Vanishing Act [Violet/Vanyel]

Violet heard the word purse and her eyes snapped over to Vanyel. She reached out to the purse as she hurried over and grabbed it from him. She looked through it, but could not find what she was looking for. “Wait, no…” Violet dropped to her knees and dumped her entire purse out over the floor. She ran her hand over everything that came out, wallet, random candies, a small bottle of perfume, some lotion, but what she was looking for wasn’t there. “No, no, no…”

Violet looked around the room again, grabbing at her hair. She couldn’t remember where she had it last. “I… uh… It was here, I know it was,” Violet looked to Vanyel, her eyes wide with desperation, and almost fear. “Did you take it?”

Her reaction to just the word and him holding it made him concerned, but he didn't fight her for it. Letting her take it, he watched as she rummaged through it, dumping the contents onto the floor in search for it.

It took every fiber of his being not to snap at her. He wanted to yell at her, demanding to know what the hell she was thinking, who gave it to her, and why in the name of sanity she'd ever think to go there.

Was it an overreaction? Definitely. It wasn't what was needed in the situation. He needed to keep himself calm. She didn't deserve it, and he'd feel like shit immediately after if he did snap. As far as he knew right now, and as far as he cared, she was a victim, and he was going to try his best to help her. He'd seen people's lives ruined over this, and he wasn't about to let it happen to another.

"I did. I hid it, somewhere you can't reach."

His lip quivered lightly as he crouched down, lifting his hands, trying to figure out what he should say next. Eventually, he clenched his hair, nails digging into his head as he eventually gave a frustrated mixture of a sigh and irritated growl.

"What the hell happened? You leave yesterday morning, albeit in a rush, but otherwise perfectly fine, and then you come back late, higher than a fucking kite, with a purse full of heroin?"

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Violet snapped at him. Standing up, she pointed at Vanyel, anger rising in her eyes. “If I had known you were a fucking thief, I never would have asked you to teach me.” Violet stepped to him and reached out as if she were going to try and pat him down to find the heroin.

“Why is it any of your business?” Violet yelled, still trying to get to find it on him. “You’ve been in my life for, what, two weeks now? So... So, what? You really think that gives you permission to control me? GIVE IT BACK! NOW!”

That hurt. It wasn't unexpected, but, that...still hurt. A lot. He winced, but his resolve remained firm. Even if she patted him down, he knew that she'd never find it. She could frisk him or tear the place apart until the sun went down trying to find it, but he knew that she never would, not unless he gave it up -- and he had zero intention of doing that. As far as he was concerned, it was lost to the void.

"I'm not trying to control you! I'm trying to help you! I've seen people get involved with this shit! I know what happens! It destroys people's lives, even ending them, for Christ's sake! I've watched it happen to the people I've been closest too! People I considered family!"

His fingers dug into his skull even more as Vanyel lowered his head, hiding the welling tears. He'd had this same conversation so many times with Isamu and other members of the family when he tried to intervene. Back then, he was too scared to do anything when they lashed out like Violet was doing right now.

Never again.

"Whatever you're going through, I can try and help as best I can. You said you lost your job last night. I can get you in with the group I work at, I told you that. Did...somethin' happen when you visited this Solomon guy? Just..."

His hands went from the sides of his skull to wiping his eyes.

"I'm not watching someone ruin their life with this stuff again. Even if we're not super close friends or anything, I...I can't do it again."

“That’s FINE.” Violet yelled. She didn’t care about her life; why was he pretending to? “That’s kind of the POINT. I thought I had taken enough.” Violet said and looked under the table, behind the couch, through kitchen drawers. The entire time she was forced to listen to what he was saying, Violet was getting madder and madder, more desperate to find what she had bought. Food was out of the pantry and on the floor, drawers were hanging from their slots, blankets pulled from the closet into the hall. She was searching everywhere she could, when suddenly…

“STOP PRETENDING LIKE YOU CARE!” Violet grabbed the nearest hard thing that she could, which happened to be a decorative crystal sitting on a shelf near the front door. She turned and threw it at him with every ounce of strength she had. So much so, that the momentum caused her to fall forward. She landed on her hands and knees, out of breath, and sweating. 'I hate this... I hate everything...'

