redrighthanded | IC; Duplicity Inbox

All right.

[ He's back at the apartment sooner than planned, which is good because he and Jacob haven't exactly established much of a chore schedule yet. Remembering their first encounter, there's a part of Hellboy that doesn't want to disappoint Gilia, so he makes an effort to tidy things up a bit, though there's only so much he can do when it comes to stacking dishes and trying to sort out the detritus of coffee mugs, beer bottles, ashtrays, scraps of paper and other bits and pieces of their lives in the city.

Once that's done, he perches on the edge of the two pushed together beds to wait for her to arrive. ]

[ With the weather still miserable, she arrives with her jackets pulled up and her hood firmly pulled up - though it's as immaculate as always. A fine coat pulled over a fine dress, hiding her away from the bite of the wind and rain, and more some, but at least these days - she has the comfort of her Dominant. She does not need to care like she did about how she is perceived, Jack gave her more freedom than she had ever anticipated. Granted, of course, she still refused to ever disgrace him. She would remain immaculate and a woman worthy of him to her last second, for what he had given her. No less for the trouble she had been, of late.

She knocks on the door, the hour later as told. No rush, of course. This all just has to be talked out. She doesn't really know who could have done the things that Tim Stoker talked about, she could scarce believe Jacob had. But as the world had the intent to remind her, what she believed of others and what they did, did not marry up. She'd never thought anyone, anyone at all that she knew, capable of violence.

When the door opens, she drops into a sweeping curtsey, before she rises back up. ]

Master Hell Boy, it is good to see you again.

[ Hellboy kicks a stray cigarette packet aside as he goes to get the door, grimacing a little at how bad the room looks now that he's actually paying attention to it. It's not exactly the kind of place he wants anyone to see, especially someone like Gilia, who he feels must expect and probably deserves better.

He opens the door with a faint air of embarrassment, which isn't eased when he sees how prettily she's dressed, with him in his usual shorts -- which could probably use a laundering -- and nothing else. He lifts a hand to try to stop the curtsey, but he's too late and endures it stoically. ]

Just Hellboy. Please. Do you want, uh.. [ He steps back a little to invite her in. ] Some tea? Coffee?

[ The room is........

..... Well, it looks like the mess left behind after a storm, and the only feeling she has is that she's itching to clean it.

That was probably the anxiety talking. Oh please let her do something other than what she currently had to do.

Oh, right yes, focus. She bows her head, keeping her eyes down. Just because they had - been intimate, did not mean she had any presumptions about him or how he thought of her. That much she had learned to understand since Tim. ]

Tea. I have just learned about tea, I think it is quite lovely, don't you?

Yeah, it's great.

[ He's a little confused about why she won't look at him, though in hindsight it's a familiar enough reaction. Even after her reassurances about respect and their encounter during the festival, he knows it must be pretty different to be alone in a room with him. He's got over a foot in height and a lot more physical presence on her, after all, and he's more than used to people being wary. Though he has to admit to himself he hadn't expected it from her.

Resigned to it, he crosses the room to turn on the hotplate and fill the kettle from the leaky tap in their little kitchen nook.

Glancing back over his shoulder, he gestures at the table and two chairs over by the wall. ]

Take a seat if you want. Might be a little while. [ Besides a battered wardrobe and the two single beds which have been pushed together to make a larger double, it's the only furniture they have, and he's definitely not going to suggest she sits on the bed. He stays standing for the moment. ]

[ She nods, walking to where he offered, and it's the same delicate reserved movements, sweeping her skirts underneath her, pushing back her hood from her face and unbuttoning the top of the coat. Not so cold here. ]

It is quite fine. I am sorry I do not come on... better occasion. I am very much looking forward to 'having a drink with you'. [ There is almost a pause, as if to make sure she has said it correctly and is doing this right.

As he busies himself, she does look at him. Watching his form, and that - he is as handsome as she remembered. Not 'human' no, but apparently she was not one of them either, so it did not matter, to her. Yes, terrifying, perhaps, but how kind he had been to her, in their haze. ] But there has been... a matter of unpleasantness that I have to... to see too and... I would be remiss if I did not... do so first.

[ The corner of his mouth hitches up slightly as he searches for mugs in the cabinets, charmed by the way she phrases their previously discussed meeting. There's only one clean cup, so he elects to give that to her, washing coffee dregs out of another before dumping tea bags into them both. His right hand works as deftly as his left, though with a faint grating noise of stone against stone.

He glances back at her again as she continues, his expression darkening slightly, tail twitching catlike above the floor. ]

A matter of unpleasantness?

[ She finds the edge of a piece of embroidery on her jacket. The stark contrast against the gray that she picks at, over and over. ]

I... forgive me, I am so sorry this is all so frightful, I have never been in this position. I hope I do not try your patience it is just... not something I was ever taught to... to discuss well. How silly that must sound to someone like yourself, when you are clearly so much of the world than I, but - oh I am talking too much again, aren't I? I just barely know how to say it...

