"Have you... Have you been thinking about Fidelity?"

[renferret]

A brief talk of vampires, marriage, and packing. Mouse is generally unhelpful with all of it.



Tenement Building - Ground Floor(#2451RJ)
The ground floor of the apartment building is taken up mainly by the lobby, an open space with the front doors at one end and the elevator and the door leading to the stairwell at the other. The floor is covered in black and white tile in a checkerboard pattern, and the walls have been painted a neutral grey shade. Some attempt has been made to make this place more hospitable, as an old, sagging couch, an equally old and sagging armchair, and two wooden chairs have been set up in a rough semi-circle around a somewhat splintery old coffee table, facing toward the front doors and positioned so as not to interfere with any traffic moving between there and the stairs.
To the right of the main doors are mailboxes for building residents, and off to the left is the doorway into a cramped rental office (see +view), and other doors that lead to the building's large laundry room.
Contents:
Kavi(#3249PJOc)
NOTE: New furniture, and plants!
Obvious exits:
Stairs Salem's Apartment Out

There are pages laid out on the coffee table, again, a spread of four in front of the monitor Kavi's pulled into the main part of the lobby. The galliard himself is perched at the edge of the couch, fingers plucking out notes on the guitar as he looks between the screen and the scribbled words below.
Thanks to the monitor, there's warning enough of Mouse's approach, nearly half a minute before the rattle of keys in the lock. She steps in mid-shiver, already pulling a barely used cigarette pack from her coat pocket. "You'd think Washington might've got the message it was supposed to be winter or something. Or this state's pansy-ass version of it. Hey, Kavi."

Rina arrives from the stairwell.
Rina has arrived.

Kavi is standing by the time the door opens, and he sets the guitar in its case when she enters. "Mouse-rhya," he answers without thinking. He turns to her and offers a faint smile, quickly lost. "I think. I think Chandini still finds this cold. It's more winter than we had. Before. But maybe... Maybe I'm just used to it, now."

Mouse sticks the cigarette in her mouth as she pats around for her lighter. "I bet she does. Word of warning: New York in the winter makes Washington feel like mid-summer. You ever go there, you'll want a /coat/. I swear people around here have no fucking idea what to do with snow."

Solsiva has arrived.

Kavi watches the search for a moment and then reaches down to pull the scribbled pages into a single pile. "I was there, once. But. It was summer. People were more worried about the heat." His gaze dips to the papers in his hand and he moves to slip them into the guitar case, as well.

Mouse pauses a moment as she locates her lighter and lights up. "Mmf. Can't imagine New York gets nearly as hot as certain parts of India."

Kavi gives a slight shake of his head. "I didn't... It didn't seem hot, to me. Not like Gujarat in the summer." He watches Mouse, searching for something, but then turns his attention back to the monitor on the table. "Has anyone told you about the zoo?"

Mouse tucks the lighter away. "A few times, but details were a bit lacking. Last I heard Zosia was the one leading things up."

Kavi nods, lips turning downward in a slight frown. "Jacey said... She said Zosia had asked some rat spirits for help, and that she - Jacey? - was leaving food for the rats in the realm. As chiminage." His brow furrows, and he glances toward the door. "It seemed odd. She didn't really know much."

Rina comes out of the stairwell, wrapped in leather armor. A tense, fragile smile flashes to life when she sees Mouse and Kavi, and she swallows. "Hey, Mouse. Long time. You aright?"

"Rat spirits," Mouse repeats, before shaking her head very slightly and apparently dismissing whatever thought just crossed her mind. Her eyes flick over to the stairs as Rina enters. "Hey. 'Course. Just got back in." As is probably obvious from the fact she's still wearing her coat and hasn't even bothered to unbutton it yet.

A few steps behind Rina, Sol also comes out of the stairwell looking as if she plans to head out. Heavier marshmallow coat over her leather coat and heavier boots. "'Ello."

At the sound from the stairwell, Kavi starts to turn, but seeing the kin emerge, he crosses to her, one hand reaching out as he nears. "Rina," he says softly, and then looks past her as his packmate appears as well. "Hey, Sol."

Rina tangles a hand with Kavi's and offers him a small half-smile. Then she glances over her shoulder. "Hey, Soul. You headin' out?"

Mouse gives Solsiva an acknowledging nod, and puffs at her cigarette.

