Sweet Surrender

That migraine that had been gone for a full three periods after History?

It was back with a vengeance. During Lunch.

Nathan sighed, attempting to block out Andrea and Justin's conversation, but to no avail. When Justin's voice rose to a screeching pitch, he winced, lowering his head slightly to block out the noises.

"Right, so, the guy broke his pen, and he was kind of mean and scary, but honestly, who breaks an innocent pen like that?" Justin complained. Andrea shrugged slightly.

"You can get sort of annoying. What was he like?"

"Nearly silent. Said his name was Varian or some shit. Weird name if you ask me. Weird name for a weird guy." Justin said with finality, nodding his head and taking a sip of his soda through a straw.

Nathan's food remained untouched before him on the tray, and he couldn't help but notice Justin eying it more often than not.

"Touch my food and I will cut your hand off." Nathan threatened. Justin snorted, leaning back in his chair.

"I can see you took your bitch pills again today. Why do Mondays get you so pissy anyway? You think you'd be happy to get out of that doll house." he mumbled.

Doll house was a bit of an exaggeration. Nathan's house was standard sized- two stories, with the required rooms and a shed. Though quite often since Elle was home alone, she cleaned the entire house so spotless it looked like no one ever lived there in the first place.

It wasn't Nathan's fault if his mother had nothing else to do.

His response was a snort, laying his head down on the table and folding his arms in front of his face, hearing Justin and Andrea go back to their conversation about 'Varian'.

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Full thanks to Evan, and lacking any interest in food, Varian settled with pushing his fries around on the tray.

He heard the footsteps behind him before he saw the shadow, and he sighed.

"Can I sit with you?" Evan asked, setting his own lunch down on the table scooting it across so it was facing Varian.

"I don't see why not, you've already set your tray down."

Evan smiled at Varian and slid into the seat across from him. "I just wanted to say thanks. Nobody's ever agreed to that before."

"To put it bluntly, it wasn't for your personal benefit. I was hungry and needed blood. It was from a purely selfish mind."

"It doesn't matter to me if it was selfish or unselfish, I've been wanting to be Changed for a long time."

"Whatever, just don't get used to me doing you favors," Varian said, pushing his tray out of the way.

"If you aren't going to eat those, can I have them?" Evan asked, a sweet smile crossing his lips as he batted his eye lashes dramatically.

"Take them."

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"Right, so the woman is going on about Marine Biology, which I obviously don't care about, and the guy's just sitting there, so I tried to talk to him, but no, he's all silent and something about his hair being wavy and not curly!" Justin was still ranting. He sometimes got on long tirades such as these, which Andrea and Nathan tuned out.

Until he yelled, that is.

"There he is! There's that emotionless, heartless bastard!" Justin nearly screamed, pointing across the cafeteria. "Yeah, I'm pointing at you! Whatever your name is! What's your name again?"

"God help us all." Andrea mumbled as Justin opened his mouth to yell again before Nathan beat him to it.

"Justin! Jesus, would you shut up? Nobody cares if he annoys you." Nathan said loudly, attracting the attention of a few people near their table. Justin stared back for a second, sucking his lips into his mouth to keep from smiling as he ducked his head.

Nathan's migraine was throbbing in the back of his head, making him frown and put his head back on the table. He missed the boy in question whisper something to the other person occupying his table before standing, making his way over to them and sitting between Andrea and himself. "Varian."

"Right, that's his name! Varian!" Justin said after, smiling fully ad rocking in his chair. Nathan refused to give the guy so much as a glance; unless he could magically cure headaches, he didn't really care.

Andrea, however, took interest in the new addition to their table. "Varian? That's an odd name. What language is it?" she asked.

Varian turned to her, looking completely serious. "My mom got it out of a romance book about men changing into leopards."

Andrea stared back for a minute, ultimately deciding that no, she did not like this Varian person after all. Justin was still smiling away, and even Nathan had to admit that it was sort of funny, snorting quietly. Andrea heard though, raising an eyebrow at him. "Something funny Nate?" she asked loudly.

Nathan hissed through his teeth, holding his head tighter in an attempt to alleviate the pain as he flipped her off.

Varian's gaze focused in on Nathan, studying him and smirking slightly while tilting his head to the side.

"See? He never talks." Justin commented. Andrea smiled slightly.

