Work Text:
Legundo could always tell he was different from everyone else. While kids his age played outside, he holed himself up inside to play chess with his grandma. While fellow soldiers talked about pretty girls back home, he had never understood the appeal. Some jokes and saying had also just flown over his head, equating that to not favoring social interactions. That led Legundo to his current situation.
He was very much not paying attention to everyone in the town arguing about what to do with the latest vampire attack in Ren’s tavern. Legundo was too preoccupied staring out the window, definitely not thinking about the cure.
Maybe he should go to the further out crypts? He squeezed his cane tighter as his hip gave a throb in protest. He should probably listen back in…
“We should just storm them!” Martyn gestured with his hand in the vague direction of the castle.
Ren nodded in agreement. “They be an agressing threat, don’tcha know?”
“It would be too dangerious!” Cleo sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
“But we can’t let them desecrate more beacons!” Martyn argued, slamming his face on the bar table, clearly having a few too many cups of Ren’s homebrewed ale.
“Everybody calm down, or else we can all just get married.” Abolish sighed and shook his head.
“EXCUSE ME???” The world seemed to tilt for Legundo. He whipped around, the movement jarring his spine, to stare in shock at Abolish, who stood in his blind spot. “We- you think- what?” His mouth opened and closed a few times in exasperation.
"It’s...a figure of speech, doc," Cleo explained, her voice softening. She reached out a hand as if to steady him, but retreated when he flinched away like it'd burn. "It means that if everyone was going to act crazy, we might as well do something equally insane, like marrying everyone.”
Legundo blinked, his face twitching. He adjusted his stance, shifting his weight off his bad hip. "I fail to see the correlation," Legundo grumbled. "How is a life-long commitment an appropriate threat for an argument about attacking the castle?"
Cleo opened her mouth to respond, but Martyn stood up and pointed his sword up at the ceiling. “Those blood-suckers won’t know what hit them!”
“We’re NOT attacking the castle!” Cleo exclaimed.
Legundo sighed, looking back out the window. “I think I’m going back to my house.” He didn’t wait for a response. The ‘marriage’ comment was still rattling around his brain like a loose bolt in a machine, nonsensical and irritating. He grabbed his cane, and began the slow, rhythmic process of limping toward the door while hopping no one noticed.
The cool night air hit him like a physical blow, clearing the stagnant scent of homebrew ale from his lungs. In his youth, Legundo had loved the cold. It had been crisp, clean, and demanded nothing. Now, at fifty, the temperature was a thief, stealing the fluidity from his joints and increasing the dull roar of pain in his hip.
He hadn't made it halfway down the path to his house before a shadow detached itself from the side of the tavern."Leaving so soon, doc? The 'wedding' hasn't even started."
Legundo didn't need to turn his head to know it was Abolish. He kept his gaze fixed on the uneven ground, using his cane to test the dirt before committing his weight.
"The conversation was no longer productive," Legundo rasped, the cold air making his lungs feel tight. "And I have...things to attend to."
"Like sleeping?" Abolish fell into step beside him, his pace easily matching Legundo’s labored stride. "Or are you going out for a 'midnight snack'?"
Legundo’s jaw tightened, heart hammering against his ribs. "I’m just getting some crimson, Abolish. I’m capable enough to not need supervision."
"I'm not supervising. I’m observing," Abolish countered. He leaned in slightly, his eyes tracking the way Legundo’s hand trembled on the cane. "Your steps are uneven and your hands are shaky."
"It's hard not to limp when I’ve been walking with one for the better part of my life," Legundo lied, though the words felt heavy.
Abolish hummed, a sound of deep disapproval. "Doc, I’ve seen vampires before. Real ones. They don’t wheeze from the cold air, and they certainly don’t experience the indignity of old age."
Legundo stopped. The sudden silence of the Oakhurst woods felt deafening. He turned his head slowly, bringing Abolish into the narrow field of his good eye. "What do you want?" Legundo demanded.
Abolish studied him for a few moments. "I want to know why you would lie about being a vampire.”
"I’m trying to bring the town together," Legundo whispered. "The town trusts me and if I can show them vampires are still people, then maybe we can stop this needless conflict."
Abolish’s expression softened, just a fraction. "Go home, doc. Take the eye out. Rest the leg. The militia won’t go anywhere tonight. Pearl and Cleo have them handled."
Legundo watched Abolish for a few moments. He glanced behind them, checking to see that they’re still alone. “How did you find out?”
“You’re not as stealthy as you’d think.”
Legundo sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I just hope no one else figures it out…”
Abolish shrugs. “If they did, would it be so bad?”
He stared in shock at Abolish. “I just want to make up for my sins, Abolish.”
Abolish sighed and looked back at the tavern. “I should probably head back before they break anything else, if that crashing was anything to go by.”
A crash…? “What?” Legundo’s eyebrows furrowed together.
“Did you not hear it?” Abolish, for once, sounded confused.
Heat crawled up Legundo’s neck as he glanced away. “Just didn’t hear it, I guess…”
There were a few moments of awkward silence before Abolish nodded. “Goodnight, doctor.”
“Goodnight, Abolish.” With that, the pair split off, Legundo’s awkward, uneven stride filling the silence as he continued his walk back to his house.
Inside, the silence was waiting for him. He sat heavily on the edge of his cot, the wood groaning under him. With practiced, shaking fingers, he reached up. He removed the monocle first, then the glass eye, placing it in a cloth before setting the pair on his desk.
He leaned back, staring up at the ceiling a few moments before changing into his sleepwear. Laying down in his cot, he stared up at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to overtake. He should work on the cure, but at this point Legundo knew he wouldn’t be able to get back up without resting. He should do his job…but he could be selfish just one last time.