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Starved - Rook x Venuris (WTHHero/Degusaurusrex)

Rook could see a flash of disdain cross her face as she stared at him for just a moment it was there. An expression of utter contempt. At first, it appeared that she was in a kind of rapture as she drank his blood and there was a widening of her eyes that might have been surprised, but some thought had crossed her mind that made her look at him that way.

He didn't blame her. His wrist ached and he rubbed at it absently. He licked the top of row of his teeth inside his mouth uncertain how to qualify his feelings. It stung, but Rook didn't feel the urge to look to closely at why that might have been. He raised his eyebrows at her comment.

"You can taste it, the magic?" He asked, incredulously.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes carefully hiding any indication realizing that his face was probably too expressive. He didn't know what he expected, on one level or another, he was food to her. Whatever intimacy he thought it might have fostered to share something as strange as his blood with her was a silly thought.

Her transformation was fascinating. He watched curious about just how much magic must be flowing through her veins for anything like this to be possible. At one point or another Rook had studied magic said to be able to make someone see something else, but to actually change form...

"Glad my blood is of some use to you, Venuris," he said, and then started to walk towards the coffee table. He drank the rest of his coffee and then went to the foyer to don his coat. "Let's try to make this quick so we can avoid having to resort to this in the future."
 
"Yes, I can taste it." Did he know anything about demons, or was he simply going off of whatever notes the old man might have left for him? She didn't like the way that he put emphasis on her name like that, and the way that she narrowed her eyes made that clear as day.

"Do you expect me to walk barefoot?" She raised an eyebrow, following after him from a safe distance as he went to fetch his coat. If he expected her to go without a coat of her own that was one thing, but to go without anything on her feet seemed a bit.. Odd. He'd gone to the effort of giving her blood so that she could complete a transformation and blend in, after all.
 
"Check the bags," he said, and made a gesture towards what was left of them. He remembered acquiring a pair of short leather boots. Better for the rain than flats. He could see her narrow her eyes at him but at this point it was becoming normal. He shouldn't have been offended, but he had been. He made a gesture and added "there's also a hoodie, if you want it."

There was a bit of irritation starting to itch in his skin. At every instance she seemed compelled to emphasize how little thought he put towards her and worse it was accurate due to the fact that he was somewhat bad at planning to care for the needs of others. He preferred being alone. He thought back to advise books on how to get along better with people.

"You look good. The transformation was impressive on a technical level, and I like the choice of eye color," he said, fumbling, his fingers flexing and unflexing in his coat pockets, "though I don't think you look terrible otherwise. I'm not sure what the beauty standards are for demons, but you're breathtaking."

He stared up at the ceiling looking more tired than usual and suddenly very awkward. Idiot, his thoughts shared with him. He attempted to remove any expression from his face.
 
...Right, the bags. How could she have been so stupid to forget he'd gotten her things? When she had looked the previous night, it had been quick and in order to find clothing only, not shoes. Venuris had the grace to look slightly embarrassed as she slunk back over to where all the bags were, sifting through them until she found a pair of socks and the boots he'd purchased.

She shoved them hastily onto her feet before looking for what he had called a 'hoodie', and by the time she found one his last words finally registered with her. Had he just called her breathtaking? She had no idea how to respond to that since her initial reaction was one of revulsion, and she stared at him for a long moment with her mouth open before she struggled to get the hoodie over her head, and then stood.

"It will not hold forever. I hope this trip does not take all day."
 
So much for compliments, he thought and stared at the ceiling awkwardly while she stared back at him. As soon as she changed the subject, he felt a mixture of relief and disappointment.

"It won't," he said simply, and headed towards the door. He opened it. There was a light drizzle, but other than that the morning air was a bit cold but pleasing with a gentle breeze. He walked to the car and clicked the remote unlock. Before opening the driver-side door and getting into the vehicle, he opened the back passenger door and held it open.

