Step into the sidestreet [[Lars]]

[* Annie - L]

[[OOC okay, so I'm not too good at starting these, so if I botch this, I'm terribly sorry. ]]

Haemish slid along the crowded street, dodging the ignorant glances from civilians. He kept close to the side of the buildings, trying to keep himself from keeling over. The cold brick was keeping him aware of his surroundings as it touched against his pale skin. Dark clouds overhung the city streets, and the scent of rain clouded Haemish's highly developed sense of smell mildly. This was probably a good thing, since Haemish wouldn't do well if he could smell the people around him trongly, even though he was well fed from a hunt he took into the forest the evening previously. Oh no, the scent of humans didn't effect him in the sense of temptation, but his anxiety would explode if he could fully smell them. Slowly, Haemish felt himself lower, his legs giving out, letting him slide to the damp ground.

Not one for fear or weakness, Haemish kept trying to get over his agoraphobia without much success. He could feel judging eyes burning into him, even with his eyes scrunched tightly. He could tell they were scrutinizing his every aspect from his appearance to the manner he was holding himself. Though, the glances he was getting were not actually judgmental. That is just Haemish's outlook on the world, he felt judged when in crowds. One on one, Haemish was fairly reasonable, but in groups or crowds, Haemish was irrational and pessemistic. Generally the looks he got were of interest from young girls, fascinated by his attractiveness.

In an inferior postion, folded in two at the side of a dirty, crowded road, it's obvious that people would judge him slightly. On first glance, he could be passed as upset, or maybe insecure. But if studied adequately Haemish would be seen as nervous, or severely agitated. That theory would be easily comfirmed by his eyes, which always gave away his true emotions. The radiant sapphires of his eyes shouted pain and determination.

He felt nauseous as someone brushed closely by, touching his shoulder. But he refused to let his legs buckle entirely, and forced his eyes open so he could look over, blocking out everyone but himself, and all the sounds of carriages and the chattering of people to look and try to find somewhere to slide into to catch his breath. He felt his chest begin to fall in his panic. His palms tingled and sweated uncontrolably. He rubbed them on his knees and drew a deep breath, listening to his own sounds, not anything else. Leaning over his knees to rub his temples feebly, he noticed a small sidestreet to his left. A spark shivered through his spine and he suddenly regained enough strength with the hope of recovering to get himself into the alley. He felt fresh air fill his lungs as he rounded the corner and dove into the nook. Sighing in relief, he slid to the ground, allowing himself to curl into a ball at last as his chest return to normal. He wrapped his clammy hands around his knees tightly to hold himself together.

you're weak. You're weak and you're a wuss he thought angrily to himself through gritted teeth, feeling the resent to flood through his body like wildfire. He punched at his knee before letting his legs to straighten onto the wet cobblestone.

[Ellie]

Lars walked along the crowded streets while the brooding clouds hung low in the sky letting down their gentle drizzle. He felt serene with the combination of the weather and the crowd. Some people let their eyes cast over him, while others just kept themselves busy to where they were walking to. He felt hidden and one of the crowd, he always had been afraid to stand out to much ever since he was human. Though his strive to be normal and notice what others didn't always came up futile.

A few meters aways at the end of the street a young man sat not very relaxed by the looks of him. He looked the same age as Lars himself, and also had very attractive looks, looks not of a human on the streets. Either his immortality hunch was right, or this guy was a supermodel. Lars took his chance more on his first guess.

Lars continued walking getting closer to the person on the floor. He knew he wasn't going to let him lie there, it wasn't in his nature. Just as he almost came upon the body the boy leaped from his place and into a small alley that veined off to other small side streets.

Lars contemplated with himself in continuing to go after him or not. But once he got a few feet away from the crook Lars couldn't decide anymore and left the decision up to his own feet, they'd never let him down before. His instincts brought him into the alley.

