January 4th, 1890 — Padmore Park; Midnight

Shit but she was hungry. Ishmael may have convinced her to start feeding off animals now, but God, temptation was cruel. Why she even thought about hanging out in these kinds of places where humans hung about was beyond her. Perhaps it was because she was bored out of her mind, these days. Nothing had really happened since they'd last talked. Perhaps she'd sought comfort in the death of a few people here and there, but none of them were at her hand, so waiting until they were good and buried only to just dig them up again was so tacky.

In a rush of frustration, Azazel had flopped herself unceremoniously into a bed of flowers, closing her eyes and listening to her own fury race through her mind. Soon it was close to dusk and she hadn't moved an inch in perhaps a few hours. What was the use of living if she felt so weak?

It was just when she was about to let out a growl of frustration that she heard the crunch of a foot nearby. Eyes still closed and not the least bit in the mood to attack anything, she ground out, "You step on me you die."

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She may be hungry and a murderer, but she obviously won't attack unless previously discussed first!

  

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Yuri was bored, he was always bored. The street was cold and pretty empty but it was too cold to sleep in one of the doorways, lest he freeze to death and he didn’t want to go back to the home for wayward children lest he get a caning for having absconded for a 2 days. He would get the caning eventually when he went back, and he would go back because he always did, but if he was going to be caned, he might as well make his freedom last as long as possible – he got the same caning for 2 days as he did for 2 weeks.

Yuri’s penchant for mischief was making his fingers itched. It had snowed the week before and but the street was wet, and clear of snow, the streets traffic had ground the snow away to water that made the roadway sludgy and wet but ultimately clear. There was some dirty snow laying under a dung cart that hadn’t moved in weeks, more dung and mud than actual snow. He considered scooping it up and heaving it at the nearest expensively dressed toff that happened to walk past him. But it was midnight and there were no toffs to be seen and he slumped across the high street to look for better sport in the park.

The beds of snow drops and early spring daffodils were already flowering and without anything else to do, kicking the heads off the buds seemed like a reasonable way to spend 30 minutes. He stomped through the beds swinging his feet wildly. A voice spoke from the darkness and for a moment he froze, but figuring it was another rough sleeper, and unfraid of anything -despite what good sense would tell him, he snarled back. ’You mind your fuckin self then’!’ scuffing a foot in the direction of the person who had spoken, not much minding if he kicked them. ’I’ve as much right to be here as you.’

  

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MJ Made Beautiful Things!

Ah. How sweet. What was once annoyance turned to amusement as the vampire peered out of the corner of her eye and confirmed what her ears (and nose - eugh, even she bathed herself in the water every once in a while) had told her. Little street urchin who thought the world had done him in for and had resorted to a barking defense instead. Though the 100+ year old vampire had no need of air, she let out a sigh anyways. Hardly a challenge, though the scuff of the kid's shoe nearly missed her head as she felt a puff of air accompanied with a cloud of dirt kick onto her person.

Well that was annoying. A crease of a scowl appeared on her face as she reached up a hand to brush away the dirt with a flick of her fingers. Insipid little rat. The little boy would hardly be of any snack to her though, she thought. Might as well go and have one of those blood bags that Ishmael had scrounged up. "I'm sure you think you do." she drawled, finally opening her eyes to fix the kid with a lazy stare.

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''ho are you to tell me anyfin?' he snarled moving to stand by her in a way he clearly thought was intimidating, 'You're nofin' but a dirty park sleepe'' he added, not realising the irony of his snarl. But you see he had somewhere to go...he would rather be in hell than actually be there but it didn't change the fact that he had a home if he wanted one.

'Shouldn't you be off 'oring?' he offered the worst insult to a woman he could think of. In years lived he was only 10, and while he might not know the mechanics of what 'whoring' actually entailed women tended to react badly to the insinuation.

  

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MJ Made Beautiful Things!

Someone who could snap your neck clean in two, she thought curtly, her teeth clenching together. Nevertheless, she sighed as Ishmael's words echoed throughout her head again and she held her tongue.

The vampire blinked at him as she cocked a brow and a grin spread across her face. "Are you sure you know what whoring is, young one?" she mocked, her eyes raking him up and down. "You don't look a day over two."

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'I know what 'oring is!' Yuri snapped back defensively, 'and I'll 'ave you know I'm 25' he added drawing himself up to his full height, all 4 ft 4 of it, and trying to look intimidating. 'and I'm not 'fraid of no strumpet.' he seethed, and flopped down on the park bench that abutted the flowerbed. During the day it was probably a lovely spot to take in the later winter flowers and watch young couples promenading, but at night it was a curious sight to see a small child hissing like a feral cat at a woman, apparently prone to laying in flower beds.

Now, having taken it upon himself to back off her, rather than having been ordered, Yuri took the oppertunity to observe her carefully, 'What are you doing 'ere anyway?' he asked, some of the venom gone from his voice, and a genunine childish curiosity taking over.

  

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MJ Made Beautiful Things!

Azazel looked the young one up and down again. Frankly, she didn't know whether to be amused or annoyed; such a little sprouting with so much fire, yet in her eyes, the only thing he amounted to being was rather lackluster. Despite her conclusion, she deigned to keep her tongue on that opinion. She already made it perfectly clear he wasn't much of a threat to her own personal well being unless one counted having dirt kicked at them a capital offense.

