Window Gazer [Michael]

[Anastasia Romanova]

all your love

will be exorcised

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The moon and Ana had had a weird relationship. Anastasia loved the moon, as a young girl the stars were amazing to her, she would spend hours staring at them, wishing on them. However all that said, since becoming a vampire, Ana had lost the sun – until the hunter years ago gave her the ring that gave her the sun back and her relationship with the stars was restored. She was no longer confined to them. Ana sent up a silent wish she didn’t even realise she was making as she stared up and out of the window in her New Orleans apartment. She’d bought the apartment in the 1960s, when the French Quarter was every bit as fun as it was now. She had kept the place going and secret all these years. Ana had transferred the deed to her ‘granddaughter’ Ana Roman a few months ago, as her fake IDs all named her as such.

Ana loved her small hideaway. It was a simple one bedroom apartment, however the kitchen and window sold it to her. Not that she could cook, but just the look of it. Plus she could sit on the window cushion box at the fire escape and listen to the jazz band in the bar below. The sax and trumpet players were amazing. She couldn’t believe these things existed in the world and there was a chance she could have lived her whole life and missed out on these wonderful things. She smiled as the music finished and the crowd roared. Even in the blistering heat, people still flocked to the streets, drinking and having fun was wonderful to watch. The cooler breeze passed through was probably unfelt by the people down there. Their cheers and laughter floated up to the window she sat at as they partied and convinced the band to play on… the band did so. Ana sighed as she watched the crowd, she still couldn’t see the one face she was waiting for.

Ana rested her head on her knees as she sat on her cushioned window box seat staring out into New Orleans and beyond. She had been ‘home’ for two nights so far. She’d gotten out of Bon Temps easily after the heat died down and the vampire goons took Michael away, however she’d been left with a sinking guilt. She’d left him to take the heat for everything and she didn’t know if he was okay or not. It wasn’t like her to worry at all. She liked being a lone wolf, Ana smirked at the pun in her head as she lifted one of the cold beers up to her lips. She had already finished one beer and now was onto her second. Ana did miss getting the buzz from alcohol, but it curbed her appetite for blood. She’d already had her fill from blood bags in the fridge for ‘dinner’. She’d really been waiting for Michael, she had slipped a note in his pocket with coordinates that would lead him to her apartment. She didn’t know why she felt so strongly for Michael, usually she’d just leave and not look back, but he’d came back for her… and that last kiss. Ana smiled to herself thinking about it. She placed her fingers on her lips, she smiled at the thought of the kiss again. Ana finished the second beer and reached into the conveniently placed cooler by the window as the party below got going. Once again she smiled watched the humans, mostly humans, below her having a good time. She envied them in so many ways… A frown fell over her face as she realised she’d not stocked up the cooler, with a grown, Ana got up and walked over to the fridge. She took out the beer and felt the cold pack of six against her leg, what a summer they seemed to be having. As she turned she went back to the window seat, placed the beers in the cooler and sat back down. Ana sat back in her original position and looked down once again, that’s when she saw him. She put the beer on the sill and leaned out the window, she grinned and waited for the guy to turn around. “Mic-“ she started and stopped, a sigh escaped her lips and she shook her head, “Where are you?” she asked the trumpets and music that played in the distance.

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TAG: Michael Raymond Shepard WORDS: 786
NOTES: Micna! haha I hope he approves of her outfit OUTFIT: link

Temp by Melz @Caution 2.0, cyberlink, @adoxography and RPGD

[Michael Raymond Shepard]

There's another world inside of me
That you may never see
There're secrets in this life
That I can't hide

The rooftop opposite her apartment probably hadn’t been where Ana had intended him to turn up when she’d slipped the coordinates into his pocket before he’d gone racing out of the cave pulling his super hero act. Arriving in New Orleans earlier that night Michael hadn’t been quite ready to seek the girl out though. It was the first time he’d come back since the night he’d moved out to his parents’ house in Baton Rouge. The city had a wealth of memories for him, ones that had come crashing firmly down on his shoulders the minute he’d driven into the city that afternoon. He’d passed the park where he and Sara had taken Abi on Sunday mornings when she’d been only just big enough to climb to the top of the slide without both of her parents hovering over her like hawks. There’d even been an hour when he’d sat in the car outside of the house they’d once shared. It was still empty. He hadn’t been able to sell it, not that anyone would have wanted to live there now, there’d been sheets covering the furniture, their hunched shapes barely visible through the thin drapes. In the end he’d had to tear himself away but Michael suspected that a part of him was still there in that street, waiting fruitlessly for his girls to come home. Tearing himself away from that had been painful but he had a duty to another woman tonight, one, who, in the end had turned out to be pretty freaking brave.

Up on that cliff they’d practically been at each other’s throats but once they’d started battling back to back things had been entirely different. And by the time they got into that cave … standing watching her now Michael could still feel the press of her up against his chest and it was leaving him a little breathless. It was all supposed to be about the gem, instead he’d been interrogated for an hour before he’d managed to slip out. The goons were probably still cleaning his blood off of the cellar floor. If their boss had been in town things would’ve been a hundred times worse but having to guide torture over a phone was pretty damn difficult, especially when your hunchmen had the combined IQ of a pug. A little too much back chat and one had come in to shut him up. They obviously forgotten who they were dealing with when the teeth had sunk in. That was all the space he’d needed to fight his way free, the crowning glory on the escape had been when he’d leapt off of the cliff and into the water. There’d been no graceful roll down the hill then, just a blurring out into the air and a rapid descending arc down into the water. It had stolen his breath when he’d hit, the blood that had been staining his skin pluming in a pink foaming cloud around him. Two goons had tried to give chase but they’d already established that he didn’t have the gem and a second swim hadn’t proven too appealing. It had taken him a full hour to swim far enough along the coast to make sure he was clear of them.

He’d spent the next two days working his way from Bon Temps up to New Orleans. The first night he’d spent in his car, pulled off of a rural road, not wanting to risk a motel in case the now gemless asshole had forced his guys to look for him anyway. The call to Orlov had been almost as painful as the torture. He’d been able to hear the disappointment in his boss’s voice when he’d told him the gem wasn’t in his possession yet. Not wanting to get into detail about how it had been lost Michael had just promised to get it for him. Sitting there in the dark he knew he had no real intention of doing it though. If it had been with anyone but Ana he would’ve forced the issue but weighing up snatching it back and the one measly clue he’d get about his wife and daughter had left him picking the woman who’d saved his ass back at the house. What he should’ve done was head in the opposite direction as fast as he could drive but Michael had continued heading north and by the dark the moon had risen tonight he’d been in the French Quarter, locating the apartment her little slip of paper had led him to. Michael hadn’t approached at first, choosing instead to take to the roof of the building opposite. He’d stood in the shadows, watching as she’d sat, chin on her bare knees staring out at the people passing by below. The music had risen from below and had whispered over him, strains of it catching his attention for brief moments at the time but his gaze hadn’t wavered from that window.

Michael knew he shouldn’t have come, shouldn’t have risked anything or anyone following him here but he’d been unable to resist the pull or forget the feel of her mouth yielding under his. He could imagine the taste of the beer on her lips now, that bitter tang that would spread through him as he crushed her mouth under his again. It wasn’t until she got up to refill the cooler she’d found empty with a wandering hand that he made his move though. There was only so much temptation a man could take before his self-control broke and Michael knew that he was rapidly reaching his limit. He had to go and explain before getting words out wasn’t possible any more. The climb to that window seat was achieved before anyone realised that the shadows overhead were on the move. One minute he was looking at her from forty feet away, the next he was in the shadowed corner of her room, watching as she sat back down again. There was a half whisper of his name on her lips, as she obviously thought she saw his face in a crowd outside and then a sigh that had him swallowing hard. That wasn’t just a ‘let me know you’re OK’ sigh, there had been something more in the cave and he hadn’t been the only one feeling it. ”Did no one ever teach you not to leave your windows open Ana?” Michael asked huskily as the music outside seemed to swell for a moment in reaction to the change in the environment inside. He stepped out of the shadow, approaching the young woman on the window seat. ”I guess I wasn’t the only one still playing that over in my head. Was the passionate version really that good?” Michael raised a hand to his own mouth, one finger tapping briefly. He’d woken in the truck that morning, that elusive pressure still there on his mouth as the dream he’d been having faded with the mist around the vehicle.

Tagged: Anastasia Romanova
Word Count: 1168
Outfit: Here!
Music Credit:’When I'm Gone’ – 3 Doors Down

So hold me when I'm here
Right me when I'm wrong
You can hold me when I'm scared
You won't always be there
So love me when I'm gone

[Anastasia Romanova]

all your love

will be exorcised

✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥

When the trumpet called out on it’s own, he’d picked that moment, Michael had picked that perfect moment to speak. His voice just took her back to those feelings in the cave. Those feelings of … whatever it had been. “Michael!” she smiled, probably too much of a smile for having only met him once. “Ha! No, I was the girl who wanted to boy to climb through my window. No one ever did though.” She told him and swung her legs around to sit facing him. She of course wasn’t being serious, as if they’d allow her to have her window open in the palace. Her father’s guards checked it twice a night every night. As they spoke her eyes wandered over him, leather jacket, jeans, he looked just like she remembered and it was something she was thankful for, no dislocated shoulders. Another smile tugged at her lips.

As the more upbeat tempo song came to an end, she searched for something to say to him, anything, then another slightly slower song returned the night to the perfect setting, or not perfectly imperfect depending how you looked at it. She didn’t want to reply to his question. What about the passion? She wanted to scream at him that it was probably the most confused she’d been left by a kiss before. “I love this music.” She told him and smiled remembering why she’d bought this apartment specifically, that bar… “You know Louis Armstrong was a nice guy. He convinced me to buy this place.” She told him with a light smile, proud of the past of her and the apartment. She said and looked to him as she leaned against the box seat she’d been sitting at all night.

She tried not to let her face give away that, if it could, her heart would be pounding out of her chest. He was playing it over in his head too? He thought about it more than once? After all he’d came to find her which had to mean something… right? “The passionate version… I mean I was…” She let out a sigh and stood properly as the question seemed to baffle the once overly confident vampire, the jersey she wore was clearly meant for a much larger person than her she was as it hung off her. She frowned and bit her bottom lip as if quickly weighing up the pros and cons of what she was thinking of doing. She had decided when she first got back to the apartment that she was going to leave it, leave him, alone. She was going to chalk it all up to the heat of the moment – the moonlight, the situation, the cave, the whole damned scenario, but now he was here, the way he’d came in and the words he said. At last however she decided it was the only thing she could do. He wanted to know if the passionate version was really that good… Well he was gonna find out!

Ana put down the bottle that had still been in her hand and walked towards him. She placed both hands around his neck and pulled her small frame up slightly, she was on her tip toes, so that her lips met his. It mirrored the last kiss that he’d left her with, there was no slow build up, there was just – whatever it was that was between them. It was almost a continuation. Even Ana, with all her planning and calculating never banked on feeling whatever this was with anyone, let alone a guy she’d met once before. She didn’t want to, but seeing him in her apartment, there, alive and being all coy about what she was thinking about? It was enough to break the best of them. As he picked her up so easily and she wrapped her legs around him as they kissed, her hands roamed his hair as they made out in the middle of her small apartment. Her skin felt once again on fire as her body made contact with his. It was crazy and totally sane at once. She just fit in his arms like someone had made her that way. It was crazy, someone watching them would have thought that they were long time lovers having not seen each other in years. Ana pulled back, but only slightly, not wanting to break the hold, “No you weren’t the only one, I knew you had passion.” She said with a very shaky whisper type breath to her voice. Passion or lust, she didn’t know, but she found herself being pulled in by him. She felt completely safe in his arms, and it scared the crap out of her, which was a contradiction in itself. She wanted to ask him how he got away, why the hell it had taken him so long to get there and was everything okay with whoever his boss was, but she didn’t, she simply sat in his arms, with her body wrapped around him and listened to the soft jazz below them playing for the moment it felt like. She heard the sounds of Louis Armstrong Blue Moon finish and La Vie en Rose start as the tunes floated into her apartment, was the world trying to kill her?

