The next day and evening wasn't exactly pleasant.

Alice had spent the entire day battling with uncharacteristically painful stomach cramps, and for that she went through her monthly routine of cursing herself for having a uterus. Getting through the work day itself involved her taking painkillers every two hours and an extremely forced smile.

She was thankful to get home and change out of her usual dress and into a sports bra and some leggings. Of course, the cardigan remained an integral part of comfort in that outfit. She switched on the television in the living room, watching whatever rubbish was on, and sat upside down on the sofa.

Alice huffed, unimpressed with how this was going. Another thought that struck her was that Eric would be dropping by later… that was going to be entertaining. Maybe she should just avoid him for the next few days if she could help it. She grunted when another small wave of pain coursed through her lower back. It was more irritating that anything.

The moment she reached for her phone to text Eric about her current predicament, but there was a knock at the door. Yep, the sun had gone down. Brilliant.

She sighed, and somehow found it in her to flip off the sofa into a standing position. Now that she amused herself with - it had been a while since she'd done that, but doing it at this current point in time? A mistake. With an arm around her middle pressing down on her tummy, she wandered to the front door and opened it a crack.

"Bad time?" Eric asked, noticing her mildly pissed off look. She opened the door wider. "Are you hurt?"

"You can't fix what's hurting me, Eric…" she rolled her eyes.

"Someone's in a mood today…" he then looked her up and down. "And… surprisingly attractive looking like that. Those leggings fit you very well."

Alice allowed him to enter, and he sauntered through to the armchair in the living room. She joined him, resuming her original position of sitting upside down on the sofa.

"If you want me to do some semblance of trying to gain control tonight, it's not happening. I am… about half an hour away from taking another painkiller and getting a hot water bottle." She glanced at him. "Be thankful you were a born a man."

"Hmmph. That explains the smell," he commented wryly, crossing one leg over the other. "Then what do you propose?"

"Tell me the story about when you met my grandmother."

Eric licked his bottom lip, before nodding.

London 1949

Eric had never been keen on the smell of London - much like New York City, the people were rude and it smelt like pee. But… post-war London was something to be considered a little more interesting. Plenty of lonely women about that he could fuck and feed from. Plenty of people in general to feed from.

He and Godric had made their way back here from Germany, having lost track of the werewolves they had been hunting down. For once they decided to look for some down time, a reprieve from whatever they usually got up to, and England had been the perfect spot for that.

He wandered up Regent Street towards the Langham Hotel, where he and Godric were currently residing. It was about midnight, and he had had his fun for the night down in Soho. Eric had entertained himself for the evening by preying on the predatory men that seeked to harm women. Godric had been with him at the start of the night, but had disappeared at some point. Eric knew they would meet back at the hotel and go down for the day.

So it surprised him to find his maker with a woman, having a rather lovely time in the hotel room. She was quite a sight - wavy strawberry-blonde hair, a petite frame, and the most delightful scent. So delightful that Eric had to hold back his fangs upon seeing her when he entered the room.

"Oh!" She appeared surprised by his appearance. "Is this your friend Eric?"

Godric smiled and stood up, beckoning Eric over to the lush red sofa so that they could be properly introduced. He remained rooted to the spot by the now shut door. "Eric, this is Rosalind. She was visiting family here, but… she decided to spend some time with me tonight."

"Is that where you got to at the Green Man?" he questioned.

Their middle class English accents were… not as practised as they could have been. Except they got by with them. If they slipped up, they would simply slip into a Cockney accent and proclaim they just wanted to be more accepted.

"Yes. Sorry for not telling you."

Eric rolled his eyes and went to sit at the little table, kicking his shoes off and putting his feet up on one of the other chairs.

"Come, Rosalind, perhaps we can entertain Eric with a game of cards," Godric said to his companion. He held out his hand as a gentlemanly gesture to help her stand up, and she gladly took it as she rose from the sofa.

Then something happened.

A strange energy coursed through the room, causing both Eric and Godric to drop fang. Blood trailed down Rosalind's nose as she collapsed right there on the spot.

Within an instant, Godric had moved her to lie on the bed. Carefully he lapped up the blood on her face, doing his absolute best not to move to her neck and bite. Eric came over, curious. He retracted his fangs when the blood had been cleared up.

"What was that?" he dropped the accent for the time being. Godric was staring down at the woman in absolute fascination.

"Eric… there has only been one other time in my life that I have met a woman like her…" the older vampire gently stroked Rosalind's hair, and looked up at Eric. "She has the ability to see the future."

"You told me about this… what was the other one's name?"

"I believe her name was Aethelys. It was a very long time ago now, before you were even born as a human - she was aggressive and wanted nothing to do with me when I found out but… perhaps we can help Rosalind."

Eric groaned. "I do not care for something like this. You can help your newly acquired plaything, but I will have nothing to do with it."

"Who said I'm anyone's plaything?" The woman in question sat up, rubbing her forehead. "And what happened to your voices?"

The two vampires looked at each other. Yeah, there was no way they'd be able to lie about this one.

"Would you believe us if we told you?" Godric offered.

"Considering what just happened? I saw… things that were to do with me, and… you? How is that even possible?"

"Anything is possible. Rosalind… we're creatures of the night. My real name is Godric. We - we are vampires. But we are not going to harm you."

"Speak for yourself, Godric…" Eric sighed, getting up from the bed. "I'm booking myself another room."

The older vampire frowned. "There are two beds in here."

"This is your problem. I'm not dealing with some kind of seer - or whatever the fuck her kind actually is called, if there's more than one of her to exist."

Rosalind jumped when Eric swore so openly, and it only made him roll his eyes. "Well excuse me. Maybe staying in another room would be good - I'd rather not wake up to you drinking my blood."

