Dog Days Are Over [[JACK && ALYCE]]

[ALYCE JULIET AYERS]

Alyce had woken up late today. Her head wound had caused her recently to need vast amounts of sleep. So by the time she woke up today, alone in one of Jack’s many bedrooms. She looked at the clock as she opened her eyes. 4 am. Wow. She stretched quickly and sat up, noticing a small note on the bedside table. It had pretty gold lettering on it. It was an invitation to dinner. Downstairs. In an hour. And something about a surprise. She got up, and looked to the corner, where Jack had hung the beautiful dress he’d bought for her the other day. She looked at it carefully, before sliding of her large t-shirt she’d been sleeping in and her pink lacey undies. And then she carefully slipped into the dress, smiling at the feeling of the silk against her soft skin. She arraigned the dress on herself carefully, so her breasts wouldn’t fall out.

She took one look at herself in the mirror and then realized she needed to cover up her bruises. She pulled some cover up out of her make up bag and went to work. She got them to the point where they weren’t as purple. But they never would quite go away. She put a dash of makeup on her face, some eyeliner here, some lipstick there. Then she took her long curly hair and pinned it back in the perfect messy bun. She looked herself over and smiled. She felt… pretty. Then she threw open the door and took off down the stairs, a large smile still placed on her face.

”Jack?” she asked aloud as she reached the bottom, her little gold heels making a clack against the wooden floor.

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[JACK WES URKIN]

Jack, meanwhile, was downstairs in the kitchen fixing dinner. He was used to fixing food for himself but today it was going to be a lot more than he was used to eating. Today's meal was Cheese and Broccoli angel hair pasta. It was a little concoction he decided to try out and had enjoyed previously. It consisted of fine noodles, thinner and longer than the usual kind, combined with sliced broccoli and melted cheese. The cheese was of course Provel, as it was really that only kind of cheese that Jack liked, or at least the kind that he liked the most. Besides that, it melted easily.

When he heard her call out, he knew she was coming down soon. Thankfully the food was almost ready and he called out to her, "In the kitchen. Come down if you're feeling up to it. Be careful though, you've still got those stitches." Jack said, still stirring the noodles in a big pot. The funniest thing was that Jack actually sounded normal. On the inside, he was biting his cheek so hard to stop himself from being so hostile all the time. A few quick breaths later, he was cool and collect.

Before Alyce was even able to make it into the room, he had put the food on a plate with silverware to match. A glass of water was already on the table next to her plate and the chair had been pulled out as if waiting for her. When everything was just was he wanted it, Jack moved over to the table and sat down. There were no candles and he was not the romantic type to pull out her chair or push it in for her, but he had still gone to quite a lot of trouble to set all of this up. He had even been incredibly quiet as to not wake her. A window was propped open so the smell of food would not waft through the house and awaken her early. Everything was..right. There was, of course, something behind the laundry room door. It was a surprise for her, but she would not know what it was. Not yet.

[ALYCE JULIET AYERS]

Alyce smiled as she entered the room and the smell of the wonderful food wafted her way. It smelled heavenly. She paused and nearly blushed as he expressed concern that she needed to be careful. She took gentle, slow steps towards the table, carefully looking over every detail. A few things were missing that required a woman's touch, but she didn't care. It was beautiful all the same.

She pulled out a chair for herself and took a seat, she picked up her dinner fork and then dug into her dinner, smiling at him. She took a big mouthful, and then nearly swallowed it all at once. It was delicious. She closed her eyes and licked her lips.

"It's perfect," she cooed, shoveling another large mouthful in through her lips. Swallowing it down in one gulp. She realized she was being impolite, but she'd been starving for a long while. She smiled, and took a break by taking a gulp of water.

"Thank you," she whispered, her eyes glittering.

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[JACK WES URKIN]

Turning his head slightly from where he was sitting, Jack watched Alyce make her slow but graceful entrance to the kitchen. He was almost glad that she was up and moving now, but it was more a sense of approval than glad. If anything, it just meant a hell of a lot less problems for him in the end.

The satisfaction that was in hers and on her lips made him smirk. It was even better when she licked her lips and closed her eyes to savor the flavor. While cooking like this was not something that he really put much effort into, he could pull of something decent given a little extra work. It was a good sign.

