Cultivating Friendships

[pinkroses]

Murphy had been planning on turning up maybe an hour after sunset, but things didn’t quite go to plan and so by the time he bowled up it was gone midnight and had been raining solidly for about half an hour. Which, considering Murphy had had to walk, sucked majorly in his opinion, but it had given him a chance to calm down. Just before he left he’d been arguing with his father and as a result of getting fairly flustered he had no wallet, no umbrella and a lump and cut on the right of his forehead from having an ashtray chucked at him. Murphy had really been quite surprised that it had actually hit him - usually things flying at him missed - but as he approached the Oligarchy chambers to visit the blonde vampire he was very aware that he might have blood dried in his hair and definitely some on his scarf where he’d needed to hold something to the cut and no mirror to check his appearance which was decidedly leaning towards the \'wet dog\' look. But at least it wasn\'t like he was turning up looking like this for a date.

He had remembered to grab his laptop bag though and had earlier shoved a couple of things in there which he’d need for tonight, but none of those things had actually helped him get here and he’d had to walk the whole way instead of getting a cab which had been the plan. But Murphy had been so excited about tonight that he wasn’t going to let a small thing like everything going tits up ruin it though. The human had considered called Ben and telling him he would be late, but they hadn’t actually said a time and after a quick root around in his bag Murphy discovered he’d left his mobile behind as well. Peachy. He hoped Ben didn’t think he’d stood him up though. After the original mess up, Murphy had enjoyed talking with Ben, with someone who knew, and who was friendly. Murphy had looked up the magazine and photos Ben had directed him towards, but, unlike Ash, he had simply looked with interest. Even if Ben hadn’t been ridiculously good looking Murphy would have looked them up, simply so he could honestly tell Ben he had. And besides, it had been dark in the park when they had met, so it was good to be able to get a better look at the vampire.

As Murphy entered the foyer of the old hotel, his sneakers squeaking and squelching on the marble floor, he took a moment to pause just inside, getting his bearings and admiring his surroundings. Murphy felt out of place, wearing dark denim jeans and a thick black coat over a dark red t-shirt and, like last time Ben had seen him, there was a thick scarf wrapped around his neck to protect from the cold chill of the wind. He’d never been in here before the take over, but he could imagine the building full of the rich and famous, being waited on hand and foot, like the hotel in Pretty Woman. Now it seemed eerily quiet though, but with the impression it was quiet because it was the middle of the night (which it was he reminded himself) rather than being similar to a scene from a horror movie or something like that.

Murphy felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle as he headed towards the reception desk, feeling as thought he was being watched although he could see no one around apart from the freakishly tall man behind the desk, who seemed to not have noticed he was there at all. Murphy knew that was probably just an act though, the receptionist would have had to be blind and deaf not to have known the human was approaching.

“Hey, hi, I’m here to see Ben Samson. Could you let him know I’m here? Please? I’m Murphy Hilton, he should be expecting me,” Murphy said, leaning against the counter. He hadn’t given the vampire his last name, but he felt like he should give it now as he swiped at his damp hair. From the moment he’d entered the hotel there had been a broad smile on his face and he couldn’t get rid of it now. Despite his pounding head, he was thrilled to be here and was looking forward to seeing further into the chambers. He doubted he would see much of the building, he’d probably just go to Ben’s rooms, but just being here was exciting.

[Trillian]

The tall man, completely hairless including his eyebrows - which made him look very peculiar even though he had a natural browline to his skull - greeted Murphy politely only after being addressed.

"Certainly, sir.  Please wait a moment."  His voice was rumbly and deep, with a hint of gravel churning around in his throat, like a long term smoker.  Beneath the lip of the high counter on the desk was a phone, and he picked up the receiver now while not looking at Murphy but a little over his shoulder, dialling four numbers without looking down at the keypad either, and waited with a fixed smile that didn\'t reach his eyes.  "Young Ben, sir, you have a visitor in the foyer named a Mr Murphy Hilton."  He listened for a moment.  "Very good," he replied, then hung up.  His diverted gaze found Murphy\'s directly next, as he spoke.

"He will be coming down to collect you, sir.  Please wait here."

