A/N: I cannot believe that I allowed us to go through 46 chapters without writing at least a partial chapter from Mathias' POV. Forgive me Padre for I have sinned. I realize, as I mentioned in the previous chapter's AN, these chapters kind of drift away from Elaine being the view point of the narration, as it also shifts the broad focus outside of just Elaine and Yagari's relationship. I'm really struggling to balance not losing focus of these two as the stars while also providing enough bread crumbs that you all sort of get a good grasp of the holistic ending.
And thank you all of the reviews and favorites/follows! It feeds my procrastinating, flailing writing spirit.
Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you. Ovid
Ronan Galahad Merlinus Hex was accustomed to terrifying sights.
With a mother who was an Old One and a father who was one of the most auspicious vampire hunters, that was not too surprising. Not only because of their circumstances, but because his parents were fucking drill sergeants and had prepared him for every possible worst-case scenario which was only low key projecting their own unresolved trauma unto him. And then there's Zero-niisan, whose entire life is a garbage fire. The point being, it takes quite a bit to ruffle Ronan. He hopes that his tenure as Merlinus will not be as bloody and fatalistic as his mother's, but he's able to rise to the occasion if it was called for. Given the amount of debate now since vampires had announced their existence to the world and the collective grumbling at Zero and Yuki Cross-Kuran's torrid, annoyingly Shakespearean unfulfilled love he was sort of-kind of expecting it at some point. But, you have to understand, Ronan isn't a fool. He doesn't go seek out the kind of reckless, adrenaline fueled situations resulting from this unrest – unlike Ziva, who'd engage in a knife fight just because.
But some things cannot be unseen.
"EEEK!" Choking on only consonants, his hip bangs into the doorknob as he escapes down the hallway into the sitting room. "I'm blind!" Just because he has the emotional and psychological tools to process seeing Yuki and Zero-nissan lustily sucking each other's blood like a couple of pornographic fucking ticks doesn't mean he wants to, yeah? "Dude, just- why?"
"Calm down," Zero chides, straightening his shirt collar with a coolness that someone with still leaking bites shouldn't possess.
"I need an exorcism for my brain." Ronan bemoans, collapsing into a chair and cradling his face in his hands. Nope, that was a mistake, because every time he closes his eyes he just sees them mouthing each other like a couple of ravenous, teething babies. For fucks sakes,
"You should've knocked."
Ronan lifts his head and stares at the ex-human. Counts to five in his head, and then to ten so he doesn't magically hopscotch Zero over to the next continent. "God damn it," He had knocked! "You didn't hear it because you guys were frenching like some zombie frenchers!" Yuki had yet to emerge, she probably never would. At least, until he was dead. Yeah, that sounded good – it would save them both further embarrassment. What was a couple decades for her in retrospect anyway?
Only now was Zero beginning to show some discomfort. "Ronan, this only concerns Yuki and I-"
"Y'all need Jesus,"
"-so just forget you saw this and keep it to yourself."
Ronan balked at Zero. "You fucking think I'm going to go around advertising I saw that 'Dear Penthouse' of Horrors?! That would require admitting that I saw it! No, no- I'm going home and drinking, like, 3 bottles of wine so I can black out and repress this."
Zero rolled his eyes. "Yes, we are all familiar with the Hex special brand of coping. Go home,"
"I have a message." Ronan grimaced. "For both of you."
Zero hesitated for a moment and Ronan focused his gaze onto the floor – these carpet fibers were so interesting – and the ex-human practically dragged the Pureblood out to the sitting room. The air seemed to tighten, and Ronan once again pondered if it was possible to die of awkwardness. "Hey Aunt Yuki," He greeted her dainty heels.
"H-H-Hi R-Ronan," She stuttered back, just as mortified as him. Ronan irrationally hated Zero for being the only person without shame in this tableau of Godawful.
Swallowing the mortification, the Druid inhaled deeply and unconsciously the seriousness of his message made him straighten. To Zero, Ronan would always be the little boy who excitedly ran to him when he arrived home, but he had to admit that the years had matured him into a formidable magi – overall a formidable person. He was kind but shrewd, a friend to all but willing to take a stand. A perfect blend of his parents, his mother's ash blond hair and father's dark blue eyes were striking and when he stared through you it felt like being speared in the breastbone. Zero knew both Yagari and Elaine were exceedingly proud of him, and he doubted that Ronan would fail to live up to the precedent of Merlinus that Elaine had set. "These loyalist radicals are just getting bolder, and the non-magi mortals are still pretty evenly split on it – roughly half of them that are anti-vampire are just fanning the flames."
