bprd_agent_red | (no subject)

X's footsteps are very quiet as she follows Liz down from her room.

It is better to be stealthy, here.

And maybe she is a little bit nervous, too.

Stealth, in this particular case, is a good thing. Liz wouldn't exactly have a good answer for who Laura is and what she's doing here, if she were asked. Abe and Myers (and Red, of course) are in on the secret of Milliways and that Liz has brought Laura here before, but nobody else is, which makes sneaking Laura in a little hazardous.

(Red has a door to Milliways in a closet, but once in a while, it's finicky, and of course it chose today to be a pain in the ass.)

Liz managed to pick a pretty good time to go get Laura, though -- dinner was just served in the cafeteria. There's never any time of day or night when there aren't agents bustling through the halls, but this is one of the times with the thinnest crowds.

The gray hallway -- with its display cases of weapons, artifacts, and strange preserved creatures in jars -- ought to look familiar by now. Sliding doors part in front of them every ten or twenty feet.

"We'll use the same cover story as last time if we have to," Liz says. She's really hoping they don't have to. It isn't a particularly good cover story; no one brings ordinary friends to visit the Bureau. It's the kind of thing that will only hold up if she glares a lot and the questioner backs off.

X nods once, sharply.

"I remember."

She remembers everything. It goes with the territory.

"And I will be careful."

She may not mean just with the cover story.

They pass the perpetually frozen homunculus, standing against the same wall he's been standing against for years; they're approaching the vault at the end of the corridor now, and Liz shoots Laura a tiny, hopefully reassuring smile. "It'll be fine," she tells her, and she cranks open the vault door.

"I know," X says, only a little quietly.

She does know.

But it is --

What if none of them like her now?

Or if she makes a mistake?

Hearing the huge door opening, Red gets up, a cat balancing on his shoulder to rise with him.

Dozens of eyes and ears all turn towards the opening vault, and wait.

"Hey, Laura. Liz."

"Red," X says, after a momentary hesitation.

All those cat eyes are intimidating.

Yes.

"Hello."

She takes a few more steps into the room, slow and careful.

"You are okay?"

"Yeah, fine." He nods, reaching up to scratch the chin of the cat on his shoulder.

Slowly (some with wannabe stealth), the cats start to creep forward.

"Come on in." He waves her forward, then trying to remember his manners offers, "Want a Redbull?"

A gray blur streaks for the door; Liz lunges and scoops Steve McQueen up into her arms barely three inches from freedom. He stares at her balefully, and she shakes her head at him as she leans back against the vault door and puts her weight into shoving it closed.

(Thankfully, it's on really responsive hinges.)

Standing behind Laura, Liz gives Red a tiny wave with her free hand, and then -- as the door clicks shut -- she puts Steve down on the floor.

"There's water and soda, too," she says, "if being awake half the night isn't your thing."

X hesitates, considering her answer.

Then --

"Two hours of sleep is acceptable."

It's all she really needs.

Her gaze shifts to Red.

"Thank you."

Then she makes her way for the cats, preparatory to crouching down and scritching a few.

Steve McQueen appears prepared to make sure he's the first in line.

Well, since two hours is all she needs, Red figures she'll take the Redbull and goes to get her one.

Watching the cats close in, he moves through the crowd carefully to hand her a can.

"Liz said you took care of some cats for a few months?"

Liz skirts the cats and perches on the arm of the big armchair set up in front of the bank of television sets, her arms folded comfortably.

She plans, for the most part, to let Red and Laura handle this.

X looks up from the cats, lifting her hand from a tortoiseshell female's belly and taking the offered beverage.

Said tortoiseshell butts her head against X's knee in protest.

"Yes. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They belong to Kate. And Doc."

Beat.

"I was careful."

She says that very earnestly, like it means something.

Like it is important.

Red gets it. Maybe not in the same way that Laura does, but in his own way he understands.

Professor Broom gave Red his first kitten, stressing how delicate it was and how Hellboy needed to be very careful, and to take good care of it. Despite his boisterous nature and attitude, Red heeded his father and surprised quite a few with his gentle handling and excellent care of the cat.

Even now it may be surprising to see how careful he is when he eases down to the ground amongst the swarming cats, watching out for them as they, in typical cat fashion, let him adjust rather than move out of the way.

"Not everyone is a cat person, but they seem to like ya."

X is not quite smiling, but the curve of her mouth is looser than usual, and she no longer looks like she is five seconds away from bolting out the door.

(Though not even the presence of cats will get her to leave her back completely to a door. Not even with Red and Liz around.)

She lifts her hand away from a more persistent tabby cat, ignoring the claw-bedecked protest, and reaches for a smaller black and white cat.

As a reward for good behavior, of course.

"I like them, too," she assures Red, looking up for a brief moment.

Then her attention is taken up by Steve McQueen, who is testing out her shoulder as a useful launching pad for his next escape attempt.

Liz pulls a foot up and quietly watches the girl and the cat, her leftover smile from Laura and Red's back-and-forth slowly fading into something more tempered and thoughtful.

"Hey, Steve, don't get any ideas there, pal."

He eyes the cat, then shifts his focus back to Laura.

"Gotta watch him, he's the king of escapin'. Shoulda named him Houdini."

"Steve McQueen," Liz calls. "The Great Escape. It works."

(She named the cat.)

X looks up from the cats, half-startled.

"I know."

Beat.

"It is a good movie."

She automatically shifts her balance so that Steve McQueen does not fall.

It has the side benefit of allowing the tortoiseshell cat to climb up on her knee.

That part was an accident.

"Yeah, yeah."

Red waves a hand, rather disappointed with just how Un-great, the escape in the film really was. He knows the point was about the attempt, but wanted to see them get away.

It's an old argument, so he lets it go in favor of paying attention to Laura and the cats.

"Also gotta be careful with him an' the c-a-t-n-i-p." He spells it out slowly, eying Steve. "The guy's an addict."

"Catnip is a drug," X says.

It mostly comes off as prim.

If anyone can believe X sounding prim.

"For cats."

She scritches a few more of the cats.

Then --

"That is why."

That is why Steve is an addict, at least.

Oh, the humanity.

That sound in the background is Liz strangling laughter.

Red hears the snickering from the peanut gallery, and gives a Look at Liz.

"Yeah, well, Liz gave it to him to start, and if you think he's nuts now it's a whole lot worse when he's hopped up."

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