(DON'T LET GO) tag; Vas

[Vitani Nneka]

It was a Friday night, and what was she doing? Stuck in Pride Rock of all places, waiting for that hand on the clock to edge closer to eight so she could shut up shop. Vitani sighed, placing the last remnants of change into the till bag and slammed the drawer shut with more violence than necessary. Her father could have done this, one of her brothers could have done this, even one of the sodding people who actually worked here could have easily closed the shop; but no. Like everyone else they had pissed off down to the bar early because it was the start of the weekend. She would have said no, then her father had kindly reminded her who it was who had given her enough money for alcohol and anything else she might need over the weekend.

This was really why she needed a job, or at least more excuses to not help out with the family businesses. She was already wearing her night’s outfit, a simple black short dress with ridiculously large heels; because Vitani wasn’t the tallest person in the world. She hopped up on the side of the counter, pulled out some lipstick from her bag and leaned down so that she was facing the mirror on the side of the counter where people could look at whatever jewellery they were buying and began to apply some. The world outside was bustling, cars fled past and people hurried on home or out for the night, not bothering to look into the windows of the famous store. She finished her make up and hopped down off the counter with precision and grabbed the store’s keys, humming to herself as she switched off the lights and exited the shop, locking the door as she went.

Leaning up to the shutters the brunette gave them a hearty yank and the metal curtains shuttered down on the shop, blocking its sign and valuable contents from view. With a satisfied grin Vitani turned and walked down the street, blending with the usual nightlife as it surged towards the Red Light District. She wasn’t looking for that sort of company tonight (but if it came her way she wouldn’t turn it down) but the booze tended to be cheaper at those bars and the people there were…different. Vitani crossed the road and down a side alley, an unusual smile gracing her thin lips as she moved. She was in that sort of mood tonight where she didn’t mind where she ended up or with who either.

Another few streets and she came into the District, where it was noticeably busy, it was still pretty early but people couldn’t resist the temptations of not having to work the next day. Scanning the openings of bars and clubs with an expert eye it could be fair to say that Vitani wasn’t looking where she was going. She stumbled back as she felt herself collide with something solid, flinging an arm out to steady herself before glancing up at whoever it was she had just walked into.

[Vasilissa Yaga]

“Turn left!” said the doll, pulling Vasilissa’s hair. “Left,, I said!”

“But I’m sure it’s right—”

“And I’m sure it’s left!” The doll snarled and tugged her hair harder.

“Hey!" Vasilissa said. Her hair sparked and the doll went flying, earning her some odd looks from the other people on the street. She picked the doll up. “Look-away,” she whispered, and the people shook their heads and continued on with their business.

“Close one,” the doll muttered, tucking itself into her coat pocket.

“Only because of you.” Vasilissa turned left, head down—

And ran straight into someone. She fell backwards, disoriented, and landed hard on the pavement. “Ow…”

[Vitani Nneka]

Vitani wasn’t the sort of person who takes kindly to being walked into. Admittedly she was to blame for not looking where she was going, but she would never admit to saying she was wrong. Anyway, she wasn’t best pleased with bumping into someone. Having found her balance, retracted her arm from it’s stalk like position where she had flung it and looked round wildly, trying to see who it was she was going to yell at.

At first she saw nothing, then she realised that the other person was on the floor. And by the looks of it they had been hit harder than she had. Vitani paused for a split second to survey her victim. A woman, roughly her age, although she was blessed with curves in all the right places and had a head of long fiery red hair. The brunette’s facial expression changed faster than a set of traffic lights. One moment she was about to scream at someone for getting in her way, next thing she knew a highly attractive girl was lying in front of her. A small smirk came about her lips for a moment at all the different, mostly crude jokes that she could make about this situation, then decided against it. This girl was a stranger, and would probably be a little worried if Vitani suddenly burst out with innuendos.

She gave the redhead a crooked smile, extending her hand if the other girl wanted to pull herself up. “You okay there?” She asked, half amiably for once, shaking her untidy hair out of her eyes and grinned at the stranger. “Sorry about that, I suppose I wasn’t looking where I was going.” Well, obviously, she would have never missed her going down the street otherwise.

