undergrounds | AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

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AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

The bloodlust was a step too far. Kyle already hated vampires before the event, his species's natural predator. Then the Fae were opening doors into their world, Daybreak was persecuting seemingly innocent members of Midnight while claiming they were practicing Necromagic, and the wolves even had their own kill-some-humans Festival. The supernatural world was a shitty, terrible place for people who were trying to live their lives in peace. And while there were Guardians meant to look out for and protect people, they followed loose laws more concerned with protecting their secrets than in saving lives.

So he started putting the word out. He didn't really know what he was doing, or what he was trying to create. Maybe a new squad. Maybe a book club where instead of weekly reading, they killed guilty parties. He wasn't sure. By definition, he was trying to put together a group of vigilantes.

He put the word out. Coded flyers here, whispers in Hillingdon there, and so on. He reached out to the people he knew and those he'd heard about who might happen to agree with his cause. Anyone and everyone was welcome, regardless of race or faction. Except the vampires he still hated.

[ooc: Kyle is trying to put together a vigilante squad. What the group does will mostly be up to the group, but may include bounty hunting, saving people in trouble, killing 'villains', and so on. Anyone is welcome to chat with him about it, regardless of their interest in joining.]

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Kyle had closed on his new place about a week ago now, but hadn't really told anyone about it. Nor had he actually moved in yet, other than throwing some food and beers into the refrigerator there for the couple times he might meet Alex there during her hiding.

Now that Alex had a sustainable solution to her hiding and he was getting ready to move in properly, his old offer came to mind, one which he failed to follow up on. Better late than never. He had no idea if Nancy would take him up on it, but she deserved a better and safer place to stay and he wouldn't mind the company. Especially one who could help heal him, since he had a feeling he'd only need more of that.

So Kyle knocked on her door in the early evening with takeout in hand, hoping she wasn't with a client and that she hadn't already eaten. He hadn't really thought things through.

Nancy had turned him down once. No, she couldn't move in with him. But, his offer didn't go forgotten. Kyle was one of her dear friends, and it was tempting, to have a second place. With the recent moves by the vampires, Nancy had to wonder how safe she would be. From both sides, if more wolves- full wolves, mind you, learned about her involvement with the vampires.

But they'd be kidding herself to think doing anything to her would be enough to upset the vampires. A few, personally, yes. But not to enrage the entire nest.

The knock at the door is unexpected- and Nancy approaches the door and peers through the key-hole, wrapped in a terrycloth bathrobe, her makeup done. No, she isn't with a client, but rather in the process of getting ready to be with them.

"Kyle?" Nancy opens the door when she sees him, immediately, ushering him into her apartment. "Hey- I wasn't expecting you. Is everything alright?" He has takeout, but she hadn't necessarily thought it through. What she had thought through was that the last two times he'd been in her home, she'd been stitching him up magically.

Kyle easily moves inside as soon as he's given the opportunity, immediately concerned with Nancy's seeming tension. When he realizes why, he flashes her a grin. "You look great. And hey, so do I. Don't I look great? I'm even wearing a shirt."

Then he's practically making himself at home, moving to the table to start unloading the takeout. Her outfit hasn't gone unnoticed, but worst case, he can eat quickly and she can keep the leftovers. Kyle shifts around so he can look at Nancy while he works. "Do you have time to eat?"

Nancy feels her tension release in her shoulders, just a little bit. "Oh- thank you." She smiled at him. "I don't think I've ever been with you longer than ten minutes before your shirt came off." Okay, the time he took her to dinner, his shirt stayed on the whole night. Sadly.

What? He looked good without a shirt on.

She shakes her head. "Oh- no. I can take my time." She blinks at him, though. Now he was here with take-away, and he was setting it up on her small table. He'd just showed up, which was... fine, just extremely unexpected. "What do I owe the pleasure?"

"I'd hate to break tradition. Let me know when it's been ten minutes." Another smile. Even as he's joking, he's not afraid to keep his word. It doesn't really bother him one way or another.

