Roleplay City
Infusco => INFUSCO: Enter The Shadows => Meadowcrest Woods => Topic started by: Existentially Odd on September 10, 2011, 12:03:07 AM
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They\'d picked the highest point in the cliffs set within the woods - a place Indie had been numerous times in his time in the city - and set up two sets of rope upon which to abseil down them. One thing Indie didn\'t ever half-ass was the safety aspects of his fun; sure, there was the thrill arising from the risk of death, but he wasn\'t about to help that along in any way. He and Will had been at their current spot almost half an hour, just applying anchors, checking descenders and creating safety backups.
Thankfully, the night had begun fairly well, all things considered. Indie kept smiling at Will - he could feel it on his foolish face and wanted to wipe it off, he really did, but every time he tried, he\'d think of Will promising he wouldn\'t leave him without warning and it came back again - and was being a bit nicer to him than usual, but that was it. He barely recalled the awkwardness and anger after the sex the night before and only good feelings remained.
"Wanna\' race down?" he grinned at Will, doing a final check on his Prusik knots before he straightened up and tugged playfully at Will\'s locked carabiner. It was near his crotch... but that was the playful part, right? The blonde was seeming a little distracted now - though he\'d had it pretty together after he\'d come back with some blood in him at the start of the night - and Indie wasn\'t sure why. He doubted his friend was nervous, they\'d done this before, but there seemed something a little... off, suddenly, and a joke seemed to be required.
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Will had been up and showered before the sun was fully set - although it had been mighty tempting to just stay curled up with Indie for the whole day. He knew Indie wanted to go out to the cliffs, and Will needed to feed so there was no point making Indie wait around for him to feed when they could be getting moving. As soon as it was safe to go outside Will had gently woken Indie to let him know he was going to feed and had been back before long. He’d managed to find someone out on an evening jog to pull into a dark alleyway and drink from easily enough and he’d drunk deeply - if Indie did want a repeat Will didn’t want to have to tell him no.
It wasn’t until they were almost at the spot Indie had picked out for them that Will began to feel slightly edgy. This was closer to where his fledgling had taken up residence than he’d realised but now he could feel the tug in her direction. No doubt she would feel him nearby too. He’d told her he would give her some space - hanging around on the edge of her consciousness might not be going about that the right way.
Anna getting pissed and storming in would definitely not be a good way for her and Indie to meet and Will didn’t want them meeting at all just yet. Not until he got it straight in his own head what he was feeling towards her. Having Indie’s opinion to influence his own would not be helpful.
“Hmm?” he murmured in response to Indie’s question, barely realising he’d been gazing off into the woods in Anna’s direction until the intimate tug at his harness came. His focus flickered back towards the redhead and he couldn’t help but smile at the giddy grin Indie had been wearing all evening. He loved seeing him so happy and it helped centre him a little better.
“Sorry kid, I was miles away. Did you say race? Sure,” he said with a smile which was possibly a little too bright. He didn’t wanted to explain why he was distracted - if Indie knew how close they were to Anna he might get it into his head that they should go visit her.
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The forgetful vampire\'s grin skewed to something a little less genuine and a little more concerned but he didn\'t say anything as they moved to their positions at the top of the fifty metre cliff. Will was suddenly not quite alright but he didn\'t think it was anything he\'d done, not tonight anyway. It seemed unlikely that it was even anything to do with last night, in fact, otherwise wouldn\'t it have surfaced before now? Either way, the blonde wasn\'t focussed and Indie was beginning to really want to know why.
"To make it fair, you count us in," he told his companion, yanking at the harness fitted around his own jeans before he pulled his gloves on just a little tighter (a useless gesture since they were highly specialised and sleekly fitted) and shoved the sleeves of his lightweight, teal coloured jumper up to his elbows. "I\'ll kick your ass either way, but at least you can\'t claim any advantage if you do the counting," he smirked, dropping Will a teasing wink. Indie gathered his guide rope and walked backwards to the edge of the cliff, ready to fling himself back over it as soon as Will stopped counting. He had no idea what - or who - awaited them at the bottom.
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Will saw the change in Indie’s face and knew it was because he was acting weird. He told himself to snap out of it and followed the redhead to the edge of the cliff. Maybe he was being stupid, but it still felt like there was something wrong, or could go wrong quickly.
He would usually have been giving back banter, giving a playful shove near the edge which the safety conscious redhead probably wouldn’t have liked - although at least if something happened to one of them there was the other to take care of things and make sure they were safe before daylight.
“Whatever. You just want an excuse for when you lose,” Will said, although there wasn’t the usually spark behind it. He glanced down at the ropes, running them through his own gloved fingers. All his equipment had been bought on Indie’s advice - since borrowing each others things usually ended up with someone missing out on something important. And really it was fun having someone help him spend his money, especially when it made it easier for them to spend time hanging out.
“Ready? Three… two… one!” Wlliam shouted, jumping backwards on one and for a second forgetting the niggle as Indie followed him and he gave a laugh as they began their speedy descent.
It wasn’t until about half way down that it suddenly returned and Will realised Anna was a lot closer than he’d realised. Had he just been distracted by Indie and not noticed her getting closer? Or had she suddenly sped up coming in their direction? The two vampires had been head and head on the decent, but Will missed his footing as he instinctively turned to try to look around, trying to spot her.
