Main Characters/Pairings: Lexaeus/Zexion, Lex, Maximus Rating/Warnings: M/Homosexual activity, violence, distressing issues, fan-children, vampire AU.
This fic was inspired by my favourite vampire novel Let the Right One In. Lex and Maximus are fan-replicas (here, fan-children) that I created. Each chapter will have a song associated with it, which is always shown at the top of the page. This chapter's track is Children of Beslan by Steven Cravis.
Rust on the Lock.
Chapter 1.
Children of Bedlam.
The kitchen is engulfed in the strong aroma of crushed garlic, diced onion and ripe tomatoes. It's very warm in here; a coating of condensation is on the little window, blurring the vision of blackness in the evening outside. Manicotti pasta is bubbling in a pot of boiling water over the hob, and two bowls are set out on the counter, wanting to be filled for an evening dinner
It's almost six o'clock in the evening during the wintertime. The sky is a black slate, with small stars trying to shine on throughout the misty clouds. A waxing, crescent moon smiles down with a Cheshire cat grin, promising more cold to come with a chance of snow.
In this little two-bedroom flat, Lexaeus is shuffling around the kitchen, doing some of the washing-up, watching the pots boil as he half-listens to the radio. He is a broad-shouldered, chiselled type of guy in his late thirties, with wavy, earthy-brown hair and dark, warm blue eyes. His giant mass makes the already small kitchen seem even more miniature, and it seems surprising that he could even fit in this small space at all.
He was listening a radio drama, but he has lost track of the voices and only picks up on bits and pieces of the dialogue. As he takes the kettle off the heat, a news update comes on. He pays actual attention to the radio this time and turns up the volume. A lady with a posh, well-trained voice is speaking at the moment, giving the listeners the latest buzz:
"-the town's Christmas lights will be lit up in a fortnight's time by Lord Mayor Ansem. All are welcome in the festivities. Back to our main story today; the police are still investigating the murder of a young woman that was found in the border-lining woods of the city of Midgar, the village of Kalm and the town of Radiant Gardens.
"The woman was found in the early hours of this morning, strung up by her feet from a tree, her throat slit and her body drained of most of her blood. Due to the lack of blood at the scene, it's suspected that the murderer collected and escaped with the blood. Radiant Gardens' chief of police, Squall Leonhart, spoke at a press conference about the murder earlier today."
Lexaeus knows Squall from his own days labouring in the police force, but the boy was only a cadet then. He had really shot up the ranks since then. On the radio, a recording of the young man's confident voice starts to speak. There is a sound of camera shutters in the background:
"It is obvious that we are dealing with not just a cold-blooded killer, but with a professional. Whoever this person is, they have not left any clues, and have left the scene clean of existence. It's… almost like no one was there at all. The police forces of Midgar, Kalm and the Gardens are pulling together to work on this case and track down the one responsible of this terrible act, but we must stress the danger that we are facing here. The murderer may strike again and he will likely be targeting women in their early and mid-twenties, so we strongly suggest that women of that age group avoid going out after dark, especially in the woods, and if you must do that, go out in a group of people.
"Although there is a suspected victim target, we want to say that no one should be reckless. The murderer may move on to other types of victims so please be careful out there, and report any suspicious behaviour to the police… As for the girl that was discovered this morning, we are still trying to identifying her, and as soon as we do, we will contact her next-of-kin… Our hearts go out to her family at this time…"
He sounded like he meant the last part with all of his heart. The news-reporter's voice comes back on:
"We will continue following this story and inform you as it developed. Now a weather update: the temperature will continue to drop during the weekend, with highs of only five degrees centigrade and lows reaching to minus one, with a big chance of heavy snowfall during the coming week. You are tuned to FM Garden, and now for the easy-listening hour-"
Lexaeus turns off the radio with a small sigh. How grisly. Not just this murder but all murders that are covered by the media. They were always talked about without much emotion. Granted, news reporter are not meant to put their own personal options into news reports and they are meant to keep neutral for the audience to come to their own ideas on the matter, but how can you talk about a murder then move on seamlessly onto talking about the weather? It must take a strong will to do that. Squall too must have a lot of nerve to deal with this case, to look for a murderer killing young girls in such a gruesome method. Lexaeus couldn't do that anymore. He's grown soft. He is still brave when the moment needs it, but after leaving the force, he doesn't need to be the tough one anymore.
