Part 3 and up i.p.
misc notes go8ng f9rward:
during lawyer meeting explain that gio has the most emploee diversity. Not just italians. Yes, he is everyjting she claims. Cold classest stuborn. But he provides the bulk of lavor to people no one would ever consider.
diversity trainingnis a joke. Fit in or else. Grace remembeeed andre being forced to atend after he slipped out and spoke in fremch... in the breakroom.
gios polixy is get the job done or else. And had a hard "i dont care what you do off the job unless it involves unwilling women, children, or the cops, then meet mr rhydon."
grace: thats not kindness
gio. No but its prudent. I like stability. Encourage it. Riots are bad for buisness. Class wars break down the streets/institutes i use. And starving masses can turn into ravening mobs. Somy budget for workers is generous. Medical, pay for food and board, and a little leash for indulgences. I could if i want to remove.. about 80 percent of my work force. 5x my value. Drag viridian imto the tech field and automate everytjign. Only keeping a few teams of techs. But that leaves the masses without recorse, desperate and w too much time on thier hands... so i pay them like i pay insurance. Grudgingly but acknowledge its nessescary. Theres a sliding scale in my personal life where i balance my distance... and
.. admitdly, my greed.... i'll not turn kanto into kalos. Or worse alola.
With that ringing endorsement, Giovanni made a trip to Viridian Gen, fake papers concerning the care and treatment of a rental Kangaskaun got her supervisors to tell him she was in, his celebrity granted him access through taboo areas to hunt her down.
All he'd need was a moment to talk to Grace alone. She'd sworn at seeing him, hand darting to her hip, then after a quick look to discern no one was coming, grabbed his tie and hauled him into a side room. Leading him into a place with tall shelves along the walls, quietly humming equipment on grey-topped islands, and glass beakers piled so thick on those shelves. She let him go once the door was closed, and he took a half step away from the walls to feel safer.
She was hardly pleased to see him. Understandable. Still, her dig that this article was his idea to force them together...
That hurt, something deeper than pride, something closer to the core of him.
"I know what the word no means." He'd snarked back. "And despite my many failings, I don't force myself onto women. I'm not my father. I also don't go to the media to ruin someone, like my mother used to."
"No, you just make a call to get someone fired."
"I indicated I was offended by what he asked." What had been asked? It'd riled him up, but the word-by-word exchange evaded him. Just a dull irritation remained. "What the newspaper did, as a result, was excessive, but I'm not culpable for their actions."
Her withering look, and more importantly the iron-tight grip on his tie, had him a mite alarmed. Mite became more substantial as he learned that Grace Evens had a nervous tick to wind things up in her hands while she thought.
"Things are dying down." The red tip was curled around her fingers. "The fewer scenes I cause, the fewer parties I get to go to." He lost an inch and a half between one word and a contemplative hum. " It sucks donation neting-wise... but my five minutes is almost up." He had to stoop a bit, and she smirked. Their eyes were perfectly even, she ran the red tip of his tie with a thoughtful thumb. " So why do you care?"
"I don't."
There went another half inch, they were nose to nose then.
"Bullshit."
She waited, steel-hued eyes boring into his. The color was that near molten silver of predawn, right before the sky ceded to the cycles that ended in palest blue.
Fuck, now he found some latent knack for poetry, with this woman? All his other speils had been stolen. The pinnacle of plagiarism. But this obstinate, compassionate, hothead, wreck of a woman...
His tongue wasn't tied. It had vacated the premises, taking his vocal cords, and higher brain functions, without having the decency to leave a ransom note.
When he said nothing, for forever and a day, she let him go with a soft, venomous, "Get out."
"Where is your security detail?"
Her lips thinned, misconstruing.. everything. But he beyond her paranoia, mind whirling. As a very poisonous idea settled into his mind.
"Not to deal with me. But with paparazzi. Crazed fans. The desperate. You won two lotteries back to back. One was the highest it's been in fifty years. You could be ransomed. Abducted, broken, and coerced to be a living piggy bank. Or worse. So, I'll ask one last time; where is your security detail?"
If she'd been offered the service and turned them away, he would lose his goddamned mind. She considered something, some secret in the tiles at her feet, then flicked her gaze up to stare at him.
"How does this have anything to do with-"
He was losing his mind anyway, as realization settled in.
"Your lawyer team. Your P.R. team. Mine has ben trying to get in touch with yours for two days," her blank look made his stomach drop. HE mentally scrambled, trying to adjust his thoughts to reach someone not in the Game, or not even well off. The strain made his head hurt. "I know, normal, mundane people don't have these things, but there's a difference when you are worth as much as a Region..."
"I think," she bit her lip, "that you need to sit down before you fall."
He wasn't hyperventilating. Something was leaking from one of those glass containers. That something was making the air thin. He let her guide him, and sat on a footstool, back propped up on a microscope island thingie as he adjusted to the odd air in here.
Her hand on the center of his back, ready to push him down, to breathe bent over double like he was some shock victim was a bit insulting.
But it felt prudent, nonetheless.
"Alright, feeling better?" He nodded, despite decidedly not, straightening in his seat to sell the deal. Looking down at him, face a study of detached disbelief, she exercised some mercy.
She didn't call him out on his crap.
Absently patting his back she stepped back, hand on hip, familiar death glare settling over her features. "Alright, my lunch break is up in," a watch was consulted. Some generic brand that tried to look elegant but it sported a big-box logo stamped on its side. He was dying. No sane person with means would buy from... ung thinking the name made him sick, he flicked his gaze away, refusing to give that company a thought or even a full read of their name.
The child labor scandals alone would make anyone with morals burn everything with that name. Poaching the staff raised the public's regard of Gio Corp, and was considered a mercy to the abducted staff. And Grace didn't know any of this or she wouldn't wear that watch.
It was the last tell.
None of those scandals had made it to the mainstream print. It was a sick inside joke of the Elite. And Grace hadn't had a clue.
He was dying, possibly wheezing. The proximity of this final proof was killing him.
She swept a hand over his forehead, a quick temperature check, and the light shined in his eyes might of been insulting if he'd had anything like his wits about him.
But he didn't.
"I have fifteen minutes, so you have that long to not sound like a madman. Then, if you don't convince me, or refuse to leave, I'm calling the cops and getting you tested."
He'd needed five.
XXX
There were protections. Ten years of them that should have automatically swanned in. The lotto set aside funds and personnel so uptight the Mob had no leverage over them. She should have had guards, financial advisors, and a set of lawyers at her beck and call, free of charge, with explicit instructions to ease her into the lifestyle she'd lucked into.
There were enough horror stories and ugly events and resultant lawsuits from survivors that the lotto had dubbed it more fiscally prudent to have these things in place.
She'd had nothing.
A woman hell-bent on giving up everything of herself for others had no one and nothing. It was a well-established pattern set long before the money came into her life. Familial problems that she wouldn't elaborate on, and he respected family problems, he didn't pry. She confessed she resented the chasm her money built between her and her pre-winning friends. She'd ascended out of her familiar circles to find loneliness waiting.
Her solace, was being able to buy her way into a career that meant something. Her ambitions were familiar to the made man: to climb higher, to make her own way, not be someone's yes man. Her methodology was... alien. She wanted a better insight into the field, to see the problems of every level so she could fix said problems, so she endured said problems head-on.
