—Willow instead!

"Hi!"

"Hello."

"How're you? Did you and Theo ever do anything more productive than... that thing?"

"I object to that! It was very productive."

Sigh. "Yeah, we went to his place and told his dad stuff and—"

– Theo arrives. "Hi," he says, seeming a bit tired, not as exuberant as usual.

It's not really outwardly obvious, but it might be noticeable.

"Hi!"

Sadde looks at him, raises an eyebrow, says, "Hi. Are you alright?"

He blinks a bit, then responds, "Yeah, I'm fine. A bit tired, though."

Another blink. "You?"

Sadde raises his other eyebrow. "I'm fine." He gives Willow a look -

—and she says, "Oh, look, there's a thing over there. That I have to see." She scoots off.

Sadde looks at Theo again, both eyebrows still raised.

"Honestly," he says, "I'm just a bit tired. I'm okay, really."

He looks like he might not be totally lying; he's definitely tired.

"Uh huh." Does he look like he buys it? He does not. He does not look like he buys it.

Well, that's a shame, because Theo doesn't really have much else to say in his defence.

"You ran away. Last night," he prods.

"… And then I cried. For a while. Yep, I remember."

Does he look like he wants to talk about this? Hint: no.

Pause. "I—Do you need anything? A hug? Why didn't you—tell me?"

He stands there for a second, then shrugs. "I don't know? I was just– Uh. I don't know?" He makes a face. "… Continuing?"

"I—" Bell. "Damnit," he spits.

Theo frowns. "See ya later?"

"Yes," he sighs. "Later."

Off Theo goes, to homeroom.

Then, for his first class of the day: French.

And the following class is Bio, which they share. Sadde arrives before Theo and is waiting for him.

Theo enters the room and looks around for Sadde. Upon seeing him, he makes his way in that direction and takes a seat next to him.

Getting his stuff out of his bag, he just says, "Hi."

"Hi," he says, looking at Theo. "Are you—" Teacher arrives! "—going to talk to me now?" Sadde finishes in a whisper.

Theo tilts his head a bit. "I was talking to you earlier?" he whispers back, a bit confused.

"I mean about what's going on in your head!" he whispers, but the teacher shoots him a quelling glance and begins his lecture.

Theo rolls his eyes, but gets on with some of the work seeing as the teacher's focused on them.

And keeps focusing on them throughout the class, walking around and asking people to not talk about non-class-related stuff.

At one point when the teacher is looking away – or at least focusing on them less, at least – Theo mutters, "It's not like I know anyway."

Sadde doesn't get the time to reply before the end of the class, but then: "What does that mean?"

"… Huh?"

"Not knowing what you're thinking!"

"… I thought I was okay, and then I wasn't, and now I am?"

"Well how do you know you're okay now if the last time you thought you were okay you weren't?"

Theo looks at Sadde a bit blankly. "… Because normally when I feel okay I'm okay?" He tilts his head. "What kind of a question is that?"

"It's the kind of question that—look, I just—am panicking a bit, here."

Theo looks at him like he's said something bizarre. "… Okay? I don't really get why, but… Okay?"

He packs his stuff away and grabs his bag. "I should probably get to math."

Sadde bites something back, gives Theo a curt nod, and leaves without another word.

Ookay.

Theo departs to math.

And then comes lunch! Sadde's one of the first in the cafeteria, and he just sits at a table, not grabbing anything to eat.

"Hello again," Willow says when she arrives.

"Hi. Um, Willow, can I—um, this is terribly mean of me, but I kinda want to talk to Theo, so, um."

"Oh! O-okay, sure, I'll, um, sit somewhere else..."

"Thank you. And, um, sorry. I appreciate you a lot and you're a great friend, I just."

"No, no, it's fine, I get it," even though she doesn't really. "We'll catch up later?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

And off she goes!

So Sadde waits for Theo to arrive.

Theo walks into the cafeteria and makes his way over to Sadde.

He seems a bit confused by the lack of Willow and somewhat resigned to the upcoming conversation.

"Do you... not want to talk?" Sadde asks when Theo takes a seat.

"I don't really know what you expect. I don't feel terrible anymore, but I didn't feel terrible before, so… I can't really help?"

"Well, I'd like to, you know. Talk? Know what's going on in your head. What things you're thinking, as you think them? That'd be nice. I mean, I realize we've known each other for all of five days, so maybe I'm asking a bit too much, but. You're the one who decided to start the dating thing! And, well, maybe that was a mean thing to say, I'm sorry. But I mean, regardless of that, I'm—in it for the long run, this whole hunting horrors thing. I'm blabbing and not making much sense..."

