PSL; Life Thereafter = The big Reveal.

[dirtyandtrue]

It had been months since Blaine and Matthew had reconciled and months on top of that acclimating the tall blond to the world again. A new world that was always shrouded in darkness and lit by neon, one that pulsed with a deafening sound of all the bodies they had to move through from one end of the dance floor to another.

Blaine had learned the rules. When you were in someone's Haven, you behaved, lest they turn their power and anger on you. The Masquerade was to be kept. The Sabbat and their ideas of ruling the world from darkness properly painted as antagonistic and very dangerous to the Camilla society as a whole. Blaine was very nearly ready.

There was only one other rite of passage that a fledging had to take, and Blaine wouldn't be doing that one by the book. Not when his Master was the Prince of the area.

Court was set up in differing places across LA. There were plenty of warehouses controlled, plenty of basements to be remolded into a more fitting image for them. It was a place like this that Blaine was left outside of, with instructions to go down through the service lift. Matt had given him vague instructions before and a Masquerade mask to put on after he was accepted.

"You may laugh at it, but we're very fond of the traditions that we've taken. They mean a lot and not just to me. Mind yourself. Mind where you are. Mind what you say. And make me proud."

Of course, Matthew was no where to be found up here and Joslin and Maurice knew better then to let any of Matthew's cats out of his bag before he was ready.

Once Blaine did make his way down, the set of double doors he would find himself standing in front of opened to a wide room, filled with the russle of skirts and shift of silk. They were crowed around the edges of the room, peering through their own masks that hid their faces, and what they were. Matthew would be found elevated above the rest of them, languidly sitting in his high backed and ornate chair, dressed to the nines with his own gold mask. He looked godlike and utterly untouchable, and remained totally still as the whole room waited for Blaine to make his entrance.

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[strategic_guile]

Blaine hadn't felt shaking nerves like this since he had been turned. It was almost an exhilarating feeling and yet his stomach churned. It was interesting to feel the same kinds of things even though he was dead. The blonde was dressed up properly in suit and dress shoes, face shaved to a perfectly trimmed goatee. With his mask on he stood in the middle of the open doorway, his heart incapable of thudding against his chest but still managing to do it anyway. His blue eyes stared out from the holes in the mask as he looked slowly from right to left, catching glances and murmurs as they look up at him with unbridled curiosity.

Once done, he let his eyes sweep up to the obvious, the man seated on a throne set up above them all. The calm arrogance and pride he knew so well making Matthew look as royal as he ever did. Blaine was the only one in the entire room who had even seen that man, their Prince, panting and begging on hands and knees. It made a smile curl a corner of his mouth in secret pleasure as he strode forward with his eyes only looking up. He only had eyes for his goal, the Prince. He gave little notice to the others around him as he made his way to the dais.

[dirtyandtrue]

It was fitting, the way he strode into the room. Thrilling, that his eyes didn't leave Matthew, who turned his dark gaze down towards his approaching fledging. It stirred Matt's want, though he was pretty sure this was the least appropriate place for it.

"Blaine Thorps." The name echoed in the room and silenced the quiet whispered murmurs. Normally, the master came in with the fledgling, to plead their case for acceptance. Blaine was going to have to go that alone.

"You've been brought here to be accepted into the fold. Into the security of your clan and the Camilla society. Do you understand and acknowledge the lessons of Tradition?"

He knew the answer was yes.

"And do you swear on the life you have to keep them?"

[strategic_guile]

He had been the ghoul of a Prince. His sire, for all intents and purposes, was a Prince. His stride and his confidence were a must. How could he falter in front of a crowd when he had been under their microscope ever since he had appeared? No, this was nothing new and he wouldn't give any of the sycophants of the court the satisfaction of seeing him as anything other than the self-assured man he had been for more than a decade.

Still, he had to tamp down the urge to let out a wolfish grin as his name echoed around the room. The silence was immediate, but he could feel a gasp in the still of air anyway. He answered the first question when a firm, "Yes," as Matthew knew he would.

Blaine lowered to one knee, bowing his head in supplication. Was it necessary? Maybe. Maybe not, but showing deference to his master was hardly a misstep. Showing it to the Prince of the region was a must. "Yes. I swear upon my life to keep the lessons and rules close to my heart, my Prince."

[dirtyandtrue]

Matt's lips twitched but refrained from the smile he wanted to give as Blaine went onto one knee. It was expected at some point, but most were too skiddish to even think about doing it before he commanded it.

Mad Prince Matthew (He liked the ring of that much better) glanced to his left and then his right, surveying the crowd as it shifted restlessly in their very best clothes. This was the fullest he'd seen the Court since he'd arrived. They swirled together into their own singular mass in his mind. They shifted and whispered together in their own strange beat of life.