She'd called out sick in that little sample testing room. Bit of bad food, she lied over the phone, didn't want to risk getting anyone else sick just in case it wasn't. She'd call back when she was feeling better...
"Never played hooky before?"
Pocketing her phone Grace was settled beside him. Soft-soled shoes squeaked on the tiles as she settled, scrubs crinkling at every motion.
Giovanni shook his head in answer to her question. Bemused at the idea of not having expectations that steep. Nona and the Madam would have killed him had he dared. He suspected that the P.R.s of Gio and Viridian co' had a little torture chamber set up, just for him, if he decided to pull too much shit. Their tones over the phone damn well sounded like it. He'd confessed as much, with a dry little smirk that was almost genuine.
She'd laughed at that.
Her amusement felt like a win. Even if this situation and its insanities were definitely not. She'd flipped through his fraudulent papers. Smart thing she was, she'd found the tells that showed them to be neither binding or relevant. And it took her all of two minutes. She made an interesting picture while she worked, digging deeper into the folder, and pulling out the articles that had started him on this path.
Once upon a time, he'd had plans of whisking her to a discreet eaterie, showing her the papers, and talking there.
The floor of Viridian Gen, backup bio lab B1, where she happily set up shop, hadn't been anywhere in the equation.
Looking up from the Times, finger marking her place, she considered him. "Seriously though, why?"
Again, with his tongue, and the ransom note, this was becoming a thing.
It was more than "a thing" it was becoming a problem.
"Look, look at this from my perspective. You're a creepy stalkerish rich guy who makes it his life mission to troll me via media blurbs and firing of the few friendly people I talk to at parties. And let's be blunt. Some of the shit you did, condoned, and said, was pretty damn cruel. I met fire for fire, because fuck you, I am not some "mid-aged tramp cosplaying as a nurse to get tail"..."
He hadn't said that. Had been present and perhaps smirked, but it'd been Viridian's Don who had... She wordlessly cut his protest off. Aggressive noises and a sharp elbow to his rib did the job.
"Shut up. I'm not done. Then you do a one-eighty. You point out the fact I've not only been left high and dry by a fiscal construct that has been in place for decades but that I have a giant target on my back. Why the fuck do you care all of a sudden?"
There was a God, his tongue got free of its bonds and rallied his brain, so he wouldn't sit there like a stupified fool.
"Honestly, initially," he made a throwing away gesture, some unformed reason stumbled upon then discarded. Had he continued it'd be incoherent babbling. He took a breath, let it out, and continued. "Look, the important thing is I didn't want another relationship feeding frenzy. The paparazzi are bastards, you've had runs-in with them before that went badly, and I wanted to talk plans to derail this before it got to people forcing themselves past our-" Well she didn't have any protection detail, so he corrected himself with a huff. "My guards. Getting asked stupid questions, dragging grown-ass adults out of my trash bins, the cameras, overt stalking, and the shakedown of my relations... I'd like to avoid that."
Nona would kill him if his Persianing around got the police watching the Sakaki's, again. Unless the lucky girl popped out a boy. Then he might be forgiven, but only if it was a sharp and sturdy brat. otherwise, grown man or not, Nona had a Rod with his blood on it, waiting.
"I've lived this before, and if that happens to me, despite my "serviper rage monster vibes"," she nearly choked at her description of his state during his blow up, and he tipped her a small grin, letting her know no hard feelings, "well, imagine what they'll do to you."
"It's that bad?" she sounded both ill and disbelieving.
"It can be."
She stared at him, long and hard, illness folding to horror. "Arceus damn it... you aren't screwing with me..."
"If you crack, give even an accidental hint that could be construed as... anything familiar with me. With this?" He tapped a photoshopped image. "Their hysteria will scale higher. They'll ping between the two of us, looking for cracks, rumors, anything to forward their choice narrative. And flat-out denials are going to look like-"
"Playing hard to get." There'd been other celebrity tales that'd gone exactly like that. The dodging had led to year-long efforts to drag the reluctant together. "Arceus, there should be laws against this sort of thing... But, perhaps... What if I disappear off the scene? Suppose I buy a house in the middle of nowhere, change my name, dye my hair, work at different hospitals..."
"Instead of you changing your whole life, letting them win, we could jerk the vultures chain, and keep them out of both of our lives."
"I'll listen." Was promised grudgingly. "After you explain that initially bit."
God fucking damn it, he glowered at her, face flushing in rising temper.
"I'm trying to hel-"
"Every creepy stalker story where the dark brooding millionaire starts trying to gaslight some virgin teeny bopper starts with that exact line."
He'd read that book. Had too. As self-defense from the insanity people either tried to enanct once they were inspired by it. There'd also been some vile traps and expectations he'd had to doge as people forgot what fiction was and expected money to bypass consequence and physical limitations.
"You aren't a teenager, I'm not stalking, and I don't run porn anything. If I tried to abduct you I'm damn sure you'd kill me, bumble your way into absorbing my assets, and make Kalos spontaneously combust from the size of your bank account."
She grinned at that. "Sounds like a good time. Does say tomorrow, nine pm, work out for you? There's a nice back alley by Flint and Third."
Oh for the love of-
She did not just suggest a time and place to off him!
Well, not seriously, but still....
"Mother Mary's mercy, woman," he was channeling Nona, God help him. " You are a menace that I should leave to the sharkpedos."
"And you are an avoidant prick. But what else is new?"
Forget sharkpedo, she was a damned hounddoom with a bone. Twisting and searing her way to a confession no matter the cost. Or the fact the" bone", was a leg, attached to her screaming victim.
"I'll answer, but can we not do it here?" He was losing feeling, between being scrunched down so long and the artic cold flooring. He didn't know how she could tolerate it. "Please?"
"Wow. Basic human decency!" She not only tolerated but thrived. Shaking off her fear and rallying to find sarcasm and cheer in equal measure. It figured. "I've got to encourage that!"
If she could stop treating his disbasement like it was another wonder of the world, that would be nice. His scowl didn't make a dent. She was acting all damned sunny right now.
"So, confession, I don't know any rich person squeak easy sort of places... So, if you want to talk elsewhere? You'll have to lead."
"How's your Italian?" Because taboo aside about non famiglia being allowed to learn, if Grace Evens was going to be as infuriating as she could be she'd be fully fluent.
She twiddled a lock of red hair between her fingers, idly coiling it as she thought. He cleared his throat, neck tensing against the remembered grip.
"It's what I'd call... work adjacent."
Which was unhelpful, and "unhelpful" was fast becoming a norm for her. As were other words, like spiteful, sarcastic, a pain in his ass...
He'd avoid the prolonged progress, and demand proof. His, "Run something by me, please," made her raise an eyebrow. After a short span of tapping a finger at the bottom of her lip, she stilled, smiled, and it wsa a positivly vicious Persian's grin she canted at him.
"Lo giuro, se mi mordi ancora, Arceus mio testimone, ti trasferirò a Gastro, dove eseguirai una colonscopia obbligatoria senza antidolorifici!"
Her accent.. was something else... But he could parse through it, and Giovanni bit his lip. Eyes locked forward. Counting madly to twenty in three languages.
It was breathing that undid him. He choked on the air, then choking devolved into a croaked noise, that scaled up to a full-on belly laugh.