The tall man eyed the drips on the counter that Murphy had left behind and smiled his fixed smile again before returning to what he was doing.  Now that the journalist was close enough, he could see that the receptionist was inserting a bunch of keycards into a machine and re-programming them.  First a four digit number would come up, then he would plug in four zeroes and press Enter, in which case the machine flashed four zeroes and then he would pull the card out and place it on a pile separate to the pile he was taking the cards from.  He managed to re-program six of these cards before the one of the elevators bonged softly on Murphy\'s left and Ben came out, dressed in light blue jeans and a green and white striped polo, looking at his damp guest.

"Aw, you got caught," Ben said, meaning the rain.  He was about ten metres away from Murphy and waved him up to join him where the bank of elevators were.  "Come on up," he invited.  As Murphy drew closer, he saw the gash on his head and the blood on his scarf, but didn\'t question him about it.  He merely turned to press the up-button and the elevator doors of the one he\'d ridden down on slid open immediately.  He stepped inside and once Murphy joined him, he pulled a keycard out of his front jeans pocket and swiped it on a black-faced panel beside the long list of floor numbers, hearing it beep lightly before pressing the button for the top floor.  "You should have a shower when we get to the penthouse," he said, unable to call it home just yet because first he\'d been there with Lazarus for a romp, and now he\'d only been there a few nights with Kerr.  More stuff had happened in the meantime too, which he wasn\'t going to mention.  "Warm yourself up while I get my journals out and ready," he offered.  The lift was moving at this stage, though silently and not so swiftly that Murphy\'s stomach would lurch.

[pinkroses]

“Great, thanks,” Murphy said after the man had made the call - he’d managed to keep his gaze on the receptionist, although it had been tempting to glance behind him to see if he was actually looking at anything. He cleared his throat slightly as he followed the man’s gaze to the counter and once he’d gone back to re-programming his cards Murphy swiped his sleeve across the counter, trying to wipe the drips but really only making them smear untidily across the counter.

He turned around after a few moments, not wanting to just stare at him as he worked and so when the elevator doors opened with their announcing ‘bong’, Murphy was already looking their way and his face lit up with a grin.

“Just my luck,” he replied, spreading his hands with a wry grin and a shrug as he moved towards Ben. He followed the blonde into the elevator, leaning the wall opposite the buttons as he watched Ben press the button for the penthouse, raising an eyebrow slightly. Seriously? The penthouse? Murphy had the feeling he might be moving a little out of his depth, but hey, that was how you learnt to swim, right?

“Oh, uh, thanks, that’d be great,” Murphy said, a little surprised by the offer of a shower, but it definitely sounded appealing. “I meant to get a cab, but, like a complete idiot, I left the house without my wallet. Or umbrella. Or waterproof coat,” he added, rolling his eyes playfully at his own stupidity, which right now felt like a better excuse than delving into the other stuff that had been going on. “Yeah, so… I meant to get here earlier too, walking didn’t help with that either,” Murphy said, lifting his eyes to watch the little arrow which was lit up, showing their ascent.

“I thought the dude at the counter might chuck me out for dripping on his floor,” he said, still watching the lights blink, wondering how high the hotel actually was.

[Trillian]

At twenty-eight floors, the hotel didn\'t stand as high as some of the other buildings around it, but the lavish old-world feel of it both outside and in (with wood panelling inside the elevator itself to hide the more modern style that it really was) made it seem taller and more impressive to those who looked up at it from the street.  The rooms themselves retained the old-world feel, while any of the lower floors where the Oligarchy did most of their business was sleek and modern.  The penthouse, once Ben and Murphy arrived at it, was a mixture of both modern and old-fashioned, with sculpted, wood-panelled walls and modern furniture.

The elevator bonged its arrival once more and the doors slid open.  Ben exited first, only because he needed to cross the short marbled area to reach the double doors directly in front, swiping his card again but not needing to press any buttons (even though there was a keypad beside the door) before the door clicked unlocked.

