#southern david

[luv4fandoms]

Another headcanon that I'm obsessed with (as much as I'm obsessed with the idea of Marko being Italian)

Is David being originally from the south (This might partially be because I am a big Doc Scurlock fan but lol)

But also like..there isn't that much of a leap from gunslinger to biker in my opinion lol.

I could have seen David growing up on a farm, herding cattle with his dad and maybe brothers (I think he had 3 brothers, him being the oldest) and so he's used to taking charge, he's used to being the man of the house when his dad had to run to town, which was a two day trip.

But all good things must come to an end.

He had gone to town, a task that his father had asked one of his younger brothers to do but David did instead, after all, he had done all his chores early that day, and his brothers could take care of the horses for the one day he would be absent. He also didn't like his younger brothers going into town alone, he knew there were rough characters there.

Upon his return though he found something that had made his blood run cold...his whole family dead.

David instantly blamed himself, swore that if he would have been home he would have been able to save them, that he would have had control over the situation, even at 13.

A year later after living on his own and trying to find who killed his family, David learned the truth. His father had a few vices, 1. He was a heavy gambler, and his trips into town often left him broke and in debt. And 2. His father had an eye for taken women. Both of which left him with more enemies than friends. But it was when he got a little too friendly with and spent the night with a local gunslinger's wife that he officially had a bounty on his head.

His mother and brothers had just been casualties of the revenge.

At 14 he vowed to find the men who did it and kill them, and he spent the next 5 years doing that. Living as a gunslinger himself, taking bounties that would pay well and talking his way into the good graces of deep pocketed men and beautiful women. If he needed to, he would steal, but why steal when you can manipulate people into giving you money?

That was how he found Max, Max was one of the rich men whose good side David got on. He was impressed by David's wit, after all, in those times it was hard to find.

He had asked David what he planned to do with his life after he got his revenge, to which David didn't have an answer, having been so caught up on avenging his family, he hadn't thought of after. That was when Max offered David the gift of immortality, convinced him he would find the men faster with it, and that afterwards, well, he could do whatever he wanted. David did think it over, weighed his options, after all what Max was offering him had its pros and cons. But eventually the offer tempted him too much to pass up.

So that night Max turned him on his 21st Birthday.

And a few months later he found the gang that killed his family, getting revenge.

He wandered around a lot after that, doing whatever he pleased, but in the end he always stayed close to Max, always in the same state if not the same town. Slowly as time went on he found who he was, who he wanted to be outside of Max and his Vampirism, though he would never even think of getting rid of it if he had the chance, it was who he was now, but he knew he didn't have to be Max's shadow.

(I also think it was during his wandering that he met Dwayne and his tribe)

It took him a bit to hide his southern accent, and to this day he can still slip in and out of it.

There are also times he does think about his family, but after so long he feels very disconnected from it, like it was a whole other life, which he guesses, it was.

After all, he has three new brothers now, and he'll be damned if he lets history repeat itself.

Like I said, I am obsessed with Southern/Gunslinger David lol

[laniakea314]

“Many people, meeting Aziraphale for the first time, formed three impressions: that he was English, that he was intelligent, and that he was gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide.”

[ch3rryguts]

I feel like I know her, but sometimes my arms bend back.

[tommytomatoe]

i just realized that sam countryman cornbread eatin' collins has never said the token southern phrase "bless your heart" in an audio before... explain yourself erik.

[bitesonmyneck]

From Small Town America by David Plowden, 1994.

In order of appearance:

"Lang House," 1987.

"The Western House," 1992.

"East Eden Tavern,” 1992.

"Hartman School," 1992.

"Sea Cliff," 1974.

"Florence Brunson's Front Parlor," 1992.

"Wesley Chapel," 1987.