"Good thing, or Mister bitchy over there might bite his head off." she laughed. Nathan sighed, pulling it together enough to calmly stand. "I'm going to the library." he mumbled, walking out of the cafeteria and leaving his lunch untouched.

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"Note to self: talk to Justin the next time he asks you about yourself, no matter how much you might want to rip his throat out," Varian whispered quietly to himself as he walked down the hall for Latin Class. What use was Latin going to be for him? About as useless as Marine Biology he supposed.

Turning the door handle Varian walked in and momentarily started at the guy from earlier at lunch already sitting in his desk. So they had a class together. Interesting. What had been his name again? Nathan? It was most likely short for something. He was sitting at a desk paired with another next to it.

Glancing around without moving his head Varian noted all of the desks were arranged this way.

Sighing softly, he walked up to the white board and read the seating chart. Great. He was next to "Nathaniel". So that was his name then.

Striding to his seat, Varian set down his pack gently on the floor, not wanting to disturb Nathaniel, he looked like he was in pain. Sliding into his seat Varian sat and stared at the whiteboard.

Out of the corner of his eye he watched Nathaniel with his hand pressed to his forehead, drumming his fingers on the desk before glancing up at him. Varian was not surprised to see him roll his eyes a little and avert his gaze again.

"Tapping your fingers only makes the migraine worse," Varian said, his tone even.

Nathaniel sent Varian a glare, but his expression seemed pained; however, his fingers stopped and he withdrew his hand, curling his fingers into a fist against the desk.

"If you have something to cover your ears with, like headphones, it would help too."

Nathaniel responded with another glare. "I thought Justin said you were silent?" he snapped.

Varian, feeling invigorated from feeding off of Evan, responded with another witty comment. "He said "nearly silent", and he never stopped talking. You on the other hand, seem pretty quiet yourself."

Nathaniel closed his eyes, and Varian wondered what he was thinking. He didn't have to wait much longer. Opening his eyes, he stared at his desk. "Please shut up."

Varian froze as he noticed he was at the perfect angle to see Nathaniel's eyes. A moment ago they had looked normal, but now they were green, green like spring, and there was definitely black mixed with it. Catching his breath, Varian breathed in, scenting the space next to him the Nathaniel occupied. Mint. Nathaniel was a Mortal.

"You're Mortal...." Varian whispered, breathless.

Nathaniel looked up at Varian and stared blankly, blinking slowly.

Then a sound at the door drew Varian's attention. It was the teacher. She was short and pudgy. The wrinkling on her face told Varian she was middle aged, and she had on glasses, and a sweater that looked like it belonged with something the cat drug in. She also had short blond hair, and smiled warmly.

The rest of their class filed in after her, and Varian didn't find a chance to respond to Nathaniel's blank expression.

"Welcome to Latin class, said to be one of the first Romantic languages."

Several snickers were audible from the class, and Varian didn't stop to think. Grabbing his things, he stood up, and walked past the teacher towards the door. Before he left though, he whispered softly to her: "If it's possible, could you dim the lights in here? Nathaniel has a migraine and the fluorescent lights hurt him." With that, Varian slipped out of the class and headed for the front of the school. He'd had enough of a school day. Time to call it quits.

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Mortal...

The guy had called him mortal...

No shit he was mortal. What, did he think people were made out of fucking marshmallow?

It hurt Nathan's head further to think about it; but the guy seemed slightly... Amazed, when he had said the word. Was he a robot or something? Some new prototype the school was working on? Maybe it was a conspiracy...

The migraine was making him think oddly. Later he'd be back to his old self after a ton of Ibuprofen and ready to work for Aunt Millie. Until then, he just had to endure this.

"Nathan?"

He nearly jumped at the voice, glancing up to see the teacher hovering over his desk with a concerned look. "I turned off some of the lights. Is that better?" she asked curiously.

Nathan slowly nodded after a minute, taking his hand away from his head, which, while it was still throbbing, wasn't as bad. The teacher smiled, walking back to the board and writing a few things on it. Nathan was determined to pay attention. At least a little.

And not wonder what the fuck was up with that Varian guy.

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"Alright Cana, I'll bet you're itching to run aren't you?" Varian asked, stroking the red roan gelding's snout.

Cana snorted softly into Varian's face at his greeting, and Varian leaned down and lay his cheek against the bridge of his nose, stroking the velvety flesh near his lips and nostrils.

