Tripping Over Themselves

[brian_campo]

The moment the final note of music faded from the sound system, Brian tugged his earphones off his head and dropped them carelessly on the synthesizer. For once, he was grateful that his band wasn’t popular enough for an encore. On many nights, he had gotten the short end of the stick when one of his band mates ditched after the show and left Brian to pack up their gear. Time to turn the tables. In fact, it was long overdue. “Mads...” He pulled a mic off its stand, swung it by the cord, and sent it sailing in an arc toward the brunette’s personal space.

She caught it. “Watch it!”

“Later, I’m out.”

‘Wait, what--?’

Too late, Brian thought. He shouldered past Seth like a shoplifter making a break for it and hit the ramp at a jog. Thump, thump, thump. He nudged through a throng of other musicians and regulars to creep up behind the petite blonde with the incredible body. He snaked his arms around her waist and raised her off the ground. “Hey, beautiful,” was muffled against her neck, and they were turning, turning, the room going ‘round and ‘round, the lights streaking purple and blue and neon orange. Brian’s shirt was drenched in sweat. He felt as rubbery and loose as a piece of stretched taffy.

Comments

[valerie_vause]

During the first song the blonde had pressed her back against the wall and closed her eyes to listen. The second soon had her feet wiggling back and forth while fingers drummed out the beat against her thigh. For the third she’d stood up, swayed with the music, and enjoyed the space backstage as she watched Brian do his thing. Valerie started to feel the effects of the pill while the fourth played out, a fuzzy kind of warmth that made her head feel so very light, floaty almost in the nicest possible way. By the fifth the sway had become a dance, as if she were out on the floor amongst the throng of people who equally bounced and girated to the sounds filling the establishment. Though it was during the sixth and final song that she began to lose herself to what coursed through her system and the dance became wildly enthusiastic as inhibitions melted around the edges.

Even if she momentarily ran her hands across her jeans and shirt. To an outsider it could seem provocative but in truth she was enjoying the feel of the fabrics, soft and coarse, against her fingertips.

”Brian!” It was a breathy whisper of delight when those arms wrapped around her. Valerie’s hands clasped over his and she leaned into his tall, strong frame as he lifted her off the ground. The scent of his sweat was like an earthly musk that clouded her senses. She giggled unabashedly as his lips tickled against her neck, arms splayed out as he spun around and Valerie grinned as the colours shifted and blurred together, some changing faintly in the briefest of flickers, like a cluster of stars twinkling back at her. “You were great up there.”

Once they’d stopped spinning Valerie wriggled free from his grasp just to turn and gaze up at him with a bright smile, pupils no doubt dilated until the colour barely remained as a slim outer circle. Which wasn’t really a new look for her, just different circumstances, in the dark while she patrolled she resembled most predators, at least in the eyes. Both hands lifted to glide across Brian’s chest, a motion she repeated on a loop for several seconds before announcing, “So those lessons did pay off after all.”

Valerie pushed up against him to take in a deep breath, her cheek rubbed affectionately against his ribcage before she pulled back to ask with excitement, “So what do we do now, what do you usually do after a gig?”

[brian_campo]

He watched her nuzzle his chest. ‘Valerie, Valerie, my Valerie.’

“Um…” He looked at the ceiling, which pulsated, lowering and lifting until he was reminded of a squeezebox, and they were caught inside the folds. Two tiny figurines surrounded by an enormous instrument.

What did they do after hauling equipment to a van, other than have a few beers and talk to whoever walked up? They often wound up at a house party or eating pancakes at a Denny’s. Brian’s fingers laced into her hair. “This.” He kissed her and started inching her slowly backwards, one tiny, incremental step at a time, away from the territory of his band, who might interrupt.

Brian’s shoulder bumped a person. “Sorry,” he mumbled, and then he chuckled and kept kissing her. “I’m not sorry.” He was navigating them loosely towards an emergency exit. When her back hit the push-bar, a piercing noise screeched at them. “Oh no, I think it’s a dragon.”

[valerie_vause]

When Brian’s lips touched hers the rest of the world faded as she closed her eyes. It didn’t matter where he guided her, even blind she trusted him, and she grinned with amusement as he confessed the apology was meaningless. “Me either.” She mumbled against his mouth as her hands snaked around his hips so that they moved in tandem as one. The impact of the door was gentle but insistent as it gave way with a shriek of an alarm.

Valerie felt herself laughing before she heard the sound. One hand pushed the door open wide while her other caught Brian’s with a mischievous tug. When she spoke her voice was deliberately dramatic, like a fairy tale character in some cartoon. “Then quick, dear Knight, we must flee the beast and head into the darkness!”

Fingers twined with his and she pulled him outside to be with her. The door sprung closed with a loud click though the blonde barely noticed. Warm air swept around them in a breeze, her fingers found his hair and she kissed him again until her lungs screamed for air. When she pulled back she tipped her chin up to gaze at the stars, then spun around with a short burst of rich laughter. “I feel like anything is possible with you.” Valerie stopped to look at him, her grin Cheshire as she pondered that.

[brian_campo]

“Maybe it is.”

He knew the feeling. He only thought about her and the world got brighter, smells sharper, tastes sweeter. It wasn’t just the drugs. She made him think in possibilities. He was done with considering himself as afflicted; he had a gift other people wrote stories about, and a girlfriend who was brave and ridiculously pretty, and he had music, and most of the time his apartment had electricity.

Brian picked up a long lock of Valerie’s hair. The end of it tapered and curled, and he could’ve sworn that tiny sparks flew from it. He grinned stupidly and touched the hair to her nose. “Hey, sparkplug, wanna see something?”

He had been practicing. He had gone to the library and checked out all books about meditation and mental focus. Over the course of three days, he spread them open on his living room floor and drank only water as he pored over their contents, making notes in a spiral-bound book and chewing pencils until they splintered. Every night since, he tried it, and only when he felt calm did he attempt to move things.

It was hard – maybe the hardest thing he’d ever done – but he was getting better. “Wait a minute…” Brian’s fingers dove into her pockets in search of the guitar pick, and if he took his time feeling around, that was legitimate. “It’s around here somewhere.” When his fingers alighted on the pick, he held it up between their faces.

[valerie_vause]

“I’m starting to think so.”

It could have sounded mad, or maybe she just sounded high, but even in her current chemically induced state she knew it was so much more than the drug. Valerie felt it every time her eyes caught sight of him, when they touched it skyrocketed. Brian set her insides aflame like nothing on earth, sometimes just the thought of him kept her breathing. Frighteningly intoxicating, the way she couldn’t imagine life without him in it when a few months ago he hadn’t even been in the picture.

Valerie chuckled at the tickle of hair against her nose and beamed at being called sparkplug. It was silly and brilliant and left her more floaty than before. “Mmm, I do, show me.” She flirted back with a coy little smirk and raised her eyebrows. Whatever it was Brian had to show her she clearly felt pleased about it. Though she cocked her head when he told her to wait and opened her mouth to ask why except his hand in her back pocket was entirely too distracting.

The guitar pick had been forgotten, but she certainly wasn’t going to protest to a pleasurable fondle when he felt like it, so she leaned against him and enjoyed the touch for all it was worth. “Depends what you’re looking for, I’d say lower if your hand was in the front pocket.”

Oops. Brian’s hand retreated but not because she’d put her foot in her mouth. When her eyes focused on the pick her face lit up, “Oh! I’d forgot about that. And now that you have it what are you going to do with it?” She questioned curiously, one golden eyebrow raised as she watched him.

[brian_campo]

In his book, that little joke was about as valuable as a signed permission slip.

