A New Connection

[Trillian]

[continued from Seeking Distraction]


Lazarus sauntered into the old-style house just around the block from the Qamar Art Gallery, where he\'d left Ichabod behind to eat dinner while he went off to grab a bite for himself, via Craig.  He didn\'t want his pet weak and emaciated, he wanted him warm and strong, and would only feed from him now and then, just for the thrill of it, for both of them.  Lazarus didn\'t really need blood all that often, but he liked to feed, and he did whatever he wanted.

Kerr had been led by the arm, the hand, with a hand on his lower back, around his shoulders, on the way here.  Lazarus was a very touchy-feely kind of guy, with a ton of innuendos on the way.  The flirtatious blonde was in his element, and by a peculiar circumstance, had not mentioned Ichabod by name (a name that Kerr would remember, considering he\'d watched the youth get fed from by his fledgling in Risk some nights ago).

He did mention him, however, when he led Kerr into the living room.

"I\'ll just get him, you\'ll adore him, he\'s squeaky clean," Lazarus declared, and yelled out Ichabod\'s name, for him to come running to him and welcome him home, like any good pet should.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod hadn\'t done much whilst Lazarus was out, although he hated being in this place alone. He had called his parents and told them he wouldn\'t be coming home for a while. His mum hadn\'t been happy with his lack of an explanation, but that was all she was getting, Ichabod didn\'t want to say any more, or tell her how long he would be gone, as he didn\'t even know himself.

He had eaten dinner, an oven meal, which wasn\'t the best, but good enough. He hadn\'t been in the mood to attempt anything trickier, and the meal had been dispatched pretty quickly. When he heard Lazarus enter the house Ichabod stayed where he was for a moment, finishing off his cigarette until he heard the vampire shouting his name. Ichabod quickly stubbed out his cigarette and walked towards the living room, straightening out his jeans and T-shirt as he moved. He was ecstatic that the blonde had returned, but he wasn\'t going to run to him (just walk pretty quickly).

"Hey," Ichabod said with a grin as he entered the room,his eyes first and formost falling on Lazarus and he started to walk towards him. But then he stopped dead when he saw someone else was there as well, and his eyes opened a little with shock when he saw who it was.

"Kerr," he said, taking half a step backwards, his eyes fixed on the dark haired Irishman. He had tried not to think much about that night all this had started, but when one of them was standing right in front of him he couldn\'t stop it. He hated what those three had done, they had manipulated him, not told him what was going on and Ben had fed from him without any warning. But for some reason he didn\'t blame Ben for any of it, it was the two older vampires who had manipluted him and done...something. He wasn\'t sure what but they had definitely done something to him.

Ichabod quickly looked towards Lazarus again with a questioning look, "What\'s he doing here?" he asked with a scowl. Even if hadn\'t been Kerr, Ichabod didn\'t want anyone intruding on what him and Lazarus had, the fact that it was Kerr just made it worse.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr snorted a laugh at the reaction he received; it helped dissipate the surprise and bring a smirk to his face. It didn\'t take too much digging to figure out that there was some simmering resentment towards him over Ben\'s first feeding but the vampire wasn\'t too certain why that was the case. He obviously should have gone the whole way with his mental manipulations and not left the mortal aware at all of what had happened, rather than just blurring the consent part of the process. Ichabod seemed as confused as he was riled up, which was almost endearing in its non-threatening way.
 
Just how the boy had ended up with Lazarus intrigued him a great deal; had Ben\'s bite given him a taste for it, as so often happened? Did he realise just who he\'d teamed himself up with?
 
"It\'s... interesting to see you again too, Ichabod," Kerr murmured with a polite incline of his head in the mortal\'s direction. His smile was mostly hidden as he looked at the Ancient to whom he deferred automatically. "It seems that your pet objects to my presence.  Perhaps this meeting was not such a good idea after all?" he told Lazarus, eyes twinkling.  He didn\'t genuinely care that the mortal seemed to despise him - it was too amusing in its ineffectuality - but he didn\'t wish to anger the Ancient by causing strife where the blonde had anticipated nothing but harmony and an abundance of appreciation.

[Trillian]

Lazarus couldn\'t hide his surprise and it felt as obvious on his face to him as it was seen by the other two.  So they knew each other?

