White lies [tw]

King first left her when he could hear that the water had boiled. “I’ll be right back,” he announced and walked back into the kitchen to make them their tea. It didn’t take long, before he walked with a cup of tea in each hand back into the living room. His eyes had been on the cups, very cautious of not spilling. First when he had gotten all the way to the couch, was when he noticed that Nathalie wasn’t there. He furrowed his brows and looked around to see if he could hear her. He then turned his gaze towards the stairs which would lead downstairs and to his room. A soft sigh left him before he started to walk the longer route, making sure not to spill the tea.

He noticed how the door stood open, and how she seemed to be completely silent. Carefully, he walked into his own bedroom and placed the cups on the nearest dresser. He then walked over to her and sat down next to her. For a moment he wondered he should tease her and ask if she walked into his room whenever he wasn’t home, but he was quite sure it wasn’t the right time. He laid down next to her, turned to his side and popped up on his elbow. “Nathalie,” he whispered keeping his eyes on her, before he let his hand find her cheek, caressing it a little before he gestured her to look towards him. He would give her a gentle smile before he would move a little closer, and let his hand find her hip to pull her up on her side to face him. “Come close,” he spoke softly and gestured her to get into his embrace.

She still had her eyes closed as King stepped into the room. She could hear how he walked over to the dresser and placed down to cups. She could smell the aroma from the leaves blending with the hot water. His feet stepping over the hardwood floor. Then they hit the blanket and walked towards the bed. She both felt and heard how he sat down beside her. The slight pulled in her body towards the direction he had placed his weight. The fabric meeting his clothing. Then he laid down, and it took everything in her body not to just roll towards him and burry herself in his chest. A soft exhale left her when his hand found her cheek. Keeping her lips slightly parted, eyes still closed. Then she felt a soft tug in her chin, and her eyes slowly opened halfway to look at him. Mirroring the gentle smile, she turned around with the pull of his hand on her hip. When he asked her to come closer, she did. Her hand against his chest, and her head not far from his. She placed her elbow down just like his and her head against her hand.
Nathalie leaned in a little closer, letting her nose touch his. Tenderly she let her hand from the chest glide down and around his waist to his back. She popped back down again, letting her arm and hand find their way through the hole that was between his neck and arm that popped his head up. Tangling her legs into his. It almost felt like a couple would do, when they would find comfort in each other arms. She had never done that before.
After a while, she just laid there, feeling his hot breath mix with hers. Feeling the anticipation building in her chest. Waiting what felt like an eternity she took a chance and placed her lips gently towards his.  

Nathalie did as told, and both turned and got closer to him. He didn’t say a thing, because he truly hoped she would say or do what she pleased. He was certain that there would be nothing that would scare him off or make him want her to stop talking. He wished for her to share what she was experiencing, however she felt she was capable of doing so. He didn’t need to speak for her to know that.
He closed his eyes as she leaned in to let their noses touch. It was something that was so simple, but yet so powerful. It gave comfort and people said it also strengthened one’s bond. She let her tangle herself into him as much as she pleased, arms, legs, head. Everything. He even let his arm move from her hip and up her back to pull her as close as possible. Strengthening the knots in the tangle she had started. She wasn’t going to get up anytime soon.
She leaned in and placed her lips towards his. He reciprocated it immediately and let his hand travel from her back up to her neck, letting his thumb rest in front of her ear. Slow, intimate but innocent kisses were exchanged. Even though King wouldn’t mind going further, he let her set the pace. It was her who was going through four hundred years of emotions, and he didn’t wish to push her. Who knew what he could unleash if he accidentally pressured her or pushed er a little too far.

