In The Mood For Oden

Moe hummed to herself as she prepared different ingredients for Oden.

It had been a while since she had had Oden and, despite it being summer, she had felt the need to make it.

Her hair was up in a bun, held in place by decorative chopsticks, and a black kimono-dress decorated with a skull design swayed around her legs as she danced around the kitchen preparing things.

Alexis had spent the day asleep, healing from her wounds.
It had been four days since she fed, four days since she had the motivation to even leave her room.

The binding had left her not feeling like herself, granted she was still in shock from the whole event and was yet to utter a single word since Taylor had burned the metal collar around her neck.

She walked in, each step causing the collar around her neck to make a soft metallic clink.
She saw the hybrid, the one from that night, it was her mate that she had almost killed, she passed by silently and opened the fridge.

All she wanted was to get her food and leave.

Her head cocked to the side when she heard something and she turned to look over her shoulder.

She smiled at the older woman, setting down the knife she was using.

"Evening, Alexis-san," she greeted, turning around and leaning back against the counter.

Alexis jolted slightly as the hybrid addressed her.
She grabbed a few blood bags from the fridge and held them against her chest.
"Hello."

She said softly slightly confused as to why the woman was talking to her.

She looked to the door, wanting to leave but the way the woman stood indicated that she wanted to talk.
Slightly shaken she just stood there, head down cast.

She smiled brightly.

"How've you been the last few days?"

She hadn't seen the woman around at all since the fight. She hadn't seen many people around.

She still hadn't really left Zeke's side for longer than twenty minutes at a time.

Alexis moved to sit on a stool by the counter, taking a glass and ripping open the packet, pouring the contents into the glass.

"I've been asleep..."
She muttered softly, gazing up to look the woman in the eye.

"Is your mate okay? uhh....the one that I..."
She didn't know the mans name, she hadn't meant to hurt anyone other that Taylor but the man had tried to stop her and he was ultimately the reason she was now bound to the elf.

She sighed heavily and took a sip for her glass.

She nodded. "Yes, Zeke's doing well. He'll be up and fighting again soon."

Her fingers began to stroke over the ring on her finger with a soft smile. Moe was glad he was on the mend.

"How're your wounds healing up?"

"I'm glad."
She said, though she wasn't sure whether that was the truth or not, she didn't know how she felt.

"My wounds are fine, I slept them off in two days."
She ran her hand over her neck where Zeke had bitten her, it was one of her more severe wounds.

She winced slightly as her hand can into contact with the metal collar that was around her neck, it did not hurt but the reminder that is was there was worse than any physical pain.

"Grandaddy and Baba helped him heal."

She twisted the ring around her finger, stroking the intricate design gently.

"That's good to hear. You mustn't have had a great time while your wounds were healing." She couldn't imagine how painful the wounds were.

She was lucky enough to not really have ever had very severe injuries. The worst she had had been a couple of stab wounds and silver burns.

She nodded at her explanation and looked down to her fiddling hands.
"You're engaged?"
She asked, not having noticed the ring when they had first met, she was very observant and would not have missed such a detail.

"The wounds did not bother me much, I've had worse."
She admitted, many hunters had come after her before, all of them had failed but that didn't mean that she came out of it unhurt.

She smiled softly. "He proposed to me while I was cleaning out his wound." A soft laugh passed her lips. "We must have looked terrible; both of us covered in blood like that."

Her eyes flickered up to the vampire. "But still, wounds aren't pleasant. No one should have to put up with them."

She pushed off the counter and walked towards Alexis slowly. "Do you still have scars or are they completely healed over?"

Alexis was perplexed by this woman, she had almost killed two of her family members and she was worried about her wounds?

She looked up at her and shook her head.
"No scars."
She answered, pulling up her sleeves to show her perfectly intact arms, which only a few days ago as been covered in severe burns and cuts.

She brought her hand up to her neck and tugged on the collar slightly.
"This is the only thing that shows I was even in a fight."
She added with a sigh as she took another drink, gulping it down eagerly.