“Next time, it’ll be in the front,” he promised. “Just not in your pocket.” Because he was dying to touch her there, and had spent about a dozen hours going over the scenario in his daydreams. Brian flicked her chin with the pick and then he took a step back.

“Watch,” he said softly, “and be amazed.”

The yellow pick rested in the palm of his hand, which he held at chest height between them. Brian took a deep breath and blew it out, and hoped he had the sense to know when the pick was actually airborne as opposed to just looking that way to his addled mind. Man, would that be embarrassing. The yellow, which had been the harmless color of a banana, seemed to Brian to glow on a backdrop of his palm’s pale skin under a solitary streetlight. Up, he thought, projecting the command to the piece of plastic and giving it a little bump in the air.

And that was all it took. Brian eased his palm away and the pick hovered in a far more controlled display than the accidental toppling of household objects and exploding of light bulbs that Valerie had witnessed. Spin. The pick began a wobbling rotation, and when it obeyed, damn if he didn’t look as surprised as she might.

[valerie_vause]

No words were given to Brian’s statement because a shiver ran through Valerie that caused her eyes to close. Nerve endings screamed for his touch but she forced herself to stand still. Finally she looked at him when he prompted, the street lamp glowed a dirty orange red and she blinked a few times before realising it was just the pill working. Nothing to worry about. The blonde released a slow breath then felt her jaw slacken.

Suspended in the air between them floated the pale pick. Perfectly still as if frozen in time once he’d taken his hand back. Then ever so slowly it began to spiral around and around, hypnotic in it’s methodical movements. Precise, controlled, movements. Valerie felt her chest swell with pride until she was sure she’d explode. “You did it.” She breathed quietly, a grin tugged the corners of her parted lips and she looked up at him, utterly in awe.

Excitement tingled through her body like electricity. Valerie didn’t think twice as she lifted her hand up to expose the palm. “Can you place it in my hand?” The idea that it could put Brian under pressure didn’t occur to the blonde, who eagerly wanted to encourage him. Captivated by the moment she could only think of the possibilities, and how far he’d come so quickly on his own. If he acquired skill so fast there was a chance she could actually take him with her on patrol if he felt up to it. Not that she had plans to walk him into danger, but to give him a chance to see what was out there, and how useful his talent could be for protection if the situation ever called for it.

[brian_campo]

“Yeah, I think so,” he said.

Brian ran his fingers through his hair and took another breath, which he expelled against his palms before rubbing them together in an attempt to stay lighthearted. The trick was to place the pick in her hand, not through it. “Ready.” He stared at the yellow triangle and Valerie became a blur in the physical world beyond it. Excitement, anticipation, really any emotion had to be subtracted from the situation or he too quickly lost his way and objects became volatile.

Easy, he told himself, first willing the object to stop its rotation, and then giving a gentle, mental command to lower until it met her palm. Then quickly, blinking, ‘stop’ as it came to a rest.

Brian released his control of the pick and focused his eyes on Valerie.

It was all he could do not to grin like an idiot, but the smile worked steadily at one corner of his mouth, anyway. “What do you think?”

[valerie_vause]

“Ready.” Valerie agreed with a nod, totally transfixed on the small pick as it sailed through the air gently then hovered above her hand. It felt like magic, watching the way it carefully floated down until it rested in her palm, light as a feather. This was a huge deal, Brian was learning control, not just in levitating objects but being able to actually direct them how he wanted where he wanted. Those little shurikens would work. “Incredible.” She whispered, more to herself than him before she shook her head and tried to focus.

“I think you’re amazing.” Valerie stepped closer to him and offered back the pick. One hand splayed against his shoulder then trailed delicately down his chest, where her fingers tapped gently. “Alright.” She confessed with a wicked little smirk. “I’m also thinking that given enough time you’ll be opening buttons from across the room but that still falls under amazing.” Really, she couldn’t help herself, she was delirious with joy.

“We should get out of here and go…” Valerie looked around then shrugged with a grin. “Well, anywhere that isn’t a dark alley.”

[brian_campo]

“God, that is a really good idea,” he whispered, narrowing eyes and squinting into the shadows above and beyond her head, which loomed large and shrank away, looking like solid entities as the chemicals did their number on his brain. The buttons. The possibilities were endless. Maybe someday, years from today, he’d learn to move objects he didn’t have within his line of sight, and then he could seriously torment her.

But he kept such thoughts to himself, instead capturing her hand and kissing the back of it. “Where do you want to go?” Brian walked backwards and guided her toward the nearest intersection, each step bringing them farther into the light. “What do you want to do? Are you hungry, are you thirsty? Are you tired of wearing clothes?”

The noise of the Dive increased as they neared the curb and its front door, which had been propped open to better circulate air and attract patrons.

[valerie_vause]

“Why do I feel like I just caused trouble for myself?” The comment was cheeky despite the way her insides twisted and melted when he kissed the back of her hand. Valerie wasn’t used to being treated tenderly yet Brian did it so well that she easily lost herself in it. Whether she realised it earlier or not was hard to say but she knew right then that she was already falling for him. Head first straight down the rabbit hole.

You. “Uhm…” Valerie hesitated when they got to the sidewalk as she considered how she felt. “Not hungry.” In the food way. “But I am thirsty and my clothes are…” The blonde looked him over, felt her heart skip a beat, and swallowed thickly. “Well depending on where we’re going they could be considered restricting.”

Valerie flashed him a smile then jogged in front of him to hide the wave of colour that tinged her face. Nobody appeared to pay them any attention as they walked further down the street and the blonde pivoted to look at him, “Want to see what I can do? It’s not nearly as cool as levitating things but...” She quirked an eyebrow, all mischievous. A quick check to make sure the path was clear then the blonde did a back handspring followed by a step-out back handspring just to finish with an aerial. “It does show off my flexibility.”

[brian_campo]

It shows off more than that, he thought.

She was so graceful, and as she somersaulted, each of her feet had released a spectral contrail that boggled his mind until they dissipated in the yellow-orange haze of the city at night. Brian’s face gave away how impressed he was by the acrobatics. “Looks like I got a cheerleader after all,” he teased, walking along in her wake as if under a spell. If she was a witch, he’d happily stumble right into her lair, and probably climb in the boiling cauldron without being asked.

He needed to write a song about her, about him, about how she crooked a finger and he was toast. He caught up to her and looped his finger into her front pocket. “We should go somewhere alone, I think.” Brian didn’t care if they went to Valerie’s place or his. He didn’t even care if she drank a glass of milk or a bottle of wine, or if she wanted to read a thick book or strip out of the clothes she described as so restricting. He just wanted to be there. Okay, truthfully, yeah, he had a preference. He was a guy and she was murder on his hormones. But if he needed to, he’d improvise.

Besides, he still had to get his revenge. What was that thing she said at his apartment, just before climbing off of the couch with that innocent ‘who, me?’ look on her face? That she wanted to do things until he ached in ways he never knew he could.

Yeah. Revenge.

[valerie_vause]

Cheerleaders would forever be a teasing reference associated with Brian, more so now that he said that because right then she rolled with it. The pill made her feel high, not intoxicated the way too much alcohol did. Valerie grinned at him, teeth captured her lower lip and scraped across as she raised her arms. “Go, go Brian, go go, go Brian.” Then she stopped and gave him a sly look just to mumble as he neared, “Maybe that would be more effective with pompoms and a short skirt.” The blonde felt so good with him that she was on the verge of dancing when he said they should be alone.

