Consider it Done

[Ash Leone]

Consider it done...

Papa Aristide's words kept ringing through his head the entire ride to Dani's apartment, keeping his mind occupied until the very moment he arrived at her door and knocked.  He'd done the man a favor, weaving some firestone into a tool of his, and in return, he'd been told in a rather cryptic manner that he could have his chance.  That was all he'd been told.  That, and 'Consider it done' after the man blew some weird-smelling dust in his face, causing him to sneeze, which was weird enough in itself.  What had been done, though?  He didn't have the slightest idea what was going on.  What was 'his chance'?  What was that man talking about, and why did it always have to sound like a riddle?

He sighed, knocking at the door and knowing she was home.  He could feel her moving inside the room, not to mention hear it.  "Dani, it's me."  

[Danielle Vida]

Danielle heard a knock at the door, and walked down the hall, silk robe on. She'd decided to take a shower and try to relax after all of the stuff going on, and had just finished blow-drying her hair when she heard someone calling her name. She set her towel on the top of the couch, glancing at her fish tank. Satan IV swam happily around, followed up by Satan V. She'd gotten two of them, hopefully one might survive.

She made a face, not recognizing the voice over the sounds of her music, and went to the door, leaning against it. "Who's there?" she called again. The music was pretty loud, so someone standing outside might buy in that she couldn't hear well. It always unnerved her when people knocked on her door, but she knew it could easily be a neighbor asking her to turn her volume down, so she'd try not to be too gruff with them this time.

[Ash Leone]

He smiled somewhat, aware that her music could have potentially kept her from hearing him, but that wasn't quite it.  Dani was paranoid, with fairly good reason, so she wasn't going to just open her door.  Still, she should have known it was him, if only from the feel of his aura on the other side of the door, and the fact that he'd called her 'Dani.'  Perhaps she had, and was just playing with him.  Either way, he'd bite.

"Who else calls you 'Dani'?" he called through the door, letting his own magic slip through to mingle with hers.  If that wasn't enough to get her to let him in, he'd be horribly disappointed.

[Danielle Vida]

She frowned and opened the door, wondering if she was still too tired to think straight. Usually she could feel Ash coming into the doors of her large apartment building, let alone have him standing outside the door. She was pretty exhausted, though, despite taking a few days to herself.

"Oh, sorry," she said, opening the door with a smile. And, yeah, in her white silk robe. She leaned against the side of it as she held it open. "Did you take care of whatever it was you were doing? I decided to get cleaned up since you said you'd be late. Which movie you want to watch? Lady and the Tramp or Peter Pan?"

Ah, yes. Disneyfest. Danielle loved Disney cartoons. She couldn't deny their cuteness.  

[Ash Leone]

Ah, Disney cartoons.  They were certainly not Ash's favorite, but he didn't much mind them.  With everything he'd seen in his incredibly long life, it was nice to sit down and watch something other than violent, gruesome movies.  Not that he really had much of a habit of sitting down and watching movies, though.  This was absolutely a way of spending time with Dani that didn't include fighting and vampires.  Just them, the couch, and a Disney flick.

"We can watch whichever one you'd prefer," he told her, not really minding either way.  He liked Captain Hook as a character, though.  "Peter Pan sounds alright."

With that little bit of his thought on the subject, he shrugged.  "I took care of it, but that man is extremely unusual.  He blew some sand in my face when it was all done."  Sigh, weird man.

[Danielle Vida]

"How odd," she said. "Was Paris there? I saw her a few nights ago and she asked if we were going to kill eachother," she said with a laugh as she headed for the kitchen. She rubbed her eyes. She didn't -feel- tired. She got a glass out of the cabinets and poured herself some water.

"I just need to get changed first. I know how much you like seeing me in my robe but I'm afraid I have to cut the show short in case I get any calls." She was joking, of course, and turned back around as she spoke, taking a sip of water.

[Ash Leone]

"Oh, really?  And what did you tell her?" he asked, actually interested in that little exchange.  Paris had been there, and if she'd talked to Dani at some point, that would explain why she kept giving him funny looks.  Ah, but that robe!  He actually wished she wouldn't go change out of it, since he was still a man, even if he was old and not quite the sex fiend that most modern men acted like.  He may not have been the most sexual creature around, but he still enjoyed the view.

He gave a dramatic sigh, shaking his head, though the small smile on his face served to tell her he was just teasing.  "Then I suppose I--"  Whatever he'd been about to say, it was suddenly forgotten as he gasped and grabbed for the counter, a dizzy spell completely taking him off his feet.  As he dropped, he still tried to hold his own weight, which was a mistake that only resulted in him smacking his head off the edge of the counter before hitting the hard linoleum anyway.

[Danielle Vida]

"Ash!" she screamed, dropping her glass. It fell to the floor with a spattering sound behind her, and bare feet pressed against glass as she moved quickly to him, dropping to her knees. She could see no wounds or bruising, nothing that would suggest something had happened... but what if Papa Aristide had something to do with this? Paris said he was "a might powerful". But to a triste?

