OOm - Eric's room, late night

[onceaviking]

After having finished his little intermezzo with Jay Eric returns to his room.

He pushes the door open and locks it behind him, once he is inside. Old habits and all.
He strips off his wife beater and toes off his boots right inside the door. He could do with a shower.

His laptop is on.
"What are you looking at?" he asks Pam, as his jeans go the way of boots and wife beater.

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[onceaviking]

He holds her, quietly, for a long time.

Then he kisses her. The way he kisses her now, when he does. A soft kiss dropped on top of her hair, even as his fingers trail down her back and his hands come to rest right where her body curves.

"We'll be okay," he promises her in a soft tone. She is his. His responsibility. His Progeny. His Pam.

[lazy_but_loyal]

For a long time, she really doesn't want to let go.

But eventually, when she feels his kiss, she sighs deeply as if taking a breath for the first time, and her arms loosen around him. Just a little bit.

His voice is soft but it still rumbles in his throat. She nods, her cheek still pressed to his chest.

"I'll be okay when you're okay."

[onceaviking]

He puts a finger beneath her chin and urges her to look up.
"I'm okay when you need me to be," he says.

His eyes are dry. His voice is steady.
Eric is very good at, if not moving on, then at least pretending to have done so.

"Did you make friends with Amanda?"
It's not the smoothest of subject changes, but it will have to do.

[lazy_but_loyal]

She looks up at him and nods again, more firmly this time.

With a sniff she glances away, wiping at the dried blood under her eyes with the backs of her fingers.

"Yeah. I did."

She breathes a weak chuckle.

"I still hate Milliways but she's all right."

[onceaviking]

"See? It's not all bad. And apparently, sometimes people get the choice of turning into the opposite gender. Maybe some if the promiscuous men will turn into promiscuous women."

He smiles.

He hasn't changed the bedding since Emcee was here. The scent still lingers.

[lazy_but_loyal]

And then she looks at him as if he were crazy. But in an affectionate way.

She opens her mouth to say something. Then closes it. Then opens it again. Then she shakes her head.

"You know what? I'm just going to take your word for it. I've been taking your word for a lot of things these past couple nights, because if I don't, I just might lose it."

She gives him a pert little smile and pats his chest before gently extricating herself from his arms. Going over to the sink, she turns on the faucet to wash her face.

"Speaking of promiscuous men, how did things go with Jay?" she asks between splashes.

[onceaviking]

"I wouldn't lie about something like that. Not to you anyway," he replies with a small smile and turns his back to her as he looks for a comb on one of the shelves. He's sure he saw one last night.

"It went well enough. I told him in no uncertain terms that he was never to run his mouth again and he meekly agreed."

[lazy_but_loyal]

She cocks an eyebrow at his reflection in the mirror before patting her face dry with a small towel.

"Is that all?"

[onceaviking]

He lifts an eyebrow. Ever so slightly.
"Yes. That is all."

[lazy_but_loyal]

"...Okay."

That came off a lot more passive aggressive than is usual for her. And she's the last person ever to be passive aggressive.

She flips her hair over her shoulder and digs into a makeup bag for a tube of lipstick.

[onceaviking]

He turns and crosses his arms.

"And what is that - " he asks, very deliberately,"supposed to mean?"

[lazy_but_loyal]

She glances up at him in the mirror as she applies a dark shade of red lipstick.

"Nothing."

A beat.

"Just that your pet human needs a little more discipline."

[onceaviking]

"I do not keep pets, Pam," he replies. Voice flat. Face expressionless.

[lazy_but_loyal]

"Fine, so you don't," she says, just as flatly as she wipes away an uneven smudge from the corner of her lip with her pinkie finger.

"But you're coddling him. I get that you're stringing him along to get what you want out of him, but he acts as if he's got no reason to fear you."

[onceaviking]

"Why would it matter what he thinks?" Eric retorts, sounding just a tad irritable now.
"He's a fangbanger. He gets pathetically grateful for even the smallest hint of positive attention, and that alone is enough to keep him in line."

[lazy_but_loyal]

She turns around.

"Then why did he tell me so much of what you never told me?"

[onceaviking]

"So much of what?"
Definitely irritable now.

It's not the first time they've had words about humans. That isn't making it any better.

[lazy_but_loyal]

"This place! Godric! Sunshine! Fucking fairy blood! Jesus Christ, Eric, I actually told him to shut up before he told me anything else you didn't want me to know about."

[onceaviking]

"Do you think I enjoy owing my life to a vampire killer," he almost snarls.
"He knows about Godric, because the door leading from the roof, the door Godric commanded me through, led here and because I was trapped here for what amounted to weeks. I mourned my Maker here. Where else should I have done so?"

He takes a calming breath.

It isn't really working.

"And I haven't told you about the fairy blood, because -"
He looks away, jaw clenched.
"Because it is dangerous, I don't want you to come to harm."

[lazy_but_loyal]

His anger doesn't make her visibly flinch, but her eyelashes flutter slightly. She is chastised, but her jaw remains set, and she crosses her arms as a subconscious form of defense.

A heavy moment of silence passes before Pam slowly steps toward him. Her voice is low when she speaks, a little wavering and apologetic, but she just needs him to listen.

"Eric. I'm sorry. But you already know what I think about humans. And I just don't want you to let them in to the point that you can't, or won't, push them back out."

[onceaviking]

"Has that ever happened, Pam?" he asks. Voice wound tight like a spring.

They both know what he is referring to.

[lazy_but_loyal]

Her throat tightens and she blinks rapidly, with a small shake of her head.



"No. But-"

[onceaviking]

He talks a small step closer, towering over her.
"But what?"

[lazy_but_loyal]

She meets his eyes.

"But this is not about me."

[onceaviking]

She always could meet his eyes.
That was one of the things he liked about her. Back when he first saw her.

"I am not loosing my grip. I am not being played. I am in control of this, Pam," he says, slowly.