Every time Devin opened his mouth, Zander shot him the look, the dead-eyed, wordless stare that made it abundantly clear that Devin was begging to get beaten later. The only reason the ghoul was getting away with mouthing off now was because Zander wouldn’t dare be that violent in front of Lacroix; that would scare the mage away, and he just couldn’t have that. Buttering up Lacroix was key in keeping his relationship with the Styles’ sound, and he made a quick effort to dismiss Lacroix’s worries as soon as they were spoken.
“Don’t be silly,” Zander replied, shoving his video game controller toward Lacroix, inviting him to take a turn. “No one ever plays with me around here. Isn’t that right, Devin?”
It was a rhetorical question, and it took an exceptional amount of effort to hide the genuine aggravation from his voice. Just why did Devin have to be such a pain all the time! Ugh, if any of his sire’s ghouls acted like this, they’d have their limbs ripped off, or worse. Devin should have felt grateful that Zander wanted to keep up an appearance of normalcy in the city, and that involved not offing his ghoul - even if he deserved it sometimes.
Zander gave his attention back to Lacroix after that, reaching over to give his back a little nudge forward. “Hey, scoot up. Let me get behind you.” If Lacroix shifted forward to sit on the edge of the couch cushion, Zander could ease over to sit behind him and have easy access to play with his hair again - Lacroix had certainly liked that on their last visit.
Besides, being behind Lacroix made it easy for him to give Devin increasingly annoyed glances without the worry that the mage might catch his expression.
“And why don’t you go pick up the laundry or something?” Zander suggested to Devin, not knowing if any of their laundry even was at the downstairs laundromat. Any excuse to get Devin to leave him alone.
He was increasingly less and less comfortable with the tension between the two, in fact he was starting to feel guilty about it when it was so obvious that he was the reason Devin was so irritated. Even more than his usual amount of unpleasant, because he did try very hard to get along with Devin but it was like trying to befriend an angry cat; lots of hissing and scratching. But he did feel bad about it, because the look Devin shot him was absolutely withering in the sort of way guys around his old high school forever ago used to glare at the jocks with when the cheerleaders ignored them in favor of the football team.
Heh, it really was awkward.
The trailing growling that followed Devin as he stalked off, door slamming no less, made him cringe an draw a slow breath as he looked down at the controller in his hands. "Man, I really feel like he hates me more every time I come over here." If that was even possible, given the amount of malice Devin had towards him in the first place.
It was difficult to concentrate on the game though between that feeling of upsetting poor Devin and Zander distracting him when he switched seats. Right, well, he needed to redirect his thoughts there while the vampire was enjoying messing with him, clearly.
Fingers tapping against the edge of the controller rather than the buttons, he glanced at the screen. "You sure it's not a problem? "
Fuck, Devin was such a pest! That door slam probably woke the neighbors at this hour - he just had to make a dramatic exit, didn’t he?
Oh well - at least he was gone now so Zander could focus just on Lacroix, and stop thinking so hard about just how he was going to punish Devin later for his attitude tonight. Why his ghoul was making things so difficult with Lacroix, Zander just couldn’t figure out. He’d told Devin just how much money the Styles’ were rolling in - he thought that would be enough to make Devin behave, but apparently he’d been wrong about that.
“Why would you be a problem?” Zander asked, taking a moment to just smooth back Lacroix’s hair with his fingers after he was settled in behind the young mage. His first intention wasn’t to change the strands into different colors, but rather give some physical reassurance that being here was all right. Sneaking out and avoiding getting caught by Hector was probably stressful, wasn’t it? Zander wasn’t exactly good at comfort, but brushing hair with his fingers he could do.
And he couldn’t resist just a little bit of venting.
“I pay for everything for him. He gets to stay young forever.” Or however long Zander wanted him around, at any rate. “And this is how he treats me! Some people are just so ungrateful.”
Lingering on Devin probably wasn’t going to make Lacroix feel better though, so Zander made the wise decision to shift the conversation. “It’s fine, he’ll get over himself. C’mon, try to beat this level for me.” Zander has a stack of video games; if Lacroix didn’t like this one, he could take his pick. In the meantime, the vampire could play with his hair again. “What color you want tonight? Or should I surprise you?” A little smirk; he could finally relax now that his ghoul wasn't snarking in the background anymore.
