I Get Knocked Down [40% Complete]

[Kaylee Miller]

Prompt List

• Power Outage
• Halloween
• Fever
• Pretend
• Phone Call
• Test
• Sorcerer
• Ruby
• Wedding
• Minute

[Kaylee Miller]

P O W E R  O U T A G E

Rafael surveyed the building, splitting his attention between the dark, menacing husk that stood before him, and the heavily-accented yet distinctly feminine voice of his "partner" (paaht-nah, she'd say) while she took a quick moment to confirm their arrival.

"Wizard, this is Big Bad. We have eyes on the prize, over," she murmured into the radio, her brown eyes somehow looking beady in the sparse light provided by the one street lamp that hadn't been blown out due to poorly-aimed gunfire. They weren't in the lushest parts of the city, though Rafael had little to fear from outside influence - this was all goblin territory. Gangbangers did not come this far in.

"Roger that, Big Bad. You and Hood proceed with cau-shee-own, get me? These little fucks have been racking up kill counts left and right, they're not likely to even slow a little at the chance to bag two of Onyx's own, over," came back the male voice of the Onyx medic/sometimes hunter Oz Watkins. He was posted up with Casey not too far back, waiting with a handful of other hunters to catch any stragglers. Kaylee and Rafael, though, were the heavyweights in this title bout. They were the ones at ground zero.

"I got you loud and clear, Wizard. I'll make sure I hold on to my butt - and Hood's," she added slyly. "You'll see the signal when we're done. Keep your eyes on the sky. Over and out," she said, dropping the radio into the side pocket of the duffel that contained their weapons. It was all neatly stored behind the back seats of her 2004 Ford Lightning, the black paint every bit as glossy as those nails she took such good care of.

"Hood?" Rafael grunted.

She smiled over at him. "Yeah, like Red Riding," she said - her smile turned into more of a grin.

"Whose idea was that, Big Bad?" he asked, tilting his head and narrowing his blue eyes at her, taking his attention from the dark structure for the first time since they'd arrived. Did he mention, he fucking hated goblins?

"Oz's, actually," she said, her tone far too smooth to be the truth. "I think he just wants a chick to call him 'Wizard', but hey, whatever gets his rocks off," she laughed.

Rafael forced himself not to smile even a little as she said "racks aff" in reference to Oz and his God complex. The boy was an EMT (practiced, and very good at it), not to mention a field medic for Onyx (and the other two guilds, on occasion), as well as doing backup on hunting expeditions that weren't assigned to strictly level fives and up. He certainly deserved credit where credit was due... and then one had to look at how many times he'd been arrested for public intoxication, or see all of the damage done around his previous rented unit, and they'd understand why Oz was the butt of many, many guild jokes. Affectionately, but not even slightly misplaced.

"I can believe it," he said.

"Would I lie to you, babe?" she asked, an impish grin on her face as she walked past him, a coil in her hands.

He watched her go, wondering how exactly she aimed to accomplish this task. Their job was to take the goblins out - ever since Lucifer had been spotted up and about and shit had gone haywire, all sorts of creatures had started to claim the city as their own. Some of them they hadn't found ways to beat yet, but some of them they had. With goblins, it was simple - they hated light. What makes light? The sun, obviously, flashlights, any manner of artificial light - but it seemed that the preference this time around was fire. It had been Kaylee's idea, naturally, to blow the building to Kingdom Come, but he was surprised that he'd even gone along with it. Maybe it was a sense of misplaced pride at watching the baby hunter do big girl things because of how he'd helped mold her, or maybe it was the sense of satisfaction he'd get when she'd have to ask him to clean up her mess.

It was hard to let go, sometimes.

"Bada-boom," she sang to herself, laying the wire. She looked up at him, then grinned.

"Don't," he warned her.

"Come on, Leeloo," she teased. "No? Multipass? Alright then, hand me those wirecutters," she said, disappointed that he wouldn't play along.

"So, how long to we have to clear out?" he asked, handing her the necessary tools for her to complete her fuse. "Because, spoiler alert, I can fly, and you cannot." He crouched down, nimble fingers guiding the wires of the small explosive device into their homes. He was so glad that Holly had continued Leo's work after the man had fallen; her penchant for bombs was catching fast among the hunters who had no desire to play cat and mouse. And Rafael did like a good show.

