Unlikely Bedfellows

[Existentially Odd]

(Continued from \'Lacking Interest\')

The ride through the city streets was not performed at the breakneck speeds that the bike was capable of (for George never broke the speed limit in the confines of the city, not wishing to draw any sort of attention to himself) but he did perform some very swift exits from red lights and made sure he took at least one road where he could crank it to eighty.

When they got to his place, he clicked the automatic garage door from as far away as he possibly could, so that when he slowed down to a muted amble, he could ride straight into the garage and click the button again, so the door would quickly reverse and shut them in.  The light came on automatically and he waited for Will to get off before he did, removing his helmet, shutting off the bike and positioning it in the middle of the large room on its kickstand.

The double garage was lined on two sides with floor to ceiling steel frames that had hardwood shelves inserted into them.  Every sort of adventure equipment imaginable was stacked on these shelves, from scuba tanks to grappling hooks - though a few very sturdy ropes and caribenas had been puddled on the floor, like they hadn\'t been attended to since last they were used.

"This is the garage," George grinned as he dismounted and placed its helmet in its rightful position.  "Room for you to have a vehicle in here, if you wanted," he hinted, nodding at the generous amount of cement surrounding his bike - which stood as the crowning achievement in such a room, obviously.  He unzipped his jacket and curled his hands around his slim hips, waiting for Will to comment before he continued the tour.

[pinkroses]

Will slipped easily on the bike behind George and settled his hands on the redhead’s waist, not at all afraid to press close up behind him, keeping a steady grip as they rode even though he didn’t really need it. There was a constant grin on his face as soon as they set off and he chuckled to himself as George sped up when he could, tearing out of the lights. He lifted his head look around with interest as they approached the house which looked pretty ramshackle, but that was kind of what Will had been expecting after what George had told him.

Once the garage door had slid shut behind them Will slid off the bike smoothly, still feeling the vibrations from the bike running through his legs as he ran a hand through his windswept hair, gazing around as George sorted himself out. He wandered over to the shelves, eyeing up all the equipment. It looked as though his new companion was a bit of an adrenaline junkie - but he’d have to have a few good contacts to be able to do a lot of this stuff and some of it Will had never really thought of doing because he didn’t have those contacts. Perhaps if this worked out they’d be able to put a few of the items to good use.  Some of it though he didn’t really fancy, like the scuba stuff - Will had only been on a boat once and that was on his trip to America when he was human. He doubted sailing would make him quite so sea sick now, but he didn’t want to risk it.

As George spoke Will turned away from the shelves back to the redhead, a grin on his face. “I might have to get one of those too, it’s been too long since I’ve ridden like that,” he said, nodding towards the bike. Even if he didn’t stay here, he guessed that it wouldn’t be too long before he got a new bike and he knew plenty of brilliant places to ride.

“Do you get to use all this stuff much?” he asked, gesturing to the equipment as he waited for George to show him the rest of the house.

[Existentially Odd]

"Well... some of it\'s just for show - like the scuba tanks, which I obviously don\'t need, except for the fact that my crew was all mortal and completely ignorant to what I am, except for Reed," he explained and immediately fell quiet, shocking himself with the use of his ex lover\'s name.  It still took him by surprise, even after all this time.

He cleared his throat, walking over by Will and folding his arms in order to look at all his belongings carefully.  "But no, to answer your question, I don\'t get to use it all much anymore.  Not since I made the decision to start hanging out with those of my kind and establish somewhere as home," he mused.  There was a bundle of emotion hidden behind the words but he attempted to mask it by concentratig on the here and now.

[pinkroses]

Will smirked as George explained why he had a lot of the things, but then the redhead cut off abruptly enough for Will to glance his way with a raised eyebrow. Obviously something had happened with Reed, maybe they’d fallen out, or Reed was human perhaps he died, or something equally dramatic. Either way, Will didn’t want to have his fun evening damped by someone who wasn’t even here.

“Hanging out with us doesn’t mean you don’t get to have fun anymore,” Will said, turning his back on the shelves and beginning to wander towards the door he assumed led to the rest of the house. “If I move in we should make some use of it, brush off those cobwebs,” he said, glancing back over his shoulder at George with a grin. “Unless, of course, you’re going to get all sappy and sentimental over times gone by,” Will added in a teasing tone before adding without hesitation and a gesture to the door, “This way?”