[midnight-in-santa-carla]

I have wanted to draw a picture for @misslavenderlady's wonderful story A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock'n Roll for a while now. It is just the most fun, heartwarming fic, and Southern Michael is perfection 🥰

Check it out if you haven’t already ♥️

[forever09333]

Shirt I Painted Today

[bebx]

a very bloody christmas. photo shared by damien

[thatoneandlonelyemo2005]

do you think david jacobs would go feral for jack kelly and his southern accent

[powerlineprincess]

A book that always inspired my love for photography, "The Neugents: Close to Home" by David M. Spear, a friend of my father's who photographed this family in rural Madison, NC on Tabacco Road. (my hometown)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

One of America’s most corporate-crime-friendly bankruptcy judges forced to recuse himself

Today (Oct 16) I'm in Minneapolis, keynoting the 26th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing. Thursday (Oct 19), I'm in Charleston, WV to give the 41st annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities. Friday (Oct 20), I'm at Charleston's Taylor Books from 12h-14h.

"I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one." The now-famous quip from Robert Reich cuts to the bone of corporate personhood. Corporations are people with speech rights. They are heat-shields that absorb liability on behalf of their owners and managers.

But the membrane separating corporations from people is selectively permeable. A corporation is separate from its owners, who are not liable for its deeds – but it can also be "closely held," and so inseparable from those owners that their religious beliefs can excuse their companies from obeying laws they don't like:

https://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2014/10/13/hobby-lobby-and-closely-held-corporations/

Corporations – not their owners – are liable for their misdeeds (that's the "limited liability" in "limited liablity corporation"). But owners of a murderous company can hold their victims' families hostage and secure bankruptcies for their companies that wipe out their owners' culpability – without any requirement for the owners to surrender their billions to the people they killed and maimed:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed

Corporations are, in other words, a kind of Schroedinger's Cat for impunity: when it helps the ruling class, corporations are inseparable from their owners; when that would hinder the rich and powerful, corporations are wholly distinct entities. They exist in a state of convenient superposition that collapses only when a plutocrat opens the box and decides what is inside it. Heads they win, tails we lose.

Key to corporate impunity is the rigged bankruptcy system. "Debts that can't be paid, won't be paid," so every successful civilization has some system for discharging debt, or it risks collapse:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/09/bankruptcy-protects-fake-people-brutalizes-real-ones/

When you or I declare bankruptcy, we have to give up virtually everything and endure years (or a lifetime) of punitive retaliation based on our stained credit records, and even then, our student debts continue to haunt us, as do lawless scumbag debt-collectors:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/12/do-not-pay/#fair-debt-collection-practices-act

When a giant corporation declares bankruptcy, by contrast, it emerges shorn of its union pension obligations and liabilities owed to workers and customers it abused or killed, and continues merrily on its way, re-offending at will. Big companies have mastered the Texas Two-Step, whereby a company creates a subsidiary that inherits all its liabilities, but not its assets. The liability-burdened company is declared bankrupt, and the company's sins are shriven at the bang of a judge's gavel:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/01/j-and-j-jk/#risible-gambit

Three US judges oversee the majority of large corporate bankruptcies, and they are so reliable in their deference to this scheme that an entire industry of high-priced lawyers exists solely to game the system to ensure that their clients end up before one of these judges. When the Sacklers were seeking to abscond with their billions in opioid blood-money and stiff their victims' families, they set their sights on Judge Robert Drain in the Southern District of New York:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/23/a-bankrupt-process/#sacklers

To get in front of Drain, the Sacklers opened an office in White Plains, NY, then waited 192 days to file bankruptcy papers there (it takes six months to establish jurisdiction). Their papers including invisible metadata that identified the case as destined for Judge Drain's court, in a bid to trick the court's Case Management/Electronic Case Files system to assign the case to him.

The case was even pre-captioned "RDD" ("Robert D Drain"), to nudge clerks into getting their case into a friendly forum.

If the Sacklers hadn't opted for Judge Drain, they might have set their sights on the Houston courthouse presided over by Judge David Jones, the second of of the three most corporate-friendly large bankruptcy judges. Judge Jones is a Texas judge – as in "Texas Two-Step" – and he has a long history of allowing corporate murderers and thieves to escape with their fortunes intact and their victims penniless:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/07/hr-4193/#shoppers-choice

But David Jones's reign of error is now in limbo. It turns out that he was secretly romantically involved with Elizabeth Freeman, a leading Texas corporate bankruptcy lawyer who argues Texas Two-Step cases in front of her boyfriend, Judge David Jones.

