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Grave Matters: A Repo! Roleplay (SevenxKawamura)

It was just as surreal for the two members that made up the Wallace family; neither Nathan nor Shilo had sat and had breakfast with anyone else but eachother, so having Graverobber there was bizarre for both of them. When Nathan came down the stairs, he found Shilo sitting at the table, a bowl of fruit already cut up to her right, her entomology book opened in front of her; Nathan took a sparing glance at the book over her shoulder - she had been collecting insects since she was very young, when she had first discovered they would land on her balcony. Nathan couldn't bring himself to disapprove, her passion for it had been striking, and something about the first time he saw her jam a pin through a beetle had made him smile.

From time to time, he would bring one home for her, an insect he knew she didn't have, and she reacted to a spider the way that most children would react to a new game console.

"He's having breakfast with us?" Shilo asked brightly, and Nathan nodded his head.

"He was very ill last night, food will do him good," Nathan said, and when Graverobber came down the stairs, he would find Nathan at the stove, spatula in hand, quietly turning over pancakes - complete with an apron, a striking similarity to the way he had seen Nathan in the basement the previous week while he'd been hosed down, but instead of leather, it was cotton - distinctly home-maker.

Shilo looked up from her book, raising her eyebrows at Graverobber; he looked more human now that he was clean.

"Oestridae," she said, pointing one long, pale finger at the picture in the book, then added brightly, "It's a bot fly. They get under the skin of other animals and lay their eggs inside of them. I want one for my collection, but I don't think they're ever around here."
 
The young man leaned over, examining the picture she showed him, drawn in the very detailed, technical way heâ??d seen in his science books at school and in Rayâ??s impromptu library when the old bastard let him browse. It looked like any old fly to him. â??Youâ??ll probably be better off looking for bugs that lay their eggs in dead bodies, not live ones,â? he said, glancing up to the father in the kitchen. "There are a ton more corpses than living people out there."

He was back to the dull old man, but when he turned his head too much, Graverobber could see the ugly bruise, darker especially where his teeth had bitten into the skin, and couldn't help but remember the soft sound Nathan had made. A little pain, a surprise, but mostly pleasure. He slid a hand over the back of her chair and leaned in as if really paying attention after that brief moment of distraction.

â??How oldâ??s the book? The climate changed, right?â? Maybe he was getting too attached to his newest toy. Due to its novelty, of course. â??Might have moved. All the bugs and birds are different than when I was a kid. Iâ??ll keep an eye out for anything crawly, all right?â? Glancing up to Nathan, he lowered his voice. â??Some of the fashion and gossip mags, too, if you like. I know a girl about your age. Any requests?â? If You didnâ??t help Ray bash his head in with something heavy and metal, that was.
 
Nathan had always thought that dull worked for him; it was to his advantage to keep people disinterested - he didn't want to come off as being novel or even remotely interesting, quite in fact, he wanted people to keep their distance as much as was humanly possible ever since he had come under the employ of GeneCo. For seventeen years, it was a method that had worked, up until the point he had run into Graverobber - but to be fair, Graverobber's interest had been piqued by the Repo Man, and not by the mild-mannered alter ego of Nathan Wallace.

Concentrating on what he was doing, he did his best to convince himself that the scavenger's interest was a purely sadomasochistic one, that he was only interested in the bloodthirtsy Repo - Graverobber's supposed attraction was something he had made up, and that this would be the last time he would have to deal with the other man. He tried to convince himself of it, because the alternative was to acknowledge that, yet again, Graverobber would appear in his life and wreak further havoc, and right then he wasn't sure he could handle that truth.

Shilo's round, dark eyes observed Graverobber with a peculiar clarity,

"You can get those?" she asked, her voice low, as though she was bartering for pornography, "That'd be so awesome."

Her enthusiasm made it clear that anything would do; her father never brought home magazines, he was always sure they would rot her mind.
 
â??Of course.â? This time, he made sure his glance up to her father was obvious, his eyes watching the man carefully. Not fearful, or if he was looking for the twitch of movement that meant they were caught, but in an appreciative way. He looked back down to the bugs to cover their conversation.

