You are not my enemy

[minthemagician]

Who: Min and Damon
When: Wednesday March 3rd (Rowan time)
Where: Near the city center
What: Damon wants to "talk

Comments

[getsthelastword]

Damon was bored. This was becoming a constant source of consternation for him as the days wore on (or zipped by) here in Rowan. He simply didn't tolerate being bored. The problem was that the sources of entertainment were severely limited. In fact, it was even worse than his good old mortal days. At least, back then, there was always some theatre or sport to take in. Worst came to worst, he could always antagonize his father. But now, here he was, stuck back in the middle ages without anyone to annoy

[minthemagician]

She looked down for just a second, and when she looked back up he was approaching. She did her very best to appear impassive, tearing off another bit of bread and dunking it in the broth.

"Thanks, but I know how to use a mirror." Min popped the bread into her mouth.

[getsthelastword]

A mirror joke. Too bad she didn't know jack about vampires. Otherwise, it would have been really, very funny. Incorrect (God, he hated that particular vampire myth), but funny. Still, it told Damon plenty. This conversation was not going to start with witty banter, so it would have to start with charm. "I don't blame you," he said, sitting down next to her. "If I had a face like that, I'd never be able to stop looking in the mirror."

Not bad. On his charm scale, he'd give it at least a six and a half. Maybe seven. An eight, if they had been in a dark and smoldering corner in some happening night club with the bass way off balance and the mood steeped in smoke.

God, was he really going to have to wait another several hundred years for nightclubs to appear again?

[minthemagician]

Despite herself, she smiled at that. A little tic of a smile on one side of her lips. Oh, Gods, Irmingard. Just how dense are you? It dropped away. Mostly.

"You wanted to talk about something?" They could get to the heart of the matter first. Then she'd decide whether she wanted anything to do with him ever again.

[getsthelastword]

Right to the point. Okay. "Well," he said easily enough, "it seems that I tried to eat you. I thought maybe we should talk through that little hiccup. Unless you're okay with it. If I'm just wasting my time feel free to say so and I'll just be on my merry way. I'm sure I'll find my way back before a week passes."

It was a joke. Mostly.

He glanced up as a passerby decided to pass by. It was that same waitress with the fantastic rear end. Once she was gone, and Damon had taken his fill of watching her go, he turned back to Min, lowering his voice a bit. "You're probably not familiar with vampires around here. Bon Bon tells me there aren't any."

[minthemagician]

"Never heard of one." Min leaned back in her seat, relaxing just a little. If this was the topic of conversation, then maybe he was actually trying to make amends. "Although I have heard of cannibalism."

[getsthelastword]

"Cannibalism?" He stared at her for a moment in disbelief. Then he started laughing. In all of his years, and they were admittedly many, he had never once been accused of cannibalism. It wasn't just that cannibalism involved eating one's own kind (he had never heard of a vampire feeding off of another vampire), but that, well, there was really no eating involved. A little drinking, admittedly, but only the serious oddball vampires actually ate any parts of their victims. And usually, those oddballs ate the livers. And liver was technically a food, right?

When he managed to stop laughing, Damon still smiled. "My dear, misguided girl," he said lightly, "I am not a cannibal. Two key things here. One, what I told you at the tree was absolutely, one hundred percent true. Vampires need blood. And when they don't have it, they tend to get a little," he made a ding-dong noise, "in the head."

[minthemagician]

"Uh-huh," she said slowly. The idea of drinking blood made her gag a little, and she didn't exactly try to hide it, though she did swallow back the feeling because she didn't enjoy the desire to vomit.

She waited for him to go on, eyebrows raising expectantly.

[getsthelastword]

"Really," he said, teasing her a bit with the second key thing. Or rather, the lack of the second key thing. She would have to ask. "We vampires are frightfully misunderstood creatures." Nothing could possibly beat a good Anne Rice line. She was on it. "People are afraid of us because they don't understand."

He leaned back, putting a hand over his heart. "I promise you, I will not harm a pretty little hair on your pretty little head. But I need you to understand that my first priority is protecting myself. Which means I have to trust you to keep my secret. You see," he was laying it on a bit thick, but so did Anne Rice, "back in my world, they hunt down my kind. Brutally. Mercilessly. They think we're evil. But they only know a teeny, tiny bit of information about us. The blood thing." He made a face, as if to indicate that he himself thought it was vile business. "Who could blame them, armed with only that knowledge and nothing else?"

[minthemagician]

She ate a bit more as he spoke. Didn't want to let the stew get cold. All the while, though, she continued to listen to him thoughtfully. She knew a thing or two about being misunderstood.

"So what else is there to know?" Though she was still being terse, her manner had softened a little.

[getsthelastword]

Damon smiled. This was going swimmingly. Which, he thought, was a funny figure of speech, really. Especially in light of the fact that the day he had met her had ended with him in the water. Not really swimming. Sort of sinking. Not that that kind of thing bothered him much

[minthemagician]

She glanced down at her own hands and looked back up with a twinkle in her eye. Yes, they are rather nice, aren't they?

"You didn't seem too keen on deer back at the tree," she said, swirling what was left of her bread around her bowl. "I wonder if the people whose blood you drink see you as harmless."

[getsthelastword]

Okay. So she was smarter than he thought. "Vampires have different philosophies regarding dietary needs," he said, leaning back on his palms in an effort to ease any tension she was feeling. "Some can live off of deer, particularly young ones. Others, like myself, require human blood." This wasn't necessarily true. Damon had gotten by on deer from time to time. He had never sunk quite to Stefan's level of draining rabbits, squirrels, and birds though. Just the thought of it made him feel sick

[minthemagician]

"I don't know what you are." Aside from a vampire, obviously. "But if you don't kill people, then... good." She didn't sound so certain about the goodness, but the idea of drinking human blood to survive, whether the subject died or not, still made her stomach do flip-flops.

She examined him a moment longer. "So. I'll accept your apology, if you were planning on making one at some point."

[getsthelastword]

"I can do that," Damon replied, still taking pains to keep his voice somewhat indignant and offended. "But I need to know something first," he added. "I need to know that you're not going to run around this city carrying on about your brush with the dashingly handsome, yet deadly and dangerous Damon."

He paused. "I don't normally use that much alliteration, for the record."

[minthemagician]

"I haven't told anybody," she admitted, a bit grudgingly. She was wishing she had. Now she was going to feel all guilty if she thought about telling someone. She sighed. Even if she did tell someone, it was unlikely much would be done about it. The man was a worldwalker, for gods' sake.

"And I won't. At least not for now."

She took another look at him. A good part of her wanted to just ask if that was all, then tell him to have a good night, pay her bill, and walk off. But the other part was telling her he was in a strange world full of strange people, most of whom feared him and would only fear him more if they knew more about him.

Damn it.

"D'you drink anything other than blood?"