Back In the Business

Tsuchi shrugged a shoulder and crossed her arms, tapping her fingers on her arms. "Eh, just puttin' it out there. I don't want to have to follow through, cause you seem like a good guy and I'd like to keep you around, but I will if I have to." She shook her head and looked around the warehouse, noticing the small hallway that led to another door at the other end. She laughed quietly under her breath.

Hunter smiled and said, "It's good to know that I'm liked by someone. But I would hate to die over something stupid." He cracked his neck and flipped open one of the knives, examining it, ,"Got dirt in it." he looked to Tora, "Do you have any oil?"

Tsuchi nodded once and stood up. "We should somewhere." She walked over to the kitchen and started to rumage through the cupboards. Finding none she paused. "If I don't come back in ten minutes then it would be wise to leave." She headed upstairs and the sound of a door opening could be heard.

Hunter watched her as she looked around and ascended the stairs. Once she disappeared from his line of sight he examined the knife closer, smiling when he saw the etching of his brothers name in the blade, "I still miss you man." he muttered, wiping it with his shirt.

Tsuchi came back down the stairs a couple minutes later and tossed him the oil. "That ok?" She sat back down on the couch, perching one elbow on her knee

Hunter nodded and took the knife apart, he used a small cloth he had in his pocket to wipe off the excess dirt and flipped it to the non-soiled side for the polishing. The whole process took close to three minutes. It may have been a long time, but he took care of all of his things, "So do you have any suggestions for what I should do or do I need to wait for a bit?"

"Do what you want when you want. What are you waiting for? Not us I hope. We work as a group when needed but we also work by ourselves, as you have seen with Ali." She ran a hand through her hair. "Or if you were meaning something else then I apologise."

Hunter shrugged when she asked his what he was waiting for, "Well I tend to wait for things to come my way, then I either strike out at them or reach out a hand for alliances. It all depends on who sent me out and what they wanted me to do." he put the knife back together and slid it into his pocket, "I just got too used to being told what to do."

Tsuchi nodded. "Understandable," she replied. "That's good but you can chill. We'll call you if we need you but until then feel free to do what you want as long as it doesn't endanger our group or this building."

Hunter leaned back and propped one foot on the table, "That's fine." he said, "I know not to bring people to places of business unless they are destined to die."

He leaned and removed the second knife from its space on his ankle and played with it, being careful not to cut himself like he usually did, "I'm not the best when it comes to knife tricks. Tend to get cut a lot, actually." he hissed and dropped the blade once it closed on his index finger, suckling on the sliced knuckle, "Know of any places good for fighting?" Hunter asked, his voice slightly muffled by the finger in his mouth.

Tsuchi shrugged a shoulder slightly, an apologetic smile flashing on and then off her features. "Not really. But I'd be happy to spar if you wish. Ali probably wouldn't mind either," she told him. "But an honest to goodness fight area? Not sure. You'd have to look around the city. Some gyms offer boxing classes and the such though."

Hunter smiled behind his hand and shook his head, "Thanks for the offer." he said, "But I have made it a point to never lay my hand against a woman unless my life was at state." He popped the knuckle from his mouth and examined the cut, it was still bleeding but he wither wiped it off on his pants or licked it; another bad habit of his, "I don't care for boxing that much. My preference is to have a brawl like I used to do with my brothers back on the homeland." he chuckled at the memories, "They taught me how to fight; groomed me for taking over the Guns. But then I got put in the ice box and started using." he pulled up a sleeve to show her the scars from needle pricks, "Getting clean sounds easy on paper; but when I get a craving for juice I substitute it with smoking. So it's either O.D. or cancer."

Tsuchi shrugged slightly, understanding the whole drug thing. She had seen good people go down due to substances. "Hey, if I had my pick from the three cigarettes seem the best bet to go with." She stood up and stretched her arms above her head, her muscles now itching to fight at the mention of it. "And about hitting a girl, I know that Nadia would hit you at that comment just for you to hit her back. She likes to fight, it's fun for her." She smiled crookedly. "Same with me, but I understand people's boundaries better than she does." She glanced over at the far hallway and laughed quietly. "Well, most of the time."

