femmejosephine | A few explanations (Daisy)

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daisy

A few explanations (Daisy)

It had been a long week. She worked a lot most weeks, but it had been even more busy with everyone and everything recovering from the Purge. Businesses needed to be cleaned up, people had to go to hospital, and generally everything had to reset after a natural disaster -- or an unnatural disaster, in this case. She'd spent most of the first few days running on caffeine and meals on the go. It had reminded her of some of the more busy periods in her Section training, and she hadn't missed that.

In the back of her mind was that she probably needed to check on Daisy, but she hadn't done it yet. They had texted sporadically over the past week, mostly to confirm that the other person had made it through and was still making it through, but they hadn't seen each other. Daisy must have been busy as well. When Daisy suggested that she bring a bottle of wine to Nikita's place instead of them meeting at a bar or for some sparring, Nikita had agreed and said she'd order in some sushi from the sushi place they both liked.

They'd both had a few glasses of wine and there was no more sushi, so Nikita was feeling more relaxed than usual. Microwave had settled between the two of them and was purring loudly. She rubbed his little ears with the hand that wasn't holding a wine glass.

"Good idea," she told Daisy lazily.

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Daisy doesn't get drunk anymore. She hasn't in a long time — The Hunt at work — and while she usually pretends to so that people don't notice and think it's weird, she isn't doing that tonight. She's had three or four glasses, herself, and her belly is filled with sushi, and one of her legs is sprawled over the arm of the couch, and her free hand is idly stroking Microwave's thigh.

It took the cat a few visits to warm up to her, but just like The Bishop, Microwave doesn't mind her at all anymore, and it's nice, to just sprawl here and drink with her friend.

But she's here for more than one reason, and she drains her glass and stretches to set it on the coffee table.

"So," she says, settling back into the couch. "Halloween." They haven't talked about it. They need to.

“Happens on October 31. Costumes, candy, all that,” Nikita replied, although she and Daisy both knew that was not why Daisy had brought it up. But also, she was a smartarse and Daisy was well aware of that. She seemed to mostly like it, even.

Since they were maybe going to be serious, she also put her glass on the coffee table, but she didn’t otherwise change positions. She’d wait to see what Daisy decided to say, since Daisy had brought it up.

Daisy rolls her eyes. "Ha," she says, acknowledging Nikita's cheek. "You haven't asked about it," she points out. "...About me."

Nikita shrugged. She hadn’t asked, but Daisy hadn’t asked about her, either. They both knew Daisy had noticed that Nikita had not only been in tactical gear she clearly was comfortable wearing but also had disabled multiple threats without even getting out of breath. That was something they certainly could talk about as well, if they were going to be talking about awkward things.

“I haven’t. Am I supposed to?”

She and Daisy had been sleeping together for awhile now and they’d had plenty of conversations, but there had always been things they didn’t choose to talk about.

Daisy shrugs, realizing now that she isn't sure what she'd hoped to accomplish here — clear the air, maybe, except maybe the air was only cloudy for her.

"Most people do," she points out. "It doesn't bother you? What I... How I was, that night?"

“I’m pretty sure neither of us are ‘most people’,” Nikita replied dryly, but Daisy wanted to discuss this seriously, so Nikita would. Mostly, anyway.

“What were you?” She realized that could be seen as antagonistic, and she didn’t want Daisy to feel like she was in the White Room with the Twins about to come in, so she added to that.

“Seemed like you were a little … wolfy. But you don’t change at the full moon, so you’re not a werewolf.”

"Not a werewolf," Daisy confirms. "It's not... It isn't anything like that." This was easier with Hopper, she thinks. Maybe because she wasn't worried about him telling her to piss off. And maybe she doesn't need to worry about Nikita doing that either: she's calm right now, no sense of fear, and Daisy feels herself relax a little.

"It's a thing from where I'm from," she says. Not home — it hasn't been home in a long time.

"Huh," Nikita replied, because what else could she have said to the information that her friend with benefits was some kind of ... something that wasn't a wolf but was a little bit like an animal. She also considered, as always, what Section would have done with someone who could do that. She didn't think Daisy would like her life much. It was a good thing they weren't where Section was.

"Is this something you're born with or did you get bitten by something?"

"Not bitten," she assures. "But not born with it either, I don't think. Marked, I suppose? Metaphysically, or something." She makes a face. "I dunno all the details. One day I wasn't like this and then I sort of was. It's not contagious," she adds, in case Nikita was worried about that. "Not in Darrow, anyway, I think."

"If it was contagious, I think I'd have it already," she smirked, since she and Daisy had spent plenty of time together, clothed and not.

