"Because they're cheaper than day rates?" Tamsin repeated, laughing and shaking her head. "God, doc, that is a truly horrible joke."
"Hey!" Lauren protested tipsily, faking her offense. "That's my favorite one."
The valkyrie raised her eyebrows and took a draught from the wine glass in her hand. "Yeah, well, you need some new material."
"Science humour is so underappreciated." She sighed dramatically and swirled the clear green liquid around her glass before finishing what little was left. They were sitting on a couch in the back of the unusually crowded Dal, nursing cluricaun wine. At least she was; Tamsin was on her fifth or sixth glass already. "You got any better ones?" she challenged, feeling lightheaded even though she'd drank barely half a glass.
"Me? I got nothin. You don't need standup when you have wits this sharp."
"Right. Of course. How foolish of me." The human replied with a smile.
"I guess I'll forgive you this time." The Dark Fae said, with a firm nod of her head. "You ready for another one?" she asked, gesturing to the empty glass in Lauren's hand.
"I don't know; this one is already going to my head and it hasn't even fully kicked in yet."
"You're such a lightweight." Tamsin said teasingly.
"I'm human, remember?"
Tamsin shrugged and gestured towards the bar, which could barely be seen through the throng of people. "C'mon, that's no excuse! Kenzi's been knocking em back since before you got here."
"Well Kenzi is a professional." Lauren countered dryly. She stared down at her empty glass for a few moments before shrugging and handing it to the other woman. "Alright. One more probably won't kill me…probably."
"You'll be fine, doc. I won't let anything happen to you." The Valkyrie assured, emptying what was left in her glass and standing up from the couch. She returned the smile Lauren gave her before making her way through the crowd and up to the bar, waving down Trick who nodded that he'd seen her.
"Tamsin, hi." Bo said next to her, catching her attention.
"Hey." She replied, her tone indulgent. She caught Kenzi's gaze next to the succubus and inclined her head in greeting, the human gave a wave with her free hand as her other hand was busy pouring the contents of her glass into her mouth. "How many of those has she had?" Tamsin asked the brunette, impressed with the array of empty glasses in front of Kenzi that had yet to be cleared.
"That's her third, plus a couple tequila shots, some kind of fairy mead and whatever she's planning on getting after that. This is like Christmas for her." Bo said, nursing a beer.
"None for you? Cluricaun wine is one of the wonders of the world."
"I'm driving. Trick promised to save me a bottle or two to take home, so long as Kenzi doesn't drink it all."
"You better cut her off soon then, she's going to pickle her liver."
Bo laughed lightly and nodded in agreement. "So, where's Lauren? I thought I saw her come in."
Tamsin sighed at the strained note in Bo's voice and lifted her gaze to the ceiling for a moment, looking for strength. "How should I know?" she said with a nonchalant shrug.
The succubus lifted a shoulder in response and picked at the label on her beer bottle. "I dunno; Dyson's just told me you guys talk a lot at the Dal." She answered noncommittally. "About…stuff."
Tamsin waved at Trick again to try and hurry him up. "Oh, for fucks sake… you tell him to keep his nose out of my business."
Bo looked over at the valkyrie, her tone serious. "Is there business to put his nose in?"
"What is with you people?" she replied, exasperatedly, grabbing the fresh glasses Trick set in front of her.
"Lauren is really important to me."
Tamsin rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty sure there isn't a fae on either side who doesn't know that, but thanks for the pointless information."
Bo put a hand on the blonde's arm to stop her from leaving. "I'm not worried about other fae knowing that, I just want to make sure you know it."
Tamsin looked at the succubus dubiously, almost sure there was a threat in there somewhere but she couldn't quite figure out where. "Yeah, okay." She said flatly, shaking her arm slightly so Bo's hand fell away. Shaking her head, she made her way back to through the crowd of people, her mood souring. On seeing Lauren on the couch where she'd left her, Tamsin put Bo completely out of her mind and sat down in her previous spot next to the doctor. "How'd you manage to keep my spot free?" she asked, handing the human her drink.
