An Unexpected Gift: Two Hour Challenge (PG)

[librarian_7]

My bit for the two hour challenge!


An Unexpected Gift


Los Angeles, 1953

Mick St. John stared down into his glass of scotch, swirling the amber liquid and contemplating knocking back the entire tumbler in one gulp. It wouldn’t do any good, it never did any good, anymore. He could feel the alcohol burn his throat, and sometimes he thought he still got a momentary glow in his belly when it hit, but there was no real effect. No escape from the long nights, and the cravings for less legal liquids.

He belted down the liquor, and slumped back in the aged leather chair. It had sprung seams, and stuffing was leaking out, but he hadn’t managed to find the time to fix it. He’d have to do it himself, anyway. Even with the monthly allowance checks piling up in the bank, he was relying on the pittance of his own savings to—he supposed you still had to call it—live on. And that would run out soon enough.

Coraline had called, said she was coming by later. His wife. He hadn’t seen her in six months, hadn’t wanted to see her again, ever. He supposed he ought to tidy up his office a little, make it seem less like a garbage dump with books and papers strewn everywhere, stacks on all the flat surfaces, piles in the hallway leading back to the room where he kept his freezer. He hated the damn freezer. The empty whiteness of the walls and door, inside and out, depressed him. Every dawn when he climbed in he had to fight a feeling of claustrophobia. Shouldn’t a proper monster have black? At least with black, if he opened his eyes, he could pretend the space around him stretched on forever. He’d considered getting a can or two of paint and covering the white with it, but it seemed like too much trouble. And too damn symbolic…the way his mounting sins were slowly covering whatever innocence he’d still had before Coraline turned him. How was that for poetic?

He needed to find something to do with himself, something to fill the nights besides swilling scotch that wouldn’t even get him drunk. Something besides going out and hunting down innocent humans and drinking their unwilling blood.

At least Coraline had taught him he didn’t need to kill to slake his hungers. Those first few lives he’d taken were set up to bind him to her more tightly. It had worked. Even if he could have denied the flare of passion for her body that still held him, the knowledge of deaths that they’d shared gave her power. She was the only one who knew what he was, what he was capable of, and could still want to know him.

What sort of sick joke was it on the part of an uncaring universe that scotch still tasted like it always had, but couldn’t get him drunk?

He usually tried to tune out the noises in the building around him. Rats in the walls, the scurry of insects, the weary, sodden fights of the human tenants on the floors above and below, working out their rages on one another. His office was the only space on this floor occupied around the clock, he’d made sure of that before he moved in. He might not know what he was going to do with an office, but at least he could pick a location that was private. Low rent, but private. The previous tenant had been a private eye, and the phone he’d taken over still got calls for they guy. “Mr. Luce, won’t you help me find my lost dog? Divorce my cheating husband?” Now, however, he heard the elevator bell ring, and Coraline’s voice talking to someone as she came down the hall. Not alone, then. Probably bringing the entrée, he thought, and listened harder for breathing, for a heartbeat. He’d hate her for it, if it wasn’t all too much trouble.

Nothing. A low rumble of a male voice, that was all.

Coraline rapped on the door, calling out in that deceptively sweet voice of hers. “Mick? You home?”

“It’s open.”

He watched the knob twist, the dual shadows on the pebbled translucent glass of the door. When it swung open, the man standing next to Coraline stepped back to let her enter. Mick thought there was something old-fashioned, stuffy, in the courtesy he paid her. Who was this guy?

Coraline was wearing a dark red designer suit, stiletto heels and a scrap of fabric and net that Mick supposed was meant to be a hat. She looked…expensive. So no change there. He put his glass aside and stood up.

“Sorry I didn’t get the place tidied up. Thought I had more time.”

The stranger sniffed a little, looking distinctly unimpressed as he doffed the dark fedora he wore. He was tall, almost as tall as Mick, and broader through the shoulders. Auburn hair and guarded brown eyes. Coraline’s found herself a new boy, Mick thought. He inhaled, and caught an odd scent. He hadn’t learned much, this past year, of all that Coraline had wanted to teach him about being a vampire, but he had learned the difference between the smell of a new-turned vamp, and one of Coraline’s age. And unless he missed his guess, this guy was even older than she was. Great.

Coraline cocked her head to one side, flirtatious as always. “We came to see you, Mick, not your…place.”

Mick was just tired. Tired of her games, tired of this life she’d drawn him into against his will. “Coraline, you’re here for a reason. What is it?”