She wasn't sure how many more questions she was going to get, and she also wasn't sure how many more questions she wanted to get. Part of her was very curious, obviously, but another part didn't want that curiosity turned on herself. If she asked lots of questions, she'd probably have to answer them.

"I think if you were from the same place as me, you might do," she says. She hesitates now, because here is where Nikita might get uncomfortable. She's doing alright so far, but this could make or break the moment. "I know stuff, too, because of it. When we met, I knew you were a good fighter. I knew you could take care of yourself. I can sort of... know weak spots? It's hard to explain, a bit."

She didn't like hearing that her carefully designed and constructed persona had been something Daisy could see through and her first instinct was to hide that dislike. It was sort of like dealing with Caleb, maybe, and she tried pulling herself in like she used to do with him so she wouldn't make him twitchy.

"That's a handy skill," she replied neutrally. "Although I don't envy you knowing that about people in general. We're all Swiss Cheese when it comes to weaknesses."

Nikita becomes more guarded — not afraid, but wary and protective — and Daisy think that maybe Nikita's finally starting to get it.

"It isn't always fun, glancing at someone and knowing how to disable them. But you can do that too, I reckon. Just in a different way."

She could choose to ignore that not quite a question. She could choose to deflect, to redirect, to do all the things she usually did when she was confronted about anything she didn't want to talk about.

And if she did, it would probably be the end of her friendship with Daisy. Daisy had shared something personal, something that probably wasn't easy to talk about, and even though she hadn't done it in a 'tit for tat' kind of way, probably, there was still a give and take to friendships. And even without the very good sex, she liked being friends with Daisy. She liked sparring with her, teasing her, even shopping for yet more plants.

How many plants could one flat hold? Apparently always at least one more.

"You're not wrong," she finally replied. "I was a covert operative for an anti-terrorism organization."

It's more than Daisy ever expected to get, if she's honest. This was more about herself than Nikita, to show what she can know and do, but to have it acknowledged and answered feels like an accomplishment in itself.

"Highly trained," she comments, instead of doing something stupid, like thank her for not lying about it. "You didn't like it," she adds, but that's a guess.

Nikita nodded in acknowledgment of that comment about training, because there were lots of things that Section had done poorly, but training wasn't one of them. Three years she'd trained and drilled and learned, and then they'd been willing to throw that away because she didn't follow orders well enough. The further away she got from Section, the less she understood the decisions they made sometimes.

"I liked some of the people in it," she shrugged. That was true. And it also confirmed without confirming that she didn't like what she'd done or how she'd done it.

That wasn't the same thing, and Daisy doesn't press it. Nikita doesn't owe her even as much as she's already given her, and Daisy isn't going to make things any more awkward than she already has.

"Yeah," she says. "I get that." Basira, John. Martin, too, after they'd sorted themselves out here. She hadn't liked the Institute — none of them had — and she doesn't like being a Hunter, exactly, but she'd learned to like some of the people.

"I've mentioned Walter and Birkoff, yeah?" she said, because she was sure she'd referred to both of them in passing. There was Michael too, but talking about him was more difficult than talking about Walter or Birkoff. It was definitely more complicated. Some part of her would probably always want to see him again, to know what they could be without Section.

"They made sure I survived."

Daisy nods. "Sometimes you need that," she says, knowing that Nikita doesn't necessarily mean they protected her from bullets or assassination attempts. "I'm glad you had it. I mean that."

"You had some too," she replied, which wasn't a question, but Daisy didn't actually have to do anything but agree or disagree, if she didn't want to.

Some of Daisy's people were here in Darrow, which was fortunate for her. Walter she thought would be alright with Darrow, but Birkoff might feel even more trapped than he had been. Either way, she didn't get a choice about who arrived and who didn't, and she'd pretty much accepted that she was going to be the only one from Section to ever be brought here. It was part of why she sometimes wondered if this was all some weird afterlife.

"Yeah," she says. "Didn't know it, at first. Didn't want 'em, when I did. But I had them, and now they have me." It's a simplified, perhaps overly casual way of putting it, like she wouldn't burn the city down to keep them safe. In spite of the Hunt and everything, Daisy had found her people, and they'd found her, and she thinks Nikita knows what that feels like.

Nikita sipped her drink to give herself and Daisy a chance to not talk for a bit. They'd done a lot of sharing that they didn't normally do, so maybe it was time to let that sharing sit.

"I didn't want them either, really, but Walter definitely didn't give me a choice," she chuckled once she decided to talk again. "Gave me a nickname in the first three months he knew me and went from there."

Edited 2025-03-08 03:59 (UTC)

Daisy smiles small. "Good," she says simply. After a few moments, she looks over at her, then reaches and pokes Nikita's leg with her toes. "So, we're okay?" Obviously the answer seems to be yes, but she asks all the same.

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A few explanations (Daisy)

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