Breathing in, Varian could scent all the different smells that came with a horse stable. Hay, dirt, sweat, feed, water, and of course of the sweet musky scent of the horses, as well as their not so good smelling manure....

Being with Cana eased a lot of the tension from the school day, but not all of it. They'd need to go for a ride for him to feel fully relaxed, but he had three birdhouses to finish to bring to Millie to sell at Vogel's Tack and Tools.

Sighing, he pulled away from Cana and unlatched the latch and kick-bolt on his door, letting him out. Cana playfully took Varian's pony tail into his lips and tugged towards the tack. Cana wanted to go for a ride too.

"Sorry boy, I've gotta finish birdhouses for Millie, or she'll have my hide if I don't bring them in on time. But you go and run okay?" he said pulling his hair back from the gelding and ushering him out through the back door of the barn into the pasture.

Cana gave Varian one last long look before he set off at a full gallop kicking and leaping with his freedom to run for the rest of the day.

Varian stared after him wistfully. He'd make up the ride to Cana.

Turning away from the pasture he left the barn and walked into the adjacent workshop/ shed that he used for his birdhouses.

Grabbing the paint smeared apron he used, he slipped it over his head and stepped out of his work boots into his rubber rain boots splattered with paint as well and took a seat at the stool and table with the three birdhouses ready to be finished.

Thankfully, they only needed a top coat, to protect them from weathering. Dragging the topcoat can towards him, he pulled open the lid and dipped his polyester brush into it.

And set off the painting the birdhouses. Millie had ordered five identically shaped houses, but each of them had to be painted and styled differently. One of them looked like a fire station, another an old Victorian aged house, a stone cottage, a library, and even a school building.

Once he started painting, Varian quickly lost track of time, but made it a point to check his watch every so often.

At 1:45 he finished painting the first and set a low powered fan to blow onto the birdhouse. Low powered to not cause the paint to bead and dry with drops.

2:00

2:15 came around and he finished the second. Moving the fan over he made sure it fanned this one correctly.

Around 2:55 the third was done, and he moved the fan once again to this one. Now all he had to do was clean up and wait.

Setting his paint brush down into the sink filled with warm water, he grabbed a soft sponge and sponged off the table, washing away any paint that might have dripped onto the surface.

Rinsing out the sponge, he grabbed a towel and dried off the wet table, patting it so he didn't ruin the finish.

Glancing up at the clock, he sighed. 3:00. Time to pick up his little sister. Setting the towel on its rack to dry, turned off the lights to his shop and opened the door, the sunlight lighting up its surfaces.

Varian was careful to move each birdhouse individually, making sure they didn't bump or scrape each other. Tucking newspaper around and between each one, he put them into a large cardboard box that Millie supplied him with with the Vogel's Tack and Tools logo and slid it into the back of his pickup.

The box fit snugly into the wooden transportation hold he'd built for the box's dimensions, but as extra precaution, he firmly attached two bungee cords to hold it in place should the structure fail.

And with that, he slipped into his truck, put the keys in the ignition, started it and drove off to Venerra's charter school.

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"Ibuprofen. Now." were the first words to leave Nathan's mouth upon entering his Aunt's store, Vogel's Tack and Tools. She glared slightly from behind the admittedly old register, blinking.

"Maybe if you can ask politely."

Nathan was close to ripping his hair out, closing his eyes as he stepped over to the register and in front of the next customer waiting to purchase. "I need Ibuprofen. Please." he ground out. Millie nodded, reaching under the machine to open up a cabinet, pulling out a large bottle of the medicine, giving a couple to Nathan. He swallowed them dry, sighing as he moved out of the way and walked into the back of the store.

It was crowded for such a small place. The part that customers were allowed in was easy twice the size of Nathan's living room, which wasn't that big to begin with. The back, which was even smaller, was piled to the ceiling with various products, some looking dangerously close to falling. He watched everything as he reached over to a hook beside the door, grabbing the apron and putting his jacket in it's place as he slipped it over his head and reached back to tie it.

Cautiously leaving the storage room and silently shut the door, backing away for a minute before walking over to Millie. "Alright, what do I do?"

"Patience. I'm nearly done." She responded, slowly typing numbers into the old-fashioned register. Nathan stayed silent as she finished up, only to grab another product and start typing away again.

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. His Aunt Millie was a temperamental old lady, and she liked things done her way. "Maybe it might go faster if I did it?"

