This Is Where The Writing Goes

[delucadarlingwriting]

Blog Info

Main blog: @delucadarling

AO3: Archive of Our Own

Purpose: to post fun snippets of fic I've thought up that I have no real desire or intentions of fleshing out fully. Essentially, this blog is to keep me from loading down my AO3 with too much nonsense. It's also where any interactive fiction/video game nonsense goes.

Fandom Tags:

(The) Arcana Game | (The) Wayhaven Chronicles | Zombies Run!

[delucadarlingwriting]

I made the switch from google docs to ellipsus a few months ago, which means I just sorta threw all my old documents into a folder to forget about. Today I was looking for a specific fic I'd been working on, and in my search, I found a little WIP I'd been working on last December on the side, just for fun. There's not much to it, but it's my favorite flavor (N/M/Detective Love Triangle) and I thought a few others may get a kick out of some of the Drama.

(Plain text under the cut)

“Mason.” Nate says his name like it weighs on him heavily. “I love her. I am in love with her.”

Now he flinches. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I want to give you every chance to say the same,” Nate says. The words take Mason several long moments to absorb.

“The same?” Mason shakes his head and rolls his eyes. “You’ve lost it.”

A growl rises from Nate’s throat, the sound jerking Mason up by the chin to look at his old friend. Frustration isn’t a rare expression on Nate’s face, but this is definitely different.

“If you don’t, or can’t, then I’m not going to wait around forever. I will ask her to be with me,” Nate says, every word dripping with warning.

Hands shaking once more, Mason jerks his shoulder, dislodging Nate’s hand. “Then go for it.”

[delucadarlingwriting]

Summer In Wayhaven 2025 - Ice Cream

While the game overall is still very much in progress, I have AT LAST, finished Nat and Kira's date. From start to finish, there is probably...3 minutes of game play I'd wager. Funny how much time goes in and how little seems to come out >:T

But here it is! In all its glory. Follow that link to my itch.io. The game should play in your browser, and it's been pretty mobile friendly according to my play tester fiancee.

I've had to rejig some planning, as I realized in finishing up Nat's portion, doing Ava next will be much easier than starting Felix. So my current intentions are to 1) squash any bugs people find in Nat's route 2) create all assets for Ava's route 3) make the events and cutscenes for Ava's 'date' 4) rinse and repeat for Felix (though his date has most of the needed assets already) 5) same for Mason

I suspect I won't really have time to do anything more than Ava before my work schedule really starts ramping up next week, so we'll have to see if Felix and Mason even get made. Cross your fingers!

Thanks again @summerinwayhaven for putting this event on! It's a lot of thankless work, so I want to express my true gratitude that you took on running this event!

[delucadarlingwriting]

Summer in Wayhaven - Swimming

So, I'm down to the wire on this one, but here's what I've made so far for Felix's date in the little game I'm making.

The pool is....not super robust at this point BUT it's sort of mostly done. I've really loved spending time the past few days making Felix's room. Drawing all his little expressions was a good time as well, but I definitely need to add more!

Thanks again to @summerinwayhaven for doing this event!!

[delucadarlingwriting]

I'm still messing around trying to make a Wayhaven game in RPG Maker! My goal is to have a very simple, very cute 'game' where you get to go into Unit Bravo's rooms, click on some stuff, and have a little cut scene 'date', as either Kira or Barbie. Nothing fancy or involved, it's mostly just taking a lot of time because I'm making the assets from scratch, to varying degrees of success.

SO! In honor the first prompt for the Summer in Wayhaven event, I thought it would be cute for the date with Nat to include going to an ice cream shop! Here are some screenshots I've taken. Once the Nat date is complete I'll make a post with a link to my itch.io for the game itself so you guys can play if you want!

EDIT: I forgot to mention! Nat’s outfit is based on @crownleys art of Nate and Nat in sexy summer outfits.

[delucadarlingwriting]

This...technically isn't writing, but I feel like it still fits in on this blog.

I've been tooling around in RPG maker, just trying to figure out how it works. So here's a little...spaghetti-at-the-wall game I've put together.

Currently I'm only using the assets available, but I do really hope to learn how to put in my own assets so I can make everyone look a bit more...like themselves. If I can really figure this thing out, I'd love to recreate some of my favorite scenes from book 1, or maybe my own fic? Not sure yet. In any case, I'm just eager to play with it more.

[delucadarlingwriting]

Vampire Divorce Court - Domesticated Goose Chase

Does anyone remember plotbunnies? I feel like I'm dealing with a herd of them lately, all dragging me in different directions. I've finally managed to ignore most of them to finish this part. Also, I didn't intend for any of these 'chapters' to be longer than 2k words, but this one got hefty. That's one reason I ended up needing to cut it in half, but also because then I get an excuse to make the next part some Adam/Farah fluff <3

Anyway, here's Wonderwall.

Summary: Barbie's good at her job. She's just really, really bad at people.

Word Count: 3,791

First | Previous | Part 10 | Next

***

Book 1, Wayhaven, A few miles into the woods

“So, you must be from…the 1700s,” Kira says. Barbie blinks, jerking her head up from the map in her hands to stare at her new friend.

“Not even remotely close,” Barbie says with a laugh. “What makes you think that?”

“1800s?” Kira asks.

Despite the two or so hours they’ve been hiking through the dense foliage of protected land surrounding the town of Wayhaven, Kira’s showing no sign of being tired. At worst, she’s a bit flushed, and even that can be attributed to the brisk wind blowing through periodically. She is, as ever, perky and bright and potentially a bit bored now if she’s to the point of interrogating Barbie on her ages.

Barbie presses down on a smile and shakes hear head. “Kira, honestly. I’m not that old.”

“I just assumed, given the lack of GPS,” Kira says with a cheeky shrug.

Barbie laughs again, this time loud enough that Nat and Mason glance back at them. She gives them no mind though, and especially not Mason, regardless of how annoyed he is at every reminder that she’s still there. It’s his own fault for not saying anything when Adam paired himself with Farah to keep an eye on them from a distance. Allegedly to ensure no one gets the drop on their party. Neither of them have been close enough to see for almost an hour now.

“I am perfectly capable of using technology,” Barbie says, slyly adding, “Not all of us struggle so severely with it.”

Nat gives a quiet huff ahead that has Kira covering her mouth to stop a giggle from coming out. Eyes shining, Kira points to the compass in Barbie’s other hand.

“Okay, so why this set up then?”

Barbie carefully adjusts her hold on the map in her hand, doing her best to not damage the yellowed paper.

“For one, knowing how to navigate without computers is an excellent skill to have and keep sharp,” Barbie says. Kira nods along. “For another, this map is from somewhere in the 60s and hasn’t been uploaded to Wayhaven’s digital database. Which, the online database is a mess by the way. Someone really ought to sort it out.”

“You have access to the database?” Kira asks with a disbelieving sputter. Barbie nods.

“Part of the Agency partnering with the local authorities, of course.”

“Of course,” Kira mutters. With sigh, she asks, “Alright, so then who’s older, you or the map?”

Fond as she is of the detective, Barbie still pretends to check the map for something to but a little time before she has to respond. Most of Kira’s questions to this point have hit Barbie in something of a tender emotional area. She hasn’t had to talk about or think so deeply on her condition before now, not really. Mostly she does her best to pretend she’s still human. Over their time together these past few days though, Barbie finds Kira’s curiosity charming more than grating. Enough so that the actual discomfort is minimal.

Still, Kira has gotten very bold with her nosiness, so Barbie gives her her best withering look. Kira holds her hands up.

“I can’t help it, I want to know everything!” Kira says. A burst of fondness rushes through Barbie’s chest; had she not been exactly the same when she was a young 20-something? Learning about the supernatural world had been the greatest thing to ever happen to her back then. It’s why she left everything else behind to join the Agency, even though they’d been so damned reluctant. Probably mostly because of the repeated trespassing.

“I suppose it can’t be helped,” Barbie grimaces. “Not after the comment you made about my vintage clothing.”

It’s Barbie’s own fault for falling so far out of style. With her looking the way she does now though, she doesn’t much enjoy venturing out amongst humans. She hasn’t been shopping for new clothes before today in probably…30 years? She’s meticulous with her clothing care, so it’s hardly as if she needs new clothes very often, much as she used to absolutely adore shopping.

Kira’s cheek go apple red and she stammers out, “I—I’m still really sorry about that. I love vintage clothing, my clothes are mostly Edwardian inspired but around here that’s very strange so when I saw someone else who might have my same hobby—”

Barbie shifts the compass and map to one hand so she can give Kira’s shoulder a squeeze.

“I am teasing you,” Barbie assures her. “In a friendly way.”

“Right, of course.” Kira runs a hand over her hair.

“Fucks’ sake,” Mason snaps, turning to approach with a glare. “Can you focus on the fucking mission for once? I’d like to get this done and over with.”

“I am currently navigating us,” Barbie says, nose wrinkled as she waves the map at him. “It’s not as if you’re doing anything productive, unless you count stomping around like a maniac.”

In a flash, Nat is there, seamlessly sliding herself between them. Her presence alone gets Mason to take a half step away, and the look she gives him seems to convey some sort of message that gets him to lower his hackles.

To Barbie, she asks, “Are you certain this is the way to Murphy’s base? We’ve been at this for quite some time without seeing much.”

Barbie pauses to consider her answer carefully, as this was the question she was hoping no one would ask. Being known as a bit of an investigative genius usually does a lot for her ability to work without being questioned. Having not worked with Unit Bravo in such a long time has clearly deteriorated their faith in her abilities though. As much as it makes sense, she still resents that this particular doubt has come from Nat, and in front of Mason no less.

There’s nothing for it, she has to answer.

“I heavily suspect so,” she replies. It is, unfortunately, the most honest answer she can give, as well as the only one she can risk with Mason staring at her.

Nat’s eyes fall shut and she takes in a quiet breath. On the exhale, she opens her eyes with a pleading look.

“What do you mean by heavily suspect?” Nat asks. Mason growls with irritation, stomps closer, and snatches the map right out of Barbie’s hand. She squawks indignantly.

“Be careful with that! It’s very old, and I need to return it in perfect condition so no one knows I took it!” Barbie shouts. Kira gives Barbie a look of exasperation.

“You stole city property?” Kira asks, hands on her hips. Her eyebrows draw close together, mouth set in a shallow frown. Then, one eyebrow lifts incredulously. “How exactly would they know you took it?”

“Well, I signed in before going into the records office, of course,” Barbie says, waving her off. Kira lets out a short, amused laugh and shakes her head, making the long strawberry blonde rope of hair braided down her back swing back and forth.

By this point Mason is done poring over the map and tosses it back at her. Barbie scrambles, just barely catching it. He turns to Nat and says, “There’s no buildings within 15 miles. Waste of fucking time.”

“Oh Barbie,” Nat mutters. Barbie’s cheeks warm.

“I know what I’m doing,” she insists. “Even if there’s no building on this map, that doesn’t mean there isn’t something there. I have a very good feeling about this area. All my research has given a strong impression that there’s a building or hub of some sort out here.”

Nat and Mason share a look that she doesn’t like one bit. With care, Nat says, “Perhaps we’d be better off returning to town for now and doing a bit more research before—”

“I’m not going back,” Barbie snaps, furious. There is little she hates more than being treated like an idiot. “If you want to go, then go. I don’t need any of you to do my job.”

“You don’t seem to need anyone,” Mason says, crossing his arms and leaning against a tree trunk.

He’s right. Absolutely right. Barbie doesn’t need anyone, particularly him. Despite the truth in his words, she’s still pretty ticked off about it.

“Always a smart ass comment, never a smart solution,” Barbie shoots back. He growls, baring his teeth, but no fang. Kira gets between them, blocking her view of her…of Mason.

Kira brushes her fingertips down Nat’s sleeve, just briefly, before dropping her hand back to her side. Nat startles at the touch, her eyes wide, throat working. Barbie doesn’t remember Nat ever being quite so touch averse. Then again, things happen even when one isn’t around to witness them. Perhaps Nat’s gone through some sort of ordeal again. Like when that gorgon dumped her the week of Valentine’s day.

Kira says, “I’d like to see this through. Barbie’s been working on this for a while. Even if she doesn’t have concrete proof, I think she’s probably onto something. Besides, I’ve grown up here my whole life and I still find places I’ve never seen before.”

Nat chews her lip, no doubt unsure of making such a call without Adam there to hold her hand. As if she can hear the thought, Nat glances to Barbie, which makes her feel immediately ashamed. Even if she’s horribly irate today, that’s no reason to bite Nat’s head off about it. Nat is lovely, even if her team could use a bit of polish.

Taking a steadying breath that somehow makes her feel lightheaded, Barbie says, “I truly have no problem pursuing this on my own. If I find something, I’ll call and mark it on the map for the team.”

