A Very Merry Vampiric Christmas
Hey yalls, I'm Megan. Wrote a Christmas fic for... Christmas. Who'd have thought?
CHRISTMAS time for Josef was nothing special. If anything, he wasn’t a fan of it. Every place was closed, and all of his human employees (the few he had), and the occasional vamp employee who still had living relatives, wanted to go home, effectively shutting down his business.
So he would play the Scrooge, go ‘bah humbug’ but let them leave anyways. He wasn’t that cold. He knew how important it was to some people for them to be with their friends and families during the holidays. He just rarely had any friends who would want to spend it with him. Sad thought, but true nonetheless. For the past fifty odd years, he’s refused to partake in any festivities.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but he had no reason to.
Until a little human bullied her way into his life, and was making him reevaluate his very existence.
And currently that same human was sitting at his bar, wearing the most ridiculous piece of clothing he’d seen in his 400 years of life.
“What in the world are you supposed to be, Beth?”
Beth raised an eyebrow. “What does it look like? I’m an elf.” She shook her head to jingle the bells, and wiggled her feet for the same effect. “Duh.”
“Of course you are. Why are you an elf?”
Beth’s face colored, and she bowed her head to mutter something.
“What was that?”
“Um...” Beth looked up sheepishly, “There’s a Christmas party that Buzzwire is holding, and there are some creepy guys there who keep hitting on me, and I really don’t want to go alone because I know that they’d try to make a move on me...”
“And you want me to go with you?”
She gave him a puppy dog - eyed look, “Please?”
“What about Josh? You know, your boyfriend?” Josef inquired, “Or how about going with Mick? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
Beth shook her head vehemently, “Josh has been in D.C. for the past few weeks, and I don’t know how much longer he’s going to be there. And Mick? Well, Mick and I haven’t been getting along to well lately. Me stabbing his ex - wife and everything, it kinda puts a damper on a friendship.” She shrugged, “So that leaves you.”
Josef frowned, “Glad to see how high I am on your list of men.”
Trying to salvage the situation, Beth blurted, “Actually, I was going to ask you to go with me even if Mick wasn’t obsessing over Coraline. I would have gone with Josh if he was here, but he isn’t, so I ruled him out as a choice from the beginning. Besides, things are rough between him and I at the moment, and frankly, I don’t know if I would have wanted to go with him. So in reality, you were my first preference to go with.” She smiled brightly, “Please?”
Josef was planning on saying yes from the moment she had asked, but watching her stutter and try to convince him to go was just too much fun to pass up.
He sighed dramatically, “Fine. But you owe me.”
Beth clapped her hands, causing the bells on her hat and feet to again jingle, “Yay! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She jumped off the stool and grabbed her bag, “Now we just need to make a stop at my apartment to get you dressed appropriately and we can head out!”
“I thought it was a Christmas party.” She nodded. “Then how I am not dressed correctly? I have on a suit, nice shoes, this is Christmas party attire. What else do you want?”
“Yes, it’s technically Christmas party attire... But it’s not fully complete.” Beth grinned, “You can keep the suit and shoes. You’re just missing a few elements, and I’m almost positive that you don’t keep them here.”
With a look of distrust in his eyes, Josef allowed Beth to lead him to the door.
“I’M going to regret this, aren’t I?” Josef asked while grimacing at himself in the hallway mirror. “This is not going to be a pleasant experience.”
“For you, maybe.” Beth said, poking her head out of her closet, “For me, this is going to be oodles of fun!” She gave a little squeal of happiness, “Found it!” and emerged with a few red and white fluffy items.
Josef recoiled, “No. No way will I wear those.”
Beth pouted, “Aw... Please? You just have to wear the hat, that’s all. I won’t make you wear the matching coat, pants and boots. Just the hat.”
She wiggled the hat in front of his face, “Ho, ho, ho!”
“Just the hat?” Josef peered at it disdainfully.
Beth plopped it on his head, “Yep. Just the hat.”
Josef shook his head, and quietly accepted his fate. He was going to the Buzzwire Christmas party as Santa, and there was nothing that could get him out of it.
At least the hat didn’t have bells on it. He would have drawn the line there and called it quits.
Maybe not. The soft spot for the human was growing larger and larger, and he probably would have put on the entire suit if she asked him to.
Okay, that was a blatant lie. He wouldn’t do that no matter what she said, but the hat didn’t look horrible and it seemed to appease her.
“What time is the party?”
Beth checked her watch, “In about forty minutes.” She again pushed him to the door, “We should probably leave now. Beat the traffic.”
