Just A Friendly Visit

Romi · May 9, 2016

Angelo, on the other hand, did not dress to impress. He dressed like he was going to be meeting up with someone half his age at a restaurant he went to multiple times a week. For him, that meant his work pants and a change of shirt, nice and informal. Had he known he'd be meeting up with Klaus Rosales, he might have made an effort to look better... or more realistically, he would have eaten the oldest thing in his fridge and claimed food poisoning to avoid the entire wretched experience.

He was already there when they'd arrived, seated at a nice little table for two near the windows. He even had a little glass of water, which he was midway through when he spotted Shay and her companion. He immediately choked on the water, taking a second to compose himself and furtively checking his surroundings to make sure that none of his coworkers happened to be lurking, and then decided that a table by the windows was simply not going to work.

In fact, the whole thing was pretty much absolutely not going to work, but Shay looked excited enough and had obviously dressed up, and he wasn't quite cruel enough to crush her enthusiasm even if it did mean rubbing elbows with Rosales.

But if he was going to rub elbows with him, he was going to be doing so in the very, very back of the restaurant.

The entire place was not Angelos - he had no stake in it. But he was a regular, and he was one of the few people on the island who could identify Lombard cuisine from Venetian cuisine, a fact that made him immensely popular with the old Italian owner.

He stood, abandoning his glass and the table as he headed up to the front of the restaurant, eager to get out of sight of the windows as fast as humanly possible. Just to add insult to injury, the closer he got the more he realized that, of all things, Klaus Rosales was taller then him by several inches. He'd also obviously made some kind of effort to look less like a crime lord, because he might have actually passed for a normal member of society if one squinted and held their head at the right angle.

"Rosales." Angelo muttered, deciding that greeting him by name was about as polite as he was going to manage. He shot Shay a look that even he wouldn't have been able to decode, considering it was a mix of 'dear god why' and 'hello', and then gestured towards the back of the restaurant. "Do we want to grab a seat before we do introductions?" Which seemed like they should happen, even if he was entirely sure that everyone knew each other.

@Foxy, @Tom Marvolo Riddle

Sarrain · May 10, 2016

Shay was still focused on Klaus when Angelo came out and greeted them. And boy did he sound displeased. She almost flinched when he gave her a look. What was the look saying? She didn't know. It wasn't heated per say....

Shay glanced up at Klaus as if asking permission for something. In reality, she was taking comfort from his confidence. She shouldn't have been as nervous as she was. With a deep breath, she turned her attention back to Angelo and smiled a hint. "Sounds good." She let Angelo take them to whatever table he wanted, and once they got there, she sat pointedly between the two of them.

"Officer Angelo, this is Klaus Rosales," here Shay paused as she searched for the right way to describe everything. Dad seemed like a good start, but it still made her nervous and Klaus was only her father technically. So instead, she said, "He's my legal guardian. And Klaus, this is Officer Angelo, he helped me during the tsunami."

Shay felt very small then. Sitting between two people she respected, hoping they could get along and wondering how she'd gotten here in the first place or why she wanted this. Despite having not desired Klaus' presence here in the first place, she was reassured by him and found that she leaned closer to him to take in his aura and let it calm her. It was warm and safe, and no matter what happened, she knew for certain he would have her back. And Angelo, he was a good man, and he made her feel normal when nothing else seemed to.

Shay realized, looking at them, that she wasn't just sitting between two people she idolized, she was sitting between two different worlds, right smack dab in the center of them and struggling to decide which she should have been closer to.

Feeling she had to clarify the situation further for Angelo so he wouldn't think she'd tricked him into some meeting (though she had, somewhat, hadn't she?). "As I'm sure you could imagine, Klaus wanted to be here because he wants to know who I spend my time with and make sure I'm safe." Unsaid but very present, her explanation doubled as a defense. While Shay may have liked Angelo, she wouldn't take any insinuation from him that Klaus was anything but a good guardian.

Tom Marvolo Riddle · Jun 23, 2016

Klaus' first impression of Angelo ended up being catching a glimpse, out of the corner of his eye, of the man choking on water. He had to bite him lip to contain the sudden half sputter, half gigglesnort that threatened burst out. He turned his head the other way and pretended he hadn't seen the cop yet, rubbing Shay's shoulder and grinning. "Real nice place, huh kiddo? Can't wait to eat. And, of course, meet your friend Angie."

When Angelo officially approached the father daughter pair, Klaus put on his most friendly, well behaved expression. Welcoming he could pull off, but behaved was still debatable. He was trying, at the very least, and that most certainly counted for something when you were who he was. He had a very hard time saying no to Shay's tiny, grouchy face.

He eyed over Angelo curiously, tall blond and scarred. Damn if he wasn't fit, too. This was a good looking guy, and Klaus resisted the strong urge to whistle, using all of his personal restraint here while feeling very attracted. Shay seriously owed him. It was a funny thing, a child being the cause of a criminal showing caution, rather than the fact that it was a cop he was dealing with. His magic, however, was far more reflective of his natural impulses, and kicked up greedily in reaction to this new point of interest. Surely, he couldn't be lectured for this, as it had a chance of making their interactions more pleasant.