“I know where we should go, but first, a quick stop.” She said with a bright smile and tugged him into an open shop. The place wasn’t big but it stocked the usual. Valerie practically skipped down the aisles to get to the chiller cabinets. Whatever song played on the radio the guy at the checkout had on made Valerie’s hips move to the rhythm as she plucked up a six pack of beer she hoped Brian wouldn’t mind then vanished down another aisle to get a pack of mints. If Brian bought anything she was unaware. Even as the blonde paid she continued to barely contain herself, the change got stuffed into her wallet and she all but bounced back out onto the street, paper bag in hand.

Valerie didn’t say a word as she motioned to Brian to follow her, the look on her face said everything for her as she blinked up at him with a wicked little smile then turned on her heel to walk down the street. It didn’t take long before she found what she was looking for, and sauntered down a darkened alley at the back of an apartment building. The bag got set aside as she took a short run towards the wall, kicked off it, and used the momentum to grab onto the ladders of the fire escape. They lowered with her, a shuddering creak of metal. Valerie scooped up the bag and quirked an eyebrow at Brian, then began the climb to the top floor. “I found the best ways to get a layout of a new city was from the rooftops, coincidently they were one of the best places to go to get away from it too.”

Ladders never reached the roof but the jump up was easy enough for someone like her. Valerie set the bag down and leaned over the edge to offer her hand to him. “When things get hectic this is my breathing space, any tall building, where I can be alone with a view.”

[brian_campo]

“You could even skip the pom-poms,” he said, and he felt pretty magnanimous about it. Brian followed her into the convenience store and scratched his cheek absently as he mulled over a couple of potential purchases. The last of them was a pack of gum. Valerie had gone through the cash register first and he met her outside after he’d been rung up, a smaller paper bag crumpling in his hand. He tucked a piece of spearmint gum in his mouth. This ‘follow me’ activity reminded him of that first date when he led her to the planetarium, so he was game to go along and see what Valerie wanted to do.

When she started to climb the fire escape, he stuffed his brown bag in the large pocket of his jeans. He tried not to openly stare at her ass when he ascended behind her. “You sound like me,” he said, smiling, making the winding ascent to the top floor of the building. At the summit of the staircase, Brian caught her hand and used it long enough to grab the ledge with his free hand. Once he had purchase, Brian could manage his own weight as he hauled himself up onto the roof. He straddled the wall and swung his leg over it. “I go up on the roof of the record store.” And smoke pot. “I like to sit with my feet over the edge and think. Billie’s afraid of heights, so she’s not following me.” The concrete made his palms feel gritty, so he swiped them down his pants and looked around.

Light pollution made it difficult to discern any but the brightest stars and planets, but the clouds were thin and it was nice. The air moved easily up here, far above the narrow streets and hot car exhaust. The effects of the pill were hours away from mellowing, so when he looked over the edge, Brian was struck with an uncharacteristic bout of vertigo. He rubbed his forehead and stepped back, amused.

[valerie_vause]

“Just the short skirt then, hm?” The tone was light once Brian had made it onto the roof, picking up the conversation like it had never stopped. “I wonder if I could buy an outfit and claim it’s for try-outs that I have utterly no intention of attending.” The blonde pondered out loud as she walked to the middle of the roof and pulled out two beers. “Unless I have to attend just to get the outfit, then again party stores might have one.” With a flick of her thumb the first metal bottle cap sailed into the air and she passed the drink over to Brian before doing the same to hers. A quiet clink was given as she nudged his bottle then raised her own to her mouth. Three beers wouldn’t leave her drunk but the crisp cold bubbles were refreshing against her tongue.

Half the liquid had been drained already when she stopped to breathe. Laughter escaped her small frame as she thought about the parallels of their lives. She wanted to discover more, discover him in ways no other had. “Alright roof dweller, we are officially alone.” It was said with a grin partially hidden by the rim of the bottle, and she took another quick sip then set it down by the only door on the roof. No doubt used by maintenance workers. Someone on the top floor must have been throwing a party because the faint sounds of music reached her ears. It got louder when a window opened and she sighed happily. “How lucky is that?”

Valerie sauntered her way towards him just to grab the front of his shirt to guide him towards the closed door with gentle, insistent tugs. The blonde backed him against it and went on her tip toes to kiss him, lips and tongue working together to leave him breathless while her hands roamed across his shirt. He tasted of mint, her lips tingled from it, or maybe just from him. “Do you feel as warm as I do?” It was a teasing whisper as she pulled back to find his ear, teeth nipped at the lobe before she gave it a soothing suckle, a sigh of warm breath.

[brian_campo]

It was on the tip of Brian’s tongue to encourage her costume store idea, but then he realized that he might get stuck putting on a football jersey and pads, and no. That was the stuff of nightmares. He took the beer from Valerie and drank it fast. Bubbles traveled up the length of the inverted bottle as he gulped. “Yeah, we’re lucky it’s not terrible,” he said, smiling and wiping his chin. “It could’ve been Wham.”

Duran Duran, he could live with.

“A—” Brian had opened his mouth to say something else, but he got waylaid as his back hit the door and she kissed him, turning the sound into an ‘mmph’ and whatever had been on his mind was forgotten. His beer bottle clanked on the metal door. Did he feel warm? “I do now,” he said, giving her a wide-eyed look and laugh. She had a way of making him feel new at all of this. “Hang on.” He spit out his gum and stuck it to the side of the beer bottle, then bent to set it on the roof. Yeah, a real Casanova move, he thought, but he didn’t want to choke on his gum the next time she took him off guard. Brian stood back up. “C’mere,” was whispered as he took her face between his hands and stared at her from close range. Those pretty green eyes. Her mouth, full before they even kissed. He leaned in and touched her nose.

“There is nothing I don’t want to do to you.”

Thumbs stroked her cheeks.

“Just say go.”

[valerie_vause]

The idea of dressing up for him made Valerie grin, it played over in her mind as she gazed up at him, his hands strong yet gentle as they cupped her face. Brian’s words fueled the sudden fast pace of her pulse and she took a moment to absorb them. Lips parted ready to say that one little word but then another thought hit and she wound up blurting, “That’s really sweet until you realise that covers kidnapping and murder.” The blonde pressed her lips together until they formed a tight white line, self silencing with an apologetic look up. “Not that I think you ever would, I mean that’s not what you meant, so why would I.”

Nerves threatened to crash her chemical cocktail but she shook her head as if to dismiss them. Fingers gripped and tugged at the front of his shirt restlessly. Slowly fanned out to tickle downwards, found the waistband of his pants and the tips hooked inside possessively.

“I want to touch you.”

It was barely a whisper as she rubbed the tip of her nose against his throat. Inhaled deeply against skin. Valerie’s tongue traced along his pulse point, tasted the faint salty tang of sweat that stuck there like morning dew, then slowly captured his flesh between her teeth. There would be a mark left when she was done. Careful fingers found the button to Brian’s pants and popped it free, the zipper tugged down immediately after and she bit him a little harder, briefly, as one hand slipped inside his pants.

[brian_campo]

Kidnapping and murder? Jesus, who thought up things like that in the heat of the moment? Confusion flickered over his face. “Why would you,” he repeated with a dubious shake of his head, unsure whether to laugh or groan and blurt out ‘look, I want to have sex with you!’ just to make sure he got his point across. Maybe she was nervous. Sometimes Valerie swung between purring kitten and overly cognitive so quickly he had trouble keeping up and figuring out what to say.

Just when he was about to try and get the train back on the tracks, she was nibbling on his throat and ohhh god… His head banged against the door. Air whooshed out of his lungs.

“You can do anything you want,” he said. Croaked.

One of Brian’s hands combed into her blonde hair, just behind her ear. The other reached under the hem of her shirt and purposefully pushed inside the cup of her bra. He licked his lips and tried to keep his head screwed on straight. His thumb began a gentle rotation while he took the weight of her in his palm. She was soft and warm and he’d kill to see her. He tucked his face into her neck and tickled it the scruff on his jaw.

