, someone was watching her.

What was going on? She... She'd been out this late plenty of times, she knew what it was like, feeling someone watching or following her. She stopped and looked around with wide, almost fearful eyes, but she didn't see anyone... Anything.

She continued to move quickly... She wanted to get home... Someone was following her and she didn't like it one bit... Running from one job to the next? Not a good idea... She didn't have anything she usually did... And she didn't have a cell phone at all... No change to use the pay phone that showed up every now and then.

God she wished that she'd... Maybe accepted the man's offer... He would have at least been reassuring... So she wouldn't be so jumpy... She always made the wrong choices...

Even though the woman couldn’t see it, her nervousness was making Lyre twitchy. Every time she suddenly shot a glance in his direction, he’d inevitably look over his own shoulder, and then feel foolish when there was nothing to be found. It was one thing to be scared of your own shadow; it was twice as ridiculous to be afraid of it when, strictly speaking, you were the one making someone else just as scared of their own shadow.

Maybe he shouldn’t have gone out without Paget. He hated to admit it, but she was stronger than he was, and had better night vision; she was mildly telepathic as well, in a one-in-three guesses and she’d be able to tell you what you were thinking kind of way (granted, almost anyone would be thinking the easily assumed, “wow, you aren’t psychic at all”, after two wrong guesses).

Lyre hunched his shoulders against a non-existent wind and pressed on, keeping an eye to the exotic dancer and his ears to their surroundings. When something brushed against his ankle, he jumped out of the building’s shadow he’d been prowling in, and into the clear streetlight, only a few feet away from the woman.

He cast a dirty look upon the alley cat that had startled him as it dashed off into the night, weaving around a sewer cover and the billows of steam that wafted from it, and then glanced at the woman, mustering a sheepish smile.

“Um. Hello again.”

Afraid of her shadow... No, not usually, but her encounter with the disappearing man made her jumpy as hell.

Every noise, Victoria turned her head. Every shadow that moved she had to hold back a gasp. She'd walked home late plenty of times before, but she couldn't remember ever being this scared. She couldn't remember ever being so jumpy.

But as someone stepped out of the alley towards her, she dropped her bag off of her shoulder and clutched it in both hands as if it were a weapon. But she couldn't help but scream. She clamped her mouth shut as she moved away quickly. But then she froze.

"Wha- Bu... But you were back there! How... I mean... You were all the way back there, how did you get.. Get here?" She asked, wide eyed as she stared at him. She didn't understand. How had he moved faster than she did and she didn't even see him? She didn't even notice him catch up, and nearly pass her.

It didn't make sense, something wasn't right... She might not have been a college graduate, but she had street smarts. She knew when something wasn't right, when something didn't add up.

Was... Perhaps she was really sick and didn't really notice it. Maybe... Maybe she was just so desperate for real company, a real person to talk to that she had finally snapped and was imagining someone.

Lyre blinked with genuine confusion at her shock. Hadn’t he been matching pace with her?... Oh. No, he hadn’t. Because he wouldn’t have gotten this close to her if he had been. Which meant he’d probably been walking faster than he’d realized, nervous and edgy as he was. Bloody vampire crap.

“I’m sorry I startled you,” he stated, in earnest. No point in trying to provide false explanations; the human mind tended to provide its own reasonable excuses for the seemingly abnormal, if there was even the slightest chance of a mundane explanation.

“Hey down there! Is everything alright?”

Lyre jumped, heart suddenly feeling as if it had found a new home in his throat. Above them, a middle-aged man in a wife-beater peered at them from his balcony four stories up, a half-finished cigarette smoking from what was presumably an ash tray next to him. “I don’t wanna have to call no cops. What’s going on?”

Amber eyes wide in what was a very well-practiced deer-in-headlights look not at all befitting to the face of a strapping thirty-year-old man, Lyre looked to the stripper helplessly. He didn’t want to end up in a jail cell, especially when he was just trying to be helpful.

Victoria jumped as she heard a second voice.