Kyle takes a seat once everything is unpacked and she's confirmed she has time, grabbing one of the two sets of chopsticks and tossing the other towards the chair opposite him. He begins popping open the various containers of thai food with ease, speaking up again once she's joining him.

"Two things. One, you saved my ass again, so I owe you another meal." He gestures to the food. "Two, I think we should talk about our new place."

And how great would that look, if, say, Eames were to pop by? A hot, shirtless American, and Nancy in her robe with her makeup on. Eames probably wouldn't care, and would just help himself to a beer, but that wasn't the point.

Still. It was nice to look.

She sits down, and starts looking into the containers, helping herself to a few spoonfuls. Then she stops. "What- our?"

"Yeah. Remember how I told you you should keep this place to work and live with me when you're not working? I wasn't joking. And I'm close to signing a lease on a place."

Not entirely true. He's already signed the lease. But he needs to make sure that Alex is done using the place before he feels comfortable sharing the address. Kyle can't help but try to protect people, especially the ones he likes.

"So we should probably work out who gets the bigger bedroom, what kind of furniture you need, all of that. I wouldn't want to spring it on you." Another teasing smile, because that's pretty much exactly what he's doing. Kyle shoves some curry into his mouth, still grinning.

Oh. Oh, no. Kyle, no.

Nancy sets down the carton of rice and looks across the table at him. He's so happy, and she's just... "Oh, Kyle- I didn't think- I can't." She'd just moved in here. As a favor, she'd been given the apartment.

And honestly, she was shocked this was the first time he'd brought it up since the original mention.

Her rejection doesn't faze him, as much because he doesn't mind if she says no as because it's almost endearing to see her so concerned about his feelings. He takes another bite of curry, swallowing. "You have anything to drink?"

Without waiting, he gets up and moves over to the refrigerator, looking for water or milk or something. Again, helping himself. He knows there are limits to this kind of forced amiability and Kyle's mostly hoping that he manages to straddle the line without crossing over it. "You want one?"

A beat, then he gets around to answering her. "Why can't you live in two places? Is it the commute?"

Edited 2016-05-30 05:39 (UTC)

"There should be some beer in the fridge- cups are above the sink if you want water, and there's gin in the freezer." A large bottle of it, truthfully.

He was making himself at home, but she could hardly blame him, and was too flustered to try to say anything about it now, anyway.

"I'll take a glass of gin." Seriously gonna need it now.

"I got this place on a favor, Kyle," she says patiently. "It would seem odd to me." Though living with someone did sound a little nice. It did get awfully lonely in her apartment.

Kyle grabs the gin and two glasses, returning to the table. He drops them down and then, ever the gentlemen, pours Nancy's and then his own. Capping the gin again, he sets her glass in front of her and takes a sip of his own. Not his favorite, but he's had a lot worse on tour.

"If you want my shirt off, you can just ask, you don't need to get me drunk." It's easier to joke than to address her serious concerns, though he won't ignore them either. "You say odd like it's a bad thing. I'm not telling you to give this place up. Just have a bed and a drawer and some clothes somewhere else too. Somewhere safer, with human contact that isn't work-related, and I'm a decent cook."

Edited (tense swapping) 2016-05-30 05:57 (UTC)

You know you could have had beer, Kyle. The offer was totally on the table.

Nancy laughs over the top of her glass, shaking her head. "I doubt you'll be the first man I see with his shirt off tonight." Because she's used to boys that joke in order to avoid talking about real things. It's best to humor them.

But to her surprise, he does address her issues, and she can appreciate that. "It's-" Oh damn, he had a point. "A safe house, you're saying." Which would be quite nice. She knew Fagin had had another place somewhere in the city, in case the den went to shit. And after Norrell's guardians had come through, yes, it could be nice.

"Or the last," he admits, though the idea of being one in a line of many deflates his arrogance slightly. Kyle likes to think that his friendship with Nancy is unique somehow, and it annoys him all the more because of all the recruits he heard talking like that about locals, prostitutes and general civilians both. It's never different, never unique. He used to try to steer them straight and now here he is thinking the same damn thing.

