Out of Hiding (Kenneth)

[Ϛ Harmony and Discordia]

A hooded figure climbed up the stairs in front of Kenneth's house, making absolutely no noise despite being clad heavy combat boots and cargo pants with chains adorning them. Upon reaching the door, a hand slipped out from the figure's front pocket and reached for the bell, decidedly feminine in both form and movement.

When the bell was rung, the other hand appeared as well, and they both removed the hood, almost ceremoniously, revealing its wearer.

Someone you might normally call a 'natural beauty', Harmony had done her best to destroy any hope of making this impression. Dark makeup and extensive ear piercings were joined recently by a tongue piercing as well, easily noticeable flashing between her teeth as she played with it, and nothing she wore in public could be considered even mildly revealing.

Still, the beauty shone through, whether she liked it or not. It was, to her, kind of a curse. Good luck was always nice, but this grace thing could be a damn pain.

"Hey," she answered as the door opened. Her tone was loads nonchalant, but anyone who knew her would pick up a bit of a sheepish tone as well. She hadn't seen Kenneth in a damn long time, and it felt weird showing up on his doorstep like this. But she had to admit she missed the guy, so when she'd gone to the Academy and he wasn't there, she had grabbed his address from Jon and headed right over.

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

"You're not pizza!" Kenneth greeted her indignantly, one hand on his hip, the other clutching a beer. Only Kenneth would be drinking before noon.

Despite the fact that Harmony was not pizza, it didn't stop Kenneth from greeting her with the appropriate... or actually, inappropriate... enthusiasm. He grabbed the girl with his free arm and hauled her into his town house and kissed her on the mouth. It was obvious the boy was already deep in the cups just by his behaviour, but Harmony would soon see the pyramid of bottles on the dining room table.

"Hey babe, long time no see! I thought you only showed up when I'm in a life-threatening situation, angel."

For better or for worse, Harmony would realize Kenneth Lorne hadn't changed.

[Ϛ Harmony and Discordia]

The kiss stunned Harmony, but at least she had the grace not to stumble over her words because of it. In fact, it really didn't show at all, outwardly, and Kenneth's second, more appropriate greeting snapped her out of it right quick. There was only the slightest of red tinges on her cheeks, and that could be attributed to just about anything, really. Especially when rationalizing it to a somewhat drunk guy.

"Yeah, well, I get bored when you stay out of trouble for long periods of time," Harmony quipped. It felt good to be here, with Kenneth. Not because of the kiss or any romantic feelings for him (or so she'd convinced herself), but because she was with a friend. She hadn't seen any of her friends in such a long time. Not since... Well, she'd never really gotten along with Ethan and Ensley, but now that they were gone, she realized she had lost more than just Seamus that day.

She'd have to go see him some time...

"Did you actually order pizza? I'm starving." She walked past Kenneth, threw her hoodie over the back of a chair and promptly sat on it, leaning it backward and looking as comfortable as if she owned the place. She smiled over at Kenneth. "Not that pizza will really stave off my appetite."[/b]

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

"Well, I was thinking about robbing a bank tomorrow, but you couldn't wait one more day, could ya?" Kenneth made a face at the girl and retrieved another beer for her. The Heineken was cold and crisp, just the way Ken liked it, and he finished his own so he could start the next one.

"Chyeah pizza's coming. Should be here in..." he squinted at his watch, trying to decipher the hands, and he chuckled, "...twenty minutes. Man, it feels like hours ago I ordered that thing."

Ken shrugged it off and flopped down on the couch, patting and rubbing his hand suggestively on the spot next to him. Another infamous waggle of his eyebrows and Ken figured Harmony wouldn't be able to resist him. The boy obviously wasn't trying to seduce her, or anything like that; he was just naturally a flirt and he couldn't go against his base coding even if he wanted to. Plus, he'd been surrounded by too much testosterone lately. All the guys at work, Dorian, and sometimes Jon (although Ken joked that Jon was his daily hit of estrogen). Harmony's curves, however hidden, were a more than welcome guest in his new home.

