Greed (truthorfiction) wrote in commandhq, @ 2018-04-10 20:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | danny costa, kathryn dalley, p: lindsey, p: mj |
Who: Danny Costa & Kathryn Dalley
What: Just catching up and doing what they do best
When: Sometime after this
Where: Cafeteria
Rating: Low
Danny had been pleasantly surprised by his handler. She seemed pretty straight talking and a woman more importantly, he definitely reacted better to women than he did to men. Old habits, hard to break. After having left Holly he had done as agreed with Kat he had made his way to the cafeteria where he grabbed a table in the back. It was as he was sat there that his hand vanished into his hair and his eyes shrouded in lashes watched the crowds as they milled around. This wasn't the first time he was grateful for the fact he wasn't psychic in the traditional sense of the word because he imagined this would be their worst nightmare. He exhaled a breath, wet his lower lip, pulled it into his mouth with his teeth until he smoothed his hair back and secured it low at the base of his neck. His hands then splayed out flat on the table before fingers reached out to catch a nearly straw seemingly discarded and it wasn't long until he turned this over in his fingers, better to keep his hands busy especially as he tried to get a read on people, trying to figure them out as he knew the value of knowing as much as was possible about the people around you. He might be unhinged but he wasn't stupid, far from it in fact. --- Kathryn didn’t rush to the cafeteria. She finished manicuring the small plant she’d been granted to keep in her room, penned a note for Grey and Victor to find so that they may, eventually, follow her to the cafeteria to reunite with Danny. When all that was finished, she dressed, applied some makeup, and slowly sauntered to the cafeteria. The only reason she was taking her time was because he had something to do – a meeting with his new handler – before meeting up. It was a stark contrast to how badly she wanted to see him and Clara again. When she reached the cafeteria, she stood in the doorway and her gaze scanned the tables. He stuck out, quite easily; long, dark hair, his eyes taking in the scenery with a cool and almost analytical detachment. She approached from the side with long, even strides. When finally standing at his side, Kathryn placed her hand gently on his shoulder. “Long time,” she drawled. Kathryn sat down next to him and smoothed her black skirt over her legs. Rather than look at him for too long, she glanced around the cafeteria and sighed. “It’s horrible, isn’t it? What are we, in high school?” --- Had it been anyone other than Kat then Danny would have immediately tensed but he was able to recognise her touch without having to look up and so he was relaxed under her touch. "Too long," he affirmed with a small nod of his head. He had also secured them some drinks so pushed one over to Kat, it was her favourite soda, because Danny remembered the details. "I always hated high school," he shared as he turned his head to regard Kat before his gaze swept back outwards to the cafeteria. "Too many idiots." --- When the can of Diet Coke was slid across the table toward her, Kathryn inclined her head. There was a moment of genuine affection that flickered across her features – a rare thing indeed – but it vanished as she smirked and picked up the can to crack it open and take a sip. “Good memory.” She kept her eyes on the small but assorted crowds populating the cafeteria, even when she felt Danny’s eyes on her. “And then you grow up and realize that virtually everyone, everywhere are also idiots, and maybe high school should have better prepared you.” Kathryn leaned in slightly closer as she set her soda can aside. “My stepsister is here,” she had told them all about Orla and the cosmic joke of Kathryn, too, having super powers; although lately Grey had been subjected to more complaints about it than anyone had ever heard in the past. “Ugh. You’ll never meet anyone quite so self-righteous. It’s infuriating.” Finally, she looked him in the eye again. Her typically cutting look softened, somewhat. “How are you, though?” --- Danny turned his head ever so slightly as Kat leaned in closer and his brow furrowed a little when she mentioned her stepsister, especially as Danny along with the others had been regaled with Kat's stories. He even went so far as to wrinkle his nose to show his obvious disdain and disgust for self righteous people. Those he had found tended to be the biggest liars of all. He angled his head as he watched an interaction in the line and it was barely noticeable but his eyes narrowed in the corners before he snorted quietly. "Fakery, why do people bother with it?" He didn't understand it but then he knew a little something about playing a part, he'd done it for most of his life after all. As she met his gaze there was more lucidity in those light hazel brown eyes of his than there ever had been in Chesire but he still wasn't fully there. "They switched off my powers," he shared. "I understand why considering..." His manifestations were dangerous and had hurt people, okay Danny mostly, in the past. "Still can't sleep though." --- “Means to an end, I guess,” she shrugged. Kathryn certainly understood some of the virtues of being phony – at least, she had. Cheshire had taught her a little more about the concept and necessity of directness, of taking what one needed, regardless of the methods chosen. She followed his gaze and watched the two standing in line; some not-so-subtle hand-brushes rather than just going for it and holding hands, coy head tilts, feigned laughter. Ridiculous. “No, I don’t imagine you would be sleeping much.” It was unfortunate for him, but a regularity among them as a group. Sleep didn’t come easy. But maybe now, with all of them under one roof, it would be a little easier. “They’re cowards. Locking us up here and turning off powers because they’re afraid – ,” she looked down at her bare hands, the black fingertips and the green starting to pollute her otherwise pale skin, tracing down her veins until her wrist. After a moment, she glanced back at his face. Her own was suddenly quite severe. “Were you were before they sent you here – did they treat you better?” She didn’t need to qualify what she meant by better. --- Danny’s eyes strayed from their fixed position on the two in line as he became aware of a change in the tone of Kat’s voice, the inflection had gotten harsher and that in itself told him that she was feeling a particularly strong emotion. His gaze finally landed on and lingered on her black