Levi Mendez (callofnight) wrote in the_cirque, @ 2024-04-20 11:11:00 |
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The one problem Levi was starting to have with Circus life was that they kept landing in places that had no woods or mountains. Cities, boundless buildings, and the compact scent of people with all their emotional and hormonal markers. Not to mention the smoke, smog, and the rest of life’s convenient-made destruction - Japan wasn’t horrible, but it was still a densely populated island. Levi missed what he now thought of as his own personal freedom - mountains, desert, and the space to stand on his own two feet without crashing into someone else. To help get some of the extra energy out (or to stay out of his head as long as possible) Levi had started running around the perimeter of the circus - which was larger than he’d imagined the first couple of times. Levi had never really worked on cardio instead preferring to weight lift and doing the necessary stretches to keep lean muscle over actually bulking. He wasn’t the fastest in his Pack or against a lot of the more ‘lone wolf’ types. They’d all had reasons to be runners, Levi had always had the safety of his Pack until he too chose to go seeking something new. It was on this run, somewhere towards the big top portion, a place (he’d heard) a lot of kids seemed to try to sneak under the canvas walls for free admittance to shows, that Levi caught a flash of brownish fur. He’d seen his fair share of bobcats and mountain lions growing up in New Mexico - but it looked a little smaller. Did Japan have large cats? He’d read about bears and boars - he desperately wanted to go hunting boars - but hadn’t seen anything about felines. Not wanting the animal to get past the canvas walls and create a situation within the walls, Levi sped up from his jog into an actual run, “Hey,” he called out, because that’s what you do to predatory animals apparently. It didn’t occur to him that the animal could be a shifter - they didn’t come in feline shapes as far as he knew. Finding out about Alix and Ame had been mind blowing as it was. Ravens and crocodiles, why not a cat? It just simply didn’t cross his mind in the moment. “Cat, get away from the stupid tent,” he breathed out in something just under a shout, a tight gritty voice of someone who didn’t know how to breathe while running. He was going to be an embarrassment to his ancestors, he could feel it already. Sloane, unlike Levi, had settled into the Cirque fairly quickly when she'd joined a little over half a year ago. But then, she was long used to living in cities around people - it was all she'd known, really - and more specifically, she was no stranger to being in a traveling show. Indeed, traveling with the Cirque via magic was infinitely better than mundane travel with Cirque du Soleil, where she'd carried her whole life in four suitcases and spent untold hours on planes. The benefit to a magic circus, of course, was that she could run around in her caracal shape anytime she wanted without raising many eyebrows. So it had become a habit to change up her usual pre-workout run: sometimes she threw on leggings and running shoes and went out and about as a human - usually if there was a nice park nearby or the like - and sometimes she dropped her bag with a change of clothes at the rehearsal space in advance and went running as a cat. Today was a cat day, and she took a route that let her work out a little extra energy, with obstacles to jump on or over or otherwise wiggle through. In this form, she was more of a sprinter, and so the impromptu obstacle courses she imagined of storage crates and tent lines were a fun break between sprints. She ignored the initial 'hey', assuming it was directed elsewhere, but when a raspy voice followed with 'cat', she realized he was talking to her. Sloane paused mid-wiggle under a tent cable, looking back at the man approaching. She recognized him vaguely - tall, dark hair, handsome. Security? No. Something helpful, not an entertainer. She didn't think they'd spoken yet. He clearly didn't realize she belonged in the cirque, which made her want to laugh. And, in the contrary way of cats everywhere, do the exact opposite of what he said. So she did. Tail flicking with her humor, Sloane slunk closer to the tent's edge to bat at it, watching out of the corner of one eye as he approached. When she thought he was close enough, she flicked a tufted ear at him and took off. It was the recognition that made Levi slow down just a little to watch the feline play with the tent canvas after wiggling under a table. He slowed, but he didn’t stop, and sort of hoped that the animal was going to take off in the opposite direction away from the tent. That did not happen. Did the feline just flick it’s ear at him? No…they probably always had wiggly ears? “Hey, wait!” He called after the feline as it pushed off into yet another sprint. God damn it, he thought to himself as he pushed himself back into a run that wasn’t making his lungs burn just yet, but was giving him odd stitches of pain along his