Disclaimer: This is going to be the only disclaimer throughout this story. I do not own these wonderful characters. Please note that this is an Alternate Universe story.
Like You
By: Apherion
Chapter 1
They worked together. They had their own secrets. Yet, they couldn't figure out what it was that made them so alike.
"Father, I have to see my cousin, Doreen. You see, she's expecting a visit from me."
"But…but you can't go," Father Abel Nightroad pleaded with her. The redheaded nun shook her head.
"I have to otherwise she'll come looking for me," Esther said looking at the silver-headed man with wire-frame glasses.
"But…but…" he trailed off, looking around the room almost as if he was trying to come up with some sort of reason for her not to be able to go today. "You have to take me with you," he said almost desperately. She laughed.
"No, Father, you can manage yourself for one day without me being here," she smiled genially at him. After all, Father Nightroad was absolutely capable of being able to take care of himself…except for the not being able to find his glasses—which are always on top of his head. Except for the fact that walking was as much of an obstacle for him as flying was for her. Except that no matter how hard he tried not to, he couldn't seem to be able to take care of himself without her being right beside him. She sighed, talking herself into taking him along.
"All right," she caved before he could start begging. He smiled like a child whose mother had just given in to giving him candy before dinner.
"Great, I'll get the luggage," he smiled, crinkling his eyes. The happy look on his face reminded her why she liked being with him. No matter how hopeless he was, he was worth being with. She blushed, turning away from his view to hide her scarlet face. Recovering, she didn't have enough time to tell him to remember—
She winced when she heard the crash and shook her head. She ran towards the direction he went almost immediately.
"Father Nightroad!" She said aghast at the position he had gotten in. The poor man didn't see that the stairs were going down and inevitably tripped down a whole flight of stairs. She covered her mouth with her hands and rushed to his aid.
"Are you hurt?" She asked and he sat up belatedly, laughing.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine…just clumsy," he smiled still that cute crinkly-eyed smile. Her chagrin for him was poorly hidden, but Esther helped him to his feet.
"How about I'll get the luggage, you just get in the car. Can you manage that, Father?" She poked fun at him, returning his grin. He nodded, laughing still, and she sighed once again.
"It's like he can't stand on his own two feet without me beside him," she whispered to herself as she continued down the steps to the bottom floor for they're luggage, which hadn't been unpacked except for one day's outfit because they weren't staying in this rented space of a house for long.
She got on the right-hand side of the car, the driving side, so as she wouldn't have to fret for her life if Abel drove. A gloved hand cranked the car and both joined on the steering wheel. Her foot touched the gas pedal and they sped off through the rural streets of England.
The drive seemed to take forever. It didn't help with Father Nightroad's occasional 'are we there yet?' exclamations and several accompanying sighs. Esther just kept her eyes on the road making very small, small talk as she was best at driving when she wasn't distracted.
At last, they reached their destination of seeing Sister Esther's Cousin Doreen. Doreen was a sweet, elderly lady. She was round and pleasant, with rosy cheeks and kind, motherly eyes. True, her kids were all grown and married by now, but Doreen insisted on living in the country. Her husband had complied with her wishes, only to pass on a mere ten years after the move, which made Cousin Doreen's kids range ten to fifteen years older than Esther.
"Oh my word, is that Esther?" Doreen called joyfully, waving at her cousin. Doreen wasn't exactly a blood relative as Esther was orphaned at a young age, but Doreen took her in and somewhere along those lines Esther started calling her Cousin Doreen.
"How is work for you?" Doreen asked, relieving Esther of her bags. Though elderly, Doreen was healthy and strong, no matter how plump she appeared. Esther exchanged a temporary look with Father Nightroad.
Their job was indeed a bit awkward to converse about. As they seemed to run into vampires and other unholy creatures while they went about collecting data for the church, it was really difficult to edit the stories. Of course, the Vatican knew about the oddities of vampirism and witchcraft and lycanthropy, but Doreen's mind was innocent to the fact of such monsters living in the world. Esther thought it would be a horrible circumstance to rob Doreen her solace that the world was safe.
"Oh, it's quite interesting, but the Vatican would rather our silence be kept, to prevent unwanted attention," Abel answered before Esther could say anything. She smiled and nodded, liking his story better than hers.
