[They should get to bed. Sypha's made that clear. But all her funny half-asleep talk is too endearing to not listen to, so Alucard delays it.
He loves holding onto her like this. She's warm, so warm, so gentle in these moments. It's his favorite thing about her. About both of them. They're harder than diamonds with the world. The hands that hold onto him now have done such feats. Trevor's too, but Trevor's hands are always rougher, they have more callouses. It's harder to forget with him. But here, with him, in these moments, there is only softness.
One day, perhaps, his father will return. Alucard will retreat from the world, have his reputation be nothing more than a fop of a princeling, living off his father's work by rutting with a Speaker and a hunter, engaging with the world so minimally that he ought not to be counted as a presence among Society. A dream. Impossible.
Except for these moments when it feels entirely possible. He smiles down at Sypha in his arms, and he kisses the top of her head. Breathes out a single word.]
Hearthfire.
[Because that's what Sypha and Trevor represent. Home. Home in all the ways that matter. He isn't the kind of man to revel in petnames. There are a million darlings and sweethearts, and it's patronizing besides. The world does enough of that to them. But he can murmur a few honest associations now and again.]
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He loves holding onto her like this. She's warm, so warm, so gentle in these moments. It's his favorite thing about her. About both of them. They're harder than diamonds with the world. The hands that hold onto him now have done such feats. Trevor's too, but Trevor's hands are always rougher, they have more callouses. It's harder to forget with him. But here, with him, in these moments, there is only softness.
One day, perhaps, his father will return. Alucard will retreat from the world, have his reputation be nothing more than a fop of a princeling, living off his father's work by rutting with a Speaker and a hunter, engaging with the world so minimally that he ought not to be counted as a presence among Society. A dream. Impossible.
Except for these moments when it feels entirely possible. He smiles down at Sypha in his arms, and he kisses the top of her head. Breathes out a single word.]
Hearthfire.
[Because that's what Sypha and Trevor represent. Home. Home in all the ways that matter. He isn't the kind of man to revel in petnames. There are a million darlings and sweethearts, and it's patronizing besides. The world does enough of that to them. But he can murmur a few honest associations now and again.]