She turned to glare at him again. "You don't know how to work the register. Go sit down somewhere." she muttered. Nathan held his hands up briefly, sitting on a conveniently located chair near the register.

"Not that close. I don't want to catch your idiocy." she said again. The man who's items were being registered snickered, hiding it poorly with a cough when Nathan looked at him.

It was easily five minutes later when Millie was finished with him, turning to Nathan and motioning for him to get up. He quickly stood, stumbling slightly as he got caught on one of the chairs legs. Millie raised an eyebrow, turning to the register. "Now, what you do- You look at the bar coded sticker on the item, and type the numbers into the register, like this-" she took the nearest product, showing him the bar code on the bottom before typing it in.

"Um, I know how to work a register Aunt Millie." Nathan mumbled. She turned to him again. "Don't rush me boy. And don't call me Aunt Millie; I don't want anyone to know I'm related to you. It's Mrs. Vogel."

Nathan sighed quietly, nodding and tuning out the rest of her speech until she turned to him fully. "Did you get all that?"

"Yes Mrs. Vogel."

"Good. Then I'm assuming you got the part where the new boy get's to clean out the storage room for the week." she said with a slight smirk, walking around the gaping boy. "I'm going on break. Until then you can handle the store." And with that, she was out the door and gone.

Nathan continued to gape until the next customer in line for the register cleared his throat pointedly. Nathan nodded to him quickly taking the items and punching the numbers into the register.

Damn that old woman. Damn her to Hell.

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"How was your first day?" Varian asked, scooping up Venerra and walking with her down the steps and across the crosswalk of the parking lot to where he was parked to get her.

"Mrs. Kelly is nice, she let us color today!" Venerra said, snuggling into Varian's shoulder.

"What'd you color?"

"I colored a horsey! Like Cana!" she said excitedly her eyes a pure blue with spark.

Opening the door on her side, Varian set her on the booster seat and fastened all of her safety belts.

"I'm sure he'll like it," he said, pulling back and shutting her door.

Walking around to his side, he slipped in and started the truck.

"Do you think he'll eat it if I show it to him?" Venerra asked, her eyes now silver with worry.

"Nah. He'll love it," Varian responded, pulling out of the parking space and past the principal directing traffic.

Once he was on the road, he headed for Vogel's Tack and Tools.

"Do I get to see Aunt Millie?" Venerra asked all wide eyed and adorable.

"Sure. I'll come in after I'm done unloading okay? So be good." Varian responded, ruffling Venerra's hair.

"Okay!"

Varian smiled, Venerra always had a way of brightening his day....

Then the store came into view. A relatively small store, it was in between the country and the suburbs, therefore only surrounded by a couple other shops. A bakery and a barber shop, as well as the beginnings of a diner.

Pulling into the parking lot, Varian shut off the engine, and got out walking around to Venerra's side. Opening the door, he unbuckled her seat belts and helped her down.

Taking her little hand he crossed the parking lot to the sidewalk that wrapped around the store and let her go. She skipped into the store and headed straight for where he presumed Millie was.

Going around to the back of his truck, he undid the bungee cords and lifted out the box. Walking around the store, he fished out his key and unlocked the back door which opened into a small hallway. Setting the box down, he propped open the back door to the storage room and grabbed his box and walked in searching out the empty corner he always put his box in.

Setting it down, he walked back out and shut the door, and left through the back door, taking the sidewalk to the front entrance.

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Nathan was getting odd looks from the female customer he was helping as he pushed the same button over and over, willing the register to do something, at least.

No luck. He had officially broken it. "Damn this old thing to Hell." He mumbled under his breath, handing the woman back some items before going around the register to her. "Alright, give me a second, I'll be right back." he told her.

He heard the door to the store open, a little girl skipping over to Millie at the same time as he was walking toward her. "Aunt Millie!" The girl yelled happily. Nathan stopped short, tilting his head slightly. 'Aunt Millie'? Since when did he have a younger relative around here? Must've been a customers daughter or something.

He continued on his way, ignoring the death glares he was getting from the older woman as she noticed him, though didn't fully take her attention from the child. "Afternoon Venerra, how are you dear?"

Venerra smiled widely. "My teacher Mrs. Kelly was nice and let us color. I colored Cana." she responded. Millie laughed quietly. "That's wonderful dear. If you'll excuse me for just a moment..."

She stood to full height from where she'd been kneeling in front of Venerra, glaring slightly at Nathan. "What do you want? I still see customers over there, and it's your first day; you don't get a break."