“I’m driving.” He left no room for argument. No one but him, or his drivers, would touch his cars.
“You’re driving.”
BUZZWIRE was built for a party, it seemed. There was festive music, people dancing, and more decorations in one place than Josef had seen in a long time.
The punch bowls were filled with eggnog, which Beth made sure to tell Josef to stay away from, lest it be spiked again. They had yet to figure out who had poured an entire bottle of Jack Daniels and another of Jose Cuervo into it at the 2006 party.
But with the night that he was facing, surrounded completely by these mortals he was not allowed to feed on, a drink sounded pretty damned good.
Clutching onto Josef’s arm, Beth slowly approached three tall, lanky men who seemed to know she was there using their “Beth-radar.” She visibly shuddered.
“Beth, it’s such a pleasure to see you.” One of them spoke. “You look elf-tastic.”
The others looked to nervous to say anything, so they nodded their assent and stared on. Beth felt uncomfortable in her elf outfit and nudged Josef, hinting she wanted to leave.
He didn’t seem to get the hint. Instead, he unconsciously drew her closer to his side, and introduced himself. “Josef Kostan. Beth’s date. It’s nice to meet you...?”
The three men’s faces visibly fell, they had obviously hoped that she had come alone. “I’m Nick O’Halloren,” the first spoke up, “This is Tyler Jenson.” He gestured to the boy with shaggy blonde hair and then pointed to the stout, brown haired guy, “And this is Charles Nickels.” The other two simply nodded a hello.
“Well, Nick, Tyler, Charles,” Josef said, addressing each of them, “It was nice to meet you, but Beth has things she wanted to show me and we must be leaving now.”
He ushered Beth away, and leaned down to whisper in her ear, “Those the creepy guys you were telling me about?”
She slightly nodded, “Yeah. They work in IT, and everytime I go back there, I feel like I’m going to be attacked. It’s just the way that they look at me, you know?” Giving one final shutter, Beth perked up, “So, there are things that I supposedly want to show you?”
“Yep.” Josef grinned, “I want to know Buzzwire in and out. So, we need to go places, and we need to meet people. Or I need to meet people. And have you take me places.”
Beth looked up at his smiling face, it was obvious he was having fun here. “Alright, we’ll start with my boss, Maureen.”
“MO!” Beth yelled, trying to catch her boss’ attention.
Josef laughed, “You don’t need to be so loud.”
But it seemed to work, and Maureen glided up to them, “Beth! Merry Christmas!”
“You too.” Beth said happily. “Um, Maureen, this is my friend Josef Kostan. Josef - this is Maureen Williams.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Josef said politely.
Maureen quirked an eyebrow and stared at him intensely, “Kostan... Kostan... Where have I heard that before?” She shook her head, “For some reason that name sounds very, very familiar. Do I know you?”
Josef shook his head, “No, but my building was destroyed in the explosion a month or so ago.” He said disdainfully. That was still a painful memory. “You might be familiar with that.”
“Oh, of course! I sent Beth here out on that story. Since I learned that you lived, I’ve been wondering, how the hell did you survive that?” She blurted.
Josef’s eyes went wide, starting to look like a trapped animal, “It’s a long, very tedious story that I‘d rather not go into if you don’t mind.”
“Of course, of course.” Maureen flustered, “Forget I asked.”
He smiled lightly, “Don’t worry about it.”
“Well, it was nice talking to you, Maureen. Merry Christmas!” Beth said lightly.
As Beth grabbed his arm to pull him away, he threw over his shoulder, “Merry Christmas!”
“Well, she seems nice.”
“Yeah, she is.” Beth said, “Except when she’s giving you a deadline. She wants it then, no questions asked.”
“Cutthroat boss?” Josef joked.
“You know it.” Slowing to a stop, Bet reached out to tap a young girl’s shoulder. “Ally?”
The blonde jumped up. “Beth!” Ally kissed her on the cheek as they embraced. Josef watched on in interest. “It’s been too long!”
“It was only three weeks.”
“Yeah, well, I missed you. So it seemed longer.” She stuck her tongue out at Beth, “So take that.”
Beth giggled. “How was the vacation?”
Ally sighed dreamily, “Mm... Australia was so wonderful. It was so beautiful, and fun, and oh my word, the men there? Wow, don’t get me started!” Her face turned sad, “I wish you could have gone.”
“Me, too. But my mother... And the money...” Beth shook her head, “Not going to think about it. It’s Christmas time!”
