i don’t like a gold rush.

“What can I say, I have a way with words,” he laughed, that wasn’t exactly true, at all, and when he said something that made it seem like he did, it was not on purpose at all, “Oh, alright, that’s fair,” he nodded, “Do you have someone to help you with it?” he asked, since she said that her mom didn’t practice magic, he figured that she probably didn’t know enough to help her daughter to learn everything she needed to know. He was lucky enough to have someone to help with his powers, so he hoped she did too.

  “oh do you? guess i know who to call when i need help with scrabble or flirting.” she teased, happy for a moment he wasn’t diving deep into ‘why didn’t gran train you’, she did - oh she tried but the old woman wasn’t a member of a coven, the trade secrets of her family was all there was to pass down and for alicia - it was difficult to learn, nothing about it seemed natural. “i did, not really anymore but i’m not too worried. not like i’m in harry potter and fighting death eaters.”

“What can I say, I have a way with words,” he laughed, that wasn’t exactly true, at all, and when he said something that made it seem like he did, it was not on purpose at all, “Oh, alright, that’s fair,” he nodded, “Do you have someone to help you with it?” he asked, since she said that her mom didn’t practice magic, he figured that she probably didn’t know enough to help her daughter to learn everything she needed to know. He was lucky enough to have someone to help with his powers, so he hoped she did too.

  “making a note on that - don’t need to play a scrabble game against someone who’s wordy.” alicia pointed out, although she’d never play a game of scrabble period she wasn’t the best with english - not in the way to make her feel confident enough to play that game. “ help with... magic? i did - not really anymore and there’s this whole thing where you could join a coven and learn but honestly clubs aren’t for me.” a small smile appeared on her face with the joke, “i’m not looking to be hermione granger so not a high priority for me.”

“feel so close by calvin harris.”

  “let’s do it again by j boog.”

   “casually comfortable? i like jeans and things i can move in.”

  “i love all food, it would be disrespectful to pick one.”

   “oh i so bite -- talking kinks right?”

“wine.”

“Well, yeah, but raising a kid on your own is never easy,” Will conceded after a moment. “I suppose it’s easier when you’re not super young but Dusk mostly raised Aiden on her own and I grew up with the LaFontaine kids and it wasn’t easy for their mom, Addie, to take care of them on her own either. In both cases the mothers did amazing jobs and did the best they could for their kids and couldn’t have done any better with help but it wasn’t easy for them. I’m sure they’d have much rather had help.” Although for Dusk it was probably a little different. She probably wanted help mostly because she wanted them and Cassidy to be an actual family. But her brother had seemed to avoid that for as long as possible. Not necessarily because he didn’t care for Dusk- he clearly did- but his issues and his weird obsession with Riley just kept getting in the way. That obsession was one of Cassidy’s many faults and sometimes it seemed like it was an obsession he was unable to shake. “But I haven’t actually thought about kids.” Which wasn’t exactly true. At one point she had absolutely thought that one day she might have kids of her own. But over the years that stopped seeming like a possibility and so she stopped thinking about it. “Your friend was probably just giving you information is all. Just sharing a little. And yeah…Win found something he loved and decided to go for it.” The witch couldn’t deny she was proud of her brother for that but a tiny part of her was jealous, as well. But only because she had yet to figure out her own passion.

  “help is one thing - totally leaving it to another is something else but i’m an outside party and never really spoken with you before so i can’t say that’s true to the situation.” she raised her hands innocently leaning back into her seat, although the last thing she wanted was to be on the bad side of a bolton - she hated more seeing people get taken advantage of. “well cheers to following what you love.” alicia raised her glass only slightly off the counter. 

“Yes, well, Tony and I work very conflicting schedules so we see each other when we can but it isn’t as often as a lot of people get to see each other. He keeps strange hours because of the casino but…well, it’s a decent enough job for him so we just deal with it.” Jez was all too aware that it wasn’t always easy for people who had a criminal record to find a decent job. And yet the casino had offered him a job and didn’t seem to mind he had a criminal record so what more could they ask for? They were willing to give Tony a chance when many people might not have. Which she did appreciate because, yes, while Tony may have made mistakes in the past? Anyone who got to know him would know he was a good guy. “You don’t have to be looking for someone to find someone. I wasn’t looking for anyone either. Tony just sort of came out of nowhere.”

