undergrounds | IT'S GOING DOWN I'M YELLING TIMBER (aka the one where Millicent dies)

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IT'S GOING DOWN I'M YELLING TIMBER (aka the one where Millicent dies)

i. Let's Make A Night You Won't Remember [closed to Jean-Claude]
a bar, earlier this week

Alex doesn't know who she's supposed to be meeting, just that somebody wants to meet her. She arrives twenty minutes early, makes notes of the exits, and orders herself a dry martini to blend in. It doesn't hurt to take a few extra precautions when apparently half the city knows that you're planning to murder a high-ranking official, which is why she also has her silver knife hidden in her pocket.

She doesn't touch the drink, just sits and glowers at the bar's main entrance, waiting for the person she's supposed to be meeting to show.

ii. I'll Be The One You Won't Forget [open to all]
Westminister, May 26

Millicent is leaving the Night Council building, and Alex plans to follow her. She's not going through with the hit for a couple more days, but she needs a better grasp of the vampire's schedule. So she's lurking about half a block away from the building, waiting.

To the untrained observer, she looks like a bored girl leaning against a wall eating a muffin. Someone paying closer attention, though, might notice how often she looks down the street, and the fact that she's been very slowly eating the same muffin for the past forty-five minutes.

iii. The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall [closed to Evie]
Islington, May 28, nighttime, before Millicent dies

For the past week, Alex has been sharpening her stakes, going over all the info she has on Millicent's usual habits and schedule, planning the hit. She's decided on a close-quarters kill. For once thing, she's not sure that a wood-tipped bullet, even if it hits right between her eyes, would actually kill Millicent. For another thing, and more importantly, she wants it to feel personal. She wants Millicent to know who's killing her and why.

She knows it'll be risky, but risk never stopped her doing anything before. On the night she's picked to do it, she makes her way stealthily into Islington territory, towards the place she expects Millicent to be. A few blocks away, she pauses in a doorway to double-check her weapons - three stakes and a gun with wood-tipped bullets - and to go over the plan, such as it is, one more time in her head.

Maybe she's just jumpy, but she thinks she sees something move out of the corner of her eye. She whirls around, but nothing's there. Frowning, she goes back to checking her gun.

iv. I'm Slicker Than An Oil Spill [open to first response]
Islington, May 28, nighttime, after Millicent is dead

One of the vampires saw her. Which is bad, really bad. She ditches her jacket on a bench as she hurries past it, hoping that changing up her look slightly will shake off any pursuit. If they're looking for a girl in a black jacket and they spot her... It's not much. It's barely anything, really. If they spot her they'll know who she is. She should have kept the jacket, it was a stupid idea to lose it.

If she does get stopped, she needs to not be carrying suspicious things like stakes and guns with wood-tipped bullets. So she finds a sewer grate under a broken streetlight and pulls out three stakes and her gun. It's not that she has any sentimental attachment to her weapons, but it's not always easy to get replacements. She drops two of the stakes down through the grate without hesitation, but decides to keep the third. She'll need to defend herself if she does get caught.

She catches a shadow moving out of the corner of her eye and turns towards it, keeping the third stake and the gun out of sight.

"Somebody there?"

v. End of the Night, It's Going Down [closed to Natasha]
Ealing, May 28, late night

Alex can't go home. One of the vampires saw her face. It won't take them long to figure out who she is and where she lives. She's ditched most of her gear and her jacket, but that won't throw them off the scent for long. She needs somewhere to lay low for a while. Maybe a long while.

She can't go to any of her known acquaintances, either. The vampires will look for her there, and she doesn't want to put anyone else in danger. She needs someone that nobody knows she knows, someone nobody would expect her to hide out with.

It takes her longer than she'd like to admit to think of Natasha. She'd cautioned Alex against killing Millicent, so it's entirely probable that she'll want nothing to do with the fallout, but it's worth a try. Alex makes her way to the Redbright Institute and sneaks around until she finds a familiar smell. Carefully, just in case this goes south fast, she pulls her stake out and keeps it down by her side as she quietly follows Natasha's scent.

vi. One More Shot, Another Round [closed to Kyle]
Kyle's secret new apartment, May 31, morning

For the past few days, Alex has been in hiding. She can't risk anyone finding out where she is, so she's been very careful about contacting people she knows. When she gets a note from Kyle telling her to meet him at an address she's never heard of, she briefly wonders whether it's really from him or a trap set by someone trying to catch her.

