Drew (seethroughalens) wrote in worldsapart_ic, @ 2019-03-02 22:46:00 |
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Drew was relieved that despite being gone from Los Angeles for a number of years his body of work still spoke volumes and his receptiveness to supernaturals in general was well known so as a result he got work for places like Midnight. He'd never set foot in the club during his first time round in LA and now he was passing the threshold it was in a purely professional capacity on the basis that the owner of Midnight was wanting to do some promotional stuff and couldn't without up to date photographs.
So far he'd spent some time with both a Succubus and an Incubus, both of which had been really friendly and definitely flirtatious. He'd also photographed a werewolf who had some very impressive pole skills before he'd moved on to snap shots of the entertainers in action, very much focused on what he was doing and not on the fact that he was definitely being admired.
"Rosalie," somebody hollered to the Succubus who was busy gawking.
"Mmm?" She answered, clearly not paying any attention.
"Can you head down, get her to come up as I need an up to date photo of her as well while Drew is here?"
Rosalie gave a long suffering sigh before trailing down the nearby steps.
Waverley was enjoying her time in the pool. She was dozing, floating on the surface and enjoying the feeling of fish swimming underneath her, their tails brushing against her back. The sound of footsteps interested her though and she lifted her head, body position shifting in the water as she saw Rosalie appearing, looking displeased that she'd had to descend into the basement.
"...Why are you here? The place doesn't open for another couple of hours." She knew one of the managers had been down earlier but she'd been in a bad mood since she shifted earlier, it had hurt more than usual so had just swum to the bottom of her pool area and settled beneath the corals, spend a while chasing the sholes of fish that came in with the warm ocean water.
"You didn't hear?" Rosalie asked as she arched her well sculpted brow. "There's a promotional shoot for Midnight today. Got a photographer here and everything and you're wanted up top so..." She jerked her thumb complete with long manicured mail. "You'd better get up there."
"I've been somewhat antisocial since I arrived," Waverley responded tightly but she reached over the edge of the pool to grab her shell-shaped bikini top, bobbing in the water as she fastened it at the front. "But fine, I'll be up in a minute or so, gotta navigate the maze."
Swimming up from the pool through the tubes was always a bit of a maze, she knew the route by heart but sometimes, if she wasn't paying attention, she ended up emerging on the other side of Midnight in the private viewing area and she didn't always want to be there. Especially not when someone else was having a private showing.
Disappearing under the water, Waverley didn't hear Rosalie head back upstairs but as she emerged from the tube to her normal place behind the bar, she stopped dead, hands on either side of the exit and eyes wide as her gaze fell on the back of a head she would recognise anywhere.
Drew.
Nope.
She shifted in the tube, deciding she could just wiggle back down if she really needed to and boy did she need to.
Rosalie wasn't about to let the mermaid have all the fun especially when the human was delightfully delectable though she'd have to be careful, too much and he'd suffer the consequences and that would be awfully tragic.
Drew was currently crouched with the camera angled to get a different vantage and snapped a few more pictures before he was straightening up again and checking through the pictures he had taken to make sure he was happy with them and they would do Midnight justice.
"Where is she?"
Rosalie lifted her shoulders. "How should I know? I told her."
What Rosalie didn't know was that if she laid a single finger on the human, Waverley would charm the succubus into the tank and make her drown herself. Of course, her attempts to wriggle back down were unsuccessful so she pushed herself gracefully out of the tunnel and swam behind the bar, working along the wall until she got to another exit point, deciding not to surface. She could just disappear.
Of course, at that point, the manager spotted her and banged his fist on the glass.
Waverley physically winced, twisting on the spot and lifting her hands to cover her ears. She surfaced abruptly with a splash.
"Don't you dare disappear back down."
"Don't bang on the glass," she responded tightly, ears ringing from the amplified sound. Her voice was a low hiss, hoping that Drew wouldn't hear her. "I'm not being photographed."
"Yes, you are. You're employed here, you're one of our most popular acts."
"Then get another photographer."
