asher_talos | For Ray

For Ray

He could tell something was off even before he opened his eyes. Not in a bad way, necessarily, just... different.

Yet familiar.

For a moment, he just continued to lie there, eyes shut, listening. The hut he shared with Ray was relatively close to the shore, so waking up to the sound of waves was the norm. Today, though, it sounded like those waves were rolling in right outside their door.

He could hear breathing and heartbeats, both from the dogs and from Ray who was still fast asleep beside him. Ignorance was bliss, and all that. Ray hadn't gone to sleep with a vampire, and Asher doubted he was going to take waking up with one very well. Especially not after the stunt he pulled back when the causeway was active.

"Vecchio?" Asher whispered, nudging the other man with his knee. As long as he didn't start yelling, Asher would consider it going better than expected.

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"No..." Ray mumbled against his pillow, brow furrowing for a moment before a flat smile graced his face. The nudge had begun to pull him out of sleep but it hadn't broken his dream just yet.

He reached out and rolled closer, pressing himself against the body next to him.

"I'm with Asher."

It sounded more like a question than a statement.

Since being gentle hadn't worked, and Asher didn't really want to hear anymore of Ray's dream mumbling, he kneed him again, a bit harder this time.

"Wake up, would you? Or at least keep your dream infidelity to yourself."

Moving closer really hadn't done him any favours. The jolt woke Ray up instantly and while he would usually be quite pleased to find himself half-wrapped over Asher, the actual bodily harm kinda put an immediate end to any warm or fuzzy feelings.

"What?" He complained in annoyance, any memories of his dream disappearing without a trace. "What d'you want? Is there a killer teddy bear?"

Well, he definitely wasn't a teddy bear...

"No. Thank God," he answered. Asking Ray not to freak out seemed like the quickest way to get him to do just that, so Asher avoided it. "I do think the Island is having one of those kinds of days, though."

He was pretty damn sure of it, actually.

Oh God... Was he going to open his eyes and find himself and Asher in bed in the middle of Times Square? Or worse, was the island overrun by moose? It wasn't exactly an incentive to wake up.

"And you thought, hey I know, instead of letting Ray remain blissfully unaware, I'll force him into consciousness so he can suffer with me." He guessed that was what being a blank meant.

He stretched a little, then let out a sigh and opened blurry eyes. "Okay, I'm awake."

"No, I thought you'd appreciate the heads up." Had the roles been reversed, Asher would have wanted to know. He would have bitched all the same about being woken up, too, though.

Before Ray fully had a chance to blink the sleep out of his eyes, Asher leaned in and kissed him. "I'm still me, okay?" He mumbled against Ray's lips.

Ray wasn't so sleepy that he didn't register how weird Asher's comment was. He did appreciate the kiss though, even if he was slow in returning it or pulling away.

From up close, he saw pale skin and blond hair and a head that was still sort of head-shaped, so he wasn't immediately concerned.

"Please don't tell me you have a tail..."

"I don't have a tail," Asher assured him before moving on with what might have been slightly less assuring, "or a regular pulse or heartbeat..."

Or blue eyes, he was willing to bet, and he already knew how Ray felt about that.

Confusion peaking, Ray pushed him away a little and pulled his head back to take a proper look. As soon as he spotted the eyes, he knew exactly what he was dealing with, and the hand on Asher's chest pushed him back even more.

Every word of their argument from last year came flooding back. It had gone round and round in his head so much he could probably still quote it verbatim. Even though he didn't think Asher was dumb or mean enough to screw around with him again, he could still hear his heart racing in his ears.

Not again.

"......do you want some ear plugs?"

Asher rolled his eyes as Ray pushed him away. It was a better reaction that he'd expected, but that didn't mean it wasn't annoying that he still didn't trust him. At least partially. He hadn't run out of the hut screaming, or pulled the leg off a chair in order to stab him in the heart with it. That was something, he guessed.

"Not unless you plan on screaming."

"I don't plan on it, no," Ray replied, pulling his hand away and using it to push himself up into a sitting position. Whether it ended up happening anyway neither one of them could predict.

He wasn't actively avoiding Asher's gaze but he wasn't particularly keen on holding it either. The amber brought back an unsettling feeling Ray knew he'd have trouble shaking.

"Is this the same as last time?"

"Minus the unpleasant smells and mind splitting noise pollution? I guess? I don't know." When it came to the Island, who knew anything, really?

"Still pissed that I woke you up?"

Ray shook his head.

"Kinda pissed at the island though," he admitted, looking away for a moment. The expression on his face appeared like one of reluctant acceptance tinged with a touch of long sufferance. When they lived on an island with a mind of its own, shitty things happened that just had to be put up with.

"Okay... What do I need to know? No sunlight, no silver, no garlic, no loud noises, no... I dunno."

No real person food.

"That's about it, for the most part," he said with a slow nod.

That wasn't it, though, and he knew Ray wasn't actually dumb enough to forget the most obvious detail about vampirism. He was leaving out on purpose.

