AN: Sorry for the wait, but I'm so glad I took the time to proofread and edit the shit out of this chapter, or it would've been so embarrassing to post. I also need to go back to the last chapter and fix a few things (I called the manor a castle? O-0) but until I do, just know that I apologize!
Have a good read!
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Ethan tried to sit still in his seat.
"I know you said 'enough of that conversation' earlier..." Ethan spoke eventually, after he and Jesse had set the table and sat down on the padded, delicate hotel chairs. "But I don't really feel like putting it off very much longer."
Really, he tried to sit still and look serious. But he just couldn't stop himself from fidgeting.
Was it really necessary to rent out the nicest place this town had? How had the vampire even managed that? Ethan had chosen the town at random and had only arrived just over a day ago.
He guessed when you were rich and powerful you could find luxury anywhere. The room they were sitting in had just been cleaned, and the glass walls and ceiling sparkled in the afternoon sun, revealing blue skies and bright, fluffy clouds just beyond. Ethan hated how beautiful it was.
"Hm?" Jesse asked, pouring Ethan some kind of iced tea into a wineglass (the seer had adamantly refused any alcohol). "Finally gonna assert those demands onto me are you?"
"Just...one, really." Ethan swallowed, and made himself grab a bit of tossed salad with a pair of tongs before Jesse had even sat down. Infuriatingly, the vampire only smirked in response as Ethan took a savage stab and bite of the green, crisp and (admittedly) perfectly seasoned salad— almost before it landed on his plate.
Common etiquette at any dinner demanded that he at least wait until all those present were ready, but he was trying to make a freaking point by being disrespectful on purpose. Though...he could've gone right to the main course, and shoveled everything onto his small plate. Was he seriously failing at being rude? He just couldn't make himself do it.
"Let's hear it."
"I want to write a letter to my family." Ethan came right out and said it, watching with some unknown emotion as Jesse took a bite of his own plate of greens. Raven colored eyebrows raised a bit in unadulterated surprise and onyx irises met his own cocoa ones questioningly.
Just as surprisingly, the only thing Jesse had to say was, "You think that's a good idea?"
"They'll only keep searching for me and make it harder for us to move freely." Ethan pointed out and Jesse smiled.
"Oh Ethan, that's not the real reason you want to. You've told me several times in the past how much you missed them...though never in those exact words. Anyway, we still don't know when or if you'll ever go back, so..." Jesse's lips pursed. "You think sending them false hope is a wise thing to do?"
"Sending them a letter telling them I'm okay isn't unreasonable...and if I don't, they'll spend all this time wondering if I'm alive or dead."
"I think they'll wonder even if we sent a letter. Maybe they'd assume it's a fake...or think someone was forcing you into writing it. Overall, is that idea really..." Jesse paused as though thinking of the correct word. "Kind?"
"Look, don't pretend to care about the well being of my family." Ethan scowled, and stabbed at a tomato, shrinking when it's insides sprayed across the table and splashed across Jesse's perfectly straight nose.
Jesse's expression didn't change, but he did reach forward as he closed his eyes, plucking a cloth napkin from the table and wiping his face. Ethan might've laughed or even apologized profusely any other time, but he was really trying to make a convincing pitch here to get Jesse to let him write to his parents. So instead, he steeled himself, stood up and-
And- what? There was nothing he could do by standing up, so Ethan only ended up grabbing the salt and sitting back down with his head tipped forward. He blushed and wondered what he was even doing. Why had he stood up in the first place? It was like he was getting...stage fright or something. He just kept doing everything wrong.
"Okay."
Ethan's head snapped up so quickly he nearly got whiplash.
"Okay...you'll let me write?"
"Okay, I'll stop pretending." Jesse smiled charmingly and Ethan growled, setting his fork down with more force than needed. "Sure, Morgan. You might not deserve it, but I'll let you write home..."
The seer swallowed. That sentence hadn't yet ended.
"If..."
There it was.
"If you show me..." Jesse smiled, and leaned forward, taking a careful sip of his wine. "How well you can behave."
The image he made was stunningly handsome- especially when paired with the gently blowing leaves behind him from an ancient tree, and the stark blue of his sky contrasting flatteringly against his dark clothing. The sun bathed his pale skin into something radiant.
