Class: Pre-slash
Beta Read by Mom-Ra! (As well as a great deal of input! Thank you!)
Warning: Don't drink anything while reading this. If you do, well I warned you!
It had been a bad week; the fever, the many deaths, the work had been unusually grueling.
So a mortal and an immortal decided to play hooky, and have a night on the town. The result....
They were drunk. Completely and utterly drunk. Giggling uncontrollably, they clung to each other as they slowly made their way out of the bar. The man was fashionably dressed, without being trendy. His stylish jacket was a bit rumpled, and the collar of his silk shirt was smeared with lipstick. His companion wore a blood-red velvet gown, which kept slipping off her shoulders; first one way, then the other. Her once-elaborate hairstyle had come undone, and her auburn curls fell every which way over her shoulders. They looked good together.
"Natalie! It's this way" Nick chuckled. He tried to take her arm, but the woman only pulled the other way.
"No! No!" she sputtered, "I want to go this way!"
"How ... I mean ... home is that way. I think." Nick said, pointing down the street. He paused, looked all around and then pointed in the other direction. "Oh, wait. Maybe it's this way."
"I don't want to go home, I want to pray!" Natalie laughed and snorted. "I mean play. I can't talk anymore. All your fault!" She pointed menacingly at him then started laughing all over again then she fell forward, smacking her forehead against his chest.
Barely able to stand on his own two feet, he returned Natalie's bleary glare, then began giggling, until he was gasping for breath he didn't really need.
"It�s not my fault...I said ONE drink," He replied "but no! You had to get more!"
Grasping her by the shoulders to keep her from sliding to the pavement, Nick stopped scolding her when he felt her body vibrating with suppressed giggles. Oh, yes they were both wasted.
"Call us a cab Nick, Or we'll never get home!" She gasped for her own breath and wiped at her teary eye that now overwhelmed her as she started to chuckle again and Nick joined in. "Ok, We�re a cab?" Laughing at his own bad joke.
He stumbled releasing his hold on the mortal and though he managed to stay on his feet Natalie, without the support, wound up on the pavement. But not giving up she looked at the street before them and started to speak in a tone that she often used to call her cat Sydney for dinner. "Cab, here cab, come here cab!"
She then paused and looked up at Nick with an all too serious expression. "Hey! I've got an idea!" Slapping her hand on the pavement. "You can fly us home! And we'll save on tip! I won't ever have to pay for fuel again! And the environmentalists will thank us!"
"I can't fly, Natalie...I don't have a license to fly while intoxicated!" Nick said with an attempt at seriousness. But Natalie's laughter was contagious; giggling like an idiot, he fell flat on his back beside her.
The two embraced and were now giggling against each other and the more they looked and realized the mirth of their situation the harder they laughed.
***
A pair of vampires watched the undignified display from the shadows. With a shake of his head, Vachon turned to LaCroix, who simply rolled his eyes.
Nick poked Natalie in the ribs, "Look! Look! Who does this remind you of?"
Nick then made a grim face and pulling a scowl he raised one eye brow.
Natalie closed one eye to get a better look at him, and ventured a guess. "Captain Reese?"
"This is the Nightcrawler!"
Natalie was bowled over was over come with hee haws! "LaCroix!" She spat finally.
Nick nodded and laughed with her. "Wait, wait! Who does this remind you of?" He hissed, showing his teeth, and rumbled in a breathy whisper. "This is the Night crawler!"
Natalie gagged again in uncontrollable giggles and sputtered. "LaCroix!"
Nick did several more impressions and Natalie said LaCroix�s name at each end.
Watching this silently, Vachon turned to LaCroix and said, with a touch of sympathy.
"Now, now! Remember they're really plastered. It wouldn't be any fun to kill them."
"So you say." LaCroix drawled, in a mixture of amusement and annoyance.
Still teasing and laughing, Natalie poked Nick. "Here, here, my turn. Look! Who's this?" With a mesmerizing kind of look she made a solemn face. "Hey Babe!"
Nick squinted at her for a moment, then shouted, "Vachon!"
Natalie gave him a thumbs up.
Hearing this Vachon frowned. "But inflicting a little pain might be fun." he suggested. Deciding that they'd enough of this very humiliating display they walked over.
Nick and Natalie looked up as two pairs of feet came into view. Snickering and sputtering, they shushed one another.