"And sure, we can call it that. I don't want any raise-the-dead, mind control, black magic shit in the place, but anything else is fair game." He shrugs, then dishes himself some more food. "I'd rather that than nothing. But it could be cool if you could actually stay in your room sometimes, so it doesn't seem like some creepy shrine to someone who doesn't exist."

It was unique, in an odd sort of way. It wasn't a friendship that she had with anyone else. With Kyle there was nothing sexual about it, other than their teasing, and the occasional partial nudity on his part. He didn't feed off of her, so that removed a huge level of weird sexual tension right there. He'd spent the night with her, sure, but nothing happened. They were friends. And it felt right.

She purses her lips slightly over a bite of rice as he informs her what sort of magic he won't tolerate. He doesn't mean anything by it, but in times like this? "That's not my sort of magic, anyway." Sure, she was Midnight. Because the freedom was there.

"Vampires?" Because that's important.

Kyle feels a weird sense of relief with her confirmation that it's not her kind of magic. Despite the insistence of Norrell, he believes her without question when she says it and that helps to alleviate some of his concerns about Midnight, the ones he hasn't been asking for fear of being right.

But the other part immediately makes him tense.

"No." Kyle slowly lowers his chopsticks, staring at his food in silence for a second before lifting his gaze to Nancy and elaborating. "You work here, you live there. I don't bring bobcats or bears around, you don't bring vampires, we all live."

That answer actually, while it makes perfect sense, happens to be incredibly frustrating. Nancy purses her lips and sets her own chopsticks down.

"Not even my friends?" If Cooper came over, he could feed in her room, that would be fine. But if Kyle wanted her to live in a vampire-free space, she supposed she could make do. Though not being able to have her friends over in the first place would certainly be awful.

"Why the hell would you be friends with a vampire?" He asks honestly. Maybe one of those flukes, like Natasha, who seems to have given up on feeding on humans. For as long as she lasts. But normal vampires are literally their natural predators and usually assholes to boot. After the recent bloodfest, Kyle can't imagine wanting to know any of them.

"You saw what they did. Is that really okay with you?"

Nancy's green eyes narrow. "excuse me?" That was unexpected from someone she considered relatively reasonable. She understands it, to a degree. But painting everyone with a brush of hatred only lead to misunderstandings and misinformation.

her hand moves to her neck, tracing the marks that she covered with magic and makeup. somedays, they were the same thing. "not all of them. Some of my closest friends are vampires- and my clients." She'd blurred the line with Cooper perhaps too far. And sometimes those vampire friends couldn't control themselves- Kenzi had nearly killed her. But Kenzi was a newborn and wouldn't have otherwise. she believed that.

"And I mean- didn't you all rebel against us? so why would I want to be friends with an American, right?" Her tone is short, but she tries to keep it light. She cares about her friends. Regardless of their propensity for feeding on blood or not.

"You're kidding, right? You have to be kidding," he laughs humorlessly, tossing his chopsticks onto the table without much care. "You're seriously comparing something that happened hundreds of years ago with the same species arguing about rights and what happened, oh, a week ago in which one species committed genocide on others just because they can? That's the argument you're going to make?"

He stares at her, waiting for her response. Because if that's the path she's going down, ridiculous hyperbole and comparing normal war to a war between lions and gazelles, then he's not going to bother trying to talk it out or be reasonable with her. He's seen both types up close. They're not the same.

Humans can be terrible people. Kyle will never argue that. And he won't disagree that there are the occasional outliers who might be alright. But that's not what she's saying.

Nancy rolls her eyes. fine okay so it was an antiquated comparison but to her it remained potent. She didn't have Kyle's education or worldly experience. she was a girl from London who grew up too fast. The big picture was never her strong suit when all her energy was focused on getting past tomorrow.

"It's not perfect, but-" She presses her lips together. "Look- you can't just paint all vampires as evil and having participated. It's not even genocide-" she isn't thinking about the wolves. "what happened was awful- terrifying. I was out with a friend and-" and she'd been attacked. "Millicent was wrong. I will not say otherwise. But not all vampires, Kyle. Not my friends. But saying all of them? The generalizations don't help anyone and they don't prove any points." which is why she was going to say she went with her Revolutionary War metaphor.

