Matthew reached into the jar he kept on his desk and whipped out a little DumDum pop, handing it out to the young girl who'd been brought in by her brother with a significant gash on her arm. They'd been playing outside, and, well, kids do that sort of thing. Presumably, they were children of a woman who worked there, although Matt never asked -too- many questions.
The little girl smiled her toothy grin with her extra better new arm, now that the cuts were gone, and took the offered candy from him. "Thanks, Matty!" she exclaimed. She grabbed her brother by the hand and ran back down the hall, presumably out to play again. He followed them into the hall and leaned against the wall with a little sigh.
"If only everything were that easy," he said to himself with a laugh.
Melanie hadn't fed in... well, it had been longer then she really should have gone without blood. She hadn't meant to starve herself, really, but first one thing had happened and then another and then she'd had to do a few complicated bits and before she knew it she was seeing walking snacks everywhere she looked. She could control herself, honestly she could, but... it was a bit harder. The thirst - because it wasn't just hunger, it was thirst (which made sense as she drank blood) - burned the back of her throat uncomfortably, and she was way too aware of all the beating hearts surrounding her.
She sighed a little. This was the problem with vampire senses, sometimes. School had been horrible, though she'd known most of the answers no matter if she was paying attention or not. She had graduated before, after all. It wasn't the questions that were the problem, though, it was the fact that she was surrounded by warm, moving, sentient beings who were chock full of rich, warm, delicious smelling blood and their hearts went on pounding away, making her more and more aware of their exact locations and of just how easy it would be to take them....
Except that they were people and she wasn't just a predator. That was what SingleEarth was all about, wasn't it? You could choose. It didn't matter what species you were, what kind of blood ran through your veins - in the end, you had more in common then there were differences. And no, humans were not the mindless animals that her vampire nature kept insisting that they were; and no, they did not exist only as a food source to her.
Needless to say, she'd ended up checking out early. Not that she would have lost control and attacked anyone or anything like that - she wasn't nearly that bad - but... it had made things very uncomfortable. She'd been distracted all day. After she left school she'd wanted to just go home and lock herself in so that she wouldn't be surrounded by all that blood, but that would do her no good. At all. And she didn't exactly want to rob a hospital or anything (people needed the blood that was in the bank there) so that left her with one real option. It was the one that she would have picked anyway. Of course, once she actually got to SingleEarth it didn't seem like such a bright idea anymore, as she could smell fresh blood. That made things... slightly more difficult. It wasn't really that difficult to understand why she shied away like a skittish horse when an adorable little girl ran down the hallway. It wasn't so much the girl that was the problem, but she had been bleeding.
Melanie grimaced at herself after the child and her brother had passed and then leaned back against the wall and slid to the floor with a sigh. She didn't want to move for a little while.
Matt turned and nearly tripped over Melanie. He lept back, surprised, and then his eyes immediatly narrowed in concern. "Hey, Melanie," he said carefully. Was she hurt? Was she bleeding? Was she sick? His mind raced through a thousand questions before he nearly had to slap himself straight. It was no secret Matt had a hard time being himself around girls, especially pretty ones, and Melanie was no different.
Right now, though, his instincts were propelling him to be a little outgoing. He knelt down and placed a hand near her, but not on her. "Are you okay?" he asked, tone lowered a little. He didn't want to just yell it out in the hallway. Matt could excersize discretion when he felt like it.
Melanie's black eyes flashed up briefly and she only just stopped herself from cringing back again. That would hurt Matt's feelings, and she didn't want that. She wished he wasn't a witch, though, and she wished she weren't hungry. She liked Matthew Smoke, and should not be looking him as though he could be dinner. That kind of thinking just was. not. good. And it wasn't her either, it was the vampire - the one without a personality, without a mind.
"Umm... hi," she said, breathing lightly. She could just hold her breath, of course, but that wouldn't change the fact that she'd be able to hear his heart. And not breathing made talking just a little more difficult. "Nothing's really wrong, sorry. I'm just... sort of hungry right now. And... and that girl had been bleeding, and it was a bit sudden, but really...." She took a breath and held it as she closed her eyes for a moment. "Sorry. Really. It's ok."
... she was such an idiot.