Theo blinks a bit. "I'm so confused. … I feel like I'm missing something."

He shakes his head a bit and says, "Hans was scary. The magic was different. I am not human, and then you collapsed from a weird spell. I thought I was fine, mostly? And then I had to explain to my dad and I… didn't want to? And then I thought about it all, and I don't like it? Not really? Is that what you mean? Because I feel like that's not what you mean."

"Yes, that's what I mean!"

"… That's about it?"

"Are you sure? Are you perhaps thinking 'I don't want to talk to Sadde right now' or 'maybe it wasn't that good an idea to get involved in this' or something along those lines?"

"I'm pretty sure I would've been involved anyway, but anyway, I'm more thinking 'I wish I didn't have to deal with this'. Maybe also–" His face changes a bit. "Okay, no, make that definitely also wondering who the fuck my mother was."

"...you don't know who she was? Like, at all? Doesn't your father?"

"No, I do, but I mean… I thought she was normal, she seemed normal, I'm pretty sure she was normal, except for the fact that I totally failed to notice she's somehow twice as demonic as I am? Then she disappears, and now I have no fucking clue about her. Like, at all."

"How did she disappear?"

"She and my dad had an argument, then they calmed down and decided to talk about it later, and then she packed her stuff and left in the night."

How thrilling that was.

"Um. What was the argument about?"

"I don't remember? I was eight."

"Oh."

Yeah.

He doesn't really have anything to add.

"Um. Sorry."

"It's fine," he says. "I mean, I was eight. It was a while ago."

"Yeah, I suppose." Pause. "My mom died when I was four."

"Oh." Theo doesn't know what to say.

"… I'm sorry for your loss."

That was probably not the best thing. He is now mentally hitting himself.

"It was a while ago," he echoes Theo.

Theo nods.

"… Where's Willow?"

"Um. Over there,"  he says, gesturing with his head at another table.

He looks. "Oh, right."

Pause. "Should I call her back over?"

"Yeah, probably."

He tries to catch her attention, but if she's not looking at them he'll go over and tell her they're done.

She notices! And brings her lunch over. "A-are you two okay?" 

Theo looks over at Sadde and says, "I think so?"

"Yeah, probably."

"Okay. S-so, how did it go yesterday? With your dad?" she asks Theo.

"Um. He knows now, at least?" Theo glances away from Willow. "I gave him a cross and a stake, maybe some other stuff. I don't really remember."

"Don't re—"

Sadde gives Willow another subtle look as he says, "Yeah there was a lot of stuff, crucifixes and holy water and the like. General intro-to-horrible stuff."

Theo nods.

"Anyway, we should probably grab some food."

"Yeah," he agrees, then gets up to go and get some.

Presumably Sadde comes with?

Yep! Food is a good idea.

And so they get food! Theo also gets a drink.

Then they return to the table.

And they eat!

"So, there's gonna be a party tomorrow."

"Oh, another party we weren't invited to," she says a teeny bit glumly.

"Whose is it?"

Theo… may have been invited.

"Jeb's."

"Ah," he says, nodding.

… He feels a bit guilty, so he says, "Uh, one of the guys invited me."

"Oh! Th-that's nice. H-have fun there."

"Mm-mm, fellow nerd, we're all going to this party."

Enh. It seems rude for them not to come – rude of him to suggest they shouldn't – but also rude for them to just gatecrash.

Theo looks kinda conflicted.

"After all, dearest Theo here just invited us, didn't he?"

'Dearest Theo' looks back up and raises an eyebrow. "Oh, did he? He doesn't remember doing that."

Admittedly, he didn't want to outright say no to an assumption just a few seconds ago, because he felt guilty, but now if he's being blamed for something, he can feel free to dispute it.

"Oh, I'm sure if he thinks very hard about it the memory will resurface."

A look. "Of course he will. I'll just let him know." He tilts his head. "Oh, what's that? He still says no."

Sadde stands up and walks up to Theo, leaning down until he's less than an inch away from his face. "Still no?"

"Um."

Theo pecks Sadde on the lips, then says, "Yep. Still no."

He laughs then grabs Theo's hair and starts kissing him. A little bit more passionately than the situation calls for.

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

Theo responds quite happily for a bit, then pushes Sadde away. "We're in a cafeteria, y'know. It might not be wholly appropriate."

"I know. I'm just reminding you of the good things of life," he says, as he returns to his seat, "so ephemeral, so easy to misplace or forget."