"You gonna be okay?" Asher asked. He might have been the one who'd woken up different, but he had a feeling this change was going to take a bigger toll on Ray then it did him. Having been a vampire for over five-hundred years, this wasn't new territory for him. Ray, on the other hand, hadn't been around this part of him for more than an hour.

"I guess..."

It was going to be weird not seeing Asher outside during the day but maybe the island would be kind and make this only a twenty-four hour bug.

"You're still you, right," Ray added, trying to convince himself of the fact. He rubbed the back of his neck anxiously with both hands. Who actually knew how long it would last. Christ, what if Asher was stuck like this forever?

"Oh God." He dropped his head, fingers interlocked at the nape of his neck. "What if this is just the start? What if you start to feel different, get possessed or something. What if you can't control yourself this time because something else is controlling you?"

"Get possessed by what?" Asher asked, pushing the covers away and swinging his legs over the edge of side of the bed.

"Worrying's not healthy, Vecchio," he continued, using Ray's own warning against him. If he really was immortal again, then he didn't have to be concerned about something like stress doing him much harm. The same couldn't be said for Ray.

"I'm controlling me now," he said, pulling on a pair of pants. He wasn't sure whether or not that was in any way reassuring, but it was true. "We'll deal with anything else when it happens. If it happens."

"The island! Magic! I dunno!" It had happened before so it was definitely a possibility in Ray's book. "How am I supposed to not worry?" he asked, looking over at Asher.

"Hey, wait, what're you doing?" He dropped halfway to the mattress to reach across the bed and nudge him in the back. "Where are you going?"

"On the other side of the room to get a shirt, if it's okay with you," he snapped, twisting away from the touch as soon as he felt it. "It's okay, I'm pretty sure there's no one for me to maul accidentally on purpose on the way there. You can rest easy."

Just because he had to be stuck inside all day, didn't mean he had to spend the entire time in his underwear. Something told him that the one thing that might have convinced him to lie around in even less that that wasn't an option.

Moving over to grab a shirt, Asher paused before the path of a beam of light that shown into the hut. Hesitating a moment, he passed a hand quickly through the light, drawing his hand back just a fast as he'd sent it out.

Nothing.

No burn. No smoke. Just... nothing. So he tried again.

"Huh. Well, that's different."

As if Ray wasn't worried enough, seeing Asher anywhere near sunlight was enough to push him over into panic.

"Don't," he insisted, feeling a wave ripple through him, slow at first, then zapping like an electric shock. There was just enough time to see Asher pull his hand away intact before Ray's vision was filled once again with a stretch of pale skin.

He was nudging Asher in the back.

"What the fuck," he breathed under his breath.

"So you do have a problem with me continuing to get dressed?" Asher asked, pulling away from Ray's touch. Whether of not Ray was actually objecting didn't stop him, though.

Moving over to grab a shirt, Asher paused before the path of a beam of light that shown into the hut. Hesitating a moment, he passed a hand quickly through the light, drawing his hand back just a fast as he'd sent it out.

Nothing.

No burn. No smoke. Just... nothing. So he tried again.

"Huh. Well, that's different."

Ray was experiencing the world's biggest deja vu.

Rather than panic, he just watched as Asher tested the light again, fully aware that he was going to be fine. What he didn't get was why he was doing it again.

"But not exactly a surprise," he commented, climbing off the bed and looking like he'd lost something. His mind, maybe.

"The fuck it isn't," he said, stepping into the stream of light completely. "Do you know how long we'd been trying to come up with the technology that would have made it possible for us to walk around in the daylight back home?"

Answer: A really long fucking time. And their search had taken them to all corners of the Earth looking for the one who started it all. Fucking years. Here, though, all he'd had to do was wake up on a Tuesday and it was done.

Surprise to Ray or not, the important thing was that it meant he didn't have to be stuck in the hut all day.

Ray boxed away 'worrying about Asher all night and all day' for another time. Right now, he was more concerned about himself.

"I meant it was hardly a surprise the second time you checked," he explained, head spinning. Man, he wished he was still asleep in bed.

"Yeah, well, better safe than a pile of ash, asshole," Asher replied, doing up the buttons of his shirt. "Excuse me if I didn't believe the first go and wanted to make sure before I went outside and burst into flames."

Relief flooded through Ray.

"Oh my God, you got up twice," he laughed, nervously dispelling some of his tension. Of course Asher had. It totally made sense.

Well, maybe not totally but Asher had pretty much just confirmed what Ray thought he'd seen, so... He shook it off.

"I thought I'd lost it for a second there."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm almost certain that I don't really care," he admitted, tucking the tails of his shirt into his pants.

"The..." Ray contemplated mimicking the tentative hand movement Asher had performed when checking the light but when he saw Asher's expression, he thought better of it.

"...never mind." He moved around the bed to find his own pants and top. "Are you really going out? Inside still sounds good."

"Because whatever is apparently going to possess me won't be able to find me as long as I stay inside?" Ray wanted him to stay inside for the same reason he'd wanted to get back to the main Island as soon as possible the last time something like this had happened.

