Heartthrob

Shopping. Shopping! Shopping, again, as a normal citizen. Like a normal fucking person.

It felt pretty fucking good, Purity figured.

She'd snagged some spare clothes from the basement on her way out - some truly boring sweatpants, a white tank-top that just said "BITCH" across her chest, and a zip-up hoodie, whose hood had ears and eyes like a black cat. Khetnep kept these sort of 'plainclothes' options in the basement, where her enforcers trained and stayed; Purity, as her employee, had felt very justified in snagging some.

And so, here she had come: wandering about the streets of inner-city Vitus, pondering her next move. She had been thinking during the entire sojourn over here about what to get for her lovers, and what small thing to get Zofi and Lulu... but... well, to be frank, she had come up with simultaneously no ideas, and too many ideas to discern an optimal choice. Sometimes life was a bitch like that, eh?

For Est, she had been thinking of a handful of things: some kind of pretty dress (Esthrielle deserved to feel pretty and soft, and less like a killing machine), some form of weapon (she had left all of her weapons behind in the convent, of course - hard to smuggle out machine pistols and silver swords on a moment's notice), or?

Purity sighed, her eyes flickering towards a nearby sex shop - Dark Delights SeXXX Store flickered back at her, the pink neon lights aping her hooded hair's hue.

Est, frankly, had seemed to be filled with both delight and dread any time the three of them had had a sexual encounter. Knowing what she knew of Esthrielle's past, Purity couldn't help but assume it was something about the dynamic - about how, in all times but their liaison at the convent, Esthrielle had been made submissive.

Was that harmful for her? Was she set ill-at-ease from that - some sort of lingering vulnerability and trauma from her past flaring up whenever someone else took control? Maybe Purity would pick up a strap for her... but, that was hardly a Christmas gift in its entirety, with what funding Khetnep had provided.

Purity's thoughts continued to drift as she walked, making her way away from the sex shop but making mental note of its location. After Esthrielle came Esper James, the little ghoulette with the great weight upon her. EJ had plenty of great options, honestly: a dress (maybe she could get matching dresses for both ladies! A cute idea, though with great potential to go amiss), a stuffed animal (EJ loved her stuffies), perhaps some kind of cheap game console from a pawn shop... some manga, or some anime, or one of those toothbrushes that was made for fangs, or...

...oh.

Purity had gravitated to old stomping grounds, it seemed, as her eyes came back into focus on her surroundings. Back to familiar vistas, familiar venues... back to Kristoff's. The ol' Czynszki Diner, so-named as a play on Kristoff's surname, and, "...because I only opened it to pay the rent."

It stood out like a sore thumb against the newer construction which surrounded it - Kristoff had purchased it after leaving the service, longer ago than he would ever admit to Puri to having lived, and he'd never moved. Bought into everything Tsang told and sold, about Vitus being the city of the future... about it being a place where all peoples under the UNAC banner could flourish, and thrive, and experience the 'future of living'. They hadn't yet revealed, back then, that the so-called 'future of living' was just dying.

Weathered beige paint exposed the bricks below, which themselves had turned a dark, dirty brown, their age and Vitus's ever-present smog eroding at what once may have been a vibrant clay-red. The door was a similarly dingy affair - real wood, from back when it wasn't so expensive to order, but with peeling layers of paint layered like an archaeological dig if one were to scrape their nail against it with force. The brass handle looked exactly how one would think.

Purity's breath caught in her throat; her chest felt heavy, her lungs draped in mist that made her torso feel weighed-down and low. Countless days mixed like sludge in her memory, those locked cell doors threatening to be kicked down as she was once again back under Tsang employ, just for a moment.

Had it truly been so recently that she was still theirs? It felt like years ago, but it was... well, it was only last month that she had met Esper James, wasn't it? She's been free for less time than that - a handful of weeks, really. Was she even really free?

Purity hadn't even noticed the way her hand had moved to take the door handle, or how she had turned it without thinking. Only when she was struck by the scent of ages-old cigarettes, and dust, and frying meat, did she zone back in. God, when had she started doing that - started forgetting where she was, and being lost in thought? Must've picked it up from her girlfriends.

