i. seven cities that never sleep

It had started raining almost as soon as they'd left the dock, and if had been up to her or anyone else with a slightly rational mind, they would have gone in right away. As the sun left the sky and the bitter dusk air settled in around tiny vessel of a sailboat, she resisted the urge to make a comment on how this was completely the opposite of the romantic date she had been promised. Her lack of complaints had better be fucking appreciated, because this was literally the only day she would put up with this type of shit. Biting her tongue, Christina Kelley pulled her uselessly soaked jacket tighter around her shoulders as she suppressed the shiver shooting up her spine. God she hated Boston.

It wasn't supposed to have been like this. A few months ago, she'd seen a cute redhead looking a little out of place in the middle of a pub one night, and had gone over to chat her up. As it turned out, she was an American who had flown to Italy for some kind of study abroad program and ended up lost- she could not for the life of her find her way back to her host family's house. She couldn't speak a word of Italian and, judging by the look of relief on her face, Christina had been the only person she'd met so far who could speak English. Poor girl. How the hell she ended up in a pub like that was something she still didn't know.

So they'd talked for a while, one drink had lead to another, and by the time they left they had agreed Alex wouldn't be going back to her host family until the next morning. But it wasn't supposed to go anywhere. A one night stand, that was it. Then Alex would go back to her college life and her host family and in three months time she'd take a plane back to America. Christie would continue her halfhearted attempt to find an employer willing to hire a high school dropout who never bothered to show up on time, consistently got into fights with her boss and fellow employees, took frequent unauthorized smoking breaks, and disregarded instructions half the time while living off her father's fortune and picking up random strangers for quick and meaningless shags. They'd have never met again in their lifetimes, and Alex would have been easily forgotten along with all the others.

But then the morning had come and she'd let the girl sleep in- largely due to the massive amount of effort she was putting forth to wake her up. Mistake one.

Then, when she'd finally managed to shake her awake, Alex had complained of a massive hangover and refused to move. Or leave. And, although she had proven she was physically stronger than the redhead the night before and was probably quite capable of dragging her out of bed, lifting her over her shoulder, carrying her out to her car and driving her home herself, she didn't. Because goddamn did that woman know how to puppy-dog pout. Mistake two.

After two and a half hours of cussing and throwing various objects at her and trying to just ignore her in general, she was pissed beyond reason. Fairly certain that the worst of Alex's headache was passed and she was being screwed with, Christie finally managed to drag her out of bed, give her some breakfast- which by this hour of the day would have been a late lunch- and offered to drive her back to her host family. Mistake three.

Checkmate.

She should have just given her some directions and waved her down a cab. But no, she'd driven her there, and in the process the redheaded bitch had managed to set them up a date the following day at some café downtown. And from there it was a downhill spiral. Christina found that Alex was spending considerably more nights at her flat than her host family's place, and after two months of it, somehow Alex knew more about Christina than she'd ever allowed anyone else to know. Then Alex broke up with her boyfriend and that's when Christina realized how serious their relationship had become.

It took the last month they had together for Christina to realize that she had pretty much nothing tying her to Milan and suddenly here she was, in Boston, living with her pain-in-the-ass American girlfriend Alexandra Smith and her friendly but irritatingly nosy roommate Amanda. On a tiny sailboat in the middle of the fucking Atlantic Ocean.

"Hey, come on," Alex's playful voice came from behind her as she wrapped her arms around Christina's shoulders in an attempt to warm her up. "I know its not a perfect day to be out on the water, but you have to admit the rain makes it more peaceful." Christie kept her eyes focused on the ocean waves, trying to focus on the sound of raindrops on water and the thunder rumbling in the distance as Alex turned her head slightly to watch her girlfriend's profile with a mischievous grin. "And you look pretty sexy with your hair all... messy and wavy and stuff."

"You do realize the only reason I haven't thrown you overboard yet is because I can't sail this thing, yeah?" she growled.

"And maybe also because its my birthday?" Alex added slyly, batting her eyes.

"I still can't believe you wanted this. We could be back in your apartment right now having amazing sex. Or, at the very least, staying warm and dry and inside. But instead, I end up with the girlfriend who thinks the idea of a perfect birthday celebration is to spend it in the middle of the ocean, while its freezing and raining."

"What happened to not complaining? You were doing really well today, I thought," the words were spoken with practically the same cheerful tone, but Christie could hear the tense undertone form in her voice, which meant she had roughly thirty seconds to apologize before they got into a fight. Frankly, though, she wasn't really eager to cave in and pretend she was enjoying this- yes, it was the girl's birthday, but that didn't mean there weren't limits to what Christina would put up with.

"Gave up on it about an hour ago I guess," she shrugged and accidentally stole a glance at Alex's impossibly pathetic face. With a sigh, she leaned over and gave her two quick kisses, the first aiming for the biggest freckle on her nose and the second for her lips. Alex caught the second and held it for a moment before pulling back and resting her head on Christina's shoulder. Christie was making a valiant effort to ignore how uncomfortable, sticky, and all around disgusting she felt when Alex finally got up and made her way to other side of the boat towards the rudder.

"So you wanna head back, then?"

Before she had the time to answer, a sharp clap loud enough to bring about the end of the world rang out, there was a flash of light, and an unimaginable jolt of pain shot through her. She barely had time to shriek before the world went dark around her.

Of all the ways I could have died, her last thought as she sunk into a pit of unconsciousness, this is a pretty crappy way to go.