Sorry |Tag: Posey|

[Chris Matheson]

He was obviously a fucking idiot, but that wasn't a new thought, was it?  He'd done a lot of stupid things, but he still thought that this one took the cake.  That didn't mean that he wasn't doing it, just that he realized as he did it that it was extremely stupid.

Parked across the street outside her house, he had his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes on the front door.  He knew she was home because he'd seen her come home from school, which was another fucking joke.  A vampire going to high school?  It was ridiculous, but he'd been stalking her.  Human or not, he was pretty damn good at it, and he'd learned a good bit. 

She hadn't hurt anyone.  In fact, she hadn't fed anywhere except at that Single Earth place, and the people there, freaks that they were, volunteered.  She still fed off of them, but it was willing, and nobody died.  She didn't attack anyone else the entire time he was watching. 

He didn't like this, because it was going against everything he'd picked up about vampires since he was a kid, but he couldn't deny the truth of it.  Unless she knew he was following her and was putting on a hell of a 'good act', she was legit.  She'd also been attacked by that asshole vampire, which technically made her a victim.  That should have made her someone that he protected, not someone he hurt.

Damn it.

That was why he was outside her house, though.  There was a disgustingly cute stuffed tiger on the doorstep, complete with a little red ribbon around its neck and a tag with her name on it, and he was just waiting for her to open the door.  Problem was, he lost patience after only a few minutes, and ended up tossing a little rock from the driveway at the thick wooden door. 

She was a vamp, she'd hear it.

[Posey Simmons]

Posey had a rough week at school. She didn't even know Chris had been following her, mostly because she'd been wrapped up with everything else. Poppy and Rochelle had gone to some ceramic figurine convention in Wisconsin, why Posey would never know, and they'd left her in charge of the house. To top it off, she had finals since school was winding down, and she was pretty sure she'd failed one of them. She wanted to kick herself - she didn't know how a vampire could fail a test, but she'd been so wound up about everything else that she hadn't even thought. That and her friends were on her about Prom, why wasn't she going, who did she like for a date - not to mention Single Earth had been booming and she was just spread so thin lately --

  She'd come home in a bad mood and flung herself face first on the couch in the living room. The TV remained off and she'd put a pillow over her head to block out the noises around the house so she could just have five minutes of peace and quiet. That was when she heard it. It sounded like something hit her front door, but it was small, not like a bird but like a rock or something. Was someone throwing rocks at her front door?

  She jumped off the couch and went to the door, opening it cautiously. It could be a trick, after all, and she braced herself for an attack. She didn't find anything right away, but when she looked down, there was a stuffed tiger on the doormat. She frowned, still not convinced it wasn't a trick, and picked it up slowly. There was a red bow around its neck with her name attached to it on a little tag.

  "Who would...?"

  She looked up as she caught movement, and saw the man across the street shift his weight on the hood of his car. She hadn't even seen him he'd been sitting so still, but now she did, and she blinked rapidly. Was that.. Chris? It was Chris, wasn't it? From the woods? She carefully stepped off of the porch, clutching the stuffed animal to her chest. With her white sundress that had pink edging and a ribbon around the waist, she looked more like a little girl than anything else at the moment, especially considering the stuffed animal. Her eyes were wide, too, like she expected a trap.

  She looked around, even going so far as to extend her smell and hearing, listening for hidden heartbeats or rounds being chambered. When she heard neither, she walked down the little decorative steps of her sidewalk and into her driveway. She went to the edge, but didn't come any closer. Chris was moody.

  "Did you leave this? For me?" she asked. She sounded unsure, like he was going to say no and take it back.

[Chris Matheson]

It made his brain want to break, watching her leave the house in that cute little dress, clutching the stuffed tiger to her chest like that.  She was a vampire, so she shouldn't have looked that cute and innocent, but she did.  Even watching around like she thought it was a trap set for her, she only looked vulnerable, and it was fucking up his head just watching her.  That had been the problem all week, however, and he was working on it.  He didn't make any outward change in his demeanor over her appearance, not to smile or lash out, and he was pretty certain that if he hadn't shifted his position in preparation for her snapping at him over how he'd ended their last conversation, she wouldn't have even noticed him for awhile.  She didn't come across as being a fearsome predator at all, and if he hadn't known she was a vampire, he'd have thought she'd be easy pickings for any predator out there.

Even knowing she was a vampire, he was thinking it, and there had to be something wrong with that.

