For the Love of Evil

[Skylar]

Her fingers laced between her open knees. Leaning forward, she rested her chin upon the bridge her fingers now created. “I'd rather prefer you didn't lie to me at all.” Her words were slightly matter of fact. While Frankie was many things, there were also many things she was not, and a liar was one of those things.

She laughed quietly as he turned the other way. “You're something, you know that?” It was a general statement really, least, she left it open for him to make it so. “I don't know... It's just that..I don't really think the place you were raised can define the person you become. I mean, sure it impacts you in some aspects, it offers you opportunities from the things it can or cannot provide. But at the end of the day, you don't have to stick around, you don't have to conform. You have the choice to buy into their bullshit, or leave and be who you were meant to be.”

She silenced her words and looked away from him. She may have lived her life on the streets, going from town to town doing whatever was available for work to make some money, just to move on again, but that was her life because she chose it. She wasn't a foolish young girl who looked at the world as though it was nothing but rainbows and ponies, she knew the hard truths, accepted them, and moved on. Thus, she had learned more then most folks her age.

[Syntaphar]

Dario chuckled to himself. He was capable of some pretty entertaining lies, and she would know them immediately. Or at least once some of the more exaggerated parts came up. He was good at lying, but he was also good at telling stories. But if that was her wish, so be it. He looked up at the moon in the sky, wondering what the stars would look like from it. Would they form new shapes? He had no idea, and was fairly certain he would never find out. He looked somberly over. "I know where I come from hasn't defined me. What it has done though, is taken from me. I've picked up the pieces though, I like to think."

His somber look turned back to a smirk as the blood rushing to his head finally got uncomfortable. He would still stay there a little bit though. He hadn't gotten bored with the upside-down view yet. A question did come to mind though. One he had thought about for himself for a long time and which he guessed she wouldn't have an answer for. "So we've been over where we've been. Where do you want to be, Frankie? What's your final goal? Still lookin'?

[Skylar]

“It only takes what you let it.”

She was adamant about this. And even though she hadn't gone into detail as to why, just the tone of her voice told tale that she believed her own words.

It was his though, his words that struck her, taking her back for a moment. No one had ever asked her what she wanted, where she wanted to be. And even though she had thought about it a million times, never once had the words passed through her lips.

Until now.

“Home.” Her voice was almost longing. Sad. But she managed to smile. “I don't mean like..home with my parents and my brother. I mean home. Where I feel welcome. Where I'm needed and wanted. I wanna be where I'm meant to be Dario.”

[Syntaphar]

Dario looked at his arms and legs again and shot her a wry look when she talked about his home only taking what he let it. He thought he tried his hardest not to lose those. He wasn't going to quibble about it. He finally sat up and spun around again, sighing as the blood rushed away from his face. He listened to her talk about home, and where she wanted to be and thought it sounded pretty good. He always knew what he wanted to do, but the where he had never thought about. And belonging sounded rather nice to him.

He put an arm gently around Frankie's shoulders, still looking to the sky and smiling. "I hope you find it then, Frankie. I mean that. There are far too many people who have no place to belong that deserve one. and perhaps even more people who have a place to belong but don't deserve one." His eyes fell to a statue of Xavier Gottheit in the market square nearby and he chuckled. "Let's both try to find a place where we belong. Let's see if we can't find Home."

[Skylar]

Firmly she placed her hands on the roof and scooted closer to him. His touch felt nice, even if he was just simply being nice. She liked it.

“It's not always about the where.” She looked over at him for a moment, and her eyes too fell upon the statue of Xavier. He was pompous, arrogant, and yet he was the hero. Dario saved her from the building, put a roof over her head (and in this case, under her butt.) offered her a warm bath, clean clothes, and would probably never be known as a hero.

It wasn't fair. Life wasn't really fair. But now...like..right now, she couldn't complain. And, even if she could, she wouldn't. She took a deep breath, but held it as she lay her head lightly on his shoulder. Perhaps she was crossing a line, maybe not. Either way, she was certain that Dario would let her know what he was thinking about it.

