Chain Reaction

[Annalas]

Bill knew that Emil would be awake, though it wasn't quite dark yet. He had just gotten off of work, taking the time to go home and shower before starting the long trek over to his friend's house. The shift had been long, but he had been sent home a few hours early since the business was fairly slow. He needed the money, but that didn't matter much to his manager.

David's talk the night before (or two nights before, as he had stayed last night with the vampire, as well) had soothed his fears quite a bit, though he still felt uneasy walking alone. He pulled out his phone, dialing Emil's number as he went. He had finally made it to the beach, though the sun was still lowering in the sky. Another hour or two and it would be dark, he knew.

He stifled a yawn as he heard the other end pick up, a smile crossing his face as he neared Emil's house.

"Hey, it's Bill," he greeted whoever was on the other end; he assumed it was Emil, since that was who he was calling.

[skeggsismad]

HE had just gotten out of the shower when the phone rang. Due to how long it typically took him to figure out what he was going to wear for the night, he usually started getting ready a couple of hours before the sun actually set so that he’ll be ready for a night out on town. He assumed that anyone calling at this hour was someone who knew about his supernatural nature or from abroad; the phone ring wasn’t a business jangle. Thus, he picked up the phone and pressed it to his ear as he held a shirt to his chest in the mirror, trying to pick between a deep purple and ocean blue colored shirt.

The other end let him know who was calling right away. It was Bill! He hadn’t heard from him for a while, and he’d been a bit worried that everything that had gone down with Lamar might make him want to stay away.

“Hello, darling! Why, it’s been a long time no talk!”

He assumed that Bill had something to tell him since he called first, so he held off on asking how he was unless it was evident it was a quick chat that the fellow was seeking.

[Annalas]

It had been about two weeks since he had stayed the day at Emil's, though he had texted him every so often since then, of course. He had spent the past two weeks working and staying alone in the apartment he shared with his father, too scared to venture out at night, when the creatures would be thicker. He didn't know what all was out there, but he was sure that some of them, at least, were tethered to the night, as vampires were.

"Yeah, it has," he agreed, a soft smile crossing his face as he heard Emil's voice. Just the tone relaxed him, making him more glad than ever that he had called. "Is it okay if I come visit? I really miss hanging out with you. I can let myself in if you leave the door unlocked."

The nice thing about Emil being a vampire was that Bill knew that he would be home already…though he wasn't sure what Emil was doing, per se. He hoped that it was as before, where Emil wasn't busy at all, and was just hanging out until the sun went down. He would hate to interrupt the vampire.

[skeggsismad]

Mmm, things might be just fine.
It excited him, it did, that Bill wanted to get together; it just proved that whatever hiccups had happened a few weeks ago were over. Or at the very least, they wouldn’t be effecting their relationship. It was a satisfactory situation to be in.

“Oh yes, of course you can! Come over whenever you want, darling, you’re always welcome. But, but, but! You must tell me how long you’ll be. I need to know how long I have to decide what color of shirt I should wear today!”

He let out a chuckle. Sadly, he was only half joking.

[Annalas]

"Well," Bill started with a smirk as he turned onto Emil's street. "I can see your place from here. Why don't you wear the white one?"

It was amazing, how much his confidence had grown in just a few short nights. He was still riding the high from last night, from this morning when he had kissed David goodbye and exited the apartment, spare key in hand. He had a spare key to David's place!

That was actually part of the reason he wanted to see Emil so badly. He had realized in the middle of his shift that it had to mean something that David had given him a key, a great degree of trust, at the very least. But he liked David, and he was concerned that he was reading too much into David's actions. What if the other vampire expected the key back, and really only meant it as a one-time thing. What if David had really meant to give the key to Bill in order to hint that Bill should come back after his shift? He had asked Bill to stay, after all. Then again…Bill would surely get on David's nerves if he were around all the time.

"I'm sorry it's such short notice," he added as he continued on his way. "It's kinda a spontaneous thing."

A spontaneous thing that had taken him about an hour of walking to accomplish, that is. His thin-soled converse were beginning to hurt his feet, but it was worth it to come see Emil. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, fairly casual considering he had just gotten off of work. He had his old black leather jacket with the orange and red stripes on the shoulders thrown on hastily, a few chokers adorning his throat. That was another thing he had to talk to Emil about, the feeding schedule. How had Bill missed that his body needed so long to recover?

