daywalkingblade | First Date (Tag M-)

First Date (Tag M-)

The black muscle car rumbled into the gravel parking lot of what looked to be a bar/saloon in the middle of nowhere, upstate New York. The place was south of Rochester by about forty miles. Above the entrance, a tacky red neon sign read "The Roadhouse". There was no one hanging around outside, but thee were several cars and motorcycles. It was pretty quiet for what one might expect of a bar, at least from the outside. As the car pulled to a stop, Blade glanced at his passenger. This was going to be...interesting. She was too pretty and far to classy for a place like this. Hell, she was probably too stunningly beautiful to be in this car with someone as rough around the edges as Blade. But here they were. People would notice as they went into the bar, but nobody would say anything. Of that fact at least, Blade was certain.

"We're here. Stay close, and order whatever you want. The food's actually pretty good, and the drinks are better. Once I get some information on where to find some suckheads, we'll be out." He flashed a little bit of a toothy grin. "Guess you could say this is the closest to a "date" portion of this outing as we'll get."

They both pushed their doors open and stood up out of the car. The parking lot remained silent. Hunters and mercenaries were probably inside drinking quietly, enjoying a bit of peace. There were the occasional loud, rowdy drinkers - usually the mercs - but most just wanted a place to rest and get information before the next big job. Also, most didn't trust the night enough to be drunk out in it. Blade knew the bartender inside. A good woman by the name of Ellen who really knew her shit. It was why he liked coming here. Of course, he knew the bartenders in most of the Roadhouses around the country. It was a bit of a chain, but not in the corporate sense. When a place was named "The Roadhouse" in some back country nowhere, it was a kind of secret sign to all hunters and some mercenaries that this was a safe haven and a good place to exchange information and get jobs. They were also neutral zones. Any who dared cause any trouble in these kinds of places was blacklisted, and that was as good as being fired in this line of work. In some cases, it was a death sentence because it also meant no assistance in any job ever again.

"You ready?"

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"I can't say I've been up close and personal with enough people to make a comparison. Though I do find you quite comfortable." Her fingers trace lazy patterns on his back, finding the way he feels under her hands when it isn't a matter of need. It's soothing, something she'd like to feel time and again, but that might get too comfortable. Too much like expectation. No, one night at a time, and happy in that night.

"I like you, too, Blade. Very much." The honesty of that is just as clear, if perhaps slightly more nuanced. She has liked other people since she woke, but of them, she's fairly certain he's one of the ones, and one of the names she will actually remember for some time. That matters to her.

"Well, you might get the opportunity to. You're a beautiful woman. Can't say I wouldn't be jealous if you did, but one night doesn't give anybody a right to that kinda possession. Hell, several nights don't either, but some people get pretty...well, you know."

It brought to mind the question of how he felt about her long term. That was an interesting question for one so mired in the present. His smile is genuine as she traces patterns on his chest, and he kisses her forehead several times, but it is also thoughtful. She's still finding herself, and he might not be in the future she finds. And he is not one to settle down in one place, and that might be problematic. At that moment, his thoughts mostly echo her own - one night at a time, and happy in that night.

"Hey, you never asked my real name, even though you know I have one. Not that I don't appreciate it, but gotta ask...why not? Most people would think they had a right to know, now. Like it would make them special."

"I have a hard time imagining another person's follow up would compare to this, at the moment, but I'm glad we can both agree on that. There's a difference between understandable jealousy and possessive behavior. I'd offer the former rather than the later should the occasion arise for you as well."

They can work together, a little at a time to figure out where they're going on this one. It almost sounds healthy, which is something of a surprise considering the individuals involved. But maybe a little breath out of their lives and city was doing them both a little good.

"Because demanding a name would be...wrong. You told me Blade, and I'm glad to call you by the name you offered."

That brought a real grin to his face. "Well, thanks. That's a nice boost to the ego." He's quiet for several moments, and in those moments her ex does come to mind. Somehow, he knows that has to be far more complicated than over for her, but he doesn't care. If that ever came up, they'd deal with it.