"There\'s marbled floor on the left hand side, if you could head that way first," Ben said over his shoulder, to see Murphy standing fairly closely to him, while Ben\'s hand remained on the door handle.  "You can take off most of your clothes there, so you won\'t drip on the carpet," he explained candidly before entering the suite and holding the door open for Murphy to follow.  Just in case the journalist didn\'t know his right from his left, Ben had a hand extended in the direction he wanted Murphy to go.  Perhaps he wasn\'t being a polite host shooing his guest onto a floor that he could mop up easily, but the smile on his face as he directed his new acquaintance-hoping-to-be-a-friend in, sedated the social rudeness somewhat.

[pinkroses]

“Sure,” Murphy said simply, focusing more on his surroundings than what Ben was actually saying, so it was a good thing the vampire lifted a hand to point him in the right direction because Murphy could easily have walked straight on. Instead he managed to get onto the marbled floor with just on step on the carpet. He glanced towards Ben after he managed to control his eyes again and returned the friendly smile instinctively.

“This place is amazing,” he said as he slipped off his bag and leant it against the wall to the side of the aquarium, taking a moment to look at the fish as he slipped off his wet coat and, after toeing off his sneakers, he kept walking along the marble to the bar. The journalist had a lot of questions to ask, but they could wait for now, the main one being, what the hell was Kerr’s job to get them this place? King of the Oligarchy or whatever that job title would be? Or maybe there were people above him, they just lived elsewhere. It was easier to think of it that way right now.

“Where should I put my stuff?” he asked, settling on a simple question for now. He had been about to drape the coat over the bar, but didn’t want to receive a look off Ben like he had down downstairs. Once directions were given Murphy slipped off his socks as well, curling his toes on the cool floor. He glanced shyly towards Ben before turning his back on the vampire. His jeans were soaked up to the knees so they’d have to come off or they’d leave a damp trail wherever he walked too. The human shucked them off, glad he’d wore a fairly new pair of boxers today, so it wasn’t like everything was on display. Still, he felt a bit awkward about just stripping off in front of a practical stranger, but at least he still had on his t-shirt.

“So… bathroom?” Murphy asked, absently folding up his jeans and folding them in front of him, using them as a sort of barrier between them.

[Trillian]

Ben nodded agreement to Murphy\'s statement about the penthouse.

"Yeh, it\'s nice," he said, only because the other male wasn\'t looking at him to know he\'d nodded.  He watched as the coat was draped over the barstool and then invited Murphy to put the rest of his stuff wherever he wished.  "On the floor is fine, or you can use the rest of the barchairs," he said with a shrug.

He watched as Murphy undressed unabashedly, looking more than it was likely polite to do so but he wasn\'t thinking about what was socially appropriate.  Spending his most recent months as a model had desensitised him from his own nudity and to that of others.  As far as he was concerned, Murphy was practically fully dressed, revealing only a little skin and therefore nothing to be shy about.  Ben had forgotten what he\'d been like in that situation before modelling had been thrust upon him; how shy and reserved he was about revealing anything to those he didn\'t know (and even those he did).

"The guest bathroom doesn\'t have a shower, but the ensuite does.  I\'ll take you through there," he said, indicating with a brief sideways motion of his head and then moving quietly over the carpet.  His jeans had covered up the fact he was barefoot downstairs, but it might be noticed now as he made barely any sound.

He led Murphy into the bedroom he and Kerr shared, turning a sharp right after going through the doorway (and revealing the oriental style of the bedroom furniture and decoration which had yet to be changed - if Kerr wished to do so), before leading Murphy to an expansive bathroom where a bright red clawfoot tub was the first item to be seen.  Ben gestured at the shower in the diagonally opposite corner, which could fit two people comfortably.

"You can use the towels hanging, I\'ll get you a robe to wear," he said, leaving the bathroom for a minute and raiding his wardrobe to remove a white terry-towelling robe.  It was his one, and quite big on him so should fit Murphy just fine.  He returned to the bathroom to hand it over, while at the same time his gaze dropped to look Murphy over once more.  He smiled and then left the bathroom, not shutting the door behind himself (and leaving Murphy to do that if he wanted), heading for the library to pull out his journals, in order to splay some of them out on the coffee table in the lounge.

