stuff us in boxes that's where you want us

cardboard is boring, we brought our matches - look how it burns

Harley watched in sheer awe as he worked that sudden magic, producing that drink to meet his eagerly awaiting fingertips. She had to know, how he accomplished that mystical feat! When he refused to offer her a hint of enlightenment, she couldn't help that look of sheer determination to find her then to piece it together herself. No matter how good you were, one was bound to slip up and she would be waiting. Secrets did not make friends! She had declared and that chuckle that left his lips practically taunted her with the notion he wasn't going to share. He was immovable as a mountain. At least not now.

How many lies had she been told, all to keep secrets that hardly seemed important now? The real bravery that was being honest and owning up to those so called secrets no matter the cost. However, it truly seemed hypocritical considering her own closet of skeletons she got the pleasure of waking up to. She tapped a finger from her free hand on the taut leather of the chair as if considering his words. "Hmm, well that depends on the situation, but secrets never helped anyone in the end." Perhaps those words were incredibly honest in that moment. Secrets like Isolt told, that her parents told, all these pretty little lies to 'protect' seemed like total and utter bullshit. Those little omissions never helped anyone, not ever. Unless it was to protect, she could at least make sense in that, she was a master at holding those offered secrets within a reinforced safe within her.

Harley insinuated that he was old, amusement seemed to dance in his silvery eyes as a snort left his lips. He claimed this tattoo was daring. The midnight haired woman scoffed, a chortle escaping her. "Daring, is a face tattoo and I am certain you don't seem like the type to mar your pretty little face in that way." She teased easily, he hardly seemed into the 'I just went to prison' look. While a tattoo could seem daring to many people, daring to Harley had a different definition. Daring was not shying away when so many did, daring was not being afraid to stare into the darkness even when you know that monsters could be looking back. Daring was not being afraid to stand your ground, even when those odds were stacked against you. Daring was looking death in face and telling it, not today compadre. Or leaping without knowing if you were to hit the perilous rocks below... or perhaps daring and stupidity seemed to go hand in hand.

It was not long after before the tattoo was complete. Now it was her time to investigate this brew before her while he was admiring his newly decorated feet. That drink brought back distinct memories of a certain night of patron snatching.

He mentioned his son and his 'borrowing' and how he thought they would get along. However amusing the idea seemed. "I somehow doubt this, not many people find me quite as charming as you do." She remembered that bartended being a total asshole, he had it coming. Even if that lesson was given by the point of petty theft. A mischievous grin found her lips as she easily contemplated his words. The fairy seemed too lost in his own thoughts for a moment, an amusement lingering there that she couldn't make any sense of whatsoever to the spitfire.

She wasn't quite sure what to expect from the man in front of her as he asks for her hand, before placing her in that sensual hold. She knew better, always knew there was a price within those holds and it was hardly gentle like this. But Matteo seemed to be the exact opposite in each one of his meticulously laid out caresses. She hardly expected for her body to react as it did, how it betrayed her! It only made her roar to life with that ferociousness that had kept so many at bay. She knew she could have pulled away at any moment and yet she stayed, unable to breathe, to move from that very spot that her own feet seemed glued to. Her heartbeat thrummed as if trapped within her ribcage. Her own sarcasm even failed her beneath those kisses, as though they dared to try and tame her.

It teased the very sensitive, delicate nerve endings that seemed to come alive against that teasing persuasive mouth. She hardly felt in control of herself as she seemed to melt into his figure, if that final kiss was not the last she wasn't sure if that defiant nature could hold as strongly as it did. But the moment she regained that air to breathe, she could feel her own body returning back to her in one fell swoosh. That breath entirely sobering and yet even she could not deny that she didn't want that sensation to stop. As he steps away she whirls around wildly to face him. She didn't know how to deal with her own lack of control in that very moment, so she uncoils in the only way she can. That frustration she could feed from, could use. She could use it to lash out, to fuel that anger, that anger that she believed made her so very strong. But she refused to back down, to allow him to claim victory, still dancing precariously in those very moments close to the point of no return.

The spitfire prowled toward him, she hardly wanted payment from him. That was the last thing on her mind, her desire to wipe that smug look of his face was ever present. She hesitates for only the barest of seconds, noticing his eyes dart to the side before she raised that eager hand to smack his cheek. The very action stinging her own fingertips and palm that bloomed her palms red. She was fully fueled, so much she hardly let that stop her, even as she pushed him firmly against that wall behind him. She uses her body as a barricade, regaining control of herself as she pulls his shirt to yank him closer. To look him dead in the eye, no sign of slowing in that determined violet blaze within her own. Such a temper that could rival an uncontrollable natural disaster.

His French words fall so easily from his lips and it sounded so teasing carefully woven musically together in that delicious accented voice. She hated how everything seemed sexy about him in that moment! She wasn't sure if she should smack him again or kiss him. It was hardly fair how he used those words she could not understand, taunting the petite beast that possessed a heart of a dragons. "That is hardly fair.. using.. your sexy words in order to confuse me. I see right through your little tactic of distraction." I won't back down those very words seemed to say. She smirked, all to pleased with her own resolve.

In this hold, she had him pinned him flat against the wall, her fingers tangled in his shirt, pulling him down to face her. She hardly expected him to lean further down into that very defiant, resolute hold. How close their lips were, he could easily hear her own breathing increased, the way his had seemed so calm while she crumbled. But in her crumbling of emotions she drew an icy strength, being that unyielding presence despite his foolish fearlessness. Their eyes were locked in another battle of their making, how she could see every last detailing within them, the shades of varying silver, giving it that depth of melted silver. Her sheer defiance forged that unrelenting woman before her. He was so entirely distracting, she nearly dared to close that breath of space herself, but she wanted to hear those words of giving in.

