Troubling Favors [Closed/Josh]

[Meridith Sheppard]

She wouldn't have called it a favour per se. She didn't need to be doing anyone a favour to travel the world and have adventures, she was just kind of doing that. But she came here because she was directed to. There was something for her, and a friend, in Hong Kong and it was as interesting a place for her to go as any other.

She arrived early in the morning and managed despite being jet-lagged to limp to the cheapest hotel she could find and pass out until the sun disappeared. Rested, Hong Kong proved to be a beautiful city, full of life and lights. She lingered at the hotel window and took on the sights wondering if she might as well wait until morning before setting out.

Realizing, of course, that she'd just be in a vicious sleep-deprived jet-lagged cycle so she thought better of it. She considered making a phone call, but this trip wasn't really for the records, and she certainly didn't want to give her friend the impression that she was so reckless as to fly halfway across the world on a whim.

Which she supposed meant admitting that she could see that someone might think her reckless. Then again, between the nature of her mundane adventures and the literal monsters trying to eat her, it was hard to really be concerned about something like being in a new country. Everyone was pleasant enough, and she did her best not to cause trouble wherever she went.

So she headed down, and she grabbed a snack from a vending machine and guzzled a bottle of water in the back of a cab with a friendly driver and did her best to make conversation while she checked for open wifi's and tried to trace down where exactly she was heading (disney?).

Across the bridge to the island, lost in her recollection by the sight of countless buildings towering high unlike any place she had been and for the first time in her adventure, more than the moments facing down sword-wielding shinigami bent on ending her life, or monsters born from darkness wearing white masks who wanted to eat her she began to feel uneasy.

I don't belong here.

She climb out of the cab, left a tip and did some mental calculation on the conversion rates and the amount of money she had left. This venture might have been paid for but she still was a bit uneasy. Running out of money would swiftly get her into trouble, powers or not. She took a moment and looked around the street still busy with people enjoying their night and for a moment felt like she was on another planet.

Which way was north again? She pivoted and checked her phone and wondered and did her best to take a breath and calm down. She had some indication of where to go, so she began to move. She was warm enough, a long thin grey sweater which stretched past her hips, sleeves long enough to cover her thumbs. She wore black leggings with a pair of warm gray socks stretched up to just below her knees. She wrapped a fluffy white scarf around her neck, tossing it over her shoulder and adjusted her black messenger bag.

She was staring mostly at her phone as she went, referencing a lengthy saved set of instructions as she crossed streets and passed people and wandered in such a way that without her phone she was certainly not going to be able to find her way back. Across the cracked screen, she wondered if she had misread a sign a hundred meters back and wound up going the wrong way when she realized someone was trying to speak to her.

She hesitated and shifted back, it was a raised tone, a warning one speaking words she might not have understood but could tell were not polite. She stared blankly back, a momentary deer in headlights expression which did little to discourage them. It wasn't one but a few, she realized now that she was on a path to walk right between them. She hesitated, realizing that they might have been speaking English only she was too frazzled to catch what they were saying.

She shifted back a bit. "I'm sorry I didn-" she began to explain but another person shouted over her and they began to step towards her briskly in a way that caused her hairs to stand on end.

She realized that she was clutching her phone tight in her left hand and her right gloved hand had already begun to shrug off her messenger bag. She could feel blue light gather in her palm by reflex.

What the hell am I thinking?

She hesitated and with the resistance of her glove the particles vanished. She couldn't use her powers against them, and that thought alone began to send her mind racing. She felt a heat rise in her chest. Her right hand clenched tight and her deer-like stared faded into a hard expression.

"I really don't want any trouble."

[Bái Yan Láng]

Hands shoved deep in his jean pockets; Josh slouched as he strolled down the steep incline the Hong Kongese called sidewalks. He curled his fingers around his cell, thoughtful as he picked his way through the night traffic.

It’d been years since Josh had wandered this dense human warren like a lost puppy. The bright lights and heavy flow of people were as familiar to him now as the red-brick promenades in the Pill had ever been. Josh had carved out a space for himself in Hong Kong and earned the respect of his fellow street rats. He wasn’t some snot-nosed brat gunning for approval anymore.

He ran his hands through his hair, musing it into further spikes. Meeting with his old boss always left Josh nostalgic. And not in a good way. It reminded him of the past. Before he’d taken the job to off Xiao and ended up one of his inadvertent converts.

Xiao’s gamble had paid off – the Triads were happy enough to give him and his people responsibility for the supernatural elements in the city, but that came with new obligations and expectations. They existed in a tense co-dependency, and there were some who didn’t want Xiao to forget on whose forbearance this whole deal balanced.

Leave it to Josh to piss off the city’s pettiest bastards. Granted, considering the shit he’d put them through when he first arrived this was probably just karmic retribution. His old boss was polite when he called Josh in – his manners never slipped, the one-time Josh had seen the man lose his top remained a singular event.

But damn if Josh didn’t feel like a kid called into the principal’s office after every ‘chat’. Hiraeth could laugh all he wanted, but the old man wasn’t head of his Triad for no reason, and he still had a bead on Josh’s temperament.

