For a second Claire had actually been afraid she'd gone too far. Everyone had their limit, even if you were someone who insisted that you didn't have one. That was usually a lie. Maybe whatever his answer was, it wasn't one he was comfortable with. Or maybe he just didn't know how to answer, it wasn't exactly a question without its complications.
She didn't talk to Léon about this, but Caroline loved being a vampire. Genuinely loved it. The strength, the immunity, the whole being young and beautiful forever thing? It was hard to explain to someone who was so focused on the loss of humanity, but Caroline didn't really see it that way, and neither did Claire, really. Sure, there were things you did that made you a little less human. And just by the physical demands alone of being a vampire, they made you almost superhuman. But at least the type of vampire that Caroline was? Sometimes they were arguably more human than anyone else. The things they felt, the way they felt them. Every emotion heightened all the time, and not just the blood lust and the anger. Happiness and grief, too. What was more human than that?
The silence dragged on for long enough that Claire almost blurted out an apology, so she was pretty relieved to hear him say something. Anything, frankly, but in the end his actual response was pretty encouraging.
And then it made her blush.
She didn't think his last remark meant anything, but Claire wasn't as used to male attention as Caroline was. Never exactly the popular cheerleader with a ton of boyfriends in high school, Claire had been one of those weird theater kids who ended up going on dates with her equally nerdy guy friends. Which wasn't a bad thing. In fact, one could argue that dating someone who was also your friend was maybe the best decision you could make, considering Caroline had ended up marrying her best friend. The fact that it hadn't lasted wasn't either of their faults, in the end.
Thoughts of Stefan made that weird, achy feeling in her chest return and Claire scrambled to ignore it, also grateful for the amount of alcohol she had that had likely already done a lot to semi-permanently flush her cheeks and hide the blushing. No harm done. "Well when you put it like that, what's not to like?" She laughed, brushing a strand of blonde behind her ear and looked for a moment pensive. You know, for a drunk girl. "I wish Lêon could look at it that way, though. I think it's easier for him to accept now that he and Leander are in a good place, but I know being a vampire was never what he wanted."