Walking On Broken Glass

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VIPER'S PIZZA
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--Patty
The door jingled, and the sawed-off, mousy-haired spitfire blew in again. Patty was in a jean jacket, hands in her pocket and hair wind-blown. It took her a moment to take in the scene, the two gorillas and Duke himself, and the new arrivals. The new competitors.

That eyebrow raised subtly, and it was just the softest little smirk on her face. She didn't say a word, she simply leaned against the door jamb and gave a nonchalant wave. She didn't say a thing, she just took them in a moment, especially the goods. Oddly enough, she was interested in them the most, eyeing them up and down.

Sizing them up.

--Duke
He heard the little bell by the door jingle, and he was just about to greet the customer with a smile and all...

But it was *her*.

Almost an instant, Daniel and Selena could see the fun, cheery expression melt away, back to the blank stare with years worth of misery, and people floating in and out of his life. He let Selena's foot slip from his knee as he slid over, getting up and walking over to Patty, and the door.

"Outside." Unlike his tone in their previous encounters, it wasn't frustrated, tired, or even just flat like it usual was.

This was anger. A tranquil rage that had been building up steadily over the course of the week, was beginning to reach its limit. And it left no room for Patty's usual objection or tough attitude.

His hand pushed the door open, and he stepped outside.

--Selena
Both of the men in suits look over towards the door when the bell chimes, but neither's gaze really lingers. Two pair of brown eyes give her a quick once-over, then return their attention to the conversation  at the table. Their body language, though, makes it clear to anyone that knows what to klook for that they aren't ignoring her, or indeed anyone. They have the calm, watchful demeanor one would expect from professional bodyguards.

The one on the left, Andre, is physically larger, broad in the shoulders and a shade over six feet, while on the right, Jackson has a more lean sort of build. A poetic sort might draw a comparison to a bull and a tiger. When Duke stood up and practically dragged her back out, the two gavce her more attention again. The kind of look Patty might recognize from seeing bouncers wearing it just before a fight breaks out, if she paid attention to that kind of thing.

--Selena
Selena, on the other hand, just kind of stares blankly after Duke, then leans forward to whisper to no one in particular. "Ex girlfriend?"

--Sarah
Daniel was a rather attractive blonde man. With caucasian skin tone and deep blue eyes.- He was wearing a Red T-Shirt, black jeans and biker boots that probably implied he owned the biker parked outside. He was slightly taller than average, around the 1.85-1.90m range of height and being well-built himself, although not necessarily a physical goliath, he looked well in shape and toned. However paid little mind to Patty, instead, looking at Daniel with a certain sense of worry while whispering back at Selena, being the only one who could anyway. "I don't know? Maybe..." He said with a frown.

Sarah, meanwhile, was struggling against the toilet of the bathroom and about to throw up the pizza slice she ate. Through some miracle of the Blood, she managed to gather both physical and mental strength to hold it down by literally forcing herself to it, not puking it just yet and getting out of the bathroom after that. Feeling a bit renovated.- It was a fitting penitence for her.- And so she came out just in time to see the angry Duke exit.

--Patty
She nods solemnly to Duke, agreeing with him, and yet she didn't walk after him. Not immediately at first. Her steps were slow at first, kind of languidly striding around the room in their general direction, first toward Andre, then stopped. For some reason, she couldn't stop from grinning like an idiot. It definitely wasn't a pleasant smile, more shit-eating than anything else. She reeks of booze, engine oil and cigarette smoke.

She reached in her jean jacket, watching to see if they reach into their own jackets. A moment later she brings out a pack of cigarettes, tapping them on her hand. She hasn't said a single word since she got here, no mean feat for sure.

And then she stepped toward Selena, still smiling broadly, extending her pack, "...smoke?" Her eyes shot toward the goons, seeing if they shifted or got antsy with her. she gave Daniel a little wink.

--Selena
They don't reach into their jackets when she does, but the two do tense slightly. As the get closer, the larger one shifts a little. Not the sort of thing most people would notice if they weren't looking for it, but with a little half-step, he had put himself where he could rush Patty and put himself between her and Selena at the same time with a single step.

Selena looks at the pack for a second, then laughs and reaches out to take a cig from it. "This place has a smoking section? Oh, right. Anywhere I sit is the smoking section." She laughs again and winks.

--Sarah
Sarah seems confused at the situation, approaching somewhat slowly but not yet interrupting the scene between Patty, Selene and the guards, maybe checking on Duke with her gaze rather. Daniel slightly surprised by the wink, making him furrow a brow but no further reaction coming from him. Sarah eventually decided to approach. "Ah...Did I lose something?" She asks, the poor ginger being out of the loop due to her stay in the bathroom.

