Chapter Text
The night was young when a soft rain hit the roof of the carriage, Scott and Pearl sat side by side in the enclosed space. The road was littered with rocks gently shaking the carriage as they drove over them. The lanterns lit the path and seeped in through the windows illuminating the small carriage coach. It would be quite awhile till they reached the castle. Both Shelby and Chloe are waiting for them. Probably the only thing keeping either in the carriage at all.
Pearl's hands fiddled with her cloak, pulling and stretching the fabric in rhythmic patterns. She looked out the window, ready to leave the carriage as soon as she could to get away from Him… Scott sat silently next to her, his ankles crossed over each other and his posture straight. The tension surrounding them was tight and thick.
Pearl was irritated, Scott would have to be stupid not to get that much from how she acted around him. Always blunt with her responses, tensing her stance and looking at him with eyes driven by anger, resentment, and possibly regret (?)
Deep down he knew why, what happened. It just surprised him that it still affected her. He killed himself for her, so she could win, survive; have a chance to escape the watchers. Not that he ever told her that. He never told her why he did it, he just did. He expected her to know. Put the pieces together herself, she was smart enough to.
He wasn't supposed to know; to remember most the games, but gaining immortality had its perks. Apparently being a vampire blocks some of the watchers' hold on the lifers, mumbo never told him that. But if the watchers found out he remembered, that would not be pretty in the slightest aspect of the word. He had no doubt that their preexisting hate would just magnify.
Void was he really going to have to be the one to break the ice? Heh breaking the ice, ironic isn't it? He was never one to be good with emotions, not after Jimmy... That took a lot out of him. He took a breath in, opened his mouth words on the tip of his tongue.
"You remember, don't you." Pearl said, not making eye contact. She just stared at the passing terrain. The trees passing by in a hypnotic view. Her voice is overly melancholy.
Scott's words caught in his throat. His mouth felt dry. He didn't expect her to speak to him at all, especially not first.
"I don't know what you're talking about" the lies danced on Scott's tongue, an old habit he never quite shook. His lies were a shield for himself, never quite able to let down his walls all at once.
"The games Scott... The games"
"... What about them"
"You're not supposed to remember any games you didn't win... Yet you do"
"What makes you think that?" he said, the tone coming off as accusatory, throwing verbal daggers painted to hurt. He hated any topic reminding him of that time in his eternal existence.
"You're a horrible whisperer, you thought I wouldn't overhear your little chat with Martyn?" ah that, you share a simple kiss with an old teammate and everybody turns heads apparently. Nobody can mind their business in OakHurst it seems.
"Ah, I see" he responds, indirectly affirming her suspicions.
"How"
"How what?" Scott looked up to her, meeting her eyes, the blue eyes he grew to know now with an amber cast. He will have to find out why later. Part of him missed the crystal blue, he will be disappointed if it's gone forever.
"How are you alive? I've died, Martyn has died, I'm sure everyone else had too, my memory's spotty sure but we've died... You on the other hand, you seem aware. Too aware for a dead man ." She explained, sharing a suffocating eye contact. If he was any less used to this he might have shrunk back into himself, but he's seen a glaze of that type too many times for it to faze him anymore.
"Mumbo," he explained. His tone is monotone, not elaborating any further past the name.
"Mumbo?" She asked.
"He's my sire, he turned me during my last life. Part of why I won I would say, the fledgling blood lust and all."
"Really? Didn't see him as the "sire" type"
"He really wasn't, he helped but he wasn't the best mentor on earth"
"So he just kicked you out of the nest hmm, a little defenceless baby bird" a mocking tone disguised as playful banter slipped past her lips and danced with her words.
"Hold on now I still won that season"
"Thanks to the newly found bloodlust"
"I learned how to manage. Oh if I could only go back to my prime I could show you just how strong I was"
"Oh your so scarry, like you didn't kill yourself for me"
"You were part of the brood whether I wanted you to be or not"
"Brood?"
"A brood is a familiar vampiric unit, normally sire and fledglings, but in double life it got more complicated with soulmates. Your soul was tied to vampires, so by proxy you shared some of the urges."
"That explained some of double life I guess" she started "So is "don't kill broodmates" part of the vampiric code of something?"
"No, I just didn't want to kill you"
“Really now? Because you didn't show that well” she looked away
“Ive never been the emotional type.”
“Grand gestures have always been your thing.” she couldn't help but tease him a bit, he deserved it after all.
“I can never find the right words”
"Hmm... Any clue on how you remember all of this?"
"Not a clue...." He said, for once he spoke the truth, no use in lying to his soulmate, even if not connected she always knows. And he can also always read her. "... Your mad"
"I'm- I'm not mad just..." she stumbled trying to identify the emotion she was feeling, but it was too specific to label.
He cut her rambling off. "You should be mad" he showed a rare speck of vulnerability.
Silence washes over them. The cold air swearing around them wrapping the two in a spine tickling embrace. The whole thing only puts them on edge more. Scott found a strange pleasure in the cold, like a distant friend. What would Aeor think of him now?
"We never got along" she said, looking over slightly "you always looked at me with a disgust-"
"It wasn't disgust... It was never disgust"
"What would you say it was then" she said, the tension in the air malleable.
He was vulnerable. They both were. Only an imbecile would not see that this was his only chance to rectify anything between them. "Regret..? I- felt like I owed something to you that I couldn't give"
"I just wanted you"
"And I still fucked that up. I-" he passed, taking a breath to recenter himself. "I left you, I'm aware of how bad that was. I was mad, I took it out on you"
"You're just seeing that now?"
"No, I knew. I just was too scared to admit it to myself"
"Oh so now you're a big scary vampire, and you're too brave to be scared of feelings?"
"Exaaactly" he played off of the playful tone of the jab. This was nice, felt less stiff. It felt like progress.
"I'm sorry for leaving you like that"
Pearl gassed "An apology too? Have the watchers shown their favor to me?"
"As if you haven't always been favored," he said, his face dropping slightly in a playful way.
“I have always played by the rules, you found loopholes.”
“Im a creative soul, what can I say. I play by my own rules”
“And by your own rules you mean sacrificing yourself?”
“My will to live is too strong, remember?” he said mocking the watchers analysis of him
She snorted “That's a load of bullshit” she said before a giggle kicked in.
And for the first time in forever he was able to laugh along. It wasn't fixed, but this would be ok. They would be ok.