â??Theyâ??re cheap,â? he added, just as conspiratorially. â??Big, glossy things. Iâ??ll get you a few surgery ones if you promise not to even consider them.â? Now this was rich. Here he was, plotting with a little girl to get tabloids and warning her away from the vices of cosmetic surgeries. On a whim, he leaned in even closer so he was nearly breathing into her ear. â??Repo Man comes for people who canâ??t pay, you see, and Iâ??d rather not find your pretty little self after one his visits.â?

Graverobber pulled away to a more respectable distance. â??Iâ??ll knock next time, right?â? he said, grinning widely though largely tamely.

Better that she was warned. Nathan might not think to, but Rotti was a bastard and Graverobber had the feeling that he'd failed to produce the proper sort of fear in his girl. After all, she seemed to like him, and that was a clear symptom of being a poor judge of character. He could see, though, the benefits of having this little unspoiled thing around: she must be like a balm to Nathan's fractured mind.
 
Shilo's big eyes were oddly bright, optimistic at the prospect of new reading material, of course, her father would get her any books she asked for, he approved of literature and even of comic books - he thought she didn't know, but he was too much of a nerd not to approve of them - but he didn't approve of trashy magazines and distinctly teenage trends. Her eyes went wider though, when Graverobber leaned closer, and her ears and neck went red from his words - a bizarrely familiar pattern of blushing.

"I won't get surgery," she squeaked out, "I promise."

She didn't want the Repo Man to come after her; it sounded awful.

She nodded her head at his next comment,

"Yeah, that way I don't have to hit you." she said, and Nathan turned around, setting plates of blueberry pancakes in front of them; he paused for a moment, and then flicked Shilo's nose, smearing a spot of flour across the tip of it, a strangely immature thing to do.
 
Graverobber nearly gagged over the overt display of domesticness. Good God. He was going to get cavities with the sweetness. This was the man who ripped organs out of living bodies, right?

Again, he caught sight of that bruise, and he couldnâ??t help but smile in a manner that wasnâ??t particularly pleasant or tame. Graverobber had decided on being fairly good to the girl, but the father was a completely different story. Their faces and ears reddened the same way in embarrassment, but the kidâ??s blush was nowhere as near as stimulating to him.

His bend towards the theatrical was useful: as they ate, Graverobber launched into a fairly safe story about the Largo kidsâ?? antics to entertain Shilo. Somehow, he managed to strip away the more disturbing details that tended to come along with anything the Largos touched, focusing on the more humorous aspects. It was a story that had showed up in pieces in the more formal news sources, and Graverobber had filled in the gaps with countless tabloids. And all through his story, he kept sneaking looks towards Nathan, more when Shilo was watching him than her dad was.
 
Shilo crossed her eyes and wiped away the flour with her wrist, and after a moment's hesitation, set into the meal like a wild animal - it was clear that her slender frame wasn't from malnutrition, her appetite was voracious, particularly when it came to blueberry pancakes, to the point where Nathan subtlely placed one of his own onto Shilo's plate and watched with peculiar pride as she wolfed it down.

She listened to Graverobber with obvious interest, clearly fascinated by their new guest, laughing at the appropriate times - usually whenever he brought up Pavi, who had always made Shilo laugh during the Genetic Opera despite his bizarre and nightmarish face - and gaped in disbelief at the appropriate times as well. Unlike Nathan, Shilo's expressions were open on her face, while he sat quietly at the table sipping at a cup of tea and alternately picking at some sliced pineapple.

He did his best not to acknowledge it when Graverobber looked his way, instead keeping his eyes on his daughter or his English breakfast tea, or occasionally, his own hands - anything to keep his eyes off of the scavenger. It was surprisingly difficult, but at least Shilo was enjoying it - begrudgingly, Nathan gave the other man a little credit for that much.

"So do you know the Largos in person?" Shilo asked, and Nathan's eyes finally flicked up to Graverobber, almost warningly, though it was difficult for him to look even remotely intimidating while he was licking a bit of pineapple juice from his wrist.
 
He certainly knew how to keep an audience interested, even if it was just one kid. Actually, he preferred this: Shilo was appreciative and she wasnâ??t clinging to him. That was two pluses right there. A third, he thought as he caught Nathan in the middle of chasing that pineapple juice down, was little things like the doctorâ??s pink darting out on his wrist.