Nathan rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. "Yeah, well, your register broke."

"Boy, what did you do to that register? That's been in the family for generations, how do you manage fifteen minutes with it and send it up in flames..." she kept ranting on, going over to where the register and woman were, shaking her head and scoffing.

Nathan glared slightly until he felt a light tug on the bottom of his apron, causing him to glance down and see the girl, bright blue eyes staring up at him. "... Hello." he mumbled uncomfortably.

She stares for another moment or two, blinking a few times. "Do you wanna see my picture?" she asked innocently. Nathan was silent more a moment, studying the small girl before sighing in defeat. He kneeled down to her height, causing her to release his apron.

"What's your picture of?" he asked politely. The girl smiled brightly, two of her front teeth missing, and Nathan couldn't help but think it just made her that much more adorable. And he didn't even like kids.

"Cana, he's my brother's horsey!" she exclaimed. Nathan nodded interestedly, if only for the sake of appearances.

"Oh, I see. And what's your brother's name?" he asked, though his question was unanswered because at that moment the door was opened, the girl before him twisting to see as well.

Nathan could actually feel his face morph into disbelief.

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Walking into the shop, Varian heard the familiar chime of the bell and looked around for Venerra, he saw her talking to a worker and stopped mid-stride.

It wasn't just any worker, it was Nathaniel.

He looked up at the sound of the door opening at the same time Venerra turned around and smiled happily. "Varian!" she exclaimed excitedly, bolting for him and throwing her arms around his legs.

"I was only gone for a little while...." Varian said, ruffling Venerra's hair. She beamed at him, and Varian smiled back. Lifting his gaze he saw the pure look of astonishment on Nathaniel's face.

"If you keep your face that way it'll freeze like that."

Nathaniel glared at Varian and stood up from his crouching position.

Smiling, Varian took Venerra's hand, and turned for the section that held all the tools and tack and other nick knacks.

Varian headed for the saddle supplies, his mental checklist ready to be fulfilled.

First he needed saddle wax, which he found on a shelf near the saddle displays. The saddles had to be ordered, but Varian had convinced Millie to sell him the display models a couple of times since he could check their authenticity better that way.

"Can I hold the wax?" Venerra asked.

"Sure," Varian said, handing it to her. She smiled and clutched it to her chest.

Glancing around, Varian noted that Millie had moved the horse tools. They were hanging up now instead of on shelves. That was convenient.

Grabbing a hoof pick and a mane comb, his eyes searched for a squeegee. They were ordered according to brand and size. Picking his favorite brand, Varian turned back to Venerra.

"Ready?"

"Yeah!" she said excitedly.

Touching her shoulder, Varian steered her towards the register where Nathaniel was sitting unhappily.

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Nathan changed his mind rather quickly. Venerra was no longer adorable. Not at all.

He silently put the numbers from the bar codes of the various products into the register, which Millie had grudgingly fixed and finished up with the last customer about five minutes ago. Although she had threatened to fire him should he ever 'break it' again.

He was pretty sure she loved it (and just about everything else) more than him anyway.

"Total's eighty-two." Nathan mumbled. He watched Varian pull out a well-worn and stained wallet, digging through it before pulling out the money and handing it over. Nathan messed around with the register for a moment, getting the money inside and expecting the other to be on his way.

"So when did you start working here? I haven't seen you here before." Varian commented. Nathan felt like rolling his eyes, but refrained, instead glancing up to meet Varian's eyes.

"Today. And I thought it was explained in Latin that I don't want to talk."

Varian simply grinned in response. "And I'm telling you that I find you interesting. And I'm not forcing you to talk; If you didn't really want to, you wouldn't be."

Nathan stared back for a moment, taken aback slightly. Justin had called him an emotionless, heartless, damn-near silent bastard. So where the Hell was that guy?

He leaned in closer, across the counter of the register and whispered, "And now you're holding up my line."

Varian seemed to just realize, glancing out of the corner of his eye to see a line slowly and steadily building. "My apologies." he mumbled with a slight frown, grabbing the bag with his things before taking Venerra's hand, leaving the store with her skipping behind him.

Nathan watched them leave, feeling a very slight smile pulling at his lips until the next customer cleared his throat loudly. Shaking his head, Nathan got any thoughts of the two out of his head, focusing on the job at hand.

But damn if that boy didn't get under his skin.