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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Alex's jaw locked in frustration and her head titled to the side. "That's not fair, of course I'm not saying that." She paused, gathering her thoughts to make sure she could make him understand why this bothered her so much. Finally, she settled on saying the only thing she could come up with, "I don't want this to feel like I'm just hanging out with you for money."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a ten pound note, which would cover a little less than half the check, and held it out to him. "Take it."

"Never crossed my mind," he replied honestly, neither accepting nor declining her money yet. Kyle felt like there was something else going on here, something that bothered her more than what she was admitting to and he worried he might be at the center of whatever it was. Which meant it was better to clear up now than to let it linger. "I have some money and I want to pay. That doesn't mean you're here for my money. Hell, you thought you were paying until I did. So what is it? Do you feel like you owe me? Or is this back to the bullshit of wanting to make sure I know that we're nothing more than friends?"

He sighed at the thought, writing in a few pounds for the tip, knowing he was probably over tipping and not caring. Kyle closed the check and pushed it away from himself, snatching the note from her hand and pocketing it. "There. Happy?"

Alex was astounded by how quickly she went from wanting to kiss Kyle to being extremely frustrated with him. "Yes, I feel like I owe you and I don't want to, that's the whole point!" She tried to keep her voice down, so the other diners wouldn't be privy to their argument. She didn't want to admit that she was nearly broke, because she was pretty sure that would just make this whole problem even worse. "I want to help pay for things, why don't you just accept that?"

She drew her hand back as soon as he took the note from her. "Yeah, thrilled. Come on," she muttered as she stood up and headed for the door. "We should go get my key copied."

Edited 2016-03-14 02:17 (UTC)

"You don't owe me anything and I've never said anything to suggest that you do," he whispered, leaning in to express his frustration without being overheard. Kyle knew Alex hated public bickering. And they did bicker a lot. "I can't do a nice fuckin' thing without offending you somehow."

He watched as she stood up and followed behind her, waiting until they were outside and away from the few people near the entry before speaking again in the same quiet tones. "Okay, no paying for things. I'll add it to the list behind no doing anything that could be perceived as affectionate."

Kyle ran a hand through his hair, trying to calm himself quickly. His anxiety was amped up with his frustration and it wouldn't be good to have either heightened right now. His body tensed suddenly and his hands clenched into fists, pausing on the sidewalk and having to close his eyes to breathe through it.

Alex paused near him once they were outside, taking a breath to try to get rid of some of the frustration. She was messing this up, she knew, but he wasn't exactly handling it great either.

"I like it when you do nice things," she snapped quietly. She glared at him for a long moment before saying, "We're friends. That means we both pitch in, alright? Sometimes you pay, sometimes I pay."

"I paid twice, Alex," he replied before opening his eyes again, his shoulders still taut. Kyle was staving off an anxiety attack and had to focus on her and the distraction to avoid falling into one. It was frustrating being triggered by something so dumb, even knowing it was just a side effect of his experience at the Festival and the rave days before. "It's not a habit. You can pay next time."

He forced his hands to uncurl from their fists and began walking, feeling the odd need to run away from nothing in particular and stubbornly wanting to fight it for no reason at all. "I should.. get home. Can I pick up the key tomorrow or something?"

It was pretty obvious he was on edge now, tense and almost jittery. It was more akin to the first time they met on the bench than his usual self. Try as he might, Kyle couldn't entirely suppress the collateral damage he'd experienced from everything.

"Okay, that's fine." Alex could tell something was wrong, but she had no idea what had set him off. This wasn't the first time they'd bickered over something objectively petty, and he hadn't reacted like this.

When he asked to pick the key up tomorrow, she started to recognize what was happening. She remembered that day on the bench, and she remembered all the times she had responded like this to something that nobody else gave a second thought to. The thing that helped her was physical contact, someone holding her.

"Hey," she called after him, and reached for his hand. She'd hug him if that felt necessary, but maybe just holding his hand would be enough to calm him down.

Kyle waited impatiently for her answer, very consciously willing his hands to remain open as the muscles in his shoulders tightened and his breathing and heart rate increased slightly. He barely noticed when she took his hand, pulling away a second later as his fingers curled into a fist again. It wasn't until she hugged him that his gaze snapped back into focus and he actually felt her arms around him.

He exhaled a deep breath and took in another, fingers uncurling as the feeling of her against him helped him to regain focus. Slowly, his arms wrapped around her, returning the hug. It was clear he needed the contact as he tilted his head to lean against hers, closing his eyes and trying to clear his mind.

It was almost a minute before he was able to steady his breathing and calm his anxiety. Kyle opened his eyes and lifted his head, slowly and begrudgingly unraveling his arms from around her. He muttered a brief, "Now I owe you."

Edited 2016-03-14 03:36 (UTC)

Alex swallowed hard as she rested her cheek against the side of his neck, her arms tightening around his shoulders. For what felt like hours, she just stood there, listening to his breathing and waiting for him to relax. Hugging him was oddly comfortable, given that they'd just been fighting.

