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‘I always wondered what it would be like to fall in love and keep it a secret. I’ve seen it happen for centuries, couples hiding in alleyways or meeting in the dark, afraid of anyone finding them like that. I’ve especially seen it while looking for my next meal, they’re easy targets when alone and waiting for their love, but I always left them be and instead tried to put myself in their place.
It’s difficult for vampires to fall in love, I’ve discovered. You can either fall in love with a human and turn them into a vampire, or you can just let them remain human and see them slowly age, a new wrinkle appearing in their face every day until they’re laid to rest for the final time, and you keep living; or you can fall in love with another vampire, which is something I’m not really interested in after seeing and hearing about Vladislav’s relationship with the beast, seems a bit too messy. I still remember what falling in love with Katherine was like. It felt like I was alive again, like I could walk under the sun and feel for the first time in years a warmth I can’t remember anymore. But even before she moved away and found another love, I never felt like our love had to be hidden. She didn’t know I was a vampire, her family didn’t either so us meeting wasn’t a crime.
After Katherine, I thought I would never fall in love again— ‘
Viago’s thoughts were interrupted as he heard a knock on the door. He opened it at once, he had been waiting right in front of it after all, to find Anton illuminated by the half-moon in the sky.
“Hey, ready to go?” Anton asked, “Yes!” Viago closed the door behind him, making sure to make as little noise as possible, and soon after he and Anton were walking in silence.
The duo arrived at an isolated park surrounded by trees and filled with overgrown hedges, wildflowers and weeds, and a swing set that surprisingly still worked, although made quite a bit of noise due to the rust that had grown on the metal. They found a bench that wasn’t completely covered in flora and sat down, looking at the scenery.
“Are you sure your roommates won’t mind the smell?” Anton spoke, breaking the silence.
“What smell?”
“Werewolf smell, from sitting here with me?”
“Ah… I’m sure they’ll just think it's leftover stench from when you and your pack visited a few weeks ago.”
Anton chuckled, “Fair enough.”
As if taking it as an invitation, Anton closed the little space left between their hands and held Viago’s pinky with his own, cautious. Viago smiled to himself, and reassuringly closed his pinky around Anton’s.
Viago started to think again:
‘It’s weird. I would’ve never thought falling in love with a werewolf was an option, and yet here I am.
I haven’t told him, but I think he knows… he must know. I wouldn’t sneak out of my own home with anyone else, I wouldn’t risk being with someone for as long as the night let me if it wasn’t him.
I guess I got my wish, didn’t I? I’m finally in those humans’ shoes. Meeting in places where we know no one would see us, avoiding questions from our roommates and friends: “What were you doing out for so long?” or “Why do you smell weird?” … Well, that second question humans probably never got unless one of them wore a lot of perfume. We’re not exactly Romeo and Juliet, our sides aren’t at war with each other, one of us is immortal, we’re not even teenagers, but I can see now why that Shakespeare guy wrote about them even if their story doesn’t have a happy ending.
This kind of love it feels… special? Since we must hide it from everyone else it feels like ours to hold, ours to cherish, no one else is privy to it so we can give it the colors we want, the names we wish, and nobody can tell us otherwise. And at the same time, it’s a love you cherish so deeply that you want to scream about it from the rooftops, let everyone know “This is the person I’m in love with, and you can’t take that away from me!” However, you can’t, can you?
I wonder how the humans did it… did the love last at all?’
“Viago? Are you okay?” Viago was pulled out of his thoughts by Anton’s worried tone. He turned to look at him, just as beautifully illuminated by the moon now as he was at the door, and smiled.
“I’m alright, just thinking.”
“Thinking about what?”
“Nothing important, don’t worry about it.”
Anton frowned, Viago knew he could tell him, knew it wouldn’t change anything, but he couldn’t, because what if it did? What if these meetings stopped the moment, he poured his heart out to the wonderful werewolf that suddenly took an interest in him? Viago sighed sadly and looked down at their intertwined pinkies.
“Keeping the thought to yourself?” Anton asked, no trace of malice in his tone.
“Yeah, sorry.”
“It’s alright. If you do need to talk, I’m here.”
“I know, thank you.”
The pair smiled, and for a moment Viago thought that he could, for just a second, remember the warmth of the sun.
‘One day, I will tell him. Even if we must continue keeping it a secret.
We’ll be the Romeo and Juliet that lived, we’ll thrive and love each other ‘till the end in honor of those humans who couldn’t.
If he’ll have me, of course.
I hope he does.’