Now ducking down, he bit her shirt. Brian dragged it up high enough to put his mouth where his thumb had been. His tongue on her breast was still cold from the beer.

[valerie_vause]

There was a soft rush of warm air from her nose as she grinned around the skin she’d captured with her mouth. Brian’s voice told stories his words didn’t and truth be told it was empowering to Valerie. It let her know how she was doing, and so far she was pleased with the results. “Anything?” The word was whispered coyly against his ear once she’d freed his neck. Part of her just wanted to hear his voice like that again, it sent heat through her veins, every cell in her body craved him. The sound she made when his questing hand found her beneath the shirt was genuine, unreserved as she fondled him through his boxers slowly.

There was no real plan in mind as Valerie’s free hand wove around to Brian’s lower back. The need to feel his skin too much to deny herself even a second. Short bristles against her skin scritched and tickled in just the right way, Valerie tipped her head back to grant him better access only to take in a stuttered breath when he pulled her shirt up with his teeth. Valerie’s hand tightened against his hip when his mouth took over and a startled whimper escaped at the cool sensation of his tongue. She brought her hand up to tangle in the short hairs at the back of his head to indulge in the moment.

Valerie’s hand worked inside his boxers, swift and deliberate, to splay her warm palm against his length. A soft breathy noise of her own was offered up when she finally curled her fingers around him, felt the pulse throb within her hand. For all he was hard his skin was soft, smooth, and she gave him a tentative squeeze as she stroked upwards. “I want to make the stars seem like fireworks.” She mumbled against his shoulder, nuzzling as her thumb began teasing slow circles around the tip, then slid her hand back down him, and repeated. “Just for you.”

[brian_campo]

Brian lifted his dark head and his eyes were heavy-lidded, almost sleepy looking, under a messy thatch of hair. “Not just for me, Valerie.” His fingers massaged the nape of her neck. “That doesn’t work for me.” He had an intense urge to return the favor, that is, if he could keep his reaction to her hand under control, and fuck, that wasn’t easy. He wasn’t sure how there was enough blood left in the rest of his body to support life. The pressure was a pleasurable torture and he found himself straining against her palm.

Unsteady breath at her ear. An unintelligible word as he swallowed hard.

Brian settled her bra into place and reached down to unfasten and unzip her jeans. One side at a time, he worked them lower on her hips, making sure he had enough space to work with, and then he eased his hand into her panties. His fingers were exploratory at first, getting to know her intricate shape, and then he settled two of them into an opposing rhythm.

The harder he tried to keep himself from grinding against her, and the more the roof beyond Valerie’s shoulder wavered like heat above a highway, the less control Brian had over his mental faculties. She squeezed and his beer bottle tipped. Foam spilled out of the broken neck around their shoes. The door at his back rattled. Ignoring it, he maneuvered his hand into the tight space between her legs and gently, painfully slowly, eased into her.

“I’m actually jealous of myself right now,” he whispered on a laugh.

[valerie_vause]

Brian’s tender ministrations at the nape of her neck caused Valerie’s eyes to close, whatever tension she might have carried there melted away with a delicious shiver that awoke nerves she never knew she had. Though she lost herself to his words there was nothing mechanical about the way she touched him. Changing rhythm once or twice deliberately, occasionally her fingertips brushed through short curls to tickle and tease him before wrapping around him again. Belatedly she realised Brian had fixed her bra, and the strangest sensation of warmth ran through the blonde, it touched her that he cared enough to not leave her exposed.

“Oh...” It was barely a word, a ghostly sound that stole Valerie’s breath when she felt his hands work her jeans open. A stuttered intake of breath stuck in her lungs when she felt the warmth of his hand against her. Valerie tried not to squirm as he explored. Tried even harder to keep her legs from twitching and ripped a chunk out of the back of his shirt in the process. “Fffuh…” Valerie buried her face against Brian’s chest, bit him gently through his shirt to muffle herself and tried to slow her own movements that had sped up with excitement. Since when did breathing take effort?

The broken bottle didn’t even register, the door as it rattled mimicked the way her legs shook. None of it warranted attention the second Brian’s fingers moved further. Valerie felt the pressure instantly, gentle though insistent as he met resistance, and her hand tightened around him for a second. The blonde pulled back just enough to look up at Brian as he pushed through slowly and felt the air in her lungs rush out with a whimpered moan that refused to be held in any longer.

Valerie could barely keep her legs steady let alone think, but his words had made her laugh in kind, albeit hushed. “I… I’m…” Difficult was an understatement when it came to stringing together a sentence, when the only concrete thought running through her mind was that he was inside her, a part of him was now a part of her, temporarily linked. Eyes struggled to stay focused as she clutched him, her touch a little more insistent as she pressed a warm kiss to his jaw. “Sooo not complaining.”

[brian_campo]

His smile broadened at what she said.

He wanted to kiss her, badly, and the only reason he waited was because he needed to hear more of those little noises she kept making. The panting, the almost-words… It was better than any music he’d ever heard. The places where Valerie bit him chafed under his cotton shirt, in a good way. It was crazy hard not to pull her clothes off. In fact, Brian couldn’t recall the last time he just fooled around with somebody like this, and even with his clothes on, it was so hot it had to be indecent.

But his knees were jell-o. The part of his brain responsible for basic commands like ‘keeping standing up’ was short-circuiting with each shift in the rhythm and pressure from her hand. The faster she went, the more he was worried about—

“Uh, god, come down here.”

Brian inched his shoes away from the door. Carefully, with an arm around her waist, he slid down it until he was sitting on the concrete with Valerie straddling his lap. It wasn’t completely innocent, the way his exploration of her deepened as she lowered to the ground. His thumb sought that hidden bundle of nerve endings and coaxed it to life. A broad circle, a tighter one, a brush side-to-side.

His right pant leg was soaking up spilled beer. He didn’t care. Valerie was backlit and her hair was on fire.

He leaned up and kissed her.

[valerie_vause]

“Brian...”

The whispered sigh was all Valerie managed as she followed him down. He could have lead her straight to hell and handed her to the Devil and she’d have went without objection if that’s what he wanted in that moment. Green eyes rolled then closed as she sank, her muscles gripped, keeping him exactly where he was now that she’d settled onto his lap. An internal embrace that she couldn’t control. Didn’t want to, at all, when his thumb glided against her. Sparks of colour littered her eyelids, Valerie bit her lip, allowed her hips to rock against Brian and tried to wrap her legs around him as best she could.

It should have been awkward, their position so close with arms between them and clothes in the way, but it wasn’t.

They pressed against one another yet moved together. Valerie’s hand didn’t still for a second, but her grip did. Feather light as she tickled her fingers along Brian, using her palm to swirl once she reached the top, just to caress back down and start all over again. They might not have been making love exactly but the blonde was making sure she’d leave him feeling like they had. Like Brian made her feel. Cherished.

When their lips met Valerie poured a guttural sound straight into him, her free hand raked up his back perhaps a little more roughly than she intended and clasped the nape of his neck. Fingers restlessly stretched and clutched at Brian’s dark hair, an attempt to get as close to him as she possibly could, as if he were the air her lungs burned for.

[brian_campo]

Holy shit. The way her hips moved around his fingers and that light-as-air touch of her palm were making him ache all the way into his stomach. Even the stinging pain of his back was somehow awesome instead of agonizing. Brian swallowed past his thickening throat and blinked hard. The door shuddered again. He needed to get a grip fast or he’d be like that beer bottle, spilling all over somebody’s paint leg.