The feeling of defeat hung in the air and Lars was scared to talk to the man. Not from his reaction to words, but just what he would say at all. Lars settled on saying no words at all, but instead to sit himself down on the man's side. He bit his lip and looked forward, not meeting his face. He couldn't sooth the problem if he didn't know the pain first, he didn't even know the boy's name.

[* Annie - L]

Haemish felt a lot better as the fresh evening air filled his lungs. He looked up from his outstretched legs, staring at the wall facing him. He heard footsteps clearly as they approached him. Scared to look and face a human asking him what was wrong, Haemish continued to stare at the brick wall. He rested his hands in his lap and waited patiently for a comment. When the stranger sat down next to him, a spark of curiosity shivered through him. Why hadn't he done like so many before him? Although this was the first time he'd made it to an Alley, he usually collapsed before he reached anywhere, yet he still pushed himself so hard on busy evenings.

He sensed something unique about the individual, and decided to look up, eyes alit with inquiries. The boy that was sitting next to him, biting his lip, had a nice vibe to him. Unsure of how to start conversation, he raked his mind for something inspiring.

"Hello," he said, his voice smooth and enticing, the complete opposite of his mood. He'd simply blurted the first greeting he grasped. Though his word was pretty lame, it came out quite nicely, even to his own ears... Better than he expected. That seemed to happen quite a lot where his voice would catch him off guard because of how he felt and how it came out.

He wasn't entirely sure of what to make of the boy seated on the damp concrete next to him, other than he was very attractive. Haemish had never been picky with genders. He loved personalities and gender had no effect on his attractions. The way he saw himself wasn't so much bisexual as open-minded. He paid no attention to the physicality of genders, simply what he liked and what he didn’t. For example, in a guy he knew what he liked, and that went for girls too, so if he found an attractive guy, there was nothing wrong with him being a guy, it all depended on whether he was an asshole or not. But Haemish had a pretty good sense of people, so he rarely affiliated with jerks.

Patience came easily to Haemish, after over three centuries of learning. He waited patiently, unable to pry his eyes off of the stranger.

[Ellie]

Lars let his lip fall as he felt eyes on him. He still didn't know what to say at all. Ice breakers weren't his thing. He wished he had one of those guidance councilors here to make up a nifty game so it would all make it easier. The problem was with councilors, was that they always had you break the ice with people you already knew your whole life. None of the stuff they taught you did any good out in the real world. If you tried to play a game to get to get to know someone now, you'd be ignored and thought crazy.

But then his worries were over with a nice "Hello" it came out with a smooth voice and Lars looked up at the speaker. He had seen him dart into an alley after crawling on the round, right? He still sounded so untouched though. But Lars knew better, he knew of many good liars, himself included. He wasn't about to let him go on that.

"Are you alright?" Lars asked first with a steady voice of his own. It seemed proper from the events from before, it was rare to find someone sitting in an alley and them having been fine.

Growing up in New York he'd learned not to be terribly afraid of dark alleys, they came in handy when people were after you. But then there was always the possibility of getting mugged.

Lars thought again and his words seemed meager and small, "You seemed a little...tense back there", he added.

[* Annie - L]

Eye contact. He held himself still, refusing to cringe. It had been so long since he'd made eyecontact with another vampire. He sensed this stranger was a vampire as he drew another deep breath, letting his scent fill Haemish's lungs. He instinctively made himself smaller by pulling his legs back up to his chest, feeling nervous. Not nervous because of the company, but slightly intimidated by the stranger, by meeting another with his powers. He wasn't sure how to react other than reply with a short sentence. Though, he realised how strange it must look, regardless of if this vampire knew that Haemish himself was a vampire too, and a short reply wouldn't be very convincing. Either way, he decided to take his chances..

The stranger's voice was soothing. He couldn't quite put his finger on why, or how, but he felt a bit calmer when he spoke. "Yeah, I'm fine. I don't do well with crowds..." he replied curtly, unsure of what else to say. _{I wish.} he thought to himself as the words escaped his mouth. He regretted admitting his reasoning for being so anxious.

