AN: Time for something a little more settled... if awkward!
AWKWARD …
"You're home!" Jane squealed and bounded to her father, nearly knocking Aro off his feet as he came through the door.
"Did you miss me?" he asked, basking in her love.
Jane buried her head into his shoulder as he lifted her in his arms. It was a rare emotional display from his princess of darkness and Aro felt his heart healing with every ounce of love she gave.
Alec followed his sister to embrace his father, glad he had returned.
Once Aro set them both back on the floor he looked for Sully. "May I come in, my queen?" he asked.
Sulpicia looked to her young ones, pulling their father inside before she could object. "I think that would be for the best," she replied, gesturing to her happy children.
"Are you here to stay?" Jane asked hopefully.
"I'm on day release only," he replied to his girl before looking to Sulpicia, "I will have to return at nightfall."
Sulpicia smiled sadly, she understood Basileus needed to keep his son close for a while. "Could we keep that between the four of us?" she asked, looking to the twins for confirmation they would keep their father's situation secret. "Felix and Demetri might be easier to handle if they think you are home full time."
Aro nodded slowly. "They are not easy to handle now?" he asked in concern.
"Not so much," Sulpicia replied uneasily. She didn't want to put too much on Aro on his first day home.
Aro pushed worries over his boys' conduct to one side and wrapped his arms around his mate, pulling Sulpicia tightly into his chest.
"I have missed you so much," he breathed into her ear, soaking up her scent and letting it relax his entire body.
She reminded him that their children were in view before his wondering hands did anything regrettable.
"Sorry," he said coyly, hoping his children had some guard duties to fill their day.
Sulpicia extracted herself from his hold and returned to her work. The table was scattered with documents.
"What's all this about?" he asked, leafing through the closest pages filled with calculations. "Some of us have work to do, my love," Sulpicia replied, taking the paper from him.
Aro sighed. His own job was waiting for him, he had no doubt, but as Basileus had decided he wouldn't be allowed out of the tower for another week or two, it would have to wait.
"What work are you doing?" he asked, sounding a little condescending.
"I run our treasury, my love. Plus, as you have been indisposed for one reason or another over the last couple of months, I have been doing your job, too."
Aro's mouth fell open. "How exactly have you been doing my job?" he asked, voice thick with concern.
"Well, my love," Sulpicia replied, as though she were talking to a child, "the masters come to you with purchase requests, mission plans, issues with guards, training and the like … I have been answering them."
"You? On your own?"
Sulpicia scowled. "Do you think me incapable?" she asked.
Do not answer that! Aro told himself. "Not at all, there's just a lot to deal with, that's all."
"As I discovered, my love," Sulpicia replied, scooping together her paperwork to keep her mate's wandering eyes from her work. "But I have solved that through delegation. The masters seem to run an awful lot by you, things that they are more than capable of dealing with themselves. So now they do."
Aro felt panicked! You have broken my coven, you idiot woman! He stopped himself from voicing his thoughts - he didn't want to give Basileus any reason to take him back under his roof. "My queen, that could cause problems … "
"No Aro, it hasn't and it won't. And, now you will have more time and less stress. I think that will be good for us all, don't you?" Sulpicia smiled kindly and stroked his cheek.
Damn it! Aro thought, he couldn't argue with her reasoning at all, particularly as he still blamed 'stress' for why he had gone so disastrously off the rails.
"I know you aren't comfortable with sharing the load, but you started neglecting castle duties when you started taking … " Sulpicia glanced over to the twins just in time to stop herself from saying dungeon blood. "When you became distracted."
Aro closed his eyes and nodded as his mate continued.
"You have been completely absent from your post for months - what did you think would happen? That we would all just stop and wait for your return?"
Aro smiled nervously. "Well, yes," he answered honestly. "I am back now, so things can go back to normal."
Sulpicia chuckled to herself. "No, my love. This is normal now, you just need to catch up."
Sulpicia put on her cape and collected her paperwork. "I am off to see Athenodora, her mission plans are too expensive and we need to look at ways to cut costs."
"You and Athenodora?!" Aro exclaimed. "Athenodora's mission plans?" The last he heard Sully had ripped chunks out of the woman's face … and now you are working together and she is planning missions?!