"No, some freak down the street left it for your sister.  He just can't spell," he told her without hesitation, though it was obvious sarcasm.  Posey and Poppy weren't that close, or difficult to spell.  He was taking a step towards not being a total ass to her, but he was still 'learning'.  This was a vampire he was trying not to be an ass to, and he'd basically been an ass to just about everyone, so he was reteaching himself how not to be.  It wasn't all going to happen immediately.  "Yes, I left it for you."

[Posey Simmons]

  Posey frowned and took a step back when he'd said that - because for a moment, she'd believed him, but in the split second it took for her to realize he was being sarcastic, she also decided that he was still temperamental, and when he moved towards her, she instinctively moved back - and the dance had started. She clutched the stuffed animal tighter, like it would protect her somehow. Only if Posey had a real tiger around.

When he confirmed he did leave it for her, she looked at him warily, like she was preparing for him to ask for it back. When that didn't happen, she looked away. "Well, thanks. I really.. like it," she said honestly. She didn't know what else to say to him - she was still pretty sure he was going to try and murder her. She hadn't spoken to him ever since he'd stormed off, and whatever Poppy said had made it worse. Her sister in her infinite wisdom had just gone and stuck her nose where it wasn't wanted, and now...

  "Mom will be home soon," she said. She had no idea Chris had been following her or that he would already know they were gone for the week. She was trying to assert herself so that he wouldn't be tempted to try and strangle her - which she hoped he wouldn't if he knew that people would be there soon.

[Chris Matheson]

The edges of his lips actually quirked up ever so slightly when she backed up a step over his declaration that the tiger wasn't for her, and then she backed up more when he moved towards her.  She was clutching the tiger to her like it was some sort of protection, though, and despite his confusion, he kind of liked that. 

"You're welcome," he told her, and then he actually laughed when she claimed that her mother would be home soon.  It wasn't a pleasant laugh, but it was still there.  "Your mother and sister have been gone for days, and if I really wanted to hurt any of you, I'd have put a bomb in the house or under the porch.  It'd have been easy.  For some godforsaken reason, I don't want to hurt you, so I gave you a stuffed animal instead.  I'm glad you like it."

He meant it, and he was really, really, confused, but he really meant it.  He wouldn't have done it if he hadn't. 

"I figured, when I saw him, that you'd take good care of him.  Got a name in mind?"  God, this was so almost-normal it was surreal.  When was the last time he'd been in this kind of situation? 

[Posey Simmons]

When he said the word bomb, Posey whipped her head back around so fast her ponytail nearly strangled her. She didn't hear any ticking as she frantically listened, and then she looked back at Chris, her cheeks a little flushed - he'd been sarcastic again, it seemed. It was funny that she was the vampire and didn't trust him at all, constantly thought he would try to kill her.

  "Oh, I don't know," she said, looking down at the tiger. A name hadn't even occurred to her. She was distracted by it, and she shrugged a little, rubbing her bare foot into the pavement. "Maybe - hey, wait. How did you know they were gone?!" she demanded. "Have you been following me?" she demanded, her voice a shrill whisper. He had to appreciate Posey's unwillingness to cause a scene.

  "Oh my god," she said, drawing her own conclusion. She felt sick. Had he been watching her to kill her and then just decided against it? Was this a ploy to get into her home and then splatter her? It was sick. She turned and began walking at a quick and determined pace back to her house, her lips pressed together because she thought she might actually cry. She wanted to fling the tiger into the yard, but it was so cute.

  On her mad trek back to her door, she held it up to her ear to listen for a bomb.

[Chris Matheson]

Oh, wow, she didn't deal with sarcasm very well at ALL.  He mentioned bomb, and now that's all she could worry herself with.  So much for him trying to be nice.  Everything he said made more of a mess.

"Of course I was following you.  You're asking me to believe that your a pacifist vampire who wouldn't hurt a fly, so I had to see for myself," he explained, slightly irritably, as he had to practically chase her down.  "Hey, wait!  I just said I didn't want to hurt you!  Jesus!  Would you STOP?"

He actually, somehow, managed to catch up with her.  He attributed it to longer legs and her human act being so extreme that she didn't utilize crazy vampire speed without thinking about it.  He just grabbed her arm, anyway, and without thinking that she might break it.  She played human that well, and that wasn't really safe for him.  He was being stupid, he knew that. 

"There's no bomb, I promise.  I wasn't serious," he told her quickly.