"Devin doesn't like me, it's...you know, awkward." He offered quietly, actually, he felt bad for Devin with how obvious it was that the guy was bothered by his presence around Zander. "It's just..." He trailed off because wasn't it...obvious wasn't it? Why Devin was upset? He thought so, but given the fact that Zander didn't even seem to register it maybe the vampire was just...emotion-blind or something.
How did he say 'your...whatever he is...is psycho-jealous when people are around you' without it sounding really weird? He really couldn't have a single normal friendship with anyone, apparently.
"I don't think it's exactly that," Lacroix approached cautiously with the conversation and a glance at Zander when he shifted closer, "I think it's more that he doesn't like me around you. Or people. Like...he's not happy with me being here because then you're playing games with me or whatever. I mean, you guys....actually, I don't have a clue what it is between you guys, it's really confusing."
He had seen how starkly hot and cold Zander ran and Devin just seemed to stay endlessly frozen-level chilly and still be obsessed with the vampire. Lacroix had never seen a more bizarre relationship in his life.
"Should I trust you to surprise me?"
True, he did trust Zander far more than common sense told he should have, but he wasn't always the most scrutinizing judge of character. Plus he was restless, weary and even video games just fell flat lately with the scope of bigger, real, difficult emotions eating away at him from the inside; Lacroix had become far better at ignoring that voice of caution and reason than he wanted to admit in the past few weeks.
No, it wasn’t obvious to Zander just why Devin was upset, and he couldn’t help but scoff at Lacroix’s explanation. It was half emotion blindness, and half years of witnessing just how subservient and timid his sire’s ghouls had been. Zander just had to pick someone with enough willpower to be an absolute terror even with the blood bond. Slamming doors, acting like a child around their wealthy guest - just who did Devin think he was?!
…then again, he did have his redeeming qualities. Devin managed all the paperwork for Zander’s business so the vampire didn’t have to be bothered, kept their apartment clean, gave Zander loads of entertainment from their little verbal tiffs. And he was hot as hell in bed.
But that still didn’t make up for his behavior now. Zander would be absolutely livid if Devin tried anything that might ruin Zander’s relationship with this particular family of magi.
“What does he care about you playing games here? He hates them,” Zander dismissed. Not to mention hair - Devin positively bristled with annoyance whenever Zander threatened to mess with his hair color, but Lacroix actually seemed to appreciate his talents.
Zander couldn’t do much more than alter Lacroix’s hair color though, for fear of Hector finding out about their little secret rendezvouses. Lacroix probably dyed his own hair at home often enough that a change like this wouldn’t arouse any suspicion from Hector.
“You can trust me with anything,” Zander replied with a Cheshire smirk, working to make a few bold red streaks in Lacroix’s hair. “I still haven’t told Hector about your little secret, have I?”
"Oh yeah, that's what he hates right now." Lacroix was tempted to roll his eyes, thinking himself a bit inept when it came to people but Zander clearly was just as bad when it came to Devin. "He's going to stab me, he already looks at me like he wants to. You should probably tell him I'm not...ah...yanno, infringing on things between you guys..before he stabs me." At least he hoped Zander would attempt since some of those looks Devin shot him were little short of murderous.
"Yeah, but you don't tell Hector things because you don't want him mad at you. And he'd freak out knowing I was here and stop talking to you." Lacroix pointed out, because people always seemed to think he good-natured personality somehow made him less intelligent than the other people around him.
Even so, Zander was the only friend he had, counting Corbin was difficult because he was more around for Hector, and he barely saw anyone else. So he couldn't really take it for granted, he did at least have Zander.
"I'm pretty boring honestly, I don't have a lot of secrets, I don't get out around other people enough to," he mused, because of course, the sort of secrets he kept about Hector and their magic weren't things he would talk about. He uttered a weary sound, his brain was such a tangled up mess lately. "I really shouldn't complain, I mean...Hector does everything for me."
Oh, if Devin even thought about stabbing Lacroix, there was going to be a big problem. Zander couldn’t understand just why Devin was being such a pain in the ass about Lacroix - didn’t he have the foresight to even think about what having a good relationship with the Styles’ would mean for them?! Hector didn’t blink an eye handing off thirty grand for some shiny taxidermy piece, didn’t Devin care at all about their financial state?