"Ah yes, I could have forgotten, and how terrible that would be," Theo responds, smiling. "Anyway, the bell's probably gonna go soon, so perhaps we should stop scaring Willow and actually eat? You know, since we have food and all?"

"Sure," he says, and noms, then looks at Willow. "What are you gonna wear to the party tomorrow?"

Theo also noms! And cannot respond with what Willow will wear, since he is neither a telepath nor precognitive, nor does he know her or her wardrobe well enough to guess.

As to what he'll wear, like he knows, it's tomorrow. He doesn't have to worry about that until like 15 minutes beforehand and he'll probably go smart casual.

She looks between the two of them. "Are you sure it's a good idea to go...?"

"Suppose you're a vampire, and you discover the largest concentration of stupidity and hormones on the city will happen tomorrow night. What do you do?"

Not a question for him, presumably, but actually that's a good point.

He wonders how many people have been attacked by vampires at this sort of thing before and looks briefly sad.

"Oh. Yeah, um."

"So you see, Willow," he says, looking at Theo, "it would be just terrible if some of the only people who had a clue about this stuff couldn't go because they weren't invited, wouldn't it. So it's a jolly good thing our dearest friend Theo did, in fact, invite us."

Theo makes a face again, kinda resigned to the fact, and doesn't disagree.

Great way to kill his mood, though.

"And of course in the meantime we can have some fun, too."

Theo tries to seem less sad and successfully ends up on 'kinda horrifically neutral'. 

He's not sure he wants to hear the response, but he says, "I hope you don't plan on ruining anything."

"Whatever could you possibly mean."

Theo rolls his eyes in response.

"Well but I'm serious! Why would I wanna ruin anything? It's a party!"

Theo raises his eyebrows.

"What!"

"Okay, fine, if you say you won't do anything then I believe you."

… He doesn't look much like that's the case.

"Of course, if anyone like Brad should try to pick a fight with me..."

"Then he's being a dick and you shall try very hard to stick to the moral high ground where you try to get away and don't attack him back?"

He doesn't seem to much believe that this is how it'll play out, but a boy can hope, right?

"Ah, yes, and what do you expect will happen to me, then?"

"… Either you get away and then he attacks you at school instead, where you could maybe try to get a teacher, or he catches you and attacks you there and there's no net loss anyway, except for maybe him feeling a bit more like it's a game of cat-and-mouse?"

"He's smart enough to do it with enough friends that escape is basically impossible. What, you don't think he alone was enough to stuff me in that locker? Granted, if I," and he twirls his fingers making sparks appear, "I'd probably be able to take them all on, but therein lies madness."

"Well, m-maybe if you did that in a sufficiently convincing way they'd stop bothering you..."

"Mm…"

Theo doesn't really want to advocate for Sadde getting himself more addicted to magic, but if he just uses a small bit to scare Brad or something, maybe that would be okay?

"Besides, that's just not in his nature. Brad is the kind of person who escalates. Better to keep the game in the junior leagues for now, offer token resistance that he can break and feel good about doing so. If I show my hand too much, he will escalate, and I'll have upped the antes, and then either I stop, at a worse place I'm in right now, or I continue and thoroughly ruin him. I do not want to ruin him."

Theo might want to ruin him.

"How exactly does he escalate over magic?" he asks, kinda expecting that it's a dumb question. "I mean, I guess he wouldn't realize it's magic unless you actually made sure of that but wasn't that supposed to be the point of scaring him with it? So he realizes he's in over his head?"

"And what do you propose I actually do with said magic?"

"I dunno? Can you do bad luck charms? Not exactly shiny, but it should… y'know… give him bad luck. Retribution or whatever."

"Which will cause his mood to be generally sour for no apparent reason, and who will he take that out on?"

"Yeah but then depending on how the bad luck works he might be less able to actually take it out on you anyway? Or it might backfire or something?"

"So you want an effect noticeable enough that it would actually impair his bullying abilities, even when those are often nothing more than asking his friends to do it? Not to mention that a curse like that is preeeeetty dark magic."

Theo blinks. "Okay, so it's not exactly a perfect solution, but this is with like twenty seconds of thinking. Besides, he kinda has it coming."

"And therein, also, lies madness. It's so very easy to start using magic for the littlest things, to curse someone who 'has it coming,' even though there's literally nothing to gain. Magic does stuff to you, frequently undesirable stuff, and doing it out of spite without any expected gain?"

"I'm not sure that's really 'literally nothing to gain', but anyway… Look to an outside source to determine who 'has it coming'? Unless I get affected by magic simply by being around you, and I'm pretty sure you said to my dad that I didn't?"

