multiversallogs | Furniture shopping! [open]

"That won't clash at all with your hair," Mina teased her, gently. It did lack the usual edge of her life prior to Baedal, but there was definitely some of the old Mina behind those eyes. "Actually, I rather like the thought of Christmas. I can't remember the last time I celebrated it. I think it was probably the Christmas before your twentieth birthday. I remember your father gave me a new pistol."

Yes, she had loved that pistol. Used it until it quite literally broke apart in her hands.

It was her way.

"Christmas is never as fun as when you're a child though, is it?" She leaned against the wall, absently looking at some of the furniture. None of it was particularly her taste, but then again, it wasn't her room being furnished, so she held her tongue.

"A pistol," she whispered. "Speaking of which, where are your pistols these days?" Unintentionally, Jacqueline may have just asked a loaded question.

Jacqueline's hand brushes across this (http://www.lnt.com/product/bed-in-a-bag-sets/10240-519777/branches-spice-red.html) bed display, but shakes her head. It just screams 20-year-old. She might look the part, but she's certainly not in her 20s anymore.

"Back at the inn," Mina said, wrinkling her nose at the bed display. "Someplace Anna wouldn't think to look for them." Actually, they were in the most obvious of hiding places, under a floorboard. But frankly, Mina was reasonably confident that Anna had absolutely no interest in the pistols anyway. She had her own means of defense now, means that defied the logic of Mina's world.

She hated things that defied the logic of her world.

Unfortunately, lately, Jacqueline had become something that defied all logic. A part of her was pleased that Jacqueline had found some kind of happiness, back on the mortal coil. A larger, greedier, more vocal part of her hated it. Jacqueline had been her family, the person she related to most in the world. And now, like so many before her, Mina was going to have to watch Jacqueline grow old and feeble and eventually die.

That was the madness of Kindred existence. It was why she had avoided mortal company for so long.

Well, now they were inevitable.

"Darker colors hide stains better," she muttered, nodding to the bedspread. "That will be impossible to clean."

Now Jacqueline was whispering. "Are you -- not allowed to bring them around the city?" Maybe there was some sort of supernatural force preventing Mina from being herself.

She nodded to Mina's comment, completely oblivious that her aunt was being forced to re-face what all kindred went through in their first 50 years: the death of their mortal loved ones. Jacqueline herself had been terrified of Luke ever dying from age, and it was constantly a source of conflict when they saw each other in Chicago. She had finally convinced him to become kindred -- and despite all of that, despite everything she'd done to keep him alive, Jacqueline had now lost all track of her husband.

Now she was looking at an all dark-blue spread (http://www.elinenstore.com/products/King-Size-Sheet-Set-Cotton-Bed-Linen-with-Pillowcase-%252d-Navy-Blue-%252d-Dark-Blue.html), but it reflected more on her mood than her taste in furniture.

Mina examined the blue bedspread, nodding slightly. "Much better," she murmured aloud. "Although if you want a red desk, it might clash. Perhaps something neutral? Not white. Ivory or brown?"

Furniture, of course, was not Mina's forte. Shooting things was, but that was another lifetime.

"No," she said absently, walking over to look at a display of desks. "I just don't see much of a need to carry them. They only attract trouble, anyway. And I don't like taking them into the hospital. They're a bitch to sterilize, if you'll pardon my language."

"A nice honey pine?" she asked, poking around a nice, simple piece (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=honey+pine+desk&hl=en&prmd=imvns&resnum=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&biw=1117&bih=802&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=2750783225541809757&sa=X&ei=R4mGTtPNKK3H0AGw96jiDw&ved=0CHAQ8wIwAA).

"How is your work at the hospital going?"

"Now that is beautiful," Mina said, walking over to examine the desk. "Very utilitarian and it has a certain timeless quality to it." She put both of her hands on top of the desk and shifted her weight between them. Much to her satisfaction, it didn't wobble. "Decent craftsmanship too." She smirked. "I learned about about furniture when I was furnishing my tavern."

She opened the drawer, examining it for depth. "The hospital is going fine, I suppose. They haven't fired me yet, anyway. I think I'll still be happier when I have my own clinic. Better control over my own hours. And a haven far, far away from Anna will be nice."

"I do like this one very much." She ran her hand over the top. It felt smooth, but textured.

"Haha, how is living with Anna?" Jacqueline smiled. "I never imagined that you'd be able to stay there for so long. Now that Rosa's here, you two could probably room together."

Mina shrugged absently. "Living with Anna has been the most practical course of action thus far," she said with a bit of a sigh. "Although I will admit it doesn't help my nerves much. I keep expecting her to electrocute me in my sleep. I'd rather be on my own, I think." She paused. "Which is not to say I have anything against Rosa. I'm just...old. Tired. Set in my ways."

And she had been seriously considering torpor.

She took her hat in her hand, setting it unceremoniously on Jacqueline's head. The dark fabric contrasted nicely with her hair. Mina smiled slightly, although the smile didn't entirely reach her eyes. "Yes. That's fashionable."

Jacqueline nodded. She understood. Sometimes one just likes the way things are, and changing that status quo can be very disruptive.

It was extremely comforting though, having her aunt place her hat upon Jacqueline's head. She missed Mina, so much. Maybe she could come up with another adventure they could go on together, that had nothing to do with hunting Fae. What a terrible place Chicago had turned out to be.

Jacqueline smiled a winning smile. "It does. And I think I'll take this desk, and that bed from before."

