Night Out

[Alistair Ryder]

Two weeks had passed since the concert, in which he'd spent a lot of time down in vampire territory with Melissa. Well, not exactly a lot of time, but the time it took to quench his thirst and catch up. But he mostly went away when Lilah was sleeping, so she hardly noticed he was gone. It wasn't like he would sleep down there or anything, because then Lilah would know what he was doing.

Right now, they'd been at the café and had actually talked a little. It was interesting to get to know someone who knew no other life than her current one (although he was sure Dimitri was born into vampire life as well, his sire hadn't exactly tried to bond with him).

He had told Lilah he would be going out, so she knew he was away and probably not coming back in a while, so he didn't need to think about the time this time.

Finishing up inside the café, she invited him home, and for once he didn't decline.

Once outside, he pulled her close and kissed her.

[Melissa Jones]

They had been sneaking around the place, catching up only when he needed to feed, because he couldn't leave that human girl, pathetic as he was. But he finally agreed to come home with her and she couldn't help but be happy about that, maybe he'd even stay the night. Or what was left of it anyway.

He needed to get over that human girl, and she was going to help him.

Once outside, he pulled her close and kissed her, of course she kissed him back. And she messing with his hair while doing so. They really needed to get home soon or they'd end up doing it in a dark corner like they'd done the first time. Not that it wasn't thrilling, but it was beneath her.

But before she could drag him along, they'd hit the wall and were too caught up with each other to notice anyone else.

[Lilah Wilkins]

Chloe had suggested they go out to eat, so Lilah had agreed. She hadn't known Chloe had meant as a date until halfway through the night. Oops. She had been quietly eating pasta when Chloe had stopped drinking the animal blood and blurted out. "I'm gay."

Okay, that hadn't been a problem. What had been a problem was when Chloe had continued, "And I kind of... have a crush on you." Lilah had choked on her food, getting weird stares from vampires and the few other humans that were there for the five star food.

How embarrassing.

She had tried to be nice about it, she really had. "Chloe, I... I'm straight... I'm sorry..." But Chloe had winced anyway. "It's okay, sweetheart, I'll move on. Just show me a really hot girl and I'll be okay." She had offered her a weak smile.

They had finished in awkward silence before Lilah had given up and hugged Chloe, comforting her strong friend. Chloe had cried on her shoulder. Chloe never cried. But she was there for her vampire friend, she had to be.

And now, as she walked out with Chloe behind her, she stopped dead in her tracks, frozen and eyes wide. She was going to tell Ryder tonight that she had fallen in love with him... And here he was, kissing Melissa against a wall. She felt her eyes water but blinked back the tears, refusing to cry.

She had the worst timing possible. Why did I have to fall for him now?

[Chloe Rias]

Chloe had asked Lilah out. She had said yes. She had to keep reminding herself that it wasn't a date, no matter how much she wanted it to be. About halfway through dinner, she had just blurted it out. "I'm gay."

But she couldn't just leave it there, of course, she had to get the whole secret out. "And I kind of... have a crush on you."

Lilah had choked on her food. Chloe had winced, waiting for inevitable rejection. And it came, it didn't even matter that it was gentle, it still hurt.

"Chloe, I... I'm straight... I'm sorry..."

She had winced. She couldn't help it, it had hurt. "It's okay, sweetheart, I'll move on." And she would. "Just show me a really hot girl and I'll be okay." It was true, it would provide a great distraction. And it wouldn't matter if that anonymous girl rejected her, because strangers couldn't hurt her.

They had finished eating in silence, Chloe feeling like shit. Eventually, Lilah came over and hugged her. Chloe broke down and cried in the other girl's arms.

After she had stopped crying, they got up to leave. Lilah walked outside while Chloe paid the (really expensive) bill. She walked outside after her human friend, eyes no longer red from crying, when she bumped into Lilah's back. Lilah turned to face her, swallowing like she was about to cry. Chloe looked behind her.

Oh hell no.

She marched up and yanked Ryder off some blonde. "What the fuck do you think you're do---" Then she got a good look at the blonde and grinned. A distraction from Lilah. Perfect. "Hey sexy," She addressed the other vampire girl in a sultry voice, grinning from ear to ear.

[Melissa Jones]

Someone had walked over and yanked Ryder away from her.

"What the fuck do you think you're do--- Hey sexy,"

She couldn't help but shudder at the way she was spoken to: she didn't like it. If it had been Ryder, she wouldn't have minded, or any other guy really. But this girl... She seemed to be under some strange impression that it was ok to be hitting on her.

Reaching out for Ryder to pull him between herself and the other girl, she realized he wasn't around and she'd have to fend for herself. Stupid human girl...