Ugh, he’d have to give Devin a real good talk about the issue later.
But for now, Zander didn’t want to drag on about Devin, lest it make Lacroix feel even worse about the whole situation. Besides, it seemed like Lacroix was also bothered by not getting around other people enough.
“Why don’t you tell Hector your basic human need for socializing isn’t being met,” Zander suggested, fingers still working to make stripes of crimson in Lacroix’s hair. “Show him some of those studies where people go totally insane being cooped up in their houses for years! I’m sure he doesn’t want you going crazy on him.”
Hector was a bit of an intellectual, after all - showing him studies about social isolation just might help.
"Because Hector doesn't have one of those, I think he literally does not care if he's ever around other people. And you can't explain that to someone who doesn't...understand how that feels." Lacroix sighed and shook his head, shoulders feeling heavy with the motion. "It's not his fault, it's just how he is. Besides, if I do that he's going to feel bad and...okay, sometime I use that to my advantage, yeah, but this seems more like something that would hurt things, and him, maybe." Hurting Hector's feelings was the last thing he wanted, some part of him had moved past just selfish manipulation over time and come to realize that pushing too far really was being unfair. He couldn't manipulate the man into thinking he was losing his mind over being alone; Hector would blame himself.
"You realize it's going to upset him bad if I tell him that his trying to keep me from getting murder is driving me insane?" He felt a few strands of hair fall across his eyes and reached to brush them again, hand dropping back to his knee.
No, hurting Hector with that was the last thing Lacroix wanted to do.
"Plus then he'll try to pay somebody to be my friend," he groaned, "Or worse."
Because that's what Hector did, he used logic to solve problems. When he'd been lonely Hector had paid somebody to spend time with him for the sake of...yeah, well, that had worked out with Ash but he couldn't fathom the idea when it came to strangers. He still could barely catch his breath over those aching memories as it was, and even Ash hadn't been able to deal with the oddities of his life enough to have anything normal between them.
Granted, the prospects of eternal solitude without friends or anything more wasn't a pleasant one, frankly neither was dealing with unsteady hormones never fully realized, but thus was the universe's sense of humor when it came to his personal life.
“If he doesn’t want to let you out because he’s scared you’ll get murdered, you just have to prove to him that you can take care of yourself,” Zander suggested, still trying his hardest to come up with ideas to be extra helpful to Lacroix in hopes of winning his favor even more. “That’s what I had to do before I could leave the nest.”
Zander didn’t really believe that Lacroix could defend himself against some truly horrific threat, at least not yet. Then again, the vast majority of humans on the street were not any threat at all - and it was especially safe during daylight hours with no vampires lurking down dark alleyways. Maybe Hector’s worry was justified with the sun down, but Zander found him way too paranoid for keeping Lacroix locked inside during the daytime.
“Ask him to teach you how to do something real violent,” Zander went on with a little smirk, his mind plotting all the terrible things Hector might be able to do with his powers. “Like how to melt someone’s eyeballs out or something. If you know how to do that, he’ll let you out on your own for sure.” Going for the eyes was Zander’s preferred method of attack, whether with a knife or gouging with his bare fingers. He left that little detail to himself, though; he was, after all, trying to get Lacroix to warm up to him.
Words weren’t having too much of an effect, though - no surprise there, the vampire was hardly good at offering comfort. Abandoning Lacroix’s hair for now, Zander slid his hands just a touch downwards, the pads of his thumbs pressing firm against the nape of Lacroix's neck. No vampire tricks, just a keen awareness of the layout of human muscles and how to encourage their relaxation.
"Apparently I can't," Lacroix admitted, it was just flat truth when it came to how vastly underprepared he was when it came to some of the things that Hector knew and he did not. That was just scratching the surface of what Hector told, there had to be plenty, and far more, traumatic things out there. He could handle it all perfectly fine, sure, but...Hector being there made it easier and less likely that he was going to die. Which didn't say a lot to add to the argument that he used to be a perfectly capable adult who lived on his own and managed to get by, a bit strained at times but still got by. The world where was less a place of actual monsters back then, vampires, people with magic and all the other things that amazed Lacroix to an unhealthy degree that evidently wanted to murder him.