He had to leave anyway. He was getting on in years, feeling stressed and a bullet to the knee was the icing on the cake. He can walk fine now, but he can't run properly. He thought he was becoming inadequate for that lifestyle and left, even when they offered him an easy office job. He had too many ghost in that place, too many reasons for him to leave.
"I'm home, Dad!"
And then there is another reason completely.
Lexaeus smiles slightly, taking another drink of tea as the front door closes with a bang and a set of feet come clumping down the hallway.
"Where are you, Dad?"
"In the kitchen, Lex" the man calls back. He walks over to the cooker and stirs a pot of sauce simmering. "Don't bother running off to your room. Dinner's almost ready."
Lex dumps his coat and school bag into the hallway closet, and walks into the kitchen, pulling off his gloves and hat. He runs a hand through his long brunet curls, relived to be indoors in the warmth again.
"It's a bit brisk out there," he huffs with a smile. He pours himself a cup of tea and shoves in a lot of sugar with a lot of milk. "I can't even feel my toes."
"Well, it is December, Lex" Lexaeus smirks. He is now draining the pasta over the sink. "…The news said that it's meant to snow later this week. Maybe you will have a snow day soon. Do a quick favour for me and set the table properly, will you?"
"I rather have an early holiday then a random day off" the boy says. He puts out two table mats and gets knives, forks and spoons out of the drawer. "That would be better... When are we going to put up the decorations?"
"In the next few days if you want." Lexaeus ladles an overly-generous amount of red sauce onto the two bowl of pasta and carries them over to the table, giving his young son his food first. "Here you go."
"Thanks, Dad." Lex tucks in straight away, eating a completely boyish, messy way, getting some of the tomato around his mouth and licking it away. Lexaeus eats more slowly, taking his time. He shakes his head at the boy.
"Do you actually taste that as you scoff it down?"
"Mm-hmm." Lex swallows his mouthful, and smiles across the table. "It's very yummy, Dad."
"Nice to know my effects have not gone to waste" the man sighs. "And at least you are using a fork." He pulls a tissue out of his pocket and passes it across the table. "Wipe your mouth, you mucky cub."
"I'm not a mucky" Lex tells him. "I am just enjoying your food."
"That is no excuse. Now come on. Clean yourself up, and use human-sized bites. Don't wolf it down."
"Alright." Lex takes the tissue and tries to wipe the red away before it drips down his chin.
OOO
The streetlamps are just blurs against the dark sky. Stringed between them are simple Christmas lights, twinkling innocently above the street. The taxi is roaring down the road at a steady pace, and it is the only vehicle on the road at this time of night. It's calm. It is peaceful.
There are droplets of condensation on the window, and Zexion reaches out and wipes some of it off, so he has a large peephole to look through. There are a lot of houses on the street, some of them already dressed-up for Christmas, with pretty lights and holly hanging on the front doors. It is picturesque in a way, like a seasonal card.
The man leans back. He likes the backseat. He always closes the window that separates the front seats from the back, to block out the crackling of the radio. He looks to his right, towards the other seat, towards the little boy drawing faces on the other window with his tiny fingers. He's half-humming, half-mumbling a song to himself.
""Oranges and lemons" say the Bells of St. Clements'. "You owe me five farthings" say the Bells of St. Martin's…"
Zexion chuckles to himself. That is such as old-fashioned rhyme nowadays. An oldie. An old-timer of nursery rhythms. He was singing that when he has little. Slowly, the young man slides across the seat over to the child's side of the car, not needing to unfasten any seatbelts to wrap his arms around the lad's slim waist comfortably, resting his chin lightly on his shoulder. He brushes his pale lips against the shell of a ear.
"We are almost there, Maxi," he whispers smoothly to the boy, a smile on his mouth. "We will soon be there, indoors and safe." He looks up at the window. He can see their reflections in the glass, and the child is meeting his glance, his eyes, smiling back. "I would be nice to settle down again, won't it?"
