Soft Hearts Hold Secrets

A Day In The Life

Unlike the day before, when Asra awoke Thursday morning to his phone alarm chirping out its annoying call, the world outside was grey.

Considerably so.

A storm must have rolled in sometime while he was asleep -- which was nothing rare for Vesuvia nor her city, of course, but still disheartening. There were no golden streams of sunlight bleeding through Asra's bedroom curtains, just a gloomy grey from the grumbling thunderclouds that mumbled and growled outside with distant thunder. The worst of the storm must have passed the city by then, Asra figured as he pushed up from the mattress with the palms of his hands, the thin sheet slipping from his bare chest as he turned to peek through the gap in his curtains. From the sound of it, the thunder must have headed downwards. South End would be getting the worst of it by then...

For some reason, Asra couldn't shake the thought of Muriel in his shop.

"I hope he isn't afraid of thunder," he mused aloud, a smirk curling up his cheeks as he lifted his covers and met the tiny, red eyes of Faust curled up at his side. "At least not as afraid as you are."

Loud! Faust squeaked in his head, shivering a little beneath Asra's calming touch when he reached to pet her.

He smiled a little, using his other hand to finally shut off his chirping alarm. "Don't worry," he hummed, scooping her up and letting her slither up and across his shoulders. Faust curled closer, and Asra could already feel her growing a little more comfortable there. "Hopefully it'll clear up by the time we head out."

It... didn't.

In all the time it took Asra to get ready for the day, for the inevitable meeting he knew he had to catch with his boss, the grey sky had still been grey -- rain soft but still pattering away on the concrete of the roads and sidewalks of the city. It tapped upon the windshield of his Jeep as he drove in the heavy traffic, full of beeping cars and people waiting to get to work. His windshield wipers dragged lazily across the window, sweeping up the pinpricks of rain as they went. Asra watched them idly whenever he was stopped, his thoughts mindlessly wondering if he needed his window cleaner replace... and just who he could go to for such a job...

He shook his head a little, smiling. Why he couldn't get that car mechanic out of his head was just beyond him. That blush from the morning before was imprinted into his mind -- like the snap of a polaroid picture. A frozen frame of those wide, green eyes. Blush swept across the bridge of his nose, brightening the tips of his ears all the way down to what was visible of his chest and shoulders. It was all so... endearing.

Crush!

Asra snorted at Faust's comment, his own cheeks dusting with a soft pink. Again, he shook his head, but that time with a little more conviction. "Not a crush," he said, smiling in spite of himself. "Just... an interest. He's an interesting guy. Might even be good for work -- I'm thinking about offering him a job. Think he'll take it?"

No, was Faust's reply. She was still curled around the back of his neck, much calmer than she had been that morning. Too soft!

He gave an actual laugh at that, and rolled his eyes a little, easing his foot on the gas pedal when the traffic began to part. "Yeah," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Yeah, maybe he is."

The place Asra had to go when he was called into work changed every time -- that was the life of a man in the mafia, he supposed. Some days he was told to visit the obvious spots like clubs or bars around music and dancers and the smell of expensive alcohols. He'd even been instructed to visit alleyways and shady places like South End or worse. But then there were the 'not-so-cliche' places, as he liked to call them. Cafes, fancy restaurants, the park, even by the city lake where the swans and ducks skimmed the surface of the water, searching for some tossed bread from pedestrians or old folks sitting on benches with their baskets of bird seed. Asra hadn't lied when he told Muriel that his job took him everywhere -- it took him to places in and out of the city he never thought he'd go.