"Well, then eat up. There's as much as you want." Jack tilted his head to the side and swirled some of it onto his fork, biting and swallowing at some of the pasta with a bit of broccoli. Of course he approved of his own food, the cheese was perfect for this. "Eat to your heart's content. You need the energy." He shrugged his shoulders slightly. It was unlike him to be this.. normal, but he was trying. The one thing that he had decided was that he would never hit her in anger again. Training was one thing, sex too, but he had enough of striking her from rage.

"Food is food." He glanced to the side, "But it's whatever. You're welcome." Shrugging his shoulders, he glanced black and took a drink of the water he had. Of course he was dieing for something more, but water would do for now. He was actually used to tea and R&Rs, but it was easy to go without, especially when he had a woman that was having issues with her body. She did not need the extra issues of sugar or alcohol attacking it too.

[ALYCE JULIET AYERS]

[/img][/left]Alyce shoved a few more shovels of the delicious dinner in her mouth, swallowing each one like she hadn't eaten in years. This feeling was common to her. She usually forgot to eat, and would wake up the next day with the distinct feeling that her stomach was rioting in protest. She had a feeling that why she was so skinny.

Alyce took another gulp of the ice water and then got up from her chair, seated on the opposite side of the table from Jack. She walked over to him calmly, a well placed smile on her face as her fingertips glided over the table in a seductive manner. When she reached his chair she looked at him for a second, smiling a sweet little grin, and then kissed him. It was a soft kiss, passionate in a gentle way.

"Really. Thank you," she whispered. Then she calmly walked back to her chair and sat back down, quickly picking up her dinner fork and chowing down a bit again. As she ate, her dress right shoulder dress strap began to fall, exposing quite a bit before she caught it. She giggled bashfully and pushed it back up as a blush came to her cheeks.

"Sorry," she whispered.

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[JACK WES URKIN]

Watching Alyce eat almost made him more hungry. The way she was eating was like she had not eaten in a decade. This kind of hunger was almost incapable in the human breed, but he chalked it up to her being a slayer. Hell if he knew all that they were capable of, but he imagined that she needed the extra energy to heal, too.

Jack's eyes followed the woman as she slowly slid from the chair after getting a drink of water. With one brow raised, his head turned slightly as she moved around the table. It was almost a shock to him when she leaned over and kissed him. It was sensual and meaningful. There was something more in the kiss from her, like something tugging and pulling at him, a soft and numbing but gnawing feeling. The only thing he could do was shake it off internally before watching her go back to her chair.

"Er, you're welcome." He looked away as he responded. Part of him wanted to scream out loud that she was not allowed to do things like that because it made him feel odd. Of course, that was the amusement within him because she was able to make him feel odd with something like that. Maybe it was because she was trying to show him emotion while at the same time attempting to draw out something from him. Well, something besides anger.

Waving it off, he tried to come up with something to say but she had left him in a very strange mood. Part of him wanted to yell, part of him wanted to grumble, part of him wanted to just be silent. The silent part won out in the end, but to balance things out he nodded and spoke under his breath, "Just trying to help."

[ALYCE JULIET AYERS]

Alyce picked up on everything that was going on with him. It was hard not to. He looked very uncomfortable. She felt a bit awful. She realized that it was taking a lot for him to be so calm and collected and... normal. It was really sweet hoe much effort he was putting forth into trying. After everything, she realized that he maybe still had a bit of humanity left in him for her. At least she could only hope.

"I'm sorry," she apologized again, "I won't kiss you without your permission again." She was trying to be sensitive to him. She could tell that every time she kissed him, something inside of him got confused. He was going through changes and she did want to impede their progress by making him uncomfortable and frustrated.

At this point, mostly everything was gone off her plate. All she had left to do was scrape the sauce off the plate, but she wasn't going to be so improper in front of him. She took another sip of water, crossing and uncrossing her legs, exposing them through the rather large front slip in the reveling dress. She smiled and giggled.

"I think we're supposed to be talking about our childhoods and our hopes for the future," she said with a smirk. "At least I think that's how dinner conversation is supposed to go. It's been a while since I've been on a date. Not that this is a date. Just dinner..." she stumbled over her words.