This was not the giggles, he was just overexuberant with his mirth, that's all.
"You did not!"
She smiled. Not a wide bright thing she flaunted at parties, but a small, sly, uptick that was higher on one side than the other. The sight made his stomach clench and his mind whirl around fancifal phrases. Old snippits of theater, plays, those ballads he'd eschewed for being too sappy.
They didn't seem enough to praise her with, not now.
Oh God, he was going to have to canvas his sources. Find out who she did threaten. See if she had actually carried it out. Because saints and sinners both, the blackmail material alone would be worth a fortune.
"How are you not dead yet?" He croaked, trying for something like self-control.
He was failing, God his insides hurt for laughing so hard.
"I'm pretty," she noted, not vain, just a candid truth. "And no one suspects a pretty little thing to do any damage or know how insides work. It's useful, sometimes."
And wasn't that a hell of a truth, and one hell of a threat, all at once? She got up first, ignoring the rules about niceties, and how he was supposed to help her. She pulled him up with a grip that seemed more stabilizing than intimate. The assistant was absent-minded, she was a world away, counting something and muttering something about cleaning room schedules.
Ignoring how he wobbled slightly.
His legs were more pin and needles than flesh. And he hurt in odd places from laughing too long and too hard.
Then she came back to reality for a bit, from her expression and the slant of her regard she was amused by something, about him.
"So that's what your real smile looks like. Nice to know."
She was, he decided, a mystery. Quite beyond his comprehension.
Gathering and repacking his papers, fedora swept up and put back in place, he fought the old impulse to smooth his expression to no-tell lines. He wasn't sure if he still looked however he had before to get that funny look, but the genuine amusement he was trying to indulge now felt right.
"I won't tell if you don't."
Her smirk tipped higher, showing the edge of her teeth, and made her eyes squint just so.
"Deal."
They shook, then ever the opportunist, she used the grip to hold him hostage. She wasn't done with him. Had more questions that he "wasn't getting away with not answering" she "wouldn't allow it".
He only escaped her wraith by promising to meet her in the parking lot. Describing his car down to the last detail and rattling off his plate number. And, when his parking spot wasn't enough, he gave her leave to do whatever the hell she wished to his Bently at the next social meeting if he dared ghost on her.
Despite his best efforts of making a smooth escape he still almost got penned in by the cleaning staff. Only a quick nip out the window and down the fire escape kept him from getting caught.
Xxx
He'd decided on The Roost when she said she wasn't that hungry, and he really wasn't either. The Roost was a curious place, not quite five stars, but miles above most chain and mom-and-pop eateries in Viridian. It was an open-air rooftop, ringed around by trees found in other regions, with shrub walls that had, supposedly, been harvested off the back of a grotile and transplanted ages ago. The resultant plant life made thick bushy aisles that guests would wander. The paths were interspaced with fish ponds, that ended in picture-esk grottos that guests made their own.
Chimecho nestled in the branches would sing and ring to alert staff, and their presence prevented most cameras and recording tech from working. During the walk, Grace had been bemused. Acting like a woman just finding out that there were little slices of fairy tale wonder squirreled away. But her amusement was tempered by the revelation that little islands of wonder did exist, but only if you had the proper contacts, and a deep enough wallet.
He'd, politely, slowed the motions of their reservation so she could learn them if she cared. Letting her see the custom credit card that had no name, activated by his fingerprint. Introducing himself under an alias, and curtailing her friendliness by passing her off as his "plus one".
"The less information you give, the more likely if you are sighted that no one can concretely identify your location to the papers. Roosts staff are discreet, but better safe than sorry."
"Noted."
A merrily bubbling fountain with a duo of splashing goldeen covered most chatter. The fish had been teased with samples from their plate when Grace had clearly needed a break from him. He'd left her to it, not exactly a fan of water types, and she'd learned that besides being a "soul-sucking beurocrat" he ran a gym. She was that out of touch with Viridian's gossip.
"Please tell me you know what Rocket is?"
He'd meant it as a half-hearted joke, he ended up shoving his foot in his mouth instead.
"You mean the people with red R's who are always so exciting to get as patients? Considering the ER drivers always "take the long" way when they drop them off and they're usually getting extra blood infusions because of it? Never mind the Rockets, I usually see are teens or pre-teen punks with attitude problems who wind up screaming for their parents because half the hospitals in Viridian won't allow pain meds without parent content. Parents who can't get to them to hold their hands much less grant content because the police linger in the halls waiting to arrest the whole family? Who try to take the kid's distressed wailing as evidence and run arrests on usually innocent people?" Grace rolled her eyes, then huffed. "Yes, I know what Rocket is. I don't watch television, or bother with the rags, sue me, medical periodicals are more relevant and don't kill brain cells."
She deflated then, flicked at a pile of napkins between them with a finger, not meeting his eyes.
"I'm going to sound like a hypocrite, but... can we scratch this off as "I'm having a bad day"? I know... politics are dicey, but Rocket means something different in my field than yours. You're not scraping kids off the cement and having to keep your body between them and the cops a few times a week."
"Alright."
She took up a few pages, skimmed over the Star for few moments, then uttered a tired.
"Arceus, I hate Officer Mandez so much."
She didn't elaborate on that non-sequitor, and he didn't ask, even though with her stoop to read better the strap of her dress moved just enough he could make out the dark mark of a bruise.
XXX
She rallied, leaving him to take a long walk to check out the other ponds, and once returned came back with a revelation. Grace's breakdown of P.R.'s plan was, a wry, "I know it sounds familiar", then she proceeded to outline the plot of a soap opera.
He'd bristled in offense, misplaced offense, as Grace's evidence was laid out. he started to agree.
She'd quoted the plot highlights of a banned bit of media. Popular in Galar, Le Famiglia, besides being misgendered, detailed the lives of made men, businessmen, and their dealings. It sloppily mixed and mashed every stereotype its writing could touch so badly that it left no wonder in Giovanni's mind why it had been banned in Kanto.
Then Johto.
Finally getting yanked from Unova after some calls.
Only the saps in Galar could watch it, and some enthusiastic tech in Viridian Gen's E.R might have found a way to splice the trashy show into the breakrooms. Which was how Grace had gotten to encounter it, accidental osmosis. That she knew the plot for each episode was repeat exposure, nothing else.
"I don't see how..." because he was only getting the bones and was getting offended with each plot twist, it was that bad.
"Replace your name with Itali-Tony's, and mine with Domadama's and what do you get?"
"A..." an abomination, he was going to say. Mental images he couldn't even harbor. Just the idea of them around the edges made him want a drink. Or gouge his eyes out. Or both.
His eyes flicked down, he read over P.R.'s proposal with new awareness.
"We are one child born out of wedlock from completing their arch in season three."
"I'm going to have to... have a talk... layoffs..." It wasn't even in a threatening tone, just a horrified warble that trailed off into a whimper.
"You do that," she patted his arm, "let me know how it goes. I guess I'll see you the evening of the sixth, at Elennor's flower thing then?" She was gathering up her things.
He grunted a wordless affirmative, and she almost managed to get away without him giving her his number. But some scratch of sanity reared up and he remembered it right before she got to the elevator heading down.