"Ash..?" she said, trying to rouse him from his silent state. She held his face in her hands, sitting nearly atop him now, her own expression quite panicked. Something was wrong. She was trying to sense him, sense what was causing this... she couldn't.

He felt like...

Like a human.

Her heart stopped for a second, and she really flew into a frenzy, shaking so badly that her efforts suddenly became useless and she had to back off for a moment to collect herself.

That wasn't possible.

Not until she saw the blood on the floor from where he'd hit his head.

"Oh Jesus," she whispered to herself, unable to move. She sat, paralyzed, feeling suddenly like she was about to go into shock.

[Ash Leone]

Ash had never been much of a pushover, but he certainly wasn't used to this.  He groaned as he came to, trying to push himself at least to his knees.  His head was one great big pile of hurt, and he didn't understand why.  Putting his fingers to the bloodied cut on his forehead didn't even help, since he should have healed instantly as a shifter.  Should have.  Or his own magic as a triste should have allowed him to heal himself, but it was entirely...silent.  He couldn't feel Dani, couldn't sense anything.  It was like suddenly being deaf to the world, and he didn't have the slightest idea what the hell was going on.

Had Aristide done this?  How could he have, and what did he do?  It hadn't even occurred to him immediately that he might be...human.  He hadn't been human in centuries, so he didn't remember how insensitive to everything they were.

"Dani?"

[Danielle Vida]

Danielle jumped slightly as he spoke to her, lost in the madness of her own thoughts. She reached over, running her fingers along the cut and the thin line of blood that had not yet begun to dry on his forehead. She looked at her hand, and then at him, and turned so that she was fully facing him again, sitting on her knees with her hands on the ground in front of her, leaning carefully to examine him.

She did something really bad then - she reached out and smacked him in the face. If he was still... him... he'd have been able to block it, or at least wouldn't feel it like a human would. As a Vida, Danielle had a certain level of strength that was unmatched by normal humans.

[Ash Leone]

It hardly occurred to him that she might strike him right then, and he didn't even have a chance to block or avoid it.  The speed that came with being both a triste and a shifter was gone from him, and she caught him directly across the face.  He cursed in French as the pain exploded in his jaw, the blow snapping his head the the side like it would any normal human.  When he looked back at her, his lip was bleeding as well.

"Would you please not do that again?" he asked, trying for his usual calm, and succeeding for the most part.  This had him almost...scared, though.  

[Danielle Vida]

"...." she let out a choked gasp, clapping her hand over her mouth as she stifled a small scream, swallowing it back down. She skittered away from him, pressing hands into the broken glass as she moved across the kitchen to bang her spine into the island not far off from where he'd fallen. She bounced against the wood, and put her hands to her face in the classic 'Danielle' pose, one which she often found herself in.

Ash. Human. Ash was human. Not a triste. Not immortal. Not.. like her.. but like her, still. No tiger. No.. shapeshifting bullshit, no magic. Just... human.

She pressed her bloody hands to her face a moment longer, and finally reacted, by flinging herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and letting out a loud.... sob. Not just a small cry - she had the full waterworks going, 20something years of repressed..whatever the hell that was. Danielle hadn't actually cried for any certain amount of time since Marcus' death. This was a big sort of thing.

The bigger thing was that Ash was human. Human.

[Ash Leone]

"Dani!  Your hands!" he cried, watching her slide through the glass, then bring her own bloodied hands to her face while she had her little freak-out session.  Leave it to Dani not to even take notice of the fact that she'd just pressed her hands into a load of glass.

Even better though, was when she launched herself back at him, crying and clinging to him.  He just plain didn't get it.  She had a habit of completely confusing him when it came to her reactions.  First, she'd struck him and now she was sobbing and clinging to him.  He held her, a bit surprised at the sudden contact, but really didn't know what to do otherwise.  He still felt like his head was in a bubble, and that wasn't something that seemed like it was going to fade.

Was he really...human?  Could he be?  How was that possible?

[Danielle Vida]

She couldn't even speak, couldn't even respond, she was so wrapped up in her own head, and at all of the possibilities that once had seemed so impossible suddenly at her front door. She just clung tighter to him, clawing at his shirt with her fingers - the Vida Witch might have actually hurt him with her grip, but refused to let go, for fear he might just... change back.

[Ash Leone]

He had to grit his teeth to swallow any sound that may have fought its way from his throat at the way she was digging into his back and shoulders with that deathgrip of hers.  It was a bit startling to see the difference, considering that strength of hers had been very little in comparison to his.  Any pain that he may have felt at this same treatment before would have healed so quickly that he'd have hardly felt it.  It was as though everything about him was weaker, and he couldn't really say he liked it.  Nor did he like the soreness in his head and lip from the blows he'd taken.

He hadn't quite gotten to the part where he'd be able to make a life with her as a human, considering that he was having a little bit of trouble swallowing the idea that he was indeed just a human now.  After spending a few centuries as an immortal, powerful witch, it wasn't an easy thing to believe.  

She was starting to actually hurt him with her squeezing, though.  She had a death-grip on him, and his body was starting to really complain.  "Dani...Dani, I'm sorry, but you're crushing me..." Damn, that was hard to admit.