Midnight Haven
Larissa ducks through the doorway and holds her breath.
Outside, she can hear the quiet pitter-patter of raindrops on solid ground and the distant thumping of workers' boots. The latter grows louder. Agonisingly so, until she can make out the sound just outside the door.
An awkward second passes and Larissa almost prays. Not that there are any gods out here to save her; maybe back on Terra she would have tried her luck, but she damn well knows no divine beings followed her ancestors across galaxies.
The moment stretches and stretches and she swears she sees the shadow of one of her pursuers hovering in the doorway. They’ve stopped. They know, she thinks, eyes glancing about the abandoned room she has found herself in, desperate for an escape route. The window on the other side of the room is a possibility, though in this light she can’t quite judge how large it is. Still, one must make due with what they have at their disposal. Currently Larissa has nothing else to go on.
Luckily for her, a very familiar voice calls out to her pursuer just before the shadowy figure crosses the threshold.
She can’t make out what they are saying. Too focussed on the pounding of her heart beat reverberating in her own eardrums to really pay attention. Whatever words are exchanged though is enough to make the figure leave.
A second passes. Then another. No one steps through the threshold and Larissa breathes a heavy sigh of relief.
Then someone does appear in the doorway, coat dripping, long hair plastered down against their head and face, casting a long shadow across the room as one of the streetlights outside flickers intermittently. “Been a long time since I’ve seen ya around these parts, little bird.”
Larissa flinches, caught unawares. She should have known, really, that her saviour wouldn’t have just left her alone. At least she knows her saviour; it gives her the courage to step out from her hiding spot, tucked away into one of the crevices of the room, and confront them.
“What do you want, Queenie?”
“Is that any way to talk to ya knight in shining armour?” she shoots back, to which Larissa scoffs. That earns a deep, hearty laugh from the other woman, who also takes it as an invitation to step fully into the room. It is too difficult to make out her expression in the dark. Larissa wonders if she is wearing her signature grin. “Heard ya were in the Falls, figured I’d stop by and say hello. Imagine my surprise when one of the boys tips me off about ya being in trouble.”
“Didn’t think you would find that surprising…” Larissa mutters under her breath.
A soft chuckle follows. “True…”
The woman hovers in the doorway, silhouetted by the blue-grey lights streaming in from outside. A bundle of fabric and fur sitting heavily over her shoulders. Yet still she looks so small - such an uncharacteristic picture that Larissa almost tenses out of fear of it being an imposter. She knows, really, that it’s not. That Lillian Horner, the Queen of Golden Falls, is the one gracing Larissa with her presence, not some random nobody thug on a rich man’s payroll.
“Why are you in trouble?” she asks. To hear that softness in her voice is another slightly unwelcome surprise to Larissa. Or is it welcome? Even she’s not quite sure.
“It’s not me they’re trying to get at,” Larissa almost barks, folding her arms across her chest. Now that she is out of the rain and the adrenaline is wearing off, she realises just how cold it is. Being soaked doesn’t help. “The old man cheated a rich arse out of a few million credits.”
Lillian tilts her head.
For the briefest moment, light streams across her face, tilted to just the right angle. Larissa swears she sees a flash of concern, but it is gone as soon as she blinks.
“Well, well, it’s not often someone has the balls to go after ol’ Ziegler.” She draws forward, right into Larissa’s personal space. All it takes is a slightly elongated stride. Larissa lets her, too tired from all the running, from her adrenaline resetting, to do much else. It gives Lillian the chance to reach out a hand and cup Larissa’s cheek, the whisper gentle touch of a thumb ghosting over the skin just below her left eye.
Larissa winces. Partly from an instinctual desire not to show weakness, and partly because the sudden contact over a blossoming bruise stings.
Of course she’d seen the damn thing, Larissa thinks, glancing down at the floor so that she doesn’t have to see the shadowed, pitying look Lillian shoots her way. She’s got the sight of a Chalauran on a midnight prowl.
“This rich asshole got a name, little bird?” Lillian asks. There is an obvious edge to her voice, fighting against the soothing sweetness that betrays a modicum of concern.
Larissa shakes her head. “It’s not your problem, Queenie.”
She would have liked, more than anything, to see how Lillian reacted to that dismissal. The Queen of Golden Falls hates to be told no, to let things go. But the room is still too dark and Lillian’s got her back to the outside lights.
Maybe that was on purpose. Good positioning. Don’t give anything away. Larissa curses those internal thoughts as soon as they filter through her mind, age old lessons from her father when he still cared about what his eldest’s future was going to look like.
She is shaken from her thoughts by a kiss, chaste against her forehead, followed by the weight of a coat being draped across her shoulders.
“You looked cold,” is the first answer Larissa garners from her questioning glance. The second comes when Lillian wraps an arm around her shoulders and tugs her closer, directing her towards the door. “Come on, little bird. You can stick with me tonight - find your way home in the morning when there’s no shadows for the common thugs to hide in.”
Really, Larissa shouldn’t. But it is a familiar comfort; away from danger, from her overbearing family, from the wrath that will surely follow once her father sees the bruise around her eye and nose. So easy to lose yourself in such a thing.
When Lillian gives her another gentle tug, Larissa takes a deep breath and begins to match her stride. Wraps an arm around Lillian’s waist - steadying, she tells herself - and lets herself be led through the streets of the Falls.
Tomorrow, she thinks, tomorrow I’ll deal with the rest of this bullshit.
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