Naomi was pondering the difference between normal and usual. It had been sparked by one of her revision questions for English Literature, but it had really gotten in her head and the page in front of her remained blank while her mind filled up.

Things had gotten back to usual, but definitely not normal.

Dating a vampire was not normal, yet laughing at him as he knocked the top off of his travel mug and spilled human blood on his white school shirt felt ordinary. Taking a revision break to listen to a podcast that covered the effects of Brexit on werewolf governance was highly abnormal, but she still sat listening to it tapping her pen absentmindedly as if it were nothing out of the blue.

She hadn't been looking for the podcast, she had actually been looking for supernatural coverage of Gavrail's stunt at the hotel, but there had been very little to read in the mainstream news. There had been a lot of talk about it on forums and social media, though. Usually as a justification for witches and werewolves to claim that vampires needed to be controlled better.

There was a knock at the door and she quickly muted the tab that was playing from an encrypted supernatural news site before opening the door. If either of her parents overheard it she would say it was satirical, lying to them was also becoming commonplace.

"Arran's outside. He's early," said her mother with a disapproving tone.

If he was early he was imposing, if he was late he was inconsiderate. Her mother had a long mental list of things that Arran could do wrong. To her, he was an uncharacteristic blip in Naomi's judgment, the rich white boy with no real ambitions.

Naomi thought that it was the car that bothered her mother the most, the shiny red Alfa was flagrant, unnecessary and probably worth more than the Falls' mortgage. If he parked it outside the house he would be drawing attention to how wealthy he was, if he parked up the street and walked to the door then he was being patronising.

"Great, I've just finished this question anyway," Naomi lied as she stuffed the empty notepad and her tablet into her suitcase.

"Are you sure you're going to be able to get all of your work done?" asked Claire, "I don't want that boy distracting you when you've gotten so far."

"Mum, we're going to Pendle to study," she lied again. "The library is hot and overcrowded pretty much every day and I need to get out of the house."

Claire pursed her thin lips, it was Naomi's father, Madu, who had been more convinced about letting Naomi go away for a few days while on study leave, Claire was not a fan of the idea. Convincing her to even tolerate the notion had been a chore, after Arran's accident Naomi had been subjected to two hours of non-stop berating before she had even been allowed to talk.

But, after a lot of tear-fraught arguments first Madu and then, more reluctantly, Claire had agreed that since Naomi would be going to University in a few months that she needed more freedom now. The condition being that they got to meet Arran's mother properly, a meeting that Naomi was not looking forward to.

But that was a problem for Friday, three whole days away. Three days that she could spend with Arran, learning about his world and readjusting her own view of normality. Just as exciting was the prospect of existing as a couple again, alone and uninterrupted. Spending the night in the same bed, even.

Naomi said goodbye to her mother, making her promise that when they next saw each other, at the Redferns' house on Friday, that she would make an effort to be nice. Naomi did not wait for an answer before grabbing her luggage and making her way quickly down the stairs and to the front door.

She paused on the steep steps that led down to the street and smiled at Arran down below. He was leaning against the passenger side of his car, the arms of his jacket rolled up and his eyes protected by the bright spring sun by round lensed Ray-Bans. The stupid, pretty, boy took her breath away sometimes and she doubted that he even knew it. Then again, judging from the wicked grin that he flashed her, maybe he was more aware of his good looks than he let on.

He opened the door for her and helped her shift her large suitcase onto the backseat, the significant weight of all the books that she had brought much less a problem for him than it had been for her.

"Hi Claire," he called with a wave as Naomi's mother appeared in the doorway.

Claire wrapped her cardigan more tightly around her shoulders against the non-existent cold air and nodded in response.

"Good afternoon Arran," she replied coolly, "are you planning to get a lot of work done this week?"

"Are you kidding me?" he replied, crossing over to the driver's side of the car, "like Naomi would let me slack off. This will probably be the most productive few days of my life."

Naomi wanted to chide him, now she would be treated to a speech about how she was wasting her life by running his. But she knew that whatever he had said to her mother would have been warped into a character flaw of some sort so she simply shouted another goodbye to her mother and they set off.

She could not help but smile as they gathered speed on the motorway, it was going to be a great break.