She gave him the sex kitten pout again. “Can’t I just want to see my husband?”

“I thought death had already parted us.” Mick looked at the stranger again. He seemed fussily dressed, his tie too precisely tied, his cuffs shot too carefully, the crease in his trousers dagger sharp. Mick had seen sloppier mannequins in department store windows, and his own stained khakis and wilted Hawaiian shirt suddenly crawled on him. How could this guy make him feel like a slob without even saying a word?

When the stranger spoke, it was like another slap in the face. “Coraline, my sweet,” he said, ignoring Mick, “it seems clear we’re unwelcome. Perhaps we should leave your little fledgling to his own devices.”

Pompous jerk, Mick thought.

The other vampire looked at him shrewdly, as though sensing his thoughts. He shook his head. “Not to criticize, Coraline, but…some men just weren’t cut out to be vampires.” He smirked at Mick. “Exhibit A, stage right, in a Hawaiian shirt.”

Coraline pouted. It was one of her more effective gambits, Mick recognized. “Now, Josef, you promised you’d give it a chance,” she said. She laid a soft, wheedling, hand on the stranger’s lapel, and Mick felt a dark rush of jealousy.

Josef sighed and held out his hand to Mick. “Josef Kostan.” He smiled again, and this time it was obvious he was attempting to be straightforward. “Coraline thought that maybe—you could use a friend.”

[cassysj]

Very interesting! The boys first meeting!!!!!!! That was definitely a gift for each of them.

[wpgrace]

Ah! That WAS a gift. I'm sure unexpected... but NO question about that friendship being a gift... to them both.

[AggieVamp]

That was great! And we all know what great friends they became. Though it obviously took MUCH effort on Josef's part. But he's always up to a challenge!

Karen

[francis]

Josef as a gift - by Coraline of all things, but he will be.
Wonderful, how you depict Mick's stasis at this point in time, his depression and inability to move on. And now Josef volunteers to get him out of his broken armchair and back into life.
I could almost love Coraline for doing that.
Well done, Lucky.

[JosefsRose]

That was great! And we all know what great friends they became. Though it obviously took MUCH effort on Josef's part. But he's always up to a challenge!

Karen

Ditto

Jenny

[wollstonecraft61]

OMG, Lucky, how can you turn out such perfection in an hour? Yes, Josef was an unexpected gift! Bravissimo!!!!

[starbucksjunkie]

Yes, indeed. Well done.

My fave:

He’d hate her for it, if it wasn’t all too much trouble.

Delightful!

[PNWgal]

You came up with that in an hour. An HOUR.

Lovely, Lucky...just lovely.

“Can’t I just want to see my husband?”

“I thought death had already parted us.”

Yeah. Lines like that make me sigh happily...

[RangerCM]

Un..be..LIEV..able!! Oh, I just LOVE this! I've got this huge, stupid grin on my face. Just knew you'd come up with a true gem.

[redwinter101]

Oh how marvellous, Lucky. A gift from Coraline that actually turned out to be a good thing - a very good thing. You paint a wonderful picture of down-at-heel Mick and uptown Josef - such a fascinating starting point to compare with what we know of their friendship now.

And this,

“Exhibit A, stage right, in a Hawaiian shirt.”

made me giggle. A lot.

Just super.

Red

[Catmoon]

Perfect!

(My fav line is: I thought death had already parted us)

[Fleur de Lisa]

Lucky---wonderful. Your attention to detail astounds me every time. Just makes your fics so rich.

And you were born to write Josef. With only a few lines, his character comes through loud and clear. Very well done.

[jenstc2003]

What a terrific gift for Cora to give Mick! I always assumed she had been the one to introduce them, and a moment like this would make perfect sense.

[allegrita]

Oh--this is wonderful! I love this first meeting. We knew they didn't think much of each other when they first met, and from the rich detail you've provided, it's not hard to see why. Indeed, this meeting is a wonderful gift for Mick, and for Josef as well.

Poor Mick! I can see him sinking into a depression after he's turned, and wanting to get as far away from Coraline as he can--which isn't far, poor baby. I love the intro you've provided to Mick taking up the PI life. I love the Hawaiian shirt, the leather chair, the despair over his freezer... all of this is perfectly in line with what we know about Mick's later life.

I'm sure Coraline will look back on this moment years later, and kick herself for introducing these two. How could she have predicted the deep friendship that would grow between them? And how could she know that Josef would help Mick gain the strength he needed to finally become his own man?

And Josef--so perfect. You really do have him living in your head. I love it when you let us in to visit him...