”Naturally.” Kealey said. True, she couldn’t make bullet proof shields, but she could make sure that nobody wanted to shoot at her. It was kind of the same thing.

Kealey didn’t muse about being someone else for long, she liked herself…even with her powers. The thought made her smile. She’d come a long way since she’d come to New York. Her powers weren’t such a burden anymore…especially not at times like this. Kealey made a mental note of this place, even if there were a few random passersby, it would still be far more quiet than the mansion.

Shin legitimately wanted to know how she knew the Abyss brothers. Kealey nodded her head when he asked if she’d tell him after he was done. There was so much to tell…she’d probably have to start at the beginning…and speak delicately. For a moment, Kealey considered taking back her offer…then she mentally steeled herself. Shin had told his story, even though it was obviously an uncomfortable topic. She would do the same.

Shin wasn’t worried about what she was thinking, but he was curious. That would teach him for trying to make her guess! Kealey shrugged her shoulders and closed her eyes, still grinning wickedly, ”I guess you’ll just have to guess.” she said playfully.

”So did you just wake up back in your body all of a sudden? It must have been a relief…not that there’s anything wrong with Abyss…but still. Did it take getting used to being in your own skin again?”

Oh, come on! That was no fair, her changing the subject and dodging his inquiries like that. Shin laughed out loud, and shook his head.

"Haha, not so fast. Don't weasel out of answering my question like that, Kealey. It's no fair." His bottom lip quivered in mock-pout. Shin aimed puppy dog eyes her way. Her thinking about him, and not sharing those thoughts? Totally cheating. "Tell me." She should share her guess. It wasn't fun if she didn't play along.

Plus, he wanted to know what she was thinking. The pout tugged into a devious smile. "Unless you're thinking about something you just can't share?"

Kealey couldn’t help it, she burst out laughing at Shin’s indignation. ”Ohhh, so that’s how it is, is it?” she said, accent thick as her words sped up. ”You can make me play guessing games, but I need to share everything with you.”

The puppy dog eyes though…they were a powerful weapon, and the blond shook her head. Nope, she was going to stick to her guns. Two could play Shin’s guessing game.

Then he started playing dirty.

Kealey laughed again, her own smile pulling slightly into a smirk, ”Wouldn’t you like to know if I was.” she said, voice growing slightly lower and even more devious.

Kealey let that hang in the air for a moment, then chuckled again, grinning and shaking her head as she looked in Shin’s direction, ”I haven’t ever seen a tattoo on your arms or legs. I’ve seen you in a tank top and there’s nothing on your shoulders or the back of your neck. What choices do you give me if you won’t simply tell. There‘s only so many paths a mind can take.”

There. He’d asked, after all.

Yes, he fought dirty. Shin was particularly evil. The devil incarnate. Nobody eviller than he.

And Kealey's reaction was priceless. Yes, it was true. There were very few paths a mind could take, and the process of elimination certainly helped narrow those down. But what she was thinking, she still hadn't said. Not on his arms. Not on his legs. Nothing on his shoulders, or the back of his neck. What did that leave?

There were really only two good options. Which one was Kealey thinking of?

And was Shin evil enough to ask her, after he'd dropped it down to so few options?

"Wanna see it?" Shin asked, sugar-sweet. He smiled an angelic smile, pure as could be, and let that question hang there, just like Kealey had let her question dangle. Then, he picked up his chopsticks, idly snagging a piece of sushi as if nothing had happened.

Would he show off his tattoo in the middle of a hedge maze? No... Could he suggest it, and watch Kealey's reaction, though?

Pft. It'd be out of character for him not to try.

Shin was enjoying this little guessing game far too much. That meant Kealey was having a great time too, even if she was mildly exasperated by the situation. He really wasn’t going to tell her. That was as good as an answer, but he was getting more and more deviant as time passed.

Then he asked if she wanted to see it.

Kealey was suddenly glad she’d stopped eating a few minutes earlier, because she was pretty sure she would have choked otherwise. Maybe the tattoo was somewhere innocuous but not normally visible. Would he offer if it wasn’t?

