The Thief

He knew it was bound to happen on account of Nathan's just a good guy, that he was going to wind up running into him and of course he was going to say something. It's different than stopping in to the office to see him where he can prepare to be on his best behavior. Kay can't really lie and say things are great when he has very obviously gone through the twink crisis of bleaching his hair with the help of a supportive lesbian. "It's uh, it's day by day at this point, you know?" He's still angry, he's still not talking to Cloe, he's spent more time with Keket trying to figure his shit out. "I got in with Dr. Swanford though, Clara and I talk pretty regularly." He thinks he's sleepwalking and he spends most mornings throwing up and locking himself in the bathroom, but that's just life now, maybe. The Keres is still popping up in his head despite him and Cloe going back to it but that's something he absolutely doesn't want to talk about, like it's going to be the Eye of Sauron or something and just know he's talking about it. "How's everybody?"

This was all good news, and it wasn't that he didn't trust Kay, but he'd probably touch base with Isabella and Clara - not to pry or cross the line, but when it came down to it it'd be their recommendation that Nathan would take into consideration as to whether or not Kay could come back to work. "I'm glad kid, proud of you." It wasn't easy humbling yourself to anybody, not a shrink and not a doctor. He smirked a bit though, "What's with the uh-" Nathan gestured to the top of his head and swirled his finger around, "you fall on a bad dye job or something?" It wasn't a bad look; if the Thief was twenty-five, he'd probably think about doing the same thing; all the cool kids were bleaching their hair these days.

This wasn't something that Nathan took lightly, not the responsibility, not the position, and certainly not how much this house and their place in the city meant to halfbloodeds. Cloe had built something and as she carried the eladrins into what would come next for them, Nathan had every intention of making sure he honoured the legacy here. Lupercal was going to say a lot, how things would go, what relations with the lycans would be like. Nathan would be lying if he didn't say that he was worried about Ismael out there, if nothing else the cambion could take care of himself, but that didn't change how the Thief ultimately felt. "Yeah, be safe out there Ismael, you have my number if you need me."

“Oh, cool. You’re better than me. I would’ve immediately taken your gelato from you.” Well, not every single time. She would’ve actually bought him a gelato if she even remembered getting it in the first place. What else had she bought in her stupor? So many things to think about, so little time. Actually, that wasn’t true. She had so much time now. She was immortal. She almost smiled at that until she thought about the fact that Nathan and Abel weren’t immortal. And they were already old. Oh, she didn’t want to think about that at all. They were going to turn to dust soon. “Thanks. I’m proud of me, too. But your praise means much more so…” She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, but she was smiling the whole time. She blocked it from him by taking a bite of the gelato. “I don’t know if I can say I made friends. I think Cloe thinks I’m stupid.”

Selfish kids. Nathan just scoffed at Nabi's response, he should have known that Nabi wouldn't share anything with him, or that she would have just taken something of his for herself. The daydreamer had come a long way from that girl who'd wandered in off the street after she saw the help wanted sign hanging in the window; everything in his mind came to a screeching halt though when Nabi say that she thought Cloe thought she was stupid. "What - ?" That was somewhat shocking, Cloe was supposed to be a senator and Nathan had never known the woman to treat anyone like they were less. "Why? Did she say something to you?"

"Of course it does, but Cloe had the right idea here." Halfbloodeds had been hunted for years, that didn't change just because some necromancers who'd been making noise for the last year were finally put down. The Eye was happy to slap a PC sticker on everything they were doing but Nathan knew as well as any other just how deep some of their crimes went. "We stick together, we work together, and we watch each other's backs. This won't last forever, especially in a city like this. That's where we come in."

"Would you look at that, your wooden leg has some moves." Nathan laughed good naturedly, somewhere he knew that Nabi was putting a blanket over her eyes so she didn't have to see the two men embarrass themselves. Fortunately for Nathan, it had been a long time since he had any shame and it really felt like it was too late for him to start now. "Hip, right right. You said hip." Nathan joked, at least the two of them weren't the oldest here, not by a long shot. These immortals just had the benefit of not having to worry about their knees tomorrow morning. Nathan let his arms rest on the other's shoulders, he smiled as he brought their foreheads together, "I love you, you fucking loaf."

"Fine, fine, we'll stick together and dance," this was going to be good, something for the scrapbooks. Nathan stood up and offered the other his hand so that they could actually participate in the party rather than just hangout on the outskirts. "you know they've got all kinds of hip replacements these days, ones that don't even squeak, isn't that something?" If they managed to make a new friend out there then that was just one more person the two had managed to talk to. Otherwise Nathan was pretty sure Uber drivers and the staff at the pizzeria they'd hit up on the way home counted.

