Matty causally walked the cobbled street of Diagon alley. The sun had set an hour or so back and he was feeling refreshed from a good day's sleep. He had arrived in London roughly a week before. Time felt fluid now and he found it hard to keep track of the days as they passed. He wasn't sure how long he had been gone but something was pulling him back, vague memories of his younger days. As he glanced at the closing or already closed shops he was haunted by visions, faded memories of a life that felt foreign to him now. He was not the man he had once been, a man he couldn't even remember.

He licked his lips, running his tongue over the tips of his fangs. A faint hunger touched him, he had fed well recently and didn't need to be satiated but it was hard not to look at those around him as a nice healthy snack. There was a time when he had only seen humans as a food source, now though, he was on his own and hunting wasn't an impulse he wanted to give into. Not if he wanted to put together the pieces of his missing past.

Matty paused near the wrought iron gate of Fortescue's patio. The ice cream parlour was closed, the patrons all gone but it gave him a small out of the way alcove. He removed a blood pop from inside his jacket and removed the plastic. The patio also gave him a place to dispose of his rubbish. The candy wasn't nearly as good as the real thing but it helped him concentrate. He had picked up a few boxes when he stopped in Hogsmeade earlier in the week. His memories were even more vague there and he was certain while he had been there before it wasn't where he wanted to be.

In between licks and suckles of the pop he hummed a tune he hadn't been able to get out of his head lately. He couldn't place the words but there was something about the song that had stuck with him over the past few years (or however long it had been since he turned)

[Swearing warning]

Where Matteo Amherst sat peacefully whilst consuming his sanguine sucker, Adelia Delacroix was flustered to an nth degree. Perhaps in the end working for the Ministry really could have had its benefits, but such thoughts were far away from her mind as she rushed through the cobblestone streets. An emergency beckoned at Le Masque and so, staying at home and relaxing for a few hours went right out the window. Her boots clicked against the stone, a few slipped  'shit's leaving her lips while maneuvering through the crowds.

She continued running, oblivious to the fact that her supposed dead ex was sitting nearby. Well, partially oblivious as Addie soon stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes became easily fixated upon Matty's body. Wha--. A blink and head tilt. This was a joke, yeah....a fucking sick one.

She didn't move. She couldn't.

Addie bit her lip hard enough that an eventual tang of blood was in her mouth. This wasn't happening.....wasn't real. She was dreaming. "....shit. This isn't him...you're imaging this," Addie mumbled,  still staring right at Matty.

Matty was sat at the edge of the patio watching the bustle of the end of the work day crowd meander through the street. They seemed as foreign and fuzzy as the visions of his past. He paid no real mind to them, their cachopny of noise irritated his heightened senses as bits and pieces of conversations swam through his head. He had mostly become accustomed to the grating sensation when he went out hunting but regardless it was still uncomfortable. As the conversations ebbed and waned they were punctuated by a choice curse that seemed to burst out in regular intervals. There was something about the voice that caused him to focus his vision, trying to find the source.

Not long after his interest became piqued a young woman stopped outside the patio to stare at him. He tilted his head to the side observing her. Perhaps she had never seen a vampire before, though no one else seemed to even notice he was there. He contemplated her exclaimation, 'this isn't him' if he didn't know any better, he'd say the beautiful blonde knew who he was or rather who he had been.

He rose from his perch, the movements were fluid, almost too smooth, as if his body glided more than moved. He stood his full six plus feet before closing to the edge of the gate where she was stopped. In life Matty had always been paler than his older siblings, in undeath there was very little colour to his classic spaniard appearance. His hair was a little shorter than when he had left and his goatie was little more than scruff. The biggest change - aside from the fangs - were his chocolate eyes. Damaged in his turning they were now an eerie color of blue, barely a shade above white. He removed the pop from his mouth, his lips blood red against his pale visage. When he spoke his voice held all the charm and swagger he never possessed in life, "You know me, don't you?"

She noted (in fear? in surprise?) the change in the colour of eye hue and blinked. And gulped.

