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Starved - Rook x Venuris (WTHHero/Degusaurusrex)

"Venuris, you fool." She'd barely gotten into the shower when she began cursing herself. She had been that close to being free, to having the ability to go home if he had succeeded, or even the opportunity to wreak havoc on the human world. Why had she stopped him, what was the first that could have happened? He could have failed and killed one or both of them, which still would have freed her from the bond. He could have alerted the entire Order and had them descend upon them, which would send them into running if he didn't completely disregard her presence.

That had to be the source of her ire. He had fed her, clothed her, wiped her bloodied hands and face when she'd been found crying on the kitchen floor. The human had dared to make her question things, dared to make her think perhaps she could trust him, and then he'd tossed her outside and left her there on the premise that he wanted her to be free? She had been locked away for so long being 'useful' in one experiment after the other, had been assaulted, scarred, and traumatized enough, but now that she wanted to be useful, it was all the more painful to be pushed aside in any way.

The water beat down on her as she stood there, letting it soak through her hair and soothe her sore body. Even having blood on a somewhat normal basis hadn't healed all of her wounds, the bruises faded into her vibrantly red skin and the scars just that--Scars now that the initial wounds had healed.

"Fuck!" She slammed her hand down on the shower wall and cursed, holding it there for a moment and watching the slight trickle of blood from where she had grabbed the knife without thinking. The wound had almost closed entirely, just a hint of pink mixing in with the water as she took several deep breaths to steady herself and then turned her attention to actually bathing.

Twenty minutes later she had fully finished bathing and washing her hair, getting out of the shower and drying off and then dressing. The towel went over the rack before she took the other to her hair, opening the bathroom door slowly before exiting rubbing at her wet hair. She looked around cautiously in search of Rook, her ears twitching at every sound, her tail swaying gently as she peered around the house.
 
Rook was outside when Venuris got out of the shower. He was looking towards the horizon and rubbing at his left arm with his right. He looked deep in thought, and he was scowling. How was he going to explain what his motivation for all that was if he couldn't even admit to himself what the problem was? How would she even react? He was endeared to her that was the problem. What would she even think of that?

He sighed, and looked down at his feet, suddenly feeling very young again. Rook hadn't been the best with relationships of any kind and if he felt closeness with someone that's when he was at his most confused. He could hear the butcher's question in his head again and he shook his head in response to it. The truth was he still didn't know, but it was getting harder and harder for him to question that so much. There was something there. She would never accept him like that. Whoever had? Who would?

He looked over and noticed Venuris out of the shower and then let out a breath as he walked back into the living room scratching the back of his head. "Look," he said, not really looking at her and still holding his left arm to his side. "I cared about you right away because of what you've been through, but I care about you now, more--" He shrugged and closed his eyes and wasn't sure how to extend his thoughts into words very well.

He looked at her and frowned. "I want you to be here, but you're only here because you have to be here. I didn't want to hold you captive at all, but the more I get to know you, the less I can justify it. I like having you around."
 
She jumped and shrieked briefly at Rook's appearance, caught off guard as she'd been looking in the opposite direction when he spoke. Her eyes went down to the arm that he held before her brows creased together, her curiosity getting the better of her as she wondered if he had hurt himself and she'd just missed it during her fit of rage.

"What are you talking about?" She narrowed her eyes at him and backed across the room slightly, unsure of how to react to his sudden declaration. He was saying he cared about her? She had only been there a couple of days, what the hell was he talking about? Did he meant that he felt sympathy for her because of her situation? That would have at least made more sense in the long run, but he was talking about enjoying her company?

"I see no logic to this. I have done nothing but shy away from you, complain about the circumstances, and even struck you," She paused and sighed, "Although you deserved the last for what you were trying to do, my point remains the same. There is no logic to this."
 
Rook glanced at her, somewhat annoyed, but there was also something soft about the annoyance. A kind of look that he was giving her that wasn't all sharp edges. There was something soft there and a kind of sadness. "Not everything I do is logical even if I try to stick to that," He sighed.

He smiled softly. "Maybe you'll understand one day, Venuris. I apologize for how I might have offended you. It was not my intention to make you feel unwanted. In a weird way, I tried to send you away because you are wanted. I mean--" He sighed again.

"I do want you here, and so I tried to send you away because I want you to want to be here." He shrugged and then moved into the kitchen without adding more to this conversation. Instead he began to cook. Something light. He decided while he would add plenty of meat, he was making a salad. She was going to eat her vegetables whether we liked it or not. "Remember that remote I showed you? To use the TV? Can you put some music on, please?"
 
Nothing he was saying was making sense, and the demoness stared at him blankly as he attempted to explain before abruptly leaving the room. That was it? He was just going to leave her wondering as he went in and started on what she assumed was breakfast or brunch? How the hell was she supposed to react or respond to that?