"You don't, but I will. It's not a matter of who thinks what, revenge magic is by its nature dark."

Theo still looks a bit confused, but decides to accept that answer.

"I'd still be deciding to cause someone else pain for—what? A perverse sense of justice and self-satisfaction? While at the same time sacrificing a little bit, who knows how much, of my self-control. It'll be that much easier to do it again, to be nastier, and nastier, and before you know it I've erased Brad's personality and replaced it with something more palatable."

Theo raises an eyebrow.

Do you see him complaining about this idea? No. He is not complaining about this idea.

"I will not erase someone's personality and replace it with another one, that's murder and bad and will probably cause a minor god to take over part of my mind."

"Well sure, if it causes a minor god to take over your mind, obviously don't do it, I'm not suggesting you sacrifice yourself to do it. It's hardly like that would be an improvement."

He still doesn't seem to care about Brad, though.

"Even good magic's nasty, dark magic is nastiest, slippery slopes are serious stuff here." Pause. "Also I do not enjoy causing pain for the sake of causing pain, so if it wouldn't actually make him bother me less I wouldn't just hurt him out of spite."

"Mmk," responds Theo.

It's probably pretty clear that he would totally cause Brad pain for the sake of causing pain. Or, at least, if he were in Sadde's shoes he definitely would.

And then lunch is over!

Indeed it is!

And Theo has Government.

Ugh.

Government: is government-y.

And then there's gym.

Gym! Yay!

Theo gets to be weirdly fluid in his movements again. Whoop-de-doo. But he also gets to be good at sport, and run around, and stuff, so woo!

Presumably Sadde is here? He hasn't somehow gotten himself in trouble with Brad again, somehow, who knows how, in the past hour, has he?

Sadde seems to be present, unharmed, and not in a team.

Which is kinda unfortunate.

Are the teachers not… doing anything about it? Sure, they're using team captains and whatever, but surely the teachers wouldn't just let someone be totally excluded?

Well, he's not totally excluded. Sometimes the teacher sees him, yells at him to play, he plays some for no team at all, and then idles away again.

There's not really much Theo can do about that, since he's a bit busy over here trying to do well for his team, as he has in previous games.

Sorry, Sadde.

Watch Sadde not really care.

And then gym's over.

And then gym is indeed over! Theo hangs about at the end in case Sadde wants to chat or anything, but then he'll go to soccer practice.

Sadde walks over to him and plants a kiss on his lips. "You have soccer today, right?"

Awwh. That's cute.

"I do, in fact!" he says, grinning a bit and trying not to dwell on the fact that seemingly everybody ostractizes Sadde.

"Have fun, then! Seeya!"

Theo kisses Sadde again, then goes to soccer practice.

Later that evening, Sadde and Willow are at the Bronze.

Theo is too! He showered after soccer practice and then made his way over with the team.

Josh and the rest of the team make their way to the bar to grab non-alcoholic drinks.

Of course they do! Theo follows them, gets some sort of cola - Coke or Pepsi, he's not picky - and then chats to them and looks around a bit.

He'll make his way over to Willow and Sadde eventually, if neither of them come to him first, but he should probably speak to the social clique he so rudely ignored after starting to join them.

The jocks will talk about soccer, pretty girls, school, and each other, with only a little bit of homoerotic subtext pretending it's bromance.

… Well, Theo was going to go over to Willow and Sadde, but… how much homoerotic subtext are we talking here?

Oh, you know, the usual banter about working out and showing off and complimenting each other's physical aspects in a completely plausibly deniable way, accompanied by some heavy manly touching. No homo.

He mmmight just linger a second.

Or a minute. Or a few.

But eventually, he will leave the guys to go be homo in a corner, and he'll go over to Sadde to be a bit homo over there. Hopefully without scaring or scarring Willow too much.

Well then! They'll be homo.

Until, that is, Sadde pulls away giggling and asks, "What came over you?"

"Oh, y'know," he says vaguely, then smirks. "The guys are being… vaguely homo."

"Vaguely homo?" she asks, looking between Theo and Sadde pointedly.

Theo turns to face her, still smirking. "See, we're being super homo," he says, then turns to kiss Sadde again. When it ends, he continues, "They're just being kinda homo."

Eeeee!

"What does that even mean."

He looks at her, a bit confused. "Have you never seen jocks being all super vaguely homo with each other? Showing off their muscles, giving each other compliments on how hot they look – no homo – and then being all touchy with each other?"

"...no?"