Judge Jones doesn't deny that he and Freeman are romantically involved, but said that he didn't think this fact warranted disclosure – let alone recusal – because they aren't married and "he didn't benefit economically from her legal work." He said that he'd only have to disclose if the two owned communal property, but the deed for their house lists them as co-owners:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24032507-general-warranty-deed

(Jones claims they don't live together – rather, he owns the house and pays the utility bills but lets Freeman live there.)

Even if they didn't own communal property, judges should not hear cases where one of the parties is represented by their long term romantic partner. I mean, that is a weird sentence to have to type, but I stand by it.

The case that led to the revelation and Jones's stepping away from his cases while the Fifth Circuit investigates is a ghastly – but typical – corporate murder trial. Corizon is a prison healthcare provider that killed prisoners with neglect, in the most cruel and awful ways imaginable. Their families sued, so Corizon budded off two new companies: YesCare got all the contracts and other assets, while Tehum Care Services got all the liabilities:

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/prominent-bankruptcy-judge-david-jones-033801325.html

Then, Tehum paid Freeman to tell her boyfriend, Judge Jones, to let it declare bankruptcy, leaving $173m for YesCare and allocating $37m for the victims suing Tehum. Corizon owes more than $1.2b, "including tens of millions of dollars in unpaid invoices and hundreds of malpractice suits filed by prisoners and their families who have alleged negligent care":

https://www.kccllc.net/tehum/document/2390086230522000000000041

Under the deal, if Corizon murdered your family member, you would get $5,000 in compensation. Corizon gets to continue operating, using that $173m to prolong its yearslong murder spree.

The revelation that Jones and Freeman are lovers has derailed this deal. Jones is under investigation and has recused himself from his cases. The US Trustee – who represents creditors in bankruptcy cases – has intervened to block the deal, calling Tehum "a barren estate, one that was stripped of all of its valuable assets as a result of the combination and divisional mergers that occurred prior to the bankruptcy filing."

This is the third high-profile sleazy corporate bankruptcy that had victory snatched from the jaws of defeat this year: there was Johnson and Johnson's attempt to escape from liability from tricking women into powder their vulvas with asbestos (no, really), the Sacklers' attempt to abscond with billions after kicking off the opioid epidemic that's killed 800,000+ Americans and counting, and now this one.

This one might be the most consequential, though – it has the potential to eliminate one third of the major crime-enabling bankruptcy judges serving today.

One down.

Two to go.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/16/texas-two-step/#david-jones

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

[luv4fandoms]

Modern!David headcanon

David actually likes Colter Wall because of his classic country vibes (David doesn't care for much modern country music as he feels it has lost its originality) This song in particular reminds him of his past and meeting Max.

[simonsrosebud]

(guys aaron was raised in san jose california not south carolina he doesn’t have a southern accent as handsome as it would sound) (it is important to me that you know this)

[vintagewildlife]

Bald ibis on the nest By: David Manry From: Natural History Magazine 1985

[moominpopzz]

Little Southern Wiwi + That one picture holding a fish when little that every southern person I’ve ever met has :>

+ teenage David.. the best I could figure out how to draw him

[misslavenderlady]

A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock ‘N Roll - Chapter 15

Summary: Michael and David have been thoroughly enjoying their time as a couple. But while they do have plenty of loved ones that support them, there may still be quite a few intense challenges to overcome.

Full credit to @silvermaplealder for the gif of David and Michael!

TW: Chapter contains mentions of abuse and mental health/stress

Heyyyyy....so uh.....it's been a year. Whoopsie. I genuinely am sorry to keep everyone waiting. This past year has been a rollercoaster of events. I hope you understand and still welcome my fic with this update 💜

Previous Chapter *nsft chapter* Next Chapter

To be with your one, true love was something that only a few lucky souls in the world got to experience. Whether someone found their happiness with a romantic partner, a platonic friend, or a loving family, it was true bliss to be with the person you cared most about. David knew he had found that kind of love when he had crossed paths with his boys long ago.

But Michael? This was an entirely different feeling. Something fresh and exciting and full of hope. Michael was the first person he wanted to see when he awoke after sunset, and the one he would kiss farewell before hiding away from the sunrise. What made their newfound love even sweeter was the fact that he could tell Michael felt the same way. 

