10. Just Atrocious

W hile Turney couldn’t say he had fun taking his shirt off in front of the police, nor the stares he’d gotten over the scars on his body, Octavius made it easy for him to ignore.

Turney tried not to laugh as he followed the pouting vampire out of the restaurant. The officers had let them change into the clothes provided by the park owner inside, so that they didn’t have to strip in front of the crowd. Well, they’d gotten changed after photos had been taken followed by them cleaning off the blood as best as they could.

“Really…just atrocious!” Octavius huffed.

The vampire plucked at the black, oversized rubber ducky sweater that fit more like a dress, before tugging at the sweatpants he was wearing, which Turney was planning to steal after this. The pants had duckies with small top hats going up the sides, like a stripe… They were cute…

“And these shoes!?” The man lifted up his foot, the flip flop slapping the ground as he set it back down. Octavius was obviously past caring about their waiter dying, or that there was still a crowd outside.

“I mean, it’s cute… The ducks, that is.”

Turney, personally, would be fine with wearing sweatpants and flip flops, but neither his pants nor shoes had gotten sprayed with blood, so…he’d have to settle for the ducky sweater they’d given him…for now.

He had to say, his sweater fit him better than Octavius’. He wasn’t sure why they’d given the vampire one that was so obviously not his size…

“It’s so…” The vampire flapped the bottom of his sweater. The thing puffing up again and again, before falling flat each time. “Ill-fitted!”

Turney chuckled. “Come on, let’s go back to the hotel, so we can shower and change, before trying to find another place to eat, hmm?”

“Yes! Let’s!” Octavius huffed, looping his arm through his.

They started making their way through the crowd, toward the shuttle pick-up place, when they were stopped.

“Wait! Wait!” a voice cried out.

They looked back together and found the owner, Mr. Percival, standing there.

“Yes, Mr. Percival?” Octavius asked, with, if Turney were to guess, a very fake smile.

“Oh, please, call me Aurelius!” the human gasped.

Oddly…once again, his boyfriend appeared to take some offense at the man’s name, for some reason. The vampire’s nose wrinkled, just a bit, as he said, “Ah, yes… Aurelius.”

Turney barely held back his frown as the vampire pronounced the name with a rolling R, and as au-reh-lee-oos, while the owner had clearly said it as au-real-lee-us.

“I’m so glad I caught you,” the owner said, not seeming to even notice the name thing. “Let me start off by saying how sorry I am that your Ducktastic dining experience went so awry!” The human’s gaze went from him to Octavius. Aurelius’ stare was oddly intense.

Octavius’ smile became tenser. “I see… Yes, well, it was unfortunate.”

Oh, his boyfriend did not want to be here, or to be polite… Though…pronouncing someone’s name wrong was pretty much the opposite of polite , he thought with an inner sigh.

Turney cleared his throat. “No need to apologize. If there’s nothing else, we actually need to get going.”

“Right! Are the clothes to your liking?! I do hope they fit.”

The vampire’s smile started to falter. “They…are… fine .”

Turney snorted, covering up the laugh that had tried to come out on hearing the strain in the man’s voice. Oh, his bratty boyfriend was struggling fiercely to maintain any sort of composure.

“Well then, I won’t keep you any longer! I just wanted to express my sincere regret, and…offer you this packet of free vouchers for the water park, and a few of the other various attractions found throughout Duckvilla!”

Octavius’ smile became wide, beaming, and real, on the word ‘free’.

“Oh! Why, thank you, Aurelius!” the vampire practically squealed, still saying the name wrong, as he grabbed the thick envelope that the human pulled out of his jacket.

“It’s the least I can do,” Aurelius said.

The least one could do to try to avoid getting sued , he imagined.

“Ahh, that’s better.” Octavius sighed happily as he walked out of the bathroom. Hair still damp from his shower, he ran his hand over his nicely fitted waistcoat. Turney had rudely rushed out of the bathroom to dress elsewhere when he tried to have fun… Rude… Oh well, they could just have sex later then.

Turney chuckled. “You are such a clothing snob.”

