InsaneJournal

Who: Rapunzel and Caleb Rivers
What: Movie night turns sour due to new powers
Where: Rapunzel's place
When: Sept 9 (first day of power swap)
Rating: PG-13 for some blood
Status: Complete


Caleb had been hanging out with Rapunzel a lot more lately. And it wasn’t just all about art. Which was a bit of a relief to Caleb, because while he did enjoy hearing Rapunzel talk about art, seeing the way her face lit up when she did, it wasn’t his area of expertise. So it was nice talking to her about other things as well, getting coffee, the occasional lunch. He had even shared a bit about his childhood - mostly that he never had one and thus missed out on all the classic childhood movies - Disney included. Which apparently Rapunzel needed to remedy.

Caleb wasn’t sure what to expect, but he wasn’t about to show up empty handed. Six pack in one hand he knocked on the door with the other, waiting for Rapunzel to answer.

Rapunzel still wasn't sure what was going on with her body. She could hear things she shouldn't be able to, was stronger than usual, and it just felt so unusual. She saw people on the network were talking about gaining and losing powers, so that had to be the issue since she had never dreamed about anything like this, but she had no idea what it was exactly.

She had somehow talked her boss into letting everyone off early today and sent a text to Caleb that she had more free time and they should watch a movie. While she waited for Caleb to come over she felt a hunger, but couldn't determine what would actually sate that hunger. She was trying to figure it out when she heard the door and opened it up, Pascal on her shoulder, and greeted Caleb, "Hope you are ready for a tale as old as time."

A tale as old as time? That didn’t sound like a thrilling movie to Caleb - it felt old timey. But whatever. He wasn’t going to complain. Besides he was caught off guard by the chameleon on Rapunzel’s shoulder. “This is the little guy from your dreams?”

Caleb had no idea what he was in for and hopefully he would enjoy Beauty and the Beast. It was definitely a favorite of hers and someone trying to get caught up on Disney movies had to watch it. At Caleb's comment Rapunzel reached over to run a finger over Pascal's back, "Yeah! His name is Pascal. He is pretty friendly."

“He’s cute,” Caleb replied. “Cutest chameleon I’ve ever seen.” Granted it was the only one Caleb had ever seen but that was beside the point.

“So tale as old as time?” He asked getting back to the subject at hand.

That earned a laugh as she turned to let Caleb in further into her apartment and then shut the door behind him. Hopefully Pascal would like him; he hadn’t had a ton of interactions with other people and in her dreams he hid from her mother. When Caleb asked again about her comment she began to hum the song as she walked over to where she had the dvd sitting on the table before holding it up for him, “Tale as old as tiiiiime, song as old as rhyyyyme. Beauty and the beaaaaast.”

“Hey little guy,” Caleb said to Pascal tentatively teaching out to run his fingers along the chameleon’s back before turning his attention to Rapunzel again.

“Ah, now that I’ve at least heard of,” he said following her further into the apartment. “Didn’t know you could sing,” he added cause her voice was pretty good. “How many talents do you have?”

Pascal stayed still as Caleb ran his finger along him. Rapunzel assumed that must be a good sign, but she was still figuring him out. “Well there ya go, glad you’ve at least heard about it. And yeah, not my really my biggest strength, but I’ve been told I’m alright,” Rapunzel was a modest person and she knew she was far more talented at painting than she was at singing. Singing was just a thing to do for fun, “Um, not sure? I’ll have to get back to you on that one.” She let out a small laugh because she had tried a handful of random hobbies growing up.

“One day I’ll discover them all,” Caleb cracked with a smirk. But for now? Movie.

Six pack in the fridge Caleb took out two for the movie. One of each of them and settled on the couch. There was a lot of singing so far which for some reason Caleb wasn’t expecting, even though Rapunzel had sung a little bit of a song he assumed was from the movie. The Gaston guy seemed like kind of a douche, but for the most part Caleb was enjoying the movie.

The comment about discovering them all had made Rapunzel flush as much as she could in her new pale state. She tried to play it off casually with a laugh and put the movie in for them to watch.

Rapunzel was enjoying the movie, moving slightly to closer to Caleb as it went on, and drank from her beer. When they got to the part that she had been singing she couldn't help but hum along. It was just a romantic part and she was still a big softie. When the song was over she moved into him a little more and let out a sigh, "Best part of the movie."

“So that’s where that came from,” Caleb said once he finally heard the song. He was fully aware of how close Rapunzel was to him at the moment and he may have moved closer to her throughout the movie as well. “Surprised you aren’t full on singing,” he teased bumping her shoulder.

"I am not going to ruin your first experience of this movie with my singing," Rapunzel explained with a laugh as she bumped his shoulder back. Any future screenings of this movie would absolutely include singing; especially if she was by herself. She settled in against him despite being able to hear their heartbeats pick up when she did and she really started to wonder what the hell was going on with her.

“Nah,” Caleb said pausing to take a sip of his beer. “It’d just enhance it,” he added with a grin. He liked hearing her sing even if it he had only briefly heard it earlier. Still he settled back in, perfectly content with Rapunzel resting against him as he continued to watch the movie.

