might as well be home -raychel/open-

[imadecoy]

Levi shuffled back into his office, dropping his bag on the floor with a loud thunk! He had not actually been home in over a week, with the amount of work he had and all the traveling he was doing. Apparently Britain was one of the seven Ministries of Magic that had a runes department. He had jut been gone four consecutive days, decoding runes in highly cursed pyramids in Egypt. Levi had done well, but only made one minor mistake, which had caused him to sprout two extra fingers; he was just thankful that he had not grown two extra heads.

He still had the excess digits, being far too busy (or lazy) to have them removed. Levi looked around at his office, Rosanne, his secretary, had organized it in his absence, although there was a rather hefty pile of work to do neatly stacked on his desk. Levi sat down in his chair and stated working. At least it was seven fifteen and not four in the morning. Levi had taken to sleeping in his office. Needless to say his mother was not pleased with this, but he had told her they would not have much face-to-face contact once he took the position.

Levi groaned quietly, yet again he was dealing with people that didn't know the first thing about runes. Like always, they were trying to decode Japanese ones from left to right, but anyone with any experience in his field knew they were read from right to left. There was a knock at the door. "Come in," Levi said, not looking up from his work. In walked a little old lady, reading glasses perched on her nose. "I brought you some supper," said Rosanne, placing a steaming hot bowl of soup along with a few slices of homemade bread on his desk. "I figured you would want something home-cooked after being away."

"Thanks Mrs. Shelton," said Levi, finally looking up from his work to give Rosanne a genuine smile. She was the nicest person he had ever met. Rosanne left Levi to his work. He ate as he began writing a response to the people stuck with the Japanese runes. Yet another knock came to the door. "It's open," Levi said somewhat loudly after swallowing a mouthful of soup-soaked bread.

[broadway]

It was Raychel. She was practically in hysterics on the inside, but on the outside she was calm and collected. It felt like years since she had seen Levi, and she ecstatic to finally be near him. She opened the door and stifled a laugh at his mouthful of bread and soup. She stood awkwardly by the door. The shadows began to dance at her sudden nervousness. She wasn't exactly sure why she had such jitters now, but she managed a small smile at her boyfriend. "Hi." she replied softly.

[imadecoy]

"Hi," Levi said, grinning widely as he looked up from his work to see Raychel. It had been such a long time since he had seen her, the both of them had such busy schedules. He got up from his gap and closed the gap between them, and gave Raychel a hug. Levi placed a light kiss on her lips. "Good to see you," said Levi.

[broadway]

Raychel returned the hug gently, careful not to crush him. She then returned the kiss with one of her own, placing it gently on his cheek. "It's good to see you too." she replied softly, stepping away from Levi. Even standing here in the room with her good-natured boyfriend made her feel queasy. She already had enough of the evil she was capable of. That, she was a murderer. That fact never left her mind. However, she had gotten good at masking the pain. She shot Levi an award-winning smile, remaining standing.

[imadecoy]

"Come, sit with me," said Levi, taking Raychel by the hand and leading her to the leather couch along the wall. He pushed over the pillow and blanket that he used to make a bed for himself in his office to make room for the both of them to sit down. Words could not describe the fulfillment he felt at being with Raychel, she really did complete him. "Egypt was brutal," Levi said, showing Raychel his left hand that had the two extra fingers.

[broadway]

Raychel managed a grin at the extra limbs. "Here," she replied, retrieving her wand. She tapped his hand and the extra appendages vanished. She grinned and stowed her wand away once more. In this process her robe sleeve had fallen down, revealing the Dark Mark. With a start, she pushed the sleeve back over it hastily. Were she still human, her face would have flushed. Sadly, now all there was left was a terrified face, contorted in anger. She hadn't wanted Levi to see that. But there wasn't much she could do about that now.

[imadecoy]

Levi smiled as the two excess fingers on his hand simply vanished, leaving his left hand entirely normal, no trace that it had been attacked by some Egyptian curse. But his eyes saw the mark, for a split second. The O'Malleys had told him about Raychel's involvement due to the fact that Isabelle had been the one to Turn her, and he understood fully, but to brand her like that? Anger gnawed at the pit of Levi's stomach, but he said nothing about the matter.

[broadway]

Raychel rubbed her arm subconsiously. She could hear his heart pump in anger, smell the blood running double-time through his veins. She laid a comforting, but hesitant, hand on his knee. She remained silent however, not sure of what to say. Saying everything was alright was a lie. Saying she was fine was a lie. Everything that she wanted to tell Levi was a lie. Everything that would set him off was the truth. And Raychel couldn't bare to have him angry. Anger made people do crazy things, hence Raychel's vampirism.

[imadecoy]

Levi was tired of the silence, he needed something to do or say... "I've been thinking of buying a house," said Levi. It wasn't as if money was an issue, being Head of his Department he already had enough to afford a typical suburban home, and with his annual income he could probably get the kind of mansions seen in Magic Grove. Levi was not used to the fact, having grown up mildly poor, the most money ever brought in being from his father's joke shop. He wanted to live somewhere in the countryside, to escape the pressures of his job on the days he had off.

[broadway]

Raychel smiled. She wasn't sure where this conversation was headed, but she nodded in agreement. "A house would be nice." she replied. She gazed about the room, taking everything in. "A house for you to live in, rather than living here in your office." she replied with a laugh. The place was in disarray because of his tendency to sleep here. But, at the same time, the disorder made the place more homey... or, at least as homey as an office could be.

[imadecoy]

"Yeah, sleeping here can be a quite literal pain in the neck," said Levi. He already looked haggard, even though it was not late, only a bit past seven in the evening when most nights he worked until three in the morning or later. It probably wouldn't be as bad if he worked Sundays, but Levi absolutely refused to go into the office on a Sunday, he needed one day of rest per week, give him the time to sleep of the alcohol that he oftentimes consumed a bit too much of after work on Saturdays...

[broadway]

Raychel giggled a bit. She gently, teasingly, massaged his neck. She looked around once more, enjoying the idea of him having his own house. She could visit him without being tempted to devour his brother or parents. That made the situation less scary. She knew she could control herself around Levi, but more than one person around her was still hard to fathom. She was good at quenching her thirst now, being able to live out a "normal" life, if living as a betrayer and a monster was anything close to normal.

[imadecoy]

"I'll let you know once I've got a place," said Levi, slipping his hand into Raychel's and holding it lightly in spite of her skin being so cold. He lightly closed his eyes a moment, he was tired. Levi rubbed the back of his girlfriend's hand with his thumb gently. His anger at seeing the Dark Mark on her forearm was slowly receding, and the emotional void was filled instead with a sense of tranquility, peace.

[broadway]

Raychel sighed, nodding slightly. She sat perfectly still, inhumanly so, watching Levi carefully. She curled her legs up next to her as she allowed her eyes to close slightly. By eliminating her sight, her hearing was amplified. She heard a fan twirling around a few doors down, a fire crackling across the hall. Her smell was amplified as well and she quickly snapped open her eyes to avoid being tempted. Her mind wiped itself blank, to the point where the only thing on her mind was Levi, and her.

[imadecoy]

"I think we need to have a date night," said Levi after a long pause. It had been such a very long time, they hardly saw one another, but it seemed like an almost impossible feat. With this new rising battle against evil and all the work that had to be done. There was never enough time... Levi bit his lip lightly as he thought about how they would be able to make it work.