Lacroix sat there for a moment, a few degrees paler with each word Zander spoke. By the end of it his mouth was slightly open and he looked horrified by the entire idea. "...what? I didn't know people could even do that...why would you want to?" He was feeling a little sick to his stomach, trying to hold back a shudder at the thought.
Brow furrowed, he was trying to figure out what Zander was doing with his hands but it was difficult to hang onto that tension so he uttered a slow breath as he sat there with his shoulders slumped. Yeah, Zander had some tricks, vampire or not, after that commentary about eye-melting he didn't really want to consider what other things he knew how to do. Or maybe Zander just knew he was an attention-starved wreck of a person lately and saw the advantage in that, but he preferred to think they were friends.
"That's sneaky, seriously man," at least there was some humor to the words, even if it was a bit weak, "and stay away from my eyes. Or...really any other body part I want to keep, which means all of them."
Oh, come on, it was just eyeballs! Some people were so sensitive. Just how Lacroix managed to be a death mage, Zander just didn’t know - Hector definitely wasn’t grossed out like this. Then again, Zander hadn’t exactly come out of the womb molding animal skins, but here he was now, so maybe he should have been a little more lenient with Lacroix.
Zander neglected to reply to that question, because he wasn’t sure the answer would be received well. Besides the obvious answer that melting someone’s eyes out would render them blind and probably harmless, Zander liked the idea just for the fun of it! It felt practically heavenly to sink his fingers deep into some poor sap’s optical cavities after he’d ripped their eyes out.
…buuut he kept all of that to himself.
Instead, he drug his thumbs to the side to massage the space between Lacroix’s neck and shoulders, with the intent to make him forget all about the talk of eyeball melting.
"You sure you want me to keep my hands off?” Zander asked, coy, as he lifted his hands in the air a moment to see if Lacroix would protest. “You weren't complaining last time.” A smug little smirk curled at the corners of his lips.
Right...the idea of melting eyes made him downright sick, and the fact that he knew it wouldn't have affected half of the people around him was frightening...these people were his friends and family. And in spite of all of that, he still adored them, emotional issues and all. These were the people he very willingly and happily spent his time with, people who meant the world to him..and most of them were likely psychopaths.
Nobody was perfect.
"I...okay, fine.* He sighed, knowing that battle lost because Zander was right, last time a twinge of common sense had been the only thing that had probably kept him out of too much trouble. But that was becoming thinner and thinner with the stress; he wanted to think he was handling it far better than he was. "Do you have to say it like that? Sounds so much worse than it was."
Oh, if it had been a miserable experience, Zander was sure that Lacroix wouldn’t have made his way back over here again. But a possibility like that had never crossed his mind; the act itself was designed to be a pleasurable haze to ensure vampires had an easy time feeding. Lacroix had, predictably, melted in his arms just as so many others had in the past.
But worse wasn’t exactly a word Zander would have used, though. “Oh no, it could have been better than it was,” he corrected, easing up just a little closer so his chest brushed against Lacroix’s back, fingers working to massage Lacroix’s shoulders again.
“I could have taken you right here like I did,” he elaborated, leaning his head in close to whisper against one side of Lacroix’s neck. “…but then gone at it one more time on this side,” he went on, moving his head to the opposite side. Twice the stab of his fangs and twice the sear of pleasure that came with it - he was smug in the fact that Lacroix would have liked that just fine.
But he was shameless enough to ask for himself. “What do you think?”
It was true, he trusted Zander far too much, he took stupid risks when it came to the vampire because the guy did have fangs, and he wasn't the best person probably. But that all seemed secondary, he did like spending time with Zander, lately that had been a bit more...questionable in nature, but he was in a strange place emotionally himself.
"...man, you sound like the worst porno ever." Lacroix uttered with a vague wail of amused horror because he was pretty sure that was exactly what the vampire was going for, trying to make him squirm some. And it was working, he gave him Zander a small nudge with his elbow and rolled his eyes at that teasing, mostly to distract himself from too much thought about those fangs because there was something about them that hit a nerve.