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TAG: Michael Raymond Shepard WORDS: 922
NOTES: Micna! OUTFIT: link

Temp by Melz @Caution 2.0, cyberlink, @adoxography and RPGD

[Michael Raymond Shepard]

There's another world inside of me
That you may never see
There're secrets in this life
That I can't hide

Corny, overly dramatic Hollywood romance movies had never held any appeal for him. Sara had loved them, had made him sit through all of the 80s classics she’d grown up loving but he’d just teased her for them. No one’s life ever really went that way. Hard-nosed detectives didn’t fall for their suspects, no matter how hot they were, the poor little human girl didn’t melt the heart of the evil vampire and no guy ever showed up at the girl’s window with a boom box and convinced her of his feelings with one of the world’s worst mix tapes. The real world just wasn’t like that, at least he hadn’t thought it was until he’d stood on that roof top opposite Ana’s apartment, watching her and feeling that scarred part of him trying to twitch back into life. There was a determination there that he definitely hadn’t had a week ago. He shouldn’t have been feeling it now if he had any sense, he still didn’t know for sure who’d killed Sara and Abi and that meant that anyone who got close to him remained in danger but it was like a magnetic pull, dragging him helplessly towards something he would’ve willing told her he didn’t want, couldn’t want. Standing on the roof he’d been sure he’d just be able to tell her that he was safe and leave but now he was in her room, seeing that smile light up her face Michael was sure he couldn’t leave like that.

A corner of Michael’s mouth twitched in fond remembrance of the half a dozen movies he’d watched with Sara that had the boy doing exactly that. It was every teenaged girl’s dream he guessed, just as most guys wouldn’t have minded the prettiest girl in school showing up in their rooms that way in the middle of the night. ”Most of them would’ve broken their necks trying to get up to that balcony,” Michael mused, letting his gaze drift to the window he’d entered by. His speed and agility had gotten him in without any trouble though. ”It was a first for me. Usually I do the polite thing and come knocking on the door rather than breaking and entering through the window.” At least he usually did when he wasn’t trying to rob somewhere under Orlov’s orders. If his boss had any clue he was here he probably would’ve pushed him to snatch the gem and walk away instead of making small talk with the girl. Orlov was a heartless bastard though, one who would have sacrificed the girl and taken the gem the first chance he’d gotten at that mansion. There’d been times when he was glad he and his boss were nothing alike but tonight was the first time he’d been so damn ecstatic about it. It would’ve been a simple matter to let the guards take Ana at the house but he’d someone to protect in the girl, not the sort of protectiveness that had kept a guard from splitting her lip again but the sort that was rising now, wanting to sweep her off of that seat and into the cool dark of her bedroom.

Michael stood, hands dangling loose at his sides as she inspected him. There was no trace left of the torture he’d suffered at the hands of the guards, the skin that had blistered with the touch of the vervain injections the guards had pushed on him had faded almost as soon as he’d plunged into the water, rinsing away along with the blood that had dried on his skin as they’d gone back to their movie goon roots and used bamboo skewers on his flesh. What she saw obviously either reassured or pleased her because Ana’s mouth curved into one of those smiles that had haunted his dreams for two nights. Now the dreams would be accompanied by that wail of music, the jazz that seemed to live and breathe on every street corner of this city. The silence at the end of the song invaded the apartment for a moment and Michael found himself looking at her, his eyes searching her face for some sort of sign of how she was going to answer what he’d asked. He’d seen her smile as she’d touched her mouth and he’d been pretty sure then that her mind was back in the cave, just like his had been every five minutes she’d he’d rushed out of there and straight into the goons’ arms. The kiss had been on his mind, keeping him sane, letting him hold onto his story of betrayal and innocence when his skin had smoked and those wooden splinters had plunged deep. Michael hadn’t expected the change of subject but as she told him about her love of the music and just who’d convinced her to buy the apartment Michael found his brows rising in surprised, a smile tugging at his mouth. ”You know the Louis Armstrong?” he asked, his voice touched by amazement. Jazz had never been his genre, like his dad, it had been all about the classic rock for him but he wasn’t a complete philistine. It still amazed him that she was an older soul, had been around long enough to hear and see the birth of jazz in this city.

As Ana kept her position against the box seat Michael kept his a few feet in front of her. His hands rose a little self-consciously as he continued to wait for her answer. He’d gone over how it had felt for him a hundred times in the last two days but he wasn’t a mind reader, he hadn’t been able to plunge inside her brain and see if it had torn open something inside of her the way it had done inside of him. Was she feeling the same burn of guilt for moving on from a love lost? Did she think that him being here would get him killed? Probably not, that curse was his alone and yet tonight it seemed pretty far away from this room. Michael’s doubts grew as she hesitated in her response, a rueful sort of laughter rolling out. ”You can come clean about it, hearing that it was pathetic’s not gonna do much damage. I’m a big boy, I can take it.” Still there was some fragile part of him quivering inside as she stood there in that Saints t-shirt that swamped her and bit her lip. He’d had a shirt like it when he’d been about the age she must’ve been when she was turned, he’d worn that shirt everywhere, much to his parents chagrin. By this time it was probably laying in a mouldy heap in his parents’ garage like most of their other possessions. He’d never been this doubtful about his skill before but then again, he’d never had trouble keeping his hands off of a woman who’d driven him mad like this before.

Michael remained still as Ana approached, looking down at her like a statue as she slipped her arms around his neck again. As they’d done in the cave his hands came up, thumbs settling on the flat plane of her stomach while his fingers gathered that t-shirt at her back. There was a moment of hesitation on his heart and then her mouth was on his like it had been back in the cave. Heat instantly seared Michael’s throat, his mouth doing the yielding this time, granting her access. Almost desperate with a need for her Michael slid his hands lower, boosting her hip with hands under her hips. He felt a moan tear from his throat as her legs closed around him, his arms banding around her waist. In that cave he’d been so sure it was a one time thing, a goodbye kiss as the brave young soldier had charged out to take the trenches. Michael felt that thirst for her in his throat as she pulled back, the promise of what was to come drawing out a desperate hope in him that he’d never felt. His eyes slipped shut for a moment as she told him he wasn’t the only one. Resting his forehead against hers, still holding tight to her Michael let out a breathless laugh. ”You were the only one who knew it. I thought I was done with it, I was meant to be done with it. Do you know what you’ve done to me?” he asked honestly as his eyes opened and bored into hers from an inch away. He’d never wanted this, had never wanted to put anyone at risk again the way he had Sara, the way he had Abi but she hadn’t given him any choice. Now here he was, turning slowly to the sound of the music pulsing up through the building, the sound of it resounding in his chest like a heartbeat.

Tagged: Anastasia Romanova
Word Count: 1485
Outfit: Here!
Music Credit:’When I'm Gone’ – 3 Doors Down

So hold me when I'm here
Right me when I'm wrong
You can hold me when I'm scared
You won't always be there
So love me when I'm gone

[Anastasia Romanova]

all your love

will be exorcised

✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥

As she stared down at those below, Ana did wonder why this guy, this random hybrid had gotten into her head. How was it possible? Maybe it was the years of solitary wandering that made her long for company. That said this felt like more than a want for company. She could have just went downstairs and enjoyed the atmosphere, however she didn’t. She’d stayed in the apartment for the last two days waiting for him to meet her here. Ana didn’t even know if he was coming or not, but she sense he was. When he appeared in her room, Ana hadn’t realised that she was that happy to see him until she’d actually seen him here. She couldn’t believe he was there, he’d actually came, however she wondered if it was just a chivalrous thing, he’d came to say goodbye and take the gem. That all said Ana didn’t get that vibe from him, after all he’d smiled too.

Ana smiled at his words and felt her face flush again as he said about the balcony. “Thanks but I can assure you, it was a long way up that wall. You’re one of the few who made it.” She told him and shrugged. Ana really didn’t want to sound pathetic, the girl who couldn’t be loved, but she was unable to stop the truth. She smiled imagining him showing up at her door, maybe some flowers in hand. Ana stopped herself, when the hell did she start wanting flowers? Never in her life had she been a flowers at the door type of girl. “You strike me as the type for doors. But as you said, the window was open, inviting anyone passing in.” She smile joking of course. Even as a vampire she knew the temperature that night was oddly warm, even for New Orleans at this time of year. “Well doors apart from when attempting to steal a gem.” She quipped and paused, “Actually you did use the door didn’t you?” She asked and laughed lightly. If you told Ana she’d have been all giggly in front of this guy a few days ago, she’d have knocked you out. Ana looked behind her as the party below mustered a long bang, a banger or aimilar firework no doubt.

Ana wondered what they’d done to him. What they’d subjected him to and how quickly he’d recovered. At the end of the day you could recover physically, but was he okay really? She wanted to check him over, make sure there was no lasting marks or bruises. She had imagined time after time what they’d do to him. She’d seen a lot of horrible things in her life, she’d be tortured a few times as well, however she’d gotten over it and moved on. Ana had a copying strategy, get on with it or die. Being alone for so long that’s all the options she had really. She frowned for a moment as she felt the guilt for not going back for him, she should have and helped stop whatever they would have done to him. Ana heard the music and thought about how apt it was, like the soundtrack to their night that was playing out below them. At least that night in the cave there hadn’t been music, if there had been the outcome may have been very different. She nodded at his words. “Yeah I did. Nice guy, gave me a trumpet lesson once.” She told him and shrugged, “I’m guessing you are a rock guy?” She smirked. Ana had seen the birth of a lot of the different genres of music and with his look she had guessed he probably liked to be well versed in all music.

They kept their distance for a while, each probably too afraid to approach the other from fear of what might happen. Ana was worried she’d not be able to stop… she wondered again what it was, this pull between them. She worried Erik would find her, and Michael. She was scared that the Russian would find them and he’d make Ana watch as he tortured the man to death. Or worse, he’d make Michael bite her and they would both suffer until their last breath. Her attention was drawn to his words, she frowned as she weighed up the options. Did he honestly think she thought it was pathetic? Had he missed the whole her holding onto him like he was about to disappeared… She pulled on the top again. She’d found these large tops they had nowadays very comfortable whilst she was hiding out, and even though it was big, it was light and that made for good lounging wear.

Ana’s skin flamed up as his hands touched her stomach through the fabric. She felt her stomach flutter and flip as she leaned in to kiss him. It was like magic, the way he drew her to him. Ana had convinced herself it was just for that one night, however now she as telling herself it was just for this night – she had to thank him after all. He’d sacrificed himself to save her, and she’d gotten away with that gem. That troublesome gem that now was hidden with many others. She selfishly didn’t want this whole thing to end – she wanted, just like before, to just stay in the apartment. She allowed a small moan to escape her own throat, she didn’t want this to end. She wanted this to last forever but knew it couldn’t. Whatever they had outside of here, whoever they were, she didn’t care, she just cared about him.

As they rested their heads together, she kept her eyes shut as he laughed, it caused her to pull back and look at him. When he told her he was done with it, or thought he was done with it, she frowned, so many questions had arisen from the few words he’d said, however at the moment she was more interested in his question. When he looked at her it was like he was drawing her in more. “What I’ve done to you?” She questioned with a smile, “How about what you’ve done to me? I mean I was happy being a smart mouthed lonely vamp.” She told him and rested her hand on his chest. She looked at him, with a hunger she’d not felt in a long time. Why did he have this effect on her? “Michael…” She started and realised she couldn’t walk away, he still held her tightly to his body. Ana wanted to tell him about her past, that she had people after her and she didn’t want to involve him in her drama, but right now she just fought the urge to kiss him again. What was it between the two of them? She didn’t want anything bad to happen to him, she wanted to keep him safe. Ana moved closer herself closer to him as he held her, “We can’t keep doing this.” She whispered and hovered her lips over his again, “But I can’t stop.” She said, again in a whisper. Ana had no idea why she felt like this with him, but she did. And what was worse, she liked the feeling. “And I don’t want to.” Ana’s voice was low, husky but barely a whisper now as the music floated around them.

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TAG: Michael Raymond Shepard WORDS: 1300
NOTES: Micna! OUTFIT: link

Temp by Melz @Caution 2.0, cyberlink, @adoxography and RPGD

[Michael Raymond Shepard]

There's another world inside of me
That you may never see
There're secrets in this life
That I can't hide

A year of being the grimmest person in the room and suddenly Michael was feeling like he was caught up in some sort of weird out of body experience. Somewhere his body was still standing, brain whirring, heart aching, the part of him that was being warm and friendly with Ana frozen. The man that he was, that he had been for a year just hadn’t come with him away from that mansion. It was confusing him, he’d finally been so sure of who he was after Orlov had turned up in his parents’ storm cellar and had broken the terrifying cycle he’d gone through after Sara and Abi had been snatched from him. Now he wasn’t certain of any of it, of the job he’d been doing, of the man who’d been drip feeding him facts that had added up to absolutely nothing so far, he wasn’t certain of what he was doing here either, what he wanted from her or what Ana had wanted from him back in that cave. From the rooftop across the street he’d seen her waiting for him, had heard her ask wistfully where he was when she sat back down in that window and he’d been hiding here in the shadows listening to her voice, unable to move for a minute.

