entrancelogs | [OPEN] We'll Take A Cup of Kindness Yet

"So I heard."

He has great hearing, Kate. So does everyone who is deliberately eavesdropping, but his is especially excellent. He wouldn't be good at his choice of career if he weren't.

"How thoughtful of him." His tone indicates precisely what kind of thoughtful he thinks that might be. His eyes stare at Klaus intently, not even bothering to check Kate's expression. He has a pretty good idea of what it looks like right now as he offers the man his hand. "Richie Gecko, though apparently I'm 'Just Richie' tonight. Pretty cold, don't you think?"

Excellent hearing isn't anything to brag about. Unless, of course, you're Klaus Mikaelson. In his opinion, anyway. So he's not quite impressed nor disconcerted by the rudeness of Richie's second attempt at introductions. Richie might not check Kate's expression, but Klaus does. He's quite interested in it: the embarrassment, the annoyance, the eventual steel in her voice.

Only after she's finished does Klaus deign to look at their interrupting party and then take his hand with no small measure of firmness. "Well, I don't believe it matters what I think. She was quite clear." About how 'just' he is.

And then, you know, just to up the dick quotient in this interaction: "I suppose the pleasure's all yours."

Kate can feel the color crawling up her neck towards her cheeks, the wash of heat that rolls over her with every word that passes Richie's lips and she would have given anything for the ground beneath her feet to open up and swallow her whole. Moments like this made her long for Seth's presence. He was the only person she'd seen pull him back when he was hurtling closer to the edge, even if he'd at times needed threats and or physical violence to do so. He could get away with it. Kate would never consider it.

Her eyes close as he uses her words against her, Kate's jaw locking in place with every angry word she'd like to throw at him. What did he expect her to say? Oh, that's my good friend Richie? Don't worry about him watching you like a hawk, he's harmless? Half of that was a lie and the other half was complicated. Which half was which seemed to change on the daily.

But if she thought things couldn't get worse?

You wouldn't go so far as to describe the twist of her features as awe but she certainly looks stunned by Klaus' easy reply. It only takes half a second for worry to rear up, Kate having seen how easy it is for Richie to be pushed over the edge.

"Richie." Trying to infuse as much meaning into that one word as she can possibly manage. The last thing any of them needed was for Richie to rip Klaus' throat open in the middle of the ballroom. It was the exact opposite of flying under the radar and she didn't want anyone to get hurt on her account, least of all somebody she quite liked.

While Klaus' grip is firm, Richie's tightens considerably as this 'Klaus' continues to speak, and all Richie can hear is that, not only is he clearly screwing around with...Kate (what is she to him anyway), but now the bastard is talking down to him like so many people do.

It's one of the things he hates most in the entire world. The feeling that he's somehow beneath someone else, that person so often his own brother. Second best. Not good enough.

Rage boils beneath the surface of his skin, and his eyes flare green, slitted like a reptile's. He can feel his teeth trying to press against his tongue behind his lips, which press against each other in irritation, and it's only Kate's voice that brings him out of that red haze of his desire for violence.

He wrenches his hand away, his eyes fading back to their normal color, his fangs folding back up where they belong before he speaks through his clenched jaw.

"Why don't you try to find another girl to practice your pick up lines on? And try not to slip anyone any roofies while you're at it."

Of all the transformations he could have expected, this one isn't a change he would ever had imagined, not in his wildest dreams. Not that Klaus expected one at all, but neither is he too moved when it occurs. Nor is he frightened as Richie's skin greens and his eyes slit; nor is he intimidated by the snake-like fangs that drop and extend Richie's lips. No, Klaus is still, silent, and unconcerned. He doesn't flinch at the grip of Richie's hand. Instead he is mesmerized by this challenge and vindication; instead his fingers tighten with equal strength within Richie's grasp. He does not give an inch and feels no impulse nor worry to do so; no, his curiosity has led to quite the discovery.

He lets Richie pull his hand away. There is no reason to provoke the man, certainly not anymore. "Well aren't we a different kind of beast," he says, his lips curled into a mockery of a smile.