Rook got into the driver seat after she got into the car and drove to a local supermarket. He remained mostly silent unless Venuris spoke. There was the shopping trip that had to be managed and after that a visit to the butcher's. He had bribed them some time before not to ask too many questions about why he needed all the blood, but he was certain that wouldn't last long.

They would have to find another solution.
 
That was.. Reassuring, she supposed, or it should have been. The rain that was coming down outside was slightly annoying but not the end of the world, and she paused just outside the house to tilt her head up and let the rain fall on her face. Despite the fact that it was chilly as it hit her skin, it was refreshing to be around anything that wasn't a stuffy little room hidden away from the world.

She slid into the back of the car when he opened the door, settling into the seat and keeping her eyes trained firmly on him as they ventured toward the city. Did it make him uncomfortable for her to stare at him as she did? Did she actually care if it made him uncomfortable?

It wasn't until they reached their destination and exited the vehicle that she stopped staring at him, and it was only because her attention had wandered to the building and the people going in and out of the doors that.. Somehow were opening on their own. The sheer amount of people and other noises she could hear sent her into high alert, and she found herself frozen in place just outside of the car as she contemplated diving back into it and hiding there until he was done.

"We are.. Going in there?"
 
As mixed as Rook's feelings were regrading Venuris, moments like watching her turn her face towards the rain and smile, though he wasn't sure if she was aware of it, tugged at something in his stomach.

Of course, Rook didn't notice at first Venuris's discomfort at heading into something as innocuous to him as the grocery store. He paused when he noticed her not following. He turned and looked at her watching her. He could see her eyes were wide with panic and that she was hesitating to move at all.

Rook looked at her his face unreadable.

"Yes, we are going in there. To get a toothbrush. Toothpaste. Necessities," he said, carefully, once again feeling a tugging of sympathy just below his ribs. He let out a breath very slowly and then took a cautious step towards her making eye contact with her. His expression became soft as he spoke.

"Venuris, you are a shape-shifting demon woman from another realm. Powerful and beyond the comprehension of most ordinary men. Little do these folks know, thanks to your abilities, what you are, but if they did, they would quake in fear. You have nothing to be afraid of here. It's a market, nothing more."
 
"I never said I was afraid." She met his eyes for a brief moment and found herself unable to look away, and she felt a wave of shame wash over her. That her fear had been so obvious to him was shameful. He was right about what she was, but that didn't stop her from being wary of a place that had so much noise coming from it. Her delicate hearing was in full swing now that she'd had fresh blood, and for the first time in a long time she could hear everything.

She could hear the footsteps of the people walking through the parking lot around them, the chattering of their idle conversations both in person and on their phones. The raindrops making contact with the car she stood beside. She could even smell them now, a horrid mixture of rain, human, and all other assortments of perfumes and smoke that surrounded them.

"I'm not afraid." She repeated herself and edged away from the car slowly, choosing to shift closer to him if only to have something familiar near her. She couldn't risk getting lost in the large building, after all.

"Only what is necessary." She needed to salvage her pride, and that unfortunately came in the form of her walking across the parking lot toward him and the magical doors that allowed anyone near them inside.

"If they try to eat me I will break them." That was probably an empty threat. All the power she had accumulated from him had gone into changing her appearance, but he didn't need to know her threat towards the automatic doors was empty.
 
"Of course, apologizes, I didn't mean to suggest you were afraid," Rook stated calmly. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, normally, he would offer an arm or something to keep her steady. Her attitude up until this point suggested it would not be welcome. He settled for staying close to her. Some protective instinct of his was worming its way up to the surface as he kept an eye on her.

"I know you're not. I've often found being around too many people to be somewhat of a chore, myself," he said, doing what he could to make light of it. He could tell that he had injured her pride.

He started to walk with her as she did. His normally brisk pace slowly to match hers as they approached the doors. "We're only here to pick up things to accommodate your needs. In the interest of that, we'll stay as long as you think we should." He watched everyone walking in and out of the building, the people groceries away, it all seemed so ordinary, he wondered briefly what it would be like to think there was nothing else in the world but needing to pick up food.