"Long enough," she said, which, in Kaylee-speak, meant that she only had an estimation, and that was rough at best.

"Hnn," he replied, tuning her out in favour of not blowing himself up prematurely. He managed to get the small square of C4 set up, and handed to Kaylee to marry the fuse off. "Next question - who's going to plant it in the basement? We have to get them all, and if we put it on the floor level, it won't reach far enough under."

Kaylee glanced up, smiling at him. "Oh, I am," she informed him. "You just make sure you're covering my ass, and this should all go over as easy as pie." And with that, she stood up and dusted her hands off. "Okay, I guess I'll just take the spool and hop into the truck, then back up as far as I possibly can. Fuck, that's a wicked far run," she muttered, surveying about the distance she expected the spool of fuse to get.

"Hey, don't look at me," Rafael said, hands held up as he absolved himself of any guilt. "I'm just along for the ride, Big Bad. What I want to know is, does the city know they're about to experience a grid-wide power outage? Because they'll probably think they're under attack otherwise," he reminded her.

She waved it off. "It's handled. Everyone thinks that some crap housing is gettin' leveled. I told you, we're good to go. Relax!" she chided.

He only watched her hop into the truck with the spool tucked in at her lap and back it out of the lot and down the road  at a speed far higher than necessary for the task, shaking his head yet again. Relax? That was a famous last word in Kaylee's native tongue, which, at this juncture, he could only guess was 'insane'. He wondered why it was he'd ever agreed to this, and then he saw her come back around the corner wearing what was effectively about six different strains of bright LED Christmas lights, and remembered.

She was too damn fun not to babysit.

[Kaylee Miller]

P R E T E N D

Where her partner had gone, Kaylee didn't know. He'd been MIA for weeks, and she was holding it together, mostly because orders were coming from up top telling her to just keep her head in the game. Indrani had pulled her out of shooting quals to try and get a feel for her mental state, and she was moderately surprised at how well Kaylee seemed to be able to keep herself focused, but she could still see that the young trainee wasn't exactly having a party without her partner.

As far as Kaylee was concerned, the talk had helped - a little. Indrani mostly reassured her, told her what the others had: that Rafael was a very capable hunter, had been for years, and that he would re-emerge sooner or later. Since Indrani couldn't rightly say where he was, she was mostly banking on hope, but then again, so was Kaylee. They both knew that it was a game of make-believe - that he would just walk through the door and everything would be back to normal.

But it wasn't.

Because he didn't walk through the door. He was carried in by an angry vampire who in turn lashed out at everyone around her, and it had taken Dom, of all people, to calm the fiery brunette down. Kaylee could understand the woman's plight, especially when what had actually happened got back around to her ears - by Shannon, no less, because the Crimson trainer felt that as Rafael's partner, she had a right to know what exactly had happened. But Kaylee, even with all of the information, had to see it for herself. The night he'd been brought in she hadn't been able to see him, because they wouldn't let her - she didn't even know if he knew she was there. She had been fighting to get into the infirmary tooth and nail, to the point where Zaine had nearly mangled her to keep her out.

Kaylee may have been a lot of things - loud, obnoxious, spiteful, silly - but nobody would have guessed how fiercely loyal and utterly protective she was of the few things she cared about, mostly because they'd never been given an opportunity to see. Her voice echoed into the infirmary - "LET ME SEE HIM! I WANT TO SEE HIM!" until a loud shriek of pain silenced them as Zaine tossed her against the wall in the hallway outside so hard that she'd seen stars.

So she sat where she'd fallen, not crying, not talking, not anything. She sat there until dawn broke and the sun came and went and it was dark again. Then they'd sent Indrani to get her, mostly because Zaine knew he couldn't fault her (if it had been Lucien in there?), and because it was time to let the Macaw go to his quarters and try to cope with his new situation until they could find a way around it. Indrani gathered her, a gentle hand to help her up (without damaging the vast amount of pride Kaylee had, miraculously), and lead her to the mess hall, where she made sure that Kaylee ate, drank, and was calm. She didn't really explain what had happened to Rafael - that, she would let Kaylee see on her own, if only because she knew that the girl was going to react, regardless, and she also knew that Rafael would desperately need familiarity at this point, so even if Kaylee reacted poorly, it would still be Kaylee, little loud Kaylee, and he could at least handle that.