She drew back when he did. For a second, their faces were a little too close, but her desire to kiss him was temporarily forgotten, overridden by her concern for him, and she didn't notice. She rested her hand on the side of his neck and kissed his cheek, then pulled back, smiling at him. "You can pay me back by making me brownies again tomorrow."

As she looked up at him, trying to make sure he would be okay, she remembered that she really did want to kiss him. This time it wasn't out of excitement, or because he was cute or funny or kind. She just wanted to be close to him in a way that the hug hadn't quite satisfied. But because they were still in public, and she didn't want their first kiss to be under the scrutiny of random people leaving the Thai restaurant, she reached for his arm instead. "Come on, I'll walk home with you."

Edited 2016-03-16 01:15 (UTC)

"You'll have to bring the frosting," he replied lightly, offering a smile that looked exactly as it was: someone trying to give a sincere regard while still feeling like shit.

As he looked at her, looking at him with that concern, hair falling around her shoulders, he had to resist the urge to lean in and kiss her. It was a weird impulse, his mind having mostly relegated her to friendship and dismissing any romantic or sexual thoughts. But it went as quickly as it came and he nodded somewhat sheepishly as he offered his elbow and then pulled her arm in against him.

"I trust you," he said, after they were halfway back to his place, staring ahead. "And I like you. I don't want to hurt you, or any other werewolves. I've been on edge since- I was there, at the Valentine's Day Massacre. Nest of vampires. I've had a hard time since. And then with the Werewolf Slaughter Fest and that shit.."

He trailed off, thinking about his time with Skip that night, not really sure what he was trying to say and trying to refocus.

"We're better than all the noise. We can trust each other, I mean. Even knowing what we do." Kyle glanced over to her. "Right?"

Alex's stomach twisted with guilt at his words. She was still lying to him about so much, and even though she knew it was to keep him safe, because anyone who knew the truth about her identity might be in danger, it was eating at her.

Earlier today, she'd been so scared that he'd lied to her, that he had befriended her on purpose for some ulterior motive. The tiny paranoid part of her mind that questioned everything still wasn't entirely convinced, but she knew that was just paranoia. There was no actual reason to think he was lying to her, the way she was lying to him.

She looked back at him, just watching for a moment. "Right." That was a little shaky. A lot more sincerely, she added, "I trust you. And I don't want you to get hurt."

Kyle returned her words with a soft yet entirely genuine smile. Then his attention was back to the sidewalk as they turned the corner to near his relatives' small home. He couldn't help but focus on the feeling of Alex's arm tucked between his own and his side, the feel of her against him. It was comfortable and he had to remind himself again that the thoughts were a fluke, the side effect of a messed up brain and not actual desire. They were just friends.

He stopped when they arrived at his doorstep, begrudgingly releasing her arm from his side as he turned to face her somewhat. "Send me your address and I'll come by tomorrow to pick up the key, alright? Brownies and everything."

Alex hadn't even realized they'd spent the entire walk arm in arm until he let go. It had been that comfortable.

She was surprised by how much she looked forward to seeing him tomorrow, and she smiled at his comment about the brownies. "And I'll get some frosting for them."

"It's a date- plan." Kyle corrected himself before she could, flashing a grin at her and then withdrawing up the steps to the safety of his own space. It was good to air their grievances and move on, to get back to a place of trust after all the shit that went down that night and all the secrets revealed. He wondered if it brought them closer, just knowing.

He turned and gave her a wink before disappearing inside.

Alex was almost content to leave it there. She smiled when he grinned, but the smile faded as he moved inside, and she took a breath, her eyes drifting away down the street.

She probably should have left it there. She'd spent weeks telling herself that allowing anything more than friendship between them would be a disaster. But right then and there, how much she wanted him outweighed how bad an idea it definitely was.

"Kyle. Wait." She stepped after him. For just a second, she hesitated, waiting to see whether he would pull away. If he didn't, she leaned in to kiss him.

Kyle turned halfway through the door, immediately stepping back out onto the landing again. His expression was one of concern, wondering what it was that she wanted or, specifically, what it was that might be upsetting her. When she closed most of the distance between them, he was honestly a little confused. When the kiss followed, he was a lot confused.

It only took a fraction of a second for him to return the kiss, lifting a hand to the side of her neck to encourage the action. He withdrew after, staring at her with a face still painted with confusion.

"What the hell was that?" He asked softly, not knowing what to think but clearly not upset or put off by the action. The memory of Skip flashed through his mind, and Nancy, and he wondered what the hell it was about London or if this is what it was like outside of the military.

Alex wrapped a hand around the side of his neck, which slipped upwards to run through his hair as her other hand pressed against his chest. When he pulled out of the kiss, she dropped both hands, running one through her own hair before stepping back.