Probably the same nerves his hormones were directly wired into, it certainly seemed to be the case, and a very frustrating case indeed.
"I think you're probably the worst person I know." Lacroix replied, it wasn't an insult though so much as a humored comment as he tipped his head some to catch sight of Zander out of the corner of his eye.
A tiny, amused snicker escaped at that ‘porno’ comment, and he slid his hands back over to Lacroix’s neck again, fingertips tracing the skin there in gentle patterns.
Zander made a careful effort to keep his hands at shoulder level, not wanting to spook Lacroix by feeling him up too much. Expressing his own sexuality was an easy, comfortable task; it was what allowed him to convince Devin to come home with him that first night. But he wasn’t seducing a future ghoul right now - he was trying to keep Lacroix feeling warm toward him so Zander’s relationship with the Styles family would remain solid. Making Lacroix uncomfortable might hinder that goal, so he approached the situation with a certain level of caution.
“The worst person you know?” Oh, Zander didn’t take it as an insult, as full of himself as he was. “Aren’t you quick with the compliments tonight? But enough about me.”
His fingers found their way up into Lacroix’s hair again, no color-changing tricks this time, just tiny motions to toy with the strands there. “You never told me if you want it again. Oh, I already know the answer, but I want to hear you say it.” Smirk still plastered on his face, he found it easier to be verbally shameless to Lacroix rather than physically.
"How is that a...you know, nevermind, I don't think I really want to know." Right, compliment, of course Zander would take it that way, how could he have ever doubted it? Zander was...an interesting guy, yeah, that was a good word for it.
Like things weren't confusing enough right then with his stress and confusion over things in life, he had vampires with a sense of humor and a tendency to enjoy making him twitch to deal with on top of everything else. Sure, like Zander didn't know how distracted he was, clear thoughts a bit muddled, and it wasn't getting much better with those passing moments.
"Oh sure, manhandle me and then verbally torment me, you're a horrible person. A very horrible person." Lacroix groaned and realized he was still holding that game controller in one hand, tossing it aside with a dull thud against the floor. "...maybe but you better be nice." Or he'd tell Hector, or...something, expect he couldn't without risking making Hector upset and likely not letting him out of the house for the next century or so.
So that made for a pretty shallow warning, and they both knew it.
“Don’t be silly,” Zander replied, shoving his video game controller toward Lacroix, inviting him to take a turn. “No one ever plays with me around here. Isn’t that right, Devin?”
It was a rhetorical question, and it took an exceptional amount of effort to hide the genuine aggravation from his voice. Just why did Devin have to be such a pain all the time! Ugh, if any of his sire’s ghouls acted like this, they’d have their limbs ripped off, or worse. Devin should have felt grateful that Zander wanted to keep up an appearance of normalcy in the city, and that involved not offing his ghoul - even if he deserved it sometimes.
Zander gave his attention back to Lacroix after that, reaching over to give his back a little nudge forward. “Hey, scoot up. Let me get behind you.” If Lacroix shifted forward to sit on the edge of the couch cushion, Zander could ease over to sit behind him and have easy access to play with his hair again - Lacroix had certainly liked that on their last visit.
Besides, being behind Lacroix made it easy for him to give Devin increasingly annoyed glances without the worry that the mage might catch his expression.
“And why don’t you go pick up the laundry or something?” Zander suggested to Devin, not knowing if any of their laundry even was at the downstairs laundromat. Any excuse to get Devin to leave him alone.
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But he did feel bad about it, because the look Devin shot him was absolutely withering in the sort of way guys around his old high school forever ago used to glare at the jocks with when the cheerleaders ignored them in favor of the football team.
Heh, it really was awkward.
The trailing growling that followed Devin as he stalked off, door slamming no less, made him cringe an draw a slow breath as he looked down at the controller in his hands. "Man, I really feel like he hates me more every time I come over here."
If that was even possible, given the amount of malice Devin had towards him in the first place.
It was difficult to concentrate on the game though between that feeling of upsetting poor Devin and Zander distracting him when he switched seats. Right, well, he needed to redirect his thoughts there while the vampire was enjoying messing with him, clearly.
