He came back.

Afterwards she realised that she expected it the same way one expected the tide to roll in or the sun to rise again. There was a sort of inevitability to it, though she could hardly say why. Easier to explain the push and pull of tides or rise of the sun.

It was in a Laundromat of all places. Kerry was doing that poor college student thing that was more birth-right than anything in her part of the world. Eve must have seen him first, because Kerry heard her let out a long, low breath. She looked up; and there he was.

Ethan – no, Michel's mouth pulled upward in amusement that was not wholly un-predatory. Still the same then. In looks, because vampires couldn't change; and in nature possibly because he wouldn't.

Kerry let her face break into a dazzling grin; shorn of anything but delight. "Teddy!" she cried and threw herself out of the hard plastic Laundromat chairs and at him. In the instant before her body connected with his, she had the impression that fleeting uncertainty darkened his eyes. Then she hit him hard enough that it hurt and her legs were around him and she was holding tight, hugging and gasping out some sort of a greeting broken up by her laughter.

His body stumbled under her weight, half-turning from the way she'd slammed in to him, even though she knew that it shouldn't have, so he still had the presence of mind to act human in front of company.

After a moment, she let him put her down, smiling up into his face. Oh yes, he was going to be furious. That just made her laugh more. It probably wasn't safe. She knew that she definitely didn't fit into the category of child any longer; but surely he wouldn't try anything with her friends right there. "Let me introduce you," she breathed, throwing an arm around him as she started to turn back to them.

He caught her gently by her elbow, watching her face. Assessing her for weaknesses. How very vampire of him.

She let him study her, amusement playing around her mouth before she reached up with both hands and pushed them through his hair. "Your hair," she said, letting disappointment seep into every syllable uttered, even though his hair had not changed. "What happened?"

His mouth smiled, his eyes did not. Catching her wrists gently, he pulled her hands away from him. "A barber happened. I see you're not entirely unfamiliar with the breed." As he spoke, he released one of her wrists to touch the fringe of her messy pixie-cut. He sounded reproving; as though she had hacked those unruly curls off specifically to hurt him.

It made her smile, flicking her head to toss her fringe out of her eyes. "Do you like it?" She made sure her voice was cocky, verging on arrogant; as though she was confident he would love it. The truth was that she didn't care what he thought. She was wearing her scruffiest pair of track-pants with the unfortunate hole high up on the right thigh from where Eve had dropped a lit cigarette, her hair hadn't been brushed since the previous night and she, yet again, had neglected to throw on a bra. This was obviously another vampire game. Wait until the already vulnerable human felt even more defenceless and swoop down to rub it in; well, Kerry was one up on Michel in that mind game. She didn't do vulnerable anymore. At least, not for him.

When he didn't immediately answer, she half-turned back to the two girls curled up in the corner with bags of gummi bears. They were peering over their Statistics textbooks and Eve at least looked as though she wished that she hadn't neglected her make-up. "Eve, Sarah, meet Teddy."

Sarah creased her nose, and Kerry could tell that she was trying to figure out how to get rid of Michel before he ruined their study session. She was generally easy-going, but the exam was tomorrow. If it was one of Kerry's exams, she would have been practically shoving Michel at the door; but that might have been more due to the fact that she neglected her classes far too often.

"So you're not doing laundry," she pointed out, her tone dry. He didn't have a hamper and she thought that he might have tried to be more prepared if he was going to start pulling crap on her. At least make it look authentic.

He smiled, slow and easy. It wasn't the smile she'd grown used to in her few days with him; the one that was all dark corners and sharp teeth. This was the one he had first used on her, when he'd been trying to make her believe he was a freshly-scrubbed college kid. "Nope. Avoided that nightmare for today. Did you want to grab a coffee?"

"Study," said Kerry, shrugging and making a face. She shot another quick look over her shoulder to grin at Sarah, and added, "Also, laundry. Give me your number. I'll call you after the insanity that is exam week and the mandatory week of sleep right after."

His eyes widened before narrowing. He wasn't used to being hindered, and Kerry was willing to bet that there was no way he was going to become used to it. Leaning back into the Laundromat's doorframe, he stretched his lithe body, giving her a perfect view of the play of muscles up his side. His thin T-shirt did nothing to hide what was underneath and, damn it all, that still worked on her. She felt her cheeks heating up. "Mandatory week of sleep," he murmured once she was sure her blush was a neon-bright pulsating red. "I could help you with that."

"Ah," she said, trying not to consider the undertones of that. Then she leant forward and caught him, her short nails digging into the back of his neck as she drew him closer. "Much as I believe that your presence could put me to sleep; unnecessary in exam week, Michel." She kept her voice so soft that she could barely hear the words, but vampires could hear heartbeats in rooms that they were not in. He could keep up. "I'll give you my number," she said, voice louder and cheerful as she pulled away and backed up towards her bag. "You can call me."

It took her a moment to find her phone among the scraps of note paper, pens and sticks of gum. When she had it in her hand, she scrolled to her own number and walked back to Michel, holding the phone out so that he could see the screen.

He smiled, looking exasperated. There was something in his eyes that reminded her of that first Laundromat they'd been in, when they'd both been trapped and terrified. Or maybe he hadn't been terrified. It was hard to say with a vampire. "Would your friends mind if I hung around for a bit?" He stretched again, not to embarrass her this time. This time, she thought that he was trying to figure out the right way to talk to her. He shrugged, just the barest hint of his shoulders moving. "It's been a while. If we don't catch up now, who knows what might happen?"

Kerry was watching Michel's eyes as he spoke, he didn't say the last words, but she knew that they were there. Dark as a curse. Who knows what might happen…to you? And hell no, he was not threatening her. Then she saw his eyes flicker, and all at once, she realised that, no, he wasn't. But someone was; and whatever it was was bad enough that Michel was here, refusing to leave and without even a clothes hamper as a thin but realistic cover story. "Huh," said Kerry. "I thought you'd never ask. I'm trying to study for my Medieval Demonology class and you know what I'm like with dates and numbers."

"No," said Michel, tilting his head in a way that he'd never done around her before. Likely he was going to be smug about the fact that she was studying demonology later. "What are you like?"

"Well, I'm brilliant," said Kerry, frowning at him. "But I was trying to make you feel included."