A beat, and he turns to his new friend with no worry, in no rush, his voice lowered to create the intimacy of of exclusion. "If you'll excuse me, Kate; it's been a pleasure." He pauses, considers if he should valiantly offer her a way out of this unfortunate situation. Though perhaps not, for now. After all, she seems to have him well in hand. "Enjoy the champagne." With a last level look and smirk at Richie, he slips between them both and makes his exit.

Edited 2017-01-02 05:24 (UTC)

All the color that had been so quick to rush to her cheeks, fast drains away as Kate sees the change in Richie's eyes, her heart hammering so hard in her chest that the blood pounding in her ears, threatens to drown out Richie's words. She regrets, every single word spoken in frustration, the role she'd played in baiting Richie. It was a childish moment of rebellion that would now put both of them at risk and she would have agreed to stay by his side all night if he could just take back this moment.

With panic rising, Kate drags her gaze from Richie long enough to take in Klaus. She'd expected the familiar look of shock and fear that she'd experienced but what she saw instead? Perhaps she should have been worried by his calm and collected fascination. Should have questioned how anyone could have seen that without so much as a flicker of alarm but in that moment? She could only be relieved. If he'd started calling out for help... What was Richie going to do? Kill everyone in this room?!

Kate had been around enough violence these last six months to know how quickly things could spin out of control, the brunette tensed and ready to step between them, even as Klaus appears to be backing down? It didn't seem like the right choice of words. He was hardly running off with his tail between his legs.

"I - " Kate struggles with anything to say in response, his easy manners in the wake of what had just happened, leaving her flustered at best. The most she can manage is a pained smile and a hurried; "Thank you", Klaus' departure ending all hope of eloquence on her part.

Kate does consider going after him, finding a way to explain, offer an apology or just beg for him not to tell anyone. She suspected anything she might say, wouldn't help the situation and she believed just as strongly that doing so would only send Richie over the edge.

"I can't believe you just did that..." Disbelief offering him a short reprieve from the anger that would surely come.

Richie turns and watches Klaus go with tense shoulders, hands curled into fists, but his face stays his, if only because he can see Kate in his periphery, hear the sound of his name echoing in his ears, and he can't bring himself to move and start something he might regret later.

As long as she doesn't go after him, this is good enough. For now.

He makes a sound in the back of his throat as he finally drags his eyes away from the man's retreating back before he looks down at Kate. For what it's worth, he looks a little disturbed by the whole exchange, wincing as if the entire ordeal gave him a headache.

"The guy was a creep. I did you a favor."

The explanation is half-hearted, though, because he knows damn well he went too far. If it had been just him, he wouldn't have given a fuck, but...

...he knows what Kate's capable of, and it generally involves her getting shoved into the middle of a mess.

"You did me a favor?!" Shock gives way to incredulity as Kate rounds on Richie, the flute of Champagne that Klaus had mesmerized her with his skillful pouring of, set down on the bar as if to protect it from what would come next.

"Please explain to me, how any of that, was for my benefit!"

She works hard to keep her voice pitched low but you only had to see the poorly veiled anger twisting her features to know the conversation wasn't casual in nature. Richie might tower over her physically, but Kate, when she was angry, appeared to rise up beyond her modest stature.

"When you humiliated me? Or when you outed yourself to him in a ballroom full of people?!"

Richie's resulting expression at her outburst is both petulant and annoyed, and he reaches out take her arm and try to lead her to a corner of the room.

"And now you're causing a scene," he mutters under his breath. "He was a predator. Believe me, I know what one looks like. Or do you not trust my judgment anymore?"

She sure used to believe that he could see things.

"He was flirting with you, trying to get you to drink, and I could see it in his eyes..."

He grits his teeth and looks away from her as if unsure of how to go on.

"That guy is dangerous. I didn't even faze him."

There weren't a lot of things that Richie could have done to make things worse right now, but of course, he immediately went for one of the few options that would.

"If you don't let go of me right now, I swear, Richie. I will scream right here in front of all these people." Spitting the words out through gritted teeth as she shoots him a venomous look. She was about done with being dragged all over the place whenever a Gecko boy had a whim.

"Not when you're acting like this I don't!" Because where was your judgment when the snake eyes came out?! "He was being nice to me, Richie. He wasn't trying to get me drunk. We were standing at a bar!" At a loss as to how he failed to follow the same path of logic as she had.

