Care for a Bite and a Drink?

[baronbalaz]

Who: The Baron and Kimberly
What: Meeting for drinks
When: Backdated to Dec. 30th
Where: @ 11
Rating:  M for first meetings
Status: Open and Incomplete

Comments

[onlynewlife]

It was a bit of a relief, even though Kimberly didn't realize just how much at the time, that Byron was willing to slide into the carriage first. That simple gesture meant that Kimberly had control. Not full control, but just enough to feel confident that he wasn't going to hurt her once they were tucked away from the public eye and just enough that even if he tried, she could take him. It sucked thinking about him that way; Byron seemed like a really nice guy. She hadn't thought of Felix that way when he'd walked her home the other night. Then again...Felix wasn't wearing fangs. A part of Kimberly hated herself for even thinking that way. Goth guys could be nice and not every last one of them wanted to hurt someone.

She could hear Shaina's voice in her head the day of the pile up, when Kimberly had been being too overly cautious. Kimberly. The car's fine. Your dad's gonna be fine. ...we're gonna be fine. She reminded herself that technically Shaina hadn't been wrong; even though they'd died in a wreck, it hadn't had anything to do with the transmission fluid Kimberly had been worried about after her dad had called to let her know about a leak. So, Kimberly reminded herself, as well, that Byron wasn't going to hurt her and if he'd planned on it, he probably would've done so by now already.

With that thought, she slid in after him, using his offered arm as leverage, and her eyes roamed around the interior as she settled back against the seat. It a small-ish space, but there was a lot to admire. The colors, the fabrics...the soft glow of the oil lantern was pretty, too, and it seemed only to enhance. "Wherever," Kimberly said flippantly, smiling. She didn't mind where they were going, "just not too far," she added, because, "it's getting late, y'know?"

[baronbalaz]

Late was a strange concept to apply to someone who operated completely by night. Byron had only been up for a few hours, and while he didn't relish ending the evening quite so soon, there was that little catch of most humans not being strictly nocturnal.

"Late, of course." With a hiss of steam and movement of hidden gears, the carriage was wheeled off in the direction of the park. For all the records of carriages being bumpy, uncomfortable methods of travel The Baron's barely jolted as the horses brought it down a slightly uneven patch of main street. "It's good to ride with someone again," Byron said, smiling more comfortably, as the warm shadows of the carriage would hide his fangs. "I'm afraid I got rather used to company while traveling."

[onlynewlife]

Kimberly studied first her surroundings, once again, setting all the possible escape routes to memory and appreciating the aesthetics of the inside of the carriage while she was at it, then Byron's face as he spoke. A small smile slid over her lips. "It's hard to get used to being alone when you've had company as long as you can remember," she empathized. Once everything had calmed down and the visions stopped, it had really and truly set in that Kimberly was alone. There was her dad and there was Thomas, but it wasn't the same as Shaina, Dano, and Frankie.

There had been a time when Kimberly and Shaina were attached at the hip. If you were looking for one of them, you would find both of them. It wasn't long before Frankie joined the pack. At first, he'd been Shaina's boyfriend, but the three of them had all gotten along so well as friends that when the relationship fell apart, the friendship was still strong. The only thing Kimberly had ever been excluded from had been the things she'd been totally okay with not being a participant...which was, to say, the activities in the bedroom. The three of them had gotten closer with Dano not terribly long after and for years, Kimberly had been surrounded by a comfortable cocoon of the clique in which she had fallen into. And then...one day, in a split second, it was over. She could completely sympathize with having something like that comfort ripped away and Kimberly didn't really know what had happened completely with Byron that he traveled now alone, but she knew the feeling, to say the least.

"It's not easy adjusting," she finally finished the sentiment after a long, introspective pause. "I've been there... So, I know how you feel." At that, she gave Byron a weak smile that didn't quite reach her eyes and she reached over to pat one of his hands with her own. "But," she said, pulling her hand back for the sole purpose of nervously wringing both of her hands together without realizing she was doing it, "the good news is, there's cool people here, so it's not so lonely, anymore," she finished reassuringly.

[baronbalaz]

For some reason, he hadn't expected her to touch him. He had a feeling, just from being able to sense her emotions that she was nervous and wasn't completely sure if she could trust him, but she was trying so hard. Humans were curious creatures, and ever since he was young, Byron had empathized with them in ways even he couldn't understand. Suddenly his conversation with D floated back, the one where they had first discussed humanity and Byron had been dismissive of the strength humans possessed.

Needless to say, he wasn't dismissive anymore. With the first truly warm smile on his lips, Byron squeezed Kimberly's hand reassuringly. "No, not it isn't." He said, eyes seeming to sparkle a little in the uncertain light of the carriage. "I have found more kindness here than someone like me has a right to know." And that was part of it too. Byron still wondered how much of this new start he really deserved. He was Nobility after all, and not ignorant to the sins of his own kind. It was hard to be with Vlad Balaz as his father.

The carriage turned and Byron gave the horses the mental order to go a little quicker--if Kimberly hadn't seen it yet, he wanted to sho her the lake.

