"Yeah, yeah. I know. I'll make sure to look for it when I get back to the townhouse", says the fiery woman as she walks through the tattered and worn west side of the city she has all but called home for two days. Back in Hawthorne Village, there was stacks upon stacks of boxes waiting to be unpacked, and frankly, she'd gotten tired of opening those damn things and trying to figure out where to put everything. She really just needed less crap... Like, how the hell did she even get so much stuff? How many outfits and shoes did she really need? Okay, well, they don't really count. Obviously, she needed clothes... Maybe twenty pairs of shoes might be overkill, but how was she supposed to know when one of her favorite heels might decide to take a shit on her and break or something? Yes, that was how Lenore would justify her outrageous number of shoes. Seventy-five percent of which haven't even been worn except for that one time when she was trying them on in one of the many department stores she enjoyed shopping in. Better to be prepared than not. Again, she knew it was a petty excuse, and really, she hardly had any reason at all to dress up or anything, but still."You'd better. That dress cost me two-hundred dollars", came the all too familiar voice of her older sister through the sleek smartphone pressed to her right sun-kissed cheek. It was clear in every syllable that the brunette was agitated, but Lenore hadn't exactly been paying close attention when she was packing her things and moving out of the duplex she'd been sharing with her sister for the past three years. She couldn't keep from rolling those eyes like molten milk chocolate, though she was able to keep from groaning outwardly."Well, who's fault is it for spending that kind of money on something they hardly wear?", she retorts flatly, her own annoyance showing through. Not that she cared. They've only shared the past twenty-eight years together, Renee should know by now that she was hardly the sort to hold herself back."At least I don't spend a fortune on enough shoes to fill a closet by themselves. Just let me know you've found it, that it is not torn, okay? And send it back", Renee says then, her exasperated tone placing a tempting amount of emphasis on ensuring the skin-tight black cocktail dress was not damaged in the least."You got it. Okay, so I'm losing signal. Gotta go", Lenore lies then, knowing entirely well there was absolutely nothing wrong with her signal, coating her voice with enough sweetness that it nearly made herself gag.

Before her sister can even begin to try and keep her on the phone any longer, the woman removes the device from her face and swipes a slender fingertip over the red disconnect button. Sure, the chances that Renee would blow up her phone with pissed off text messages were extremely probable, but Lenore really didn't feel like waiting for Renee to start bombarding her with questions. She's known her older sister long enough to know that that was exactly what she would start doing. She would ask things like "How was the drive?", "Did you remember to return the u-haul?", or perhaps even "How's Kerim and Reiko? Did they settle in, too?"... She would rattle on forever just like their mother was so terribly capable of. She'd start probing around about how many miles it was between the woman's townhouse and "the boyfriend-not-boyfriend", if she would survive with that distance placed between them. And at that, Lenore's sister was damn lucky she wasn't standing there in front of the blue-eyed blonde. She knew better than to ask such questions within an arm's reach of Lenore, knew that the dark-haired woman was liable to have some fighting words to say, maybe even toy with the idea of taking a swing at that pretty face so much like their mother's. Lenore wasn't the girly-girly type, and neither was her sister. However believable it was or wasn't, it wasn't surprising if the women antagonized each other to the point that they'd both be trying to land a punch or two on those more extreme situations where they didn't always get along. But that was what happened when they were almost too similar. The only dividing difference between Lenore and Renee was that her older sister had a career, was working towards that married life, and ready to get to starting a family of her own. She had always been the more obedient and well-behaved of the two, and perhaps even the only one that could really handle Lenore at her most rebellious. Their parents definitely tried. Hell, they should probably get an award for raising two strong-willed and spirited girls in a two bed, one bath apartment for all those years. But it was always Renee that could talk her younger sister out of something she might regret. Well, maybe about fifty percent of the time. It was really a crapshoot on whether or not Lenore would listen. Sometimes she did, sometimes she didn't. Although, she would openly admit that she probably should have listened more than she did growing up. Renee was about following rules. If anything, Lenore was almost entirely certain the woman got some sort of enjoyment out of trying to enforce them. Not that it always worked, but the woman still tried.

And yet, in the end, there was no denying the unfaltering love between the two sisters â€" even when it didn't always seem to exist. Lenore would move mountains for her sister, just as she knew Renee would return the favor. They'd always gotten along great â€" for the most part. But even the best of friends fought and disagreed... they just had a tendency to be passionate about their own views, neither hardly ever prepared to admit that the other was right. Usually, it was Renee. But every time that Lenore was right, she made sure that her older sister wouldn't ever be able to forget it. They've been there through shitty ex boyfriends, a couple car accidents that left them unscathed, though not so much the car or their car insurance. They've been there for one another through the highs and lows, the good and bad. In their younger years, and even up until recently, they'd been almost inseparable. After all, there was only two years between them. So, they even shared the same schools except for the most part. They had the same friends, the same taste in clothes... and yet, despite the two having grown up together in just about every aspect of the phrase, they were different. While Renee could be fierce, if Lenore wasn't doing something to provoke her of course, the golden blonde woman was cautious, careful. She would always weigh the pros and cons of whatever it was she was trying to decide on. In Lenore's opinion, she thought too much with her head a lot of the time. Now, with Lenore, she was the spontaneous one. There was no itinerary or curfew, no carefully planning things out so that it all flowed together smoothly. The dark-haired woman was the adventure, spontaneous type, and while that would occasionally get her into a little bit of a tough spot, Lenore was always clever enough to get herself out of whatever trouble she found. Okay, most of the time, she was able to get herself out. She wasn't perfect, even in being rebellious. So, needless to say, there were times where she was actually thankful for her sister's methodical and calculating talents, because it was often those very qualities that saved Lenore's ass or at least lessened the repercussions that came from her lack of thinking things through better. Now, that wasn't to say that she was always reckless... she just happened to be more often than not. She was passionate, always having had this habit thinking first with her heart or feelings rather than her head, and most everyone knows that such a thing could only open one up to a variety of other problems that people like her sister were more capable of avoiding altogether. But hey, life was all about living and making mistakes.