[pinkroses]

“Okay, thanks,” Murphy said, waiting until Ben had stepped away before letting his jeans straighten out again and hanging them over a stool to give them a chance to dry out a little, then he followed after the blonde. He had no idea whether the décor was in Ben’s taste because he hardly knew him, but he got the impression Ben didn’t quite look in place here. As Ben disappeared to get the robe Murphy leant over the sink to look at his injury in the mirror and wrinkling up his nose slightly. There was a definite bump, but at least it wasn’t bleeding still.  He stepped away from the mirror again quick when Ben returned and his cheeks flushed slightly as he noticed the look over Ben had given him, but there was a small, pleased smile on his lips.

He waited for Ben to walk out, them moved to shut the door behind him, sliding the lock out of habit, not because he was especially worried Ben would come in whilst he was in the shower. Murphy quickly undressed the rest of the way and after taking a second to admire the huge shower, which could so easily have fitted Ben as well… or any other person, not necessarily Ben, that was just the first name that had popped into his head. And because the blonde was in just the other room.

He turned up the heat and shut his eyes as he let the water pour over him, thoroughly enjoying the power shower. He let himself enjoy the heat for a while, then, after debating with himself for a few seconds, he used a little of the various soaps around the shower, washing his hair and making sure there weren’t any cold spots left before stepping out again. After briskly towelling himself down Murphy took a quick look in the cabinet, trying to find a plaster, or some ointment, or something, but after a fruitless search he remembered he was in a vampire’s apartment. Why the hell would creatures who could heal almost instantly need ointment or plasters?

It wasn’t really all that long before Murphy left the bathroom, dressed in the securely tied robe and he spotted Ben at the coffee table. He headed that way, picking up his laptop bag and dropping off the rest of his clothes by the bar.

“Thanks for that, that feels a heck of a lot better,” Murphy said as he sat down on one of the large sofas, eagerly eyeing up the journals on the table. He felt a little exposed still, but the robe felt better than underwear and a t-shirt for some reason.

“Uh, I guessed you wouldn’t want me taking them away, but I have this handheld scanner thing, I thought I could maybe takes copies of a few pages? If you don’t mind, that is? I won’t if you say no,” he said, not wanting to upset Ben by asking to do something which he wasn’t happy with.

[Trillian]

Ben had been kneeling at the coffee table, opposite from where Murphy had sat, and got up once the mortal chose his seat in order to sit on the cushion beside him - not creepily close, but not too far either that they wouldn\'t be able to hand each other things.  He was quite conscious of the seat he chose, wanting to show he understood boundaries - especially after that very intimate night they\'d first met.

He\'d used to feel very protective about his journals, but since leaving them behind once and thinking them lost (only to have them mailed to him again from New York to Kerr\'s apartment at the Capital), he found he wasn\'t anywhere near as possessive anymore.  The last three years worth of journals were the ones he didn\'t want nor wanted to share, so they hadn\'t been brought out, but these ones were from when he was younger and infatuated with the idea of vampires.  He\'d followed one family\'s genealogy in fact, when it had looked like the same people over and over again through time - forging birth certificates and posing as their own children.  It was something Kerr had done many times himself, in fact, and he figured he would do the same.  In the electronic age, however, he wondered if such a thing would be possible - or if DNA identification and all that jazz would mess up vampires blending in with humans.  These were the kinds of thoughts he\'d had and recorded in his journals.

"A lot of this stuff is theory before I knew for sure.  Most things I pegged because it was logical guesswork, but other stuff was way out, and I\'ve since found out stuff I never would\'ve figured as real."  He gestured at Murphy.  "You don\'t need the scanner.  Whatever journals you want to borrow are fine.  It\'ll be an excuse for you to come back, anyway."  He showed Murphy a half-smile before looking back down at the exercise books in front of them both, feeling socially awkward.

[pinkroses]

Murphy turned a little towards the vampire as Ben came to sat beside him, he had been a little worried that the blonde would sit uncomfortably close after the look he’d been given before, but maybe it had been more casual than he’d thought.

“Sometimes theory’s more fun than the truth,” Murphy said with a smile as he looked over the journals laid out before him. He wanted to read all of it, the truth and the guesswork, and with Ben here he could always ask what was true. He glanced towards Ben again as the vampire said he would have an excuse to come back, then gave a laugh. “Cool. Yeah, definitely. Thank you,” he said turning his attention back to the books.