So what if some gangbangers got into an argument with the spiritualists in Lan Kwai Fong? They’d all been plastered and Josh’s barometer for shit he cared about didn’t click on until someone pulled a watermelon knife, or the cops got involved. A few ugly words and some lost face were not on his shortlist of concerns these days.

Fuck it all, though, if it hadn’t suddenly jumped the queue.

It wasn’t that Josh couldn’t go scare the crap out of the spiritualists involved and impress on them the importance of neighborly ties. That was easy. Hell, he probably wouldn’t have to do more than show up and those kids would be tripping over themselves.

It was the principle of the matter.

If Josh was anyone’s dog, he was Xiao’s, not some civilized gangster’s. And his days as an errand-boy were long past.

He caught the eye of the greengrocer and returned the man’s nod. This entire neighborhood rubbed him the wrong way, but Josh didn’t live here anymore, and that thought alone interjected some perspective into his mood.

Instead of some run-down cramped apartment, he was living with a bunch of brats who were a few sandwiches short of a picnic and new to this life. Like a glorified babysitter. And he was happier than he’d ever been. Go figure.

Stop whining, boy. Someone’s here. Hiraeth slid to the forefront, the doll’s sudden interest sharp and prickling like a sparkler held to bare skin.

Narrowing his eyes, Josh scanned the crosswalk further down, tracing the lull in pedestrians to a side street just above the junction. Everyone was studiously not looking in that direction, giving a slight but noticeable berth around the opening, which in a crowd like this was enough to create new traffic patterns.

He clocked the guy leaning against the metal pole marking the corner of the night market as a lookout. Not anyone Josh knew personally.

The closer he got the more he could make out of the chav yelling at some pipsqueak of a tourist. She was not picking up on the memo, standing stock still and staring like a real headcase. Not that the guy was making it easy on her, his vitriolic rant was more Cantonese than English.

(That just added to the irony of his t-shirt emblazoned with the Chinglish ‘Discount’.)

Though, honestly, who walked head-first into a crowd of guys like that without thinking maybe there was a better route? They’d closed ranks, hiding whatever was in the crates piled up behind the restaurant’s back door. Probably knock-off DVDs.

Waving at the lookout, Josh watched slow recognition flicker across his paling face. Adding a toothy grin to the mix just because there wasn’t any monopoly on bastards in this city, Josh sauntered through the gap and right up to the little knot of chaos.

Discount-Dude crowded the girl, using his height and harsh gestures to convey a general disregard for her wellbeing. He looked up when Josh arrived, brow pinched tight in a way that made Josh think he wasn’t cut out for this if he reacted so poorly to surprises.

Puffed-up rookies were the most likely to explode when things didn't go their way.

“Nobody invited me to the party, I’m hurt,” Josh drawled lazily in Cantonese.

Taking the momentary shocked pause to glance sidelong at Idiot-Tourist, who’d somehow found her backbone and was looking something fierce, Josh snorted. “Maybe use your eyes next time,” he told her, dismissing her in the same breath to focus on Discount-Dude and his lackeys. Like the world cared who wanted trouble and who didn’t.

Holding his hands up, Josh slouched deeper, his demeanor casually bored. “Not that this looks like a very interesting party. Too rowdy for my tastes.” Chances were Discount-Dude would figure out who he was, but if not, he wanted to make sure the chav was looking at him and not the little girl if things went sideways.

One of the guys elbowed his peer, and Josh watched as the knowledge passed like a ripple through the motley group.

Discount-Dude drew himself up, ignoring Idiot-Tourist now that he had an actual snake in the midst. “This none of your business, Bai,” he said, switching to English with a small stumble. Josh had to give him points for holding fast when his lackeys were all inching away.

“I’d imagine we’d all like it to be no one’s business,” Josh countered with an arrogant smile, leaving it to Discount-Dude to fill in the threat of whoever’s attention he was most trying to avoid. Judging by the dark look on the guy’s face he’d gotten the message.

"But no harm no foul, right? What say we all just go our separate ways like law abiding citizens." (Was he a little miffed that Discount-Dude moved to English like Josh was some wet behind the ears tourist who couldn't say thank you properly? Yes. Was he being a vindictive asshole by using the least easily comprehensible phrasing he could think of on the spot? Definitely yes.)

[Meridith Sheppard]

Part of her liked being underestimated almost entirely because she liked the look on people's faces when she surprised them, or whatever she imagined that look to be on the faces of the people she had left back home. This though wasn't very fun. She realized that, for a moment, she had forgotten who she was. She let the assembled doubts creep into her mind. Maybe I shouldn't be here. Maybe I should be home. What if I'm weak? I can't do this.

It was embarrassing. Meridith Sheppard. Quincy. She hunted Hollow, she grappled with Vampires. A couple of jerks in Hong Kong were mad at her for, gosh, whatever was it? It didn't matter.

She really didn't like people who didn't respect her personal space, tone notwithstanding. Whatever her politeness and peacekeeping she felt obligated to offer had been exhausted. She clenched a fist tight and her tremble, previously from anxiety and uncertainty, was now for another reason.

But someone else had appeared first, stopping her as they began to exchange words with her harassers. It took her a moment to understand what was going on. A third party. Use your eyes? She scowled at him, was he blaming her for them getting in her face?

