|
Finley's place is actually in a fairly decent neighborhood. Not anything amazing, but--solidly working class. Close enough to Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania to get back and forth easily enough. It's a quiet neighborhood, and the address leads Rena to a two story house that has recently been renovated and converted into a few different apartments.
When Rena presumably texts to let Fin know she is there, Finley arrives at the front door, unlocking it to let her into the front hallway. They're without their coat, and wearing PJs and--well, Rena has never seen them Pretty before. There's no mask on, which shows off that the mouth of misshapen teeth are gone--replaced by neat rows of only slightly too-sharp teeth and full lips. It's... an eerie sort of beauty to them, too symmetrical. Even their hair looks thicker and shinier than normal.
But zhe looks fucking exhausted, despite offering a small smile. "Hi. Come in. Calamity is sleeping but will wake up to talk to you, I'm sure..."
"Yo what the fuck why," are the first words that come cascading out of her mouth before she has time to adjust to being polite. Rena then cracks the joints in her neck and shakes herself off before asking, "are they here? Are they okay?" She looks tired and stressed herself, her shirt covered in grass stains and someone else's long dried blood. Her voice has a quality to it, like someone trying and failing to be cool under fire.
"Yeah, they're okay. Um--just down here..." Finley moves to a door that leads down some stairs--into a basement apartment.
The basement has been finished, so it's actually fairly nice. There's wood floors and the walls are a pleasant beigey but bland color. It's not really... decorated, cause Finley sure as heck doesn't have an eye of design. More thrown together mismatched furniture angled more towards comfort than anything. A soft couch, a decent TV and entertainment system, and a small kitchen. There's a door that leads to another room--probably bedroom, but it's currently closed. There's a lot of cute stuff placed here and there--some anime character figurines and toys on a shelf, several stuffed animals lining the back of the couch, and some cute animal decor on the walls. The two small windows at the top of one wall have been uncovered, though they don't let in much light. There's a lot of lamps around to make up for it, so the place doesn't feel too cave like.
There's a gasp and a muffled thud from behind the closed door, like someone's woken up suddenly and proceeded to fall the fuck out of bed. And Calamity's heart thuds, fast and a little weak.
A few seconds later the door opens. "...Fin?" Calamity's voice is hoarse, and they wait a moment before peeking around the doorframe, their eyebrows knit in concern.
Their curly hair is a little damp, and their face is clean. The light from the lamps around the room makes it easy to see just how pale and grey their face is, though, and the circles under their eyes a hell of a lot darker than usual.
"Fuckin' hell, Huck, you got yourself a Home here," Rena says, whistling as she looks around. And then the thud happens and Rena moves fast. Not Celerity fast, but showing off how naturally fast she is. She runs with a perfect runner's form and grace that one wouldn't expect from how she usually acts.
And then she sees one (1) alive Calamity. They look like hell but they're there alive and she just... melts. "Bug, I thought I'd never see your stupid ass again," she says, softly, her body starting to do the weird sob noises that Calamity might recognize as unblushed vampires crying. "Holy fuck, I missed you so much. Are you alright? Did Huck check you for black lung and shit?"
"I'm here--I was just letting Rena in," zhe calls out to Calamity.
Finley lingers behind a bit as the two have their reunion, smiling tiredly. Zher arms cross loosely over zher chest as zhe watches.
Calamity has to hold onto the door, then the doorframe, to get out into the living room. Steadying themself until they can fling themself at Rena, wrapping trembling arms around her and burying their face into her shoulder.
Hell of a first hug, after a year of being away, isn't it?
"Didn't - thought you'd just think I got picked up, or some shit..." They mutter, their breathing going all shaking and their voice wobbling. "Fin saved me."
"Fuckin' hell, now that I'm back, I ain't ever letting you get away from me. 'Fore Fin figured out the fuck was goin' on, I was about this close to fightin' my way through every gang in the city." Rena is nothing if not sturdy. She puts her arms under theirs to help steady them and to yank them up if they fall.
