¶ … Vampire's Best Friends When Michael Bennett was a boy, he used to dream of traveling. London, Paris, Dubai -- anywhere he could conceivably go and however he could conceivably get there. Now, looking out over the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral in the half-light cast by the low of the city, he wondered what it might have been like to never see it the way he was now -- to stand as a human and gaze up at the towering windows and wonder what it might be like to look out as he was now, his vision stretching for miles and every detail crisp. A vampire's eyes were powerful things, and seeing Paris awash in the dull glow of midnight and electric lights revealed to more small intricacies of life than a thousand books on the city ever could have.

The cell phone clipped to his hip began to chirp the first few notes of The Bee Gee's 'Stayin' Alive' and Michael rolled his eyes as he answered, "What now, Seb?"

A sigh on the other end of the line. "There you are. We've been looking all over for you. The professor's been talking about getting a search team -- do you have any idea what time it is?"

"One forty-three."

"Yeah," Sebastian answered, tension ringing in his voice. "And you're out with humans. One forty-three is stupidly late when you're already jet lagged and have assignments due. I'm... just... just come find us before Keller calls the cops."

Sebastian Morrison had been a friend of his before the accident. Even now, the man did his best to act like he always used to around Michael but every now and then a strange mix of fear and frustration managed to break his resolve. The fact remained that being friends with a vampire was rather like being friends with a tiger. That is to say, dangerous.

Paris sprawled before him and it didn't take him long to locate the small group of college students he'd come along with. They were only a few blocks from him, as it turned out, several of them talking loudly enough to be heard without strain. Michael used the rooftops to make his way over, dropping down soundlessly to the street just behind his old friend.

"Hello, Seb."

"God!" The man whirled to face him, biting back a string of curses while their classmates burst into laughter. Most of them new about Michael's 'condition', as they called it and most were fine with him so long as he didn't get too close to them. Sebastian recovered quickly, pressing a hand over his racing heart. "Screw you," he said, getting his breath back. "Where did you even come from?"

Michael tilted his head toward the cathedral and his friend just sighed.

"Should have known," he said.

"Where's Allen?" Michael asked as they set off, trailing the rest of the group by several paces.

"Back home. Well, back where we're staying for the quarter."

Allen Graham, crybaby extraordinaire, was likely bundled up under blankets with all of the lights on at this time of night. Sebastian hadn't wanted to leave him alone, but Michael couldn't stay behind without it looking suspicious and Allen wouldn't have been comfortable with that anyway. It wasn't that he and Michael didn't like each other. They had actually been closer friends than he and Sebastian had been, but ever since the Accident (and that's what it had become in their heads -- the Accident) it was hard for him to be left alone with his old friend.

The house they would be staying in was cozy enough, full of warm light and the curious sense of life which so often in inhabited places like it. When they returned, they found that Allen was indeed lost beneath a sea of soft blankets piled at one end of the couch. His laptop and textbooks had been set on the coffee table in front of him and from the look of it, he was already ahead of the rest of the class as usual.

"Found him," Sebastian said as he walked past, tapping the blankets with the back of his hand. Allen emerged like a small, pale caterpillar while Michael hung his coat in the closet and Seb clattered around in the kitchen, looking for something to eat.

"I was getting worried," he said. That made sense. Allen was, as they liked to say, the 'mom' of the group and this of course meant that he worried about everything under the sun. Even having nothing to worry about could worry him.

Michael dropped himself...

He always tried to make a little more noise around Allen. Moving soundlessly made him uncomfortable. "Well, we're here now," he paused. "Everything's fine. I just kind of lost track of time. I'm not used to being home this early."
Allen looked at him for a long minute then. You didn't kill anyone, did you? That was the question he'd probably never ask even though it clawed at his throat whenever Michael was in the room. As it was, the answer was no, but some part of him knew that Allen would never really believe him. It had been seven months since the Accident and in that time Allen had never truly relaxed around him like he used to. Not that Michael could blame him. He'd been intimidating in life and with his tanned skin and impressive height, he remained so even now.

"What's all this?" Michael asked, tilting his head at the collection of books and papers scattered across the table.

Allen rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand. "I was working," he said. "English class."

"It's the first day."

Allen just shrugged, edging out of his blanket nest. Seb collapsed in the chair opposite Michael, crossing his ankles under the edge of the table. "You want anything?" he asked thought a bite of the sandwich he'd made.

"Nah, I'm fine." Michael smiled in spite of himself. Sebastian always asked if he was hungry, even though he knew he never would be again. "Bookworm's already ahead of us."

Sebastian made a garbled noise that sounded somewhat like 'What else is new?'

It wasn't long after that that Sebastian saw fit to collapse on his bed and begin snoring loud enough that Michael pulled the door shut to block out the sound. "It's late," he said. "It was a long flight. You should probably get some sleep."

"People talk about you a lot, you know?" Allen said, not looking at him. "Your 'condition' and all."

Michael dropped down in the chair Sebastian had vacated. "I disappeared from school for two weeks and had to switch everything I could to online or night classes because I found out I was 'allergic to sunlight'. Did you really expect people to just ignore that?"

Allen shifted on the couch, uncomfortable. "No." Sigh. "I just don't get how it doesn't bother you."

Michael shrugged with one shoulder. He was still young enough to be effortlessly human when he let his guard down. "Never bothered me when I was alive. Doesn't make much sense to start letting it get to me now." There was something more to this, he was sure of it. Allen didn't ever say anything unless he'd thought it through first. "You can leave, you know? Cut your ties with me, I mean. I won't come after you or try to bring you over or anything."

"I know." Allen barely paused before he answered, a fact which made Michael feel just slightly better. "But you've been my friend for three years now. It's kind of selfish to just walk away because you freak me out from time to time, isn't it?"

Michael sighed at that. "It's like being friends with a tiger, Allen," he said. "I'd like to have you stay around, sure; it's fun hanging out with you two. Not if it's going to screw you up though. I mean, hanging out with a vampire sort of keeps you from being in 'normal' social circles most of the time."

He was right. Being friends with a vampire was one of those things that sounded cool on paper but in reality it was sometimes more trouble than it was worth. Late nights and the massive difference in strength, speed, and agility notwithstanding, there was a certain social stigma that came along with it. Most people assumed the humans in the equation were either unstable or there against their will, an idea which was sometimes difficult for the soft-spoken Allen to contend with. The idea that all vampires became icy-skinned mind-controlling murders the second they were turned was still a very pervasive one despite being largely untrue.

Allen sat there on the edge of the couch, thinking for a while before looking over at him again. "Seb and I were talking on the plane while you were asleep," he said, starting to smile. "We both basically said that we don't trust you on your own and that at least one of us needs to guard you at all times."

"Well, great." Michael laughed without really meaning to. "As long…