Discreet Hyenas and wild Lionesses

After speaking to Helen, Leonardo turned around to leave but she held his arm. The worry he expected was there but was suddenly replaced by an expression of surprise as the doorbell rung.

"Ah! Your interview is marked for earlier today. I think it's her on the door, don't you want to wear something else?"

He remembered the interview he owed Silvio and shook his head while dismissively waving his hand. "It's just an interview, there's no need for fuss."

As he turned around to leave, her worried expression passed by his mind. Leonardo stopped. He walked back to his mother and suddenly pulled her off the ground with a hug.

"Woah! What!? Put me down!" She yelped and squirmed about.

He laughed and let her down. "Mom's fun to squeeze, meaty." He walked out of the living room, making squeezing motions with his hands while she slapped his back with a red face.

Cecilia that was peeking from Hailey's bedroom let out a sigh of relief. 'Thank god, elder sis isn't angry..' but as she gazed again, Leonardo blinked to her with a grin, mocking her timidity. She snorted and showed her tongue like a little girl.

Hailey that was right behind her with a half combed hair gazed at Cecilia with squinting eyes that were filled with suspicion.

****

Just as the main door was opened, came a sharp and to-the-point greeting. "Hello I'm Lissandra, NR-TV's local representative, I came for an interview with Leonardo Silva."

Leonardo and Helen were speechless, the Asian woman started talking when they pulled the door and finished her self-introduction when the door was fully opened.

She greeted them before they could even see her face.

The slender silver-haired asian woman looked at the clock on her wrist then continued;

"I'm sorry, my schedule is tight, I came as a favor to Silvio but I cannot give more than twenty minutes, shall we begin?"

She finally looked up with a polite smile and casually strutted in. Helen looked at her back with a tilted head and said; "..She's rude, but I'm sure she's-" But stopped talking as she caught Leonardo's reddish amused eyes and the grin adorning it.

"This disregard...it's as if we're air-dolls." He commented with a chuckle.

Helen didn't have time to say anything as Leonardo had already walked to Lissandra and sat across her in the small garden table. Without a word, he pulled out his cellphone set it on record and placed it on the table at the same time she pressed 'REC' on her recorder. The action took her attention for a second but Lissandra immediately went back to her paper with prepared questions.

"..So, how that day started?" she asked first, Leonardo answered briefly and directly, she didn't care and kept the questions going, Leonardo spoke of the tragedy-filled-day and praised his mayor-candidate-dad once or twice without a hitch. But put more words on the fact that his theory was rejected by his professor's fears and college nepotism, and how that made him follow his own path, without college.

When it came to that point, Lissandra looked at him as if he was an idiot making a rash decision while in bitterness for making a losing theory, she stopped her recorder and started packing her materials. She was slightly curious, so she asked something that was not prepared beforehand.

"So, what's this so-called, 'Own path' mean?"

She had already got up from the chair when Leonardo spoke; "I achieved success on the issue of enabling common mages to absorb mana from beast meat and other sources exclusively used by natural authority holders."

She stopped and for the first time actually looked at him.

"Do you have tangible proof you can show me? If so, I can put it on national news."

She was anxious, even hungry for it.

Leonardo showed her a sneering smile and said; "Yes, just wait a moment, I'll show you some of my handwritten notes, then you can weigh it against the current studies and ask some specialists' opinion on it. But for this, I don't want any recording."

As he finished saying he turned off his own cellphone record and got up from the table.

"Great, I'll wait here."

Leonardo gazed into her eyes. From the way she behaved to what he personally knew about Lissandra, the woman who left the main QG of NR-TV in the capital and came to this big, but five hours away country city. Her name was on all radios when she came to the city, it was a big deal then, but after three years shes still stuck here with nothing eyecatching to show.

...Her hunger for scoop was obvious, and he could make use of that to close partnership with her.

Leonardo suddenly found his need for an experienced a press-member as contact entering in conflict with his inner desire to show Lissandra the proof then tell her to call a decent reporter to make the news with him.

He silently struggled for a full thirty seconds.

But she waited there, gazing at him, not showing anxiety, but also not showing the slightlest hurried behavior from before.

Leonardo helplessly sighed. 'Well, it's never late to get back at someone. First things first;'

"Just leave a paper with your number on the table, I'm busy now but I'll send the proof later today."

He took out his cellphone and proceeded to edit the recorded audio; in the middle of it, he noticed Lissandra was still in front of him. He smiled politely at her. "The door is open, you know the way, I thought you were in a hurry?"

But the Silver-haired woman showed him a bright smile and bowed like in the orient. It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Lissandra Lima, I was born in Japan, but lived in brazil since young, "I'm most sorry for the way I treated you and your mother before, Mr. Leonardo. To make up for it, once you send me the proof I'll owe you a free of charge favor, or question.

Leonardo went stiff. That's a completely 180- turnaround if he ever saw one.

[Oh my, that's a fast and decisive rabbit right there] Azumi suddenly appeared as a butterfly and landed on the table. [From the two polite glances she gave you, she saw a potential pot of gold and shamelessly jumped to it. How amusing.]

He gazed at the butterfly that was glowing somewhat differently, then tapped the table thrice with his index finger and nodded. From what he understood of Lissandra's words, she just revealed herself as an informant. If that's true, it explains her discreet career since arrival. Gathering info, then studying potential clients…It has to be done in a relatively silent way.

'...There's the risk she will do another 180 and turn on me too… but the rewards from having someone like that on your side is…' Leonardo gave her a grin. "I'll send it to you within the hour, there's cold juice on the fridge, help yourself some before you leave."

"Then I'll gladly do so, thank you." She bowed one more time, even though she grew up in Brazil and bowing was not a thing. Then Leonardo saw her walking towards his mother with a scintillating smile.

[Humiliating herself by apologizing to a disdaining counterpart, then bowing as a show of goodwill, not just for the sake of apologizing but also when there was no need to, just for the sake of flattering the counterpart, the events that molded that psyche…, the personality traits that allow such fast decision making...She's a hyena, Leonardo, she'll laugh while eating you alive if you let it…]

An exciting chill came up Leonardo's spine and he grinned showing his canines.

He read it on the Lissandra's face too, while her attitude turned as fast as a blink, her disregard was still there, to her, he was just an object. His nature just changed from a chore to a potential 'pot of gold' as Azumi said it.

'Not if I tame it… If I tame it, won't I have a band of Hyenas to let loose on my enemies?'

With nearly glowing red eyes, Leonardo slapped the table and laughed loudly. Shaking his head while releasing an amused sigh of relief, Leonardo finished editing the recorded audio, sending only the last bit to Claudia with an added text; 'Come to the barbecue, it'll be a pity not negotiate first.'

And somewhere else, at the Ivanov family house, a pillow was torn apart by electricity as Claudia looked at Leonardo's text with a sneer. She was sitting on the edge of her bed with one leg above the other.

"You think you got me? Threatening to launch an idea I created two years ago? I'll show you, I'll dig your eyes out and force you to see your own miserable face at realizing my studies surpassed yours long ago."

She laughed and started undressing.

Picturing his demoralized expression, Claudia shuffled through her clothes with excited glee.