[skeggsismad]

It would have helped to have had a bit more notice. He wasn’t properly ready for someone to be dropping by, which meant he was going to have to rush himself a bit. The less time he had, the less handsome he felt. Too, had Bill dropped by when he was out of town or staying at someone elses’ house, all would have been in vain. But he tried not to think about it for now; all that mattered was that he was home right now and Bill would greet him soon enough.

“The white one it is!” Emil exclaimed as he searched for the shirt in question, throwing that on alongside some hip hugging jeans. Too, a pair of leather black shoes were slipped on and he stood in from of the mirror teasing his hair until it looked just right.

“When you come in to the enclosed patio, make sure that the first door is closely tightly, mmk pookie? After that, the front door is unlocked.”

He had a camera in the enclosed porch to help him with that anyway- if Bill didn’t properly close the first door, the front door would keep the light out and he simply wouldn’t go out on the patio until it was. Heavy curtains hung on all of the windows during the day so that the light wouldn’t come into the enclosed area and Emil felt it was a nice safety procedure.

[Annalas]

Bill smiled, completely oblivious to how he was rushing Emil. He simply didn't understand that getting ready was a process…and after all, Emil had had all day to do so, hadn't he? The mortal just couldn't wait to tell Emil about everything that had happened between him and David, among other things. Well, of course he would censor certain parts out, as well.

"Okay, see you soon," he agreed before ending the call.

It took him another ten minutes to make it to Emil's door, the vampire living a bit farther down the road than he had thought. Once inside, he closed and locked the patio door, choosing to knock on the front door and waiting a few seconds before opening it slowly and walking in--he didn't want to accidentally catch Emil in the crossbeam.

"I'm here!" he called out, suddenly attacked by a bout of shyness as he closed the front door. What was he thinking? He couldn't just pop in unannounced (or practically unannounced) on a vampire! His  other friends, yes, but a vampire…that wasn't very polite. He supposed that he had forgotten, once again, that Emil was more than human.

"I really am sorry for the short notice…I couldn't wait to see you."

[skeggsismad]

He’d dragged himself away from the mirror as soon as he heard the front door open, slowly proceeding towards the area and looking for suspicious rays of light. He turned the corner when he found that the front door had been closed properly and greeted Bill with a huge grin. Of course, once the boy began to talk, his look quickly turned to concern.

“Are you okay, pookie? What happened?”

A somber mood had taken over him; the last comment of Bill’s, that he couldn’t wait, made the surprise visit seem more like an emergency that a visit at all. Bill had certainly done a good job at hiding it over the phone, but maybe he hadn’t felt safe talking about it, perhaps only now was he having the chance to relax.

“Why don’t you take a seat in the dining room and I’ll pour you a cup of tea and we can talk about whatever is troubling you, okay sweetheart?”

He put an arm around Bill, doing it all so quickly as to not let the boy get a word in edgewise, though he’d quieted up after he began to lead the human towards the dining room.

[Annalas]

Bill immediately leaned into the embrace, a wide smile surfacing on his face. He hadn't realized how much he had missed Emil until that arm was around him, leading him away. Was it too much to ask for a bit of food, as well? Probably, he figured, remembering the other half of the pizza in David's fridge from the night before. He definitely shouldn't let that go to waste, but he hadn't thought to grab anything but a small snack when he had been at home. Tea was fine, though. Maybe EMil had crumpets or something like that, too.

"I'm marvelous," he answered, wrapping his own arm around the vampire as he was led along. "It's nothing bad, I promised, just…I really missed you, is all. I should've called."

He parted from Emil long enough to slide into a seat in the dining room, expecting the vampire to go to the kitchen to get the tea water. Belatedly, he realized that Lamar might very well be home, as well. He didn't want to bring the other human up, though, or even think about him. Unless he had an excellent reason for leaving that night, Bill didn't really want anything to do with him. What they had done had been a mistake…as fantastic as it was.

[skeggsismad]

Emil breathed a sigh of relief, dramatically bringing one hand to the side of his face as he exhaled loudly.

“Phew! You had me quite troubled, sugar!” He spoke and let out a chuckle, shaking his head at the way he had so easily jumped to conclusion about it all.

“You needn’t worry; you’re always welcome in my house, even with such short notice!” And after that statement, he retreated to the kitchen, putting water in the tea kettle and starting the oven up to warm it.

“What sort of tea would you like, sweetie? Earl Gray? Green leaves? Oooh, what about a seasonal herbal mix! I’ve got something called ‘gingerbread’ here!”

