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“You’re shitting me,” Daniel said with a sniffle, holding the amulet Armand had given him between his thumb and forefinger. “Does this thing summon you?”
Armand stepped out of the shadows and into the dim glow of the streetlight, grimacing as he picked a branch from his hair. It didn’t particularly shock Daniel to see him coming out of a bush - he was more than used to seeing a pair of intense orange glows peeking at him from street corners and behind trees - but it had slipped his mind, the fact that Armand could just show up anywhere. He’d let himself have a small moment of weakness thinking there was no way Armand could possibly be there, because he’d been aimlessly walking in a park for hours and it couldn’t have been fascinating at all.
And so of course Armand was there. He seemed to witness all of Daniel’s worst moments: the time he tripped face-first on the subway and Armand was sitting elegantly inside, the time he’d fallen asleep at a gas station, the time he’d walked into a lamppost in the street. He’d been laying on the floor by the foot of Daniel’s bed that time he’d rolled off his mattress in his sleep. Watching through the window when he accidentally put his fork in the microwave.
Maybe that was why Armand was keeping him alive. Maybe the comic relief outweighed the fascination. Or maybe he just liked to watch Daniel suffer.
“No,” Armand said, and smiled playfully. “I was just watching.”
‘Just watching’ was a very nice way of saying ‘stalking you while you cried’, but Armand was quite good at putting a spin on things.
It wasn’t like he’d particularly planned on crying in a park at night - but his sleep schedule was still haywire from the nights he’d spent up with Armand until sunrise, and he’d been gone for so long, and Daniel had pulled the amulet out of the neckline of his shirt just to hold it in his hands. He’d come back, surely. He wouldn’t have let Daniel keep it if he wasn’t coming back.
…He wouldn’t have watched Daniel press a long, aching kiss to the engraved initial A on the amulet and showed himself to him if he wasn’t coming back.
“You’re already here,” Daniel muttered to the ground. “Of course you fuckin’ are.”
“I’m here. And I just so happened to see you do that, and cry.”
“I wasn’t crying,” Daniel said, wiping the tears from his face with the frayed cuff of his sleeve, pretending like Armand hadn’t already seen the evidence.
Armand chuckled softly. “Come, beloved. Let me.”
He brought both of his chilled hands to Daniel’s face, moulding his palms to his cheeks and softly wiping away the tears with his thumbs. It was so strangely gentle; the slight warmth underneath the chill of his skin and the enchantment in his eyes when he looked at the moisture on his skin.
It felt like an eternity since Armand had touched him. Daniel could’ve cried again with the relief of it.
“You couldn’t have let me do that in private,” Daniel gritted. “I didn’t know you were watching, you could’ve given me a heads up before I embarrassed myself.”
“You’re the one in a public park.”
“With no-one around!”
“I’m always around.”
“And I can’t see you. It’s no use being near me if I can’t see you.”
“You have my surveillance,” Armand said, then let his eyes dart down to the amulet resting on Daniel’s chest. “And my protection.”
Daniel followed his gaze to the locket. What was the point of either of those things if Daniel still felt so alone, so abandoned? He didn’t want Armand’s surveillance. He wanted him, wanted all of him, wanted to see him and hear him and touch him and none of those things he could do when Armand was hidden in a bush.
I could just break it, his mind raced. It would get a rise out of him. If he saw me crying over it, then he’d definitely know if I broke it. Maybe come to get me. He’d be mad, sure, but it’s not like I wouldn’t enjoy it-
Armand’s gaze snapped upwards quicker than Daniel could even realise oh, shit, mind reading, his posture freezing and face going still. It wasn’t often Daniel saw Armand’s fury directed at him - but now he felt terrified underneath the weight of it, and he was too embarrassed to twiddle with the amulet out of awkwardness the way he usually did.
“Daniel.”
He was done for. “I didn’t-”
“Don’t you ever.” Armand’s eyes had lit up. “It’s for your protection, Daniel. Not to summon me, not to play around, it’s for-”
“I fucking know,” Daniel gritted, rolled his eyes. “That’s why I wear a giant necklace every day of my life even though it makes an obvious lump in all my shirts. I keep it on in the shower, boss, I keep it on through airport security, I keep it on when I sleep and I’m constantly waking up with a dent in my chest because I rolled on top of it in the night. I know it’s for my protection.”
