sly

Why did she look so confused too see him? This was the right night and the right address. He'd only just checked it. Was it because he was too early? Even by only ten minutes? Sly's features shifted into a ready frown of confusion as Harley only seemed to grow more surprised. The unusual pair, in that moment, left staring at one another in silent conflict for several long seconds before that very silence began to take on an awkwardness all of its own. Harley, it seemed, was hardly about to speak first. Sly instead made an effort to further explain his presence at her front door. Maybe she had somehow forgotten she'd invited him? Yet from the looks of that pot it looked like she'd been making dinner for, well, more than one person. Had she been planning to offer him dinner? That was....weird as well. Sly's head shook ever so slightly in an effort to remove those curious thoughts, the warlock instead referencing that very note she had slipped into his pocket the evening he had been unconscious in the carpark of Syn. The fact that she had written 'fix my shower' in quotation marks implied that, well, she desired more than merely a shower repair and yet that seemed an overly presumptuous assumption to make. Especially when he would hardly call himself an expert on the petite, femanine woman before him. Maybe she wrote like that often. Maybe it was some inner joke. Maybe she really did just want her shower fixed. Sly, for now, near cautiously content to assume the last. At least until Harley, her features still knotted in confusion, insisted her shower was not 'that spectacular'. Was she really worried that he was going to judge it? Was that her issue? Sly felt one eye raise ever so slightly, his blue gaze hardly wavering from the bright violet of his companions' own.

"It's fine, really. I'm sure it's nothing I haven't seen before. Believe me. I've seen hundreds of showers. If it's small or something I can work around it just fine."

He'd never really met anyone worried about his opinion of their shower before. Occasionally he had customers apologize about the state of the mess in their houses when they let him in and yet apologizing for the shower itself was something new. It was that very look of bafflement that continued to linger upon the young woman's features however that prompted the warlock to offer her that very note she had given him. Harley was given that opportunity to remember her own writing as she lent forward to eye that flawless cursive. The woman's penmanship was completely unlike anything Sly had ever seen outside of museums or art galleries or....ancient history class. Harley took several moments to read that note before her features suddenly seemed to shift once more. Some level of recognition seemed to dawn upon them at last. The blond warlock shifted ever so slightly, gesturing to the toolkit he held within his free hand as if to make that obvious connection between her note and his presence all the more blatant. Harley's softly muttered insistence that this was 'an odd stress response' coaxed that frown back to Sly's own features and yet any further query the man might have attempted to make was halted by a near explosive bang that seemed to resonate throughout the entire apartment. That sound prompted the warlock to jolt backwards. His eyes widened abruptly. Jesus christ. How long had it been making that sound for?

The sound of the explosion coaxed a deep bark from a large, black dog Sly had only truly noticed for the first time before his gaze shifted back to Harley's own- her brows knitting together as if considering that sound before admitting that the noise was relatively new. That, in the least, explained why she needed her shower fixed. Even if that noise was mostly a new edition there had to be something pretty....fucking wrong for it to make that sound at all. Sly's mind near mentally rolled over those possibilities, the warlock considering the likelihood of some sort of pipe bomb chemical reaction from the use of too many hair products or lotions or...whatever else girls used in the shower. Only for Harley to suddenly insist she had to stop keeping grenades in the medicine cabinet. That easy, teasing joke coaxed a soft snort of amusement from the warlock, his lip quirking upward. Sly so eternally appreciating the....ridiculous things in life. That grin finding him easily and yet...

"I don't even know if you're joking honestly. Not after what I saw at that bar you work at."

Grenades in the medicine cabinet would be less surprising then the giant vampire sand....mist ghost man that had attacked them. Harley moved to step backward then, finally offering him that chance to step inside. The inside of Harley's apartment was almost blissfully warm. The scent of that meal she had been working on was nothing short of....enriching. As well as almost strikingly familiar. Where had he smelled that before? Sly moved to follow Harley into the kitchen as she placed her pot back on the stove. The warlock was about to ask for directions to her shower before the dog he had heard before made itself known. The giant, black creature bounded forward. It's wagging tail, in the least, gave away its intentions as it thoroughly made an effort to sniff at the leg of Sly's jeans. Ace, as Harley introduced him, seemed almost fascinated by his toolkit. Sly, almost instinctively, reached one hand out to stroke the dog's head. Maybe Mihai would enjoy playing with him later the way he'd played with Brennan's....not-dog. Harley gestured towards his toolkit then- the woman insisting it was lucky he'd come prepared as she led the way toward her bedroom and ensuite. That query on whether he did these kinds of calls often met with a nod.

"I actually do. Most people just call the company though. This is the first time i've come for an appointment made via letter."

