(no subject)

[thenorthman]

Eric was not having a good day.

He'd noticed that there had been some money missing from the Diamond accounts; someone was stealing from him (and had been stealing from Clarke before that). Someone was going to have to answer for that, and pouring over the books to figure it out (who could he trust with this?) might have given him a headache, if vampires had been prone to them.

And obviously, this had to come up the night he was supposed to meet Kersen's oh so interesting human. Eric had closed the books and pushed them aside when they were shown into his office, and shoved all of that aside to focus on their conversation. Michael Corella worked for Cesare Borgia, and that was a connection worth cultivating.

Things had been going well when someone opened the door to his office without knocking. Jamie - one of his managers - looked surprised to find three pairs of eyes on him, and stopped in the doorway. "I was looking for..." He trailed off, but his eyes had strayed to the books on Eric's desk, before snapping back to Eric. "I'll leave you to your meeting."

"No," Eric said, strolling over to the door to invite the other vampire in with a gesture. "Come in." Jamie had worked for Clarke, too, and Eric closed the door behind him. "Kersen. Do you remember that list of staff you gave me when I took over? The ones I might be able to keep on? Jamie was on it, right?"

Comments

[trustearned]

Michael was silent for a beat, and then sidestepped that word to focus on what mattered. "Then you make that choice. But if you want other options, don't shut me out."

Michael had no intention of dying. In service to Cesare, he would, in a heartbeat. But that was it.

[kersen]

As mortified as Kersen had been when he'd let the word slip, it was actually a disappointment that Michael had completely refused to acknowledge it. He supposed the reaction could have been much worse, but... well. Still.

He bent his head. "I don't know, Michael."

[trustearned]

"Figure it out," Michael simply said. Kersen needed to, now that he had taken it all away from Michael, and upon himself. It was the least he could do, if you asked Michael.

[kersen]

"Michael, I'm sorry I - " Kersen hesitated. The truth was, he wasn't sorry for what he'd done, but... "I'm sorry that I um, that I stole the consequences of your own actions from you."

[trustearned]

Michael took a moment to let that sink in, then nodded. "I understand why you did it."

[kersen]

At that, Kersen relaxed, tension visibly leaving his body. He touched Michael's face. "And it's not your fault. You did what you had to. It's just... it's a shitty situation. There were no good options."

[trustearned]

Michael had no regret about what he had done, but he mostly thought that Eric might view things differently. He might be wrong, however; either way, Eric was not their major concern now. "There still aren't," Michael pointed out, to remind Kersen to look to the future, and the choice he had to make.

[kersen]

Kersen suddenly wanted to ask Michael how upset he would be, if Kersen didn't come back. How much did he care, really? But how could he ask that?

"I... as I said, I think it's really unlikely that the consequences will be that bad. But I... I'll make sure that if the worst happens, that..." Ugh, he really shouldn't have even decided to say this. "That Eric tells you what happened."

[trustearned]

"So you are going with whatever that Magister says," Michael stated plainly, again, keeping the riot of emotions in his chest under control, although it made his gaze shine harder.

[kersen]

The truth was, Kersen didn't want to deal with the consequences otherwise. He couldn't. And if, mostly-worst-case-scenario, he spent a year chained...? At the end of it, he could pick his life back up again. Maybe. But at least he'd know the things he cared about were safe.

"Yes," he finally said, softly. "I will."

[trustearned]

Michael's jaw clenched, and he needed a few breaths before he could find it in him to nod to acknowledge that.

[kersen]

Distress showed on Kersen's face. He brought a hand to Michael's again. "It'll be okay," he said softly. Even though he wasn't sure if he meant it. He half expected Michael to slap his hand away.

[trustearned]

Rather than slap his hand away, Michael leaned into Kersen's hand, then turned his head to kiss his fingers. Simply because he didn't say things didn't mean that he didn't feel them, and this was as much as he could let it show.

Things were always okay, in the end. That didn't make the possibility of Kersen dying because of him a nice one to consider. Not even that of Kersen being silvered for years.

[kersen]

Kersen closed his eyes, and finally let himself relax again against Michael. "You should never have gotten involved with a vampire," he murmured.

[trustearned]

"I didn't get involved with a vampire," Michael answered in a murmur, mimicking Kersen's phrasing. "I got involved with you."

[kersen]

That pulled a little smile to Kersen's lips, though it also made him think of his recent interaction with Felix.

"Well it's nice that you're able to... look past it," he said. "Even though it's caused a lot of trouble for you."

[trustearned]

Michael didn't tend to think of such things as 'nice'. It was just what it was, and he stroked his fingers through Kersen's hair, the puncture wounds on his other wrist dripping a little blood on his thigh.

[kersen]

Without thinking, Kersen dragged a finger onto his thigh to wipe up the blood, and sucked it into his mouth. "Recently someone I'd been flirting with told me he realized he couldn't sleep with me because I'm a vampire," Kersen said dryly. "Something about not being human. Like it's, I don't know, icky, that I'm dead."

[trustearned]

"You're not dead," Michael answered simply. He was alive in all the ways that mattered. A lack of pulse didn't change that.

[kersen]

"I'm glad you feel so strongly about that," Kersen said with a little smile. "I'm just sorry to have complicated your life. I'm sure Cesare was already doing enough of that before I came along. And now you probably just don't sleep at all."

[trustearned]

"Feelings always make things complicated," Michael answered, although he wished they didn't. That was why he let himself grow any so rarely, and never went looking for anything like this.

[kersen]

"That I won't apologize for," Kersen said quietly.

[trustearned]

"You shouldn't apologise for anything," Michael replied after a brief pause. "I'm here because I want to be."

[kersen]

"... because feelings," Kersen prodded gently. But then he smiled a little and added, "You don't have to talk about it. I just... it's good to know, is all."

[trustearned]

Michael only replied with a noncommittal sound. That was how much he wanted to talk about it.