Chance Encounters - 6. Ch. 6 ~ Decisions

Richard took a long swig of the beer in front of him as he moped in the club where he had first saved Simon. He hated the word moped, but that was the only explanation for what he had been doing for the last three weeks. He had known that it would take Simon time to come to grips with what he had learned, but he had hoped to see Simon before now. He was beginning to think that Simon’s not showing up gave him his answer, but he kept hoping that he was wrong.

“Hey, can I buy you another?” A guy that had taken the seat next to him asked.

“No thanks,” Richard answered. He had been in the club every night since coming clean to Simon and had become accustomed to other guys wanting to buy him drinks. Since the only man he was interested in drinking with was Simon, he always refused. Not that sitting there drinking would do him any good, alcohol didn’t have the same effect on him as it had on humans. No matter how much he had to drink he never got drunk. He had finally decided that it had something to do with his DNA makeup.

“Just trying to be friendly,” the guy told him before sauntering off to find someone else.

A glance at the clock behind the bar told him it was well after midnight and he decided that Simon wasn’t coming. Probably not tonight or any night, but he knew that as long as there was any hope he’d keep coming to the club, hoping against hope that Simon would show up. The bartender had always made sure Richard had a fresh beer in front of him so he slid an extra five under his empty beer bottle before sliding off the stool and heading towards the exit.

***
Simon sighed as he sat staring unseeingly at whatever show was currently on his TV. He had done his best to put Richard out of his mind to no avail. Richards parting words to him had kept his mind in an uproar as he tried to make sense of everything he had found out. He kept telling himself that what Richard had told him was simply not possible, but then he would remember that he’d seen it for himself. Simon grabbed the remote and shut the TV off before grabbing his jacket and heading out the door. He needed some answers, and there was only one person who could give them to him.

***
Richard pushed through the door of the club and headed toward where he’d left his car parked just down the street. As he approached he saw somebody leaning against the passenger door and was about to say something when he realized it wasn’t just anybody, it was Simon.

“You’re here,” Richard said unbelievingly.

“I think we need to talk,” Simon answered, moving until he was standing in front of Richard. “There were some things you said that I need some answers about.”

“What do you want to know?” Richard asked him, forgetting for a moment that they were standing alongside the street. In all honesty, he was still surprised that Simon had showed up, he’d hoped, but he hadn’t dared to expect it.

“I don’t think this is the place,” Simon answered after a quick glance around him. There were only a few people around but he and Richard had already garnered some curious stares.

“Then where?” Richard asked.

“Come to my place,” Simon answered after a moment’s hesitation. “On the condition that if I ask you to leave, you leave.”

“You sure you trust me in your home?” Richard asked.

“You haven’t hurt me yet, and I don’t see you starting now. We need somewhere quiet and that’s the only place I can think of right now. I’m parked just down the street, so I’ll meet you there,” Simon told him before walking away. He didn’t realize that Richard watched him until he was safely in his car.

The drive to his place only took a few minutes but it was enough time for Simon to second guess whether or not inviting Richard back to his place was the smartest thing he ever did. Once he reached the house he didn’t have any time to think about it as Richard pulled up just moments later. He glanced in Richard’s eyes as the other man approached and his uneasiness dissipated slightly as the slightly nervous gaze met his. Simon led the way into the house and gestured for Richard to take a seat on the couch as he slipped into the kitchen. He came out moments later with a couple of beers in his hand. He handed one of the beers to Richard before taking a seat in the recliner.

“How have you been?” Richard asked him.

“Very confused,” Simon answered with a slight smile. “Been trying to figure things out and I have more questions than answers I guess.”

“What sort of questions? I’ll answer them if I can,” Richard told him as he took a nervous swig from the bottle Simon had given him.

“When you left the last time, you said something that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind,” Simon started, not really sure how to go about asking the questions he so desperately wanted to know the answers to.

“When I said you were my mate,” Richard guessed.

“Yeah, I guess I don’t exactly understand what that means,” Simon answered. He had a rough idea and ever since Richard had told him who and what he was, Simon had tried to do some research on the internet, but most of what he had found was nothing more than legends.

“Well, some people seem to think that being someone’s mate means that you spend your entire life devoted to that person, but that’s not how I see it. When I said you’re my mate, what I meant was, is that we seem to have some kind of connection. I guess you could call it a spiritual connection. In my mind, it means that if you’ll have me, I belong to you and you belong to me.”

“Like a possession,” Simon answered, unable to keep the contempt out of his voice at the thought.

“No, not like a possession, I don’t really know how to explain it. I think the easiest way to explain it is that it’s a spiritual connection.”

“What made you believe that I was your mate?” Simon asked.

“A few things I guess,” Richard answered. “After the first time being in your presence, you were honestly all I could think about. It almost drove me crazy to be away from you. Also, after that first meeting I became very protective of you, worrying more about your wellbeing than my own. In the end there were a lot of little things that made me believe that you were my mate.”

Simon took a long drink of his beer as he thought over what Richard had told him. He could understand it to a point, not knowing exactly what to look for, he’d looked up mating behavior in wolves. He’d found that when wolves mated, as long as their mates were alive, they were together. Though some people thought that wolves were monogamous, he’d found that other’s believed that they weren’t, or at least that the males weren’t. He found it all to be very confusing, but decided to let it go for the moment. He had other things that he wanted to know.