She was only told that he was in his quarters, and since the guildhouse was not lacking in housing, those quarters were every bit as plush as the rest she'd seen. She'd been in his apartments dozens of times, but only for moments. He was a private person, and generally she never got past the living room/small kitchen area. They were like small one-bedroom units, for lack of a better way to describe them, mostly laid out the same, so when she knocked on the door and didn't hear anything, she went in, already aware of the basic layout.

"Rafael?" she called softly. Indrani had warned her that they'd given him painkillers, so she doubted that he was awake at first. It was dark, and she didn't try to turn on a light, using the small light above the sink as her only guideline through the room. "Rafael? It's Kaylee, are you awake? I can come back later if - "

"Kay?" came the tired, laboured response. His voice was thick with sleep and pain, and confusion. He had fallen asleep, dreamed of being back in Midnight, then woken up in total darkness with wings - wings that were his, but that were not his. The familiar voice of his partner, however unfamiliar her apprehensive, almost scared tone was, was comforting. It let him know that he was safe, because otherwise, she wouldn't have been there.

"I'll just come back," she said quickly. She'd gotten to the short hallway just before his room, and her heart was pounding. She had gone exactly four footfalls past the furthest she'd ever been into his home, and she felt like she was trespassing. She was eager to leave, because she was afraid that she'd just make him angry for invading. She was always nosy, asking questions, poking, prodding, teasing.

"No, don't go, it's okay," he said quickly, still in the haze of painkillers and sleep and suddenly very aware that if this was real, she might actually go. He sat up, grunting a little as he made every effort not to pop one of his carefully sewn stitches out. "In the back, you're good." He paused. "It's good to hear your voice, Kay," he said, and he said it with such relief that it almost made her cry.

She got to the doorway, gripping the molding so tightly that the sound was evident in the otherwise silent room. There was no light source in his bedroom; as with most of the units, hers included, it was rare to have an outside wall - it made them more vulnerable to attack, not to mention when the occasional hurricane rolled in. But more then that, hunters were mostly nocturnal, and it certainly beat having to fuss with blackout curtains that fell or didn't block enough light.

"Sorry, I can't see anything," she said, apologizing for something she couldn't rightly help. She was scared - gods, she was terrified. She had a sense of dread just creeping up from her toes, and it had finally reached her head. It made her dizzy, and she took a deep breath, exhaling slowly through her nose. "Are you... okay?" she asked.

He was quiet for a minute, and she could tell that he was seriously considering her question. There was more noise - she could tell that he'd stood up, if only because she could hear the faintest creak of the mattress as the pressure of his weight left it. A soft breeze moved through the room, raising the hair on her arms a little, but only because she was acutely aware that there wasn't a fan on. "Turn on the light, Kaylee. And don't... panic."

She didn't have to reach for the light switch, because her finger had been poised over it for the entire duration the time she'd gotten into the doorway. She did hesitate though, because when he told her not to panic, it usually meant that she needed to run for cover. She closed her eyes tightly. Okay.. on three. One... two.. three. Her finger didn't move. One... two.. three. The switch was still off. "Damnit," she whispered softly. OnetwothreeGO!

The room was bathed in light, and Kaylee gasped.

He was watching her reaction, his own face twisted like he'd just told her something he hadn't wanted to. "It's pretty bad, isn't it?" he asked, trying to laugh, and falling short. Self-deprecating humour wasn't generally his go-to, but at the moment, it was all he could muster.

She was stunned. This? This was what they'd been keeping from her? The dozens of bruises and scratches she could look past, though the bandaging around areas that had been severely wounded did cause her to wince a little - but they were nothing compared to - "No," she said, her voice soft, but emphatic. "No, no, of course it's not bad," she added. Her eyes were watery (they had been since she'd gone into his quarters, honestly, but now they were really watery), and she took her hand from the doorframe to hold it over her mouth as she breathed a cry of - relief? Shock? Rue? It was hard to tell.

"You don't have to pretend for my sake," he said. "Trust me, it can't get any worse." There it was again, that flat, wry tone.

