fangednconfused (fangednconfused) wrote in birthrightrpg, @ 2020-08-22 15:23:00 |
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Entry tags: | derek mitchell, ronnie milam |
Godbro
Who: Ronnie, Derek
What: Flashback Special
Where: Searchlight
When: 2010
Ratings/Warnings: Low
He had spent about six hours trekking through the desert during daylight hours, and the sun had finally fallen. It didn’t much matter, though, because Derek had finally made it to the nearest town. Of course, he didn’t have a cent to his name or a place to live or...anyone. Veronica had made sure of that before literally booting him out of her red Mustang in the middle of nowhere. The vampire had to utilize tuck and roll for the first time ever in his life. His arms and knees were scraped to hell, and something across his face burned angrily.
All that sun had really done a number on…
Oh, there was the ground again. Derek had fallen forward. He closed his eyes. This was obviously where he was meant to be, lying facedown on the pavement in some nothing town.
“Oh shirt,” he murmured.
He saw someone laying on the ground on the side of the road like one of those late night cold case file things or something. Ronnie trekked over, huffing a bit in spite of the good shape he was in - those darn cancer sticks - to where the person was lying.
“You don’t wanna get the sheriff on this one, pal,” he observed loudly. Was he talking to himself? Maybe. Or maybe he was talking to the person lying on the concrete. “You okay, pal?” Did he need to find a stick? This one didn’t seem to have much color. Fortunately he was walking along and happened to see the guy getting familiar with the pavement.
Finally he crouched down and blinked. “Yo, it’s the buy one get one sale. Take home a television today!”
Derek was thinking. Usually he had to stay still to do this properly. He could hear the man hovering around him, could hear his heart beating, pumping...and he was so thirsty. But did he have enough energy to reach out, pin him still, and drink? Ever so slightly, the vampire turned his face away from the asphalt and took a peek.
The man looked shorter than Derek, but still looked like he could hold his own. He might have to be crafty about this.
“Um, low blood sugar attack,” he mumbled, pushing against his palms to sit up and dusting gravel off the front of his shirt.
“No kidding,” he murmured, eyebrows nearly hitting his hairline. “My aunt had that once. Nearly killed her. But food does the trick! I know a bar nearby,” he stated, holding a hand up to his own mouth as if he were sharing a secret, “lousy food but the specials are good. Who am I to judge though?” A laugh.
Ronnie took a minute to help the stranger brush off the dirt. “I’m Ronnie. You ever been here before?” The way this one was dressed he didn’t think so but they got a lot of tourists passing through on the way to Vegas.
“Once or twice,” Derek replied, slowly getting to his feet. Veronica came here semi-regularly, why, he was never sure. “That sounds...great. But, um.” The vampire made a show of patting his pockets and looking confused. It actually wasn’t too difficult to pull off.
“I think I’ve lost my wallet.” The vampire sighed and shook his head defeatedly. “And I’m feeling woozy again…”
“I got you!” Ronnie mused, nodding. “Drinks on me. Really. You look like you could use a couple.” And fortunately business was good. He’d even been able to get his Mama a new Bible and some furniture for the house. “A nice place to sit that isn’t too loud. Come on. How can you pass that up?”
Derek hadn’t been expecting that to be so easy. “Oh.” He blinked a few times. “Great! Thanks.” And then he held out a hand covered in sand, dirt, and dried blood before noticing and let it drop. “Nice to meet you, Ronnie. I’m Derek.”
“Well the day is as bright as it is long. I’m so glad to meet you, Derek!” He shook hands probably too vigorously, actually thrilled to meet someone new. Letting go, his arm went around the other man and he would motion into the darkness. “Bar’s over there. Good enough food, drink specials, juke box. All the stuff you could ever need for a good time. They even have a few places in the back,” he clicked his tongue and elbowed at his new friend’s side, “if you know what I mean.”
This guy was kind of desperate for friendship, Derek mused. Then he shrugged. Might as well go along with it. Except the elbow to the side, which made him wince slightly. “Wait, places in the back?” He gave Ronnie a sidelong glance. Privacy might be good, if he was going to get the real drink he was after…
“Do you like nachos?” he asked absentmindedly, focusing on the pulse point in Ronnie’s neck. “I love nachos.”