It is, however, more difficult to argue with him about Klaus' reaction but that didn't mean she wouldn't try.

"So of course. That makes him dangerous..."

Just. Deadeyes, Richie.

He lets her go, though not happily, his eyes dark and shifting with paranoia, looking over his shoulder even as she speaks.

"You don't exactly look old enough to be standing at a bar, Kate. Maybe barely if his accent is even real."

All of his senses are on high alert now, as if every single person in the room might be staring at them. He feels guilt that he made them a target, but in the face of whatever the hell that was, he's not sure he had much of a choice, even if his impulses got the better of him.

"Yeah, it does. He clearly had no idea what I was, and he barely even blinked. What do you think that means?"

He'd see his mistake the second he commented on how old she looked, the sting his flippant words had caused, making Kate take a half step back. She knew she looked young, she wasn't blind but tonight she'd put on a pretty dress and she'd done her hair, her make-up but still he looked at her and all he saw was Little Miss Kate.

"So if I looked more like Santanico it wouldn't have bothered you as much?" Her voice more cold than angry now

"I don't know, Richie. What does it say about me." Because after everything she'd seen? She almost felt like she didn't have anything left to be shocked about. A week ago she'd buried the body of her friend in her backyard after her brother had killed her. At some point, don't you just stop blinking?

"Maybe, if you hadn't basically accused him of being a rapist? We could have found out." Kate at least appearing to reach a level of calm, even if she doesn't quite feel it.

"Santantico is a thousand times older than me. And she can rip someone's throat out without even blinking."

Just saying. Even if that's not at all what Kate's even asking. He realizes exactly what sore spot he probably poked at, even if that wasn't what he was trying to do.

"And she didn't listen to me, either."

At least Richie seems calm again too, his voice steady and almost monotone, trying to dull his emotions so that he doesn't fly off the handle again. "I'm sure he'll try to talk to you again. And maybe this time you won't smile at him like he's the best thing you've ever seen."

He's not jealous nope. Totally just pointing it out. Nothing to see here.

That is so not even what she was saying Richie and you damn well know it. This is why you're being scowled at right now, Kate's mouth forming a petulant pout as she stares him down.

"I wonder why." Tone so painfully dry, Kate reaching a point where she'll pull apart anything he says as a way of striking back for what had just happened. And perhaps for the perceived slight. (A lot for the perceived slight.)

Just when it seems that Richie has drawn a new line in the sand, he goes and finds another way to cross it and then will probably be surprised when Kate looks ready to explode. Now, would be exactly one of those moments, her hands curling into ineffectual fists at her side, her eyes flashing with anger.

"Just to be clear. You don't actually care about me at all, you're just worried that I might like him more than you..." Kate struggling to keep the tremor from her voice as emotion rises up, choking her words.

"Grow up, Richard." Kate actually thinking he's just going to let her walk away from him right now.

"Because she didn't think."

He taps his temple pointedly. It's harsh, maybe, but nonetheless true. She's always quick to trust, she did it with him for Christ's sake, and she never seems to learn from that mistake.

What follows results in him feeling like she's literally punched him in the gut, because all he can see is her lying on the ground, blood pooling around her. You don't care about me, you only care about yourself.

Kate doesn't know anything. Every time he thinks maybe there's finally someone who understands him, who can see through the mess that is him, he's proven wrong all over again.

"Yeah, that's me. Just a selfish bastard, right? I wasn't thinking about you at all."

The words are bitter and laced with traces of pain as he takes a few steps back.

She'd expected a roll of his eyes or some other sign of indifference. For him to stoop to telling her she was the one who needed to grow up. From this conversation, she'd come to expect any number of hurtful responses from Richie, but she'd never bargained on hurt.

Her eyes narrow, confusion now warring with her own pain, Kate shaking her head as if to reject the idea that she could have caused this in him.

And she's mad. So mad because her stomach is twisting in on itself, knots forming as regret coats her insides, making her feel heavy, sick. She was the one who was supposed to be mad here. He'd humiliated her. He'd insulted her. He'd practically accused her of throwing herself at Klaus and he'd put them both and risk and now for some reason, that she couldn't even begin to fathom; she felt bad.

