Between the sheets-Zar

[Ross (DELETED 9384)]

"Try me." Nothing was really out of her mind on the possibles of a crap or crazy week someone had. Ross sat back as she listened to Zar give a few pieces at a time. Like he was building suspense or something for the big finale. Ross finished her shot and then slowly poured herself another as he continued on about his week.

Ross nodded her head, knowing he had come here looking for someone. She suspected it was either a family member or some old flame when she had first come to hear about it. Still, days went by and then a couple weeks and nothing had been seen or heard about it again. Either Zar was keeping whatever he found to himself for good reason, or he had came here and ended up bust on finding whatever--whoever he was looking for.

Her eyes moved to him and off the shot glass in his possession when he mentioned the word brother. So, she had been right in some respects. Truthfully, Ross hadn't believed Zar to be the pitiful pining type over some girl that broke his heart, or he hers. Still, nothing would shock her. At least Ross believed so.

Once again, Zar stopped with the breadcrumbs and allowed her to go on with her crap week. Ross put her shot glass down and then slid it to him, indicating she was switching what she was drinking and going for what he had in his bottle. "Well, let's see. There's work and then...Right." Ross leaned back in her chair and then laughed a little. "Ever have someone accidentally call you?" Ross snorted and then rolled her eyes. "Travis somehow managed to call me. He's out of town. And he's not alone. I'll spare you the effort on guessing who he's with...it's not his mom and dad." Both her hands made a gesture for him to give her the glass back so she could take her next shot, sooner than later.

[Balthazar]

Balthazar’s reaction time was lengthening and it showed as he watched the shot glass slide his way. His hand shot out a bit more relaxed than even he expected. Despite the distracting fumes seeping through his parted lips and espcaping through his nostrils he managed to receive the offering which broke his alcohol compromised focus on Ross. Travis came to mind as his fingers formed around the width of the empty shot glass. Actually the schmuck's neck came to mind more than any other part of the guy mentioned. Despite that he managed to pour from his current bottle and have it all contained in the minimal space the glass offered.

“I guess there is a little more to it bugging you than you not being invited for the sleepover?” He tapped the shot glass back and watched the fluid lick at the rim as it sailed towards Ross. “But you got me on one thing.” He was feeling far less full of his average pride than usual. Humble was more like it when it came down to it. “I can’t recall the last time I was ever called accidentally or by someone I was involved with. They rarely called the morning or night after. If they did it was to tell me what a dick I was.” He took an indulging pull from his bottle in hand and let the moisture it provided work for him before he elaborated on how little he had to offer in comparison to her current situation. “Ah, hell, Ross. Last thing I had going on that even came close to being considered routine or regular enough to fall into the exclusive sort of thing was…” He paused in case he by chance could be lucky enough to be forgetting someone worth mentioning. Nothing came to mind. “Yeah, so I got nothing. Sorry.”

He shrugged it off and rolled his bare shoulders back so he could rest against the chair holding his *** up and off the ground. The lack of experience, dating or otherwise was understable when it came to Balthazar. Everyone had their issues and he was no different. He cut himself some slack on the subject and said how it was. Given his current condition it was plain at best, sloppy and no holds barred.

“Let the loser go. You can get so much better and you deserve it.” Any drunk would say that so he was already regretting it. Simply because he knew her well enough that he should be coming up with something more than the typical sentences that spilled out of his mouth for reassurance. “He is needy, insecure, has no balls.” That fact Zar could confirm by an unfortunate series of events that had left him with no choice but to actually notice in random passing. He shivered. “He is fast on the delivery, even quicker on the finish and it is a serious disrespect to the amount of time you spend getting ready for the shutout when you deserve extra innings and full home field advantage start to finish.” He shook his head slowly as if he could share his disappointment with her. “You deserve the kind of action meant for the record books. Not the five minute locker room clean up and left to wash the homer hanky thanks to too much time left to spare.”

Alrighty then. So that could mean Balthazar was listening more than he should, was aware of more than a roommate really should be or he was one of those that was just that goddamned intuitive and hitting the proverbial nail right on the ******* head. The last one seemed less creepy than the first so he was sticking to it. What he said was truth in his eyes so there it was. That was what friends or whatever was for.

