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The cool summer’s night breeze wrestled the light curtains through the open windows. Laying atop the covers of the large bed the blonde dhampir battled his overactive thoughts. Alucard sighed as he switched positions for the fourth time in only a few minutes.
The quiet of the empty castle did little to quell his anxious mind. Every creak of the ancient structure caught his attention and transported him back to that night. Even though the corpses he had displayed out front have long since been disposed of a deep part of him always feared he would be lying in bed, and those two would be at his sides again. The very thought sent unpleasant shivers up his spine.
Accepting defeat Alucard raised himself from his bed, his hand grazing over where you would normally lay beside him. Your warmth has since depleted since you left the castle only this morning. You had left to gather supplies from the neighboring villages and heal some of their sick if you could. Alucard reasoned that together your foraging was enough, but you insisted you needed more than what the forest could provide. You promised him you’d be back in three days’ time and gave him a loving kiss before leaving him with the castle.
He walked to the open window, stepping out into the night. He leaned himself on the balcony railing and overlooked the surrounding land. He looked to the east, spotting a village where you surely must be. He had half a mind to go there now and look for you and drag you back to the castle.
The air nipped at his bare legs as he couldn’t help the second round of shivers that traveled up his spine. He turned back to look at his bed, sleep probably won’t be happening there tonight. He sighed and turned back to the outside, his blonde locks whipping in the breeze.
“Maybe I really should find a coffin to sleep in,” he said less ironically than the last time he had that thought.
The wind continued to howl as he gazed over the castle grounds, his golden eyes landing on the spot where the two cadavers once stood, now gone thanks to your insistence. He could never forget what happened and you didn’t push him to try. But you reasoned that him keeping the bodies there was less of a warning to travelers and more of a constant reopening on a very deep and painful wound. And your very presence in his life was proof enough that clearly the warnings had not been heeded. So what was the point?
Alucard sighed and entered his room once again, shutting the balcony doors tightly behind him. As tired as he was. The bed had long since stopped being inviting this evening. So instead, the dhampir slipped a robe over his nightshirt and set off finding a new place to sleep for the night.
First, he tried one of the many other bedrooms peppered throughout the castle. Each one only had him drifting off for a moment before being rudely awoken by his own overactive mind. It was not helped by the unfamiliarity of each room. It was not his bed it, was not yours. Perhaps if you had been with him it would have been different, at least he would have you in his arms, your warm touch against him, your heartbeat reverberating off the high walls and to his ears.
But without you, these were just cold empty rooms uninhabited… dead.
He then tried his old childhood room, a place where he went to seek comfort after the incident. Why he thought this would work he had no idea, as the moment he stepped across the threshold, the air changed. Suddenly the rush of all the terrible memories came flooding in at once, rather than the steady drip of memories that threatened to overflow with each passing thought. Steaking his father after he had tried to kill him, crying on the floor with holy lacerations blemishing his skin, being made so vulnerable, being completely and utterly alone.
Adrian stumbled back, the scars littering his body began to ache as he frantically shut the bedroom door. His breath quickened, his eyes stung and his nose burned with the threat of unshed tears. Not even all the vampire power coursing through his veins could quell such an overwhelming sensation of dread and fear.
Now he was more awake than ever before.
The next place he tried that came to mind was his study, rather his father's old study. There was nothing he could possibly lay on however, he recalled the many times you had fallen asleep while he was working, cradling yourself in the arms of a chair, snuggled up like a cocooned moth in your woolen blankets. You were always so adorable when you attempted to stay up with him, only to succumb to your sleepiness and letting your head roll to the side and the room be filled with the sounds of you softly snoring. Perhaps it was worth a try to see if he too could feel the illusion of a gentle embrace lulling him to sleep.
It was a failure. It only took him moments to get settled in a position before the halfling had realized just how uncomfortable this really was. Were you always this comfortable when you slept like this? Or were you some kind of cat-like demon with the uncanny ability to nap anywhere?