The most inconvenient thing about wearing dresses again was that most of them didn't have pockets. Fortunately, God had endowed Mina with a suitable substitute. She reached down beneath the neckline of her dress, drawing out several bills from her cleavage.

"Let me buy the desk for you," she said. She hadn't even bothered to look at the price, but honestly, she could certainly afford it. She wasn't furnishing an apartment, nor did she need to buy food. It had been a long time since her last manic shopping trip. She wanted to put the money to some use and there was no better investment than in Jacqueline.

"Oh no I couldn't," Jacqueline refused. She owed Mina so much. She couldn't take her money, especially when Mina was trying to start up a clinic.

"What you if you just bring me an apartment warming present, when all of this stuff is moved in?" She smiled.

Dread clutched at Mina's (admittedly cold and dead) heart. Jacqueline wasn't planning on some kind of horrid housewarming party, was she? Mina didn't think she had the constitution to deal with that. It meant people. And pulses. And inane socializing, pretending like nothing was wrong while her world was busy collapsing.

But it wasn't about Mina. No, this was about Jacqueline's life and Mina would be supportive. And less self-centered, if she could help it.

"Aunts love buying shit for their nieces," she said, her accent slipping into cockney just slightly. "Why don't we call this the housewarming gift?"

Jacqueline smirked playfully, eyed her aunt, and gave in.

"All right. But when you get your own place, I get to buy you something too."

Mina wanted to say that hell would most likely freeze over before Mina was able to move out of the inn. She doubted very much she would live to see such liberation. But that felt very cold and this was meant to be a jovial occasion. So she did what she did best and plastered on a bright smile.

"My dear," she said, putting a hand on Jacqueline's elbow, "believe me when I say that when that time comes, I'll expect nothing but the finest of gifts. I imagine you'll be able to afford the best of the best, working for Hellsing."

Jacqueline laughed. "Exactly. You're getting a great deal out of this."

She pulled a sales attendant over and pointed at the two pieces she'd like to purchase, and the man hurried off to fill her order.

Absently, Mina watched the sales attendant. "He's attractive," she muttered. "You know, a few months before you arrived, I was fool enough to enjoy a drink with a very handsome gentleman."

It saddened her, actually, that nothing had come out of her encounter with Castiel. She had held high hopes that he might, perhaps, restore her from her deadened state. But such things were not meant to be and trying to fulfill that need always had a way of reminding Mina how lonely she felt.

"There's a very old expression among the Crone. You're probably too young to have heard it," she murmured. "It's written in Latin, but roughly translates, it says, 'A Kindred always hides, a Kindred's fate is known, a Kindred always stays in the dark and all alone.'"

Jacqueline reached for Mina's hand.

"Mina, you won't be alone. Not as long as I'm here."

She smiled.

"And now, you know you're going to have to tell me about this handsome gentleman."

It seemed a bit academic to point out the obvious flaw in Jacqueline's logic. Mortals died. It was the natural way of things. And now that Jacqueline had returned to mortality, she too would one day leave Mina. But why depress the girl?

Why depress herself?

Mina shrugged absently. "He's gone now," she said dully. "Sometimes, people around here just have a way of disappearing. But it's no matter. I've never been good in relationships. As Tom used to tell me, I make a wonderful wife, but a terrible woman." She scowled. "Or was it the other way around?"

Jacqueline looked concerned.

"Wait, you're saying that people literally disappear? Like, someone killed them disappear? Or mysterious disappear?"

Mina made an absent gesture with her hand. "Poof," she said. Obviously, she suspected there was plenty of the former option, but in this case, she meant the latter. "I imagine it's quite like the way we vanish from our worlds."

She paused. "Then again, perhaps not. Since I disappeared on St. Valentine's Day and Jones never seemed to notice."

"I could have sworn that you never left. You were there for my wedding."

But Jacqueline shrugged. No use dwelling in a depressing place and what it reminded her of.

"I guess in a place that randomly absorbs people, maybe it also randomly spits them out."

"An apt metaphor," Mina said with a wane smile. "'All we are is the spit of fate.' I rather like it. If my mother were alive, I would have her needlepoint it into a pillow. Gold letters, I think. On a blue cloth. Regal, for such a sentiment."

Mina paid the clerk. It was a trifle annoying, this business of worrying about a budget. She had been blessed back in Chicago, to have a fine paycheck to fritter away as she saw fit. She had no need to pay for rent back there, she could stay in the hospital. Nor, for that matter, did she have to pay for things like blood and booze. One of the few advantages of being with Doyle, she supposed.

"What else do you need, my dear?" she asked, turning back to Jacqueline. "Now that your furniture budget has been so generously increased?"

"Thank you Mina." Jacqueline meant it. Once she starts getting paid, and that will be soon, since she just started at Hellsing, she was going to buy lots of things for Mina. Maybe even get her her own basement apartment.

"An armoire perhaps?"

Mina nodded curtly. "Let's see if we can find something suitable," she said. "But do call it a wardrobe, dear. Your father would be sorely upset if he heard you using the French." She meant it more in jest than anything, but it sent a pang of sadness through her. Jack. She missed Jack so bloody much.

Looking at Jacqueline now, Mina couldn't help but remember the last time she had seen Jack. He was so unhappy, desperately worried for his wayward girl. They had spoken at length about it, ultimately coming to the conclusion that, indeed, the hardest part of love was letting go.

If only Mina could learn to take her own advice.

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lols, all the puns

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