Do you yield she asked, that woman was practically made of fire and she wasn't sure where the lines were anymore. She was positive they had been abandoned long ago and she would do whatever it took to ensure her victory. Those words made her bristle and made her heart skip a beat, the very whisper could be felt down her very spine.. a smile readily meeting his lips. She was so very ready to deliver that final blow that would make him surrender beneath her own methodical plan of action. His hand reached up but she hardly faltered, even as that delicate finger placed beneath her chin. How close their faces were, as though they were locked in some intimate stare down between two clashing titans, but it was ever the eloquent dance. It was when he pressed his lips against her own, closing that sliver of distance once more. She hardly had a second to react, her eyes widened even though they threatened to flutter shut. They felt almost softer on her lips than they had on her skin. Before she could have a moment to process what she could even process that fleeting sensation he began to evaporate in thin air, right before her very eyes as if the man was made of mist. Reality hardly mattered and its laws and everything she knew was shattered right before her eyes. She had once trusted her eyes and now she was hardly so sure. It never seemed any less surprising to her, the woman entirely fascinated by these fluent and seemingly arbitrary powers. How her riled demeanor flared as if some unspoken rules were shattered. It was the strangest of sensations, the warmth of his lips and body suddenly melting away. She tried to grasp near desperately at his disappearing form, but it was to no avail.

"You cheated!" She accused wildly, gasping, spinning around to find him, finding him already there, that iconic smile that was now suddenly so much more antagonizing! He had a hand outstretched with a singular piece of paper and her own burning curiosity could hardly ignore it.

How did he possess a note already written? Confusion riddled her face as she snatched that paper quickly, oh no, he was not going to just vanish on her. He had a lot to account for and she hardly was finished with him yet. He had absolutely no idea!

Yet she was patient enough to listen to him fully, when in reality she should have used that time to strike. "Hey! You don't get to start something and say some muddled gibberish and leave like your fucking batman. I have more than a few things left to say. Don't you dare do that teleporting trickery again.. don't you dare! This is not over." if only her words had any sway because he was nothing but a fistful of sand within her hands.

He bowed deeply like he had just delivered the final act of his masterful performance and she just about lunged for him wildly, but just like that he was gone, vanished as though he was never here in the first place. She hissed out a curse, her hand swiped out to where he once had been only to find nothing there. Where the fuck did he go? Her mind growled as she searched, stalking around the shop angerly as though he were just hiding, behind the doors, in the office, under the desk. It was as though he was going to suddenly reappear for the simple glee to scare the living hell out of her. Harley still clung to that note tightly as though that too would suddenly vanish. Her curiosity withheld for the time being to see what it even said, for just a moment longer. There was no way she was going to allow that teleporting trickster to get the best of her. No way.

Ace finally awoke from his long ass nap, how did he not awake through that commotion was simply beyond her. Fearless protector, my ass. He yawned with a whine that she found almost unhealthily adorable. How she envied him for that blissful reverie. His adorable sleepy eyes blinking back the heaviness from within his derpy chocolate eyes. "It's a good thing I don't count on you for my survival.." She muttered grumpily to her companion, she was grateful for him in that moment. There was an eeriness in the room, one she couldn't quite pinpoint where that unsettling haze had come from. She hardly needed saving but damn she needed, something. She hardly knew what that was. It was as though Matteo's presence still lingered even if he was in fact gone. Never did the office seem almost abandoned without those French lyrics to fill it, those teasing words and that impish gleam. She shook her head abruptly to shake that feeling before reading the note, those blazing eyes of violet flame surprised to see her name staring up at her. How the hell did he figure that one out? She hardly recalled saying it. Maybe it was somewhere within her book... Even then, when did he have time to write a note? She hardly knew and the whole insistence that she was insane was imminent. This man was composed fully of secrets and tricks, she was sure of it. How could he owe her? He didn't even know where to find her, unless it was this shop but even then, her hours were hardly consistent. Strange man, speaking in riddles and strange tongues.

If their paths happened to cross again, she would surely have a bone to pick with the magician she swept in like a like a tidal wave and vanished even faster. That paper pinched between her fingers as she noticed that the writing was gorgeous and perhaps an art form in itself, that writing hardly seemed easy to emulate and it by far surpassed her own. Her script often a rushed scrawl. Who wrote notes anymore?

She swore she could hear his voice reading that note within her ear, especially when she crossed that that translation of the gibberish he said before. She almost crumpled up the note and threw it where she had last seen him. She knew exactly what he referred to. He was far too observant for his own good. "Matteo, you fairy coward!" She shouted out into nothingness and yet she could hardly help the huff upon her lips, before shaking her head. Even though her eyes looked like they could very well near murder someone, she began to clean up her work area with proficient ease. She couldn't seem to shake the creeping sensation she felt through her body just then. She folded that piece of paper, deciding to keep it as if to remind herself she wasn't going crazy and this wasn't the weirdest fucking dream she has ever had in her life. Or maybe, just maybe it finally happened, and the final straw buckled and she lost that sharpened mind of hers. She peered down toward her pup who was happily wagging his tail at her in anticipation. Yes, maybe a cool brisk walk would do them both some good.

Harley Westward