Missive (attn Kem)

Her eyes narrowed slightly when he spoke, the razor edge to his voice cautioning her. Whether or not he was hostile or just peturbed she did not know.

Lifting her chin, so as to "look down her nose at him", so to speak, in the British manner she had adobted long ago, she moved around the chair, a feline grace about her, and sat lightly upon it. It was still too soft.

"I know there are three. Each with their own ideals of how we should live. Each agreed, albeit timidly, that each is entitled to live how they chose, and that there is even a fourth, though not really counted as a clan, of independants who live by their own morals.

"Ours is a bit more of a live and let live kind of sect. Respect each other and our properties. Don't kill, human or vampire. I'm not compeletely clueless. I'm only lost in the sense of why Liza left me. Why she didn't tell me. Was I bad? Did she think it was time for me to be on my own after all these years?

"Okay. I admit, I didn't know of this place. I mean, Liza said there was a haven in America where most vampires choose to live, but she didn't tell me it was an entire city."

She stares out the window now, just past him.

Unaffected by her assumed arrogance, Kem nodded as she spoke. He was relieved to know she hadn't been kept completely in the dark.

"There's more to it than live and let live though," he explained, his initial snappishness having vanished with the knowledge that Su-Chen's education hadn't been entirely neglected. "Evenhet is more about truly living together, working together."

Kem shook his head. He didn't want to make life tougher for Su-Chen with gory details just yet... plenty of time for that later. Instead, he focused on what she'd said last. "Not a haven, exactly. More of a... concentration."

The fact that Su-Chen had been abandoned was disturbing, but that Kem had no answers for. He hadn't moved much since entering the suite, still leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. There he stayed, but he did fall into an old habit, running one hand through his hair as he thought.

"Not sure how to help on that one," he said sympathetically. Obviously Su-Chen had no idea where this Liza had gone, or she'd have said so. "Is there anyone you know who would wish her harm?"

Beyond that he really couldn't speculate. He knew nothing of the situation, and wasn't prepared to get any more involved than to help Su-Chen get situated in Liefde. That said, he didn't necessarily feel good about leaving her by herself... again.

"Not that I know of, no," she said, anwering his question as to if she knew anyone who would harm Liza. "That's not to say that there isn't anyone, just that I don't know of them."

She brought her eyes back to him. "Think that might be why she left me here in such a hurry?"

Kem lifted one shoulder and gave Su-Chen an apologetic look. "I don't know," he said honestly. "She did have time to leave you a note, which means that even if she felt she was in danger she had plenty of time to make plans for you."

It was still irresponsible, Kem thought privately. But there wasn't any point in dwelling on that. Su-Chen was at Liefde now, with her clan, and the sooner she settled in and started meeting them the better... if she chose to stay.

"I suppose regardless of how and why she left, your choice remains the same. You can try to look for her, or you can do as she apparently wished and stay here at Liefde with your clan. It's up to you."

It wasn't for him to influence her one way or the other, but he did hope she chose to stay, for her own safety.

"I suppose I'll stay. Not many other options. Plus, I'll know I'm totally alone in this city." She smiles softly.

"Domo arigato gozaimasu, Kem." She stood and bowed proper-like for someone of the Orient. "Thank you very much, Kem. For not leaving me to wait till who knows when. I am grateful."

She smiled again and returned to her seat. "I just hope Liza is safe. I'm sure I'll hear from her again, and she will straighten this whole mess out."

Kem returned her bow, which was only the polite thing to do. He answered her in his own fluid Japanese.

"Daijobu desu; do itashi mashite Su-Chen."

Straightening up, he smiled slightly. "I'm sure she's fine; perhaps she simply decided it was just time to let her chick fly on her own."

Maybe, maybe not... but worrying needlessly wouldn't do the poor woman any good at the moment. It was bewildering enough to be thrust into a strange setting so rapidly; best for her to just have the chance to settle in.

"Is there anything else you need?"

She sat silently a long while, thinking. "How would one go about getting rid of the things in this place she doesn't like? And where would she go to replace it with things she does?"

It sounded dumb, but she was enjoying the company. She rarely spent time alone, finding she liked a few people around much better than being totally alone.

Kem pondered that for a few moments.

"Well, as for the furniture that's here already, we can double-check with MARI but I'm fairly certain not all the suites in Liefde are kept furnished. We can move it to an empty suite. Getting your own, however, is another story altogether."

Suffering a moment of panic, Kem heartily wished Aishe were in the room with them. Her practical nature would have her pointing out every furniture store within a five-mile radius, to be certain, whereas Kem's inclination was to leaf through an home furnishing website until he saw something he liked and wait for it to appear at his doorstep.

Shaking his head, he gave Su-Chen a slightly sheepish look. "All right, I thought I could help with anything. I don't think I'm much good for that unless shopping online is your thing."

Laughs lightly. "I'd rather go to a store so that I can have it delivered same day. I hate wating weeks and weeks for something to come via post. Okay. So. What -can- you help me with?"

She thought it cute the way he looked totally lost and clueless when asked about where to shop.

The dreaded Question. Kem was rightly glad that he wasn't in the mood he'd been in last week, or that one might have had adverse effects. Things being as they were, however, he decided to just go with the flow.

"Anything but shopping, unless you want it delivered to your address with an amazon.com sticker," he replied wryly.

"First things first. If you plan to stay, how about checking out of your hotel room? If you can't have your belongings delivered I can save you the cab fare and give you a lift."

"Yeah.. don't think I want to go to e-bay. And checking out would be a good idea, and if your driving, I'll definatly save money."

She chewed her lip thoughtfully. "I really don't have much.. only a couple of trunks. Can't we just send someone to get them?"

