The Universe's Mixer

(Backdated to before the eternal night plot)

Tinker Bell had been fluttering through the park, one of her most favorite places to be in the City besides the Manor where her friend Christine lived. The Manor itself was beautiful, unlike any house that Tink had ever seen. The only other place Tink found to be more appealing to her vision than the Manor was the Opera House where Christine sang. Christine's voice was so beautiful, almost like Tink's own pixie voice. The small bell sound she emitted to those who couldn't understand her.

She had landed on a picnic table and was taking in the sunlight when her friend Christine had found her. She beamed at Christine and hugged the woman's neck tenderly. Tink adored Christine. Despite not liking Christine at first, as she resembled Wendy (and Tink hated Wendy), Christine had grown on the pixie and Tink couldn't help but love the woman dearly. Christine said something to her about coming to stay with her and Eric at the Manor.

Tink at the Manor? With Christine? The pixie felt like she was dreaming and Tink agreed to move in to the Manor with her friend. Tink wasn't sure what Rufio would say considering he was her Pan but Tink rarely saw her Pan as it was. Maybe Christine could be her female Pan. Was that possible? Tink hoped so.

So as not to continue to impede on Rufio's social time, Tink relocated her things to the Manor. Christine had a place set up just for her and Tink enjoyed it a great deal. She was a very lucky pixie to have such an amazing friend like Christine.

Tinker Bell had left the Manor where she was staying with Christine after the woman had asked her to move in. It had been quite a change from the warehouse where Tink had been staying since her arrival in this world with Rufio, her Pan. It was much nicer smelling, lush, and she got to see her best friend in the whol world every day! That was so exciting to her. Tinker Bell had never had a best friend before. Besides Peter and Rufio but they were her Pans and not really so much best friends. She never had a female friend either. Typically women got on her bad side rather quickly, especially when it came to her Pan but Christine had managed to work her way deep into the tiny heart of the pixie and Tink wouldn't have it any other way.

Tink had noticed that the darkness was upon the City and that it hadn't yet let up. It was quite strange. It was throwing off her internal pixie clock. The one that told her when the sun rose it was time to get up and when it set it was time to sleep. Now it seemed the moon was out for good and though she missed the sun terribly there was nothing she, a small pixie, could do about it other than enjoy it. Which is exactly what she planned to do.

The park was Tink's usual haunt, the one place where she never grew tired of being. It was the only place she really, truly felt at home. The grass, though cold most days, welcomed her. The animals called to her, the trees and the sky. It was just like the pixie to revel in the simplest of things nature had to offer. It wasn't the beach, or the cave they used to spend the nights in, or the tree houses that offered them a view of the setting sun but it was closest to Neverland she could get without actually being home. No matter how hard Rufio tried to make the warehouse look like home, it would never really be. She would never see Peter again. She would never hear the tick of the clock within the mouth of the crocodile or the laugh of Captian Hook and Shmee.

This was as close as she could get.

She chased a butterfly slowly as it fluttered lazily through the moist tendrils of grass. Her aura glowed its usual gold as she flew after the butterfly. She was of a good mood and nothing could deter her from her mission of catching the winged creature and playing with it if it would let her.

He had done a lot to hold himself back since he'd returned to the City. Throwing himself into work, trying to meet new people. The one time that he'd thought that he needed to go out and hunt, the sun had been up in the middle of the night, which had stopped him cold.

But with the night surrounding him at all times, the periods of complete blackness when there were no street lights or store signs, no moon and only stars to illuminate the darkness, Dexter found it much harder to keep himself restrained.

The Dark Passenger within him understood that this was their time, their moment. They could do whatever they wished, and would never be seen. They could have all that they wanted, the things that they craved. That imperative that was biological to them but not to others could be exercised, flexed.

Eventually, he had to give in.

Eventually, Dexter found himself on the streets, his bag in the trunk of the car, watching. Waiting. The car was tucked back in an alley, away from curious eyes, and Dexter stood at a bus stop, tracking potential victims. He didn't want to mess up. He didn't want to take anybody who didn't deserve it. But it was difficult. Harry wasn't here, Harry had never been here, the code was nothing here. This was the place where he could do as he wished. Nobody here was counting on him to be The Forensics Guy and only that. Nobody here expected him to be a brother, a lover.

Not even George was here to remind him of what happened when he killed. To be his friend and try to lure him away from the darkness with the promise of waffles.

The idea that he could have anybody he wanted and not have to really think about it, it was enticing. He could be that thing that he had started to become before he'd gone back to Miami and put his life back together. That thing that had been taken by the hand by a strange little woman. That thing that had killed Cupid.

Dexter's eyes swept the people around him, seeking.