Turning towards the ladder she nodded.  She moved over too it and stopped.  She stood there, within the honesty of his humility and said nothing.  She blinked a few times, staring into his eyes and wondering what was compelling him.   He didn't really strike her as the wear your heart on your sleeve kind of guy.  She wondered when the last time he had opened up and gave this kind of honesty.  She didn't think it was an act.  No one in her whole rotten life would have even bothered with the kindness of lying too her to make her feel better.  No, this seemed like the genuine article.  That only made her laugh harder.  Cassandra leaned over the rail and grabbed her stomach, it hurt her guts the way she was laughing, crying.  It bordered on hysterical for a moment or two.  It truly was a close call.

"You really are a meat head."  She laughed and grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him closer.  In this impractical stairwell.  Where shouts and echos bounced all around them.  There was no privacy, there were no sweet moments of serenity and peace and finding out about yourself.  They were not even alone.  The voices on the other side of the door were quite frustrating, but screw them.  They didn't matter.  Not here in the peace of her mind when she had decided she didn't care anymore.  Pulling him closer she allowed her lips to not crash into his, but simply to melt into them.  Soft and honest.  More honest than she herself had ever been with another person.  It felt good.  It felt good to allow the armor to fall from her shoulders and simply be vulnerable, exposed.  

She didn't consider the fallout.  She didn't think about the rejection or the weight of her choice in the aftermath of realization.  Cassandra's tail moved up the length of his arm.  Biting and slipping its way over the muscle.  It wrapped around his forearm and tightened.  Then let go as her embrace fell away.  "I wasn't laughing at you.  I was laughing at me.  I'm the stupid one here."  She didn't explain further.  Kindness was a new concept to her.  She felt the warmth tingling her toes and the pit of her stomach.  It was a feeling she decided she liked.  Something she wanted to chase at the risk of feeling foolish.  She had nothing to chase before.  No goal at the end of the tunnel to see at the other side of it all.  She took a step back.  She felt shaky on her legs and her lips were crackling electricity.  The tingle from his lips still fresh on her skin.  

She began to climb.  Pushing open a hatch it did in fact lead back to another part of the roof.  It was windy and cool out on the roof now.  The moonlight stifled behind a few darkening clouds.  Everyone else was still back at the door to the stairs, they hadn't realized that the two they were chasing were back on the other side of the roof.  They had their privacy for now.  She turned to see if Eisenhower had followed her up the ladder.  She glanced at her watch and frowned.  They had wasted hours here at the party.  The night would come to an end soon and then what....?  She would be imprisoned and he wouldn't wait for a statue.  

That thought sat in her stomach like a boulder.  She bit her lip.  Chewed on it really.  It was something she had always done when she was deep in thought.  She looked to the horizon.  Still questioning weather just flying away into the night was her best course of action.  She didn't want too.  She didn't want to feel.  Feeling was confusing.  It was much easier to hate, and assume everyone was an asshole.  Untrustworthy until proven innocent.  It made things, complicated.  In a way that she wasn't sure she co-signed on, but it had already happened.  It was surprising even to her just how little humanity it took to open her up.  It was something she had craved without realizing for quite some time.

As soon as her lips pressed against his, again, this time unlike the first, the muscles in his body loosened.

Eisen let the taste of her lips linger. Normally lips he received were full of passion, intensity, longing, a craving that wanted something from him. That needed something that he himself could not fulfill, but could be a tool to bring it about. Yet, this time it felt different. There was a welcomeness to it, a weird invitation to stay. 

And as she melted, so did he for a moment. The tension in his soles let go so that the door swung open and a pile of people fell onto the floor. 

Then when her tail wrapped around his wrist and he felt her wanting him, almost needing him, and then her letting him go. He turned his mutation back on— leaving a dog pile of people frozen with their clothes in place, still squirming and screaming.

Just like that the moment was over again. A single ripple in the pond.

With Demon climbing ahead of him, the yells of the partygoers, of the two having just met. All of it conflicted with that invitation. Was this really ok? What did he do? What had he been asking of her?

He needed to know. 

As soon as Demon made it up, Eisen raced upwards to see her sitting alone. Staring at the horizon. He felt like this was his first time really seeing her tonight. The memory of her encased in stone— it felt like she was that girl again. 

Now he regretted using his mutation on her. How could he, for even a moment, have done something so cruel. To make her feel trapped when she wasn’t. He couldn’t have known.

“So that’s it? No goodbye? No exchange of contact information? Just a kiss and ride? Damn. Guess it hurts when it happens to you instead, huh… Karma is a bitch.”

Eisen felt like he had to puke. Was he not going to tell her to stay? To tell her to stop? Why couldn’t he say anything more. This is why he went for girls like Maggie… Just so shit like this wouldn’t happen.

“Will I at least see you again?” Was all he could muster to say. A siren sounded in the background. Maybe Maggie would file for assault. Maybe his little business would be ruined after this night, a couple wanting to sue for ruining a wedding. He didn’t really know, but for a moment. He didn’t care about himself for once.

He waited, even with the banging against the hatch underneath him. He just wanted to know.

”Cassandra.”

Cassandra wasn't sure what she expected.  He might have come after her.  He might not.  She was confused, conflicted.  She wanted to stay, but she also didn't want to spend the night with him.  Have him wake to find her incased in stone.  Maybe he would think it was his fault or something.  It was simple.  Explain it.  But simple logic was never evident in times of need.  She looked at the moon.  How many nights had she spent looking at the moon waiting for her shackles to come back?  Sometimes she felt like her whole life was on Pause.  It was funny because before tonight she didn't think she had much of a life.  She existed.  She ate, she slept, she growled at the occasional stranger.  She didn't love.  She didn't feel.  She didn't experience joy or sadness, or the touch of envy.  Until now.  