"Don't think many could follow you well either. Not only are you just instinctively good in your new first time, but...well fuck. You come with explosions of ice. That's pretty fucking spectacular."

Her answer about his name is pretty well satisfactory. She'd already done well in not asking him for it. Whatever reasons she had now were just gravy, but he still wanted to know them. Demanding a name would be wrong. He agreed with her there. But...he'd tell her. She'd earned that trust.

"You're right. It'd be wrong. It ain't my name. But I'll tell you. It's a part of who I was, so I guess it could be part of the getting to know the guy you slept with phase." He paused. "It's Eric. That's what they put on my birth certificate. It's who died when I..." His eyes crinkled. "Before Whistler picked me up off the streets."

"Glad to offer it." The big wink she offers him is probably more than a little gratuitous, but his ego deserves the stroke. Especially if it makes him grin like that. Of course, the quiet isn't quite the same reward, given that he look like he might be considering something unpleasant, but she can leave that in his head for the moment.

It's her turn to grin. "It seems that I have some really remarkable muscle memory, I must say. Though that last one was a bit of a surprise. I'm not sure if that's a frequent thing or just something that happens when I'm really, really enjoying myself."

She tilts her head slightly, thinking that there was something not all that dissimilar about his transition from Eric to Blade and hers from Mab to Maeve. Well, except that his had been brutal and tainted by the way he saw himself. Still, there's a kinship.

Her voice is soft, respectful. "So you honor what Eric could have been the memory by keeping the fight as Blade. Thank you, for telling me that." And with those words some of the tension of his thanks disappears.

"My ego'd like to think the latter, but for your sake I hope it's one of those things you can learn to control. Flash freezing your bedroom probably wouldn't end too well." He had to smirk at the thought. Zero to Wintry Wonderland in the space of time it took her to have an orgasm. That would surprise someone. Hell, it'd surprised him, but he was far better at taking these kinds of things in stride.

The smirk fades to a bit of a soft smile as she mulls over the name that used to be. It isn't completely accurate, as he doesn't tend to think about what Eric could have been; he thinks about what Eric was. But he doesn't want to talk about those dark days. That kid had been a monster, and he had never been able to decide if he was worse than the vampires or not. That kid had been like a baby rattler - all of the poison and none of the control of the adults. Baby rattlers would bite several times in self defense instead of just one controlled burst, and he had run around killing who the fuck-ever because he was just one big ball of instinct to feed. So the kid had caused more damage, once upon a time, but vampires did it more knowingly. He guessed it was a tossup as to which was worse.

"You're welcome." She was allowed to romanticize the potential, though. Nothing wrong with that. He never could, but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy seeing the situation through her eyes from time to time.

((Is your PB the same as the actress in the new Clint Eastwood movie coming out? I saw a preview for that and was like "I THINK I KNOW HER!" But I want to make sure...))

"Burst water pipes, messed up walls and electrical. It would be a disaster. Hmm, it has potential." She isn't just teasing. The thought of being able to create distractions and upset little or big things at the right moment could be extremely useful at the right moment. Especially if one of the hunters from earlier in the evening figured out something she didn't want them to.

There are things to that she could definitely understand. There were moments when she overreacted in response to instincts that belonged in another life that sometimes seems like it yawns underneath her in an impossibly deep chasm. She's so dangerous in so many ways, and tonight shows that many of them have nothing to do with her physical possibility.

She rests her cheek on his shoulder after he says she's welcome, and turns her eyes to the stars. "Have you ever spent a full night under the stars before?"

((It is! I have hopes for icons.))

"Guess it does, depending on what you want to get out of the situation."

Power was power. He had all of the strengths of the vampires, and he used it for good. She had all of the power of a fae queen in there somewhere, and she could choose to do the same. He hoped she would. At the very least, he hoped she wouldn't use it for evil. But then, he thought himself a good judge of character, and this woman wasn't evil. She was gentle and kind, except when it came to defending herself or her own. That was admirable.

"Yeah." He couldn't help a wry smirk. "But not quite like this. Not when I wasn't working. This is nice."

(It should be a treasure trove of them!)

"Distractions tend to be useful."

