Much later, when the rosy fingers of dawn were peeping through the windows of Honolulu Heights, Alex lay relaxed against Hal's side as he dozed. She wasn't entirely sure how much, if any, sleep a vampire required but Hal seemed content to catnap.
He'd called her darling again while they'd showered. A little voice in Alex's head supplied the information. She ignored it and gave Hal a squeeze around his middle. He made an odd purring sound and cuddled her in return. Her whole body went hot and needy and Hal's spine stiffened when he felt her response in his own body.
"I like cuddlers." Alex said, with a teasing note, against his chest. She knew he was awake now. "Who knew you could cuddle so well?"
Hal dropped a kiss onto the top of her head and pulled back to look into her face. They exchanged hesitant smiles. "I've never thought of myself as…cuddly." He said the word as if it were the first time he had ever said it.
"You're kidding." Alex said teasingly. She was pretty desperate to alleviate the tension and uncertainty she felt about their new arrangement. "What did you think of yourself as?"
"Untrusting." Hal said immediately. Rather than his usual indictment of himself, he simply looked thoughtful. "It's morning." He added, eying her naked body. Rather than begin another bout of lovemaking as she expected, he drew his duvet up around her shoulders as if to keep her warm.
"I don't get cold." Alex said, grinning at the sweetness of the gesture.
Hal's frame moved beneath her as he shrugged. "Neither do I, really." He said. "Blankets sometimes…just…feel nice." The phrase seemed stark, as if it were an admission of vulnerability. He watched her with quiet, sober eyes as if he were waiting for something.
"Maybe I should start breakfast." Alex said with a self-conscious smile.
Hal glanced at his clock. "Not just yet." He said quietly. "Stay a bit."
Alex frowned, wondering at his mood, but gladly snuggled back down against his cool skin. An hour passed while she felt the rise and fall of his breath and heard the soft stirring of the world outside waking up. "This feels strange." She whispered into the stillness of the room.
Hal didn't reply for a long moment. She felt the twist of uncertainty and nerves as she waited and, when he gently squeezed her with one arm, she knew he was feeling her anxiety too. "It doesn't have to be a battle." He murmured quietly.
"Yesterday I was sure I didn't like you." Alex said. She felt, rather than heard, Hal's chuckle as it vibrated in his chest.
"And now?" he asked.
"I don't know. It's embarrassing." Alex admitted.
"I'm not a good prospect." Hal said bluntly. "You know that, I hope."
"I know." She acknowledged with a sigh. She traced a pattern on his chest with her fingers.
Her fingers tickled a bit, leaving little frissons of ice on his skin. Hal covered the ghostly fingers with his own and brought her fingertips to his lips, kissing them softly and then returning them to his chest. He felt her self-consciousness, her slight arousal at the motion, and the edgy ball of nerves in her stomach. "You're anxious." He said.
Alex stiffened at his side. "No." she denied.
"I suppose a treaty needs to be struck." Hal said, tightening his arm when she began to draw away from him. He bent his head to look into her guarded eyes. "Alex, I've never…" he sighed. "Been in a relationship before."
"Is that what this is?" Alex said. Hal could feel his heart flutter expectantly, her heart.
Hal cleared his throat. "Yes." he said, as if that were decided. He was far from sure himself, but he felt her response in his own body. She relaxed, felt reassured. When they were touching like this, Hal felt he could almost read her mind.
"Right." She said.
"Sex was never my brand of sin." Hal said. He directed his eyes to the ceiling, examining the water stained popcorn texture as if it would reveal some shape or secret if he only looked hard enough. "Alex, I don't want you to think of me as repressed or vulnerable or…pitiful. It's dangerous to underestimate how deep…that is…"
Alex jostled him slightly with her shoulder. "Spit it out." She said gently. She watched his jaw flex and his throat work as he swallowed.
"I'm not a wounded bird. A relationship won't make me better. Deep down inside, underneath the routines and regimens…Alex, I'm a monster." Hal said. The words were almost soundless. "I have tortured and killed enough to fill a football stadium…times over. Sex wasn't how I got my thrills, but I used it to…to torture, to demoralize, to humiliate…"
"Why are you telling me this?" Alex said, interrupting him abruptly with a trace of panic and disgust in her voice.
"So you won't form a wrong impression." Hal said roughly. He turned to her, his eyes dark and empty. "I've killed a thousand girls like you."
Alex recoiled. Hal felt the sick satisfaction of the inevitable when she scrambled off the bed and hastily began to dress. "You're saying this to put me off." She said as she dragged on her panties and bra. "Getting the rejection over with?"
Hal sat up and watched her with a bleak expression. "I'm saying this because you need to know that I'll probably hurt you someday. And I'm so, so talented at hurting."
Alex scowled at him. He frowned back at her. It was as if somehow the light of day sent them back to circling one another and snarling. Alex rolled her eyes at him and hunted under the bed for her tights. "Go start breakfast." She finally said to him.
"I have my sit ups to do." Hal muttered.
"Well, I can't get into these tights with you watching me." Alex said primly, her chin lifting.
Hal gave her a look of disbelief.
"Because I'm cross with you and I can't bear the thought of hopping around…" Alex clarified. "Seriously. Go away. Putting on tights isn't cute."
