Got To Keep on Risin'

[Nina Batten]

Prompt List

• Treasure
• Introduction
• Party
• Drunk
• Shopping
• Halloween
• Drive
• Storm
• 67%
• Birthday

[Nina Batten]

S H O P P I N G

Nina checked the time on her phone, stepping out of the taxi and onto the street, trying to ignore the fact that she was late. She was typically on-time for anything work-related, but off the clock? Nina was "that friend" who was always at least 30 minutes late. Her friends had started telling her completely different times to arrive at places just to ensure she was not lagging super far behind, but it didn't always work. Today wasn't any such occasion, fortunately - she'd just said she'd meet Joey "around one" for some last minute Christmas shopping. It was one-thirty, so, it technically was still "around" one.

She ducked into the coffee shop, cleverly named Nina and Joey's, despite having zero stake in it whatsoever. He'd been stumped for a name and thought Joey's alone sounded too much like some weird Friends homage, which he'd only recently watched and definitely didn't like as much as the rest of the world seemed to. As she lowered the hood of her jacket, she saw him standing behind the register with the "silent investor". How he'd conned that much money out of the guy, Nina would never know, but she could appreciate the love of passive income, as Fin called it. She saw Fin grin broadly, and realized what was about to happen.

"Ah, shit," she hissed.

"Hey everyone, it's Nina!" Fin yelled, holding his hands up.

It had become something of an Event, anytime Nina of Nina and Joey's showed up. She heard a few cheers, mostly from regulars, while two random off-the-street patrons who had stopped in crowded her and asked if they could get a photo for Instagram. She gave Fin a dark look, then smiled brightly. "Sure, come closer and say, 'Coffee'!" she said, holding up a peace sign, like she did in every photo.

After they had left, she stalked up to the counter, slamming her hand down on it in front of Fin. "Do you have to do that every time I come in here?" she asked. "You know, sometimes I come in straight off the bus."

"Do you really think I'd try to get teenagers to get narcissistic selfies with you while you're covered in someone else's blood?" he asked innocently.

"Yes," she countered.

"Could you do something besides that Ariana Venti peace sign the next time? The page is looking a little stale. If we got more followers, we get sponsorships, and that means more money," he said.

"Who's Ariana Venti?" Joey said, hopping the counter skillfully, coat in tow.

"He means Ariana Grande," she told him, rolling her eyes at him.

"Hey, you get a little tiny piece of this pie too, you know, it wouldn't kill you to enjoy it just a little," Fin reminded her. Because, initially, she'd said no to Nina and Joey's, of course. Despite Joey being her best friend, it was a little too strange. So, he'd told her he'd give her 5%, just to use her name, and she'd agreed. Bills didn't pay themselves, after all. And, unlike her father, she wasn't prospecting to the guilds. On the contrary; she worked as an EMT and made only slightly-better-than living wage; it was her side gig stitching up hunters that really paid the rent. And she didn't want to do it forever. Or, really, at all. But, it was hard to see her dad without it, and so, she'd made a choice.

"Don't push her, man, next time she'll just give them the bird," Joey said, grinning as he put his hand on Nina's shoulder. He knew she didn't actually dislike Fin; they had this witty reparté that Joey enjoyed, because it reminded him of a sitcom. When he wasn't trying to force her to be photo-ready, they rarely had disagreements.

"Hey - any press is good press!" Fin said, pointing at them with one finger while the rest wrapped firmly around the coffee cup in his hand. "You two crazy kids have fun, now! I'll try not to empty the register while you're gone," he joked. Because, for once, Fin was actually making money off of a scheme (imagine that he called investing in a legitimate business a scheme) and he wasn't about to fuck it up. Instead, he turned to the new hire, and grinned at him. "So, Kevin, tell me about yourself. Are you more of a Hot Toddy guy or a Irish Coffee guy? You look like you could get on with the cinnamon." The new hire just chuckled nervously, sure that he had met this man somewhere before, but couldn't recall from where.

"I'm really worried one day he's gonna do that when we've had a bad call, Joey," Nina said, still a little irritated, as they walked down the street towards the department stores. She was surprised when Joey stopped, placing a hand on her shoulder to spin her towards him.

"Hey," Joey said, all business. "He would never. Okay? Get that thought right out of your head," he said, raising a gloved hand to tap her lightly on her blonde waves. "Because if he did, I would kill him. Okay?"

