And here's another chapter! Whoo! Go me! … and yes, I do know it mostly follows Nina at the moment, but, see, I'm just a bit, I dunno, shaky when it comes to writing behavior for the twins. Call me a coward, it'll be true. *nods sagely*
…Anyways, I promise more stuff with the twins as the main focus. I have maaany ideas on how to tortu—er, I mean, put them in funny situations. I do have to warn you, though; it might take a while for me to write the next chapter (Mon Dieu, look at the bloody word count on this chapter!) what with all my other stories, homework, learning to use my brand shiny new tablet and bugging the heck out of people, but I shall try to keep ye fans fascinated!
Bah, I have to stop writing when sleep deprived… Warnings: wrote during sleep deprivation, OC, chronic lack of plot using bad guy and good guy mechanics.
Disclaimer: What makes you think I own it? I am, after all, but a lowly useless hack.
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Nina hummed, tapping her fingertips on the steering wheel as she (slowly) made her way through the city, towards the suburbs of the city where, on the corner of two streets, there was a small house-gone-café. Or, 'Kafe,' as was the name of the café. It was a nice little place, and Nina was surprised she hadn't thought of it as a meeting place first.
She had the radio turned up pretty loud, the ending lyrics to Puddle of Mudd's 'Away From Me' playing out noisily. That song had been overplayed, Nina didn't usually sing along with it, so this time she settled for humming.
The next song that came on the radio, however, Nina was perfectly happy to sing along with it. She grinned as Eve 6's 'Inside Out' started up, and sang along with the chorus, although probably getting some words wrong.
"I would swallow my pride, I would choke on the rinds but the lack thereof would leave me empty inside, swallow my doubt, turn it inside out, find nothing but faith in nothing, wanna put my tender heart in a blender, watch it spin round to a beautiful oblivion,
Rendezvous and I'm through with you…"
Nina spent the next half hour or so singing along to random songs on the radio, until she got to the Café. She parked on the side of the road a couple houses away from the Café, not bothering to lock her 'Geep' as she fondly called it; it never got stolen because it was so beat up. The hood had a large dent in it, the back windshield had a crack in it, and the passenger door was dented and missing a handle. Not to mention the large rust spots on various parts of the Geep.
She walked towards the Café, only glancing at the brown-painted house with its old-fashioned veranda and medium-large sign branding it 'Kafe' over the door before entering. A bell that was hung on the door rang when Nina opened the door, came in and shut it behind her, then waved towards the register worker, who was a girl named Katie. Katie waved back at Nina, recognizing her as the girl who came in maybe once a week.
Nina paused to survey the other customers, of who there were three. Two, obviously twins, from the fact they looked scarily like each other, and probably albino, because they were, of course, very pale, and had white hair, sat in the far corner of the café, talking in low tones about something. The other costumer was a guy, pale, with black hair and dressed in a strangely familiar gothic way. Which was, for Nina, definitely strange. She barely knew the styles of Gothic-ness, or any other style, for that matter. Her clothing knowledge stopped past what was in stores like Kohl's or Wal-mart.
It took a second, but then Nina realized why the clothing style of the gothic guy seemed familiar. The gothic guy's 'costume,' as Nina thought of it now, was similar to Nny's. Just wonderful, a Johnny-follower…those people scare the hell out of me.' Nina thought to herself, a bit darkly.
Shrugging, Nina strolled over to the counter the register was on, waving yet again at Katie but adding a "Hey" this time.
"Hi, Nina, right?" Katie asked, smiling a bit. Nina nodded, grinning slightly. "Yeah, I'm Nina. That girl who paid with ones, remember?" Katie nodded as well, smile turning into more of a grin at the memory.
"How much did you have to pay that time? $20?" Nina nodded as Katie asked.
"Yeah, twenty ones, bet I ended up giving you a headache later on, huh?" Nina replied.
Katie shook her head, pushing a stray chunk of hair behind her ear. "Nah, a guy came in later wanting to make a ten, ten one bills. So it balanced out."
"Hah, that's good. So." Nina got a bit more serious, or as serious as possible for her with the memory of having to pay her $20 fee in one-dollar bills dancing in her mind. "Just wondering, has a guy named Jason Henderson came in here?"
Katie blinked. "Um, well, a guy named Jason was here. Still here, too. He's at that table, the goth kid, see?"
Nina, surprised, glanced at the Johnny-follower, as she dubbed him. "Him? Oh great. Well, thanks for your help. Oh yeah, can I get an, um, Italian soda, Vanilla flavored? I won't pay in ones this time." Nina assured Katie, who grinned slightly and answered with "Sure."
Turning, Nina strolled over to the goth kid's table, just a bit apprehensive. She wasn't exactly wonderful with people she didn't know, unless she was working. "May I take your order?" was a very easy way to interact with people.
"Um, hi, are you Jason Henderson?" Nina asked, a bit awkwardly, as the goth kid looked up. He scanned Nina over with his eyes, taking in her attire of baggy jeans, a pair of scuffed black boots, and a not-so-tight t-shirt that said "Yay! Stuff happened!" on it in obviously home-done fabric paint.
"Yeah." He answered, still looking at Nina, except not exactly in a sizing-up way. "Nina Sanchez? Please sit down."
Nina complied, still a bit nervous; she saw how Jason was looking at her, and it wasn't just a sizing up type of look. More like a 'I'm-a-guy-who-has-never-gotten-laid' look. "Um. So."
