Who: Kitty Davenport, Kyle Davenport & Seth Murphy What: Kyle takes Kitty speed dating to take her mind off things When: So so backdated Where: Random speed dating establishment Rating: Low Warnings: n/a Notes: MJ is a failboat and was supposed to post this a loooong time ago because it finished on like 27th March, but didn't. Ugh.
The thing about Seth was he might be old and he might have done a lot of things but in the world there was never just one thing, never just one way, and if you didn't enjoy the small things then you might as well be dead. His small thing for this evening? Speed dating. Not for anything serious but more for a chance to meet a ton of new people, have different conversations and then move very swiftly on when invariably his interest would wane.
He was halfway through the night and had already met a couple people and one really odd pair that were clearly there together but seemed to enjoy making the other jealous by flirting with others. He figured they must get off on that sort of thing, take that energy home and use that to work out some kinks in their relationship and more power to them, but, still, weird.
As the bell rang Seth got up and moved to the table to his left where a young pretty blonde was sat and who definitely looked as though she was seriously regretting her decision to come to this particular event.
"Hey," he greeted, voice deep and gravelly.
He wasn't wrong. Kitty Davenport was more than regretting her decision to come to this stupid event. Four tables along she could see Kyle, in a little while he'd be winding his way towards her and sitting down opposite her and she'd beg him to take her home because she'd had quite enough. So far, she'd met no one interesting and the only reason she'd decided to try this was because she'd been so thrown by the knowledge that Jesse's casual hook up was a succubus that Kyle had shocked her out of her tailspin by telling her they were going to try speed-dating.
He looked like he was having a little more fun than her, at least. She'd started doodling sigils on napkins, thinking maybe she could just cast her way out of this. Since she had no candles, it seemed highly unlikely but she was tempted to try anyway.
She jumped a little when someone sat down opposite her with a voice like honey and, when she looked up, he had sharp features and a tattoo on his neck and grey-blue eyes that stood out like.... something out of a purple-prose filled romance novel. What was she doing with her life that her brain went there, first?
"Hi," she managed, clearing her throat and turning the nametag on her table around so that he could see it. Kitty was written in looping italic lettering, with some flowers and doodles around the outside that she'd done when she was bored. "I- uh- I'm Kitty." She held her hand out over the table.
Seth's lips curled into a smile before he tipped his head to take a better look at the nametag not that he needed to given that she introduced herself a moment later. "Seth," he replied as he took her hand in his own and squeezed. "Pleasure to meet you, Kitty."
His sharp gaze had noticed all the doodles on the scattered napkins and an eyebrow lifted.
"Not having a good time?"
Kitty snorted. "Is it that obvious?" she asked, ignoring how her skin prickled a little with the touch of his hand against hers. Shet wer her lower lip and tried to shuffle all her doodles into one neat pile, but he'd already noticed them, so instead she just turned the more... supernatural looking ones over. Just in case.
"I'm not... I'm not big on these kinds of events," she admitted. "You- I mean, you don't look like you'd have trouble finding a date if you wanted, what brings you to a speed dating event?" She blinked, adding quickly, "I mean- I meant that as a compliment."
"The doodles do kind of give it away," Seth pointed out. "Shows that your last few meetings haven't been the one most..." he trailed off, glancing around himself before leaning in to drop his voice conspiratorially, "exciting?"
And she wasn't wrong, Seth didn't struggle for dates, but that wasn't the reason he was here.
"I definitely got that," he assured her, flash of his teeth to accent his assertion. "But I'm here, more to have a bit of fun than anything else. I mean, where else did you get the opportunity to talk to this many people at one time?"
"Exciting, thrilling, interesting... you name it, they haven't been it," Kitty drawled, taking a breath in when Seth leaned closer because he was beautiful. Objectively speaking. Of course. Totally objectively speaking. And she hadn't been imagining how her skin prickled when he'd touched her as they shook hands, so she was going to assume he wasn't human which, fair play. The event had been open to all - including the supernatural contingent - which was why she and Kyle had chosen this one in particular.