"No, shut up," she hissed, shaking her head. She was trying to get her thoughts together. "It's beautiful," she whispered, almost in awe. "I mean, I know they shouldn't - I know you shouldn't - but, I just... " she trailed off. "You look like a fucking angel, you know that?" she asked, her voice cracking with that tone that she usually took falling short as a sob finally broke out.

"Kaylee, don't cry," he urged. "I'm fine, aside from the ob-" He had to cut himself off as his pint-sized partner suddenly adhered herself to him, wrapping him so tightly in her arms that for a second, it actually hurt - she was still a human, but she was strong enough when pushed. It occurred to him that she'd never actually so much as seen him without a shirt before (which was totally opposite her - she'd walk around in a bra and yoga pants all day if he'd have let her), but that suddenly didn't seem as pressing as the girl that was pressed against him.

"Hey, it's okay," he assured her. "I'm back, I'm here, I'm not going anywhere," he murmured, bending down to bury his face in her long honey-and-brown hair. He felt like he was reassuring himself more than what he was offering her, but it didn't seem to matter, given how she had no response that was verbal; she just squeezed harder.

"Please don't make me go," she begged. "Can I please stay with you tonight? I promise, I'll be good, no funny stuff, please, just don't make me go," she said.

It was suddenly very apparent to him that while he had been inside Midnight, there had been things still happening in the world outside - people who had been searching for him, asking questions, worrying, caring. It hadn't really occurred to him before - not like that, anyways, and the situation was suddenly too real for his liking. When he closed his eyes, though, to try and get a moment to think, to tell her that it would be better if she went because he was having horrible night terrors and waking dreams and he was fucked up in the head (and probably would be until he could talk to Indrani extensively and at great length), all he could see was that dark cell, that psychotic vampire, and the nightmarish nothing that Niall had tortured him with.

"You can stay," he said finally. "But it's not going to be fun."

"I don't care," she promised, pulling back from him and loosening her grip.

When he'd finally managed to untangle himself from her, he sat back down on the bed. "Do you need anything?" he asked, hoping that she didn't. He hadn't realized how awful the emptiness of his quarters was until there was another person in it, and now that he'd agreed to let her stay, he didn't really like the idea of her leaving. He knew she would come right back, but there was that scratching, twitching thought at the back of his head - the one that said she wouldn't. He couldn't shake it, and that was how he knew he'd made the right choice.

"No," she said. "No, I'm okay."

Upon that information, he slid back into bed, gingerly checking his stitches to make sure that he wouldn't have to make a second trip to the infirmary, where they would no doubt try to keep him. It was cold and sterile in there, and it smelled of alcohol and copper - things he never wanted to smell again. Once that was finished, he laid down, trying to find a position that was comfortable. He had to take another round of painkillers now that he was fully awake and aware - the burning at his back had returned, no doubt from his wings being where they shouldn't, and it was either that or he tried to pull at them until they were an explosion of feathers all over his room.

He had never in his life been so thankful for Kaylee as he was right then. For all of her loud, obnoxious, silly and spirited moments, she was as calm as rain, subdued utterly in a way he'd never seen her behave before. She waited until he was comfortable, then found herself a place next to him, and spoke no more. She only ran her fingers gently through his hair in the dark, down his neck, gently, gently, and he found that he fell asleep, for the first time in a long time, feeling safe.

[Kaylee Miller]

R U B Y

Kaylee rolled onto the balls of her feet, ignoring the way they made her glittery pink flip-flops shift; the thong between her toes became suddenly rammed into her foot as she clenched down, struggling to stop from cutting herself due to her lack of foresight to wearing real shoes. In her defense, she hadn't know that they'd be going to the mall at any point in the day. Kaylee was a power shopper, and if she'd have had any idea, she'd have prepared (and brought her freaking specialty credit cards so she could earn points at the stores she liked to frequent: Victoria Secret, Macy's, Barney's, Bergdorf's - you get the idea). As it was, she was waiting for Rafael to get done with his food, and in the meantime had wandered to the center of the food court to examine the fountain. It was there, perched as high as she could stretch herself, that Rafael interrupted her; he placed a hand on her waist and nearly caused her to fall into the fountain.

"Hey!" she half-shouted, whipping around with an elbow, prepared to bust some old pervert in the teeth. Her partner caught her pointed, bony onslaught deftly with his palm, a smacking sound accompanying his skilled block before she broke his nose. With the hand still around her waist, he hoisted her off of the tile and stone bench that surrounded the water-spitting statue and coin graveyard, placing her on her feet, firmly on the sticky mall floor.

