unknownrival | [RL - Tea with Vanessa after lunch.]

But was he ready to see her walk up to him as she did? Hips swaying, neck straight, chest pushed out, head carried high. She was feeling quite proud of herself today, and it showed. Oh, did it show. She was, in fact, in a modest black skirt that reached her knees, a sleeveless white blouse whose hem swayed in the breeze just as her hips did. Her heels were almost impossibly tall, knocking her up to about 6'3'' in height.

She spotted him, taking the stairs gracefully and yet quickly. "You know, I don't think we ever shook hands," she mused, beaming at him. She extended her own dainty fingers for one. "Vanessa Buckingham, at your service."

Yes, starting over seemed like a good idea right about now.

...Okay, how was she more than half a foot taller than him? He knew the Japanese tended to be on the short side, but geeze...

He shook himself out of his temporary stupor and took her hand. "Ryudo Issei, at yours. Please do come in."

Vanessa smirked at his staring up at her as he did so. So he wasn't used to tall women. What a shame. She waited for him to stand before following him into the temple, taking in all the scenery as she did so.

"You know, I'd never been to Japan before I went to visit Tendou Kasumi. I've never had much chance to explore...but it's a damn nice place."

Issei led her inside, taking off his shoes and replacing them with the indoor set. "Japan was the only country I'd ever been to before I came here," he answered, "and I can confirm that it is indeed a very nice place. But I may be biased. Could you replace your shoes with the indoor ones, please?"

Vanessa had totally forgotten about the shoe thing. But she liked her heels. They were the ones she'd worn to Tyki and Zechs' bachelor party, and when she had realised that she needed to break them in more, well, she'd been wearing them constantly. She pouted down at him a moment before doing as asked and slipping into a pair that fit her. Wriggling her toes inside, she decided they were nice enough.

"Are these just for guests?" she asked after a moment. "I mean, I'm not going to get athlete's foot from them, right?"

"They're for guests, and I can assure you that they're clean and sanitary. I should know, I help wash them," he told her. It was a bit strange having someone question something he'd taken for granted for so long - it took him a moment to even realize that he'd have to tell her about the shoes.

"Shall we move on to the kitchen?"

She knocked the toe of both shoes against the floor, making sure they were on their snug and tight and that she wouldn't fall on her arse, flash all the poor, sex-deprived men there, turn their thoughts dirty and repressed, and generally make a fool of herself.

"Yes, the kitchen sounds great," she replied, tapping her finger to her chin. "And if you have any teas I haven't tried, I'm open and eager to try something new."

Things like that were what made Issei glad he couldn't hear anyone else's internal narration.

"Let's see, we have green tea, black tea," he rattled off, leading her into the kitchen, "kelp tea - well, Shirou hates that one, but I don't mind it, so you might not either - and I think those are really all we have." Fancy tea was expensive, and as his father liked to say, a monk should be able to survive on the simplest of foods.

Probably a good thing Issei would never, ever hear any of Vanessa's internal dialogue with herself. She had just been thinking about how much better one of the monks would look gagged up in chains. But...now wasn't the time to think about work, if that was possible.

Okay, she was in a temple. Purge all those thoughts. Be pure...hahahahahha yeah...pure.

"I'll try the kelp tea," she said with a resolute nod, looking around at everything in the temple. It was...pretty relaxing, she had to admit. But it was nothing compared to the relaxation she felt in B3.

As long as it wasn't him, that was... okay. Kind of. Not really.

Mercifully unaware, Issei nodded and stepped over to the tea set and started to prepare the kelp tea she asked for. "So how are you, Vanessa?"

"Being bad," she murmured, looking up at him with clear, glinting hazel eyes. "I got back together with my idiot boyfriend. He came out and confessed that he'd actually just been using me the entire time we were together. I begged like my life depended on it, and he took me back. He even went so far as to say he still loved me."

There was a dark, bitter chuckle at that as she sat down at the table. "But I have better plans, as bad as that may be."

Issei was silent for a long moment. "...I shouldn't want to know this, but why do you want to get back with someone who straight-out told you that he was using you?"

