Romax tipped the bottle back, emptied the last of it down his throat. Only barely bleary-eyed, amazing when you consider he'd drunk an entire bottle of whiskey, he pondered the second bottle. Damn being a vampire sometimes. Had an iron constitution that made it hard to get drunk.

If he still knew what constitution was, he needed the next bottle.

He unscrewed the top of the Jack Daniel's, premium Tennessee whiskey. Burned its merry way down your throat so you had a fire in your belly. It wasn't a drink for taste, but a drink to get you drunk. Holding the amber contents up to the white moonlight, he grinned and took a swig.

Not really any good point in getting drunk. The vampire had simply realized that it had been a long time, since college at least, that he'd gotten plowed. Made him feel old, even as he'd looked at his twentysomething year-old face in the mirror. So, of course, the answer was to go to the store, buy a couple of bottles, then plant himself comfortably beneath a tree and get drunk.

Made perfect sense. Nodding, he took another swig, hissed as it seared down his gullet, then grinned. "Yea, Alabama! Yea, Alabama! Drown 'em Tide! Every 'Bama man's behind you. Hit your stride!" Cheerfully, slightly unevenly, he started singing his old fight song. College had been great. Nothing quite like being a hero on the gridiron.

Hale watched with mild annoyance at the drinking vampire. If there was anytime that watching a drunk vampire would be fun, this wasn't one of them. It was annoying the hell out of Hale more than anything. The more time that passed by the worst it got. The more annoyed Hale got persay. An annoyed Hale was never a happy or good-natured Hale.

He watched and his annoyance grew as the vampire started to sing. Singing was what made Hale snap. He grabbed the bottle from the vampire and took it effectively away from him. "Start acting like a mature man or I'll drop it. I will do it." Hale had absolutely no remorse over anything like this. He didn't drink, the entire idea was very unappealing.

"Go teach the Bulldogs to be--Hey!" Blinking, Romax looked at the hand that his bottle had been in. It wasn't there any more. "Mah bottle." His drawl a little more pronounced, not to be confused with a slur, he looked at the ground to see if he'd dropped it. Then he saw feet.

Following the feet up a short ways, he saw a face. A kind of familiar face. But he couldn't quite place it. "Hiya, kiddo. Have you seen a bott--hey, my bottle." Romax blinked again, his normally dreamy-looking blue eyes slightly glazed over. "Ima mature man. I'm just getting drunk."

Swaying, he stood up, looked down at Hale. "You're gonna drop my bottle? Whatchoo doin' tellin' me not to drink. I'm of age. I've got drink before."

Hale watched the man unimpressed. If there was anything that could possible annoy him more then that right now he would throw a fit, but then again 3000 year old vampires didn't throw fits. So he decided to act the mature way. "I have in intense urge to kick your ass. I could probably kill you if I really put my mind to it."

Hale was going to be honest. A fight did sound good right about now. He had left the coven in a pissed off mood and he needed something to take this extra energy from him and a fight did sound pretty good right now.

So Hale did the next mature thing he could think of and dropped the bottle, until it smashed on the ground in front of him. "Oh look the bottle went bye bye."

"Eh... probably. An injured punter could probably kick my ass." Romax agreed, using a football reference. Hey, football. "Yea, Alabama." Wait, killing's going on? "You'd kill me? 'Cause I got drunk?" The six-foot-one Romax sat down again, gave Hale a bleary fish-eye. "I got drunk. But not real drunk. Just kinda drunk."

"Hey! Mah bottle!" It fell down and shattered. All the whiskey was lost. "I was gonna get plastered, not just drunk, you know. Now I'm gonna need another bottle." Glasses askew, his hair sticking up, Romax tried to look belligerent. And failed. Miserably. "You gotta buy the bottle now, buster."

Hale watched him and wanted to smack himself. No..wait.. he wanted to smack him, that sounded better. He was going to kick this one's ass, yet it seemed bad to kick the ass of a man that was drunk. Hale paused on that thought, what did it matter? So he did the only thing that seemed logical thing, he back handed him across the face. HAle may be small, but he had the strength that was greater than the average mortal, much greater.