The blonde swore as he crashed into the cliff, scraping off a good layer of skin from his bare arm since he’d gone with just a white t-shirt tonight and Will let himself just hang for a few seconds. He wasn’t scared of Anna, but this was his time with Indie and she wasn’t supposed to be here. More slowly this time, Will continued downwards, half wanting to get there quickly to stop any chance of Anna and Indie talking, but trying to delay the moment he had to watch the two of them together. Maybe she couldn’t even come out - maybe she’d just skulk in the trees and then disappear again without talking. Maybe Indie didn’t even need to know.
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If Anna had been able to access her sire\'s thoughts, she might\'ve been accused of coming out of hiding just to spite him, but it was annoyance that drove her from behind the tree she\'d peeked around as the two men began rappelling down the cliff\'s face. Why was William there, and not even alone, but with another vampire? He\'d promised her time - respite from his presence - but here he was, dressed and equipped ridiculously, throwing himself off cliffs. And not just any cliff, but a cliff within minute\'s running time from her home.
Barefoot because she\'d left her hiking boots behind in her hurry to reach William and the other she sensed before they moved on, she walked toward them carefully, not making many sounds for even even vampire ears to pick out. She was wearing the same thing she\'d been since she\'d come to the city (black tank-top with jeans), and one would be able to see that easily enough. With how likely she was to climb trees and wrestle with bears, her clothing was frayed, faded and in desperate need of replacement.
She didn\'t seem aware of it, however, with how regally she held herself once she came to a stop several feet behind the russet-haired vampire and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. She had her long, graceful neck tilted back so she could watch William dangling above her, but was very aware of the other vampire to her right and every muscle was coiled in case she needed to dart away from him.
"You couldn\'t find another cliff in this entire forest?" she questioned, her dark eyes narrowed and flitting from her sire to the younger (though not younger than her, she sensed) vampire, then back again.
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It was the redhead\'s turn to be thrown off his game as a voice came out of nowhere... somewhere behind and to his left. He\'d been intently watching Will, worried that something had happened to snag him around halfway down - especially when his friend\'s descent had slowed thereafter. He hadn\'t heard the preternaturally soft footsteps of the female and her words caused him to spin rapidly to face her, an expression of shock on his face. His nostrils flared when he spied her, unable to smell her due to the lack of wind but trusting what his eyes saw; she was a vampire.
Needing a moment to gather his tongue enough to respond, he looked her over and got a feeling about her. The way she was looking from him to Will and back... they\'d invaded her territory, it seemed, but there was more to it, he felt. There weren\'t that many female vampires around his age in the city and if he\'d ever seen this stunning creature, he would\'ve remembered. He\'d been in these woods, at these cliffs, numerous times, too, and she\'d never come out to bang her ownership drum before tonight. That meant she was new to the city. Like Will\'s fledge was. The thought had his expression darkening into a scowl, though he made no other moves towards her.
"This is the highest cliff in the forest," he told her slowly, his mind working fast enough that it slowed his speech into something deliberate and contemplative while he eyed her off. "The best one to abseil down," he clarified, in case she couldn\'t see what they were doing and understand the clear advantage of coming to this particular bit of rock. "What\'s it to you?" he challenged, his russet eyes flaring bluer as he narrowed them at her.
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Will landed on his feet as Indie spoke to Anna and he took a second to unhook himself, finding it took him longer than usual in his hurry. He could already feel his arm healing as he turned to step up beside his friend, facing his fledgling.
“Anna, I didn’t realise how close this place is to your home until we got here. It was not my intention to disturb you tonight. I apologise,” he said, lightly touching Indie’s shoulder as he spoke, hoping to calm the redhead. He didn’t want the two to get off on a bad footing and knew how much Anna may overreact to all of this. Normally he wouldn’t be so apologetic if he was with either of them alone, but this was already looking bad.
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The only response Indie got from her was a very unladylike snort of disbelief. Did he really think she was the one that needed to explain herself? From the creek that ran alongside the cabin she slept in to the very cliff they\'d abseiled down, she\'d laid claim to the part of the forest they stood in. They were trespassing on her land, not the other way around.
William seemed aware of that, though, with how immediately he\'d sought to appease her with an apology instead of antagonizing her further (the same certainly couldn\'t be said for his companion). She worked it over in her mind, her lips pursed and her eyebrows knitted until she finally decided she could forgive him for his intrusion.
"I wasn\'t expecting you," she said, offering it up as an apology of her own. The actual words, \'I\'m sorry,\' rarely parted her lips, largely because she felt saying it needlessly made it so one made it a habit to apologize for things they weren\'t even really sorry for. "Or you. Who are you?" Her gaze swung to the other man. She hadn\'t missed the familiar way William had touched him and was curious what he meant to her sire.
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Her tone irked him and so the redhead bristled, his shoulders straightening back, his casual stance coming together as he pulled himself up to his full height and his gloved hands clasping the harness at his waist (just above his groin, naturally). The smile that drew up one corner of his mouth and made his eyes glint was evidence of the fifty sarcastic and provocative comments that flew through his mind the moment she demanded so unceremoniously to know who he was, and he opened his mouth to answer her as quickly as he could.
