milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

[ooc: post-this. adult content.]

Charlie comes into the bar through the front door and goes straight up the stairs. In a few minutes he's back, in clean clothes and with his guitar and notebook. No baby today. Probably for the best.

He collects breakfast and goes to the back of the bar, to practice songs for the wedding next week.

No heartaches felt, no longer lonely
Nights of waiting finally won me happiness
It's all rolled up in you
And now with you as inspiration
I look toward a destination
Sunny, bright, that once before was blue

I have no more than I did before
But now I've got all that I need
For I love you and I know you love me

So take my hand, I'll start my journey
Free from all the helpless worry
That besets a man when he's alone
For strength is mine when we're together
And with you, I know I'll never
Have to pass the high road for the low

I have no more than I did before
But now I've got all that I need
For I love you and I know you love me

I have no more than I did before
But now I've got all that I need
For I love you, and I know you love me

It's a lot more cheerful than his expression.

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"You look almost as 'cheerful' as I was last night, Charlie?"

Nick's there, blood in hand. It's not as if he tries to sneak up on people, but as he's gradually gone back to being a slightly more normal vampire, he's forgotten a few things about mortals and dealing with them. So there is he, a little behind Charlie and to the right, peering at him carefully.

He starts and blinks, and looks at Nick over his shoulder. "Hey. Good morning. Er.

"I'm okay. How're you?" He pushes out a chair for Nick to sit, if he likes.

Nick smiles and takes the chair, sitting down in an elegant sprawl, one hand holding his drink.

"I'm...I'm all right. Bit of a mess last night, I'm afraid, but...things worked out in the end."

He sips his blood.

"Mostly I've just got to...deal with, well, I suppose you could call it a self-confidence problem, but it's a little closer to 'self-hatred'."

"Vampire guilt?" he guesses. The vampires he knows fall into two different camps, it seems: gleeful and guilting.

"That's in there as well, though not all of it."

He sighs tiredly, lifts his glass in a silent toast, and sips down a goodly amount of it.

"It's not that simple. Though I'll not plague you with it."

"If you want to talk I want to listen."

He strums for a bit. "Or I could just keep playing."

He laughs, a little bitter.

"I wonder how many people in a day bring you their troubles, Charlie? You're a good man, you know."

Charlie smiles, a little abashed. "Probably as many as I bring my own troubles to, I suppose. Karma.

"I try."

He smiles.

"You do much better than I do."

He sighs.

"Would you mind, honestly? I...could use an impartial ear. Or something."

Charlie puts the guitar aside and holds out his arms. "Cuddling is no extra charge.

"Spill."

He blinks a moment before chucking back the remainder of his drink and placing it on the table. Then he scoots his chair over and allows Charlie to wrap around him. He's taller, and wide at the shoulder, but he's mostly lean muscle so it works pretty well.

He leans back into Charlie.

"I just...I walked downstairs to find Alex...flirting rather heavily with David. And...and I wasn't mad, exactly. No, not even exactly...I wasn't mad. I was just...sad. And then mad at myself."

He sighs.

"Half the time, I think...I think Alex would be better off without me, but he says not. And...others say not. But I just can't see how what I'm doing...is any better than what anyone else could do. And with much less baggage."

He sighs again, turning his head a little to look up to Charlie, a little lost.

"I mean...it's not as if I'm anything special. Just...an especially unbalanced vampire with a tendency for...stupid heroics."

"Ah, Nick . . ." He smoothes his hand over Nick's face gently.

"Something's up with David. I think that may have played into what Alex was doing more than anything else.

"Though I don't know Alex and really couldn't say. I don't know if he's normally flirtatious or likes to toy with people . . . I mean, some people find me flirtatious and I just like to call myself 'friendly'.

"But I do think you're special. You're a grand bloke. You put up with my whinging and that gets you a place in my heart." He smiles and continues stroking.

"Thank you, Charlie..."

He closes his eyes, relaxing just a little more, letting himself untense.

"I know David looked...horrible. Guilty. I didn't mean to make him feel that way. And...and I've told Alex he's allowed to be as monogamous as his heart dictates because...honestly? I lived just a little too long under a man who...had some serious jealousy and control issues."

He sighs.

"It's just...honestly...sometimes I look at him and I wonder what on earth he's doing with me. What on earth he finds...even the least bit attractive. I...I mean, I know I'm a vampire...and I suppose that comes with a certain level of angst but...straight out? Alex flirting with David just reminded me again of how plain I am."

