For You I Come ((94 Valentine's Day))

[victoriousscarf]

Glancing between the two, Mistoffelees gestured to a table. "Shall we sit?" he asked, taking a seat and looking back at the others. "What's been happening then?" he asked Victoria.

[Meadowlark]

Coricopat settled across the table from Mistoffelees, answering Victoria with a quiet, "I've been doing well." His gaze drifted to the couples on the dance floor, one ear tilted toward the table so he could still listen.

[wolfiso]

"Well I umm," Victoria faltered in her words and looked away towards the band, "You know j-j-just some life ch-ch-ch-changes. My mother d-died, for one."
She wasn't doing well, she knew that. Kind of hard to sleep outdoors in February and not recognize that. However, she wasn't sure she was close enough to Mistoffelees to burden him with that knowledge.


((I'm not sure Misto would have the knowledge to put together things like 'orphan' and 'sudden unemployment,' but Coricopat might. I imagine Seidensticker's dissapearance was probably office gossip at some point in January, and we'd established in an earlier thread that Coricopat was aware of who her father was and of his death.))

[victoriousscarf]

((Considering Mistoffelees' past? He might not be able to put together the facts of the situation but he can make some pretty spot on theories.))

Mistoffelees' ears flattened and he glanced quickly at Coricopat back to the white queen. "I'm sorry," he said, voice very soft and he realized he might not even be heard about the music. "I'm really sorry," he repeated. "Are you alright? Can you still afford the taxed on the house?" He at least hoped the queen could have left a house for her daughter.

[Meadowlark]

Coricopat turned his attention toward the white queen at that. He'd heard about Seidensticker's disappearance, but had heard that the younger lawyers had found new positions. He hadn't even thought about the secretary.

[wolfiso]

Victoria just dropped her gaze to the table. "I- that is- no I," She took a deep breath and mouthed out the sentence once before she said it. "I couldn't keep the house."

She didn't need to say why. That was just another burden and tonight should be a night of merriment.

[victoriousscarf]

"Where are you living then?" Mistoffelees asked softly. He hadn't had a home last Valentine's day and he was very carefully not looking at Coricopat for exactly that fact.

[Meadowlark]

Coricopat glanced between them, sipping at his drink and waiting to hear her answer, trying not to remember a similar situation from last year that was his fault.

[wolfiso]

I sleep in sunny alleyways during the day and keep warm by hopping from closing bars at night to opening bakeries in the morning, she thought to herself, but she couldn't say a word of it.
Her tail curled around her ankle under the table and her ears lay flat against her head. Her eyes were still focused on the woodgrain and if she hadn't cried that afternoon she felt she'd have started now. As it was, a cat could only grieve for so long before something dried up.

[victoriousscarf]

"Victoria?" Mistoffelees pressed. "You didn't answer my question."

[Meadowlark]

Coricopat hesitated for a moment and then rose, "I'll be right back, I'm going to go get another drink." He considered Victoria for a moment and then nodded, apparently making a decision before he headed for the bar.

((Exit Cori for the moment))

[wolfiso]

She shakes her head. "I'm n-n-not living anywhere." It was a vulnerable statement. Technically the streets counted as somewhere, but the Chrysalis was the only place she came back to with any regularity.

[victoriousscarf]

For a moment Mistoffelees was glad Coricopat wasn't there anymore. "Do you have a job?" he asked quietly.

[wolfiso]

"No. I have a little m-m-money left, though, an-and I've applied t-to work for a few accountants. Since t-tax season is here." She dared to raise her gaze to his face, though she had to resort to the trick of looking at whiskers to fake eye contact.
She didn't expect to be hired. Secretaries who couldn't talk to customers weren't very appealing, no matter how neat their clerical work was.

[victoriousscarf]

He blinked once, mentally running through the buildings Jones had left him. "I don't need anycat to take calls or anything," he started slowly. "But are you good at paperwork?"