“And if you find the rogue?” Mason asks. Barbie presses her lips into a hard line, her heart giving a weak jolt. It’s a possibility she has been willfully ignoring thus far.

“That would be...less than ideal,” Barbie says, but offers no real plan of action for that potential situation. Mostly because she has no idea what she’d do. Experience says she’d likely freeze up on the spot, but the optimist in her hopes she’d at least attempt to run away, for all the good it would do her.

Fear settles in her chest, but even so, she finds her desire to prove her theory on the rogue dubbed Murphy’s hideout. What he’s doing to people would require him to have some sort of steady base where he’s storing his equipment and a source of electricity. Anywhere like that would maybe even has his notes on what procedure he’s attempting.

“So you’re looking to get yourself killed,” Mason accuses.

Barbie’s fingers tighten on the map and she frowns deeply. Much as she hates her life every single second of every single day, rarely has she considered ending it. The very thought terrifies her. Besides, her brother would be left alone at that point, and she can hardly excuse doing that now.

“Kira’s right,” Nat says at long last. She smiles down at their dear detective. “It’s worth trying. We lose nothing either way.”

“Exactly,” Kira says happily, her pulse beating just a bit faster as she and Nat share a long look. It’s really lovely to meet someone as friendly as Kira. It’s also lovely to have someone on her side when Unit Bravo seems so primed to be against her. “Okay Babs, where to?”

She turns around and holds the map up so Kira and Nat can see it over her shoulder. Though she didn’t dare use pencil on the old paper, she traces the mental line she had drawn of their path with the tip of a fingernail.

“This way,” she says. Kira hums.

“But where exactly are we heading?” she asks. Barbie curves the line she’s drawing, bringing it around in a slow loop before tapping on the spot where Murphy is most likely hiding. Kira gives her a questioning look and says, “We’ve already passed that.”

“Yes but…” Barbie trails off, suddenly choked up by the realization that they all think she’s messed this whole thing up. They must think she’s an idiot, and a stubborn one at that.

It’s true that the path she’s chosen is massively inefficient. They’ll end up hiking nearly an hour longer than if they take the straightforward path. She has no evidence or reason to continue going around the suspected base other than this deep, gut feeling she has. It’s bad enough that she also has no evidence or reason to believe the base will be where she says it will be.

Gut feelings and instincts aren’t Barbie’s strong point. She can’t trust her own first reaction to most things, as her knee jerk reaction is almost always an illogical one. Freeze in place when threatened with danger. Faint at the sight of blood. Lash out and isolate herself during the hardest transition period of her ever elongating life.

Trying to ask the three of them to put their trust in her to go out to this area is already pushing her luck. She knows she won’t win them over on taking the illogical path as well. So she gives that one up. Her eyelid twitches.

“Of course. That makes sense. We’ll take the shorter route,” Barbie grits out.

She can’t quite bring herself to relinquish the map, but Kira doesn’t need one to lead the way. It’s clear in the way she moves through the foliage and barely-there paths that she’s familiar with every rock, tree, and bush they pass. She seems so entirely at ease that Barbie feels a sharp stab of jealousy; has she ever felt so comfortable? So certain in both herself and others’ belief in her?

Well, perhaps in herself. Barbie can hardly help thinking she’s often right.

As they grow closer, Barbie’s chest feels tighter. Her heart picks up it’s pace and her limbs feel shaky. She’s reminded entirely of the way she feels when she knows she’ll have to drink soon, an unpleasant reminder that only makes the tumultuous feelings bubbling up inside her all the worse.

“Are you alright, Barbie?” Nat asks. Barbie pulls her new hiking jacket more securely around herself and scowls. Worse than feeling like this is having anyone else notice or, God forbid, comment on it. She already hates being seen like this, let alone inspected.

“I am fine,” she says, hearing the robot way it comes out with no ability to change it. Kira glances over her shoulder, slowing.

“Do we need to stop?” Kira asks with so much concern it makes Barbie want to fold herself up and get stuffed into an envelope.

“No, I am fine.”

Mason snorts. “What, being told you’re wrong sending you into some kind of shock?”

“Of course not,” Barbie says, attempting to sound unbothered, just as she has since she arrived. Her facade is slipping more and more with each attempt though. “I’m more than aware that I am…wrong about things, at least as much as any other person.”

Mason’s grin both irritates and excites her. “All said without gagging or anything. Good job, sw—”

“Would you shut up?” she snaps. There’s pressure in her gums, around her canines, so she grits her teeth to try and hold back the fangs that desperately want to show. Even after such a long time bearing this existence, she hasn’t managed to gain the control she should have over her own body, and it’s always horribly embarrassing to be caught with her fangs out. It doesn’t help that her stomach is starting to ache with hunger.

Perhaps this is why she’s feeling so odd. It may be that ignoring her body’s signals is easier in the comfortable, familiar environment of the archives. Out here, everything prickles.

Nat presses her mouth into a hard line, then turns and says, “Mason, perhaps you can drop back a bit and take up the rear?”

Shockingly, he does so, letting Barbie step past him without commentary. Probably he’s delighted to be left alone, where he doesn’t have to so much as pretend to care for anyone but himself. Perhaps that’s why he was picking a fight with her, hoping Nat would separate him from the rest of them. She wouldn’t put it past him.

Her irritation distracts her for a while as they walk, kept well fed by the feeling of Mason’s eyes boring through her head. Eventually though, that odd not-right sensation from before returns with a vengeance. She hesitates, glancing in the direction of the path she’d wanted to take, where the not-right feeling didn’t exist.

“So,” Nat says brightly, her voice reminding Barbie to keep up. There’s no point in her going down any other path than the one the team has decided to follow. Despite her earlier declaration, Barbie doesn’t actually fancy getting lost out here alone, even if she’s technically one of the scarier things in the forest. Barring every other vampire within a 50 mile radius, of course.

Kira glances her way (which is a bit to the left and quite a lot up) and says, “So?”

“So how is your fiancée doing? Bobby, right?” Nat asks. Kira’s cheerful expression dims ever so slightly.

“Right, um. She’s doing well,” Kira says with a bit too much effort. Turning to look ahead for the right direction, she adds, “We haven’t spent much time together since I got back from the Agency.”

Nat hums. “Yes, I imagine we’re keeping you too busy.”

“I guess so,” Kira says with a shrug. “It’s also partially because she’s too nosy for her own good. If I spend more than five minutes with her she starts badgering me for information on you, the investigation, the victims…”

“Ah.” Nat’s expression twists into something sorrowful. “That must be very hard. You shouldn’t have to hide such things from the one you love most.”

“This way,” Kira says sharply, jamming a finger ahead. “Just down this slope.”

Slightly hidden by some unruly blackberry brambles is a narrow decline down to the forest roughly 15 meters below, and not far from their destination. There are rocks of various sizes, from basketball to Kira’s car sized. The ground is uneven, mostly held together by tangled tree roots and a prayer. There are plenty of flat, foot sized spots that create a horrible staircase downward. Barbie sways very slightly on her feet and has to look away.

Nat looks down. “Hm. It’s a bit damp.”

“Damp is hardly the worst part of this,” Barbie says, unable to even feign a hint of enthusiasm. Kira waves them both off.

“Oh you’ll be fine, you’ve all got way longer legs than me. You can probably just go from step to step, while I’ll have to shimmy down the rocks.” She says this with a bright smile, as if she’s actually quite looking forward to the climb. Barbie is desperately fascinated by their detective, but there is undeniably something wrong with her.

Nat steps up, brows creased. She reaches out as if to touch Kira’s shoulder, but doesn’t. Oddly, she simply hovers her hand over her shoulder instead. Kira reacts just the same as if Nat has touched her though, glancing all the way up at her with a questioning look.

“I think I should go first,” Nat says, then gives a soft, smooth smile. The same one that usually leads to her getting whatever it is she’s asking for. Her brown eyes sparkle with warmth. “Just to be safe.”

Kira steps aside, gesturing for her to go ahead. “Alright, I’ll follow you then.”

Nat’s smile falters for the barest second before she steps past them to lead the way.

“And I’ll follow you,” Barbie says, giving the path a nervous look. Sure, even if she does fall from this height she’ll be just fine. It won’t kill her, not even close. That doesn’t make her any less wary of pain. She’d thought, back when she first turned, that her fear of pain and injury might fade over time. After all, Unit Bravo never seemed to let such things deter them when she worked with them. But no, she still winces and flinches at even the barest hint of pain or danger. It seems they are simply very different creatures than she.

Kira reaches a hand out, palm up. Mystified, Barbie tentatively places hers on top of it, blinking as Kira laces their fingers together.

“I’ve got you,” Kira promises.

Brave Kira. So delicately human, but so unafraid. So sure of herself. Barbie can’t help a smile.

“That reassures me a little,” she admits. Kira gives her hand a squeeze.

They proceed that way, with Nat in front, the Kira and Barbie, and just behind them Mason. He drops carelessly from step to step with his hands deep in his jacket pockets. Despite how he lumbers around, Mason is actually quite nimble. He’ll certainly be bored waiting for the rest of them to tiptoe their way down.

The next step is quite steep, far enough down that Barbie hesitates to let herself down. Kira smiles up and holds her hand out again.

“You can lean on me,” Kira says, encouragingly. Barbie has to remind herself not to bite off her lipstick. Nat turns, blanching.

“Perhaps I should help,” Nat says, walking back up toward them. Kira looks over her shoulder at the other woman, a scowl threatening to show on her face.

“It’s fine,” Kira assures her.

Barbie, embarrassed and upset. Undeterred, Natalie, it’s fine.”

She can handle being given a hand down, for fuck’s sake. It’s like they all think she’ll black out and go insane with bloodlust from simple proximity. Foolishness.

Undeterred, Nat hurries as Barbie borrows Kira’s strength to step down. As Barbie’s new boots find solid ground, Nat jumps up onto a nearby boulder, green with moss. Very slick moss.

Kira’s eyes widen. She releases Barbie and turns toward the other vampire. “Nat—”

Nat seems to realize her error just a moment after Kira, her shoe slipping and sending her off kilter. Knowing she’ll be fine, Barbie doesn’t move at all to help. Unfortunately, Kira’s all-too-human instinct to help kicks in, and she jumps down to the next stone, her hands striking out to fist in the front of Nat’s leather jacket.

For a moment, it seems that Kira’s efforts will pay off. Her shoes slide forward as Nat manages to keep her balance long enough to grasp at a low hanging branch near Kira’s shoulder. For a moment, they hang there, barely more than their toes holding them in place.

The branch snaps.

Kira and Nat disappear.

[delucadarlingwriting]

WIP THWednesday

Thanks to @grapecaseschoices for tagging me! I want to tag @swordsandspectacles @mysterycyclone and @crownleys

I'm still chugging away on Vampire Divorce Court. I was struggling with it for a bit, but after reworking the outline (and realizing I'm not 80% done with Book 1 the way I thought I was) it feels a lot smoother. Here's Barbie leading everyone on a wild goose chase!

(text only under the cut)

“What do you mean by heavily suspect?” Nat asks. Mason growls with irritation, stomps closer, and snatches the map right out of Barbie’s hand. She squawks indignantly.

“Be careful with that! It’s very old, and I need to return it in perfect condition so no one knows I took it!” Barbie shouts. Kira gives Barbie a withering look.

“You stole city property?” Kira asks, hands on her hips. “How exactly would they know you took it?”

“Well, I signed in before going into the records office, of course,” Barbie says, waving her off. Kira lets out a short, amused laugh and shakes her head, making the long strawberry blonde rope of hair braided down her back swing back and forth.

By this point Mason is done poring over the map and tosses it back at her. Barbie scrambles, just barely catching it. He turns to Nat and says, “There’s no fucking buildings within 15 miles.”

[delucadarlingwriting]

Vampire Divorce Court - The Real Monster is the Friends Who Divorced Us Along the Way

[drags self in] I did it...

Life has been a bit all over the place. I've had this one written for a while, but I've been letting it marinate because I wasn't super happy with how I had it. I did make a few little revisions tonight and I like it more now, but I do still find there's just....there's SOMETHING here that I want to wiggle around into a better configuration.

Maybe I'm just craving a Farah/Adam scene and have yet to really write one. Making a note to self to add one in soon.

Summary: Farah doesn't know what to make of Barbie, but sometimes the best way to see inside a wasp's nest is to hit it with a baseball bat at Mach Fuckthousand.

First | Previous | Part 9 | Next

word count: 2,221

***

Book 1, Wayhaven, Marty’s Outdoor Store and Bike Rental

Wayhaven is completely, ridiculously boring. Alaska wasn’t exactly much better, but the lack of humans meant Farah didn’t have to think so hard about pretending to be human. Wayhaven has enough humans around that Farah’s always got to be thinking about which behaviors are too strange for humans to shrug off. It’s totally exhausting.

