undergrounds | waves that swallow quick and deep

Things were strange. Extremely strange. Nancy was moving in with Kyle when he returned from his trip, she'd helped remove Norrell- and Childermass- from the board, and strangest of all? She had a boyfriend. A handsome boyfriend who spent the night (or early morning, really) regularly, kissed her when she wanted him to, and other then the time he nearly sent a client through the wall? Hadn't had any awful bouts of jealousy that she'd witnessed.

Things were, considering, pretty decent.

This afternoon, a sunny early July day, Nancy whipped together a picnic basket, a blanket, and informed Cooper in no uncertain terms that they were going on a picnic for lunch. She loved watching him in the sun, and spending time with him in public had a great ring to it. Taking his hand, she lead the way from her Enfield home to the nearest, prettiest park and laid down their blanket. Kicking her shoes off, Nancy sat on the edge of the blanket, her sundress tucked neatly around her, sunglasses obscuring her eyes.

"It's gorgeous, isn't it?" She asked her companion, never taking her eyes off of him, even as she pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses from the picnic basket.

Of course she brought wine- who do you think she is?

Edited 2016-07-16 14:43 (UTC)

Nancy's heels echoed on the pavement as she made her way from the Bethnal Green tube stop. She had no real destination in mind- somewhere populated enough where she was bound to find work. It was harder to work now- less to stop vampires from draining her dry. But she put her trust in them, when she gave them her veins. But business was also drier now, for that same reason. Why pay when you could eat for free?

Good thing her business wasn't only in blood.

Short skirt, hair pulled up and piled onto her head, Nancy had the idea to stop by one of the local, shady pubs. She knew the types that populated those bars, and they were just the type of people she wanted to see. Or, rather, needed to see. Then it would be home to Cooper. Cooper, who she knew hated her work.

But that was a conversation for another time.

A lone figure stood out to her, as she turned a corner. He seemed to be loitering some, and that was enough for Nancy. Wearing the same mask she always did for this sort of work, she approached him, hand on her hip. "You look like you could use some company."

They'd done it. Holy fucking shit, they had done it. Norrell and Childermass were gone, and she'd been the one to help. Without her, they'd still be here. Did she feel bad? Well... Yes. In the end, Norrell had tried to help her. But the damage he'd done to her sisters, her friends, the family she'd chosen was unrepairable, and it had to be stopped. Besides, Eames had asked for a favor.

And she owed him for everything he'd done for her. And you know what? She'd do it again.

She knew she wasn't out of the woods yet. Until the investigation was officially over, she knew there was a possibility she would be a suspect. So she'd been laying low. But that didn't mean there wasn't cause for celebration.

When Eames arrives, she's already got them each a glass of wine poured, and an eager cat waiting for hugs from one of her favorite people. "Eames!" She greets him with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Hullo!" The second she's done hugging him, she hands him a glass of wine. It's cheap wine, the sort she can regularly afford.

She shuts the door behind him, giving them their privacy.

Faolan looks up from his drink. It's true that he's been lingering there for a while. Part of it's because he's on the hunt for any vampire that should happen to even think of acting out. Part of it is really just that he needs the drink that he's nursing in addition to stalking the vampires in the place besides.

It takes him a moment to pull things together and recognize her. Partially because he's been drinking, yes. But also partially because he does know her, and never in his wildest dreams would he have dreamed that she'd be approaching him like this. He's pretty certain that she didn't know who he was, when she did. At least, he figures that given their last interaction, she wouldn't be greeting him like that if she'd recognized him.

Rather than giving her any sort of verbal response, Faolan merely raises one eyebrow at her in silent question.

Silence, okay, she's used to that. Maybe he didn't hear her over the din of the bar. "Sir?" She asked politely, taking another step forward. It's then that she realizes who he is, in the darkness.

Instantly, she stops in her tracks.

"Shit," Nancy swears under her breath. God damn it, Faolan. Dubhan, whatever the fuck he is. She hasn't been drinking- okay, no, that's a lie. She's nearly always drinking, says the flask in her purse that happens to be connected to the bottle of gin in her cupboard. Never runs empty until that bottle does. Handy little item, truth be told.

"Forget I asked." Terse, her lips pursed. She added, because she could, and she was a teenager still: "Dick."

Cooper was in a relationship. This probably came as a surprise to everyone, but no more so than to the vampire himself. Relationships had just never worked out for him: he was too young, or too old, or just too something to make any relationship he'd ever gotten into work out for him. And the last time he'd been seriously considering anyone had been when James Dean was still alive and making movies.

But Nancy was different. She knew exactly who and what he was, the same way he knew the same thing about her. There was no hiding with each other, which he loved. He could be himself around her. And the fact she was extremely pretty didn't hurt matters at all either.