“So, back to what made things go from ‘He ain’t heavy he’s my brother’ to ‘Lost Boys’ in record time.” His fur framed face scrunched up along with his left eye while he helped himself to another sip of the bottle. “When I finally caught up with him I got some instant vibes that really wasn’t something I had ever experienced before. Sure, I lived in Seattle. I have been overseas and seen lots of ****. No big stretch to think I have managed to watch the world news along the way. I know they had some weird stuff going on here. Most of it I didn’t think on much because I had no reason to. Not until Christopher, my genetic contributor, revealed nestled here in good Old Harper Rock, Canada was a branch of his rather pathetically tended family tree. To make a long story shorter, Chris fessed up to it all and the woman who pushed me out into the world. He said it was all sorts of crazy and something about a set of twins and whatever. One was left. Chris is a bit under the weather by the way. The only reason I don’t go back and kick his *** myself over what has happened. Back to my brother. Let’s just say he has an overbite the likes of life changing proportions.”

With that much more said Balthazar held his bottle a little tighter while he kept his eyes on Ross. Slowly his hand raised with consideration to any reaction from her that could be possible. It really didn’t matter what it was. He counted on the fact the damage already done was going to make sure whatever she happened to come up with was hardly going to be over the top or ruin his night. He was legally drunk so there was a bright side to how dark things could still get. Just before he prepared to have the cool heat of the liquor slide over his tongue and down the back of his throat he decided to check in on his progress. There was only one in the room that could answer that.

"So far how am I doing?"

[Ross (DELETED 9384)]

There was a lot being said from Zar, a lot more than Ross expected. She knew Travis wasn't a fan of Zar, but hadn't really garnered that Zar more or less felt the same way about Travis, until tonight. Neither were overly friendly towards the other, but she figured it was because Travis had more or less attempted to act like some jealous boyfriend and metaphorically piss on what was his. Which wasn't a lot in her apartment. A couple of shirts, a couple of pants and a toothbrush at best. But, he tried to overextend what he owned to the entire apartment and even her and Ross wasn't having any of it. The entry door was opened and he was introduced to the hall and told he wasn't coming back until he learned to play nice with her roommate.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe. I'm sure no one, you, me, or him, expected this to end up like some Disney Fairy tale. It was bound to crash and burn as it always does, but I expected it to be a little different." She grabbed a glass and took another shot, then set the glass down on the kitchen table as he started talking about the type of man Travis was. Or wasn't. She laughed, then reached out her right arm and shoved him a little. "You don't have to take my side just because we're roomies. I won't kick you out." She laughed, then poured herself another drink. "I know I'm not the easiest person to get on with. I like my space after a long day, night, or week. His job is a nine to five, with very few overtime opportunities." She started to defend him, but then took a sip of her shot, then pointed to Zar. "We're just different people, on different schedules with different expectations." She finished the shot, then scooted closer to the table. "And he's a little needy." She said with a small snort, then a laugh.

"Anyways, enough about him. **** him and his two minute power drills." Ross said with a little tone of bitterness, before she shook her head and listened to what Zar had to say about his brother. The reference of 'Lost Boys,' didn't get past her, and she sat, staring at Zar. Then the mention of vibes and overbites, had Zar, looking at him incredulously. "Woah." She said, grabbing the bottle and pouring them both another shot. "Holy mother of-" She trailed off after both drinks were poured, only so she could take another shot. She slouched forward after this, staring at Zar as she tried to think of what to say about his vampire brother. 'Sorry?' 'That sucks?'

"He's a vampire? What are you going to do?" What could anyone do about that? It wasn't as if his brother could wake up and be cured of being a vampire tomorrow. And maybe Zar didn't even care that his brother was a vampire. Maybe he didn't even plan on doing anything. She propped both her arms up on the table, elbows on the surface and let her head rest on both her hands. It was starting to get heavy while resting on her neck. "You should leave him alone. I don't know a lot about real life vampires, but anything on the television tells me they're stronger, faster and can do some pretty amazing things we'll never be able to do, Zar. It's dangerous." She finally came to an opinion, then added in, "I'm sorry."

[Balthazar]

Ross didn’t ask him anything he hadn’t already spent the better part of his time recently trying to figure out. What did someone do with all that when it was suddenly thrown at them? It wasn’t like he found out his brother was in jail for doing something no one ever wants to talk about let alone know happens. As if that could be better because really it couldn’t. Jesse Fforde wasn’t living in some drug infested corner like a cockroach coming out for it’s long overdue fix. He was living large and real right in the middle of Harper Rock inking up warm and cold skin alike and making pretty impressive bank doing it. Last time Balthazar checked you didn’t score buildings the size of Serpentine reaching into the bottom of a half eaten box of Cracker Jacks. Still absolutely positively ******* nothing on the planet prepares anyone for finding out their brother they never knew they had can and essentially kills them with a sneak bite attack when **** didn’t gel like the typical reunions on Oprah or stay limited to the chair throwing on Maury. Hell, where was Geraldo Rivera these days? **** Hoffa buried beneath unbroken concrete. This could send ratings through any network roof. That is if Balthazar survived to see it air. Every viewer counted. Even his drunk ***. And yes, he was feeling it hit him harder than he was expecting the Schnapps to. He eyed the last bottle he had been pouring from as if it could help him out.