"Look I know this is bad," that he was, that everything coming out of his mouth sounded downright juvenile. He winced at her look, she was clearly deciding where to dig in first. He held up a hand, pleading, that she just... not.
Curiously she didn't peck at his moment of weakness, let him pull himself together.
"Look, we need to keep in touch. At least until this all dies down. I'll forward you an express delivery of an arcanine so you can start burning your mail and so that you have a guard. At least until you get things sorted at the Lotto office support team, alright?"
Ignoring the flicker of disappointment on her features, she sighed, and took his card "Well, I guess I can put this in a burner."
"Expect it to come express delivery," He was babbling, "the person will be in plain clothes, you'll get a message before with a picture. If it isn't..."
Mercifully she prodded him, and all it took was a nudge to shut him up. "I'm not five, Gio." She softened. "And I get it, you're sorry. Noted. You can stop giving me things now, it's creepy."
She hadn't accepted, and he deserved that.
"Maybe instead of throwing money at things, work on that temper?" She fiddled with a button, clearly wanting to be elsewhere.
He pulled back, so there was no way he could be considered as cutting her off, he was almost out of range of comfortable conversation. He swallowed, throat all but clicking in it's dryness. "I'm... I've been.." the confession came out, croaked. "I was worse when I was younger. The therapy has been helping."
Silver eyes flicked over him, scrolling from top to bottom. "Good for you. But, just to you know, being out, looking in, you have more work to do. Just saying."
The elevator dinged, and while they both needed to go down, he twisted his lips into a bitter smile. Slid his hands in his pockets with a wry shrug. "Thank you, for your honesty. It's... rare... in my work."
"Anytime."
She lingered long enough to check he wasn't joining her. When he shook his head and moved to wander off she boarded, letting the doors click closed with a sigh that the Rocket fought not to take personally.
XXX
He expected to not hear a thing until the fifth, he was not expecting a call at four the next morning from an unlisted number. He hung up twice, and it called back thrice. He picked up, grumbling into his pillows as he rolled over to glare blearily at his tech. Shoving his sheet about his waist just in case the visual clicked on.
"This better be important!"
"Morning to you too." Drawled that damned familiar voice, "I won't waste your time, are arcanine able to eat half of a meatlover's cheese crust pizza, or do I need to hang up and call nine-one-one? Because this yowling he's making is not a good noise."
"What?" He kicked Persian in his mad dash to get up, staggering to his wardrobe, he was fighting with his pants. "He ate, what, how?!"
If she fed that animate flamethrower her dinner he was leaving her to the lava-hot fecal explosion that was soon to be coming.
"So I guess Arcanine can open fridge doors, and he ate tomorrow's lunch, and tomorrow's dinner, and the day after's breakfast..."
A yowl sounded, a wordless wantmoremoremore, that froze Giovanni with his shirt half on. He shook off his shock and shoveled himself through, God damn the wrinkles the rough treatment was going to cause.
"That's not a pain call, it's... there's a sub-breed of Arcanine, calleded a "husky", that are very vocal. Dramatic. It sounds like this one is one of those."
"Oh thank God."
"Don't thank Him yet, Arcanine are lactose intolerant."
"And they express this intolerance by?"
"Intestenally. And their digestive tracks are meant to digest magmar, literally animate magma piles. What comes out is literally going to be flaming hot, even putting him in a tub to ride it out isn't going to be safe. He needs to be on asphalt, no plant matter, away from cars, and you're going to need a fire extinguisher and to keep watch over him for four hours, minimally."
"Oh... my... god..."
Horror thy name is Grace Evens.
"He just wants more, now, so he's not feeling it, but you probably have about thirty minutes before that changes. And shoveling him in a pokeball is only going to make him sicker when he gets out. Double his recovery time."
She was mumbling, counting something by the sound of it. "There's a lot on Granite streetand Sprout, an old park slash 'mon racing track, it's not exactly in the safest part of town..."
He knew the area, and mentally went over the various trade routes of his less than legal profession. There were no transactions meant to happen around there, it'd be safe, except for lingering opportunists.
Grace's voice cut through his waffling.
"What type of extinguisher do I need?"
"Grade a, foam, vaporeon brand..." Crap that was the gym's brand. He didn't know the household equivalent. "What normally works for electric fires should suffice, so long as it's doubled up. Douse the dog and his backside continuously at the start of each movement, he'll feel too sick to pull away and basically be immobile until he's emptied out and safe to be recalled."
"And the police use these things, regularly?" Her hysteria was... understandable. He could hear the click and clank as she dug through something and hit a pipe. "Fuck." something slammed shut. "I'm going have to borrow the extinguisher at the on-site 'mat, this isn't the right type. What can I do to stretch it out?"
Nothing safe, or sane.
"I can hit the gym, get supplies, and meet you there."
He didn't make it an order, as he would have for either poison control calling him for an assist or some kid on the trainer helpline when he was on duty. Her crimination about throwing money at things hung over his head, close enough that he didn't cross the line.
"Please."
Were he a petty man her begging would have felt like a victory, it didn't, and that meant... something.
He'd let mysteries remain such, recalling Persian who was yowling swears at him and chanting at him to come back to the nice, warm, bed.
"I'll be on site in ten."
XXX
When they were done, well, Grace meandered off to go to a hotel. She decided to splurge, calling in professional cleaners to tackle, the Trail. The caps were well earned considering the canine had exceeded expectations and started his expellment early, and from both ends. There was a trail of crap, vomit, soot, and foam running from her apartment, to her parking spot, leaving a charming path along her driving route to the parks parking lot.
In his opinion, the woman's car was a toss. But she was attached. Paid five times extra to have it treated, and once she was sure her goods were in competent hands, called a cab, and was on her way.
The Italian head worker looked to consiliere, to car, and the start of the Trail, and was considered mutiny.
"Just shut up and do your job, no comments, no skimming, and chuck the gym supplies while you're at it. If she tells me that one cent went missing I'll personally lop off your hands."
When he left, it was on the back of a gym loaned Fearow. After landing at home, Giovanni called out sick from all his work, his legal work. It felt a bit like a rush, just to tell them no, and high on that buzz he dared another call.
It seemed that the Don had no need for him.
Victories all around.
He caught up on his sleep, ordered his men, Made and otherwise, to be on the lookout for paparazzi, and went total blackout for twelve hours.
After waking up from a well deserved nap, he did one task from his legal to-do pile. He reached out to the head of his new P.R. and demanded something concrete he could pass Grace's way so they could hammer out an escape plan. Something not based off of any romantic cliches, or heads would roll.
They had til the third. As for him, he released the call, returning to complete blackout with relish. After a bit of waffling he decided it'd been far too long.
He pulled a thick book off of his" read later" shelf, and settled in for a peaceful evening in.
Xxx
The third was.. exciting to say the least.
Grace's newfound lawyer was a scrany, middle aged, man who needed glasses nearly as thick as a finger to read anything. Still, near disability asode, he represented her interests with the frevor a hounddoom took to starting forest fires. Even if his features basically amounted to a pair of glasses that eclipsed his whole face, a nose barely able to hold up his specticles, and a thin line of a mouth to vent his disapproval.
"Absolutely not." Round one of the contract was slid across the table to Giovsnni's man. "Per the anti-romance clause established by my client this cover story is completely unacceptable."