"Be quiet, Nick!" Natalie slurred, "Maybe they'll go away."
"Fat chance!' Spitefully, Nick laughed even louder. "He hasn't left me alone for eight hundred years, I can't even take a bath without him being present!"
Sighing with exasperation, LaCroix hauled Nick to his feet and gathered him into his arms. He drew back when Nick carefully placed his forefinger against his lips and noisily shushed him.
Nick who didn�t like to be ignored, as LaCroix chose to do, decided to tickle his Master under the armpits. LaCroix shot his young child a warning that would have under other circumstances have Nick cease all activity. Instead Nick shot his father an amused grin that made him look much younger then his age.
Vachon picked Natalie up in to his arms. She gazed dreamily up at him like a love-struck school girl.
"I bet you're lots more fun than Nick. Always so brooding, gets on my nerves. Come on come on, take me for a ride on your motorcycle Vachon! I want to go for a ride! Vroom! Broomm!"
"I'll see to it she gets home safe and sound." he said, "Tell Nick I promise there will be retribution."
Clearing his throat, LaCroix muttered in annoyance. "After mine, comes yours."
Seeing that LaCroix would not respond to his tickle assault, Nick had decided on a sneak attack and pinched his Master�s butt.
"Stop that, at once!" he hissed at his son.
Nick smiled and touched his master's fangs. "Ohhhh Grandpa what big teeth you have! The better to bite me with!"
Dropping his head on LaCroix�s shoulder, Nick lapped at his neck.
"Mmmm ... delicious." he whispered, "So salty."
Then he turned to Natalie, "Popcorn anyone?"
Scowling angrily at Vachon, LaCroix took to the air and headed for Nick's loft.
Vachon was about to head in the other direction to take Natalie home, when Natalie moved up and kissed him on the lips. "I�m ready for my ride...Come on, Come on baby show me what you got!"
Natalie clung to his neck, weak with hysterical laughter.
Looking up to where LaCroix had taken off, Vachon muttered in a low voice.
"Big time. You owe me big time!" Then without another word he took to the air.
***
Vachon dumped Natalie onto her bed, and pulled a blanket over her.
She rolled into her pillows and promptly fell fast asleep. Shaking his head Vachon headed to the open window.
"I don't envy your hangover kiddo. Really I don't." With his good deed done, he flew away.
A low snore, slowly growing louder and louder emanated from the pillows. Sydney making himself comfortable on the bed licked his paws and stared at his mistress in irritation.
***
"Mon fils, you have successfully made quite a fool out of yourself tonight. And with a mortal no less. I am sure the entire Community will hear about this soon enough. Why do you do this to yourself?" he murmured to his semi-conscious protege Then he mused silently, "What is it, that makes you feel so much? Yet, if you didn't ... Would I care for you so deeply?" LaCroix shook his head slowly, "No." he thought, "I won't tell you that I love you. You would only hold it against my head, and hurt me again. I won't ever let you hurt me again, my son." he vowed.
LaCroix gently placed his child on the bed and removed his shoes and socks.
Thinking that Nick had already passed out, he reached for the blankets to cover him, when his arms were grabbed, and Nick shushed him again.
LaCroix felt the hair on his body rise, as his son's cool, moist breath feathered against his ear.
"Shhh, don't tell Lucien..." He whispered softly.
"Don't tell me what, Nicholas?"
"Shhh, Natalie don't tell him...I know I'm a disappointment. That I'm sorry, so sorry that I've hurt him...don't tell him...I love him. I know he hates me." Releasing his hold, Nick turned over onto his belly and plunged into a deep sleep.
Stunned, LaCroix raised both eyebrows. Then slowly he began to smile. He tucked the blankets around his son's shoulders, and murmured, "Hate you, Nicholas? No, mon fils. Disappointed? ... No. Someday little one. We will find a way back to each other. Someday. Soon perhaps. If we both learn to be more patient. If we learn from the past and make room for the future. Oh, my Nicholas..." Leaning down he gently kissed the back of his son's head and then moved to a nearby chair to wait.
Nick would awaken all to soon with a horrible hangover. One that LaCroix would get the last laugh on. Then, maybe....he and Nicholas would have a nice long talk. One without wooden stakes, or hurtful words, or spiteful accusations ... an over due father and son talk. Maybe then LaCroix would even tell his son how proud he was of him and how much he did love him. Maybe LaCroix would even show him.
The end.