"Spend some time with your sons, Aro, see if you can get them out of bed! Or at least behaving cordially for awhile. I am taking the twins with me."
"They are still asleep?" Aro questioned. "And I assume not cordial?"
Sulpicia smiled kindly. "Things are running smoothly. You have no need to worry. But your sons have made the most of your absence, my love."
Sulpicia and the twins left, leaving Aro gawking blankly at the closed door. No need to worry? I have been usurped by the women in my own bloody coven. Deciding to put his concerns to one side for now, he sought out his boys.
Aro was surprised to find them both sleeping soundly when he opened their door to a room that a pig would refuse to call home. Random items of clothing lay scattered across the floor with empty goblets amid the debris and a soft breeze blew through the closed window - two missing panes of glass allowing its entry. The room stank of stale alcohol, specifically, ale. Aro was concerned - they didn't stock ale in the castle, his boys wouldn't have been into town, surely? Taking advantage of his sons' sleeping state, he placed two fingers on Demetri's neck to find out what had been going on.
Magnus is selling ale in the guard hall! What else is he up to? Aro flipped through the last few weeks and he saw the pair of them had been living the high life in the guard hall whilst their mother worked and their father was indisposed. Aro cursed his own ineptitude for causing so much strife. Why the bloody hell has Magnus been selling them ale?
Moving over to Felix, he did the same with his eldest boy. Felix had caused a little more trouble than Demetri - Felix lead whilst Demetri followed. Aro rolled his eyes, typical! From Felix' memories, Aro worked out that Magnus hadn't been selling his boys' the ale, but the guard were happy to help them get wrecked for a small fee. You clearly have money to burn, lads. I can set that straight! Felix had continued to give Sulpicia a hard time during his absence, and worryingly, Felix blamed his mother for his father's disappearance. He blamed himself, too. No son. None of this was your fault. Aro thought solemnly.
Aro dragged both hand over his face and through his hair. This is a mess! Why has Sully let them get away with this? The little bastards have been massively taking advantage of her!
"Good morning!" Aro announced loudly. No response. He tried again only to receive the same lack of attention. "Get up!" he roared, ripping the bed sheet from Felix and flashing over to do the same to Demetri.
"Fuck off!" Demetri complained in his sleepy daze, curling into a ball around his pillow.
Aro raised a hand and narrowed his eyes to the back of his boy's head. Oh, I don't think so.
CRACK!
Aro smacked Demetri's backside with such force that he had to check his fingers were all still in one piece.
"OW!" Demetri screamed loudly, springing into an attack position. Felix did the same from his bed.
"Daddy's home," Aro smiled to them both.
Demetri rubbed his sore ass but sprang to his father's side, wrapping his arms around him.
"Are you back?"
"I'm, here, aren't I?" Aro replied, kissing his head and squeezing him tight.
"What took you so long?" Felix drawled, mimicking Demetri's actions.
"I've actually been home for a while but I had to plough through all this crap to get to your beds!" Aro said, gesturing to the general debris on the floor.
The boys looked around their bedroom. Typical teenagers, they felt no shame for the state of their living space. It was tidier than it had been in the last month, but Aro would never have seen it so bad.
"We don't need to clean up anymore, Dad," Felix said triumphantly. "We have a cleaner now." His boy's exuberant expression faded a little seeing Aro's clear distaste at the idea.
"A cleaner?" Aro repeated. "Since when do we need a cleaner?" Aro didn't like having the guards in his private chambers for any longer than it took them to collect the laundry or the rubbish.
Felix shrugged. "Mom's a working woman now, Dad, someone's gotta do it."
Aro nodded. "Yes, that someone would be you if you know what's good for you."
Aro collected a goblet from the floor and held it up questioningly to his sons.
"How did that get there?" Felix asked, looking at the cup in faux amazement. "You know Dad, I've heard about this before – when random items of metal appear in a room, it is good luck for the householders. Something to do with Elfish magic."
"You heard that, did you?" Aro smirked to his boy's playful manner. "It's a shame I am the householder and not you – you still need to clean this room."
Felix scowled. "So that's it, you're home now and everything has to change?"
Aro chuckled to himself. "Keeping your room in a usable state is not a change Felix, it has always been a requirement."
