Life Insurance {Gabriel}

[Gabriel Sullivan]

He didn't know who was going to fall first with the way she started dragging him up the stairs, but he was certain that if one of them did, they both would.  For that very reason, it was a damn good thing when she let go of his hand, since he'd been strongly considering just scooping her up and carrying her up the stairs to fix the problem.  She made it, however, and didn't even take all that long to find the key to her apartment, all things considered.

It was as he was shutting the apartment door that he was taken off-guard, since he'd stopped scanning her thoughts in favor of offering her privacy and saving himself the headache of trying to figure out what the jumbled thoughts meant.  He should have been paying more attention, since he turned around to see her whipping off her shirt, and for an instant, whatever she'd said completely flew over his head.

Then, she pounced on him, and he caught her only to backpedal against the door.

Anyone in the hallway would be wondering what the hell THAT was, but he didn't care anymore.  He could hold her weight easily, and he did, his mouth pressing forward to take her lips in a kiss. 

If he was going to come up with a brilliant plan, he needed to do it soon.

[Katherine Summers]

Kat was practically clawing at Gabriel to try and get his jacket off. There was probably more thought involved in not falling off of him, simply because her balance at the moment was more than a few degrees off. She managed to swing around enough to direct him at the couch, where it would inevitably catch the backs of his knees. On impact, she fell off of him and onto the floor, laughing uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry!" she giggled, rolling onto her side to stand up. "Just, stay right there," she said, trying to stand up via pushing off her table and stumbling towards her room. She got all the way there, and then veered into the post on her bed and fell flat on her ass. She let out a surprised scream, but it was muffled by her burying of her face into a pillow she'd swiped from the tangle of sheets. She was laughing too hard to call out that she was okay, and just sat there wrapped in bedding, giggling madly at... yeah.

[Gabriel Sullivan]

How did this get so out of hand?

She was just about ready to tear his jacket off, which was why he was trying to assist her, but it wasn't easy to balance her while she was squirming around AND take his jacket off at the same time.  When she twisted her weight around, he let her do it, and ended up backing into the couch the next time he fell.  For a vampire, he wasn't looking all that graceful. 

Hopefully, she'd be too drunk to remember, because he was actually startled enough that he didn't hang onto her well enough to keep her from falling right on her ass next to he couch.  At least she was laughing.

Good God, this was ridiculous.

He stared at her like he thought she was insane for just a moment, hoping that she wasn't injured and just too drunk to care, but she was suddenly up and telling him to stay put so she could run to her room.  He would have done exactly that if he hadn't heard her scream an instant later, too.

"Are you hurt?" he asked, rushing into the room to find her...on the floor.  Again.  In a pile of sheets, laughing like a child might in the middle of a mess.  It was definitely nice to see, especially since he was pretty sure she wasn't hurt, but he wasn't sure if he should leave the doorway to help her up.  There were far too many things he wouldn't mind doing to her in that pile of sheets, right there on the floor, and she didn't seem all that interested in refusing.  Was it really right, with him entirely sober, and her as drunk as she was?

Whatever.  He'd help her up, if only to ensure that she didn't fall AGAIN in the process. 

[Katherine Summers]

Katherine took the help getting up, but she was completely disoriented. "Sorry, sorry!" she said, laughing as she tried to find her balance. She pushed off of Gabriel finally and wandered into her closet, closing the door half-way so that he couldn't follow her in without trying. "Just changing, give me a second," she instructed, trying to make it clear that she wasn't puking on her nice things. She emerged moments later in a pair of terrycloth shorts and a matching tank top. Pajamas, it seemed. At least she wasn't dashing around in her bra anymore, for Gabriel's sake.

She moved passed him and into her bathroom, which was strangely neat, for a girl - but then again, Kat was a fairly organized person. Her room was mostly pastels - light purple, there was a lot of that, and a minty green sort of shade. She had Christmas lights wrapped around her bed, which was large enough for at least four or five people, and had iron posts, but no canopy top. Instead, the lights snaked around - plug 'em in and they were a violet colour, most commonly referred to as pink when lit up. But there was noise from the bathroom now, and that was Kat, trying to wash the whore-makeup off of her face. She was successful, and emerged once again, fresh-faced and bright-eyed (or was it glassy-eyed?). She looked better than before, of course, because Kat, while looking exotic with dark liner and thick shadow, was always more appealing in her natural state.