Christ, she was even worse-off mentally than he thought she was. Given how ravenous she was about finding the drugs, the thought came that this might not have been her first time using -- it was also entirely possible that she was clean for who knew how long and now was relapsing. Moreover, what the hell had happened that made her so...uncaring about her own life?

He stayed nearby as she started to tear apart the house, trying to pick up at least some of what she threw around in her rampage. But, as he was picking up something she had thrown onto the ground from the pantry, something suddenly smacked him in the head, knocking him on his ass as he brought a hand to his face. Soon after, he felt something warm trickling down his face.

'Great...'

It didn't seem like it was too serious, he at least didn't feel lightheaded or anything. But, turning his attention to where the decoration had come from, he saw Violet on her hands and knees, seeming to be finally exhausted from her tirade. Quietly sighing, he got to his feet, checking to see if the thing she'd thrown at him was broken or not. He didn't hear it shatter when it hit the floor, but it certainly didn't look as pretty now that it had his blood on it.

He slowly walked over to Violet, easing down to her level and gently setting a hand on her shoulder as he sighed.

"...I don't know what I can do to make you believe me when I say I'm not pretendin', but, I do care. What would be the point of fakin' that, 'specially now that you've given me this lil' shiner?"

Violet was frozen for a while. Her eyes snapped over to her shoulder, staring wide at his hand. Looking up, the panicking girl saw the blood and felt her stomach sink. Part of her wanted to apologize. Tears even welled in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away. She pulled her shoulder from his hand and darted toward the front door. “JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!” she yelled through suppressed sobs.

As she opened the door and attempted to dart out, Violet ran right into something. With a whimper, the girl found herself on her ass. Since she was sure there wasn’t a tree in the middle of her damn walkway, it meant someone was here. Violet looked up and her breathing became erratic, as if a panic attack was coming on.

"Violet...?"

Solomon felt guilty about his argument with Violet. His approach, he recognized, came across as harsh and dismissive. Regardless of his stance on the matter, he had wanted to clear the air, to let her know the meaning behind his words.

After all, he felt his intentions were just, but that didn't justify his approach. As such, he had set out on buying a present for her to clear the air between them, and share his opinion on her plans moving forward.

Of course, any such intentions were promptly turned on their head the moment he gazed down at Violet, noting the frustration in her expression. His gaze traveled a few meters ahead, noticing a man with ashen white hair and blood trickling down his head. Presented with such a sight, somewhat stunned, his eyes bore down on Vanyel in particular as reishi flared around his palm.

"What's going on here?"

...Shit. Vanyel's expression quickly shifted as she pulled herself from him and started heading toward the door. He got to his feet as swiftly as he could to take after her, only to suddenly see someone standing in the doorway, and Violet land on her ass. Whoever it was, he could tell that it was not someone Violet was keen on seeing. Kneeling down, he put a hand on her shoulder again.

"Violet, take a deep breath. Just try and calm down, it's okay. It's not your fault."

His eyes then flicked to the figure in the doorway -- considerably taller than him, blonde, and he could sense the gathering energy in his hand. His first instinct was to get into a stance and prepare to defend himself and, more importantly, Violet, but, his eyes narrowed slightly as they went from his hand to his face.

"Easy there, Gilgamesh, that's only going to make things worse."

He didn't recognize who this guy was, but, given Violet's reaction and her current state, he wasn't about to let his guard down.

"So, who the hell are you?"

‘This isn’t happening. Why the hell is he here!?!?!?’

When Vanyel’s hand touched her shoulder, he felt her trembling beneath it. Violet lowered her head to stare at the ground, face shielded by her bangs and she didn’t move a muscle, not even to bring herself to her feet. She could barely hear either of their words, just the pulsing of her own heart in her head. A small movement, her head turned slightly to look down the road, toward the rest of the city. She wanted so badly to run away from here and never come back. 'Make him go away...'