"You know, anyone would think you were stalking me," Serafina said, her voice teasing, but her eyes were gentle as she turned to face him.
"Isn't that what we half vampires do best?" Luke asked. "So you caught me. Maybe I wanted to be caught."
"Even if you didn't, you might want to get some help with the stealth," she teased.
"And I suppose you, with your three years of life experience, could show me a thing or two?" he shot back playfully.
"Probably," she told him, eyes crinkling as she broke into a cheeky smile. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
Luke approached so that he was standing next to her, where she sat on the bench. He glanced at her and she moved her eyes from his face and returned them to across the lake.
"Maybe I'm just wondering why someone so young looks so sad."
"You've heard of my Da, right? He Who Broods A Lot?"
"That's not it," Luke said, sitting down beside her. "But I won't push."
"Thanks," Serafina replied. "So, hanging out with a three year old, hey? Must be fun."
"You're a lot more fun than most three year olds," he chuckled. "Maybe I feel like you understand me."
"Maybe I do."
They both stared out across the water, expressions unchanging and almost unreadable as they lost themselves in their thoughts. For two people who had just met, and with such a vast age gap between them, there was a connection there that both were beginning to realise. The solitude of their lives, feeling like no one quite understood what it was like to exist when they shouldn't.
Sera knew that most of her cousins shouldn't exist, but she also didn't feel as if she knew them as well as she knew Luke. A stranger that she had met just yesterday. And somehow, he seemed to understand her better than anyone she knew. Or rather, she sensed that he could understand her better, if they were ever to talk about it.
Luke reached up and pushed his glasses a little further up his nose. After so many years of isolation, he felt like the weight of the world had dropped off his shoulders. He trusted that she would keep her word and not tell anyone about who he was, and he felt connected to her for reasons he did not quite understand. But he liked feeling close to another person again. It had been far too long.
"So, Luke, what is it that you do? You're kinda rocking the librarian look." Serafina broke the silence first.
He laughed. "I'm a student teacher. Or a teaching assistant, really."
"Ah, that explains the outfits," she replied.
"Oh really, well I guess I am dressing in the appropriate fashion then," Luke said.
"I guess you are. And before you ask, because I know you're ever so keen to find out about me," Serafina continued. "I'm tutored by Wes and other tutors at Wolfram and Hart. Da, Angel, he owns it. He's no longer evil, and Darla has been dust for some time now. I don't really see Drusilla or Spike, and as dysfunctional as it is, Da spends a lot of time with a Slayer named Faith. She's sorta like a surrogate mother to me. My real mother was killed shortly after I was born."
"I've heard of Faith," Luke said thoughtfully. "She was the one that had turned evil?"
Sera nodded. "But she's good now. We didn't get along at first, the Vampire in me tends to reject Slayers. Her two daughters are like my sisters. One of them is a half Slayer, the other, she was a product of an experiment planted in Faith, she's... she's a shapeshifter, and possibly the star of an apocalypse."
Luke picked up on something she said. "I know what you mean."
"About?"
"The Vampire in you rejecting Slayers. It happens to me too," Luke revealed. "I've learned to control it, but it used to reject the part of me that is a Slayer. And vice versa, the Slayer in me tries to reject Vampires. But..."
"I didn't feel like I wanted to reject you either," Serafina told him, sensing that was what he was going to say. "And I don't know why that is. Maybe my resistance is down, due to spending time with Faith, or maybe you give off more of a Vampire scent."
"Hmm," was his reply.
"I should go," she said, suddenly feeling like she'd revealed too much of her life. She never spoke this much, and now that she found herself telling a stranger most of her inner workings, she thought it was probably a good time to leave.
"Maybe I'll tell you about my life next time," Luke said, watching her stand up.
"I'd like that," Serafina replied. "Bye."
"Goodbye."