 “ah gotcha - does he like working at the casino?” alicia questioned, although she knows tony she often forgets the little things top it off her gran seemed to go to the place but alicia never went - she didn’t know much about it. a deep breath was sucked in as jez of all people went on about love. “you have a heart of gold just wrapped in a lot of crazy shit -- not that that’s your fault, i just mean you are worth that ‘love’ thing. i’m personally focused on enjoying whatever time i have on this floating rock in space... although -- as long as you don’t say anything to anyone or make a deal out of it, i think i might’ve told darren while drunk may i add, that i love him.”

Andrea’s head tilted with curiosity as they listened. Did that apply to them yet? She hadn’t really been in town long enough to really become overly familiar with many places, the redhead thought. The vampire was still getting to know the town, exploring every nook and cranny. Though, of course the club was the place they were most familiar with. 

“Attempting?” They echoed curiously. “If you’d feel better with some company, I’m not working tonight.” The vampire had only come in to drop something off, but was more than willing to stay for a drink or two. 

 “i’m not the kind who enjoys going out alone.” she somewhat clarified to the echo, alicia didn’t feel like going into detail on who she usually went out with because honestly it was only kai or jez, then if she was out alone she’d going to the red moon and darren was there. for a moment her mouth opened before she nodded with a light shrug. “sure -- you’re new to wolford right?”

“In a way I understand, I’m not a big fan of travelling, I rarely do it, but when I do it, I want it to be worth it and epic. Our country can be beautiful, but only travelling to places seems a little bit of a waste,” he admitted, there were so many lovely places to visit out of the country. He always searched for unique places to go to, when he decided to make a trip, “You should probably expect more of those, I want to know more about you,” he enjoyed hearing about other people’s lives, but he would respect if she didn’t want to answer something, “Oh, I didn’t know that was possible, I thought every witch had the powers since they were born.”

  alicia simply nodded when he mentioned not being a fan of traveling. everyone had their own thing - plenty of people enjoyed staying put. “aren’t you sweet with words,” a brow raised a little, not many people seemed to want to ‘know more’ about her, at least in her experience it seemed the people she was around she’d know for years. “um... long story short my mother didn’t practice magic and we didn’t live in wolford -- i moved here in my teens and my grandmother told me about the magically inclined beings we are.”

“Jealous, little witch?” the werewolf teased though he knew that wasn’t even remotely the case. It didn’t mean that he couldn’t tease her a little bit on the matter. But, truth be told, he really didn’t consider anything he did as a talent. He just picked up the ability to do many things over the years out of necessity. When one traveled often and was generally alone? You had to learn quite a few things in order to keep yourself well looked after and get the necessary things handled. “I think some people consider sleep a necessary evil. I’ve encountered plenty of people who would rather be awake for as long as they can and only sleep because they have to. The longer they’re up the more that they can get things done. A lot of people function just fine on a few hours of sleep a night. So, perhaps you put too much stock into it, ‘Licia.” Darren was just teasing her, however. The amount of sleep she enjoyed or needed was of no consequence and if she enjoyed sleeping that much? Well, he wasn’t about to judge her for it.

“We both know you’d never stop hanging out with me,” he insisted as he put the bowl down onto the counter, the batter now mixed well enough. He leaned on the counter across from her, both eyebrows raised slightly even as he kept right on teasing her. Reaching out the werewolf took her chin between his thumb and index finger as if trying to keep her attention. “You love me too much.” The words came out teasingly though her drunken words the night before were definitely to that effect. Maybe she had only meant it as a friend; maybe she had just been extremely drunk. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t tease her about it.