[Vasilissa Yaga]

Vasilissa looked up. The person who’d knocked her down was a woman, maybe her age, with shaggy dark brown hair and absolutely striking eyes. And a lovely smile. She reached up and took the other woman’s hand, pulling herself to her feet.

“Um, it’s alright,” said Vasilissa. “I…wasn’t looking where I was going, either.” She realized she was still holding the woman’s hand and blushed, dropping it and stepping back. The doll, surprisingly, was keeping quiet. Which was unusual, but occasionally it would stop being a pain in the ass as well as helpful and just be helpful. She rarely got that lucky but if it decided to keep its metaphorical mouth shut, maybe she could make a friend.

Vasilissa rubbed her fingers over the heel of her left hand, healing the skin there that had torn when she’d tried to catch herself. It took a bit longer than it might have, because she didn’t want to take her eyes of the woman, but when she was finished she tried a smile.

“Uh, my name is Vasilissa Yaga,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ears. She felt the doll shift inside her coat—when had it climbed inside her coat?—but it was the sort of shift of someone settling in for a wait. And it didn’t seem to be making a visible bulge anywhere. Vasilissa took a mental deep breath and forced herself to ignore it. “ I’m sorry. What’s your name?”

[Vitani Nneka]

To her delight the other girl took hold of her hand and Vitani braced herself slightly to help the woman up, although she was lighter than she had expected. Now they were both upright and facing each other, she could see the stranger better as the redheaded woman said something about it not being her entire fault; although Vitani wasn’t really paying much attention to what she was saying. Those eyes! That hair! She was now weighing up her chances - this girl seemed too polite and reserved for someone wandering the streets of a Red Light District. Perhaps she was more fiery once one got to know her.

Well, there certainly didn’t seem to be anything unusual about her - apart from the fact she was gorgeous, but the brunette hadn’t meant it that way. ‘Unusual’ usually met the funny, magician types that her father tended to mix with. Apart from Gabbi, she didn’t know anyone else who used magic, and it frightened her a little, mainly because she didn’t know anything about it. She was also quite aware that they were still holding hands, not that she minded this in the slightest, in fact it was rather nice. When the woman did drop her hand she let it fall back to her side, the fresh air of the city replacing the warmth of the girl’s hand.

Vitani’s eyes darted to the stranger’s hand as she rubbed it, but there was apparently nothing to see. Had she hurt it? Asking might show she cared a bit too much. But when she smiled it was pretty cute. Cute things usually annoyed Vitani, like bunnies and small children. They were almost pointless. But this girl smiling was sweet.

She went to open her mouth, attempting to form some kind of sentence to ask her name, but the redhead obliged without any prompting. Vasilissa. It was certainly a name Vitani had never heard of before, very exotic. “That’s a nice name.” She blurted out before she realised what she was saying. “Where does it come from?” It seemed like an appropriate question to ask, to further their conversation. Vasilissa then asked her for her name. Vitani grinned, this was all going much better than she had expected. “I’m Vitani.”

[Vasilissa Yaga]

“Thank you,” said Vasilissa when the other woman complimented her name. She’d never thought of it that way, no one she’d grown up with had thought it was weird. Of course, she’d grown up a very long way away. Her parents hadn’t even lived on Faraway. And the House hadn’t even been on Faraway when it had picked her up. “It’s, ah, Russian. I was named after my—my mother.”

Five years. Five years since her mother had died, four since her father had remarried, three years of living with her horrible stepfamily. It still hurt to think about her mother, though, even if it was only an achy kind of hurt rather than a sharp pain.

The woman told Vasilissa her name: Vitani. And she’d said “Vasilissa” was exotic.

“Vitani,” she said, the name escaping her lips before she could stop herself. She’d wanted to try it out. Gods below, a beautiful name. “Um. Do you happen to know where, uh, this is? Because I’m completely lost.”