"Oh, it's quite a show. I've pushed that 'no homo' thing a little bit further than normal with more than a few of them."

"...that's nice."

Theo giggles a little at Willow's look – in a totally masculine way – then responds to what Sadde said. "I'm not sure that's super safe, honey," he says, smirking a little as he says the word but then swiftly moving on. "Anyway, yeah, the guys are busy being super vaguely homo. It was kinda fun to watch. What have you two been up to?"

"Oh, we were safe," Sadde promises.

"We were talking about things other than gay boys! And I would like to return to that!"

Theo looks at Sadde again, a bit flatly. "I'm sure you were."

Turning back to Willow, he says, "Oh, you want to return to the gay boys?"

"No! To topics other than gay boys!"

"… Hot straight boys? Who happen to be acting slightly homoerotically over in a group over there? Or is that also a no?"

...she mumbles a bit.

"I… didn't hear that but I'm guessing it's a no?"

"...I'm a gals' gal."

Theo blinks, tilts his head a bit, and then, because there are two major, complete opposite ways he could take that phrase, he decides to look to Sadde for help.

"She's a lesbian," he translates. "I mean, I suspect she's actually bi with a preference for ladies but I'm pretty sure by choice the difference here is moot."

Theo nods and doesn't really know what to say – is 'congratulations' acceptable in this circumstance?

He settles for, "Oh, okay. I mean, we can talk about hot girls instead if you want, but I'm pretty sure my tastes will be horrible." Then he realizes he's not sure he's told her this, and clarifies, "Seeing as I'm gay."

"Yes, you have mentioned and made this clear several times in many different ways."

"Well, I could've been bi, and I don't know if I already told you that I wasn't."

He makes a bit of a face, then takes a drink to cover for the awkwardness.

"I wish," sighs Sadde. "I'm pretty sure tomorrow will be a girl day."

Theo shrugs. "It's not like that's exactly a problem? I'm not gonna start being all cold or anything just because of that."

"No but there'll be a party and no makeouts," he pouts.

Theo shrugs but doesn't really know what to say.

"Not to mention however many days this will last in a row." Pout. "Are you quite sure you're just gay?"

He makes a bit of a face. "Pretty sure, yeah."

He sighs. "Oh well. Guess we'd better enjoy the 50% of the time we're compatible."

Theo shrugs again. "We're still compatible the other half of the time, just… not really like that?"

Sadde gives Theo a look. "I was trying to imply I want to go to the dancefloor with you and make out."

"Thaaaat was a pretty obscure implication, but sure, whatever." He tilts his head. "Let's?"

"It wasn't that obscure! What else could I possibly have meant about enjoying the time I happen to fit your sexual orientation?" He stands up and shoots Willow an inquiring look.

She shrugs. "D-don't worry about me, I-I'll be around here."

Theo raises an eyebrow and starts walking towards the dance floor. "Why should I know? I'm just an innocent teenage male."

He raises an eyebrow, too. "Innocent? What a terrible boyfriend I am, if you're still innocent."

"I mean, we could try to fix that," he says, trailing a hand across Sadde's shoulder. "But probably not here, what with all the other innocent teenagers."

(Click here to skip the explicit content.)

Sadde pulls Theo into a fairly passionate kiss, his right hand behind Theo's head and twirling through Theo's hair, his left one grabbing Theo's right buttock and pressing their bodies together.

Theo… might complain, except his mouth is currently busy.

And Sadde is right there.

So nope. No complaints from this corner.

Eventually Sadde pulls away and says, "It's a club, and I'm creative enough to be able to get rid of any leftover innocence you might have without violating public decency laws."

Theo smirks and asks, "Do you wanna try that out, then?"

"Of course I do," he answers simply, and resumes aforementioned activities.

Well, that is fine by Theo. The crowd around them seems to be dense enough that it's not super obvious they're being totally inappropriate, so that's nice for Theo's peace of mind.

Not that he'd care too much even if it were kinda super obvious. He's a bit busy.

...even with the crowd it's kinda super obvious, though, especially given this isn't exactly a 'close-dancing' song and besides now Sadde's nibbling down Theo's jawline to his neck.

Okay, okay, fine, that was just wishful thinking on Theo's behalf.

But as was already stated, he does not care. He is busy being nibbled.

Yep! More nibbling! And Sadde's hand may be doing quite a lot of work there, even if nothing's going under any clothing.

Oh. Really. Well. Huh.

That might be getting a bit too much for public.

Nonsense. Sadde can just start pulling Theo away from the dance floor and toward a wall in a secluded corner somewhere and continue doing this with less in the way of watching eyes.

