undergrounds | In fact I have been all over town

I. Hoar's Head (Closed to Evie)

Who is Natasha to argue with good atmosphere? Evie described the place as Marie Antoinette's attic, which is both amazingly accurate and misses its exact charm. It feels private, which Natasha respects, and there's something about it that's not as masculine as a lot of bars. She doubts she needs to worry about fights breaking out over a girl or the latest football match.

As she walks toward the bar, she scans the room for Evie. She couldn't be the first one here, could she? It's five past ten now, and Evie didn't strike her as the type to be late.

II. Guilty Pleasures (OTA)

It's been a while since Natasha said she'd stop in, and it might be too late now. She's heard that Kenzi's not around anymore and that was supposed to be her reason, right? Keep an eye on the girl. Give her a friend, someone who knew what she was going through. Someone who wasn't her sire to help her adjust. Natasha considered not even coming in...

But here she is now.

If nothing else she's hoping to see how Cherry's doing, that she was safe and comfortable since Natasha and Evie rescued her last month. Make sure that she's back to normalcy. That's why Natasha comes in on Lady's Night. Or it's a good excuse to come in on Lady's Night. Either way.

It's well into the evening when she shows up, taking a seat at a table near the corner with a good view of the room and orders herself a gin and tonic. She keeps an eye on things from there, not asking after Cherry directly or looking for Jean Claude. If either of them actually want to speak to her, she imagines that they'll know she's here before long. Maybe it was a passive approach, but she was fine with letting them decide whether or not they wanted to talk to her again.

In the time being, well, she has plenty of money.

III. Dark Corners (Closed to Arthur)

Natasha tries not to think about how long it's been since she fed, but it's not very successful. The thirst won't let her forget it. Even if it's not at the front of her thoughts, it's always there somewhere in the back of her mind.

It's been about the same length of time since she's had sex. Not unrelated. The two things had often gone together for her, and while she'd played with the idea a little, even gone on a date or two, but it never went anywhere. Natasha wasn't in the place for a relationship, and she hadn't wanted to lead anyone on. But there's no reason she shouldn't have some fun.

Tonight, she doesn't intend to give anyone the wrong idea. She walks into the bar knowing what she wants. It's a little bit more upscale than most of the dives she frequents, and the dress she wears could be shorter, could be tighter, but she's dressed to attract attention rather than deflect it. If she turns heads, it's intentional.

She smiles when she spots a familiar face. She remembers Arthur from Lancelot's birthday. Their chat had been fine—and he was certainly attractive enough. Internally, she shrugs. Why not? She could do a lot worse. She'd even considered making a play for it at the time, but Arthur had left with another woman and no hard feelings that he had.

But if she's going to get a second chance?

Natasha sits beside him at the bar, crossing her legs pointedly as she swivels an eight of a turn toward him. "The accountant, right? You might not remember me..."

IV. Fresh Air (Closed to Eames)

On the street, panting warm night air and trying to calm a raging thirst: not Natasha's finest moment. She's not even sure what she left behind her. She thinks Arthur was saying something as she disengaged and chased herself away from the situation, but she hadn't registered what he was saying over the pounding in her ears. Perfect.

She leans back against the brick wall behind her, steadying herself.

"Shit." She is a mess.

And now she has an audience.

V. After Hours (Closed to Daryl)

Looks like Natasha is going to have a chance to do some of the tourist things after all. Maybe she should have begged out, but Daryl and asked her if she wanted to go and she'd said yes. It's not like she really had anything better to do. It's not like she doesn't want to spend more time with him. Daryl has been good for her, refreshingly nonjudgmental for all his awkwardness.

She waits for him to meet her on the street near near the Redbright Institute. She's still not entirely sure this is a good idea, but as far as bad ideas go, she's had a lot worse.

VI. Grocery Delivery (Closed to Alex))

Alex has been relocated to a nondescript little apartment in a bad neighborhood, paid for in cash by Natasha with a little extra to keep quiet. The landlady is a Russian woman in her sixties, and after a hushed, serious conversation in their native language, Natasha was confident that money wasn't the only reason she wouldn't mention the suspicious circumstances of her new tenant's arrival.

It was a good move, for the short term at least, and Natasha was starting to think that she might just be able to keep the werewolf alive through the end of the month.

After a few days in the new place, Natasha checks in again. She brings two bags of groceries, since Alex still shouldn't be outside where she can be seen. Even during the day, there were too many ways word could get back to the nest if she were spotted. Or that word could get back to the Night Council. Either way, the end would be about the same outcome for both of them at this point.

"I brought you a couple of steaks," Natasha says as she brings the bags in. "I wasn't sure what else you'd like, so I went ahead and guessed." Her tone is light, inviting Alex to let her know if there was anything in particular that she'd like in the future. "There's a book of sudoku, too."

Once the food is on the counter, she turns and takes in the flat quickly. No sign of trouble, at least.

"Anything else you need before I get out of your hair?"

VII. Choose Your Own Adventure

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She's doing much better this time, and Natasha wonders if she's going to regret teaching Alex that trick. It's not Natasha's only trick though. Alex's hesitation gives her Natasha time to aim a vicious stomp at Alex's instep. She twists herself again, struggling, and if it hurts, Natasha still tries to wrench herself free.

Alex almost loses her balance at the combination of the attack and Natasha twisting away, but quickly catches herself. Her own arm is still sore though, and she can't hold on with that hand. She could try to keep her grip with the other hand, but that won't accomplish much, so she lets go entirely.