Will\'s hand on his shoulder, though... that stopped any of it coming out of him, especially when he felt the grip tighten in warning. Well. Fuck her. Though he had promised Will he\'d be nice to her. Momentarily, his smirk dropped and he scowled as his mouth closed again and he tried desperately to think of something to say that would show he was his own man and Will didn\'t have his balls in a vice. In any way. Shit.
"He calls me Indie," he settled on, jerking his head towards Will, as if she couldn\'t figure out who \'he\' was. Peeling his right glove off with his left hand, he took a step towards her and held it out for her to shake (though those arms folded mutinously beneath her breasts didn\'t hint that she\'d oblige him). "Anna," he said her name, giving her a nod and suddenly the smirk was back, as he put together what he\'d just said. Indie. Anna. His head tilted as he looked into her dark eyes, quite naturally finding his own lewd personality even when he was behaving. "I guess you and I were destined to come together, huh?"
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Anna looked down at his outstretched hand, considering what to do with it. She wasn\'t unaware of the custom, but she didn\'t know whether or not she wanted to oblige him. Even the thought of his hand grasping hers made her upper lip snarl up unconsciously. He was practically leering at her, and she did not appreciate being made to feel like a package of raw hamburger meat in a fluorescent lit display. Not at all.
She took a step back, her nostrils flaring and her jaw sawing side to side before it settled again. Her arms remained crossed. "William calls you Indie? What does everyone else call you?"
She had a few guesses... none were flattering.
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Indie\'s hand lowered slowly back towards his harness again, his lips pressing together in a disapproving line and his eyes glittering angrily as he watched her take a step back from him. Like there was something wrong with him, all because of a little joke. And she\'d left him hanging, like he was some asshole beneath her filthy bare feet. Fuck that.
"Oh, anything they like, as long as it\'s not late for dinner, right?" he told her lightly, the words an old joke that he couldn\'t have placed if someone had asked him where he\'d heard them; it was just something to throw at her that wasn\'t abuse, and gave him an excuse to turn his back on her and stalk away.
As he passed Will, he threw a glare at him that was meant to say, \'This bitch? I fucking tried, man,\' but was more a seething expression of hurt and indignation that she\'d flat out rejected his civil gesture. He\'d done his part, though, and all he was interested in was watching Will interact with her anyway, not do it himself, so fuck it.
He could do that well enough from where their equipment was sitting on the ground. He strode over to it, going around the far side and hunkering down over it, pretending he was intently interested in something within one of the bags. His and Will\'s motorbikes were at his back and he was facing his friend and the fledgling bitch from where he squatted, pulling on his glove and fussing with unused ropes and other equipment thereafter. His gaze flickered incessantly from what he was pretending an interest in to the two of them though, watching and learning everything he could.
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Will had let his hand drop away from Indie’s shoulder as the redhead had stepped forwards to offer Anna, a smile drifting across his lips at the word play, although he knew Anna wouldn’t get it. And apparently she had no intention of trying to be civil with his friend. He glanced over his shoulder to where Indie had busied himself messing about with their stuff, before stepping a little closer to Anna, glancing down at his arm with a frown and picking out a jagged bit of rock which had managed to become imbedded before watching it heal.
“So tonight you’re going to be a bitch? I thought we had made a little progress last night,” he said, lifting his grey eyes to meet hers after wiping away a stray drop of blood. If he had to choose who to side with out of Indie and Anna, he was most definitely going to go with the former. “Did something about my friend offend you so horrendously?” he added in a casual tone.
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Finally, her arms fell to the side, but only because she\'d made fists of her hands. It took every ounce of her willpower to keep from introducing William\'s face to one of them. This wasn\'t the first time he\'d called her a bitch (nor would it be the last, she figured), but it wasn\'t something that would ever make her stop behaving less bitchily. In fact, it was one of the few guaranteed ways to set her anger from simmering to boiling.
"We made progress," she snapped. "Your friend did not make progress with me." She sniffed disdainfully and turned her head to look at Indie, their gaze meeting briefly before her eyes darted away again. He was watching them, witnessing her sire take his side over hers. Her sire. Not his. Whoever had said blood ran thicker than water was full of shit.
"He is an ass," she said, for Indie\'s benefit as much as William\'s. "Is that why you like him? Because you have so much in common?"
Stupidly, she was baiting William, but she was too angry to care.
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Will couldn‘t help but laugh at Anna‘s insults, she sounded so petty - he wondered if she realised. He glanced over his shoulder at Indie again, giving him a smile, but at the same time trying to judge how close the redhead was to snapping and joining in again with an angry tirade.
“He can be an ass. And so can I. But we’ve been here countless times before and he had no idea where you lived so was obviously surprised at your anger at us being here,” Indie said, before his voice took on a slightly more biting tone and his cold eyes focused solely on his fledgling.
“Anna, you hold no claim over this land, like they held none over yours when they forced you out. Other than his initial annoyance at being snapped at for his choice of where to spend time, what did he do wrong? Why does he deserve your anger and scorn? After all, he’s not quite as fucked up as I am yet.”
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When William laughed at her, she quickly discovered she had the ability to be even more furious. To add salt to the wound, he\'d included Indie, looking back at him and making sure he brought attention to her humiliation. Like she\'d taken a bite from a sour green apple, her lips twisted and her eyes narrowed.
Through the red haze that\'d formed in her mind, she caught only snippets of William\'s words, and the few she picked out were the ones about how she didn\'t have any right to the land they stood on. True, she couldn\'t own it - no one could - but she protected and guarded those that lived there (few that they were) within the area she claimed as her territory.
