Citizen Erased {Billie} {M}

[Dominic Spencer]

No way could it be the eighth of February; Dom couldn’t believe it when he checked the calendar he’d tacked up in his little kitchen. As soon as he’d seen the date his mood had darkened; exactly eighty-eight years ago to the day his human life had been ended. To him it felt like that the anniversary had come way quicker than the previous year’s. He’d been told by his makers that when you were immortal the years started to blend together; was that what was happening to him? Was his life becoming one great blur?

Thoroughly miserable and in need of cheering up, the flaxen-haired vampire dressed in his favourite yellow jeans, a dark t-shirt and a black jacket. He needed to occupy himself otherwise he’d be left moping about the life he had lost and with a sudden urge to seek out his childhood home. It was the same every year and so far there had always been someone to take his mind of his troubles but with his luck so far in the village of Hogsmeade it was looking like he’d be spending his death day alone for the first time. Oh well, moping in the Three Broomsticks instead of moping at home sounded better than doing nothing.

Before he went out however, nostalgia drove the boy to a worn rucksack in the basement. Out of the rucksack he pulled a dusty bound leather journal. Sitting himself on his mattress, Dom opened it to the inside of the front cover, fingers tracing over what was written there.

Happy Birthday to my dearest brother Dominic,
Love Elizabeth.

Breaths came to the boy in short, ragged bursts as images and memories flooded back into his mind. His sister’s laugh, his mother’s yells, his father’s kind stare, his brothers’ boisterous games and Elizabeth’s teasing –it was all too much. Overwhelmed by a desperate longing for them the vampire held his head in his hands and began to sob. The emotion dug into him, feeling as though it was causing physical pain. If only he’d listened to his mother’s desperate pleas for him to stay home the same time eighty-eight years ago.

”Close your head Dominic and stop acting like a daisy,” he said to himself, taking a few deep breaths and wiping away the tears. Telling himself he was acting like a woman helped a little but still part of him wanted to cling to diary, the one last link he had to his old life, all night but a pang of hunger and a bitter resolve to eat and cheer himself up forced the blond to tuck the journal underneath his pillow and make his way to the pub he’d become all too familiar with.

For the first time in awhile he wasn’t looking for anyone in particular; all he wanted was a meal and a quiet corner. So focused on finding solitude he almost missed a familiar head of blue hair sitting with a gaggle of other students. If it had been any other night he would have been over chatting up Billie and her friends in an instant but after what had happened between them he doubted he would be welcome and he didn’t really feel like facing rejection on an already terrible day. As he moved to settle himself at a vacant table near the back he had to walk past Billie’s table and, to be polite, he gave her a weak smile as he did so.

[Billie Ackerman]

  She hadn’t been to the Three Brooms since the night/s with that vampire.

  Why?

  Because if she saw him again she’d probably die.

  Because... argh. It wasn’t like he’d tried to bite her or anything. His only real crime had been telling her the truth about what he was. Did he really deserve to be shunned for that? Her friends certainly seemed to think so, and so at their urging she’d stopped talking to him and she’d been feeling crappy about it ever since.

  Of course, when her fellow Ravenclaws decided it was time to take a night out, she couldn’t resist being dragged along. She was a social person. Group things were what she did. That didn’t stop her from eyeing the building warily as she approached it though, grateful for the shielding presence of people all around her.

  Okay. No Dom in the pub. That made things easier. There was talking, and there was drinks – a lot of drinks – and before long Billie had pretty much forgotten about him. Who had time to think when she was having a possibly-not-entirely-sober argument with the boy next to her about the colour of the Three Boomsticks interior decorations from the perspective of colour and emotional invocation?

  At least until Dom walked right past her. Then there was no way she could ignore him if she tried.

