Late-Night Snack

[Harlequin]

Joe remained stationary as Lefty slid his sunglasses down and eyed him up with those eerie orange eyes of his, but his frown deepened, and remained so until Lefty introduced himself as a friend of Ami\'s.

"Oh, hey. Yeah, that\'s me," he confirmed, allowing the vague half-smile of his default expression to dominate his face. He removed the bulk of his body from the doorframe, allowing Lefty entrance. Ami wasn\'t always smart in her choices of companion, but this Lefty character had looked intimidated enough that Joe thought he wouldn\'t try anything.

"I\'m the only one around here that don\'t take his coffee black, Jack." Toe tilted his head to one side, "That\'s pretty ironic."

On the bed behind him sat the slim blonde girl who\'d been wearing the freakout-causing flowers in her hair the last time Lefty came  around. She was singing softly as she repaired a hole in a pair of shorts identical to the ones Joe wore.

[Cy for Cypher]

Lefty trotted inside. He glanced back over his shoulder at the door, which was still ajar, out of reflex. He had no reason to distrust these people, and no reason to suspect they knew what he was. There were a thousand things that people would think a human-shaped supernatural being could be before they’d touch upon “Nightmare.”

His expression had faded into one of docile thoughtfulness as he looked around the room, taking in the rest of the scene. The grin sprang back full-force at Joe’s comment. He opened his mouth to say something, but recognition suddenly seemed to hit him. “Oh, wait. I’ve seen you two before!”

The blonde girl has been flung across the large man’s back. “Hey, you guys came into the room that one time. You dropped a flower.” He grinned at Ami. “I may or may not have been drunk when I first met you.” He had. “And I dunno if that counts, anyway. So I guess I should say, officially--hello you two. Nice to meet you.” He stood there, still holding his cup, unsure of what else he should do with it while he waited for Joe to fetch the needed supplies, but not betraying even a hint of that awkwardness outwardly.

[Harlequin]

Compared to Ami\'s room, Joe\'s was quite well-ordered, though a  lime-green canister vaccuum was prominently displayed where the TV  normally sat.

Vivianne looked up as he spoke to them both, blinked twice, and smiled shyly, then shook her head. She didn\'t remember him. But she had an awful lot of hair, and it had been all up in her grille, her being all upside down-like when she\'d seen him.

For his part, Joe looked at Lefty critically again, "Was this after that show in theeeee abandoned church?" he finally asked. "\'Cause if it was, I may have been drunk too, Stu." As he spoke, he moved into the kitchen and fetched a small container of creamer from the fridge and a little box of sugar cubes from the counter.

"I wasn\'t," Vivianne put in, as Joe crossed the apartment again to hand both items to Lefty, "B-but I still don\'t remember. Sorry."

[Cy for Cypher]

Lefty grinned and nodded. “Yep!” He had experienced the concert in a somewhat more exotic fashion than many of the human admirers, having first caught wind of the commotion while drifting through the night sky as insubstantial as a wisp of smoke. “That was you guys.”

Vivianne’s voice was so soft that Lefty felt admonished somehow for his normally loud and exuberant tone of voice. He lowered it without even thinking. “Nah, it’s okay. You guys probably see a lot of people. And if I remember, at the time, you were sort of hanging upside-down.” He nodded as thanks to Joe and transferred his cup to one hand, grabbing the items with another. “Dropping flowers like it was nobody’s business.”

He then set the items down on the nearest available flat surface, adding a generous bit of cream to the coffee and two sugar cubes--the third, he popped into his mouth without a pause. “I really liked that concert, and I ain’t one for modern music much. You guys performing again soon?”

[Harlequin]

Vivianne smiled at their guest as he popped the sugar cube into his mouth. She did the same thing. Joe usually had to hide them from her.

"We play at Risk once or twice a month," boomed Joe. "We should be doin\' a show down the docks around the twenty-first, though, Moe." Vivianne shot Joe a look at the mention of Risk, and he just shrugged in response. Joe could tell Lefty wasn\'t Human from one look at those eyes.

