metamorphotic | you've got to carry your heart like a torch in the night.

[nick shifts onto her side, head propped up in her open hand, elbow resting in the pillow. she gives duke a deeply appraising look-over, checking for any telltale signs that he's joking with her about the wendigo. results? inconclusive.]

Wasn't planning on it. So it looks like we got ourselves an hour to kill. [she grins cheekily at him, then flips right back to the previous topic:] Are you shittin' me about the wendigo?

[Duke turns on his side to face Nick, and there's nothing but sincerity on his face. She'd been forthcoming about her past, weird as it was. While he wasn't going to spill everything about his, he could at least let her know why it wasn't that weird to him.]

No. I don't know if she stuck around, honestly. She got a serial killer for takeout and then disappeared. Stuff like that happens a lot where I'm from.

Huh.

[her face scrunches up as she tries to reconcile the idea of a wendigo being anything other than completely terrifying with her own experiences.]

Well, note to self, if I ever get back, stay the hell outta Maine, I guess.

[she chuckles quietly, content to switch focus away from cannibal creatures. after all, there are no wendigos here at the moment.]

So ... y’got any ideas ‘bout what we should do for the next hour?

Definitely stay out of Maine. [Not because of the wendigos, but if believing the woods around Haven were overrun with them would keep Nick away on the chance she got home, everything will have worked out. Nick doesn't need to get mixed up in Haven stuff.

Not worth thinking about right now, though. Now there's a more interesting subject at hand and he raises an eyebrow, the playful flirt from their date again.]

Good question. What do you want to do?

[ah yes, this is much more fun than talking about wendigos. nick grins slyly and slowly leans in toward duke.]

I’m pretty open to suggestions. But I guess we could always start with ...

[she leans in the rest of the way to meet his mouth with her own in a slow, lingering kiss, palm resting gently at the side of his neck.]

[Yeah, he lucked out. Duke smiles into the kiss for a second before returning it, taking it slowly and sliding his hand to her waist.]

I think that's a pretty good plan. You sure we can get this done in an hour?

I dunno. Do you?

[she smiles, plants a shorter kiss at his mouth, then rolls flat onto her back while gently tugging duke to follow her direction.]

Wasn’t runnin’ a stopwatch last time, so I can’t really judge. And this is way too good to rush through.

[slowly, almost teasingly, she traces fingertips down his neck and across his collarbone.]

Don’tcha think?

[Who can resist that? Never one to turn down a beautiful woman, Duke follows Nick's lead and rolls with her, ending up above her and braced on his elbow when the kiss ends.]

No, I don't want to rush.

[For a moment he just looks down at her, taking her in. Her eyes are clear, sky-blue and sharp. A tuft of her hair is standing up Bart Simpson-style. And under her red lipstick her smiling lips are full and rosy. He smiles.]

I want this to last.

Me too.

[and maybe it would, if nick's conscience didn't pick this exact moment to rear its ugly head. she has no business having a good time with this amazing guy until he knows the danger he's in - especially with her. smile now vanished, nick sighs and rubs a hand down her face.]

Ah, shit. You're probably not gonna feel that way in a sec here.

[she pushes herself up on her elbows and reaches over to the nightstand for her phone. with a few taps, the device starts playing a song - not so loud that the music will drown out their conversation entirely, but loud enough to obfuscate what she needs to say.

nick falls back onto the bed and stares up at duke, expression equally as serious as it had been playful just moments before.]

This place ain't safe. There's a lot the welcome wagon didn't mention.

[It had been going so well, which is why Duke's brow furrows when Nick drops her smile. Well, crap. Either he'd fucked up, or this is when she shows she's crazy. And not in the free-spirited-musician-who-would-scare-off-a-boring-guy way, in the "Marry me or we're going to be eaten by lobster men" way. She had a freaking soundtrack to cultivate the mood and everything.]

Yeah?

[Frowning, he sits up. That's not enough to worry him yet, he's lived in a lot of dangerous places. He'll only be worried if she says something like "I'm actually a succubus." Not outside of the realm of possibility for his hook-ups, unfortunately.]

Like what?

[she follows suit in sitting up - leans in a little so she can lower her voice but duke can still hear what she has to say.]

Y’know that story you got told when you woke up here? About that plague that wiped out everyone, how you’re here ‘cause you got picked to help, just let the machines study you for a year and then you get to go home? [she shakes her head, mouth pursed tightly.] All bullshit. I mean, the plague is real, that part’s true. And we are bein’ studied - but not for the reason they said. And no one ever leaves. Not to get sent back home, anyway.

[she drops her gaze to the bed, fidgeting with a piece of the bedsheets pinched between a finger and thumb. she knows how difficult this is to hear, but she wants duke to know now so he can be prepared.]

The machines kill you after they’re done studying you. They make a perfect copy of you, only it’s a robot, and they don’t need the original version. Oh, and everyone’s got these chips in their heads, for tracking and controlling everyone. Try to take it out and you’ll die.

[nick drops the piece of fabric in her hand and smoothes it out across the mattress, then looks up at duke again.]

They’re always watching, always listening. There’s bugs and cameras everywhere - if you’re gonna talk about stuff like this, you gotta put some noise on in the background. I just - I wanted you to know. I really do like you, even if you don’t like me anymore, and I don’t wanna see you get killed ‘cause you didn’t know the whole story.

