Author Topic: Best Laid Plans  (Read 50001 times)

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Offline Existentially Odd

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Best Laid Plans
« on: September 11, 2007, 08:54:38 PM »
Kerr slumped gracefully back onto his pillow, moaning and stretching a little as the post-coital bliss ebbed through him.  His eyes were closed, his lips smiling dazedly as he lay back on his bed and took... a moment.  \'Moments\' were becoming bountiful, the longer he was with Ben; it was intoxicating.  Addictive.

Their waking together and feeding - followed by a tumble back to bed because Kerr was still drinking from Ben for at least one of the men he fed from each night - had definitely become a pleasant pattern.  It hadn\'t been going on long enough to be labelled a routine, in the Irishman\'s eyes.  How long would that be?  He wondered many such dreamy, idle things as he lay there, entwined with his love and taking his time while the climax settled.

After a while, he opened his eyes and turned onto his side so that he was facing Ben properly.  "So... I was thinking," he murmured, a smirk now twisting his lips both because he felt incredibly smug to be able to look at the beautiful face on the pillow beside his and also because he anticipated that he might earn a joke at declaring himself thinking - after an act that had clearly not been motivated by thought at all.

"How about I call Mandy and then we throw some clothes together and hop on over to Europe?"

They\'d been to visit the mortal the night before and it hadn\'t gone well, thanks to Ichabod\'s presence.  Kerr had decided that a phone call to notify the mortal of their departure would be best, considering the circumstances.  He saw no reason to delay their trip now that that had been clarified.

Offline Trillian

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2007, 09:04:00 PM »
Ben was dozing.  Perhaps not such a romantic thing to do, drifting on the verge of sleep after orgasms both of them had worked hard toward, but there it was anyway - sleep, calling to him, luring him to its hazy edges, and then Kerr spoke and it snapped him awake like a fine mist blown away by the subtle turbulance of a jet engine.

"Hnnh?" he asked intelligently, pale eyes opening wide and seeing every bit of light that poured into the room (which wasn\'t much, but his vampire sense was still fairly new to him, even after some months, and the most light was cast by the eerie red glow of the luminescent clock whose numbers Ben couldn\'t read from his position on the mattress.

hop on over to Europe was the most Ben heard, but vaguely knew Kerr had been talking about calling Mandy.

"You make it sound like we\'re going to jump on a plane tomorrow," Ben joked, speaking very softly in the room - so much that his voice didn\'t register and it was softer than a whisper.  Kerr\'s sense would hear it though, and Ben could clearly hear it, so it was all that was needed.
INFUSCO : Ben : Hugh : Lan Bao : Mick : Todd : Vincent : Win :
HALFLIGHT : Graille Min Sayer :

Offline Existentially Odd

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2007, 09:11:24 PM »
Kerr chuckled and repeatedly brushed the backs of his fingers against Ben\'s stomach, his hand resting on the mattress between them.  "No, not tomorrow.  Tonight.  You said you didn\'t want to do much shopping before you left, didn\'t you?" he enquired, fairly certain he had that memory correct.

He hadn\'t told Ben everything about the jet he owned, he knew, but he was pretty sure he\'d mentioned it so that the blonde should know they didn\'t have to fuss about here any longer than was necessary.  They could go with a couple of hours\' notice.  On second thought, he didn\'t think he had told Ben enough.

"I only need to give the pilot an hour or so\'s notice," he pointed out reasonably, "but if you wanted bit longer than that to get ready, it\'s no problem."

Offline Trillian

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2007, 09:27:12 PM »
Now Ben really was awake, rudely awakened in fact, by information that made his stomach tense beneath the fingers that were brushing over it, muscles firming and gut knotting - or so it seemed.

"What?" he asked, not quite shrieking as his voice was still not over a whisper, but it certainly was a lot louder than his first spoken words.  "Tonight?" he asked, not really comprehending and thinking Kerr was making a joke, but inside him knew it wasn\'t any such thing.  "But... we haven\'t planned anything," he said, not knowing what to plan right now because his mind had stopped working, but he was sure that there was something to figure out before they jumped on a jet and set off for another continent.  Where would they sleep?  Accomodation!  That was something to plan.  And packing!  And... it was his first time overseas, it shouldn\'t happen so quickly.  Should it?
INFUSCO : Ben : Hugh : Lan Bao : Mick : Todd : Vincent : Win :
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Offline Existentially Odd

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #4 on: September 11, 2007, 09:32:09 PM »
Kerr\'s eyebrows knotted together and he blinked, half smiling because he was slightly bewildered by Ben\'s apparent angst and half thought he was joking.  There was a tension in him that was suddenly palpable though, and that told Kerr that his fledgling wasn\'t kidding.