--Patty
Patty whistles, and clears her thoat. "You ain't kiddin', sister. Hey, I gotta pow-wow, but don't go nowhere. Be right back. Fred. Barney." She nods to Andre and Jackson respectively and pulls her own cigarette out of the pack with her mouth, hands back in her pockets as she opens the door and walks outside to face the music.

She can't help but grin from ear to ear, "Oh baby, I know we were havin' a fight, but you didn't have to get me such a great present, I woulda forgiven ya!" She makes a couple of finger guns through the window at Jackson before looking at the fuming figure of Duke.

"Alright. I'm here. Lemmi have it."

--Selena
"I got no fuckin' idea, hon'." Selena chuckles and shakes her head, then looks down at the cig in her fingers. "Is it rude if I don't actually smoke this? It isn't my brand at all."

--Sarah
"Eh. I guess it is a little, but since I don't smoke either." Sarah says and shrugs faintly as she moves to take back her seat and look at Daniel, the two of them share a couple of hushed whispers before looking back at Selena. "Did you know her or just accepted it to look good?" She offers a half-joking smile.

However, in case there was still some of it left, she leans forward to take another slice of pizza and eat it as well. Something almost makes Daniel stop her but he restrains to not blow her cover.

--Selena
"It's rude to turn down free smokes. But it's also rude to smoke while people are eating. Or taking more than two hits before you pass the joint. It's just basic manners, you know." She nods and tucks the cig behind her ear, then takes another bite of the pizza, barely halfway through the first slice.

--Duke
Winter's breath sweeps across the both of them as the silence strums the air, plucking chords of venom and pain.

"...What the fuck to you want from me, Patty? Really, what do you *want*?"

The armor piercing question that split through the night, breaking the silent spell.

Duke turned to her, his eyes seething with an angry hurt, a wound that'd been reopened time and time again. "You took my first kiss, and told me you wanted me. And from there, you've either been missing or blowing up in my face because you can't handle other people getting frustrated with your *bullshit*. And now you and Syaka, who was a breath away from getting violent with me, are hanging out in *Skid-row*. And I'm honestly trying to figure out why you even bother turning up again, or if I just need to start moving on already."

He slid his hands into the pockets of his jacket, keeping his gaze on Patty. "...You act like it's all in good fun, like none of it's been actively hurting me, and your only modes have been self-pity, knee-jerk anger, or carefree recklessness. So, I'm really starting to wonder if a relationship is really what you want, or if it's just someone that'll pretend the way you treat other people is even remotely okay. Someone you can dote upon for a bit and leave them by the curbside once you get bored, or you find yourself getting too tied down."

--Sarah
"Hey. What if you don't smoke? Sometimes manners tend to overlap." Sarah shrugs calmly as she eats without...That much problem this time, licking her lips very slowly in a strange way. As if it was the first time she actually got a taste at the food. She rapidly shakes off that gesture and returns to her usual smile, something that makes Daniel blink but he shrugs it off as well. Watching at what he can get from the scene between Patty and Duke from the inside of the pizzeria.

--Patty
She knew it'd be bad. She'd taken a few swigs of Irish courage, and told herself she wouldn't go apeshit. She'd take her medicine, and that's what she deserved. After all, she wasn't exactly showing herself worth of his attention.

Oh but did he cut right to the heart of the matter. She thought a lot of things about herself, and most weren't pleasant. This, this was shit she wasn't ready to hear.

You're going to sit here, and take it, because he deserves to have his say. That didn't make it any easier. At first she flushed with anger, and he could see her nose scrunch up as she tries to keep her cool. It almost got the best of her, but she kept her mouth shut.

Until she couldn't. She couldn't look him in the eye, those hazel eyes watering as she bites back the tears. And then, then she just let's them fall. It wasn't that ugly, sobbing kind. It was just a burning that matched her shame.

Finally, after he had his say, she clears her throat. She raises her hands and lets out a long breath she'd been holding in. "...you got me. You're f-..." She stops herself, trying not to swear, "You're dead right. If you.. you were me and I were you? I wouldn't take that. I deserve better." She sniffles, "You deserve better... but. But I don't want you to have better." Her face breaks, and she sobs, "I just.. want you to settle for me."

--Selena
"If you don't smoke, that's different. But if I tried to claim that, no one would believbe it. I mean, look at me..." Selena sits up straighter and gestures to herself with a sort of up and down motion, indicating both face and body. "I'm so hot, I'm always smoking."

--Sarah
Sarah looks at Selena with a furrowed brow at her gesture, however, her response was something she wasnt ready for. At first she just smirked, but then she couldn't hold it and started to laugh softly.- Not at her, not really, but her words were so vain and yet so confident that one couldn't help but laugh. Even Daniel tried not to despite looking outside.

