They went back to looking up at the tree for a bit, watching the occasional rustle of branches as something or other moved around in there. Birds, probably. Or squirrels. Dean was struck by that odd foresty sensation again, and he still couldn't place it. He wished it would go away.
Amp gave a start. "Oh, hey," she said, "this isn't bothering you, is it? The whole religious symbol thing. I didn't really think through what you said until just now."
"No," he said. "It really is my roommate's problem and not mine. He's been a vampire for...oh, I don't even know. A lot longer than I have, and I think it affects him differently. I don't even have all that much trouble with daylight most of the time. On a really sunny day I need an umbrella but otherwise..." He shrugged.
"Interesting," she said. "That probably says something or other about the way vampirism conforms to social norms, but I don't actually know much about that, so I'm not going to speculate. Sounds a lot more convenient than the traditional kind, though."
"You seem to know a lot more than I do," Dean said. "I've pretty much had to figure it out as I go." With occasional help from Piotr, of course, but sometimes Piotr's help took uncomfortable forms. Maybe it was because he'd been a vampire for so long. In the back of his mind there was a creeping worry that he'd end up like that one day.
"I know a lot about magic," Amp said. "And weather systems, but that's not important right now, it's just another thing I'm good at. I learned a few things about vampires as a sort of sidebar to the magic."
[6 - Christmas Tree]