At these thoughts, the seer slapped himself mentally and tried to focus, wondering when exactly he'd come to see Jesse as something more than the shameless bloodsucker he was.
"I'll behave." Ethan responded flatly.
"You aren't convincing me, geek."
"What do you-"
"How can I expect you to behave for the next seven or eight plus years..." Jesse sat back in his seat, looking overall too relaxed. "If you can't even eat your vegetables without throwing a fit?"
"What are you on about? I am eating my vegetables."
"Then why don't you lose the aggressiveness, stop gripping your fork like you want to stab it into my throat, and enjoy your fine dining?" The vampire smirked. "...Like a good little boy."
"Oh..." Oh fuck him! Ethan seethed and began puffing up like a porcupine. "You..."
"I'm waiting to be impressed." Jesse grinned, showing perfectly white and menacing teeth, and that only made Ethan more willing to just risk everything and deck the infuriating vampire across the table.
"I..." Ethan sat down and took a deep breath, averting his eyes and stabbing another piece of salad with his glinting salad fork. Then, with great effort, he unclenched his fingers just the slightest bit from around the fork's handle.
"That's better." Jesse whispered, and Ethan felt a chill of fury run up his spine. How had Jesse turned Ethan's honest wish into means for something humiliating? "Eat a little slower. You should know how French etiquette works by now, Ethan. You might say its basic guidelines for all versions of courtesy in this world."
"Hn." Was the only noise Ethan made, but he complied and chewed more slowly despite his desire to flip the table over and run screaming into the streets. His face turned even more red when he looked up and found Jesse smiling fondly at him, as though utterly smitten with the angry seer.
"I'll make a gentleman of you yet, mon chérie." Jesse said the last part in a deep, thick French accent that practically slithered into Ethan's ears and gently aroused his brain. The next part, however was what almost made the seer choke on his food. "And we'll see...si je peux résister devenir un animal autour de vous."
"Mon charmant prince."
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"I'll save the romantic row on a moonlit river for another time." Jesse commented and Ethan gazed with carefully blank eyes as the vampire began to shed that navy button-up.
Turned away from him but giving a quick smirk over his shoulder, Jesse unbuttoned his dressy-as-usual shirt and fluidly pulled it off his broad shoulders. Ethan avoided the vampire's eyes when he neatly folded the downy material and came to press them onto the built-in storage chest right next to Ethan's seat with purpose.
'Stupid body...shut up.' Ethan's face burned and he looked away as the chime of a belt buckle met his ears, as well as the sound of a zipper lowering. Trying not to make it obvious that he was averting his eyes, the seer looked out towards the lights of the city they'd left not too long ago. The French seaside town glowed gentle hues of yellow, orange, and even blue against the steadily falling night.
If Ethan wasn't so determined to not enjoy himself on this little outing of theirs, he probably would have really enjoyed this. He found himself having to struggle against an inner urge to just...be content. Had to keep reminding himself that this wasn't what contentment felt like.
Though this day out with Jesse had been exhausting, half of the exhaustion was, admittedly, completely a result of his own doing. Really, Ethan had tried to be cold and rude the entire day- he knew Jesse was a loveless bastard of a vampire who's only drive was to achieve his goals.
Despite all that, Jesse had simply offered his arm, insisted (albeit gently) on using the native language while out and about in town, and guided him through the history of the city.
The vampire would patiently ask him where he wanted to go next, and Ethan would stubbornly point in a random direction. Only to be utterly captivated and intrigued by the stories Jesse would tell him.
The seer had begun to wonder if France was maybe Jesse's native country as well...and then wondered if he'd lost his damn mind. What did he care? This agreement to not run away and to not fight anymore was leaning way more in the vampire's favor, and seemed to have no benefit to him at all other than getting to send a letter or two back home.
IF he passed this little test.
What if this was all just a joke to Jesse? What if he was playing Ethan, just to make him utterly agreeable for a day? But then...what did that matter, either? Hadn't the vampire been playing him the whole time? Lulling him into a false sense of security, becoming his sole source of misery as well as his one place of comfort.
