mila nivokova

        it surprises her none that mila gives her the space to spill. and she does want to hear something from her, anything to tell allie what she’s thinking. with her big, desperate eyes, she pleads, but, really, so long as mila hasn’t left her, or shoved her out of her home. anything is better than what she deserves after what she’d done to her, and to madi. their relationship. she’d ruined a relationship. the pit in her stomach drops even deeper, her eyes, and chin sinking to follow it to the ground, where she might as well have found herself turning to a bed of flowers, hugging the floor of the forest. bashful, and shy, and willing to be stepped on. it’s a softer daydream than the guilt she feels, the sound of her own words burying into her sensitive skin. allie bruises easily, she always has.

She knows she should stop, push herself back and place some distance between them. Come back to her senses and stop this before it goes too far, but Mila finds she can't force herself to do it, to push away from her, from her scent and the delicious rhythm of her heartbeats. She takes a deep breath instead, lets Allie's words wash over her. The invitation, as delicious as the flowery scent of magic and before Mila can think better of it, she places her lips against the witch's neck, opens her mouth just enough to press her tongue against the warm skin. Her fingers, still holding Allie's chin, move her just little bit, exposing her even more before she finally bites, her fangs sinking into flesh, tearing.

After the gala, Lara was a little curious about the company her brother kept (or keeps? she's still not sure of the dynamic between them fully other than friends) during the time she thought he was dead. Still really unaware of what he does now in his free time, she's hoping that she can bridge a gap there and potentially find more things out that she knows he'd be hesitant to share.

So it's a night-time stroll and a coffee, as a peace offering.

There's also the idea of trying to speak to as many people as she can about Kanemaru - gauging interest, gauging opinions - now that she's the owner of an establishment that feeds into their funds and her girlfriend is close and buddy-buddy with the leader, it feels like the least she can do to put out feelers. Coffee and blood donuts in hand, she waits just outside of the library after close and catches Mila as she's on her way out.

The idea of something happening to him crosses her mind, but it's just as quickly discarded. Lara seems far too relaxed for that to be the case.

         allie’s not a vampire, so she hadn’t even really needed to wait for mila’s invitation to be able to enter the apartment. of course, it’s not very nice to wander into people’s homes, and allie usually remembers that everywhere else except for … well, wherever she ends up at the end of the night, where she hardly remembers to lock the door at night. there’s nowhere that she’s been in the past week that she’s wanted to go to, more than here. nowhere more warm, nowhere more inviting, nowhere that extended such a gentle embrace of memories she’s been locked away from thinking about since the gala. but, still, allie found her roots unfurling into the ground, and keeping there. because no matter how much she wants mila’s forgiveness, to walk in and feel some of her tangled knot of despair start to unfold into a weaving she can understand- she knows she doesn’t deserve it.

          … but mila reaches for her, and mila takes her hand through some awful fog of angst that she’s made a mess of. allie owes it to her to look past it, and, really, she does want to be here. they can talk inside, and mila will be there, and, really, nothing bad is happening. her rabbit heart has no reason to beat as it does, and yet … her hand is trembling, and willing in mila’s. she’s not afraid.  “ wait, mila- ”  allie takes her other hand in hers, sealing them in a tender loop where she cups her palms, nearly sacred. still, she’s not meant to be praying, only pleading. it’s just … hard to remember the weight of things when everything feels so heavy, that it might crush you.  “ no, it- it is my fault. please, don’t be so nice to me. i really don’t deserve it, i know that now. i got in between you and madi and i- it should’ve …. i never … that’s not how it should’ve been. i … i don’t know what happened after the gala but i know it hurt you, i can see it on your face that it does. it wasn’t fair to you, and i’m so sorry. ”

Mila listened... she let her talk, in the way Allie always does, rushed, words falling on each other, and Mila listened. To the way her tone had changed and the guilt took place where excitement usually was, and the pleading laying just beneath her. Her eyes had not moved, looking intently at their hands as Allie talked, and Mila hated the way she agreed, to some degree, that it was Allie's fault. It wasn't, she knew that, logically she did. But a small part of herself still agreed. Her face betrayed nothing as she let the words washed over her, and the Mila moved.

"Vampire means I can't try to have coffee?" He asks, a bit of play-petulance in his voice. "Next you'll say liquor's off the table. Come on, little pleasures or something."

"Oh I don't know, just out. Maybe get a bite." Never gets old, that one. "I've been busy, and I could use being around somebody who I'm at least pretty sure doesn't have a reason to stick a knife in my back or tell me to buzz off."

"Making friends, I see." The comment is light, as she moves to take the jacket that had been hanging by the door, opening the door once more. "I can't say I don't welcome the distraction though." Shrugging lightly, she takes another sip of the coffee before pointing outside with her head.

He knocks on the apartment door, one thumb scratching his chin while the other balances a cardboard coffee tray. When it opens, he peers through the crack, unsure if Mila has a roomate, unsure if she's even around, unsure if he's intruding - but he's bored, and he's apparently sticking around, and he's got the evening free from any skullduggery or mania.

"Hey. I brought coffee." Like coffee makes it normal, or endearing. He can't even really taste it, it's just muscle memory, and has been for about ninety years.

"Nice night, no rain. Take a walk?"

