Author's Note: Here's the next chapter! Thanks for the new favourites and follows as well as the reviews for the last chapter, it was posted at like three in the morning last Sunday because I was determined to get it posted before the weekend was up, it looks like this one is the same. Thanks to Guest (response below), Guest (response below), Flowerchild23, kittykat6625, TheGoofyCat and sadlyhuman 1997 for their reviews :D seventy-five reviews guys and soooooo many favourites and follows I love you all! :) enjoy this chapter and please review!

Guest: Whoo a new fan! It's an awesome movie :D yes Paul and Dwayne are just too awesome, I love them too! Glad you like the story and thanks for the review :)

Guest: Thanks for your review! Glad you liked the chapter :) plenty more to come you have no idea ;) oooo you're on to something there! It wouldn't be the first time I imagine he's done that, he is very protective after all ;) hope you like the rest of the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Lost Boys, just my OCs.

"Bryn, Nick's at the door!"

I buried my face in my hands before running my eyes over my reflection to make sure I looked normal, "Great! Send him up."

Please God let him not remember anything.

I grabbed my guitar and sat on my bed, choosing to play the opening chords of House Of The Rising Sun as I heard his footsteps come up the stairs, "There is a house in New Orleans, they call The Rising Sun. And it's been the ruin of- hey!" I interrupted my casual singing as he entered and greeted him with as bright a smile as I could muster.

Oh crap, he looked freaked out.

He glanced around my room and I forced my eyes to stay on his face, I had gotten rid of any of the clothes I had been wearing last night, which was a pity because that sweatshirt was great for wearing to bed. But I had to make sure I'd never accidentally wear it, so I dumped it and the rest of the clothes today.

"Were you at the boardwalk last night?" He asked, closing the door behind him and leaning heavily on it.

I thought for a minute before shrugging, "No, I stayed at home. I didn't feel too well and I rang your house to tell you to come over so we could talk instead of me walking to meet you but you weren't home."

He brushed a hand through his hair, "Yeah, I, uh, I was out. Looking for Zach, he's gone missing."

I set my guitar down, "Missing? As in like he's disappeared?"

Nick sat on the bed, "Yeah, I spent all day looking for him and then…"

"Then..?" I pressed a few seconds later as he stared into space, I knew exactly what he was thinking of, but I forced my face to remain clueless.

"Then I thought I met you… And we went somewhere and there was this thing… And then I can't remember anything else. I woke up on a bench this morning and I could have sworn I had met you the night before."

"Nope, I sat in and flipped through magazines, I didn't feel too great."

"Was something wrong with your stomach?"

I froze, "What do you mean?"

"I thought for some reason you showed me it last night and there was something on it, weird colours or something."

I shrugged and lifted my shirt a little, only to show one of my hips that I had covered the best in makeup, between creams and powders I managed to get a tone close to my natural skin colour, I lowered it quickly, "I just didn't feel well, it was inside my stomach that wasn't good, not outside."

Nick's eyes remained on my hip, staring even though the shirt was now covering it again, "I must have dreamt it or something."

I narrowed my eyes, "You weren't drinking or anything, right?"

He met my eyes before dropping them to my bedsheet, "No. I mean, a little but-"

"A little? A little what?"

I felt sick at the look of guilt on his face, "I was just worried about Zach and I ended up drinking then this guy had some… Weed." He confessed, I threw my hands up.

"And you wonder why your head's messed up about what you saw? You were probably hallucinating!"

"I don't think I was, everything seemed clear. You and I were arguing then this… Thing appeared out of nowhere. There was a bright light on it's face and it had fangs and bright orange eyes and…"

I did the worst possible thing, I laughed, "I think you just imagined it, I wasn't there and neither was that thing you saw."

Nick slumped a little and I was filled with self-hate, I was making him think he was crazy, all to protect Dwayne and the others. I was doing this for Nick, too, I had to remember that.

"Maybe it was just a dream."

I nodded, "And maybe the universe's way of telling you to stay sober and stay off drugs." I suggested jokingly, patting his shoulder.

His shoulders moved in a humourless chuckle, "It did seem to crazy to be real." Oh but it was, it really was.

"It sounds like it. But it wasn't real, don't worry."

Nick was quiet, "I still don't know where Zach is." He said quietly.

"Maybe he's in some other part of town sleeping off an extreme hangover. But don't worry about him, did you say you woke up on a bench? You should go to your bed and get some proper sleep. Or maybe some coffee at the boardwalk with me then you can go home?"

Nick's eyes met mine, "Okay."

