<span style="color: #FF0000">Slowly he made his way toward the closet, his eyes on the door as he knew she sat there. “What did you guys do together?” he asked in as casual a tone as he could manage. “Go out to eat? Hang out together?” his hand touched the slick metal of the knob and he began to turn it, but only just managed to pull it open when he was slammed into the wall by Colt. <br/><br/>“Leave her alone!” Colt growled in his face, fangs bared as he held Athan by the collar of his shirt. <br/><br/>Not to be out done, Athan hissed back and bared his own fangs before he used a bit of leverage and spun the pair so that their positions were reversed. “Don’t tell me what to do with my girlfriend!” <br/><br/>“Stop treating her like a possession!” Colt snarled back and switched their positions again.</span><br/><br/>There was nothing casual about his tone, not really. The way he was creeping toward her, asking about Colt, it was like whatever apology he’d had was out the window in light of her hanging out with a fellow dancer. A friend. Had she not known what he was, she may have replied with the same thing he’d said to her, “You’re not my keeper.” But… with the way he was acting, she didn’t dare talk back, or give her usual remarks. No, she was petrified of what was going to come next, practically feeling the anger coming through the door as he stopped, as his hand gripped the knob and pulled against her.<br/><br/>It’d barely opened, her body falling forward when his own disappeared from view as a flash of a body ran through her line of sight. Then the familiar voice, and the anger it held had her chest heaving, crawling out of the closet to get a better view of what was going on. The task was a difficult one, though as they kept shifting, fighting, yelling back and forth at each other.<br/><br/>“Guys, stop!” she shouted at the pair from the safety of her perch some feet off. “What the fuck is this going to accomplish?!”<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">Colt snapped out of it first, his grip on Athan loosened and his fangs shortened. Athan took a moment longer but he did the same, “Nothing, but he has no right to be in our fucking business!” he snapped at Colt who managed to not rise to the bait.</span><br/><br/>“What business?!” she snapped back, only to immediately regret it and take a step back. That glimpse of fang had been enough; there would be no getting closer to them for the time being. “I’m not even in our business! He’s here because I panicked! So, if you’re going to blame someone, then blame me!”<span style="font-style: italic">Just shut up, just shut up,</span>she told herself when another voice caught her attention.<br/><br/>“...Tempest?”<br/><br/>A look was spared as all the color drained from her face, rushing out of the room. “Yes, Mrs. Watkins?”<br/><br/>“Are you alright?”<br/><br/>“I’m perfectly fine,” she replied, trying at a smile and failing to do so while the elder woman peeked around the apartment from her vantage point. “Why do you ask?”<br/><br/>“Well...your door was left open...after someone was banging on it for a good few minutes,” the woman started, tone cautious. “And then I saw someone else rush in and heard shouting. I just wanted to make sure you were alright and didn’t need any help with anything…”<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Shit shit shit shit shit.</span>“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Tempest replied, slowly shutting the door. “I’ll try to keep it down.”<br/><br/>“But you said something abo-”<br/><br/>“I’ll see you tomorrow, Mrs. Watkins!”<br/><br/>The door now shut and (hesitantly) locked, she slowly walked back into the other room, arms crossed, steps slowed and uncertain once she hit her bedroom. “...If we’re not careful, things will get more complicated. This isn’t the place...to have a knock down, drag out.”<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">The men shared a look and then looked to Tempest. <br/><br/>“I’m sorry,” Colt apologized first. “I just…” he shrugged. <br/><br/>Athan straightened his shirt and jacket, “I’m sorry as well, I lost my temper when I thought that you and he being together.”  He sighed, “I did not mean to scare you…” he whispered after a moment. <br/><br/>“Maybe we should just go and we can talk about this tomorrow?” Colt offered. “Give Tempest some space…”<br/><br/>“We should talk about this now and I have something I want to talk to her about…”<br/><br/>“She knows.” <br/><br/>Athan stumbled on the rest of his words, “She…what?”<br/><br/>Colt sighed, “She knows. I told her everything this afternoon.”<br/><br/>“You…” he stopped, fingers stippled before his face as he closed his eyes. “You did what?” <br/><br/>“I told her about myself, she asked about you and I could not lie to her. So, I told her,” he said without a hint of remorse or regret. <br/><br/>“My secret was not your’s to tell!” Athan snapped a bit. <br/><br/>“It was something that had to be done, so I did it. If you want to be mad about it, fine. But you need to get yourself under control and stop snapping at everyone. That won’t help here,” Colt was oddly the voice of reason this time around. Something that had never happened before in their many years of knowing one another.