Looking up she shook her head. "No. I'm sorry. My friend... He just startled me is all. Thought it would be funny." She said with her fake smile. She was so used to wearing it, it almost looked real. The man eyes her for a few moments, then he looked at Lyre.

"You sure Miss? He ain't given ya any problems is he?" He asked, looking back at Victoria.

"No, of course not. He's a friend of mine... Walking me home from work." She said earnestly. "Just thought he'd get a laugh out of scaring me. I'm sorry if we bothered you, really." She said, trying her best to get the man to go away. And it seemed to work.

The guy grumbled something about women and pulled back into his window again, minding his own business.

She began to walk again, fast. Victoria knew there was something wrong, something not right about this guy. She didn't know what it was, but she didn't like it... Had... Had he been watching her before too? Was it all him?

"I don't know what's going on." She said quietly over her shoulder to him. "But I don't like it. I'm not stupid even if I'm a dancer okay..." She said sharply. There was something wrong with him, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

“There isn’t anything ‘going on’, and I never said anything about you being stupid,” Lyre replied, a little surprised to find himself growing annoyed with the girl. “I’m just trying to do you a civil service in making sure you get home in one piece, honestly.”

He continued to follow her, making no effort to remain hidden this time, and paying special attention to the speed at which he was walking in order to ensure that it remained “normal”, even if he was getting agitated.

“And if you’d just accepted my offer to get you a cab, you wouldn’t have had to worry about me following you at all,” he added tactfully.

"There's something... Something not right about you." Victoria said bluntly. She couldn't be nice about this in any way because it was bothering her so much. "I mean... You... You are just trying to help. I know." She amended quickly. "But you just give me the weird vibe... How you just... Just disappeared and then popped back up outa nowhere!" She said strongly, though still keeping her voice low.

She shook her head quickly, shouldering her bag again.

"I... I don't have the money for a cab." Victoria admitted. "And I don't accept charity... It's not something I do... If I get something, I expect to pay for it some how." And even if he said something along the lines of 'You just getting home is payment enough' she'd just laugh.

He couldn't care about her even slightly... Well not in a non-sexual way. Men were like that... Funny... She wouldn't have thought that way three years ago...

"Sorry... It's been a long day... I'm really... Kinda jumpy. And you doing all that hocus-pocus or whatever you're doing..." She shook her head again, rubbing at her eyes with her free hand, ignoring the twinge in her wrists. "Just cool it or something alright? I can see you're not going to stop following me, but just keep in mind, if Jason's awake and he sees you... He's going to be mad..." More so at her than at him... But whatever.

“I’ll hide when we get close to your place, since you seem to think I’m so good at it,” Lyre said quickly, finally managing to catch up to her and walk beside her. It felt much less stalker-esque to be beside, rather than behind. “Just give me enough warning, and I’ll disappear before he can see me.” He tried another smile to put her at ease; he really was terrible with women that weren’t paying to be with him. How Becky ever put up with him...

His smile wilted a little at the memory, and his abused mind rushed to cover up the hurt it brought with it. And just like that, in a matter of seconds and unintended mental rearrangement, he was left with the fleeting afterthought of, Becky who? as he turned his attention back to the woman at his side.

“Why does your boyfriend care who walks you home, anyway? And for that matter, why doesn’t he walk you home himself?”

"He'll probably be asleep... But I'd rather not risk it. Some times he gets in a mood. Doesn't trust me." And of course, technically she had cheated on him. Their position left her no choice, and what he didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

"But I guess that'll work but if he starts coming, you're better off running." Smoking and drinking cut his endurance down drastically. He couldn't run more than two blocks without huffing.

"Huh?" She asked as she looked back over to him. As his question registered Victoria shook her head. Turning her wrist slightly she gave a small shrug as she looked away again. "He's... A little on the jealous side sometimes." And the drugs didn't help any. "He thinks that I'm cheating on him with some one, and it's hard to change his mind. He's very stubborn..."

She only answered the first question because she didn't need to answer the second... He didn't need to know that he really didn't seem to care about her... That he would rather drink and hang out with his buddies...

They began to walk through a more run down area, the buildings were older, some windows broken, graffiti here and there.