And Theo can follow, a little dazed, and continue having it done to him, really rather enjoyably.

Theo can also nibble Sadde back a bit, if he's given any time to recover or any opportunity to do it.

He might, but eventually Sadde's pressing him against the wall and being much less careful about watching eyes' opinions than he'd been a minute before.

Okay, well, as usual Theo has no objections, or if he does have any objections, they're totally outweighed by the anti-objections, or whatever those things are called – he's not really in the mood to think right now; forgive his lack of eloquence.

But Sadde is evil, don't you see, so he stops and pulls away for a second to ask, "Still innocent?"

"You f—" he starts, then breaks off, growling. "How should I know?" he asks, sarcastically, then grabs Sadde to pull him closer and kiss him again.

Oh, and they indeed are still in public.

That's a shame. It limits some of their options.

He pulls away again, giggling. "I f—?" he asks, making sure to not let Theo kiss him.

"Are you sure you want me to say?" he asks, raising his eyebrows and poking his tongue against his teeth, making a sort of 'thinking' or 'daring' face.

"Yes," he says simply.

Well then.

"I was going to say, 'you fucker'. Because you were being a tease. Super interesting, I know."

"Oh, I wasn't being a tease, I was warming up," he says, and resumes the kissing.

And now there's biting.

Biting. And pressing against a wall. And kissing. And Sadde.

Theo's mind is a little bit stuck on 'melty' right now.

Don't forget the wandering hands!

Which may incidentally not be respecting clothing boundaries anymore.

Theo. Is somewhat curious how little they are respecting clothing boundaries. Seeing as they are still in public.

But he is super, super melty and cannot bring himself to care. He will attempt to bite Sadde back, from time to time, if possible.

They may be in public, but given that Theo's body is hidden by Sadde's own and the wall, there aren't really many people that can see what Sadde's hands are doing unless they're really trying.

And Sadde will, as usual, react very positively to being bitten, and his wandering hands may also react to that.

Theo. Is super super hidden and pressed up against a wall, so this is super nice. And he has run out of adjectives with which to describe it. It is just super.

The positivity in response to being bitten just makes Theo bite harder and more often. That just makes it more positive for the both of them.

Good! Positiveness is good.

You know what else is good? The thing Sadde's doing with his right hand right now. Theo might note Sadde now has a goal.

Well.

Theo will have to bite Sadde a few more times in response.

And that goal will eventually be reached.

Of course it will. Sadde knows what he's doing.

When it is, Sadde pulls away a little bit, looking up at Theo like the cat who caught the canary. "Not. Innocent."

Theo gives out a bit of a sigh and leans in to kiss Sadde. "Mmnope."

He… is not super sure how he feels about having done this. In a club. But still: fun.

Sadde's hands are gingerly removed from their current locations, and he plants another kiss on Theo's lips. "We should go find Willow."

Theo opens and closes his mouth a few times. "We should probably get, uh. Cleaned up or something. Because of. Things." He emphasizes this a bit and raises his eyebrows. "I'm not sure if you remember those, seeing as these things happened so long ago."

"Well, I don't," he says, raising his right hand to his lips and licking the tips of his fingers absently, "but if you feel that's necessary."

Theo's face twitches a bit, and then he smirks. "Yeah, I think it is."

"Do you want my help?"

He looks at Sadde, seeming to deliberate, and then decides, "I think the answer to that would be yes."

"Lead the way, then."

Theo indeed does lead the way! To the bathroom, because they plan on getting him cleaned up and it would be a bit far to go home and there are people around and things.

He hopes it's not too busy.

It's a club/bar/whatever-else-it-dubs-as-in-small-Sunnydale. It's kinda dirty, kinda dingy, and not exactly empty, but it at least doesn't have any drunk people on the floor.

Well, in that case he can attempt to clean himself off in said bathroom, probably failing to do it to anywhere near 'satisfactory', but oh well.

Next time he should probably just suggest they leave and go do it somewhere else.

Awwww no doing it there was the funnest part!

"Satisfied?"

Theo laughs a bit. "Yes and no."

"Cryptic, aren't we?" he says, leading the way out.

"Indeed we are," says Theo in response, following.

He laughs, and looks around for... for...

"...do you see Willow?"

Theo looks around a bit too.

"… Nnno?" He frowns. "Do you think she left?"

"...maybe but I don't know if she would. If she went out with a vampire too I swear I'm gonna—"

She appears behind them. "Hey guys."