"You're lucky you didn't fall in," he chided, though he had a knowing smile on his face.

"Whatever, ass, you almost knocked me in when you grabbed me. I thought you were that jackhole from the parking lot who tried to stare at my tits when I bent down to pick up that nickel I found. He almost hit another parked car," she muttered.

"I know, I was there," he said.

"I'm aware," she retorted. She reached her hand up, brushing her rather thick mane of honey brown/blonde hair away from her face. Really, it was a little ridiculous how much hair the girl had for being so tiny. "Anyways, did you finish your burrito or taco or whatever it was?" she demanded, glancing at him as she absently scrolled through her phone's internet browser to check her bank account. She'd just use her debit card for now, provided she could take it easy.

"My salad?" he asked, his tone all that he needed. "Come on, do you want to shop or not? This is our only day off this week unless you want to give up some jobs, and I figured we could spend the afternoon here doing what you want, then tonight we'll do what I want."

"Your taco salad," she said under her breath, brows raised as she listened to him while closing her phone's browser. She looked up and smiled wryly. "I wish I'd known that you had this planned," she said, her smile turning more genuine. "I'd have been more prepared."

"I'm sure," he said, wrapping an arm around her to give her a stiff hug - his aim was to rough up her hair. He succeeded until she tried to kick him, but her feeble attempt in her loose shoes just made her lose one, which ended up causing him to walk several feet ahead of her with the one shoe held hostage while she compared walking barefoot on the floor to walking over hypodermic needles and other medical waste. He finally threw it back to her and she put it back on, then sped-walked away from him, to the MAC store.

"Makeup, really?" he asked, trailing slowly behind her as she went right for the lipstick. She was running her forefinger over all of the colours just over the tops of them, lips working softly as she named the colours she knew she had. "I was hoping for lingerie."

"Shut up," she drawled, her heavy South Boston accent attracting the attention of the only sales clerk in the store, who immediately ignored her for the client that sported a genuine Birkin and 2013 spring Chanel frock. Kaylee didn't particularly care, whipping open the drawer below the lipstick and pulling out the shade she wanted from a fresh box. She opened it and smeared it on, pressing her mouth together as she lightly corrected the colour by smudging it with her pinkie. She turned towards Rafael, her lips slightly sparky and as red as Dorothy's shoes.

"Wow," he said, blinking rapidly. "Matches my hair."

She smiled, then blotted it with a tissue until it looked a little less... vibrant. "That better?" she asked, looking up at him with the doe eyes he knew so well.

"Much," he acknowledged. "Didn't peg you for a red girl," he admitted, willing to risk being called gay in favour of showing her some attention. "Shannon usually pulls it off, but you never wear much more than gloss. It looks.. nice. Different."

Kaylee just stared at him for a second, then leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "Oh look," she said, smudging his cheek with her thumb. "It barely transfers at all," she laughed. She let go of the tube when it took it from her, reading the back of it.

"Ruby Slippers," he said aloud. "Huh, well, it fits. Also, there's glitter in it, so if I see glitter on my face at all, I swear to god, I'll -" he warned, cut short by Kaylee lunging in and kissing him on the lips. As the sales clerk came by, Kaylee pulled away and told her what she wanted, sneakily having the woman go fetch a fresh box of it and abandoning her own personal sample behind the display.

"C'mon, Red," she said, giving him a tug by the collar of his shirt as she slid her wrist through the loops of the tiny MAC bag once they'd left the store. "Let's go buy some lacy undies. Since you've been such a good boy."

"I hope you mean for you and not for me," he said, following after her as she weaved through the crowd of people, trying like hell not to step on the back of her ridiculously casual shoes while wiping at his cheek with the hand that wasn't on her shoulder to keep track of her.

[Kaylee Miller]

P H O N E   C A L L

After the last time Kaylee had driven,  Rafael had ended up essentially having to pay off a local authority after Kaylee's speeding ticket turned into assaulting an officer of the law. Her punishment was that she was literally never driving if they were together again, which was fine by him, because half of the time when she didn't have the gas pedal to the floorboard, her face was in her phone. She was the worst when it came to distracted driving, to the point where Rafael genuinely began to fear for his life and refused to ride with her.

