Chase stirred just a few seconds before his alarm rang and jumped as it went off, groaning as he shut it off.
He sat up drowsily, looking around his room with a put upon sigh. He still had a decent amount of unpacking to do, mostly books he had yet to put on their respective shelves. It took no small amount of time to get things organized the way he liked them, and if he were smart he'd be doing that tonight.
He shook his head, dispelling his jumbled thoughts as he remembered what he set his alarm for. He grumbled as he got out of bed and headed to the shower. Gym class was a bitch, and his shoulders were still a bit sore from doing the very-obviously-made-to-embarrass-him physical assessment that involved doing as many pull ups and push ups as he possibly could, no breaks in between. Still, the look on the teacher's face had been worth it when he broke the school record for both.
He showered quickly and toweled off, blow drying his hair before heading to his closet to get dressed, and he was usually never one to obsess about clothes but for some reason He just couldn't decide what to wear.
After ten minutes of fussing over his outfit he got too frustrated and decided on something casual. It wasn't like he was going on a date or something, he was just meeting a new friend. In the middle of the forest, in the middle of the night. Because that was totally normal.
He dressed, slipped on his boots and grabbed a pocket knife. Better to be early than late, he reckoned, especially considering just how fast Blake could be.
He took a deep breath as he stepped outside, thoroughly enjoying the cool night air. This, at least, was better than Florida.
Then he realized Blake never gave him a specific location and set himself to wander, figuring the other boy would eventually find him in any case. Surely flight and incredible speed came with other perks that'd help him find someone from however many miles away.
After walking for a short while he broke through the treeline and into a small circular clearing, and considering it was as good a place to wait as any he sat and then lied back into the soft grass, staring at the sky in a vain struggle not to fall asleep. As he drifted, he wondered if Blake was even coming.
...
Blake got dressed and checked the time. He still had a few minutes to spare really, but Chase seemed like the kind of person to be early, so he decided to go find him anyway.
He was already picking up his scent when he left. Chase had a strange scent, he mused quietly as he followed the smell. Not unpleasant but certainly unique enough to be unmistakable. Impossible to miss, really.
He found Chase quite a bit closer than he expected him to be, in a clearing that had to be at least ten miles from his house. How early had he been, exactly?
There he laid in the grass, relaxed and breathing steadily, and it took Blake a fair few seconds to realize the boy had fallen asleep. It was just then that he realized Chase looked very different when he was truly relaxed.
The perpetual frown on his face was nowhere to be seen, instead replaced with a neutral expression, or dare he even say a faint smile? He looked much different like this, and to Blake it was fascinating to see the two sides of this boy.
He took a few near silent steps toward him, attempting to get a better idea of just how many things are different when he's awake. Only, Chase is always on guard even while unconscious, so is it any wonder that by the time Blake meets his eyes he's got a knife to his throat?
Blake chuckles as he lets out an audible sigh, something akin to relief, Blake thinks, but he can't be too sure.
"Oh. Just you." Chase said, lowering his knife and settling back into the grass again.
"And there's the frown again." Blake mumbled, brow furrowed as he puzzled out the expression.
"What do you mean?" Chase asked, tilting his head in a confused way as Blake very obviously stared at him.
"I just noticed when you're awake you're always frowning." He said, sitting down next to the confused person beside him. Chase hummed in response, eyes trailing back down to the grass as he attempted to wake up enough to interact. Blake chuckled quietly.
"What?"
"Sorry." Blake said automatically, scratching at his nape. It's just..." He trailed off for a moment, wondering if he should tell Chase about the very much inhuman traits he exhibited.
"Spit it out already." Chase grumbled, smiling slightly in spite of himself.
"Well, it's just... weird." He said, shrugging.
"What is?" He asked, looking at Blake sideways again with those infuriatingly blue eyes.
"I can't read you." He said by way of explanation, causing Chase to laugh only barely as he shrugged and laid back on the ground again.
"Most people can't." He said, picking at the grass beneath him.
"That's not what I mean." Blake said. Chase looked at him expectantly, motioning for him to continue. "I can't read your mind, I can't make you forget things. Essentially, everything I can do to humans has no effect on you. It's like trying to read an empty book."
"Seriously?" He asked, looking entirely too intrigued and not freaked out enough about the idea that telepathy existed in the first place. "Prove it."
"What?"
"Try to read my mind." He said. "I'll think of a color or something." He gestured vaguely.
And Blake tried, he really did, but again there was that same staring-at-a-blank-book sensation, and he decided maybe blind guessing would be easier.
"Green?" It honestly sounded more like a question than an answer. Chase shook his head with a grin.
"Red." He said. "Better luck next time."
A comfortable silence spanned between them for a few short minutes. And of course Blake being who he was, he had to make it awkward.
"Are you straight?" He asked, his brain to mouth filter temporarily malfunctioning because he absolutely did not mean to ask that. Chase sat up on his elbows, a skeptically amused expression on his face that made Blake's ears go pink at the tips.
"Why do you wanna know?" He asked, tilting his head at him. Blake cleared his suddenly dry throat and shrugged.
"No reason. Just making conversation." He said coolly, standing from his spot and taking a breath. "Would you excuse me for a moment?" He asked. Chase nodded and Blake wasted no time taking himself to the little stream a mile away, cursing himself for forgetting to filter his thoughts. He hadn't done something like that in what had to be a century. It was strange to lose his filter when he'd had it for so long.
He mutters to himself for a few minutes, attempting in vain to get his thoughts in order, when he spots his companion making his way through the trees toward him.
"You okay there buddy?" He asked, leaning back against a dead birch.
"How'd you get here so fast?" He asked, perplexed. Surely he hadn't miscalculated the distance, right?
"You were like two minutes away. It's not very hard to walk for two minutes." He said, looking just as confused as Blake did.