[ She clears her throat, trying again. ] I had a... a... [ It really shouldn't be so bad, now, but the truth is her face still goes bright pink when she has to talk about anything like this. Flushed up to her cheeks and spreading into her ears. ] ... an intimacy with a man who now finds me abhorrent.

[ He doesn't try to interrupt her, just listens in silence as she works her way through it. When the kettle whistles, he pours hot water into the two mugs and takes a bottle of milk from the mini fridge under the counter. These he brings over to the table, setting them down carefully before easing himself into the chair opposite her, ignoring the creak of the wood as it takes his weight.

He narrows his eyes at her slightly as he pushes her cup towards her. The way she blushes is cute but what she's describing hits an understandably sour note for him. ]

Yeah, I heard a little. Jacob kicked the crap outta him. [ He rolls a shoulder in a shrug. ] Which saves me having to do it.

You know Jacob...?

[ She has tried tea many different ways now since she came. So interesting, all of them. This one sweet, this one bitter. All of them with that tang. This will be just as nice she assumes, picking it up. Cradling it against her fingers. ]

Jacob is a good man, a decent man. I am afraid for him.... Master Stoker... Stoker is... I find myself at no... no ground to be made, no matter what I try he just does not see me as ... as anything but a monster.

[ It hurts, it clearly hurts, she has never heard this word, really, before she came here. Now it has been hurled at her, with such vile implications, over and over. ]

But I never wanted anyone else to get hurt. It was humiliating enough and now Master Stoker says he will take retribution to any other Submissive that acted on my behalf.

[ He nods at her question, sipping his scalding tea. It's black and bitter and cheap, but it makes things feel a bit more normal to sit and drink it while they talk. ]

Wait around long enough you might get to see him.

[ The bitterness of the tea feels appropriate as she outlines her problem. Hellboy's expression darkens and he sets his mug down so he can start searching his pockets for his cigarettes. ]

Speaking for the monsters, this Stoker guy is going to get what's coming to him, even if it's not because of you. You piss off enough people, you're gonna have to deal with the consequences.

[ She frowns, finally looking up to meet his eyes, curious and perhaps - for once frustrated. ]

To seek violence against others, I cannot bear it. It goes against everything I was ever taught to be.

Yeah, well. [ He gives a tiny shrug as he slots a cigarette into the corner of his mouth. ]

It wasn't your choice. He's made his bed. [ His words are harsh, but he tries to make his tone gentle. He breaks a match off the book from his pocket and strikes it against his stone wrist. ] He shoulda thought about that before he went around hurting people.

[ There she shakes her head, about to say something -

Distracted, curiously. By what he's doing before she catches herself. ]

I do have a choice. A choice to ask no one to do cruel things, least of all on my behalf. He might expect violence and hate from this world, but what should I be if I expect or allow the same? I should be as bad as all the things he called me.

[ She has a point, her words tracing over advice that Hellboy has offered himself more than once. He makes a thoughtful noise, drawing on his cigarette and letting the smoke trickle out between his teeth as he reaches for his cup of tea. ]

And if he keeps pulling this act on other people? You can't control everyone, kid.

[ Jacob groans as he, for one of the first times ever, comes through the door. He's aching, muscles sore and shoulders stiff, as he removes his collar and drops it, shrugging off his coat and letting it fall to the floor. He doesn't see Gilia, already focused on Hellboy perched on their bed and he shifts to settle himself in the big man's lap, sighing and resting his forehead into Hellboy's neck. ]

You look as pissed as I feel luv. Whose got your goa-

[They aren't alone. He realises it too late, too used to this space being a sacred space the two of them share. He's never brought anyone back there, never let anyone in, and his head turns in the direction of the unfamiliar shape in the room.

Only to realise it isn't unfamiliar at all. Why is Gilia here? Why is Hellboy so bloody tense about it? Or is he tense about Jacob's arrival, and not hers? ]

... Am I interrupting an assignation?

[ It takes Gilia a second to realise what is happening. The way Jacob just trudges in the door like world was on his shoulders. She wants to speak to him almost immediately because he was next on her list and did not Hellboy just say if she waited, she would see him herself?

But she doubted he meant like this and the privacy she has invaded without meaning it - what can she do, half risen to greet him, herself.

She whirls, sharp on her heel, immediately facing the wall. ]

No! [ Her voice sounded pathetically squeaky even to her own ears. ] Nothing of the sort! Master Hellboy is being a perfect gentleman! I came to talk to him about a problem! And I - and I wanted to talk to you as well Master Frye! And - well you are here now. That is very good. Very good, I found you and I ought suppose I will talk to you when you...

[ Was it acceptable to use one's sacred gifted powers to flee any given room from embarrassment? Oh fungus and shells and other dreadful words she ought not to say, she was dreadful at this. ] - after I... finish staring at this wall...?

