There was a certain level of security that Toni had to put into motion in her apartment after Sentinel left. Under no circumstances would she let Valeriya try to escape, and while losing sleep wasn't usually a big deal for the assassin, tonight was different. She felt completely drained, but she pushed it as far down as she could so that she could stay awake and keep a watchful eye on the girl. The day had taken every ounce of strength she had out of her, forcing it to fall to the floor and soak into the wooden floorboards. It was obnoxious, and to a point, painful. This new person that was thrown so suddenly into her life kept her on her toes, and the odd part about it all was that they barely talked. Valeriya's presence was enough to make Toni's brain twist and turn, aching for hours on end.

It was dark by now, a black pin pricked velvet cast out over the sky. It was beautiful in a way that drew Toni to the only window in the apartment that had the view. The little needle pin holes that shone white caught her attention and set her heart at a calm pace. Her hands came to join together behind her back as she observed and took it all in, getting lost in that sight. She shut her eyes for a brief moment so that she could listen to the small noises and creaks that were present in her apartment, ones that would be caused by a certain black-haired apprentice who had taken to searching around and getting to know her knew surroundings at length. Toni could hear the difference in her steps between her good leg compared to the bad one, that would have to be addressed and fixed. Luckily she knew some stretches that would help strengthen it, and hopefully relieve some of the pain she had built there.

"Take another step and it'll be your last." Toni said, hearing Valeriya hobbling dangerously close to her room. "My bedroom is off limits."

"Why? What are you hiding in there?" Valeriya wondered sarcastically, not really planning on going into her bedroom, but the curiosity was sort of addictive at this point. Looking around this place garnered tons of surprises, like the dozens upon dozens of craft beers stacked in the refrigerator, the bricks of money in her front room coat closet, the guns that were kept in a locked glass case in the hall closet, or the 1940's movie collection underneath her television set.

Toni admittedly had a lot of unusual things in her apartment, but the unusual things that she had stashed away in her bedroom were for her eyes only, and catching the sarcastic tone of the way Valeriya spoke told her that the younger woman understood that fact. "Having fun looking around?" She asked as she turned away from the window and began walking over to where Valeriya was, planted between her bedroom door and the kitchen.

"So far, yes. You have quite the marvelous collection of things laying about. From guns, to money, to old movies, even that wall of news clippings and posters. I think that's been the most interesting thing I've seen here. I enjoy reading things, but what exactly are all those related to?" Valeriya wondered, looking at Toni.

"Old cases and general topics I like reading about, I think it's interesting. The news clippings are all related to assassinations I've completed successfully, I like to know that my work is recognized I guess. The magazine articles, book pages, and posters are topics I like reading about in my down time. If it can help me grow as a person, then I'll fill my brain with it, otherwise I won't bother." Toni shrugged as she wandered over to her wall, Valeriya following behind her. There were things pinned everywhere, news clippings connected with colored yarn, indicating that the victims were either related, or involved with one another. "See, if you want to learn how to be a skilled killer, you have to study other killer's work. How they would do it, their personal methods and tricks..." She paused as she looked over a few older cases. "Of course, everyone is different but it never hurts to adopt a style."

Valeriya was silent in response to that, but not because she was spooked or freaked out, in fact she didn't even register what Toni said because she was looking at something else on the wall entirely. Toni turned her head to look at her, and then followed her line of sight to see what had pulled her attention so far away. There was a small cluster of magazine articles that outlined the national legalization of gay marriage in America, and a few more that detailed different pro-lgbt laws that were passed in recent years. "I hope you don't expect that type of freedom here in Russia, because you won't get it."

"Excuse me?" Toni said, furrowing her brows.

"I know now why you and Lucas aren't together, I could tell after we talked with him today." Valeriya continued, turning her head to look at Toni. "He's gay and you're helping him keep it a secret, but here you are giving it away on your wall. How can you be all right with being so close to someone like that? Isn't it gross to you?"

The assassin was frozen there as Valeriya questioned her about Sentinel and the magazine clippings on her wall. She really thought he was gay? Oh boy, how wrong Valeriya was, but maybe that was a good thing. The girl just bluntly expressed her homophobia and aimed it at Sentinel, not knowing that it was Toni that those articles were benefiting. "It's not like anyone ever comes in here other than him." She said quickly, trying to catch up with the conversation so that Valeriya didn't catch onto her worry. "It's not weird in America where we're from, to be honest. It's not like it hurts anyone, and it makes them happy. Why does it bother you so much?"