Hale shook his head. "I ain't buying you anything, besides they won't let me. I look like a fucking ten year old." Any mother would have been scandalized to hear a child speak in such a way and would try to wash his tongue, of course they wouldn't get very far.

"Son of a fucking bitch! May nose! What the hell?" Well, that certainly seemed to snap Romax sober. Not a trace of a slur in any of his words. Holding his nose, which was not broken, surprisingly, he stared at the child-sized vampire in front of him. It didn't seem right to hit back, though Romax had a good idea that the person in front of him was hardly a child.

Besides, the 'kid' could probably kick his ass from here to yonder without a problem.

"You don't hit like a goddamn ten year-old." Disgustedly, Romax pulled off his twisted glasses, dropped them to the ground. "I need a drink." Putting his hand on the empty whiskey bottle tipped on the ground, acting the drunk, he clenched his fingers around the neck, came up swinging. It wouldn't do any good, probably, but damned if he was going to sit back and get his ass beat.

Hale watched and for the first time on this very night, he smiled. He was very amused by the swearing man. He hadn't broken the man's nose, it wasn't his intention. Of course if it had been then it would be broken. The hitting was simply for fun, Hale loved to hit people.

Hale shrugged, his face impassive. "Of course I don't, if I did you wouldn't be in that much pain, though I hardly put any force in it." He frowned, his eyes examining that vampire in front of him. "You are weak." Hale simply spoke his mind, he couldn't be faulted for that, it was simply what kids do and he did the same.

Hale shook his head as the vampire picked up the empty bottle and swung it at him. Hale side-stepped it and lifted an eyebrow. "You're going to have to be a lot faster than that to hit me, little one."

"Goddamn. I'm taller than you, Timmy." Romax swore, not making the best decisions regarding his health. Then again, it was a pretty hard pill to swallow, getting called 'little one' by someone who looked like a nine year-old. Ten year-old. Fuck, who cared?

"Minding my own business. Wasn't hurting anyone. Just getting plowed. And why not? I ain't got classes tomorrow. Don't have to be up early. Now I'm getting fucking picked on by a fucking grade-schooler." Displaying rather excellent form for being as inebriated as he was, which wasn't as inebriated as he wanted to be, Romax flung the empty bottle a good twenty yards. It didn't spiral, but it was pretty good for a whiskey bottle. "Damn, I still got it. Why didn't I go pro?"

Hale snorted. "I bother you 'cause I can and 'cause it's fun. That and that alone is good enough reason. Besides I don't do anything unless it amuses me and getting on your nerves amuses me." Hale, the lovely child at heart. He never got bored with whatever he did. Anything could amuse him, as long as another was distressed.

"I call you little one, if I want, because that is exactly what you are. A child with a temper. Nothing is worse than a child in a temper." He shrugged and carefully seemed to clean the claws that had sprouted from his fingers. "I hear mine can be devastating." He lifted his eyes to the man that sat across from him. "I love to cause pain and destruction."

Apparently Timmy was the wrong nickname. Chucky would probably be more appropriate. Warily, Romax eyed the big honkin' claws suddenly erupting from his unpleasant companion's fingers. Yeah, those were pretty.

"I'm not a child with a temper. My temper is perfectly mature. Who wouldn't get pissed when they weren't doing nothing 'cept getting goddamn drunk and a psychotic little shit took their bottle away? And broke it. And then grew some scary claws from their little fingers." Romax stopped staring at the claws long enough to meet Chucky's eyes. "I bet you do."

Hale chuckled, though there was nothing even remotely warm about the chuckle. It was cold and cruel. Hale was a cruel vampire. He took a few steps closer to the vampire his eyes alight. He leaned towards him. "I would get pissed and when I get pissed, everything turns red." He moved away from the man. "I love blood too much and when I party I live to have it everywhere."

Cold, cruel child he was. He enjoyed any terror he could bring. If he could paint an entire town red, without getting into trouble he probably would. That was his type of fun. His claws grew a little more and he slashed the tree nest to him, making marks similar to those of a bear that had scratched a tree.

"You're pretty fucked up." Romax stated firmly, watching the little monster's 'I KEEL YOU DEAD' shtick. It wasn't that the younger vampire didn't believe what Hale was saying, it was just... well, Romax was a pretty flip guy.

