Day 57: Cafeteria

[gald_digger]

Edgar's charming company had raised Anise's spirits enough that not even the Head Doctor's voice could bring them back down. Besides, she was feeling pretty sure that Landel wasn't actually around. To begin with, it wouldn't make sense, and secondly, his announcements sounded suspiciously like ones she'd already heard before. While Anise wasn't

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[deathandgin]

Alaric was learning the ropes. Of Landel's, sure. Life in general was what he had mostly been going for. Maybe the more trusting, less jaded patients around here would have heard that announcement with a stray spark of hope in their heart, looking forward to an array of foods for their brunch, eggs and pizza nestled together on the same plate in a pleasing show of companionship between meals. A peaceful conclusion finally reached, where lunch and breakfast could meet and be digested simultaneously

[saviored]

Damon, on the other hand, hadn't even gone as far as to give the announcement a single thought, never mind a second one. Usually the case. He figured if, on the off chance something important actually occurred over that damn intercom, he would know. Until then, he couldn't care less.

Especially if they were going to throw a disembodied puppet up on there.

When he stepped into the cafeteria, he paused at the door, searching and not particularly concerned about the masquerading soldier at his back looking annoyed. There was something he needed and he could only get it from one person.

Wait, let him rephrase that. He could only get it from one person without running the chance of it getting messy. Make no mistake, he didn't have a problem with messy. But he did have a problem with being pushed towards having zero options, which was a direction this was veering in. The more he needed to feed, the more he was annoyed, and the more he was annoyed, the less he felt like taking the obvious route

[deathandgin]

Wow, there was nothing like being reminded that your compatriots ate animals (and other things) to make a guy really feel like finishing off his bowl of pink congealment.

It still seemed pretty weird to be having breakfast with Damon (or that Damon had actually come to him at all), mostly because their meetings had been reduced to Alaric coming when the vampire called with one of his many, many problems. Usually it ended with alcohol. If that bulletin was any consolation, he actually might get to relive that part. And he might share, maybe. Either way, the new company during his meal wasn't exactly enough to wipe the frown off of his face

[saviored]

The corner of his lips lifted, but Damon generously let the comment go. He pushed his tray aside to make room for his elbows and picked up the plastic spoon.

"I didn't want to interrupt you and my brother before you two got the chance to dot your i's with little hearts." His finger traced the shape of a heart in the air. "We found a couple of knives. It's not an arsenal, but it's a start. I figure you could use one to start your whittling. Or whatever it is you do."

Unless Rick had already found a knife of his own which was possible. He hadn't been too forthcoming with what he'd snagged, either, except that he seemed to feel there was a lot of it. Damon wasn't one to just pass out things that came by him freely, but weapons were neither his expertise nor (more importantly) his interest. He had no problem throwing the job to Alaric and dropping by to pick up the results. And while he suspected the teacher might have a slight problem in return, Rick would go along with it, anyway

[deathandgin]

Knives? Seriously? Unless Damon had really pulled out the stops somehow, Alaric was pretty set on thinking dinner knives. Which was not what he used to make stakes. He was a lot more ingenious than that.

Mystic Falls High had a shop class for a reason.

Anyway, the point of whittling also required the material to actually... whittle. It looked like the best he had around here were like thing, scrawny pine branches (if what he had seen on the mountains had even been pine. Hard to tell at all, but it was a guess.) Hell, the stuff he'd netted sounded a lot more useful than a couple of dinner knifes or whatever - and after the crap he'd witnessed, he was kind of against the thought of wielding a knife in the first place - but he could obviously brag about his stash later.

Apparently that had more important things to discuss. Important seemed evident because Damon was already being dodgy about it. Alaric raised one eyebrow in obvious suspicion, watching the movement of the vampire's spoon against his empty bowl. He wasn't very eager to

[saviored]

As if Rick didn't know. But apparently, Damon was meant to spell out everything down to the letter, which he was already used to doing with Stefan and, well, ninety percent of the people he came into contact with. He supposed he could spare the same courtesy to Rick in this time of need.

