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Armand will tell Louis about Daniel. One day. Not right now, because Armand is still busy fixing things, but once he’s smoothed everything back out. He’ll tell Louis, and Louis will smile in that way of his, and he’ll tease Armand about how Armand almost killed this boy, and what would he do without Louis around? Armand will smile and nod and agree, yes, he would be lost without Louis, and will carry this new humiliation happily.
Except that Daniel is some kind of supernova, and Armand keeps forgetting to fix things with Louis. Daniel laughs in delight to see Armand on his knees, and drags him up afterwards and kisses him and laughs more and says “oh my god, babe, that was incredible, you have to teach me how to do that” and Armand feels like his ribcage is opening up, and he can’t quite tell if it’s a door opening or if it’s just getting ready to slam shut and crush his heart.
Daniel looks at his wrist sometimes, when he thinks Armand is asleep. (Armand is never asleep. He sleeps when Daniel is gone.) Armand hasn’t thought about soulmates in decades, centuries, but he finds his eyes catching on that fashionable leather bracelet of Daniel’s. There’s someone out there, he knows, someone who is waiting for Daniel. He’s always known himself to be a selfish kind of monster, but that feels like too far even for him. Fate saw fit to bestow a mark upon him, and he repays it by – what? Sweeping up this human boy to keep for himself. Greedy. It can’t be too much longer now. Language changes so quickly. A century or less.
Daniel starts wanting to be turned. He’s loud and he’s stubborn and Armand looks away from the places where he sees Amadeo in Daniel’s rage. He remembers Marius, looking away. He understands, now. He can’t interfere. He loves Daniel. Daniel deserves the future he never got to have.
Daniel doesn’t know it, but he would thank Armand for this. When he finds them, and that hummingbird heart of his finally finds a place to rest. He would thank Armand for this, but he will never get a chance to, because Armand is going to do him the favor of never seeing him again. This is how it has to be.
He goes back to Louis. He fixes it – The drugs did a number on your mind, love. You have been recovering. Yes, love, I know, love. The last boy, the reporter, you overdosed. It’s alright, love, I forgive you . Everything is going to be alright .
He sleeps. He forgets. He starts wearing long sleeves.
Fifty years, carrying this. Fifty years, and there’s Daniel. Daniel, with the leather bracelet. Louis asks about it, making small talk. Daniel is icy. Armand doesn’t recognize him. He continues not recognizing him, right up until Daniel slaps a newspaper down on a table and shatters Armand’s life. He recognizes that. Daniel has been doing that since the beginning.
He’s having trouble remembering what time he’s in. He looks up at Daniel, Marius, Santino. He reaches down and the floor is cold stone. Everything is over. No fire, this time. Just Daniel. Same thing, really. He feels a scrabbling in the grave dirt of his chest. There is nothing left in him to keep it down.
Daniel shows him his soulmark and for a moment he can’t figure out how to read it. He keeps seeing his own soulmark, the way he saw it in the dark, the tangle of thorns. He imagines it digging into his flesh, drawing blood.
The whole time. The whole time. “You ruined everything .”
He thinks Daniel remembers, for a moment. Armand throws himself into the sunlight of Daniel’s mind, drowns himself in the totality of Daniel’s pain. Allows himself to look at the scarred valleys he left behind when he remade Daniel in Paris. This man in front of him is different, wrong, Armand did that, Armand broke him, the whole time , the grave is giving way.
He needs to know how to fix it. The answer comes to him like hunger came to Amadeo. Here, again, is hope, with bloodied teeth. Selfish. Beautiful boy, you were born to be mine . He doesn’t care about anything except the hot rush of Daniel’s blood. He doesn’t care about anything outside the shock of Daniel’s teeth in his neck.
This, this, yes, yes . Daniel pulls away and Armand chases him, up, over, back down to the floor. Tries to follow his blood down Daniel’s throat with his tongue. Daniel shoves him back with a hand on his chest – yes, that’s good, I like that, push me harder – and blinks at him breathlessly, eyes a muddy middle ground of blue and red, the color of Amadeo’s velvet coat ruined with blood. He grins, he’s got a hand around Armand’s throat now. He remembers.
He's savage, this boy of Armand’s, and Armand has always loved that in him. He’ll be a better vampire than Armand ever was. He laughs cold and hard and high on the truth, on the only drug Daniel Molloy has ever really been chasing. “There you are,” he says, like he’s seeing Armand for the first time, and maybe he is. “ There you are.”