Eyes Never Lie - Elliot & Aliyah

[Pi dArtois]

Pi settled back into her chair. It was a curious reaction she had, a calm settling on her shoulders and easing back the wolf even more. There was no room for her and Elliot both to be annoyed, his irritation peeled the layers off her own. It was a direct reaction to what was in front of her. Aliyah didn’t need both of them pressing the panic button and if Elliot was going to flip a switched then Pi couldn’t.

Curious yes, but understandable. They couldn’t lose it, not both of them, not when Aliyah needed them both calm. Despite Pi’s reservations about the parents coming to visit she knew some things were inevitable and while she hadn’t personally experienced parents who gave a damn, she had seen it enough to recognize that some parents actually did give two shits about their children and visiting them was a generally accepted thing.

There was no reason to answer to Aliyah’s comment about Pi’s wolf, not yet anyway. Later, at a different time Pi would talk about her wolf, talk about what brought the wolf into her eyes and how Pi managed it. If the parents were coming then it might be something they would need to talk about prior, how to keep calm, since strong emotions seemed to trigger the pull of the animal into Pi’s eyes. Aliyah would need to remember that, recognize the signs and at least keep sun glasses about if she couldn’t control it herself.

So many things they needed to talk about, so many small details of their lives they needed to hide in order for human parents not to catch on that something was so inherently not kosher.

“When do you expect them Aliyah? How much time do we have to help you work out how this will go?”

“And being able to lie is a good start. Not every vampire can…” Pi stated blandly, her gaze slipping to Elliot and away again, her hands steepling over her lap as she relaxed back into the cushions of the chair.

“Once we know when… that will help I think and then I can help you with... this.”

She finished, waving her hand in front of her face, and around her own eyes.

[Lancaster]

Elliot’s irritation was entirely due to the fact that they had no idea when these parents were going to arrive. Would it be minutes or hours? Or did they have days, a week? If the former, then they would have to act quickly, and sitting around talking about animals and different-shaped eyes was only wasting precious time. If the latter? They could sit and relax and talk few a whole range of things before having to go and prepare the cabin—or even rent out some other place, if Aliyah was adamant that her parents wouldn’t accept the idea of her living out in the woods.

It took Elliot a few seconds to realise that Aliyah’s statement of dislike was a test of her ability to lie. The words, as they left her mouth, were barbed and caused Elliot to flinch, as if he could feel them penetrating that soft core of his soul. It was no secret that he had a problem with guilt. A guilt complex, as it was. Even if he had done nothing wrong, it was a default setting, and he had no idea how to reset. He had noticed the flare in Aliyah’s nostrils, that veiled glare in his direction. It wasn’t hard to feel guilty, as if he were going about things the complete wrong way.

The feeling lingered, but only as an afterthought. He realised that Aliyah had lied, confirmed by Pi’s own statement. His eyes narrowed only slightly as she glanced in his direction, and he sighed and pushed his fingers through his hair. Aliyah could lie. This was a good thing.

Pi reiterated the questions that had not yet been answered, and Elliot had no reason, at this point, to chime in. In a bid to try to calm himself, he found a seat in the corner of a couch and slunk down into it. He still looked too large and gangly for most furniture. Maybe a little bit ridiculous, like some kind of Dobell caricature.

[Aliyah]

Her lips pursed as she directed her attention to the wall. In all her hysteria she had forgotten the majority of the conversation that occurred between her parents and herself. Her panic had set in as soon as the words left her mother's mouth, and very little registered after the fact. And now she struggled to bring the rest of the conversation to the forefront of her mind so that the three of them could work out a plan. It was like walking through a thick fog of jumbled thoughts, all of them blocking the clear path to the information she needed. Maybe the correct analogy was a maze, rather than a fog, and occasionally she would meet the dead end and have to backtrack.

She let out a rush of air and slowly focused up at Elliot's once more, "I think she said a week, maybe two. I know my father wouldn't be able to get out of work any faster than that, unless he claimed I died..." she trailed off, shifting in her chair uncomfortably. "Which, I guess wouldn't be so far off..." It was like a ton of bricks hitting her in the chest, that realization. She had long since accepted that she was no longer a living breathing human, but it only now occurred to her that she was truly dead. There would be no funeral, no burial with the word of God said over her casket. Everything her parents had ever preached when it was their times, it was all for nothing.

The blonde shook her head to clear away the depression seeping into her veins, weighing her down. There was another time and place to contemplate her life and what it all meant. Right now, she needed to focus on Pi and Elliot, and offer what she could to help. "I don't want to create more trouble than this needs to be, so I think fixing up the cabin would be a good start. And Skylar could only help the situation, as she is so...bubbly and, well, normal," she noted, shrugging up her shoulders. Skylar was definitely the type of person her parents wouldn't be able to get enough of. They would see her as someone perfect for their rebel daughter to befriend. She wouldn't point out to them that Skylar was a rebel on her own.

