#lukebgraham

[wildroseofarran]

The wraith shrugged. "Mustard." He just needed a top-off. Despite their amicable conversation, he felt himself on the verge of outrage. Just a few more feet and some thrown money.

And upon purchase, made a request for a side of sauerkraut he would be devouring as soon as they turned away. With his fingers.

The kid working the stand wasn't paid nearly enough to care if a customer was friendly or not or what they ordered. He barely even looked at them. He just took the money, gave them their food, and went on with his life. Luke was immeasurably grateful to him.

Hot dog in hand, Luke guided them toward the beach, leaving the woman behind them to wrangle her kids long enough to get their orders.

"Good?" he asked Dana once they were well out of earshot, taking a bite of his own.

[thehighlandhealer]

Enters the inbox and lies down. "Hi."

“...........Um......”

“Hi?”

[wildroseofarran]

The sauerkraut was gone by the time Luke spoke. Tolvin's eyes seemed more vibrant in their limited light. Features softer. Wasn't nearly enough to satisfy his craving, but it was a start. What a strange little chemical. He had to praise his maker for her knowledge. More than he had assumed one of her kind capable of.

"Just what the doctor ordered," he sighed. "What you wanna sit?"

The change was noticeable enough that Luke made a mental note to buy a giant jar of sauerkraut to keep in the fridge. He didn't fully understand why but if Dana needed it and it did...something, then he'd make sure it was always available.

Luke nodded and smiled, pleased. "Let's go sit down by those big rocks over there," he said, pointing. The spot was close to the water and shielded enough to give them some privacy, even if all they did was sit and talk.

[wildroseofarran]

Tolvin shrugged after a moment. "Better than the idea I had. I'll... show you later." Better seen than explained, as he assumed Luke wouldn't understand. Not from lack of intelligence, but so far removed from the supernatural, why bother when he could experience?

"What are you getting?" he asked, falling into line behind a woman with two children.

“Okay...” Luke’s voice trailed off as he squinted at Dana. What did he have cooking in that head of his that had to be shown instead of explained? Something that would make people perceive him as an idiot...

He’d contemplate while they stood in line.

“Carolina dog,” he said, keeping a slightly-more-than-courteous between them and the people in front of them. He didn’t recognize the woman but just in case. “Anything else you want besides lots of sauerkraut?”

[wildroseofarran]

"Think that's the job for someone in my position?" Curious if Luke would take this question seriously, or push the subject elsewhere. How much of reality had he embraced?

Luke shrugged. “If you want to be underestimated and ignored, yeah. That or something like it. A more interesting job would get you noticed and I don’t think that’s what you’re going for. I know you were thinking ‘idiot’ but ‘boring’ is probably a better bet.”

[wildroseofarran]

Luke was given a look. Something proud. He bumped shoulders with his lover and sighed.

"Would you be pissed if I said you're smarter than I thought you'd be when we first met? Explain accountant to me."

Luke snorted. “Nah, I get that a lot. It’s the blond hair, no one ever expects smart from blond hair.” Something he’d used to his advantage more than once in his line of work.

His height helped, too. No one ever expected the little blond lawyer to be a shark.

“Accounting is a famously boring profession. People hear ‘accountant’ and their eyes glaze over. Conjures images of cubicles and spreadsheets and invoices. Nothing more boring than invoices.”

[wildroseofarran]

"Was thinking the other, idiot direction. I'll have the option of a job, eventually. Something to think about. Something to put my ear to the ground."

“Why the idiot direction? So you can fly under the radar?” It made sense. From what little he knew, vampires were able to exist successfully because they flew under the radar.

“Then I’d go with accountant.”

[wildroseofarran]

"I think the first is obvious." But as Luke continued he just smiled. "You're giving me occupations, not a personality." His own fault for not elaborating, but he chose to tease. "Is that American? You are what you do?"

“Well, you should’ve been more specific,” Luke laughed. “Probably yeah, but there’s a definite personality that goes with being an accountant and a fisherman and a retired army guy. Patient and detail-oriented and disciplined apply to all three.”

[wildroseofarran]

Tolvin pondered his new identity. Whether or not his personality should alter for this Fishkill character. Someone unassuming. Someone regarded as unthreatening and even pitiful. Easy to hear all the things you shouldn't when one assumed you an idiot.