What finally doused her anger was the realization that she was behaving the same way she had when she\'d lived on the outskirts of the reservation. Every vampire that\'d ventured near her people had been disposed of, and on an instinctual level she was trying to do the same to Indie. Her hands relaxed and she blinked before looking down at the ground, her eyes fixating on her toes.
"I\'m not used to this," she said quietly. Not anymore. Once, long ago, she\'d been at home with the hundreds of people that made up her clan, but she\'d become a different creature after having spent nearly two centuries in seclusion.
She looked up at William, the angular contours of her face reflecting the defeat she felt. "Maybe we could start over?" she offered tentatively. The words had tasted foul in her mouth before she said them, but they\'d needed to be said.
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At her words and that sad look on her face Will felt himself melt, the hard expression slipping away. She could be a pain sometimes, but she was still his and at that moment he wanted to wrap his arms around her and give her a hug. Not that she would like that though.
So instead he held out a hand to her with a warm smile. If she took it, he would lead her gently closer to Indie, and if not he would give a small gesture that she should come with him.
“I know, and that’s partly my fault. But you don’t have to learn and get used to it alone. Now, starting over sounds like a brilliant idea,” he said, his tone full of pride that she was agreeing to this, although he wouldn’t say something so patronising to her.
“Anna, this is my…” Lover? Housemate? Occasional fuck buddy? The vampire I let drink from me? “friend, Indie. We share a house,” William explained to Anna, before turning to Indie.
“Indie, this is my fledgling, Anna,” he said, giving the redhead a smile, hopeful that Indie would go along with this starting over and not be a complete prick.
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When he saw her take her sire\'s hand meekly, a strange and powerful emotion took hold of him, somewhere around his gut and creeping outward from there in sharp jabs. It pulsed angrily inside him as they turned and walked towards him, and standing up to greet them (fossicking in the bag forgotten) didn\'t help. It seemed to make it sharper, and hard to speak for a moment, and it took him a while to come up with anything acceptable.
"Yeah," he agreed inanely, glancing from Will to Anna and back again repeatedly. They looked like quite the happy couple - well, Will did, anyway. The bitch didn\'t look like she\'d been acquainted with happy in a very long time, though at least she was no longer glaring at him like he was rubbing obscenely up against her personal rocks and spurting cum everywhere. She still had the stick up her ass though, and he wasn\'t about to go offering her his hand again.
"Hi," he added, flicking the fingers of his right hand in the approximation of a manly wave and then tucking the tips of both hands in the back pockets of his jeans. A moment of awkward silence felt like it was breathing hotly down his neck, so he filled it quickly, looking at Anna. "So... you want us to go, then?" he murmured, doing his best not to look resentful (though his brows were drawn down into a frown). They\'d spent almost half an hour setting everything up and had one run down; he would hate having to pack it up again and go home.
Would she make them? Would Will give her that much power? If the blonde decided to appease Anna, Indie would comply, but he\'d be pissed off about it, he knew. That sharp jabby pain in his gut told him so, even if he couldn\'t pinpoint exactly what it was.
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"No, you don\'t have to go," she said, smiling wanly. Having expended all her energy on feeding such intense emotions, she was left feeling like a balloon that\'d had all its air released. She wouldn\'t have it in her to fight anything, much less them staying until she had a chance to recharge. For now, she was calm - docile, even.
Still holding William\'s hand, she looked contemplatively up at the cliff and then back at William and Indie in turn. "How\'re you getting up again?" There was an old deer trail that wound its way upward, but she wondered if they\'d hike back using it or climb up using the ropes that were already in place.
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Indie relaxed as she was civil, though he raised his eyebrows in surprise. He was relieved, but he\'d been ready for a fight or some sort of decision made between him and her and it was quite a shift in gear to just have her... concede. He didn\'t trust it, but he was willing to play along with it, for the time being.
He made eye contact with Will, silently questioning which one of them would answer and also glancing away, at their rigging. They usually ran up the trail, though they had had contests based on who could scale the cliff face fastest. He glanced back at Anna and decided he\'d take the lead, try and make Will understand that he was making an effort too.
"We usually just run up. Gets us down faster. It\'s all about the speed, see. You want a turn?" he offered, not in love with the idea of giving over his harness to her but intrigued about watching her with Will enough that he\'d make that sacrifice. Once. Compulsively, he looked back at Will, silently seeking approval and possibly even backup on his offer.
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Will wasn’t surprised when Anna said they could stay, but he was a little caught unawares by the fact that Indie had asked in the first place - and now that he was asking if Anna wanted to join them - take his place. What was up with these two? Anna was still holding his hand little a little child when he’d only meant to lead her back to Indie, but now he couldn’t bring himself to be the one to let go. Not when she looked so exhausted.
He met Indie’s silent plea with a blank look. Why the Hell did he want Anna encroaching on their time together? If he hadn’t asked Anna probably would have slunk back off to her cabin, or sat quietly and watched them (which might have been a bit weird). Why was Indie so interested in keeping her around? Will still wasn’t best pleased that they’d met this way and didn’t really want them spending more time together until he’d sorted out how he felt about Anna in his own head.