  Billie froze, her eyes glued to the vampire as he smiled politely and walked on past. Oh Merlin. She’d avoided anything seriously alcoholic all night but now Billie picked up one of the shot-glasses of Firewhiskey and downed it in one hit, wincing visibly as the strong flavour assaulted her tastebuds and scorched its way down into her stomach. Gah, ow, that was stronger than she’d expected. So much for a night out.

  Billie found herself dropping out of the conversation, instead favouring surreptitiously staring at Dom instead of actually saying anything.

  “Stop the presses. Has Billie Ackerman actually stayed quiet for more than ten minutes?” one of the boys near her announced excitedly.

  Billie squirmed in her seat. Way to call attention to it. Okay. She couldn’t stay here. She had to do something. Her attempt to work out from the bench was hardly graceful and she apologised with an, “I’ll be off guys. I gotta...” Think of a lie. Think of a lie. “... Talk to someone...”

  ... Genius.

  Billie made a face at herself and grabbed another glass that still had a shot in it while her friends protested her leaving. Blarrrrgh, dude. There was no way she was ever getting used to that taste. Okay. That was the last of that.

  She huffed, made an attempt to straighten her shirt and made a beeline towards Dom. Ordinarily, she was as confident as hell in any situation, but guilt seemed to be doing a brilliant job of cowing her usual zest.

  Instead she just cleared her throat loudly when she got near him and slid into the seat infront of him in order to be able to look him in the eye across the table.

  God, apologies were so hard!

  “... Hi...”

[Dominic Spencer]

Walking right on past someone whom he felt things with were unfinished was rather out of character for Dominic on his death day it was normal. Still, when he sat down he focused on Billie and let her heartbeat fill his ears. She had gone silent –which was rather strange for her- as soon as she’d seen him so her heart was the only sound from her he had to focus on. They rhythm was elevated and her scent reeked of alcohol but it was hard to tell whether that was because she had been drinking or because of the other students around her.

For ten minutes the vampire sat in the sparsely populated corner and for those ten minutes the blue haired girl hardly said a word, she was too busy glancing at him. Dominic chuckled when one of the school boys called Billie out for not talking, he was just as surprised. He’d met the girl twice and each time she had done most of the talking with no signs of stoping. Listening on, Billie’s heart’s rhythm became different, it sounded like she was agitated and on closer look at her she certainly looked it. What had got her to act so out of character? Had it been him walking in?

“I’ll be off guys. I gotta... Talk to someone...”

Damn, he’d scared her off and just when the night couldn’t get any worse. The flaxen-haired vampire looked away from the main bar, focusing instead on his hands folded on the table. He frowned as he lost concentration on Billie’s heart, assuming the beat would fade as she left but he did not hear the front door open. Instead a familiar rhythm got louder as though it was getting closer. And then she was there, sitting in front of him and saying hello very awkwardly.

”Hey, I didn’t think you’d ever talk to me again,” Dom greeted tentatively, catching her eyes with his. God he hoped that she wouldn’t be able to tell he’d been sobbing before. ”I’m so sorry about what I did to you, it wasn’t fair to tell you like that but I figured you were at a place where you felt safe. I mean, if I’d told you I was a bloodsucker here you probably would have lost your marbles at me.” The boy smiled weakly at her again, still not hopeful that she’d stay sitting with him for very much longer.

[Billie Ackerman]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://i578.photobucket.com/albums/ss229/Ehetere/PostTags/BillieFlowersBG-1.png,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Billie/BillieFlowers_02.png][atrb=style,padding:0px 60px;background-position:top;background-repeat:no-repeat;]   Awkward awkward awkward oh so awkward. She didn’t even have anything to say planned and Billie was already looking guilty before Dom even opened his mouth to speak. She shifted her weight to sit anxiously on her hands, waiting for the inevitable tell-off. It felt a lot like being in front of a teacher after graffiti-ing their blackboard in permanent ink.  ... Not that she knew what being in front of a teacher after graffiti-ing their blackboard in permanent ink felt like.   Honest.   Hang on. Wait. Why was he the one that was apologising? Billie gave a slow blink as though not believing she’d just heard right.   HEY! What nerve! He wasn’t allowed to apologise when she’d spent the last few days making feeling guilty into an art-form! Merlin, he hadn’t even done anything.   “No, it’s my fault! I’m sorry!” Billie countered back, suddenly struck by the sensation she was arguing just to get herself in trouble. God she had no sense sometimes. “I got your letter and I had no idea what to do so I told my friends about it and I shouldn’t have I know because it’s not my secret to tell and I’m sorry and they freaked out and told me not to talk to you anymore because you might do something and I wanted to but they insisted so I just left it!”   Holy run-on sentence, batman.

