9 am

The situation might have looked a little strange to someone from a far, or someone who had not seen this particular scene before. Kyrene was sitting on the steps into a run down looking building with a large cup of tea, and smoke between her fingers of her left hand. She tipped off the ash as she looked down at her lap. In her lap the Russian paper lay open, she had subscribed to it and an owl delivered it a few days behind, but she never minded she was really just keeping up with the politics of mother Russia. Kyrene had the Daily Prophet rolled up next to her, which would be her next set of reading material on this morning ritual.

Kyrene folded up her paper and put it beside her taking another drag off her smoke and washing the smoke down with a sip of her cooling tea. She would much rather it be a large glass of fire whiskey but it was far too early. Kyrene grumbled at the fact it was too early to drink because already the day seemed like crap. Kyrene didn’t like London; she didn’t like England in general. Her home was back in Bor but she was here to track down some family and escape the eyes of the law back in Bor.

Taking a look at her surroundings she took another drag of her smoke and ground it down on the ground next to her. She ruffled her hair and pulled the Daily Prophet to her lap. At least she could read English better than she could speak it. She rubbed the back of her neck; it was as free of hair as possible. Ky’s hair was pulled back into a small ponytail with many strands of it falling due to how short it was. Her hand brushed across the collar of Simon’s shirt she had stolen to wear to cover her bare shoulders.

Kyrene looked up from the paper sipping at her tea again before going back to her reading her feet tapping a bit in her sandals against the ground. This was Kyrene’s morning ritual sitting on the steps of her run down home drinking tea and smoking as she read the paper.

Ky's Outfit

It was now two days since the full moon and Simon, who had been weakened by the whole event was feeling a little stronger. In fact after Ky had taken care of him again, he found he was already on his usual road to recovery faster than usual. He figured instead of sharing her mattress that night he would hop up into his hammock again.

Sure his energy wasn't back to perfect, but it was enough that he could function well enough. Groaning he stood in their broken down flat, which they were technically squatting in. The rundown building was full of people like them and no one dared bother them. He had plenty of protection charms on their small shambled home that he didn't fret over it. Besides there wasn't much to steal anyway.

He cleaned himself up with the wash basin and dressed in an old shirt and slacks before pulling on a cap and wandering down to see what the Russian was up to. His favorite game was piss off Ky when she was concentrating. However since he couldn't exactly run and he wasn't in the fittest shape, he decided not to press his luck.

Slipping down the stares he tried to be as quiet as he could until he realized that the creaking on the stairs wasn't the wood he walked on but his bones. "Bloody hell," he mumbled plopping down next to Ky on the front stoop. "Anything interesting in the paper?" His voice held little interest as he laid back onto his arms and looked at the sky.

River was in his animal form again. He flew from one branch to another, trying to act like a normal Robin. His dark blue wings flapped a couple of times and then he landed. He positioned himself and he found a perfect spot to spy. River didn't like to know about other people's business, but he prefer to do something like this rather than dueling with criminals. River inwardly sighed, this would be a long day of work.

He had been spying on Kyrene Petrova for three days. The woman, based on a witness report, could be a criminal. So far, River hadn't found anything out of the ordinary. Every morning she would smoke, drink tea, and read Russian paper. River raised his eyebrow when he saw Petrova drank her cup in one gulp. That just wrong. It must tasted awful. Maybe the news she had seen on the paper wasn't good. He should look into that later.

River's eyes narrowed when he saw Simon Reid entered the scene. A registered werewolf and not to mention, a criminal, he had heard a lot about the man. Petrova knew him, so there was a possibility that  she was his co-worker. River realized that he needed a prove, so stayed on his place and wait.

Kyrene snapped from her zoned out thoughts and looked over to Simon with a grin. “Hi,” she said with her thick accent and flipped the pages of the Daily Prophet. “Russian paper show election begin soon.” She shrugged her shoulders, “English paper talk of criminal release,” pausing she dwelled on the word. “Day of Remember new as well.” Of course she had left the s of news as she spoke again. “What that?” Kyrene asked as she looked to Simon, he had to know since he was from here and when to that school.

Kyrene started sipping at her tea again and looked around Knockturn it relatively empty. She yawned again and started to stretch. “You feel okay?” It had been the full moon a few days ago and hoped that Simon was on his way to being fully recovered. Kyrene felt that a good meal of steak might help him get on his way to feeling back to normal. Sadly it would mean losing the extra body heat in her bed and someone to snuggle.

As Kyrene thought about steak she began to think of where she might be able to knick one from, or maybe she could scrounge up some cash to get it legally. They had some potatoes so they could have potatoes and steak. Kyrene thought about the other food they had, they would have to go get some more soon by what ever means necessary. When neither worked it made living heard, and when Kyrene did work it was not exactly guaranteed when there would be payment.

Kyrene kept looking at the paper, she was looking through small articles sometimes she found some great tips on artifacts. She needed to keep her eye out for it.

The news was little comfort for him. In fact he barely read the paper anymore. It was always filled with nonsense about this or that. He could care less about the gossip. If he was criminal they were thieves living off the fears of house witches and foolish teens everywhere.

"Nothing but a bunch of rubbish and paranoia anyway," he usual broken English made him chuckle. Mussing with his hair a bit he looked at the sky some more the clouds rolled carelessly. "I wonder if it's going to rain," he said it to no one in particular but he knew much of his life was spent watching rain crash onto them as they walked the streets.

