This thread takes place after the events of A Gift For Louis (Lestat and Louis) Lestat convinces Louis to come to town with him, despite Louis' obvious depressive state.



Louis had found Lestat at the stables and allowed him to lead him where ever he wanted to venture. After riding for what seemed like an eternity, given the fact that he hadn't wanted to leave the house in the first place, Louis found himself in front of a local tavern. The warm lighting from the candles inside crept out of the open windows and the loud banter from every man and woman struggling to speak pierced his ears. He sighed and dismounted his horse, ensuring that it was tightly secured to the post in front of it before joining an eagerly prancing Lestat on the front stoop of the tavern. Why do I allow him to subject me to this torture?, he asked himself, placing himself next to Lestat in the door way of the loud and restless crowd before them.

Lestat was almost giddy at the prospect of actually being able to hunt in the open. He was so used to living in the bustling cities of Paris, that living out in the country side was emotionally stifling. He led Louis into a shadowed corner of the tavern, his lavender eyes grazing over every living human in the tavern as he attempted to make a decision regarding who he was having for dinner.

Positioning himself in a chair as far in the corner as he could manage, Louis watched as Lestat excitedly looked about the room, almost allowing himself to smile at the fact that Lestat looked like somewhat of a large child in a room filled with sweets. "If you look at them any harder, they may lynch us." he said, leaning over the table and propping himself up on his own elbows.

Lestat shrugged and turned towards Louis. "Even if they attempted it it would do us no harm. We don't need air, remember?" Lestat turned back to the tavern and gazed over the humans, effortlessly reading their minds as he attempted to make a decision as to who he should eat.

Louis shook his head and sighed, reaching his hand up and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Good lord, Lestat. Pick one. Why must you always drag it out?" he motioned towards a woman at the far end of the bar, one whom he knew was similar to other ladies Lestat had prayed upon. "What about her she's fair enough."

Lestat rolled his eyes at Louis' lip. "Think of it this way Louis. It is like selecting a fine wine, you want to be certain that you have made the right decision, otherwise your pallet will be unbalanced." Lestat tracked his eyes over to the woman that Louis had pointed out. "Eh, I'm not in the mood for a woman tonight."

Louis rolled his eyes and turned away from Lestat, sitting back in his chair again and sighing. "Of course, your not." he mumbled, placing both hands on his stomach. He didn't want to be out all night, but with Lestat's extremely selective nature and his want of a fine man to dine on, Louis knew that they would be out for a while. Women were easy. Promise them pretty things, then feed them some wine, and after a while they'll practically do anything you say. Women made for a very easy meal, and hardly put up any fight.

Men, on the other hand, were a completely different story. They were tricky, and none reacted the same as another. You had to play them. Get into their good graces and be sure they were drunk enough to think that maybe you were just going to whisper something in their ear. If you played your cards wrong, next thing you know you're chasing your meal to keep him quiet. Which, of course, for Lestat just completely ruins the whole experience anyway. He's simply killed men that denied him, then started all over again, leaving their lifeless bodies to rot on the ground.

Louis knew that if he didn't quicken the selection process, he might be out with Lestat until dawn. Which, of course, was a very bad idea. He didn't want to be caught outside while the sun was rising and risk burning to death. "What are you looking for?" he asked, hoping he would receive a straight answer. "Perhaps I can assist you."

Lestat had continued searching the tavern, not noticing Louis' eye roll. He was too busy searching for the perfect man to pay any attention to Louis. Lestat specifically enjoyed youths, men that could hardly be counted as men, as they were still incredibly young, and their blood was still sweet.

The older the humans got, the more sour their blood became. It was like the hardships of life soured their blood, weakened them, and made them taste absolutely horrid. If he had his way Lestat would have dragged Louis to a soiree, found a nice little noble youth to feed off of and called it a night. However he had taken his fledgling's feelings into account, and was paying for it.

"You know that I am looking for." He said absently, his eyes still scanning at random intervals. "Young, male, gorgeous. Just like you Louis."

Louis rolled his eyes again, crossing his arms in front of him and beginning to scan the room along with Lestat. He tried to shake off the compliment Lestat had just given him, but he simply could not. If he was being honest with himself, it made him slightly uncomfortable that Lestat insisted upon commenting on his 'beauty'. He had never thought of himself as a handsome man and most certainly never thought another man would be telling him that he was.

He continued looking over the faces of the many men that were in the tavern that night, none of them so far measuring up to Lestat's expectations. Over half of the men that were there were fat, greasy boat captains having a stiff one before they had to set sail again. So god damned picky. Just eat someone and be done with it.