â??One of them, sort of,â? Graverobber said, unable to tear his eyes away from that scene. He remembered very clearly how Nathanâ??s wrist tasted when he was lying there with his arm forced back over his head. â??Um, Carmelaâ?¦ Amber Sweet, nowâ? he said, actually stumbling over his words as he looked back to the kid. Where had that come from? â??She runs the Zydrate Support Network. Weâ??ve hadâ?¦ words.â? Not quite how he would describe what they did against the faded posters and brick of alleyway walls, but this was the PG version he was giving.

"I've seen the other ones, though. They come down for events sometimes." Not the sort he was invited to: Graverobber belonged to several groups the Largos found obnoxious: he was a grave robber, obviously, and competition, he stole like some sort of kleptomanic monkey, and he had no interest whatsoever in surgery. Not 'he didn't want surgery because he couldn't afford it', no, they liked that sort of man. He simply wanted nothing to do with being put down and cut up.
 
Nathan's brows furrowed just slightly, a temporary expression of confusion when Graverobber stared at him and it was only when he heard the other man stumble on his words that he realized precisely what it was he was doing to distract him. Initially, his mind recoiled at the thought that he might be instigating something, but Repo gave another of his harsh little laughs in the doctor's head, and he found himself following the trail of pineapple juice back up to the tip of his finger, his eyes remaining on Graverobber to the end.

Then, as though nothing had happened, he was promptly paying attention to Shilo again, sipping his tea as she spoke,

"Zydrate Support - but that's for people who take Zydrate and want to stop," Shilo said, "So if she's talking to you -"

Yes, she had been raised smart.

"Amber Sweet's not really off Zydrate, is she?" Shilo asked rhetorically, adding, "Mr. Largo'll want to kill you if he finds out."
 
Now that wasnâ??t fair. Graverobber was almost startled into dumbness with Nathan actually â?¦

That was flirting, wasn't it? His tongue had gone all the way to the tip, and for a moment, Graverobber had wondered if heâ??d pull the digit into his mouth, but now he was back to the prim and proper middle-aged father, sipping his tea and listening to his girl talk.

The bastard.

â??No, sheâ??s not.â? Graverobber gave another of those little shrugs, eyes focused on her again. Baring any more fleeing fruit fluids, heâ??d get through this conversation without being controlled by the sudden urge to actually grab that man and finish what they had started. That might be a tad traumatizing to Shilo. â??And Mr. Largoâ??s a bad man. Itâ??s almost good to want him to kill you,â? he said plainly, voice free of any sort of deception. â??Not that Iâ??m all that good. But I know a lot of good folks he wouldnâ??t invite to tea.â?
 
Shilo looked a little confused this time, and she passed her eyes from Graverobber to Nathan and back again, but when she found nothing to inform her of what was going on, she came to the conclusion that she must have been imagining things,

"Dad said Mr. Largo is a soulless corporate dictator." she parroted, and Nathan paused with his tea cup halfway to his mouth, his expression tugging between concern and sheepishness as he recalled that, yes, at one point he had most definitely said it, though he had been sleep deprived at the time and hardly capable of holding a coherent conversation. He supposed he would have to be more careful with what he said while he was delirious - though at the very least, what he'd said had been true.

"And that one day things will be different without him around," she added as an after-thought, and Nathan found himself suddenly concerned if he had said anything else to her, particularly during the time that had been blanked out in his mind, when the world had gone by in bits and pieces. It wasn't something he had ever really addressed to himself, what he would do when Rotti Largo was gone - because it left him wondering how much the Largo offspring knew. Would they hold him to the same contract their father had?
 
â??Did he, now?â? Graverobber glanced up to find a rather abashed look on the elder Wallaceâ??s face. â??Itâ??s a good summary,â? he said, eyes bright with laughter.

At her next words, his eyebrows climbed up his face in a pleasant sort of surprise. She was cute, wasnâ??t she, with her naïve beliefs in change. Sounded exactly like Ray and the nut jobs he sometimes hosted. Graverobber knew differently: the top may change, but humans had fucked up and nothing could change that, no matter what sort of cutting and stitching they did in an attempt to fix their world.

Obviously, he wasnâ??t the most optimistic of men.