"Sp, where do we start?" she asked, leaning back against the couch, head tilted back toward the ceiling. She knew without getting an answer that things were going to be rough in the next few days as they prepared for the parents visit. There would need to be clearing out of the cabin, a cover story for why she was staying in this city that was barely on the map, and a good stock of blood to keep her from attacking them. It was then that she jerked upward and stared at the the two with wide eyes. "I haven't been able to hide my fangs, yet. I keep trying, but they just don't...retract, or whatever. How do we hide that?!"

For emphasis, she opened her mouth to display the elongated canines, her tongue poking at them gingerly. She knew that most vampires were able to retract their fangs and hide them, to give off the impression of being human-like. She just had yet to master that particular skill and was beginning to wonder if she ever would.

[Pi dArtois]

Pi had shifted in her seat, angling herself towards Aliyah, her body language all but screaming that the other woman was the sole focus for the French woman at the moment. Even if the wolf still prowled close against her skin Pi had shifted that attention enough away from her own raging emotions to find some empathy for the other woman.

It was a hard won empathy, her instincts as a killer usually later to arrive at the ‘feels’ party (and usually too late and SOL) which left her appearing cold and unfeeling. Tonight she made the switch earlier, her sense of rightness correcting her brusque initial reaction and tempering it enough that she hoped Aliyah no longer felt pressured or threatened. Except.

There were emotions racing across Aliyah’s face, and not all of them Pi could decipher, not all of them Pi recognized and even when she did, she wasn’t good at reacting to them. Elliot was the ‘feels’ man, the person with the right things to say in the right way to set a situation on the right path. Instead Pi reached out a hand, not touching Aliyah, but laying it on the arm of the couch the other woman sat on.

“Oui, Skylar is a good idea, she is supportive and … helpful.” Pi conceded, throwing Elliot a small look, choosing not to expand on her words but sneaking a glance to see if he reacted to her words. Skylar (on numerous occasions recently) had proved herself and it would be craven not to acknowledge it. “If we all work together, it won’t take much to… fix the cabin. Not at all.”

The movement, her hand reaching as she spoke, brought her body tilted forward, and her gaze narrowed as she let Aliyah finish, her eyes widening at the flash of the permanently extended canines. “Oh … that could be a problem.” she replied inadequately, thrown again for a loop and looking behind her should again at Elliot.

“What do you think?” she asked, choosing (this time) not to press the panic button with both hands.

[Lancaster]

A week. Maybe two. Elliot visibly relaxed, his temper easing entirely as soon as he realised they had time to sort out their affairs before the impending parents arrived on their doorstep. A week was plenty of time to figure out solutions to their problems. And besides which, Aliyah’s sudden depression was enough to douse his temper and allow him to focus only on the girl and her current predicament.

It was a feeling he himself knew well; one he struggled with almost on a nightly basis. The cause for his relief that Pi didn’t have the same ability that he seemed to have—to be able to feel the emotions of others. The last thing he wanted in this world was for Pi to realise just how much he wanted to rebel against what he had become. Over the course of the years he had got better at accepting, of course, and at focusing on the good things rather than on the bad.

But it was scenarios just like this one that him wanting to scream and tear a room apart. That a person couldn’t even see their parents without fear of dire consequences; that those parents might disown or flee in terror, or spread the word. Or that they might try to lock their sons and daughters away. Or that they might be killed for knowing too much. The notion that as soon as one was inducted into the cohort of Harper Rock vampires, their old lives had to be let go. Whether they wanted to or not, their lives had changed completely, and everyone they once knew and cared for had to be forgotten.

If not because of the consequences, then because to hold on too long would be detrimental to one’s health – especially when those loved ones will grow old and die. Elliot pushed himself up from the couch and went over to crouch down by Aliyah, his hand a comforting weight on her shoulder. He could feel what she was feeling and it didn’t feel good.

When she mentioned her canines, Elliot’s brow furrowed. Pi turned to him and he shook his head. He didn’t have an answer. Except…

”This… Skylar’s teeth are the same, but opposite. Hers don’t work at all,” he said, slowly. He remembered how mangled Roxette’s arm had been, after he’d told her to feed Skylar. He licked his lips and shook his head. ”Might be that they’ll always be like that. Unless… have you fed properly? Are you feeding properly?” he asked, inquiringly.

[Aliyah]

As Pi and Elliot seemed to agree that a week or two was more than enough to take care of the cabin and prepare her for the coming parent visit, she was able to relax. Mostly. The fact remained that she could not retract her fangs, and it was a means for anyone to tell something wasn't right. Parents or not. She had become pretty good at hiding them on the streets, as she didn't smile or speak all that often. When she did, it was in the privacy of the family, and or her own apartment. Speaking to her parents would be different. They would come expecting the daughter they remember, and she was always smiling. Teeth showing.

