Rae's room

[sunbaked_baker]

It's mid-morning when Sunshine awakes, a slight crick in her neck from sleeping in the wide, pillow-strewn chair in the corner of her room. Autor is still sound asleep, tucked in the bed with his shoes on the floor beside it. After washing her face - the smoke-smell is still lingering in her hair - and getting dressed in the bathroom, Rae heads downstairs to fetch a pot of tea and two cups, in case he wakes soon.

Comments

[herr_bookman]

And the boy grins.

"Wait seriously? Oh, damn it! I wish I could remember that conversation," he says. "I would have been terrible at the chess game but that would have been worth it. Now I know why he apologized for rooting around in my head at least. I wonder if he--"

He glances up, and--remembering to whom he speaks--draws a breath. "Ah," he says, lowering his head meekly. "S'rry."

But he soon rallies again, though his speech is quieter, more subdued. "But how do you know him? And how did I end up with you?"

The boy blinks, and sets his tea aside. "Wait, Rae, are you all right?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"What?" she says, blinking at him. "I'm fine. He and I have just met before."

With relatively little violence, in fact!

"You were sleepy and unsteady on your feet, so I brought you up here to sleep off the effects of the opium. I bet you had interesting dreams."

[herr_bookman]

"Nobody 'just meets' a vampire, Rae," Autor says softly. "Especially you."

He lifts his tea again, keeping his eyes on her, and takes a drink. Unfortunately, her last statement breaks any hope of neutrality. He jerks his gaze to the window, face red and glowing through no fault of the sun.

"Yes, I, uh," he stammers, placing a hand on his neck. "I had some dreams that were, um. Dreams. Haven't had one in years, so clearly I can't compare them, but they were. Well. They were dreams."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Yeah, opium-induced dreams are... well... they're special, all right," she says, sympathetically. Rae doesn't say any more about her knowing this particular vampire, however.

"There are fresh towels in the bathroom if you want to get cleaned up, though your clothes are going to smell of that smoke until they're washed a few times."

She'll certainly be washing those sheets - the smell of that smoke isn't something she wants lingering in the back of her brain.

[herr_bookman]

"Yeah, well... Yes," he whispers, staring at his empty hands, which failed to hold a fading girl. "They were quite detailed."

Autor wrinkles his nose and presses it into his shoulder. "Ugh. I can't even smell it anymore," he says, standing. He's already planning to make use of his spare outfit in his sylladex. "Thank you for the offer."

Pensive, the boy pauses at the door to the restroom, resting his fingers on the trim. "Have you seen Javert lately?"

[sunbaked_baker]

Pouring herself a second cup of tea, Rae hesitates before answering.

"I haven't, but I've heard he has returned."

[herr_bookman]

Autor immediately turns to face her and leans on the door, folding his arms.

"Returned," he says. "From where?"

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine blinks at him, mildly.

"From Wallachia. Transylvania, where Vlad took him."

To help him learn what it is to love. Or to feed from him and forcibly invade his mind. Or both. Sunshine has given up trying to understand Vlad's brand of logic.

[herr_bookman]

The boy tilts his head. "Ah, I see," he says, adjusting his glasses. "That makes sense. Though I'm amazed he went."

He nods, and heads to wash his face. "I'll get cleaned up officially once I'm in my own room, but thank you again for dragging me up here. I owe you."

[sunbaked_baker]

"I don't know whether he had a choice in that or not," Rae says, not willing to speculate which. Her information about what really happened is spotty at best.

"Hey, what're friends for," she says, wry, "if not for dragging their drugged friends out of the arms of vampires?"

[herr_bookman]

"Hm. That could also make sense," Autor says. "I probably shouldn't have asked." He shrugs, stiff, and turns the sink on.

Then he snorts, grinning, torn between amused and pained. "Just once, I'd like to save you, you know. I'll have to learn levitation spells."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Hopefully not while drugged," she says with a slight snort of a laugh. "I spent a good bit of my time at your age stoned out of my mind, and I'd rather not revisit it."

"I'd much rather everyone I know, myself included, wholly avoid situations they'd need saving from," she says, emphatically.

[herr_bookman]

His fingers twitch, spilling the cupped water he brings to his face. "Did you," he says. "I... didn't know that."

But he has an idea as to why, having met both the girl and woman. Any sentiment he can express seems wholly inadequate, so he moves on.

"Ha," he murmurs, grin lightening as he pats his cheeks with a towel. "Then I am so bad for you."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Yeah, but I also go out and fight vampires while trying to keep a day-job," she smiles wryly at his reflection in the mirror. "So you're thematically appropriate."

[herr_bookman]

"Well, my daring darling, during my declamatory duty as a divergent damsel in distress, I'm already denouncing demarcations of gender and different, divisive, dramatic devices," he says, clutching his heart. "Far be it from me to disappoint you along thematic lines."

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae smirks. "Fear not, for this faithful friend frankly finds your fierce, frenetic fight for the freedom to fulfill formerly female functions-"

She may be his friend, but Rae is not above trying to make him blush.

She's a baker, not a saint.

"... to be fine. And thankfully not fatally foolish."

[herr_bookman]

Autor had already arranged an alliterative answer, but her animated advocacy bushwhacked him, besetting him with a bright, burning blush.

"You're... Wow, you're t-terrible," he says cheerfully, rubbing his cheeks with the towel.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Just one further function friends fulfill," she says, grinning at him. "Fomenting flushes in their favorite fustian fellows."

[herr_bookman]

"Dragging drugged-up dopes from Dracula doesn't delight you enough?" he scoffs, smirking. "You're driven to design a disgraceful display?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Yep," she says succinctly, smirking.

"More tea?"

[herr_bookman]

Autor laughs, startled by it. "Terrible," he chides, setting the towel aside. He grins as he enters the bright room. "And yes, please. I'd appreciate that."

There are worse ways to spend a morning than having tea with a friend.