undergrounds | Knowing when it's time to leave the table (CATCH-ALL)

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Knowing when it's time to leave the table (CATCH-ALL)

(OPEN)

God it was slow today. She hadn't had a street fair go this badly in like... six months. There were always some dumb tourists looking to buy her garbage, but right now? She had a very barren deposit box and a lot of garbage that needed selling.

Kenzi was considering even taking off her wig she was that bored. She knew when she was thinking about not going method - that was when she was having a shit day. Her fingers idly flip through her tarot deck as she watches the crowd pass by her stall without any interest. Eventually...she starts looking at the deck and wonders what her own spread would be.

Kenzi has never - not once - read for herself. Either she's too freaked out by it or doesn't believe in it (the latter is far more likely). But right now...

"Fuck it," she grumbles and leans forward to start shuffling the deck. She has nothing better to do right now.

Kenzi does a three card spread. Recent past, present and future soon to come. It's one of her aunts old standbys and she knows it well enough.

As she turns over the cards, she likes less and less what she sees.

Four of Pentacles. Reversed.

The Chariot. Reversed.

And for the future...

Death. Upright.

"What the fuck?"

Is shakily whispered. Her typical fake accent is gone.

(OPEN)

The problem with having all your business taken away was that it meant you worked twice as hard. The irony was not lost on Kenzi. And she was trying to keep up with winning back the sheer volume of people who didn't want anything to do with her after Norrell got ahold of her and all her crap, but that was far easier said than done.

A month ago, Kenzi would have laughed in your face if you told her she'd be this far up shit creek.

Now she was just keen to stuff her face with pizza and drink her feelings away. Which, unfortunately, meant going out and getting food herself.

Instead of just getting it to go, Kenzi is relegating herself to doing this in public because it means less work right now. One large pepperoni pizza with extra cheese and tears. Well, not really. Vodka would be more accurate.

"This is my life."

Eating pizza at two in the morning and drinking more than anyone with a still-functioning liver had any right to.

(For Nancy)

Kenzi smacked her open palm against Nancy's door, listing to the right as she did. She hadn't been this drunk in ages, but then again - her life hasn't been this shit in ages either. She needed a friend. And she needed one bad. Someone to complain to and pet her head. Someone she could trust to stay by her side unlike some horrible bodyguards who will not be mentioned.

"Nancy! Nancy fo-fampsy! Open door!"

She didn't hear the whine in her voice. Not well at least. Kenzi could handle her liquor and thought she was just fine right now.

She was very. Very. Wrong.

(For Jean-Claude & Nancy)

This was it. The End.

Kenzi couldn't tell you what happened or how... not right now at least. All she knew was that she was bleeding. A lot. Later, if she lived, she would be able to tell you that some guy (she never even got to see his face) grabbed her from behind and told her to 'stop poking her little witch nose into things she should' and then... pain slicing through her back and her neck. Too hot and blistering her senses, she fell to the ground practically crippled and in shock.

She couldn't be dying. Not like this. Who would hold Nancy's hair back when she need to hurl?

But she is... and in the back of her mind, behind the pain, she knows it. And it's terrifying enough to get her to croak out in a breathless, weak voice:

"Help...please, someone..."

She doesn't care if she sounds pathetic - it doesn't even factor into this. Right now, survival is all she cares about.

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Kenzi tossed up her hands in glee and smiled as Nancy drew her inside. It was warm in her flat and Kenzi was totally not visiting her because she wanted more booze with friends instead of by herself.

"It's me! I'm drunk!"

Kenzi didn't even have the sense (or she just didn't care right now) to realize that Nancy looked particularly tired. Or beat up. Not yet at least. She wobbled unsteadily on her platform heels to the couch before flopping down onto it and giggling at the room spinning above her.

"If by tea you mean wine? Then, yes please."

Edited 2016-01-20 03:04 (UTC)

She has to laugh. "No shit." Kenzi was a breath of fresh air, and y'know what? She could toss off her sleepy safe in favor of an impromptu girl's night. Just ignore that she's in a pair of sleep-shorts and t-shirt, that'd be best for all.

"Wine it is." With an affectionate ruffle of Kenzi's hair, knowing full-well she'd likely be holding it back, she trips over into the kitchen to return with two mugs and a full bottle of wine. Without wasting any time, she plops down next to Kenzi and fills each mug to the top. With Kenzi, she didn't need to be classy. Mugs of wine were the way to go, everyone knew that.

