Skulk

        Her eyes snapped up to meet the werewolf’s both briefly and unceremoniously. It was hard to process his words as the truth. A year seemed both entirely too short and too long of a time span to describe his absence. All tragedies associated with the city had malformed into an ugly mass of grief in her mind, yet if she thought too deeply about it she could conjure up the most obscure memories from specific events. So, in reality, she felt as though she was stuck in a warped timezone. When the threat had first moved into New York; when they had first struck — it could have been five years or two weeks ago. “Welcome back, Mr. Woods,” she offhandedly threw the nickname his way. “I hope I’m not your first stop. What’s that thing you’re eternally bound to? Family?” She could ignore his flippant comments about her typical routine. School was important; she took it seriously. And when she was so close to being done for good, she needn’t take a break now.

If there was one thing he was entirely certain about when it came to the huntress, it was that him evading her personal space would without doubt get him the disgruntled welcome back to the city from a single one broody new yorker that he’d surely appreciate above a multitude of others. “I leave you on your own for a whole year,” he stopped just shy of the table she occupied, the bright red Twizzler caught between his teeth as he snapped a piece off.  Asher having shamelessly wandered past the campus and beyond the handful of cafe’s just beyond when he’d seen her. “And you’ve barely moved.” How he could have so easily sat by as any given time they’d ever spent together had included her with her head in a textbook or her laptop was beyond him, though he supposed centuries of built and honed patience made it a little more bearable. “I wish I could say I’m surprised.”

“You can’t just pull food off of my plate” Delphine replied looking at her company in the restaurant. She would never openly say she was okay with sharing but there was a certain etiquette she liked to keep up. “We can split something, but I’m not overly fond of the reaching across the table”

“Since when?” Though he kept his distance from most others, willingly, always skirting around the edge in the shadows, that was never the case with Delphine. Instead, Asher did whatever he could, whenever he could to bother her. “Sucks for you, I’m perfectly happy reaching over the table.”

Jonah didn’t know Asher that well and he didn’t care to get to know him. Jonah tolerated Aher’s family and he did so more because he had to rather than because he wanted to. He wasn’t going to treat Asher any different than he treated anyone else just because of his last name. “Right,” he said skeptically. Jonah narrowed his eyes. “Guess I’m not a good samaritan like you are. Maybe I’ll need you to teach me your generous ways.” Unsurprisingly, Jonah was being sarcastic. 

“Okay, I know, don’t worry.” She blew out a breath, turning her sight away from him in the meanwhile. Asher Davenport’s very presence was something she fought to not let bother her, every annoyed phrase she let out seemed to only amuse him. It wasn’t like her to completely dislike someone just because of their family name, and that wasn’t what she was trying to convey. It was more or less just him, how he acted and spoke. “That’s not really my method, you don’t know how hunters work.” She shook her head quickly in response. “And you knew I’d be here, or is this just convenient for you?” A brow raised as she crossed her arms over her chest, an action she did too often when she felt like being defensive.

“Delighted to see I’m already living up to your dreadfully low expectations,” Jack smirked. Asher spoke the truth - as it was, Jack had to use the contents of a stolen wallet to pay for his coffee. “Did I invite you to join me?” he questioned, though he really didn’t mind. It had been an age since he’d last seen his younger brother, and he relished the opportunity to catch up with the sibling who’d always understood his ethos best. “Ahh,” he began, rolling his eyes at the boy’s laundry list of faux-complaints. “But I’m all about that Insta life, so what’s your new excuse?” Jack wagged his phone in front of Ash, only half-joking. He took in the young man between drags of his cigarette. “Looks like life’s been treating you well in my absence.”

“If they stay low, you’re always gonna exceed them. It’s for your benefit. You know, all that feel good shit or whatever.” Though truthfully, much like his brother, Asher had never cared much for expectations, or either him or their last name -- his choices made that perfectly clear. He snorted quietly, casting his brother a half bored half challenging glance, “Do I look like someone who cares for an invite?” The entire premise that Asher lived by was being in places he wasn’t welcome at the most inopportune time. “You never followed me back,” the whine of his voice wasn’t unlike moments before hand, and likely even less serious than he’d been before. He’d never much minded distance between he and his siblings, aside from Abigail. Every few hundred years they’d all end up in the same place anyway. “Life treats me better in your absence, but clearly it doesn’t do a single good thing for you. They give you your own cardboard box to live in yet?”