Thank you, thank you, thank you, God! I thought as I practically ran through the boardwalk later that night looking for David and the others, they had to be around here somewhere. After sending Nick home it seemed clear he had bought the whole act about me staying at home, I even told my parents when I got back that I had been at the boardwalk but since his friends seemed a bit rowdy I avoided him so telling him I wasn't even out was my way of not hurting his feelings. They bought that too so I was covered, now I just needed to convince David he wasn't a threat.

Finally I found them walking out of the video store, which was weird because I thought they weren't allowed in anymore. But right now I was just happy I found them. Well, David, Marko and Paul, I didn't see Dwayne.

"He's convinced it was a dream or something." I said as I skidded to a stop in front of them, David smirked.

"You sure about that?"

I nodded, taking a few deep breaths to calm the pain around my ribs, "I'm sure. I told him I was at home for the night and I didn't feel well so he thinks I wasn't even there never mind Dwayne. I got rid of the clothes I was wearing so he won't recognise me ever wearing them."

"Did you get those bruises covered up?"

I nodded, "I got it covered up, he thought I had weird colours over my stomach but me showing him my normal-looking skin seemed to throw him off. We went out for coffee and he was fine the rest of the day, just worried about Zach."

David shrugged, "Not much we can do about that. Well congratulations, you managed to confuse your friend and throw him off our trail, excellent work."

I narrowed my eyes at his sarcastic tone, "You will leave him alone, right?"

"Well I'm just going to have to, aren't I? Seeing as you seem to care so much, and certain people seemed to be very focused on keeping you happy, so I'm not allowed to do anything to upset you." My gaze shifted to Paul who winked, I gave him a nod of thanks, assuming by "people", he meant Paul.

"That's good, Nick stayed home tonight so you won't need to keep an eye out for him. And I think I'm going to do the same."

David shook his head, "I think you better stick around, if he does decide to come here, you gotta make it look like we're your friends and nothing more, and that you are perfectly comfortable with being around us, no sneaking off or he might get suspicious you don't like being around us."

I didn't like being around them, not right now. But I could hardly go against what they wanted seeing as they had just agreed to leave Nick alone, "Okay, fine."

David walked past me and I fell into step beside Paul who looked pleased, maybe he thought I had decided I didn't need a break, but I really did. I needed space to think, and I needed to have silence. But at the same time I needed to be seen around them, so I couldn't stray far.

It seemed my only option was to find the one in the group I wouldn't have to worry about talking around.

"Where's Dwayne?" I asked Paul, who looked around with a face of cluelessness.

"No idea, I'm not picking up anything, either he's too far away or he's still got that wall up. He probably hasn't gone far."

"I think I'll go find him, I need to talk to him." I stopped walking then met David's stare as he and Marko stopped ahead to look back at me, "I'll still be around one of you." I pointed out to David, whose jaw clenched a little before he nodded to Paul.

"Guess I'll see you later." Paul smiled before catching up with the other two as they continued to walk through the boardwalk.

I didn't exactly know where Dwayne would be, if he could fly like Paul said, he could be anywhere. That's if vampires could even fly, how would I know?

I found myself on the beach a few minutes later walking in the general direction of where I had first seen him that night on the beach, I just passed under the wharf when I stopped. He sat alone with the remains of a small bonfire that looked like it had been abandoned as it glowed dimly with embers.

I sighed and started to walk over, my brain trying to come up with something to say. Eventually I stopped beside him, "Mind if I join you?"

He didn't even look up, I guessed if he had good hearing he had heard me approach from pretty far away, "Sure." He muttered as he threw a discarded beer can into the fire.

I sat cross-legged beside him and kept my eyes on the fire, "I was hoping I'd find you."

"Really? I was under the impression I wasn't your favourite person at the moment."

I shrugged, "Well David said I needed to hang around you guys to make it seem to Nick like nothing is up, but I wasn't up for doing much. So I figured I'd find you and… Hope you were doing nothing and I could join in."

"Lucky you found me, then."

I nodded, "Do you always come out here to be alone?"

"Not always, but it helps to get away from the music and stuff out back there. Focus on the waves rather than the mindless chatter of all the humans."

I chuckled, "Are we really that annoying?"

He grabbed a stray log from beside him that had probably been used as a seat and threw it easily on the fire, it seemed to give the fire a bit more life, "Not all the time."

I jumped as the wood crackled on the fire, risking a glance at him. He stared back evenly, the new flames that were licking their way up the log danced in the reflection of his eyes, the colour almost like his eyes the night before, "I wanted to apologise for how I acted in the caves. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"It's alright." He went back to staring at the fire, I turned my body to face him more fully as I shook my head.

"No, it's not. It wasn't right of me to question why you did what you did, no matter how confused I might be about your motives. I should just be grateful that you saved me, from Zach and that you were ready to save me from Nick had he tried to hurt me. I never thanked you for what you did, just shouted at you."

