Roomies?? (Romal)

[Azrae Sevar]

They’d left the cemetery and had looked at the Trail apartments but they hadn’t been to Azrae’s liking, and if she was going to be living anywhere it was going to be somewhere she liked. The next stop was the Layate Condos, spacious and luxurious enough to house them both and probably the two hounds that would undoubtedly come and go throughout their stay. Standing in the middle of the living room she looked over at Romal, raising a brow in question. They were on the second floor which wasn’t exceptional but it was a good enough view and space. She twirled the keys around her index finger, shrugging and walking through to the small kitchen, then down the hallway into the rooms. There was a guest room and the master bedroom, but each one had their own bathrooms. Sticking her head out into the hallway she called from the guest room. “The rooms are pretty spacious. I think we should take it. What do you say, six month lease to be safe?”

Azrae had no idea how long they would be staying together, or whether or not this was a good idea. But like many of the other things she did, this was pure impulse and she jumped head first into it. Not to mention that she could keep an eye on Romal, and he seemed to need a little bit of familiarity. Part of it was for her own therapeutical purposes. How would people react at seeing her here with Romal? It didn’t matter in the end. “The realtor said that we have neighbors but they’re very private people so we shouldn’t have an issue with coming or going. Better than living with humans neighbors, considering what happened with the Coven and our recent…. Jailbreak.”

[Romal]

He moved through the Condo from room to room his eyes scanning all the details they had to offer each one seemed good enough for him but Azrae seemed more particular, he didn't care either way as long as he had enough room to move around. House his hounds and a lot of privacy he could be easily pleased by any apartment that could offer those things.
This place fit the bill and he poked his head out of one of the doors as Azrae called to him he nodded to what she said glad that she liked the space he was getting a little bored.
"Six months to start with will be fine" he made it into the room where she stood, quiet he would let her deal with the majority of it, he didn't know where he stood with such things.

"Yeah I wouldn't want to live here if they were the nosy kind, Think they might notice some hounds coming and going as they pleased" he would have to speak to Ashall and Jeko to make sure they took the form of simple dogs when they were in more public places such as the hall ways. "The boys will like it, there is enough space for them"

[Azrae Sevar]

She nodded and then ruffling his hair went out and down the stairs to sign the lease. She'd let him get himself acclimated to the place on his own before invading his space. After a while she came back, having been gone nearly thirty minutes. Azrae leaned against the door frame and looked into the empty space, tilting her head a bit. The place came furnished, but she'd get rid of the current bed and buy her own, simply because she didn't like the small thing, even if it was brand new. Like everything else inside.

Sighing and stretching out she came and flopped onto the couch, feeling a little bit more at ease and somewhat hungry. Thought living with Romal was going to be a bit weird, they'd probably still end up going their separate ways. "I guess I should have asked if our neighbors have kids or are human. Think I should make a fruit basket and go over there to introduce myself like a good little Stepford wife?" Idly she wondered if Romal would get the reference considering Azrae's mind was full of all sorts of information. Then she chewed on her lower lip and looked over to him. "Hey Mal? I'm going to reverse the vampiric process..."

[Romal]

She left him to it and he made another sweep of the rooms looking at them in a little more detail now they had chosen to live there. He would have to inform Lita where he was and he figured she would probably leak it to his brothers but in his mind that wasn't a bad thing, let them come.
Eventually he settled back into the living room space and onto a chair that was positioned away from the center of the room facing more towards the long windows so he could view the moving city below, he enjoyed doing such things having been known to sit before a fire in Romania watching it for hours at a time.

She came back in and started talking about who may also live in the building he shrugged tilting his head, he could only hear slight movements from other tenants and as long as it stayed that way he wouldn't really care for who they lived with. He would keep to himself and they could do the same. His eye brows shot up as she mentioned a basket "God please no" his smirked looking at her with a mock warning. "they might want to come round and welcome party us"

He had only just become accustomed to the fact Azrae might actually talk to the people of the building when she mentioned a reversal. Turning in his seat he looked at her properly where she sat on the sofa. "What do you mean?"

