Think of all the luck you got.

[not_lost]

There were a lot of really weird and screwed-up scenarios that Fiona Gallagher could imagine herself in. Her involvement in these scenarios was usually begrudging and her father usually the cause, but picturing herself caught up in something beyond most people's limit of belief had officially became much easier after this past summer. (Finding yourself crouching in a hole in your backyard, covered in sweat and dirt, and ecstatic over having unearthed a dead relative's remains could do that to a girl.)

Despite that, she had to admit that the Nexus was pretty fucking crazy, even by Gallagher standards.

It had been just at a week hotel time since she'd opened the downstairs bathroom door and found the Nexus beyond, but having a magical luxury hotel where her toilet should be freaked her out a lot less than the fact that the place was essentially free. In Fiona's experience, if something sounded too good to be true, it always was, and she probably should've gone home, chalked the whole experience up to some bad seafood and never thought about it again.

She probably would have, too, if the people at the desk hadn't told her the bit about time differences and job openings.

Christmas was right around the corner, and she'd spent almost everything Jimmy had left her on that damned deal for work. (Not that she was complaining; the money had come at the perfect time, and now they'd have enough plastic cups in the house that they probably wouldn't need to wash a single glass for half a year.) Back home, it would cost her 150 bucks to get herself licensed to sell alcohol, and she'd have no guarantee of being hired anywhere. Here, they apparently only cared that you could mix a drink, and a lifetime with Frank had more than prepared her for that. The great hourly wage and tips she was earning meant she could actually afford to get everything out of lay-away this year and maybe even buy some extra stocking stuffers for the kids. The circumstances may have been weird, but for Fiona taking the position was a no-brainer.

Today was her third day behind the bar at the Smoking Room. She'd allowed herself to come through early enough to get a solid nap before her shift and was now practically chipper, turning a wide smile to the guests waiting for a drink.

"What can I get you?"

For the first time in a long time, she actually felt good about the future.

Comments

[not_lost]

"I can't really say anything about that, I never had a reason to leave Chicago either," Fiona allowed with a slight shrug. It wasn't entirely true, she'd been prepared to leave for Michigan of all fucking places, but that had never been a real possibility. Better to forget about it and move on.

"What's your name, guy from New Orleans?"

[malachai]

"Hometown inertia can be a powerful thing," Nick agreed with some of the smirk filtering back onto his face. Then it broke out fully. "Here I am going on about being all Southern and I forget my manners completely. I'm Nick Gautier," he said, "and yours, lady from Chicago?"

[not_lost]

"Don't worry about it, I'm used to people forgetting their manners," Fiona replied with a knowing smile. "They're not as popular where I come from." Not that she minded, really. She'd much rather have brutal honesty than sunshine blown up her ass.

"I'm Fiona," she added. "Nice to meet you, Nick. So, what do you down there in the South? Do you work, go to school?"

[malachai]

"Pleasure to meet you, too, Fiona."

Nick thought about his answer before he blurted something out that he'd regret later.

"I was in law school at LSU before I...I guess you could say I got drafted," he said finally, nodding to himself that he hadn't exactly lied.

[not_lost]

"You know, people are funny," Fiona began, casually wiping down the back of the bar. "They'll be just dying to tell the truth, but they feel like they shouldn't, so they say something leading that you just have to ask about, so that when they fess up, they don't have to feel bad about it."

Smiling, she settled a hand on her canted hip and arched a knowing eyebrow Nick's way.

[malachai]

Nick smiled right back. "Or it could be their way of letting the other person decide if they're interested enough to ask for more information or give the polite 'oh, that's great' nod and move onto something else." Then, because why the hell not, he dropped a wink. "You're not the only one with a fair amount of time on that side of the bar."

[not_lost]

"Oh, come on!" Fiona said with a flop of one hand, her posture relaxing. "Who wouldn't ask about a statement as vague and odd as 'you could say I got drafted'? Nobody I know is going to politely let that one go by." Then again, the people she knew were by and large not interested in politeness in general.

"So, fess up, you've got me on the hook. What's the story there?"

[malachai]

Nick looked at the glass in his hand, then up at the bartender. "You want it short and sweet or down to the last ugly detail?"

[not_lost]

"It's your story," Fiona replied with a shrug. "I'm not going anywhere, but if you want to keep it short and sweet, be my guest. Then again, I do have a fondness for ugly details," she added with an arch of her eyebrows.

[malachai]

"No rambling but heavy on ugly, I think I can manage that." He took a breath and released it, gathering his thoughts into some kind of order. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of order to the fucked up mess his life had become.

