The Morning Wake-Up

[Epiphany]

The sun. That brilliant ball of fire that hung in the sky and gave light to the world below. The heat and energy from it's rays warmed the environment and helped give life to vegetation and animals. An intruder, that's what it was. Sunlight went wherever it wanted to go without caring if it shone to brightly and hindered someone’s vision, or if the rays were too hot and caused someone’s skin to burn. The only thing to do, to stop this invader, was to block it out. And, as Epiphany slept, the bright and warm intruder was slowly creeping into her room with the help of the help of the very large bay window.

There were no obstructions to hinder sunlight from entering: no curtains in the window to act as a filter, and no furniture obstruction for it to work around. The floor of Epiphany’s room was bare, the cool marble tiles playing out an ariel view of the countryside. Where was the furniture? The wall was absent of any items; it was painted to look like the sky, a brightening morning sky of blue. Where was the door? The only things in the room were fluffy white clouds that were drifting around the air and a pile of clothes that covered a part of the floor.

One of the clouds began drifting towards the open window and the increasing sunlight. It was the growing brightness that caused Epiphany to stir from her position of slumber upon the drifting cloud. On a normal, typical day she would have welcomed the suns rays with a smile and eagerly jumped out of bed ready to start the day.

This was anything but a normal, typical day and, on a morning such as this, the sun was a very unwelcome guest. The growing light was an annoyance and she growled against the chest of her cloud partner. Though her eyes were closed she sensed the suns approach. Something would have to be done.

Her hand rose up and she made a lazy sweeping gesture with her hand the resulted in the window decreasing in size. Half it's original size the sun was no longer filling the room with such intensity - but it was still there. Not good enough. In a groggy rag doll motion she pushed her other hand under her chin, propping her head up and looking through squinted eyes at the source of the problem.

She knew that there was only one window in this rooms setup, but right now she saw two and they were moving. The gesture was repeated but this time a few extra passed of her hand was made. Soon, the window - and the annoying sun - was gone. Finally.

Epiphany had, quite literally, erased the window. It was a creation of her room and things created there were just that - creations, and were subject to her design.

Now that the sun was gone the room was not as bright, it took on the appearance of an overcast day, and she was able to open her eyes. Things looked different to her eyes, clearer and more defined. There was a different type of strength in her body that was not her own, she could feel it coursing through her veins. His strength. It was as strong as it had been during the night.

Just as she could feel him, she felt that another part of her was missing - or in the very least, beat down to a low murmur. An echo that still resided in her beating heart. It was there. Somewhere. As Epiphany became more aware of herself a hunger began pushing itself forward, memories leading it on. The taste of blood lingered on her tongue and she licked her lips. The answer to what she should eat was obvious and the means to satisfy her hunger was laying next to her.

Sliding her head out of her hands Epiphany watched him for a moment as she brushed the side of her neck. Unlike him, she didn't have the proper tools fir making punctures so she would have to wait.

She could wait. He couldn't sleep forever, right? The longer she waited the hungrier she would become. All things considered, that might not be a problem.

It was a thought that made her smile and Epiphany brushed her lips against the side of his neck before laying her head back down.

[Damon Fauci]

The sun. The brilliant ball of fire that Damon took great pains to avoid. It would not kill him, thanks to the elders of his bloodline who had a century ago taken great pains and great risk to put their kind through an evolution that would make it simpler to blend in with modern society. Regardless of that painfully earned convenience, the sun was still the sun and he was still a vampire. He found the sun's brightness incessantly annoying both to his eyes, and to his skin, and quite frankly as he was a creature who was a nocturnal beast for the most part he had no reason to bother with the day.

Besides the one who lay next to him on this gossamer cloud, of course. And it was rather obvious that their shared business the night before had certainly cured her of any desire to wake him up at an unforgivably sunny hour and needle him into a nice walk on the beach or some other spring pleasure. In fact, her distaste for the sun was so prevalent at the moment that she had rid them of the problem even before his preternatural instinct had alerted him of the coming light. While she was taking care of the nuisance, then, the one who's blood caused her to consider the sun as such was laying still as the dead beside her, still enveloped in the deep still sleep that only his kind could embrace.

However. A touch, that was more than enough to yank him into the waking world. Even if it was many, many hours before Damon usually roused himself. It was the survival instinct within the beast set off such an alarm - perhaps as it had been so long since he had shared a 'bed' with another that in his deep slumber he'd forgotten there was someone there laying with him who was entirely likely to touch, and caress. That fact would be remembered, naturally, when Damon's eyes snapped open and those endless pits of bottomless black fixed upon his shining angel. Yet one could certainly argue that those bloodstained lips of his were immediately curling into a smile so sly and wolfish in nature because the manner in which her skin shone this fine morning was more reminiscent of the moon, instead of the sun. Such a faint change, hard to notice if one had common eyes. Naturally nothing about Damon was common, eyesight or otherwise.

He did not need a window to the outside world to know that it was still daylight. He could feel it within, a faint burning that told him that light still claimed this day. As always, when he spoke his voice was silken, smooth. "Alive at this heinously early hour, Angel, really?" The manner of his smirk would disclose that he had chosen that rather beastly turn of phrase on purpose. Alive. As if he were trying to draw attention to the fact that her heart still beat, even after last night's affairs.

He reached upward, cool fingers slowly brushing a strand of her hair away so that it no longer obscured her face. "My. I suppose I'll have to work a bit harder next time to take care of that, won't I?"

