Halloween Special (Vampires in Berlin One Shot)

Halloween Special

Notes:

This is a stand-alone piece that takes place at an indeterminate point in my Vampires in Berlin series; I purposefully tried to keep its exact placement within the ViB timeline as vague and as objective as I possibly could, as I'm already well past Richard and Paul's first Halloween as vampires (each part of the series happens chronologically, you see. ;P The first story, The Beast in Man, was set in late October/early November, as a point of reference ... ) So really, whatever works best for you, as the reader, and its probably right. *shrugs* XD It's up to you. It's all good.

Probably unsurprisingly, given my total obsession for vampires, bats and all things creepy and gothic, Halloween is my favourite time of year, which is what prompted me to write this Halloween Special! While there is no known real-life reference to Till actually having an annual Halloween party, this series is severely AU, so I guess it doesn't really matter, ehehe. (also, unoriginal title is unoriginal!!!)

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Richard shifted uncomfortably as he stared out of the bedroom window, watching as swathes of fog billowed outside, draping the world in a covering of thick impenetrable whiteness, broken only by odd shifting stabs of car headlights carving their way through the thickness far below. Even those headlights struggled to pierce the veil that had fallen across Berlin, barely making an impression; Richard was not surprised to find that those cars that had braved the bad weather were few and far between. Only the buses and the trams continued to run, performing on tight schedules as they were.

He could hear the hissing of bicycle wheels still, and the occasional alarm-sharp ring of a cyclist's bell, alerting pedestrians to their presence. He shifted again, and felt the odd drag of heavy material against his shoulders, weighing down upon him uncomfortably. He scratched beneath his collar, feeling irritation against his skin starting up, and he snarled a soft curse to himself, grimacing over the thought that it was typical that he would get the itchy costume.

He turned when he heard soft footfalls behind him, as Paul entered the room on socked feet, and Richard's discomfort suddenly disappeared in the wake of seeing his lover's costume. Richard and Paul had been invited to Till's annual Halloween party, and, as like every other year since Rammstein's inception, they had been press-ganged into hiring costumes for the occasion. That year, Richard and Paul had decided to dress as the vampires they were, replete with capes and appropriately Gothic wear, yet Paul had been the first to laughingly admit that they didn't need to buy plastic fangs, when they had real ones of their own.

Richard had plumped for an elegant costume, replete with a floor-length red-lined cape, white ruffled shirt, wine-red velveteen waistcoat and soft dark trousers. Whilst the costume had looked impressive in the hire shop, he hadn't expected the cape to be so heavy, nor the shirt so starched and itchy.

Paul, however, looked more comfortable in his costume, and stunningly handsome, to boot, in Richard's biased opinion. Like Richard, Paul was dressed entirely in dark red and black, except his cape reached down to his knees and was purely midnight black. His shirt was ruffled and open to his abdomen, and the colour of his waistcoat matched that of Richard's. Paul's trousers were tighter than they'd appeared in the shop, not that Richard minded; it left little to the imagination however, not that Richard needed his imagination to picture what Paul looked like naked. He'd seen his lover's body on an almost nightly basis for almost twenty years, and so, was used to it.

"Jesus Christ," Richard said, as he walked towards Paul, admiring the line of the other man's hips beneath the hug of his trousers, and the broad curve of Paul's shoulders holding the cape away from his chest. "Do you know how gorgeous you look, Paul?"