[ If she pretend no one could see each other, then she could die of shame peacefully. ]

[He frowns as she whirls around, hair and dress flaring out. He can't help share a look with Hellboy, as if to say, do you know what's wrong with her?

And then he gets it. Gilia is as innocent as sweet as any person he's ever met before, and perhaps the very intimate nature of his return back to this cramped little home from home has embarrassed her.]

Gilia, you can turn around. I promise everyone still has all their clothes on. And I'm not moving. Not after the day I've had.

[ This wall is a very good wall, she decides. It's doing a very good job at being a wall. It is has a flat side, which is good for a wall to have, and it's holding something up, another key function of a wall. It even seems to be holding something very heavy up, which deserved to be acknowledged. A roof was a good thing to have too, after all. Someone had given it the coat of paint a sensible white. She hoped that made the wall feel nice, since it was doing a good job, it should get something nice and -

Oh. Right. Jacob. Well then. Yes. Maybe she should tell him what a fine this wall is. A nice neutral topic that does not involve anyone acknowledging anything. ]

It is quite fine. I am so sorry to have intruded on your time together!

[ But she does dare to peek over her shoulder a little bit first. ]

[ Despite his prediction to Gilia, Hellboy doesn't expect Jacob to arrive so quickly or without a care to who else is in the room, though he doesn't exactly object when the younger man piles into his lap, except to try to protect the cup of tea that gets jostled when he climbs on top of him. ]

Hey, watch it -- [ Gilia, on the other hand, is far less sanguine about it. Hellboy raises his eyebrows as he exchanges a glance with Jacob, confused and slightly troubled by the difference in the young woman and the writhing, gleeful sea creature who had begged for him to fill her over and over.

He resists the urge to settle his right hand around Jacob's behind and studies the back of Gilia's head, meeting her glance back with a shadowed gaze. His patience for all of it is rapidly wearing thin. ]

She's here to talk about the guy you beat up. [ He supplies the information for Jacob's sake, though he doesn't look away from Gilia. ] Came to warn me off from doing the same.

[Jacob makes a soft noise as the tea is lifted out of his grasp, but when he settles and Hellboy brings the cup back in reach, he takes the cup and takes a swallow. It's not as sweet as he'd like, or as milky, but it did something to warm his insides as he tried to work out what the fuck was going on. Thankfully, Hellboy fills in the gaps.

Of course, he knows nothing of the strange sexual creature Hellboy expects- this is the woman Gilia knows: meek, innocent, and more than a little ridiculous. ]

The Stroker guy? Tim Stroker? [ Dick Stroker, more like. He bites that back though. Gilia won't appreciate it. ]

It's dealt with. He shouldn't come near you again. Why? Has he been bothering you again? He promised me he wouldn't when I was over there.

Master Stoker, yes.

[ Does she like the man? Not in the slightest. Will her manners ever allow her to call him anything less than the absolute proper thing? As likely as her ever wanting to sleep with him again.

But she had best face them both, as much as she just wanted to slip away from clearly a moment that was theirs, rather than anything she should be intruding on. Turning back to them and smoothing her hands against her dress in some effort to keep something of her own composure. ]

He also threatened all of you, blamed me for it - [ No, she could not look either of them in the eye. Her head down, wringing her fingers against themselves. ] - I could not bear it, when I saw, the money you owed, then I know you were forced to go and serve him. Over this. Over more violence and I - I cannot bear it. I do not want any more of it, please.

[ Hellboy lets the tea go without complaint, by now more than used to sharing with Jacob, and besides the younger man is cold and clearly tired against him. His left hand falls automatically to Jacob's thigh, rubbing him idly as he studies Gilia with a frown. He's tempted to ask if this guy has any ancestors who wrote bad novels about vampires, but maybe it's not the best time. ]

Like I was saying, we can't control what he's gonna do. Even if we don't go looking for him, is he gonna stop looking for us?

[ Jacob shakes his head at all of this.]

It's finished. It should bloody well be. Fine is paid, I did my 24 hours, he has said he'll leave you alone, Gilia. I've spoken to his friends- the general consensus is that back home, something happened to him that made him this way. They're trying to help him... heal, I guess.

[That really isn't their problem, but he feels very much like they're not helping. He takes another swallow of tea, and leans into Hellboy, relaxing more when the big warm hand moves to his leg.]

I don't think thumping him is the long-term solution.

Because he lives next door to my new Dominant. Who also calls himself not 'human'. I have to go out of my door every day and be reminded of him when I had set myself to forget he ever existed.

[ She picks at a nail. This should be a happy thing. Jack makes her happy, she is so glad to be his.

But here he hung over her. Like a chokehold. ]

I am relieved to hear you say that. We made it abundantly clear to one another that we should never speak to each other again. So Chieftan Jack, my Dominant, he spoke to him for me. In their exchange, he made it perfectly clear that he would bring down every bit of power he could on any Submissive, especially if they were Uncontracted.

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