ribs. That was new. He was going to have to start running more or at least involving more cardio into his normal routines. He watched as the cat got further ahead of him and he realized that even if he shifted - he wouldn’t be fast enough to catch up to the feline. This is why he wasn’t security - he could tackle someone, keep them down, mess them up if he really needed to. Chasing though? He did not like chasing. “Cat!: He more growled than yelled. Well this was a fun little game. Sloane realized quickly that she was faster, at least in bursts, and she used that to her advantage. She'd run ahead, then slow down, or even sit for a moment and groom herself while he got closer... closer... and then she'd be gone once more. She led him on a merry chase, until she was finally back to her starting point at the big top, disappearing inside the tent flaps with a flick of a cinnamon-colored tail and a scent trail that echoed it. Flopping onto a practice mat, she tucked her limbs in like a sphinx, ears and tail flicking with amusement while she waited to see if he'd chase her inside. Though she knew almost everyone at the Cirque was supernatural - and those that weren't certainly knew about it! - she still thought it was funny that he seemed to be treating her like some kind of recalcitrant housecat. So she sat primly, gold-green eyes trained on the tent entrance and a low, rumbling purr echoing in her furry chest. “Okay, that’s just fucking…perfect,” Levi huffed out when he realized the feline was grooming themselves while waiting for his slow ass to catch up. What was he going to do if he caught up anyway? Tackle the beast and wrestle? It honestly didn’t seem to matter, he wasn’t going to catch up and they seemed to know that. It was around this point that the idea of Ame and Alix again popped into his mind like a reminder he wasn’t fully understanding. Until he did. Shifter. Had to be. He’d just never… She’d vanished, he realized, the scent still easily captured as he shifted to head towards the Big Top. No longer worried the feline would give into natural instincts and rip someone apart or grab a familiar by mistake - he eased into a jog. It took a couple more minutes than even she had expected, but eventually he was there pushing the flap inward so he could follow where the scent grew stronger and stronger only to find the feline apparently waiting for him. The purr filling his ears almost as much as her scent was willing his olfactory senses. “I take it you’re a really well trained part of an act or a shifter.” Levi breathed out, his chest rising and falling like someone who had ran a marathon and wasn’t used to running at all. He inhaled deeply and made a face as he exhaled. Fast healing didn’t mean he wouldn't feel the sting of his muscles being worked in new ways. Sloane got to her feet when he appeared with a long stretch, pacing her way over to rub her cheek and then her whole body against his leg before twining through his legs once as if she was just a regular housecat and not three times the size of one. She wanted to flop over on his feet and let him pet her - it felt good and she deserved it - but she'd probably made him talk to himself long enough. And she was bad at charades. Tufted ears flapping once more, she padded over and snagged a soft duffle bag that had been left there, carrying it behind some stacked crates the crew hadn't yet stored in preparation for that night's performance. She wasn't shy about nudity - growing up a shifter in a shifter family and working as a circus performer had long since cured her of that - but she was aware that not everyone felt the same, and even if she could smell wolf on him, it was best not to assume he'd be okay with it. Moments later, a now-human Sloane dressed in leggings and tank top over a sports bra emerged from behind the makeshift screen, tying long, dark hair back into a ponytail and grinning. "I couldn't help myself, sorry," she explained cheerfully. "I'm Sloane." Levi had a flashback to his more playful, good neighbor, boy scout days where he’d play the role of house dog to the best of his abilities with Sofia. Bringing a human in to his world had been filled with unique challenges and though she’d accepted him and his family pretty easily - Levi had always wanted to make her feel safe with them all. So, he’d started shifting and laying on her so she could pet him until he was asleep against her lap. His wolf much bigger than even a natural wolf - it was a sight. Sloane touching him in her feline form had stilled him, he may have stopped breathing, just watching her and letting his eyes not really see anything as he went back into the bank of memories he’d spent so much time trying to bury. It was only when Sloane was behind the crates that Levi blinked back to reality. He realized while finally breathing again that he would have been far more comfortable with the chance nudity than what she’d actually done. His skin felt tight and he wanted to shred his clothing and go free running now. Instead he cleared his throat and tried not to choke on the forced laugh