Matt was concerned, now. At Single Earth, he'd seen vampires trying to starve themselves for their beliefs, and in the end, there was really no real alternative for blood - the beliefs just had to stem from where it was procured, and how. They had willing donors almost all the time, and that made it easy sometimes for the vampires to feed without feeling like they were murdering or forcing victims into anything.
"Let's get you over to feed then, huh? You really shouldn't wait so long," he chastised. Matt had dealt with it before, but he didn't really know how bad it could get. He offered a hand out to her, still crouching down next to her, to pull her up. If she didn't take it... well, Matt couldn't make her do anything. He'd sure as Hell try to convince her, though.
"Yea, sorry," she said, slightly shamefaced. "I've just been... busy, that's all. Really busy. And it's complicated, and so I use more energy then I normally do, and that means that I need to feed more often then I normally do and so I didn't really even think about it until I walked outside and all the people started looking like walking hors d'oeuvres." She sighed slightly grumpily. "I wish everything wasn't so complicated," she muttered under her breath - strange, really, given that Matthew had said basically the same thing only a few minutes ago.
Whatever. It was true.
She let the witch help her up and they started off - Matt was tagging along... well, she guessed because he felt like it. Why else, really? Moral support? Melanie was tempted to giggle - luckily she managed not to. It had to be the smell, the smell was getting to her. With this in mind, the vampire stopped breathing. Things went a little better after that.
Except it was still early in the day. So except that the building was, by and large, empty. Totally empty of anyone who might be willing to make a donation, as it were, as far as she could tell.
Bad word. Bad word, bad word, bad bad word.
Matt had forgotten vampires were warm to the touch, and usually expected cold, dead hands every time one of them took his hand for something. It was always a pleasant sort of surprise, because it helped him relate better to them, in some way. The young Smoke descendant helped Melanie dutifully to her feet, and then walked alongside her to the room, listening to her and nodding.
"Odd, I was just saying the same thing before you arrived," he said with a smile. He pushed open the doors and found the room, as cozy as it was, completely empty. There was a noise, and then a woman swished through with a broom. Matt's heart sank. He didn't bet she'd be willing to make any donations to a non-profit organization today.
He looked back at Melanie, who was obviously thinking dark thoughts about this newfound discovery, and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, we'll figure it out. How long do you have?" Before? Before she got sick, or collapsed, or went nuts.. all of those could work.
How long did she have? How long in what way? If she really tried she could probably keep from eating until she faded away completely - but really, what good would that do? None. At all. Unfortunately for her talking to answer meant that she had to start breathing again, and that wasn't really good.
"Um, I don't know," she said. "I... I'm not going to fade in the next few hours or anything, but... I think I might need to stay away from people until I've had something."
Matt looked back into the empty room, and then looked at Melanie, concerned. He really was a Smoke; it just broke his heart to see anyone in pain like this. Melanie was fairly social, too, so to just lock her in her room seemed very.. unreasonable.
"...if you think you can control yourself, you can feed off of me," he said finally, after a long, hard stare. He was trying to decide if she was going to kill him or not, but he didn't seriously think she would. Melanie was just too.. benevolent for something like that. Plus, killing a Smoke is bad.
Melanie looked around the very empty room - even the woman with the broom had left - and then she sighed a little and stopped breathing again. She leaned against the wall that was at her back, looking down at her shoes as she thought. So, no one was here. That was all right, she was still fine.... All she had to do was be careful with where she went for a while, that was all....
School was easy - she could develop a severe and completely unexpected case of the flu or something. And maybe she could go and buy a cow or something. She didn't have a lot of money, but she refused to steal. Besides, she didn't need to eat what was traditionally thought of as 'food,' and that helped save on expenses. And while animal blood wasn't as satisfying as human, it would work....
And then Matt started speaking rather hesitantly, and she looked back up at him. "...if you think you can control yourself, you can feed off of me...."
Melanie blinked a few times, looking a bit surprised. "Matt, I don't want you to feel like you need to or anything. I -" Scent was such a problem sometimes; it was making her mouth water. "You sure?" she asked hesitantly. Anything but biting someone who didn't want to be bitten.
"No, it's fine!" he said, interrupting her. He held up his hands. "Really, I mean it. Just don't go telling everyone I did this, but only because I've been told my blood is kind of... potent. I don't want to end up a pincushion."