She smiled brightly at Gabriel. "Sorry, I figured I'm going to be on the verge of passing out soon, wanted to prepare myself," she stumble-laugh-slurred. She was absolutely marinated in alcohol. She'd brushed her teeth twice and still couldn't get the taste away, but ah well, what can you do? She stepped closer to him. "Smell, I used my kiwi-scented soap," she instructed, turning her cheek to him and rolling onto the tips of her toes.

[Gabriel Sullivan]

Sighing a little and just taking in the rest of her room now that he knew she wasn't hurt, he really wasn't all that surprised at it.  He actually thought it looked comfortable, if not exactly his sort of style (naturally).  It did suit her, though.  He liked it.

Of course, he liked seeing her walk out of her closet in the shorts and tank top.  The bra had definitely been preferred over the new top, but the shorts showed off her legs, which was an improvement.  Ironically, considering how much he'd been wanting to feed even before he'd run into her, he was thinking sex right up until she stepped up in front of him to offer him her cheek to smell.

She really didn't need to be that close, but it definitely did the trick for him.  He shouldn't have, he knew that somewhere in the back of his head, but he did, and his eyes closed briefly as he took in the scent that was purely her, intoxicating enough on its own, as well as the kiwi smell, which just made him think 'home'.  Even after all these years, it was those sorts of things that made him nostalgic.  That wasn't good for her, though he had slightly better control than just attacking her. 

He moved slowly, giving her all the opportunity she may need to get away if she objected (which he doubted), and curled his arms around her back to pull her in close enough for a kiss that was surprisingly lacking in aggression.  He wanted this as a confirmation, even if it wasn't outright permission.  To further suggest intimate activities, his hands slid downward, fully intending to scoop her up under her thighs and carry her to her bed if she reacted favorably, which had better be quickly.  He was only resisting turning to her throat as it was because he had a tight grip on his control.  Any further encouragement, and he'd likely crack. 

[Katherine Summers]

Kat was caught a little off-guard by this, but it didn't matter - she was pretty sure she knew where this was going. If only she had any idea, of course, she might have felt a little differently. When he picked her up, she squealed a little, trying to kiss him and not lose her balance. She pulled back only because she had to laugh, but it worked out to her advantage as Gabriel walked backwards to the bed. When he intended to dump her down on the bed, she shifted her weight and nuzzled into his shoulder, planting a row of kisses on his neck, trailing from the bottom up towards his jaw.

Instead of falling underneath him when they finally hit the bed, Kat ended up on top, still dropping little kisses on his jawline. She began working at the buttons on his shirt, trying to continue occupying his mouth with her own before he had a chance to protest or change his mind. She pulled back for a moment, leaving her throat fully exposed as she reached back to push her hair from her eyes.

[Gabriel Sullivan]

No, she didn't know where it was going, though it easily COULD have.  If he'd fed more recently, that's exactly what they'd have had, and he couldn't say that he'd have liked it any less.  He needed to feed now, though.  If he kept waiting, he risked losing control, which wasn't an option around her.  She was far too precious for that.

Getting her to the bed was actually harder than he'd have expected, though he didn't have a problem with her weight.  It was the way she squirmed and distracted him with every step he took.  He tried moving to drop her onto her bed, but true to form, she changed that all up.  He didn't push the issue, and ended up beneath her with his shirt being unbuttoned as she suddenly moved to trailing kisses down HIS neck.  Irony was always one of his things, and really, there was nothing that beat THAT sort of irony.  He also just liked it, which explained the sharp intake of breath that broke his concentration away from his hands and their wandering up the inside of her tank top.

Nevermind.  Foreplay was going to have to be cut a little short.

He sat up a little more, pulling her body to the best possible angle for what he was about to do as she pulled away from another of those aggressive, wanting kisses, and he swooped into her neck for his own.  Fortunately, he didn't just dig right in, but instead left his own trail of kisses before focusing more strongly right over the spot he wanted and finally, finally started pushing his mental affects on her.  Kendras were good at rolling mortal minds, and his little charm trick enhanced that, making it a bit easier.  He wanted this to feel good for her, and only after he was certain that it would did he break the skin.