“Yoouu…” he shook his head lightly. “You are killing me.”

He kissed her again. Valerie’s hair was turning into a knotty mess in his other hand, because he couldn’t hold still. Brian breathed hard into her mouth. God, he was messed up. He wanted to touch her until she came. He wanted to pull off her jeans and be inside of her. He wanted to be a gentleman and button up, because she deserved better than a roof. And he was dying to tell her how he felt without freaking her out, or making Valerie think he was manipulating the situation.

[valerie_vause]

Valerie pulled back for air. Pupils huge as hunger for Brian took over, a primal need for him and only him left her skin on fire. She had the urge to shed her clothes, an itch to rub herself raw against his body. Yet the blonde was completely unwilling to stop to do any of it. Every move he made coaxed her closer to a ledge she couldn’t wait to fall from. In fact she walked willingly towards it. The door stopped it’s rattling when her hand splayed against it, leverage for when she rolled her hips against his hand, eyes on Brian as he spoke.

Laughter was muffled by Brian’s lips. She deepened the kiss, tried to convey everything she felt through it, only to pull back with a teasing nip so that she could kiss up his throat. The tip of her tongue traced the bruise she’d left behind earlier. Teeth scraped ghostly across it, not to hurt but to leave behind a reminder of where she’d been. Valerie let her breath play against his ear, let him hear exactly what he was doing, and offered up a wicked, albeit husky, murmur of, “La petite mort.”

Another languid swipe of tongue around the shell of Brian’s ear this time, just for Valerie to whisper through a soft moan, “The sweetest way to die.”

The idea of a mess didn’t enter the blonde’s mind. Right then she was losing herself to the pleasures he bestowed upon her. Intent on granting him the same experience.

[brian_campo]

Yes. Even if it morphed into a big death instead of this little one, he wouldn’t stop it. His whole body was rigid underneath Valerie. His fingers had a difficult time being nimble enough to accomplish anything. He squeezed the back of her neck, breath coming faster and faster, shallower. Each puff of hot air blew blonde hair away from her shoulder. “Jesus— Valerie, I’m really close.” His thumb pressed more intently, his middle finger hooking into the secret places that intensified sensation. The empty beer bottle burst into a dozen pieces.

Brian’s heels dug into the roof. Scraped on the gritty surface.

‘Oh, shit, oh, shit,’ he thought as he made a wild grab for the ripped chunk of his shirt. It had dropped onto the rooftop behind his back. He stuffed it into the space above her hand, providing some kind of shield for her clothes, all the while building a steady tempo where he touched her. He wasn’t going to leave her behind.

He grabbed her hair again. Blindly kissed her cheek, the corner of her mouth. Whispered her name, and then, "I love you, you know that?" Maybe not consciously aware he had said it out loud, because an instant later, climax hit him. He closed his eyes and pressed his face against her collarbone.

[valerie_vause]

Valerie’s grin turned wickedly pleased at Brian’s words and she threw her head back to look at the stars. She caught sight of the bottle as it shattered into specks so small it was like coloured dust. Felt a rumble of desire echo from within her chest as she stated breathlessly, “Don’t hold back.” There was no shame in it, only encouragement as she neared the same fate as Brian, chest heaving as she struggled to take in air.

It amazed Valerie that even in his most sexually vulnerable state, Brian still managed to think of her, and remembered his ruined shirt. “It’s alright, I’ve got you.” She whispered against his jaw with a kiss, using the material to cover him loosely. Was she losing her mind or was he playing her like an instrument?

Every twitch and stroke of his fingers sent electricity across her skin. The blood in her veins boiled until a faint sheen of sweat covered her. If her hair wasn’t in knots already it was sticking to her neck. Muscles in her legs tensed and jerked of their own accord and she couldn’t for the life of her stop the way she fell into him when his words hit. The door her free hand pressed against flew off its hinges and clattered loudly down the stairwell.

Shock didn’t last long though because between Brian’s eager coaxing and the sounds he made, Valerie lost all capacity to think. Lost herself entirely, in those precious seconds of sheer orgasmic bliss that had her clinging to him as she trembled.

[brian_campo]

The door behind him was gone, which was fitting, because it felt like the ground underneath him was giving way, too. He managed to lift his head and watch Valerie finish, wiping the damp strands of hair away from her temple and cheek. He didn't know if it was the drugs or just the force of orgasm fucking with his eyes, but he saw a pulse bulging in her temple, fast, just as fast as his. His hand stilled between her legs. He flexed his fingers to rid himself of a cramp that had resulted from the angle. Brian was afraid to look down. He carefully pulled the ruined piece of shirt away from her and set it aside on the roof. "You okay?"

He had an inkling now of what he said just before finishing, and he didn't know if she heard it or not, but Brian had a feeling he was going to beat his head into a wall later on for doing it. How many dates had they been on? How long since she'd been his girlfriend?

But it didn't matter, because he felt what he felt, and he knew it for what it was.

He loved her. One day, in a rational person's amount of time, she might feel that way, too. And that was okay.

[valerie_vause]

The last sound of pleasure fell from her lips with breezy laughter, a reaction to how good she felt in that moment, the high that came with release. Valerie turned her face into Brian’s hand and tried to catch her breath. The hand that had been around him carefully tucked him back inside his boxers then gently clasped his wrist as his fingers flexed. A startled little noise was given then she gently slipped his hand out of her panties and kissed him deeply. If they weren’t on a roof she’d have likely curled up against him, nuzzled his skin, breathed him in. Except they were on a roof, and being high didn’t change that.

Reality trickled back slowly along with his words and Valerie felt a restless panic twist inside her gut like a pit full of snakes. Just because she was falling for Brian didn’t mean she expected he’d do the same. It never even entered her mind that if it did happen, it would be quite so quickly, and now that he had she wasn’t sure how she felt. There was so much she had to tell him. Death played a huge role in her calling, it could strike anytime, could he really handle that? To be in love with someone destined to die? To never have a proper chance at a future, a real life?

“Oh yeah, how you holding up?” She teased lightly, though her smile was a little tense as she stood up to check the damage. On the bright side her clothes were surprisingly unscathed by their passion. Fingers fastened her jeans as she took in the beer soaked ground, the shattered glass and the broken, splintered door that lay crookedly at the bottom of the stairs. “When people say they felt the earth move, usually it’s just an expression.” Valerie offered Brian her hand to help him up.

[brian_campo]

Valerie was on her feet faster than Brian wanted her to be. The warmth was gone, and the light that had haloed her hair was now shining in his eyes. He squinted and kept his face from showing his disappointment, as best he could, anyway. Did she always just pop up afterwards, or was it what he said, or something he did? Was she going to find the politest way to retreat, the way he used to do?

“Ah, I’m good,” he said, blowing off that train of thought, because he wasn’t in any condition to think about it clearly. He took her hand and hauled himself onto his feet.

Brian peered into the stairwell while he zipped his fly and buttoned up. That door wasn’t going back up. Looks like they were destined to rack up destruction of property charges.

He combed his hair back. He wanted something, a drink, a hit. He wished he smoked cigarettes.

‘Reach for her.’

Brian put his hand on her lower back and leaned in to kiss her neck.

[valerie_vause]

Where were the beers? Valerie turned around to look for them, a distraction to not obsess on what he’d said. Despite the fact that she could still feel where he’d been moments before. The blonde may have given into basic needs in the past, the desire for contact no matter how brief, however she’d never once allowed herself to be touched the way she let Brian. She wanted to bask in that, to let her emotions run wild with him, if it weren’t for the simple fact that she was afraid.

