beaming | keith kogane

IX | vampire

☀

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"YOU'D BE A GREAT VAMPIRE," She said, making my head turn to her. I rolled my eyes, huffing. It took me a moment to catch her drift, but I'm unsure whether I should be glad I did or not. "You're still on this? There's weeks until Halloween. Chill out," I averted my eyes as she glanced up at me, a tiny grin forming on her face.

I just wanted to slap that look off of her.

Y/n blinked, "Again, it's good to get costumes early." I adjusted the bag that I had, stretching my back. I swore I felt something crack, but it felt nice. She watched my movements, as if silently egging me on to make a response of some sort. I gave in. "Who says I celebrate in the first place?" A childish and dramatic gasp escaped her lips. There it is.

She shook her head frantically. "Who doesn't celebrate Halloween?! It's like the king of holidays!" Y/n moved her hands above her head, her attempt to paint a picture or vision of some sort. In the action, she nearly tossed off her bag that she held onto with her right hand. "Practically nobody celebrates Halloween, Y/n." I sigh tiredly.

I didn't actually want to tell her that the others usually celebrated it and ended up sugar high for an entire night. Mostly because I was tired and didn't feel like talking; that and because I also didn't feel like going into elaborate detail about their sugar hangovers. "What?!" She huffed. "I'd think that at least Pidge does." She muttered, a disappointed tone lacing her words.

I ignored her whining, crossing the street once the glowing white man showed up. "By the way," She chimed, doing her usual attempt to catch up to me. I looked at her from the corner of my eye before looking ahead again. I didn't say anything, but she took it as her cue to speak. "I think your cheek is healed; I'm pretty sure you can take the bandage off now."

I blinked at her, the memory coming back to me. Man, I really want to slap her for giving me this Band-Aid brand ad experience. Instead, I scowled and ripped off the bandage. It felt sticky at first, almost like peeling off the face mask that Lance forced me to try on last year. In a second, it was gone. I held it up in the air for a moment, seeing no markings on it at first.

There was a bit of dried blood, but that was about it. I nearly screamed in shock when the bandage slowly became little bits of gold glitter, floating up into the air before becoming transparent. "Jesus fucking Christ," I cursed, eyes wide as the material practically dispersed in my hand. "Cool, right?" Y/n grinned widely; it seemed like she wanted to test this on me.

I deadpanned, sighing quietly. "You planned this, didn't you?" She blinked, a glimmer of mischief in her eyes. "The fight? No. It was actually pretty convenient. I don't use it on many people, but it's cool when I do." She shrugged, grinning slightly. I rolled my eyes. Well, there's no going back now. I put my hand to my cheek, feeling smooth skin instead.

"See?" She skipped ahead carelessly, putting both hands behind her. "You're all healed up!" The girl yelled as I sighed, tightening the hold on my own bag and walking towards her. Y/n stopped a few times, waiting for me to run to catch up or something. I didn't bother, so she eventually just stopped completely to walk alongside me again.

I sighed, "Why are you so determined on being my friend? It's honestly really fucking irritating," For a moment, she cracked and I could see it. There was this dull look in her eyes. It was as fast as a camera flash. There one minute and gone the next. I blinked and by the time I stared at her again, the blank shine in her e/c orbs vanished.

She shrugged, as if searching for a valid answer herself. I never really understood why I forced myself into awkward moments like these, but it happened; a little too often for my liking, nonetheless. "I don't know, you're different. Plus, everyone could use a friend," I snorted, rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, right. Give me a bucket of ravioli, a hippo to befriend, and a lifetime's worth of Netflix and I'd be set." I averted my eyes, scoffing and shaking my head in disbelief. Sometimes I really did miss Mom's ravioli, but that's besides the point. Y/n looked at me weirdly and I'd be lying if I said the expression wasn't at least half-cute. 

She blinked a few times before uttering a question. "Why a hippo?" My brow twitched. Out of all things to question in that ridiculous sentence, she asks that? That explains a lot. . . My lips formed a small smirk before dropping into the usual neutral expression. "Why not? Do you have a thing against hippos?" I countered teasingly.

Y/n smiled slightly, "Oh, is the rebellious emo finally gaining a sense of humor?" She teased back, resulting in me clicking my tongue and looking away. Maybe I did listen to Twenty One Pilots and still mourn MCR's breakup although they're back together now, but who says it's her business? "I'm not an emo," I replied simply.

She just nodded and grinned childishly, as if this was some act that she played along too. I'm not emo. . . I countered in my head, thinking about my own stereotypical interests and how far they fell into the 'goth' and 'emo' category. "Are you just upset that you aren't the acid bath princess? That New Year's coming up and it just means another year until death?"

I knew exactly what video she was referencing to and it slightly hurt to know that thirteen year old me had simply nodded furiously when Tara and Raven spoke about it. "I have no idea what you're talking about," I rolled my eyes and looked away. She stared at me suspiciously, brows quirking cutely. "Okay," Her lips formed a small pout.

She turned her back towards me, grinning as she looked over her shoulder.

"But you totally would make a good emo vampire."