Maxi nods his head in agreement, snuggling up against his father like a slate-furred kitten to its mother. He finishes his nursery rhyme, mumbling it into Zexion's jumper.
"Here comes a candle to light you to bed. Here comes a chopper to chop off your head. Chip chop, chip chop - the last man's dead…"
OOO
Lexaeus is starting to feel a little tired, head lolling back against the battered sofa, a warm glass of red wine and spiced rum in the clasp of his right hand. His left hand is stroking the curls of his son's hair lazily. Lex is lying down across the rest of the sofa, head resting on his dad's lap. He is dressed for bed already, in his up-most favourite winter pjs - the bottle green ones, with long sleeves and made from 100% breathable cotton. Lex has never understood why it's called "breathable" when the cotton is not alive, but it is supposed to mean that the fabric is light and doesn't make you too hot. Not that Lex wants to be cold.
After the satire panel show they were watching finishes, the late night news comes on, with the top story being the murder in the woods. Lexaeus sighs with a slight grunt, closing his eyes, trying to block out the sounds and noise of the news report, trying to escape from the grim happening of the world for just a moment. He knows that the world is not a nice place, not nice at all. Sometimes it can be a real cesspool of sin and cruel people and he defiantly knows that you cannot hide for it all permanently but he would like to not have all the doom and gloom shoved into his attention all the time.
"How old was the girl, Dad?"
Lexaeus opens his eyes again. Lex has twisted around onto his back, so he is looking up towards the man's face. His hair is now even more tousled then before. His expression is a curious one, if nothing else.
"…Hmm?"
"The girl. The one they found in the woods. How old was she?"
"…Um. Early twenties, I think" Lexaeus shrugs. How disgusting to have a life that young destroyed like that. Twenty is nothing. That is a child.
"I guess the woods won't be safe for a while, right?" Lex shrugs, sitting up and turning around, so he is up against the man's side, head now resting against his broad chest, "with the murderer and everything." A large hand is drawn up to pull him closer, the other puts the glass down on the table and joins in, holding the boy tightly.
"I don't want you to go into the woods at all" Lexaeus grumbles, closing his heavy eyes. "Especially at night, and I don't want you to be out in the streets after-dark by yourself. You need to be with either me or one of the other grown-ups. Understand, Lex?"
"Yes, Dad. I understand."
"I know you know it's not a nice world out there but you need to be extra careful now. No talking to strange people. If someone approaches you, you come home and tell me straight away, and you need to carry your mobile with you all the time, battery fully charged and with enough credit on it."
"I know, Dad."
"…Am I being an overprotective, un-cool father again?"
"Nah. I understand, Dad. You just want me safe, right?"
"Right." Lexaeus finds the remote control on the side table and turns off the television. He stretches a little. "Come on. It's bedtime. You have school tomorrow and I don't want you falling asleep during your lessons."
"Okay" Lex chuckles. He kisses the man's forehead, which makes both of them smile. "Night-night."
"Good night, Lex."
With that, Lex pads off to his bedroom. He likes his room. It's small but cool. He even has a big, comfy bed all to himself. The boy smiles to himself, bouncing around lightly on his toes as he crosses the floor, wondering if he should read something or play on his game station to help him get to sleep. He switches on his bedside lamp and goes over to the window to close his curtains, but then he pauses. He can see a licensed taxi driving into the courtyard of the apartment complex. It's nothing completely out the ordinary, but it is awfully late for a Thursday night, isn't it? Normally people use the taxi service to go and enjoy the nightlife of Midgar, but that was reserved for the weekend and holidays.
Lex watches, resting his forehead against the chilled pane of glass as the car pulls over in front of the building opposite, where the even smaller apartments are. The taxi driver gets out and goes around to the boot of the car to start pulling out the heavy luggage bags. From the left side back door, the one that Lex can see, a man steps out. He is a very young looking man, pale and skinny, with a mop of blue-slate hair on his cranium hiding most his face. He holds the door open as someone else climbs out. It is a young boy, younger then Lex by a couple of years. As far as Lex can tell from up on the top floor, he is a spitting image of the young man; long hair, pale skin and everything. Very likely, they are brothers. Possibly, they are father and son, but it is hard to tell and it is not nice to jump to conclusions. Lex knows that.