"Interesting," Lazarus said, drawing the word out as he mused the two of them.  He could as easily pick up vibes of resentment pouring off his pet as much as tell Kerr\'s humour about the whole situation.  As he looked at the Irishman, he caught the sparkle in his eyes and his own gaze mirrored it, a smile toying at the corners of his lips.

"Now, Ichabod, that\'s no way to talk to my friend," he chastised, placing a familiar arm around Kerr\'s shoulders.  "I\'m sure the two of you can get along, just as soon as I\'m filled in as to how you both know each other."  He urged Kerr towards the couch, where he sat and dragged the other with him, then patted his lap for Ichabod to crawl up onto it.  "Come here, love, sit with me," Lazarus insisted in a demanding fashion.  To be fair, Ichabod had never experienced Lazarus\' dominance on this particular level, the blonde vampire had simply been commanding and confident, groping and friendly.  Right now he was being dictating and warning, and there was a quality to his tone that sounded dangerous.  Dangerous to who?  Likely Ichabod, who was attracting Lazarus\' solid stare.

[pinkroses]

The laugh from Kerr and the smug little smirks passing between the two vampires were doing nothing to lightening Ichabod\'s mood, nor did the way Lazarus slipped his arm so easily around Kerr\'s shoulders. The human felt a spark of jealousy flare up inside himself and hated the way that Kerr was being so smooth and polite. It made it look like Ichabod was the one in the wrong, but that just wasn\'t true. It was Kerr and Arles who had decieved him, used him, then left him.

Ichabod hesitated for a moment when Lazarus asked (no, demanded) that he come sit with them and he blinked a little in surprise at the tone used. It wasn\'t one he was familiar with and wasn\'t one he liked. But that look in his eyes wasn\'t one that the human wanted to argue with, even if Ichabod had been that kind of person. He didn\'t like confrontation, but he wasn\'t about to make it look like he was happy about Kerr being here when he wasn\'t. He was so annoyed with Kerr being here that he didn\'t even register Kerr\'s use of the word \'pet\', one that he hadn\'t come across in this context before.

He moved towards the sofa, his bare feet padding over the carpet and did what Lazarus wanted by curling up on his lap, making sure his back wasn\'t facing towards Kerr and he nuzzled a gentle kiss into Lazarus\' neck (the side away from Kerr), not wanting the blonde to be annoyed with him, as his tone had indicated he might be. His fingers lightly stroked Lazarus\' hair as he pulled back a little to speak to him, trying to ignore the other vampire, and Lazarus\' question about how they knew each other.

"Did you find some nourishment?" he asked softly, although he judged by the colour in the vampire\'s cheeks and the warmth of his body that he had.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr watched the mortal in bemusement, rolling his tongue stud around his mouth as he gazed from Lazarus to Ichabod and back again - so much for the Ancient\'s wish that he come here to appreciate the boy and all his... assets.  The mortal didn\'t want a bar of him and he seemed determined to shut him out of his relationship with the blonde to boot.

Naturally, Kerr felt it was his duty to fill Lazarus in on the details - if only because it was likely to antagonise Ichabod a little more (he was cute when he was grumpy, in Kerr\'s opinion).

"Your... pet is a little miffed at me because I Dominated him a few nights back, when he came to Risk an ignorant.  I manipulated his co-operation to aid my new fledgling in his first drink but... allowed Ichabod to remember the situation from the bite onwards so... I believe he\'s simply confused about what went on up \'til that point.  Obviously, I should have just wiped his memory completely and left him none the wiser," Kerr joked, grinning conspiratorially at a vampire he believed capable of far more than a mere memory manipulation.

[Trillian]

"Course," Lazarus replied softly to his pet in the affirmative, not terribly aware to how Ichabod was shutting Kerr out.  The blonde had asked his pet to crawl up in his lap after all, and he\'d been obeyed.  At Kerr\'s explanation, his eyebrows shot up.  "Why, he should be thanking you!" Lazarus declared, his free arm travelling around Ichabod\'s waist to keep him firmly in place.  "If he\'d remained ignorant about what I was when I met him, he\'d reacted differently, and I likely wouldn\'t have brought him home with me."

This much was true.  Ichabod\'s reactions had been literally perfect for the path to have travelled to this point.  Lazarus wasn\'t patient enough to explain the presence of vampires, nor to bother with a mortal who wasn\'t interested in experiencing the bite as well as sex.

