(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 sat up at that, dislodging Kersen. Still, there was no sign of anger as he looked at Kersen, and then replied, "I never hid the way I was from you."

If Kersen couldn't live with that, Michael would walk.

Feelings made things complicated, but he would always strive to keep them as simple as possible, despite that.

[kersen]

"No," said Kersen softly. "You didn't." He put a hand lightly on Michael's shoulder. "And I haven't asked more of you. At least... not very much, I think."

[trustearned]

Michael remained silent at that, although he looked at Kersen expectantly, waiting for him to get to what he was actually saying.

[kersen]

But all Kersen said was, "Nevermind," and leaned in to kiss him. "Will you stay the night?"

[trustearned]

Michael held his gaze for a beat, then answered, "I'll have to go early in the morning." It wasn't a no; it was more often the case than not, and it had never stopped him before.

He wasn't going to push to know what Kersen wouldn't say. He still left it open for him to.

[kersen]

"Go whenever you like," Kersen murmured. "Just stay here with me now." And he leaned against him again.

Now was not the time to have some talk about their relationship. He didn't want to do that because he might die, or something.

After... well. Maybe then. But for right now he just wanted someone to hold him.

[trustearned]

Michael wrapped an arm around Kersen and leaned back against the headboard, taking him with him. His wrist was still stinging as it oh so slowly scarred.