So when she'd suggested a picnic, he'd readily agreed. He'd even dressed in clothes that were neither worn nor torn for the occasion, wearing a clean white T-shirt and jeans on the bright sunny day. He twisted the daylight ring around his finger as he sat down, another tangible reminder of Nancy. "Beautiful day." He put his hand over her's, squeezing gently. He was a very lucky vampire.

Two glasses of wine are poured, and she hands him one. It was nice, she decided then and there. Doing something incredibly mundane with someone she cared about. Honestly, it was nice to get a little stability in her life, between, well- between everything. The past year had been seemingly non-stop.

His hand is cold, and she turns hers, so that she can properly hold his. It's the simplest thing in the world, but it's something she never really did. Holding hands wasn't for girls like her. Boyfriends weren't for girls like her.

Well, now they were.

"Isn't it?" She said, trying not to take for granted that Cooper hadn't been out in the daylight in hundreds of years. "I thought it'd be a good one for something like this." She holds her glass out for a small clink. "It's nice to get out, stop spending so much time in our flats." Which reminded her... She needed to tell him she was moving. At least, half-moving.

And about Kyle's bloody 'no vampires' rule. Honesty, she thought boyfriends should be an exception.

"Cheer, darling." He clinked his glass against her's, taking a sip of wine. It was the little things in life that he had to look forward to. Drinking wine in the bright sunlight with a pretty girl by his side was definitely one of them. He scooted just a few inches closer to Nancy so that their shoulders were just barely touching.

"Bah, my flat is no place t'be since Jean-Claude's bright idea to take over Southwark." That had imploded in spectacular fashion and Cooper was still sour about the fact that the territory was still in the hands of the Daybreak witches. He wouldn't be himself if he wasn't complaining about something or another.

At the very mention of her least-favorite vampire in all of London, Nancy made a face. "He's full of them, isn't he?" She punctures it with a sip of her wine.

"Enfield's so far out of the way, though," she tells him with a sigh. "Which... I've been wanting to talk to you about, Cooper." She looks up at him through her sunglasses. "A while back, my friend offered me a place to stay. A secondary home, really. They think it will help me stay safe." Especially if Cooper was able to find her so quickly. Nothing against him, but her former landlord... That was a problem.

Cooper drank another sip of wine. He wasn't exactly the wine type of guy, more used to beer and whiskey. Reluctantly, he let go of Nancy's hand to perusing the picnic basket for what else Nancy had packed. He was half-listening as he pulled out a bag of crisps. Keeping Nancy safe definitely wasn't going to get any protests out of him. He couldn't be around 24/7.

"Two questions. Where is this new place and what's her name?" Of course, Cooper would assume it was a girl. It would never even cross his mind that she would be staying with a guy. When he realized that, his mood was definitely going to change.

Nancy wasn't going to tell Cooper she was moving in with an attractive, usually-shirtless American soldier. That wouldn't have gone over well at all, and she knew that. Considering how they'd come to be together in the first place, Nancy didn't want to risk his temper so early in the relationship. Besides, it wasn't anything sexual at all. He knew what her job was- hated the fact that she let vampires feed off of her- but he didn't care that she was a prostitute. Sure, they were both attractive, but being with him had never crossed her mind.

Okay maybe that was a little bit of a lie, but come on. She wasn't going to cheat on Cooper with Kyle. She didn't even like Kyle like that.

She was instead going to use gender-neutral pronouns for as long as she could, and maybe even try to keep them from meeting. But this entire plan crashed down around her ears as Cooper asked her what her name was. So she took a drink as she told him what neighborhood the place was in, and looking down into her glass, she muttered the name, hoping he wasn't really paying attention and she couldn't be heard over the crunch of crisps. "Kyle."

Kyle was not a girl's name.

Nope, Kyle was most definitely not a girl's name. That changed the way the conversation was going considerably. No, he was not going to get jealous. There's a big difference between walking in on Nancy with a client and having her live with a man in what was surely just a platonic setting....or was it?

Okay, he was just a little jealous. He took a bite of crisps so that he didn't say the first thing that came into his mind, which was most likely, Absolutely not. He wasn't the type of guy to tell Nancy where she could go and what she could do. Deep breath, Cooper. And another. Alright, he was calm enough to continue on. "Strange that you've never mentioned him t'me before. How'd you two meet?"

Nancy nearly lets out a sigh of relief. He's being good about this, wonderful. There's more wine with her name on it, after all.

She knows that tone, though. Or, at least, the way he considers it strange. She just hasn't had a reason to mention him, or, honestly, most of her male friends. Which really meant they didn't talk about her life very much, which was fine with her. She didn't need him worrying about every little thing.