"I know he still cares about me, but...." Of course she had to lie. "He just doesn't know how to express it. He tries, but sometimes his thoughts and words fail him. He... he's not very talkative..." Unless he was threatening or yelling at you. "People are usually better off not meeting him."

It was so hard to believe that he had changed so much though... Why did he? Was it the drugs? His friends? Or did he thing he had her tied around his pinky? Well... She couldn't leave... So it was probably the last one...

Lyre walked steadily beside her, his hands cozy in his coat pockets and his eyes trained on the broken pavement that they traversed. The shift in the atmosphere set the hair on the back of his neck to stand at attention; now he was gaining the paranoid feeling that they were being watched. Why had this been a good idea again? With a mild effort, he re-focused his attention on her.

“Sounds like a real prize,” Lyre said dryly once it seemed she was finished speaking, belatedly pausing for a step afterward to look over at her in a mild panic as realization dawned that he really had no business offering his opinion on the dating practices of a girl he’d just met.

“No offence meant...I’m sure you must see something in him,” he added hurriedly, fussing with his scarf and wrapping it around his neck in order to have something to hide his face in again. If he’d fed recently, he would have been blushing.

Victoria's face fell as he said that Jason was a prize. If he had really meant it, he was more of a fool than she was.

"I... I know he's not Mister Perfect... But he... He can be a nice guy. It's true. It comes out on occasions, but..." She fell silent. She knew she sounded like an idiot, a stupid woman staying with a guy who didn't really care about her. But what other choice did she have.

"Things just... Well... They're not simple." But that was all she said. After all, why would he be interested in her personal life? He wouldn't care about her drama, and well, she didn't really feel like sharing. After all, she hadn't given him her name even. He didn't really need to know it, and he didn't seem like it was important. After all, he hadn't asked.

But maybe...

"I... I'm Victoria by the way... I work at Connie's. Did you follow me from there?" She asked curiously. "I didn't see you in the crowd..."

The situation at the stripper’s home was starting to reek of a potentially abusive household. Lyre watched her carefully as she struggled to find a good word to say about her boyfriend, and then firmly reminded himself once again that this was not any of his business. After all, his own living arrangements weren’t exactly what the masses would call healthy or normal. And she was quite right; nothing was ever simple anymore.

He was relieved when she shifted the topic to something much more neutral, or at least to something that should have been much more neutral; what name should he give her? There was no reason to not give her his birth name, other than the fact that Flynn Lee Clarke no longer existed legally. He’d entered Canada as Lee Williams.

Well then, now that I’ve hesitated long enough to make her suspect that the next words out of my mouth are going to be a lie… “I’m Flynn. I saw you walking out into the alley from Connie’s; I was only watching you for a few seconds before I spoke up, about the cab,” he replied. “Never been in the place myself.”

"Flynn huh?" She nodded. "Well... It's nice to meet you. Usually the guys I see on the streets aren't as nice as you." Victoria smiled slightly.

"But if you've never gone in there... Keep it that way. It's not the best of places really. They're not as fun as a lot of guys seem to think." The only reason why she worked there is because Jason and his friends went there a lot when she started... God that had been humiliating... It was one thing for Jason to oggle at her, expect free lap dances... But for his friends too?

She pushed a stray strand of hair back.

"But, I take it you're not the kinda guy to go those places. Well, you don't seem like it at least..." But luckily he'd stopped. One of his other buddies had told them of a better place. So instead of free dances... He wasted money at other clubs... Just what they need. "Which is always a good thing of course..."

If Lyre had been able to pale, he would’ve; instead he just stuck with intently watching the street as they passed by it. There were two sorts of places that he would never go if it could be avoided; brothels and strip joints.

Back in Brisbane, most of the other slaves would use any nights out available to them to hang around places like those, and compare notes professionally with the employees. He’d gone along with them only once; being told that he’d do well as a bottom at an S&M club had been all the persuasion he’d needed to know to avoid them from then on.

“No. I don’t go to places like those if I can help it,” he managed to say at last, his tone of voice gently hushed. “I mean…I know it’s your choice to…do what you want with your body; I just…don’t know why you’d choose that. Or is it your choice?”

