A/N: Longest chapter so far! I know that the movie might suggest (and the novel adaptation definitely does) that The Lost Boys are teenagers (well, were teenagers when they were turned), but seeing as all of the actors were in their early 20s when the movie came out/when it was filmed, I've chosen to make them a bit older. I forgot to mention, I pronounce Catriona like Cah-tree-oh-nah, sorry for not mentioning that earlier! She's named after the lovely Caitriona Balfe, who is Irish, but it's a Scottish name too. I'm trying to make Paul quite forward but not to a creepy, inappropriate extent – so if Catriona pushed him away, he'd get the message and be less hands-on, if you follow. I hope I'm doing a decent job.
Ten seconds into her first motorbike ride, all Catriona could thing of was the countless horror stories her parents had told her about them, growing up. How so many people had died because of them and how unsafe they were.
Twenty seconds in, however, she never wanted to travel any other way again.
Paul seemed to relax as she did, and she briefly wondered if her nerves had been affecting him too. Moments after she'd relaxed, he sped up considerably and Catriona's heart lept into her throat.
"You gonna trust me, babe?" he roared back to her over the noise of the engines.
"Why?" she pulled herself even closer so she could speak into his ear.
Then she saw the approaching tree-line "Oh, shit!"
"Yeah?" he encouraged with a laugh as the trees grew nearer and nearer.
"Yeah!" she forced out, fighting the temptation to close her eyes.
"Hold tight!" he warned before speeding up even more.
She scooted even closer and clung to Paul for dear life as he haphazardly weaved between the trees, missing some by only a few inches.
"Holy shit," she breathed, relaxing once more and enjoying the feeling.
She felt like she was flying. Soon she was cheering along with the Lost Boys, and even let go of Paul to let her arms stretch out at her sides - it was only for a few seconds, before she lost her nerve and clung to Paul again, but it felt magical.
When the bikes stopped, she was puzzled. She'd been expecting to pull up at some kind of house or an apartment block, but all she could see was cliffs. Paul helped her off of his bike and she knelt slightly to tuck his pocket knife into one of her boots - she'd been holding it the whole ride, and felt awkward just hanging around with it in her hand.
"C'mon, this way," David called, leading the way down a set of wooden stairs that looked precarious at best.
Not wanting to look like a wimp, she pretended not to be phased by the way the stairs creaked and shifted underneath their weight - and she struggled to hide her wince when Paul began to jump and stomp on them, giggling like a child when he saw her reaction.
"It's fine, babe! Totally safe!" he reassured, adding in another jump for good measure.
She was relieved once they'd cleared the stairs, but still all she saw was the cliffside and a large amount of rocks.
"Where are we going?" she called ahead to David.
"Curiosity killed the cat, Cat!" he called back with a smirk.
She kept her mouth shut after that, navigating the rocks with little difficulty thanks to her boots - although that didn't stop Paul from acting the gentleman and offering his hand every so often to help her over them.
"You should wear jeans next time," he snorted good-naturedly when he saw her struggling against the wind, fighting to keep her skirt down.
"Not that he minds!" Dwayne called back with a bark of laughter.
Catriona was beginning to lose her patience, especially when they began to enter a cave. Was this what that long journey was for? To sit in a cave? And one with a big sign reading NO TRESPASSING! at that?
"Catriona..." David trailed off and sent her a pointed look.
"Mackenzie," she supplied her surname.
"Catriona Mackenzie," David continued, unphazed "I give you the Lost Cave."
As if on cue, Dwayne dumped the torch he'd taken from the wall into an old oil drum, the room lit up and Catriona was speechless.
The cave was, in a word, amazing. In the middle sat an old fountain and scattered around it were sofas, a boom box, and even a mattress in the corner that looked like it hadn't been used in years. She breathed out a laugh at the portrait of Jim Morrison propped up against one of the walls. She definitely liked these guys.
"You smoke, Cat?" David questioned as she surveyed the cave with awe.
She looked back towards him to see the pack of cigarettes being offered her way.
"Not tobacco," she admitted softly "Thanks."
The boys chuckled whilst Paul gave a delighted groan "A girl after my own heart. Here."
Within moments a lit joint was being handed to her and she gave Paul a shy smile.
"Ever hear the phrase 'I want, never get'?" David asked, sauntering over to one of the sofas and falling down onto it.
"Yeah," she nodded, taking a draw.
"Doesn't apply here," he shot her a smug grin and Catriona couldn't help but laugh.
"So you guys hang out here every night?" she asked, continuing her inspection of the cave "This is amazing."
"Nah," Paul spoke up now, not looking up from the ancient looking boom box he was messing with "We live here, girl."
She stared at him, dumbfounded before wondering if the weed was affecting her a bit too much.
"You live here?" she raised her eyebrows, turning to the others for confirmation.
"Home sweet home," Marko nodded, and they all grinned in amusement at her shock.
"This is fucking awesome," she murmured.