“Something I am happy to be guilty of, when it comes to my own wardrobe.” He eyed the man with an interested smirk.

The zombie was not only back in the sweater he'd been given, with the top hat wearing duck on it, he'd also put on the sweatpants that Octavius had been forced into, completing the outfit with a pair of flip flops he’d brought from home.

Octavius couldn’t say he didn’t love when the man wore sweatpants. They always seemed to hug the zombie’s ass just right. As for the flip flops, they were of much higher quality than the horrid, plastic nightmare of a pair he’d been given earlier.

“Can’t say I mind seeing off-the-rack stuff on your body, though,” Octavius mused, as he came closer and wrapped his arms around the man’s waist.

Turney smirked and kissed him on the lips. “Glad you approve.”

“Mmhmm, approved.” He kissed him back, before spinning away. “Let’s be off!”

The zombie chuckled. “Where?”

“Well, food, and then…” He grimaced. “After losing almost two hours while standing around talking to the police, I’ve reconsidered the water park.”

Mostly, he didn’t feel like swimming anymore, after the whole dead waiter thing, and losing one of the outfits he’d specifically brought so that he could match with Turney. Even if they got the clothing back…by that point, the stains would have set in—ugh.

“Why don’t we go to one of the panels, or a few, before wandering around the convention center a bit? Off the top of my head, there was a panel at 3:30 that I wanted to check out.”

“Mm, that’s fine with me. But what do you want to eat?”

“Well, let’s take a look to see what is close by. Though it’s up to you, since I really don’t need to eat.”

Turney frowned. “You… Do you get hungry? For liquid, at least?”

Octavius blinked, before giggling. “I do…but not in the same sense that you get hungry. I can survive solely on blood, if I wanted to. But…” He wrinkled his nose. “Where is the fun in that?”

“Huh… I can’t believe I didn’t know that already. Do you…gain ‘anything’ nutrients-wise from the other things you drink?” the zombie asked, as he grabbed and put on the ducky lanyard that was laying on their bed.

They’d found it inside the envelope that the owner of the park had given them, and on returning, his zombie bun had brilliantly discovered that their room keycard still worked while inside the cute little ducky shaped pocket hanging off it.

“Not really, but doing so makes me happy. And since I’ve never stopped drinking all these years, I do, in some sense, get irritated when I don’t. I suppose you could say I get phantom hunger pains, since technically, they aren’t due to any real need being neglected, and ignoring them wouldn’t harm me. If I ignored them for long enough, I’d likely not feel them at all.”

“Is that common for vampires? To keep drinking other things?”

Was it common? He tilted his head, thinking it over. “A lot probably don’t do it as regularly as I do, but yes, most vampires that I know, at least, still drink other things, even if it may just be out of boredom.”

Turney smiled. “You aren’t drinking out of boredom, I hope.”

Octavius chuckled. “No. Now, let’s just check…” He trailed off as he reached into his pocket for the folded brochure, slumping on realizing it was now with the police. “I…need to grab a new brochure…”

His zombie’s smile widened. “Let’s go get one then.”

“Right! No big deal, there are plenty in the lobby!” He looped his arm through Turney’s. “Let’s go!” Octavius chimed.

They quickly left the room together. As the door closed and automatically locked behind them, they headed for the elevator.

Humming happily as the doors opened, he pulled Turney inside, and started to rock on his feet. Looking around, he smiled on noting the cute little ducky pattern on the blue carpet, but then his gaze was drawn up to the floor list on the wall.

“Oh, look, Turney! There’s a restaurant in the hotel!”

“ The Duck Pad . I wonder what they have?” Turney mused. “Since it’s almost three now, depending how fast the service is…it could be a good option, instead of heading out to a restaurant in the park, since there is a panel you want to go to in half an hour.”

“A very good point.”

The doors of the elevator opened into the lobby, and on noticing there was a podium with a stack of brochures only a few feet away, he skipped out happily, dragging an amused Turney along behind him.

“Brochure secured!” Octavius giggled, as he grabbed one.