Entitlement

[Trillian]

[Continued from The Dance]

Stepping inside the foyer, there was nobody at the counter save for a sign instructing them to go to the bank of elevators up ahead.  Lazarus assisted Ichabod to those elevators, his arm wrapped around the mortal\'s middle and keeping him propped up.  As they waited, a young man with wings folded against his back and a tail wrapped around one of his legs entered the building and also looked at the sign before waiting at the elevators with them.

"What\'s wrong with him?" he asked.

"Mind you own fucking business," Lazarus snarled, and the winged boy was quiet.  When the elevator came, he didn\'t join them, and Lazarus punched the button that the sign had also instructed.  Out of curiousity he tried one of the floors above.  They lit up but wouldn\'t stay on, which meant they needed a swipe of a card into the slot.  So self-security handled whoever wished to nosy around.

They were in the waiting area now of the meeting room, and there was another winged creature waiting for them to hand over a paper slip with a number and write down their names.  He gave Ichabod a wary look, as though he expected the youth to throw up or fall over, but didn\'t comment.   Lazarus hobbled them both over to one of the couches around the room, where they sat and waited.  There were quite a few different people here, couples, singles, a lot busier than it had been last time he was here.

When was that?  Why was that?  Damn his stupid mixed up memory, he couldn\'t remember.  It only made him scowl more.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod glanced across at the winged man with a look of confusion, blinking quickly as though that would make the extra limbs disappear. He\'d heard of people like that from Lazarus, but never actually seen one. But the human kept his mouth shut for now, he was still tired and his head was pounding. Maybe some more juice or water would have been good, but it was too late for that now.

When they stepped off the elevator Ichabod ignored everyone else in the room (including the other winged person) and just stood still, leaning against the counter as Lazarus scribbled down their names. He had previously thought Lazarus might be calming down a bit, but after the way he had snapped at the person downstairs, and at the thundery look on his face Ichabod decided it would be best to stay quiet for now.

He leant forwards, leaning his head in his hands once more, his eyes shut as they waited for their turn and would stay like that until they were called, or Lazarus spoke to him. He still couldn\'t see why they had had to come tonight, Lazarus knew how shit he felt, he was just twisting the knife.

[Trillian]

Their wait took a little over an hour.  Numbers were called and people went in.  As they waited, more arrived, a vampire with a mortal youth took the chairs opposite Lazarus and Ichabod, and this vampire stared first at Ichabod, then at Lazarus before the blonde glared at him enough for him to look away and fuss over his pet.  It was disgusting, Lazarus thought, how some vampires would pander to their pretty little pieces of flesh.  He looked at Ichabod, feeling a pang of guilt before he squashed it.  The little bastard deserved to be feeling unwell, he\'d done something he\'d had to have known Lazarus wouldn\'t like.

Then their number and names were called, and Lazarus stood, hauling Ichabod to his feet as well, and entered the room.

"Lazarus," Halen greeted, leaning forward in the large chair opposite the door they came through.  The table was different from last time, Lazarus remembered, but he didn\'t know how exactly.  This one was horseshoe shaped, and there were a number of bored looking Oligarchs sitting around it while Lazarus approached the main guy from the middle, dragging Ichabod behind him.

"I\'m come to ask for permission to have a pet," Lazarus declared, picking Ichabod up a little more fully, so that he was standing straighter.

Halen, who\'d had a few questions for what Lazarus had been up to since disappearing from the city quite some time ago, didn\'t ask them as Lazarus got straight to business.  Smiling, pleased that the former leader of the city was now following the Oligarchy rules (which was a good sign), Halen consulted the sheet of paper before him.

"Ichabod Connors," he stated, using Ichabod\'s full name which was something Lazarus hadn\'t known, hadn\'t asked, and was surprised that the Oligarchy knew.  "He\'s been in your care for some time now."  It was a stab in the dark.  Ichabod had been noticed in Risk, followed home, and taken details of.  Then he\'d disappeared from home, not long after.

"A little while.  He\'s a good pet, most of the time," he gave Ichabod a squeeze.