Not wanting to spill all of his fears to some stranger, however tempting it may be to have finally found another vampire, Haemish decided to change the subject."I'm Haemish,"[/b] he introduced, feeling lame for introducing himself so pathetically. He couldn't stop himself from pulling a backwards James Bond to top it off. "Haemish Burton,"[/i] He held out a cold, slender hand.

When thinking about it, he felt a smile creep onto his face crookedly. He'd finally met another, and now was not a time to botch that up. He needed some form of friend, or companion.

[Ellie]

Lars saw him stop when he met his eyes, and looked down. e didn't know how the boy could be threatened by him, of all people. This guy was bigger than him by any standards. He looked about 6 feet tall whereas Lars hardly reached the marvelous 5 foot mark. But he cast his eyes down just the same as he felt the body next to him retract with his feet against his chest.

After a moment the stranger spoke, and Lars felt better from the interaction. Without interaction Lars had no clue where his mind would wander to, usually now a days those wandering brought him to places terribly great. A terrible great thing he didn't understand, and part of him never wanted to.

Lars reached out slowly and grasped the hand lightly shaking it gently before setting his own had down back in his lap. "Lars" he responded to Haemish meeting his glance again with his own slightly shy side smile.

It surprised Lars to find himself not totally willing to give away himself and speak up more around him. With anyone else he would already be in depth conversation. But something about this one was different. He couldn't pin point what exactly made him feel the small once of self consciousness. Bu the had the feeling of need to go check himself in a mirror to make sure everything was in check.

[* Annie - L]

Haemish knew he needed to make more conversation. Something about Lars made him feel shy, but at ease at the same time. The mixture was very confusing for a very unsocial vampire. He paused to contemplate his words before speaking again. Worried the silence would be awkward, he tried to go as quickly as possible, but he was drawing blanks.

"Pleasure," he smiled warmly, hoping the stranger would look at him again so he could see his face properly. Haemish felt a bit of his newfound axiety ebb away, so he allowed his legs to relax slightly. He ran his tongue over his fangs while he thought. "So, what brings you to this damp, dark alley?" he asked amiably, yet enticingly, hoping to make some form of conversation with Lars, who had come to sit next to him and ask politely and kindly if he was okay. That kindess was quite hard to find these days, Haemish found. Generally the humans that asked him if he was okay were doing it dutifully, not generously. Simply because they found it their responsability.

Fidgeting his fingers a bit, Haemish was glad to have spoken to someone, whether he could keep up a conversation or not. He continued to run his tongue across his fangs; just something he did to calm down and think. Confidence crept up on him unexpectedly as he realised he'd spoken properly. He permitted his legs to straighten out again, hoping Lars wouldn't have noticed his intimidation.

[Ellie]

Lars waited through the silence, expecting something. He already knew he hated silence, and put his mind to work on biting his lip. It was strange ever since he was changed, to bit his lip. He'd usually done it from the side, near his small piercing, but now that the fangs were in the way he made it careful he never cut open his lip by bothering it too much.

'Pleasure', Haemish said and Lars bought his head back up to meet the other's from the break in silence. He was met with a smile and gave his own once his lip was free again. He figured he needed to break that vice, along with too many others.

But the smile left at Haemish's next words, "So, what brings you to this damp, dark alley?". Lars looked down at Haemishe not more relaxed legs and went back to bothering his lip for a moment before probably looking like a pansy fool in front of him.

He faced Haemish once more and looked him in the eyes again before speaking, "I just, ya'know figured you looked like you needed some help back there... I just wanted to make sure you were alright", he said softly letting his eyes fall once he was done with his talk.

[* Annie - L]

Not used to this kindness, Haemish's heart did a small flip. A new feeling sparked into him, openness. He felt a strange feeling in his gut; he wanted to talk more to Lars. He wanted to tell him how, and why he's agoraphobic, and that he is in fact agoraphobic. This was very weird for Haemish, since he kept away from people mostly. His mind whirred around loudly for an explanation behind his sudden yearning to talk. He deducted it was from his lack of company in several decades. He tried to resist being sappy or anything, but it was next to hopeless. Even he knew he was going to do something out of the ordinary.

