undergrounds | This Can Only End Well (Sept. 1st)

What: Dinner party! Hope you like appetizers for dinner. And wine. And disaster.
Where: Nancy's flat in Enfield
Who: Eames, Arthur, Cooper, Kyle- time to meet the boyfriend, everyone!
When: September 1st.

Though the affair is set to be somewhat casual, Nancy has spent hours on that Thursday cleaning her flat, preparing food, and generally getting ready. Thursday night because Friday nights tended to be good nights for business, so she wasn't sacrificing nearly as much if she had everyone over on a Thursday.

The idea she'd had was to introduce everyone to Cooper officially. Get Eames to see that it was a great idea to date him, and maybe Kyle would be completely smitten with the idea of Cooper's existence in her life and allow Nancy to invite the vampire in to their future apartment. Cooper was important to her, she loved him. And she wanted others to see what she saw in him as well.

When the first guests arrive, Nancy's already had a glass of wine in her hand, ready to play dutiful hostess immediately. There's wine, magically chilled, as well as whisky and gin and some beer. For food, it's a lot of little appetizers, finger food, really. She has no idea what she's doing, truthfully, and just hopes that everyone has a good time.

Oh, and she made a cake.

If you're wondering where Juliet is, she's trying to eat the shrimp.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah, my job here is to make the rounds and be the dutiful boyfriend." He doesn't sound particularly thrilled about the job description, but he's doing it anyway, which counts for a lot more. Words are just a lot of hot air anyway.

He looks up at Eames. "So why did you show up then? Is she just that persuasive?"

"Pretty much." Read: He really has no interest in being here and can't imagine changing his mind on Cooper. At best they'll get to 'he's not as annoying as I thought,' but his tolerance for vampires is extremely low and he hasn't seen anything from Cooper that'll put him on par with Natasha or Hook.

But he can hear Nancy asking him to be nice in his head, so he'll make the effort, "she's really insistent that I get to know you a little."

Cooper shrugs broadly, holding out his hands in an open gesture. He really is trying here, so he'll curb the worst of his sarcasm and attitude. "Not that much t'know. I'm a Pisces, a former rebel who got hanged when the Rebellion went to shit, 'n spend most of my time drivin' one of my motorcycles around this city. Oh, 'n I'm completely in love with Nancy, but you already knew that."

He'd roll his eyes at the comment about how in love he is with Nancy if something else hadn't caught his attention. Eames squints for a moment, trying to decide where he could imagine someone like Cooper fighting, and eventually decides to hedge his bets.

"Rebellion?" He asks, actually showing a modicum of interest. "Which one? Irish?"

The fact Eames knows which precisely which rebellion he's talking about just improves his standing in Cooper's eyes fivefold. It's a forgotten piece of history to everyone but him and a few dusty historians, much to his eternal dismay. No one likes being forgotten. He smiles and there's something in those very white teeth that's genuine. "Y'know, I'd say there isn't another person in this room who even knows there was an Irish Rebellion."

He looks pensive as he continues. "It's what led t'me being turned. They hanged me right at the end, along with anyone else they could get their hands on."

"Being alive at the time probably helps," Eames says with a wry smile, "I wasn't around at the time, but I heard plenty." War is great business for fae, after all, but he doesn't share that much with Cooper.

"Messy business, but I guess that's the Empire for you."

"Yeah. War is never as neat 'n clean as the young ones seem to think." That's why he hadn't gotten involved in a conflict in a very long time. Mostly, he just used battlefields to find someone to feed off of. There was always a lot of dying and injured young men lying about.

"Now here I am, two-hundred and some years later. Older but not exactly wiser, y'know?" He was tempted to ask precisely how old Eames was, but he knew fae vanity well enough to know that would be an unwise thought to follow through on.

It's not exactly vanity that keeps Eames from telling anyone his age, so much as it is an almost pathological need for secrecy. It may not seem like much, but his age is a clue that the really savvy could use to pin down more useful details about him. Either way, people he likes and people he trusts have asked him that same question and gotten shit all for their effort. Nancy probably knows he's younger than Fagin, but that doesn't exactly give a lot away.

Still, 600 years is plenty of time to have learned not to say a single one of the the things that pop into his head-- certainly not here at any rate. He doesn't want to start a scene because he decided to be rude to a 200 year-old child.

"Mm." If he can't insult Cooper he's not interested in this conversation anymore. "So how'd the two of you meet then?" He asks, still obviously uninterested, but that's what people ask, right?

"I nearly ran her over with my motorcycle the first time we met. Not exactly love at first sight." He doesn't sound too embarrassed about the whole experience. There was worse first meetings he had in his past than nearly hitting the girl he'd later ended up dating.

"Started talking with her whenever we ran into one another. Happened a lot considerin' the circles she ran in--runs in." He won't hide the fact he's a former client of her's, but neither is he going to broadcast that fact. Not to the man that's practically her father figure. Cooper's come to terms with how Nancy makes her living. As long she's not in front of him or flaunting a client under his nose, he lets her do what she wants and squashes down the occasional spasms of jealousy that crop up. "One thing led t'another, and the next thing I know we're dating."

Wow. What an incredibly uninteresting story. He knows Cooper's a former client, and he's made it clear to Nancy that he thinks it's monumentally stupid to get involved with one, but beyond that it's just so boring.

"Is it difficult for you? Being with her, with what she does." He says it casually, but it's not a casual question. He'd seen that flit of jealousy at Harris' ball, when Cooper had no idea who he was. He just wants to be sure how dangerous it could be, in case he needs to be prepared later.

See, this was one of the many disadvantages of dating a sex worker. There was never the usual casual questions that came from the significant other's friends. It always came down to how he was dealing with the situation. "That's the million-dollar question, now, isn't it?"

He looks up at Eames and shrugs. He's not about to go sharing the stabs of jealousy that always crop up anytime they run into one of her clients or how sometimes he has to stop himself to keep her from walking out the door every night. "It is what it is. I try not to think about it."

Easier said than done.

Well when you're trying to assess if a guy is suitable for your... Nancy. Questions like this are important.

(For the record, Cooper, you failed. But Eames appreciates the honesty.)

He nods, finishing the last of his drink and sighs.

"Mm. And you know when you hurt her, I'm going to nail you to a tree so you can enjoy your last sunrise, right?"

Cooper doesn't let anything show on his face, but truth be told, he's a little intimidated. The last time he'd tangled with a bunch of fae, they'd let him off easy with a curse. This time, he knew he wouldn't get something quite so easy to deal with. This was why he stayed clear of fae in general. They were tricky at the best of times.

"Buddy, if I hurt her, you won't have to. I'll do it myself." At least they're on the same wavelength there. He also caught that key word there. When. Not if. Clearly, nobody thought this was going to work out besides he and Nancy. It just made him more determined to prove them wrong.

"Happy to take that burden for you myself," he says it with a smile and a wink, like he's not telling a guy that he fully intends to facilitate and watch his painful death. Not that he expects Cooper to hurt her intentionally — no, he's seen the way he looks at Nancy, that kind of adoration doesn't come with spite or malice — he just doesn't expect a vampire not to fuck it up massively. He hasn't met one yet who could make it work with a mortal for longer than a few years.

Still the picture of friendliness, he claps Cooper on the shoulder with a grin-- "glad we could have this chat," and he turns to go and find where he left that bottle of whisky.

This Can Only End Well (Sept. 1st)

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