[Cy for Cypher]

“Risk. Risk… oh, the vampire place.” he spoke between enthusiastic crunches. “Never been. Might go.” Lefty was understandably leery of vampires. His nobler cousins, though rare, were at risk (no pun intended) to falling prey to those proud creatures. Lefty’s parents had cautioned him against ever trusting one. They had been known to enslave Nightmares before, and apparently Nightmare blood was special in some sort of way to the blood-drinkers.

But Lefty was inbred and knew that he would probably pose a less-desirable target than a proper member of his species. Hell, he might even freak out if someone grabbed him like that. He didn’t think he had too much to worry about. It was hard to suck blood from a horse skeleton. “Nice to see you guys got a steady gig. Things went well for Ami and you guys while I was gone, then.” Knowing that made him feel a little less guilty about indulging his rampant wanderlust.

[Harlequin]

Vivianne\'s wariness seemed to dissipate at the mention of \'that vampire place\'. Guy was obviously in the loop. She shrugged, "It\'s nice if you like...black." She felt lame as she spoke, realizing as she said it that the guy dressed in head to toe black leather obviously enjoyed the color.

Joe chuckled, "They\'ve been good to us, Gus," he agreed. He didn\'t say that things had gone kind of rocky for Ami, especially right after the mysterious vampire she\'d been dating vanished without a trace after five blissful months. Joe didn\'t feel like he was the one to be sharing that information. Vivianne wrinkled her nose a little bit when he asked if things had been going well for Ami since he\'d been gone, but also opted to say nothing.

Instead, she fidgeted with the shorts she was meant to be mending. Though she was much less socially awkward than she\'d been two years ago, she doubted she\'d ever be good at small talk.

[Cy for Cypher]

Lefty was wholly oblivious to any awkwardness that arose from his innocent comment. He couldn’t be blamed. He’d never been good at proper socializing. He sipped at his tea, having finished his sugar cube, and found it acceptable. “Thanks for the stuff,” he set about throwing away his trash, paused, and then added one more sugar cube to the coffee, keeping from devouring it on the spot with difficulty.

“I should be in town a lot longer this time. I’ll try and keep in touch.” Lefty had already adopted Ami into his friendly affections, and his last visit hadn’t brought him into contact with her band much. He wanted to get to know them a bit better. “Anyway, time for me to head back, but you’ll see more of me soon.” He offered the remaining sugar cubes to Joe, grinning his broad grin. “Count on it.”

After offering his farewells, he returned to Ami’s room. Assuming she hadn’t locked the door, he barged in quite without knocking, holding his coffee cup aloft. “Success! Your friends are cool, Ami.” This was followed by a tentative sip of the still piping-hot liquid.

[Harlequin]

Joe accepted the sugar cubes when they were offered back to him, and immediately passed them to Vivianne, who slipped one furtively into her mouth.

"Sounds good, man," boomed Joe, by way of his own farewell.

"Yeah, see ya!" Vivianne added, pushing her sugar cube into one cheek.

Once he was outside, Joe looked to Vivi as he shut the door, and the blonde girl tilted her head to one side, "Y\'know, I didn\'t think it was possible to say something like what that guy just said and not sound ominous."

Joe shook his head, "Me neither, Skeeter. Guy\'s got a singular talent."

Meanwhile, in Chez Ami, Lefty was greeted with a faceful of broom bristles. "Cashin\' in my raincheck!" howled Ami, true to form – the woman behind the bristly weapon.

[Cy for Cypher]

Lefty was unaware of the affirmation of his status as The Anti-Creeper, though it would\'ve probably pleased him, because he hadn\'t been trying to be creepy, at least. Now, however, there were more pressing matters to attend to, such as the broom in his face.

He meant to say something like "aw, hell" but it came out as "afgl mfwa" because he had literally walked right into the broom\'s bristles, and when he moved to take a step back, it was thrust cruelly at the Nightmare\'s protected face, where it violated the sanctity of his left nostril and knocked his sunglasses askew.

