A Fangtastic Foursome

[Existentially Odd]

"Thanks! Love you," Owen said off-handedly, pleased for the distraction as much as for the unusual blood. His husband's discomfort with Malkavians was pushing at him and making him feel even more jumpy. He pulled the dessert close and scooped a spoonful into his mouth, making a noise upon tasting it that was unintentionally sexy. "Wow. That's good," he told Vincent around his spoon, devoting himself to the enjoyment of the mousse alone. It eased the frantic feeling in his gut - or maybe that was because Ben clapped back at Vincent and he calmed down. Whatever it was, the more he ate, the better he felt.

Kerr was mightily impressed with Ben's firm response to Vincent; it made his heart sing. Not only was Ben arguing in a situation where Kerr would have expected he'd defer to his god's summation of the mad-clan vampires, he was defending Digital, who was a dear friend. Yes, a Malkavian and unpredictably insane but well-meaning and loyal. He deserved the same in return. Kerr smiled adoringly at Ben, then turned to Vincent. "Have you sat in on many of the other classes at the Academy? I signed up for Astrid's magic class but was pondering attending Sam's clan one because I know very little about them."

[Trillian]

Vincent clasped his hands together and nodded. "Yes, I've sat in many of Sam's classes when the Academy was starting out at Haven Crest. She has a lot more sign-ups now. Her class is one of the most popular?" Vincent glanced at Ben, who nodded. "Yes, that explains her move out of the classroom and into the lecture hall. It's wonderful for her, and she does a very thorough job. I've only learnt a haphazard amount. She has a lot more detail on the Ventrue than anyone else. That's her clan, I discovered. It surprised me to find she wasn't the other one... the, uh, the..."

"Thugs. The Brujah," Ben said, for he'd taken Sam's class all year in the time Kerr had been away and learnt the lot. He'd also done more research on his own with the books he'd had in boxes. They were all in the Academy library now. "Jake pretends to be one of them but he's really from the ruling class." Ben made a smile that was more a sneer.

"Yes, well," Vincent said, not wanting to get into a political discussion, which he could see this turning into. "I imagine the two of us," he glanced at Owen, "if we had a clan, we'd be Toreadors. They're the ones who appreciate art and beauty and culture, right?"

"The hedonists?" Ben said with a smirk.

"In different ways," Vincent replied with a wink. Ben chuckled and looked at Kerr.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr's eyebrows arched as he looked from Vincent to Owen thoughtfully and then turned to meet Ben's amused gaze. Perhaps Vincent could focus on the more polite aspects of the Toreador clan but he and Ben had personal experience with the hedonistic side mentioned. And oh what a side it was. Lurid memories of Ash Rivers washed through Kerr, igniting a heat that was inspired by the attractive company and the rest of the night's itinerary as much as it was by his lustful recollections of Ash's body. Looking at Ben lifted the corner of his mouth in a slow, sensual smile.

Quite suddenly, he couldn't wait to get away from here. He was over the pressure of minding every word he said lest he upset Ben, confuse Owen or offend Vincent. He longed to be with just Ben; well, Ben with somebody between them, preferably. They'd sought a shared meal before - at Risk, it was how he'd met Cain, if he recalled correctly - but not explicitly a plaything. God, how ironic would it be if Cain was there tonight, even after he'd ignored him in the Lovebite menu? Another dose of lust pulsed through Kerr and he shifted in his seat, willing himself to calm down. First, to finish this engagement.

"Sounds good," he chuckled mildly, uncertain about what to say next or how to begin extricating them from the dinner table.

Owen had, by now, polished off his dessert and Vincent's and was also filling in time as politely as he could, swiping the pad of his finger across the mousse plate and lifting it to his mouth to suck all remaining blood off it. He didn't want any of it to go to waste.

He caught Vincent looking at what he was (not so) subtly doing and froze with approximately two swipes left until the plate would be sparklingly clean. After a brief hesitation and weighing of the consequences, he continued swiping, eyeing his husband pointedly as his tongue came out to meet the bloodied tip of his finger and guide it deliberately into his open mouth. He also raised his eyebrows, as if challenging Vincent to say something, yet he was the one who spoke next.

"I'm finished," he said, extracting his finger with a little pop.

Kerr leapt upon the comment like a drowning person grabs a thrown rope. "I'll get the bill!" he announced, sitting up straighter and looking around in order to attract the attention of someone other than their waiter. He finally made eye contact with the host, who nodded at him. Kerr took it as a good sign and relaxed back into his seat, adjusting his jacket as he did. "I want this to be my treat. As a thank you for training Ben and caring for him while I was gone. He couldn't have found a better mentor if he'd searched," Kerr smiled, speaking genuinely from his heart as he looked into Vincent's spectacular eyes.

[Trillian]

“Thank you very much, that’s a fine thing for you to say,” Vincent said, looking thoroughly abashed. “We have to get home and brush up on some much needed skills,” Vincent said, looking at Owen and remembering how he felt when that finger had gone into Owen's mouth.

“Like table manners?” Ben suggested with a growing smile and then a laugh at Owen's reaction. It was so much easier to relax now that dinner was drawing to a close.

[Existentially Odd]

At Ben's table manners comment, Owen swiped up the last of the blood with his middle finger, sucked on it then popped it out of his mouth in Ben's direction, pulling a face at him to go with it. Yeah, like Ben didn't want to lick every plate clean as well. He grinned when Ben laughed, realising belatedly that it probably wasn't a good idea to flip your boss off to end the night - especially when he was picking up the tab. He didn't feel like his boss right now, though, he felt more like the Ben he'd hung out with and confessed his past confusion about Vincent to. His friend.

