Work Text:
Quiet Night
by Lucinda
He hadn't planned for anything eventful to happen. He'd just wanted a quiet trip away from N'awlins and family arguments, and the growing list of responsibilities that he was supposed to have among the Guild. Just a quiet day on the mostly empty beach of a small island in quiet, peaceful, scenic nowhere.
Remy Lebeau should have known better.
Why should he have a quiet day now, when he'd never managed to have an uneventful day in his previous seventeen years of life was a mystery. Maybe he'd hoped that he'd run out of 'interesting times' or that the odds insisted it should happen at least once. Some fitful, foolish hope that he could have a normal life.
No, he didn't get a quiet vacation. Not after the sun had set, at least. When the first one had growled and tried to chase him, he'd thought the guy was an angry mutant, just trying to take out his frustrations at life on Remy. But then the other four had showed up, all with the same yellow eyes, weirdly heavy eyebrows and sharp teeth, and now he wasn't so sure. Besides, there was only so long that he could hold off five of these... guys with handfuls of charged sand and an abandoned metal detector. Or maybe it hadn't precisely been abandoned after all...
Another figure approached, a slender person, with no sounds heard over his own efforts to keep his attackers at bay. When the person got closer, he saw that she was actually a rather attractive woman, close to his own age. With a wooden stake?
Remy kept dodging and blocking the blows of his attackers, and blinked in surprise when the woman stabbed one of them in the back with her stake. When the guy crumbled into dust, he gaped, feeling stunned. People didn't turn to dust... A line of pain along his arm returned his attention to the remaining four, and he kept their attention as the strange woman staked the rest, one by one. Soon, she was the only other person on the beach, and she was giving him this oddly measuring look.
He tried to relax, hoping that she wouldn't try to stab him with the stake next. "T'ank you for the rescue?"
"You should not be so far from town after dark." She lowered the stake, and looked at him carefully. "The vampires try to eat the tourists."
"Vampires?" Remy blinked, and looked again at the stake, and then the disturbed sand. "I guess that explains a little..."
"You shouldn't be here." Her words were softer this time, and she sighed. "It's too cold for walking along the beach at night. What were you hoping to do?"
Remy paused, trying to find the right words to answer her. "I... guess I just needed some time to think. Maybe sort out a few things about family, responsibilities, and the meaning of life."
"You should be inside, with something warm to drink." Her head tilted towards the twinkling lights of the town. "I suppose I could show you a place for coffee?"
"I would like that very much." He offered his hand, and smiled. "I'm Remy, what is your name?"
"Kendra." She glanced down, and might have been blushing. "The coffee is this way."
"Why does it feel like you're nervous about me?" Remy asked, not understanding. If five vampires weren't enough to worry Kendra, why did the idea of showing him a place for coffee make her fidget uncomfortably?
"I'm not used to talking much to people." The words were soft. "But Buffy... Someone told me that holding responsibility does not mean that there should be no enjoyment of life."
"I can help you relax an' savor a nice cup of coffee." Remy smiled, flirting just a little. "Maybe I help you figure out a few ideas for New Year's habits to pick up?"
"That might be nice." Her fingers brushed against his hand, and slowly entwined with his fingers.
end Quiet Night.