Ally nodded in agreement, “Yes it is, and merry Christmas, Beth!” She turned her attention to Josef, “Well, well, well... Speaking of men... Who’s this?”
“Oh! Wow, I’m so rude! Josef, this is Allyson Davis, she’s one of the camera crew here. Ally, this is my good friend Josef Kostan.”
Ally looked him up and down, “It’s nice to meet you.” She purred.
Josef shifted uncomfortably, “You as well, Ms. Davis.”
Ally slyly nodded approvingly to Beth, who just laughed and said, “It was great talking to you again. Call me sometime - we’ll do lunch!” After winking at Josef, she turned her back and walked towards the eggnog.
“Well.” Josef chuckled, “She looks like an experience.”
“No kidding.”
Before the two of them could continue on their tour, two hands grabbed their shoulders, keeping them in place. “What the hell, man?” Beth exclaimed. “Get your hand off of me!”
Turning, she realized it to be Sam, “Oh... Sorry Sam.”
The computer whiz waved her hand “Whatever. It’s cool.” Taking initiative, Sam stuck out her hand to Josef, who took it gingerly, “Sam Wilkins. The only semi - sane computer tech around. And you are?”
“Josef. Josef Kostan.”
“Well, Josef, Beth,” She nodded to each, “I’m afraid I can’t let you leave the area at the moment.”
Beth looked at her sharply, “And why not?”
Sam merely pointed up. “Huh? Would you look at that? Mistletoe.” She gently pushed the two closer, “Just a few steps... And perfect!”
Beth looked at Josef uncertainly, “Uh... Josef? We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to...”
Josef looked at her with an ‘are you kidding?’ look. “Beth. It’s tradition.” He pulled her close to him by an arm around her waist. “We never, never, ever break traditions, Beth.”
Without a passing thought, Josef leaned his head down to capture her lips in a kiss.
Beth gasped into his mouth, and she could feel his smirk, all through the at least ten seconds.
When he finally let her go, Beth had a dazed expression on her face, and Josef was grinning like a maniac. Sam’s mouth dropped open, “Damn... I didn’t think she’d...” She slowly backed away, muttering “Hot... Very... Wow.” The last part was inaudible even to Josef, and the two merely stared at one another, paying no attention to the departing techie.
With him touching her cheek gently, Beth could feel his breath against her ear as he murmured, “Merry Christmas, Beth.”
CHRISTMAS time for Josef was nothing special. If anything, he wasn’t a fan of it. Every place was closed, and all of his human employees (the few he had), and the occasional vamp employee who still had living relatives, wanted to go home, effectively shutting down his business.
So he would play the Scrooge, go ‘bah humbug’ but let them leave anyways. He wasn’t that cold. He knew how important it was to some people for them to be with their friends and families during the holidays. He just rarely had any friends who would want to spend it with him. Sad thought, but true nonetheless. For the past fifty odd years, he’s refused to partake in any festivities.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but he had no reason to.
Until a little human bullied her way into his life, and was making him reevaluate his very existence.
And currently that same human was sitting at his bar, wearing the most ridiculous piece of clothing he’d seen in his 400 years of life.
“What in the world are you supposed to be, Beth?”
Beth raised an eyebrow. “What does it look like? I’m an elf.” She shook her head to jingle the bells, and wiggled her feet for the same effect. “Duh.”
“Of course you are. Why are you an elf?”
Beth’s face colored, and she bowed her head to mutter something.
“What was that?”
“Um...” Beth looked up sheepishly, “There’s a Christmas party that Buzzwire is holding, and there are some creepy guys there who keep hitting on me, and I really don’t want to go alone because I know that they’d try to make a move on me...”
“And you want me to go with you?”
She gave him a puppy dog - eyed look, “Please?”
“What about Josh? You know, your boyfriend?” Josef inquired, “Or how about going with Mick? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
Beth shook her head vehemently, “Josh has been in D.C. for the past few weeks, and I don’t know how much longer he’s going to be there. And Mick? Well, Mick and I haven’t been getting along to well lately. Me stabbing his ex - wife and everything, it kinda puts a damper on a friendship.” She shrugged, “So that leaves you.”
Josef frowned, “Glad to see how high I am on your list of men.”
Trying to salvage the situation, Beth blurted, “Actually, I was going to ask you to go with me even if Mick wasn’t obsessing over Coraline. I would have gone with Josh if he was here, but he isn’t, so I ruled him out as a choice from the beginning. Besides, things are rough between him and I at the moment, and frankly, I don’t know if I would have wanted to go with him. So in reality, you were my first preference to go with.” She smiled brightly, “Please?”
