The Fox and The Hunter

“I’m the other woman to a gravestone,” Viktorya commented to nowhere once Jon was hopefully out of earshot. She didn’t really consider herself the other woman, she doubted Jon did either, but she needed to make herself laugh after something so heavy.

There was some relief to all of this. Jon had problems. She knew he had problems, but now they’d been laid out before her.

Now she had to return that vulnerability in kind.

She looked at the runes on her forearm that she typically ignored. Normally she would take their secret to her grave, but Jon was safe, except for the part where his sister seemed too nosy for Viktorya’s taste.

“Why did he have to have family?”

The only family she brought to the equation were her half-lucid father, a mysterious butting uncle, and an absent mother. Jon had a reunion full of people here, some of whom Viktorya already knew, like she was always destined to come into Jon Hunter’s life.

Those orbits were strangely close, weren’t they? She wasn’t sure she liked that.

“Fire!”

Viktorya tried to find a direction. She’d been mostly aimless in her wanderings, which maybe wasn’t a smart idea.

She closed her eyes, seeing a whole house on fire, and the family just staring.

Somehow her legs knew where to run, and everything was like in her vision.

Everyone except Shepherd, who hadn’t arrived when she and Jon left, and the little girl, Mandie, were just staring.

“What are you guys waiting for!?”

The thieves royal weren’t invulnerable, but the Hunters were supposed to be unblemishable warriors. “There’s a kid in there, can’t you…” she saw Jon’s face, a familiar look of frozen panic, probably on everyone else’s face as well.

“Shit, that’s why.”

Viktorya ran in, panic washing over her. She crouched down to avoid the smoke as she realized Mandie was upstairs.

She scurried up on all fours, praying nothing would collapse under the weight.

At the top, she saw a pair of thick shoes on a man in a suit. The girl was over the man’s shoulder, and Viktorya realized the panic was radiating from her.

“It’ll be okay, kiddo, we’ll get you—”

Viktorya saw the man disappearing, then she threw a sword to hurt the teleporter behind him before the vision could come true.

“You aren’t saving her,” Viktorya realized.

The kidnapper kicked her down the stairs.

“I knew you’d be his date, but I didn’t expect you to cause problems.” he sauntered down the stairs, kicking Viktorya again at the halfway point.

She grabbed his leg as he made contact, sending him to the ground, with Mandie’s legs still under him. Viktorya ran over, pulling the kid out and onto her back.

“Sorry, kiddo, but I think you’ll like me better than him right now.”

Still on all-fours, Viktorya crawled out of the building and mildly collapsed closer to the building than was smart.

“Mandie!” Diana yelled.

Someone picked the girl up. Viktorya didn’t have much else to do but cough as she crawled further from the blaze, until Jon offered her a hand. As he held her up, she held a hand to her chest, trying to heal the smoke out of her lungs.

“Sorry I took so long. I had a…” Shepherd’s voice trailed off as he probably saw the fire. “What happened?”

“Dick’s still in there!” Val said. “Did you see him?”

Viktorya swallowed, hyping herself for an explanation.

“She just tried to kidnap the girl!” the man from inside the house yelled, pointing at Viktorya. “She’s the one who stole Shepherd’s necklace.”

Jon moved between Viktorya and her accuser.

“No I wasn’t,” Viktorya defended, “—I mean yes I stole the necklace, but—”

“Why are you hiding her, Jon?” Senator Walters asked, now recognizable outside of a flaming house.

“We know she stole the necklace,” Shepherd said, “We don’t know who hired her.”

“What makes you so sure she kidnapped Mandie?” Val asked, “She could have been saving her.”

“I was saving Mandie, she attacked me.”

“You kicked me down the stairs!”

“Because you tried to trip me.”

He was a damn good liar.

“There was a teleporter,” Viktorya explained, stepping back in front of Jon, “They were going to pull him and Mandie somewhere else. I saw it. I incapacitated the teleporter as they arrived, and that’s when he kicked me down. I wasn’t standing up, so I only fell about halfway down. When he went to kick me a second time, I grabbed his leg and he fell. Then I grabbed Mandie and crawled out. If anyone’s trying to kidnap the kid, it’s him.”

Senator Walter’s glare made her take a step back.

“I didn’t see a teleporter,” he said, “She attacked me. I reacted, but she pulled me down to the ground and left with the girl.”

“You had time to catch up,” Jon said.

“You had trouble catching her, didn’t you?” Walters said. “Besides, I was with you when the fire started, wasn’t I? Where was she?”

“Enough!” Val yelled, holding Mandie, “She needs to be taken to a hospital. If she returns to consciousness, we can figure this out, but until then. We keep the two of them somewhere, separate.”

“You’re seriously entertaining the accusation of me as a kidnapper?” Walters asked.

“Viktorya can heal Mandie,” Jon said, “She’s healed me before.”

“Did she know you didn’t need it?” Walters asked.

“Did she offer?” Diana asked.

