undergrounds | March open post

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March open post

I. The Department Store [OPEN]
Waltham Forest, Morning

A relaxed morning in bed with a cup of tea had turned into a trip to the store to buy a new set of sheets. The mattress was dry now, at least, even if it would probably smell like tea forever, but she'd somehow managed to scrub a hole right through one of the sheets so she'd need a new set of those. The new sheets came with new pillowcases, and she decided she might as well get new blankets too, because her blankets had also fallen victim to the tea disaster, and before she knew it the three hundred pounds she had left in the world became less than two hundred and fifty.

Loaded down with new linens, she headed for the cafe and bought a sandwich and a cup of coffee, ruefully counting out her change. She was so preoccupied with that, hoping that maybe the barista had miscalculated and maybe coffee and a sandwich wasn't really that expensive, that she failed to notice when she nearly walked right into someone, only barely stopping herself spilling coffee all over them.

"I'm so sorry," she said quickly, immediately readjusting her grip on the coffee.

II. The Mansion [OPEN]
Westminster, Night

Alex needed the money. Badly. And it wasn't like she was robbing an orphanage or a bunch of nuns or something. She did research. The guy whose house she was breaking into in the middle of the night was filthy rich and not very nice, and if the contents of his safe happened to go missing, well, that sucked for him. Getting into the mansion was easy, and cracking the safe wasn't much harder. There was some cash and a small bag of diamonds, which she took, and a lot of papers, which she left.

Before tonight, she'd figured out how many guards there were, and had so, so carefully avoided all of them. So it came as a huge surprise when she heard a floorboard creak and whirled around to find a guard pointing his gun at her.

A short fight later, Alex was running full speed towards the outside fence. She'd been shot in the shoulder and her hands were slick with blood from digging the bullet out, which made climbing the fence a lot more difficult. Some other guard must have heard the gunshot, because as her hand finally gripped the top of the fence, all the outside lights turned on, lighting the yard up as bright as day. She felt someone grabbing at her ankle, kicked out as hard as she could, and hauled herself over the fence onto the sidewalk. She almost landed square on somebody's head.

III. The Bus Stop [OPEN]
City of London, Early Afternoon

The bus was late. This bus was always late, and Alex knew its exact schedule because Edith rode this bus every week. She had to buy cat food, and it had to be specialty cat food from a specialty store in the City. Alex hadn't believed that at first, because an 85 year old werewolf who was obsessed with cats didn't seem like it could possibly be real. And yet, here she was, carrying around a thirty pound bag of cat food for Edith for the third week in a row.

She didn't hate it as much as she thought she would have. Cleaning dentures was gross, and doing the dishes and laundry and changing beds was tedious. But helping the elderly members of the pack generally felt kind of... good. Which was a weird feeling.

Alex was snapped out of her reverie by someone barreling past her, snatching Edith's purse as he went. Alex did the first thing that came to mind: she hurled the bag of cat food at the thief. It hit him square in the back, broke, and sent its contents showering over a near passerby. She ran over, picked Edith's purse up, and kicked the thief onto his back. He was out cold.

"Are you okay?" she demanded of the passerby.

IV. The Diner [CLOSED to Illya] (backdated to a couple weeks ago)
Camden, Evening

Three weeks to the day that Illya made his deal, Alex waited for him in a small diner near the British Museum. She'd scraped together a few thousand pounds and had it converted to rubles, so she would be able to buy weapons and transportation once she got into Russia. She'd mapped Pinksy Forest, partially from memory and partially by bothering immigrants in Little Russia, and she had some ideas of where the pack's new den might be. All she needed was a way into the country, and Illya, she hoped, would have one for her.

She was too excited to eat. If this worked out, she might be only weeks or even days away from going... not home, exactly, Russia wasn't home anymore. Back to where she started. To finally get closure for everything that had happened to her in the past six years. But she ordered some eggs and sausage for the appearance and sat, picking at them while she watched the minutes tick away on her phone, waiting for him to show.

V. The Confrontation [CLOSED to Kyle] (backdated to late February)

After Lupercalia, Alex spent days worrying that she had ruined whatever relationship she had with Kyle and wondering whether it would be easier to simply pretend she had never met him and move on. But he was a hunter, or at least somehow involved with the supernatural. And even if he'd never directly lied to her, he'd concealed the truth, and in her eyes that was just as bad. She wanted an explanation. Before long, she had worked up enough anger to storm all the way to his place with every intention of confronting him.

