Written for comment_fic on livejournal. Prompt was Amanda/John lock-picking, fake ids, car, trunkful of weapons
When they parted, they stayed in an embrace for a little too long, feeling each other's breath, grasping for reasons not to let go.
The sex, Amanda thought to herself. It might be worth it to stay just for the sex. This one was versatile, could do rough or gentle, playful or intense. He had the skills of man eight times his age.
And he had a trunkful of weapons. She had seen him behead a vampire -- it was like watching a ballet. Not to mention his boxful of artfully done fake IDs. This one might actually be able to keep up with her.
And he was an honorable man. Honorable, but no Boy Scout, that's for sure.
Plus, he had a really great car.
But it had been a close miss. If he had gotten there just a few minutes earlier, he would have seen everything, seen the quickening.
He would never believe her. He would probably hunt her. She had been burned at the stake as a witch twice in her youth, and she wasn't eager for a repeat. And this one would be too dangerous to have as an enemy. Besides, she couldn't bear to see it - to see those big moist eyes fill with hatred and fear, to see his lips go from a lascivious smile to a disgusted sneer. It would be better to leave now, to end it with affection rather than a sword or a torch.
There were a lot of reasons John would like to stay. To cling onto Amanda's gorgeous form a little longer, to have a few more adventures, a few more laughs. To see her in that black dress again. Or the red one. To make love in the grass during sunrise one last time.
To convince her to teach him how to pick locks twice as fast as any hunter he's ever seen.
To finally get her to tell him a story about her childhood. A real one, not something she borrowed from an old movie.
He understood why she was slow to trust him. Natural, given what she was. How she had to fight for her life, even if she didn't go hunting for trouble.
He wanted to tell her that he knew she couldn't die. At least not easily. And that he loved that about her, he loved that he didn't have to spend every moment with her secretly terrified that she might end up on a ceiling, abdomen split.
But she made it clear that he was just for fun. That her life was too grandiose, too full, too much, to stay in one place for long. If she wanted to let him in, she would have.
So he pulled away from her and walked away, wondering if he would ever get to see her again.
Maybe in his next life.