"I was wrong, ok, I was totally wrong unless you like mourning the pointless death of thousands of shoes there might not be a whole lot going for Albuquerque except I really like saying it, and ok there's cute stuff but you know I guess it's hard to follow Vegas, and the hotel is really nice, this guy Luis at the front desk was so totally sweet, he offered to show me the best night spots or something but really there was just a package for you-" Alice stopped her monologue abruptly when she saw the look on Thomas' face, setting both her shopping bag and the package on a side table.
"Thomas? Did you have a nightmare?" She'd been really, really good about pretending those weren't happening, especially when they got better in Vegas - even if she was worried about why they'd gotten better - but he looked like he'd seen a ghost.
It took longer than normal for his mind to process what Alice was saying, and even so, Thomas couldn't keep his eyes off the puddle of water now forming on the bedspread. "No, I mean yes," he answered without thinking. "I mean, no worse than usual. I just had an unexpected visitor
( ... )
"No it wasn't what I'd hoped for, it was a bunch of shoes nailed to a pole, Thomas a visitor? What the hell? Who even knows you're here aside from the package person which is a question on its own lemme tell you. And why does it smell like a forest in here?" And why are you shaking, and did you wet the bed except I can tell you didn't, but that was enough questions in a row. She missed Jasper, really and truly, but it was a lot easier keeping a lid on herself now that Thomas was there. Her headaches had gotten so much better.
"Thomas, come on." She put a hand on his once the coffee was brewing. "What's going on? You're scaring me."
Actually he'd been scaring her a little already. Nothing major. They'd had such a great time in Vegas, and when he'd slept she'd tested the limits of her sight which, on her own, was a pretty small radius, so she'd increased her already ridiculous fortune by quite a bit before they kicked her out. They always kicked her out
( ... )
It was the touch of Alice's hand on his, all sour fear and worry, more than her barrage of questions that made Thomas stop, made him pull his eyes away from the coffee percolating away. He had hoped (probably foolishly) that once he'd left the house, once he'd proven to himself that he was under control, that the nightmares would go away, that the Fae would realize he wasn't worth their time
( ... )
It didn't seem fair that despite everything, this would be the thing that hurt the most to admit. So Thomas didn't. Ignored the look Alice was giving him as he poured too much sugar and fake powdery creamer into his burnt coffee and stirred it with the stupid little plastic stir stick. Even without looking he could tell she was still staring, as if boring a hole in the back of his head through strength of will alone.
He drained the cup in one gulp, letting it scald all the way down, burned flesh knitting immediately. "Drop it, Alice. Please."
Stunned was not something Alice got to feel a whole lot. She almost appreciated the experience, or she would have if she hadn't right away been so frustrated she almost threw the stupid thing at him.
"You idiot! I can't believe you didn't tell me this!" Oh god oh god, she loved him, really and truly loved him. "You unbelievable- do you know what this means? I was wrong about nearly everything!" So many things were falling into place that even Alice, who was used to juggling way more than her fair share of Things to Think all at once had to sit down. He'd known the whole time, the whole time and just let her keep- no, ok, that was the wrong thread. Follow the yellow brick or whatever.
When Thomas didn't want to talk about something, it got hidden behind grins and danced around with words. It was a testament to just how much he didn't want to talk about this that he resorted to actual anger. Alice was a bundle of frustration and budding anger behind him, but he had plenty of anger on his side to outlast the siege.
"I'm tossing that in the dumpster tomorrow, so there's really nothing left to talk about." Anger clipped his words, made his voice rough and sharp, hiding the lie.
"You are not." Alice was not impressed with the whole Thomas SMASH routine. He could shout himself hoarse if he wanted to, there wasn't a creature on the earth that could withstand Alice Cullen with a full head of steam.
"Fine. So you won't say it out loud. I will. She's in love with you. Drusilla the woman, Drusilla the vampire, Drusilla the frigging Goddess is in love with you, capital L, meaning she's not a whole other thing entirely, meaning I was wrong about so much stuff you do not even- and you just left. I can't even digest this. And you're pissed at me? That's frankly totally hilarious Thomas, nothing left to talk about my entire tiny ass."
Actually she was kind of surprised she was managing as many whole sentences as she did. She sure as hell was keeping a death grip on that box.
"Why the hell would you throw this away?" It was only the first of about a million questions, but it was the one that rose to the top. The rest could wait until he was feeling more like a reasonable grown up.
She could kill him, Alice thought, she really could. First Dru, and that was totally enough, but now the revelation - which totally shouldn't have been one, not after she'd watched him in Vegas - that there was no problem, there never had been. There was something wrong with boys, she thought. And people under a century. And this list was going to get really long if she thought about it much more.
Anyway she couldn't be mad, not when he looked as worn out as he did now. She'd save that for the next time he got all tetchy, maybe when their hadn't been a frigging faerie visitation. It was making the whole course of action and next step thing a lot clearer, that was for sure.
