Along Silk Road, after sunset. Open to Oharu.
It wasn't very late, but the sun had gone down, and Isabella was hungry. She crept along the shadows, a creature of the night, blending into the darkness. She was trailing a group of men who'd just come from a sister brothel to Hotel Mosaique. This other place was less popular and less expensive than Hotel Mosaique, and the employees there had more of a chance of being hurt by the customers. It was a breeding ground for awful people, and Isabella frequently found her meals there.
One of the men turned away from the others, stumbling in a direction that presumably led him home. Practically able to smell his blood even from the distance, Isabella closed in, so eager for her moment of triumph, her hunger nearly blinding her, she didn't notice until she'd already stepped from the shadows that someone else was on that road.
He'd been out, visiting a client about a magic carpet. He had a few ideas about the design and the exact purpose. He'd been tinkering with new aerodynamics on the carpets and this new client seemed receptive to his creative alterations.
His mind was wandering, thinking over angles and colors, the right threads to use and in which patterns. He didn't realize that his feet were carrying him to Isabella when he spotted two people in the road ahead, a peculiar dance of predator and prey. He stopped short and stared, not entirely sure what he was witnessing.
It was unfortunate for Isabella that she was so focused on her dinner. Otherwise she might have noticed another presence there. But she didn't realize the worst possible person to see her in her hunt was watching as she reached out with a grip far stronger than someone of her size should have. She tugged the offender back into the shadows some, and exposing his neck, bit swiftly into the throbbing blood vessels calling to her.
Rich blood flowed past her lips and down her throat, and she could have moaned from the feel of it, if her lips and throat weren't already occupied. She drank her fill; this one was not going to be a thrall of hers. With the way he liked to abuse whores, he didn't deserve to live.
He looked down and away, attempting to speed up and move away from whatever it was that was occurring on the other side of the street. He'd spent enough time down in this district to know the sorts of things that happened in the dark corners here.
The woman was sucking on the man's neck and Oharu frowned, thinking she looked an awful lot like Isabella, even from a sidelong glance out of the corner of his eye. He chanced another look over and the breath caught in his throat. But it can't be her, he thought. He didn't think Isabella the sort to seek clients outside of the Hotel, but he also didn't yet realize what was really happening here, perhaps because he didn't want to.
The man's body slid to the ground with a muffled thump, and Isabella licked bloodstained lips. Fresh blood coursed through her now, and it sent warmth and strength through her. And increased her already heightened awareness. She was suddenly aware of a familiar presence, and her head jerked up, fixing with unerring accuracy on Oharu. Her victim's blood quite nearly drained from her face, leaving disbelief and something akin to despair on it instead. "Oharu," she said, voice barely more than a whisper, and full of contrition.
He would have screamed in horror but instead he sighed. Even as he was doing it he thought it a strange reaction to the situation. "Isabella?" he whispered, hoping that she wouldn't answer, still clinging to the desperate belief that it wasn't her. It wasn't that he had anything against vampires, or anything surrounding that fact. It was more that she hadn't told him and that omission was going to change everything.
Isabella's hand covered her mouth and she took a hesitant step towards Oharu. Shit. She should have told him. Sometime, anytime they had spent alone together; she have told him. She kept telling herself there hadn't been a good moment, the right time, but any way he found out would have been better than this. She was barely out of the shadow of the alley before she spoke again, louder this time. "I'm sorry." Two words, and they held volumes. Sorry she hadn't told him. Sorry he had to see her, to find out this way. sorry for lying by omission. But not sorry for what she was. And then, "I should have told you."
His mind started breaking into little tiny pieces. There was no denying it and no way around it anymore. "Probably," he whispers, colder than he intends it to sound. Fuck. There's a burning sensation in the pit of his stomach like he hasn't eaten in weeks. "I was coming to see you," he adds very lightly, stiff and polite. It's his comfortable place, this polite and shy front. He's locked into it so quickly that it would be a daunting task to pull him back out. "Shall I walk you home?" he offers. He doesn't want to stand in this alley any longer than he has to, not while there's a corpse laying in the shadows. It's almost as if he's brushed away the necessity of conversation for the moment in favor of movement and a little time to process what just happened.
Isabella winced at his tone, but she didn't blame him. She blinked at him, a bit surprised by his offer. Maybe she expected him to leave her where she stood. She glanced back at the corpse she'd left - she usually cleaned up after herself, but she didn't want to linger any longer than Oharu seemed to. She nodded silently and, dark eyes downcast for the moment stepped fully out of the alley and up to Oharu. "I have no real excuse, except I didn't know how. But anything would have been better than finding out like this, and no amount of apology can make that better."
He nodded briefly before offering his arm. He wasn't repulsed, only upset and he needed the physical contact for several reasons. One was to assure himself that she was still there and that somehow they could work through this. The second was to make sure that she knew he was still there and wasn't about to give up on their relationship. The final was a subconscious need, wanting to have some kind of touch to soothe him. He wasn't ready to say anything yet so he remained stoic and silent, waiting for her next move.