He took her by the arm and led her down the hall, to somewhere where they wouldn't be found for a few minutes. He knew that he'd definitely get a punch in the face from Riese for this if he ever found out. That boy was as much a Smoke as a dolphin was a fish.
"I- well-" Melanie began, and then Matthew silenced her last feeble noises of protest by taking her by the arm and tugging her off down the hall. Not that much tugging was really needed.
They wound their way down the hall, finally ending in a smallish room that really wasn't often used, and there the witch turned to face the vampire and... well, that was that. Melanie moved closer to him, and then she bit.
Naturally she didn't want to make the bite painful or anything, but she didn't make it feel too good either - she never did. She didn't want anyone to get addicted or anything, as some poor mortals did. She just wanted to make it feel nice enough that they wouldn't mind loosing blood. It was something of a trade, really.
Matt was, well, surprised that things were happening that fast. First, Melanie was standing there staring at him, and then she was on him, and he felt his back touch the wall and his knees bend a little to allow her better access. He wanted to tense up as he felt a pinch on his neck, but she'd already dipped into his mind, and Matt was only slightly aware of the soft brunette hair that smelled sort of like flowers....
He couldn't even describe this sensation. He felt like he was floating, nice and warm, snuggled up in some sort of cloud, high above everything else, and he could see the oceans and the forests and even the stars, and then there was this strange noise...
He came back to 'Earth' to find Melanie standing over him, trying to get his attention. He'd ended up wedged in a corner - it wasn't even that she'd taken too much, but simply that Matt... had not expected that to feel like, well, that. He slid slowly off of his rear and took her extended hand, though he was still incredibly woosy.
"S...so ..... do you feel better?" he asked slowly, wondering why he sounded like he was talking really, really low-pitched. Sounds like he could use a cookie and some orange juice.
Witch blood is so much more potent then human blood, Melanie thought rather hazily as she drank. That was a good thing of course, it meant that she wouldn't need as much. Of course another side effect would be that her power would probably spike for a few days, and that would probably make her life... interesting in more ways then one. But still, oh it tasted good. Very... very....
And then she seemed to snap back from whatever little trip her mind had been going off on - yes, hello, Melanie. Wake up. She was holding Matthew up as he sagged down, and for a moment she was honestly concerned. But no, she hadn't had too much, he was still fine, would probably be a little lightheaded for a while, a bit weaker, but....
Oh. Right. Enough.
She stopped drinking rather reluctantly - she was used to human blood, witch blood was delicious - and then licked the extra blood off his neck and stepped back. She need a chance to clear her head, to let her mind catch up with the rest of her.... Witch blood was potent, and it left her feeling rather hazy. Much better as far as being hungry went, though, and the hazy feeling wasn't bad or anything, it was kind of nice....
The witch slid down the wall he was leaning against when she stopped holding him up, and after a few seconds passed and she noticed that, she more or less instantly snapped out of hazy-joy.
"Matt! Matt, are you alright?" She was at his side in an instant, crouching down, looking at him in concern. Crap, I should have just gone and found a cow - The witch looked through her for a moment before his eyes cleared a little and focused. Melanie breathed a sigh of relief, and held out a hand. "Here, come on."
"S...so ..... do you feel better?"
"Uh, yea. Thanks," she said, blushing a little.
"Great," he said with a lazy grin as he hoisted himself up. He still felt kind of light-headed as his body fought to try and right itself again, and he leaned on Melanie now for support instead of the other way around.
"That was definitely different," he confessed. "I guess I can see why people can get addicted to that stuff. It was somewhat of a rush," he said. He laughed a little, but really had no idea how much Melanie had held back, or how much a potent vampire could really roll his mind.
"Now I think it's my turn to get something to eat.. I gotta get some orange juice or something, now. I guess you can come and make sure I don't fall on my face." He didn't bother to check for marks; he knew they were as good as gone.
Good thing she'd held back too - getting Matt addicted to her bite just would not have been a good thing for the day. She'd have probably ended up whacking her head with something very hard. For a very long time. And then she'd have to try and help council him out of it or something, or maybe try biting him so that it hurt so that he'd have something to set against the memory....
Ugg, she just wouldn't have known what to do.