[Syntaphar]

Dario's face was still red. Shouldn't have most of the blood drained from his face by then? He decided not to think about it right then. When she scooted closer, Dario's arm extended a little further around her, gaining a better grip. He took a second to react when she leaned her head onto his shoulder. That was because he wasn't certain how to react in the first place. He decided to just improvise. He leaned his head back against hers, resting his cheek on the top of her head. Not sure what to do with his hands, he squeezed a little bit tighter with his arm and reached his hand up to run his fingertips along her neck.

He ran through a mental checklist of how he'd gotten there. Attempted murder, check. acrobatic escape, check. Framing an office worker for a different attempted murder, check. He briefly entertained the notion of karma and how it affected his life. He figured he was basically the case study against it. but he decided not to focus on that either, instead resorting to listening to Frankie's breath and heartbeat. He wanted to say something, but couldn't think of anything that would help.

[Skylar]

His silence was a bit unsettling, and for a minute she thought about moving back away from him, and she would have, had he not lay his head upon hers. She couldn't remember when she let her breath escape, or even taking a breath after. What she did know, was that her heart was about to beat out of her chest, and there was nothing she could do about it. Surely he could hear it, beating on her chest begging to break free.

Looking up at him, her head still on his shoulder, her eyes searched over his face for some sign of what he was thinking. Nothing, there was nothing there, save for the splash of crimson from his head hanging upside down. Least, that's what she thought it was from.

“You got quiet...” The lingering silence left so much unknown that it made her slightly uncomfortable, so even if it made her sound silly...she had to do something about it.

[Syntaphar]

Dario brought his head back up slightly and turned to look at her. Did he mess up somehow by not talking? He used his spare arm to brush a few strands of hair out of her face and smiled at her. "Yeah, sorry about that. I was just enjoying the night. Watching the stars, thinking about where I've been, and where I'd like to be. So many things have happened, some of them beyond belief. I lost my limbs, got new ones from supernatural forces, flew on an airship, traveled the world. And yet here, I feel like everything's normal for once. I was just appreciating it."

He looked at her meaningfully as he rubbed her arm with the hand he had around her. He pulled her a little closer again, taking a second to feel the intensity of her heartbeat. It was loud, but he wondered if it was that much louder than his. He rested his head on hers again, more gently this time to allow her to pull away if she liked. "So yeah, that's why I was quiet. I'm sorry. And thank you."

[Skylar]

She smiled at his light touch, and wondered if he could feel it, too. Though, now wasn't really the time to ask such things, least not in her mind. But so much of what he said was so right. A lot of things had happened, nor could she believe some of them herself. And this...this all felt so normal.

As he pulled her closer, she leaned into him. She didn't want to move away from him, nor would she. She could feel his heart beating, he seemed so much more at ease then she did. So much more relaxed, she couldn’t help but smile a bit. “Why are you sorry, and why thank me?” She laughed quietly to herself, watching the sky and listening to him breath, speak...just..listening....

[Syntaphar]

Dario took a second to carefully craft an answer. He wanted to accurately portray how he felt on the subject. He looked to the stars for inspiration, as he had heard some of his artist friends back home talk about. And it was abundantly clear that they were a bunch of idiots. All he saw was a bunch of stars. He thought a moment more and came up with something close enough. "I'm saying sorry because all of these strange things happened. And I'm saying thank you because all of these strange things happened."

If Dario knew that she thought his heartbeat was more at ease than hers, he would swear up and down that she was wrong. Maybe it seemed that way because his heart was pumping blood over a smaller distance? He'd never seen his surrogate limbs bleed. But now wasn't the time to think about that. He remembered what happened the last time he got contemplative sitting there, and so wanted to break the silence a little. "It's been quite a while since I could slow things down and just enjoy the moment. All my free time lately has been consumed in thought. So thank you for that too."

[Skylar]

With a nod she offered him an audible “Mm.” She was unsure what to say at this point, and therefore moved her head from his shoulder and lay back on the roof, looking up at the stars. They seemed so close from this vantage point, and yet they were so very far away.