Moe smiled and trailed her fingers over the woman's unblemished skin. "That's good."

"You're a beautiful woman, Alexis-san. it'd be a shame to have it marred by burns."

Her hand reached towards the collar before she stopped dead in mid-air, pulling her hand back. "S-sorry. You wouldn't want anyone touching it, would you? I'm sorry."

She bit her lip, looking away from the woman with pink cheeks.

"Thank you."
She said softly, gripping her glass in her hands and gazing into it.
She looked up briefly as the woman's hand reached for her collar.

"It's fine if you want to touch it, it can't do any harm to you."

She replied, she did not care if someone was to touch it, it's not like there was a chance of removing it.

She hesitated for a minute before reaching out again.

Her fingers brushed over the collar first, then the skin below it.

Moe's brows furrowed as she stared at the collar. "I...It's like slavery..." This woman was bound to her sister, enslaved and forced to do what she bid her.

The hybrid girl wrapped her arms around the vampire. "I'm sorry."

She knew enough about slavery to know that no-one should have to be a part of it.

Alexis flinched at the woman's words, it felt like physical blow hearing the word. Slavery.

She closed her eyes and let the woman hug her.
"It's fine."
She lied.

"It was my own doing, I should not have acted how I did."
She had killed so many people, burned down a countless number of town and tortured many just for the thrill of it, just because she could.

Already she had thought about sitting out on the roof and waiting for the sunrise to claim her but Taylor had instructed that she was not to harm herself.

"It's not fine," she denied, pulling back to look at the woman with teary eyes.

"I know a few people that have been in slavery and none of them have said anything good about it."

The thought of anyone she knew in slavery upset the woman greatly.

"Don't cry for me."
She said, looking at the woman, her own eyes completely dry.

"Whats happened can not be undone, there is no use being upset about it.
Even if I wanted to, I can not go against any order that Taylor gives me.
There is no escape for me."

She reached her hand up and wiped away the tears falling from the hybrids eyes.

"Why? You don't seem to want to cry for yourself. Someone has to cry."

She lifted her hands, gripping the hand wiping away the tears spilling down her cheeks.

"I-I can talk to Nee-chan. Ask her not to order you around."

"No one needs to cry, not for me."
She replied with a soft smile.

"Anything she tells me to do is in her own right.
She managed to bind me and as such she has earned that right.
Knowing her as I do, knowing her hatred of me I doubt she would take pity on me no matter what you said to her."

She shook her head gently. "But I want to."

Her lips twitched upwards, trying to return the little smile.

"She'll listen to me. I'm her little sister, she has to." She hoped Taylor would listen to her. She wouldn't be able to deal with knowing that her sister was treating someone like a slave.

"I appreciate the sentiment.
You're an odd person Moe, I don't understand why of all people you would choose to help me.

I tried, and nearly succeeded in killing your partner and your sister.
How can you forget that and instead insist on trying to make my life more bearable.

Surely you must feel some resentment toward me?"

"I know what it's like to be hated and it's not a nice feeling. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."

Moe didn't hate anyone. There were a few people that she disliked but she didn't hate.

"Maybe I have a little." But that little bit of resentment wasn't enough for her to allow the woman to be treated like a slave.

Alexis filled her glass again and took another large drink, healing that quickly made her hunger worse than normal.

"Still.."
She started, her finger tip running around the edge of her glass.

"You're too kind, it's dangerous.
You know when I first met you, when you mentioned being sisters with Taylor, I was going to hurt you, I was going to use your pain to torment her.
You must be more careful with whom you choose to become friends."

"I know."

She smiled at the woman. "I'm a Bounty Hunter, Alexis-san. And you have a rather big bounty on your head. I'd be a fool not to know who you were."

Admittedly, it had taken a while for her to realise she was the Alexis with the bounty on her head. And it took a little prompting from Taylor for her to realise.

"And I also come from an abusive family. I'm wary of everyone even if I don't seem it."

She lifted her hand to tug on a lock of the woman's white hair with a smile. "But that didn't stop me from wanting to make friends with you. Even people with bounties on her heads need friends."