Valerie had spent her entire adult life alone. Surrounded by people she didn’t know, who never knew her, apart from the world. Content in the solitude, if not a little bittersweet. Brian changed all that, he gave her a glimpse of the life she could have had, as opposed to the one thrust upon her. More than that, he made her realise she wanted it.

One deep breath in soon got exhaled shakily as Valerie felt his hand on her. Logic dictated that she pull back but her heart refused to listen. Instead she pivoted to face him, let her arms wrap around Brian and hugged him tightly against her small frame. Eyes closed and she pressed her face against his shoulder, tried to resist the urge to both laugh and cry as she confessed against his shirt, “I can literally feel myself falling for you. I’m not sure I ever want it to stop, even if it’s frightening.”

[brian_campo]

Brian folded her up in his arms. “It’s okay,” he said. He kissed her hair and found himself rocking foot to foot as he hugged her back. “I’m scared, too.” A second kiss. The things he feared differed sharply from Valerie’s; yeah, there was fear of loss, but also fear of letting her see the depth of what he felt on a daily basis and thinking he was some kind of freak, and fear of being depended on and letting her down, and fear of being measured and found wanting. But it was something he’d do because he liked the punch to his gut whenever he saw her smile, the lurching of his heart when she said the word ‘Brian’, all of it. He was all in, or not it all, and the latter wasn’t an option.

“I’m not gonna hurt you,” he said. “Is that what you think?”

Now that they were standing up, he felt the mild damage Valerie had done to his back as the wind touched it. Ouch. That was definitely going to leave a mark. He reminded himself not to take off his shirt at practice.

[valerie_vause]

The embrace lasted for a long moment before he asked a question that made Valerie laugh. Arms were taken back so that the blonde could put a small amount of distance between them. Enough to grab two beers, one she handed to him, the other she opened for herself. Rather than answer straight away the petite girl tipped the bottle up to her mouth and in five or so swallows, emptied it entirely. “No that’s not what I think.” Even if Brian did hurt her, it wouldn’t be physically, she’d heal just the same. Nothing lasted forever, not the stars that sparkled above, not the building they stood on, if they parted they parted. Such was the way of life.

Valerie tilted her head, really looked at Brian then nodded as if deciding something internally.

“If we’re jumping down this rabbit hole together then you need to know everything. You might not like it, you might not understand, but if you’re choosing to be with me you need to know exactly who I am.”

The blonde waved the hand with the empty bottle in front of herself then set it aside to pick up another. Right then she wished she’d brought more than just a few beers, preferably something stronger, but it would do for the time being. She flicked the cap off with her thumb and took a sip.

“There’s a name for what I am, a name I’ve never said out loud, and I’ll get to that later. The point is I have a literal duty to battle the darkness that plagues the earth to maintain the balance. Before I turned fifteen I was called, not by a phone, into action. Taken to England actually. During those years with The Watchers Council I was trained in various martial arts, fighting techniques, strategies unbelievable amounts of knowledge of demons, Hellmouths, supernatural entities…”

She trailed off with a shake of her head and took a gulp of beer. “Anyway, at any given time there are only nine of us in the world at the same time. Nine girls, all separate, with no knowledge of the ones who were before us. No Watchers with us, either, expect there is a yearly check up and I just had mine about a month ago by a woman named Julianna who naturally happens to have recently started work at UNLV, because coincidences in my life never really are. You see in order for another chosen one to be called into duty, one of the existing nine must die. I’ve never heard of anyone who managed to make it to thirty. Most don’t make it to mid twenties.”

She paused again, gazed up at the stars then back to Brian, voice calm and clear as she continued.

“There are girls who have gone rogue, and who could blame them, really? The Council, the Watchers, they get paid to do their job. To train us and set us loose on the world, to sit comfortably behind desks and never get their hands dirty with the mess of death, and we the lucky few get nothing in return because it’s our destiny to fund ourselves and die for the cause. If you go rouge, which doesn’t mean off the scales crazy, just that if you stop patrolling at night, go off somewhere for a month and try to live like a normal person, let yourself slip mentally or physically, then they treat you like a horse that needs to be shot. Except The Council doesn’t kill you. They strip the very essence of your power from you by magic then lock you up in a lunatic asylum for the rest of your natural life because they can’t have you running around knowing what you know. Personally I’d rather die than that ever happen, and I do believe in saving people, but I don’t exactly trust The Council either.”

Valerie finished off her beer with a heavy sigh and shrugged.

“The bottom line is, either way, my life isn’t completely my own. I’m not the girl you can have a future with, I don’t have a future. You need to understand that. There are things out there that look at hunting the chosen nine as sport. They might go through you to get to me, which… Remember you found me in the Skylark elevator? There were four of us. The one that pointed you out to me was Rhiannon, she’s… Like me, first time I ever met another chosen one. The other two were vampires. The red head though, she saw you, she knows your face. You need to be careful, Brian. You can’t tell anyone any of this either, it could get me or you killed. Information is vital to my survival, and if you feel like you can’t keep any of this secret you need to tell me.”

Yes it was a lot of information. Crucial information. If Brian was going to love her then she wanted to make sure he wasn’t blind to the truth of the situation.

[brian_campo]

It wasn’t a lot of information. It was too much information, thrown down at his feet like a verbal gauntlet. What was he supposed to respond to first? The idea that his girlfriend was likely to be killed in the next couple of years? The fact that she’d rather die than give up her calling a few years down the line and build a normal life, if not with him, then with someone like him? Or the realization that a redheaded vampire might be on the lookout for him, even as they spoke, just because he waved at Valerie in public?

He sat down on a low wall, his back to the city. The beer, he placed between his feet.

Brian rubbed his face. He snorted. “Trust me. The last thing you need to worry about is whether I can keep a secret. Withholding information is kind of a specialty.” He dropped his hands between his knees. His shoulders seemed to weigh a ton.

So what was he supposed to do? Leave because they probably wouldn’t last? That was every relationship he knew of. Give up because Valerie was destined to die? Nobody got out of things alive, anyway. The bad part, the thing Valerie was really getting at, was dread. A knot in his guts every night.

“Who needs convincing here, me or you?” he finally asked. The music downstairs had stopped, he didn’t know when, but it changed the atmosphere on the roof. Brian picked up the beer. He twisted the cap and took a sip.

[valerie_vause]

Trust him. Didn’t he realise she already did? That had been the entire point of telling him everything. Valerie took a moment, finished the beer, and set the bottle down as she looked over the City behind him. When his question hit the blonde looked directly at him, suppressed the frown, and lifted her chin slightly. If he didn’t get it then he didn’t get it, there was nothing she could do about that.

“That’s what you took from that. That I might need convincing.”

One hand lifted to rub her thumb against the corner of her mouth then she shook her head. Honesty felt entirely over-rated in that moment, and with nothing else to add she shrugged and cast her gaze towards the ruined door. “I’m hungry, so I’m going to find somewhere to eat.”

[brian_campo]

So she wanted to leave the roof.

Okay, he couldn't blame her for wanting to get out of an uncomfortable moment. It was a lot to take in, from his declaration of love to all the new information Valerie had put the table. He couldn't pretend to understand where the slayer was coming from, hers being an insanely unique situation, but she also needed time to understand where he was coming from in wanting to be with her anyway, no matter the odds.

Brian knew it was an atypical response. Most guys Brian's age didn't want the responsibility of a girl with a stomach flu, forget about an early expiration date. But he had been through that kind of grief already, and he had never regretted spending that time with his dad before he died. Grief didn't work like that. He just wished he could go back and spend more.

"There's this thing my dad used to say," he offered, still sitting in his spot on the roof. "It was relationship advice, so it didn't make sense to me before, but it's starting to now. He said one day I would find myself in a tough conversation or an argument, but no matter what, I should never, ever offer my girlfriend an easy way out unless I meant it. Never point at the door. Because once I put that in the air, it started to be an option, and sooner or later, somebody would to get mad enough to walk through it."