But, for once, he didnâ??t have the heart to point out the flaw in her words, not yet. Kids and crazy old men got to have impossible dreams. â??He certainly wonâ??t live forever,â? he said instead. â??And thereâ??s quite a few human rights organizations that are looking forward to him croaking."
 
Shilo nodded her head in understanding,

"Well, from what I know," she said carefully, tucking some of her hair behind her ear and looking between the two men as though to ask them to bare with her, "Rotti Largo helped mass produce organs to combat the epidemic, but because he's the only resource, he marked up the price so that no one can really afford them, even though eventually, we'll probably all need to replace something, right? So he's got the market cornered and he's taking advantage of it, and sending Repo Men -"

She looked at her father then, who was frozen, staring at Graverobber with a look of accusation,

"- maybe sending Repo Men," she corrected herself, "To recall parts from people who can't pay. He basically legalized murder, right?"

Nathan couldn't have looked more guilty.
 
â??He does worse things.â? Graverobber didnâ??t do this. He didnâ??t go about telling people what was wrong and right. That was the job for crazies like Ray. But this kid didnâ??t know anything and she needed to. Sheâ??d be a fascinating thing to watch, set out free with no knowledge of the outside world. Sink or swim, and sheâ??d sink like a rock. For some reason, he didnâ??t want that.

He was getting soft. Graverobber could remember Nathanâ??s words, cloyingly sweet as they were, but just on the off chance that he couldn't survive without his kid,

â??Murderâ??s one thing, but he manipulates people.â? Oh, this was rich. Graverobber could make people dance for him, was currently watching Nathanâ??s resolve wear down as he kept pulling him down, but here he was, talking to this little girl about Rottiâ??s flaws. â??He makes contracts for everyone, things you canâ??t get out of ever. This old guy I know, pain in the ass, says Largoâ??s big sin is that he makes people into him. Makes them do bad things even if they never even meant to.â? The dealer shrugged. â??There are non-licensed hospitals thatâ??ll do organ transplants. But those are natural, so sometimes the body rejects them. Or you get a disease from the donor.â? Ray was good about that: he always managed to find the good Farmers, the ones that knew what they were doing. Often med-school rejects who couldnâ??t get through the surGEN program before their conscience got to them. â??And you donâ??t make enough to take care of a sick kid,â? he added.
 
Nathan finished his tea in silence and despite being a GeneCo employee himself and one of the many being manipulated by Rotti Largo, he held back the years of poison that he could have unleashed regarding the Largo family. Instead, he busied himself by picking up the dishes and bringing them to the sink, his expression grim and drawn in a way that made him look too tired.

"So he uses people," Shilo said, considering it for a long moment; she knew her father worked for GeneCo, but only as a doctor, and from what she knew he was only connected to GeneCo in the very loose sense - he spent his time making house calls, helping people who couldn't get to the hospitals on their own. It had never once occurred to her that her father might be involved in the darker aspects of the company - she'd never had a reason to suspect it, after all.

"Dad, what happened to your neck?" Shilo asked suddenly, and Nathan froze at the sink. Suddenly grateful to be facing away, he had to wrack his brain for a response, but then Shilo added, "That wasn't there yesterday."

"I had to get up-to-date on my shots, Shi." he said hurriedly, "Influenza - I'd forgotten to get it done this year, it's why I got so sick last week."
 
Graverobber snorted then, in a surprising fit of politeness, actually got up to help Nathan.

Well. Not really to help him. More like to pester him in ways that would probably end up with him on his ass outside or pushed up against the spotless counter. â??Hey, kid,â? he said, trying to find a way to get her to leave. She wasnâ??t You: he couldnâ??t just tell her to scram (not that it worked on You). â??You think you could find me a few pictures of bugs you want me to keep an eye out for?â?

And if he brushed against Nathanâ??s back just a little too closely as he spoke, reaching for one of the wet dishes, he was sure she probably wouldnâ??t notice. Though she might have seen him lean over and whisper right in her dad's ear, â??A shot, eh? Thought that was the other one.â?
 
Shilo did notice; despite Graverobber's decent distraction, she watched as the flamboyantly dressed drug dealer moved towards the sink, observing him for the sake of sating her curiosity regarding the man - and her eyebrows climbed high when she watched Graverobber move incredibly close to her father, speaking close into his ear.