"I was thinking about it." Sol replies with a slight smile, glancing at the two other Walkers. "My Grammare has sent out the call and I shall obey."

Rina tips her head. "Where you goin'? If you're walkin'... can I go with you, maybe?"

Kavi returns the half-smile, a quiet question in his expression as he watches Rina for a moment more. "Is she okay?" he asks Solsiva.

Mouse considers for a moment, then waves toward Kavi with the cigarette. "I can take over if you want to go with them."

Solsiva nods, getting out a pink knit cap with the Air Force logo on it and pulls it down over her head. "She's fine, just needs help getting ready for X-mas. And this means I get to have awesome cider and mashed tatoes with turnips. It's a bit of a walk, in the burbs."

"Which way are you headed?" Rina asks.

The galliard watches the kin for another second before turning back to Mouse, his fingers slowly disentangling from Rina's. "It's... It's okay. I. Are you busy, right now?"

Mouse shakes her head. "Nope, my busy level is currently at a nice low for this exact moment in time."

Solsiva seems slightly confused, "Um, north. Shall we go?"

Rina nods quickly. "Yeah, long as you don't mind playing bodyguard for a bit. You can pretend to be Jack. Just act grouchy and don't say much." The smile that comes with that quip is a bit thin, and she doesn't look to Kavi or Mouse.

Mouse gives Rina a slightly narrow, sidelong glance, and the corner of her mouth tenses just a little.

Kavi turns another glance to Rina, brow furrowed, but he swallows and doesn't remark on it as he forces his attention back to Mouse.

Solsiva snorts slightly in amusement, "Can do, Ms. Rina." She seems to pause at the other's looks, but when nothing is said she starts to meander towards the door.

She may not see it directly, but Rina picks up on something; she looks across to Mouse, her expression uncommunicative, a mask. "What?" she asks, without any challenge or defiance... just a question, perhaps a little guarded.

Mouse's tone is casual enough. "Bodyguards in fashion again this season?"

Kavi's head bows at the exchange between Mouse and Rina, listening without interjecting, expression tight.

Solsiva tucks her hands in her pockets as she switches to dawdling.

"Yeah," Rina answers. "You know we got leeches underground, right?"

Kavi looks from Rina to Solsiva, catching his packmate's gaze before turning back to the kin. "I'll see you at home?"

One eye narrows a little more than the other. "I...figure that's probably a safe bet, but I don't /know/...no."
Mouse sorries! Also that was me.

Solsiva almost raises her hand in an awkward uncertain motion, "I've been poking around what might be one of their places."

"Aright, well, we do," Rina answers. "And I know where they go in and out, and they know I know, and I don't wanna be lunch. So I've upgraded my backup thugs to the growl-and-rip-your-head-off variety. Jack's been good enough to squire me around when Kavi's busy."

Mouse moves forward to stub out her cigarette in the ashtray on the coffee table. "Where?"

"There's a few alleys... I could show you, if you want?" Rina looks between Mouse and Solsiva.

"Off an empty lot on Reagan." Sol answers Mouse before looking at Rina. "Nice to know I can help."

Kavi pulls in a breath and lets it out slowly. He looks up again, gaze shifting from one to the next, Mouse, Rina, Solsiva, and back again. He tugs the corner of his lip between his teeth, and takes a step closer to the kin.

"I think Kavi was wanting to discuss something," Mouse says as she straightens. "But if you could tell Sol on your walk? Then she can just pass it on. And then we can find a bulldozer."

Rina nods to Mouse. "There's at least two more," she offers, to Solsiva. "I'll show you, if you can take the time?"

Solsiva seems to consider it, "Think so. ... Well. Lemme just call her so she doesn't give me the Look when I do get there." She takes out her phone to make that quick call.

Kavi takes advantage of the time it takes Solsiva to make her call to close the distance between him and Rina. "I'll be home later," he says softly. "I'll... We can talk, then?"

Mouse sets about fishing out another cigarette. She is, to all appearances, not watching either Solsiva or Kavi and Rina.

Rina looks up, meeting the Galliard's gaze for a moment. "Yeah. Tell Jenny I'll be late, aright? Don't let them wait up?"

Solsiva finishes off her call and then glances back as she tucks it away. Assessing the relative lull she starts meandering for the door again.

