I7DT-The Quad

[Kyra Raphael]

Kyra was sitting on a bench in the quad, frowning slightly as she checked the texts on her phone.

[Daniel Uriel]

"Something wrong, Princess?" Daniel said, leaning over the back of the bench to peek over her shoulder (if she let him).

[Kyra Raphael]

"Everything is peachy." Kyra said as she deleted an unread text from Cassiel.

[Daniel Uriel]

"Reeeeally?" he asked, leaning around to see her face, looking her over appraisingly. "Is that the look of everything being all right?" he said in a teasing tone, not wanting to make everything too serious to get her on the defenseive.

[Kyra Raphael]

Kyra shrugged "Its as close to fine as its gonna get. Lord Cassiel was just asking us to have dinner with him again."

[Daniel Uriel]

He slipped his arm around her shoulders as he leaned against the bench. "Does he really make you call him 'Lord Cassiel'?" he asked.

[Kyra Raphael]

"What else should I call him?" Kyra asked as she leaned against Daniel, attempting to evade the question.

[Daniel Uriel]

"Beats me. Sounds like the sort of question you'd need to, well, talk to him about," he said, giving her a little squeeze.

[Kyra Raphael]

"Yeah."

[Daniel Uriel]

"But then again, I'm just a dumb orphan, so I really don't know anything about dealing with families," he added, shrugging.

[Kyra Raphael]

"You aren't dumb." Kyra said automatically "Its just....my father is dead. And he's dead in large part because of my biological relationship with Lord Cassiel."

[Daniel Uriel]

"I thought it was because of an army of Sentinels," Daniel pointed out.

[Kyra Raphael]

"If it hadn't been for me, she'd have made sure that they weren't there."

[Daniel Uriel]

"Well, then that makes it because she was a flaming heartless bitch, not because of you guys," Daniel said reasonably.

[Kyra Raphael]

"That doesn't meant that I get to pretend my hands are totally clean, Daniel."

[Daniel Uriel]

"Okay, if you start to pretend that what happened is in any way your fault, I'm going to throw you over my freaking knee and spank you, I freaking swear," he said, hopping over the back of the bench to sit next to her.

[Kyra Raphael]

"I'm not pretending."

[Daniel Uriel]

"Right. So you totally had everything to do with those Sentinels. Damn you for being born," Daniel said, rolling his eyes.

[Kyra Raphael]

"Would it be so bad if I hadn't been? You'd be happier, for a start."

[Daniel Uriel]

Daniel stopped, turning his head to look at her coolly for a moment. "You know, if you don't want me around, there are a lot less bitchy ways of getting me to leave."

[Kyra Raphael]

"Please." Kyra said, her eyes filling up with tears "I didn't mean it like that."

[Daniel Uriel]

Daniel sighed, deflating a little. "Then quit it, all right?" he said, putting his arm around her and pulling her closer. "I was miserable without you and you know it. I love you. Now quit doing this to yourself, all right?"

[Kyra Raphael]

"Its hard not to blame myself." Kyra said, starting to cry.

[Daniel Uriel]

"Well yeah," he said, starting to pull her up into his lap, and flipping someone off behind her back who was staring. "But you can see how it's not your fault, too, can't you?"

[Kyra Raphael]

"It doesn't feel that way." Kyra said, burying her head into his shoulder.

[Daniel Uriel]

"So you didn't have any right to get to know your birth father, or live your life how you want and how your parents had no problem with?"

[Kyra Raphael]

"I don't know what I want." Kyra said "I...my father is dead. It isn't fair for me to ask Lord Cassiel to play daddy for me. Especially when he's going to have his own children to raise soon."

[Daniel Uriel]

"Ah, who's texting who here? I don't think that you asking him is the issue," Daniel said. "I mean... look, I'm not an expert on family here, okay? But if I had some out there, I wouldn't go pushing them away because my grandmother was a heartless bitch."

[Kyra Raphael]

"He just feels sorry for me."

[Daniel Uriel]

"Now how about you, y'know, go see him and find out for sure? Seeing how you're one of the two people in the city that you can't lie about feelings to, and he's the other?"

[Kyra Raphael]

"I can feel him feeling sorry for me from here." Kyra said.

[Daniel Uriel]

"And you can feel me feeling sorry for you, too. Your point?"

[Kyra Raphael]

"I don't know." Kyra said "I just hate being a problem."

[Daniel Uriel]

"Babe, you're the only one that you're making problems for. You aren't blowing up his phone, you aren't pushing any problems on anyone. If he's going to be texting you and checking up on you, the only thing that you could do that'd be a put-off is blowing him off, right?" he said pointedly.

[Kyra Raphael]

"I guess." Kyra said "I'd think that you of all people would want me to stay away from him."

[Daniel Uriel]

"Yeah, because I like you feeling horrible, right?" Daniel joked, giving her a little squeeze.

[Kyra Raphael]

"Because he and your patron kinda hate each other?"

[Daniel Uriel]

"Yeah, but that's work. This is life. Gotta keep them separate, you know? Besides, Exodus is in Genosha and was the one who screwed up and had those damn Sentinels built, so... well, screw 'im."