"You know what? That's probably the nicest thing anyone's done for me in over a century."[/b] he beamed, looking over to Lars again. "I swear, I've forgotten what it's like to speak to another vampire."[/b] He ran his tongue selfconsciously along his teeth, yet again. He decided to disclose his self-esteem against his better instincts. Just like the rest of him. Closed off. He still hadn't made the connection that that is what hurts him most. He figures if no one gets close, he cant get hurt, when really not letting anyone close just makes him more likely to get overprotective and drive anyone who manages to get remotely close to him away. If he was just open to even a few people, he could learn to deal with the occasional pains, but that's life. Just because he can live forever doesn't mean he cant live normally.

He broke his gaze from Lars to examine the dingey alley. The entrance was beginning to clear up as the crowd went home. The occasional person walked by, but the night had begun. The humans business slowed considerably by the time Haemish looked back to Lars. He wondered if Lars was surprised by his immediate assumption that Lars was another vampire. And if, nearly impossibly, Haemish's sense was wrong and lars wasn't a vampire, Haemish had a fairly big problem. He pushed the thought from his mind as it brought memories of his past slithering in. With vampirism came a horrible price. Haemish realised how off topic his thoughts had gotten, and caught himself. He wasn't about to let himself have a panic attack on top of things.

He felt his eyes prickle slightly. Something that happened when he was getting thirsty. He knew he needed to hunt sometime soon, and decided that he'd go out later that night when he got home. He'd go to the forest. He wondered if Lars dranks animals or humans, and shuddered slightly at the thought. By his strong scent, Haemish guessed Lars was still young in both worlds. He drew a deep breath and cleansed his worried thoughts once more, not allowing anything but positive thoughts into his mind. That's when he realised just how attractive the vampire next to him was.

[Ellie]

Lars let out a small breathy laugh at Haemish's sincerity. He'd never remembered making this much of a difference to someone. He knew somewhere along the lone in his lifetime something he said must have mattered and effected someone at some point, but he couldn't remember them ever voicing it.

He was glad he had made the effect, it made him feel good inside. He looked up at Haemish as he stared down at him, reflecting the feeling with his eyes. The eyes were so different between the two. Haemish had beautifully colored, deep blue eyes, whereas Lars had ever changing, hazel green eyes with an odd black lining around the color, almost catlike.

"I think that's the nicest thing I've ever said to someone", Lars spoke still keeping eye contact before smiling again and dropping his eyes back to the ground. He had said centuries, right? Lars thought back. That means his assumption was right. And he was older, as most were. Lars himself had only been existent 23 years, only immortal for 3. The youngest of any vampire he'd met so far. But surprisingly enough the most stable, but he never knew what would happen in the future to come. Maybe immortality brought with it insanity.

Lars looked back up at Haemish, maybe trying to get another look into his eyes. Something made him want to drink in more of them, it was almost scary. But instead he was fixed on the dwindling streets. Probably contemplating if it was safe to leave the damp alley or not. Lars followed his gaze and saw for himself the lack of population.

He looked back up at Haemish and saw him looking down at him again. Lars's cheeks flushed lightly as they always did when he caught someone staring at him without him noticing before. He let out a small smile at his new found companion. "The crowd has died down a little."

[* Annie - L]

"So it has,"[/b] he replied, voice liquidy and alluring. He grinned, flashing his perfectly straight teeth. He felt a twinge in his stomach as a fairly large group of businessmen passed by the entrance, and felt himself cringe slightly. Unsatisfied by his weak reaction, he rose quickly, brushing his legs off. He reached a hand out to help Lars. "Thanks, again."[/b] he smiled grimly between feelings of nausea at the thought of a crowd. More memories waved across his dreading mind.