he offered. “You could have,” he offered, “but I get it. Wolf,” he touched his chest with his right hand as if they were speaking a different language and he wanted her to understand him as best she could. “I think the whole argument of dogs and cats being oil and water makes a lot of sense though - I’d have ran at your side like a good boy.” He caught himself as he said and immediately felt foolish for his word choice and ducked his head while slapping his hand against the back of his neck, “That’s not…” Another laugh before looking back up to her and running his hand up against the natural growth of his hair before messing it up, “I mean, hi. I’m Levi. So, what…what exactly is the cat?” He tried desperately to change the subject from him being a good boy. "You're welcome to come running with me anytime," Sloane invited, grinning but otherwise making no comment on his good boy status. She didn't yet know him well enough to know if there was a praise kink there to tease him about, and anyway, that was a knife all too easily turned back on her. "And I know. I can smell it on you." Mischief sparkled in her eyes. "I might actually suggest you do come running with me more often," she teased. "I thought wolves were distance runners, but you're looking a little out of breath there." She stepped closer, giving her ponytail one last tug, and held out a hand. "I'm Sloane." She'd noticed the forced nature of his laugh but was still debating whether or not to say anything about it. "I'm a caracal. Very cute. Very soft." Eh, fuck it. Might as well get it out of the way. "If you're not into touching, though," she said, indicating where she'd twined through his legs, "just let me know. I'm sorry if I freaked you out at all. You're pretty new here, right?" Momentarily Levi had to wonder if smelling ‘human’ was a thing when they shifted. He’d never really bothered to think about it before, but the way she could smell wolf on him and he could now smell feline on her - he hadn’t smelled human on her when she’d been shifted. “We are, I just don’t.” He answered flatly mostly because he was embarrassed and knew she was right. He had neglected a lot of his natural talent for blending in with the human world as much as possible. There was a time when his world was a small bubble of wolves and humans, nothing more. He broke free of his thoughts enough to watch her finish her walk towards him, it was a nice view after all. His hand easily lifting to take hers, “Newbie extraordinaire, apparently. It’s nice to meet you, Sloane.” He did make sure to keep her gaze as he said her name - a thing he seemed to do with everyone. Memorizing faces to match with names. “Not sure what a caracal is, but you look like a smaller mountain lion - I’m sure you’re very soft.” He joked as he slipped his hand free of hers. “Touching is just a thing we do, right? Or, I don’t know any feline shifters. Wolves - we have a whole language based on touch. Prefer nudity, usually, too. So no, if you want to touch me.” He left the sentence hanging with a short shrug. “I might take you up on the running. I can feel my ancestors absolutely mortified at how comfortable I’ve gotten.” "Nice to meet you too, Levi," Sloane said as they shook hands. "Caracals are sometimes called desert lynxes," she explained. "We're not the same as a lynx, but related. The real ones are from Africa, parts of Asia, the Middle East." "I mean, I don't speak for others, but I'm pretty touch-y," she agreed, smiling easily even as she wondered if she'd misread his body language a few moments ago. "I don't know if other types are the same to the same degree. I've met some who are and one or two who weren't." Alix liked their head scratched, she knew that much. Then again, so did she. "You're welcome to come with me anytime," she invited. "I usually go mid-morning or so to warm up before rehearsals. Usually a couple miles, sometimes more if I'm motivated." She perched on one of the storage crates, tucking her legs up criss-cross. "So how new is new?" she asked curiously. "And what kind of wolf are you?" She knew the most common were gray wolves, but that there were other types too. Levi seemed to be far more relaxed around her now that she was human. Maybe he didn’t like being touched by other animals while human. Well, he knew his reasons and he was just as happy to keep them to himself as she was to not question it - thankfully. A nod given as she filled him in on her species specifics - she seemed to know more about her natural counterpart than he’d ever really given thought towards. “That makes sense,” he offered as she’d gone into not talking for all, smart of her. “I sort of speak for people without thinking about it,” he mused, “I blame growing up in a Pack and not even knowing there were others out there. You’re the first feline I’ve ever met. Alix and Ame threw me off for a bit, too.” A raven and a croc. Why not a cat - something he seemed to keep repeating to himself as he tried to get his body to relax over the idea. His wolf wasn’t pleased, but there was a lot for his wolf to not be pleased about