Having spent some time with each other, Phoebe and Victor seemed to have a naturally easy presence around each other. They definitely complimented each other and played some cheap and dirty, but amusing tricks to get some unsavory jobs done. The next task Victor sought her company for, could prove to be a risky endeavor. The risk was not because the job itself was dangerous, but because he was gambling with the emotions of two women. In all fairness, his objective was to help... Raina and himself while getting to spend some more time unraveling Phoebe. He had ditched the biologist, to go hunt for any intelligence and information regarding his father's whereabouts. His excuse was solid though and trustingly she had postponed her own errands, so she could leave the lab to Victor when he had the time to look after it. The naive marine scientist even entrusted him with the keys to the workplace.

Time with Raina had been interesting, but not enough to warrant sitting alone in a lab to jot down the behavior of various fish. But now that he had Phoebe's company, he found a way to make it work for him. The lab's aquarium was secluded and private and could prove to be a romantic set up if he painted it that way and he did. He spent some money on the fancier sort of take-out and he invited Phoebe to join him at the lab. As he sat on a couch, waiting for her, idly watching the dolphins swim in their tank, he wondered how the two of them would fair together, if they were tasked with something mundane and far less exciting than destruction and smuggling...

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Upon opening the door, the first thing he noticed was the crease between her brow. 'Welcome... Something wrong?' he asked as he placed an arm around her shoulders to usher her in. Once he'd closed the door behind her, he casually leaned towards her and planted a chaste kiss on her cheek. 'Don't you look wonderful... Thought we could kill two birds with one stone, earn ourselves some money while getting to spend some time with each other.' he explained, cocking his head to the side to indicate the table he'd set. 'I got us some food and set up the table and stuff.' he added, escorting her deeper into the lab. Feeling the need to make some more clarifications, the blonde cleared his throat and he added 'A friend of mine runs the lab, she gave me her keys to help her out today...'

He turned to face her again, scanning her face with narrowed eyes. The way she gauged the place, she wasn't as taken in by it as Victor had thought she would. Maybe Phoebe just had higher standards. It wasn't really on Victor's to do list to please her greatly, he intended to do just enough so they could get to know each other better. He considered a few other possibilities, was there a chance that she was familiar with this place? Instead of having to speculate, he believed the two were transparent enough with each other, so he could just ask, it's not like he had made any promised to her. 'Been here before?' he asked as he wandered to the couch and sat himself down on it again. Patting it invitingly, for her to take a seat.

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It was so great that Victor had not needed to do much in order to fix the lab up, except setting up the table. Since Raina had a bit of a thing for him, she'd gone out of the way to make her lab more hospitable for the blonde boy. If only the aquarist knew she'd set up her workplace so Victor could practically date another girl in here. The man snickered to himself, not too obvious because it would probably throw shade on his friendly demeanor.

As he heard her complimenting the place and mentioning that she had indeed been here before he chortled. 'Oh that is a pity, would have been better as a surprise.' he said casually. But upon noticing the tanks, she brightened a little... Victor gave her some room to explore on her own, while inclined to creep up on her and speed things up, he changed his mind and stuck to sitting on the chair and watching her, did give the boy a chance to shamelessly gaze at her posterior.

His eyes swiftly flicked to the food and then her face when she turned and asked what they got. 'Stuck to something reliable but tasty... Pasta, salad and something in there that's chef's special... He was quite taken in when I explained it was a special lady.' he said winking. Fully aware that the way Phoebe wouldn't understand special as something too binding. The two were an easy kind. 'If you've seen the fishes do anything weird, lemme know, I have to jot it down for Raina... ' he added, recalling the small hitch with this whole set up.

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'I mean... Since you helped her just the day before... and I've helped her in the past too, I wonder if she always relies on other to get work done.' he said thoughtfully, Raina had made it out to be like his aid was a rare occurrence. He wondered if she had played him to get stuff done too, it was a possibility and just that was enough to paint whatever he was doing now, white, from the grey shades the situation had before. Either way, it wasn't like Victor was plagued with guilt over it.

He got off the couch and occupied the chair he'd set up on the table, it looked like they'd be enjoying the meal before taking things forward, Victor was a patient predator he'd wait, like a gentleman. He cleared his throat, not wanting to be too critical of Raina he added. 'Well I suppose in her line of work help is necessary and not found easily, not many humans care about the welfare of nature and things...' he said, now serving dinner first to her and then to himself. After finishing the bite of pasta he'd forked into his mouth, he swallowed and added. 'That's why I helped her, I mean... Had great respect for her line of work.' he nodded thoughtfully, finding the need to paint himself as a good guy, at least a little after having dragged Phoebe around for all the nasty business. 'Apparently, I think she was quite taken in by that... A little more than I had hoped maybe...' he said chuckling, revealing a portion of the truth as he took another bite.

As if on cue, a small clink accompanied the bolt of the door shifting to the right as it was unlocked from the outside. Victor froze and widened his eyes. The door inched open and Raina walked in. Oh damn he thought. Raina froze too, eyes widened as well as some sort of a grotesque reflection of Victor's expression. She slammed her keys down into a bowl on a table beside the door. 'Victor, what the hell is this?' she said glaring. They'd just shared a kiss, geez, much like him and Phoebe, Victor thought, respectfully getting up. 'Well, Raina, this is Phoebe I think you'll have met... She was helping me with the fishes.' he said, feigning innocence, he knew they were busted, he just hoped it could be handled gracefully. He picked up the pad on which he'd jotted the notes and held it out towards Raina. 'See...'

Raina took deliberate long steps and moved towards Victor like a bull. The blonde instinctively backed up a little as she snatched the pad. 'Thank you.' she whispered sardonically, her tone almost sinister. 'NOW GET OUT AND DON'T EVER COME BACK.' she said, fishing into her bag and procuring a pouch of coins and chucking it at Victor, he caught it swiftly, but the coins did hurt his fingers with the force they were thrown at, he even winced, exaggeratedly, hoping it would stop her from attempting to hurt him anymore. 'YOU TOO!' she said turning to Phoebe and throwing a sack at her too. Victor caught that sack protectively and set it down on the table in front of his special friend.

From the corner of his mouth, he muttered to Phoebe. 'I'll explain, I think its a big misunderstanding, its best we leave for the moment...' he suggested, pocketing the money, raising his hands and slowly making it to the door, as though any sudden moments might provoke the scorned woman to take some violent action.

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==Exit==

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Exit.