apparently i'm the only person so far writing ericka x dracula anything? whatevs. this couple rocks my socks and was the only good part of the entire movie, so i'm gonna focus on it like a fuckin' hawk.
enjoy some family texting!
~gal
When Ericka's phone dings sometime while she's chatting to the Hydra about their lovely scales ("thank you so much, Captain, we do our very best") she checks her phone, nearly bursts into unwanted tears, and excuses herself to lean on one of the lobby's couches.
Mavis: Hey, Ericka! Adding you to our family group chat! Let me know if you get this!
She'd never been a part of anything. The mundanity of a family group chat was so… boring in concept but left her warm and teary-eyed, and she swiped at her eyes.
She was about to respond with some sort of long-winded, heartfelt thank you until three dots on the bottom appeared.
Dracula: MAVIS WHY ARE YOU TEXTING ME
Mavis: We're adding Ericka to the group chat, dad
Johnny: Sweeeeet
Dracula: MAVY WAVY THAT'S A GREAT IDEA DID YOU TELL HER YET
Mavis: This is a GROUP CHAT dad. She's on, now.
Dracula: ERICKA YOU'RE A PART OF OUR GROUP CHAT NOW
Mavis: Dad, she knows
Dracula: ERICKA. YOU JUST HAVE TO TYPE AND SEND IT AND EVERYONE SEES IT
Mavis: She knows how to use group chat, dad
Dracula: TYPE INTO THE BOX AND THEN PRESS SEND
Ericka: I know, honey.
Dracula: THE SEND BUTTON IS THE BLUE ONE THAT SAYS SEND
Ericka: I know, honey, thank you.
Dracula: SHE FIGURED IT OUT MAVIS
Johnny: dude, you can talk to the people there, you know?
Ericka: I'm here, hon. You can talk to me.
Dracula: MAVIS WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING ME ERICKA FIGURED IT OUT
Mavis: We all know, dad.
She must have looked all colors of. crazy from the way she was chuckling down at her phone. She looked up. A few monsters gave her a look or two but none of them did much else. Ericka shrugged off the feeling of the awkward spotlight and looked back down at her screen.
Her boyfriend (was that what he was? the term was almost strange and highschool-ish, but still managed to send little sparks down her spine) was savvy in the ways of most things having to do with hotel management.
Tech intelligent, he was not.
She typed back "Thanks for adding me" and waited.
Three dots appeared at the bottom of the screen.
Dracula: ERICKA MAKE SURE YOU DON'T SEND ANYTHING YOU DON'T WANT THEM TO SEE ON HERE THIS IS PUBLIC.
Ericka: I know, honey.
Mavis: she knows, dad -_-. And you don't need to keep using caps lock.
Dracula: WHAT'S CAPS LOCK
A minute passed. She watched the dots appear, disappear, and then appear again.
Dracula: HEY HONEY ARE YOU FREE TONIGHT I WAS THINKING YOU COULD TRY ON THAT NEW LINGERIE WE PICKED OUT
Mavis: Group chat, dad! Group! Chat!
Johnny: lol
Dracula: ERICKA THIS WAS A GROUP CHAT I ACCIDENTALLY TYPED INTO DON'T DO THE SAME THING I DID
Dracula: I THINK I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT DO YOU WANT TO TRY ON THE LINGERIE TONIGHT
Ericka: Still group chat, honey.
Mavis: DAD.
Ericka pockets her phone, doing her best to swallow back the outrageous cocktail of embarrassment and laughter. She made a note to try and teach the King of Darkness how to navigate his phone later.
Maybe after that night. When she tried on the new lingerie.
Mavis had grown accustomed, day by day (and sometimes hour by hour) with the presence of her fathers new significant other. And had made an effort to at least try and include the woman.
And when she had, when the gates were opened, and when the invitations were extended, she found that Ericka… was actually pretty cool.
She was actually really cool.
The woman had been to nearly every continent, save Australia, and had navigated the seas for twenty-seven long years. "I started when I was fifteen," she told the young Vampiress, who was going through the hotel menus for the week while Ericka sat beside her, stapling invoices to accounts. "My grandfather had me training before then, but we didn't have the boat until I turned fourteen. So-"
"And you learned on your own?"
Ericka shrugged, slapping down the lid of the stapler with a thud. "I did a lot of things alone. The only thing he really helped me with was…" she squirmed, choosing her words carefully, "monster stuff. You know…"
"Oh," said Mavis. The topic was rarely breached, though Ericka suspected it wouldn't be long until the vampiress started asking questions.
"But other than that…"
Mavis shook her head, shaking the memory of krakens and wooden stakes off her mind. "So what? You only learned on a cruise ship?"