At least the store they’re in now isn’t super busy. The owner is around, he’d poked his head out when they came walking in, only to tell Kira to knock on his office door when they want to check out. Then he’d disappeared inside said office, followed by the sounds of a TV coming through the door. Other than that though, it’s just Farah, Kira, and Barbie in the whole store.

Apparently, this store is meant specifically for doing stuff outside, liking hiking and fishing and stuff. Farah still can’t get over how much stuff there is on Earth. It seems like humans are always buying things. She goes to a display of sunglasses, spinning it around until she finds a pair of dark aviator style sunglasses. Her reflection is grinning back at her in the opaque lenses.

“Are you going to get anything?” Kira asks, appearing beside her. Farah looks around at the various displays of clothes. Mostly a lot of boring shades of orange, brown, and gray, unflattering fits, and that awful plastic fabric that makes the worst sound imaginable when it touches itself. Farah wrinkles her nose.

“Nah, I think I’m good,” she says. Kira presses her lips together, but Farah can feel the humor radiating off her.

Even if Wayhaven isn’t Farah’s favorite place, Kira’s definitely worth sticking around a while longer for. She’s even called Farah her friend a few times.

“I feel very much the same,” Barbie says from a few feet away as she picks through a shoe display the same way one might pick through a bush for scorpions. She holds up a pair of chunky brown boots and sighs. “None of these are very…in line with my style.”

“It’s not really about style though, is it?” Kira walks over to help Barbie, Farah hanging back to casually continue browsing the sunglasses. She meant what she said about not buying anything though. If she did buy sunglasses, she’d have no excuse to steal Adam’s, which would really kill one of her favorite sources of fun. Looking at the sunglasses does give her the excuse of not helping with Barbie’s current dilemma though.

While the past few days have been absolutely mindnumbingly boring with basically nothing to do other than hunch over the same old files and pictures again, Farah hadn’t really jumped at the opportunity to accompany Kira to help Barbie find clothes for their upcoming hike through Wayhaven’s vast woodland. Normally she loves a side quest on boring missions, especially with someone fun like Kira. The addition of Barbie definitely put a damper on the prospect though.

Apparently, Barbie hadn’t bothered bringing anything other than two pairs of heels, several tight dresses, and a few suit jackets for this trip. Not that Farah has anything against her sticking to her personal fashion style. None of Unit Bravo (save Adam) really has anything that would be particularly outdoorsy either, but none of them would be thrilled to run around outside in one of Barbie’s usual outfits. Seeing Adam’s expression as Barbie explained they’d have to wait for her to find new clothes before the outing she’d demanded to go on was really freaking priceless. She laughs to herself even now just thinking about it.

Though Barbie has provided Farah with a bit of unintentional entertainment, Farah doesn’t really know what to make of her either. Farah had opinions on Barbie before they met, based on what she’s been told about her. The woman herself hasn’t done too much to disprove what anyone has said about her. Adam finds Barbie irritating and egotistical, but apparently his opinion on her has been exactly that since before she left Mason. Nat likes Barbie, but sort of diplomatically avoids actually saying much about her. Mason doesn’t talk about her at all. He doesn’t really like when anyone else does either.

“These should be suitable,” Barbie says, twisting her heel around to look down at the clunky brown boot wrapped around her foot. Her nose is wrinkled, because it’s a truly ugly shoe. She then looks up and around. “I suppose clothes will need to be next.”

“Sure you don’t want to do some shopping too?” Kira asks Farah playfully. Farah grins.

“Nah, I couldn’t step on your fun,” Farah says with a laugh. Kira gives a shake of her head, then goes off to link arms with Barbie, leading her over to the pants. Farah follows, because she’s supposed to, but also because if she has to babysit their special little human, she may as well get a better read on Mason’s ex.

She knows how everyone else feels about Barbie, but Barbie…well, she’s a bit of a tangled mess. Or…Less of a mess and more like a beehive, zipping around looking for a bear to sting. It’s hard to get past all the buzzing to figure out what’s going on past it.

What she did to Mason was pretty awful. There’s a lot that can get under his skin, but very little that inspires actual hurt. He doesn’t care about most people enough for that. So what is it about Barbie that let her wiggle in so close to his heart? And why would she break it?

There’s a low buzz from behind, and Kira says, “Oh, this is Tina.”

“Duty calls?” Farah asks, turning. Kira, phone in hand, gives a tired sigh and smiles, then jerks her thumb behind her.

“I’ll just be over there to take this,” she says. Then haltingly, she adds, “Maybe help Babs? She seems to be struggling.”

Farah’s expression falls. “Oh, uh. Yeah.”

Kira swipes a finger across her phone to answer, then hurries away as she says, “Tina? Everything okay?”

Technically, Kira isn’t in charge of Farah. She doesn’t have to help Barbie. There’s not exactly anything else to do though, and listening in on another report from the police station sounds even more dull than watching Barbie move hangers on the same rack again.

As she approaches, Barbie pulls out a tan button up and hums.

“The green one you just had is better,” Farah says, causing Barbie to yelp and drop the shirt. She lays a hand over her heart, which is beating almost as fast as it should now.

“Good Lord, don’t sneak up on me,” Barbie chastises before bending down to retrieve the shirt.

“What, you didn’t hear me?” Farah laughs. Humans not hearing, sure. But Barbie’s just about as much a vampire as any of Unit Bravo.

“Clearly not,” Barbie grumbles, returning to her slow, slow, slow shopping process.

“Is it because you don’t drink blood?” Farah asks. The metal hanger Barbie’s sliding makes a gut curdling skreeeeech.

“…Probably,” Barbie replies, a twitch forming near one of her eyes. Farah tilts her head.

“So why don’t you then?” Farah asks. Barbie pauses. “You know. Why don’t you drink—”

“Has no one told you to mind your own business before?” Barbie hisses. Farah grins.

“Sure. I’m terrible at it though. I heard you are too,” Farah says with a chuckle. “Though, that was before your grand transformation.”

“Grand is a word for it.” Barbie shudders. Farah frowns.

“Surely being a vampire isn’t that bad,” Farah says. “Do you just refuse to drink because you want being a vampire to be a terrible as possible, to justify what you did to Mason?”

The buzzing of Barbie’s emotions turns into a low roar, crackling with electricity that leaves a tang in Farah’s mouth.

Barbie slams the hanger in her hand back onto the rack, turns to Farah, and draws herself up to her full height. She is tall, but it’s still not terribly intimidating considering she looks like a stiff wind would crack her into a hundred pieces. Not to mention she has to pause to push her fake glasses up her nose.

“Stop talking about Mason,” Barbie demands. “Stop asking about me being like this. I don’t have a problem with you yet, but you are on your way to creating a problem.”

This feels like vindication, at least a little bit. Barbie’s been so detached about everything, especially about Mason, or least seemingly so. Now she’s being sort of honest. She cares somewhere in there.

“You definitely do have a problem with me,” Farah points out. Barbie frowns, ready to argue. “I mean, I’m a monster too, aren’t I?”

That comment has stuck with Farah since they first met, and though she’s tried to move past it, it just won’t dislodge no matter what. So many people see Farah that way, and her team, without even getting to know them. Just because of what she is. It doesn’t feel any better coming from another vampire.

Barbie flinches back, then growls.

“Yes, yes you are,” Barbie says. “A monster. Just like Murphy. Just like Adam.”

Something snaps in Farah at that. “Just like you.”

“Exactly!” Barbie yells.

The already quiet store goes absolutely silent. Even Kira, who was in the middle of a sentence on the phone, cuts herself off.

Barbie’s chest is heaving. There’s an odd, crazed look in her eyes. She slaps a hand over her mouth and turns away, but not before Farah catches sight of her fangs. Either Farah really managed to piss her off, or she has absolutely zero control over them. Either seems pretty likely.

A long, slender hand lands on Farah’s shoulder, giving a light squeeze.

Nat says, “I think that’s enough.”

“Yes, it is. I apologize,” Barbie says, the words muffled against her hand. She takes in a shaky breath. “I’ll be over there.”

She goes off, high heels clicking off beat. Farah watches, frowning still as she shakes Nat’s hand off. Nat sighs.

“Farah, please don’t antagonize Barbie about this,” she pleads.

“She isn’t even trying to cope with it,” Farah says. She shakes her head, then looks up to Nat. “Was this how she was about vampirism when she and Mason were married? Like, before?”

Nat shakes her head, sadness clinging to her like raindrops. “No, it isn’t. She used to be fascinated by vampires, along with any other supernatural beings.”

“Makes sense,” Farah says with a sigh. “I doubt she’d have been so tight with you guys otherwise.”

Nat makes a soft noise of agreement. “I didn’t…She’s changed a lot, since then. If I’d known the state she’s in, I might not have suggested we ask her for help."

“Should she go back to France then?” Farah asks. A brief feeling of concern floods her, taking Farah off guard. Maybe she shouldn’t be surprised. Sure, Barbie’s cold and mean and hurt her friend, but…she’s clearly really going through it. Being here doesn’t seem to be helping. Nat turns and Farah follows her gaze, all the way to where Kira is standing with Barbie, a hand rubbing her back gently as they talk. She could listen in if she wanted, but Farah focuses instead on Nat.

“They’ve bonded quite well,” Nat says with a small, tight smile. “Barbie’s hard to dislodge from the people she cares for. I doubt she’d go back even if we told her to.”

“It can’t be that hard,” Farah says pointedly. Nat shakes her head, but doesn’t fight her on it. Farah’s not really keen on arguing anymore either. “Well, at least I can say I don’t blame Barbie there. Kira’s pretty great.”

“Yes, Kira’s wonderful,” Nat agrees readily.

“Do you think that’ll be a problem for her fiancee?” Farah asks. Nat scoffs and waves a hand delicately as if to shoo the very notion away.

“I highly doubt Kira has eyes for Barbie,” Nat says, a little too quickly. Farah grins, but suddenly Nat is refusing to look at her.

“Right, because she’s got them for someone else,” Farah says. Nat doesn’t respond. Fair enough. Farah gives her a break, if only because that whole thing is probably going to get really messy. Well, it would, if they weren’t leaving Wayhaven as soon as they track down Murphy.

A pang of sadness has Farah blinking hard; she doesn’t actually want to leave. As boring as this town can be, Farah has gotten used to the dynamic Kira brings to the team. She likes seeing their detective every day. Kira even likes some of the same TV shows Farah does, and it’s WAY better watching stuff with someone else than by herself. Plus, she’s funny and tough and great to hang around. It’s going to really suck not seeing her anymore.

“I’m gonna miss her,” Farah admits. Nat puts an arm around her and draws her in close.

“It will certainly be hard to say goodbye,” Nat says, sounding melancholic. “It’s for the best though. She deserves to live a normal life. Once she’s safe, it’s best if we leave her to it.”

Farah leans against her, wondering how many times Nat has told herself that in the hopes of believing it eventually.

[delucadarlingwriting]

I just reblogged a post on my main that made me immediately start hallucinating another Barbie/Mason AU. I'm not actually writing it all out here but I am throwing the concept down so I can come back and chew on it later.

Barbie and Mason meet one another a hundred or so years ago, both human. They butt heads at first, but through a shared interest (music, considering Mishka said some time ago that M can play an upright bass and Barbie plays piano and drums) manage to find harmony. I don't think they ever manage to get married in this one, but they have a ton of sexual tension that they probably manage to release one time.

Because after that, Mason just...disappears. No one knows where he went, what happened, nothing. Someone suggests he ran off because he and Barbie finally sealed the deal and he wasn't interested in making an honest woman of her. 1) Barbie doesn't buy that and 2) she's never known when to leave well enough alone. Plus, she's always had an interest in the occult, so she definitely starts digging into it. Maybe there'd even been rumors recently of some strange happenings, so she's already got it on the brain.

Somewhere in the next few decades, she finds her proof that the supernatural world exists and supernatural beings live among humans. She finds the Agency, but they just try mind wiping her. Maybe succeed. I've always liked toying with the idea of Barbie, no special blood to help her, managing to undo any mind wiping through pure spite.

Well, knowing the Agency won't help her find her lost lover, she seeks out a supernatural who can turn her immortal. She's in her 70s now for god's sake, it's only getting harder to do this shit and she knows any kind of change will just be riskier as she ages. There's no way she risking dying before solving this mystery either. So, she turns. Probably into a fairy.

And she continues looking. Eventually, there's a lot of murmuring in the supernatural community that people are moving into Wayhaven, a little town in Nowhere, Massachusetts (which is where @crownleys and I like to imagine it). Intrigued, Barbie decides to scope it out. Being in the middle of Book 3, she ends up snatched by some Trappers and sold to the auctioneer. Sucks, but then she's busted out! Yippie!

And as she's biting the head off someone from the Agency about them being gatekeeping, hamfisted, short sighted assholes...she looks over and sees him. After almost a hundred years, that's Mason. That's the man she fell in love with, lost, and spent all this time looking for.