It took Lazarus a moment to digest the other part of Kerr\'s sentence.  "You made a fledgling?" he asked with interest.  "I thought you had a family already," he asked, not understanding why Kerr chose to remain with his blood bonds.  Lazarus had sired over a hundred by this stage, and apart from bumping into a few of them again, he wasn\'t interested in keeping them close.

While he talked with Kerr, his fingers stroked and rubbed Ichabod\'s waist.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod\'s eyes flickered towards Kerr when he called him a \'pet\' again, a frown of confusion on his face and his fingers tightened a little on Lazarus\' shoulder. He lowered his eyes and looked away from the Irishman as he went on. Of course he was confused, he had no idea what had happened, one minute he was trying to find Nikki and then...he couldn\'t remember any of the thought processes which had lead to him leaning so comfortabley against Ben and hated the idea that Kerr could just as easily have wiped his whole memory. But if Kerr could then surely so could Lazarus. Ichabod felt his stomach turn over, but Lazarus wouldn\'t do that, would he? Maybe he already had.

He blinked and looked up at Lazarus with surprise when he said he should be thanking the other vampire and if it hadn\'t been for the tightening grip on his waist he might have moved away a little. Yes, he was happy here with Lazarus, that was true, but he would probably still be with him if Kerr, Arles and Ben had just told him the truth. Ichabod liked to think he had reacted well after he had found out, who was to say he wouldn\'t have gone along with it if they had simply told him beforehand? That was what Ichabod didn\'t like. But he wasn\'t about to try to argue about this, he could well imagine Lazarus taking Kerr\'s side and Ichabod would end up even more humiliated than he already was.

He silently focused on a small peice of Lazarus\' skin behind his ear, his thumb running over a smooth piece of hair, listening as the two talked. He wanted to hear more about fledglings, Ben, all of it, especially Ben. He just wanted to learn and Lazarus had taught him a lot more than the other three had. Maybe Kerr would be more willing to speak if it was Lazarus doing the asking.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr cringed when Lazarus brought up his fledgling and his family in the same sentence, giving a wry smile.  If only he had thought more preferentially, Sawyl wouldn\'t be nearly so furious and his home woul be the sanctuary it was supposed to be, rather than the war zone it was right now.

"Ohhh, well... I do, I suppose.  I\'ve been with one of my sires and two of my fledglings for four centuries.  Half a year or so back I met Ben - as a mortal - and we\'ve... had an interesting relationship ever since," the vampire\'s grin grew ironically as he gave a breathy laugh.  Interesting was an understatement but he wasn\'t about to regale his two companions with the ins and outs of what was, ultimately, a very embarrassing tale.  "He recently got permission from the Oligarchy to be sired so... another vampire and I sired him.  Arles was there the other night as well - it was he who picked Ichabod first, in fact."

Kerr raised an eyebrow pointedly at the mortal in an \'I\'m not completely to blame, you know\' type expression, before looking back at Lazarus with a more benign smile.  It felt a little childish to be digging at the Ancient\'s pet so, but he found his mood had lifted considerably in Lazarus\' presence, and the giddy afterglow of being manhandled and flirted with constantly led to strange reactions from him.  Arrogance over a mortal, for a start - that generally wasn\'t like him but... some of the Ancient\'s attitude felt like it had rubbed off and he was happy to go with it (especially if it led to a lively argument).

[Trillian]

"Another vampire and yourself sired Ben?" Lazarus repeated with interest.  "I did that some years ago, about three years now, with a good friend who\'s since run off with another mortal touting he was in love."  Lazarus rolled his eyes, indicating what he thought of this arrangement, then he looked wryly at Ichabod.  "Mind, at least it wasn\'t love at first sight rubbish, they had been through a lot together, but the boy he chose was a ruddy prostitute.  I digress," he shifted slightly, his arm remaining on Kerr\'s shoulder but dropping around Ichabod, so that his arm was around the mortal\'s waist but his hand sat on the inside of the youth\'s thigh, rather intimately.  "The one I sired was incredibly unappreciative, and ran off not three weeks later."  He rolled his eyes.  "I doubt he\'s not been destroyed, stupid boy."

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr could only grin bemusedly at Lazarus, blinking at the declaration that his vampiric counterpart had run off with a prostitute, then trying to keep up with the Ancient\'s tale-telling by imagining an unappreciative mortal that was sired and ran off after three weeks.  Obviously the siring took place before the falling in love with a prostitute bit (Kerr could understand Lazarus\' standards on that one, frankly).  Right.  The fact that Lazarus had shared a siring with another vampire raised an interesting point, though; one that Kerr was keen to explore.