Still, no harm done. Hopefully. "Come on then, witch-boy," she laughed. "Let's go find you something to eat. I promise I won't let you fall on your face."
"Witch boy?!" he exclaimed, giving her shoulder a playful shove. "I'll have you know this witch-boy is going to have a Good Citizenship award soon for all of the stuff I put up with." He stuck his nose up in the air but couldn't manage to clear his face of his usual grin, and continued walking again. Movement was making him feel a little better, a little more grounded.
When they'd reached the kitchen area, he poured a stupidly large glass of apple juice since he could find no orange, and that was just fine. Matt hated pulp, and even the non-pulp had it. He pulled down a box of little Ritz Bits and just sat down on the counter, stuffing his face for a few moments.
Juice and crackers made him feel twelve all over again. He smiled at Melanie with a bunch of the little round snacks lined up in his mouth. Maybe he really -was- twelve.
"Yes, Witch-Boy," Melanie teased. "Come on, we can't call it The Adventures of Matthew Smoke and Vampire-Girl. You have to have a nickname." She laughed at him, and then followed him into the kitchen. Watching him eat juice and crackers made her feel nostalgic - she missed the good old days when that's all that she needed. Not that blood was that bad or anything, it was just... a bit more violent.
...
Well, there was a profound thought. Blood required a bit more violence to get at then crackers. Duh, Melanie. Duh.
Still, that wasn't saying that the occasional little cracker sandwich wasn't nice. Melanie snagged a few of the Ritz Bits crackers and then smiled her own Ritz-y smile at Matt. If he could act like he was five, so could she.
After that it was a bit difficult to actually eat the crackers, given that she kept on giggling, but she managed it. Maybe the witch blood was still affecting her? Yea, that was it. Sure.
"Are you feeling better?" she asked him then, smiling. He seemed like it.
"Oh, tons," he cheered, mouth full of cracker. He swilled down some juice and then grinned at Melanie with a normal smile. Suddenly he felt his ears get a little hot, and buried his face in the bottom of his cup until it stopped. She sure was pretty.
"Now what? Want to see who else is here? I could use a stretch of my legs now that I'm all full and stuff," he suggested. "Maybe we can find some evildoer to avert and we can get called "meddling kids" after we solve a mystery. And get our own TV show."
"Good," she grinned back at him, and then was briefly baffled as he abruptly tipped his cup up again, not looking at her. What the... huh? What?
Never mind, she wisely thought after a moment, and dismissed it. Honestly, Melanie could be dense when it came to guys sometimes.
"Oo, that would be fun. Yea, let's go make a TV show! Then you can brag to everyone you know how you're a star in The Adventures of Witch-Boy and Vampire-Girl." She grinned. "I like that name."
"Listen, just so long as it's only you calling me Witch Boy I don't mind so much, but anyone else, and... well, I won't hit them, but I'll find someone who will," he said, the hollow humourous threat a sign he was feeling much better. He walked with Melanie out into the hall again, and they headed down for the sitting area.
"Sure is dead in here. Heh, no pun intended. Do you know anyone else from here that goes to that school with you?" he inquired as he straightened up some cushions on the couch. He watched Melanie as she moved around, wondering how it was some people, like Riese, couldn't acknowledge the fact that there will still some vampires who weren't hell bent on world domination.
"Deal," she said straight-faced, instantly. "And you can totally count on me to hit anyone else who calls you Witch Boy." She broke into a grin. "Not hard or anything, but I'll still totally hit them for you. Just point 'em out."
Melanie groaned and rolled her eyes at his pun, intended or not. She shoved him lightly on the shoulder. "That's bad, Matt. Really bad. And... uh, well, I recognize a few people. Occasionally." She blushed as she smiled, slightly embarrassed. "I'm afraid that most of them seem to know me a lot better then I know them. Hey, does that ever happen to you? Like, someone who you don't even recognize comes up and says hi, it's good to see you? It's sooooo awkward."
She pulled a pillow off a plush chair and then curled up in it, hugging the pillow and resting her chin on it. Had she known Matt's thoughts, of course, she would have agreed completely with him. It was choices that defined a person - not skin color or eye color or height or body type or parents. Or race. Calling someone evil just because they were a vampire was as stupid as saying someone was dumb just because they were black.
