Work Text:
It’s been four months since Advent has had to swap hideouts.
Of course, being on the run meant that they could never stay in one place for too long but four months is definitely the longest time they’ve stayed in one place.
Shiori would say that it’s because they found a good hiding spot, tucked at the partially rougher edge of a city where people kept to themselves.
Her girls would say it’s because she seduced Elizabeth into letting them go. Which is ridiculous, by the way. It’s true that they have a…strange relationship— a sort of truce between them born of the understood stress placed on both of them as leaders of their respective groups. Elizabeth had caught her shopping one day near their old hideout and, when Shiori had tensed for a fight, put her hands up and promised she wasn't going to do anything.
Elizabeth was surprisingly easy to speak with, Shiori found out that day. She would puff up her chest and speak of monitoring them as criminals, but then in the same breath she would hand Shiori a bag of pon de rings for the twins, saying that she had seen them at the store.
No store near them has pon de rings. Shiori has checked.
Needless to say, Elizabeth was…odd. Nothing like the strict and cool persona she put up on the TV, and every time Shiori thinks she has the harbinger figured out she’s surprised once more.
“Shiwowiiii!” A melodic voice floats into her ear as a certain raven demon nuzzles into her neck.
“You okay, my girl?” Shiori doesn’t look up from her book, although she had stopped reading a bit earlier to ponder about a certain redhead.
“Do you think we can order pizza for game night?” Nerissa pleads, as if Shiori decides what they can and can’t get. She may be their leader, but only in name. Truthfully Rissa is more of the group leader than she is, but the girls always argue when she says that so she just lets it go.
“Do what you want.” Is her response, reaching up and patting Rissa’s cheek, drawing a happy coo from her.
“Well yeah, but will you eat it?” Shiori’s only response is a single nod. “Perfect! Now we just need to figure out how to get it…”
Delivery was out of the question. None of the girls have phones, and even if they did they wouldn’t want to bring someone to their hideout. The only real option left was to walk to a pizza place, and luckily there was one not too far from their hideout.
“Are you sure you don’t want us to come with?” Mococo whines as Shiori puts on her shoes, preparing to walk over.
“Yeah! It’s dark out, it could be dangerous! We can protect you!” Fuwawa parrots from Shiori’s other side, the two hovering around her.
“That’s alright, puppos. I’ll be safe.” Shiori gives them both quick headpats. “I’ll be back soon, I promise.”
“At least take Shadow with you.” Nerissa says, her raven familiar perching himself on Shiori’s shoulder.
Shiori nods, says goodbye to her girls, and is on her way.
The act of getting the pizza is uneventful, Shadow trailing her from the flickering lampposts as she keeps her head down. The wait for the pizza is only around twenty minutes, and soon enough she’s walking home with a warm box in her hand.
That’s when the first yell begins.
“SHIORI NOVELLA! STAND DOWN!”
Damnit! She must have been recognized while ordering. She knew that worker was looking at her suspiciously! No time to think, Shiori drops the pizza and starts sprinting, mentally apologizing to her girls for not being able to bring it to them.
Heavy footfalls sound behind her as she weaves through the streets, followed by shouts of unfamiliar voices. It seems that Justice wasn’t the only group after her anymore.
One second she’s running for her life.
The nex t she’s being lifted at the waist and spun around, her back hitting brick as a body looms over her.
“MMPH!” Shiori yells into the hand covering her mouth, kicking and writhing to be free.
“Augh! Shi- Shiori it’s me!” A familiar Great Exardian accent has her pausing. Liz?
“Mmph?”
“I- oh sod it!” Liz steps impossibly closer, their body pressed together. Living with Nerissa has gotten Shiori very used to boobs pressing against her face at any given minute but she can’t help but flush as Liz’s flame tickles her cheek. “Sorry love, I need to make sure they’re gone.” Elizabeth whispers in her ear, which absolutely does nothing to help her blushing.
Eventually when the footsteps fade Elizabeth moves away, breathing a sigh of relief. The first thing Shiori notices in the spotty light is her outfit. Elizabeth is wearing a worn looking red hoodie and…teddy bear and train pants? Choo choo…
Elizabeth notices her staring and clears her throat, looking away. “I wasn’t planning on going out tonight.”
“I can see that.” Shiori snickers, drawing an embarrassed whine from the redhead.
“I heard on our comms that you had been spotted so I rushed over.” Elizabeth continues. “They know now that you’re based somewhere in this area. You should probably move.”
That gave Shiori pause. Liz has pulled punches during their fights and looked the other way a few times but she has never been so…outright with it. No mention of Justice or monitoring in sight.
“Do my ears deceive me?” Shiori drawls, raising an eyebrow. “Is the Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame helping out me? A lowly criminal?”