Merde. . . this was her former fiancé standing right in front of her and Addie didn't know what to do, to think. Well, aside the urge to faint right in front of him wasn't an option considering that would be cowardice in its finest degree. So Addie chose to listen to Spanish drawl that she hadn't heard from in two agonising years. She'd boxed everything up, hiding it in well into her closet in the flat in Kensington, away from any potential boyfriend, away from her parents and brother. Away from her having to look at that beautiful sapphire ring that he'd proposed to her with.

Her facial expression must have looked like she was constipated or straining and well, the latter was about right. Straining the idea of not bawling completely in front of him or hexing his arse back to wherever he'd hid himself for those months. Months that she'd cried herself to sleep, wondering if that flat door would open, that she'd hear his voice again and everything would have been just a big misunderstanding. That he'd tell her he had amnesia or that got buried deep into his work. But it was here, in this moment, that she fixated on his eyes and voice like some lulled infant.

She recognised the blood pop as it left his lips and a twinge of fear fell over her when realising WHY he'd been missing. He'd become a creature of the night.

You know me, don't you?

Addie held back a bitter laugh but her eyebrow still rose.

"I might. Then again, I might not. What's it to you?" Arms folded in classic Adelia "Pissed Badger" Delacroix fashion, anger beginning to bubble and boil beneath the surface. This was bullshit.

Matty slowly tilted his head to the side his shattered ice eyes unblinking. He took a long moment to soak in her features. There was something there. Unfortunately it was only slightly less fuzzy than all his other visions. He had been following them for days now, the ghosts of his lost life. He had moved from place to place since leaving Germany but nothing made him stay longer than a day or so. Nothing seemed to draw him more than the distant castle outside Hogsmeade or this little tucked away village in the heart of London. Both locations seemed significant and her face made him think of each of them.

Her anger didn't phase him. A bit of the old Mateo shown through. Especially in life, the emotions of others were a complete mystery to him. In undeath he was even further detached from them even if he was able to emote more clearly himself now. A smirk curled his lips, he was now convinced that this girl knew him. She didn't seem interested in letting him know that though. Perhaps he had been mean or cruel to her.

"My mistake." He said sweetly. His eyes never left hers as he leaned back against the wrought iron gate and placed the Blood Pop back in his mouth. The words and actions may have been dismissive but he refused to look away from her. She could easily walk away but he had a feeling she wasn't going to. He could hear her heart racing, her blood rushing through her veins. It wasn't exactly fear but it was enough of a reaction to excite his senses. He didn't think she'd go without responding to her own reaction.

Yeah, you git. It is your mistake was what Addie thought but kept her mouth closed to such an outburst. However, it didn't keep her from formulating a non-verbal reaction (folding arms, glaring daggers at him soon enough) followed by her speaking up. "Is it really your mistake? After all, it could be an organisation that's right down the street.... could be my bosses, the Desrosiers. They're really good about making a few mistakes here and there, yanno." Addie quirked an eyebrow as her tone grew colder than ever, clear that fury of woman scorned was in full force at the moment. This was no longer funny - as if it had been to begin with - it was disgusting and frankly, Addie wanted to punch him square in the face.

"Hell, it could even be my landlady, Pearl, who had to make sure I was all right when my fiancé decided to go off to Germany and got himself killed." She paused, tapping her lips with an index finger. "Wouldn't know anything about that, would'ya know? After all, you look like you're the type who'd go into the forest and prey on something innocent and warp it." Warp? More like change....change like you have Addie mused once more inside the confines of her mind.

"WELL? Got a response for me on that one, mate?"

Matty stood up straight, no longer leaning on the fence behind him. He narrowed his icy eyes and regarded her anger. There was something else underneath the anger. It wasn't just the rapid beating of her heart. There was  . . . pain there. He was definitely certain now that she knew who he was, or who he had been in life but the pain and anger made him hesitate. Maybe he didn't want to know about this one. Perhaps it would be better not to learn why she was so angry at him or why she was in so much pain.

