Chapter Text
The nest, as Caitlyn had called it, was perfect. Vi hadn’t even opened her eyes yet after the teleportation spell and yet she felt more comfortable than she could remember ever feeling before. Everything smelled like Caitlyn and flowers and Vi wanted to roll around in it until she smelled just the same.
"Welcome home, baby," Caitlyn softly said in the not-quite silence. Vi could hear the wind from outside and some far away shouts and the noise of everyday life, but it was dampened, easy to handle even if it was very distracting. She finally opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Caitlyn's soft smile just about eyelevel. Slowly, she trailed her gaze over the elegant features, before remembering to answer.
"Thanks." She knew she should stop staring, but once she had Caitlyn in her line of sight, she couldn't look away. Not even when the woman lifted her hand and brought it close to Vi's face. A move that would normally have made her flinch away from an almost-stranger. However, she felt herself craving the touch. Not even one bit worried that she might be hurt, she just continued to stare up into those pretty, blue eyes.
"You're very sweet. I'm glad we found you," Caitlyn confessed and gently, oh so gently, brushed her knuckles over Vi's cheekbone. "As soon as you remember more, we will go pick up your stuff." She paused, eyes intense and focused. "You can't live anywhere else for the time being, little one. It's too dangerous for you and the humans around you. In a few years we can discuss if you'd like to stay or move out, alright?"
Vi knew this should probably bother her but quite the opposite was true, she was delighted by the prospect of getting to stay with Caitlyn.
"Okay." The older vampire smiled at her again, the expression on her face was so soft, it looked almost adoring. Vi swallowed hard. People didn't look at her like that often, but Caitlyn didn't try to avert her eyes. She just looked back for a long moment without even blinking. Then, as if she had to tear herself away, she abruptly turned around and started walking away. Vi followed every move, her newfound senses allowing her to take in so much more information from the simple act than before. She wasn't able to process them set, but somehow it was just more.
"Come here, little one."
Vi felt her feet move before she had made the conscious decision to go. Her body followed the gentle command like it was compulsion across the room. Things blurred around the edges until she could breathe in Caitlyn's soft, pleasant smell directly from the source again and not just some lingering traces. She loved her new senses fiercely, so grateful that she got to experience Caitlyn as so much more. Vi only realized how much she had missed the other woman's touch when she reached out to wrap her hand around a slender wrist. There was no pulse, almost no warmth, but her skin was soft, the bones under her fingers fragile and delicate. Vi couldn't help but rub the pad of her thumb in small circles over the place where she would have felt a pulse had the wrist belonged to a human. Caitlyn shot her an indulgent smile and didn't pull away. Vi felt something inside her settle.
"I will show you to the nesting room and then you should eat again. We're going to practice being less messy, little one."
Vi nodded and let herself be pulled along through a dark corridor. She didn't even try to focus on something else but Caitlyn. She tracked the way her hair fell over her shoulders, looking almost magically soft. At the same time her nose picked apart the scent of the woman into its fundamentals. There was something flowery, a scent Vi couldn‘t place, she hadn‘t been around enough flowers in her life to recognize it as something familiar. The smell of gunpowder however she would recognize everywhere. Blood clung to Caitlyn too, it made Vi‘s stomach grumble. And then there was something fresh, like rain on grass, although Vi wasn‘t quite sure how clean rain on a meadow would smell, but that was how she imagined it must be.
"Attention, little one,“ her Sire’s voice filtered through her.
Vi immediately felt her sense of hearing snap to the forefront of her mind. Caitlyn‘s voice was melodic in her ears, all-encompassing almost and for a moment she wished she knew more about music and sounds than the little she did just to have the words to analyze her Sire‘s voice. She didn‘t, but maybe she could still learn.
"Baby, I know it’s hard to pay attention, we have all the time in the world. However, I think you might like what I’m going to show you next.“ Caitlyn‘s lips twitched, Vi could see the muscles move to accommodate the motion. It was fascinating. If she focused enough maybe she could count how many had to work for such a tiny movement.
However, her Sire had said something. Something important. Everything her Sire did was important after all. Words were a bit hard at the moment, but she could remember every single one of them with ease. As a result, after a few moments of concentration she knew that her Sire wanted to show her something, something nice.
"Yes,“ she started, only to realize that she hadn’t been asked a question. She tried to rephrase, "what is it?“ Now, more muscles were involved in the low chuckle Caitlyn gifted her with. It was such a nice sound.
"The nesting room, baby.“
Nest, nest, nest… the words seemed to echo in her head, bouncing from the walls of her skull in an endless sequence of sound.
"Please.“ Even to her own ears she sounded desperate.
Caitlyn pulled her closer again. "Of course, little one. Do you want to get cleaned up first?“ Vi stared up at her, suddenly her mind went completely blank. A decision. It wasn‘t the first one of her life. It wasn‘t even a hard decision. And yet, she was unable to come up with an answer.
Caitlyn sighed, and cuddled her closer. Her chest was soft and the missing heartbeat wasn’t even off-putting. Vi wanted to burrow even closer, until she could crawl under the skin and make her home in the chest cavity of her Sire, but didn‘t dare move.
"I‘m sorry,“ her Sire apologized. "I shouldn’t have pushed that on you. Let’s get you cleaned up and then into the nest. It will make resting easier.“ "Yes.“ Vi agreed beatifically. She had no idea to what she had just agreed, the previous question had already slipped her mind. And frankly, she didn‘t care even one bit. Her Sire would take care of her. She was sure of it. Caitlyn had apparently given up on words, gently tugging her towards a closed door and inside the biggest bathroom Vi had ever seen in her life. She was placed in front of a tub and pushed to sit on the edge.
