Blood Thieving 2.0 (INVITE)

[Lancaster]

A person who would buy their cats the best that was available – that said something. What, exactly, Freddie wasn’t in the mood to figure out right this second, but it was a good thing. The cats were forgotten, however, as Freddie’s question was flung back at him. He had to shake his head.

”Your plan sounds like a good one. Though I don’t know whether I have family to visit,” he said. He had to bite his tongue. He wanted to ask Hannah why she had left her family, or why it was so hard to go back. How often had she told him how much she worked, and how paying for things for him wasn’t an issue? So why not go home to visit? It seemed easy, in Freddie’s mind, to be able to tie things up and just… go. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

”I honestly have no idea. Maybe I never did, and that’s why I still have four million dollars. Maybe I was just like you and just… saved. Or invested?” he said. Invest. The word sounded so corporate, and corporate sounded dirty to the vampire with no memories. Was it possible that however he’d lost his memories, he’d become a completely different person, too? What if he was actually something else entirely, piggy-backing in a host whose soul was dead, its abilities and powers in tact? He shifted a little, getting more comfortable – and shaking away all the bad thoughts.

”Where’s home?” he asked. That wasn’t too heavy. That was a safe question. Not that she’d given him leave to ask another question, but there was no harm in trying. Even if Hannah’s answer wasn’t a freebie, and there was something else she’d require him to do in return for it – it was still a question he wanted to ask.

[Hannah Lynn (DELETED 8242)]

It hadn't registered with Hannah that Freddie might really have four million dollars, until he actually confessed it. Her eye grew big, then looked around. Who had that sort of cash on them, unless they were doing some of the few legal careers that made that sort of money...or was someone doing something illegal. "Wow. Okay." Hannah hoped it was the former, or something like he suggested. "That must have been very unexpected." She laughed, then turned to look up at the ceiling in thought, while she slipped into his side more.

"That...depends. On which parent you ask. My mom says home is where I was born and lived the first few years of my life until my parents divorced. Which is Galena in Illinois." She tipped her neck to where he laid, to keep talking with him, and not at him. "My dad says home is where you make it, but I've not really made a home back in Kobe. I lived with a friend from school until I moved here for work." She brought his arm up wrapped it around her midsection. "I guess home...is officially here." She concluded with a smile, before looking at him. "Will you stay a while? Before you go do your...vampire things?" She teased him, knowing he didn't leave to do vampire things.

[Lancaster]

Freddie smiles, the expression slow but genuinely amused. Yes, he had been surprised. And now Hannah knew. For all the sharing that she had done, now she knew the last thing that Freddie himself had discovered. She knew as much as he knew about himself, unable to keep any of his discoveries secret. He didn’t want to. It felt good to get it off his chest, and Hannah didn’t judge him none. Didn’t seem to, anyway.

The question wasn’t exactly answered. It depended on who he asked – but he was asking Hannah, and the answer was vague. Whether she’d spend money going back to Galena or to Kobe was unclear. Certainly she did not mean that she would spend money to stay home here, in Harper Rock. That would take no money at all.

Knowing that she had to wake up for work, Freddie didn’t ask the questions. Not tonight. Instead, he chuckled and shuffled in closer, pulling the blanket up so that it fell over their heads, trapping them beneath its heavy darkness. After making sure that it was covering him, fully, he curled in around Hannah, his legs tangled in hers and his arm wrapped tight around her waste, as she was keen for him to do.

”Mmm. I’ll stay a while before I go … enthral beautiful women and ah… hiss at crosses, tear out the necks of the innocent and unwary,” he said, still chuckling. How did this ‘lie’ thing work, anyway? He couldn’t lie. And yet, when it was a joke, when he didn’t mean it, the words came out with ease.

”I don’t really do any vampire things. I don’t even know what a vampire thing is? If it’s all the same to you, I’ll probably just doze…” he said. ”If you wake up the smell of burning flesh I suppose uhm… just… drag me to safety…” he said. He didn’t know how good the curtains were in Hannah’s room. But nor did he seem particularly worried.

[Hannah Lynn (DELETED 8242)]

They were essentially cocooned in and among each other once the blankets were lifted up and over by Freddie. She didn't mind, in fact, Hannah laughed a little, not sure why he had done that. Not at first. Was he going to share another secret?

Instead, he surprised her with some humor, and Hannah laughed against Freddie's chest. "Don't forget avoid eating pizza, or going to Italian pl-places." She hesitated at the last part, then continued. "The whole garlic thing." Hannah concluded, giving Freddie a playful shove against his chest. Not enough to try and push him, just enough to let him know that she knew he as kidding.

