Walkies

[pinkroses]

(Reserved)

When Ichabod had suggested to Lazarus that they get out of the house and go do something together, this hadn\'t quite been what he expected...or wanted. He had been stuck in that house for a few weeks now (was it a month? He\'d sort of lost track of time) and it had become an increasingly claustrophobic place for the human as he was told to stay in while Lazarus went out to get something to eat, to meet people he didn\'t tell Ichabod about and it had taken Ichabod this long to ask to go with him.

He had thought they could maybe go for a walk somewhere together (after all, Lazarus had been the one to tell him not to go out alone), maybe the park, or just through the streets. But the vampire had brought him here. The place where all this had started...and then promptly abandoned him. Bastard.

Ichabod shuffled his feet slightly as he stood at the edge of the dancefloor, the same position where he had first bumped into Arles, feeling completely out of place and doing the same thing again, looking for a blonde man he cared about too much. He didn\'t like being here alone in a room full of predators, it was unnerving to say the least and all he wanted to do was find Lazarus and get out of here without having another argument.

With his hands shoved into his pockets and his dark eyes darting around the place Ichabod looked like he didn\'t belong here and was definitely giving out \'I hate this and don\'t want to be here\' signals. He wasn\'t quite sure what Lazarus had said quickly to him as soon as they entered the loud room, but he had a pretty good idea of the jist of it. You\'re mine, and I don\'t share. He still hadn\'t forgotten Lazarus\' jealous streak and didn\'t want to tempt that anger again and so all he had done was buy a drink with the money the vampire had shoved at him and was now searching for him, although if he was going to find him entwined with some other human, or vampire, then he wasn\'t sure he wanted to look all that hard. He definitely hadn\'t ventured near the curtained off rooms near the back of the room and wasn\'t planning on going near them tonight.

There was a stench of blood in the air, even his human nose could pick up that and Ichabod wondered for a while how he had possibly missed it when he first came here. Maybe because he hadn\'t known what to look for. Now it was blatently obvious to him that the couple pressed together (a little too close to him for Ichabod\'s comfort) weren\'t just dancing or kissing. With just a couple of wrong moves and that human in the vampire\'s arms could be dead.

Ichabod had never liked going out clubbing, even when he was with his friends. He was a rubbish dancer and never felt confident or comfortable on the dancefloor, but he felt like a pervert looking at the people in the booths to try and find Lazarus, like he was invading the privicy of the people in them when they wanted to be alone. His ears were ringing with the loud dance anthems as he shifted away from the couple who were wrapped around each other, and the bright flashing lights confused his vision, making it more difficult for him to search. But Lazarus hadn\'t told him where they were going until they were here and then he turned a deaf ear to the human\'s protests. If it didn\'t fit in with the bonde\'s plans or what he wanted then Lazarus simply refused to listen. For a brief moment Ichabod was tempted to just go home, but he didn\'t want to fight with the vampire again (if he even ever noticed he was gone). Still, at least that would make him take notice.

He slowly made his way to a corner of the room, at the end of the bar, debating having another drink, but what was the point? Thinking about it...maybe getting pissed out of his mind would make this easier, make the night go faster. And if Lazarus saw him drunk maybe he would leave whoever he was with and decide he wanted a bit of alcohol in his system. Fuck, at first Lazarus drinking from him was just something enjoyable to go with the sex, now he was trying to use it to get Lazarus back to him. He felt like a whore just thinking about it, sex and drinking weren\'t all that different.

And if it didn\'t work he would just end up depressed, drunk and alone at the end of the bar when Lazarus left him here. His feet continued to shuffle slightly as Ichabod frowned at the surface of the bar, trying to decide what to do. Shit. When did deciding whether or not to order a drink become such a big deal?

He leant against the bar, swearing quietly to himself and ignoring the people around him, the glasses of blood that the bartender was passing out to vampires and just stared at the smooth bar in front of him. As someone bumped into him, nudging him further into the corner Ichabod glanced up with a scowl, not really looking at who it was, just glancing up.