Their current conversation was already headed in the same downward direction.

"You know this place, Asher. Freaky stuff never just happens to one person." He pulled a shirt roughly over his shoulder. "Who the hell knows what's out there?"

"Who knows what's out there any other day? You're telling me it's okay to go out there the rest of the time, but not now?" Now, when he was stronger and faster than he was normally. Something there just didn't add up.

"If you're scared of what may or may not be out there you're free to stay in here."

"I'm not scared, I just dunno what your rush is." A couple of minutes ago he'd been in bed, asleep. Now Ray was getting ready to chase a vampire out of his hut.

He moved back around the bed towards Asher, trying to make him understand. "You spent all of ten seconds in the daylight and now you wanna go out onto a tropical island and take your chances right away? What if it wears off and you're only protected temporarily? What happened to 'better safe than a pile of ash, asshole'?"

"And while you're here trying to unsuccessful convince me to stay inside, do you think there's anyone at the Compound right now having better luck with that with my sister?" If Asher had woken up this way then there was a good chance that Danica had, too. If the sun wasn't going to force her to stay inside, nothing and no one would.

"I have to eat, eventually. You want me to figure the details of that out here?" If she hadn't had him for breakfast already, Fitch and the clinic would be the obvious place to go first.

"There are a hundred and one other things I should be doing other than having a lie in all morning."

"Fine, then I'm coming with you," Ray decided, finishing doing up his belt, then turning around to reach for his gun. "And before you think it's because I'm convinced you're gonna go and massacre the villagers, it's not."

"Really? Because not five minutes ago I was going to be possessed and out of control," Asher said. Something about Ray's decision to arm himself while insisting he was tagging along for other reasons made it feel like the opposite was true. "Of course that's why you're coming. Why else would you be?"

"Christ, get over yourself," Ray replied, checking his ammo, then tucking the gun into his pants. "I may want you to stay inside but I still need to go and make sure people are okay."

Asher might like to ignore the fact that he was on the IPD - and to be honest, sometimes Ray liked to as well - but he couldn't when crap like this happened.

"Yeah, well, you have a good day at the office," Asher said, slipping on his shoes and grabbing his jacket, nothing in his tone giving the impression that he genuinely gave a shit about what sort of day Ray had as he headed for the door.

Ray knew he didn't show very well that his primary concern was Asher, rather than people he may or may not tear to shreds, but he at least thought he wasn't being a complete ass about it. Unlike Asher.

He sighed and started looking for his own shoes. "Would you just stop? You're being a jerk." When Asher didn't reply, Ray figured he was finally listening. Fully dressed a moment later, he went to join Asher at the door.

"I guess in a way that's kinda comforting. You still being you. You could try not being you though, in a nice way. I'm still reeling here. I'm still process-- Asher?" Ray's mouth slowly dropped as he stared at a frozen no-longer-former vampire, lifting a hand tentatively to move it in front of his face. "What..."

Asher stood, still as a statue, for a moment longer before moving again, reanimating just in time to walk right into the hand in front of his face.

"What the hell is your problem?!" he hissed, batting Ray's hand out of the way. And how the fuck did he end up right there, dressed, as fast as he did?

The gasp caught in his throat, the offending hand covering a cough as Ray regained his composure.

"Oh my God, that was me?" Was it him? Or was it some freaky side-effect of Asher's newly regained vampirism?

Ray figured there was only one way to find out, so instead of stepping out of Asher's way, he lifted both hands and started flicking them at the other man in attempt to freeze him again.

"Have you lost your damn mind?" Asher asked, shoving Ray away. He knew the vampire thing would be a shock to him, but he hadn't expected it to completely short circuit the other man's brain.

Well, that wasn't a kind.

"Have you lost yours?" He exclaimed, rubbing his chest and propping himself up against the wall to keep his balance. The fact that he thought he'd just frozen time took a back seat for a moment. "You shove me, you break me, asshole."

"Then don't give me a reason to," He replied. It didn't seem like a terribly difficult concept to grasp. This was Ray, though.

Before Ray had another chance to do something strange and Asher was forced to react accordingly, he pushed the open and stepped out into the sun. His eyes immediately squinted against the harsh light, and hadn't completely adjusted before he started walking. He'd feel his way around blind, if he had to. Whatever it took to put some distance between himself and Ray.

Ray glared hard at Asher as he walked away, furrow deepening between his eyes. Gone was the concern for Asher's well-being. If anything, he hoped to see wisps of smoke billowing from the man's shoulders any moment.

There was a split second of hesitation before he yelled after him. "You sound just like my Pop!"

It was the exact sort of thing he used to hear his father hissing to his Ma when he was sat at the top of the stairs in his pajamas, listening to the endless arguments. Sometimes he'd go down the next morning and his Ma would've gotten out her good make-up...

With a hard push, Ray slammed the door behind Asher and stayed inside, seething quietly. He didn't have to put up with being spoken to like that.

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For Ray

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