There was something about trains.

Momiji's presence at the trainyard was neither a rare nor capturable moment, as with anything he did; he was so easy to spot, just out of frame of any sidelong glance, yet difficult to pin down within a single reference. He was like this locomotive. Roaring, ever pushing to somewhere, anywhere. Breathing hot air like the smog from coals, his eyes too green to be their equal but all gems came from the same black pits. He would be no different. He had a fire in him that kept an engine ever rumbling, released from such pretty lips in a purr that was as tempting as its threat. His lopsided grin served their own derailing.

Still, he found himself back here in Baska often enough since his involvement with Guardia Compagnia. Truth be told twice? He had only taken up with the guild as the first to find and recruit him on Fiorian soil. It wasn't like he held any values or love for the nation. He simply needed somewhere to be - someone he could be here, far away from the only 'home' he had known before. The quality of these trains and their dilapidated station, within the stages of its foundation, served to bring his thoughts back to that moment of freedom. They were bound on their tracks without escape but charged forward in spite of that. They stalled only to see new faces, accept new patronage, and carry off again. Hungry, insatiable, for their fuel and the world et large. How much of Fiore had the machine pulling in now seen? More than him? Indoubtedly.

And how did you catch something like that? It was an itch in his legs. Maybe that's why he returned to this spot, standing behind a bench as if it served the only barrier between him and total escape. He was unlikely to be found; but his previous family continued their attempts, and his tracks were made hard to follow only by his general chaotic nature. He had his run-ins. He should be taking more chances. He should be moving faster, unexpected. How much more distance could he make from Joya? Could the train do it for him?

And he circled back around with a drag of his eyes to the landscape of Baska nearby, a hand brushing light across the back of that partition while his eyes drowned in their own apathy. Momiji wasn't built in a way where he could renege his life in Guardia until the time came where he had grown bored with its offers; and as that hadn't happened, he had a duty to the things that he『loved』. Momo liked Baska. Momo『loved』Guardia Compagnia. Momo loved his freedom.

Maybe the train before him symbolized in an aspect of such -- but it was just as emblematic of a new trap. You were never free if you were just constantly escaping. You just ran between the cells that held you. He sighed, big, and let it rattle out until his eyes refocused with a giggle.

How fast did you have to be to catch a train? A leg tensed, arching him over the top of the bench.

The screech of iron revolving, grinding against each other with the ring of a whistle to signal its departure. The doors have long since closed. The hiss of steam perfectly entwined with the droves of pedestrians spilling out towards the exit. Desdemona Lafayette had already decided that this small sliver of the world would be her den. Baska was the home of her chosen guild, Guardia Compagnia; A neutral guild that skirted the rules and regulations set by the Magic Council. Not inherently good, nor evil - a grey zone where somebody with Mona's... predilections could thrive. It was a means to an end - a place for Mona to dip her toes and slink about in search of cheap thrills.

Smoldering fuschia ignites, fanned further red in the cacophony of the station. She wants to lash out, needles digging into the space between each hair raised. A snarl in the confines of her throat, vexation in the misplacement of her sense of direction, and the overwhelming strain of the crowd. A single step; a heel that quakes in the tremble. She was a maelstrom - urges to fill the room with bloodcurdling screams and then... silence. She's on the brink, too close to the edge. Curtains fall with the flutter of her eyelashes, mascara smearing a bit in the dampness of her sweat. Reverie in a dream bereft of bedlam, a still pit of tranquil water.

Mona relaxes with slow breaths in the misty inhalations that filled the square, eyes cooling into a pale vert. A hand lifts, the schism between her fringes tidied, flared back to nestle above her brow. "Mm.. All better~!" A crack in the high pitched squeal. Her attention had been diverted from her surroundings for quite some time, moments lost in the space between lingering urges and the self-restraint she'd wrestled from within. The throngs of people had since dissipated, a few stranglers remained, but little of note to mention.

However, there was an exception. A slender boy with a pleasing face, dressed unkempt despite the veneer of nobility. He was giggling profusely, legs propped as if he were about to bolt off into a sprint. It'd be a shame to let such appetizing prey escape her gluttonous maw. Mona's tongue slithers out from its nest, lapping across her flushed lips with an excited mewl that splits behind her falsetto. A mesmerizing sway of her hips to meet the curious boy, so happy; so elated. It only seemed proper to meet him in kind. A prince for a princess.

