17348/A Few Bars of Whatever It Takes

A Few Bars of Whatever It Takes
Date of Scene:	05 March 2024
Location:	4B - Luca Bandoni
Synopsis:	Luca comes back after a long, long night to find Liv waiting. Plans for Tampa are made and Liv tells Luca about the Gershwin shooting.
Cast of Characters:	Olivia Gaudin, Luca Bandoni

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Olivia Gaudin has posed:
    Liv has been busy of late. Not Luca busy, but busy enough. Whenever he pulls more shifts, she just keeps working. Honestly the director finally, politely, asked her to get the hell out of the theater for a while.

    In light of this, she's had time on her hands. With no niece to spend it with, she tends to slip into Luca's apartment and hang out. In some cases, she comes and goes before he even returns from work. There are always little surprises. Food she's left for him, things cleaned up. Her hands are no devil's tool. She seems incapable of idleness.

    Even now, she is waiting and working on something. She has her tablet with her and she is messing around with some music software. And tsk'ing as she tries to make what appears to be, well, a song.

Olivia Gaudin has posed:
    Beyond her cleaning, there is of course her friend. Rigs has been a wonderful companion. He's so well-behaved. Liv lavishes him with attention anyway. But not with unhealthy treats. Honestly at times it seems the dog is taking care of her, rather than the other way around.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
It was just supposed to be a simple trip to Bushwick to drop off donations and check on a child. But really, when is anything simple? It's the wee hours of the morning before Luca makes it home much later than he should have been. If Liv was listening for the familiar sound of his Harley, she doesn't hear it. It's Roscoe dropping him off.

Even before the sound of his key in the lock, Rigs is up and standing at the front door, all tail wags and excited whimpers. Daddy's home! When he gets the door unlocked and gets himself into the apartment, Luca's looking a little bit rough. His five o'clock shadow is now ten o'clock scruff. He smells of soot and ash despite being off shift for the night. He also doesn't drop his keys on the little table by the door like he normally would, but he does drop the mail.

Luca goes down to one knee to greet Rigs with scritches and 'that's my good boys'. Then he looks up and notices Liv's here too. "Hey, babe," he offers as he stands. He always makes a point to greet her with a smile, even if the smile's a little forced. "I'm gonna hit the shower." Because he smells like soot and ash! Oddly, he doesn't invite Liv to join him, something he does on a pretty regular basis.

Olivia Gaudin has posed:
    "Rigs..." begins Liv, letting out a sigh. She was just about to go into another of their very one-sided conversations when the dog is up. Granted, she would normally hear Luca's heartbeat and feet, but she was distracted. It seems the dog of the house is never off his game, though.

    Liv scrambles to her feet and immediately frets a bit with her hair. She has it up for a change, the long locks pinned neatly in place. Once Luca is inside, she lets out a sigh she did not realize she was holding. It is a tension. Every time he is out of sight it is there. That knowledge that tonight she might finally be the unlucky woman. That maybe this time out that thirst that drives the man she loves might carry him to his end.

    But it did not. Not this time. And if she comes forward to hug him a bit too fiercely? Hopefully he won't ask why. Soot and all that? It never bothers her.

    "Of course, get cleaned up. Can I make you something?" She has questions, of course. But they can wait. They always wait for the right time.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
The hug is returned and maybe Luca holds on a little longer than he normally would before pulling away. "No, I'm okay. I had steak and baked potatoes a little bit about ago." More like six or so hours ago. His stomach gives a warning rumble and he adds, "Maybe just warm up some of the manicotti Nonna left in the fridge?" No matter how big a boy gets, his Nonna will always be Nonna.

There may be some things that Luca holds back, but typically he's pretty open about the basics. From the bedroom, voice raised enough to be heard, he says, "Drug deal went bad in Bushwick. No fatalities, only two actually shot." He's locking up his own sidearm in its lock box in the closet. It's something he always carries when he goes to Bushwick, not so much to protect himself from the people there, but to protect them if shit goes down. "Sara took my keys," there's a hint of 'stupid sisters' in his tone. "Thought I shouldn't be driving." But he's very obviously not been drinking. "Roscoe picked me up and we went by the scene of that last fire." The one where he fell through the floor. "Still can't figure it out. It's not like any fire scene I've ever seen before."

Olivia Gaudin has posed:
    Liv can hear those rumbles like a shout. She grins. "I will do that." Honestly, she likes the chance to even /smell/ Nonna's food. It's just really really good. Granted her diet doesn't let her indulge enough in it. Not yet, anyway.

