Night's Omen

It was amazing how well-behaved Pascale was being, for all of her cereal throwing at Danielle earlier. The child seemed to deduce her surroundings rather quickly and had a very base level of right and wrong behaviour - IE anything that would make mommy spank her.

Danielle sat next to Riese, talking in a low tone to him so that nobody could really hear what they were saying, but the restaurant was so full that it didn't really matter anyways.

Marcus sat next to Ash, and then there were random friends scattered about from both families, some that knew Ash and some that did not. They all seemed stunning though, as a witch tended to do - the natural aura around them seemed to glow, making their table set apart from everyone else's.

"Okay," Riese said. "Before we begin, I'd like to say thank you all for coming. Danielle and I never would have made it this far without some of you. We also have a small announcement to make," he explained. "Danielle and I just found out a few weeks ago we're going to be expecting our second child."

There were cries of surprise and a brief applause, and Danielle blushed. "Aw, thanks guys. This means another 8 months of pampering and catering to my every demand, hahaha," she said menacingly, taking a sip of her water.


"We don't know what it is yet, but I'm sure you'll all be the first to know. I dunno if the world is ready for another Vida-Smoke, but I guess it doesn't have a choice."

Well, that was marvelous news.  Ash smiled for Dani, but he was torn on this particular bit of information.  He still believed that it couldn't all be true, but if it was....then he'd lost her.  Of course, it it was somehow true, then he'd lost her long ago.  The second child in her marriage was hardly a shocking blow to him, not like finding out about all of the rest had been, so he was somehow able to take it all better.

He was still horrible confused, but he could play along.

Danielle as a mother still...surprised him, he wasn't going to deny it.  She seemed better adapted than he'd known her to be, though.  Marcus was still around, an obvious difference that had to have been the catalyst, and Riese was there for her.  Apparently, in whatever strange timeline this was, those two had essentially taken his place.  It left him unsure of what his place really was here.

Whatever Danielle had begun to say seemed to blur suddenly, and turned oddly enough into the sound of an alarm clock. There was a banging and a shuffling, and her voice came loud and clear as the lights dropped.

"ASH. WAKE UP! YOU SAID A CAT NAP, NOT A DAMN SLUMBER!"

Danielle was kicking him in the side lightly, standing on top of her bed, with the alarm clock blaring and every light on. She looked like she'd been there for quite a while, judging from her tone. She dropped to her knees and jabbed him in the side.

"I'm going to get the catnip if you don't get up!" she threatened.

He woke up rather suddenly, thanks to the violent measures she was utilizing, but there was almost no comprehension as to where he was and what was going on.  The last thing he remembered was sitting at a table watching Danielle and Riese announce their second child, with Marcus sitting beside him.  Now...Dani was screaming and kicking him, and he was...in a bed.

It wasn't his.

Was this real?  Or another mess like the last one?  Was Riese going to show up to see what all the yelling was about, or Marcus?  Maybe a vampire, to really screw with his mind?

"Where am I?" he asked, glancing quickly around as his power spread out over the room and then onward.  He wanted to know if anyone else was in the apartment.  No surprises.

Danielle stopped kicking, and dropped down onto her thick down comforter in a seated position almost effortlessly, like she was a teenage girl again. She sighed and flicked back short blonde strands of hair, rolling her eyes.

"Duh, Ash? You're in my apartment. We went for lunch then you said you were tired, so I told you to come lay down. I got busy doing shit in the other room and I realized that you told me to wake you up at six, which was like, two hours ago. So. This is me. Waking you up. Get up."

She nudged him with her foot again, the sock dangerously close to his face.

He still stared at her like he didn't think he believed her as she explained, trying to find the flaw, whatever was wrong with the situation.  Was this really the right time?  It wasn't another trick? 

There was no way that was just a dream. 

"Pascale?  Where is she?" he asked, still not entirely sure.  That had seemed way too real to be a normal dream, but it was starting to look like it might have been.  He didn't want to just assume right off the bat, though.  He had to pull his face out of the way of her foot, though.  He was not getting smacked in the face with her sock, whether this was another mindfuck or real. 

"Um, what?" she asked impatiently, kicking at his face a little more. He moved away, and she settled for mashing her foot onto his back, enjoying the idea that she was putting her nasty socked feet all over the Triste and getting away with it.

"I think you dosed a little too hard there, buddy," she said, pulling her feet away and swinging her legs off the side of the bed to sit up like a normal human being. "Come on, Darren's been blowing your cell phone up. I think he's really interested in leaving work at some point since you said you'd come in to relieve him, oh, an hour ago?"

Fortunately, he wasn't obsessive compulsive or anything that would have minded having her dirty socks on him, so long as it wasn't his face.  He'd lived through the French Revolution, so he definitely knew what dirt was.  Modern hygiene was so much better, but that was really beside the point of his whole situation.  She didn't know who Pascale was?  Did that mean?

Oh, shit, he remembered telling Darren he'd take the bar for him, and he groaned, sitting up.  "I'll call him in a few."