((sorry i was gone for so long))

"I would choose the clean option, but good help is hard to come by." he rolled down the sleeve and watched her stretch, "I don't doubt that she would try to hit me for that; but unless she has a weapon or a real intent to kill me I'll just get hit until she gets bored of me not doing anything. You can only spend so much time on a punching bag until you begin to crave the real thing. So while she hits me I'll just turtle; move my body just enough to take the main edge off."

Tsuchi laughed. "Aw, you're no fun." She beamed. "Nadia would probably get annoyed, or her joking version of such." She shook her head slightly. "She's kind of childish, but she knows when to play hard." She glanced at him. "May I ask why you wouldn't hit a girl? I've always been curious... I know several men who have hit us if we honest to god hit first but... in the sense that I'm asking you to spare why wouldn't you?"

"I'm fun in my own special ways." he said lightly, "As for not hitting a girl, it's just something that struck me as wrong. Pain because you are perceived as weak is something that I never believed in. My father did it because he thought we were weak and would never amount to anything, but I proved his ass wrong after slamming him through that fucking window."

"As everyone is." Her smile twitched slightly, then lowered until her face was near to expressionless. "You pushed your father out a window? Interesting."

Hunter noticed the shift in mood and his smile faded, "Listen, I didn't kill him because I thought it would be fun or make me a man. He took someone very important away from me. He took my little brother. I was forced to watch his eyes go dark, his skin to pale, and to top it off I was covered in his blood. I went to the funeral but was arrested halfway through the service. So then my mother who was crippled by the loss of her husband and two sons committed suicide, leaving only me." he paused to wipe an eye, "So in my opinion he had it coming."

"I'm not critisizing you for killing you father. In fact, from what you said about him, I'm glad you killed him." She stuck her hands in her back pockets. She blinked once and glanced at the floor for a moment before looking up, a tint of sincere sadness in her eyes. "I'm truely sorry about your brother."

"That makes two of us." he said solemnly, "But sometimes I need to try and stay positive." Hunter smiled and cracked his knuckles, "If I think about it for too long, I'm going to go insane. I've mourned for a very long time so now I need to move on. It'll be hard, but not impossible."

Tsuchi nodded, not quite sure what to say. She didn't mourn for anyone; she was too young when her parents died and she wanted Kani dead. But then she thought of the couple guys she hung with on and off over the years and remembered the shooting of one. She sighed. "It will be hard but he would have wanted you to. He wouldn't have wanted you to go crazy because of him."

He clenched his fists and the corner of his mouth twitched at the mentioning of what Damien would have wanted, "I always hated it when people told me that..." he muttered, "It always pissed me off whenever a person tried to say that 'He wouldn't want that for me'. I raised the kid, I left him alone with that monster to go make my own friends, and he died because of it." Hunter turned his head to hide the tears beginning to roll down his cheeks, "So maybe going insane is his way of getting back at me for abandoning him."

Tsuchi watched him, surprised at the sudden emotion. She bit her lip slightly. "I'm sorry for what I said, I was only trying to help." She noticed the tears in his eyes before he turned his head as they started to fall. "I don't mean to speak for him, and I don't mean you any discomfort or pain. But do you honestly think that he wants you to go insane for him? Do you honestly think that he would want you to destroy your life? He might be upset with you, but he might also know that nothing can be done to erase his life and redo it, so he might want you to make yours the best you can. I'm not speaking for him, I'm asking you what you think he would have wanted for you."

Hunter wiped his face and nodded silently, "You're right." he said, "You're absolutely right. He told me something before he went, though. Something that put my mind at ease. I'll keep it to heart and never break my promise to him." He looked to Tora and smiled wryly, "Just have to keep positive and live his life for him."

Tsuchi gave him a small kind smile and nodded. "Keep that then, keep that and the good memories. You're right, just keep positive and live his life for him."