There were some things he was wrong about, but those were few and far between anymore.  Gabe was DEFINITELY not wrong about how amazing her blood tasted, though he may have underestimated it a bit.  He had to consciously remind himself not to take too much, and threw his focus into directing her 'high' towards sexual thoughts rather than a 'bite'.  He did NOT want her remembering that part. 

[Katherine Summers]

Katherine was completely unaware, and suddenly, it felt like she was floating - no, that wasn't the right word. Drifting was more appropriate. She could feel the warmth of someone, no, Gabriel, his hands roaming, light kisses, the soft cotton of the sheets on her bed around her in a swirl. She felt good, really good. This was going to go down in history as one of the best drunken one-night stands she'd ever had--

But something was amiss. Her sense of self-preservation, or perhaps the amount of alcohol she'd consumed, suddenly tapped into her lucidity, and she gasped. She felt like she was being strangled, like she was in a room and the light was being sucked out of it, like she was being pushed underwater. There was Gabriel, still, but he seemed so far away. Terror struck a chord inside her, and she began to push and struggle --

And then it was over. She drifted back into the sea of calm, the pleasurable sensation of his touch, and it was like it had never happened. "Gabriel..." Her words were soft, something between silence and just barely a whisper. She felt so heavy, strangely tired.

[Gabriel Sullivan]

Gabriel honestly didn't know what happened when she had her lucid moment, but she nearly gave a guy whose heart doesn't need to beat a heart attack.  He finished very quickly after, only continuing to put more effort into calming her and putting her back into those pleasant places.  He wasn't pushing his luck that she might turn lucid again, nor did he need anymore.  Besides, she really didn't need to lose anymore.  He was sated for the time being, and she was still well, if not a little tired.

He wasn't affected like she was, but he'd settled beside her, still with a good portion of her body intertwined with his.  If he didn't know better, he might have thought they'd had sex, minus a few details.  Either way, he leaned close to kiss along her jawbone as she said his name, feeling rather pleased himself.  Of course, he didn't have any of his blood drained, so he had his reasons.

"Shh, Kat.  Everything's okay.  Go to sleep," he urged her, considering heading out.  Would she freak if he left her?  Hmm, maybe.  Would she freak more if he stayed?  He was SO feigning drunk when this came up later.

[Katherine Summers]

Well, if you were to ask Kat, they'd definitely slept together - at least, that was all she could muster from memory. Darkness, twined bodies, and... yeah. She felt her arm lift a little and wrap around him, surprised at how warm he was. She could hear him telling her to go to sleep, and she planned to do just that, but first -

"Stay," she commanded, tone groggy and almost faded out. She tried to hold on to him, but she felt so utterly drained from all the alcohol she'd consumed and, well, that, that she couldn't manage the strength for it. She rolled over and nestled somehow between him and a wall of blankets that had been swept up in his quest for snack time, and almost instantly passed out. Yes, passed out. She was out cold, actually. Gabriel could have put on a musical and placed her center stage and she'd have snoozed right through all of it, and with good reason: she'd consumed her body weight in alcohol and then lost more blood than she'd ever given at a blood bank. Suck.

[Gabriel Sullivan]

He was about to high-tail it out of there when she wrapped her arm around him and told him to 'Stay', and he wouldn't refuse her, but there was still an issue that his eternally logical mind was stuck on.  They definitely didn't seem to have had sex.  Hell, he still had his shirt on, even if it was unbuttoned, his pants and even his SHOES on.  That really didn't look like 'sex' to him.  Of course, all he had to do was make sure he was awake before her, which was pretty easy.  He DID kick his shoes and socks off, though.

He'd rest, simply because he was there and had the option, but he'd make sure it was only something of a nap.  He'd much prefer moving to 'safer' areas once he was certain that she wouldn't wake up and freak.  Like the couch.  Just in case.  He wouldn't leave because she asked him not to, and he REALLY didn't need to piss her off, considering they were going to be working together.  This was still going to be awkward, though.

