Chapter Text
The mayor's house was on the very edge of Oakhurst, practically built into the walls. It was more brickwork than the wattle-and-daub houses of the rest of the town, and fairly large. The windows were mostly shuttered, and if he didn't know any better, Legs would have said the place was empty.
He did know better, though, hence why he was walking up to the door. He'd gone without his apron in an attempt to look put together, and was now reflecting all the ways he could have tried slightly harder. No turning back now, though.
All he had to go on was the retelling of a deeply biased narrator. Obviously, obviously whoever answered the door would not be the heaven-sent beacon of perfection Owen had described. So, as much as Legs hoped that this would be someone who was at least somewhat reasonable…
He'd come prepared for the worst.
There was a small pause after he knocked, then a small panel was slid aside, and he got a momentary glimpse of two large, dark eyes before the door was opened slightly, and Legs got his first look at him.
He was smaller than he'd expected, slight, with a youthfully soft face that looked even paler against the velvet black of his jerkin, and a little sharper in the jaw with the small ruff. Although his hair wasn't quite as long as Owen's, it was was still far from short, cascading thickly over one shoulder in pearlescent waves. He stayed in the shadow of the doorway as he looked curiously at Legs, squinting a little in the sun.
He looks like a Romantic poet, he observed. Although not one of the miserable ones. And he definitely looks like a vampire. "Mayor Louis, I presume?" he asked aloud.
The edges of Louis's eyes crinkled slightly. "It's usually Mayor Țepeș," Legs kicked himself mentally for somehow not considering for a moment that this man might possibly have a surname. "But I do prefer Louis. I don't believe we've met."
"No, we haven't- I'm Legundo, the new doctor."
Louis made a sound of assent, then stepped aside. "Do come in," he added. His voice wasn't at all what Legundo had expected; there was an almost croaky quality to it, and an endearing awkwardness. Given how smooth and certain Scott and Owen had sounded, it was a pleasantly (for lack of a better word) human detail.
As Legs passed him, Louis went to close the door. "And how may I be of assistance, doctor?"
"I- ah. I'll be blunt." said Legs carefully. "I'm under the understanding that you are… a vampire."
Louis whipped around and backed defensively against the door, wide-eyed and with a small gasp that revealed an edge of fang. His eyes went to Legs's bag. "… I take it the silver in there isn't just a helpful trinket from the guard." he said quietly.
It was, in fact. But a useful trinket. "It's a precaution." replied Legs warily. "One I hope I don't need. I'm not here to harm you."
"That's unusual."
"That's the truth." Legs chanced another step, angling his bag behind him in the hopes the silver wouldn't take too bad an effect from a distance. "I just want to talk."
Slowly, Louis relaxed a little, and stood apart from the door. "I can do that." he said.
Legs was walked to a room with seats (he left his bag in the hallway, pushed to one side enough that Louis could get past without being in range of the silver). Louis sat opposite him, still somewhat wary. "How did you know about me?" he asked once Legs was comfortable.
Hm. Excellent question to be faced with, especially when the truth was absurd. "I'm surprised more people haven't guessed." he answered instead.
Louis smiled, a little sadly. "I'd like to think that they trust me." he said. "I've been here so long they don't want to think that I might not be… well. Who they think I am."
"How long is that, exactly?"
"Oh, ah… a century or so? I haven't kept track of years all that well. Four generations."
"And no one's wondered how you've stayed… the same, all that time?"
"I don't know that they have. I get questions about how Țepeș senior is doing, once in a while." He shrugged elegantly. "Again, I don't think they want to think of me badly. I try to be a good mayor."
"I assume you don't feed on them, then?"
"Oh, heavens, no!" He didn't quite look appalled, but the idea certainly seemed absurd. "No, I have an… arrangement with the butcher. She's made it clear to me in confidence that she thinks the very idea of vampires is silly." Louis chuckled. "Goodness knows what she thinks I'm doing with pig's blood, but she's never asked, so… Ah, I digress. The point is, no. I don't make a habit of hurting people."
"Always good to hear." said Legs. "So you haven't turned anyone?"
"It's never come up." replied Louis. "At first, I was a fledgeling, and fledgelings don't turn people—"
"They don't?" Legs was fairly certain fledgelings did turn people, were perfectly capable of it.
