The Hotel Dumort wasn't the type of place for secrets.
What with vampires and their super senses all living in the same building well within hearing range—even if they all did extended the curtsey of turning down their hearing as much as possible—nothing that happen in the Hotel never really went unnoticed.
This was something Simon forgot or never really figured out.
As a Fledgling still thinking as a mundane, he continually failed to understood that not did the rest of the Clan have incredibly extraordinary hearing, but that it also made them incredibly light sleepers.
If things went bump-bump during the day, the vampires did their best to ignore it and tune out what wasn't theirs to hear and know. At some point or another, give or take 10 to 20 years, everyone got used to the all too knowing smirks, light ribbing, and pointed grins exchanged in the dining hall in response to what had been overheard during the day.
There was only one rule to the playful jibes exchanged during breakfast, only one topic that no one talked, whispered, or even dare breath a word about.
What exactly happen in the time between 10:06 am and 10:16 am was the best unacknowledged and unspoken secret the Hotel Dumort has ever been privy to according to some of the longest dead vampires in residence. Even if everyone—except for Simon—already knew what was happening, the real secret was pretending they didn't.
…
At 10: 07 am, Simon began his attempt to sneakily ease his door open, inch by inch, just wide enough to squeeze through.
At 10:08 am, he began the same process to shut the door as soundlessly as possible.
At 10:09 am, Simon began his so-called his ninja moves, creeping silently down the hallway. He was always amazed at how empty the hotel felt during the day with the rest of the Clan asleep as they waited for the safety of the night. It made his life that much easier, not having to hide or turn around every time he bumped into someone on the way.
At 10:15 am, Raphael's door was quietly pulled open and close. If Simon could, he would thank god that the doorways of this hotel always seemed perfectly oiled considering how old it was.
At 10:16 am, the muted whisper of lullabies being sung began.
…
At 10:06 am, a minute before Simon was set to start sneaking out of his room, all the Middle Members of the Clan—which basically comprised of the entire Clan, except for their Leader and Fledgling—ducked into the nearest room to clear the hallways and stairwells between Simon's room and Raphael's room.
Just as they felt the rising and setting of the sun, they could also sense when it was time to dive for shelter as 10:06 am neared.
It had, admittedly, been a lesson learned through trial and error.
No one discussed the time Stan had accidently gotten trapped in the supply closet in his haste to duck out of Simon's way. Nor did anyone apologize for failing to retrieve him from said closet after he'd fallen asleep in it in the 11 minutes it took Simon to make his way into Raphael's room.
So that night, after Raphael had pulled open the supply closet door and found Stan curled around the mop, the Middle Members pointedly did not exchange smirks and amused glances over breakfast. Nor did they help Stan explain to Raphael just why he'd been in the closet in the first place. After all, everyone had reasoned silently in the safety of their own minds, to do so would have been to acknowledge the secret.
The next day, Zeke almost succeeds in staking himself after darting into one of the abandoned rooms of the hotel at 10:06 am and promptly plummet through the hole in the floor and down two more levels.
No one answers Raphael at the next Clan meeting—which Simon is absent from—when he starts asking why his clan is suddenly experiencing an increase in suspicious incidents around the hotel.
…
No one is sure if Raphael knows what exactly happens at 10:06 am or if he's too preoccupied waiting for 10:07 am to come around to pay attention to the sudden onslaught of opening and closing doors and the following hush that falls over the hotel.
They wouldn't put it past him to know what is going on. It would be perfectly like Raphael to pretend that he doesn't, just for the sake of watching his followers dig themselves into a bigger grave with their pitiful excuses.
Yes, Raphael, the door jammed and I couldn't get it open.
Dios mio. You may be the first vampire to have been defeated by a door, Stan.
Idiota! What happen? You know that room is off limits after the floor caved in last year!
It wasn't like I meant to fall through the floor!
Then why exactly did you, Zeke?
I… slept walked?
Dios mio. How can this be my clan?
…
Just to be safe though, no one asks their leader if he does know. It's not worth acknowledging the secret and risk disrupting the routine.
…
What Raphael doesn't seem to notice is that while there may be a rise of suspicious incidents occurring inside of the hotel, there is a significant decrease in incidents involving the Clan outside of the hotel.
The time between 10:06 am to 10:16 am also becomes a period of amnesty.
After a rough patrol that very nearly ended with Jacob and Elliot coming to blows, the secret could have been blown at 10:05.45 am when Jacob reached for the handle of the nearest room and realized a second too late that said room belonged to Elliot. The instinct to not blow the secret had won over in the end and as the two vampires faced off, the fight very nearly picked up where it had ended earlier that morning.
Before they got any further than baring fangs however, the familiar sound of a door easing open resounded through the hotel. They faltered, settling for suspiciously watching each other in silence as they held a momentary truce in the name of preserving the secret while Simon slowly made progress towards Raphael's room.
The forced confinement in each others presence could have antagonized the argument. However, all the could do was stare across from each other and listen to the door of Raphael's room open and close, the shuffle of blankets being rearranged, and the quiet melodies and lullabies be exchanged between their leader and their fledgling. Suddenly, continuing their fight in the name of pride didn't have the same appeal.
After all, you never knew when the Fledgling would finally start using his Vampire hearing and now wasn't the time to draw attention after Simon was finally safely tucked away with Raphael.
The two parted ways after exchanging curt nods.
That night, when Raphael called Elliot and Jacob together to discuss their disagreement during the previous night's patrol, both vampires retracted their complaints.
No one talked about what happen between 10:06 am and 10:16 am, because sometimes what it was the events taking place outside of Raphael's room that were just as important as what was going on inside it. Neither did anyone acknowledge that what happen during those 10 minutes had a tendency of creeping into other aspects of their life.
On the next patrol Elliot and Jacob are on, Jacob doesn't question Elliot's every decision just to get a rise out of him.
It doesn't seem that important anymore. At least, not after Jacob had watched as Elliot's face soften into that familiar expression of longing—for home, family, sunlight—as they'd both listened to Raphael sing. It was something Jacob felt too. In those 10 minutes he'd spent stuck with Elliot in his room, he'd begun to remember that the others were homesick as well.
Sunlight may not be an option anymore for them anymore, not if you wanted to walk away as more than dust, but having a family and a home was.
It was only because Jacob's attention wasn't focused on getting a rise out of Elliot that he noticed the glint of green eyes in the alleyway just in time to pull Elliot out of the way of what would have been a deadly bite.
After all, family looked after one another to make sure everyone came home.
…
No one understood how the time between 10:06 am and 10:16 am made the Hotel Dumort a home.
Neither does anyone remember just when the sound of Raphael singing at 10:16 am became a prerequisite for being able to fall asleep. They all figure this out the hard way the next time Raphael is called away for business and everyone, especially the Fledgling, has a hard time sleeping.
PLEASE leave a comment if you want me to make a continuation of this fic. I actually have something started for it, but I'd love to hear whether or not to finish it up!
So please, leave Kudos and Comments. It feeds the writer in me. :)