"If you're anxious to rest a bit, I've readied rooms, if you would follow me Father," she smiled politely and he inclined his head to Doreen. He didn't seem suspicious that Doreen knew about him. In fact, Esther spoke plenty enough to satiate Doreen's thirst for gossip when they talked about Abel.
As soon as Father Nightroad was able to settle in his room, Doreen led Esther to her old room.
"Was that the man you told me about? The one that was extremely 'graceful'?" Esther laughed and nodded. "Well, he is very good-looking nonetheless." Esther blushed when Doreen said that. Who wouldn't though?
"Father Abel is a very respectable and honorable man," Sister Esther said, slightly abashed and trying to hide her embarrassment.
"Of course he is," Doreen nodded in agreement, but her tone suggested otherwise. After all, Esther couldn't blame her. Nowadays, even if the man was a priest, a man and a woman being together without being married was questionable.
"Nothing is going on between us," Esther said firmly to her care-giver of thirteen years. Doreen was helping her unpack her suitcase.
"I didn't say anything to incriminate the two of you. Though, it is not in your best interest, in my own opinion."
"Good, keep it that way." Esther was shocked at her own audacity. "Oh, Doreen, I'm so sorry! I did not mean to sound so sharp!" Doreen laughed lightly, with the laugh of a woman who understood all.
"No problems, dear. What I mean is that you and Father Nightroad are both reasonably attractive and that the two of you being together couldn't possibly set a great public example, with all the hysteria about Pope Peter the seventeenth with Madame Flanders…" Doreen trailed of sagely. Everyone knew about the scandal that had occurred only two years ago. True, Esther and Abel have been working together for the church since Esther had turned eighteen—just barely months before the incident.
Doreen finished helping Esther unpack before starting on dinner, leaving Esther to sit on her bed and watch the sun slowly sink below the horizon. A knock alleviated her brooding thoughts, but when she faced the doorway, her heart jumped into her throat and pulsated like mad. Esther's gasp of surprise was enough to make Father Nightroad concerned and worried.
"I'm terribly sorry to have frightened you, Sister Esther; I did not mean to alarm you." His sincerity was always impeccably real. She couldn't help but smile, choking further still on her breathing. She wasn't going to risk talking and her voice cracking.
"May I sit with you?" He asked, hesitantly. The thoughts of her and Doreen's conversation echoed defiantly in her head, but she nodded to answer his request. After all, who could deny Father Abel Nightroad anything he desired? He had the role of a male 'damsel in distress' down and he was the champion as well. Her throat constricted her air supply for a second because she remembered all the times he had saved her because she had made a blunder.
"The sunset is beautiful today, isn't it Esther?" His glasses reflected her image when she went to look into his eyes because of the glare the sun was causing. Today's sunset was no different; they always liked to watch them. They always watched them together. She nodded as his hand covered hers. She blinked at him, wondering if he had truly touched her hand intentionally. A moment later she realized his hand had yet to retract from hers. Intentional, she thought, trying to continue breathing.
Just outside the room, footsteps came to their attention and immediately they moved away from each other. Doreen must not have seen anything, Esther convinced herself as she finished washing up for dinner. She would have said something to me by now. They blessed the food and began to eat.
"How long have the two of you worked together?" Doreen asked, and Esther wanted to hang her head in embarrassment, vainly hoping that Abel wouldn't answer, but she knew he would.
"Two years, since she was eighteen," he replied easily. "This is exceptional food, Ms."—Doreen however cut him off.
"Doreen, please, I insist." He smiled graciously.
"Doreen," he said, giving her the smile that Esther had grown accustomed to.
"So you two have been together since…" Doreen trailed unobtrusively.
"Yes, but make no mistake…nothing's…" Abel was getting flustered, like Esther. Doreen laughed at both reactions.
"Of course, of course…I would never try to make the accusation, but I just didn't want to intrude…" She played it off very well in Esther's opinion. How that woman does that is a mystery to me, she thought, sipping on the water she was given, while Father Nightroad spoke.
"You aren't, it's just that I don't think Esther even knows about—" Esther choked on her water. Coughing, she slammed her fist on the table and yelled at Abel.
"Excuse…me?" She spluttered, enraged. "How would you even know that?" She remembered her lovely diaries she kept until being sent off with Father Abel Nightroad. Curse them to hell, she thought, now realizing that he must have read them.
"I…I uh…" Abel tried to smile it off, thinking Esther would be deterred from her anger.