"Appetite huh?" Ken dove right into that one, "And what, pray, would stave off your appetite?" He grinned like the foolish young man he was and lifted an arm, flexing, "Did you become a man-eater in our time apart, young lady?"

The boy actually had no idea Harmony was older than him. She probably mentioned it before, but it never really registered to Kenneth. She looked a year or so younger than him; Kellan's age, and he would never fathom her real age. What he saw was what his brain let him have, and Harmony was a dark, smouldering temptress he called 'friend'. He could swear she got hotter since the last time he saw her.

[Ϛ Harmony and Discordia]

(You didn't specify whether he actually gave the beer to her or not, so I'm going with no. Hope you don't mind.)

The bank-robbing comment was met only with a trade-mark smirk; Harmony was much more interested in the beer Kenneth was holding than in his wise-cracks. However, she was disappointed to see he had carried what she knew was rightfully her beer over to the couch. At first she simply waited while he talked about the pizza, but when he sat down and started making silly faces and gestures, she rolled her eyes monumentally.

"Alriiiiight," she said, making a show of getting her chair straightened out and standing up. She trudged over to the sofa and slumped down onto it, not purposely avoiding Kenneth but definitely not making an effort to get close to him. If she knew him at all, she was pretty sure he'd sidle right over to her anyway, and probably wrap an arm around her for good measure. Resigned to that possibility, she held her hand out for the beer and waved her fingers around.

Eyes in danger of being permanently on the roll, Harmony sighed deeply at the man-eater comment. "You're a tool. I'm a demon, in case you haven't been paying attention. You know, I suck the life out of people? Food doesn't do a whole lot for me. And I'm also almost two thousand years older than you. Do you listen to anything I say, or just stare at me?" Her tone was chiding, but playfully so. At least, as playful as Harmony ever was. Anyone who didn't know her would read the tone as 'back off', but Kenneth would likely know he could push it a bit.

Harmony intentionally neglected to mention that the appetite she was talking about and the one he was talking about could potentially be sated in the same way. She thought it was probably better that way.

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

Ken surrendered the beer when she gave in and sat with him, and just as predicted he slipped a casual arm around her shoulders and dragged her closer.

"Whoa... so you don't eat pizza?" Ken blinked, registering this information. She sucked life out of people. He totally forgot Harmony had any demonic ties. "Huh. Well, alright. I'll eat the pizza, and you eat the pizza boy," he suggested, grinning his signature grin. He just waved off her 'I'm 2000 years your senior' bit, not believing anyone could be that old. Sure, his mom was probably somewhere around that age, but Ken liked to think everyone was the age they looked. The beer helped him dismiss Harmony's would-be devastating news, and instead when she asked if he ever listened to her, he fixed a stupid stare and gradually his face inched closer and closer to hers in a creepy, intruding manner.

"Huh?" He joked when he was right up close, and he chuckled before lulling his head to the side till it rested on hers. "S'good to see you again," he muttered before bringing his beer to his lips.

[Ϛ Harmony and Discordia]

Harmony graciously accepted the beer. Meaning she snatched it from him and drank the neck in one go. Her reasoning was that she was going to need it if she was going to cope with being so right about Kenneth the whole time she was there. But secretly I think she likes it.

"Of course I eat pizza. Who doesn't eat pizza? It just doesn't fill me up. I could probably eat a few pizzas, and that might do something, but I'd rather not. So yeah, I'll eat the pizza boy. Just let me pay for it." She wasn't actually going to eat him, something she assumed was obvious, but she did intend on sucking a bit of the life-force out of him. Just enough to make his knees weak; an effect that could easily be attributed to running into such a pretty girl.

Harmony refused to face Kenneth as his face drew nearer to hers, only keeping track of his progress vaguely through the corner of her eyes, but when he spoke, sort of, she palmed his head and pushed him away. "Goofball," she accused. She didn't protest further, though, when he leaned his head on hers.

"Yeah, you too," she admitted, injecting hints of 'begrudging' into the confession. She took another sip of her own beer as well. A thought occurred to her then. "What are you doing drinking alone, in the morning, anyway? Nothing to do around here? Don't the other two stooges visit?"