"Starting at the beginning, I'm the product of an ancient high demon raping an innocent fourteen year old girl, which makes me half human, half demon, something I didn't find out until I died the second time at the hands of one of the Four Horsemen and my powers were unlocked. The first time I died," he said before she could ask, "was the night my mother was brutally murdered by a vampire masquerading as an ally. In my grief over not protecting her, I called to Artemis for vengeance. She denied me since the betrayal had killed my mother, not me, so I shot myself in the head. Artemis, knowing I'd been raised Catholic, captured my soul, kept it, and made me into one of her immortal vampire hunters. The tattoo on my cheek and the fangs are marks of her hunters."

He took a sip from the glass in his hand and raised an eyebrow at her. "How's that?"

[not_lost]

There had been so much information in Nick's little ramble, and every bit of it completely nuts, that for a lengthy pause all Fiona could do was stare dumbly back at him, eyebrows bunched together as she tried to parse whether he was fucking with her. On the one hand, it seemed way too out there to believe, but on the other, who joked about demons raping 14 year-olds?

"I don't even know what to say to that," she admitted, still staring. "That's a whole lot of crazy in one go, you know that, right?"

[malachai]

"Yeah. One person's crazy is another person's fucked up existence," Nick snorted. He wanted to drain the beer in front of him, but talking about the demon made it harder to fight, so he sipped at it instead. Keeping his head was seriously vital.

"S'why I tend to tell people I got drafted and that I've had a bad few years. The whole lot of it doesn't get me invited to a lot of parties."

This time, when he smiled, it was enough to show the fangs.

[not_lost]

"Jesus," Fiona spit out, taken briefly aback. She'd been told about the hotel's diverse clientele, obviously, but it was different to see something like that right in front of her. Nick seemed like a nice enough guy and on the level, but her stomach still instinctively twisted up with some sort of primal, if quickly quashed fear.

"And I thought my life sucked," she added, and then realizing her unintended pun, covered her mouth with one hand so that she didn't cackle outright. "Shit, sorry," she said, biting back her smile.

[malachai]

It took him a second or two for the pun to hit him and when it did, he laughed full and rich. So much so it took him another few seconds to speak and when he did, his blue eyes were still twinkling from it. "Hard to catch me with puns, but that one was stellar. Don't worry about the fangs. When I'm all human, they're just for show. Artemis made her hunters in the image of the vampires, what we call Daimons. So we can't go out in sunlight and we have the same strength, speed and fangs. We just don't have to feed off human blood or souls like they do."

Feeling a lot more in control, he allowed himself another sip from his glass. "You going to reciprocate on the 'leading statement' thing and tell me why your life sucks?"

[not_lost]

"Well that's reassuring, I kind like my soul," Fiona replied, still smiling. Until that moment, she hadn't considered that she might actually be in some kind of danger around this guy.

"I'm the eldest of six kids and my parents are basically MIA," she explained, and forced a shrug. It was life, she couldn't change it, and the last thing she wanted to talk about was Frank.

"So, wait. You seriously can't go outside in the daytime?" she asked instead.

[malachai]

"They're handy things to have around," NIck agreed. "Kind of like duct tape. When you need it you really, really needed it but until then, it's fine just sitting around gathering dust."

He took a sip from his glass, respecting her unspoken 'moving on' vibe. Then he laughed a little. "Technically I can<.I> go out in the sunlight. I just won't survive it....I don't think," he finished with a frown. "Frankly, I'm not sure anymore."

[not_lost]

Fiona stared a brief moment, and then blinked. "Yeah, I can't see that being something you'd want to randomly test out," she said, her eyebrows pulling together with worry.

"So, like, this place, with all the windows…" she continued with a general motion to mean the hotel as a whole. "You can only come out of your room at night?"

[malachai]

"Oh, there are ways around that," Nick said with a glint in his eye and then flashed to the other end of the bar in the blink of her eyes.

"As long as you know the layout," he called out so she could hear him now that he was a good thirty feet away.

[not_lost]

By this point in her life, Fiona liked to think that it took a lot to surprise her. She may have been relatively young, but like all of the Gallagher kids, she was well-seasoned. She'd thought she would be ready for weird magic or alien shit, but she startled now, and then stared.

"…well that's convenient," she finally replied.

[malachai]

He started laughing, and didn't stop as he flashed back to the stool in front of her. "It comes in handy, yeah."

[not_lost]

"Is that what you do when you see someone you want to avoid?" Fiona asked, laughing herself now. "Because if I had that power, I'm pretty sure that's all I'd use it for."

[malachai]

"Not exactly. The things I want to avoid wouldn't be deterred by my flashing out of sight. They'd just follow me in other ways. I use it for travel," he said, looking around the hotel. "But it won't let me go anywhere outside the hotel or grounds no matter how hard I concentrate."

[not_lost]

"Yeah, I was more thinking bill collectors and creepy guys," Fiona replied with a laugh. It was kind of crazy how different two people's lives could be in this place.

"Is there anything outside of the grounds?" she asked. "If there's nothing there, that could explain it."