Failed Attempt at a First Date {Melanie, Gabriel}

[Matthew Smoke]

It had gone something like this:

"Hey, Melanie? You wanna come over after I get off and maybe eat di.. er, watch a movie?"

"You're... sure you wouldn't mind? Because if not I'd love to, but if you have something-"

"No, really. I'd... really like you to come over."


Matt was standing anxiously in his living room, straightening and re-straightening his coffee table. It was crooked. A little to the left. Perfect. Wait, no. He ran across the room. No, it was definitely worse than before. He scolded himself for being so nervous, and went into the kitchen to get something to drink. In his haste, he managed to spill water down the front of his shirt, and just as he was half-way through changing, he heard the doorbell ring.

Melanie. DAMN!

"COMING!" he yelled, running into a wall, because his t-shirt wasn't all the way over his eyes. He finally got to the door, straightening himself out, and opened it, running his hand through his blonde hair. Bright eyes sparkled with glee as he saw the petite brunette on his doorstep. "Hey! Come on in," he said, holding the door open for her. He wanted to do a dance when she walked in, where she couldn't see, but he knew better.

"Any idea what you want to watch?" he asked, leading her to the living room. The couch was black and plush, and huge. Matt fell asleep on it half the time - and it was perfect for cuddling. Not that he wanted to cuddle!

[Desmond Stark]

Melanie had blushed when he asked her over - and not just because he'd almost asked her to dinner when they wouldn't exactly be eating the same thing and asking HER to dinner was sort of an invitation. Ish. Well she did eat normal food sometimes, but it was only for the taste since she didn't draw any energy from it or anything. Not that she'd really have minded if that was his offer, since some human foods were pretty nice, nor have minded if he was offering to actually feed her since... well... he tasted good, but....

ANYWAY. Moving on.

In any case, Melanie had been happy when Matty had invited her over, be it for dinner or a movie... or well, she probably would have been happy at most things, actually. She liked hanging out with him, after all, and kind of liked him that way as well. Only she was a vampire and he was a witch so yea, oh well. I mean, she wasn't against stuff like that or whatever but she kind of thought that he might maybe be, so she didn't mention anything or whatever....

But hearing him refer to this - even in his thoughts - as something akin to a date probably would have surprised her, and made her blush again.

"Hey, Matty!" Melanie smiled. "I'm not too early or anything?" She stepped inside when he held the door open for her, looking around with a little smile - he had a pretty nice home. And... what she wanted to watch?

"I... um... I don't know," she said, then laughed a little. Well now she felt kinda stupid. "What do you even have?" She followed him into the living room, which was nice and big and had a very big and very comfortable looking couch facing an equally impressive television - it was a flat screen and it was pretty big. Actually, the whole setup was sort of reminding her of a home theater. "Wow," she said, laughing a little.

[Matthew Smoke]

"Well, a lot," he said, a little embarrassed. "I didn't know which genre you preferred, although I wanted to avoid horror myself, simply because... yeah. I hate scary movies. Riese used to make me watch them when I was little," he grumbled. "I'd be up for hours with my mom and he'd be sound asleep." He lead her over to the place where all his DVDs were stored, and opened up the shelf. There was a lot to pick from - he literally had everything, aside from really obscure stuff, anyways.

"I've been buying them since forever," he laughed. "I've even got some of the cool Fantasy stuff, like Legend, the Dark Crystal, Labyrinth. Well, you'll see, anyways. You look through that, I'm going to get a drink. You want anything?" he asked, already walking into the kitchen, which wasn't far. He handed her what she'd asked for, if anything, and then peered over her shoulder to see if she'd settled on anything.

He was still pretty thrilled she was here. It radiated off of him, and he couldn't do much to hide that. He was lucky that his natural charm from the Smoke bloodline sort of masked it into his normal happy demeanor. He hoped Melanie didn't get freaked out by it, anyways. Matt was so bad with girls.

[Desmond Stark]

Strangely, Melanie tended to like some horror... mainly because she kind of considered it some kind of comedy. Like all those supernatural ones that had witches or vampires or whatever? They got things SO wrong normally that it made her laugh. But his story made her smile a little, in sympathy. "Ok then, no horror," she said with a grin, "I'm sure I can..." her voice trailed off as he opened up the cupboard and revealed a VERY large collection of DVDs.

"Ok," she laughed, "now I'm really sure that I can find something. Wow." After having asked for, and received, a Fresca, she finally decided on Labyrinth. You know. Just because. "You ok with this one?"

Melanie had noticed that Matt seemed happy - but hey, he was always happy. Why should it be so different here?