"Uh... what did you want to plan?  Did you want to go and see Arles before we left?" he prompted, his voice automatically soothing, as if he thought Ben was getting a tad hysterical.  The fledgling hadn\'t been all that keen on communicating with his other sire but for all Kerr knew, he might have changed his mind.  Kerr had got his visitation with Mandy, after all.

Offline Trillian

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #5 on: September 11, 2007, 09:39:26 PM »
Mentioning Arles made Ben feel a little guilty for he\'d been putting that off now that he was with Kerr.  It would make him feel guilty seeing Arles also, considering the two of them had been lovers before Ben moved out and then in with Kerr, his other sire.  It would be awkward.  Even if Arles was okay with it, Ben would feel awkward.

"No," he said, somewhat defensively, then covered with a: "That\'s not what I meant."  Then he had to explain what he did mean, which he wasn\'t sure.  "It\'s... a long trip.  We\'re going to be... gone a while.  Planning, you know?  What to take, what to leave behind, what to see, where to stay... planning," he finished lamely, feeling like he was summarising a spelling bee after using planning in a sentence.

Frowning now, and shifting so he could also lay on his side facing Kerr properly, pale blue eyes burning his intense ice into Kerr\'s warm brown gaze.  "It\'s..."  he shrugged.

It\'s not right, he thought, though not in a coherent sentence that was readable, it was just a feeling, it\'s not right to steal the planning of the trip and the excitement and anticipation of the trip away from me.  I want to do it like normal people do.  I want to count down the days - the nights, whatever - and have however many sleeps to go, I want that nervous tingle in my belly, that growing excitement.  I don\'t want to just go.  I want to wait and feel the \'can\'t-wait\' feeling.
INFUSCO : Ben : Hugh : Lan Bao : Mick : Todd : Vincent : Win :
HALFLIGHT : Graille Min Sayer :

Offline Existentially Odd

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #6 on: September 11, 2007, 09:57:39 PM »
"Oh," Kerr said dumbly, blinking again.  "I\'m rushing you," he stated, feeling a bit awkward about that.  He\'d done it so often, travelled all over the world on a whim, that he\'d lost his understanding of what an important thing it was, to travel abroad for the first time.  He struggled and tried to remember what it had been like for him... so long ago.

"It\'s just... I have houses and... apartments in most of the capital cities so... I figured we\'d stay in one of them - in whichever city you wanted to visit first.  There\'s... a castle, as well," he added sheepishly, proud of his fortress but feeling a bit silly talking about it out of the blue.  "In Scotland.  But look," he carried on hastily, raising himself up onto his elbow so that he could peer down at Ben, his expression concerned, "we don\'t have to stay in any of my places, we could just go to hotels?"

Even as he said it, he realised that this was the sort of planning Ben was talking about.  He\'d done far too much assuming, based on prior experience.  He was stripping the journey down to bare essentials, rather than savouring the building of it.  That definitely had to change.  He adopted a frown for his fledgling\'s benefit and took the necessary step backwards.

"Hang on, first things first.  Where do you want to go and how long do you want to be away for?" he enquired, starting with the basics - letting Ben do some dreaming.

Offline Trillian

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #7 on: September 11, 2007, 10:03:34 PM »
A castle?  Kerr might\'ve felt silly mentioning it, but it brought Ben around a little, he could almost feel his ears perking up, and certainly any sleep robbed from him was not missed now - not when there was mention of a castle.

Now things were turned around to him and this was the kind of conversation that he\'d thought they were going to have before Kerr started talking of private jets and living in his many houses.  They could still do the latter, just that he\'d like to hear more about them, like knowing what kind of hotel they\'d be in, what they\'d be close to, and so forth.  He settled a little more rightly on his pillow and snuggled up against Kerr, moving his sire\'s arm around his shoulders in a peculiar position unless Kerr moved and made it more comfortable for the both of them.

"I\'d like to see your home.  Ireland.  I\'d like to see the country you came from.  And I\'d like to go to Scotland and stay in the castle."