"That's what worries me." Nathan knew what sort of types gravitated towards places like that, there was a time when the Thief had been one of them. It was open to more than just lycans now, those cast out from Rome, or those living on the fringes had a place to gather; either alongside the Lupo, alongside others, or amongst themselves. "Just be careful while you're in there, yeah? I doubt everyone in there is sharing this same-" Nathan gestured vaguely about the room, meaning the senate as a whole, "peaceful sentiment that's floating around these days." Trouble would come again, the senate needed to be vigilant.

"Hey hey, I'll talk to Nabi." Kay was probably here somewhere, and then who else... Well... Maybe that was it? No, Cloe, he'd talk to Cloe. "Then there's Kay and there's Cloe." One of those people worked for him, another he was trying to sponsor as best he could, and the last was his ex-boss. Kind of pathetic when he thought about it, but he had Abel, the other was contractually obligated to be his friend. "I'll talk to the bartender too; some dancing, some schmoozing. I can manage this. If you're making me talk to people then you have to too."

"Mhm, that's right it'll be good for morale." Nathan said with a nod as he went to the pot to go for a second cup in an attempt to just feel alive again. The Thief looked back over his shoulder at the witch that was both muscle and brains, obviously Nathan and his bowlegged ass was the beauty though. Not too long ago they'd been saying their goodbyes, a just-in-case scenario that they nearly evaded. He'd been wrong when he'd said that he'd never done anything that was worth a damn in his life, because if that was true then the two of them couldn't have ended up here, together. Forty year-old boyfriends who had somehow made it work despite it all. "You fucking better," came Nathan's easy quip, "because I love you too." It'd be downright depressing if it was only one sided at this point.

Nabi wasn't sure how she had gotten here, but she had ended up here anyway. It was interesting what happened when her maladaptive daydreaming took over. Sometimes, she wouldn't even be aware of what was happening until she was walking in the middle of the street and someone was honking at her to move out of the way. Certainly wasn't safe, but it wasn't like she could control it. This time, it looked like she had gotten some gelato. Well, at least she had that. Then again, she was also late for work so maybe it wasn't as good of a thing to wake up to as she thought. Blinking her eyes a few times, she shook her head and then looked at Nathan. "I didn't mean to get this gelato." She looked down at in her hand, brows furrowing together before a smile lifted onto her face. The last thing she wanted was to look lost. "Here. You can have mine." She gently slid it across the counter as a peace offering. "I made it to the marshal meeting on time though. Does that help? Maybe? Possibly?" She held her hands under her chin and batted her eyes a few times over the puppy dog look she was giving him.

"I'm not taking your gelato from you." It looked good though, "We can split it." Nathan leaned on his elbows onto the counter, the trajectory of Nabi's entire life had changed over the course of a couple weeks. Marshal. Eladrin. Immortal, he wondered how much of that the young daydreamer had really thought about. "Yeah Nabs," Nathan was unnecessarily emotional for a moment, "I'm proud of you." He went to the kitchen to grab his own spoon before he appeared again and stuck it into the gelato. "How's the marshal life treating you? Liking it? Made any friends?"

"I want to try." There's this kind of weight that lifts from him and he needs that right now. Death is literally looming over him, he thinks about what Keket said all the time, that he had days, that what had gotten him during the war hadn't been some monster or a swamp sucking him in or anything, but something that didn't even pertain to war. And now Cloe was an eladrin and Gabriel was....Kay has to remind himself to inhale slowly at the thought of him. Before all of that, it'd been easy to convince himself that he didn't have anyone. That Chrys wasn't a real friend, just another person who was amused by his antics and couldn't look away from a car crash. That Dante was just around for a good time and would leave when things stopped being fun. That all the other halfbloods who talked to him during his day to day were all waiting for him to fuck up. They cared, he was witnessing the proof of that right there in front of him. For all of his self destructive tendencies, he didn't want to die. "I'm going to try." His eyes flicker from his hands to the now senator, someone he respects, someone he wants to do good for. And he knows how this goes, wanting to get better, trying for a while, and then falling off the wagon. But he's also never had this kind of support before, he'd never been in love with someone before, hell he'd never died before. It could be different this time, it could.

This news wasn't anything that Nathan wanted to deliver, he'd had the thought already that there was something of himself in the dhampir. Maybe Abel would have an idea on how best to support him, or if Nathan was being too hard on the halfblooded. Either one of those things might have been possible, but one thing was blatantly clear and that was if Kay continued down this road then there was really only one place that he was going to end up. In Nathan's former line of work he'd seen it a dozen times before, "I'll check in with you next week." And every week after, less as a senator and more as someone who just wanted the dhampir to know that he wasn't alone in all of this.