</span><br/><br/>The apologies weren’t what she’d thought she’d hear. If anything, she was almost picturing the fight continuing in some weird, silent movie sort of way, not a sound to be heard but pain nearly palpable in the air surrounding them. Instead, she was met with apologies, one of which she wasn’t sure she believed entirely; Then again, what could she believe from him, right now?<br/><br/>What she thought would be backburner came to a head, though, as the two words Colt said caught Athan’s attention fully. His usual cool demeanor, the way he’d only moments ago recovered, now slipping through his fingers before her eyes. And the way he snapped only had her taking another step back, drawing into herself.<br/><br/>“Would you have told me…?” she whispered, barely able to look in Athan’s direction directly. Peripheral vision was the only thing she could manage just then, and this talk was about to happen, whether he thought Colt should be involved or not. “You said you had something you wanted to talk to me about...would you have told me the truth…? Or a lie? Would you have been honest...and told me what you are…? ...What you do…? Or would it have been...a lie?”<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">There was what he feared, that she would ask him that and it was not something he had an easy answer. “I don’t know,” he admitted after a moment. “I was going to talk to you, apologize for my behavior and try to work everything out with you….”</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">That</span>was what she expected. And it was a heartbreaking concept, that he didn’t even know if he’d be honest with her. “So what are you going to do now?” Tempest asked. “...Are you going to be honest and answer whatever questions I have? ...Are you able to just...talk with me? Or...are you going to close yourself off?”<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">"Ask your questions," he stated simply and braced for whatever it was that she might want to know.</span><br/><br/>There was a quick glance over at Colt, before her arms tightened about herself. “First...I want to hear it from you…” She paused. “I pressured him for the answers, but I want to hear it from you. ...I want to hear you say it.”<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">"I'm a vampire. I am roughly 450 years old. I was sired in 1560, in France and have lived an eternal life ever since," he said honestly.</span><br/><br/>Honesty was what she’d asked for, and honesty was what she got. A healthy dose of honesty that had the breath rushing from her lungs as her mind wrapped around it. Colt...was over one hundred years old, but Athan was...450… Taking a few steps she sat down on the bed in a slow, measured move. And, there she sat for a few long, silent moments. When she got her wits back, she asked, “...Have you ever fed from me…? Have you ever...compelled me?” Sure, Colt had said he’d be able to notice, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to know for certain from the man himself.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">"No. Never once," answer again given honestly.</span><br/><br/>Then came the question she was dreading, the question she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer to. “...When you feed...you kill those you feed from? That’s what you were doing when you were sneaking away?”<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">A sigh before he answered. "I used to kill, yes. But, since we have been together I have only fed from them, but not killed anyone. It is honestly part of what takes so long now when I feed."</span><br/><br/>A breath of relief was loosed. Not a big one, because he still had killed and, she guessed, killed a fair few people...but it was still a relief that he hadn’t since they’d been together. “...And, if Colt hadn’t told me...would you have ever told me?”<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">There was a pause before he finally said, "I don't know." It was the truth, because he had not thought that far ahead. Had not thought to what he would have done about her.</span><br/><br/>“...You don’t know?” she repeated, pulling her legs into her chest and hugging them tight. “So...what relationship were we having? I didn’t really know anything about you…I was honest with you about everything but my accent, and I feel like I don’t know anything about you…” For the first time since they started talking, she really looked at him, directly in the eyes. “...How much of it was a lie? How much of it was real? Because I can’t tell anymore, Athan.”<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">“How I felt was real and the fact that I wanted to tell you was also real, but I just did not want to change your opinion of me…” he whispered softly. “I care about you and want more with you, but I was afraid of what you would think if you knew the truth about me.” <br/><br/>The words were heartfelt and he meant every single one of them. There was a strong fear of rejection, which had kept him from saying anything to her. Kept him from voicing the truth to her.