She shrugged, suddenly feeling a little silly. She tucked her hair back behind her ear and cleared her throat. "Uh- well, I guess if you're the clubbing type? I'm not, though, in case you hadn't guessed."
“You’ve clearly never tried to have a conversation in a club.” The statement accompanied by rough chuckle and slow smile. “Fucking impossible.”
He reached out for the small glass container in the middle of the table and rummaged through until he snagged a piece of paper that he held between index and middle finger.
“If it was your last day on earth what would you do and why?”
Kitty snorted. "You'd be correct," she told him, lifting her glass to sip at her water. "Clubs don't really appeal to me."
Her eyebrow lifted. That was a heavy question. She hummed a little, in thought, trying to answer with something that didn't involve Jesse because that rather defeated the purpose of this event.
"I've got no idea," she offered, lamely, "Uh- sort out my affairs, probably. Boring as that sounds. You?" she turned the question around, reaching out to lift up another card.
Seth ducked his head and let loose with another laugh before he shook his head as he collected up the glass of water to his right, taking a slow considering sip as he worked out the best way to reply to that.
"I'd take all the money out of my bank account, spoil my friends, jump out of a plane, swim with sharks, that kinda thing."
“All in a day?” Kitty asked, arching her eyebrow. “That’s an action packed last day.” She smiles a little, and looked at her card, sort of wishing that she could even, in her imagination, be so impulsive.
She cleared her throat, “What’s your favourite way to unwind?”
"Oh that's one easy," Seth replied with a slow seductive grin that bared teeth that were almost predatory in their colouring and sharp edges. "Sex."
He was not ashamed of that answer at all, it was pure honest truth.
"You?"
Kitty choked on her drink at the wolfish smile and response and needed to take a few moments to collect herself, patting at her chest.
“Nothing so...exciting, I’m afraid,” Kitty said, apologetically. “Reading, quilling and...baking. I’m kind of a stress baker.”
Seth grimaced faintly as he hadn’t meant to make her choke quite so dramatically and he reached out to squeeze her shoulder, blue gaze seeking eye contact. “You okay?” And it might have been imagination but he got the distinct feeling he was being watched very closely.
“Well, everybody enjoys cake so it’s not too dissimilar in that regard.”
Kitty nodded, whole body sort of leaning into the touch to her shoulder before she caught herself. She glanced to the left, curled her lips up a little and nodded at Kyle to let him know she was okay before her attention returned to Seth. “I’m fine, your answer just took me by surprise. No more drinking while you talk, I think!”
She shrugged. “I don’t know about that, I’d expect that sex is way better than cake. Unless it’s being done wrong.” Like her few, meagre experiences.
“Good plan,” Seth agreed with a chuckle before he withdrew his touch.
He toyed with the piercing in his lower lip and nodded. “That has been my experience. The whole sex being better than cake. And you’re right, if you think cake is better than the guy clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
“Or girl,” Kitty pointed out as she figured that Seth may not have been discriminatory in his choice of lovers, and he was at an opposite-sex speed dating event. “Since it isn’t the guys job to do everything.” She could feel the colour in her cheeks rising a little and cleared her throat, wiggling her fingers at the card box on the table.
Seth nodded. “True but guys? Really simple. A stiff breeze and we’re already hard. A woman however?” He knocked his tongue against the back of his teeth. “Far more complex.”
He could tell even without the blush that she was uncomfortable so he dipped into the box.
“What’s the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?”
Kitty squirmed a little, she had only had sex twice and neither time had been what she would categorise as ‘great’. She’d read somewhere that sometimes people just didn’t...you know, orgasm because of stress or whatever. That was probably her fault anyway.
Thankfully he moved on and she hummed in thought. “It kinda depends? Usually the eyes,” she offered, “or their jacket.”
