::Leads Chloe up the hallway, stopping outside a room.::

"This is your place, sweetie, just near where I sleep. In case you need me in the middle of the night or anything."

::Unlocks the door and steps in. The apartment is dingy and damp. The window is cracked. He hands her the keys and stands, leering at her.::

"Anything I can do for you now?"

::Chloe stands in the hallway, disgusted beyond belief.::

"Oh, I'll call you all right... I'll call for you to come to me and... Ooo! Will we have some fun!"

::She rolls her eyes.::

"In your dreams maybe. Thanks for the (dump)... place. Bye."

::As the Landlord leaves, Chloe scoots into her apartment, closing and locking the door behind her. She looks around the room.::

"Home sweet home."

::Sarcasim and disappointment weighs down her voice. She walks into her kitchen and fusses with the faucet that drips every few seconds and is already driving her insane. She settles with the sponge method, setting it in the basin of the sink to dull the hits of the water droplets.::

"Hmm. I already love this place..."

::Feeling depression wafting in, she knows she has to get out. She leaves her apartment and heads off to explore the town, eventually ending up at an interesting little club called P3.::

::Chloe smiles, taking the now pair of shoes to the door and setting them down before it.::

"Yes, that'd be great. I don't know what I have in there tea-wise... or anything wise."

::She laughs lightly, a bit embarressed and takes a seat, more gently this time, on the sofa.::

::Chloe closes the door behind her, putting the chain up before setting the shoe on a sidetable. She opens her tightly clenched fist to look at the necklace she'd bought at the magic shop. She looks it over again, still amazed at the craftmanship and details.::

"Hmm. I'm happy I decided to get it."

(Twas a very easy decision.)

::Chloe smiles as she put the necklace on, tying the leather straps.::

::Chloe freezes, her hands still woven in her hair as she ties the necklace.::

(What was that?)

::She turns towards her door, having heard the quiet knock.::

(Why would someone knock on my door?)

::She responds in an unsure voice.::

"Hello?"

::She approaches the door, ever so slowly, taking her hands out of her hair.::

::Hearing a soft reply, Lenin clears his throat and hopes for the best.::

"Um, Chloe? Is that... is that you? It's Lenin. You know, the guy with the shoe?"

(Or without it... idiot.)

::Chloe smiles, opening the door.::

"Hi."

::Chloe frowns slightly.::

"And you had someone else fix all your cuts and bruises?"

::She touches his face where there was a small cut before.::

(How could he have...?)

"Not even a mark..."

::She withdraws her hand quickly, realizing she was touching him. She slides behind the door, letting Lenin in.::

(Uh oh... to come clean or to... ah heck, women love a man with a bit of mystery about him!)

::He walks into the apartment gently, smiling boyishly at Chloe.::

"I heal remarkably well."

::Pausing, he looks around at the dingy settings, and thinks to himself.::

(She deserves a much better place than this one. Poor love.)

::Chloe squints at Lenin, a smile tugging at his lips.::

"Hmm..."

::Chloe closes the door and walks past Lenin across the door to the dusty old sofa. She turns back to face him.::

"Wonderful little place I've got here, eh?"

::She plops down on the sofa, a cloud of... stuff displaced by her poofs into the air. She coughs violently, standing up again.::

"Egh..."

(I'm never try that again.)

"So, where did you disappear to after the hallway thing?"

"Oh, um, I had a couple of errands to run. And then realised I could hardly do them without my shoe so..."

(Do I feel guilty about asking for it back? Maybe I should buy new shoes...)

"Heh... this is awkward... I hardly know you but..."

(I feel like I want to. Ech, Lenin, you old sap. Leave the mush to Luke eh?)

::Chloe smiles, glacing at Lenin's sock-clad foot. She moves to the table near her door, where the shoe lay.::

"Ah yes. The shoe. I thought you'd be back for it."

::She picks the shoe up and approaches Lenin with it. She doesn't seem like she wants to give it to him.::

::Lenin watches Chloe's face, noting every expression and deciphering them.::

"You know what?"

::He says while bending down and removing his other shoe.::

"Why don't you take both of these for a while, and I'll go make us a cup of tea, if that's okay."

(I need to go back to Luke for a couple of minutes to get back some energy. Feel fine though, after all, we have built up a lot of power by just waiting with Erin.)

"Really! Oh! Well! That's... that's great."

::With a forcedly charming smile, Lenin eventually sits beside her and faces her.::

"So... we didn't really get very far in P3, did we? I'm really sorry I had to run out on you like that."

