do you fly in the day, darling

[stauncherhearted]

[A June catch-all! Pick an option and say hello, or start something more specific in the comments. Hit me up on plurk if you want a specific starter!]

-

A Just another Saturday night out, Nancy's lips painted blood red and staining the side of her low-ball glass. Her legs are crossed at the ankles, black pumps and fishnets on full display under her short leather skirt. It's a night out, another night working. People around here knew who she was, what she offered. It was easier in supernatural bars, Nancy knew, to find vampires looking for a feeding, or even just a john wanting some company.

She props an elbow up on the bar, and looks down the the way, eyes peeled for any familiar, or unfamiliar, face. She'll just try not to think about how great it would be to be watching Netflix right now instead of work.

B Do you believe in fate, baby, ask me, ask me, the music played in her earbuds as Nancy jogged in place at a cross-walk. Trainers on her feet and hair pulled up in a pony-tail, she was doing her usual exercise routine. Always good to be fast on your feet, she'd learned as a child, and running was a great way to keep that up. Even if she had ways to get away, her feet were still just as important.

Besides, there was something relaxing about running, she'd found. She could shove the world away and concentrate on the music and running and the city. She'd found her way down to the Thames, and was running on the paths near it, past youths with skateboards and graffiti'd walls, business men grabbing a bite to eat right outside the Globe. It was astounding the way the culture and history blended together so seamlessly. She'd never get over that.

The light turned green, and on she ran.

C Choose your own! Private starters in the comments.

Comments

[stauncherhearted]

She follows along, nodding. She understood what he had to do immediately. Or, at least, what she would do, if it were her. She shivers. "I will, I promise." She tried to avoid promises, but she was happy to make a few exceptions.

"I'll stick to my usual haunts, then. Thanks."

[emotioneater]

"Good. I don't need any sleepless hours whiling the day away wonderin' if you're safe." He orders another beer. It's going to be one of those nights. "Speaking of which, want me to take off? Can't be doing your business any good to be sitting here chatting when you could be reeling in another schmuck."

[stauncherhearted]

He worried. He really, really worried. That was completely unexpected. Unexpected and heartwarming, and she looks at Cooper with newfound respect in her green eyes. "Wow. Uhm. Thank you." How do you respond to something like that? She honestly had no idea.

Taking a sip of her drink, she shook her head. "No, it's alright. You can stay if you want, but, wow, I really appreciate that." That he was willing to leave. That he was so concerned about her. "And if you need a bite, you only need to ask."

[emotioneater]

Cooper's loyalty when it came to his friends was without question. It was a fierce devotion, something that was a bright, shining spot amid all of his usual grey morals. He tried to brush off Nancy's thanks, though clearly he was pleased. "Think nothing of it, sweet-pea. Friends gotta keep friends from being eaten."

When she offered him a bite, he shook his head. "No thanks. I, ah, already ate." It was best not to ask just where that source of blood had come from.

[stauncherhearted]

She was never getting rid of that nickname. Sigh. "It's like the whole Fish Are Friends, Not Food thing, right, almost?" If he got the Finding Nemo reference, she'd be pretty pleased. "Except when I am."

Speaking of. She nodded, flicking her wrist to dismiss the idea. "Fair enough." She never would. That's rude. "What other news is there then, from your part of all this?"

[emotioneater]

Nope. Never. Once Cooper nicknamed someone, they were stuck with it for life. He laughed at the Finding Nemo reference, getting it completely. He quoted back to her in a horrendous Australian accent. "'I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine.' That's me. Completely harmless until I smell blood in the air."

Cooper shrugged at her question. "Not much to tell, really. I have a bad habit of gettin' involved in things that are rightly none of my business."

[stauncherhearted]

She has to laugh, fully at him. It was strange, even for her, making pop-culture references to vampires. Who then proceeded to get it and quote it back at her. But hey, when you had all the time in the world, what was to stop you from watching every movie known to man?

"That was. The worst Australian accent." She informs him in no uncertain terms. "But I doubt you're really that harmless." It was a complement, oddly enough.

She took another drink of whiskey and shrugged. "I'm taking note of that. So I guess it's safe to say that the next time I'm in trouble, you'll have found out before me?"

[emotioneater]

"Whatever do you mean? I am innocent like a baby goat." An innocent baby goat who fed on the blood of human beings. He winked at her.

"Probably. I try to have my fingers on the pulse of everything that goes on in this city." Partially it was to keep his nest involved of everything that went on, but mostly it was just due to the fact he was a nosy bastard who liked to know everything that was going on with everyone. "If you ever can't take care of a problem yourself, which I doubt, just give me a call."

[stauncherhearted]

She flat-out rolled her eyes at that one. "No, you're a chupacabra." Which, technically, made her the goat. Details.

