The Making of Owen Harper

[Trillian]

Vincent didn't receive Owen's emotions - he wasn't even a night old, after all - but their blood bond was enough for him to hear Owen's sent thought.  He was surprised by the clarity of it, as he'd read a number of articles in supernatural magazines about fledgling mind powers.  Owen obviously had the drive and focus to be able to send along their bond.  They were intimately bonded, and apart from a couple of terrible misconstrued moments between them, they were normally on the same wavelength.  He also knew that some fledglings had a natural talent in certain areas - and it appeared Owen's was mental communication.  Funny, Vincent had assumed it would be the physical stuff like celerity and strength Owen was better at, given his mortal leanings.  Just went to show that a mortal's nature wasn't necessarily a vampiric echo.

I think you should feed now, before that thirst of yours makes itself known, and you still have your wits about you to learn, Vincent sent.  He could feel his message absorbing into Owen's mind in a peculiar way, alerting him to the fact it was successful.  How odd!  He hadn't needed to try as hard in sending, either, he'd found.

[Existentially Odd]

Just the thought of blood had his mouth tingling in a way that would have been salivating except it... wasn't, quite.

Yes!  Get them up here! he urged, unfazed by the fact that he was naked as he rolled off Vincent and sat up, facing the door.  One hand was on Vincent, stroking him like he couldn't get enough of what his skin felt like, the other was on the sheet beneath him, fingertips strumming at the threads in the material while he eagerly watched the door.

[Trillian]

Vincent looked at Owen ruefully, for he was in his senses enough to recognise that their nudity wouldn't be appropriate.  He was fairly sure Yumiko wouldn't care, but he was hardly going to appear naked before her just because.  He extracted himself out of his lover's grasp, picked up the clothes scattered about the floor and dumped them into the wardrobe,and pulled out two robes that he'd purchased just for this occassion.  One was silken and shiny, the other made from very soft bamboo microfibre, fluffy and full.  Both of them were a deep royal blue, though the silken one had a frantic design upon it in a slightly different shade of blue.  The criss-crossing of the threads were sure to entice Owen, but so would the twirls of each fluffy cord that made Vincent think of the gown as a shaved pompom.  They both smelled of the pot pourri Vincent had left in there for a few months last year.  A subtle dried country flowers smell.

"Choose one," he said, and with a grin tossed them both Owen's way.  At his head.

[Existentially Odd]

Owen caught them so easily that he surprised himself and ended up pushing them against his face... but he liked that.  He made more subtle exclamations of wonder from inside his faceful of robes as he rubbed each against his cheeks, plucking at them with his fingers at the same time.  He eventually slid them off his face to his chest, rubbing them there with a serious look of contemplation, one against each pectoral.

When he went to speak, he couldn't, for he wasn't breathing and there wasn't any air gathered in his lungs specifically for the purpose of being sent through his vocal chords.  He frowned, sucked in air and tried again.  "This one," he declared, keeping the soft fluffy one and flinging the other back at Vincent.  In a smooth movement, he then got up onto his knees and pushed his arms into it, belting it closed at his waist.  He doubted the belt would make much difference if he moved around too much, for the split would open and reveal his nudity if he wasn't careful but he didn't mind.  He'd never been afraid of stripping down in front of people and that had only grown once he'd started working out and developed the body he had now.

"Should I stay on the bed or go to the couch?" he enquired.

[Trillian]

"We should start with the couch, but if that's awkward for you, then we'll go to the bed," Vincent said, putting on the robe.  He noticed Owen had either forgotten or overlooked the inner cord that kept the first robe fold in place.  He went to his fledge, urging him to stand before him, and unbelted him so that he could do up the inner cord and then the outer belt, keeping the robe a great deal more secure.  It was a good excuse to put his hands on Owen again.  He clamped down on his worry that Owen might have trouble with the bite, and hoped that this concern didn't go zipping across their blood bond to Owen himself.  He was fairly sure he could block him off, but this experience was so different from what he and Lorica had shared that it was almost a separate relationship.

He thought of Yumiko and sent her a message to come upstairs.  He only touched her mind long enough to ensure she was aware before sending to her because she wasn't paying much attention.  He didn't think about what such a thing meant and dismissed it as Yumiko being Yumiko.  When she and Travis came upstairs - something he hadn't expected would happen - he was aware of both of their excited state, and Travis looked an interesting mixture of sheepishness, paranoia and guilt.  It was enough for Vincent to stare at him a moment instead of immediately sending him back downstairs.

"Just Yumiko for now, sorry, Travis.  I didn't make that clear."