[Posey Simmons]

Posey stopped and looked down at his hand on her arm. She sighed a little and looked away, her jaw set. She was really pretty upset over the following her thing, and it showed plainly on her face. Finally, she looked back at him. "I get why you say you did it, Chris, but really? That's creepy. If you don't like me, then don't believe me, and don't stalk me. It's weird. You're supposed to stalk people you like, you backwards ass," she added.

  A plus for her, she didn't yank her arm away though they both knew she could have. Posey had played at human for too long to do anything like that, especially considering Chris was... moody. "I'd be more inclined to believe you didn't want to hurt me if you stopped doing things like that," she added, aiming to irritate him with the remark. When he did finally let her go, she tossed her hair out of her face and hugged the tiger to her chest.

  She turned on the charm a little by looking up at him and offering a small smile. Posey couldn't help it - big brown eyes, innocent features - the dress and the toy just helped. "It is nice, though. I do like it," she said, twisting back and forth like a little kid with a new favourite toy. "Was this all, or did you want some tea? Do you even like tea?" she asked, a brow arched.

[Chris Matheson]

"I've been backwards for a long time," he retorted, rolling his eyes.  He didn't think he'd ever stalked someone he liked, and he'd really only stalked people because he was going to hurt them later, specifically vampires and shifters.  Posey was a little bit of an exception because he'd stalked her because he didn't believe her and wanted to see if it was true.  From the looks of things, it was, and she hadn't smashed him in the face, yet.  That was a point in her favor, too, and he knew it.

Besides, he hadn't yet decided if he liked her.  He'd somewhat forgotten what that was like, having been without his brother for awhile now, and it wasn't like he'd had much in the way of friends both before and after his brother had gone.  He wasn't going to explain that he might think she was alright enough to like, maybe.  Not until he was sure that he might be okay with her.

Yeah, because that was likely.

It still screwed with his head when she did her innocent thing, like she did when she smiled and cuddled the stuffed animal to her chest.  He didn't get how it worked, how a dangerous predator could do that, but he was starting to think that Posey might not be much of a predator.  He was also learning that if he said anything to her about it, it was going to piss her off again, and she'd give him that hurt look like he'd kicked her puppy before taking off into the house.  Then, he'd have to stalk her for a few days more and get her a cuter stuffed animal.  That was unnecessary insanity on his part.  He had enough of the necessary kind, really. 

"And I am glad you like it," he told her again, since she reaffirmed her liking of the tiger.  It was a good pick, he thought, and before long, he'd probably be agreeing that she needed a real tiger watching out for her.  "I like tea."

His mother had liked tea, that's all he knew, and he hadn't hated the few sips he'd had with Rochelle.  He'd been a coffee fan, almost addicted to it, for so long that tea hadn't even hit his radar until that night.  Now, he didn't know what to do with himself.  He was lonely, that much had been true for a long time, but he'd never been lonely enough that he might try to right a slight he'd made against a vampire and her family.  He was almost afraid to think that maybe this was a good thing; he was so worried about getting close to people and bringing harm to them, and this was a family of vampires.  They were much better able to care for themselves than his own family had been. 

Still vampires, though.  That hurt his brain enough that he had to avoid thinking about it for now.  Act without thinking, then take the time to consider it all later.  If he thought now, he was just going to mess things up.

[Posey Simmons]

Posey was surprised that he hadn't dumped any more negativity down for her to sort out. She was actually so surprised that she sort of stood there for a moment and stared at him staring back at her. "Oh! Okay, well, come on, then," she said. She turned and headed for the house, stuffed animal and estranged hunter in tow. She held open the front door for him and then went into the kitchen, setting the stuffed tiger down on the counter.

  "They're gone," she said, watching him as he glanced around for her mother and sister. "To a pottery class. In Wisconsin. They'll come back speaking with strange accents for a week and they're going to have a ton of figurines for me to help paint. Really, they're more into arts and crafts than I think I can even bring myself to be, and I'm pretty artistic," she muttered, putting the kettle on the pot.

  "Anyways, it's just you and me, so I'd really appreciate you not killing me without supervision, if it's all the same," she said. She sounded like she was making a joke, but knowing Posey, it would be something she'd do to politely request not to be murdered in her own house. "Anyways, the water will boil in a few minutes. We just got some Earl Gray in that Rochelle really seems to like, so unless you have any requests, that's what I'm making."