There were no obvious signs of life there. Maybe he was out. She raised her hand to bang on the door when she remembered that even if Kyle was a liar, his aunt and uncle might be clueless and innocent, and she didn't want to get them involved. If they came to the door, she would have to exchange pleasantries and possibly pretend to be there for some innocuous reason when all she wanted to do was shout at Kyle.

Instead of knocking, she yanked out her phone and called him. If he didn't answer, then she'd knock.

VI. Choose Your Own Adventure! [OPEN]
Anywhere, Any Time

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Kyle was in his room, watching a game on his laptop when his phone's buzzing pulled away his attention. He picked it up and frowned at the name that appeared, though some part of him was relieved to see it. They hadn't spoken since the Festival, mostly because he hadn't wanted to see her and the feeling seemed mutual, but Kyle still wanted to be friends if it was possible. If Alex wasn't part of his kidnapping and attempted murder of sorts. Her fighting to free him certainly suggested she wasn't.

After a long pause of staring, he snatched up his phone and pressed the button to answer the call. There was another short pause before he actually spoke. Short and sweet. "Hey."

He spent most of the time between then and now thinking about what happened and how everyone was involved. Skip provided a nice distraction for the night, but then Alex had crept her way back into his mind by morning and he couldn't help but think about James and the way she had responded to the man. If she was a werewolf, the only real explanation he could come up with, then he understood her failing to mention that and didn't really hold it against her. But it definitely changed things, if she had killed someone to activate her curse, and possibly more since.

Edited 2016-03-05 07:31 (UTC)

Alex didn't bother with pleasantries. She was angry, and she had no interest in pretending otherwise - she just wanted to get to the shouting.

She moved back to the sidewalk in front of the apartment, so if he looked out the window he would be able to easily see her, and glared up at the window that she thought was his room. "I'm outside. Open the door."

Edited 2016-03-05 18:00 (UTC)

Another short pause. "Okay."

Kyle hung up the phone and pocketed it as he slid off his desk chair. He didn't need to look out the window to confirm her presence. He folded his laptop screen down and made his way out of his room, down the stairs, and to the front door. With a deep breath, he steeled himself for whatever rage he knew was coming based on the tone of her voice on the phone, not really understanding what she could possibly be mad at him about.

He swung the door open, standing in the gap such that she would have to wait on the stoop or shove her way past him. Again, he said, "Hey."

Alex moved back to the stoop to wait for the door to open. As angry as she was, it was hard keeping still, but she forced herself to simply stand there until he showed. Her teeth clenched tightly and her fingernails dug into the palms of her hands. When he finally opened the door, she let out a short, sharp breath, almost relieved.

"Are your aunt and uncle home?" If they were, she'd have to keep quiet enough not to drag them into it, but if they weren't she wouldn't have to worry about that.

"No," he answered honestly, uncertain whether to be friendly or angry and thus ending up somewhere in between. Kyle maintained his position in the doorway though, one hand on the door and the other leaning into the frame. He didn't like his space being threatened. While he didn't think Alex would physically do anything to him, he didn't want to be yelled at in his own house either.

His eyes dropped to her hands for a beat before darting back up to her face. He didn't understand why she was pissed off, though it was obvious she was. With a sigh, he shifted his weight to a more relaxed posture. "We have to talk, I get that- I want that. But I want to know why you're angry first."

Edited 2016-03-05 18:58 (UTC)

She glanced around somewhat awkwardly, thinking there might be other people on the street and not wanting to make a public spectacle out of this. She wouldn't force her way past him, but if he'd let her, she'd prefer to come inside rather than hash anything out where any random passerby could gawk at them. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah. After you tell me why you're hulking out right now." His tone was lighter, trying to keep things amicable even as he effectively denied her entry. Kyle knew she was uncomfortable with people knowing things about her, that much had been obvious in their brief interactions, and it almost pained him to keep her in the public forum now, knowing that. He wasn't trying to be controlling, but he had become fiercely protective of his family and the space he considered home.

Alex assumed he was forcing this to be public as a way of keeping her from being too loud or too violent; whether that was to protect himself or specifically to control her, she didn't know. She stepped closer, squaring her shoulders as she lifted her chin to keep looking him in the eye.

"I'm not having this conversation out here. Let me in." Whatever his reasons were, she didn't like being controlled.

Shit. This wasn't how he wanted to play it, but he wasn't about to back down because she was angry. He had never been able to abide by bullying. Kyle shifted into the center of the door space, straightening and completely blocking her entry. His expression hardened as he pointedly frowned at her.

"We can go wherever you want to talk. I'm not letting you in when you're like this." He replied, tone flushed with the heat of his mood. "Or you can tell me to fuck off and I'll go back inside. Your choice."

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