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Continuation!
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[In the end, they make it home with no one's blood being consumed save for two unfortunate deer. Hardly the best thing to eat after an ordeal, but stubborn shits are going to stubborn and that first deer allowed Alucard to become an active enough member of their little band again. Driving shifts, night watches, all of it. His movement closer to that of a mortal man's, and that was enough to see everyone home.
There's a bed big enough for three there, and the first day is spent with all three in it, a mess of limbs and finally indulged exhaustion. The heated floors help. The fireplace helps. All three of them help, and the rest is so deeply needed.
Two weeks before heading out. That's the thing they agree on eventually, over a stunningly late breakfast that's mostly protein. Then it's back to all regular activties and time left to heal.
And to the surprise of utterly no one, Alucard withdraws more than normal. Spends more time down in the Hold, adding Index entries, and swearing every time he finds some stupid artifact he's allergic to. He's gotten used to it, but his mood's darker for an hour afterwards. He comes to bed later. Gets up earlier. And is thinking too fucking much as Trevor so bluntly puts it.
Lab today. His mother's, because a few books from the lab ended up down in the Hold, and they're not meant to be there. He's quiet as he stands in front of the bookshelf, returning everything to it's proper place.]
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[In the end, they make it home with no one's blood being consumed save for two unfortunate deer. Hardly the best thing to eat after an ordeal, but stubborn shits are going to stubborn and that first deer allowed Alucard to become an active enough member of their little band again. Driving shifts, night watches, all of it. His movement closer to that of a mortal man's, and that was enough to see everyone home.
There's a bed big enough for three there, and the first day is spent with all three in it, a mess of limbs and finally indulged exhaustion. The heated floors help. The fireplace helps. All three of them help, and the rest is so deeply needed.
Two weeks before heading out. That's the thing they agree on eventually, over a stunningly late breakfast that's mostly protein. Then it's back to all regular activties and time left to heal.
And to the surprise of utterly no one, Alucard withdraws more than normal. Spends more time down in the Hold, adding Index entries, and swearing every time he finds some stupid artifact he's allergic to. He's gotten used to it, but his mood's darker for an hour afterwards. He comes to bed later. Gets up earlier. And is thinking too fucking much as Trevor so bluntly puts it.
Lab today. His mother's, because a few books from the lab ended up down in the Hold, and they're not meant to be there. He's quiet as he stands in front of the bookshelf, returning everything to it's proper place.]
[Granted, the perk to having Alucard opt to feed on the deer meant that, well, once they were sufficiently drained of blood, there was a lot of good meat left over for them to consume on their way back. But they make it home, and slowly but surely Trevor's concussion eases, and Sypha's exhaustion is mitigated by relaxation and repast. The sight of the castle in the distance proves to be a welcome one, and soon enough they're putting up the horses and leaving the wagon and collapsing inside for the blessed relief of just being home.
The part that's almost funny about the way she eventually notices Alucard's moody absences is that she actually picks up on them because of Trevor. Not because he points them out, no, but because she starts to realize that the balance of time she spends between the two of them is tilting toward Trevor, just by natural virtue of the fact that he's around and available more. And that soon lends itself to curiosity of where Alucard is getting off to and what's keeping him so long when he goes, until finally comes the day he's in the lab reshelving books and she wanders in to find him.
Trevor is napping, for once, and up until this point she'd been cuddled up with him. But now she comes downstairs with her hair tousled and a blanket wrapped around her, and it's tricky to make out from the way the blanket is draped, but the little flashes of bare leg underneath are more than enough to suggest she's still wearing whatever shirt of Alucard's she'd stolen to sleep in, not her usual skirt and shirt.]
Oh, you're in here. I thought you'd gone down to the Hold.
[Presumably he had, but now here he is.]
The part that's almost funny about the way she eventually notices Alucard's moody absences is that she actually picks up on them because of Trevor. Not because he points them out, no, but because she starts to realize that the balance of time she spends between the two of them is tilting toward Trevor, just by natural virtue of the fact that he's around and available more. And that soon lends itself to curiosity of where Alucard is getting off to and what's keeping him so long when he goes, until finally comes the day he's in the lab reshelving books and she wanders in to find him.
Trevor is napping, for once, and up until this point she'd been cuddled up with him. But now she comes downstairs with her hair tousled and a blanket wrapped around her, and it's tricky to make out from the way the blanket is draped, but the little flashes of bare leg underneath are more than enough to suggest she's still wearing whatever shirt of Alucard's she'd stolen to sleep in, not her usual skirt and shirt.]