Sadde jumps. "Jesus Christ on rollerblades!"

Theo does not visibly jump, but he does spin around really quickly. "Wh– where were you?"

"In the toilet. Where were you?"

… Okay, yeah, that makes sense.

"We. Were busy," he says, not very forthcoming. "Boy things."

"...gay boy things, right."

Sadde snickers.

Theo pokes his tongue against the inside of his mouth a bit, then says, "Yes."

He looks around a bit, feeling somewhat on edge.

"Ew! Here?"

Theo is looking around right now, not responding to Willow.

"...are you okay?"

"Yeah, nah, I'm fine."

He is. He's just a little bit on edge, but he thinks he's calming down a bit.

Willow scared him a little.

She looks at Sadde.

He shrugs.

Theo is not totally oblivious, so he does in fact notice this look, and therefore says, "What? I'm fine."

Well, someone else isn't, if that strangled scream in the distance is any indication.

… Strangled scream? Theo frowns.

"Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"There was. A. A scream?"

He looks around, then points in the direction it came from. "From over there?"

"...lead the way."

Theo does so, moving in the direction of the scream, frowning a bit. He's pretty sure he heard it, but if neither Sadde nor Willow did, then maybe he just imagined it.

Sadde follows him!

As does Willow.

And they'll get to a door. To a back room. Near but not right by the bathrooms.

Theo looks at it a bit tentatively, then at Sadde, then back at the door. There haven't been any more screams, audible to either Theo or Sadde and Willow.

He opens the door.

And on the other side, surprise surprise, is a vampire!

His teeth are embedded in a girl's neck. She seems a bit unconscious.

Of course.

A crucifix and a water gun have appeared in Sadde's hand god knows where from, and the vampire should consider himself squirted.

The vampire is indeed squirted, and hisses in response, letting the girl drop to the ground.

He looks around, spots a chair, then picks it up and throws it in the direction of the door.

Theo, whether fortunately or not, instinctively gets out of the way when things are thrown in his direction.

He hopes Sadde is okay.

Sadde raises a hand protectively in front of his face—

—and Willow does the same, but with a better reaction time than Sadde's, and uses magic to stop the chair.

Sadde's head snaps in her direction. "You did magic!"

"Not the time!" hisses Theo.

The vampire stalks in their direction, looking menacing but not particularly scared.

This might be a stupid one.

Sadde still has a crucifix. He brandishes it at the vampire. "Get a bloody stake."

The vampire recoils from the crucifix, hissing again.

And then Theo comes to the rescue with a stake, fortunately readily available in his jacket pocket. Because of course he was going to do this anyway. He needed no prompting.

Watch Theo be a hero and stand by Sadde with the stake!

"So, should I stake it or do you want to?"

"Please, be my guest," he says, trying to corner the vampire with the crucifix.

Willow flutters behind them, trying to get a look at the bitten girl.

The vampire does indeed start to get cornered.

It really does seem rather stupid.

But then, plot twist! It decides that, seeing as they're three humans, it can just barrel right through them.

Theo had started to go after it with the stake, but instead gets pushed to the side as it runs past. He does manage to scrape the vampire as it goes by, though.

The vampire continues on, gritting its teeth but then barging past Sadde and quickly disappearing out the door.

It can totally do that! And Sadde can magic its feet out of balance.

(It may be a vampire with preternatural balance, sure, but it seems to be a neophyte so it's probably not good at it yet.)

Well, in that case, the vampire might well fall over.

It'll be back in its feet soon enough though, unless the spell affects it for longer than a couple of seconds.

No longer than that, but if Sadde tries to squirt holy water at its eyes? And maybe then a crucifix on its face?

Then it will probably try to roll to the side and get up anyway, hissing at the pain of the water.

And Theo is now back on his feet and running at the vampire, again with the stake!

And Sadde spends quite some effort to try and hold that vampire still.

And Willow helps!

The vampire struggles, held down by the magic, but seems like it… might be making some progress against it.

But unfortunately for the vampire, Theo was already on his way over, it doesn't take too long for him to traverse such a short distance, and he has a stake.

Vampire, meet stake.

The vampire indeed does meet the stake!

It goes… right through the vampire.

Theo pulls the stake out, remembering that it would otherwise turn to dust, and it's just in time, because the vampire does indeed dust.

She blinks.

"We did it!"

"So we did. Is the girl alright?" He goes to check up on her.

The girl… is breathing! She also looks super pale, is lying on the floor unconscious, and her pulse is a little weak if Sadde cares to check that and can recognize that.

Overall: could live, but probably needs a trip to the hospital.

