First Date (Tag M-)

[daywalkingblade]

The black muscle car rumbled into the gravel parking lot of what looked to be a bar/saloon in the middle of nowhere, upstate New York. The place was south of Rochester by about forty miles. Above the entrance, a tacky red neon sign read "The Roadhouse". There was no one hanging around outside, but thee were several cars and motorcycles. It was pretty quiet for what one might expect of a bar, at least from the outside. As the car pulled to a stop, Blade glanced at his passenger. This was going to be...interesting. She was too pretty and far to classy for a place like this. Hell, she was probably too stunningly beautiful to be in this car with someone as rough around the edges as Blade. But here they were. People would notice as they went into the bar, but nobody would say anything. Of that fact at least, Blade was certain.

"We're here. Stay close, and order whatever you want. The food's actually pretty good, and the drinks are better. Once I get some information on where to find some suckheads, we'll be out." He flashed a little bit of a toothy grin. "Guess you could say this is the closest to a "date" portion of this outing as we'll get."

They both pushed their doors open and stood up out of the car. The parking lot remained silent. Hunters and mercenaries were probably inside drinking quietly, enjoying a bit of peace. There were the occasional loud, rowdy drinkers - usually the mercs - but most just wanted a place to rest and get information before the next big job. Also, most didn't trust the night enough to be drunk out in it. Blade knew the bartender inside. A good woman by the name of Ellen who really knew her shit. It was why he liked coming here. Of course, he knew the bartenders in most of the Roadhouses around the country. It was a bit of a chain, but not in the corporate sense. When a place was named "The Roadhouse" in some back country nowhere, it was a kind of secret sign to all hunters and some mercenaries that this was a safe haven and a good place to exchange information and get jobs. They were also neutral zones. Any who dared cause any trouble in these kinds of places was blacklisted, and that was as good as being fired in this line of work. In some cases, it was a death sentence because it also meant no assistance in any job ever again.

"You ready?"

Comments

[cold_as_snow]

"Distractions tend to be useful."

In some ways, she's too young to have reached the point in her life where she believes that certain evils are worth the moral price for what they achieve. Which is good, because odds are that she will reach that point. There's a reason the unseelie are considered particularly brutal, and in some ways she defines that. Or she did, and will again. For now, it's funneled into specific moments.

"It is. The first time I remember doing it, but...I can't help but think I've done it more times than I can count."


(I'm really hoping so. And looking forward to it.)

[daywalkingblade]

"Don't they just."

More times than she can count, eh? Well, that would tend to make a certain kind of sense. Most fae lived a long time. A very long time. More times than she could count could mean that she was very into sex, as some fae were, or it could just mean that she's lived a long life underneath her youthful short memory. Either way didn't matter to him.

"Well, you're good at it. I can believe you've done it a few times." He offered a tiny smirk. "Does that bother you? The fragments of memories, the pieces of experience that you don't have but feel you should? You want to be you, but it seems you don't think your previous self is quite gone. And that...that could be trouble."

[cold_as_snow]

She flushes slightly, then laughs it away, a sound the night air seems to play with and not quite want to let go of. "I was speaking of sleeping under the open sky! Though, in all likelihood I've done that more than a time or two, as well. The lack of shame and instincts with the act make the argument, anyway."

She grows more serious, considering his question, and her own reactions. The hints of the past were useful almost constantly, but there was a price.

"There are times when I see small children, and I want to weep with no idea why. Like I've lost something too precious to ever be replaced. There are others where I see something and it's like deja vu, except the fact I don't remember doing it before is the bitter part." She pauses slightly. "I have no illusions about starting entirely fresh. The fragments of who I was will always be part of the foundations, but I'm still choosing what to build on them. That has to be enough, because it's all I have."

[daywalkingblade]

"Oh!" His eyes widen, and he is shocked into laughter at his own mistake. he can almost feel the playful shove that she would have given him were they standing in her exclamation. "Sorry. My bad." Still he's laughing a little, and partly out of embarrassment.

He too grows more sober when she talks about the children. Ah. So there is a mother in her. Or perhaps there is a woman who wanted to be a mother. It all comes to the same, because children never had are just another kind of children lost. It's a sad deal for her either way. The weight she was probably having to live under...

"If you could get your memory back, would you?" It was a serious question. He had contacts, and he was good at dealing with the supernatural. There was a chance that if that were what she wanted, he could help her with it. Blade wasn't so sure he'd like it, but if that was her choice, he'd honor the woman that he felt something for by helping her become who she used to be.

[cold_as_snow]

"Given how we're still currently curled up, I'll forgive you just this once." But not without giving his neck a little nip she immediately soothes with a little kiss. Really, given that he wasn't all that judgmental she doesn't have much if anything she's irritated about.

Maeve shakes her head slowly, though the sadness is back in her gaze. Whatever she had lost was real and hers, whether she remembered the specifics or not.

"No. I...it would be looking into something that is both mine and belongs to someone else entirely. Mistakes I can't repair, losses that will be too real. If I were meant to remember them, or if I am meant to remember them, they'll come back. Otherwise, it's better to leave it behind."

[daywalkingblade]

He gasped a little at the nip. "Now that's the kinda forgiveness I like." Blade grinned.

Of course, the grin faded a little as she shook her head, the sadness beyond her apparent years appearing in her eyes. It just didn't fail to startle him how old those eyes could suddenly look, as though the soul behind them had seen so very much. Beauty in age. It was one of the few things the suckheads got right, but she did it so very much better than they did.

"All right. But you need help remembering, you come to me. I'll do what I can to hook you up with the right people. Until then, you stay Maeve. I kinda like Maeve." He smirked a little again, hoping to draw a smile out of her.

[cold_as_snow]

"I'll remember that."

She's glad he doesn't fight her on it. Tonight is about finding things rather than the feeling that so much is lost or left behind. A name, this moment with him. The sadness can drift away to the back of her mind and she can focus on him with a smile.

"Deal. I kind of like being Maeve, myself."