“Yeah, you know,” he laughed. “The locals talk about that stuff, it ain’t that common around here but nobody asks any questions. You know what I mean?” Of course Derek did. Or at least he assumed.
“Nachos are amazing. I could use a whole mess of nachos right now.” He opened his mouth to dive into the things that would go best with cheese covered chips before his mouth shut again. “You don’t need a lecture on nachos. TO THE BAR!” He shouted, lifting a fist into the air.
And then short legs carried him faster to the destination intended.
And he was carried along in Ronnie’s excitement. Derek leaned over and took a subtle sniff of the guy. He smelled like food, maybe a cheeseburger or something. The vampire tried not to accidentally call him Cheeseburger out loud. It was then that he realized the ‘shrooms he had taken to make the walk go by quicker were kicking in.
“To the bar!” Derek repeated, waving a scraped arm in the air. Then he clapped his guide and benefactor on the back, maybe a little harder than he intended.
Nearly knocked off of his feet he laughed, chalking it up to the excitement. He was glad that his new friend was as eager for bar food and drink specials as he was. Unfortunately for him he’d inherited the town drunk urged from his father. He didn’t talk about that.
It didn’t take long. The door to the literal dive came into view. “Behold! The church of the drink. Worship as you will over plates of nachos and Hank Williams on the jukebox.” Hands would wave as if they were doing some sort of fancy magic although he was not magical. At all.
But he got the door for Derek. “After you.”
Derek entered the establishment, his eyes drawn first to the jukebox. It was so colorful and alive, and he walked up to it, putting his hands on the sides. How could his maker think he was useless, he thought, when his keen survival skills had led him here? The vampire turned and looked around the bar. Everyone was wearing hilarious outfits, he realized.
“Ronnie!,” he called. “I don’t know what to do next.”
He wandered in like he owned the place, always confident yet humble. A wave to the barkeep which earned a nod and a grunt, but Ronnie didn’t take it personally. Instead he meandered over to the jukebox, humming Neon Moon.
“Ah you just need some change for that thing.” He rustled around in a jeans pocket nearly unable to get his hand out, before producing a few coins.
“Here, I think I got a couple of quarters. This is a rite of passage though,” he explained, trying to be stern in his judgement, “the people here are to totally judging you based on your selection.”
“No, I’m not ready for that,” Derek shook his head emphatically, letting his hands drop to his sides. He took a step away from the music machine. “I just got out of a relationship.” And he raised his injured arms by way of explanation.
The vampire began tugging the other man toward a safer place.
Blinking, he nodded. The change went back into his pockets for next time he was here, already forgotten about. “Baby steps,” he agreed. Being in and out of a relationship could be tough - he’d been there a few times himself. And those injuries looked pretty bad.
With Derek, he scooted on to a small booth that could accommodate them both. A wave to the waitress and he settled down. “Sorry to hear about your relationship, man. That’s never easy.”
Derek sat down with relief. It was nice and dark in here, and the vinyl booth was much more comfortable than the ground. He pressed the side of his face against the cushioning. “It was so hard,” he told Ronnie, his voice slightly muffled. “Nothing I did was right. It was all ’You’re a disappointment’ this, and ’You weren’t supposed to kill the mailman’ that. What was I supposed to do?”
Wait what? Kill the mailman? Ronnie nodded, setting his hands on the table. “Sounds rough. You seem like a pretty cool dude to me, maybe whoever broke your heart was the one with the problem.” Thankfully his relationships had been okay. Brief, but okay. And he prayed that nothing as bad ever happened to either of them.
The waitress finally wandered over and Ronnie took the liberty of ordering both of them a round of beers, with the addition of something with a bit more fire for his new friend.
“I don’t think people are really disappointments,” he added. “My Pop thought that about me my whole life. Vanished when I was a kid. Just up and left us. Probably a good thing. He drank a lot. But that hurts just as bad knowing I wasn’t good enough to stick around for.” It wasn’t a bad relationship but it could still wound just the same.
Derek turned his face away from the booth and leaned toward Ronnie with a frown. “Your father left you?” For some reason, that statement filled him with emotion. Emotion that he thought he could actually see, in wavering lines around Ronnie’s head. He resisted the urge to run his fingers through it. He imagined it would feel like static shocks.