[Dominic Spencer]

Was she this awkward with all romantic interests or was he just lucky? Well, really Dom couldn’t blame her; hell he was feeling pretty damn awkward himself. He was reminded, rather painfully, of the reasons why the two of them had ceased contact as accidently bit his tongue with his one full fang. He hissed quietly in pain, accidently giving Billie and good glimpse at the elongated canine in his mouth. ”Sorry, bid my tongue,” the boy apologized quickly, running a finger over it as the puncture wound closed itself. Yet another thing to go wrong on an already crap night.

After his own apology Dom had expected her to either forgive him or yell at him –that was how they usually went- he, however, had not expected the blue haired girl to shrug it off and blubber one of her own. The flaxen-haired vampire met Billie’s eyes with his pale blue ones and shook his head earnestly. He wasn’t exactly thrilled to hear she’d told her friends about him but when the time came he cared about it enough, it could be worked around easily. At the moment what he cared about was Billie, his stomach and not spending his death day alone.

”Hey, Billie, you have nothing to apologize about,” the boy said softly. He smiled at her as that was all he could do with the constraints of the table and the lack of hands anywhere reachable. ”I’ve never met anyone who was sorry about a normal reaction before, if anything they normally demand apologies for me. What I’ve been-“ he paused, searching for the right word, ”-infected with absolutely terrifies people which is why I kept it a secret from you at the start.” Dom found himself explaining himself truthfully to Billie which was rather strange for him.

”You’re friends aren’t here now are they? I’m not going to get you in trouble or have a troop of teenagers run at me am I?” the vampire joked, trying to lighten the mood of the conversation. ”All that matters is that you’re talking to me now, I missed your almost ceaseless chattering,” Dom said soft and smooth as silk as he placed his hands on the table, silently willing Billie to place hers on there too. The truth was one miracle but the boy’s mind staying out of the gutter for more than an hour was one that would probably never happen.

[Billie Ackerman]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://i578.photobucket.com/albums/ss229/Ehetere/PostTags/BillieFlowersBG-1.png,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Billie/BillieFlowers_02.png][atrb=style,padding:0px 60px;background-position:top;background-repeat:no-repeat;]   “Nah, we should be fine,” she waved off, pulling one of her hands out from under her to make a dismissive gesture. Unfortunately for Dom, even though she put it back on the table it was still out of reach. “And don’t say you missed hearing me talk, because that’s just asking for a lecture about colour symbolism, emotional response and effect on vision in design an art, which is something some people—” she threw the boy she’d been arguing with before a competitive look “—know nothing about. And don’t—” the finger she pointed at Dom was almost accusing. “—make a comment on my hair colour.”   Ahhh, non-awkward conversation. Better. She was feeling gigglier for some reason. Alcohol didn’t absorb that quick did it? Could be she was just happy she hadn’t managed to completely derail a friendship.   Hang on, wait, was he missing a fang? Billie’s mouth dropped open, but thankfully she managed to catch herself before it degraded into staring.   “What happened to the fang?” she asked, the start of a frown materialising on her face. Her brain had managed to latch onto a topic that wasn’t awkward apologies, and dear Merlin, was it planning to stick to it. “And would it grow back? Cause I mean I already know vampiric healing system is triggered by cell damage causing frantic replication – which probably works but it sounds to me like the skin would be really thin and tearable for a while because the cells would be so small unless there’s also something to make them grow faster, but that would just take a lot of energy and—Oh, blood, that’s right, that might account for it, but that’d still cause a lot of stress to the cells – but yeah, I never heard of cell replication working on teeth before, so how does that work? Does a vampire have an active transport system for stem cells or something? Cause that was one of my theories.”

