Baby Steps

[pinkroses]

((Reserved for Saccharin))

There was a broad smile on the blonde’s face as he strolled into the park, following his blood bond with his fledgling. He felt… pretty good to be honest. For the first time in decades he’d actually slept two nights in a row and although he wasn’t planning on doing it every night, it did make a nice change. It wasn’t just the sleeping though, everything just seemed to fit right now. Being able to hold someone as he slept and not needing to play games or try for more. Lying next to Indie was comfortable, peaceful and he had been amazed at how easy it had been. He’d just asked and Indie had followed him like a puppy dog.

And as peaceful as he felt, there was still something Will wanted to do. He still wanted to hurt Anna. He just needed to make sure Vivi was the way in. There was no point getting himself in trouble with the Oligarchy if it wasn’t really going to hurt her.

“Nice night,” William said as he found what he wanted, lifting his grey eyes to look up a large tree in the middle of the park. He was surprised Anna had ventured this far into the city - but she was still in the middle of nature. He could barely see her through the trees but he knew she was up there and she would have no trouble catching his words with her vampiric hearing.

“May I join you?” he added, folding his hands behind his back.

[Saccharin]

Anna had felt him nearing her location and had hoped he wasn\'t coming for her, but there he was standing at the bottom of her tree in her sanctuary. As completely as one could claim a place as their own, she\'d claimed the great old oak tree in the center of the park. There had been a dryad that\'d tried to take up residence, but when they discovered there was a vampire hanging out in the tree\'s canopy who quite liked how they tasted, they\'d found another tree to bond with.

She shifted on the branch she was sitting on, pulling up one long leg to wrap her hands around. With her back pressed against the trunk, she looked as comfortable sitting halfway up a tree as she would lounging on a couch.

"No, I don\'t want you to," came the response. "But you will anyway," she predicted.

[pinkroses]

Will raised an eyebrow at her blunt response. Of course, she’d never bothered learning manners, that was something he would have pounded into her if they’d stayed together. He gave a tiny shrug and then sat down with crossed legs on the grass beneath the tree. He was just wearing jeans so didn’t really care about getting them a little muddy. He was wearing a simple blue t-shirt which brought out a little colour in his grey eyes, as sat with a straight back but looked relaxed, not leaning against the tree in case she took that as some sort of intrusion on her space. He would assume she was refusing his request to join her in the tree, staying down here would be allowed he decided.

“I wanted to apologise for the other night. I was perhaps a little full on, I said things I didn’t mean,” William said quietly, knowing she would be able to hear him as his eyes scanned around, looking out for anyone walking past who might think he was a lunatic talking to himself.

[Saccharin]

Having thought he\'d climb his way up the tree, she was relieved when he sat at the base instead. She would\'ve preferred he left her alone entirely, but since that was unlikely to happen, she was grateful for what distance remained between them.

  "If you don\'t mean the things you say, why say them?" she asked, the confusion in her tone paired with lowered eyebrows and a frown. "And which things?"

He\'d said lots, and she couldn\'t begin to guess what specifically he was referring to.

[pinkroses]

“I was upset with you. And disappointed. I wanted to upset you, which I why I spoke in haste. I said you had wasted your life, which was not fair of me to say as I do not know all you’ve been doing. And I was wrong to try to pressure you into feeding from Vivi… have you seen her again?” he asked, resting his hands on his knees and raising his gaze to look up into the trees, peering through the leaves at his fledgling.

[Saccharin]

She remained silent as she mulled over his apology. It was unexpected that he offered her one, and she wasn\'t sure how to take it. His words seemed genuine enough, though she knew him (and he\'d admitted himself) to be one who misused words, turning them to mean something other than what they were supposed to, using them when he didn\'t mean to say them. His apology was not one she was willing to accept just yet, she decided. She instead responded to his question.

"Yes," she said, looking down as he looked up, her eyes intent upon his, "but only once." The beginnings of a smile curved one side of her mouth upward. Although she\'d only met with the girl once outside the club she\'d originally met her in, she was already fond of the sweet human. If she had another chance, she would talk with her again. "Why do you ask?"

[pinkroses]

William thoughtfully chewed on his lower lip as she said she had seen Vivi again. Only once wasn’t very much, but he could feel a spark of something in there when she spoke of the human. It reminded him of how she’d used to feel about him. And if that grew then the plan he was mulling over may still come to fruition. So what if Indie didn’t think it was a good idea? He just didn’t understand what will had tried to explain he was feeling.