“Maybe I should move a couch in here,” he mused quietly to himself as he awkwardly stood from the chair and straightened out his stiff back.
Alucard continued to stalk about the castle, hovering listlessly as the exhaustion began to tighten its grip on him, he stumbled over his own feet, leaned on walls for support, and only had a semblance of an idea of where he was going. He was wandering aimlessly before coming across a set of carved double doors.
He pushed open the doors to the library, he was instantly surrounded by the stacks of discarded books, old and well used. The scent of yellowed paper and aged leather binding comforted him ever so slightly. He closed the robe tightly around himself as he surveyed the large room, finding a plush sofa that you and he had many times before sat together, often reading to each other or simply enjoying each other’s company by the warmth of a roaring fire in the ornate gothic fireplace. But the fireplace was dark, cold, and empty and he felt no urge to put forth the effort to lite one.
His pale lithe fingers caressed the velvety cushions of the sofa, eyeing the patterns of raised materials left in his wake. He spotted a blanket, that had been haphazardly draped across the arm and took it into his hands. He pressed the old blanket to his nose, inhaling the scent of you left behind. To anyone else, it would have smelled of dust and old books, but to him, it mingled with the flowery scent of you and it filled him with warmth.
Adrian lowered himself to the sofa, it creaked and shifted under his weight. He raised his legs off the floor and stretched out onto the cushions. He threw the worn blanket over himself and settled against the plush arm. Pulling the blanket closer to him, he took another deep breath of your inviting scent, feeling his muscles relax and his mind begins to clear. Allowing him to finally drift off into sweet unconsciousness.
“Adrian,” you called, voice bouncing off the near impossibly high walls of the castle corridors.
You had been calling out to your lover for a while now. You had returned early from your trip, arriving at the massive doors of the castle just before the sun was set to rise. You had to let yourself in of course, assuming Alucard was still asleep, but you were surprised to find your shared bed empty. Now you were on the hunt for the halfling, only slightly annoyed that if he was up he didn’t bother to meet you at the doors.
You searched every viable room where it was plausible for him to be. Your bedroom? Obviously not there. The kitchen? No. The study? Empty. The alchemy lab? Deserted. But there was one room you had not yet inspected. The library.
Trotting up to the double doors you creaked them open and maneuvered yourself inside. It was almost deafeningly quiet save for one noise that penetrated your ears. Soft snore and low slow breathing, the telltale sign of one deep in slumber. You tiptoed through the library towards the source of the noise, coming across a form, rested on your favorite lounge.
Adrian’s golden locks feathered across the arm of the sofa, his pale angelic face was relaxed and calm. An expression you rarely see from the man. His lips were parted just slightly as he exhaled, his brow was smooth and his whole body appeared drenched in utter composure and relaxation. You couldn’t help the smile that tugged the corners of your mouth at the sight. A true sleeping beauty.
You brought your hand to the blonde tresses that hung over the arm, combing your fingers through the soft curls, eventually creeping u towards his head. Your nails lightly raked against his scalp in a practiced gentleness. You listened to the dhampir hum in contentment at your touch, still wrapped in the throws of sleep.
Soon those golden eyes opened slowly. Taking in your form hovering above him. Alucard’s hands relinquished the blanket draped across his body and moved them to take yours. He guided your hand down to his cheek, cupping it and nuzzling against you. You released a breathy chuckle and rubbed light circles into his skin with your thumb.
“Rough night?” you assumed.
“Without you here?” he yawned, “It was an ordeal.”
“Well, I’m here now. Move.”
You nudged him forward slightly, making room for you to insert yourself next to him on the sofa. He sluggishly obliged allowing you to sit next to him.
“You should sleep some more, there’s nothing urgent to be done today,” you suggested.
He hummed in acknowledgment and allowed you to guide his head to your lap, where your fingers continue dancing through his hair. He shivered happily and pulled the blanket closer to him once again, now further surrounded by your comforting scent and warm voice, lulling off to the best day’s sleep of his life.