|open| I'll Safety-Pin His Clothes All Cool

[Jasper Cooper]

It was drawing towards the end of a long day. Jasper's knees ached from being on her feet all day and her heels weren't in any better shape, no thanks to her killer shoes. Most days, Jasper was fine walking about the cafe in her high heels but every so often it got to her. Usually on days where she wasn't feeling so good and it was really busy. Today had been just one of those days. Jas had woken up with a headache and it had been one of the busiest days yet. Plus, it had been unbearably warm.

That's why Jasper was feeling a little worse for wear. She couldn't wait to get home and sink into the sofa with a microwave meal, ice cream, coffee and a sappy movie. She was in one of those moods. There was every chance she'd have a message on her answering machine seeing if she wanted to go out - but she was going to ignore it. Routine and OCD dictacted that she'd turn on the machine as she walked passed the phone - but that didn't mean she'd have to answer it.

But Jas was still a way away from her home. She lived the other side of Belview Park and boy was she feeling it on her aching limbs. She groaned quietly to herself, "Why is it taking so long?!" The bumpy terain was doing her no good either. Deciding to make things a little easier for herself, Jasper asked the ground very nicely if it would be flat for her. It obliged and soon Jas found her walk was slightly more pleasant.

Behind her Jas heard the patter of someone else's feet, so - using her geokenesis - Jas made sure the ground returned to the way it should be once she'd stepped over it. That way no one would notice that the ground a metre around her was flat. The extra concentration was making her tire quicker though, and soon Jas found that the ground she stepped on had bumps and cracks it in - rather than the smooth ground she'd fashioned just a moment ago.

She tried her hardest to make it go the way she wanted it to, but her tired state meant it didn't play along nicely. Eventually she gave up and let the land be. It was just such a shame she could barely keep her eyelids open. So much for my previous plan.... She thought to herself as she forced her eyes open. When she got home, she was going straight to bed. That was if she made it home. Since her earth moving show, Jas had found it difficult to walk in a straight line as well. She was stumbling all over the place.

It wasn't long before the heel on her shoes got caught - be it on a stone or a dip in the mud - and Jasper actually faltered. She fell to the ground and felt a sharp searing pain in her left ankle. "Aye carumba!" Her foster parents always told her she'd end up breaking her ankle in those heels - and now Jasper feared she may just have done as much. Her eyes were shut tight in pain. Prising one open, Jas looked at her ankle. It didn't look too bad, there were no bones poking out of it and it wasn't at a funny angle. She figured she'd just sprained it. Hopefully that was it.

[Chris]

I've got a one way ticket on hell bound train
With nothing to lose and nothing to gain
No body ever told me how to live

Everything had been so quiet lately that it was kind of nerve wracking. It was like the silence that made someone feel the heebie jeebies crawling under their skin, shivering with an unknown fear of something that wasn't normal. Chris had known this feeling all too well ever since he was a child. Being brought up with Stryker demons wasn't exactly the greatest thing that can go on the permanent record. Well, that and his family - but not himself - killed not only Rachel's parents, but also other innocent families. Children, parents, even babies...it was all the same in his family's eyes. It was all a murderous rampage which they found fun. They meaning his family...except for Chris. He only wanted people to accept him, but NOOOOOOOOO. His family screwed up that chance for him, and his family had ended up being one of the major Stryker demons known. However, this was an advantage to present day. Stryker demons could normally tell that he was of the family because of the unique insignia on his neck. It was a swirling tattoo that ran down the his back and finished at his tailbone. It was actually quite beautiful if you took a long look at it.

Chris was one of the good guys, but any other demon might not have known that. From the first look, he looked like an ordinary Stryker demon. But pressed onto his chest, he burned a sign onto his skin that reminded him that he was one of the Seven. Yes, it's capitalized for a reason. His job was to protect his family and to vanquish all demons that needed to be killed. Like Imagine for example. He hated her guts....but he was secretly attracted for some odd reason.