“Yeah, go on, it’s fun,” Will said, tearing his gaze away from his friend to his fledgling, giving her a smile. “Of course, you don’t have to, if you don’t want to. I don’t want to disturb you further if you were busy?” he added with concern in his voice and his grey eyes.
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Already feeling a bit more like herself, she snorted indelicately when William suggested she might be busy. Her? Busy? She had to be very creative when it came to keeping herself amused, and even then, she struggled sometimes. So she\'d spend hours in a tree in the park several miles away, trying her best not to think about how bored she was. Busy. Ha.
But that didn\'t mean she was interested in climbing up a cliff by pulling herself up a rope. For one, she didn\'t have shoes, and for two... well, it was just stupid. There was a perfectly good path she could go up that wouldn\'t tear her feet to shreds if she wanted to fling herself off the cliff, and she didn\'t, because it didn\'t serve any purpose at all.
"I\'ll watch," she decided, sliding her hand from William\'s and taking a step back. With her hands free, she reached up to pull the long braided rope that kept her dark hair contained over her shoulder and ran her fingers through the tuft at the end. "But thanks," she tacked on, glancing from William to Indie.
It\'d been the appropriate thing to say, she thought, thanking someone for an offer that she\'d declined. She watched their reactions to see if her assumption had been correct.
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Indie glanced at Will, gave a shrug that was part relief, part disinterest and headed towards the bottom of the trail that would get them back up the top of the cliffs in a fairly swift time.
If Will chose to say anything to him, he would stop and listen, otherwise he would wait until they were hooking on again at the top before he asked Will, "How long you think she\'s gonna\' stand there and watch us?"
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“All fucking night. Doesn’t look like there’s anywhere else to be apart from this wild party,” Will said with a decidedly bitter note to his voice as he shot a sharp glance towards the redhead. He’d maintained a stony silence on the way up, trying to decide how best to deal with this now the situation had been dumped in his lap.
What the fuck had he been thinking, practically inviting her to stay with them tonight? And what would happen when they wanted to go home? She’d probably end up coming with them. Will knew she’d probably be able to locate him at home through the bond, but there was a difference between that and actually inviting her along. He didn’t want her there, not yet. Or ever. She was separate to his life with Indie and Will didn’t want her ruining the delicate balance he and Indie found themselves in.
But he couldn’t exactly say that to Anna. Or to Indie. And if he said what he was thinking out loud, that he wanted Anna to go, she might hear, and he didn’t want her upset again.
So damn temperamental, all of them.
“You’re just trying to sabotage my run,” he said, aiming for a more light hearted tone since things clearly weren’t going to get better on their own as they prepped for the trip down again.
“You get to do the count this time.” It would be nice to just chill up here, alone, but they couldn\'t just leave her waiting down there. This was all just so messed up.
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In position and readying to descend, the redhead glanced over his shoulder to the fledgling on the ground far below. She seemed to have found herself a rock to perch on, which certainly lent credence to Will\'s belief she\'d be there all fucking night. Great. He turned his concerned expression towards his buddy.
"I was just trying to show you I was being nice," he told the blonde defensively. "I figured she\'d want to wait and see we weren\'t doing anything wrong and then she\'d fuck off," he said quietly, disappointment that Will didn\'t seem to think this would happen evident in his voice.
"We\'re hardly a wild party for her to crash," he stated wryly, his inability to keep the smile off his face now that he was alone and more relaxed with Will rearing once more. "It ain\'t like she\'s dressed for it, anyway. I reckon you should prolly take her shopping and buy her some new clothes. It\'s far too easy to imagine what\'s going on underneath those ones," he teased, waggling his eyebrows.
It hadn\'t escaped his attention that Anna was an exotic beauty. Given better circumstances, he\'d definitely have tried to nail her by now... but her circumstances were such that the impulse hadn\'t really come at him, despite his insinuations. It likely had a lot to do with his stabby gut feeling, for he wasn\'t entirely able to see her in her own right yet; she was still intertwined with Will and he was curious and defensive about that state of affairs to the point of blindness for the time being.
He had noticed her clothes didn\'t do her justice, though, and he hoped mentioning it might score him some Will brownie points. They didn\'t have to go shopping right now, it could become their next \'making friendly\' outing as sire and fledge... and maybe he could tag along and keep an eye on them. He desperately wanted to watch them together.
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“Maybe she will go, but it’s just as possible she’ll just sit there the whole night,” Will said, looking towards his friend with a frown. “And I appreciate you trying to be nice, but… I’m still trying to get to know her again, I would’ve been happier about you two meeting if it had just been in a month or so,” he said with a shrug.
At the comment about her clothes Will raised an eyebrow, resisting the urge to either smack Indie around the head or glance back over his shoulder at where his fledgling was perched. He most definitely did not want Indie thinking about what was under Anna’s clothes and he doubted Anna would be best pleased about it either, not given the way she’d reacted to Indie at first. Fuck, what if they did start hitting it off though? What if they ended up fucking every night and Will lost them both.
“Here’s an idea. When we get back down there why don’t you suggest the whole shopping thing to her? I’m sure she’d love that considering she’s been wearing those clothes since she arrived here and looks at me like I’m a fucking leper when I suggests she could use some new stuff,” Will said sarcastically. “Some sort of vendetta against materialism crap. Who gives a fuck,” he added in a muttered voice. Knowing his luck though if Indie did suggest it she would leap at the idea, that would be just typical.