"Here you go. You should have called me if you were going out!" She doesn't chide her or anything, just friendly conversation.

Kenzi hums contentedly as Nancy pets her head and kicks off her shoes sloppily and slowly, until she's greeted by a mug of wine that she carefully brings down to her level.

"Didn't go out."

She mumbles into her cup before sipping loudly and smacking her lips once she had enough to constitute a 'gulp'.

She's been drinking at home. Which is quite unlike her.

That's not good. Not good at all.

Nancy wrapped an arm around Kenzi's shoulder. So she didn't go out. That raised a million red flags for Nancy, who constantly drank alone. But it was one thing when she did it. It was another when Kenzi did. "Alright then, love. D'you want t'tell me what's wrong?" There had to be something wrong.

"My life?" She groaned, only barely able to laugh at the end of her question of an answer.

Kenzi could see the bastard that pulled that curse on Nancy laughing it up in some nest somewhere. How could she possibly hope to get back at that piece of crap? He had connections - and Kenzi had none now. Thanks to Norrell and his bunch of vultures, none of Kenzi's clients wanted anything to do with her. She was fucked.

Whooboy. Alright, wine was a much better choice than tea. Nancy brings her knees up on the couch, and reaches for a blanket, wrapping it around Kenzi's shoulders preemptively. Time to be a best friend. She wasn't going to be getting any sleep right now, but Kenzi was more important than sleep by far.

"D'you wanna start at the beginning?" She asked, pulling her friend close to her. It was good to have some one-on-one time, but it was a pity it came like this. "Other than Norrell and Croydon, what's wrong, love?"

Kenzi's face crumples and she drinks heavily from her cup before whining:

"Fucking. Vampires. They're such a-holes! I mean - who told them that being old and hard to murder means they can just act like they're better than you?!"

It's like her filter (what little there was) is flaking away and she can't stop the word vomit from pouring out. It's horrible and in the more sane parts of her mind she wants desperately to stop because this is going to ruin everything.

Oh no. She sighed, pulling Kenzi close.

"They are- what happened with the vampires?" Who did she piss off this time? She loved Kenzi, but it was unlikely that the vampires had reacted unprovoked.

Once she got started, the word vomit wouldn't end and Kenzi knew that - trying to stop herself wouldn't work. It just had to happen. Kenzi gestured wildly with her hands, wine sloshing up the sides of the mug but not spilling.

"I just know one of those Dracula wannabe's had you cursed! I just can't figure out who!"

Too much word vomit.

"I- I mean...uh," more wine!

Nancy stops drinking. She stops drinking and straightens up before looking at Kenzi. "You're- you're looking for the person that cursed me? Looking for vampires?"

She looked over slack-jawed. "I'm sorry- I can't- I can't believe what I'm hearing, Kenzi- how could you-" she lowers her head into her hands briefly. "Do you have any evidence?" Kenzi couldn't be this stupid. She couldn't be.

Good god, this was all her fault.

"Yes!"

Kenzi yelped indignantly, as if it was insane of Nancy to even think to ask if she had evidence or not. What kind of friend would doubt her?

The smart kind. Because Kenzi had squat to prove anything. Norrell had taken everything she had off her person. That included whatever proof she may have been collecting. But Kenzi wasn't going to tell her that, lest she worry more.

"My gut never lies!"

Oh gods. Nancy closes her eyes and finishes off her mug of wine. She needs this. She really, really needs this. And Kenzi needed... Well, she needed the wine, too. But a firm hand.

"Kenzi! I don't- no. You can't. Why would you-" She pushes her hair out of her eyes, letting out a frustrated noise. "Kenzi, don't take this the wrong way, but- you're a bloody fucking idiot! You can't just go to vampires like that, to deal with them. They're- Kenzi!" This was going to go bad. So. So bad.

Nancy stands, moving away from Kenzi on the couch. She couldn't look at her right now. She took a long, deep breath. "I love you, I love you so much, but this is the stupidest thing you could have ever done. You don't understand. Vampires, they're-" how did she even say this? "They have ways to ruin your life, and the life of your children and their children. You have to stop this."

"I can't! Nancy, these fucks think they can do whatever they want and ruin whoever's lives they want just because they're murderers! They didn't just have you cursed for shits and giggles you know!"

Originally it started out as Kenzi simply defending Nancy's honor. But now it was so much deeper and completely fucked. Wine forgotten, Kenzi sits forward and scrapes fingers through her bangs, trying to figure out how to live with having revealed everything.

