Flightless Wings

          Morgiana looked at her paint splattered clothes, “….Nooo….?”

Oops, he caught me~! ✰

“Oya, oya… I am, aren’t I? I’m just not used to someone looking at me like that, it surprised me!”

Izaya laughed quietly, the sound rather sheepish as an apologetic expression crossed over his face. The man wasn’t an idiot, at least. However, due to that fact alone… Izaya would have to make sure not to slip up anymore. No need to bring his intentions completely into light, ne?

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          A beat.  And then, despite Izaya’s response ...

          “ ... Sorry. ”  Levi’s voice is low with the apology, but he pronounces the word carefully, mostly because the other’s accent is throwing him off a little bit, and he’s not certain if it’s to do with whatever strange phenomenon has placed them both here, or if it’s because of whatever it is the outfit difference between them signifies of his social status.  A question that would unfortunately have to go unasked, because there didn’t seem to be a good way to bring that up.

Again with the hat. This was getting out of hand, and Law couldn’t even be arsed to do anything but give a glare in the general direction of the voice that had called out to him. If he wanted something from him he was definitely not onto a good start. How fortunate it was that Law was just as rude himself.

“A sugary sweet city that will make you feel like puking before the week is over.” That’s what they sold it as at least, but he had come to find at least a few interesting things in this place already. But he wasn’t done speaking yet.

“You must be the midget that brat was talking about. Please keep your trash from running around and spoiling the view.”

          “ ... So then you’ve had the misfortune of meeting Yeager. ”  It isn’t at all a question -- it’s really too obvious, since it isn’t like he knows anyone here, or he’d have a lot of his questions answered by now.  “ I would apologize for him, but if I did that every single time someone had to deal with him, I wouldn’t be able to speak anymore. ”

          Rolling his eyes off to the side, he lapses into silence for a brief time, arms coming up from his sides to fold loosely over his chest.  Eren hadn’t explicitly mentioned any names, as far as he could remember, anyway ...  so he really couldn’t pretend that he knew jack shit about this guy.  ( And clearly, Eren hadn’t bothered to mention his own name, either.  Or Levi’s.  Classy, little shit, classy. )  At least, he supposes, it leaves an opening for him.

          A brief debate plays through his mind before he finally extends his left hand forward, turning his eyes back up towards the taller man, his scowl smoothing out into something of a more mild frown -- his usual emotionless expression.

Eren’s expression had turned from concerned to excited now, and he looked from Levi’s expression upward, to the ceiling. Noticing that the source of the light seemed to be coming from a glowing bulb stuck in the ceiling.

“It kind of looks like a sun…” he mused, walking toward the center of the room, staring right at it, squinting a little. Hm. After half a minute, his eyes felt like their retinas were being burned straight through, so he looked away, blinking rapidly, trying to get rid of the now very annoying blind spot in his vision. 

“Doesn’t seem to be giving off heat, though…” Eren continued, going back to the switch, carefully putting his finger on it, flipping it back down. With that, the lights went out, and he looked toward the other brunet again, before flipping them back on.

“…” Grinning now, Eren started to flip the switch rapidly, causing the lights to flicker on and off, almost like a strobe light. “Hah! This is pretty cool, huh? I wonder if the sun has a switch like this.”

          “ What? ”  Eren’s stupid and twisted logic left Levi feeling even more exhausted than usual, and judging the position of the sun outside the window, it was hardly noon yet.  All of this was incredibly stressful, tiring, and mind - numbing to boot.  Just about the shittiest possible combination that exists in this god forsaken world.  “ It doesn’t look like the sun.  It looks like some obnoxiously bright ball of light that shouldn’t exist within the confines of such a small room ... ”

          Rolling his eyes, he turns away from Eren and his stupid moth - like response to the light, instead once again returning t mentally measuring the room.  Despite having called it a small room, well ... it wasn’t tiny.  It wasn’t large, that is certain.  The basement back at the castle had been much, much larger -- though that is, of course, only to be expected in the end.  Nonetheless, if this was the larger room of this building, he thinks it would be at least vaguely suitable.

          The furnishing could use some sprucing up, and the surfaces in here were pretty dusty, much to his disgust ... but it would be cushy enough, assuming that they would not be dealing with Titans here, anyway.

          The light goes off, and for the damned third time today, Levi is surprised.  He spins on his heel, offering something of a furious scowl this time, but he hardly even gets the chance to say a word before Eren decide to dick around and flip the light on and off, on and off, on and off.  which is, incredibly, very blinding.