That feeling of separation only grew as he watched her smile and saw the faint flush rise up her cheeks. They were two thieves, they’d gotten tangled up over some gem he’d only seen as a commodity to bargain for the information he’d wanted more than anything in the world and now he was talking like he was a fifteen year old trying to get in a girl’s window for the first time. One dark brow rose, a hint of satisfaction flickering over Michael’s features for a moment. ”One of the few?” he asked, feeling the first stirring of jealousy in the pit of his stomach. ”Maybe next time I should find a higher window to get into.” He didn’t want to be just part of a pack all barking for her attention and that sure as hell wasn’t the impression he’d gotten there in the cave. Was he really that naïve? Christ, he hadn’t thought he was, there’d been something in her face, in her eyes, when she hadn’t been working so hard to snark him to death out there. Michael stirred, looking back towards her door. If he hadn’t spent an hour watching her, maybe he’d have come in the conventional way but he hadn’t, he’d been up there, twisting himself up in knots trying to make sense of what he wanted to do. ”Take my advice?” he asked softly. ”Watch how you leave it open in future? That guy you … we robbed. He’s not the sort to ignore an open window and come knocking on the door instead.” That had been proven with the bamboo and vervain the night before. Michael imagined that right now he was out there trying to track down his missing possession.

Ana had been joking about the window but still, Michael felt that trace of grim starting working its way back through him again. The night was hot, her need to search the crowd understandable but still he felt that strange urge to protect a girl who’d proven that she was more than capable of taking care of herself already. Trying to find a trace of humour within himself again, Michael let out a faint huffing laugh as he shook his head. ”You mean back at the mansion?” he asked. There was another head shake then, a rueful smile touching his lips. ”Not that night. There was no way I was gonna get myself an invite inside from one of those guards. I came in over the wall, pretty close to the way we went back out. There wasn’t a couple of dozen assholes lurking out there when I went in.” There had been on his way out though. He wasn’t about to start pointing the finger of blame over that again. Ana had apologised for what had happened down in that cave, he didn’t need to prod her for another apology. What had happened in the end had messed with his job but the spoils of war, or at least the weird little gem, had gone back to someone who claimed to be the rightful owner. Even if she wasn’t, Michael knew he’d rather see it in Ana’s hands than in Orlov’s greedy mitts.

Seeing Ana frown, Michael shook his head, one hand rising slightly to try and wave off the questions he imagined were readying themselves on the tip of her tongue. He’d known the minute he’d escaped the mansion that what had happened to him there wasn’t going to be shared with her or anybody else. What he’d done on the beach was supposed to have saved her from what he’d gone through. It wouldn’t work if he then went and put the mental images of him screaming as the skewers had been driven under his skin in her head. As it was he was going to wake up with the sensation burning in his flesh for months to come, the same way he still dreamt of that first change into his werewolf form. He was almost glad to turn the subject back onto her, that trace of something happy flowing back through him as she spoke of her connection with Armstrong. Michael couldn’t stop the amazement from dropping his jaw or lighting up his face. The trumpet was nothing like the guitar, but still, the thought of taking a lesson from a legend was something any musician would’ve given their right arm for. ”Absolutely, rock’s in my genes but I’m not an idiot. I know legendary when I hear it.” And it was a little impossible to grow up in or around New Orleans without jazz finding its way into your blood. He’d lost count of how many times he’d been to the bars in the area with his parents to catch Kermit Ruffins or Dr John. That was another thing that had been put aside with the loss of his wife and child though, another love folded away into the dusty packing boxes that contained what his life had once been.

At a distance he could keep his hands to himself and maybe even convince himself that he was only here to let her see that he was in one piece. Michael felt his certainty start to slip as she frowned over what he’d said facetiously. His laughter had trailed off, his throat going dry as he watched her tug at the Saints top. He could still draw to mind what she’d looked like in that little cropped tank top at the foot of that cliff, her pale skin almost glowing in the moonlight, the skin that he’d had his hands on just a few minutes afterwards when they’d been pressed close together in the cave. Then his hands were there again, spanning her tiny waist as their lips had come together. The kiss was just like he’d remembered it, the taste of her familiar now. He’d imagined this as he’d been in that dank basement room, had held onto the feel of Ana as pain had torn away at the very centre of him. Michael could remember the sounds of the guards laughing, the way they’d gloated over the fact that a woman had gotten the better of him. The fact that he’d smiled at that had earned him a punch in the mouth that’d torn the inside of his cheek open but he’d just carried on grinning, remembering the truth, remembering the sound that emerged from low in her throat with pleasure.

The pause allowed Michael to try and reel himself back in but there was only so much control could do for him when his mind was all over the place. He’d laughed, finding the fact that one of Orlov’s jobs had done this to him pretty damn hysterical but as she pulled back Michael realised that she didn’t get what he was on about. He hadn’t told her about Sara and Abi, not down that cliff and he hadn’t wanted to bring it up now but how could he avoid it when it was all so tangled together. Shaking his head, trying to draw an impossible breath Michael felt himself smile back. ”That makes two of us. I was meant to go solo, no family, no one …” It wasn’t supposed to be a happy existence, it was supposed to be one that was keeping the people he still had safe. Ana wasn’t playing by those rules though and he couldn’t when she was wrapped around him like this. He couldn’t breathe now, he couldn’t find the strength to tell her no or even to explain. Hearing his name on her lips pulled at Michael’s senses again. His fingers tightened against her, heat beginning to pool in the pit of his stomach in a way it hadn’t in so damn long.

When they should’ve been pulling away from each other, Ana was moving closer again and he let her. Holding her up easily with one arm, Josh brought the other hand up to cradle the back of her head, her hair tangling around his fingertips as he shook his head. ”I don’t want to stop either,” he admitted hoarsely, not wanting to start begging her not to disappear on him. In the end it would have to be the other way around, to keep her safe he’d have to be the one leaving but surely no one would begrudge him having one night before he went back to Orlov, to an uncertain and no doubt dangerous future. ”We can have tonight. I … I can’t stay after that, can’t guarantee that I’ll even be in the country tomorrow or next week. I need to carry on working, there’re things that I can’t get out of.” There were things he didn’t want to get out of. As much as he wanted this woman, wanted what she’d offered down on the beach, he couldn’t walk away from Sara and Abi, from what had happened to them. Turning slowly Michael took two steps back, sinking down on the window seat Ana had been sitting in, he could still imagine the warmth of her emanating from it, just as he could feel her still wrapped around him. For a moment Michael’s green eyes drifted over her face, casting each feature in bronze in his mind then slowly he drew her to him again, his lips moving over hers with an unexpected tenderness this time.

Tagged: Anastasia Romanova
Word Count: 1786
Outfit: Here!
Music Credit:’When I'm Gone’ – 3 Doors Down

So hold me when I'm here
Right me when I'm wrong
You can hold me when I'm scared
You won't always be there
So love me when I'm gone

[Anastasia Romanova]

all your love

will be exorcised

✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥

As Ana waited for the second night for Michael to appear she knew it was stupid to get attached to someone. All it would take was for one of those damned spies of Erik Orlov’s to see her and Michael and he’d be out for blood, Michael’s to torture her with. She knew that, like in her human life, in her vampire life she couldn’t have what others could. She wasn’t allowed to have feelings for guys, she wasn’t allowed to have close friends or a place she could call her own. Her apartment here was the closest thing she had to a home, and even there she only used it every couple of decades. Using it for longer than a week was out of the question, which meant that he only had a week to get here. Ana frowned feeling so alone suddenly. It wasn’t a feeling she allowed herself to feel, but right now it’s all she could feel, an emptiness that she would never be allowed to fill. The feeling was instantly forgotten when she heard his voice, her entire thinking changed on hearing his voice.

Ana smiled as she saw the brief look of satisfaction on his face, he repeated her words and she shrugged with a smile, a genuine smile, something Ana didn’t realise she had the ability to do anymore. “Okay, two… you and someone else.” She confessed to him and frowned at his next thought. “Don’t be like that!” She laughed with a grin, “If it makes you feel any better the other guy would be like 120 years old now, I don’t think he’s climbing any windows anymore.” Ana said, if she didn’t know any better she’d think Michael was jealous of not being the only one to have climbed into her window. Ana herself found her feeling annoyed at the thought of him climbing into anyone else’s window. As he looked at the door briefly she wondered if he was thinking about the door too, “not many, well none, come through that way either.” She told him with a smile. It wasn’t that she was trying to sound like she lived a pathetic lonely existence, she just didn’t have company – ever. Running all your life, looking for revenge, it had all came at a price, the price of friends, lovers, whatever… Ana knew once Erik was gone she’d not need to worry about it, she had her whole life to make those connections with people, right? As the next words seemed to drip of genuine concern for her she nodded, “Okay. I will.” She told him with a worried look, it wasn’t worried that something would happen. She could probably deal with most people trying to kill her, it was worry for him, what had they done to him? She wanted to reach for him and hold him as he held her, but that would lead to kissing and they hadn’t even touched on that yet. She wondered if he felt the tension like she was.

The vampire nodded as he asked if she meant back at the mansion. She had thought he’d walked in the front door, mind you at the time she was on the highest window, waiting. “You could have been invited, but you’d need to buy a cheap suit and put on your best impression of a 1950s Hollywood mafia guy with a steroid induced complex.” She told him and smirked at the thought of Michael dressed like that, in a proper suit though, Ana could imagine him in one of those looking all suave, she couldn’t help the smile that appeared as she thought of it. “Did I mention I was sorry about that?” She said and frowned a little, wrinkling her nose like she’d tasted something she didn’t like. She wasn’t to know she’d feel this way for him or that they’d actually get along, or that he’d sacrifice himself so she could get away. The truth was, now with all these feelings, if Michael asked for the gem, she’d probably give it to him. When he was there she seemed to focus less on the ‘mission’, it was like there could be other possible outcomes for her. However Ana knew she had to get herself out of this feeling, she had a mission and had to focus on it. She couldn’t weak, she couldn’t fall for the boy.

Before the conversation changed she could see something in his eyes, pain? She felt guilt for whatever they’d subjected him too. She was the more experienced vampire, she had felt pain and torture before, her death hadn’t been easy and after a brush with Erik’s former second in command she’d felt torture, she knew she shouldn’t have let him take the fall. However something told Ana he’d have found a way to save her, he seemed that type of guy. She didn’t bring it up again, she didn’t want to press him. When he told her it was in his blood she laughed. “The only thing in my blood was classical music. And yes it’s pretty and I still enjoy the ballet, but this music…” She said and was silent for a moment, “There’s so much of someone’s soul in it. It’s emotional beyond  being human almot.” Ana told him and smiled, “I did meet a few rock gods in my time.” She laughed, she felt like she was a teenager trying to impress the boy she liked. All Ana wanted was for the two to finish want they’d started. She knew this small talk was needed, even just to give them both time to regroup, but the need to know him was overwhelming to her, she’d never wanted to know someone like this before, not even when she was human.

For the last two nights Ana had relived their kisses, each one, each moment. She remembered the feeling of him pressed to her, how he held her, protected her. Ana never had had that before, he placed his hand on her back to protect her from the rock wall behind them. His hands heated up her bare skin. He’d held her so easily, like she was the lightest thing in the world, no effort needed on his part to lift her up and protect her like he had. This kiss? This kiss was no different, as soon as her body connected with his, it was little they knew each other. Like they were as they probably looked to anyone peeping in, two long lost lovers reuniting. She wouldn’t, no, she couldn’t think about what he’d suffered at the hands of those goons because of her, however she could try her best to help him forget. When he lifted her into his arms again it was as if they’d been doing this for years, not having only kissed a few times before. It was funny how people just connected, how they came into your life, Ana’s brain tried to remind her that this couldn’t last, she had to protect him the way he protected her, but her heart wasn’t for listening in that moment.

As he told her he was solo she smirked, “A lone wolf?” She laughed lightly, Ana could relate, however she thought about his words and a serious expression overcame her features. “No one to endanger or be responsible for.” She said finishing off his sentence. She didn’t mean it to sound as cutting as it did, but she got the sense he was keeping back things just like she was. Maybe that’s why they had this connection so much? She had to tell him about her, too many people were out to get her thanks to Erik Orlov. For all she knew he’d watched the whole thing thanks to those little spies he seemed to have everywhere. As Michael’s finger tightened as he held her she knew her voice was, at best, a breathy whisper. It was all too much, that’s why they both needed this, they needed each other. Whatever he was running from, or running towards, it weighed heavy on his soul, just like hers. She had trusted Erik Orlov once, and it got her family killed, he’d plagued her for 100 odd years and yes, she had gotten a little revenge in the sense that his ‘friends’ from that night where almost all gone, however so where some of hers. Ana focused on the man holding her, she wanted to just not be Anastasia Romanova for one night, she wanted just to be Ana, a girl who was letting her emotions felt for the man who held her to take over and be all that she was, just for one night.