::Chloe shakes her head slightly, frowning.::

"You didn't look too hot... I mean..."

(Heh...)

::She looks down at her hands.::

"You know what I mean."

::She regains eye contact.::

"But it looks like you're feeling better now..."

::A soft smile forms.::

::Seeing how Chloe's eyes twinkle as she smiles, Lenin's own face lights up and a sense of excitement rises from deep within... no, not that kind, you sickos!::

(She's just beautiful.)

"Yeah... I know. I'm feeling great, now, I mean."

(There's so much I want to tell her, so how do I not know what to say? What has a clone got to tell about his life? I haven't even lived yet, I'm not even my own person... and it's hardly going to work that Luke and I could share her... I can't believe I could even think such a thing! Ugh, Clone-angst.)

"Good, good."

::Chloe squints slightly, thinking.::

(So what do we do now?

Oh, you know what we do now.

But what if he...? I...

You know you want to.)

"So..."

::Chloe gaze wanders and lands on Lenin's soft-looking lips.::

::Chloe jumps at the knock on the door.::

(Damn...)

::Regretfully, she stands and straightens her shirt compulsively.::

"I am just so popular today..."

::She looks through the peephole to see Kellan standing there.::

"Oh crap..."

::She looks again, her blood pressure jumping, her throat tightening...::

::The immersed Luke vacates his penthouse and notices a man at his neighbor's apartment, wanting to get in just as badly. He cautiously walks to the door, standing besides Kellan.::

"I bet you are wondering why I'm dripping wet and wearing only a towel. Or maybe you just don't care. I take it you don't have a phone, either?"

::He knocks on the door with the back of his hand.::

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

::He rubs his temples again, feeling that unknown force from earlier.::

(Not again...)

::Lenin stands up immediately on Chloe's words.::

"Who is it?"

::He walks over behind her and gently places his hands around her stomach, intending on moving her so he can look out the peephole, but ends up holding her for a while, an almost electric buzz shooting through his body.::

(Okay. This is right.)

::Slowly, he guides her away from the door, before looking.::

"It's that bloke from P3, isn't it? Do you want me to-"

::Still looking, he sees that Luke is beside Kellan - half naked! Lenin's jaw drops on this sight, and he quickly turns around, back against the door.::

"Um, how about, how about we don't answer it?"

::Luke waits at the front door for a response, firmly believing that someone was on the other side of the door. After a few moments, Luke knocks on the door again.::

"Is anyone here? I need to use the phone."

::Chloe feels the shock through her core as Lenin holds her. She snaps out of it to looks through the peep hole again moving Lenin aside slightly. She looks to him, her brow furrowed.::

"Who is that guy standing next to that other guy?"

(That makes sense right?)

"No one! No one, it's just the uh, the glass, yeah it's, um, reflective! Distorts the vision, eh? Just one person there!"

::He puts his hands on her again and gently leads her over to the couch, sitting her down.::

"They'll go away soon."

(Fuck this.)

::He leaves Kellan alone at the front door, passing by the window a second time.::

(Hmm...I have an idea.)

::Luke heads to the Stairway, shutting the door behind him to conduct his plan.::

::Chloe gently squirms out of Lenin's grasp.::

"Why do you not want me to meet your brother?"

::Chloe studies his face, her eyes searching his.::

"Broth-"

(What the hell? She knows... oh... maybe he told her he had a brother... oh, why do I never pay attention when I'm wit him?)

"Yes! Of course! Luke! My twin brother!"

::Lenin grins broadly, relief on his face.::

"Heh, you see, I didn't want to open the door because that other guy was there too."

::A sudden twinge tears through Lenin. He has been out of Luke for about fifteen minutes, and time is wearing thin. His face visibly changes to accomodate this knowledge.::

(Oh, hell...)

::Chloe reacts to Lenin's sudden look of illness, fully disregrading his dissatisfying answer to her question.::

"Oh, god... Are you ok? Please, you should sit down."

::She leads him over to the couch and seats him in the middle of it..::

"Let me get you a drink or something..."

::She sets a kiss on his forehead, not even thinking twice about it and scurries off to the kitchen.::

"She kissed me..."

::The clone grabs at his chest in pain, feeling Luke pulling him back strongly now.::

"Dammit, you bastard!"

(What about Chloe? What am I gonna do?)