</span><br/><br/>She didn’t say anything, taking in what he said and trying to will herself to believe it...but finding herself unable to. He sounded sincere, and sounded like he meant it...But he wasn’t who she thought he was. Even his word that she could trust him the night he’d come over to plead his case and get her back to the dance studio...how could she trust that?<br/><br/>“You care about me...but you made the choice about what I’d think and how I’d react for me…” she replied quietly. “I just...I don’t know how I can trust anything you tell me…I won’t lie and say that the idea of all of this wasn’t...daunting, scary to think that you’d been leaving bed to kill people in the middle of the night...It was scary to think that you could been compelling me the whole time, and I’d never have known...I won’t act like when Colt told me what he was, that I didn’t freak out...I ran away from him, or...tried to, and then things got fuzzy.”<br/><br/>Her head shook as she got herself mentally on track. “I didn’t run...I’m no longer...scared…” Another pause as her eyes dropped. “...But the trust that I had in you feels like it was garnered on lies...because I was trusting someone I didn’t actually know…And it sounds like you don’t really trust me, either...I won’t pretend to understand what telling someone what you are is like...Your reaction, though, when you thought I’d been with Colt…? The anger in your voice was...terrifying.”<br/><br/>She couldn’t look at him, not this time, when she asked what she wanted to know next. “...Where do we go from here?”<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">It pained him in a way that Athan never thought possible. In all the years of his life, he never experienced such a pain. There was a trust that had been there, a companionship that he had longed for so long and now it was gone. Dashed on the rocks like so many dreams, like so many wishes and all because he could not trust her enough to handle the truth; now this was what he was left. <br/><br/>Now with her question, he truly did not know where they would go from there. Could they be together? Possibly though he would have to work hard to earn that trust back, but then what? Turn her so that they could live together forever? Even as that thought crossed his mind he knew it would not work, Colt was right. He was not the same man he had been when he was turned and she would not be the same woman once she was turned. <br/><br/>So, that meant only one thing…<br/><br/>“We try to be friends…” his voice broke a bit. “I think it is best for everyone if that is what happens now…” he said into the silence.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">“We try to be friends…”</span><br/><br/>It echoed in her head, over and over, until the words became nonsensical and the sound became nothing but a white noise. She didn’t speak, didn’t move, her eyes remaining pointedly focused on the floor in front of her as the silence descended once more. None of the usual sounds were heard, sucked free of the atmosphere by the tension. Neither the neighbors next door slamming cupboards shut, nor the yappy dog down the hall, not even the usual leaky faucet was heard.<br/><br/>Complete and utter silence.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">First he makes the decision not to tell me...because I can’t handle it...and now he makes the decision to end it because of what’s best for everyone...do I not get a say?</span><br/><br/>There was no asking that aloud, though. A suspiciously large lump had gathered in her throat as she felt tears welling in her eyes, forcing them back and refusing to show any emotion about any of this. She refused to cry in front of him, in front of either of them. She wouldn’t let on to how much this hurt and how much she wanted to scream at him for this. About how he’d warned her about his reputation and how he often hurt others before they could hurt him...and now he was doing the very same thing to her because he couldn’t handle it anymore.<br/><br/>Slowly uncurling from her perch on the bed, she stretched and padded quietly out of the room with nothing but a nod. Straight to her door she went, unlocking it and holding it open. She didn’t think it’d take a rocket scientist, nor speech, to figure out what she needed right now. And, if he had cared for her at all, she thought he’d be able to respect what she needed just then: for him to leave.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">Colt was as much in shock as Tempest with how Athan had just ended it. He expected him to fight for their relationship, to try and work on a way for them to be together. But, just like that, it was over. There was nothing to say, even if he knew the right words to say, he doubted it would have helped anything. <br/><br/>Athan left first, though he paused at the door. “I am sorry, Tempest. I never wanted this…” he looked over at her, even though he knew she would not look at him. “What I want…” he just let the sentence end before he left. Colt paused at the door too, save for one thing. <br/><br/>“I’m here.”  <br/><br/>Then with that he was gone, trailing behind Athan to do a bit of damage control in the face of a heartbroken vampire. Something he was certain that the city would not be able to withstand without him there to act as a buffer.</span>