She IMMEDIATELY books it out of there.

At a certain point, she had to stop mourning Mason even as she looked for him. She stopped feeling wretched, she stopped feeling like she was dying whenever she thought about what might be happening to him (or thinking that he may well just be dead at this point), and she just started living. Sure, she made it her life goal to find him, but that's just kind of Barbie. She's like a dog with a bone. She doesn't let go.

Now though, she has to face the fact that she...kind of already got over all of this. She hadn't actually considered what she might do when she finally finds Mason. Especially because, in her mind, if he's alive...why didn't he ever try to find her?

She does still move to Wayhaven. A nice little house, small yard, small garden. She takes up some work with the library and starts vaguely plotting out how she could oust the mayor.

At some point, before book 4 starts, she runs into Mason again. She's surprised it hasn't happened before, but Mason's not much into townie life. She bolsters her courage and approaches him, ready to hear from the horse's mouth exactly why he disappeared all those years ago.

Naturally, Mason's like "who the fuck are you". It doesn't take much for Barbie to realize his memories have been fucked with, Mason's extremely weirded out, then practically panics upon realizing she knew him from before he was a vampire. He does not want her to somehow break the walls in his mind. I imagine Unit Bravo isn't too far off, Nat and Ava managing to separate them, even as Barbie's SHOUTING at Mason, very much hoping to make him remember her.

The Agency is naturally furious, they didn't realize Barbie had gone and turned immortal. Barbie is sat down and has the situation with Mason explained. She needs to stay away from him. For his own sake.

(She does not do that)

(But neither does he)

He doesn't want to remember her, he doesn't want to break anything in his head. He's content the way he is, especially given that he's not fucking interested in romance.

Barbie can accept that. No romance, fine. No reminding him of the past, fine. They can just pretend to be the perfect strangers they are to Mason. And Mason, unable to figure out just why he would even risk this for someone he does not know...he agrees.

Naturally this all has to be a secret, because Nat and Ava would sooner shoot Barbie out of a cannon straight into the sun than let Mason fuck himself up over her.

That's all I've got, but I'm just kicking my feet and making my little dolls run around in my mind now.

[delucadarlingwriting]

kissing each other breathless for barbie x mason, please 🥰🥰 (~agentnatesewell)

BLESS. I feel very spoiled with this one, those are my little chew toys. I love a reason to put them in dramatic situations.

Mason/Barbie: 14 kissing each other breathless

***

Wayhaven, Post-book 3, Wayhaven High School, Sunday Afternoon

It wasn’t supposed to go like this.

Distantly, Barbie can hear the sounds of fighting, shouting, and impact of breaking furniture from the front of the administration office. Her heart pounds painfully in her chest, so loud she tries to cover it with her hands. Surely their human attackers wouldn’t hear it, wouldn’t be able to find her in her hiding spot behind the principal’s desk, but fear makes her completely illogical.

After what feels like an eternity of being a tight little ball with her muscles cramping, the fighting stops. She lets out a low breath and waits for Mason to come get her. She’s never really enjoyed seeing the bodies after a fight, even if they’re always kept carefully alive.

“Think it’s dead?” asks a gruff, unfamiliar voice. Barbie freezes. Another one snorts while at least two more laugh.

“Nah, you’ve never fought a blood sucker. Resilient fuckers, they are,” a second voice says.

The first voice makes a noise of disbelief. “Even bleeding like that?”

Barbie has to slap a hand over her mouth to stop a scream from coming out. Oh Mason.

“Gotta remove the head,” says another. “Do we have a saw?”

She has to get up. She has to get up. She has to get up. If she stays here, they’ll kill him.

But what can she do against 5 Trappers all on her own? She’s no fighter. She can barely manage keeping up with Kira’s cool down routine! If she goes in to stop them, she’s dead, or as good as.

But she can’t sign off on them killing Mason just for that.

Her mind whirs, then stops on a solution; draw them off. They’ll want her blood, her infinitely valuable blood. Surely they’ll be greedy enough to leave Mason behind for the chance to catch her, now that her vampire bodyguard is downed. Oh God, she hopes they’ll all follow her.

Shaking in every limb, she slips off her heels and stands up. Distantly, she can hear the Trappers arguing about the mess.

“—you really think the cops won’t be sniffing around after this?”

“What, the backwater pigs in this town?” There’s a snort of a laugh. “Let ‘em sniff. For now, finish this off and find the bitch.”

She swallows hard, grabbing a hefty textbook on best teaching practices in her hands. Hard cover.

“Alright, grab its hair.”

Forcing herself out of her hiding spot, Barbie steps out of the principal’s office, only pausing long enough to figure out where to aim before chucking the book with all her (pitiful) might. And misses the Trappers entirely. While the book ends up soaring diagonally into one of the office’s plaster walls, it at least manages to startle the group of them hunching over Mason’s unmoving body.

The stare at one another, Barbie nearly as surprised as they are. Then she sucks in a deep, wavering breath.

“Fuck you!” she shouts.

“Get her!” the Trappers reply.

The office suites are U shaped, with the principal’s office being in an outer corner at the bottom. Barbie sprints away, heading for the second entrance, pulling rolling carts and side tables with houseplants down to block the path as best she can. Wearing a pencil skirt and office casual blazer means her mobility is restricted, on top of her being out of shape, so she needs every advantage she can get.

Slamming out of the offices and into the open lobby area of the school, Barbie quickly tries to assess her best exit strategy. Unfortunately, the sounds of heavy boots behind her means the best she comes up with is run like hell. Choking on her fear, Barbie makes the questionable choice of going for the stairs, only realizing her error when she’s panting halfway up them. The Trappers are at the bottom, shoving past one another to get to her first.

Her muscles tense, and then alarmingly, relax. There’s no point in continuing to run really. They’re going to catch her. All she’ll do is delay it by a few seconds.

Barbie batters against her own desire to give up and let herself be taken away. This is what got her taken by Murphy. This is what allowed him to inject Mason with liquid DMB. If she gives up, the Trappers will just have her AND kill Mason.

She stumbles, her pantyhose slipping on the smooth tiles, just as she’s nearing the top of the stairs. One of the Trappers leaps and grabs her by the ankle, his fist completely encircling it. With a shriek, she kicks out, and to her surprise she actually manages to make contact with his face. Blood gushes from his nose and he’s thrown back, falling down. The sight of the blood makes Barbie feel faint, but she forces herself to take the opportunity presented to her. Particularly given that the fallen man’s flailing limbs have managed to slow the other behind him.

Scrambling, Barbie runs for the nearest open classroom and slams the door shut. There’s no lock, but her hands are shaking so badly she doubts she’d be able to manipulate even a simple button lock at this point. Chest heaving, Barbie throws her hands down on every surface, looking for anything that could even possibly be a weapon. She didn’t bother with a Volt, she rarely does, especially given that this was just supposed to be a simple, low risk investigation.

Barbie’s hands touch something hard and cold. A trophy! She grips it by the base. Academic decathlon. Kids after her own heart.

She hears more yelling. It won’t be long before they’re on her. She shuffles closer to the door, pressing herself against the wall. As soon as one of them comes in, she’s going to bash them in the head with the trophy and close her eyes so she can’t see if they bleed or end up with a caved in skull. The last thing she needs is to pass out now.

Several moments pass, the yelling stops and murmuring begins. Barbie tries to quiet her frantic gasping, tightening her grip on her chosen weapon and psyching herself up. Throwing the book didn’t feel deadly, and the kick had been pure reflex. Deliberately hurting someone feels so different, but she has to. She has to.

The door opens and a figure steps in. She lifts the trophy up over her head.

“Aaargh!” Barbie yells, eyes closing as she brings it down, hoping to God her aim is true.

“Wha—Barbie?!” A hand grabs her wrist, stopping her attack before it can really begin.

She opens her eyes to see Mason, whole and hale and very confused. Her grip goes slack immediately, the trophy crashing to the ground as she lets out a yell in pure relief. Mason grunts as she throws herself at him, crushing herself against his chest.

“Oh God, you’re alright,” she says. Mason doesn’t hesitate to puts his arms around her, which she certainly needs at this point.

“I’m fine,” he says, angry, but not with her. “Did they hurt y—mmf.”

She grabs his face and pulls him down for a kiss, and then another, neither particularly pleasurable given the force behind it, but she can hardly help herself. The pain of it is nothing compared to the pure shot of dizzying relief that he’s alive and his beautiful head is attached to his beautiful shoulders. And she’s alive! She’s alive and not being bled out for profit.

Eventually Mason manages to wrangle her kisses into something softer and neater, moving his mouth against hers in a way that tames the frantic monster in her chest and makes it purr. Humming, she buries a hand in his silky soft waves, using the other to grip the back of his shirt. When she tugs at it, he pulls back with a sharp breath.

“Sweetheart, nothing would make me happier than fucking you senseless right now,” Mason says, jerking a thumb out the door, “but those guys won’t be unconscious forever.”

“Oh, that’s quite a mood killer,” Barbie frowns. She reaches into her blaze and pulls out her phone. “I’ll call Ava.”

As Barbie’s hitting the button to dial her, Mason ducks down and hoists her over his shoulder. Barbie yelps.

“Oh Mason, not this again,” she complains, wriggling against his hold. “No woman wants to be treated like a sack of potatoes!”

He chuckles in response.

Then a voice comes from the other end of the phone. “…Barbara.”

Oops. Barbie pinches the bridge of her nose. “Yes. Ava. Sorry. We ran into trouble.”

She explains it all as Mason carries her down another flight of stairs and out to the empty parking lot. The rest of them team is gathered and on their way, along with some other agents to assist with clean up duty. Barbie is, delightfully, instructed to go to the warehouse with Mason, who is finally putting her down next to her car.

“We still need to figure out what the source of those rumors is,” Barbie says with a grimace as she dusts herself off. Mason tosses his hair with a snort. She clicks her tongue. “Mason, it’s not as if Trappers showing up means there still aren’t alarming signs of…of…” She trails off, finding herself slowly bracketed in by strong arms and a chiseled chest. Swallowing hard, she plants her hands on that very same chest, letting her palms enjoy the way it feels beneath them.

“…I need my shoes,” she adds quietly. Mason rolls his eyes.

“You won’t need anything at all if you let me distract you,” he says with a purr.

“How do you go from nearly being murdered in cold blood to completely libidinous within mere minutes?” Barbie demands. Mason chuckles, leaning closer.

“I could ask the same of you,” he says, nuzzling in against her neck to lay feather light kisses against her sensitive skin. “I can smell you, Barbie.”

Well, damn him. And herself. She can hardly deny that.

“Fine, you may have your way with me, but we’re coming back tonight to keep investigating,” she says, pretending with all her might to be long suffering and not a sex crazed lunatic in designer clothes. Mason gives her an unconvinced look.

“Try not to leave any wet spots on the seats,” Mason tells her before going around to the passenger side. Barbie gapes. How absolutely vulgar.

How warranted it is.

[delucadarlingwriting]

16 - barbie and felix pls!

😭I love Barbie and Felix. I do imagine their trajectory relationship-wise is...not strictly in line with how the romance goes canonically. I love canon, don't get me wrong, but I love to play with it even more.

Anyway, I'm throwing this in the AU I have with @crownleys where her MC Kira is the detective and Rebecca's kid, Barbie's been working for the Agency for a while and is in her mid-to-late 30s, which causes her a bit of friction with romancing Felix. They're in pretty different places in life and it's a struggle to get on the same page.

***

Felix/Barbie: 16 nose kisses

Wayhaven, post-book 3, a sunny beach several hours away from town

It’s been a few years since the last time Barbie was able to lay out on warm, sandy beach. She settles in on her stomach on her fluffy beach towel, using her arms as a cushion for her head. The sound of the waves lapping at the shore, gulls calling out, and children playing creates a lovely melody just for her enjoyment.

“I don’t supposed you’d need help putting sunscreen on?” Felix asks. Barbie lifts her head and her sunglasses to look up at him. The youngest of Unit Bravo’s team stands tall and proud, wearing a very loud pair of neon colored board shorts. No shirt.

Swallowing hard, Barbie says, “What are you doing here?”

“Wow, what a warm welcome,” he pouts, crossing his arms. “I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

Barbie bites down on her lower lip to hold back a smile. “Of course I am, Felix. Just surprised. I thought everyone would be busy what with Kira’s training at the agency and everyone else doing…patrols and paperwork and such.”

“Ugh, yeah.” Felix flops down on the sand beside her, scooting close until he’s under the shade of her umbrella. He flashes a toothy grin. “That’s why I volunteered to come keep an eye on you.”

Barbie nearly rolls her eyes, but considering she’s still wearing a few bruises from that awful auction, she refrains.

“So I’m an excuse to get out of work, and you’re upset I wasn’t happier to see you?” Barbie arches an eyebrow, feeling a pang of genuine disappointment.

