Work Text:
When he showed himself to the boy, it was almost like he'd been expected.
Daniel was walking along the river when Armand slipped out of the shadows and fell into step beside him. But the boy didn’t flinch, didn't nervously glance this way and that in search for a way to escape. Instead, "Hey," he said simply without even sparing Armand a glance. "Figured you'd show up here."
"Why?"
The boy flashed him a secretive something that could have been a smile if Armand didn’t know better, and shrugged. "Just a hunch."
Armand narrowed his eyes. He put his hands in his coat pockets and played with the cool metal object stored away there as they mounted the stairs onto the small bridge that linked both sides of the river together. The moon hung low over the old brick houses, and that, paired with the tranquility of the night, set up a mood between them that almost frightened Armand. It transported him back to times long lost, and the dichotomy between his nostalgia and the entirely new, yet undefined feeling this boy's presence inspired, awoke a vulnerability within him he couldn’t afford.
Still, he followed Daniel’s lead as he stopped in the middle of the bridge and leaned against the railing to admire the way the moonlight kissed the surface of the water. Basked in the silence which was only interrupted by the gentle schtik of Daniel’s lighter as he brought a cigarette to his mouth and lit it.
"So," the boy said as he exhaled smoke, leaning his elbow on the railing and angling his body towards Armand. "Haven't found out what’s so fascinating about me yet, have you?"
Armand blinked at him. The boy had always been borderline suicidal with the way he would tread boldly into places no sane man would ever dare go, but this level of unabashed cheek was new. Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe Armand simply hadn’t been paying enough attention. Maybe he had become negligent, too predictable. Spoilt the boy, allowed him to grow too audacious. There was still fear spiking his blood with adrenaline, Armand could smell it off him, but it was far too subtle a note for his taste.
"Well, you know," the boy continued. "Because otherwise you wouldn’t be here, right? And I," he took another slow drag of his cigarette, made Armand wait for it. "Well, me, I would be dead by now, of course."
Armand rolled his shoulders, rubbed his thumb over the knuckles of his forefinger. "I enjoy playing with my food."
"Food, huh? Yet somehow you never even so much as grazed me with your fangs since that night."
Petulant. That’s what that tone was.
Armand’s eyes flared with newfound ardor, color changing, he was certain, to the uncanny amber that frightened and repulsed so many. He moved slowly, gave Daniel the time to anticipate every step as he crowded him against the railing. The acceleration of Daniel's heart-beat was music to his ears.
"Careful with your tone, boy," he whispered into Daniel's ear when he stood so close the tips of their shoes touched. "I might just get tempted to throw you into the river."
Daniel's breath caught in his throat as he stared back into his eyes. He didn’t even notice when his cigarette dropped from his hold and fell to the ground, yet he didn’t flinch. In fact, he almost didn’t blink at all as he held Armand’s gaze, but Armand caught the way his throat worked.
He waited until Daniel was certain the threat had been a bluff, until his heart rate slowed back down to something calmer, more normal.
Only then did he push Daniel over the railing.
He was still laughing when Daniel dragged himself back ashore and walked back up the stairs onto the bridge to scowl at Armand, sopping wet and shivering.
"This isn't funny, man, it's cold as fuck! I'm gonna catch my death." Internally, he was wondering if that was exactly Armand’s intention, to give him pneumonia and watch him slowly suffocate on whatever bodily fluids would collect in his lungs. It only made Armand laugh harder. He wiped tears off his face and offered the boy his heavy coat he'd shrugged out of while he'd watched Daniel swim back ashore.
"When I was around your age, I once got so drunk I fell into the canal." He inclined his head. "More than once."
"The canal." Armand could almost see the cogs turning in Daniel's head. "In Venice, I'm guessing?" It was a lazy guess, for the history of canals in Italy was vast, and it grated on Armand’s nerves that the most obvious guess was indeed the correct one. "Ha!" The boy exclaimed, even though Armand had not verbally confirmed anything. "Bet it wasn’t as cold as this, though."