[Matthew Smoke]

"Oh, totally. That's actually one of Ela's favourite movies. Well, it was when we were little. I'm the youngest, and Riese would never indulge me, so she used to watch it with me. Actually, you've never met her, I don't think. Here," he said. He set his own soda down and retrieved a picture off of the mantle of the fireplace. He walked it over so she could see it - it was fairly recent. Matthew was on the right, with Elanora in the middle, and Riese to the left. The first two were smiling, while Riese had that characteristic scowl on his handsome face.

"She's an EMT. She's really nice, but she hasn't been by the center in a long time. I guess she's just been wrapped up with work," he said with a shrug. He put the picture back and sat down on the couch after placing the DVD in the player. "Sweet. I get to give my surround sound a good test, now. I never watch stuff, I'm never here." He moved a pillow so Melanie could sit down next to him.

[Desmond Stark]

"You know what?" Melanie announced to Matty/the world in general as she stood and looked at the picture. "I just realized that I totally know nothing about your family. Like, at all. That's pathetic, actually. So she's your sister? She's pretty." Melanie was guessing that the other guy was Matthew's brother - Reese or something. She didn't know much about him, but she'd gathered from that which she did know that there was some bad blood in the family. Tactfully, she set the picture down and walked back over to the couch.

The witch had moved a pillow so that she could sit down, and so she did - and then sort of snuggled next to him. It wasn't really something she thought about... it was just that Melanie was a touchy-feely person. She liked snuggles, and hugs, and friendly pats on the arm, and she liked Matty. Therefore moving in close, head on the shoulder - all that was natural for her. Had she thought about it she probably would have been worried she'd freak him out - if she noticed she might still. But she didn't, and hadn't yet, and so the contact seemed the most natural thing in the world.

It felt nice, on the couch, with the television on in front of them. Melanie smiled a little. She liked nice.

[Matthew Smoke]

"There's not much to tell. Dad died in a car wreck, so it was mom, Riese, Ela and myself. Then Riese sort of fell off the wagon, and that left me and Ela. She's doing her own thing, and I'm doing mine. It's functional," he said with a smile. "You should meet my mom sometime. She'd probably love to have another girl around to chatter to." Inwardly, Matt gulped. Did he just ask Melanie to meet his mother? Oh, that seemed like some sort of boy/girl etiquette breech, especially on the 'first date' sort of thing they were doing.

He nearly did a dance when she snuggled up on him, and he instinctively wrapped his arm around her to pull her close. Honestly, all the myths about vampires being cold and creepy were such horse shit. Melanie was just as warm as he was, if not even a little more. She was soft, a sort of gentle beauty that could easily go unappreciated in a world full of bottle-blondes and plastic surgery, but she was real, even if she was a vampire. Matt wouldn't hold that against her, not ever.

He realized just then how much he liked her, and it made butterflies dance around in his stomach. Riese would probably kick his ass if he found out, but then again, Riese was retarded. Melanie was nicer than anyone he knew, except for his other friends at Single Earth - Violet, Posey, Laurel, Melissa... she was still in a little special category though. His.

[Desmond Stark]

Melanie wasn't sure quite what to feel at his story - sort of similar to hers, but not really - but he smiled at the end and so she smiled back at him. "I'd love to meet your mom," she said with a little smile. "She raised you, and you're fun to hang out with; I don't see any reason why she wouldn't be as well." Melanie? Yea... kinda oblivious sometimes. In the best kind of way, naturally.

She would have been happy if she'd known how happy her instinctive reaction had made him, and he doubtless would be more happy at how content it made her feel when he wrapped an arm around her; as previously mentioned, Melanie was big on the physical-contact front. And, given that she also sort of liked Matt, who was nice and funny and didn't seem to care so much that she occasionally drank blood (it wasn't her fault) it was... it was nice. Of course, most of his family would probably hate her for it.

And that thought, and how discomforted it made her feel, really made her realize. I really do like him. Oh crap. Suddenly Matty wasn't the only one with butterflies, but she wasn't quite sure what to do about that. On the one hand it was nice, just sitting here snuggling and on the other there was far too much that you could read into it, and she wasn't sure if she was supposed to be or he was supposed to be or what. It- she didn't know.

Melanie forced herself to focus on the tv, and the music playing in the background as the characters talked, and felt herself relax. She'd always loved this movie, and was glad that Matty had it, and that he'd invited her over, and that they were watching it together now. It just felt nice, like sheets right out of the dryer. She let out a small, contented breath - and of course she didn't need it, and didn't need to have taken it, but she liked her human habits for more then just their usefulness, and had kept a good many of them.

"Thanks for inviting me," she said in a soft voice.

