RP:a wolf, a crow and a pirate walk into a tattoo shop

Summary: Leo gets some fresh ink from Lita.

Lita has the shop door propped open, the ocean breeze a familiar comfort. She's seated atop one of the display cases at the center of the room, her right knee bent with a sketchbook on her knee, her left leg dangling over the side of it, still wrapped in bandages from the knee down. The page is covered in a few rough sketches and smears of color, prospective ideas for Xiem's new tattoo. There's a wrapped canvas near the door for the upcoming bazaar and two smaller parcels for Meri and Lora. She'd wanted to make one for Mahri too, but she'd decided stick-on tattoos and stickers might not be to the silver's liking. Noise from beyond the cavern below the shop's back door, the familiar dull echoes of Cal yelling and she smiles to herself, shaking her head as she goes back to the sketchbook at hand.

Leoxander was still in Rynvale. He’d taken time on the beach, spent some time exchanging some information with the locals that included Bill, Simon, and caught word of Jeb possibly still alive. Once back on the ship after the evening, he chose the next day to backtrack to the Soulskin. Ignoring the packages on the door for now, he would open it if it was unlocked, and had the courtesy for a low knock if it wasn’t, even though he could have probably bypassed into the building easily enough. Either way, the rogue was due to enter sooner or later and catch sight of Lita in her comfort zone. The rogue was in the same attire as the previous night, a black fitted shirt with short sleeves that displayed a running of ink bearing the same title, blonde hair washed and loose but long enough that he could have managed a half or whole take out of his eyes, if he had wanted to.

Lita turns back to the front door when she hears the pirate's entrance and her smile broadens some to see him again. "Hey, you." She drawls in welcome. She realizes suddenly that he's likely seen Lora's new tattoo and a flicker of apology passes her features a she shifts a little where she sits. "You missed all the fun last night." She decides at length. "Think I'm gonna have to take you up on that offer of moonlightin' on occasion, if it still stands."

Leoxander managed something of a smile, at least with his eyes. He no longer sported a full beard but a smile was still hard to come by. “...’ey.” He returned in his approach and ignored the expression in her own gaze. “The pups needed a romp an’ I figure she could use more company than my own now an’ then.” He didn’t risk his weight on the same display case she did though he doubted it wasn’t durable to hold them both. But a lean within range would suffice. “You know I want you aroun’ as much as I can bargain for, Ace. I also know everyone’s got their own agenda.” He took a wooden case out of his pocket and offered her one of those herb laced rolled cigarettes, taking one of his own in turn accepted or not. Hopefully she had no problem with him smoking if not drinking after hours, but he didn’t have a fire-starter or match to begin, so he’d search her way or the counters for something. “You heard about the news in Cenril?”

Lita isn't sure what to make of his agenda these days. So much had changed. "You never were so good at bargains." She says in jest. She takes one of the offered smokes all the same and slips from her seat, leaning her weight on her right leg as she moves towards the worktable and fishes for a book of matches, tossing it his way as she tucks the cigarette behind her ear. "Probably." She manages. "But let's pretend that I haven’t." She'd been out of the informant game the last few years, even the shop had been mostly dormant until recent months. She still kept tabs, occasionally, enough to get by. But like he'd said, everyone had their own agenda.

Leoxander smirked at her words and held that smoke between his lips when she escaped her seat for that match kit, catching in in his right palm before he plucked and struck one to light the end. Taking a drag and pinching it aside as that flow of smoke disappeared in his lungs, he spoke a few words that trailed some of it in an exhale amidst the sentence. “I wanna be with her.” He stated plainly, knowing that Lita would get what he was saying. “Her family’ about as bloody complicated as any hell I could imagine, but… I think they might not hate me.” If he couldn’t find a tray to ash in he used a hand shamelessly as he took from that mellowing toke again. “I never been married before…” He hadn’t meant to change the subject so abruptly, having tried to rely on work to discuss, but there were so few who he could talk to like this. “Am I jus’ gettin’ old or crazy?”

Lita isn't surprised when he changes the subject with all the subtlety of a shipwreck. She's used to it with him. She softens some when he speaks about her, because she remembers what that'd felt like once. It touches a part of her she's long since resigned herself to existing without. "Not hate is a good place to start." She reaches for an old paint tray and slides it his way. Clearly she'd have to rethink the shop's accoutrements if he was going to lend a hand on occasion. She's not sure if this is his way of saying he's planning to propose or that he already had but either way, she's not surprised. The two had been glued together at the hip since they'd met, it would seem. "You've been gettin' old," she ribs him. "So if this is something new, then it's definitely the crazy bit." She considers him at length then with dark eyes, the vision of him now and the pirate she'd known over the years. So much had changed. "But that doesn't make it a bad thing." She says softly, glancing away from him again.

