wraithfelt

[wraithfelt]

luccaboi​:

IT’S BEEN TWO YEARS AFTER GRADUATING GALLAGHER ACADEMY.  the fact that he had managed to finish one degree   ( if you could call it that ? )   from one school in four years was a miracle in itself, considering it had taken him seven different boarding schools and five years to graduate high school. at twenty-six years old, caden had been in the prime of his life :   he had several job opportunities approach him, was able to live anywhere in the world should he wish, and his body – quite frankly – had never looked better.  if only it had been then that katerina hart had showed up at his door unannounced, because he would’ve loved nothing more than to show her how GOOD he was doing.  not just because she had left him during one of the hardest times of his life, a blow to both his ego and his heart, but because part of him wanted the girl that crossed his mind from time to time to be proud of him.

instead she arrives two years later, on the steps of his london home he didn’t even want, where his girlfriend of a year and a half had just moved out. when he hears a knock on the door caden actually expects it to be her, to pick up the remaining box of shit he had texted her about three days ago, a text that has yet to be answered. anyone in their right mind could tell that the remaining box of her things were nothing that she had any interest in coming back for – a few old records, a dog-eared paperback she had tried convincing him to read, and sweatpants that were actually his, but she had staked a claim in them ages ago. caden’s been having an out of body experience about the breakup, where his old playboy self wants to KICK the man he is now, one whose barely left the house all weekend in case she wanted to come back for her things, but he’s unable to fix any of it. the brief flicker of hope that comes with the knock makes him physically ill, but caden finds himself checking his reflection in the mirror just in case, before opening the door.

his heart drops into his stomach at the sight of kat.

caden may not know that she’s wraith, but she may as well be a ghost for all he knows. his takes a small, staggering step back in surprise, and while he wants to look like the spy he is – cool, collected, nothing can phase them – he feels like he’s transported back to his first year of gallagher, where all he cared about was enjoying himself and making a dent in the female population, and could not be subtle if his life depended on it.  she looks EXACTLY how he remembers her, just older and perhaps a little worn out.  caden doesn’t realize until now just how strong his memory of her had been, but good or bad, she had been a turning point at gallagher. she had been the one to show him that he was worth being there.

but what the hell was she doing here ?   

“ kat ? ”    there’s a grogginess in his voice, as if she had woken him from a deep slumber, despite it barely being seven at night. after working in the field for the last two years, there’s not a whole lot that can surprise him anymore, but this takes the cake.    “ what are you doing here ? ” 

Seeing Caden for the first time in years was a rush. The greatest rush. Ones usually reserved for hardcore narcotics, copious amounts of tequila, or whenever Taylor Swift dropped a new album. It caused her body to react in ways that went against all of the years of rigorous training, forcing those innate reflexes to not control her decision making. And yet -- here she was: palms sweating, shallow breathing, rapid heartbeat. It wasn’t until his staring ( god, did his eyes always look so piercing? ) got slightly uncomfortable did the girl realize he’d said something and she was the wide-eyed forgotten ghost of girlfriend’s past standing on his doorstep like a freak.

Smooth.

Clearing her throat, she shuffled awkwardly. Kat, he had said. It compelled a shiver down her spine like never before. The name felt so foreign, and yet so familiar. So forbidden to someone like her. What are you doing here. Man, was that a loaded question. And that was why it felt so forbidden. That life, as short lived as it was, was never hers to claim. Katerina didn’t EXIST. She was a facade disguised by a pretty face and a megawatt smile that roped in clueless people. People like Caden.

Although guilt was not an emotion allowed by her...ex-employers, she let the  green monster slip in if only for a moment, though her face remained as stoic as ever. The unfairness of her situation did not escape her, and the burden about to be put upon one of the only people she’d ever learned to trust was insurmountable. In all fairness, if she wound up with a door slammed in her face, it wouldn’t surprise her. But all of this, the memories, the lies, the longing over the years, it only reminded her why she tracked Caden down in the first place. Desperation.

“Hey,” she croaked. It wasn’t until she’d heard the cracks in her own voice did she recognize how dry her throat felt. When’s the last time she’s had water? Eaten? It was scary how she didn’t know the answer. Glancing around, her head swiveled, eyes darting around rapidly before turning back to Caden and his wandering eyes. “Look, I know it’s been forever but--”

With a quick huff, the girl pressed forward, almost FORCING herself in, but she wouldn’t focus on how quickly his arm dropped to let her through. Maybe later. Instead her cerulean hues took in her surroundings. Nice flat, decent furniture, not too many personal touches; a few takeout boxes too many piling up and a growing collection of empty beers accumulating on his table hinted at a possible personal dilemma. Or maybe he was just a pig. More on that later t o o.

