I'VE GOT CLAWS THAT SCRATCH

“My steed is going to give me the stink eye when he sees how much I’ve brought,” the witch chuckled, looking down at the abundance of items she’d purchased in the market. “It happens any time I put anything over 3 kilos on his back, aside from myself that is.” 

Elijah grinned at the sound of his best friend laughing. It was good for them to have moments like this, something more light-hearted where they could joke around. Made the heaviness of the events in New York a little more… survivable. “You all have to stop treating people like your clients. You know the lawyer interrogation route only takes you so far,” he mused, still as fond as ever of the Vale family though. “For now. I’m happy for now; we’ll see if it lasts,” the Tallis witch mused. It wasn’t that he expected something bad to happen, but with how chaotic things had been, good times were rather fleeting. “Would you want to be with someone? Regardless of time.”

“That… is very true,” Olivia commented with a slight breath of laughter. She certainly raised her eyebrows at certain choices people have made. But the Vale was right. To each their own. Olivia was hardly one to judge. “I agree. I may not consume it but with heightened senses, I will admit, I don’t appreciate when it’s consumed in such a large quantity. I remember a co-star of mine once inhaled a garlic cheese pizza before we were slated to shoot and I near gagged when he said his lines in my face.” At least it wasn’t a kissing scene at the time. That would have been awful, she shudders in recollection. “Oh, I don’t. I’m rather terrible with directions in general. I’ve been in New York before but the world changes and though I’ve lived here for two years now, I still get turned around and lost.” 

“ Well I got plenty of time to work on that at work. It might make throwing guys out of a bar more constructive work” Quinn replied shaking his head. “ Probably never leave Aalis’ apartment” He was about to say his apartment, but he still was working on the semantics now that he had moved. “ It’s not like I go out trying to talk to others”

Remington handed over the bow with a smug look on her face. “Twenty years,” the witch answered, used to the common question whenever asked about her skill. “And it’s Arwen to you,” she corrected. “Get into what you assume is the position and I’ll fixed you.”

“What’s that thing about missing what’s right in front of you?” Quinn shrugged. He would never call himself book smart so he wasn’t sure he was grasping that statement correctly. That and he wasn’t that invested once the person left and they were no longer in their space. He raised a brow at her comment about his own attitude. She got him there. “ I’ve gotten better. I don’t just tell people how annoyed I am lately, but yes the halo is always yours when were together”

Remington snorted lightly. “I didn’t use a bow until a month after I started lessons. You’re ahead of the curve,” she taunted, before perform a duplication spell on her own bow. It was a modified version to take in a count the shapeshifter’s animal strengths. “And this is free, remember? If you’re going to whine, I’m going to charge you.”

“They’re my precious, little secret,” he hummed, a smile forming on his lips “Besides, with everything that’s happening, I think I’ll wait before saying anything. Gotta enjoy the moments I’ve got left, right?” Elijah mused before pulling Addison a bit closer to him on the bed. “Thanks. I’m just hoping my family just doesn’t chase him away or freak him out.” The Tallis witch stared up at the ceiling for a moment before looking over at his best friend. “Any suitors you’re looking at? I’ve been gushing a bit now, and it’s getting gross.”

And of course, as if it could have been well and truly predicted, conversation swung to her sister. Something that Hudson had no doubt in his mind Addison had avoided for the better part of her absence from all of their lives. If he were a betting man; he might have concluded that she’d done little else other than ignore it all, in the hopes that she’d move on. Even if that found her stuck in this spot, right here and now clinging to the image that so many had burned into their mind as the turning point in such a silent war. “You’d be sacrificing one pain for another.” It didn’t matter how many times he had to say it — he’d say it at every given chance before they moved forward, to offer an out if she could even blink away the idea as a terrible option to look to. “Maybe you can’t live like this, but my fixing it, might force you to live in a way you hate even more than this and I can’t have you coming out the other end fucking resenting me for anything else.” Not beyond the heartache he’d already caused her, even if it’d all been for the best. 

“If you could ask anyone else, I’d like to think you still wouldn’t.” Beyond the few people he knew dabbled in dark magic within the city reach, he couldn’t think of anyone as well practiced and powerful as he was. Not such an egotistical brag, however, a mere thought that preserved the idea of it actually working. Her best likelihood lay with him, and he knew that long before they’d found their way here. No matter how deeply Hudson fully believed that a year was far too long for anyone to try chasing the pieces of themselves they’d lost, he knew that Addison was as foolhardy as most; never quite one to let sleeping dogs lie. “Your desperation is what’s gonna kill you, Addy.” Especially for this —- for wanting this to become such a permanent piece of her life. “But fine.. It’s not like I’ve got anything to lose, right?”

Addison chewed on her lesser lip, mulling over his words. One pain for another. “But it’d be my choice.” She linked her fingers together, stretching them palms outward, “my sacrifice. Not one that I had no say in.” Not something she woke up to. Her parents had done what they could in the moment, and she couldn’t fault them for that. They’d just lost a daughter. They’d almost lost her. “I wouldn’t hate you,” she said quickly, shaking her head as she looked over at him, sincerity in every word, “you’d have given me a choice, Hudson. That’s not something I had before. Whatever happens...you’d have given me that.” They’d been through a lot together, good and bad, and while Addison wouldn’t forget the pain that had hit when he’d left, she’d learned to forgive. If anything, she’d learned to look at it for what it was– an opportunity to start again. He’d given her that too, however abrupt and painful it had been at the time–– Hudson had given her a new start, whether or not that had actually been his intention several years ago when he’d disappeared. 

“Then I propel myself along with the penguin–” Sheamus’ incredible story was sadly cut short, his sister rudely interrupting him right when he was getting to the good part. “And here she is now, my perpetually late little sister.” He teased, mouth falling open as she grabbed his drink. “I was just telling Garrett here about the time I fell into the penguin habitat at the zoo. Because of your tardiness I already told him the horror story of your first menstrual cycle.”

“Jokes definitely on you. Here I thought you might have known better.” It wasn’t entirely unknown that within this city kindness usually came with an underlying factor that wasn’t quite so innocent. Then again, he supposed the same could be said about anywhere. “Me?” His nose turned up at the mere thought of it; despite his badge, Hendrix wasn’t quite the standing face of what any deputy should have been, especially when he was off the clock. “Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, I was just quicker to work out what he wanted than you were. I thought you Vales were the smart ones.”