"Hiiii~ You wouldn't happen to be trying to run away from little old me, would you~?" An innocent gleam in her eyes betrayed by the tint of pink, and a finger raised to trace the outline of her lips. "I'm new in town and I'm unsure about what to do with myself, but you look... fun. Plus points for being such a cutie~ I feel like I could just..." Eat. You. Up. Mona bites down on her lips, spreading venom with the flick of her tongue. "So, can I hang out with you for a while, hon~?" She'd outline the slope of his chin, a nail grazing the underside.

"Ah, right- Call me, Mona."

"Eto?" The boy pauses in position - he has one leg lifted over the back of the bench, the other angling his knee for a kick-off, and both hands curled into the wood. His nails pull up in a pleasing / unpleasing scratch along lacquering and iron, tossing his head with a roll that leaves it tilted and peering directly back at the source of his new distraction. It is temptation. Momiji takes in the sight of his first devil; green and black and such a tease of white, out of place, perfectly framing disconcerting eyes that challenged his own in their expressive hue.

His mouth opened, widening to a full 'o' reflected by the same in his eyes on her, hers, sparkling. A hand wrenched itself from the mistreated public property, stretching its full height in a greeting before it'd move to an erratic wave; only for this to lose his balance, spiraling off his leverage in continued silence. He made no sound or further action until he was a ball on the other side of the bench, unfurling to be laid on his back with all limbs lifted in the air. It was as if the sequence of events hadn't ... that they happened, and had an effect, but he didn't recognize it. He wasn't properly dazed so much as still dazzled by her, watching the sky with curious stars that slit and cut to their side and caught her again.

"Woₒₒoaaᵃᵃᵒoaoaₒₐₒaoaᵃʰʰʰ!!" This was his eventual response, still turtled, only to fling himself in a roll and cartwheel until he skipped two paces and landed with a ta-da! in her line of sight. His arms remained raised in the air, beaming at the playful figure. "ᴾ ʳ ᵉ ᵗ ᵗ ʸ ! You're pretty! Mo - ₙₐ? Mooo~na! Mona's so pretty! Look at Mona! Wowow! And --," and he dropped his arm so he could lean, stretching out on his toes and tilting his head back and forth in a full observation of her. A hand lifts to his lips, tapping them. "You think Momo's cute? You do, you do? Hai? Momo is cute, so you're pretty ᵃ ⁿ ᵈ you're smart! You know what is important, Mo~na!"

He played with her name as if he wanted to do more with it, the way it rolled off his tongue teasing additions or a lingering inability to truncate it further; it already sounded like a nickname, leaving Momiji in a strange new position. Did he add an honorific? How did he make Mona cuter? Cute, cute ... "Momo will think of something." She wasn't privy to his thoughts, of course, but he'd snap back on his heels and wobble in place. A veritable cartoon character.

"Mona, Mona ~ What's a Mona? Eh? What are ʸᵒᵘ? What are you doing? Do you live here? Do you live on trains? Do you like trains? Momo likes trains." His words spilled without an end, only catching him with the tie of his tongue and a blink that re-brightens each hungering emerald. "ᵥᵥₕᵧ?"

"You want to hang out with Momo ~? Hai, hai ~ Hang around!"

Smitten with a keen reverence, at the absurdity of this slapstick comedy that the boy had found himself in. Mona was surely responsible, but there must have been something dreadfully wrong with the boy for such a thing to be possible. He rolls, he stumbles over, peering up with twinkling viridescent, a shooting star that burned bright, fixed in this single spot while his body twists and flips in a rather astonishing display of acrobatics. If his eyes reflected the stars in the night sky; hers would reflect the beating heart that thumped rapidly in her chest. It'd flash a hungering red. Teeth aching under sticky saccharine at the mere passing thought of his taste.