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Indie gave Will a level stare, his expression deadly serious. "Dude. She wouldn\'t even shake my fucking hand. How the fuck\'m I gonna\' tell her to let you buy her new shit and she listen to me?"
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“She doesn’t listen to me when I tell her that either. Or even when I ask nicely for her to let me. Maybe I should just dump a pile of shopping bags on her front step. She’d still wear that combo,” Will said, glad that the wind whistle around them would be covering the voices from her to be able to hear.
“She’d probably listen to you just to spite me.”
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For some reason, those final words made the redhead feel extremely agitated and uncomfortable, and he shuffled his feet and fiddled with his harness quite a lot before he managed to get a reply out.
"Yeah, I... don\'t wanna\' get in the middle. I jus\'... I\'m learning about... about fledglings I guess... that\'s all I\'m in it for," he finished, his awkward and somewhat stammering statement finally drawing to a close. He was only able to make surreptitious eye contact with Will for some reason, and he wasn\'t sure why.
In his head, Will\'s words from the night before - about not leaving him - were going round and round like a mantra.
-
At Indie’s words Will’s frown deepened and he stepped away from the edge of the cliff to face the redhead properly. He’d put himself out on a ledge of Indie, said he wouldn’t leave, but it sounded as though Indie was seriously considering making a fledgling of his own and that would suck beyond belief.
“You don’t want a fledgling,” Will said, half stating it, half asking a question. Why the hell else would Indie be so interested in learning about fledglings? Will had thought it was just jealousy about Will having a link to Anna, but if Indie made a fledgling their bond would be fresh and new, not tainted by distance and bad feeling. It would be completely different and Will could see Indie being completely sucked in by it.
-
"No, I just..." the forgetful vampire frowned, instinctively shuffling closer to Will so that their arms brushed against one another, and then he shrugged, unable to finish his sentence out loud.
He didn\'t want his own fledgling now, he was secure with what Will had told him. But that didn\'t stop him wanting to understand what Will had with Anna, to find out how much of a threat she was to his friendship with Will.
With this one thought, the stabby feeling in his gut resolved itself, letting him know that it was gnawing worry, insecurity and jealousy all rolled into one horrible knot of anxiety inside him. Anna had a stronger hold on Will than he did; he might choose her over him.
Somewhere inside him, something devious began thinking of things that he could do and ways that he could keep Will. He looked the blonde in the eye, squinting thoughtfully at him. "I just want to understand you and her," he said.
-
Will frowned as Indie clammed up, seemingly unable to finish his own thoughts let alone a sentence. As the redhead finally managed it Will shut his eyes and shook his head slightly, before reaching out to take Indie’s upper arm, pulling him away form the edge of the cliff and out of Anna’s sight.
“I don’t understand me and her. I’m sure she doesn’t either right now. So what do you want? To just sit and watch us try to get to know each other again? Or shall we just… I dunno, go?” he said. He had loved Anna once, and felt bonded to her still, but it was Indie he wanted to spend time with. It was Indie he wanted to go to sleep with in the morning and wake up with when the sun went down.
“We could just leave. Go home, pack up our stuff. Tomorrow night we could be anywhere in the country,” he said, the enthusiasm clear in his voice although in a couple of hours he may well change his mind if Indie thought on it too long.
He didn’t want to leave Anna again and abandon her, but she would survive and in another hundred years they could meet up and start all this bullshit again. Three was most definitely a crowd and will just wanted Indie right now. This was all too stressful, too much.
-
After about half a minute of staring at Will - and, crazily, giving his idea some consideration - Indie stepped close and wrapped his arms around the older vampire, hugging him tightly. He really didn\'t have anything to worry about and everything the blonde said was making him feel more and more secure. He almost felt like he was the older and wiser one as he rested his temple against Will\'s and spoke near his ear.
"No. Won\'t matter how far we go or when we run, she\'ll always be there anyway. I don\'t want to leave here. I like it here. With you. We have to get used to her sometime or other, might as well be now, yeah?" he murmured, giving a shrug and rubbing his hands slowly around Will\'s back, content to leave their heads pressed together until his friend broke the contact.
-
Will shut his eyes, letting Indie pull him close and wrapping his arms around his friend in return, pulling him close. He felt so confused and lost, like he was being pulled in two directions and he wanted to choose one way. But Indie was saying he wanted him to stay in the middle, then he was arguing for wanting him all to himself. Will wanted Indie happy. Anna was always going to be connected to him, but not like this. That was blood, this was more.
“Okay,” he murmured, relaxing at the comforting feel of Indie’s hands moving on him. He tilted his head a little, pressing his lips against Indie’s briefly, but forcing himself to pull back before too long.
“She’ll come looking for us if we disappear for too long up here, come on,” he said, dropping his hold on his friend and lifting a hand to run through his hair, still looking a little flustered but feeling better about it all. Kind of.
-
Indie didn\'t feel at all strange to be hugging Will, which he thought was a sign of how much more comfortable and trusting he was, and the little kiss was only slightly disconcerting. It seemed the fuck had changed their dynamic, even though he hadn\'t intended it to, but in a positive way. He cared very much about Will, despite his thinking it would never happen again after Reed; that much was clear to him now.