"I didn't say they all participated. But they're predators. You get that, right? Unless they choose to stop feeding on people, they're our predators. Not all of them, no, but most of them. Enough of them. I'm sure some Nazis were okay people too, but I sure as shit wouldn't go around assuming they're good."

One hyperbole deserves another. He sighs, takes another sip of the gin, and frowns. He's not the type to abandon his friends over differences of opinion, but the idea of Nancy bringing her vampire friends to hang out at his place is unacceptable. There's nothing safe about a home in which your enemies can come and go.

"You were attacked and you're still friends with them." He knows. Natasha called him to help. "I don't get that. But I'm not trying to control you or your life or your choices or what the fuck ever. All I'm saying is, no vampires in the apartment if you want to live there. Hell, I'll compromise. If they don't feed on people and I meet them first, maybe they can come by."

"I wouldn't let them feed on you if that's what you're thinking-!" Seriously, she's a decent person. Too decent. she wouldn't leave Kenzi alone, that night. even if she should have. She purses her lips but let's the nazi comment go.

they weren't her enemies, that was the thing. And to her it seemed insulting not to let her friends come inside. And to have a second home she didn't tell them about-? But she and Kyle were from different worlds. He was still human, after all.

When he says it, she looks down and away, a blush coloring her cheeks. Why did he have to say it like that? "she wasn't in control," she mutters, because she can't let him just assume Kenzi is like that always. She isn't. "that's not her usually." It was when she fed on her that first night.

But she can accept those terms. Maybe. She still hasn't agreed to this whole thing yet.

"I'm not talking about me!" He practically talks over her to counter the point. Kyle knows that they wouldn't feed on him because he'll kill them first if it comes to it. He means in general. Like Natasha allegedly doesn't eat people. He wants to leave those caveats, just in case. "I'm talking about people. Any people. Human beings."

He huffs a little. Kyle can't judge Nancy too harshly for being attacked and remaining friends. He's dating Alex after all his shit with werewolves, after all. But vampires are natural predators and it pisses him off that most of the supernatural community seems to conveniently forget or ignore that fact.

"Just let me know." Kyle moves to stand from the table, leaving the drink and food and everything else. He's not revoking the offer and won't challenge their friendship over this, but he's angry and hurt and wants to be done with the conversation if there's nothing new to say.

"Kyle-" Nancy reaches her hand out, touching his to get him to pause. They didn't need to be fighting, as much as it drove her absolutely crazy. She looks up at him, her green eyes wide and understanding. "Look. Part of my job- I let them feed on me. That's part of why I do it- to keep them from feeding off the unwilling. I think they're not all bad. That's all."

She doesn't want to fight with him, she realizes. They're both stubborn enough they know they'll end a friendship over this. She's got so few friends- real friends, not sometimes clients- that losing one sounds like an unrecoverable blow. She likes Kyle.

And she likes looking at him shirtless.

"But I understand." Not everyone was brought up like she was. Not everyone had the same experiences she did. She could see that.

Kyle stops when she touches his hand, standing beside the table and debating whether it was worth leaving. Until her words hit and he falls back into his chair, withdrawing his hand as he gawks at her. The surprise transforms to something pensive, angry, then pensive again. It's a lot to take in. Feeding on her so they don't feed on the unwilling, as if that makes them less bad. He has trouble comprehending what he views as a kind of willing victimization.

"I don't," he spits out finally. Kyle drops his arm onto the table and buries his face in his elbow, giving him the peace of a false solitude to think for a moment. It only lasts a moment before he straightens again.

"Why do you let them attack you? Is your self esteem really that low?" He asks angrily, very clearly trying to keep his temper in check. Kyle realizes how bad a question the latter is the moment he says it, frowning. His voice softens. "I'm sorry. But I don't get it. What makes what you're doing any less crazy than letting someone stab you for fun, or rape you? It's fucked up, Nancy."

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

[CLOSED TO NANCY]

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#notallmen

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back from hiatus, feel free to handwave if you prefer

never

<3

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