[Existentially Odd]

With an indelicate snort, he confirmed that the older vampire was, indeed, heading towards the rest of the house and hurried to catch up with him.  The lounge room they walked into was plush and expensively furnished with a massive screen television, installed surround sound system and a few different gaming consoles on the plush green carpet - the remotes placed on the lounge seat advertised the fact that they were used a lot.

They walked past the expensive stereo system in the corner nearest the door, with a perfunctory description of the kitchen that included, "I have some pig\'s blood in the fridge if you get peckish, haven\'t bought a dining suite yet."  Then it was on down the hall.  The first, small bedroom they passed was also still unfurnished but the second - whose door was beside (to the left of) his - had been altered.

"I figure you\'d do alright in here," George explained, opening the door (it had remained closed since Reed had moved out, for he hadn\'t been able to look into it or think about what they\'d done together in the room - now he saw that that was a mistake, since the sheets were still rumpled and hadn\'t been washed).  He stared at the unmade king sized bed in chagrin.  "Uh... might need to get you some clean sheets, though."  The idea that they might still smell of Reed occurred to him and caused a pang, but he purposely directed his attention elsewhere.

Besides the large bed - which was a wooden frame with smoothly polished bed ends and slightly raised knobs on the corners, sporting an excessively thick inner spring mattress - there was a matching high boy with four massive drawers and four smalls drawers in it, made of the same golden wood as the bed and the matching bedside units.  There was a great deal of space left in the large room, for it rivalled the master bedroom in size, and the built-in wardrobe would hold a grand amount of Will\'s stuff, he thought.

Walking over to the bed to start stripping it - resisting the urge to sniff the sheets... just yet, anyway - George glanced at the other vampire, trying to gauge his reaction.  "What do you think?" he queried hopefully.

[pinkroses]

Will strolled casually around the house as Will guided him, feeling a little like a buyer being lead around by an estate agent, although this time all of the furniture would still be here. His expression remained fairly blank throughout, although he was really quite pleased with what he saw. By the looks of it he wouldn’t need to have too much stuff sent, some of it would be duplicates or too similar to what was already here to bother. And the furnishing was well done - nothing too gaudy, good quality, but nothing that you wouldn’t want people to touch in case they damaged it.

He waited for George to open the door to his bedroom before he stepped inside and it was a good thing as the scent hit him even from where he was stood. He blinked in surprise and then glanced towards with an expression which clearly said ‘What the hell?’

Will hesitated for a moment, then made a thoughtful ‘hm’ before following George into the room, watching him begin to speedily strip the bed. It smelt like a human, stale sweat and sex. Delightful.

But then again it was just a smell, and that would fade quickly with a little attention. Whilst George fiddled with the sheets Will nosed around into the wardrobe, eyeing up the chest of drawers and examining the covered over windows, his thumbs hooked into his jeans pockets and mentally arranging furniture as he finally stood still on the opposite side of the bed from George.
 A bookcase over there, an armchair, perhaps a sofa - a pale colour to offset the dark crimson colour of the carpet and ceiling. Perhaps a desk, but then again he rarely sat up with his laptop, usually he was sprawled along the sofa or across the bed. Somewhere to set up his speakers…

He heard George’s question, but stayed still, his mind still running over the possibilities for a few seconds as his eyes drifted around the room. Right now it felt like someone else’s home, but then everywhere did for a short time. And it was already sun proofed, obviously very well, which made things all that much easier. And judging by the size of the room it looked as though George had never really intended here living alone, so why not? It would probably be fun and if it wasn’t, well, there were plenty of hotels in the city, and plenty of cities in the country if things really didn’t work out.

Finally his gaze settled on the vampire across from him, silently watching him. If he had simply come here to visit then Will would be making very different plans right now, probably involving the large bed which lay between them. But although George was good looking and obviously not afraid to talk about sex after he earlier comment, Will was now seeing him a little differently. If he was going to be living here then fucking might not be the best way to get this relationship - a tentative friendship for now - started and the blonde guessed that if George viewed him that way then the offer of moving in wouldn\'t have come. If he wanted a quick fuck then they wouldn\'t be going through this.

“Not bad,” he said, giving a small nod of approval to the redhead once the sheets were removed. “How long have you lived here… alone?” he asked, adding the last word after a moment and nodding towards the bed, more curious as to how long George had been ignoring this room than how long he’d owned the house.