The diner was as empty as it always was. Kristoff made the majority of his funding from buying and selling meat nowadays, after all... and besides, his diner was old, and lacked the modern amenities of more upscale butcheries. The only people who'd be caught dead or alive inside were either impoverished and desperate, or making a point to try out a more 'retro' eatery - the former garnered Kristoff's sympathy, the latter invoking his silent, passive-aggressive ire. He always spit in their food. Purity'd seen him do it.

But, here he was, sort of - cooking something up in the kitchen, for a patronage of none. The diner was styled in classic Americana, with stools along a long central bar and booths on the sides; Purity felt it only added to the emptiness of the place, like a snapshot over a hundred years old.

She sighed. Time to speak, Purity. You felt compelled to come in... felt compelled to walk here in the first place, and then to open the door and enter. Might as well fucking say something to the man who'd been like a father to you ever since your actual dad drugged himself to death. Her heavy lungs were filled with a heavier breath, and, after a moment of futile self-deliberation, she called out.

"Kristoff? A-Ah, ahaha, Kristoff, you, uh... you here?"

The words pierced the silence like an arrow through the heart of wild game, and that stillness and serenity bled the very same. The sound of frying meat was now accompanied by a scrabbling noise, cookware hurriedly tossed about to try and maneuver in ways Purity couldn't even begin to guess at. After a moment, she received her reply - the cookware had fallen into some sort of repetition, at least.

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"Purity! Hey, Purity, little princess, haha! I... Well, it has been some time, hasn't it? Ah, aha... only a few weeks, and yet, it feels like a lifetime!" Kristoff's voice was hearty and healthy, and underlined with a strange delight Purity had never heard from him - not for as long as she could remember, at least. Initially, it warmed her - but then, she began to worry... worry about if Kristoff was okay, if he was compromised, if he was trying to tell her something without telling her something. The clattering cookware... the sudden joy... the empty diner, more spick-and-span than she could ever remember seeing it...

A bolt of fear coursed down her spine, chilling her straight to the marrow of her bones. She still couldn't see Kristoff in the kitchen window, but she could hear the continued preparation of whatever the hell he had been cooking. She shuddered, reaching for the knife she had hidden in her waistband; as her fingers closed around it, she hazarded to reply.

"...ah, ahaha, y-yeah. Yeah, it has. Stopped on by just to confirm that I'm, y'know... still alive, I guess. Not Vitus-alive, by the way - first-living and everything. You, uhhh... y'been well?" Years of training for vocal control kept her tone from giving anything away; she sounded casual, in her mind, and didn't give any of her trepidation away. Even Kristoff, whom she knew so well, would never be able to know that Purity was on edge like a-

"Purity! Please, my dear, calm down. I... Aha, hahaha! I'm fine. No Tsang agents lurking in the shadows, I promise; I'm just..." He trailed off then, as his voice was strangled by choking emotion. That previous overwhelming joy was dissipated, and while the calm chill in the air had been swept away by his outright address of Puri's concerns, it was replaced with melancholy which threatened to stifle even the rats in the walls. There was a single sob from the kitchen, and Purity felt her heart drop out of her back like the battery on a toy.

All hesitance was cast aside as Purity rushed across the floor, black flats slapping their soles against the tile floor like the world's most dismal percussion section. The door to the kitchen was cast aside, and in an instant, her eyes locked on Kristoff - where he now crouched on the floor before the flat-top stove, tears streaming hot and fast down his worn, world-weary face.

He had fallen into the fetal position, the strongest man Purity had ever known now reduced to a weeping, withered husk at the sound of Purity's arrival. Choked sobs and strained whimpers found their way through dry, wizened lips, and he clenched his eyes and his teeth as though in some unspeakable agony.

"Kristoff...! Kristoff, I...!" Purity couldn't think of anything more to say as she broke into a momentary sprint, her sweats letting her drop and slide a few inches to throw her arms around him. They sat this way at length, warm bodies sharing comfort and unspoken sympathy to a background chorus of popping fat and hissing steam. Purity had the good sense to reach up and turn the stove down after a few seconds, if nothing else.

Kristoff eventually calmed himself enough to work down to a shaky, haggard sigh, the tears still welling but no longer forming twin rivers as they had moments ago. He found the strength to look up to Purity, and, after a moment to take in her face, he half-forced a smile. The joy was real - but so was the pain.

