I9DT - June 25: For the best

[Ethan Cheng]

Ethan knocked a few times at Victoria's door.

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria, looking worn (as usual, these days), answered after a moment. Ah. Guess I should have seen this one coming... "Hello, Ethan," she said, smiling a bit.

[Ethan Cheng]

"Hello," he replied, looking a bit worn himself. Still, he returned the smile. "Mind if I come in?"

[Victoria Valentine]

"Of course," she said, moving aside to let him in. "Pardon me noticing, but you look like you've had better weeks."

[Ethan Cheng]

"Oh, I've just been busy with moving out and making sure the imbeciles they use around here as movers don't break anything important before it can get shipped back home. Well, among other things. How have you been?"

[Victoria Valentine]

"I've had better years darling, but I'm still here," she sighed, taking a seat on her couch.

[Ethan Cheng]

"Then just abandon all of your worries and become the idle rich," he replied, the corner of his mouth pulling up in a smirk. "So...is she safe?"

[Victoria Valentine]

"Yes," Victoria said, nodding. "I hope you understand if I don't tell you where she's safe?"

[Ethan Cheng]

He visibly swallowed, bowing his head. "It's logical. I don't like it at all, but...it makes sense."

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria huffed a little breath, though her expression didn't change. "Do you think that I do like it?" she asked quietly.

[Ethan Cheng]

The answer came much easier this time. "No. I'm not sure I realized until recently just how much what you want and what you need can differ sometimes. You did what you needed to do."

[Victoria Valentine]

"No," she said quietly, "I did what she needed me to do. I... have no bloody clue what I need."

[Ethan Cheng]

"It sounds like you've been thinking about things like that a lot."

[Victoria Valentine]

"Ugh, gods, what else am I supposed to think about," Victoria sighed. "Sometimes I just want to go back in time a bit and smack the hell out of my mother for leaving me such a bloody messed up life."

[Ethan Cheng]

"So, what happened to your mom, anyway?," he asked, also taking a seat on the couch.

[Victoria Valentine]

"By all accounts, she was blasted to death by a Sentinel," she answered. "Leaving a lot of various upset former employees and unfulfilled rivals," she added.

[Ethan Cheng]

"A Sentinel? Well, that's scary. Wouldn't want to meet one of those." Then he smirked. "I take it she paid well and had a few enemies."

[Victoria Valentine]

"Well, shall we say that she had the tendency to let personal business overshadow business business. So she got a few good people killed with her in a fight that, by all accounts, they didn't give a good damn about. And yes, she had a few enemies. Mostly in the Hellfire Club."

[Ethan Cheng]

"Heh, believe me, I know all about that. They're the reason I came here to begin with. Our parents will have us well and truly fucked sooner or later just because of their unconventional choice of county club." This made him laugh. A real, deep laugh, something Victoria had probably never heard him do before.

Hey, you either have to laugh or cry about these things.

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria smiled a little. "Well, then, hopefully we've broken that chain now and our daughter won't be screwed by the bloody stupid things that we do," she sighed.

[Ethan Cheng]

"I hope you're right. Oh, and all of this reminds me." Ethan reached into his jacket and pulled out small box. It looked like a jewelry box, but one that was too large to be ring-sized.

[Victoria Valentine]

She gave Ethan a suspicious look as she cautiously reached for it. "You know, I might sort of have a girlfriend now. You're not trying to start complicating my life, are you?" she asked, her eyes wary, though there was an undercurrent of teasing in her voice.

[Ethan Cheng]

He laughed again, almost as loud. "This has nothing to do with anything like that, I promise. It's actually really practical."

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria smiled as he laughed, and opened the box to see what was inside.

[Ethan Cheng]

The box contained a golden pin, wrought into the shape of a fiery phoenix with its wings spread. In the middle, over the phoenix's breast, was a circular carnelian in deep, brilliant red. A symbol in traditional Chinese was carved into the stone like a signet.

"That's the word for 'red.' Maybe it's not likely, but if you ever are ever in East Asia and find yourself in need of any kind of help, that pin proves that you're a friend of the Red Court of the Hellfire Club of Hong Kong. Find someone from our half of the Club, and they'll give you whatever aid you need. It's a gift from the rest of my family as much as it's from me."

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria looked at it, smiling slightly. "And, please be honest with me, how many people who aren't red court actually know what it means?" she asked.

[Ethan Cheng]

"You know all the right questions, don't you? Few in the West would have any idea what it means, be that here or in the Americas. In Asia, you might be a little more cautious who you show it to. Most of the Black Court wouldn't care, but there are a few bones to pick between some members of the two sides."

[Victoria Valentine]

"Good," she said, nodding. "And since I don't tend to get to Asia much, that should be quite all right," she said, closing the box. Then she leaned over and, smiling, gave Ethan a light kiss on the cheek.

[Ethan Cheng]

He smiled. "It was the least that we could do. For doing the right thing. For her, I mean," he sort of stammered out.

[Victoria Valentine]

She smiled a little, then gave him a light kiss on the lips. "It's difficult to process, isn't it."

[Ethan Cheng]

"Yeah. I hate to admit it, but it is." He actually blushed, ever-so-slightly. Not that Vicki could possibly miss it. It could have been from either the kiss or the humble admission that he didn't have all of the answers...or both. The latter had been a hard lesson to learn.

[Victoria Valentine]

"That... hasn't been an easy lesson," she admitted. "I think it's probably best we went through this early, though."

[Ethan Cheng]

"Even after all I've been through, I still hate being taught by experience," he muttered. "Sometimes it's the only teacher you have when you're orphaned, though."

[Victoria Valentine]

"I know," she sighed. "Sooner or later we have to run out of hard lessons, though. I hope."

[Ethan Cheng]

"As long as you go to college, I don't think you run out of them," he said, dryly.