New Distractions (Scotch)

[Danika Zukov]

It was late summer in New York, sometime on a cool August night. People were busy putzing about, tourists that normally took pictures during the day were getting ready to stir up the night life. Families were getting in their last vacations in before the school year struck once more. Danika Zukov, however, sat watching the people with somewhat sad eyes. Xavier's Institute wasn't in session at the moment which was why Dani was able to be out this late...without being in trouble that is. There was still a curfew that she violated, frequently, but right now wasn't it.

A breeze blew by her, brushing over her bare arms and causing a shiver that reminded Danika of her homeland, Russia, and she smiled. As much as it saddened her to think of probably never going back, she was grateful for the stirring memories. The girl stood and began strolling down the sidewalk, her black Converse hardly making a sound. It probably helped, though, that she was light on her feet, her feral instincts now a natural part of her being and pushing away a good portion of the chill cause by not wearing enough clothing. Maybe wearing a tank top hadn't been a good idea, though she was glad she had opted for leggings beneath her skirt versus the tights she normally wore. She had also opted to leave her fur cloak at home, which usually made her stand out more than her white hair already did.

The mutant reached Central Park and stopped for a moment, remembering meeting her boyfriend, and subsequently her friend, Crow. Dani longed for Kyle, her boyfriend that had disappeared on her. She had been happy with him. She was happy now, just less so. For a moment she almost entered the park, hoping to find Crow, but she continued on her path, moving on to a different part of Manhattan.

This was a normal night for her now. Danika spent night roaming the city, trying to memorize it, make it her own. It took her mind off of things as well as somehow brought her closer to Kyle. But, as she frequently had to remind herself, she couldn't dwell on it too much. Kyle would come back, if he could. The girl had faith in him. Until then she would make herself as happy as she could.

That thought reestablished in her mind she found herself wearing a small, coy smile. What kind of things could she get herself into tonight? That was always a fun question to ask. Would she run into a fight where she could practice the skills she had been learning at Xavier's or would she find somewhere to relax? Or, would she find someone to hang with that night? That was always an intriguing possibility. Her smile remained as she slowly made her way through crowds, just perusing the city.

[Scotch]

Despite what Scotch had said to Crow, he was still following her movements as closely as he could. To be fair, he hadn't exactly lied, and he hadn't tried to kill her. He was just making sure that he had enough to go on should they come up against each other again, other than that, Scotch kept as much distance between her and his life as possible. She had probably found another of his houses, but he was more than certain that she hadn't found his home, which was a relief in itself. If she found that home, she could find any of the things he kept there that were far more important than his phone.

Scotch hadn't gone back to that house for a while though; just to be safe. He'd holed up in a house he had in Manhatten for the last few days. In those few days, Scotch had taken up quite a lot of jobs, apparently Crow didn't like people like him working in her range, but his range encompassed the entire globe. So, while he wasn't trying to kill her, he was making it a priority to annoy her as much as possible. He had just finished a job, in fact, and had some spare time before he had to finish another.

The last job had been bloody. Particularly bloody, and Scotch had fished out a cloth on his way out of the apartment to clean himself up with. Most of the blood was centered around his torso, and as far as he could feel, he'd managed to avoid getting any on his back. A feat, considering what he'd just done. Scotch had just finished cleaning up the blood on his torso when he heard someone nearby. Looking up, he saw a girl, about his age, maybe younger, and tucked the cloth into his pocket. If he was stopped, he could explain it away. People tended to be worried about blood and it did perplex him. Maybe this girl wouldn't question it.

[Danika Zukov]

Danika came out of a particularly large cloud to the smell of blood. It didn't seem to be fresh enough to be coming from a nearby body, but there was definitely the smell of blood, and it was relatively strong. Blood didn't bother Dani, even though it probably should. She had seen a lot of it at a young age when she had been kidnapped, tortured, and forced to watch her mother die in front of her. One would think because of that she would be afraid of blood, but she had other fears, such as water, from that ordeal. There didn't seem to be an uproar about a body or bloodstain anywhere and the girl didn't see anything right away so she was just going to ignore it until she happened to pinpoint where it was coming from.