Returning the phone to the right pocket of her dark blue jeans with a little more force than was needed for the agitation from her sister having felt the need to bug her about that damn dress, Lenore tucks her hands into the pockets of her silver-grey hoodie and continues to stroll through the west side, chocolate eyes roving idly over the mostly abandoned or beaten-up buildings. Sure, she could have hit up the bustling â€" and cleaner â€" streets of downtown, taken a peek at the markets and department stores lining those crowded sidewalks, but she wasn't really interested in spending time within those cramped and close quarters right now. It was just asking for trouble to happen, given her currently annoyed state of mind. She had half a mind to see that the expensive fabric came to some sort of unfortunate fate but decides all too hesitantly against satisfying that more devious side to her sister. But if she dared to come at Lenore with another smartass remark about her boss, then the dress just might not make it back in one piece. Decidedly pushing the entire conversation aside when she spies an old-looking bookstore, she pauses there in the dusty windows and peers inside at the countless bookshelves lining the walls. Wondering if the books were just as old as the store appears, she reaches for the handle and lets herself inside. Glancing to her left, she can see a small counter with an old man sitting there in a rocking chair with a book cradled carefully in his hands. He looks over his glasses and over to the her, offering a toothy smile."Welcome in, young lady. Let me know if you need help finding anything", he says warmly to her then."Thank you", she replies out of the same common courtesy her parents drilled into her brain from the moment she could say her first words. There is a half-hearted smile on her own lips in turn, again mustering what she could of her better manners despite her previous conversation, the man saying nothing more as he goes back to reading those pages of literature. Lenore takes another look around at the shelves, those aisles hardly wide enough for one person to walk through. But, on the bright side, there was only a couple other people meandering around, those eyes searching for whatever it was they'd come here to find. Moving down the aisle as well, though careful to avoid the two other people exploring the opposite side of the bookstore, Lenore finds herself lingering in a particular section labeled "magic". Well, that certainly was interesting... She couldn't say she's been to a bookstore with such an obvious hint at the supernatural things which could be found there. Maybe the people here just disregarded it as nothing but a fancy name for science fiction. Her curiosity has the best of her at this point, the dark-haired woman allows her fingertips to brush against the old spines, the books here certainly not hot off the printing lines or anything. Molten mocha hues find a particularly old book that has surely seen many, many better days. Intrigues by its brick-red color amidst the scuffs and stains, and when she carefully reached to pull it from its place among the others, there is definitely a musty smell that confirms its age. Even the pages were stained and worn.

Making her way back to the front of the store where a couple Victorian style chairs sat beside a small wooden coffee table in front of the large glass window that allowed for the late afternoon sunlight to filter through and invite wandering eyes inside, the woman settles into one of the empty seats and carefully opens the book. Whether or not she would even be able to understand what she was looking at had yet to be known, but considering it was titled "potions and elixirs", she couldn't help thinking it would be something Reiko would be exploring - for obvious reasons - and so found herself all the more interested about what was etched into those tattered pages, if it might be anything worth bringing to the petite asian witch. However, it was only a matter of a few pages and that Lenore discovered she would need to find another that might not be so... well, detailed. For the most part, she was able to understand it, but there were also languages in there that the woman wasn't even sure as to what dialect or origin they were. All the same, she believed that the witch would find it worthwhile, and so she sets the book on the small wooden table and stands from the chair, making her way back to the same old shelves she'd found the first book on. Perhaps there was something else there. If there was one book like the previous one, surely there had to be another like it, but simpler? Did potion recipes come in beginner levels? Was that even a thing? Not that she was trying to learn magic herself, but Reiko was significantly younger than herself, so if she had a hard time with it... wouldn't the girl? Probably not... she was pretty sharp for her age. She had to shuffle past a woman scouring the shelves in the aisle she needed to walk through in order to get to the back of the bookstore, barely able to move past her without bumping into the redhead, and yet just when she thinks that she was in the clear, rounding the end of that aisle and back to the original section she'd found, Lenore hardly expected for a man to be standing right there. Needless to say, the woman's shoulder collided against his taller build, and she nearly bristles at the unexpected contact."My bad", she mutters, though the words were more out of habit than true remorse or embarrassment. Oh yes, her manners were rather apparent. She eyes him for a moment, long lashes blinking over molten mocha hues, brushing the hair that fell over her face with the sudden impact to the side, eyes roving over him briefly only to make a note of just how... attractive he was. Figures he would be hot. Lingering there for only a moment, though why she doesn't quite know, Lenore than shifts so that she can finally get around him and back to the place where she'd found that first book.