Kavi nods, and gives Rina's hand a quick squeeze. "Stay safe," he whispers, apparently to them both, before returning to Mouse.

Mouse has lit up again by this point, and as Kavi turns to her, she looks back at him.

Rina nods, and lifts Kavi's hand to touch a kiss to it before turning away. She heads out with Solsiva. "Thanks," she tells the girl as they leave.

Kavi's gaze dips as he returns to the couch, and he avoids looking at Mouse until he's seated. "She's been... I think she's remembering what happened, before."

Mouse's left eyebrow twitches a little higher, but she doesn't actually ask. "We'll get rid of them soon."

His brow furrows, but he nods all the same, and then falls still, silent. Drawing in a sharp breath, he turns to face Mouse more directly. "I've been thinking. About all of this. About... a lot of things."

Mouse watches him carefully, but she doesn't say anything, waiting for him to continue.

"Sometimes?" Kavi starts, and then pauses, frowning at some unspoken thought. "Sometimes, when it's bad, I remind her that I'm here. That I... That I belong to her. And it helps. I think? For her to remember that she isn't alone. That... That no matter what happened, I'll always be here." He looks down, and when he looks up to Mouse again his expression holds an unspoken question.

"Makes sense," Mouse says, rather awkwardly.

Kavi says "Mouse-rhya?" Kavi starts again, pulling in a breath and sitting a little straighter, though his gaze remains slightly lowered. "I think." He pauses, and then starts again. "I want to ask her to marry me.""

"Ah." Still awkward. Mouse takes a step back and ends up half leaning, half sitting on the arm of the chair. "Good luck?"

"I don't know if it's the right thing to do," Kavi says, relaxing a little, deflating some. "I know... I know she was going to marry John. Some part of her already had. When he died. And she still wears a ring for him. I don't know if... If it's okay for me to ask."

"Well," Mouse says carefully. "I don't know. Maybe you could tell her that? I mean, what you just said to me. It's...not exactly the most romantic proposal, I suppose, but it's honest."

Kavi considers those words for a while, his breathing slow and even, as his expression shifts through the various emotional responses. He nods, and exhales sharply, deliberation at an end. "But it's... It's okay if I do?" He looks up again as he asks, making eye contact and searching the elder's gaze for her answer.

Mouse blinks, abruptly startled. "...It's okay if you do...what? Ask Rina to marry you?"

Kavi's lips pull between his teeth, and he nods. "I." He pauses, shaking his head. "I. You're my elder, and. If you don't think it's right. If... if it would hurt the tribe? Or her...?"

Mouse rubs the back of her neck with the hand not holding the cigarette. "Uhh. Well, no. No, I don't think that, I mean. That it would hurt the tribe anyway. You know her far, far better than I do, so I can't answer that second question."

Kavi nods again, a slow acknowledgement, and lets the sudden tension slip away. "Thank you," he says quietly. "And if... If you--" he breaks off with a shrug. "I didn't... My father was there, but. And it's different in Gujarat than it is, here. What I saw, when I was young? And then, with the tribe... It's just different than here."

"Yeah it is," Mouse says immediately, suddenly lacking the awkwardness of a moment before. "I can't think of a situation where I'd put my foot down on Walker Garou and Walker kin getting together. ...Granted, now that I've said that, one's going to come up. And I'm sure as hell not going to skip around arranging relationships."

"I know," Kavi says softly, and looks to Mouse with a grateful smile.

Mouse's mouth turns up just slightly. "I meant what I said though. Good luck. I'm afraid I uh...have absolutely no advice or input whatsoever on this sort of thing. Bit beyond my experiences."

Kavi's smile takes on the slight heat of embarrassment and he looks down at his knees. "Mine, too," he says softly.

Mouse points out, "Well, you do have a relationship. See? You know more about something than I do."

"Yeah," Kavi whispers, the heat rising in his cheeks. "It's good, though." He scrubs his face with his hands and rises. "Thank you," he says softly as he turns to face her.

Mouse sticks the cigarette back into her mouth. "Not a problem."

Kavi turns away for a moment, busying himself with cleaning up from his stint at watch. Then, rather suddenly, he turns back again. "Mouse-rhya?"

Mouse lifts her head. "Yeah?"