Josef was planning on saying yes from the moment she had asked, but watching her stutter and try to convince him to go was just too much fun to pass up.
He sighed dramatically, “Fine. But you owe me.”
Beth clapped her hands, causing the bells on her hat and feet to again jingle, “Yay! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She jumped off the stool and grabbed her bag, “Now we just need to make a stop at my apartment to get you dressed appropriately and we can head out!”
“I thought it was a Christmas party.” She nodded. “Then how I am not dressed correctly? I have on a suit, nice shoes, this is Christmas party attire. What else do you want?”
“Yes, it’s technically Christmas party attire... But it’s not fully complete.” Beth grinned, “You can keep the suit and shoes. You’re just missing a few elements, and I’m almost positive that you don’t keep them here.”
With a look of distrust in his eyes, Josef allowed Beth to lead him to the door.
“I’M going to regret this, aren’t I?” Josef asked while grimacing at himself in the hallway mirror. “This is not going to be a pleasant experience.”
“For you, maybe.” Beth said, poking her head out of her closet, “For me, this is going to be oodles of fun!” She gave a little squeal of happiness, “Found it!” and emerged with a few red and white fluffy items.
Josef recoiled, “No. No way will I wear those.”
Beth pouted, “Aw... Please? You just have to wear the hat, that’s all. I won’t make you wear the matching coat, pants and boots. Just the hat.”
She wiggled the hat in front of his face, “Ho, ho, ho!”
“Just the hat?” Josef peered at it disdainfully.
Beth plopped it on his head, “Yep. Just the hat.”
Josef shook his head, and quietly accepted his fate. He was going to the Buzzwire Christmas party as Santa, and there was nothing that could get him out of it.
At least the hat didn’t have bells on it. He would have drawn the line there and called it quits.
Maybe not. The soft spot for the human was growing larger and larger, and he probably would have put on the entire suit if she asked him to.
Okay, that was a blatant lie. He wouldn’t do that no matter what she said, but the hat didn’t look horrible and it seemed to appease her.
“What time is the party?”
Beth checked her watch, “In about forty minutes.” She again pushed him to the door, “We should probably leave now. Beat the traffic.”
“I’m driving.” He left no room for argument. No one but him, or his drivers, would touch his cars.
“You’re driving.”
BUZZWIRE was built for a party, it seemed. There was festive music, people dancing, and more decorations in one place than Josef had seen in a long time.
The punch bowls were filled with eggnog, which Beth made sure to tell Josef to stay away from, lest it be spiked again. They had yet to figure out who had poured an entire bottle of Jack Daniels and another of Jose Cuervo into it at the 2006 party.
But with the night that he was facing, surrounded completely by these mortals he was not allowed to feed on, a drink sounded pretty damned good.
Clutching onto Josef’s arm, Beth slowly approached three tall, lanky men who seemed to know she was there using their “Beth-radar.” She visibly shuddered.
“Beth, it’s such a pleasure to see you.” One of them spoke. “You look elf-tastic.”
The others looked to nervous to say anything, so they nodded their assent and stared on. Beth felt uncomfortable in her elf outfit and nudged Josef, hinting she wanted to leave.
He didn’t seem to get the hint. Instead, he unconsciously drew her closer to his side, and introduced himself. “Josef Kostan. Beth’s date. It’s nice to meet you...?”
The three men’s faces visibly fell, they had obviously hoped that she had come alone. “I’m Nick O’Halloren,” the first spoke up, “This is Tyler Jenson.” He gestured to the boy with shaggy blonde hair and then pointed to the stout, brown haired guy, “And this is Charles Nickels.” The other two simply nodded a hello.
“Well, Nick, Tyler, Charles,” Josef said, addressing each of them, “It was nice to meet you, but Beth has things she wanted to show me and we must be leaving now.”
He ushered Beth away, and leaned down to whisper in her ear, “Those the creepy guys you were telling me about?”
She slightly nodded, “Yeah. They work in IT, and everytime I go back there, I feel like I’m going to be attacked. It’s just the way that they look at me, you know?” Giving one final shutter, Beth perked up, “So, there are things that I supposedly want to show you?”
“Yep.” Josef grinned, “I want to know Buzzwire in and out. So, we need to go places, and we need to meet people. Or I need to meet people. And have you take me places.”
Beth looked up at his smiling face, it was obvious he was having fun here. “Alright, we’ll start with my boss, Maureen.”
“MO!” Beth yelled, trying to catch her boss’ attention.