"I shouldn't have said anything. I knew you wouldn't get it."

Of course she wouldn't. Because what you're doing is crazy.

"Kenzi!" She could have pulled her hair out. "You have to listen to me: you have to stop. Right now, before you get yourself killed. You said it yourself, they're murderers. What's to stop them from coming after you, Kenzi?" She wanted to reach out and shake her, but held herself still, except for her clenched fists at either side.

"I don't fucking care why they did it, or anything! All I care about is you not getting yourself killed for my sake! Kenzi- this is beyond stupid. This is insane!"

She needed to listen and call whatever this was off and apologize.

Drunk Kenzi doesn't have the same logic as tipsy Kenzi and instead of agreeing to her face and leaving, she starts to argue even more. She can't tell that she sounds like she's about to start crying. It's the booze more than anything but the frustration certainly isn't helping.

"What the hell am I supposed to do if I can't look out for you!"

Annnd now she can't stop.

"You're always trying to take care of me, and I want to do that for you too but I can't!"

You won't let me, she thinks.

"I can do this. Can't you just trust me?!"

"No, I can't!" The words are out before she can actually register them. "I have no fucking way to trust you when this is what you do!" It was unreasonable, and she shouldn't be yelling, but here she was.

"You're going to get yourself killed, why aren't you listening to me? This is why i don't tell you things about work! Because you go and do this!" She runs her fingers through her hair again, and when she's done, she practically growls.

"You have to end this before you get yourself killed!" This wasn't for her. This was for both of them.

"Fine!"

Kenzi blurts out, half on the verge of tears out of frustration and shame over being caught like this. Mixing together with genuine drunkenness was not leaving her free from emotions like she was hoping it would magically.

"Fine, I'll -," Kenzi swallows, falling back on the couch as if she'd just run a marathon. Conceding like this certainly felt like it.

"I'll figure it out. I'll clean up my," urp. That tasted like lunch. Gross. "my mess."

She wasn't going to say exactly how she was going to clean it up though.

"Okay!" What do you say to that, anyway? "Good!" Seriously, Kenzi had managed to take the wind out of her sails with agreeing to fix it. Usually arguments never ended that way. Carefully, Nancy made her way back to the couch, hesitating to see if Kenzi would be alright with her sitting down.

"I know you will."

Kenzi's smile was more like a grimace as she looked at Nancy from under her hair. She wasn't lying, not really but it was more of a lie than she wanted it be.

Cleaning up her own mess at this point was going to be more messy than anything else. But she still had some connections. She could make things work.

"That sounds an awful lot like you trusting me, Nan."

"well," Nancy ran her fingers through her hair again and took a deep breath. Upon exhaling, she finished her sentence: "You're not exactly wrong. I'm going out on a limb here, Kenzi." If this went South, there was no way she could trust her again.

It wouldn't mean she loved her less. Just that she didn't trust her.

"Please, please don't screw this up." Clean it up. "For both our sakes."

Kenzi hid her wince. She might have been drunk but she could still keep things inside.

"Cross my heart, hope to die."

It was just a saying, but she meant it. She'd fix her fuck ups. If Nancy wanted it done, it'd get done. Swept under the rug.

"Oh please don't," Nancy whines as she takes a long drink of her mug wine. She knows Kenzi is speaking hyperbolicly, but life and death really was on the line when dealing with the vampires. Especially the sort Kenzi was likely looking for.

"C'mere." She pats the spot on the couch next to her and reaches for Kenzi's shoulders. She's more than happy to take care of her again, especially when she needs it. "You can start in the morning."

Kenzi goes to Nancy's side easily. She's drunk and she's tired and emotional vulnerability is hard and awful.

"Okay mom." She snorts as she sits, trying to bring the mood up again.

"Shut up," she says, welcoming her into her arms. Immediately, Nancy starts playing with her hair with her long nails.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," she says finally. "Not about what I said, just... how I said it."

Kenzi is tempted to be sarcastic in response, because that's how she rolls. Sarcasm is her M.O. Feeling like an asshole who got caught trying to be noble for her friend when she didn't even ask for it wasn't.

"Don't worry about it."

She's equally tempted to guilt trip. Go on about how she's used to being yelled at - and well she is. But Nancy doesn't deserve that.

Knowing when it's time to leave the table (CATCH-ALL)

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