Fingers tapping against the edge of the controller rather than the buttons, he glanced at the screen. "You sure it's not a problem? "
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Oh well - at least he was gone now so Zander could focus just on Lacroix, and stop thinking so hard about just how he was going to punish Devin later for his attitude tonight. Why his ghoul was making things so difficult with Lacroix, Zander just couldn’t figure out. He’d told Devin just how much money the Styles’ were rolling in - he thought that would be enough to make Devin behave, but apparently he’d been wrong about that.
“Why would you be a problem?” Zander asked, taking a moment to just smooth back Lacroix’s hair with his fingers after he was settled in behind the young mage. His first intention wasn’t to change the strands into different colors, but rather give some physical reassurance that being here was all right. Sneaking out and avoiding getting caught by Hector was probably stressful, wasn’t it? Zander wasn’t exactly good at comfort, but brushing hair with his fingers he could do.
And he couldn’t resist just a little bit of venting.
“I pay for everything for him. He gets to stay young forever.” Or however long Zander wanted him around, at any rate. “And this is how he treats me! Some people are just so ungrateful.”
Lingering on Devin probably wasn’t going to make Lacroix feel better though, so Zander made the wise decision to shift the conversation. “It’s fine, he’ll get over himself. C’mon, try to beat this level for me.” Zander has a stack of video games; if Lacroix didn’t like this one, he could take his pick. In the meantime, the vampire could play with his hair again. “What color you want tonight? Or should I surprise you?” A little smirk; he could finally relax now that his ghoul wasn't snarking in the background anymore.
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He trailed off because wasn't it...obvious wasn't it? Why Devin was upset? He thought so, but given the fact that Zander didn't even seem to register it maybe the vampire was just...emotion-blind or something.
How did he say 'your...whatever he is...is psycho-jealous when people are around you' without it sounding really weird?
He really couldn't have a single normal friendship with anyone, apparently.
"I don't think it's exactly that," Lacroix approached cautiously with the conversation and a glance at Zander when he shifted closer, "I think it's more that he doesn't like me around you. Or people. Like...he's not happy with me being here because then you're playing games with me or whatever. I mean, you guys....actually, I don't have a clue what it is between you guys, it's really confusing."
He had seen how starkly hot and cold Zander ran and Devin just seemed to stay endlessly frozen-level chilly and still be obsessed with the vampire.
Lacroix had never seen a more bizarre relationship in his life.
"Should I trust you to surprise me?"
True, he did trust Zander far more than common sense told he should have, but he wasn't always the most scrutinizing judge of character. Plus he was restless, weary and even video games just fell flat lately with the scope of bigger, real, difficult emotions eating away at him from the inside; Lacroix had become far better at ignoring that voice of caution and reason than he wanted to admit in the past few weeks.
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…then again, he did have his redeeming qualities. Devin managed all the paperwork for Zander’s business so the vampire didn’t have to be bothered, kept their apartment clean, gave Zander loads of entertainment from their little verbal tiffs. And he was hot as hell in bed.
But that still didn’t make up for his behavior now. Zander would be absolutely livid if Devin tried anything that might ruin Zander’s relationship with this particular family of magi.
“What does he care about you playing games here? He hates them,” Zander dismissed. Not to mention hair - Devin positively bristled with annoyance whenever Zander threatened to mess with his hair color, but Lacroix actually seemed to appreciate his talents.
Zander couldn’t do much more than alter Lacroix’s hair color though, for fear of Hector finding out about their little secret rendezvouses. Lacroix probably dyed his own hair at home often enough that a change like this wouldn’t arouse any suspicion from Hector.
“You can trust me with anything,” Zander replied with a Cheshire smirk, working to make a few bold red streaks in Lacroix’s hair. “I still haven’t told Hector about your little secret, have I?”
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At least he hoped Zander would attempt since some of those looks Devin shot him were little short of murderous.
"Yeah, but you don't tell Hector things because you don't want him mad at you. And he'd freak out knowing I was here and stop talking to you." Lacroix pointed out, because people always seemed to think he good-natured personality somehow made him less intelligent than the other people around him.
Even so, Zander was the only friend he had, counting Corbin was difficult because he was more around for Hector, and he barely saw anyone else. So he couldn't really take it for granted, he did at least have Zander.