Hearing him behind her Cassandra kept her back to him.  Not because she was mad at him, but because she didn't  want him to see her vulnerable.  The word itself tasted like poison on the tip of her tongue.  Being weak in front of anyone was unthinkable, but in front of someone you actually gave a shit about?  She could feel her stomach doing lazy cartwheels against her ribcage.  Churning and slowly revolting.  Usually her stomach was something she was very akin too.  She still hadn't eaten at the party.  She was so caught up in a whirlwind of chaos and unexpected revery that she let it slide.  Now it was in knots, twisting against her iron will.  There were cracks in the armor, but they did not show.  She would not let them.  She reached up and brushed a tear away.  It had moved down her cheek and lightly stained her lips.  Salty and exhilarating.  

At the edge of the roof was a crumpled pack of cigarettes.  She looked down and saw some roof smokers error.  He had neglected to take them with him.  She picked up the pack and saw one twisted but still whole butt left.  She put it between her trembling lips and reached into her jacket pocket.  She emerged with a lighter.  Cupping her hands against the wind she lit it up.  Breathing fire like a dragon she let the posion fill her lungs.  It burned.  It ached.  It was wonderful for the nerves.  Still, she did not turn around.  Instead she allowed him to continue his pleading conversation with her back.  It was better than being some stupid girl with tear stained cheeks and a story to pity.  "I.... I can't Eisenhower."  She said dropping the butt and snuffing it out with the toe of her boot.  As she twisted her foot she thought about how painful this was.  And she couldn't fathom why it was painful.  They barely knew each other.  

He was the first person in her life who had seen her.  Not the wings or the tail or the round curves that pulled them all together, but her.  She felt that.  She didn't know she ever needed such a thing until she had felt it.  Now she rejected it.  She wanted nothing to do with it, because it scared the living hell out of her.  "Son of a fuck...."  She sighed.  She turned to him.  Her face was wounded pride and bitter ego.  But it was honest and naked.  Her hair blew around her face, momentarily covering her eyes before the wind blew her locks in the other direction.  They clung to her face as if they were trying to conceal what broke inside her.  "You're better off with Malibu Barbie.  At least she can't fucking drag you down.  Goodbye."  Before he could protest, before he could do anything really  Cassandra jumped backwards.  She jumped two feet off the rooftop and landed on the ledge with perfect balance.  It was effortless.  She looked at him a final moment.  She didn't realize that a card for the Blackwater Bar in lower  Manhatten had fallen out of her pocket as she reached for her zippo.  It was a business card she had hastily stuffed into her pocket.  She only kept it because it had the address on it.  And it had a decent rooftop with a modest amount of privacy.  She got "stoned" there from time to time.  It had a great view of the water beyond the city and she would watch the sun come up and sleep in stone until nightfall.  It was her usual haunt.  A place she felt safe.  She had memorized the address along time ago, but it was just one of those things that sit at the buttom of your purse forever; though in this case it was a jacket pocket.

"By the way this party fucking sucked."  She smirked and gave him two middle fingers and one final bit of sass before her wings erupted in sudden brillance.  They cast shadows over the night.  They almost blocked out the moon.  Her wingspan was truly impressive.  She flapped her wings and jumped backwards in a suicide dive off the edge, only instead of falling to her death she flew backwards.  Her wings caught on the wind and she twisted her body turning her tears away from the only face who had ever shown her kindness and shot off into the night.  She was on her way to the Blackwater Bar.  She needed to feel safe tonight.  She needed to get away.  She needed to find peace within the screaming doubt that kicked at the sides of her temples.

Eisen stood with his paralysis crushing his every limb. For one who took pride in not caring,  and for chasing the pleasures, the thrills, the out-of-this world without a second thought, he crumbled to the floor of the penthouse roof, with memories racing in his mind. Just memories. Of Demon. Cassandra.

The way she sat there, obviously sobbing. How he didn’t creep closer, letting the siren sounds from below the building ring in his ears. The pounding underneath the latch stopped, but the pounding in his heart remained.

Fucking Malibu Barbie… Maggie meant nothing to him, and Demon ought to have meant nothing as well. But when her brilliant wings opened up in the night and he ran forward knowing he would not reach her in time, doing nothing. Nothing to stop her. He screamed out into the city streets.

“FUUUCCK!” All his internal anguish released in a barbaric yell. Then he noticed the paper that had fallen out of her pocket, drifting through the wind and into the streets below. 

He lunged forward, and took wide strides, leaping to catch the business card with his bare hands. Then he fell.

Headfirst into the city streets, the blue and the red and white pushing up against his retinas as the adrenaline coursed through his veins.

He wasn’t as gracious as Demon in her descent, nor could he ever seek to catch up to her by his lonesome. But, he pumped his mutation into the soles of his feet, and eased into his falling routine. Pushing up and off the air as if he were running down a steep hill, then adjusting his angle as he descended, so as to eventually run parallel to the street below. His feet were exhausted by then, as they always were having to catch himself from that height with his feet alone, but he kept running until he rested on a public bus.

With a thwomp, he sat cross-cross on the bus’ roof and read the address on the card. Black water Bar. At reading the address, Eisen felt a stirring hope in his chest, a small chrysalis of a thing that could easily be squashed. This could lead him to Demon again… or it could have been a dead end.

He laid with his back on the moving bus, not caring where it took him right now. For the first time in a while, the feeling of being lost seeped into his bones. A feeling he’d been ignoring for quite some time now.  He let the city lights and the ungracious emotions that plagued him carry on. 

The taste of Cassandra’s kisses still wet in his mouth.