[Azrae Sevar]

Laughing she shook her head and slid off the couch, sitting on the floor at Romal's feel and staring at the ceiling and at nothing in particular. If things went alright, he might be less likely to freak out in the near future in regards to his brothers. The thought of people coming over and bringing them welcome gifts made her shudder, she didn't like people invading her private life. "You're right, that would be annoying and troublesome."

She stayed quiet and chewed on her lip some more, just enjoying being near someone familiar and calming since her mind was so cluttered and clusterfucked at the moment. She didn't know which way was up anymore, and she was tired of being down. There was also the matter of her shell. "I'm coming apart at the seams, Mal. My shell is deconstructing, the vampire strain is at odds with my blood, no longer fused as it should be. It means I need to go back to being what I was before I was a vampire. I need to become a homunculus again and let my hound blood dominate. It also puts me back under the thumb of Hades...." Azrae left out the part about her expiration date, he didn't need to know that and it was a good one hundred years away.

[Romal]

He moved his legs apart so she could sit in between them it was nothing more then a gesture of friendship maybe even something which siblings might do. He didn't think twice about such things. His relationship with her had been the least complicated of all he had ever had and he could usually feel at ease around his friend.
"It would be awful I would have to kill them all and I'm sure the landlords would have something to say about it"

He relaxed back into the chair his eyes diverting back out to the streets again as she explained to him what she meant, his features became slightly more strained with worry especially when she said she would be under Hade's rule again, they could never escape hell and he hated it every second of his life.
"You will still be Azrae though, Still you?" he would fight Hades if he had to and he knew he would fall. "What would he have you do?"

[Azrae Sevar]

Leaning back as he shifted and allowed her to sit closer she leaned her head back and stared at him with pursed lips. "As long as you don't get any blood on the carpet I can always make them forget there was a slaughter of our neighbors out in the hallway." She grinned a little too innocently, but there was a look in her eyes that told him she was completely serious about the whole thing. Romal had been one of the very few people that she went above and beyond to protect, he was after all her very first friend here.

The tension at her words was palpable and she reached back to take one of his hands in hers, lacing their fingers like a little sister who needed comfort would. Only she was trying to ease his worry the only way she knew how, by lessening the threat of doom through touch. It meant nothing more than affection for someone she considered an older brother. "I'll still be me, I'll feel cold and heat and pain again, but I'll still be who I am. I doubt that Hades wants me to do anything at the moment, he just wants to see me suffer for being able to slip his noose. And you're not going to do anything about it, do you hear me? He'll destroy you and I won't forgive it, Mal."

[Romal]

He opened his palm as she moved to take his hand their fingers lacing together with ease, he looked down at them with a slight frown as he hoped things would get better not worse, it never seemed to happen for them.
He knew she needed to do something though he had seen the cracks in her skin and her body worsening each time something happened and he couldn't ignore that but the thought of her being under Hade's thumb left a foul taste in it's wake one he would try to ignore for her sake.
"He wants you to suffer.." he muttered his anger rising as his eyes diverted to keep his cool looking at her would only make him worse as he knew Hades would take her.
"How would he make you suffer?" he wouldn't answer her until he knew what it entailed.

[Azrae Sevar]

Azrae sighed, she should have seen this coming. Of course he wouldn't take thing lying down, he never did. And he was a stubborn mule, just about as big of one as she was. "Do you remember what happened when I was pregnant with Micah and we went down into the Nekromanteion? When we were escaping we met Hades at the gates and he started to well, dismantle me?" Perhaps she should have painted a less painful picture, but even if she had spared him the details, it was almost one hundred percent certain that Romal would remember the bones being broken and the tearing of the skin.

She shivered at the thought, her mind knowing full well the amount of pain she had been in and the bloody mess left to pick herself up together afterward. Damien had been furious with her. Quickly her mind snap shut at the thought of him, her breath hitched and she stood perfectly still; she couldn't afford to think of Damien. Not now, not ever. That was a door she'd not open, ever again.

[Romal]

She pulled up one of their worst joint memories, they had seldom if ever been through something like that and he hoped that something like that would ever happen again. Images and replays of what happened zapped through his mind at the mere mention of it now he had been asked to recall it and he did, with it his anger at the situation only increased. He hated Hell and Hades more then he had ever hated anyone or thing besides Nero.
"I try not to remember" he replied his tone careful to keep out the anger as none of it was directed towards her, he had always hated that she suffered so badly for him.

