Despite the hour, the small coffee maintained its crowded environment, partially due to its popularity--as well as its attraction for the younger crowd--and partially due to the weather. Lance had managed to obtain a table near one of the large windows that stretched from the floor to the ceiling and looked out between a patch of dark foliage and over the hazy street. It was an an attempt to ease the slight touch of claustrophobia the place inspired being crammed between two immense buildings and thick with the air of many warm lungs.

There was a cup of some strong, Asian tea before him. It had a particularly striking scent, and he eyed its murky depths with a hint of solitary weariness. He never drank the stuff, but the steam felt nice against his face and the cup warmed his hands. And it gave him an excuse to sit here alone with only a newspaper, to listen in on the workings of the world without intruding--just a stranger outside a window, looking in thoughtfully at the scene without the desire to entire.

His eyes flicked across the room quickly, calculating every scrap of information possible as rapidly as possible so as not to draw suspicion. The place was full of young life. Teenagers sat in each other's laps and laughed loud, their eyes bright and warm and alive. Several artistic types, perhaps in their twenties or early thirties, sat in the more reclusive armchairs and typed away on laptops, their faces drawn with concentration, their eyes brimming with the words they were attempting to spill out into living literature.

No one so much as glanced his way, of course. He enjoyed being able to fit in so readily. Ever the observer, Lance was quite content to watch each and every interaction from his corner. The steady rhythm of the cool rain filled half his thoughts, and the other half brimmed with the energy of the living, as liquid and as poetic as the internal rush of their lifeblood.

The sky cried.

Nikolaos O' Rourke walked through the tears towards the coffee house. She carried an emerald umbrella that matched her eyes and complimented her red hair. She had gone green when she woke up this morning- pulling on a comfortable forest green sweater and a pair of faded blue jeans- slightly whitened across her thighs and shins- tucked into boots.

Her black rain boots were made for walking- and she walked straight through the puddles- her destination just moments away. A slight wind picked up and tried to take her umbrella away but she held on and it did cease- the gentle rain pittering upon the brella.
Once arrived, Nikolaos noticed a man sitting by the large window. Damn. She liked sitting there. She frowned and looked away- trying not to stare. Something about him seemed- familiar. The rain messed with her sense of smell- just as when a fox escapes across the river the dogs pursuing lose his scent.

She entered the coffee shop and sighed, folding her umbrella up and relaxing into the familiar smell of caffine- ad another- one that smelled of death. What did death smell like? Well- Nikolaos felt that it smelled a bit like... ice. You know when the air gets really really cold and you take a deep breath and it freezes the lungs- stining the nose as well to the point of pain. That was what death smelled like- Well, that was what it smelled like to her.

Nikolaos approached the counter and asked for one of the fall-themed drinks- a pumpkin espresso. She took a sip before paying. She had to make sure it was worthy- whether that was legal or rude- or not. Nikolaos looked over to the man sitting by her window and moved towards him. Vampire. She wasnt sure if he knew she was a vampire as well- he didn't feel so old. She was definitely older by a few centuries.
"Hello?" she ventured. He sat at a two-chaired table. She wanted to take that other chair- besides all the other good seats were taken and it was crowded.
"Can I sit with you?" she asked, polite. Why was she feeling so kind today? She wasn't quite sure. She had been pretty annoyed lately. Angry at Vincent for being so stupid. Maybe it was the rain. When it cleared she'd be her usual self again. Pity.

He had noticed the scent carried on the draft when she had entered, bewildered by the sudden change in atmosphere. Where the air had been strictly warm and seasoned with the subtle hints of mortality, there was a new and different feel pulling his thoughts straight to the stranger like a magnet. He had learned to detect the feeling early on, for more often than not it spelled danger. Even so, Lance never failed to be surprised by how firmly the pungent scent of his own kind contradicted their appearance. For a race that bathed in death as a jackal wallows in the remnants of its kill, he had yet to lay eyes on a vampire who was not tragically beautiful, and this one was no exception.

However stunned he had been before, he was infinitely more so by her request. For a moment it seemed as though he had not heard her--he did not move, only watched her with a sort of grim fascination--but his senses quickly snapped back along with the acute awareness of his lack of manners. He hurriedly swiped the messy array of newspaper from the table, goading them into a neat pile.

"Oh, forgive me. Yes...yes, please," he gestured for her to seat, "by all means."