He called out to Bill from the kitchen, speaking the boy’s direction so that his voice carried better.

[Annalas]

Bill curled up in his chair with a smile as he listened to Emil, wondering if he should get up and go to the kitchen with the vampire so that they could talk there. But Emil had definitely said the dining room, so in the dining room he would stay. He didn't have a lot of experience with tea, so he wasn't quite sure where his tastes lied. Emil, however, sounded very enthusiastic about the gingerbread tea, though.

"That one sounds good!" he called out, shrugging his jacket off and laying it over another of the armless chairs in the room. "Gingerbread. And thank you…it means a lot to me."

Bill tugged at his dark gray t-shirt as he settled down, waiting for the vampire to return. He hoped it would be fairly quickly, as he really did want to see Emil.

[skeggsismad]

He hurried into the kitchen and began to work on the tea. It didn’t take much; after a few minutes the water was boiling and he took the tea kettle off of the stovetop onto a serving tray, accompanied by a fine tea cup, cream, sugar and of course the loose tea leaves fixated in a tea holder inside of the scalding hot cup. Bill would have to wait a few minutes for it to cool down, but Emil was certain that time would seem like nothing if they sat and chatted for a bit.

The vampire arrived in the dining room, setting the tray down on the table and sitting beside Bill.

“Alright, pookie, here you are. There’s some sugar and cream and in that saucer is soy in case- well, allergies or what have you! You better wait for it to cool, though. I wouldn’t want for you to burn your tongue or anything like that!” He exclaimed and then relaxed in his seat, waiting for Bill to start his chatter.

It seemed like he had something to talk about the way he had arrived in such a bubbly mood.

[Annalas]

It took far too long for Bill's liking for the tea water to boil, but he supposed that he would just have to deal with it until Emil arrived back out. Finally the vampire came, setting the tea set down and taking his seat. Bill immediately turned to him, ignoring the tea in favor of paying attention to his favorite (or was it second favorite now? He really couldn't choose) vampire.

"Thanks," he chirped happily, not touching the set. "How have you been? I'm really sorry I haven't called, I just…I was thinking about things, you know. What you told me, about there being other things out there besides vampires. Wasn't too keen to hang out."

Belatedly, he realized that that had sounded like he didn't want to hang out with Emil because of what the vampire had told him. He quickly launched into speech again as he tried to negate that thought.

"Not that I didn't want to hang out with you," he quickly saved, "just in general…wanted to stay home and stuff, you know?I think that's fixed, though, now. I mean…I'm still scared, but not as scared…David explained a lot of stuff to me."

He had no qualms telling Emil about David; after all, the other vampire knew about Emil, and Bill had nothing to hide. David didn't seem particularly fond of Emil thus far, but Bill was sure that he could change his mind, if he had to.

[skeggsismad]

Once Bill had stopped talking, a grin began to steadily climb across his maw.   Emil had lived a long, full live thus far, and even with as little as he knew about Bill he could read the boy’s emotions. The way that the human mentioned the word David, and how he’d appeared here in such an unusually excitable mood, suggested to Emil that something was going on. He didn’t know quite what, but if he had to guess, either David was a new crush of Bill’s or a longtime friend that Bill hadn’t seen for a while. The emotion he was detecting was the springing of a new relationship full of wonder and potential.

“Oh, he did, did he? Hmmm?” Emil said giddily, his teasing amusement clear.

“Why don’t you tell me a bit about this David that’s got you half a bubble off of plumb! He must be quite the fellow.” He winked at Bill, eager to hear the juicy gossip he knew would soon be shuffled his way.

[Annalas]

It was almost funny how old-school Emil's speech was, using outdated colloquialisms as he did so often. Bill hadn't really noticed it before, but it made him smile wider all the same, face flushing a little a he ducked his head down, caught in the act.

"Um…you could say that, yeah," he agreed, the adoration in his voice. He had already sent far too many texts to the other vampire that morning, reaching four before he realized what he was doing and immediately stopped. He couldn't just bombard David with texts like that! He barely knew him, despite whatever chemistry might be going on between them.

"I mean…Andi convinced me to go to this club the other night and ditched me there, so I went back to David's place with him. He's not a stranger, we've met before, I mean. But um…yeah, I ended up staying the entire and the next night there, too. He's really nice," Bill yammered on, knowing that he should shut up now. He didn't want to talk too much about David lest he make it sound like something it wasn't. Besides, he hadn't mentioned the fact that David was a vampire yet.