"Can we do it later?" Demetri asked, "I haven't seen you for weeks!"
Aro still had his arm around his child and he could hear Demetri thinking how unfair it had been that Felix had spent the night with his father when he hadn't been allowed the same courtesy.
Basileus had told him that he would need to talk to his children and explain what had occurred … loosely. Neither Aro nor Basileus thought it would be a good idea to tell them submission was now on the table within their family - that will scare them to death! I do need to explain myself, though, he thought.
"I think we need to talk," he said, pulling his sons from their room.
A few hours later, Sulpicia and the twins returned with new bundles of parchment. The twins bounced to their father's side and joined him on the sofa whilst Felix and Demetri looked nervously to each other. Sulpicia caught their concern.
"Worried I might tell you father how awful you have been?" she asked, dumping her new paperwork on the table.
Their young eyes widened as their parents both stared them down.
"I went through your memories whilst you were sleeping," Aro casually slipped in. Seeing their expressions comical with worry, he added, "Did I not mention that?"
Felix tried to find the words for an excuse but nothing audible left his mouth.
"Hmm." Aro appraised the pair of miscreants. "I will address your behaviour tomorrow. I want an easy day."
Demetri gulped down the venom pooling in his throat.
Sulpicia gestured for Aro to join her at the table, not that she wanted to save her sons from his scorn, they deserved every ounce of it!
"They have been vile to you, did my father not help? Atia? Eleazar even?" he asked in a hurried whisper.
Their children wouldn't hear him, Aro and Sulpicia had perfected the art of talking privately with an eager audience.
"Aro, our sons aren't anyone else's problem. I have been run off my feet night and day and I admit I let them get away with more than I should … "
"You think?!" Aro exclaimed. "You have let them get away with murder!"
Sulpicia waved away Aro's concerns. "Don't be dramatic, my love. They haven't killed anyone. They have stayed out a little late and been cheeky now and then. It's not a big deal."
Aro scowled. Not a big deal! It will be a big deal when I have finished with them!
"Aro, you need to tread carefully. They are resentful of all the upheaval you have caused. You can't come back in here making too many demands of them."
Aro raised a single eyebrow in response. Oh yes I fucking can! he thought.
"You must also be mindful of your father … you need to keep your cool or you could set him off. Basileus is really struggling with his own demons right now, my love."
Aro puffed the air out of his cheeks in annoyance. Sully was right and he knew it. Damn it. "I can't just let them get away with the way they are behaving, Sully."
"Of course you can't but you can draw a line under their behaviour whilst you were away. Yes?"
Aro was conflicted but he knew she was right. It was the only way forward. And that's where they were heading now, forward. Not back to how things were, some new state of play instead. "Of course, my queen," he agreed quietly.
Sulpicia had been ready with a speech to defend herself in their conversation, she was pleased to see it wasn't needed. It was encouraging that Aro appeared to be willing to concede to her suggestion.
"So how was Athenodora?" Aro asked casually, trying to discreetly look at the paperwork Sulpicia had brought home.
"Very well. Caius wants to take a small group out to collect some humans for turning. Freyr is complaining that the guards are getting harder and harder to convince to take on lowly duties. They all want patrol as a minimum, not cleaning. Even though they have flipped the pay scales and now pay more for cleaning than anything else … "
Sulpicia continued to tell Aro how his coven was running, and he picked up along the way that Sulpicia was dealing with the other women in the castle who seemed to have formed some sort of middle management level with their mates now doing the donkey work under their instruction - Caius wanted to take a mission, so Athenodora was liaising between Sully for the finances and Freyr for the guards. Magnus wanted a better structure to the guard detailing, so Freyr was arranging for guards to become specialised in certain aspects of coven life. Some to aid Marcus in directing study and maintaining the library, others to work closely with Caius and become mission specialists, a few more to work with Magnus to train other guards.
Aro nodded along, taking it all in, worry lines appearing across his brow the further Sulpicia went on. It wasn't that he objected, he had nothing to object to - Sulpicia had everything covered! He was surprised though, and a little put out that his coven ran so well, better even, without his presence. A compete absence of male presence, actually! Aro thought, wondering where his father and brothers fitted into this new look Volturi his mate and mother had arranged.