Orm's half brother, Orn, was a man most thought to be a beef head. Borad shoulders, small skill, thick fingered and forced into a pernament stooped due to an overabundance of muscles and old back injury. Any who thought so were fools, and Giovanni wouldnt of picked him to represent Gio Corps interests if Grace hadnt said bringing anythng less then his best was an insult.
So he had, and on her head be it. Chewing on his cigar, Orn took a draw, and expelled smoke instead of profanities.
"Page nine paragraph seven states that if the base material is hyper saturated a to the point that romance is impossible to avoid that a minimal amount can be employed."
"In no world does the idea of "minimal romance" and "preplanned makeout session that will be broke up by the parties staff" coincide ." Grace chimed in.
Both lawyers looked up, Orn flicked a bushy eyebrow while Grace's man blinked up at her.
"Ever hear of the Claringtons, Madam?" Orn drawled.
Grace shook her head.
"The celebrity family that got dragged into court about inbreeding, wasn't it?" Grace's lawyer noted.
"Did some work on them for a side hustle. Without breaking confidentiality, a fake make out session, that you could technically use to whale on my boss for a bit, so long as sounds of the assult is covered under prerecorded dialogue and doesn't break skin, is very tame."
"Technically she can what." Giovanni growled.
Orn took a draw. "I figure the gal could get some stress out. Not like you don't deserve- I mean, page fifty seven, under acceptable threshold clause, that due to extreame stress of close proximity to subject Mr. Giovanni, and paparazzi presence, which both parties finds is mainly Mr Giovsnnis fault per fsiling to maintain social obligations, that a) Ms. Evens is allowed no more then twenty punches, one groin attack, and one public and private episode of hair pulling, without Mr. Giovanni being able to file countersuit..."
"You work, for me." Giovanni rumbled.
"Orms a bit chatty at famigila dinners. And you know in our family pretty well. Our mama would have snapped our fingers for being rude to a nurse. The shit you pulled? Be glad she's dead. You went beyond rude, been a royal little bitch to a doc who doesn't "accidently" mix up meds for mafioso kids and call it a service to humanity."
Smoke swirled as Orn chewed. "Consider me... here for the money."
Giovanni was considering Orn in cement shoes, and he let his expression say it.
Silence, then chewing her lip, Grace wondered. "Not that I want to oer-say, but if I did, can i do it all at once, or do i need to spread it out?"
Orn directed her to the page and she read along, smile widening.
Panic felt like a fair reaction. He was definitly panicing just now.
"You took an oath to do no harm!"
"Only when I'm on the clock." Tapping a line, Grace chirped. "Excuse me is the groin shot applicable when he's doing one of those nasty "the poor are pathtic" speaches? And if I get suspended for "inappropriate conduct" from my job acting on a clause of this contract, can I get reinbursed? Also, if I'm fired, can I get reinstated in a different, Sakaki co' owned medical facility of my choice without fear of retribution?"
"The first, it depends on when and where you kick him. For firing and getting moved... we could probably wing something... Boss, whats her options?"
"You are seri-"
Three pointed looks said, yes, they were.
"Fuck..." he scraped a hand over his head. "I'm avoiding incuring the wrait of Azarcorp for... reasons. So most of my medical branch is mon pharmacuticals and training chancy. I do have first aide instructors for most manager positions. That'd be steady work. There is standby medical triage openings to guarentee the utmost saftey for visiting dignitaries and buisness personel during mass League events... but I would have to talk to thier H.R. to get the hard lines of thier requirements."
"I probably don't have that level of skill yet. And I'd need to get certified to teach." Grace mused. Then shook her head. "Nevermind. If I get fired, it happens. I can always move out of district, that basically wipes my disceplinary record clean, and work at a different hospital if need be."
"For clarities sake, when exactly were you planning to ah... enact that clause." Grace's lawyer drawled.
What was scary was that she didnt have to think about it.
"Next month's internationsl Buisness Summit, particularly the banquete. I don't know why i got an invide, since i vote Indi, but still..."
Still not believing his ears, Giovanni protested. "I am the least noisome bastard on the party list!"
"Yes, but I don't have legal protections to hit them to my hearts content."
"There are three acknowledged dictators gping to be present.". Goovanni sputtered. "Ghestis will be there. He preposed that the poor gathered up, neutered, and put in labor camps."
"I admit, I might be hitting you extra hard since i can't go after him."
There was a note of sincere despwration i his voice as he countered.
"Assaulting me, on camera, during an international event to promote free trade, is going to not only intice the paparazzi to an insane extent, but get you arrested,and blow huge holes in the cover story."
"Oh well," Grace sighed. "It was a nice thought amyway."
Though her gaze was tipped down no ine missed the mischivious tip to her lips or the glint to her eyes.
"This does draw attention to the fact... that morally speaking... you and Mr. Sakaki do run a very different gauntlet. For an appropriate facade of bonding, you'll need to make a few public appearences in places Ms. Evens frequents after hours."
"If i bring him to the food bank amd kitchens, particularly Arisons, the staff and people getting fed, will riot." Grace elaborated, promted by both Giovanni and Orn's looks of disbelief. "Most of them were displaced by that gentrifying contract in '84, and that project has Viridian Co's hands all over it. If I bring Gio in he won't be getting out."
"Not ideal for the case." Grace's lawyer hummed. "Ideas?"
Charity work meant being strong armed by the Nona to help down on thier luck mafisio members during the lean winter months. He'd mainly been put on repairs and 'mon wrangling until he'd gotten old enough to move out. He shook his head, more to get the idea out than make a statement.
"Most of my improvement work for Viridian is remote, mainly passing funds to wiser heads. Orn?"
"I'm a greedy bastard. My moneys between me and God, let the local Father decide what to do with what I toss to the collection plate. Not my buisness. What other charity things you do, Madam?"
As she listed a few other activities Giovanni was mentally imagining her at Nonas, during a famiglia dinner. It'd be a massacre once she cracked the Shop code. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad one.
"Wait, back up a moment." He gathered his attention from the fanciful image of Nona and Grace attempting mutual homicide with cooking skewers. "The library book drive... in three weeks, that has possibilities."
"And we are going far ahead. Three weeks? We need to all agree about the fifth, in two days. Every interaction, every scene, it needs to fit together so we can build this scam proper, sell it, and then move on."
"Well, I can't go from trying to gouge his eyes out with my nails to swanning in on his arm. No one is going to buy it, right?"
"In... certain circle, yes, they would." Grace's lawyer warned. "And if push comes to shove we might have to go that route."
"As the media portrays me, with my interviews, and everything... It's established I don't need his money and it's been hate at first sight."
That was the narrative being spun by most of the journals and tabloids, even if the truth was a bit more nuanced. It'd been indifference for both until Grace had stung Giovanni's ego. Then the mutual distaste had moved in.
Giovanni cleared his throat, "She's gotten to me before, enough to make me publically apologize. That's been established as extraordinary. You know the old saws. A Sakaki doesn't apologize., they don't back down or don't forgive or forget..."
Grace grimaced. "That never gets any less weird, hearing rich people talk about themselves, like its almost in third person."
"Personal branding, its pretty common." Orn chimmed in.
Grace's lawyer chimed in. "Mr. Sakaki, with all due respect all callouts to that program, were banned, page-"
"Yes, but the cycle, from enemies to friends, to more... we could mirror friendship at first."
The next he directed to Grace directly, making her tip her head, considering. "I put up a front of extending my resources, yes you're learning, I won't meddle. But with me behind you, an established power leveling outrage at the corruption of the lotto division.... You could use the publicity of having to be saved as a springboard for that suit. Damages you were filing for could be compounded since now, two people were endangered by their incompetence."
Silver eyes thinned, and she hummed. "Could we play the friendship card until the suit ended, then arrange a falling out?"
Orn barked a smokey laugh. "You might be able to play that card for.. two months, three... maybe four at most. Our Gianni's been a bit of a tom Persian, if you catch my drift. I'm honestly surprised he hasn't netted himself an heir or nine."
To Grace's look of burgeoning panic, her lawyer Damion, chimed in. "Theres at least twelve clauses in here against amy type of fornication, with fees that'd make Ghestis estate blanch if theu're breeched. Unless Mr. Sakaki has a slush funt ten times higher than his projected net income he'd be insane to lay a finger on you."
"You have to understand, from where I come from... Having causes against... Having to set this up just to escape. This whoke thing is insane."
And Giovanni expexted the only reason she was tolerating tjis was due to two very ugly incidents mere days before. One near riot where the hospital had called the police. And one insidiois stunt where a "patient" had been a reporter hiding under zoroak's illusion. The illusion had broken down during the examination, and the fall out was going to be the choice conversation among the catty during the party on the fifth.
No one here had gotten to warning her about that, and Giovanni was seriously considering doing so via text so he'd not be anywhere near the fall out of her reaction.
"And again, Ms. Grace, we're going too far afield for today." It was a curious thing. The training that had made Orn suitible for breaking people's bones set him up for seeing the signs of when they were going to break from pressure. Gathering up the papers, Orn swept them aside. "Lets take thirty. Take a walk along the walkways, get a drink, call a loved one, whatever. Then when we all come back theres going to be some ground rules. Only the fifth matters, one day, that's it. This," Orn tapped his page. "Doesnt exist. Capishe?"
His face more glasses then feature, Damion considered his client his blank facade, his small mouth pressed into a thin line. "I don't see any traps here Ms. Evens, and a good walk to stretch out would be nice..."
Grace folded to the needs of others, before her own, as always.
"Alright."
Xxx
She found him during her walk. A legitimate accident. He'd been hunting for a quiet place beyond the hubub of the other offices where other negotiations were happening. He'd gone so far as to go a story up and finding an open air break area to light up. She'd done one lap, gone up a level, then during her sexond circuit smelled smoke and investigated.
He moved to put out his cigar as she approuched, but she waved him off.
"You were here first, and i'm not on the clock, so don't worrt about it." She sniffed. "Sweeter then i'm used to, but it's kinda homey, actuallly," she took a seat on a bench a ways back. "My brother used to smoke."
Noting the past tense he murmurred, "Condolences."
"Arecus no, he's not dead, just in jail. He is rather stupid, joined the mob. Thought he'd make something of himself and raise us out of poverty." She snorted. "His few cuts he got? New tv, paintjob for his car, no one else saw a coin. But.. well you know the stories. If you aren't born in..."
You became a patsy, unless you provided some long runming service. Giovanni had used and abused such assets himself. He wonder which capo or consigoer had screwed that particular man-child over.
Hell, he mused as he took a draw, it coild have been himself.
"He's probably the only family on my sode that could cause anytjing like a scandle. Like in the news, everyone else is in the staiight and narrow... and really narrow minded."
Letting his eyes flick closed he considered a few options. Savorong the last visages pf warmth, he expelled smoke, tkltong away from her, before responding.
"If anyone grills you abkut my family, or asks if i spilled any secrets, your best response is "no comment"."
She winced. "That bad?"
She'd been candid, and because this was looking to be long running deserved more than his patch and ignore answer.
"I only visit three times a year, under direct orders, to keep my Nona... my grandmother, from releasing blackmail on me."
Grace's next question was obvious, but she waited while he took a bracing puff.
" She raised most of us, you see, so she's got shit on everyone. She drags every Sakaki into her orbit, makes us bow and scrape and fight against each other for her entertsinmemt. She makes our sucsesses hers, the vicarious bitch, then takes a cut of my money."
He could see the social justice rising in her eyes. He smirked, waved a hand to still what would be an admitibly amusing outburst.
"Yes, I know it's less then legal. But theres enough mob ties in my family, shes got enough hooks in all of us. Its not safe to cut her off or.tip my hand. I pay her, leave, live my life, and wait my next summons."
"I am sorry you have to put up with all of that."
He hummed a non-commital noise.
"Am I going to have to deal with her? Because, honestly, she sounds like my Mom and i never could be in her company too long without trying to take the Tauros by the horns."
Weighing Graces character, a morass of brashness, cattiness, compassion he compared all that to the reality of living with a watered down imagining of Nona.
"How did you survive?"
"If Mom could of called a hit, fixed me, I probably wouldn't have. So I got to live on, be her sjitty disapointment wjile my big brother's "sacrifice" ensjrined him in her mind. How'd you?"
He didn't correct her mob lingo. Simply amswered.
"Luck, tenacity, and being willing to blend into the croud and take orderd. Being under her thumb left me with some anger issues, or so I'm told."
She snorted. "Well, let me tell you, the occasional temper tantrum is not as exhaustong as trying to save everyone. Want to trade?"
"Our deep seated psychological issues?" He checked, flicking her a genuine smirk. "I don't know... I'd look aweful in scrubs."
"I'll leave the zoot suits and ties to you then."
He snorted. Savoring his last draw least he cross a line about how if she really wanted, he might let her divest him of....
Better not to go there. He snuffed out the ember. Scraping the ashes along the rail and flicking the remnants over the edge. It probably wouldn't make it into the dumpster, five stories down.
"This." He pivoted, a quick flick of his hand, to better show the cut and seam of jisnsuit. "Is not a zoot suit. I am offended. The designer, Canali, wpuld not stoop so low as to... to pass me off in the Mobs equivulent to a shirt and sjorts combo."
Grace managed to hold a straight face for a moment or two, before cracking up.
"Oh god, you're one of those."
"One of what?"
"I bet your wardrobe is bigger then my apartment."
"Considering you live in a shoebox."
"With thirty pairs of shoes. One for each day."
His mouth open amd closed as he mntally counted and realized between gym attire, hiking accessories, Work, and work... she might be underestimating. By a lot.
Flushing, he glared down at her. "Saints have mercy, are you done?"
"A room with wall to wall mirrors." She taunted as he shoveled his hands into his pockets. Slumping in defeat. Necause of course not. "You sprung for cat walk?"
"Absolutly not!"
If he had, Persian would never leave thast part of the house, the old girl was more than a bit vain.
"Sure, I beleive you."
That was a obvious lie, from patronizing tone to the rolling of her fey eyes. And while he could have vollied back. Made a scathing comment about her thread bare accomidations. He checked his spite a d let her have this.
This wss going to be a long running scam, months in the makong, and there was a element of give and take in that field. So this round was hers to savor.
It was only fair.
xxx
There'd been a scene. Arfully aranged, and if not stolen from the pages of a soaps script, perhaps purloined from somelong forgotten romance novel. P.R. the tenacious beast seemed satiated at long last.