She took his arm with absolutely no hesitation, and leaned against him as if she needed the contact just as much. She had wavered on touching him before he extended that arm, as if she were afraid he'd pull away from her if she moved first. The offer was exactly what she needed, and hoped for. She looked up at him then, dark eyes black in the darkness, lips tugged into a worried frown. But there was something like hope and relief in those eyes, hope that they could work through this, and relief that he wasn't giving up. Neither was she. "Take me home, Oharu?"
"Yeah," he said softly, a frown riding his own lips. He didn't want to let hope in just yet because this was a big rift. He sighed heavily beside her and thought about a thousand things he could say and a thousand more he should say. None of them made enough sense to say out loud. He wasn't ready. Walking on in heavy silence he tried to steady his breathing and keep some kind of calm.
She threaded her fingers in his, listening to the rhythm of his breathing as they walked. The silence was oppressive and she finally had to break it. "I've never been in this situation before. I've never been so close to someone that I had to tell them, or even wanted to. And the closer we got, the more worried I was that I'd lose you if I told you. And still, I wanted to say sometime, to tell you before you found out on your own." She gave a short harsh laugh. "I didn't do that very well at all."
"I don't care that you're a vampire," he said, almost offhandedly. It wasn't cold anymore, only stating a fact. "I just... I wish you had told me. It's kind of a shock, you know?"
Isabella looked up at him again and shook her head. "If only I'd known you'd have been so accepting, I wouldn't have been waiting for the right time to tell you. And.. I know. never meant for you to see me.' She paused and continued. "I don't kill indiscriminately. here are men - and some women - who treat the whore at other brothels badly. We've got it good at Hotel Mosaique. Nita wouldn't let a thing happen to us, and most of us have enough in the way of jinx magic or fortuna or something to protect ourselves. Others aren't so lucky. They don't deserve to be treated that way, and their so-called clients, who get off on the pain they cause... I don't think they deserve to live." She pursed her lips. "I don't fancy myself some kind of vigilante. But I'm not a murderer either."
He wasn't sure if she was telling him this to ease his conscience or hers. He was grasping at straws, entirely out of his comfort zone again. "Well then, you do what you have to do to survive and you do it in a way that doesn't unseat your conscience." He couldn't quite look at her, his eyes lingering on the all too familiar streets back to the Hotel. "If we could please, I don't think I'd like to see that again," he added, eyes firmly on the road.
"I never wanted you to see it to begin with," she responded quietly. "It's not something, I can ever change, and to be honest, I don't want to. But I can keep it out of view of anyone who is uncomfortable." She stopped walking as looked up at him. "Oharu, I really am sorry. You took me by surprise you know. How attached to you I became, and so quickly. That's part of the reason I hadn't yet found the time to tell you. There were two very important thing that I wanted to say to you, and both, I thought, needed the right moment. And I know I was wrong." And now she wondered whether the second thing would be as well-received as she'd hoped.
He didn't want to say that these things happened. He wasn't ready to sweep this under the carpet and make it all ok. He was usually a lot more forgiving than this, but something had slowly been changing in Oharu. He wasn't sure if it was the return of his sister or his relationship with Isabella, but something was growing in Oharu. He hadn't felt this kind of change since he was 16, when his sister was kicked out of school. "I imagine you couldn't tell all of your boyfriends about it, at least not right away." He wondered if there was a bad experience in her past, perhaps another lover who didn't react well.
Isabella shook her head. "It isn't as though I've had very many, not after I was turned. Before I started working at Hotel Mosaique, I had no reasons, no excuses for why I couldn't see men during the day. The first time I told someone..." Isabella trailed off. "Well, I'd say it didn't go over well. Not when he tried to come back during the day with a few very sharp pieces of wood. I didn't tell anyone after that, and the excuses I came up with only worked for so long. I never got close enough to anyone to try telling again. And then I started working at Hotel Mosaique and I stopped having boyfriends, just well-paying clients." She looked downward again. "They don't get to learn my secrets and few of them even try." she looked up at him again, something like a smile curving her lips. "And then I met you and things changed."
I'll say. "Things certainly did." He wasn't sure what he could say more than that. "I'm sorry," he added quietly. "I'm sorry he tried to kill you when he found out."
"So am I," she responded, squeezing his hand lightly. The bright blue door to Hotel Mosaique was just ahead, and Isabella felt a bit like dragging her feet. "And I really am sorry I didn't tell you. And sorrier still, unbelievably sorry if I've just ruined everything."
"It's not ruined," he finally said. He couldn't let her continue to torture herself over this. "It's just really messed up. It probably will be for awhile. But I don't want it to be ruined Isabella." His stepped slow as hers did and then he stopped short of the door. "Maybe I can come back another night after I've had some time to really think through this. I just... I need a little space to wrap my brain around it."
Isabella nodded and laid a gentle hand on his cheek. "I know it's... surprising. A lot to take in. And honestly, I'm surprised and happy you're actually still standing here talking about it." she took a step back, towards the blue door. "Well. Here I am," she said unnecessarily. "Take as much time as you need, Oharu. You know where to find me."
He nodded slowly, a soft gesture. He lingered for a moment and sighed. "Yes. I'll come find you," he whispered. "Good night," he offered gently and moved slowly backwards out into the night.
Isabella watched him go, a pang in her heart. She slipped inside Hotel Mosaique, ready to perform as expected, but she knew tonight, her heart wasn't in it.