Did everyone not an asshole in Hong Kong go to bed early or something?

She didn't catch on that this individual was someone her harassers recognized, she just glared between them for a moment while they exchanged barbs. She picked up on the tension and wondered why if he was going to turn it into a fight anyway why he bothered butting in at all.

Then she looked at the way he moved and positioned himself.

Oh.

She was the lost waif stumbling into blindly the wolf's den. Worry not, of course, she'd be rescued. What a hero it would be that would save her, dark and brooding. Rude and rough around the edges. All eyes were off of her now. The hero gave them a gracious offer, go their separate ways.

The heat in her chest continued to bubble away. She didn't want this trouble, she didn't want the attention. She did hope they would all part and she could move on, and yet...

"We will once we take a look at her phone," One of them began to bark her eyes were locked on the newest arrival to the scene. They reached forward to snatch the phone from her. Her grip was firm, she pivoted sharply.

"Don't-" she began to hiss as he seized her wrist to pry the phone from her grasp.

She slugged him, artless and raw but with a stark amount of power. The would-be aggressor was launched backwards through the air and a short courtesy flight crashing into the pavement hard enough to cause them to roll once. Probably fine, aside from the bruised ribs.

"-touch me!"

Her face was bright red as she stared them down, furious and daring.

She wasn't going anywhere.

[Bái Yan Láng]

Hiraeth was being suspiciously silent – a blessing Josh felt jilted over since it made the hair on the back of his neck stand upright. The doll didn’t do quiet. Not once he’d made his demands known, and that little moment back there had been one of them.

Of course, the scene in front of him had to keep bubbling. Wholly unaware of the simmer going on right beside him, Josh almost snorted when one of the lackeys went for Idiot-Tourist’s phone. Right, because no one ever got touchy over something as personal as their cell.

God, who’d let these fools loose? He was embarrassed by distant association.

And then, with the quickness of a pit-viper, Idiot-Tourist hauled off and decked the guy. Josh was many undesirable traits, but slow on the uptake wasn’t one of them, so he started laughing almost before the chav hit the pavement.

Yeah, looked like he found Hiraeth’s ‘someone’. No one that tiny could pack a punch like that. The dynamics weren’t there, and her form kind of sucked. Spiritual power was a pretty fancy equalizer.

Which was the sort of thing Xiao would notice.

Josh shrugged, lowering his hands, and grinning with a feral delight at the nearby targets. “I take that back, this is my kind of party,” he wasted just enough time to tell the girl, forgetting she missed his earlier words with the sudden zing of excitement flooding his veins. And then, air in his teeth, Josh threw himself at the closest body.

Technically, (somewhere deep down in his thinking brain, what there was of it, anyway) Josh knew he should offer to let the guys go and find some way to convince Idiot-Tourist not to pummel them. Especially since he wasn’t sure whose guys they were.

Though he’d ruin anyone who said so, there were some similarities between him and Hiraeth.

A heavy punch caught one guy in the solar plexus, dropping him stunned in the sort of K.O. Josh didn’t trust; the knee to the face was probably overkill but he’d learned the hard way not to leave anyone at your back unless they were truly out for the count.

Two of the group shared their collective brain cells because they were backing away, towards the crates, like they had the forethought to move them rather than get pummeled by two foreigners. The rest were a little too caught up in the rush, surprise turning over into clumsy aggression.

It seemed only fair to leave Idiot-Tourist her conquest with Discount-Dude, so Josh focused on taking out the trash and giving those two the space to resolve their earlier argument.

[Meridith Sheppard]

The impact reverberated through her arm, making her acutely aware of her decision. I could have killed him, she thought, if I wanted to. She didn't. She had hoped it would inspire a bit of respect, it didn't. It just made them cautious. She thought they'd back off after that, but there was blood in the water now.

Her erstwhile hero was the first to leap upon the opportunity in such a way that impressed upon her that he had business with them that extended far beyond her presence. Maybe he was just the type to look for an opportunity (maybe I am too?).

She shook her hand loose of the pain from her clumsy blow in time to realize that she wasn't done with the fight yet. Someone was closing on her, wary, and ready. This was someone who knew how to fight. She might have known how to handle Hollow, and maybe even a little how to deal with a Zanpakuto, but she wasn't going to be able to use any of those tools against someone like this.

Just because they were assholes didn't mean she wanted to actually hurt them. They rushed her, quick and fierce, uncertain she tried to back up as they dove towards her. It was a clumsy move on her part, proven as thick arms grabbed around her waist and pulled her to the ground hard. She let out a sound halfway between a cry and snarl and drew her knees up as they went to grab her wrists together in one hand. She wiggled her leg up in time and drove a sharp knee into her assailants' gut and pushed hard, forcing them off her. She rolled to a half crouched position as they reached out for her and slammed her palm towards their face hard enough to finish the fight.

She scrambled back after that, short on breath from a mix of having it driven out of her and the erratic breathing she'd been doing she since was brought down. Adrenaline pulsed through her neck, clutching her phone tightly enough to threaten cracking it and took a moment to stare at the one who had 'helped' her.

She considered bolting but hesitated long enough for him to address her.