--Selena
Selena joins in the laughter, lounging back again and crossing her legs at the knee. "You look familiar. Have we met?"

--Sarah
"I think we have, yes. You own a nightclub, right?" She said, looking at Selena with a furrowed brow in a playful way while she leans to the counter, supporting her left arm in it. "I may have gone there."

--Selena
"That must be it, then. I own Club Ninety Nine, in West Hollywood." She nods and puts down the mostly-eaten slice of pizza, wiping her fingers on a napkin. "It's a good way to meet people. Even if I don't always remember all of them. It depends on how much I was drinking that night, probably."

--Sarah
"Hey, don't worry. I don't always remember with who I drink either. However your face, and that color pink, was very familiar to me. Now I know why." Sarah giggles lightly while looking at her, nodding. "You are a hard face to forget, it seems."

--Duke
He hardened himself to her tears. Steeled his thought to her plight. Closed his heart to her pain.

Not this time. Not this *fucking* time.

And yet it still hurt.

"...Jesus, everything's about you, isn't it." He practically spits out, insulted by her reasoning. "...I can't settle for someone who can't settle for an average life. For average guy. And you can say that you love me, and that you'd be willing to change, but you hang around in Skid, you can't hold a job to *literally* save your own life, and you haven't even told me what the fuck you and Syaka are doing."

The rage brims deep, burning with an ugly crackle in his heart as their emotions spill into the winter gale that blows ever so briefly, watching the swell of pain between them. "...You honestly think it'll be any different with her? With dealing with powers that run outside of the law? It'll be worse. Much worse. Instead of people shouting at you, or giving you a pink slip, they'll just kill you. Make you disappear, if you don't end up doing that yourself. You think you can handle a life on the edge, but you can't even handle a 9-5 that someone drops in your fucking lap because you're *starving*, *broke*, and unable to *function* like a fucking person."

His eyes flare up as his anger is brought to its peek, his form towering over her as his words drive home his point. "So let's cut the shit, and set the record straight. If you can't even function independently, without someone holding your hand every step of the way and spoon feeding you food and affection, h*oW THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'LL MAKE IT IN THE UNDERWORLD!?*"

Duke's words echo down the street, and fill every alley. It's thankful it's a quiet night, not a lot of cars and people about. Just them.

--Duke
"...I'll answer it for you. You won't. You'll die, just like my brother did, going off and trying to be the big damn hero of your own story without taking the consequences seriously, without thinking about the people that count the days you go missing for, wondering when they'll forget to count at all. And I don't know about you..."

He sucks in a breath...and lets it spill out.

"...One funeral is enough for me."

--Selena
"Thank you, hon'. You're pretty easy on the eyes, yourself, you know. Got that whole... fiery redhead action for you..." Selena trails off as the shout from outside rings through the shop. She turns to the door, trying to see the pair through the glass. "Yeah, ex-girlfriend or sister or something. No one gets you that upset unless you're close. That's why family can make the holidays so bad, you know."

--Sarah
"Awh. Thank you, I love my hair~!" Sarah says in a sing-song way as she passes her hand to brush her deep red mane, however, the yell also catches her off guard.- Even catches Daniel off-guard and he was trying to look at the situation.- Making her turn to the window as well and frown very faintly. "That's...Well, that doesn't look good."

--Patty
She didn't flinch. This, the raging and noise, that was what she was used to. Instead she sniffed, wiped her nose with her arm, and looked up at him standing over her. "...Alright, baby."

She lifted her hands in surrender, "Yeah. I know I'm a self-centered little no-account cunt who can't keep her lips from flapping. I know I'm a selfish, reckless little shit. Yeah, lay it on me, I can take it." She sniffed again, deeper this time, "You ain't the first to say it. Think I didn't hear that every day. Dumb little shit? Trampy little nobody? Well..." She wanted to get angry, but it was just not coming. All the anger she wanted to turn on him melted as she saw his concern for her. Instead, she felt small. "You're right.... and you said your piece. Now don't push it."

She cracked her neck, straightening up to her full height, a foot from his face. "..you can't keep me from bein' me. You can't do it no better than I could. If you're like, jealous of me and Sy? Don't be, even if we do end up taking a roll in the hay. That's not what that's about."

She lifts her hand to touch his face, but hesitates, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "...I don't deserve a guy like you." Come on, don't quit now. "I can't letcha.. give up on me, though. I'm selfish, I wanna keep you and I don't wanna work for it, so I'm.. g-gonna do what needs to be done. I'm gonna keep away till you tell me it's alright. And if it ain't," Sniff, "Then if it never is, and I'll just live with it. Right? Right."