"It was a few months back, I think February? You heard about the group of vampires that staged a massacre at this underground club?" Per usual, the news had reported it as something completely different. "We met there. Helped each-other escape. He's on vacation, right now."

Well he accepts the hug, though Eames doesn't exactly reciprocate, (think of it as a compliment, he doesn't feel the need to pretend he's someone who does all that,) and takes the glass with a smile. There's not as much of a difference between this and the expensive stuff as people would have you think anyway, so it's not like he cares.

"Evening," he says by way of greeting, and when the door's closed Eames raises his glass in a toasting gesture, "and congratulations."

There's no way he could've pulled this off without Nancy, certainly not so seamlessly at any rate. They should still be cautious, of course, but fuck. They did it.

She always forgets. Too bad she's a big hugger of people she cares about, Eames.

She gestures for him to take a seat. She raises her own glass, a flush coloring her cheeks. "Hush- you had just as much to do with it as I did." She just planted it there.

"And if you think I haven't congratulated myself, Nancy, I'd have to question whether you really know me." Himself and quite a few people, not that they knew what congratulations were in order for, but it was a good week anyway.

Not that Nancy needs to hear about all that.

He sits as directed and huffs a small laugh when a cat immediately hops onto his lap to make herself comfortable, and he dutifully gives her all the chin scratches she can handle. "Either way, it's done."

"I do know you, that's what worries me. But I haven't given you my
congratulations." She looked at him cheekily.

"it's done and we're free of both of them. Thank god for that- Childermass didn't trust me and did all he could to discredit me. We've just got to wait out the investigation..." which... "I need an alibi."

"Is that all?" Eames almost laughs into his wine, because it's pretty much the easiest thing in the world for him to do. "I can sort that for you, introduce you to your alibi tomorrow to hammer out the details."

His first thought is Arthur, seeing as they do know eachother, but he'd rather not get him involved if he doesn't have to. Not that he doesn't trust Arthur but he doesn't trust him at all. Be best not to give him any leverage if he can avoid it.

"yea..?" should she have asked for more? she isn't sure. "Do I know them?" she doubted it. He likely didn't trust any of the vampires. "I would have asked Cooper, but I can't drag him into this."

besides, everyone expected boyfriends to be the alibi. If Eames trusted someone, she supposed she could too.

Cooper's name gets a briefly furrowed brow, he clearly doesn't recognise it, but it's here and gone. That doesn't matter.

"Probably not," Eames gives Nancy a thoughtful look, he still has to decide who to call on and it'll probably all go a bit smoother with her input, so. "Any preference? Client? Friend? Maybe another witch?"

She shakes her head. "Any work. So long as it's air-tight if I need it." She doubted she would, but she was known to Sylvia and Norrell both as a member of Midnight, and Shadow Coven. That put her in a position where she could be at least interviewed. And she knew from Fagin it was always best to cover your ass.

"Easy enough. I'll call tomorrow to iron everything out." He makes a mental note to call around when he gets home, figure out who's best for it, and takes a generous sip of wine. "In the meantime though, I believe celebrations are in order."

"You're brilliant," she tells him in earnest.

But. Celebrations.

"What sort did you have in mind?" She raises an eyebrow and takes another drink. "But I'm telling you now- I'm not sleeping with you." Once upon a time, sure. Right now? She had Cooper, and he was ridiculously jealous.

She phrases it as a joke, however.

"I guess I'll have to pencil in something else for this evening," he responds, as if he's ever once considered sleeping with Nancy. (He hasn't. Even being aware she's attracted to him, it's weird when you remember what someone was like as a child.) "But I did get you something."

Eames reaches into his inside pocket, laughing a little when Juliet perks up to see what it is, and presents a small box to Nancy. An emerald jewellery set inside.

Cooper had heard word of the nightclub massacre. Frankly, he disapproved of any vampires that were that out of control. He'd been unaware that Nancy had been involved with it at all, but that had been the time when he'd been isolating himself. He told himself that this guy couldn't be all bad if he had been watching over Nancy when Cooper himself couldn't. It still didn't dispel the knot of jealousy sitting inside Cooper's stomach or the frown that was currently on his face.

"So's he human then?" Pity he already sounded like a living, breathing person. Cooper wouldn't have nearly felt as threatened as he did if the boy turned out to be a ghost. As far as he was concerned, this Kyle could stay on vacation a good while longer. Hell, a permanent one wouldn't make Cooper shed any tears.

waves that swallow quick and deep

Early-July, Cooper

Mid-July, Faolan

Early-July, Eames

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