"Don't you have a girlfriend?" she thought to herself, on a deep enough level that she didn't even realize it.[/b]

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

He chuckled as they reached their agreement, and his settled back in the couch, watching the tv broadcast last night's scores of a basketball game. Her scolding merrited another chortle from the good-natured boy. Her question was rewarded with an indifferent shrug.

"Why not? If you hadn't come, no one would pass judgement on me, and it's surprisingly a good experience, to drink with one self in the morning. Part of my summer To-Do list," He explained, pointing to a poster hanging up on the wall behind them. He cranked his neck to look at it and narrowed his eyes.

"Yup, 'Drink a two-four before noon'," he recited, "and the next one is 'have crazy monkey sex with Harmony'."

Then when she reminded him about Kellan, his grin turned goofy and he let his head fall back and roll against the back of the couch.

"Yeah," he said dreamily, "I do have a girlfriend. I've been saving up a bunch of money. Taking her out somewhere nice soon. Ugh, gotta meet her brother too," he made a face, but he didn't seem worried about the upcoming meeting. Ken cast Harmony a sideways glance.

"Wanna eat the brother?" He offered, not at all sounding serious.

[Ϛ Harmony and Discordia]

"Oh, hey, I was there," Harmony said, sitting up slightly and pointing at the TV with the hand that held her beer. As the highlights reel played, she concentrated intensely on the screen, suddenly exclaiming, "There. That's me," as the screen momentarily flashed the image of her sitting in the front row of seats at the game. She didn't look particularly enthusiastic about it, but she was at least smiling. "It wasn't a half-bad game, even if basketball isn't my thing. I got that one guy's autograph, too. The big famous one." She didn't seem like she would, or could, elaborate on this, other than holding a hand in the air to signify height.

When Kenneth mentioned his 'To-Do' list, Harmony couldn't help herself. "Aw, poor guy; your goals consist of something incredibly sad and something that will never happen." She smiled evilly and lifted her beer to her lips. "It must suck to have no future." She fully expected some sort of retaliation for the comment, but she figured if she couldn't tease her friend, it wasn't much of a world to live in.

"Seriously, though; are you living here by yourself?" She tried not to let it sound like she was concerned, but really, she knew it wasn't much fun to be all by herself all the time, and she was less social than Kenneth. Far less.

sorry it's short. i'm not very inspired today o.o

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

Ken looked from Harmony to the screen. She went to the game?! He crossed his arms over his chest and pouted.

"You didn't invi-" but then Harmony's face was on tv and Ken clapped excitedly, "Hey, it's you!" he exclaimed the same time she did. He chuckled, and then shook his head. She didn't even like basketball and she went. AND got an autograph.

"From Lebron James??" Kenneth was a sports fanatic. He had a dream the other night that he went to a bar with Shaquille O'Neal to pick up chicks. The guy finished his beer and slammed it down on the coffee table.

"Who'd you go to the game with?" He demanded. He might drink by himself, but he'd never go to a game by himself.... Okay, that's not entirely true. If it was the season playoffs, and there was only one ticket, he'd be all over that. But really. Things like that were much better experienced with a friend.

Her taunting his summer list made him wrinkle his nose at her, "Hey, I have a great future. It's somewhere waay out there though," he brandished his hand out in front of him, "right now, I'm living the present, with you babe." That trademark eyebrow wiggle sealed his remark and he tilted his head back. Her question about living on his own made him shrug.

"I can afford the whole place to myself. I could rent out a few rooms, but there's no one I'd really want to live with, you know? Dorian's a prat, plus he's got his own apartment. Really sick place, but it's not in Seattle or anything. He visits and stays the night some times, but I could never, ever live with that guy," he made another face and continued, "Jon is still at school, and although I wouldn't mind him being here, he'd most likely prefer to be where he is. Besides, the kid likes his sleep; he has to get in a solid 8 hours every night or he doesn't function properly. If he lived here he'd have to wake up at like seven every morning, and I don't want that waking me up when I have to work at ten," the face he made now was less disgusted and more contemplative, "Kellan... well... we're not quite there yet. Plus she still has school, yada yada yada. Aaand the guys, Eiji, Kaylen, Draco, all them are staying at a Four Seasons or something."