[Existentially Odd]

The redhead frowned at the bed, then at the bundle of manchester in his arms.  "Ever since I bought it," he answered evasively, glancing at Will from the corner of his eye.  He could tell the other was curious about the scent of Reed in the room and he didn\'t quite know what to say about it; certainly not that he hadn\'t come in here since he\'d last fucked Reed senseless and then, high on endorphins, asked him to become a vampire and spend eternity with him, auguring world war three and Reed\'s absolute refusal before he left for good.

But something in him was also craving someone to talk to, as well.  That lonely, freaky part of him that saw him going out and talking to complete strangers - guys, usually - more often these days, instead of just picking up random women and bringing them home to fuck and forget.

"But... I had a buddy stay with me for a while.  He picked all this furniture, but you can feel free to change it if you want.  He\'s been gone over a year now, he wouldn\'t care, I just... haven\'t been able to bring myself to come in here to clean up.  We fought, see, so I was a bit...

hurt, emotionally scarred, dead inside, freaked out, miserable

upset.  Stupid fucking homo," he finished scornfully, though he laughed, like it was a joke.  It wasn\'t funny, it still hurt, and that was the hugest joke of all.

Logically, he\'d figured Will might be a homo, because so many guys in this city were, but it hadn\'t bothered him.  Now that he\'d uttered such a derogatory word in such a spiteful way, however, he realised that his feelings on the matter might be misinterpreted, even as he grinned at his new housemate.  He didn\'t have anything against gays anymore (especially not since it had been proved to him that he sort of was one), but he didn\'t quite know how to voice that, on the tail-end of using the term as a very obvious insult.  He waited for Will to say something about t, so he could clarify.

[pinkroses]

Will lifted his chin slightly, giving George a disbelieving look as he avoided the question. This was an extra bedroom and obviously more than just a guest bedroom, especially since the buddy George was talking about had picked out all of the furniture. His expression remained the same, fairly blank as George tried to explain the state of the room, at least until the blurted out insult at the end of his rant, which earned a raised eyebrow from the blonde. Judging from the state and smell of the room it looked like this buddy of George’s hadn’t been the only ‘homo’ involved. Although Will hadn’t got enough of George’s scent to pick out where he was the other contributor to the stale smell, but judging from the emotions the redhead was spouting out, he probably was. Perhaps that was part of the reason behind the argument.

“Right,” Will said simply, the disbelief edging its way into his voice as he stared George. It looked as though there was a lot more to this vampire than met the eye and there was definitely more to the story as well.

“Well… do you want to… tell me about it?” he asked after a moment, gesturing towards the bed, guessing that if there was much more to this story then they might as well be sat down… but then again perhaps George wouldn’t want to be surrounded by the smell when he was telling the story. Will knew he probably wouldn’t want to tell someone about it if he had been hurt so badly - there were stories in his past he definitely wasn’t about to start blurting out emotionally, not to some stranger anyway, even if they were going to be living together. But there didn’t seem to be any harm in letting George vent if that was what he wanted to do. Better than him keeping it all blocked up inside until he felt he just had to blurt it out at an unfortunate time. Besides, it wasn’t like Will had anything much better to do with his time. Of course, there were things he would rather be doing, but right now they involved George and if the redhead wasn’t going to comply with those then best get this out of the way.

[Existentially Odd]

"Fuck no!" George snorted enthusiastically, heading for the bedroom door.  "It\'s water under the bridge now, he\'s long gone - but I will get fresh sheets and shit," he declared, tossing the dirty sheets into Will\'s bathroom and stepping down the hall a brief way.  He opened the linen cupboard and got a new set of sheets and quilt cover set - as in brand new.  They were still in their plastic covers, a wine red sheet set with a cream and wine red quilt cover set, perfectly co-ordinated, very expensive.

All this was done very quickly and George was very soon leaning back into the room and tossing the two packs onto the stripped mattress, his other hand supporting him against he doorway.  "Did you want to look at my room and the basement?" he queried of Will, his head tilting.  "I have a coffin down there.  Or would you rather just go pick up your stuff?"  He blinked innocently at the other vampire, as if he hadn\'t just talked about having something as odd as a coffin in his basement but had, instead, mentioned that he liked the colour blue.

