[ Wow rude this is just how he’s used to walking you don’t have to kinkshame.
He leads Alucard out of the room, out of his wing, through the ruins of the house to a stone door set into the ground. He lays a hand on it and it opens, revealing a long stairway, and he sets off down it and into the darkness. ]
that only grows as he keeps following. The stairway? Oh what the fuck. He's losing Trevor in the darkness, so Alucard declares to hell with it and he floats down after Trevor instead.]
I don’t doubt that Dracula’s library has a lot of information. But if you need to know about monsters, monsters specifically-
[ He takes Alucard’s hand and brings it to a firesteel on a short chain and a flint set into the wall by a torch. He doesn’t possess the dexterity to light it in a form he’s so unused to, but Alucard does.
If he lights the torch, it illuminates an entire library they’re standing above. ]
[ He has to stand while walking with one hand in Alucard’s. It gives the strange impression of him becoming more human the deeper he goes into the library as he grows more confident on two legs and stands a little straighter. ]
I know. But I don’t expect you to find a way out for me. I just want you to finish your time here, take her back to her grandfather and go back home.
[It's an earnest question. One that hasn't seen Alucard let go of Trevor's hand or do anything else. They're on the ground floor now. They can start to research.]
[And there in that moment, Alucard puts his lips to the Belmont's forehead. There. It's affectionate without transgressing promises made to Sypha. He rests his hands on Trevor's cheeks, then moves them down slowly down the column of Trevor's neck, to his shoulders, then down his chest.]
[ He's still, almost entirely so, even breathing as shallowly as he can so not to break whatever this is with too sudden a movement. Just staring at Alucard, like a man hopelessly lost and staring at stars for guidance.
His lodestar.
Slowly, he brings his hands up to Alucard's face. ]
Will that change? If you learn something you don't like?
[ His fingers are soft. This shape never really had much chance for its fingers to develop the sort of calluses that living as he does ought to have left him with. He’s delicate as he touches Alucard. More delicate than he looks capable of. ]
Humour me, though?
[ He needs to hear this. Needs to know that at least one person here doesn’t fear the answers that Alucard’s seeking out more than anything else. ]
[ He kisses back, for maybe a millisecond. And it's nice. Something tiny and precious and so, so far beyond what he ever thought he'd ever have.
Nothing changes, and everything changes. It feels like the world's shifted, somehow, like everything's subtly different. But the spell isn't broken, not like it should be. The stone of the vines that lance through him, at least, ought to be gone. It isn't. That curse ought to be broken by love and yet it isn't.
He doesn't care. He'll be stone once again at dawn, but this is enough. He doesn't' move away when the kiss is broken, just speaks with his face against Alucard's. It makes the whole thing feel secret, even in a place where they're always alone. Conspiratorial. Theirs. ]
I trust you. I still don't like this, I don't know what you're going to find. But I trust you.
[Alucard never expected the spell to be broken like this, he's too raised around Dracula for that. But when he pulls away and sees the stones lancing through the Belmont, he understands that time is so very precious.]
Thank you.
[One more brief kiss for good measure, and then:]
Let's head upstairs for now. Get Sypha to bed and just...sit for a while. I can come down here and do the work alone when morning comes.
[ And he lets his north star lead him, guide him through a place he doesn’t know. Whatever one is supposed to do about being kissed, however one is meant to respond - he can just let Alucard decide that for him. ]
[So they go back to where they were. Alucard takes care of all his duties owed to Sypha, and then just sits next to Trevor in front of the fireplace, quiet and saying not much at all. Fingers carding through his hair. Holding him close.
There's a disgusting amount of guilt when morning comes, and the Belmont is no longer a Belmont but...god. He doesn't know why this curse functions like this now. Why it'd just turn him to stone instead of a bear again.
But it happens and Alucard adds caring for the Belmont to his duties along with caring for Sypha. He has the library now. So it goes.