Maybe he was just a foolish romantic, but that sounded kind of dumb. Couldn't she do better by someone else?

Vanessa tilted her head to the side, curiously, not believing him for a second. She took a moment to cock her head back up straight and blinked. She was honestly a little speechless.

"You don't remember what I do for my second job?"

"I'm not even that clear on your first job, let alone your second job," he grumbled. "Why, what's your second job?"

"My first job is a reporter," she explained simply, crossing her legs primly at the knee, interlacing her fingers, and resting them against the table. "I'm not too surprised the collar didn't tip you off, actually. I'm a sex-slave as well. The Slave Reporter. One and only."

He waited for another moment. When an explanation didn't seem to be forthcoming, he replied, "...Right, but what does that have to do with dating someone who was using you? I'm sure you could find someone who's much better for you to date."

Well, damn. Seemed like she'd explained this a thousand times if she'd explained it once, but she took in a deep breath to calm herself down before massaging her temples with her eyes shut and thinking of how she could phrase this so he wouldn't blush a thousand times over.

"I was working for a newspaper called The Globe when I was captured by Shillers guards for sneaking in at the owner's request. They let me have access to anything and everything technological I could think of. I stayed for a month as both a reporter and a slave. I write for their out of house magazine, Datumline, and for their in house magazine, The Girlflesh News. The two jobs go together."

She opened her eyes with a little sigh. "Issei, I'm used for a living, and I love every moment of it. Though things are different with Doctor Dickhead, I intend to get my own sort of revenge at this point in time. That's the whole reason I put on the begging face and got him back. Make sense now or should I just keep going?"

Issei stared blankly at her. That... really didn't make a whole lot of sense to him, but he didn't want to force her to repeat it.

"...um, I don't really get it, but you're saying that you prefer having a boyfriend who's a jerk to someone who's actually nice?" he asked, the confusion obvious in his voice.

Women were weird. Well, it was probably just Vanessa.

"No no," she responded, ready to drown herself in some hard liquor at this point in time...or to just smash her fingers in her car door just so she could scream out her frustration and no one would be the wiser. "I'd rather not be used by someone who calls themselves my boyfriend. I'm doing this to get back at him, all in the worst of ways. Him and his partner deserve to realise that their actions? Definitely deserve consequences. I don't care how long it takes me to enact revenge, but I will have it, no matter what it takes."

Issei blinked again. "You're dating him again because you want to get back at him, and for some reason you need to take revenge while dating him." Okay, he got it this time. Kind of. "I'm not much for revenge myself, but I wish you luck in that."

"Excella's helping me out," she said, a little smugly, too. "That's one of Wesker's former partners. She came to the community not long before Wesker killed her in her own timeline, so I have her living with me now to keep him from actually killing her should he find her again. She's a good woman; we went back to Kijuju, Africa, yesterday in order to fetch her money and other things that had been stolen, unfortunately."

She put her palms flat on the table. "It's...a very messed up situation."

Another brief silence. Issei didn't know how to deal with messed up situations and crazy people who wanted to kill other people. Instead, he asked, "...May I pour you your tea now?"

There was a laugh, one with a dark, bitter edge to it, almost like a dog's bark in its sound and nature.

"Yes, Issei, that'd be lovely, thank you," she responded, sending him a smile.

Issei nodded and poured them both a cup of tea. Once that was done, he sat down across from her. "I do hope that your time hasn't been wholly preoccupied by your boyfriend and your revenge, though. It may seem hard to believe, but most of the people on the community aren't that bad."

She rolled her eyes. "William's a pussy. I've nearly beat him senseless twice now, and he takes it like the little bitch he is. If Albert hadn't been there to get his scrawny neck out of trouble, well, good golly, he probably would've had permanent damage...or at least a real fucking big bruise around his throat that would have stayed for months."

She sipped the tea after blowing on it, making a face. It was...strange. Different. Interesting aftertaste, though, so she blew on it again and took another sip. "It's good, thank you."

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