"Genovese!" Klaus returned, about a hundred times more peppy. No handshake, he guessed. "Last names are so formal, though, aren't they? We're having dinner together with the kiddo here, why don't you call me Klaus, and I'll call you Angelo? I'd go Angie, but maybe we aren't up to nickname level yet, and, you know, fair enough. Still, this is personal, not business, relax."

For her sake, if anything. He nodded at Shay with a warm smile when she looked up at him, and let her lead after that, feeling pride swell in his chest. He followed by her side (to the back of the restaurant, unsurprised by Angelo's pointed choice), and laughed quietly when she went out of her way to be a blocking neutral presence for them as they sat. At his introduction, he added, "I'm her dad. Pleasure, Officer. Truly. Anyone who's helped keep my daughter safe is a friend in my book." Nothing but genuine in his words.

Klaus reached over a bit to rub Shay's back when she leaned closer to him. He hummed in agreement at her further explanation. "Can't be too careful. Copper or not, baby going alone to meet with an adult I haven't met kicks up the parental instincts, yeah?" A pause, then raise of eyebrows. "So, Angelo. Tell me about yourself. Eroshay, she likes you a lot, and I hope that's lived up to. She's a bright girl, deserves the best."

Romi · Jun 24, 2016

The words legal guardian felt awfully dangerous. Who exactly had the smart idea of letting someone like Klaus Rosales be a legal guardian? He shouldn't have been able to adopt a cat, let alone a kid.

Even so, he couldn't argue that his supposed logic for being there was sound. Even if he was a cop, it was important for a parent or guardian to know where their kid was going.

Not that he'd ever admit it out loud.

It was unlikely that Rosales wasn't familiar with the Genovese, which made Angelo all the more prickly. Even so, he pushed through the last names as he took his seat, deciding that comfort would probably be okay. Rosales wasn't going to try anything in public, after all, so what was the harm?

"Angelo is fine." The less he had Rosales saying his last name, the better.

As for self introductions... well, that was a lot harder to do then the rest. Angelo was never quite sure what people did or didn't know about him, never mind what people should or shouldn't know about him. He had a general sense that talking about his background was bad, but he'd never really felt the need to hide it. It simply was part of who he was.

"Well... I work with the Manta Carlos police, to start. That was how I met Shay - I found her during the tsunami rescue efforts." He wasn't sure how much Shay had told him, but it seemed like he would be better off starting at the beginning and working his way through things.

"She was bright, but also stubborn. Insisted on tagging along with me rather than staying at the base camp, which was risky. She was helpful though--helped me find some other people and all that." He didn't want to sell her short, but at the same time, she had been trouble from the get go.

The more he talked to Klaus, the easier it was to keep talking, so he carried right on.

"She didn't really warn me about this, exactly. This was just going to be lunch so I could check up on her and make sure she was doing okay. I haven't really gotten to catch up, considering how busy the station's been since the tsunami."

@Foxy

Sarrain · Jun 24, 2016

Ah. Klaus was pushy. So very pushy, cutting in and adding dad. Shay didn't rebuke him. His compliments had her face beet red and before long she buried her nose into his torso to hide the color staining her cheeks. Klaus was warm and secure, and Shay found that she stopped fighting the urge to give in and be a child. Her anxiety lessened and as a result, she simpered.

Angelo's story was a little harder for Shay to respond to. Shay wasn't sure whether he was irritated with her or impressed with her or both, but she got the feeling she was more bothersome to him than anything. Why had he agreed to lunch? Maybe because he'd wanted her to leave the station and knew she'd have just come back had he not agreed to something. This was the path of less resistance.

Shay scrutinized Angelo's subtle transformation from stiff to talkative (or what she assumed was talkative for him) in Klaus' presence. It made her feel less insecure for having fallen for Klaus' charms so hard when they first met. He had a way of making people's resistance melt with nothing but a word. He conveyed a reassurance that everything was fine that no matter what you were doing it wasn't wrong and could never be construed as such. But, as Shay had seen, that could be destroyed in a second. She quivered.

"It didn't happen that long ago," Shay responded, voice a tad muffled from Klaus' shirt. She tried hard not to look at Angelo. Anywhere but at him. "I was going to tell you. I didn't expect Klaus would come along." He'd fought her on it, and now she was more than fortunate he had. Having him here was a blessing wrapped in a curse.

"As for the rescue stuff, I made a deal with you, and I stuck to it. So long as I didn't hold up the thing, I could stay and I didn't. You guys were short on people, and I didn't want to stay in the police station doing nothing. Sitting there and being helpless is boring."

Shay stole a glance at Angelo. Being a kid sucked. She could never do anything, and any help she gave was seen as a problem. "I didn't make it worse, did I?" she asked Angelo, wondering if she had and he'd merely kept it from her. "If you were worried about me, you shouldn't have been. I survived the tsunami okay and with only a scratch." Scratch was an understatement, but well, she needed to look adequate.

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Just A Friendly Visit

Romi

Secretly a Bird

Sarrain

The Salt Sea

Tom Marvolo Riddle

the dark lord

Romi

Secretly a Bird

Sarrain

The Salt Sea