"You don't get to call the shots here, Waverley."
"I know," she responded, voice still low, "But he and I- we have... history." Plus, Drew had never seen her like this. She didn't even think he knew what she was.
"Then stay under the water and swim around the club. You don't gotta talk to him, Rosalie's got that covered."
Waverley huffed and disappeared back under the water, and the manager cleared his throat. "Drew! Mermaid's finally arrived."
He touched the glass of the tank were Waverley had been in a moment before, gesturing to where she was swimming lazily along the back edge of the wall, her hair (unintentionally but hey it worked) obscuring her profile from being recognised.
He sighed. "She will show you her face," he added, "at some point. Mermaids, am I right?"
Drew had been aware of some hushed rather heated conversation taking place behind him and tried not to eavesdrop as he was here to do a job after all. "Going to have to take your word on that," he replied to the manager with a small smirk before he moved to where the tank was and began to take photographs, adjusting his lens every so often to get the focus just right.
He really needed to capture the elegance of the mermaid as she swam through the water and the way the fins on her tail glistened in the light.
Rosalie's fingers brushed over Drew's shoulder. "Have you got enough photos of her yet?" she asked, humming a little. "There are definitely more interesting things in here to focus on."
Waverly twisted, hair still obscuring her face and she saw through the blonde strands Rosalie's fingers catching Drew's face. Fuck, he still looked so good, so handsome. It wasn't fair. Her gills flexed as she drew in a deep breath to try and calm herself down but it didn't work.
Rosalie's fingers caught Drew's chin, turning his head away from the camera and the tank, tapping into her natural abilities to shift how she smelt, to make herself more appealing to the human.
Drew had been about to reply about how he was just getting enough photographs when Rosalie fingers turned his chin and distracted him from what he was doing. She smelt... well, she smelt nice, really nice. It reminded him of the smell of oranges with a touch of cherry blossom and it was by far one of his favourite scents.
"Uh, I just have to take a couple more and then I think I should have enough."
Waverley's eyes narrowed and she shot forwards, a confidence in confronting Drew born purely out of an irritation and anger at Rosalie touching him though she knew she had no right. Hair back from her face she emerged from the top of one part of the tank, arms folded and her chin resting on them, her tail swaying softly with the current of the water.
"Rosalie," she called, "the man's trying to work. He's a professional, you could at least wait until he's done before dragging him into the back room to have your way with him." She tipped her head, "Besides, he's not really into casual."
Drew blinked and felt very much as if he was coming up for air the moment Rosalie's fingers left his skin and it took him a moment to realise that somebody had interrupted Rosalie and that somebody had a voice he'd recognised anywhere including the distinction given to casual.
"Waverley?" He uttered, eyes widening as sure enough there was Waverley, in the tank, the mermaid of Midnight.
"Fins and all, handsome," Waverley said, swallowing down the nerves that caused her chest to flutter. Her eyes cut to Rosalie, who looked disgusted at Waverley for interrupting. She just arched her eyebrow and gave the succubus a look that dared her to try Waverley's patience. "Sorry to interrupt."
This was most definitely not how he'd imagined he would run into Waverley again and he definitely didn't think she'd have a tail but honestly the more he thought about it the more it started to make sense.
"Uh, no, you weren't interrupting," Drew remarked with a shake of his head as he stepped away from Rosalie towards the tank and closer to Waverley. "It's good to see you."
Waverley shot Rosalie a look over Drew's shoulder and she tipped her head to the side, dropping her shoulders under the water for a moment and then re-emerging, water droplets sliding down her arms as she watched him, bobbing a little with the current in the pool. Little rainbow coloured fish swimming around her tail.
"I looked like I was interrupting," she pointed out, "whether you realised it or not." She waited until he approached and curled her fingers around the ledge, pushing herself up and leaning forward to press a kiss to his cheek, lingering for a moment but she couldn't breathe outside of the water so she ducked back in, lowering her upper body into the water again. "Well, it would have been nicer to see you at work, but... you been avoiding me?"
