Adventures in Babysitting 1, part 3 (Attn: Nova)

Nova walked at Alec’s side, following his lead as they continued onward down the dark alleys of Nachton. She wondered absently why all these damn dark alleys had to look the same. Same homeless dudes, same broken window, same overturned garbage can with cats digging through the orange peels.

She muttered under her breath at Alec’s remark about knowing where they were headed, though in truth she was keeping up alright so far. She could still remember where her car was parked, at least.

“That makes one of us.”

Her ‘this is a bad idea’ alarm was starting to go off as they went deeper in.

It was actually sort of fun to ignore it.

She nodded in understanding as Alec continued to explain trailing.

“I follow.” She grinned. “An awful lot of what we see is more about our brains than our eyes.” She made a little shadow doggie as she circumvented the next streetlamp, proving both of Alec's points in one go.

Chuckling at the shadow puppy, Alec nodded.

Heh...something like that, indeed.

As they came to the edge of a large, and fairly empty freight yard, the girls cut through it. Alec frowned.

Well, the exercise'll get a bit difficult from here on out. Crossing behind them would be a dead giveaway, so now we need to break off. Building hopping would be the best strategy normally, but since everything is so spread out here that becomes a less viable option. So we take a scenic route, perhaps jog a bit and reconnect to their path above and ahead...or abandon the progress and head on back. Any preference?

At this point, we're kind of at a crossroads...and if they're headed where I think they are going, it won't matter. We could just head to the Domicile, shower and change or whatever, drive there and still get there around the same time. Or leave well enough alone. I'm thinking at least one of those girls is a victim, another a predator, one a bystander, or also a victim depending how things play out.

Or...we could be meddlesome and run like hell afterward.

Watching the forms continue on their merry way, he wondered what the full scenario was. The real question is whether his curiosity would overwhelm his cowardice. His alarm bells were going off, but he couldn't tell quite why.

Nova gave a light shrug of her shoulders to their options, muttering under her breath.

“Man, teenagers are stupid.”

One of life's lessons, she thought, was learning to understand when you were in a bad situation. If Alec was correct, and Nova personally thought he was, then -all- of those girls should know better. They were teens, but hell, when she was their age...Nova cut off that thought, horrified that for a second there she sounded like a stuffy Anantya or something. After another moment’s thought, she turned to Alec with raised eyebrows.

“What would you do if I hadn’t come along?” She waved her hand to indicate that was a rhetorical question. “Let’s play this out.” She jerked her head to indicate the direction they had just come from. “We could go back and get my car if you want, though I don’t mind going on foot as long as you keep navigating. Might be the better option if we can stay close enough to at least hear them, if not we might as well get to where we’re going in style.”

Frowning for a moment, Alec wondered how honest to be with what he would do in this situation if she hadn't been along. He knew it was a rhetorical question, but it brought some potentially useful facts into the equation. Well, in for a dime, in for a dollar. Nova already knew his shortcomings, so might as well declare his strengths.

Well, I'd blend with the shadows along that path of warehouses there since it is already a good, naturally dark pathway, keeping them just at the limit of my hearing until I knew which one was the shady character. Get ahead of them, plan a blind drop ambush, incapacitate the baddie before they had a chance to respond and then fade back into the night before the other two could even draw breath to scream.

I suppose there is another option - you get back to your car and take the GPS - you'll be able to tell where I am...then we can play it from there. I do my Mission Impossible impression, and you do your chopper extraction impression. Hmmm...actually, your car is too distinctive. It'd be better if you took mine. I've already got fake plates on. Then we go back to your car and get home. On second thought, that presents too many variables. Let's just go for it.

Smiling a bit wickedly, Alec slipped his gloved hands into his pocket and pulled out the GPS. On the screen, it showed that their quarry was almost to the far edge of the freight yard. He hoped that Nova didn't notice any nervous perspiration. This was kind of freaking him out, but he wanted to put up a good face. Well, if things went south later they could always take to the sewers and get out of dodge quick. Slipping it back into his pocket, he nodded.