"I wouldn't know. I was so drunk I wouldn't have felt it."
"You were twenty-three then?"
The smile slipped from Armand's lips. He hadn't meant to give so much away. Still an eager black hole, this boy. "Thereabouts." He turned away, began walking down the bridge towards the street.
The boy scrambled to follow. "What do you mean, you don't remember exactly?"
"Age is just a number when you've spent over four centuries on this planet."
"Over four hundred, huh? You got a more exact number for me?" Daniel dug in the breast-pocket of his shirt for his notebook. Soaked with river water as it was, it was rendered unusable – Armand exhaled with unexpected relief. Then again, the reporter's mind was like a tape recorder of its own.
When no answer came forward, Daniel let the hand with the notebook drop to his side. "Well, you don't look it, if that helps."
That startled a laugh out of Armand. He stifled it immediately, hid his smile behind his hand. Stealing a glance, Armand caught the smug look on the boy's face. He didn't dare look inside his mind again.
Clearing his throat, Daniel played with the belt of his borrowed coat. "Where are we going anyway?"
"Do you make a habit of following dangerous men through the night without knowing where they might lead you?"
Daniel snorted. "I think you know better than anyone that yeah, I do."
He stuck his hands in his (Armand's) coat pockets and, for once, fell silent. Like this, they walked the next few blocks until Armand came to a sudden stop.
Almost immediately, Daniel copied him, looking around curiously.
Armand stepped closer. He could feel it in the air between them like an electric current, the boy's heart-rate accelerating once more, reveled in the way his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed thickly. Armand's eyes tracked the tantalizing curve of his throat.
He slipped his own hand along Daniel's in the right pocket, soaking up the hitch of the boy's breath as their knuckles brushed. Too soon, he retracted his hand, dangling what he'd been looking for from his fingers. Daniel's reflexes caught on quickly enough to catch it in his palm when Armand dropped it.
Daniel looked up at him questioningly.
"Room number 273. Warm yourself up." It was only now that the boy noticed they had stopped directly in front of a hotel – and not one of those dingy motels Daniel normally chose for himself. "Wouldn't want you to catch pneumonia and suffocate on your own fluids, now would we?"
"Wouldn't we," Daniel said dryly. When Armand moved away, he looked up at him, startled. "Aren't you coming inside?"
Armand smiled, stepped closer once more. "Why, is that an invitation, Mr. Molloy?"
For a fraction of a second, Armand allowed himself the fantasy. Thought about how it would be, to follow the boy into his room. To strip the wet clothes off his body, one by one. To prepare a bath for him, to press onto his shoulders until he sank down, entire body immersed in hot water. He imagined tracing with a washcloth across his shoulder blades, his bare chest, his slim waist...
Daniel shuffled his feet, drawing Armand out of his fantasy. The boy ducked his head, but not fast enough to hide the blush coloring his cheeks a more satisfying pink tone. "No, man, 's just like with huge spiders, you know. Better to have them in your line of sight than knowing they’re there with no idea where exactly."
"Spiders." Armand said dryly.
Daniel flashed a more confident grin at him. "Or creepy bugs."
Almost involuntarily, Armand's lip twitched up into a dangerous smile. "Maybe that’s exactly what I want." He leaned closer, until his breath was ghosting over the shell of Daniel's ear. "Keep you on your toes."
Daniel's eyelids fluttered, struggled to stay open, and he stumbled a step after him when Armand stepped away too swiftly for his mortal brain to comprehend. From the shadows, Armand watched as Daniel licked his lips, stared into the dark for a moment before he exhaled, his breath a ghostly fog in the chilly autumn air. "Right," Armand heard him mutter. Was that a hint of disappointment in his voice?
Armand watched the boy linger there a moment longer before he turned his back to Armand and made his way into the hotel lobby.