[Bái Yan Láng]

Arm wrapped around a guy’s throat in a sleeper hold, Josh twisted his head away from the poor fool’s ineffective fist. He was only half paying attention to the guy’s weakening struggles, instead watching the entertainment that was Idiot-Tourist thrashing Discount-Dude.

He’d give her points for fierceness and maybe toss in a few extra because that tell-tale crunch meant Discount-Dude was the proud owner of a broken nose. That was one way to leave an impression.

When the redhead rocketed to her feet, he met her stare with a slow nod. She wasn’t half bad. Josh pulled his arms back, letting the guy fall like a sack of potatoes. There were enough injuries to go around that Josh didn’t doubt they’d all get hustled to some backstreet doctor, so he wasn’t much bothered by the idea of head trauma.

Laughing, Josh shifted his weight from foot to foot, flying high on the wings of a quick beat down. He knit his fingers together, stretching them up above him until his shoulders popped.

Grin a bit too wide, Josh wiped blood off his lip where some chav had gotten in a good hit. His gaze settled on Idiot-Tourist and her clogged escape route. Most people were willing to overlook even a loud argument but when push came to shove humans liked to mill about and stare. It was a universal trait no matter the city.

Josh had a feeling the girl wasn’t keen on cell phone footage popping up all over the place. He waved her closer, further down the side street and away from the muddled crowd. “Hey, you’re not gunna want to head back that way. Trust me on this,” he drawled.

A scrape against pavement reminded Josh that there were still a few stragglers hanging tight. “One sec,” he said to Idiot-Tourist, not really caring if she decided to take off.

Turning smoothly, he toed Discount-Dude in the chest as he passed, expecting the crumpled groan and the way the guy curled tighter in on himself. No threat there.

The two underlings hustling heavy crates back into the restaurant were another non-threat. Braincell-One paused at Josh’s approach, the other speeding up his work and hunching his back so he wouldn’t have to look Josh in the face. Several restaurant employees were peeking their heads around the exit, taking charge of the boxes in well-ordered silence.

Thumbs in the loops of his jeans, Josh rocked back on his heels and waited for all of three seconds before Braincell-One stepped forward in a stilted manner.

“We didn’t know she’s a Dragon,” he said, English staccato. “I swear it, Bai.”

Which answered more than a few of Josh’s questions. The anxious delivery, and the fact that most of those guys looked high-school aged, meant this was definitely some feeder crew. Whatever Triad they belonged to they weren’t in very deep at all – enough to be spooked over rumors of Josh but not enough to realize he was the one on precarious ground.

“That’s clear enough,” Josh replied, figuring he could enjoy the confusion and worry about repercussions later. His cheerful smile brought out a full-body twitch in the lackey and Josh kind of wanted to ask what stories this guy’d been fed about him.

(They’d gotten bloodier and dumber as time went on to Hiraeth's amusement.)

Clapping Braincell-One on the shoulder, Josh tipped his head towards the downed crew. “You might want to get a move on – police won’t search the restaurant if there's no reason to by the time they show up.”

Receiving a jerky nod, Josh twisted to call back over his shoulder towards Idiot-Tourist. “C’mon then. I doubt you want to be here for much longer either.” Sidestepping the mess, he sauntered down the alley and left Braincell-One to stew over his friendly bit of advice.

[Meridith Sheppard]

In that moment she felt acutely aware of herself. She could feel the bead sweat that formed on the small of her back, the cool air she pulled into her lungs, the electric jolt that passed from her head down the tip of her toes. That sense of not belonging, that's what she was chasing, the thrill of being off the book, doing what she probably shouldn't. It was intoxicating in a way that might have worried her if her brain had been operating properly.

So, she leaned off the tips of her toes and back, putting her feet on the solid ground. She returned the nod in a small way, not entirely certain what it meant to be addressed that way and to return it. He seemed delighted, expressed in a way that was more than she was willing to admit for herself right now. He stretched out, grinned wide and she kept a somewhat stoic plain expression on her face in return.

She needed to be near here, but where here was unknown. He offered to what was in that moment the only direction she had forward and so she took it and moved after him following a snap decision. She offered a second nod. "Right," she offered in a way that she hoped didn't come across meek. She felt like she had entered into the company of a predator, a strangely familiar sensation and it fed into keeping her on edge. She stayed back a few meters keeping a reasonable distance.

She spared a glance at the underhanded strike and thought to make some kind of complaint and thought better of it. No need to kick them when they're down, she thought to say but didn't.

She followed behind him as he led her to what had become increasingly clear was some manner of criminal activity. Smuggling, she thought? Of course, that explained why they looked at her like they did, and why they wanted her phone. Stupid of them. Wouldn't have been any trouble if they'd left her alone, but then they probably didn't expect her to be any trouble.

So then what if she hadn't been who she was? Some other girl who stumbled across them? She made a face and felt a sneer form. She wished she'd hit them a little harder.

Ah. So then her saviour was some other criminal and they...thought she was with them?

"Wait I'm-" she caught herself, thought better of it and stood up a little bit taller and let him handle the talking. She might not be keen on fighting normal people, but if the point of her journey was to deal with the troubles of the world, she supposed it didn't really matter if it came in the form of wearing a mask, did it? But that didn't mean her companion was an ally, temporarily allied. Maybe she was just a convenient tool to do something he already wanted or...what else could he want from her?

