It was nice to be able to sneak out of the house and not have to worry about the cops finding you and dragging you home. Not that anyone cared she wasn't home. It was more the public embarrassment that went with having a misbehaving child in your family. Appearances.
“Appearances mean so little in the grand scheme of things.” Laverna smiled as she layed back on a thick oak tree branch. She was enjoying just being free. But in truth, she was a bit bored. All this freedom and no one to chat with. “they are just there to be toyed with. I wonder if I could torment them at all…”
She giggled.
---
If Leucite were a weather forecast, it would be cloudy with a chance of severe storms. His mind was a mess - his world was for the most part - turned upside down as he tried to come to terms with the emotions that roiled about in his head and his chest. So many things to do, so many things he’d yet to say. But did it matter, in the end? They were all tainted by their sins. Blood was on his hands, in his mouth. A black spot marred his soul. He knew this, and it seemed that no amount of prayer could give him succor for his wounds.
He was distracted - which is why he did not sense the signal in the tree above him when he landed in at the base of it. His mind had wandered down dark and grim alleys of thoughts best saved for when one looks at the bottom of a beer mug.
Not when he was supposed to be sharp and on patrol.
---
The appearance of a person below her was not at all what Laverna had expected at this our. She was out for herself. Nothing else matter, least of all tasks that seemed...pointless. So when she heard the click of boots, her eyes wandered towards the source.
It was there she found a man, lost idly in his head. He was strong, broody, some might call him handsome. Laverna called him fun.
Behind her mask, she caulked a grin before reaching up into the low branches of the oak and pulling free several acorns. Her hand extending outwards, she dropped one directly over his head.
“The night’s too pretty for someone as cute as you to be pouting.” Her voice played, leg swinging off the branch.
---
Alarms went off as the acorn bounced off his head and the voice spoke. Immediately he reached out for signatures, and he felt one of a DMC senshi. Well then, this night had gotten… interesting. Looking up at the obvious location from where the acorn had come, he crossed his arms over his chest.
“I don’t pout,” He said plainly. “I am thinking though, something you should do more of instead of dropping things on people unawares. You could get hurt you know.”
It wasn’t really a threat, but a warning. Some people weren’t as inclined to possible talk first. To be fair, lately he wasn’t one of those people either.
---
“Oh calm down big boy.” Laverna’s voice seemed hurt as she swung her other leg over the tree, allowing her to swing into a sitting position. “I’m a big tough girl. I can tie my sandals and everything.” She turned to gaze at him. Now that she could see his full face, hey, he was cute. Not bad.
“And you are pouting. I can see the wrinkles in your forehead and around your lips even from up here.” Leaning back, Laverna allowed herself to roll off the branch, flipping around landing on her feet, arms raised. “I’d say that was a perfect dismount. Now, why Mr. Grumpy face cutie. Girl trouble?”
---
What a strange little senshi. Unfortunately the adage of trust as far as you could throw was not applicable here, as he was fairly sure he could probably throw her fairly far. He tsked quietly under his breath. “Is it tradition for your kind to nose into the lives of others?” He asked, keeping arms crossed in front of him. Mainly for her own safety than his own.
“But if you really must know, no, not girl trouble.”
“You could say I’m having a bit of a… crisis of faith at the moment.”
---
“My kind?” At first, she pulled back a bit but then nodded in understanding. “Oh you mean my Court. No, Just like I’m sure it’s not tradition for all of you to stand there talking to a Dark Mirror like me. Stories tell me you all can be not nice to us.”
But she didn’t try to run. No, she didn’t care about it. He came forward she was sure that no matter how strong he was, she could out dance him. Best not to test anyway.
“Oh even worse then. Faith is one of those things when it’s cracked, it never goes back together again. Strange thing after all. I found it better to just let it go after it broke for me.”
---
“I can’t let it go, it’s all I have left.” Leucite said. Well, that wasn’t really true. There was Imara. But still, there was no guarantee he’d find solace there. No matter what she’d tell him. No matter how much she’d say he was being an idiot letting this get to him. To a point, she didn’t understand his… need.
A soul is such a fickle thing.
Watching the senshi though, he figured this one might be mostly harmless. “To be fair, my encounters with the Dark Mirror haven’t been on the best of terms, but I don’t go out of my way to antagonize you - though I would prefer all senshi be connected to the Negaverse instead of rogue…”
---
“Then you must have a very lonely life.” Laverna said in a voice that did not match her playful tone from before. It took on a more serious note. She clearly saw now something was very wrong. “I hope you find a path way and some sort of light then. Though maybe I should say darkness?”