          “ ... This might be a shit question, but what’s the currency used here? ”

Eren was just about to turn to head into one of the bedrooms - as much as Levi didn’t care where he was sleeping, Eren sure as hell did - when the other stopped him to grab his tie. He paused to let the other tie it properly, watching his hands, trying to figure out the mystery of tying a tie; he could never get it right.

Once it was neatly settled against his chest, the brunet grinned, putting his hands on his hips, standing up straight to look ‘proper’. “I’m off to fight the dinosaurs, Captain!” He stated, then laughed at his own joke, keeping the tie on as he turned yet again to head toward the bedrooms.

“Come on, let’s decide this now, because I don’t really feel like fighting about it later.” He reached back to take Levi’s wrist, pulling him along into one of the first bedrooms.

His first thought was ‘where are the candles in this place how the hell are we supposed to see at night?’, but that’s when he noticed the switch on the wall. “What’s this–” Eren grunted, reaching out to flip it up, immediately flinching at the sudden brightness that illuminated the room. He blinked, then looked to Levi, eyebrows furrowed again. 

“….This is amazing.”

          “ When will you learn not to just grab people -- ” he starts, but cuts himself off before he even gets started, because the good lord above knows damn well that no amount of lecturing this kid on common sense is going to actually accomplish jack shit, because Eren does what Eren wants to do, and nothing more and nothing less.  If he doesn’t have his mind set to it, he won’t do it, and there is no bribing him.

          Plodding along behind, rather grumpily at that, he decides that he will take the smallest room, if there is a size difference, mostly because too much space around him makes him feel incredibly off kilter, but in part because Eren is still something of a high priority to him.  ( And maybe, just maybe, it’s a silent way of apology for locking him up down in the basement at the castle, now that such precautions are no longer necessary, in his mind. )

          When they reach a halt, Levi glances around the room with a vague sense of curiosity, trying to gauge how big it is for reference when they step into the other room.  ... But, because Eren is yet still too nosy for his own good, he’s suddenly started, yet again, by the light filling the room.  And maybe this time, he does jump, but only slightly so.

Uwah… how scary!

Pfft. Just kidding~! ✰

The scowl was unimpressive, to say the least. Izaya had been witness to a lot worse in his line of work and the individuals he , so the expression didn’t faze him in the slightest– However the expression the man made afterwards did interest him. Even though it only lasted for a moment, the utter look of surprise that crossed the other’s face caught his attention– It made him curious.

Not to mention that rather pregnant pause, and the fact that the man seemed to have wanted to say something; But chose not to.

Aah, humans are so interesting~!

“…Is there something on my face?”

The words left Izaya’s mouth with a tone that rang with both amusement and confusion, blinking his eyes as he raised a hand to his face as if to check– Though he knew that there wasn’t anything there, having checked before leaving his new residence. There was something else bothering the man when he saw Izaya, and the informant was undoubtedly curious as to what that reaction was all about.

For now, he let it go. 

He nodded when the man finally spoke, his expression shifting to one of an apologetic nature– Or rather, as apologetic as Orihara Izaya could look, which while it wasn’t much it was still passable as a sincere reaction. At least to those unfamiliar with how he presented himself.

“Forgive me, I seem to be experiencing a touch of culture shock, ne?”

His tone sounded a bit bemused, his eyes looking around at their surroundings for a moment before his attention once again focused on the man in front of him.

“I suddenly woke up this morning in this city, you see. I apologize for zoning out like that, I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

That wasn’t entirely a lie, at least.

Besides, you’re a bit too short to be within my immediate line of sight. Ha!

Okay, that was just mean. Oh well.

There was a moment’s pause before Izaya blinked, shifting his expression to one of mild embarrassment; His hand raising to the back of his neck to rub at it absently; Bowing politely.

“Ah.. Where are my manners. I am Orihara Izaya, and yourself? I would hate to part without at least knowing the name of the person I accidentally assaulted.”

A pause.

“Speaking of. Would you allow me to make it up to you, at all? Perhaps if I offer to buy you some tea–Or even a coffee if you preferred– as a sort of… reconciliation?”

To be honest, he only extended the offer because he was curious about the other’s earlier reaction– As well as how much he may know about this place, if anything. The latter didn’t matter that much, in all honesty. He had his ways to get the information he needed, after all.