There were no questions of objection; this was no democracy. There was only the waiting horde. Matthew rose from his chair, chest swelled with both pride and pomp as he walked to the edge of his platform, hands folding behind his back.

"Then stand and be recognized with your peers."

When the blond rises, the crowd erupts in cheers and a band trails in from somewhere to start playing merry, if old, music. The Society broke lines around him and filled the floor, brushing away the business with a pleased hand. More then a few would try to talk to Blaine, to find out what happened.

He had been gone a good long while, enough for even them to notice, though no one could forget Matthew's reign of bad temper.

[strategic_guile]

Skittish Blaine was not. He didn't fear rejection or humiliation from Matthew or anyone in the court. Not during a ceremony like this. He hardly thought it was preemptive to kneel. His eyes remained down as there was a lull in action after he spoke and he resisted the urge to look up and see what was happening. He could hear the shifting of cloth and the slight scuffing of shoes. It always interested him how even the dead could move with nervous curiosity. They were still people after all.

Blaine rose to his feet smoothly and gave Matthew a hint of a warm smile before it was twisted into his usual sly grin. He turned to greet the crowd coming towards him, contemplating a wide variety of tall tales to spin for the vampires keen on discovering what had happened to him. More than likely he would get the stories pumped out by the rumor mill instead of them getting the truth. He wanted to go to Matthew, but he had better walk his paces around the room before he got caught up in his lover's presence.

[dirtyandtrue]

Matt's lips cracked into a smirk and he turned away as Blaine turned to the crowd.

Not only did Blaine have to make his rounds, Matt had to make it down off this contraption and onto ground level. He milled about, got himself a glass of 'wine', and generally watched his lover move through the crowd.

Soon enough, Matt came up beside him from behind, one hand automatically settling at the base of the blond's back as he steps into the circle that the bodies had formed. He wore a smile, but the conversation still faltered to a stop.

"Am I interrupting?" he asks, knowing full well the answer was yes. They all wanted to be around Matthew for their own purposes, but right now, their purpose was curiosity and him coming down off his pedestal while they were in full gusto made them unsettled.

[strategic_guile]

If only Blaine could bust out in laughter at the sudden trickling off of words. If the hand on his back didn't automatically let him know who it was, then that absence of chatter and the uncomfortable stillness would have cued him in immediately. His head turned to look down at Matthew and the smile on his face was cordial and proper, but the glint in his eyes was not.

"Not at all, mon Prince," the blonde said, even though it was a bold faced lie. "As always, you know how to throw an opulent party. I'm honored." Even if it was more for Matthew's pride and tradition than for his own wants.

[dirtyandtrue]

It was for Matt's pride but the traditions ran deeper then just him. The Society itself would find fault with Matthew for it and he was very aware of his own image in court. He had to be untouchable at first glance, at least. His already friendly smirk grew at the look in the blue eyes peering out from the silver mask at him.

"As well you should be, I demand the best for my station. I trust that the rest of you are keeping him in good company?" Matt looked around at the circle of people, meeting their eyes directly. One or two out of the crowd gathered knew him well enough to allow themselves small smiles as the more ambitious of them took the chance to try and get information out of the pair.

"We were just asking our newest addition how he was finding his rebirth. Quite mysterious, how he disappeared. Some of us were worried."

Matt's smile cooled a fraction, even as it spread.

"And your answer, my childe?" he asked directly to Blaine.

[strategic_guile]

Again, Blaine could have laughed. If 'good company' meant verbally poking and prodding him at a million different angles to tell them how it all had happened, then yes. They were being very good company indeed. It was a good thing his eyebrows were hidden by the mask as he lifted them to hear their responses. 'Worried'. Well, if the hints of Matthew's ire were to be believed, then it certainly was a worry for them to have their Prince being so irate and harsh without his lover to quell him. It would have been far worse if Blaine had really died for good.

Matthew asked him the question directly and Blaine had to modulate his answer. He was going to have to avoid the truth regardless, as he had not taken to it immediately or well. "It's another new adventure," he answered smoothly, his eyes directed at the one who asked. "And I do love adventure along with a little mystery~"

[strategic_guile]

Things were going to be different now that he had been presented as a Kindred. Blaine was going to miss the days in the mansion where he didn't worry about visits and expectations, but he was looking forward to the political dance at the same time. He was adept at it before he met Matthew and now he was going to be on his own again, in a way.

Blaine leaned forward to give his lover a soft kiss. When he pulled back, he let his eyes meander over the handsome face. "How long would you have waited before embracing me if I hadn't gotten sick?"

