[out of game]

[every_blossom_blooming]

Nina was losing track of time. How long had it been since these superstitious idiots had figured out that her hands were somehow dangerous? She stared down at her arms, which were bound together, from her elbows to her fingertips, like she was praying, with duct tape and rope. When she'd tried to bite through the tape around her fingertips, they'd put some over her mouth. It hurt, and she couldn't even heal herself like this. She could offer no comfort to her fellow prisoners.

She noticed that their number dwindled, too. Men would come, take someone, and leave. Nina imagined they were selling them off. They were saving her, she could only imagine for who or for what. She tried not to think about it too hard, just tried to wait for a chance. Maybe if they sold her, they would pass on a warning. Maybe they wouldn't.

She didn't know. The not knowing ate at her.

One night - and she wasn't even sure if it was night time - something woke her from a dead sleep. The cells all around her had been empty for days. She heard noises: men yelling, gun shots. The door burst open and someone fell through it, scrambled across the floor to get away from violence happening in the other room.

What was happening?

Comments

[onebatch_twobatch]

Frank was awake before Nina said anything out loud, aware of the way that she was moving around the apartment. He stayed where he was, eyes closed, while she futzed and until she actually spoke up. Not trying to rouse him but certainly not keeping her voice down about it.

"It's been ready," he said, eyes closed still until he decided to move from the chair he'd been resting in. He gave her her space. The dog was watching her and the treat intently, but only came out of the crate once Frank was up and moving around.

[every_blossom_blooming]

Nina jumped a bit when she heard his voice, and she pouted when the dog perked up for him. "Well, I suppose he really is your dog, isn't he?"

She sighed and managed to get to her feet. She still felt stiff all over. "What did you make?" she asked, drifting back toward the kitchenette once Frank was up.

[onebatch_twobatch]

"I saved him from dog fighting," Frank said. It was more complicated than that, but it was the long and short answer. He'd cultivated the trust, but the dog did care for him now that he had proven things could be good.

"Chicken and dumplings." He moved toward the kitchenette, giving her plenty of space. "Figured something hearty would do you good. You manage to pop in the shower yet, or you just pass right out?"

[every_blossom_blooming]

"I saw your bed and I put myself to sleep," she admitted. "I haven't had any good rest in a long while. Do I smell bad?"

Nina looked down at her hands and flexed her fingers. She still had ligature marks around her wrists. She'd work on that later. She didn't think she was offensive, but she also wasn't sure she was the best judge of that anymore. She did need to wash her hair.

"I won't break, you know," she said when she noticed the space he gave her. "And I don't bite, not really."

[onebatch_twobatch]

"You'll feel more like a human being after you shower, is all," Frank said, with a tone of personal experience as much as anything else. Sometimes, just the warmth of it was enough. Sometimes, it was good to go through the whole process of bathing. He could go and pick her up something if she asked for it. Otherwise, she was stuck with his rather generic things.

He glanced at her, and raised an eyebrow gently. "No, you won't. But you don't know me, and I don't want to assume you want me close."

[every_blossom_blooming]

"Close or not, unless you are going to shoot me, I think I could kill you before you could kill me," she said with a shrug. "And if you were going to do anything else to hurt me, I think you would have done it by now."

Nina tucked her hair back as she considered a shower. She rubbed her clothes between her fingers. "Do you have anything else I can put on? I don't want to get clean and then put on something dirty again. It feels terrible."

[onebatch_twobatch]

Frank thought of the boy in the warehouse, and all that he could not explain and didn't think he ought to be asking about. He didn't question her, but he also didn't say a damn thing about whether or not he thought he could take her out if he needed to.

"Only my own stuff," he said, but considered it. "Probably some sweats and stuff. It'll fit, for now. Until you figure out your feet."

He grabbed a couple bowls for the soup and held one out to her.

[every_blossom_blooming]

Nina accepted the bowl and leaned against the counter. She didn't want to sit again; if she did, she might fall back asleep. She ate a few bites of her soup before she said,

"My name is Nina Zenik. Who are you?"

[onebatch_twobatch]

"Frank," he said, which he had told her on the street but if he was honest it made sense that she might not remember that. He dished out some of the soup for himself and covered it back up in the crock pot.

He ate quietly, and didn't expand on that. It was better for both of them, honestly, if she knew less of him. If he was just some guy, just some good Samaritan, then there were fewer questions and complications that arose.

Frank got the impression that this Nina girl could cause a lot of complications.

[every_blossom_blooming]

"Frank," she repeated quietly, realizing he'd said it to her once already. Nina shook her head a bit and ate more, because the food was good and it would help her focus, help her recover.

"What are you going to do with me, Frank?"

[onebatch_twobatch]

Frank leaned against his counter and ate. He watched her picking at her food, more slowly, but that was alright. It was a slowness of pacing herself rather than finding the food off putting, and he could appreciate that.

"Let you use my shower and put you in some clean clothes? Get you a burner phone so you can track down anyone you might need to?" He shrugged one shoulder. "I'm not going to do anything with you."

[every_blossom_blooming]

Nina shook her head. "I have no one to find," she answered. "There is no one here with me. And who will I go back to in Ukraine? The boy that sold me? No."

She had no family to speak of, nothing left behind. She'd wanted to leave and make a new life, and she'd fallen for someone that spoke convincing sweet nothings. Silly girl, Zoya's voice said in her ear. She looked down at her bowl, she ate more.

[onebatch_twobatch]

Frank nodded a little bit. This little hovel of a flat was not built for two people to share it. It wasn't really built for a single person to squat in it like he was.

He had the distinct, itching suspicion that he should get in contact with some people he knew and see if they could get her safely out. Not back to the Ukraine, but somewhere. Somewhere safe. Curtis could do it, probably. Billy, maybe--he'd read he'd just established a private military contract group. There were people on the outside of all of this. But none of them knew Frank was still alive, going after the gangsters and cartels and shit, and now traffickers.

He looked at Nina speculatively. "You're still gonna need clothes," he said.

[every_blossom_blooming]

"I can get clothes and money, as long as you don't have too many questions about where or how I got them."

Nina pushed her food around. She had few options, and he was not offering her a place to stay, as far as she could tell. There was one bed, and it was clearly his-- whatever it was. She wouldn't call it a home, there was nothing homey about it.

[onebatch_twobatch]

He didn't particularly like the sound of that, the implication. It smacked too close to what he'd just broken her out of, and the remarkable fact that she could stumble right back into it again. Not with the same men, but with different ones this time. There were a lot of really shitty guys out there. Frank was doing what he could, cleaning up the messes of the world. Sometimes, it meant dealing with the big fish. Sometimes, it meant the little ones.

"You're welcome to a roof over your head until you figure yourself out," Frank said with a shrug, looking at his bowl. There was only one bed, but Frank didn't sleep much anyway. It was no skin off his nose to move to a chair instead, or the floor next to the dog.

The dog, he noticed, that had gravitated toward Nina's feet, sniffing up at her bowl like she might slip him some of her dinner. He gave a quick little hiss to get him to back off.

[every_blossom_blooming]

Nina said something sweet to the dog as Frank gave it a hiss. "Go on, pup," she said, turning a little as if she meant to protect her food from him. Maybe she'd slip him a treat later.

"I promise nothing will come back on you," she said, wondering if that was what caused the furrow in Frank's brows. "I need to find some way to be legal in this country, or look like I am, if I have any chance."

She finished her soup and set it aside as she turned her full attention on Frank again, studying him.