Josef laughed, “You don’t need to be so loud.”
But it seemed to work, and Maureen glided up to them, “Beth! Merry Christmas!”
“You too.” Beth said happily. “Um, Maureen, this is my friend Josef Kostan. Josef - this is Maureen Williams.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Josef said politely.
Maureen quirked an eyebrow and stared at him intensely, “Kostan... Kostan... Where have I heard that before?” She shook her head, “For some reason that name sounds very, very familiar. Do I know you?”
Josef shook his head, “No, but my building was destroyed in the explosion a month or so ago.” He said disdainfully. That was still a painful memory. “You might be familiar with that.”
“Oh, of course! I sent Beth here out on that story. Since I learned that you lived, I’ve been wondering, how the hell did you survive that?” She blurted.
Josef’s eyes went wide, starting to look like a trapped animal, “It’s a long, very tedious story that I‘d rather not go into if you don’t mind.”
“Of course, of course.” Maureen flustered, “Forget I asked.”
He smiled lightly, “Don’t worry about it.”
“Well, it was nice talking to you, Maureen. Merry Christmas!” Beth said lightly.
As Beth grabbed his arm to pull him away, he threw over his shoulder, “Merry Christmas!”
“Well, she seems nice.”
“Yeah, she is.” Beth said, “Except when she’s giving you a deadline. She wants it then, no questions asked.”
“Cutthroat boss?” Josef joked.
“You know it.” Slowing to a stop, Bet reached out to tap a young girl’s shoulder. “Ally?”
The blonde jumped up. “Beth!” Ally kissed her on the cheek as they embraced. Josef watched on in interest. “It’s been too long!”
“It was only three weeks.”
“Yeah, well, I missed you. So it seemed longer.” She stuck her tongue out at Beth, “So take that.”
Beth giggled. “How was the vacation?”
Ally sighed dreamily, “Mm... Australia was so wonderful. It was so beautiful, and fun, and oh my word, the men there? Wow, don’t get me started!” Her face turned sad, “I wish you could have gone.”
“Me, too. But my mother... And the money...” Beth shook her head, “Not going to think about it. It’s Christmas time!”
Ally nodded in agreement, “Yes it is, and merry Christmas, Beth!” She turned her attention to Josef, “Well, well, well... Speaking of men... Who’s this?”
“Oh! Wow, I’m so rude! Josef, this is Allyson Davis, she’s one of the camera crew here. Ally, this is my good friend Josef Kostan.”
Ally looked him up and down, “It’s nice to meet you.” She purred.
Josef shifted uncomfortably, “You as well, Ms. Davis.”
Ally slyly nodded approvingly to Beth, who just laughed and said, “It was great talking to you again. Call me sometime - we’ll do lunch!” After winking at Josef, she turned her back and walked towards the eggnog.
“Well.” Josef chuckled, “She looks like an experience.”
“No kidding.”
Before the two of them could continue on their tour, two hands grabbed their shoulders, keeping them in place. “What the hell, man?” Beth exclaimed. “Get your hand off of me!”
Turning, she realized it to be Sam, “Oh... Sorry Sam.”
The computer whiz waved her hand “Whatever. It’s cool.” Taking initiative, Sam stuck out her hand to Josef, who took it gingerly, “Sam Wilkins. The only semi - sane computer tech around. And you are?”
“Josef. Josef Kostan.”
“Well, Josef, Beth,” She nodded to each, “I’m afraid I can’t let you leave the area at the moment.”
Beth looked at her sharply, “And why not?”
Sam merely pointed up. “Huh? Would you look at that? Mistletoe.” She gently pushed the two closer, “Just a few steps... And perfect!”
Beth looked at Josef uncertainly, “Uh... Josef? We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to...”
Josef looked at her with an ‘are you kidding?’ look. “Beth. It’s tradition.” He pulled her close to him by an arm around her waist. “We never, never, ever break traditions, Beth.”
Without a passing thought, Josef leaned his head down to capture her lips in a kiss.
Beth gasped into his mouth, and she could feel his smirk, all through the at least ten seconds.
When he finally let her go, Beth had a dazed expression on her face, and Josef was grinning like a maniac. Sam’s mouth dropped open, “Damn... I didn’t think she’d...” She slowly backed away, muttering “Hot... Very... Wow.” The last part was inaudible even to Josef, and the two merely stared at one another, paying no attention to the departing techie.
With him touching her cheek gently, Beth could feel his breath against her ear as he murmured, “Merry Christmas, Beth.”