"Sorry," Travis blathered, glancing over at Owen and doing a double-take at his eyes before escaping back downstairs again.  Yumiko's shorts glistened in the dim lighting as she moved further into the room with a giggle and a meaningful look at Vincent.  Out of curiousity Vincent scanned her mind to discover to his surprise that the sounds of his lovemaking with Owen had inspired quite a heated makeout and petting session between the unlikely pair below.  Yumiko had re-discovered Owen at this time, and was suddenly still - her eyes widening at the change in him, and the excitement from kissing Travis heightening her sexual perception of Owen.

Vincent looked between the two of them and wondered if Owen would move to her without prompt.

[Existentially Odd]

As Vincent fixed his robe, Owen looked down curiously, having given no thought to an extra tie.  He let Vincent do what he wanted, touching everything absently, as if his hands were newly-attached and he couldn't get enough of the sensory information they were sending his brain (which was mostly the case).  He was leaning against Vincent and stroking the smooth robe over his body when he was taken by the sound of feet getting closer.  And heartbeats.

He straightened off Vincent as they got to the door and he could only stare at them in fascination.  Everything in the room had been so silent compared to the two of them, they were a cacophony of body rhythms and his nostrils flared as the air they'd created rushed into the room to him and he could smell the musk of their arousal, their sweat, the saliva drying on their lips.  It was amazing and he tilted his head to marvel at it, grinning lopsidedly at Travis as he made eye contact.  When he went away, Owen's gaze transferred to Yumiko who was within his reach.   His head straightened as he held out a hand to her and when she took it he pulled her close so he could touch.

His hand skimmed across her bare stomach, amazed at how soft and... squishy she felt.  Like tissue paper strung over a parcel of wriggling meat that might break through at any moment if he was too rough.  He touched her glittery shorts at her hip and her top at her shoulders, running a hand down her leg to her stockings as well.  It wasn't sexual to him, he just wanted to know what everything felt like.  Her skin was what drew his hands, though, and his gaze fell to her throat as one of his hands held hers (his thumb stroking restlessly across her knuckles) and the other slid back and forth around her waist, pinching skin gently and prodding at the muscles beneath.

Without conscious thought, his fascination with her pulse and the delightful way it jumped at her throat had him manoeuvring her to the couch.  Once they were sitting side by side, though, he tried to lean down to her but found it awkward.  She was tiny and he felt larger than he actually was and every time she tried to twist he countered in a different way until finally he sat back with a sound of frustration.  Vincent had fed this way, he'd seen it, but it hadn't looked at all clumsy and though he hated the thought he was letting his lover down, he was beginning to crave the taste of her blood and he just wanted to be drinking.  "I think I need to be on the bed," he told Yumiko apologetically and then his gaze slid to Vincent, feeling like he'd failed him already.

[Trillian]

Vincent was going to mentally talk Owen through finding the best place to bite, once he got into position, but the position never came.  It would've been easier with Travis, who was a better height and who would twist his body in order to cuddle and place his neck right at Vincent's mouth.  Yumiko was the wrong size for Owen, who was even taller than Vincent, but he was pleased that his fledge could identify the awkwardness and suggest a change.  The emotions that came with it battered Vincent somewhat, for there was no holding back from Owen and the sire was receptive to him, in order to sense what to tell him.

You're not failing me, this part won't be easy at first, he assured Owen.  He'd been loitering near the edge of the bed, in order to sit across from them, but now he moved away so they could

"Okay," Yumiko said, and she was a great deal more reserved than Vincent would've given her credit for.  Perhaps it was the way Owen had touched her, or perhaps it was because Travis had likely done similar just moments before.  Whatever the reason, she was compliant and quieter than her usual self, and she kicked off her shoes in order to crawl onto the bed from the foot to the head, where she lay with her head on a pillow.  Vincent stepped around the bed on the opposite side to where Owen would lay, so he could see what was going on, and leant against the wall with his hands at his back.

[Existentially Odd]

Owen lay on Yumiko's right, feeling he'd be best to cross her body and drink from the left side of her neck.  Once he shuffled close to her, he leaned up on his left elbow and then slid his forearm beneath her neck, his hand cupping her left shoulder so he could cradle her and tip her at an angle that seemed to give him better access.  Although he kept his body in a straight plank on his left side, his right also grasped her left upper arm to cradle her towards him.  He was exceptionally grateful when she tipped her head back to look past him and he could focus on that throb popping rhythmically at him from her slender throat.

With a final hopeful look at Vincent, he leaned over and pressed his lips to her skin, hearing his sire guiding him.  Tissue paper over the most delicious river, that was what it was.  The heat of it made his mouth tingle and his teeth ache; his tongue prodded at the tips of his fangs and then at her vein, carefully aligning the two.  He pressed forward with the best of intentions but her skin broke far more easily than he expected and he sank his fangs in deeply.  She gasped and he panicked, pulling back so that he withdrew from the holes he'd made completely.  A spurt of blood followed his retreat and he saw his mistake, flinching as he pressed back down to cover the pulsing holes with his mouth.  It was a little too late, for blood had trickled down and onto the sheet but he was able to lap and swallow most of it.