Rook made sure to stay near her as they entered the store and walked slowly to guide her towards the first thing she had mentioned. The cosmetics aisle. "If anyone happens to try to eat you, I think you would be well within' your rights to break them," he tried hard not to chuckle.

"We can find both a toothbrush and a hairbrush down this aisle."
 
She nearly missed that he'd apologized to her, so wrapped up in watching the doors open and close with a whoosh of air every time someone passed through. It was so loud.

"Uh huh." She edged slightly closer to him as they entered the store, jumping as the doors made their whooshing noise and then shut behind them. What was wrong with how doors had used to be?

"What?" She glanced over at him with a confused look. She hadn't meant the people, she'd meant the door! Oh, no matter, who cared? Toothbrush, hairbrush, those were the things that they needed, and then they could leave, right? If she was being completely honest with herself, Venuris had absolutely no idea what a woman needed in this age. All she cared about was being clean, clothed, and fed.

"Why are there so many?" She gave him a puzzled look as she stared at the long aisle, finding packages of toothbrushes that ranged from a single all the way to a package of what looked like six or seven, Then the hairbrushes, that entire section made her head spin just looking at it. They all looked so different, between the styles, colors, and packages, she found herself staring at them with a nervous expression.
 
The fact that she was so overwhelmed again was causing Rook to feel far more sympathetic than he did before, and he was already feeling a knot of constant guilt in the pit of his stomach. Now, he tilted his head as he looked at her. What was he feeling?

"Right," Rook said, and made a gesture to about half the selection of the hairbrushes, "Don't even both with this. It's all cheap garbage and even if money was something to worry about, I'd rather spend the money on something that will last than these."

He grabbed a few of the higher end hairbrushes and showed them to her. "If you have thicker hair, you'll want one like this," he then showed another brush, "If your hair is curlier and you want it to emphasize the curls, this brush can sort of train your hair." he started going through the selections showing them each to her in turn and eventually made a gesture to the colors. "I don't know why it matters what colors or styles they are. I guess it says something about who you are and what you like," Rook shrugged, and then took a step back, watching her. "So, Venuris, what do you like? Who are you?"
 
Did she really care what her hair did, as long as it wasn't tangled? No, probably not. All of the fancy styling had been in regards to the old man, she was perfectly comfortable just having it brushed and tied up.

"I have a lot of hair." She chose the brush he'd said was good for thicker hair, fumbling and managing to get it from him without making direct skin contact. "I like having it not tangled." Past that, she wasn't entirely sure what she liked. It had been a long time since she'd styled her hair of her own accord, and even then it had been with a variety of braids and charms from her own world, nothing that this world offered quite the same.

"These." She snatched up a package of what looked like basic hair ties and tucked it under the brush she was holding, turning her attention to the toothbrushes with a sigh. Those couldn't possibly matter all that much, could they? She only needed one, so the single package was a good enough choice and she added that to the tiny pile in her hands.

"Good enough, yes?"
 
Rook stared at her for a second and smiled a bit. He nodded to himself, and then shrugged his shoulders. "If you think it's good enough, but I'm not sure how often we'll be going out, so you might want to be cautious about your selections."

He idly looked through the toothbrushes and picked out a few. "The bristles have softness ratings. Are your teeth sensitive? This might be best. That toothbrush you grabbed is shit. Plus, I mean, a lime-colored toothbrush? It's weird. It'll be worn out in a month or two and then it isn't going to be all that pleasing to use."

The toothbrushes on the higher level of the aisle were more expensive and he picked a few of them and handed them to her. "Pick one and maybe a back-up toothbrush if you need it. I don't see why you're so keen on keeping it simple, but whatever."

Rook put his hands into his pockets and continued to walk down the aisle. "What else? Lotion? Is that something you need? Skin care? Do you want different shampoo or conditioner?"

