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1975
Daniel opens his eyes and finds himself staring into Armand’s. Armand’s face is inches from his.
“You have a very large number of freckles,” Armand says conversationally.
Daniel’s heart shoots up into his throat and he scrambles off the bed. “Jesus fucking Christ!”
“And you swear a lot,” Armand adds, unperturbed. He straightens up and just stares at Daniel, in that non-human, unblinking way that makes Daniel’s skin crawl.
Daniel moves over to the chair he dumped his clothes on last night, careful not to turn his back on Armand, and grabs his T-shirt. He’s only in his underpants and he doesn’t need Armand staring at him when he’s only in his Goddamn underpants.
“You used to sleep in your clothes,” Armand says.
“What?” Daniel quickly pulls the shirt over his head, puts his arms through the sleeves, pulls it down to cover his torso.
“Earlier in our…acquaintance. You used to sleep fully clothed in case I caught up with you while you were asleep. So you would be ready to run.”
Daniel grabs his pants and starts pulling them on. “Yeah, well, it was really fucking hot today. Still is, in case you hadn’t noticed. This dump doesn’t have any AC.” He doesn’t know why he’s trying to justify himself to Armand of all people.
Daniel’s still doing up his pants when suddenly Armand is in his face again. He puts one hand around Daniel’s biceps, the other against the side of his neck.
Gently.
He’s feeling Daniel’s body heat.
Adrenaline pulses through Daniel’s veins.
Armand rarely touches him and when he does it’s never this deliberate.
Their faces are close together again. Armand’s skin is cool against his and it feels sorta…nice.
It only lasts about three seconds.
Armand nods and lets go of him. “Hot,” he agrees, apparently satisfied with Daniel’s explanation for his previous state of undress.
Daniel blinks, stupidly.
Armand turns around, produces a newspaper in a flurry of movement and shoves it in Daniel’s face. “Explain this to me.”
***
Armand’s there when Daniel comes out of the bathroom.
“Twinkie,” he says, holding out an honest-to-God Twinkie.
“Uh, yeah.”
Daniel blinks at the thing. It looks wildly out of place in Armand’s hand.
Daniel isn’t surprised to see the vampire. It’s been three days since they last saw each other, so if anything, this encounter is overdue. He just wasn’t expecting him to bring a snack.
“You enjoy Twinkies.” Armand extends his arm further into his direction and Daniel realizes he’s trying to give him the Twinkie. He takes it, because what else is he going to do?
“Uh, yeah,” he repeats.
Armand tilts his head to the side. “Why?”
Daniel shrugs. “I don’t know. Fat, sugar, carbs. Dash of protein. And they fit in my mouth in one go.”
Now why on earth did he say that?
Armand’s eyes go wide. “Eat it,” he orders. “In one bite.”
Daniel looks at the little cake in his hand. “You didn’t do anything weird to it, did you?”
“Which ‘weird’ things do you imagine I might have done to it?”
“I don’t know.”
They’re in a bar. In freaking Latvia. And Armand’s a vampire. So just the fact that he has a Twinkie and is offering it to Daniel and Daniel’s actually considering eating it is already at least ten different kinds of weird.
“Eat it,” Armand repeats.
Fuck it. Daniel hasn’t eaten anything since that morning and he does like Twinkies, so he might as well.
He tries to keep his hands from trembling while he takes the Twinkie out of the wrapper and stuffs it into his mouth whole.
Armand watches him chew like Daniel is some kind of science experiment. A specimen.
They maintain eye contact throughout.
It’s intense and really fucking weird.
Daniel swallows the last bit and lets out a deep, shuddering breath.
“Are you pleased?” Armand asks.
Daniel doesn’t really know what to do with that question. With this whole situation. “I guess.” He’s a little thirsty, though. “Are…are you?”
“Thirsty?” Armand asks. Daniel didn’t say anything about being thirsty, he only thought about it. But this isn’t the first time Armand has plucked something directly from his mind and it barely even registers with Daniel anymore.
“Pleased,” Daniel clarifies out loud.
Armand thinks about it for a moment, then nods. He grabs Daniel’s wrist and starts pulling him through the crowd, towards the exit, while blabbing about a couple he saw arguing in the street. “The woman was angry at the man because he had been disrespectful to his own mother. And when she – that is to say, the man’s mother – told him that he – ”
***
Daniel doesn’t have a clue where he is, but the cops sound English so somewhere in England is probably a good guess.
