Who: Eve L and Bran What: run in Where: Verdant When: Feb. 17th evening Warnings: low Status: g-doc
Bran found himself at Verdant because at least he could usually find some hot woman who wanted to do dirty things to him. Also whom he could compel for some fresh blood. The younger Duval did not do blood bags unless dire circumstances arose. Unlike his brother, Bran still hadn’t found someone willing to be his regular blood source. No matter. As per usual enough people threw themselves at him.
His golden eyes took in the people currently present while he sipped on his bourbon. Bran considered whether or not he wanted to light up a cigarette, but right now his body didn’t crave the familiarity. Out of the two Duval brothers Damien was more easily the chainsmoker.
A cute redhead he didn’t recognize came up and flirted for a minute and Bran’s eyes remained as they were. No flash to indicate he was turned on because she was well on her way to being messy drunk. “You should get her home,” he told the girl’s friend.
Eve watched from a few stools over. She wasn't here necessarily to get laid or anything, but considering she had a weirdly normal day job and not a lot else on her plate when she didn't have her hands on a new spell, which she didn't. So she ended up at Verdant to pass the time.
Once the two girls walked away, she slowly turned her martini glass on around on the table top. "Some guys would have done the sure thing." This was a compliment without being wrapped in a question.
Bran took in the woman who spoke to him. Hot as fuck in his opinion, although something about her reminded him of someone. Oh right that brunette who hadn’t appreciated his cigarette in her tequila. But what drew his attention was the very large sword. Okay. Even in his more than two centuries, Bran hadn’t witnessed this particular thing before.
“I don’t have trouble getting women and as fun as a sure thing is, it’s less fun when it’s interrupted by someone puking on me,” he commented with a shrug. “I prefer fucking women who are relatively sobre.” A little buzzed? Sure. Not a problem. Falling over drunk? Bran might have to take care of her and that didn’t interest him at all. So, while he did the right thing, he did it for purely selfish reasons. Mostly.
"Mm." She made a thoughtful sort of sound as if she accepted his answer, but she wasn't entirely naive enough to take anyone at face value. Especially men who looked like he did and knew he was good looking - those men could be dangerous.
"I'll give you points for honesty." She looked a little amused, but in that sort of coy way when you weren't the sort of person to be entirely an open book.
"I'm Eve." If he made a joke about the garden of Eden, she was out .
Bran watched her, golden eyes taking in her movements, and the sound she made. Which did make the vampire wonder just what other sounds he could coax from her pretty mouth. The fact she seemed to think on it won her a few brownie points. He had enough women throwing themselves at him and, once and a while, the vampire needed an intelligent conversation.
“I don’t see a reason to lie. Ever.” Bran shrugged, keeping his expression perfectly neutral. Neither he nor Damien lied, nor did they appreciate lies. He liked the little look of amusement, though.
“I’m Bran. Nice to meet you Eve.” No, he would not make a Garden of Eden joke. Bran could joke, sometimes, but that seemed the type of crass he avoided. Although he did ask, “Religious parents?”
She let out a sudden burst of laughter at the assertion. She couldn’t help it considering what she knew of her parents. “Sorry.” She managed after she settled down. “Not in the way you’d think, anyway. My mother was a witch who slept with a demon lord to have me. So she believed in demons, sure.” But religious? Not really. “Jokes on her though considering this half demon got a job as an angel.” What could she say? Her life was complicated. She offered a nonchalant shrug because it was what it was.
Bran’s eyes flashed in amusement briefly, before his features settled themselves back to their usual neutral expression. Usually he’d be annoyed someone laughed at him, but since the vampire realized he brought it on himself with his comment, he let it slide. “Your mother purposefully slept with a demon to get pregnant?” Okay, this certainly piqued his interest.
“You work as an angel, though?” Bran rubbed a hand over his face briefly after a raised eyebrow. “Is that why you have a sword just hanging out with you?”
She nodded. Eve wasn’t sure if she needed to explain she was also a witch and technically a ghost too. It was probably best not to complicate the conversation more… at least right away. “It won’t leave me alone, actually. Normally I can just summon it and make it go away, but the Dome’s decided I get to keep it like an annoying pet or something.” Eve wasn’t thrilled about it. It made most things more awkward, but at least the places she frequented now were used to it.
“It does a good job of scaring off demons and ghosts though, if you ever have problems with either of them.”
In a rare show of emotion, Bran offered the gorgeous brunette a smirk before his features settled yet again. “So you just get to walk around with a sword…all the time?” That sounded intense, for lack of a better word.
“Do you encounter both on a regular basis?” Bran took another sip of his bourbon.
The smirk made her look a lot more handsome, though she got the sense he rarely did that sort of thing.
“Here? Not demons as much, if ever. Which I don’t mind. Demons are usually more entitled. Ghosts are either scared, sad, or angry most of the time and I can handle that.” The entitlement pissed her off though. “Believe it or not, there’s a few ghosts in town trapped from other worlds. Most of them seem more or less happy to be here. Madison comes with their own rules.” Like being able to manifest - that was a nice little perk.