So Ethan ignored it when Jesse's feet padded across the deck of his small but elegant motorboat. And he tried to ignore it when he heard a resounding splash into the ocean surrounding them. Figures this goddamn vampire would have a boat for every occasion, Ethan sulked internally. Just like he must have a muscle car, and a truck and a damn motorcycle in every color.
"Coming in? The ocean is great." Jesse's sultry voice came from somewhere out of sight.
After a minute of nothing more than a low noise of acknowledgement from the seer, Ethan could hear Jesse swimming back towards the boat. Ethan quickly looked away, feigning disinterest when he realized he should've looked at the vampire before he'd gotten in the water. Would it be harder not to stare when the vampire was wet?
A small splash of seawater to his cheek made him jump as Jesse made himself known climbing up the latter on the opposite side of the boat.
"Ugh." Ethan allowed his expression to twist into a deep scowl.
How he hated Jesse! And how he desperately wished that just for one day, he could eat and sleep and just enjoy being alive instead of carrying around a bunch of guilt on his shoulders. It wasn't his fault he was in this stupid situation...right?
Ethan had no particular fondness for swimming, but also...
Looking out at the sea, glittering under the faint light from the stars, and the city looking so radiant behind them...the ocean was so calm it was surreal. If he'd been in any other situation, with literally anyone else, Ethan would've been all over the chance to go for a swim.
Debating with himself, and resolutely not looking anywhere near the vampire, Ethan placed a hand over his now-wet face. With his eyes closed, he could hear Jesse fiddling with something near the main seating of the boat. For a long minute, he just got lost in his own thoughts.
When he at last opened his eyes, he wasn't sure what he was looking at— and when he was, the teen simultaneously jumped sideways and slipped a bit on the wet floorboards. Jesse stood directly beside him, eyeing him with a blank expression. But Ethan could see the humor glinting in his dark eyes.
"What are you-" Ethan sputtered, sure that his lips had almost just touched the vampire's pale, sculpted abs.
"Get undressed." Jesse demanded, and Ethan gaped. "And then get in the water. There's something I want to show you...and something we need to talk about."
Ethan eyed the vampire wearily, nodding in resignation and standing up to undress. What business could they have in the water? Did Jesse just bring him out here so no one could hear him scream, or-
"What are you doing?" Ethan demanded, not liking the way Jesse was watching him, like...well, like a hungry vampire. "Look away!"
"Technically, it's my body." Jesse did that little upturn of lips he always did so well, and upturned Ethan's stomach as well. "Can't I do what I want with it?"
His body, huh? Ethan was angered by the words, but eventually just sighed his discontent.
"...S'il vous plait?" Ethan asked in French, attempting to be a 'gentleman' and letting his French slip out, as he'd been forced to speak it for most of the day. He wasn't even blushing anymore, simply tired and bummed out over all he'd been forced to play along with, proving that he could be a 'good boy' for the vampire. It was degrading, but Ethan had resigned himself to it.
Luckily, Jesse responded to the forced manners with a simple turn of his heel, and Ethan quickly did as he was told, folding his clothes neatly and placing them aside without preamble. He then allowed Jesse to help him through the little space in the railings and into the water.
"You alright to swim on your own?"
Nodding, Ethan took a deep breath and submerged himself completely, swimming a few meters away from the boat while he was underwater. The water was relatively warm, but still quite cool, and Ethan didn't really enjoy swimming on his best days- but he swam anyway, if only to keep the bossy vampire off his back.
A short while later, after some light swimming, diving and floating, Ethan found himself a small distance away from the vampire as well as the boat. Looking up at the stars that had begun to show themselves more and more clearly as the night went on, Ethan glanced at his supernatural captor.
"So, have I proven myself yet?" Ethan asked, wondering if it was too early to ask, and found that sometime within the last second and a half! Jesse had gone from being fifteen feet away to less than two. Huffing a little in his surprise, Ethan shook the dripping hair from his eyes and grudgingly allowed himself to be turned in the water by a strong hand until he and Jesse were facing the distant horizon, the sun having gone under around twenty minutes prior.