It was amazing how small things could wake such extreme emotions in a person. Now, there was a very legitimate reason why a woman like Nathalie had decided to hide herself away by the ability to simple just turn of her emotions. Because it had been the only thing that had saved her at the time. After that, it had been easy just to continue in the same lane as she had done for so long. Maybe the cracks had started to show, when she had decided to help Griffin. But King woke something so deeply in her. That small child sitting in the dark, just waiting for a person that had the strength to reach down their hand and pull it out of the darkness.
It was wishful thinking to believe that King could heal the cracks and holes in her soul and heart. Simply by just being there. That his fingers could mend her cold and uncaring mind. His kisses could breathe fire into a dying flame that didn’t believe in love nor romance.
But right now, in this bed, with him. She believed.
A soft moan left her. It wasn’t even because he did that much, but every movement of his hand. How he pulled his closer. His lips gliding over hers, inviting her to do it in her pace. It was enough to completely overwhelm her in the best way possible. Her arm under his neck moved so her fingers could find the back of his head. Fingers sliding into his hair. The kisses so gently turned into more insisting and passionate. She needed him. Fibre and soul.  
He was finally making her believe, nothing would be impossible

Her fingers found their way into his hair, making him hum shortly, telling her that he liked how she caressed him. He could feel how her kisses changed and became more insisting and passionate. He leaned a little backwards, letting his hand travel down to her hip again to guide her just a little closer to him, so she almost laid on top of him. If she didn’t seem to mind his movements, he would make his arms find their way around her and pull her up on top of him, only to let his hands glide down her legs and help her place them on each side of him. Like this she should be able to put the boundaries a little clearer – hopefully. He let his hands glide up from behind her knees, where he had helped her, until they reached the side of her hip and upper outer thigh, his fingers reaching daringly across her bottom, but not really letting his hands be too greedy.

She followed him without any question. Letting her legs place themselves on either side of his lower body. A soft moan left the back of her throat as his hands started exploring. Even if they didn’t really touch anything that one could consider too close to intimate parts of the body. Which only made it all the sweeter. Like he was telling her that he could go either way. That he wasn’t about to push her into something that she might not want. But it had never been about her not wanting to be with him in that way. It what was she was scared could happen if she did. The worst already seemed to have, so why wait? Her pressed her upper body up, but didn’t pull away from his lips, at least not yet. Her hands glided down his side, until she found his t-shirt and let her fingers, then her hands glide underneath it. His skin was just as delicate as she had pictured it. Another hum left her as she moved his lips from his, and let them travel up against his jaw instead, until they reached his ear, there they stayed giving him small kisses by his earlobe slightly underneath it.

Her breath was caught in her throat for a moment. Not in the same sense that it happened for many humans, but she could still feel it. That moment where it was like a small bobble inside of your throat, making it almost impossible to let air flow freely through your nose and mouth down to your lungs. Why? Because of the five words that had left him, six if he hadn’t pulled you and are together. Nath’s eyes closed, almost forcedly so, it triggered something in her. And she could feel a small tear glide down the side of her cheek. Her fingers tried to brush them away, but one tear was followed by the next one, and then another one.
Opening up a vampire’s feelings, after they had been closed off for so many years could be very dangerous. Because you didn’t know what was lying behind the well-guarded wall. What traumas it would unleash. Traumas didn’t go away; they had a tendency to manifester. To grab hold of you in ways that could be so unpredictable. “Please don’t say that” she whispered, it might have meant as a teasing and alluring phrase. But it had also been something older men had told a very young Nathalie, when they had forced themselves on her. What a pretty and good little girl she was, while she stared into the wall and then closed her eyes. Dreamt herself away. Seeing a life ahead of herself. Always running over a meadow filled with beautiful flowers. The scent of it overpowering the stench of the bed she was lying in. Linen that hadn’t been washed for weeks. No one heard her screams or cry. Why should they care? She was a vampire, when she was done, she could get some blood and then heal up again. Which was why she always getting the most brutal and violent costumers. Because she couldn’t be killed like the other girls. What a good little girl you are.

He could almost feel how things stopped and he turned his head a little towards her, noticing how she dried away a tear, though she couldn’t stop the flow of tears. “I’m sorry,” he whispered to her and let his hand glide down and away from her chest. “Do you wanna tell me what’s going on?” he whispered and removed a strand of her hair behind her to better see her face and the tears that she had tried to hide. His other hand gently wrapped over her. He didn’t want  her to pull away unless that was the only thing that would seemingly help. Hopefully, either talking about it, or saving it for another day and doing something else might be better.