He was still telling himself that he wasn't attached, which he wasn't (see? even HE said so), and that an actual dating situation would be bad news.  She was human, and interrupting her life like that would be way too much, even if he'd have liked it.  Besides, he'd learned a long time prior that getting attached to a woman was bad news.

It had ended badly, twice.  The first had cost them HER life, and the second had cost HIS.  He didn't want this to be the same situation.

[Katherine Summers]

When Katherine finally awoke, the clock by her bed, she was sure, was lying. There were two reasons that she was positive this was so: One, of course, was because she was aware that she had consumed enough alcohol last night to give herself poisoning, and for a situation such as this, it was downright unnatural that anyone would open an eye before noon at least. The second reason was that Kat was almost certain she'd gotten laid the night before, and if that was the case, she should've slept until at least one. Katherine was one of those, 'wham, bam, goodnight' types - the kind that is utterly useless afterwards due to the energy they put in to such.. ventures.

But no, eight AM stared right back at her. She stifled a yawn, rolling around. Whoever it had been, they were gone, and that was fine with her. She'd deal with the feelings of whorishness later, but first, she needed to get a drink of water and go to the bathroom. She kicked off the covers, surprised to find that she was in her pajamas - and on closer examination, they did look rumpled, so she supposed she could have scrounged for them in the dark to put them on, because she absolutely couldn't stand sleeping in the buff. She meandered into her bathroom, every step towards the light a painful experience, and then suddenly did something she hadn't done in a very long time.

Kat found herself wrapped around the base of the toilet, vomiting intensely into it. She didn't even know what she was dropping off at the pool, but it felt like liquid fire as it came up. When she had the nerve to peer over the edge in between her feeble, sagging posture after dry-heaving for about six or seven minutes, she noticed a lot of green and brown floating around. Bile. That was an unfamiliar and unkind taste to her tongue, and she made wretching, icky hand motions as she stood and began the ten minute procedure of brushing, re-brushing, mouthwashing, and brushing again. She hadn't puked since she was a teenager and had gone on a drinking binge while her parents had been away, so this was something new.

She splashed her face down with cold water, and directed out of the bathroom and back into her bedroom, where sunlight peeking through heavy curtains and the pink stain of Christmas lights wrapped around her bed told her a few things, particularly that her bed was definitely void of another body, and that there was one man's shoe and two socks on her floor. She knew the socks weren't hers, because she just didn't have socks that small. She looked more closely at it, ignoring the thundering in her head, and determined it to be one of those 'baby bootie' socks men wore. She frowned. Kat had slept with someone who wore these stupid things? At least the shoe on the floor wasn't a Croc, or she'd have shot herself with her own police issued weapon.

She pulled on some fuzzy sleep pants in favour over her shorts, ignoring the large PRINCESS emblazoned across the ass, and wandered out of her room and down the hall. She paused at the edge of the dark hallway when she saw a figure buried under the blanket she kept on her couch for when she fell asleep working on her laptop, and tilted her head. So he didn't leave, he just migrated out to a smaller sleeping situation. Okay... She bit her lip. Here came the awkward part. She didn't know who it was, but he needed to go ahead and leave. And... not come back.

She went to the couch and reached down to where she estimated his shoulder would be, and it was sort of funny that she didn't realize who it was this whole time, but he was sleeping facing the couch with the blanket practically tented on top of him, so it was understandable considering her massive hangover and half-aware state of mind..

"Hey," she whispered. Nothing. She jabbed his shoulder again. "Hey," she said more clearly. "Wakey wakey. Time to go ho--"

When the figure rolled over, Katherine jumped back so hard that she almost fell into her coffee table. Her hands went to her face in surprise and her eyes grew to the size of saucers. "What the fuck?" she asked, to herself more than to Gabriel. "What the fuck did I drink last night?" came the next muttered phrase, equally as amazed. Whatever it was, she was going to bathe in it if this is what it got her.