"All, you have given me Richie." The anger quelled by the sudden emotional shift. "Is excuses for what you did."

Kate swallows her words, studying him, needing to know if this was real or just some way for him to shut her up. He's just thrown in her face how bad a judge of character she is so was she expected just to trust her judgement now?

"Did you ever once think to say sorry?"

"I didn't have a choice."

While that's not entirely true objectively, in his mind there was no other action to take. He knew what a predator looked like, how they acted, and everything about Klaus had screamed that at him. And Richie didn't know if he was gonna try and pull something two seconds or two years from now.

All he knew is what was in front of him and he wasn't taking any chances. Kate was just as reckless and impulsive as he was sometimes, and she didn't have the experience to back up her actions yet.

He looks a little dumbfounded by her question, though, because no. That thought hadn't once crossed his mind.

"No." He says it strangely, almost as if he only just realized he'd done something bad and was being scolded for it. "Fine. I'm sorry you were embarrassed by the way I dealt with that asshole." That sounds like what she's looking for, probably. That's what she said she was upset about, right?

"But you did." Leveling him with a firm look. She wasn't about to just let this go because Richie was convinced he was in the right. She expected more from him, she always had and she'd hold him accountable when he didn't live up to those expectations. The moment she started expecting less of him was the moment she stopped believing in him.

"You didn't have to be rude. You didn't have to make a scene or act like I wasn't even there." Which was why she struggled to believe this had anything to do with her. He was too busy trying to out-testosterone Klaus to even know she existed. (Oh Kate...).

"God, Richie. You treat me like I'm just some... silly little school girl who is too stupid to know what's good for her and don't ever stop and think about how I might feel because of course, you know best." Her eyes shimmer, Kate biting the inside of her cheeks to hold her composure but the hurt is there, despite her attempts to mask it.

"This is the first time in..." How long had it been now? When was the last time she'd been anything close to normal? When had her life gone from planning for prom to planning exit strategies in case everything went to hell? Shaking her head. "... that I've been able to feel normal for more than five seconds. I'm in a dress. There's music and dancing and you're - " Her hand gestures lamely in his direction, more biting words on the tip of her tongue but she loses steam, her arm falling limply to her side.

"You don't even get it. Do you." No longer angry, merely sad and disappointed.

He looks down at the floor, shoving the toe of his shoe into the ground uncomfortably.

"I don't think you're silly."

Furthest thing from it, actually. He does think she's naive, that she trusts too easily, that she lets people take advantage of her. But that also happens to be the parts that lay in direct contradiction with himself but managed to break through to his frazzled mind when he really needed it. When Seth wasn't enough.

She's different just like he is, only not in the same way.

"I'm not all that good at normal." He may not like it when people talked shit about him, called him crazy or a loose cannon, but he knew damn well his life wasn't even remotely what a typical person would consider 'normal.'

He glances back up in time to see her gesture at him as she explains what's going on around them, and he seems to process it all for a moment before he makes a suggestion.

"Is that what you want? To dance?"

"But you think I was throwing myself at him?" Eyebrows raised, gently urging him to go back over every word that's passed his lips, to realize how maybe they might have been offensive. Maybe she hadn't handled things as well as she should have. Maybe she invited the escalation by allowing her frustration to get the better of her but she didn't regret those brief moments spent with Klaus. She couldn't because for just a few seconds, she could almost remember the girl she used to be before her whole world was turned upside down.

"I don't believe that." Kate trying for gentle, only too aware of how delicate this conversation was. "I've seen how you are with Seth. You two... you act like you can't stand each other sometimes but when you're together?" The love and devotion they had for each other, that was the most normal thing in the world in Kate's eyes.

She can see him trying and she's sure that if she says yes, he'll lead her onto the dancefloor but it wouldn't be because he wants to dance with her. It would be him trying to give her what he thinks she wants.

"I just..." Se sighs softly, eyes falling away as she shakes her head. "I just want to go back to the room."

"...No. That's not what I meant." Kate didn't throw herself at anyone. That would be weird.

