#nat committing several brutal murders and eating some people

[albatris]

hello, hello, sweet friends, dear friends, hi

uhhhhh

yeah, I'm late with the rental car update. it's wednesday. I'm so late it's almost thursday again! and thursday is when updates were originally meant to happen anyway! so uhhhh..... hm

hm.

anyway, I'm still exhausted from melbourne but I'm feeling pretty okay! hope ur all doing good too

this week's mood is I'm getting a tooth pulled on thursday :)))) and this week's jam is "coffee" by jack stauber's micropop

this week's excerpt is? part of a truly meandering little scene that may or may not end up in the final product. you can have it. I'm including the full thing 'cause idk this is my blog and I can post whatever I like even if it's kinda long yeehaw

not all my excepts are this long I promise

also yeah I know it starts in Nat's POV and ends in Quinn's, apparently when I'm drafting I write in the "third-person shitshow" perspective, whose only rule is "????? just do whatever"

anyway hey!!! I love you. have a nice week everybody

tag list n excerpt under the cut <3

Nat shut up and Quinn put their head back down on his lap a third time, still determined to let themself return to napping and make the most of their afternoon off. No sooner had their eyes closed than a new thought started to itch at Nat's mind. New, but not entirely unexpected.

He chewed on his lip. He drummed his hand on the arm of the couch. He tapped his feet on the floor. Grub slunk forward on her belly towards his jittering sneakers, readying herself to pounce on an untied shoelace as it flailed about.

“Quinn,” Nat whispered, and poked them in the cheek. “Quinn, hey.”

They sighed, and one eyelid peeled open so they could glare at him. “What is it this time?”

He hesitated a minute, then reached down to start playing with their hair. Running his fingers through those adorable blonde curls, letting claws trace along their scalp ever-so-softly... a go-to Quinn cheat code. Bound to make them at least slightly more agreeable. “I don’t want to go back to your place tonight,” he said. “I want you to stay here.”

Quinn released a short burst of laughter, which they quickly disguised as a cough. “No, I’m not staying here,” they replied. “You could not pay me to sleep here.”

“No shit, I couldn't pay you. You've seen my bank account,” Nat said, as Grub barrelled into his sneakers and bit at the laces. “Why not, though?"

“This place is so sad. Your mattress is all lumpy. This couch is from—what, a garage sale?”

“Savers,” Nat said helpfully. “Fourteen dollars fifty. Good buy! I remember it was really late by the time I actually got it back here so no one was awake to help me bring it upstairs and it wouldn’t fit in the elevator and I almost cried."

“Huh,” Quinn said, their nose wrinkling slightly, and they moved the conversation along. “Anyway, you’re always awake clanging about with pots in the kitchen making a full fucking meal at three in the morning and this place is so tiny I'm not going to get any sleep. At all."

Nat’s hand paused mid-stroke, unhappily.

“No, no. Keep going,” Quinn said, immediately regretting their bluntness. “I’ll be nice, I promise. Why don’t you want to stay at mine? I thought you liked my house.”

Nat began to trace circles in the fuzz of Quinn’s undercut, and they sighed in approval. “It’s Grub,” he said eventually. “She’s lonely. She misses me when I’m not here.”

“She’s a cat,” Quinn said. “Cats are independent. She’s fine.”

“You’ve never had a cat, have you?” Nat said. “Cats are clingy. Grub cries whenever I’m not home. Riley told me, and then I had to deal with that guilt spiral for a full week.” He pouted. “I don’t want her to get depressed.”

Quinn’s gaze shifted upwards to lock onto him, newly intensified somehow. “Just move in with me then, yeah? You and the cat. Problem solved.”

This time it was Nat’s turn to disguise a laugh as a cough.

“I’m serious,” Quinn said.

“Oh, I know.” The beginnings of a smile twitched his lips upwards, and he shut it down. A smile here was weakness. A smile was a crack in his defences. If he gave Quinn an inch they'd take a mile. “We’ve had this conversation before. We haven’t known each other that long, you know?”

“Yeah, but it’s the only way to stop your cat from being depressed.”

“You’re putting words in my mouth.” Nat flicked them in the jaw. “Anyway, I don’t want Grub at your house. You have too many vampires around. Someone might eat her.”

“No, you can’t pull that card,” Quinn objected. “You’re a vampire. You know better than anyone how stupid a thing that is to worry about. And why would any vampire go for an animal at my house of all places? They’re literally there for human blood.”

Nat did not return to playing with Quinn’s hair this time, and instead folded his arms with a huff of annoyance. Quinn huffed in annoyance louder and more forcefully to establish dominance, and begrudgingly sat up.

“No one is going to want to eat your weird ugly cat,” they said. “That’s how I convinced you to take her, remember? Even a brand new stressed-out vampire like you wasn’t tempted. She’s the single least appetising creature on the planet.”

“Look, she just... has a… unique scent,” Nat said, delicately. "But just because I don’t think she smells edible doesn’t mean everyone else will be the same. I don’t think you smell edible either.”

“Yeah, you do,” Quinn said. “You’ve just somehow convinced yourself you don’t. I smell delicious, thanks, and anyone would be lucky to rip my throat out.” They jabbed a thumb towards Grub, who mrrped in acknowledgement. “That smells like month-old moldy tuna. Kind of looks like it, too.”

Nat gasped in exaggerated horror and reached down to cover Grub’s ears. She beeped happily as she registered his touch, and rubbed her cheek against his palm, completely oblivious to Quinn’s insults. “Don’t say that in front of her,” he scolded them. “She’s sensitive. You horrible, horrible human being. She’s beautiful. She’s perfect.”

“Yes, she’s perfect for you. Two odd little grimy strays."

“Oi.” Nat shot Quinn a pointed scowl, then leaned down to scoop Grub up from the floor and into his arms. He cradled her to his chest baby-style and placed a tender kiss atop her forehead.

Then he was up from the couch, the conversation apparently over. He stepped lightly over Quinn’s backpack and disappeared towards the kitchen with Grub in tow. “We’re having paella.”

“Me and you or you and the cat?” Quinn called after him.

Nat ignored this and busied himself behind the kitchen counter, hoisting Grub up onto his shoulder so she could curl round the back of his neck. Quinn watched him in vague fascination as he waltzed around the kitchen, pulling pots and utensils and ingredients out, all the while humming some made-up little song to Grub that sounded like it consisted mostly of the words so cute, so small, I love you over and over.

It was both infuriatingly inane and infuriatingly cute. An unpleasant jolt of possessiveness twinged right through the centre of Quinn's chest. Nat was at home here. With his silly little cat and his silly little songs and his horrible thrifted couch he’d definitely spent a night sleeping on in the lobby and his clattering late-night cooking sessions. This place was privy to all sorts of private, fond memories and gentle routines Quinn wasn’t. They wanted their house to be full of private, fond memories and gentle routines, too. They wanted him to make it a home, because they didn't know how.

“Fine,” Quinn said. “You want me to stay the night, I’ll stay the night. But you have to promise you’ll think about it, okay? You. Me. Living together.”

"Alex will get jealous."

"Nat."

Nat paused to blow them a kiss and flash them a smile. “I’ll think about thinking about it, how’s that?”

@chaotic-queer-disaster @gnome-boi @polyacery @tracle0 @goosemixtapes @valence-positive @the-one-who-makes-negative-noise @ambiguousfiction @afoolandathief @thepotatowriter @mecharose @vellichor-virgo @flapuflapu @temmies123 @multi-lefaiye

feel free to ask to be added or ask to be removed or ask for my assistance in a particularly difficult boss fight. it is 4am goodnight everybody