undergrounds | water's sweet but blood is thicker

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water's sweet but blood is thicker

I. COMING HOME - [OPEN TO FIRST RESPONSE OF EXISTING CR]
Kyle had told nearly everyone he knew of his returning home to America indefinitely. He didn't tell anyone about his return. The trip home to deal with estate issues, property problems, renter concerns, and so on was basically nothing but work. It broke his heart to be in his childhood home again, even though he still couldn't bring himself to sell it. He both loved and hated the reminder of home and all that he had lost, missing his family more than he could bear for a time. He resolved things surprisingly quickly, and also found himself missing the new life he'd created in London more than he expected.

He took the underground from Heathrow to his area, getting off a couple stops early to walk the rest of the way. He appreciated the crisp air, needed it to clear his head. It was half the reason he'd stayed sane in South Africa, those walks. With his duffel on his back, everything felt more familiar. He missed his unit, his family, his girlfriend. But missing people had never slowed him down before and it sure as hell wouldn't now. Which is why he sensed that the person nearby was more than a stranger.

II. DRINK N DRINK N DRINK N FIGHT - [OPEN]
Maybe it was the comments about vampire rights, or maybe it was the way the guy hit on the girl down the bar. Whatever the case, Kyle couldn't help but dislike the asshole and it was only a matter of time before he intervened to shut the guy down. The argument was basically guaranteed and the escalation to physical violence inevitable. The other guy got the first hit, Kyle was quick to return, though his focus was more on defensive moves than offensive. Getting off the X. A few more hits, the asshole's friends cheering him on and Kyle hoping the kindness of strangers would be enough to see him through if need be.

It was the interference of a third party that finally put an end to the pub brawl and Kyle couldn't help but be embarrassed at so easily succumbing to such actions. He was supposed to know how to exercise restraint. He did know. He just didn't like to sometimes.

[Feel free to be the asshole, the intervening party, or to assume the bartender intervened and approach Kyle after.]

III. DID YOU MISS ME - [CLOSED TO NANCY]
Kyle's fight had backfired a little, or a lot, when he was jumped on his way home later. It was a few human civilians against a trained soldier used to fighting vampires. It didn't last long, with the assholes scattering once he put up a decent defense. Still, three against one left him with a few good bruises, a very sore rib cage, and one hell of a bloody and possibly broken nose. There was only one person he trusted that he could turn to, not wanting the hassle of the hospital and potential police involvement.

He sent Nancy a text: Miss me? I'm shirtless and bloody. Come over when you can?. It wasn't the ideal way to tell his friend that he was back in town, but it would have to do.

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Nancy, in all her glory, swats at his bicep. "oi! I would have asked eventually!" She doesn't think twice about her actions, about how her cockney accent comes out when she teases him.

"Welcome back, then, Kyle. I missed you." She did. it would have been nice to have someone else neutral in all of this to go to. Someone on her side always; with no hidden agenda. Someone to be her Kenzi, in a way.

She missed that little witch.

"So did you get me a present or not?" She may have been used to men bringing her presents from far off places. Like America.

"You too," he murmurs, although it's a little bit awkward. Kyle missed Nancy and their talks, but things have become complicated now and he didn't miss all the bullshit drama of the vampires. Even if he started suspecting that the bastards were in America as well.

At her question, he looks genuinely surprised and quickly covers it with a very obviously fake smile. "Uh.. yeah, of course. I got you.. Uh.." He reaches over into his duffel, still mostly packed aside from his laundry, and pulls out a bag of candy corns to offer her. "Do you guys have candy corns here? I got you candy corns."

He totally forgot. But candy always makes a nice gift and he has several bags.

Even more has happened since he's been gone. Midnight fell, Vampires are even more hated, and Nancy has been swept up in all of it. They'll never agree about vampires, she knows. But she can try because they're not all bad.

But now isn't the time to talk about that.

She's too distracted by candy corn.

"no! what are they?" She accepts the bag and opens it. "Try some with me?"

"It's candy! It tastes like sugar, but it's a very important fall staple in the American household. You've lived a deprived life until this very moment. Bask in its simplicity and the glory of its Halloween coloring." He reaches over to take a couple out of the bag and pops them in his mouth, chewing idly away. Objectively, candy corns are kind of a strange candy and suits the American palette more than the British probably, but he'll be damned if he doesn't try to get all his friends hooked on the stuff.