"...okay we should probably take her to the hospital with a case of barbecue-fork-itis."

"Yeah, we probably should. … Do we just say we're good samaritans who found her, or what?"

"We don't need to say anything, just call 911 and then hang up if they ask anything."

Sadde grins at her. He likes the way she thinks.

"Oh, right, call an ambulance instead of actually taking her to the hospital? Yeah, okay."

So presumably 911 will be called.

"Unless you have a car you've been hiding somewhere..."

Willow dials 911 on her phone.

"Well I don't know how far the hospital is. I got here like a week ago and haven't checked, which is kinda an oversight now I think about it, what with the demons and frequent attacks and generally being prepared and so on."

"It's not very far, but moving someone who's been barbecue fork'd without help, eeh."

Willow hangs up. "Okay, they're on their way, we should maybe scramble?"

Theo tilts his head, conceding the point, and then responds to Willow, "Yeah? At least go back into the club proper instead of waiting here."

"Right, that."

And so Theo leads the way back into the club, leaving the victim of the attack to lie on the floor and wait for an ambulance.

He feels like he should feel vaguely guilty about this. Oops.

Sadde doesn't. He's pretty sure they've made the right choice.

"Do you still question the wisdom of inviting me—us—to the party tomorrow?"

"Yes," he responds, not really needing to think about it. "But it's probably for the best."

"Come on, what could possibly go wrong?"

"Vampires, which is exactly why it's probably for the best."

"Exactly. So, it's the best decision to invite us, Q.E.D. We're gonna party!"

Theo looks… faintly amused? "You did hear me say it's probably for the best earlier, right?"

"Yes, but you said you still questioned the wisdom of it!"

"Yyup!" he says. "Because there are still doubts where I think you might also plot to do something at the party that might not be looked upon favorably, hence questioning the wisdom, but overall think it is best, and so overall am having it go along."

"I think you have a terribly unfair image of me!"

"Shut up!"

"I didn't say anything."

Theo can contribute a look too. It's probably pretty similar to Willow's, and looks something like he wants to say, "Ha. Of course. You're super super innocent, however could I forget."

"Bah!" he says, turning around and stalking off (just as he notices the paramedics arriving from the corner of his eyes).

Well, how cute that Sadde's being all… like that.

Theo turns to face Willow, raising his eyebrow. "Well, that was a bit… dramatic."

"Oh, he does that all the time. We should go after him otherwise he'll come back and glare at us and tell us we're not playing our parts right."

Theo looks at her, still quizzically. "… Couldn't you just claim to be playing the part of 'slightly frustrated friend who can't be bothered to follow him'?" He shakes his head. "But yeah, we should probably go after him anyway."

"That's not the right part to play," she shrugs.

"Okay then, after him we go," he says, then turns around to look for Sadde – did he disappear really quickly, never to be seen again in the throngs of club-goers, or can Theo follow him relatively easily and play the part of 'worried friend' convincingly?

Sadde—

—is apparently at the bar, chatting with a girl from school, who looks torn between fascination, surprise, and mild disgust.

Theo walks over and frowns at Sadde.

… Can he hear what they're speaking about?

Sadde might be... flirting? He's surely making very charming faces.

Then he spots Theo and beams and beckons him over. The girl turns to look at the boy and looks... terribly bewildered.

Rrright. Of course.

Theo walks over, looking confused. "Hey?"

"Hi!" he says, then looks at the girl. "I'm an attractive boy. He's an attractive boy. Two attractive boys kissing can't make this worse."

Yyyeah, Theo's still confused. "What?"

"Have you met Brittany? She's a senior, and she doesn't believe watching two attractive boys kiss is hot."

Willow, who followed Theo here, perks up at that.

"I'm trying to convince her that she's wrong."

    "Why am I even talking to you," she wonders.

"Oh," says Theo, then he shrugs. "I mean, I agree with Sadde here."

"You're talking to me because I'm incredibly charming, of course."

    "You're weird, is what you are," she retorts.

"Nevertheless."

    "I'm gonna go," she says, glaring at him and standing up from her stool.

"And I," he says, doing the same and looking at Theo, "am gonna kiss my boyfriend."

He proceeds to pull Theo in for said kiss, hoping he'll play along.

Well, if playing along means kiss Sadde, then— of course Theo won't play along, why would he kiss Sadde.

Pff. Of course he will.

"...I'm gonna be over there. Again."

Sadde kisses Theo, with an emphasis on being showy, and Brittany—

—kinda lingers, watching somewhat transfixed.