He splits his attention between curses and Belmont enemies and genealogy. The latter feels easier, because there's fewer books and the last time they were updated is easier. There are notes on everything, and the Hold soon becomes a bastion of research. Alucard can't bring Sypha and Trevor with him, but they're debriefed every day. Alucard works the garden in the morning and...yes. That's a problem. He's growing hungrier day by day.
But names. He thinks he finds what he's looking for just before the new moon, and he carries the book up to the statues. It's a long shot, if giving a name will fix everything, but he'll try.]
I found the most up to date list of births. [His hands are holding a thing bound in pale calfskin, all too thin.]
The last date is from only twenty odd years ago. Four siblings. [Alucard breathes out.]
[ There is no response. As always, Alucard reads to an audience of stone. As always, he receives no answer. Not until he sleeps.
His heart is racing, and the tiny precious things in his arms won’t stop wriggling and screaming and something is very, very wrong. He runs and he trips and twists in the air to land on his back and avoid hurting the screaming things in his arms and picks himself up and keeps running.
And then he sees it. Safety is a tall man in black robes with a white collar, with a soft voice and kind eyes. Safety is the man who he has said confession to for things as petty as sneezing during prayer and as damning as noticing how the smith’s daughter’s dress hangs differently from her body this month. The man who taught him to read latin. He’s too afraid to be proud, and he clings to the priest’s robes, burying his face there. The priest speaks in a soft voice, and his nephews stop wailing.
The priest leads him to the fireplace. The big one, where they burn people’s clothes when they get covered in vampire blood. It smells of roses. It always smells of roses, because that’s what you use to try to lessen the effects of the blood.
Hide here and you’ll be safe, the priest says in his soft voice, and he closes the great iron doors. ]
What did you say?
[ Trevor is above Alucard when he wakes, fleshy and whole as he ever is. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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He leads Alucard out of the room, out of his wing, through the ruins of the house to a stone door set into the ground. He lays a hand on it and it opens, revealing a long stairway, and he sets off down it and into the darkness. ]
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that only grows as he keeps following. The stairway? Oh what the fuck. He's losing Trevor in the darkness, so Alucard declares to hell with it and he floats down after Trevor instead.]
Would you care to explain?!
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[ He takes Alucard’s hand and brings it to a firesteel on a short chain and a flint set into the wall by a torch. He doesn’t possess the dexterity to light it in a form he’s so unused to, but Alucard does.
If he lights the torch, it illuminates an entire library they’re standing above. ]
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[Oh.
Alucard stares out at the Hold before them both, breathless.]
It rivals his.
[Alucard doesn't let go of Trevor's hand. He instead squeezes it gently, wanting to just show some kindof gratitude.]
You'll allow me here?
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[ IT’S NOT A GIFT I JUST DIDN’T WANT IT ANYWAY TSUN TSUN.
He squeezes Alucard’s hand back. ]
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Thank you. I'm sorry that I caused you to turn to stone. I will do better. I will fix this. I promise.
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[ He sighs. He’s going to have to explain himself, isn’t he? And he doesn’t want to, but that kiss- it’s making him feel a lot more cooperative. ]
-the thing that’s buried there. I can’t sleep unless I’m near it, but I hate it. It- hurts to look at it. And if I try to think to hard about it-
-I hated that you found it.
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I understand. Trevor, I do understand. It was curiosity and a desire to find a way out for you that led me there.
[He sighs, still moving down.]
I care about you.
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I know. But I don’t expect you to find a way out for me. I just want you to finish your time here, take her back to her grandfather and go back home.
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[It's an earnest question. One that hasn't seen Alucard let go of Trevor's hand or do anything else. They're on the ground floor now. They can start to research.]
Or even if I find your name down here?
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[ He repeats it softly, distracted. ]
I don’t know. I don’t like thinking about who I am. Or about the future.
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[It's confident. Certain even if nothing is in truth.]
Look at me for a moment?
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I go with you.
