undergrounds | May Open Post

Entry tags:

May Open Post

Date Night - Close to Evie

Tonight, it's dinner. Natasha's choice. She might not be able to appreciate the flavor of the food itself the way she used to, but she still enjoys the experience. The candlelight. The waiters. The wine.

She enjoys spending time with her girlfriend, the feeling of privacy that comes from being in a secluded table in a nice restaurant, while still existing in public. Most of all, she enjoys the company, the chance to make Evie smile.

It's strange to her, very very strange, like being in a new country and only barely speaking the language, but it's also good.

On Patrol

With so much going on, there's a lot of reason for Natasha to be out on the street. She needs to know what's going on, but that's only part of it. She also needs to be there if something goes wrong. This whole month seems to be one bomb dropped after another, and it makes her twitchy.

So she walks the area around Redbright looking for trouble. Maybe she finds it. Maybe she finds a friend instead?

And the Bar

Or maybe she'll run into a friend at the bar. She can hope. It'd be a pity to drink alone.

Natasha doesn't like the position she's in. Since she arrived in London, she's wanted nothing more than stability and a place where the supernatural communities observed at least the appearance of peaceful co-existence, and since she's arrived it seems like there's been nothing but threats to that in one form or another.

Not that she was optimistic about the situation. She's used to not getting what she wants.

But at this point, the situation is discouraging, and she'd like someone to have a drink with while she gets the disappointment out of her system.

Wildcard

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Whenever she thinks of Natasha, a stupid smile appears on Evie's face. She gets almost bashful, silly about it. She supposed she knew what that was, deep down. But it was a feeling she wasn't ready to come to terms with, not yet. It had been a long time for her, since she'd let herself feel love. It always complicated things and this was the first time she'd felt it toward a woman. It was still so strange to her.

She couldn't help but think it, looking at Natasha over the top of her champagne glass, the way her eyes twinkled in the light. She was beautiful, powerful, funny, capable. Everything she'd wanted in a partner. And here she was, engaging in the ritual of eating and drinking, because it was just that: a ritual. A date.

"Natasha," she starts, when the conversation allows it. "I have a question for you: Would you ever be willing to try to teach me Russian? I never learned it, as my travels never called for it." German, Italian, sure. But never Russian. "And I've always been curious."

At Evie's question, Natasha's eyes lighten in genuine surprise. It's not often a question takes her off guard. Maybe that's part of why she enjoys this woman's company so much: her ability to circumvent Natasha's expectations and her plans and say something that touches her.

"You want to learn Russian," Natasha says, stating the obvious in an off balance moment.

She's already recovering when she continues, though. "If you're interested, I could teach you. I don't know how much chance you'd have to use it, though."

"Of course I do." Why wouldn't she?

"I can always use it with you- that's how I practiced Hindi before I ever set foot in India." Henry had been patient and taught her, with occasional help from the Maharajah himself. Few people could claim they'd been taught Hindi by the last Maharajah.

"II'd like to learn. I see no reason to ever stop learning, and we only have time before us. Who knows when it will come in handy."

"Who knows," Natasha echoes, lowering her eyes. The expression is almost bashful. As close as a vampire assassin can come to that description. "You know I speak eight languages. If we needed to speak privately. But I'd be happy to help you learn Russian."

Evie gives her a look. Of course she speaks eight languages. And goodness, she loves that about Natasha. She's so incredibly capable, even with her refusal to drink human blood. Capable, beautiful, strong. Don't forget how smart she was, too. Really, she had the perfect thing going on.

"I would love that," she confirms. "Thank you for humoring me."

"I didn't mean that to say I'm humoring you." Natasha assures her slowly. Why not learn new languages. They have more than enough time for it, and what languages are relevant to know always evolve with the political climate. Natasha, for example, never had a reason to learn Hindi. But English, German, Italian, Mandarin—that had been what her teachers thought she would benefit from. "But until your Russian is up to snuff, there are other options."

