Norbert looked at the grinning vampire as he sat down next to him on his other side. The waitress next to Norbert hastily got to her feet, already taking several steps back. Before her foot could hit the rim, Norbert beckoned her to come closer.
"He won't bite. But sadly, he will be annoying, so stay here and 'bask' in the presence of the vampire Count von Count." Norbert exclaimed loudly so everyone in the neighbourhood could hear what was happening. The streets grew quiet for a moment when the vampire name thundered out of Norbert’s mouth, but when nothing seemed to happen to them, the sound again continued down there.
Norbert turned to Count von Count, and a question fell from his tongue: "What did you do to make people so terrified of you?"
Count von Count raised his hand in the air as if trying to catch the stars within his hand, "Nothing," Count von Count said.
Norbert looked up for several seconds, waiting for the vampire to explain himself properly. Not hearing anything, Norbert turned his head to the left. The vampire was already looking towards him with a slight grin on his face. "Nothing. You think I'm going to buy that?" Norbert asked the vampire, his mind already turning on ways to get the information he desired out of him.
The vampire shrugged his shoulders while lying on the ground. "You're not, but you won't press further. Why? Because buddies sometimes need to have secrets." the vampire said, grinning, knowing that Norbert would take the response.
Norbert just stared at the stars, finally realising something. "What's your name?" Norbert asked, turning to the other side. He looked at the waitress's breath come in large gasps, trying to calm herself down but failing miserably, from what he could tell.
Count von Count clicking his tongue, "It's rude not to know a woman's name when you've been gazing up at the stars together." The vampire said, Norbert slamming his head behind himself to look at the vampire, seeing the always present grin poking through, his canines shining in the night's light.
"You stop before you make the girl fall apart at the seams," he said to the vampire. Count von Count was staring, moving away from him as he slowly shook his head from side to side.
Wondering what was happening, Norbert turned around, turning to the waitress as a single tear fall down her cheek. Looking at it as it fell past her neck before disappearing inside her blonde hair, Norbert lost track. As his eyes travelled up her neck once more, Norbert saw a stitch mark going up it, the skin on the other side a slightly darker colour.
Lying back down, just staring up at the stars, the silence eating away at Norbert as he tried to think of anything to say to break the current silence surrounding them. "Well, guess I've completely ruined the mood," Norbert said, unable to stay there as he started getting up.
A hand grasped his arm from the right-hand side. Not even looking at the waitress, he let her drag him back onto the roof, looking up at the stars again.
"So, back to you, Mr Vampire. Where have you been for the past day? And what's with your little stunt earlier anyway?" Norbert asked him, letting the waitress sit and think over whether or not she wanted to tell them her name.
"Oh, here and there, you do know I actually have stuff I need to do," the vampire said to Norbert.
Chuckling in response, faking, wiping a tear and flicking it over to the vampire, Norbert shook his head. "Actually, I don't believe you have the stuff to do. Most of the time, you've been following me around whatever inhabited area I find myself in." Norbert said as he started to think over his journey, confirming that the only actual matter he had seen the vampire do was hand over the single letter that needed to be sent.
"For your matter, I have been doing things of grave importance. So important, in fact, that I cannot tell even you, my buddy, or else the ramifications that will come to you from it are much greater than you can battle against, or even comprehend. Sadly, my hands are tied, and all I can say is this …" Count von Count trailed off to nothing. After several seconds of silence, the vampire started whistling into the night sky.
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Unable to stop himself from grinning, Norbert joined in as well. The two of them went together, instantly hearing the uproar from the neighbours on the roof next door: grunts and complaints that they would need to listen to the whistling again.
As the two continued, Norbert saw in his peripheral vision the waitress starting to move, wondering what she was about to do. Seeing her start to move off, Norbert let his whistling die out, and the waitress rested back down into her position where she had laid previously.
"You still haven't answered the second part," Norbert said to the vampire, who also stopped his whistling as the people next to them cheered for the whistling to stop before continuing their discussion, and Norbert phased the sounds they were making once again.
"Because I could." Count von Count said.
Norbert just shook his head. "Yeah, of course, it would be something like that with you," Norbert said to the vampire.
"Yes, definitely that and not a bet that I could make the entire crowd grow silent without leaving the box. A truly tough bet to win" Norbert's buddy provided.
"How much did you get for painting a target on my head," Norbert said, quickly becoming stern as he remembered the peaceful silence around the crowd, swallowing all the cheer and festivities from before.
"A favour." Count von Count said, the two words coming from his lips and filling the silence thoroughly.
Norbert's mind spun with possibilities; what type of favour could someone like Count von Count even receive, and from favour at that? What kind of person would have enough standing to give a favour to the vampire?
Shaking his head, Norbert opened his mouth again. A firm came out after consideration from his side. "Vivienne, my name is Vivienne.," the waitressed bed beside.
Norbert turned, surprised to hear the surprisingly normal name out here. Leaning up, he offered to the lady. "And a greeting to you, Vivienne. Hope the company I keep isn't too annoying." Norbert said, turning around at the end to point daggers back at the vampire, hoping it would keep Count von Count in line. Seeing the grin grow, Norbert's hope was dashed in the wind.
"So Vivienne, how did you find yourself here?" he asked her, lying back on the ground and looking up at the stars.
"Like everyone else from this stretch of the city, I came from Grimm in the cover of darkness for this tournament that happens every few cycles," she said to Norbert.
Nodding his head, "And where do you go back to?" He asked her.
"Nowhere, my job is the inn, the room where you sleep now and serving the customers who come through the door. Cooking their food. It's small but enough for me." Vivienne said to Norbert, breathing out as she looked around.
Count von Count piping up, stopping Norbert from getting sentimental about the woman beside him and her suffering. "And what did you do to get deported off Grimm?" He asked the woman.
Vivienne flickered a smile as she was transported back to the day she had to leave her home. "Father's business went up in smoke. Debts to pay; one of theirs went in trouble with the law, and I was swapped with them"," Vivienne said, smiling as she moved her head up higher, looking behind her at exactly where Norbert didn't know.
Count von Count was just laughing at the response. Norbert looked over but received a hand held up from the vampire as he controlled himself. "Need to stop you there, N, Robert, b before you relayed any more by the woman," the vampire said as he slowly went to his feet, looking down at the two people. He rushed himself off as he continued his explanation.
"For you see, this one here was instead caught stealing one of the artefacts and caught so badly in fact, her pants were on fire and completely off her. Sadly, figuratively. So as punishment, she was sent here, to this dust bowl of a place where something exciting happens once in a blue moon, and when it does, she can't do anything due to the amount and strength of the eyes watching all around." He said, leaning down. Norbert saw the vampire's fangs once more pushing forward between his lips.
"And I would have had him if you hadn't ruined it", Vivienne said in response, stretching herself out fully like a cat. The walls that Norbert thought he had taken down were now pilling back up again.
"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. All I will say to you, Vivienne, is that there is a reason I asked Norbert to come here out of all the inns. Despite our history." Count von Count said as he walked to the ledge.
"Wait, you mean…" She left off, leaning forward as she looked at the vampire, Norbert seeing her eyes sparkling with greed.
"All I will say is this. That man beside you has a penchant for being at the right place and time for his needs. Whether he can get himself out of the situation, well that’s all on him. Though he himself may see it as the wrong place at the worst time." Count von Count said, jumping off the ledge, his cape flapping in the wind behind him.
Vivienne ran for the ledge, looking over expectantly to still see the vampire, but could not. Shaking her head at losing sight of the wealth of knowledge that is the vampire, she turned to Norbert, grinning at him.
Norbert gulping, unsure if he would like what she had in the stall for him.