Like a brick wall built in place, Belladonna doesn’t move when Fox gets in his face; he tips his chin up even though he has the advantage of height, looking down on Fox in more ways than one with an unblinking stare.
“You have the look of a man bothered by something far greater than random murder,” he says silkily. Belladonna has spent decades intimately familiar with the look that a SOLDIER wears when faced with murder, either by their own hand or someone else’s, and he knows the careful blankness of a soldier trained out of shock and dismay, trained to feel nothing in the wake of violence and murder and the taking of innocent lives. Fox looks troubled, though it is subtle.
And if Belladonna takes a certain amount of callous satisfaction in getting in his face about it, well. He feels he’s justified. This one, even more than the other… unnerves him. So, yes. The silence bothers him.
“I have no current plans to move.” It comes out dark, self-satisfied. The smugness of a well-fed lizard sunning itself on a warm rock. “Why? Is there somewhere you need to be?
Irritating, though as far as Fox has learned to know Belladonna, not at all out of character. He grants the male half a smile; one that hardly reaches his eyes, and betrays his annoyance all too easily.
“ As expected, a great observation on your behalf, ” Fox speaks satirically, his gaze unwavering. It is impossible not to notice the sheer satisfaction that radiates from the summon, clear that he’s playing this game precisely the way Belladonna had intended to. What’s worse is that he is aware of it, yet can’t help but to take the bait regardless, only barely suppressing the urge to personally shove him out of the way.
There is something very unsettling about the way Belladonna looks at him — and for a moment, he wonders if a summon is capable of reading one’s mind. He certainly doesn’t hope so.
“ Sai should be waiting for me by now, ” Fox finally tells the man, only partially speaking truths. Sai should be, but he had not been in a hurry to meet up with him until moments ago. “ So, unless you don’t want us to solve this case, I really suggest you move out of the way. ”