"Oh, no. I learned on all sorts. Sailing, small schooners, rowboats, catamaran, fishing. I still own the cruise ship. Haven't had the heart to sell it, yet, since cruise season is coming. Your dad and I are figuring out if I should go for a few months or not. And I think I still have a small motorboat docked out somewhere near New York. I'm thinking of having it shipped here." She grinned. "If I do, I'll have to take you and Johnny out on some of the lakes. Sunrise on the water is to die for."
Mavis, midway down the menu page, popped her head up. "For reals?"
"Sure!" Ericka flicked her hand. "Cruises are one thing. But small boat rides out? When it's quiet and the sun is just coming up? Nothing more romantic."
"Oh my god, that sounds perf-"
Their phones both buzzed.
They looked down.
Dracula: ERICKA I THINK I LOCKED MYSELF INSIDE MY COFFIN
Mavis slumped. "Didn't you guys get a bed?"
"Yeah. But he likes the coffin when he's freaking out, and you know the quarterly review is due tomorrow and…" she tapered off, already texting.
Ericka: Honey, this is a group chat. What's wrong?
Dracula: IM STUCK
Ericka: Yeah. Honey. I got that. But how
Dracula: I DON'T KNOW IT JUST HAPPENED
Dracula: SOS
Ericka sighed. "Put a pin in this," she apologized. Mavis flashed a thumbs up. "I'm going to go save your father from himself."
"Good luck," Mavis called after her, going back to the menus.
A few minutes later her phone buzzed again. There was a private text, from Ericka.
Ericka: Your father accidentally slammed his coffin too hard. It got stuck. I'm trying to get him out. Can you call maintenence?
Mavis: Sure.
Mavis put her phone down. And then she picked it back up, grinning.
Mavis: Can you send a video, first?
Ericka: …
Ericka: [Ericka has sent a video]
Mavis accepted the link.
It took quite a bit to get Vampire's drunk. Their hearts didn't technically beat, and their blood didn't really run, and so most of the chemicals that needed to get to their brains could only get there after said Vampire were absolutely and totally pickled.
Somehow, Murray, Frank, and Griffin succeeded.
The wedding of the Chupacabra had ended after 5 am, and though most of the guests had long gone back to their rooms, the boys had dragged Dracula along, claiming that a long overdue guys night was needed.
"Go," Ericka had told him, waving him off with a yawn. "I'm gonna get to bed anyway. My feet are killing me." He'd dragged her into every dance there; the notion of watching slow dances from the side of the dance floor had been left behind, and he hadn't stopped smiling since they'd finished swaying to the last Al Green song.
He kissed her cheek. And then, looking behind him to make sure his Pack wasn't watching, he leaned in and planted a kiss on her lips.
The pack apparently was watching and hooted.
"I'll meet you upstairs?"
"Remember to shut off the lights."
And they'd taken him away, with little calls of "thank you, Captain!" and "we'll have him back in one piece!"
That had been three hours ago. Before they'd begun plying one another with beers. And then shots. And finally, when the sun was beginning to burn dew off the leaves, with every type of mixer.
The zombie bartender handed Dracula another cosmo, while Griffin sucked the vodka out of the chunks of pineapple on his skewer.
"God…" Murray slurred, sucking back a Sex on the Beach. "Le'me tell you somethin'. Y'all are soooooo lucky. With wiiiiives and relaaaaaationships-"
Wayne slumped down, grinning from ear to ear. He motioned for the bartender to refill his vodka tonic. "SOOOooo lucky," he said. "SO SO lucky. I got kids. I got… got Wanda. God, she-she's per -hic- perfect."
"Mmmmm…" agreed Griffin, trying to stab his pineapple with the fancy umbrella. "Totally. Tot-a-lly. TOTES."
Frank, half asleep on the countertop motioned weakly with his hand.
Dracula poked at his cosmo sadly. He wasn't drunk, was he? He could see straight (even if most of what he saw was doubles) and he still seemed to be able to use magic? He flickered his fingers experimentally. A shot of blue knocked over a chair somewhere behind him.
Okay. So maybe not.
God? When was the last time he'd had this much to drink? He'd been stressed lately, with wedding planning and the hotels new wave of maintenance ever since the heavy Transylvanian summer showers had begun. His head gave a lovely thump thump and he rubbed his temple. It was stress that was causing the headache, he told himself. And not the six vodka tonics and seven cosmos he'd knocked back in the last two hours.
Yeah. That made sense. Stress. Just stress.
"'M super luckyyy tooo" drawled Frank, head still on the counter. "Got… got a wife… She's sooooo pretty." He held his ears. "But loud."
Griffin burped.
Dracula poked his drink again, suddenly feeling lonely in all the talk of wives and partners. "Ohhhhh" he groaned, plucking at the cherry at the end of his tiny umbrella. "I wishhhhh I was luckkkkky too. Haven' -urp- haven' had someone since… since Martha an-"
"Drac!" Griffin tried to put his hand on the counts shoulder but ended up slapping it instead. "Drac you DO. Remeeeember? You have Eri-Ericka."