“You and me both.” His exhaled words hinted at the Schnapps being fused with a source of artificial Peppermint flavoring. “I was giving the whole leaving him alone a try.” He backtracked on the events in his alcohol impaired head and realized he was starting to get ahead of himself. Or in the very least the way things went down. “Okay, here is the deal. First off I was expecting to go in under the guise of being another walking canvas needing some ink and sort of …” His inked up fingers found his beard and gave it a thoughtful twist at the tip as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table between them. “I don’t know...feel the guy out. See if it was really him or not. He has this massive place with several things going on.” The sound of his fingers scratching at his own chin seemed far louder than it should be. Another pull of the bottle in his hand hopefully would cure that. “Chicken wings to pool tables to climbing walls and rocks to people writing permanent things on your ***. That sort of thing. And he obviously makes a killing at it.”

He shrugged at what he revealed so far. Nothing too off base about it from the way he saw it. Of course this is where he was going to start widening the opening of the proverbial bag so that the cat could get out. He was too into the shots already consumed to worry about whether or not Ross would be down for what she was gonna hear.

“I pissed him off. It started with getting really creepy vibes but I was in the doors and invested so I tossed caution to the wind wound up sitting in a chair. I stuck with the plan of getting that ink I was intending to. We danced around the point of both of us having the same last name and went like a rocket through all the warnings and caution signs we both probably got. To sum it up he mentioned life was real for him and it was nothing to like it should be. I told him I grew up living in my backyard and to get over it. I left him feeling sorry for himself while heading to the bathroom to check out my half finished ink and missed him coming while looking in the mirror. Yeah, that is probably is what did it.”

He set the bottle on it’s side to rest on the top of the table. A slow roll of his shoulders left him looking at her as if searching for something he was looking to find within her if he could manage to focus long enough. His index finger gave the bottle a tap sending it spinning around pointing at everything in its given radius. Her, him, the shots glasses, the walls, the living room, the kitchen. It was all up for grabs and where it would stop nobody knows.

[Ross (DELETED 9384)]

Ross vaguely knew about the place Zar was talking about. She had gone there once to get some work done-her latest piece, actually. A woman had done her work, and while there had been guys there, she wasn't about to try and guess which one was A) Zar's brother and B) a vampire. How could people actually pick a vampire from out of the crowd anyways? Ross doubted he was going around all Bram Stoker style. Or the vampire Uncle from The Munsters. She snorted a little just thinking about it, then raised a hand apologetically to Zar. She wasn't snorting at him, but at what was running through her head.

A story started to unfold and there came a part where in the story, it would be considered the climax. And no resolution came. Ross was left guessing what happened then. Did they get into a fight? He obviously didn't kill Zar, because Zar was sitting here polishing off the rest of her booze. Did he bite him? Ross' eyes flicked to Zar's neck, because wasn't that where they always bit whoever they bit? Her eyes came up empty, but did that mean anything? So, she went with the first choice. They had gotten into some sort of sibling altercation and due to lack of bruises, either Zar won and won a lot, or a fight wasn't really what happened. Was Ross living with a vampire now? "Did he bite you?"

Still not sure which two scenarios happened, Ross decided it didn't matter if he was a vampire. After all, they had been sitting here for at least an hour, drinking together and he hadn't bitten her. Both her hands went around her neck, as if not one hundred percent sure that was true and felt nothing. If he was a vampire, then Zar was a really good vampire, or maybe he just didn't drink human blood. Ross scratched that last idea. All vampire movies seemed to imply they had to drink it, so if Zar was a vampire, he would inevitably be looking for some too.

All Ross' thoughts about a possible fight or Zar being a vampire slipped away as she heard the sound of the bottle rolling on the table's surface as it spun around and around. Her eyes swiveled with it, watching the bottle come to a slow crawl as the neck made its way towards the fridge, and no where near either of them. In the few seconds either of them had before it came to a complete stop, Ross stood up from her chair and moved around the table to where the neck would eventually stop. When it stopped, her eyes left the bottle and found Zar. Ross raised both her shoulders into a shrug, then moved to where Zar was sitting and plopped down into his lap. Both her arms wrapped around his neck, loosely, before she said the last thing on her mind. "Because if he did, I'm kind of a little jealous." It wasn't the booze talking for Ross, or any sort of revenge sex plot against Travis. Her and Zar had lived together for a while and she had seen almost everything there was to see about Zar. And while she could live with anyone and not act on any thoughts out of respect for Travis...that ship had sailed. Travis was no longer any form of barrier to keep Ross from behaving and not acting on the occasional thought of seeing more than just Zar's tattooed arms, chest and back.