Nancy didn't comment on the blood pun he may or may not have accidentally made, but instead, focused on his offer. If you ever can't take care of a problem yourself. Which he doubted- she leaned forward to take his hand. "Thank you, Cooper." She met his eyes with her green ones. "I really appreciate that."

[emotioneater]

If Nancy had ever wondered what a blushing vampire looked like, she was getting a view of it right now. Cooper's pale face went completely scarlet when she took his hand. He hadn't been expecting that and it showed.

He smiled at her, a look full of warmth. "Think nothing of it, sweet-pea."

[stauncherhearted]

Oh wow. He looks so sweet, so bright. She's smiling, too, teeth and all, and leans forward to give him a quick peck on the cheek. He'd done it to her before, so they were even now.

"You're a good friend to have." Hopefully she wouldn't regret it.

[emotioneater]

His hand comes up to lightly touch the spot where she kissed him, fingers coming away with a smudge of lipstick on them. The blush doesn't decrease at all. What can he say? Pretty girls are his weakness. "I do believe that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." Then he grins impishly. "You should do it more often."

[stauncherhearted]

"I haven't known you all that long, y'know," she reminds him. "Maybe I'll say something nicer later. or take it all back, though I'd rather the former." She tilts her head towards him in a gesture of comfort.

"You want me to? Or wouldn't you rather better, more creative compliments?"

[emotioneater]

"Most likely, I'll say something that'll piss you off 'n make you curse me out something fierce." He shrugs, ever the pragmatic one. It tended to happen a lot when one had a sarcastic mouth like he did.

"I'd prefer to be showered in compliments of a Shakespearean nature. It keeps my ego nice and inflated." Then he laughs at his own joke the way some old men will do.

[stauncherhearted]

She liked the way his accent rolled on fierce. Irish accents were always beautiful to her, she that alone brought a smile to her lips, dreamily. But that wouldn't stop her from wrinkling her nose at the suggestion. "Well let's not rule that out then."

Nancy rolled her green eyes. "Yeah? You're a fellow of the strangest mind in the world." She'd really liked Twelfth Night.

[emotioneater]

Cooper looks pleased with that poetic-sounding turn of phrase and with the fact Nancy was able to quote Shakespeare. There's more going on underneath that pretty face than just spells and hexes. "I'll take it over 'Thou art the son and heir of a mongrel bitch' any day."

[stauncherhearted]

"I believe you," she laughed, raising her glass to him. "I think most would. Though, I love a good Shall I compare the to a summer's day? Hot as hell." A joke, obviously, as that wasn't how the sonnet went.

"Sorry- I've always had a fondness for Shakespeare." Blame Romeo and Juliet. Exhibit A: her cat.

[emotioneater]

"I only really got into him around the mid-1800s." He'd been functionally illiterate until he was in his thirties. Advantages of being immortal: you could take all the time in the world to perfect skills others had already acquired. "No, no, go on. You're cute when you talk all flowery-like."

[stauncherhearted]

And there she goes, blushing again. "It's more interesting to hear you casually remark about the 19th Century!" Nancy said. "Besides, I really can't do Shakespeare on command, unfortunately." She was a prostitute, not an actress.

[emotioneater]

"The 19th century wasn't all that great. Just a lot of death, destruction, and syphilis. The 20th was much better. Unlimited running water, penicillin, and motorcycles. I sometimes think the only reason I was meant t'have lived this long was because I was born in the wrong century to begin with." He likes to think there's a purpose to his existence instead of just some randomness of the universe being at work.

[stauncherhearted]

Nancy giggles into the back of her hand. "Maybe that's it! Your biography would make a killing, I wouldn't doubt." It'd be the real equivalent of Jann Bean's Vampire Saga.

[emotioneater]

She looks awful pretty giggling like that. "If I'm ever hard-pressed for money, I'm hiring myself a ghostwriter and I'm gonna do just that." It would be a best-seller, of that he had no doubt. He'd led a very full and interesting life. "'Cause I can't write for shit."

[stauncherhearted]

Cooper, you just think she's pretty all the time.

"Well, there we have it. But since I gave you the idea, you're going to have to give me a cut of the royalties." She could drive a hard bargain if she needed to.

[emotioneater]

This is true. Doesn't keep him from thinking it all of the time. "You've got yourself a deal, girly-girl. Money is a nuisance 'n the sooner you earn enough of it t'live comfortably, the better off you are." Of course, most people didn't have the luxury of waiting around a hundred years and waiting for investments to pay off like he did. He'd won and lost about four different fortunes at this point in his life.

[stauncherhearted]

"Perfect." Nancy raises her glass to him. "I don't think I'll ever acquire that much, not with this life." She laughs it off though, like it's no big deal. She's never been able to consider herself even remotely wealthy. "So let's just hope you find yourself that ghost writer soon."