This, I suppose, was not exactly the most ideal situation to be in. Frankly, it was about the worst. At least the worst I had ever been in. Maybe it was this I'd always been worried about. Maybe it was this I'd always feared when I'd waited up night after night for Kat home. This...mess was the sort of thing I suppose I always worried she'd get into. Granted I hadn't exactly envisioned myself in this position but I'd still been mostly right, hadn't I? God this ground was cold, worse then that, I was mosty sure this floor had probably never been disinfected a day in its life- and they took my sunglasses. Who steals someones sunglasses? Then again it was so damn dark in here the glasses wouldn't have helped exactly. At least until someone turned a light on. I'd told them she wouldn't come and a part of me almost hoped I was right. Strange, isn't it? You spend your whole life trying not to die and yet when that moment comes...all you can think about is someone else and the fact your glad they aren't going to die with you. I never thought I'd feel that way about anything, or anyone and yet here and now that was just about the only thing I felt sure off. If Kat wasn't here then she wasn't in any danger. Besides, there was only a ninety percent chance they were going to kill me. I still liked to think there was at least a ten percent chot that they'd just drive me out to the country and leave me there like a stray dog rather then have blood on their hands. Not that the idea of a country walk thrilled me exactly but it would be better than dying here on this warehouse floor so....undramatically. God my head hurt. I closed my eyes again. It was almost better that way. At least I didn't have to see the floor then.

I heard someone moving and yet I almost didn't want to open my eyes again and see that....man with the truly unfortunate looking face. That was probably part off his problem. Unattractive men had aggression issues. At least I'd always thought so. That might have been because I was notoriously good at making their wives smile and yet really is that my fault? I almost pitied that guys wife though- if he had one. I let my gaze flutter open slightly, blue gold eyes searching for the sound of the noise. My eyes at last falling on...Kat? Maybe this was what hallucinations looked like. I'd always wondered. They were incredibly life-like. How hard had I been hit in the head? Unless I was dead already and this was heaven. Although really if this is heaven I have to say I'm disappointed with the decor. It's so....warehousey and largely unappealing. Her voice even sounded the same. That surprise on my features surely clear before she suddenly reached out to rest her hand against my cheek. It was so warm. That very touch, I think, somehow bringing reality screaming back. My gaze blinking several times as the world suddenly seemed almost sharply focused again. God I was glad to see her. So glad. Maybe more glad than i've ever been about anything ever- I almost forgot where we were. At least until that shake in her voice and that singular question. Why did I come back?

"I never really left. I couldn't leave you behind. I was....wait, why are you here? Kat, you need to go, Viktor is..."

Viktors words cut my own short then and there. The very sound of that man prompting my hands to tug against that rope automatically in a near instinctive desire to put my arms around Kat and draw her closer and out of his sight. I didn't like the way he looked at her. I didn't like anything about him and maybe this whole battle scene is hardly my thing but....Kat is my thing. She always has been. That desire to protect her far more potent then it had ever been in that moment. Maybe she didn't need protection, hell, I was mostly sure Kat could handle most things on her own but that didn't mean I wasn't about to try. Something cold brushed against my hand then. That sharpened edge pressing against my skin. A knife? Had she given me a knife? I met her gaze briefly before she lent away. That knife gripped in my hand as I attempted to twist it about in my fingers to get the blade to wear I needed to be. The edge slicing against the side of my hand. It took every part of me not to flinch. Great. My hand was bleeding. I could feel that hot blood running across my fingers and yet I tried not to think of it. I think I was cutting the rope, at least I hope I was. I could feel my hands loosening. I still had my cards, including those steel ones Chizue had given me. They hadn't taken those and yet and yet really, who confiscates playing cards? That was there first mistake. I just needed to be able to reach them.

This guy could damn well talk, I'd give him that. Kat had stood up, putting herself in between me and this Viktor fellow now. Her body blocking Victor's view of me, at least a little, my hand working faster at that rope. It was nearly off I was sure. I could actually feel my fingers again now that rope wasn't constricting my wrists. Would rope leave permanent marks? What? I can't be worried about that? Kat, it seemed, had no patience for Victors rambling. The guy going on about having managed to catch us both and really....he wasn't exactly wrong. Kat insisting then I had nothing to do with it and they should let me go before Viktor cut her right off again. His words prompting that frown to my own features then. Did she beg on her knees? This guy was really starting to....irritate me now. I'm not exactly captain chivalrous myself but I've never spoken to a woman like that before. I don't know why I did it exactly but the words were on my lips before I could stop them. I didn't like Kat being....spoken to like that. Hell, maybe I wasn't exactly in a position to enforce it right now but I wasn't about to just let it be said either. Maybe I was about to die- but at least I could die having the moral high-ground.

"Look mate, you need to lay off. What is this all about? Is it about money? Do you want money?"

Money was the one thing I did have. He could have damn well all of it if it would get us out of this. I just...wanted Kat. That's all I wanted. God I'd give anything to put my arms around her now. That break in her voice every time she spoke, let alone those tears I could see in her eyes tugging at my heart until my chest ached. All I wanted was Kat- and to go home.Yet someone....I didnt think this was about money. Viktor gesturing toward me then as if I was some sort of homeless dog, the words very near spat toward me with no lack of disdain. I felt my hands come free. I just needed the right moment. Making a run for it when Viktor and all his men were standing three feet away from me hardly seemed the best plan and I had no intention of leaving Kat behind. I could send those cards into a flurry to slice these people apart and yet....not with Kat standing in front of me. I needed Viktor or one of his man at least to be close enough to me to take out without accidentally taking Kat too. God, was i really thinking of 'taking out' someone? How did my life come to this. My gaze lifted back to Viktor then. If I could get him to come over here there was every chance I could injure him enough to let us get away, if nothing else.

"Say what you like, but at least I don't look like you. Did 'the weapon' blow up in your face?"

I'm not sure making this guy mad was the best idea but.....I had to try something right? God I hoped Kat would forgive me.



k o h l
so you want to play with magic?