  “why?  i get all those cool skills of your without actually needing to do them myself because you’re my friend.” she responded as if pointing out the obvious, of course she never tried to use any of his ‘bonus features’ as alicia would phrase it, he simply uses them himself because that’s what he does.  when thinking of it now perhaps she could tease that she has a personal chef given this new reveal, plus a bartender - hit man - driver too. dare she say she was lucky. alicia didn’t say any of her thoughts though, happy with keeping them to herself knowing well she had no clue how darren would take the commentary. “necessary evil - calling sleeping evil is like calling air bad. although i guess every inner child in us could agree that sleeping is for losers. ”

   alicia gave a skeptical look at him when he put the batter down, honestly there wasn’t much idea what was to come next. readying to say it sounded like he was hoping that she wouldn’t leave him high and dry till he grabbed her chin - what the fuck, radiated in her mind, of all the things he could use as a reason why. “are you saying - i said that? darren here i was thinking you were a man who didn’t use love confessions against somebody.”

A chuckle rose in the vampire’s throat. “Well, I work here, yeah. But I also live in town–” Maybe that was dumb to say, but oh well. “And people tell me the red hair is rather memorable.” A smirk touched Andrea’s lips, shrug falling from their shoulders, before glancing around at the question. “There are busy nights and slow nights.” Just like everywhere. “It usually gets busier in about…” A glance at their watch. “An hour or two. But, that night seemed particularly busy. Are you waiting for someone? Or just enjoying a night out?” 

  “no honestly i suppose it was more dumb to point out seeing a stranger twice at a place - one of my friends said something about how there’s only so many places someone can feel comfortable going too so... yeah people could circle the same places.” alicia was praying in her mind, questioning why she was talking so much. perhaps the nerves of being alone at the club was getting to her, going out was never an issue if she wasn’t alone. 

  “ah that’s fair enough - um attempting to enjoy a night out. i usually am at the red moon so, scene switching tonight.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Except that wasn’t something that exactly sit right with her. Not because she didn’t want her brother to find happiness- she absolutely did- but because she wasn’t sure she trusted things to just fall into place. As silly as it sounded coming from someone who religiously told her brother of his need to mature? She was oddly protective of him, constantly worried for his well-being. And while generally speaking that had a tendency to mean his well-being in regards to eating or being protected from certain members of their family? Jez was all too aware it was more than that. She was also genuinely concerned for his emotional well-being and in truth she wasn’t sure exactly how well things would go between the two. Heartbreak and heartache were a part of life and while she understood that her brother may experience that? It didn’t mean that she wanted to see it happen. Kai had always been far more sensitive than she was at least outwardly and he wore his emotions like a badge of honor. She could only imagine what he would be like if he was truly heartbroken and from what she knew about the werewolf there was every chance that the girl could break his heart. “What about you?” she questioned. “Anyone caught your eye?”

  “it’s hard to not think of stuff when it involves family and people you care about -- honestly i’d focus on tony if you’re gonna focus on anything.” alicia teased, the witch couldn’t help but gaze around the wicked brew. the place wasn’t exactly the total same from when they were younger and even the people within it were starting to be faces she didn’t know, the town was finally starting to take the hit from time - hopefully her friends could all grow too in their own ways. “me? jez do i look like someone who has one eye out for ‘a special someone’? i mean... i even warn on tinder that i’m only in it for the food.”

“I suppose that’s a good point,” he wasn’t sure if his travels were really that exciting, he rarely stayed longer than 4 days somewhere, because he missed home too much, “Well, I went to China once, and visited Zhangye Danxia Geopark, the mountains are absolutely beautiful, almost seem like someone painted them,” he didn’t know nature could create something like that, it seemed something man-made, “Why’s that?” he probably would say the same about him, that there were better people to talk about vampirism, but that’s because he was new to it all, he wondered what was her reason.

 “that’s cool as hell -- most americans don’t leave the country so you’re a step a head of everyone else right now.” she nodded giving a little point at him when she remarked it being cool. alicia certainly had never been anywhere like that, hell the most she’d seen was new york to wolford, the witch wasn’t one of the lucky ones with extra cash to spare. “i... well definitely a personally question to answer.” she teased slightly, “i just didn’t grow up with it like others did, most get like a lifetime of practice not just a handful of years.”