"Watch it," he muttered, more to himself than the person who had bumped into him in the squeeze to get a space at the bar.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr spun around with a scowl, ready to snap back at whoever had told him to \'watch it\' because it hadn\'t been his fault he\'d been jostled into the grouch - a very large vampire about three people down from him had set off the wave of bumping when he decided to elbow his way to the bar.  He froze, mouth open oddly, when he took in who he was looking at.  The scowl melted by degrees and the vampire blinked at Lazarus\' pet.

"Sorry, Ichabod.  I didn\'t mean to... well, it seems we were both victims of a chain reaction," he offered by way of explanation, all the fire leaving his system as he stared warily at the mortal.  He wasn\'t sure Ichabod would remember him and if he did, he wasn\'t sure Ichabod would want to remember him, since he\'d still rather harboured his grudge about being deceived into being Ben\'s first feeding, when last they\'d met.  That was ages ago now, though - surely he would be over it?  "How have you been?  You look good."

Kerr\'s gaze strayed appreciatively along the youth\'s length as he said this, demonstrating that he meant what he said.  Ichabod did look good; Kerr felt rather... vulnerable tonight, by contrast.  He\'d dressed in an outfit that certainly wasn\'t his usual, conservative fare, but one intended to gain him some attention.

Frankly, he was on the prowl for some company - male or female, he didn\'t care, so long as they were sober non-smokers willing to let him drink from them while they fucked - so the dark blue jeans he wore were rather more snug than usual, the belt at his waist sporting an ornamental buckle (a Chinese symbol meaning \'eternity\') instead of something plain and his long-sleeved shirt a bit more revealing.  Certainly, it was a sensible wine red colour and made from cotton, but he\'d rolled the sleeves up to his elbows and undone the top three buttons so as to show off some of the lovely shape of his chest (and a few dark hairs as well).  A leather necklace with a Chinese symbol meaning \'love\' hanging from it was tied firmly about his throat and some matching leather straps were banded about his wrist (around his decidedly down-market watch) in a manner he\'d seen other club attendees sporting.

He wasn\'t sure he had the confidence to carry the outfit off - let alone go through with pulling himself some entertainment for the evening - but intimate contact with Ben in the last couple of days, coupled with reticence from the blonde over going further, had him damn ready to try.  In his new frame of mind, there was only so much temptation he could take before his lust forced him to indulge - and Ben had made it very clear that such an act was not to be with him, leaving Kerr little other recourse.

He tucked his fingers into the back pockets of his jeans and smiled at Ichabod as he thought all this, thrusting a foot and a hip forward in a casually-achieved pose.  Perhaps testing the waters with someone familiar was the right way to go about things anyway.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod’s expression mirrored Kerr’s as he suddenly found himself face to face with the Irishman once more. He blinked a little in surprise before breaking eye contact and glancing down at the bar with a confused frown as he cleared his throat, wiping the gob-smacked look from his face. There went the plan of standing quietly in the corner for the entire night.

“Right, sorry,” he murmured quietly, not quite sure what else to say in response to the explanation. He wasn’t sure exactly how he felt about the fact that it was this particular vampire beside him all of a sudden. Was that better than if it had been just a random other vampire? His anger at Kerr for the part he’d played during his first experience had faded, but now he was uncomfortable for a different reason. After doing exactly what Lazarus had told him to somehow he had still managed to stir the blonde’s anger by letting Kerr feed from him, he didn’t understand it even now.

The human felt his cheeks colouring at the compliment and turned to face Kerr a little more, looking across at him again as he ran a hand through his spiked up hair, all thoughts of buying a drink forgotten. He had never been good with compliments and when they were coming for a predator who had already drunk from him it made him a bit uncomfortable.

“I, uh, thanks,” he said and without being able to stop himself his eyes dropped down to drift over Kerr’s body as well, “So do you,” he added truthfully. Hell, no, Kerr looked more than good, he looked fucking amazing. While Ichabod felt completely out of place in Risk Kerr looked like he belonged here, he fitted in perfectly and that just helped to make the human feel like he shouldn‘t be here even more.

