CHAPTER THREE ♔ heaven rain the colors down to form another prize

[romanticidal]

♬ someone like you (acoustic) - brian vander ark

WHO || Rafael, Buffy, Des
WHAT || The OT3 escapes Italy
WHERE || Venice --> etc
WHEN || June 8th
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

It's already about ten or eleven in the morning by the time Raf, Buffy, and Des made it to a hotel in Venice and got a couple rooms to crash in for a few hours, since they were running on zero sleep and a lot of adrenaline after their escape from Rome and subsequent barrage of revelations.

A few hours of rest is all they're looking for before they make their way back to London, but they're still cut off from the Knights, thanks to Iscariot taking all their phones.

When Buffy's eyes flutter open after some very, very satisfying sleep, it might take her a moment to realize that she's actually awake. Rafael's face is remarkably close to her own since they're sharing a pillow, and his own eyes are open, studying her face with a thoughtful, fond expression and the shadow of a smile on his cheek. One of his arms is still wrapped around her, and he squeezes her side when he sees she's awake and greets her gently.

"Buongiorno, carina."

Comments

[slay]

[ y a y.

why do the hot ones always have to be vash the stampede.

she holds out a hand for him to drop the keys into, closing her fingers around them and then leaning on the door. ]

On three? [ she doesn't bother waiting for confirmation, just counts down and then BURSTS THROUGH THE DOOR to run for the car. god bless whoever invented remote entry. ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des has to save his bullets, so he'll just come out from behind Rafael to make sure they have a clear path to the boat.

or not because he crit failed his spot check. SO I GUESS HE'S JUST STARING INTO NOTHING. GET IT TOGETHER, DESCANT.]

[romanticidal]

[ maybe he's blinded by ~the sun~

rafael moves out the door, pulls his guns as he moves behind one of the columns out front, and scans the balconies above as buffy breaks for the car. except... no one actually fires at her?? so there's that. ... they do, however, fire at rafael behind the column. yaaay. one shot breaks off a piece of column right next to his arm, and then another strikes him in the shoulder (5 dmg). ]

[slay]

[ it took all 21 points of her will save to not turn around and fret over rafael getting shot tbh. but buffy makes it to the car, pulls open the passenger door, and digs the guns out of the glovebox. whee. ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des shakes off his sunblindness thanks to the sound of gunshots and grabs Rafael by the shoulder that's not currently bleeding to haul him away from the pillar to give him some physical cover, because DUDE NO ONE ELSE CAN DRIVE THE BOAT.]

Well, at least they know what they want. [He glances in Buffy's direction. RUN BLONDIE RUN.]

[romanticidal]

[ raf glances down at the injury and shrugs it off ] It is fine. I have had much worse.

[slay]

[ buffy disagrees X( she gets up and shuts the car door, keys pocketed and guns in hand, and uses them to gesture for all of them to run from the boat from their respective positions. as she moves, she levels one of the guns in the direction the gunfire came from and fires off a couple shots (atk 27, 15). assuming the first one hits it does ... 2 damage wow that was not as dramatic as she wanted it to be. if the second hits somehow it's 6 dmg... she hates guns ... ]

[nothingsodivine]

Hah. [That is what Des has to say to that. HAH. HE KNOWS. HE'S BEEN THERE. Doesn't matter. We're running for the boat now. RUNNING, RUNNING.]

[romanticidal]

[ raf moves backwards towards the boat, taking several crack fucking shots up at the snipers since he rolled like a 16, 19, 19, 18 before i even added anything jfc. basically THEY ARE MAKING IT TO THE BOAT, ok. he takes another shot, allowing the others to climb inside, and shoots them a grin. ] What did I tell you, no?

[slay]

[ wow that was super attractive. like really, really attractive. buffy jumps onto one of the boats and fires two more shots (atk 22 dmg 3, atk 21 penetration dmg 19 about time gurl). ]

We're not out of here yet.

[ handing one of the guns off to des and stuffing the other into the back of her pants now thanks. ]

The last boat I was in had a paddle and went like two miles an hour. [ also with rafael, for the record. which is to say: someone else hotwire this damn thing. ]

[nothingsodivine]

Yeah, don't get cocky just because you- [He looks between him and Buffy and just... lets that speak for himself. He pockets the extra gun and fires off two shots, himself (atk nat 20, dmg 26- apparently he felt inferior to Rafael or something- atk 18, dmg 13... if that one even hit).]

[romanticidal]

[ between the two of them, several baddies fall over balcony railings with cartoon AYIEEE noises. nice shooting, ace. aces. whatever. rafael is busy getting the boat to start (disable device 17), while y'all cover him.

of course, two fucking bad guys dart out from next door and break for another boat parked a few away. one of them tries to fire at des as he stands there and... crit fails. he accidentally clocks his friend on the head as he brings the gun up to bear. this is real life.

the engine on their own boat roars to life. aw yeah. ]

[slay]

Because we what?!