Drew frowned when Waverley flat out asked him if he was avoiding her because that's kind of what he' been thinking about her. "Actually I thought you were avoiding me." He'd swung into the Jam Jar on a few occasions and each time she hadn't been there.
He was fascinated however at the sight of Waverley in her true and natural form though he was doing his best not to gawk too much as he was aware that it wasn't exactly polite or very gentlemanly.
Waverley's eyebrows lifted. "Sugar, I work in one of the most recognisable places in town, I didn't even know you were back until after your brother visited Elijah." She felt the hurt creeping into her voice and she lowered her shoulders under the water again, tail flexing.
She shook her head, "I wasn't avoiding you. I've had to change a lot of my shifts around recently to cover for some new people so I haven't been as regularly on mornings." She swallowed, "You're looking- you look good, Drew."
"I was busy trying to get work," Drew pointed out a little defensively when he thought he'd caught a slight pang of hurt in Waverley's voice. "And once I had some time to breathe I did swing into the Jam Jar." He caught himself and sighed, rubbing a hand over his face and just pushed his fingers into his hair.
He offered her a smile. "Yeah, you too. I mean I've never seen you like this before but it's uh- You look good."
"I can't imagine you found it hard; LA's been missing your particular brand of photographic genius fiercely."
Her cheeks caught in a flush and she looked away, her tail curling forward in response to being geninely flattered. "I'm not exactly at my best today," she said, "I didn't know photographs were being taken. Serves me right for not listening earlier."
Drew ducked his head to hide the small flush of colour that happened in response to the compliment before he just shook his head with a snort. “Please, you could be wearing a black bag and you’d still look good.”
He lifted the camera and snapped a shot of her smiling.
Waverley rolled her eyes, “Don’t be ridiculous,” she told him, “I’d not be seen dead in a black bag.”
She pushed a few strands of her hair back from where they were clinging to her skin as he lowered the camera again before her lips curled upwards, sliding under the water once more and pressing her palm against the glass, her hair around her like a halo.
That might be a better shot.
Drew snorted and immediately followed her down as he came into a crouch and snapped a shot. She was right, that was definitely a better shot and he was taken aback at just how beautiful the shot and by extension Waverley was.
“That’s a great shot,” he said with a thumbs up gesture as he couldn’t imagine it was easy to hear through the water.
Waverley laughed, shaking her head again and swimming in a lazy loop, interacting with some of the fish before she resurfaced. His smile was still so striking, it wasn’t fair. She wet her lower lip and draped her arms over the edge of the tank again, water dripping off her fingertips.
“Did you say something, Drew?” She asked, eyes alight with gentle affection.
“You nearly done?” Rosalie’s voice drawled from behind him.
Drew kept snapping pictures as Waverley kept moving through the water, fully capturing the beauty of her movements. “I was just saying that it was a great shot,” he said with a further smile.
Idly he was aware that Rosalie was speaking to him but admittedly his attention was definitely elsewhere.
“Uh, couple more shots I think.”
“Well hurry up,” Rosalie responder, “we were talking and I’d like to go back to that.”
Waverley rolled her eyes and beckoned Drew closer, waiting for him to be within touching distance and she did just that, fingers trailing over the collar of his shirt. “She’s planning on making a meal outta you,” she warned quietly, though Drew was probably more than aware and for all Waverley knew he would have been okay with it. “Can I see the pictures?”
Drew did move closer and seemed totally unconcerned by the fact her fingers were wetting the material of his collar. “What?” He asked, looking genuinely taken aback. Drew knew that Rosalie had been flirting but had never figured she’d want to feed on him. He was fairly certain that as a human he wouldn’t make a very good meal.
“And sure,” he said with a smile as he shifted to brace his back against the tank, angling the camera so Waverley could see the pictures.
“Oh yeah,” Waverley purred against Drew’s ear as he settled beside her, “she definitely wanted you to let her feed off you.”