“You need help to find your feet in this modern world. And you clearly don’t want me to help you, so it’s good that you’ve found someone who could. Have you explored the city much?” he asked, lowering his eyes once again to look around the beautiful park. He knew she had come to the city, but hadn’t bothered trying to focus on where his fledgling had been exactly, he’d been too distracted by Indie to care much.

[Saccharin]

"If by help you mean mock me for not knowing things," she said, frowning. "Then no, that\'s not what I want from you. That\'s not what I want from anyone. If you actually helped, then maybe I wouldn\'t mind." After a moment\'s contemplation, she unraveled herself from her sitting position and worked her way down the tree, landing gracefully next to William. She leaned her shoulder into the tree\'s trunk, crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at her sire.

"I have only been to the club and this place. There are trees here." Her frown deepened. "You, being helpful, would say something about how I\'m a savage and I need to go where there are no trees if I want to be modern, yes?"

[pinkroses]

William didn’t move as she landed silently beside him, but he gave a soft smile at her words, shaking his head. He’d tried to make her listen, that had been the reason behind his words. But she was so stubborn, she would reject help from him in any form.

“I never said you were a savage. And no, you don’t need to go where there are no trees. There are so many beautiful pieces of nature scattered around. But you should interact with people and your surroundings. Blocking out what there is pointless. You’re only hurting yourself with solitude.”

He paused for a moment, taking the time to stand up and turn to face his fledgling.

“But you, desiring to reject every suggestion I make out of spite, would claim I am speaking nonsense and you have all you need right here? Where you wouldn’t have met your Vivi?”

[Saccharin]

She laughed throatily and shook her head, hugely amused by everything he\'d said. Maybe she should\'ve been upset instead, but his words were absurd enough that the only thing she could do was laugh.

"How is it that we can be connected as we are, yet you know nothing about me? I lived in solitude when I was on the reservation, but no longer. There are many who come through here at night and I talk with them. I was in solitude because I had to be. My people couldn\'t know I was there, watching them. They would\'ve..." She trailed off, not wanting to complete that thought. "But people here, they know. They know about us and I can talk with them."

Anna stared at William levelly, not backing away to reclaim the space that had been between them after he stood. Her body was tense, as she remembered what happened the last time she\'d stood her ground with him and had steeled herself. Yet she forged onward, daring to poke at a hornet\'s nest with a short stick

"I reject your suggestions because they\'re stupid," she said bitingly. "Feed from a human when I\'m already full. Have more things than I need. Live where humans can find me. Make suggestions that aren\'t stupid and I will listen!"

[pinkroses]

She was laughing at him. She was fucking laughing at him. He had given her everything and she was just a stupid bitch who knew nothing about the world beyond her tiny little circle that she thought was everything. And she was saying people knew. Not that many knew - if she’d been opening her mouth to the wrong people someone else might get to her before he could.

He wanted to rip open her throat, tear her apart and leave her to burn in the sun.

His grey eyes stayed on her dark ones, not showing a hint of the anger he felt inside and blocking her from being able to feel it. All he had wanted was for her to enjoy life and she was too stupid to be able to accept that.

“That’s your choice, your opinion. All I have ever done is try to help you and you try to hurt me so.” And she was too dumb witted to be able to see that. He never should have sired her. But he had. God knows why.

“I will offer no more suggestions. But I would like to remain near you for a while. You are still of my blood after all and I didn‘t come here to argue.” The point of tonight was not to antagonise her. He wanted to leave here with her not hating the sight of him, if that was possible.

[Saccharin]

She rolled her eyes at him, and if she\'d believed in a Christian heaven, she would\'ve implored to them. He acted as if he\'d never hurt her, talked of how he\'d only ever tried to help her. How, exactly, had abandoning her as a fledgling barely a year old been helpful? Oh, that\'s right. Apparently she should\'ve followed after him once her uncle had died, like a dog with its tail between its legs following after the very master who\'d just kicked it!

"Then you should go away," she snapped petulantly. "That way, you will not be here for me to argue with."

If she\'d been less angry with him at that moment, she might\'ve asked he elaborate on why he wanted to stay near her, but she\'d already concluded it was to annoy her. That was his only purpose, to annoy and infuriate her. He was there to make her miserable.

He was doing a fine job of it so far.

[pinkroses]

My God, it was like talking to a brick wall. Or a child.

“Then every time we see each other you will still wish to argue with me and that kind of destructive relationship will do neither of us any good,” William pointed out, although what he had in mind for the moment would be far more destructive for their bonding. It would make him feel better though and with the way she was acting she was doing little to dissuade him from his present course.

“Will you tell me about these people you have met? Anyone of interest?” he asked politely, trying to turn her attention away from demanding he leave with every word she spouted.