She knew that her eyes had to be glistening from the tears that begged to escape them. For a moment she didn’t feel strong enough to look directly into his eyes, so she let them flicker. Towards the dresser where he had put the tea. The steam had stopped flowing from the cups, probably meant that it wasn’t hot anymore. Not that she cared, it wasn’t his fault that he had said something to her, that would normally not trigger her. Just, these damned emotions that came spilling over, almost as if she was going to be sick in the bathroom. Finally, her green eyes found their way back to his ocean blue ones.
“I’ve been called that before, and not in a pleasant setting” she whispered, before her arms glided around his neck and pulled him towards her. Letting a soft kiss place against his “but you slowly make the pain go away” she hummed against his lips, feeling how that made it run cold down her spine, how the hair on her arms started to raise. Because right then and there, she knew that she wasn’t lying. It was true. And it scared her more than anything.

He could see how her eyes didn’t look directly at him in the start, and even though they hadn’t really gone that far, he surely knew the look in her eyes. Something, very, very traumatic had happened and it had definitely been unpleasant for her. It was so easy to see for him.
He kissed her back ever so gently as she started to explain. “I’m sorry that has happened to you,” he whispered. He wanted to tell her that the only way he could really make the pain ‘go away’ would be to go into every trauma she had and know what to do and not to do, but at the same time, he knew that wasn’t fully true. “I’m glad you feel like that,” he told her and gently let his nose stroke the side of hers before he gave her a short kiss. “It’s okay if you just want to relax,” he said softly. He wouldn’t mind just laying with her in his arms. Whatever she felt was the most comfortable, but he had this feeling that testing her flexibility and how they fitted one another wasn’t on the checklist for the day anymore.

She couldn’t help but let out a small dry chuckle when he told her, that he was sorry that it had happened to her. She was sorry too, but she also felt like it was a sentence that people said when they didn’t know what else to say. Which was alright, because what could you say to someone that had just told them, not in so many words, that they had been abused?
Her eyes closed, feeling his arm skin against her cold. The tears started gliding down her cheeks again. Feeling a sense of calm, when he told her that it was okay if she just wanted to relax. Which might have been the best idea to begin with. Who knew what else could have been unleashed if they had taken this any further? She untangled herself from him and started taking off pieces of clothing that would restrict her from lying comfortable, which was mostly everything. Then she crawled under the covers and laid her head on the pillow, letting her eyes wonder towards him, to see if he was joining her or not.  

She undressed herself, his eyes couldn’t really help themselves to watch. When she got under the covers, he got up from the bed and undressed himself, until he only wore his boxers. He crawled under the covers to her and opened his arm a bit up to her, inviting her to come closer and snuggle close. If she did indeed get close, he would wrap his arm around her and close his eyes slowly. “I appreciate you, Nathalie,” he whispered to her. It might sound odd, but he appreciated everything she had done to and for him. Even though his memory was still slightly foggy, he had had a place to stay while he got his memory right, and he truly wanted to make it a more permanent thing to be listed on his address, but right now, since she had just gotten her feelings back, he wanted to take things slow.

She turned towards, as she felt how he got under the covers. Her eyes took him in as he opened his arms, almost beckoning her to come closer to him. Like a safe haven, to tell her that it was going to be okay. She wasn’t sure, and she hated the feeling that bobbled in her heart, in her chest, all the way down to her stomach. She was so afraid of this feeling, that she wasn’t sure she would be able to not turn it off again. Knowing very well that it might destroy whatever door she had unlocked with King today.
So, for tonight, she surrendered herself. Snuggling closer and resting her head against his shoulder. A small hum left her, as he told her that she appreciated her. But he shouldn’t, he should find a beautiful woman, inside out and be with her. Not someone like her, he deserved so much better. Even everything in her wanted nothing more to try with him. See where it could bring.
Right now, she pretended that it could work, just for tonight she envisioned how their life would be if she just dared to take the step.