Armand stayed silent - but the look in his eyes had brightened to an almost obsessive passion rather than anger.
…So mentioning keeping the amulet on at all times would charm Armand. Duly noted.
“But I heard what you thought,” he said softly.
“Because you piss me off,” Daniel said. “Because I can never find you, and you go wherever you like, and that’s- it’s fine, but you always know where I am. You can get to me whenever you want. And if I want you when you’re not there I have to just deal. Of course I’m gonna think things like that, ‘cause-”
‘Cause I’d do anything, he nearly said, but bit his tongue to keep the words in. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Armand to know - he was more than aware he would know whether he said it aloud or not - but it was the small amount of dignity he could actually allow himself to keep.
It was true nonetheless. As more and more time passed he knew he couldn’t live without Armand, and that he’d do anything to stop him from leaving. Every beloved, every beautiful boy left a bitter aftertaste whenever Daniel remembered all those nights spent alone, but it didn’t stop him needing it so terribly.
Armand placed a hand in the centre of Daniel’s chest, dragging his middle finger slowly down his sternum and taking the amulet in his palm, rolling the glass between his fingers with a warm fascination in his eyes.
“So you don’t hate it?”
Daniel sighed. “No, I don’t hate it.”
He shut his eyes and desperately hoped that Armand wouldn’t hear his snarky thoughts about the centuries-old vampire being upset I didn’t like his friendship bracelet. He did like the amulet. More for the possession than the protection, but Armand didn’t need to know that, either.
Armand shuffled in his place. “I thought you did.”
“I know.”
“I do it to keep you safe.”
“I know, boss.” Daniel reached up to envelope Armand’s hand in his own, running his fingertips over his cold knuckles and squeezing tightly. “I know.”
The unease slowly disappeared from Armand’s body. Daniel knew the feeling of Armand reading his thoughts by now, the subtle presence of him poking around in his brain and the slightly-weighted feeling in the crevices his mind; and while it was slightly unnerving to have no privacy even in his own head, he liked the closeness of it all. Nobody had ever been as close to him as Armand had. Nobody ever would be.
“I just wanted to go home,” Daniel murmured, quieter than a whisper so the vulnerability didn’t hit him too hard. It wasn’t like Armand wouldn’t know, but there was a certain, horrifying defencelessness in speaking it aloud; like he was opening himself up for him to witness, all the ugly yearning and neediness inside of him.
“Home? Where?” Armand asked, almost feverishly, as though he was desperate to soothe this rift in their companionship. “I’ll take you there. We’ll go now.”
It was odd, to be without him for so long and then have him come back immediately trying to bandage up the cracks he’d left: frantic at the thought of Daniel leaving or worse, Daniel no longer wanting him. His eyes were almost trembling, that usually-warm amber an erratic and volatile yellow as he stared at Daniel. Tell me, his eyes said, wide and desperate. Tell me so I can give it to you. Tell me so I can fix things. Tell me so I can fix you.
Armand had told him just small slivers of his own past, so Daniel could only guess at what made him so beside himself to keep all of this. To keep him.
“Beloved.” Armand’s breath shuddered in the silence. “Where do you want to go?”
Daniel choked on the words as he spoke, feeling like Armand was digging his thumbs into his mind, opening it up.
“To- to fucking-” Night Island. The thought was so loud and so resonant that he may as well have screamed it aloud in the park, right in Armand’s face.
He stilled.
He brought his hand up to cup Daniel’s face again, his touch gentle and feather-light, thumb stroking his cheek as he stared; it was captivating, the way his face relaxed when it was tender like that. Daniel didn’t see it often.
“...That’s home?”
Daniel huffed and averted his eyes, still slightly embarrassed about it all.
“Where else would it be? Where else is there to go?” He hissed, and then softened slightly. His next words came quickly. “...What else is there but you?”
Armand’s eyes flashed a vibrant yellow at the words. Daniel could barely blink before he had taken another step closer to him, all concept of personal space forgotten; he’d be able to feel Armand’s breath on his face if he actually breathed, and when he tilted his head slightly to look into his eyes, their noses almost brushed.