She shifted a little, drawing away to dry off her arms on a hanging towel and returned to Drew, body pressed against the glass. Her hands were folded on his shoulder, chin resting atop her fingers.
She reached forward to touch the screen to move through the images, seeing a few of her that weren’t... awful. She went a little further back and she tipped her head, looking at how well he’d captured everyone.
“Damn, I forgot how good you are,” she murmured, temple touching his ear.
“Thanks for the heads up,” Drew murmured as he chanced a look at Rosalie though his attention was easily pulled back to Waverley. His lips tugged into a smile when it was clear she approved of his photography and how he’d captured the different performers in Midnight.
“Well that’s good to know. Means I’m worth my charge.”
“You’re worth more than that,” she told him gently, “you’re still undercharging for your services.” She nudged his ear with her nose and then leaned forward to press a kiss on his cheek, eyes on Rosalie as she did, before she caught her fingers in Drew’s collar, using the touch to turn him around to be facing her again.
Drew chuckled. “Introductory rate? I mean I gotta do something to help encourage people to hire me.” He flicked a look at Waverley as she kissed her cheek before her hands were back in his collar. He could have fought the pull but why would he?
“It is good to see you,” Drew admitted quietly and honestly.
“Even though you’ve been avoiding me,” she teased in response, bobbing with the tide before she tipped her head, touch trailing along his shoulder and over the line of his jaw to rest one long finger under his chin.
She looked at him, blue eyes almost scrutinising his face to see what was behind those words before she just softened herself, her expression and her eyes, even the line of her shoulders and her fin seemed to lose tension.
“Yeah,” she agreed, “you too.” She had missed him. God, she had missed him so much.
Drew smiled softly. “Don’t suppose I could convince you to go for a drink with me to catch up and find out what I’ve missed?” No pressure either way but he would prefer it if she said yes especially as now that they’d been reunited he didn’t exactly want to say goodbye again so quickly.
“I’m stuck here for the next three days,” Waverley said sadly, “but we can go out after that? Next week, some time?” She bit her lower lip, hesitating only a second before she offered, “I mean... you could bring drinks to- never mind. You probably don’t wanna hang around here any longer than you’re being paid to considering there’s more than one person here looking at you like you’re a snack.”
"Well," Drew drawled as he tipped his head to regard Waverley. "I mean if you wanted me to I'd be happy to swing back with some drinks." It wasn't like he'd made any plans after this particular job as he never did when he was working just in case the job ran over.
He chanced a look at a very sour faced looking Rosalie. "But you might have to help me out by keeping the wolves at bay."
"She doesn't like the basement," Waverley reassured, hoping that her face hadn't lit up the way she worried it might have done when he offered to come back. "I- uh, there's a large pool down there which is connected to this area," she waved a hand to indicate the floor, "by a series of tubes. So... when I'm in this form I tend to just live here over the weekend."
She curled her hand around the lip of the tank and rested her chin atop them, letting her body float to the surface. Her fluke twitched, splashing gently. "I wouldn't let her touch you," she reassured, leaning forward again and kissing his cheek once more. "Don't you worry about that."
Drew smiled at the kiss to his cheek before nodding his head. "Okay, good, I'm going to hold you to that." He stepped back and gestured to his camera. "Let me finish up here and I can go out, grab a couple drinks and come back?"
Waverley nodded, "Just let Austin know that you'll be heading down to see me and he'll point you to the stairs." She retreated away from the wall, moving through the water gracefully, keeping her head above the surface. "Bring a towel and your swimming trunks, if you want," she added, with a wink before she disapeared beneath the surface once more, twirling in a helix as she moved back along the wall towards the bar.
A towel and swimming trunks? Drew definitely would. "I'll see you soon." He made sure to snap a final shot before he turned back to finish off the work that he was doing so he could head out, grab some drinks and come back to spend some one on one time with Waverley.
Mena the MagnificentYesterday at 22:13***
Waverley had retreated back down to the pool in the basement, twice the width of an olympic pool and a good fifteen metres long, it was deeper than any pool could ever be, embedded into the ground beneath LA so deeply that if there was even the tiniest tremor the rocky bottom of the pool itself shifted.
