[closed]

[detectivetroll]

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."

Comments

[allinvein]

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."

[detectivetroll]

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."