Sunday Morning

[Lachlan Williams]

The other hyena cocked her head and looked at her, grinning in a mischievous way. "What do you think of Jason?"

Ebere knew what Skye was really asking with that question. "No," she said, looking at her sideways as her mouth twisted to hide a smile. "Stop it, Skye."

[Skye LeCroix]

"What?!" she asked innocently, setting her water down. "Eh, what did I do?" she demanded. She stopped playing coy after enjoying the laughter she roused, and sat down on the counter.

"Oh, come on. He's attractive. He's obviously totally smitten with you. Well," she paused, frowning. "He's kind of smitten with the idea of having three incredibly hot female Pakana surrounding him, but the problem herein lies that one of us is very taken by a very large cat who will very well put his foot up Jason's ass for coming near me, reguardless of my pack position." She swigged some more off of her water.

"But, yes. He's nice, and he's Pakana. I think you should... I don't know. Hang out with him. Feel him out." She smiled. There. No need to frighten Ebere off by saying GET MARRIED AND HAVE BABIES RAAR. Not that she would, anyways, because Ebere didn't seem like the type. However, she did deserve someone like Jason, because Jason would never hurt her.

Skye didn't think he was even capable of it, actually.

[Lachlan Williams]

She laughed a little as Skye played coy, and then the other woman gave it up and acknowladged what she'd been saying. And then Ebere's mood turned, from lighthearted playfulness to something much more serious. It was serious, no matter how Skye may paint it.

"Yes, but..." she began, and couldn't think of any words, not really. She tried again. "Skye, he's so...." She looked away, then walked across the room and curled up in a chair someone had shoved up against a wall. And she as she looked up at the other pakana, this time her eyes were pained. She still tortured herself, and all because others had tortured her in the first place. What had she ever done? "He's so innocent." She looked down and away again.

"If I start spending time with him, he'll loose that. Brutally. How could I do that to him?" How could she live with herself? He was innocent, and he deserved the chance to remain so; all of them did. She wanted, yearned to be around them, but... but the effect was like acid on tissue paper. There was only so much she could do.

Can't live with them, can't live without them, as she'd once heard someone jokingly say. How true it was in this case, though. How painful of a situation to be in. She closed her eyes and sat still, almost torn in two by the situation.

[Skye LeCroix]

"Oh, hush. You stop that right now," Skye said softly, walking to her friend. She ran fingers through Ebere's tawny hair, the colours always never the same as the next, and the cut despite having grown out still characteristically uneven. It somehow suited her; Ebere somehow made it 'work' without looking like a psycho. It must've been her conditioner.

She crouched down to look at Ebere from a more eye-level position, though the petite brunette now sat below her counterpart. "Listen, we all have our faults. And nobody is saying that you have to just up and run away to Tahiti with this guy. I'm just saying, give him a chance. I think he really likes you," she pressed.

She sighed inwardly. Ebere had every right to be concerned about hurting him. She figured she'd have to... have to train with Jason seperately so that he could take care of himself. The problem was, however, that once again, if she came home smelling sweaty and Jason-like, she wouldn't be able to move fast enough to stop Nick before he ripped the poor guy limb from limb.

"Stella's innocent, too, but we still keep her around," she offered. Ebere really just made a good point, nevermind the stuff surrounding it. "I think Jason would be willing to learn if you'd teach him. Jason, I think, would be willing to run across water if he thought it'd make you happy."

[Lachlan Williams]

She almost, almost, pulled away from Skye's touch when she felt the hand run comfortingly through her hair. In the end though she didn't, and it felt so nice to have the other hyena that close.

It was wrong, of course. Skye didn't know, after all, how broken she was. She turned her face slightly away, eyes still closed, but didn't move more then that.

It was so hard to want to be around someone so much, and be so afraid of hurting them that you hardly dared, to know that if you were only strong enough you should stay away. But she didn't think she could, and in some ways that was the worst thing. Because it sealed their fate - Stella and Jason and even Skye. It was tearing away something utterly irreplacable.

She laughed a little, sadly. "That's the problem, I don't want to pull him into this world. He doesn't know about the guilds, why can't it stay that way? Why does it seem, now, that no one can live without knowing what goes bump in the night?" Ebere was a protector, that was her problem. She tried too hard.

[Skye LeCroix]

"Yeah... I guess I got lucky there. I'd probably still be single if it weren't for Nick, but then again, I don't think knowing about the Guilds is a bad thing. Ebere, he's in more danger not knowing, just drifting around day to day, waiting for some deranged vampire to snatch him up." She sighed. She knew well the rarity of Pakana on the trading circuit, but thank God she didn't know first hand. Just what little Ebere had told her, which was.... enough.

She put her hands on either side of the chair, looking Ebere in the eye as she spoke to her. "You deserve this. You are not broken. You're just... a little banged up. Like UPS boxes. Nothing some good ol' fashioned Pakana glue can't fix."

And Skye was the optimist, refusing to believe that any of her pack were irrepairable. Ebere wasn't feral, so that was a big point in her favour. And obviously feelings of conflict in this area told Skye that while she had her moments, she still had every ability to think rationally and clearly. In her opinion, Ebere was still... recoverable. Not that she expected it to happen overnight, oh god no. Skye knew better. But she hoped that maybe the Pakana girl could know the warmth of another's touch without thinking there was some dark meaning behind it. That a hug could just be a hug, not a hurt.



((OOC: Omg Skye is trying to make me cry! LOL))

[Lachlan Williams]

As much as she hated to admit it, Skye was right. Knowing all about the guilds would make a person safer.