"Come pick out some music," Paul gestured for her to move over to the stacks of CDs and tapes, precariously stacked on top of each other.
"This a test?" she joked, the drugs making her more confident in her interactions with the Lost Boys, handing him the joint back so she could rifle through the stack.
"Definitely," he nodded, a faux-serious expression on his face "Can't be one of us if you don't know what good music is."
Be one of them? She managed to fight the smile that began to form on her lips and turned it into a smirk instead. After a few moments she'd made her choice – Guns n' Roses' Appetite for Destruction. Predictable, since she was wearing one of their shirts, but a safe choice and one that Paul seemed to approve of, for he grinned when she handed it to him and called back to his friends "We're keepin' her!"
She felt her cheeks heat up again and moved to sit down on one of the unoccupied sofas, opposite to David. Somewhere behind her, Paul gave a cheer of triumph when the tape began to play.
"So, Cat," he sighed as though he was about to begin some kind of tedious job interview "What brings you to Santa Carla?"
"I'm on holiday," she shifted slightly when Paul fell onto the sofa beside her, but personal space didn't seem to be an issue with him as he slung an arm behind her on the back of the sofa.
"Holiday," she gave Paul a shy smile as the last of the joint was handed back to her.
"Ha, holiday," Marko mimicked in an English accent with a teasing grin.
"Fine, vacation," she put on an overly exaggerated version of an American accent and the boys laughed, visibly surprised at how well she took the jibe.
David snickered at her response "How long you here, Cat?"
"Two weeks. Got here yesterday," she shrugged, not failing to notice the pointed look David gave Paul as she spoke "Our plan was to spend two weeks partying our asses off whilst avoiding the winter in Britain."
It was two days away from New Year's Eve, but the weather in Santa Carla gave no indication of that. Sure, it got darker earlier and so the days were shorter, but it was still scorching hot when the sun was up, by her standards, having been used to the cold, rainy weather in Britain.
"'Our'? You and your friends?" David tilted his head and Catriona got the feeling that he was trying to work her out – like some kind of puzzle.
The way he said the word 'friends' told her exactly what he thought of them. She gave a sigh.
"We were best friends in high school. I moved away for university, they stayed in the same city. They got closer to each other, I...drifted," she shrugged "It's no big deal."
Their little holiday together had been intended to remedy that. It wasn't working too well so far.
"Looked like a big deal."
The only thing that stopped her from snapping at him and asking why he was so interested in her personal life in the first place was how much he intimidated her. The smirk on his face told her that he knew that.
"Alright," he held his hands up in mock surrender "I got one more question."
"Go on," she nodded.
"You hungry?"
The atmosphere lightened immediately, Marko went out to retrieve pizza and the music was turned up full blast. The one thing Catriona couldn't work out was why they were so amused when she told them she was vegetarian – Paul had laughed so hard he nearly went purple.
A few hours later, with Paul and David
"You're sure she is?" David's voice was more insistent than impatient as he glanced towards Catriona who sat with Dwayne on the other side of the cave.
"I'm positive," Paul nodded – he'd struggled to hide his reaction towards her when she rode on the bike with him, pressed up tightly against his back.
But then he grabbed David's arm when he went to turn in the direction of the jewelled bottle kept hidden away out of sight "But...I wanna do it the other way, man."
"The other way?" David was incredulous as he stared at his sheepish friend "Then we can't do it tonight."
"I know," Paul nodded, holding up his hands "But like, what's the rush? We got two weeks."
"What's the rush?" David found himself repeating Paul's words once again "What if she goes back in the morning and her friends convince her not to come back, huh? What if after twelve days, the other way still isn't an option? You choose now to be a sucker for tradition? Really?"
"She feels it too! I know she does!" Paul held his own well "All we gotta do is turn her against her friends and she'll be eating outta the palm of our hands. Hell, she pretty much likes us more than them already!"
"And you think she'll be willing to do what needs to be done, if you only give her a two day time frame?" David snorted "We do it now – the easy way – before she even has a chance to change her mind about us, then we've got eleven days to convince her."
"No," Paul's response came out louder than he meant it to, and he saw Cat look up, out of the corner of his eye.
David glared at Paul silently for a few moments before sighing.
"Fine. Have it your way. But I ain't dealing with the mess...and don't come crying to me when she ends up flying back to England and you never see her again."
David spun on heel and strode away from Paul, grabbing a bottle of Jack from the fountain ledge as he did and returned to his seat with a face like thunder. Paul ignored the look of alarm that Cat had on her face when he returned to her side. He was going to show her the best damn week of her life, and there'd be no way she'd leave after that.
