The break in.

"I don't like ninjas. I've never liked ninjas."

"Coulda fooled me…" Victor grunted and drove the couple's hummer off the main mountain road and off onto a dirt path. "I'm sure you said you liked ninjas."

"I like geishas Victor…Geishas…Not ninjas. When was the last time you saw a beautifully made up ninja?" Lottie snorted, eyeing herself in her compact mirror. "Actually…don't answer that. I'm a little afraid of the answer." She added quickly before her husband could speak.

Begrudgingly, Victor huffed and relaxed back into his seat. He and his wife had just returned from Quebec, a region of Canada that Lottie rather loathed. It was still a mystery to Victor just why she hated the French Canadians and their accent, of which she'd once told Alpha flight members Northstar and twin sister Aurora that a kitten died every time they spoke. Either way, it was always amusing to watch Lottie get upset.

They'd been on a joint contract, Lottie handling the meeting and the money and Victor actually making the hit. It had kept them out of British Columbia for a little over a week and both were more than pleased to be on the way home.

"Shit…"

Victor glanced over at Lottie momentarily. She was digging around in her handbag frantically.

"What?"

"I need to go into town."

"Now?"

"Now!"

Slamming his foot down on the breaks, Victor nearly managed to put his wife's head through the windscreen.

"For fucks sakes Victor!" Lottie screamed and braced herself against the dashboard.

"Fer fucks sakes Frail!" He yelled back before roughly shifting into reverse and turning the car round. "What do ya need at this time'a night anyways? What's so damn important that I gotta drive ya back down tha Goddamn mountain and inta town?"

Lottie was quiet for a short time as she pushed her hair back into place and closed her handbag.

"I need something."

"What?" He snapped impatiently.

"Things…..important things…." She answered softly, staring out of the window.

"So important I have to delay goin' home fer 'em?"

"I need them Victor. Have some consideration, will you?"

Creed snorted and the hummer continued to roar down the mountain road, the lights of the small town below glowing softly.

"Seriously…I'm curious now. What is it that we're going fer?" Grinning inside Lottie shrugged softly.

Curiosity killed the cat Vic….

"Sanitary towels darling." She said as sweetly as she could then sat back to watch her husband cringe.

It wasn't her actual period that bothered Victor. If anything, it was disturbing just how curious he got about her during her time of the month. She had to practically beat him off with a stick some months. Lottie could only assume it was the blood aspect that attracted him.

However, Victor's 'inner man', like most men, cringed at the very idea and it amused Lottie to no end.

"Jeez, alright…." He muttered before falling silent.

-oOo-

"I'm hungry."

"We'll feed you when we get in. Just give me a minute, will you Vic?"

Lottie climbed out of the passenger seat of the hummer, clutching her drug store bag while rifling through her Vivienne Westwood handbag for the door keys.

Victor climbed out afterward and locked the car.

"I can never find my keys in this bloody bag!" Lottie fumed, pulling out Mac compacts, phones, tissues she carried for Kai, an Ironman doll and a hairbrush she carried around more for Vic than herself.

"Get a new one then…" Victor said flippantly as he rounded the huge blacked out hummer.

"Are you offering to buy me a new one, husband dearest?" She purred and shuffled toward the house, Victor close behind.

"You got enough handbags….and Shoes…..Basically, I ain't buyin' you shit." He grunted before stopping abruptly. His suddenly lack of movement caught Lottie's attention and she looked up from her handbag to see the thick wooden doors to the Creed's cabin wide open with one of the windows smashed in on the left side. Lottie's treasured hairless Sphynx cat, Dagmar, was sitting on the front porch, licking his paws lazily.

Lottie paled and nearly dropped her bag. Dagmar never left the house. There were way too many things out in the woods surrounding them that would kill or eat him.

"Oh sweetheart!" She cried and raced to scoop him up and cradle him to her chest. Dagmar purred and went limp in her arms, ready to sleep.

"Fuck yer cat!" Victor snarled. "If ya ain't noticed, someone's broken inta our house!"

There was a banging from inside the house that made both Lottie and Victor tense.

"They're still in there…." Lottie whispered to Creed who had stalked up beside her.

"I can tell…" he snorted. His eyes quickly lost colour and turned white with anger. No one broke into his home and got away with it…
Advancing forward, claws extended, Victor slipped into the family's cabin silently.

"Don't get blood on my carpet!" Lottie hissed after him, still clinging to her now sleeping pet. She waited in anticipation then, her eyes scamming the darkness of the cabin.

Another crash sounded further in the cabin, immediately followed by a scream and a roar.

"LOTTIE!" Victor boomed. "GET YER ASS IN HERE!"

Without hesitation, Lottie reached round the door and switched on the automatic lighting system. The whole cabin was suddenly bathed in bright light that burned Lottie's pupils momentarily. As soon as her eyes adjusted, she hurried through their home and into the kitchen to see Victor holding a struggling Tory over the counter by the scruff of her neck.

"Tory!" She yelped.

"Hi mom…dad…."

"What tha hell do ya think yer doin' breakin' inta tha house like this?" Victor roared.

"I forgot my keys…" Tory whimpered and shrunk against the marble.

"You could have called me Tory. I would have told you to wait in the bar downtown." Tory's adoptive mother sighed.

"I've forgot my phone too….I had a blonde moment…..know what I mean dad?" She asked Victor with a sheepish smirk that quickly disappeared under his glare.

"You let Dagmar out Tory!" Lottie broke in.

"I didn't know he wasn't allowed out!" Victoria gasped as Victor roughly pulled her to her feet.

"Ugh…Fuckin' cats….Fuckin' kids…..I'm surrounded by 'em….."Pinching the bridge of his nose, Victor stalked to the fridge. "I need a drink…"