008: A Good Deed in a Weary World [Location: Around the City]

[a_pretty_fire]

It was time.

Drusilla had been waiting patiently - for the right moon and the right moment and, most importantly of all, the right people - and, at long last, it was time.

“Little lamb, little lamb
My birthday is here at last!
Little fish, little fish
Do you think I'll get my wish?
Little lamb, little lamb
I wonder how old I am ..?Centuries and

Comments

Shane [A Random Street]

[a_pretty_fire]

Last but not least. Never least.

They'd spoken once or twice - and met once, up in the moon - and, although they weren't close kin, they were close enough. A vampire too frightened - of himself, not of pain - to feed. Trapped behind conscience, just like the Angel Beast and the newly arrived version of Spike.

For a moment, she'd considered catching an Extra and making it squirm until he couldn't resist a drink. But then the jealousy had hit her. She'd changed her mind quickly.

She'd have to give him a different sort of gift.

[shaneonyou]

The good thing about resisting people, the real people, for over four months was that despite the frustration, it eventually helped. Shane found it easier to walk alone. It was risky, sure, a little bit. But Levi was off at his Fangtasia shift and Shane didn't feel like getting a job yet, so why not work at restraint?

Staying to the shadier parts of the street, Shane was a million miles away, lost in thought. When he was alone, it was easy to get homesick. It surprised him, how much he missed hearing stupid comments from the living room, and the house having people in it. He missed Des, Gustav and Leo, but most of all, Ty. Not having him around, to talk or to hunt or to tease Levi, it was just... weird.

[a_pretty_fire]

He wouldn't be alone for long. Drusilla glided towards him, swift and silent. The memories were there. The people he loved and the people he missed. (So many lost people, despite how empty the city was! It had been easy to pick them.)

The figure closest to the surface was a boy. A mischievous, bright eyed vampire.

Just a little closer. Just a little further. She'd be able to pluck him out soon.

[shaneonyou]

Shane didn't get much further before he could feel someone nearby, the realisation nudging at his thoughtful state. Shane slowed, cautiously glancing around the area, but didn't see anyone. Not yet, anyway...

[a_pretty_fire]

Drusilla stepped out of the side street, but Ty - Tiberius, like the emperor - was the one who gazed around at the unfamiliar buildings. He was charming and as smooth as silk, but, because he should, he wore the confused expression of every new arrival.

He had a bracelet on his wrist. Her wrist. A wrist that took shape as Drusilla unraveled the memories and picked at the edges.

[shaneonyou]

Someone stepped out of a side street only feet from him, and Shane froze. For a second his mouth just dropped open, surprise making his words stick in his throat, but then he stepped forward, forced those words out.

"Ty? Is that --" No, he couldn't be so gullible -- but he had a bracelet, he was real. "Holy -- holy crap."

[a_pretty_fire]

Drusilla paused and turned and fixed her eyes on Shane. It was strange, very strange, to be seen as a boy. Her limbs felt heavier and, almost unconsciously, she stood a little taller.

"Shane?"

He needed to sound confused. Drusilla poured emotions she rarely felt into the word.

[shaneonyou]

"Ty. Oh my god." A laugh crept into his voice, and he stepped closer, closing the distance between them. Not even thinking about whether or not Ty would return the action, he pulled him into something of a bro-hug, but a little bit warmer than that, thanks to four months of absence.

"When did you get here? I didn't -- see anything, hear anything, jeez."

[a_pretty_fire]

A hug. That was a good sign. A sign that she'd chosen correctly. The illusion could have shattered then, because it was only ever in Shane's mind, but, in the end, it held. People always saw what they wanted to see.

"About ten minutes ago," he - she, he, a voice that flowed from a throat that wasn't hers - answered, laughing at the hug because it was warmer than it would have been in a different city. "Where is here?"

[shaneonyou]

Shane grinned, waving off the weirdness of someone arriving without getting broadcast everywhere. Maybe he did, maybe Shane just missed it. He didn't care. The fact was that his friend was here.

"It's called Taxon. Trust me -- alien city, we're stuck here until I-don't-know-when, and... right now it's just me and Levi here. Out of everybody from home, I mean."

He sighed, somewhat contentedly, running a hand through his hair. "It sounds crazy, but... I haven't seen you guys in four months, man."

[a_pretty_fire]

Oh, facts. Drusilla didn't have a great deal of affection for facts. They could be twisted far too easily. She was twisting them right now, for the sake of that smile.

"Jeez," Ty exclaimed, giving Shane the bemused expression of someone who was waiting for the punchline that had to be coming. "This isn't some kind of joke? We've been kidnapped by aliens."

He glanced around.

"Where are the cameras?"

He'd have hoped for a reality TV show. The sort of thing that Drusilla had no interest in, though Spike had enjoyed one or two. As well as his soap operas.