And hey, they're both going to pretend this didn't happen later anyway, so she might as well go for broke and express some actual emotions. "I wanted to help rescue you so bad! I- fuck, don't tell anyone I said this. You matter to me a lot. Like... more than anything else in this fucked up universe. I was a fucking mess without you, Bug."
She pauses and cranes her head to Finley. "Yo, Fin! Get your nerd ass in on this."
Finley looks down at the floor sheepishly when Calamity mentions Fin saving them, weight shifting between their feet.
Then a glance up, blinking a few times before zhe steps closer, uncertain if they're supposed to join the hug or not--instead zher hands lift to awkwardly rest on both of their arms, smiling softly.
"If... it wasn't for Rena, I never would've seen the picture in the first place and we never would've known what happened so--it--it really wasn't... me..."
"I won't tell. No one'd believe me anyway, 's not like you got feelings or anything." Calamity leans back to crack a smile up at Rena, before snaking an arm around Fin's waist and pulling zhem into the hug properly.
"You fuckin' saved me Fin, an' you did a damn good job, take some'a the credit."
"Shut the fuck up. I woulda been interrogating intake nurses all year if you hadn't found Bug from a 4 pixel image," Rena says, squishing Fin into the hug. Zhe's got vigor, zhe can handle it.
"The guys in charge put me on team 'kill all the fuckers' instead of rescue, so if you need any messages passed on to the leader when we pump him full of magic bullets, I can deliver them."
Finley ouffs softly as zhe's pulled into the hug--but doesn't resist. Zher arms lift to wrap tightly around them both in return with their own less powerful Vigor hug. Zhe frowns after a moment, looking worriedly to Rena. "They're... really strong... please be careful..."
"Fin made us all invisible, we'd'a been so fucked without zhem...maybe something to try for all yinz?" Calamity moves to nuzzle Finley's cheek gently. "Rena's tough as shit, she can handle whatever the fuck. But if you don't make it back imma seriously kill you." They say the last to Rena, their lips quirked up in a smile.
"Some Russian fuck's going to kit us up," Rena says, trying to seem like she's not worried about it. Which she wasn't back when Calamity might have been dead. Then it was just mindless rage. Now she has to actually make it back alive. "'nd this nice lady I met at the waffle place is going to do some nice stuff to my knife. I think the plan is to go so hard that invisibility won't help us. Like we're figurin' out ways to make ourselves fire proof so we can burn 'em to ash without the coal fumes killin' us."
She pauses, looking Calamity over. "Speakin' of fire, your brain doin' okay, Bug?"
The nuzzling causes a flustered look to flit over zher face, but zhe returns it shyly before squeezing tightly around Rena. "Okay. I'm sure you'll... be okay..."
Finley likely doesn't mean to, but damn do they flinch when Rena mentions fire, head tilting away to look to the side instead of at Calamity--and breaking away from the nuzzling.
Calamity flinches at the mention of fire, too, and gives Finley a guilty look. "Brain's fine, what d'you mean?"
"Just, you know. Brain shit," Rena says, giving a pointed look. "You two okay? Fin, you look twitchier than normal. Might just be that I can see all your face though."
Finley grimaces, pulling back from the hug. "I've... frenzied twice tonight. I'm... pretty twitchy. Sorry. But--um--I'm fine, really..." Yep. Totally fine.
"'M fine.Calamity pulls away from Rena, and looks at Finley worriedly. " I'm...'m really sorry Fin. I...I didn't know it was gonna happen..."
"You two got shit you wanna share with the class?" Rena says, looking over the two short people in front of her. "You both look like you're in some shit. And I'd like to fix it but I need to know what the fuck it is first."
Finley's arms cross tightly, still looking away. "...It's okay, Calamity." It doesn't really sound okay, but...
Zhe grimaces. "I... got clawed up by one of the rats and frenzied and ran away. Calamity followed me and... Their fire sort of... exploded and burnt me so I ran away again." Zhe stares at the floor, frowning deeper. "Next time, Calamity, you need to... you need to listen to me when I tell you to go away. I know you want to help but... but I could have hurt you..."