It had always been invigorating, to belong to him like that - having a being unfathomably old obsessing over his whereabouts, following him around, giving him a band of his protection that he wore all the time. Giving him somewhere he called home. After everything Armand had been through and after everything he’d done, he’d bought Daniel an island and let him consider it home.
“...Then we’ll go.” Armand took his hand and nearly pulled Daniel over as he started down the path. “We’ll go home, beloved. Let’s go home.”
“Did you only want to go swimming to see if I kept the amulet on?”
Armand smiled coyly, and let his curls fall over his shoulder as he cocked his head. “Perhaps.”
It hadn’t taken long from arriving at the small airport on Night Island to get in the pool. Daniel had more clothes there than he did anywhere else; fancy shirts Armand had bought him, his old sweaters, swimming trunks, the too-big tees he’d bring to sleep in that Armand would end up wearing instead. It had been long enough of skulking around in his worn-out wardrobe, moping without Armand, that he didn’t hesitate when he’d suggested swimming.
Now, Daniel hadn’t called it home purely because of the luxury resort - he’d called it home because it was theirs, because he felt safe there, and because whenever he was away from it he found himself longing to be back - but the benefits of ‘home’ being an open villa with a four-poster bed and private pool certainly didn’t go unnoticed. He was a shitty little kid from Modesto, okay? He didn’t do private pools. He didn’t do any pools, for that matter, and certainly not infinity pools with decorative lights at the bottom that caressed Armand’s face with the warm glow.
He heard Armand laugh softly from the deck chair at the side of the pool, a quiet and melodic giggle. “I spoil you, don’t I?”
“You already know that,” Daniel huffed, swimming over to the poolside and resting his elbows on the edge, propping his head up on his arms.
Armand rose rather gracefully from his chair, folding his body to sit down on the poolside and reach his hand out to the amulet tied around Daniel’s neck. He let it rest against his fingers and turned it back and forth in the light, his knuckles brushing the bare skin of Daniel’s chest. He felt alight with the touch after so long without it. Even sitting side-by-side on the plane to the island for hours on end didn’t compare to this.
“You don’t ever take it off?” Armand asked softly.
Daniel shrugged. “Where would I put it? It’s not the type of thing you dump on a table.”
“You’re the type to dump anything on a table.”
“Not that.”
The smile Armand gave him then was unbearably warm; a soft colouring in his cheeks since he’d fed before he got on the plane, the skin around his eyes crinkling slightly, the upturn to his full lips and the darling glint in his eyes. It was such a rare thing and so tender, too, that Daniel couldn’t tear his eyes away. He kicked his legs back and forth in the water as he held onto the edge, staring and staring at the water lapped around his torso, losing himself in that fascinated gaze.
“This is your home, beautiful boy.”
“You know that,” Daniel said huffily. He knew Armand was just repeating it to thrill himself, really. “I already told you that.”
“I buy you an island so you can have luxury, beloved. So I can have you all to myself, and so we can have all the pleasures we can enjoy anywhere in the world here, and so I have peace knowing where you are kept. And you call that place home.”
“That’s what it is, isn’t it?” He shrugged. “I changed my address to here, boss. My mail goes here. How did you think we got letters at the villa?”
“That’s what home is to a mortal nowadays?” Armand moved his hand from the amulet up to Daniel’s face again, like he couldn’t get enough of holding his skull in his hands. “That’s what home is to you? Where your mail goes?”
“Where you are,” Daniel corrected in a mumble. “My mail also just so happens to go here, but that was because I don’t really have a, y’know, permanent place going for me otherwise, but-”
Armand leaned down to press his lips to Daniel’s, slow and deep; the lingering taste of pool water on his skin masked the scent of his blood Armand was so accustomed to, his nose pushing close enough to Daniel’s blood-warm face to feel it all. He’d missed him. Missed this. Missed it all enough that the embarrassment of Armand having seen him kiss the amulet, alone in a park while he’d cried, was worth being able to have this again.
It had been a poor substitute for the real thing. There was nothing like Armand.
“Such a romantic, beloved,” he said. “Trying to flatter me to no end. Home is where I am? Is that it?”
Daniel just shrugged, and leaned upwards to kiss the corner of Armand’s mouth. “You heard what I said.”
“Good.” Armand tilted his head to capture all of Daniel’s lips, sliding his hand backwards into his chlorine-wet hair. “I don’t want you to ever be anywhere else.”