~~Jack~~
After ten seconds, or an eternity, Clara pulled away. She blinked at him a few times, surprised. Well, he was damn surprised too, half by the kiss, half by how he didn't push her away. And surprised again, but how much he liked it. Antoinette's kisses were perfect, every single time. Clara's were not. They were shaky and a little rough, and... and he really liked that.
"Surprised you let me do that," Clara said, smiling. Not a big, happy smile. A sad smile. She knew what he was going to say.
"I am too. I... shouldn't have."
"Shouldn't have? Jack, you're dating an ancient vampire who probably doesn't even know what romance feels like. I'm trying to get through to you that you don't need to be with such a cold bitch."
"That's not fair. She... she knows she's different than me, knows her age has made her... jaded. It's not something she just accepts, and turns me into some sort of fly in her web, Clara. She tries. She really tries to dig up those parts of her, the young parts that got buried in centuries of vampire bullshit."
"Can't teach an old dog new tricks, Jack. She's a deadly, ancient vampire, and she sees everyone and everything around her as a tool for her goals."
"I..." Fuck, it was hard to refute that point, after his argument with Antoinette earlier. But, a memory surfaced, and tugged at him, tugged until it hurt. "One time, when something bad happened to me, and it was partly her fault, she was... she almost panicked with concern for me. Like, I was standing there in front of her, having nearly just died, almost chopped in half head to crotch, and when she realized I'd gotten dragged into something she caused, she was terrified." The memory of waking up in her tower after Viktor had nearly killed him was a night he wouldn't forget. Especially cause he had sex with her for the first time not long after.
"Terrified?"
"Kinda, yeah. We hadn't been dating long, but I could tell her conversations with me were something she hadn't had with another person in ages. She was really, genuinely panicked that she might lose that."
"Not really sure what you're driving at."
"I... I'm just saying that Antoinette knows she's lost a lot of what makes her human in her age, and I help her find those lost parts. And I don't mind doing that. Hell, I like doing that. I like helping her find those pieces." Jack loved to fix things. And each time, it felt great. It felt great because he loved her, and he wanted to help her. "It's not fair to say she's a cold, ruthless bitch. I mean she is, but that's not all there is to her."
"And you're really comfortable being her emotion dowser? Christ Jack, she's telling you to let your mom bite the bullet."
"That's not... that's twisting the truth."
"Is it? If shit hits the fan, your mom's on the front lines. And the Prince, your girlfriend, told you to just accept that. She even let you argue?"
"I got to say... stuff." It'd been a short argument, with Antoinette in her 'mastermind puppeteer' mode. Or maybe 'cold, ruthless queen' was the better descriptor.
"Jack, listen to me. Antoinette is half a millennium old, and if you think she's cold now, it's only going to get worse. I won't."
He looked away. "No, but you'll die eventually." She wasn't a vampire.
"I got another hundred years left in me, Jack. And you know what I want to do with it? Spend it with a stupid kid who keeps thinking he can fix everything. Cause he's got a great heart." She pushed his closer shoulder into the back of the couch, forcing him to twist and face her. "And cause despite being a pipsqueak, he's fucking ripped."
He managed a smile at that, but he didn't meet her eyes, not now. He didn't want the temptation.
"Thanks."
"And I'm not some ancient bitch vampire. I'm here on a fucking whim, not planning some plot or manipulating people."
"Manipulating me a little bit, don't you think?"
Frowning, she got up, pushed both his shoulders into the couch, and straddled him. He gulped as he blinked up at her, body freezing more than it did when she kissed him. Uh oh.
"Jack, listen to me, you god damn idiot. Antoinette is what, your first girlfriend?"
"N... Not technically." He kinda had a girlfriend before, sorta, temp prom date thing that died quickly.
She rolled her eyes, seeing through his bullshit instantly. "You're like the naive girl who married her high school sweetheart, and never experiences anything else, never realizes there are other types of dudes out there who don't suck."
"I'm straight."
"You know what I mean. Look at Damien! Dude's dating a chick who can't go five seconds without bursting at the seams with joy. You ever think you might be happier with someone like that?"
"Like Fiona? Not really. Pretty sure I'd go insane if I was around her too much."
Sighing, she leaned in until they were almost kissing again, and with the couch behind him he couldn't pull away.
"And me? You really want to spend however many decades with a cold bitch like Antoinette, when I'm right here? I'm warm, Jack. I'm warm, and I do everything by the seat of my pants. And I wouldn't look to you to be some missing half of me that I desperately needed, for fuck's sake. I look after me, for you. You look after you, for me. A healthy, normal, functioning relationship."
She was definitely warm. So close, he could feel her breath on his body, and her warmth pushing through his clothes into his skin. He was lukewarm, and compared to him, she was a furnace. God, it'd be so easy to reach out, hug her, kiss her, touch her.