Again, he was locked in a sort of semi-trance, enthralled by the radiance of another of his kind, acutely aware of how cold she felt even from across the table. It was strange. Somehow, she seemed familiar, though Lance was positive he had never met this woman before in his life.

Nikolaos bit her lower lip to prevent her laughter from slipping out. he looked as if he had just been hit by a train. It was classic- a deer-in-headlights- sort of stare.
Nikki took her seat and sipped her coffee quietly, looking out the window- shrouded in something close to silence.

Rain slipped down the long glass window as Nikolaos drank everything in: the sights, the sounds, the coffee, the smells. Vitality saturated the air- yet she and he added a brisk and icy jolt of death to that heated energy of life that poured through the atmosphere. The two energies complemented each other- blending as only yin and yang could. She smiled as she looked up to her fellow tablemate. "The perfect combination." she said, adding. "Pumpkin and espresso."

"I don't believe I introduced myself. I'm Nikki" she said. She never really gave out her last name. It didn't matter. She went by her first name. No one ever called her by O'Rourke. It just wasn't as easy to say. Her voice had lost some of it's Irish accent through her many years in the Americas and Canada. Shame.

Nikolaos looked back out towards the rainfall, entertained by the depressed skies. She waited for his name. He looked so stunned when she had first approached him. What? Had he never met another of his kind before? He had to- someone had to turn him. Nikolaos wondered why he was so shocked by her presence.

"Nikki," he repeated the name thoughtfully, half-expecting to recall it from somewhere and somewhat disappointed that it did not. No, he would have remembered if he had met her. "Lance," like her, he gave only his first name, or rather his middle name. Either way, it did not much matter. He had never felt like any of his names had ever truly been his.

He followed her gaze out into the rain for a moment, then glanced back at her with characteristic, subdued curiosity. The door opened as a few people ventured out into the rain, laughing loudly as the sudden sting of cool rain hit their warm faces and skin. The door clattered shut with a warm clink of a bell and the vitality, which for a moment had been diminished by the chilling presence of the night, returned as strong as before.

"Forgive me if...if I seem distant," he began hesitantly, his weary gaze focused on the tabletop. "I suppose I don't often have the opportunity to speak with others of...of our kind," his voice dropped at the last part. It was an unnecessary precaution--no one was paying attention to the two next to the window--but it was a habit that had stayed with him over the years. "Do you come here often? You seem familiar somehow, but I'm certain I have never met you before."

"Yes Nikki" she confirmed, smiling as he repeated her name. And his name was Lance.
"Lance. I like that name." she said with a curt nod of approval, a small grin set upon her lips.

They both gazed outside, watching the laughing humans run into the rain, shocked by how cold the tiny drops were. Nikki did not smile. She did not find their happiness amusing- only annoying. They were crazy.

Nikolaos had once been crazy about the rain. She would run around in it all the tme back home. When she was seven she had caught pnemonia from running around soaked in precipitation. She lived through the bought- shockingly. She had been lucky. Nikki had always been a very lucky girl. Must be the Irish heritage.

Her attention turned back to her companion as he spoke, his voice low and his eyes fixed on the tabletop. She did not avoid his gaze or look away. She stared straight into his face and lowered her voice as well.
"Distant?" she asked. "I think the word solitary suits you better." she gave him a soft smile. "You do not hang around with our kind, do you?"

Her voice was barely audible now. No human could hear it. She leaned forward just a bit to hide her lips from being read by others- though she was quite sure she was safe. Humans were just plain stupid and she didn't feel any Amman lurking near by. Nikki could usually tell when an ancient was rolling up. They made her bones ache. Period. It was like having five "charlie-horses" at the same time. Yuck.

"I come her occasionally, but I would not say often. I do not know you. I only know that you are kin and of the same mold as I. You may have met me before- but I am quite sure we have never spoken. Sorry- but I can't recall." She shrugged. He thought her familiar. She was quite sure they had never met. But one never knows these things. Well, that's what she supposed. Although, It would be pretty sad if she didn't remember this vampire. She usually remembered all the ones who were unusual. He seemed unusual. Very... human-like. She assumed he was an Enashe. They loved the humans and lived with them didn't they? Well, Nikki was a Nephim. She had human friends. She did not hate them. So her rant ceased to exist, tumbling off the edge of reason and decomposing into nothingness as she tried to pinpoint what made this vampire so unusual.