strangetrip | [GP] Shoot that poison arrow

None of the guests noticed when the spiky-haired man-child in jeans and purple t-shirt, wrists wrapped in cheap leather and metal bracelets, arrived at the Madonna Inn a few hours before midnight on February 13. That, in itself, wasn't all that surprising. Eros, otherwise known as Danny Valentine, had millennia of experience doing his job without being spotted.

What was surprising was that the dude at the front desk did see him. Tall and Nondescript waved him over and then gave him a room number 'in case you wanted to rest'. But Danny didn't.

Want to, or rest. He spent the time before the clock struck midnight polishing his love gun. Not like that. He'd find a girl to spend his nameday with. He always did. No, this little beauty was made by Hephaestus himself. It shot love darts that disappeared on contact.

At midnight, kitted out with more love darts than there were people in this pink and gold monstrosity, Danny left his room and shot the first person he saw--and didn't wait to see what would happen.

No point getting a slow start. He had a lot of work to do.

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Somewhere midway through undoing the buttons on Lindsey's shirt, with his hands under her top, it occurred to Caroline that she had no fucking idea what she was doing right now. She froze, her mind racing. His warning - and her demands - pounded in her head.

A moment later, Caroline was halfway across the stables, breathing hard. "Oh my god."

"Back to your senses, then?" Lindsey asked, a neutral tone to the drawl he didn't hide here. If he was bothered by the sudden shift or what had come before it, he wasn't going to let it show.

He didn't move from his lean against the wall, both because it might be a bit before walking was comfortable, and to give Caroline the space she looked to want.

"Oh. My. God," Caroline said again, more emphatically. It was still just about the only thing she could think of to say. There was just too much to process. What had she done? Why had she done it? What the hell was Lindsey thinking right now? Did she even want to know? Should she compell him to forget or would that make things worse?

And then there were the even less helpful thoughts like, he was a weirdly good kisser. And he'd been so nice about it, even though she was obviously insane. And was this sexual assault? Should she try to turn herself in? Was this what everyone else was going through today?

Eventually, after 30 straight seconds of hyperventilating, Caroline managed another sentence. "Lindsey, I'm SO SORRY."

Vampires didn't need to breathe except to talk, so hyperventilating like that was most likely habit – how young was she really?

Lindsey stood calmly, letting her have the time she needed. "In case you're thinking about it, fuck with my memory, ever, and you and I'll have a problem. As for today, there's not much you or I could do against whatever mojo's floating around here. We kissed. That's all. Nobody got hurt." And they could've. Things could've gotten bloody quickly with a lust-crazed vampire, and bloodier if Lindsey felt the need to defend himself.

"You might wanna avoid people 'til whatever's going on stops, though. Just a suggestion."

"No one got hurt but...you could have. I could have seriously hurt you." She started to pace, nervous energy taking over. "And it's not okay, people just going around kissing other people who probably don't even want to be kissed. I mean, I don't like it when people kiss me without...and that's not even the point. Because sometimes you make mistakes and kiss people that you do want to kiss and that's even worse!"

If he wasn't going to blame her, she'd just have to pick up the slack and berate herself.

Lindsey had less than no interest in watching anyone, especially a vampire, wrestle with guilt. Souls got in the way so easily.

Walking into her path, unflappable to her frenetic, Lindsey stopped her with his hands on her shoulders, using his strength to keep her there enough to make his point. "Don't be so sure you could hurt me as seriously as you think," then without giving her time to react to that, continued, "Who'd you want to kiss?"

As soon as he touched her, Caroline stopped moving, like a spinning compass that found a magnet. She opened her mouth to apologize again but he was talking. It was such a shift in direction that Caroline answered without thinking. "Klaus. It's complicated. I only did it to make him go away." That had been the deal - if she admitted how she felt, he'd walk away and never ever come back.

That had been the reason. Or at least the reason he'd let her have. She was smart enough to know that he'd been giving her an excuse to hold onto. Which made it worse, somehow.

Lindsey hadn't heard of anyone named Klaus here at the inn, and he paid closer attention than he wanted most people to know.. So more likely someone from before she got here, but he'd follow up later. For now, the question had been enough to stop the 'I'm a terrible person oh my god'ing.

"And because you wanted to." Yeah, Lindsey was still an asshole.

She gave him an exasperated look. "And because I wanted to." She winced. Klaus was not a good person and she had never felt like she was the kind of person who went all 50 Shades and fell for the bad guy who was an asshole to everyone except for her. But there had been more to Klaus.

And if she was being honest, which she might as well be considering the circumstances, there was more to Lindsey too.

"So today coulda been worse." The corners of his eyes crinkled, but that was as close as he came to smiling. "At least I'm not Klaus.

If he'd been Klaus, she might not have stopped. "If you were Klaus, it would definitely have been worse. All things considered..." She smiled, finally, her optimistic spirit reasserting itself. "I'm glad it was you."

"There's that sunny optimism. You'll be fine." Most people would say it probably should've given Lindsey pause that the vampire he was donating to was not only more optimistic but probably more moral than he was. It didn't, but people probably thought it should.

"Yeah." She paused, then tilted her head. "I probably shouldn't ask." But she would anyway. "If I hadn't been...roofied, would you have pushed me off?"

Knowledge was power, and Lindsey's favorite medium of power. He wasn't the type to let whether he should ask a question determine whether he did ask that question, if an answer was worth it. Caroline wasn't Lindsey, but he wondered why Caroline thought this one was worth the asking.

"You were roofied. So who knows?" he said, shrugging one shoulder.

Caroline's eyes narrowed and her chin lifted in a way that her friends would have recognized as rather dangerous. She didn't like being challenged, hadn't even before she was an inflexible vampire.

But, she reasoned, she'd also done plenty of stupid things today and taking him up on that challenge right now wouldn't really prove anything. "Right. Who knows."

Vampire or not, compared to Darla, Caroline was a kitten. And Lindsey'd never backed down in the face of Darla's dangerous looks.

"'Woulda-coulda-shoulda's have never been my way." At least none Lindsey would admit to. "And asking questions when you're not sure you want the answer and emotions are all over the place 'cause of weird magic shit? Maybe not the best idea.

"What would happen when neither of us is roofied can wait for another day."

"You're not wrong." Her smile was quick but thoughtful. Caroline always found a way to answer a challenge. And...after all, it wasn't like he'd been unaffected.

"I should go. Thanks for... everything."

[GP] Shoot that poison arrow

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