She didn't know how much time had passed as she had been swimming around the bottom, twisting between the coral - startled by a large fish that came out of nowhere she'd scraped along her side just underneath her gill which had bled a little - before emerging. The first and second time she'd come up, Drew hadn't been there but when she came up again, a little while later he was standing there.
She felt like her heart was stopping again, wondering how long he'd been there able to see her swimming and looping around with the fish under the water. She sheepishly surfaced, lifing her head and shoulders, gracefully surfacing and tipping her head at him. He was still dressed, but he did have a towel looped over his shoulder.
Swimming to the edge, she rested her arms on the side, head tilted to the side. "Hey. You came back."
Drew hadn't actually been there very long but had been there long enough to admire how gracefully Waverley moved in the water before he was finally spotted. "Yeah, of course I did. You asked and here I am." He smiled and moved over to rest the six pack he'd bought with him as wine wasn't quite so easy to carry as beer was. "I hope you don't hate beer because if you do then our drink choices just went out the window."
He'd stopped off at his shared home with Dawson and slipped into a pair of trunks while packing his underwear into his bag so that when he got back to Midnight he could just strip off and then not walk home wearing wet shorts under his jeans.
"Hopefully you were serious about the swim because I came prepared."
Waverley wasn't a huge fan of beer, but she would drink it if she was in a pinch. And, since it was what was there she would consider this a pinch.
"Well, I just- I mean, I hoped you would but I didn't know if you would."
Tucking hair behind her ear, she nodded her head. "I was serious about the swim, and as you can tell the air in here is pretty warm so you shouldn't get too cold. And this is right out of the Pacific which is still pretty warm."
She wet her lower lip, eyes watching Drew carefully. She wanted to understand where they were but it was hard because she didn't know where they had been. It had been such a long time and she had been up in her head about it.
Drew just nodded before he set his bag down on the ground and then reached up to pull his jacket off his shoulders. The touch then moved to tug off his shoes and socks before it caught on the buttons of his shirt and he eased them free until he was able to peel the shirt off. Now half naked he turned his attention to loosening his belt and slipping his jeans down and when they pooled he stepped out of them, placing them to one side.
"Good thing I came prepared then."
Waverley made a small sound and bobbed under the water when Drew stripped to stop herself from making a massively inappropriate comment. She pushed away from the wall and lay on her back, floating in the water and subtly watching him out of the corner of her eye. Her chest tightened and thumped when he stepped out of his jeans which left him there, facing her, in nothing but his swimming trunks.
Triton give her strength.
"Careful if you dive in, there's a lot of fish in here, they don't like being startled, so you might not get to see them again."
Why was her mouth dry? For god's sake, Waverley, pull yourself together.
"I wouldn't want to startle them so I'll not dive in," Drew chuckled. He padded over to the body of the water and lowered himself in using the edge rather than do anything to upset the fish as he was entering their home so he didn't want to cause issues.
The water itself was cool but not too cool, it seemed to be just the right temperature.
"This is nice."
"The temperature?" Waverley asked, shifting into an upright position to watch Drew lower himself into the water. She bobbed with the gentle current and swam closer, brushing around Drew but not quite being close enough to touch. "Or being in the water?"
"Both?" Drew replied as he treaded water and turned idly in the water as Waverley circled him. "And you know I've never swam with fish before so that's a new experience." He normally just swam in an actual swimming pool and then he was doing laps, definitely not the mot fun.
"Really?" Waverley asked, circling him again, then stopping in front of him. "It's not easy to find somewhere that has fish that'll actually interact with you," she said, "I get that."
She wet her lower lip and reached out to take his hand, twirling herself under it, her fin brushing against his leg as she did. "So how're you finding being back in LA?"
Drew felt his skin prickle when he felt the brush of Waverley's fin against his legs. "It's good," he affirmed with a nod of his head. "And it feels like coming home which I know is weird to say considering I'm not a native but hopefully you get what I'm trying to say."