Nathan stiffened for a moment when he felt the other man move against him; he could feel Graverobber's chest against his back for an instant, and he nearly dropped the dish that had been in his hand when the baritone murmured into his ear, warm breath against his skin. With the concern that Shilo would noticed, Nathan knew he couldn't jerk away or make any obvious movements to create space between him and Graverobber.

"Um," Shilo said, her eyebrows furrowing for a moment as she tried to figure out precisely what was so bizarre about the whole thing, but gave up, "Yeah, sure; I'll be right back kay?"

And then she was hopping off the seat, pausing only for a moment to glance at Graverobber again, and then walking out of the room wondering precisely what she was missing.
 
So the kid noticed. Graverobber rested his clean forehead on Nathanâ??s, snickering softly. Now that she was gone, he felt there was no reason to move from behind her father, instead pressing his chest against the other manâ??s back. Oh, there were knives around, it was a kitchen after all, and should he will it, Nathan could make him back off very, very quickly, but he was enjoying their little game.

â??I was going to leave you alone this morning,â? he breathed against a neck that was still slightly discolored from the Zydrate gun. Just the softest green-yellow remained from a bruise that was nearly healed, but Graverobber had no problem noticing it on Nathanâ??s otherwise pallid skin. The man really needed to take better care of himself. â??But you had to do that, didnâ??t you?â? He had dropped the pretense of wanting to help as soon as he had heard footsteps on the stairs, so his hands were free to slip down to the manâ??s stomach.

This time, it would be his turn to leave Nathan dissatisfied. Graverobber kept his ears, trained to listen for GENcops (who could be sneaky little bastards when they wanted to), open for the girl's return.
 
Part of Nathan wanted to whimper for Shilo not to leave because he desperately wanted a reason not to be left alone with the other man especially after his own questionable behaviour - what was he thinking, looking at Graverobber like that - but she unfortunately didn't recognize her father's discomfort and dissappeared up the stairs, leaving him standing in front of the sink, trying miserably to keep his attention on the dishes.

But no such luck, because he felt Graverobber move up behind him again, but this time it wasn't an innocent brush up, instead, Graverobber came up close and pressed up against him, and Nathan found himself closing his eyes, at the feeling of hands against him, fingers splaying out against his sides.

"You must be imagining things." Nathan replied hoarsely, trying to force his concentration onto the tea cup but finding it incredibly difficult.
 
â??What am I imagining, Nathan?â? His voice was low, sweet and much too intimate as he examined the smaller manâ??s torso with his fingers. Even through the shirt, he was wonderfully warm and solid, muscles and form much more angular than any womanâ??s. Graverobber liked to think of himself as an equal-opportunity partner: liking both sexes (and whatever middle sexes that showed up due to birth or surgery) effectively doubled his chances of getting laid.

Nathan, however solid he was, was still too thin under those questing fingers. Graverobber might spend half his nights on the streets, but even he kept a little more meat on his bones than this. Deft hands pulled the shirt out of his pants on one side to slip over his belly, right below the ribs. â??Donâ??t feel any surgery scars,â? he murmured, mouthing along Nathanâ??s neck. This was much, much more touch than he had been allowed before, and Graverobber had the feeling it was simply because Nathan wasnâ??t quite sure how to get rid of him without fetching Repo.

And Repo wasnâ??t the sort of alter-ego you brought home to your child.
 
There was a different sort of feeling running through Nathan now, it was a cool chill that ran up his spine and made the hairs on the nape of his neck prickle, followed quickly by a blossom of heat as he felt Graverobber shifting, felt his breath again and heart the too-intimate tone that he was currently using to torture the doctor. Nathan knew he should have been shoving Graverobber away, or at the very least protesting, but he found his mind was swimming, particularly when the other man tugged up his shirt and slipped one wide hand under the material.

"How should I know?" Nathan asked, doing his best to sound indignant, "You're clearly out of your mind anyways."

Nathan nearly dropped the tea cup in his hands when he felt the palm sliding slowly along his skin, a touch that was nothing like all of the violent moments they'd had prior - this was incredibly gentle, and the simple touch was setting all of his nerve endings on fire. He wasn't sure if he preferred this passive Graverobber or the aggressive one, but he noticed that Repo was astoundingly quiet right then, as though the monster had chosen to sit back and observe this little interaction rather than being involved in it for once.