“Aw, Babs, it’s not like that,” Felix says. He wiggles so he’s laying out beside her, unbothered by the sand covering his skin. “You know how I feel about you.”

Yes, she knows exactly how he feels. He’s made it abundantly clear many times. The real trouble is her own feelings. She looks down and toys with a loose thread on her towel. He’d been open about having a sweet little crush on her from the moment they met while working on the Murphy case. What he’d said before they went to the auction though. That really threw her for a loop and she hasn’t quite stopped looping about it.

“Your hearts beating really fast,” Felix says. She swats his arm.

“Don’t tease me.” She wets her lips, Felix’s eyes laser focus on the motion of her tongue. No doubt her heard how that made her heart skip a beat. “Felix, I…”

He reaches out to squeeze her hand and says, “No, don’t. Don’t say anything.”

She blinks. “You…don’t want me to?”

“Nah, not until you’re ready,” he says with a soft smile. “You know, if you ever are.”

“I think I will be,” she says. “But, Felix, you don’t have to wait around for me.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” He brings her hand up and kisses her knuckles, amber eyes sparkling brilliantly. The warmth of his soft lips on her skin makes her ever whirring mind come to an abrupt stop. God, she wishes she was ready now.

Felix would be so easy to fall in love with. She already does love him, on some level, but it’s not the same as what Felix has expressed. What he wants. He wants to be her boyfriend, to jump head first into commitment but…

But despite being a vampire with several decades on her, he’s so painfully young. And he won’t ever catch up to her. She’s already been married and divorced once. If she has another relationship, she wants kids from it. She’s ready to settle in, whether with someone else or alone. Would Felix ever be content with that, having his wings clipped before he’s really gotten to soar?

“I just want you to be happy, and I want me to be happy.” Mustering up a smile, she says, “If we can both be happy together, then that’s when I’ll be ready.”

Felix takes this in with careful consideration, for longer than Barbie expected he might. For Felix, this all seems to come so easily. He doesn’t understand why it’s complicated, why Barbie makes it complicated.

His thumb soothes over the back of her hand, and he says, “Sorry, Babs. I just still don’t see why you think we wouldn’t be happy. I mean, I know you’re eager to see about sexual compatibility but…That’s not the only reason, is it?”

Barbie blanches. Sex has been a very fraught topic, and Barbie had certainly drawn her line in the sand about it. It’s an important aspect of relationships for her, for life. After nearly a decade of bad sex with her ex husband, she’d sworn to never put up with it again.

“If you’re asking whether I’d be willing to date if we have sex first, then no,” Barbie says. Wincing, she adds, “And…I’m sorry I said that in the beginning.”

Felix gives her a weak smile. “It’s alright.”

She hadn’t known about Felix’s own hang ups when she’d first insisted on sleeping together before any kind of commitment, how he’d been left feeling used and abandoned by previous lovers.

They lay there for a while, hand in hand, listening to the ambience of the beach. A warm breeze runs through, washing over them with the scent of salt, seaweed, and…something sweet. Felix glances at her.

“Recognize that?” he asks. Barbie nods.

“Waffle cones,” she says.

“What’s that?”

Barbie sits up, eager to explain. “It’s a thin, sweet batter that’s pressed then molded into a cone. You usually put ice cream in them.”

“Oh! Yeah, I’ve seen those.” Felix sits up and dusts his chest free of sand, a motion Barbie tries really, really hard to not stare at. He catches her doing it anyway and gives her a smirk. “You want some?”

“Huh?” she asks, jerking her gaze back to his face. After what she just said about not only being interested in sex, she really can’t keep ogling the man. At least he doesn’t seem to mind, if the way he angles his body as he leans back is any indication.

“Ice cream?” he says with a teasing lilt to his voice.

Barbie considers it. “Have you ever had it?”

“Once, and it was way too sweet,” he says, wrinkling his nose. Then he shrugs. “But you like it, right?”

“I love ice cream.” Barbie reaches into her bag and tugs out her wallet. “I’ll get you one as well, if you want to try again.”

“Nah. Let me get it though,” he says. Barbie arches an eyebrow.

“Do you have a wallet?” she asks.

“I do,” he says, but as he pats his pockets, his expression goes sheepish. “Uh, back at the warehouse.”

She giggles and slips a few bills from her wallet and hands it to him. “Mint chocolate chip."

He gives her a wink and a salute (with the wrong hand), then darts off in the direction of the sweet smell. Barbie chuckles, noting that there are a few children all heading in the same direction with money clenched in their fists. No doubt on the same mission.

She settles back in and takes a moment to let her mind settle as well. Oh Felix. If they’d met when she was younger…But Felix wasn’t in this world back then. Maybe the timing would never be right for them, no matter what. That’s just not fair. Barbie would be okay with knowing love isn’t in the cards for her, but having Felix so determined that he wants to wait for her, putting so much into his feelings isn’t right.

No. She won’t let him waste his time, waiting around only to be left broken hearted. Even if it means maybe she won’t get exactly what she wants. Compromise has never been easy for Barbie, but Felix is worth it. He seems to think they can both be happy, at least. Maybe she can trust him enough for that.

As she’s still in the midst of trying to make things work in her head, Felix comes back. She moves so they can both sit on the towel, grimacing when he tries to hand her the ice cream cone. Long, green rivers of ice cream are dripping down the entire thing.

“Sorry,” he says. “I didn’t know they would melt so fast.”

“I’ve got it,” Barbie replies, taking his wrist delicately and leaning in to suck at the melted liquid at the top of the cone. Felix’s eyes are wide when she sits back and takes the cone. At least, she tries to take it. He pulls it out of reach when she does.

“I can keep holding it,” he says. When Barbie gives him a look, he waggles his eyebrows. “What, it’s a good look on you.”

“Didn’t I say no teasing?” Barbie huffs. Felix bats his eyelashes innocently.

“Well, it’ll also keep your hands from getting sticky or dirty,” he points out. Barbie makes a considering noise.

“That’s true,” she says, tapping her chin. “Very well. You can hold it.”

“Thanks so much, Babs,” Felix coos. Barbie rolls her eyes.

“I suppose you’d like a thank you as well,” she says. Felix brightens. She crooks a finger and, hesitantly, he leans forward. With careful movements, she presses a gentle kiss to the bridge of his nose. Felix sits back, a bit dumbfounded.

“I was definitely expecting something different,” he admits.

“Disappointed?” Barbie asks before grabbing his hand to get another taste of her ice cream. Felix laughs.

“Nah Babs. Never with you,” he replies.

Despite it all, Barbie feels just the same.

[delucadarlingwriting]

For the kisses ask! Barbie/Kira for 54, Meantán/Fi for 47, Fi/Emmrich for 31? Whichever tickles your fancy!

You spoil me <3

I had the best of intentions on doing all three, but I'll have to save the last one for another time.

Barbie/Kira for 54: sleepy kisses

The Wayhaven Chronicles, Book 3, In the SUV after the auction

All things considered, it wasn’t the worst night of Kira’s life. Sure, she was mind whammied in a cell for most of the night and Barbie was almost bled dry in front of an audience, but despite it all, she’s okay. Barbie’s okay.

She lets out a low, deep breath of relief and rubs at her throat, which Murphy had once nearly ripped out. There’s still some scarring there, but thankfully no one had pressed too hard for details when she said she’d rather not talk about it. Verda and Tina still throw her desperately worried looks from time to time, but it’s fine. It’ll be fine.

The SUV finally draws to a stop after what feels like an eternity. Ava meets Kira’s eye in the rearview mirror, before adjusting it to look more closely at Barbie. Barbie, whose head is resting on Kira’s shoulder, sound asleep. The height difference means she’s practically folded herself to manage it, but every time Kira had tried to rouse her Barbie had just limply smacked at her and grunted.

“I can get her inside,” Kira assures the commanding agent. Ava nods and kills the engine.

“Good work tonight,” she says, addressing the team as a whole. Farah pops up from the third row, grinning.

“Yeah, good job bashing the auctioneer over the head and dragging him straight over to us, Kiki,” Farah says. Kira’s cheeks flush up and she waves her off.

“Well, someone had to stop him,” she mutters. She’s not prone to violence usually, but she can’t lie and say she didn’t get any satisfaction out of knocking that awful man out. The number of people he hurt…Plus, he’d put his slimy hands all over Kira’s wife and that just won’t stand.

On Kira’s other side, Morgan chuckles. “Just wish I could’ve seen it.”

“I think you mean you wish you could have been there to help Kira?” Nate suggests from the front seat. Morgan blinks.

“No, I wanted to see Kira beat a guy up,” she says. Nate sighs.

Ava shakes her head, squeezes his thigh, and says, “Everyone is on a break for the next day at least. Let’s go get some rest.”

Nate melts, throwing her a loving look before moving to do just that. Morgan follows suit, Farah throwing herself over the back of the second row seats to follow her out. Ava gives Kira one more look before stepping out. Kira feels a burst of fondness for all of them. She loves this team.

With that though, Kira is left alone with Barbie in the dark cab of the SUV. She takes Barbie’s hand, toying with the stack of rings on her finger. They’d gotten married pretty quick after college. Probably too quick by most standards. Neither of their careers had really taken off at that point and they were broke as a joke. It had taken months for Kira to scrape together the funds to pay for the engagement ring. It’s probably the least flashy part of Barbie’s outfit, but she’d insisted on wearing it anyway.

Leaning up, Kira nuzzles against Barbie’s jaw. Again, she gets smacked and grunted at.

“Babs, come on, we’re home,” Kira says. Barbie rouses a bit then.

“Home?” she asks, rubbing at her eye and smearing already smeared makeup. She’s a complete mess now, after everything, but Kira still can’t help but find her stunning.

“Well, the warehouse,” Kira corrects. It’s not the house, but it’s a home of sorts. Both of them have grown more comfortable there over time. Barbie hums and tugs Kira closer to nuzzles against her neck. Her long eyelashes flutter against Kira’s skin and she squeaks, writhing. “Nooo, that tickles!”

Barbie gives a low chuckle at that. “Mm, but you’re so warm, my dove.”

“Let’s go be warm inside,” Kira insists, batting at Barbie until she relent. When she pulls back, she’s smiling down at Kira before turning to hide a yawn behind her hand.

“Not a bad idea. Ugh, I don’t want to shower,” Barbie whines, as she gets out of the car. Kira follows quickly, able to manuever better than Barbie can thanks to the Agency suit she’d put on. Poor Barbie had broken a heel at some point and is now walking around barefoot, except for the light covering of pantyhose.

“You’ll be really upset if we get in bed dirty,” Kira reminds her. Barbie loops their arms together as they head inside.

“I know,” she says. “So you’ll have to make it all up to me.”

Kira lets out a surprised laugh. “Me? What in the world did I do?”

“You didn’t wake me up with a kiss,” Barbie replies with a sniff. Kira bites down on a smile.

“Ah, of course.” She tugs them to a stop. “Then let me fix that now.”

It’s adorable how giddy Barbie gets about kisses, even now. She leans in slightly as Kira goes up on tiptoe to bring their mouths together. Barbie hums softly, sliding a hand behind Kira’s skull to cradle it. All the tension left in Kira melts away and she nearly sways when her heels hit the ground again.

“I really should have woken you up with a kiss,” Kira says. Barbie gives her a smug smile.

“Don’t forget this tomorrow morning,” she says. Then, looking up at a rapidly lightening sky, corrects herself with, “Or rather this morning.”

“Of course,” Kira says, snuggling up close.

***************************************************************

Meantán/Fi for 47: tummy kisses

Dragon Age: Veilguard, The Lighthouse

“Good morning, my princess. How are you doing this morning?” Fi asks, kicking the door to their bedroom closed. From the bed, Meantán groans and throws an arm across her eyes, her long, red curls splayed out against the pillows like a flaming halo.

“Who can even tell what time it is here? There’s always light.” she grouses. Fi laughs, shaking their head. Their wavy brown hair tickles just below their chin now. What with the world going to absolute shit, there hasn’t been time for a haircut. With their free hand, they rub at their jaw; they could use a shave too.

Later though. For now, they have better things to focus on.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Fi leans over to press a kiss to Meantán’s forehead. She moves her arm just enough to peer at them over it.

“We don’t even have a window in here,” Fi reminds her. Then, looking over at the ocean of fish on the other side of the glass wall says, “Well, a window that looks into the actual Fade at least.”

“I can still tell,” Meantán says.

“So I take it you didn’t sleep then,” Fi says, worry fluttering through them. Meantán’s been having a rough time of it, more than most. She shrugs and cups their cheek in her hand.

“I rested enough.” Her gaze drops to their jacket, specifically their pocket. “What did you bring me?”

“Who says I have anything for you?” Fi grins when she pinches their cheek. “Alright, perhaps I did bring you something.”