[onlynewlife]

The returned sentiment made Kimberly knit her brow just slightly. "Someone like you?" she ventured softly. What was that supposed to mean? Why shouldn't he know kindness, she wondered. Byron had been nothing but nice to her so far and she couldn't see why he wouldn't deserve to know it returned to him. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't you have a right to know it? You're a nice guy," she decided to repeat aloud so that he could hear what she was thinking that given moment in time. She was, after all, genuinely curious and she wouldn't ever know if she never dared to ask.

It felt to her as though the carriage was moving faster, but she said nothing about it. Kimberly didn't want to ask, because maybe it was just her imagination or maybe - God help her for waffling between the fact that they were animals and the fact that they were covered in steel - the horses were simply moving with the flow of traffic.

[baronbalaz]

It wasn't a question Byron wanted to answer, but at the same time she was so earnest in her assertion that it deserved an answer of some honesty. Thankfully there was a way of explaining things that didn't have anything to do with revealing his Vampric heritage.

"Human history is marked with violent revolution--in my own time, I was of the class that was often rebeled against. The bourgeoisie. Nobility. My family is one of oppression and bloodshed, and to an extent I am as guilty as my ancestors. It is the reason my journey was so treacherous...I was under threat of death from almost everyone I met. But most of all my own family. I despised how they chose to live, especially when the rest of the world had moved on." That, and more assassination attempts than he could count had given him a less than endearing impression of his father.

"To be honest it is still surprising when strangers smile to me in street."

In no time at all, the carriage had come to the lake, clopping through the thickly wooded path, pushing snow-heavy branches out of the way.

"I have been coming out here to contemplate things since I arrived." He motioned to the windows of the carriage and the tint seemed to bleed away, leaving a clear view of the frozen lake at night. A sliver moon only just managed to shine though the clouds and onto a perfectly black water surface.

[onlynewlife]

Silently, Kimberly listened as Byron answered her question. Nobility. Nobility from the future...with prosthetic fangs. She couldn't think of any reason why he'd have to lie about it, so it wasn't that she didn't believe him, it just...felt strange to hear. "No offense, Byron, but...that sounds a lot more like the past than I'd like to think the future is," she admitted, sounding a bit sad. "Kind of a bummer..." she finished with a sheepish shrug. "But, in any case, it's different here..."

It was really different here. Kimberly had come here for the very thing that Byron seemed to be getting inadvertantly. A second chance. A new, clean slate. "You get to start all over. Nobody has to know what happened where you came from unless you want them to," she said. The words came because it was the one thing she felt like was her real and true saving grace; no one had to know that Kimberly nearly died too many times in too short a while. No one here had to know that she used to have psychic visions of impending death. As far as anyone in Aternaville had to know, Kimberly was your average, ordinary girl who just so happened to hail from a time six years in the past. "So just...start over," she finished with a small smile.

Kimberly looked out the window, having just missed the tinting fading away and barely noticing that they seemed to be more clear than they'd been before, and she gave a small smile. The scene was placid and beautiful. It made the photographer long since sleeping inside her stir ever so slightly. "God that's pretty," she whispered.

[baronbalaz]

"It is an...interesting, future, Kimberly." Byron looked out at the lake with her, lost in thought. Only Hugh had ever believed he could really start over (a child's opinion, he was only eight) and Byron had failed to protect him. The boy was lost somewhere on The Frontier, alone, captured by evil magicians or dead. It was his fault. "Not one I would ever wish you to see." 'You would have made a beautiful Noble.'

Immediately guilty at the thought, The Baron looked away from the window. "I wasn't sure what to think when I first arrived, but perhaps you're right." For a moment Byron leaned onto his knees, elbows bent and head down. "It's just...a bit to get used to." That was an understatement. Then Kimberly made note of the lake; Byron looked up, a little surprised. "You think so? I haven't met many who have the eye to appreciate such landscapes." The night was strictly the domain of Nobility and to hear a human compliment what someone from his own time would have run scared of...

Well, it brought his smile back, just a little. "You're an artist, aren't you?"

[onlynewlife]

For a moment, Kimberly said nothing. She considered what he'd said and her brow knit slightly as she watched the way the moonlight rippled on the lake as a breeze caught the surface. Finally, she spoke. "If the future is so bleak...what is there to look forward to...?" she asked slowly. Then, she looked over at him, a bit surprised to see that he was looking down. So, she looked back out the window again. "I mean...when does it all turn to shit?"

There wasn't, Kimberly thought, a single thing that she could say that would help him believe that he could and would get used to being treated differently. Better. So she simply chose to say nothing.

"Photographer," she agreed with a small nod, looking away from the lake again to look back at him. "I tend to focus on nature, buildings...landscapes," she divulged. "Everything's just too pretty, you know? How can you not appreciate it?"

[baronbalaz]

"Thankfully, if my future has any chance of happening, it will happen long after you ever have to worry about it." He grinned a little more, his expression still somewhat taut. "You would have enjoyed some of it though--at the height of the Nobility's power there were balls and galas ever night. You could stand on a balcony in any mansion and watch the dancers in the courtyard below--pale white gowns twisting and unfurling like flowers. There were...a few, I remember as a child...they looked like stars to me then, all glittering silver and gold." They weren't fond thoughts really, but the way Byron spoke of them channeled the same wonder he held as a little boy. When he was old enough, his mother often brought him with her.

