With Malice Toward None

[Magyar]

Lucian let his hand fall to his side as Zira shifted. Perhaps the wine would do. The nagging voice in the back of his head said that getting drunk could be dangerous. Its objections were in vain.

Lucian knew full well what happened when he got drunk. His powers became dulled, and though he was intoxicated, he couldn't hear any other thoughts. It was a momentary escape, and unless he got so drunk he blacked out, it would be safe. In all truth, when he blacked out he didn't know what could happen, but the past had made it more than clear. He would try to use his powers, couldn't, and sometimes he would push so hard it would cause highly dangerous chain reactions in the brains of everyone near him. So... don't get hammered, just get a little tipsy.

"Sure..." he said cautiously, "let's have the wine."

[DragonSong]

Zira shrugged. "Yeah, sounds good." She hesitated a moment, then offered her hand. "C'mon. Let's head back before this crowd starts really questioning why they saved your stupid ass."

[Magyar]

"With skill, they won't." He said in absolute certainty, before sliding his hand into her grip. He rather enjoyed the contact. It was like an anchor, keeping him rooted in this too real world. His daydreams could not persist when he was constantly being pulled back into reality by Zira and all the things she did.

There was a certain allure, having her lead him back through the streets. Someone else was calling the shots, and he enjoyed it. A weight he didn't know he had, a burden of responsibility, was for the time being lifted from his shoulders. What a feeling that was.

She was fast too. He was sure of foot, and balanced well enough under stress, but Zira was also an actual cheetah. Sure, she wasn't in cheetah form, but like that old saying goes, you can take the shifter out of the animal, but you can't take the animal out of the shifter. Something like that.

"Slow down," Lucian laughed, when his hand began to slip from Zira's grasp. Only the tips of his fingers clung to hers, like a rock climber's. He assumed if she lost physical contact with him, she'd stop and retrieve him. So he halted, directly in place, and his fingertips brushed against hers as they slipped away, again. This time he wasn't falling off of a roof, but the sensation was nearly identical.

[DragonSong]

Zira's hand slipped from his and she huffed, twisting to pout at him over her shoulder. "Maybe you need to speed up," she teased as she moved back toward him and took his hand again. She linked their fingers this time rather than simply wrapping hers around his, connecting them more securely.

She liked it when he laughed. He didn't do it often enough.

With another huff, she started moving again, slower this time, just a step or two ahead of him as she guided them back to HQ.

[Magyar]

Lucian fell back into a small, sad smile when Zira locked her fingers with his. It wasn't that he was particularly sorrowful for the moment, it was just his predisposed expression. However, he felt a twinge of guilt at having Zira lead him back to the Headquarters. What for, he couldn't have said.

Well... perhaps he could have. But he didn't want to, and that was perhaps a more powerful factor.

"Do you like this?" He asked, lengthening his stride and meeting Zira's pace, "This..." he brought their interlocked hands up in front of their faces, "Physical contact? Hand holding?"

[DragonSong]

"What?" She blinked, then glanced down at their interlocked hands and suddenly found her cheeks heating- though she had no idea why. "Oh, um...yeah, guess I do. It's...reassuring."

She looked back to his face. "Sorry. Do you want me to stop?"

[Magyar]

"No... I'm growing accustomed to it," he said, sad smile twitching with amusement, "I just don't really understand why you would do it in the first place. Physical contact has always been a sort of, necessary action, if an action taken at all."

He wasn't opposed to the gesture, but Lucian was a little caught unawares by her answer. What about physical proximity could be reassuring?

[DragonSong]

Zira shrugged, glancing ahead. They had just about reached their destination, so she slowed her pace a bit, making an effort to match his steps.

She glanced down at their hands again. "Well...what if I lost you in the crowd or something?" She gave him a sheepish sort of half smile. "I know, kind of a silly worry, but... I dunno. It could happen. And it's...nice knowing I have an anchor to you. Just in case."

[Magyar]

Just in case.

"What a fucking... a fucking..." Lucian's angry words faded, and his vision blurred before snapping back to reality, "Zira! Can you, please, just, can you go get me that other bottle? Please? I'll love you if you do it... I mean, I love you anyway, but I'll love you more, y'know?"