“Where from?” Meantán asks. What with having nearly opposite sleep schedules, they tend to spend their time apart using Solas’ eluvian to explore the world.

“Rivain,” Fi replies. They pull out a large, round fruit from their pocket. “It’s a mango. We get them in Treviso sometimes. Have you had one before?”

“I’ve seen them,” Meantán says, sitting up with interest in her eyes. “I can’t say I’ve eaten one though.”

“Not surprising, for a dog lord. It’s pretty colorful after all,” Fi says, earning a smack to the arm that makes them laugh.

“Do I have to peel it myself?” Meantán asks, pouting slightly. Fi coos and rests a hand on her stomach. Though Meantán has reported feeling movement, Fi will have to wait a few weeks more for that.

“They’re a bit too juicy to do that here,” they admit. “I was coming to see if you’d join me for breakfast. Or I can cut it and bring it back in here.”

Meantán practically throws the blankets off herself. “Absolutely not, I’m sick of laying in bed.”

Fi laughs and watches as she slides off the mattress. She’s long and lean, and though she’s been disappointed by her lack of a baby bump, it’s certainly made moving around easier than it would be otherwise. Fi can’t help but be grateful it isn’t painting a huge target on her back. This isn’t exactly the best of times to be starting a family, but the moment they were both aware of it, they couldn’t turn back.

Life waits for no one and nothing. Not even megalomaniac elvhen gods.

Meatan give a long, luxurious stretch, her shirt (Fi’s shirt, they’d been wondering where it got to) riding up to expose her stomach. Without even thinking about it, Fi reaches out to pull her closer. She makes a curious noise, then smiles when she realizes what’s caught their attention.

“You didn’t say good morning,” she points out. Fi lets out a short huff.

“Good morning, little one,” they say. They hold the hem of the shirt up, then lean in to press a soft kiss to Meantán’s stomach. She giggles.

“Fi, you’re too fuzzy for that, it tickles,” she says, reaching down to rub at their jaw. They lean into the touch happily.

“Breakfast and a shave it is then,” they replies in a happy murmur. With a finger hooked under their chin, Meantán tilts their head back and leans down to catch their mouth in a slow, soft kiss.

“Breakfast, bed again, and then a shave,” she says. When they lift an eyebrow, she adds, “You were gone all night. I missed you.”

Fi shakes their head; she certainly missed part of them. Not that they aren’t delighted to oblige.

“Anything her highness wishes,” they reply, earning a fond eyeroll before Meantán tugs them to their feet and starts dragging them for the door.

[creativepromptsforwriting]

Kisses

Showing affections.

goodnight kisses

hand kisses

smiling while kissing

lips barely touching

morning kisses

slow kisses

passionate kisses

kisses on the cheek

first kisses

goodbye kisses

welcome home kisses

kisses on the corner of their mouth

frustrated kisses

kissing each other breathless

soothing kisses

nose kisses

kisses as a promise

short pecks

forehead kisses

French kisses

tearful kisses

kisses on head

calming kisses

“we’ll face this together” kisses

kisses in the rain

life-or-death kisses

kisses for a cover

hard kisses

giggling while kissing

desperate kisses

neck kisses

“stay strong” kisses

hushed conversation in-between kisses

eyelid kisses

gentle stroking of cheeks while kissing

small kisses

kissing it better

fake kisses

jaw kisses

wake-up kisses

thigh kisses

kissing away tears

“we’ll get through this” kisses

public kisses

relieved kisses

kisses for comfort

tummy kisses

kisses to shut them up

slowly kissing down the body

“we’ll see each other again” kisses

kissing each finger

quick kisses

reassuring kisses

sleepy kisses

feather-light kisses

angry kisses

kisses with trembling lips

“forever mine” kisses

secret kisses

kisses with their last dying breath

Hugs|Hand-holding|Touching

[delucadarlingwriting]

Vampire Divorce Court - Striking Matches Burns Fingers

Man, writing has been a hell of a task lately. This has been marinating in my docs for a while, because I like having two parts done before posting one, but...Yeah, I'm doing it now. I've got the next one done, though it needs a bit of work. I'm still figuring out the outline for part 10. Part of me feels like I need to go back and replay the games a bit, just so I'm not constantly second guessing if I've written them OOC or what.

Anyway! I did have fun with this part. Mason and Barbie barking at one another while getting absolutely zero communication done is very fun for me. Plus, I love Kira.

Summary: Mason really wishes he could backpedal on the whole Barbie-coming-to-help thing.

First | Previous | Part 8 | Next

Word Count: 3,610

***

Book 1, Haley’s Bakery, early morning

There’s not much good about this mission, but Mason can at least appreciate that Barbie seems to want to be away from him as much as he wants to be away from her. She’d been gone when he came down for his break from babysitting the detective just a few hours after snapping at one another. He couldn’t catch her scent at all either, so she must’ve left right after he’d gone inside. No telling where she went or what she was doing, only that Adam had determined someone needs to keep an eye on her. Mason’s glad the commanding agent chose to tackle that project himself.

He’s doubly glad that Farah had elected to leave the subject well alone as they wandered the quiet town. That didn’t stop her from chattering about anything and everything else, but Mason’s more than used to tuning other people out. That is, until she suddenly says, “Adam’s texted.”

“What about?” Mason grunts. He’d just dug out his carton of smokes, but finding only a quarter left inside, he shoves it back into his pocket. The sky is just starting to turn pink, the quiet buzz of life starting to grow around them. If he’s going to make it through the day, he’ll need to ration them out.

“We’re going to meet up with him, and then we’re going to go meet up with Nat, Kira and…Well, you know.” Farah eyes him, but he doesn’t give her anything to read off. Other than annoyance, but that’s practically nothing. “Think you can manage it?”

“Shut up,” he snaps. Farah snorts and shrugs.

“Alright. Come on, he said he’d meet us near that park in the bougie part of town.” She flounces off, her enthusiasm to meet up with Adam grating against his dread for meeting up with everyone else.

Adam is waiting for them when they arrive, and after greeting Farah, he looks to Mason. At Mason. Like he’s making sure there are no cracks. Mason just takes it until Adam leads the way to wherever they’re going. He hadn’t been listening when Adam told them.

While he’d denied needing anyone to arrange shifts so he doesn’t have to be around Barbie, Mason is starting to regret that now. It’s done though, so he just has to suck it up until it’s done and she leaves. Adam falls back as they approach the bakery, and Mason nearly does too when he spots the back of Barbie’s head through the huge windows.

Farah looks up at him when his next step is off cadence, but he pretends not to notice and keeps going. It’s not as if talking about it will help anything, no matter what she and Nat think. He pushes through the door, Adam catching it as Farah slips through, following the both of them in.

There’s only one enormous table in the place, but luckily no other customers. Nat’s on one side, facing the door, while Kira and Barbie are hip to hip on the other side. A fact that has Adam growling quietly. Admittedly, Mason has his own hesitations at the sight. No vampire that’s as hungry as Barbie has to be should be anywhere near humans. Let alone the human they’re supposed to be protecting.

Mason heads straight for the chair at Nat’s side, throwing himself down on it, while Farah takes the one next to him. Adam doesn’t bother, standing tall with his arms crossed right behind Barbie’s chair. She doesn’t look at him though, nor does she look at Mason. She continues the conversation as if she hasn’t even noticed either of them at all. Fine by him.

The rest of them talk, but Mason isn’t paying attention to what they’re saying. He’s doing his best to tune everything out. It’s damn near impossible though. Ever since she arrived in this town, Mason swears he can feel her, despite the ways in which she’s changed.

She smells different now. Indescribably so, considering he can still recognize her scent as being distinctly Barbie. Her heartbeat is quiet and sluggish, enough to be alarming for a human, but it may as well be a drum beating against the inside of his head. Loud enough that he barely notices the baker woman coming up behind them all.

“Anything I can get you?” she asks, terribly cheerful as she wipes her sugar dusted hands against her apron. Mason turns to glare, but pauses first to look her up and down. Her heart beats fast, faster still when she meets Mason’s eye.

“We’re fine,” Barbie says, her voice slicing through the moment. Her eyes are wide behind her glasses when Mason looks over, like she managed to surprise herself with the vitriol in her voice. “I mean…We—We’re—”

Nat jumps in to fix the situation. She turns to the baker and smiles. “We don’t need a thing, but thank you.”

The baker looks confused, stuck between offense at Barbie’s response and flustered at Nat’s. She settles on an awkward smile, a nod, and beats a hasty retreat for the kitchen.

“Wow,” Farah says with a snicker. “I see how you managed to charm Mason’s pants off.”

“That’s hardly a difficult task,” Barbie mutters, staring down as she folds and unfolds a paper napkin on the table in front of her. Mason leans forward against the table, but he’s cut off from responding by Nat.

“Kira had a question,” Nat says, gripping the conversation in an iron fist before it can go down the drain any further.

The detective, cradling a mug of something dark and bitter in her hands, hesitates for a moment as if forgetting the question herself after that whole exchange.

“Um. Yeah. I guess I was just wondering about…” She looks over toward the counter, but Mason can already hear the baker starting up an industrial mixer in the back. None of this will be overheard. Kira pulls her long, strawberry blond braid over her shoulder, twirling it around a finger as she talks. “The thralls that attacked us. You said they’re people, right? Humans?”

Nat nods. “Residents of Wayhaven, in fact.”

Kira’s face scrunches up unhappily. “But no one’s been reported missing.”

“They wouldn’t be,” Mason says. “He can’t control them without being at full strength.”

“At night,” Barbie elaborates before Kira can ask. “Otherwise they’re just themselves. Normal humans, living their lives.”

“And they don’t know what he’s done to them?” Kira asks.

“Not a clue,” Farah replies. She shifts, uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.

“Well, I want to check on them,” Kira says, jaw set.

“We are already keeping an eye on them,” Adam says, his tone saying without words that that should be the end of the conversation. Kira dismisses this idea and continues.

“It’s my job to keep them safe,” she says, turning to look up at him. “I know I haven’t done a stellar job so far, but that doesn’t mean I can just shrug off my duties and give up.”

“I’ll go with you,” Barbie says, gently laying a hand on Kira’s. Every other vampire stiffens at the gesture. “I’d like to get an idea of the sort of people Murphy has been targeting, and if there may be a connection to be found there. Where he found them may be an indicator of the locations he’s been working around.”

Kira beams, way too grateful for what’s being offered. Adam’s eyes shift behind his sunglasses, looking quickly between them as he realizes he’s rapidly losing control of the situation.

“Mason,” he says sharply. Mason’s shoulders drop.

“Seriously?” he asks. Adam stares at him.

“It’s fine,” Kira says, giving Mason a concerned look that he curls a lip at. She shakes her head at him. “Barbie will be with me, I don’t need another babysitter.”

“Yeah, Babs being with you is like, the whole problem,” Farah says. Barbie flinches, looking away as if she hasn’t heard when Kira gives her a questioning look.

Unsure of what possesses him to do so, Mason interferes. “Yeah, you need a real babysitter. So one of us.” He gestures as briefly as he can manage to the rest of Unit Bravo.

At his side, Farah starts peering at him closely, and he can practically feel how she’s trying to pry at him. So he throws an elbow into her side, making her squawk indignantly.

“I’m not a field agent,” Barbie adds on across the table, eager to pounce on the opportunity Mason’s given her. “I wouldn’t be of much help in a dangerous situation.”

Surprised, Kira says, “Really? But you’re also a…”

Looking nauseated, Barbie holds a hand up and shakes her head. “I’ve never been good at physical activities, and that’s as true now as it ever was.”

“All but one, at least,” Mason says. That earns him a swift side kick to the ankle from Nat, along with a stern glare. He growls at her for it, but doesn’t retaliate. No need to start breaking shit and get yelled at for that too.

Kira’s hiding her distaste with a very quick swig from her mug, while Barbie goes a pale pink, her sluggish heartbeat picking up its pace for a moment. He doesn’t think about why she doesn’t blush as deeply as she used to.

“As much as I’m certain Kira and everyone else here appreciates your insight, shall we keep things professional?” Barbie grits out. Mason just grins toothily, enjoying how it makes her let out a frustrated sound and push back from the table. Kira scrambles to follow her lead, pausing only to dust the crumbs from her skirt.

As Mason is hauling himself up, he hears keys jangle in Barbie’s hand. The idea of being stuck in a car with her and the detective makes him want to scratch all his skin off. “I’ll meet you there.”

“Naturally,” Barbie says breezily as she walks past, as if he was being presumptuous by suggesting there was any other option.

Why does he even fucking bother?

***

Book 1, Near the outskirts of Wayhaven, Mid-morning

They show up when he's on his second cigarette. Kira wrinkles her nose as soon as she’s close enough to catch the smell.

“Put that out,” Barbie demands, frowning at him.

