#where the blood bond makes heather idolise kitty

[emjs-good-out-here]

I haven’t been able to write anything in recent weeks, but suddenly got a little flash of a scene the other night while thinking about Kitty’s relationship dynamics, so here’s 500-and-odd words of her being an insufferable little shit interacting with her ghoul.

Ducking under the police tape, Cam moved into the apartment, pace slow and cautious. He barely dared to breathe, focusing intently on the sounds of his surroundings, trying to pick up on the slightest noise of somebody else present in the home. Sure enough, after a moment, he heard it. Footsteps- leisurely moving across the adjoining room- and the sound of a drawer being opened or closed. Damn it, someone was here.

Rounding the corner to confront the intruder, he flicked on his flashlight, and illuminated...

"Kitty?"

The familiar redhead was perched on the arm of a sofa, looking completely at home, despite there being no reason why she would be there at all. Some kind of envelope or folded piece of paper was in her hand, though she glanced up from it as he burst into the room, her voice flat as she met his eye with a complete lack of surprise. "Cameron."

"Jesus, you scared the shit out of me! What are you doing here?"

"After hours property viewing." A brief sparkle of mischief flickered across her eyes, but she said no more, and it faded once again as she turned her attention away from him, and back to the paper in her hand.

"Riiight. You know that this is a crime scene, right? You can't be in here!"

Interestingly, rather than serving as a warning, or causing her to see the error of her ways- as perhaps he had intended, his words only seemed to amuse her. Her eyes moved back in his direction with a sharp glint, as a smirk tugged at her painted lips. "Aww, babe... no. I can't take a walk on a sunny afternoon. Can't enjoy my own signature cheese souffle. Can't have an argument without getting at least a little bit turned on... But I can and I will be in here." Distractedly, she murmured: "Give me a little light?"

Almost unconsciously, he redirected his flashlight, illuminating the thing in her hand, then frowned at his own action. He'd started to notice stuff like that more and more lately- that the more he was around her, the more he seemed to want to indulge her every whim. Was that because of what she'd done to him, or was she just starting to grow on him? He wasn't entirely sure. But it made him happy to make her happy.

When he spoke again, it was with a slightly softer voice. "Someone saw you breaking in. What would you have done if it wasn't me that had come to investigate?"

"Hmmm..." Kitty tilted her head to one side, lifting manicured fingers to her chin in an over-exaggerated show of deliberation. "I guess that I would have... seduced a cop? Maybe played dumb? Climbed out of a window if I was desperate? Ooo, or just, y'know... made them forget that they even saw me in the first place? The possibilities are truly endless, dear."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're incredibly frustrating to talk with?"

Folding the paper in half with a satisfied nod, she slipped it into her jacket pocket, then regarded him with a bright grin. "Constantly. But that seems like a 'you' kind of problem, if you ask me."

[emjs-good-out-here]

Actually, speaking of Kitty and her relationships with people; outside of the AU where all my Fledglings know each other, I don't know if she actually has any close relationships that aren't at least a bit dysfunctional in some way? Like, the people she considers the most important to her are her ghouls and Beckett, which are all relationships with some issues, to say the least.

Heather was Kitty's first ever friend, which aside from being kinda sad, is also pretty messed up since she'd not even really had so much as a conversation with the girl before ghouling her, so she has zero frame of reference for who she was before, or if she even would have liked Kitty back without the whole blood bond thing. And that's not even getting into the 'how much of her mind is even really her own where Kitty is involved?' debate, which is definitely something that is constantly on her mind.

Cam goes a step further on the 'I don't know how much of this person's feelings towards me are real and how much is artificially caused by the sharing of my blood and that's kinda fucked up' scale, because in addition to idolising Kitty, he also fancies her. He's overprotective and hero-worshippy towards her, and as much as she cares about him, she always has to make the conscious effort to keep him at an arm's length so she doesn't end up giving the wrong impression and hurting him.

Then, like... Beckett is the person she considers her closest friend (and the only reason she's still alive), but he just kinda blows in and out of her life doing his own thing most of the time, and she doesn't really know where she stands with him if she's completely honest with herself. She's always 110% ready to kill or die for him, but he's either oblivious to that fact, or merely chooses not to acknowledge it, which frustrates her, since she's never felt that strongly about another person before. Plus, he's a lot older than her, so as nice as he usually is towards her, she doesn't even know if he considers her a friend or an equal, really, or if he even should.