[Saccharin]

Anna pushed out her lips and she looked aside with her eyebrows drawn low, like she was seriously pondering his inquiry. Had she met anyone of interest? Yes. Did she want to tell William about it?

"Nope!" she decided, her tone cheerful because she\'d realized that to argue, she had to speak. And she would no longer engage him in conversation. To her, it made perfect sense: If he wanted to hang around, fine, he could - she would tolerate it - but she didn\'t have to talk with him.

Smiling in a manner the Cheshire Cat would be proud of, she folded her arms under her bosom and looked past William to the scattered trees beyond. He didn\'t exist. He was an unfortunate hallucination that would go away if she disregarded him long enough.

[pinkroses]

William gave a blank stare in response to her frustrating answer, not letting his annoyance show on his face or seep through their mental link. His blocks were on full as he imagined tying her to her precious tree and leaving her there for the sun to burn her into nothingness.

He wasn’t sure if her reply was in regards to the first or second question. No doubt if she had met anyone of interest she wouldn’t be able to sustain any kind of conversation. She was better off with the trees.

“That’s a shame,” William replied, glancing away from her to gaze around the park. She was idiotic, a fool but once he had seen something in her. She’d lost whatever it was though. Or he’d grown.

Ignoring her grin that made her look mentally damaged, William didn’t bother trying to make further conversation. She was shutting down, so he couldn’t be bothered trying, but that didn’t mean he would leave. He’d just try seeing if silence made her any more pleasant.

[Saccharin]

After several minutes passed, she glanced at him surreptitiously and was disappointed to see that he showed no signs of leaving. She was beginning to remember that he was just as (if not more) stubborn as she was. This did not bode well for her recently hatched plan.

She didn\'t really feel like smiling anymore and instead donned a frown that only deepened as even more time slipped by and still he stood there.

Why didn\'t he go away? When she reached out to thread herself into surface of his thoughts (because she wasn\'t willing to break her vow of silence just yet), she felt like a retarded squirrel trying to figure out how to access the meat of an acorn. There wasn\'t a seam to be found in her first cursory inspection of his mind. Still, she searched, hoping to find a crack, a crevice - anything she could worm her way past his extensive defenses. Nothing. His defenses were impenetrable.

Anna grunted and rubbed at her forehead with the heel of one hand. "How do you do that?" she asked, forgetting her vow in the face of her rising curiosity.

[pinkroses]

If William felt her mentally attempting to pry into his thoughts, he gave no sign of it to his fledgling. There was a peaceful look on his face as his grey eyes scanned around and it wasn’t until she spoke to him that he glanced her way. There was an innocent look on his face as he turned towards her, his hands folded behind his back.

“Do what?” he asked, giving her a smile. If she wanted to learn something, he would be happy to try to teach her - it had been so long since he had been able to really show off to someone other than Indiana (who was pretty hard to impress most of the time) - and if he was able to show her how to use her skills she had been neglecting, maybe she would grow to trust him a little more. He didn’t worry that she would be able to block him out - she was his, and he had centuries or practise on her. Blocking people out he could do well, and he knew how to find chinks in others’ armour, although that side of things wasn’t what he focused on most of the time.

And wanting to make her ask specifically for him to show her something? Well that just made everything a little sweeter.

[Saccharin]

Her eyes narrowed as she regarded him, waiting for some snide remark about how she didn\'t already know how to protect herself from another\'s prying fingers. As he\'d witnessed in the club when she\'d tried her best to keep him from her mind, the attempt had been sloppy - she\'d launched her mental self at him and shoved. If she\'d been able to keep her mind sealed away as he did, then she wouldn\'t have had to go on the offensive in the first place. She was unskilled, and well aware of the fact, but it didn\'t mean she wanted to hear William confirm the fact. When he didn\'t, her stance visibly relaxed (though she kept her arms crossed under her breasts).

"Keep me out. How do you do that?" she answered, trying to sound aloof and disinterested but failing miserably.

[pinkroses]

“Ah,” William said, giving Anna a warmer smile and he lifted a hand to gesture slightly as though drawing a line between them.

“That was one of the first things I learnt. I apologise, I do it instinctively with everyone,” William said, lying just a little. With Indie he never bothered with the wall, there was no need.

 “Imagine a wall, just a simple wall - or perhaps a box, whatever works for you. And with time and work, you can make it stronger, thicker, keep in more and keep out more. Perhaps layer it so keep some things safer,” William explained, folding his hands behind her back, tilting his head to one side slightly.

“Would you like to practise?” he offered, “I won’t force myself in too hard, I promise,” William added. Although at the moment if he decided to there wouldn’t be much she could do to stop him. William preferred to defend than attack mentally and it was what he was better at.

