And back to the present. Sorry it's quite short, I've still got some technical limitations. Also, we're heading for another interlude so I need to make the bit in between go fairly fast this time. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: None of this is mine, except the bits that are.

"Do you remember the first time we talked?" Bertrand nodded and hauled his lover closer, cuddling him tightly against his chest.
"Of course I do." Robin smiled, pressing a gentle kiss to the vampire's neck and watching him shiver before speaking.
"Can I see your fangs?" He didn't hesitate, this time. Even if he couldn't feel the sharp white blades descend, he'd have known by the way Robin's eyes widened, then darkened, the nervous way he licked his lips. "Can I... touch them?"

Bertrand frowned - it was rather an unusual request - but inclined his head slightly and held still as Robin ran careful fingers over the points of his fangs. He gave a minute shake of the head as Robin's thumb wandered too close; the pulse was at its strongest there of all the places in Robin's hand, and he didn't want to lose control and bite him. For one thing, it would lead to chaos when Vlad eventually returned. For another, the bite would be an important turning point - literally - in their relationship and he didn't want to mess it up by losing control in the Grand High Vampire's library.

Robin, thankfully, withdrew his hand without complaint, leaving Bertrand free to speak again.
"Trying to understand what you'll get?" He smiled, but Robin shook his head, looking nervous and almost guilty, filling his vampiric lover with dread..
"What I'll feel." Bertrand's stomach turned over.


Robin hadn't seen Bertrand's face fall so fast in a long time.
"Robin, I don't want to hu-" He growled at him, actually growled, enough to catch the vampire off-guard.
"I want to be bitten. I just want to be prepared."

Bertrand considered him for a long moment, then bowed his head in acceptance, resting his lips on the top of Robin's ear, stopping for a kiss before he spoke.
"It'll hurt. But not for very long." Robin nodded, eager for his lover to keep talking; it was hard enough to get Bertrand to think about the turning process, let alone talk about it. "You'll lose consciousness, everyone does. When you wake up, you might be a bit disorientated." He paused, as if something had just occurred to him, but didn't carry on. After a few minutes of silence, Robin nudged him gently.
"B?" He frowned; Robin suspected he'd forgotten he was there. He sometimes did, when his mind was working on a particular logistical puzzle.

"You'll have to be at home, or... if it happens- if I bite you somewhere else..." his hand tightened around Robin's, which he seemed to be unaware he was holding, and Robin squeezed back in a gesture of reassurance, "...I'll have to move you there before you wake up, or you'll lose your invitation."
"I didn't know it still worked for all-vampire houses." Bertrand nodded; vampire lore was something he was far more comfortable discussing than Robin's impending undeath, it seemed.
"It does. Garside let in any old vampire because it was a school and therefore didn't count as a dwelling." He smiled tightly. "Unlucky for you; it's how I got in."

Robin pressed his lips against his lover's again, using his tongue to extract a low sigh of contentment and trailing his hands through Bertrand's hair.
"The luckiest days of my life involved you sauntering into schools."


He raised an eyebrow.

"Who says I sauntered anywhere?" Robin grinned impudently at him.
"I was outside the classroom, remember? You walked in like you owned the place and then you walked out like you didn't even care." He paused, apparently struck by a thought. "Where did you even go? It was daylight."
"Supply cupboard, round the corner from your form room. I had to hide behind a broken photocopier when one of the teachers came in."
"Sounds boring. You should have come to class with me... or taken me to the cupboard. Either works." The breather waggled his eyebrows and Bertrand couldn't quite stifle a snort of laughter.
"I didn't even know you then. You didn't know me." Robin's breath was hot against his ear.
"As if I could have said no."

Bertrand groaned; that was unfair.
"Robin, we're in Vlad's library, don't tease." Robin gave him a look of pure, hurt innocence.
"Who's teasing?" Still, he shifted away slightly, settling onto the low arm of the chair rather than Bertrand's lap, and the vampire was torn between relief and disappointment.
"Besides, I found a way to pass the time." He rolled his eyes at Robin's expression. "Not that. In a school supply cupboard? What kind of-? Anyway. There were several bottles of PVA glue in there. I may, possibly, have spent several hours picking glue off of my fingers."

Robin was laughing at him, then, the clear, delighted laugh of a carefree soul, and Bertrand was briefly jealous of his happiness. Then he remembered all the secrets - perfectly acceptable secrets, secrets he didn't feel threatened by in the least - and decided that if Robin could laugh like that with all those secrets weighing him down, Bertrand's secrets wouldn't stop him.