Oh, you're in here. I thought you'd gone down to the Hold.
[Presumably he had, but now here he is.]
Hm?
[Alucard's lost in thought. Of course he is, he's always lost in thought when he gets like this. There's no point in denying that he's been doing it more and more the past week. What surprises him is that no one's actually commented on the matter yet. It usually lasts four days at the most.
There's only two books left to be put away, and he's careful as the first one is slid back to where it ought to be. Something about bones, this one.]
Oh. I was, and...these were out of place. That's all.
[He frowns at the blanket.] Is it that cold in here?
[Alucard's lost in thought. Of course he is, he's always lost in thought when he gets like this. There's no point in denying that he's been doing it more and more the past week. What surprises him is that no one's actually commented on the matter yet. It usually lasts four days at the most.
There's only two books left to be put away, and he's careful as the first one is slid back to where it ought to be. Something about bones, this one.]
Oh. I was, and...these were out of place. That's all.
[He frowns at the blanket.] Is it that cold in here?
It's colder out here than it was in bed, which is where I was a minute ago.
[In short: she is taking the bed's heat with her and no one can stop her. She is a warmth thief. Snuggles are her dominion.]
If you hurry, I'll share my blanket with you.
[In short: she is taking the bed's heat with her and no one can stop her. She is a warmth thief. Snuggles are her dominion.]
If you hurry, I'll share my blanket with you.
In a few minutes. I can't figure out where this one actually came from.
[The Hold's library system isn't his father's, and that isn't his mothers. The wall of books has no obvious and open space for the last book that's in Alucard's hand, and he's absolutely not thinking about how wonderful the combination of blanket sharing and the detail of Sypha having no trousers on actually is.]
[The Hold's library system isn't his father's, and that isn't his mothers. The wall of books has no obvious and open space for the last book that's in Alucard's hand, and he's absolutely not thinking about how wonderful the combination of blanket sharing and the detail of Sypha having no trousers on actually is.]
What is inside it? If it's another book of penis spells, perhaps you can't find the space because it belongs under Trevor's bed.
[It's an obvious attempt at levity, but the point isn't to be subtle. She pulls the blankets a little more closely around herself — not unlike the way her Speaker robes usually gather around her shoulders, really — and wanders over by him, as if expecting him to show her a look inside the book.]
[It's an obvious attempt at levity, but the point isn't to be subtle. She pulls the blankets a little more closely around herself — not unlike the way her Speaker robes usually gather around her shoulders, really — and wanders over by him, as if expecting him to show her a look inside the book.]
Oh, they're not under anyone's bed. I put those next to the family genealogies some time ago.
[Because he's an asshole and the Hold is, technically, his now.
But he flips the book open (there's no label on the spine), then lets out a very soft sigh. There's no room for it because it's not a printed book. It's one of his mother's research journals, the primary topic on the page he's flipped to being, naturally enough, head injuries.]
Ah. She always kept them on another shelf.
[He actually has a feeling Sypha took this one as is. But he holds the thing so carefully.]
[Because he's an asshole and the Hold is, technically, his now.
But he flips the book open (there's no label on the spine), then lets out a very soft sigh. There's no room for it because it's not a printed book. It's one of his mother's research journals, the primary topic on the page he's flipped to being, naturally enough, head injuries.]
Ah. She always kept them on another shelf.
[He actually has a feeling Sypha took this one as is. But he holds the thing so carefully.]
...It's one of your mother's books.
[She's come to learn that there are very few shes in Alucard's life, and only one that prompts the sort of sigh that he'd just made there. She herself warrants a different kind of sigh, one that's a touch fonder and more heavy with exasperation. The ones reserved for his mother are always very quiet, and very sad.]
She was a scholar in her own right, wasn't she? There are whole shelves of her journals in here. And they're all so...
[She pauses a moment, looking for the right words for her sentiment.]
...She wrote them like they were meant to be read. Not like some of the Belmonts' books, that are just page after page of facts and information. Hers are written to teach.
[She's come to learn that there are very few shes in Alucard's life, and only one that prompts the sort of sigh that he'd just made there. She herself warrants a different kind of sigh, one that's a touch fonder and more heavy with exasperation. The ones reserved for his mother are always very quiet, and very sad.]
She was a scholar in her own right, wasn't she? There are whole shelves of her journals in here. And they're all so...
[She pauses a moment, looking for the right words for her sentiment.]
...She wrote them like they were meant to be read. Not like some of the Belmonts' books, that are just page after page of facts and information. Hers are written to teach.
Mmm.