For the first couple of weeks after they made love together, David would occasionally peek into Michael's mind, ever-so curious as to whether or not the cowboy was still pleased with their relationship. It made his heart soar whenever he heard thoughts of joy, adoration, and occasional lust. 

Though as the season shifted from summer into autumn, David found no use in his vampire tricks any longer. He didn't need to pry into Michael's mind to understand him. It was far easier to notice when the brunet wanted something or was enjoying their time together. It was interesting, and certainly not unwelcome. Change could be a good thing, and Michael was proof of that.

And he had full intentions of enjoying every moment they shared together. Tonight was one of those times.

“You really trust me enough to be here for this?”

“‘Course I do! Don’t you worry yourself, alright?”

Michael had his hand fully grasped around David’s, eagerly guiding him to the barn on the Emerson property. As per usual, they had just finished enjoying a filling, delicious dinner made from scratch by Lucy. Now Michael was ready to wrap up some chores around the place before spending the night having fun. 

Usually, David would take the opportunity to sneak away with the other boys in order to find and drain a victim. Lucy knew how to keep their bellies full, but they still relied on the taste of fresh blood to keep their vampiric powers going strong. But this time was a bit different. Michael had asked David to join him for one particular task he had to do. Something that was incredibly important, according to him. 

“I think you’re really gonna like this, David,” Michael assured him with a bright smile. “It’s one of my favorite things to do ‘round here.”

David’s curiosity grew with each step as they walked further into the barn, the sound of hay crunching under their boots filling his ears all the while. It was the only thing he heard until a second, much louder sound surprised him.

“MOOOOOOOO”

It shouldn’t have been a surprise to hear the noise of a farm animal in a place like this, but what truly caught the vampire off guard was hearing a bold noise come out of a small creature. 

Standing in one corner of the barn was a little calf. A fluffy coat of black and white fur, a shiny, wet snout, and a swishing tail. She seemed to perk up at the sight of the two boys, as if it knew they were there to give her plenty of attention. Michael giggled at such a sight. 

“Yeah yeah, I know, girl,” Michael said. “You know what’s comin’, dontcha?”

The cowboy leaned down to get on the little cow’s level, giving her a nice scratch under her chin as a greeting. Her big, brown eyes fluttered shut, and she leaned into his hand more, no doubt enjoying the sensation. While he kept petting her, Michael turned his gaze back to David.

“This little lady is Cookie! She’s a Lineback. Sam and I picked her up at an auction across town last week!” he explained. “She’s spoiled rotten ‘cause of how plum cute she is~”

You’d have to be an absolute monster not to melt at the sight of such a sweet little creature. And that was saying something, since David technically was such a thing. He softly smiled at the calf, kneeling down to meet her at eye level. She was still a bit spooked, backing up suddenly when he moved towards her. A twinge of guilt ran through him at the sight. 

“Aww don’t feel bad, David! She’s just a little shy when it comes to meetin’ new people,'' Michael assured him. “Besides, you’ll become her best friend once you give her this.”

Michael reached into a bag he had brought along for their trip. It took no more than a moment for him to fish out exactly what he needed. In his hand, he held a large, rectangular plastic bottle with a thick, white liquid sloshing around inside. A rubber nipple was secured at the end of it, much like a baby bottle. 

“She’s still bein’ bottle fed. I do this a couple times a day. Since she doesn’t have her mama, this’ll be how she gets big and strong,” he explained, giving the bottle a light shake. Cookie’s eyes widened at the sight while her tail swished around some more. The two boys giggled at the sight of her excitement. It was like seeing a dog wag its tail when being offered a treat. 

Michael gave David a smile as he held out the bottle for him to take. “Why don’t you try feedin’ her?”

“Well, I’ve never done this before, so I may need some help so that I don’t look like an idiot,” David admitted. 

“No worries! It’s a lot easier than ya think!”

After giving him some pointers on how to position the bottle and how to get her to latch on, Michael stood back in order to let David do his thing. Careful to follow the advice given, David allowed Cookie to come up to him and take a drink at her own pace. Sure enough, she became a lot more friendly with him once she got a taste of the milk. 

A bright smile spread across his face as he watched the calf drink. Michael was right when he said it was easier than he realized. She snorted and gulped, noisily taking as much milk as she wanted. He had to admit, it was quite precious. It really felt like he was bonding with the little creature. 