She sips her wine, buying a little time to recover from her surprise. "It's just not every day someone asks me to teach them Russian. And I haven't had the chance to speak it much since moving here."

"I'm glad to hear it, and should we ever have to team up again, I'm sure we can find something others don't speak." You never knew if you were going to be up against who and what. You could never be too prepared, she firmly believed in that.

"Well, then we can change that. And if there's anything you'd like me to teach you, ever, please ask." She did give her those chakrams, after all. "Though I confess I have been doing some teaching on the side." Caroline was learning to fight and Dodger was learning to climb.

"I'll keep that in mind. I'm sure there's something you can teach me." Natasha says it easier than before, more lightly, and under the table, she nudges Evie's ankle playfully with her toe.

"Just who is it your teaching? Should I be jealous?"

Evie glances up at Natasha as she feels her toe against her foot. She returns the gesture, tapping her foot with the toe of her heel.

"Caroline Forbes, if you've met her. She's American, from Virginia. Young vampire, but very capable. She wants to learn to fight. The other is this young boy, goes by Dodger. Apparently he saw some of my free running and wanted to learn himself." In return, he feeds her information, but she doesn't need to mention that out-loud.

"I've met her," Natasha says, recognizing the name and the description. "She was the one behind the Christmas party. She's lucky to have you helping her out."

Dodger, Natasha doesn't know. She files the name away for future investigation, but finding out more about him isn't the priority right now.

"Is she catching on? She didn't strike me as a fighter."

"She was. She's got a talent for parties, I can tell you that." She'd been to some fancy-ass parties in her time, okay?

"She is, actually. She was a cheerleader in high school, it turned out. So she has a solid base to begin with."

"A cheerleader? That is almost painfully American." Natasha smiles as she says it, as much making fun of herself as Caroline. "But I can see where it'd be an advantage. There's a fair amount of gymnastics involved."

She chuckles into her drink. "It really is. But you'll see it, once you meet her. Bright, blonde, bubbly and absolutely beautiful." Natasha had nothing to fear from her, truth be told.

"Exactly. Hand-eye coordination, all that." She almost wants to ask if that's why Natasha was a trained ballerina, but knows it could potentially be a difficult subject. so she avoids it entirely.

"I look forward to seeing what you've taught her. She has a good teacher." Natasha isn't exactly the jealous type, and her eyes smile at the thought. Call it pride in her girlfriend

That is why Natasha studied ballet. And gymnastics too, though she prefers not to bring it up.

"Can I ask what inspired her to start learning?"

"Thank you. That means a lot to me." Natasha has never even seen her teach. But it's nice to know there's a confidence there.

"She witnessed me at the Halloween party," she says by way of explanation. "And wanted to learn how to fight, so the next time she'll have an advantage."

"The way things go around here, can't blame her for that." Natasha glances away, her expression falling somewhat as he thoughts go to the current political situation. "Hopefully it won't come to too much open fighting, but... who knows."

Edited 2017-05-25 19:45 (UTC)

Evie heaves a heavy sigh. "I'm afraid it's already too late for that. I saw the cages the Daybreak witches plan to put their captives in." She shakes her head. "A call for slavery is a call for open fighting."

#TeamFae.

"And that just might be the point." Natasha has put a lot of thought into this. At this point, she can only conclude that either Daybreak was exceptionally sloppy, or else they never really worried that they might fail because the plan never really hinged on success.

Now that's a worrying point. She sighs.

"Okeke is a problem, regardless." Is her summation. "How is the Institute handling all of this?"

"It's a big change," Natasha says, weighing how much to share. Not because she doesn't trust Evie or her view, but because of the politics of it all. And because old habits are hard to escape.

And of course, the fact she still doesn't entirely know herself.

"We can't condone what Daybreak is doing, obviously, but we have been natural allies until so recently... I think most of the staff is still adjusting. And the students don't really know."

Evie extends her hand across the table to gently cover Natasha's. It seems like she'll need some sort of physical contact, or maybe that's just Evie.

We're going to pretend it's Natasha, though.

