Re: Rooftop floor/R1: 3:00 a.m.
The badges of battle were indeed relatively shallow, but Vlad had ten fingers and as many claws, and he had not been happy at being pounced on, and made his opinion known. They hurt, but it wasn't so bad, and with the kind of intent care that most animals took with their injuries, he had his chin tucked in and he was eying the wounds as best he could manage considering the angle. He gave them a few experimental licks, and that felt much better, so he stuck with that tactic until he was interrupted by Rosalie, who got another sharp twist of his attention when she reappeared. Again, the tension went through him, and again, he almost immediately relaxed soon after. Being in this form was a lot like living entirely on instinct. Most of the conscious thought came after everything else. He didn't realize she'd even addressed him in a language he vaguely knew until she'd already left again, and by the time she returned, he'd nearly forgotten all over again. He kept stopping what he was doing to look down the hall, every small noise Ella made seemed to capture his full attention. If he had a cat's tail, it would have twitched, but he didn't, so his ears did.