PLAGUE

I am the way into the city of woe, I am the way into eternal pain, I am the way to go among the lost. Justice caused my high architect to move, Divine omnipotence created me, The highest wisdom, and the primal love. Before me there were no created things But those that last forever —as do I. Abandon all hope you who enter here.

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

When Stas had yet to finish his incomplete thought and she didn’t see him doing so, she grinned as he sat there mulling over this entire situation in his head. She carefully removed herself from her position under his arm and scooted off the bed. It was silent for the moment as he sat and  thought, the only sound being her light footsteps and the TV playing quietly. She peeled the white sweater dress she’d worn that day off of her body then crumpled it up and tossed it into the hamper in their closet. She turned to him, “Yes, Mr. Canaan, I don’t really know him,” she laughed. She turned back away and unclasped her bra to remove it as she disappeared into the closet. She dropped the bra into her designated undergarment drawer and opened the one below it for a random pajama t-shirt. She listened to everything he was saying from the bed as she threw the plain gray short sleeved t-shirt on. She left the closet in that and the white underwear she’d worn to dinner, the shirt was old and had a few holes in it, but this was usually what she wore to bed.

She leaned against the frame that separated the room and the closet and crossed her arms, dropping her head against the wall. She felt a little sad about what he’d said, his last point making sense. “Maybe…” Maybe she did have better prospects before here. Better prospects than Dom. People who didn’t murder, amongst other various ‘criminal’ activities. She sighed and pulled away from the frame, walking back to the bed. She slipped onto the bed and resumed her place next to Stas, this time under the warmth of the covers. She set a hand on his stomach and shrugged small. “But maybe this was meant to happen. I mean, she made the choice to join this organization. She left normalcy behind her when she did so. Just… to be fair.”

For Stas, one of the most puzzling characteristics of Alfie was simply the fact that she had indeed left a normal life behind. However, on the other hand, he felt as if he should have been the last person to question her motives. His motives had been to protect Cylana and she wasn’t even his family by blood. Alfie had come, kicking and screaming, to protect her own father who had clearly given up quite a bit in life to support having a child as young as he had. Still, he felt as if there had been options other than giving it all up. Perhaps pleading with her father to leave that behind? Then again, Anastas knew what it was like to interact with someone who could be stubborn. He wasn’t clear on whether or not Max Canaan was stubborn but... Anastas figured that Alfie’s lack of pleading most likely indicated that there was some bull-headedness in the family. Although, that did explain Alfie’s arrival and her insistence on being able to do good for Nazario and the rest of them. 

“True,” Anastas added then, his mouth twisting to the side as he thought, adjusting his position to bring an arm back around Kai as she curled up beside him. “I don’t know,” he said then with a shrug, repeating his thought from earlier, “I just didn’t think he liked her.” For someone who was supposed to be keen on body language, it was often difficult for Anastas to read Dom as far as the topic of Alfie was concerned. While Dom always looked a bit pissed off (or rather, constipated) he sometimes looked even more pissed off with Alfie around. He had been rather distinctly annoyed at Nazario when she first arrived since he believed he was being “demoted” to a babysitter. 

“They looked okay undercover,” Stas said, shrugging again. He was still on the fence about how he felt. Of course, for undercover work, there were pretty decent parameters that Nazario had settled on for who should be paired with who. He and Cylana almost never did anything remotely undercover. But why would they? That would risk Cylana’s life and why would the boss do his own dirty work? That was what he had Dom, Stas, and Kai for, wasn’t it? When Alfie was first introduced the two of them had to do that undercover work at some hotel. Either way, the look was much, much better on the two of them than it would have been for Kai and Anastas. Especially since Dom was supposed to be some kind of tech mogul... at least Alfie knew what the hell she was talking about. “I don’t know,” Anastas continued, “If it’s not meant to be then it’ll just be awkward... especially if Cylana is right on her Stockholm prediction.”

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

Dom became increasingly uncomfortable at Alfie’s behavior. When her phone went off with the sound of a new message and she opened it, she just kept looking weirder and weirder. He made a face at her as she held the phone up and looked between him and the phone. It wasn’t often he was scrutinized, certainly not with the expression she had on her face. He was really not enjoying being examined in this way. If it were anyone else besides Alfie, he would have rudely grabbed the phone out of their hands and demanded to see what the hell they were doing.

She finally took it down away from his face and he felt a bit of relief. What the hell was she doing that she needed to practically  put him under a microscope for? He watched her fumble around with her phone, her hands appearing to shake as she did so. This was odd to witness, as Alfie had a pair of the steadiest hands he’d ever seen, tinkering around with small parts and pieces of technology she was working on, making long and careful lines on plans she’d draw, all kinds of stuff. She was making him feel on edge. He almost blurted out for her to stop being such a weirdo, but he decided that would be better kept to himself. 

She turned the phone to him and showed him a picture of a girl. Is this what she had been so intensely looking at moments before? Why? He stared at the photo. “Yeah,” he said. He did. She looked a little different in those pictures but he could tell that that was most definitely the girl he’d met so many years ago. He made a confused face. If that was what she was viewing before, how? Did Cylana somehow know exactly who Dom had had sex with as a teenager and send these pictures to Alfie? Is that the text she’d received? How did that happen? 

“Yeah,” he repeated, “that’s… That’s the girl.” He looked harder at the pictures, a dumb smile displaying on his face in amusement at the memory of their night before it was quickly replaced with his confusion again. “Why? How did you get these?” He looked away from the phone and then to Alfie. Innocently, he remained confused as she stood there silently, a brow raised as he looked back to the pictures. He almost asked why again until he looked back to Alfie and was suddenly hit with a ton of bricks. 

“Oh my god!” He bellowed, standing up so abruptly that the stool he was sitting on fell over. “That’s you?!”

“Yeah,” she repeated almost irritated that Dom recognized the girl in the photo. It was, truly, horrifying. There was absolutely no reason for Nazario to send her photos that were not of Dom and Dom would never, even if his life depended on it, plot or scheme with Cylana for any reason. She was completely mortified. It wasn’t necessarily because of Dom himself, clearly, she had no restraints about it now, but it was… just the fact that all those years ago it was him and then she still ended up here.

When Dom asked how she got the photos she just looked away, remaining silent, stunned, and horrified. She half sucked in the right side of her cheek, the action causing her mouth to turn to the side as she tried to act casual about it but was very obviously failing at that.

When he stood up quickly, she immediately took a step back from the counter where he was sitting, seeming startled and half scared by the action and the noise. She stared at him as he asked if it was her, his voice incredulous. Her eyes were round, widened and she continued to give him the “deer in the headlights” look for a few passing moments. The only noise in the entire room was the ticking of the oven.

“I…I–I mean–yeah–I…” She couldn’t quite get the words right and began stuttering like a nervous ten-year-old who had just been caught sneaking a sip of beer off of dad’s unattended bottle. “It’s just–” She still couldn’t figure out what she wanted to say and quickly turned around and proceeded to attend to the oven instead of answering the question.

However, testing the brownies and getting them out of the oven was hardly a task that could really keep her away from responding to Dom. He was still standing looking confused but somehow slightly irate. It wasn’t that he was, probably, but elongated periods of confusion tended to do that to a person.

“Yes…” She said then, setting the pan on an oven mitt. “I… Yeah, that’s… uh, me.” She looked away from Dom for a moment before looking back up at him. There was no punchline to this moment of her life, unfortunately, and she gave him a weak shrug. “I…uh, yeah. Cool.” It wasn’t cool, the look on her face and her tense posture definitely reinforced that it was, in fact, not cool at all. There was nothing like the phrase “small world” could fix at a moment like this.

“At least I was right…?” She almost asked then, suddenly unsure of herself, “I mean… you know. You do really look good.”

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

“But it’s not too much or like… bad, right?” Dom asked about being bulky. Now he probably sounded like a self conscious teenager. When he was with the Russians, there were tons of guys were bulked up more than Dom had ever seen before. Their muscles and veins bulged out all over the place, and it looked like they were holding something between their thighs when they walked. They were bulked out to scare people, but Dom only thought they looked weird and inhuman. They weren’t scary, at least not to him. Even if he was much smaller, with the hand to hand skills he had, he could take them easily. Kai could take them no problem, too. They couldn’t actually fight for shit except for throw a couple punches. The punches were sturdy and heavy, but they were slow as hell. They were no match at all for someone who knew how to dodge a punch or find weak points in their structure.

He raised his brows at her with narrowed eyes, wondering where she was going with that. He made the same motion that she did, “He had like this… what?” He bit down on a piece of licorice and watched her. She only ignored him and he watched her suspiciously as she whipped out her phone and began texting. She squinted up at him a few times which left him more confused. “Alfie?”