We should be able to take the path I described without any extra assistance. I can listen in on their conversation when we're closer and we'll decide again then. Sound good?

Nova raised her eyebrows when Alec began going through strategies, grinning inwardly at how comfortable he was with all of this. He came off as so…unassuming sometimes and it was sort of cool to see him in his element.

Hmm, so Alec could blend. She had to respect the fact that he had bothered to learn how to trail the old fashioned way too; it seemed more…sportsmanlike. Even so, this was useful information, though she did feel a little regret that she was slowing him down.

“Alright Mr. Briggs. Cinnamon Carter at your service.”

She supposed she could take this a little more seriously considering they were doing something a little dangerous, but she was only encouraged by Alec’s confidence and figured the worse that could happen was they made asses out of themselves, something she had learned to live with quite some time ago.

“Sounds great. Shouldn’t have to get too terribly close to listen either.”She gave her ear a little tug. “I can hear pretty well.”

She could actually hear –very- well…sometimes. For some reason she seemed to do better with using that particular ability when she wasn’t trying, though she was getting a little better.

Smiling, Alec got them going. Skirting quickly along the shadowed warehouses, they quickly made up lost time. They were traveling over flat, paved and relatively clean surfaces, so sound wasn't too much of a concern. As the girls moved off of the shipping yard and back onto normal streets, he upped it to a light jog. The distant city noises would cover it up since there was no direct route for the sound to follow. Knowing that Nova had good hearing, too, he murmured

Since they've moved beyond normal audible range, we picked up the pace, but always good to keep to the shadows in case you mess up. No reason to give the whole game up at once, after all. If they'd still been on the yard, we'd have taken it slow, obviously...but no cause to wait around and risk losing the game because we lingered for practice.

Reaching the edge of the yard, they were back in the streets. Glancing about, he slowed to a quick walk. They weren't in the immediate field of view...maybe he was wrong about where they were headed. Heading to the corner, he glanced one way, then the other. Not the folks they were looking for. Crossing to the next block, he peeked around the corner and there they were. Quietly, again...

Odd place to hang out, and that's a fact. I wonder what that building is. Up for a climb?

Without waiting for a response, Alec doubled back to an alley and glanced about. Brick architecture and industrial steel drainages. No problem. Grabbing the pipe, he started his ascent, climbing rapidly.

Nova focused on keeping up with Alec’s pace, though she spared some of her attention for keeping up with the surroundings. The area was becoming more abandoned by the moment and while there were enough ambient sounds to mask them for the moment, once they caught up to the group again they’d have to be extra careful about making noise. There wasn’t a whole lot of margin for error.

“Alright Professor.”

They soon caught up to the group with only a brief iffy moment. She considered the building for a moment and then looked to Alec.

“Is that the old textile plant? Or is that further east…”

She gave a little shrug, indicating she wasn’t going to be much help. In any case she was still sticking to her ‘dumbass kids doing dumbass things’ theory. She grinned enough to show teeth at Alec’s query, keeping her voice just barely audible.

“Always.”

She backtracked a bit to a spot with a convenient window ledge and started up, not wanting to follow Alec too closely as that might mean a foot to the face.

“Race ya!”

Alec had a head start and seemed pretty good with the climbing, but she figured they might as well make this interesting. That said, she focused on getting to the roof as quickly as she could manage.

Chuckling under his breath, Alec muttered over his shoulder

Oh you're on!

Continuing his ascent, it was readily apparent that Nova was better geared for the climbing, a skilled climber and was catching up quickly. Deciding that simply would not do, he thought he'd complicate matters for her. Shadowing the movement with his body, he quickly fiddled under his belt, deftly removing the peg from one of his oil squeeze cylinders for hinges. Shuffling it loose as he climbed, he shifted it loose. As it started to fall, he muttered

Oh dammit...