"You want me to put music.. On the television that plays.. Television?" Was there a music channel or something? It wasn't like she'd spent a lot of time exploring the television, and had opted for the books instead during his absence, and he wanted her to magically find some music?

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She sighed and went over to the remote, though, turning on the television and starting to flip through the channels. "Do I just keep going through channels until music plays?"
 
The salad wasn't difficult to put together. Rook began chopping onions for salad, carrots, tomatoes, mixed green, added some sunflower seeds, which were running out, and then cut the steaks into bite sized strips so he could quickly sear that and add it to the salad. He looked up and over at Venuris and then washed his hands quickly and stepped out into the living room. "You can play all sorts of things of these," Rook said, walking over to her.

He guided her through the applications, having her select the one for a video player, and then had her select a video to start playing any kind of music. "Play, this one," he said, pointing at the screen at a video labeled The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go, and then looked down at the remote showing her a little right arrow button "hit that button."

Rook went back into the kitchen to finish his preparations for the salad. He cooked quietly, letting his mind drift. The whole thing earlier...

He didn't have any idea how he was going to begin to explain to Venuris what he had been talking about. Whatever cultural differences or lack of understanding of emotions that Venuris had would prove to be a lot to get through. He wasn't even rightly sure what it meant for him anyway. Sometimes, feelings are just feelings.
 
"Unlike you, I didn't grow up with a television." She shrugged, although there was no venom in her voice over that particular admission. Television didn't particularly interest her, there was nothing like it in her world and sitting idly by wasn't particularly enjoyable for her. Just being cooped up in the house like she was now was going to be the death of her. She couldn't run freely outside, couldn't walk the streets without needing to change her form, and she certainly couldn't handle large crowds of humans without getting overwhelmed.

"Okay?" She hit the button he'd shown her and then set the remote down, watching the screen change as a picture of an album cover came up and then music began to play. It was.. Interesting, to say the least, and by the time she turned to make a comment to Rook he was already back in the kitchen.

Well, okay then.

It was going to be a long, long day if this was how they were going to act, and she had a sinking suspicion he'd chosen the particular song playing just to force one or both of them to think. Was this his way of trying to sway her decision, or perhaps punish her for the one she'd made thus far?

"I don't like this song." Venuris spoke up partway through it and tapped at the remote until it changed to something else. She didn't know what the new song was, just that it wasn't the original one and that was good enough for her. Part of her missed when they'd just stayed away from each other unless necessary, this whole situation seemed ten times more complicated and she had no idea how to proceed.
 
"Then skip it," Rook said almost automatically before she picked a new song anyway. He finished giving the steak a pan sear and soon was pouring dressing onto the salad. He mixed up the veggies and then seasoned it all. He sighed in the middle of it still feeling his blood pumping a little more heavily than normal. He rolled his eyes to himself. What even is this we're doing? I'm supposed to be on a quest for vengeance not playing house with a demon.

Despite what he had been thinking he found himself bringing a salad out to her and put it down in front of her and then sat down across from her. He glanced at Venuris and met her eyes. He frowned slightly and found himself now looking at her another way. He was looking at the pigment of her skin, the yellow of her eyes, the shape of her jawline, the curve of her lips. He was confused but becoming less and less so about why he was looking at her like this. He frowned and took a bite of salad.

Normally, Rook would have turned the topic of conversation towards speaking about the mission, as he had come to think of it, of destroying the Order, but the next step was clear enough, there wasn't a lot to talk about in that regard and there wasn't any way to brooch the subject currently on his mind easily. "You have music in your world I assume? Is it like anything here?" Rook asked, looking down into his salad.
 
Why was he looking at her like that? There was only a brief second that Venuris was distracted by the food before she noticed the way he was staring at her. He wasn't saying anything, but the way that his eyes were moving over her was making her slightly uncomfortable. Was there something on her face she didn't know about? Had she slipped into some sort of disguise partway without realizing? The last time someone had analyzed her that closely.. Well, it wasn't something she cared to remember, and she turned her attention to the food by poking awkwardly at it.

"No." She shook her head and took a bite of the salad before pausing, realizing how her answer had probably been interpreted. "Yes, we have music," She clarified upon finishing the bite and gave him a slightly exasperated look. "No, it's not like anything here. We don't have television, or phones, or any of the fancy technologies you do to make music. It's just voices and instruments." She shrugged.

"No speakers, just.. The world. Music and voices amplified only be nature of the shape of the structure they're played in or under. We have drums," She shrugged again, "I think every culture has drums, though." Right? "I don't really know how else to describe it. It's just natural and it's beautiful."
 
Rook nodded absently and then took another bite of his salad.