He met my eyes again, "You had every right to question it, I know I do."

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion before I shrugged, "So maybe neither of us knows, it's cool. Sometimes you just don't think about doing something good, you just do it."

He shook his head, "Not us, not vampires. Humans are made to have a conscience, sometimes it acts before they have a chance to think. We're made to think only of ourselves and where our next meal is coming from, not about helping people."

"That doesn't sound like a nice way to live." It was out before I could stop it, and Dwayne chuckled.

"Right there- that was your conscience. Alarm bells go off in your head when you know something you hear is wrong, vampires don't get that. To us the only wrong is putting yourself in a vulnerable position or exposing yourself. It seems I've succeeded in doing both these past two nights."

"And you don't even know why." It was mostly said to myself, but he nodded in agreement all the same.

"Where's your friend, then?"

"At home hopefully, I guess I'll be nervous any time he's here from now on, he could run into David and…"

Dwayne glanced back at the boardwalk, "Only at night when we're out, and even at that I don't think Paul would take too kindly to the idea. He doesn't want to upset you."

"Paul's a good guy." I agreed, I hoped he kept David away from Nick. "So you're not out during daylight hours?"

"Not unless we want to get burned to a crisp." Dwayne said, turning back to me.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"One ray of sunshine and we turn to ash, we have to stay hidden during the day. We're mostly asleep anyway."

I took in the new information and laughed almost to myself, I brushed my hair behind my ear self-consciously as Dwayne raised an eyebrow in question, "I was just thinking I came out here thinking you weren't gonna talk to me."

A slight glimmer of amusement flickered through his eyes, "I can shut up if I'm bothering you."

I shook my head quickly, "No! It's not that, you usually don't talk to me a lot. Or at all, really. We only had one conversation before tonight." I said, remembering the fleeting moment of discussion in the Chinese restaurant where I thought I had made some progress, after that I was lucky if I could get a sentence from him.

"I don't talk unless I have to, some mistake it for rudeness."

I shrugged, "Not a chatterbox, it's fine. I like not talking sometimes." I confessed, choosing to turn back to the fire as a silence settled over us that I guessed was a challenge for me to prove I wasn't bothered by it.

In fact I welcomed it, it felt a lot better to be sitting with someone rather than stuck my myself with my thoughts. Comforting, actually, which was pretty weird seeing as he was a vampire. The last thing I should be feeling around him is comfort.

Nevertheless I did feel it, and I allowed myself to go on feeling it without worrying about much else, like what time it was or if Nick had actually stayed home. I simply sat here and allowed myself to be surrounded by the sound of waves and a crackling fire, my only companion silent beside me and seemed to have mastered staying still as a statue with his eyes intensely focused on the flames as they moved.

I didn't want to interrupt the silence, but I realised in all the reasoning I had done earlier about how I had no right to be mad at him, I still hadn't expressed my gratitude.

"Thank you."

I forced my gaze to hold his as he turned his eyes from the fire to look me in the eyes. He didn't ask what I was referring to, whether it be saving me when I needed it- not once, but twice- or allowing me to join in on his break from whatever he felt he needed time away from and by doing so let me get a break as well, I felt a tiny bit better now for some reason.

I almost flinched as a movement registered from the corner of my eye, but when I realised it was him that was moving I calmed, if only for a second. Calm was certainly the last thing I felt as my breath caught in my throat with his next action.

His fingers caught a stray piece of hair from behind my ear and smoothed it away from my face, the hairs on the back of my neck and my arms stood on end and I had to suppress a shudder, but I was almost certain the shudder wasn't from fear. A blush tinted my cheeks as his thumb ghosted over my cheekbones, lighter than a soft breeze but still left a tingle on my cheek even after his hand dropped.

The gesture might have been less dramatic had it been anyone else, but the fact his firm gaze had held mine the whole time, softened only by the barely noticeable curves pulling at the corners of his lips which parted to presumably say words, but all I could think about was pressed my lips to his, to the point I had to tense my muscles to stop myself moving forward.

I forced my gaze to return his from where it had slipped to focus on his mouth, I didn't doubt he had seen my attention slip even though it was a fraction of a second, he seemed to have waited until he had my attention again before he replied.

"Anytime."

Author's Note: I hope this isn't going too slow for you guys! I like writing subtle scenes like these, and by subtle I mean trying to torture you guys into screaming "JUST KISS ALREADY!" mwah haha :D but I assure you there will be a kiss ahead, but problem is we got one hell of a chapter coming up before that. You'll just have to wait to find out a) what the big event is and b) who the kiss is with. Hope you enjoyed!