He frowned, staring at the tracks the other's claws left in the tree. "And that was for...?" Romax asked, raising an eyebrow. The way he figured it, his ass was gonna get kicked anyway he played it, so he might as well play it cool.

Hale frowned and shrugged. "Yes I am fucked up, but when you lose everything at a young age, nothing seems to matter anymore, except the pain of others." To Hale that was all that mattered. He clearly remembered the time he had killed the bandits that lived in the desert and the fear and pain that had washed over him that had come from their leader. It had made him feel so alive.

Hale shrugged. "Simply seeing how sharp they were." They were sharp indeed and he was going to scratch and scratch until he had enough pain that he was happily sated. He didn't know why he had never come up with the idea of torturing a vampire. They would heal and therefore prolong his happiness. Should have thought of that one sooner.

Blah, blah, blah. For a vicious, blood-sucking fiend, the kid sure talked a lot. Not that Romax was particularly anxious to get his butt kicked or anything, but... well. He stared at the kid-sized vampire, narrowing his eyes as Hale went on.

"And I'm sure you're the only little vampire running around who thinks there's nothing to live for." If there was one thing Romax didn't particularly like, it was a lot of self-pity. Especially when you dealt with it by kicking the butts of others. Like, say, him. Yeah, that really annoyed him, getting told off and poked at by some wallowing killer.

A bit steadier on his feet, Romax stood again and crossed his arms. "Hell, there are bunches of humans who don't feel like there's anything to live for. What makes you so goddamn special?"

What a beautiful night for a walk. Xander was strolling along the park, and he was smoking a cigarette. There wasn't really any point to it in his dead lungs, but he did it anyway. Some habits died hard, and this was one of them. Then he sensed to vampires pretty close by. He looked around and saw two of them arguing. He had no idea, but he was tempted to break it up.

Xander recognized the kid talking to the older looking guy. Both of them were much older than him, and he heard from others that the kid had a definite mean streak. Walking over to the two vampires Xander smiled and acted like the other guy's buddy. "Hey what're ya up to? It's been a while!" He was trying to get the guy out there without much incident, and hopefully the guy would take the hint.

Hale turned his head to the new comer with a soft sigh of annoyance. "Actually you are bothering me so go away." Hale was a child in every sense and hated being bothered. If another walked in he would most likely get the same treatment as the first. Of course the said treatment had to start.

"Self-pity? me?" He shook his head. "You've got it all wrong. I enjoy hurting people, it makes life interesting and that way, I get to piss other people off. Life has such wonders to offer, which is why I like to destroy it." He gave them both wide-eyed innocence. "You can learn so much of a person when they are about to die."

What made Hale special? A bunch of things did. "First I'm a vampire, second I could your ass from here to kingdom come and back again without problem and third I was alive long before the turn of the millenia, a long time before that..." He paused looking down at his hand and gave a look to either vampire. "How do either of you feel about fire?"

"What's up?" Romax replied to the newcomer, eyeing him warily but not as warily as Hale. The new guy didn't seem quite the homicidal maniac, what with the friendly greeting and all. Of course, he didn't seem quite the rocket scientist either, what with the barging into a tense situation between to vampires and all.

"Right. Good for you. You're an old fart stuck in a little boy's body. I'd probably want to go around killing folk for no reason if that happened to me." Romax, again, probably wasn't making the best decisions at the moment, but was running on frustration instead. Little fucker... "It's real nice to toast marshmallows over."

Xander looked from one to the other and let out a sigh shaking his head. "I'm not gonna go away. When there's a pissed off Ancient threatening another guy. Especially when the Ancient is known for being violent." He knew he was bothering the Ancient, but he didn't care.

Then the guy he was trying to get out of there looked at him warily. He could smell the alcohol now, and knew he was drinking earlier. He was about to say something when he was interrupted by the Ancient. "Come on guys we can settle this peacefully." He said keeping his cigarette in his mouth. "Fire's good for lighting cigarettes." Xander said to the Ancient's question. "Either of you guys wanna smoke?" He asked reaching for a pack of cigarettes.

