milliways_bar | (no subject)

Richard shifts his attention to his lover and sends love and reassurance down the bloodlink.

"Are you all right, Amadeo? You've been very quiet."

His jaw is clenched very, very hard, and as much as he tries not to, Richard may feel hate fear anger murder in the bloodlink, however small, and he looks up at his fiancé - his Richard, his love - and bloodtears shine in his eyes.

"I want to hurt them."

Richard responds with petting and soothing and love and comfort down the link.

"Shhshhshh, they're gone, beloved, they'll never come back."

His fingers tighten in Richard's shirt and he calms, but only a little.

"But they - she - that... thing tried to kill you."

His voice is small and kittenish. He knows that there are plenty of things that could have prevented he and Richard from ever meeting, let alone being together, but...

The thought haunts him.

"Who, Lamia? No, she wouldn't have killed me, for all that it hurt. If she'd finished the feeding, I would have become a Velvet like her."

He pets Armand and takes a few more breaths.

"Lamia actually likes me, in her own way. As much as she can like anything. She was just hunting and following her instincts."

He pouts and nods, and snuggles into Richard.

"Good, then."

He can't be hypocritical, here.

He closes his eyes and relaxes.

"She left the least of my scars. Just a slight drop in body temperature."

He puts a cold hand on the small of Amadeo's back.

He sighs at the cold hand on his back. It's barely perceptable with his own body temperature being what it is, but he still notices.

And he sighs.

"I worry that this is the least of your scars..."

He shrugs and snuggles up to them.

"Could have been much worse. The Blackfriars managed to save my ear and none of my broken ribs punctured a lung. I was lucky."

He moans, and not in a good way.

"Not making it better, Mayhew!"

Richard chuckles and hugs him.

"All right, all right. We can talk about something else if you like."

He smiles.

"You two can talk. I'll just sit here and look pretty."

He looks up at David.

"What else would you like to hear about."

He smiles.

"Meeting Princess Mayhew."

Richard grins broadly now and tickles the princess in question a little.

"This little brat came in on my shift one day bitching and moaning because the blood substitute is, of course, not nearly good enough for him. We talked a bit and he found out we were friends, and then he got stroppy and demanded to know if I was fucking you. This would have been back in early November sometime."

He raises an eyebrow and smirks at Armand.

"Was this before or after we had slept together?"

He strokes Armand hair and bends to kiss him a little, confused when he pulls away.

"Before. I was still with Adam at the time, which is why I studiously avoided his initial advances."

He pets Amadeo's hair and leans up to give David a brief kiss in apology.

"It's difficult, isn't it," he says, "to turn him down."

He gives Richard a WTF? look.

He nods and flushes a little in shame.

"Eventually I couldn't. It only took him a week to wear me down."

I'll explain later, Darling.

Armand raises an eyebrow.

"I can hear you, you know."

He looks at David and sighs apologetically.

"I gave you up for Lent."

He nods.

"Of course, why didn't I think of that."

He blinks.

"Amadeo, my darling, what? Richard, is he serious?"

"I know you can hear me, Amadeo. I don't hide things from you."

Richard sits up and pulls David into a hug and lets Amadeo hide his face him Richard's lap.

"David....Amadeo wants us to be monogamous at least until the wedding. We still love you though. We always will."

David's face lights up again. "Aah, okay, that's better," he says with a smile. "And I do love you both."

He leans down and kisses Armand's cheek, and Richard's too. "I think we can do that."

Richard smiles and sighs in relief.

"Good. Thank you for understanding."

He settles them all back into the couch.

"Any more stories?"

He gives a small yawn, nothing rude. "Not unless you feel the need to. I'd like to just lie here for a while, content with half of my family, if that's okay?"

He nuzzles his head under Richard's chin and grins.