What the hell had happened?  He never slept so deeply that he wouldn't have heard the phone, and that had been such a strange, vivid dream.  It wasn't something he was going to forget anytime soon.  Was Dani better off with someone else?  Yes, he knew that.  She could never have children or a real life with him, just as Aimee hadn't been able to.  She hadn't minded so much, but she was certainly not Danielle.  He couldn't imagine Dani getting it into her mind that she wanted something and settling for anything else.

He wanted to ask her about some of the things from his 'dream', but bringing Marcus up wasn't ever a good idea, and Riese would no doubt make her think of her brother.  That narrowed down his options some.  "Danielle, what do you want out of your life?" he asked her, not even using her usual nickname for once.  "Don't you eventually intend to settle down?"

She stared at him for a moment, that way a cat stares at you and you know it's looking at you and thinking about just how stupid you are. She blinked a few times, trying to wrap her head around the idea that Ash had not only finally learned her full name but also hit her up for information about her future.

"Uh... " she said. She cleared her short blonde hair behind her ear before she began again. "Listen, I don't know where this is all coming from, but if you're asking 'Will I ever get bitten by the baby bug?' the answer is no, and I have a doctor's note to prove it. I'm going in to get fixed in less than a month, thank Macht, so even if I ever do try and change my mind, past-Danielle will be smarter than future-Danielle and lock the trapdoor."

She tilted her head and eyed him. "Why?" she demanded suspiciously.

He frowned, not sure what he thought of that news, but he couldn't say he was against it.  It was her choice, and it wasn't like he would have ever been fathering a child of hers.  If she couldn't ever have children of her own it also saved him the awkward sort of jealousy he'd been feeling when he saw Pascale.

Her far simpler question was one of those loaded ones, and he really didn't even want to bother with it, but he couldn't foresee her just dropping it.  He could lie, and he wasn't bad at that, but he didn't make it a point to be dishonest with her, so he rubbed at his face, pushed his hair out of his face, and opted for the truth.  Most of it.

"Because I had a strange dream, and it reminded me that I can't offer you any semblance of a normal life.  I want to be selfish and disregard it, but at the same time, I don't want you to be missing out on something you may someday want.  Have you really thought that procedure through?" he asked, though he wasn't at all trying to talk her out of it.  He just wanted to know that she really wanted what she was doing.

"Yes," she answered sharply. "I have. I'm not a child." That was all she felt necessary to even comment on. She knew Ash wouldn't try to talk her out of it, but she still didn't like discussing it with a great many number of people. Sarah actually had tried to con her out of it when they'd spoken on the phone previously, and Danielle had threatened to find her and kill her on her own for the offense.

"Anyways, I thought you didn't dream. I mean, I guess it makes sense, I just... I don't know. Figured you immortal super-magical types ran out of them eventually." She began tugging at the blankets, trying to make the bed around Ash.

He snorted at her comment, though not because it was particularly amusing or offensive.  Compared to his years, she WAS a child, but he wasn't going to force his opinion down her throat.  He'd learned long ago to offer advice, and then let people do what they wanted.  For the most part, anyway.

"I wish I didn't dream, chere.  I've had more nightmares in recent times than I can ever remember having before.  Tristes behave mostly like humans, though.  Vampires don't dream, but I am not a vampire," he explained, and he finally sighed and stood up so that she could make the bed, rather than remain there while she tried to tug at the blankets like that. 

"That sucks," she commented absently as she finally was able to make the bed when he released the covers of his bodily hostage. She smoothed it down and then turned to look at him. "I guess I don't really talk to you a lot about the dreams and stuff like that. It's actually never come up before now." She arched a brow. "You dream about me a lot?"

She wasn't necessarily fishing, although there was some intent there somewhere behind all that sarcastic humor she bore him in the question. She folded her arms, raising her chin a little to look at him. "Cos, really, that's kind of cute. And I don't think you want the word out that you're behaving 'cute', do you?"

"Sometimes, it does," he agreed, though he had to hesitate and watch her carefully when she continued.  No, they didn't often talk about things such as dreams, though he thought that was mostly because he didn't think she needed to know what plagued his dreams, and she didn't seem to want to share her own dreams with him.  Neither had a habit of prying.

"I dream about a lot of things," he informed her easily, meeting her gaze as though her 'threat' didn't bother him.  Really, it didn't.  Even if 'the word got out' that he was doing something 'cute', he didn't think most people would make an issue of it.  "But yes, I suppose I dream about you often enough.  Is it really 'cute' to dream about the people you care about?"

Yes, he'd just freely admitted that he cared about her, but it hardly mattered to him if he said it.  He obviously DID care, so it wasn't like it was a huge surprise.  She'd already known that for quite some time.

"Okay, I didn't expect you to go all serious with me," she said, obviously a little surprised by his answer. She was still coming to terms with a lot, although things had definitely settled down some since the last few encounters they'd had. She wrapped an arm around him nonetheless.

"Listen, dream about whatever you want, but try not to think too hard on them, okay? Come on, after a billion years, even you should know a dream is just a dream. Now get your lazy ass to work before Darren quits." She rolled onto her toes to plant a light kiss on his cheek.