In some ways, she's too young to have reached the point in her life where she believes that certain evils are worth the moral price for what they achieve. Which is good, because odds are that she will reach that point. There's a reason the unseelie are considered particularly brutal, and in some ways she defines that. Or she did, and will again. For now, it's funneled into specific moments.

"It is. The first time I remember doing it, but...I can't help but think I've done it more times than I can count."

(I'm really hoping so. And looking forward to it.)

"Don't they just."

More times than she can count, eh? Well, that would tend to make a certain kind of sense. Most fae lived a long time. A very long time. More times than she could count could mean that she was very into sex, as some fae were, or it could just mean that she's lived a long life underneath her youthful short memory. Either way didn't matter to him.

"Well, you're good at it. I can believe you've done it a few times." He offered a tiny smirk. "Does that bother you? The fragments of memories, the pieces of experience that you don't have but feel you should? You want to be you, but it seems you don't think your previous self is quite gone. And that...that could be trouble."

She flushes slightly, then laughs it away, a sound the night air seems to play with and not quite want to let go of. "I was speaking of sleeping under the open sky! Though, in all likelihood I've done that more than a time or two, as well. The lack of shame and instincts with the act make the argument, anyway."

She grows more serious, considering his question, and her own reactions. The hints of the past were useful almost constantly, but there was a price.

"There are times when I see small children, and I want to weep with no idea why. Like I've lost something too precious to ever be replaced. There are others where I see something and it's like deja vu, except the fact I don't remember doing it before is the bitter part." She pauses slightly. "I have no illusions about starting entirely fresh. The fragments of who I was will always be part of the foundations, but I'm still choosing what to build on them. That has to be enough, because it's all I have."

"Oh!" His eyes widen, and he is shocked into laughter at his own mistake. he can almost feel the playful shove that she would have given him were they standing in her exclamation. "Sorry. My bad." Still he's laughing a little, and partly out of embarrassment.

He too grows more sober when she talks about the children. Ah. So there is a mother in her. Or perhaps there is a woman who wanted to be a mother. It all comes to the same, because children never had are just another kind of children lost. It's a sad deal for her either way. The weight she was probably having to live under...

"If you could get your memory back, would you?" It was a serious question. He had contacts, and he was good at dealing with the supernatural. There was a chance that if that were what she wanted, he could help her with it. Blade wasn't so sure he'd like it, but if that was her choice, he'd honor the woman that he felt something for by helping her become who she used to be.

"Given how we're still currently curled up, I'll forgive you just this once." But not without giving his neck a little nip she immediately soothes with a little kiss. Really, given that he wasn't all that judgmental she doesn't have much if anything she's irritated about.

Maeve shakes her head slowly, though the sadness is back in her gaze. Whatever she had lost was real and hers, whether she remembered the specifics or not.

"No. I...it would be looking into something that is both mine and belongs to someone else entirely. Mistakes I can't repair, losses that will be too real. If I were meant to remember them, or if I am meant to remember them, they'll come back. Otherwise, it's better to leave it behind."

He gasped a little at the nip. "Now that's the kinda forgiveness I like." Blade grinned.

Of course, the grin faded a little as she shook her head, the sadness beyond her apparent years appearing in her eyes. It just didn't fail to startle him how old those eyes could suddenly look, as though the soul behind them had seen so very much. Beauty in age. It was one of the few things the suckheads got right, but she did it so very much better than they did.

"All right. But you need help remembering, you come to me. I'll do what I can to hook you up with the right people. Until then, you stay Maeve. I kinda like Maeve." He smirked a little again, hoping to draw a smile out of her.

"I'll remember that."

She's glad he doesn't fight her on it. Tonight is about finding things rather than the feeling that so much is lost or left behind. A name, this moment with him. The sadness can drift away to the back of her mind and she can focus on him with a smile.

"Deal. I kind of like being Maeve, myself."

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First Date (Tag M-)

That would require a conversation.

You say as I see a post from Maeve on the board!

She had to speak up, of course.

And he had to respond. I don't think he'll ever not love her somehow.

Re: And he had to respond. I don't think he'll ever not love her somehow.

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