Nazario looked away from his laptop as his phone chirped with the sound of a new message. It wasn’t completely odd to see a message from Ms. Canaan, but the subject of her message was strange. An small but amused grin displayed itself on his face as he read it. ‘Do you have any pictures of Dom when he was maybe like 17 through 19?’ Of course he did. 

He replied straight away, having one or two pictures already saved on his phone. Then, he unlocked and pulled out the drawer attached to the underside of his desk and pulled out a small stack of photographs he liked to keep close by. He took a few pictures of the photos with Dom in the age range Alfie requested. He sent them all to her and closed his phone. He didn’t feel the need to ask her why she wanted them. He wasn’t entirely interested, although he’d figure it out anyway.

Nazario had responded with... lightning speed. Alfie was only half surprised by this. On one hand, it was Nazario. He didn’t seem the type to delay a response for an ungodly amount of time. On the other hand, she imagined he probably had something better to do than immediately have pictures of Dom hanging around. She wasn’t about to question it, though. However, when she first saw the pictures, she didn’t really allow her brain to register them yet, thanking Nazario first before opening them up. It was then she nearly dropped her phone on the ground and gasped a lot louder than she had intended to. 

Swallowing hard with a moment of panic rising in her eyes, she looked up at Dom. Her mouth pressed into a line, stress lines surrounding the corners of her mouth as she stared at him. She couldn’t believe this. It felt like it would’ve been a sick joke from Cylana. That Cylana would’ve somehow been behind this. There was no way in the world that... No. 

She blinked, hard, and then looked back at the phone and was looking between the photos on the screen and the man who was in front of her. It was fake. It felt fake. She blinked a few times, zooming in on the photos and holding the phone up to compare to Dom but keeping it just out of his reach for seeing the pictures. 

“Oh my God,” she said then in a short gasp and shook her head. Alright. What were the chances that Cylana probably had a picture of Alfie around this time? It wasn’t like Max was inviting them all to her birthdays or anything. She didn’t know any of these people even existed. And anyway, Max worked with Nazario who seemed as though he respected privacy although his lover, on the other hand, was not too keen on the mere definition of privacy let alone the idea of respecting it. 

Alfie fumbled around with her phone, suddenly feeling clumsy and unable to touch the screen where she wanted to. She scrolled through random texts with Max, going to the photos that had been sent between the two of them. Max must have been reminiscing at some point as there were a few photos of Alfie from when she was around 15 or 16. She opened the photos and zoomed in a little, hiding the top bar that led back to her messages with Max. 

She got closer to Dom, turning the phone around and showing it to him and began stuttering, “Okay... Um.. I--” she didn’t know what to say and shook her head, almost embarrassed that this was her reaction. But how could she have prepared? “Do you recognize her?” She asked then, looking down at the picture and then up to Dom’s face, trying to study him as intently as possible. “At all?” She asked then, sliding the photo over to reveal another one. 

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

He was a bit sad when she took the bowl from him. It’s not like there was anything left, which is really more so why he was sad. Where had it all gone? It didn’t last nearly long enough, and he hoped whatever it was that she was making would be done soon. “Uh… I think so.” he said in response to her asking if she’d said he was broad already. He chuckled at her remarks on how ‘fine’ he’d look now if he got any buffer. “Am I bulky enough for you?” he played around, almost immediately regretting it. Did that sound stupid? Was he really supposed to be anything to or for her? He gave a single laugh to laugh it off, and stood from his chair to walk over to the refrigerator. 

He opened the door, looking for something to drink as she talked more about the guy she was with. “Nice teeth is good. I guess the girl I was with had good teeth too, even though she had a retainer. I thought those were for bad teeth, but she had good teeth.” What he didn’t know was that it was for teeth that have already been fixed. He made a face at the liquid options in the fridge. Was this stuff that Alfie had requested be stocked in there? He thought she made her own. V8… N-a-k-e-d… He didn’t know what either of these were but they looked nasty and had pictures of vegetables and stuff on them. “Gross,” he muttered. He sighed and pulled a water bottle out, twisting the cap off and taking a drink. 

He’d downed about half of it in just a few swallows and sat back down. “I don’t know what else about her… physically. Maybe she was small, but I don’t know what the average girl size is, I guess. You’re like… microscopic.” He heard that word from Cylana joking about Jimmy’s dick before. Very small. The thought made him grin. “Anyway, she might have been kinda small like that.” Alfie’s size as an adult was different to what the size the girl was when he was a teenager. He didn’t really now how to convert that.

As Dom asked if he was bulky enough Alfie laughed, taking a brief moment to shoot him a serious look. “Dom, please,” she commented then before laughing, “You’re the bulkiest man I know.” She gave him a quick wink before turning around to look at the oven, her hands at her hips as she bent down and looked through the window. She made a weak attempt at controlling her mild impatience with this, just kind of wanting it to be done since the smell alone was pouring into the kitchen. As if it would cook faster as she watched it, she continued to peer through the window as Dom muttered at the refrigerator. 

“See,” she said then and stood back up as he continued to muse about the girl he had been with. It was (almost) a shame that neither of them could really remember who it was. It was also kind of a shame that neither of them had names to at least pretend like they could go on. Alfie hummed, looking up at the ceiling for a second in thought, her mouth twisting to the side slightly as she recalled random details the best she could.

“You know,” she said then and looked down as if that would help. “He had like this...” She made a general motion in relation to her chest region and then squinted. “A scar...” Her last words being much quieter and more mumbled than her original thought. Her head snapped up and she looked at Dom with increasing scrutiny, her mind trying to quickly piece together something that she had briefly suspected during the retainer conversation. 

It wasn’t something that she had thought much of. It wasn’t as if it was... super in your face but her brain said that she should really analyze this. She squinted at Dom still before refocusing her attention on texting Nazario, in search of photos of Dom when he was around that age. As the message sent, she looked back at Dom, tilting her head at him as she (with ease) had to recall him shirtless. Anything that was there at the time would’ve been faded and most of the time they weren’t having sex under studio lighting... but still, something just felt right about seeing what he looked like when he was younger. It was just that itch that would never be scratched without hard evidence. 

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

It was hard to part from Alfie. That seemed to be how it went every time they kissed, part of the reason why it always lead to more. There was always a high intensity spark between them that always lit a wildfire that was near impossible to put out. Here they stood in the back of a restaurant, though, and they had to. They had people waiting on them, and it was  terrifying to think of the outcome of a lurking Cylana catching them. And there was no question about it that she was definitely around somewhere.

They managed it, though. As soon as she let go of his tie, he cleared his throat and disappeared into the men’s room. His heart was still beating harder than normal, his face flushed from their kiss. He walked to the sink and turned the water as cold as it could go, leaning down to pat it against his face. When he stood erect, he was forced to see himself in the mirror. He didn’t actually totally despise what he saw looking back. Though, he was cleaned up quite well and he was covered up save for his hands and face. He didn’t look for long though and grabbed some paper towels to dry his face off. His tie was in an interesting state from Alfie grabbing and pulling on it, which caused a tiny smile to flicker on his face. He fixed his tie and smoothed down his suit as he left to return to their table.

It was incredible how quickly he got annoyed upon seeing Roy again. He managed to contain the sounds of annoyance that were itching to crawl from his throat and gained his composure. It was hard to keep that composure though with both Roy and Kailey acting like he’d been gone forever and were glad to see he was back. It was… weird. What a bunch of weirdos. Especially Roy. Weirdo.

“Yeah,” Dom agreed with Alfie in response to Kailey. “Sounds great. I like my sweets too.”

“Great!” Kailey and Roy both said at the same time. Dom looked down at the table so he could roll his eyes. Even Dom’s need for sweets didn’t outweigh his desire to get the hell out of there.

They conversed about what to order, most of the desserts on the menu for a whole table. Dom decided to exclude himself from this. Unlike usual when he’d exclude himself because he wanted nothing to do with any of it, this time it was because he could have eaten literally anything off of that dessert menu, or all of it. The pictures alone looked good enough to eat.

As they sat waiting for the dessert to come out, Alfie casually started a new conversation, but faded out of it. Now, Kailey and Roy were talking, with Alfie throwing in short words as nods to the chatting. After about a minute of this, Dom felt something moving up his leg. He could have jumped but before he had the chance it was at his crotch and pressing against him. Immediately, Dom began to choke on his own breath, catching the attention of everyone at the table. He grabbed for his water and gulped it down.

“Are you okay, Dom?” Alfie asked innocently from across the table.

“Yeah, I’m– I’m fine. Just had–  I’m fine.” Once Roy and Kailey had looked away from her and at Dom, Alfie started looking at him with a devilish grin. She pulled her lip between her teeth and he coughed once more.

“You sure you’re good?” Kailey asked.