As he hoped, Nova instinctually reached out to catch the falling object...and was rewarded with a light splattering of slick oil on her hand. Winking down at her, he continued his ascent. He'd have to hurry, but it might buy him the time he needed.

((ooc: Permission granted for Nova's catch!))

Nova grinned as Alec accepted her challenge and began pursuing him in earnest, though she swore under her breath when something fell down toward her. Not wanting to make a racket right now, she grabbed onto a metal pipe and reached out one hand, swinging out to catch the fallen object.

“Crap.”

Indeed, that was what she had all over her hand. Frowning, she hung onto the pipe with one hand while slipping the can into her pocket with the other. She’d make a mess of her clothes but she didn’t want to chance the noise it would make if she just let it drop, and it wasn’t like she was wandering around in Armani or something anyway. Just for good measure she wiped the worst of the oil off on her pants. Carefully digging her feet in, she slid her arm upwards and caught the pipe on the inside of her elbow so she could hang more comfortably while with the other hand she reached over her shoulder to gather up the fabric of her tee shirt. She swiftly pulled the shirt over her head and got her arm free, then reached her dirty hand under the fabric and grabbed hold of the metal pipe. Carefully extracting her other arm, she pulled the shirt completely off, using it as a barrier for her slippery hand. Now that hand actually had a better grip, go figure.

She supposed she could have rubbed at the wall enough to let friction and the rough texture get her hand clean, but that took time and her plan only involved a little public nudity and about five seconds. Even so, that was time she would have to gain back and she started up the wall again in short order.

She considered giving Alec a head’s up to let him know he would see more of her than he expected if he looked down, since he did seem to embarrass easily.

Then she decided not to.

/ooc yeah, I'm seriously considering not letting her out of the Domicile. Ever.

Continuing at a decent clip, Alec knew he had this race in the bag. Hand to hold, stretch to contraction, he continued his boneless motion up the wall. It wasn't the fastest progress, but then he would be in no hurry.

Then he heard an ascent beginning behind him. "How the hell did she get the oil of her hands that quick? That stuff is tough to slick off!"

Looking down over his shoulders, he looked straight to Nova's hand. It looked like she'd wrapped something around it...like...

Realizing that she'd taken her shirt off to wrap around her hand, Alec immediately turned beet red. Reaching for his next handhold, he neglected to turn his face back to the wall, and missed. His balance thrown, he began to slip from the wall. Grasping out quickly, he grabbed a sill before falling too far, but his climb pattern was pretty much shot. Hanging one handed from the ledge, Alec pointed and complained

Hey! Boobies! No fair!

Laughing, he slapped his other hand on the sill and pulled up hard with both hands, getting his feet under him on the ledge. Looking quickly for a way to re-establish his lead, he saw another ledge just within jumping distance. Jumping over Nova's climb path, Alec grasped the wider ledge with both hands, swinging a foot up and pushing himself upright. Whoo! Nothing like a jump over a naked woman into open air onto a three inch wide leg to get the blood flowing!

Beginning his progression again despite red ears, he went, brick to hold, edge to surface. He hadn't lost much time, but Nova had a clear ascent and the advantage that he couldn't look at her to see her progress. Damn boobies.

Nova cringed a little when she heard Alec’s descent, holding still and hoping they hadn’t made too much noise. She looked up to see Alec holding onto a windowsill with one arm, using the other one to point at her.

Yeah…oops.

She grunted as said ‘boobies’ scraped against the brick surface when she pulled herself up, muttering.

“Yeah, for real, no fair at all.”

She had to flatten herself even harder against the wall when Alec decided to take a flying leap over her, pressing her cheek flush with the rough surface and closing her eyes to brace herself for the inevitable kick to the head. When she realized Alec had made it to the next ledge over, though, she was somewhat embarrassed by her own reaction and brushed it off by scrambling upward once more. She was in a good place at the moment and in spite of the inconveniences of being shirtless, she found it rather nice to be able to feel the open air on her back, even if it was kind of cold.