After a few more seconds of marking possible exit strategies and hiding places, she turned back to Caden, who looked like he was getting tired of her evasiveness ( the crossed arms and furrowed brow were the dead give away ) but then again he probably got tired of it a long time ago. “I’m sorry to barge in on you like this. I need a place to lie low for...awhile. Is that alright?”

[wraithfelt]

─  @luccaboi​

It was hard dodging the CCTV. In fact, hard wasn’t the right word for the occasion. It was downright impossible. But that’s what WRAITH did -- she made the impossible happen. A full scale map of London with pinpointed locations of every piece of surveillance equipment loitered throughout the city, inverted to bring out safe passage ways to allow her to bob and weave undetected, led her to a row of villas on the outskirts of Kensington.

There was something about the area that felt...off. An iron wrought lamppost was spaced evenly between the closely lined boxy homes, one every 30 feet or so. Brown bricks were stacked against white window panes and rather properly trimmed shrubbery framed each as a decorative form of privacy. Every stone was power washed clean, every golden doorknob was polished to a sparkle. It was perfect. The type of suburb designed for blonde Karens with six too many cashmere sweaters, 2.5 children, and a prescription drug problem to go along with her husband's infidelity. It was seemingly perfect. An unsuspecting appearance to hide a rotting interior.

It didn’t scream Caden.

The girl was expecting some rundown bungalow on the beaches of Thailand, where he’d sit and watch the sunset with a cooler of beer as his companion. A spacious bachelor pad with a rooftop deck in Brooklyn, to help disguise the fact that he has three baby mamas and another on the way. Anything but this. London wasn’t loud enough, and it didn’t promise the adventure he’d always dreamed of.

Well...what he used to dream of. Blue eyes cast downward at the thought. The girl, who he’d known as KATERINA, had to remind herself that years had passed. Who knows the type of person Gallagher molded him into after she left. The memory was still fresh, though. Olive skin and darkened hair was contrasted against the backdrop of cherry blossoms the last time she’d seen him. His smile was carefree but it promised joy and mischief and a sense of safety the girl had never known until him. Their relationship might’ve been cut short by her sudden departure ( her goodbye letter probably only added to the confusion ) but that didn’t stop the brunette from checking in from time to time.

An algorithm she created alerted her to a culmination of posts, status updates, and news both from him and others that kept her in a semi loop. It made her happy to see that her leaving didn’t halt his ‘playboy’ activities. One of her biggest fears was Caden possibly treating her leaving without a proper goodbye as the same abandoning feeling he had after the death of his ex. He had been a wreck for weeks and the last thing she wanted to do was cause him even a fraction of that pain. While it hurt in ways she couldn’t describe seeing him happy without her, there was solace in knowing he was safe and moved on. A part of her knew Caden was a silent sufferer ( same as she ) but she knew that if you could pretend long enough, eventually, the pain fades.

That’s all she’d hoped for. Though she was here, standing at his doorstep and completely breaking her personal protocol to never establish contact with him again, the girl was banking on that even if he had moved on, some part of him would still care the way friends do. Because she was in trouble. She was no longer safe as Wraith, Katerina, or a dozen of her other aliases known by her organization and she needed to lie low. The girl had been notified of his graduation from Gallagher awhile ago, so even though she didn’t know his current employer or infield status, some part of her is heavily hoping that Caden could at least provide some form of shelter. 

Clearly she was desperate. And on the run.

For weeks she’d slowly found her way from the trenches of Serbia after her betrayal to the doorstep of someone she was pretty sure no one in her organization would know of. Her reports of Gallagher weren’t extremely detailed as she purposely made sure to leave out names of people she’d grown to care for. Jo was her first contact, but the lack of information on her whereabouts made her think she was deep undercover somewhere. Lou was a no-go; even though she and the redhead grew close, something told her winding up on her doorstep would end with a door slammed in her face or a punch to the throat. The girl needed something easy and uncomplicated. With Caden, well...who knows.

The brunette released a breath, completely unaware that she’d been holding it in. She didn’t realize until now that she was shaking, and something told her that it wasn’t the cold, brittle air that was making her do so. Here she was, a highly trained hacker and executioner to a criminal consortium responsible for dozens of terrorist attacks over the last 50 years as they slowly mold the old world into their own image by ways of igniting government dissolution and civil wars, and she was scared to confront and ask an ex for help. She almost chuckled.

Eyeing the door as she raised a fist, she zeroed in on the number etched on the outside. 69. Lips quirked. Now that was Caden. And with it, she gained the final courage to knock.