Eric scoffed, sauntering to the door. If anything, he was also mildly impressed with the fact she wasn't running screaming - Godric appeared to be of the same mindset as he continued to stare at her in awe. "As sweet as you smell, dear Rosalind, I don't think I'd go anywhere near tasting you."

"I apologise for him. He was never too open minded…"

Those were the last words of that conversation Eric heard before he left to go get his own room.

"You… really didn't take to her…" Alice commented, frowning from her spot on the sofa. "You took to me more than that."

"To be fair, she did end up growing on me. I was shocked she didn't scream for the hills when Godric and I crudely revealed what we were. Turns out she grew up on Grimm's Fairy Tales - nothing could really scare her."

"That sounds about right… apparently when I was little she used to read them to me. I don't remember it, this is just what my mum told me. I didn't see her much in the lead up to when she died," she sighed. "It's all a bit fuzzy. I was about nine when she died. She just… went in her sleep, I believe."

Eric balked, then cleared his throat. Alice shot him a look, then placed her palms flat either side of her head before flipping casually and seamlessly into a sitting position on the floor so that she could face him properly. The vampire was confused by the action.

"I know, I know… listen, tell me how she died and I'll tell you a bit more about myself. Deal?"

"Uh - yeah, sure. Seems fair… well. Your grandmother had a vision of dying from cancer so she… wanted to avoid that. So… she contacted Godric - my maker - and essentially asked him to kill her and leave no trace. It looked liked she died in her sleep."

Alice was unsure of how she could even react to that. It took a moment for it to even register in her brain properly, and she took a deep breath. "Okay. Okay… fine." She buried her head in her hands for some time, pressing her palms against her eyelids so that she didn't cry. Sitting upright again after a minute or two, she sniffed. "Did your maker drain her?"

"Yes. Not fully, but enough to slow her heart down and eventually stop in its own time." Eric leaned forward. "This conversation took a rather depressing turn, so let's bring it back shall we? You're in intense pain right, and yet… you did that." He gestured from her sofa to the floor.

Alice shrugged, looking a little sheepish. "You know that thing where parents try and make a child have a hobby and normally the child hates it so drops it when they about ten years old? Well, I actually liked my hobby so… it stuck. Until I went to university."

"What was the hobby?"

She brought her knees up and hugged them to her chest, almost embarrassed to admit what she was about to. "I used to… do… ballet. And have since retained a certainly level of flexibility and dexterity from it."

Eric chuckled. "Oh that is textbook. Of course you fucking did ballet. That still doesn't quite explain doesn't explain how you got off the couch that seamlessly while in pain…"

"Exercise is meant to help the monthly pains, so I have a tendency to do bizarre things like flip backwards off the sofa and stretch in the mornings. Every little helps, and I don't want to overdo it." Alice paused. "Anything else you'd like to hear about my personal life, or are we done there?"

"Why'd you stop?"

"I didn't have time to keep it up. I can still dance to a beat though - I think. But I'm not going to be doing any of that for you, before you ask."

"I wasn't going to," he said with a smirk. "You're a lot more feisty and open today."

"My patience with men around this time of the month has a tendency to wear thin; it's been a while since I've been able to show it. My apologies though; you don't really deserve me being tetchy."

"When will you stop apologising for being you?"

"Can we please be done with my personal life for tonight? I'm not big on talking about it in general, let alone the stuff that happened before I moved here," she told him rather pointedly. At that moment, her phone alarm went off and she jumped before turning it off. Alice got off the floor and wandered into the kitchen, coming back with a glass of water and a packet of painkillers.

She sat down on the sofa, popping two of the pills and gulping them down with the water. Eric watched her with a strange curiosity - humans had become so bizarre to him in the thousand years he'd been a vampire. Especially women; especially the one sitting in front of him, trying her best not to whine in pain as she sat back upside down on her sofa.

"Would having my blood help at all?" he asked her.

"I don't know, and I don't want to find out if I'm honest. I think I've had a fair bit of your blood recently, I'd rather not have any more for the time being."

In an instant, Eric had moved round so that he was standing between her legs that were flopped over the back of the sofa. Alice frowned up at him, confused about what he was doing there.

"There is one other way I could be of assistance," he told her with a smirk, reaching down and taking hold of her arms, lifting her so that she was sitting atop the sofa now. "It'd be beneficial for the both of us."

It took Alice a moment for her to realise what he was getting at, and her cheeks went bright red - Eric chuckled at that reaction.

"Maybe not tonight," she squeaked out. "Another time? Considering… you know… I'm human and this does happen once a month."

"I'll be holding you to that," Eric replied, stepping back away from her. "How about I leave you in peace watching shit TV?"

"I didn't bring my DVDs, don't judge me for watching shit telly," she said, more relaxed now that the prospect of oral sex was off the table for tonight. "I'll be feeling a bit better tomorrow night for actually dealing with my thing."

"Is that what you're calling it?" he wasn't massively impressed with that as he headed towards the front door. "Mildly boring, but whatever."

"Good night, Eric."

As appeared to be habit with him whenever he left via the front door, he disappeared with a sweeping bow. Alice was never sure how to react to that, but it entertained her to no end. Sighing, she flopped back to her upside down position, wishing she had something better to keep her occupied whilst the painkillers did their best to kick in.

The next couple of chapters are just a random bit of filler fun, like this one! Kind of wanted to delve into the fact they're getting a little bit more than friendly around each other... but still being friends, if that makes sense?

anonymouscsifan: NYE was fun! Hope you saw the New Year in well :) Hope you liked the bit of backstory about how Eric and Godric met her gran! I'd already had it written out before you even mentioned it, so that was a lovely coincidence.

Comment?

-OL.