He seemed to come back to himself then, looking to her with a serious set to his brow as he awaited an answer.

"That's good." She nodded. But as he asked if it was her choice...

She clutched her bag tighter, trying to reign in her emotions. Anger, frustration... Humiliation... And a bunch of other ones to. She began to walk a bit faster. "You think... You think I would work there if I had a choice?" She said sharply. "I never wanted to work there... But what else could I do Flynn? I work all day... most of the night... I do it because I have no choice."

She was trying to keep the tears from falling.

It wasn't any of his business, he didn't have to look in to her personal life.

But then again, she'd been the one to keep saying things she didn't have to.

"You should probably go... We're close to the apartment. I'll be fine on my own." She said, probably harsher than she wanted to. So she added softer. "Thank you. It was nice of you to walk with me..."

The sternness of Lyre’s expression evaporated under the intensity of her reaction to his question.

It had been stupid of him to ask; of course she didn’t want to work there. She was too nice and too normal to be the sort that actually wanted to work at a strip club. Idiotic question. And now she was upset, and he didn’t know how to handle upset.

He swallowed past the panicked lump in his throat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you...I...sorry. I shouldn’t have pried like that. Had absolutely no right to... Look...um..if you get a night off, I’ll try and make it up to you. We can go to a show, or something. But your boyfriend...jealous... Or I could get you some...no, you don’t accept charity.”

He was babbling helplessly now, and he knew it. He paused, and wet his lips, trying to regain control of himself.

“What if I walk you home a few more times? And I won’t ask anymore questions that I shouldn’t be asking, I swear.”

There. That sounded a little less pathetic.

Victoria shook her head as he rambled on. "No. No thank you. I shouldn't..." She breifly thought of the ballet that she wanted to go to. She was going to go, and thought it would be nice to have company... No. If Jason found out, it would only be trouble.

"It's a nice offer, really but I couldn't accept anything like that. Jason would just hu- freak out again." Whenever a client gave her a gift, she had to hide it, or pretend she had had it somehow. And if he saw her with another guy...

She shook her head again.

"I can't okay... I shouldn't be with you right now Flynn, he knows things okay?" It was like he could just tell... He could smell it on her or maybe he was just guessing and wanting to hurt her.

"If you really want to make it up to me... Then it would be best if you just left me alone... Okay?" Her eyes were slightly red, and only the hand that moved quickly wiped away the few tears that had fallen. "It would just be best for the both of us. I don't want you getting in trouble and I don't want Jason to have any reasons to think that I'm unfaithful to him."

There was a time when he would’ve pressed the issue. Wasn’t there? Especially since she seemed so afraid of what her boyfriend would think. Something wasn’t right there. She was crying, and trying to hide it from him. He should insist on walking her to the door, to see what the boyfriend really thought of her being brought home by another man. There'd be a fight, and he could call the police, and press charges, and then she'd really be safe. That was what Flynn might've done.

Instead, Lyre bowed his head so that between his bangs and the scarf, his face was mostly hidden. “Alright. If you’re sure...I’ll just leave you alone then. Have a good night.”

He couldn’t even give her a number to call to reach him by if she needed to talk to someone. He and Paget didn’t have a landline, just her cell phone. And if she found out that he was being contacted by some stripper, she’d be angry with him, or afraid that he was thinking of running out on her, which would probably end up with worse consequences for him than simple anger.

He turned and started back the way they’d come, figuring on backtracking back to Paget’s. She’d be looking for him soon anyway.

"Yeah... I'm sure... I'm sorry Flynn... I really am." She apologized softly. "Good night."

But as he left, she felt more alone than she ever had before. She felt so vulnerable standing along the street. It was good though that he didn't try to press her any further. But... She wanted to just run... She wanted to get out of this city... Wanted to get out of this life...

"Flynn! Wait, please."

She said as she turned around, she hurried over to him, grabbing his arm lightly.

