Possession

[Trillian]

"God, I'd forgotten what it was really like," she slurred, looking like she was coming out of a very deep sleep.

Vincent said something very quietly to her and she giggled softly, her stare once again finding Owen and no longer shyly slipping away.  She smiled at him for a moment as she listened to Vincent's voice in her ear.

"No, just stress over nothing," she answered him, turning her head to look at the vampire.

"Nothing?" he prompted, causing her to shrug.

"Being a new mother."

He nodded and stood up, offering her a hand to do the same.

"Are you okay to drive?"

"I've got a thermos of apple juice in the car.  I'll be fine."

He touched her cheek gently and she lowered her head, a little embarrassed by his display.  Vincent turned to look at Owen, to see his expression.

[Existentially Odd]

Owen's expression was bordering on sour, despite the fact he'd been trying to be blank.  When the woman looked at him it smoothed away, though the best he could offer her (while his boyfriend whispered sweet nothings in her fucking ear) was a tragedy of a smile that basically involved him pressing his lips together, flicking his eyebrows and clenching his cheeks before it dropped.  When Vincent looked at him, he interpreted it as an imperative and he hastened to his feet, both hands still clasped before him.

"Thank you for letting me watch," he told Tamara politely, giving her a nod in lieu of any genuine emotion or a smile.

[Trillian]

They parted ways - Vincent staying behind just long enough to make sure Tamara collected her shoes and handbag, and then the three of them leaving the room.  Tamara took the time to lock it, but Vincent insisted she give him the key.  At least he could protect her from any peculiar or knowing looks upon returning the key so quickly.  She went to her car, parked closer to the office than theirs, and hopped inside.  Upon returning the key - with just a quick thanks and barely a glance from the clerk handling the front desk - Vincent looked through her windshield on the way back to his car with Owen at his side, to see her already drinking out of her thermos.  Her car had been started, and was idling gently.  She had a nice new burgundy mercedes, last year's model.  She wasn't looking his way so he didn't wave, and figured Owen would probably say something when they were both in the car.

Nothing came until he was pulling out of the motel carpark.

[Existentially Odd]

"So.  You always meet them in motels like this one?" he asked snidely, his disdain for the sleaziness of the process obvious.  "So there's an easily accessed bed?" he added mildly, raising his eyebrows as he looked at Vincent's profile.  God, he loved him, it hurt to look at him and remember those lips on that woman's throat, even if nothing more had come of it.  It was insane, he knew he was being quite unreasonable but he couldn't stop the snarky comments coming out of his mouth.

[Trillian]

Vincent pulled in breath to say something, but he didn't know what, so he released it in a harsh puff.

"I'm not going to do this with you.  You wanted to watch, you watched.  No more."

His hands tightened on the steering wheel and he did his best to concentrate on the road ahead.

[Existentially Odd]

"Yeah, until next week," Owen countered, folding his arms obstinately across his chest.  He wouldn't say anything more tonight if it was what Vincent wanted (well, he would try not to, but there were so many bitter little comments dancing on his tongue, he doubted he'd be able to swallow them all) but he would certainly be looking to see how different the next experience was, or if Vincent pacified them all.  And then he would want to know if he'd always pacified them or if it was just for his benefit that he was doing it now.  He was probably supposed to be grateful for that change in his procedures, too.

[Trillian]

"No.  You don't get to watch, anymore.  You're too lost in your own insecurities to be able to handle it."

Vincent was dealing with a very different creature to what he knew, and he was starting to wonder if maybe Karen had been right after all.  Was this what Owen was like in all of his other relationships?  He knew Paige had cheated on Owen, but why was Vincent to suffer?

[Existentially Odd]

Owen's head whipped to the side so that he was glaring at Vincent, his eyes narrowing.  "Is it my insecurity or you not wanting to pacify the next one so I start thinking it's fine?" he demanded.

[Trillian]

He knew they had to have it out in order to resolve it, but he wasn't seeing their resolution coming anytime soon.  In this, he most certainly hadn't taken after Karen.  Mind, he had no idea if she was the jealous type, but he certainly knew that even when she was feeling angry and betrayed, she could still listen.  In this, Owen and her differed.  Owen, by the sound, had already made up his mind.

