Of the fact that each was watching the other both were highly aware. It wasn't in the usual vein – the way males sniff one another, assessing the challenge, the competition's seminal prowess. They watched one another as one species encounters an unknown, asking "what are you? why are you so very different to me?"
They watched the way a scientist observes the stages of life in a petri dish, the way psychiatrists strip away layer after layer of lies and social constructs to see what might be underneath, the way archeologists reconstruct entire civilizations from a few remains and a shard of pottery.
By watching they learned. And soon they knew each other intimately just from observing the little things that give a person away.
Roman's passionately recitation of bad poetry in English class told Peter he was a helpless romantic for all his lothario reputation. His vituperative lashing of the class for their consequent laughter attested to a sensitive soul, angry and hurt for being so misunderstood.
Roman lost sleep over the unanswerable questions of life, manifest in the huge black circles under his eyes and an ambitious cocaine habit he took no pains to hide. A shrink would have said he was desperate for help.
Roman fancied himself a protector, guarding over his enormous sister as if her honor depended on it. Peter's habit of courting her in a way that mocked himself, the town's Moliere, earned him a penetrating stare from the vampire: Keep it clean.
In complete contrast to the aristocrat, Peter had a happy-go-lucky style that was periodically punctuated by a sensation in his very balls that something really bad was about to happen. That feeling usually led to some investigatory work on his part to ensure that whatever it was, it didn't have his number on it.
He slept quite well, especially after the commencement of each lunar cycle and was confident that the ways of the world would work themselves out. Like all young healthy males he loved sex and like all gypsies (and other young males) he was prone to "lovin' 'em and leavin' 'em." (His mother was of the laissez-faire school of parenting and did not meddle in her sons affairs unless he requested.)
Peter genuinely pitied others tied down by their material possessions and responsibilities living up to other's expectations. He made it a point to let others down so that he wouldn't fall into the same trap. "I offer you nothing, I ask for nothing," he often said.
Both were well-educated in very different areas. Roman studied literature and history because he actually mattered there. Peter was reared steeped in the traditions and legends of him kind - an understanding of the universe, the world, and his place in it.
Roman longed to prove himself and spent entire days dedicated to finding a suitable forum. Peter knew he was nothing special and was happy in that fact.
They gave up the charade of I Spy after half of Brooke Bluebell from Penrose was found in the park playhouse. Peter had gone to the site to feel the earth and what it had to tell him. Roman had gone to the site because –
Roman didn't know. He just couldn't sleep and that seemed as good a place as any to start.
Roman was profoundly disappointed that Peter had not committed the crime (for some reason he trusted him implicitly when Peter said he had not) but Peter just nodded his head when Roman denied any part. It would have been strange for an upir to commit such a public violent act. He knew they were ruthless, but they weren't foolish. They couldn't have survived so many centuries otherwise.
Roman was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that Peter was a werewolf. Peter knew Roman had absolutely idea what he was and marveled at that. He had known he was a werewolf before he cut off his dead grandfather's head! How sheltered these others lived.
Both were aware of the other's presence in their dreams but astonished that they shared the same subliminal experience, the visceral knowledge that something ancient and dark lay underneath the hills, as incomprehensible as the Creator and equally as awe-inspiring. Both had seen the Biblical serpent. He rose up and consumed not the others as they anticipated but his own tail leaving them stressed and unable to comprehend.
Of one thing both boys were completely ignorant.
Neither had any idea that they were falling in love.