Ana smiled when he said he couldn’t stop either. She was just glad it wasn’t a one sided thing. However it was all irrelevant, she couldn’t have someone the way she wanted to have Michael. Not with Erik Orlov breathing down her neck. There had been few people in her vampire life that she’d trusted and created a friendship with, and a large number of them had died at the hands of Erik or one of his men. She felt her heart ache at the thought of that happening to Michael, if she wasn’t securely in his arms, she’d have felt sick at the thought. When he told her they could have tonight and then he’d need to leave she felt sad but thankful. It would never work anyway, the vampire and the hybrid… you’d be nuts to think it would work. “Okay.” She said unable to really say anything else, she didn’t allow tears or sadness to show on her face, the perks of being Russian. She wanted to tell him who she was and that she could help, however she wasn’t that needy person that she’d see herself being if she pleaded him to stay. She really wanted to say to him she would wait for him, she didn’t care how long he was gone, after all they were practically immortal. Ana had been alone for so long, by choice, and now there was this new feeling, for the last two days it had plagued her, but alas she remembered Orlov was in the shadows waiting for her to feel like this, waiting for her to slip up, waiting for her to care about someone so he could cause her the pain of losing love, losing family. She pressed her hand to the side of his head and let it fall down his cheek as she kissed him again. She felt him sit on the window seat, her lookout point. Ana watched him closely look at her face, like he was rememorizing every line and feature on her face. Then he kissed her, he kissed her unlike the others, it was full of passion like the others sure, but there was a crying tenderness to it that the others didn’t have really. She moved forward and welcomed the kiss, did they really only have tonight? After what felt like a lifetime she pulled away from the kiss and looked at him, surveying his face, as if looking for signs of whatever he’d been through at the cost of a gem that used to belong to her mother. Ana brought both her arms round and placed her hands on his shoulders without any words. She pushed her weight onto her hands, pushing herself up a little, and brought her legs back to the ground so she stood in between his. Before he could speak she then slipped her hands around his shoulders to get rid of the leather jacket he wore. Only he would wear something that heavy in the heat of New Orleans in the summer. Ana then took his hand as the music downstairs seemed to accompany her actions perfectly, she moved away from him and the window seat, pulling him with her as she went, “One night.” She repeated and stopped just shy of her bed and kissed him again with everything she felt in that moment, like it was the last time they’d see each other.

✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥

TAG: Michael Raymond Shepard WORDS: 2123
NOTES: Micna! OUTFIT: link

Temp by Melz @Caution 2.0, cyberlink, @adoxography and RPGD

[Michael Raymond Shepard]

There's another world inside of me
That you may never see
There're secrets in this life
That I can't hide

Two kisses and one spectacular rescue didn’t give a man the right to be jealous, no matter how good the kisses were or what sort of feelings they’d started to evoke. Michael had tried to convince himself that he would’ve done the same for anybody in the face of a dozen fanged goons but he knew he was lying to himself there. It wasn’t clear cut that usually, the self-delusions hiding parts of him from himself so effectively that he could only ever see it once some tragedy had dashed those clouds aside. This time it was all so clear that it practically made his brain hurt. What had happened outside of that mansion hadn’t just been part of another job, both of them knew it or she never would’ve slipped her address into his pocket. Michael knew that he wouldn’t have been able to spend a life time on that roof watching her from a distance like he’d wanted to, no matter what she felt she wouldn’t have sat there another dozen nights, or a dozen months pining for him to turn up, it didn’t work that way and if Orlov found out it simply couldn’t work that way. This was on time deal and that meant that he shouldn’t have been feeling that pang of jealousy of some other guy one day getting to take his place. He should’ve been happy that she’d be alive to move on and not being eaten alive by envy.

At the mention of one other Michael scowled. He couldn’t help it, the emotion flashed through him and was instantly etched on his features. Just because it had been an instant thing from him and Sara, a bond that only death had been about to break between them didn’t mean it would ever be that way with anybody else. It never should have been that way, not with a faceless enemy still out there waiting for him to show some sign of weakness to be exploited again. Obviously he wasn’t doing a decent job of hiding it and before he could force the emotion back down his gullet Ana was laughing at him in a way that had heat rising up his face. ”I wanted to ask your age back there in the cave but I thought a lady would never admit it,” Michael murmured in response, feeling strangely reassured that his competition was now probably long dead and buried. She was almost a century older than him then, trapped as a young woman for a hundred years and yet still, there’d only ever been two at her window. To him that meant some sort of moratorium on love or at least on relationships, maybe something like his own but that really was something he wasn’t going to go digging about. Each was entitled to keep their heart ache to themselves, especially when it was born of such tragedy and pain. Two days also hadn’t given him the right to tell her how to protect himself but the words had come so easily, right along with his concern. A part of him was able to breathe deeply now he knew that she’d be just that little more careful.

Orlov would likely be pissed to hear him giving away his trade secrets but Michael didn’t give a damn what his boss thought right now. Ana had gotten into the mansion just as easily as he had and if it hadn’t been for that one gloating moment, she would’ve gotten out without a sign that she’d been there too. The rueful smile took on real amusement as Michael glanced down at the jeans and t-shirt he wore now, the far more slender form he knew that lurked beneath the cotton, denim and leather. ”I couldn’t have pulled it off, too much intelligence behind the eyes and not enough bicep ripping through the shirt. I could’ve pulled off the pool cleaner look maybe…” The vest and combat pants had served him well enough until he’d been forced to roll down a cliff side in them. Given what had happened the suit would’ve been a worse choice still, half his flesh would’ve been left on that cliff, a gory trail right down to where he and Ana had been hiding. Pretending to consider for a moment, Michael finally nodded his head. ”You did and the apology was accepted. I know you didn’t mean to kick all of that off. Maybe we should just count it as lucky that you did though. You got what you wanted and I got … you …” Michael said the last word on a sigh. He’d gotten something far more valuable than the gem but it was something he couldn’t keep. He knew it, knew that he would have to walk away from her to keep her safe. If he stayed Orlov and whoever it was he’d been chasing all of these years would take her anyway. It was less painful knowing that she was still out there and safe than it was having a few more days and then losing her entirely.

Music should’ve been a safe subject but like with everything else these days it had a tendency to tug on the nerves that were still raw. Still, there was no way to keep his love of it buried for long, he could still remember sitting there next to his dad on the porch on summer nights, the old man’s fingers wrapped around his as they’d worked their way up and down the frets, picking out something that vaguely sounded like Creedence or Gram Parsons. ”That’s in the blood isn’t always what calls to you,” Michael responded softly. He could see the change in her smile, felt the passion in her words and knew that was exactly how he’d felt when he’d heard his dad’s voice rise in song for the first time. ”It calls to something in you. Some other soul’s feeling the same thing, saying all the things you don’t think you’ll ever be able to find the words to express.” There’d been some song writers like that for him and it had always been easier to stick on a record or a CD and let another voice swell and speak for you. He didn’t need it now though, the words weren’t sticking in his gullet this time. ”If you tell me you partied with Hendrix or Ozzy I’m going to fall to my knees and beg for details,” Michael warned her honestly, his laughter rolling out in punctuation. It was one thing to hear about Louis Armstrong, another to hear about those you’d looked up to. That wasn’t the way he wanted to spend the one night he’d have here anyway. If he was getting down to his knees and begging for anything it wasn’t going to be for rock anecdotes, although he’d happily hear her laugh that way for hours.

It didn’t take long for the talk, for those few tentative moments of greeting to give way to something they’d proven they were good at in a cave that had barely given them enough room to breathe, let alone embrace like this. He still wasn’t sure how he’d gotten them here. Ana’s hands had slid around his neck, hers had gone to her waist and suddenly she was up in his arms and it felt like he was just breathing her in. It wasn’t just some heart pounding physical connection, in just a few short days she’d started to burrow deep and if he was honest with himself it scared him. Resting his forehead against hers he’d smiled as he’d tried telling her how it was supposed to be. Ana was laughing for a moment as she questioned him but then she grew serious and Michael knew deep down inside that he wasn’t the only one who had a reason to stop this from getting too deep. ”A lone hybrid,” Michael joked back before that lump swelled in his throat. He nodded slowly, his teeth sinking into his lower lip for a moment. ”Being around me isn’t safe. Ana, people have died and I can’t do that again.” The words lodged fast again, the thought of Sara and Abi at that kitchen table flooding his mouth with the bitter taste of regret. He couldn’t take that again, couldn’t walk back into this apartment to find Ana on that window seat, her blood staining the cushion, gleaming under the flickering light from the street outside.

Regret couldn’t be a part of this tonight. If this was all he was going to get with her then he wasn’t going to leave the memory tainted with death. He wasn’t strong enough to stop what was going on between them but he’d have to be strong enough to walk away in the morning to make sure she’d be safe from what followed him through this world. A part of him would’ve been satisfied to hear her beg for him to stay but it was better for them both for her to agree as readily as she had to what he’d made clear he had to do. Michael searched for some sign that she wanted that sort of future as much as he did but all he could see what was she was letting him see for the minute. He could feel more in the kiss, could feel her need and knew it was calling to his own. Slowly he’d turned them, sinking down in the spot where she’d sat all night. The words he wanted to say, what he wanted to tell her she’d done for him stayed stuck in his throat as he’d kissed her. Maybe they’d work their way through the gesture, through that intimate touch but for the moment it didn’t really matter. When the time came to walk away he wanted the memory of all of his, of the way she made his heart feel like it was fluttering in his chest, that hot hollow sensation in his stomach as the kiss moved at that slow pace that echoed the partying going on below them.

Michael’s eyes opened slowly as she drew back, longing, affection, need shining in their green depths as he watched her looking at him again. He didn’t protest as Ana began to lever herself up, he sat, allowing her to move, only shifting to help once she began pushing his coat from his shoulders. ”She always said I’d be the one wearing a down jacket in a heatwave,” Michael said hoarsely, remembering his mum’s amusement whenever he’d layer up when everybody else was in the least possible. The heat had never bothered him, the cold either, some inner temperature gauge leaving him comfortable in everything except his own skin. Michael stood as Ana drew back, pulling him with her. ”A night can feel like a lifetime,” he told her hoarsely as he followed Ana back towards her bed. She stopped short, arms rising and this time there was no hesitation either. Michael’s hand slid over her hair, down the delicate line of her back before it skimmed up to settle beneath the loose cover of the t-shirt she wore. His fingers spanned the arc of rib, feeling her body flex with the rhythm of the kiss. This memory, this night would last him a life time, it would have to. Slowly, not wanting to disturb the skim of lips on lips, the slow pulse of that contact, Michael eased Ana down on the side of the bed. He went with her, dropping to one knee in front of her. This was one thing that nameless evil wouldn’t be able to snatch from him. Ana would be his for what eternity they both got to live.

Tagged: Anastasia Romanova
Word Count: 1963
Outfit: Here!
Music Credit:’When I'm Gone’ – 3 Doors Down

So hold me when I'm here
Right me when I'm wrong
You can hold me when I'm scared
You won't always be there
So love me when I'm gone

[Anastasia Romanova]

all your love

will be exorcised

✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥

“My age?” Ana smiled and shrugged, “I was 19 when I died. No 18… I don’t even remember anymore. I’m 112 years old. But I hold it well.” She joked. “Does that matter?” Ana asked nervously, she was now suddenly worried that would cause him to change his mind about being there, about their kisses. She didn’t realise she was so focused on this – whatever it was. She smirked at his little jealous phase, it was flattering for her to experience. She hadn’t ever forgotten about Erik so much when talking with a guy, or kissing a guy. However with Michael Ana had barely thought about the danger outside of the apartment. She felt flattered again that he cared so much about her to want her to stay safe when he wasn’t there.

As he told her that he couldn’t pull it off, she agreed, “Maybe not. Maybe you can be the fetching thief who steals the attention of the young girl who’s also a thief?” She suggested with a glint of something in her eye, it was more than lust but she tried to hide anything more. She couldn’t let herself fall for this guy, however she sensed it was too little too late. He was like a bulldozer, knocking down all the walls she’d took years in building up to protect herself, and other people as well. Her heart fluttered when he mentioned he’d gotten her. Her breath caught in her throat and she looked him in the eye as if asking if he was being serious, did he mean it? She wanted to say she didn’t care about the gem now, she was glad she got him. Maybe together they could break their curses, they could stand up and fight their own demons together… or maybe she should just enjoy the moment.

Ana nodded along with his words, “I’m guessing those are words of wisdom from dad?” She asked with a grin. He seemed to light up on talking about music, “Fall on your knees? I’d happily take that.” She told him with a chuckle. “Hendrix I saw live.” She said. Ana had lived a good life for a while, then she’d had to go to ground and disappear, but she enjoyed her life, minus the loneliness. However now she sensed that her loneliness may start to be an issue for her. She loved that he made her laugh and feel good about herself. She’d been surprised how much she’d wanted to see he was okay after the cave. How worried she’d been about him and that she would have went looking for him if he’d not shown up.