"Get away from me," she snarled, no longer amused. She wouldn't tolerate what this bitch was doing. She was most definetly not gay and wasn't going to allow herself to be talked to like that again.

[Alistair Ryder]

He didn't care if someone was approaching, until he was yanked off Melissa with a: "What the fuck do you think you're do--- Hey sexy" from Chloe of all people. That's when he noticed Lilah, looking like she wanted to cry.

"Get away from me," Melissa snarled. but Ryder had left her to go make sure Lilah was ok.

Upon approaching Lilah, he smiled sadly. "It's not what you think," he said, calmly, panting a little still. He wasn't sure how to explain it in a way she'd understand though, in fact, he wasn't sure he wanted to explain at all. He didn't know she had a right to know what exactly was going on inside his head.

He reached out and touched her cheek for a brief second before dropping his hand again. "I've missed you," he said with a smile.

[Lilah Wilkins]

"It's not what you think,"

She laughed, but it was a bitter and hurt laugh.

He touched her cheek. Before she could yank her face away from his hand, he had already pulled away.

"I've missed you," He said, smiling at her.

She laughed again, still bitter. "So that's why you disappeared every night? Why I woke up screaming every night for the past two weeks, and no one else was in the house except shadows and nightmares?" So yeah, her nights had been miserable.

She had started remembering Seth hanging from the fan, except his body would be decaying, or she'd remember the night with Dimitri, except he would have kidnapped her and bitten her in the dream. Or even Duncan. He would be raping her, but there would be a big, bleeding hole in his face where the gunshot got him. And sometimes, she'd see Annie's decaying form crying out to her for help, and she wouldn't be able to do anything. She didn't know why the last two weeks had been particularly bad with the nightmares, but it had and there had been no one there to comfort her or get her out of her fear-induced state of panic.

"You don't love me anymore. Why didn't you just tell me?"

She winced as a tear fell from her eye. She wiped it away angrily, hitting the scar Dimitri had left her with in the process. She turned and walked away, starting to run when he tried to follow. She made it a block, but he still wouldn't give up.

She got an idea, a way to test and see if he really had fallen out of love with her, or if he was just being stupid with Melissa. She flicked open the knife she had been carrying on her since The Dimitri Incident. Quickly, before she could change her mind, she sliced her wrist and held it behind her back, testing him.

She was pissed to find she was crying. And not because of the pain, either, that didn't even bother her since she had been the one to inflict it. She was crying because she was in love with a vampire who didn't love her back.

[Alistair Ryder]

"It's not what you think,"

It was obvious she was hurt, but he couldn't understand why. Wasn't she still getting over Seth? Then why was she hurt now?

"I've missed you," He said, smiling at her.

"So that's why you disappeared every night? Why I woke up screaming every night for the past two weeks, and no one else was in the house except shadows and nightmares?"

"I-" he started, then looked down. "I didn't know." If he'd known she'd had nightmares he would've stayed at home to comfort her, but she never told him anything anymore.

"You don't love me anymore. Why didn't you just tell me?"

What?

"Because-" but he didn't get further than that before she walked away. Of course he followed because he needed to explain this, needed her not to hurt because of him yet again. When she started to run, he still followed her, but he didn't catch up or stop her, because he was afraid of what he'd do then.

He winced when her wrist was bleeding and held towards him, but it was what he needed to use his vampiric speed to catch up, grab her arm and lick away the blood. Kissing her wrist gently afterwards, he brought her hand to cover his heart, holding it there for a second, looking at her. This is all yours. Then he let her go again.

"I told you it wasn't what it looked like," he said and reached out to touch her cheek. "Don't cry, please?" He wiped away a tear with his thumb, before he let her go. Yet again.

"What you said before isn't true." He was aiming at the 'don't love me' comment.

[Lilah Wilkins]

Before she could blink, he was licking away the blood. Then he kissed it and brought her hand towards his heart. So he still loved her. But why was he messing around with Melissa? Who, she decided, was not so nice after all.

"I told you it wasn't what it looked like,"

No, he was wrong. It looked like he was kissing her, and he was.

"Don't cry, please?"

She blinked them back as he wiped tears away with his thumb.

"What you said before isn't true."

"I know that now, I gathered it from your reaction to me bleeding." She sighed. "Why are you messing around with Melissa, then?" It didn't make any sense to her. It wasn't logical. It didn't even make sense if he was doing it to let her grieve. She would have waited, had their roles been reversed. Boys were dumb.

[Alistair Ryder]

"What you said before isn't true."

"I know that now, I gathered it from your reaction to me bleeding."