fingertips and the green which was evident against her pale skin. Eventually his gaze lifted to meet Kat’s and he gave a small nod of his head. “Yeah, better. Definitely better.” She definitely did not need to qualify what she meant by better as Danny understood as they all did. Of course then the person in line gave a laugh and Danny’s head swivelled and his eyes darkened, his expression nothing short of disgust and disdain. “Jesus, get a room.” --- With a very careful hand – only with these four was she ever quite so delicate – she patted the top of Danny’s knee. “I’m glad to hear that. I asked after you all for a while; my handler gave me a few updates here and there, but they were infrequent. According to the therapist in South Dakota it was best that I try to move on,” she rolled her eyes. “The moron.” Her own head tilted in the direction of the couple in line in synchronicity with Danny’s. Kathryn’s eyes were just as narrowed, her expression just as irate. “I have heard hyenas laughing more pleasantly than that.” Shaking her head, Kathryn scoffed – a little dramatically – and then lifted her hand back into her own lap. “We’ve been managing to stay out of much trouble here, although keeping Victor on a short leash has been and admittedly difficult affair. Maybe you can help encourage him to tone it down to about an eleven or so.” She and Grey could, after all, only do so much. --- She was fortunate that today was like the one day that Danny had chosen to wear jeans that weren’t actually split across the knee. “Well that’s just dumb,” he echoed in the same disparaging tone as the one in Kat’s voice. He ducked his head to hide a slow satisfied smile at her commentary about the “not” couple in line and he took to pulling his lower lip into his mouth a moment later. “You think they realise how moronic they look?” Genuine question, genuine curiosity. “Doesn’t surprise me,” Danny shared as he took a sip of his soda. “Vic was always…” Wild, out of control, loud? All of the above? “Challenging.” He did however have a soft if not altogether overwhelmingly intense spot for Kat. “I’ll see what I can do.” --- Kathryn nodded. “I know, right?” Just get over it. She wasn’t sure where Regiment hired their shrinks from, but in Kathryn’s experience, they left much to be desired. Then again, she had to admit; she wasn’t exactly an easy patient to manage. She chuckled. “Probably not. That would require some degree of intelligent thought. I’m not convinced they’re capable of that.” Kathryn was staring, her nose turned up, and her lips drawn thin. It could have been argued – effectively – that part of her disdain for their public displays of affection stemmed from some degree of jealousy (simple physical intimacy like that was beyond possible for her), but her disgust also emerged from her propensity for haughtiness. “I give it a week.” She shot Danny a sideways look while he struggled to find a word to describe Victor. When he arrived at challenging, she smirked, nodded, and picked up her own soda. “Quite appreciated, Danny.” It was very true, though; they were all challenging, though, in their own ways. “I don’t think they realize,” Kathryn noted, “How good we’ve been here. So far.” --- Danny couldn't imagine any if the ex-Chesire lot would be the easiest patients not after everything they had been through. He toyed with the edge of the soda can as his hands were never still, they were always moving. If he wasn't playing with his rings he was picking up something else. Idle hands, devil's playground, or whatever it was his mother used to say. "You're more optimistic than I am," he remarked with a scoff. "I give it 3 days." He hummed in agreement to her latest comment. "Very good. So far." --- “Maybe I’m a romantic at heart,” she said sarcastically. It was unlikely that there were many people in the world who possessed fewer romantic sentiments than she did. “And I just want to see true love bloom in the ugliest of places.” She smirked at him. “But you’re on. Loser gets the next round.” Kathryn cast a quick glance around the room, trying to assure that nobody potentially dangerous (to them) was within earshot. “They send their agents out on missions a lot more frequently here than the last place they sent me. I highly doubt they’ll ever let the five of us out on a mission together, but if we ever managed to get sent out simultaneously…,” She tilted her head and looked at him expectantly. As unlikely as that scenario was; it would be a key opportunity for them to attempt another escape from their new captors. --- “It’s a bet then,” Danny affirmed with a nod of his head before he took a further sip from his soda. He didn’t need Kat to finish that train of thought for him to be able to tell where the the end destination would be. “Carpe diem,” he returned in response to the expectant look being given to him by Kat. But he did stop to consider something and Danny turned his head to fix those intense eyes of his on Kat. “We might want to learn how to take care of ourselves though,” he concluded. “So we don’t get caught again.” No point in escape if you just got grabbed and pulled back in again. --- Kathryn smirked. “Yeah, I suppose that might be important. Not that this place is going to teach us to do that any quicker than we’d be learning out there.” Except, at least, maybe now they could plan a little bit better. “When we left that place it wasn’t exactly well thought out. Now we can actually… prepare.” And after that brief taste of freedom, and now feeling the comfort and ease of her friends being under the same roof as her, Kathryn wanted it. Was willing to do anything to get it. “This time will be different.” She sounded certain, and her expression was set; determined. With a beaming smile, Kathryn got to her feet and held out her hand toward him. “Come on, let’s go find the others. I’ll be careful to keep the talons to myself.” --- Different, Danny liked the sounds of that, especially if it meant they stood a better chance of surviving for longer on the outside and could just be left alone. “Yeah,” he said with a nod. “Different, for sure.” He’d never really known what freedom was because between his family home and then Chesire he had always been controlled in one way or another so what little taste he’d had for it he knew he definitely wanted another. At her beaming smile a smaller one tugged at Danny’s lips before he made a small “pff” noise when she mentioned she’d be careful to keep her talons to herself. “They never scared me.” And they hadn’t, he wasn’t lying. He reached up to take her hand before falling into step beside her as they went off in search of the others. |