She decides to risk it. She puts on a pair of shades and, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, takes an extremely circuitous route to the address, hoping to shake anyone tailing her. Finally, she makes it. Instead of going through the front door, she climbs the fire escape and knocks on the window of what she hopes is the right apartment.

[If anyone wants their own prompt, hit me up at

notverywool!]

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Kyle looks down at her, thankful that she looks good in spite of everything. Not just hot, but healthy and reasonably well rested. He leans down to give her a quick kiss because he can, he wants to.

Then he dons his killer smile, the one he normally reserves for getting what he wants, and gestures widely at the wood flooring and white walls. "It's my new place. Couldn't you tell?"

Smiling, Alex returns the kiss, bringing one hand up to the side of his face. After spending the past few very stressful days apart, something about that simple physical contact feels good. It feels grounding, somehow.

She raises her eyebrows in response to the smile, and gazes around the apartment, impressed. It's hard to tell what the place will be like once it's furnished, but she already loves it.

"It's okay," she says, teasing, bringing her grin down to a tiny smirk.

"Did the vampires damage your eyesight? Are you blind? This place is incredible and, even better- Turns out the old man who runs the chocolate shop owns a few properties from his earlier real estate days. It's not cheap, but at least I can afford the damn thing."

He gives her another, more natural smile, then grabs her hand to pull her towards the kitchen. "Are you hungry? I brought food and some basics. I can cook us dinner or something."

Alex can't help it - the smirk turns into a grin again. She's genuinely happy for him. "Sounds like he likes you. Maybe if you play your cards right he'll leave you the chocolate shop when he retires."

She hurries after him into the kitchen. "I haven't had your cooking in a while. I think you have to make dinner so I can remember what it tastes like." In truth, she's really missed his cooking.

Kyle shakes his head at her crazy idea. The owner is a good guy, but he's also strict as hell. The only reason Kyle's survived as long as he has is because of his military background. And he's pretty sure the only reason he's getting decent rent is that the owner probably has a military background too and understands how hard it is to acclimate to civilian life.

"What do you want?" He asks as he releases her hand, opening the fridge. "I got steaks, or we can do noodles with sausage, or eggs and potatoes. I went a little overboard. You want a beer?"

"Steaks," Alex said without hesitation. She made a very serious face at him, almost daring him to turn it into a joke.

At his offer of a beer, she shook her head. "I don't drink."

"Do you want potatoes too, or should I just make you extra meat?" Innocent question or poking fun, you decide. Kyle gave a light smile with the question as he pulled out the steaks and set them on the counter, then a couple potatoes, just in case. He moved over to preheat the oven and pull out one of the two pans he brought, turning the heat to high and adding some oil. It was weird, starting from scratch in a place. He forgot to buy salt, so they didn't have any. Oh well.

He pulled a bottle of water and a beer from the fridge, handing her the water and then popping open his drink on the sharp edge of the counter. "So I've been thinking."

Alex leans against the counter, watching him closely as he works. It's almost jarring how domestic it feels, knowing that she can't even walk out the front door without risking capture and probably death.

"Potatoes," she responds dryly, tilting her head at him with a slight smile. She assumes he's teasing her.

"About what?"

Kyle took a sip of his beer before setting it aside, opening the pack of steaks and getting them ready to go in the skillet. He stabbed a few slits in the potatoes and then set them in the oven, closing the door. With things settled for a few seconds, he picked up his beer again and turned to lean back on the counter.

"The civilians." Another sip of his drink. "What you did is amazing. You did the unthinkable and it's a good start. But it's just a start. What if the thing that takes her place is worse? The civilians don't stand a chance. They have no idea what's going on."

He paused for dramatic effect. "They need someone to look out for them."