"Ichabod, you consent to being the pet of the vampire Lazarus?" Halen asked the youth, who looked like he\'d been drained a little too much.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod finally began to pay attention as Lazarus pulled him into the large room and he swallowed hard as he glanced around at the Oligarchs watching them. He felt like he was about to be punished for something he’d done wrong, like when he’d had to go in front of the headmaster at school, but he’d already had the punishment for his actions the night before and he hoped that would be all of it.

He looked towards the vampire behind his large table and blinked in surprise as he said his name. He didn’t think Lazarus even knew his last name, how did these people? His grip on Lazarus tightened a little and he glanced across at his master at the question before looking back towards Halen. He was getting himself into this, just one work now might stop it… but despite how Lazarus had treated him Ichabod didn’t want it to end. Not yet.

“Yes,” he responded quietly and simply, lowering his eyes from Halen’s penetrating gaze.

[Trillian]

For Ichabod to assume Halen was a vampire wasn\'t the first time someone had incorrectly guess Halen\'s species.  He didn\'t have the pallour of undeath about him, but he certainly wasn\'t human (though did look it).

"Permission granted."  Halen scribbled a note on the paper in front of him, then made a swishing motion with his pen upon it that simply had to be a signature.  When Lazarus didn\'t say thank you and leave, he looked up.  "Was there anything else?"

Lazarus was stunned at how quickly this had happened.  Hadn\'t the last time he\'d been here been drawn out?  He certainly didn\'t remember the long queue waiting to be let in.  Perhaps this was the way the Oligarchy was supposed to work, like some human clerical council.  It was laughable, really.

"Yes."  He removed his hand whilst asking Ichabod if he was okay to stand up on his own.  "Do you think you could wait for me outside?" he said, and a guard - who looked very human and normal but smelt strangely of cat to Lazarus\' nose - stepped forward to take Ichabod by the arm.  "I won\'t be long," he promised Ichabod.  And he wouldn\'t be, if permission seeking was so simple as this.

[pinkroses]

That was it? After everything he\'d heard about the council Ichabod had been expecting a lot more and to say he was relieved that it was over so quickly would have been an understatement. He glanced towards the door, eager to leave quickly, but then his dark eyes turned back to Lazarus with a mixture of confusion and dismay as he asked him to wait outside. He didn\'t want to be left alone in this place anymore than he had wanted to be alone in Risk and the fact that he had no idea what else his master wanted to say only made him more warey.

But before he could say anything Lazarus had let him go and a guard was leading him towards the door. As the door shut firmly behind him Ichabod sighed quietly to himself and leant against the wall next to the door, waiting patiently for Lazarus to return. He could feel the eyes of various creatures on him and shut his own to try to block them out.

[Trillian]

It was another fifteen minutes before Lazarus joined him in the waiting area, and without a word he gave Ichabod a little smile and went to him, helping him to his feet and leading him back to the elevators.

As Ichabod might\'ve tried to converse with him, Lazarus would press a finger to his lips and shush him.

"You want to go home now, don\'t you?" he asked with a glint in his eye.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod clambered to his feet with Lazarus\' help and once again wrapped his arm around his master as he was lead to the elevator. Once the doors were shut Ichabod opened his mouth to ask what he had been asking the Oligarchy, but he was quickly silenced by the finger to his lips. He disliked the patronising way Lazarus shushed him, but stayed silent anyway.

“Yes,” he replied simply, looking up at the blonde as he used him as a crutch, hoping that the question was meant to be just a confirmation of where they would be going next rather than the challenge he thought it might be. He really didn’t want to go anywhere else, and guessed that wherever Lazarus might have in mind wouldn’t be somewhere the human wanted to be.

[Trillian]

The next building they went to was in walking distance, thanks to the information the Oligarchy had provided him upon his request.  All in all, he\'d been surprised to learn that his next destination would be so close - just a few blocks away, in fact, but such was the hub of city central, with everything in walking distance to each other.  Perhaps that was why Kerr had chosen the place he had - being in the middle of everything, with his fingers in every pie.

Or at the very least, in Lazarus\' pet.

[continued in Entitlement II]