“You're one to talk,” Mason says, taking a long, deliberate drag.

“I refrain from doing it around anyone it can damage,” she replies, jerking her chin toward the detective. He cannot summon enough of a fuck to give, considering he’s not exactly huffing in her face. Barbie flinches, the way she does every time he meets her eye, but she doesn’t back down.

Mason sighs and stubs the cigarette against the bottom of his boot before flicking it into the bushes. Kira watches it sail through the air, glares at him, and then stomps off to go fetch it. Barbie crosses her arms and arches a drawn on eyebrow at him.

“Are we here to watch thralls or skip around the woods?” Mason snaps. From behind a bush, Kira pops her head around with a chastising expression.

“We could be watching them already if I didn't have to chase down your litter.” At Mason’s impatient groan, she adds, “This is protected land!”

“That must be part of why this place is so lovely,” Barbie says, as if she has ever gone hiking or appreciated nature in her life. Mason leans back against a tree, doing his best to ignore the way the bark digs into his skin.

“Oh, Wayhaven’s the best!” Kira exclaims, again unseen as she hunts. Eventually she emerges, cigarette butt in hand. Barbie holds her hand out toward her, a cotton, embroidered handkerchief laid over top of it. Kira delicately places the cigarette there, and Barbie folds it up before slipping it all into her pocket.

“Can we go now?” Mason huffs. Barbie flutters a hand at him.

“Well go on, you’re the one who knows where to go,” she urges.

He remembers a time where he liked her decisiveness, the way she didn’t hold back on telling him exactly what she wanted and how she wanted it. Now though, it rankles. He’s tired of every goddamn thing being on Barbie’s terms.

The women exchange glances, and Barbie says, “Well?”

Fuming, Mason swings around and stomps onward. It’s not a real path, but by this point he knows the path of least resistance through the uneven earth and brush. He pushes a branch sticking out in front of him out of the way, letting it go once he’s past it. It swings back, and there are dual yelps of surprise behind him, followed by a sharp, “Mason!”

He smiles to himself and hastens his pace, if only to hear Barbie grumbling as she tries to keep up while wearing heels and a tight dress. The detective isn’t nearly as thrown off, which he almost finds respectable.

Eventually they come to the spot Mason’s used on and off for the past week to keep an eye on the thralls here. Not all of them live in this area, but two are neighbors. Probably targeted for the ease of it all. He crouches down, settling in for a long, boring watch when Kira emerges with Barbie stumbling along behind her.

“Have you spotted them already?” Kira asks. Mason nods and gestures to houses below.

“The ones there, with the red brick,” he says. “The other two are on opposite ends of town, but these ones are easy to watch.”

The detective comes close, smelling distinctly of fragranced soap. It makes his nose itch and his eyes water, but he does his best to ignore it. Eventually, after watching squint for several seconds, he realizes she can’t see the thralls moving around in their houses through the windows.

“They’re in there,” he says. He can’t hear anything at this distance, not over the wind in the leaves.

“What are they doing?” Kira asks. This though, she aims at Barbie.

“I can’t see either,” Barbie replies.

“But you’re…” Kira trails off, then gives a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I know you said you’re different.”

Understatement of the fucking year, there. Mason doesn’t say it out loud, but Barbie glares at him anyway like she already knows that’s what he’s thinking. He doesn’t like that she still knows him well enough for that, while he feels like he hardly knows her at all anymore.

Before the quiet can settle in, Kira asks, “Is that why you wear glasses?”

Barbie laughs, the noise like a punch to the gut. “Oh God, no. These are fake, just plain glass in frames. They actually make it harder to see sometimes.”

“Oh,” Kira says. It’s clear she has a thousand questions, while Barbie seems to regret saying as much as she did.

“You know, I’ve never actually seen a thrall before, so this expedition is quite exciting,” Barbie says quickly. While it doesn’t wipe away the curiosity in the detective’s eye, she follows Barbie’s lead anyway.

“Never?” Kira asks. Barbie shakes her head.

“No. Not even in all the time I worked with Unit Bravo.”

“So you worked with them before?” Kira asks. Barbie looks at Mason again, but he isn’t offering any easy answers this time. So she sighs and nods.

“Yes, I work with a variety of teams who need my help, but I used to work most closely with Unit Bravo before I was transferred,” she says.

That makes Mason snort. “Really? You’re calling it a transfer?”

“Do you really want to get into this right here, right now?” Barbie snaps, her gaze cutting over to Kira and back again. Having her stand over him, looking down her nose with every hair in place makes Mason itch all over. He stands, just to put himself on equal footing with her.

“I don’t give a fuck if the detective hears about it, and you’re the one who brought it up in front of her,” Mason says. Barbie rolls her eyes and it makes Mason’s head start spinning.

“Perhaps I don’t feel the need to air out my dirty laundry. Though Lord knows you probably have!” Barbie shouts. Mason steps closer, nearly bouncing Kira out of the way.

“Guys, easy,” she says as she scrambles to her feet, but neither vampire is really hearing her.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Mason demands. Barbie meets his eye fully.

“You have no shame and no decorum,” she says. He blinks.

“Is that news to you?” he asks.

“Don’t speak to me so flippantly,” Barbie says. Mason snorts.

“You think I’m flippant? What about you?”

“What about me?” Barbie crosses her arms.

“At least I actually give a damn about the people I’m supposed to care about,” Mason says. “You can’t handle your goddamn vanity being wounded to the point of running to another fucking continent to hide away.”

Barbie moves then, arm coming up before freezing somewhere just above her hip. She closes her eyes, breathing deep as she pinches her nose with the hand she was certainly about to slap him with. Mason almost wishes she’d tried, even if he’s not sure exactly what he’d do about it.

“Mason, if you think the only problem I have with being a vampire is looking like this,” she says, as if she’s some sort of horrible, mangled thing, “then divorcing you really was the best thing I could’ve done.”

Before Mason can even begin to come up with something to say to that, Kira shoves her way between them.

“Okay, come on. Enough. You’re just finding things to argue about.” She looks between them, keenly taking in all this new information, while also wanting to stop either of them from continuing. Which is just as well, as Mason’s throat has gone so dry he doubts he could say much anyway.

To hell with this, Adam can come babysit if he really wants someone to watch the detective.

Of course, before he can even will himself to move, Barbie steps away first.

“I doubt I can glean much just from observing them as they are now,” she says, fussing with the buttons on her coat. “I’d be better off completing the files the Agency wants on them, which I can do with my laptop and a printer.”

“I have a printer at my apartment,” Kira says after a moment. “You can use that one.”

“Wonderful,” Barbie says flatly. She’s gone the next moment, stumbling back through the trees.

Mason curls and uncurls his fingers, itching to run after her and…

And what? What the fuck does he even want with her anymore? He thought nothing. It should be nothing.

Everything is too bright, too cold, and too damn much. He turns away to settle back on his haunches, ostensibly to observe the thralls, but if he's being truly honest with himself he isn't absorbing a damned thing. The detective settles in beside him, wrapping her arms around her knees.

“That was…a lot,” Kira says haltingly. Mason snorts.

“That’s nothing.” One of the last conversations they had before she ran off, he and Barbie had screamed so loud at one another that Elidor had had to use his magic to separate them. At least Barbie wasn’t cursing his name down for the next century.

“Still, arguing with someone you used to be with can’t be fun.”

Mason rolls his eyes. “You’re a real genius, huh?”

“I guess she hasn’t always been a vampire?” Kira asks. Mason ignores her, but that doesn’t stop the detective from continuing. “I’d ask her, but she seems to get upset when she has to talk about being one. That plus some of what you guys just said…”

“No, she was turned,” Mason says, suddenly too fucking tired to tell Kira to mind her business. Answering her questions will, with any luck, get her to shut up faster.

“Did you know each other as humans?”

“No. I was a vampire, she was human when we met.” Mason stands again, stomping his feet to try and get some feeling back into them. Bloody fucking cold. It’s always worse this close to the ocean.

“But she turned before you two broke up,” Kira says. It’s not a question, so Mason doesn’t answer. Besides, he doesn’t really want to even think about Barbie turning, let alone talk about it. If he had his way, she’d be just as human now as she was then. Nearing the end of her life, sure, but not miserable in her existence either. It’s what he’d been preparing himself to deal with ever since they decided to give being a couple a try.

“What does any of this have to do with the thralls?” Mason snaps. Kira shrugs. Just when he thinks that’s the end of that, she piped up again.

“How do you turn people into thralls?”

Mason scoffs. “I don’t. I can’t. Only natural vampires can. And no, I’m not explaining anything else about that.”

To his surprise, the detective’s response to his acerbic words is to laugh. She rests her chin on her knees.

“That’s fine,” she says. “I don’t mind sitting in silence.”

Relief floods him, as that’s all he’s really wanted the whole time. Even if the silence isn’t really silence, between the wind, the birds, and the squirrels darting around barking at one another, it’s better. He can think more clearly. Even the sound of Kira’s breathing isn’t so bothersome.

As time stretches on, he finds the presence of Kira in general isn’t as bothersome as it once was. He might even enjoy it a bit.

Next

[delucadarlingwriting]

Vampire Divorce Court - Projection is a Hell of a Drug

Oh my god, I've started struggling. I've had this part and part 8 done for a few days now, but I realized that at the point I'm writing about Book 1, Murphy's like this [] close to yoinking the detective. There's not a lot between M taking the detective to the thralls and the detective getting snatched. I was really having a hard time figuring out where I could add in some decent scenes of Kira and Barbie getting to know one another, showing Nat and Kira having Tension, Farah and Adam eyefucking in the bg....It felt like there just wasn't any time!

But then I remembered canon has no hold on me, I can just make shit up. So that's what I plan to do from part 9 onward! Yeehaw!

Summary: Kira thinks Nat is great, but waking up to the other woman in her apartment feels like playing hackysack with a grenade.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

Word Count: 1,337

Book 1, Kira’s apartment, 5:00 am

It’s dark and quiet when Kira wakes up. She hasn’t experienced that in a while. Not the dark thing, she’s always been an early riser, but it hasn’t been very quiet in her apartment for a while. Even though Unit Bravo doesn’t spend all their time hanging around her apartment while she’s sleeping, there’s usually at least two of them. It’s actually kind of comforting sometimes, waking up and falling back asleep to the sounds of quiet, familiar chatting coming from the next room.

The fact that it’s quiet quiet actually puts her on edge. She blinks up at the dark ceiling, rolling over to check the time on her phone; 5 am. That’s still prime vampire time. Kira slides off her bed and tosses her silk lined bonnet behind her, letting her waist length strawberry blonde hair fall around her in a curtain. Shaking it out, she pads as quietly as she can to the bedroom door, pulling it open and peeking out into the living room.

Seated in Kira’s favorite little antique arm chair is Nat, a book open in her lap. One ankle rests on her knee. She looks breathtaking even in the dim light of the lamp on the side table beside her.

Almost like she can hear the thought, Nat looks up and smiles. “Oh, Kira. Good…” She pauses, lifting her wrist to check her watch, “…morning.”

“Good morning,” Kira says, holding in the fondness that rushes through her. Then she looks more closely at what Nat’s reading, and the floor falls out from beneath her. “Is that one of mine?”

“Oh, yes it is,” Nat says, looking sheepish in the face of Kira’s dismay. “I apologize, I didn’t want to reread any of the ones I brought yet again. Do you mind?”

Kira nearly shouts YES, until she realizes which book it is that Nat’s reading. A romance book, but not one of her smuttier ones. If she recalls correctly, that book in particular tends to fade to black when spicier scenes come up. Sighing with relief, Kira waves her off.

“Oh no, feel free.” She looks around, just to be sure they’re actually alone. “Where are the others?”

It’s not the first time Kira has woken up to only one of the vampires playing guard dog. She can’t help but feel a bit more on edge about it with Nat though. If Bobby had any idea about any of this…Dread runs down Kira’s bad in thick, cold ribbons.

“Farah and Mason are on a rest period. They’ll join us in a few hours,” Nat replies.

Kira nods. "And Adam?”

“He’s…with Barbie,” Nat says haltingly. She tucks a piece of hair behind her ear, though its short enough that a piece falls right back to curl against the line of her jaw. Kira tries not to look too incredulous, but can’t really help it.

“Doing what?” Kira peeks out the window. Sleepy Wayhaven is still dreaming. Nothing at all to see.

“I’m not entirely sure, if I’m honest.” Nat shrugs nonchalantly. “Barbie tends to have her own reasons for what she does. And Adam is simply keeping an eye on her.”

Kira wonders if this has anything to do with Barbie’s certainty that she’d find Murphy within a day. Though Kira had little hope of Barbie actually managing it, it wouldn’t surprise her if Barbie’s ego had been wounded to end the day with so little to go on. Kira understands the urge to work relentlessly, until some sort of progress has been made. Still, there’s only so far anyone can push themselves.