"That shit's never happened to me before, I didn't know I was gonna lose control like that. An' I did help you, didn't I?" They sound more desperate than angry.
"Okay, time out," Rena says, her voice getting loud again. Not angry, just her normal slightly too loud. "Let's either sit down and hash this out like adults or shut up and not talk about it like adults. None of this in the middle standing around while Bug's about to collapse from anemia crap."
Finley winces, then nods to Rena, shoulders hunching a bit. "Y-yeah... okay. Calamity, sit down, please?" Zhe reaches out to grip their arm gently to help urge them over to the couch to sit.
"'M fine." It's a refrain that Finley's heard a lot, tonight, but Calamity allows themself to be led over to the couch.
"Bug. I have crazy vampire senses. I can tell that you're a big fat liar. I don't think it's anythin' too serious, but I can tell that your body will be a whole hell of a lot happier sittin' down." Her stated lack of concern is undercut a little by her giving a glance at Finley to see if it actually isn't anything serious.
Finley grimaces a bit. "...I... took a little too much, but they should be fine. Just... needs to rest for the next week." There's a pointed look towards Calamity as zhe makes sure they settle in. Then zher arms cross over zher chest, frowning. "And you're honestly lucky I didn't loose control completely and take more. I know you wanted to help and... and yes, you did help, but we got lucky and next time we might not be lucky--and I don't know what I'd do if I really hurt you, Calamity. And Rena would probably kill us both if it happened," zhe murmurs, eyes down on the floor. "I told you no. I told you to leave. But you didn't listen. And that's not okay."
Calamity drops onto the couch and melts a little, and they fiddle with the sleeves of their borrowed shirt. They don't make eye contact with either Kindred, and they pull their knees up to their chest, looking very small and very sad.
"You needed help..." is all they say, in a very quiet voice.
"I ain't exactly a mediator or anythin', but." Rena lets out a long exhale, just to buy herself some time to think. "Fin's right. Don't fuck around when we're in Frenzy. Fin ain't as strong as me but zhe can put up a halfway decent fight in Frenzy. I put a hole through a house last time I frenzied," Rena says, very much not looking at Fin when she says that.
But then she turns to Finley. "Safety aside, you think this is the best time to be teachin' lessons? This is the kinda shit you say when you jump someone into knowin' about vamps, not a best-friendship after. Especially not, after a fuckin' traumatic event and their best friend turning into a monster. And then blamin' 'em for helpin'." Rena is trying very very hard to not seem angry as she says that. She doesn't do a great job.
Finley turns to Rena and stares, brows creasing. "I've already told them to run away if one of us Frenzy before. Don't talk to me like I've never had their well being in mind before tonight."
"Zhe's not a monster - and yeah, they told me a lotta shit." Calamity frowns at Rena, and then turns to Finley. "'S a shitty time all around, wasn't thinkin' clearly, I...trusted you not to go apeshit. I guess."
Rena scowls at the two. But they seem to be making up, at the cost of her own standing. Wasn't the worst way that could go. "You two are friends, don't let both of you bein' dumbasses change that." She says, deciding she might as well lean on being a heel.
"That's... never going to change," Finley murmurs with a frown, arms crossing tighter. "But you're right. Now's not the time to talk about it." Zhe looks aside. "I'm gonna go lay down in the dark for a while. You can stay as long as you want, Rena. There's food in the fridge if Calamity gets hungry again and blankets and pillows in the closet over there." Zhe turns, moving over to the door to the bedroom and slips inside, closing the door behind them.
"Fin..." Calamity's face falls. "Can I...come cuddle later?"
Finley glances back in the doorway and nods to them, before slipping into the dark room, taking the much needed time to recenter zhemself.
"Fuckin' gay." Rena says with a smirk, stopping just short of shoving Calamity's shoulder. "Go get 'em, tiger."
|