He snarled at himself as he walked across the park in the lush grass when the sun was finally hitting its point of no return until the morning - sunset. It was beautiful with all of the colors mixing together. It was a sight that was amazing. However, it reminded him of blood and all that was shed when he was little. With a groan and a little bit of angered mumbling, he looked down at the ground, lost in his own thoughts. Never before did he think that there had been a reason for him to spare Rachel's life. Never did he think that he was there for another purpose. He was meant to be good, right? But then how come he kept fighting inside himself that there had to be another reason. Rachel hated him. She hated him from the very depth of her own being, and frankly, he didn't object. She should hate him. Chris was a monster, and he most definitely knew that.

All of a sudden, he heard a scream followed by an "Aye caramba!" He knew that something had to be wrong. Shimmering behind a tree where he could find excellent cover where he could go back and forth to if needed be, he looked at the woman. Yes, she was beautiful. However, she looked too familiar. Squinting, he realized that it was that sexy bartender that he always flirted with. She didn't know any better. She had no idea that he was just teasing with her mind, but then...wouldn't that make him bad as well? Not really. He stepped out of the shadows as he walked over to her and stepped right a couple of feet in front of her. He kneeled down and looked at her at eye level.

"Jasper, right?" he asked her, his voice deep revealing his Spanish accent. "Are you okay?"

He looked down at her ankle and could see some minor swelling and bruising. Definitely a sprain, but possibly a break. He would have to further examine it. He looked at it hard and knew that it was starting to heal already due to his healing powers. He looked back at Jasper, giving her a sweet innocent smile before sitting down on the ground with her.

"What are you doing out here in the middle of the park?"

((Eh, wasn't my best work))

[Jasper Cooper]

Being that tired, Jasper just wanted to get home. That was why she'd been messing with the ground levels - it was supposed to be a means of eradicating the chance of falling over therefore making her trip home quicker and easier. Fat lot of good that had done! Tears stung at the corner of Jas' eyes, but she didn't let them fall. Jasper did not cry for pain. Cry babies got beat up in foster homes, so Jas had made herself into a toughie - no tears, no siree! But that didn't stop her ankle hurting like an absolute bitch! Jasper couldn't remember when she last felt pain like this. She tried moving it, but found it only made her ankle feel ten times worse. "Great, I am stuck here all night then." She muttered to herself, overwhelmed by a feeling of fallorn and annoyance.

Suddenly, someone was by her side, talking to her in soothing Spanish tones. Jasper's brow furrowed; how did this guy know her name and why did she recognise that voice? Turning to look at the stranger, Jas found no stranger at all. "Chris?" Confusion littered her features, though the slight scowl she'd been wearing before was still present. She guessed she could be grateful that he was there to help her, but if beggars could be choosers Jasper would have chosen someone else to rescue her. Like an attractive male celebrity or something. Jasper did not dispute Chris' beauty, she just found he was fun to flirt with and that was all. And since this was the first time seeing him sober, Jasper definitely found it was the alcohol which helped in all this. Damn she could go for a shot of something strong right now - if not to dull the pain in her ankle but to make her company seem better.

A deadpan look washed over her face, a sure sign sarcasm was about to follow. "I am sat with my arse in the mud with an ankle at an angle I'm fairly sure it's not supposed to be able to achieve. I'm just dandy, Chris. How are you?" Her voice took on harsh tones, which weren't really necessary but pain made her tetchy - well, tetchier considering the mood she'd been in pre-fall. It hurt so bad that it had actually stopped hurting so much, which Jasper believed was her foot just going numb. Little did she know of the mojo Chris was working on it. To parry his sweet, innocent smile, Jasper mustered up her best scowl - and her scowl could be pretty impressive when it wanted to be. Her eyes followed him as he sat down. The action only irked her more.

A short, sharp laugh escaped her lips. "I like how you think that because we've had a few drinks together you 'know' me." She surrounded the 'know' with air quotes. "I live the other side of the park and I'm walking home from a hard day's waitressing. That's what I'm doing in the middle of the park."

((Stop saying that! It's never true!))