“So what, Barbie doesn’t sleep?” Kira asks. Nat goes uncharacteristically awkward. That’s been kind of a theme ever since the researcher showed up. This is a specific sort of awkward, considering quiet though. Kira snaps. “Oh, I get it. She’s a supernatural. A vampire?”

Nat looks relieved to not have to say it herself. “Yes, she is.”

“That explains why she’s worked with you guys before then,” Kira says. There had been humans working at the facility she’d “visited”, but it was far more often that she saw people who were certainly some kind of supernatural being. Barbie looks nearly as human as the other vampires, except for…well. The way she looks. Kira presses her lips together, not really willing to ask about that.

There is one question she’s been holding in that she can’t resist asking now though. “So, she and Mason…They’re exes?”

If Nat thinks this is a nosy question, she doesn’t show it, only giving a small, amused smile. “Yes, they are. It’s still a sore topic though, as I’m sure you can tell.”

“Yeah.” Kira shakes her head. “It’s a shame they have to work together now.”

Nat stands, taking the book back to Kira’s shelf. “Oh I don’t know. I think this is the perfect reason for them to work things out. Without this mission, they may well have avoided one another for the rest of their lives.”

“I don’t blame them for that,” Kira says, crossing her arms. Nat glances at her as she finds the right spot to slot the book.

“No?”

“No!” Kira laughs. “I mean, they broke up for a reason, right? That should say it all.”

Nat pauses, her eye lingering on the diamond ring bound to Kira’s finger. “They also fell in love for a reason.”

“If it was enough, they’d still be together. It’s probably better they both just get over it and move on. Everyone deserves to find real happiness, not be stuck with someone just because they’ve invested so much time in the relationship,” Kira argues. Nat says nothing to that, choosing instead to busy herself tidying up Kira’s coffee table. There’s not really anything to tidy on it though, so she mostly ends up pushing the coasters into a new formation.

Kira gives herself a mental kick. What is wrong with her? Why is she pushing so hard on this? After all, she and Bobby are an example of a broken up couple getting back together and making things work. She rubs a finger along the band of her ring.

“I’m sorry, this isn’t really worth arguing over,” Kira says. Nat looks up, her smile just a touch strained.

“It’s certainly interesting to hear different perspectives on thing,” Nat says. She straightens up and runs a hand over her button up shirt; a pale pink one today, with little blue birds dotted all over. Very different from her usual earth tones. It makes Kira starkly aware of her own attire; a thin cotton chemise. Sure, it’s ankle length, but Kira feels horribly under dressed nonetheless. If Nat has noticed or thought anything of it, she doesn’t let on. “I think I started it anyway. Can I give my apology in the form of breakfast?”

Kira gives a short laugh, quickly crossing her arms to better hide her chest. Not that she has a lot of that, but still. “Well, that’s hard to argue against, but I think I have to decline. I wanted to go on a run. Eating beforehand just makes me nauseated.”

“Ah, yes, I’d forgotten,” Nat says, slipping her hands in her pockets. “Well, perhaps after?”

“Sure,” Kira says, desperately grateful that Nat isn’t one to hold hard feelings. Even if Kira was being unreasonable. “We can go to Haley’s bakery. It’s close enough to walk to, and I love her pastries.”

Nat brightens considerably at that news. Then she cocks her head, swinging it toward the door. “Oh, that’s Barbie coming.”

“Tell her she can join us,” Kira says as she heads into her bedroom to get changed into something more substantial and easier to run in. Having Barbie there will be nice. She hasn’t gotten to know the other woman very well, but despite her oddities, Kira gets the feeling they’ll get along.

Plus, as time goes on, Kira feels more and more like being alone with Nat is a terrible idea.

Next

[delucadarlingwriting]

Vampire Divorce Court - It's Not a Hit Piece it's a Hit Frag Grenade

After throwing some spaghetti at the walls about this fic with @crownleys I decided to go back and change somethings up. I was really struggling with how to spice things up for Kira and Nat's romance (as currently it felt more or less like I was just rehashing Book 1 without adding anything, which I felt was boring and not fair to her). Then she suggested having Kira and Bobby be (unhappily) engaged. Well. There's the spice I was looking for 🔥

(So be forewarned. There won't be any outright cheating, but Kira's already got one foot out the door of the relationship and her growing feelings for Nat make things go a little faster. Not inherently a motivator for Kira to leave Bobby ((Bobby ensures Kira would do it regardless of any other potential romantic partners)) but certainly a motivator for her to reflect on her relationship with Bobby.)

Anyway, you can probably see I've restructured the order of things a bit to better fit this. This part will take place after Mason and Adam's conversation in the SUV before meeting Kira, and before the conversation that leads to Barbie coming to help with the investigation into Murphy.

Without further ado.

Summary: Kira has never taken the easy route through life, best exemplified by her deciding to get engaged to the worst person in the world. Who is bringing her some dinner to make up for writing an article that makes her look stupid.

Word Count: 1,600

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

Book 1, Kira’s office, two hours before the night patrol

Every time Kira thinks she’s finally got a good grip on what she’s doing with her life, something happens to tip the whole thing on it’s head and make her feel all of four years old. She rubs a hand over her face, trying to remove the images of Garrett and Kate Hayes from her mind. How in the world is she supposed to handle all of this? She never thought being a detective in Wayhaven would be a cushy job, but she certainly didn’t think she’d have two murders dropped in her lap to ease her into her new role.

As rattled and upset as she is about the Mayor’s demands that she patrol tonight, she doubts she'd have gotten much sleep anyway. Patrolling will give her something to do that isn’t going over the same evidence the same way over and over again. And again.

From beyond her office, the doors to the station open and Douglas lets out a sleepy, “Oh, hello Bobby.”

Kira pinches the bridge of her nose and braces herself.

“Hello, Angel,” comes a husky purr from her open doorway. When she can bring herself to do so, Kira looks up.

Bobby Marks is and always has been remarkably attractive. Kira can remember the very first time she’d laid eyes on Bobby in middle school, and how she’d slipped little love notes into the other girls’ locker anonymously. It was a long standing crush that she’d felt so lucky to have reciprocated during their senior year of high school. Looking at her now, Kira tries and tries to draw up those same giddy feelings she had back then.

“Hey,” she says, unable to inject any life into her flat tone. Bobby’s pretty face scrunches up.

“Hey yourself,” she says, sashaying over and holding up a white paper bag. “I happened to notice your car still here and thought you’d like some dinner.”

“Thanks,” Kira says, hoping the bag is from the Vietnamese place where they both order the same thing, rather than the Italian place where Bobby always orders her own favorite meal that Kira hates. Bobby’s eyebrows draw together and she huffs delicately.

“What is with you?” she asks, one hand on her hip, the other shaking the bag of takeout food. “I’m being really nice and thoughtful, like you asked.”

“Were you being very thoughtful when you wrote that hit piece for the paper about how I’m bungling up this investigation?” Kira shoots back. Bobby rears back as if Kira had just slapped her.

“Hit piece?” Bobby blinks her big, blue eyes. “Angel, I was merely informing the good people of Wayhaven about the goings on. They deserve to know that there are shady people handling this investigation, and poorly at that.”

“You mean my mother’s specialized team of elite government agents?” Kira says slowly. Bobby arches a well plucked brow.

“The very same mother you can’t stand, yes.” Bobby inspects the sparkling diamond ring on her finger that Kira had quickly scrounged up her savings to buy after Bobby’s surprise proposal. “Did you even tell her about us?”

“Yes,” Kira says, which is mostly true. Sure, Rebecca had noticed the ring herself, and if she hadn’t Kira wouldn’t have said anything. But Rebecca asked, Kira answered, and therefore technically Rebecca has been told.

It’s also so, so far from the point that Kira’s mad at herself for even answering the question. She stands up and rounds the desk, reaching past Bobby to close the door to her office.

“Don’t get excited,” she warns when Bobby starts to smile. “I’m pissed, Roberta.”

“Oh dear, the full name?” Bobby flutters a hand over her heart. “Angel, come on. I’m a reporter. It’s my job to report.”

“And it’s your job to put my job at risk?” Kira demands, jerking the blinds shut, blocking out at least three pairs of curious eyes from further in the station. She’s glad the blinds had been updated along with the rest of the station. If they were still the nicotine stained ones Detective Reele had up before, she surely would’ve yanked them off entirely.

Bobby leans against the wall and gives Kira a disbelieving look. “Honestly, Angel, exaggeration isn’t an attractive look on you.”

“I am not exaggerating, the mayor already called to ream me out about it. He more than implied he’ll remove me from my position entirely if I don’t get you to shut up,” Kira snaps. That, thankfully, gives Bobby pause.

“…Surely he’d have no grounds, considering I’m just sharing freely available information,” she says after a long moment of chewing it over. Kira groans.

“Bobby, that doesn’t matter and you know it. He doesn’t need a good reason. Besides which, spreading freely available information isn’t the same as deliberate fear mongering,” Kira says, trying like hell to get her fiancee to understand. It always feels like these conversations are a bit like trying to rock climb when someone’s dumping soapy water on her head though. If Bobby doesn’t want to understand, she just won’t.

Bobby shakes her head, her luscious tresses shimmering in the lamp light. “Garret Hayes was mutilated, I don’t need to say more to make that terrifying.”

Just as Kira’s about to cede the point, she pauses. Hearing Bobby say it aloud gives her a realization that simply reading the words hadn’t.

“How did you know that?” Kira asks. Bobby cocks her head.

“That Garret’s been murdered?”

“That he was mutilated. We didn’t release that information, and no one but myself, Unit Bravo, and my officers would’ve seen him uncovered,” Kira says. Bingo. For just a moment, there’s a flash of panic on Bobby’s face before she can school it. Anger flashes through Kira, white hot and vicious. “Bobby, I swear to—”

“Don’t be angry, Angel,” Bobby says, shifting and trying her best to look sheepish and innocent. She drags the toe of her shoe delicately in a circle on the floor. “I just asked Douglas what information he had, is it really my fault that he told me more than you wanted him to?”

Oh. Oh Kira’s going to kill him. With her bare hands wrapped around his skinny neck. She’ll need a stool to do it, but once she finds one she’s going to kill him.

She lets her head fall on her desk and wills it to just eat her. Eventually, Bobby clicks her tongue and says, “Honestly, the dramatics aren’t necessary.”

“Don’t.”

“Alright, alright.” Bobby steps closer. Kira peers up in time to see her drop the bag of food on the table, then move so her fingers hover around the buttons on her blouse. She slowly, deliberately slides one open, revealing a hint of cleavage and a dark, lacy bra. “Well, maybe I could make it all up to you when you come home tonight?”

Kira swallows hard. Her eyes are drawn in like a magnet, stuck on Bobby teasing the next button down. For a delirious moment Kira forgets herself entirely, until she shifts and her hand brushes against the report from Verda on Garret’s autopsy. It works better than a cold bucket of water.

Kira shakes her head. “No. I can’t come over tonight.”

“And why not?” Bobby asks, offended. She drops her hands to her curvy hips, hugged tight by her pencil skirt.

“I have to patrol tonight. The mayor demanded it after your article put everyone on edge,” Kira replies.

With some actual, genuine concern in her voice, Bobby asks, “A night patrol? With who? You don’t have a partner anymore.”

“Unit Bravo have kindly volunteered to help me,” Kira says, feeling a genuine wave of gratitude for that fact. She’s never been easy to scare, but Kira has to admit that wandering around on her own when there’s a murderer on the loose doesn’t make her feel great.

Bobby, on the other hand, looks more upset than she had when she thought Kira was doing it alone.

“Seriously? Who even are these people?” Bobby demands. Kira stands up, hands planted on her desk.

“They’re the people who are helping me solve this case.” With a sigh, she says, “Anyway, I won’t be done until late and I’d rather just go straight to bed after.”

Arms crossed in a way that pushes her breasts up and together, Bobby pouts. “See, this is just another reason for you to move in with me, Angel.”

“Not this again—”

“We’re engaged!” Bobby exclaims, throwing her hands up.

“Yes, I recall,” Kira says, holding down a sudden wave of nausea. She’d been excited when Bobby proposed the day Captain Sung told her she’d be taking over for Detective Reele. She thinks she was at least. She had to have been excited. After all, it’s been three years since they got back together. The next thing to do is get married. “If you recall, my first day on the job started with Wayhaven’s first murder in decades since my father’s, swiftly followed by the second just today. I’m up to my gills here, Bobby, this is not the time.”

Bobby gives a frustrated growl, shoves the bag of food closer to Kira, and says, “Fine. Go off and play hero then. It’s probably the only chance you’ll ever get.”

With that last barb, Bobby turns on her heel and storms out. Kira waits until she hears the doors to the station open and close again, then finally takes a deep breath, her shoulders coming down. She reaches for the bag of food and peeks inside.

Italian.

Next