It was 4am before Paul stood up and declared that he'd give her a ride back to her hotel, but Catriona didn't mind – if anything she was sad that the night was over. Once she'd gained some confidence around the boys (something she attributed to the drugs and alcohol), she found that she loved their company. Marko reminded her of her brother – full of banter, but well meaning for the most part. Once Dwayne and David had discovered that she was studying literature, they ended up debating over books for hours – something which surprised Cat, because they didn't look like big readers, but she supposed that would teach her for judging a book by it's cover (pun not intended). She even learned to appreciate the strong, intimidating presence that David had – finding his dark sense of humour hilarious once she got used to it.
Then there was Paul. Catriona was at a loss as to how she felt about Paul, other than confused. It wasn't that she didn't like him – far from it – but she felt like she shouldn't. Back in England, had anybody been as forward with her as Paul was upon their first meeting, calling her 'babe', casually touching her, she would have promptly told them to piss off...but with Paul, she enjoyed it and that scared her. He was funny, and his big personality made up big time for how shy she was, and even encouraged her to be less shy. He acted like she'd be absurd for even considering being shy around him. From the get-go she'd felt comfortable with him. They clicked. It also helped that he was so handsome that she struggled to look him in the eye at times.
"The sun'll be up soon," she murmured, climbing off of the back of his bike "I can't believe how late it is."
"Nah, got another hour or two," he surveyed the dark sky for a moment before following her lead, climbing from the bike and slinging an arm around her shoulders "I'll walk you back to your place."
She'd almost forgotten about the previous night and their encounter on the beach – he must have remembered where she was staying. The boardwalk was dark and empty as they walked down it, and she was sure she'd be a little creeped out had she been alone.
"You guys are amazing, you know," she laughed quietly, still slightly drunk and unable to filter much between her brain and her mouth.
They descended the stairs and began to walk along the beach – she'd enter the hotel room via the sliding doors rather than walking through the hotel lobby, that way she wouldn't need to deal with odd looks from whoever was working the front desk.
"I do," he chuckled "But go on, babe. Stroke my ego some more."
"Nah, man," she giggled "But it's true! Just the whole kinda...I dunno...the 'in it together' kinda vibe, you know? Like you'd do anything for eachother. I wish I had that."
"You could," he shrugged.
"Nah, my friends aren't too keen on me these days," she snorted, leaning her head against his shoulder and deciding to unabashedly enjoy his arm being around her – she'd tell herself off for it when she was sober, but at that time she didn't care.
"Didn't mean with them," he pulled her closer and Catriona didn't know what to say, so she said nothing.
A few minutes later they stood outside her hotel room. It was dark inside, but the curtains hadn't been drawn and figures occupied both beds – Bryana was spread out across hers, leaving no room for another, Catriona suspected deliberately, and Sophie looked like she'd attempted to do the same. She gave a sigh.
"Assholes," Paul snorted "Y'know if you wanna stay at the cave-"
He looked unsure about his offer before he even finished it, so Catriona shook her head with a small smile.
"It's fine. If I wake Sophie up, she'll move over. She's not as mean as Bryana wants her to be," she turned now so that her back was to the sliding doors and she faced Paul.
"So, I guess this is goodnight," she spoke unsurely.
"Or good day," he snickered.
"Sure, good day," she laughed quietly and then his lips were on hers.
At first Catriona didn't quite realise what was going on – she'd only been kissed once before and she'd been expecting it at the time, plus she hadn't even liked the guy that much, but at 17 she'd been the only one amongst her friends and felt like she should change that. This time was very different. When she froze and didn't react, Paul stopped and went to pull away. That was when Catriona's brain kicked in.
Gripping the lapels of his jacket, she pulled him closer and shifted onto her tip-toes so that he didn't need to lean down as much. She could have sworn she felt him snicker before his hands went to her waist and his lips became more heated and insistent against hers. Reassured that he wasn't going anywhere, she let go of his jacket and wrapped her arms around his neck. He tasted of weed and whisky and something else that she didn't recognise, but it suited him perfectly.
And just like that, the kiss was over. He grinned down at her, remnants of her lipstick on his lips.
"I still have your knife," she murmured, at a loss for anything else to say.
He blinked in shock, clearly wondering if that was some kind of threat.
"I-I mean," she stopped and laugh "I figured you'd want it back."
It was in her boot, beside her cash and hotel room key.
"Hold onto it for now, babe," he murmured, chuckling quietly "I'll see you tonight, right?"
"Right," she nodded – no way would she pass up hanging out with the Lost Boys in favour of getting berated by Bryana all night, it would be bad enough when she woke up.
They said nothing for a few moments, the only sound being the ocean waves. Then he turned and looked up at the sky before sighing. She wondered if he was one of those people who knew how to tell the time by the way the sky looked – although she was sure that involved the sun, and the sun wasn't up.
"I gotta go," he said it reluctantly, as though he'd rather stay "Tonight, yeah?"
"Yeah," she nodded and felt her cheeks burn when he pecked her on the lips before he took off down the beach.
She didn't know what she was getting into, but at that time she was content to lean against the glass doors and watch the ocean glimmer in the moonlight, the taste of Paul's kiss still on her lips.