“So they start… here?” he asked, gesturing to the oldest looking journal and once he’d been given his answer Murphy scooped up the first journal, holding it carefully on his lap as he began to look through slowly. He could tell that the writer was young, but it was all done with obvious care and attention to detail, a dedication rarely seen in work by someone so young.

“When did you find out vampires were real? And which journal is that?” he asked after a few minutes, looking back towards Ben with an enthusiastic looking grin. He wanted to read them all in order, but at the same time he wanted to skip ahead to different revelations and details in Ben’s life.

[Trillian]

"Yeh," he said, watching as Murphy took the first book - in good condition but obviously oldest because the pages were all yellow.

Ben laughed softly, with just an expulsion of breath rather than sound, at the query of when he\'d made his discovery.

"At Risk," he said.  "I was told about the club by a guy I was in a share-house with.  Someone I didn\'t particularly like, or believe, I though he was just pulling a joke on me after finding out how intense my, uh, dedication to vampire mythology was.  Even though I thought he was joking, I really wanted to believe, I wanted it to be real."  He shrugged and thought about the first night he\'d been to Risk, where he\'d stayed all of ten minutes before ducking out.  Maybe it had been longer than that, but it had felt overwhelming and dizzying at the time.  "I guess when my mind was scanned that night, my desire to believe in vampires and my researched knowledge of them must\'ve fooled the bouncers, because they let me in, and everything was confirmed in there.  I got nervous and left pretty quick, scared out of my brain that a vampire would want to drink from me, but the second time I went back, I stayed.  Long enough to let one drink from me.  Long enough to ask him to sire me."  He shrugged now, embarrassed by this last confession.  If a groupie asked him now to be sired with all the same reasons Ben had given that night, he\'d be much crueller than Kerr was, and dump him instead of taking the time to explain why it was a bad idea.  "I let him drink from me a few times after that, not at Risk though, at his house.  Then I, um, got pulled in front of the Oligarchy for being an unregistered pet."

He looked at Murphy with an indescribably expression then, wondering if he would ask for more information about that.  Why had he told so much?  Why hadn\'t he just answered the question simply?  At Risk, he\'d found out about vampires at Risk, the end.  Maybe that was why Murphy was a good journalist, because people wanted to spill their guts to him.  Maybe Ben just wanted to make a connection as quickly as possible, desperate to have a friend.  Was desperation a good way to make a friend though?  He was giving too much too soon, he figured.

[pinkroses]

Murphy lifted his knee up onto the sofa and hooked his other leg over his foot as he faced the vampire more, wanting to focus properly on what he was being told. He was a little surprised at there being such a full answer, but it pleased him too. Most of the vampires he’d spoken too were so much more closed off. He guessed it might be because they were similar ages, maybe Ben hadn’t had all that long to shut himself off from the world yet.

The story of getting into Risk sounded familiar, Murphy hadn’t quite believed what it was when he’d gone there, but he’d been with a group of friends who had known and he’d slipped past the guards with them. He gave a short laugh, more of surprise than humour, when Ben said he’d asked a vampire to sire him after his first feeding. God, he must have been so desperate to become one. Murphy couldn’t imagine wanting to become a vampire so much. Sure, the idea had flickered across his mind, but there would be too much that he would miss about being human.

“Wow,” he breathed quietly as Ben ended on that note. “That must’ve been… intense. So what happened there? Here? With the Oligarchy? I mean, obviously you got sired in the end, by Kerr, how did that come about?” he asked, leaning forwards a little, happy to let Ben pick and choose which questions he answered for now but hoping he would get answers to all of them eventually. He assumed that since Ben had given him so much already that he would be comfortable continuing on, otherwise Murphy would have been more cautious with his questioning, treading more carefully.

[Trillian]

Now Murphy was asking him questions to things Ben had only been told about, except for the details of the trial.

