[OTA] You Hit Me Once, I Hit You Back

[headfollowheart]

It had been a rough several days. Not personally rough, or so Zoe told herself as she left Heart Castle just after sunset. It had been Hadyn, not Zoe, who had been dumped by Elisha Kagan. She'd never known Charlotte Berthier all that well. Their mothers had been frenemies of a sort, and their relationship had mostly consisted of being pitted against each other; if Lotty had perfected a Mozart piece, than Zoe had to perfect Liszt. If Zoe spoke Italian with native fluency, than Lotty could both speak and sing in French. That sort of thing tended to destroy any chance of friendship, and by the time they were grown up, both girls regarded each other with the sort of competitive mutual dislike that maybe blinded them a bit to the potential.

Zoe would have never imagined that Charlotte, who seemed to sail through life with her mane of blond hair bouncing behind her, would have been the one person who had gotten so close to uncovering the mystery that had been plaguing all of them. Or that she would have died for it.

A line formed between her brows as she walked through Town, turning towards the Spade district and home. It was possible she wasn't paying as much attention as she should have been. It was possible, even, that if she hadn't been so lost in her thought, she would have seen the two figures in the alley before one of them grabbed her by the arm and yanked her that way.

"What...?" She began and then gasped as she was backhanded and shoved up against the wall. They didn't say anything, but there was laughter, and the sound of it first made her go completely still...

And then propelled her into action. She kicked out first, which did no good with the soft, flat shoes she was wearing, and then curled her hands into claws, reaching for anything she could scratch. She swung her bag, slamming it against one man's shoulder, and started to sidle away from the wall, almost getting away before she was grabbed again, her arm wrenching and making her cry out as pain vibrated down her arm. There was a little more desperation in her fighting now, the training from Maggie, Victor, and Hadyn disappearing in favor of her earliest lessons.

As she was yanked closer, she sent her knee upward into one of her attackers' groin. He doubled over, letting her go, but there was still the other one to worry about, and Zoe reached under her skirt to pull free one of the blades from the thigh sheath she'd worn now for a few years. Funny - she'd started wearing it at first because it seemed exciting, dangerous, but she'd never expected to use them. Even after she'd switched to the Spades, it hadn't seemed likely.

She didn't hesitate much as she drove the blade forward and was released with a gurgle of pain.

Zoe swallowed as she backed out of the alley. Her hands were wet, she thought vaguely, and wiped them on the front of her dress, leaving streaks of red on the gray fabric before she picked up her bag and fumbled through it until she had her phone. She leaned against the wall as she dialed, and her voice was thin when she spoke.

"I need some help."

[[OOC: Sorry this is so insanely long. Short version, no one is dead, but one of the attackers has a stab wound and the other is just going to be a soprano for a little bit. Zoe has a few bruises, sore ribs from the initial attack, and a grade I shoulder sprain.]]

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[headfollowheart]

She stood in the shadows of the darkening street until she heard the pound of footsteps coming down the streets, clenching her hands together to keep them from shaking until she saw Victor come into view. The knife she'd dropped into her bag when she'd pulled out the phone.

Zoe shook her head when Victor took her hands, taking a shaky step forward to lean against him, closing her eyes. But that wasn't quite true. "...A little," she said. Her face was sore from where the first man had slapped her, her ribs hurt too, from she didn't remember what exactly, and her shoulder throbbed a little. She'd felt worse, technically, after riding accidents.

Thinking that didn't seem to help her stop trembling. "Do you think I killed him?" She asked.

[morallydefunct]

He held her, close and tight as he pressed his lips against the top of her head. There was a brief silence, though, at her question as his eyes turned cold and dark. He looked at his men, tending to the wounded man and shackling the other.

"No," he said, "I think not." Though he suspected that come sun rise, the man would very likely wish he had died at Zoe's hands. He had to remind himself that he was holding on to his wife, truthfully, to keep his hands from curling into her shoulders like a vise.

"Pasha, see that their...injuries are tended. I'm going to take my wife home." It would give him time to temper his own reactions, before he allowed himself to do something rash. In a softer tone, he spoke to Zoe, "lets go. You can give your report later."

Not that it matter, he thought, he knew enough to see what had happened. At least enough for himself.

[headfollowheart]

She glanced over her shoulder, her eyes narrowing a little on the two men. They looked familiar, but the Deck was a small place; almost everyone looked familiar. Neither was someone she could put a name to. At least not right now, she thought, turning back to Victor and nodding a bit.

She slipped her hand into Victor's arm, wincing a little as it pulled at her shoulder, and looked down at her dress before she glanced back at Victor. "Chives is going to be in a state about my clothes," she said in a weak attempt at levity. She was shaken, but she wanted at least some semblance of normalcy to this night if she could manage it. It would, she thought, make it easier for her to put herself back together for the morning.

[morallydefunct]

He very nearly considered carrying her home, but his arm only settled around her shoulders protective as turned to walk back to the Castle. He glanced at her clothing, and quirked a slight smile.

"I believe Chives will be all a fret." He said, though it was not harshly. "You'll just have to let him, else it'll only get worse."

[headfollowheart]

She would have let him do it this time, but she would have been resistant to the idea. Zoe was someone who preferred to stand on her own two feet; it was one of the things she and Victor had in common. One of the things she and Hadyn had in common, too.

"Nothing I can do about it," she said. She laughed a little, though it was soft and almost sounded as much like a hiccup as a laugh. "Or he'll try to keep me on bedrest for weeks." It hadn't yet occurred to her that she probably would be heavily encouraged not to go straight into work in the morning.