This far out, the city simply a line of twinkling lights in the distance, they could see clearly when the moon began to rise. Saying nothing, the two simply watched as it rose into the sky; ominous, beautiful and casting a silvery glow over the water they floated in.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Jesse asked rhetorically and Ethan twitched. The vampire had come closer, had just moved behind the seer and taken he sides of both of his shoulders in his warm hands. Ethan's cardiovascular system had a short internal battle as his blood attempted to rush to his cheeks at the same time his face paled when Jesse's nose ran lightly along his pulse point.
It had been around seven weeks since Jesse had last drank from his veins directly- but the memory of it was as fresh in the seer's brain as it ever was. Painful, blissful, beautiful and terrible pristine fangs, piercing the skin of his neck and shoulders (his wrist only once or twice). He hated the thought of it, it disgusted him...
"Hmm." Ethan hummed, but couldn't force himself to relax in the hold the vampire had on him.
"Wanna know why I really brought you out here?" Jesse asked in Ethan's ear and the boy flinched again.
"So no one will hear me scream?" Ethan asked dryly, an echo of his earlier thoughts. It disturbed him that he could feel Jesse's smirk against his neck.
"Well...that's just a plus."
"I assume you brought me here to give me some kind of ultimatum or sermon." Jesse actually snickered at this, but said nothing more, becoming still.
As they both watched the moon rise over the water, looking like a pale sun, Jesse moved closer and wrapped his arms around Ethan's waist, resting his chin on the teen's wet shoulder. He'd never been shy or hesitant about the physical affection— though it had dimmed down considerably since the first couple of weeks that Ethan had arrived.
"Jesse...why do you do this?" Ethan dared to ask, unsure if he would even get an answer.
"Do what?"
"Keeping me captive is one thing. I can sort of see that making sense." Ethan said after a moment. "But...everything else? The..."
Ethan wanted to hide suddenly, but that was impossible. The vampire was literally flush against his back, warming his skin with his strong chest.
"All the...kissing and the touching." Ethan shook his head, exasperated. "This whole daytime adventure through the town. Jesse, I KNOW you aren't looking for a mate in me or anything, I know you just need me to fulfill some freaky seer agenda, so why do you do things like this?"
"The swim in the ocean under the silvery moon?" Jesse hummed against his hair. Ethan noticed he actually sounded a little thoughtful. "I guess it's because...I think you deserve it."
"What about everyone else you've forced into staying with you?" Ethan snapped, squirming a bit in Jesse's hold, now indignant as well as uncomfortable. "I know I'm not the first, far from it, and I probably won't be the last either. My point is, if you just TOLD me-"
"Then what?" Jesse whispered, and Ethan shivered despite himself, going still as he felt the sharp slide of fangs against the side of his neck. Sliding, touching, but not breaking the skin. "Tell me, apart from satisfying your hunger for that knowledge, what would telling you accomplish?"
"It's not like that!" Ethan's eyebrows drew together in agitation. He couldn't decide which would be worse— to continue being held like this, or to turn around and face the vampire. "I could help you."
"Say again?" Jesse gave him no choice as he turned the seer around in his arms and eyes him brightly. The moon reflected stunningly in those dark irises, as though becoming a new night sky on their own.
"I told you when we were making breakfast earlier." Ethan reminded him impatiently. "I'm ready to stop resisting and start cooperating. I just...I don't want to go into this blind."
Jesse smiled at that, and for once it wasn't a smirk or a darkly amused grin. It looked almost genuine.
"Trust me, you could never be blind, Morgan. Especially after I'm through with you...and you've passed my test. Mostly." His smile did turn into a smirk then, and he let go of Ethan to lean back a bit in the water, naturally, as a vampire, having perfect control of his positioning. "Just one thing. To make sure we understand each other."
"Yeah?" Ethan asked dully, dreading the answer. "What's that?"
"The thing that I want is..." Jesse was perfectly calm suddenly, looking at Ethan very earnestly. Ethan tensed. The vampire then whispered in Ethan's ear, causing him to go ramrod straight.
"W-What?" Ethan balked, attempting to back up in the water and only succeeding in almost drowning himself. When he got his balance back, floating in the water without much effort, he searched the vampires face for any signs that he was joking. Jesse had gone back to smiling in a smug-like manner. "Why? We both know you can just do that whenever you want."
