Saturday in the Park, with Issues (rp for Lindsey)

[tm_darla]

It's odd. Darla doesn't believe she has any particular attachment to Boston, or indeed other cities; if you live long enough, they all become places to leave, some more enjoyable than others, true, but she hasn't thought of any place as "home" since centuries

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[evilhandissue]

"You know smoking is bad for your health."

Lindsey had seen her walking by when he had gotten his cup of coffee at the local vendor. After what happened last night... yeah, best we not think on that.

But with that, and having to jump right back into his job that day with two meetings of past clients, a walk through the park was nice to relax with. Seeing Darla... that had made it all the better.

So yeah, he stalked her a bit, finding the right time to make his presence known. And if it kept her from putting that cancer stick between her lips, he would do so.

[tm_darla]

"And here I thought you'd enable me in my addiction," Darla says, with a small, but genuine smile. She hasn't seen him since Kara's party, and wrapped up in a rather complicated mixture of cat and mouse feelings and attractions, there is the odd fact Lindsey McDonald is one of the few people she genuinenly likes.

Besides, she's careful about being at the top of her game with most people, and it's not that easy if you have concerns that have no promising solutions. Lindsey has the advantage of already having seen her vulnerable; genuinenly so, not just acted for his benefit. Sometimes she resents this, but right now, she finds it relaxing.

"Well," she says, "in the interest of my health. How about a stroll, Councillor?"

Her left hand is still holding the cigarette, fingers twisting and twirling it, either playfully or nervously; it depends, as with much about Darla, on the eye of the spectator.

[evilhandissue]

"Not an addiction that would take you from this earth in a way that's not becoming of you." He gave her that soft smile that only certain people ever see, Darla being one of maybe three women in the past eight years that have brought it out of him.

"I'd love to. I think there's a small street fair taking place a few blocks over. Would you care to take a stroll through?"

[tm_darla]

She has to laugh, genuinenly amused, which she hadn't thought she would be about this particular subject, because her resiring by Drusilla is one of the few things she actually could have killed him for. But he hadn't feared death, and after the wine cellar, Darla thinks they were even.

"Trust you to ensure I make a beautiful corpse," she says, and nods, taking his arm. "Let's go there."

He gives her that vulnerable smile of his, and she wonders. He saw her kill. He also saw her cry and barely conscious as she tried to figure out what had happened to her while she was locked in a cage. And now he has made the transition himself.

"Lindsey," Darla says abruptly, in a switch of moods without warning he might recall from the time she smashed her mirrors, "who do you think I am? Do you think I'm human just because I have a pulse and I breathe? When you look at me, do you really see a human being?"

[tm_darla]

"That's trickier thank you it sounds," Darla says, regarding the readjustment to being alive and among old... aquaintances. "Believe me, I know. But I actually wasn't speaking in metaphor."

They've reached one of the booths that sell food by now, hot chestnuts, in fact, or, to use the proper Italien term, maroni.

Thinking of what Cordelia recently told her when Darla asked her about the parasite Lindsey and Eve used on Angel, she makes an educated guess and says, nodding towards the chestnuts:

"If I were to buy you a snack, would you be eating for two?"

[evilhandissue]

His eyebrow shot up in confusion, and then he closed both eyes as the heart comment and this one connected in his head. Figures that she would have noticed the wince from when he had gotten his wallet.

"For one. I don't think it actually eats anything."

His eyes steeled a bit, not really wanting to think about his job at the moment. Why did everything always have to come back to Wolfram and Hart eventually?

[tm_darla]

"Hm," says Darla. So there is an "it" on his chest, she guessed right. She wonders whether the Senior Partners did this to him, or whether it was voluntary.

(In a remote corner of her mind, she's also relieved she made the earlier decision not to have sex with him today, because really, threesomes need to consist of three agreeable bodies to be fun. Parasites just spoil everything.)

If it was the Senior Partners, though, though might be listening in right now. She makes a quick decision. The following offer is by no means out of the goodness of her heart or charitable, she tells herself. It's because she likes Lindsey, and it doesn't cost anything to ask.

"I could still get the chestnuts out of the fire for you," she says. "I'm rather good at that."

Which to an intelligent boy like Lindsey McDonald hopefully translates as: I could help you get rid of that if you're not doing this voluntarily, and I'm phrasing it like this because I'm not sure the Senior Partners aren't using it as a listening device.

[evilhandissue]

Lindsey smiled, grateful for her concern towards his well being. "It's fine, Darla. I wouldn't want you to get burned. My little friend leaves on Friday, and after his visit is over, my job will be a lot easier and fulfilling."

He wasn't sure he wanted Darla to know he was in the running to take over as Head of Special Projects, especially being that her family tended to be one of those projects.

"I appreciate the offer though."