Looking up, Alec realized that though it would be easier for a short way, his current approach would suck at the end. Frowning, he looked around as he made his way up the easy portion. Nope. Screwed. There were no spots on which to land that would have an easier approach. Searching as he climbed, he took the brick to brick approach very slowly, working his way over to an easier and supported approach. Meanwhile, Nova ate up the distance to the roof - she'd already pulled within a couple of feet of his height from the sound of things, and he still had a little lateral movement left to complete before he'd get through his last feet of upward movement. So close, and yet, so far. Ah well.

"I guess this is part of what they meant when people say 'look before you leap.'"

Nova spared a glance over at Alec, who seemed to be making his way across the wall, then focused again on going up. While at the time taking her shirt off had seemed like the most efficient thing to do under the circumstances, she was starting to find the cold pretty damn uncomfortable. Who knew a tee shirt would make such a difference? Plus she did feel a little bad rattling Alec’s cage like that; it was an unfortunate side effect and she hadn’t intended to make him fall, though she would admit unnerving him a little would have been a bonus.

She wondered, at that, if Alec had let that can fall on purpose. She shrugged off the suspicion, though; in spite of their light joking around, this still was at least a little serious after all.

She snorted as she used the window sill to pull herself up, shaking her head.

“I think looking is what got you into trouble in the first place.”

She grinned as she reached the top, tapping the roof lightly but not climbing up. Instead, she braced herself and pulled her shirt back on, taking the time now to properly clean off her hand on the brick.

“For real, though, we okay to go up?”

Chuckling, he finished his climb slowly enough to not see any more Novanips. Shaking his head, he tried to keep from laughing.

I can't believe you took your shirt off. Well! That certainly falls into a new category for me. 'Crazy shit Nova's done to make sure she wins,' we'll call it. I'll have to consult Jan for the established list so that I can add to it when you pull good stunts like that one.

And yes, we should be good to continue. Remarkably little sound from a flat roof like this one travels to the ground. They might have heard me shout about your boobies, but they likely would have written that off as an oddity rather than a tail...and there are a decent number of people around for this time of night in this district.

Heading to the far side of the building, Alec stifled his snickering. Pulling his cowl out of his jacket, he slipped it on and leaned over the ledge. Tilting his head down, he listened as the discussion continued. It was made rapidly apparent that his initial thought was wrong, thankfully. By a freak occurence they had been walking on an approach for the House of Pain...but this was just a parlor of an up-and-coming local tattoo artist. They were simply debating just what level of "dead" they would be if they got some ink done. Rolling back from the ledge, laying on his back, he pulled off his hood and started laughing again.

Well, so much for the big adventure. Just three teenage girls sneaking out to get tattoos at the parlor wedged between these two larger buildings, apparently.

Shaking his head sadly, Alec mused

It is a good thing I'm not a parent. I'm entirely too suspicious and panicky for the role. I'd drive my kids NUTS.

Sitting up, Alec shook his head.

Ah well. So...back to the Batmobile?

Nova snorted as she clung to the edge of the roof, looking over at Alec with a grin.

“You know, if you had been in my position I bet you would have done the same thing.” She chuckled. “Well, maybe not, I don’t know. It seemed like a good idea at the time. And yeah, I’ve done some crazy stuff in the name of competition.”

She pulled herself up onto the roof after Alec, following at a slight distance and muttering quietly under her breath.

“Yeah, it’s amazing what people will ignore.”

She quieted down when they got to the ledge so she could listen to the conversation play out. Yep, definitely looked like they were up to something stupid.

She flopped down on her back a few feet away from Alec, lacing her fingers behind her head and suddenly wishing she hadn’t left her ipod in the car. She was cold and dirty and laying flat on her back on a rooftop at the conclusion of a wild goose chase. It was one of those good moments, like curling your toes in wet sand or reaching just the right cruising speed; not a thrill, just good, and while Nova had never been a sentimental person, she could still appreciate that for what it was.

Would be better if she had some tunes though.