[It's hard to say what part he's saying mmm to. Confirmation that yes, it's one of Lisa's books, yes, his mother was her own breed of academic and wished to share her knowledge, or just a noise made to fill in the silence.
He closes the journal after a moment more. It wasn't written terribly close to her death, this one, but there's still a terrible ache from holding it. Her journals are on the other side of the lab. He starts walking there, confident that Sypha will follow.]
Things that make what happened all the greater loss. [A word softly muttered comes next, the utmost contempt in Alucard's voice.] Witches.
[It's hard to say what part he's saying mmm to. Confirmation that yes, it's one of Lisa's books, yes, his mother was her own breed of academic and wished to share her knowledge, or just a noise made to fill in the silence.
He closes the journal after a moment more. It wasn't written terribly close to her death, this one, but there's still a terrible ache from holding it. Her journals are on the other side of the lab. He starts walking there, confident that Sypha will follow.]
Things that make what happened all the greater loss. [A word softly muttered comes next, the utmost contempt in Alucard's voice.] Witches.
[She does, in fact, trot right along with him, trailing behind him a few feet like a snuggly and particularly eager duckling.]
It must be hard to come in here, when so much of this...
[She doesn't finish the thought, however. They both know what she was thinking, and at second blush she wonders whether it's really a notion she should've voiced in the first place.]
...Witches...
[So she opts for just echoing him, instead.]
It must be hard to come in here, when so much of this...
[She doesn't finish the thought, however. They both know what she was thinking, and at second blush she wonders whether it's really a notion she should've voiced in the first place.]
...Witches...
[So she opts for just echoing him, instead.]
It did occur to me several times during....all of that. Yes.
[They've probably all had the thought. This is a pitiful articulation of it, but at least he's said it which is better than anything he has done for the past week.
He's quiet when they reach the bookshelf that holds all of his mother's journals. The obvious spot for it is there, and the journal is now home. His fingers linger on the spine before his hand withdraws, and there's a greater slump to his shoulders than there was just a moment before.]
[They've probably all had the thought. This is a pitiful articulation of it, but at least he's said it which is better than anything he has done for the past week.
He's quiet when they reach the bookshelf that holds all of his mother's journals. The obvious spot for it is there, and the journal is now home. His fingers linger on the spine before his hand withdraws, and there's a greater slump to his shoulders than there was just a moment before.]
[And that's a good cue, perhaps, for Sypha to simply...walk right into the back of him, blanket and all, and unwrap it just enough to gather him into its folds with her as she embraces him from behind. She's quite warm, despite her bare feet (the heated floors help a great deal with that), and she rests her cheek between his shoulderblades as she draws him in close and just holds him.]
You've been remembering her.
[It's a softer, kinder way of hinting at the trauma he's clearly been reeling from. Remembering her is a gentler way of saying he's been drawing ugly parallels.]
Tell me?
You've been remembering her.
[It's a softer, kinder way of hinting at the trauma he's clearly been reeling from. Remembering her is a gentler way of saying he's been drawing ugly parallels.]
Tell me?
[It always circles back to legacy, doesn't it? This one always achingly complex, but almost always defined by his father's actions. Horrors committed and imagined over centuries, all in contrast to just twenty years of something softer. It was easier to deal with in a way. Everything wrong his father did, that was a lesson. Things to avoid.
His mother was so much more raw and ugly to deal with because it had been senseless and infuriating and done for no reason beyond a stupid set of beliefs that contradicted where the world was heading. And every second on that stake was a reminder of that injustice, how no one said anything, how he and his father failed to act in time, and all the horrible miseries of it.
(The amount of fire and rage from Sypha was a parallel too. One he never expected to make.)
How warm is Sypha against the natural coldness of his skin? Infinitely so. He's so very still when the blanket wraps around him, and his hands seek hers in an instant.]
What is there to say? [His voice is so soft.] Who wants that to be one of the memories of their mother, and then to connect to it so intimately?
His mother was so much more raw and ugly to deal with because it had been senseless and infuriating and done for no reason beyond a stupid set of beliefs that contradicted where the world was heading. And every second on that stake was a reminder of that injustice, how no one said anything, how he and his father failed to act in time, and all the horrible miseries of it.
(The amount of fire and rage from Sypha was a parallel too. One he never expected to make.)
How warm is Sypha against the natural coldness of his skin? Infinitely so. He's so very still when the blanket wraps around him, and his hands seek hers in an instant.]
What is there to say? [His voice is so soft.] Who wants that to be one of the memories of their mother, and then to connect to it so intimately?
