There were many scenarios Cinder had planned in her head where Neo might come knocking on her door. She was sure she had ranged from the best to the worst eventualities, prepared herself for anything, knew what to expect. It was either going to be a 'welcome home', or 'never come near me again' and she had answers for both problems should they arise.

What she had not expected, however, was Mercury bringing the bandit to her door. Had not expected the boy to have her cradled in his arms with so much worry in his face, tripping over his words about how he had found her unconscious in an alleyway - God, what a mess she looked... It took all of the woman's strength not to break, but even as she looked over the girls broken form in his arms she found her lips trembling.

She demanded that he bring her in, cleared a space on her table in the kitchen for him to place her onto, and he did. But she wanted him outside to make sure nobody came near her home; if anyone came looking for trouble he was to kill them on the spot. He may have been followed if anyone recognised him, or the girl who was usually so well kept, so presentable but was now coated in a blood stained suit jacket...

Cinders hands worked over areas quickly, pushing scorched hair out of her face to try and look over the damage to her face... Tried not to get stuck in her worry, tried not to focus on how still she was even with all that had happened... But what had happened? With a frown, softly her voice bled, "Oh, Neo..." But even as soft as her voice was, an awful boiling rage encased her ribs, a fire igniting and burning deep in her stomach. If she ever found out who did this, she'd kill them; they'd suffer for this.

It could have been anything. Anyone in that pub of hers, anyone that didn't particularly like her, anyone that had been in contract with her before. Cinder knew the danger she put herself in; she had been there before, too. The worry had caused her to fall still in her actions, eyes roaming over the scuffs and the blood, the marks all over her body. It was awful to think someone would have the audacity to harm her...

Snapping out of it, Cinder tried to shrug the jacket off of her shoulders but with her back down, it was hard to do so without causing her some kind of damage. Regrettably, she had to reach for scissors and cut her out of the jacket; she'd replace it, pay for a brand new, crisp white suit jacket, but these thoughts were only distracting now. She had to stop dwelling on it, had to stop being so consumed with panic that her actions were slowing.

Once the jacket had been cut away, she pulled the material away from her, immediately noticing the cuts and bruises across her arms that extended from shoulders to wrists, hands still encased in leather black gloves. Concern made her pause once more, teeth gritting together as she glanced at the corset. That, too, would need to be cut away. Trying not to be so wasteful of her time, she lifted the bottom of the corset up so not to catch her skin and cut into it, parting it in two so that she could try and inspect underneath it, praying that any damage wasn't worse than she'd already seen as she parted the boned material.

Send me a “ 💞 “ and I post a gif showing my muses feeling towards yours.

Send “Hey there” to pin my character against the wall and kiss them.

Well, this certainly was a surprise. It wasn’t often the little bandit would do something so dangerous in public, but Cinder was far from complaining about it. After all she was so used to the girls general teasing, how often she would get up close and in her face, that this kind of behaviour wasn’t so much of a shock.

“Don’t dare try and tell me you know what I need-!” 

The pain kept coming in floods, in dangerous waves that crashed and fell all around her and consumed her entire being. Gripping the edge of her desk she was sure she was close to breaking through it, but there was no possible way to stop the pain unless her knuckles were white in some attempt at distracting herself.

Shaking suddenly, her head dipped low as a shallow breath sucked past her teeth. It was just the same hunger as usual, same as always, but today it burned all over - her skin was flaring up and burning hot to the touch, but with no release it all bubbled below the surface, a rising temperature far above any normal scaling.

How dru.. runk are… you, right now?

Her eyes squinted at the girls hands as they signed, still as quick and sharp as usual, yet somehow it was even harder to read them tonight… Probably the copious amount of alcohol she had consumed, and probably because Neo hadn’t even tried to go easy on her and signed at her normal speed.

“Clearly not drunk enough,” Cinder laughed, her hand lifting and resting on the smaller girls shoulder, leaning in as though she was about to tell the girl a secret, “because I could still read you.” A smile broke across still perfectly painted lips, white teeth catching onto the lacquer for a brief moment before she stood up straight again, reaching for a bottle. Somehow pouring another glass of wine was easier than reading gloved hands, but it wasn’t something she put great focus on.

“Could I interest you in anything, Neo? Regrettably, I don’t know your tastes in alcohol, but I can have Junior bring anything you want if I don’t have it here.” She spoke over her shoulder, golden eyes glancing at the girl before she placed the bottle down and brushed her hair through with her fingers. 

“Won’t you?” Cinder questioned with a glinting smirk, releasing the girls chin roughly from her grip. Won’t scream or refuse to? Now there was a real question, and Cinder wasn’t going to stop short of finding her answer. Not when she had her exactly where she wanted her.

Did she think she was stronger than her? It was almost laughable. So much so that the Cheshire grin could only grow upwards as her hands leaned down on the arms of the chair Neo was sat in, looming over the shorter girl as though to make her presence even more unbearable, if it wasn’t so already. 

Our muses split up five years ago and suddenly run into each other. Send me ‘💔’ for my muse’s reaction to seeing yours.

It wasn’t usual for Cinder to frequent this side of town. It was normal to find Cinder where she was comfortable, keeping to districts she knew with people she had known for years. It was easier, and her usual antics were starting to dwindle out. Having grown fed up of fooling around, going out usually meant a quiet drink with people she knew.

Yet tonight for god knows what reason, she took to a different part of town. A change of scenery, maybe. Seeking new company, having grown old of the others she had grown to be fond of, but had now grown bored of hearing the same stories again and again. Maybe talking to a new group of people would do her good, finding like-minded people instead of settling for whoever.

Pushing the door open, her eyes focused immediately on the dual-toned hair. It was like a second nature, like her brain had been so trained to always find her in a crowded room. She should have left; closed the door behind her and walked away from the situation; left the memory of her skin and the scent of her perfume in that room. But she had stalled so long, if she backed out she would have won even if it was no longer about winning or losing.

So she pressed on, hoping she hadn’t got caught loitering in the door frame at the sight of her ex. After all, she had no hold on her any longer, they hadn’t spoke in years after all. Funny she had to run into her now, of all times.

Approaching the bar, she sat and leaned her chin on the back of her hand, slipping back into her old habits like she had never lost them and gave a cautious glance at the bandit. What was there to say any more? Sure, there were things left unsaid, feelings unexpressed, but it was too late to be wasting time on such petty things. 

∞ - For an altered state of mind text. (Drunk, drugged.)