“Okay fellas, party’s over,” the taller cop says. “Time to pack it in.”
He has a tight grip on Daniel’s upper arm and he’s pushing him outside, where two other cops are taking the other guys’ information.
They think Daniel is with these guys but he isn’t. They were just all inside the same building at the same time, and apparently they weren’t supposed to be. The other guys are in handcuffs.
There’s more cops inside. It’s some kind of sweep.
“I’ll take this one off your hands, Johnstone,” Armand tells the cop that’s holding Daniel. Armand sounds English, too. Actually English, not vaguely English like he normally does.
“What? Oh, yes, of course, sir,” the cop says. “Thank you.” He lets go of Daniel and goes back inside.
Armand takes Daniel’s other arm and starts marching him away. He’s wearing a suit and a trench coat.
The other cops don’t even look up from what they’re doing.
“Of course, sir, thank you sir,” Daniel mutters. It’s funny.
People don’t really look at Armand. If they looked, they’d notice the monster underneath. He’s so good at pretending but that doesn’t stop him from being what he is.
“Be quiet,” Armand tells him, “I’m arresting you.”
“Yes, sir, thank you, sir.” Daniel makes a weak attempt at a salute. “Come to read me my rights? I have the right to remain – wait, do English people have the right to maintain – remain silent?”
Daniel’s still an American citizen, right? Even if he’s in the UK. He has rights.
Armand steers them around a corner and leans Daniel against a wall. “Are you drunk?” He sounds like himself again, but he still looks like a cop.
Daniel shakes his head. “The other one.”
Armand crowds Daniel more closely against the wall and spreads one of Daniel’s eyes open with his thumb and forefinger.
“Hey.” Daniel tries to push him away. “Quit it. Police brutality,” he protests lamely.
Armand lets go of him but doesn’t back up. “What did you take?”
Daniel shrugs. “How should I know?”
The other guys had it. It came from a needle and it was good stuff. Wait, did those cops take his bag? He tries to turn around to go back, but Armand pushes him against the wall again.
“Why do you do this?” Armand demands. He sounds angry. Irritated.
Fuck him.
“Why do you care?” Daniel shoots back. He’s angry, too. Who does Armand think he is?
There is a flash of confusion on Armand’s face, then his expression goes blank. It seems he hadn’t asked himself that question yet.
Daniel laughs. “You’re ridiculous.”
“I’m ridiculous?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re ridiculous. And needlessly contrarian. You’ve been extremely careless. What would you have done if I hadn’t been here? You might have – ”
“They might’ve kept me overnight. Big deal.” Daniel rolls his eyes. “You probably screwed me out of a free breakfast.”
Daniel’s stomach growls loudly at the thought of food.
“And I think they still have my stuff. I had some stuff…”
Armand reaches inside his trench coat and absentmindedly pulls out a Twinkie.
Daniel takes it, rips the wrapper with his teeth and takes a big, petulant bite.
“Nevertheless,” Armand goes on. “You can’t simply expect me to be around to – ”
Daniel scoffs. “I wasn’t expecting you to save me or anything. I’m not some freaking damsel in distress, and you definitely aren’t my knight in shining armor. You’re my immortal stalker, remember?” He pokes Armand in the chest. Armand glares at him.
Daniel takes another bite out of the Twinkie and continues talking with his mouth full. “I’m supposed to run away from you and keep you entertained,” he says with a sneer. “And when you get bored of me, you’re gonna kill me.”
He pokes Armand again, in the shoulder this time. “That’s what you said.” He swallows and leans forward a little. “You’re gonna kill me. You’ll bite me and drink my blood and then – ”
And then Daniel’s mouth connects with Armand’s.
It surprises them both.
Armand just stands there, completely still, while Daniel sort of hangs against him.
Daniel pulls back. “Fuck.”
Armand doesn’t say anything. What he does do is blink.
Daniel groans and covers his eyes with the heels of his hands. He’s still holding his last bit of Twinkie. “Fuck. I didn’t mean for it to happen like that.”
“Like…that?” Armand repeats.
“Yeah. Aw, man!” Daniel groans again.
“But you did mean for it to happen?”
“What?” Daniel lowers his hands and looks at Armand.