Ken shrugged again and got up for another drink. The doorbell rang, and a grin split across his face. "You get the pizza, I get the beer?"

[Ϛ Harmony and Discordia]

"Lebron James? That might be it. I can't really read the dude's handwriting, but I think there is an L and a B..." she looked down, then, and before Kenneth would have time to ask what she was doing, she'd pulled her shirt up to her ribs, exposing a signature drawn across her toned stomach with a black permanent marker. It had faded a good deal since last night, but it was still pretty clear that it was indeed Lebron James' signature. "I didn't have anything for him to write on," she explained, "and he was pretty good looking." A teasing wink accompanied this statement.

She pulled her shirt back down and settled back into the couch. "I went by myself. I only had one ticket; won it in some contest I didn't even enter. They somehow found me at a motel to give it to me, too." She shrugged. This kind of thing wasn't exactly normal, but good luck followed her like a cloud made entirely of silver lining, so she was pretty used to it.

She listened to what Kenneth had to say, her gaze only remaining at the television for somewhere to look, as she was quite interested in what he had to say. When he mentioned Kellan, however, he stopped listening. Eiji, Kaylen, and Draco went ignored (for once in their lives?).

She wasn't stupid; she could put two and two together and figure out Kellan was obviously his girlfriend. And she didn't care. Why shouldn't Kenneth have a girlfriend? He was a pretty cool guy, definitely lovable, definitely good for a groan if not a laugh, and not bad boyfriend material from what she'd seen.

So why did this give her pause?

She was going to ask about it, to be polite (she convinced herself it had nothing to do with curiosity), but the doorbell chose that moment to ring.

"Sounds like a plan," she said, with slightly less verve than usual. She made her way to the door and put on her best flirting face, getting the pizza and her own little snack without incident before coming abruptly back into the room, leaving the delivery guy feeling dazed on the doorstep.

She flopped down on the couch again and helped herself to a slice of the pizza. "So... Kellan?" Harmony questioned offhandedly.

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

"Holy fuck!" Ken exclaimed as Harmony lifted her shirt up. He wasn't surprised how fit she was; they were on the same sports teams back at school and he'd seen her in her sports bra more than once. He stared at the autograph and shook his head, "That's incredible!"

He just kept shaking his head at her explanation. Winning a contest she hadn't even entered. She was always so goddamn lucky. Anyway, he got up to fulfill his half of their bargain, and brought over some more beer for the two of them. He helped himself to a pizza slice too, and passed Harmony a beer just as she brought up Kellan.

At first he was a little confused, his brows pulling together, and then it dawned on him. "Oh yeah! Wow, it's felt like forever, but you vanished forever and a day ago. Yeah, Kellan and I are together," he bit into his pizza and nodded, then opened the bottle in his hand with his teeth, "I'm supposed to meet her brother in a couple days," he added before washing down the mouthful of pepperoni with a swig of beer.

He put the bottle aside and replaced it with the remote, and switched the channel to some infomercial. It might seem a bit girly, but he wanted to catch up with Harmony more, and when the tv was broadcasting the latest score, he couldn't exactly devote his full attention to the demoness. Just a little bit of background noise would suffice.

"So... are you back?" He asked, and the question could mean a lot of things. Was she staying in Seattle? Was she going back to the Academy? Was she going to stick around and be his good friend again? He wasn't even sure what he meant, but he knew he didn't want her to leave any time soon.

[Ϛ Harmony and Discordia]

Harmony stared a little too intensely at the television while Kenneth explained the situation with Kellan and him. She was still listening to every word of what the guy said as if her life depended on it, but trying too hard to make it look like she wasn't at the same time; smiling falsely and generally just not living up to the amount of grace one would expect her to possess. The effect was subtle, but undeniably existent; Harmony was ruffled.

"Well, at least it's not the parents," she replied to the 'meet the brother' comment. Though to her, it sounded as if meeting this brother was a little more than a stepping stone alone the 'meeting the family' path. He sounded pretty important. Which meant, in turn, that he and Kellan were pretty serious.

