First Meetings (Noir)

[noir]

Her eyes strayed to the side when he started talking, and Noir's hand falls limply from his arm. Yes, what she said sounded silly to her now. She rubs the back of her neck, then slumps over slightly and rests her elbows on her thighs to support her. She doesn't make eye contact with him as she speaks. "I apologize if I disappointed you or something."

Noir shuts her eyes as she takes her hair down, letting it curtain both sides of her face, hiding herself in it. She felt safer for some reason that way, like she's in her own little shell when no one can see her expression. "However, I think I believe you..."

[captvimes]

Aaron was contemplating sloping off and going back to his halls, or maybe the library, when Noir's words grabbed his attention. "Really?" He asked, sounding rather eager again. "I can prove it." And Aaron quickly began to roll up one of his sleeves up to the elbow. There, running diagonally from wrist to elbow was a scar, about as wide as a pencil.

"I got this a couple of years ago. I really caught that werewolf on a bad day." He told her, showing the damage that a claw could do. "I know this would only count as proof if you believe me, but I can do better. I've been watching a vampire for the past few nights, but I haven't gone too close because I think that he feeds off of humans. Would you like to come hunting with me tonight?" Aaron asked, genuinely hoping that she would say yes.

[noir]

Noir looks up, staring at Aaron through one of the curtains of hair. She moves it back to see better when he begins rolling up his sleeve. Dull phantom pain burns on the skin of her collar bone at the sight of Aaron's scar, where a scar of her own rests on both sides of it. Noir tenderly puts a hand on the base of her neck, then examines his arm closer.

"You've been watching one?" Noir says in awe as her eyes widen a bit. Almost immediately after that, she enthusiastically nods an acceptance to his invitation, too happily shocked for words.

[captvimes]

"You sound so surprised." Aaron smiled, his other hand unconsciously covered most of the scar before he rolled down his sleeve again. It was the largest and most impressive one that he had but he rarely willing showed anyone. Aaron was rather embarrassed about it really, especially about having to lie to his parents about where he was, (when they rang him he was in A&E having twenty stitches in his arm) and later on, how he gained it. That scar could hardly be explained by a simple accidental fall.

"Ok then," He nodded, smiling at her acceptance. Pulling out his notebook and a pencil, Aaron tore out one of the blank pages near the back and scribbled down a location, a few numbers and a time. "I really shouldn't be doing this, but it'll be easier." He muttered to himself. Heaven knows how much trouble he could get into if anyone at Imperial found out about this.

Handing Noir the piece of paper, Aaron absentmindedly glanced at his watch, a look of horror appearing on his face. "Oh no! My lecture starts in 15 minutes!" He sighed in frustration. "Well, this is the address of my halls, the external doors are all coded so that's the code." He pointed to a 5 digit number underneath the address. "That's the number of my room, nobody should question what you're doing there, they'll presume your from another hall." The speed at which Aaron was speaking was slowly increasing as mild panic set in about what he was doing.

"Wear dark clothes, not black if you can help it, and shoes that you can be quiet in. And," A blush appeared upon Aaron's cheeks. "Nothing...erm...skimpy..." He gave a nervous giggle before glancing at his watch again and jumping to his feet. "I'll see you later then!" He said with a grin, grabbing his bag and running off.

[noir]

She watches him write on the paper, curious to what he was doing. Then it was offered to her, so Noir takes the paper quickly, scans over it, and smiles at Aaron afterward. "Yes, alright. I'll be there."

Noir nods as he speaks, but the movement freezes in mid-nod at the skimpy comment. She gulps, her own face turning pink, as she stands. Noir slings her lap top carrier over her shoulder, standing up straight as the weight tries to make her slump over. Waving, she calls out to him. "Bye! ...have a good lecture!" Slowly, Noir lowers her arm and sighs heavily, mumbling as she walks the other direction. "Have a good lecture, ugh. How retarded do I get?" She rubs her temples, then walks a little faster, looking forward to the evening. A real live vampire. She is looking forward to what Aaron called "hunting".

[captvimes]

Aaron paced his room agitatedly, walking from the door to the window and back again because the gap between his desk and bed was too short. The room was relatively tidy for a student, with few clothes scattered about the place and the things on the desk placed in organised piles.

It was around fifteen minutes before the time that he asked Noir to meet him here and already he was nervous. He had hardly been able to keep his attention on imaginary numbers whilst thinking about this evening. And the more he thought about this evening, the more nervous he got as it slowly dawned upon him that the offer to take Noir out with him tonight, might be misconstrued as a date.