"Is it alright with you if I undress you, love?“ "Yes.“ Caitlyn studied her face for a long moment and Vi wasn‘t quite sure if she had done something wrong. The woman didn‘t seem pleased with her easy compliance.
"I can try myself,“ she offered after a long moment of thought.
"It‘s not that, baby,“ Caitlyn softly reassured her, "I just realized what a gift you are to me. Your trust means everything to me.“ "You‘re my Sire.“ "I know.“ Vi nodded, there was nothing else to say, so she lifted her arms in a clear gesture for Caitlyn to begin. She was rewarded with an indulgent smile and nimble fingers pulling off her shirt.
It occurred to her just as her Sire was pulling off her pants that she should probably try and help. She had never been shy, nakedness never something she had worried or cared about, the shame never taking hold, so she didn't consider the whole situation all too bad, but being useless? It seemed like an unforgiveable failure.
"I can help," she forced herself to say. The words sounding slurred even to her own ears.
"I know you could, little one, but I don't mind taking care of you."
"Okay." Her Sire's words rung like an absolute truth. She saw no need in arguing further. The woman, who had become her whole world in the blink of an eye, stood up fluidly, the movement not something Vi had ever witnessed before, and offered her a hand.
"Come on, baby, let's get you clean."
Vi needed a moment to understand and then she already stood under running water. It smelled strange, felt even stranger, almost too warm, touching everywhere with an intensity she had never thought possible.
"It can be overwhelming, that is completely normal, love. You will get used to your senses soon enough."
Vi only nodded. She focused on the soft humming following the words, closed her eyes against the spray and let the water run down her body without flinching away.
"I am going to wash your hair, is that okay?"
"Yes."
And then gentle fingers were in her hair, massaging her scalp, tugging at knots, but never hurting. It was almost unreal. Wonderful and tender and Vi felt tears prick at her eyes. She was glad her lids were closed and her face was already wet.
"Oh," her Sire breathed, "are you crying, little love?"
She couldn't even fathom lying to the other woman, so Vi simply answered, "yes."
"Are you hurting?"
Vi took stock of herself. Nothing hurt overly much, at least not badly enough to make her cry. "No."
"Are you sad?"
Again, it took a moment for Vi to consider the question, all the while the fingers in her hair stayed gentle.
"No. I'm happy."
Her Sire breathed a laugh. "I'm glad, baby. I'm happy too."
"Sire should always be happy," Vi replied, urgently and desperate. Another low chuckle and a bit of a firmer tug in her hair, made her open her eyes. She faced the tiles of the shower, drops of water running down at different paces, looking for the best way downwards. Every drop seemed to contain a little universe in itself.
"You're very sweet, such a caring little baby." Gentle hands turned her around until the spray of water washed away the unscented soap in her hair. Caitlyn's face was right before her, only few inches away, long, blue hair plastered to her head from where the water must have hit her too. Vi started counting Caitlyn's dark lashes to distract herself from the strange feeling of the soap suds running down her back.
"You're doing so very well." The praise made Vi smile, content and proud, as if she had achieved an incredibly feat.
"Are you ready to come out?"
"Yes, please." She wanted to escape the waterdrops and strange temperature. Her Sire gripped her hand and led her out of the shower. The other woman was almost as wet as Vi, her clothes sticking to her body like a second skin, hair dripping and droplets chasing each other over the naked skin of her face and throat. She wrapped Vi up in a white towel that felt so soft on her new skin she thought that was how a cloud must feel. She was still marveling at the texture when Caitlyn smiled at her.
"I am going to dry your hair, love. It might feel strange."
"Okay."
Her Sire stepped closer and then placed a towel of the same fluffy fabric on top of Vi's head. As she gently rubbed it over the wet hair Vi couldn't suppress the shudder whacking her body.
"Do you need me to stop?"
"No." It indeed felt strange, so much sensation and little means of escape from the flood of new things. And yet, as she stared at Caitlyn's chin and tried to figure out the perfect way to describe the curve of her jaw, it felt almost too good to be touched like that, despite her nerve endings being torn between pleasure and pain.
"Come, I will lend you some clothes for the time being and then we are going to get you settled and fed."
Every sensation was new. However, it wasn't even her new senses that made the clothes feel so different, it was the fabric. She was sure she had never touched anything comparable. It was soft and smooth and cool, it reminded her of water. Everything was slightly too big and definitely too long.
Her Sire had explained that she didn't like tight clothes to sleep. The woman had kept up a gentle stream of words, probably to keep Vi's thoughts from drifting too much. It had worked remarkably well. Although she suspected that was because her senses were all zeroed in on her Sire.
"Come, love, let's get you in the nest."
The yearning came back full force and Vi almost stumbled over the seam of her too long pants to comply and move as fast as possible towards the door.
And finally, finally, she entered the room that felt so right she could have cried. There were no windows or sounds, completely shutting off the room from the outside world. Everything smelled like Caitlyn, the lights were dim, so dim that she couldn't have seen more than silhouettes back when she was still human, now she saw everything bathed in a golden glow. There were pillows and blankets strewn over every surface in the room. She couldn't see a bed, instead there were colorful mattresses pushed together in the middle of the room, surrounded on all sides with square pillows forming a barrier like wall.
She basically tumbled into the soft core of the nest, immediately burrowing under a small mountain of pillows, pressing her face into the soft fabric. A noise left her that she couldn't quite describe. It was high pitched and utterly inhumane.
"That's it, little one. You're safe now."
She peaked over the pillow mountain and could see her Sire watch her with a small smile on her lips.
"Let's get you feed and then you can sleep, baby."
She hadn't seen when the older woman had gotten a blood bag but there it was, dangling from her fingers, and Vi needed.