Chapter three: Approach

The room echoed with the melancholic tunes being played on a piano. He sat, his fingers tapping away on the keys, combining notes to create a melody. His attention immersed in the song he was bringing to life. He always was creative with instruments, knowing how to twist notes to relay the music he had in head to the world.

"Someone is in a good mood." He stopped immediately and turned to find Giselle behind him with two cups in her hands emitting steam. She walked up to him and dropped one by the edge of the piano for him. She found a chair and pulled it close to have a sit next to him. Blowing on her tea, she brimmed with a smile as she listened to him continue to play. "I didn't hear you come back home last night." She dropped her cup and turned to him.

Lucien sat quietly, raking his eyes over the the keyboard quickly, intuitively knowing which key to press next to match the music in his head. "That's because I never left." He moved his hands slowly, feeling his harmony come to an end. He sighed, impressed with his work. Music always had a way of calling to his soul, it was his way of expressing himself because he always poured in emotion when he played.

"Odd..." she took a sip from the scorching hot cup, "why?"

He shifted his hands to lift the hot cup carefully. He took a little sip and brought his eyes to Giselle, "tea is nice. Thank you."

She smiled at him then gently cleared her throat to grab his attention, "we're nearly out of groceries..." she began, lifting her eyes to spare him a glance, she found his ears perked up. He was listening to her, waiting for her to speak further because it was clear that she had more to say. Deciding it was better to cut to the chase, she spoke, "I want you to come into town with me. We could grocery shop and head back immediately or have a little look around. I want you to see the town when it's not dark. Maybe if you see how it is during the day in town, you'd..." she was cut off by Lucien.

"No." He curtly said. He wasn't ready for this discussion. He simply wasn't.

"But Lucien look at you. You're practically a recluse. You hate the humans for something that is not even their fault. I'm not surprised because you even hate your very existence. You call yourself a monster when it's not your fault..." he pushed the stool backwards, a sign of him being done with the conversation. He began walking away in an attempt to escape her words.

"How long Lucien!" She banged her hands on the top lid of the piano which he had put to rest a while ago, in impatience. "Fucking how long do you plan to keep doing this?"

"For as long as I please." Came his calm reply. His tone always held some sort of elegance and so was the way walked. He was sophisticated and an elegant man.

"You were around a human Lucien! The mild smell was a human's. You had it on you when you came back that night so why are you chickening out now?" She ground out.

Silence. That was all that existed at the moment. Her harsh, tired breathing and his calm ones. He had stilled when he heard her talk. Quietly, he turned to face her. His face wore an expression on a border between frustrated and surprised. She knew and he knew that she knew. And she was right, he had already broken his code of not avoiding humans, so he had no ground. After all, it's just grocery shopping, nothing complicated about it. But he wasn't going to accept it.

"Giselle..."

"Stop this recluse life you live. There is more to life than being nocturnal and isolated. I'm a vampire but I still interact with humans. But you, you don't want to interact with anyone." Her tone was soft and pleading.

"Giselle I beg you..." he was slowly losing his temper. But then again, he didn't want to lose his temper or perhaps it wasn't him losing it's temper, it was his ground slipping because deep down he knew she was right.

"I've know you for nearly a century now Lucien. Please, just try and listen to me. Come into town with me. I promise you won't regret it... if you feel uncomfortable then I give you my word that we shall leave immediately." Giselle stared at him, she could see his resolve faltering.

"I don't like arguing with you Giselle. I choose not to. And this, you're not going to let this go easily. So if me going into town with you would let this matter get dropped..." He swallowed with uncertainty then rose his eyes to her with a defeated sigh, "then I shall oblige." It stung his very being to let those very words fall out of his hesitant throat. 

Her eyes widened. He had actually agreed. She couldn't believe it. She was surprised and shocked. "Really?" She was suspicious.

He nodded in defeat. "Just allow me put on something more decent and proper." He motioned down at his loose sleeved t-shirt and sweatpants and let himself out through the door.

Giselle was gleaming, staring at the empty space. She squealed, feeling victorious. Lucien wasn't a difficult man but when the matter about his lifestyle was brought up, it usually always ended with him walking out with his temper in an uproar. Or he'd ignore her whenever she brought it up. She was surprised at how quickly he gave in. She had expected a fuss at least, despite his agreement, she could sense his hesitation.

She left the room full of instruments, shutting the door gently behind her. She sat on a fixed couch in the living room, scrolling through the tv channels with her tea cup in her hands.

"I don't suppose I look okay." She turned upon hearing his voice to find him climbing down the stairs, dressed in a black casual button up silk shirt tucked in black plain tailored pants. He left the first couple buttons undone and his feet were adorned with shiny black pair of dress shoes.

His shoulder length waves was neatly combed and styled in a sort of messy comb over. He stood at the base of the staircase with hands neatly tucked into his pocket. His eyes glanced over at Giselle who was wearing an impressed smile. "I suppose this will have to do. It's just grocery shopping and I don't want to look too dressed up. Or am I?" His eyes fell to analyse his outfit and with eyes still lowered, he peered at Giselle to see what she thought.

"My, my, Lucien. You look breathtaking. Almost makes me want to ogle you. The ladies will be falling at your feet instantly." She kissed her hands to punctuate her point.

He rolled his eyes at her, not ready to bear her drama for another minute. He walked past her, arriving at his coat rack to pick out from his rack lined with black trench coats. He picked at random and put it on, picking a car key from his collection of car keys. From his many years of life, he acquired cars of different brands and class.