    "That place sounds pretty rough," Liv replies. Bushwick, that is. "How about the kid? You were checking on a little girl, right?" She can hear the gun getting put away. Oddly that never bothers her. Luca knows what the hell he's doing with it and honestly, her pepper spray isn't exactly a great defense. She is considering getting a gun for herself.

    She laughs at the mention of Sara taking the keys. "I'm sure she was just trying to take care of you for me." Liv finds a way to make herself to blame for that one. "But it's good that you got a ride back, anyway." She will definitely get Roscoe some more cookies for his secret stash for that.

    But then there is that fire. She focuses for a while on just getting the food ready. It's not just throw on plate and heat it up. Honestly if Luca was watching he might tease Liv. She handles Nonna's work with something approaching reverance. This buys her time to anchor herself a bit better. It's part of who he is. She knows that.

    "Is there anyone helping you investigate? There are people who can take a look at things from other angles. When the usual angles fail us." As she speaks she does this handy little trick where she takes all her fears and kind of... puts them in a little box.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
From the bedroom to the bathroom, likely dressed only in a pair of boxers. "OFI is dragging their feet about calling in outside help," he replies from the bathroom. "Elio's working on it, trying to push the issue." Elio, an older cousin slowly climbing the ranks to possible head up OFI in the future, but not just yet.

Luca is like a dog with a bone though, won't let it go and won't stop revisiting scenes until it's all tied up in a neat little bow and the arsonist caught.

It really doesn't take him long to get showered, shave and toss on a pair of flannel lounge pants that hang a little low on his hips. For a moment, he stands there watching Liv finish up with getting the food ready, then he heads to the table to retrieve his mail.

A quick shuffle through it separates all the 'extend your car's warranty on a make and model you don't even own' bullshit and the bills. But he pauses on one envelope that he opens while still standing there. "Huh." It's softly spoken and likely not even meant to be out loud.

Olivia Gaudin has posed:
    Liv knows that all she can do is watch him lock onto this thing and not let go. "Are there any of our... kind who might be able to help? People who have sensory abilities that are enhanced in some way?" Like her, basically, but not with hearing. She'd suggest magic, but Liv does NOT want to see that get involved in their lives.

    Liv has everything ready, heated up, and set out for Luca not exactly in short order, but it is done properly. She cannot wait to meet this woman, honestly. In a way, though, she feels like she already knows her well. Love like that is revealed in everything she does for Luca.

    Looking over at Luca, she tilts her head curiously. "You may already be a winner, huh?" she asks playfully.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"No," he replies. He has that little pensive wrinkling between his eyebrows going on. "Someone's trying to recruit me for a dive off the coast of Tampa Bay. Wreckage of an old German U-Boat's been found out there." After scanning the letter one more time, Luca hangs if on the fridge with a magnet. "That's weird." But it's already clear that he's seriously considering the offer. He may not have a death wish but he's definitely an adrenaline junkie.

"Yeah, I'm taking Sara out to check one of the scenes out," he offers up almost as an afterthought now. "I know these fires aren't natural." Not 'I think' or 'I have a hunch', he's confident in the fact. He's seen enough fires, both intentionally set and accidental, to know what's what.

He does have a small table with two chairs in the kitchen, but the table is typically cluttered with medical books, many of them on mutant physiology - hard to come by, those. So, he takes his plate and heads for the sofa.

Olivia Gaudin has posed:
    "Tampa?" Liv perks up. "I have a cousin in Tampa!" Annnddd.... "She has three kids." Liv and kids are basically magnetic. Plus, well, it's Tampa. It's mediocre here and warm there. Bikini, diving, dolphin girl...

    "I haven't been in the ocean or, well, the Gulf, since my accident." Hint, hint, hint. "But a U-Boat sounds a bit risky." Diving wrecks is super dangerous and Liv knows it. "Wasn't it just last year there was that headline where an expert diver got stuck in one?"

    She doesn't have to look at him, though. She knows him well enough. "But I figure if you are there, it will be safe for me to go." Plus she's a friggin' dolphin girl.

    She settles herself next to him on the couch, picking up her tablet again. "When is it exactly?"

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"Sure, you can come along. We can see the sights. You can get some sun, go swimming, while I'm on the dive." It seems to never occur to Luca that she's actually wanting to go /on the dive/ with him. Or maybe it does and he's skipping over it?

"It's not that dangerous," he lies. "I've been on a few before," that's not a lie. "Piece of cake really," that's a lie. They were the most taxing dives he's ever been on. Which is probably why he's ready to do it again. Luca just likes to push himself.