[pinkroses]

Will let the grin return to his face at George’s reaction; even though he had asked he hadn’t really wanted to know the answer. So as George disappeared the blonde bounced a little on his toes, excited to get this moving again. As the redhead reappeared Will nodded in approval at the brand new sheets, they went with the décor and to be honest, after the sight that had greeted him at first he would have wanted brand new sheets and had expected to have to buy his own. Having them provided was a bonus.

He picked up the sheets to look at them, but was quickly distracted by the mention of the basement and… wait, what?

“You have a coffin? In your basement?” he asked, giving a snort of laughter as he tossed the sheets back onto the bed, still wrapped and travelled most direct way to the doorway where George stood, jumping onto the bed, landing on his ass and bouncing off to land on his feet again beside the redhead, a look of childlike glee on his face at the idea of a coffin in his basement.

“I definitely want to see that, and your bedroom, you know, in case I lose you and can’t find you in your coffin,” he said with a chuckle, teasing George as he gave him a sly jab to the ribs and wondering why the hell he would have one. Maybe it had sentimental value, or perhaps George was really just a walking cliché. But that could be fun, if a little odd at first. “You don’t have a body in it or something weird like that, do you?” he added, although the grin on his face showed that the idea of George keeping a body in his basement didn’t bother him too much.

[Existentially Odd]

"No!" George answered indignantly, finding the prospect of a body in his coffin mildly offensive.  "I only have it because I went through a phase where I wanted a fledgling and I was sired in a coffin, so I wanted to do it right.  The urge passed, though," he said airily, unwilling to admit that it had been Reed.  Again.  He was doing altogether too much thinking about that guy.

"This way," he urged, taking Will into his bedroom, whereupon he proceeded to show him all his fabulous gadgetry and how it worked.  He found a particularly good scene of him fucking a damn hot woman to demonstrate just how good the recording technology was; Will would get the message that he was straight then, he figured, once he saw the redhead with a big-breasted blonde tied to the lower bedposts on his bed, suspended face first over the mattress while he rorted her from behind.  Words wouldn\'t need to explain his shit, then.

After a minute or so of admiring his own technique and how good the pair of them looked for the camera, George shut it off with a wistful smile on his face.  "She was pretty quiet," he amended, looking at Will as he tossed his universal remote onto the bed.  "But I stand by what I said at Risk, \'cos most of them are fucking screamers once they see themselves on the big screen," he guffawed, shaking his head as if the concept perturbed him - which it didn\'t.

[pinkroses]

“Heh, yeah right, really you got it because you had plans to do all kinds of kinky shit in it,” Will said casually, glad that George described his wanting a fledgling as a ‘phase’. Vampires that were too young were just annoying. They got all clingy and annoying, or they fucked you over, betraying you and they had that fucking annoying mental attachment and blood bond as well. It was much easier when you had no attachment to the people around you. Ignoring any protests George might make, Will followed George into the main bedroom, making suitably impressed noised as George showed off his toys. It really was a pretty good set up he had going on here.

As the redhead put on one of his scenes taped in the room Will’s attention was truly caught though and he folded his hands behind his back, his head tilted to one side slightly as he admired the technology for a whole new reason. He had just about managed to stop seeing George as the gorgeous creature he was - they were going to be roommates, not fuckbuddies, but damn, that was a fantastic view. And Will guessed there was going to be a lot more DVDs to go with this one, but ‘borrowing’ one or two to perv on his new companion probably wasn’t the best idea… Give it a bit of time. But the film didn’t do too much to persuade Will that George was only into women. After all, plenty of people liked both sexes and Will had in the past enjoyed the company of women. But men were far more predictable and just easier.

He turned his grey eyes towards George as the screen was shut off and he didn’t bother hiding the once over her gave the taller vampire, and now he didn’t even need to imagine what was underneath those clothes. Which probably hadn’t been George’s intention, but then again maybe that was exactly what he had wanted.

“And I stand by what I said before, I bet you have cameras set up around the coffin too for that kinky shit,” he said with a chuckle. He’d never actually been in a coffin himself and found the whole idea very strange. He hadn’t really considered getting in one, after all, he hadn’t ever been considered dead by anyone and stuck around long enough to be put in one. And George had been sired in one? How would that work? Was there room in one for two people? It would definitely be very close quarters.

“Come on, show me this coffin, I’m dying to find out about it,” he said with a grin, stepping towards the door, then he paused, nodding to the bed as he gave George a cheeky grin. “Testing out your technology again will have to wait until another night I’m afraid, lots to do tonight.”