Aro was flummoxed. "Has my removal really been all dancing and sunshine for everyone?" he asked, interrupting his wife's chatter.
Sulpicia stopped and cupped his face with her delicate hand. "Oh, my love, you have been missed greatly. In your absence others have stepped up."
"You have, you mean!" Aro corrected.
"Yes, I have," she agreed proudly. "The daily running of our coven is far more efficient and you can still oversee everything, but now you will have more time to focus on other things."
Aro huffed like a petulant child. "What other things, you've covered everything."
Sulpicia slid a piece of parchment over to him titled, 'Expansion'.
Aro picked it up and ran through the list. "How did you know I was planning an expansion?" he asked, happy to see a great deal of money had been allocated to pay for his ambitious plans.
"Atia shared them with me. Neither of us knew what your plans were exactly, so we went off those she saw in your mind. Basileus has agreed to put up half of all costs."
Aro's mouth fell open. "He has?" he asked, happily surprised.
Sulpicia pulled a face. "Well, agreed may be a little misleading. Atia has promised to get it from him though, and that's as good as money in the bank."
Aro dropped the paper. "You and Athenodora are working together, you and Atia are best friends … is Medusa waiting for you in the bedroom?"
Sulpicia smirked. "Athenodora and I are friends, more so than we have been for many years and Atia is as much my mother as she is yours. The women in this castle have risen and we now work as one."
Aro chuckled to himself. That won't last five minutes before you all start bitching about one another, he thought, feeling safe in the belief that this new female power house wouldn't last the year. I'll let you have your fun for now, my queen, he thought, patronisingly.
Aro pulled his mate in close and kissed her deeply. "My queen, is there any chance you could take a break from the books?" he asked, undressing her with his eyes.
"The children … " she started.
"Felix, Demetri, I am very unhappy at the way you have behaved whilst I was away. If you promise to change your attitude, we can draw a line underneath it all," Aro offered his boys without turning away from his mate.
They both jumped at the chance for a reprieve.
"Go to the guard hall, all of you, but be back here by nine."
Felix grumbled at the curfew and Alec didn't want to go at all, but they soon saw their parents locked in a groping exchange and they were suddenly happy with the offer Aro had made.
Before the door had even closed behind their children, Aro scooped Sulpicia into his arms and carried her to their bedchamber.
Sulpicia pulled away from him for just long enough to pull out their toy box beneath the bed.
"Do you want me to?" Aro asked, warily. He knew he'd been an aggressive cunt before his forced absence and he didn't want to push his mate too far too soon.
Sulpicia nodded with a coy smile as she started to undress.
Ari bit his lip, still unsure. "I mean … "
"I know what you mean, my love," Sulpicia replied, pulling Aro down onto their bed. Good god how he had missed that bed!
"And just to be sure, you are saying yes?" he asked as she moved on top of him.
Full of excitement, Sulpicia replied, "Yes!"
…
They fucked for hours, passionately, sensually, viciously, in the way only they could. The sounds coming from their bed chamber were primal and verged on otherworldly. It wouldn't have mattered had Felix not return mid raging-orgasm to check on his mother alone with his potentially unstable father.
"Leave her alone!" he roared as he burst through the door.
Aro slipped backwards off the bed, crashing to the floor. "Get out!" he bellowed in reply whilst Sulpicia scurried to clothe herself with a cushion.
Felix was confused, but convinced that his mother was in danger he pushed on. "What's going on?" he asked, demanding an answer.
"OUT!" Aro ordered, still a little dazed from the rude interruption.
Felix spotted the collection of whips laying abandoned on the floor … and then the belt Sulpicia removed from her neck. "Oh my god!" he said, confused and worried, before fleeing the top floor suite calling for Basileus.
"For fuck sake," Aro complained, grabbing some britches and a shirt to throw on quickly and give chase to stop Felix before he gave the creator the wrong impression.
He was too late. By the time Aro reached his father's door, Basileus was already vibrating with rage and ready to rip his head from his shoulders.
"Aro god help you if you have so much as … " he started whilst searching his son's memories. "Oh," be said, a little surprised. "Oh god!" he tutted, looking to his boy and shaking his head. "Really?" he questioned.