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[JACK WES URKIN]

At least, he thought, that Alyce was able to understand that something was going on within him that he was not entirely capable of working through just yet. There were bits and pieces of him that wanted to explain this verbally, but he was putting all of his effort into being normal. It would take a while for him to naturally control his rage, though no one in their right mind would ever confront him about anger management for fear they lose a limb. One step at a time would be the best policy here.

Jack bit down on his lip rather hard this time as he swallowed some of the pasta and broccoli. His lips turned slightly one direction before opening to speak. "Don't worry about it. That's a silly thing to ask for permission for, nor would you get it if you waited for it. See what I mean?" He spoke softly. While Jack was trying really hard to be normal, he was fully aware how he was. He was not the kind to give anyone permission to kiss him. So, if she wanted to kiss him, she'd have to do so without his consent. Not that he was complaining that a beautiful woman was kissing him, just that he would never ask for it.

Almost immediately as she crossed and uncrossed her legs, he caught a slight glimpse of them because of the glass table. He smirked just a bit and shook his head, remembering the slight fall of the strap of her dress earlier.

Taking a huge gulp of his water the moment she spoke of childhood, he glanced down at the table and rested his elbows on it. In turn, his head rested in his palms. Any other demon would not have tolerated such bullshit to be spoken of, but Jack was different. He was always different. Every year that passed made him feel just a bit more different. Did he even really want to talk about his childhood? There was no one in the world right now that even knew a thing about his childhood. Anyone that did was dead. Would it stay that way?

"Why would you want to know about my childhood?" His eyes raised to look at her between fingers as if he had a headache, but it was clear that he was in no kind of pain. Or, in the very least, he was very good at hiding that pain.

[ALYCE JULIET AYERS]

Alyce shrugged, an innocent smile on her face as her eyes wandered about. She wasn't sure what to say. She figured that anyone like him would've had to have a pretty rough childhood. Probably lots of things they didn't want to talk about. She could understand that. No one screwed up people like their parents. Or guardians. Or lack there of.

"Maybe? I honestly don't know what appropriate dinner conversation is anymore. Like I said, I haven't been on a date in a long while. I could talk about girlie stuff if you prefer..." she said with a smirk, a small giggle following as she takes a gulp of her water.

She figured while she was getting somewhere, she should try something. "What are you?" she asked, her eyes flashing dangerously. She'd never got an honest, clear answer on this. Not that it mattered. But it seemed like it might be an interesting topic. One that might get her hit again, but hell, after everything, why not?
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[JACK WES URKIN]

Eying that smile of hers, Jack tilted his head to the side and watched her. There was a curiosity in this girl that often got her into trouble, but he was putting on a different show tonight so she was actually much safer than she would have been any other day. Taking a deep breath, he glanced to the side for a moment before shrugging and listening to her speak.

]"Oh, no, that's perfectly alright. I'd rather talk about my childhood, thank you very much." He grumbled just a bit at the end of it and then shook his head. There was no way in the world he wanted to listen to stuff about pop idols or make up, let alone whatever she wanted to talk about when it came to girlie things. As he started to speak, she cut him off with a very odd question. One that he had not been asked in a long time.

"What am I?" He paused for a moment as if searching for the right answer, "I don't honestly know." Letting out a sigh, Jack ran a hand through his hair and then looked back at her. "As far as I can tell, I'm a demon. Except, I'm not. Demons don't have souls. I do. Or at least I think I do. I still feel, hurt and have guilt like anyone else, I just suppress it. So I'm something. Closest genetic relative? Demon." His eyes went to the side as he looked away. It was not a popular topic for him, that was for sure.

"As for my childhood, my parents abandoned me when I was a child. Two or three years old. I don't remember much from the earlier years. When I was six, a homeless woman found me and took me in. Up until I was twelve, I lived on the streets and survived on my own. When I was thirteen..my abilities began to manifest and I accidentally killed her." Jack took a deep breath, "After that, I worked myself up, go myself through school, took and earned everything you see before you. I'm nearly twenty-one years old, and I've built my strength from the ground up. Impressed?" He smirked just a bit and then laughed it off as if it really was not important. He pulled the glass of water to his lips and then took a big drink, practically swallowing it all. When he was done, he picked up his plate and then walked over to her, holding his hand out for her dish.