I've wanted to tell you something for a while now, but I could never find the right time. I don't know if this is the right time, either, but...
[She draws him a little closer, holding him, feeling his fingers weave through the spaces between hers.]
Someday, if you can allow it, I wish you would tell me stories of her. The ones that aren't in her books. So that I can help save them, too.
[And maybe, because it would lift that subconscious burden that rests on Alucard, too — left alone to be the sole keeper of his mother's memory, along with her legacy.]
I want to know about her, and about you. Trevor and I...we've always only seen the worst of it. I would like to know the best of it, too.
[She draws him a little closer, holding him, feeling his fingers weave through the spaces between hers.]
Someday, if you can allow it, I wish you would tell me stories of her. The ones that aren't in her books. So that I can help save them, too.
[And maybe, because it would lift that subconscious burden that rests on Alucard, too — left alone to be the sole keeper of his mother's memory, along with her legacy.]
I want to know about her, and about you. Trevor and I...we've always only seen the worst of it. I would like to know the best of it, too.
[Alucard's not sure what expression his face makes at Sypha's words. He knows they're too kind, a reflection of who Sypha is and her birthright as a Speaker. Because she's still a Speaker, even if she has a home now. Even if she mostly travels with two idiots instead of an entire caravan.
His hands are heavy in hers. Those hands are warm too, and he squeezes gently.]
I will. Just...[Just not right now.
And somewhere there's a quiet pained noise that comes up with a laugh that really isn't.]
She'd adore you. That much I know.
His hands are heavy in hers. Those hands are warm too, and he squeezes gently.]
I will. Just...[Just not right now.
And somewhere there's a quiet pained noise that comes up with a laugh that really isn't.]
She'd adore you. That much I know.
...That I knew, already. Because you adore me, too.
[She presses her nose against his back, nudging against the long subtle ridge of his spine, and tightens her arms around him right back.]
When you stand in here, among her books and her tools...I can tell how much she loved you. Because I think you learned to love because of how she loved you first.
[She presses her nose against his back, nudging against the long subtle ridge of his spine, and tightens her arms around him right back.]
When you stand in here, among her books and her tools...I can tell how much she loved you. Because I think you learned to love because of how she loved you first.
[Sypha's not wrong. Not about any of it, but especially not about that last part. And for that last part, there are no words in him. Just a little attempt to keep a very soft sob from creaking out of his throat (managed), and too many tears that there's no point in trying to hold them back. Waste of energy.]
[There are no words, in any language, that could possibly express the depth of her feelings for him right now. There's nothing to convey how deeply she loves him, how desperately she wishes there were any means in the world of easing his pain. How she wishes the world were not so terribly unfair, and senseless, and cruel. How she wishes she could give him his mother back, and the family that loved him so much.
All she can do at this point is to hold him, and so she does. Again, she has strength enough to support him. She keeps her arms around him, keeps herself pressed flush up against him, so he can't possibly lose sight of the fact that she's here with him, and that he still has a family who loves him desperately, even if it isn't the one he yearns for.]
And you are still loved. So, so much.
All she can do at this point is to hold him, and so she does. Again, she has strength enough to support him. She keeps her arms around him, keeps herself pressed flush up against him, so he can't possibly lose sight of the fact that she's here with him, and that he still has a family who loves him desperately, even if it isn't the one he yearns for.]
And you are still loved. So, so much.
I know.
[The words come out too softly, because anything else means a loud sob, and while there has never been any shame in Alucard for letting that out, there is always the fear of making the other two worry more than strictly required. It's stupid, he knows that it's stupid, but it has always been there. The three of them, they've shown all the vulnerable spots to each other since the start of this. But that doesn't stop the kneejerk response of trying to hide it.
Everything else is catharsis. Never has the love of the other two been in doubt. But never has an uncomfortable truth strayed far from Alucard's mind either: he only has this because of what happened to his mother and what the world demanded be done to deal with his father. The ugly parallels from the week before, the horror of history repeating itself for only a second, that's the worst part of all of this. Not being laid low by the stupidity and fears of men. Not the agony of the silver. Just the fire and the raw anger and the fucking stake.
There's a point in all of this that he lowers Sypha's arms so they rest around his middle instead, draws them away for just a moment, and lets go so that he can turn around and bury his face into the crook of her neck. There's warmth there too, and no shame in getting the area damp. She probably anticipated it at some point anyway.]
[The words come out too softly, because anything else means a loud sob, and while there has never been any shame in Alucard for letting that out, there is always the fear of making the other two worry more than strictly required. It's stupid, he knows that it's stupid, but it has always been there. The three of them, they've shown all the vulnerable spots to each other since the start of this. But that doesn't stop the kneejerk response of trying to hide it.
