[CLOSED] Now I'm done with nothing new;

[vampdetective]

Who: Angelus & Tohru Honda, with guest appearances by Saki Hanajima, Lydia Martin & Regina Mills.
Where: The eighth floor.
When: The night of 10/30.
Rating: R, violence.
Summary: With his cover blown, Angelus is done playing boy scout.
The Story:

Waiting was always the hardest part. He was not a patient creature by nature; this past month had been a trying exercise in and of itself, one he was more than ready to be done with. The reappearance of Cordelia Chase had been the first sign that things would have to change soon; there was no fooling her for long, and he was positive she was already getting the word out. If she hadn't done it already, then she'd have picked up on Saki Hanajima screaming for help over the network-- other people might not have been convinced, but Cordelia knew how he operated. She'd believe her. That meant biding his time was no longer an option.

Fine by him. He'd been getting bored, anyway.

It's 10:05 when he leans back against the door to Tohru Honda's room, arms casually folded across his chest, legs crossed at the ankle as he lets the door itself prop him up, half-hidden by the shadows as he fixed his gaze on the end of the hallway, just waiting for any sign of the diner's proprietress. She was a brave girl, warned against him and still she ventured out of her room, despite the fact that the threshold was the only thing that could, technically, keep her safe, if he weren't creative enough to smoke her out. He couldn't cross it on his own without an invitation, but there was no metaphysical law saying he couldn't throw something in.

10:06. A sliver of light appears at the end of the hallway as the diner door swings open, and he waits.

Comments

[breakthecurse]

Tohru's been warned by now. She wouldn't doubt Hana for a second, and she's spoken to Miss Chase as well. She knows that Angel is not the same person he was a few months ago, and that he's dangerous without his soul. She doesn't want to think ill of him, but she also an't deny what's happened...the horrible things he's done to Hana. Yet, at the same time she feels sorry for him. This is what happens when he experiences true happiness? Tohru can't imagine how terrible that must be, to have to keep yourself from being truly and completely happy.

She did consider remaining in her room, and that would likely be the safest place for her to be until he is restored to his former self, but she didn't feel right not taking her shift at the diner either. She knows the others would understand. Of course they would, but it's just down the hall and she'll be fine, really! She still has responsibilities, and she can't just stay hidden away forever.

So, she took her shift, and even stayed a few minutes late to help make sure everything got cleaned up and put away. She shuts the door behind her, but then as she walks closer to her room, she sees that someone is already there outside, waiting for her. Someone very familiar.

Tohru freezes in her tracks, but she doesn't dare say a word. She knows what Angelus is capable of now, and she quickly peeks behind her. Maybe if she doesn't engage him, she could still turn around and run away...

[vampdetective]

"Hey there, sweetheart."

He pushes himself away from the door effortlessly, righting himself in a single fluid movement as he faces her, taking two very deliberate steps forward before stopping short. He can almost see the whites of her eyes from where he stands; a smirk pulls at one corner of his mouth and he lets his arms drop away from his chest, fangs bared, flexing his fingers as his hands fall to his sides.

"I was hoping I'd run into you. We've got some catching up to do."

[breakthecurse]

For each step he takes forward, Tohru takes a large step back. Her eyes are wide with fear, and she can't help staring at his fangs. Sometimes, when she talks to Angel - the real Angel, the one with a soul in him - she almost forgets that he's a vampire. But now, those fangs are out and very threatening-looking.

"I-I...I know," she stammers out, trying her best to hold herself together. "I know you're not really Angel and...a-and I know what you did to Hana."

To some degree, Tohru knows she can be a little gullible. She doesn't mean to - it just sort of happens by accident. She'll take things too literally, or assume the best when others don't have good intentions. He's fooled her, but she knows the truth now (finally, after weeks of him being in the diner and watching her - she wonders just how long he hasn't been himself).

"Miss Chase...Miss Chase called you Angelus."

[vampdetective]

"Not really Angel? Is that what that has-been prom queen told you?" That grin broadens and it's nothing but menacing, Angel's eyes completely gone and replaced with something animal, something demonic. There's nothing of the Angel Tohru knows there anymore, but there are certain facts he'd like to set straight.

"The thing is, pumpkin, I am the real Angel. The guy you know? He doesn't exist. He's not real." He sneers that last word; even talking about his other self leaves a bad taste in his mouth. "He's a punishment, something I'm forced to be against my will. There's nothing real about him, kitten. But me? I'm the genuine article."

[breakthecurse]

"No! No, he is real!" she insists, clutching her hand over her chest. "He exists! I know he does! That's not to say you aren't, but..."