[Dominic Spencer]

If the tone of the conversation had changed any faster, Dom was sure he would have whiplash. One minute it was awkward and tentative, the next it was back to the light chattiness of the pair’s last two meetings. It was amazing what one simple joke and laugh could do; it had changed the atmosphere and subsequently brightened the mood of the vampire substantially. ”Good, I’m reassured now,” the blond chuckled, not bothering to say more yet because from the sound of Billie’s heartbeat and the look on her face she was going to do enough for the both of them.

”I don’t know any of that malarkey about colour and moods,” he said quickly before shutting his mouth and staring at Billie’s almost accusing finger questioningly. ”I thought I already had said something about your hair, Blueberry,” Dom said mischievously, his face lit up with a cheeky smile, ”why is your hair blue anyway? I like it, it really compliments you but, still, why? It’s not like I can talk though, over the years my hair’s been all sorts of outrageous colours and styles.” That old saying that the sixties hadn’t been kind definitely applied to Dominic.

When it became apparent that she’d seen his fang, the vampire moved a hand to cover his mouth but stopped it halfway there. The girl didn’t seem shocked by it and judging by her question then subsequent ramblings she was more curious about it than anything else. He took note of the questions as Billie talked so that when she finished he could answer. There was no point trying to talk over the top of the blue haired girl, she’d be too busy on her tangent to listen to the answers Dom had for her.

Listening to her was actually rather interesting, half of the stuff she knew about his kind the flaxen-haired vampire had not one clue about. ”You know more about vampires then I do,” he commented offhandedly before, running his tongue over his fang and space where new fang was supposed to be coming through. ”I think it will grow back, in fact I’m pretty sure there’s signs of it coming through the gum now so your theory about the stem cells is probably right,” he lifted his lips so the girl could see the gap in his teeth. ”And as for what happened to it, I might tell you but only if you let me buy you a drink first. You drink that fire whiskey stuff right?”

[Billie Ackerman]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://i578.photobucket.com/albums/ss229/Ehetere/PostTags/BillieFlowersBG-1.png,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Billie/BillieFlowers_02.png][atrb=style,padding:0px 60px;background-position:top;background-repeat:no-repeat;]   “I like it, it really compliments you,” Dom started, and Billie was already laughing before he even had a chance to continue.   “Don’t worry, kiss-ass, I’ve already forgiven you,” she laughed. “But on that note, I think I’ll take that fire-whiskey.”   Billie didn’t know what she was doing.   Hell, she didn’t even have a clear idea of how she’d gotten here. She’d taken the drink, then a bit more, and maybe a bit more after that, and... shit.   Billie blinked up at the sight of the building in front of her, trying to clear her vision which didn’t seem to want to focus. ... Wasn’t much of a house, really. It looked sorta like it hadn’t been looked after for twenty years. She frowned, trying to slow down a little but Dom had her hand grabbed and was pulling her forwards. Enhanced strength or not she wouldn’t have been able to resist anyway.   “Doyouthinktheresfungusinthere?” she asked, and it was damn near impossible to tell if she was slurring or just speaking at a gazillion miles per hour. “Cause I thinkthere’s fungus in there. Et’s like... I don’t know, protozoa and—WOAH!” Billie staggered, nearly tripping over the front step and she found herself clutching onto Dom’s arm for dear life as she tried to hold herself up from the ground.   For some reason, she thought this was hilarious. “Ohsheet I didn’t even see thuh steps,” she cackled, dragging herself back up to her feet. The fact the world seemed to be swaying a bit didn’t help either. Or maybe that was just her balance? “Too busy thinking about the, yanno, photosynthethis and stuff.”   She was still sniggering to herself when Dom pushed open the door to invite her inside. “Ohnowait, that’s like, bacteria and stuff,” she mused, eyeing his ceiling suspiciously. “Fungus is like... photosythe... photosynthe... sis. Oh, fuck it.”

