Author's Note: This right here...what can I say except, come hell or high water, I'm writing something happy next. Also, these two stories are not companion pieces or sequels of any kind. I originally wrote them for Porn Battle and just didn't want to post them separately. "Another Great Love Story" answers the prompts for: Creepy and Human.
And They Said It Wouldn't Last: Another Great Love Story
They meet through a one-night stand but they begin with a kidnapping.
Franklin's sure that most great love stories do.
-0-
After they leave Russell's house, she stares at a picture of her cousin, of Lafayette, sometimes for hours on end.
Franklin hates it.
He knows the other man is no threat and even if he was, he wouldn't (couldn't) come near to the blistering heat they feel for one another. He still can't stand it though. The knowledge that there's even an inch of her heart that isn't filled to the lip with him.
Franklin watches her stare down at the slip of paper and his face hardens.
-0-
They play a game, every now then, where she tries to kill him.
She waits until the middle of the day, then pulls a weapon she's hidden somewhere during the night from its hiding place. He pretends to be asleep as she creeps toward him and just when she brings the piece of wood or metal or whatever she's squirreled away down, he jumps up. Wrestles it from her grasp and holds her down until she stops yelling and crying and begging him for things he knows she doesn't really want.
Franklin gazes at her with a smile. He thinks this is the most fun he's had in decades.
-0-
She's laying lengthwise across the bed in their hotel, head resting in his lap, as he tends to her wounds. He'd had to rough her up a little more than usual. She just got so overzealous about their amusements sometimes.
"What were you like when you were human?"
Franklin guesses it's the pain making her all soft and docile because he can't remember if she's ever asked him a question before now that wasn't a variation on Oh God, what are you doing! or Please stop! Don't! He likes it. Not necessarily her pliability, but how curious she is about him.
"I was the same." He finally answers. "I was just like I am now."
She doesn't seem as elated by that answer as Franklin thinks she ought to be.
-0-
Their arguments are fairly regular (it's the price he gladly pays for wanting someone so much like himself) but even Franklin worries they've gone too far this time.
She's all flash and violence, screaming about something or other when she grabs an object off their dresser and thrusts it towards him. He should've seen it coming but he didn't and it breaks through his skin and muscle, draws blood. He moves on instinct then, grabs her shoulder and shoves her back against the wall until he hears something crack and she lets out a low moan that sounds more surprised than hurt.
That soft sound breaks the spell and he lets her go immediately. Sometimes he forgets she isn't like him. That she's easily breakable and needs to be treated accordingly (Gentle, Franklin…gentle…) so he tugs her toward the bloody hole she made next to his heart apologetically. "Drink."
"No!" She says firmly and raises her arms to brace herself before falling against him with a pained scream. "I won't!"
"Don't be silly now," he scolds and cups the back of her neck, firmly pulls her toward him. "I can't take you to the hospital and this is the only way I can help."
That's not exactly true. He could set it and give her a Tylenol but this way he kills two birds with one stone. She heals up in a matter of minutes instead of weeks and he helps her realize how much he truly means to her. How much she really wants to stay.
He helps Tara forward and she hesitantly puts her lips to his wound. Franklin can feel the pressure from her suckling mouth as a delicate pain in the center of his back and he cradles the side of her face. Lets his eyes drift shut as he imagines his blood flowing into her mouth and through her veins. Mending all of her bruises and scrapes and making her stronger than she already is.
They lay down together afterward and when he spoons against her back, she melts into his embrace.
Tara jerks away from him the next night and won't speak for two days after that.
Franklin lets her have her way. He knows it won't be easy to break her. He wouldn't love her if it was.
-0-
They're lying in his favorite position (big spoon/little spoon) and he watches with sloe eyes as she rubs her thighs together and moans next to him. She knows now, whether she wants to or she doesn't, he's in her blood for good. She can't hide anymore. He knows, the moment she wakes up, that she feels confused before she looks at him leaning over her shoulder and it turns into something he can't really distinguish.
They stare at one another as he takes a deep breath, smiles. "Smells like sweet dreams."
It's not the first time Tara's looked at him with murder in her eyes but he still gets so hard at her gaze it should hurt. It doesn't though, or maybe it does. Franklin's never been good at telling the difference.
He leans forward and she doesn't try to stop him when he kisses her gently and starts to unbutton the front of her night gown or when he reaches down to pull her night dress up and her underwear off or even when he bends her leg back and over his own to work himself inside of her.
He'd known she wouldn't. Franklin's privy to all her deepest desires these days.
He plucks a nipple with one hand and slides the other arm across her chest like a safety belt. She smells like daytime, traces of car exhaust and grass and sweat, and Franklin buries his face in the side of her neck. Decides he doesn't want to change her, not just yet anyway. He likes her heat too much.
"I don't understand what's happening," she utters on a moan, genuinely confused.
He looks down between them to see himself moving in and out, to see himself slick and shiny with her.
"What's there to understand? You love me."
She gasps when he moves deeper but doesn't lose track of her thoughts. "No. That's not right."
Anger spreads through his chest before he tamps down on it. She doesn't understand what this is, she's only human after all. He'll have to help her. Franklin glides a palm down her body, over her breast, across her belly button and through the v of her thighs. She jerks toward his touch when his fingers slide across the right spot. He pinches the bundle of nerves a little harder than he should and she groans so low he has to strain to hear it.
Franklin gives her a smile that hides daggers.
"Yes it is."
-0-
He wakes up the next afternoon to see her standing in the door awash in sunlight.
She's in a strange mood. Not happy or sad or angry but something else…set. He thinks she's made a decision about something. She turns toward him and stares before she puts her hand out, beckoning him toward her.
He's stronger and faster than she is but Tara's already gotten the drop on him once. All she would need was a second. A moment's hesitation on his part and Franklin would be reduced to nothing but soot and embers. His cock twitches at the possibilities. He stands from the bed and toes the edge of sunlight streaming into their room from the open door, reaches out for her hand.