She pulled an arm around her chest and waited for them to stop talking. "I have business nearby but you're right," she replied easily. She moved to follow after him. After her moment as they moved to get themselves clear of the scene. "Thanks for your help, I might not have needed it but it was appreciated," she said. It might have been bluster but something told her that it was not the time to show any weakness.

In a reflex of manners she began, "I'm Meridith-" but stopped herself from sharing her last name. "Why did they call me a Dragon? Is that who you work for?"

[Bái Yan Láng]

“Yeah?” Josh tossed out casually, leading Idiot-Tourist down the alley. “You know where you’re going? There’s a ton of ways to get to the same place here, no real loss losing the main street.”

Buildings pressed close around them, leaning like gossiping neighbors over the steadily narrowing path. Josh liked the back ways for just this reason. Even in a shitty part of town like this, there was something comforting when you had the steady hum of everyday life segmented and shuttered beside you.

He wasn’t about to ask what sort of business she was here on – frankly, so long as Idiot-Tourist didn’t waltz into another fight he didn’t much care. Plus, she was skittish as all get out, and Josh wasn’t in the mood to go track her down if she bolted.

They took a sharp right turn, heading uphill now, ducking under a string of paper lanterns and laundry lines.

Josh didn’t scoff at her defensiveness, even if he doubted she could have gotten out of that scrape without calling on some spiritual power and landing herself further under the microscope. Instead, he studied her sidelong, giving a tight nod of recognition – wasn’t like that meant she was weak or anything.

Hell, out of the two of them, Josh was the one who couldn't handle real monsters. Not that he was anywhere’s near charitable enough to mention that little tidbit.

“I go by Bai – and I didn’t do it for you so there’s no reason to thank me. Those fools needed a little incentive to wise up and I’ve been itching for a fight all day.” He brushed off her courtesy nonchalantly, shoving his hands in his pockets and licking the tacky residue of blood off his upper lip.

Josh quirked a smile. “I don’t ‘work’ for anyone – but they’re talking ‘bout the Dragons Gate Crashers. Good job not spilling the beans there – it’s no skin off your nose if they wanna assume you’re one of Xiao’s.”

He wasn’t sure what he would have done if Idiot-Tourist had contradicted Braincell-One’s conclusion. Probably just kept quiet, the guy’d looked scared enough that it wasn’t likely he’d have pushed Josh for an answer – which was good, because whenever their real Boss figured out what had happened it was best if Josh could honestly say he’d only been passing through.

They might grouse and lecture him some -- but it wouldn't evolve into more. Not when the easiest reaction was to blame the newbies and avoid conflict.

“He’s the local shaman. Got a group together to fend off the beasties 'round here, kinda makes anyone who’s got a spark of reiatsu fall under his latitude. If you’re not here long, that’s not a half-bad misconception to feed. It’ll keep most people off your back.”

[Meridith Sheppard]

She waved her hand a bit at the question, did she know where she was going? Well, kind of. Not really. But he didn't have to do that, she had no reason to drag him along on her little Quincy quest, did she? No reason to but...did she want to?

In the chaos, she hadn't had the chance to appraise him very well, but now that things seemed, at least comparatively, calm she had to admit she wasn't sure.

She followed after him, content to get away from any scene that sirens and police might show up to. Sitting in a Hong Kong lock up for a night was definitely not her idea of a good time. He definitely made better company than the bars would.

So then, what about him? Was it chance he happened upon her? Did he seek her out? There was too much noise for her to properly listen, the strange and chaotic notes in the air were easily passed off from the violence than anything he specifically gave off. Now that things were quiet it was just him, and the city and her self. So did he help her because she had picked a fight with rivals? Or did he step in because he was just itching for some violence? Or was that the excuse and he just wanted to help her? She felt an odd flutter in her gut and brushed it off as easily as she ducked under the lanterns and laundry lines, up the hill she went.

He didn't say anything about her claim to being able to take care of herself, so she likewise said no more on it, whether because he believed her or just thought better of pressing it she couldn't be sure.

She stared at him for a moment from behind. She wondered if he really meant it. "Well, whether it was for your own selfish reasons you helped me, so there's the thanks for that," she offered. "And maybe, if this Xiao doesn't wind up wondering who this red-haired foreigner is who claims she's a part of his crew and is stirring up trouble around town," she added wondering or rather hoping that she wouldn't be in town long enough to fret any fallout from this.

She looked back over her shoulder and wondered if she might circle back and clear things up. It wasn't like it'd be much trouble for her to, but then, she doubted he would stick around. She looked back in his direction and hastened her footsteps to catch up.

"...Eh? Wait, ah," coc y gath

Of course. She could hear it, just faint, the faintest notes that hit her ear now that she properly listened. She made a face and stopped walking. "...So you just happened upon that situation by chance?"

While she observed the fates of spiritually aware people and the way they entwined together, she also acknowledged that it was probably okay to ask the gang-affiliated man who beat the crap out of several people if maybe their meeting was more by design than chance. To lead her in to trouble, entwine her with the local leader, pull her into whatever trouble while leading her out of it.