“I don’t so much mind kids, stupid as they are. Sometimes a few of them turn out to be worth knowing.” She grinned. “And I pride myself on driving –everyone- nuts.”

Pushing up onto her elbows, she shrugged at the suggestion to go back to the cars. If she were a touch more sentimental she might have thought this was the perfect time and place to exchange questions and answers about life and their place in the universe, but while the thought occurred to her to ask Alec something, she shrugged the impulse off.

“Sure; I guess the responsible thing would be to get back to work after all. This was fun though, thanks.”

In spite of her statement, she flopped back down for a minute. “Of course, that plan requires getting up, doesn’t it?” She pushed herself up at last and walked over to the ledge. “Back the way we came or did you have something different in mind?”

[quote“And I pride myself on driving –everyone- nuts.”][/quote]

Aha! An equal opportunity annoyant! Perhaps one day I too will be so enlightened. For now, I keep a limited portfolio of folks to annoy, but maybe ten years from now I'll have honed my skill some.



Apparently Alec had missed some sort of cue somewhere. There was a twitch in the voice that he hadn't attributed to Nova before. That was the problem with missing social cues - if you missed them, you didn't know what they were. Sometimes years down the road you would learn what it was that you'd missed, but in the moment you were totally screwed. Tossing out the only salvage that he could think of, Alec stated

Well, I'm in no hurry if you want to play hooky. And you're welcome. A tiny little cross section of what I do with my time...stalking little girls, misinterpreting situations and climbing buildings with half-naked women chasing me. Ok...so that was a first, but it makes my life seem more like a Bond movie than a sitcom.

As Nova leaned back again, Alec wondered if he'd answered right. Somehow, the image of children laying down on a grassy hill pointing up at clouds leapt into his mind. He didn't recognize the children, but he knew that they were talking about what they were going to be when they grew up and pointing out shapes in the clouds. It was such an iconic image of youth that it leapt up unbidden. It wasn't a specific child, it was every child.

Laying back down, he looked up at the night sky. Puffy white clouds were a work of fiction to him. Bright blue skies a myth. He couldn't recall the godly presence of the summer sun smiling down on his youth and innocence. He couldn't conceive of the cloud game against a night sky. He'd never grown up - but never really been a child. A true Lost Boy. Somehow, it made him sad.

Losing his fight against the growing malaise, Alec blurted, unthinkingly.

Is this what you had in mind when you were a kid?

Startled at his sudden question, Alec flushed a bit. Shocked, he replied before she had a chance to answer. Sitting up, he said

Well, that was prying taken to a whole new level...sorry. You can steer on the way back if you'd like.

Nova grinned at Alec’s take on their evening, thinking he had an interesting way of putting things. She did, however, think he was being a touch hard on himself about his judgment of the situation though, and shook her head almost absently, craning her neck to give a listen to the trio once again.

“I thought something weird was going on there too. All in all not a bad way to kill an evening.”

She looked askance at Alec, wondering for a moment what he meant, and her hesitation seemed to offer up enough time to make him nervous.

“Shit, you know I don’t mind.” She grinned a little, though she realized he might actually –not- know that, and the thought made her expression come out lopsided. Hell, she’d wiped armpit juice on the guy after all; they were cool by her reckoning.

“Oddly enough,” she began as she threw both legs over the ledge. “I wanted to be a teacher when I was a little kid.” She swung her legs absently for a moment before twisting around and dropping down to rest her feet on a window sill. “And then I went through the ‘I don’t give a shit leave me alone’ phase for…well longer than most, pulled out of that enough to realize I actually wasn’t a hopeless case, and eventually came full circle back to teaching. I miss that sometimes but I like what I do for Duibne and wanted to put more effort into that.”

She had decided that coming down was just slightly more unnerving than going up; not that she was freaking out or anything, but it was enough to make her not mind hanging out and taking it slow. “The science part just kind of crept up on me actually. I started out as a math major in undergrad and got the right teachers at the right times…Frowning, she realized she was doing a lot of talking and very little answering the question. “Anyway. I didn’t really think it would be like this…but I think I did okay.”

