[Sodium_noir] The Songs of Someone Tempted

[Dneterp@cs.com]

Malone, Pritchell, Ariñe, Sachiko
Bottom of the stairs
Raindog's

<< As sachiko and Arine descend the stairs they come across Malone face to 
face with an equally large Knocker. You could literally cut the tension with a 
knife.
 
 Then the Knocker shrugged, and backed down. He hadn't given anything away, 
merely seemed to be satisfied with the reply. His eyes came to rest on the two 
girls and he snorted before turning away and heading up the stairs past them. 
Apparently looking for Raindog.>>

Ariñe noticed the tension in Malone immediately, how could anyone miss it? 
She wanted to touch him but her tender grasp turned into a gentle brush across 
his forearm when she saw his face fully. She wasn't sure he'd really want her 
or anyone for that matter to touch him just then. She wasn't sure what to do at 
that point. She still wanted to touch him but... was that the right thing to 
do? Everyone had something they needed from others and that changed constantly 
but she had no idea what he needed from her right now. She was actually a 
little surprised by his anger. She hadn't known him long but somehow it seemed 
she had learned quite a bit about him, even if he hadn't said that much; often 
you learn more through silence than noise. He wasn't the sort of man to get 
angry often, was he? 

Ariñe looked back at the Nocker and being the creature that she was her eyes 
weren't exactly friendly. She wasn't being terribly offensive or anything but 
she also had that protective streak in her and Malone was... Well, that just 
came along with the attraction. On top of that was the fact that Malone was a 
calm and rational man. He wouldn't react like that without reason and thus she 
needed to be aware of that one. She took him in quickly and carefully then 
returned her gaze to Malone, instantly softened. It had been said time and time 
again about her so much so perhaps it had become a cliche but what else could 
be said then everything about her at that time was calming. She looked up into 
Malone's eyes and even Sachiko could feel the sense of peace coming from her 
despite the tension presented in Malone.  
 
 <<Malone looked down at them both with his mouth tightly clenched and his 
brow knitted. There was far more color in his face than either of them were used 
to.
 
 "I .... He .... You ..." He stopped and appeared to be literally counting to 
ten. Not quite needing to use his fingers but he came close. Eventually he 
was able to string a coherent sentence together. "All set?"
  >>

Ariñe may not have known what he needed from her but she did know when to 
listen and wait. She smiled with her lips softly together and nodded her head 
once.

"Yep."

She didn't take her eyes from his and perhaps he would be the only one to 
notice but she seemed to ask him what he needed. Even if it was just to be left 
alone she wanted to know that he was all right and she wasn't going anywhere 
until she got some sort of indication. Malone could probably already make that 
assumption. It could be that he thought she already knew that he was but just 
because he could speak again didn't mean he was okay.

...tag...