He was glad that she got into his embrace, and it could also be seen with a little smile on his lips. He wanted her to feel safe, in his arms, so she could seek to him another time. He wanted to be there for her, through her ups and downs. Eventually, King fell asleep with her in his arms.

Very tired, he tried to figure out where she was, when he first started to get eyes, but he couldn’t find her. It made him open his eyes and look around. Was she upstairs? He got dressed and started searching for her, but he couldn’t find her. Besides, he didn’t go to the floors where she had forbid him to go. So, now that he couldn’t find her, he chose to keep his promise. “I’ll be back,” he called, just in case she was somewhere.

It didn’t take long before he got back up. “There you go,” he announced, even though the boy hadn’t really seemed that happy about the apology. “Nathalie?” he said, hoping that she was somewhere to be found.

When he had fallen asleep, she had watched him for a moment, letting her delicate and cold fingers glide over his skin. But then she had known she couldn’t do this to him, he needed to get back to the real world, and who knew. Maybe she was abusing him just as she had done Zadkiel. Very carefully she had slipped out of the bed and walked upstairs. Packing had been so easy; she didn’t have so many things that she actually cared about. But it was for the best, then Zadkiel could stay in the building and didn’t need to be afraid about seeing her by incident. Everything that you needed could be done on the computer, and it didn’t take long before she had transferred all the papers about the apartment in King’s name, she had other properties she didn’t need to stay here. She would go to her house in silent city, get away for a while, she needed it. Then she wrote King a letter, something he would find when he fared into the ‘forbidden’ area of the apartment. All of this was something she did before she turned off her feelings again.

It had been a surreal thing, standing in the bedroom looking in the mirror. Seeing her tears-streaked cheeks, how red they looked and how much pain that roamed behind the green and blue. She had heard him when he had called that he would be back. Then she had let out a small breath and it had been as easy as turning off a switch. She looked into the mirror again, the pain was gone. Her fingers removed some of the tears and then she walked into the room and grabbed a bag and just as he came back, she walked down the stairs dressed and with two bags filled with clothing. She walked towards him and handed him the deed. “Apartment it’s yours, I’ve paid for the next half year, so you don’t have to worry about money for a while, everything else has been taking care of, and all the keys are in there as well” hinting that she hadn’t kept one for herself. Her eyes looked into his, but there wasn’t really the kindness nor the vulnerability there had been there before.

He was handed some papers and furrowed his brows by the sight of them. “What?” he whispered in the middle of her explanation and looked at the papers a little before he looked up at her. He could almost see it in her eyes. There wasn’t the vulnerability there had been yesterday. “No, you’re not doing this,” he insisted. “Stop doing that,” he said and pressed the deed against her. “I am not going to live here without you,” he said stubbornly. “What- where- why are you doing this?” he wondered, having so many questions about her leaving. He didn’t understand what was going on, but he figured that it must’ve been something about the night before. Either how he believed she had ruined the kid or how her emotions had been turned back on… But only for a night.

She lifted a brow as he told her that she should stop and not do this.
When he told her that he wasn’t going to live here without her, she rolled her eyes and let out a small sigh. “Then sell it, it is yours to do what you please” a smile formed on her lips, even though it wasn’t cruel nor teasing it wasn’t filled with love. It was just that, a smile with little to no emotions.
“Truly? Because I’m going to silent city, and that is nowhere to be if you’re not a vampire, now, you should have known that it would come to this, besides you should go out find that pretty blond girl and be with someone real” she chuckled pressing the envelope back towards him. Because you couldn’t be with a person with no emotions, that was ridicules, besides she wasn’t about to turn her emotions back on anytime soon. Who knew, maybe one day, but not right now. “Find out who you are, make a life for yourself, and if you ever find yourself thinking about me in a month, maybe a year or so, who knows, try to find me then” she said, still with a smile on her lips.