[Gabriel Sullivan]

Honestly, and this was the worst part, he couldn't have said what happened to his other shoe, either.  He kicked them off, fell asleep, and woke up with a start wondering where the hell he was and why he was wrapped up in someone's arms.  Blinking, he stared down at Kat trying to remember for sure if they HAD had sex, but he had too many clothes on, so he knew better.  He had a crazy buzzing feeling going on in his brain right then that he hadn't felt in a LONG time, and he actually LAUGHED all of a sudden.

He'd taken a few moments for it to work, according to the clock not that long, and he was DRUNK on her blood.  He'd been right when he thought that she'd drank far too much.  She'd had enough to make a vampire drunk.  Amazing.

Knowing this, he shook his head, still laughing, and disentangled himself to get out of her bed.  He wasn't about to just go back to sleep, not knowing that he might not wake up in time to get out of dodge before she was up, and instead wandered around soaking up the funky feeling of disorientation before turning to her couch.  There was a blanket there, it looked comfortable, and hell, he could sleep there just fine.

So he did.

In fact, he slept so well right there on that couch with that buzzy feeling playing with his brain that he actually would have dreamed if he was able to.  Vampires couldn't dream, but they remembered, and instead, that was what happened.  He remembered the sorts of things that Kat had reminded him of with her tropical shampoo and soaps, and though it made him homesick, he enjoyed it.  He woke up to someone prodding him and talking, and realized rather suddenly that they'd been at it for a moment or so before he'd woken up.

So much for feigning drunk.

Annnnnd, Kat was cursing.  Damn.

"Wha?  Oh, shit.  What time is it?" he asked, sitting up all of a sudden and really feeling disoriented.  He didn't have the full hangover experience that she would, but he definitely felt out of sorts.  Shit.  Well, did it really matter what time it was?  He glanced at his watch, saw that it was only a little past eight, and relaxed back where he'd been sleeping.  Then, he smiled up at Kat, not really sure what else to do.

"A LOT of tequila, actually.  If you'd had a blood test, they'd have probably ONLY gotten tequila.  Good morning, by the way," he offered up, and he obviously wasn't kidding about the blood thing. 

[Katherine Summers]

"Wowawoowa," was all she said, her best Borat impression underway. She wanted, desperately, to plink herself down on the couch with him and receive kisses or affection of some sort, but she knew that Gabriel didn't like her like that, which was why she had such a mixed feeling about this situation. She almost hesitated to ask if they'd gotten jiggy with it, but she knew that she'd need to know eventually.

"Your other shoe, in case you need it, is in my bedroom," she said, point-blank. "Along with your, ugh, tiny, tiny socks. Any idea how they got there?" she asked. That was clever enough - make him do all the talking. Pretend you didn't remember anything. Yes... good, smart Katherine.

The fact that she was more transparent now than even on her worst day thanks to the fact that he'd fed off of her and her nearly incapacitating hangover that robbed her of everything except her witty comments didn't help her at all. It was obvious she had opposing ideas about this situation, and most of them lay in her corner with self-doubt. Gabriel didn't like her, and that was that. He'd either taken advantage of the situation, or she'd said something really wicked awesome to make him come back with her. Or, a third option - he'd seen her home, tucked her in, and crashed on her couch.

Yeah, whatever.

[Gabriel Sullivan]

He could read her thoughts, and he wanted to bash his head into a wall.  If he hadn't thought that another vampire would totally destroy her the night before, he'd have left this situation ALONE.  Touching it with anything less than a twelve foot pole was absolutely, ridiculously stupid on his part, and now he had to deal with it.

This should be interesting.

"My, uh, shoe would be in there with my socks because I.....spent a rather large portion of the evening in your bedroom," he answered carefully, fortunately able to put a little more of that 'harmless' aura into his situation, unlike the night before.  Boy, was SHE going to be thinking he'd been wasted the night before!  He'd have loved to go with the 'tucked her in and crashed on her couch', but she'd eventually start remembering things that he'd intentionally used to distract her from the bite, and that didn't fit.  Having her believe he was lying wouldn't work.

Of course, he didn't want her thinking he'd taken advantage.  He had, in a way, but he'd definitely been a better choice than the other guy.  She HAD tried to completely molest him, too.  At least he hadn't taken FULL advantage of her, since he definitely could have.

Oh man.  WHY had he let this happen?!