Following his lead she takes a handful, but only pops one in her mouth. It's a little waxy in texture, but soon she's tossing a few more back. "Not bad! Can we consider me a little less deprived, then?" She winks at him.

"I'll have to share with my brothers." They always loved when she brought food over. Especially sweets.

"A little," he agrees with a teasing grin. He goes to toss another into his mouth and accidentally hits his nose, which reminds him how much the thing hurts. Kyle drops his head back onto the body of the couch, resting it there with a casual smile to show it's not some dramatic motion. But it does bring him down a little from his oblivious bliss and forces his tone to something less humorous.

"Catch me up, what'd I miss?" He means to leave it there, but Kyle can't help but add, "You still with that boyfriend of yours?"

"Careful!" Nancy chides him, but leans back herself, relaxing into the couch.

God, what hadn't he missed? Nancy has to laugh a bitter laugh at it all. "Well- yes, I'm living with him right now... Enfield was taken over by Redbright, and the burned Abby's home to the ground." She presses her lips together. "A lot of them were exiled. But I ran to Cooper's." And he had taken her in, no questions asked. He'd held her close and let her cry and kept her safe at a time when leaving the apartment could have been bad.

"Luckily I've been pardoned of my involvement with Midnight." She was a little proud of that, the smallest of smiles tugging at her lips. "So that's what you've missed." This calls for her to pull her flask out of her purse. She uncaps it and holds it out to Kyle. "Gin?"

Nancy living with Cooper sounds like a nightmare to Kyle, but it's something that's quickly overshadowed by everything else. His hands clench into fists at his side and the muscles in his torso tighten and tense with his anger. He thought it would be okay to leave, not thinking things could escalate this substantially.

"I'm good," he responds, distractedly waving away the gin. "Has anyone seen Abigail lately or is she still AWOL? And why did you get pardoned?"

It's a good thing, given the options of being murdered - he assumes that's what the alternative would be - or pardoned, but it seems odd that she would be without some kind of betrayal to her old faction. And Kyle's never been comfortable with the idea of someone betraying their unit, even if he understands it and forgives it. It's the kind of thing that permanently affects ones' trust of a person.

It's not a nightmare, truthfully. It's wonderful. He loves her, they don't talk about her work, he tells her about wild nights at bars with Carey Grant. It's perfect. Better than anything she's had before. She almost doesn't want to return to her home in Enfield, but they still need to talk about it.

Nancy shakes her head "I haven't heard from her. I feel awful- I couldn't even come to the banishing. I feel like I'm the worst friend." She closes her eyes, groaning. It's hard to talk about.

"Because a man I know offered to sponsor me, and go in front of the Council and plead my case during the Night's Pardon." She pauses as she drinks again. "It's this thing they do in September every year. Gives people a chance to be pardoned for things they may or may not have done. He wanted me to have a chance. Something I've never really had." Not much has changed since she was pardoned. Just that she can walk down the street without being afraid of being arrested anymore.

"A chance?" Kyle echoes, not understanding what she means. He gets why she sought the pardon and is grateful for whoever helped her get it, but it still feels disingenuous somehow. Now she has to go about hiding who she is, possibly even more than she did before. And he continues to worry about Abigail too.

"You're not a bad friend," he adds, because it has to be said. "I'm glad you're okay."

She nods, and glances down at the candy between them. "I've never really been on the right side of the law before, Kyle." Now, she could do this without Fagin. Now everything she'd done before she was pardoned was erased. She didn't have to worry about rigging the election or having aided in the destruction of Mr. Norrell. She was free of it all.

"Thank you."

"Does that mean you got a new job?" He asks, surprised. Kyle's certainly not opposed to Nancy finding a more normal job in a shop or something, but he offered to help her before and was turned down. She seemed to like what she was doing and the idea of her changing it so suddenly made him wonder at the influence of her monster boyfriend rather than any independent life choice.

Cooper had absolutely no influence on Nancy's profession, thank you very much. He actually hated what she did.

She shakes her head. "No, I don't. No one would hire me, anyway. I still don't legally exist in the outside world."

"There are ways around that," he replies without hesitation. Not that Kyle feels all that good about breaking the law, but sometimes the spirit of the law trumps the letter of the law in cases of ethics and morality. Even if it hurts his soldier pride to admit as much. She deserves a fake identity if it means having a better - and safer - life. "If you change your mind."