He ducked under the water but only to wet his hair before he surfaced again, fingers combing his hair back.
"Dawson's struggling because the pack he was associated with has moved on."
"I get it," she reassured, "not that much has changed either which is probably a good thing for you? I mean, easier to slip back into things."
She moved to splash him playfully but stopped when he talked about Dawson. "I know he went to see Elijah, is he going to look for another pack, do you think?" She frowned, "I thought he- I thought that pack hadn't been good to him? Why would he want to go back?"
"I don't know," Drew admitted with a shake of his head. "I told him that he needs to find one but I think he's worried about not fitting in or not being accepted given the fact he's deaf." He shifted in the water, lightly turning where he was. "And it was crappy to him but it was the only pack he knew so I think the familiarity beats out the uncertainty of something new."
Waverley sighed. “I know a few wolves from some of the remaining packs,” she offered, “if you want me to ask around?”
Drew took a moment to consider that before he decided it wouldn't hurt and maybe if he could get a feel for the packs that were around he might be able to help Dawson belong. "Yeah, please. I think that would definitely help."
Waverley nodded. “That’s not a problem. There are three packs I can think of that he might suit, so I’ll see who’s recruiting.” She swam closer once more, stopping directly in front of Drew, concern on her features, “He’ll be okay,” she added softly, reaching up with one hand to touch his cheek. “He’s still got you.”
"I know," Drew murmured as he reached up to squeeze Waverley's wrist though admittedly couldn't keep it there long as he was treading water after all and both arms and hands helped with that. "But I know it's not the same and that as hard as I try I'll never truly understand what it is to be in Dawson's shoes right now."
Waverley nodded, “Its hard, werewolf politics, human politics... everything is so confusing sometimes but you’re doing your best and that’s all you can ask of yourself.” Since she knew that Dawson would never ask anything more of Drew than to just be there.
She ducked under his arm and swam around him before disappearing under the water and snagging her fingers on some snorkelling equipment she kept hidden.
“Here,” she held them out, they were wet and needed a shake but at least they were something he could use to join her under the water.
She hesitated, chewing on her lower lip before she said, softly, “I’m sorry about your mom.”
Drew turned in the water as Waverley headed off under the surface and then took the snorkelling equipment that was given to him with a grin. He was definitely down for snorkelling and getting more up close and personal not only with the fishes but also with Waverley in her natural form.
When she offered her condolences however Drew's throat worked to swallow back a sudden unexpected lump at the back of his throat.
"Uh, thanks, I-" He wet his lower lip and shook his head. "It was just so sudden, you know?"
Waverley nodded, though she didn’t really know. Merfolk didn’t have traditional parent bonds, she didn’t even know who her actual parents were. The connection was one she didn’t understand, but she knew loss.
“Humans are fragile,” she said, brushing her fingers along the sharp line of his cheekbone. “But at least you got to be there. And now you’re back. Hopefully... for good?”
Wasn't that the truth? Humans were fragile and Drew being human was very keenly aware of just how fragile in comparison to the rest of the supernatural creatures running around. "Yeah, well, you don't have to tell me that given that I am human."
His relationship with his mother had been complicated, very complicated, and they had not parted on good terms. He'd spoken to her unconscious body but had no way of knowing if she'd heard him or understood that he did love her and a lot of things were said out of anger.
"And yeah, not going anywere anytime fast."
Waverley had moved away a little, but swam back, pressed up behind him as she pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw. "Good," she told him. "It'd be nice to have you back around."
In a moment that she would later categorise as sheer stupidity, she added, before ducking under the water and lowering herself to chase some fish up to the surface for Drew to see, "I did miss you."
Drew shook the water out of the snorkelling equipment before chuckling as fish brushed past his legs. "Yeah, I missed you too." He slipped the snorkelling mask over his hair and pulled it over his eyes and nose before the mouthpiece went into his mouth.
Now fully kitted out to be able to go under the surface of the water Drew took the plunge.