"Because it isn't natural! God didn't make him to be with another man, he's supposed to be with a woman!" She shook her head, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "That's just another thing that's going to send you both to Hell, and I can't help you because you don't want to be helped."

"Valeriya, I need you to realize who the fuck you're talking to." Toni said with venom laced words. "Sentinel and I are both assassins, from America. We both grew up differently and learned to accept different kinds of people. Now, look at me. I'm not white, and don't tell me you have black friends because that's the poorest excuse in the book. There aren't a lot of people like me here. Then we have Sentinel... a gay man." It was hard for her to say with a straight face, but she managed. "You need to learn that not everyone on Earth is just like you, and they don't have to be! We are naturally ourselves and we don't need God's permission, or yours, to be that way." The anger that the other woman bubbled up inside of her assisted with that. "I can tell by the way you were brought up that you're not used to seeing the types of people that he and I are."

"Well no, I'm not, but it isn't fair to throw these things at me, you know. It's... It's..." She tried, but came up short.

"What? Different? Maybe that's what you need Valeriya, something different. You need to open up your mind a little and quit being so tight knit up God's ass. As killers, we aren't religious. I mean, sure you'll get those select few who pray and are devout to something or other, but we aren't like that, and it's sort of amazing to me that I'm the one who's going to have to teach you about abiding your own personal morals. It seems to me like you don't really have any good ones." Toni crossed her arms, sending an accusing glare at Valeriya.

"Oh, please! What does someone like you know about morals?" Valeriya shot back.

"What do I know about morals?" Both of Toni's eyebrows rose, indicating her disbelief at how accusatory this girl was about something she clearly knew nothing about. It was borderline painful at how bigoted Valeriya was showing herself to be."Let me put it to you like this, okay? If there's a child, and the child is being annoying I'm not going to punch him, because I have common sense. My common sense tells me that punching a child is wrong. Now, if you need a God to stop you from doing it, telling you it's wrong, then the problem is with your own mental health, not the fact that you have a religion in the first place. My personal morals tell me to do right by people who deserve it, and to do wrong to those that deserve it in that respect. Am I wrong for these beliefs? No, and you're not wrong for yours, until you use them to hate."

"I'm not hating anything, I'm just telling you why it's wrong to open your arms to all these kinds of people who could influence you the wrong way!" Valeriya kept on trying to defend herself, but the way Toni saw it, she was raised a bigot and breaking her of that was going to be a hassle in itself.

"What's wrong about loving who you want?" She wondered, crossing her arms.

"There's a lot wrong with it. Two men, or two... Women can't procreate together like God wants. Yet they're out here getting married, holding hands, even going so far as to kiss in public. It's absolutely disgusting, and you of all people are okay with it?! I thought it was your job to kill evil people." Valeriya finished in a huff, shaking her head in disappointment.

"They aren't evil, Valeriya! They're normal people just like you and me, who love and express their love to the people they choose to be with, and it's not your job to judge that. If you believe in God as much as you say you do then you're breaking one of his biggest rules, you're judging and he specifically tells his followers not to! That's his job!" Toni said, throwing up her arms in frustration. The way that Valeriya's face twisted specifically when she mentioned two women being together didn't get passed Toni, she saw it, and that only disappointed and worried her further. Especially since Toni had ever only been with women. Hopefully though, as long as the girl still believed that Sentinel was the gay one, she could avoid that conversation that would no doubt morph into a heated argument.

"Don't use my religion against me, especially if you don't follow it! You know, maybe if you followed some kind of religious deity you wouldn't be living the lonely life of a washed up killer." Valeriya shot at Toni in one breath, flinging her arm out at the woman in an almost dismissive way.

The time between those words were uttered and the quick steps that Toni took to pin Valeriya up against that wall was barely a second, her hand wrapped around the girl's throat and squeezing with just enough pressure to make it hard to breathe. It wasn't hard to anger Toni, but angering her so much so fast like this might have been a new record. The fear in Valeriya's eyes let her know that she knew that she crossed a line, a thin one.

"If you for one minute think that I chose to do this, then..." Toni said in a short breath, trying to stop all of the negative self feelings in her heart from surfacing. Her anger transformed into a dripping sadness as she thought on her answer briefly, licking the roof of her mouth and the backs of her teeth to keep from crying. "I should have killed you when I had the chance." Her hand gripped the muscle in Valeriya's neck hard for one small second before she let her go, watching her crumble to the ground coughing and choking.

"I'm sorry... Toni, I didn't mean to make you angry..." She wheezed, catching her breath and letting her blue eyes rise to meet Toni's face. "I'm sorry, I won't say it again."