"I... I'm just... Just kind of afraid. Okay? I mean... Maybe... Maybe you could go to a ballet with me? I wanted to go to the Nutcracker this winter. Jason wouldn't want to go... And I don't want to go alone. Would you go with me Flynn? Please? Do you have a number I can call you at when I get the tickets?" She asked, smiling softly.

As she called after him, Flynn hesitated, turning back toward her and blinking in surprise when she ran toward him and caught his arm.

The ballet? That seemed so very...nice. And normal. And unattainable, unless he could think of some spectacular lie to pull over on Paget. Why had he offered to take Victoria out? There was no way...what if Paget scheduled him for the night that the ballet was on...what if...

But looking down into her eyes, still glossy and slightly red with subdued tears, he found himself smiling and nodding lightly. “Sure. Um.” Phone number. Right. Hadn’t thought that far ahead.

He dug in his coat pocket and pulled out a thin leather wallet, which he then flipped open and rummaged through in search of a business card. The search didn’t take long; the wallet contained very little to dig through.

He handed Victoria the card. “This is just the number for the building I live in. We don’t have a landline yet; phone company’s been screwing us around for months. Just call and leave a message for...” Flynn. He’d told her his name was Flynn. He wasn’t Flynn in Canada. “...Lee Williams. Flynn’s my middle name; I like it better than Lee.” He gave her a quick and nervous smile. “I’ll pick it up from the desk after.”

"Great." She said with a smile, letting his arm go.

"You don't have to worry about the tickets, I was going to get them anyways, I just wanted someone to go with." She said as he rummaged around for for something. But as he handed her a card she looked at it. She could keep it somewhere were safe... Maybe in her locker at work. Yeah.

She nodded as he spoke about leaving a message. "Well, my middle name is like yours." Victoria smiled. "Lynn. But I understand. Most people think they can call me Vicky... But I don't like it at all." It reminded her of her school days, the ones she hated more than anything.

"I'll probably give you a call soon. The tickets are on sale now, so I just need to set aside the money and buy them." She said, looking back at the shabby apartment buildings. Their window was on the opposite side, so Jason wouldn't be able to see them.

"Or if you need to see me, I usually work at the Petit Paris during the day, and Connie's at night. So it's fairly easy to find me... If I'm not at one, I'll be at another, I never really have a full day off..." She sighed slightly.

"But I'll make sure I have off to go one night and I'll let you know." Victoria said with a smile."

Note to self: resist all impulses to call her Vicky.

Lyre nodded and offered up another shy smile. “Alright then. I...don’t really work, so I’ll be good to go on whatever night you pick.”

He cast a slightly apprehensive glance toward the building that she’d previously been approaching, and then looked back to her. “So I suppose you should get going before he starts to worry.” Or sends out a vicious hunting party to drag you back home. “Have a good sleep.”

"Okay, that's good." She smiled, now knowing she could pick almost any day and he should be free.

She bit her lip slightly as he said she should get going. "Yeah... He's probably asleep." Passed out would be more like it probably. "But I'd rather play it safe... Good night again Flynn." She said with a little wave as she turned away again. A much better goodbye than before.

She made her way around the front of the shabby building and up the three flights of steps to the level their apartment was on.

Jason was indeed asleep... Snoring in front of a TV that had been on for who knew how long... How many times she had told him to turn it off to save electricity and thus money... She couldn't say. But he never listened, and so she'd given up quite some time ago.

Clicking it off she sighed. If he wanted to sleep on the couch instead, that was fine with her. It wasn't like he held her close and loving in his arms. He did before... But now... It was as if everything changed and she didn't understand how it had happened... But she couldn't leave him. He'd come looking for her... He'd find her and held be furious.

After changing into her pajamas she made herself a sandwich, she ate it, all the while watching Jason. He looked so peaceful and gentle when he was asleep. He didn't seem like he could hurt her... Like he would... Like she just wanted to curl up with him. It was times like this that she wanted to be with him. When she saw the gentle man he could be. He could be different, she knew he could be.

After eating, she curled up on the couch, her head on his lap. Asleep, he put an arm around her holding her close, making Victoria smile as she fell asleep.