Now he felt like a little boy, so he looked to Kerr for acknowledgment, to see if he was attracting a look that might have him being treated like one as well.
INFUSCO : Ben : Hugh : Lan Bao : Mick : Todd : Vincent : Win :
HALFLIGHT : Graille Min Sayer :

Offline Existentially Odd

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #8 on: September 11, 2007, 10:11:40 PM »
Kerr was genuinely touched that his origins would be prioritised and his soft smile reflected this.  His gaze became a little distant as he contemplated what he would show Ben first, what the fledgling might be interested in seeing.  After a  few moments he realised he\'d zoned out and attended to the conversation here and now, beginning by settling himself close enough that his arm about his lover\'s shoulders felt more natural.

"Alright.  I\'d like that, too.  Where I grew up is all ruins now but there are bits of Angus\' castle still there.  Would you like to see where I was sired?" he asked almost secretively, Ben\'s childish wonder reflected in his tone because he was beginning to realise that this trip would be a first for him - and that was exciting.  He\'d finally have someone to share things with (as opposed to Sawyl who tolerated about ten minutes of conversation that didn\'t involve him, before he wandered away to find something more interesting to do).

Offline Trillian

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #9 on: September 11, 2007, 10:19:13 PM »
"If it\'s not too... painful for you," Ben said, hesitating for wanting to find a better word and forced to use painful because upsetting just sounded too girly.  He knew the circumstances of Kerr\'s siring had been unpleasant, but just look what he\'d done with it, where he was now - in bed with Ben (which Ben greatly approved of).  "It\'s like tracing my bloodline, I guess.  It\'s my heritage because it\'s yours."  Like a weird familial line, though it sounded a little incestuous, Ben was happy to adopt the line of siring over his actual family line, due to the nature of his ignorant and estranged family.  "And it\'d be like my own personal documentary."

Ben, who mostly watched the History Channel on the numerous channels to choose from on Kerr\'s wide-screen tv, had always been a sucker for history and research - the normal and mundane human tales as well as the supernatural ones were something he adored hearing the stories for.  He liked watching Antiques Roadshow with Kerr as well, much to Kerr\'s delight.  It was something they could share - the history of the world, some of which Kerr had lived, and some even before his own time.
INFUSCO : Ben : Hugh : Lan Bao : Mick : Todd : Vincent : Win :
HALFLIGHT : Graille Min Sayer :

Offline Existentially Odd

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #10 on: September 11, 2007, 10:34:03 PM »
Kerr chuckled and rolled his eyes playfully, a sudden and very different line of thought sparked because of the way Ben phrased himself - even though his immediate reaction was to downplay the words first.

"Bah, it\'s fine - besides, if I can cleverly get you to focus on the Ancient part of my bloodline, you might be more prone to forget the Sawyl side of it," he laughed, lifting a hand to waggle his fingers as if he were hypnotising the blonde, showing he was teasing.  Still, he knew that subject was still rather touchy (for they\'d not really discussed he and Sawyl - well, only as much as they\'d delved into the Ben and Lazarus side of things... which was minimal, at this stage... despite curiosities) so he shifted the coversation rather rapidly sideways.

"Speaking of bloodlines, would you be interested in learning about my children?" he asked, his voice growing noticeably hesitant by the end as he attempted to maintain a casual front but nerves got the better of him.  He didn\'t see how it would change anything between he and Ben but... it was possible the fledgling might not like having such information suddenly revealed to him.

If they were going to Ireland to see where he\'d come from, though, he wouldn\'t be able to leave the area without discussing with Ben the legacy he\'d left behind.

Offline Trillian

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #11 on: September 12, 2007, 05:06:23 AM »
Ben was silent for a moment, thinking about the word \'children\' and what that meant.  Kerr had been a mortal man in his thirties when he\'d been sired, and he\'d always been into women.  Unmarried, but Ben remembered something about him being a philanderer, told to him that very first night they\'d met in Risk when Ben had been after stories of Kerr\'s past.  So, there\'d been a pregnancy.  Or pregnancies, more rightly, if there were children, not a child.

"You\'ve kept up with them?  With your children\'s children?" he asked curiously.  "Have you met them?"

It was funny, thinking about Kerr having kids or being a parent.  Ben wondered how many kids he\'d had, or how old they\'d been when Kerr had known about them.
INFUSCO : Ben : Hugh : Lan Bao : Mick : Todd : Vincent : Win :
HALFLIGHT : Graille Min Sayer :

Offline Existentially Odd

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #12 on: September 12, 2007, 05:28:22 AM »
Kerr opened his mouth to answer, hesitated, licked his lips and... closed his mouth again.  Interesting that Ben should take that slant on things straight up, considering he\'d just been trying to avoid the topic of Sawyl.