Leoxander glanced at the tray, and that actually made his gaze soften a little more into a nostalgic smile only few would witness from the rogue. “You think you got time to start somethin’ tonight? I’ve got some new ink I’d like in mind, but I know you’ve got a flood of work.” Same as he did. It seemed more and rare to have those moments one on one with those who had been there for him most of his life. He placed the cigarette between his lips slightly to the side to examine the paint, thumbing across the pigments. “Wolf’n crow. Not sure where I got left to put it, but there’s a new spot open on my chest.” It was a segway into informing one of his best friends. “Spellrogue’s rune is gone. Faded. S’way Mahri took me into the woods that day you flew yer kites. ‘Ppreciate you doin’ that, by the way.” A pull from his cigarette as he stood from his lean.

Lita nods a welcome at his thanks for their day of kite flying. It had been nice, in a way, in its simplicity. Kites might not be her thing but she could understand it more then, how the mouse had drawn them all together. She'd a way about her. "I can make time. Never too busy for you." She mimics his previous sentiment affectionately and moves to take a seat at the work table, nodding for him to join her. She's deciding between various colored inks, pulling some closer as she considers his loss of the spellrogue's rune. She's not sure what to make of it, or rather, how he feels of it. She'd never been close to the woman, not for a lack of trying. It hadn't been in the cards for them. "A wolf and a crow..." she's musing to herself, already knitting the image against his skin in her mind. Wolves and their sentamentalities. So quaint. "If you'll answer me a question." She hesitates a beat, reaching for the tattoo gun even as he removes his shirt. She doesn't meet his eyes again, instead her palm hovers over his chest, this last piece of open canvas that exists of him. "You're out there more than me, on the water. Do you ever hear anything of Hanan?" She so rarely talked of the hellcat, let alone asking about her openly. Maybe it was the way he'd talked about Lora that had the past drudging up old memories.

Leoxander stood, finished off his cigarette, and found a place to put it out even if it was flick out the door before he made his way to Lita’s side. “You’ve always been damn good to me, Ace.” It was about as much of a compliment or thanks as he gave and a decent one, at that. Her terms on sitting down caused a small pause, however. And so he had to take the seat slowly. “Hanan never much cared for me to send me word, but if she had I would have come to you. When’s the last you heard of her? Must of have been a while after the war…” And… then there was that blur in his mind where he last remembered the beaches of wounded and recovering, the streets of Kelay where he’d been careless in his revenge. “I made a mistake, being so hasty to take revenge. Maybe if I have listened to you lot, things would be better for all of us, now.” He studied her as he reached to pull off that shirt, shamelessly, nothing Lita would be new to the idea of. To see where he might have room, though that spot might also be below the waist if she deemed it better. “You still have hope for her?”

Lita's memories are a blur on a good day. It's easier in the quiet, when she's something to focus on. But even so. She considers the options of blank space visible on him as he talks. She's not blind. Leo has always been attractive, a fantasy maybe. This quiet possibility that could be. But she'd never been bold enough to reach for it and when she had, it'd been too late. Wasn’t in their cards either. "This between you and me." Not that she'd have had to specify that, but still. "She faked her own death after she got marked." Not that Hanan had told her that in the beginning. Just a message sent that her ship had been capsized at sea with no survivors. "And then, maybe two years later, I find her standing on the docks as if no time's passed." She tilts her head slightly and spreads her hand over his ribs, tapping her finger against his skin. She'll let him adjust to a comfortable position as necessary. "She says, 'You weren't supposed to be here,' and then boards a ship and is gone again." The tattoo gun hums to life against her palm as she dips the needle in ink and considers his question. "There's no hope in that." Or after it. You lose enough of yourself and you learn to lock away what's left behind high walls and dark secrets. There's a vanity to the place she chooses for his tattoo amongst his others, that it would stand out and be something he and others would see often. There's a vanity in wanting him to watch her create it that she's not shy about either. This work some small part of herself she's still willing to share with the rest of the world. "A wolf and a crow..." she says again then and her smile is a small but brilliant thing that touches the corners of her eyes as she touches the needle to his skin.

Leoxander answered quietly to Lita. “Pirates…” Not that the title could qualify as an excuse, but, he’d wound up on shores before. Still, he didn’t disregard those who had made an impact on his life. Not the Sineater. Not the Spellrogue. Not the in between, though there wasn’t much he could remember of that filled in space. He raised his arm and had thankfully had a dip in pools so he wasn’t quite so offense to the smell beside what a Lycan would be to a Vampire, but he’d adjusted long ago to Lita’s scent to be a welcome and present one. Lita was given free rein in trust and creativity to begin to work right then and he would continue their conversation as only such a close moment could condone. “I wasn’t sure if I’d come back. I get these flashbacks of bein’ a human, sometimes. Y’know?” Maybe she did. Maybe she could recall. When they were younger and rather than galas and soirees, it had been a consistent struggle to find any peace. “I thought I was missin’ out, but now there’s problems goin’ on again an’ no one bloody knows how to handle it. Imagine if we were soft as that.”