"You read them, didn't you?" Esther accused ungracefully. She was still coughing up water. Doreen was forgotten in the midst of this verbal battle.
"So what if I did?" Abel said, retorting back just like a younger brother might, trying to antagonize his older sister into attacking so he can call Mom (Doreen in this case) to his rescue.
"You"—she yelled, but she prevented herself from using a curse. She so badly wished to call him something though.
"Children, please," Doreen said, her eyes dancing with mirth. Esther blue gaze glowered at Abel for the remainder of dinner as she tried to remember what all she had written. She knew she had something in the about who she'd be the charge of. What I wrote, she thought fretfully, oh my god. She felt her heart-rate increase exponentially. She excused herself from the dining room, unable to handle being so close to Abel Nightroad.
She lay down, hoping to have sleep overcome her, but it evaded her like the elusive lightning bug.
The door to her room opened noisily and Doreen stepped inside, in a nightgown while matching slippers. It must've been one o'clock in the morning judging by the moon. How could Doreen stay up so late? Insomnia was Esther's first guess, but she knew better than that as Doreen never suffered from it. Doreen must've been waiting for Abel to go to sleep because she needed to talk to her about something.
"Doreen," Esther said, sitting up and making room for the older woman on the bed.
"Esther," Doreen said, smiling wanly at her, sitting down. "I've wanted to talk to you, but Father Abel just wouldn't sleep," she admitted, yawning to emphasize the truth. I knew it, Esther thought.
"What is it?" Esther asked quietly, following Doreen's whispering example.
"Well…Esther, I really would feel better if I knew your feelings toward Father Nightroad. I feel as though you're withholding information from me." Esther sighed, knowing that Doreen's sharpness would've caught on no matter what Esther had done. It was scary how Doreen seemed to be able to read her mind.
"I…I don't know what I feel for him." Doreen shook her head, her dark brown eyes fixed on Esther's blue.
"Don't tell half-truths. I raised you, I'm allowed a mother's right, am I not?" Esther sighed, tucking a stray strand of red hair behind her pale-colored ear. Doreen swiped at her own brown—flaked with grey—hair.
"I like him Doreen, I like him a lot. Yet, I don't know how he feels about me. I don't think he feels the same. I mean, there are times when I think that he will actually hold me like a woman, but then it's like I'm a little kid again and I'm untouchable." Confessing this feeling somehow made Esther feel better.
"I know what you mean, child. I felt the same way about my husband—may he rest in peace—when I was your age. Didn't know how he felt, seemed to try and convince me he loved me while he seemed to say 'I'm no good for you'. Somehow though, I got up enough courage to tell him how I felt and that I didn't like being drug around for the roller coaster of emotions that he was putting me on. After doing that, I realized that even if he rejected me, I could live on without regrets because at least I knew I had tried." Actually, all of what Doreen was saying made sense. Why not tell him how I feel? She thought decisively. Because he'll tell you that you're too young for him; the negative voice gave rebuttal. Still, she pressed on in her head, trying to stay positive. I have to try.
"I wish that he would just be less cryptic. I feel as though I'm in a maze when I'm around him." Doreen looked at her.
"Explain that one for me, I've gotten along in years," Doreen smiled and Esther nodded, not smiling.
"I say it feels like a maze, but it's more like a maze with combination codes. I have to say everything just right and I have to do everything just right to unlock a part of the maze that gets me closer to him, but if I say one thing or do something that he doesn't like or…something, it's like the whole thing is reset and I have to start over, like a game. And each time, the combinations change, and I can't figure him out." Esther sighed into her hands. Doreen rubbed her back gently.
"Sweetheart, I know it's frustrating, but…keep trying, eventually you'll win the game. Besides, whoever said it didn't take work to continue a relationship lied…a lot," Doreen smiled and removed got up from the bed.
"Goodnight, Doreen," Esther said, actually feeling tired now. Yawning, she got under the blankets and laid her head on her pillow, closing her eyes.
"Goodnight, Esther," Doreen said, closing the door completely shut behind her as she walked out.
In the shadows, a sliver of moonlight caught the lens of a pair of glasses, the eyes hidden behind the glare wide with astonishment. Neither Doreen or Esther knew that he was there, and in consequence, he heard what it was that Doreen did not wish to speak to Esther about until he, Abel Nightroad, had 'gone to sleep'.
TBC...