“Um, I’ve been…ok,” he said with a small shrug. Things could be better, but he didn’t really want to go into all that with Kerr, or with anyone. He was pissed off with his ‘master’ but admitting that out loud would make it more real and he would start to question why he was even still with Lazarus. And that was something he really didn’t want to think about.

“So, um, how have you been? Been up to much?” he asked, shuffling his feet slightly as his wandering hand found the back of his neck and he scratched it lightly as his other thumb hooked into his jeans pocket. While he waited for a reply Ichabod couldn’t help his eyes from darting around to the crowd, suddenly worried that Lazarus might appear out of no where and loudly object to his pet even talking to another vampire. Albeit one he had offered up his pet to on a previous occasion. He quickly moved his dark gaze back to Kerr, wanting to pay attention to his answer rather than being paranoid that Lazarus might object.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr was pleased that he wasn\'t being summarily dismissed and took the opportunity to \'encourage\' the person sitting on the stool next to Ichabod to move, so that he could sit. Even though this brought him a lot closer to the mortal - touching him, almost, since Kerr was now sitting beside his standing companion - he felt it was a far better position for a conversation. He was now looking slightly up at Ichabod, rather than peering down at the shorter man.
 
He didn\'t miss the darting gaze that swept the room as he sat and almost told the brunette not to worry about them being disturbed, for he\'d seen Lazarus disappearing into one of the curtained rooms with a mortal boy when he\'d first arrived. Well, he\'d seen Lazarus heading into the corridor as he\'d arrived, truthfully, but he\'d followed as quickly as he could, intending to say hello to the Ancient but halting when he\'d seen the groping couple practically fall into a private room. It didn\'t take a mind reader to figure out that Ichabod was compulsively searching for Lazarus now (and Kerr hadn\'t read his mind) but the vampire didn\'t quite have the heart to tell him that his looking was futile. It hadn\'t seemed like the Ancient would be emerging any time soon... and, on further thought, Kerr didn\'t have the heart to describe the scene either, so he kept that to himself too.
 
"I\'ve been very busy, actually. I\'ve had lots of changes since we last talked; primarily, my sire and I parted company and I\'ve moved into my own place in the city. It\'s much closer to everything. I\'ve seen a bit more of Ben, too, because now he has somewhere else to hang out, instead of at Arles\' place all the time," Kerr explained keenly, his grin broad.
 
He was aware that his former information was one of the grandest understatements he\'d ever made and that the latter was an oversimplification, but Ichabod wasn\'t equipped to make these judgments. Besides, they were having a polite conversation and there was no way the mortal would want to know every single detail of his life - this was likely too much said, considering that people asked the question \'How are you?\' without ever expecting a truthful answer. It was rhetorical for the most part but Kerr was eager to share the basics of his life change with someone who had a glancing knowledge of Ben, the person most important to him.
 
Kerr leaned an elbow on the bar as he spoke, booted feet hooked onto the rim of the stool so that his spread knees encompassed Ichabod\'s body width, showing silently that he was very interested in conversing with the mortal. He was leaning forward as well, his dark gaze alight and focussed intently on eyes of a mirroring shade, lips eventually settling into a contented half smile as he waited for a polite return comment. The hand not connected to the arm leaning on the bar was draped casually over his muscular thigh, though he had the urge to draw Ichabod closer, into the circle of his legs, so that they could talk more quietly and he didn\'t have to speak so robustly that a mortal could hear him over the noise of the club. He fought that urge, but his gaze fell briefly to take in Ichabod\'s body position and calculate where he could snag the boy to bring him closer, anyway.

[pinkroses]

After seeing no sign of the ancient Ichabod did listen properly to what Kerr was saying, watching him with clear interest in his eyes. He tilted his head to one side as he mentioned his sire. He’d got the impression that Kerr was…well, not as old as Lazarus, but that he had a few years behind him. Lazarus had never really mentioned any of his fledglings and so Ichabod had thought that they would have struck out on their own pretty early. But he supposed it was different for everyone, like children with their parents. And like with some families, Kerr looked more than happy to have left his sire.