"I'm pretty boring honestly, I don't have a lot of secrets, I don't get out around other people enough to," he mused, because of course, the sort of secrets he kept about Hector and their magic weren't things he would talk about. He uttered a weary sound, his brain was such a tangled up mess lately. "I really shouldn't complain, I mean...Hector does everything for me."
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Ugh, he’d have to give Devin a real good talk about the issue later.
But for now, Zander didn’t want to drag on about Devin, lest it make Lacroix feel even worse about the whole situation. Besides, it seemed like Lacroix was also bothered by not getting around other people enough.
“Why don’t you tell Hector your basic human need for socializing isn’t being met,” Zander suggested, fingers still working to make stripes of crimson in Lacroix’s hair. “Show him some of those studies where people go totally insane being cooped up in their houses for years! I’m sure he doesn’t want you going crazy on him.”
Hector was a bit of an intellectual, after all - showing him studies about social isolation just might help.
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Hurting Hector's feelings was the last thing he wanted, some part of him had moved past just selfish manipulation over time and come to realize that pushing too far really was being unfair. He couldn't manipulate the man into thinking he was losing his mind over being alone; Hector would blame himself.
"You realize it's going to upset him bad if I tell him that his trying to keep me from getting murder is driving me insane?" He felt a few strands of hair fall across his eyes and reached to brush them again, hand dropping back to his knee.
No, hurting Hector with that was the last thing Lacroix wanted to do.
"Plus then he'll try to pay somebody to be my friend," he groaned, "Or worse."
Because that's what Hector did, he used logic to solve problems. When he'd been lonely Hector had paid somebody to spend time with him for the sake of...yeah, well, that had worked out with Ash but he couldn't fathom the idea when it came to strangers.
He still could barely catch his breath over those aching memories as it was, and even Ash hadn't been able to deal with the oddities of his life enough to have anything normal between them.
Granted, the prospects of eternal solitude without friends or anything more wasn't a pleasant one, frankly neither was dealing with unsteady hormones never fully realized, but thus was the universe's sense of humor when it came to his personal life.
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Zander didn’t really believe that Lacroix could defend himself against some truly horrific threat, at least not yet. Then again, the vast majority of humans on the street were not any threat at all - and it was especially safe during daylight hours with no vampires lurking down dark alleyways. Maybe Hector’s worry was justified with the sun down, but Zander found him way too paranoid for keeping Lacroix locked inside during the daytime.
“Ask him to teach you how to do something real violent,” Zander went on with a little smirk, his mind plotting all the terrible things Hector might be able to do with his powers. “Like how to melt someone’s eyeballs out or something. If you know how to do that, he’ll let you out on your own for sure.” Going for the eyes was Zander’s preferred method of attack, whether with a knife or gouging with his bare fingers. He left that little detail to himself, though; he was, after all, trying to get Lacroix to warm up to him.
Words weren’t having too much of an effect, though - no surprise there, the vampire was hardly good at offering comfort. Abandoning Lacroix’s hair for now, Zander slid his hands just a touch downwards, the pads of his thumbs pressing firm against the nape of Lacroix's neck. No vampire tricks, just a keen awareness of the layout of human muscles and how to encourage their relaxation.
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He could handle it all perfectly fine, sure, but...Hector being there made it easier and less likely that he was going to die. Which didn't say a lot to add to the argument that he used to be a perfectly capable adult who lived on his own and managed to get by, a bit strained at times but still got by. The world where was less a place of actual monsters back then, vampires, people with magic and all the other things that amazed Lacroix to an unhealthy degree that evidently wanted to murder him.
Lacroix sat there for a moment, a few degrees paler with each word Zander spoke. By the end of it his mouth was slightly open and he looked horrified by the entire idea. "...what? I didn't know people could even do that...why would you want to?"
He was feeling a little sick to his stomach, trying to hold back a shudder at the thought.
Brow furrowed, he was trying to figure out what Zander was doing with his hands but it was difficult to hang onto that tension so he uttered a slow breath as he sat there with his shoulders slumped. Yeah, Zander had some tricks, vampire or not, after that commentary about eye-melting he didn't really want to consider what other things he knew how to do.
Or maybe Zander just knew he was an attention-starved wreck of a person lately and saw the advantage in that, but he preferred to think they were friends.