“Jacket?” Seth asked because that was the first time he’d heard that.
“Yeah, like their outer coat or whatever.”
Seth snorted quietly. “I am familiar with what a jacket is. I was more asking, why their jacket?”
Kitty stared at him blankly for a moment, trying to put into words what she had only ever thought about before. She wet her lower lip and her brow furrowed slightly. “I-uh-“
Don’t talk about Jesse.
“If it looks comfortable or not. In case I get cold.”
There was definitely more going on in that pretty blonde hair and an incubus as old as Seth was had long ago learned to tell when people weren’t being as honest as they could. They were strangers after all and there had been no promise of truth to all questions at the door.
“Okay, I’ll bite.” Seth proceeded to shrug out of his dark leather jacket with a few unique details and handed it over to Kitty. This left him in a dark muscle tee which meant all his tattoos were very much on display. “What do you think of my jacket?”
Kitty laughed softly and took the jacket, felt the weight in her hands. She also took a look at Seth, who had the most fascinating tattoos, which distracted her briefly.
“Oh-um, it’s heavy, which is super comforting if I’m upset or anxious, and it feels nice on the inside. And it would probably be really warm too, so, it’s a good jacket.” She glanced at him and then - bravely, for her - slipped it over her shoulders. “You can have it back when the bell goes.”
She tilted her head, “What about you? What’s the first think you notice?”
Seth liked this girl. She might be a little shy and a lot timid but she had spunk and he could see that under the layers of insecurities. He chuckled and held up his hands in mock defeat. “Alright, fair enough.”
“Eyes,” he said very quickly and honestly.
Kitty looked so relieved that her attempt at brave-flirting hadn’t fallen flat. Any his jacket was warm and it smelt nice, which was also always a plus. The heavy weight on her shoulders felt like an arm, like she was being hugged as much as the jacket was probably drowning her.
“Eyes are the window to the soul and all,” she offered, wondering if he would expand or not.
She did pick up another card though, “How do you earn a living?”
“Mm,” Seth hummed in response. “I am a real sucker for a beautiful pair of eyes. And legs, but definitely not the first thing I notice.”
He pressed his tongue to the tip of his canine as he spread his arms out to better display his tattoos.
“Guess.”
Kitty smiled. “You can tell a lot about a person by their eyes, I think.”
When he spread his arms out, she tapped her forefinger on her chin as if she was struggling, eyes alight with amusement. “I mean... and it’s only a guess... but are you a tattoo artist?”
Seth’s lips tugged into a bright grin. “Ding ding we have a winner. I own and run Skin Talks.”
Damn proud of that fact.
“And you, Kitty, what is it that you do?”
“I’ve seen that! I walk past on my way to work, actually. I keep meaning to come for a consultation but always talk myself out of it.”
She shrugged. “I’m a shop assistant, nothing exciting again, I’m afraid.”
"Oh yeah? What do you have in mind?" He'd been a tattoo artist first before he'd become a tattoo parlour owner so it was in his nature to ask.
He sipped at his drink. "What shop do you work at?"
"Some kind of sigil, I think, and something for my-" Kitty paused, frowned and swallowed, "-for my mom."
She tucked her hair behind her ear and downed half of her water, the thought of her mother unsettling her a little before she carried on, feeling Kyle's eyes on her because he always had been good at just sensing when she was upset.
"The White Rabbit?"
Seth tipped his head. "Sentimental then I take it?" Natural instinct and the way her face changed suggested that was the reason behind it.
The White Rabbit? Why did he know that name- Oh, right, August's friend owned it.
"That's the one owned by Elijah, right?"
"She was killed a couple of years ago," Kitty said, "hate crime." She looked down at the table and plucked at a napkin. "So something to honour her memory would be nice."
She glanced up, looking shocked and surprised that he knew the shop and the owner. "You know Elijah?"