She'd chirp, a shrill purr that escapes through sugar-coated fangs and she'd cackle with an elated giggle that cracks at the end of his performance. Her hands lift, a flurry of excited little claps that resonate oddly under the friction of a silk glove against bare flesh. "Bravo, hon~! My, you're fun already~ I wonder if you have any other tricks~!" Mona would coil around the bend, lapping up the boy's compliments that slipped from such a cute accent before settling down beside him. She craved the attention and coveted someone who would so readily shower her with such honeyed praise.

"Aw, thank you so much Momo. I can already tell we're going to be besties~" Her hand would trace the contour of his cheek, tapping with a steady trail to scritch below his chin and direct his attention to her flashing pupils. "I think I would dare to call you 'adorable'~ You've completely piqued my interest, You. Little. Rascal~" She'd coo with a yowling fluctuation that would accentuate the smoldering of her eyes in her escalating excitement.

He whips up like a turbulent squall, whirling like wind with thoughts that Momo couldn't even fathom. It's what made him so appealing. The chaos that was inherent in his existence. Her head tilts at his peculiar declaration to think about something, a hand lifting to hover her wry smile and muffle the charmed giggle. His curiosity was endearing and his proclamation of liking trains felt so novel in its innocence. Mona couldn't remember a time in her life when she was stricken with such hyperactive whimsicality. He was buzzing too bright, too loud, but it didn't annoy the serpent in a way others would.

"You certainly ask a lot of questions, don't you~? I don't mind trains and I'm new in town. A girl's gotta keep some secrets, though~" She'd offer a smile, a hand lifting to conceal it with a hushed teehee as she flutters her eyelashes. Mona leaps up and coils around his slight frame to warm her cold blood, cradled within the soft constriction of a serpent, and she slowly breaks off to tilt her head and brandish pleading eyes. "Mona is Mona~ Be friends, hai? Friends get to know secrets... And I desperately wanna see what trouble a cutie-pie like you gets up to~"

"Tricks? Momo can do tricks!" He laughs, openly and brazenly, for his eyes were bereft of shame and full - in its place - of the thrill of the 'first meeting'; it laid the groundwork for so much, after all. You made new friends, you made old friends, you made new enemies, you buried them deep. What was more exciting than the danger of somebody you had never met? What was more electric than the appraisal of their opinion of you, and whether this meant their life or death? He giggled again, tilting his head the other way and holding up a hand like a paw to his snickering menace of an expression.

She wasn't right, either. He knew that within the instant of their eyes meeting, face to face, and his response to the inclination was to lean into her hand like a giddy kitty and purred against its caress with that same undercurrent of manic joy. It continued to vibrate in his throat, propping him against her arm with all the nature of a creature fearless of anything - least of all that red, red look in her eyes, hungry in a way he could only reflect. His own flashed in a turn of the light. "Momo is adorbable, hai, hai? Momo can be a little rascal, but Mona-chan, Mo~na ... Mona-chan looks like she might just ₑₐₜ Momo up. Does that make Momo ze rat ... or the cheese, Mona? And is Mona Mona ..."

He'd catch her with a hand at her shoulder and force them both off their feet in the eye of his storm, dipping her with that same look of mania and affability. He'd grin down at her, so wide it threatened to split his face in two, and he'd tap his feet in excitement. "The kitty-cat ... or the steel trap? Uehehe?" He'd release her with a bound backward, clapping along on each hop until he reached his standing ovation. "Just ~ kidding! Otay, Mo~na, we can be best ᵇᵉˢᵗ friends! ᵂ ₕ ᵒ ˢ ₑ are you? In Fiore, Mona Mona? Momo is Guardya ... Companya!"

He'd turn and lift his shirt to show the stamp of his guild tattoo at the small of his back, unable to stand still even for that moment, and his wiggling in place eventually found him turned back to face her. "Momo doesn't make trouble, no, no! But ... but ...,"

And now he was conspiratory, leaning in with both hands behind his back and a cutesy arch of his back. "Momo ᶠᶦⁿᵈˢ it ~ Mona likes ... the rolling-coaster?" He didn't speak literally, popping his lips into a bright smile, but rather of the entertainment she so desperately sought.