“So. Your turn. So besides expanding on your annoyance capacity, what else you got in mind for the decade?”

Okay, so she had chickened out on the question she really wanted to ask, but she convinced herself it wasn’t a lack of guts so much as she was working on a buildup. Or something.

Nodding, Alec figured that research scientist and teacher were pretty similar - high focus in the same academic direction, but focused on acquiring more knowledge rather than passing on the known. A logical progression for someone super smart. The secondary selection, from the look of her lab, was working out well.

I'm kind of surprised that the science was an afterthought...I guess that happens sometimes - a discovery of multiple aptitudes that force a decision. That must suck. I think you made the right choice - lab work seems more interesting than accounting.

Shrugging at the question, Alec smirked.

As a toddler, I am free from the responsibilities of selecting an agenda. 5 year olds generally are just working out not to take blocks from each other. I'm still learning that, so if I am out of career theft by then, I'll be doing ok. Teens are generally shoplifters too, though, so it could be as long as twenty years.

Seriously, though...I did have some plans before coming to Nachton. Coming here displaced them, and then ultimately destroyed them all. Now there are new tasks to work on, and I am more than content with the new list...I just never thought I'd actively select a more violent role within the clan. I'll probably work on the other things from time to time...but the stakes have risen so much higher recently that the former concerns are...I don't know, seem somewhat juvenile.

From politics to home life...everything has turned on its head, but seems so much better than I'd previously imagined. I am content to walk the path awhile and see where it leads. I can always change my mind later...but I doubt I will. Better to apologize than regret and all that.

Wondering if that really answered the question or not, he shrugged it off. If she wanted more detail, she'd call him on it.

So since I'm prying...was living...you know, growing up and all of that...was it worth it? If you had it to do all over again, would you?

Nova snorted at the idea of becoming an accountant, shaking her head in the negative.

“Oh, don’t think accounting was ever in the books…hey, that’s sort of a pun....anyway, it wasn’t so much an afterthought as it was a progression of discovery. I liked math well enough for its own sake but put it with science and all the sudden I went starry eyed.” She fluttered her eyelashes, mocking her own romanticism.

She grinned as she listened to Alec’s answer, finding that in spite of the somewhat aimless approach he actually came off as a very together sort of guy.

“Keeping the doors open is a good thing, I think. It’s what separates us from the true Relics who think they’re suddenly a finished product instead of a continuing work in progress just because they were turned.” She shrugged. “Not to get all political or anything.”

She held on with both hands on the ledge and leaned back as far as she could go before pulling back up and musing over Alec’s question.

“Hell, I like to think I’m still growing up for the first time around. But if I had a choice, to do it over again…no, I don’t think I would. Not because it wasn’t worth it; I’m sure in spite of the all the crap I learned a lot. I just prefer to keep going, keep moving forward.” She shot Alec a grin. “There’s no going back, and I’m glad for that. But sure, I guess it was worth it.”

She wondered, in the back of her mind, how her brother might answer that question. She’d had it sort of rough; growing up hadn’t been the Brady Bunch by any stretch and there was plenty of unpleasantness that she felt was best forgotten. It wasn’t Dickens bad or anything though, and she thought maybe for Jan it was.

She shrugged, shifting her weight on the window sill and working up her nerve.

“So Evans and I were talking…yeah, there were almost civil words and everything…anyway, he felt like this immortality gig would be ‘lonely.’ He also called us ‘unnatural’ but that’s another story.”

She let down her hair and shook it out, tying it back again with firm tugs. She was both rambling and stalling, though she sort of wanted Alec to get where she was coming from.

“I guess I was curious, when you mentioned the whole Ginnie deal, what you made of getting involved with ‘one of us’. I’m not criticizing; I guess I just don’t get it. Hell…this is coming out wrong. I guess when Evans asserted that loneliness was par for the course when you’re a vampire, I couldn’t help but think of the other side of that; that the people you let into your life are going to be there for a –long- time. I don’t know which prospect I find more intimidating, truth be told.”