"No one really pays attention to me unless I'm acting in an official capacity." Lauren admitted with a shrug, not sounding the least put out by that revelation.
"Tch." The valkyrie sounded in disapproval. Tamsin had no idea how people could outright ignore Lauren. Sure, she was human, but Kenzi was met with a general positive attitude and she hadn't done a quarter of things Lauren had for the fae. Ungrateful bastards. Tamsin lifted her glass and took a healthy gulp. "Try and keep up, doc." She said, not wanting to dwell on the subject.
The other woman smiled and rolled her eyes, but took a drink of the sweet wine. "Are you trying to get me drunk?"
Tamsin lifted one shoulder. "First of all," she countered, holding up a finger. "You're halfway there so you might as well go the distance, ammirite? Secondly, I'm pretty sure 'drunk' is one of the six universal emotions."
Lauren laughed and shook her head, amused. "I'd correct you on that last point, but I feel like you'd just argue with me."
"I most definitely would."
"I'm actually surprised no one's started fighting yet. I'm more surprised you haven't started fighting yet."
"A couple people got tossed out before you got here." She replied with a snicker. "Trick threatened to release his troll on them." She bumped Lauren's knee with her own. "And really, doc? You honestly think I'm paying attention enough to the losers around here to get into a fight?" the valkyrie looked at the crowd around them briefly. "Granted, if you weren't here, I'd have probably gotten into a really good one by now."
"Oh yeah?" Lauren asked, pleased with herself. "Am I really that distracting?"
Tamsin raised her eyebrows and smirked but instead of answering the question, took another drink and changed the subject.
ooo
Several hours later, a pleasantly drunk Lauren had made it home in a cab and was busying herself with drinking glasses of water to try and circumvent a hangover the next day. After a few glasses, she set the cup on the counter next to the sink and made her way upstairs to her bedroom. She would be lying if she said she hadn't been noticing that Tamsin was frequently becoming more flirtatious with her lately and she wasn't quite sure how to deal with that. She thought it was because they were more comfortable around each other and that's just how the valkyrie was, but the more it happened, the less Lauren was certain the Dark Fae was just screwing around.
It wasn't that the doctor minded, really. Once she'd mostly gotten past Tamsin's gruff exterior, she found that they surprisingly had quite a bit in common. She was funny, unexpectedly learned, and could even be fairly sweet (though Lauren would never describe Tamsin as such out loud). She was a little confused about how to react, though. Lauren suspected the other blonde had no idea that she'd been harboring more than friendly affection for her for months now. She was convinced that given the valkyrie's personality, she would have made a move on her if she had known. Lauren was cautious though; despite her feelings, Tamsin was not just any fae, she was Dark Fae.
Her relationship with Bo had been tolerated and even encouraged because it was beneficial to the Light. There was no telling how a reaction to breaking the human/fae social taboos would go with a member of the Dark; despite the intramural Dark-Light cooperation lately. Lauren tossed her clothes carelessly on the floor and got into bed, pulling the comforter up to her chin. She wasn't even sure Tamsin was after anything more than casual sex though she readily admitted that Tamsin didn't seem the relationship type.
Lauren sighed and closed her eyes. The doctor had grown unused to being hit on since becoming immersed in the fae world. Like she had told the valkyrie at the Dal, she was generally ignored unless acting in some official capacity. Though it wasn't completely unheard of for fae to be attracted to her, it was so infrequent that she became flummoxed when it did happen and generally suspected some kind of ulterior motives behind the actions. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but she hadn't sussed out any nefarious reasons that Tamsin could have for flirting with her and being the least bit serious about it at the same time. Still, Lauren felt it wise to keep her feelings to herself. It would never work, for a million reasons least of all being on opposite sides of the fae system. Maybe if she ignored her feelings long enough they would go away.