Mona adored the keen edge of sharp objects, curling around the distance of their length until she confronted the peril of the pointed end. She was no predator, parasitic at worst, but a symbiotic relationship could be struck with the more dazzling scourges she would come to collect for her hoard. A crooked smile creeps along the rim of her mouth, a smack of plush lips. This "Momo" was positively splendid, pliable to the inclination of her fingers, itching in all the right spots. He was rollicking a ponderous little nursery rhyme to himself, cackling frantically with eyes that paralleled the all-encompassing emptiness; the hunger and she would be lost within it, a hand grazing along the contours of his cheek. "Absolutely adorbable~"

She would be swept up in his tumultuous excitement, a hobble in the twist of her heels with a surprised squeak, dimming the smoldering red to pale green. "Oh dear~" A hand would raise to conceal the glint of her fangs, her eyelashes flutter and the curtains are pulled on the window into her soul. "I believe Momo to be ze kitty cat in your analogy, dear boy~ Mona is something else, bound by such troublesome rules and restrictions..." She'd whine a soft little pout, a hiss buried in the whimper. Mona was the serpent that brought ruin. The threat that every tale forewarns, causing nothing but calamity in their wake. But, her existence was rather biblical. She could not deny her hand in the temptation of forbidden fruit. Mona sought not the destruction for man, but rather the spectacle of sin.    

She'd hitch her skirt, steady clicks of heels to approach the applauding Cheshire Cat, grinning, giggling with a rather fascinating elation. He was unstable in the best way; teetering on the edge of chaos. All he needed was a little push. Her index finger would flit, find itself splayed across the span of his wet lips in a hushing gesture as she leaned in close as if to reveal some insidious revelation. "I'm ze snake, little kitty~" She'd bounce backward, a twirl with arms outstretched, a fracture in the falsetto of raucous laughter. Her laugh would still abruptly, focusing her gaze back on Momo; petrifying in its kindled hue. "You're... warm, Momo. I think a cat and a snake truly could be the bestest of friends, yes?" She'd pace, tapping the slope of her cheek with the steady pitter-patter of an odd sentiment brewing.

The two had something in common; a shared occupation. Mona giggles, a hand extending backward to unfasten the zipper at the back of her dress, parting it to reveal her tattoo to the boy. Lilac-fringed mane, sloping down the incline of her shoulder with the tilt of her head and a mischievous smirk. "Me, too~ It must be fate! Momo and Mona~ Besties forever~" She pulls the zipper back up, a return to modesty, and skips closer, clapping her hands together madly, shrill, screaming dalliance ensnared by the frenzied expression on her face.

"Oh? Please do tell~ What is this 'rolling-coaster?'" Mona would prop her her hands up to curl her fingers along with the enunciation of what she could only assume was a code for something, flashing a frisky wink, as she slithers closer to dote on her new friend.

Momiji liked this Mona creature and the venom she spun like cotton candy he could all but sink his teeth in; because she liked him, too, and he saw kin in her eyes and in the cloying arch of her shape against his. Tachibana no Momiji was not a predator - nor was he prey - he was the hunter, the stalker, the trophy-collector. Mona was no more or less a predator herself; for her own hunt was stalled short by whatever inclination bound that red gaze in fenrir's chains, begging you to do the only thing you could to free her - put your hand in her mouth. Momiji found this thrilling. "Momo has fire." He spoke, and his tenor smoldered under the song of his voice - and it lulled them, so soft and so harsh, burying the giggles in his throat under layers of ash. He'd breathe it out. "The fire of God. Hai, hai, Hebi-chan?"

His eyes would widen with that freshly lit brightness and capture the trail of his hand up her cheek, and it trembled, not from nerves or fear but an irreverence reserved not for her. It spilled from his body in waves of blue, pupils convulsing until his irides were runic crosses and his every exhalation materialized in static waves. His hair had lifted in the rush of ionization, just a gentle wave to flutter each golden strand from straw, and he curled his thumb to tease the brush of her jaw in her movement away and around her pacing. "A snake in the garden ... a snake in the garden, and every tree on fire, pretty Hebi-chan~?" He'd slope his shoulders down in a hyena's cackle, bringing his hands to his lips, then he'd bound backward to prance between his feet as his sidhe resealed. "You're so funny, Mona-chan! You're so big, big, ᵇ ᶦ ᵍ ~ Wowow, glam - ₒᵣ - ᵘˢ!"