[Existentially Odd]

In a rare stroke of luck, George was struck dumb by that final comment, his only response a mildly baffled look followed by some raised eyebrows as he tried to puzzle out whether Will had been implying that he would like to test out the technology with George personally... or not.  It was a preposterous idea, one that certainly hadn\'t even entered his head - until that precise moment - and he was slightly offended that his little ploy about subtly announcing his sexuality hadn\'t worked.

Of course, by the same token, he was also very much intrigued by why it hadn\'t and couldn\'t help but wonder what had inspired such bold innuendo - if, indeed, it was bold innuendo and not just his lonely and bedazzled little mind leaping to its own ridiculous conclusions.

"Uh... okay.  Sure," he eventually stammered, blinked and headed out to the kitchen.  He kept his eye on Will, as if the vampire might suddenly jump him if he lost concentration, but not to the point where he was edging along the wall or anything... he just made sure not to turn his back on his new housemate.  That was slightly difficult since he had to open the back door that led out to the back landing and the door to the basement, but he descended the stairs at speed and quickly walked over to the coffin set on its dais in the middle of the room.

"Here it is," he announced proudly, opening the top half of the lid so Will could take a closer look. He then stepped back out of the way... to give him room.

[pinkroses]

Contrary to George’s fears, Will wasn’t about to try and jump the redhead and have his way with him in the corridor, not right now anyway. After all, like he said, there were other things to do tonight. It wasn’t difficult to notice the change in George though and it gave Will a sense of satisfaction that he’d managed to knock the cocky younger vampire out of his flow. He didn’t comment though and sedately followed George to the basement, maybe walking a little closer than necessary, just to keep George on his toes.

The blonde stood back as George showed off his coffin, at a suitable distance for his companion to be able to give the display he wanted, then he strolled forwards, wandering around the coffin to examine it from all sides, then peering inside.  

“Heh,” he murmured in a clearly interested tone. “I really have no idea what makes a good coffin… but it’s… nice,” he said. Seriously though, what were you supposed to say when someone showed off their coffin to you? ‘It looks comfy?’ Well, Will didn’t want to get in it, no matter how comfy it looked. And it wasn’t like George was going to be buried in it, so ‘I hope you’re happy in it,’ didn’t really fit either.

“So what are you going to do with it now?” he asked, running a finger along the top edge of the coffin as he glanced up at George who seemed to have backed off a little more than normal. "Wait until you get the urge to sire someone else?" he said, looking back down at the coffin and leaning over to peer inside. "Is there really enough room for two people in there? How would you do it? Lying on top of one another or side by side?" he added, resting a hand on a hip whilst his other lifted to gently stroke his chin in a thoughtful pose.

[Existentially Odd]

"Hell yeah," George enthused, forgetting his wariness once he was convinced Will was fascinated with the coffin and moving up beside it to describe general human shapes with his hands, lying upon the satin within.  "Like this - mostly on top of each other, sort of half-half," he described, then let his hands fall to grip the edge of the object.
 
"But nah, I\'m not keeping it to make a fledgling with, I just like it - and chicks love it!  You\'d be surprised by how many people are turned on by fucking a corpse - \'n I play the part really well, of course," he chuckled, his eyes twinkling a brighter blue as he leaned on a jaunty elbow on the side of the coffin in order to grin broadly over at Will.
 
"I climb in here, dressed to the nines," he espoused, tilting his head towards the coffin as if the other might have trouble figuring out where \'climb in here\' meant, "\'n the play the part of a grieving mourner, come for a private viewing - only what happens, see, is that they notice I\'m all stiff... and then they lift the lid and find my cock all hard and they climb in on it and have themselves a wild ride," he laughed.
 
The merriment in his eyes dulled down to a more dignified consideration as he was forced to concede that such roleplay didn\'t always go to plan, though.  "I\'ve had a couple freak out, though - telling me that I look too dead and that I should move.  Had one run screaming from the house - literally - when I kept playing my part and didn\'t say anything," he confessed, wincing at the memory.  It had been very embarrassing.  "I\'ve learned that I have to talk if they start to believe it all too much," he told Will sagely, nodding seriously as if he was bestowing a pearl of life-long wisdom that meant the blonde vampire was unlikely to succeed without knowing.