He paused here, the message grave. "A small faction went after Uncle Gaheris."
Yuki's petite frame stiffened and Zero's eyes narrowed. "Is he safe? The children?"
"They're all fine!" He reassured Yuki quickly. "The loyalists on the other hand…" Gaheris was more than capable of holding his own. "Uncle Lázaro was… displeased, to say the least." That was an understatement. Ronan wondered what dipshit didn't do their homework when the loyalists planned this little excursion – the sorcerer was married to a death deity for fucks sake! "But Mom's pretty sure that they'll be left alone." He didn't say what Antonio had told him, which was Lázaro had allowed a single loyalist to live, stating "Go, and tell your leaders what occurred here. Next time I will turn every single one of you to ash."
Zero leaned back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest as he contemplated this information. Yuki tapped her fingers against the swell of her knees. "Why? They're mortals. Was it as before, someone trying to use Gaheris' powers?"
Ronan nods, something dark churning his stomach. The idea that something – no matter how unlikely – could've happened to his uncles and cousins unsettled him. Much like their parents, Antonio and he were the very best of friends and the thought that he may be hurt upset him. "If the loyalists could find a way to counteract vampires' magic… It would be a game changer."
On that shitty note, Ronan leaves the Kuran home and heads to his own. Zero and Yuki – everyone, really – had reacted violently to the news. It's fucked up, but a part of Ronan wasn't too surprised. Power always attracted greedy and selfish people, and as he'd gotten older he'd accepted that his very existence always put him at some level of danger. But this was different. He hadn't seen his mother that furious… ever, really. The lights on the entire floor of her office at the Academy had overloaded and shattered and he'd choked on the overwhelming smell of wet ozone.
He had Ziva had talked about it later, alone and far from both their parents' ear shot. "There's gotta' be more to it."
"Well yeah," His sister had retorted like it was obvious, rhythmically running a whetstone down the blade of her katana like that wasn't unsettling. "It's just like that time with that Pureblood, Shirabuki, I think? Plus think about it, Ro. If Uncle Gaheris and Anastasia were taken, that's like- that's it for humans. The vampires could break any magic, strip anyone of magic, and absorb any magic."
Ziva was right on that count, terrifyingly shitty as the notion was. And she was probably right on the other part, they'd all heard parts of the story involving Sara Shirabuki and Kaname Kuran growing up, but never the full, unabridged telling. Honestly, Ronan was always a little too afraid to outright ask either of his parents about it. All he'd really known was that his mother had been pregnant with him at the time, and Lázaro had resealed their souls and power back into her after a failed magic suppression and transference ritual. He and Ziva had asked Zero about it once, but he'd given them both a strange, haunted look that they dropped it.
Well, if it's really that important now they'd tell us. He thinks to himself. … Right?
Antonio Meztli Pascual considered himself pretty damn blessed. Well, as objectively blessed a guy with skeleton hands can be.
He's got his dads and his sister Morgan, his best bro, a bunch of pseudo aunts and uncles and cousins and a familiarity with the upper crust of vampire society, who act like over grown children about half the time. He's also of the opinion that immortality has a direct correlation to damaged brain cells because good God they are DUMB. When he'd asked Hanabusa if he could conduct a study on the topic the noble vampire had kicked him out of his research lab without a backwards glance.
Ronan, Pops and Morgan are all up in Zero's business, interrogating him with everything short of a bare light bulb and pliers. Dad, Elaine and Yagari are all sharing an exasperated look and personally Antonio is just too damn busy enjoying this fragrant glass of chardonnay to care, thank you very much. He nearly snorts a mouthful out of his nose when Yagari mutters to Elaine, "I warned you when you were pregnant with the boy about watching too many romantic comedies."
Ziva, when looked to, abstains from the conversation. "No comment,"
"What are you, a politician?" Yagari quips, smirking when his daughter makes a gesture, brushing his words away. They're all lounging in the living room in Elaine and Yagari's house, the Druid having convinced her husband to expand their living space when both of their children and Zero were all squishing themselves into the instructors' apartments. The hunter had begrudgingly agreed, especially when they were frequently hosting some of the Old Ones and their expanding families. Like, exactly these types of moments.
"Leave the poor boy alone," Dad finally intervenes by steering Morgan onto the couch and physically dragging Pops out of the ex-human's breathing space. "You need a hobby."