He'll leave it at that. There's no reason to push Nancy on the subject of her job. And it does make him feel a little better that she's still sleeping around while dating the monster. Maybe she's not so far gone as he believed.

To her, it wasn't sleeping around. There was no emotional connection. Just a few minutes of feeding, a few minutes of sex. It was quick and dirty and rarely anything to write home about. She also refused to kiss her johns, as so many did. Only Cooper got to kiss her.

She nods. "Thanks, Kyle." She appreciates it, she really does.

She takes another drink of her gin. "I'm glad you're back."

"I'm glad you found a place to stay." He makes it sound so casual and innocent, even with the harsher undertones that she may not be welcome to live at his place anymore. He intends to always make his home available to her, but he's not comfortable with her living there anymore, not with her sentimentality. She's literally sleeping with the enemy.

He leans over to give her a kiss in her hair, a gesture of platonic affection, then withdraws quickly when he remembers again how sensitive his nose is. "Ow. Damn it. Remind me to go see someone tomorrow."

The enemy is really great in bed.

Nancy blushes when she feels his lips against her hair. "Thank you," she tells him honestly. "I am, too." She knows she's not welcome to live with him, deep down, she knew the deal was off the table when she told him she was dating a vampire. He hated them so much... But #notallvampires were the monsters he'd gone up against. Cooper certainly wasn't.

"Yeah- get yourself in. Maybe they'll even give you some nice drugs."

Not all vampires. But enough of them. Even as he continues to stay in touch with Natasha. But she's different, not eating humans. The deal was off the table when he found out Cooper feeds on Nancy, that she lets him. It's an abusive situation he can't bear to witness on a daily basis.

"Only if I'm lucky," he replies, taking the out of more solemn topics, though they have already tainted his mood.

Kyle stretches then yawns, both natural and a deliberate display. "Thanks again for coming, but I need to hit the bunk. Apparently beating people up takes it out of you." A smile. "You can stay on the couch, if you want, or head out. It's your call. I won't be offended."

Worried, possibly. Annoyed, maybe. But not offended.

Nancy was providing a service: she let a man she loved drink her blood, the thing that kept him alive. Furthermore, she was willingly doing it. She didn't see it as abuse in any way, shape, or form. Sure, if he drank from her without permission, yes. But he always had it. He always made sure he did.

It was basically cooking him dinner, really.

Nancy can't help but notice the way he stretches, and takes a moment to admire. Gods damn, she does enjoy the view. Pity she won't be seeing that every morning over coffee. But she's very happy with her scrawny boyfriend, as it were.

"I should probably get going," she says carefully, standing up and capping her flask of gin. "Cooper'll be worried if I'm not back." At least he'd called off his guard. "Thank you, though. And for the candy corn." She takes another handful and puts it into her purse.

"We should do takeaway again," she tells him as she makes for the door. "And stop getting into so many bloody fights."

Kyle stands with her, trying to ignore the feeling that her leaving now is more substantial than a simple departure for the night. Then she mentions Cooper and Kyle's not worried about it anymore. He already ran into the bastard, the worst luck since his return.

"One sip for posterity?" He asks as he reaches for her flask, taking it and stealing a sip unless she explicitly stops him. Then he hands her the full bag of candy corn. "Take the bag, Nance. I have more."

He half follows her as she begins to let herself out. "I didn't start it. And we will. Lunch. Soon."

Cooper may be a vampire, but he loves Nancy, and would never hurt her. He's taken great care of her so far, and she's happy to tell anyone who wants to know.

"You're too sweet," she tells him, recapping the flask after he takes a sip. It's connected to one of the bottles back in her flat, so until that bottle is out, her flask is full. It's pretty great magic.

She puts the candy corn into her purse, pausing right before she gets to the door.

"Soon," she agrees, before giving him a careful hug, and a kiss on the cheek. "I'm glad you're back in town. Stay safe."

Kyle tightens the hug with a twist of his face, ignoring the aching in his ribs. He's glad to see her again and doesn't want her to begin to think otherwise. Even with Cooper changing things. He still worries and cares about her.

"You too." He's halfway to giving her another kiss in her hair before he remembers and instead withdraws.

"Always," she promises him, though they both know it's a lot harder for her to stay safe than him.

With one last glance, she's out the door, ready to make the trek back to her flat.

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water's sweet but blood is thicker

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