Build Bridges Not Walls

Serena sat back in her chair as she listened quietly to Kenzie explain what had happened on her date. “So you didn’t kiss him at all? Or just not like your originally planned and wanted?” She asked with confusion. Picking up her coffee and she took a long sip of it while she looked Kenzie over once more. “I mean I can try? I’m not sure how great I’ll be at this, but what the hell? I think we can do it.” Serena said in the hopes to give Kenzie some confidence. “Hey– we can take baby steps. First though I need to know a few things. Have you ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend? What is the extend of your dating history?”

“No? I made it weird after that so why would I?” She grinned when Serena said that she’d try. Happy that the other woman was willing to try to help her. “I mean if I could just siphon off some of your confidence or learn how to not be as awkward around people. Is all. I don’t expect you to be a miracle worker.” Kenzie didn’t like to think about her dating history. It was probably sad when she actually explained it out. “One boyfriend in high school. Then from there just random hookups from people that thought my nerdy rambles and general awkwardness were cute enough for a night? It’s a really short list as far as dating goes. Nothing serious since the one boyfriend.”

He smiled back at her. “Yeah I totally get it. Trust me I do. Because word vomit can come from me also. Last thing I want is for you to feel awkward.” Nodding his head a little bit, he smiled a little bit. “This is very true and I’ll be honest I’m glad I wasn’t Andy the jerk. He can be such an ass sometimes.” He joked lightly. But he was serious also glad that he hadn’t been a jerk to her actually. Hearing her next statements, he couldn’t help but grin. “Well maybe that is my goal. Because I bet you look even more beautiful whenever you blush. We are making good conversation now so that has to count for something. And trust me I don’t mind the nerdy pick up lines and would really like to hear some.” He told her. “Well if you ever need a tour consider this fireman at your service.”

Kenzie was very appreciative of the fact that the other man hadn’t made a single awkward moment out of their conversation. Those were the kind that she actually enjoyed. She laughed when he talked about himself in the third person. “With that face, I think you’d be easily forgiven with just a smile in someone’s direction.” Especially hers, but then again she could easily forgive anyone being an ass. His words did bring a flush to her cheeks and she pushed a lock of hair behind her hear. “I don’t know if I do. Beauty tends to be in the eye of the beholder, you’d have to tell me.” She shook her head. “Oh, I’m willing to bet you’ll regret wanting to here these lines as soon as you hear them. For instance,” she paused waving a hand in front his face as if she were trying to jedi mind trick him. “I am the droid you’re looking for,” she laughed at her own antics. “I’d actually love a tour some time, get to see the town through someone else’s eyes.

He grabbed the coat, watching the guy walk away. “I feel like everyone inconveniences someone at one point or another.” He recognized some of the discomfort the full moon brought him in the girl in front of him. “Full moon makes us act odd sometimes, happens to all of us at some point I think.” He held up the coat. “Plus the jacket is fine, so no harm no foul uh-” He pointed to her, unsure of her name.

Kenzie nodded. He was right about that. “You’re right. I just try to inconvenience no one at any time.” He was right sometimes the full moon just influenced her need quite a lot more than she would normally. Kenzie knew that she worked with him. She actually also knew his name, but since he didn’t know hers, she would act as if she did. “I’m Kenzie. What’s your name?” she asked.