--Duke
For what seemed to be an eternity, only the wind spoke, sifting through their hair, blowing through their clothes and bringing the night's chill with it. Duke's bangs hid his eyes, and expression for a time. But his face lifted eventually, revealing stains on his cheeks. The anger had burnt itself out. All that was left was the smoke that came after, and that same, tired expression Duke seem to carry around with him everywhere. Maybe it wasn't that he was tired at all.

Just tired of saying *good bye.*

"...The only time it'll ever be alright is when you wake up from your dream, and grow up. If you can't even do that...

He turned away from Patty, the light spilling out from inside lighting up the moisture on his cheeks, and the exposing the cracks in his bleeding heart, the cracks that he wore on his face.

"...Stay away from me. Once you piss someone off in that kind of life, they'll look for weaknesses...and they'll come for me, first."

Duke pushed back through the door without another word, silent as the whole ordeal sank in. He didn't even remember walking over and sitting down, but he was next to Selena now. A young man, trying his best, and utterly broken. But not alone.

Not this time.

--Selena
Selena was in the process of turning back to say something else to Sarah when Duke comes back. Andre again moves a little, but doesn't stop him. He's not here to make a scene, after all. Patty and Duke were handling that just fine outside. When Duke sits down, Selena leans slightly against him, lightly combingher fingers through his hair for a moment. "That sounded rough, hon'. Anything I can do?"

--Patty
And that was it. The axe had fell, and it was devastating. She'd fucked it up again, and she was wild with sorrow. It all boiled up in her, and she knew it was coming. Oh God, don't do this. Just be cool, don't let it overtake you.

Her breath was short. It was a shallow, grasping thing in her chest. She wanted to throw it all up, she wanted to scream it all away. And so she did, and just proved his point all the more.

The bat was out of the compartment of her bike before she even knew what was happening, and it was all white hot flashes of anger as those eyes bugged with anger.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!" The storefront window took the brunt of her fury, slamming it over and over against the glass in a pointless, fruitless way. It was actually quite amazing how strong storefront windows are, it simply bounced off a few times ineffectually before finally spreading from the center in a spiderweb pattern, shattered but still intact and upright.

Throwing the bat against her bike, she spit on the ground and glared inside. No, fuck you. Fuck you for thinking I'm not good enough.

"Yeah, fuck you for that! FUCK YOU! You never meant nothin' anyway! NOTHIN! I don't need you, I'm going places! So FUCK YER MOTHER!"

It was over in less than a minute, but she was satisfied she'd made enough of a fool out of herself. Sticking her hands in her pockets, she walked back to the garbage heap of Skid Row.

--Sarah
Sarah was more respectful of Duke's space for now, understanding that what ha happened was bad, she just moved to stand and looks at Duke while her sad grimace showing a sense of pity and understanding from her. "Hey.- She's right, that really looked bad. Hope y-...!" Sarah almost jumped straight on her spot as she heard the first hit against the window, the clash, even if it didn't break the glass proper, was still enough to catch her attention and make her turn to it.

Daniel blinks and rapidly stands up too. Almost approaching Sarah in a protective gesture to the redhead, however, he stood in his place as he saw how her efforts were fruitless. Both of them just watched in disbelief how she unleashed her boiled fury with disgust in their faces. Turning to the window fully and stepping back maybe in preparation if something happened. But nothing did, and so Sarah simply sighs while Daniel looks at the front, until Patty has left already.

--Selena
That time, hands did go into jackets. Both Andre and Jackson quickly moved between the doors and Selena, ready to draw, but not quite actually pulling weapons as long as she stayed ouside the building. They didn't shout back, or say anything to the people inside, either. They simply stood in the way, prepared to end the threat if Patty made  the mistake of threatening their boss. They watched with the cold eyes of professionals and the absolute determination of the Blood Bonded.

Behind them, Selena reacted more slowly, turning to watch what was happening when the shouting started. She jumped at the first impact, and then a little less with each following one. "Holy shit! What is she *on*?"

--Duke
Duke hardly even reacted, slowly turning to the window. His rage had already been burnt out. He didn't have the energy to get up and chase her into a fist fight...there was no point in that anyways. He got what he wanted, even if it hurt him to get it.

"...Could probably do with a new window." He joked in monotone to Selena's earlier question, slowly blinking at the havoc that'd been laid upon the poor window that did nothing to hurt anyone. "...You know, I'm not an expert on sleep overs, given...well, I didn't have a lot of friends when I was younger, but...I'm pretty sure this was the worst one ever."

He looked over to a framed, stock image of a racoon simply labeled 'Mittens' on among the myriad of memories on the wall. The regret rang deep in him. He probably would've been happier with a trash panda than a trash human being.