It was possible, right?

"Did you seek me out because I'm a Quincy? I'm not interested in joining up or anything like that," she said plainly while she stopped moving. "I'm not going to be in town for long if that's the case. I'm just here to collect something and be on my way."

[Bái Yan Láng]

Josh chuckled, that irrepressible grin widening. Shit, Idiot-Tourist was kind of fun – she was a spitfire. He wasn’t sold on the rest of her, but that alone made things interesting.

“You’ve got plans to stir up more trouble? ‘cuz if not, that little tiff back there isn’t going to get you on Xiao’s radar. Not personally, anyway. Mortals can be idiots all they’d like, unless you start curb stomping them with a Shinigami’s sword, you’re basically fine.”

Chances were, even if Idiot-Tourist was planning something, she wouldn’t tell him. His hands curled into fists, excitement sparking at the thought. Probably all the better, really. Xiao didn’t need more drama.

(That was another reason Xiao was the boss of this operation. Josh respected him enough to follow along, even if he himself might have leaned into a bit more chaos than was healthy. Life was too boring otherwise.)

Knitting his fingers together, he put his hands behind his head and twisted at the torso, making partial eye contact as they moved. He wasn’t thrilled having her at his back, not with the stop and go game that sent his nerves firing.

This wasn’t the first time Josh had been more enthused than his counterparts over a scuffle. At first, he read the dawning tension in her expression as concern – following up on the heels of her comment about Xiao it made sense.

Only the question she worked through her teeth was edged in suspicion. The sort of calloused preparatory suspicion of someone coming to a familiar conclusion, not the kind of stranger danger worry that built up when following some rando away from a crime scene.

He stopped, planting his feet on the higher ground, and turned all the way to face her as Idiot-Tourist said that word.

Josh grimaced, his eyes narrowing. That would have been fucking nice to know ahead of time, he thought scathingly towards the doll that was still caught in a dead silence.

“I was walking by by chance,” he muttered under his breath, banked heat alighting in his eyes.

His fingers tightened, snagging strands of hair with a pinch that Josh ignored in his efforts to hold his position. He wouldn’t give Idiot-Tourist the upper hand by letting on as to how unsettled this information left him.

“But if you’re asking if I stopped ‘cuz you’re not a normie, then the answer’s yes.” His lips twisted, pressing together in the nascent stages of a scowl. “That doesn’t make you special. I know that’s gotta be hard to hear, but not everything has to do with your blood status.”

Okay, so maybe Josh wasn’t doing too great a job at hiding his contempt. Sue him.

[Meridith Sheppard]

She was mollified, albeit slightly, by Bai's words. She might have been wrong about him? Maybe he was just incredibly reckless? She could deal with it, a shade similiar to her own. Albeit, she was pretty sure he aimed himself in a lot more destructive ways. Bad influence, she decided at last.

Still, who knew what kind of person he was? She couldn't get very far in this journey just believing everyone at their word. So he got into a fight because he liked fighting, that didn't make him a good person did it? Of course not, if anything maybe it suggested he wasn't. She had always believed she had good instincts for judging someone. She might have felt, in some small way, like he actually was her hero in that moment. But, what if she was just wrong?

So she would follow him until she got her bearings and then move on with her business and get the hell out of there right?

She stared at him when he stopped and turned to face her and she felt a hiss of static wash over her. She stopped cold, and her eyes reflected a moment of that confused anxiety.

A complete one-eighty unraveling of her thoughts. She had offended him, obviously. Was she wrong about her assumption?

Her gaze sharpened when he scowled at her. She knew better than to apologize, and she might have been rude about her assumption but that didn't give him the right. Did he not get what his stance was threatening to her? If she knew he was doing it on purpose she might not have been able to help herself but to take a swing.

As he rebuked her for daring to think that she was special enough to warrant his attention she felt a burst of heat in her chest and she half stepped towards him. His remark about her blood brought out an immediate and conflicting thought of: I'm not like them and don't talk about Quincy like that. Hard to hear! Asshole!

"Hey! What the hell is your problem! It isn't like I asked for your help anyway, and I hate to burst your bubble, but if you think it's rude of me to ask if you have some shady agenda, maybe stop acting like someone who has one!" Tattooed gang thug leading some teenage foreign girl around, getting her into fights and other trouble, honestly! If he was ever looking for work he should open some kind of...some kind of...red flag factory!

"And if you're not interested in me for that, then I don't know what you're sticking around for! I can handle myself from here since I'm so obviously not worth your time."

She stood her ground glowering up at him from her significantly lower position. You don't scare me.

[Bái Yan Láng]

“My problem?”

Squaring his shoulders, Josh’s glare burst into full flame. A muscle in his cheek twitched from how hard he was clenching his jaw. No way in hell was he going to back down when the Quincy moved to invade his space – as if some tiny slip of a girl was enough to scare him.

Tension rippled through his core, and Josh unlaced his fingers and lowered his arms. She was way too close now to keep up that charade, and he couldn’t continue to fake comfort with so many vulnerable points open.

His stance widened and the neighborhood noises which had felt so soothing earlier cut out.