[Okay, not the kind of crazy Duke was expecting. For a split second he's not sure whether to be relieved or not. He rubs the sleep away from his eyes while he considers this fount of new information. And he's annoyed, not because he disbelieves her (although it's a lot to take in), but because there's a catch, of course there's a catch, and it's a damn weird catch. Killer robots is about the only type of weirdness he has no experience with.]

"Why not aliens." [He murmurs it under his breath, quoting himself. Why not a killer robot hell-bent on replacing everyone? There's still the possibility that she's lying, of course, but it's such a bizarre story it sets off his "crazy enough to be true" meter, like the high-tech equivalent of Jeanine's cake Trouble.]

Okay. First question: how do you know all this?

[ah, yeah. this is the worse part. nick inhales a deep, steadying breath as she prepares to confess.]

There’s this group fighting back - not really doing a great job, and they’re real dumbasses half of the time, but ... at least they’re trying to save people. I work with them. We’re called the Heart.

[and she rolls her eyes. she won’t deny it’s a bit trite.]

I’m not in charge of anything - I just do some of the heavy hitting when I’m told to.

All right. [Sounds about right, honestly. Small resistance groups tended to be full of well-meaning zealous dumbasses, if his experience with the Guard is any precedent to go by. Recognizing their shortcomings was a good sign, and it lended more credence to the idea that she wasn't making this up. If she was, she wouldn't have been complaining about her own side.]

Are you guys handling this all on your own?

[he’s ... calm. not angry, not yelling and storming out. he’s listening and asking questions like a reasonable, decent person, just like he’s been decent to her since last night - more than decent, really, because nick expected him to bail by now and he hasn’t. she’s stunned silent for a long moment before she can shake herself free enough to speak again.]

Um ... yeah, right now. There was a meeting a while back, we tried to get some of the people from the dorms to help us. Didn’t go over too well. You’re, um ... you don’t seem like you’re mad at me.

[He's definitely not happy, because no one wants this sort of information dumped on them, especially during a nice moment. But Nick seemed genuinely scared, which means she believes everything she's saying, and he's too used to the weird to defensively shut it out. Much better to know all this than not, if she's right.]

Well, that'll have to change.

Why would I be mad?

[nick huffs out a not-quite laugh and lightly shakes her head in disbelief. is this really happening?]

I think most people’d be mad to find out they just spent the night with technically-a-terrorist. ‘Cause - I mean, that’s what they call us. Terrorists. Criminals.

Are you? Because trying to avoid death by Big Brother Xerox isn't what I think of when I hear "terrorism."

[He's not touching the criminal part. Criminal covers a wide range of sometimes noble professions and skills and it should be less of an insult than it is. Terrorism is killing innocent people to advance some radical agenda. He knows in Nick's mind this is not what her group's doing, but that is also what most terrorists would say.]

I mean, if you're right about all this, it sounds like you're just fighting for your lives.

[maybe the heart is a terrorist group, by a certain definition. they haven’t killed anyone, but they’ve set off bombs. they’ve done big, flashy demonstrations meant to scare people toward their efforts. they’ve been rightly criticized on both sides of the issue, too.

but duke’s right. as misguided as the heart’s methods are, their end goal is to simply stay alive.]

We are. We’re fighting for everyone’s lives. That’s why I had to tell you. I wanted you to know, so you’ll be OK ... no matter what else happens.

[even though duke’s taking this exceptionally well, nick still expects that this will likely be the last she’ll see of him in this context. maybe if they run into each other on the street, he won’t pretend not to see her, because he’s a nice, decent guy. but that’s the best she’ll allow herself to hope for.]

I really did have a good time with you last night, y’know.

Do you kill people?

[Without a death toll, what the Heart is doing isn't terrorism, it's running a haunted house attraction. It's like those showy protests where people pretend to die in malls in order to oppose tobacco companies. It's minor vandalism at best.]

I had a good time with you too.

[Good enough that the only way he's walking out of the door now is if she answers yes to that question.]

[she glances up at him and without hesitation, shakes her head.]

No. I wouldn’t’ve signed on for any of this if killing people was part of the deal.

Okay.

[Duke settles back against the pillow, one arm tucked behind his head. He wraps the other around Nick as he looks up at the ceiling, considering this information. He'd need to verify it, of course, before he could make any real plans, but there would be something he could do. If there was one thing he'd learned in Haven, it was that there was always something you could do.]

We should take a shower.

[she's still waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for him to turn on her - so much so that she's too stunned to do anything but follow him back down against the bed when his arm curls around her. it can't be that easy, can it?]

What - like, together? [she's not at all opposed to the idea, she just hasn't ever done it before. and more importantly, she's confused by the suggestion.] Are you - you're really OK with me? 'Cause I get it if you're not - we're not exactly well-liked. You don't have to keep being nice to me or anything.

Yeah, why not? Unless you don't want to. [He should probably have one before work, at least. His boss is already going to tease him if he comes in wearing the same clothes as yesterday.

He turns to look at her mildly, still confused by her confusion.] I don't really care who other people don't like.

No, it's not that - I mean, I never done it before. [she typically never stuck around that long, after.] I just didn't think you'd still want anything to do with me, after what I just told you.

you've got to carry your heart like a torch in the night.

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