"Purity... My dear, my sweet little Purity... Ahhh, oh, how glad I am to see you... I-I... I feared the worst, when... When..." He trailed off, blinking a few more tears from his bleary, now-pinkish eyes. Purity returned his smile with one of her own, laden with sadness and sympathy, before probing further. What did Kristoff know? What was he trying to say?

"What, Kristoff? When wha-" She couldn't finish the question before Kristoff's face contorted back into a mask of utter despair, the tearburst resuming its torrential cascade. "When those fuckers killed him! K-Killed Alex! They killed him, Purity! F-F-Fucking... F-Fucking, incinerated him! He's fucking g-g-gone!"

The words punched the pink-haired woman in her throat with the force of all the world and more. She nearly fell onto her rear, eyes snapping wide and mouth going agape; if she hadn't had a hold of Kristoff, she may well have tumbled onto her back.

"They... A-Alex, he's...?" No more words were to follow. It was Purity's turn to cry, now - the emotions which bubbled within her chest were caustic, boiling, and indescribable. Acid and syrup, panacea and anathema, guilty joy and guiltier sorrow. She and Alex had always had a complex relationship, ever since they day they had first met - and with all that followed, it had evolved and grown stranger, though never fully to hatred or adoration. In a way, Alex had been a villain to her - and, frankly, he had objectively been a villain, as well. Engaging in the underground meat market was anything but noble, or benevolent.

But, he had tried. Had, on multiple occasions, tried - to help Purity, to fix his mistakes, to ease her pain. He was the one who had helped negotiate for a higher commission for Purity, leveraging it as a better way to gull her targets. He was the one who had helped her when EJ had her freak-out back in November - only a call away, and without any documentation of the incident. He had even helped her with her tAsT server, getting their code team to set her up a personal server with amenities only she could use (it was a Tsang-owned company, after all).

Alex represented Purity's oppression, her torture and her slavery... but he had never meant for it. He had put himself on the line, time and time again, to try and right his wrongs. And now? Now... he was dead. They had killed him for it, no doubt - for being involved with her and EJ, and his meat market racketeering on the side.

She would never get to see him again.

It was Purity's turn to begin to cry - and cry she absolutely fucking did. Loud, unashamed bawling began in earnest, and the two embraced one another with renewed vigour. Kristoff managed to croak out a further spate of speech, though it was harried by emotion the entire time.

"They...! Th-Those fucking bastards, they sent me his Tsang ID, s-scorched by the fucking flames! And... A-And when you didn't come around for... f-for week after week, and didn't say anything...! One of your little girlies swung by, too, asking after y-you! Said you'd arranged a d-d-dinner date! I thought they killed you, Purity! I thought I h-h-had lost the both of you!"

Another hammerblow to drive the stake that much deeper into Purity's heart. It would have been difficult indeed to cry with any further emphasis, though she certainly tried - and the two of them sat there at length, clinging to one another, desperate to hold onto the other and never let them go if only so Tsang could never reach them. If they never let go, they'd be safe forever - safe in this old dingy diner, with the scent of cooking burgers and old cigarettes shrouding them like a blanket of time and memory.

Eventually, of course, crying grew tiresome - literally, causing the yawns and the deep breaths that lead to calm and peace, if only through a veneer of muted despair. They helped one another to stand, and Kristoff - in a show of momentary cheek, if only to lighten the mood - snatched up his spatula and flipped the burger on the stove in an instant. He cranked the head back up, and in seconds, it was sizzling anew.

"Haha, Purity... I... gah. We have so much to speak of, I... please, Purity, princess... go sit. Your favorite spot. I will make us both burgers, just the way you like them... we must catch up. Your little ghoulfriend isn't here?" He raised a brow, seeming to tense in preparation for further ill news. Purity shook her head, a sad smile coming to her lips.

"Nope. Hiding. Whole city wants her dead. You know how it is, haha... so, I'm out shopping while she does her thing alone." Her eyes fell towards the floor as she thought of EJ, wondering what she was doing, and where she was. Surely, she and Est and the nuns were having a better time than her... surely, they were happier. Smiling, perhaps, with genuine delight. Hopefully they were warm, and their hearts were, too.

She'd need to give the four of them the biggest, strongest hug she could muster, once she got home.