Everything else is catharsis. Never has the love of the other two been in doubt. But never has an uncomfortable truth strayed far from Alucard's mind either: he only has this because of what happened to his mother and what the world demanded be done to deal with his father. The ugly parallels from the week before, the horror of history repeating itself for only a second, that's the worst part of all of this. Not being laid low by the stupidity and fears of men. Not the agony of the silver. Just the fire and the raw anger and the fucking stake.
There's a point in all of this that he lowers Sypha's arms so they rest around his middle instead, draws them away for just a moment, and lets go so that he can turn around and bury his face into the crook of her neck. There's warmth there too, and no shame in getting the area damp. She probably anticipated it at some point anyway.]
[She lets him cry, offering him the comfort of plausible denial by staying carefully behind him so that he doesn't have to show her his face, and when he turns around she keeps her eyes closed as he gravitates into her, lets her wrap her arms around him again. It's a little bit gawky, the way he has to bend to fit himself up against her neck, but she would stand on her toes for him for a week without flinching if it were to ease his pain even a fraction, and her focus is solely on making sure he's grounded and anchored as he finds his catharsis.]
You never had the chance to mourn her. Everything that's happened...it came so fast, so soon after.
[And even now, after vanquishing Dracula in this very castle, they've still kept busy, kept moving. Always moving ahead, never pausing to allow all of this to rise up to the surface on its own.]
We can make something for her. For both of them. A memorial.
You never had the chance to mourn her. Everything that's happened...it came so fast, so soon after.
[And even now, after vanquishing Dracula in this very castle, they've still kept busy, kept moving. Always moving ahead, never pausing to allow all of this to rise up to the surface on its own.]
We can make something for her. For both of them. A memorial.
[Alucard's back would hurt from this angle, if he was human. As it is, he can only register that this position is a bit odd, and nothing else really matters. Warm arms around him, and he's spent a few hours in tears here before. There's novelty to having another person around for once.
There had been the tiniest bit of dealing with grief the first time Alucard was left alone. He had needed that alone time more than anything on the heels of his father's death, but there had been the need to repair the castle and busy himself caught up in all of it.
Then Sypha says something else, and there's the tiniest, warmest noise against her neck that might be a fonder, warmer thing in any other circumstances.]
Already exists.
There had been the tiniest bit of dealing with grief the first time Alucard was left alone. He had needed that alone time more than anything on the heels of his father's death, but there had been the need to repair the castle and busy himself caught up in all of it.
Then Sypha says something else, and there's the tiniest, warmest noise against her neck that might be a fonder, warmer thing in any other circumstances.]
Already exists.
[Of course it does. Of course he would have, her Alucard with his soft heart and his deep, profound loneliness.]
Show it to me? When you're ready.
[Only when he's ready, and not a second before. There's no pressing him through his anguish, no hurrying him along to its conclusion. There's only staying by his side while he processes it, loving him and giving him the chance he needs to cry.]
Until then, I am not going anywhere. I'm here with you.
Show it to me? When you're ready.
[Only when he's ready, and not a second before. There's no pressing him through his anguish, no hurrying him along to its conclusion. There's only staying by his side while he processes it, loving him and giving him the chance he needs to cry.]
Until then, I am not going anywhere. I'm here with you.
[It had been one of the first things he did. The little ashes that were on the floor of that bedroom, swept into an obsidian urn. A little carved spot on the lid for his father's wedding ring. Placed under his mother's portrait in the study, and the study left locked most days
He nods. It's nothing elaborate, just quiet and what feels right still.
This angle is still awful.]
Here can at least move to the next room where there's a chair.
He nods. It's nothing elaborate, just quiet and what feels right still.
This angle is still awful.]
Here can at least move to the next room where there's a chair.
Just one chair?
[She quips, soft but lightly, as she finds a lock of his hair and weaves it through the spaces between her fingers.]
I like the sound of that.
[She quips, soft but lightly, as she finds a lock of his hair and weaves it through the spaces between her fingers.]
I like the sound of that.
...Probably more than one.
[The number of chairs is not the point. But all of that also requires moving, and Alucard has to really force himself to straighten up even just a little. It is more like unfolding from Sypha's arms, and it is an embrace broken with great regret.]
[The number of chairs is not the point. But all of that also requires moving, and Alucard has to really force himself to straighten up even just a little. It is more like unfolding from Sypha's arms, and it is an embrace broken with great regret.]
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