He rolls his eyes and looks up.

"Sorry. I'm sure you were expecting something...a little more solid than...teenage-level angst."

"Everybody wants to be loved for who they are," Charlie says. "Even no-longer teenagers.

"And you're not plain." He taps Nick's nose. "None of that.

"If he likes you it's not for you to question why. Just be glad he does." He bites his lip a moment, missing Bartleby with every cell.

"David's under a spell," he says finally. "Until Tuesday. The results have been . . . interesting."

He blinks up at Charlie.

"Spell? I just thought it was David being David. Which, as I've said...I have no trouble with."

He muses with a light leer.

"It would have been pretty, anyway."

He sighs, rolling his eyes.

"There's just been a lot on my mind recently. I'm just...a little scared I'm relaxing here, enjoying myself...when I shouldn't be."

"Now it's David-plus," Charlie says dryly. "Even harder to resist.

"What do you mean, when you shouldn't be?"

"What is he, a dietary suppliment? What do you mean by that? Someone decided David wasn't getting laid enough?"

He snorts...and then sighs, leaning a little farther into Charlie, nuzzling into the hand stroking his face.

"No, it's just...I'm not a good person, Charlie. I'm not. I've done...too many things to ever think that of myself ever again. And...I've spent the last three hundred years trying to make up for it. But...now? Now I'm sitting in a bar, enjoying my friends...and Alex...and safety and...and things like this, and I should be...I should be out, helping people."

"You mean you're not helping people in here? Not your friends, not Alex?

"And as for David . . ." He sighs. "Do you know Loki, his boyfriend, the trickster god? Apparently when a trick comes up Loki has to do it or it hurts him. So a trick came up involving David . . . and now David's feeling the lust he inspires in others."

He doesn't answer the first, because he has a feeling Charlie will smack him if he did...but he does answer the second.

"Aha. Sounds...unfortunate."

He looks up to Charlie.

"Thank you."

"Has made things a bit interesting," Charlie says quietly, then blinks. "For what? Just saying what's true. Heh."

He holds Nick a little tighter.

"Sure, Charlie. Sure."

And he nuzzles in perhaps a little farther.

[sorry for the wait!]

"I've become very fond of you," Charlie says quietly. "Of course, anyone who gives me cookies wins me over. I'm easy that way." He smiles, adding rubbing his chin against Nick's hair to the cuddling.

[ooc: np!]

"I gave cookies to the whole bar, Charlie. I'm easy that way."

He smiles and sighs and looks up, amused.

"And it's nice to have another person fond of me."

"Well, I have a soft spot for vampires, I suppose," Charlie says softly. "You're much more cuddly than the movies would lead us to believe."

"I suppose we'd have to be. You'd spot us dead on if we ran around in opera capes and slicked hair (http://www.honeybat.com/kristin2/Ger/Dracula_the_Series/dr095.JPG). And besides...I quite like being cuddled, if you don't mind me saying it."

Charlie chuckles and resists the urge to break into "Bela Lugosi's Dead."

"I don't mind you saying it. I admit it cheerfully myself. Cuddles are of the good and bright and shiny."

He blinks up at Charlie.

"Mind if we avoid the bright? I don't tan, I don't burn...I implode."

[ooc: and yes, Dracula the Series hurts my soul, thank you very much]

"No bright. Sparkly."

[ooc: Dracula!Nick cracks me up like whoa.]

"Vampire. Not faerie."

[ooc: Klaus, actually. Klaus VanHelsing. And his laugh hurts God.]

Charlie chuckles. "Fair enough. My resemblance to a leprechaun has been remarked upon in the past." He kisses Nick's hair.

[ooc: either way, funnier than a penguin playing banjo.]

"See, it might just be the angle? But I'm getting teddy bear. Sans fangs."

He grins up and nuzzles into Charlie again.

[yes...yes it is...and then I fall over and hurt myself]

Charlie growls mockingly and returns the nuzzling.

Nick growls back...but while it's a little deeper, Nick's smiling.

"Am I cheering you up, Nick-boy?" Charlie mumurs. Not that he wants this to end. It's good to just hold someone for a while.

He laughs.

"You did that a while ago, Charlie. Now I'm just being an ass."

He's content to stay there.

Charlie chuckles again and goes on cuddling.

[ooc: shall we wrap?]

As does Nick.

[yup gtg]

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