“I imagine I’m going to hate this, but we’ll have to see won’t we,” He told her teasingly, pouring some popcorn kernels into his popcorn machine. “I’m always working,” He told her with a simple shrug, giving her a wise smile, as he moved back over to the couch as he waited for the popcorn to finish popping. “I’ve been all around the world more times than one could count. I’ve seen the seven wonders of the world and some of it’s biggest disasters. I’ve done just about every bucket list item one could imagine and more some. So now? When I’m not at the club, I’m hosting after parties, networking, and sitting here, drinking tea, as I watch the rest of the world go on without me,” He said quietly. He had lived over 5 impossibly long lives over. And when he had gotten to meet half of the people, some only wished they could have at their dinner table, TV just seemed like a bit of a let down. “But, now, I guess I get to be a dad. I never got to be one before, so thank you for giving me the best experiences I could have ever hoped for in the entire time that I’ve been here,” He told her honestly. “Your ‘white’ family aren’t welcome here. I hope you know,” He told her as he heard her talk about her other family. It almost sounded like that popular wizard book all the kids these days had been going on about. The one where the kid got locked up in a cupboard or something. “Rule number one of living in this household? We never bet on the white guy. They already have enough hand outs as is,” He told her with a little chuckle.

“You might like it because people are making dumb decisions and dying because they’re slightly dumb?” When he said that he was always working, she smiled. She knew that to be true in the few months that she’d actually been in his life. She rested her head on his shoulder when he joined her back on the couch. “Can I tell you something?” she asked, almost hesitantly because she wasn’t sure that her outlook on being a succubus had been great before, but because it was something that she shared with her father, she didn’t mind. “I don’t know how well being what I am fits me, but being here with you, finally having someone that can share their wisdom with me? That is like me that whole long life thing doesn’t seem as bad.” She laughed a little at the thought she had. “I almost rhymed. Life doesn’t seem as bad as long as I have my dad.” She laughed a little harder at the corny words. “I’m glad you want to be because believe me…I need all the guidance I can get. I lived a very sheltered and very…uncultured life,” she admitted.  Kenzie laughed at his words about her other family. “They don’t want anything to do with me without mom so they’re never going to be visiting. Especially if the “spawn of satan” found her dad…that just means you’re satan in their eyes.” She knew that they’d never get past what she was to get to know her and they’d known her for almost thirty years. There was always a block and they could never fully love her because they fear or detested or hated her. Her laugh then was loud, very unladylike and probably one of the loudest sounds that Kenzie had ever made. This was how she knew she was comfortable here. She could burst into laughter, small tears coming from the corners of her eyes. It was different actually hearing the things she thought but could never say. “This is definitely a different world for me. Being able to hear the things I could never say actually said out loud.”

Noah was speed walking away when Kenzie called after him, letting out a curse word under his breath as he slowly spun around and gave her an awkward wave. “No. Don’t worry about it. It’s- it’s cool. Sorry I um… walked in on you two. Jacen always said I um… had a knocking problem,” He said with a little shrug. 

“No, no I probably should have locked the door. It wasn’t anything important. Just…something I have to do to stay alive.” She looked down at her feet and then back up at him. “This is…really awkward and I know it’s awkward because it’s me and everything I do is awkward, but this isn’t like cute awkward and I know if any other person walked through the door it wouldn’t be…I wouldn’t feel this kind of awkwardness. But it’s you so…it’s different?” She was trying to make a point and yet somewhere in there she feel like she might have lost it. “I really am sorry you had to see that.”  

Andy listened to her and nodded his head a little bit, as he looked over at her still. “Makes sense. Word vomit does happen from time to time and it can get a bit of annoying which makes that person apologize for word vomiting to begin with.” Chuckling at her statement, he sat back in his chair now. “I wish that I could say the same thing.” The chuckle was gone now. He had done a lot of things, and some of them he regretted. But he was working on making up for it. “I’ll take the simple thanks and say you’re welcome. I mean I can keep the compliments coming all night if you want. Over a year now. What about you?” 

She smiled. “See you get it! It’s such a difficult thing to explain when people don’t get it which makes matters even worse, but I’m glad that I’m feeling less awkward by the second.” She noticed how his chuckle died down with his words. “Well tonight you can. You had plenty of room to be mean to me because you thought I was staring at you, but instead you didn’t.” Which was something she definitely appreciated. “If you kept the compliments coming, my cheeks would be very red and I’d probably get all flustered and stammering over words. I’d be a very horrible conversationalist with all of that going on. I might also embarrassingly try to hit you with some very awkward and very nerdy pick up lines that by the way work only twenty percent of the time,” she laughed. “I’ve been here about two months now. Things are still pretty new for me.”