That was nothing to the excitement that burst out of him upon her guild tattoo, his fingers reflexively clenching to white knuckles among each other before splaying out - out - and he had to remember he could unlatch them, tossing them wide. His breath had caught in a gasp with too much energy for his little form to contain; he had to release it in a lunge, tackling the girl in a hug as he continued to hop and drag her in a circle with him. "Fate! Fate! Mona Mona is Com-ᵖᵃ-ny! That's funny, too! How does that work? How did you get to Momo? Oh no, oh no, 'cause Momo realizes --"

And he halts, his head bobbing from the momentum. "Momo loves you, Mona-chan. We can do anything! Momo will take you everywhere! Momo will keep you safe, and you can keep Momo ... Compaⁿʸ!"

His applause was deafening, coiling his body to release it in a big, happy jump and then sprinting around her during the course of her question. He'd stop only to be doted over. "There are bad, bad guys, Hebi-chan. Bad men with bad, bad teeth. Yours are better. Momo's are better. We bite them first, hai? Momo can take on ride. :)"

Star-crossed eyes brimming with the unbridled facsimile of chaos, a throbbing desire that would be lost in the reflection of hazy chartreuse that seemed to ignite in the throes of something that could not be comprehended. Surprising still was the boy's next course of action; a princess' hand, nipped at by an eager kitty, too excited in the throes of his excitement. Mona vibrates, astonished by the unrestrained gesture of what Mona could assume was affection. A twisted simper, simmering still with a tepidness, cravings to satiate; good cat's to scritch. "My, you're a bold one aren't you~? A fire, hmm? Aren't you just darling~" She cooed at him, stroking beneath the incline of his chin, deep magenta festering within the silhouette of dusky eyeshadow.

Mona had never thought of herself as a smoldering flame. Stuck in the confines of her prison; a lantern held by a demon she'd never met. Suffocating. Stifling the wildfire. It's why she found herself attracted to such dazzling lights, watching how they danced and fluttered in the wake of their carnage. Beauty in the rampant freedom that leaves nothing but destruction in their wake. She saw that in the boy's eyes, twinkling with anarchic effervescence and the ambiance crackling with electricity. Her skin shivers again, craves warmth. She'd tilt her head to his inclinations, arms lifting to support her bosom, swaying with a shiver trailing down her spine. "I hope to see you in my little garden, hon~? I do quite enjoy the friendship of kindred flames." She purred, splitting into a shrill giggle, nipping at the paw that ran along her skin, a playful little growl to accentuate her invitation.

Mona's eyes widen and she shrieks, startled by the sudden outburst from Momo. The kitty had pounced on the snake and she would slither, desperately coil to cling to the intense roils of the ferocious hunter. She hobbles along a scattered rhythm in her heels, twirling to retain even a semblance of control. "M-Momo!? What the hell!?" She yelps, but embraces him in kind, a scalding sizzle of pale, cold-blooded flesh and matted hair, nestling in with a trill giggle. She's swept away again, but this time not by his actions, but by the brazenness of his words. He made a series of cascading vows, promises Mona would undoubtedly come to collect. A confession of love and an invitation to revel in sin. A contract with the devilish serpent spiraling the apple of her eye, heart thumping with a dreadfully deviant elation. What better way to commemorate the partnership, than to dot the lines with bloodshed?

She'd cusp his cheeks, brushing back the unkempt fringes of his blonde locks, a dots a tender smooch on the canvas of his forehead, stained by the mark of roses, pink and sweet. She didn't understand how else to thank him for the blessing that he so gracefully bestowed upon her. A hand trails along the softness of his cheek, a gentle caress contrasting the ravenous hunger blaring in saturated red and the undercurrent of a hiss in the way she purrs for him. "Mm. Let's go bite the bad men together, Momo-chan. Misery loves company, but.. they've certainly never met us have they, hon~" She'd twirl in place, tapping along his skin to tug at his hand, flipping her mane back beyond the purview of her shoulder with a tilt of her head, peering at the boy; a prayer in the blood clot of her iris.

"You'll be a good boy and show the snake how sharp your fangs really are, yes~?"