She did wonder for a moment what had happened to Xavier. Had he made it out alive, and would Dario simply be chasing him a few days from now? She quickly dismissed the idea. Dario would do what he had to do, and needless to say, it was none of her business.

Folding her arms over her belly she sighed rather loudly. All it once it hit her how exhausted she was. What a day she had had indeed! Her mind was going on and on about the choices she would soon have to make. To stay with Dario, or to go her own way. Right now though, everything told her this was where she was suppose to be, and with that, she was glad.

[Syntaphar]

Dario stared up at the night sky for another long moment. Could have been seconds, could have been minutes. He didn't know and he didn't really care. All that mattered was he was getting sick of the stars. He had gotten most of what he could out of this sky. He stood up slowly, stumbling a bit from the incline and the fact that he had disoriented himself just a minute ago. He spoke quietly, not really wanting to break the comfortable silence. "Well, it's getting late, and I get the feeling tomorrow is going to be a big day. As my guest, I will give you the bed. I'll take the reclining chair nearby. That is to say, if you don't mind sticking around tonight."

He realized he was a bit presumptuous before qualifying with that last bit. He also realized that Frankie took the hard way up too, and his competitive streak took over. He was going to take an equally hard way down. With a quick wink as if to say "see you inside", he lept from the roof of the building, clutching his hands into a nearby gardening trellis, then kicked off into the window he had originally come out of. He loved not being able to hurt his arms and legs.

[Skylar]

However her arms and legs could hurt, and did. Immensely so. She decided that she had already done enough proving for the night. She had held her own earlier, took the hard way up to the roof, and now, she would ease herself down as easily as possible. She was beyond fatigued.

Once inside, she glanced around the room rather quickly. “You know, I don't mind taking the chair really.” First and foremost it was her way of letting him know that she would in face be staying with him, but also, compared to some of the places she had slept, that chair was a small slice of heaven.

Waiting for his answer, she slipped her boots off and placed them nicely together, only for her pants to join them. She was ready for sleep, comfortable sleep and for the first time, in a long time, she felt comfortable enough to sleep with her pants off. That thought alone caused her to giggle ever so slightly.

“You'll have to excuse me, I'm silly tired.” She plopped down on the foot of the bed, curling her legs up beneath her waiting to hear if he would take her offer for the bed or not. While she highly doubted that he would, she thought it would be rude of her to not. Not to mention, it made no difference in the world to her.

[Syntaphar]

Dario spent a little time making the bed inside while Frankie came down. He'd been throwing stuff all over it the whole night, and he figured he might as well try to be neat. When she came through the door, he gave her a smile. It wasn't really a smile mocking her for being slow, but more one to say 'glad you didn't fall to your death'. Which he was, of course. Would have been an awful way to end the night. He sat on the nearby chair, testing it out to see if he would actually be able to find a comfortable way to sleep in it, and found it rather nice. He enjoyed sleeping in chairs anyway. They gave him odd dreams.

He listened to her offer for the bed, and actually considered taking her up on it. He had a very long day, and he didn't even manage to take out his mark. He quickly threw that consideration out, though. Not only had he offered her the bed already, but she likely had a much longer day than he did. This sort of thing happened all the time to Dario, bizarrely, and he doubted it did to her. "Nah, don't worry about it, Frankie. I'll take this chair for the night. You go ahead and make yourself comfortable."

[Skylar]

She nodded to him. She wasn't in the mood for any kinda argument, even a silly one. She crawled up the bed, and collapsed upon it, face down. It smelled so fresh and clean, and it was so soft and welcoming.

“Mmmm” It was like a moaning growl the allowed to escape her lips. It was obvious she was beyond tired. She was sure he was, too though. “I feel bad taking this from you.” She didn't even move as she spoke. “It's completely fucking lovely.”

She finally rolled over on her side, laying her elbow on the bed and holding her head on her palm. He looked oddly uncomfortable in that chair, but she couldn't hide her smile. “It's a huge bed. I'd be willing to share it with you if your promise to be a good boy.” She cackled at her own words, even though she meant it.