undergrounds | upon the hill he'll hear my secrets -- open post for october

Caroline gets settled down and comfortable while Nancy is gone. The place looks just as nice as she said it was.

"I'm glad you told me," she said when Nancy returned. "Really, I am. This was going to happen at some point, so it was better to do it sooner rather than later. And he wasn't awful. He actually was ..." Caroline's voice trails off as she thinks back to that conversation and tries to stay somewhat calm. "It's the whole situation that's awful."

When Nancy comes back, she's slid into a pair of yoga pants and a hoodie, her hair piled up on her head. She looks incredibly casual if not for her makeup she'd just finished. She had removed her false eyelashes, though.

Without prompting, she moves to take a seat on the couch next to Caroline. Another wave of her hand, and behind Caroline, she's got a glass of wine pouring itself for her.

She nods, and then puts her hand on her friend's knee. She doesn't need to be calm or anything, if she doesn't want to be. "It is. It really is- he asked me to room with him, once. But he refused to allow any vampires in. It was a deal breaker, because at the time I had just started dating Cooper. He's a good person." Just really racist against vampires. Vampirist? Fangist? Fangist.

Yeah, from that little Caroline had learned, that sounded like Kyle. "He told me to leave the Nest. He said if I didn't, then I was basically part of the problem."

It's still that part that bothers her the most. She can't quite disagree with what he said, though at the same time things are not that black and white. But it has made her look at the life she was leading her and find herself wanting.

Nancy sighs heavily, and takes a sip of her wine.

"Fuck- you're serious. I know the Nest isn't a good place right now, but-" she had no idea, actually, about people trying to unseat him. "It's safer for you." It was safer for her, too, to be protected like that.

"Yeah, that was pretty much what I thought. And when I tried pointing out that there are good people in the Nest too, he walked away."

She takes a drink of water, her brow furrowed. "But I think he might have had a point, at least a bit. Not about leaving, but I could do something to make things better, or at least try to. But instead, I've really just tried to stay out of the way and hope for the best."

She considers this. Inaction versus action.

"Well, you don't drink from the unwilling, do you? That's important." She doesn't know how Caroline usually drinks. it's not her place to ask, really. "And maybe talk to Cooper- he knows a whole lot more than I do about helping, things like that."

"No, definitely not," Caroline confirms. That is the biggest thing she has in her credit. "And yeah, I should definitely talk to him. Is he here?"

She took another drink of water, thinking, then shakes her head slowly. "I don't know why this is hitting me so hard, even if I do agree with some of it. I barely know Kyle."

Nancy shakes her head. "No- he doesn't like to be home when I get ready." It's hard for them both, with her job. She loves him so much. But she has to make money somehow and since she got her place in Canary Warf, business is picking up a bit more.

Not as great as having the Anglo, but what could you do?

Nancy considers. "Maybe because it's the first time you've dealt with something like this? It sucks, someone disliking you because of something you have no power over." Look at her life, for example.

That makes sense. If Caroline feels a bit awkward about the subject, then it must be a hundred times worse for Cooper.

She shakes her head. "No, it's not even close to the first time, though it has been awhile. It took one of my best friends a long time to come to terms with what happened to me. And then it was even worse with my parents ..."

She doesn't like to think about those times, especially not with her mother. Their relationship had come so far from where it had been back then.

Edited 2016-11-04 03:20 (UTC)

Gingerly, Nancy wraps an arm around Caroline's shoulders. "That's not fair to you. You didn't choose this. You were dealt a hand you didn't want, and now you've got to deal with it the best you can, and you're doing brilliantly." At least, that was how Nancy saw it.

She knew a lot of vampires who hadn't turned willingly, come to think of it.

Caroline smiles. "Thanks. Things did get better, with all three of them, though it took some time."

Of the vampires Caroline knows, about half made the decision to turn, while the others had it made for them. And the funny thing is, if she had the choice now, she wouldn't change a thing. She was a better vampire than a human.

"Anyway, maybe I just liked Kyle more than I realized."

"Maybe." It's odd, looking at this from both sides. She adored Caroline, and she felt the same way about Kyle. Sure, she'd mostly been the one helping him out, he still made sure she knew that she could go to him with anything. They didn't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but she valued his friendship. Same with Caroline.

"But if he doesn't accept you for who you are, then he's not worth your feelings."

"Yeah. Logically, I know that. Emotionally, I'm still a little bit of a mess. But only a little bit and some of that probably has to do with other things too." Namely things that start with an "s" and end with an "tefan." Luckily, she's with the one person in London who knows all about that, so she probably doesn't have to explain.

"Anyway, how are things with you? This place is just as nice as you said."

Nancy laughs, just a little, because that's what you do in these situations. "Hey, you're not alone in that." She gives her a comforting squeeze.

Things with her? Nancy ducks her head a little. "Thank you- I love it. It's such a far cry from any place I ever lived." She sighs. Thank goodness her boyfriend invested early in Apple. "it's so strange, living with someone else again. I thought I'd be single until forever, after Bill." She shakes her head and takes a drink.

"But then I met Cooper."

Caroline frowns. She's pretty sure Nancy's never mentioned a Bill before. In fact, Nancy doesn't talk about herself all that much, Caroline suddenly realizes. At least not her past.

There's probably a reason for that and Caroline can respect that. But she definitely has to pry just a little bit.

"Who's Bill?"

There are. a million reasons. She doesn't like to talk about her past. And Bill Sikes is at least half of them.

Which is why she hates herself for letting any mention of him slip. She knew what people had thought of her relationship with him. Same thing they thought about her and Cooper. It wasn't, though. Neither of them were.

So she was going to completely gloss over the dirty details with a casual, "He's my ex," and hope that was the end of it.

The explanation said so much and so little all at the same time. Caroline raised an eyebrow, just to show she didn't quite buy that this was the whole story.

Edited 2016-11-05 03:10 (UTC)

Nancy gives her the most unamused face ever.

"What? It was like, two years ago." She waves it away, because nope, they are not talking about this.

"Okay," Caroline says, her tone skeptical. "But if you change your mind about that lovely dismissive thing you've got going on and decide you want to talk, I'm here."

She gets it though. Even though she laid out the whole tragic story of her and Stefan's aborted relationship, there are other things she'd rather not have to talk about. Klaus, for example. The less said about him, the better.

She forces a tight smile. "Thank you. I appreciate it. It's just- not something I talk about." Not something she really could talk about. She loved Bill. Loves him. Every day and she always will. But she has Cooper, and he's here now, and that same space in her heart was occupied by him.

She raises her glass, wishing she'd poured something harder than wine.

Caroline laughs, though its a slightly bitter laugh. "We're quite the pair, huh?"

She's beginning to consider switching from water to basically anything else.

Nancy has to nod. "You can say that again. D'you want the rest of this wine?" She offers her the glass. "I'm switching to gin."

She waves her hand at her cabinets again.

Caroline thinks about it for a moment. "Yeah, what the hell. Clear thinking is totally overrated."

She takes the glass and has a long drink from it. "That's quite good. I except this place comes with a well-stocked wine cellar?"

"Cooper's Irish," she says, by way of explanation. So yes, there is plenty of wine in the wine cellar (it's a wine room, technically, whatever they were called). And other delicious liquors.

"D'you want another glass of that or something else?" The glass of gin is now happily in her hand.

"You have to love the Irish." Caroline wonders if they go all out for St Patrick's Day - this would be a great place for a house party.

"This is fine for now, thanks."

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