Blood smeared over his lips as he settled in to drinking what Yumiko's racing heart put out and he was absorbed by the loveliness of it, the texture and the taste.  He adored the way it pulsed against his tongue and he drew hard on the holes, wanting to suck that life force out of her forever.  There was a need in him he'd never known before, sharper than sexual and more savage than simple hunger and her blood was feeding it in such a way that he couldn't imagine stopping, severing this connection would be a tragedy.

[Trillian]

Vincent began calling gently for Owen to stop, because he had another donor to drink from and Yumiko - as healthy as she was - couldn't give as much as someone like Travis (which Owen would discover).  He tried again, mental prodding for his fledge to stop drinking.  When he was ignored, he touched Owen's mind a little more harshly, and put some volume in his call.  Still nothing, and a very primal sensation poured off him.

OWEN! Vincent shouted into his head, even going so far as to take a step forward towards the bed, in order to grip his fledge and rip him off if he had to.

[Existentially Odd]

Owen recoiled from Yumiko's throat, cowering from Vincent on the other side of the girl with no thought given to the blood still seeping from her throat.  With an imperative to stop superimposed over his rabid desire to continue, the fledgling was conflicted and frozen in place, staring at his sire with wide eyes.

[Trillian]

He looked like a cornered animal and Vincent was so shocked by this that he faltered.  Mis-stepping and doing a kind of half-skip he reached the bed and knelt on it, his hand out towards Owen but palm out.  It wasn't a stern 'halt' so much as a 'be calm' gesture.  He then lifted his right hand to his mouth where he bit the pad of his index finger and winced while doing so.  Reaching out toward the wound in Yumiko's neck, he mentally began describing his intentions in Owen's mind.  She was dazed and relaxed, looking doll-like and drugged on the bed, thanks to her tiny smile.  Obviously the experience hadn't been terrible for her, Vincent was relieved to see.

He pressed his finger to the wounds, beckoning Owen closer so he could see as the skin knitted together and healed beneath the fat droplets of blood pooled there.

Lick her skin clean so she doesn't have to see it when she washes up, he instructed, stepping backward off the bed.

[Existentially Odd]

Owen managed to get himself under control, realising Vincent wasn't truly angry at him, he was just concerned because he'd been drinking too much.  It took a while for that to sink in, because it didn't feel like he'd had nearly enough, but as he looked down at the mortal again he could see that her skin lacked the healthy pinkness it'd had before.  It was more... muted, now.  He leaned down obediently and cleaned her healed skin up, reliving the sight of Vincent cutting his own finger to heal her wounds.

He would have to do that now.  Forever.

The thought of getting this right when it seemed everything had gone wrong (his name was still echoing around his head, it felt like) overwhelmed him and he looked worriedly at Vincent after he'd cleaned Yumiko up, anxious for his approval.  He sat her up as he did this, supporting her lovingly though he had no great concern for her, he just wanted to be sure he hadn't broken her somehow.  He removed his arms from behind her shoulder warily, expecting she might fall back onto the bed and that he might have to catch her, his gaze sliding from Yumiko to Vincent and back again the whole time.

[Trillian]

Yumiko giggled at being placed like a living doll.  Her gaze sharpened to focus on Owen, then she sighed.

"You're so pretty," she told him, sounding like a friendly drunk about to hit on someone else at a party.  "That was very nice, thank you."

I don't think we should let her walk down the stairs for the next few minutes, Vincent sent to Owen.  As soon as this message reached his fledge, Yumiko decided that going downstairs seemed a great idea.  She started moving towards the edge of the bed in order to climb off it, and looked very awkward doing it - like a swimmer in jelly.

[Existentially Odd]

Owen chuckled at her compliment, his attention soon claimed by Vincent's mental message.  He slid off the bed before she could get up and he took her hands.  "Maybe... you want to sit here on the couch for a bit and I'll go downstairs and get you something to eat and drink?  Did you finish off the juice yet?" he enquired.

[Trillian]

She looked down at his hands holding hers and giggled again before looking into his eyes.

"I like your face now.  You look more... mmn, there."  She rolled her eyes, knowing she wasn't communicating clearly, but surely he would understand?  Vincent was there to tell him anyway.  With Owen's help, she sat upon the couch, and hummed a soft single note to herself before slouching and heavily relaxing.  Vincent sat with her while Owen went to gather food as promised - not knowing if the juice was gone or not (it wasn't).  Vincent knew that Yumiko's 'relaxant' manner was typical of her reaction.  He'd been alarmed the first time because he'd never seen someone surrender to the dreamy feeling before.  He supposed she was as extreme as Travis was in his reaction - only he was the other kind.

It would be interesting to see how Owen dealt with that.