I guess I never was really cut out for this Hunter business. I never had been good at it. Maybe I really was defective. Then again, i suppose being a Hunter made me capable of killing- it didn't mean i had to enjoy it. Those seemed like two pretty different things. A part of me was almost inclined to wonder if Kat actually enjoyed killing. A part of me also not really wanting to know that answer all the same. I didn't want to hurt that guy, not really, not even after everything he'd done to me and yet, when it came down to it, I was going to protect Kat way more than I was going to let him reach her. Everything just seemed to happen in a blur and yet in slow motion all at once. Is that a thing? Either that or I need new medication again. Either way the only thing I saw in that moment was that man lunging towards her with every intention of running her thought with whatever weapon I was mostly sure he was holding. I'd gotten better at those cards during the time Kat and I had been apart and yet, in that moment, I hardly considered that this was the first time she'd actually seen me use them, well, offensively I suppose. That flew easily from that deck holder at my waist, twisting and turning around my hands and at the ready, that simple flick of my wrist sending hundreds of those paper bullets of sorts towards that man, each one of those cards rotating to slice straight through his skin as they flew past- only to fly back to attack a second time time. His screaming was almost ear piercing as that card hurricane all but enveloped him and he fell to the ground. He was hardly dead- but he wasn't getting back up anytime soon I don't think. Those cards quick to twist into a line once more and all but fly back into the holder at my belt. What? I like things that are neat? If I had to pick up the cards every damn time it would be a pretty fucking useless power.

That guilt still managed to settle within me though, more guilt then there probably should have been but like I said, I don't....hurt people. Let alone kill them. For now the blue gold of my gaze found Kat again. I could just about hear my heart beating in my own ears, that adrenaline seeming to make everything clearer somehow. Hmm. Maybe this was that rush Hunters talked about having? Maybe this feeling was why Kat was so good at her job. Maybe I'd have to analyse it more when the risk of my impending death was considerably less. I shouted for her then. Shouted for her to leave Viktor and start running. If more men came I wasn't entirely sure I had enough cards to fight them all and frankly I wasn't even sure where Viktor had gone. If she stayed back to chase him I might....lose her again. The idea of it far more than I was willing to bare and yet for a moment....I almost thought she was going to refuse. For a moment I almost saw her waver and I swear to god my heart stopped beating at even the idea- but she was suddenly running towards me.

Apparently I wasn't about to be given time to enjoy that momentary reunion, Kat grabbing my hand as she all but sprinted past with that insistence I was somehow the one being slow as I was all but forced to sprint after her. So much running. Why is there always running? Just one time I'd like us to flee something and have a car ready. Could I hire someone for that? I'd have to look into it. Just where we were running to I had no idea and yet for at least five minutes I didn't care. I had her hand on mine- where it damn well belonged if you ask me and for just a moment- that was all that mattered. We sprinted out of that Warehouse district and further in to town, other people at least providing some sort of camouflage and yet even I was mostly sure staying out on the street was hardly a good idea. Viktor seemed....the vengeful sort. We could hardly go back to my place- he'd look there for sure. My office probably equally as likely to be a place he checked. My mind content to whirl like a damn hurricane and yet, well, fast thinking is maybe one of my better traits- a perk of ADD or OCD I whatever D I had.

"This way."

I tugged Kat's hand, steering her down the nearest road and across the street. In the least if anyone had been following we'd obstructed their view and taken enough turns to make them pause to decide which way to go. This....may not have been my best idea and yet I was mostly sure I knew a place where no one was going to look for us. Hell, I'd only just discovered it myself. I led the way further down that street then before turning into another side street and continuing on down to the end before abruptly pressing my hand to one of the doors of those little stores that lined the alleyway. Kat abruptly pulled behind me and into.....a laundromat. The Hideaway Laundromat to be fair. Honestly I think I only thought of it because it had the word Hideaway in its name. The scent of clean sheets and detergent and soap all but assaulted me. An elderly woman glanced up from her machine to stare at the two other of breath people who'd all but stumbled in before she went right back to finishing her washing. The low hum of those machines as they washed and dried echoed in the air all around us. My attention returned readily to Kat then. I think I might actually have been sweating. This....was a new and strange experience.

"I'm pretty Viktor or his people won't look for us in a laundry. I guess we can just...wait it out here. Did you know these places existed? People come here to wash their own clothes. I learned about it while you were.....away."

The idea people wanted to wash anything and then carry it home was baffling to me and yet, I suppose, if your....poor. Somehow that crooked grin found my lips all the same. Somehow, despite it all, despite having nearly died and been kidnapped and forced to run for our lives and ending up in a laundromat in a part of town I was mostly sure needed to be mass bleached to make it clean I was...happy. Because for even one damn moment Kat existed again, in front of me, the way it should be. I didn't care about that elderly woman folding her terribly un colour co-ordinated bath towels. In that moment all I cared about was Kat. My fingers easily caught the hem off her shirt, tugging her gently towards me until her body was flush against my own and my lips eagerly found hers in what was, by far, the most intimate kiss i've ever had in a laundry. My hands shifted, brushing down her sides, wrapping about her waist to hold her to me and keep her against me like she was the last breath of air and I was drowning. That taste of her, the feel of her, everything about her......she was all I wanted. My lips so at last pulling back from her own.

"I fucking missed you."



k o h l
so you want to play with magic?