That was, until she pulled away and pushed her head against the bottle, causing it to slam against his leg. 

“Ow! What was that for?”

Michael let out an amused laugh, clearly enjoying seeing David get flustered by a baby animal. 

“She’s nudging! When calves are around their mothers, they do that to the udders as a way to get more of the milk to come out. But since it’s just you with a bottle, she thinks the same thing will happen ‘cause she doesn’t know the difference. Hurts like a bitch, don’t it?”

“It’s a good thing she’s cute. Otherwise, I’d have to scold her,” David said with a smirk. Cookie’s ears fluttered while she went back to work on drinking her milk. 

The two of them enjoyed more of Cookie’s feeding time, encouraging her and cooing at how adorable she was. The little cow was practically eating up the attention the same way she was eating up her meal. By the time she was finished with the bottle, the fur on her chin was soaked with milk. She seemed quite pleased with herself. 

“Atta girl,” Michael said. He took a rag from the same bag he had carried the milk in order to clean up the mess all around her face. Just as she did before, she tried to nudge Michael’s hand. “Sassy lil’ thing.”

“And definitely a daddy’s girl. She’s gonna miss you if you go back to school, Michael.”

The brunet let out a snort and a hearty laugh at such a comment.

“Hell nah, I ain’t goin’ back to school! I graduated a year early back in Texas. I ain’t doin’ more of that shit. Let Sammy deal with all that. I’ll stay here with my lil’ buddies,” he laughed, giving Cookie a playful rub behind the ears. 

The blond leaned up against one of the walls of the barn, letting out a sigh of relaxation while his boyfriend took care of Cookie. It put him at ease seeing Michael working hard. He did so much for his family and all the animals on their farm. Considering he used to only value partying hard and spilling blood, it was comforting to see someone who cared about doing things for others without expecting something in return.

“I don’t know how you do it,” David said.

“Whatcha mean?”

“I mean, I don’t know how you do all of this! How you take care of animals, do all the chores, take on a bunch of hard labor, and then still have time and energy to do stuff with me and the boys. Honestly, you’ve got a crazy amount of stamina. How do you do it?”

Michael pondered over David’s words. He stayed quiet for a moment, reflecting on them as he finished up with Cookie. He let out a tired sigh as he sat down in the hay and let the calf snuggle up on his lap.

“Honestly? I don’t really know myself,” he admitted. “It’s actually a lot more exhaustin’ than I make it look, David.”

It wasn’t an answer that David had been expecting. Growing curious, he stopped his leaning so that he could kneel down and be more at Michael’s eye level. He raised an eyebrow in curiosity, wordlessly asking what the human’s response meant. Michael gave him a sheepish smile, realizing he couldn’t take back his choice of words. 

“Between you, me, and Cookie, I take on as much as I possibly can because I don’t know how long I’ll get to do this.” 

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s like this: I’m the man of the house in the eyes of my mama. Sure, Grandpa’s still kickin’ but he ain’t no spring chicken. He needs my help with so much ‘round here. You weren’t here for it, but he nearly threw his back out just carryin’ some horse feed. He needs me, especially ‘cause Mama’s worried about him.”

Michael’s smile slowly faded as he spoke. The calf he held nuzzled up against him, enjoying being held as he spoke. Michael gently pet her, letting her relax into his hand. He always felt better around the animals. 

“I don’t mind helpin’ out. I care about my family. I want to look after them. But…I don’t wanna miss out on life while I’m young. It feels like….I dunno…like jugglin’, I guess. I wanna go wild, drink myself stupid, do some partyin’, go on adventures. But someday I’m gonna have to grow up. Maybe settle into some work for other farms to make more money. Get Sammy what he needs when he goes to college someday. Make sure Mama doesn’t have to work. There’s just so much to do in so little time…”

David’s eyebrows creased, and he frowned as he listened to Michael. In all the times he listened to the boys' thoughts, he never heard such things in his head. It was almost as if Michael was trying to act and not think. He pushed his thoughts and feelings aside so he could just focus on what was in front of him. It made David wonder just how long his boyfriend had been carrying around such burdens. Never acknowledging the work. 