Aro looked sheepishly to the floor, biting his lip nervously. "It's been a while," he offered quietly as an excuse for what his father must have seen in his thoughts.
Basileus pushed Aro away to concentrate on Felix. "I think you need to have a father son chat with your Dad," he said gently.
Felix wasn't having that - Basileus had promised him that he would protect his family from Aro's aggression if he posed a threat to them again. "But you said to fetch you if he … "
"I know what I said, and that still stands," Basileus told him seriously. "But on this occasion, I think Aro can explain better than I can."
"You know, son," Basileus turned to address Aro, "you wouldn't find yourself in these situations if you weren't so drawn to weird bloody fetishes."
Aro cringed, he'd rather not share his sexploits with his old man, funnily enough. 'Can I take him out?' Aro asked through his thoughts.
Basileus shook his head. He stood back and gestured inside his own quarters. "It's time for you to come back here now anyway so use your room."
Felix's eyebrows shot up hearing that little gem. So, Aro won't be home at night … interesting! he thought.
Aro wanted to resist - he wasn't ready to leave Sulpicia yet - they hadn't fully finished!
Basileus caught his boy's whining thoughts and put a stop to them before they could get them both into trouble with an abrupt slap to his face.
"Don't, Aro. Just don't."
Aro backed up into the stairwell. "Dad, I … "
Basileus took his movements for an attempt to return to his own quarters and dragged Aro forcibly into his living room before he had the chance to touch the stairs. "I told you to use your room!"
Aro could hear his father's internal battle. Why are you being such a hard ass?!
"You know full well why!" Basileus replied.
Aro gulped and rubbed out the sting in his arm. There was no need to squeeze so tight! he thought, pushing Felix ahead towards the bed chambers.
Aro closed the door behind him and looked to his son, sitting on the bed. "We need to talk," he started, not really knowing how to go on. "I love your mom … " he offered, as though that explained anything.
"If you loved her you wouldn't hurt her!" Felix scoffed. "You've only been back a few hours!"
Aro grimaced and took a seat next to him. "I don't hurt your mom," he said, only to receive a look of disbelief from his son. "Well I do, yes," Aro agreed, "but it isn't the way you think."
"That's bullshit dad!" Felix called out.
Aro bristled to his boy cursing at him, but under the circumstances, he'd allow his that one shot. "Felix, listen to me." Aro had to hold his boys face to keep him looking at him and not the glowering at the floor. "I do hurt your mom…" Aro chose to ignore the disgusted eyes Felix shot back at him. "and sometimes she hurts me, too." He continued, awkwardly, "it's an agreement we have."
Felix pulled his face free. "An agreement for you to be a cunt?"
Aro flinched. "Watch it!" he warned, cuffing the back of Felix's head. "I only do what your mother allows me to do, do you understand?"
"No!" Felix replied. That sounds like an excuse for beating my mom up!
"Your mother and I have been together a very long time. Keeping a marriage fresh can be complicated. Grownups are complicated," Aro said gently.
"Don't patronise me," Felix spat in reply.
Aro sighed and roll his eyes to the heavens. "I'm really trying not to patronise you, son," he said honestly.
A short silence fell between them as Felix wondered what sort of monster his father was and Aro wondered how the hell to explain his fetish to his son without scaring him for life!
"Oh god, this is awkward," Aro complained.
"What is?" Felix shot back, annoyed. "You're talking in riddles."
Aro scrubbed a hand down his face. Fuck me, facing a beating from Basileus would have been easier than this!
"Tough!" Basileus shouted through from the living room, clearly hanging on to every word. He was quite enjoying the show!
"I hurt your mom because she says it's okay that I do, and she hurts me for the same reason."
"That's so fucked up, Dad."
"No, it's not really, it's okay. Don't swear at me again!" Just let it go! Aro begged through his thoughts.
"No, its not okay! If Jane said I could punch her and I did, you wouldn't be bothered?" Felix presented an impassioned argument.
"I would be very bothered, but that is different," Aro explained sternly, not wanting his boy to get any stupid ideas about beating up his siblings. Aro let out a frustrated breath. "We enjoy it, okay," he declared. "It's something we enjoy."