So when he nearly hit a 'slow children playing' sign due to swerving from utter panic, let that be framed up by the fact that Rafael didn't even believe in doing more than five over the speed limit and never really looked away from the road, especially in a residential area - especially in a school zone. But the phone call Kaylee had just received warranted that sort of reaction, and react he did. He held a finger up to silence the excitement coming out of her mouth, and pulled over into a parking lot by a local Walgreen's so that he could properly assess the situation.

"Okay, now that I'm not on the verge of smearing some first grader, you wanna repeat that to me?" he said, snapping his entire upper body to face her, nearly choking himself on his seatbelt in the process. He unclicked it, and as soon as the car began to make a noise of protest, he turned the keys into the off position and yanked them from the column. Without realizing it, he clenched the fuck out of them.

"I said, my brothers just called, and they're coming for a visit," she repeated, this time more slowly. "The last time I saw Donny I was leavin' for college. Clearly that panned out. Onyx recruited me my first week and I've been here since," she said with a shrug, as though Rafael didn't know her life story. But did this "Donny" know?

"So, how come I never heard about any brothers from you before?" he pressed. He didn't mind family, but if they were anything like Kaylee, he'd be in for a wild ride, and he was just about over wild rides. When Kaylee acted like she didn't know what he meant, he narrowed his eyes at her. "You've never mentioned them, ever. Don't try that 'I don't listen when you talk' shit because you know that's damn not true." He paused. "If anything, you don't listen when -I- talk," he added. He wasn't wrong.

"Well...." she trailed off. When he continued to lay that stern glare on her, she buckled. She shifted uncomfortably and crossed her arms over her chest, which was still decorated by the seatbelt. "My brothers - they're half-brothers, really - are, uh, rowdy. They're very... Boston," she clarified.

"What is very Boston, Kaylee?" he asked, knowing that it was obvious she didn't want to give him any details on this.

"They're - well - Donny and Xander go back pretty far, actually," she blurted. "If you think I'm a Southie, then boy, Donny is like the Southiest Southie who ever Southed. Shaun isn't so bad, he mostly follows Donny's lead but he's worth keeping an eye on. Benji is the baby, he's alright. You'll like Shaun the most I think," she added hopefully.

Rafael was trying to absorb this. So it was brothers, plural, of which there were three. And the one Kaylee described as the worst, without actually saying that, knew Xander somehow? What even... "How does your oldest? I'm assuming? brother know Xander?" he asked slowly. Please don't be wolves, please don't be wolves, please don't be wolves, please don't-

"Ah, yeah, about that. They're wolves. Donny's the alpha of my family. Like I said, half-siblings. They had different dads; we all had the same piece of shit mom, though. It's a long story, babe. I don't really want to get into it. Oh, Shaunie knows Kimber, too, pretty sure," she added helpfully. "You like Kimber, right?" she said, a little hope in her voice.

"Kaylee, I like all of them, just - varying degrees, okay?" He paused. "Why is there an 'ee' theme with your names? Is that your mom's thing or...?"

Kaylee laughed a little, which made Rafael glad - it took his nerves down some, and it took her mind off of her mother. Rafael knew her relationship with her family was stressed, but he didn't really know to what extent. He knew that sometimes an unlisted number would call her phone and she'd ignore it; he always assumed it was a sales call until he overheard her telling someone not to call anymore and then listing off various reasons of why that was, which were definitely not things you'd say to an anon salesdude in Turkmenistan or wherever they were calling from, now.  "Donovan, Shaunessy, and Benjamin. And Kaylee. And no, it definitely wasn't my mom's thing. Donny named me." She got quiet after that. It was obvious that the family thing drug up old memories.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, Kaylee. I just wish you would tell me things before they were happening, that's all," he said, reaching over to touch her cheek and reassure her. It wasn't often she got that pensive, broody look on her face, and Rafael didn't like it.

"They'll like you, Raf. As long as I'm happy, that's all that matters." She leaned into his hand a little, then kissed his palm. After a moment, an impish grin spread across her face. "Of course, now you have to keep me happy until they get here, and that's gonna be hard..."

"Oh, Christ," he muttered, starting the car back up. "How much bribe money are we talking?"

"So much," she informed him. "So much."