Nina smiled softly but shook her head. The resemblances between Julian and Kenzie were uncanny. Nina had never had children and now she never would. Hell, it was rare for her longtime friends to have any living children to interact with. “Nope, darling, you’re just peachy,” Nina explained, waving a hand as she watched Kenzie. She wasn’t ogling, but it was just strange to see Julian’s daughter. She was fascinated. “Let me buy you a drink. I’m a longtime friend of your dad’s. What’s your poison?”

She relaxed a little when the woman said that things were fine. But then she said she was a friend of her dad’s and that made her slightly nervous because she wasn’t so sure if this was a trick or if this was for real. “My dad? Good friend or bad friend because if you’re trying to hurt him physically or in matters of the heart, I won’t let you do that.” He was all she had left so caution was definitely on her side. She didn’t know how but she’d find a way to protect her dad if she ever needed to. “I’ll take rum and coke. And thank you, for the drink. How do you know him?” she wondered but she was careful not to mention his name because she wasn’t going to out herself as a succubus if this woman had the wrong girl.

“Why’re you explaining yourself?“ He slouched back into the chair, sipping his drink as his eyes tracked the poor guy she’d just chased away. “Not my place to police you.“ And he followed the direction she was pointing at. Hard to really get a good look at her boss in the dark, but he couldn’t resist the smile that grew wider as she just kept stumbling over her words. “No daddy kink. Got it. But, sure. Only if I get to buy you one right back.”

He patted the seat next to him.

“Because my brain goes into panic mode and it’s like ‘must over explain the situation to make it not awkward’. Did it work?” Her voice sounded hopeful that her over explanation eased the potential for awkwardness, but then again it didn’t seem to be much awkwardness even if she rambled. “I wish I had one of those Men In Black things to erase the really dorky parts of conversation from both mine and everyone else’s memories. Because Daddy kink conversations is not something I want remembered.” She smiled at his offer to buy her a drink in return. “Deal.”

When he patted the seat next to him, she took a seat. “How’ve you been?” she asked. “How’s the semester going. It’s started by now, right?” she asked, remembering that he said that he was in school.

Daniel tried not to raise an eyebrow, he really did. Being out on the full moon was still weird for him. “I mean, it’s cool. You’re just doing your full moon thing, or whatever.” He shrugged. “My coat is just hanging on the wall behind you guys.”

Kenzie looked behind her to see the coat on the wall. Her cheeks heating and she stood up to let the guy she was currently sitting on leave. “Oh…I’m sorry. Doing my full moon thing was a little inconvenient when you were trying to get your coat though. I don’t like to inconvenience others or put you in an awkward position.” Truly she was a little annoyed with herself that she gave in and actually did that in public. she worried about the what ifs because she could have killed someone and then everyone would know she wasn’t the human she was posing as.

Grace chuckled when the girl got embarrassed.  “Oh it’s cool,” she assured her.  “It happens to the best of us so don’t even worry about it.”  The full moon was always a fun chance to let go, but she wasn’t completely sure if everyone felt that way.

Kenzie smiled. “I mean, I’m not opposed to losing myself in…that. I’m more so just not used to doing in a public setting, but I wouldn’t mind in a more secluded place.” Especially since she wasn’t so sure about her control in public and for all intents and purposes, she was supposed to be just a human girl making out with random strangers, rather than a succubus.

“Oh um… my bad,” Noah’s eyes grew wide as he walked in on Kenzie with someone else, quickly turning to head back towards the rest of the party.