He pointed shakily at an unopened red wine on a table perhaps five steps away. But he was laying down on a makeshift bed consisting of pillows and blankets, on the floor. It was actually more like a couch, being long enough for several people to lay down comfortably. He didn't exactly remember how he'd gotten there, or why, but he didn't care. All he knew was that the blankets kept him warm.

And he was cold because his shirt wasn't on him. He furrowed his brow, confused for a moment, then took another sip from the half empty bottle of gin he'd poached from the gang member's stash. The burning of the drink on the way down pulled his attention away from his shirtlessness. He was barely awake as it was, eyes red and half open, and he couldn't stand without toppling over... wait, that was why he was on the ground.

Lucian giggled at his own ignorance, belched, and threw up in his mouth before washing it back down with another mouthful of alcohol. Then he flopped over onto a few throw pillows, and groaned.

"Ziraaaaa..... Where are you? I can't... I can't feel you anymore. Come over here please?" In all honesty, he'd lost Zira a while ago, but was sure she was still in the sprawling top floor room somewhere. Probably. Everything's beyond his normal senses was a buzzing smear of movement and white noise. Listening, in a sense, only got him a fuzzy feeling and nothing nearly normal. He could barely think his own thoughts, much less listen in on others'.

[DragonSong]

Zira tried to spring up, but found herself swaying and had to put a hand against the wall to steady herself. "Whoa... Okay, maybe I've had enough," she muttered to herself.

Still, her wine-fogged brain didn't put up to much of a fight in telling her now would probably be a good time to cut her boss off. She just swayed her way over to the table to snatch up the bottle, cradling it to her chest as she half-staggered back to Lucian's makeshift couch.

She grinned despite herself at his odd, slurred affections, then laughed outright, though she wasn't quite sure why. "Can't feel me? What, you wanna pet the- the cat?" she teased, hiccuping a bit as she collapsed beside him and held the bottle out.

She certainly wasn't going to have anymore, but far be it from her to tell her employer he needed to stop. She resolved to keep an eye on him though.

With a throaty purr, Zira snuggled into his side, butting her head up under his chin like she might have in her cat form. "So? How much do you love me for the wine?" she teased with a tipsy giggle.

[Magyar]

"More... than you know," he said quietly, eyes closed and drowsy. He brought the fresh bottle to his lips, drinking much more deeply than he probably should have. He let his arm fall rather awkwardly into the crook of her neck, but repositioned it and after a few tries got his arm back down. He rested it over her shoulder, spilling some of the wine onto the floor before swearing and righting the bottle behind Zira.

"I don't know what cat I'm supposed to be touching," he said incredulously, "because you're a person." His other arm was above his head, pinned at an odd angle. He could feel her against his skin, but it was a distant feeling, like he was watching it happen rather than experiencing it.

"Why are-why... why are you wearing clothes?" He asked, picking at the shoulder strap of her shirt. "Why am I not wearing clothes? I mean, I'm - I've got pants. But I don't have socks... or a shirt, and you have a shirt. Why... did you take my shirt?"

[DragonSong]

Zira laughed again,. "Y'know what, Imma just let that one go. But believe me, when we're both sober- soberer- sobrerer?- I'm gonna be making all sorts of cat jokes and just what you're allowed to touch,"  she chuckled.

At his question, she lifted her head with a bit of a frown. "Um...oh, there!" She pointed, smiling triumphantly. "You said you were hot, you threw it there, 'member?"

She twisted to lean against him again. "Why? Want it back? Or would you rather I join in?" She leaned back to tug her shirt up over her head, then collapsed back against him in her breatsbamd, smiling tipsily. "There, see?"

[Magyar]

Lucian stared at the chair she'd pointed to. Sure enough his shirt was there, draped over the arm. Then a second joined it, and Zira was much warmer when she laid back next to him. He closed his eyes with a grimace as a painful headache hit, then left just as quickly. It was like a mental jab, if anything.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself tracing the spots that dusted Zira's arms, shoulders and back. He smiled, a genuine, toothy smile, and began tiptoeing his fingers along the spots on her shoulder, like one would do with a map and compass.

"I've always like your spots," he murmured, almost childlike, "They're so pretty." He continued the finger dance, humming a nonsensical song along with it. He asked then, "And what is it exactly... that I... I-" he hiccuped, the spasm disrupting his little counting. He began again, and continued, "I am allowed to touch?"