She sighed of him and rolled her eyes. See, that hadn’t really been a behavior she had showed him before, even though she had been quite caress about most, she hadn’t really been rude towards him. Though her words hadn’t been rude, the rolling eyes and sigh had been. He raised his brows as she explained that silent city was no place to be if he wasn’t a vampire. He was tempted to tell her that there was no one who would be interested in harming him, so why would it matter? A small what left his lips as she explained that he should’ve known that it would come to this. In some aspects, he understood, but in others, he didn’t. What made the penny drop was truly that she said that he had to find someone real. He didn’t care that she mentioned Julianne, he cared that she didn’t believe she, herself, was real.
She pressed the envelope back at him, but he played the same game and tried to push the envelope back to her, mustering a denial. She told him to find himself and if he thought about her in a month or a year, he could try and find her. So, she asked him to go to the Silent City that was no place to be for a banshee? “No. Nathalie, quit that bullshit,” he said having gotten enough of her excuses, suggestions, and ideas that she simply played out without talking with him. “Stop fleeing. Stop hiding who you are and what you have been through,” he stopped trying to press the envelope towards her and instead stepped closer to her and let his hands grab gently onto her shoulders. “I am here for you, and even though I know absolutely nothing about your past, I’m ready to listen and comfort you,” he kept his eyes lock on hers. “I want you to stay here… With me,” he said slowly, never breaking eye contact. “I-I know who I am, and I would gladly help you discover who you are,” he said, and if possible, he would caress her cheek with the back of his fingers. He might not know his full identity, but he could almost argue that he knew himself better than she knew herself. “Please, Nathalie,” he whispered.

Nathalie raised her brow when he told her to cut the bullshit. And for a while she just stood there, letting his words wash over her, not that it affected her. Because she didn’t care what he believed. Now, it wasn’t because the moment or memory of yesterday was just gone. And yes, she knew that she was running, but she didn’t care that she was. She did something that she felt like doing, and she would rather go to silent city, and go back to her job. Living the life that she had lived before, without caring about anything or anyone. It had been a fun little experiment, but it was time to stop and cut all ties. Once again.
He begged her, wanting to make her see that she needed this. A soft, almost caring chuckle left her. “Oh King” she whispered, shaking her head a little, for a moment one could even think that she might consider it. But no. The smile disappeared and she looked at him, dead in the eye and took a step closer to him.  “Stop fooling yourself, there is nothing to fix, because it can’t be fixed” she said titling her head “don’t you see, I’ve lived like this for over three hundred years, if not longer – did you really think that this, that you, could just heal that with one night where you got my feelings to turn on again?” her hand found her cheek and she shook her head. “No, you have no idea who you are, find me when you really do – but don’t come to silent city” she added, knowing he might think that was what she meant. But she had work in Aston and other places, he could find her there. Or at River’s casino, there were lots of options. But she wasn’t going to be persuaded to stay and let him try to fix her. She was too far gone for that.

Her chuckle didn’t lessen his worries. It didn’t seem like he go through to her at all, even though it to some could seem like she was considering it, he knew better. She started to tell him how there was nothing to fix. It made his brows furrow together, worried. She told him how he had lived like this for more than three hundred years, telling him that it was foolish that he believed that he could heal the wounds she had, just because she had turned her feelings on. He shook his head slowly, looking at her. That hadn’t been his intentions. He didn’t want to fix her, nor did he believe that one night was going to change a thing, but he was certain that he wanted to be by her side if she needed him. She told him that he didn’t know who he really was, and that he should find her somewhere, which wasn’t Silent City if he wanted to see her. He just had to stay out of her business. “Nathalie, please. I like you for who you are,” he tried to convince her and was about to grab her hand in a pitiful try to make her stay.
It knocked on the door, quite aggressively, which made King look towards the door before he with almost angered steps walked to the door to open it. As soon as the doorhandle was pressed down, the door was pushed open, and Griffin barged in to get into the shadows of the walls. He was gasping and grunting in pain from the sunrays that had hit his skin, burning it. Most of his skin looked like coal that was dying. Smoke was coming from his body like cigarette that was left to burn out by itself. He slowly looked up from the four stand position he had put himself in, as he had fallen to his knees, taking off with his hands. His eyes locked with Natalie’s at first and then he looked towards King. “Who’s he?” the men spoke in synch, the created vampire looking at Nathalie and the Banshee looking at the created vampire.