He just hadn't seen her smile like that in awhile. It bothered him, especially directed at someone he knew wasn't being one hundred percent genuine with her. Someone who looked at her like something to be used or a random interesting distraction.

"Yeah, sometimes. The rest of the time we're beating the shit out of each other."

Actually, that's exactly the last thing Seth did to him. Shoved him into the sun to burn, threatened to kill him and everything. Totally normal.

He tilts his head at her, narrowing his eyes slightly. "No, you don't. You're a young woman and you want to have some fun that's way too overdue." He shoves a hand in one pocket, drawing out a pack of smokes, pulling one out and shoving it between his lips before he lights it and tosses both objects over to her. "It's not what we came here to do, but that doesn't mean we can't have a change of plans." He walks a couple of steps over to the bar they've ended up nearest to and starts pouring two vodka tonics. Time to see if Kate stops him. "Besides, it would look weird if we just left now."

"Well, that's how you made me feel." He hadn't been subtle about suggesting that she was only too willing to be taken in by the first man who even spoke to her, regardless of his meaning. She didn't know if Klaus was being genuine or not. She suspected he might have been amused by Richie's hovering and decided for a little fun but she also, hadn't cared about any of that. He'd been nice. It had felt good. Plain and simple.

"You don't think that's normal?" Eyebrows raised. "Siblings fight, Richie. That's just, what they do. You don't get so mad about somebody unless you love them." Oh she knew Seth and Richie took their fights to levels that went beyond anything she'd experienced with Scott, but the emotion behind it? That was what about as normal as you could get. "That kind of hate has to come from somewhere."

She can see the gears shifting in his head and her shoulders slump before he can move into action, the point somewhere off in a far distant horizon while Richie is busy trying to fix what was right in front of him.

"Richie..." This was, so far from what she wanted right now, Kate's expression pained as she fumbles to catch his cigarettes and lighter. She can see what he's doing and there's a part of her that appreciates him for it but he couldn't give her the slice of normal that she'd been nostalgic for. He couldn't make a plan to set the evening right.

"Richie." A little more meaning in the way she says his name as she steps closer to the bar. "You don't have to do this." But it was something more than that, she just wasn't sure how to say it without it seeming like a rejection. "I don't want you to... It's not, real." Trying for a smile but it looks more like a grimace.

"We'll just... stick to the plan. That's, one of those things you say, right?"

He doesn't turn around until he hears her call his name a second time, and by then he already has a drink in each hand, thrusting one of them towards her.

Richie can already tell that she's trying to put a stop to all this, but he seems intent on barreling straight through, his lips pressing together. "Just take it." He's still not doing this right and he finds it infinitely frustrating, but he's not about to give up just yet.

"It was a loose plan for a reason, remember?"

Neither of them had any idea how this was gonna go and it had taken a turn they hadn't expected. That means improvising.

"Besides, what do you mean it's not real? You'd rather dance with someone else than with me?"

And now, she is juggling, his cigarettes, his lighter and a drink... the one she might suspect he's insisting she take, just so she doesn't retrieve the one that Klaus had poured for her. Why fucking this.

He's just, he's trying and somehow this has gone from her being mad to finding a way not to upset him or hurt his feelings, Kate letting out a soft sigh as she manages to deposit some of her cargo on the bar.

Pulling in a deep breath, she turns back to face him, running through what she'd like to say in her head before trying to give it voice.

"Okay. Let's... say I dance with you." This shouldn't be so complicated. "Why? It's not because you want to dance with me or you would have asked me already. You'd be doing it to try and make me happy, Richie and that's not what I want. That's not real. It's not always about the person it's about the moment and you can't... plan that, do you... understand?"

He seems to go over all of this in his head, at the very least not seeming to be particularly offended by it anymore.

That doesn't mean he gets it, but he can sort of follow along at least. Seriously, though. Girls.

"You're trying to tell me that doing things to make people happy only works if you do it before they ask." He looks...a little unimpressed by that, honestly. "You do realize I'm not a literal mind reader, right? I have to trade blood with you for that."

[OPEN] We'll Take A Cup of Kindness Yet

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Richie, no

Kate, yes

Richie, why

Because...

Oh dear

I can't

I just. Yes.

Sigh.

Richie, pls

8D

/fin?