"Shit, boss, is this about the drink?" He ducked back, removing his sunglasses quickly to prevent further damage to them. "\'Cos if it is, the broom still tasted better."

[Harlequin]

Once the sunglasses were gone, so was the broom. And Ami\'s real goal was revealed. She leaned her doomish cleaning implement against the bureau to the right of the door, and laughed.

"You said I could hit you with a broom if I wanted, last time. I said Raincheck. Cashed it in." She shrugged, "Besides, you look better without the glasses."

She turned slightly to pick up the cigarette smoking in an ashtray on top of the bureau and took a puff, smirking at her guest.

As she\'d promised, she was dressed now – in her customary black T-shirt (this one printed with an endorsement for a band called Boiled in Lead printed in green across the front) and tight black jeans with rips in the thighs.

[Cy for Cypher]

Lefty decided to do the only sensible thing that came to mind when a pretty girl told him he looked better without his sunglasses on. He folded them and slid them into his front jacket pocket. Besides, wearing them at night was kind of silly, even if he did it for a reason.

"Did I? Man, I gotta remember these things. I should keep a little notepad of the implements I\'ve told people that they can hit me with." He paused, and then mouthed the sentence silently to himself to make sure it made sense. Yep.

"Ami, you got dressed, but it seems like you\'re wearing less clothes somehow. Y\'know, I love this millennium\'s fashion sense," he grinned broadly. His eyes flickered to the smoke wafting up from her cigarette, and he blinked once. Immediately it began to swirl and loop oddly, reforming itself into the image of a small galloping horse. "Okay, so, your turn. Story time. Heard from the folks you guys got a steady gig. How\'s life among--" here he paused to raise his hands and waggle his fingers in a suitably spooky manner--"the undead?"

[Harlequin]

Spreading her arms, Ami looked down at herself, then titled her head slightly and raised one thin brow  in the classic \'dude\'s got a point\' pose.

Not that she minded much. It was less about the clothes and more about the face – the bulk of her \'alone time\' had been spent hastily applying her viciously red lipstick and heavy black eyeliner.

Now, though, those raccoon-rimmed eyes were watching the smoky equine gallop through the air, almost in awe. Almost. Given that Ami\'s default expression was one bordering on utter boredom, the almost was still a big step.

Until he mentioned vampires, and she grimaced. "Cold," she sucked in another lungful of smoke, cutting her eyes back to her guest as she leaned against the bureau, "Dead. But it\'s work." She shrugged.

[Cy for Cypher]

If Lefty had taken notice of her decision to get dolled up, he said nothing of it. He was grinning at her, but an expression of almost mischievous humor was the default state of his face, so it could have been at anything.

The horse executed a fluid leap and vanished as the smoke dissipated. "That\'s what I hear. I haven\'t ever had much to do with \'em. Met a zombie once." He whistled. "That was interesting." And smelly.

"You don\'t sound enthusiastic," he said. He had quite expressive eyes, and the tilt of his brow suggested sympathy. It was something most people missed, seeing as how he was always hiding behind his sunglasses. "Steady gig not your thing?" He could easily imagine Ami being dissatisfied with playing at the same place over and over, possibly because he was a restless spirit himself.

The smoke furled again, and this time Lefty reshaped it into a skeletal horse, the form of which would be much more familiar to Ami It jerked and jigged in a fashion that was as ghastly as the former horse\'s movements had been graceful.

[Harlequin]

"Nah, not so much," Ami frowned, but immediately smiled as Lefty reshaped the smoke into the form that had given her so much grief the last time he\'d been here, "Prefer the road. Been here too long, though. Doesn\'t make sense for us to leave \'til the money runs out – waitdidyousayzombie?"

Ami\'s face took on a strange intensity as she looked at Lefty, then, rushing to get those last words out. Zombies were Ami\'s hobby; her white whale. She never thought they actually existed, right now.

"Voodoo zombie or virus zombie?" she asked, eyes narrowed. Her tone clearly indicated that the fate of the free world depended on his answer.