Kenzie hadn’t really paid attention to who she’d been speaking to because even with the interruption the other man’s lips still remained on her. “Noah, wait.” She gently tapped the man’s chest to let him know that she wasn’t really interested in going much further, though in all reality, he was lucky. The full moon tended to have her afraid that she’d get a little bit reckless. She’d much rather be talking to Noah than potentially killing this poor guy or stealing even more time off of his life. “Sean…it’s been fun,” she said as an awkward goodbye. She knew it was silly but she didn’t even know what to say. Her cheeks were bright pink as she tried to catch up to Noah. “Hey…sorry you had to see that…sometimes the full moon is just…weird for me,” she explained awkwardly. 

“Maybe,” Paxton said noncommittally, leaning back in his chair. “There’s probably a lot of truth to that.” As he examined her, he noticed her shoulders, almost hunched together. She wasn’t looking at him, and her voice had ticked upwards the more she spoke, until she’d been asking him a question instead of answering her own. “Hey are you okay? Did I do something?”

When he asked if she was okay, she nodded. “Yes, I’m okay. I just…thought you might have been asking a rhetorical question and I messed up social cues by answering or rambling. Oh no, no I was just rambling and I try to keep that at bay when talking to people. And it’s safe to say I obviously failed at the not rambling.”

“Good because I would keep apologizing and then you would probably get annoyed me. It would just turn into a big thing. Well thank you for that. I’m glad I got the nice Kenzie then. Oh really? Just a meanie?” He couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit. “Glad that you don’t thin I was.” Now he smiled a little bit, looking over at her. “Well thank you. I’m not going to lie, you are very attractive as well.” He shrugged a little bit. “It is all good.”

She shook her head. “Oh no, I’d never get annoyed with you. Because I do that. I word vomit sometimes and I then apologize, and after I apologize if I say something else that probably makes it worse, I apologize again,” she said with a laugh. it was a horrible cycle. “I don’t get much meaner than just saying ‘meanie’. I don’t think I have it in me to be meaner than that.” She smiled at him, looking up from her actual face palming. “Thanks, I don’t take compliments all that well so instead of saying something like ‘no I’m not’ or ‘really?’ I’m resisting the urge and just going with the simple, thanks for saying that. Have you been in town long?” she wondered.

Nina smirked, raising her eyebrows and glancing away out of respect for the girl. She was, after all, Julian’s daughter. She saw the resemblance in what one could say a multitude of ways. 

“Darling, that’s what tonight is all about,” She said, waving a hand. She debated whether or not to reveal to Kenzie that she knew who she was. Normally, she wouldn’t, but they had a guest involved. But Nina wanted to officially meet the young woman who was the daughter of her closest friend. “Have you had your fill or is it alright if we talk?”

Kenzie gave her a half smile. She gave the guy a kiss on the cheek and he got the hint that they were most certainly done. As he left, she adjusted her shirt, buttoning the few buttons that had come undone. “Sure we can talk. I’m not in any sort of trouble or anything am I?” She reached up into her hair, grabbing her glasses as if it were an automatic reaction, pulling them on once more. She wasn’t sure what they were going to talk about, but so curiosity had gotten the better of her with that question. 

Moving slowly through a sea of warm bodies as they ground together on the dance floor, Evelyn’s eyes bounced over the people as she went, taking it all in. If only she could pull energy just from being near them. It would be wonderful. She hated clubs normally, Evelyn couldn’t get behind recreational drug use, not really, but the music was interesting enough sometimes. Coming to halt in front of an amourous couple, Eveyn raised a red brow as they broke apart before answering. “Be my guest little one, a little getting lost never hurt anybody.” Except when it hurt everybody but that was neither here nor there. 

Kenzie’s attention was on the woman at that point. She smiled, appreciating the words but she knew that wasn’t true. She could actually really hurt someone, and they never realized it because she came in such a small and innocent package, hiding the one sign of what she really was with contacts. “It might not hurt, but there are some very embarrassing situations, like this one that right now. Or making people uncomfortable. I know that not everyone enjoys happening upon PDA.”