“Damn, if you want to know about my ‘agenda’” he rolled his eyes, voice tilting upwards in mockery, “you could have just said that. Unless you’re so used to the world revolving around you that you’re expecting everyone to guess what you mean when you go around announcing you’re a Quincy.”

Why’d it have to be Josh who’d found Idiot-Tourist? Xiao never made him deal with Quincy if there were other options. It was like mixing oil and water no matter how many breathing exercises Josh forced on himself.

Did she really think declaring her race was supposed to clue him in as to her internal freak-out? Was that all she was? God, Quincy were always the same. But yeah, why not jump down Josh’s throat for thinking she was a human being before considering her blood status!

“I already told you,” he grit out, irritation only enhancing his inflection. Josh clenched and released his fists, counting backward in his head in search of even a drop of patience. Don’t make a scene, he reminded himself. Xiao doesn’t need that.

(Fuck Xiao – if he didn’t want Josh running loose, he should keep a tighter leash on him.)

“I’m not fucking interested in you. But seeing as you can’t handle walking down the goddamn street without getting into trouble, and I’d rather not see what a body looks like stuck full of Quincy arrows then yeah – I am interested in getting you to wherever you’re going before the city explodes.”

“And no, that doesn’t mean I give a damn about what you’re doing here. News flash, but no one really cares about what the Quincy are up to," he sneered the last bit lightly.

You’re not curious at all?

Hiraeth’s voice echoed, and Josh would have mistaken it for bored if he wasn’t intimately familiar with the doll’s languid menace. The scars on his back tingled, a dull ache settling in like the unwelcome harbinger everyone blanched at seeing respond to the RSVP.

Fuck you, Josh retorted. He rode out the lance of sharp pain that followed, too angry to take it for the warning it was. If you want me to fucking do something, then you could have given me a heads up. Now you get to let me handle this.

Boy, the doll’s growl thundered behind Josh’s temples. When Hiraeth spoke again, it was with a slashing disgust. For all your barking, you might as well roll over and lick her hand now – maybe she’ll give you a treat for escorting her through your own territory.

Josh nearly laughed. I'm not the one hiding, he said, all savage sweetness.

This time, Josh did laugh, a wheezing triumphant chuckle as Hiraeth's rage boiled beneath his skin and the doll failed to materialize. His mirth was cut short as his lungs seized but it was fucking worth it.

[Meridith Sheppard]

Spiralling, that's what this was. He got in her face to yell at her, over what she still hadn't unravelled. And he seriously did not like being given a taste of his own medicine that was for sure.

She saw that tension ripple across his body and at that moment she became acutely aware of the possibility of violence. He's going to attack you, you have to defend yourself.

She reached for a moment for the Reiryoku in the air.

Maybe it was the glove on her hand? Maybe it was something in what he said? Maybe she had just grown a little wiser. She wasn't witnessing anger here, at least not by itself. There was something else here, something familiar.

Quincy

She kept her straight-faced glare for a moment longer but she couldn't maintain the anger without anything to sustain it, and anger was all that kept her rooted. She weathered his words and it only made it more obvious.

He didn't step in to protect her. He stepped in to keep them safe from her. That was absolutely ridiculous, she wanted to scream in defiance, but she couldn't. Not just because he was still yelling at her but...

Because he was probably right?

She remembered that moment she almost summoned her weapon. It was to threaten them, to keep them away, but would they have known that? Would it have really de-escalated it? She could fight with Shinigami, she could have left that confrontation any moment she wished on the winds of her Reiryoku. Diminished she might have been with the donning of the Sanrei, she was still vastly more capable than they were. She had let herself be ruled by fear.

Sure, it made sense. Surrounded by a group of men, bigger than her, violent intentions. What person wouldn't be afraid of that? Let alone some girl from another country. But she wasn't that was she. God. Yes, she was Quincy. That meant she had a greater responsibility, didn't it? She wasn't supposed to believe herself better but with duty and purpose. She was their protector and she almost killed them, for what? Because she had scared them, and she responded likewise in fear.

A moment of silence lingered between them. "I'm sorry," she offered sincerely, with a little polite bow of her head.

Then that discordant note ripped through the air and tore through her head like a bolt. She grimaced and staggered back, and raised her left hand to clutch her forehead with a pain subdued sound.

a̶̧̪͕͐͊n̶̟̭̜̎̀̆͜͝ā̴͓̭͈͑̎ͅs̴̟͂̊̈́̾ț̸̄̈́͐ă̷̰͙͚s̵̹͎͍̘̄̃̕͠ï̴̬á̷͖̓

She gasped and her eyes widened. "What the hell was-" but she remembered. Not that quaint little diner in Paris, a memory gone to her, but of that castle in Romania. Another one? His reaction made a little more sense. She staggered backwards and lowered her hand, she was in a stance now, obvious to someone who had brawled as much as him but her face was wide-eyed. Scared, perhaps, but curious.

"What... are you?"

[Bái Yan Láng]

Something in his face hardened, expression crystalizing into a fixed mask. Josh’s eyes flicked side to side, taking in the peripherals in search of another presence – expecting them to step out and laugh at him because this had to be a joke. Some big procession meant to mock him. What else could it be?