She smiled, rolling her eyes at him. "Why do you go from zero to a hundred and make it look charming?" she asked, giving him a light shove.

"I dunno, I guess, uh, lots of time to work on my character?" he suggested, as they started walking again. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat, looking up at all of the high rises. "Man, this place still gets me, how busy it is all the damn time. You know? Like, it's two days before Christmas, why are so many people out?"

"Because everyone waits until the last minute to do anything, and most businesses put things on sale in the final hours to try and push product? Plus, all the people are at work who also still need to shop, and they've been working twelves no doubt since Thanksgiving, so... basically, this is all late stage capitalism consuming its own tail as we all watch," she offered with a wry grin.

"Yeah, it was like this in the 80s too, just less electronic-y," he admitted. "Hey, this place looks kind of cool. I still gotta get a gift for Jamie, because I am an awful friend, and I couldn't decide what to get him. He seems like a vinyl guy."

"He is definitely a vinyl guy, Joey, and you know this because we've been to his apartment where he has showed us his collection of vinyls," she said slowly.

"Shit," he said flatly. "I forgot." Unfortunately one of the side effects of being where he'd been for nigh-eternity meant that sometimes, things just completely escaped him. It wasn't that his memory was full, it was just that sometimes the camera forgot to record in the first place. It was different than him forgetting to get gifts, and more like, still hard for him to reconcile having physical people around him again. Luckily, Nina never gave him any shit for it. Actually, nobody did. It was definitely a return to form from a life he barely recognized.

"It's alright, come on, I have a list of noticeable holes in his collection that I think you could do nicely to fill," she said, giving his arm a tug as she pushed in the heavy doors of the vintage record store. The warmth hit them immediately, and caused Joey to shed his jacket right away, while Nina favoured simply unzipping hers. The music of the Doors drifted through the store, the opening notes to Riders on the Storm playing over the speakers.

"Let's start over here," he said to himself, immediately making a bee-line for something he'd heard Jamie mention once. Nina followed him, pausing to glance at this or that, but ultimately along only to make suggestions.

After a few moments of chatting and browsing, Joey looked up at Nina, and then slightly past her. "You know that guy?" he asked, nodding.

"Huh?" Her mouth parted slightly as she turned, curious as to whom he was referring. She spotted Alexander at the window, with Corinne, and noticed that he'd noticed her. She raised her hand with a wave, nodding to Corinne, and turned back to Joey. "Yeah, he works with my dad. Guess we're not the only ones doing last minute tasks," she joked.

"That makes me feel a little better," he admitted. He glanced back up. "Who's the Fae?"

"Fae?" she parroted. She turned her head back around, looking again. "There's no Fae. They're vampires."

"Sure, the guy you know and the woman are, but the other guy is a Fae," he said.

She turned again, and looked back at him, smiling. "No, that's their fledgling, Henri." She said it the way he said it, en-ree, which made Joey snort. "Maybe they're a weird flavour because they're Ancients? All like, pre-crusades type."

Joey laughed a little. "Nina. Listen, I may forget things a lot, okay, but what I don't forget, is my Fae-dar. And that, my friend, is not a vampire. Ancient, sure, he's old as shit. But that's a Fae running a glamour making everyone think he's a vampire. And, I can't imagine why, but clearly it's for a reason."

"What the fuck," Nina whispered. She turned around again, but they had already gone, the little family. She looked back at Joey. "How sure are you?" she asked.

"Like, a thousand percent. Remember, I was the underdark's personal chew-toy for a few hundy. Trust me, it's not a 'flavor' I forget, Nina. No matter how much I want."

"I trust you," she said, almost reflexively. "Did you pick one?" she asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Yeah, I got, uh, two. Which one do you think?" he asked, holding them up.

"I like the left one more," she said honestly, after a moment of thought.

"Yeah? I kind of like the right. Eh, fuck it. I'll just get him both. I heard Dom and Wren went in and got him some fancy new camera stuff, so, not to be outdone here, but, I think I can do better."

"It's not a competition, Joey, it's just shopping for gifts," Nina said, walking with him towards the register.

"Oh honey, in late stage capitalism, shopping for gifts is competition," he said, and with that, he slapped Fin's credit card down on the counter. "With someone else's money," he added, grinning.