undergrounds | March open post

Entry tags:

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kyle grimaced slightly with the suggestion, realizing he wasn't quite as over it as he was trying to convince himself he was. But he stood quickly, nodding, trying to hide his momentary hesitation. The soldier forced a smile, awkward yet mostly genuine, as he moved closer to Alex to head toward the door.

"Your treat." More teasing, trying to find a rhythm again. He already missed how easy it used to be with her.

The time it took Kyle to respond felt like hours. Alex almost told him to forget about it, turned around and left, because of course it couldn't be okay between them and it had been stupid of her to think it would be that easy. But then he smiled at her, and she breathed out sharply, suddenly very tense with no apparent reason to be.

"Sure." She was on the verge of being broke, but she could still afford lunch. And she felt like she owed him money from their trip to the zoo - he shouldn't have to pay for everything.

She followed him out the door. Part of her still wondered whether this was a mistake, if it would just end up being painfully awkward and not worth the effort. That was what she'd thought when she first met him, though, and it had, up until now, definitely been worth the effort. So she'd give it a shot.

Kyle grabbed a hoodie on the way out the door and locked up the apartment behind him. He slid on the plain grey jacket as they stepped down to the sidewalk, then looked around, feeling oddly lost while knowing exactly where he was. It irked him a little that she agreed to his joke rather than fighting him. He would pay if he had any say in it. "What are you hungry for?"

Not making dog jokes might have been the hardest part of this new revelation. Only a fraction above knowing she had murdered someone. Kyle tried to forget about that, tried to focus on the Alex he knew. This didn't really change things that much. Although it occurred to him suddenly that there was still one thing niggling in the back of his mind.

"Why haven't I seen your place?" It wasn't a huge deal and he asked it more offhand than anything else. But something about them always meeting at his house or out and about, never at her own apartment, that bothered him.

Alex stuck her hands in her pockets and glanced up and down the street, feeling oddly exposed. She'd just told him something that she'd never told anyone before, and it had left her a bit raw.

She shrugged at his question. "There's a Chinese place a few blocks that way, but I know it tastes funny to you." It was surprisingly easy to fall back into teasing him about his views on food.

The second question caught her off-guard. Of course he'd never seen her place, but now that he knew the truth about her, there wasn't any particular reason he couldn't. "There's a... cage," she admitted ruefully, glancing away from him.

He knew the place. He also knew what was around it. "Thai it is."

Kyle stuffed his hands into his pockets in mirror of her own, tamping down all his doubts. He smiled because it felt easier and better to do so than to continue frowning, looking around at the scenery around them as they were walking toward the restaurant. At her reply, he glanced over, then looked away again.

"A cage." He silently begged her to elaborate before he had to ask if it was a kennel, if she slept in there for comfort. If she was paranoid and needed to keep the world out. Or, worse, if it was because she was afraid of what she would do.

Alex smiled tentatively back at him. It was more wishful than anything. She really wanted everything to be easy between them again, but knew they weren't quite there yet.

"For the wolf," she said quickly. She didn't want him thinking she slept in a cage every night. "I can't control it. It has to stay locked up."

Pause. Rewind. Kyle stopped suddenly and reached out to set a hand on her arm to stop her as well, withdrawing it as quickly as he'd touched her. He forgot sometimes about her weird touching rules. This was a hell of a lot more important though. He opened his mouth, noticed someone walking not far, and closed it again, waiting until the woman had walked by and gained some distance to finally speak in a harsh whisper. "What do you mean you can't control it?"

Alex stopped. She didn't mind the touch on her arm because it didn't feel like an attack. Until the woman had passed, she frowned at Kyle, trying to figure out what was wrong before he could ask. Once again, something she thought was common knowledge turned out to be new to him, which made her wonder just how uninformed - or misinformed - he was.

"It's not me," she responded in the same harsh whisper. "It's like something else takes over. I can't control the wolf any more than you can control her." She subtly moved her head in the direction of the woman who had just gone past.