"Have you... Have you been thinking about Fidelity?" Kavi asks, his voice both soft and clear. "About what Skokiaan said?"

Mouse flushes. She ends up stubbing out the second cigarette and straightening up rather slowly before answering. "To be entirely honest, uh...no. I uh. I tend to not think about that quite a lot."

Kavi moves closer, gaze falling to the floor between them. He reaches out, slowly, tentatively, to touch her hand. "Mouse-rhya? I know... I know what happened before. And... And I know it's hard for you. All of it. What happened, and what it means. But. Will you try? Will you try to... to think about it? I think... Lefty and Jacob and Masao and Sol... I think you could fit with us. Because... Because we're all the same."

Mouse doesn't pull her hand away, though her fingers do curl inward. "I can try to think about it, yes. But I don't know, Kavi. What happened within Vanguard aside, it really didn't seem to do much good for the tribe when I was part of one."

He keeps the contact, though doesn't press for more. "I think... You need to do what's best for you, in order to do what's best for the tribe. We're not meant to be alone. No matter how much it hurts. No matter how much we risk... We do better as a pack. You-- You helped me understand that. And I... I want that for you."

"It polarizes people," Mouse says, her jaw faintly tensing. "At least, when it was me. Some people saw it as automatically picking sides. Maybe if it was entirely with people who weren't Walkers, or maybe if I wasn't the elder, then it'd just be me and my issues, but..."

Kavi shakes his head. "When you... The tribe needs to understand. It isn't... It isn't about picking sides. It isn't about winners and losers and who you like more. I understood that. They can, too. They have to. Because you need to be ... be able to do what's best for you. If..." He frowns and looks down at the floor. "When I was hurt. You healed me. Because if we're not whole, we can't do what we need to do. We can't serve Gaia." He looks up again, seeking to meet her gaze, and his hand grasps hers and holds it. "This is the same. It. It doesn't need to be Fidelity. That's... That's what I want and. And I think it would be right for you. But it doesn't need to be us. You need a pack. You need to be... be part of more than just you."

Mouse is rather still for a few moments, and eventually she ends up pressing her fingertips lightly against Kavi's hand...though, for the time being, she doesn't actually say anything. She meets his gaze, but in a way that doesn't seem terribly direct or focused.

Kavi keeps his hold on Mouse's hand as he searches her gaze. "I'll be here," he says softly. "When you're ready."

Mouse manages a faint, wry sort of smile. "I don't know, Kavi. Maybe I'm just weird."

Kavi shakes his head as his grip tightens on Mouse's hand. "I felt what you had, before. And how much it hurt. It's dangerous. It's scary. To risk hurting like that, again. But I know that you had... the wholeness, too. With them. With Kakkerlak. It's okay to be afraid. But you won't be alone."

"With Kakkerlak," Mouse says, just a little carefully. "Not...really with them. Not really. We could have, maybe, but that's not how things went. As for what I had--" Her body moves a little, as if she's going to step away, or gesture, but he's got her hand and she seems to decide not to. "That was kind've a very different sort of me. A younger, stupider, Cliath sort of me." She purses her lips and eyes him. "I'm not walking around being all pained and longing. I just want to make sure you know that. If I don't ever end up in another pack, that doesn't actually seem very terrible to me."

Kavi's brows knit as he pulls in a breath, expression tightening a little further as he lets it out, again. Then he nods, loosening his hold on her hand and his expression eases. "I... I know you're... You're okay? I think... I think you could be more." He releases her hand and puts his in his pockets. "Just... Just think about it? And. And maybe talk to Skokiaan... or Kakkerlak. Or me."

"I will think about it," Mouse promises. "I will. And it's certainly nice to know that if I did want to join one that...well that's nice to know. I just. Yeah. I want you to understand that I /am/ okay. I don't want you worrying over me for nothing."

Kavi nods again. "I'm... I'm going to go home and. I need to make sure Jenny and Angela are okay."

Mouse nods once. "Be safe out there, Kavi. Let me know about these vampires if you see Solsiva before I do."

Kavi picks up the guitar case and slings his pack over his shoulder. "I will," he promises. "And. If you learn more about the zoo?"

"I'll pass it on," Mouse says, with a small nod. "'Course, right now I think I'm going to pass out. Bed is sounding good."

"Stay safe, Mouse-rhya," Kavi says, and then heads for the door.