[Vitani Nneka]

Vas had thanked her for her remark, almost as if she wasn’t used to receiving compliments. She didn’t say anything on it, just simply smiled at the redhead. She was cute, personality wise, as well as looks. Perhaps she was a little shy, because she sure was pretty enough to have compliments paid to her near enough all the time, or so Vitani reckoned. But it didn’t matter. She liked a challenge. The brunette normally avoided quieter people, they took more time coming out of their shell, and Vitani was extremely impatient. But this opportunity - she wasn’t missing this.

She nodded as the girl explained her name. There weren’t too many Russians round here, so that was unexplored territory for Vitani. The heart of the city stored a whole host of nationalities, she herself wasn’t from around here, although the accent and the way she lorded the streets told otherwise. She heard Vasilissa’s hesitation, although the way she had said it implied she didn’t want to talk about it; which Vitani was fine with. Family can be a touchy subject, and they had only just met after all. Personally Vitani would have been a little more than raging if she had been named after her excuse of a mother, but she didn’t feel like saying that would be appropriate.

And although she didn’t say anything, her name sounded rather good coming out of Vas’ lips.

Evidently, this young lady hadn’t travelled very far into the city, or at least the right parts of the city. Blue eyes blinked at her once, mildly surprised that the redhead didn’t know where she was, before giving Vas a crooked smirk and slinging her weight onto one hip. “You happen to be in Faraway’s Red Light District. Were you…on your way to anywhere in particular?” She asked seemingly casually, not particularly wanting to let go of this little gem so quickly.

[Vasilissa Yaga]

Vasilissa was mildly confused at first. “Red light district?” she said, frowning slightly. “What’s—”

The doll telepathically (although not very politely) informed just what it was and what went on there, and she blushed cherry red. “Oh. Oh.. Um.” She twirled a strand of hair around her finger nervously as Vitani smirked at her. She seemed to know so much more about Faraway—or at least about the city—than Vasilissa did.

“Um. Nothing like that. W—I’m looking for this, uh, this coffee shop? It’s called, um, I forget what’s it called, but it’s all green and it’s in the Bean Market?” She hated the way it came out sounding like a question, but she couldn’t help it. She felt so…off-balance. Well, more than usual, anyway.

“And…yeah.” She looked down and dug the toe of her sneaker into the cobblestones. She could feel the blush abating, thank gods. “I have no idea how to get to the Bean Market from here…um, do you think you could give me directions?”

[Vitani Nneka]

The dark haired girl couldn’t help but quirk an eyebrow at Vas as she repeated what she had just said. Surely she must know what a Red Light District was? Even small children in the street had heard of it, even if they didn’t quite understand what it was about. Vitani was mildly amazed that someone could not know what one was, although when the redhead did frown, she did look cute. Cuter when she smiled. She was far too…innocent. Vitani almost felt bad for liking her this much; she knew herself she wasn’t exactly the classiest person in Faraway.

A small smile lit her features, her mind pondering over she was supposed to explain what the Red Light District was to someone that she well, fancied, but then Vas seemed to remember. As if someone had reminded her. Then she blushed again. The dark haired girl blinked, her eyes trained on the other girl. She was quite fascinating, not her usual type at all. Well she was gorgeous, but personality wise, given the choice Vitani wouldn’t have looked twice. Now she felt like she was missing out, and she had only met this girl for what, five minutes?

She spoke again and Vitani furrowed her brow, trying to think of where she meant. Oh yeah, that Market. It was a pretty long walk though. Was she meeting someone there? Deciding that if she wanted to take this opportunity, she was going to have to do it now and seize it with both hands. Vitani paused, just for dramatic effect, then spoke. “Yeah I know it.” She glanced at Vas again, trying not to let that mischievous glint become too obvious in her eye.

“But its quite a way away, do you want me to walk you down there? You get some…rough types round here.” She added, throwing in a wink too. “Not the sort of place for someone whose lost.” She finished, folding her arms and letting the other girl decide. The offer was there, although Vitani hoped sincerely that she would take it.