"And what does it want?" He asked nervously, wondering why she had to lock it up at the full moon. Kyle really hoped the answer wasn't to eat people. It's most of the reason he felt comfortable killing vampires, because they were the natural predators of humans. After what Skip told him about the activation process and then the Festival, he was becoming increasingly worried that werewolves were a lot more like vampires than he'd believed.

What connects them? Fear. The fear of being eaten, the fear of going hungry. And Alex afraid of sharing her secrets and afraid of Kyle the Werewolf Hunter. And Kyle afraid of the predator that will kill him and that someone he knows and cares about will become one of those.

Alex could sense Kyle's nervousness, and she hated it. They couldn't be friends if he was afraid of her, and she hated that he might be afraid of her because he was - probably wisely - afraid of the wolf. She wasn't the same as it, and she had to make him understand that.

"It's a predator, what do you think it wants? But it's not me," she repeated. "I wouldn't hurt you." She reached for his arm, to see how he'd react, and how much damage control she'd have to do.

To eat people.

Kyle didn't show any sign of withdrawal or hesitation when she touched him. In fact, he seemed to barely notice, such physical contact being second nature to him. He wasn't afraid of her. All he was afraid of was ensuring that the wolf inside of her didn't kill anyone else. Both for their safety and for her sanity. If he could help her with that, then he could work on stopping the rest of the pack from doing the same. Try to help them get what they needed without killing.

"I know," he replied distractedly, entirely sincere. That was one of the few things that was never in doubt for him. After a pause, his gaze came back into focus. "Is there any way to control it?"

Edited (tenses) 2016-03-06 21:52 (UTC)

That he didn't pull away was a relief. As long as he didn't hate her for what the wolf was, hopefully they would be okay.

"That's what the cage is for." She dropped her hand from his arm, seeing no reason to keep it there once she'd made sure he wasn't scared of her. "There's, uh, there's wolfsbane. I take it before I change and it kinda knocks it out." That reminded her, she would have to renew her supply soon. She was starting to run low, and it was always worse waking up after a night of the wolf banging around in the cage than a night of it being unconscious. "Moonlight jewelry stops the change, but you have to know a witch to get it."

Kyle glanced down at her hand as she pulled it away, idly wondering if he'd upset her somehow before immediately moving on to listening to her important words. He made mental note of the cage and wolfsbane, still not feeling too good about things until she mentioned the moonlight jewelry.

"I know a witch," he replied immediately. "I know a witch! We can get you the moon ring. Until then, I'm staying with you during the full moon."

Alex's heart lept into her throat and then plummeted in the span of seconds. She'd had a moonlight necklace once, and she'd had to use it to change every night rather than to never change at all. If he could really get her one, if she'd never have to change again... Few things would make her happier.

"What? No, you can't do that!" It was the stupidest thing anyone had ever said to her, and he couldn't possibly know how dangerous the wolf would be to him if something went wrong, but it was also the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to her.

"Why? You'll be in a cage. The only chance of it getting to me is if it would have hurt someone else instead. I'll take that risk." Noticing a man across the street watching them warily, he reached out to take Alex's hand and tug her along to continue their walk. He would release her hand not a moment later, as he remembered her not liking that, and return his hand to his pocket instead.

Alex glanced over her shoulder and glared at the man who was watching them. She couldn't stand nosy people. When Kyle tried to let go of her hand, she held onto it, not letting him stick it back in his pocket. If that guy was still watching them, it would be less suspicious if he thought they were boyfriend and girlfriend having an argument. It had nothing to do with the fact that she kind of liked holding his hand.

"If it gets out of the cage, it still has to get out of the apartment before it could hurt anybody else. Unless you're there with a neon sign around your neck that says 'Eat me!'" Of course, the wolf could tear through the apartment door like tissue paper, but Alex wouldn't admit that, if the wolf was absolutely going to kill somebody, she'd rather it kill a stranger than Kyle. Stupid, brave, stupid, considerate Kyle.