And, naturally, that was a problem that both of them seemed to pick up on almost immediately. They shared one of those looks that she was starting to feel envious of, sharing some silent communication that she didn't or couldn't understand. A moment later, Elliot was beside her and mentioning Skylar's own affliction when it came to fangs, it being the opposite of her own. She only wished that could be her problem, though it had to make feeding especially difficult. When it came to the lesser of two evils, though, Aliyah was still sure she would have preferred to have no fangs at all.

His question about her feeding habits made her blink and shrug up a shoulder, as if that were something she hadn't really considered. "I guess I feed alright? I go out every night?" she finished with more of a question than a statement and it caused her lips to purse. What kind of vampire was she to have no idea what it meant to feed properly. Granted, Dhara provided blood at the apartment, as well. "And Dhara keeps a stock of blood bags for me in the fridge..." she said with a glance at Pi, unsure how much the woman knew about the living situation. In truth, it didn't matter, because that was not their focus.

"We could...file...them?" she asked with an immediate shudder. The mere thought of brutally hacking at her fangs made her entire mouth hurt. Not to mention, there was potential that they couldn't grow back, and that would leave her in the same boat as Skylar. And even though she had just said that might be the better of the two evils, she wasn't sure she wanted to live the rest of eternity having to tear human flesh to shreds just to feed. That was just gruesome, and she wanted no part in it.

[Pi dArtois]

Pi has heard of the fangs not retracting. Before her and Doc stopped really talking to one another (well, they talked, but they hadn’t… really done much more than be polite when necessary) she noticed his fangs were present. They were carefully hidden behind a mouth that rarely smiled but always seemed to be present too. But didn’t seem to cause him any issues and he had obviously found a way to work through what people may assume since he had opened that place close to Newborough Transit.

Not that she was going to mention that here, since Elliot hadn’t developed a chill pill for the issues he had with that part of her history. Just like she would have a hard time coming to terms (and did have a hard time) with his own history with his own childe Irene.

But she knew it was possible, knew it could be done, with a little careful practice. At the mention of the human’s name Pi’s gaze cut to Elliot and narrowed, before sliding away. Another something they weren’t going to mention right now, this insanity about letting human living in Corvidae as if walking through a nest of zombies was a good idea for someone who wasn’t enthralled. But she couldn’t deal with another drama, not right now, but she would.. and soon.

“Blood bags are good. I … it’s what I use each night. Especially with so many security cameras.. anything more.. personal is not always safe.”

Pi shook her head at the suggestion. “I think we might just need to practice you not.. smiling so much.” She joked, trying to throw a little levity in there to lighten the mood. The emotion seemed to have leeched from the moment, the tense expectation of the unknown seeping away and taking the ache of tension that had stretched taut along her shoulders. They would work this out, because they were a team and between them they could figure out how to get through one parental visit without creating an international incident or (and this was probably the most important difference) exposing the nature of vampires in this small backwater in nowhere Canada.

She hoped.

[Lancaster]

Elliot’s concerns were a little different to Pi’s. Where she was hoping to get through this situation without giving away vampiric secrecy or causing some kind of scandalous incident, Elliot instead approached this problem in Aliyah’s shoes. What she might feel, and what she had felt, was in direct synch with his own feelings. What he would hope to avoid is death. Especially given Pi’s narrowed eyes in relation to Dhara, and the obvious distaste he felt flung at him from across the room, he half wondered whether it was a good idea that Pi be involved at all.

Of course Elliot loved her. They were a yin and yang pair, balancing each other out in the things that each lacked. Sometimes Elliot required Pi’s cold approach to certain things. He required her understanding of violence. He was a man ruled by his emotions; ruled by his heart. Sometimes his head had to come into it, and Pi was often the one to help him to realise certain truths about this new life. Her strong attachment to keeping the Masquerade was something that worried him, in this instance. What if the parents do arrive, and for some reason or other they found out about Aliyah’s undead affliction? Would Pi want them killed, just as she’d commanded Elliot to kill humans that knew too much in the past? Would she do the deed herself, or demand that Aliyah do it?

The concern was written all over his face as he continued to stare at Pi; his teeth chewed at the inside of his cheek, and his brows were furrowed, even if his eyes reflected a kind of nonchalance. They had danced this dance before, and she would know that he wasn’t particularly fond of this Masquerade fuckery. His adherence to the laws was exacted with a rumbling reluctance; a stubborn kind of acceptance. And even then, he was never very good at it. He was a rebel, in his own ways. Never to the extent that Madison had wanted from him. But he rebelled nonetheless.

Elliot cleared his throat. He wouldn’t say it out loud, what he fed on each night; didn’t mention his sometimes-irritation that Pi would leave him in the lurch by going out to hunt before properly saying goodbye. Some nights he wouldn’t feed at all, especially if she came home again just before sunrise and he passed out like the dead thing that he was.

