(A/N): Nothing, what's a matter with you?

Jerremyah

"Thank you for- for looking out for me, and... and thank you for... for thinking of me."

It simultaneously made my heart ache, and the rest of my chest glow, to hear Leo say that. It made me happy to hear him thank me, but more than anything, it hurt me on an almost physical level to know that he felt the need to do so. That this was such a rare occurrence for him. The sentiment behind him making the effort to thank me, made me freeze for more than a few seconds- and it was only when he shifted uncomfortably, that I managed to pull myself together.

"You- I- always." Somehow, it felt inadequate, no matter how much emotion I tried to put behind it. "That's- why I'm here." He tilted his head to the side, looking slightly skeptical even as he flushed.

"Don't lie," His voice was quiet, and to me, it came across almost... bashful? "You came here to get Lisbet back, and then- things changed." I didn't bother denying it, it likely would have felt disingenuous if I'd tried- much like if I'd tried to argue that what I'd said wasn't a lie. Instead, I nodded as plainly as I could, and flexed my hand around his.

"True. Things changed- my reason for coming here may have been entirely Lisbet driven, but now..." His eyebrows furrowed.

"...now?" I shrugged, still trying to appear nonchalant.

"Now, I find myself with other motivations." By the look on his face, I hadn't been quite straightforward enough. "Do we need to repeat the part of this conversation where you acknowledged that I like you?" His cheeks pinked, and he shook his head. "I didn't think so." I said smugly- only to have that taken from me, as soon as he opened his mouth again.

"What does that- what does that have to do with anything, though?" He couldn't be that clueless... right? Then again, was he actually clueless, or was he just- did he not have any previous experience to draw from?

"Leo..." I hesitated. "I fear if I were to take the time to properly explain it to you, I, too, would become too involved." His eyes widened slightly, like he hadn't been expecting that response. I was guessing he also probably hadn't expected me to mimic his tendency to turn his speech more formal than needed, whenever he felt the need to try to distance himself, either.

"...maybe later." He said quietly, and at first I thought he was just trying to placate me- to push that whole thing to one side- but then I realised that he was being sincere. He was genuinely suggesting that we could come back to this, if I felt the need to have us do so.

I had to take a second to just blink- to put myself back together, after that, before pushing forward once more. "You know- at least on some level- that whether you change or not- whether you're immortal, whether you're half vampire or 'full' vampire- the people that matter... your clan, your sister, your friends... no one's going to care either way." He seemed... not upset, but almost like he was slightly embarrassed. "The outcome only matters to you- or, well, it matters to us, because it matters to you- but it's not really the same thing, is i-" He cut me off before I could really start rambling.

"Jerremyah," I perked up at his use of my name. "Can we talk about something else now?" I nodded before I'd had the chance to think about it- before he'd even really finished speaking.

"Of course! Do you have a preferred subject?" He blinked for a second, as if he couldn't believe it was so easy- that he could get what he wanted, just by asking for it- before he managed to hide his surprise. Maybe he'd even pushed past it, but I doubted it.

"I-" There was a slight pause as he gathered his scattered thoughts. "We could... go back to- Lisabetta." I saw Lisbet stiffen minutely, probably so subtly that he wouldn't even notice, and I couldn't say that I blamed her. It wasn't like I was unaffected to hear him use what was quite possibly my favorite nickname that I'd ever given her.

"...right. Uh... where were we?" The corner of Leo's lips quirked up at her somewhat flustered response, but whether he knew that her reaction was brought on by his use of her nickname, or whether he thought she'd just been thrown off by his rapid change of subject, I couldn't tell.

"You were drunk, and Greygorry was on a table, wearing a cape and declaring himself The Dark One." She nodded, then flushed a bit- clearly still embarrassed about having to fill him in on our past actions. We'd never considered, at the time, that we might have to explain ourselves to our future k- to her future kit, one day. To be fair to us, I think neither one of us had ever dared hope that that might be the case- and if the only price to pay was a little embarrassment, then I would gladly pay it. For the both of us, if need be.

"...ah." His smile grew a little, and I knew Lisbet was trying not to echo it, lest she make him think better of it. "Well, it... it's a little hard to explain, but I'll do my best." Leo nodded. "When you live as long as we do-" I saw her eyes tighten slightly, as it crossed her mind for the first time that she'd landed on a bit of a sore subject, but she also didn't want to draw his attention to it, if he hadn't already noticed. Which, it seemed like- rather miraculously- he hadn't. "-sometimes, you need to... well, even with witches and wizards typically living longer than muggles, they still age. We don't- and as such, sometimes, we need to... disappear." His eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"And this relates to your nickname, how?" Her eyes flicked to me for the barest of seconds, and it felt like she was laying the blame squarely at my feet- in the best way possible.

