“I meant it as in chewing Rebecca. Y’know. Because you’re a vampire. Teeth. Biting. Chewing. Though I realize now that was a dumb one” Lance tried to save the capsizing ship, but it was too late. She was starting to visibly become upset and he knew that even if he tried to explain to her how he’d meant it all, the damage had been done already. Worse still, she misunderstood what he was saying about the cure almost completely, didn’t leave him any chance to clarify, just brushed right past him.
And sure enough. There still was a second there where he honestly considered just leaving, like back in the old days. Not bothering to deal with any sort of complications or clarifications because it was easier, because what was the point, because it was a waste of time anyway.
But her earlier words kept bouncing around in his head now.
He didn’t have many of those these days. Truth be told, he had none. And the more he thought about it, the more he realized that that was fucking horrible. So in the end and as a first, he actually went after her to try and salvage the whole thing. After all, this was what he was trying so goddamn hard to do now, ever since he’d gotten out. To be better than his old self. To do better.
“Wait” he said after turning up in front of her within the blink of an eye, keeping some distance between them because he didn’t fancy getting his neck broken by her, given how mad she obviously still was at him.
“You make it sound like there’s only one cure. I didn’t know that when I said that just now. I thought it’s something where you put some ingredients together or, I don’t know, use spells or whatever and that you can do it more than once. Like a cure to any other disease” he tried to explain, previous cheekiness and smiles and smirks completely gone within the blink of an eye.
“So for the record : I would never take that from you, okay. Given how much you want it and that there’s only one - I’d let you have it if I stumbled across it. Just so we’re clear. I know I’m an asshole. But I’m not that kind of asshole. Not anymore. I don’t want to make things worse for people just on the off chance that it might slightly improve my situation. Let’s face it, that cure’s not gonna change shit for me anyway. And I know that. I can always die without it if I want to too, so there’s that. I’ll manage without it just fine. I always do.”
He looked at her a moment longer to make it clear that he was perfectly serious and genuine with it. He thought about saying other things, too. Vehemently denying the idea that he was a coward after everything he’d done to survive, everything he’d gone through. And other parts that kept lingering around no matter how ridiculous and paradoxical they were, given his beliefs and usual attitude. Maybe living like this forever is what I fucking deserve anyway. I had it coming. I killed someone. Took a life. Indirectly caused more to end, too. So who the fuck am I to want mine back.
But he said none of that.
“I’m sorry I upset you. It’s the opposite of what I wanted.”
And now, that just made him snort somewhat miserably, angrily. Story of his life for the past ten years. “I’ll leave you alone” he said and with that turned around, eager to increase and increase and increase that distance as quickly as possible.
Rebekah considered chucking Lance straight through a window now that he had the ability recover without so much as a scratch. Lucky for him, the new vampire opened his big fat mouth to launch into an apology that kept the Original at bay. Perhaps this had all been a misunderstanding. She couldn't quite fault Lance for not knowing the semantics of the supernatural world, even if she desperately wanted to do just that. A short fuse was the mark of being a Mikaelson.
"There's only one in existence my knowledge, but I pray I'm bloody wrong." The blonde woman unfolded her arms and removed her gaze from the man opposite the room. "Well... Thank you then. For your support. Sorry you can't die sooner." A twinge of a smile tugged at her lips. "I'm certain I can figure a workaround if you rile me up enough."
A vile, playful grin found Rebekah's expression. No trace was left of the vulnerable woman yearning for regular human life. "Now, now, don't be a moody twit. We're over our quarrel. I’m hungry and you must be too. I’ll thaw us some happy juice."