He stayed close, within a few inches of the other man's face which left no room to hide those tiny expressions. No space to cover up those brief flashes of emotions in the eyes. "I know you wouldn't have let me die of old age."

[dirtyandtrue]

Matt's brow furrowed ever so slightly, something that the human eye and mind wouldn't have caught, but Blaine certainly would, being so close. He was surprised by the question, though he supposed he shouldn't have been. Blaine wasn't wrong. It would have gone down differently, but Matt had no delusions about his self control in this matter and it'd only drive them apart if he tried to lie.

His face softened just as much as it had tightened and he looked over Blaine's face with a quiet sigh of unneeded air, landing dark eyes back on blue.

"A few years more... Maybe. I've wanted to embrace you since your late 30's. You're fully grown. Filled out. A little more tempered by age..." His voice dropped to a soft whisper. "Just like I'm going to do with Joslin."

[strategic_guile]

Blaine waited patiently for Matthew to answer. Whether it was a lie -and he would know if the man lied- or the truth he would get an answer. He gave a slow blink. He had been fully grown since they had met in the Wylds, though he wouldn't argue against letting him grow more mentally. He did recall Matthew saying he wanted him to grow into his face or something, which made him purse his lips even now until he mentioned Joslin.

The blonde sucked in a breath and his lips thinned. "Matthew."

[dirtyandtrue]

"I trust him, mon amour, and he has nothing else. He is family one way, I only mean to make him family in another. Trustworthy souls are hard to come by. He's sworn to die for me. And he will."

He was unrepentant and it would only get worse.

[strategic_guile]

The furrow that had started in Blaine's brow soon after his hissed breath got deeper. "I trust him, too, Matthew but that is not the dying he signed up for and you know it. Ask him. Don't do the same thing to him as you did to me, please."

His soft plea dissolved into French as he gently gripped his lover's hand.

[dirtyandtrue]

Matt's face settled into a faintly harder look; he wasn't easily swayed at the best of times and he was genuinely attached to the Russian. He pulled back a little, getting comfortable in his seat but not taking his hand out of Blaine's.

"Tonight is not the night for this conversation, I think. We're supposed to be focusing on your coming out, not Joslin's future."

[strategic_guile]

Blaine knew it wasn't going to dissuade Matt from embracing Joslin. Honestly, he would enjoy an eternity with the younger blonde, but he wanted him to have at least a false choice. His eyebrows remained knitted as he looked into that hardened gaze. He ignored Matthew trying to push the subject aside. "And Maurice?"

[dirtyandtrue]

"What about him?"

[strategic_guile]

If Matthew had had his way, Blaine would also have been embraced before age could make the smile lines and occasional creases permanent. Blaine would ask him why he had waited one day, but not tonight. Tonight was supposed to be a celebration. That conversation could wait for when he grilled Matt about his plans for Joslin.

Blaine laughed, a rumble of masculine appreciation even if he was being called old. His hands slipped forward, a little down her thighs as he leaned over her shoulder so he could whisper in her ear. He knew Matt would have no problem hearing him. "Of maybe this old wolf can impart some wisdom on a young pup," he purred.

The woman laughed and rolled her eyes. "You two are definitely well matched. That bodes well for me, doesn't it?" Her smile was devious and her hands matched the look as she ran her hands around Matt to grab two handfuls of his ass. "I do like the idea of two pairs of skilled hands warring over my attention."

"Oh, we will certainly do that," Blaine assured her, tilting his head for Matt to take them wherever he'd like their menage to go. He knew the club better than Blaine did. The blonde wasn't against a bit of exhibitionism, but his partners may not enjoy that so much.

[dirtyandtrue]

In Matthew's opinion, he got to Blaine too late, even if he'd chosen to turn him that night in the desert. That was a bias and he knew it but he didn't care. About his bias or about Blaine's age. He had him. That was all that mattered.

Matt chuckled at Blaine's boastful play, happily pressing his already stiffening cock into her stomach as she grabbed at him.

"Til the sun rises, if you like," he falsely promised with his own devious matching smile as he drew back, cool hands gently urging the woman to follow and fall into stride as he slips an arm around her waist. Short guys don't get the option of over the shoulder and he did sort of hate that. He led them off the dance floor and into a door that lead back into a dimly lit hallway. With two doors on each side, there seemed to be a lot of options, but Matthew fished out a key from his pocket and led them to the first without hesitation.

The room was mostly couch that widely edged a 'stage'; if a pole five feet away counted as such, but there was a small bar with what looked like a medicine cabinet installed at it's far end.