lately. “Going into my second month,” He answered as she watched Sloane make herself comfortable. He was already pretty sure he was going to try to catch up to her for these runs. “Timber,” he offered when she questioned his wolf. He shrugged and moved to slink down to the ground where he had stood so he could sit and watch her. Bending his knees so he could lean his forearms on them and just relax against himself. “Best fact I can offer is that our species is debated. Are we a subspecies of the Gray or Red wolf or a totally different species? The taxonomy debate continues.” He let a second or two tic by before asking the burning question that everyone in his Pack seemed to care about most, “So, how long have you been a Caracal?” Bitten? Born? It didn’t seem to mean anything to anyone around here, but he had this internal need to ask and know. "I don't think I've ever seen a timber wolf before," Sloane said, eyes alight with interest. "Next time you shift, come find me please. I give good ear scratches too." She wiggled her fingers at him with a smile. His question didn't phase her, and she answered easily enough. "Born," she said, nodding towards him. "You?" It seemed a polite thing to ask since he'd asked of her, though she couldn't remember ever asking that of another shifter before. She didn't feel like it was particularly rude, it had just never really come up. "So two months isn't bad," she said. "I've been here less than a year myself. Coming up on a year, actually, damn." She looked surprised at that. "Time flies. So where are you from?" Levi eased into a comfortable smile the more he listened to Sloane. She was either pure confidence or at the very least confident within herself enough to make everything she said sound like she was comfortable with everything. It was very canine of her - or maybe it wasn’t, maybe Levi’s worldview was much smaller than he’d ever realized. Not knowing the world of fairies? That he could give himself a pass on. Not knowing that there were other types of shifters? Like the world revolved around wolves? That was a little much and she was going to be calling home to yell at someone, eventually. There was even a slight lean of his head when she talked about scratching - as if you could almost see his wolf’s ear flicker with interest, “I’ll keep that in mind,” Levi nodded with a chuckle - well damn. At least he knew how to pretend to be a domestic canine long enough to appreciate some scritches. “Born too,” he added before he started wondering if he’d ever feel as comfortable in his skin again. Sloane was starting to remind him that there really had been a different version of him so many months ago. “Time really does fly,” he offered in lower tones he knew she’d easily hear before his voice returned to normal with a slight shake of his head, “Mexico,” he offered before adding, “New Mexico, Mexico is where my abuela y abuelo are from. I’m second generation.” Freely giving information not asked - he forced himself to stop talking with a low chuckle. “Yeah, New Mexico. Miss it a little actually. Tired of the city stuff - how do you deal?” The genuine question complete with authentic interest highlighting his voice. "How do I deal with what?" Sloane asked, confused. "Living in cities? I mean, I'm from San Diego so I've always lived in a city, I guess. I moved to Montreal for a year, then I traveled for like four years, then I lived in Vegas and New Orleans." She shrugged. "Well, and now I'm here which is like a different city every couple weeks. Basically like my last traveling circus job except without crazy long travel times. That's a huge perk, by the way," she added, pointing to him to underscore her point. "You don't realize how much until you realize this last move, we avoided a fourteen hour flight." The cirque's mode of travel left her itchy and restless like someone had run a hand through her fur the wrong way, but she'd take minor discomfort over fourteen hours on a plane any day. No question. "I take it you grew up somewhere rural?" she asked. "Or at least with more space." Made sense for wolves. She'd had to be careful running around in her fur, but in a big enough park at night, or out camping for the weekend, she was mostly fine. “I guess I make it pretty obvious,” came the reply to her rural comment. It hadn’t been, not really. Typical suburbia dream life - he supposed. There had been large swaths of land, protected areas, and of course the national parks where no one was going to freak out when they saw a pack of wolves trotting through. “That sounds like a restless life,” he mused regarding everywhere she’d been. “Not in a bad way,” he corrected almost immediately. “I don’t think I’ve ever been on a flight. I’ve been road tripping the last two years and being in my car or even a motel randomly for too long was insufferable enough.” He paused to rub at his nose as if allergies were a problem, which he’d found out recently that was a possibility. Maybe. “This place seemed stable after the stupid shit I was getting into.” Which was an odd thing for the landscaping boy scout