“You meant to kiss me.” It’s not really a question, but Armand sounds vaguely surprised. “You’ve been imagining what it would be like.”
“Uh…” Daniel considers denying it – lying – but he knows it’s no use. Knows Armand is already seeing the images that are currently running through Daniel’s mind.
Because he has been imagining it.
God, he’s a sick fuck.
He covers his face again. “You should probably just kill me now.”
“Don’t be so dramatic.”
They stand like that for a while. When Daniel looks at Armand again, Armand says, “Eat your Twinkie,” and Daniel does.
Man, this is awkward.
Daniel crumples the wrapper in his hand.
“Are you still hungry?” Armand asks.
Daniel shakes his head. “Just tired.” And mortified. “And I swear those cops took something from me, Armand. I had, like, a backpack or something.”
Armand frowns.
“What?”
Armand just says, “Careless.”
“Man, fuck you.”
***
Daniel hasn’t seen Armand in five days.
It’s been five days since Daniel kissed him, like an idiot.
And then they pretended it didn’t happen.
They argued about Daniel's backpack for a while, argued about some other things, then Armand left Daniel in a youth hostel with a big wad of cash.
And now it’s five days later.
Daniel’s been in the same city for three nights now. He moves hotels every day, but he’s been booking the rooms under his own name.
He doesn’t usually do that. He hasn’t allowed himself to dwell on why he’d do it now.
It’s raining and Daniel is standing underneath the awning of a record shop, trying to light a cigarette.
A shadow falls over him and he doesn’t have to look up to know who it is.
“Hey,” Daniel says.
“Hello,” Armand answers.
Daniel makes a few more attempts to get his lighter to work. He’s not ready to look at Armand just yet. Armand puts his hands over Daniel’s and pushes them down.
Armand’s hands are warmer than Daniel’s. Daniel looks at them.
Armand says his name.
Daniel doesn’t look up until Armand takes Daniel’s face in both of those warm hands and physically makes him look up. He’s very gentle again.
Their eyes meet and Daniel lets out a little gasp.
He doesn’t really understand why. He’s seen Armand’s eyes so many times before. They’ve been everywhere these last two years. Omnipresent while Armand has been hunting and haunting him.
Daniel wonders if he should say something.
Armand is still holding his face. He leans down and presses his mouth against Daniel’s.
His lips are softer than Daniel had expected. Softer than he remembered from that embarrassing attempt last week.
And so warm. That means he's just fed. Just killed.
Armand pulls Daniel a little more tightly against himself and moves his lips and then they’re kissing properly.
Armand is kissing him.
And Daniel’s kissing him back.
It’s dangerous and insane and so, so good.
Daniel can feel his blood coursing through his veins, hears his heart pounding in his ears. His hands are on the lapels of Armand’s wet coat and he’s holding them so tightly his fingers are starting to hurt.
Around them, the rain pounds down onto the street, trapping them in a little bubble of white noise.
Some deep, primal part of Daniel’s brain screams at him to run. To flee. That the man he’s kissing is not a man at all but an otherworldly predator who would devour him, body and soul.
A much larger part of Daniel never wants to leave, wants to be part of that other world. Wants Armand to swallow him whole.
Daniel wants more, so much more, but he doesn’t want to be greedy.
What if he makes the wrong move and Armand changes his mind? What if Armand decides that this is the night he finally kills him?
Ah, well.
Daniel has been ready to die for some time now. He’d rather it be Armand than the drugs. He figured some time ago that it would probably be one of those two things.
Let Armand devour him.
Please.
Daniel opens his mouth more widely and Armand immediately accepts his invitation, pushing his tongue against Daniel’s, into Daniel’s mouth.
He tastes like copper. Like blood.
Daniel’s knees go a little weak but Armand holds him up.
The kiss is so all-consuming Daniel almost forgets he and Armand are two separate entities. He loses all sense of time.
When Armand ends the kiss, Daniel hums.
He’s trembling.
He feels like he’s aware of every single nerve ending in his body. Electrified.
Armand’s hands are still on his face. His pupils are very large. “Like that?” he asks.
He does that sometimes; pick up a conversation days later like no time has passed at all. It usually takes Daniel a few moments to figure out what he’s talking about.
It doesn’t this time.
“Yeah,” Daniel breathes. “Like that.”