Suddenly, he smelt blood. Something had been cut recently. It wasn't human blood, something considerably smaller. His nausea evaporrated instantly, allowing his senses to relieve him. He glanced at Lars, making eye contact as he absorbed his gorgeous eyes. He denied the feeling in the pit of his stomach though, and got frustrated when he deduced it was from the occasional passer-by on the street. Although, there wasn't quite enough for his fear to kick in. Small groups hardly effected him, but he seemed to have ignored that detail in his deductions. Seeing something skitter in the corner of his eye, he looked over to see the bright green eyes of a scrawny alley cat. He sighed, knowing that wouldn't satisfy him much and gave up his bloodlust.

He knew that the conversation wasn't flowing because he was closed up. But he really wanted to be open and talk to Lars, which scared him more than he realised he could be scared. He would have never guessed he'd ever be able to deal with letting someone else in, yet he felt so strongly towards it. He debated internally for a while about the different aspects of letting someone in. Someone he hardly knew. But what did he have to lose? His life wasn't even close to short. Why not live it? It seemed as though the same thoughts about living were going through his mind repetitively. Haemish took that as a sign, and finally allowed his instincts to direct him to whatever they indeed directed him to.

Heamish felt quite worried as his mouth opened and spoke for him. It was not something he was used to hearing himself say. "Well, the night is ours for the taking. Got any plans?" He smiled seductively, yet slightly subconsciously. Once again, he felt surprised that his charm had remained over the years. Even he, being fairly modest and self-conscious knew he did tend to have several charming aspects.

[Ellie]

Lars smiled up reflecting Haemish like a mirror before taking his hand and lifting himself up off the ground. "It was no problem," he said once he was on his feet. Lars was about to ask again if Haemish was alright, by the look on his face it didn't seem so. But the look passed and Lars let it rest for now, just some passersby on the street he supposed.

Standing at full hight to one another Lars could tell how much height difference stood between them. Lars looked practically child like, but he'd always been short. It bothered him once, when he was growing up, those awkward years when everyone sprouted up, Lars stayed small. Now he'd accepted it, and moved on, but is reminded when meeting new people like Haemish.

Lars looked up into Haemish's eyes to see if this was their parting, hoping not, but thought otherwise when he caught sight of it. Soon after he found the cause, or smelled it rather. Blood. It hadn't been all that long ago when Lars had eaten, but not short enough ago not to crave. At a later time, or as long as he could hold Lars would put it off. Although soon the smell faded as the blood drew itself farther away.

The silence that continued between them actually didn't bother Lars all that much. He met one too many who liked to talk to much. What was once awkward was becoming strangely comforting, Lars almost never wanted the silence to break.


Lars scanned Haemish's face again and kept his eyes set on his when he saw he was about to talk. Although he loved the silence, he didn't really mind his voice breaking it, it was almost as good as the silence itself. Especially since Lars was left just staring up at him after the words. He was quite the charmer, and he knew it, even he was flattering himself, Lars could see. Lars searched his head for words to respond, of course he didn't have plans, although he hoped he would soon. Lars cleared his throat a little from the fear of his voice cracking, "Uh, no, I don't. Have-any plans, tonight", he struggled at first with his words before gaining his mind set back, "But if the night's ours for the taking, I don't see why we're still in this alley", he finished confidently with a small smile and raised eyebrows.

[* Annie - L]

"That's a good question..." Haemish grinned, permitting himself a good dose of confidence. He gestured to the entrance of the empty alley jokingly.

It was then that he realised how little Lars was. Height had never mattered to him since he generally stood out over people, whenever her got out. (Which wasn't very often) He wasn't in any position to judge heights, and found it irrelevant to any form of attraction. He smiled to himself slightly.

The only problem was that he didn’t get out at all, and didn’t have a clue where to go. He didn’t have any plans until now other than go home read for a bit and then hunt. Who am I kidding? I’m not ready for this. he thought, panicking a little. He slapped himself mentally, he wasn’t about to make a fool of himself, hopefully.