All eyes were on Viktorya. She’d already healed herself, and the process used a lot of energy, but this was a child, and her own innocence on the line.

“I can do it,” Viktorya said, “I’ll probably need coffee or something, but I can do it.”

“You’ll leave her alone with a potential kidnapper?” Walters asked.

“I’ll stay with her,” Jon said, “I’ve stopped her before.”

“I’ll stay with her,” Val corrected, “You like her too much. You can keep an eye on Dick.”

Viktorya hesitantly stepped toward Val.

“Gareth,” Diana said, “May I trouble you for use of your home, as mine is indisposed?”

“Of course, Diana.”

Reality seemed to warp around them as they left the burning house.

Luckily Mandie was still breathing by the time Viktorya and Val got her into the bedroom. Camille tried to join them, but Val refused, saying she was too friendly.

Viktorya stayed silent, focusing on sending the healing power into Mandie’s lungs. She seemed to suffer the effects more acutely, but the recovery was stable.

Val sat in front of the door, gun in her hand pointed at Viktorya. The main reason Viktorya stayed silent was because she couldn’t come up with anything to talk about outside of the weapon.

“Do you love my brother?” Val suddenly asked.

“Love’s a big word,” Viktorya answered.

“4 letters, one syllable, kind of small in my opinion.”

“Heavy, then,” Viktorya said.

“So the answer is no?” Val asked.

“I try not to say no to someone pointing a gun at me, on principal.”

Val smiled.

“Don’t worry. As long as you don’t do anything to hurt the kid, you’ll remain free of holes.”

“That’s what they all say,” Viktorya answered. She thought of the vision that led her to draw Jon with a gun pointed at her neck. Val didn’t look too unlike her brother.

“I’d like you to be honest with me, Renfield,” Val said.

“I like your brother,” Viktorya admitted, obeying Val’s whims, “He’s kind, attractive, does the dishes when he’s uncomfortable, and an okay kisser.”

“Okay?” Val asked.

“He seems out of practice.”

“He is,” Val chuckled, “Anything else about him?”

“Do you really want me to go into details about my feelings for your brother?”

“You could tell me why you would kidnap a kid instead,” Val offered.

“I didn’t,” Viktorya said, “I was just trying to get her out of there.”

“Let’s rephrase: Why would you kidnap a kid?”

Val didn’t think she did it. Viktorya had assumed otherwise given the circumstances, but Val didn’t think she did it.

“I don’t have any reason to,” Viktorya confirmed, “Besides, I had this entire reunion to earn your trust before I went about it. Plus, I had no idea you guys were afraid of fire.”

“It’s not proof, but it’s not like Dick brought anything to the table outside of an alibi.”

Viktorya nodded.

“Why don’t you trust him, isn’t he family?”

“I don’t trust politicians on principle, and he’s connected to my father, and he’s a dick, so no, I don’t really trust him.”

It’s not like there was any reason to trust Viktorya. She just hadn’t been around long enough to earn ire.

“I’m not exactly trustworthy either,” she said, “That’s why your brother brought me here in the first place. He needs to keep an eye on my movements.”

One grave, one secret, one acknowledgment of something, didn’t change that fact.

Val looked away.

“He wants to trust you,” she offered, “Or else he wouldn’t have told you the family secret.”

“That was because he thought I’d figure it out anyway.”

“You could figure out that we’re from a third branch of the superhuman tree? One that very few people know about? No offense, but I seriously doubt it.”

“Well not that, but I could figure out something was hinky about this whole deal. The fact your mother is the only one of your family heads I don’t recognize worries me for a start.”

“We like our privacy,” Val said, “I assume you can respect that, given your history.”

“What about my history?”

Val smiled.

“I’m the person who got Jon all of his information on you, and I’m a lot better at my job than he would lead you to believe. I didn’t tell him everything about you, but I noticed things: Some documents under a different name, a contract Aunt Camellia taught me to recognize, some of your family history.”

“Is this a threat or not?” Viktorya asked.

“It’s a warning,” Val explained, “I avoided those things because they weren’t essential for my brother to know, but you two have gotten close, and the time may come when he needs to know before you’re ready to tell him.”

Viktorya felt the string of her life pulling taut in Val’s hands.

“So I tell him or you do?” Viktorya asked.

“If it comes to it. It’s not like my brother’s going to be happy with me if I let him know I withheld information he paid me for.”

“He paid you?”

“Calico investigations, LLC.”

“I thought you didn’t like the name the government gave you.”

“I don’t really care about the government anymore, my brother’s the one with those problems.”

“What problems?”

Mandie stirred beneath Viktorya’s hand, eyes opening before looking around in panic. In the corner of Viktorya’s eye, Val readied her gun.

Viktorya was too panicked to see the hug coming from the little girl.

“Since when do you touch people?” Val asked, incredulous, as she lowered the weapon. She opened the door to the room shouting, “Mandie’s up, Viktorya’s innocent!”