Louis was almost ready to give up when the door to the tavern swung upon and a strapping, young lad walked in. He was rather tall, with blonde hair peeking out of the brim of his hat and, from what Louis could tell, a rather nice body. He glanced over at Lestat, attempting to mark his reaction to the boy as he tapped him on the shoulder and pointed his direction to the boy.

Lestat noticed that Louis said nothing about his compliment. He sighed a little unhappily as he resumed scanning the room for anyone, or anything, that looked even remotely appetizing in the filthy dump of a bar that he was in. Every single man, save himself and Louis were greasy looking, fat, and Lestat knew that they would taste horrible. His scowl began to grow as he continued searching. No one even looked remotely appetizing.

When Louis tapped him on the shoulder he almost brushed him off but turned his head to look at Louis. Apparently he thought he had found someone worthy of Lestat's taste. Lestat followed Louis' gaze and inhaled before grinning slightly. His hand went to Louis' knee, which he gave an affectionate squeeze. "Good eye." He murmured gently.

Louis chuckled lightly and allowed a very small smile to come across his face before brushing Lestat's hand off his knee. He sat forward again, beginning to gently trace the lines in the wood that made up the table in front of them. Now came the waiting. Lestat would joke and make idle conversation, inviting the man back to the table. Louis would have to be charming. Then, of course, Louis would have to make up some sort of excuse to leave, in which case he would simply go outside and wait in the small alley next to the tavern for Lestat to be done eating.

He hated when Lestat hunted. For the man himself, of course, it was some sort of sick sport that he took pleasure in, watching the light drain from his victims eyes as he carefully and quietly drank every drop of blood he could before their heart stopped beating. For Louis, however, it was more like a tragedy. He hated having to take other people's lives so that he could survive. Every person that he had killed was stuck in his mind forever, and they would never let him rest.

Lestat watched the man for a few long moments, half put out of his good spirits by Louis' reaction to Lestat's hand on his knee. Was it too hard to ask for a fledgling of his to actually like him? So far he was zero for three, as every other fledgling he made before Louis despised him so much they either killed themselves or ran away to hide from him, and now he was doing the same thing to Louis. He sighed and shook his head to attempt to clear the melancholy cloud that Louis had cast over the table, before he stood and journeyed over to the young man.

He already had a pint in his hand, unfortunately for Lestat. However a little charm and a few minutes later and the man had joined them back at the table in the corner. Lestat was doing his best to be cordial and attempted to lure the man into the conversation several times, each time deepening the threads of his spider's web that he was creating around the poor young thing.

Louis was doing his best to keep up in the ever moving conversation. He fake laughed, smiled, and cried a little through an hour of idle chatter before he finally decided that now would be a good time for him to make his leave. Lestat seemed to have the man stuck in gossip well enough to keep him on his own.

"Well," he began, setting his pint on the table and standing slowly. "While I would love to stick around and continue this conversation, my wife is expecting me at home. I shall see you gentlemen around sometime." Louis graciously bid adieu to both of them before making his way to the door, the smile that had been on his face immediately disappearing as soon as he was outside.

Lestat watched Louis leave, giving him a small smile as he left, though internally sorting through quite a few things, part of which was a confusion notion about how Louis should be at home, expecting him to return. He shook his head to clear the confusing thoughts and turned his attention back to the young man at his side.

After a few more minutes he invited the young man back to his imaginary flat, and led him down into a darkened alley near the tavern. Lestat played with him for a bit, trying to git his blood pumping a bit faster by kissing his neck sweetly, before he gently inserted his fangs into the man's neck. He drank deeply, and stopped only when he felt the last few pumps of the man's struggling heart. When he was finished and sated he deposited the body further down the alley, where it would be found in the morning, and moved to find Louis.

Louis had positioned himself at the farthest corner of the alley, watching the dimly lit entrance for Lestat and his play thing to appear. He leaned against the dark wood of a near by building and hid in the shadows, his eyes never leaving the soft light in the distance. Finally, he saw Lestat, feigning drunkenness and stumbling into view, his inebriated friend following closely behind him and nearly crashing into him. Louis could hear Lestat's laughter from where he stood and watched as he wrapped his arm about the man's neck and assisted him in walking partially down the alley.

As Lestat played with his food, pressing the man against the side of the tavern and touching him everywhere, a strange tingling sensation presented itself in Louis' stomach. He could her the groans of pleasure and the heavy breathing. He could hear the smack of lips touching lips and Lestat's teeth plunging into a vein. He shook it off, trying to forget that such a feeling even existed as Lestat disposed of the the body rather close to him. "Finished already." he called out, stepping out from his shadowy hiding place and walking into the light. "I half expected you to drag this out for at least another hour."