Kyle looked confused as he attempted to pull his hand back and found Alex holding tightly to it. He dropped it back between them, glancing over to her and seeing that stupid stubborn expression planted on her face. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he looked forward to the sidewalk again.

"Neon might be too expensive. I was thinking chalkboard." He flashed a brief grin her way before continuing. "Has it- have you- it.. Whatever. Has it ever gotten out of the cage before?"

She glanced sideways at him, and had to resist the urge to smile at his joke. It wasn't particularly funny, he could die, but she found it pretty charming that he was making dumb jokes about the whole thing.

"No, but I wouldn't want the first time to be when you're there," she muttered, frowning ahead at the sidewalk as though it had personally wronged her.

They made it to the Thai place, and she went in, finally letting go of his hand so she could hold the door open for him behind her.

This time, Kyle did roll his eyes. He followed her into the thai place, noticing she had held his hand long after the prying eyes had been left behind. He decided not to mention it. The two were lead off to a small table in the back, with decent lighting and some sense of privacy. There were only two other group in the small restaurant: the four nearer to them were loud enough to be clearly oblivious to what was going on around them and the other pair of men, possible a business meeting, were next to the entrance.

He ordered a Coke and waited until Alex was done and the waitress had wandered off before he really looked at Alex again. "Tell me what time you change back and I'll come then. You shouldn't have to deal with this shit by yourself."

No one had ever offered to do that for her before. For a long moment, Alex couldn't think of anything to say, overwhelmed by how kind and how idiotic he was. She might have kissed him right then and there, if they weren't in public.

If he didn't show up until she'd changed back, there wouldn't be any danger. That would be alright. "Sunrise. I'm always back by sunrise." She paused as the waitress brought their drinks, thanked her, then looked back to Kyle. She gave a him a small but genuinely grateful smile. "Thank you."

Edited 2016-03-07 00:27 (UTC)

"It's that or I break down your door. Saves me replacing some shattered wood." He lifted his drink, clinked the glass lightly against Alex's, then took a long sip. Returning his drink to the table, he gave her a better smile, more natural. This was the easier part, the part he could focus on to ignore the harder part.

"So what are you getting?" As he picked up his menu, looking over the various selections.

Alex actually grinned at that. She clinked her glass against his and took a drink. "It's okay, I'll give you a key."

That seemed like the natural thing to do, rather than make him wait out in the hall. As long as he promised not to use it while she was wolfed out. There wasn't anything in her apartment she wouldn't trust him with, and if she really did need to hide something, she didn't think he'd go snooping.

She glanced down at the menu when he asked. "What's good? I don't have Thai a lot."

Kyle looked genuinely surprised at her offhand reply. He specifically hadn't asked, even though it seemed a hell of a lot easier, because he didn't want to make her nervous. He didn't even know where the apartment was and now she was offering him a key. Less than an hour after accusing him of hunting her kind. Even if he was exactly the type of person that people should feel comfortable giving spare keys to.

"Curry," he answered almost automatically, not wanting to comment on her key offer and risk making it awkward. His eyes fell again to scan the menu. "What do you like? Rice, noodles? Spicy?"

Alex was just as happy to move on to a different topic. She perused the menu carefully, ultimately deciding to choose based on price rather than what she actually wanted. "I'm not picky," she said, smiling at him.

"The wontons look good." They were also the cheapest thing on the menu, but hopefully he wouldn't notice that. Or maybe he would. "Or curry," she added quickly. That was a little more expensive.

He glanced up then returned to the menu, her smile encouraging his. This was good. Kyle reached out to take another sip of his drink as she spoke, then shook his head. He was oblivious to the price, but more concerned with her actually eating.

"Wontons aren't a meal. We can split an order, but get something else too. I'm thinking red. Curry. Maybe try yellow if you don't know? Someone told me that's the least offensive. It's what I started with."

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

no subject