"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" Jesse asked. "Of course, I can just take what I want, but that's not the point. I want you to do it." The vampire moved closer. "If you're truly done resisting...if you're truly ready to cooperate with me...if you want to work with me. You need to learn to do as I ask without question. Trust doesn't come to me easily, Ethan."
"But-" Ethan swallowed, and tried to process what he was hearing. Why would the vampire chose something like this to have him prove his word?
"So, seer?" Jesse smiled, showing teeth as bright and beautiful as the moon. "Are you going to kiss me or aren't you?"
The pervert!
"Isn't there anything else...?"
"I don't want anything else." Jesse retorted and Ethan sunk a little deeper into the water as his cheeks burned. "Well...that's a lie, actually. There are plenty of other things I could have you do-"
"Okay, nevermind!" Ethan swam forward a little and, mustering all his nerves, placed a brief and hard kiss on the corner of Jesse's mouth. As soon as he did it, he cursed himself because he realized that of course Jesse wouldn't accept that.
"That wasn't-"
"I know!" Ethan snapped, raising a hand to his hot face. "Just give me a second."
"Am I that horrible to look at?"
"-"
"Don't answer that." Jesse sighed dramatically and then turned away as though deeply hurt. "Well then...since I'm unkissable...even for the sake of your own agenda, I guess-"
"No, wait!" Ethan grasped at the vampire's shoulder, but he had already moved out of reach, swimming further into the ocean. "Jesse! Stop!"
"No...I understand now."
"You don't understand anything!" Ethan said snappily and swam over to him. Fine, if it was a stupid kiss the vampire wanted, it wasn't like the seer hadn't been subjected to it a dozen times before.
"Well, if you insist." Jesse dove under the water and left Ethan to look around, wondering where he'd come up at. A moment later, he reappeared far further back than he had been before entering the water. "I won't stop you."
"Come here! Childish...bastard!" Ethan struggled to keep up as the two played a game of (very clumsy, slow) cat and (cunning, amused) mouse in the water. After a minute, Ethan was beginning to tire— but he wasn't going to let Jesse have the satisfaction of besting him like this.
So then, with this in mind, he closed his eyes and tried to see. Truly see— and like flexing a muscle, a small, rather tiny window of the immediate future opened up. A window in which his mediocre second sight caught Jesse sinking under the water and reappearing next to the little boat they'd sailed out in.
Which was how, less than a minute later, Jesse found a panting and angry seer attached to his waist, hugging him forcefully from the side. Cursing lightly (for he was breathless from having dived under the water and swimming underneath in order to remain undetected) Ethan growled at the vampire's delighted laugh.
"You caught me." Jesse chuckled, turning his head to face Ethan's, and placing his forehead lightly against the human's. "So should I make it easy for you?"
Jesse's lips met Ethan's forehead, just between his brows for what was to be a small and oddly sweet kiss. Then, slowly, he kissed Ethan's nose just above his still gasping mouth. Ethan's heart thudded almost painfully in his chest, and he let out a small noise of embarrassed protest before steeling himself.
"I'm afraid that's all I-" Jesse's comment was cut off as a pair of soft, damp lips met his own.
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AN:
Guide Français: [French Guide]
"And then we'll see...si je peux résister devenir un animal autour de vous." [And then we'll see...if I can resist becoming an animal around you.]
"Mon charmant prince." [My lovely prince.]
"S'il vous plait?" [Please?]
*Although I took a course in French and study the language in my spare time, I'm not at all fluent. If any reader does happen to be fluent, and would like to correct a blunder in my dialogue, please do so!
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At last, this chapter is ready to be updated! Turned out to be...like 4,100 words? Somewhere around there? It seems longer than it actually is. Believe me you, I am working on my other stories, but the latest chapter of HITB isn't coming along too easily. I have also taken on a couple of other writing projects, one of which is on Ao3, but those are actually hugely easy to write, and a nice change from the usual MBAV fiction, (not that I don't love writing for the fandom).
Thank those who reviewed SO MUCH! I think I actually got a few new compliments, a few new readers, and I'm pleasantly surprised! I can't tell you how much I value reader feedback. You know I love knowing when I'm doing a fair job with the writing, and the comments keep me eager to write more!
Hope everyone's having a great summer! Until next time! Mwah!
Updated: Tuesday, June 19th, 2018, 11:54 PM