• "You know what I just noticed about you Alainna?" Ian said smiling. "What is it?" I asked. "Your really sweet, and have beautiful hair. "Aw thanks, but a lot of old people tell me that about my hair though," I said a biting my lip since I got that compliment a lot. "So at least they know to say something like that when they see it," He said with a big grin. That's when my stomach growled, and Ian had a funny look on his face. "How long has it been since you last ate?" He asked with a look like he's been starving me for the past week. "Oh uhm I think it was when I stole your gummies from you," I said with a hand behind my back. "Ok that's it I'm getting you something to eat!" He told me with this determined look in his eyes. "Where do you want to eat I could take you?" He asked me. "No it's fine you don't-" That's when had cut me off. "But Alainna you sound like your hungry." He said with puppy dog eyes. 'Not the puppy dog eyes.' I thought 'Man I can't resist the eyes.' "Oh ok fine you can take me somewhere. I don't care." I said flailing my arms. "Yes!!" He said jumping in the air. "But your buying, because you just heard my stomach growl a tinsy insy bit.

    "I know! Let's go somewhere!" I blurted. Slade's lip twitched. "Very specific." I glared at him. He scratched his head awkwardly. "We could go to the mall." "Okay!" I beamed. "Do you have a few hundreds?" Slade nodded, but then did a double take. "A few hundreds? How much do you buy?!" "Depends on what they have! Okay, fine, one hundred?" Still shaking his head, Slade handed me the money, but didn't let go as I moved to grab it. "You know, I could give you this hundred, and you could use it to try and escape." His eyes darkened. "I wouldn't put it past you to do it." I met his gaze. "Then don't give me the money." I grinned then. "Then you'll just have to look at my cute little girl face as I begged for another five dollars every two minutes." Slade broke into a smile then and let me have the hundred. Lawrence chose that moment to walk back in the room. "Damn, Slade, you're looking fine!" Slade shook his head. "I see you're as gay as ever, Lawrence." I gaped at ian's brother. "Are you?" Lawrence laughed. "Of course not. Just an ongoing joke." "Okay," I breathed. "Thank God."

    "So where do you want to go then?" He was asking me with the puppy dog eyes still. "Well I don't know. My parents always made me choose whenever we went out. Anyways I don't know what you like to eat," I told him looking up confused. "Ok then how about I make it a surprise then?" He said smiling then running off somewhere inside the house. "Uhm Ian?" I yelled after him while finding him in the kitchen digging through the stuff in the fridge and pantry. "Yeah Alainna what is it?" He said popping back up, and coming back over to me. "Why are you going through all the stuff in the kitchen. "Oh I can't tell," Ian told me waving a finger back and forth in front of my face. "Oh why?" I asked disappointed. "Because remember I said it was a surprise." He told me while grinning, and gong back to what he was doing. "Ok then if I can't know let me help." I told him while pushing up my sweater sleeves.

    After telling Lawrence where we were going, we got into Slade's awesome limborgini and drove off down the highway, heading for the mall. "how on earth did you buy this?" "Suprisingly," he responded, "I didn't save up millions of dollars in my free time like those cliche vampires. I'm still paying off the loan." I nodded. "Nice." "I know." We pulled into the mall's parking lot and then got out, heading inside. After failing to convince him to ride the merry go round with me, I got him to go on the bungee jumping thing set up in the center. It was a lot of fun and girls went by taking pictures (of him, I mean, a teen girl seeing Slade? It's like me seeing Sean Connery.*sigh* i love sean connery.) When we got off we started to go through the mini stores and things, and I bought an awesome bag that was blue with white swirls on it, filling it with books at the bookstore. "You're an odd human." he sighed. "Buying books intstead of lipgloss." "lipgloss is boring," i said. "Eye shadow is where its at!" With this I whipped out two containers. He sighed and shook his head. "Very odd human."


    "Ok then Alainna. You'll just have to grab the paper plates, and cups, then it off we go," He told me pointing to the ceiling in a superhero move. "Ok then," I said while walking over to grab the paper plates, and cup. "So I can I know where we're going?" I questioned while batting my eyelashes to see if he would give in. He looked like he almost would when he remembered it was a surprise. "Nope I'm sorry, but you can't know till we get there," he told me while still walking to the door, but that's when he also turned around, and smiled. "Oh, and you also need to where a blindfold." I was just about to protest when he raised his finger, and winked. "Come on don't be a party pooper. You said I could choose." "Okay you win I said skipping outside the door, when I noticed I had no idea where we were going. "Oh yeah so how are we going to get there?" I asked while skipping back in. "Well it's too cold to fly for you. So I'm just gonna say "borrow" my brothers porche." He said while taking my arm, and leading me to the end of the driveway where the car was kept.

    As we left the mall, me with two more pairs of jeans and Slade with a new CD from FYE, headed back out to the parking lot. I took constant deep breaths to watch the breath form in the air, recieving strange looks from Slade until he finally asked, "Do you want to go get something to eat?" I looked up at him with puppy dog eyes. "If you buy my Olive Garden, I'll love you forever." "Burger King it is." "What?!" "Olive Garden is so...a salad costs fifteen dollars!! A salad!" Slade frantically grabbed a leaf nearby. "This could be my salad, for free-" Just then a mall cop (I'll just call him that for now) Ran up. "That's defacing private property!" he handed Slade a ticket and waddled off. He stared at it incredulously before shaking his head. "I guess I can handle Olive Garden."

    Ian started up the car with a grin that had kind of scarred me. He looked like he was possessed . " Uhm Ian may I ask why your smiling like that?" I asked scarred of what he would say. "I haven't drove in awhile, and I'm just glad to get behind the wheel again," he said while patting the cars steering wheel, "Oh also you need this blindfold remember out agreement." Ian said side glancing my way. "Yes I do remember thank you." I told him while tying the piece of fabric around my head. It had been a while while we were in the car, and I was getting a bit antcy. "Are we there yet?" I said whining like a little kid. "Actually Alainna yes we are. I really hope you enjoy this it's another one of my favorite places when I live here," He told me while coming around to open my door.

    Soon we were in the resturaunt, me pigging out on fettucini alfredo, cheese sticks, and water and breadsticks, while Slade nibbled on his salad, watching me skeptically. "Are you always like this, or have I been starving you lately?" "i'm always like this," I grinned. When I was done eating Slade paid the bill and we left Olive Garden. "You've cost me nearly three hundred dollars today." At his death glare I hugged his arm. "Come on, you know you love me! you'd have no fun without me!" A man walked by, then, with a group of friends, stopping to wolf whistle. My face flushed and Slade put a protective arm around my waist. "Hey, wanna go out with us?" A man called. Slade shot him a death glare, tugging down his glasses just enough to reveal his crimson eyes. "Do you want to try it?" he growled. The men raised their hands and moved away, muttering under their breath. "I'm not one for vampiric tendencies," Slade murmured. "But shall I go bite their heads off?" "maybe later." i laughed. "Right now, I'm not in the mood to hide a body.'


    After Ian had opened my door for me he put his arm around my waist to guide me to the surprise place we where suppose to eat. "Ok Alainna we're here do you want to see it?" Ian said while taking off the blind fold. "Well yeah I do. I've been blindfolded for about an hour. What is it?" I said as the the fabric was taken off, and I opened my eyes. It was a beautiful mountain view with trees still with the fall colors on them. "Oh wow Ian! It's so beautiful. How'd you find this?" I said turning to him smiling. "Oh well before I met Slade me and my brothers were actually hiking, and we came down here to camp. It's a great spot isn't it?" Ian said "Yes it is," I said while standing next to him, and looking at the view. That's when I felt his hand grab mine, and he asked me if I wanted to help him set up the picnic. "Of course. You had to get everything back at the house. I can help you you know," I told him while raising my eyebrow.

    "You're never in the mood to embrace my homicidal tendencies," Slade remarked, as we slipped into the car and pulled out of the mall parking lot. "Otherwise I would have killed those two Daemon hunters when I had the chance." "Hey, you probably would have gotten your own head lobbed off!" I objected. "Since you were keeling over and everything!" "Yeah, yeah, I know." We drove for a while, and as we neared the house, he suddenly pulled to the side of the road. "I've been thinking," he said, voice dropping slightly. "You know, you...you remind me a lot of Seanna ." "Is that good?" I asked warily. "...well...not of her exactly. Not of her personality. Mostly...um..." he ran a hand through his hair and pulled off his sunglasses. "More of like what I felt...when she was with me. I...think you understand what I'm trying to say..." my face flushed. "Yeah, I guess I kinda do..."


    We started to lay the blanket on the ground, and lay out the food so we could eat. When I noticed that Ian kept looking at me. "Ian is there something wrong?" I asked in because I was starting to get worried, while taking a sip of water. "Well it's just I was starting to think that I couldn't protect you back when the Daemon Hunters had taken you along with Ann. I felt kind of helpless," He told me while looking down. "Ian I'm not that helpless. I can fight back you know," I told him, while lifting his chin so he would look back at me. "Yeah I know that but it's that your kind of small no offense, and when Dimitri took you away he seemed so much stronger. "Yeah but Ian I also know how to kick a guys butt, even if that guy has powers, they're still a guy. And Ian all guys have at least one of the same weakness." I said smiling, and then Ian smiled at me back. "At least I know your not afraid to hurt somebody," He told me while asking me what I would like to eat. "Yep, I'm a feisty fighter, and oh I'd like one of those sandwiches you made too." I said while holding up my fists like I was going to fight.


    Slade blushed furiously again and I realized that he was only an inch away from me. We stayed like this for a minute, and tons of thoughts went through my mind, mostly, what to do, what to do? and, what if someone's watching? What if there's a bug in the car? I don't know why I thought the last thoughts, but they were there all the same. Slade finally smiled slightly. "Are...um...I'm waiting for you to make the first move." he chuckled nervously at this, as I did. "I was waiting for you." "How about on three?" "I can handle that," i agreed. "One...." suddenly he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine, but he suddenly pulled away, grinning. I leaned back. "That was not three!" He grinned again. "Sorry. I couldn't wait."


    "Yeah so uhm?" Ian said stuttering while looking at the ground blushing. "Ian what's the matter?" I asked looking at him closer. That's when suddenly he gave me a peck on the lips, and turned around acting really embarrassed. I put my hand to my mouth where he had kissed me. "Uhm I-I'm really sorry Alainna I just couldn't h-help it," He told me looking at the ground, his face red as a tomatoes. "Uhm well it was fine I guess." I told him while picking up the stuff, and blushing hoping that he would notice. "Oh ok then," Ian told me while helping me pick up what was left. "It's getting kind of cold out," I said while rubbing my arms, and shivering. "Oh then here take my jacket." Ian said holding out his jacket for me to stick on.

    Face flushed, I turned away from him. "Um...alright. It's fine." Slade touched my arm. "Sorry." "Hey, you had my consent," I said, smiling weakly at him. "I guess...whoa. It was just kind of...my first kiss." Slade was silent, face unreadable for a moment. He smiled. "I wish I could say the same, but...." "yeah." I looked out the window in embaressment. "Let's go back to Lawrence's." Slade started up the car and obliged, and we pulled into the drive slowly, getting out. The breeze made my neck prickle as I looked around. There was a light frost on the grass. suddenly an arm settled around my waist. I jumped slightly. "Come on. Let's go inside." I followed him into the house, where Lawrence was snoring quietly on the couch, the TV blaring an episode of House. I took off my coat and hung it up as Slade moved into the kitchen, tossing me his leather jacket. There was a cold chill then, so I pulled on his jacket, recieving an incredulous look from him. "I"m cold.' I said quickly. "And it smells nice." It did, it smelled like...well, if I could think of a smell that would fit, then it would be that, but it just plain smelled good, so I moved over to the couch aside of Lawrence and sat.

    There had been this awkward silence most of the drive back to his brothers place. "So are you warm enough now Alainna?" He said still looking ahead. "Yep I'm toasty now thanks," I told him giving a week smile. "Ok then," Ian said reaching to turn off the heater. I looked up at him trying to think of something when he caught me glancing. "Ok is it about what happened back at the picnic?" He asked me while driving out of the corner of his eyes. "Well no not really. It's just kind of quiet in hear is all. Kind of awkward." "Yeah I guess so," Ian said smiling back, that's when he revved the car up, and started to become he faster. "Uhm Ian what are you doing now?" I said nervously grabbing the seatbelt. "Oh I just wanted to have some fun, and there are barely any cops around this area so don't worry." He told me grinning, but that's when everything he said was completely wrong, and sirens went off. "Oh you said you knew this place well too," I said while laughing. "Well yeah it might have been a bit since I've been here," He told me while pulling over to receive his ticket.