"And Brace? What about him?"
"Brace is great. Dumb, but nice as hell, and with a great body. Prime himbo material." Apparently Clara wasn't completely ignorant of memes. "And tall. Shit load taller than you."
"Hey, low blow."
She grinned at him. "But I've gone on two dinner dates with the dude, nothing more."
"He seems like the three dates kinda guy. Maybe five."
"Maybe."
"And... and you're going to have that third or fifth date?"
"That depends on you. I'm not going to string Brace along, but... I'm not gonna just sit here and say I don't have feelings for you, Jack."
"Christ, what do you want me to say, Clara? Yes, I like you. I like you a lot. I went to you for help with the hunters for a reason."
"I should have asked for a better favor in return."
He eyed her suspiciously. "Like what?"
"Obviously to have sex with me."
"Um--"
"I'm kidding, Jack. But I would have asked for... for something more personal, I guess, than being let it on a secret. Maybe a date."
"You really want to piss the Prince off that badly, don't you?" He peeked past her to the door, half expecting Antoinette to walk in. Nope, thank god. He didn't need anymore soap opera drama. If Antoinette found Clara sitting on his lap like this, it could easily end in blood.
"I don't give a shit about her, except that I think she's got you wrapped around her finger. Even if she's sincere, it's still fucked up that you're doing so much for her, and she's just leeching off you." Clara leaned closer, enough their noses touched. "I wouldn't."
Something had clearly happened to make Clara a little -- lot -- more aggressive about her desires. And Jack was floored. A lot of what she said he kinda agreed with, and it was making it very hard to not take her up on it.
That's what adults did, right? If they thought there was something wrong with their relationship, they evaluated. Fixable and worth it? Stay in relationship. Not fixable? Abandon. Abandoning a relationship was tough when it meant you were going to be alone, but Clara was right here, and very much willing to replace Antoinette. It was such a horrible way to look at it, but it was very true.
It was so easy to look at shit logically from the outside. But when looking at things from the inside, when buried in all the drama and emotion, everything got real blurry real quick. It'd be so easy to say yes, to dump Antoinette and her cruel bullshit. Clara was fun and... and normal, emotionally, intellectually, in a good way. He wouldn't have to navigate Antoinette's maze of a personality with Clara.
And his Beast fucking loved the idea of holding Clara, hugging and squeezing her tight, cumming inside her and Kissing her, and drinking deep of that prized werewolf blood. Just one word, right now, and she'd strip for him and straddle him again, let him penetrate her, and they could fuck the rest of the night away.
But the moment the thoughts ran through his mind, he did what he always did: considered both sides of the argument. His true curse, he supposed, a need to understand things in a logical way, the way Antoinette would. It stopped him -- usually -- from making bad decisions. He just never thought it'd happen in a romantic context.
The moment he thought about leaving Antoinette and spending the next ten, twenty, fifty years with Clara, thoughts of Antoinette ran through his mind. And hit him in the guts like a fucking semi.
He wanted to wake up next to Antoinette. He wanted to talk with her, about all the things they talked about, things other people wouldn't find interesting but she did. He wanted to hold her, kiss her, have sex with her, and spend the next hundred or five hundred years with her. He wanted to work with her to get through shit like they were experiencing now, not just abandon it because an easier option came along.
And amazing as Clara was, the only thing that was making him even consider taking her up on her offer right now, was that she was easier than Antoinette. That's all this was, a moment of weakness, because an easier option came along to tempt him.
He slowly took Clara's wrists, and pulled her hands off his shoulders. "Maybe she does have me around her finger. Maybe I have her finger in my grip. It's... it's not fair to say that just because our relationship is different, it's bad."
"It sounds like a toxic relationship to me."
"It's not toxic, far from it. There are problems, like this shit that's happening now with Mom. But I'm not going to dump Antoinette because of problems, not ones that can be fixed."
Groaning, Clara got off him and collapsed back on the other couch. "Christ, you really do think you can fix everything."
"Not true! I think she and I can fix things."
"You really think a super ancient vampire is going to change for you? You sound like a stupid young girl, reading some shitty Twilight fanfic."
He couldn't help but laugh about that. "Maybe. It's... it's not the same."
"Jesus you are loyal, so loyal it fucking hurts."
"Sorry. Can't go against my programming."
Her turn to laugh, and she leaned forward in her seat again as she shook her head. "Well, can't blame a girl for trying."
"No, I can't." He leaned forward, matching her as his eyes drifted toward her before looking back down. Couldn't maintain eye contact, not after this. "I... I would, you know? If I hadn't met Antoinette, I would."
"Thanks."
"And Brace, he'll--"