Felix eyed his father with suspicion. "You enjoy hurting each other," he repeated to himself.
"Sometimes, yes," Aro admitted, feeling more than a little uncomfortable with their conversation. He was sure the walls of that fucking room were closing in on him.
Felix took a moment to consider what he had seen when he'd burst into his parents' bedroom. His mother had been on all fours with a belt around her throat, whilst his father had the other end, strangling her with it whilst he fucked her from behind.
"Oh my god, I want to scrub my brain!" The poor boy grabbed at his head, shaking it vigorously to rid himself of the image.
Aro nodded to himself. So now you get it, he thought. He pulled Felix's hands free from his face so he could look in his eyes and check he was okay.
"That's even more fucked up than it was before," Felix exclaimed loudly.
Aro tried to shush him but Felix continued. "Oh god that's so … you're so weird!"
Aro could hear his own father guffawing from the other room. Thanks dad! he thought, before joining Basileus in chuckling at Felix's horror.
"Why can't you just be normal?" Felix asked. He couldn't look Aro in the eye with flashbacks invading his mind.
"It isn't particularly abnormal son," Aro said in his defence.
"Yeah, alright." Felix and Basileus retorted with that one.
Aro allowed Felix a little time to process what he had been told before trying to push their conversation on. He knew his other children would be home soon and he wanted Felix in his own quarters before it was too late.
"You must have heard those noises coming from our room before, son."
"We have! We just assumed you were hurting Sully."
Wow. Sucker punch. Aro hadn't expected to hear that. "It's nice to know you have such a high opinion of me," he said sounding genuinely hurt.
Felix shrugged. "You have form."
Aro couldn't say anything to that. It was a fair, if hurtful comment.
Felix looked to his father in confusion. "Are you saying all the times we have thought you were hurting mom, you were really just having sex?"
"Honestly?" Aro asked. Do you really want to know?
Felix waited expectantly for an answer.
"Most of the time," Aro admitted, shamefully thinking of the times his children had listened to him actually beating their mother.
Felix threw himself back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.
Aro lay down next to him. "I'm sorry, Felix."
Felix puffed the air from his cheeks. "You can fuck how you like, it's nothing to do with me."
"Hey! I'm not too sure what makes you think swearing at me is acceptable now, but … "
That was all Felix needed to hear before he offered his apologies. Aro sounded much more like his father again already, not the shadow of the man he had seen in that very room the week before.
"I'm not just sorry about today. I want to be a better father to you all, a better mate to your mother," Aro explained.
"Well after recent events you can only go up." Felix looked sideways to his father, working out whether he needed to duck for cover or not. He was safe.
"I agree with you there," Aro replied. There was nothing else he could say that he hadn't said already.
Felix heaved himself up. "I should go … I assume you have to stay here?"
"I have some work to catch up on with your grandfather so I'll see you when you wake up."
Felix wasn't sure whether Aro was telling the truth or not, but he decided to go along with it for now, and he planned to check in the night to see if he was home!
"Go," Aro told him, adding sternly, "tidy your room and be nice to your mother."
Basileus came to the door shortly after Felix left.
"You were a big help!" Aro accused, though he couldn't help but smirk.
Basileus shook his head and laughed. "That conversation was hysterical!" he said through his chuckles. "There may be some benefits to being stuck with you in my quarters after all."
"You could let me go home … " Aro pushed, looking nervous.
Basileus' laughter immediately ceased and his expression turned gravely serious. "You won't ask me to change my mind again, understood?" he ground out.
Aro nodded. "Of course, of course."
Basileus appeared to flinch. Aro could tell he was trying to maintain his control. Aro wasn't scared of many people … Basileus would be the only one, really, but usually Aro could be sure that Basileus always, absolutely always had a level head and would never take things further than he intended to. That wasn't the same Basileus he was sharing quarters with now. Aro had unlocked something in his father that Basileus didn't know how to control.
It scared them both.
After a good few minutes of steady breathing, Basileus was back. "You don't have to stay in here, your brothers are coming down to see you."
Aro froze. He didn't know if Carlisle knew about everything that had happened, and he wasn't sure he could face Eleazar again yet either. Basileus heard his worries and he understood Aro's awkward position, but he chose to let him stew. In his mind, Aro deserved to feel uncomfortable for a while yet.
