firewatcher | [psl] 1991: you're a bad idea and I know it

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[psl] 1991: you're a bad idea and I know it

Ever since the family had gotten back from their reunion trip to the northwest, Maria had been anxious to see Aunt Danielle. Even so, she'd managed to end up alone on stakeout with her three times already and not actually bring up the topic she really wanted to talk about.

Maria stared out into the dark through the sight on her rifle, biting her lower lip and resisting the urge to glance over at her "Aunt." Prepared for everything, she'd always been, except, well... this. And asking for advice meant acknowledging to herself what was going on. It had been easy to think of it as no big deal after that one night on the camping trip... less so after the next time she and Vera had been alone together, and the next, and the next.

Okay. This was it. She had to do it tonight. After all, Aunt Danielle was basically the only person Maria knew who, well... knew what it was like, if rumor was correct. And the only one, because of that, who stood any kind of chance of keeping her secret.

All right. Gonna do it. Just gotta spit it out.

Maria cleared her throat. "Uh..."

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And there was the reason why Danielle was hesitant to share her name. They would, in fact, be in school together. Possibly in some of the same classes.

It wasn't that she didn't trust Maria. It was just...well...it was nice having something that was just hers. Danielle had sworn to share everything with the Palmer family, and she'd lived up to that promise. And certainly, she hadn't had any privacy growing up. Not with dad living that Spartan life and Shawn being...well...Shawn.

This was new and strange and wonderful.

"Yeah," she said, quickly sweeping the area with Auspex so they didn't get too sloppy. "I wouldn't go out with a vampire."

"Yeah—I figured," said Maria. "Most vampires don't seem like your type, anyway. The whole mostly-assholes thing, for starters." She'd run into her fair share of vampires on the hunt—which, admittedly, was kind of a biased sample, but some above-and-beyond kinds of assholery you didn't forget in a hurry.

Hm. Still no sign of the weird lights that they'd heard showed up before whatever this thing was did. "You think you're in this for the long haul, then?"

"Not sure there's such a thing as a long haul," Danielle admitted.

It was only half true. There was such a thing. Such a thing just didn't exist for anyone named 'Remington.'

The jury was still out on 'Palmer.'

"Well, I guess there's only one way to find out." Maria tilted her head slightly to the side. "I guess don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed, eh."

Kind of a bummer when she put it that way. Then again, even though her family had a long line of solid marriages behind it, no Palmer ever died of old age. You might get forty years, or you might get five.

"You gonna tell her, though? Does she know? About, you know—" Maria mimed fangs with a free hand. At least this kind of thing wasn't a secret she had to keep from Vera.

"I haven't really been able to figure that part out yet," Danielle said with a sigh. "You know how I feel about the Masquerade."

As far as she was concerned, there was nothing more important. And if everyone had held to that belief, she wouldn't even be having this conversation now. No, she'd be back in New Mexico, probably married with kids of her own, working a nine to five jobs and complaining about her taxes.

If all vampires had adhered to the Masquerade, her mother would still be alive.

"I never thought I would even consider breaking it. But..."

"Man, I still can't get over the kind of lingo vampires use for stuff. 'Masquerade' sounds so dramatic. I mean, everyone—" that is to say, the Palmer family, "—knows that you can't just tell anyone about this stuff. Can't just trust most people with it. I mean, there are people out there who willingly seek out vampires. Not even to become vampires, just to have them feed off of 'em."

That she would never understand. Gross.

"Still, though, eventually she's going to notice there's something funny going on, isn't she? You think she'll be able to handle it?"

"The thought had crossed my mind," Danielle replied dryly.

She was trying very hard not to smile. But Maria shared her sentiments about vampires. Way too many pretentious vocabulary words and euphemisms.

Sighing softly, Danielle took another quick sweep of the area. "I think she could take it. If it was presented to her in the right way, you know? No coming out and saying 'by the way, I'm a vampire.'"

"Heh, I mean, who knows? Then again if she goes for that maybe that's a bad thing," Maria said, laughing. "You'd know best, though. I guess a lot of the reason why hunters hook up with other hunters is that it's just easiest to not have to explain the whole thing."

It hadn't taken that long for Maria to figure out that most families didn't go on "hunting" camping trips all the time and definitely didn't own nearly as many guns, but it still had been something she'd had to figure out.

"There is something to be said for being around normal people, though," Danielle said with a sigh. "I hope that my feelings for her don't change, once she does become someone...you know. In the know."

Because, of course Danielle would fret about something like that.

"For now, I guess, I'm just going to enjoy the ride." She paused, glancing sideways at Maria. "Something someone your age should be doing."