(Why was she apologizing?)

Josh didn’t like the wide-eyed earnestness. How different Idiot-Tourist looked when she wasn’t wearing a fight tucked around her like a cloak. She had lost her sharp edges, suddenly smaller and more hesitant, shoulders rounded and head bowed in what was anything but confrontational.

A resolute solidity had been lurking underneath her fierceness. That might have been okay, if she wasn’t talking softer now, too – if she didn’t appear to mean whatever she was saying. If she wasn't so intent on masking all the signs that she was about to flip and attack him.

What the fuck was this?

“Don’t -” his throat was dry, the entreaty more cough than word that was swiftly broken up when the Quincy reeled back in pain.

Clenching his fists, Josh held very still. He wasn’t about to shift and startle her, not when a spooked Quincy was more liable to shoot him than punch him. His stomach churned at the inaction, as alarmed as he’d been by Idiot-Tourist’s emotional pivot he didn’t want to see her like this.

The rush of satisfaction was entirely Hiraeth’s, Josh was sure of that.

Here he was, stewing in some off-brand pity seasoned liberally with guilt when Idiot-Tourist broke from her confused muttering and dropped her center of gravity. Her hand floated near her side, the intent clear from every ligament; her body shifted smoothly into a practiced readiness.

Josh felt the tightness in his face, his scowl heating up several more degrees, acidic enough to melt concrete. He scoffed, and it was a flat, almost weak noise. “Who the fuck taught you manners?”

(Judgment was somehow way worse than the vulnerability she had been toying with earlier.)

He was breathing too quickly. He had to root himself, panicking now would only earn him more pain. Josh swallowed the air in his throat, holding it in tightly like the pressure could shove everything else down and away. He needed control -- he needed his muscles to listen to him, to stop twitching or bunching of their own secret accord.

Crossing his arms, Josh realized how defensive that would look, and quickly reversed the motion. “Lady, do you need to get your ears checked? I told you my name’s Bai.”

She won’t fall for that, Hiraeth chuckled, his amusement warm. She knows there’s something wrong with you, boy. What do you think she’d do if she really knew? Is Xiao going to protect you when the Quincy come hunting?

He didn’t want to listen. Hiraeth was an ass, and the doll had to at least think he could fight off Angry-Tourist if he’d sent Josh her way – but that logic couldn’t stop the cold trickle of fear that churned in his guts.

If she formed her bow he wouldn’t be able to do much more than watch dumbly.

He’d only felt a Quincy arrow just the one time and he still had nightmares about it. Josh had expected it to be a cold sort of injury, numbness, or some shit like that, he hadn’t been prepared for the white-hot searing agony.

It had felt like his atoms were burning, like a laser that failed to cauterize and just kept consuming -- destroying all the sick hateful cells that made up his soul. If there was one thing Josh had to give Quincy, it was that they'd come up with an even longer list of his defects than most anyone he'd run across. Considering some of the shitty adults he used to know that was an impressive accomplishment.

[Meridith Sheppard]

She hesitated, uncertain a moment as he shifted his expression and deny her. Her apology had the impact she had desired, almost perfectly in a way that unnerved her. There was a precision to her use of an apology.

What did she want from Bai? For him to stop being hostile to her. To put him on the back foot. Her apology, considerably a soft move, was effective because Bai was probably not the kind of person who knew what to do when someone didn't meet his fire with fire or back down completely. She stood her ground and apologized. Contradictory but apparently effective.

Cynically, it was easy for her to say after the fact that she had planned this all along, but it wasn't entirely untrue. She knew the best way to get what she wanted, and it worked.

She might insist, as was probably also true, that she was actually sorry. She was. She meant it when she said it. Right? Maybe so, but she couldn't extract the sense of knowing that it was also her best option to get what she wanted. The question that lingered, even if I meant it, would I have apologized if I didn't think it would help me?

And with that, as the pain subsided she became aware of a further fact. He wasn't just trying to keep them safe from her, he was terrified of her as well. That she didn't fully understand, whatever incidents he'd had with Quincy in the past or...his attachment. Well, she didn't have a clue and she doubted she was going to.

She felt an icy coolness replace the pain as he shot back some venom towards her about being rude for asking. She felt more in control of this situation as the seconds ticked by, in control of him because he had obviously lost control of himself. Arms crossed and uncrossed, eyes shifted, heart rates quickened (she presumed).

She nodded her head politely again. She further knew or perhaps assumed, that the way forward was delicate. The thing about cornered animals was their unpredictability. If she was bold and pressed too hard, he might fall back into a familiar pattern and become comfortable fighting. If she was too kind, what tenuous hold she had over him might vanish utterly.

She watched him for a long moment, straight-faced. "You don't have to answer me, but don't play dumb. It doesn't suit you," she said. "I didn't announce what I was for clout's sake, it isn't of interest to me what the term 'Quincy' inspires in others. I'm shocked the name is known at all. It's because I'm averse to bullshit and like to speak plainly."

As she spoke she moved out of her readied stance, a bit of a farce given that she was watching him hawkishly for any errant move but then moved a few feet away and turned to study her phone.

"Of course," she added without a hint of the derision implied by the words in her voice, "I don't expect the same from others."