"Photograph?" Byron puzzled. "That's, an image on paper, isn't it? I think the family doctor De Carriole had one of those. Father preferred portraits and landscapes the traditional way. He must have hired and fired a million painters while I still lived in Krauhausen. Kept saying they couldn't paint me right, that in the family portraits I never looked enough like him." Byron shook his head and laughed a little. "But I agree, there is much beauty in the world. It's a shame we can't see it all tonight. I believe I should get you back." It wasn't late, not for him, but the position of the moon said that it might be getting a little late for his guest.

"There's a saying my mother used, one I never understood...something about turning into a pumpkin."

[onlynewlife]

A weak smile slid over Kimberly's lips at the imagery that Byron's response brought forward. "Too bad I wouldn't ever have gotten to see it because I'd probably have been a peasant or something," she teased amiably. Then she looked back out the window. "Sounds really lovely, though," she replied.

Nodding, Kimberly looked back at Byron again when he spoke. "Yeah, pretty much. Digital images on paper, more like, most of the time," she admitted. "I think that's cool. I always wanted to be able to paint, but what I picture in my head and what comes out on the paper are very, very different and not in a good way," she laughed. "So I gave it up and found something else that suited me better. Point and shoot. Instant art," she replied.

Kimberly smirked at his comment. "Oh yeah the Cinderella reference - a universal one for 'it's getting freakin' late,'" she said with a nod. "Yeah, I probably should get back, you're right. It's been fun, though," she said with a genuine smile. "Thank you." Kimberly made a mental note to come back to the lake sometime, when she was feeling like getting back to taking pictures.

[baronbalaz]

'Lovely for people like my father, who didn't care about the people he was supposed to be protecting with his vast power and wealth, Byron thought, frowning a little.

"I don't have the nostalgia for it most of my generation do," He said, giving the mental command for the horses to make their way out of the park at a steady gallop. The carriage jerked once but continued to roll on steadily from there. Byron chuckled at Kimberly's admission that she had never been a good painter. "Part of my father's upbringing was the insistence that I have classical training in all of the high arts; music, and dance I took to easy enough because they were a lot like fencing. I was dismal at painting, although my mother kept every single one in a personal gallery." He supposed it was just what mothers did, Nobility or not. "After a while all that really stuck was dance." And that was only because so much of the movement was tied in to his fighting style, and he'd had to do a lot of that over the years.

"It has, and you are more than welcome. Really, I should thank you for meeting me like this--I suppose I'll get used to it the more I do it, but...small steps, for now." The timing was actually rather apt, as Byron would need to feed soon, and there was so delicate way of explaining synthesized human blood.

[onlynewlife]

"I think that's cool, though, that you can dance. I always thought it'd be neat to know how. Maybe someday I'll ask you to teach me after all," Kimberly replied with a smile. The jerk of the carriage didn't bother her, but it did prompt her to look back out the window again, watching the scenery roll away as the carriage moved forward.

Kimberly raised her eyebrows slightly at what he'd said and she looked back at Byron curiously. "Like this...?" she asked, wondering what exactly he meant by that. Out? At random? Online and then in person? As the hotel neared outside the window Kimberly stifled a yawn with the back of her hand and gave him a small smile. "Maybe sometime when I've gotten a bit more sleep during the day we can stay out later," she suggested.

[baronbalaz]

"It is rather uncouth for someone of my status to agree to meeting a young woman anonymously," Byron explained. 'Unless I was planning to make a meal out of it.' "But as you say, that barely matters anymore." There was a somewhat happy up-tone to his voice when he said that. "And I've been considering converting one of the parlors of the mansion into a dance studio, I'll let you know when the renovations are complete." The building was still in the process of being mapped out and cleaned, and it was slower going than it would be if Byron didn't have to continually explain to Castiel why renovations were necessary.

The horses cantered to a halt a few minutes later, the carriage door opened on it's own to allow Kimberly out. "I look forward to it. Sleep well."

[onlynewlife]

Kimberly's lips parted into an "oh," as she nodded her understanding. She pretended the statement didn't make her feel a little dirty for having been referred to as, essentially, an anonymous young woman soliciting a rendez-vous with other anonymous parties. Mostly because she was and partially because she knew that wasn't the intention of Byron's statement. "You get to be your own brand new you," she agreed with a grin, adding a excitable, "yay!" to the end of the statement.

A thoughtful smile crossed her face, then, as Byron mentioned converting a room into a dance studio. A pensive, "hmm..." soon followed and she gave a nod of approval. "You realize that's pretty bad ass," she pointed out.

As the carriage came to a stop, she looked out the window and was surprised when the door opened of its own accord. "Cool..." she breathed, mostly to herself. She looked back over her shoulder at Byron and smiled. "You too, when you do," she replied. "Thanks again. See you 'round, Byron. It was nice to meet you," she added sincerely before hopping out of the carriage and, wrapping her arms around herself to keep the cold breeze from making its way inside her coat to chill her, made her way back into the hotel for a good night's rest.