"You have such a charming way with words, it's a wonder you're single." She teases, moving over to her room to change into a something other than the light t-shirt she had been wearing. She doesn't say it, but she's certain he'll understand the open door just enough. "You do know we're vampires, right?."

But even as she calls back to him, she walks out with a smile on her lips, reaching for one of the coffee cups, cherishing the scent where she can't the taste. "Where we going?." She hasn't been out much since the gala, hasn't felt like it. So this comes as a pleasant surprise.

        the weight of seeing mila again isn’t a burden for allie to carry. in fact, she knows she deserves it, and that only makes it heavier. allie doesn’t even have anything left to be graceful about, she wilts under the pressure instead. still, she goes to mila. it’s the right thing to do, and she owes it to the girl whose relationship she sent fractured shards into when whatever she had embraced so tenderly with madi had shattered. all of that remains true, and, even more, allie’s here because she misses her. her knock is hesitant against the door, remembering the feeling of something solid beneath her hands after a week of floating, and touching nothing. madi and mila, both, had grounded her, in their own ways. so, without them, allie’s just …         the door opens, and allie forgets the rest.  “ hi, mila, i ... ”  the soft surprise leaps from her in a breath, but her guilt rushes up to follow, soon enough, a gleam glazing over her eyes.  “ i’m so sorry. ”

When she opens the door, she can't help the small smile growing on her lips at the witch's surprise. Like she wasn't the one to knock... or like she wasn't expecting anyone to actually open the door. But the apology brings a frown to her face, and soon a sigh leaves her lips. "Don't be... it's... you have nothing to apologize for." Even if some part of Mila believes she does, that this is all, in part, her fault. She sighs once more, reaching out for Allie's hand, pulling her in. "Come, don't stand there... we can talk inside, I can get you some tea."

The process has been slow and piecemeal, but Mila has been patient, which already reassures Summer in her choice of roommate. However, there is the question of having spotted her across the ballroom at the gala. That does raise a few questions (which should, thankfully, have a very limited set of possible answers). Summer supposes she owes the other young woman some answers of her own. There's not exactly an easy way to ask which variety of supernatural creature is offering you a space on their apartment lease.

"Sorry about the clutter," the blonde states. "I think I'm almost done with everything -- I just have a few small boxes to bring in and some of my plants. Once I get the window shelf set up they'll have a nice place to sit."

From all her time driving to and from the Safe Harvest General Store to Port Leiry, she's got her own car in town now. Wild to think that most of her life in Macleay could be packed into so few boxes and suitcases, but Mila's apartment is comfortable and already mostly furnished. It's just her bedroom that needs the biggest overhaul.

"It's okay, I know what moving is like." And Summer was here for a longer stay than Mila had ever planned to. So it wasn't a wonder she'd need more things, make herself at home. "Just let me know whatever you need and if I'm able to help you with it." Anything except for one of the plants she had spotted, she had done her best to keep away from it.

She had sensed it the first time they met to discuss her possibly moving in. The sweet scent of flowers that was so similar but so different from Thera's own. But she hadn't wanted to bring it up, not if Summer didn't first. Mila wasn't about to lie to her new roommate but she wasn't about divulging to just to anyone that she's a vampire. So she had waited, now though, it only brings a hesitant smile to her lips.

"I was... with a dear friend of mine..." Which wasn't a lie, but she suspects not exactly what the girl wants to know either. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised you were there as well, the magic in you smells as sweetly as it does in any other witch." Except perhaps in Allie's... hers is somehow sweeter still. "But I assume what you wanted to ask, but are apparently too polite to, is if I was something else? perhaps?." She gives the other a reassuring smile, taking a few steps into the kitchen given her some space.

Her talk of her sire makes him ponder- surreal and classy and kind is better than a lot of vampires could hope; his sire's story was evil, pure and simple - and he'd severed that connection almost as quickly as he'd discovered it. "Lovely's good."

"'f'course not." Daniel shakes his head. "Never." Mila's been a part of his life forever, too. In a different way, maybe, but if he's honest with himself, she's practically sisterly to him as well after all this time and all they've done, and its only hammered home in the way he play-winces when she slaps his shoulder. "Oh, it's a magic library, huh? Even more apropos." Another tease.

"All libraries are magic." She replies, matter of fact before a smile breaks on her lips. She means it, and he knows it, and she knows it only makes his words true but she doesn't mind.

"Do not worry about me, Leanbh. " The affectionate nickname slipping through the womens lips. "This is something I have been working for for a long time. My sire was a man who left nothing in the world besides a legacy of disrepute. It brings me great joy to be the architect of bringing the name clan Karnstein to new heights." Aoife would pause, fingernails clicking aginst her class as she tapped her fingers. Thoughts turning in her head.

"How does it make you feel, seeing all the great vamperic clans? Have any tried courting your favor yet?"

The nickname brings a soft, shy smile to her lips. Sounding so different from when her parents called her that, always disapproving, a warning on their tone. "I am glad that it is working out this well for you... I... I know we haven't known each other for long, despite..." She shakes her head, smile still on her lips. "But I can tell you've been working hard to get this, you deserve it."

Shrugging, she spares a look around. It is a lot, for someone who's been moving around the world without a clan to belong to. "Overwhelmed... in a different way... I've just been on my own for a long time, with some friends along the way at times, so seeing them all, almost like family, it's... strange." She shrugs again, turning back to Aoife. "But no, I've talked to a few but... none that I feel I'd belong with."