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Elijah sighed heavily as he leaned back against the tree he was sitting in. The limb was a good twenty feet off the ground, giving him a decent vantage point for a good part of the forest. He sat there, one leg hanging down as he gingerly applied the ice pack to his eye. The cross-dressing vampire had not been having a good time of it lately, losing a battle with an annoying vampire hunter-wannabe, and two rounds to a druid.

The vampire scowled as he thought about the druid. What had he said his name was? Hell, had even told Elijah his name? He couldn't remember, but he blamed getting his head knocked around for that. Not that it mattered, it wasn't the druid's name that was bugging Elijah, it was the damn druid himself.

Elijah sighed heavily. Not that it mattered, he doubted he'd see the druid again, this wasn't the monochromatic rabbit's usual haunt. At least, he didn't think it was.

Elijah sighed heavily. "Dammit," he muttered, "why must life be so damn complicated?" Clanless, with no real chance of joining one, constantly being accused of being a drama queen (which he wasn't, dammit!), and now this druid he'd tried to beat twice was slowly wrapping the vampire around his finger! He winced. If his family were to find out... dear gods, the fallout would cause a whole new war!

"Dammit!" He screamed, slamming his fist against the tree trunk. Maybe he should move. Like, to the other side of Faetasia... in the middle of a desert... a thousand feet underground... surrounded in cement.

Elijah's head snapped up in surprise. Was that... oh hell, it couldn't be... "Druid?" The vampire jumped to his feet, but unaccustomed to sitting on a much more narrow tree limb, he over-compensated, and started wheeling his arms as he slowly began to tilt forward.

"s**t s**t s**t s**t s**t SHIIIIIIIIII-" Elijah howled as he fell the twenty feet to the ground. Luckly, a large bush broke his fall... too bad it was a thorny bush. "GODSDAMMIT!" he bellowed as he stumbed out of the bush, gingerly picking thorns and flicking them aside. Good thing he'd switched out to a simple black dress tonight, he couldn't stand the thought of losing yet a third dress in as many days. He continued to pick the thorns out, momentarily forgetting that the druid was in the area.

Elijah yelped in surprise and spun around. "D-druid!" The few remaining thorns forgotten, the vampire looked like he couldn't decide between attacking and... not attacking? In fact, he looked surprisingly miserable.

"What're you doing here?" His eyes darted from side to side, as if looking for anyone who might be watching. "I-..." His shoulders slumped in defeat. "What do you want, druid?"

Elijah blinked in astonishment, tongue flicking across suddenly dry lips. He opened his mouth to answer, but the answer hung in his throat. It was in his nature to flirt, to insinuate, spread honeyed words around, but this?

"I-," dammit, the words were sticking in his throat! Was it always like this, trying to tell the truth? No wonder he preferred just flirtation and insinuation. He picked another thorn from his hip and flicked it aside. "I-... don't know." he admitted. "I-... I don't know, dru-, Crackle." He took a deep, slow breath as he leaned against the tree. "I'm... what do you mean, at your beck and call?" He couldn't admit that he was feeling the same about the druid, and was astonished that he felt Elijah had him wrapped around his finger.

Elijah groaned as he slumped against the tree and slide down until he was sitting. Why? Why why why? A druid of all things!

"I-... don't know what to do around you," he whispered, staring at the ground between his feet. "Why do I think about you, even after you've just kicked my a**? And ruined my dress? It isn't s'posed to be like this. We're supposed to be trying to kill each other."

The vampire looked up, his usual smug expression gone, a look of utter misery replacing it. "I don't... the truth doesn't come easy to me, drui-, Crackle. It's in my nature, it's what I am. But... the truth is, I-... have... something, and you're the cause."

Elijah unconsciously shifted away slightly as the druid leaned in towards him. After the last two fights, he was a bit wary about getting his a** kicked again. That was until he listened to the druid's words.

"Crackle..." he sighed. "I can't... make promises. I can't... fight what is my nature." He took a deep, shuddering breath. "I never thought I would find something, someone, I'd actually give a damn about. I never wanted to."

Elijah looked up and gave the druid a weak smile. "Of all the things to be falling for, why did it have to be a godsdamned cute druid?"

Elijah blushed. The kiss was the last thing he was expecting. Then he groaned when Crackle said he'd met his mother.

"Oh gods, you met my mother?" He placed his head in his hands. "I'm dead. My mother knows, my sister will no doubt find out... Gods help me if they tell the grandparents!" He didn't dare mention that his great-grandfather was Big Daddy Ravnos himself. That probably wouldn't go over well right now.

He stood up and stretched, then grinned smugly as he posed just a little (a lot). "Really? You think so? It's one of my everyday wear pieces..."

((We're gonna have to figure out how to bring some truly epic drama into this, along with some good ol' fashioned fighting and arguing. wink ))