"I know it's still you, you know. I mean-" She crawled back towards him, sat on his lap. "Ok so it's not all of you, but it's just like when I'm really hungry or whatever. It's kind of a nasty scene, just mine doesn't have as well-developed a vocabulary. Everyone gets all gimme gimme gimme sometimes, yours just comes with some sort of evolutionary boost
( ... )
Wrapping his arms around Alice, Thomas laughed a little at her words even as he nibbled at her ear. "I think it's got a better vocabulary than I do," he muttered. "Who the hell says 'chit' anymore?"
She was twisting in his arms, going on and on about shaving and more talking, so Thomas did what he did best. He tightened his arms around Alice and kissed her with all the heat and pent up desire from the Hunger's wake. Warm lips and soft skin, just a gentle, teasing tug at the want he could feel against her skin. His hands slid down her hips, pulling her just a little closer, even as he shifted against her.
"Let's go out," he said, finally surfacing for air. "We'll take a cab. Go see what this idiot town has to offer before we find someplace new. Route 66 has got to have something more interesting on it than Albuquerque." Another nibble at Alice's ear. "And I'm thinking 'in the cab' first. Then we'll see."
Sometimes Alice rambled just to get shut up. It took way longer with Jasper and it was more of a game than anything else cause he always knew. Thomas was easy in more ways than one.
She hadn't just been talking for the sake of it this time, but clearly he was going all alpha male Avoidance Starts Now and really, she had no objections, not after getting the full blast demon ray or whatever and ok, right here it was. Shifting to straddle him, Alice returned his kiss with a whimper, 'cause it was all of Thomas now and there was no reason to keep all that breathless, ragged wanting under wraps anymore. Hands flattened against all that lovely warm skin, and hips moves without much encouragement at all.
Then he was talking, which brought back the urge to smack him, but there were merits to the plan. It wasn't all about sex with Thomas; Vegas had proven for sure that she actually did like spending time with him, and if anyone could find fun in Albuquerque, it'd be them. There was just a finite amount of being incubus'd at one person
( ... )
While Alice had been taking forever in the bathroom, Thomas had called down to the front desk for a cab. Normally he wouldn't have bothered, trusting cabbies to be circling the hotel like vultures, but this was New Mexico. "Edible enough for a cab and then some," he answered with a grin, wrapping an arm around Alice as she finally came out of the bathroom. He'd thrown on jeans and a black button-down, as always letting supernatural genetics substitute for effort
( ... )
There was a moment in which Thomas thought he would have had to intervene when Barbie Two-or-Three grabbed Alice's drink and dumped it on her head. But then Alice started laughing and the Barbie Brigade continued stalking off and Thomas relaxed, laughing along with Alice
( ... )
"I'm the pixiest, hammered or not, actually I might be even pixier when I'm drunk but it takes a lot more than a big blue bowl of tasty to waste me, oh hey that rhymed!" Ok so maybe it didn't take a lot, but she was nowhere near drunk, and could for sure drink the burliest guy in there under the table. She might not have Edward's suddenly weird gigantic tolerance, but she was still a vampire, it wasn't like a few buckets of moonshine were going to do her in.
"And yeah I usually see them coming but seriously it doesn't happen that much, that was just timing and a half in more ways than one, and I said payback instead of revenge 'cause I thought you might appreciate whatever I come up with, but I could be wrong, happens all the time now, so I won't disappear under the table anytime soon, yeah?"
Alice had been feeding regularly just to keep that fine cherry glow in her eyes, but since she hadn't really known what was going down with Thomas and how it might get worse, she hadn't bitten him, not even during moments she'd really, really
( ... )
Sliding the big blue fishbowl over to Alice, Thomas took a moment to poke at the other giant drink he'd ordered, this one bright red and quietly billowing white smoke. Well wasn't that theatrical and appropriately tacky. Alice might not have been drunk, but she sounded hilariously tipsy. "Well, if you're not going to dive under the table, maybe I should," he teased, fingers dancing on her bare knee.
Logically Thomas knew Alice would have done much the same, nursing him back to sanity and all that, even if she hadn't needed him for the quiet. It didn't help the niggling sense of wanting to make things up to her for putting up with him though. Her accent, on the other hand, was making him laugh and Thomas offered her a drink from the big smoking red fish bowl before he kissed her, and her hand went inside his shirt.
Arching a little into her touch, Thomas shrugged and leaned back, promptly hitting the back of his head on a tacky surfboard on the wall. "Okay, this place might be too tacky," he grumbled, shifting instead to nip at Alice
( ... )
"Are you laughing at the drink or my accent cause I'll have you know I am technically a southerner or something, not that you've ever asked, what the hell is in this anyway it tastes like drunk Hawaiian arsenic." Not that she cared about the laughing or the drink or anything. Tacky or not, this was turning out to be a pretty good time, or at least it'd be a good story, almost as good as the drag queen and the drugs on the Vegas strip except this one would be better once it was done. Plus she had gotten more than a little something out of it
( ... )
Comments 66
"Thomas? Did you have a nightmare?" She'd been really, really good about pretending those weren't happening, especially when they got better in Vegas - even if she was worried about why they'd gotten better - but he looked like he'd seen a ghost.