He smiled a little.

"Why are you messing around with Melissa, then?"

Now it was his turn to sigh. Did he want to tell her exactly why he'd been hanigng out with Melissa, or give her the modified version? He decided the last one was easier to handle. So he went for that.

"I didn't want you to think I pushed you into anything," he started, realizing this made no sense at all. "Jeremy thought it would be a good idea to leave you to greive alone," he shrugged. Ok, so Jeremy hadn't said those exact words, but he had accepted his explanation to why he would go with Melissa and keep her around.

"It's not my fault I have different ways of dealing with things than you, Lils. At least I didn't disappear on you again, right?"

[Lilah Wilkins]

"I didn't want you to think I pushed you into anything,"

What?

"Jeremy thought it would be a good idea to leave you to grieve alone,"

"He's an idiot. It's never good to mourn alone."

"It's not my fault I have different ways of dealing with things than you, Lils."

She gave him a look. Was he serious?

"At least I didn't disappear on you again, right?"

She sighed again. "Ryder, you did disappear, every night. You could have just told me you were going to go out with Melissa, then I would have gone to Jeremy's so I wouldn't be afraid, and then maybe I wouldn't have fallen in love with you."

She slapped her hand over her mouth and stepped back, eyes wide. She couldn't believe she had just let that slip like that!

[Alistair Ryder]

"He's an idiot. It's never good to mourn alone."

She did have a point there.

"It's not my fault I have different ways of dealing with things than you, Lils. At least I didn't disappear on you again, right?"

"Ryder, you did disappear, every night. You could have just told me you were going to go out with Melissa, then I would have gone to Jeremy's so I wouldn't be afraid, and then maybe I wouldn't have fallen in love with you."

He stared at her for a few seconds when she'd just said sunk in. But he'd done useful things too when he'd been gone, other than seing Melissa: he'd made sure he wasn't thirsty around Lilah so that he wouldn't bite her again.

"..." He didn't know what to say, he opened and closed his mouth a few times without getting anything out. Then he hugged her, holding her tight. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

[Lilah Wilkins]

He was silent, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. She felt like an idiot, she shouldn't have let that slip. Then he was hugging her so tight it hurt. She found she didn't mind so much, as long as he was holding her.

"I'm sorry,"

She hugged him back, but her arms were loose and gentle. She couldn't squeeze that hard if she tried, anyway.

Suddenly she saw a livid Melissa stalking up to them. The two girls glared at each other. Lilah pulled out of Ryder's arms, and, with a smirk in the blonde's direction, kissed Ryder on the lips. Hard. She just hoped he would kiss her back with as much force.

Why she liked it rough, she'd never know.

[Alistair Ryder]

"I'm sorry,"

He was glad she hugged him back, it meant his apology was accepted. And he really hadn't know what else to do. Here he'd been going out every night and been with someone else, and she just blurted out that she was ready to move on. It had been really awkward.

Unlike Lilah, he didn't see Melissa, but he caught her scent right when Lilah kissed him, hard on the lips. Once again he didn't know how to react, but ended up kissing her back, gentler than she kissed him because he was afraid of hurting her.

Of course, before he could pull away (not that he wanted to any time soon), he was pulled away by Melissa. He snarled a little, but it was soon quieted by the blonde kissing him. Wow, this was confusing. He pushed Melissa out of the way, but took two bigs steps away from both of them.

"Lilah, I love you girl," he said and smiled at her. "Melissa, you're awesome." He looked at the two girls before shaking his head. "Stop it, both of you." He could only hope Chloe was coming too to keep the girls from actually fighting, because then he knew none of them would get hurt.

[Chloe Rias]

Chloe hadn't been this violently rejected since Marie. However, this time it didn't hurt at all. Homophobes amused her now. After cornering the blonde and being slapped across the face for kissing her (ha), she watched the other girl stalk off to where the two had run off to. Chloe smiled. She didn't care that she had been slapped, that girl had great lips.

She followed after a few moments with the stealth spell on, and got there in time to see the spectacle. Lilah and Ryder were kissing (finally), but this blonde girl had pried the redhead off and kissed a snarling Ryder (oh fuck no). Then Ryder shoved her off and took two big steps back.

"Lilah, I love you girl,"

Good boy.

"Melissa, you're awesome."

Yes she was. Awesomely hot. Not the greatest attitude, though.

"Stop it, both of you."

Chloe took off the spell and stepped out of the shadows.

"Hey, Melissa," She grinned as the girl cringed. "Pretty name." She was here to distract her from Lilah and Ryder, who belonged together. Also here for her own amusement, but that came in second. Her human friend and her happiness came first.