When he told her being around him wasn’t safe she frowned, she wanted to ask who had died, when? But she never, she instead simply put her hands on the side of his face and kissed him before whispering, “I’m already dead. Trust me, I’m difficult to get rid of.” She told him honestly. She wanted to tell him she was the same, her entire family was gone, but she didn’t. She just wanted to make his pain go away. Ana didn’t know how easily she’d let him leave in the morning, it worried her that she’d turn into the sad pathetic whiny girl. She already felt more for him than she had for anyone in her life practically. It scared her. She looked at him, wanting to ask about their future, she knew they both had things in their life that stopped them being together, but what about when that stuff ended? Would hers ever end? Erik Orlov would never stop, she had to stop him. As they kissed she deepened the kiss as if to answer his unasked questions. She could feel the butterflies in her stomach as he held her, it was a feeling she wanted to keep, she tried to not focus on the fact it would end as the sun came up.

His eyes were so full of expression, his wants and needs called out to hers. His green eyes met her blue pools of calm. Ana’s eyes were like the sea, they went from blue to green, angry green. However now they were deep blue, glistening pools of the ocean in the night’s sky. Ana nodded at his words, he was no doubt talking about his mother, Ana bet she was a kind woman, a southern belle, a mother who would be proud of her son no matter what Michael said otherwise. She kissed his forehead, seeing that he wasn’t warm or cold, he was perfect, figures. As they walked further into her small apartment, she smiled as he told her a night can feel like a lifetime. She nodded, “It can... our lifetime.” She said. It should be the lifetime they should have had together, Ana wasn’t one for mushy romance, however she knew that she had been destined to meet Michael, even just for her to experience this one night. She had been with men before, over the years there had been different types of men, not a lot but a few who she’d felt something for. However she’d never felt like this before, Ana knew now where the phrase ‘making love’ came from. She felt his hand go into her hair and down her back before he rested it on her bare back, just under her top. She felt so small as his hands spanned her body easily. Ana felt him lean forward, in doing so she was rocked forward, their kiss never stopped. She felt her back come into contact with the soft bed as he hovered over her. She looked up at him as the kiss came to an end. For a moment they just stared at each other, and for that moment she saw her feelings reflected back at her from his eyes. He’d seen pain and suffering like her, but right now they didn’t have a past, it was just Ana and Michael two creatures who needed this one night together.

Ana smiled as Michael moved next to her, she pulled the sheets covering the bed up to hide her modesty a little. She rolled onto her side and rested one half of her small frame on his side. Ana fit perfectly against him. She rested her hand on his chest and pressed a kiss on his collarbone, just above his chest as she rested her head against him. “That was…” She smiled and felt the flush on her cheeks die down slightly. "...was amazing." She wanted to ask him to stay, to run away with her, but she knew it was impossible, she knew that they couldn’t. She really did understand what the phrase meant now 'making love,' that was passion personified. He had his stuff and she had hers. Stupid past… Ana looked at him as he shifted, her legs and his were entangled with each other, she frowned a little, “I know we said that it was one night… just can’t you stay a little longer? Not ages, just a little longer, until tomorrow night.” She asked him quietly, as if raising her voice would cause him to say no. She knew she couldn’t ask him to put his mission or whatever it was on hold for her and she couldn’t stop until Erik was no longer a problem. That’s when it hit her, Erik would torture this guy if he found out how Ana felt about him. The thought of that happening started to upset her, she felt a sadness she’d not expected and didn’t want to show, not whilst lying next to him. If he stayed for just the daytime at least they could spend some time together having a day they could both live on for years, or at least she would. “I know we have to leave this – thing, whatever it is, in this room and leave in the morning. People – people are after me, they have been for a very long time. If they found out about you, not even your pretty face and charm would get you away alive.” Ana said and cuddled in closer to him, “I don’t want you to think I don’t feel anything for you, I need you to know why I can’t do this.” She told him with a sigh. What she wouldn’t give to go to sleep and wake up with him every day, to spend their days having fun and exploring the world. To have someone there with her when she was sad or happy… Ana looked at him with her eyes now a calm, cool blue, as the sea would be after a storm, but something lingered. The pain and hurt from her life and her current feelings on him leaving. She couldn’t help but run her hand up his chest and to his cheek, she pressed her lips to his as best she could from her place.

✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥

TAG: Michael Raymond Shepard WORDS: 1560
NOTES: Micna! OUTFIT: link

Temp by Melz @Caution 2.0, cyberlink, @adoxography and RPGD

[Michael Raymond Shepard]

There's another world inside of me
That you may never see
There're secrets in this life
That I can't hide

Michael guessed that after a while most vampires stopped counting the years. What was the point in remembering just how young and foolish you were when you’d been caught by someone, when you’d died and been reborn? They certainly weren’t that age any more when a century had passed and they’d experienced more life than most people ever would. A faint smile curved Michael’s lips as he shook his head at Ana. ”It doesn’t matter at all. I was right though, when I went running after you at the mansion I kept thinking of you as the girl.” He was pretty much a child in comparison to her, only 29, just a year older than he had been when Orlov’s henchman had snapped his neck and turned him from a mindless wolf into something that could at least remain in control when it fought. There were days when he felt like he should’ve been 112, he’d had enough pain and enough loss to fill a life that long. He hadn’t felt that old when he’d started getting jealous at the thought of another guy being here with her, he’d felt like a 15 year old again, clinging onto the scant affection shown by a girl in his class. Laughing softly, Michael smoothed a hand over the front of his t-shirt. ”I could be Peter O’Toole and you could be Audrey Hepburn,” Michael murmured, remembering the old movie his mother had loved, How to Steal a Million. It hadn’t been art the two of them were after in that old mansion but the fantasy still worked. Maybe that would be a way he could set his past aside tonight, pretend to be nothing more than a suave, debonair art thief for the night, a man with nothing shadier in his past than a few thefts.

In comparison to talking about the cave, about what he’d gotten out of the theft in lieu of the gem, speaking about music was almost painfully simple. There wasn’t anything weighing on talk of Louis Armstrong or Hendrix, there was just that light in Ana’s eyes as she’d spoken about the pull of jazz for her. He wanted to tell her how she lit up when she’d mentioned it but he’d held his tongue, letting the discussion pull him towards his parents instead of what was roiling around inside of him. Feeling his mouth twitch faintly, Michael shook his head a little at her question. ”More a rewording of one of his ideas. He was a musician though, as much as he was a professor. He spent all day with facts and figures and kids who probably couldn’t give a damn how bad the financial crisis got in 1929 but the minute he got a guitar in his hands, it just brought out something in him that nothing else could.” That had probably been as much of a lure for him when it came to playing himself as his own love of the music had been, getting to share that feeling with his dad. For just a split second as she chuckled at him Michael paused, head canted, a trace of doubt in his expression then his knees honestly did go weak and he bent, planting his hands on his thighs as he let out a long breath. ”You saw Hendrix? Wow.” There was a breathless laugh as he straightened up. His dad would questioned her about that for hours. Hendrix had been one of his heroes, a genius he’d never managed to see live himself.

He was sure that Ana thought she would be able to deal with what was coming after him the same way she’d dealt with the guards but Michael knew that while he dug into what was going on out there, she’d never be safe. Ana, Karen, hell, the old woman who still came to water the plants outside the house he’d shared with his wife and daughter here in town, none of them would really be free of the threat until who he was looking for was dead. Michael wanted to shake his head, wanted to stand and leave, telling her that he couldn’t do this, that he’d only bring her a real death, but her hands were on him, she was kissing him and those doubts began to crumble under the weight of what he felt compressing his lungs. ”Already dead or not, it won’t matter Ana,” Michael whispered. Nothing would stop what was coming, he just had to make sure there was nothing in its path when he went after the son of a bitch. If there was no one else to get hurt then there was nothing for him to worry about when he walked in there, when he sacrificed himself the way he had when he’d rushed out of that cave. She was making it so hard though. When her mouth was on his, when she was giving him so much of what he wanted more than anything in the world right now, he could see himself putting aside all the things that had cost him his family. The choice to do that was dangling right there in front of him. He couldn’t do that to Sara, he could do that to Abi, not after what his god damned mission had done to both of them.

Resigning himself to what he could safely have, the single night now that he was here. The talk of music earlier, the mention of his dad had opened up the part of him he’d kept the memories of his parents locked in. As Ana stripped his coat from him he’d mentioned her, had smiled at the thought of his mom. Ana had nodded, then she’d kissed his brow and led him through her apartment. Michael wanted to ask what would happen if it truly wasn’t enough but just saying the words would snap one more line holding him to his sense of resolve. ”I never thought this would happen, not when you were antagonising those vampires at the house,” Michael admitted, a faint trace of laughter touching his voice as they moved through the door to her bedroom. He’d been tempted to strangle her then but it truly hadn’t taken long for that frustration to turn into frustration of a very different kind. Unable to keep his hands from her, Michael let his hand brush over her hair, following the silky spill of it to the narrow sway of her waist, then there was the cool touch of her against his fingertips again and that control he’d been trying to hold onto was just gone. The one night might feel like a lifetime in the end but this time a lifetime just wouldn’t be enough. Michael’s heart was in his mouth, the heart that had all too quickly tried to throw itself into her hands, as he laid her back, as he looked down at her. He would make the most of this, he’d hold onto this when he walked away tomorrow morning and left behind the best thing that had happened to him since the very core of him had been torn out.

The ache of what was to come burned beneath Michael’s breastbone as he lay on his back in Ana’s bed, a place he’d never imagined he’d be when they were down in that cave. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, definitely not a lifetime, it hadn’t been long enough for that, he wasn’t ready enough to walk out, for it to have been what he’d sworn he’d have. Michael was sure he would never get his fill of what Ana had given him, he could still feel the longing for it as he shifted in the bed, shifting the arm that he’d snaked beneath her to draw her closer. Ana pulled the sheets up, covering all that he’d worshipped only a few short minutes before. Amusement at her sudden modesty had Michael’s mouth curving into a satisfied smile as she settled against him. He shifted his arm again, his fingers spearing into her hair as she pressed a kiss to his neck. Her bashfulness of a moment before had been cute but as her blush died it was his turn to flame red. Shutting his eyes for a moment Michael grinned. ”I wasn’t sure I had enough brain power left to get that poetic about it,” he admitted. It didn’t take long for the seriousness to begin to weave its way back into things though, he could practically feel their time trail away.

Knowing what was coming Michael shifted on the bed, turning towards her a little more as the smile began to give way to a concerned frown. Troubled green eyes studied her face as she asked for a little more. He wanted nothing more in the world than to be able to give it to her. He wanted to stay here in her room and close the world out for a real lifetime and for the pair of them that would be a freaking long time but there were things out there that wouldn’t wait for him to get his fill of this woman. ”I want to,” Michael admitted hoarsely. ”I don’t want to go … ever but Ana, at some point I’m not gonna be able to fight this anymore. I’m gonna have to go and I’m so sorry for that.” Grief settled itself in Michael’s heart as Ana moved closer, its echoes showing up in his eyes no matter how hard he fought to keep it under wraps. ”We’re in the same situation,” he told her hoarsely, pressing his mouth to the top of her head before letting his head fall back against the pillow.

Drawing in a deep breath Michael tore open the hatch keeping the truth locked deep inside. ”The truth is I’ve got someone after me too. I can’t say they’ve been there for a very long time but they’re determined and they’ve already taken away almost everything that ever meant anything to me to stop me finding out who they are, to stop me from stopping them. I don’t want to make the choice between doing that and staying with you but if … if I ignore what they took, if I let them get away with it then they all died for nothing.” His obsession had been what had killed Sara and Abi as sure as the two men in the kitchen had. Even that loss hadn’t been enough to stop him from digging, he still spent days at a time in one of his safe houses, eyes flued to the numbers as they flew across the screens and yet he still didn’t feel any closer to finding out their identity … his identity. When would be say it was enough, that he was done looking. Could he now that he’d had a taste of what he could’ve had without all of that? It felt like he could as Ana settled her mouth back against his, as the lifetime he’d promised continued on, slowly marching towards the dawn and his agonising exit.

Tagged: Anastasia Romanova
Word Count: 1854
Outfit: Here!
Music Credit:’When I'm Gone’ – 3 Doors Down

So hold me when I'm here
Right me when I'm wrong
You can hold me when I'm scared
You won't always be there
So love me when I'm gone

[Anastasia Romanova]

all your love

will be exorcised

✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥

With a laughed Ana nodded, “I’m flattered. Plus the whole not aging thing helps a lot.” She told him and smirked. Obviously she still looked 18, maybe 21, but she used that to her advantage at all times. She used the fact she looked young and played on it so she could always take a competitor by surprise. When he mentioned the movie she nodded, “Yeah, I remember that. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine, to go to the movies and watch the older movies.” Ana was from a time before these movies really. She loved the movies that came out during her years before the revenge really took over. She would just go all day to the cinema and watch movie after movie, showing after showing. It was amazing and now you had them in your home, people these days didn’t appreciate that in her mind. She looked at Michael, she bet he did though.