“How did it happen?” Simon asked, unsure how to word what he wanted to know.

“How did I become what I am?” Richard asked for clarification.

“Yeah.”

“When I was about twenty five, I was attacked by what I thought was just a wild dog. Within a couple of hours I started feeling different, feeling like things inside of me were changing, but I wasn’t sure what that meant. I started noticing smells that I had never realized were there before, and I’d hear things but nothing would be there. Just little things. Apparently, vampires and werewolves are enemies of each other. A vampire must have sensed that I was changing, but that the change wasn’t complete. My guess is, that he thought if he drained and changed me into a being of the night, that it would keep me from changing into a were.”

“How do you know all this?” Simon asked cautiously.

“I don’t honestly know anything for sure. Most of this I’m just guessing at. I’ve only met one other like myself and he was killed shortly after I met him. He suspected that when the vampire drained me, that he left just enough blood that had been tainted by the werewolf that I became part werewolf and part vampire.”

“In my reading, I read that vampires can’t be out in the sunlight, but yet I’ve seen you out during the day. How is that possible?”

“The one guy I was able to ask questions said that he had figured out that when you were a mix that you gained traits from each. You could end up with the worst or the best. In my case, I lucked out and ended up with the best. The werewolf in me allows me to be outside in the sun, and the vampire keeps me from changing during the full moon. I only shift when I want to and when I do shift into the wolf, I have complete control of my actions. The werewolf also keeps me from having to drink blood, which is why when we went to the restaurant; my steak was pretty much rare. There are a lot of other traits that are a mixture of both, strong sense of smell, hearing, and sight. Pretty much, I’m a good mix of both I guess.”

Richard watched as Simon leaned back in the recliner and turned his drink in his hands. Richard couldn’t blame him for being nervous, he was nervous himself. He knew he asking a lot for Simon to accept what he was, but he just hoped that Simon would essentially be able to overlook the darker aspect of who he was.

“Exactly how old are you?” Simon asked suddenly.

“I’m just a little over seventy years old,” Richard answered.

“That’s a long time, you don’t look that old,” Simon answered. “In fact you don’t look a day over thirty.”

“It seems to take about ten years for me to actually look any older.”

“So, when you’re say, a hundred, you’ll only look about thirty five. How long will you live for?” Simon asked.

“I’m not really sure, werewolves have a longer life expectancy than humans, but vampires essentially have an eternity. I’m guessing that the wolf in me cancel’s out the eternity, but that the vampire prolongs the wolf life expectancy. I’d guess that I have at least a couple hundred more years.”

“I don’t understand what this all means for me. Am I going to change and become what you are?” Simon asked, a note of fear creeping into his voice.

“Only if you want to,” Richard answered, instantly noticing that Simon had used words that indicated he was leaning towards accepting him. “In order for you to become like me I’d have to change you. That’s something that would always be an option for you, but I’d never do it against your will. You’d have to actually ask me.”

“You’d want me to, though, wouldn’t you?” Simon asked.

“Would it be nice if you were like me and I’d have you with me the rest of my life? Yes, it would, I won’t lie to you about that, but I’d never pressure you into doing it. It’s a decision that only you can make.”

“And if I say no, what will you do?” Simon asked, instantly hating himself for asking the question when he saw a look of pain on Richard’s face.

“If you tell me no, that you can’t accept what I am or at least try to and that you want me to walk away, then I’ll walk out of here and you’ll never see me or hear from me again. I’ll respect your wishes,” Richard answered, his voice choking up at the very end. “Is that what you want Simon? Do you want me to leave? All you have to do is say the word.”

“No,” Simon whispered, his voice barely audible.

“No what Simon?” Richard asked, needing to hear for himself that Simon wanted him to stay.

“I don’t want you to leave,” Simon answered quietly. “I don’t know what all this is going to mean, but I don’t want you to leave,” Simon said with a little more conviction. “It might take me some time to get completely comfortable with what you are, but I want to try.”

“Are you sure? Don’t get me wrong, I’m deliriously happy to hear you say that, but you have to know, it’s going to be hell for me to walk away later if you change your mind.”

“I can’t guarantee you forever Richard, at least not right now, but I want to see where this goes. To be completely honest, I think my mind was made up before I ever headed down to the club tonight, I just needed the answers to verify that I’d made the right decision,” Simon told him as he got out of his chair and made his way over to the couch to sit next to Richard.

Richard couldn’t find the words to explain what Simon’s decision meant to him and instead leaned over and captured Simon’s lips with his own, trying to pour what he was feeling into his kiss. He was overjoyed when he felt Simon respond, at first tentatively, and then more boldly. He was surprised when Simon pulled back and got off the couch before reaching out a hand to him.

“I don’t think I’m ready for sex yet, but it would be nice to wake up in your arms in the morning,” Simon told him almost shyly.

“It’s never been about sex baby,” Richard answered as he placed his hand in Simon’s and stood. “I hardly let myself hope that we would even get this far, so we’ll take this at whatever speed your comfortable with.”

Richard followed Simon through the house as he shut off lights and locked the doors before leading the way to his bedroom. Simon undressed until he was down to his briefs before pulling the covers back and climbing in bed. Richard undressed down to his own boxer briefs before climbing in next to him and pulling him into his arms.

The rising sun found them exactly as Simon had wanted. Their bodies were wrapped together and Richard’s arms like steel bands holding Simon against his chest.