She shrugged a little, finding she was perfectly okay with the fact that she had given away more about herself with that question than was probably wise. She wanted to know and there wasn’t any way to find out besides asking.

Scruntching his face up at the Relic comment, Alec said

Nah...feel free to bash them all you want. I've only met one...ok, maybe two, who that doesn't seem to hold true for. They think with the weight of ages behind them that they have the corner on the market on intelligence and propriety. The fact of the matter is they need Evenhet to show them how they failed to realize that while Anataya fails to move forward, the world does. Evenhet needed us to show them that try as they might to be human, our kind is still predatory by nature and therefore distinctly separate from humanity. Eventually, we'll probably be feeling all high and mighty and someone will break off from us. The thing that pisses me off about it is that we're the ones that don't get a spot at the table despite the fact that we have Anataya's morals and Evenhet's adaptability. Well, anyway, that's my take on things. Likely they'd feel different if I dropped it on them. Oh, well the Evenhet would. The Anataya would snub me for not being over 200.

Chuckling, Alec listened to Nova continue on as she leaned way back over the edge, underlining her point about still growing up. He was comforted somewhat in the fact that she hadn't seen anything too special about it - it would be unfortunate to hear too many glory tales of human days, knowing that the route was forever lost to him. As she said Evans, Alec held up a finger, smirking.

Evans? He's not Kyle now? He must be in the dog house. Anyway, continue. Evans.

Rubbing his chin, Alec frowned at her description.

I don't see his point, I guess...how would it be any more lonely? It is very similar for most, it seems. The creator is the parent figure, the extended family the clan. Like in the human world, there are unfortunates and homeless like the clanless, adopted children like me who have no parents. There are friends, lovers, social events, jobs...it is the same thing, except that the bonds we form are more enduring as we only die of unnatural causes. As for the unnatural bit...from the perspective of the cow the slaughterhouse probably seems unnatural as well. But there it is, a part of the world. It is just his perspective that makes it seem distorted and unnatural...and perhaps an underlying theme of religious programming that makes him feel that we're bad, that he is unworthy of something-or-other...of course, that is probably a bit of what draws him to us.

Smiling warmly, Alec continued.

As for...as for Genie and me...I assure you that no one was more surprised than myself. Ok, maybe she was. I can't speak to that. Iamb still not sure I am qualified to talk about relationships. So far, I'd been somewhat of a lone wolf, so finding the level of pull toward another person was alien to me. It was something on an instinctual level that I knew I could either fight with and be torn apart by or roll with and possibly be rewarded.

Blushing a bit, Alec opted not to get in a discussion about the rewards of falling for Ginnie. They were long, involved, and required some abstract distancing that he really didn't want to introduce into that aspect of his life. Love and lovemaking should be spontaneous and free - the area of life designed to be pure emotion, pure chaos. Work was the place for logic, planning and execution, and that is how balance was maintained...with a little help from social events to one side or the other.

Um...anyway...yes. It is intimidating as hell. At the same time, it isn't like there is a thing either of us could do about it. Once we met, it was somewhat of an historical inevitability, I suppose. I'd have liked to have been a bit more socially advanced before settling down for eternity or whatever, but at the same time, that focuses me on just how lucky I am to have found someone willing to put up with my awkwardness and think that it is sexy or endearing or whatever. And perhaps the fact that I feel like I am the lucky one is exactly what she needs in a lover, which is why she's passed up centuries of opportunities.

Winking, Alec wrapped up his response.

But you'll have to talk to her about that.

Grinning happily, he gave her a few seconds to digest. Then he couldn't help himself. With a glint of mischief in his eyes, he asked

So are you asking about relationship stuff because you are thinking about increasing the level of form to form friction in your life and possibly exchanging biological substance with a certain ward, or were you just curious?