Ana smiled along with him as he told her about his dad, he clearly had great respect and fond memories of the man. She sensed he’d gone, after all Michael kept using past tense when talking about him. It was a shame, but she understood. The way he spoke of him though, her father would approve, a true gentleman and a good family, not royalty but really, as youngest daughter she wasn’t that important to ‘the line’. Ana could laugh, she was very important, she was the only one left now. At least her mother’s stone brought her and Michael together, seemed appropriate, it was the gem her father had brought her mother when Ana was born. With another laugh she nodded, “Yeah I saw Hendrix. He was awesome… I think I still have recordings of his concerts somewhere. You can have a listen.” She told him, obviously not now, now she had an idea of what they were going to do. She needed to kiss hm. She now had this image of her putting on the record after they’d… whatever and enjoying the early morning. It was a perfect night in her head, but she didn’t know where it would go.

When Michael said it didn’t matter, she frowned, “I’m not easily killed, trust me. I have references.” She smirked trying to lift the mood a little. Ana kissed him for all the right reasons, but it was the worst idea. She knew that as soon as they started to kiss Ana would have a hard time letting go of him after it was over and done with. At that moment though she didn’t care. Ana shushed him as he spoke, “I believe it was both of us that antagonised those vampires mister.” She laughed and kissed him, as his hands explored her she ran hers through his hair and smiled at him, Ana wondered if they’d met before, before either of them had the issues they did would there be this chemistry or would they simply pass each other in the street without a second glance? She didn’t care right now though, they were doing something she never thought she’d do, make love. It was passionate and sensual. It was perfect.

“Who’d have thought we’d end up here?” She laughed thinking about when they first met. Ana and Michael had been rivals, and now look at them, entangled with each other and trying to avoid thinking about the fact that tomorrow he’d need to leave. She watched him as he had this weird amused look, she assumed it was because of what they’d just done. “You look so pleased with yourself.” Ana told him with a smile, she liked smiling and seemed to do it a lot around him. Something she could get used to, however a little voice in her head reminded her that it was all finishing when the sun came up. “Poetic? Meh, poetry is over rated.” Ana told him. She snuggled into him again as his arms held her close to him and his hand in her hair.

As Michael told her that he wanted to her heart fluttered, however she knew the dip was coming and she was hit harder than she thought when he said he had to go, she knew he had to, not for her but to save himself. She was torn with what to tell him about her past. She didn’t want him to get hurt, but she didn’t want him to leave. “Just one day.” She told him again. “Not even another night. I just want the memory of a perfect day.” She looked at him with a serious face, “I don’t have a lot of good memories. Yes I’ve lived several lifes, but tonight…” She smiled as her eyes lit up thinking about what they’d just done. “Tonight was - is -  a lifetime of memories.” She used his words and kissed him again. Ana was happy, it was a novel thing to her, happiness, okay it was going to be short lived happiness but still, it was happiness. Ana couldn’t push herself away or to stop. She didn’t want to seem like she was begging, but after al it was one more day, she let herself have that but no more or something could happen to him.

Ana frowned listening to him. She ran her hand down the side of his face. She felt anger, not at him, but at the mystery person who was making him feel like he couldn’t have love in his life. She nodded, “I’m not asking for you to make a choice. I want you to get your closure, to find whoever did that to you. However a part of me wants to be selfish.” She told him and frowned at her own words. She felt her eyes sting a little. She blinked them away and looked back at him, “I don’t know what I’m saying.” Ana sighed and moved away from him and wrapped her arms around her legs, like she’d been sitting before on the window. Her bare back towards him. “I lost my family. All of them, my two sisters and my brother and my parents. They were murdered and the person who killed them is still after me. They kill everyone I get close to, or they turn them against me somehow.” Ana sighed softly and felt a tear roll down her cheek. She looked back at him and smiled a sad smile, “Sorry, you don’t want to hear about my sad little life. I don’t want to bring down the mood, but I want you to know I understand revenge, the justice of it all. And I suppose it’s another thing stopping… us.” She said with a frown. Ana and Michael had been very careful not to call this something it could never be, until she had. They’d never called them an ‘us’ or a ‘we’, but she did, she couldn’t not. “It’s almost like whoever is after each of us have thrown us together to cause us more pain.” Ana told him and reached over to him. “Michael,” she frowned, “I’ve not felt like this before. You – you confuse me, my focus is blurred with you.” Ana realised how it sounded, “And I like it.” She said it like it was a bad thing, or something to be ashamed of.

✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥

TAG: Michael Raymond Shepard WORDS: 1281
NOTES: Micna! OUTFIT: link

Temp by Melz @Caution 2.0, cyberlink, @adoxography and RPGD

[Michael Raymond Shepard]

There's another world inside of me
That you may never see
There're secrets in this life
That I can't hide

If Ana had heard the rest of what was running through his head about her at that point that night she might not have been laughing and smirking quite that way. The first thoughts through his mind once that alarm had started shrieking were pretty unflattering. It was only once he was in that cave, trapped at close quarters with a woman who’d begun to intrigue him that his mind had taken its hundred and eighty degree turn on things. ”Still have to get used to that,” Michael admitted. Her change had caught her at a time when she was beautiful, when youth still coloured her cheeks and added that extra sparkle to her smile. His hadn’t been so kind and he’d still see those lines of grief and exhaustion etched into a face that had once been less drawn when he looked in the mirror a hundred years from now, if he managed to survive that long. The old films had been one of his mother’s passions and she’d shared that with her kids as much as his dad had shared his music. ”I never got to go much,” he recalled, a faint trace of nostalgia touching the half smile on his face. ”Sunday afternoons in front of the box, that was a thing though, and it was either John Wayne or Audrey Hepburn half the time.” Each of his parents had their heroes and the fact that they could appreciate each others’ when he and Karen couldn’t stop squabbling over the remote control for more than five minutes had always been a source of amazement.

That was where the slow slide down into the nightmare had all started Michael thought grimly while he battled to keep that smile on his face. The night his parents’ car had careened off of a road that should’ve been the safest in the county. He’d died a little that night, the first bit of his heart blackening, now it was likely nearly all gone, or at least he thought it had. Ana was proving him wrong though, what as coming out of her mouth and appearing in that smile of hers a constant surprise. Michael never would’ve pegged her as a Hendrix fan, then again anyone who saw her in the street would likely have expected her to be a Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber fan rather than a Louis Armstrong aficionado. Looks couldn’t be relied on for anything, neither could a dead heart. The breathless laugh turned into something a little pained as he realised that their ‘listen’ would probably never happen. It was something to look forward to, something they could’ve done if he’d been able to offer more than the meagre time he was giving himself here. Orlov wasn’t going to wait around forever. ”I’d like that,” Michael said hoarsely, honestly. ”He always said he wished he had half that man’s talent. Used to try singing Foxy Lady at my mom. Embarrassed the hell out of her but she never told him to stop.” That was the most he’d shared about his parents in over a year. It should’ve left that wound deep inside raw and aching like it had after they’d died but it wasn’t like that, not with Ana.

Ana was frowning and Michael knew she thought she honestly could cope with what was coming for him but he’d seen what happened to the people he loved. He’d sat in the kitchen Sara and Abi’s bodies gathered to him, their blood and their killers mingling on his hands, streaked down his arms. There was no way that was happening again. Ana could take a dozen with her, he’d seen her do it but he’d also analysed this organisation’s resources, he knew how many hundreds of ‘employees’ they had out there. He wanted to shake his head, wanted to put her down and tell her that he had to cut it off now for both their sakes but Michael only got as far as trying to swallow back the lump in his throat before her smirk, her kiss began to erase the doubts. His mouth twitched into a faint grin back as she corrected him about the vampires. ”I was trying to make sure they didn’t kill you before I could get the gem back,” Michael told her honestly. ”Figured they didn’t have the brains to realise I was insulting them and stringing them along at the same time.” They hadn’t in the end, not until he’d started firing and by then it was too long for many of them to argue back. That had changed when he’d been the one in captivity of course, they’d ranted the entire time, slopping fanged mouths twisting with derision. He hadn’t let them get the better of him, and it was all because Ana had been on his mind. That laugh, that smile, the feel of her hands around his neck and her mouth against his, just like they were all now.

Michael doubted that anyone could’ve predicted him being here. Karen wouldn’t have had a clue where he was, he’d made sure of that when he’d called her answer phone and had told her he couldn’t stay in town, that he had to get away. That had been the last time he’d attempted contact, although he’d kept tabs on her in his own way, not managing to see if she was happy but using the data he could find about her to at least track her movements. Chinese takeout on Sunday afternoons, no doubt a poor replacement for the meals she’d once shared with her family, the monthly Friday night visit to the cinema, a solo trip by the looks of things. He’d likely do the same for Ana once he was gone, trying to at least make sure she was alive by those electronic trails of binary code. ”Fate’s got a pretty funny way of working,” Michael mused, that faint trace of laughter turning the thoughtful flat line of his mouth into something approaching the arc of a smile. ”Get pissed about someone the next minute, never want to let them go the next.” Fate was fickle, painful even, but it couldn’t be avoided, even when you wanted to beg and plead with it to let you go. One brow arched at Ana’s comment, that smirk taking on an even more Cheshire Cat like edge as he drew his other hand over to settle against her waist. ”Why tell when you can show. I never had that sorta way with words, never could figure out how to get the thoughts from my mind to my mouth.” He wasn’t sure he was strong enough to say what he was feeling, what he knew would have to be said before the end of the night anyway. For now he just wanted a few minutes more, just a heartbeat longer without having to think about anything except the way her hair felt against his hand, the way she fit into his arms.

The temptation was going to be too strong in the end, no matter how hard he tried to walk out of the apartment the need to stay would be right there. Michael knew his legs would feel like lead weights, trying to keep him rooted here to the floor. His body would remember the comfort of her bed, the promise of something more that he wanted so much to be able to keep. He’d been the one to turn the mood on this and it left him feeling sick as Ana looked up at him like that. What harm could it really do to give her that much? Michael could feel the pull of it somewhere deep inside but there was that tremor of fear too. If he gave her what she wanted, if they had just a little more of the good, it could cost her her life and he couldn’t live with knowing he’d destroyed any chance she had for making any more good memories after this. There was an ache in his heart as she kissed him again, that trace of desperation and need working its way through the movement of his lips over hers again. Michael’s grip tightened on her for a moment, his voice emerging hoarsely when he inched back just far enough to be able to look at her again. ”I’m never gonna be able to tell you what you’ve given back to me. I want to give something to you too but at some point tomorrow I’ve got to leave. He’s not a patient man, the guy I wanted the gem for, he’s not gonna wait forever for me to get back there.” And if Orlov came looking he wouldn’t politely wait out on the street for the two of them to finish in here.

By making his dilemma clear Michael had darkened that ray of light he’d been given by this woman whose fingers were cool on his cheek. If he’d just been able to slip out at dawn, if he’d never told her she wouldn’t have been any the wiser. She could’ve gone on believing he was out there playing master thief somewhere, not charging after someone who could still take so much more from him. Letting his eyes fall shut for just a second as Ana frowned down at him, Michael shook his head faintly. ”You’re not the only one feeling selfish. I want to be that way more than anything, I want to stay here with you more than anything and you wouldn’t be the one asking me to make that choice. That’s something I’d have to figure out for myself and I … I’m being pulled both ways.” Before he could find the words to make her understand just how torn he was Ana was sitting up, turning away from him. Feeling that pain deep inside of him lance through his gut again Michael struggled around the sheets they’d tangled, trying to sit up behind her. He got himself up, leaning back against the headboard of the bed as he cursed himself. There’d been no need for him to make it like this, for him to upset her but he had and no matter what came now, he’d regret that for every minute he got to carry on living.