He decided it best to come straight out and say it, once again allowing his instincts reign. ”To tell you the truth, I don’t get out much… know anywhere interesting we could go?” [/b] he chuckled nervously, throwing a sideways glance to Lars as he spoke. He attempted a cute grin, but wasn’t sure if he succeeded at it.

Haemish had to bite his lip to keep from laughing he was so happy. He’d somewhat successfully made plans with someone he was very interested in. After centuries of hiding, he was thankful he’d tried something new, other than the old Haemish who would have simply got up and left.

[Ellie]

Lars nodded sligtly with a small smile as he walked out of the alley and into the now empty streets. The streets lamps illuminated his face more and left a shadow along his features, followed by the long casting shadow of his body portraying itself upon the walkway.

He stopped and turned to Haemish once he was out of the once occupied place. His face, unlike his voice, was readable, and Lars figured he'd backed out. Lars ran a hand through his hair smoothing it back just a bit and closed his eyes. He restrained a sigh though. But Haemish's words had cought him off guard. Lars's eyes opened and looked over back to the others face with a grin on again.

"Well, no actually, I have no clue! My accent must give that away!" he said in his New Yorker accent, he was no Englishman, like he knew Haemish was. The scottish accent was too distinguishing. Of course Scotland wasn't in London, even a high school drop out like Lars knew that, but it was definetly closer to London that New York.

But no pressure. Lars had always been one to just go with the flow, it was how he really preferred things anyway. "We could just wing it, anything interesting comes up, we'll go for it. Plan?" he finished with a side smile when he saw that Haemish was still exited about it.

[* Annie - L]

Heamish thought for a moment before giving his gnawed on lip a rest to smile again. "Haha, I'll say the same, even though I moved to England a fair few years ago..."[/i] he grinned, confidence playing at the edges of his lips. "I moved here after my two best friends were killed in Scotland."[/i] He blurted before he had the chance to stop himself. Turning bright red, Haemish could practically feel his eyes turn even more electric blue with anxiety. He nearly smacked himself in the face his hand flew up so quickly to his mouth. He hadn't said anything about his past to anyone since he was turned, really. He was making such a big deal over it, but suddenly he felt relieved, and he couldn't grasp the concept as to how breaking all of the walls he'd set up carefully could bring him ease. He'd spent over two centuries to himself finding different ways to hide from a situation like this. But all he felt was satisfaction, and abruptly he wanted to talk about it more. But with Lars, and only Lars. His face faded from embarassment and shock into a wry smile. His hand slid from his mouth back to his side, limply. "I've never told that to anyone in all of my 324 years of existance..." he said, still a bit dazed. As Lars continued, he decided he could talk later and sort out what they'd do before he destroyed his stone walls once more in one conversation.


"Sounds enough like one to me,"[/i] he giggled. Quite possibly the only word to describe laughter as girly as his was. The only word that could describe his mood was euphoric, too. He wanted to scream. He'd been bottled up, and in one, fairly lame, coment, his life came pouring back to him like a rushing river. He felt alive... well, as alive as the living dead can feel. His arms sparked with energy. Haemish Burton was euphoric. THE Haemish Burton... EUPHORIC. for the first time since he was sixteen.

He thought for a moment and realised something... He loved walking. His favourite pass time. And it was about time he got out of his forest to walk. Other than the occasional park, Haemish walked in his forest to the point where he had everything about it memorized. When he got caught up in crowds without trying to, he'd pretend he was walking in the forest and they were trees. [though, if he was trying to get over his fear he usually crumpled into a ball before he got the chance to imagine anything positive.] At this sudden realisation, he knew how to get over his fear.

Haemish felt as though a thick layer of fog had cleared up, finally. After so long wandering aimlessly about with no real goal, simply to hide, he could see everything before him. He knew things could only get better. He had to keep talking.