Chapter Text
The first thing to tip Daniel off to the fact that anything was amiss was the eerie, heavy quiet of the apartment.
Even a creature like Armand, cat-like in his grace and stealth, still made more than enough noise for Daniel's heightened to pick up. The silence was unsettling and oppressive, especially on a night like this; the moon high in the sky, just barely obscured by soft wisps of clouds. Armand should be padding around the apartment, engrossed in some project or scheme, buzzing like a bee, but instead... stillness.
The second indicator that something was off was the empty iPad charger left beside the couch. Typically if Armand was doing something neutral - balancing finances that he doesn't need to worry about - or entertaining - recreating a Venetian canal 1-to-1 in Minecraft - he would do it somewhere Daniel could see him. The boy's working theory was that it was most convenient for when Armand wanted to show something off, or just for reassurance that his fledgling wouldn't up and vanish on him. The iPad being gone, and its ancient owner surely having vanished with it, put Daniel even further on edge.
Closing his eyes, the boy strained his ears to listen more closely to the dim hum of the apartment, picking through noises for the sound of his maker's heart.
There's the radiator, that's the pipes, just the floor shifting... there.
His sweep across the floor plan turned up the sound of a small, fluttering heartbeat tucked into the guest room, which Armand and his boy had renovated a few months ago into a comfortable tomb for moments in which Armand - or, more typically, Arun - needed total silence and darkness. Daniel was only allowed in on rare occasions, and he took these visits very seriously.
Of course, he hadn't been invited this time, but that had never really stopped him before. That old wives tale about vampires needing permission to enter a space couldn't be further from the truth, especially for one as nosy as Daniel Molloy.
Is it really being nosy if he needs me?
Approaching the solemnly shut guest room door with a careful tread, Daniel pressed his ear to the wood and held his reflexive breath to listen. His observation turned up only a quiet, mouse-like shuffling and a tiny, almost unnoticeable sniffle. Shit. The boy had never been very good with crying kids.
Chancing his luck, Daniel cleared his throat to slice through the resistant silence before speaking softly into the seam of the door. "Hey, kiddo..." ...No reply. He waited a few dragging moments before trying again. "Everything okay in there, kid?"
A thick swallow, then another small sniff. Armand's voice came through the door muffled and closed off. "'m okay."
The simplicity of it struck Daniel unexpectedly hard. He'd heard plenty of lies from Armand before, more than enough for several lifetimes. Though, usually, they include some level of flowery speech or obfuscation of some detail that would blow his case wide open. This tiny whisper was different: no artifice, no layers of persona, just a small, obvious lie. Like he barely expects it to work. Like he only answered out of reflex.
Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Daniel placed a heavy hand on the brass doorknob. Some trinket Armand dug out of a used furniture pile, probably. "I'm gonna come in, okay?" Giving it another moment, and finding himself met only with silence, the boy turned the knob and gingerly pulled the door open, peering inside.
If he hadn't been expecting it, the sight probably would have bowled Daniel over. Armand was curled in a pile of plush blankets and old shirts, his knees tucked close to his chest and his tablet resting against his thighs, reflecting a sickly, pale light onto his features. The vampire's face was streaked with shiny, deep red rivers trailing down his cheeks, the whites of his eyes tinged pink and his nose running similarly.
He flicked his eyes up to meet Daniel's, and the almost-red-brown of them struck the boy harder than he expected - in this low light, with his pupils blown and his irises darker than the usual shocking orange, his curls mussed and wild around his tear-streaked face... Daniel saw for a moment what Lestat must have seen, what had Louis described to him, what someone much, much darker must have done. There was a boy trapped within this man, and he was very small, and very frightened.