"I was asked a bunch of questions by the leader, the Luminary, back then.  Halen, his name was.  I guess I answered them okay to not get myself killed, but he decided if I wanted to immerse myself in vampire culture then I should become a proper pet.  He gave me to, um..." he had to think, because the redhead\'s name hadn\'t been burned into his memory anymore.  "Declan.  After that I don\'t know anything, because Declan cut a rune into my back as punishment, and it turned out to be, uh, something that wiped my memories once it came off my back."

So he wasn\'t ready to tell Murphy all about the demon thing, and he hadn\'t confirmed that Kerr was the one who he\'d first met at Risk.

"When I came to, when the scar was gone, I was with Kerr, and he got me back to a hotel before leaving to do something or whatever.  I don\'t really understand, but I found out in my room that I\'d lost three years of memory and that I\'d been turned into a vampire in the meantime."  He shrugged now.  "It\'s weird.  I have a sire I don\'t really know but who says we\'ve been in this massive up and down relationship, and I\'ve had to re-learn a lot of my powers."  He gave Murphy a sheepish smile.  "Why I was so lame with you in the park.  It\'s like I have abilities without experience.  I Dominated you a little, when I asked the time, got you to want to come over to me, so I could drink from you, but then pulling on that scarf got you out of the spell, and I didn\'t know what to do from there."  He laughed self-consciously and pulled one of his own feet up onto the sofa so he could twist and face Murphy too.  "I like the mind-reading thing, but I don\'t like the mind-telling thing.  It just seems... wrong."

[pinkroses]

Murphy wished for a moment that he’d brought along his Dictaphone, but soon stopped caring about that because the whole story sounded so amazing, he would be able to remember it and he didn’t doubt a word of it.

“That must have been horrible. I guess… so you have no idea what the actual, being sired is like. I can’t imagine how jarring that must be, all of it,” Murphy said, shaking his head slightly. His smile returned as Ben mentioned their messy meeting and leant forwards slightly, speaking in a mock whisper, “If it makes you feel any better, I forgive your fumbling,” he said with a grin before straightening up once more.

“Yeah, I get how that might feel weird, like your subconscious knowing stuff, but you not really knowing how to use it. And I guess mind control isn’t something you’d get many volunteers to help you learn,” he said thoughtfully. “Do you just practise on the people you feed from? Does Kerr help?” Murphy asked with interest, playing with the edge of his robe. It must be so strange, living with someone who thought they knew you so well, but having no idea who they were. Maybe waking up beside a complete stranger.

[Trillian]

"Yeh, I just practice on the people I drink from," he said, changing the word \'feed\' to \'drink\' because it sounded nicer.  "Kerr can\'t really help me Dominate, though he does help me with other skills.  I guess now that he\'s Luminary he can just get people up here for me to practise on," Ben mused thoughtfully.

He looked at Murphy pensively for a moment, and turned the questions around to him.

"What about these vampires you work for?  Do they drink from you or do you just do errands?" he asked, and wondered if Murphy was going to report back to them about his visit with Ben.  He figured that the Risk owners already had contacts at the Oligarchy, so it wouldn\'t really matter if Murphy and Ben were friends.  Kerr probably knew them personally.

[pinkroses]

Murphy had had other questions lined up, but they disappeared from his mind as Ben said Kerr was the Luminary. He hadn’t been sure of the title used, but Ben had mentioned it before and it fitted the journalist’s guesswork. But it was a little intimidating to actually hear it. But he wasn’t here - it was Ben he’d come to see, and Ben barely knew his sire, so how much could it matter? Apart from the fact that they were sat in the Luminary’s penthouse suite.

He blinked a little in surprise as Ben began to put some questions to him instead and brought himself back to the conversation, the smile returning to his face.

“I don’t really see them. They have a lot of people working for them, so it’s usually other humans who give me the stories they want covered. I’ve only really met a couple of them properly. One fed from me, but it was just once, just a, we’re both here at Risk, thing. I could’ve been anyone,” Murphy said with a small shrug. His memories of that night with Charon were a little vague - he wondered if the disfigured ancient had clouded his memory a bit, but he hadn’t seen him again anyway, so did it matter? He had no intention of telling them about his encounter with Ben and he doubted anyone would bother asking, but he didn’t know how much attention they paid to their staff.