[DragonSong]

Her spine arched and Zira purred happily under his touch, far too drunk to bother to try to curb the reaction as she normally would have. "Really?" She smiled, arching into his touch. "You don't think they're weird?"

Her skin was peppered with more than spots: scars littered his sides, shoulders, and back from her time as a coliseum apprentice, but she wasn't as self conscious of those as she would have been normally.

What was he allowed to touch?

"You're the boss, Lucy," she sighed in answer after a few moments. She was still teasing, eyes glinting playfully. "Doesn't that mean you're the one who makes the rules?" With a contented little sigh, she pressed slower. "Feels good," she added in a distracted sort of mumble as her purring redoubled, vibrating through her chest and throat.

[Magyar]

"Hey," Lucian said, suddenly very serious. In fact his switch was almost comical in its speed and intensity, "Are you okay? You're vibrating. I think-" he hiccuped again, "Are you alright?"

He sighed, rather belatedly at her question, "I don't want to make the rules anymore Zira. They're... hard. I don't like them. They don't like me. It's not a good relationship." His hand hand walked its way down to her waist, and began tracing the spots back up her ribs. He reached for the wine bottle with his other hand, succeeded in knocking it over and spilling it near Zira's hips. He managed to right it again, but not before a good half of the nearly full bottle had spilled, now pooling as far as mid thigh on Zira's smaller frame.

"Shit," he said, brow furrowing again, "Sorry."

[DragonSong]

His sudden severity caught we off guard, but then she was laughing again. "I'm fine, Lucy. I'm...better than fine. 'S just purring." Even as she spoke, the soft, rumbling sound continues in her chest.

She frowned when he spoke again, lips drawn tight and eyes searching his face with a sudden concern. "Boss-"

She gasped as cool liquid soaked her clothes and skin, making her flinch back and scramble to sit up. "Ah, fuck." She winced and wrinkled her nose. "I'm gonna smell like wine for a week." With a regretful little smile, she moved to push herself to her feet. "Sorry, I should go clean up- whoa."

The room tilted sideways and she collapsed back into her rear, head spinning. "Um...maybe I'll give it a minute or two..."

[Magyar]

"Let's just, move these," he said pushing himself into a sitting position, shuffling the blankets away, and laying back down on the cold adobe floor. The wine puddle soaked into his baggy hose, but he didn't seem to notice.

"I don't mind the smell of wine," he crooned, before slipping into a raspier tone, "Not least on a woman so damn fine..." lyrics to an old tavern song he used to sing with the gang before he became he boss. He giggled a little hysterically, and his head dropped to one side. He watched Zira, or at least her back, and giggled more. The spots trailing down her spine were a tad darker than the rest.

"Your spots are so pretty..."

[DragonSong]

The shifter chucked, rolling into her side to face him. "You are drunk," she laughed, eyes sparkling as she shook her head. And "you may not mind the smell, but my nose is m-more sensitive than yours." She hiccuped a bit and wriggled around, managing to undo the tie of her folded skirt.

"Aha!" Once she'd managed to loosen the material, she could kick the wine-soaked garment away. "Much better."  Left in her smallclothes, she tilted her head slightly at Lucian, a few of her braids falling into her face.

"Really?" He voice sounded suddenly rather small, almost childish. "You really think they're pretty?" Even as tipsy as she was, she knew the glow that sparked in her chest was real. Her spots had always been an oddity, a mark of what a rare, desirable pet she was.

But what Lucian said felt...different. Like they were pretty just- just because.

[Magyar]

"Yeah..." Lucian said, smiling like an idiot, "How far down do they go? Can... I... find out?"

He held a hand out to Zira, groping loosely at the air in her direction. He found the bottle of gin, and nearly downed it in one go. His threshold was pretty much passed, and another drink or two and he would be blacked out. But he was far beyond rational judgement. He tried to rise, faltered, and fell back with a thud. He cracked his head against the floor, and swore violently as he did so.

"Ziraaaa," he called, albeit quietly. He put his hands on his head, and slid his legs up so that his knees were in the air.

[DragonSong]

"Oh- gods and demons." zira swore quietly and rolled onto her hands and knees to crawl back over to him. "Lucy? You okay? Lemme see."

Twisting to sit with her legs folded to one side, she lifted his head onto her lap, frowning in concentration as her fingers combed through his head, trying to see if he was bleeding. "I think that's enough for today," she muttered, at least having the presence of mind to recognize that.