He smiled and then said carefully, "I would like to hear it sometime." He wasn't sure that was something that would even be possible for him to do. Could a human being even go to her world and survive? it didn't matter that much. He turned and looked at her and tried his best to make casual eye contact. "I'm sure that the music would be beautiful," he looked down into his salad bowl.

He thought for a moment and then added, "I've always liked music. In times when I couldn't figure out anything--" he ended up pausing again and he was finding it more difficult to get his thoughts out as he often did when he was beginning to feel something like a desire for intimacy with a person. Not that he was even sure that they could even share that. In a way, Rook wasn't sure what to do now, if he had been alone, he likely would have bene staring off into space right about now or studying another spell. It had been a strange day. "I had so many emotions I didn't know how to handle because of what had happened to me. I found sometimes I could escape and let it out in the music: rage, fear, passion, sadness..."

"Before all this," Rook said, waving his hand around the room, "did you have anything like that? An activity you would take part?"
 
"It was beautiful." She nodded in agreement and picked at her food, taking a few small bites before glancing back at him. "It's almost like being in an entirely different world sometimes, just sitting and listening." Her eyes followed the wave of his arm around the room curiously before returning to his face, and she found herself at a loss on how to answer his question. What had she done so long ago when she'd been in her own world?

"An activity? What, other than hunting? I know how to make good weapons, and how to decorate clothing. I know how to play the drums that we play before battle, or during events. We had many competitions of different strengths to see who was the best. Strength, speed, who was the better hunter, or the better at slipping through portals to navigate the land better."
 
Rook took another bite of salad listening and then set it down for a second. He suddenly remembered about providing the blood which he would do in a moment. He looked at her and leaned back against the couch, giving her his attention. "What was the thing you were best at? To me, you seem like perhaps you were a warrior? I would not be surprised to find out you were successful in tests of strength," Rook smiled slightly, "you had no problem pining me to the grounds after all. Not that I'm exactly known for my strength. For me, my strength is in my intelligence."

Rook picked up his bowl again and continued to eat, almost finishing the meal as he watched Venuris. Was he trying to get to know her better? Probably, but, tomorrow they would likely be killing someone together. Might make sense to know more.

Did it really have anything to do with his quest for vengeance. No, no, he decided it probably didn't. He was treating this conversation almost like a date, wasn't he? He felt his heart speed up for a second and then did his best to push that feeling down as deep as possible.
 
"I was a good fighter, yes." She nodded. "I fought in many battles as well as just our competitions, and I took many lives of those who would hurt my people. Raids weren't entirely uncommon when I was younger, but thankfully my family survived them while I was still a child, so I didn't have to take any lives until I was a bit older." How old had she been when she'd taken her first life?

"War was very common then. It might be now, I don't know," She contemplated the thought for a moment before eating some more. "We painted ourselves when we went to war, too. Not unlike some of your people here that did it for a variety of reasons. We painted and adorned ourselves with weapons, celebrated the return of our people and what that had reaped from the other side." She could hear the way that his heartbeat picked up, and for a moment she wondered if the talk of violence had spooked him so soon after she had hit him.

"Are you frightened?"
 
"Frightened? Of you?" Rook asked, looking at Venuris quizzically. He shook his head and then thought about it. He touched his chin and finished the rest of his salad. He put the bowl down and then turned to her with a small smile. "Sometimes," he changed his answer, "I don't believe you would hurt me at this point if you didn't feel it was neccesary."

Rook did find her propensity for violence to be off putting at times, but he was begining to understand it was a part of who she was and a very different culture. He didn't see himself as a person who was violent, but he didn't often look towards that part of himself.

He turned to look at her again, his eyes trying to find hers. "I sometimes feel cautious about how you might lash out and your clear strength in comparison to mine. I do think I could hold my own if it came down to it, but not for long."

He tilted his head "Why do you ask?"
 
"You're very bold to think that. I can't hurt you much because we are bound, that doesn't mean I wouldn't do it." She'd hit him rather hard when he'd locked her outside and tried to break the bond, potentially ruining everything they'd started to plan. He seemed far more convinced she wouldn't hurt him than she would have liked, but what she disliked more was the sinking suspicion that he wasn't entirely wrong.

"Your heart was racing," She shrugged, "I assumed that you were frightened when it did that." She finished what she wanted of the food before deciding she didn't want the rest, taking it into the kitchen and handling the dish.

"We were supposed to be planning before you pulled that stunt." Maybe she was still just a bit mad about that. "Better never pull that shit again."
 
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"I didn't say that you can't hurt me. Just that I don't think you want to do so," Rook said, and stood also taking his bowl to the kitchen placing it into the sink. He looked at her in the kitchen and leaned against the kitchen counter. He stared at her for a moment. Then said "My heart wasn't racing because I was afraid. There are other reasons us mere mortals find our hearts racing."