"How did you find it?  Co-siring someone, I mean?  Was there... uh... rivalry between the two of you or did you both share his tutelage equally?" the brunette asked, tilting his head to gaze worhsipfully at Lazarus.  It was amazing the things the man could teach him, this unexpected twist a delight.  His eyebrows were raised as he anticipated having some of his angst over Ben being abated by tales borne of experience.  "Oh, before he ran away after three weeks, I mean," Kerr added belatedly, rolling a hand around between them to describe his verbal qualification before it fell once more to his lap.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod glanced up at Kerr at the mention of his name and caught the look he was offered. Of course he knew it wasn\'t all Kerr\'s fault, he was equally pissed off at Arles, but that particular blonde wasn\'t there right now. But Kerr was, and he just had to keep giving Lazarus that look, it was like he was trying to annoy him.

His dark eyes quickly turned back to Lazarus, not wanting to get any more angry than he already was. He hated this, why did they both have to act so superior? Because they are. They are better than you, you\'re just a human. They\'re so much more. Stronger, faster, longer life experience. Everything. The sullen look stayed on Ichabod\'s face, but he listened attentively to every word Lazarus said, always eager to hear everything he said. He couldn\'t imagine anyone wanting to leave Lazarus\' side, like the one in the story.

His eyes brightened a little at the feel of the blonde\'s hand on his thigh, but not much. He still wasn\'t comfortable with being so close to Kerr, having him invading on their space, but at least they had gotten off the subject of Ichabod overreacting and having the two vampires giggling about him. (Ok, maybe that was the paranoia speaking again, they hadn\'t actually giggled, but they might as well have done).

[Trillian]

How did he find it?  "Oh it was easy enough."  When Kerr continued with his questions, Lazarus\' next answer clarified why it was so easy.  "Fuck no, I don\'t have any desire to babysit fledglings," Lazarus said, and finally moved his arm off Kerr\'s shoulders, so he could place his hand on Kerr\'s leg instead, finding that position more comfortable.  "He lived with Halwyn, uh, whatever his name was, and I would just visit them.  The surly little shit was a handful before his disappearance.  He did us a favour, though I would\'ve liked to have bedded him beforehand," he said, implying that he hadn\'t.  His gaze found Ichabod.  "He\'s nothing like my lovely Ichabod here," he said warmly, then shifted his legs, urging Ichabod to get off him.  "Climb onto Uncle Kerr\'s lap," Lazarus told him, "let him have a nibble."  His eyes were sparkling as he said this, wondering if Ichabod would dare refuse after a compliment had been uttered about how good he was.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod\'s smile grew as Lazarus complimented him, although he couldn\'t help feeling a little warey about it. He liked it when the vampire was nice to him, he really wanted to please him, but wasn\'t too keen on the patronising tone.

He slid from the vampire\'s lap when he moved his legs, glancing down at the hand he had on Kerr\'s lap for a brief moment before lifting his gaze back to Lazarus\' beautiful eyes. The breath caught in his throat at his order and he folded his arms across his chest as he bit his lower lip, a hurt look in his eyes. Why was he doing this to him? Why did he want to humiliate him like this?

No. He didn\'t want to sit on Kerr\'s lap, he didn\'t want him drinking from him, he didn\'t want his hands on him.

"I...uh," he swallowed hard, desperately wanting to please Lazarus, but he didn\'t want to go near Kerr, or be a complete pushover, a whore for Lazarus to pimp out to his friends...a pet. His heart was pounding as he tried to decide what to do, then before he had properly formed a decision he had shaken his head. "I\'m going back upstairs," he muttered and turned away from the couple to walk quickly towards the door of the living room.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr\'s eyebrows just about shot into his hairline at being called \'Uncle Kerr\' - the incestuous connotations that came with it were also unwelcome - and he merely blinked at the thought that Ichabod would prostrate himself to be drunk from.  He didn\'t particularly enjoy the power struggle he was involved in, because he was dominant to the mortal and he generally didn\'t lord his superiority over them.  Not in general, anyway.  It had been amusing for a while but now... Lazarus (although Kerr didn\'t like to question) was possibly taking it a little far.

"That\'s fine," he said in relief, when Ichabod refused and made a break for the stairs, looking at Lazarus in a don\'t make a scene, it\'s fine, really kind of way, a tight smile upon his lips.