Cabin Fever

[The Cedar Witch]

[for Saiketsu]

After twenty-something games of gin rummy with Pierre to fight off the boredom of waiting, Damien had finally come home from the trial.  He was slightly quiet and withdrawn, which made her frown but she didn’t press him for any details.  The little that she did know of the trial was more than enough.  He had spoken to Pierre for a little while, presumably about what had happened but Rachel couldn’t know for sure since it was entirely in French, before sending his fledge along for the evening.  She was glad to have Damien--and the house--to herself again.  It was frustrating to have to be babysat, and it was gnawing on her more and more lately.  But what could be done? 

She had ordered Chinese food to be delivered to the house and the two settled into the couch to watch a movie together, as promised.  Silently she wished that they’d gone out somewhere instead, but understood his desire to want to stay home after the drama of the evening was over.  She didn’t want to make him feel bad, but truthfully she had grown rather restless, missing the independence that she had been so accustomed to before all the shit. 

The night moved on as it always did, Rachel pushing thoughts of freedom aside in favor of trying to get Damien to loosen up again.  Which really was only a matter of time now that he was home with her and not out in the world being CEO or whatever.  After the movie was over, they had talked together about some light things that didn’t really matter before she started to nod off in the gaps of silence between conversation.  She was doing that a lot more frequently now--nestling herself against his body and falling into complete relaxation before promptly passing out.  He had scooped her up and carried her upstairs into their bedroom and she only stirred to wrap her arms around his neck. 

That was all Rachel remembered, anyway.  She woke up the next afternoon, half-dressed in the loose tee shirt and underwear she was wearing the previous night, curled against Damien’s chest.  He was awake before her and staring.

“When did I fall asleep?”  She stretched out her entire body, exhaling sleepily as she released the tension from the stretch.  Turning to face him again, she planted some small kisses at the corners of his mouth--whether or not he was still talking.

[Saiketsu]

After Rachel had fallen asleep, he battled with himself all night and day. His quiet, withdrawn demeanor after the trial had leaked into their time together. He hadn't anticipated feeling so affected by the happenings of the trial, and certainly didn't want to bring them home.

Rachel had been on his mind the entire night and he was thankful for her lack of attendance at the trial. Lazarus' treatment of both McCloud and Gavin's fledge Ben throughout the entire event had made it almost impossible for Damien to watch. He was a twisted, wicked thing and Damien was fortunate to never have dealt with him. Based on what Rachel had told him through hesitant words pressed against his chest only months ago, Lazarus and Laurent were too similar for Damien to feel any kind of sympathy throughout the trial for him.

He looked at her as she slept, warm and comfortable, calmer now than she had been in the first few years that he had known her. There was no way that he wanted to disrupt that with words of the trial. He ached with the knowledge of the trial as he watched her sleep, wondering what her experiences had actually been like with Laurent, that demon who kidnapped her, abused her, and kept her in slavery for his own profit. He didn't want to wonder, but the thought pulled at his attention.

That's not helpful, he told himself. She's safe here, the safest place in the world.

He wanted to sleep next to her, their arms tangled and slightly sore from hours of laying together. He wrapped her in his arms, her forehead pressed against his mouth. She grumbled and inhaled something that he couldn't quite make out and fell back into sleep after snuggling into him further.

The night passed into day and Damien drifted in and out of sleep next to her on their bed, uncomfortable short sessions with dreams of chasing smoke, of treating Pierre, of a missing Rachel. Eventually Rachel began to stir, her breathing shallowing out, tossing more, he watched her with a smile until she woke. It made him hurt.

"You passed out on the couch around four," he said softly, still inadvertently retracted from her. Her kisses made him scrunch his face in the same way he prepared for when Delilah licked him. He smiled at her, stroking her hair away from her face. "I brought you upstairs. Did you have any fun dreams?" He rolled more on his side to look at her better.

[The Cedar Witch]

"I can't remember," Rachel grunted softly as she strained toward the bedside table for water as she usually did.  He still seemed distant, and that worried her.  Mornings were for soft kissing and cuddling--not distance.  After taking a sip of water she turned to him with a concerned look on her face.

"What's up?  Is everything okay?"  She settled down in bed again, laying so that she was facing him, lightly touching his upper arm.