“Flatterer, maybe on a second viewing,” Rapunzel shook her head with a small smile on her face. Caleb was definitely being a bit of a flirt tonight. But the emotions seemed weird to her and she felt this ache in her body that she was hungry, but she still hadn’t figured out what to do about the hunger. But the smell of Caleb beside her, his blood pumping through his veins, and suddenly fangs formed in her mouth and her face began to change, but Rapunzel had no idea what to do about it, “What the fu…”

Before Caleb knew what was happening, Rapunzel suddenly had fangs, and her eyes had changed to this weird golden color, red vein visible under her eyes. But he didn’t have time to say anything. Rapunzel was lunging at him with those fangs of hers. Caleb thought about getting as far away as possible, of Rapunzel being across the room. And then she was. Some how Caleb had thrown her into the opposite wall, with his mind.

“Shit!” Caleb said springing up from the couch and running over to her. Because even if had been a bit scared with the whole trying to bite him thing, he was still worried about her. He didn’t want her hurt. “Are you okay?”

The face change had been a lot to handle and then suddenly she was flying across the room. It was probably good that she was whatever this was because she would have definitely broken some bones. She was dazed as she started to sit back up and held a hand out to stop him from coming closer. “I think I’m okay, but I don’t know what to do about this,” She gestured at her face, she ran her tongue along the edges of her fangs and her brow furrowed further, “I think I’m hungry.” She didn’t want to explain further that she had been hungry for him in that moment.

Even without her explaining it Caleb knew she was hungry for him. Or at least for his blood. The fangs told him that much. He had stopped when she held out her hand but he wasn’t that scared anymore. He knew she didn’t want to hurt him. And he wanted to help her. “Maybe try from my wrist?” he offered.

Was he seriously offering to give her his blood? Rapunzel’s face showed her shock and she shook her head, “No, you can’t be serious. I don’t want to hurt you, Caleb. I’m not even sure why I’m suddenly a vampire.” The network posts had sounded kind of vague from what she had seen earlier, but it made no sense to go to bed normal and then apparently wake up as a vampire? Was that how she managed to get her boss to let her off? “There has to be another way, right?” Although her knowledge about vampire lore was all from popular culture and not that thorough she knew it was probably wise if she figured out some way to feed soon, but she didn’t want Caleb to be hurt in the process.

“And I’m not sure why I was suddenly able to throw you across the room with my mind,” Caleb replied. At least Caleb assumed that was what happened. He wasn’t sure vampires could fly like that and he had been thinking about her being as far away from him as possible. “But you need to eat now,” he went on. He wasn’t sure they had time to find another solution. Whatever the hell that would even be. “It’s okay. I trust you.”

Her eyes studied him to make sure he was being absolutely honest and went to chew on her bottom lip before she realized that was a bad idea and pricked her lip with one of her fangs. She cursed under her breath before letting out a sigh, “Okay, but if you need to use your crazy powers to get me to stop then I give you permission.” That way she knew he would be protected if something went wrong. Rapunzel’s hands shook as she reached up to take his wrist and brought it to her mouth. Thankfully instincts kicked in and she figured out the best way to bite him and began to drink his blood.

He wasn’t sure he could control his powers like that. He didn’t even know how he had done that in the first place. But still he nodded and let her bite his wrist. It didn’t hurt as bad as he thought it would. Just a little prick. And barely even felt her drinking. However after a few minutes he did start to feel light headed. “Rapunzel,” he said softly. “I think that’s good.”

It was almost like an out of body experience because Rapunzel knew she was drinking blood and that was disgusting, but with this new vampire thing she needed it and wanted it. It didn’t taste like she thought it would and she was feeling a lot better with each sip she took. When Caleb told her to finish up she didn’t want to, but there was that internal struggle of continuing or being a good person. She finally managed to pull herself away from his wrist and reached a hand up to make sure to wipe anything away. Her eyes found his and things felt a little stranger than before, “Thank you….I still can’t believe you let me do that.”

Caleb let out a sigh of relief when Rapunzel released his wrist. He was really glad he wasn’t going to have to try and use those powers again. “It’s fine,” Caleb replied staring at the two puncture marks on his wrist still bleeding a bit. “You uh, got a bandaid?”

"Oh...yeah, let me go grab one," at least her face was turning back to normal as Rapunzel went to the bathroom to grab a bandaid for him. She brought it, walked over to him, and opened up the package and placed it on him. It was covered in dinosaurs and she looked up at him, "so…. That was an awkward interruption. I get it if you want to leave."

Caleb was expecting a normal flesh color bandaid, not one covered in dinosaurs. But it was oddly fitting for Rapunzel and Caleb couldn’t help but find it amusing. “Nah,” Caleb said shaking his head. Yeah he hadn’t been expecting Rapunzel to need to feed on him. But he didn’t want to make her feel bad or awkward about it. “But I think we are gonna have to put the movie on hold and find some other way to get you blood.”

"Yeah, I think maybe a butcher shop might be good for animal blood. I might have to google pop culture and see what other vampires do," all Rapunzel knew that she wasn't going to feed on anyone else. Maybe animal blood would work for now, but she wasn't sure if she could convince anyone to give her a blood bag, "May as well go now and head over." Better to do it after she is back to normal right now than waiting until she was hungry again.

“Good idea,” Caleb agreed. He didn’t want her to get too hungry again. Especially if he wasn’t around to let her feed. Not that he really wanted to be fed on again anyway. “Let’s go. The movie can wait.”