Dom nodded, his ears burning.

Kai took a drink with Cylana, feeling a bit celebratory herself, though for entirely different reasons. While Cylana was disgusted by the events that have unfolded and proud of herself for being right about something going on with Dom and Alfie, Kai couldn’t stop herself from quietly cheering the non-couple on. 

“I don’t know,” Kai shrugged. “Maybe he really just isn’t her type. Maybe she’s not into boys as equally as nerdy as she is.” She grinned with amusement. That, and she already had an interest in Mr. Dom.

She turned her attention away from Cylana and onto the group just in time to see Dom sit back down. They began talking, and even though Kai couldn’t hear she tried to imagine what they were saying. After what looked like ordering something else, Dom began to cough. 

“What’s happening?!” Kai whispered eagerly. “Is he just… Why’d he start coughing?” She willed Cylana’s evil secret powers to somehow figure out what was happening.

“Yeah,” Alfie said then as Kailey and Roy returned to making their overly optimistic conversation. “I hope you’re alright there.” The devilish smile faded and was replaced by an innocent one which read that she had no idea why suddenly he would be coughing like that. It was definitely improper behavior for two people who were both on double dates.. but at this point, she felt as if she had no control over herself on these matters.

Luckily, Roy and Kailey seemed to be enjoying their bonding time together which, quite frankly, was somewhat boring. Maybe Alfie had just gotten too used to the shenanigans put on daily by Cylana.  However, the waiter disturbed the little moment between Roy and Kailey as he arrived, asking if they had decided on their final order. Of course, neither Alfie nor Dom seemed to have a set interest in it. Dom could, and would, probably eat just about anything as if he were some kind of goat. Meanwhile, Alfie found herself still preoccupied. 

Roy and Kailey had agreed on something, asking their respective dates if they agreed to which they both responded with a nod and a smile. Alfie wasn’t even 100% sure on what it even was at this point. Something probably chocolate and warm, she expected. No one seemed like they were going to have pudding for dessert. 

“You said you liked baking earlier,” Roy commented then, Alfie took a moment to focus her attention back on him. He was still, as ever, happier than a fly on shit. 

“Yep, why?” She asked then, shooting that ever so optimistic smile right back at him, her foot gently rubbing against Dom’s inner thigh while her eyes were busy focusing on Roy as he began discussing something Kailey had said. She, the other optimist, joined in and the three of them discussed baked goods for what seemed like an eon. 

“Oh,” Alfie said then with a grin, her foot retracting slightly, still sliding along Dom’s inner thigh, “My personal favorite has got to be brownies, you know, with some vanilla ice cream. I’ve even done that bourbon and praline kind before. What about you, Damien?”

“Yet she’s into... ew!” Cylana nearly gagged at the mere thought of the Incredible Hulk with Alfie and for Alfie to actually like him? Oh Lord, where had the universe gone wrong? Out of everything that wasn’t supposed to be happening this was one of the top things in Cylanaland that were not allowed to happen. He, that massive bitch, wasn’t supposed to be happy. That was just how things were supposed to work out. He was to live and die alone... even if it wasn’t quite like that he wasn’t supposed to live long enough to have someone of Alfie’s caliber actually be into him. The thought alone made Cylana feel like she needed twelve showers.

Kai’s excitement caused Cylana to momentarily squint at her as if somehow that would show that it wasn’t the real Kai who she had taken on this dinner surveillance meeting. “I don’t know,” she said then and rose her eyebrows. “It would be easier if I had, say, binoculars.” Even then, Cylana did have actual binoculars somewhere that she used to annoy everyone with by staring at them and sharing whether or not they had obscene pores. 

“Okay,” Cylana said then and then began to tsk quietly. “That little tramp,” she added on and a mischevious smile overcame her face. She turned back to Kai, allowing her eyes to recover momentarily from the strain of spying. “She’s playing one of my favorite games,” Cylana added almost proudly. “You know, the foot between his legs,” she continued as if Kai also played this game. That thought also making her want to vomit since it was with Stas. “He’s choking because she’s basically touching his...” retching noise, “Dick.”

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

“Uh…” Dom made a more than amused face and shook his head cluelessly. “You are really asking the wrong person. I wouldn’t know.” Dom hadn’t had many sexual experiences, nor experience with people at all, so he wouldn’t know if it was common for people to take retainers out, or let alone how many people wore retainers on average period. 

When she handed him the bowl, he was confused at first. He looked at her funny, but as soon as he saw the chocolatey inside, he smiled happily. “Ooh,” he exclaimed excitedly, pulling the bowl she’d handed him toward himself. He then took the spoon from her and set the bowl down. He began his work on the spoon as he listened to her. 

“Yeah,” he swallowed the chocolate in his mouth and examined the bowl in front of him, “We went up to my room. Much shabbier than the room I have today.” With something else mesmerizing him and pulling his attention toward it, it was easier for him to talk about this. See, sweets were exactly what he needed. “I know she had brown hair, and it was really soft. I just remember thinking about how soft her hair was half the time it was happening. And her all together, really. I’d never felt someone so soft.” He’d never been around girls, or even other boys, much less so touched them, and the ones he had weren’t soft by any means. As he finished his thought, he’d also just finished licking chocolate off of his fingers and he looked up at her, suddenly his mind leaving the chocolate and coming back to the present. What had he just said? He literally couldn’t recall, his mind having been absent from his mouth somehow. Shit. He cleared his throat and licked his fingers once more for good measure and then  put his hands in his lap. Her turn.

“Interesting,” Alfie commented, raising her brows at Dom as he spoke of his encounter. It was kind of funny, at least to her, that something sweet could distract him that much that his brain and his mouth were suddenly not connected to one another. Without the sweets, he definitely would not have wanted to ever, ever divulge that much information to her about this. He didn’t even want to give basics initially. She was internally writing that down, sorry Dom. It would be a tactic used in the future most likely. 

She took the bowl from him as he finished and set it in the sink for the moment, not bothering to take care of it at the moment as she was too focused on this precious information. “Soft,” she mused with a laugh and nodded her head. She leaned against the counter for a moment, resting her arms on it as she thought about what other details she could recall from that night. “He was tall,” she said with another nod, “Not stupid tall like, uh, my dad,” she added on, “But tall.” No one was tall in the same way that Max was tall. He was tall and lean, this guy was... Well, tall and broad. “I said he was broad already, right?” She asked then, “Because he was tall and broad. Definitely an indicator of being hot later on in life,” she tacked on and laughed. “I mean, he wasn’t super ripped or anything but like -- you know, 17 or 18? Who is?” She looked down, pushing herself away from the counter, “You know if he bulked up by now, oh my God,” she exhaled and popped her brows, “I bet he’s looking fine.”  

There was a brief pause before she found herself going on a bit longer than intended, “I mean he was good looking at the time, too, you know? Like for being... whatever age. He was definitely good looking.” She sighed then, looking almost dreamy for a moment. “He had really nice teeth, too,” she added. 

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

Kai rolled her eyes in response to Stas’ reaction when she’d suggested Dom was handsome. “I just mean… I…” She stumbled to find what she meant. “I mean, he’s not ugly.” Cylana would argue that. “Right? Not that physical appearance has everything or a whole lot to do with compatibility. I don’t know.” Alfie was normal, and hot, really, even to a person like Kai who didn’t have much opinion on beauty, but based on physical appearance (since people seemed to care about that) Dom and Alfie being together didn’t seem impossible to her. After seeing them at the restaurant, she thought they looked nice together. She decided to voice that. “They actually kinda looked nice together at the restaurant.” They’d seen them undercover before, but without the thought of them actually being together, she didn’t give it much thought. She and Stas didn’t stick around very long to see them together undercover either.

“It’s fine,” she replied on the subject of Cylana. “And I won’t let her bully you over it, either.” She grinned and looked up at him, touching her finger to his chin. It was amusing to her that two grown adults – or as grown as you could expect any of them to be – still acted like children. She didn’t understand the sibling dynamic, but Cylana and Stas usually put on quite the show. “When I remind her of her own psychotic tendencies she’ll probably understand. For the most part.” 

She didn’t know what Greet the Sun yoga was, but by the title she had a pretty good idea of it. It was true, it was a funny thought in those aspects. “Maybe that’s what makes them good together. Maybe they balance each other out. Like Cylana and Nazario. He’s calm and she’s the most chaotic person I’ve ever met in my life, but somehow they work.”

“Well…” She pursed her lips in thought. “I’m not sure. I don’t know Mr. Canaan all that well, nor do I know what dating with parents is like, but… it’s their business, right? Surely a parent’s role in a relationship is fairly sparce.” 