Kem stared at Su-Chen blankly for a moment. Send?

"Send who?" he asked. "Only think I can think of is paying the hotel to have someone bring your things over, otherwise it's you and me."

And a whole lot of stairs, he thought.

"How big were these trunks again?"

Kem stared at Su-Chen blankly for a moment. Send?

"Send who?" he asked. "Only think I can think of is paying the hotel to have someone bring your things over, otherwise it's you and me."

And a whole lot of stairs, he thought.

"How big were these trunks again?"

"Oh." She frowned as she thought, then looked back to him. "Oh, not very. Same size as a trunk you can buy to put toys in. about three feet wide, two deep, and two high."

She held her hands out as she spoke, trying to give a visual of the dimensions of the chests. And while he was thinking about climbing the stairs with them, she was trying to fight off the terror of using the elevator.

Kem was seeing all kinds of problems with the luggage transportation idea, but nothing that couldn't be worked around, he didn't think.

The easiest solution, in this case, was to just pay to have Su's things delivered to Liefde, where they would at least be brought to the lobby. Alternately, he hadn't purchased his car for its carrying capacity, but he could probably fit both the trunks into it somehow. It did have a convenient luggage rack on the back; one could potentially be stored there, or perhaps both, endwise, in the trunk, although it wouldn't close all the way... and they'd bounce... and ruin the paint job...

That did not bear thinking about.

"All right. We can go to your hotel and check out. Then we can get your trunks delivered to Liefde. Consider it a 'welcome to Evenhet' present. If they're willing to carry them up here, great. If not, I'll help you with that. And after that, we'll just play it by ear."

Kem hoped the flash of arrogance he saw before wasn't enough to keep her from turning down his offer. Having the trunks delivered was certainly the easiest way. If they ended up carrying them up from the lobby, Su could ride the elevator with them and Kem would meet them on her floor. Sooner or later she was probably going to ask why he never took the elevator; it always came up one way or another. No pun intended. Then again, she'd seemed fine with the climb herself.

Shrugging it off for the time being, Kem looked at Su-Chen expectantly.

"Alright, that'll work. I didn't feel like being the one to lug them up the stairs anyhow. They're kinda heavy." She slipped off the chair, hoping he didn't notice her lack of mentioning an elevator, but then he could just assume she didn't know they had one, which she did becuase she passed their doors on her way to the waiting room.

She watched him, expectantly, ready to to go. "Shall we then?"

Kem stood in the entry way of Su-Chen's new apartment, contemplating the two rather cumbersome trunks that now sat there.

"This is it?"

He wasn't sure whether it was good or bad that she had so little in the way of personal effects. Certainly, at one point in his own life it had simply been impossible to have more, but in this day and age people collected 'stuff' like it was going out of style.

The ride to the hotel had been surprisingly enjoyable; Su-Chen was not difficult for even the most reluctant of talkers to get along with. Kem had been happy to foot the bill for the trunks to be delivered, and with the help of his speedy BMW they had arrived back at Liefde in plenty of time for Kem to have a quick word with MARI and allow the men access to the elevators and to Su-Chen's suite.

Now he looked at the squat, bulky trunks in puzzlement. They hardly seemed large enough to hold everything Su-Chen would need.

Of course, she and Aishe might have something in common after all; Kem recalled Aishe's idea of 'packing' on several occasions - it involved a backpack and some kind of amazing display of clothing-origami. Perhaps Su-Chen had a smiliar ability to fit massive amounts of clothing into impossibly limited space.

"Where do you want these?" They seemed far too heavy for Su-Chen to move easily, but he shouldn't have a problem, and they certainly couldn't stay in the hall forever.



((ooc: permission for quick chat with MARI and to expound on Aishe's packing habits!))

"Yeah, this is it," she said with a light smile. "I was expecting a short vacation. Not an impromptu move to live her. I can only hope Liza see's fit to have some of my things shipped. If not, then I'll just buy new stuff. I'm not totally without money, unless she cut me off. God, I hope she didn't."

She pulled one of the trunks up so that it was standing on it's side, then she unbuckled the straps keeping it closed and opened it, much like one would a wardrobe. In this one were several drawers on one side, and a few items rolled up into tight rolls, sort of resembling burrito's, and tucked in behind a mesh net with a zipper at the top.

"They can go in the larger of the two bedrooms, of course," she said as she closed the trunk and locked it back up, then repeated the process with the second.

In this one was shoes on one side, mostly various types of sandles - flat, flip flop, strappy, heels, etc - and a few boots and a pair of tennis shoes all on one side, tucked away in little straps that held them in place by pair. and on the otherside behind another cargo net, was some fancier looking clothes, folded in half and pressed flatwith a metal-looking cage thing.

She closed this one back up. "Everything is accounted for." She turned to look at him once again.

Kem lifted the trunks and brought them, one by one, into the larger bedroom according to Su-Chen's wishes. He set them gently down by the wall, returning to the living room afterwards.

"Well, there's one thing done and out of the way," he said. "Is there anything else you'd like me to stick around for?"

He couldn't think of much else at the moment; the material things Su-Chen needed were things he was not likely to be much help at, but she had been fairly upset before and he wasn't about to just leave her on her own unless she wanted it that way. He might not be the most sociable person around, but he wasn't callous.

She watched as he lifted the trunks, without her having to ask him to, and do it himself. She was going to help, but when a man just takes things over for himself, she's not one to complain. She sat on the couch and waited for him to finish.

"Well, I can't think of any reason to hold you here. I've run out of excuses." She smiled thinly. She'd miss the company, but it was true, she had no further reasons for keeping him around. "I'm sure you've got more important things to do than to babysit a stray."