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The first thing Than saw when he awoke was white. His first groggy thought was that he’d died and gone to heaven, but that was rapidly debunked by two facts: one, he had never been Christian (if he were to go anywhere, it would almost certainly be Hades) and two, that vampires didn’t go to heaven (that being the point of the curse, immortality and all). He also didn’t feel particularly dead. At least, not more than usual.
He looked up a little further and saw red. Literally, not metaphorically. The red silk of the Archfey’s robes peeled from his face as he turned his head and rubbed his eyes. “What… happened?” he asked, as was all too frequent between them.
The Archfey smiled down at him affectionately. “You fell asleep.”
“Obviously. I mean how did I get here?” He was having trouble remembering anything at all. Had he been drinking?
Ae laughed and carded aer fingers through his hair, making him shudder and cuddle closer to aer. “I brought winter to the domain, remember? So that we could play in the snow? I had such a good time.” Oh, yes. He’d probably overdone it on the mulled wine. “We were making those… what did you call them? Snow angels? And I was talking to you, of course, and then you stopped talking back. I was quite worried, but when I brought you inside and put you in my lap to warm you up, well… you began purring, so I knew you must be all right.”
“No…” Surely he hadn’t… Vampires were borderline cold-blooded and therefore tended to become sleepy in the cold. Before the Archfey, like many others he would spend the winter months holed up somewhere sleeping in a dark box and barely coming out to eat. It probably contributed a good deal to particular vampire legends. The combination of the cold weather and being tipsy might have resulted in… embarrassing lapses.
“Yes,” the Archfey giggled, and kissed his forehead. “You do look quite sweet when you sleep like that. I had no desire to wake you.”
Heat crept into his cheeks, which still tingled with cold. “How humiliating.”
“Humiliating how? There is no one here but me, my love, and you need not hide yourself. I am not fooled by your suave vampire mask, Thanatos. I know you. You are kind and you write poetry when you are drunk and you like to watch the stars.” If anyone else had said those things, he would have died on the spot, but as it was Thanatos was too embarrassed to respond, so he merely yawned and pressed himself more firmly into aer side. “Sleepy still? Good. Shut your eyes, dearest. I will wait for you. I always do.”
The Archfey ran aer fingers through his hair again eliciting a low moan that tapered off into a purr, and for once, he let it. The rumble of safe contentment increased in volume with his exhales and spoke to a level of vulnerability he would almost never show, but here with his Archfey was the safest place in the world to him, both physically and emotionally. When he’d warmed up and woken up, they could both have another glass of wine, and perhaps he would read aer the latest detective story in the Strand, but until then, Thanatos would let the snow fall outside and be happy right where he was.