Anastas nearly vomited when Kai said that they actually looked good together. His reasons were only slightly similar to Cylana’s but... they didn’t run as deep and he rarely acted on them as a way to torture Dom every day of his life. At least Stas had the common decency to say Dom’s name when referring to him unlike... other people who lived there. “I mean... I just...” He didn’t know what to say at this point. It was nice, he guessed, that Dom had something positive in his life even if it seemed highly unlikely that something would’ve come out of it. But again, what did he know? Stas knew only a micrometer more than Dom knew about the whole dating ordeal. They had somewhat similar lives in a way, just a lot of unnecessary torture, really. However, Dom seemed even more sheltered than Stas who, for a few years, didn’t speak almost ever. 

He laughed then as Kai referred to Max, “Mr. Canaan,” he said then, snorting. “I don’t know either, obviously,” he added then and shrugged. “It just seems like, I don’t know. I thought he was going to have a heart attack when he found out she was even here and basically signed her, uh, everything over.” Stas and Max weren’t exactly close. No one really was beside Alfie, for obvious reasons, and Nazario because of the exchange of information. “I just mean like... That’s his kid, right?” Anastas asked then as if he didn’t know, “I don’t know. I feel like she probably had better... prospects as some people would say than... well... Dom.” Anastas shrugged again, suggesting for the millionth time he had no idea. “Like... you know the murder... and no murder.” 

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

“Well, I mean,” he dropped his hand into his lap, “like I said it wasn’t really a bad kind of bossy. Really useful in the situation, actually.” He rolled his eyes, this time at himself. “I didn’t know what I was doing at all, so it was… Yeah.” His cheeks turned that light rosy shade again while he recalled the details. Having that girl give him instructions on how to do these inappropriate actions… It was kind of amusing now, but still peculiar for him to think about. 

He laughed at the way she talked about how she was looking. “You probably were,” he said, meaning it. Only then, his cheeks heated up a bit more. “Uh, I remember the girl had to take her retainer out in the middle of us kissing.” He couldn’t remember exactly what the girl he was with was wearing, just that she was intent on getting out of it. “I was put in a suit. Nazario.” 

As Dom explained that the girl had to actively remove her retainer during their session she narrowed her eyes. Suddenly, she felt self-conscious. “Do you think that’s like... I don’t know,” she added, trying to sound casual, “Something that happens... often?” The only reason she suddenly became so interested in that was, well, she did that exact same thing. It wasn’t like it couldn’t have been a coincidence, though. There was absolutely no chance she would’ve ever met Dom when she was younger anyway. Max had spent all of her life (up until recent) avoiding the topic of work. 

“Here,” she said then as she pondered, handing Dom the mostly scraped out bowl and spoon. “I think it happened in someone’s room,” she added on then, glancing up at Dom. I mean, I’m not sure who’s room it was? But it definitely wasn’t like broom closet sex.” Alfie shrugged then, struggling now to try and remember more. “He had blue eyes,” she said then as if it just came to her, “Like to-die-for blue eyes.”

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

Dom raised his brows when she said how old she was, unsure if he was surprised or not. “That’s young.” He pursed his lips. “I wasn’t far off, though.” Really, a lot of time and maturing passes in those few years, but Dom didn’t know a single thing about being a normal teenager and how that all works. In teenage years, just a few years made a massive difference. 

He chuckled quietly and rolled his eyes as she recalled how cute he was. He began to chew on another piece of licorice as he thought about what else he could share. “Oh,” he remembered, “She was bossy. Really bossy. Not really in a bad way, though.” He shrugged one shoulder and rubbed his face as he thought. If she hadn’t been, the whole thing would have been a disaster. She walked them through it as if she’d done extensive research on the subject of sex, and made sure she got what she wanted out of it. It made it kind of awkward. Although, if she hadn’t been the way she was, it probably would have been even more awkward because Dom had absolutely no idea what he was doing. Thankfully, she had come prepared.

“Oh my God,” Alfie said then as Dom recounted that his first encounter had been with a rather bossy young lady. She laughed, although it almost seemed appropriate. “I think every girl in their teens is probably kind of bossy,” she suggested with a shrug as she began to pour the batter into another pan to set in the oven. “I mean, I was kind of bossy. I’ll own up to it.” In fact, Alfie being bossy was mostly (to her) just being knowledgeable. There was no reason she was about to enter some situation like that and take her clothes off and not know what to do. The boy she had been with also seemed incredibly awkward and didn’t speak much. Neither of them knew shit. 

“See, the guy I was with wasn’t bossy at all. He was super quiet, really. Like kind of a shy quiet, I guess,” she narrowed her eyes for a moment in thought. Shy and quiet didn’t fit the style of the average teenage football player, oh well. She wasn’t exactly going to try and look him up anytime soon. “I had glasses,” she said then and nodded and went to the oven, opening it and enjoying the brief moment of warmth it provided. The pan went in and the timer went on. “I think I looked like a librarian or something. I had on this, like, ugly pleated, plaid skirt,” she rolled her eyes, “I’m sure I was looking super hot.”

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

Observing his reaction, Kai could feel his internal struggle. They were usually pretty in sync, but his thoughts about this situation were being displayed pretty clearly on his face too. She laughed a bit at the disgusted face he made, but she could tell this had grabbed his interest. How could it not? It was Dom. Dom and Alfie. Despite Cylana’s incessant chirping on thinking something was going on, no one really believed it. It was hard to. But Kai had seen this firsthand, and honestly… she was a fan.

Dom had always been alone. Even with individuals that were fairly similar to him such as Anastas and herself, he was still always alone. Nazario had known Dom since childhood, but he utilized Dom for work, and that’s all Naz was ever doing; work, work, work. He and Stas were like brothers, having known each other a bit longer than the others in their small little pack, but they couldn’t admit it nor stand to be around each other for very long. Brotherly love. Cylana was an absolute no, seeing as for some reason she chose him to torment more than anyone else. Kai had made her attempts and Dom didn’t seem to hate when she was around, but they weren’t buddies by any means. However, he was part of their little family and she wished the best for him. Had someone finally found a way into Dom’s world? His heart, perhaps?

“Hey, now,” Kai smiled, “Dom’s not that bad. And I mean, he’s handsome.” She said this as if she wasn’t entirely sure, shrugging a bit. She didn’t know what really qualified as handsome to the average person’s eye, and it was weird to say about someone who was like family, especially Dom, but he wasn’t bad looking.

Kai sighed at his last two questions. They were good ones. “I don’t know… but I really hope so.” She settled into his side more comfortably. “Dom deserves something good, and Alfie seems like she’d be good for him. I hope that goes both ways.” 

“Dom doesn’t like anyone,” she added, laughing through her nose. “If anything, I think he’s only trying to keep up a facade with her. Especially since it’d be tragic if anyone knew. And by anyone, I mean Cylana – whom I didn’t tell about the spectacle I witnessed. She’ll be mad when she finds out I kept it from her, but it’s for the best.”

“He’s handsome?” Stas’ eyes practically rolled out of his head at the mere concept of Dom being anything other than, well, just Dom. Anastas personally had no stance on how he felt about Dom’s looks. He didn’t even have a solid definition of what he thought was really good looking for any person other than Kai. However, suddenly coming to the understanding of what the term “beautiful” meant got him stabbed. Clearly, it hadn’t changed his initial opinion, though. 

“Oh, yeah, she’s gonna be enraged,” Stas responded then matter of factly. It was true, though. While it was for the best Cylana was probably going to have some kind of stroke when she found out that Kai knew this vital piece of information all along yet didn’t share it with Cylana. Realistically, she would be more enraged at Anastas than Kai anyways. It would be in that moment that their sibling relationship suddenly overrode her wife relationship with Kai. 

Anastas inhaled sharply, still totally enthralled by this concept. Sure, Dom was... whatever, but really with Alfie? Alfie was... generally the opposite of Dom. She wasn’t a killer by any means and she had a lot of traces that went back to the real world. She and Nazario had a tendency to hang out and use large words so they could establish themselves at the two geniuses in the group. It wasn’t unfair, though. Nazario was incredibly smart and so was Alfie as they seemed to be experts in their respective fields. “It’s a little funny,” he said then, “The angriest man on the face of the Earth with the person who does Greet the Sun yoga,” Anastas chuckled to himself at the thought. He had witnessed a few times Dom and Alfie returning from a jog which looked like it nearly killed Dom yet Alfie appeared like another mile would’ve been nothing. 

“What about her father?” Anastas asked suddenly, “I mean... I thought he was going to have an aneurysm when he found out she was here. Let alone with... Dom?”

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

Dom could only listen as Max spoke to him. Leading up to it, he assumed it was about this Brody guy. The weirdness just kept on going. He was almost nervous to hear what Max had to say, knowing not a word of it would be good. And with the way he was looking made it worse. Max looked stressed quite often but this was a whole other level. He had to brace himself for what was to come, knowing it wasn’t going to be good.

