His entrance wasn't as quiet as he intended, as he managed to finally make it up into the treehouse that housed the only three people in Halloween town that Vincent considered his friends.
Barrel, who must have passed out on the couch after Vincent had left earlier, woke startled, as Vincent tripped over the pile of bottles that littered the floor.
"What are you still doing here, Vince? Isn't the sun out?"
Vincent pulled down his sunglasses, giving Barrel a nauseated face. "I'm running errands."
"So one of your errands was to come here� You're not making any sense, man." Barrel turned away from the vampire, who sat on the other couch across from him.
"No, but I've got some information that you'll be dying to hear." Vincent tapped his fingers together, images of the ever-so-attractive Eve flashed through his mind.
"If this isn't about a cure to a hangover, man, I can't listen right now."
"What's with all the noise, huh?" Lock stood in one of the doorways, shirtless and with his arms crossed. He looked exhausted, but seemed to be keeping his "cool-guy demeanor" up to par. "Vincent, why are you out?"
"I got reprimanded, but that's not important."
"That would explain the hat, running errands?" Lock crossed over to the chair next to the couch that Barrel was laying on, resting his head on his propped hand.
"Exactly, and if miserable over there would wake up, I could tell you why I'm here."
With a groan, Barrel sat up, a pitiful expression on his face. "Fine, whatever, what is it?"
Vincent pointed at him with his umbrella. "I don't appreciate the cruelty." He said, playfully.
"Stop wasting time, Shock is going to lecture me if she wakes up and I'm not there." Lock sighed, sitting up straighter.
"Too late." Shock walked through the same doorway Lock entered from. Lock rolled his eyes, and mumbled something unintelligible. "What are you doing here? Didn't you get enough excitement last night?" She sat down on the opposite side of the couch that Vincent was sitting on, extending her legs to rest her feet on Vincent's lap.
Vincent cleared his throat, putting his hand on her feet carefully, trying not to get disapproving look from Lock, who had on many occasions, reprimanded him for being "too touchy with his girl".
In his own defense, Vincent had been on the bad end of a relentless amount of teasing from Shock after her prompt discovery of his attraction to her.
"He'll tell us if we give him the chance." Barrel said, stretching his arms above his head. "Let's go, I'm tired. This had better be good."
"So, after I was sent to run errands for the tyrant vampire council, I went to the town hall, and of course, Jack and the Mayor are there, doing whatever they do when they're there."
Lock made a small mocking noise. "I'm sure the Mayor was on his knees and-"
"Anyway, so, I'm trying to get out of there, and the two of them are droning on. Right before I'm stuck in something Halloween presentation, the door opens, and in comes Sally- And Jack's daughter."
"Since when?" Barrel leans in, suddenly interested.
"Why is this important, Vinny?" Shock crossed her arms, wiggling the foot Vincent had in his hand.
"Because she's hot."
The emphasis on the descriptive term, caught Lock's devious attention. "Oh yeah?"
Shock shot him a dark look, and then returned her attention to Vincent. "How old is she? She can't be very old."
"I'm not sure, and she probably isn't, but she looks about seventeen or so."
"Are you sure, man? 'Cause you're sounding a bit like a creep." Barrel seemed a little less interested.
"To quote Jack, 'speaking in technicality, he's around your age.'" Vincent was smug when he saw the look on Lock's face. The nefarious serial seductor hadn't managed to find this out, and could not be pleased to know that Vincent was. He wished, though, that Shock could see that same expression and understand that Lock was also nefarious serial cheater.
"What did she say?" Barrel the grinned. "What was she wearing?"
"I'll leave that to your imagination." Vincent winked, to which Shock dug her heel into his thigh.
"Is this really worth our sleep?" Shock said, rolling her eyes.
Vincent shrugged. Obviously she wouldn't be interested, but the boys were, otherwise they would have objected quite a while ago.
"C'mon, Lock, I'm tired. Let's go back to bed." Shock purred, holding her hand out to him. He grabbed it and stood up, pulling her up with him. "See you later, Vincent." She ran her fingers across the vampire's cheek.
Barrel yawned and stretched his arms above his head. "Get outta here man and get some sleep. I'll get ahold of you later."
"Right man, I'll talk to you later."
xXx
When Vincent woke the night, he was still in a state of exhaustion, but he rejoiced when his headache had cleared.
His black cat was laying right next to his face, the purring from its stomach made for a strange feeling against his cheek. He reached and wrapped his arms around the scraggly creature, to which the cat reacted to with a small mew.
Halloween was approaching, and that Vincent knew, but his desire to be involved with any preparation was nonexistent. Nearly as nonexistent as his desire to get up.
He had to though, and as he was pulling on a shirt, one of his elders entered, which he noticed was the same one as earlier, though this time, he entered with a mug and a note. "Did you completely your errands, Vincent?"
He shrugged, buttoning the shirt up. "What else would I have been doing?"
"I fear that this message from Jack says otherwise."
Vincent finished with his shirt and took the note out of his hand. It only had his name written on the front. "I was there, don't you worry." He opened the envelope to see what the message said. He was pleased to see that it wasn't a message to reprimand him, but an invitation for this evening for what he wrote as "a visit".
"What does it say, Vincent?" the elder asked, a hint of spite on his words.
"It's an invitation for this evening." Vincent handed him the letter, then took the mug from his other hand. He didn't realize how famished he was until he took a sip.
"And why would he be sending you this?" The elder looked genuinely surprised.
"Maybe I impressed him yesterday." He quickly finished the mug and handed it back to the other with a smug expression.
The elder didn't respond to that, and reread the letter as Vincent pulled on his coat. The young vampire was rather satisfied with this, though he was a little unsure of what this invitation actually was. This was an opportunity to see Eve again, though, so he couldn't really complain.
"You'll have to go soon, the hour on this invitation is coming quite close." the elder sighed, "As in, you have ten minutes to get there."
Vincent groaned, grabbing his sunglasses and putting them in his pocket. "I'll be back, then, don't wait up." He snatched the letter out of the Elder's hand and rushed out of the room.
The Elder shouted something to him, but he couldn't understand him. Vincent's mind was already set with his host's daughter, which made him a bit excited to have to spend some time with the arrogant pumpkin king.