Hale shrugged. To one it seemed that his reputation had preceded him. He should have felt flattered, but really he wasn't quite in the mood. Ok maybe he was a little flattered. You could get far with flattering Hale, he usually would forget everything if you flattered him. Of course that usually involved a lot of flattering.

"Perhaps I should have asked, how you would feel being on fire?" On cue he lifted his hand and fire appeared. "Shall we see how fast it takes for either of you to burn?" Hale continued to look with the same childlike innocence at both of the physically older vampires. "Shall we?"

Romax pointed an accusatory finger at Hale. "He started it. I was being peaceful. I was getting peacefully drunk as a skunk. Then he took my bottle away." It looked rather silly, really, this tall and fully-grown man jabbing his finger at a seeming ten year-old. The reality was almost as silly.

If you discounted the whole thing where the little ten year-old could and probably would have a lot of fun beating them up. That was a little less funny.

"I'd rather not." Truth be told, Romax had no idea if his snazzy vampiric powers gave him any resistance to fire. He did know he didn't ignite like some of his... er, peers did, but that wasn't an altogether reassuring thought. "I got an idea though, how about you take your 'I vant to keel' self elsewhere and use yourself as a test subject?"

Damn the cigarette had gone out while he was talking to the two, and he looked at the kid. "I'd rather not be on fire, but thanks for the light." He leaned over and lighted the cigarette on the flame. "I don't feel like fighting people right now. My girlfriend just moved out of the city and now I'm facing a pissed off Ancient with a drunk guy. Maybe we can settle this some time later?" Xander wanted to go home and have a little bit to drink, but now he'd probably have to take care of his own wounds if the kid started lighting shit on fire.

Then he turned to the guy. "I'm sure you were drinking some good stuff if I can smell it from here...Jack Daniel's right?" He had spotted the shattered bottle a second before. "Come on we can all go get a drink and have a laugh. Hell you can set the whole bar on fire if it makes you happy." He said to the kid. "Come on my treat."

If it wasn't for the kid's violent streak Xander'd have an easier time with this. He really didn't feel like fighting a kid, even if the kid could kick his ass all over the place.

Hale narrowed his eyes and glared at the second man that had interrupted his fun. "Do you honestly think that they will let me into a bar and you won't ditch me that easy." He was now acting like a sullen child and the fire shifted to a ball and left his hand, hovering over his shoulder, ready to do anything that Hale wanted it too.

He gave the vampire he had originally talked to a look of disbelief. "What are you five? I started it? You shouldn't be drinking on the streets, it's illegal. If the police catch you, you could be in deep shit. I was only trying to help you save the extra mile." Hale helping someone, that was actually laughable. The only person he would help was himself and that was only a good thing for him.

He hissed and launched himself at the second man, throwing a punch. When Hale was angry he got violent and he wasn't the type to forget to defend himself, he remembered quite well what to do. He punched the younger vampire in the stomach and continued past. He was stronger than the average mortal and really strong for a small vampire.

"Just put on your charming face and tell them that if they don't let you in, you'll rip their heads off and dance in the geyser of blood." Romax said sarcastically as the little monster switched from his 'playful' mood to a bit more surly one. Christ, for being an ancient at however old he was, he still acted like a ten year-old. Unfortunately, he was a ten year-old on vampire steroids.

"I'll have you know, we aren't on the streets. We happen to be in a park. If the police arrested every person who drank in a park, homeless people would have a place to sleep at night." He pointed out, raking his fingers through his black hair. He'd been neglecting it and a few of the jet-black locks were starting to fall into his eyes. Still neat, trim, and utterly boring, but it was getting longer. His thoughts scattershot (from the whiskey, you know) Romax was in the process of reminding himself to get a cut when Hale's fist slammed into his stomach and knocked him right on his ass.

An expletive followed as he popped back to his feet. Snarling, still young enough to lose himself to his anger, Romax swung a kick at the little beast's chest as it kept going towards the other guy. Despite being out of the military for a while, the former soldier had perfect form.

Hale was now having fun, discussion was all fun and games until someone had better comeback than him. It was at that moment that Hale was not having fun anymore. He would get angry and irritated. When Hale was like that, fighting was a form that released all that anger.

