Accused, Accusing, Accuse

[pinkroses]

“Ok,” Ichabod said quietly, frowning slightly at the floor as they walked. When he’d left university to come back to the city and be sired he hadn’t thought he would go back, not really. After all, it was just a bit of paper. But what else had he done in the past two years? Caused Kerr trouble and grief. Learnt some vampiric skills, but they would get better with time, not just effort. And the Oligarchy library would always be there. Ben had a career, he had Kerr. He didn’t need to prove himself.

But Ichabod thought there was a point in getting it. It was like a rite of passage, graduating high school, getting a degree. He wasn’t going to get to do a lot of stuff, but that he could do. Something he could be proud of achieving.

“Where do you want to travel first? Got a trip in mind yet?” he asked, shoving his hands into his pockets. Ichabod had never really been anywhere, definitely not abroad. It would be brilliant, but he wouldn’t want to go alone. And if Kerr and Ben went he didn’t really know if he’d want to go as well. It would feel a little like crashing a honeymoon.

[Trillian]

Ben didn't know whether to speak of his and Kerr's plans to go to Austria.  He wouldn't mind if Ichabod came along, for they had similar interests in what they would like to see, while Kerr had seen it all before and would be more interested in scouring shops for antique items than looking at tourist icons and revisiting museums.  He also didn't know if Kerr had more of a romantic holiday with him in mind.

"I've been thinking about Austria, lately," Ben said after a short moment, figuring it was best to leave Kerr out of the equation.  "I think I'd like to see only a few countries at a time, in detail, rather than mashing them all in together in one big adventure."

He wondered if Ichabod would agree with him, or if he liked the idea of packing everything into one exciting bundle.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod smiled at the idea of going to Europe - and that Ben had given a proper answer rather than something too vague. He knew Ben didn’t usually like talking about himself, so it was nice that the blonde was trying.

“Austria would be cool, lots to see. And you’re right, like, about the whole spreading it out. I mean, it’s not like we need to… you need to rush and get it all in at once,” he said, correctly himself half way through. He didn’t want to invite himself along on any trips - he and Ben may be trying, but Ichabod doubted Ben would want the close quarters than he imagined would come with a foreign holiday. Of course, whenever Ichabod had gone on a trip is had been on a very tight budget, no doubt Kerr could find bigger places to stay in.

“I always thought Italy would be pretty cool. Some people think it’s just a load of old ruins, but they’re gorgeous. From the pictures I’ve seen anyway, and movies and stuff. What in particular made you think of Austria?” Ichabod said, speaking quickly to try to cover up his previous slip up.

[Trillian]

Ben noticed the 'we' change, mostly because Ichabod had corrected himself.  It was possible he might not have noticed the use of the word 'we', or even if he had, interpreted it differently.  He glanced over at Ichabod at the change, but looked back ahead almost immediately, and supposed that his brother might have noticed this movement just like he'd noticed the correction.

They were still tiptoeing around each other, and he figured they would for a long while yet.  Maybe a holiday together would be good for them, though he wasn't terribly sure about inviting Ichabod to Austria.

"I love the idea of Italy," he said, grateful that Ichabod had given him something else to comment on.  "And Greece too, mostly for the old ruins," he said wryly.  "I think people who say things like that are ignorant."

He shrugged when asked about Austria, but had the answer available readily regardless.

"I saw a documentary about it.  One of those travel kind of shows, though it wasn't one of the touristy ones, you know?"  He wished he remembered what the television show had been called.  "It appealed."  He gave Ichabod a smile then, looking over at him to do it, liking the fact this conversation (though with a hiccup or two) was mostly easy and certainly interesting to them both.

[pinkroses]

“Yeah, in places like that there’s always the things all the tourists do, but then there’s so much other stuff. I mean, I’d love to do the tourist thing, but then I’d want to stay longer and see what the locals do, see what kind of things they think are the most interesting. I bet most tourists just forget about them,” Ichabod said, glancing towards Ben when he felt the other’s eyes on him and returning the smile with a genuine one of his own. It was nice to be able to just chat about nothing - rather than the in depth serious discussions which usually ended in an argument between them.

“At least all those sunshine holidays have been taken off the list to make the choices of places to go a bit easier. I mean, it’s not like we’ll be wanting to go on a beach holiday to get a tan,” he said, lifting his hand as he spoke to eye up the colour of his skin. It had taken a while for his tan to fade, but it was gradually going. He’d been darker than Ben to start with, he knew that, although he could only remember little bits of their first meeting, the night Ben had been turned.

[Trillian]

Ben nodded along as Ichabod continued the conversation in the same vein.  They were like-minded when it came to holidaying.  So... libraries and holidays.  Two safe topics.

"Yes," Ben agreed about the 'sunshine holidays', liking the phrase.  "I never wanted to go on those anyway.  Lying around on a towel is overrated."  He'd never seen the appeal of it when he'd been mortal, and wasn't about to change his mind now that the option was gone.  "I want to learn how to ski, though.  Proper skiing, not snowboarding," he said further.  "I don't know if any ski places operate at night," he added thoughtfully, though he was sure with all the European vampires around, some of them had to cater to their nightly folk.  They were the ones with all the money, after all.

[pinkroses]

“It’s more fun swimming in the sea than in a pool though, that’s one good thing about the beach holidays,” Ichabod said with a smile. He’d usually get bored lying around and want to go do things whilst others just wanted to get brown.

“Oh yeah, that sounds brilliant, I’ve never been. I always thought I’d break something,” Ichabod said with a grin. Snowboarding sounded like more fun to him, but there was no point bringing up just another difference between them. Ichabod could imaging Kerr more easily on skis rather than a snowboard too. He’d never been, not just because of the injury factor, but also because skiing holidays were stupidly expensive when you factored in all of the equipment you needed, but breaking bones and paying for things were no longer the issues they had been when they’d been human.

“I’m sure Kerr knows somewhere, loads of places. Special bookings and stuff for vampires,” he said, beaming at the idea. “When I was younger, I used to play hockey and they tried to get me to try out of the ice hockey team because it‘s, like, more popular, but I look like Bambi on the ice, I swear. It must have been hilarious to watch.”

[Trillian]

He waited until Ichabod finished speaking about everything before replying, letting their conversation catch up.  He mulled over what Ichabod had said, and because he knew nothing about hockey, he decided to skip that topic.  He didn't know much about sports in general.

"I've only swum in the ocean twice," Ben replied.  There was no excuse for it, not when there was a beach on the city's perimeter.  He'd been to the boardwalk a lot, and had even walked along the shore, but swimming?  He figured Ichabod was likely to gasp and exclaim over this fact, like everybody did when he imparted this information.  His friends at school had thought he was lying (because he'd told them he'd only gone in the ocean once, when he was seven or so), and then insisted on taking him to the beach.  Their plans had fallen through because every weekend they'd attempted, the weather had been blustering and rainy.  Then there was the trip to Mexico to plan and catch their attention, and then Ben had left home and left school to get a job and that was that.

He simply preferred indoors to out.

[pinkroses]

The two young fledglings strolled through the streets together, chatting about nothing much, occasionally biting their tongue when the situation called for it, but generally managing to have civil, even good natured conversation.

They made their way to the library, their neutral ground and spent a comfortable couple of hours together before parting ways, Ben going back to Kerr and Ichabod back to his apartment alone. But he would see Kerr the next night, and this time there wouldn’t be the usual arguments, Kerr being the unwilling mediator. Maybe things would just keep getting better. It could happen.