Brian scratched the back of his head and stood up.

"So you don't have to tell me where the door is, or say how hard things might get for me if I stay here with you, even if you think it's for my own good. As far as I'm concerned, there is no door, not unless you put it there. And you're probably thinking, what the hell is this guy talking about? That's not what I meant." Brian laughed dryly, although it wasn't all that funny. "But that's what it sounded like... Like you were giving me a list of reasons why you're not the right girl. But you are."

[valerie_vause]

Valerie held more secrets inside than she did memories of a normal life. It didn’t bother her, it was simply a fact. She could count on one hand the people she loved. The people that touched her life and remained a part of her. The intent hadn’t been to push Brian away. It was the blonde’s way of trying to let him into her life fully. That could never happen if he didn’t know everything about what she was. Any kind of love they could have would crumble if the relationship had been formed from deceit, no matter how innocent, or how much she wanted to protect him from the dark side of her life. Shield him so he wouldn’t become tainted by it the way she was. Numb perhaps to the horror that she’d felt all those years ago. Valerie was just wired that way.

So she stood, and she listened, albeit mildly confused at first but by the end she’d got the gist of it. The blonde took in a deep slow breath through her nose and threw her head back to exhale up at the stars. They twinkled back, bright ever changing colours thanks to the chemicals that flowed through her system. Why did it have to fall on her, down the line, about pointing at the door? No pressure. She thought, somewhat sarcastically, but not in a mean way. Obviously it was meant to come across as something sweet, because there was stating she was the right girl for him.

“I wasn’t listing reasons to make you leave.” Valerie said softly, directing her gaze back to him. “If we’re really going to give our relationship a shot you needed to know who you were getting involved with. Truly know, because anything less would be like a lie, and I don’t want that. I want to be able to tell you my day without cutting chunks out, or show up tussled and know you’re not worrying that I’ve been off with someone else when really I’ve just been patrolling. I don’t want to have to hide parts of me from you. It wouldn’t feel right.”

Valerie tilted her head, looked off to the side then shrugged haphazardly. “While I’m being honest I want to teach you proper self defense and knowledge of what’s out there because… It’s important.”

[brian_campo]

“Okay.”

So maybe this was going to be the real challenge for the two of them: Valerie looking vulnerable, and Brian actually being it. How had he gone from avoiding commitment like the plague to being the guy who said things like ‘there is no door’? He sounded like he was about to get on his knee and present her with a ring, which wasn’t what he meant. He just meant he didn’t usually cop out of things once he signed on.

Maybe he ought to apologize and blame being high. Or being a Pisces. Or a dude who played the piano. Whatever worked.

At any rate, he was glad she told him, even if there were parts of it he didn’t understand, and things about her psyche that he couldn’t figure out.

He swallowed. Don’t backtrack. Just keep going. “We can do that. The self-defense. I don’t want to be a liability, and if you’re right about that vampire, I need to know anyway.” He nudged the base of his beer bottle with his shoe. “C’mon, let’s get some food. If you want, you can start filling me in. Or we can just talk about whatever.”

[valerie_vause]

Oh she was right, had seen the look the vampire had directed his way. Calculating. Valerie didn’t need to state it though, so merely nodded that she was on board. Obviously not tonight, but soon, which felt better than potentially never. Truth be told the blonde still felt a bit shaken from Brian’s announcement of love. Show her a demon and she wouldn’t bat an eyelash, she knew what to do in that kind of situation. Love? Quite an alien concept, especially directed towards her. Awkward as it may have left her feeling she tried to put it from her mind.

“Well that’s up to you. If you have any questions you want answered right now let me know.”

Valerie walked towards the ruined door and made her way down the stairs quietly. Keeping her voice low so that it didn’t echo she began casually, “Vampire’s are pretty basic. I mean movie’s have covered a lot of it. Stake through the heart, beheading, fire, holy water, crosses, no reflections, sunlight, garlic.” She methodically ticked them off on her fingers. “No breath either, very strong, oh and the thrall thing? Never met one that could do it, guess it’s a Dracula thing, They don’t turn into bats and fly off either. I can’t tell you how happy I am about that.”

Really, it was easy enough to conceal a sharpened chunk of wood, but a big net on a pole? What kind of excuse could she give anyone she met? Out for a nightly moth hunt?

“What kind of food are you in the mood for?” Time ceased to matter in Vegas. Regardless of what ungodly hour, there were always places open, designed to keep the night life going. Worked too, and not just because of the tourists. “Maybe we could grab something and head back to your place?” It wasn’t suggestive, so much as wanting to spend time with him comfortably.

[brian_campo]

"Burgers," he said, because it was quick and easy to take back to his apartment. He jogged down the stairs behind Valerie, arms hanging loose at his sides. "I met one. A vampire. A couple of weeks ago. I was loading equipment in Joey's van after a show and this guy basically told me he was on an alternative diet -- he was creepy as hell, he actually licked his teeth."

Brian kind of dreaded the next part, because he had a feeling Valerie was going to lecture him on being an idiot, which -- face it -- he really was. He rounded a landing behind Valerie. He pushed the release bar on the door and held it for Valerie as they exited to the street.

"He was scoping out his next meal at the bar. He wanted to take out this low life who pimps out his girlfriend. I called him out on it. I don't know why but he actually left. He easily could have kicked my ass. I think he just didn't want to cause a scene. Is that normal?"

[valerie_vause]

If Valerie experienced shock she kept it to herself and continued jogging down the stairs. Vampires were unfortunately common, it was a guarantee that Brian would bump into them from time to time. There was nothing she could do about that. Only teach him how to protect himself. Which she apparently needed to do sooner rather than later since he’d just told her he got in the face of one. Not that it surprised her, considering he didn’t want to leave when one interrupted their first date. Brave yes but very misguided. Something Valerie suspected he knew from the tone he’d used.

“I’m not going to treat you like a child.”

She wasn’t his mother, she was his girlfriend, he could make his own choices. It didn’t mean she was okay with it, however, a little understanding went a long way. What he did was selfless, his concerns went beyond himself to those in the bar, so at least his heart was in the right place and not ripped from his chest.

“In a sense, yes. Smart ones don’t want to draw attention to themselves. That and it’s easier to get a meal when you know nobody will actually miss the victim if they suddenly vanish off the earth. Others enjoy the attention and welcome witnesses to the carnage because ordinary humans pose little to no threat. The proverbial gazelle to their beast.”

Though the words never passed her lips Valerie had tried to paint how lucky Brian had been. To still be breathing, unharmed if not a little mentally tweaked by the experience. She clung to the banister and swung herself around and off the remaining stairs to land a few feet from the main door with ease. Pale hands pushed it open and she stepped outside to breathe in the cooling night air. The scents much different now that they were off the roof.

“Which direction?” Valerie asked curiously as she looked up at Brian.

[brian_campo]

“Uh,” Brian checked his watch to determine what would be open, and did a quick scan of the neighborhood. “Sam’s.” The eatery was more outdoor walk-up window than restaurant, which suited what they wanted. Burgers were a specialty. Just about anything you could think of was on the menu, even a Thai burger, and the patties were so big, they were hard to bite. “This way.” He pointed east and started walking, going to the outside of the sidewalk, so that Valerie was closest to the shops.

“You know, ever since this happened, I’ve been meeting people like crazy,” he said, and he started to tick off the series of weird, too-coincidental meetings that had been brewing in his mind for weeks as Brian tried to think up logical reasons for it.