"I have plenty of hobbies!" Gaheris protests. "You being one of them!"
"Dad, stop being a slut and plying him with drinks!" Morgan begs, hiding her face in Antonio's shoulder in discomfiture. "Pops gets all gooey when he's drunk!"
"I don't get drunk, Morgs!" Gaheris scolds with a surprisingly sophisticated huff. "I just have fun."
Zero gives Ronan a pointed look as the Druid plops down beside him. "Special brand of coping," He mutters.
Ronan smacks him across the face with a decorative pillow. "We just want you to be happy Zero." Protesting, he grabs the ex-human by the lapels and gives him a shake. "WHY WON'T YOU ACCEPT OUR LOVING CONCERN?"
"What are we talking about?" Antonio asks hesitantly, taking another sip of his drink and instantly regretting drawing attention to himself.
"That Zero and Yuki won't get their Goddamn act together and just make it official already." Gaheris takes another drink that Lázaro had poured for him –seriously Dad, stop being an enabler. "Look what you two have done to me! Now I have anxiety!"
Oh it's this discussion again. For as long as Antonio could remember, Zero and Yuki had been sending one another longing, lingering looks whenever they were permitted by the powers that be to both attend an event and the rest of the time they were moping and pining after the other. He'd long ago accepted – unlike his meddling best friend and Pops – that these two would drag their feet long after he'd be buried in a brightly painted coffin. It was only a little annoying.
"Jesus ever loving Christ, the Rapture is literally happening faster than you two!" Antonio lamented, face palming. Sometimes the world needed a fire cleanse to reorient itself after the bloodsucking idiots ruined it for the rest of them. Especially if the bloodsucking idiots were Zero Kiriyu and Yuki Cross-Kuran, two individuals he cared for greatly but also sometimes wanted to throttle.
"I mean, you should probably make a move." Ronan adds on without anyone asking for his commentary, typical. "Hanabusa has gotten his romantic shit together, so if y'all are doing subjectively worse than him that's… you should most definitely reevaluate your priorities."
"Yes, thank you, love." Elaine bites out, giving her son a cross look. Yagari just laughs.
"He's just telling it like it is." Yagari defends his boy, whacking him lightly across the back in camaraderie as he walks into the kitchen. Ronan grins at his father before catching Antonio's gaze with an exaggerated expression as if to say 'I know I'm right'.
'Dude, we all feel that way.' His arched eyebrows say back. Feeling a gaze on him, he turns his head to see Zero scowling at both he and Ronan. Grinning, Antonio sticks his tongue out mockingly at the ex-human, whose scowl just deepens.
"Now, now," Elaine takes control of the room, pulling herself to her feet as Yagari returns with a tray of food for them all. "Let us talk of something else before Zero bursts into tears-" She's cut off when the ex-human takes the same weaponized pillow from Ronan's grasp and tosses it at her head with unerring, hunter accuracy. She squawks. "You are the most troublesome son!"
Mathias Váli Loke was under no assumptions about the course of his life.
However he liked to think he was a pragmatist – outlandish and flamboyant, yes – nonetheless. If anyone ever asked, not that they did but if, how he absorbed the violence and struggle of his destiny he'd reply simply: his path was clean cut and abrupt. There was simply before ascending and after ascending. Before, when it was his father who held the power of Loki, was something he purposefully didn't dwell on. Especially when after was so much more pleasant. He had his brothers, his friends, his wife, and his son.
"We are not prey!"
Even so, he knows there will be an ending. It is inevitable, inescapable and, as he'd told Yuki Cross-Kuran so long ago, death is the only surety. Not one for existential crises – and having died once already – Mathis viewed the inexorable end as just another, abrupt break. It cannot be changed or bargained or staved off, so why concern himself over it? His time was valuable, and he'd never been one known for attractions to lost causes.
That's not quite true anymore, is it? He thinks sardonically as walks with his wife and son across the grounds of Cross Academy. The amount of grief and shit he'd given Elaine for her attachment to this place – perhaps even still a lost cause – only to brush off his brief stint into Valhalla and take up arms alongside its supports, vampires and mortal alike.
"What's with that serious look?" Naoko asks, eyeing him with amused suspicion. She never tolerated his unique charm, it was one of her best qualities.
He shrugged, mentally sweeping the dust and cobwebs of those memories under a metaphorical rug, along with before. "Just amazement at Cross' sheer suicidal stubbornness at keeping this optimist's dream afloat."