[Balthazar]

Balthazar watched the bottle’s rotation until the sound of a chair moving with Ross caught his attention. Perhaps he was feeling comfortably numb thanks to their decreased stock of liquor currently on hand but he still had enough wits about him to realize she wasn’t heading to fill the empty bottle’s place and purpose. The closer she got the slower the bottle moved until it landed aiming for where he took the second required to spot the fridge. He wasn’t exactly into appliances beyond what they were expected to do. Kenmore wasn’t cutting it tonight.

But the way Ross found his lap and fixed her arms around his neck. Well, now, this was working out really well. Part of him instantly sobered up while his eyes skimmed her lowering body inch by wonderous inch. A set of free hands dangled like weights at each side of him. He wasn’t sure if this was a test or a challenge of sorts. Should he or shouldn’t he? Perhaps she was going to pull out a wooden stake and chisel out the truth from his still beating heart. Given his current in limbo status he wasn’t about to protest. If it did him in he was that much closer to heaven for as close as she was.

The flat planting of each of his feet gave him what he needed to push so that both of them and the chair beneath them went for a minimal slide backwards. Instead of saying more his jaws tightened up. Was it inappropriate to appreciate the leather wrapped backside that was begging to be held like a peach with a firm chaser of squeeze and pull? Probably. Not. **** taking an hour he may not even have left to waste on debating just what motivated his roommate to take up the space on his lap. Ross never did something she didn’t want to do. She checked his *** when he left the toilet seat up, when he locked the door and she didn’t have a key and even when he ate the last of her peanut butter. For all the times he slept with a pillow over his head and sang about bottles of Jack on the wall to drown out the sounds she could make he wasn’t missing this...moment. Slap on the face or a physical hangover thanks to an epic night was acceptable either way. She was right there. The woman possessed eyes that burned right through him and it was like a sharp hook that was accurate in what was reeled in. There was only one clear way to find out.

“You know what.” His denim overall covered thighs spread just enough that her shapely *** sank a little deeper into his domain. “If you want him to bite you then you are in for a wait. A long one.” Yeah, he liked the sound of that. “How about like...never? I was here first.”

That’s right. He was. This was actually making more sense than looking for something to wet his parched whistle and do some pathetic noble verbal dance to tell her what she was doing was maybe something she would regret. **** regrets. He didn’t need to get up and dodge any bullets. He had something coming to mind he wanted to share with her and a few other spots as well. No crime in that. His brows danced up and down as he slid his hands down to work beneath her. Each was instantly committed to a joint effort to cup her with two open palms. This was made easier by the fact that they were really good at pulling her in nice and tight where he felt a greater heat building.

“And I will tell you what, Ross. He can damn well stand in line elsewhere.” Travis wasn’t there to do a damn thing about it either. Loser be gone. His inked hands found her outer thighs and the warmth they offered was electric. It spread like a heatwave across his skin chasing away the chill lingering in his shoulders. Even the surgical steel rings fixed on each side of his chest jutted out more as the flesh centers tightened up. “No need to be jealous. I can help with that. Let’s find out if it is in the blood or not?” His Captain Hook mustache twitched.

“I would ask about heads or tails but we already tossed that coin. I am aiming for something else this time around.”

Up he stood with her cradled safely in his hold. A few cautious steps had her back lining up with the kitchen wall behind her and him sinking against her. All those inked curves did a number on him and pretty soon she would be able to tell. With his hips locked just below her own he was able to free a hand and curl his fingers to the side of her neck while bracing the underneath of her opposite thigh. This, of course, was to not so subtly encourage her to wrap those sinful lengths around his body as much as she preferred to do. Unless she was going for the Buffy the vampire slayer moves. Which were kinda hot too.

Now they were at that wall and it was going to right or left as a busted move on his part. Now her reaction would either give him a green light and go-or a reason never try any of this again and continue drinking himself into oblivion. Ladies choice. While she went about deciding he was naturally drawn to her neck. Always had been. He wanted to trace the lines of art with his tongue. Instead his lips were placed a breath close so that the tip of his tongue easily located the salty sweet flavor of her skin. It was just as powerful as he always imagined it would be. He pulled back and fixed his eyes on hers. He unfastened the remaining buckle and strap so that when his chest connected to hers the brass button didn’t get between them.