Stomach churning with each bit of information Max gave him, he just stared at the man with an ill-looking expression on his face, as if he was going to be sick. His assumptions (that he’d been trying so hard to not even think of) had been confirmed, mostly to a degree, and as Max went on it just kept getting worse. As soon as Max let the words fall from his lips that Brody had hit her, he inhaled deeply, a sharp pain in his chest at hearing it out loud. Of course, his suspicions were there, but having it be confirmed that this man had laid his hands on her it was as if he was hit in the face with a pound of bricks. The whole time that Max spoke he had a hard time sitting still, wishing he would just point blank say exactly who this Brody person was instead of having to lead up to it, but it couldn’t have been easy, and that was proven when Max started to speak about how he was a failure. Dom was ready to deny that, but Max got up, effectively closing the conversation.

That is, until he turned back around. Dom stilled, in a bit of surprise at what he’d said.

“I won’t.” His tone was stern, and his statement applied to the multiple demands that Max had made. Max nodded once, then turning to leave, looking like he’d left a chunk of his heart on the table in front of Dom.

Dom stood to leave, but had to stop to gather himself before he entered the room where Alfie remained. This was so much to process at once. He thought back to how big of an emotional storm and mental fit he’d thrown over two complete strangers nearly hurting Alfie, and their target wasn’t even Alfie herself it was Max, but the fact alone that they’d almost hurt her had had him outraged and distressed. He’d been confused about it then, but he’d slowly come to realize that he’s begun to care for Alfie more than he ever planned… Or ever thought possible, honestly. He’d never really… cared about anyone before.

He stepped back into his room, and Alfie seemed like she had just begun to get up. Her face was a little distraught, but seemed to calm down when she laid her eyes on Dom. She breathed a sigh and let her head hit the pillows again.

“Morning,” he said quietly. “Can’t believe Alfie Canaan herself slept past 6:30AM.”

“Hmm,” she fake smiled for a total of 0.01 seconds, “Yeah.” She looked at him seriously, a crease between her brows. “Where’d you go?”

Dom stood there for a moment, not wanting to say ‘Oh, you know, your dad just came by to drop off some harsh truth and disgusting knowledge about your ex-boyfriend Brody,’ no, that would be like breaching her privacy and probably get Max in trouble too; also knowing if he took a second too long to answer her she’d get more questions and not believe him. “Oh, I… thought I heard a noise out in the work room.” He brought his arm up and rested his hand on the back of his neck. “It was just Jimmy, thinking we wouldn’t be awake and he could fuck around in there with your stuff.” Good one. Maybe. “He’s gone.” Did she buy it?

She sat there for a moment, her face looking relatively empty. “Good. Hope you broke a hand while you showed him the way out.” Thank goodness, she did.

“I was too tired to think about bone-breaking, but I’ll have to do that next time I see him to make up for it.”

Alfie feigned a laugh, but it was very short and only through her nostrils. “Yeah, good.” She then crawled off of Dom’s gigantic bed, looking like a little kid on it who’d just had a rough night and slept in their parent’s room to keep the monsters away. “I’ll go get dressed. See you in a few.” Her voice was nearly monotone and still full of sleep. It was also odd to see since Alfie usually liked mornings – or appeared to, anyway. It made his insides hurt to see her this way.

“Okay,” he replied quietly.

Dom quickly got dressed himself in a black shirt and a dark pair of pants, slipping on some shoes and meeting back out in the work room. Alfie was already there somehow, sitting at her desk with her legs up on the chair. Instead of her usual fashionable outfits (that seemed  unnecessary at times since they didn’t go out often and it wasn’t a vast amount of people who saw them in a day), she wore a gray pair of baggy sweatpants and a big black sweatshirt. It completely swallowed her and she looked a gajillion times smaller than she already was. He frowned. He felt outraged that this evil, nasty man had the power to bring Alfie down like this.

He took a step toward her. He wanted to say something, but what? What could he say? He couldn’t say anything to make it better, and making small talk about any kind of bullshit would just be a waste of time, they were well past small talk and based on their conversation just a short several minutes before, he wasn’t going to get much out of her. He let out a sharp exhale through his nose, walking over to his area with heavy feet.

With eyes trained on Alfie, whose eyes were trained on nothing, he didn’t get anything done, though. Not that he ever really had things to do. His job was watching Alfie, but he’d usually find something to occupy his time. Now, he could only watch her with a solemn look on his face as she stared at nothing at all.

This is how the entire day progressed. It was… awful. He tried to shoot to waste time, it only lasted an hour or so; tried to offer Alfie lunch, which she took only a few bites of; tried to to think of ways that he could reverse the mood hanging in the air, but it was fruitless. It reached a point where he’d gotten so angry at Brody for causing all of this bullshit, that he’d begun hitting the human punching bag (which he’d chosen specifically so that he was able to pretend it had that horrific little man’s face on it) so hard he sent it flying feet away from him. He continued this, though, hitting and kicking and fighting the makeshift training area he’d had set up down here. ”I’m fairly certain that it’s from being hit.” The words echoed in his mind like a broken record, and each time he hit harder. He probably did this for almost two hours, exerting every ounce of his strength on the equipment, mulling over the information he’d been given.

Finally, he stopped. There were sharp pains all over his chest and sides as he breathed in and out harshly, trying to catch his breath. He stared over at Alfie again, who looked like she hadn’t moved once since the last time he looked at her an hour ago. It made it hard to distinguish whether the pain in his chest was from the workout or from the current situation.

“If he happens to go missing, I will clean up that mess with full discretion.” He listened to Max’s voice in his head, heard over the loud pounding of his heart rate in his ears.

What if he did get rid of Brody? That wouldn’t be bad right? He’d definitely killed people for worse reasons. He’d killed people on command without even knowing what they were dying for. So why did it seem like it was a bad idea? Really, it felt more in character for Dom to walk straight out of the place upon finding out what Brody had done to her, and murdering the fucker immediately. Something in him told him it wasn’t the right time. He’d never had that instinct before, but since meeting Alfie, everything was different, so he decided to trust it.

He was drenched in sweat, feeling disgusting. Thankfully, the clock read that it was about 30 minutes away from when they usually stopped working, and seeing as it was safe to assume they weren’t going to get anything done today, anyway, he decided it was time’s up.

“Day’s done, boss,” he said to Alfie has he stopped at her desk. He stayed back a few steps, being as gross as he was.

It took her many moments before she finally looked up to him. “Okay.”

They headed out of the room and toward the hallway that lead to their rooms, moving slowly as they did last night. As soon as they hit their doors though, Dom was ready to bolt into his room so he could get to the shower as quickly as possible.

“Wait,” she started, “um… Could I maybe stay with you again?”  Dom turned, almost a little surprised she asked. Unlike last night when she hugged him and thanked him, today she was very distant, and he expected she wanted to be alone. His thoughts must have taken just a second too long to process and she began speaking very quickly. “Sorry, don’t feel obligated to say yes, it’s no big deal, I just –”

“Of course,” he interrupted, shaking his head at her. “Of course you can.” She looked extremely relieved, her chest releasing a breath of air she’d held in. “You can make yourself comfortable… I’ve gotta shower really quick though.” She nodded and stepped into the room.

Dom hustled into the shower, washing away the sweat of the day, and trying to wash away the anger with it. It helped, the intense punching session and hot shower, but now he was just left with an overwhelming sadness and a desire to hurt everyone who looked at Alfie too cross. He’d remembered to bring his pajamas into the bathroom with him, and when he came out dressed, clean shaven, and all washed up, he found Alfie sitting on his bed in pajamas similar to the ones she wore the night before.

“Are you hungry?”

“Mm,” Alfie hummed, shrugging. She looked at him, her legs up to her chest again and her arms wrapped around them.

He sighed, thinking they’d be having a long night. Despite her indifferent attitude, he had some food brought to them. He devoured his almost embarrassingly quick, starving after the physical tasks he’d created for himself. She only picked at her food again, taking a few bites and leaving the rest. She laid back, her feet on the bed and her legs up at an angle. He put the food back on the rolling tray it’d come up in and pushed it away from them.

He laid down as well, turning on his side to face her. She stared at the ceiling for a minute before turning to look at him, her eyes glossy. “Thanks for letting me stay with you again.” She swallowed. “Sorry for intruding on your night.”

It was strange to hear from her. Alfie wasn’t one to apologize for just… existing. She was confident, and enjoyed trying to take up Dom’s time with various activities. He shook his head. “No, I don’t know why you’re apologizing. I’m happy to have you here.” She turned on her side as well, looking at him. The glossiness in her eyes got thicker, a tear welling up. “Besides, so you know, I’ll always be here for you.”