In some way, Rook felt motivated to get her to enjoy something for a change. He wasn't sure why, but the fact that she was so, damaged, it troubled him.
 
"What's wrong with this color?" Venuris frowned at him and put it back on the peg, looking at the different selection he held out toward her. Did it really matter what kind of toothbrush she got? They all cleaned her teeth the same way, didn't they? It wasn't like she'd been given options before, there had always been someone that did the shopping, someone that had initially bathed and prepared her, so she'd never paid much attention to things when she had started to do it herself.

"I.. Don't know? Probably?" She'd used all of those things before, but she wasn't sure what the best kind was. Did she just pick things that smelled good, like whatever he'd done with the bath? "Not too smelly." Her nose would go into overdrive if she had to shower in a million different scented things.

"I like the smell of outside." There were plenty of things like smelled like the outdoors, weren't there? "My world doesn't have so many things like this. We always smell like outside." Well, they had, when she was last there. What was her world even like these days?
 
"Outside, huh?"

He shrugged and walked her through the store. She seemed not to really know what to do as far as shopping went. He took her to various aisles. Starting with lotion. "Smell test, this is supposed to be scented as enchanted meadow," he smelled it and wrinkled his nose, "certainly smells enchanted." He gave her a few and let her test them out.

Rook was starting to enjoy himself on some level. He walked her through selections of soaps and haircare products picking specifically outdoorsy or plain scents as he grew accustomed to her liked and dislikes.

After awhile, he hung back more, trying to encourage her to make her own selections. "Humans are a bit particular," he said at some point, "they like having a lot of variety. I took a liking to the smell of sandlewood when I was young and that's held pretty steady. Lavender calms me down."

He took her to the bath bombs last and he gestured to them. "This is what I put in your bath last night. Some of them say their good for one thing or another. Clarity, peaceful sleep, it's not real magic, but humans believe in it. Pick a few if you want."
 
"It smells horrid." She wrinkled her nose after sniffing it, smelling a few different bottles before she settled on something more mild. She missed the smell of the land, of the different plants and earthy tones that her world offered. Nothing here would mimic those scents perfectly, but she could settle on things that smelled more like flowers or wooded areas and still be comfortable.

"I liked the lavender." Venuris huffed quietly and set down the basket they'd acquired along the way, catching her breath from carrying the steadily growing weight of the things they'd accumulated. Did she really need so many things just to keep herself clean?

"They think it's.. Magic?" She glanced back at him before looking back at the shelf, poking at the different packages of scents forced into odd shapes. Most of them seemed to be simple orbs, but there were a few that had been pressed into various shapes like diamonds, hearts, and other odds and ends.

"Just.. Pick a few?" She could read some of the language, she'd been around it several times and had retained some of the information. Several randomly picked bath bombs were tossed into the basket before she picked it back up, rubbing at her eyes and looking to him for guidance.

"We can go now?"
 
"Yeah, they think it's magical. I don't think they have any idea what magic really requires or the sad truth that just not anyone can do it," he smiled softly, "people need something to believe in something suppose. It's comforting."

Rook glanced at Venuris making eye contact with her again and took on a very serious tone and expression "If you're going to pick the bath bombs at random, I'm not going to be happy if I slowly witness my stock of lavender bath bombs growing thin."

He smirked wryly and then took the basket from her carrying it to the checkout counter. He made small talk with the cashier, commenting on the weather. Everything about his demeanor seemed to change in an instant. He was warm? Friendly? Rook always made a small effort to brighten a day if he could. He wasn't sure if he felt the warmth he conveyed. Sometimes it seemed genuine and then it would fade and he would feel distant from the world.

He paid for everything without comment and took all the bags before Venuris could assist with carrying it all as he headed back into the chill and the rain. "How much time do we have left before you change?"
 
Comforting? That was something for children, wasn't it? Believing in magic just to feel comfortable and safe in a world that was likely falling apart at the seams.