“How can someone leave and not realize they’re the disappointment?” The vampire shook his head bitterly. “Well, fuck him. And fuck Veronica.” And then he held his hand up for a high five.
“Yeah, it’s been me and my Mama ever since. I think I was...five?” If he remembered correctly that was when Rocky Milam hit the road and never looked back. All of his stuff had been taken, packed, not there had been much and all of the cash in the coffee can tin on top of the fridge had gone with him.
At the lift of that hand Ronnie laughed and leaned up to slap five. “Yeah! They don’t know what they’re missing. We are some cool cats.” He settled down just as the waitress brought over their round - a beer for each of them and Derek’s shot of whiskey for the pain. “Cheers to us for being better than the people in our lives who doubted us.”
Derek took the shot in hand, watching the liquid inside swirl and glow like some magical potion. He tossed it back, then grabbed the beer and did the same, except some of that spilled and sloshed down the front of his shirt.
“Do you have a family now?” he asked Ronnie. “Anyone, you know...waiting for you after this?” The vampire placed what he thought was a casual yet curious hand under his chin, except his elbow never met the table and he slipped forward.
Ronnie swiped up the beer and took a sip. The bitter liquid was refreshing on his tongue. He knew he had to be careful, the craving for getting fucked up was in his blood and he’d gone a night or two stumbling home from the bar but that hadn’t been recently. Fortunately.
“Yeah, my mama is here. She lives over on Lincoln,” he managed, pointing in that direction as if Derek knew where that was. Another sip. He’d moved away from here a long time ago but he always made sure to visit as often as possible for as long as he could.
Derek considered that. It would be a pretty dick move, killing this guy. Then again, the mailman probably had a family, too. Why had he done that, again? The vampire vaguely remembered being pissed at something Veronica had said, and...oh yeah, he left the corpse in her bed as a surprise.
Another drink of beer was taken, this time managing not to spill. “To moms!” Derek lifted his mug.
“To moms!” He echoed, taking another sip from the neck of the bottle. This poor guy seemed like a hot mess - dirt still embedded in opened skin, beer puddle staining his shirt. “So what else is up with you, man? Besides the whole you got dumped thing?” His finger twirled around in a circle as if for emphasis.
Clearly Derek wasn’t a local. He was curious if he’d ever set foot across the city limits before tonight. “You from around here or what?”
Derek wanted to lie down and look up at the ceiling and think, but the conversation was still going. He turned so he was sitting sideways in the booth, bringing his knees up to his chest. His jeans were torn. “We mostly stayed in Vegas. We had a few apartments, but a lot of it was hotel suites. I sleep on the floor,” he added.
“Maybe now I can have a bed,” Derek mused. Maybe this was an opportunity to be free, spread his wings and fly.
Listening, he nodded. “Sounds rough, but yeah! You can have your own life now, your own place to sleep. Places around here are fairly cheap, Vegas is expensive, but it’s got it’s nice parts too.” When you lived in the small town, the big city was the neon dream. “You gotta do what’s best for you.”
He slept on the couch at home when he visited and he had for his entire life just about. But he kept it to himself. Derek seemed to have a lot of his plate already.
“Listen, I have to tell you something,” Derek said conspiratorially. “I lied to you earlier. I didn’t lose my wallet. I didn’t even have a wallet to lose.” A server was walking by them and smiling, so he lowered his voice to what he thought was a very quiet whisper. In reality, he was closer to yelling. “I don’t have any money at all!”
With interest Ronnie leaned over to listen. The confession made him blink, but he nodded. “You need some cash or something?” He had a bit he could spare and if this guy needed it more then why not? It’s what his Mama would’ve wanted him to do, give when there was need. Plus he made plenty of money at the restaurant in New York. “I have a little I can give ya. You don’t have to pay me back or anything.” Maybe it would help Derek get on his feet.
The vampire was silent for a moment after this offer. It took him completely off-course. “If you don’t need me to pay you back,” he reasoned out slowly, “then you must want something else.” It was the only explanation. People didn’t just give you money, no strings attached. Derek drummed his fingers against the table, before the sound became too intense for his own ears and he had to stop.