"Ladies first," Matthew offered as he unlocked the door and swung it open, letting her and Blaine go first. Not that Blaine was a Lady, but Matthew wanted to make sure the door was locked behind them.

There was a good chuck of the areas active Society out there.

[strategic_guile]

Well, Matt certainly had that. Blaine wasn't going to be going anywhere for a while. At least the blonde had no plans on it, but life -even his non!life- had a way of changing things at the drop of a hat.

Blaine let his arm slide over her shoulder like Matthew could not. It was a multi-purpose action. He liked her warmth but he also could reach across and slide his fingers against the nape of Matthew's neck while still maintaining easy contact with her. He strode along beside them both until they entered the room, the woman first, then him, as he figured Matthew was securing the door so that there would be no interruptions.

"Is that pole for me?" he murmurs with amusement and walks towards it with a mischievous grin on his face. "Did you want something to drink, Brooke?"

[dirtyandtrue]

"If you can work it, why shouldn't it be?" Grinning, Matt secured the door and shrugged off his jacket, tossing it on the end of the couch as he followed the woman towards the center of the couch.

"Only if you make what I had at the bar," she says, turning towards Blaine with an obvious sway in her hips and a suggestive smile. "Unless you need a taste to remember." She pressed herself against him as they met, sliding one hand up his chest and towards his neck.

Matt smirked and started to loosen his tie and his sleeve cuffs.

[strategic_guile]

Matt damn well knew Blaine could work a pole. He was a good dancer anyway, and taking over some of the strip clubs had provided him the opportunity to learn from some of the best. He didn't care what people thought about it, and many of the new girls were shocked. The looks on their faces was priceless. "Maybe I will," he chuckled, and let his hands roam across the woman's body.

"Giving me a taste would be very kind of you," was his purred response, and then he dipped his head to give her a kiss. His tongue invaded her mouth, exploring it and totally overwhelming her until she had to gasp and pull back, flushed and looking like maybe he'd done more than kiss those lips of hers.

"D-Did you get enough?" and her breath was coming a little ragged, which pleased Blaine to no end.

"I did," he grinned, slipping away from her to go fix the drink. "I think it's a flavor Matt would enjoy."

[dirtyandtrue]

He knew it, but it never got old or less arousing to watch. He liked watching Blaine move and wouldn't mind seeing him move on it now that he was a proper vampire.

Matt stepped up as Blaine stepped away and his hands found her hips as she tried not to stumble at the sudden void; neatly leaning herself into Matt's arms. He leaned in with a smile, breathing in her hair. "That sounds promising. He does know what I like."

She looked over her shoulder at him and wondered if he'd give her the same rush of passion when kissed, a thought that Matt took advantage of as he kissed her. She turned in his arms and he slipped his hands down over her ass to grab his handfuls and keep her against him as he ravaged her mouth.

[strategic_guile]

Blaine's vampire enhanced pole dancing would have to wait until there were no mortals in the room. For now he would get Brooke a drink. He'd get Matt and himself one, too, not that they needed it. Matt was still high and Blaine was feeling an urge for food. It was greater than the inkling before, but not nearly enough for him to lose control.

He watched Matthew kiss her breath away just as surely as Blaine had and sipped from his glass with a smile. He was going to enjoy taking Brooke together. It had been a while since they had double stuffed anyone and he wanted to see her lose herself in it.

Blaine went back to then, holding two glasses. One was a sugary red and Matt's was a golden brown. "A toast," he said, waiting for them to take their glasses and raise them up, "for a good time."

Then he downed his in a gulp and put it aside, his eyes flashing darker with lust. It was a sure sign that a different kind of play time was going to begin.

[dirtyandtrue]

He and she broke their kiss, Brooke looking just as breathless as with Blaine when she parted and she was distracted to the blond's words, smiling broadly as she took the glass. Matthew followed suit and they lifted them up with Blaine for the toast. Matt would be high for a few more hours but a drink in his hand helped smooth over any bumps in the Masquerade.

"To a good time," Matt repeated with a smirk as he took a long pull of his drink, dark eyes flicking between Brooke's and Blaine's. Oh yes, they'd have a fine time.

Brooke took her own drink and smiled brilliantly.

Matt stepped in at Brooke's other side, unladen hand skimming over her hip and around her waist as he looks at Blaine, eyes dancing merrily at their play.

"And however will we get started." There was no point making it a question - it had been a while since they'd taken a third body into their 'bed' as it were, and neither of them had forgotten 'how'. No matter how much he enjoyed, relished and craved both their love-making and fucking, there would always be something about a warm live body that they would never be able to create on their own again. Matthew would get to relish and see another version of that, with it's own distinct draws.