"No.  I did, I followed their lines for a couple of hundred years but then... Sawyl got upset one night.  He claimed all I ever did was look at the stupid bible - I have a tree recorded in my family bible, you see, which is in the study - and cared more about people I didn\'t even know than I did about him and his mothers.  He ranted for a while about how diluted their blood was compared to his and then he went out and... killed the three children of one of my descendants," Kerr explained slowly, attempting a smile but obviously saddened by this tale, for he was noticeably sombre.

"He slaughtered them in their beds and... left them there for their parents to discover.  I didn\'t find out for two more nights, even though I\'d wondered why he\'d looked so smug and had stopped arguing with me.  It was devastating - a horrible tragedy no-one in the village could understand, though it fed all the vampire mythology that had ever abounded, for he left them with their throats torn open and blood everywhere, considering he couldn\'t drain all three properly with his size.  It was hideous.  I stopped filling in my tree after that, as you can imagine," he said with a soft laugh, the smile he managed to bear wry.

It had been a while since he\'d thought about such things, but it always saddened him, and he hated the futility of it all.  He hadn\'t spoken to Sawyl for a year after that, and they\'d moved on to another country besides Ireland hastily, in order to avoid suspicion.

"I suppose - now that I\'m away from him - that I could complete it easily enough, but I\'ve not got around to it.  There were three children originally, two boys and a girl - though none of them ever bore my name, it was all very illicit," he explained with a giggle, wanting the mood to be lighter and warmer.  He hugged Ben just a little bit closer and his hand swept languourously up and down his back a few times to this end.  "But there are likely thousands that have come from those three children that I know about, by now, so it won\'t be a quick project!"

Offline Trillian

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #13 on: September 12, 2007, 08:56:08 AM »
Ben was horrified, aghast at Kerr\'s tale and wondering

Why the fuck did you stay with him so long?

in a coherent sentence that was projected at Kerr but blocked at the tail end of it, so that it might\'ve leaked through, and Ben suddenly got a very guilty look on his face though it wasn\'t enough to overshadow the horror of Sawyl\'s doing.

The little freak-childe might be a part of his bloodline via Kerr, but as far as Ben was concerned he was going to ignore that part.  Kerr\'s transfer of vampire blood from two sick fucks hadn\'t changed Kerr\'s kindness or stability any, but now Kerr was more of a mystery.  Why stay with Sawyl for so long?  He supposed Kerr could counter him with Lazarus, but... there\'d been a purpose to their getting together and it hadn\'t lasted long at all, there\'d never been any intention to.

He wanted to make a comment about some of the things Kerr had said but didn\'t trust himself, he was too aghast.  Kerr\'s attempt at lightening the air hadn\'t worked a bit.
INFUSCO : Ben : Hugh : Lan Bao : Mick : Todd : Vincent : Win :
HALFLIGHT : Graille Min Sayer :

Offline Existentially Odd

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Re: Best Laid Plans
« Reply #14 on: September 12, 2007, 04:57:49 PM »
Kerr\'s gaze lowered to Ben\'s lips as the silence stretched uncomfortably around them and his mind scrambled, debating whether he should answer the sentence that had been voiced in his mind as clearly as if Ben had spoken it - well, up to the end where it seemed Ben had cut it off at \'so\', and he could guess the rest - or ignore it.
 
"I don\'t know," he answered softly, not particularly wanting to discuss Sawyl but aware that he\'d brought him up. His gaze had slid even lower, to Ben\'s chest, but was unfocussed as he sought an answer. "Habit. Guilt. Faith. Fear," he said rapidly, then expanded. "Habit because they trained me and helped me with my talents; they created me. Guilt because they need someone to... clean up after them and because Sawyl chose me to be his fledgling. Faith that I could fix everything that was broken about them. Fear that if I left they\'d just... murder without conscience. Incessantly."
 
Kerr frowned and cleared his throat, knowing his body had stiffened but he forced himself not to pull away, for he wasn\'t wanting to close off to Ben - just to this topic. "I\'m sorry," he said sincerely. "I don\'t mean to make things awkward. You want to go to Ireland and Scotland so... shall we say this trip will be devoted specifically to the United Kingdom?" he asked, wishing desperately to change the topic back.