"No, this is at least a mile from where we were." He asked. A sudden thought occurred to him and he looked back at the other boy, looking steadily more confused. "When did you leave your house, anyways? It had to have taken at least two hours for you to get there."
"I got there in like ten minutes, it can't be that far from my house." He said, rolling his eyes at the exaggeration. Two hours? Who walks in the woods in the dark for two hours?
"You are aware we're like twelve miles into the woods right now, right?"
Chase blinks at him, a bewildered look on his face, because that's just not possible is it? Going one mile takes at least fifteen minutes, there was no way he got that far into the woods in such a short amount of time. It's just not possible. Nobody can go a mile in less than a minute.
Blake stared at him as he muttered, catching a few words here and there. It was strange, to not know what he was thinking. That had never happened with a human before.
Taking a few tentative steps forward, Blake lifted his chin from where he was holding it between his fingers and examined him further, trying to make out any strange features that he might've missed before.
"What are you doing?" Chase asked, sounding confused but making no move to pull back.
"Feels weird not being able to read you." Blake said dismissively. "And I didn't get a good enough look at you earlier." He stared at him for long enough that Chase started to feel his cheeks burning. It was an odd feeling to have someone look at him for more than a few seconds. The most people usually spared him was a passing glance. Nobody had ever taken the time to study him before.
"Um-"
"Would you mind if I drew you?" He asked after a bit more silence. Chase's mouth took that moment to go completely dry, so he nodded mutely. "Stay here a minute." He nodded again and then suddenly Blake was gone.
And then he was back, hands full of miscellaneous art supplies. He settled down on the ground again and flipped open a sketchbook with a blue cover, staring at Chase again for a moment before putting pencil to paper. As fidgety as Chase tended to be, he did his best to stay as still as he could. Nobody had ever drawn him before and he'd be lying if he said it wasn't at least a little flattering.
After a half hour though the silence started to get a little grating. The woods usually went quiet when Blake was around, Chase realized. It did make sense he supposed, Blake did have a sort of presence when he wasn't trying to be sneaky. Maybe it was a vampire thing?
And that train of thought got Chase thinking about what else Blake could do. Could he turn into a bat like that old movie trope? Could he mind control people? He obviously didn't need permission to come inside, Chase knew that much from the other day...
Blake finished the drawing a few minutes later and handed Chase the sketchbook to look it over. It could still use some work, but it was alright for a middle of the night sketch. Chase's eyes widened in surprise as he delicately traced a finger over the messy lines.
"It looks exactly like me." He mumbled, honestly kind of awed by the amount of detail he managed to cram into one hour. He looked back up at Blake, who was avoiding eye contact and going a bit pink at Chase's tone of voice.
"Do you like it?" He asked tentatively, as if he wasn't sure.
"Do I? This is amazing!" He said, smiling brightly at the boy in front of him. Blake's face broke into a grin and he went noticeably redder in the face.
"Good. I'm glad." If there was a hint of relief in his voice Chase didn't mention it, instead turning his head back to the drawing.
"Question." He said. "Why did you use like eight different kinds of blue?" He asked. Blake shrugged.
"Your eyes. I don't have a pencil that matches them at all and I wanted to do the color justice." He frowned momentarily. "I think I made it too dark though. It's a tricky color to match."
"How'd you get this good anyways?" Chase asked, passing the sketchbook back to the other boy. He folded it closed and set it down on the ground next to him, settling his elbows on his knees.
"When your life spans several centuries you find ways to fill the time. It's more practical if whatever it is takes a while to perfect." He explained. Chase paused for a moment, contemplating if his question was rude or not before his curiosity decided he didn't care.
"How old are you?" He asked. Blake seemed to think about it for a bit before, of course, answering the question with a question.
"Like physically or mentally?"
"Like actually. How long have you been alive?" Blake had to think about it again, which was slightly concerning to Chase but he didn't comment on it.
"Well physically and mentally, I'm loosely eighteen."
"Loosely?" Chase asked, arching an eyebrow at him. Blake shrugged.
"Listen I wasn't an aristocrat so it's not like I was very mature when I got turned." He said, waving it off. "I got turned a week after my eighteenth name day and I've been this way for a while... combining my years as a human and as a vampire I'm six-hundred and seventeen. I think."
"You think?"
"It's been a while since I acknowledged a name day give me a break." He chuckled, his voice cracking in the middle of the sentence. He rolled his eyes and laid on his back. "Perpetual end stage puberty sucks so hard." He mumbled, annoyed at the less persistent but still very much there voice cracks.
"Tell me about it." Chase muttered, lying in the grass next to the other boy. They sit in silence for a few moments, both enjoying the stillness of the night.
"Y'know, the sky is the only thing that never gets boring to look at." Blake said, turning his head toward Chase. Chase shrugged and took a breath.
"It has to at some point, right?" He asked, turning to face the boy next to him. He seemed softer in moonlight, the stark contrast between his pale skin and the dark grass working decidedly in his favor. And for a brief moment Chase almost found it distracting.
"No." Blake breathed. "No, I don't think it will." He turned back to the sky with a sigh, settling his arms to either side of him. "It's always changing, but it's beautiful nonetheless."
Chase hesitantly took his hand and intertwined their fingers, and if Blake blushed, he didn't comment on it.
Blake walked him home when they eventually had to part ways.
"Such a gentleman, walking the fair maiden home." Chase teased, laughing at the mere notion of it. Blake rolled his eyes and bit back a smile, snorting.
"Until morning, Chase." He said, then turned and began his leisurely walk back into the forest.
When Chase took off his jacket he found the drawing tucked inside his pocket, signed and dated. He smiled and set it on his nightstand, then settled once more into a blissfully restful unconsciousness.