Rook went to the cabinet and pulled out a glass. He put the glass down on the counter brought his sleeve up. He fished a knife out of the drawer and put it to his wrist without a second glance at Venuris. He punctured his wrist with a wince and a sharp intake of breath. He held his wrist over the glass and let his blood drip into it.

He looked at her, finally, as his blood began to fill the glass. "If you are set on hurting me, then this is a mistake," his continued his voice strained, "I shouldn't, logically, give you more power if I should be afraid of you."

He finished allowing the glass to fill and then winced as he put a kitchen rag to his wrist. He looked at her, his eyes intent on trying to read something from her. "For whatever reason, you've decided to throw your lot in with mine. So, this is a gesture of trust. You've decided to stay here with me and see this thing through. I pray that I'm not making a mistake, but I don't think I am." He fought the urge to take a step back.

"I think there's more to your wanting to stay than you want to admit," Rook said, glancing at her, before retreating to the living room to get the first aid kit. He started to wrap his wrist silently, glancing occasionally, back into the kitchen.
 
"What are you doing?" He'd just been leaning there staring at her for a minute before he finally spoke up, and the next second he was already moving again to get a glass. She hissed at the sight of the knife, eyeing it with narrowed eyes as he pressed it against his skin. What the hell was he doing? He'd just fed her earlier in the day, so why was he not only feeding her again, but giving her fresh blood with magic in it?

"No, you shouldn't give me more power." Her eyes were fixed on the blood dripping into the glass as he stood there, and they barely moved when he finished and pulled back to hold the rag against his wound. The man was insane! She could have attacked him right then and there if she'd wanted. She couldn't kill him because of the bond he'd created the first day he'd had her in his possession, but she could certainly hurt him if she put her mind to it.

It was only when she felt his eyes on her that she finally looked up to stare at him with slightly wide eyes. He was putting a lot of trust into a demon despite how he had acted toward her the first day, and she wasn't sure how to take that. Why was he trusting her after she'd struck him, even if her reasoning for it was sound?

"Think what you'd like." She averted her eyes from him as he left the room, staring at the glass on the counter for a few moments before picking it up and sniffing it. She could smell the magic before she tasted it, lifting the glass and tipping it back to drain it in several gulps before setting it on the counter and closing her eyes. Why was he placing so much trust in her, trying to grant her freedom? Everything contradicted both his family and the way he had acted upon first acquiring her, and it left her stomach churning as she tried to get a grasp of the situation.
 
Rook went through the motions of wrapping his wrist, twirling some bandage around it, and allowed his mind to drift. It hadn't been that long since she had been around, but he was beginning to realize more and more she was like a frightened cat from a violent home. Here he was getting ready to introduce her to new violence. Perhaps it had been a mistake trying to force her into freedom, but he had a lot of trouble thinking that all there was to Venuris was a thirst for vengeance, only, like himself, it had been too long for her to think of anything else.

Does this sound familiar?

It would be her choice in the end to remain whatever he thought of the decision. And it seemed that she had decided. Rook stood and pulled his sleeve down and began the process of bringing out the information on Prince Velma and her manor house. He set out all the information he had available. He didn't have any personal vendetta against the security employed by Velma and he doubted the level of their involvement with The Order of the Yellow Rose proper. He had notes on what magic the other prince's might possess, but with his observations he had not been able to deduce what power Velma might have outside of her vast funds. Currently, he believed this was the only reason for her strong influence.

"I know what there is in terms of security on the outside of the building," Rook would say immediately on Venuris's closer presence, "but, not about the details of the security system. I have a spell which will unlock doors, but I have no idea how to translate the magic for something like a security system. I imagine I might be able to rewrite some of the spell to work on something like a keypad..." he touched his chin, rubbing at the point, and then looked in her direction, "what do you think? I could try to go for something like this. The alternative is we could visit the Blue Sentinel office building, her security company, and gather information there. It might be risky."
 
"Doesn't a keypad work the same as a lock, in the end?" She wasn't too familiar with how much more intricate a pad was than a knob, her expression uncertain as she dared to join him in the living room and look at the papers. "The magic goes through the pushes things out of the way until they're forced to bend to your whim. I think it would be far easier if you could find out the way to open it without tweaking a spell, though." She approached the papers and looked down at them, keeping a few inches between them as she ran a finger over and then sighed.

"Most of this doesn't mean anything to me. If you get me inside then I could just hurt her until she talked and then kill her, but the problem is getting inside." Things had become far more advanced in the last thirty years, that much was evident just by their trip into town. "Wouldn't they recognize you there and be suspicious?" These were the people he'd spoken to when he was gone all day, weren't they? She still wasn't sure what had happened during that day aside from her failed cooking attempt and meltdown.
 
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