"Look, in my line of work, it happens a lot. I'd love to sit here and say that I remember every single person I've helped or listened to or every family member, but... I usually end up saying, 'Hey...you!' I hate it. I know that if I just say I have no idea who they are, they'll get all bent out of shape about it. My brother, he can remember every name, every face... Me? Well. I think I sat too close to the TV as a kid or something."
He plunked himself down next to her and threw his feet up on the table, letting out a long sigh. "Man, days like today are so necessary in the week. Just a day to sit on your butt and do nothing but be lazy." He grinned at her.
"Well, glad to know that at least I'm not alone," she said with a smile. "Like, really glad. And the horrible thing is that vampires are supposed to have great memory, so everyone expects you to remember everything. Or, well - not everything, but you know." She flapped a hand dismissively and giggled, then sighed. "Anyway. I know what you're talking about." She paused and blinked. "Or maybe it's you who know what I'm talking about. Oh, whatever." She hugged her pillow and decided that - really - it didn't matter, so who cared?
"Yea," she smiled at him - it was nice. And now she really didn't have anything to worry about. Well, nothing really to worry about, like the fact that there were lots and lots of human hearts around her. It was... relaxing. "It's therapeutic. More people should try it."
"So did you learn anything interesting in school this week?" he asked casually, sinking down into the soft fabric of the couch. He threw his arms up on the top of it, getting comfortable. "Any little factoids that you didn't know, current events?"
Matthew was glad to be out of school. He couldn't see how on earth Melanie even stood it. He was a pretty easygoing guy, but he absolutely couldn't stand sitting still in class like that and being told what to do. He had chronic ADD, that was all.
"Er... nothing that I didn't know before," she said with an almost apologetic air. "It happens. No new factoids, no."
She paused for a moment. "Actually, that's not true. Mr. Carshen was showing us how to draw eyes today and I picked up a few new things. I mean, I suck at art and all, but at least now I know more of the theory behind it, should I ever suddenly and miraculously develop talent in that area." She made a little, joking sort of face. Art wasn't exactly her thing. She played the piano fairly well, at least.
"You're the only vampire I think I've met who doesn't have some really disgusting good artistic talent. I mean, it's like a status quo that if you're a vampire, you have to be young, beautiful or handsome, and know how to like, paint the Sistine Chapel in a micro-version on the underside of a bottle cap or something before you're inducted. Or at least, that's how some of them act." He let go of his little miniature rant, and huffed.
"I draw about as well as I can fish. And the last time I went fishing, I hitched myself with the fly and ripped my shirt." He looked at her flatly. "But then again, in a few hundred years, you'll be able to draw like the Dickens if you practice. I mean, all you have is time, right?" he asked brightly. Some people said stuff like that to be malicious, but with Matt, you knew he was all complement and support.
"Maybe you can paint my portrait or something."
"Sure," Melanie laughed, "I'll do it now. One stick figure coming right up. Where's my paper?" She smiled over at him. "Thanks though, Matty. I dunno, on the off chance that I ever do develop some kind of disgustingly good artistic talent, I will paint you. That'd be pretty cool, actually."
She looked at him sidelong. "And don't worry about the fishing - the one time I tried going fishing I hooked the thing in my uncles head. That wasn't fun, let me tell you. Shortest fishing trip I've ever heard of."
"Hey, have you even seen the Matrix stick-figure thing they have on the internet? I have it saved on my work computer, which I probably shouldn't, but it's so awesome I had to. It's pretty cool, I'll have to send it to you. I don't even know how I found it. There's another one, StickFigureDeath dot com, I think. It's not really as gross as it sounds, it's kind of funny."
He laughed at her fishing expedition, noting how similar their experiences had been. "Yeah. My brother can fish, though. He does everything well - well, all the.. typical manly stuff. Him and my dad are like two peas in a pod. My mom used to say Riese and I were more like distant cousins. I don't think you've ever met him... you'd probably think he was cute."
Riese was very attractive, or so girls at their school had gushed to the less-attractive, shy Matt in homeroom. It wasn't even that Matt was unattractive, either! He was very good looking, but Riese played football and hockey and Matt... Matt played Magic: The Gathering.
