Like a cat bringing it's owner a mouse it just caught, Victor had a bloodied and beaten man at his feet. "Here's th' gentleman who catcalled ya earlier t'day. Happy Valentine's Day, darlin'."
Her strange and terrible friend preens over his gift, who moans in what could only be acute pain. Darcy knows that the fact the guy isnât dead is also another gift from the feline-like mutant and when she kneels next the dude who is quickly becoming a patchwork of bruises and cuts (and maybe some broken bones), she sighs.
âHey! Hey dude!    You awake?â
He opens eyes, bloodshot and watery blue, and nods; he keeps his gaze squarely on her and not on Victor, who towers over them at nearly seven feet tall.
âOh, good, okay, cool.â
Vibe checkâ A devious part of her whispers.(The part, she thinks, that keeps Vic visiting every now and again. Sometimes weeks between, sometimes months.This last gap? A few years.Sheâd thought, maybe, that heâd died. To see him again, even with such a grisly package, is like Vaseline on chapped lips in the middle of winter.
Sticky and unpleasant, but needed and full of relief)
âYou learn your lesson?   About how not to be a gross creep to girls on the street?â
Because you never know which one is friends with Sabertooth.
The man whimpers and nods, his lips twisting in a pathetic drool-and-blood coated attempt at confirmation.
âCool.     Call yourself an Uber and go to the hospital, guy.     Tell âem you got your ass kicked by some randos at a bar or something.          Donât say anything about me or my buddy here, okay?          Heâll know.â
And the man scampers off, limping with a leg that must have been broken, powered only by that instinctual need to continue living; leaving Victor and Darcy in the cold outside of her apartment.She grins up at him, a little shy.
âYou like Tiramisu?     Iâve got, like, half a cake left in the fridge⌠      and the same bottle of whiskey you left last time.â