~*~Did this chapter take too long in coming yes. Should I be working on more productive and important stuff yes. Do I care about that other productive stuff no.
Musical Muse: Nothing in particular
Warnings: Swearing, stalker-y stuff, sexual references, nothing too bad.
Disclaimer: I'm not Tessa, and I really miss her.

~*~ Thunderstorm Chapter 4 ~*~

The novelty of having a vampire the size of a Chihuahua stuck in his room quickly wore off.

Worth reclined against his filthy pillows, trying desperately to lose himself in the medical drama he was watching. His occupation didn't offer him a lot of free time, and whenever he got any he spent it catching up on his favorite shows. He really had no clue if the situations presented in the fictional hospitals were legitimate or not, but they were usually entertaining, if not somewhat educational.

But he had run out of his usual favorites to watch, and this new drama was stupid, the plot was boring and totally ridiculous, the main character was insufferable, and Conrad would not shut up.

After his little drink from Worth, Conrad spent about three minutes absolutely freaking out, then about five minutes telling Worth what a horrible person he was, was silent for about one minute, then started complaining about how apparently he couldn't turn back to human form. Worth stopped paying attention during the first four minutes, but the bat nattering in the background was really distracting. And annoying. And made him want to find a tennis racket.

On top of all these wonderful things, the storm seemed to be getting worse. And every time thunder smashed its way through the room Conrad would squeak and jump. Every. Damn. Time. Turns out that the relief provided by blood in the system was only temporary.

For the life of him, Worth couldn't figure out what the damn deal was, and honestly was having a hard time finding enough shits to give about it. So little Connie was scared of thunderstorms; big freaking deal! He was seriously overreacting about the whole thing. There was genuine fear and paranoia, and the reactions that would result from them. And then there were the over-the-top overreactions over the slightest fucking thing that resulted in the constant complaining that Conrad was providing. He had a hard enough time tolerating the former in the first place. Especially when it came from Connie.

Maybe a tennis racket was too kind. He was sure he had a baseball bat or crowbar lying around somewhere…

CRACK! *ZZZT* "…!"

Worth leaned forward, propped his bony elbows on his thigh, and covered his face with his hands. That made no difference; it was still dark. "The 'lectric went out princess, that's what happened," he snarled, managing to sound pissed off and tired at the same time. Of course this had to happen. The universe seemed to have decided to screw with him tonight, and not in the fun way.

On the plus side, he was no longer listening to that stupid prat on the telly flout his overstuffed ego. On the negative, he was stuck in a dark room with a vampire who was probably afraid of the dark or some stupid ridiculous thing like that. He had no clue where his torch was, or if it even still worked, so he wouldn't be able to read. Short of interacting with the little poof, there was nothing to distract him. And he'd had enough Conrad interaction for a fucking week, thank you very much.

Worth pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes, feeling the sweet pain at the front of his skull. He watched the lights spark and swirl behind the lids and wondered when this whole damn affair would end. He'd had his fun, now why the fuck couldn't he be left alone? He liked being alone. Being bored and alone, in his opinion, was better than being bored with another person, because that encouraged small talk. And he fucking hated small talk. What the hell would he and Connie have to talk about anyway? His white-blood count and blood sugar levels?

Conrad had been quiet for a while. Had he ever been this quiet before? Worth didn't think so.

"Wassa matter Connie, ya git lost in the dark?" Worth asked to the dark room. No answer. He removed his hands from his face, watching the light seep away and leaving the deep dark behind. It was a rare thing for him to be unable to see. Working late nights and sleeping days tended to limit his interactions with pure darkness itself, even if the things that inhabited it showed up in his office all the time.

"Connie? Where'd ya go?" Thank god his voice only sounded annoyed. Just pissed off, nothing more. Not scared. Not that he was fucking scared. He wasn't scared of the dark or any of its residents, not even when he was younger and the residents could legitimately do him harm. He was just curious where one certain critter had hidden himself.

He really couldn't see a damn thing. No convenient flashes of lightning lit the room, no mysterious lighting sources offered him any scant amount of light. If this was going to turn out like some sort of horror movie, it was a really shitty one. There weren't any scantily-dressed females running around getting their heads chopped off, for a start.

"Alright bat-boy, real funny, now where the fuck 'r ya?" Worth strained his senses. His hearing was already heightened by the dark, so everything he heard was loud and clear. The storm had faded to a lull, and he could hear the pouring rain outside, and a dripping pipe in his own room. He could hear the silence that wasn't usually there, the absence of noise, since the sounds of all electric powered things were gone. He heard his own breath, his heart beating, blood rushing through his veins at an increased rate, racing the adrenaline that was now running through his veins after a revelation that hit him like a slab of concrete.

Conrad was a vampire. Vampires liked the dark. Vampires could fucking see in the dark.

And Worth couldn't.

'Oh shit shit shit SHIT' Worth internally gave his own ass a good solid kick. Why the hell hadn't he thought of this happening? He'd only been sitting on his ass all night; he could have been doing something useful, like finding candles and lighters, or getting some stupid-ass vampire back to his own home even if it meant carrying him there in his pocket himself. Anything was better than the total inactivity from before.

Because now he was stuck in the dark, with a vampire who had every reason to hate his guts, and had already demonstrated some serious behavior inconsistency in the last few hours. Vampire mood swings were nothing new, and Worth had seen his fair share, but Conrad had shown he was more unstable even than the dead-eyed fucker Hanna had dragged in before for whatever reason.

Perfect. Just fucking perfect.