She peered at Shin as he snagged a piece of sushi…he was feeling particularly impish after that comment. It meant one of two things.

”I really ought to say yes, you know.” she said, ” Because, it makes a person outrageously curious when someone is willing to show something they won’t even say out loud.”

She eyed the cake for a moment, deciding to wait until this finished playing out, ”Or, you could just tell me.”

Shin was impish, now? Impish wasn't far severe enough a word.

Shin popped the sushi into his mouth, and ate slowly. On his shoulders, a devil and an angel fought. The devil was clearly winning here.

Clearly.

But the angel had brought up a good point. And so had Kealey.

Shin finished the sushi, and smiled innocently at her. "Maybe I should just save it for later?" He paused, and speared another piece of sushi, casually adding. "It's on my backside."

He was starting to cave. Kealey could feel it in his emotions, however devious they were. She’d stuck to her guns, thought through her responses, and had made it to this point. It was tough to tell whose side she was on, the angel or the devil, but whatever it was, she was making progress.

Shin ate more sushi and Kealey waited to see what he was going to say. The option to up the ante had been there, and Kealey was pretty sure if her suspicions on tattoo location were correct she’d end up winning the day. There was that off chance she was wrong though. Curious…so curious.

Shin suggested that he save it for later and Kealey raised an eyebrow about to insist again that he simply tell her.

Then he told her.

Smug. That’s what Kealey felt when Shin revealed the location of the tattoo he’d gotten courtesy of Abyss. ”I was right.” she said, leaning back on her hands in the grass and grinning triumphantly.

”It could have been worse…he could have gotten you one somewhere visible. It isn’t anything obscene, is it? Surely he wouldn't go that far.”

A few more moments thought on the subject begged another question, "Would you have really shown me if I said yes?"

>>”I was right.”

"Heh heh." Shin chuckled to himself. Right. So, that's what she'd been thinking. Nice.

"That's just the thing," Shin smiled at her. "I don't know what it is. I've never had anyone to help me check."

Would he have shown her? "The offer's still on the table." Shin replied. "Although..."

He…didn’t know what it was, somehow that was even more fascinating than the fact that the tattoo existed at all. It was understandable why he, just like Luke, hadn’t had anyone help him look. How did you approach someone for that favor? It was almost beyond reason. More than that…how did you offer to help without seeming like some sort of freak?

Kealey had been half joking when she asked Shin if he really would have shown her, and she laughed when he said the offer was still on the table, cheeks pinking slightly at the thought that he was serious.

She grinned anyway though, ”I’ll remember that.” she said ”Though I ought to cash in on it right now, just to make you pay for teasing me so mercilessly.” she thought for a moment, then shook her head, ” Nope. I’ll just keep it in mind.”

Although…he’d said that before.

”Although what?” she asked, head tilted slightly.

"Although, we still need to eat that cake over there... and..." He smirked at her. "You'll have to do a lot better than that to get my pants off, Kealey Quinn." He teased.

"So, anyways. How did you know the Abyss brothers?" He continued after a moment, smiling at her reaction. He snagged another piece of sushi, and held it up against the sky.

Oh yes…the cake. Definitely something they needed to do, Kealey reached for the pie tin, then Shin spoke again.

Kealey had done a pretty good job keeping up so far, until this point she would have said that she held her own in the verbal sparring match going on between herself and Shin. Until this point. Shin’s comment made Kealey’s head snap up, and even though she could tell he was at least partially joking, her cheeks began burning with what felt like the force of a billion suns.

What did one say to that? A few thing came to mind, but Kealey couldn’t actually get any of them to come from her lips. Instead she just laughed and shook her head, shooting a grin in Shin’s direction that hopefully let him know that she wasn’t mad, just at a loss for what to say.

It would take a lot more…Kealey pushed the thought aside as Shin changed the subject and busied herself with the cake tin while she organized the rest of her somewhat scattered brain. If only the blushing would abate…

”You remember that day when we met in the Full Circle?” she started with the nodded her head when Shin said he did.