"I-- I wanted to." She glanced away before looking back at him defiantly. She didn't think she'd have to explain it and she wasn't sure how. "I know I said we couldn't but you didn't know what I was, and I didn't want to have to hide that from you if we weren't just friends." Not a lie, but only one reason why this was a terrible idea. It was, though, the only reason she'd admit to.

"'If we weren't just friends,'" he echoed quietly, still trying to puzzle it out. Kyle couldn't quite tell if Alex was playing around and debating a test drive with him for fun, although she didn't seem as much like the type, or if she was trying to admit to something deeper. Either way, he was pretty sure that now wasn't the time.

Kyle lifted his gaze to meet hers again, having stared at the sidewalk while he thought, and gave a small nod. "Okay. Thank you- thanks. Uh, I'm going to need a minute, to wrap my head around this. After all the 'just friends' everything. We'll, uh, talk more tomorrow, okay?"

He didn't hesitate to lean in and kiss her again, because he didn't want it to come across as a rejection. Kyle liked her, more than he'd allowed himself to previously, and he wanted more of whatever this was. But he also had some shit to think about and sort through before spontaneously launching himself into something real.

Alex leaned away when he tried to kiss her again. Either he wanted this or he didn't, and if he needed time to think about it, that was fine. But she didn't want him to kiss her if he wasn't sure.

"Yeah. Tomorrow," she agreed.

He might need time to think, but she would probably just spend the time worrying about whether or not she'd made a huge mistake. She genuinely liked him, but she might be leaving soon, she might be dead soon if things went badly in Russia, and she was still lying to him about her past. Just associating with her could put him in danger if Semak found out that she was alive.

She looked at him helplessly for just a moment, not sure what she wanted or what she should do, before turning to leave.

Kyle wanted to stop her. He could see her expression and wanted to comfort her, to kiss her again and let it be easy and consequences be damned. But he also wasn't that guy who wanted to commit if he wasn't sure and maybe this was her way of understanding that.

"Tomorrow," he repeated firmly, to reduce the potential that the comment would be taken as bullshit. But otherwise, he watched her go, shaking his head and cursing under his breath about how broken he was, how the girl confused the hell out of him, and what the hell was he even doing. The girl had a moat around the walls that lead to her secrets and he wasn't confident in his ability not to break her heart.

Once she got back to her apartment, Alex briefly wondered whether she should text him her address at all, or if she'd wrecked everything and should just leave for Russia that night. But the timing was off. At least that's what she told herself when she texted him.

She only had two nightmares that night, one in which Kyle was secretly in league with Sergei Semak and tried to murder her, and another in which he died in her arms. Neither was encouraging.

The next morning, tired and nervous, she had her key copied and bought chocolate frosting, just like she said she would. Then, for lack of anything better to do, she spent two hours on the treadmill while she waited for him to show up, wondering what he'd say and what she should say.

Edited 2016-03-20 03:14 (UTC)

Kyle had his own nightmares. Werewolves chasing him through the fields near his old house in Ohio, Alex the werewolf becoming Alex the vampire and inviting him to join her. There was another dream with Alex and Skip that was considerably more enjoyable, but it did little to assuage his anxiety when he snapped awake at four in the morning. The soldier got up instead of going back to bed, showering the night sweats away and then going for a run.

He arrived to Alex's in the later morning, when he was confident she would be awake. Instead of bringing pre-made brownies, he brought a box and the ingredients to make them, not sure what she would have in the house.

He'd been stressed out all morning about the kiss, about whether Alex being part of this world made it easier or harder for them to be a thing, about whether he was even ready to try to be in a relationship. Kyle had the sinking feeling that their friendship was continuing to mutate and would never be the same. He could either choose to step up and get more or run away and miss out. The soldier didn't like to run.

Arriving at the building, he pressed the buzzer for the number she had given him, noticing the blank name plate beside the number.

"Hey, it's Betty Crocker. I have a delivery for one Alex Winslow.." He flashed a grin up to the camera, not sure if it was meant for security or for the tenants, just in case.

Alex had just finished a very quick shower when the buzzer went off. She spent fifteen agonizing seconds deciding what to wear - and whether it mattered at all what she wore - before picking a fairly boring pair of jeans and sweater.

She buzzed him up then opened her door. Once he got there, she didn't say anything, waiting for him to speak first.

Kyle was back to his usual self. He didn't hesitate to let himself in the open door, closing it behind him and looking around the place. He flashed Alex a smile before moving past her to the kitchen counter, setting the bags down and immediately working to unload the eggs, oil, and box of brownie mix. Then he folded up the paper bag and set it aside before planting a hand on the counter to lean on and turning to face her again.

"Hey." Intentionally playing up his smile, knowing its effect.

Alex shut the door behind him and watched him, frowning, brows furrowing and then relaxing. As he unpacked, she stared at him like he was a challenge, determined not to back down in any way but also completely unsure of what was going to happen, what he expected to happen, or what she wanted to happen.

The smile was completely unfair. She gritted her teeth a little harder in response, trying not to react to it.

"I got frosting," she said uselessly.

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