The effect is immediate. Elizabeth sputters and stumbles through her words, waving her hands in front of her. “Well I— no! I’m not- I just…” She sighs, her face dropping into a rare scowl as she kicks the ground with a fuzzy pajama slipper. “These people want to take you in, but not for Justice. It’s for their own selfish benefit. You guys have done nothing wrong…”
“So you admit that we shouldn’t have to go back to The Cell.” Yellow eyes bore into Elizabeth as she opens and closes her mouth, her budding relationship with Shiori...and the rest of Advent clashing with her loyalty to the Gods. “You know what they did to us in there, right?” Shiori presses, golden eyes boring into her frame as large shoulders hunch with uncertainty. “That wasn’t very just, was it?”
Whatever Elizabeth’s answer would have been is cut off by the sound of approaching footsteps and grumbling, causing the two to tense up. There’s only one way out of the dead end alley they’re in, and it’s the way the voices were coming from.
“She has to be here somewhere. Our men are everywhere, she couldn’t have escaped.”
“I need you to trust me.” Elizabeth says quickly, her eyes wide.
“Wh- Oh! ” Shiori barely has time to respond before Elizabeth is grabbing her hoodie and yanking it off , exposing glorious abs for a few seconds before they’re hidden by a tank top, and shoving it over Shiori’s head. The hood is pulled over her hair and Shiori is assaulted by the scent of roses and a hint of cinnamon.
The footsteps are even closer now.
“Do you trust me?”
Crimson red eyes boring into her own.
“Yes.”
The footsteps come closer as Elizabeth lunges forward, picking Shiori up and pressing her back against the wall. Shiori’s first thought is ‘am I really that light?’ and her second is ‘oh good god’ because Elizabeth is leaning forward and kissing her.
It’s a rough kiss, with teeth and tongue, hands shamelessly grabbing at her hips as a thigh slots between her own.
“Excuse m-oh! Oh god!” A male voice sounds from the entrance of the alley. “Oh! Sorry for interrupting!”
They can’t see them well enough, Shiori realizes. The lighting of this place is so shitty that they probably look like a random couple caught shagging in the open. With that in mind she immediately plays along, arching her chest into Liz’s and tangling her fingers in soft, flowing hair.
She’s not going to lie and say she hadn’t thought of this in her down time, curled up in bed and away from the knowing eyes of a certain gem. But somehow, even in this nerve wracking situation it’s better than she’d ever dreamed of.
“E-excuse me!” The voice sounds out again and Elizabeth growls against her lips, pulling away to glare at him. “D’you mind mate?!” She barks, cloaking her voice in a thick Great Exardian accent. “You a fokin perv?”
“N-no, I just-!”
“Baaabe!” Shiori decides to hop in the fun, making her voice high pitched and whines as she grinds down on the leg between her thighs, hands gripping the bulge of Elizabeth’s exposed biceps as she moans in her ear. “I need it now!”
“Mate…” Elizabeth’s voice drops to a raspy growl and Shiori only hopes that she’s too distracted to feel the full body shiver that caused her to have.
“H-have you seen a woman with yellow eyes and monochrome hair?” The man sputters out, very clearly intimidated by the death glare Elizabeth was sending him.
“The only thing I’m going to be seeing is your dead body if you don’t leave us be.” Elizabeth snarls.
“R-right! Erm…h-have a nice night!” The man nearly speedwalks off and the two stand in silence for a moment.
Two moments.
Thr—
“Oh Gods, I’m so sorry!” Elizabeth leaps away like she’s burned and bows deeply. “I just— I panicked and I didn’t know what else would work and—“
“Suuure, if that’s what we’re going with.” Shiori lets out a small laugh. Usually she would have a better dig but well…her brain is a bit scrambled at the moment. She licks her lips and tastes Elizabeth. Oh good god.
“You should be in the clear to return home now.” Elizabeth mumbles, her gaze fixed on the floor, her face red as her hair.
Shiori sighs, shoulders drooping as she remembers what got her outside in the first place. “Aw man, guess there’s no pizza for dinner tonight.”
“Pizza?”
“Yeah, I only came out here to get a stupid pizza for game night tonight, but I’m definitely not going back there.”
“Hm...”
-
“I’m home!” Shiori calls out as she steps through the doorway, juggling three pizza boxes in hand.
Her girls are generous enough to wait until she sets them down to swarm her.
“Are you okay?! Shadow said that you were being chased!” Nerissa cries, her eyes raking over Shiori for any sign of injury.
“I told you we should have come!” “Who’s jacket is that?” The twins voices overlapping, Fuwawa’s scolding as Mococo points at the red hoodie still on her.
Bijou says nothing, but Shiori can feel her eyes on her. When she braves a look she sees narrowed eyes and a smirk.
“Pizza’s here.” Shiori worms her way out from between her friends and bee lines it for her bedroom. “Enjoy it, because we’re moving tomorrow!”
In the silence of her room she touches her lips, other hand curling into the hoodie.
‘Keep it.’ Elizabeth had told her, handing over the pizza boxes she had bought herself while Shiori waited outside. ‘It looks better on you anyway.’
In the living room, to the confusion of Nerissa and the twins, Bijou bursts into laughter.