Alex took a few sips of water while he prepared the food, enjoying the peace and domesticity. If things were different, he might say he forgot something and she could run to the store to buy it. They could plan their weekend, maybe even plan a vacation. Her thoughts drifted further ahead, to the future she was just beginning to look forward to. Moving in together, getting a house and a mortgage and a kid, having a real, normal life.

She was getting ahead of herself. If that was still possible, if it had ever been possible, it was still years away.

A slight smile spread across her lips when he started talking about 'the civilians.' She didn't know why, but she liked his military speak. It always made her feel better.

"Someone like...?" She narrowed her eyes at him, wondering where he was going with this. She didn't disagree, regular humans were in plenty of danger from vampires, especially if a worse one replaced Millicent.

"A squad. Trained and prepared to.. well, serve and protect. Regular police don't know about the supernatural world and the guardians care more about upholding the laws and making the monsters happy than protecting people." His brow furrowed at the thought, angry with how unfair all the ignorant civilians had it, including back in South Africa. People in Pretoria slaughtered, an entire tiny village decimated by a rogue nest of newborns.

"I don't know how to be a cop, but I know how to be a soldier. And I want to help, I have to." He shrugged, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and took another sip of his beer. "I've been asking around, to see if people will help me."

Alex almost made a joke about superheroes. She almost asked whether the movies they'd been watching had given him ideas. But she knew that look on his face, knew he was dead serious and that his time spent fighting vampires in South Africa must have affected him deeply. She didn't know what happened there, but she didn't have to know the details. With vampires, it was always bad.

"I'll help. Whatever I can do." She didn't quite share his altruistic spirit, but she respected it. And if there was a fight, she wanted to be a part of it.

"No." He shook his head. Kyle set his drink aside and set the steaks into the pan, the quiet interrupted by the sharp sizzling as the raw meat hit the hot oil. He raised his voice accordingly, digging through what he'd bought for some seasoning, serious without any hint of anger. "You can stow that shit right now. You have enough to deal with. I'll find people who feel the same way I do and we'll forge our own little team."

Content with the seasoning and the progress of the steaks, he turned to glance over his shoulder at Alex and offer a quick smile. "Besides, it's a pretty exclusive squad. I don't know if you'll make the cut."

"All I've been dealing with is how many push-ups I can do in a row because there's nothing else to do in hiding!" Alex didn't want to have a real argument with him, not when she might not get to see him again for a while, but she also wasn't about to let him leave her out of his vigilante squad.

"It's two hundred, by the way," she says with very deliberate casualness. "And I only stopped because I got bored." She smiles cockily back at him. "We both know I could kick the ass of anyone else you get to join."

Kyle had to forcibly suppress his automatic response to her count, that he was inferior and would never be able to protect her as a human. It was something they hadn't spoken about, something he hoped never to have to, but there was the occasional reminder that he would never match her in physical ability and there might come a time where he wasn't enough. He'd averaged a little over one hundred during his training in basic and did less than half that in the day-to-day.

"Only two hundred?" He teased, to intentionally undermine his own insecurities. "But since you asked so nicely, I'll put in a good word for you."

"Thanks," Alex replied easily. Her smile faded slightly as she sensed that there might be something wrong. She couldn't tell, though, whether there was really something going on or if he was just generally upset about the current situation. She decided not to ask about it - if he wanted to talk about it, she trusted, he'd tell her.

While he was watching the steaks, she reached into her bag, which she had dropped by the counter.

"I got you a present." It was a cheap cell phone. "It's an A-Team trick," she said, recalling the nickname he'd given Division without understanding the pop culture reference behind it. "We throw them out every couple weeks, keep switching carriers, and we can talk whenever we want."

Kyle glanced over his shoulder to see what it was, then returned to watching the steaks, flipping them over and then back again, not wanting to burn them. Content he had a few seconds, he walked over to accept the phone from her, staring at it with skepticism.

"Seriously?" He frowned at it, then her. Kyle pocketed the phone and returned to the stove, flipping the steaks for real this time. He popped open the oven to check on the potatoes and realized they wouldn't be done until probably awhile after the steaks finished. Oh well. "I'm not a spy, Alex."

He understood the concept of it, why people did it, but he couldn't shake the criminal association that the media and the military had drilled into his head. It felt dishonest and conniving in a way that Kyle generally wasn't. Not to mention that it meant carrying around two phones instead of one, when he barely liked having the one.