Hal looked mystified, but he rose from the bed and pulled his dressing gown on. He approached her with hesitation, then bent and brushed his lips across her forehead. "It doesn't have to be a battle." He repeated.
"I'm not the one dying to air my…bloody laundry." Alex muttered, her lips still turned downwards.
Hal gave a terse sigh. "I'll fix breakfast." He said, pressing a kiss to her sulky mouth. He tightened his dressing gown sash, slipped his feet into a pair of mules that reminded Alex weirdly of her granddad, and scuffed off down the hallway.
Alex hopped and wiggled her way back into her tights and rent-a-ghosted to the kitchen to find Hal frowning over his raisins again. He glanced up at her when she arrived. "There's one left over." He said.
Alex looked into the canister. Sure enough, one squashed raisin stuck to the side. She saw that Hal had already added them to the plain hot cereal so she whisked the container out of his hands and tossed it, lone raisin and all, into the bin. "Solution." She said, grinning at him cheekily.
Hal snorted. He looked rumpled and moody. Alex sighed and stood in front of him, taking one of his hands. "Look, since we're, uh, in a relationship and all, I think it's nice that you're trying to look out for me." Hal gave her a guarded look. "But, it's just a likely that I'll do something that hurts you." She continued. "So, maybe you don't try to put me off by throwing your past up at me and I won't put you off by being a…what was that one weird thing you called me when you were stuck in that chair? Hoyden?"
Hal gave a short bark of laughter and his stance relaxed. He looked down at their joined hands and he gave her fingers a little squeeze.
Alex gave him an encouraging smile in return. "Now go put some trousers on before I decide to get creative with you on that kitchen table."
Hal felt his heart thump nervously when she acted so boldly flippant. "Don't be so nervous." He murmured, all-too-aware of the humor of that statement coming from his mouth.
Alex's face sobered. "Stop it." She said, twisting her shoulders uncomfortably.
"I can't stop feeling what you're feeling." Hal said. "But I'm glad I do. Because it helps me know when you're afraid, when you're nervous, when you're joking…when you're really thinking of sex on the kitchen table…" the last was said in a velvety tone, but his eyes were twinkling teasingly.
"Mornin'." Tom's voice announced his presence from the doorway. As predicted, he was blushing to the tips of his ears. "Uh..." He continued. Stopped.
"Breakfast!" Alex said cheerfully, taking the cereal bowls and setting them on the table. "Hal?"
"Yes?" Hal replied automatically.
"Trousers." Alex said and gave him a gentle shove toward the door. She gave Tom a big, motherly smile and said. "Good morning, Tom. Tea or coffee?"
Tom darted a glance between Alex and Hal, then stirred from the transition of the doorway to the table. Hal gave Alex a glance, ensuring she had everything in hand, before returning upstairs to wash and dress.
Hal's morning routine was beyond salvaging, so he simply got ready as quickly as possible. He felt a curious and ironic anxiety that he wasn't feeling any anxiety over the disruption to his ordered life. He pushed the thought away, writing it off as the aftermath of an entire night of incredibly gratifying sex with an enthusiastic partner. Hal wasn't foolish enough to think a steady sexual relationship could replace his routines and daily tasks entirely, but, casting his mind back to the night before, he couldn't think of any instant when the bloodlust overtook him. He was…distracted from it.
Alex popped unannounced into his bedroom as he buttoned his shirt. "I've just basically had a birds-and-bees talk with Tom." She announced. She said the words heavily and darkly, as if they were a complaint, but she was smiling.
"Really?" Hal wasn't sure what this mood was, so he proceeded carefully. "I thought Tom understood the basics…"
Alex was laughing now. "Oh, he does." She said. "I got halfway through it before he managed to stop me. Christ, he was blushing so much I thought he'd turn purple."
Hal was now silently shaking with laughter.
"Funny to you, sure!" Alex said in mock complaint. "You didn't say the word 'vagina' to him."
Hal made a high-pitched sound, his whole frame shaking as he laughed harder. His laughter was just hiccups of breath without sound, but Alex's was whole and merry. She walked to him and surprised him with a squeeze around his middle. He stiffened automatically, then returned the embrace by sliding an arm around her shoulders and tightening it. "It's been a very long time since…" he said.
"Mm?" Alex said, her tousled brown head tucked under his chin.
"Since I've held anyone." Hal finished.
Alex made a sound of satisfaction at that statement and drew her head back to look up and give him a pleased female smile. "Better get moving or you'll be late." She said. It was her tone of voice that was cheerfully bossy. Here was a woman who ordered men about as a matter of course.
"I'll be down in a moment." He assured her. "Just have to tidy up."
Alex stepped back and surveyed the unmade bed and few items of Hal's clothing that were draped over a chair. She nodded, understanding his need to put things in order, and vanished. Hal made his bed and picked up his clothing.
When he was finished he looked over his room. He took a deep breath, feeling his tight chest expand.
Hal missed Leo and he missed Pearl. They were his family and his life.
He missed Annie Sawyer. She took him in. She showed him love and kindness when he was desperate, alone, and unworthy of either.
Hal heard renewed conversation in the kitchen drifting up to him and one of Tom's loud, honest laughs. He smiled to himself and headed downstairs toward the warm, bright kitchen. The wrongness of mornings had somehow been righted.
Because Tom was here.
And Alex stayed.
And Hal was home.
The End.