That amusement tugged at his words once more as Sly's gaze momentarily shifted sideways, eyeing the women's bedroom with curiosity. The simple scent of her was stronger in here. It was femanine, pleasant, almost distracting. Harley reached to swing open the door to her ensuite then. Sly's gaze was readily drawn away from her bedroom. The sight from within the bathroom all but sizing his attention.

"Fucking hell...."

Those words were part cuss part....utter awe as his gaze roved over the damage. A small fountain of water erupted from the wall where the decapitated shower head had once been fixed. It's motionless form lay defeated on the tiles below as if someone truly had made an attempt to slay it like a dragon. One of the taps barely clung to its fitting, more water slowly running out from behind it and yet- most notable of all- was the samurai sword embedded in the wall of the shower. It had been forced through that wall with enough power to shatter the tiles and pierce the pipe on the other side- more water trickling from around it. The continual sound of that leaking water an almost amusing interplay to the silence the pair offered that sight.

"Harley."

Sly, paused, waiting only so long as it took the woman to glance toward him before his own blue gaze shifted to meet the striking violet of her own. His features, in that moment, were distinctly serious.

"You know how I said earlier that your shower would be nothing I haven't seen before? That was a lie. I haven't seen this before. Ever."

Sly's gaze shifted from the woman and back to that utterly....eviscerated shower. This was more than a simple plumbing job. Hell, he was going to have to fix the pipes, repair the fittings, install new fittings, retile the wall and....remove the sword.

"Did you....want me to give you a quote for how much this is going to cost? I mean, this is going to be a few grand, not a few hundred. If you want to see what other companies will do it for that's understandable. If you want me to fix it though,I'll hve to charge you for the parts and tiles because my boss would murder me if I gace that stuff away- but I'll waive my labor fee. It'll make it much cheaper. You did save my life that night after all."

That, it seemed, was the first true admittance of what Harley had done for him that night within Syn. Sly's gaze once more met the woman's own, the faintest hint of a simper tugging at his lips before his attention returned to the shower once more. Stopping that water, for now, was the very least he could do while Harley considered her options. Sly's reached to fish that wrench out of his toolkit before stepping forward, that fountaining water instantly spraying agianst him, soaking his shirt as he reached to fix several of the loose compartments exposed by the shattered tiles. That water, mercifully, ceased to fountain as it slowed to a weak trickle. Sly stepped back from that shower then, his sodden shirt matching his equally wet blond hair that lay near plastered to his head.

"There should be a main switch under your kitchen sink, we can turn the water off completely there so you won't have a hell of a water bill generating overnight."

There was nothing, it seemed, that perturbed the warlock for terribly long. Sly, as he so often did, seeming to take everything within his stride no matter how distinctly bizarre.

"You know what's weird..."

Sly nearly mused those words, his features frowning again as one hand reached upward to run over the hilt of that sword. It was an incredible sword, now that he had a chance to look at it without that water spraying at him.

"There isn't any magical signature on this. I'd be able to feel it if there was. Which means someone literally plunged this through the wall with their own strength. That's like...vampire strength right there. Seriously, how did you actually do it?"

Those words were distinctly free of judgment, Sly far more curious in how she had achieved that feat without using magic, or at least.....without leaving a traceable magical signal. Maybe she had some kind of affinity for it? That would make sense- he had seen her manipulate that metal before after all. Why she had chosen to do it remained to be seen. What someone did in the shower was their business after all. Who was he to tell her not to practice her samurai moves while she was naked? Hmmm. That was an interesting image. Sly's head titled ever so slightly at the thought before he reached for his hammer. Might as well get rid of those loose tiles now too.

"I like the Qilin though. You don't see that one too often."

Sly's hand gestured to point to the sword hilt once more. That decorative Qilin carved into the handle was adorned in gold and silver and lazuli blue and garnet red. Surely it wasn't actually made of those gems right? It couldn't be. It had to be a replica. It was a good one though.

"The Qilin is the Asian version of a Unicorn. They are mythical in Asian culture too. Apparently the Qilin appears to announce the arrival of a sage. In Japan and China a sage is like an immortal person- usually an elf, a nymph, a fairy, a divine soul, a shaman- someone like that."
Sly shrugged loosely. He liked mythology, he always had. Mihai's ability to take on several of those mythological forms surely stemmed from his Master's very enjoyment of those things.

"Did you want me to start fixing this?"

How quickly the warlock returned to business once more, several drops of water falling from his still sodden hair as he eyed his companion again.

"You know, you could just invite me over next time you want to see me, you don't have to break your shower. I'd have come over just for dinner if you'd asked."

A simper easily found the warlock's lips then, Sly letting one eye raise teasingly before he turned back to that broken tap....