[Saiketsu]

He enjoyed her touch and it reminded him to be present and not too lost in his own head. It was something that Damien had been working fairly regularly on. He kept his hand on the side of her face, rubbing her cheek with his thumb gently, treasuring her. "It's just the trial stuff, Rache. It was a difficult to be in the same room people reliving their traumas to the public. They found Lazarus guilty of the assaults, thankfully."

It was only a partial truth. Damien also kept thinking about Laurent, and how they hadn't found him yet, despite years of searching. Laurent, who had caused Rachel so much pain and suffering. What would it have been like if it had been Rachel up there on stage testifying about her experiences? Would they get the same verdict? He didn't want to think about it.

"It's just heavy," he said with a sigh, kissing her forehead. "Everything's just heavy right now. But never mind that. Let's go out tonight, yes?" A hopeful smile from the vampire.

[The Cedar Witch]

Rachel let out a small angry sigh at the mention of the trial, scooting closer to him on the bed and resting her forehead against his shoulder. 

"I wish you stayed home instead," she said quietly, "I'm sorry it's weighing on you like this."  She brushed her lips against his shoulder, feathering kisses, and smiled at the mention of going out.

"Yeah-- let's do something fun."  She wanted to get his mind off of things.  Would that even work for him right now?  After a quiet moment, she added "You know, if you want to talk about things we can.  You don't have to keep it all to yourself."  Rachel leaned away to look into his face, threading the fingers of her free hand between his.

[Saiketsu]

He smiled sadly at his human companion, enjoying the warmth of her near him. "It's fine. I just don't want to be thinking about it anymore." Damien shifted, putting more of his body against her. "I suppose I have to feed you tonight," Damien said with a smirk, trying. "So what would you like to eat for dinner? Not Chinese again," he said preemptively, knowing her choices already when he asked these kinds of questions and answering any response with a sly smile.

"And I figured we could do something fun. Like, really fun. What about... driving go-karts?"

[The Cedar Witch]

Rachel pouted, but broke it with a smile "Why do you have to call me out like that?"  So rude.  She ate other things besides that!  She moved closer, dotting kisses between his shoulder and collar bone and trying not to think too much about the closing distance between them.  Blushing slightly nonetheless.

"You really don't want to see me driving--it might scare you," she giggled against his skin "But it sounds like fun.  Not that we can do any of that right now 'cus it's like, what, two?  Three?  What time is it?"  She twisted her body around to grab her cellphone to check for sure.

[Saiketsu]

Her twisting body revealed her flat, fair stomach and ribs to the vampire and Damien wasted no time in moving his hand there, enjoying the pull of her muscles under the skin greatly. Not to mention her human warmth and softness. Ever since they had started this little relationship, he had been drawn to her skin at every moment it became available to him. In the beginning it left him trying (and failing) to blush at his forwardness. He would take his hand away as if she were too hot to touch - until she had taken his hands and allowed him to wander. Oh, the days had passed quite pleasantly then, with wandering hands and tongues and fingers. Now it was simply a comfort compulsion to touch her. He had been without touch for so long that he never wanted to not be able to touch her, to find comfort in her skin. From time to time his grasping hands made her giggle, calling him a teenager. It was true, he supposed sheepishly. He was still a "teenager" in some ways.

"Well we would be going out tonight together, as soon as the sun sets."

[The Cedar Witch]

She gasped a quick "Hey!" and shivered at his touch, fumbling for the phone.  The touching was more than welcome, though it still managed to catch her off guard.  Sometimes she would do things like this on purpose to see if she could bait him into moving his fingers across her skin.  Which he would do now with increasing confidence--much to her delight.

"It's only 2:00 so we still have some time."  She smirked to herself, still facing away and looking down at her phone.  Not that she was really looking at anything in particular.  Rachel moved a hand to gently cover his as it trekked across her body.  She liked feeling his hands move over her. 

[Saiketsu]

Damien smiled at her startled response, finding it adorable like he always did. It was one of his favorite things about touching her, that silly response. His hand rode the waves of her body as she moved, settling on her waist as she settled back in against him. Damien leaned up on one elbow, moved her long hair from her neck and shoulders as best he could - there always seemed to be loose strands that fell back into place wherever he didn't want them - and kissed her lightly on her cheek and neck. She felt warmer now, closer to him, less skin separating the blood from his tongue.

"What shall we do with our time?" He asked cheekily, knowing what would be inferred and finding this comment a very brazen act on his part. Fingers gripped her waist firmly, though without a bite or need.