Jason calmly took the time to start the conversation. "Lets talk about your apartment, shall we?"
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The Twins had hypothesized about how they were going to deal with their particular situation of homelessness. During which, One had had to order coffee, because they simply couldn't sit in the café without buying anything. Many ideas had gone by during the talk; hotels, apartments, simply taking a house, all were options. Of course, all options had downsides as well, most were namely humans.
The Twins would still be talking, but they had come to a small disagreement on hotel services. And then the serving girl, Katie, had asked One if he desired a refill on the coffee. One had consented, even thought it would cost more money, flirting slightly with Katie and smirking at her obvious discomfort while she was talking to him. Two, vaguely disgusted with this behavior, pretended to ignore his sibling completely.
One noticed, but didn't try to get Two to say anything. The twins both ignored their double, occupying themselves with different things, although the things they could do were fairly limited. Basically, One stirred various things into his coffee and Two surveyed the two other customers; a gothic male and a fairly normal looking female, and listened into their conversation.
"… So when I move in, you are not allowed into my room, because you might disrupt any number of my own things, which I do not want." The male was speaking, obviously laying out plans for the female. The gothic kid smirked slightly, leaning back and running a hand through his greasy hair. "Of course, if you wish to become my girlfriend, you can come in any time." The female was looking uncomfortable to say the least.
"Um, it's my apartment for the moment, Jason." The female shifted, looking at the male, Jason, a bit worriedly. "You don't have a knife collection, right? Or anything, erm, nailed to the walls? Or anything to do with walls, right?"
Two would have raised an eyebrow, why was the female worried about walls? But the male started speaking again.
"Of course I have knives. Many. I like to keep them lined up in the right order. I even have one knife, it's a ceremonial one, a very nice blade…" Two actually did raise an eyebrow, then; what was the male's obsession with knives? Humans were odd. The female was looking really uncomfortable now, eyeing the gothic male.
"Do you have knives with you right now?" She interrupted the goth's ramble on knives. "Never leave the house without them." He replied. The female sighed slightly. "Great, that's great."
The goth leaned forwards, interlacing his fingers and resting his elbows on the table, looking at the female. "So, Ms. Sanchez, will you allow me to stay in your apartment?" The male smirked, as if the female couldn't deny the offer.
Two would have listened to the female's response, but One distracted him by asking, "Why are we paying attention to those humans?"
Glancing at One from behind dark sunglasses, Two responded. "We think she's looking for a roommate."
"Why does that concern us?" One questioned, looking like he'd scorn the idea of sharing a place with a human. Two knew his twin did, merely through the mental bond.
Two tapped a fingernail on the table between them, and instead of speaking, sending the words to his twin through the mental link.
'We need a place to stay.' Two thought.
'And?'
'Killing would get us noticed.'
'We don't want to share anything with a human.'
'We don't like the idea, yes. But are we willing to go back to Merovingian?'
One scowled, tapping his fingernails on the table as well as Two, mirroring the rhythm of Two's tapping without realizing it. 'Point taken.'
Now both twins paid attention to the gothic male and the very obviously uncomfortable female. The female's response had been delayed, because Katie had came by to give the female a drink. Now the slightly Hispanic-looking female fiddled with the straw in her drink, nervous-looking, although the Goth didn't notice. An obviously made-up-on-the-spot lie slipped from her lips as she replied to the Goth's earlier question. "Uh, well, I do have other people trying to, uh, vying for the extra room in my apartment, you know."
Jason tilted his head, unaware that the female had lied, amazingly enough. "Do you? Who?"
The female obviously hadn't expected that. Her eyes widened and she glanced around, as if looking for a way out. A stuttered 'uh' escaped from her mouth as she grasped for another lie that could save her.
Both twins noticed Katie's movement, even if the other humans didn't, and both glanced at her at the same time. Following what was happening with their eyes, the Twins watched to see how this would unfold.
Katie, using whatever acting ability she had, strode over to the two human's table, and smiled apologetically at Jason. "I'm one of the ones thinking about moving into Nina's extra room. I need a place to stay, y'know?"
The female at the table nodded quickly. "Yeah, Katie's thinking about being my roommate."
Jason looked up at Katie in almost a glare, then nodded, faking a slight smile, or whatever was closest to the Goth version of smile. "Alright. Do either one of you have a pen?"
Katie shrugged, digging in her jeans pocket and handed Jason a pen. Nina looked at the pen a bit warily as it entered Jason's grasp, and the Twins were starting to lose interest.
Jason grabbed a napkin, clicking the pen and scribbling something on it. He then handed Nina the scribbled-on napkin, and said, "Call me if you want me to be your, roommate." There was a short pause between 'your' and 'roommate,' which made Nina look just a bit more nervous. Jason stood up and handed Katie back her pen, then brushed by her, crossing the room and walking out the door. As soon as the door closed, Nina sighed with obvious relief.
Katie said something softly to Nina, then walked back to the register. Simultaneously, the Twins stood, white trench coats reverting back to their normal shapes. The twins glanced at each other, as if to check that each was looking fine, then walked calmly over to Nina's table. Nina looked up, saw the twins and almost shuddered under the double gaze of the twins.
One and Two both thought the sentence, but it left One's mouth. "We'd like to discuss the possibility of living arrangements."
Nina sighed slightly, motioning for the twins to sit down at the table. Were all the people she attracted strange and unusual?
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