Michael was pretty sure a heart he thought was already broken beyond repair cracked against as she explained her own pain, her own reasons for being on the run. The automatic ‘I’m sorry’ burned on the tip of his tongue but he couldn’t bring himself to say such hollow words. He’d been where she was, he knew how little they could mean when that pain felt like it was eating you alive. ”I haven’t let myself get close to anyone after my wife and daughter were taken,” Michael admitted as he shifted on the bed, reaching out a hand to cup her damp cheek. ”I was lucky in comparison to you. I still have a sister out there. I couldn’t stay here, couldn’t be around her and still keep her safe.” Swallowing hard, Michael let his eyes fall shut for a moment as he found a painful smile working its way up from somewhere inside. ”I want to hear about it more than you’d know. I want to hear about it all, about all of you but you’re right. Fate’s been cruel. I don’t want to believe that there’s one person out there doing this to us, but I do know that both of us are going to hurt tomorrow.” Nodding in understanding, in agreement, Michael shifted, letting his hand fall down to Ana’s shoulder to draw her back as she reached out to him, he wanted her back in his arms, wanted that less agonising blur for just a few more hours. ”Masochist,” Michael murmured softly, a faint trace of laughter finally touching his words again as he eased her head back against his shoulder. ”We’re both masochists. I want as much of this, as much of you as I can get, while I can get it. You’ve made me live again, just for a little bit.” Tomorrow he would be alone again, the burn of retribution driving him back across the country to face Orlov but for tonight he was staying right here. He wanted to be able to sleep in her bed, listening to her snore next to him if that was what she did.

Tagged: Anastasia Romanova
Word Count: 2079
Outfit: Here!
Music Credit:’When I'm Gone’ – 3 Doors Down

So hold me when I'm here
Right me when I'm wrong
You can hold me when I'm scared
You won't always be there
So love me when I'm gone

[Anastasia Romanova]

all your love

will be exorcised

✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥

Everything she’d learned about Michael already made her like him even more. She could just see him sitting there rolling his teenager eyes as his mom and dad fought over what movie to watch. Or the embarrassment reddening his cheeks and face as his dad sang, badly apparently, to his mom whilst they all laughed and enjoyed their time together. He came from a loving home and that to Ana was a bliss she’d never have. The Romanov house, well palace, wasn’t like that. Yes it was a different time, but her parents weren’t really in love like that. They, like she almost was, had an arranged marriage to some loser her parents had picked. That’s not to say her parents didn’t love their kids or their life, but there were no embarrassing points in her childhood like that and what made her little sad, was that she’d never have that with her own family. She’d never had the kids to embarrass or the husband to love. She’d just need to settle for killing Erik. She looked at Michael with a smile at his story, “Your parents sound awesome.” They really did.

Ana laughed again as he told her he was making sure they didn’t kill her, “Or you were trying for them to kill me and leave you. But that was before you saw how amazing I am.” She teased a little. Ana liked this feeling, this banter this, intense feeling that she’d met someone who was like her, lost and now they’d found each other. The kiss they shared was searing and once they got to the bedroom, Ana found out he had more passion than she even knew, she he knew. The way they seemed to know what each other wanted, what they needed, it was like they knew each other. Ana realised that it was probably the pain and hurt they shared, they knew where each other hurt. After Ana felt like she had shared something with Michael she’d not shared with someone else in a very long time, who she really was.

Ana wondered what would happen if the couple had just met, no one chasing them, no one stopping them living, however she knew it was pointless, and fate had plans no one could stop. “Funny? More like sadistic.” She said with a laugh. She smiled at him as he seemed to smile as well. Ana could see the smile light up his features, she liked it when he smiled. He seemed more relaxed, mind you that might have been due to what they’d just done with each other. “I like that clearly hate fell into -“ Ana felt herself hesitate, she didn’t choose the word that most would have used next, “into passion.” She smiled as they lie entangled together with a sheet loosely around them. However the more the cuddled the sheet seemed to entangle them more together. Something she didn’t have a problem with. Ana laughed as he said showing was much better than telling. She gave him a side glance, “Showing is good.” She chuckled and kissed him again, “Just show us other, our mouths are better served doing other things anyway. Like this.” She smirked and kissed him again. She was loving the connection they seemed to have, this feeling would no doubt do a complete 180 degree and feel like someone was ripping out her heart, but at least she’d have the memories of tonight.

“Some point yes, at some point you’ll leave and we’ll both be hurt and broken.” Ana said and frowned, she forced a sad smile, “But we’ll have tonight and a little of tomorrow.” She told him with a smile that seemed more genuine as she added the little bit of tomorrow in there too. “I understand inpatient people, but a few hours won’t make a difference. I just want to hold on to this for as long as possible. My memories of this is already the best so far this century.” She told him and laughed, it was funny that he’d probably lived more of a life in his 30 odd years than she had in her 112. She didn’t care, at least she had the next few hours. “Just promise you won’t disappear. Promise me you’ll say goodbye.” She asked. Ana didn’t know if she’d be able to handle that, but she didn’t want him to just be gone, she didn’t know what option was worse, but she assumed it was that one.

Michael told her that her feelings were mutual, he wanted to be selfish and stay, something that made her realise that they couldn’t do it. “Then we both need to be strong Michael. You need to leave tomorrow and find whatever it is you need to find. And I need to free myself from the ties that bind me.” She told him seriously and sighed softly. She had to make sure it was safe for them to be together in the future if that’s what he wanted, she wanted it for sure. Erik Orlov would never stop, and although she’d always known that she had to get rid of his as a threat, she’d never actively tried to kill him, just his men. She didn’t know if she had the power and drive to kill him, however now? Now she had a reason to kill him, a driving force in her life that she wanted maybe even more than revenge. She wanted the ability, the freedom, to fall in love. Ana knew that she and Michael had something, she didn’t know how far it would go or how long, but the fact neither could explore what it could be was frustrating and had to change. However first he had to understand her issues about everything, so she sat up and told him.

Ana knew he’d felt lose, he’d already spoken about a little as well as losing his parents. She frowned and looked at him as he mentioned his wife and daughter. It was an odd word ‘taken’ however she knew it meant they were dead. No way would a guy like Michael be in another woman’s bed if they were still alive. She looked up at him with damp eyes as his touched seemed to have a healing effect on her emotions. As a vampire the heightened emotions were a pain, however with the bad side of that, the good side was that even a touch had the potential to heal your soul. She raised an eyebrow at mention of his sister, “Do you never see her?” She asked and paused, “Wait she’s here? In New Orleans?” She asked and shook her head, “Sorry, I wouldn’t have asked you to come here if I knew it was too close to home.” She told him. Ana shook her head after his last comment about fate and them, “Let that hurt be future us’ problem. Right now we have tonight and each other.” She told him and pressed her lips to his. “I want to remember every kiss with you.” She told him with a smile. When he said the word masochist she frowned in an amused fashion as if to question him before he explained. As he explained more what he meant as he moved her back to what was fast becoming ‘her spot’ she leaned her head into him as he held her. Ana laughed and nodded, “We are.” She told him and frowned a little thinking about it. All she wanted was to stay with him, they could have such an amazing life together, exploring the world, enjoying every moment. Ana knew it was impossible though, especially with Erik closing in. “You’ve made me start living.” She told him and curled into his side. As he held her, Ana looked up to Michael and smiled, he made everything seem a little less hopeless. She reached up and cupped his face, she turned herself around and kissed him again. This kiss wasn’t like the feather kisses they’d had, it was like the kiss they’d had throughout the last few days. She deepened the kiss before pulling away, leaving very little space between them, “Masochists or not, you can have all of me.” She smiled and pressed her lips to his as she moved so they once again could explore each other, as if creating the memories to keep them close until the next time they met.

When they had finished, Ana smiled and closed her eyes as she reclaimed her space next to him. She placed her head on his shoulder and her hand on his chest. She let her fingers roam over his chest lazily, she didn’t need to speak to tell them she was content, happy even, soon though the lazy fingers dropped and her eyes shut as sleep claimed her. Ana couldn’t remember the last time she slept so soundly, with Michael here she felt like nothing could get her. She was so protected and safe, in her sleep she pulled herself closer to him.

✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥

TAG: Michael Raymond Shepard WORDS: 1578
NOTES: Micna! OUTFIT: link

Temp by Melz @Caution 2.0, cyberlink, @adoxography and RPGD

[Michael Raymond Shepard]

There's another world inside of me
That you may never see
There're secrets in this life
That I can't hide

In a perfect world Michael would never have been standing there. Without the evils of fate and the single sick cowardly bastard who’d chosen to use an innocent woman and child to make a point he never would’ve been at that mansion. Right now he likely would’ve been putting Abi to bed, feigning reluctance to give in to just one more story. Then he would’ve trailed down the stairs to find Sara already curled up on the couch, two glasses of wine and a soft lap to set his head in already waiting. The world had been cruel though, it had stolen his wife and child and his parents and yet … it had led him to Ana’s door. After all of that he’d never seen a way to having anything good again. In fact he’d resigned himself to an eternity of drifting alone, driven by nothing but his desire to kill the person who’d killed his girls. For that sole mission he’d given up the only relative he had left, he’d walked away from his life and his home to protect Karen and he’d honestly imagined that one day he’d have to live with the knowledge that she too was dead. Until two days ago he hadn’t thought he was deserving of anything else, of having anything with anybody else again. Ana had given him no choice though, in the space of a single short hour she’d irritated him, worked her way under his skin until he’d been unable to resist putting his hand right into that flame that seemed to burn inside of her.

Talking music, discussing his dad’s corny romance with his mom was just … normal. For a few short minutes he’d been able to set aside thoughts of anything else and just feel a teenager’s amazement at the idea of meeting a hero. He knew that there’d been a chance in his demeanour the minute he’d started discussing them, it’d really been impossible for it not to change. There was still a tinge of sadness to his smile when he returned Ana’s now though. ”They were,” he told her honestly. Maybe later he’d be able to tell her more about them. They’d been great parents and they deserved to be mentioned to somebody when the good memories surfaced for him rather than his being hidden away in the little vault of happiness in his mind. Michael’s faint smile turned into something more amused as Alex laughed. Ducking his head, Michael looked up at Alex from under his lashes. ”Even if I thought you were the biggest pain in the ass in the world I wouldn’t have handed you over,” he promised. ”I know you hate the whole idea of a big, strong guy watching out for you but that was what I was doing even then. The gem’s not worth a life, not even for what it would’ve bought me.” And she was right, that had been before he’d started seeing the woman beneath that sharp tongue and spiky exterior. That was before he’d started to feel like he’d fallen into something he’d never expected to have again.

So many promises were made in the living room, both in his head and out loud. One night, they were giving each other that much, and then come morning he’d be back on his way to Orlov … and she’d be heading for safety. No matter what happened come the next day, no matter if Orlov had his goons tear his throat out for failing him, he’d have had one night with a woman who’d gone from his competition to someone who left him breathless. They’d retreated to her bedroom and had made the most of their time. If anything, by the time she was settled against him in the bed, he was into further into this than he had been before, the chains of his emotions begin to tighten, always tying him to this apartment, to what he could have with her. Michael’s smile sharpened as he listened to Ana laugh. ”That was me being poetic again. Sadistic totally fits though.” He’d never been sure if he truly believed in a higher power but if there was one then he was a sick bastard, the sort who’d probably pulled the wings off of small creatures as a child. Would’ve probably been more fitting to believe that it was the other side who were in charge.

There was a little rumble of laughter in Michael’s throat as Ana hesitatingly said about hate falling into passion. ”I always thought that was another Hollywood thing,” he murmured, the hand of the arm he had around her tracing slow circles at the small of her back. ”All that explosive sort of passion. You’re shouting and screaming, getting to the point where you’re honestly considering shaking someone until their teeth are rattling and the next thing you’re tearing the clothes off of each other.” There’d been a hint of that in what had happened two nights ago but that hadn’t been everything. It might’ve been easier if it had been, one explosive night, a lot of fun and laughter but none of this heartache to come the next morning. He might’ve been able to cope with that and wouldn’t have worried about anyone seeing it as more than him scratching an itch. The minute his mouth had been on Ana’s in that cave though it had become something entirely different. This time it wasn’t amusement that caused the low sound in his throat, it was very much a sound of pleasure. When he was feeling like this it was easy to believe that they’d have forever to tell each other instead of just this short time to show it. ”Want to keep trying that?” Michael asked, his voice going low and gravelly. ”Not quite sure I got what you were trying to show me that first time. Was it something like this?” Grinning wickedly for a moment Michael let his mouth trail down to the tender spot just below Ana’s ear. It might only have been a few hours but he thought he’d learned as least some of the spots that would have her making the sorts of sounds he’d made only a few moments before.

It wasn’t enough, no matter how necessary he knew it was, it just didn’t feel like it could ever be enough. Three days total, not even three if you got really picky about it and half of that time had been spent getting away from the mansion and getting himself there. Considering they were both likely to live hundreds of years … if what they were running from didn’t catch up with them … that was barely a heart beat in the grand scheme of things. Michael’s lip curled a little, a frown beginning to form again as he shook his head. That wasn’t the smile he wanted to see on her face, he’d put it there though. ”I want it to be more, you know that right?” he asked, sure that she did. If there was anything more she could say to have his heart feel like it was shattering further Ana was saying it now. ”I won’t disappear,” Michael promised hoarsely, even though he was sure it would be easier for both of them to leave that way. Colder, sadder, sure, but easier over all. ”I’ll promise you everything I can, and if me fanboying out at the idea of you seeing Hendrix totally made your night, I’m good with that.” It was a stupid part of the whole night, almost insignificant compared with everything else but it’d meant something to him. Being able to discuss his family after so long had felt good, especially since she’d been the one he was able to tell.