With everything out of the taxi, the young man pays for the ride and the driver gets back into the car, making his way out of the courtyard and out of sight. Now Lex sees that the new arrivals are not wearing much. They have long sleeved-clothing but they don't look very warm for a night like this. The child is wearing a coat, but it's unzipped and open to the bitter wind. They gather up their belongings, all they have in those couple of bags, and walk to the door. The man puts in his key, artfully without dropping anything, and they go inside, closing the door behind them.
Lex stays at the window for a moment, blinking slowly and thinking. Why would someone move in during the middle of the night, and with very little belongings too? Maybe they are poor, or couldn't bring everything with them. Lex can't say for sure.
For some reason, Lex doesn't feel like staying up for any longer. He carefully draws the curtains shut and walks over to the bed. He tucks himself in, being old enough to do it by himself for a few years now, and turns off his little lamp. A crack between the curtains lets some of the moonlight leak in, so not everything is lost in darkness but frozen in a silver light.
The boy lies down on his side, looking up at the photographs he has on his table. He smiles at the one of him and his dad, taken when he was about six years old. He's eating cake with lots of frosting, so it might have been his birthday. Drossiness slowly takes over and Lex yawns, closing his eyes. His vision goes black.
OOO
Zexion turns the key in the lock and pushes the front door open, dumping his weighted bags in the hallway. He looks around the place ruefully, checking out the rooms and switching on the lights. It's the bare-back basics: a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom and one bedroom. It was a place for an overworked student or a single loner. They are some furnishings, so it's not so bad. He walks into the bedroom and looks over it. There is one double bed with all the sheets, a desk and a wardrobe. Maxi walks in after him with the key in his hand.
"I've locked the door, Papa."
"Thank you." Zexion takes the key with a smile. "Make yourself comfortable, little one. Get your pyjamas on if you want."
Maxi nods his head and wanders out of the room again, only to quickly return with his favourite set of night clothes; the blue, stripy ones that a size too big for him. He strips off his outdoor clothes by the bed and gets ready for sleep.
"So this is where we are staying?" the boy mumbles, doing up his shirt buttons. Zexion nods his head, staring out of the window absently. They are on the top floor, looking over the whole of the courtyard. He looks across the way, towards the building on the other side. The apartment parallel to theirs still has some of its light on. He can see an outline of a large person walking past the windows to closing curtains.
"It is" Zexion smiles, answering his son, "for now." He turns around in time to see Maxi climb into the bed and snuggle himself in. "You are going to bed already?" He walks over and sits down on the mattress. "It's not your bedtime, silly."
"I need the catch-up on my sleep." Maxi curls up into a tight, hedgehog ball and pulls the duvet up to his chin. "All this moving about from place to place really takes it out of you."
"True, true." Zexion tucks the little nine-year-old in properly and kisses his forehead. "I'm going to stay up for a little longer and sort things out. You just go to sleep and have sweet dreams."
OOO
It's about time that Lexaeus should be in bed too. He has finished the washing-up and general tidying, and there is nothing on the television, just some late night movies, shopping adverts, and the odd offer of dirty talk over the phone with a nice, teasing girl. Lexaeus is disinterested in all three.
With everything off, Lexaeus closes his bedroom door behind him and yawns. He pulls off his jumper, the cold of the room sending a slight shiver through his body, nipples perked.
He walks over to the window to close the curtains, but then he pauses. Across the way, in the apartment of the other building facing his, he can see someone. No one has lived there for a couple of mouths now. Has he just moved in? The man in the other apartment looks quite young, and a little on the thin side. He is sticking pieces of cardboard onto the bedroom window, too busy to notice that Lexaeus is watching him. What an odd thing to do. They must not have any curtains.
Lexaeus just shrugs at the sight and closes his own curtains. He gets into bed, switches off the light and closes his eyes. Everything is quiet for the night.