a necessity

It is morning proper by the time Todd starts to stir. He slowly wakes to being surrounded in warmth. The body pressed to his is becoming familiar and the feel of Barnaby's skin against him brings a quiet interest to him. Nuzzling at his neck he pushes forward to tip him toward being on his back. Kissing down his neck he runs his hand down his side.

He has always enjoyed waking up like this. Almost always with Mikael, but here with Barnaby he feels a soft enjoyment to it that is new. It is enough to pull a soft sound from him in an attempt to articulate how pleased he is.

He isn't sure which city this is. He hadn't bothered to learn those particulars. The Hierophant tended to move from city to city with whatever whim took him. He rarely took Todd with him, but did expect him to catch up with him. Between that and his formless times in the Void, Todd travled a lot. When he arrived to wherever the pull of his Arcana was he regularly would find some hotel to stay at. Even while staying in whatever city it was he would change locations regularly. Sometimes the city's Royals would get ideas and if he could make their jobs more difficult, all the better.

What belongings he did have he kept in the little sliver of Void he carried with him. It was a handy place because he was the only one who could access it. There was quite a collection of weapons and ammunition for the weapons that required it. His favored weapon remained the shattered sword that had been used to kill him the first time. He was sentimental like that. But beyond that he had a few items that he kept to remind him of times past. Many of them were given to him by Mikael, an Icon of Judgement who had become attached to the wake around the Hierophant. They were friends and occasional lovers, in as much as Todd had anyone to call a friend. Not that he had found or reconnected with Mikael yet in this city.

He had been busy, he told himself, with doing the Hierophant's dirty work. That dirty work had eventually led him into what had turned out to be a well made trap. Well made enough that Todd had not realized it until he had been pinned down under a hail of gunfire. It might have worked for the Royal that set it up. They might have been able to injure him enough to send him for a time to the Void. Unfortunately for them it had not been enough and Todd had killed them all. He had even chased down the last couple that tried to run.

Now he leaned up against the wall of an alley somewhere near the warehouse the trap had been in. It was dark, probably, or maybe it was only a product of the blood loss. As long as no one else with violent intent and skill took a serious run at him he would probably recover from this.