[ The words feel uncomfortable leaving his mouth, like speaking them might make them broken in some way. ]
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Good.
[Alucard doesn't move though. Not yet.]
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His lodestar.
Slowly, he brings his hands up to Alucard's face. ]
Will that change? If you learn something you don't like?
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[He's just saying. Even as he leans into Trevor's touch.]
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[ His fingers are soft. This shape never really had much chance for its fingers to develop the sort of calluses that living as he does ought to have left him with. He’s delicate as he touches Alucard. More delicate than he looks capable of. ]
Humour me, though?
[ He needs to hear this. Needs to know that at least one person here doesn’t fear the answers that Alucard’s seeking out more than anything else. ]
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[Alucard's smile is soft.]
If I kiss you, does that offend any other promise made?
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[ Oh. Oh. Kissing. That is a thing he knows 0 things about but suddenly wants to know more things about so, so desperately. ]
-if you can still love here, I don’t think so. Are you going to- Do you want to-?
[ ?????? ]
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[Which feels like permission to just lean in and chastely smooch the Belmont.]
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Nothing changes, and everything changes. It feels like the world's shifted, somehow, like everything's subtly different. But the spell isn't broken, not like it should be. The stone of the vines that lance through him, at least, ought to be gone. It isn't. That curse ought to be broken by love and yet it isn't.
He doesn't care. He'll be stone once again at dawn, but this is enough. He doesn't' move away when the kiss is broken, just speaks with his face against Alucard's. It makes the whole thing feel secret, even in a place where they're always alone. Conspiratorial. Theirs. ]
I trust you. I still don't like this, I don't know what you're going to find. But I trust you.
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Thank you.
[One more brief kiss for good measure, and then:]
Let's head upstairs for now. Get Sypha to bed and just...sit for a while. I can come down here and do the work alone when morning comes.
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I’ll be back. After another month, I’ll be back.
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There's a disgusting amount of guilt when morning comes, and the Belmont is no longer a Belmont but...god. He doesn't know why this curse functions like this now. Why it'd just turn him to stone instead of a bear again.
But it happens and Alucard adds caring for the Belmont to his duties along with caring for Sypha. He has the library now. So it goes.
He splits his attention between curses and Belmont enemies and genealogy. The latter feels easier, because there's fewer books and the last time they were updated is easier. There are notes on everything, and the Hold soon becomes a bastion of research. Alucard can't bring Sypha and Trevor with him, but they're debriefed every day. Alucard works the garden in the morning and...yes. That's a problem. He's growing hungrier day by day.
But names. He thinks he finds what he's looking for just before the new moon, and he carries the book up to the statues. It's a long shot, if giving a name will fix everything, but he'll try.]
I found the most up to date list of births. [His hands are holding a thing bound in pale calfskin, all too thin.]
The last date is from only twenty odd years ago. Four siblings. [Alucard breathes out.]
Trevor Christopher Belmont.
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His heart is racing, and the tiny precious things in his arms won’t stop wriggling and screaming and something is very, very wrong. He runs and he trips and twists in the air to land on his back and avoid hurting the screaming things in his arms and picks himself up and keeps running.
And then he sees it. Safety is a tall man in black robes with a white collar, with a soft voice and kind eyes. Safety is the man who he has said confession to for things as petty as sneezing during prayer and as damning as noticing how the smith’s daughter’s dress hangs differently from her body this month. The man who taught him to read latin. He’s too afraid to be proud, and he clings to the priest’s robes, burying his face there. The priest speaks in a soft voice, and his nephews stop wailing.
The priest leads him to the fireplace. The big one, where they burn people’s clothes when they get covered in vampire blood. It smells of roses. It always smells of roses, because that’s what you use to try to lessen the effects of the blood.
Hide here and you’ll be safe, the priest says in his soft voice, and he closes the great iron doors. ]
What did you say?
[ Trevor is above Alucard when he wakes, fleshy and whole as he ever is. ]
You said something. Tell me what it was.
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