"So, this cousin? Does she have two arms and two legs or a tail, a dorsal and some flippers?" he jokes along with a smile that's brighter and more genuine than the one he offered when he walked through the door.

Of course, while he's talking, he's also eating in between. Liv knows by now that when Luca's gone too long without a meal and gets one, well he puts it away fast.

Olivia Gaudin has posed:
    Liv listens and notes Luca's little omission. It suits her purposes just fine. After all, silence is consent on both parts. She is consenting to him going and he is consenting to her going. Everyone is therefore agreed. In their own, rather odd way.

    As for the lies? Well, she studies his breathing, heart, pulse, all of it. It's cheating, but maybe this will help her in the future in finding out how those things work when Luca's feeding her the most obvious of nonsense.

    "Oh, hahah, no, Lucy has no fins or anything. At least she didn't previously. Hm. That is a valid point, though. At some point I really gotta tell the family about my situation." She keeps /not/ doing that. "But yeah, they are totally human, no sign of wild genetics or the like. And certainly we will be swimming a lot. I'm curious just what my dolphin girl self can do now. I will say this much, though. I swim a lot, as you know, and sounds are so much clearer when I'm submerged. I should say I can 'see' a whole lot better and clearer."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
Until they get there and he's all - wooooah, you're coming on the /dive/? Luca won't outright deny it, but he'll be a little unhappy. It's amazing though, even with an outright lie, there's only a very small increase in his vitals. Man could easily pass a polygraph.

"You really should come out to your family. I don't know what that's like, I've never been in that situation. We have a spattering of mutants in my family. I've never had to hide it. But I'm sure it'd be liberating if they knew?" Despite all the chatter, he's almost done with his food and managed to get there without ever once talking with his mouth full. That's talent.

"Pretty sure Sara wants to try the double date thing..." he puts out there without hiding his own 'which will probably suck' tone in his voice. He's agreed to admit he might have overstepped, but he's still not the biggest fan.

Olivia Gaudin has posed:
    Liv nods, "I will tell them. I would like to do it all at once, I guess. Just one big fell swoop and done with it. Mom, dad, brother and sis, and little princess, I am, in fact, a dolphin girl." She laughs at herself. Oh damn but he lies well. That... shit that sucks. He may notice a bit of a strange expression for a moment, but Liv covers it. Maybe it was just the family thing! It's not.

    Watching Luca eat is something that fascinates Liv. She's not creepy about watching, but she doesn't have to be. She can 'see' without even looking. See in ways that others would probably find very disturbing. It's not just that everyone is naked to her. It's that she can see /inside/ them.

    When Luca mentions the double date she gives him a skeptical look. "That... sounds like a great way to work off some sins from my past lives," she offers playfully. She shakes her head, looks away for a while. Finally she turns back to Luca. "You know I love you and would do anything for you," she says haltingly. It screams that there is a 'but' coming. It doesn't. "I'll do it for you and for Sara, of course. I would be lying if I saw that coming, though. I mean, that first meeting was... bad."

    She turns her attention to her tablet, tapping at a few things, then swiping her fingertips over its surface. She's writing lyrics. If they just came to mind during /this/ part of the conversation, that must be quite the song.

    "So when is that likely to happen?"

Luca Bandoni has posed:
It's not even so much that Luca lies really well. Sure he can keep a straight face and sound casual when he does it, but the steady vitals is more a manifestation of his own mutation keeping everything all copacetic in his body. It's how he survived that drowning without lasting cognative deficits.

"Hey, you might be surprised. Once you spill the beans, someone else might step up too, someone that's been hiding it." He blows out a huff of a breath. He's not looking forward to it either. But it's his sister's boyfriend. "I dunno, but I hope it's relatively soon before I back out. I kind of agreed to admit that I might have overstepped." That's a huge deal right there. "But I also made it clear to Sara that he's not cut out for FDNY until he has his shit under control. Can you imagine him going all darth-murder-y on a victim that just happens to be a worthless fucking racist too? Don't work that way. I've been spat on, slapped, called every name in the book and some that sounded made up but I knew were insults. I've been tackled, kicked, bitten. Doesn't matter, we treat them all the same."

Olivia Gaudin has posed:
    Olivia has this momentary, distracted and distance look on her face. It's clear something is bothering her beyond even this topic. She rarely is so distracted.

    "They might! My brother is incredible at running the family business. He could totally be some kind of telepath!" She's just being playful. Or trying to. "Little princess Elsa is healthy and not yet showing any signs. But she is really young. I will come out during our next get together, though. Jeez, I should probably not do it that way." She frowns. "I want the next gathering to be about showing off my man! Not my blow hole." A pause, "I'll just make a family call thing and do it that way. It's... lame but it is probably lower stress."