And friends definitely did flip each other off when they were being smartasses.

"Thanks so much for dinner," he said obediently, flashing a smile at Kerr as a billfold was placed on the table at his elbow and he suavely pulled a card from his pocket and dealt with the tip and the signing of it. "It was... enlightening. And delicious."

Kerr smiled back at him and Owen fought the urge to frown into his brown eyes. He was a confusing dude, with his weird jokes one minute and his horrifying overshares the next. He wasn't what he'd expected, though Owen couldn't say what that was, exactly. Maybe someone more sophisticated and mature, like Vincent? That would've been the most legit explanation for why Ben fell for his husband but... Owen didn't see a huge amount of similarities. Kerr was more like him; inappropriate and occasionally over the top.

"Indeed it was," Kerr agreed. "And you're most welcome. Shall we head down?" He stood gracefully and tucked his chair in to the table, gravitating towards Ben while Owen also stood and headed for Vincent, eager to wrap his arms about one of Vincent's and walk out clinging to him. Kerr figured they were parked downstairs like he and Ben and that he could snag his card easily enough on the way out. Then they only had an elevator ride down before the night's next adventure began. He was looking forward to it, but he'd also enjoyed Vincent's company enough that he wasn't going to rush them out of the restaurant. A sedate but deliberate pace would do.

[Trillian]

The four of them rose from the table. Ben's plate wasn't quite as clean as Owen's, but he'd managed quite well with a spoon instead of his fingers. He wasn't too worried about waste considering he and Kerr were going to find someone to drink from at Venture. Unlike his mortal self, he never felt full and the cravings were never gone.

On the way past the host's podium Kerr was handed his card and they assembled at the lift. Nobody else was waiting with them so they had it to themselves when they went inside and travelled down.

"My dessert was fifty dollars," Ben said to break the silence. "I would never have paid that in a million years before meeting Kerr."

It wasn't just the fact of the price being exhorbitant... it was the fact Ben didn't even think that was expensive when he thought about the effort that had gone into that dessert, and what Echelon had to pay their staff. And even with the supernatural nights of crazy prices on the blood meals, it still wasn't enough for Echelon to do it week round. Were they going in the wrong direction doing something with this place? Brannigan's was a lot easier for most of it was animal blood. The free cups were small and always animal blood, easy and cheap to get from various butchers around the city and from the abattoir that operated on the city's northern suburbs.

"Our main meal was eighty," Vincent pointed out.

"Eighty nine," Ben replied quickly. "But it had a lot more blood than the dessert."

"Less technical ability," Vincent said, but he thought to himself that the mix had been incredible and worthy of such a price.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr listened to Ben and Vincent debate food costs with skewed eyebrows, wondering why they were nitpicking over the prices. Possibly because he'd talked about turning the Overlook into restaurants? They might need to thresh the consumer side of things out in order to better appreciate the production costs and demands.

Or they were just both skinflints that seemed to have forgotten he'd paid.

His gaze shifted to Owen instead of getting involved in the prices debate, struck again by his loveliness. His height was right between his and Vincent's yet he seemed bigger somehow, his broad shoulders taking up even more space in the lift than Kerr's. Had the youngling been a swimmer in his mortal life? Had he modelled? That would've given Ben something to discuss with him. He obviously felt the weight of Kerr's stare because Owen turned to look at him. Kerr smiled amiably. "So what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?" he asked, as if Owen's extra-curricular interests were all that he'd been thinking about. In a way, they were.

Owen snorted. "What spare time?"

When Kerr realised that was all he was going to get, he made a sympathetic noise.

Owen felt bad about cutting Kerr off so abruptly when his reply didn't come off nearly as amusingly as he'd expected it to. "I s'pose it's not quite as bad as all that. Between work, training and Vincent, I don't get a lot of spare time but it's not none," he relented. He frowned, having to think about it - and surprised to realise that he didn't do much with his spare time beyond hang out with his husband. "I've lost contact with most of my friends because they're all mortal, but I see my mum, hang out with her. I surf, research places we're going to travel to... I read."

"Surfing, eh? Are you any good?"

"Better since I was turned," Owen laughed, "though I really miss the sun."

Kerr was deterred from mentioning getting a lesson from Owen sometime (not that he'd thought it was a great idea anyway) by the youngling's mention of the sun. What could he say to that? You get over it? You forget what it was ever like, don't worry? That probably wouldn't make him feel any better. Thankfully, the lift arrived in the underground carpark and the doors swishing open stopped him from having to say anything about the sun.

"Thank you for this evening," Kerr said, smiling from Owen to Vincent as the valet came over to take their tickets. "I look forward to hearing when you're free to see The Overlook, Vincent. And perhaps I'll see you at the Academy, Owen."

Owen smiled and nodded politely.

[Trillian]

Ben smiled politely as the conversation continued through the small talk. He'd been thinking too much about the second part of their night (which could potentially lead to a third) to worry about whatever small chatter they were making.

The valet, thankfully, had parked at least one of their cars close enough that he came driving back quickly. Ben recognised Owen's sportscar and was surprised that the couple had come in it.

"Bye!" he called out as Owen accepted the keys from the valet. Ben beamed at Vincent and Owen as they drove away at a sedate pace. Ben fixed Kerr with a cool stare. "Time to move on to stage two," he said.

He watched as a slow smile crept across Kerr's face and he answered that sexy smile with one of his own.

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