Basileus cracked open a fresh table barrel of bloodwine to pour himself a glass. The scent hit Aro's senses like a punch in the face! His fangs ached and his throat burned. It had only been a couple of days since Aro had fed from his father, but that feed went straight to replenishing his battered body and there wasn't much left over to keep him sated. Basileus knew his boy was struggling, though he was surprised at how affected he seemed.
"Do you need to feed?" he asked Aro quickly. They didn't have long before Eleazar and Carlisle would join them and Basileus' blood would knock Aro out for hours!
Aro tried to answer his father but his eyes were locked on the goblet in his hand.
"Aro!" Basileus snapped, getting attention. "Sit," he ordered.
Aro obeyed, he felt panicked. Feeling his thirst so painfully was a relatively new experience for him and he didn't like it - he felt like he was losing control. What I wouldn't give for a shot of dungeon blood to calm me down right now! he thought.
Basileus reacted instantly. With one hand, he screwed the front of Aro's shirt into his fist and the other went straight to his own mouth to pierce his wrist. Forcing the spurting blood into Aro's mouth he ground out, "Don't you dare even joke about that shit, you ungrateful little prick!"
Basileus could feel the blood trickling from his wrist but Aro was too scared to suck. "Drink!" he ordered.
Aro took a couple of decent gulps from his father's wound before pulling away. He didn't want to take so much that it made him woozy in front of his brothers.
Basileus licked his wrist to seal the hole. "I hope you appreciate this," he said to Aro, "it stings like a bitch!"
Aro smiled, feeling a little lightheaded. "I do," he drawled, sinking into his seat so far that he nearly slipped off the end.
Basileus scowled and picked Aro up, dropping him back into a sitting position. "Snap out of it!" he ordered, slapping his son twice to wake him up.
"Okay!" Aro threw up his hands to defend himself. He was grateful to see his brothers walking in - the distraction would help keep him awake if nothing else.
Atia was out being business woman of the year so that left the four of them sitting awkwardly … no one mentioned that Aro wasn't drinking, nor the disarray of his clothing, nor the hand print to the side of his face, though thanks to Basileus' blood, that was at least fading quickly.
"So … what's new with you, Aro?" Eleazar asked, beaming a broad smile at his brother and enjoying his discomfort.
Aro groaned, he had nothing good to say, his life was a shocking pile of shite from where he was sitting.
"He's just had a lovely conversation doing some father son bonding with Felix," Basileus offered on his boy's behalf, before bursting into deep guffaws again.
Eleazar and Carlisle looked to Aro expectantly as he rubbed his hand across his tired eyes - there was no way he was getting out of telling them now.
"I have just had to explain to Felix that his mother and I 'hurt' each other for fun."
"What?!" Eleazar exclaimed.
Carlisle looked equally perturbed. "Why on earth would you tell him that?!"
"Oh, well, you know how it is … " Aro began, trying to sound nonchalant and chilled, "when your teenage son bursts through your bedchamber door whilst you are strangling your wife with a belt during some very rough make-up sex it kind of comes up in conversation."
Carlisle's mouth fell open as he went from one brother to the other and then his father, neither believing what he had heard nor understanding why they didn't all look like him!
"Why would he just walk in?" Eleazar asked.
Yeah, because that's the odd part! Carlisle thought as he shot his eldest brother sideways glance.
Aro threw his hands in the air. "Because he thought I was beating up his mother." He wasn't happy that he had to admit that, and even less pleased that not one of them offered an objection. Bastards! he thought. "He probably wishes I was beating her up now I have explained what we were really doing!"
Eleazar had managed to contain himself until he saw Aro sulking over the whole thing, that broke him and he burst out into completely unsupportive laughter. "Oh my god, that's so bad!" he chortled.
Aro threw his cushion at his brother. "I've scarred him for life El … and he's a vampire so it's going to be a particularly long life for the poor sod!"
"It's sweet that he wanted to protect Sully, though," Carlisle offered, trying to see a bright side to Aro's situation.
"Yeah, real sweet," Aro groaned.
Eleazar continued to laugh at Aro. "Brother, I wouldn't trade places with you for all the money in the world!"