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"Thomas, come on." She put a hand on his once the coffee was brewing. "What's going on? You're scaring me."
Actually he'd been scaring her a little already. Nothing major. They'd had such a great time in Vegas, and when he'd slept she'd tested the limits of her sight which, on her own, was a pretty small radius, so she'd increased her already ridiculous fortune by quite a bit before they kicked her out. They always kicked her out ( ... )
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He drained the cup in one gulp, letting it scald all the way down, burned flesh knitting immediately. "Drop it, Alice. Please."
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"You idiot! I can't believe you didn't tell me this!" Oh god oh god, she loved him, really and truly loved him. "You unbelievable- do you know what this means? I was wrong about nearly everything!" So many things were falling into place that even Alice, who was used to juggling way more than her fair share of Things to Think all at once had to sit down. He'd known the whole time, the whole time and just let her keep- no, ok, that was the wrong thread. Follow the yellow brick or whatever.
"Say it. I want to hear you say it out loud."
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When Thomas didn't want to talk about something, it got hidden behind grins and danced around with words. It was a testament to just how much he didn't want to talk about this that he resorted to actual anger. Alice was a bundle of frustration and budding anger behind him, but he had plenty of anger on his side to outlast the siege.
"I'm tossing that in the dumpster tomorrow, so there's really nothing left to talk about." Anger clipped his words, made his voice rough and sharp, hiding the lie.
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"Fine. So you won't say it out loud. I will. She's in love with you. Drusilla the woman, Drusilla the vampire, Drusilla the frigging Goddess is in love with you, capital L, meaning she's not a whole other thing entirely, meaning I was wrong about so much stuff you do not even- and you just left. I can't even digest this. And you're pissed at me? That's frankly totally hilarious Thomas, nothing left to talk about my entire tiny ass."
Actually she was kind of surprised she was managing as many whole sentences as she did. She sure as hell was keeping a death grip on that box.
"Why the hell would you throw this away?" It was only the first of about a million questions, but it was the one that rose to the top. The rest could wait until he was feeling more like a reasonable grown up.
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Anyway she couldn't be mad, not when he looked as worn out as he did now. She'd save that for the next time he got all tetchy, maybe when their hadn't been a frigging faerie visitation. It was making the whole course of action and next step thing a lot clearer, that was for sure.
"I know it's still you, you know. I mean-" She crawled back towards him, sat on his lap. "Ok so it's not all of you, but it's just like when I'm really hungry or whatever. It's kind of a nasty scene, just mine doesn't have as well-developed a vocabulary. Everyone gets all gimme gimme gimme sometimes, yours just comes with some sort of evolutionary boost ( ... )
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She was twisting in his arms, going on and on about shaving and more talking, so Thomas did what he did best. He tightened his arms around Alice and kissed her with all the heat and pent up desire from the Hunger's wake. Warm lips and soft skin, just a gentle, teasing tug at the want he could feel against her skin. His hands slid down her hips, pulling her just a little closer, even as he shifted against her.
"Let's go out," he said, finally surfacing for air. "We'll take a cab. Go see what this idiot town has to offer before we find someplace new. Route 66 has got to have something more interesting on it than Albuquerque." Another nibble at Alice's ear. "And I'm thinking 'in the cab' first. Then we'll see."
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She hadn't just been talking for the sake of it this time, but clearly he was going all alpha male Avoidance Starts Now and really, she had no objections, not after getting the full blast demon ray or whatever and ok, right here it was. Shifting to straddle him, Alice returned his kiss with a whimper, 'cause it was all of Thomas now and there was no reason to keep all that breathless, ragged wanting under wraps anymore. Hands flattened against all that lovely warm skin, and hips moves without much encouragement at all.
Then he was talking, which brought back the urge to smack him, but there were merits to the plan. It wasn't all about sex with Thomas; Vegas had proven for sure that she actually did like spending time with him, and if anyone could find fun in Albuquerque, it'd be them. There was just a finite amount of being incubus'd at one person ( ... )
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"And yeah I usually see them coming but seriously it doesn't happen that much, that was just timing and a half in more ways than one, and I said payback instead of revenge 'cause I thought you might appreciate whatever I come up with, but I could be wrong, happens all the time now, so I won't disappear under the table anytime soon, yeah?"
Alice had been feeding regularly just to keep that fine cherry glow in her eyes, but since she hadn't really known what was going down with Thomas and how it might get worse, she hadn't bitten him, not even during moments she'd really, really ( ... )
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Logically Thomas knew Alice would have done much the same, nursing him back to sanity and all that, even if she hadn't needed him for the quiet. It didn't help the niggling sense of wanting to make things up to her for putting up with him though. Her accent, on the other hand, was making him laugh and Thomas offered her a drink from the big smoking red fish bowl before he kissed her, and her hand went inside his shirt.
Arching a little into her touch, Thomas shrugged and leaned back, promptly hitting the back of his head on a tacky surfboard on the wall. "Okay, this place might be too tacky," he grumbled, shifting instead to nip at Alice ( ... )
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