::The last thing he sees is his pair of shoes set on the floor, before disappearing with a "thhhhhhwip".::

::Luke reappears at Chloe's front door, knocking on it for the umpteenth time.::

(God, I hope whoever lives here is home. I really need to use that phone. What a cheap bastard that Landlord is.)

"Hello? Anyone there? Do you have a phone I could use?"

::He tightens his towel, feeling that it could let go at any second from his waist, preventing the exposure of nature's gift to...well, nature.::

::Chloe returns from the kitchen, a glass of water in hand.::

"Here, Len-"

(Damn...)

"-in..."

::Chloe sighs, setting the water down on the low table before the sofa.::

"I hope he's alright..."

::She looks through the peep hole without getting too close. She wishes not to be seen, thank you very much. She sees nekkid Luke and creepy guy both standing there.::

"What do you want?"

::She speaks loudly so her voice will carry through the wood.::

(That voice? Could it be?)

"Chloe? Is this your place? It's me...Luke. I need to use your telephone. The stupid Landlord forgot to provide my penthouse with one."

::He smiles awkwardly, his nakedness and embarassment now evident to him.::

"I'll pay you back so the phone bill shouldn't be an issue."

::Chloe faulters a bit.::

(Does Kellan know my name?)

::She makes her voice high and a bit raspy, trying to sound sixty years older.::

"Chloe? I used to have a bird named Chloe... Oh, how I miss her."

::She tries now to giggle, making her voice go even higher in a hopeful inquiry.::

"Do you know where my Chloe is? She flew away a year ago... Have you come to bring her home?"

(Guess not. Damn.)

"Ok. Sorry to bother you, ma'am. I'll use a phone elsewhere."

(Or nag endlessly at the Landlord.)

"Good day."

::Luke walks his naked self from the apartment, walking to his own penthouse, which was next door.::

::Chloe is confused as to why Kellan remains in the hallway.::

(Why is he just standing there?)

::Chloe shivers and carefully locks the rest of the locks, a total of two others besides the chain, on the door.

With nothing to do except worry about Lenin, she paces the living room and kitchen, back and forth, back and forth, until finally coming to rest, gazing out the open window that sets itself right on the wall that isn't sure whether it's kitchen or living room.

Chloe finds herself feeling itchy. It's not the kind of itch that you can scratch, so to speak. It's the kind of itch that needs to be satified in one way and one way only. In this particular case, Chloe wants to fly... She wants to have that birds-eye view. She wants to leave her worrying behind.::

(Fly...)

::Chloe's eyes close and her chin slowly moves down, resting on her chest. The concentration that will bring her freedom also brings pain as her body shrinks and contorts down, down into the shape of an aquila-- an eagle. It's small head rises slowly from where it rests, gently tucked in the small feathers that layer the chest. Her eyes slowly open, as do her wings.::

(Flying.)

::With ease, she hops onto the windowsill and stretches her wings again. One more hop and she's off, falling before she catches herself on the wind.::

::Chloe enters her apartment, via the window. Yeah, the one that doesn't know whether it's in the kitchen or the living room. She quickly morphs back into her human form once she is far enough from the window. She takes a seat on her ocunch and gets on with the worrying.::

(He'd better be ok...)

::She pauses in her worrying upon hearing the Landlord's voice echoing through her walls. She shivers and opens the door to the hallway a crack to see who the new victim is.::

(Oh! It's the wanderer! And a frozen thing?)

::She smiles to herself, not knowing what to expect, and closes the door behind her as she goes to great the newcomer.::

::Chloe opens the door and enters her apartment. She walks to the bathroom and splashes her face with cold water, repeating her new matra in her head.::

(Not a dead guy... Not a dead guy...)

::She hums a light tune to herself.::

::Andrea wanders inside and waits for Chloe to come back. She calls through.::

"Do you want me to close the door, or...?"

(This place is worse than mine. Poor girl. That landlord is atrociously repulsive.)

::She wanders in further and looks around with some interest.::

::Chloe comes out of the bathroom and quickly goes to close and lock the door to put more between her and the dead. She give Andrea a different explaination.::

"To keep the guys from whining."

::She takes a seat on her sofa.::

"I'm Chloe, by the way."

::She smiles lightly. If she were in her other form she'd be cooing. Her eyes take on the same glisten, though.::

"Andrea."

::She watches Chloe's face for a moment, catching a glimmer of something she recognises in the expression, but only passes it off as mild deja-vu.::

"So, I hope things like that don't happen around here to often? That second guy, though, he seemed pretty angry that we were near the uh, uh body, so... what's with that? Did he kill him?"