    The topic of freaking out and racism and all that pushes a button. It's close to the mark with her right now.

    "I want to tell you something." A pause. This is what is bothering her. "No secrets. I want no secrets. No... lies." A frown. "I want to..." She turns from her tablet to meet his eyes. Her gaze is intense.

    "So I need to tell you about what happened when those gunmen shot up the Gershwin." She sets the tablet aside, turning on the couch to face Luca. "What really happened before that crazy girl saved the day."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
No secrets, no lies. Do omissions count? Because that's going to be par for the course with Luca for some time to come, maybe even forever. It's not being deceitful, not really. It's just a firefighter's way of lessening the worry. Don't bring the horror stories home because sometimes what their loved ones are imaging actually isn't worse.

Luca cracks a little half smile, one eyebrow raised slightly. He makes a little sound of self-depreciation before, "I'm not really 'show off to the family' material. Especially when the family he's being shown off to seem to be all white collar sorts with money.

But then Liv has his full attention. "Okay," just that, a simple one word encouragement for her to continue.

Olivia Gaudin has posed:
    "My sister-in-law and niece are crazy excited to meet you," Liv replies. "And my father told me 'it is about time you actually spent time with a real man'. He is not fond of actors!"

    But there is the truth she wants to get to, and it's awkward. So she starts awkwardly in the middle, "So my understudy Allison is a mutant. I didn't know that. Nobody did. Somehow that got out, though. That's why the men came to the show. And shot the hell out of the place. That isn't really the main point, though. You already knew that bit. Everyone does."

    She's nervous and uncomfortable. "I burst into my dressing room and found Allison on her knees begging. The last gunman alive had his weapon drawn. He was going to kill her. I could hear her pulse race in face. Her whimpers were so loud. It was the clearest sound I had heard at that point. She looked like my niece. Like Elsa. Just grown up."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
He's humble enough that the 'real man' comment actually has him looking at the ground to hide the flush in his cheeks. Luca stays that way while he's listening to Liv tell the story of that night. It's best that way, best that she can't see his expressions; the murderous ones.

He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly before, "I'm sorry that happened, so sorry." So sorry he wasn't there. He's not blaming himself, that would be totally irrational, he didn't even know her then.

Finally he looks back up, expression steady along with his heartbeat. Yes, the thought of her facing down a gunman had that on the rise a little. "It sucks, it really does, that people lash out with anger and hatred at stuff they don't understand."

But what sucks more, at least for him, if he'd been there? And one of those bastards was injured but alive? He'd treat them like any other person. Well, maybe he'd miss on the IV a few times. Like the police, he's taken an oath and he lives and dies by it.

Olivia Gaudin has posed:
    Liv manages a smile. Not exactly a real one. She's trying to act like it is okay because maybe it will be. But there is the point she was trying to share. The real secret.

    "The only way I could think of to save her was to change his target." Her voice sounds small, even to her ears. "So I told him he had the wrong person. And then I showed him." She wants him to know what she did. "I told him..."

    She reaches out for a hand. "If he wanted to spill mutant blood, to..." A frown. There are tears coming. She knew they would. This has been bottled up so long. "She looked so helpless, Luca. She was so frightened. And all I could see in those bright eyes was Elsa looking back at me. I couldn't just watch."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
She didn't do anything he wouldn't have. Luca does more than offer a hand. He leans in to pull Liv into his arms, those protective arms. He whispers quietly, "It's okay, I'm here," before pressing a kiss to the top of her head and then another. He'll just sit and hold her as long as it takes until she makes the first move to pull back.

After enough time has passed to at least make the timing not inappropriate, he mentions, "I should get some sleep, Roscoe was riding me hard about it. But I'm not really tired. I /wonder/ just how I can manage to wear myself out?"

Maybe Liv knows a way.

Olivia Gaudin has posed:
    She doesn't have to finish the rest. He understands. It takes Liv a while to let it out. With a bit here and there about looking down the barrel of a gun. Having no time to be really aware of just what she was doing.

    Somehow, in the course of that, something wonderful happens. She feels better. And Luca is now closer still. In a way, he knows that there is part of her that is a lot more heroic than she gives herself credit for.

    When things get quiet and Luca can share that order from Roscoe, though, she grins.

    "Mmm, I have a few ideas we can try. We'll get you to sleep really quick..." But not /too/ quick.