”That night, someone named Garrett found me in the subway after Roland had hit me…he took me to the Sanctuary to fix me up. I was dazed and disoriented…but it just so happened that another friend of mine was there too. Lori said I could stay in her room, so after I was stitched up we went there. Only…it wasn’t her room, and Lori had much different ideas about how to deal with trauma than I do.”

Best. Result. Ever.

What was it about blushing girls that made guys so proud? He had no idea. But it did, and it was. Maybe it was just him? Either way, Kealey's reaction was... adorable.

He'd left her speechless, and blushing furiously.

Fun.

Kealey clung right to that subject change, like a drowning woman to a life raft. "Mhm," Shin nodded once. He remembered when he'd met her. She'd been lured in by the Badger.

He forced down the not-so-subtle pride as she told the story. He didn't like hearing about her getting hurt. Nope, not at all.

Or... wait. "Huh?" Not her room?

Shin’s reaction was the one Kealey had expected, confusion at what she meant by her last statement. It was still kind of hard for her to believe herself. A self-conscious hand crept up to tangle in the curls at the side of her head and Kealey took a sudden deep interest in the picnic blanket they were sitting on.

”Lori gave me something to sleep in, and we started watching old black and white movies. I was exhausted and I fell asleep. She thought she’d be doing Venus and I a favor…and she just kind of slipped out once I was out.”

Here’s where the story got difficult. Kealey felt her cheeks getting pink again. This time the embarrassment wasn’t pleasant though. She frowned thoughtfully, trying to work out how to explain.

”I don’t know if it was something they’d done before…but needless to say the wake-up call I got was not what I was expecting.”

She paused and sighed, ”I thought I was being assaulted by the devil himself. Luckily, once I stopped freaking out I was able to explain the misunderstanding. Venus and I ended up being friends…despite his wicked mind.”

She stopped there and shrugged, ”Besides him…I’ve met Mars and Abyss himself. Mars was looking for Lori…turns out she’d been taken, and he was really quite angry. Made all kinds of threats…but he was feeling all aggressive…so I got aggressive too…I ended up on a motorcycle…then a plane to Florida that time.”

The last was the worst…and could have ended up so badly. ”Abyss…I mistook for Venus on a very rough night. He got me home safe. I was very lucky.”

Shin stared at Kealey for a minute, in disbelief. Finally, he said something.

"He what? Assaulted? What? Wicked mind?" What kind of friend was that? Who did that? There needed to be some clarifications done here. She was being vague. "What exactly happened? I'm confused."

The other clone took the back seat. Shin was focused on Venus... and potentially, this Lori person.

"And who is Lori?"

Details. He wanted details. Kealey winced slightly and ran her hand through her hair before looking at him a little helplessly. Shin was getting the wrong impression. ”No no…it wasn’t like that…I mean…I was just scared when I woke up and there was this huge…red…guy just there. And Venus is very intense…and it had been a really long, bad day…so I freaked out. The second he realized we weren’t on the same page he backed off for the most part.”

Kealey shook her head, ”I tried to leave…but he wouldn’t hear of it after he heard what happened. The brothers…they’ve each got a dominating personality trait…Venus’ is that he’s…naughty.” This conversation was getting weirder by the moment.

”I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and I was so scared. So I stayed…we’re still friends, but I haven’t seen him in quite some time.”

Lori. What about Lori? Kealey sighed.

”Lori…was the first female friend I made in the city…she was buying clothes and the shop ladies were ripping her off for commission. I helped her out…she taught me how to drink chocotinis.”

Kealey smiled at the memory and shook her head. ”We were polar opposites…except that it’s such a small world…it turned out we had one, big thing in common. Namely Jacen.”

Kealey shrugged her shoulders, ”We didn’t find that out until much later, though, for whatever reason Lori had given me a fake name…she‘s how I met Mars. Somehow Lori ended up in trouble in Florida, and Jacen went after her while I was staying with him…

That might have been too much. Much too much. Kealey pulled her eyes from the blanket and looked back at Shin, "I told you it wasn't pretty..."