"Alright," he agreed with a laugh and broke away by degrees in order to regain his position at the top of the cliff edge. When Will was ready, he counted down and they launched off simultaneously. This time, it was obvious his companion wasn\'t being distracted by the proximity of his arriving fledgling, their feet touched the ground more or less at the same time. Chuckling, he clapped Will on the back in a silent congratulations, unhooked himself and began to head back up again.
Spying Anna, he detoured to stop near her and a make some small talk, a happy smile lighting his face as he adjusted his gloves. "That was more like it; speedy," he chuckled, the delight of the rapid descent making his eyes dance as he looked her over pointedly. "You should get Will to take you shopping, you might like to get some gear and clothes to try it. He has plenty of money, make him spend some on you. I imagine it\'s been a while since he spoiled you, yeah?" he hinted, smirking at Will as he approached, knowing he\'d bite simply for the sake of opening up the conversation to the subject of shopping.
-
Will gave a laugh as they reached the bottom at the same time. Idnie had been doing this much longer than the blonde, but Will usually picked things up pretty quickly and they’d been coming out here for the past couple of years. It was the same with their computer games, they were pretty evenly matched on those as well - but sometimes Will let the younger vampire win to boost his pride.
He followed after the redhead more slowly, narrowing his eyes slightly at Indie, but with a smile playing on his lips as the subject of shopping was brought up.
“It’s true. A sire should be allowed to dote on his fledgling. Even if there’s nothing you think you need,” Will said with a shrug and an expression which would give the impression he didn’t give a fuck either way. It would be kind of nice to be able to look after her though. When they had been together before there hadn’t exactly been a row of shops for him to treat her from even if she’d wanted that kind of thing. But he’d found her food and revenge. She could get those things herself now.
-
Just that evening, she\'d spent an inordinate amount of time repairing a hole near one of the back pockets of her jeans. She\'d found needle and thread, then cut a section of her quilt. The quilt itself was patchwork, and the portion she\'d decided to use as a patch was rusty orange with tiny blue flowers. It added color to her otherwise drab outfit.
She stood and hooked her thumbs in the tops of her front pockets, tilting her head to look at Indie and then William as they spoke. Something like a smile caused her full lips to twitch. "I need clothes," she corrected. "I have tried to find women my size, but..." The ones she\'d found that\'d been her height had been emaciated, their limbs twigs and not a single curve where it should be. It was strange; she knew food was abundant, but those women had not been eating. Everything she\'d tried on had been too tight.
Her only other option besides having William buy her new clothes was to make her own, and though deer and bear were plentiful in the forests, one thing she\'d never had the patience for was sewing. It\'d been enough of a trial just fixing what she had - she wasn\'t going to try make anything.
"I need boots too," she added, glancing down at her dusty feet. "When I walk through water with the ones I left at the cabin, my feet get wet." She looked up, a frown marring her face. "Then they smell."
-
William’s grey eyes drifted over his fledgling as she mentioned her difficulties. Yes, she was tall, and a gorgeous shape - William hadn’t really paid that much attention to women nowadays to be able to tell what the average shape and size was. He wouldn’t have thought she would care that much about whether they were women’s clothes or not though, he’d have guessed she would have just picked anyone her size, whether they be male or female.
“Very well, we’ll take you shopping, you probably know better than me what women wear nowadays,” he said with a grin across at the redhead. “And if you want you can have two pairs of boots, so if you go hiking through rivers you can let one pair dry properly before wearing them again,” Will offered, trying not to let himself chuckle at the look of indignation on her face at the thought of having smelly feet.
-
From the moment she\'d hooked thumbs through her jeans to talking about her boots, Indie had been looking her over speculatively. The awareness he\'d had - of her as an attractive woman, as opposed to just \'Will\'s fledgling bitch\' - was released to his conscious mind at that moment, inappropriately making him think about how hard it was for her to find clothes because of what was underneath the current ones. What would be beneath any set of clothes she found. And how hard it was. Female vampires weren\'t all that common around here.
When Will spoke and drew his attention, he instinctively looked back at his friend, giving a derisive little smirk and snort and unaware that his appreciation for Anna\'s form was in his eyes, the subtle slouch of his body that thrust his pelvis infinitesimally towards her, the expression his mouth held when the smirk for Will died away and left him honest. Honestly appreciative. Not that it was intentional or that he was going to do anything about it, of course; it was just one of those habits of his. See a hot woman, work out how to fuck her and move on.
The look of innuendo was gone as quickly as it came as another thought arrived to cause him to frown. "What? Now? Pack up and go now?" There was reluctance in his voice, though it was more wary than angry. It said that he wouldn\'t be furious if she insisted they pack up but that he would regret it if they did it so soon. They\'d barely begun taking their chances for a night filled with rapid descents when he\'d gone and opened his mouth, causing them to have to pack up. He hadn\'t meant now. His expression resembled that of a hopeful puppy\'s as he gazed at Will for the decisive answer.
-
Brief as the look was, she caught it as Indie cast it her way. Frustratingly, the only response she felt she could get away with was to raise a disapproving eyebrow at the redhead. Her sire, for whatever reason, was fond of Indie, and he hadn\'t appreciated her complaints about him earlier. Being rebuked in front of a witness wasn\'t something she wanted to experience again, so she kept further comments to herself. It rankled, to be sure, but she managed with nothing more of her displeasure showing except for in her eyes.