Ronnie shook his head. “Nope. Just knowing you have a chance to change your life and get back on your feet is enough. God’s plan for all of us is mysterious and different - giving back makes me feel good. I’m not a rich man, not by any means, but I know what it’s like to be on your ass without a cent to your name. I’m happy to help you.” Maybe he was naive to be so helpful but he felt bad for the other guy and doing something good might help balance out any bad yet to come.
Oh, Ronnie was just nice. That was a twist. “Well,” Derek hedged, unsure of where to go from there, “there must be something I could do for you.” Number one on the list was not drinking the other man’s blood, but that was better left unsaid.
A shrug of his shoulders. “If you’re around here at all, if you’d just make sure my Mama is okay. That’s the most important thing.” He took another couple of sips from his drink and smiled. “Otherwise I don’t need anything.” Friends were nice to have but it was hard to make them here since he wasn’t a current resident.
“I could do that.” Derek nodded slowly. “Yeah, sure.” It didn’t sound too difficult. Also, the idea of someone trusting him with that task was appealing. If he thought about it -- and he was, currently -- it was actually pretty important. Like a trusted guardian. The vampire sat up straighter.
“I’ll defend her with my life,” he decided, one hundred percent serious. Derek held out his hand to shake on it.
He felt good about the agreement. A breath of relief escaped him and his smile brightened. “Thanks, man. I really appreciate that.” She was the only person in his life that really mattered to him, and really the only family he had left. Ronnie shook Derek’s hand to seal the deal, and pulled away gently.
Fishing his wallet out of his pocket, the flap was flipped open as if he were an FBI agent from the movies with a badge. Ronnie fumbled around, sliding a few things out of a compartment, and then he slipped a card out. It was slid across the table to Derek. “Here. It’s a debit card for an account I have with cash in it. Get what you need. I can always fill it up again if you really need it. When you’re done using it just shred it.” It took a lot of trust in Derek that he wouldn’t go on some kind of shopping spree and overdraft the account.
The wallet was flipped back closed and was tucked away into the pocket from where it had come.
He took the card with a shocked expression. “Um, are you sure about this, dude? I feel like this might not be the smartest idea.” Coming from Derek, that was saying a lot. “Not that I plan on burning you, I just...well, I know if I were anyone else, I would not trust me.”
“Yeah,” he laughed. “Totally sure.” He didn’t know why he felt so trusting but he did. Something was telling him that Derek was a good guy in a bad situation. “There’s about ten on that card,” he explained, keeping his voice low. “If you need a refresh you can text me, just don’t overdraft. The fees are outrageous.”
As if on cue his phone was drawn out, slid over once it was unlocked, “Put your number in. Wait, you have a phone right?”
“No phone,” Derek answered. “Or number. No one knows I…” The vampire had trailed off, he was going to say exist. Even in his current state, he realized that would sound either overdramatic or insane. He was starting to sober a little, and...had he told Ronnie about killing, out loud?
“Oh. Cool, well you probably wanna get one.” He took his own back and tucked it away. Whatever Derek had confessed to or told him he took with a grain of salt. Sometimes people said things that weren’t always true when they were in distress.
Ronnie finished his drink, setting the empty bottle aside. “You ready for another one?”
“You go ahead,” Derek said with a vague wave of the hand. “I’m gonna...slow down.” He was starving. He wasn’t gonna hurt Ronnie, so he would need to find someone else. It was so annoying. He wished that McDonald’s still did the trick. Then he would only have to contend with the milder guilt of consuming a slaughtered cow.
“Let me ask you something, Ronnie. Are there, like, weird things that happen around here? That you know of, offhand…”
A nod. “Probably don’t need to hit it too hard,” he laughed, offering a glance at the waitress. A single finger would be held up to signal he was ready for another drink and then he turned back to his new friend.
“You okay?” Guy looked a bit pale, not that the light in the bar was good at telling accurate skin tone. And then he shrugged, nodding, “Sure. Hang around long enough and the locals will tell you the gossip and rumors. Once in a while something crazy goes on and then things settle down again.”