[Saccharin]

Anna nodded. Yes, she wanted to learn. After a moment\'s hesitation, she let her arms fall to the side and moved to sit at the base of the great oak tree, cross-legged.

She closed her eyes and imagined the roots beneath her surging upwards, breaking through the ground, then twining about and creating a dome-like structure that totally encompassed her. Gaps still remained, but those were quickly filled in by another plant-like material - a vine with long thorns sticking out at varying angles. It looked similar to a rose vine, but was lacking beautifully scented flowers.

"Okay. Try it," she said out loud, not wanting to switch to mental communication because she was exerting all her effort as it was just to maintain the protective shielding she\'d created.

[pinkroses]

Will stayed standing as his fledgling sat and he strolled back and forth before her as she tried to focus. He let himself gently touch her mind, keeping a mental eye on what she was doing without forcing himself in. He wasn’t surprised that she was using a natural image to keep people out.

As she said she was ready Will paused for a few seconds before pressing into her mind, sending out mental fingers to test her wall, attempting to find a gap he could get through. It was good for a first attempt, but the vines were still just vines for now.

He wove through, pushing vines here and there, slipping them out of the way just a little, ignoring the thorns which didn’t prick his mental fingers. He could have been more violent in his attack, burnt through, ripped it apart, but he slipped through with minimum disruption to her wall.

Good first try, the tree is strong, but the vines are easier to break through. It probably would have been effective against someone younger than you though, he sent mentally through the gap he‘d created.

[Saccharin]

But not good enough, she communicated, not an ounce of frustration in her mental voice. He\'d set her to a challenge, but instead of becoming annoyed that her first attempt had been a failure, she was only all the more determined to do a better job of it until she had it right. She was a good student and under the hand of a teacher, she would flourish.

She made several more attempts, using different materials to create a wide variety of structures until she struggled to form even an image of a wall in her mind. She\'d exhausted herself, but she smiled up at William after she opened her eyes.

"I almost kept you out that time," she said triumphantly, though tiredly. In reality, it had only meant that it had taken William a few more seconds than her very first attempt to locate the weakness in her mental defenses, but it had been real progress and she was right to be proud of it.

"I\'ll do better next time," she said, leaning against the oak tree and drawing her knees up to wrap her arms about the tops of them.

[pinkroses]

William gave his fledgling a warm smile as she settled back against the tree. He could feel how mentally exhausted she was and, as pissed as he was with her for some of what she’d done and how little she had progressed on her own, he was proud of her too. She did care, and was eager to learn given the right encouragement.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad having her around after all.

The blonde crouched down before her, reaching out to rest his hands on her arms as they draped around her knees.

“You’re doing well. With practise you’ll improve in leaps and bounds. I can help you more if you wish? We could make this a regular thing,” William suggested with a tone of voice that implied he didn’t care either way, although just saying the words suggested otherwise. But she had also given the impression that there would be a next time and so William wasn’t expecting to be rejected this time, unless she hadn’t really realised what she had said.

[Saccharin]

She blinked and glanced down at his hands but did not push him away. Earlier, she might\'ve, but that was before he\'d reminded her of at least one reason she\'d been drawn to him in the first place. He was a good teacher, and for one as insatiably curious as she, having someone willing to teach her was invaluable. She\'d denied him that to begin with because all she wanted to do was to boil away the hatred she\'d been accumulating for nearly two centuries. She\'d deserved at least that much.

Now, though, as she searched his light colored eyes with her own dark ones, she couldn\'t muster any of the anger that\'d come so easily to her when they\'d first reunited. He\'d left her, yes, but he was there and offering to be her sire again.

"Okay," she agreed, nodding. She would allow him to be that to her and learn all she could from him.

She deserved that too.

"I come here every night, usually a few hours after sunset," she said, thinking he could come there too.

[pinkroses]

She seemed to be softening, the anger she’d been directing his way when they had first seen each other again disappearing and Will wasn’t sure how he felt about that. It would be nice to spend more time with her - and without the motive of simply annoying her. As fun as it had been, she was his blood.  He’d wanted revenge, but if she came around and stopped being such a bitch… well, he didn’t want to hurt her if she didn’t deserve it. And killing the human she liked would probably get him in trouble anyway. Maybe Indie had been right to question his plans.

“Well then, I shall see you here again,” Will said, rising to his feet and releasing his grasp on her. “I may give you a couple of days peace to recover from your efforts though,” he added giving her a wink as he slipped his hands into his pockets.

“Have a good night Ahinawake,” the blonde said, pronouncing her name perfectly as always, nodding to her before turning to stroll away into the darkness unless she tried to stop him for any reason.