“What about you, Michael?” David spoke up. “You keep talking about your family, but what about the stuff you want?”

“I already do the stuff I want!” Michael tried to assure him. “Every night we go ridin’ or raise a little hell on the boardwalk or even havin’ our jam sessions is always fun. I honestly haven’t felt so happy since the move.”

He carefully moved the hand that wasn’t petting Cookie in order to reach out and grab David’s hand. Out of a reflex, David immediately intertwined their fingers together. He never got tired of doing that.

“And you. I get to be with you, David. Every second we’re together makes me forget I even got troubles. You keep me in the moment. Don’t make everything feel so rushed.”

David softly smiled at the kind words Michael shared. He brought the human’s hand upward so that he could kiss the back of it. All the while, he ran his thumb over Michael’s knuckles. 

“I feel the same way, Cowboy,” he sighed. “I’d do anything to make you happy. I just….want to take away all those troubles you have. Life is meant to be savored, not rushed through. You deserve to enjoy all the stuff you like and not have to carry the pressure of your family.”

Not satisfied with just the smooch on his hand, Michael grabbed hold of David’s shirt, tugging him closer so that they could share a proper kiss. He giggled as he pressed his lips, enjoying the familiar scent of David’s cigarettes on his skin. When they broke apart, David had a grin of his own. 

“Carryin’ these things is my burden, darlin. As long as I’ve got you in my life, I’ll be just fine.”

“Well, I’ll still help when I can. We all will,” David assured him. 

Michael smirked at him, amused by such promises. Even if David was true to his word, he found it cute to see this bad boy turn into a loyal farm hand. 

“And if you just so happen to change your mind about all this work and just….I dunno….want to run away together and become a country and rock music duo and have a home of our own back in your hometown, I would absolutely go along with it.”

The human boy burst into a fit of giggles. Clearly such a specific scenario had been playing around in David’s mind for sometime. He really was crazy about that guy. 

“You’re too sweet, y’know that, Huckleberry?” 

“Only for you, Cowboy~” 

The two of them were so close and eager to share another kiss together. But as they leaned in to do it again, they were rudely interrupted by the fussy little cow on Michael’s lap.

“Mooooo!!!”

“You are such a drama queen,” Michael playfully scolded Cookie. “You’re not the only one that gets affection ‘round here, missy. Learn to share.”

David watched in amusement as Michael got back on his feet and hoisted the fluffy calf into the air. He followed the lead and stood back up as well, dusting off the hay and dirt from his beloved jacket. One of these days, he’d ask Michael to loan him some proper work clothes to wear around the farm. Or at the very least, he’d swipe them off some sucker after a hunt. 

Speaking of hunting, he hadn't heard from the boys yet. Usually, one of them would let him know when they were cleaning up after feeding. Had they not found a good meal yet?

“Michael, do you mind if I go looking for the boys? I'd love for them to meet Cookie too.” 

“Absolutely! The more the merrier,” Michael said. “Just do me a favor and take the bag and the bottle back inside. I'll put everything away once I'm done with the other animals.” 

With a quick nod and another peck, David was off for the Emerson house. He twirled the bag around his wrist as he followed the path to the back porch. Before he cut through the hall in order to get to the kitchen, something caught his eye in the dining room. 

“Oh! Hey, Sam!” 

Sitting in a chair at the dining table was the younger Emerson brother. Across the table were a variety of textbooks, looseleaf paper and composition notebooks. Sam was deep in focus, hunched over his work, with a pencil tapping in between his fingers. He barely gave David a glance as he read over his notes. 

“Wow! Better lower the enthusiasm before you break a blood vessel!” David said sarcastically, ready to leave the kid alone since he was clearly in a mood. 

Then again, maybe he shouldn’t be so harsh on him. He and Michael already messed with him enough with their pranks and roughhousing. David turned back around and softened his expression a little. The same look he usually had around Laddie.

“Sorry ‘bout that, Sam. Didn’t mean to sass you,” he apologized, leaning over one of the spare dining chairs. “Can I make it up to you, bud?”

Sam’s sour expression didn’t budge while he continued writing down answers for his homework. He only gave David a side glance rather than proper eye contact. 

“I dunno. Can you do ninth grade geometry?” 

