She giggled when he scoffed at her. She did quickly grab a pair of socks and her slippers though before taking her spot back on the counter watching him now work on the plates she had. "Well then I'm very proud of you Hal." She smiled brightly before he spoke and she knew he was trying to scare her but it wasn't going to work. She got up from her spot and moved so she was standing behind him. She moved to gently rest her head against the back of his shoulder for a moment. "I'm not scared of you Hal." She spoke seriously looking to him when he turned around to look at her. She looked at him completely serious. "I know you're a vampire, but I also know that you wouldn't hurt me. If you were going to, you've had plenty of chances to."
"And you saved me from being killed by those other vampires. That's enough for me to trust you and know you have control over yourself. And if there's anything I can ever do to help you, please let me know." She spoke softly before she gave him a soft kiss beside his lips. She wanted to make sure that he knew that she was there for him, that she was going to continue to be there for him. She…she knew she loved him and wanted to be there with him, even through his struggles with blood. She knew he had a stronger will than most people she'd met in her lifetime.
Hal wondered why in the world she was proud of him. Because he hadn't kissed anyone in more than fifty-five years? No, no, you fool, he told himself. It was the not butchering anyone for their blood in more than fifty-five years. That was what she meant. When he set a stack of plates down onto the counter and turned to face her, she was standing behind him. Of course he'd heard her walk over there, and he could hear her pulse. He didn't think too hard about it, this time. Perhaps that was because her words distracted him.
'I'm not scared of you, Hal.'
"That is perhaps the most foolish thing that I have ever heard come out of your mouth." He said, brows raising just a little bit. He did, however, listen to her reasoning. He wanted to point out that just because he'd saved her from the other vampires didn't mean that he couldn't snap and kill her. How did she know that he wasn't just feeling a little possessive over someone who could have easily been his next meal?
His stomach twisted into a knot when he thought of even the possibility that he could one day hurt her, and that was one of the reasons he knew that he had to keep her safe.
"You can keep leaving the cutlery unpolished. It'll give me something to do. That would help."
She looked up at him when he turned to face her. She didn't care if he thought she was foolish for saying she wasn't scared of him. She wasn't in all honesty. "I'm not going to lie. I'm not scared of you." She spoke softly before she lifted her hand up to gently place it on his cheek. "You have more control over yourself than you know." She spoke gently before he spoke telling her she could leave the cutlery unpolished to give him something to do. "Ok, I'll do that." She smiled and cleaned up giving him a soft kiss on the lips again. She let the kiss linger a bit more than the first time she kissed him before she pulled back slowly.
"Do you want to stay over here tonight? My bed's plenty big enough to fit both of us." She was sure he knew that since he'd been in her room before when she'd come out of the shower. She was curious as to what he was looking at when he'd been in there but she didn't bother with it now. She wrapped her arms around his waist for a few moments and just hugged him. She knew things were changing between the two of them little by little; but she liked it, she knew the change was for the better.
Hal didn't quite believe that he had more control over himself than he knew - the more likely situation was that he had less control over himself than either of them knew, and it would be proven at the worst possible time. Somehow it was nerve-wracking and comforting at the same time to know that Alycia was not afraid of him.
At least she was going to leave the silverware unpolished. Not that there would be any major changes made to do that, but he'd like to think that it was specifically because he asked her to.
Hal welcomed her kiss, reaching out to rest his hands on her waist. He didn't pull her closer, just kept her there. He liked it when she was near him, when he was distracted enough not to think about the crimson liquid rushing beneath her skin. "If you will allow it. It will be more troublesome than anything else to head back to the bed and breakfast when Annie is being ornery." He rolled his eyes as if this was one of the most annoying things in the world, but, really, he was used to it by that point. Or he was slowly getting used to it. At least if he stayed over with Alycia, he wouldn't have to deal with a baby crying in the middle of the night.
While Hal did not immediately hug back, after a moment he put a single arm around and let her remain close to him.
"I cannot clean out the cupboards with you attached to me like this."
She loved that Hal let her be close to him. As she gave him the soft kiss she pulled back after a moment before he spoke, agreeing to stay the night there. "If I wasn't going to allow it I wouldn't have asked silly." She poked him on the nose lightly before she moved to hug him for a few moments. She heard what he said and just smiled a bit. "They can wait a few more moments." She kissed his cheek before she pulled herself away and let him do as he needed to, to finish up the cupboards.
Once that night came around, Alycia changed into her pajamas in the bathroom before making her way towards the bed. She plopped down onto the top of the blankets and put in Hal's CD in the stereo in her bedroom next to the bed. She smiled turning to Hal when he came into the room. She was glad she'd be able to curl up next to him that night and sleep peacefully. She looked out the window and saw the rain had picked up heavily and was now pounding against the windows. She was honestly glad she hadn't pulled Hal out into that sort of weather. She slipped under the soft blankets before moving over so there was plenty of room for him. "Come on." She saw him organizing some of the things on her dresser and she tried not to smack her forehead. "Hal. Those will be there in the morning."
Perhaps the routines had finally gotten into Hal's head and now they were no longer to pass the time, but simply because they were things that needed to be organized. 'Keep busy, keep safe' was a rule that he had lived with for so long that it had become engrained into him that he had to organize, clean, pretty much do anything to keep himself occupied. And was it really his fault that the things on her dresser were less than straight.
Hal's eyes flickered over to her when she said that they would be there in the morning. "And if I do not correct them, they will be out of place in the morning." He said to her, raising his brows. Admittedly his eyes drifted a little to the pajamas that she'd put on, and his lips thinned as he thought about telling her to go put on more clothes. Needless to say, the ones she was wearing inspired less than appropriate thoughts.
Which was why he went to organizing the things that she had on every other available surface in the room before he finally made his way to the bed, resigning himself for a long night of trying to push thoughts out of his head.
He'd probably fail, but at least he was going to be decent enough to try.
To sort of try.
To try a little bit.
Come on, he was more than five hundred years old, he should have been so much better at his.