Dracula sat taller. "Oh yeah!" he exclaimed. He swayed in his seat. "Ericka!"
Frank popped up. "Ericka's great!" he shouted before his head fell back down with a THUMP that made all the drinks jump in their glasses.
Dracula nodded, ignoring the feeling of sea sickness in his gut. Was the hotel floating? He didn't remember installing a lake? "She's- she's so so so so sooooooo great! She's so pretty and nice and pretty and pretty-"
"So nice!" agreed Wayne.
Murray nodded. "And she could kill you!"
"Which's suuuuuuper hot," said Griffin.
"Totally hot," mumbled Frank into the counter.
"I shou-should text her!"
"You totally should." Wayne pumped his fist. "Do it! Do it!"
"I'm gonna!" That was a good idea! Texting meant you weren'tdrunk, right? Or stressed? Or absolutely out of your mind?
Dracula took out his phone. "What should I say?"
"Use those faces!" Griffin said, glasses slipping off. "Girls looove those faces."
"And compliment her," suggested Murray. "Say she's beautiful."
"And could kill you," mumbled Frank.
"YES." Dracula liked this idea. Dracula liked this idea a lot.
Dracula: HEY HONEY SMILEY FACE
Dracula: THE BOYS AND I ARE STILL HERE SMILEY FACE
Dracula: THEY REMINDED ME THAT YOU EXIST AND I WANTED TO SAY HOW MUCH I LOVE YOUR FACE SMILEY FACE
Dracula: IT'S A GREAT FACE EVEN IF IT TRIED TO KILL ME THAT ONE TIME HEART
Ericka: …
Ericka: …
Ericka: honey… why are you texting me.
Mavis: what's happening?
Dracula: BECAS I LOVE YOU
Dracula: OH HELLO MAVY WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE
Ericka: This is a group chat, sweetheart.
Mavis: Dad I was sleeping
Ericka: We all were. it's 7 in the morning.
Dracula: YES BUT I LOVE YOU SMILEY FACE
Ericka: Why do you keep saying smiley face
Dracula: BECAUSE GIRLS LOVE WHEN MEN USE EMOTION CONS
Mavis: You don't spell them you use the picture
Dracula: THERE ARE PICTURES? SMILEY FACE
Mavis: oh my god.
Ericka: …
Ericka: text me again and i'll actually kill you
Dracula: OKAY HONEY HEARTHEARTHEART
Dracula: …
Dracula: ERICKA I STILL LOVE YOUR FACe
Dracula: YOU LOOK GREAT NAKED
Mavis: Ericka, please kill him
Mavis: I'll give you the stakes myself
Ericka: I'm pretty sure I still have extras in my duffel but thank you sweetheart
Mavis: No prob goodnight
Dracula: THATS SUPER HOT
Ericka: I'm locking you outside in the sun if you don't stop
Dracula held his phone close to his chest. "I just love her so much," he choked.
"Super hot," said Griffin.
Frank groaned into the counter.
Dracula woke up with an earth-shattering headache. "Oh…" he mumbled. "Oh shit." From next to him, Ericka looked up from her book. It was some adventure story, with an explosion on the cover.
"Yeah," she said. "That sounds about right."
"What did I do last night?" he rolled over, facing her, wincing in the light of her bedside lamp. His voice sounded too loud against the stone walls. "Did I die?"
"No. But I almost killed you."
"Oh," he said.
"And you drank a lot," she said, going back to her book. "I'm pretty sure it was a bunch of cosmos. That's what you told me when you came back."
"I walked back?" He squinted, trying to remember. Or maybe trying to block out the light. When did the room get so bright?
"Mmmhm. Jumped into bed and woke me up to tell me that I was hot." She turned the page. "And then you stole all the covers. You're lucky I don't keep stakes next to me."
He ignored the last part and rubbed his face. "I think I'm dead. I think I died, and now I'm dead."
"Technically, you're undead."
"You know what I mean." He pushed his hands against his eyes. "It's been a long few weeks. Stress is doing me in."
"This isn't stressed," Ericka said into her book. "You're hungover.."
He groaned, hiding his eyes in his pillow. "Vampires," he remarked painfully, "don't get drunk."
"I'm pretty sure that's not true. Because you were drunk."
"Stressed," he argued.
"Stressed people don't drunk text their entire families at 8 in the morning."
He peeked out with one eye. "What?"
"Yup." Ericka said, popping the P. "You spelled out emoticons. and then told everyone I looked good naked."
Dracula stared at her like she'd told him the earth was moments away from destruction. "I didn't."
"You did," she said, turning the page again. "But please. Blame it on stress."
He hid his face in the pillow and groaned.