"I can't change the way you were raised, or the fact that you're stuck in some toxic hateful religion, but I will teach you respect. And if you don't learn it and abide by it, there will be consequences. Understood?" Toni spat, leaning over Valeriya in a threatening stance.

"Yes." She nodded. "I understand."

"Good. We'll start your firearms training first thing in the morning, so go lay down and get some rest. I have some work to do, so don't try to go anywhere, because I'll know." Toni said and then turned around and walked away, shying away into her bedroom and slamming the door behind her.

As soon as she was sure she was finally alone, she broke down and let herself feel it. All the emotions and inner turmoil of having someone else here, someone new and different, was eroding her skin and the very being of her soul. The thought of being judged by someone like Valeriya made her eyes water, she could feel the itch in her bones. In fact, she was starting to wonder if she was allergic to people in general. Bad things always happened when they were around, except for Sentinel. He was the only one she could trust with herself, her mind.

She took a step forward and then turned, beginning to pace her bedroom slowly. Toni's hands rose to her hair as she began taking in deep breaths to calm down her heart and the sick feeling building in her stomach. Tears began to fall from her eyes, not even realizing that she had started to cry, but she let it happen, because she hadn't had a good cry for a long time and now seemed like a fine time for it.

The pacing eventually stopped as the tears flowed, making her feel vulnerable in her small space. She turned around and kicked her set of dresser drawers hard, making it rattle against the wall with the force of her boot, then she kicked it again, and again. With enough abuse, it would break, and while she didn't want that to happen, she couldn't quite stop. How could someone like Valeriya make her feel like this? How could someone like that make her feel at all? She was doing fine for years not caring about anyone except for Sentinel, and now here this girl was making her rethink her life's work. All of her decisions and the way she went about them. Someone that shouldn't matter at all was now influencing every step Toni took.

It took several minutes of frustrated crying to calm down, but Toni finally made it through. She sat against her beat up set of dressers and tried to catch her breath. Her body was hot, and a thin layer of sweat covered it. The cold air around her apartment was quickly cooling her off and making the feeling bearable, but she still felt so damn raw. It had been quite a long time since she had really broken down like that, and after it happened she had realized that she needed it. Parts of her mind felt rejuvenated and new. It felt good.

Now there was just the issue of the person that caused this whole internal mess that she had no original intention of partaking in. Toni didn't know exactly how long she had been locked away in her room, utterly destroying it and parts of herself. The crying gave her a headache, and the lingering heat still in her body began to make her uncomfortable, but upon thinking about it, she figured that she should probably apologize to Valeriya. Mainly for the choking thing, but she figured that maybe smoothing over their argument from earlier would hopefully make their presence with each other bearable again, despite still not agreeing with a god damn thing that the girl said.

Her footsteps were light and quiet, and when she put her hand on the doorknob to turn and open it, she was even quieter. Strangely, Toni found herself determined to be careful. Her eyes caught the digital clock on her bedside table and she noted that it was just after midnight, turning to look back at her door that was now creaked open just enough. Her green eyes scanned the room as it opened wide. There was barely any noise, just cool air and what sounded like deep breaths coming from the couch. A small sigh left the assassins lips as she walked over, looking over the back of the couch to see Valeriya curled up on the cushions, asleep.

The way Valeriya laid there so peacefully even after their fight was interesting to Toni, her eyes staying put on the sleeping woman before her. Her chest rose and fell slowly in the cold night air, a small white cloud escaping from her lips every time she exhaled. Toni could see the goose bumps along all of her exposed flesh, popping up on her arms and shoulders. The gentlest of shivers made it's way through Valeriya's body, something that the assassin could see from miles away if it came down to it. Even if she wasn't cold, she knew that she wasn't like everyone else.

She broke away from the other woman briefly to go and find that purple comforter she had used the first night Valeriya was here. It was sitting right where they left it, gathered around the legs of the chair that Valeriya had been tied to for the first few days. Toni was sure she was happy to be able to sleep horizontally again, the thought made Toni chuckle a little as she laid the blanket over her. She had to admit that their time together would be rough as Hell, but she was ready. She had no choice but to be, because she realized then that they would be alone together for a long time, save or Sentinel popping in every so often.

Toni looked over to the window, seeing how dark and calm it was outside, then turned her gaze back down on Valeriya. The sleeping woman reminded her that maybe they could find peace within each other, some kind of compromise shrouded in all the differences that they held, and maybe, Valeriya would come around and they could become friends. Although, that was a strong maybe. She was insistent on hating Toni and Sentinel, which was fine. The assassin understood her motives for it well, but there definitely had to be a give and take somewhere between them.