He dropped his hand down from the back of his neck to rest on the bar near Kerr’s elbow when the vampire mentioned Ben. He couldn’t help his curiosity leaping when his name was mentioned, wondering how the young vampire was. He knew it was probably stupid but he felt somehow connected to Ben, they were both each other’s first and for Ichabod that was special, although he guessed that Ben hadn’t given him a second thought. He had probably just been a meal to him after all, but Ben had helped open Ichabod’s eyes to this whole new world.

Ichabod was more than aware of Kerr’s close proximity, and position of his legs in relation to himself and for a moment he was sorely tempted to move in closer to the vampire and offer what he guessed Kerr had come to the club for. He knew Lazarus well enough to guess that he had found himself a drink by now (although the idea that he might be doing more than just drinking didn’t cross his mind). What right did he have to do that and then tell Ichabod to just stand around and wait for him? But the human really didn’t have the nerve to do that, he didn’t want to start anything that would cause another row.

“Is, um, Ben, is he alright? Settling into the whole…y’know, vampire…thing ok?” he asked with interest, trying to distract himself from thinking about Lazarus. Ben was a topic which Kerr was obviously interested in, and so was Ichabod, so it was the one he settled on.  He frowned slightly as he thought back over what Kerr had said, then spoke again, “Why couldn’t Ben spend time with you when you lived with your sire? Did he not like him or something?” Ichabod’s body relaxed slightly as he spoke, his feet stopped shuffling on the smooth floor as he settled into talking with the vampire and stopped letting his mind linger on things he was worried about in favour for an interesting conversation topic.

[Existentially Odd]

"Ben\'s fine, yes - and very well settled, thanks," Kerr answered warmly, effectively hiding the way his stomach flipped at Ichabod\'s final, probing question. He tried to put off replying to that as long as possible.
 
"As far as being kindred goes, he\'s already well versed in everything he needs to know and is advancing more rapidly than I expected he would, at the extraneous stuff. He pushes himself quite hard, though. He\'s impatient to improve, you see. Oddly, it seems that he has natural ability to aid him, meaning that neither of his sires can take the credit for how well he handles himself already," the vampire chuckled, his indulgent tone making it clear that he was very proud of his fledgling.
 
"And no; Ben and Sawyl - my sire - never really did get on. Sawyl was very... jealous, I suppose you\'d say, and it eventually came to a head when Ben was sired," Kerr explained as briefly as he could, his expression growing troubled despite his best efforts to prevent it.  He cleared his throat and brought his former half smile back with some effort.  "Having a place of my own has turned out for the best, anyway.  You should come see it sometime, I don\'t exactly get a lot of visitors - just Ben.  I could make sure you two meet up again, if you\'d like," he offered, sensing Ichabod\'s interest in the blonde.  Although he meant nothing untoward by the gesture, he felt magnanimous and excited by the thought that he could surprise Ben with an unexpected reacquaintance with his first victim.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod couldn\'t help but smile at Kerr\'s warm tone, he was obviously proud of Ben and eager to talk about him. His voice was so different from Lazarus\', whose every word seemed to have an underlying maliciousness, they never seemed to just talk; there always had to be a point. This was just talking, and he liked it.

"That\'s good," he said with a small nod. It sounded like Ben was more than capable of handling himself. "Oh, right," he added when he was told about Sawyl. He wanted to ask more about what had happened, but stopped himself when he saw the look on Kerr’s face. He didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by asking him about something he didn’t want to talk about, and besides, Kerr had already began to speak again and changed the topic.

He chewed lightly on his lower lip when he heard Kerr’s offer. He was getting more comfortable around Kerr and didn’t worry about being alone with him, but he just didn’t know what Lazarus would think of it. It was so confusing, he had no idea how the blonde would react to the idea, he was so unpredictable. But Ichabod did want to get out of the house more and would like to see Kerr’s new apartment…and see Ben, just out of interest.