Alex had expected him to at the very least be polite about the phone. Really, she'd expected him to the happy about it.

"Come on," she said with a smile. "Don't you wanna talk to me whenever you want? It's not really like being a spy, it's..." She almost said 'fun' in the hopes of convincing him that it was more like playing at spies than actually being spies, but stopped herself. She could practically hear Nikita's voice, shouting in the back of her mind, that this wasn't a game. "It's just a way to keep in touch," she said, more seriously, after a pause.

"Of course I want to talk to you," he replied sincerely, tending the food. "But you have to admit it's weird. It is weird, right? This isn't normal for you. Is it? Should I be worried about who else you're talking to?"

He was as much joking as serious, worried not about who else she might be talking to, but about the idea of this kind of lifestyle being normal for Alex. She seemed a little too good at hiding and laying low. And it didn't make him think ill of her, but Kyle was worried about trying to keep up with that kind of lifestyle.

It did seem normal to her. Alex sometimes lost perspective on how odd some aspects of her life must seem to people who didn't live like her, on the run and using a fake name, lying to everyone she met just to stay alive. It must be especially odd to an honest person like Kyle. His honesty was part of why she cared for him so much, and she wouldn't change that about him for the world, but right now they had to be a little sneaky to keep in touch.

"This kind of thing kept me alive for a long time." She wasn't annoyed or lecturing, just trying to explain. "It won't be like this forever. James'll figure something out, or the heat will blow over, and we can be... normal."

She smiles faintly. "I did talk to the guy at the phone store when I bought them. But I promise not to pick up if he calls me."

Edited 2016-05-30 06:34 (UTC)

He was quiet for a moment, contemplating, wondering why the disposable phone thing annoyed him and if it was worth saying anything at all. Except then she distracted him with the name of someone he had casually come to dislike, mostly due to the poor situations in which they interacted. Truth be told, the man had never done anything directly against him and had actually helped him a couple times.

"James Memon," he replied plainly. It wasn't jealousy at the thought of them working together, just general distaste for the man. "Do you still talk to him?"

Alex could still tell there was something wrong, though she couldn't figure out what it might be.

She shook her head. "I haven't for a while. Natasha thinks it's better the less he knows, that way he doesn't have to lie."

She took a step closer to him, her concern about whatever was wrong finally prompting her to ask, "Are you okay? Has anyone come after you because of all this?"

That should have been the first thing she asked. Of course she was worried about him, and of course she wanted to hear if anything bad happened to him because of what she did. But Kyle was usually a little slice of normality in her life, and mostly she'd just wanted to hug him and watch him cook.

Kyle moved to close the distance between them, pulling her into his arms and holding her there. He rested his cheek on her head, breathing silently into the moment and wanting to stay there forever. Temporary phones and James Memon and all that shit could wait.

"I'm fine," he murmured finally, still not letting her go, staring past her to the blank front of the refrigerator. "Promise me you'll come back after all of this."

The unexpected hug really worried Alex. She wrapped her arms around him, frowning into his shoulder. "I promise. I'm not going anywhere."

She couldn't tell if he was scared for her, scared for himself, if something had happened that he didn't want to tell her about, or if something else entirely was going on. But if he was scared of losing her, she could reassure him about that.

She pulled out of the hug enough to give him an encouraging smile. "We're gonna get through this, okay? Together," she added insistently.

Kyle hid his concern as soon as he felt her pulling away, burying it beneath one of his usual smiles. The disingenuous nature of the phones, the need for his girlfriend to be in hiding, all of it. It hit too close to home from another time and he worried, really worried, for her life. The thought of that being in jeopardy made him nearly ill. But he forced it all away, something he'd gotten too good at in the military.

"Damn right we are," he replied more easily than it should have been. Kyle leaned down to give her a light kiss, then moved past her to check on the potatoes. He didn't want to fight right now, even as a cold fury built inside of him at the idea of the people hunting her and how powerless he was in some ways. "You want to get the plates? Food's almost ready."

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facethewolves - 2016-06-26 03:45 (UTC) - Expand

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