[Epiphany]

He was awake. Unlike in the tales of the Brothers Grimm or those Christian Anderson, it wasn’t a kiss to the lips that caused the waking, but rather one to the neck. And, considering who it was, it made sense.

Epiphany gave a lazy stretch, his skin against hers not feeling as cold as she remembered – it could be that she was either use to it after all night, or another reason entirely. The meaning of the word ‘alive’ was not lost on her and, as he brushed back her hair, light
laughter came forth and her hand came up in an attempt to capture his wrist before his hand moved to far away.

"Yes, for now my heart still beats," with a coy smile she kissed the underside of his wrist, keeping her eyes upon him as she did. Maybe she did it as a tease or an otherwise playful gesture. Epiphany always did like to try and invoke reactions. "For now."

Those two words could mean many things and how long the 'now' would last was indefinate. "The sun is what woke me," she said while letting go of his wrist and propping her head in her hand. "I didn't invite it in yet it came anyway. Very invasive. It annoyed me and so, I made it dissapear." From the room that is, she didn't have the power to actually get rid of it really. Her room was a reflection of the world outside, however, with the absence of the sun, her room took on the apperence of late evening.

Epiphany was a morning person and she becoming more alive as the minutes passed. And hungry. Speaking of hunger... "I'm hungry." Her eyes shifted down to look at his neck and the area where she had placed her mark last night before looking back to him. "And fruit and bread isn't exactly what I want."

[Damon Fauci]

His wrist was captured, and he made no move to withdraw it from her clutches. Or her kisses, for that matter. He met her eyes fearlessly, as he always did, with a slight beastly curl to his lip. It would be far more than a penny for the thoughts that were the impetus for such a sly return of her gaze. When he was in the mood to toy, and tease, his motivations were much like a pendulum - when the one he was toying with swung one way, he swung the other. Prolonging the chase so, there was something far more satisfying about reaching the finish line when the moment finally came. For all parties involved.

Which is why, perhaps, he responded to her hunger in the way that he did. As her eyes shifted, his did not, and instead that bottomless black gaze made a study of her that was far more scrutinizing than the precursory one he made in the moment he first awoke. His first words were meant to be an entertainment, as he echoed dryly, "Fruit and bread, such simple fare is what you choose to put to your lips? Perhaps I will have to take you traveling with me so that you can sample the finer delicacies of my realm." Oh yes. Talk of her dining upon mere food, when she said her heart still beat 'for now'.

"As for your current hunger, we must tend to it, you're certainly right about that." Damon sat up, dark eyes searching this gossamer bed until he spotted his shirt, plunking it from the soft canopy of this cloud. He flashed Epiphany one of his more devilish smiles after he pulled that shirt over his head, and down over his torso. "Surely you have an especially understanding neighbor next door, or down the hall perhaps, that wouldn't mind you borrowing a cup of their more precious liquids?"

Did he just honestly suggest. . .? Absolutely, Damon did. That wolfish grin of his would certainly confirm that. For if she wanted to be sans heart beat in the near or even distant future, a true test of one's capability to be as such was to see if the individual when still afflicted with the majority of their humanity had the stomach to hunt and sate the hunger. He was so very interested to see her reaction - depending on what it was, she might make being up at this wretchedly early hour rather worthwhile.

[Epiphany]

Epiphany knew better than to take such words from Damon as a joke, he'd never joke about something like this. Would he? The bigger question should be whether or not she was hungry enough to go and borrow liquid from someone else besides him. She had only gotten blood from one other person before, and that was a different occasion.

She had been a vampire then - if only temporarily - and the man had deserved it. His partner too. Those had been strangers and by the time she and Damon were done with them they were not able to speak of what had happened anyway. Now, he was asking her to take from someone she may know. (She could look in the ledger and find the name of someone she didn't know and go after them but, in all honestly, it's not as if they would really be strangers.) Whoever she picked the person would either have to cut themselves, let her cut them, or Damon would.

Interesting. Who would she choose? Male or Female, she knew a bit of both, but not everyone would be open to such an idea. "You're testing me, aren't you? A challenge maybe?" It was a fault of hers - not backing down from a challenge. "I'll have to get dressed."

Okay, so there were some challenges she would think about more than twice before doing them, like if he had put forth the challenge to go see said person in her current state of undress. That was something she didn't think she could do.

Drawing her knees up under her, she pushed her feet down on the cloud and it began to lower at a slow pace. When it was four feet from the ground Epiphany simply fell through and her feet landed on the floor. She could have left the cloud at any time but there had been no reason too. "The bathroom is over there if you wish it." Her back was to him as she walked towards the clothes pile. Mention of a bathroom and a translucent door appeared over to her right, she indicated the direction with her hand. It was simply that. A door. It didn't appear to be attached to any wall and it was without hinges or knobs. Just a door that blended in almost perfectly to the area around it. He'd only have to push upon it for it to open and he would be in the actual bathroom of her room at the Inn. Sunlight wouldn't be a problem.

Epiphany was Building, creating and changing the world around her as she saw fit. It was one of the natures of this room off hers and she had gotten better at it over the years. She was also running through a list of possible "Breakfast Foods" in her head. She couldn't pick just anyone.

Retrieving her clothes off the floor she gave a partial turn in his direction and smiled. "Give me a moment, and then we'll go see Fallon." Yes, he would be willing, right? And with the shift in the way she saw their relationship, she would feel comfortable drinking from him.

That being said, Epiphany turned back around and disappeared through another door.

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