“I dunno, I mean, yeah, I’d like to, but…” Lazarus might hate it, “Do you think Ben would actually like to see me again?” he asked with a cocked eyebrow and his voice a little more hopeful than he wanted it to be. He got the feeling he had annoyed the fledgling a little with all his questions, but then again that may have just been because of the rules (which he had later found out about from Lazarus). He liked parts of living with Lazarus, but being lonely was not one of the things he enjoyed. Going to see Kerr‘s apartment and seeing Ben again would at least relieve him of that annoyance. “Where abouts is it?” he asked, glancing down for a moment, his eyes lingering on the necklace around Kerr’s neck before lifting back up to his eyes.

[Existentially Odd]

"Just at the Capital Building, in the inner city," Kerr beamed, liking the fact that Ichabod seemed interested in coming round.  "And I\'m sure he wouldn\'t object to seeing you again, though I admit we\'ve never discussed the fact that I met up with you again.  I don\'t see what the problem would be," the vampire mused, giving a casual shrug before sitting up a bit straighter.

He wriggled about on his stool a bit, shifting his ass back enough to be able to grasp the padded seat in both hands near his crotch, leaning down on the heels comfortably.  Kerr\'s smile was slightly thoughtful, given that he\'d accidentally caught the thoughts about Lazarus without even trying to do so; strong emotions and evident bitterness tended to carry more easily than it should.

"Of course, if you think it would cause problems with Lazarus, I don\'t want to put any pressure on you, but... well... he obviously does his own thing, so... " Kerr broke off with another prominent bunching of his shoulder muscles, alluding to the fact that the Ancient wasn\'t exactly tied to Ichabod\'s side as far as entertainment went.  He raised his eyebrows slightly as he stared intently into the mortal\'s eyes.

[pinkroses]

Capital Building, that wasn’t too far, Ichabod was pretty sure he’d be able at find if he wanted to. He gave another small nod when Kerr said he hadn’t mentioned him to Ben, why would he have done? There would have been no reason for him to have done really. As Kerr shuffled in his seat Ichabod glanced down again his eyes accidentally settling on his crotch until he quickly shifted his gaze.

His eyes shot up quickly when Kerr mentioned Lazarus and his eyes narrowed into a suspicious frown. Had he read his thoughts or was it just a good guess? It was really hard to tell. That was the reason why Ichabod hadn’t been comfortable around Kerr when Lazarus had brought him home, he didn’t like the idea of someone probing into his thoughts and manipulating them. And he didn’t like the way that Kerr mentioned him like that, like he knew something about Lazarus’ whereabouts that his pet didn’t, although he had a pretty good idea.

Ichabod wasn’t usually a rebellious person, but with the way Lazarus had been acting tonight he was seriously tempted to completely forget about the blonde for a while. He had been the one to say they should make their relationship more official (for his own means, of course) but already, just a couple of hours later, he was off drinking from someone else when Ichabod was ready and willing. Maybe he would pay a little more attention to his pet if…if what? If he realised Ichabod wasn’t just going to wait around forever? The human hadn’t really done much to give a different impression so far.

He folded his arms across his chest lightly, his scowl fading slightly. None of this was Kerr’s fault, he shouldn’t blame him for it.

“You’re right, I guess, if he’s off…” Ichabod gestured slightly with one hand out at the crowd of the club, “Y’know. Doing whatever, he can’t really complain about me doing whatever I want to,” he said in a thoughtful tone. He hesitated for a moment before taking a small step towards Kerr, settling himself between the vampire’s parted knees as his eyes settled on Kerr’s dark gaze. His hands dropped down to rest gingerly on Kerr’s knees. He could feel his heart pounding as he opened his mouth then shut it again abruptly. Ichabod was rubbish at things like this, he never knew what to say or do and so normally just didn’t try.