What a stupid way for the world to be. Ebere shook her head in frustration, burying it in her arms breifly. Silky, tauny hair spilled over her shoulders as she did so, and she just... rested like that for a moment, and thought, and wished she could do more. There was nothing, though, or at least nothing she could think of, other then keep most of her memories to herself. Skye had no idea how little Ebere had really told her, and it was going to stay that way. It might have helped her to get it all out, but that was Ebere for you, always trying to shield others, even at her own expense....

There was a darkness in her that almost no one really knew of, because all anyone saw of it were the shades that seeped through the thin veneer of normality that she surrounded herself with. Or, at least, that's how she saw it. Someone else might argue that viewpoint.

She smilied slightly as she looked at Skye, and it was almost a regretful look. "Not giving up on me, huh?" They both knew it wasn't a question, not really. "Mm," she sighed, and rested her head on Skye's arm.

[Skye LeCroix]

Skye made a noise, and kissed Ebere's hand lightly. "Not at all, m'dear." She smiled, a warm thing, and rose, ruffling Ebere's hair a bit and trying to rouse her from her slump. Skye needed her to stay moving and positive, at least try to get her mind off of whatever it was that bothered her.

"C'mon. I haven't been to Onyx in a while. Let's walk around, hm? Maybe we can catch a glimpse of Lucien. Is it true he's been seeing a vampire?" Skye asked, giving way to some girlish gossip to try and put Ebere's attention elsewhere. She wrapped an arm around her and gave pause just a moment to bury her nose in her hair and nuzzle her, in that way only Pakana could do without being completely creepy.

[Lachlan Williams]

Ebere rose like a cat to the brief contact, as she usually did, then stood up and sighed a little. "All right," she agreed easily to the plan. "And fine, I'll... go see Jason. The bit about Lucien is true, by the way." She rolled her eyes a little. "Though really, why he of all people should suddenly...." She broke herself off and shook her head, then sighed and contentedly turned her face towards Skye. Honestly, if everyone didn't already know about the two of them being pakana and what that entailed, they would really make people wonder.

"Do you know what happened with your leaders eyes?" Ebere asked in return. "I'd heard that a vampire got him, and he was blind."

[Skye LeCroix]

Skye shook her head and pulled away from Ebere long enough for the two of them to walk, though she still hung an arm lazily around her shoulders. "Not sure," she said honestly. "Capricia just says it's been fixed. I guess they took care of the problem, whatever it was," she said with a shrug.

Skye tried not to delve into the affairs of the Guild too much, only when they directly concerned her. She hadn't been worried about Connor's ability to perform as leader, though, despite. He was a strong, capable man. She'd seen he and Nick talking about her on several instances, and wondered idly what it was they were saying, but never felt the need to pry. It simply was what it was. She bet they were trading stories about how neurotic she could be.

"How has Ritya been?" She dragged the subject back into familiar territory.

[Lachlan Williams]

"How has Ritya been?"

Ah, if only Skye knew what can of worms she was opening with that question....

"He's a hawk," she said without preamble. "I told you how he said he was sick and so locked himself in his room - well he wasn't. He was infected somehow." She sighed a little. "And that's not all, right up until he locked himself up in his room he was gone half the time and acting strange the other. I hardly knew what to think." Or she did, but refused to let herself think it, rather.

She looked over at the other pakana, and her emotions were clear in her eyes. "I'm worried about him."

[Skye LeCroix]

Skye frowned. Ritya was young enough, sure, but he should have known better than to make severe vanishing acts on top of using his room as a bunker. The Guilds did use some measure of discretion, sure, but he was still a trainee, and therefor not entitled to as much as the full-fledged members.

"Has Lucien spoken with him?" she asked, raising a brow. Lucien was a fairly level-headed man, aside from the whole vampire thing. Skye wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole, really; she'd inquire politely, but she didn't want to go digging around. She was scared of what she might find, and Skye was the type only to ask thorough questions when she was prepared for the answers.

"He's still very young. I don't know how he was raised, but it might be a bit awkward for him. You might want to put him with some other avians to try and get him familiarized with things," she offered.

[Lachlan Williams]

"Actually, I don't think he's having that much trouble adapting to being a hawk," Ebere said, and her tone seemed oddly careful. "He didn't like the idea at first, of course, but he seemed to be all right with it after he shifted for the first time...."

"And yes, I do think that Lucien spoke to him. I'm not sure what it did, but..." she stopped, sighed, and shook her head.

"It's not him being a hawk that worries me, it was the before. I told Ash about how he was acting, and he said that maybe a vampire had gotten him addicted...." Good for Ebere, it was the first time she'd ever really spoken of it, especially so calmly.

She looked up again, expression pained once more. "I think he might be right. Only how can he be, Skye?"

[Skye LeCroix]

"Ugh!" she exclaimed, stopping to stare at Ebere in disgust as she suggested the boy was addicted to a vampire. "Does he not comprehend the things they're capable of?" she asked, stunned. Oh, Skye knew all too well; Ebere did, too, though she didn't know just how much.

"Have you beaten some sense into him?" It seemed the time for talking had passed, to her. Becoming the willing consort of a vampire while being under the Guilds was a big no-no in Skye's book. Especially the kind that went around getting people addicted to them, because it never meant it was a normal or healthy relationship. She supposed she could have accepted Stella's boyfriend, but Daniel sounded somewhat normal, if not a little unfulfilling. This? Not acceptable.

[Lachlan Williams]

"I don't know," she said softly, looking away. "And I don't know if it's true yet, and I don't want to believe it, but he's been acting very strange." She sighed a little, closing her eyes. "Skye, I don't know what to do. I do not know what to do."

She was perfectly willing to try beating some sense into him, as Skye put it, but she wasn't sure if it would work. And if he... if he really was.... Ugg, the idea practically made her ill to even think about.