“Like I met this girl named Holly in Tracks, and it turns out her father was a watcher, but he was killed by a vampire slayer. And she can’t stand this woman I met named Julianna, who works at UNLV, but apparently she’s a watcher, too, and she slept with Holly’s dad. And they both knew this girl named Rhiannon who’s a slayer, too. It was kind of like watching an episode of Dallas: I was getting lost in all the relationships. Then I was sitting at the bus stop and this guy named Cian saw me knock something over, and he pretty much told me that telekinetics are usually better at it.”

He laughed a little.

“It seems like everybody’s connected.”

[valerie_vause]

Lips quirked into a slight smile as Brian put her to the inside of the sidewalk. It was endearing, even though she’d likely survive being hit by a car more than him. Valerie raised her eyebrows and cast her gaze up at him as they walked side by side. “You have?” Not terribly surprising considering she believed there was some sort of pull towards Nevada, and Vegas was a huge place for things to swarm too with so many tourists. Then he said the first of several things that made her stomach lurch.

Reality slapped her in the face like a wave of sea water. Chilled her to the point that her breath caught in her throat, and her feet stopped moving. Frozen in place as it all sunk in. The girl locked up that the vampire had mentioned, had killed some girl’s father, and Brian had discussed this with her? What else had they talked about? Valerie brought her right hand up to press against her temple, when she spoke her voice was very calm, and very quiet.

“I literally just told you about Julianna five minutes ago when I was spilling my guts to give us a fighting chance and you didn’t think to mention her when I brought it up?”

The blonde tilted her head, tried to wrap her mind around the fact that he knew about Rhiannon, knew the S word, and that Julianna was a watcher before she’d even told him.

“How long have you known exactly what I am?” The way she looked at Brian he could have been a stranger. “Did you tell that girl about me?” The entire situation felt messy to the point she wanted to be sick. She recoiled from him, backed up against a wall and tried to think.

Laughter, short and barely there, fell from Valerie’s lips as she ran her hands through her somewhat tangled hair. “You’re talking to strangers about your telekinesis. Probably about me. Not everyone is who they appear to be, Brian. You kept all this from me. How can I…”

Valerie’s world shrunk in size. Theresa obviously knew Holly, who knew Brian, who happened to know Julianna, and here she was trying to keep it all separate while spilling the truth to the one person she so desperately had wanted to confide fully in. Valerie shook her head, eyebrows drawn together, “How can I possibly trust you.” The blonde pressed her palms against her temples and ignored the way colours shifted and blurred. “I’ve lost my appetite.”

[brian_campo]

What was she talking about? Brian frowned and put his hands in the air, a 'whoa' gesture because he had stumbled into a mine field without meaning to, again. Was he the most offensive person on the planet or something? This marked the third time in one night that Valerie had retreated from him, emotionally or physically.

"Why didn't I bring up Julianna then?" He was lost. He laughed but it was a noise of desperation.

"Do you have any idea how many things I wanted to say after you unloaded on me up there? I thought that's what we were supposed to do now. Talk. So I am talking. I'm telling you everything, but it's just freaking you out and making you think I'm keeping things from you. How--?" He broke off because the logic was lost on him.

He squeezed the back of his neck, a nervous habit.

"Look. I'm not keeping anything from you. I just found out what Julianna is. I thought she was some language professor, until I overheard an argument between her and Holly. You called yourself a girl who kills vampires, she used the word slayer to describe the same thing. I put two and two together and got four. Cian accidentally caught me practicing, which you told me to do. I thought I was alone, but the guy came out of nowhere, so that's how he found out... And no, Valerie. I don't run around blasting your name, except when I'm bragging about how great you are."

Brian's fingers dug into his palms, the rein on his emotions drawing tigher.

"You can't seriously be mad at me for learning things when you weren't around. I can't throw a rock lately without hitting somebody with magic powers."

[valerie_vause]

The ‘whoa’ motion Brian made caused a slight frown. Valerie wasn’t flying off the handle, she hadn’t even raised her voice. It made her wonder if her aura or something just made people assume she held anger when she didn’t. Distance had been needed to try and process it all without feeling like drowning, which on top of the whole love confession, wasn’t easy. Back pressed against the building as she listened to him and resisted the urge to cut in until he’d finished.

“I’m not clairvoyant, unless you talk to me I don’t know what’s going through your head. And you’re right, I did say you should practice. I just didn’t realise I had to state that public places like bus stops weren’t the best choices.”

Personally it seemed like common sense, given the way he’d reacted when she’d witnessed him move the chair in the diner.

"I'm not mad." Valerie stated calmly as her stomach turned to knots. It would take a lot more than that to make her angry. She wasn’t about to start screaming at him in the middle of the street. "I'm disappointed that you either felt like you couldn't tell me, or just didn't feel like it was important enough to mention when I've been nothing but open with you. Would you have said anything at all if I hadn’t unloaded on you after you shared your feelings?”

Valerie needed to clear her mind. She needed to work out who knew what. If Julianna knew she’d spoken with Rhiannon. Did she know that she was dating Brian? Did the girl? She knew at least one vampire, that kind of information rarely slipped down a grapevine and if Brian had learned it from her then it was safe to assume so had the vampire. The carefully compartmentalised boxes she locked up within herself were blurring together and she wasn’t sure how to handle that.

[brian_campo]

"I haven't been around to tell you," Brian said. "I can't leave it on your machine. This is the first time since I learned this stuff that the topic's come up. Besides, it's hardly like I'm keeping secrets. I told you I love you. That's open. As for public places..." He rubbed his forehead. "I mean, shit Valerie, I was trying to push a button, not move a car."

Brian considered himself a non-confrontational person; he usually avoided it like the plague, couldn't even stand being in the room while other people argued. But something about Valerie's accusations was cutting him really deep.

He shared things with her he couldn't tell his family or friends, and it wasn't fast enough.

He got excited to talk about what he learned, and it meant he'd talked to too many strangers.

He put a name to his feelings for her, and it made her uncomfortable.

He let her see his insecurity over Maddy, and she was offended that he had one.

Right now, the idea of saying another word nauseated him so much, he was worried he might need a garbage can. The worst part was, Brian had no idea how he could have avoided any of it.

"I'm--"

He looked around helplessly. God, he was starting to do that thing. That thing where his brain seized up and words wouldn't come. Before long, she'd ask him a question and all he'd be able to do is stare at her, slack-jawed.

"I'm going," he said. Where, he didn't know. Whether Valerie would call him the next day, he didn't know. What Brian knew was that he needed to get some space, some air, because there was only so much "you're messing up" he could handle in one night.

"I'll talk to you later, okay?"

He took a couple of steps backward. He wasn't hungry anymore, either.

[valerie_vause]

The topic would unlikely crop up if she didn’t know there was one to begin with. Valerie had made a point of telling him things since they started dating, things that weren’t easy, things she shouldn’t be telling him at all. Things that weren’t exactly easy to fit into a conversation but she did it all the same. As for pushing buttons in public places, how the hell was she meant to know what he’d been attempting? All Brian had said was that he knocked something over and some stranger had witnessed it. She wasn’t looking for every detail of his life but the ones that managed to tie into her life, for whatever reasons, yeah those were important.

Valerie wasn’t attacking him, not physically, not verbally, but from the way Brian reacted it seemed as though she was. For that very reason she didn’t attempt to stop him from going. Whatever was going through his head he could work out on his own. Eggshells weren’t her prefered method of walking.

Right then it was safe to say that her intentions of calling tomorrow were slim. In fact, she didn’t say a word as he walked back a few steps, just turned around herself and walked off down the street. What was the point in participating when everything she said got a reaction like she was stabbing him.