“You’re just as bad as I remembered.” The Bordeaux hated having to remember the situation they were both in. Ace quickly grabbed a cigarette out herself and lit it, hand shaking with anger. She could never force him to do anything, though. She was quickly forced to regain composure. Shaking her head, she took a lengthy drag and leaned against a wall. “I’m seeing Jack.” There was no telling whether or not she had intended to piss him off by mentioning her new relationship or she simply wanted to tell him the truth. Brag, perhaps. To show that she didn’t need him. That she never did. It was unlikely that it would ever serve the purpose of simply informing him that she was seeing his brother. The brunette silenced herself by inhaling, not even looking him in the eyes until she realised she didn’t owe him anything. Ace wasn’t sure whether or not he’d even care. It was worth a try, though. Get something out of him. “At least one of you isn’t completely emotionally void. Maybe you should learn from him.”

“Asher my darling, if I hear or see something I haven’t heard or seen before, I’ll dollar at it. Nothing surprises me now,” she chuckled, obviously teasing him. Whether or not he was actually part of what was going on, she knew that he would deal with it in such a way that their name wouldn’t be drawn into it. Dinah caught the lighter and lit up her own cigarette before placing the lighter back into her pocket. “Many things kill and yet here we stand,” she chuckled as she walked over to stand next to him.

There was a time, when Callio would have spat on the ground that Asher walked. A life altered because of the very family he was born into. But she had given up on petty grudges long ago, aimed to have an eternal life of meaning. And now she simply teased him for the fun of it. “Apple peels? What’d you do, choke on one? Ash, don’t you know you’re supposed to chew your food before you swallow?” She raised both brows, lips curving expectantly into a grin. “Only because you refuse to admit it.” She cooed before lowering her hand, twisting it until her palm faced skyward, lighter offered upon it.

There were few places Ace had felt comfort in the world, and as a result of an unfortunate set of events, Asher was not a part of any of those places. Bad blood, of course. Nonetheless, she had a burning temper and seeing him simply spoiled her day. However, it wasn’t as though Ace could have avoided him for eternity, even if she desperately tried. “What the fuck do you think? You’re careless, and apathetic. And sure, fuck, maybe I am too. But you — you are in a league of your own, Asher.” While she snapped at him, the Bordeaux’s mind flickered to Jack. Asher’s presence suddenly made Ace feel a lot more complicated before, unsure about whether or not he knew.

“All right, so what did I miss?” Gale asked, clearly happy to see his sibling but knew that after an extensive hello he’d have to get to business. He’d been away for a few months and surely with whatever was going on when he left it undoubtedly meant he’d missed a couple things. There was time to be the overprotective and overbearing brother later. “Anything happened while I was gone? Anything important I need to know?” @dinah-davenport @davenportabigail @ashcrdvnprt @judedavenport @the-darling-miss-davenport @jack–davenport

JJ’s eyebrows furrowed as she turned to meet the male’s gaze, “A robbery,” she paused, taking a moment to think to herself. It was hard to remember normal, mundane things were taking place when so much else was going on — not even behind the scenes any longer. A robbery could be constituted as normal, especially given that it was New York of all places. “— right. I have no reason to carry a lighter around. Why don’t you ever have one?”

Dinah raised an eyebrow at Asher’s comment as she came up behind him, “You know, I’ve never been a fan of you knowing things like this, it normally suggests some form of involvement”. To many, it might have sounded like she was accusing him but her tone was lighter than it would have have been if she was. A type of banter that was saved for her younger brother. The one who was always up to mischief but was smart about it. “Of course,” she responded as she threw him her own lighter. 

“Don’t talk to me like we’re—” The Bordeaux gritted her teeth, clenching her fists. Anger boiled within Ace, knowing she couldn’t publicly make a scene, even if her anger issues were beyond her control. “What fucking way do I go, then?”