Unspooling the threads

Fires dancing 1

Given direction, he finds purpose.

The next time Leo gets to be on the surface it's as a full fleshed envoy, a word he coins from Phlegethon, who he still sees in order to keep his abilities sharp, much like he does with no-name the hammer tutor; it does a nice job of simplifying Leo's role. Simplifying, but not actually being completely correct, which was why Koráki was way better, and what Leo was sticking by.

His duty on the surface is a little trickier this time, he needs to make sure a certain soul deeply wrapped in his ladies' strings actually survived long enough to fulfill their destiny; and for this, he has to go back to hell. Leo has a long, tedious, history of running and being caught, so to put himself in the beast's nest goes against every nerve on his system, but he's nothing if not dedicated; and this, being Koráki, it drives him like nothing else.

The good news is that he finds his target nearly instantly, the bad news is that the boy he's supposed to be keeping away from danger for however long is, for lack of a better word, a feral child. His name is Akira, and he's sharp edges, and rough words; a small inferno coiled tightly in the shape of a boy.

Only, Leo's never, not once in his life, gotten a burn, fire strumming his veins, not how it does with Akira; Leo's fire is a lot more dangerous, because it's not human. Akira is smart, smart enough to realize Leo's immunity to him, and that plays into favor, because the boy takes to following him around like a shadow.

He tries to get on Leo's nerves, the little shit, but he's mastered the craft of putting on an unimpressed face to cover his actual reaction; Leo thinks the guy is a riot, and can't wait to see how he reacts to being a half-blood. He can only tell that much, as Akira isn't tied to Leo's particular bloodline, nor the one similar to it; no satyrs to avoid, and no trips to visit the mother wolf in the future.

Still, Leo used Akira's interest to his advantage, by giving the boy pointers for stealth, and explanations for why he fails at his attempts to antagonize Leo. It takes only two weeks for Akira to master the art of sneaking around, so it follows that he'd wound up on his back in front of Leo; he had to actually fall on instinct to dodge.

Akira groaned loudly.

"I thought that would work for sure"

Leo smiles, feeling a weird sense of pride, even as they boy turns impossibly violet eyes towards him, sitting up.

"It worked on the nuns and the clerk at the corner store"

He's glaring at Leo, who's already thinking on what to teach him next.

"You're smart Akira, what's the difference between them and me?"

The boy blinks, taken aback, and stares at the ground for a few moments.

"You knew I was coming"

Leo smiles a bit wider, exited to finally put his escape plan in motion.

"We go tonight chico"

Akira startles then, looking at Leo like he's grown a second head, he finds himself rolling his eyes.

"We?"

Maybe he hasn't been that clear about his fondness for the guy, that can be fixed later.

"Eh, 'less you wanna stick around for whatever reason"

Akira promptly stands up, and though Leo's sure the boy's younger than him, they're about the same height.

"Tonight"

Leo nods, satisfied at the fierce tone Akira takes.

"Good, you know where to find me"

Slipping away from the orphanage is easy, having to worry about someone other than himself every time hiding is required is a little harder; but Akira's been paying attention to Leo, so they eventually manage to get to the parking lot he'd been scoping.

There's an old motorcycle parked near-permanently on a corner, right below a street light that has stopped working, and for whatever reason, a black and brown helmet rests on one of the handlebars, Code appears from above, a ring with keys on her beak, and Leo grins.

"Akira, this my girl Code, come say hello bonita"

Code ruffles her feathers happily and drops into his shoulder, Leo takes the keys from her so she can caw at Akira as requested. To his credit, Akira seems mostly impressed.

"You have a pet crow"

Leo laughs, and Code caws a little louder.

"Not a pet chico, she's my partner"

Then, as if to prove this, he tries the key in the chair of the motorcycle and it pops open like so, inside, there's another helmet and some gloves; Leo suspects a little magical intervention, so he puts three finger over his upside down triangle-seeing thingy, and sends a prayer of thanks to his... bosses.

The other helmet is a sleek black, and a little chunkier in appearance than the one in the handlebar, he tossed it to Akira and put on the gloves before popping the seat back down. He put the remaining helmet on with the visor up, and mounted the bike; Akira gave him a look, helmet still in his arms.

"Do you even know how to drive that?"

Leo puts the key in place, kicking the foot up, and grinning as the motor rumbled on the first turn; then decided to issue a challenge in lieu of an answer.

"Last chance to back out chico"

Akira put on the helmet quickly and placed himself behind Leo on the bike, which made him chuckle as he turned, lowering the visor.

"You wanna hold tight, and if you value your life, don't let go"

Arms wrapped themselves around Leo's middle, a small gasp that was probably caused by his unnatural temperature, but they didn't loosen, so Leo grinned and started driving. Code was keeping to their speed easily, unnatural bird that she was, ready for Leo's signal; but he needed them further away from the city before any of that.

The bike guides him through various streets, motor all but speaking to Leo, which is weird but given that Leo hasn't been in the surface in a while, he was far from complaining; eventually they reached the open highway, where Leo accelerated and received a soft laugh from Akira at his back.

The sun climbing ever higher made one of the many billboards produce a shadow right into the pavement further up, Leo grinned to himself, signaling to Code and whirling as he hit the brakes. As they slid into the spot, the shadow leapt up and consumed them.