"Of course. I how hard that can be." It had been hard for the Assassin's to accept her turn, though there had been a few that had turned before her- her own twin besides. "Sylvia Redbright herself can't be too terribly happy." She isn't fishing for information, she's stating an opinion.

"I wouldn't be either, but she's not really sharing information with me." Natasha shrugs, though she turns her hand to thread her fingers through Evie's, accepting the contact without acknowledging it otherwise.

It is a comfort, in its way. Not something Natasha is always good at taking.

"We're all waiting to see what happens next."

The touch is so natural that Evie almost forgets what it was like not to have her there.

"Of course, and even if she were, I wouldn't expect you to be able to share it with me." Confidentiality was something she took very seriously. To a point.

"Well. Hopefully it won't come to that."

It will, but that doesn't mean Natasha doesn't hope. She does, deeply. There's a difference between being hopeful and believing it will happen.

"But I appreciate that. More than you know."

She nods. "Of course." She'd like to believe that if she and Natasha ever had to fully disagree on something, they'd be able to handle it separate from their relationship. To avoid keeping it personal and turn off all politics when they came home.

"But thank you." She bows her head, leaning toward Natasha a little. "It's nice to hear it."

Caroline's excitement over her idea to audition for new gigs is waning as she remembers the sting of rejection. She hasn't managed to book anything new and it's just depressing.

So of course, she ends up in a bar, looking for a distraction. She spots Natasha and heads over to at least say hi - they aren't exactly friends but who knows, maybe they could both use the company.

"Hey," she says with a smile, "how's it going?"

Natasha tilts her head when Caroline shows up, tilting her and glancing at the seat next to her in a clear invitation to sit, if she'd like. Caroline's right; she could use some company.

"It keeps going. That's about all we can ask for. How about with you?"

Caroline quickly settles into the seat beside Natasha. "About the same," she replies with wry grin. "Life keeps throwing surprises my way, though at least some of the recent stuff is of my own making for a change."

"That so?" She sounds genuinely curious as she asks about the other woman's life. She could stand to hear a little good news just now, even if it's about someone else. "Anything to do with Evie's lessons? She's mentioned you're a good student."

"I didn't realize you ... talked about me." Caroline is visibly taken aback for a moment. "But yet, that's definitely part of it. One of the best things about being what we are is the ability to protect yourself and those you care about." She'd never been able to protect anything when she was human, unless all that was required was a good tongue lashing. That, she'd been good at.

She smiles, before adding, "But what worked back in Mystic Falls isn't quite enough for the big, bad city."

"Just in passing. We talk about a lot of things." Seems to be part of the dating thing they're trying out. Natasha is still getting used to it herself. It's good.

But different.

"You make being a vampire sound a little like being a superhero."

Caroline thinks about that for a moment. "It sort of is though. Or at least it's one of the closest things to it. Or at least it can be. I certainly know enough people who've been most like super villains."

"Figure most people would see us that way. Heroes tend to be a little more..." She gestures vaguely. She doesn't want to drag this conversation too deep. No dragging out what they are or what they do, what those like them do, for examination or guilt. She shrugs and lets her hand fall to her glass. "Presentable. But at least someone's making the most of it."

Caroline smiles. "I do try my best to at least be presentable. Most of the time."

She sighs, shaking her head. "So, we haven't really had the chance to get to know each other. Tell me about yourself."

"There's a lot to tell. Not entirely sure where I should start." She keeps her voice warm, not openly evasive, even though there's plenty she'd rather not start unearthing. "I came to London to start over. I think I'm doing okay at that. Probably that's the important part."

Caroline's gotten surprisingly good at not prying since she got here and she's not about to ruin her record now. "Sounds about the same for me. I almost can't believe I've been here for about a year now, it doesn't seem that long at all."

"I find that happens more and more the older you get," Natasha says, bowing her head a little. Neither of them are old as vampires count these things, but Natasha's had enough time that sometimes the speed things happen take her by surprise.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

May Open Post

Date Night!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

At the bar!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject