Seeking Eternity

Dancing along the Edge

Yuri found Otabek in the upstairs piano bar, sitting in a booth and nursing a glass of beer. Leo wasn't playing, he and Guang Hong were off for the day leaving Otabek and the bartender the only one inhabiting this place until he showed up. Yuri hesitated, seeing the dark haired man not drinking but simply staring off into the nothingness beyond the wall. It wasn't anything he didn't expect but somehow it hurt, a pain in his gut he hadn't felt in a very long time.

He was still here. He hadn't run off or been escorted away after having his memories clouded. Not every normal they'd chosen as possible allies worked out. Most actually didn't, which made a lot of sense given the situation. It was a necessary risk, one even those like Yuri who couldn't quite give up completely on the old ways, agreed on.

In his time he enjoyed the hunt. He'd become very skilled at it and for him these clubs were the only outlet they had to release that dark part of their being.

Sometimes it wasn't enough. But unlike those that remained loyal to the old council, he was trying to change. He wanted to change.

"So, you got the speech then? " Yuri plopped himself opposite Otabek in the booth. "He tell you everything?"

Otabek didn't even glance at him, instead focusing on his glass of beer as he nodded.

"Not sure what I'm ready to believe yet, but yeah-everything." he said "or as much as he could tell me."

"You remember how you first met me?" Yuri had to ask.

"All of it." Otabek said.

Again it hit him right there in the gut.

Determined not to let it show, Yuri shrugged as if it was nothing. None of it mattered to him and why should it? In the end Otabek Altin would die like all the others and be forgotten. It was just the way things were. Normal humans were born,lived and died while his kind plodded along with time. Every last vampire knew this and accepted it. For some reason they existed, and as long as they got their fill of blood regularly they healed from almost any injury and had somewhat enhanced senses.

He didn't expect Otabek to be overjoyed knowing the truth.

But he didn't expect what his own reaction would be.

"If it helps, I haven't been able to even think about doing any of that since." he admitted with a careful shrug.

"You're not lying?" Otabek asked

"Why would I bother lying after everything that old man told you?" Yuri feigned being offended with the ease of someone all too used to performing. "I didn't survive by being stupid."

The words were true,of course, but he was treading carefully now.

Otabek glanced up at the blonde haired vampire for a moment before taking a large drink of his beer, setting the glass back on the table and hanging his head again.

"You look good for whatever age you must be." Otabek said "If you asked me I would say you're the most beautiful and irritating man I've ever met."

"It's part of our rules, if we want to be around for a long time we have to take care of our bodies." Yuri said proudly, somehow missing exactly what was said "Most things will heal but we can't regenerate limbs and transplants are more than a little difficult. Has to be from within our kind or if its to us it gets rejected-to someone normal they become one of us. There are pills developed so we can eat,drink and be out in the sun for awhile and some say there are secret projects trying for a cure. To make us normal."