"I'm feeling no different than any other time. Just the usual tenderness here and there," he had really beat himself up this time. He hadn't been thinking and almost phased in the city having lost track of time. If it wasn't for the fact he was snapped out of his gambling binge the other night he might have been affected by the full moon while in the company of others.

As funny as it might have seemed to him then, it wouldn't have ended well. So he was thankful he got away when he did. "The country side looked nice when I dragged myself back to you," he ran his fingers through her hair a little  and he closed his eyes. Ky deemed it necessary to take care of him when he came home after each full moon since they met and he had to admit he appreciated having someone give a damn about him for once.

The conversation that both Petrova and Reid had was disappointing for River. There wasn't any important words coming from their mouths, they were having a normal morning. Reid looked a little bit tired, but that was explainable. River noted Petrova's words about an election, he should look into that later too.

He sighed when Reid started playing with his partner's hair. The last thing he wanted to see was criminals comforting each other. River rolled his light brown eyes in boredom. Wait, a Robin would never do that. River darted his eyes and corrected his position. He didn't want to attract their attention this early. His concentration wavered a bit, he wouldn't be able to stay in his form for a long time. Even though River was an animagus, he wasn't a perfect one and he knew he needed a lot of practice.

"The country side looked nice when I dragged myself back to you,"

'Eww, Merlin.' River made a face. Maybe he was acting like a teenage boy  because he didn't have any experience in the first place.
 

Kyrene shrugged her shoulders and turned the page of the paper again. Looking up to the sky to inspect it she shrugged her shoulders. “It England,” she said looking at him as if that answered the question. She turned her head back to look up at the sky really trying to see if it would, that is one thing about England they got rain opposed to lots and lots of snow.  She noticed a bird and watched it for a moment or two, not sure what type it was. Kyrene looked away again and back to Simon.

Feeling his fingers in her hair she smiled and shift a little towards him. “Glad you got back, me to take care of you.” Kyrene weakly smiled knowing she had screwed that one up. She mumbled some form of curse word in Russian followed by yet another bit of a grumble in Russian.

Kyrene cared about Simon, she worried about him when the full moons happened. Simon was one of the only people that Kyrene trusted here in England. “Want do something today?” Kyrene asked curiously looking up to him pushing the paper away and just focusing on Simon.

"Yes, I know it's England," he snickered. It was raining half the time in England, perhaps if they were somewhere else. The sunshine and warm rays were not going to be something he sees on a regular basis. In fact they weren't even the types to spend their days on beaches, more dark and dank alley ways.

Simon was too tired to notice that there was some stupid poultry staring at them. If he had known he might very well climb up a bit to taunt the bird. But instead he was more keyed into his partner. "Yeah if you hadn't who knows how long it would have taken for me to bounce back."

"What did you have in mind?" His brows bounced playfully as he looked over at Kyrene. He couldn't do much but he would give it a shot if she had her heart set on anything.

“Want do something today?”

She talked in a very broken English, but those were the words that Riven had been waiting for. These simple words could lead into something important. He narrowed his eyes and tried to observe more, but Reid's figure blocked the view. Almost without a sound, River flew to another side of the building and found a good position. He crooked his head in curiosity and watched them closely. Time was ticking and he knew he needed to turn himself into his normal form soon before the headache start coming.

River's attention was fully focused on what might happened and it took him a few minutes to notice that a part of his wings had turned into dark blue fabric. He quickly stepped back a few inches so his targets couldn't see him. River didn't expect it to happen. With a sigh, he fixed the problem. River hoped that none of them had caught the tiny detail or he might have to run.

Again.

Aurors don't run away, they run after the criminals! But this was River after all. He would do anything to avoid physical contacts.
 

Kyrene hated thinking about Simon not having someone around and help nurse him back to health after a particularly bad full moon. She saw him at his weakest and she worried that if she wasn’t there someone would take advantage of that. Kyrene felt silly for feeling that worried after all she had only known him since January but she knew she was an emotional person.

She pondered about what she wanted to do today; she figured she might as well give Simon a choice. She drummed her fingers on her bare thigh as she leaned her head back thinking. “We could go to Hogsmeade and putter around, we could go to Blackpool and enjoy some windy beach.” Kyrene pondered some more, “We could scrape up some money and go for ice cream or lunch or something.” Kyrene just didn’t want to sit around inside all day.

Pulling her legs in a bit more she wrapped her arms around her knees and looked at street again. She let her eyes drift to where the bird had been but it was no longer there.

Growing up, Simon never had anyone to rely on. In fact it was growing less and less likely as he aged that it would happen. Shockingly enough the duo had fallen into a comfortable pattern where he dragged himself back through the muck and mire to collapse on the bed they shared after his phasing cycle.

The wounds acquired during the evening only lead to Kyrene caring for him more. She was careful not to cause him more physical pain. At least not when he was at his weakest point. If she was given a reason to chase him when he was healthy though she could give him a run for his money. But at the moment she was being careful with him.

"I'm game for whatever you want, I haven't gone to Blackpool in a bit. It could be nice to wander through," if he knew there was someone listening he might have made the discussion even more drab. Instead he just smiled, "Besides me, what does your heart desire?"