There was an uptick in his value. Buyer confidence born from him "acknowledging his humble roots" and "looking to be a force of goodwill for Viridian".
All for saying sorry. Acknowledging that he'd wronged Viridians newest curiousoty, this pretty misplaced medical princessa. It wasn't flowery, and he broke norms when he didn't kiss the pretty lady's hand.
Between her complaint of sanitization, and the fsct that she was a bit infamous with that tazer of hers he got a pass.
As thanks, she used two of her permitted three zingers, during that first contact, and they parted. A peace treaty officially struck.
He spent the rest of the night indulging his regular patterns, people, and since it was gym leader season, carrying on about the mighty responsibility of sheperding the youth to greatness.
She used her last snipe to puncht a hole in that spot of bragging. And while he mimed irritation for the cameras, stepping up to defend the honor of the league as a vaulted institutr, he'd laughed to himself in private.
Xxx
other scen ideas/outlines?
Grace goes to another party, pre what she calls the " dictator bash" and gio scolding her about the term. They are still apart but met on the dance floor. Making a show of grudgingly dancing togethet. He tells her about his stock rise. She about some insanitoes at the job.
Team aqua attacks when they are opposite sides. Gio as well as a few guards, trainers defend themselves.
Aqua uses tentecruel, exec has a blastoise, underlings have wartortle. Lucollio. Boss uses poliwraith.
They come in swinging and screaming about "putt8ng an end to tyranny"
Grace: do they know that theyre crashing the wrong party?"
Gio caught flat footrf. Earth leader plus cramped spaces and civis. Uses Persian and Beedril.
Tactics. Bee uses Webshock augamented by base areas power grid to give it kick and catch grunts and mon. Persian keeps the mon and grunts off of him.
Some rocket guards knocked out during first rush. Others whisk present don out. Gio stays to fight, part image, part free venting.
Grace grabs and orders people around her. Directing them tp run. Herd old out. When the partiers get penned in she fgets staff to flip table, 5uck in corner, crouxlch doen. Tables take brunt of stray water attacks. Does quick first aid on cuts, bruises, ect, gets scruffed by aqua grunt and hauled out.
Hostsge situation kicks up. Grace shakes off captor, and barks parlay. It stills the aqua grunts and she gets wheeled to boss archibald who'll humor " the little spit fire" and "does she know what that means."
Grace admits, nope, and tasers leader.
(Swashbuckler set up, "timer me shivers," has an axtual scimitar. Tsking him down. Remsining virid8ans beat back lesser grunts and handle mess. Police scramble in after fact.
Grace shakes off support. "Not celeb anything, just here to do my jpb." Starts treating more seriously injured and is absorbed into actual team to tend wounded.
assists rocket and aqua with equal status as civis. Police try to pull her 9ff patient, officer m. Gets rough/starts to rough up patient. she orders him to unhand,
Hes making her violating her hyp oath, well shes voilating investigation.
Grace is arrested for her efforts.
she requests call. Is denied. Put in cell w mix match of dumb kids protesting cops, banged up rockets, and a few other criminals. NOT sorted by gender. Let it not be said Vir jail is organized.
She auto piolet tends to injured. Tearing strips of sleeves(usimg heals to do cutting) some rockets get.processed before they permit her her call. She reaches pit to d. Wjo orders her not to talk, will be in asap. Grace.flagging (12 hr sjift,event plus assault) wakes up witj d nearby arguing witj cop about Grave "tamperong w evidence", shes had a rockets coat tossed over her, and hadnt woken when a cop tried to takw it for processing.
Hauled into questooning (24 hour detail policy), d notes that if "this is the game they want to play tjey have 18 hours left, amd hw will be with his client to prevent inhumame treatment.
They grill grace, who exhausted,keeps drowsing, being woken, grilled again. Moved from questioning to cell. D starts getting a cue of cop names, badge numbers. His counter suit of harassment is not toothless.
Theu cut off after eight hoirs. Grace is near insensate, and d takes her to Vir Gen instead of the police medical, not trusting them.
Grace wakes to d cpmong back on. Been 24 hours.clearly she needed to sleep.
Preleminary steps are settled up to sue Viridian police depo. Not his specialty but Sakaki insisted on loaning help, papers seem safe/in order.
Assault charges to be filed against officer m. Multiple witnesses/cameras, rocket, aqua and civ.
"I'm going to be in and out 9f court for ages."
"If you were a cleint without your resources, yes, but as things are now... everythings been expediated. Lotto woke up, its agent will be by later today to clear matterd up and get you thst prptection. They are puttong pressures. Gio co as well. If we focus on getting you, and just you, it'll be handled... three weeks. Guilt isnt in question depth of damage was."
"What do you mean, just me."
"Yoir ina precarious state, ms. Evens, to put a stop to all of it. Fill in the holes that you fell through, fix tjose cracks."
I... how long doni have to make a decision avout how much i can give.
I wouldnt wait longer then 24 hours. Capitalize on the insanity. Tip it your fsvor. Play the croud. You do it jist roght, you can win this against all of them.
The poparazzi, the failed devision, the police. One mess tied to another and another, youre in a curious place to rip the root out... in one move.
How can you link the pap to...
Expose the facade. They forced it. Which in turn forced you into contact with the ciminal. Which you in your kindness aided. Which the pop built up to the point police judgment was compramised. Which lead to the assault.
I need to make a call...
Hes already gave his blessing. You both can discuss how to field the fsll out as needed. And if you need a place away, he has a list of safehouses. lottos making sad noises. Not offering services, jist condolences. I would advise not to accept anything.
How long.
Honestly, years, to be paid back in full. But the door for this tonhurt anyone else, woukd close. Pernamently. Scandle like this can fuel laws, politics. But you have to move quick... and things wont be the same. Not after.
Grace swolloes. Give me 30.
D. Smiles. I'll give you an hour, and if you need a more experience ear. He gave me permission to give you a card.
Xxx
This isnt fair.
Life isnt.
Where does that leave... if everything cjanges.
It leads exsctly right where it started. Your the lucky woman, who flits on the edges of a world that isnt hers. Trying to rise a flawed instituion up by the only means you understand. You can keep doing that of that all.you want. Use that fame to fan the attention ypu need, and when that goodwill is up, youll find another way, because its what you want to do. Isnt it?
Yes.
Its loke a contract. You have your goals. You check with the experts to make sure it does more prophit than harm, then you go for it. You pour all of you into it and reap the rewards.
Silence, then. Where does that leave us?
You off the hook and out of my lecherous grasp, and me out of a contract that gave you a free pass to kick me in the balls?
Grace laughs. Seriously though?
Gio clears throat. What do you want?
Mentaly peering into the abyss, the malstorm of media and maddness, grace sighed.
Honestly, stability would be nice. Sanity. But until things settle i cant prokise thst to you or myself. Hell i d9nt even know who i'll be after this ends.
Gio hummed. Youll probably be interesting, likely obsyinante., i suspect if youbkeep up to trends there will be one act of terrorism a year... perhaps magma will show up, they dog aqua like rabid migjtyenna...
Your such a smooth talker, really is this how you get all those girls?
My accent, dahsing good looks, bedroom prowess,and money, mainly..