The scent of blood was coming from a rather attractive looking man who seemed to be about her age. Interest in the boy instantly flared, even though the fact that he was covered in blood should have been a warning flag in her head to stay away. Then again, when had that ever stopped her? Upon learning of Kyle's past she has simply accepted and moved on. Of course, she wasn't about to make a stink about the blood because, if he was someone dangerous, and it stood to reason that he was, what was to stop him from going after her? But, she was interested to talk to him anyway.

Dani had just seen him tuck a cloth, presumably used to attempt to wipe the blood away but wouldn't do shit to hide the scent from a feral's senses, and briefly wondered what he had been up to end up with so much blood on him. Then she decided she didn't want to know. He was probably a mutant (New York seemed to be a magnet for them) and mutants tended to get wrapped up in things such as attacks, blood, and death. But that wasn't going to stop her, not at this point.

The mutant girl reached the man covered in blood and gave him a shy smile before saying,

"You do realize that you are out in public and covered in blood, right?" Her tone was light, teasing, loud enough so that he could hear her, since she was guessing he was a mutant and she wasn't aware of what his powers were yet, but also quiet enough so anyone passing the two of them wouldn't hear every bit of what she had said. After her statement, Dani just stood and took him in, a coy smile on her face, her feral eyes already adjusted to the dim lighting; he was significantly taller than she was and boy was he magnificent. Oh yes, she could get used to spending time with him.

[Scotch]

The distance between the two was still some distance, but neither of them seemed willing to divert their path. By the time the two met, Scotch had thought of nothing to say or do that would take any attention away from the fact that she had seen the rag. Within casual talking distance, the girl spoke and Scotch hesitated in his stride. He was not covered in blood... not the upper portion of him anyway. He looked down at his pants. Yeah, those were a problem. Nothing really hid the color of blood well. "Yes." Was all he could say. It had been a question, after all, and one that he could answer. It being 'public' was dismissable as there were very few people around.

The girl too, had stopped, and Scotch felt like there was a pause lengthy enough that he should have said something in reply. Instead, he had been observing her. 5'5", if she was any taller. Slim enough frame. The white hair was the most noticeable thing about her and the part that kept his attention. Should he mention it? She didn't seem bothered by it, and he had seen stranger hair colors. Purple was definitely not a natural hair color. What would he even say about her hair? It was nice that she had some? She kept it in fairly good condition, he could see. It also smelt like fruits... and something else. Scotch took a deeper breath and analyzed the scent. It was familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

His head tilted slightly to one side as his pupils dilated. He couldn't say that he didn't like the scent, and now that he had noticed it, could smell the traces off it in her natural scent, behind any artificial scents she might have had on.

[Danika Zukov]

Upon nearing the male Danika could make out his fine features and build much better. And boy did she approve of what she saw. He had a strong jawline and kissable lips. On his finely-shaped jaw, the man has a few days worth of scruff growing that Dani would go along well with his oh-so-kissable lips. Her eyes traveled down to his torso which she was no realizing was devoid of a shirt. Previously the scent of blood had distracted her. Now her eyes were firmly locked on the nicely sculpted torso of a man she had literally just met and didn't even know the name of. But hell, she wasn't going to complain at the moment.

A grin made her features brighten as she forced her eyes to continue their downward descent. Before they could get even close to the beautifully clad thighs, his reply to a question she had forgotten she had asked brought her eyes back up to his. Of course, this caused her to realize what she had been doing, undressing a man, granted he was half-naked anyway, she had just met who was covered in drying blood, with her eyes, and sending her body temperature to spike slightly. This then sent a light blush to her cheeks that she defiantly fought.

As she tried to think of something to say, and by George she was going to say something to keep the guy around, she watched his reaction to her. His beautiful green eyes seemed to go to her hair and she fought to check it. Normally it was fine, but on occasion it decided to go all Medusa on her. It was then that he took a deep breath and Danika nearly gasped. That was something that normally only ferals did to catch a scent. The fox mutant had seen it often enough with Kyle and had done it often enough on her own to recognize it. That meant that she had just found another mutant; that also meant that he could smell, and had been smelling, all of the emotions rolling off of her, including her attraction for him, but she didn't seem to be the only one with some sort of attraction as his head tilted to the side and his pupils dilated.

