*
LAZARUS RETURNED TO THE TREETOP cottage with handfuls of shopping bags printed with designer labels on them. Cicero had been distracted at first, but then interested as his sire decided to change his usual casual look. There were many smart outfits in those bags, a lot of black and white and deep red. Colour - other than blue jeans - weren't Lazarus' usual thing, nor was dressing up beyond anything that involved rolling out of bed and putting on one item of clothing (usually the blue-jeans). But he'd gone and bought himself layer clothing, such as overcoats that ended at his ankles or knees, jumpers, scarves, gloves. Even a top hat and cane. Cicero thought it was overdone, but it wouldn't be Lazarus any other way. He quite liked the change in his sire, and instead of strutting about like a peacock and demanding compliments from the pair of them, he'd actually come out mostly to admire himself beyond the tiny changing room and returned to it without questioning Cicero and David on their opinion, passing up many opportunities for acknowledgement and recognition.
Cicero picked up a single item for himself. An angora scarf the same colour as his eyes. Lazarus had wrapped it around Cicero's neck and declared it pretty, and a heated look passed between the two of them before Lazarus broke it by lightly stroking Cicero's face and then moving away to shop for himself some more. Cicero turned to David and mentally asked him if the scarf did look nice, and with the positive feedback he accepted it.
Neither Lazarus nor Cicero had money, as David discovered, but neither did they steal from the store. When Lazarus was trying on outfits, Cicero had mentally cast out for an appropriate benefactor, and settled on an elderly gentleman nearby who'd retired early thanks to his filching from the two companies he'd been CEO of. Ill-begotten gains were ripe for the picking, in Cicero's mind, so he reeled in the fellow and stood to greet him as he entered the shop, slightly dazzled. Once they were done, he paid for them with his Platinum Visa and then followed them from store to store, always hovering nearby but not interracting with them.
It was during this time that Cicero showed David how to perform a 'trick'. He had David concentrate on the mortal whilst allowing his eyes to lose their focus - as though he were looking at a point either beyond or before the mortal. Cicero held his hand and gave him a little mental nudge, prompting him to look for colours, like an aura. Thanks to Cicero's help, David would see that the fellow with them had a light green-blue stream of colour around his head. Cicero explained that he'd injection calmness into the mortal, and this was what David could see. Inspiration was usually purple, sexual energy was red, happiness was orange, intellect was yellow, and green usually harmony. Blue, which their mortal had a little of, was calmness and deep thought. He'd come to discover this himself, but now there were 'charts on the computer' that were quite accurate about reading auras. He wasn't sure how humans had accessed this knowledge, but it was convenient now. There were many, many shades, and now that David had seen the aura once, it would be very easy to see it again whenever he wished. Vampires and other supernaturals would be very hard to read and David wouldn't be able to tap into their emotions this way without mental ability - and they would likely feel it.
This was his gift to David, and if the younger vampire practised it while they were out, he would be delighted to find with a little bit of focus, he didn't need Cicero's help again to tap into it.
"We have time for me to dress up and go to Risk," Lazarus announced, already circling the staircase to go upstairs. Once he disappeared out of sight he called down: "Unless you want to have sex now."
"Talking you or me?" Cicero asked David, with a light smile and a heavy accent.