"I'm sorry to hear that," Seth answered sincerely, he definitely hadn't meant to pick at that particularly emotional wound. "And I agree so if you ever pluck up the courage then I'll do the tattoo myself."
He leaned back into his chair and rubbed at the back of his neck. "I know of him, through August. He's one of the guys who works at my parlour. He and Elijah are friends."
"You would?" Kitty asked, "I- yeah, I'd like that. Yours are really nice." Not that he'd done them himself but someone with such nice tattoos had to have good taste, and if he owned a shop then he had to be good at what he did.
She nodded, "I know of August, I don't know him well. But yeah- we're not actually that far from you."
“Thanks.” Seth smiled. “Designed them myself and even did a couple of them but most were done by different tattoo artists across the US and the world.”
She wasn’t wrong. Skin talks and The White Rabbit were pretty close. “No excuse then for you not to come in for a consultation.”
Kitty looked as fascinated as she felt. “That’s really awesome, like, really awesome. They’re gorgeous.”
Her cheeks flushed a little. “No, I guess not. Maybe I’ll come by in my lunch break one day.”
He nodded his head. "You should. You won't regret it." And he sincerely believed that especially as it was clear even from their brief conversation that she had put thought into what she wanted tattooed on her body so it wasn't like she'd regret it.
“You say that now,” Kitty pointed out with a small smile, but you don’t know just how good I am at regretting things.”
She opened her mouth to say something else when the bell dinged to signify that their time was up. She tucked her hair behind her ear and ducked her head, carefully shrugging out of Seth’s jacket and passing it back over.
“Looks like our time’s up,” she said, genuinely disappointed by that.
Seth tsk'ed quietly under his breath as he reached out to take his jacket back but it was placed to one side as he grabbed the pen she'd been using to doodle and scribbled down a number on a nearby napkin.
"Call or text me sometime," he offered with a flirtatious grin as the number was pushed towards her at the same time as he rose to his feet and pulled on his jacket.
Kitty pulled the number closer to herself and nodded, “Sure,” she replied, glancing up with a smile and adding - before he disappeared - “It was nice meeting you, Seth.”
As Seth left it wasn't long until Kyle took his place, sliding onto the chair. "So, want to get out of here?" He hoped that this speed dating evening had been enough to take Kitty's mind off things and more importantly off Jesse.
"Oh god, yes," Kitty said, snatching up the napkin with Seth's number on it and putting it into the pocket of her jeans as she got to her feet, ignoring the fact that the guy on the table to the left looked put out that Kyle had beaten him to the seat that technically wasn't meant to be Kyle's for another three turns. "Can we go to Jack's?"
She needed a milkshake.
Kyle's sharp eyes had noticed that Kitty had shoved a napkin with a phone number into the pocket of her jeans but held his tongue because maybe it wasn't such a bad thing if she had the attention of another guy. Might help her work Jesse out of her system.
"Sounds good to me," he affirmed as he rose to his feet and offered Kitty his arm.
Kitty took his hand, even though the arm was offered, the move sort of one that she was so used to she didn't even give it a second thought nowadays. Kyle was, for all intents and purposes, her brother. And with those that she knew well, she was quite easily physically affectionate. She squeezed his fingers and followed him out of the venue, the two of them walking in compaionable silence towards Jack's.
By the time they'd got there, though, she'd slipped her arm through his and was hugging herself close, head on his shoulder. She broke away only to slide into their booth (a small one near the back which she tended to haunt with Jesse during breakfast time) and shrug out of her jacket.
Once their orders were placed, Kitty leaned her elbows on the table, put her chin in her hands and beamed at him. "So... did you have fun?"
Kyle shrugged out of his jacket to make himself comfortable in the other side of the booth where he sat back and folded his arms across his chest. "Yeah, it was pretty fun. There were definitely some weird ones in the bunch."
