deep_red_bells | Kissing meme for heroslayer: Not all knights wear white or ride o

“I could fix that, you know.”

“It’s not that bad.” She lifts her hand from her neck to check the bite mark with her fingertips, makes a face and presses down again on the pretense of staving off the bleeding; part of her believes that she deserves the pain and scar as a reminder. A quick fix, a syringe full of his blood to speed the healing and leave no trace of the bite, it almost feels like she’s cheating the Powers their due.

She fucked up. As a Slayer she fucked up big time, and failed, and she deserves to hurt a little for it.

And okay, needles freak her out. Really freak her out. Much more than the bite. Which is probably very strange, but, well. It's the truth.

She hates the way that he looks at her on occasion, like he sees into places in her head she would much rather keep very well hidden, and well, he probably can. She doesn’t know if he does. She’s almost afraid to ask. She rarely lies. She doesn’t lie easily, never picked up the skill, so she no longer tries, and yet his cool and even and scrutinizing expression makes her feel as though he’s caught her in one. It just…bugs her.

She can’t really define the ground that they walk on; it’s something like a friendship and unlike any friendship that she’s ever had. It’s a tenuous, shaky ground, a kind of no-fire zone with a silent and mutually understood treaty, mostly tolerance on his part she suspects, but he isn‘t easy to read. Yet some parts of her understand some parts of him, and want to reach out and let him know that.

Death is their gift. Different as they are in their lives and circumstances, it does not change the fact: death is their gift.

“I’ll be all right,” she assures him as much as herself, raises up on her tiptoes to kiss him, just a quick, chaste press of lips. He blinks at her, and she smiles and shrugs and looks down at her feet, glad the dark combined with her complexion hides her blush. “Thanks for the white knight routine? Not that I couldn‘t handle it,” she amends, because she would so rather take an ass-kicking than come off as a damsel in distress. “Cause I could've. Despite the whole bleeding thing. But I do appreciate the saving of my butt. Saving of the butt is always appreciated.”

She glances up in time to see the right corner of his mouth lift slightly. “You’re welcome. Though I don’t think that’s the body part they were interested in.”

“Oh ha ha ha!” she squeaks, rolling her eyes a bit and smiling as they turn to leave the cemetery, piles of ash that had been vampires until a few moments ago swirling around their feet. “Lookit you, you made a vampire funny. You're totally catching on.”