"What does Robert Fishkill sound like to you?" he asked, meandering his way around to the driver's side, hands tucked in his pockets.

“Um...” Luke stared off into space as he pondered the name and whether he’d ever heard that surname before. He didn’t think he had, which also made him wonder whether Dana or his overlords had chosen it.

“A guy who fishes. And wears glasses, for some reason. Either sounds like a name an accountant would have or like...a retired army guy who camps a lot and lives in a cabin. And has a beard.”

[wildroseofarran]

Tolvin looked both ways. Small town, but he'd only been out this way once when alive. The woods to the north were more his territory.

"Been years. Got a new name. Dead can't come back to life."

“Not that the people around here are aware of, anyway.” Not that they would believe it either. That made chances of someone recognizing Dana slimmer, right? He certainly didn’t seem to be worried about it, and it didn’t appear that he’d been cautioned about it, so...

“Come on then. Let’s grab that hotdog.”

[wildroseofarran]

"If you don't laugh, you'll cry." Just an observation. Luke was studied as he started for the door. Didn't even want him out of the vehicle, then. More cautious than himself. Paranoid, even. Not a good side.

"Hey. I can come with you."

“Don’t you know, I’m the first draft pick to become the new Mary Magdalene.” A joke? Almost, sort of. But at least he wasn’t crying.

“Are you sure? It’s not that I don’t want you to come with me, I just don’t want you to get in trouble with your overlords. What if someone recognizes you?”

[wildroseofarran]

Tolvin stared out at the water, raised both feet to rest on the dashboard. He had a feeling Luke knew his stance on this matter and many adjacent subjects without having to bring them up. Not anymore.

"Too late to test that theory now," he smirked.

“Thank god for that,” Luke murmured under his breath as he undid his seatbelt. This wasn’t a walk in the park, he was sure, but it beat the hell out of borrowing other people’s bodies.

“Gonna go grab our food. One hot dog with extra extra sauerkraut coming right up. Want anything else?”

[wildroseofarran]

He considered Luke's explanation, staring out the window for a time, before turning back.

"So, what you're saying is, you'd know it was me no matter what body I'm in. Is that - that's what you're saying?"

Luke shrugged as he turned into the parking lot near the docks and chose an isolated spot with a view of the water.

“I’d like to think I would. I know I can recognize you when you tell me it’s you but if you didn’t?” He cut the engine. “I’d like to think I love you enough to still know.” It would make him incredibly happy if he still knew because it would mean that what he felt was...enough.

[wildroseofarran]

His head tilted with consideration, then nodded, shrugged. "You see the same look from other people? Oliver's face? Q? They've been my face." Not wanting an argument; simply curious how shallow or deep those waters flowed.

Luke shook his head. “Their faces have been yours but it’s not the same. The looks you gave me through their eyes were yours but they weren’t you. They were different, like...a memory of you. One thing that never changes about a person no matter how much time passes is their gaze, and I can tell you now that it doesn’t change even when you’re in another body, have another face. But it isn’t the same.”

[wildroseofarran]

Tolvin just chuckled, shaking his head and staring out the window. The moment felt surreal, but not uncomfortable. Not long ago he realized it had taken death itself to remove the tension from his shoulders. His only argument between the acquiescence of his fetters.

"I'm not the same man you fell in love with. What what is it you fell in love with?"

That much was true. Quite apart from the obvious, Dana wasn’t the same man he’d met all those years ago. And, Luke supposed, neither was he. Whether that was for the better or the worse in his particular case was anybody’s guess.

“Your smile,” he murmured. “It lit up your whole face, slammed into me like a freight train. I didn’t know how rare it was then but I wanted more of it. I wanted to be the reason it happened. The moment I saw it, you had me. I was yours. And you had this way of looking at me with this focus that made me forget everything but you. Like you were looking through me in the best way.”

[wildroseofarran]

"I think she's more Italian than we can tolerate. Had to put my foot down on something. She knew a Robert. Apparently he was nice, or I wouldn't have it for myself." This was the first time Luke had allowed a conversation in her direction without uncomfortable silence. He would take it at face value.

“In her taste in names at least.” And that was as much as Luke would say about the woman. He tried to think about her as little as possible and this conversation, light as it was, had filled his quota for the next month.

“Robert’s a nice name. Could’ve been a lot worse. I had a lady apply to be my paralegal whose name was English.”