"who had to make sure I was all right when my fiancé decided to go off to Germany and got himself killed"

Matty snapped to attention at that one. He had been in Germany. His coven was based in the Black Forrest but he was new. He was only recently made. He touched his neck gingerly. One of the older vampires explained the fog to him once, when he expressed concern about not knowing who he was. It was a sort of memory loss, the intensity depended on how traumatic one's death was. Having your throat ripped out was likely traumatic enough to qualify.. At first it didn't bother him but once the rest of the vampires had been killed he found himself more willing to recover his past. There were two possible explanations for her anger and pain based on that remark. Either he had killed her fiance, or he had been her fiance.

He smirked. Probably not the response she was expecting or one that was likely to assuage her anger but he couldn't help himself, "I suppose by now it's not exactly a secret what I am?" He licked his lips again, the taste of the blood pop still present and he made a show of licking his sharpened incisors, "The question now becomes what did I use to be?" He took a step toward her, "Would it be safe for me to assume your fiance . . . that I was your fiance?" He didn't think she'd humor him long enough to explain his memory loss but she wasn't wrong in her assumptions. Her fiance was killed, he is dead, his body just happened to have stuck around, warped. 

"Something once innocent, now warped?"

"D--don't take my words and make them your own! Be more original, you blood sucking shitebag!"

Half of the block heard that no doubt, but Addie cared so very little as her fists gripped tighter and tighter, trying desperately not to ugly cry right in front of Matty Amherst. And tried she did until trying became hysterics. With a wail of anguish and the anger she'd been holding in, Addie approached him, striking his pale face as hard she could muster before the tears poured down her face. "Tá tú píosa lofa de...."[1] she snarled low, threatening, her cheeks rosy and ears burning the same hue, "YOU LEFT ME WITH NO WORD. NONE! You let me think you died -- hell, you are right now, yanno! You're a bloodsucker - which, is something pretty amazing, but not when it comes to you showing up smirking like you did before you left! - and I don't know I'm supposed to feel about ALL OF THIS!"

Her nostrils were flaring by now and she started to cry, turning her body around so he couldn't watch. She'd cried enough for him when he wasn't physically here, so why start it now where he was right here? Her heart was thumping in renewed devastation and it caused Addie heave her tears for a good bit. "Y-yo-yo-you left....and died, Matty. You're supposed to be dead and not here. I said goodbye to you... you get that, right?"

1.	Irish: You rotten piece of. . . .

His eyes widened as she yelled back at him. Any trace of the smirk he had earlier was gone. There was a pale void of emotion in it's place, which remarkably made him look even more like he had when he was alive. He had never been one to understand the emotions of others or know how to react to him. It appeared death hadn't changed that about him.

He watched her scream and flare and then finally begin to cry. The pain in her was so immense he was certain had he not been what he was he'd be crying along with her.  He had come to find his past. It turned out he had left behind so much more than he had ever dreamed. A young beautiful woman who would have been his wife had things not gone so terribly wrong.

"Matty." He whispered back. It was like a jolt to his system. Those around him had not called him anything. He had hunted once, some witches and wizards who had come for him not long after he had been made but they had called him Mateo. Matty was so much more personal, it made him feel . . . Strange.

As she turned her back to him he closed the gap between them. The jolt to his memory causing his instincts to kick in. He wrapped his arms around her pulling his chest to her back, his lips leaning to her ear, "I did die Addie." He wasn't even sure how he knew her name but he knew it was right, "I am dead but I'm sorry you ever had to say goodbye to me."

Addie heard Matty restate his name and that caused more pain in her heart. It ached so badly, the memories repressed now flowed freely into her mind. She wasn't prepared to let this happen; hadn't she worked so tirelessly to keep it down? To keep it forgotten? Clearly not. Chastising herself within the confines of her mind, Addie didn't notice his arms around her, let alone his lips ghosting over the shell of her ear until he spoke.

"I did die Addie."

Addie choked out a wounded wail, her body now shaking, refusing to accept that this truly was happening here and in the now.