to admit out loud. His laugh came like a bark at a sudden realization, “I’ve never moved. I grew up in the same town, in the same house, my fiance and I were going to move into a place a couple houses over from my parents and just a couple blocks from hers. I never would have thought of myself as sheltered, but…” He shrugged and let the laughter and thought fade off. "Not super obvious," Sloane disagreed, shaking her head. "I just assumed because you asked about how I could stand city life. Makes sense that you'd ask that if you weren't super used to it yourself." She tilted her head slightly, thinking. "I guess I never really thought of myself as particularly restless," she mused thoughtfully, "but you're not wrong I suppose. Mostly I just wanted to perform, and it was really cool to get to see all these different places. It got a little tiring after a while, though, which is why I settled in Vegas for a bit. I guess if I hadn't left for New Orleans to take care of my nana, I might still be there. Or maybe I'd have gone touring again, I don't know. That's kind of what happened with this cirque, actually. I was traveling and just thought like, well I don't really have anywhere else to be, might as well try it out. And so here we are." She grinned. "It's kind of the best of both worlds," she admitted. "Traveling without the hassle, you don't have to pack, you get to bring your whole house with you. It's pretty perfect." "Do you like it so far?" she asked him. "Traveling around like this? How long did you sign on for?" He nodded as she spoke, between breaths and where she seemed to hang momentarily. He was, if nothing else, a good listener when given the chance. She really had a much different life than him and he couldn’t imagine doing half the things she had while being a shifter. Even as a born shifter he still got fidgety in confined spaces and absolutely didn’t enjoy the idea of entertaining people. “Is the traveling thing…well, no you said you were going to, although…” He had a little conversation with himself momentarily before laughing a little, “Sorry, I’m trying to wrap my head around your enjoyment of all this. Not that I don’t enjoy what I’m currently doing.” There was a shrug before he moved to press his palm against the back of his neck again, “I don’t dislike it. I could do with more woods and maybe a couple of mountains or waterfalls - which I know Japan has. Just less population would be good. But,” he sighed a little and ran his hand up and down the back of his neck, “I only have about four months left on my contract so I’m trying to enjoy it while I have the opportunity to do so.” Six months. “I was sort of overtaken by the sights and sounds here - I was eating the biggest corn dog I’d ever seen when I signed that contract. I don’t know if they’ll keep me around after my times up. If I want to stay. I might want to stay.” "Is the traveling a cat thing?" Sloane filled in with her best guess of his first unfinished conversation. "Not that I'm aware of? I mean, caracals are pretty solitary, but like, I'm not as a person. I love people. I love meeting new people." She shrugged. "At first it was more or less just incidental to the job - my goal was to work for Cirque du Soleil. I could've ended up at one of the resident shows but they placed me in a touring show and I realized I kind of liked it." She nodded sympathetically when he mentioned his desire for more empty nature. "I think you're probably going to have to seek those places out yourself when we land in new spots," she suggested. "I get it, and I think most places you won't necessarily have to go far. But if the goal for whatever magic takes us around places is to get people to come in and see the shows and whatnot, I think we're going to keep ending up in more populated areas." Her eyebrows shot up in surprise when he mentioned his contract. "Wow, that's a short one," she said. "I mean, smart I guess if you aren't sure you're going to like it. I think yours is the shortest I've heard about though. I did two years." Levi chuckled, “Yeah, I guess that actually makes a lot of sense.” He hadn’t thought about the fact that whole purpose was to get people in - of course they weren’t going to land on the top of a secluded mountain or in the middle of a national park where he could go into the woods for days without problem. That was his old life - the life he’d chosen to leave. “Yeah, that absolutely makes way more sense than anything I’d been thinking about - guess I’ll have to start roaming around.” “And no, not a cat thing. I guess I don’t put myself into my own equations and I make stupid assumptions.” He moved to stretch out and lean back on his hands so he’d stop fidgeting. “It isn’t odd thinking about a shifter on their own doing all this if I stop and remember that for a time I was an ER nurse. You wouldn’t think a wolf would want to be in the middle of all that chaos and blood, but I really enjoyed it. So it all makes sense if I ever stop and think about things.” Another chuckle came at Sloane’s look regarding his contract. “Two years?” He