[Dominic Spencer]

The night progressed and proved an excellent distraction from the self-pity and loathing that had heralded the start of it. More and more empty shot glasses were starting to stack up on the table, most of them belonging to the blue haired girl but the vampire had gotten brave enough to down a few shots of his own. The wizard folk hadn’t been lying when they’d named the stuff firewhiskey. And now he was out in the cold of the village again, only this time he had company in tow, very intoxicated and near out of it company.

Usually girls who’d had too much to drink were seen as not worthy of Dom’s attentions but he hadn’t been acting himself all night, why start now? Company was company and of all the people the blond had met in the village he was glad it was Billie. Truth be told he liked her and her never ending ramblings, they were amusing. ”There’s no fungus in there,” the boy answered Billie’s drunken question softly as he rummaged for his house key. No way in hell was there fungus in there, at least not much anyway. ”Careful there,” he sighed, moving supernaturally fast the catch the girl as she tripped. He helped her up gently before opening the door and beckoning her inside.

”It’s not much but it’s home,” the vampire said, flicking on the small hall’s light. ”Fungus doesn’t perform photosynthesis, no chloroplasts in the cells you see, but I could be wrong since it’s been awhile since I did biology,” Dom said with a grin, happy to actually know what the blue haired girl was talking about in her drunken ramblings. The boy steered Billie towards the meagre lounge room but he did not join her there, not yet. ”Coffee?” he called from the kitchen and a muffled yes soon piped up in answer. It wasn’t long until the flaxen-haired vampire was placing a hot mug on the table in front of the girl and settling himself in a chair opposite her.

[Billie Ackerman]

  Dom was rambling something else about photosynthesis and Billie gave him as glare-y a look as was possible for questioning her smarts.

  “Iknewthat,” she countered, allowing Dom to steer her into the lounge-room while she was busy making some exaggerated hand gestures to try and prove her point. “But I was thinkin’ like, yanno, lichens and stuff where they like, symbiote with photosynthetic buddies and stuff. Mineral transfer. Cause like, dude,” Billie looked up, giving Dom’s roof a suspicious look. “You totally got lichen or something up there.”

  It didn’t take Dom long to vanish after that. Billie blinked hard, trying to take in the appearance of the room where she’d ended up. Just like the rest of the house it was drastically unremarkable. Everything looked old. Unused. Under-furnished. Just an old black fireplace, old lounge chairs and some absolutely hideous-arse wallpaper that dude, who thought buying that looked like a good idea?

 ... Meh. The couches looked comfy. Billie gave a little jump and leapt into one, the springs creaking dangerously under her sudden weight. Okay, the fabric felt millennia old and she could feel the springs digging into her sides, but ack, hey! Ow. Sudden headache. Okay, jumping had been a bad idea. But it was cushy... enough.

  “Coffee?” came a voice.

  “YES!” Billie laughed a bit too enthusiastically, rolling onto her back and pumping her fists at the ceiling. Coffee. What a glorious idea!

  It wasn’t long before Dom came back, and it was the noise of the mug landing on the coffee table that roused her back into moving. Billie turned her head to look at it with a languid grin on her face before, why not, rolling off the couch and landing with a thunk on the overly dusty floor. Oof. Billie pulled herself into a sitting position using the table and pulled the mug over towards herself possessively.

  “Awesome. Thanks mate,” she managed, sparing only a thought as to the cleanliness of the cup and something about never leaving drinks unattended before taking a large mouthful. Urg. Nice. “Needs more sugar,” she observed. “I need sugar. Like, alotta sugar.”