Melanie giggled a little guiltily when he mentioned a stick figure thing that they had on the net. "No, I don't web surf much. Erm... yea. Maybe I'll have to check it out, though. And yea. Show me the stick figure guy. You've made me curious." Stick figure matrix... it sounded interesting, certainly.
She laughed when he described his brother. "If he looks anything much like you, I probably would think he was cute," the vampire said with a smile. She found Matthew sweet, but then she was predisposed to like anyone who helped out at Single Earth, and Matt was fun to hang out with, when she had the time. It was really crazy, you'd assume that someone who was immortal would practically be made of time in which to hang out and goof off. Not so! Then again, she could hardly say anything about that as it kind of had been her choice. She didn't have to go to school. Again.
Whatever.
"But don't worry about all the sports and whatnot, if you do. I prefer chess to most of them, actually. Shh. Don't tell anyone."
"I will, the next time I'm near my laptop. I have it saved, it's pretty bad. Whoever did it has less of a life than I do... although I guess he probably got Paypal donations out the yin-yang for it, so who's got the last laugh, really?" he said with a chuckle.
When Melanie ventured to say Matthew was cute, though, he turned a shade of red and looked away. His ears burned, and he wanted to hide behind a couch pillow until he had gotten himself under control. It was no secret he thought Melanie was gorgeous - he always found a way to talk to her somehow. Matt wasn't good with girls though, especially not the immortal kind. He had bad luck. He always ended up the guy who got stood up for dates, or laughed at - which was odd, because Matt thought he was an okay sort of guy... evidently just not what 'modern girls' were into. Whatever that was.
"No, Riese and I are different. I have a picture of us in my office, even though he hates this place," he said with a sigh, once he'd recovered from his giddy cloud 9 adventure. "And, for the record, I suck at chess. Checkers, though. Checkers I am win at."
Melanie laughed. "Speaking of animated stick figures, have you ever seen that one where the guy fights against the guy animating him?" She laughed. "It's brilliant." And then he blushed, and she bit her lip and blushed a little herself - she didn't want to make him uncomfortable.
"That's still kind of strange, I think," she'd sighed - she'd heard about Riese before. "And I dunno. Maybe sometime I can help you with your chess and you can help me with my checkers. Maybe it's just the people who I play against, but I swear I get beaten every single time I try to play it." And it was true, too - it would be nice to have someone try to fix that. Melanie was nice, sure, but she didn't particularly love losing over and over and over again.
Matthew laughed out loud. "I got beaten at chess by an eight year old yesterday. Posey was running a little playgroup for some of the women who work here and can't afford daycare, and one of them wanted to play chess. She let him play me, and he walked all over me. It was so pathetic," he said with a sigh.
"I still don't see how you can lose to checkers, but maybe you played the same kid I did. I swear to God, his mom needs to put him in a special program. It was brilliant whatever he did. I hate him," he said sourly, but he was only kidding. Matt didn't hate an awful lot. It wasn't his nature.
"I guess I'd better actually do some more work. Want to come with me while I do my rounds?" he asked, sitting up. He regretfully still had things to do, and he didn't just want to leave Melanie hanging. He felt one-hundred percent fine, anyways.
Melanie laughed as well - "I'm sure that we can do something about that. Seriously. We'll trade lessons. It will be fun. And we will, in turns, have the chance to humiliate each other. And then we can have crackers." Melanie, it seemed, was still slightly drunk off of Matty's witch blood. Well, or something.
He offered to let her come, and she stood with a smile. "Sure, I'd love to. Anything that I can help with?"
"Eh," he said, glancing at his watch. "I just need to close up my office and drop some paperwork off to Melissa, then the usual quick rounds to make sure nobody's bleeding on the floor or anything. After that, I'm pretty much free. Probably going to go get food, so if you really do want crackers, we can locate them," he said with a smile.
He sort of figured that Melanie might still be a little giddy from his blood. He felt fine, but that was just his natural healing capabilities. He didn't suppose she got to snack on a Witch fairly often, and he just kind of let it go. He was glad he could help, especially Melanie.
Whoops - Matt realized he had a small, tiny, possible attraction to her. What was not to like, anyways? Pale, milky skin, long dark hair, a sweet voice... He blinked a few times. "Ready?"