Already, he had been having the mick taken out of him all afternoon by his uni friends, as they tried to work out what was making him blush occasionally, for no apparent reason. They found out that he'd met a girl and automatically leapt to the conclusion that Aaron fancied her. "I don't!" He had protested, consistently and loudly and yet they didn't believe him. Eventually, Aaron had stalked off back to his room, intending to absorb himself in a sci-fi book, but he ended up just thinking about tonight anyway. What if something went wrong? He could tolerate it if he got hurt, but what if Noir was hurt as well? Then it would be his fault.

Sighing, Aaron managed to push such thoughts from his mind and read through his observations from this vampire. There was, of course, no guarantee that Aaron and Noir would see the vampire. He had been becoming difficult to track of late, and Aaron had a feeling that he knew that he was being followed. That was not good. Perhaps he ought to give up on this one after tonight... find a safer target. "Listen to me. It sounds like I'm an assassin or something." He muttered to himself, ceasing in his pacing to check that he had everything.

"Notebook, check. Pencil, check. Correct clothing, check. Knife... not check." He read off the mental list under his breath. Laying down on his stomach beside his bed, Aaron pulled out a flick-knife from under it and tucked it into the waistband of his trousers. Detesting the fact that he could now be classed as one of the menaces of England's city streets, belonging to the knife culture of today's youths, but it did make him feel ever so slightly safer. It was quite comforting to know that there was a back up for if anything went wrong with Plan A, and Plan A was running. Thankfully, the worse that he'd had to use the knife for in the past was for prising open a window to an abandoned warehouse. He had felt guilty about it being classed as breaking and entering, but he had met a very nice and helpful vampire that night, so in the end the guilt was balanced out.

Continuing with his pacing, Aaron jumped when there was a knock at the door. Opening it, he quickly ushered his guest in, resisting the temptation to bang his head against the swiftly closed door. He would be in so much trouble if anyone found out about this.

[noir]

Noir tentively walked toward the halls, arms crossed and head down. The paper Aaron had give her earlier is loosely tucked in one of her palms, and she reads off it briefly before continuing. She's going in the right direction. Thankfully, she hadn't gotten lost once on her way here, so feeling rather proud of herself, she knocked softly on the door of her destination.

"Hi, good evening," Noir says as the door opens, with her pleasant little smile that almost always seems to be playing on her lips. She stuffs the paper in her hand in the pocket of her dark navy sweater as she is let inside the room.

"Wow, I wish I could keep my apartment back home this clean," She says quietly. Noir sighs silently to herself. She had thought about the chances of getting injured tonight, but soon pushed all that to the back of her brain where the writer's block still triumphed. She didn't want to ponder over that; it might ruin whatever experience she was going to have, watching this vampire.

[captvimes]

"Evening. I'm glad you found your way here alright." Aaron smiled, tapping his fingers against his thigh, like a kind of nervous twitch. "Right... well... Tonight, if anything does go wrong, just run, run for where there is people if you can. Vampire's are wickedly fast. I mean, a hundred meters in under a second, fast, and as you can probably tell, I'm no fighter." Noticing that he was beginning to babble, Aaron forced himself to stop talking, just in case he scared her so much that she didn't want to come. It would be nice to have company for once.

Walking over to go and sit on his bed, Aaron's stress induced accident prone streak began to show itself as his leg collided with the corner of his desk. "Ow!" He exclaimed, slumping onto the bed and rubbing the hurt patch of skin.

Laughing nervously, Aaron scratched the back of his neck. "I've not frightened you at all, have I?" He asked, only then remembering that it was normally polite to compliment a girl on something. "Nice...err... nice jumper." He said, despite knowing how stupid it sounded, really wanting to go and hit his head against the wall. He had never been very good around members of the opposite sex. He just didn't understand them, not even his sister.

[noir]

"Right, running. I'll remember that," Noir nods as she folds her arms behind her back. "And I have some mace, too...hehe..." Noir laughs for a moment, then sighs and rubs her neck. She sheepishly looks back to Aaron and smiles, holding in a giggle by biting her lip as he hits his leg. She couldn't help it, his seemingly clumsy nature was just, in a word, adorable.

Noir takes a deep breath, then lets it out as she speaks. " No, you haven't scared me. I'll admit that I'm nervous, though." The mace in her pocket felt a bit heavy for some reason. Noir gives her jeans pocket a quick pat, as if checking if the small can was there would calm her down.

"Huh? Oh! ...um, thanks!" Noir looks down at herself when she gets the compliment. She rocks back and forth in an almost unnoticeable way on her heels, looking down as she speaks. "Hey, I'd like to thank you for letting me join you to do this "hunt" thing. It's real nice of you."

[captvimes]

Wringing his hands together, Aaron nodded. "Good. Nervous is good. The adrenalin keeps you alert." He said, but he was a little thrown by her next statement and couldn't stop a slight blush from spreading across his cheeks. Gulping, he wrung his hands a little more. Noir said that he was being nice. No girl had even said that to him before.