"I am dead but I'm sorry you ever had to say goodbye to me."

"...s'notfair."

She wept a few more moments, trying to calm herself down, trying even harder to stop crying before ugly hiccups found their way to her throat. Sniffling, Addie eventually gave up resisting the urge to lean into him and soon did so, looking at the cobblestone paths versus at the man she loved....did love.... But Addie also knew that her heart was mending, finding herself smitten more than just slightly with Arrow Thatcher. He'd been able to make her laugh, drag her out of the sorry pit of sadness she'd been for ever so long.

Oh, God. Arrow. Addie gulped.

"M-m-m-me too, Matty. Gods, me too."

For the moment he simply held her. Not all of the connections were there, most still lost in the fog. He couldn't say when they had met, how long they had known each other or even how he had proposed. What he could tell though was that he had loved her. Or at least the person he had been loved her and it was clear she had loved him. How long had he been gone, had she said?

As she leaned back into him, he let out a sound that could have been perceived as a moan. He was thankful that, for now, he was satiated. He hadn't spent too much time socializing lately. Since his transformation he had mostly seen humans as food sources rather than companions. He was hoping to change that, perhaps that was part of the reason he had come home. Without his coven he had no companions. However he didn't think it'd be right of him to ask Addie to fill that role.

"It's not fair." He finally said. Though he wasn't entirely referring to his death. Having died so young certainly wasn't fair. From what he could tell, he was only eighteen, maybe nineteen. Addie looked a bit older, a sharp reminder that he wasn't going to age while she did. However he was more speaking of his own actions. It wasn't fair that he had come to her. Had he remembered he'd had a fiance he would have stayed away.

"I'm sorry I ever came back Addie. You don't deserve to see me like this."

Though the undead had not an opportunity to provide bodily warmth to the living, Addie felt as though they shared it in this moment in time. Sniffling, she listened to him talk, her heart still thumping in slight despair and certain uncertainty because of the scenario presented. Looking at his alabaster hands, she eyed the arctic veins that lay beneath the surface. This was utter insanity, this moment in time. Where was the Doctor when you needed him? Her body shook briefly and a faint smile was there as Addie let her mind think of such thoughts, knowing that if the time lord were utterly real, he would have been here before all of this.

Or perhaps not. A undead husband to be didn't exactly scream 'world disaster, come save at once, Doctor!' did it?

"No."

She stated firmly.

"No, it's not one of the scenarios of ways I had hoped we'd reunite, but seeing you? (Feeling you, even, she thought) Here and now? It's something I could only dream about over these past few years and now....you're here physically." Opposed to an empty coffin. She sighed, turning around, looking upward, her eyes fixated upon the vampire. She smiled faintly. "This is something I thought I'd never get to do again. To see you physically.....to touch your arm again. I--" ....stopped thinking, dreaming about it.....the pain was too real and too often..... her thoughts finished.

"It's nice to see you again." Nice? "Er....not nice; there's a better word but I haven't an idea with what to supplement the word choice with, Matty. Sorry."

He pulled back from her gently, leaving his hands on her arms. Even satiated there was a longing for the closeness. Perhaps it was a left over piece of his humanity or perhaps he had just been alone too long. He didn't even know how long ago it had been since his coven had been destroyed. No idea how long he had been wandering trying to make it back to a life he could only scarcely remember. Unfortunately as much as he longed for it, it wouldn't be right for him to stay with her much longer.

Matty mulled over the fact that she had said years. He had been gone for years. He wondered if time would ever have a sense of meaning to him again. He was going to spend the rest of what could quite possibly be an eternity as a pale Eighteen Year Old kid. He was also curious as to when his memories would come back, if they ever did. Perhaps he just needed to kick start them like he had with Addie. They weren't all back yet, far from it, but he was able to remember her name and that he had indeed loved her once.

"No, I don't suppose nice would be the word for it." He gave her a dashing smile, one that would have been foreign on his lips as a human, "Addie, I know this is a lot to ask of you, but do I have any family here? Anyone else I can speak to about . . . all this?"