          “ Nothing’s on your face except a pretty incredible shit - eating grin, and you’re doing a shit job at hiding it, ” Levi snipes after a moment of consideration.  This place has proven to be pretty weird from the get go, and he’s not about to make it any more strange by pointing out something that is, perhaps only to him, an oddity.  After all, while he hasn’t taken much of a look at any of these peoples’ faces, a lot of them are fairly dark - haired and light skinned, so the chance that there’s a lot more orientals here is probably pretty high.  This place was--is--weird.

         Shifting his stance, Levi gives up on seeing what's being sold at the stand, and instead turns his full attention up -- unfortunately, VERY up -- to Izaya, pursing his lips as he considers his words, his introduction, and perhaps most of all, his physical appearance.  The fact he's clearly ... Japanese stands out, sure ... but the way he dresses is, in itself, quite an oddity, actually.  The fur - lined coat reaching his calves would imply that he's incredibly well off.  But ... the way he keeps his hair so untidy ( well, it is in his opinion, anyway ) would imply heavily otherwise.  Or maybe he just doesn't care?

         Quirking his mouth slightly to the right, he furrows both eyebrows again, this time mostly as a response to being so lost in his own thoughts ...  but, because he's been rather well trained himself in his life, because he has more or less had these things beaten into him by his superior who had blackmailed him into the damned military in the first place, he does not miss a beat when his time for introductions come.

         He doesn't bother to offer any sort of smile, but he does bow as politely as Izaya had ( have to keep up with another's customs, isn't that right?  If they don't go for a handshake, you don't either ), then straightens up with a concise, " Levi. "

         And then, it's his turn to pause.

         " Levi Ackerman.  ... You prefer Orihara or something, then?  Can't say I know too much about Asian customs since I'm from somewhere a lot different. "  Just a ghost of a smirk comes, and goes just as quickly at that.  Yeah.  Definitely different ...  " I'd say in a shitty place like this, the most courtesy you're gonna get is something like this. "

         He waves a hand in a dismissive gesture, eyes following a few of the people milling about as they relocate, and then he drops his arm to cross it over his chest.

starters: • like for a short starter ( no cap ; don’t need to be mutuals ) • inbox for long starter ( no cap ; mutuals only please ) 

He turned toward the other when the fan was snatched from his hands, silently praying that Levi didn’t just throw it to the ground or break it in some other way; whatever it was, it could come in handy. And it was his.

As soon as he feels that cold air rushing right back into his face again - and that god-awful sound - he squinted and held up his hands, his eyes feeling dry and irritated already.

“Alright alright! I’ll clean up the broken glass.” He grunted as he got to his feet, rubbing at one eye as he headed into the kitchen, looking for some sort of broom or dustpan. After finding one in one of the closets, he knelt down next to the pile of glass and swept it up as quickly as he could, heading back into the kitchen to toss it into the garbage.

When that was finished, he went back into the living room and picked up his dinosaur-print tie, draping it around his neck. “I dunno when I’d ever wear this, but it’s pretty cool.” He smiled, then reached for the handle of his suitcase.

“Did you pick a bedroom already?”

          “ Damn right you will, little shit. ”  Levi watches Eren as he stands and disappears in search of something to aid in cleaning up the mess.  Fine by him, it doesn’t matter how cleans up the mess, as long as it’s taken care of, after all.  He turns his attention back to the fan, eyeing it as if trying to deduce from it secrets that were buried deep within its very inner workings.  If he could, he would take it apart and see what was inside of it, try his damnedest to figure out how the thing functioned just from a button being pressed.  But that flash of fear in Eren’s eyes when Levi had grabbed the fan in the first place -- he knew that was out of the question.

          Sighing breezily, he sets the fan down on the table near the rest of Eren’s things, and he eases around the front room again, moving to pick up the small box with two black banded rings that seemed much too bulky to actually be comfortable for casual wear with the job that they worked.  He observes them questioningly, and loses himself in thought as the sound of ceramic clinking against itself plays as background music while Eren cleans.

          “ ... What? ”

          Glancing back to see the brunet now adorned with an untied tie hanging about his neck and making him look like quite the idiot, Levi cocks an eyebrow.  “ No.  I don’t know this place, but even more, I don’t get what any of this shit is for.  Or where mine is ...  I wasn’t too concerned on where I’d sleep. ”  He sets the rings down on top of the TV stand where he had placed them earlier, and turns on his heel, pacing over to seize the tie.