"I still need to go to the tree," she said, removing a hand from a pocket to wave vaguely in the direction of the park.
She was in desperate need of the calming aura the giant oak surrounded her with while she sat in its branches. If William agreed, she\'d be off without another word.
-
“No, of course not now,” Will replied sharply with a glance between the two younger vampires, a frown on his face. He had no idea why Anna was looking so pissy with Indie about now, and he didn’t want to disturb their evening’s plans, although his fledgling intruding had already done that. Despite joking about Indie knowing more about women’s clothes, he still didn’t really feel comfortable having him around when he was with Anna. William didn’t want her feeling uncomfortable with someone else there, or to have Indie witness any blow ups they might have.
And he definitely didn’t want him getting the idea that having a fledgling would be a brilliant plan.
William blinked in surprise as Anna said she needed to go to The Tree. What tree? That tree she’d been hanging around near in the park? It was a fucking tree, they were surrounded by them. But it would mean no shopping tonight and he and Indie could carry on abseiling in peace.
“Okay, well… I’ll come find you tomorrow night then? And we’ll go get the things you need,” he said, deciding some sort of vague plan might be in order. He took her silence as agreement as she headed off and then turned back to Indie, lifting a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.
“This is going to be Hell,” he said quietly once he felt her disappear. “I have no idea why it sounded like a good plan for a few seconds then.”
-
The redhead watched his companion with a quirked eyebrow, almost mimicking the expression he\'d received from the now-absent bitch just for contemplating her in clothes. "Fuck you can be dramatic," he intoned drolly, observing Will\'s little display.
"How will shopping be Hell? We\'ll walk into a few shops, get to watch her model some... new outfits and then drop her back home all happy with her new shit," he declared mildly, resisting the urge to say \'sexy\' instead of \'new\' (with a minor hesitation that may have given away his shift from the offensive to the subtle) so that Will wouldn\'t get shitty.
He wasn\'t sure he was actually invited on this little trip - Will had said \'I\', not \'we\' - but it was his unobtrusive way of putting forth the notion that he could be there for moral support. And to watch them. It wasn\'t like he\'d seen enough tonight but he figured the ice was broken, Anna was met now, surely he could be included in future plans? What did it matter?
-
“She’s my blood, I have every right to be dramatic,” Will muttered, scowling at his friend, but the annoyed look faded slightly as Indie invited himself along. Will didn’t think Indie coming would help anything, in fact it would make everything more difficult, but Will didn’t want Indie getting upset at not being allowed to come. So how was this supposed to work?
“She’s going to be nitpicking over everything, complaining about the clothes, the people, how everything works. It’s not going to be fun at all. It would be easier to just pick her up stuff and leave it at her house but…”
But despite knowing how difficult it was going to be Will still wanted time with her alone. To do this for her, with her.
“I still need to spend time with her, with just us. We can do something far more fun afterwards,” Will said, ending on an upbeat note although he guessed the response he was about to get would be no where near as cheerful.
-
Predictably, Indie\'s jaw jutted stubbornly and the look he gave Will bordered on mutinous. "I\'ve met her now, why can\'t I come along? I\'ll keep my mouth shut and just watch," he wheedled, attempting to look a little cute and batt his eyelahes at his friend.
He didn\'t understand what a big fucking deal it was that he and Anna be kept apart - especially now they\'d accidentally met and no-one had thrown anything beyond a few dirty looks and maybe some harsh words. At the back of his mind he also began to contemplate just how badly he wanted to go on this shopping trip and what he had that he could bribe Will with. A few things came to mind, all of them involving something sexual he\'d not been prepared to even contemplate.
Until now, when want outweighed pride and preference. "I\'ll owe you... " he said alluringly, his face wavering hopefully before Will\'s. Best to start off vague and see where it got him, he thought.
-
“You’ve never been able to keep your mouth shut in your life,” Will muttered, rolling his eyes at the cutesy look Indie was trying on him, but he paused as the redhead mentioned owing him. And what could that entail exactly? If Indie was hinting at anything sexual, which it was tempting to believe he might be, then… what? Will would get him because Indie owed him a favour? That wasn’t how Will wanted their relationship to go, sex wasn’t about that, not when it came to them. And there was nothing else Will wanted from him.
Besides, if he did take the route that Indie meant sex, the red head could easily turn around and deny it when it came to it.
“We’ve been through this. I want to get to know her properly again, and I can’t do that when you’re there. She’ll feel uncomfortable, and I don’t want you judging every little move I make with her,” he said firmly, folding his arms across his chest as he gave Indie a look that was every bit as stubborn as the one he was receiving.
“Now, like I said, I can just go and we can do something fun together afterwards and sometime I’ll be happier about us all hanging out, but I’m not yet so just… leave it.”
-
There was a surprising amount of disappointment mixed in with the relief he was suddenly feeling and it confused him; was he looking for excuses with Will? That was just stupid... though it was pretty much how things had eventually gone with Reed. Fuck.
He gave a dramatic sigh of his own, rolling his eyes and overcompensating for his awkward thoughts by throwing an arm around Will\'s shoulders and marching him towards the path that would take them back up. "Fiiiine," he answered in a beleaguered manner, "take her shopping on your own. But buy her something pretty and say it\'s from me," he declared with a lecherous grin and waggling eyebrows.
Weird how he wasn\'t picturing that, though.