“I’d like t’ see your place sometime,” he said, now at a quieter level since they were closer together and could hear each other better. Sometime? Hell, if he was braver he would have said now. He didn’t know when he would next be out without Lazarus and didn’t much fancy trying to explain where he was going in the vampire saw him leaving the house alone.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr blinked at the change in Ichabod\'s demeanour, watching him go from a folded-arm pose to sidling closer to him and even touching him.  It was quite obvious that the mortal was making such moves as a direct result of Lazarus\' screwing around, though, and Kerr doubted that his rebellion would go all the way.

He\'d test it, however, just in case the boy was braver than he\'d guessed; fear of the unknown had caused him to be here, talking to someone he knew, rather than properly working the club for a new victim, after all.  He wasn\'t so polished that he could have had as easy a conversation with anyone else, nor speak to them with such confidence.  Knowing Ichabod and having experienced how soft and receptive he was at a feeding had him filled with a warmth that caused him to behave differently, though.

"I came here tonight with the intention of taking someone back to my place, for the night," he drawled, his hands sliding off the stool and loosely grasping Ichabod\'s hips as he gave him a meaningful look.  His gaze dipped to take in the shape of the mortal\'s lips before lifting again, making his intentions obvious.  "It could be you, if you were... open... to such things."

[pinkroses]

Ichabod wasn’t sure how he’d been expecting Kerr to react, but he felt his stomach turn over and he swallowed hard when he felt the vampire’s hands on his hips. But although he was nervous Ichabod didn’t want to back out now, he’d already taken a step towards it and didn’t want Kerr to leave him so that he could go back to his original plan of drinking himself into a stupor.

It took him a hell of a lot of effort not to glance around again to check that Lazarus wasn’t lurking nearby, but Ichabod managed to keep his eyes fixed on Kerr’s, watching as his eyes moved down to his lips and instinctively wet them with the lip of his tongue. He gave a small shrug and gave the vampire’s knees and gentle squeeze.

“Yeah, I’d be up for that,” he said with a small smile, hoping that Kerr wouldn’t pick up on just how much his heart rate had sped up. He hadn’t been sure what Lazarus had said when he left him, but he was sure that leaving the club without him and going back to a vampire’s home without his permission was definitely not going to make their next conversation a fun one. But that wasn’t what he wanted to focus on just now.

Backing out now would just make living with Lazarus even more unbearable, he was set on going through with this now. He shifted his fingers a little further up Kerr’s legs, glancing down for a moment before making eye contact once more.

Ichabod thought he knew exactly what Kerr was implying by the whole night and although Ichabod had a few butterflies about it he was glad it was Kerr sitting across from him, not some other random predator. He occasionally felt a little uncomfortable around Kerr, but he did feel safe, whether or not he should. But he still wasn\'t sure what to do now, would Kerr want to go straight away? Ichabod knew that that was the option he would prefer, just in case.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr smiled gently at Ichabod, upon receiving a confirmation he hadn\'t expected.  Part of him still wondered if it was the right thing to do, to pursue an Ancient\'s pet like this - or even take advantage of a mortal he knew to be in some emotional turmoil over said vampire but... the appeal of having someone he knew, who was quiet and receptive and likely to not judge him as harshly as a stranger would if he confessed it was his first time with a man... well, that was too good an opportunity to pass up.

What harm could he and Ichabod having a little sex do, anyway?  Lazarus was currently occupied doing exactly what Kerr intended to do with Ichabod (but with someone entirely unknown) and Ben... well, truthfully he and Ben weren\'t exactly on speaking terms but once they were again, the fledgling would still be in a relationship with Arles and delaying things with him, so he didn\'t feel beholden in that respect.  Certainly he wished to be sleeping with his fledgling over everyone else, but the blonde had made it very clear that he wanted to take his time.

The problem was, Kerr was over waiting, he was ready for a new experience now.  Besides, it should work out better if he had some idea of what he was doing by the time Ben came around to agreeing with him.  There was a method to his madness.

Letting the knowing smile speak for him, Kerr grasped Ichabod\'s left hand in his right, slid off his stool (not being shy about pausing when pressed up against the mortal\'s lovely heat and dipping his head slightly, to better know his scent) and led Ichabod out of Risk.

(Continued in \'Discoveries\')