Grace hums, ignorong all that lovely bait. Then says... "well since things are going nuts anyway, how abkut a deal?"
"A first contract between gio co and grace industries, i supppse i might be interested. Give me the terms in broad sweeps."
"A restart. To zero. No expectations. No pride. We do our thing, and because we are goong to cross we mingle when it happens naturally... and we work as a team in the cases. but outside of that no pusjing... no pressure. And the only thing media we look up is how badly theyre doing in the courts. A chunk of tjis was that damned p.r.s fault anyway, and being true to it. Not ourselves."
"I suppose i could ceed, except theres one caviot i'd loke to tag on." He cleared jis throat, sounding.. nervious.
"Once a month.. if its not too much trouble... i'd... like to get together...for dinner?"
"I'm a nurse." Grace warned. "It might be breakfasy, brinch, or a late night snack pop in."
"Thats fine. More than."
"Gio, i'm not going to be "the other woman". If youre in a relationship... i probably shoukdnt be around. i'm not your emotional affair, your jury affair, or charity hook up, or anything like that."
"Anyone with me, seriously, woukd have to accept that my friendshio.with you, comes first. "
Graces lips quirked.
"Your seriously friend zoned yourself just now."
His voice changed, accent thickening, a pirr that set her pulse to pick up.
"Dolcezza, if i give you everythign i am, i'd spirit you away to a place beyond pain or want. I'd, treat you as you shoukd be... But thats not what you want. To be seperate from the world and cherrished isnt your paradise, but your hell. So," a click as he swolloed "i wont. I hate myself for it. But if i asked for what i truely want... you arent ready to give methat. Perhaps you never will be. What you need is time, to heal, to learn, and settle into this madhoise. And i'll give you that.
It was so much, too much. This cpukd be his abuse and lonliness magnifyong his perception of her kindness and tying it to his lust in a false love. It cpuld be genuine. But on the other hand, grace wasnt dead or without her own passions. Her heart hammered at the unspoken promise, an echo of his need, a kindling of her lust.
Shw got while so many woman turned thier head at a pretty accent and a few exotic words.
She tried not to let any of thst bleed into hwr tone. Settled on sincerity
"thank you."
It was a gift after all. The insight, candor, and time.
He grunted, made a dismissive noise. Moved to deflect.
"I... thus could take years. Never be." Her nails dug into her palm. "I dont want you to waste your life waiting.. but..."
"Grace, sweetheart." He tried the endearment, she didnt respond. Undecided personally if it was ok. "Were both taking time in tjis. And if it ends with you in my life as a friend and only that. I'll live. My persianing, was more p.r.s idea thrn.my own. I'm not tjat insatiable. In all honesty, after the last few months, i never wamt to go to another damned social event so long as i live."
She goggled, shock. " you mean, mr party animal a woman in every event."
"A fiction. I needed to get out of the medias regard to tend to work. Sleeping around made them predictable, you saw
It ... they attack at the begining of an event, linger, take pictures, and when you act sultey, they back off to avoid indecency charges."
silence. "So the women were tje otber woman between you amd your work."
"When you call it that... it sounds bad..."
"Because it is." She laugjed long and loud. "Seriously, did any of them knkw?"
"i tended to pick for looks rather than brains. Younwoukd not bekieve how stuoid some of them were."
"You did that to.yourself so you dont get to complain.
He snorted. "I did. And i wont."
"So your idea of a romantic evening is a pretty bodypassing you lots of papers, a shredder, and a little red pen to top it off."
"I'm not that boring."
"Alright, but its a decnt night in?"
"I know that tone, so i will enither confirm nor deny."
"I'm convalscatong... my life is in ruins... and you wont talk to me..."
"Not ehen youre in this mood. Goodnight grace."
Xxx
She got her own in good time.
Grace gathers up all the many parent complaints agaonst his gym (kids getting hurt/hospitalized) that were never forwarded to him as most native Viridian are scared sjitless of him. She prints them, then dumps them on him in the middle of a date, in tripleance
He dryly asks if shes OSHA, she says shes doing medical due dilligence and the kids who are on payment plans are on the top. It should about equal that tax break for this event he probably isnt donating... But if he doesnt want to help the needy he needs to at least fix the saftey hazards in his gym
Gio skims over some of the pages and dryly points out that some of these people werent in his gym at all.
"Yeah they got jumped by people claiming to be your trainees, had gio corp badges and everything." Aka theywere ambitious Rocket grunts, soon to be dead Rocket grunts. "Might want to look into that."
He gently shoes off date to persue papers. As grace accidently kicked his work ocd switch. Grace is rather amused that he admits, distractedly, that the paperwork is more entertaining than the woman had been.
"Well i can keep you in a good supply if you like."
"What do you mean?"
"This is just one years w9rth, hiw long has Virdian Gym been open?"
"Ypur kidding." Dull dread.
"Nope."
"What the hell is this.." he taps page.
"Medical code. Good old "14,2,8,5-0, rsdisstir". Mon bite human, non elemental, rabies shot, disinfectent, and stitches required."
"You arent leaving me to all this. Hell," realization, "i shouldnt be dealing with all this. My secritary..."
"Has at least five year of bakclogged undelivered complaints/bills and violations that havent been brought to your attention."
Silence
"And if you leave this undone, to be handled by someone who now the public knows already didnt do it the first time... it might look bad.
Black eyes meet silver. "Do you just spend aypur time whiling away to make my life miserable... or are you looking for some sort of pay out?"
"Ew, no. My net worth is higher than yours anyway, why would i want your money when i can barely figure out what to do with mine?
Cue blue screen of death as well as bad laoding noises
"What?"
"Two lottos won them back to back. Remeber? Sure you havent had a few too many? Nights young but you know those irresponsible ones start early."
"Alright." Flushing. "I'll vouch for your character. I'll make a full retraction. You arent a drunk. Or a trollop. Now a fucking troll, yes, but consumption isnt your dominent sin. Just for the love of God, stop, bothering me."
chipper. "Alright!"
He scans a page and blanches. "Wait... you cant leave me with all this... i cant read this code-"
but grace is gone.
Misc stoage
Al haery ideas
Shadow entities take care of mundane aspects of rearing and maintinamce.
Al is southern gentlemanand raises harry to be the same. Toothy smiles are requisite. As a little he toddles about and under deerskin rugs.
Al spies on the dursleys leaving H. Ouside and decides if they dont vslue the babes life they clearly dont value tjier own. He makes exception to hunting hisnprey (they wouldnt be worth effort)he makes gumbo of human nature.
Pets bones, verns fat, the.. veal of actual dear he did hunt. Initially while cookikng muses "what to do?" While mockingly rocking the surviving kids to keep them fr9m screaming.
When harry hungrily noms on aistar.. novelty charks als socks off. Dudly he retirns to sender/syste. Charms anti muggle keep authorities fr9m investigating. And al is abpe to forge requisite papers. Trips to sloth keep "broad cast ready"
The h/al household superficially lopksmripped from an old tikey family values. Uprigjt dress, droll manners, al puncturing his jokes and harrys schenanigans with a laugh track.
Theres no tv. Only radio and vynal collection. Wall to wall books in music, theroy, economics, hist, radio biographies. Red wals white accents. Dusly second bedroom converted to a music center/borad cast.
Under the surface its an odd-