"Being pessimistic doesn't make you edgy,"
"You wound me, Nao." He grins. Max makes a disgusted sound in the back of his throat at their banter and quickens his pace so that his parents lag somewhat behind. Catching his eye, Naoko's grin sharpens and she laughs. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, Mathias allows their pace to slow, enjoying the quiet moment. Their paths intersecting had been unplanned – a matter of fickle chance, as fate is so wont to do – when he had made a surprise visit to the Association Headquarters. Bored with Yagari and Cross' endless logistical meetings, Mathias had taken it upon himself to explore the grounds, much improved to when he had last walked them.
Naoko had been struggling to weave detainment charms into restraints – handcuffs and ropes – and when she'd felt his presence her glare had been cosmic. "The fuck you looking at, scarecrow?"
"The absolute butchery you are making of those charms. What did the poor things ever to do you?"
Blowing some stray auburn hair out of her brown eyes, Naoko tilted her chin in challenge, ignorant of his identity. "Well, if you're so smart, why don't you fix it for me?" And he did, because charms of this level he'd learned when he was fucking five, and he had then been treated to the sight of her absolute mortification when Yagari bumbled around searching for him.
"Stop bothering my hunters, asshole!"
"But I was bored, you were boring me." Mathias had held up one of the few restraints left to charm. Naoko had looked between the two suspiciously. "And in my graciousness I've now ensured when you over certified pest controllers restrain a vampire it will not result in a blood bath. For the hunter, at least." Yagari had sighed heavily as if all creation had deeply affronted him and bellowed for the magus to follow, pulling a crumpled cigarette carton from his pocket.
"How do you know Yagari?" Naoko had asked, eyes narrowed to slits.
Mathias had grinned like a shark who had scented blood in the water. "Ah, my apologies," With a flourished bow and wiggling fingers, blue sparks had flickered from his palms. "Mathias Váli Loke, is my name. I also answer to Old One and Supreme Leader." Realization had crested over Naoko's expression as Mathias had left with a wink and pep in his gait. Later that evening, he'd opened the door to his hotel room to find her spitting mad that he'd made her look a fool in the face of her superior and "the least you could do is buy me a drink at the bar downstairs, scarecrow."
In his wedding toast Gaheris maintained when he met Naoko, Mathias' "Grinch heart grew three sizes that day". That had been another abrupt break. Alone where Naoko was a nameless face in the hunter rabble and Together, the dim light of a hotel bar and clinking ice in whiskey glasses.
Takuma Ichijo – a vampire that Mathias has never quite puzzled out – greets the Loke family when they descend the stairs to the bowels of the Association. It had become an unofficial agreement amongst the Old Ones that once a year they convened here and paid their tribute to the Creature in Ice and savior of the mortal world, Kaname Kuran himself. Some years the other vampires, Elaine's former students who she was always so fond of, joined them and other times they did not. Only once had Mathias reunited with Yuki Cross-Kuran, when Ai was a small girl. She had seemed sad, and that had sort of bothered him. He did not dwell on why that was so.
Speaking of elusive acquaintances… "Ah, there's Romeo!" Mathias claps Zero Kiriyu heartily on the shoulder. The ex-human's face sours, none too gently prying off the Dane's hand.
"Hello Naoko, Max,"
"Hey Zero," Max flicks his unamused gaze from his father to the Kiriyu. "Ignore Dad, he's just mad he has to go to a party that isn't about him."
Mathias balks, clearly his son has been tainted by time spent with Yagari. "Naoko, I'm lifting the ban on hunter training." Max gapes before eyeing his gleeful mother in slight terror and wisely deduces the safest response for now is a tactical retreat. Zero watches the fourteen year old seek the safety of Olmpye, Percy and Ziva's company before arching a questioning brow at Mathias. "Naoko's conceptualization of training is all inclusive. A favorite tactic is startling Max when he's carrying something, preferably spillable."
She huffs. "How else will he learn to expect the unexpected at any time?"
"Somewhere far from my office," The cause of Mathias' original ban had been a full mug of tea splattered all over his original tapestry of Yggdrasil that had belonged to his mother. "Now come Kiriyu, we're going to get wrecked." His annual tribute, Gammel Dansk, was heavy in his coat pocket. The hard grip on the ex-human's shoulder ensured he could not escape. With their children grown enough, the Old Ones were free to commandeer the table.