"Never had surgery." Nathan replied, and he shivered when he felt the warm mouth on his throat, "Never needed it."

One of the lucky ones.
 
A low chuckle, more breath than voice, exhaled over skin that was just slightly damp from his mouth. There was no waxy residue or stains now, and for a moment, Graverobber felt almost vulnerable. He was used to necking with men and women (the latter more often, lately) who were smeared with make up like himself. â??Whenever you say Iâ??m out of my mind,â? he said, resting his chin on Nathanâ??s clean smelling shoulder to watch him fidget and fuss with his teacup. Again, he saw the same delicate, understated, but faded wealth in the cup, the same as the rest of the house, like someone had died a few decades back and this man and his daughter had come to live in their abandoned home. â??Itâ??s a lie. And didnâ??t we talk about lying yesterday?â?

Another soft laugh as he watched Nathan fumble with the cup, nearly dropping it, before he dropped his chin and pressed those same almost tender (Graverobber, after all, did not do tender, so anything he did was only close) kisses to his neck.

â??Lucky.â? Those hands climbed up to examine a fairly unmarked chest. Sure, there were other scars there from other things, life and work, but nothing like the deep, ugly things that surgery left behind. â??You might want to put the cup down,â? he warned, fingers creeping across the lightly haired skin. â??You might drop it.â?
 
Nathan likely would have laughed at the realization that Graverobber was feeling vulnerable, because with his front pressed into the counter, the scavenger pressed to his back, and hands up his shirt, Nathan was feeling more vulnerable than he could ever remember, moreso because he wasn't entirely certain he wanted it to stop - even though he knew that he should want it to.

Those hands continued up over his ribs, climbing his chest, and Nathan shuddered again, this time so hard that he found he couldn't disagree with Graverobber and he set the china teacup down, placing a hand onto the counter to try and keep his balance, because suddenly he felt like his legs might not keep him up. It seemed so ridiculous, the simple touches were nearly making him lose his footing. To make matters worse, he was aware that Graverobber was doing this just to tease him - Shilo would be back in minutes, and Graverobber was just touching and caressing to - to -

- suddenly the counter against his front was incredibly uncomfortable, and Nathan moved to try and tug Graverobber's hands away, embarrassed by his own reaction and desperately not wanting to make it obvious.
 
â??Very good,â? Graverobber whispered as Nathan managed to set the cup down, splaying his fingers across that flat chest. His hands were wide, warm and fairly tame: outside of a few brushes, he didnâ??t give the nipples any attention preferring, instead, to use gentle, exploratory touches.

It seemed to be working quite well, he thought as he twisted his head, if the way the pulse under his lips sped up was any indication. Until Nathan was pushing him off.

Graverobber stepped back obediently with one last, quick nip to the skin under his mouth. â??Why donâ??t you tell your daughter you want to perform one last test?â? he said pleasantly from about a step behind Nathan. The scavenger cocked his head to the side, leaning back a little to examine Repo from the behind. â??Youâ??ll at least be able to take the edge off.â?
 
Nathan was characteristically quiet, even as Graverobber's hands skimmed so temptingly along his skin, though he had to fight to keep his eyes open - the urge to just lean back into the other man and enjoy the sensation was overwhelming, but he resisted because even with the strange warmth flooding his senses and making him feel a little stupid, he remembered that his daughter would be back at any moment.

And yes, there was the sound of her footsteps on the staircase again, just as Graverobber began to pull away and Nathan leaned his hands forward onto the counter to steady himself, to pull himself together. He was painfully hard from the ghosting touches, and every time he went through this with Graverobber, it became more difficult to ignore his body's demands for the attention he had denied himself for so long.

"That would be a bad idea." Nathan rasped, feeling the other man's eyes on him.

And then Shilo was back in the room and Nathan was emptying out the sink, cleaning up the counter, busying himself as much as he could while his daughter put down a small pile of images of various insects - primarily the flightless ones, given that she so rarely saw any of them on her balcony, save for the rare brave one that climbed that high only to meet their maker on the end of a bobby pin.
 
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