A sad smile spread on her face for a moment, two tears falling down the side of her face toward the pillow, one from each eye. It broke his heart to see them, and his hand immediately came up to gently wipe the tears off of her face. Only then, another one fell. He frowned, looking away from her cheeks and into her eyes, to find that she was looking back.

They froze in that moment, before Dom slowly leaned forward, looking between her lips and back up to her eyes. Her hand came up to rest on his cheek, inviting him to close the gap between them.

From the very second his lips touched hers, it was unlike any kiss they’d ever shared before. It was more powerful, more emotional, purer than anything they’d created before. It meant something more this time. He closed his eyes tightly, bringing an arm around her back to pull her closer to him and hold her there where nothing could hurt her.

The whole silent cry thing felt new. It wasn’t the kind of shiny new that was desired, though. It was the kind of new that hurt and surprised. She was alarmed by the impact that just seeing Brody and having him speak to her did. It was almost embarrassing in a way. There were a million reasons she could come up with as an excuse to why she didn’t say anything, why she didn’t leave sooner and why she kept letting what was happening to happen. It wasn’t that she thought others would see her as weak and feeble. Alfie wasn’t the kind of woman who was reserved or quiet. Instead, she was usually outspoken, confident and strong. That was what Brody had preyed upon with her. He had taken those aspects of her character and worked hard to break them down with just a few words. It was clear that it had stuck. NO matter how much she wanted to pretend that he didn’t both her, that him being out there roaming about didn’t bother her. Yet here she was, totally and completely bothered by it. 

Maybe that was why she wasn’t super keen on having Dom follow her around. It wasn’t the fact that the person was Dom. She would’ve probably been displeased had it been Anastas just the same. It was, to an extent, the fact that she didn’t want to have to suddenly be taken care of or nursed in any way. After finally tending to what strength she had left, she had left Brody. She hadn’t turned back, had no desire to. She had moved out of the state, left her job and got a new one that relocated her hundreds of miles away. It was nearly 1,000 miles away from where all of that had happened. She had demanded she start anew. Of course, the hospitalization of her father had made things fuzzy but she had assumed the role of the protector in that situation instead of the protected.  All of it made her feel, well, weak. 

Though, she had managed to get over her desire to never again feel helpless even though she always had Dom looming about. Perhaps that was a part of why she had tried to hard to be friends with Dom instead of seeing him as just some kind of prop that was just around to make sure she didn’t die. If they were friends then it would be a friend protecting the other one. Not some guy who was forced against his will to hang around her every waking moment of his life. 

Immediately as they kissed she felt her heart rate pick up. It was a different feeling, though. They had kissed before, they had done a lot more than that before as well. Yet, it never felt like this. It never felt this... intimate. It seemed almost frightening for a split second, yet that thought was washed away quickly as Dom pulled her close to him. The entire ordeal made her feel instantly safe. And like the kiss and the racing heart, it was a different kind of safe. It didn’t feel safe the same way she felt safe around her father. It was, altogether, stronger than just that. 

There was no time to question it, though. Words were willing to ruin an oddly emotional moment. When the kiss broke she felt herself gasp but still refused to say anything. Instead, she watched him carefully, intently, as if any moment he would suddenly disappear and this would be some kind of sick dream and she’d wake up next to Brody. 

She let her eyes linger shamelessly, her fingertips casually brushing across his jaw, a small smile turning up the corner of her mouth at the bristly feel of his stubble. She took note of the specific shade of his eyes. It wasn’t as if it had gone unnoticed before, but this time more was taken into account. It was how they weren’t just blue, it was different shades in different areas. A much darker shade of blue around the outer edges. Certain areas it looked as if the dark color started to bleed inwards towards the pupil, but was broken up by a lighter blue there. It was almost fascinating to have this moment to notice small details like this. It felt personal, it was nice.

The small smile stayed put for a while longer as she continued to admire Dom before pulling herself away from the details and refocusing on everything. The smile fell away bit by bit but it wasn’t necessarily replaced by anything negative. It was more of a thoughtful look but it lasted just a moment as she reached back up and kissed him again.

It was equally, if not even more sweet, than the first one. It was meaningful and not meaningful in the name of fun alone. She sighed contently and the two of them slowly shifted, she had positioned herself more towards him, slowly bringing a leg over his hip. They shifted again, still immersed in their kiss as he rolled back onto his back and she followed his motion, ending up on top of him. 

She pushed her hair back, although it somewhat failed and just fell back down. She took another moment to absolutely admire Dom while the moment lasted. Another small smile cracked at the corner of her mouth as she leaned down and kissed his cheek gently. “Thank you,” she said again, still sincere and feeling as if she couldn’t repeat it enough. “You are a sweet man.” 

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

He nodded as she listed off more information about the mystery person she’d been with before anyone else. Dom had had longer hair for a period of time before. It was actually when he’d lost his own virginity, because Nazario was too busy with everything going on to be attentive to Dom’s personal care. It was nearly shoulder length before Dom decided to try cutting it himself. It only got worse, being at about his chin and choppy as hell. Nazario had assured him it looked like it was ‘with the times’. For the most part, Dom didn’t really care regardless. 

He thought of another detail he could give her about his own eventful evening so long before. “I think I was like 17 or 18… something like that. She was a few years younger than me. I mean, I think. She looked younger, but not by much. Not sure. I didn’t even get her name.” 

Alfie laughed as she continued to stir the contents of the bowl. “Interesting,” she commented then and paused to think about how old she was at the time. It was probably before she should have really been having sex, but that was then. There was absolutely nothing she could do about it now, anyway. “See,” she said, “I’m pretty sure I was like 15,” she raised both brows at Dom and widened her eyes, “I mean like - yeah. I was 15,” she gave an almost nervous laugh. “He was probably like 18, I don’t know. I’m in the same boat, though,” she suggested, “No idea what his name was. He was cute, though.” She inhaled then, looking up at the ceiling and closing her eyes momentarily, “I still had good taste at 15. He was broad. So cute. I don’t know, maybe he played football or some shit.”

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

“News,” she repeated eagerly. “Yes.” She sighed when he suggested that she’d been hanging out with Cylana too long. It was odd, yes, and she agreed a bit seeing as she got far too into the shenanigans going on at the restaurant with Cylana. Still, it was different this time and if there was anyone to share it with, she’d want to share it with Stas. Besides, there wasn’t anyone else. Nazario was way too busy, Cylana was Cylana, and then there were the people involved themselves Dom and Alfie. That left Stas, who was the only person she really wanted to talk to anyway. 

Kai did a bit of a happy dance when he agreed, happily taking her position next to him. “Ow,” she muttered, the fake glasses Cylana had put on her hitting against the bridge of her nose when she got close to Stas. She’d forgotten she was even wearing them. She pulled them off and tossed them on the nightstand. “Okay. Well, I’m not sure if it’s categorized as great news or bad news, but it’s definitely news. I think it’s good, but…” She shook her head, gathering her thoughts. 

“So, Dom and Alfie…” She could feel him internally cringing at the sound of Dom’s name. She grinned, continuing on. “Cylana was right.” Of course she was. It was Cylana. “They’re like… I don’t know what they are. I’m not sure if they’re like together, but they’re something. They kissed at the restaurant. Really, it was more like making out. And they were extremely jealous the whole time, it was so obvious.” She sighed. “I hope they’re together. Or get together.” She looked at Stas, needing to see his reaction to this bit of information.

Anastas wasn’t too concerned with the entire tone of the news that Kai was about to reveal to him. He knew better than to expect it either way when Cylana was involved. It all depended on who was being told the news, anyway. More often than not it was news that Anastas could’ve probably lived without and, generally, it came from Cylana herself during one of her infamous over-share moments. However, this was still new. Kai wasn’t usually one to have any kind of interesting news that had to do with she and Cylana taking part in shenanigans that was even worth mentioning. 

Upon hearing Dom’s name Stas rolled his eyes, already not even sure he wanted her to go on, but he wouldn’t have stopped her anyway. He did, however, nearly choke on air as Kai divulged that Alfie and Dom had kissed. Someone kissed... Dom? “Oh Lord,” he said suddenly, making a face that was half part interested and half disgusted. Cylana had been bringing shit up about Dom and Alfie being... together in some kind of physical way. She had declared it Stockholm Syndrome. Not that Anastas was going to side with Cylana of all people... but it was just an odd match. 

“Really?” He asked then, suddenly cursing himself for even being this remotely interested. “I mean... like... her? Like Alfie?” His brows pushed together slightly as he looked around the room like it would give him an answer. “Ehh...” His mind wasn’t entirely made up. While deep, deep, deep down Anastas cared about Dom with a certain level of brotherly affection, the emotion was buried and more subconscious than anything. They could only spend a few seconds together before they tried to attack one another. 