Trying to compose himself, Aaron cleared his throat and said, "It's no problem. You want proof, and it'll be nice to have some company. It's been quite lonely since..." He paused, looking away from Noir and wondering whether he should mention Farkas to her at all. "Since my friend disappeared." He concluded, his voice much quieter, and he couldn't help but glance at one of the photographs stuck to the wall.

The photograph was of him and another man who looked about ten or so years older than Aaron and it had been taken in a park in Leicestershire about one year ago. They both looked tired but the pair were grinning like loons, an arm around the other's shoulder, standing in front of an old stone tower, which stood on top of a hill. The pair had just finished a race up the hill and had persuaded a member of the public to take the photo. Farkas, as usual, had won, but that didn't matter because the sky was blue and the sun was shining.

Pulling himself together, Aaron stood, patting his pockets one last time. "Sorry. I was away with the fairies there. We should really go now." He said, sounding more subdued than earlier. Walking to the door, he opening it and peered down the corridor, beckoning for Noir to follow him quietly.

[noir]

Noir cocks her head to the side as she spots the blush on Aaron's cheeks, but smiles a little wider. When he mentions being lonely, her eyes seem to soften as she follows his gaze to the picture. The smile is back on her face as she observes it. Seems like he was having a good time in the photo.

It reminds Noir of a photo she has of her mother and herself back at her apartment in New York, with the pair in front of the Eiffel Tower after going up and down each stair. Noir had lost her mom to a fire. "Sorry about your friend," Her voice is sympathetic, soft in a understanding way.

The lace-less sneakers Noir wears are almost noiseless, so she follows him to the door with a tiny nod, ready to follow where he leads.

[captvimes]

Aaron made a noise that sounded like he was choking back his emotions, and he sounded upset when he spoke "I don't like to talk about Farkas like he's dead. I know it's been six months but he's not dead. I'm sure of it..." But what he failed to mention was that he was also sure that Farkas would have contacted him by now.

Pulling himself together, Aaron locked the door to his room behind them and made his way out of the building and off campus as quickly as possible, constantly checking that Noir was close behind him. However, upon reaching a completely empty street, Aaron stopped and leaned his back against a wall, wiping his eyes roughly with the heel of his hand. "I'm sorry. My parents keep telling me that he'll turn up, but it's always like they expect him to be a body." Sniffing, Aaron bit down hard upon his bottom lip, making it bleed a little.

"Sorry Noir... I'll be fine in a minute." He found this situation rather humiliating, almost crying in front of her, especially when what they were going to do needed silence, stealth and lack of fear.

"We're not far from where I think the vampire is staying." He said, the wobble in his voice now under control.

[noir]

"I'm sure your fri-...um...Farkas, is perfectly fine," Noir tries to sound optimistic to lighten up the mood, though she has a feeling it didn't work too well. As they walk along, she keeps her eyes downcast and says nothing, nearly running into Aaron when he suddenly stops against the wall. Noir looks up at him, startled.

After a few seconds to gather the courage, Noir lifts a hand and gently clasps Aaron's shoulder. "Hey, don't be like that," She tries to find good words of comfort, but all Noir draws up is blanks. It's been a while since she's tried to be a comfort to someone. "You'll see your friend again. I'm sure this Farkas guy wouldn't want you to be so upset over him if he's alive, hm?" Noir says, smiling just a tad.

"If you're too upset right now, it's alright if we call this off." She doesn't want to force Aaron into going on if he feels sad right now.

[captvimes]

Smiling at Noir, Aaron rubbed his nose with the back of a hand. "Thanks." He said, before licking away the blood on his lips to wait for the cut to clot. It wouldn't be wise to do this smelling of blood.

"No, I'm alright. It's stupid of me to break down like that." Aaron took several deep breaths and lightly patted Noir's hand upon his shoulder. Then, he stood up straight and glanced up and down the street. There was a figure of a person lounging casually underneath a street lamp. "That's him I think." Aaron whispered, taking Noir's hand and slowly edging back around the corner. He didn't think that the vampire had seen them.

[noir]

Noir smiles back at him, feeling happy she seemed to succeed in giving at least a smidgen of comfort. "Sure, no problem." For some reason, she felt heat go to her face as she blushes a little. She's not quite sure why she's blushing, so she just ignores it, hoping Aaron couldn't see it in the dark.

The vampire looked like the people she watches in New York, so that made Noir gasp silently. The very sense of his presence is the same as the others; anyone she has observed has actually been a vampire. Her heart beats hard against her chest at the realization, and her expression shows the shock. Mouth dropped open a bit, eyes as wide as dinner plates. Then Noir smiles slowly at the figure. "So...that's him, eh?" The smile morphs into a small grin, and her next word comes out a whisper. "...cool."