Rather than focus on the things that he could discuss with Pi, and the numerous arguments that they could get into—aren’t these the ordinary small things that married couples always argued about?—he turned a smile in Aliyah’s direction. He wouldn’t voice his concerns about Pi’s reactions. He wouldn’t talk at all about what they would do in the event that her parents should find out. It’s not due to a break in secrecy that he cared—it’s due entirely to what it would do to Aliyah.

”Say you went to a dress up party the night before. Say you went as a vampire, and you bought some adhesive fangs. There’s got to be such a thing, right? Adhesive fangs with glue that lasts a few days? Say you didn’t know…” he says, almost hopeful. ”I mean, they’ve got to believe it. Think about it. A year ago, if you saw a pair of fangs on someone, would you have immediately concluded that they were a vampire and the end of the world was nigh? Or would you think they were fake? Basic human psychology needs to be taken into account, here. Most are not going to believe in something they witness. They’ll make up excuses and pretend it never happened.”

[Aliyah]

Not smiling so much was already a practiced behavior when it came to the streets of Harper Rock. There was no doubt in her mind that she was capable of avoiding it. It was her parents that would expect differently. They had a daughter that liked to laugh and smile, and showed her emotions too easily. She was a rebel without a cause, and loved every minute of it. Arriving only to see her stone-faced and apparently unhappy would serve to set off warning bells in their head. It would be a sign that something was up, or different. And they would ask questions. Why hadn't she come home? What kept her here, when she had such a great opportunity in Toronto? And more importantly, why hadn't she called?

But, Elliot managed to insert his two cents before she pointed it all out. With a hum, she considered the proposition and eventually nodded her head in agreement, "They might buy it. I attended plenty of parties growing up, it wouldn't be unexpected." While they had wishes for their daughter to follow the Bible and live her life as a worshipping Catholic, she had gone about doing the exact opposite. Alcohol, sex, and drugs were a part of her life as a teemager, and it was due to luck alone that she hadn't ended up some kind of addict on the streets or pregnant. Partying came with that territory.

"Guys..." she sighed, looking between them with a hope that their expressions alone would provide the answers she was looking for. It was a stressful topic, for all of them. The appreciation she felt for their help was beyond words, but it didn't stop the nagging fear in the back of her mind. "What if this backfires? What if...this all goes wrong? What then?" she asked, her teeth grinding together painfully with her fangs digging into the inside of her lip. The taste of her own blood surprised her, and her jaw relaxed. What usually happened to those unlucky humans that learned the truth?

Aliyah wasn't sure she wanted to know, and so she focused on Elliot's face, her expression pleading. He wouldn't go so far to suggest the extreme, would he? Would Pi? There was a stubborn refusal in her mind to accept the alternative, should their plans fall through. She would not think about it. Because, it wouldn't happen. It just...couldn't.

[Pi dArtois]

Her and Elliot fundamentally disagreed on a few rather big topics when it came to humans and the secrecy of vampires and while she would be the first to admit that killing everyone who knew about them was both illogical and unsustainable, she couldn’t stop the words bubbling to mind and dancing along the tip of her tongue. Pitch forks waved in the hands of little red devils, cavorting in macabre mania across her mind. The words didn’t tumble though and she had enough sense to clam up and dart a glance towards the tall Australian.

No, some things didn’t require speaking and had no business in a conversation with a vampire that had barely begun her life as a blood sucking undead thing. Aliyah still had a long way to go before parts of her humanity leached out of her psyche and bled into the cracks of a disintegrating moral line. A line broken by a moving ethical goal post that seemed to drift further and further away from a person’s normal sense of … right.

No, Pi had learned the hard way her idea of casual collateral damage was as flawed as the painful childhood she’d lived through and while she could easily assume the responsibility of her decisions to make those hard choices, she knew Elliot … couldn’t. Or wouldn’t.

So she kept silent, her gaze drifting to Elliot’s and back to Aliyah trying to consider her words carefully. “We can’t play what if. IF something happens, then we can figure something out then.. right Elliot?”

Some things, you need to bow out of. Some decisions can’t be yours to make if they impact you not at all, and someone else, entirely. And while Pi knew Aliyah was relying on her and Elliot to help her work through these logistics, this hard moral call Aliyah wanted them to make just wasn’t theirs to make.

It would be hers, if it was necessary for her to make. There was no other person who could possibly make it. Could Pi sacrifice her own parents in order to preserve the anonymity of the two people in this room? Of course she could. But the question was hardly a fair was where she was concerned, considering the fact she had no idea who her biological father was and her mother had been a jacked up junky.

The moral dilemma would have had a too easy remedy if Pi had been the one who had hard choices to make.