Louis, though, said "No, it's not done," so certainly and so matter-of-factly that Legs found himself doubting it. "And after I came here…" Louis shrugged again. "I wouldn't want to put someone at risk. Or myself, for that matter."
Unless it seemed necessary. Legs added to himself. Unless it seemed like it was best for them. "Who turned you?"
"… My mother." Louis answered after a pause. "Vedette. There was a little coven of us, not far to the north. Do I get to ask a question?" he added with a touch of playfulness.
"Oh- of course."
Louis leaned forward. "You aren't a vampire hunter," he said. "But you could guess I was a vampire without even having met me, and, knowing this, you come to my house to talk." His smile had gone, replaced a curious gaze. "What are your intentions, doctor?"
Legs took a deep, steadying breath. "There is a cure." he said. Louis sat back, wide-eyed. "I can't— tell you much about it, I haven't… seen it work, but I know it does." I hope it does. "If that isn't what you want, then I won't force it, but… consider it."
Louis was contemplatively quiet for a while. "… Know that I do appreciate the offer." he finally said. "And I imagine that there are people who would benefit from it. But I must decline." Legs's heart sank. "I like being this way." Louis continued. "For the downsides. I haven't been human since I was a child. I don't think I would like it."
"You think it's worth it?" Legs asked. "The loneliness, the hunger-"
Louis looked confused. "That's what you think the downsides are? I mean, I suppose it… is lonely, if you think about it a certain way, but…"
"… You don't?" Legs supplied.
"Not at all." It was a little unsettling how light Louis's tone stayed— the other shoe had to drop at some point, surely. "I've met all sorts of people I would never had known had I lived, seventy, eighty years. I've gotten to help people." Legs heard another vampire's words in the back of his mind, "Think of how many people you could save! What if you could save everyone?"
"And how many of those people have you lost?" he asked, the memory making his voice brittle.
Louis gave him an odd look, almost pitying. "… Would my being human have prevented me ever losing anyone?" he gently asked back.
Legs didn't have a response for that. He looked away, trying to form something.
"As for the hunger—" Louis shrugged. "As I said, I have an arrangement with the butcher. I don't think about it much, to be honest. Really, all I ever have trouble with is the need to stay indoors all day, and, well…" His eyes strayed towards the shuttered window, though he seemed to be looking through them. "… The views of the town. I'm working on that, but… that I will admit is lonely." He smiled at Legs. "It's quite nice to be able to talk to someone honestly. Even if it is about a cure I can't say I want. I don't see this as something to be cured."
Legs sighed. "Well… You aren't the first person I've met to see it that way."
Louis leaned on his hand curiously. "What is your experience with vampires, then, doctor?" he asked. "There's not many who meet them and… well, remain human."
"Bold of you to assume that I'm human." He said it with enough humour that Louis actually laughed. "I, ah… It's a long story."
"I value my patience." Louis countered. "Go on."
Legs bit his tongue thoughtfully while he tried to find some way to phrase it all. "… I'd been a travelling doctor for a while, and I heard of a town— much like this one, though it had been mostly abandoned for years. There were… supernatural happenings, which I adamantly denied were anything to worry about, more fool me. But it was eventually proven indisputably that some of the people who'd also settled in this town were vampires. There were some who panicked, or who turned to hostility, and that didn't seem like the answer to me." Everything might have worked out so easily…
"I… thought I could help them." he continued, trying not to recall this part in anything but the broadest strokes. "But there were… other factors, and it… in the end, it got… violent. I… honestly don't know how I escaped." he slowly finished, trying to turn the last few words into disbelief with very little success.
"I'm inclined to agree." Louis breathed. "I'm also understanding why you brought that silver. Your luck… You run from one town full of vampires to another."
"These vampires aren't interested in mass murder. That's an improvement."
Louis chuckled, one hand going to cover his fangs. "Well, no matter how you found yourself here, I'm glad that you did." he said. "And I'm sorry to disappoint you in regards to the cure."
Without thinking, he replied, "I've had worse reactions." Louis's grin went sympathetic as he stood to walk him to the door.
"It was lovely to meet you, Doctor Legundo."
And with that, Legs was left to return to the ramshackle house, and come up with a new plan.