Danika took a step closer, taking a deeper breath of her own, hoping to get beneath the blood and the sweat. She somewhat succeeded; there were the remnants of some kind of cologne and then there was his personal scent. It wasn't something she could pinpoint, really; just sort of earthy which also gave her the sense of 'strength'. It was strange but her head tilted ever-so-slightly as her nose twitched at the scent. Well, this was turning out to be an interesting walk. But she couldn't just stay silent, now could she. No, that would be rude.

"Well, that must be a bitch to clean out by yourself." Her eyes moved back up to find his to try and gauge his reaction. She didn't know exactly what she was hoping for here, but she was going to find out.

[Scotch]

It wasn't anything secret that the girl was looking at him. Not in the same way a potential threat would look at him, or an acquaintance, but the same way females, and some males, did when he was out for a casual jog in the park. Something about him not wearing a shirt had that effect, he had noticed. He didn't have a shirt around to remedy that situation though, so he would just have to wait this out. By the time her gaze had almost reached the lip of his pants, she looked back up at him. It was really a conversation ender. He knew that most people continued in some way, but he just wasn't much of a talker.

And apparently, neither was she now. A flush of red hit her cheeks and Scotch could hear her heart beating a little faster. Her reactions to him peaked when he took a deeper breath to examine her and that took him for a second. Why would that give her pause? Unless she was a mutant too, with feral scenes of her own. Scotch finally started to relax into his position as the girl stepped closer. It was becoming apparent that she either want to talk or something, which meant that he wasn't going to be moving away any time soon.

As Danika took her own analyzing sniff, Scotch lowered his head a fraction. He had never actually encountered a situation like this and was running through all of his training protocols to see if anything was even slightly similar. There had been missions where he had to be approached, but they never smelt like this. Scotch kept his eyes glued to her face. If there was any indication of how she might react, he assumed it would come from her face first. She was certainly not a killer, so he was having doubts that she would be able to keep composed enough that he wouldn't catch something.

When she spoke and looked up, he looked down. Most of it had been cleaned off. There was a tint of red on his skin, and certainly a lot of blood still on his pants. If it didn't set, he could just throw in the washing machine and be done with it. If it stained too badly, he could just throw it out. "Sometimes." While Scotch did understand the use of the term 'bitch' in this context, he wasn't aware any second-hand meaning in her sentence. Not even with her flaring lust and his peaked interest in her.

[Danika Zukov]

Dani was beginning to think that he wasn't going to respond to her at all, though she was rather enjoying just looking at the mutant in front of her. She noticed that his eyes were focused on her face, though they shifted to look down at his apparel, and lack of it, when she finally looked back at him. Now it was her turn to try and read his face, though she was willing to bet that he was far better at it than she was. Dani didn't have much practice or the upbringing to be able to read faces. The predatory feeling that she was sensing from him told her that he was good at all manner of...unsavory...things that she probably didn't want to know about but didn't care (anymore) if she did or not.

He finally spoke, though it was one word. Obviously he wasn't the talkative type. That was just fine. If she got what she wanted, Danika would just be having 'fun' with this guy, not looking for anything more than that. The problem was Dani was not very good at being a sexy, persuasive person. The closest she had come to that was with Kyle and he had been her boyfriend so it was sort of expected that he thought of her as sexy. That being said, if Danika was not mixing up her smells, this guy also seemed to have some interest in her.

As usual, Danika was flustered by this and didn't know how to proceed; the animal instinct, which Dani had been following more and more as of late, had more of an idea, however.

While she was already close to Scotch, Dani took another step closer, allowing barely a finger to pass between them. Her nose twitched as she sniffed again, the smell of blood going mostly ignored now, though her fox mind took some interest in it. The normally brown eyes that lit up Dani's face began to shift a little more red as her powers started making themselves more known. She almost reached out to touch him, but her hand stopped.

"Well, I wish you luck with that then. I'm Danika, by the way." The girl didn't know if he would actually tell her his name, in fact she rather doubted it, but it was worth a shot.