Leo Russo (redlined) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2017-04-11 13:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2020 [04] april, leo russo, victoria reed |
Who: Leo Russo and Torrie Reed
Where: Nocturne.
What: Leo shows up at Torrie’s music venue to reconnect.
When: [backdated] April 3rd, 2020
As he stepped into the music venue Leo had to admit to himself that the place just felt like Torrie. Her touch seemed to be on every last detail -- he supposed like every good owners should be -- still, while he could admit this place felt like hers, it didn’t make his showing up here any easier. Leo hadn’t been avoiding her, he didn’t really have a reason -- he just hadn’t had a reason to really seek her out either. Torrie and Marc had always been closer, if you could call well placed barbs being close -- at least that was his impression from their friendship from the outside. Leo’s free time and ability to move about the city were both limited -- but so long as he was back at the sober living community in an hour, he was okay in being here. It was middle of the day, which meant the place was quieter than it would have likely been at night. It also meant that Torrie was easy to find off to the right of the stage. There was only a moment’s hesitation before he strode across the space between them and as he approached he cleared his throat and offered what he hoped was a laid back “Hey stranger.” along with a smile. “Leo,” Torrie replied, covering her surprise pretty fucking fantastically. Because she’d been talking to Marc a little she knew that the brothers Russo had been released from prison, but she hadn’t expected to see either of them in Nocturne without an invitation. “I didn’t know you were a fan of piano music.” She gestured towards the stage. Obviously he must have done his research though, since she wasn’t open every day, so if he walked in it wasn’t an accident. “I’m not sure you’d say I’m a fan,” Leo countered honestly. “But I heard the owner of this place didn’t suck, so I thought I should come by.” He didn’t address how he thought it was probably only right for him to finally give her the proper ‘hello’ he should have done months ago -- even if they hadn’t ever been overly close, he really did feel he owed that to her at least. They shared a similar past, and of everyone in Austin, he had a feeling she understood where he had been coming from, at least in terms of losing a part of yourself to the drugs that had been peddled in this city. “God, you Russo’s know how to compliment,” she shot back with a heavy dose of sarcasm. “How have you been?” Because what else was she going to ask? Most of her frustration had been used up on Marc, and it wasn’t like she and Leo had ever been overly close. They understood each other. Or they used to. “It’s a family gift,” Leo fired back with the faintest hint of a smirk and then he quirked an eyebrow and ran a hand through his hair -- which was getting shaggier again by the day. “You really want me to answer that one?” He questioned, because he would if Torrie was truly curious. “No, I asked for shits and giggles,” she retorted with a roll of her eyes. Had it really been long enough that he didn’t remember that she didn’t usually say shit she didn’t mean. “I know how your jackass brother is doing, so, I might as well find out how you’ve held up.” Torrie was unclear on whether or not the fires had been Marc’s idea, or whether it had been Leo’s. Leo held up his hands in a display of surrender. “Hey, I only ask ‘cause it’s been awhile. Didn’t know if you were still the straight shooter that you were down in the tunnels.” God knows people changed. After all, he had. “Honestly, not all that great. I mean I’m alive and free, mostly, but I got a lot of things to repair before I can say I’m doing well.” And he had a lot of anger to let go of, especially towards the Hellhounds. Right now that seemed like a mountain he wasn’t prepared to climb. Not yet anyway. “I suppose you could have guessed that though, since it’s not like you can do the things I did and walk away just fine.” Said without any kind of self-pity, just a frank honesty. “We’ve all got bullshit,” Torrie responded. “It’s less about getting rid of it, and more about how you’re handling it.” Maybe her talks with Mina had really paid off, since she wouldn’t have said that to Leo a year ago. “They have me in therapy to figure out how to handle it,” Leo replied with a ghost of a half-smile, if anyone might understand why he had had an aversion to therapy for so long, he thought it might be Torrie. “Therapies not bad.” She gave him a look. “I mean, you could have avoided some of it, but you decided to be an idiot,” she added wryly. She hadn’t shied away from telling Marc her thoughts, she wasn’t going to shy away from saying the same thing to Leo. Leo had to hand it to Torrie, she wasn’t pulling her punches or sugar coating her opinions, he appreciated that immensely. “Guess being an idiot is a Russo trait,” he remarked with a shrug. “Still, I get your point. We chose to do the shit we did and it was idiotic and fueled by revenge.” Leo wasn’t sure just how much Marc might have told Torrie about all of this, but he had to assume that his words weren’t coming as any kind of surprise. “At the time ruining the Hellhounds lives seemed like a good idea for the way they had ruined mine when they were peddling drugs,” Leo added. “Can’t say I really paid much attention to what the consequences might be…” “No shit.” Folding her arms, she took measure of Leo. Really took measure of him. “You get that fucking dumbass idea out of your system?” Torrie knew how easy it was for an addict to give the answer someone wanted to hear, she’d been there before. Feed the cops a line, feed the therapist a line. She’d gotten that out of her system, but she knew better than to assume one arrest had straightened Leo’s head out. Leo nodded. “Yeah, I think that dumbass idea is dead and buried.” The issues that came with why he had done it were still lingering, but he would work through those also. “It won’t be easy, living in the same city as them, but you’re kind of proof that people like us, we can stay and we can move past that shit.” Torrie had done fairly well for herself of late, in a lot of ways that gave Leo hope that maybe, once he figured out what the hell to do with his life, he might be able to as well. “Was that the answer you expected me to give?” Was that a challenge? Torrie doubted it, but it made her bristle for a minute anyway. She crossed her arms like a barricade, then settled them back at her sides again just as quickly. “I didn’t have a fucking expectation,” she threw back, not harshly. “Assuming shit, or expecting it, that can start a whole shitton of trouble.” Forcing herself to relax even further, she let her smirk come back as she looked at Leo. “Well in that case good, I won’t end up letting you down,” Leo replied with a smirk of his own. It was a relief to know that he could count on Torrie to be expectation free. Not that they were close or anything, but one less soul in Austin expecting him to either screw up again or fix himself quickly would be nice. Opting out of any more comments on the subject, Torrie circled around to the so called proof that she was. “I don’t know if I’m proof of anything, but I’m goddamn stubborn, so.” Becoming the benchmark, or the poster child for societal adjustment wasn’t something she wanted to shoulder. At all. Half the time she still woke up expecting to fuck things up. “I think if you can keep your head out of your ass, you’ll end up doing better than me.” Leo chuckled. “Your stubbornness has paid off,” he remarked. “And I don’t know, I was fucking things up long before I set foot in Austin,” Leo paused a beat, “maybe that’ll change though since they have me pouring out my thoughts and feelings to a counselor.” Talking with Mina had been surprisingly more helpful than he had expected it to be. She shrugged. Encouragement wasn’t her schtick, she wasn’t good at it. “Whatever works.” Then there was a crash, and a string of cursing that even impressed her, and she sighed. “Sounds like something I need to sort out.” If bar glasses had been dropped, so help them, Torrie was going to be pissed. “It does,” Leo agreed with a nod. “I should let you get back to that.” He hadn’t been intending to take up too much of Torrie’s time anyway, so the interruption wasn’t an unwelcome one. He needed to be getting back to the sober living community anyway. “Good luck,” she added, offering Leo a smile in a rare show of sincerity. Leo returned her smile and before he left he replied. “Thanks, I’ll probably need it.” |