She would have loved to tell him, that she believed, but she didn’t. Besides, her attention was pulled somewhere else as she started to feel the slight burning sensation cripple over her skin. Not that it hurt her, but she knew that it meant that something had happened to Griffin. Her eyes went blank, almost as if she retreated into her own mind. But rather she focused on the smell of Griffin that hit her as the next thing. He had never ventured out like this before, at least as far as she knew.
Nathalie turned as someone started to knock on the door, a soft smile forming over her lips as she walked over and took a blanket, and on the way pushed a button that would close all the windows making it pitch black in the apartment, at least until she turned on the light as walked over and wrapped the blanket around Griffin. “That is King, he lives here, and this is Griffin” she hummed, not really explaining who Griffin was, because that was more than just a small tell. She could of course just say that she had turned him, but she would like to believe that their relationship was more than just that. Maybe she was wrong, she didn’t really care. She looked tenderly at Griffin titled her head “what are you doing here Griffin, something has to happen to make you walk out in brought daylight like this” she asked, almost sounding like a concerned lover.

Griffin never walked out on daylight. It had to be really bad weather before he did so. As of right now he just had to trust his calculations so he wouldn’t end up dying. And he had been lucky to have been let in, because the burning of his skin wasn’t really that pleasant. Far from really. Griffin furrowed his brows as she mentioned that King lived in the apartment, but it was probably just because she had fetched herself a roommate of some sort. King on the other hand wasn’t that fond of the explanation he got about who Griffin was. It was only by name he knew him now, but why was he here? Why did he get here as if it depended on his life? He had after all almost killed himself in the action. Griffin looked up at Nathalie as she asked why he was there. He let a hand comb through his hair with an exhale and could almost feel how his skin was healing up from being in the shadows. “I got an eviction note… I thought it was just kids playing around…” He shook his head a little and was disappointed in himself that he hadn’t taken either the note or calculations. “They fucking knocked my hut over with a fucking wrecking ball,” he said and closed his eyes feeling how thirst was getting to him since his body was healing him up.
King however crossed his arms not believing a thing the man said, and honestly just wanted him out. This was a very bad timing to come crashing in.

“Could only have improved, the house was falling apart anyway” she hummed, not really sadden by the news, why should she? It wasn’t her that had been in the pediment that Griffin had found himself in, now she could see the inconvenience. “Well then you know to check up on the eviction notes, instead of just thinking that it’s kids playing around” she rolled back. Her shoulders and stood back up “I’ll find some blood bags for you, and then we’ll be going again” she announced, still thinking it would be the best for all interest to just leave the area at least for a while. No matter how much King wanted her to stay or go with her.
He was getting to attached, it was better this way. Besides, King needed to re-enter society as it was now, he learned nothing to just stay at her home and only know her. It became tedious, especially now that she knew that he was able to break her out of her emotionless state.

Griffin looked up at Nathalie as she said it was falling apart. He disagreed, and he didn’t have to say anything for her to know that. He had been very comfortable in that hut. Far away from everything, even though the last year more and more people had gotten to his hut. That being Julianne and Elena. One could almost see how he was displeased with how she tried to be the smarter person, telling him to check up on the eviction note instead of just believing. He didn’t even say no, when she announced that they would be leaving when he had gotten some blood. Besides, he knew very well how things were heading and how little the Banshee liked the company.
King followed Nathalie as she was about to find blood bags for the created vampire. “You’re just going to bring him with you?” he said, clearly unsatisfied with how he wasn’t a priority like that boy.