Kate Danvers | Otherworld (katedanvers) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-02-15 08:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, !log, [plot] relationship confusion, ~2017 february, ~25 points, ~~nick sorrentino), ~~~~~ kate danvers (katedanvers) |
Who: Nick Sorrentino and Kate Danvers (again)
What: Walk of Shame times 2
When: Wednesday, February 15th
Where: The Pack House
Warnings: references to sexual activity but nothing explicit
Status: Closed/Complete
Attempting lunch with Kate yesterday hadn’t gone well at all, in trying not to hurt her he’d just done it again, but hopefully now it was over. Maybe now she could move on from wanting him. He didn’t think he’d ever stop wanting her, but he could deal with that. It was better if they didn’t do it, and it was about time that she came to grips with him not changing his mind about that. Loving her didn’t mean they could be together. It wasn’t that simple and Kate needed to grow up and understand that.
Procrastinating going home last night had been the best idea Nick had had in a long time, as it turned out. He’d been avoiding, yeah, hadn’t gone out looking for someone else to go home with, but it had been what he’d found and it had been worth it. It was worth coming back to the Pack house early in the morning, rumpled and wearing the same suit he’d been wearing yesterday, tired but less wound up and probably smelling strongly of sweat and sex and Tera.
He let himself quietly in through the kitchen, stubbornly not looking back toward the guest house that held all his stuff, and went straight to put on a pot of coffee. He never stuck around long enough in the morning to do it when he slept elsewhere. Coffee after spending a night together screamed too much of intentions he didn’t have.
***
Yesterday had been a roller coaster of emotions for Kate. Receiving the flowers and card from Nick gave her hope - more hope than she’d had in the past few years - and then he’d dashed all of those hopes with just a few cruel words. She would never understand why he was willing to deny them both what they wanted, but she finally accepted that he wasn’t going to change his mind. If finding out that some other version of them had a successful relationship didn’t sway him, she couldn’t imagine that anything would.
She’d gone out last night looking for something to take her mind off of everything and found it in Mitchell. He was someone that she already knew since she’d helped him take care of Eve a few times, but she hadn’t ever really looked at him that way. Running into him was a fluke, but it turned out to be a fortuitous one.
The last thing she was expecting when she rolled in the house early in the morning was to find Nick smelling strongly of sex and another woman in the kitchen making coffee. She bristled when she recognized the scent as Tera, someone she considered a friend, but realized that she had no right to criticize who he elected to spend time with. And it wasn’t like Tera knew about their tense history. “Morning,” she said, striving to keep her tone casual. “Is the coffee ready?”
***
“Hey.” Nick had heard someone coming in, had been confused for a moment before realizing it was Kate and that confusion turned to irritation instead. He had absolutely no right to say anything, and wouldn’t, but there was only one reason she’d be coming into the house at this time of day and Nick didn’t like it one bit.
Wanting her to move on and stop being hung up on him didn’t mean he wanted to know she was out doing exactly what he told her to. It didn’t mean that he liked it or that it was easy for him. But he was going to have to accept it, and so just smiled as he turned to face her.
“Just about, yeah.” He shouldn’t comment. He didn’t want to know. But with anyone else Nick would be all over her coming home like this, and he had to try to be normal if they were ever going to be okay. “You’re home late.”
And she smelled like some weird combination of death and babies.
***
“Yeah, I was out with a friend,” Kate said, shrugging off the implied question. It was really none of Nick’s business who she was spending time with. He made it abundantly clear that she needed to give up on the idea of them being together and that meant she needed to move forward and figure out how to get him out of her head. Some random hookups should help with that.
She took in his uncharacteristically disheveled appearance and raised her eyebrows. “Looks like you had a busy night too.” If her nose hadn’t already told her what he was up to, it would have been fairly obvious from his rumpled clothes and messy hair.
***
If random hookups were going to solve the problem, Nick would have stopped being in love with her ages ago. He’d never have been in love with her in the first place. Hooking up wasn’t going to solve anything, but he couldn’t tell her that. He couldn’t even live it himself.
“Yeah. I went and got some drinks with people from work and ran into Tera.” That was all the information he was willing to give. “I just came by for some breakfast and a shower.” Before going to work again. If he’d been at home, he’d have had a go-bag in the trunk of his car, a clean suit and a few other essentials, and he wouldn’t have had to stop home at all. He’d never thought about needing it here, had never been so actively avoiding being near Kate.
He’d always tried to keep his sex life separate from her, usually escaped to clean up quickly if she happened to see him when he got in, but it was different now, somehow.
***
If Kate knew that he’d been going to lengths to keep her from knowing about his sex life, she’d be surprised. After all, living in the same house and having enhanced senses meant that everyone was pretty much always aware of who and what you were doing. Even though she had recognized Tera’s scent, it still made her bristle when he mentioned running into her so casually. She didn’t blame Tera, of course, but it still stung that he was hooking up with people she considered friends.
She wasn’t sure if he’d ever met Mitchell or would recognize his scent, so she decided not to mention his name. “Yeah, guess you don’t want to be late for work,” she said. “I close tonight at the shop, so I have plenty of time.” Her plan was to grab some food and then sleep for a few more hours.
***
Knowing that Kate and Tera were friendly was the biggest thing that had made Nick question the choice, but it hadn’t been enough to stop him in the end. He took the whole situation between Kate and himself just as hard as she did, had needed a reason not to go home, and she’d been easy to ask. If yesterday had gone differently, maybe he would have stopped. If he’d known there was a chance of running into Kate before he got a chance to wash the other woman off of him, he wouldn’t have done it.
Almost never did Nick feel guilty about having sex, but this morning almost creeped up to that.
“Do you want me to bring something to eat by the store when I’m done work?” If she was staying in town a bit later, he’d come home first, find a reason to escape to his room that wasn’t really his room right now, when she got home.
Noting that the coffee was done, he poured them both a cup and held hers toward her, trying not to notice the scent that lingered all over her. She’d been with someone. He hated that. A lot more than he’d anticipated that he would.
***
Offering to bring her food was one of the hundreds of things he did that confused Kate. That was the kind of thing that a boyfriend did and, before yesterday, it was the kind of thing that would have kept her hope alive that maybe things would change between them someday. But he’d made it pretty clear that wasn’t the case and she had no choice but to accept that.
“Nah, thanks,” she said. “I’ll eat before I go in.”
She flashed a quick smile as she took the cup of coffee from him, trying to ignore the spark she felt when her fingers brushed against his.
***
Yesterday, Nick would have pressed. He’d have asked if she was sure, or he might’ve just done it anyway, just surprised her with dinner or been there to pick her up when she was done. It had never once occurred to him that those were boyfriend things. They were just things he wanted to do for her.
Today, though, he let it be, nodding instead.
“Call me if you change your mind. I’ll be in town.” It was convenient for him to take things to her. His office was pretty close to the music store and he could leave pretty much whenever he wanted.
***
After yesterday, there was no way Kate would be calling Nick and asking him for any favors. She sipped her coffee to give herself a few moments before answering. “Thanks, I will,” she said. “I’m gonna take this upstairs. Have a good day at work.”
She couldn’t handle the scent of her friend on him anymore and needed to make her escape. Hopefully she wouldn’t wake up Cadence.
***