[ this is absolutely the time for this conversation. buffy backs further towards the middle of the boat so that rafael's questionable steering has no risk of sending her into the canal, then turns her fire on tweedle dee and tweedle dumber (atk 20, atk 17. dmg 11 and 5 respectively if they hit). ]

[nothingsodivine]

[APPARENTLY NO ONE CAN HARM DES BUT HIS FRIENDS. WHAT A CONCEPT.

He fires another shot (atk 30, dmg 12) at two of the idiots trying to start a speedboat chase.. And keeps talking.] Oh come off it. It don't take a detective to figure out only one bed in that room was slept in.

[He fires another shot, but that one... probably misses (atk 15, but if by some miracle that hit, dmg 17).]

[romanticidal]

[ they take down one of the idiots over there, as rafael straightens up at the wheel to turn around and stare at des, eyebrows lifting. ] You think that Buffy and I--

[slay]

Oh my god!

[ EXCUSE YOU. that did not take the wis 21 i rolled to catch onto. ]

How is that your business? Do I walk through your hotel room and hunt for clues of what you were doing with Zarad? [ a quick look over her shoulder at rafael. ] Not that we're—[ oh my god get her off this boat she will DIVE OFF OF IT HERSELF SO HELP ME. she shakes it off to SHOOT AT THE BAD GUYS WOW. (atk 22, atk 21—dmg 8, 16.) ]

[nothingsodivine]

Okay. One? Zarad is probably back in New York by now wondering if I ran off and joined the fuckin' circus, so let's not go there right now. [Another shot. (atk 21, dmg 17)] And two? I didn't have to hunt for anything. Next time muss up the other bed a little and I won't jump to conclusions.

Oh yeah, that second attack... was a crit fail.]

[romanticidal]

[ ♬ all'improvviso amore - josh groban

rafael stares between them for a few long beats, then seems shaken from his moment by buffy... sexily gunning down the other guy. focus, giovanni. he turns back to the controls, ignoring their quibbling as des' gun jams on him. ]

Hold on. [ because he's about to gun it. (drive 34) the boat takes off into the river, narrowly maneuvering between two others as it cuts across to the other half of the canal like nobody's business. he grins as water splashes up behind them on either side, and glances over his shoulder back at their would-be pursuers. his eyes meet buffy's in the middle of his triumphant exultation, while des is distracted by his gun, and his gaze softens a bit, his smile turning a bit more endearingly crooked as he stares at her for a much more lingering moment than necessary. it's hard to mistake the rush flowing through him, that no matter how much he might be trying to get out of the killing business, this kind of action is what he lives for, and even after all the trauma of yesterday, he looks almost carefree and happy here and now.

and she almost thinks that there's something else too, in the way he's looking at her. a sort of appreciation she's not sure she's ever seen there before, as if he's seeing something for the first time and is almost struck by it. but just as quickly as it comes, he turns around because he's going to drive this boat into another boat if he doesn't pay some fucking attention, and she's left feeling like she probably just... made that up.

he probably just really loves boat chases. ]

[slay]

[ good thing she’s more dextrous than wise. she crouches, grabbing one of the seats to brace herself and take a breath. it’s right about now that it occurs to her that she actually effectively used a gun in combat just now without complaint or second thoughts.

admittedly, all of that falls to the wayside when she looks back and catches the look in rafael’s eyes. warmth swells in her chest just seeing how thrilled he looks in this moment, and it occurs to her just how much trouble she’s really in with this one. her smile builds when she realizes he’s staring back, a wide smile accompanying a tilt of her head.

when he turns back around, she dismisses it, shaking her head. don’t wish, don’t start, wishing onlyyy wounds the heeaaaart. no jk she’s actually genuinely happy to see him smiling like that, even if she does believe it’s about their circumstances and not about her. her stomach flutters up into her chest and then she shifts to climb into one of the seats, settling down to relish the escape.

and, of course, the convenient distraction it provides from des’ prying. ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des is a little occupied with his piece of shit Civil War pistol jamming to continue his ranting. He flops into a seat before he can fall into the canal like a champion and leans back to stare at the sky as Rafael speeds on.

Michael and Fi can eyefuck all they want, okay. Sam is so done with this bullshit.]

Next time you two wanna intervention me? Just do it in the hotel lobby. No more limo rides. Ever.

[romanticidal]

I think this is something we can agree on. [ and away they speed~~~~ i'm gonna... assume they find a fucking computer and head on their way to milan ok. we can fast forward to the plane if someone wants to make a new thread below ]