gave a low whistle, “That seems like forever. We’ll see what they give me, if they let me extend, if there’s more reason to do so.” "Can I ask what made you want to join in the first place?" Sloane asked curiously. By his own account, she was surprised it wasn't something he hated - at least, more so than the distaste he'd expressed for crowds and big cities already. If he was used to being stationary, being secluded, being a wolf in a pack with all his family so close, what had pushed him to join a traveling circus? "You don't have to tell me if it's private or anything, though," she was quick to add. That was another thing she'd learned since joining - not all the stories were good ones, and some of them hurt to bring up again. She still asked people unless they'd already given her any indication it wasn't pleasant, but she always gave people an out too if they didn't want to talk about it. Levi, not big on lying and always willing to answer a straight question, decided he wasn’t going to be able to skirt around the bush forever. “Sofia,” he said calmly as his gaze dropped from Sloane and towards the ground, “my fiance. She was seven months pregnant and we were a month away from getting married.” He paused to swallow and inhale a trained breath before exhaling, “She was in a bad car accident, human, and I lost her and the baby. It was the absolute worst day of my life - we grew up together, she was my world.” Instead of sounding absolutely heartbroken and defeated, he sounded gentle as if he wanted to forever keep her memory something gentle and light. “The next year was a blur of isolation, which isn’t good for a wolf. Lone wolves are dead wolves. My Pack wouldn’t let me be alone, but not all of them understood my love of a human woman either and tried pushing their daughters at me. My mom realizing I needed to get away for a little while decided that the best way to do that was give me more traumatic news. Apparently I have a half-brother out there somewhere. On my travels to trace our mom’s steps I hit a dead end and found the circus. Nowhere to go, not ready to go home…I said fuck it.” He shrugged and finally looked back at Sloane. “Body clean up keeps me away from the masses, lets me be nocturnal enough, I’ve met some great people and I get to explore new facets of being a wolf without a true Pack but not Packless - it’s a good deal.” Sloane's eyes widened slightly as he spoke. She really hadn't expected... all of that in response to her question. And unfortunately, it wasn't the first sad story she'd heard from members of the cirque in her time there. It really drove home the notion that whatever she thought her own problems might be, they were really nothing compared to why others had come seeking what seemed to be a supernatural haven. "I'm so sorry for your loss," she said, quiet but sincere. She couldn't fathom losing a partner and child at all, let alone at once. She also hadn't realized how differently other shifters seemed to view the world; for her, it had never really been an us-vs-them sort of mentality; they'd lived and worked amongst humans without much thought to the differences between them. "So are you still looking for your half-brother?" she asked. "Since we travel around so much and all." “Thanks,” he never knew how to respond when people said they were sorry for what he’d lost. It was just a weird social norm like saying you were doing good when a stranger asked how you were - no one wanted to know the real answer and he realized in that moment he didn’t have to tell the stranger in front of him about his saddest day. He could have just kept it about his long lost half-brother. Well, fuck. A lesson learned for another day. He nodded, “Not actively, but still trying. Not really trying here, I don’t have any reason to think he’d be in Japan, but if we get to go to England or something he might be there. The weird thing is, I think he was in India?” He paused with a slight laugh, “Or maybe he’s part of the circus - I keep catching this scent. I can’t describe it, but it reminds me of a distant memory. Like a childhood memory of home, but not my home as it was when I left it. If that makes sense. It just keeps….escaping me.” He shrugged, “Either way, I’m still searching. I have a locket with his picture in it, I think he’s five or something, but I have a vague idea of what he looks like I guess.” "Do you know his name?" Sloane asked. "What if he is part of the cirque?" It was conceivably big enough that two people could go a long time without running into each other, especially if they had job duties that didn't overlap. "You should totally ask around, that would be so insane if you guys have both been here for a couple months and just haven't run into each other." If you asked her, there wasn't really a better answer for why Levi would keep catching his scent, especially in India. Sure, maybe he'd just coincidentally been in India - weirder things happened - but if Levi was still smelling it? "What if that's why you were drawn here in the first place?" she asked, perking up at the thought. Levi took