Worth released an annoyed splurt of air through his lips. There was no point in keeping quiet; his accelerated heart rate was like a fucking drum in the quiet room. And if Conrad was going to flip out at him he was really taking his damn sweet time about it.

"Yanno, this is really fucking stupid," Worth said to the quiet room. Well, fuck, maybe it was empty. Maybe that stupid bat had gotten tired of hanging around in the dark and had flapped out of his room and back to his own damn apartment.

And as long as he was contemplating shit that would never fucking happen, maybe he'd get his medical license and move back to Australia. Yeah.

He waited a few moments, wondering what would happen next. Getting off his ass and finding light sounded like a great plan, but he didn't want to step on something small, red, and squishy. Well, not on accidentally anyway.

Lightning suddenly lit the room with an almost audible sizzle, and Worth realized that he didn't have to worry about accidentally stepping on Conrad. He now knew exactly where he was.

He was exactly three inches from his nose.

Worth's heart tried to evacuate his body as the room shook in the blackness again. He tried to halt the shiver doing laps up and down his spine, but the damn thing was on a roll now. How long had Conrad been sitting there, in the dark, back in human form, just staring at him? It was just flat unnerving. Maybe some lunatic souls got off having someone stare at their helpless figure in the dark, but not him damnit! This was seriously crossing the fucking line. He liked popping other people's personal bubbles, not having his own popped.

So how to proceed? Somehow, reaching out and punching Conrad in the nose just didn't seem like a good idea. He found himself unconsciously leaning back from his hunched position, and knew without knowing that Conrad was leaning forward, following him. Now that he knew where the vampire was, he could fucking feel him in the air in front of him, even though he wasn't breathing or making any sort of noise. He felt the bed on either side of him depress, and imagined pale white hands bracing themselves next to his hips.

"Connie?" His voice creaked, so he cleared his throat and tried for the soothing tone from earlier this afternoon. "What're ya doing?" He stared sightlessly at the black in front of him, wondering where Conrad's eyes were. Was Conrad looking him in the face, or was he looking at something else, like his heart or his neck?

The situation was out of his control. He hated that. When the situation was again under his control he was going to kick Connie's ass, no doubt. No one creeped on him in his own home. However much he was actually starting to like it.

"This is…" Worth twitched at the words spoken somewhere in the vicinity of his left ear. Really close to his skin. Conrad could only be an inch or so away. Totally invading Worth's personal space. He didn't move his head, because there was no way he could face Conrad and not touch him. Somehow, he didn't think that would be the right way out of the situation. He stayed perfectly still, barely even breathing. He couldn't even respond to Conrad's fragment at all. Air brushed over his skin behind his ear, and goose bumps rose. "…incredible. Like I can see your heartbeat. I can smell blood moving under your skin. It's really incredible…" Air moved next to him again, and Worth came to the rather unnerving conclusion that Conrad was sniffing him. Creep. But he found himself smirking anyway. Connie sounded so fucking fascinated, so mesmerized.

But why? He shouldn't be hungry, he'd just fed on him half an hour ago. Granted, he was a tenth the size he was now, but it was his own damn fault for not picking a form and sticking with it. And if Connie wanted munchies, why didn't he just go for them? It wasn't like Worth could stop him.

He better not ask for permission. Because as kinky and sorta-arousing this situation was, Worth was pretty sure he'd kill the mood by laughing his ass off.

A light noise came from next to his ear, and it took a few seconds for him to realize Conrad was snickering at him. "Am I scaring you Worth?" Worth's mouth fell open to deny and protest, but froze instantly when Connie licked his face.

Conrad licked his face!

Okay, forget scared. Forget annoyed, forget creeped, forget everything. Everything flew out the window as that cold wet muscle that dragged up his cheek. Worth's eyes slipped shut as he sucked a deep breath in an effort to keep calm. Because he was now very excited. Damn that fucker to hell and back, he knew exactly what he was doing to him. Vampire instincts and all that shit. Fuck, he was probably enjoying this as much as Worth was.

But before Worth could grab him and do…something, he felt the bed shift under him and knew Conrad had moved away. Stupid fucking son-of-a-

"You know, I thought you'd get pissed at that, but you liked that didn't you?" Conrad's smug voice came from what sounded like a foot away from him, and Worth experienced a completely different type of feeling in his gut. The stupid fucker had planned this. Got him all worked up and then just left him hanging. Revenge against Worth's earlier antics, probably. Worth leveled his best glare at the unseen entity. It was a mostly angry glare, but there was plenty of unresolved sexual tension thrown in for color.

"Watch it Fagula. Ya don't wanna be tryin that shit unless ya can handle what'll happen." Worth wondered how much Conrad knew what he was actually doing, or if he was still in the experimental stage. Had he ever tried this on anyone else? And why was that thought such a problem for him to think? He felt the mattress in front of him depress, and imagined the vampire settling down to stare at him some more.

"And just what'll happen, hmm?" Oh, fuck that smug bastard to hell and back, he was all cocky and sure of himself now, since he was obviously in the superior position. He didn't even sound scared of the storm anymore, even though it was still raging around them. Lightening occasionally lit the room, giving Worth proof that yes, Conrad was in fact sitting in front of him looking well pleased. And naked. He was still as naked as he had been when he woke up with Worth earlier.

Worth folded his arms over his chest, not for feeble protection, damnit, but to show he was cross. "Ya don't wanna know sweetheart," he countered, while desperately trying to think of what would happen. If Conrad lunged at him and tried to have a bite, well, Worth could see himself encouraging that behavior. He would probably also encourage anything else Conrad would attempt, if he tried anything else.

But he was damned if he made the first move.

~*~ Thanks for reading and please review!