Elaine, bless her, produces a stack of glasses with a grin. Mathias blinks – if he concentrates, he's sitting amongst these people not in a cold basement but in the Hex castle's glamorous ballroom. They are younger, burning with fire and vengeance and Kaname Kuran is there to deliver a well-placed, barb and congratulate himself on being oh so clever. Twisting and breaking the seal, Mathias pours generous servings and raises his glass. It was Elaine's year to toast so they all looked to her.
"Despite meeting Kaname as a literature professor, I'm not one for words." Elaine started with a self-conscious smile. "And though we quarreled at the end and, well – pretty much throughout the middle – it comforts me to believe that he would approve of what we've done in the world he left behind for us. One day," Her voice sobered, cold and bereft with premonition. "We will meet again. Iechyd da," She raised her glass.
"Slàinte mhath," Gaheris gave Kaname an ironic salute with his drink.
"Sláinte," Anna clinked her glass against Elaine's.
"Is iyían," Ajax drank, one of the shell bracelet Olympias had made for them so long wrapped around his wrist.
Something dangerous like regret was ballooning in Mathias' mouth. "Skål," He swallowed it down with a mouthful of liquor. The remembrance of the ghostly, light touch of the Ancestor against his skin unbalances him. Sometimes, in his dreams, when he returned to the Loke home in the mountains for that last, bloody time – the breaking of before – she is there, cloaked and maddeningly just out of reach. She tries to tell him something, but he cannot hear her over his screams.
A foot nudging against his shakes him out of his thoughts and he turns his head to find Ajax staring at him. Grinning in his typical roguish way, Mathias shakes his head at the other to assure him that he's perfectly fine. Ajax was fluent in Mathias' behaviors and expressions – it was terrifying and comforting all at once. Anna is sneaking her third glass of Gammel Dansk, capitalizing on her reputation for innocence and propriety while Gaheris retells embarrassing stories of Elaine's tenure as a Night Class instructor, the Druid's reddening face covered with one hand while she holds her drink in the other. Ziva and Adohira had cornered Zero, premiering their newly learned hunter tactics. The ex-human isn't even bothered by the attention. Adana and Takuma are exchanging manga recommendations, the excited tone of their voices breaking the Goddamn sound barrier. Antonio and Ronan – inseparable – laugh at some joke only shared between the two. Max is with Percy, Morgan and Olmpye; the four heirs challenging each other with magical displays of skill. Lázaro, Amara and Naoko stand together – bonded long ago as they indulged their spouses' strange mourning tradition of a Pureblood.
I don't regret dying for them. He thinks to himself. He'd do it again, without hesitation. He'd kill for them. Cheers, rising to his feet, Mathias pours a glassful of liquor at the base of Kaname's ice coffin. You absolutely crazy bastard.
Mathias Váli Loke was under no assumptions about the inexorable end. But, by Odin, it will be glorious with friends like these. And unlike a specific melodramatic Pureblood that shall remain nameless, he sure as fuck wasn't going to go by ripping his own heart out.
Annotations
Dear Penthouse: Penthouse is a magazine for dudes with urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictorials. They also have another magazine called Penthouse Forum that features a "Letter of the Month", typically starting with the line 'Dear Penthouse'. The Forum is meant to be more journalistic but because they're owned by the same company in pop culture 'Dear Penthouse' is a moniker of describing a pornographic scene.
Grinch heart: In Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the title character's shriveled little splinter of a heart grows 3 sizes when he discovers the true, altruistic meaning of Christmas.
Creature in Ice: One of the monikers of the Minnesota Iceman, a sideshow exhibit and elaborate hoax of a Neanderthal-like creature frozen in a block of ice. In the 1960s/70s it toured across North America at state fairs, carnivals and such, promoting the creature as the "missing link" between man and Neanderthals. In 2013 the owner of the Museum of Weird in Austin, TX bought it off eBay and it's now on display there. I've actually been to this museum, it's a fun experience. And it's on Dirty 6 so you can do your bar crawl and then end up at this little excursion. The tour guides are also really funny.
Translations
NOTE: For this instance I used the phonetic spelling rather than the different alphabetical languages because… reasons
Iechyd da: Welsh toast. "Good health"
Slàinte mhath: Scottish Gaelic toast. "Good health"
Sláinte: Irish toast. "Health"
Is iyían: Greek toast. "For health"
Skål: Danish. Literatlly translates to "bowl", which were the old drinking vessels. Used in the same context as "cheers"