Instead of backing off, she swings her arm around in an attempt to backhand Natasha as hard as possible. Even if she hasn't gotten the hang of that one move yet, she still wants to win the match.

Natasha pulls away, ducking back as quickly as she can and circling to the left. A blow like that wouldn't do any serious damage, but it would hurt and she'd have t heal.

She doesn't back out or regret her choice, but it's occurring to her that she needs to avoid injury more than she used to. Animal blood doesn't help her recover as much as human did.

Alex isn't the only one who wants to win; Natasha rushes in again, reading the other woman's moves as well as she can and dropping lower in an attempt to get under her guard, aiming a quick pair of jabs at her abdomen, followed by a kick aimed at her knee.

Alex blocks the blows to her ribs, but not the kick. Her knee buckles and she goes down. In a real fight, she'd keep going to the bitter end, but since the only thing in danger here is her pride, she stays down. She's got to admit, if only grudgingly, that Natasha might be better than her. It's yet another reminder that she needs to practice more and work harder if even a vampire who only drinks animal blood can beat her.

"I guess the KGB training program was kinda okay." She slowly picks herself up, trying to stretch out as she does so. Her arm still really hurts, and now her foot and her knee hurt too. The upside of being a werewolf is that at least she'll feel better in a few minutes.

"It better have been," Natasha says, shaking out the arm Alex had. "I could show you a couple more moves another time, if you liked that one. Don't know that you need it though—you're strong for looking human."

That had been a surprise. She'd known the girl would be significantly stronger than human, but she'd still been stronger than expected. And Natasha wasn't new to fighting werewolves.

"It might be unfair."

"If I'm in a real fight, I'm not gonna be too worried about whether or not it's fair." She collapses into a chair, carefully massaging her arm. "Anything you can teach me. I wanna learn."

Alex knows it's probably impolite to ask, and she wouldn't answer if someone asked her about her own past, but it's been bothering her for a while and her curiosity is getting the better of her. "Turning you into a vampire, was that a KGB thing? Did you get a say?"

That question stops Natasha short. She can see the logic, how they jumped from sparring to that question, but she wasn't expecting that boldness. She gives Alex a long look, less like a deer in the headlights and more like a an ally cat eyeing another cat as if deciding whether to start a fight or slink away.

The look passes after a short moment, Natasha huffing and glancing away.

"Something like that," she answers. The fact Alex speculated that in particular implies some things about her experience. "At first I was acting as a KGB liaison with the nest and a human servant. A couple years later, the nest negotiated turning me in exchange for certain favors to the KGB. And no, no one asked me."

A pause, then she adds: "You?"

Natasha's honesty is surprising. Alex was expecting to have the subject changed, or even to be told off for asking, but instead, she finds herself feeling more than a little sympathy for the vampire, which is still new and uncomfortable but something she's starting to get used to.

"No one asked me either," she says softly. She doesn't particularly feel like telling Natasha the lie she made up about how she became a werewolf, let alone the truth, but she can certainly sympathize with how much it sucks to have your options taken away like that.

"Do you regret it? If you could change it, would you do it? Would you go back to being human? Do you even remember what it was like?" Alex knows that she can't ever change what happened to her, but she's hoping Natasha will give her some assurance that eventually she'll stop missing being human.

"You don't ask the easy questions, do you?" Again, Natasha considers not answering. With someone else—someone human, someone who hadn't clearly been trained to be a weapon and changed to forward that purpose—she wouldn't have answered. She would have deflected and moved on.

But Alex is here along. The fact she's asking these questions says a lot about who she is and what she's been through. And whatever stories she spins, Natasha doesn't doubt there's a connection between her and Russia.

So after another pause, she starts a story. "I was born in Stalingrad the year before the war broke out." At Natasha's age, where she's from, there's only one war that could mean. "By the time it ended, I didn't have anyone left. The KGB got me out of an orphanage an off the street. If things had gone just a little differently, if I hadn't attracted attention and been recruited first by the KGB and then Red Room, I would have died a long time ago."

She licks her lips. This is more exposed than she likes being.

"I learned a long time before I was changed not to regret the things I did to stay alive, or the things I didn't have a choice in. there's only so much energy you can put into something like that, and regret doesn't change anything that happens. I want to get off that track. I'm trying to take the wheel and do better, but there's a difference between that and regret"

Alex sits quietly, massaging her sore arm and waiting for an answer. Once again, the honesty surprises her.

She's never heard of Red Room. Maybe it disappeared when the KGB did, maybe it's some top secret vampire thing, maybe both. Was it like Division? Did Natasha wake up in a white room - or a red room - with no memory of how she got there, told she was being given a chance to serve her country and then turned into a killer?

"I activated my curse when I was thirteen. I barely remember what it was like to be human." Alex doesn't have that many regrets, but she does have a few. Everything she did to avenge her parents, she doesn't regret that. If she's honest with herself, she doesn't even regret the things she did for Nikita. She's not so sure about the things she did to stay alive. "I guess I don't know how to... get off that track. The things I've done, the things I lost and the people who died, how am I supposed to let go?"

Natasha wasn't sure what to say to that. She understood it better than most people would have. She hadn't been turned until she was an adult, but the path that brought her here had begun when she was no older than that. She knew what it was not to have a chance at normal. And she knew what it was like to carry things with her, things that couldn't be undone. She knew you didn't just let go of something like that.

"I wish I had an answer to that," Natasha said. "I don't think you ever let it go. Not how you mean. You just figure out how to keep moving forward. And when it gets to be too much, you figure out who you have to be to be so it's not."

In fact I have been all over town

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