She was late... she really wasn't though. She hadn't seen Mona since she left to go on that crazy stealth mission with Nicolai. She shook her head at the memory, and cringed at the amount of hot blood that spilled in it every time. She sighed. If there was one thing she was never going to get jaded to it was voilence. She ran fast though. Her mechanical legs taking her at speeds that far surpassed most humans. Those she passed looked at her with astonishment. She was only working at a fifteen percent power level. She chuckled to herself. If they only knew...

The mission had taken nearly five years and by the time she got back, Mona's oirgional bar stood alone and barren in a desolate part of town. Things had changed so much. She asked a few neighbors who said that she had moved into a new town and gave her a vague direction of north east to work with. All she had to do was search the database of each town in that direction until she found the papers for the property rights with the name Natsuka and Chandra on it. She wondered how much it had changed. She hoped her cage was still there.

She found the alleyway easy enough. This area had Mona written all over it. She didn't think she had any tie to mystical abilities but maybe she just knew home when she felt it. She opened what must have been a heavy steel door to humans without much effort and she took the stairs into the warmpth and scent that was the Natsuka and Chandra. She took a deep breath inward. It smelled like Mona and therefore it smelled like home. She exhaled slowly and made a small purring sound in the back of her throat.

Her imaged cat ears twitched while her tail swayed lazily back and fourth. She had gotten better used to the idea of how to make them seem real enough the past 5 years. She still felt very naked without the cat collar that Nicolai had given her. She brushed her fingers against her skin gently where it used to be. It had gotten broken on that mission she was on and he had promised to get her a new one but she hadn't seen him since. She mourned it's loss. She missed Nicolai himself too.

"I hope Mona's not going to mind me making myself at home in her new place." Her dark red ringlets danced around her head as she bounded down the stairs and she made a running leap over the counter top to get her morning glass of orange juice. She landed with perfect precision narrowly missing all the things sitting around the counter... including the tired-looking light-skinned patron who had his eyes closed and was resting at the bar...

Wait... patron? She blinked once and her programmed responce from the old bar kicked in. She bowed and smiled at the man. "Welcome to the Natsuka and Chandra! It's a pleasure to meet you! I'm sorry if I startled you with my acrobatics just now. I was a little excited to be here today. My name is Vashtai, can I get you something to drink?" She took two glasses out just in case he wanted something and busied herself with gathering the orange juice from the fridge.

Vashtai hadn't even turned around, but her sensors picked up the sound and slight movement. She nodded to herself and took the slight changes for exactly what they were. An invitation to be left alone. She drank her orange juice in silence and when it was done put the second glass up and washed the put away the one she had drank from. She took a seat on one of the couches, curling her head and arms up on top of the arm and curling her legs under her while she went into a light sleep mode.

"Ah, hey there." Mona walked out of her bedroom and through the ktichen, pulling the bandana over her hair and tying it. She glanced at the man at the bar and smiled gently, soft smoke drifting from her lips, giving the air a smell of olibanum and honey. "You look tired, hon. Let me know if you'd like anything, okay? Anything."

She turned her focus. And when she caught sight of a familiar face, the known scent embuing the atomsphere, her smile could've cracked her face in half.
"...Welcome home, girly," she whispered softly. Her silver-inked hands reached out as she opened her arms to Vashtai, beaming.

Vashtai opened her eyes slowly at the sound of the voice ringing out towards the new patron. She pulled herself up cautiously from sleep-mode and blinked a few times as her eyes landed on the vampiress that smelled faintly of ginger and something else she couldn't put her finger on. Maybe the only word for it was home. Her eyes grew wide and a smile started slowly spreading across her face.

"Mona!" She squealed the name like she was seeing her best friend again for the first time in years. But with Nicolai gone wasn't that what Mona really was to her? She stood up just long enough to gather her own balance and then she did a running jump to tackle her former boss and friend "Ohmygodimissedyousomuch!"

That stopped her for a minute... she thought she had gotten all the blood from her and Nicolai's crusade off her. She blushed, the tiniest shade of crimson blossoming on her cheeks and scratched her scalp just above her hair line. Her cat ears twitched and she scrunched her nose up in an unpleasant expression. "I thought I had cleaned it all off..." She sighed.

Vashtai sat on the school while she told Mona."Nicolai finally trusted me enough and thought he had me trained well enough to take me with him on a mission." Her face turned into a frown and there were deep lines crossing her forehead. "Ya know, even if I have been trained for such things and they're all bad people who don't need to live anymore... I don't think I'm ever going to get used to how much blood the average human body carries in it. Now when I see it all" she waved her hand in an explosive and messy fashion "everywhere like that..."

"Just sore to the after-smell now Mona. Humans smell disgusting when they die. I think I've grown up a lot in the past five years. I've learned so much. He taught me so much. I'm a lot less...ignorant." Vashtai blushed crimson. "In more ways than one."

"Er...well...um..." Vashtai flushed even more crimson. Her cheeks were nearly the shade of her hair at this point. "...I guess you could say almost?" She laughed, it came out as a nervous chuckle. "We've come close a few times. He said... that he wants to save me for someone that's going to love me and stay with me for the rest of my days. Someone that won't constantly disappear on me."

Vashtai bit her lower lip and then hung her head slightly. "I want him to be happy... but... I don't know what will make him happy. It's so hard to read him and it feels like every time I take two steps towards him he takes three back." She shook her head, her long red tresses framing her face and moving like leaves in the wind. "I'm afraid that I'm not what he really wants..."

"Yes ma'am!" Vashtai took the bottle of amaretto and drank a full fourth of it without taking a breath. She stopped almost as suddenly and slammed the bottle down so it would have enough force to make it loud without breaking it. She looked up at Mona and grinned sheepishly. "Good stuff." She laughed. "Yeah, I got my drinking habit back."

"I know how that was. For the first three years of that he was still training me and everytime he had to leave on a mission I was all by myself." She sighed. "It was rough at first but I eventually got used to it. Luckily there was always wireless access and I could surf on the net anytime I felt like it."