savetheearth | [closed]

Who: John Mitchell and Nick Burkhardt
Where: John and Anthony's apartment
When: December 15th, evening
What: John makes good on Nick's offer to help him with whatever's bothering him, and things really don't go as planned
Warning: blood drinking

He'd been home when John contacted him, just watching TV - a rare moment of relaxation lately, though honestly, it'd mostly been because it was one of those times where he wasn't really tired enough to sleep, but too tired to actually do anything that required extensive thinking.

But as soon as John said that he was taking Nick up on his offer to help, he suddenly felt a lot more awake. He promised he'd be right there, and didn't even bother getting dressed more than he already was - just pulled on shoes and padded over in sweats and what's obviously a sleep-shirt, long-sleeved but practically thread-bare, hanging a bit too low on one side of the neck.

Then he's standing in front of John and Anthony's door, only a few minutes after hearing from John, and knocking on the door.

"John? It's Nick."

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He'd waffled about it for a long time--too long, probably. Nothing he'd tried thus far with Alex had really worked, but what was worse was that the guy had disappeared now. While worry had certainly gnawed at him, it couldn't erase the hunger that ate at him from within either.

Which was why he'd ended up texting Nick out of the blue, all but begging him to help. How? John wasn't entirely sure. The guy was more or less human for all intensive purposes, and at this point in the game, being human was becoming a more and more dangerous thing to be around him: he'd taken the last few days off from work simply because he wasn't sure he wouldn't try to attack someone.

Still, when Nick came to the door, John came over to let him in, dressed no better than his friend. He looked pretty horrid with his pajama pants, undershirt, bloodshot eyes, and haggard face, but John tried (keyword here) to offer him a smile.

"Thanks for coming," he said quietly. His eyes dropped down toward his throat before he forced himself to not only look away but to take a few steps to separate himself from Nick as well. "I--"

Christ. This was hard.

"I need you to stop me from doing something I'll regret." John swallowed hard and chanced a look at Nick. "I... I don't think I can control myself much longer."

As soon as John answered the door, and Nick got a good look at him, he could help but feel more worried. There was something obviously wrong here, more than there had been, and if Nick known it'd gotten this bad, he'd - well, he'd probably have tried to shove his way in and help whether John wanted it or not, which even Nick could admit might have backfired, so maybe it was better than Nick hadn't known.

His first instinct was to move in closer, to put his hand on John's shoulder and ask him what was wrong. Tell him it didn't matter what it was, that Nick would do whatever he can.

But John stepping away was a pretty obvious signal, so for the moment he didn't push, and maintained his distance.

"Okay," he agreed, voice calm even as his concern for his friend grew. It wasn't the first time he'd gotten a request like that, but... he didn't know if it was something pulse-related or a much more mundane kind of regret, and he wasn't really sure how to ask. "Okay. Is this network related?"

John licked his lips and swallowed hard, nodding his head a little as he continued to put more distance between them. "Yeah," he replied. "Yeah, it is."

He made a soft sound of frustration and scrubbed a hand through his hair, clearly irritated. "Look, I know you know I haven't been myself recently," he continued, the words coming out in a rush. John looked over at Nick, expression clearly showing just how lost he felt; his hands were clenched tight into fists at his sides.

"A couple of weeks ago, I became a vampire." He let out a shaky exhale and chewed on his lower lip. "Complete with fangs and a taste for blood." John looked away, on the move again to the put more space between them. "Human blood.

"And I can't... I can't stop myself anymore. I crave it, Nick. I want it so fucking badly." There was a small part in his mind that wondered if his subconscious had called Nick over for another reason, and a full body shiver coursed through him at the mere thought of luring his friend over to be fed from. "Christ, I'm so fucking hungry all the goddamn time, and I don't know what to do."

Nick didn't know if he was relieved or not, that it was something network related. On the one hand, he probably had more experience dealing with pulse crap, but on the other hand, it could be anything.

"No, you haven't," Nick said carefully, watching John as closely as he could without moving in towards him. It was - hard, seeing his friend like this, and not being able to even go near him. Especially when he had no idea why he was staying away, other than that John clearly didn't want to be near him for whatever-

Or for that. That was a pretty good reason. He was just going to stay right there, then. There was a level of surprise, but it made sense - the black eyes, the way John'd been acting, now that Nick thought about it, it was similar to the way Monroe had been, once he stopped locking himself in his house.

"You're not the first person who's told me they're fighting sudden urges to eat people." He'd wonder what the hell his life was, that he could actually say something like that, but he was too concerned about his friend to start contemplating the direction of his existence.

"We'll figure something out, all right? Is this a need it to survive kind of hunger, or a different kind?"

For a second, John just sort of stared at Nick. Who else would tell him that they want to eat people? He was about to ask if it's another vampire, and then he thought back to the Thanksgiving party.

It all made sense now.

There was a brief look of dawning that crossed his features before it quickly twisted back into an expression of worry and self-disgust. "It's--" John licked his lips and took a deep breath. "It's a lust. A craving.

"I... I don't think I need it to live, but..." He'd managed thus far without sinking his teeth into anyone, and while he didn't feel great, John didn't think he was really getting weak to the point of dying either. It was like some weird limbo, but he definitely didn't want to know what would happen if he tipped over the edge.

"I just want to feed."

John braced a hand against the wall. Even if they were on opposite sides of the room by now, Nick was still entirely too close. That life force contained within him was all too appealing, and... Christ, he needed to get him out of here now.

"L-look," he started with a nervous laugh. "I... I really shouldn't have asked you to come here."

For a brief moment, that stare almost makes Nick want to laugh. That is exactly the appropriate reaction to a statement like that, and it's pretty much a perfect summary of his life at the moment. Fortunately, it's a brief urge, because this is far from a good time for laughing, humorless and probably slightly hysterical or not.

"Right, that's one problem down, then. We don't have to worry about how to keep you living."

Just how to keep him from drinking people's blood. All right, they can do this. Somehow. It'd probably help if Nick knew much about vampires at all, or if any of that relates to the type of vampire John'd become. Or if he could figure out a way to ask the really awkward questions he's thinking, there's a lot of different vampire myths, all right.

Nick comes back into focus at that laugh, and... immediately misinterprets that. He doesn't think about his presence being a temptation for John, or about being in danger, he just doesn't want John to go back to keeping this to himself and trying to shut out attempts to help. He takes an almost involuntary step forward.

"No. No, I'm glad you did. Look, you're one of my best friends, all right? I want to help."

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