[The Cedar Witch]

Rachel shrugged, coy smile still on her face.  To the lips at her neck, she moved her head more to the side to allow for greater access, leaning further into him.

"What do you feel like doing."  It sounded more like a breathy statement than a question.  Rachel pulled away slightly, against the grip trying to keep her in place, and turned to face him again.

"I should eat something for breakfast..." Well lunch, technically.  She didn't meet his eye, focusing instead on tracing small circles against his shoulder with a single finger.

[Saiketsu]

It had taken him months to become accustomed to - and allow himself to enjoy - the stirring in his groin when he smelled her blood reacting to him. He hadn't exactly forgot what arousal was, but he did forget that Rachel may actually have been interested in that part of him. It struck him as humorous and awkward how many things she did that stirred him: flipping her long blackish hair intensely over her shoulder, that silly response to his fingers, stretching over the arm of the couch. The very first few times they had begun exploring each other's pleasure, Damien still tried to hide his embarrassment at his reactions to her, hiding behind jeans or the office desk. He was prone to self-chastisement in those moments until Rachel had announced that she expected these kinds of moments with her. Sometimes, she said, she really liked those moments, the outline of him pressing against his pants, against her backside, her leg as the cuddled.

Lately, it had become much easier for him to simply be aroused and not feel ashamed, awkward, or afraid of what it all meant in terms of the theoretical meanings in his life. Lately, it was just easier to be aroused by her.

The little circles on his shoulder didn't help his situation much, but he was still able to shift himself so that he didn't press himself against her. "Yes, you should," Damien said with a smirk and a sigh. "We could order something to the house again. You liked that little place on Hartford Ave. The one with the good waffles?"

[The Cedar Witch]

Rachel let out a small sigh of discontent, fingers still tracing his skin, venturing lower toward his collar.  Then, suddenly struck by some idea, her fingers stopped.

"Ugh, you know what I could seriously go for right now?  Coffee and a bagel from that cafe in town."  She sighed sadly and curled herself into him.  This whole not being able to leave the house during the day thing fucking sucked.  That cafe experience in the afternoon--it reminded her of how things used to be. 

"I know I can't go out, I'm just complaining about it," she grumbled.  "I just wish I had some kind of bodyguard or something so I can just grab a coffee sometimes--you know?"  Rachel looked up at him.  "It sucks."

[Saiketsu]

It was the same conversation with a different face and Damien felt terrible about it. He frowned, trying - as he always did - to come up with a solution that would be better and failing. He hated keeping her in the house all the time - he felt like her jailer, a feeling he had apologized for several times.

When they had started this escapade of living together it was supposed to have been temporary until Damien could figure out a place to put her. But the looming threat of Laurent and his ability to slip through their fingers had supplied Rachel with a more permanent living situation in his house. He hadnt really minded, and obviously had become well adjusted to the situation, and the platonic company was something he didnt realize he needed for a long time. As Laurent became more difficult to track down and hunt, Damien couldn't justify allowing Rachel to leave the house without protection - not that he could stop her in the middle of the day. But all the cameras around the perimeter of the house and property could not protect Rachel from the demon that hunted her.

They had talked about it several times, agreed that with Damien it was safer - more resources and a bigger network of people to get through - than being dropped somewhere across country only to be picked up again by the demon who wanted her back. Now it was personal for the Aquillia family to see that Laurent was killed and Damien wouldn't stop hunting until the bastard was caught. In the meantime, however, it was Rachel who was still suffering the consequences.

"I wish so too," he sighed and held her closer, guilt trickling into his embrace. "I wish I could go with you." He wouldn't speak the name of the elephant in the room so as not to grant him anymore power. "We would need to have someone who we can trust to be discreet and loyal." He mused out loud, speaking in ideals, but as the words passed his lips, he began to consider them with light interest.

[The Cedar Witch]

Rachel snuggled into his embrace.

"Yeah.  Some non-human, non-vampire bodyguard preferably referred by someone in the family."  She spoke into his chest, tone still grumpy and sarcastic.  He was quiet for a minute, definitely thinking about something.  Rachel pulled back to look at him better, suddenly very serious.

"Wait--would you actually consider this if we found someone?"  She was already getting excited, eyes brightening.  Nothing was decided yet of course but it was such a good idea!  Why hadn't they thought of this before?