Arran was drinking from an opaque, sealed, coffee mug, which meant that Naomi knew better than to ask what was inside. Possibly it was coffee, possibly there was at least a little coffee in it, possibly there was no caffeine content at all. Arran caught her looking and shot her an apologetic smile.

"Sorry," he said, clearly aware of the question that she had not asked. "I didn't want to bring any with me so this my last chance to fill up until the end of the week."

Naomi nodded, forcibly reminding herself that the blood would have been taken from someone who knew where it was going. This was the whole point of the trip, to get comfortable with Arran as he really was.

"You could have brought some," she replied, secretly glad that her groceries would not be sharing fridge space with bags of blood. "Are you going to be okay going that long without it?"

"Yeah, for sure. It's only a few days and I'm not planning on using tonnes of energy. Besides," he added in a more jovial tone, "you're in my world now, there will absolutely be places that I can buy some more in the witch village in Pendle."

Normal was going on a short break with your boyfriend, usual was visiting a village full of witches while you were there.

---

They had reached the holiday cottage that Arran had booked in good time and by the time they had finished exploring it was still early afternoon. It was set a fair way back from the nearest village, up a track that was more mud than tarmac and looked at risk of being swallowed by the surrounding woodland but the inconvenience was well worth it.

It was a small place that had been done up for holiday letting, all laminate flooring and white painted woodwork. A small, wrought iron, spiral staircase separated the kitchen from the living room and beyond that a wooden balcony was accessible by large glass doors, showcasing the beautiful wood and distant stream. The view was stunning and could be seen again from the one bedroom on the first floor, the large, low bed facing the window for the ultimate romantic setting.

It made Naomi blush to think about an interior designer painstakingly planning how to make the bedroom look as inviting as possible. As did the thought of countless couples before the two of them making use of the same bed. But these thoughts were soon squashed when Arran had followed her up into the room and slowly, carefully, pushed her onto the sheets.

Sometime later they were both admiring the dancing green shadows cast by the leaves of the trees outside over the white blanket that was strewn across their otherwise naked bodies. It was a luxury to lie like this, not having to hastily get dressed again or worry about when Naomi needed to go home.

"Can I ask you something?" enquired Naomi, breaking the pleasant silence between them.

"Isn't that the whole point of coming out here?"

"This isn't a supernatural thing, this is an us thing," she said as she sat up on the bed. "Have you been being...delicate with me since you found out I was ill?"

Arran hummed and also righted himself before answering.

"Do you think maybe now that you know I'm a vampire you're noticing when I'm reigning myself in a bit?" he asked, after a considered pause.

"So you are holding out on me!"

"Not by much, come on," he said, catching her hands in his, "aren't you having fun?"

"Well yes, I am," she replied, trying to think of how to phrase what was eating at her. "But are you? I don't want you to be analysing everything you do before you do it."

"Naomi believe me, I am very much enjoying myself."

"I'm not weak-"

"But you are," he rationed, "comparatively speaking."

"Okay but I'm not actually fragile," Naomi countered. "I don't want to be with someone who can't be themself. I need to figure out if I can deal with all of this and I can't do that if you keep trying to mitigate everything."

Arran looked uncomfortable, his eyes back on the undulating green patterns of the light through the leaves. This conversation had been had in various forms over the last few weeks as they were still figuring out their relationship. Naomi was reminded of the tense conversation that she had overheard Arran having with his mother the night she had finally been convinced that they were vampires; Celyn thought that Arran disliked himself so much that he literally stunted his own abilities. Naomi wanted him to feel happy as himself.

"Alright," he eventually agreed, "if that's really how you feel I promise that I will keep trying until I get it right. As many times as it takes."

Arran pulled her toward him, he had clearly deliberately misinterpreted what she had meant, but her vague attempt to get free was useless as he was sticking to his promise to not hold back. She ended up trapped in his arms and sat on his lap. She wanted to tell him to be serious but the words would not come and she found herself placing a kiss on his lips instead.

"In fact," he whispered, his lips brushing against hers, "I think we should try it again right now. I promise you I won't be too gentle."

His words sent shivers down her spine. She could make her point again later, but for now, there was only one thing on her mind. 

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Thanks for reading, as usual, I welcome any comments, feedback or random non-sequiturs <3