He shrugged, dropping all pretenses. "I need blood," he said, as causal as someone asking to borrow a pen. "Elena is out of the question. That leaves you...or the blonde I met the other night. She seemed sweet," he mused. "So, you know, it's okay if you'd rather not. I'd completely understand."

His smile was all innocence, but the spark in his eyes didn't come close. Look, he wasn't here to play nice and especially not with Alaric who knew perfectly well what he was. He needed blood. He didn't care where it came from, as long as he got it and easily, but he knew Rick did. Care, that was. That was a card he wasn't going to hesitate to play.

Besides, the fact that he was even going this route was something. Chances of that ever happening a week ago?

[deathandgin]

Rick was certainly not stupid, but he'd been hoping his initial suspicions about that adequately mysterious question were way off base. He should have known his luck would lead him straight to this sort of situation.

The teacher shifted uncomfortably, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms across his chest tightly. He watched Damon's face the whole while he rolled the request through his mind. No, he hadn't expected it. At all, honestly. He wasn't sure what he had expected the Salvatores to do about their meal plan, but he'd done a damn good job of avoiding thinking about it. Besides, he wasn't their mother. They could figure out how to take care of themselves.

Or not.

The blonde. His eyes narrowed minimally, knowing it wasn't a vague, false threat. Damon didn't mess around with that sort of crap. The thought of being vampire bat disgusted him. The thought of someone else getting killed because he was forcing Damon to be desperate was worse. The fact that Damon had even asked? Yeah, he could recognize the goddamn gravity

[saviored]

While Rick took his sweet time coming up with an answer, Damon waited. He linked his fingers beneath his chin, the perfect picture of patience. This was hardly Final Jeopardy-worthy suspense; he already knew he'd get what he came for. Why wouldn't he when he had a hell of a lot less to lose?

(It used to be nothing to lose, but forget it. The day that was a topic up for discussion, that was the day Stefan got off his goddamn high horse.)

His smile widened. He dropped one hand back onto the table. Taking it surprisingly well, wasn't he? But Damon had already destroyed Rick's life about two years ago, so really, manipulating him into slicing a vein hardly topped the list of bad shit that had happened

[deathandgin]

Oh, no. He was not going this route.

He was still uncomfortable as hell, but there was a point in which Alaric had to put his foot down. Actually, he was pretty annoyed with Damon's oozing smugness up to this point. Eventually it was something he'd gotten used to, but the fact the vampire had just assumed he'd get his way was just. Grating.

The teacher's shoulders shifted minimally as he stared down the shorter man. His irritation was written into the lines on his face and the straightness of his mouth. Sure, they were pseudo-friends (insofar as Damon hadn't wantonly killed him again) in his present and... Damon's future (memories, at least), but providing charity work for the guy who'd fucked his entire life up was still a pretty hefty favor.

And favor was putting it lightly.

With their stare-down started, Alaric could easily imagine what the other was thinking. Talk about desperate freaking times. "I'm not dealing with your dodgy bullshit about this, Damon. How much do you need?"

[saviored]

Details, details. But fine. The fact that that Rick was edgy about it meant he wasn't about to forget who he was dealing with anytime soon, and that was something Damon could live with.

His eyebrow arched, but that was about as much of a reaction as Rick was going to get out of him. "Well, it's a dodgy question, Rick."

Need and want were one and the same to a vampire when it came to blood. He would always need more and he would always want more. There wasn't a straight answer here, especially not when he'd gone this long without. What was the teacher expecting, for him to whip out a measuring cup and mark a fill up to here line on it with a Sharpie?

"Your call," he replied. He meant it. "I can take care of the rest." What he needed to keep his thirst under control wasn't much; he'd spent enough time in the institute to understand that. So whatever Rick decided to offer would do, unless Rick decided to be stupid about it, which Damon doubted. Alaric was only stupid about his own life; less so about the lives of others. He could look

[deathandgin]

"It's not -" You know what? Fine. He sighed, uncrossing his arms just to throw them in the air a little. It wasn't a dodgy question. It was pretty straight to the goddamn point, actually