For a second she was surprised and it was written on her face, before Hannah made eye contact with him. "You're going to stay." It wasn't a question, but a statement. The surprise turned into a smile, before Hannah poked her head out from under the sheet and blankets and looked towards the window in her room. The curtains were dark, but probably not as dark as the set up in his room. "Won't happen. If we stay in here." Hannah slunk back down into the sheets and pressed her nose against Freddie's, before kissing his lips. "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?" She asked, finding the place she had just been a few seconds before, so Hannah could close her eyes and settle for the night.

[Lancaster]

Freddie responded with a chuckle, waiting for Hannah to duck down beneath the sheets before he nodded. ”I’m going to stay,” he repeated, eyes closing briefly as she kissed him. The residual touch of her warm lips against his lingered, even as the cooler air brushed his skin moments afterwards. He waited for her to get settled before he wrapped his arms around her again.

The question, he had to think about. He closed his eyes for good this time, the names of the countries flitting through his mind. They may as well have just been names on an atlas, for all he knew. His temple throbbed every now and again – London, throb, Australia, throb, Paris, throbthrob, New Orleans, throb, India, throb, Iceland…. Iceland. Iceland didn’t give him a headache, just thinking about it. ”Iceland, I think,” he said. ”Somewhere over there. See the Northern Lights…” he said. Yes, no headaches there, not while thinking about any of that. ”I think they have some amazing hot springs, too…” he added. He’d have to look it all up later. No one could blame him, could they, if he couldn’t trust his own memory. Even when it came to facts.

”Speaking of heat, I’m sorry I’m not a cuddly warm snuggle partner,” he said. It wouldn’t be so bad now, but when Winter came around… a Canadian Winter? He’d have to go for really long scalding hot showers before climbing into bed. Or at least bring a couple of fresh hot water bottles with him.

[Hannah Lynn (DELETED 8242)]

Iceland was...original and unexpected. Hannah liked the answer, even if she had not thought much, or anything about the place at all. Sure, she had heard of it and learned some things about the country in primary school and then later in Uni, but while it existed, Hannah didn't think much on other countries, unless she was there visiting, or living.

"That sounds...nice." Hannah said, with her eyes still closed, thinking about everything she knew about the Northern lights. How many pictures has she seen of them on the internet from time to time? It all looked amazing and out of this world. "Hot springs?" Her eyes opened for a second, meeting Freddie's gaze, before smiling and closing them again. "That sounds nice too."

At Freddie's apology, Hannah only scooted closer to him. "Oh, I don't know about the snugly part." She wouldn't comment on the warm part, because they both knew that to be true. However, with it being spring and them being under blankets, Hannah welcomed the cooler temperature he brought on. "We should go sometime. To Iceland." The sleepy suggestion was laid out there, as her body started to relax, and her mind shut down to prepare her for sleep.

[Lancaster]

Freddie just nodded, a mild hum given in response to Hannah’s suggestion that they go to Iceland sometime. He wasn’t at all averse to it. In fact, as he allowed her to drift off to sleep, he himself wondered about the logistics of it. Had he travelled as a vampire before? He didn’t know. Did he have a passport? How was he going to prove who he was? He had a name. The bank verified his identity. Somewhere in this city there was probably a drawer filled with documents that verified who he was and where he’d been and what, exactly, he could do next. He closed his eyes and pressed a kiss to the crown of Hannah’s head.

Thinking about who he might be had him feeling uneasy, and he didn’t like that feeling. He wanted to be Freddie. Just Freddie. The trip to Iceland might have to wait – at least until he could find some shady character in a backalley pawn shop who might forge documentation for him, and allow him to travel across borders. They did it all the time in actions films. Surely Freddie – or Elliot Lancaster – could manage it too?

Freddie wasn’t at all tired, but nor did he cramp. His skin didn’t itch. He could lay there for hours, comfortably, without any need to move. And that’s what he did. He lay there and thought everything and nothing at all, mind drifting to car chases and guns, to speed boats on rivers and their hair whipping in the wind as they ran from the bad guys. He imagined laying in the snow beneath the Northern Lights, watching the sky light up magically overhead, as if they had slipped into some other, alien universe.

Until eventually weariness did steal over him, limbs growing heavy, eyelids relaxing as he ceased to just pretend to be asleep, and instead fell, dead, into an unwakeable coma. The sun had risen.