"You make it sound like I'll be taking a bath every day." Was she supposed to, or was she only supposed to clean herself when she began to smell? Did humans take scented baths every day, was that something that they did these days? Humans had advanced a lot in the last three decades, and everywhere they went, everything they saw showed her that.

She offered no protest when he took the basket from her, glad to be rid of the weight as they made their way to the checkout and then out of the store. He had been so.. Friendly with the cashier, and she'd only been able to stare at him in stunned silence during the interaction. The cashier probably thought she was insane, standing there just staring at her companion like that!

"I don't know." She shrugged as they reached the car, waiting patiently for him to unlock it before she got into the backseat again. "A bit longer, perhaps. I haven't done this in a long time. It's not exactly easy changing your body and making it stay that way when you've been starved."
 
Rook started the car rubbed his temples as he thought about just how tired he was and somewhere in the back of his mind he was still planning the demise of one of the members of The Order of the Yellow Rose, but there was time for that. He still had to go back to his grandfather's estate and find out exactly what they were expecting of him as he was groomed to inherit his grandfather's legacy, but what better way was there to take it down than from within. Rook didn't notice his jaw clenching as he thought about this.

"Right, I'm sorry to put you in this circumstance. Perhaps with practice it will become easier," he said, he still had a few days before he really needed to push towards his goals. Right now, he was finding himself more and more concerned with Venuris and it was a distraction. Was that part of his grandfather's plan?

He didn't know, but on some level, he enjoyed this. There was something he couldn't put his finger on about it. Watching her come out of her shell a little in the grocery store was confusing. "We still have to go to the butcher's shop. I have a friend, well associate, I guess, there now that I've started bribing them to not ask why I'm buying gallons of pig's blood." that was not a sentence he liked saying.

"I have a question," he said, as they started to pull out of the parking lot. "What do your people do for entertainment?"
 
He wanted her to do it again? She gave him an alarmed look from the backseat and shifted uncomfortably. She wasn't going to complain about the fresh blood, especially one that was rich with magic, but the thought of going around large groups of people like they'd just done was distressing, to say the least.

When he clarified he would be buying gallons of animal blood her face twitched, jaw tightening as she turned to stare out the window. Of course the thought of more fresh blood was a wasted one, she had been a fool to think it at all. She should be grateful he was planning to feed her on a regular basis at all, but the years of neglect and mistreatment had made her cold to that fact. It was all so sudden, thirty years trapped with the old man and now she was just a pawn in someone else's game instead. Freedom was unattainable, it seemed.

"Entertainment?" She looked away from the window to glance briefly at him and then looked away again. What had she done back in her world?

"We hunted. Our world is much more land than this. We don't have any of the advancements that you do. We hunted, we had celebrations and feasts for successful ones. Ceremonies for mating and for childbirth."
 
Rook didn't notice the change in her temperament as she grappled with the thought of not getting more fresh blood. He absently rubbed at the back of his neck as she described what they did for entertainment. It sounded, dull, to him.

There wasn't much to be done about it, but, with the spare time that he had, he might as well try to find some way to make things more enjoyable for her. It wasn't exactly comfortable to have her actively hating him constantly. Not that he didn't deserve it for the position he was keeping her in. He sighed softly to himself as they drove, not far, to the butcher's shop.

"If we continue to go out, I imagine you're going to need fresh blood to pull this particular trip, but I only have so much to give. And it's...weird..." he said, somewhat uncomfortable. He wasn't sure why exactly it was weird, only that, he felt, odd during the last time. Was there something wrong with him? It was strangely intimate though he was sure that didn't affect her much.

"Hunting in this world is kind of a whole thing. I don't think we can do that," he was not going to touch on the comment about mating rituals, "You need something to do. You've been locked away too long. I'll figure out something."
 
"It's only weird because you don't need it to survive." She shrugged. "It's not all that different than how you humans butcher animals and eat their meat." She did need something to do, that was true, but she hadn't the faintest clue on what would hold her interest. It had been so long since she'd been given a choice on anything to do with her own well being, her own body and activities.