Which was of no concern to her, of course. Just in case anyone doubted this, she took an unconcerned sort of sip from her drink. That would show them.

She raised an eyebrow at the switch to an infomercial, not quite catching the reason behind it until Ken turned to her and started talking. Wouldn't it have been easier to switch the TV off? As if to draw attention to this thought, Harmony continued to stare at the TV as if the infomercial was just the most interesting thing she had ever seen. However, some purpose came of this when the infomercial turned out to be having one of those 'the 20th caller gets such-and-such free' offers. Harmony pulled out her cell phone and gave Ken a mischievous look.

"Looking for a new set of knives for the kitchen?" she asked, momentarily ignoring his own question. On purpose, sure, but not because she didn't intend on answering it. She just needed a moment to gather her thoughts. Was she back? What did back entail? Things were certainly not back to the way they used to be. She had two deceased friends, and a third that she couldn't seem to find anywhere. She wasn't attending school anymore (she'd had more than enough of that). She wasn't living in Seattle - she wasn't living anywhere, technically. She was staying in a motel, but she wouldn't even be there for long...

She waited for an answer, phone in hand and her eyes on Ken.

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

"Yeah," Ken replied to her 'meet the parents' statement. His mind dwindled on this for only a moment until he was sucked into the infomercial, despite the original intention to use it as background noise. When Harmony picked up her phone, he chuckled, realizing she too, must have been watching the tv. He didn't even notice that she hadn't answered his question about whether or not she was returning.

"Go ahead. I'm never the right caller. Always the one right before the winner, and when I call back it's too late," he grunted, making a face. Of course, he forgot who he was in the room with; Harmony, the good luck charm. She was pretty much guaranteed to win that contest.

Ken leaned back on the couch and munched on his pizza, watching the tv flash the phone number again, telling its viewers to 'hurry and dial to be our twentieth caller!'. He shook his head as he watched his demon friend from a short distance away.

While he looked at her, he wondered what she would look like without the dark eye make-up. Probably younger, he imagined. She already had a rockin' body, but she never really wore any colour aside from black, and today she was swimming in a dark sweater. Had he ever seen her in dress? What was she wearing at graduation? Why was he thinking all these things? His mind wandered back to when she pulled up her shirt to show him the autograph. At the time he only noticed the signature, but now he wished he'd been paying more attention. Maybe he could ask to see it again...?

"You calling?" He asked through a mouthful of pizza.

[Ϛ Harmony and Discordia]

Harmony chuckled at Kenneth's statement. It figured the boy would have tried calling in enough times that he actually had some idea of 'never' to relate to. She wondered for a moment what sort of things he would have attempted to win, but she decided there was time for that later; luck or no luck, the universe wasn't going to wait for her to dial the number before other people started calling in. She had to at least try.

In answer to Kenneth's question, she punched in the number on the screen, struggling to read the damn thing as it kept flashing on the screen, and waited patiently for an answer on the other end. When the answer came ("Congratulations! You are lucky caller number twenty! Please hold for...") she shot Kenneth a grin and a thumbs up, but otherwise kept her focus on the floor as she listened to the details the phone was giving her, thus missing out on Kenneth's thoughtful staring.

Which was probably for the best, because if she had any inkling of what he was thinking, he would have earned himself a hefty punch in the arm.

Maybe.

After a long pause, she turned back to Ken, covering up the phone as she did so, and asked, "What's your address, dude? I forgot it already," before waving a hand at him to signify 'never mind' and pulling out the slip of paper that she'd used to find her way to Ken's in the first place. She read the address off of it, gave a few other details, and hung up the phone a moment later.

"Expect them in two to four weeks," Harmony said, turning to look at the TV again. "And I hope you actually want them, because I don't have a place for them." She didn't really want to get into that, though, so she grabbed the remote from where Kenneth had left it.

"You need anything else?" she asked with a grin, spinning the remote meaningfully in her fingers. "We could always spend a nice evening scamming the infomercial market."