“I mean... do you really think that... they would have, like, a chance at being together?” He rose his brows at Kai, searching her face for the answers. “I didn’t even think that Dom could like... be affectionate... And I thought he didn’t like her or something.”

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

He watched her throwing around ingredients and welcomed the warmth being emitted from the oven. He had no idea what she was making, nor even what any of these things were that she was grabbing, but it was interesting to watch. He couldn’t imagine he’d ever care to put effort into making food himself, especially with a kitchen staff at his disposal. 

Dom laughed through his mouth full of licorice, swallowing the big lump. “Hmm,” he hummed in response to hearing the location of where she’d lost her virginity. “My turn. Awesome.” He rolled his eyes to display just how awesome it really was. 

He cleared his throat and shrugged. It was odd to have this memory be brought back up. He hadn’t thought about it in forever. He couldn’t even remember the last time it was on his mind. He felt like it was kind of… weird, maybe. It was weird discussing previous sexual activities with the woman he was currently sexually active with. The only other woman he’d ever been with that way, really. 

“Okay,” he laughed, scratching at his throat with his index finger, “uh… Yeah, mine was at some event, too. Celebration. Naz had just, uh, overthrown,” he said this questioningly, “his uncle. Coming out party sorta.” He shrugged. He really didn’t know how to explain it in proper words. It had been a big gala with everyone in the family (mandatory, of course), for Nazario to officially announce his rightful place. 

Now, there probably would’ve been some hesitation from Alfie if they were going to discuss the entire list of who they had slept with up until this point. Based on the way Dom behaved, she couldn’t imagine his list was too long. Even if he was the most charismatic man on the Earth, his job didn’t exactly give a large allowance of time to screw around. He wasn’t, after all, James Bond. Meanwhile, Alfie had been through several phases since her first time when she was in high school. College wasn’t too awful, she had mostly been actually in a relationship. Maybe towards the end was when things began to pick up... but not by much, she had been really preoccupied with senior design, getting an internship or job, and then of course getting into graduate school. 

“Oooo,” she said then raising her brows at him playfully. “Let’s see...” She added on then, thoughtfully. What great detail was there to reveal? Maybe something about the guy. They never exchanged names. If they had she surely was too busy with other things to remember it. “He had long-ish hair,” she said, raising a hand and trying to get a solid estimate of how long it was. “It wasn’t that long,” she added on, “Like not like Stas’ hair... but it was kind of in between when it gets cut and then when it grows out.” She nodded then as she pulled a large spoon out of the drawer, sticking it in the bowl. “It was like dirty blond.” 

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

Once the date was finally over, Cylana and Kai got up and left as the four poor souls on the double date were parting so that hopefully they’d be home before Dom and Alfie. Kai was grinning almost the whole way home, her knee bouncing with excitement. She noticed Cylana’s glances over at her, half amused at her, half proud that Kai had finally joined her antics. The minute they pulled up and the car was off, Kai practically bolted out of her seat and headed toward her little home with Stas. 

“Geez, Kai, does someone need to get laid or something?!” Cylana called after her. Immediately after she said it, she looked like she’d vomit, suddenly remembering that it would be with her brother. Kaisa only laughed as she ran up to the house.

Entering, she went straight to the bedroom, kicking off the heels she’d worn. Kai jumped onto the bed as soon as she got into the bedroom, interrupting Stas looking like he was about to fall asleep. Though, he looked like that often. 

It wasn’t often (more like this would be one of the first times) that she would come home after any given period of time with Cylana being anything but exhausted. Cylana had a way of tiring people out, especially when you were trying to prevent her from creating disasters. She’d usually come home and snuggle into bed with the always-tired Stas (and rightfully so, he deserved to sleep for years if he wanted), but tonight she had to share what she’d seen as soon as possible.

“Stas,” she said excitedly, falling halfway onto him when she’d jumped. He made his old man noises, which she only replied to with a bit of laughter. “Hi,” she greeted, peppering his cheek with a few kisses, “I missed you.” And after that, she couldn’t wait but to get right into it. “I have news.” 

Anastas, as usual, was half asleep in front of the television. He looked like he was probably approaching his 55th birthday by the way that he looked. With eyes half closed, they were hidden behind glasses which had slowly slipped down his nose for the duration of the evening. The program which was on wasn’t even truly entertaining. It was something that seemed to be a few years old and a little overly dramatic. He had been flipping through stations for a while, though, and finally ended up there. It was probably History Channel - he didn’t know.

However, it was not the usual evening as Kai returned home from a dinner spent with Cylana. Usually, whenever Kai was summoned for an event like that it was mostly to try and keep Cylana in control when she wasn’t with Nazario. This was radically different, though. Instead of her coming back looking as if she had fought off eighteen thousand angry cats, she lept into the bed, half falling on him as she did so. He groaned slightly, making a serious of old man noises as she shared she had news.

“News?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. He reached up, removing his glasses from his face and setting them down on the nightstand. “If you have news then you’ve really been hanging out with Cylana for too long,” he suggested then, tilting his head at her with an all-knowing look before sighing.

Immediately, Stas sunk down as Kai gave him a look which said he wasn’t about to escape the news that she had. However, it did pique his interest just enough because usually Kai didn’t have any kind of news with Cylana. It was the same old shit but with different people or slightly different situations. “Okay,” he said and opened his arms so she would curl up next to him, “Tell me your great news.”

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

Dom could have chuckled at her enthusiasm, but his need to groan at what he just agreed to far outweighed the amusement he felt. This was going to be interesting. She lead them into the little kitchen they had down here, stocked full of ingredients that were never used. Nor the kitchen. Nazario had chefs (of course) that Dom was happy to utilize. Alfie made use of the kitchen for her morning smoothies and… whatever the hell she feels is necessary for her health, but that was about it. It was nice to have though, and useful for a random occasion like this. 

“I’ve never been in here,” Dom mused, looking around at all the stainless steel in the room. It looked how he imagined. Empty, industrial, untouched. The room felt cold with all the appliances and light grey walls. When you walked in, on your left, there was a stainless steel refrigerator freezer with see through doors and too many compartments, a long black and white quartz counter with a sink at the end, and above the counter there were tons of black cupboards. The wall straight across from you had more counter top and a huge black electric stove built onto it, with cupboards underneath it. The wall next to it held what looked like two ovens, stainless steel and black. In the middle of the room sat a large stainless steel table with a couple chairs, and pots and pans and other equipment hanging above it. So much stainless steel. The room wasn’t extremely large (like most rooms in the place), but the colors and the amount of items in the room made it feel, well, roomy. 

“Oh,” he smirked, “you’re starting to know me too well.” He ripped open the package of licorice and happily pulled one out. Sticking the licorice between his teeth and pulling it away from his body as he took a bite, he probably looked like a kid on Halloween. “Mm,” he hummed. Yes. Exactly what he needed for the horrors ahead of him. 

Dom laughed at her even suggesting that it was possible for him to go first, let alone ‘like’ to go first. “Yeah… On second thought, maybe you don’t know me that well. You’re definitely going first.”

Alfie wasn’t entirely surprised by Dom’s unwillingness to dive right in and start first. However, it was just good that she wasn’t entirely unwilling to share her own first experience. It had been one to remember, nothing too insanely embarrassing about it. That was more or less the on-again, off-again things she had later towards her senior year of high school and then into college before she gained a steady boyfriend for any amount of time. Even then, some of those were pretty embarrassing sex-wise. 

“Sooo,” she began then as she continued to rummage around the kitchen. The oven was already turned on, starting to emit a bit of heat which felt nice for the rather cold space. She was throwing all kinds of things into a bowl, probably (subconsciously) hoping to basically bribe Dom into being a sharing, and caring friend. 

“Alright,” she said then tossing eggshells into a trash can. “It happened at a party. It was like a holiday party, I think. Something like that.” It had been some kind of party, that was all she could specifically recall about that detail of the evening. However, the evening wasn’t focused on what theme the party was - that wasn’t the point. 

“Okay!” She said quickly, smiling at Dom one of those oh-so-charming ‘I’ve won’ smiles.’ “It’s your turn. Remember, sharing is caring.”

[sevennthcircle]

nazariopotenza:

Alfie suggesting that Dom was following her around threw him off momentarily. He really was just trying to get away from the obnoxiousness that was Roy, and the entire awkwardness of the whole situation that Alfie had left Dom behind in. He wasn’t a social person, with zero social skills, and he was left with two very social creatures. Again, one of which wouldn’t shut the fuck up. He supposed he could see why she’d say something like that, though. However, he had no idea what kind of ‘game’ she was talking about.

