titanium heart.

Or you are.

I'm not a fucking brown noser like everyone else in this town, but word on the street is you're a rat so you tell me?

Probably. Or they all just mysteriously died.

Did you kill'em... Aren't you supposed to be the Grim Reaper or somethin'?

"Debt-collectors usually want something more sinister," Darius pointed out, but without malice. "Were you thinking Venetian? Did the plan involve actually getting off our asses, or riffling through a Pottery Barn catalogue on your phone?"

Vivienne had been all set to answer just as the waitress came back their way, listening to how Darius interacted with the woman was enough to make her chuckle as she rolled her eyes and shook her head at his direction. He'd even had the gall to wink at her as he did it, his wide smile captivating the woman as Vivienne watched tutting too herself softly. Darius had charm thicker than molasses and he knew it, she though he ought to have been ashamed of himself for using it to dazzle the waitress unnecessarily, in fact she found herself slightly annoyed by the act, how it took the woman what felt like several hours to look her way so she could order her food. "I'll take eggs, toast and bacon, small pancakes." Vivienne said, holding out the menu for her, her face now unamused.  "Did you get all of that, or would you like me to slow it down for you?" the waitress gave a uneasy look but nodded, then walked away from their booth, leaving Vivienne to try her best to soften her features, trying to clam her attitude.

Her ears picked up the whisper of her son’s name, and that was when her eyes lifted to look in the direction of where she had been  previously walking before she stopped. He was there, somewhere buried six-feet deep in the ground, with flowers covering his name that weren’t even placed by her own hands. The more she pictured him lying so still in his grave, the more she would rather stand here all day with Vivienne. Sophia didn’t know how Vivienne could do it so easily.. visit Connor. Or, had it even been easy for Vivienne? “Yeah,” she added on to Vivienne’s statement, “for Alex.” She concluded, his name struggling to run off of her tongue, turning her eyes back to the husky that sat on guard at Vivienne’s feet. “It wasn’t concern,” Maybe it was, but Sophia couldn’t help but hear the subtle sharpness in Vivienne’s tone, which cued her to bite back—but not hard. She sighed, “an observation—that’s all.” She turned her eyes to the white flowers that were at Vivienne’s feet. “Naomi, she’s also..” she paused, eyes dragging back up to Vivienne, “fine.. Just in case you were at all.. wondering. I know the two of you aren’t necessarily on.. good terms.”

She could see it in Sophia's eyes, the longing, the ache for someone that was lost, but did that make them the same? Did Sophia truly know the ache Vivienne felt for her fallen friend, the worry she felt for her sister, the way she longed for the companionship that Connor gave to her, that the two of them shared. It was only seconds ago Vivienne had eased her fingers into the light grass that had grown around the  grave site, wishing she could feel his gentle touch instead of dirt underneath her fingernails. Did Sophia have those same sad, desperate thoughts? She wanted to doubt, but Vivienne hated that she knew better, She hated the woman, that much was true, but even hidden behind shades, no matter how dark, Vivienne knew hurt when she saw it, and she knew Sophia was hurting as bad as she was. "did you really come over here to talk to me about my sister?" Vivienne asked her softly, pulling back on the leash as Todd instinctively stood guard in front of her, a soft growl settling in the Husky's throat. "I know, I made her run outside, but no. We're not on good times, but that wasn't hard to see from your view, is it really?"

The urge she had to end Vivienne the other night, seemed to become non existent as she stared at her flushed and dampened face. Was this pity? Perhaps feeling sorry for Vivienne? Or, was this Sophia relating to the pain she was probably feeling? Knowing exactly how it felt to be kicked while you were down, and not finding it in herself to inflict that pain on even someone she saw as an enemy? She swallowed her hesitated words, shuffling through her thoughts for a response that would easily pull her out of this conversation. She could always just keep it short and simple—or not even that, she could just turn around and be on her way. But it was hard to ignore the pain that surrounded them both. The pain that brought them both here. “Same reason as you, I would imagine..” Visiting someone I loved. Still love. She reached for her glasses and pulled them away from her face, though her eyes were averted as she did so. “I see you didn’t get..” she gestured towards Vivienne, whose body was in one piece, unless there was a bullet hole or stab wound that was being covered, “hurt. With everything that happened.” And she wasn’t even sure if that was unfortunate or not.

She hated crying in front of Sophia, in front of anyone, really. Vivienne had done her share of crying in front of strangers meant to be her own family and she learned quickly that tears meant nothing to them, to anyone. Some didn't even take the liberty of caring enough to laugh at your pain. They were just ignored. Seeing Sophia only stare back with a less then blank expression on her face made Vivienne cringe. She could remember the malice that was locked on the woman's face at she stared back at Vivienne only a day or so ago, where was that now? She couldn't let herself believe Sophia sympathized with her, even if her face told her other wise. The coldest woman in Vegas feeling for her of all people, it was just last night how she'd dared to put Vivienne down, to bring the woman to her knees by threatening to use what pierced her armor against her. At her words, Vivienne only furrowed her eyebrows, until she realized, "Alex.." she whispered softly, trying to control her breathing, to calm the tears "You're here for your son." Vivienne looked away as she sniffed, rolling her eyes softly at the woman's comment. "Thanks for the obvious concern, but I don't need it." She tried to sound tough, she even tried to sound angry, but it wasn't in her voice at this moment, the fight wasn't there.

Frantically searching Naomi felt herself getting lost in the sea of people, unable to find her sister, her husband or her sister in law struck a cord within her as fear truly sunk in until a pair of familiar arms took hold of her. Wide eyed and granted with a sense of relief Naomi let out a dry sob as she folded, collapsing into her sister wrapping her slender limbs around her with an unexpressed need to be in the safety of the first person she was ever able to count on. 

As Naomi's arms fell around her body and Vivienne hugged herself close, she couldn't shake that odd sense of familiarity, the feeling in her chest that told her she was where she was suppose to be. She couldn't ever lie to herself nor could she lie to Naomi, even in all of her anger, even with all her pride, as adamant as Vivienne was in her hatred against her sister's choices and her new family, Vivienne missed her. She missed her too much. Vivienne could barely let Naomi out of the bear hug she had her in as the girl looked her over, doing as she had done only moments ago. She snapped back into survival mode a moment later. "We need to get out of the open space, Naomi-- you know better, come on." with that, Vivienne, began to drag her sister to the side and out of harms way, the sights of both Alessandra Rinaldi and Genevieve Rossi's bloodied body's catching her eyes.

The lack of sleep had done Darius no favours. Even when he used to work the night shift and go back to a different job in the morning, there was the guarantee that a moment’s slow reflex wouldn’t get him killed. In this scenario, there was the possibility that one slip of tongue or one careless thought spoken aloud would give Lorenzo’s plentiful enemies more than what they needed.

Watching him slide into the both they know sat In, Vivienne scanned Darius with a cautious eye. Of course with that smile, she couldn't find her words right off the bat. She hated looking at it, never in her life had she ever been thrown off so hard by the simple movement of seventeen muscles, in fact, Vivienne had to greet him in a scowl just to keep herself level headed. Vivienne was supposed to be the one immune to stupid charms because she saw the reality of the situation before anything else. She saw the same in Darius, but she couldn't deny the fact that she felt a odd feeling pass throw her when he shined the smile like a Cheshire cat her way. Thankfully Vivienne was allowed more time to collected her thoughts as the waitress supplied them with more coffee. She thanked the woman, and started to add the right amount of cream and sugar to her own mug. If she wanted to get this right she was going to need to fight fire with fire.