"I hope you don't intend to force me around people constantly. There's too many smells, too many noises." She wrinkled her nose, but she'd be damned if she would outright admit it made her anxious.

"Aren't you afraid ill attack someone?"
 
"Frankly, no, I'm not that worried about it. If you were going to attack someone, I imagine it would be me. I'm well aware that you can't kill me, but the binding wasn't specific enough about you being able to hurt me that I feel confident that you can't. If you were going to attack someone, why wouldn't it be me? If you aren't motivated enough to hurt me, why would you do it to some random person? I'm starting to believe it's not in your nature."

Rook got out of the car after parking and then stood outside her door. He put his hand on the door handle and opened it for her. "That's not why it's weird," he said, moving a back to the subject about his blood, "it's," he frowned, and bit the inside of his lip, and then shook his head fighting off what might have been a blush. "Never mind, forget it, it's just weird."

He started walking towards the butcher shop at a brisk enough pace, and then recalled that he should slow down to her speed so she was at least a little more comfortable.

"Yida, Hi, I'm here to pick up that order from earlier?" He said, as he entered the shop. There were display cases full of the various carcasses of animals. Options for selection of meat products. The inside of the shop was brown, red, yellow, as a color scheme.

Yida, was a middle-aged woman whose hair was pulled back into a tight braid. She had a friendly air about her. "Who's this?"

Rook smiled "Oh, yes, this is Ris. Ris, Yida, Yida, Ris."

Rook made the appropriate gestures.
 
"You don't know that. Maybe I want to murder every human that I see." The last thing she wanted was for him to see her as docile or non threatening. The fact that she had no desire to kill any random human on the street was irrelevant. She would kill any that had intent to harm her, and she had an overabundance of desire to harm those who had played a part in her long lasting torture.

"Maybe the only reason I don't attack you is because I know it wouldn't end well for me." Despite her words, the tone of them wasn't very convincing, and she sighed quietly before going back to watching the world fly by them. Did it truly matter? Perhaps one day she would be free enough to need to think on who she would harm or kill, but today was not that day.

When they arrived she waited for him to step back from the open door, and only then did she get out of the car and follow after him. Was it just her imagination, or was he slowing his pace to make it easier for her to keep up? That was.. Interesting, if that was truly his intention.

Her eyes went wide as they entered the shop, taking in the sight of all the different meats openly displayed. She didn't care that it wasn't freshly killed and dripping with blood, although that might have been preferable, she just cared that there was so much of it at all.

"What?" He wanted her to speak to the woman? Her eyes went wide, both at the way that he had shortened her name and then at the insinuation that she was supposed to speak to the woman. Instead of managing some sort of simple hello, she lifted her hand in an awkward attempt at a wave and then stepped behind Rook.
 
Yida smiled in return and gave a small wave. "Now, now, honey, there's no reason to be shy. I don't bite."

"She does," Rook said with a laugh and the shook his head. "Kidding, kidding," he looked over at Venuris a smile on his face that reached his eyes. Oh, this was fun.

"Does she now? I didn't know you were seeing anyone?" Yida asked, giving Rook a pointed look. He shook his head with wry smile and said quickly, "No, no, she's a friend staying with me for a little while."

Yida nodded with a small knowing look. Rook was absolutely certain that if Yida actually knew what was going on with Venuris being in his life this exchange would be much different. Rook glanced over at Venuris with a small smile on his face wondering just how she would react to this situation. On the one hand, he was sure she would be furious at the implications on another Rook thought this interaction might just be a nice change. It was a normal everyday conversation and one she likely hadn't been part of in a long time if people in her realm even spoke like this to each other.

Yida looked specifically at Venuris. "Is there anything else you want to pick up while you're here? Rook here is loaded with cash if you didn't know, though he won't tell anyone where the money comes from. Probably mafia. Anyway, anything you want. I'm sure he doesn't mind."
 
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