in everything Sloane was saying and had to admit the thought had crossed his mind a time or two, too. It would make sense for the scent, “Maybe my nose is just broken,” he barked out with a laugh. It was his number one used sense even before sight, it couldn’t be, but maybe it was - how the hell was he supposed to know. “I think I have allergies?” He more questioned than offered as a real statement. His nose, hell his whole body at times, seemed to be more itchy. It had calmed down since leaving India though. “Well, okay. Do you know of any people around here that are missing a half-brother? Grew up without their mom after like six years old? Uhh, I don’t know his dad was a caretaker or something for some rich people?” He really didn’t have a lot to go off of. If he had the locket on him now he’d have shown her the little picture inside, but he’d stopped carrying it on him since unpacking in his little wagon. Except that one time when Ame had caught him staring at it in his earlier days with the Circus. “I don’t have a lot to go off of and mom wasn’t exactly open about her affair.” "Well, no," Sloane admitted. She realized she was going to have to start warming up or she'd miss out on her rehearsal time, which she didn't want to do even though she was enjoying the conversation. Shifting on her seat, she began stretching, pulling one arm across her chest to start the process. "But I don't know everyone here. Yet." A quick grin that promised she'd accomplish the task if she just had enough time. "Hey, I have two half-brothers," she joked. "You can have one of those if your search doesn't pan out." She knew, of course, that this was no real substitute. And to be honest, she wasn't sure she wanted to inflict either of her half brothers on anyone she liked. "Kidding. I can start asking around though," she offered. "Or if I hear something, I'll pass it along. Did you know his name?" Levi tilted his head as he watched Sloane begin stretching. To offer to help or not? It was a stirring question in his mind. “I mean if you hear something about a wolf missing a half-brother somewhere, yeah I’d be interested in knowing about that.” Levi smirked, it seemed so far out of the realm of possibilities at this point. Needle in a haystack didn’t even seem to come close to the improbability of Levi finding his mother’s long lost love child. He hated her, he tried to not hate the kid, but sometimes… “No, sadly.” Levi pushed himself up into a crouch so he could shift and stand up in a pretty fluid motion, “Like I said, mom wasn’t too big on sharing details of her affair. She did tell me to start with the Crofts though. Or something like that, I have that name written down to follow up with later.” Laura Croft came to mind and immediately he knew he’d said the wrong name but couldn’t remember the actual name. “But that’s also where my dead end came from. Following up with that family.” He shrugged. “I’ll find him or I won’t. Maybe he’s better off not knowing our mom, honestly.” Again he shrugged before dusting off the back of his pants. “Sloane,” he offered while brushing off his hands, “It was great meeting you. I’ll chase you down another time and we’ll see if your sprints will keep you ahead of me in a couple of weeks.” He smiled toothy and genuine, “I’ll let you get to your,” he motioned towards her before guessing, “rehearsal. Last rehearsal I stuck around for…well…I’ll let you get to it.” "I'll keep both ears open," Sloane promised. She nodded her sympathy when he mentioned it might be better not knowing his mom, arm behind her head to stretch her triceps. "Yeah but I'll bet he'd like to know you," she pointed out. "I hope you find him, Levi." She hopped off her crate to start stretching in earnest as he stood and brushed himself off, clearly about to leave. "It was great to meet you too," she said with a smile, her turn to sit on the floor in a split. She was bent forward towards the floor when he spoke again and her head shot up fast, eyebrows raised. "That sounds like a story," she accused. "I'll let you go for now, but I expect to hear it the next time we talk, you hear me?" There was a snort-like laugh as he tugged the tent open so he could walk out, “Storytime next time, got it.” He announced before waving with his free hand, “Thanks again,” he offered - ignoring the idea that his half-brother might want to meet him and internalizing it instead. It wasn’t something he’d actually thought of since he felt more like a messenger than anything else. He’d be family, but maybe he wouldn’t want to be? It was a line of thought Levi didn’t have the emotional capabilities to deal with right this moment so he let it linger somewhere in the back of his mind instead. Why Sloane wanted to know about his sex life, beyond him. “See you later Sloane!” He called out as the canvas he’d picked up slid back down in place. He’d hear her for a few feet yet, but was sure she’d be busy doing her stretches. Any other time he’d have asked to help or made some sexual comment…but for all her sex appeal, she already felt more like a friend than a conquest. |