This is all sort of confusing, but she's doing her best to explain it all the way she understands it, but she feels as though maybe she's offended him somehow.

"You're...you're both real. But Angel is real too, and he wouldn't want this." She shuts her eyes tight, already on the verge of tears. "H-He tries really hard not to hurt the people he cares about. He wouldn't want this...."

[vampdetective]

"Do you still believe in Santa Claus, too?"

He takes another step forward -- just one. He could be at her side before she had the chance to blink if he wanted, but he enjoys taking it slow, enjoying the scent of fear as it heightens, the sound of someone's heart as it begins to beat faster against their chest. For all his impatience, once he's in the moment, he can't deny how important it is to enjoy it.

"You don't get it, do you?" He tilts his head, and the look he gives her is one of pity. "The fact that he wouldn't want this? Sweetheart, that's the whole point."

[breakthecurse]

"The point...?"

Tohru can't back away any more without backing into a wall, but her eyes are wide for different reasons now. She's searching him, trying her hardest to understand.

"But...But why? Why would you do it if you know it's only going to hurt him?" She asks, suddenly. "That's...it's cruel! Why?"

She can't even imagine on her own. Angel has been nothing but kind to her, and she can't understand why anyone would want to hurt him this way, by attacking the people he care about while wearing the same face.

[vampdetective]

"Cruel."

He laughs, shaking his head -- something about that is impossibly funny, the sheer earnesty of it, the pleading doe-eyes that really make it seem like she can't fathom anyone choosing to do something that might cause someone else pain. The world would not be kind to Tohru Honda, if she ever saw it again.

"I hate him. He strips away everything I am, everything I was made to be. Having to watch him, day in and day out, wasting his potential and living like a sniveling human-- like food-- it's enough to make anyone want to strike back."

[breakthecurse]

"Watch him...? You can see everything he does?"

That's something Tohru never thought about before, and her eyes widen with the realization. Her voice is soft and there's actually sincere sympathy there.

"...That must be really lonely," she says. "Having to be by yourself and watch someone else live their life instead...that sounds really painful. I'm not sure I can imagine anything worse than that."

Most of the time, Angelus barely exists. She never even knew he was there until all of this happened, and she's known Angel for some time now. Angelus is kept hidden and secret, locked away. And that...that sounds terrible.

"Hurting the people Angel cares about is still wrong, but...maybe it doesn't have to be this way. Maybe there's some way for you both to exist. I don't know anything about magic, but...but there must be something, right?"

[vampdetective]

The idealism is so oblivious that it almost hurts; he has to swallow back another laugh to keep from losing himself. Even now, faced with someone who clearly means to do her harm, Tohru is searching for solutions, seeking to help people who can't and don't want to be helped.

"Lonely," he echoes with a snort. "Try torturous. I've been dealing with that crap for over a century. I'm done."

Finished. Never getting shoved back beneath the Angel mask again, if he can help it.

"You think lecturing me about right and wrong is gonna make a difference? You really are stupid."

[breakthecurse]

"I-I...I don't mean to lecture," she says, looking down. "I'm sorry for that. I may have worded it badly...all I meant was..."

She has to keep trying. For Angel's sake, she has to keep trying. She knows Angel would never want to hurt her, and that for Angelus to do so while using his face...it would hurt Angel more than anything, but clearly Angelus has been hurt.

"I just...if both of you could exist at the same time, then maybe...maybe none of this would need to happen."

Tohru doesn't know if it's possible. Maybe it isn't. They won't know unless they try though, and even as she stands there terrified...she still wants to try, more than anything.

[vampdetective]

"Not an option." He says it like the idea alone offends him, like he could never even begin to consider that both sides of the coin could be represented. It didn't work that way. Only one could be face-up at a time, and he was the only one of them that was real.

"'Angel' never existed in the first place. He's a punishment, a gypsy's trumped-up version of an eternal time-out."

One that turns his stomach at every opportunity, makes him cringe as he eats rats and drinks the blood of swine and whatever other rodents he can get his hands on, rescues puppies and kisses babies and saves souls and other countless sins that Angelus isn't planning to forgive anytime soon.

He takes two steps closer, slow, deliberate.

"But even he has a weakness, stalwart hero that he is. He cares. It leaves a chink in his shiny white armor."

[breakthecurse]

Tohru can't move back any further than she already has. She's pressed up against the wall, and she's trembling.

She wants to cry, but she does not yet. She just looks at him with terror all over her face. He won't compromise, and he has her cornered. For once, she can't read the situation (or truthfully, she's afraid to).

"What...Wh-What are you going to do?" she asks, her voice shaking.