Viktorya breathed a sigh of relief, putting her arms around the girl.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

I’m better now, thank you.

Viktorya blinked a few times. She wasn’t used to anyone other than her father talking in her head like that, and her father hadn’t done it in a long time.

“Yeah, she doesn’t talk aloud,” Val explained, “You’ll get used to it.”

Viktorya wasn’t sure she’d be around enough to do so, but she smiled back, as she saw the scenery change in a sickening way.

“Behind me!”

Val landed a shot in the teleporter just as they appeared. Viktorya helped Mandie hug tighter.

“Dick escaped!” Jon yelled up.

“Why didn’t you keep a closer eye on him?” Val yelled back.

“Teleporter!”

Viktorya and Val looked at their gunshot victim. Val shot him again as he tried to grab Viktorya’s leg.

“Find medical help, or die,” Val ordered. The teleporter disappeared.

“We could have asked him questions.”

“He wouldn’t have stayed that long,” Val reholstered her gun and kept an eye on the room. “And that can’t be the only attempt. Mandie, would you like a sleepover?”

No.

“Too bad, someone has to keep an eye on you.”

Viktorya.

“No,” Val said, “I don’t trust Viktorya alone with you just yet. You get to bunk with me and Camille.”

Mandie finally let go of Viktorya to flop on the bed.

Can Viktorya join?

“Only three beds max in a room, and Jon will want to keep an eye on her too. I’m not going nearly double capacity to room with my brother, especially if it means I have to share a bed with Camille.”

“She kicks,” Viktorya agreed.

“Actually everyone should have a buddy,” Val turned back to the now open door, “Family Meeting!”

With the buddy system agreed upon, just in case there was another teleporter incident, Viktorya lay down awkwardly as Jon took his shower. The room they were staying in was larger than her apartment.

She was too exhausted to think anything of the situation beyond her need to sleep, but it wasn’t happening.

She heard the sound of the shower stopping, then a few moments later she heard the bathroom door open.

Jon was eerily silent in his movements, unless it wasn’t Jon.

She sat up, sword at the ready, to see Jon in nightclothes.

“Why are you so quiet?” she complained.

“I didn’t want to wake you up.”

“Well, it freaked me out hearing the door open and then nothing after.”

“Were you worried about me?”

Jon now sat in the other bed, across from Viktorya. She wished for a moment that he was still in a towel.

“Yeah, I got worried,” she admitted.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Jon started to reach out, but his arm came back.

“I don’t bite,” she said, “Most of the time.”

She wanted to stop talking right now.

“You did a lot today,” he said.

“Yeah, that’s why I was trying to sleep.”

“I’ll leave you to it then.”

She didn’t want him to stop talking, but she also wanted to sleep, not that she was sure she could.

“I don’t want to sleep alone,” she said before she could filter it out.

“I’ll be right here. I’m a light sleeper so—”

“That’s too far.”

She could feel all the blood rush to her face as she hung her head in shame.

“This is too far?” he asked.

She nodded, keeping her gaze down.

“Can you look at me?” he asked.

“No, thank you. I’d rather not embarrass myself further.”

She felt Jon’s hand gently lift her chin, a playful smile on his lips. She moved her hand to touch his face back, and some unconscious agreement brought them closer, and closer together.

Their first kiss hadn’t really been a kiss. It was just the best way Viktorya could think of to stop the fight. Their second had been an awkward way for Jon to get away. This one didn’t have any fear, neither of them were trying to get away, and Viktorya wasn’t wearing any glasses to be awkwardly moved. She was going to keep him as close as she could manage.

“Not bad for our first kiss,” she said after a break for air.

“What about the other ones?” he asked.

“Practice,” she asserted, “And attempts to get out of an awkward situation. This one just makes me wish I wasn’t so fucking exhausted.”

They leaned their foreheads against each other, smiling. This was special, and Viktorya knew it.

“Spend the night with me?” Jon asked.

“Aren’t I already doing that?”

“Same bed,” he specified, “You already extended the offer, so it’s probably my turn now.”

“Yeah,” Viktorya said, “I’d like that.”

Viktorya was in a place of death, so horrible that mere pictures of it had made her panic. A short-haired Jon was getting dragged into the room, along with another soldier. Viktorya watched as they were forced into the chamber, and she knew with all certainty that Jon’s companion wasn’t coming out.

She wanted out. She didn’t want to see what was about to happen.

The chamber filled, and one soldier started suffering. Jon pulled him close, putting their mouths against each other to try helping the other man breathe.

Except he wasn’t a man in that moment. As Viktorya looked away, the soldier looked completely different, like the woman she could have become if her life hadn’t been taken so soon.

Viktorya continued to look away even as she could tell the body had fallen, heard one of the men who brought them in say something about Jon.

Viktorya collapsed, trying to get out of the vision, then she saw the way Jon stared at the men on the other side.

Viktorya moved as far as she could from the look of fury coming from the man in the chamber.