OTP TIME! My favourite time of all.

-YD-

"We need to talk."

If Vlad had a heartbeat, it would be quickening in anxiety. As it was, the useless muscle still seemed to have a good try.

"Are you leaving?"

Vlad couldn't help blurting out the question. He couldn't lose Adam. He didn't want to lose Ingrid either, but he could not lose his son.

"What? Garlic, no."

Ingrid dismissed the concern, but she wasn't done.

"But that grave-digging, power-hungry blood-waste" Vlad idly wondered how many insults Ingrid had saved up for his wife "has got to go."

"I can't. She's pregnant!"

Incredulous flickered over her expression before Ingrid composed herself to the usual eye rolling.

"I haven't forgotten. I mean after whether you find out if the spawn is yours, but I'm bored of being the equivalent of every guy she's fucked to you."

Vlad shook his head.

"You've always been more than that. In a way, you've been my longest relationship. We were siblings before we were more."

"Ugh, don't call it that."

He raised an eyebrow, confused

"What? Siblings?"

"Relationship. Horrible word."

"Well I have to call it something Ingrid. And while I wholeheartedly agree Adze needs to go, I'm still gonna be Grand High blah blah blah when she is. The VHC are gonna want to know who's next to spawn my heirs."

Ingrid rubbed at the side of her neck in a rare and unconscious sign of unsurety. Vlad didn't pick her up on it.

"I don't want to get into all this today. So long as we're on the same page that she's gone or ashed when she's dropped a new bat."

Vlad nodded.

"We are.

"Good. Now it's daylight outside and I want to go to sleep."

For a second, Vlad knew his own unsurety. It felt rather like he was being dismissed, waiting for that look Ingrid gave him when it was time to leave. Instead, she slipped out of her dress and eyed his clothes pointedly. Vlad undressed rather embarrassingly fast, craving the softness and comfort of Ingrid's skin on his own.

He was still in various stages of disbelief as he curled around Ingrid in her coffin, but she twined her fingers through his and didn't stake him. That couldn't be it, surely?

Unless Ingrid was letting go of smaller arguments to avoid him restarting the conversation that had almost seemed to scare her away. Either way, Vlad wasn't that stupid. The terrified look on Adam's face when he had that momentary fear Ingrid had left him was stark motivation never to risk such a thing again.

Vlad couldn't sleep. Ingrid wasn't either, he knew - she stopped breathing when she fell asleep, otherwise used to the rhythmic pattern since Adam still did it and she subconsciously mimicked her son. He ran tentative fingers down the sensitive sweep of her waist and side, watching her arch into his touch and gasp lightly.

She wasn't that mad at him then.

He didn't realise until Ingrid pressed back against him that he was aroused, not always being capable of it meaning Vlad had stopped expecting erections to occur often. Ingrid didn't act like she noticed, equally aware Vlad struggled with their intimate activities. He tugged at her shoulder pointedly, Ingrid getting the message quickly to shift onto her back.

Blood, Vlad loved the feeling of her hands in his hair. They held so tight, as though Vlad would choose to leave the intoxicating heat of her kiss. Ingrid was prone to wrapping herself around him in many ways, arm over his waist or legs over his hips. Hands around his neck and her body over his. Vlad gently moved her back beneath him, testing himself and finding it wasn't as bad as he was dreading.

"You ok?"

"Yeah. Just... let me?"

Ingrid knew what he was asking. Let Vlad set the pace, find his boundaries. It wasn't a small ask; Ingrid naturally assumed control without really thinking about it. She nodded, sliding a hand across his cheek and kissing him again. Her bra was removed in a silent tussle, giving Vlad access to the sensitive spots of her chest.

He touched her gently, every soft moan and whimper won from her lips a reminder to Vlad's shaking control that it was her. Ingrid was safety. She was responsive and wanting, pressing up into him as her body arched into his touch. Vlad could feel her getting wet, the dizzying scent of her arousal filling the air and coating his skin.

Ingrid's eyes were hot and intense on his own when he went for her underwear, slipping the fabric off her hips and following it with his own. They hadn't been naked together since... Vlad pushed it from his mind, focused solely on Ingrid beneath him. She was active, encouraging his touch with her moans and trembling limbs.

"Don't push yourself."

She murmured it against his mouth, possibly sensing Vlad's tenuous control over his feelings but he wasn't as unsettled as he had been before. Thinking she had left was terrifying but having Ingrid back was amazing, and he wanted to feel more of it.

"I'm not sure I can... but I want to try?"

Ingrid nodded, tilting her hips just so and spreading her thighs invitingly. She let Vlad do the rest, not pushing or cajoling. Just being patient and perfect as Vlad fumbled and tried not to lose himself in bad memories of hazy touches and sluggish thoughts.

As soon as he began to press himself inside Ingrid, everything else melted away. Ingrid whined low in her throat, shakimg but keeping her hands at her sides to let Vlad stay in control, to feel it. When they were flush against each other Vlad joined her in shaking, her body feeling like home and holding him safe.

"M'okay. Just keep your hands above the waist for now."

