The Vampire's Apprentice

"Oh. That thing. Yes. It was just a little thing she asked me for in return for helping so much with your birthday party," Clancy said with an airy wave of his hand. "Your notebook?"
 
Kitty let the subject drop, retrieving from the closet shelf a shoebox containing his notes from the past. One of them she pulled out and flipped over to read the back of, then handed it to him. "There's the name and schedule."
 
"Hmm, Tuesday after next. Excellent, I will get you signed up and have whatever packet of information you need," Clancy said, nodding as he handed it back to her.
 
Kitty nodded as well, tucking the note back into the box and replacing said box into the closet. She then plopped down onto her bed again and turned the guidebook to be a little more neat against the nightstand top, then returned her attention to Clancy.

"Is there anything else for the night?"
 
Clancy shook his head. "If I think of anything, I will let you know via a note on the counter. Is there anything you need?"
 
There was a moment of silence as Kitty tried to best phrase the question in her mind. "We're not going to be living here that much longer.... I... wasn't sure... is it...." Did she know what she was trying to ask? "I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to deepen friendships knowing I'm not going to be around pretty soon." She found the words suddenly. "Should I even consider making friends in the future knowing that very same thing?"
 
Clancy gazed at her for a long moment then turned away as he thought. When he felt he had the right words, he turned back. "It is an interesting question you pose, but it does not have much to do with vampires." He moved to sit on the edge of the bed. "There are many, many children your age - though you are no longer technically a child - and younger who ask the exact same question. Most of them are moved constantly due to their parents' choices. Usually for what ever job or career they pursue, such as the military for one example. Indeed, it is very difficult. I do not deny that. What you chose to do, however, is entirely up to you. I cannot tell you how to make this choice."
He paused for a moment. "If you decide to never make friends again at any of the places where we should move to in the future, you will be saving yourself from a certain amount of heartache. However, you will also be denying yourself much potential good. I am sure I need not list out all the potential things that can come from friendships, no matter how short. Then again, there is the possibility that even if you try, friendship will not lead to anything good at all but only hurt. Thus is true of any friendship, of course.
"I would suggest an attempt at friendships, and you should work to maintain the one you have with Norville despite the distance. After all, as long as no surprises happen, at most we shall move once every five years, perhaps longer. Ten years is the longest I feel comfortable staying anywhere, and it is a long time to stay in one place, and a long time to cultivate friendships. But, as I said, ultimately, the choice is yours."
He smiled briefly. "It may surprise you to know that I do, indeed, occasionally make friends, and it does sadden me to leave them behind. In fact, after the last one, I had sworn never to befriend a human again."
 
Kitty had been listening to and thinking hard about his words—just up until that last phrase, at which point her gaze snapped from her fiddling fingers to his expression. Her own face was riddled with bewilderment. "Why would you do that?" She asked.
 
"Because I had decided it hurt far to much to befriend anyone, especially a human whom I would outlive and who was so frail and fragile to my eyes," he replied. "They all leave in the end, so what is the point?"
 
"Because I had been alone for over twenty years, and that was harder than losing a friend," Clancy said. "Then I all but trip over this annoying little homeless human insisting on hanging out on a bench, at night, in the park, all alone. And she caught my interest."
 
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