~~Damien~~
A night off, finally. Maria had demanded he take it, after learning of his rather brash encounter with Parker and Vicky. Matt had said his pack were going on a trip and wanted their enforcer along, as well. He didn't like being put off the hunt for a night, when hunters were out there, hiding, sneaking, and planning to kill them all. But he couldn't deny that working nearly every hour of the night, every night, for several weeks, had been taxing.
Best of all, he could spend some time with Fiona.
"Mah apartment!" She swung the door open, and bounced several times as she hopped in, before turning around and grinning at him.
He followed her in, looking around and taking in the sights. It was, to his surprise, utterly normal. Fiona was anything but a normal girl, from her bouncy, cheerful attitude that could not be smothered, no matter how dire things got, to the fact she was also a literal monster. The apartment reflected none of that. No, that wasn't true. As his brain analyzed, it became clear the apartment was, in fact, very cheerful.
It was a studio apartment, so it didn't take long to take in everything. It was a cheap apartment, cheap building, on the edge of South Side near the Carthian district, and Damien found himself smiling as he looked at it. He was so used to the extravagances of the Invictus, and the eccentricities of old vampires like Maria, that he'd almost forgotten most people lived in simple, small apartments, in buildings that barely remained standing. He could almost hear the cockroaches he assumed hid in the walls.
She was messy. Well, maybe messy wasn't the right word; a splattering of random objects on the floor, slippers, a plush toy, a pair of jeans and some socks, wasn't exactly a mess. But her tastes were quirky and eclectic, that was for sure. On the windowsill, she had a couple potted cacti. On the walls, she had several posters of what he could only imagine were K-pop bands; supposedly considered music by the uneducated, to Maria's chagrin. She had a desk in the corner, a small thing of wood, slightly warped with age, and a laptop sat upon it, with pink and blue stickers decorating its white casing. Her bed was a double, with pink sheets and bright blue pillows that reminded him of cotton candy. Several stuffed animals sat on the bed, most of them rabbits with big, child-like black eyes, and long floppy ears.
Maybe that's why she liked bouncing around everywhere? Rabbit envy.
He took off his shoes, set them aside, and couldn't help but laugh when he met her eyes. Sometime, during his analysis, her smile had become a frown, but it was too adorable to not chuckle at.
"Hey! I'm just a young woman trying to survive in a town, living off the wee bits of money I get from my meals. Dinnae make fun of my apartment! Ye wanker!"
He held up his hands in surrender. "I lived in literal holes for fifty years, Fiona. This place looks great to me. Looks like a home."
"It does!" She threw herself onto the bed, and tossed her leather jacket onto the floor. Naturally, he picked it up and hung in the closet by the front door. There was a winter coat inside, along with a rain coat, and different shoes. A lot of different shoes, maybe nine. He was very tempted to tease her about that.
She was in jeans and a white t-shirt, one that hugged her large breasts in a way he couldn't help but notice. Maybe she was wearing one a little smaller than she should have, so he'd notice she was wearing a white bra, one that made everything look so... bouncy. She was also wearing white socks with little rabbits drawn on them.
"If you wanted, I could set you up with a more expensive place."
"Ye can?"
"Yeah. Invictus pay well." He was making six figures, and it was money he didn't need. Maria considered it a standard pay for someone who put their lives on the line for the Invictus, while also being at the forefront of assaults as a Right Hand, and attempting to revive the Lancea et Sanctum. Perhaps he could put the money toward reviving the Second Estate, but how to do that was the bigger question in that regard.
"Maybe when I'm older. But, living in a nook like this is part of growing up, ye ken?"
Laughing again, he walked over to her and sat on the edge of her bed. "I suppose that's true."
"Besides, I like it."
"I do too."
She giggled, reached out, and started pulling his trench coat off his shoulders. "Are ye nae hot?"
He helped her, doing his best to ignore the butterflies in his withered stomach at the feel of a woman removing his jacket. Such a simple touch that elicited such a strong response.
"Vampire. Body heat not really a thing."
"Like a lizard?"
"Sort of. More like, being cold or hot doesn't really mean anything to me." Sweltering heat, freezing cold, as long as it wasn't literally hot or cold enough to damage tissue, it didn't affect vampires.
"Oh. Azamel says ye Kindred are a distant cousin to us Begotten. The same, but different. The Horrors inside ye, ye call them Beasts, affect ye in a different way than us. Ye ken?"
That was an interesting theory. "A better question for the Ordo Dracul, I suppose."
"But, I thought ye were religious? Like, religious for vampires? Do ye nae have an idea of where ya came from?"
"We do, but for vampires and humans. The Testament of Longinus says little about other paranormals."
"Are ye nae curious?"
He nodded, took his coat from her, and hung it up in her closet. A sideways glance showed her bathroom door was open, and he could see the curtain of her shower; it was clear, with bright yellow flowers on it.
"I guess. Maybe a little. I try and let faith guide me, when I can, when it comes to questions larger than life."
"Oh?"
"Mhmm. There are questions out there we can't answer, and while I'll try and keep an open mind to potential explanations"—against Lucas's judgment—"I cannot deny there exists something beyond science." He gestured to her, and him. Paranormals, magic, spirits and other dimensions, much of it existed outside the purview of science as far as he could tell. "God, or something equivalent, seems a possibility, and a decent one, does he not?"
She thought about that for a moment, tapping a finger on her chin. "As long as God isnae an old man sitting in a chair, judging people for wankin' all the time."