And then he changed the tune and she blinked several times at him. “So many of my family have said. There seems to be a mixed tune on our stances with each other unlike those of the White Moon. Some say you all turned on us. Others believe we should realign with you. Personally, I’m more a fan of option three.”
“And I would not call us rouge. We answer to a higher power just as I am sure you do.”
---
“In my mind, any senshi not beholden to the Negaverse is rogue, higher power or no.” Her earlier words had shaken Leucite a tad. What had this girl seen that had her so… maudlin. Still, it was not his place to pry, moreover, it didn’t help the matter as it stood.
“Though, if I had to be honest I’d rather an alliance than nothing at all. It’s hard to fight a war on two fronts.” Leucite admitted. “So to that end, I suppose that is why I am more than willing to let the Dark Mirror walk in peace.”
To be fair, he’d done his fair share of actions against the Dark Mirror - though under orders and when he was a fresh recruit. You could argue he’d known no better.
---
“Well then, we thank you.” Her tone was not amused. The way he spoke then was as if he was granting her permission to be free. Ha! No foolish man. They needed no one's permission. But she wasn’t there to start a fight.
So she turned and began to walk. More around him than anywhere in particular. “But I doubt you have a war to be fighting with us. What would you get from taking the Mirror Court on? What do you have to gain?” She asked, tapping a finger to her elbow as her hands folded. “You seem like you have a head on your shoulders cutie, tell me then. What would you want from us?”
---
“Control, power, the Negaverse has no magic of its own.” Not, like the senshi did. Leucite was well aware of this. The best they could do was teleport. They had no real magical ability of their own, this set them at a disadvantage. “Numbers - Order outnumbers us.”
Greatly.
Still, they lacked organization he’d noticed. A small saving grace at that.
“Still - better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t.”
---
“Shame. Offer more cookies?” She was standing back in front of him again.
“So, what you want from my family is to control us and our power? Not a very good offer there cutie. Your bargaining chips need some work. My Prince would not be a fan of it. My so called Princess…” She hissed the words…”Well, she claims to know you all better. She might just go for it. “
Slaves. If that was what he wanted, she’d kill him.
---
Leucite couldn’t help it, he actually laughed. “Heh, I’ll have to pass that one up the ranks. Who knew that our recruitment woes could be solved with baked goods.”
At her statement, he felt as if he was walking dangerous and shaky ground, and rightly so. “I don’t think magic should be used willy nilly. I don’t want to control what you do with your life - but I think that magic should be… contained.” How to describe this properly. “If I had my way, every senshi would have a Negaverse officer with them when they were powered, ensuring that they didn’t… cause undo harm with their abilities.”
---
Blue green eyes went wide. “You want us escorted at all times? Tell me, how would you feel to have a person on you twenty four seven watching your every move?” Laverna came forward. She stopped far enough back as to not be challenging in a physical way. “To be judged because you were born with a certain way and honestly did not have much of a say in what cards you were handed.” Was she talking about her life as a Dark Mirror now or…
“To be in a fishbowl with zero control over who you are? Well honey, I’ve been there and frankly, that’s a horrible idea. You want to set people off, go that route! See how long you stay in power before someone uses their head and rebels against you. It won’t be very long.”
She stepped back, still glaring at him. “Do not punish the innocent because a few a** holes decided to go skipping through the valley waving around their powers. I’ve never even used mine!”
---
And right onto the landmine. Wonderful. Simply wonderful. “What would you suggest then?” Leucite said, trying to keep his voice calm even if every fiber of his being was telling him to silence the Senshi. But, she wasn’t a white moon, maybe she had a different perspective.
“What would you do in my place? Back against the wall, an enemy larger than you and no ability to fight back against their magical advantage?”
“How do we win?”
---
“Can’t you stop their magic? Cut it off at a source even?” Laverna threw out there, her hands still in fist. “But honestly your better bet is get them off this planet! You say they out number you? Well then, why not let them grow, over crowd themselves and send them packing! We don’t belong here!”
She could hear her Prince’s words. Convert. Show them the way.
Well she couldn’t show them the way if someone would rather play watch dog!
“I know they can go to their home worlds. So send them packing!”
---
“If they can return home why do they stay here then?” Leucite asked. “It can’t be as easy as to just send them home - though granted I’d love it if they DID go home.” He could hear the passion in her voice and to a degree, he could respect that.
It was just a shame that passion wasn’t on HIS side of the fence.
“But if that’s not an option, then we need to be able to control those that aren’t willing to abide by the rules - is that fair?”
