[Fic] those days were long (and the nights longer still) (The Attic - A.M. Burrage)
- Fandom: The Attic - A.M. Burrage
- Pairing: Stanley Forbes/Derek Wilson
- Tags: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting
- Word-Count: 1547
- Status: Complete
- First Published: 2024-01-07
- Disclaimer: I do not own The Attic and make no profit from this—it is solely a hobby for fun, with no financial compensation.
Summary:
A most welcome new friend.
Notes:
Written for Tiny Fandoms Flash: Challenge #003 - Unholy Nest
(I instantly went 'Unholy Nest = Vampires!', lmao)
Work Text:
Forbes was not one to leave his bloodlust to chance. This was not out of an inherent moral obligation, or even due to the legality of the manner; it was simply terribly gauche, he found, to be running around after young maidens in the dark of the night, cobbling around on streets and scaring all manner of good folk. It was terribly inconvenient, too, as such adventures always lead to a great deal of blood being lost in the victim's struggle, and ending up in all kinds of places it shouldn't, like his hair. Or on his tie. And his hat.
The screaming was grating, too; hardly a good companion to getting one's only meal of the day. And while the perpetual risk of getting caught was a mild annoyance at best, for Forbes possessed enough connections with others of his kind as to find the threat of jail little more than a paid vacation, being harassed by 'vampire hunters' was not something he considered fun—Forbes held no weakness before the sun, and found wooden stakes no more dangerous than any other person would, but that didn't mean getting chased around by violent men with pistols and holy water was to his tastes—and he would greatly prefer an existence of making no waves, and summoning no storms upon himself.
It was rather of great urgency, then, that he posted an ad in the local newspaper, asking for people willing to sell their blood to him to present themselves at his abode at once, for experimental reasons, of course. There was a great deal of things a savvy vampire could get away with, Forbes had of late found, if one presented oneself as a man of science, and simple curiosity.
Forbes' butler, the reputable Mr. Walters, busied around the house as Forbes waited the next morning in his study, properly setting up the labwork to successfully extract blood from humans without killing them, and without revealing his vampiric nature. It was no small feat, getting it set up correctly, and Forbes stuck himself with several needles during the course of the day to double-check that it was all working as it should, resulting in a blood deficiency so bold as to leave him dizzy and drained on his sofa when the doorbell, at long last, rang.
The butler opened the door—Forbes's hearing was not so great as to present itself as all-knowing or omniscience, but it did allow him to hear most things in the house—and Forbes listened to the man's calm, dulcet tones as he greeted the guest and invited them in.
"Thank you," a young man said when the butler grabbed his coat. "I apologize for visiting so late. I'm afraid I rather thought it was a joke, truth be told, and it took quite a while to convince myself to go."
"That's no trouble at all, young sir," Mr. Walters said. "If you just follow me."
The young sir followed, and Forbes managed indeed to flop around onto his back, spitting out the pillow that had ended up in his mouth when he fell over on the couch, and he looked up at the door just as it opened, Mr. Walters heading through first and the young man following him. Mr. Walters made no indication of finding Forbes' position funny—he was a reliable sort, Mr. Walters—and instead stood back as the young man studied the room, and the instruments set out in the corner.
"Well," the young chap said, walking over to Forbes and politely greeting him, "I assume you to be Mr. Stanley Forbes."
"That I am," Forbes said, pushing himself sitting onto one hand and woozily staring at the faint blur that must be a human person.
The man laughed. "For a vampire, you seem of no great strength at all, I must confess."
Forbes, in his weakness, found that it took a moment to properly parse the sentence and extract the correct information. For a vampire, the young man had said, and at last the bell tolled that he was just accused of being a vampire, a blood-sucking monster, and that that, perhaps, was no great thing to be accused of. "I assure you, I am quite human," Forbes said, and then tipped over on the couch again, woozy and dizzy and all manner of weak things at once, his entire world seeming to be spinning. He forced his eyes closed, and his breathing steady, and did not move even when the young man audaciously sat beside him.
"I am Derek Wilson," the man introduced himself, "And I am a vampire hunter." Forbes winced, and scooted away from Wilson, but it was a motion of great strength and left him sapped of any further, little more than a puddle of fleshy goo on his seat, and so he elected instead, to preserve whatever dignity of his that remained, to in fact not make any other movement at all.
"I can always tell when I am near a vampire, for I have upon me a ring that freezes when a vampire is within touching distance. And I must confess that it is freezing a great deal right now," Wilson remarked, and rather peacefully at that. Forbes was beginning to notice a distinct lack of pain—though he was quite nauseous from the blood loss—and further he was noticing that Wilson was not, in fact, presently attacking him, but instead quietly sitting by his side, not even scooting to close the distance Forbes' created with his hardwon movement. "I suppose I thought the ad was a joke," Wilson added, "But I thought it my moral duty to investigate, just in case."
"And so you have investigated," Forbes observed.
Wilson laughed. "You can call me Derek, old chap. You're about to drink my blood, after all."
"Drink your blood?" Forbes repeated, for he was not entirely sure his hearing was not suddenly going in his old age. He turned his head enough to look at Derek, to study him, and found no indication of a joke in the young man's countenance, only a calm expression that emphasized the certainty of his bearing. "Whyever would I do such a thing?" Forbes asked, struggling to push himself up again, to put them on equal footing, and in truth also so that he did not seem quite so pathetic to the handsome young man offering his blood.
"I find your idea of honestly purchasing blood instead of attacking your victims in the night to be quite novel, and would like to help your experiment," Derek said. He held out his hand. "May I?"
Forbes was not entirely certain what Derek intended with such a gesture, but the lack of blood bestowed upon him a great dizziness, and no particular desire for any complicated thinking, and so he grabbed the man's hand and was effortlessly pulled sitting. He swayed, then, for the entire world turned upside down for a moment and he could not tell where he ended and the rest of the universe began. It was only the warm hand in his grasp, securely holding onto him and keeping him upright, that seemed to be real and so he held on with great ferocity, intending almost to steal that hand for himself, so great a support did he find it.
"You wish to sell your blood?" Forbes asked.
"Have you ever drawn blood from a human before?" Derek asked, in turn. Forbes shook his head, stopped because it only made the dizziness worse, and so Derek said, "Then I shall help you figure out how to do it safely and honestly, and to find a fair price to purchase the blood for."
"A quite agreeable proposition," Forbes remarked, managing at last to get a good view of the young man. The first thing he noted was the eyes; they were of a remarkable color, and Forbes found himself able to get lost in them almost distressingly easily, his mind captured. Then, he noted the strong features, the wide shoulders and the slimmer waist, and the well-fitting clothes, and indeed he even noted the attractive neck and lips, the strong jawline he suddenly ached to touch, simply to see if it would cut him.
Derek smiled. That, too, Forbes noted somewhere deep in his body, for it was as if a shock to his system had commenced; he was at once aware of so much more that had only simmered in the background. An attraction, he thought. Oh no, he thought.
"It is, is it not?" Derek mused, in one motion tilting his head and displaying the length of his neck, and Forbes did lick his lips then, could not be asked to suppress his wants quite so soon after his weakness, by his own hand though it might be.
Forbes said, "We shall need to get started at your earliest convenience," for the clarity of his gaze was beginning to fade again, and he felt quite close to another tumble. Derek held onto him quite tightly, though, and so when Mr. Walters returned and offered assistance, they managed together to keep Forbes from fainting; a most undignified first meeting with a vampire hunter. Especially one so kind, and handsome, and warm.