Ingrid didn't mock him, wrapping her hands around his neck and his upper arm, kissing at his jaw while Vlad fought against the memories trying to fight their way in. Eventually regaining some control over his mind, Vlad started moving. Ingrid stayed soft and pliant, moaning and rocking in time with his shaky thrusts. It couldn't have been the practiced, easy pleasure they usually shared but Ingrid didnt complain.

Whenever Vlad wobbled, he kissed her again. There was something uniquely Ingrid in her kisses, whether it was their shared powers or shared blood or shared son Vlad just knew it was her, even with his eyes closed and if he couldn't taste her scent as it moved to fill his lungs. Her fingers tightened slightly on his skin but not harshly so, more reassuring herself Vlad was there as they rocked and thrust together.

Normally more verbal, Ingrid was only letting out soft, un-intrusive sounds against his mouth and neck, rubbing her hand over his chest and shoulder in a way that soothed Vlad more than it had any right to. So intently focused on the fact he was doing it at all, Vlad didn't realise he was close to coming until it was almost bursting out of him.

He came with a guttural groan against Ingrid's neck, hips jerking with the sparks and muscle spasms until he was spent against his sister's body. Knowing Ingrid hadn't come yet by her needy tremors and tightened muscles, he slipped his softening cock free and replaced it with his fingers, stroking and rubbing her inside and out until Ingrid's body quaked with those beautiful motions as she came for him.

They came down together, messy and satisfied and Vlad was surprisingly content as Ingrid ran a hand through his hair.

"You alright still?"

Vlad nodded, craning to kiss the top of her cheekbone where he could surreptitiously inhale the scent of her hair to feel a wave of warm desire bubble through his lax body.

"Wasn't like before, but it's progress. Sorry I went off too fast."

Ingrid shook her head, rolled her eyes and it was wonderfully familiar.

"It was never going to be like before first time. The whole point is working toward it, recovery doesn't happen instantly. I was in a wheelchair after blood poisoning, that's pretty galling for a vampire less than a millenia old."

Vlad kept expecting old Ingrid, kept refusing to hope that Adam's changes wrought on his mother applied to Vlad but she kept surprising him. As if sensing he needed the reassurance still, Ingrid indulged his want of kissing, grounding him before he could slip again until he felt settled enough to sleep at last.

"Thanks."

He murmured it against her neck as they spooned.

"Hush. Sleep."

Ingrid's words lacked any bite, any venom. Just a simple command that now was for sleeping. Vlad woke before Ingrid, simply appreciating how accommodating she was about everything until she began to stir.

"I know. I need to go shower."

"Mhmm. Is it nightfall yet?"

"Almost. I ought to go before Adze can come back though."

Ingrid made a sound of agreement, twisting in his arms with her sleep-warmed skin to kiss him gently. Vlad greedily accepted, running an appreciative hand over her bare torso before pushing himself upright. He listened for Adam first, focusing and checking he could hear steady sleeping breaths a few rooms down. It wouldn't do to be caught, he accepted with a sigh before picking up his discarded clothes and shrugging them on hastily.

Adze did return that night, and with her came the dissolution of any doubt as to her baby's paternity. Her eyes were burning blue, a very strange look for brown eyes so dark they were almost black.

"Vlad, what's wrong with her eyes?"

Adam looked unsettled by the change, tugging his sleeve as Adze stormed past them with all the usual manners and grace.

"It's the baby. Well. Me. My eyes did that when I turned eighteen, it's the power building..."

He trailed off, suddenly concerned that one day Adam would experience something similar as his first born, as the only one a mix of Chosen One and Chosen One's First Bite. He ought to broach that concern with Ingrid, depending if she intended to keep the secret from Adam forever it could be an important factor.

"Vlad?"

"Sorry. Just realised something. Don't worry Adam."

He gave the boy his best 'everything is ok' smile, though it felt fake on his face and Adam was surprisingly perceptive.

"Is it that the baby is definitely yours? I remember you said you weren't sure."

Damn, his son was too smart for his own good. Vlad was so proud.

"Oh. Yeah. I forgot you saw that."

"It's ok. Me and the baby can be friends."

You'll be more than that, Vlad mused. Adam would, unknowingly, be a big brother to the baby. Though with Adze's contributions, the two half-siblings weren't likely to resemble each other in the slightest. Something tugged inside Vlad then, a feeling he had been fighting off - Adze was having his baby. Surely, certainly. He was about to be a new father.

"Why does Vlad look like someone spiked his soy blood with a sedative?"

Before Vlad could shake off his stupor, Adam jumped in to answer.

"Oh, he just found out Adze is definitely having his baby."

Ingrid eyed them both suspiciously, though under it Vlad saw both confusion and uncertainty.

"What do you mean?"

"Her eyes did a weird thing Vlad said only his can do usually."

"Was it light up?"

Vlad knew Ingrid knew then, had obviously experienced it for herself when carrying Adam. Adam, on the other fang, was surprised.

"How did you know that mum?"

Ingrid and Vlad shared a split second look of wide-eyed panic.

Oops.

-YD-

I know it's short but simply, it had to end there.