That was good to know. Maybe a missing person wouldn’t raise too much of a red flag. “Oh, you know. Still dealing with the whole sudden abandonment thing.” Derek should have been used to it by now. Everyone seemed to leave him at some point or another. “What about you? Are you okay?” The other man struck Derek as somewhat lonely.
Nodding, he grinned. “Right as the rain!” Then Ronnie laughed. “Yeah, I’m fine. Hopefully you will feel better. It’ll take time.” Most things like that did even though the stains never really left.
The waitress brought another bottle of beer and took the empty one away. Ronnie sipped from it. “Can I ask you about something you said earlier? Did you really kill a mailman?” He kept his voice down so as not to be overheard. Somewhere nearby the jukebox sprang to life and Elvis began to serenade them with the melody of You ain’t nothin but a hound dog.
Derek tilted his head back and laughed. “What? No! That was just a joke. That’s how we joke around...where...I’m from.” He raised his glass to his mouth before realizing it had been empty for a while, and set it down.
“Oh, okay,” he laughed as well. That was an interesting way to joke but he went with it. Humor was a funny thing. “You sure you don’t want another drink?” A motion was made to the empty glass and then he took a sip from his own.
The vampire shook his head. “I’m good.” Ronnie was an interesting sort. He didn’t look much older than Derek, but seemed years beyond him somehow. Even if there was a splash of the naive there. The vampire wasn’t one to judge that, though. He had walked blindly into many bad situations, optimistic that he’d find himself on the other side, unscathed.
“I can’t remember if you said. What do you do for a living?” Derek asked him.
“I didn’t,” he laughed, wiggling his eyebrows a bit, “I make food. Literally. In New York.” The lifestyle was expensive but it was good and the experience made him better. “Maybe I really love to eat or maybe food just brings people together, but I’ve always just had a knack for it.” He didn’t tell Derek about the competition he’d been in or that the lifestyle was fast paced and stressful. And few truly experienced the joy of knowing their dream job.
“So you make people happy,” Derek countered. “I have no idea what I want to do. I just know that I should probably get a job.” He had a handful of odd jobs during his human years, usually finding himself fired. Except the sign spinning accident hadn’t really been his fault. That lady should have been watching where she was going.
“You just gotta find what you were made for,” Ronnie shrugged. “Some people never find it, I was fortunate enough to get it early.” And then his smile widened a bit, “Happiness is a bit like beauty, bro. It’s in the eye of the beholder. What makes one person happy would revolt someone else. Food is comforting, but it isn’t always well received.”
“I have faith that you’ll find something.”
“Thanks,” he said, surprised that this virtual stranger seemed to believe in him. Of course, Ronnie didn’t know the whole truth. But it was nice to feel normal, for just a little while. He could pretend he was hanging out with his friends back home, and he’d wake up during daylight hours, get breakfast, and live.
“So, you cook fancy stuff?”
“Yeah, you know, like tiny food on big plates with fancy sauce patterns for the celebs.” Ronnie smiled, shrugging.
With his fingers he made a circle to show Derek just how large some of the portions were, nearly the size of a silver dollar. “But it’s so fun. You get to create this beautiful art that people eat.”
Veronica liked restaurants like that. He was never allowed to accompany her, though, not that it sounded like his particular scene. “Sounds cool,” he said, diplomatically. He looked around the bar appraisingly.
“Hey, I should probably bounce soon. I need to take care of some things. But thank you, for everything. I’ll find a way to get in touch with you.” Derek shrugged and smiled. “Probably not too difficult, around here.”
“Hey no worries!” He smiled and shrugged, “you gotta do what you gotta do. My mom lives at 450 North Lincoln, she can give you my number if you ever get a phone. I’ll tell her so she knows.” He would’ve offered to make food for his friend but he felt as if that would be too much just then. The guy didn’t have his bearings yet. “Thanks for having a drink with me.”
“Are you kidding? Thank you.” He stood and held out a hand to Ronnie. Not everyone would pick a guy up from the pavement. “You’re like a fairy godmother. Um, godfather. Godbro?”
“Godbro!” He laughed, shaking Derek’s hand. “I guess just wave your arm around in the air and maybe I’ll appear but don’t go buying any pumpkins.” Ronnie offered a genuine smile. “Take care, my friend. I’ll see you around.”