Welcome to Gaia! ::

He glanced at his arms, and shrugged off her small compliment, continuing the drive to the edge of town, and then beyond it they would go. Jada turned her gaze to the passing lights, and the window, where she could see her strange savior reflected. His coat draped too broad about her shoulders, and even though the heat was licking in, he couldn't be comfortable.

"France was lovely. The history, the architecture, all the fashion houses. And it was such an easy springboard to the rest of Europe. Do you travel much, Mini? When you aren't in disguise?" Jada wasn't necessarily trying to humanize herself to him anymore; if he planned to murder her, he probably wouldn't have been so pleasant. Now it was slowly becoming a genuine interest.

What had motivated him to select the path of the Negaverse? He seemed so.... Hmm. Never could judge a book by their covers. But the intro pages seemed rather shockingly innocuous. Mannerly. Unexpected.

"The Art of War got me through my teenage years," she told him with a laugh, "Sun Tzu never would have expected his strategies to be used to deal with overbearing parents, but a girl gotta do what she's gotta do. One teacher tried to tell me The Great Gatsby was a romance novel, but all I could see were the poor life choices." Still, her voice was wistful. She'd take a selfish idiot in her life right now. "My favorite book is Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, mosty because I loved the musical so much."

She inhaled, considering. "Humans has some interesting stories. I don't keep up with it much, but sometimes I'll go take a look. So many walks of life, what's not beautiful about it?" Jada shifted in the seat again, peering at him through the dim lighting. "You're a paparazzo," she teased after a moment, "creeping on poor people and taking pictures. Do you only focus on beautiful moments?"

No. the answer was shorter than she had been expecting, and for a moment she looked askance at him, wondering if he was just that uncomfortable with the car or if she had said something wrong; before he continued and her mind wiped away the brusque reply. Jada tilted her head at him, thoughtlessly not considering he could hardly see her in the darkness, even with the flashing light from the streetlights.

"That's a shame you don't travel," she told him after a moment, turning her head to stare out the window, and watch Aluminite in the brief flashes of his reflection in the glass of the passenger window; "You would find a lot of things to take pictures of. The world is a beautiful place, even with everything going on right now." Politics, wars, unrest, an intergalactic fight between Order and... "Even with all the chaos. There's history, and visual art."

Turning her head to glance at the phone, she said, "You'll see an offshoot right up here. About half a a mile down there's a gate across the drive. In past that, it's about half a mile more." All there was past the offshoot she pointed him to were trees and flowers- the drive was smooth gravel, sealed so that it wasn't rough on her tires. The lights went from large posts to small lights low to the ground, some small lights still flickering in the trees from Christmas- she found them pretty, so the white fairy lights got to stay. "Until we get to the gate we may have some strays, or raccoons, so don't go fast. No neighbors though."

She had time to ask him more questions, so she asked, "What's your favorite book? You said classic literature, then dropped Gatsby, which was 1925ish? I suppose it's classic, but not that classic." As she asked the question she was already shifting slowly in the warmed seat, beginning to unpeel herself from his coat and adjust to be able to pull herself out of her comfortable slump in the car.

His snap, however small, made her jump in her seat, hands instinctively curling into fists- hand going to protect one place over her chest as she pressed her back to the window and cast the man a wide-eyed look. Angry Negaverser- threat- starseed. A simple calculation, and one she had been forgetting. She regretted now, leading him to this house; she should have had him take her to another house, even if it was partly her 'safe house'. This one was where their family lived, and bringing him here put her children- her siblings- her staff, her everyone- the only people she had left- in danger.

Her ankle crashed from the dash to the floor, and even as he sighed and spoke again... not taking action towards her, his burst of something coming out at her attempt at conversation... not vanished, but... "Alright." it was all she said to him, but the woman didn't turn her back to him again. Didn't go back to watching the lights out the window, or the shapes and shadows that they passed. Her attention was unerringly on him, and the grip of his hands on the wheel. It wasn't fear, it was caution, she assured herself. She had forgotten he was her enemy, whether he knew it or not.

The silence that lay between his it's not an option and Jane Eyre was heavy enough. Jada did not attempt to reach out to him further, and she didn't uncurl herself even enough to reach out for her cocoa to calm her nerves. "You have a point," she told him after what felt like an eternity. But she wasn't sure what else to say to him; his sharpness had reminded her she was dealing with... well. It had put her level of communication back more than just one step.

"Turn here," she instructed him as the turn came in sight. "it isn't far now. I can probably take it from here if you want to be able to take the easy road back to town."

His turn was made in silence, and when he pulled to a halt at her suggestion, Jada could feel herself exhale heavier than she had meant to. It took her a few heartbeats, after the car pulled to a halt, for her to respond to him. I'm sorry.

"Yeah." her voice was soft, mild, and bright violet eyes flicked over him through dark lashes before she lowered her head still further and looked away.

Jada leaned over, still not presenting her back to him, pushing the car door open and setting her right foot against the ground, grateful the gravel look was purely decorative. She couldn't believe she'd been so foolish as to think she could maybe make a connection with someone who just- who she was inherently afraid of. She knew what Aluminite could do; even if he masqueraded as a kindly sheep, the man was still a wold. She'd almost let him close enough to put her family in danger. So irresponsible.

"Thank you for helping me." Pushing herself up and sideways out of the car, the model limped towards the front of her car, peeling off the agent's coat as she passed in front of the lights, giving a little grimace as her ankle complained and the hairs on her arms and the muscles of just about every other part of her tensed rose in angry response to the cold. Well, tough s**t, body.

Yes, he could probably teleport back to town if he had to, but she wasn't sure how frequently they could do that. Without her magic, she couldn't even tell if he was a Captain or an underdressed General. Chances were, he would need it more than she did. And it was his to begin with.