Lita adopts a singular focus in the quiet that stretches comfortably between them. The lines are chaotic at first, requiring multiple passes to saturate the darker colors of her vision for his piece. She takes no care to be gentle or allow him rest, knowing already his threshold to tolerate pain and his test of patience is stronger than most. In this way she doesn't shy from pushing those boundaries. There is only the art he's requested and the culmination of it beneath her fingers. She saw the image as she'd seen a thousand others, written across his skin even before she'd taken up the needle and in this space she exists merely as a vessel for ink and his desire. The wolf finds life first, its ears alert and eyes fierce, with its gaping maw and sharp teeth. It is not a threat but a warning. The ferocious beast of it ungentled, its connection a conditional allowance made as it protects his heart. She leans back after a while to regard the progress finally and let him stretch if he needs. She doesn't answer his questions, instead renewing the ink on that needle and starting in on the crow. It sits in the forefront, its feathers flowing from the wolf's fur but it faces the opposite direction, its beak and talons following the natural curvature of his ribs to watch his back. Its eye is left hollow, to see the unseen. Beneath the needle his blood draws and she wipes it away with a clean cloth before starting in again. It's a process of hours but she knows if she stops before it's done, she'll lose the vision of it. When she's finished with it she leans back again, wiping the excess ink away as she admires the addition to him. There's a pride in getting to be a part of his collection. "Here," she says offering him a mirror to see it better with.

Leoxander hardly made a move or expression in result of the tattooing. It was a welcome ache. It burned by every pass and he accepted it with quiet calm. Lita truly was a master at her gift, an Ace in the game. The buzzing of sharp teeth creating wolf maw is oblivious to him. He keeps his arm raised enough it did not stretch the skin but kept out of her way. That moment to stretch just had him rolling back his shoulder for a pop, and even if she didn’t retort much in the conversation, he spoke a few more words. “I’m signing up for this duel in Valkrin.” The more he expressed, the more she would find reason to make that wolf’s teeth bared. But Leo was never one to talk for hours and he spent a lot of time just gazing into the distance or closing his eyes during that therapeutic treatment. In time, done, and as much as he hated his own reflection in a looking glass he took hold of the mirror to study her work with a solemn expression. A deep breath was taken. “...I needed this.” He only said, another of the ‘best thanks’ he might give before he leaned in and tried to kiss Lita’s cheek. “So… you feel like we’re ready to take the island again?” He asked, waiting to see if she would salve or bandage that fresh ink.

Lita spreads a thin veil of salve across the fresh tattoo and moves to wrap a bandage around it. She'll nudge his hands away if he protests. Not because he needed it to help heal but because she didn't want him messing up her work. "Guess there's a chance we'll meet in the arena then." She says about the duel. It's the first time she's entered such a thing, or bothered to take a place in some public affair that might draw attention. "From what I hear there's a few of us on the roster." There's an amusement in the words at that. If anything spoke to the fact that this island was still theirs, it was this new community he'd begun to rally. "I think it was always ours." She lifts a hand to his cheek when he offers that kiss. "You're not worried we're repeating old mistakes?"

Leoxander felt her bat his hands away when he did in fact protest, but maybe that was just to get a rile and that outcome to grin for. “You signin’ up?” He held onto that half grin as he watched her tend to his new ink. Redundant question. He already guessed. “Of course I am. But I never fell for anyone like her, Lita.” the fact he used her true name enhanced the seriousness. He tried to change the subject, although the island was included in the topic. “You need to open these doors, Ace. I promise you some business. You gonna come to Cenril in a few days or I gotta wallow in missin’ you there?”

Lita glances away from him, around the shop. It had changed too, like the rest of them, but only because it had been empty so long in her absence. She'd opened this place with Meri but she'd found her own way. She was the only one stuck now and she's a vague feeling that he doesn't just mean the shop when he talk of needing to open doors. Baby steps, little wolf. "I've seen you wallow. It's not a sight I wish on anyone." She makes a face at him. "I'll be there. Have a piece I need to move anyway, figured it would be as good a venue as any to get it out of the city without question." She nods towards the wrapped canvas near the door then.

Leoxander could relate. He’d had a few collaborations with people she knew. Throughout Rynvale, mostly. Now, the island was ripe to take hold of again. “Yeah. I’ve been pretty selfish in my time. But let’s change that together, if yer willin’.” He stood up and grabbed his shirt, leaving it off for now so the ink could heal with a werewolf’s regenerative blood. He glanced toward the canvas in question before he left. “What’s that about?” She wouldn’t have to deal with him too much longer. Not that night, at least. He’d be on the move again, soon.

Lita grins slightly, going about cleaning the work station they've used as he stands. "Now, now, little wolf, can't go sharing all my secrets at once." She's teasing. She takes the cigarette he'd offered earlier from behind her ear and snags a match, striking it to light as she inhales smoke. "For the road." She says as she hands the cigarette out to him, leaning forward to press a kiss against his cheek before he disappears beyond the doorway and back out into the night.