Title: And They lived Happily Ever After - NOT! (2/?)
Author: BELOVEDbyWAR
Pairing: Henry/Mike (gen)
Rating: PG-13
TV verse: Blood Ties
Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money.
Warnings: Future!fic
Summary:An apparition from the past.
Wc: 878
A.N.: Thanks to wordstuck for taking over beta duties!

It was getting late. The sun had set over an hour ago and Henry was livid from fear. Against his wishes his children kept patrolling the perimeter during the day, and as Bonny, the youngest, had just told him, the last group had not yet come back to camp.

He knew how important it was to secure the area, especially for the younger children among them, but he still didn't like the idea of such young humans having to take over that duty, even if some of them technically were even older than he'd been when he died. But those times had been different. He had been considered a man, had had a wife and would most possibly have been a father soon. Not to mention that he had had weapons training since the day he'd been able to walk.

A shout from one of the look-outs drew Henry out of his musings and informed him that the group was on their way back. With a relieved sigh, he walked in their direction to greet them and receive their reports, but once able to see the arriving humans, all he could do was stand there, frozen and blink unbelievingly at what he saw. Because what walked in his direction, surrounded by his kids, was an apparition from the past.

Looking equally surprised and slightly apprehensive, the man slowed his gait, until he finally came to a full stop, which the youths at his side unconsciously mimicked.

There was a sudden tension in the air and Henry simply didn't know how to react.

Ten years! The man had vanished a decade ago and now here he stood unchanged, tall and proud, towering over the children! He should be dead!

There was only one explanation and it filled Henry with rage that Astaroth had managed to defile the one of them that even Henry had hoped to have at least escaped the tragedy of the demon lord's reign, if not the consequence of having known the vampire.

With a snarl, he attacked the intruder. This could never be Celluci. It was another of Astaroth's taunts to remind Henry how powerful the demon had become, and that their small revolt was senseless.

Baring his teeth, he grabbed the tall imposter and ran him into one of the ruin's walls to hear a satisfactory 'oof' as the man impacted with the bricks.

"How dare you come here in this form?!" Henry hissed, and was just about to sink his teeth into the intruder's neck, as the blond started to laugh. Laugh! Henry backed off a few inches to take a closer look at his opponents face and was dumb struck.

Deep blue - not red , sparkling eyes looked at him defiantly and an all too familiar voice teased:

"Whew, nice to see you too, Fitzroy! Care to keep those fangs to yourself?! Last time I checked, I wasn't on the menu!"

Shocked and still not able to fully believe it, Henry whispered "Mike," before he acted on impulse, and completely against his normally carefully constructed façade.

***

One moment he found himself pinned against a nearly collapsing wall, fangs snapping for his throat, and the next he had his arms awkwardly full of Royal undead. Could the day get any stranger?

Softly Mike patted the vampires tense shoulders, clearly not comfortable with the situation, but the vice grip the bastard prince held him with didn't loosen up.

"Hmm, ah, Fitzroy?" When no response came Mike tried a different approach.

"Ahem, care to explain what happened to my city? And where is Vicki?"

This clearly caught the shorter man's attention. Before Mike could blink the vampire stood a few feet away, haughty air and regal pose back in place, as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

"MY city, you mean! And what do you mean what happened? Have you slept the last ten years? Astaroth, that is what happened!"

"Ten years?!" Mike took a few steps closer, "I wasn't-"

"Yes!" The smaller man cut him off. "And five years after you left our resistance broke. Not that I believe you could have made any difference, but maybe with you there, Vicki wouldn't…"

"WHAT?!" The blond caught his old nemesis by the shirt collar. "What happened? Where is she?"

"DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Henry spat out before he softly, almost accusingly continued, "Or as good as…"

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Take your hands OFF me!" the vampire stated with a deadly calm, but as always that only managed to redouble the blond's resistance.

"And what if I don't? You gonna hug me to death again?!"

Grey eyes bled black and the vampire commanded: "Unhand me – right – now!"

But to both males' surprise nothing happened. Mike only blinked once before he shook his head and grinned.

"Oh ho, don't your majesty's tricks work anymore?"

A growl later, Mike stood alone, well apart from the children, who looked at him with wide astounded eyes. Mike only hesitated a second before he went after the pompous brat.

"So, I guess they know each other?" Thomas stated coolly.

"No, really? What gave that away, genius?" Mike's little defender answered, before she herded all children inside the dilapidated church, into which the two adults had already vanished.

***

tbc