"It is a nickname, as I told you. But at certain points throughout the years, it was a bit more than that." He blinked. "The first time I used it was years- more than a century, I think- before the middle name event. We were at a party, and a woman asked me if Lisbet was short for anything. I think she was joking, but Jerremyah butted in, and told her that it was short for 'Lisabetta.'" Leo glanced at me and grinned- clearly amused by my antics. "Unfortunately, we ended up having to be rather involved with that woman- and few other people from the party- for quite a while, so I had to endure the nickname for much longer than either of us expected."

"So it's the opposite of a nickname, really. Instead of a shortening, it's a lengthening." Lisbet shrugged against his body.

"I suppose. Either way, it wasn't until we were choosing our middle names, that it became official. From that point on, it turned into a bit of an inside joke. Whenever I have to put my name down for something, I use Lisabetta. Whenever I have to renew my muggle birth certificate, I use Lisabetta. It's on the paperwork for our house, it's on our-" Leo cut her off, immediately perking up by quite a lot.

"You have a house?" Lisbet and I both blinked, but she recovered quickly- quicker than I did, at the very least.

"Yeah, of course. Would you- do you want to see it, some time?" She asked, and he started to nod, before her head snapped to me, and she looked a bit chagrined. "Sorry, I didn't- I forgot that we- that it isn't mine, anymo-"

"It's yours." She didn't blink. She didn't move. She wasn't even breathing- not that she had to, but she wasn't even going through the motions, she was so distracted. "It's yours- it's always been yours, and it'll always be yours." It felt like I'd be crossing a line to clarify that it was really ours- and that it'd be much worse to acknowledge the fact that even if, by some awful turn of events, I didn't want her there, Leo- whether she considered him her kit or not- would always be welcome.

But I did want her there. God, I wanted her there. I'd only been back to our house a few times since we'd since she'd brought our relationship to a close, but the few times I had, it'd done nothing but remind me of exactly how much I missed her- as if I could ever forget. It was one of the reasons that I'd assigned Grey as the main caretaker of the flint and brick we'd once called home, alongside the fact that I'd been terrified that I might accidentally run into her there- even if I knew, by the way her scent had dissipated, and the fact that she'd never activated the wards with her presence, that she'd only ever been back there once- right after we'd... gone our separate ways. Well, she'd gone- I'd ended up staying quite still, as it turned out.

"Ours." She said, and it made something in my chest clench. "It's ours. Even if we're not- it's not... forever. We're still- we're still us. We're still a 'we'- if... if you want us to be." I didn't answer- couldn't. There was no way I would've been able to get the words out past the purr rumbling through my chest, even if I could've found them.

"Oh." Leo said quietly, grinning into the side of Lisbet's face. "I think that's an answer, Tante." And unfortunately, it really was.

(A/N): It's FINALLY here! It's been like, twenty-five chapters, but we FINALLY get to find out the reason behind Lisbet's nickname! It's probably a bit anti-climactic at this point, but there it is! No memes at the moment, because my brain won't work in order to come up with them. An alternate title for this chapter was 'The People That Matter', but I couldn't pass up the joke.

The 'muggle birth certificate' thing might be explained more at a later date, but I thought I'd give you some info now. Basically, vampires- being immortal- can't just go around with a birth certificate that says that they're like, three hundred, or even that they're fifty when they look twenty-five, without arousing suspicion. I don't know if it was ever made clear that wizards HAVE birth certificates in the first place, but I assume they do- speaking of which, MOST vampires were probably born LONG before birth certificates were even a thing (apparently the first birth certificates in the UK were issued in 1853), so they wouldn't have one even if they were allowed to use their real one. Because of this, vampires go through some legal channels by illegal means- Influencing government officials- or illegal channels, to get all the legal documents they need. They're SUPPOSED to go to the ministry of magic, but given that the ministry of magic are giant turds, I'd say like, 99.99% of vampires find other means. So yeah, all of the full vampires except for the Twins have fake birth certificates, and they have to keep renewing all of their legal documents so that, say, the same individual hasn't owned a particular house for over three hundred years. In fact, Herc probably has a fake birth certificate too, along with all of Leo's other immortal, half-vampire siblings.

Translations (French):

Tante = Aunt