“Uhhh….’fraid not,” David admitted. 

“Then no, you can’t. So you can just leave me alone. Stop botherin’ me already.”

David was growing more and more frustrated by the minute. He was itching to bare his fangs again and hiss at the boy. He didn’t take kindly to any attitude from bratty kids. Still, he wanted to keep his cool and make things right. If not for his own sake, then for Michael’s. 

“Sam, I don’t know what your problem is, but I’m not your enemy here. I’m trying to make nice with you here, so why do you still wanna act like you hate me?”

The younger boy flicked his pencil down onto the table and slammed his math book shut. Now David had his full attention, and Sam wasn’t looking too happy about it.

“You wanna know why I hate you?” he snapped. “It’s ‘cause I know you’re nothin’ but trouble! You’re dangerous! Bad to the bone!”

“So what if I am? Everyone has their flaws. Is it really fair to hate me for that? For trying to be better? I’m trying to do that for your family. For Michael!”

“How can I possibly trust that? How do I know you’re not gonna go and hurt my brother?”

David’s breathing was heavier and his stomach was churning. The more Sam argued with him, the more he wanted to prove himself. It was all so frustrating. This was the first time in ages he wanted to have a connection with humans. He didn’t want to be seen as a monster as others had for decades now. Letting out a sigh and lowering his guard, David allowed himself to be vulnerable to Michael’s brother.

“Because I love him.”

Silence hung in the air between the two of them. Sam’s baby blue eyes widened and his expression softened at the words. He could have expected any response except that. 

Though he already knew of Michael’s sexuality and blossoming relationship with David, he hadn’t been too enthusiastic about it. Paranoia about cryptic creatures trying to claw their way into Sam’s home life had put him on edge. Even if others broke bread with the Lost Boys, he hadn’t trusted for a second.

And yet….the look in David’s eyes was genuine. Not one bit of deception to be found. 

“You love him?”

“Yeah, Sam, I do.” 

Before Sam felt like he could rant a mile a minute to David’s face. Now he was quiet as a mouse, looking rather embarrassed for being so harsh before. David figured he would keep talking to get rid of some of the awkwardness. 

“Sam, I get it. You’re feeling protective of Michael. He’s your brother. I feel the same way about Marko, Dwayne and Paul.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. But we like it here. We like your family. And we take care of our family. I want to make Michael happy, just like he’s done for me. So I want you to know that I don’t want to hurt him.”

David offered a gesture that not too many had the honor of experiencing. He held out a gloved hand, ready to give a shake with Sam. 

“I just want to be your friend.”

Sam looked as if he was still on the fence about whether it was right to trust David. The warnings of Edgar and Alan echoed in his head. Maybe they were wrong. Maybe he had misread the whole situation with Max. Hell, maybe he even hallucinated that burn on his hand when they were at the party. 

After all the shenanigans, maybe it all boiled down to the fact that he was just a scared kid. Scared for both his mother and brother. Max wasn’t right for their family, but David was. What he and Michael had was real.

So with an ever-so faint smile, Sam accepted the offer and shook hands with David. The blond seemed to physically relax more, no doubt glad to get Sam’s acceptance. 

“Thanks, Sam,” David said. “I apprecia-”

“DAVID!”

A voice screamed out in the blond’s head. He tensed up, recognizing it was Dwayne calling out to him. He sounded so urgent and loud. Such qualities were very out of place when they talked.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Sam now had a look of concern on his face, worried by how shaken up David suddenly seemed to be.

“I-I...Sorry, I just realized I need to check on something…” David nervously explained. He let go of Sam’s hand and the bag he had held before sprinting off to the back door that he had come through. Something wasn’t right, and he couldn’t keep Dwayne waiting.

“I’m here! What’s wrong?”

“Emergency….help….us….”

“What’s going on? Dwayne, where are you guys??”

At that moment, David was sure his heart was going to drop into his stomach. The feeling only grew stronger when he got his answer.

“Max’s…..house…h-hurry…”

He was off like a shot. David didn’t even bother with his motorcycle. He didn’t care about how fast and reckless he was with flying into the night sky. His boys were in danger. There was no time to be cautious.

He didn’t even notice Sam coming out the back door. Just in time to see David taking flight. 

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