---
“Maybe you just haven’t figured it out then.” They hadn’t figured out much of their space either….
“So don’t act all high and mighty before looking at the big picture. There are options out there. The ones who break their trust should be punished. Lock them up or blow them up. I don’t care. But don’t think we are all the same just because we have magic!”
She broke the gaze and mumbled…”Jerk. And I thought you were cute…”
“We are…” She was about to say something. That they were trying to find ways to get home. Then she realized that was most likely one of the items Rem did not want her talking about to an agent. So she sighed and filled it in with “not all alike. Do not judge us based on the actions of the white moon”....or our idiot princess….
---
Leucite raised his hand. “That’s fair, actually…” The girl did have a point. Dark Mirror were not White Moon. That much was apparent. “Like I said, my issue is with White Moon, not Dark Mirror. Would I prefer all Senshi were Corrupt? Of course.” He waved his hand then.
“But that’s hardly the point. The point is, you’re the closest thing we have to allies - and it would be a shame to lose that.” He bowed his head. “Whatever bad blood is between our two factions, let me propose - at least for you and I, it be in the past. Let us forge a new future.”
“One where the Dark Moon are free to be who they want to be, and the White Moon defeated.”
Something, an olive branch if nothing else.
---
Her eyes were locked on his face. They were hard, twisted, full of judgement.
Then in a blink, the softened and she felt herself smile under that mask. “A deal hm?” Her head began to shake and suddenly, Laverna was laughing. It was light, playful. Clearly nothing hidden under it joyful noise but still, unnerving. “A deal with a woman you know nothing about? A deal with a woman you would see in chains!”
Stepping forward, she came finally within reach of him. But Laverna didn’t stop there. She came up, and through the mask, she placed a kiss on his lips.
It was soft and broke quickly. “Cutie, keep yourself out of problems. The Dark Mirror doesn’t want trouble and I do not want to be putting my neck on the line for someone I don’t know if I can trust as far as I can throw him.”
As she stepped back from him, it was clear she was moving her hips in a playful way.
---
She had his head spinning and he had no idea what was going on. Leucite was at a loss. The kiss came so quickly and unexpected, that he sat there staring at her blankly for a moment before his mind finally kicked into gear.
“I don’t want to see anyone in chains, not really…” Leucite found himself admitting. “Honestly it’d be a lot easier if the Senshi would come to us willingly. It would be better if people could come to the Negaverse and help us build a better world. But this isn’t a perfect world and I very much doubt it will be.”
He couldn’t help but bring a hand up to his lips where she had kissed him. So completely shocked by the ease she seemed to be able to give it. “I don’t plan on getting into problems or trouble. I don’t want to see bad blood between the Dark Moon and the Negaverse.” If anything, he wanted peace.
If peace meant that the Dark Moon were autonomous, would that be so bad? Had they ever really given him a reason to not trust them like some of the corrupts had?
“I’m an honorable man… You can trust me to do what I think is right and righteous. Even if it may not be the best decision.”
Why did he feel like he was just digging himself deeper…
---
“Don’t worry big boy. There isn’t poison on my lips or anything. I may be the Senshi of Thieves but I’m not looking for a body count.” Laverna said as she glanced over at his motions. “Just think of it as my way of saying I don’t intend on coming after you or your loved ones.” Winking at him, she shook her head.
“Really you are impossible.” Hands went out to both sides. “What you think is right and righteous and what I are most likely very different handsome. I think the only thing we both know could agree on is the path those silly white moon senshi are on is wrong. And maybe having a romp behind this tree.”
The last part was in jest. But at the shock of his face from her kiss, she just had to play it.
---
“You’re right on that first point,” Leucite said with a small, weak chuckle. “That second one is tempting, but no…” He said with a small shake of his head. “A few months ago I probably would have taken you up on that… but now…”
Now it would feel like betraying Imara… Stibnite… Why did it feel that way though? They weren’t… they weren’t a couple.
She’d made that abundantly clear.
And yet… and yet…
No, he couldn’t do it. “But I’ll totally keep an eye out for eligible bachelors for you if you’d like.”
---
Waving a hand behind her, Laverna just shook her head. “Not looking cutie. But you go running back to your partner then. I’m sure he or she is missing you.”
She didn’t stay long enough for him to say anything else. With a flick of that wrist, she suddenly started to tumble in a way only the most skilled of gymnast could do. Several front hand springs and she pushed off, leaping into the tick of the trees leaving him to his own plans.
But one thing was sure, Laverna knew he was a strange one.
Torvil