"You told me you have as much right to be here as you do," she murmured, flexing her feet and stretching out again. "You tell me what you're doing here and I might just let you in on what I'm doing here." Ishmael should be proud she hadn't snapped his neck yet; the fresh young blood bubbling just beneath the surface of the skin was singing her name. Any closer and she just might have to give in and have a late-night snack.

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Yuri rolled his shoulders, and for a moment the hard look on his face fell away and he looked every bit the 10 year old he was. He shrugged diffidently at her question, because it was true he had no good answer to give. 'I dun wanna go back to the home' he admitted and kicked the head off a nearby flower just in case it looked like he cared. 'I'll get a beaten for being away 2 days and they'll tan my hide when I go back.' he sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve, 'I get an 'idin' for 2 days the same as for 4 so might as well stay away from that dump.' His voice sounded small, even to his ears and fearing he was sounding weak, he gave a large, and what he considered to be manly sniff, and spat a gob of snot and spit into the grass. Yes - that would cover the fact that the 10 year old hated living in the home for inconvienant children - especially when he was old enough, and capable enough to survive on his own - and being out of bounds - well that was his way of showing them he didnt need any of them.

'now you...' he managed to have his snarl firmly back in place by the time he spoke.

  

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MJ Made Beautiful Things!

"What a pity," Azazel responded, though there was none in her voice as she adjusted her position to sit up and stretch. The sun had gone all the way down so there was little need for her to quite literally lay low until the sun came back up. Brushing off the dirt that had accumulated onto her dress, she stood up and peered down at the child.

"At least you have food there," Was her only response, blinking down with a blank stare as he attempted his best version of sounding fierce. Pity, he'd probably end up in a ditch somewhere. The kid seemed to have some sort of gusto in him, so perhaps he'd have a fighting chance if he tried hard enough. "Some have to fight for their food rather than walk up to someone and grab it out of their hands." Of course, she wasn't talking about herself - there was hardly any fight in her food at all nowadays.

Speaking of which. The vampire sighed before sitting on a nearby bench. She was rather hungry, but she knew it'd be her skin if Ishmael found out she'd attacked a child, even if it was an annoying one. Her blood popsicles were in rather low supply so it was either sooner or later that she'd need to approach him to get some more. Bugger.

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When she scoffed at his predicament, Yuri couldn’t help but smirk. Scorn he could deal with, scorn was something he was used to and he could handle it a lot better than he could handle pity – and being pitied by a vampire wouldn’t make as good of a story as getting into a scornful argument with a killed in the depths of the night in the middle of a graveyard, where he got the better of her intellectually and she ran off weeping and emotionally devastated when he threatened to stake her would make for a much better one. Okay so none of that was actually happening and Yuri had no intention of actually making a threat to kill the vampire in front of him – 1) because he wasn’t entirely stupid and 2) because he was far too interested in the conversation.

’I can fight, and get food when I need it’ he insisted his chin sticking out in a defiant gesture, meant to look as tough as possible – somehow her approval was the most important thing in the world right now, ’Beside the muck they serve is as much sawdust is it is food’ he added, it was true – somewhat the home received an allowance to feed the children – sometimes it was paid for by relatives who didn’t want the annoyance of a distant someones orphans bothering them around the house. Those children had private rooms and ate in a dining room with the homes mistress – parish children, charity cases like Yuri were fed in a different dining hall at long hard benches and the meagre knuts provided for their meals and clothing often went more often on the house mistresses brandy than on their feeding. Yuri could get fatter on the street than he could in the home.

’’Ow do you get food? You killin’ people and such around ‘Ogsmeade? Or do you like rob graves…or the butchers?’ he asked trying to think of all the possible places blood might be procured in the boring village of Hogsmeade. Being a vampire really was interesting.

  

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MJ Made Beautiful Things!

Her eyes slid down to him, taking in his frame. There seemed to be very little muscle on his frame much less meat. Sawdust? Well, that explained his appearance. She still said nothing, contented herself to perch on the bench and debate how she would approach Ishmael about getting some more blood pops.

Of course, her thought process was interrupted by the kid's question again and she glanced down at him, the corners of her mouth twitching. "I hardly think that's anything you should concern yourself with," she replied, growing bored of this conversation already. She got up to leave. "I'm sure there are other people you could go bother who would gladly answer your meddling questions though."

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'Food's food' he said with a shrug, 'snot your fault wizards are just food.' He had done bad enough things for food - who was he to judge others. After a life spent on the dung hill of life he was only too aware that everyone had their place in the hierarchy - his had usually been at the bottom, so it made sense to him that something, or someone had had to be at the top. And since it didn't affect his position on the hill - it didn't make no never mind to him if vampires were at the top. Infact it was entirely fitting.

Still - when the vampire made it clear she was done with the conversation he thought he was better off scarpering - lest he ended up as lunch. Maybe another time he'd ask one of the other hundred questions that crowded his brain. Now he knew where she hung out he hoped she would be easier to find again. 'See you round then vampire.' it didnt feel right calling her 'miss'

  

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MJ Made Beautiful Things!