"So which car are we taking?" He could hear her excited to have him tag along and just inhaled deeply.

"I do not know. I just picked at random." He moved towards the left, narrowing down the hallway with Giselle fastly by his side.

Once inside the large spaced garage, he pressed the car key and a red porsche responded with blinking lights.

"Yess! The red Porsche. I call shotgun." Giselle said, sprinting away to the car before he could react.

Lucien was fast behind her in no time and gently yanked her out. "I'm already coming with you against my better judgement, please don't make me regret it or change my mind because believe me, I'm this close to it." He punctuated his statement by pinching his index finger and thumb almost together.

"No need to get moody. I'd gladly let you drive." She smiled and rounded the car to enter the other side.

He got into the car and remained silent for a moment. He had his hands on the steering wheel, with his head tipped against the headrest with eyes shut. He beginning to believe he should have just stood his ground and refuse to accompany her.

"Relax Lucien. I promise, you won't regret it." Giselle placed her hands softly on his bicep. He sighed deeply and nodded at her before inserting the keys and bringing the car to life. "I'd give the directions, you follow them. Okay."

"You're so lucky you mean a lot to me if not." He muttered before driving out of the parking space and out of the house. He didn't need to complete his sentence, Giselle already knew how it was going to end. His hesitation told her clearly.

He was silent throughout the drive, eyes trained on the road. He had a hand on the steering wheel and the other running through his hair. He listened to Giselle instruct him on where to narrow into and turn till they were parked in front of a store.

He turned off the car and undid the seatbelts. Giselle was getting ready to alight the car when she turned to Lucien, "why aren't you getting out of the car?"

With his head still rest on the headrest, he turned to her with a quizzical brow quirked up. What else did she want from him?

"I didn't go through the stress of bringing you along just so you can sit in the car. You're coming with me." She crossed her arms at him with a glare.

"Giselle..." he began but was cut off by her.

"No. Get out of that car right now." She threw him a death glare for him being unreasonably difficult at the moment.

"I can't. They're humans and alive. And incase you haven't noticed, my animalistic nature isn't really the best with control. I can't Giselle." He rasped with pleading eyes.

She sighed in understanding and got into the car with him. "I understand but give it a shot. If you start feeling weird, I'd get you out of there immediately."

He stared at her for a moment longer and looked away. She came closer to feel his cheeks and he snorted. His lavender cologne filled her nose. "Please Lucien." She pleaded.

With a heavy sigh, he said, "fine. But please make your shopping snappy."

He got out of the car with Giselle also getting out. He put on his dark shades to not only block out the rays of the sun from his eyes, but to hide his unnatural eye colour from the world.

Giselle on the other hand didn't need to hide her eyes, they were a plain honey brown shade. "Come on, let's go shall we?"

He hummed in response and followed behind her. The door slid open and both entered the building. Lucien ran his eyes around, from the people littered around by the various aisles, to people standing by the cash out point. He founf people in uniforms attending to a few of the humans.

He took careful steps behind Giselle, his eyes roaming around and back to stare ahead.

"I'd go fetch the cheese milk and the other stuff, you go get the juices, apples, carrots, and cereals. Oh, get the bread and canned food." She nodded at him while he paused.

"I'm sorry what? How am I supposed to shop when I've never shopped before? Kieran used to grocery shop for me before..." he stopped immediately, feeling the awful reminder fly back. He was getting upset again. 

"Don't think about Kieran right now, it will only make you moody and sad and angry. And yes, you are going to get all those stuff by yourself because from now on, you'd coming grocery shopping. Also, regarding the canned food, get any you feel like. Don't forget the pasta. Ask around if you feel you're lost." She said all at once to Lucien who was anything but in a goid mood. She grabbed his hand and gave it a light squeeze before giving him a reassuring smile.

"I will try." Was all he said before departing down an aisle. 

He strolled down the aisles crowded with people. With hands in his pockets, he tried to block out the noise and his awareness of their beating hearts and smell. 

He was trying to figure out out which aisle to locate first and on discovering that he was on the aisle for canned food, decided to start with the canned foods.

He neared the stocked shelf and quietly began walking by, his eyes looking for canned soup.He spotted his interest laid on the fifth shelf. He brought himself nearer, finding it's placement less of a challenge, after all, he was a man of towering height and considerable bulk.

After stressing his hand a little, he grabbed one and began looking the can over, till his attention was snagged by grunts of effort and a frustrated groan. He winced a little because being a vampire meant sensitive hearing and the store was quite overly loud for someone like him.

He found a young lady a few inches apart from him trying to reach something but was failing miserably. She was petite, with her hair falling over her face each time she tried to leap for what she wanted. After watching her futile attempts involuntarily from the corner of eyes for quite some time, he decided to go against his better judgement and inquire. Her attempts were becoming awful to watch and endure.

"Stupid chips sitting way up there. Making me jump like a moron. Idiot attendant ignoring me. Urgh!" She was deeply annoyed to the bone.

He quietly moved to stand behind the lady and glanced up to see what she was desperately trying to grab. Finding, a bag of potato chips the reason for her struggles, he rolled his eyes and reached for it effortlessly. He snatched it from the shelf it was sitting on and brought it to her.

She stared at him, panting from her mini exercise. She stared at the chips he stretched out to her and gently trailed his appearance. She weary. He stared at her, recognising her scent. He has smelt it before, she looked familiar. Extremely familiar. He barely had time to think when she snatched it from him, muttered a 'thank you' and walked away.