He nearly spoke, planning on asking her what she meant, but she continued on and he swallowed his words. “Uh…” he stumbled as she asked about his date and got a bit closer to him. There was a tension lingering in the air, making it hard for Dom to speak. “It’s fine. She’s fine, I guess. It’s…” he sighed and shrugged. Kailey did seem more interested in him than any other person on planet Earth, but she also didn’t know that he was… who he was. Cylana probably reinvented him to the best of her abilities without instantaneously vomiting all over the poor girl. It was all fake. And regardless of her uncanny appearance looking like Alfie, he was completely disinterested in the girl. Even if he did have any amount of desire to be romantic with someone, even a single ounce, he still wouldn’t want to be with that girl. It’d never be real. She could never know about him, the life he lived, his past… and he wouldn’t want her to, either. He didn’t want anyone to.

Dom shook his head a few times and laughed when Alfie mocked the girl, but then she closed the space and the mood shifted in that split second. Suddenly the tension that was lingering was palpable and his breath caught in his throat. She was still only mocking Kailey, her voice high pitched and whiney – which wasn’t what the girl sounded like, but maybe to a person who was annoyed with their presence entirely it was (which he could relate to) – but her face was serious and sultry as she got in close with him.

“Alfie…” he whispered, looking down at her as she batted her lashes at him.

“What?” Her tone went from suggestive to innocent. Or, suggestively innocent… She grabbed onto his tie, running her hand down it.

He cleared his throat. “How’s, uh… How’s your date?”

“It’s not bad. He’s not really my type, though,” she said with a grin, pulling her lip between her teeth and looking up at him.

“Oh, really?” It was hard to believe that it was true, what with them kicking it off so well and having literally everything in common it seemed, but still, hearing that satisfied Dom even if he had no reason or right to be pleased by it.

“Yeah, he’s…” She made a face. “I’m just not interested…” Not interested. Dom hummed thoughtfully, and with that she grinned again. She rested the hand that wasn’t holding his tie on his chest, running it up toward his shoulder.

Alfie leaned forward against him, pushing up on her toes (although she was already in heels) and pulled on his tie at the same time. The action was at a normal pace, but once their faces were inches away, they slowed. He could feel her breathing against him. Their noses nudged against each other’s, resisting the kiss that Alfie had initiated. The hesitation lingered. Even he, Clueless Dom,  knew that this was wrong, to be on dates with other people as they sat waiting for Dom and Alfie, who were in the back about to kiss each other who were not their dates. Their lips hovered, so close to touching…

“Kiss me,” Alfie prompted, her voice soft and quiet, but demanding.

Every instinct in his body told him to do it, but something about the resistance was… hot. She ran her tongue across his bottom lip, slowly, then bit down on it gently. He pulled his head away from hers maybe an inch, looking into her eyes. Hers held a look of mischief as she looked back at him, and his lips pulled up into a crooked grin. He put his hands on either side of her face and slowly leaned down to her. Annoyed with the distance, a small whine left her and she pushed herself up further to close the gap fully. Their lips met in an intense kiss. If they could have taken their clothes off in the restaurant… they might have.

Kai couldn’t believe her own eyes as she witnessed this site. Cylana had been intent for about a month now that there was something going on between Dom and Alfie, but everyone always shut her down. For one, it wasn’t Cylana’s business – which seemed to be unbeknownst to Cylana, acting like everyone’s business was her own. Two, who really cared? And lastly, no one really believed it. Yet here Kai was, staring at the two of them looking like they’d just hopped out of an erotica novel.

Cylana was wrong, though. She’d been so adamant that Dom had this huge crush on Alfie, and that if they were having sex, Alfie was just using Dom because he was there. From what Kai could see, though, Alfie was just as into Dom. In fact, she’d initiated this whole sequence.

As they began to part, Kai figured she’d better tail it. She’d seen enough. In fact, she felt a little bad having imposed on their moment. She walked back to Cylana as quick as she could while making sure Alfie or Dom weren’t behind her. She practically stumbled back into the booth across from Cylana.

“Yes?! Tell me, immediately,” Cylana instructed, eating up Kai’s excitement. Looking into the monster that lurked beneath Cylana’s surface, though, Kai hesitated. Cylana is very destructive, and Kai didn’t even want to imagine what she would do with this information. Cylana would kill her for this once she finds out (and she will find out eventually, somehow), but Kai needed to pick her words carefully.

She remained excited. “Okay,” she took a deep breath, “when Dom got to the bathrooms Alfie was coming out and they ran into each other. She asked him how his date was, and then started mocking Kailey. Like, mocking her, big time. High voice, annoyed look on her face. Well, an annoyed look until she started to act all flirty. She put her hand on his arm the way Kailey did, but… Phew. And Alfie told him that she wasn’t interested in Roy.” She looked at Cylana’s speechless expression and began nodding. “Yeah, and she grabbed and pulled on his tie the way that you do to Naz’s sometimes.” Kai released a breath. “It looked like they were about to kiss. Dom left into the bathroom, though. Alfie will probably show up soon.”

Cylana was still processing, and it wasn’t often that Cylana was speechless. Kai nodded again, just once. “Yeah.”

Their kiss was rather intense. To an extent, it felt almost wrong since they were both on their own respective dates... but at the same time, it felt wrong to be on the date to begin with. Maybe that was just the fact that Cylana had set it all up. It wasn’t as if Roy wasn’t a nice guy. He was quite nice, he was knowledgeable, approachable, and had a rather positive outlook on things. These traits tended to be things which escaped Dom in several ways. Dom was, in fact, knowledgeable but in a completely different aspect. If Alfie ever desired to know how much force it took to crush a human’s windpipe without actively leaving it within her search history she could’ve probably asked Dom. Now, if she wanted to discuss artificial intelligence at length with someone who went to engineering universities which rivaled her own - that would’ve been best directed towards Roy.

The fact remained, they were still on dates. Once they parted there was a brief moment where they just stared at each other. The look was almost questioning, trying to figure out how much force it was going to take to split up and return to the table. The excuse was quickly supplied though as Dom cleared his throat and stood up straight. Alfie let go of his tie and watched him for a second longer, her eyes unable to quit their lingering gaze. They pulled themselves away from one another and Dom disappeared into the men’s room as Alfie smoothed down her outfit and returned to the table.

Roy was looking his pleased self as he turned to look at Alfie as she returned. He and Kailey looking as if they had been having a thrilling discussion whilst their dates were gone. At least maybe Roy could try with Kailey if anything. Cylana wouldn’t have accounted for that, though.  Quite frankly, it still would’ve been considered collateral damage to her. 

“Hey!” Roy said then as Alfie immediately retook her spot beside him. He was smiling that big, dopey smile and looking still pleased with himself. It wasn’t in an arrogant way, either. There was something off about Roy to Alfie. It wasn’t like he was bad, no. There was just something oddly familiar about him and she had yet to place her finger on it. “Did you know that Kailey wants to go to culinary school?” 

Suddenly, Alfie wanted to strangle Roy. She would blame it on hanging out with Cylana too often lately, but Roy was not helping himself currently. It wasn’t that Roy had been talking to Kailey, that she didn’t care about. She just didn’t care to know anything further about Kailey. Sure, she seemed nice enough... but she was brought here by Cylana. That was really all that needed to be said about anyone at this table.

Soon, Dom returned looking similar to how he looked when Alfie had first met him. Constipated, that was. However, he did regain control of his expression before everyone else could really take in that other facial expression. Roy, again not helping himself, greeted Dom and Kailey did as well, seeming to be overly enthusiastic about his return. 

“Roy and I thought maybe we could do dessert, if that’s ok with you guys, of course,” Kailey chimed in, smiling sweetly. “I just have a bit of a sweet tooth.” She giggled but it was innocent and nice, not the kind that women did when they were trying to be cute. Alfie pressed her lips together and tilted her head before turning her attention back to Roy. 

“Of course,” she said then, forcing a smile, “Love to.”

Cylana was, oddly, speechless for the moment. The ordeal rare to her, but to hear that the he-beast Dom and little Alfie looked like they were going to kiss? On one hand, she wanted to vomit immediately. On the other hand, she was giving herself a pat on the back because, as per usual, she was correct her assumption that there had been something going on. 

“Yes,” Cylana said then, her voice almost stern. “I want to vomit, but I’m so right.” There was a long pause as she looked down, taking a celebratory drink of wine. Her attention returning back to Kai almost immediately as she glanced back at the booth where Dom was rejoining the games. 

“Okay,” she said then and narrowed her eyes.  “If she’s not interested in Roy...” Cylana began, thinking hard, “Then what is it that’s deterring her? You really think she, like, I don’t know. Thinks he is better or something?” Cylana asked, folding her hands on the table as she started to process. “What was wrong with my choice, Kai?”