Vampires learned to hide their emotions in Midnight City, and the Duval brothers excelled at masking their emotions. Hell, if Bran placed bets, he’d wager that Alyssa probably only saw Damien’s face show emotions like a dozen times. Maybe.
Bran knew just how handsome he was, although he’d be surprised to hear someone though a smirk added to his features.
“So you get the normal ghosts and then ghosts who were also kidnapped here? That must be a fucking treat.” Another sip of his bourbon. “Does it allow you to be separated while you sleep? Or when fucking?”
It was Eve’s turn to smirk because this was the first time someone had asked that, though she had to wonder how many other people thought the same thing. Bran was the first to say it out loud though and she appreciate he had the balls to do it.
“Thankfully it doesn’t mind being a few feet away from me, but it might become an issue if you’re a big roamer.” Though thankfully she didn’t think it’d matter in a bedroom because Eve wasn’t exactly great at being very stationary in bed.
At least she hadn’t thrown her drink at Bran. The vampire would take the win. Besides, he couldn’t be the only one wondering.
He raised an eyebrow and couldn’t hold back the smirk, which didn’t last long, but still. “So, what you’re saying is, don’t start in the kitchen and leave it there to take you to the bed. I can work with that.” Bran didn’t even consider she might not want to sleep with him. Call it decades of living in Midnight City.
“If you’re lucky.” Was her reply, her expression coy as she took another sip of her drink. Eve might be a little dry in the whole sex department - though that’d been looking up a little lately, but she was old enough not to be desperate either.
“How about you offer to walk me home first.” And they could see where things led from there.
Bran left cash for the drinks and actually left enough to cover the cost this time. No sense in making a bad impression.
“Yeah, I can offer to walk you home first. Shall we?” When they stood up, Bran offered his arm, although not without checking out her ass first.
“Such a gentleman.” She did appreciate the gesture. Eve had a feeling Bran was the sort of guy who had a lot more going on than he let on. He wasn’t the sort to lay things out on the table and she could appreciate that. She hadn’t decided exactly what sort of guy he was though, but he didn’t seem like a complete asshole, which was important, and she seemed pretty certain he wasn’t related to Kol either - the Mikaelsons tended to introduce themselves with their full names, she’d discovered.
She slipped off the chair and started following him toward the exit.
Oh fuck no. If Eve mentioned Kol, Bran’s face would not hide his disgust. The fucking piece of shit tried to kill Bran’s brother and Bran did not like Kol. Alyssa might love her brother, but the Duval brothers most certainly did not.
“When I want to be,” he responded easily. As they made their way to the exit, Bran moved his arm to wrap around Eve’s waist. At least that’s what he intended to do. Instead, nope. The French Revolution old vampire found his hands decided they needed to make the jazz hands motion, and, before he could stop himself, the words jazz hands also left his mouth.
“What. The. Actual. Fuck?”
Eve paused in her step, blinked, and turned to look at Bran. There was a moment where she, too, had a ‘what the fuck’ moment, but the event had been so ludicrous she was also trying not burst into laughter. She pressed her lips together, trying to be the semblance of control, but eventually it was too much and a small burst of a laugh that was more a sharp exhale of air came out from her lips.
“Sorry.” She wet her lips and managed not to guffaw or anything like that. “Take it from someone who’s been here a while, that probably could have been much worse. Unless you were planning to dazzle me with that, you’re probably the victim of some weird Dome fuckery.”
Ordinarily someone laughing at Bran annoyed the fuck out of him, but this felt so ridiculous that the vampire couldn’t blame Eve at all. Even while he felt annoyed about it.
When she finally commented the word dazzle Bran couldn’t hold it together and actually fucking laughed. When the hell had that happened in the last forever?
“I promise you that while I could dazzle you with many things, jazz hands wasn’t at the top of my list,” he said when he managed to catch his breath again. “Lucky. Me.”
“I believe it.” She got the sense he was at least well versed in sex just by the way he didn’t cling to the first thing thrown at him. “But maybe we can revisit that after this whatever-it-is, has passed. That way you can avoid any Jazz Hands in bed.” Or worse. What if Bran did something else much more mortifying when he orgasmed? While there was a small part of her who would have loved to see what the hell the Dome would have done with that, she didn’t think she wanted to deal with that secondhand embarrassment.
Bran nodded. “I think I’d rather hide until this blows over. My brother’s,” Bran paused and then shrugged, “whatever the fuck he’s calling her excels at catching me in ridiculous situations.” And the last thing Bran needed? Damien seeing any of this in any fashion.
“When this blows over, I’ll reach out.” Bran thought of her as attractive and they’d enjoyed a nice back and forth.
“Do you still want a walk home?” Bran figured he should offer. Yeah, he was a fucking asshole, but he still wanted to offer. “Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure you can take care of yourself.”
She gave a nod. She’d honestly do the same thing if she were in his position though she had a few more people who would probably see her do some ridiculous things. “If you’d like. I can play referee if you feel the need to wiggle your hands again until you’re close to home. Most people don’t say things to me when they see the sword.” She gave him a grin.