"I think all of this falls outside of what someone my age 'should' be doing," said Maria, with a half-grin. "I know you wish you could have opted out of this life, but I like it, you know? Met a lot of people I wouldn't have otherwise." It was hard to not break into a full grin, there.

"You," Danielle said in a tone that was at once both accusatory and teasing, "are an optimist."

And there was positively no room for optimism among the Remington clan.

But she got it. She did. Not everyone in 'the life' shared her desire for normal. Shawn was the perfect example of that. And Maria, for all her hard lines, seemed more well-adjusted than most.

"Not an optimist in the least." Because, if she thinks about it—and she has thought about it—there's a lot of ways this could end poorly. Vera's parents would never accept it. They could never get married. And that was if they both managed to live long enough for those things to become issues. Slim chances, there.

"Believe me, I'm not imagining fairy-tale endings. I just think there's good parts to the life. And I don't think it's just the rose-colored glasses."

"Fairy-tale endings aren't all they're cracked up to be, anyway," Danielle said, smiling faintly. "The stepsisters get their eyes pecked out by pigeons. One of Sleeping Beauty's babies dies. Snow White's stepmother is forced to wear hot iron shoes and dance at the wedding..."

Maybe missing the point.

On the other hand, you had to take the good intermingled with the bad.

"Someone always dies in the end, don't they, in the classics," Maria said. "They're supposed to be cautionary tales, but people don't like to remember those parts, eh?" She shrugged. "Maybe you're right that I should worry less about this. After all, if I might get my eyes pecked out tomorrow..."

"Never underestimate the power of a Ventrue with a lot of experience with animals," she said. Mostly teasing. Except not entirely.

...she might have seen eyes pecked out before.

But that was beside the point.

"I think," she said, "that...whatever it is you feel for this girl...if you don't pursue it a little bit, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. And nothing sucks more than regret, you know?"

"We'll see about that," said Maria, but smiling. "But I do... I do really like her a lot. I'm not sure I could not go for it. Her parents are going to flip, though, if they ever find out. Mine, too, for that matter, but for different reasons. At least I probably won't get disowned. I don't think so, anyway."

Danielle shrugged. "So don't let them find out," she replied.

It wasn't as if she'd been a perfect angel. She'd done plenty of things behind Miles' back. Of course, the difference was that she'd snuck around, mostly trying to be normal.

It wasn't easy climbing out a window in a prom dress.

"This isn't about the supernatural, or even hunting. This is personal. Just because you're a Palmer, that doesn't mean you shouldn't have a life."

"Yeah..." Well, not quite, but she understood the sentiment. "I mean, I'm practically an adult, right? I get to decide this stuff for myself."

She nodded to herself, and then paused. "How do you date someone as an adult, anyway? I can't exactly take her to the school dance. Not that we could do something that public, anyway. I'm not even sure if I can call what we're doing dating, but..."

"It's not all that different from dating as a teenager," Danielle replied. "You go to movies. Out to dinner. Bowling. Maybe a museum or a show. Think of it this way. If it's something they'd do on The Cosby Show, you're probably fine."

"Heh, all right," said Maria. Dinner... dinner might be a nice thing to do, sometime. Something that felt a little more concrete than stolen moments of intimacy here and there. "So what you're saying is don't take a girl hunting wendigos."

(Too late for that.)

"That's what I'm saying," Danielle replied, smirking just a little bit. "Because skin and blood and guts in your hair doesn't really do much to set a romantic mood. And, you know, most normal human beings couldn't really handle the existence of wendigos on the first date."

Normal again being the operative word.

Maria had to bite back the crack that sprang naturally to mind—I dunno, it was pretty hot, don't knock it 'til you've tried it—she was trying to keep a secret here, after all.

Instead she settled for laughing. "Maybe so," she said, with a grin. "So where did you go, for your first date?"

Danielle ducked her head, rubbing the back of her neck with her free hand. In spite of her posture, she had a self-effacing, absent-minded smile. "We went to the movies," she admitted. "We saw that new spoof, Hot Shots. The one making fun of Top Gun."

Not exactly a romantic outing. But it had been just plain fun. And considering her line of work, Danielle didn't get a lot of opportunities for good, clean silliness.

And the movie had been very, very silly.

Seemed a bit tame, but Danielle had always been reaching for a quiet normalcy she couldn't quite have. "Suits you perfectly. Sounds like it worked pretty well, too." Maria glanced sideways at Danielle. "Did you kiss her yet?"

Danielle's grin probably said it all. Oh yes, they'd kissed. They'd done plenty more than kissing. A normal, tame date suited them well. Because everything else was like a wild ride. Like a roller coaster.

She never wanted it to end.

"Yeah," she finally said, when she felt like she could manage to control the sound of her voice.

[psl] 1991: you're a bad idea and I know it

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