my necessary friend | enzo.

V Solamedes was huffing by the time she reached the gates to the Victor's village. She was late (perpetually) but at least she'd hustled. The pockets of her sweatpants were near to bursting with tips for the day. In retrospect, if she was going to make this a regular thing, she probably should just bite the bullet and bike over. But it seemed like a waste of the old gal's tires.

Except now she was sweating off her homemade makeup.

She made a quick sweep down her nose, across each cheek, around her chin. Groomed as well as she could manage, she approached the gate, and finally realized she wasn't the only person visiting the victors today.

"Any movement?" She whispered conspiratorially, her eyebrows waggling.

Not two seconds later, the bushes alongside Victor Mace Emberstatt's house rustled. V jutted out her chin, indicating for Kiara Lowe (yes, of course V recognized her, she's not an idiot!) to observe.

Mason Embryze slunk, pale as the day as he was born and beleaguered by freckles. V dropped her tranished aviatar sunglasses down from her hair. They slid a centimeter or two along her roman nose. Mason turned down the pathway to them. He had a leather messenger bag slung across his long torso and had broken out into a boyish grin upon seeing them.

V waved him closer. She rolled her lips together, popped a hip. "Sup, Ember?"

He chuckled, coming to stop quite close to them, his shoulders hunched. "G'afternoon, ladies."

"You got my - stuff?" She asked, pausing.

He glanced at Kiara, as though to assess her role in this moment, before he opened the satchel. From it he produced a delicate little bottle that had once possibly been filled with perfume. Clear liquid sloshed inside, thin and perfectly clear.

"Anyone see you?"

"I don't think so? Maybe Enzo but he wouldn't -"

"Good boy," V crooned, shoving the bottle alongside single bills. She kissed his cheek, leaving behind a purple stain. It wasn't as dark she wanted, due to the fact that her makeup was a product of what she had to work with: a tight ass and a handful of squashed blueberries.

"Bye now," she said, sunglasses obscuring her eyes and her civility.

Mason's shoulders fell an inch. He turned, trudging back to his house.

V pulled the bottle out an inch, showing it to Kiara. Moonshine, she mouthed. Probably something a Lowe could get her hands on. But a Solamedes? This was a big fucking deal.

And she wasn't about to waste it.

"Ember? Send out Enzo, would ya?"

V lifted her eyebrows twice to Kiara then blew at kiss in Mason's direction as he scrambled to follow her command.