Strong was a word he wouldn’t have used to describe himself a year ago and he still wasn’t sure if he had any strength left in him. When he’d sat there on his kitchen floor with the bodies of his family it had felt like all of that had drained away with their blood. If Ana thought that he’d be able to find it within himself then he was going to believe her but he had a fear that tomorrow he wouldn’t be able to do what he needed to. Michael’s stomach churned nauseatingly as she told him they both needed to go and deal with what was plaguing them. He swallowed hard, trying to chase back the bitterness on his tongue. ”If there’s ever a day when it’s done, when I’m free of it, I’ll want to find you. I know you might not be free, but if one of us can be then it won’t matter so much anymore.” Together they could deal with a single problem. She’d been strong enough to survive 112 years without happiness, she’d told him that much. Surely with some hope both of them would get as far as they needed to make this happen. It might always remain a pipe dream and he could spend the next thousand years running, so could she, but hope was a damn powerful emotion, one that had a chance of pulling them both out of the fires they’d found themselves in eventually.

This wasn’t the first time he’d described his loss to somebody but it was the first time in a long time for Michael. There’d been the clinical walk through with the detectives when they’d shown at the house after he’d called 911, the heart shattering talk with his sister at the hospital where he’d been taken to be checked out and the almost monotone run through he’d given Eric Orlov after he’d been turned. He’d never considered himself lucky throughout all of it but in comparison to what Ana had just told him he was lucky. He still had a sister, one that he couldn’t see but a sister all the same. A trace of guilt wormed its way through the pit of his stomach as Ana raised a brow and asked about his sister. ”I can’t see her. If I tried staying closer to her she’d be on his radar and I’m not risking the one person I had left.” Letting out a long breath, Michael nodded his head. ”She teaches at Tulane, same department my parents taught in. Don’t apologise for this Ana,” Michael warned, his gaze taking on a sharp edge as he shook his head. ”If I didn’t want to I wouldn’t have come. It was worth it for you. It let me … I went back home. I saw the house I lived in with them here, I got to take that time and that was because of you.” It had been agonising looking through those windows and imagining the life he’d once had but he was glad he’d done it. Meeting Ana had forced his hand in more than one way and a decade down the line, when things had maybe gotten to a point where he didn’t have to run any more, he’d appreciate what had been done in a way he couldn’t quite now.

Ignoring the fact that tomorrow would tear him apart was cowardly and Michael felt that trace of yellow spread through his belly now, but it would allow them one night unburdened if he could force the thought from his mind. ”The ones from the cave are already etched in my mind,” Michael told Ana with a smile. ”Especially the one you went and added the tongue to.” Teasing had felt almost alien earlier but now it was getting easier with each word that passed his lips. With Ana curled against him, her hair tickling his chin, her head a pleasant weight against his shoulder, it all felt natural, right. He trailed his knuckles up and down the length of Ana’s spine as they stretched out together again. ”I can say that’s mutual. A little masochism and we’re both getting something back.” After all the loss it was something they deserved, he believed in that whole heartedly. ”I’d say ditto but that’d make me sound like I was quoting a bad movie,” Michael told her, that amusement returning to his voice finally. Bad movie or not, it was true. For tonight she could have it all and tomorrow, when he walked out, most of him would remain here, the him that she’d help recreate anyway. Whatever happened she could carry that with her and he could carry the memory of all of this. Pushing it all from his mind, the loss, the sadness, the time that was slipping through their hands he gave what he did have to her.

In the warm, silence afterwards, as he lay, pretty sure he’d been paralysed from the neck down by the pleasure, Michael drew Ana close once more into what she’d quickly established as he spot against his side. Her head was back on his shoulder, her hand settling on his chest, laying over a heart that had so quickly become hers, what was left of it anyway. Slowly he felt her drift away, his fingers continuing their own slow drift on her back until her breathing deepened. Sleeping probably would’ve been the best idea, he’d need the rest before he went back to Orlov the next evening, but he didn’t want to waste even that much time. He’d let her though and so as the hours drifted by and the bars of light from the street lamps outside marched across the ceiling, marking the sands of time they were rapidly running from the hourglass Michael lay, sketching and redrawing each sensation, each image in his mind. He watched the slow rise and fall as she breathed deeply, watched the pain that he’d seen last night slip from her face. He’d memorised every feature of her face and whenever she’d stirred he’d pressed his lips to her brow, to the top of her head to comfort her. By the time she began to rouse in his arms the fingers of dawn were adding a rosy tint to the light that now pooled in one corner of the room. That rosiness had worked its way over her alabaster skin and he’d followed it with his fingers. A lazy smile curved the corner of his mouth as Ana began to wake. ”I was right with what I was thinking last night,” Michael murmured as he shifted in the bed to begin to ease himself up on one elbow. ”You’re a snorer.” She hadn’t been of course, if it wasn’t clichéd to say it he would’ve said that she’d slept like the dead. The important part had been that she’d slept in his arms though, adding the perfect touch to what had been their amazing night.

Tagged: Anastasia Romanova
Word Count: 2469
Outfit: Here!
Music Credit:’When I'm Gone’ – 3 Doors Down

So hold me when I'm here
Right me when I'm wrong
You can hold me when I'm scared
You won't always be there
So love me when I'm gone

[Anastasia Romanova]

all your love

will be exorcised

✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥ ✥

Ana frowned slightly as they spoke about the mansion and the gem. “I’m just not used to having someone look out for me.” She told him honest and smirked not wanting the focus to be on her sad little lonely life, “But if you see him, tell that big, strong guy thanks for me.” Ana teased lightly, almost testing the waters for future joking. She wanted to ask him what it would have brought him as she toyed with giving it back to him. However she didn’t want to kill the mood. It was now light, the tension seemed to have lessened. Mind you she knew it wasn’t tension like they were about to kill each other, it was the exact opposite type of tension… she was trying not to jump him and have her way with him, and his with her, on her breakfast counter which sat next to the door where he stood. Ana reminded herself that whatever this was, it was short term, one night, nothing more… and yet… why was she imagining a happy life with him? Why was she thinking about how they’d mark the occasion in a year, five years… a hundred years of meeting. Even if it wasn’t romantic, was it the 18 year old in her that never grew up? The girl who never felt love? The Russian ice princess?

Ahh Hollywood, “Well sometimes Hollywood get things right.” She told him and thought about her own life. She didn’t know how many movies had been created about herself. She was even a Disney princess! She should be honoured. However none of the stories got it right… Anastasia was alive in every one of them, and she was not alive in the slightest. She was dead as a doornail and nothing could change that. She reached out and kissed him. He made her feel like she was alive again, she knew one thing the movies got right, someone had captured her heart and he was a good man. “Our type of passion.” She suggested to him and looked about, “Mind you we didn’t tear our clothes off as much as slowly and sensuously removed them from each other.” She said with an eyebrow arched perfectly. She remembered the tension in the cave, and if he hadn’t left when he did, they probably would have had torn off each other’s clothes. “Next time.” She said and felt a pain the moment the words left her mouth, neither knew when ‘next time’ would be. If there was a next time… Luckily for her they’d moved on to the showing part of the evening. And that picked her up. She felt his mouth move to the spot below her ear. She moved her hand to his hair and bit her bottom lip a little as a small, but low, groan escaped her lips. “Yeah, something like that.” She smiled and shut her eyes for a moment as he teased her.

As his words hit her she looked at him with a look of adoration, “I know. Me too.” She told him and pressed her lips to his. She pulled him to her as she did, she wanted him to know how she felt because there was no way she could say the words out loud. She didn’t know the words, they were a foreign language to her… and if she said anything more she’d break tomorrow. Ana cursed Erik and whoever was after Michael, or whatever his mission was. Soon they’d maybe be able to be together, she’d killed Erik, or at least get him off her back somehow. Lock him up and throw away the key so that he never could harm her or anyone she loved again. As he told her he wouldn’t disappear she nodded, “Good,” she told him and looked deeply into his eyes, it was like their souls made their eyes bright. Ana smiled again, a proper big smile at the thought of him promising her what he could, however a frown hovered over her features, “Michael, what’s ‘fanboying’?” She asked in probably the most slip of her accent since they’d known each other. She’d never heard the phrase before and it sounded odd to her. She suspected it was a current phrase for something, which no doubt he’d love that she didn’t know. Ana was pretty good at keeping current, it was the key to blending in, but this went over her head completely.

“No Michael,” Ana said and looked at him with the seriousness of her words, she was stubborn and a former princess, so what she said went and that’s the tone she used, “Not ‘if’, ‘when’, when it’s done and you are free. You will find me, and I’ll be there for you and we can be together. And when mine is done I will find you. Understand?” She had lasted 112 years alone, a few extra didn’t matter to her if she knew he was at the end of it all. The likelihood of her problem going away first was minimal, however she had to try. Even if she got a few more of his men that would knock him back a little. And if he was in America, she and Michael could go elsewhere, start afresh somewhere else. It was painful, to find this and lose it. She considered something. “We can meet, in a year’s time… here. On the same day and enjoy a night together again. You are worth waiting a year, two, five, ten! For Michael. This is worth waiting for… this is real and true.” She told him and kissed him once again as a trumpet soloist’s music made their way up to the window once again. She knew that meant the end of the night was coming, and the end of their night. She didn’t want it to ever end.

Ana nodded as he told her about his sister, “I understand, if I had anyone like that they’d be on a hit list somewhere, ready for the first chance they weren’t paying attention.” She told him and smiled as he told her about his sister. As he warned her not to apologise, she nodded. When Michael told her it was all worth it for her, she felt her nose tingle and her eyes sting, signs of tears, but happy ones. He cared enough to go through that hurt to come and see her? Yes he was saying that hurt was being helped by taking the time to go to his old home and everything, but still he wasn’t to know he’d come out this side of it with positiveish vibes. She vowed in her head to look after his sister, should be too difficult to find her, not all the time, just when she was in town. Ana knew that people could tail her, so she’d have to cover her moments, it would be a pain in the ass, but she knew it was worth it. Michael’s sister meant a lot to him and she now cared too much about Michael for him to be this hurt again. She did realise the girl was most likely a wolf, but she was most likely an untriggered wolf, which helped no one if a vampire attacked her. “I’m glad you got that time. But I never wanted to cause you any pain.” She told him and rested her hand on his cheek again.

When Michael told her that the kisses from the cave were etched into his mind, she smiled and shook her head, “I believe the tongue was you, I was the hands, remember?” She told him and laughed a little. It was a light laugh, like the ones she’d heard from girls who were with the men they felt something so strong for. Ana hadn’t realised she could laugh like that, never before had it happened really. She shut her eyes for a moment as his hand drifted over her back a little. It was all so perfect. At the thought they were mutually being masochists but getting a return on it she smiled into his chest and kissed where she lay as if to agree. “Ditto? Ditto is fine, not all ditto quotes are from bad movies.” She told him and felt a sadness grow. She knew it was a sadness from his leaving, it was too soon. He hadn’t left yet and she didn’t want to think about it at all. Maybe that’s why she instigated another round of their passion flames to relight. Maybe it was the now slower, end of night songs floating up from the bar, or the fact they both were probably thinking about what was coming tomorrow, but they needed it. They needed tonight.

As Ana woke, she buried her head further into the little nook that she had claimed the previous night. That space between his collarbone and shoulder, just at his neck almost, that was her space. As his voice graced her ears she looked up at him with a questioning expression, however before she could ask anything he answered the question. Ana smiled and playfully hit his chest, “Hey! I do not!” She laughed, “No kisses for someone this morning then.” She said with a cheeky smile. However both of them knew that wasn’t going to last. As if to make her point she kissed his neck, “No kisses on the lips I mean.” She smiled and pushed her hair out of her face. Ana stretched as best she could, she didn’t want to move from the spot where she lay. “Are you hungry?” She asked. That was a loaded question at times. For vampires it wasn’t as easy as nipping to the place on the corner that always smelt like fresh pastry. However this was her hideout and she had a blood stash for them. However even after her question she made no sign of moving away from where she was, she was too afraid it would burst their bubble, their bubble for two, however she wondered when he’d ned to leave and knew that would burst their bubble in a big way.

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TAG: Michael Raymond Shepard WORDS: 1762
NOTES: Micna! OUTFIT: link

Temp by Melz @Caution 2.0, cyberlink, @adoxography and RPGD