"What do you mean by 'pacify the next one'?" he asked irritably, not liking the phrase and also hoping that his guess about what Owen was hinting at was wrong.  He had, after all, chosen Tamara as the first feeding specifically because of her passive reaction.  What if Owen ever laid eyes on Travis?  His other 'T' option in that book, who was smart and funny and incredibly good looking, and was a slave to his desires when being fed from, and always extremely sensitive and embarrassed about it afterward.  All his donors trusted him, because he didn't take advantage of them.  He was one of very few vampires who was trustworthy.  It was a shame Owen didn't share this opinion.

[Existentially Odd]

"Well, you obviously were using your mental abilities on that one, because of how quiet she was.  You didn't want me to see her get riled up," he explained, an air of smugness about him, for he'd figured out what Vincent had done and was proud of the fact.

[Trillian]

Vincent was furious.  He glared at the road ahead and couldn't speak for a long moment, leaving Owen to feel smug for an amount of time before he finally found his voice.  When he did speak, it was so quietly, that if the radio had even been on for background noise, it would've drowned him out.  As it was, Owen would have to pay close attention to hear him over the road noise - which was almost nonexistant, in Vincent's new model car.

"Instead of making assumptions, and demonstrating your small-mindedness and ignorance, you should work on your reasoning and curiosity.  Why would I bother to sedate her with my powers?  To hide something from you?  As far as I'm concerned, you're the one sharing yourself with multiple partners.  I think it's very possible you've fucked more people in one year than I have in the past six hundred."

[Existentially Odd]

Owen's eyes widened and his jaw dropped at Vincent's words.  Had he just called him a slut?  Six partners a year made a slut?  He took a deep breath, allowing the anger and the snappy comments he'd instinctively summoned to settle before he replied, because he needed some time focus on the earlier comments anyway.  So Vincent hadn't pacified that woman?  What was it that had kept her so quiet, then?

"It's not you that I'm worried about," he said through gritted teeth, now staring straight ahead through the windscreen.  "It's them getting to touch you.  Even if it's not sexual.  I'm... jealous," he admitted stoically, as if it might've been a surprise to his lover.  "I hate that they get that part of you."

[Trillian]

Vincent was surprised.  He was so surprised, in fact, that he took his eyes off the road to look at Owen for a moment and then back to what he was doing, but that wasn't satisfactory either.  As soon as he was able, he pulled over and switched the lights off, but left the engine purring along with the air conditioning - so that they were sitting in reasonable temperature, not too hot, not too cold, comfortable for Owen.

This was certainly a strong case of nurture over nature.  For a teenaged boy who'd just been paid quite the insult by his lover, in an attempt to get his grievances out in the open, Owen was being extremely mature.  He could see a lot of Karen in his character, now.  He'd always believed the true face of a person came out not when it was smooth sailing, but when there was a storm.  Even though his argument was illogical, Vincent couldn't condemn Owen for something he was feeling - and was proud of the fact he'd struggled past his anger in order to explain himself.

Vincent sat back in his seat, looking over at his lover, already his companion, but soon-to-be eternal companion.

"I love you, Owen, very much.  I honestly do, so I want you to know this.  All they're getting from me is my vampire side.  It doesn't matter how civil and pleasant I try to make it, I'm feeding off them.  All they get out of it is either an artifically enhanced sexual drive or an trance-like meditative state.  It's nothing I control.  When I drink from you it's different, because you get all of me, not some peculiar supernatural predatory adrenalin mocktail."

[Existentially Odd]

"I know that," Owen conceded, glancing peripherally at Vincent but not daring to look at him for too long because he was getting emotional now that he was backing away from the knife-edge of possessiveness and he didn't want to end up crying again.  "Here," he qualified, touching his head with the fingertips of his right hand.  "But here," he lowered the hand to press into his chest, "I just... it eats at me and it's unreasonable to want you all for myself and it's fucking ridiculous considering I took you for granted for like, nearly nineteen years, but it's so hard to fight it, it just burns in me.  I'm sorry," he said miserably, returning to that foolish mortal child he'd been at Sabri's palace, surrounded by the wisdom of centuries and completely incapable of measuring up to it.  Yet trying.

"On the upside... I didn't punch her off you," he attempted a joke though his mouth turned wobbly so he didn't look across at Vincent, he just looked at his lap and took another breath.

[Trillian]

Vincent stared at him for a very long moment, weighing their options.  He finally came out with a suggestion.

"I don't think you should watch," he said softly.