"That's sneaky, seriously man," at least there was some humor to the words, even if it was a bit weak, "and stay away from my eyes. Or...really any other body part I want to keep, which means all of them."
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Zander neglected to reply to that question, because he wasn’t sure the answer would be received well. Besides the obvious answer that melting someone’s eyes out would render them blind and probably harmless, Zander liked the idea just for the fun of it! It felt practically heavenly to sink his fingers deep into some poor sap’s optical cavities after he’d ripped their eyes out.
…buuut he kept all of that to himself.
Instead, he drug his thumbs to the side to massage the space between Lacroix’s neck and shoulders, with the intent to make him forget all about the talk of eyeball melting.
"You sure you want me to keep my hands off?” Zander asked, coy, as he lifted his hands in the air a moment to see if Lacroix would protest. “You weren't complaining last time.” A smug little smirk curled at the corners of his lips.
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These were the people he very willingly and happily spent his time with, people who meant the world to him..and most of them were likely psychopaths.
Nobody was perfect.
"I...okay, fine.* He sighed, knowing that battle lost because Zander was right, last time a twinge of common sense had been the only thing that had probably kept him out of too much trouble. But that was becoming thinner and thinner with the stress; he wanted to think he was handling it far better than he was. "Do you have to say it like that? Sounds so much worse than it was."
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But worse wasn’t exactly a word Zander would have used, though. “Oh no, it could have been better than it was,” he corrected, easing up just a little closer so his chest brushed against Lacroix’s back, fingers working to massage Lacroix’s shoulders again.
“I could have taken you right here like I did,” he elaborated, leaning his head in close to whisper against one side of Lacroix’s neck. “…but then gone at it one more time on this side,” he went on, moving his head to the opposite side. Twice the stab of his fangs and twice the sear of pleasure that came with it - he was smug in the fact that Lacroix would have liked that just fine.
But he was shameless enough to ask for himself. “What do you think?”
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"...man, you sound like the worst porno ever." Lacroix uttered with a vague wail of amused horror because he was pretty sure that was exactly what the vampire was going for, trying to make him squirm some.
And it was working, he gave him Zander a small nudge with his elbow and rolled his eyes at that teasing, mostly to distract himself from too much thought about those fangs because there was something about them that hit a nerve.
Probably the same nerves his hormones were directly wired into, it certainly seemed to be the case, and a very frustrating case indeed.
"I think you're probably the worst person I know." Lacroix replied, it wasn't an insult though so much as a humored comment as he tipped his head some to catch sight of Zander out of the corner of his eye.
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Zander made a careful effort to keep his hands at shoulder level, not wanting to spook Lacroix by feeling him up too much. Expressing his own sexuality was an easy, comfortable task; it was what allowed him to convince Devin to come home with him that first night. But he wasn’t seducing a future ghoul right now - he was trying to keep Lacroix feeling warm toward him so Zander’s relationship with the Styles family would remain solid. Making Lacroix uncomfortable might hinder that goal, so he approached the situation with a certain level of caution.
“The worst person you know?” Oh, Zander didn’t take it as an insult, as full of himself as he was. “Aren’t you quick with the compliments tonight? But enough about me.”
His fingers found their way up into Lacroix’s hair again, no color-changing tricks this time, just tiny motions to toy with the strands there. “You never told me if you want it again. Oh, I already know the answer, but I want to hear you say it.” Smirk still plastered on his face, he found it easier to be verbally shameless to Lacroix rather than physically.
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Like things weren't confusing enough right then with his stress and confusion over things in life, he had vampires with a sense of humor and a tendency to enjoy making him twitch to deal with on top of everything else.
Sure, like Zander didn't know how distracted he was, clear thoughts a bit muddled, and it wasn't getting much better with those passing moments.
"Oh sure, manhandle me and then verbally torment me, you're a horrible person. A very horrible person." Lacroix groaned and realized he was still holding that game controller in one hand, tossing it aside with a dull thud against the floor. "...maybe but you better be nice."
Or he'd tell Hector, or...something, expect he couldn't without risking making Hector upset and likely not letting him out of the house for the next century or so.
So that made for a pretty shallow warning, and they both knew it.
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