One woman had eagerly and fervently spoken at length about her desire to be dominated and told what to do because she had such an important job that it was sometimes nice to just let go and not be the one in control.
"You?"
Kitty snorted. "Weirdest woman of the night?" she asked, watching a slight smirk cross Kyle's features as he thought about something - or someone - from the night that had amused him enough to break that often stoic facade.
She shrugged. "I- uh, yeah, I mean it was mostly just weird."
"Good question," Kyle affirmed before he rubbed a hand through his hair as he considered all the weird and the wonderful women he'd encountered all night. "Okay so one woman? Apparently can't orgasm unless she's being strangled and that she enjoys being dominated in the bedroom so whoever dated her had to be able to do both those things."
He shuddered at the thought of it and shook his head.
"What about you? You have any more luck?"
Kitty's eyes widened and her expression shifted into a sort of grossed-out-but-only-because-it-was-her-brother sort of thing. "That- uh- that's more than I ever needed to know about some random woman's sex life. I'm guessing she thought you'd be the one to- uh- y'know- get with the-" She snorted, shaking her head, "I can't even say it, by the Goddess."
She wet her lower lip, drew a circle on the table wiht her fingertip. "Kinda? I mean, there were a few guys that were just boring and one that was way too old for me. But then I met this guy Seth? He seemed... nice?"
Kyle arched his eyebrows. "You and me both, you and me both." It was honestly more than he ever needed to know about a random stranger. And also that she thought that he of all people could be the one to give her what she wanted or rather needed in the bedroom.
He leaned in a little closer when she brought up a guy called Seth, he'd been the one he'd clocked when he'd sat down. Incubus from what his nose had picked out. "Yeah? How nice is nice?"
"What do you mean?" Kitty asked, "He was just nice, he gave me his number. He's a tattoo artist, at the studio not too far from where I work." He had been exceedingly forthright about enjoying sex which, she supposed, was some people's thing. She knew Jesse had his casual partners, and so did Kyle she was sure (since once or twice she'd smelt perfume on him when they hung out for an evening). But it just wasn't really her scene.
She tucked her hair back behind her ear. "I'm guessing you saw him?"
“I don’t trust Incubi,” Kyle shared with a shrug of his shoulders. “Or succubi for that matter. They’re gorgeous, charming, but they’ve normally got an agenda and they don’t do... commitment.” He didn’t want Kitty to fall foul of that. Not when her heart was so squishy
He nodded his head. “Yeah, I saw him. Tall, dark haired, tattoos and piercings.”
“Oh.” Kitty looked surprised at that; she hadn’t been expecting him to be an incubus. Why had he spent so long at her table?
She waved a hand. “It’ll be okay, I just might call him about a tattoo.”
“You finally going to get it done?” Kyle asked. He knew Kitty had been giving a lot of thought to a tattoo but hadn’t actually gathered the courage to go ahead with it.
Kitty nodded, “Thinking about it. He own the tattoo place and said he’d do it for me himself. I think it’s time. Though I think I’d wanna ask you or Jesse to come with me.” She pulled a face, “For support, you know?”
It made sense, she'd been thinking about it for a long time. "Yeah, of course. I'm sure either one of us or even both of us would be happy to go with you for moral support." Kyle had been branded but he didn't think it was the same as being tattooed. Still, better safe than sorry.
"You wanna come with me to the consultation? I mean- you- y'know, you knew my mom better than I could ever have hoped to, you can help me talk to him about her." She reached over and caught his fingers, "If that's okay?" Since talking about her was hard for the both of them. She thought it would be for a long time to come, yet.
Kyle's throat worked extra hard to swallow the same way it did whenever Kitty's mother came up especially as he'd failed her and he knew that he had. It was something he had to live with and it haunted him more than he cared to admit.
"Yeah, okay," he said after a long moment of silence.
"And then after we can go get drunk," she announced, squeezing his fingers again and nodding decisively. "Because that's the responsible, adult way of handling trauma."