[Matthew Smoke]

"You could probably beat her at Checkers," he offered with a smile. His mom wouldn't hate her for drinking blood, at least. She was a pretty sound woman, right along with Ela. Riese was the only one who'd have a huge problem with it, and Riese's opinion wasn't exactly welcome when Matt's relationships were concerned, so it didn't much matter.

Oh God, a relationship? Is that what this was turning into? Matt felt those little butterflies again as Melanie sighed - why did she sigh, anyways? She didn't need air anymore, but she did that and so many other things that still made her seem so less like the creatures that he'd heard about, and more like a girl - any other girl, just one who happened to be a little, well, special. Or was amazing a better word. Perhaps spectacular? None of them quite covered it.

Without really thinking about it, Matt had been staring at Melanie. When she looked back at him, he smiled a little, and then leaned in for a kiss. He wasn't trying to be creepy - he meant for it to be a quick, innocent sweet thing.

[Gabriel Sullivan]

It was good for him that he meant for it to be quick, because 'quick' was the only way Matt was getting anything out of Melanie right then.  Gabe hadn't planned it this way on purpose, but he wasn't forcing his thoughts into the apartment to see what was going on.  He just took a deep breath, told himself that this wasn't going to end violently, and knocked.

Somewhere along the line, he'd picked up what Tanith affectionately called the 'cop knock'.  It was loud and very obviously demanding attention, which was fine with him.  He wanted to get this over with so that he could move onto his next unpleasant task of the day, also involving this case.  This was just a pile of fun, wasn't it?.  Telling a witch that his sister was dead just wasn't his idea of a good time, which explained the sour mood. 

Only after he knocked did he scan the inside of the apartment with his thoughts, ensuring that whoever was home wasn't trying to escape.  Attacks on witches tended to put all witches on guard, which he didn't blame them for.  If Matthew had somehow found out ahead of time, he'd have expected the guy to be a little paranoid.  They still didn't know why the witch was targeted to begin with.

[Desmond Stark]

Melanie laughed. "Wow, she must be bad." And then they watched the movie together for a while, and then the next time Melanie looked up at Matt she found that he was kissing her - not much, little more then a peck, just a quick brush of his lips against hers.

She was kind of glad that her heart didn't beat anymore - if it did, he probably would have heard it speed up. She blushed a little even so and opened her mouth - she wasn't even sure why - and then a firm, decisive knock. Well, that made things slightly strange. Melanie blinked and looked over towards the door. "I-" Um, well, yes.

...

What?

[Matthew Smoke]

Matthew was almost thankful for the knocking to save him from an awkward moment, but there was something strange about how demanding it was. He looked at Melanie with a brow raised. "I'm not expecting anyone," he said, voice obviously confused. He stood up reluctantly, and went to the door, just as the banging started again.

He snatched it open mid-bang, coming face to face with another vampire. For a split second, Matt thought Melanie's older brother had come to bust them. If only. "Can I help you?" he asked, less than cheerful, but still without the general attitude most people would have had. Matthew was hard to actually piss off; he was mostly annoyed, because Melanie hadn't slapped him, which meant he might have gotten a kiss in return.

[Gabriel Sullivan]

Obviously, nobody here had any idea what had happened, which made the situation Gabe was presented with rather interesting.  He got to be the bearer of bad news, after all. 

"Matthew Smoke?  I'm Gabriel Sullivan, with the New York Police Department.  May I come in?" he asked, making it a point not to try easing his way in before he had permission.  He wasn't an Akka, so he didn't HAVE to wait for an invite, but he was the polite thing to do.  "I'm afraid I have bad news, and I'm sure you don't want it handled in the hallway."

Actually, Gabe wasn't GOING to handle it in the hallway.  He was being polite, but that only extended so far.  Matt couldn't have been alone, either.  It was easily to tell that the girl with him was a vampire, and a younger one, so Gabe wasn't worried, but now he had to get Matt to decide if the girl should stay or leave before he told him what was going on. 

[Matthew Smoke]

"Ah..." Matt sort of trailed off. He glanced back at Melanie, who seemed to be trying to decide whether she should pay attention to the movie or to them, and opened the door so the man could come in. "Here, in here," he said quickly, ushering him into the kitchen. While he knew Melanie still might be able to hear them, he at least removed it from her line of sight, trying to be at least somewhat polite.

If he tells me I need to sit down, I'm going to know how bad this is.

"I think you may want to sit down," the officer said.

Damn!

Matt sat down, but he couldn't help from fidgeting. Whatever this was, he could sense it was going to be bad. He pressed his hands together and laced his fingers on top of the table, crossing his legs around the base of the chair so tightly his feet hurt.

"So, what's up?" he asked. His voice came out high-pitched and nervous - which, he was.