Hale felt the kick coming and managed to fog out, so the kick went straight through him. He loved his powers and loved everything he could do with them. Then again being 3000 did have some perks. Power was one, another the ability to control his emotions though he was still working on that one. He had the attitude of a ten year old and had always been very emotional child, though he was getting better at it.

He punched the other and then stopped out of the reach of both, on the branch of a tree, crouched.

Xander cursed to himself as the kid lunged at him, and he fell backwards. Then he stood up immediately to watch the other guy at the brat just to miss. This wasn't exactly the greatest moment to fight, especially with a pissed off ancient with the mindset of a kid. Especially if that kid was going to beat the fuck out of them.

Then he was nailed by a punch and Xander let out a grunt, but that was about it. He could take a lot of punishment. "You know you can't take him on by yourself, hell you can't take him on with my help. I think it's best if you run to fight another day."

Xander would try to distract the brat long enough for the other guy to run, then hopefully get out there himself. Without waiting for an answer Xander leapt up the tree tackling the kid out of the tree. "Don't get me wrong! I hate fighting a kid, even if you'll kick my ass." He said as they crashed down out of the tree.

"Pah!" Romax spat as his foot went straight through the kid. Because the kid wasn't a kid for a moment and was instead a puff of filthy grey mist. Cheater. Again the little brat whacked at the other guy, then leapt onto a low branch of the tree Romax, not forty minutes ago, been happily getting drunk beneath.

"Fucker." The professor's blue eyes could hardly be classified as dreamy anymore, rather the hot blue of melting glass instead. It took a bit for Romax's temper to wake up, but it was hard for him to control when it did. "'Run to fight another day'?" He echoed, watching as Xander leapt at the kid. "Fucking hell."

Hale wasn't ashamed, his strengths lay in his speed and in magic tricks some might say. So Hale did anything to win a fight. He had once taken on an entire bandit camp, yet this was definitely more rewarding. They weren't scared of him, well not completely anyways.

Hale was startled as he fell out of the tree tackled by the younger of the two vampires. He was gone in a flash and lounged against the tree he had been tackled out of. He truly hadn't seen that one coming. Hale turned to the other that still hadn't moved. "Who said I was running? The only running I would be doing is toward you." Hale was going to do that, but the other kept attacking him, besides it was better to fight one that was willing to retaliate.

Hale turned to the other and tackled him.

"He didn't say you were running." Romax snapped, adding a sarcastic "Genius," as an afterthought. It was about that point Xander and Hale fell out of the tree, with the older vampire disappearing once more. Then he reappeared, leaning indolently against the trunk.

Romax's fingers clawed and the jagged shards of the broken bottle suddenly rose from the ground, bulleting towards Hale. Which worked out fairly well, considering the little vampire suddenly charged at the professor and the flying glass.

Xander was up on his feet immediately as the vampire dissappeared and reappeared leaning against the tree. Xander heard the guy's retort to what the younger looking vampire said, and sighed shaking his head. He hated people who could be pretty stupid, especially people much older and supposedly wiser than thee.

"I know you're not running. I'll fight you by myself." Then suddenly he saw the glass flying out at the kid and himself. Xander dove out of the way protecting his eyes. True he'd eventually heal, but he wouldn't be any use to anyone for a while.

Hale saw it lift off the ground and fire flared around it, until it was nothing but molten glass. He tossed it out of the way and charged down the one who had dared to throw it at him. He plowed straight through head butting him. It didn't matter if he actually struck or not, but he did go a little fast to actually miss.

Hale wasn't stupid, no. He simply saw things differently and like most children, his mind hadn't quite grown past the entire abstract notion and non literal meaning of things. Not stupid, simply a bit naive.

Fire erupted from nowhere, turning the flying shards into viscous glass. The blobby glass slammed into the tree behind the child vampire, losing all of their consistency as they hit with a splatter. In the time it took for them to do so, Hale was already lunging at Romax, hitting him dead-center in the chest.

"This is really, really--Ooof!" His angry snarl was broken off by the air being driven from his chest as Hale's weight plowed into him. Even as he was being forced over backwards, though, Romax was reaching for Hale's neck.