milliways_bar | (no subject)

Alex sits down.

To the bar, "could I get another cup of tea, please, pet?"

It's something to look at, at least.

Nick doesn't look at Alex.

"I didn't lie to you. At all. The entire time I was up there."

Alex doesn't look at Nick.

"I - I know."

A pause.

"Why did..."

He can't finish that question.

"I don't know..."

The emphasis is perhaps the first show of any sort of emotion. And it is a bizarre mix of helplessness and concern.

"But it's true. Nonetheless."

He sips his tea. Honestly, "I'm still afraid of you."

Why wouldn't he be?

"I'm still not pleased with what you did. For different reasons than I think you might believe, but nonetheless. What happened before...we spoke. It's still there. I didn't forget. I can't."

He sips his blood.

"My kind never forget. Part of the gift...or the curse...or whatever."

He sips again.

"But you know I wasn't lying."

Spoke. An interesting way of putting it.

"I'm not likely to forget any time soon."

He still doesn't look at Nick.

"I know. I just don't know why."

"I told you I'm...not known for my sanity either, Alex. I..."

He sips his blood.

"I can't hate what I know. I thought...I thought that was the extent of it. I was wrong."

He unconsciously reaches up to rub at a fading mark on his throat.

"I wish it was that simple."

"It never is."

But Nick's eyes are focused now. Focused on the fading mark. He's staring and he knows he shouldn't but he is. He sips on his blood.

Alex doesn't appear to notice the staring. Yet.

"No, it's not, is it."

A statement, not a question.

Nick stops staring with a blink.

He sips his blood.

"Why did you laugh? Like that."

"I don't know. You said... you said 'you are loved'. That doesn't work. It doesn't fit."

He can smell the blood. Sharp coppery tang, like airborne metal cloying at the back of his throat.

"You are. Why doesn't it work? Why doesn't it fit?"

He sips.

"I don't know. It just doesn't. Love doesn't happen to people like me."

Nick doesn't look at Alex.

"Then it shouldn't happen to people like me. I've killed...I've killed a hundred thousand people, Alex. Over the centuries. I'm...I'm a walking holocaust, Alex. And it happens to me. Has happened."

He sips.

"Is happening."

He fights back the urge to laugh again. Laughing now will not help things any. He rubs the fading bite mark again.

"I'm not used to it."

"I'm not used to it like this."

He watches him rub the bite mark again and he can't keep a hunger out of his eyes as he watches. It is not entirely bloodlust. In fact, it's mostly not about bloodlust.

Alex glances at him, and shivers slightly.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

Nick blinks before looking at Alex. His eyes are clear and guileless.

"Why do you think I'm looking at you like that?"

It's not hostile. It's not much more than curious.

"I don't know. That'd be why I asked."

"You seem to think I have answers. You're wrong about that."

He sips.

"I'm staring because I made that mark."

"I never said you had answers. But you've probably got more than I do."

He looks away again, biting his lip.

"Why did you make it?"

Nick reaches out and runs one finger ever so lightly across the mark, eyes following the finger. He looks up to Alex with an unreadable look.

"Because I wanted to. Because I wanted to...I...your blood was..."

He lowers his eyes for a moment before looking at Alex again.

"Because I needed to."

He looks at the blood Nick's drinking.

"Is that human, or animal? Which one is better?"

He sounds genuinely curious.