She stood up her body tight but he kept a hold on her hand tugging her down she she would have to sit again and to break her out of her memory. "He would do that to you when you change back over?"

[Azrae Sevar]

It worked, she snapped out of her thoughts and blinked at him, seeing him for the first time. Then she took her seat, leaning back against him and keeping a tight hold on his hand. Romal was her little island of security in all of this madness. "I imagine he would do that to me now if he knew I had slipped my leash, but he hasn't been able to locate me. Once I get the stone back, then I'll be on the radar again. But if I have to pick death or Hades... I'll always choose Hades, because I can't leave you out here on your own, Mal." She shrugged, meaning everything she said. Not once did she hold what happened in Greece against him, it had been her choice and no one could have stopped her from going.

That made her smile a little, everyone thought they could stop her from doing what she wanted to do but she had always been such a rebellious kid, not caring about her safety if she could do something for someone she cared about. Right now Romal had been and still was her first priority. She'd sort herself out later, probably when it was too late to do anything. "When this is all over... maybe we'll both get a chance to be happy."

[Romal]

He shook his head at the thought that Hade's would break her down bit by bit painfully again the way he had done before, the thought made him feel sick with rage and concern if it were anyone else he would make them beg for death but Hade's would turn him into dust. If he knew Azrae wouldn't make it worse for herself if he did he would fight him to release her.
Her words stung him back into a proper train of thought and his hand twisted so he would make her turn to sit facing him on the floor so he could see her face and she his as he asked his question.
"And if I were not alive, if you didn't have me to consider what would you choose? Hades or Death?" the question he posed was serious he wanted an honest answer and his face said as much.
As she added that maybe they could be happy again he didn't reply, he knew happiness was something which could come briefly to them but it was never something that could stay.

[Azrae Sevar]

Shifting in her seat she turned to face him, tilting her head curiously and staring at him from beneath the curtain of her hair. One eye glowed brilliantly blue, casting shadows against her cheek, the other remained hidden but the dark tresses. His question sounded very much like a trap, but she stared up at him, searching his face to see if she was about to walk right into it. She could sense something, if she told him what she would choose, he might just give her that option. That was the dangerous thing about Romal. "Death, there's not much left for me here, Mal. Sauri and the others can take care of themselves; with you gone... There's not much left for me to hang onto."

He had wanted the honest to god truth and she had given it to him. Still her eyes remained a fixed point upon his, watching and waiting for the reaction. For him to make some sort of decision that would spur her into action to stop him from whatever it was he was about to do.

[Romal]

She looked like she were trying to read his face and he hoped that she would decide to tell him the truth and not lie to protect him, there was little now that Romal would not do for Azrae after all they had been through and in the end she did answer and she answered with the truth as he had hoped though it was not what she planned to do. Because of him.
He was careful not to react for now, to keep all of the pain the answer caused him hidden beneath a calm surface so he could as her the next question.
"You would chose death over Hades, why? You want to die? For what peace?" he wanted to get a good measure of why she would chose it before he decided what to do with the information. "Do you want to be free?"

[Azrae Sevar]

Azrae laughed a little, shakily at that. She couldn't begin to explain how it would feel to not exist at all. To just be something that was never there, to forget everything and restart her life. Never knowing of what she'd gained and lost, of the choices she'd made leading her to this road. The love, the pain, the loss. Carefully she replied to him, still unsure of what it was that he wanted from her or what he wanted to do with this information. "Because true death would grant me calm and nothingness. No emotions, no memories, it would wipe me from your memory and the memories of others. It would be as if I never existed. I want that, because it will make things easier for everyone, and as selfish as it sounds... It will make things okay for me."" A small smile came to her lips when he asked if she wanted to be free. Was that truly what she wanted? If so, to be free from what? "I want to be free of Hades, but not of you or the others, Mal. And I'm sorry, but as long as you all exist, I'll never be free because I will make sure that you all get happy endings. I won't have it any other way, and I'll knock your ass down if you try to change it by self-sacrificing. So don't even think about bargains."