Valentino

Button made by the lovely Jyxxie!

---

Being left behind as the sole survivor never stopped bothering him, but he taught himself to push his own feelings aside. After decades of making acquaintances, finding friends, using lovers then watching them die as he remained unchanged, he grew numb to it. Still, that small spark of kindness remained as he never let them die alone.

Eternal solace was the only thing that frightened him and he wouldn't wish it upon anyone.

And then along came him. A tender fella, extremely capable of taking care of himself on the outside yet fragile on the inside. Val felt that this boy, should he fall into the wrong crowd, could easily break down like a porcelain vase you knocked over on purpose in a fit of rage. And what's broken cannot be mended back.

So he approached him first, pulled him close and away from others who would certainly do him harm. Val knew them well. The boy doesn't deserve ending up as someone's plaything.

There was a temporary spark of significance in his eternity thanks to him. They kept each other company, and slowly, Val once again felt his feelings resurface. He laughed heartily, he cracked jokes about his vampiric condition. Even if the boy feared him in the beginning, he didn't show it, and soon enough, they became very good friends.

But when they should've become something more, Val got scared. The lad's face suddenly reflected hundreds of other faces back at him, and with them, names. How many poor souls did he accompany until the end? How many of them died of unnatural causes? Surely this meant only one thing; this boy is to end up like the rest of them, and the mutual asset? Himself, of course.

He abruptly tried to revert the feelings he had displayed, to bury them back deep inside while he thinks this through. Of course, he couldn't just get up and leave completely for fear of leaving the boy to the other, less benevolent among his kind. But the damage was done.



The rift between them grew like a crack on an old wall. Val was too busy overthinking and got caught in a spiral of endless pondering while time ate away at their relationship. If only he took the time to actually look at the boy in front of him, he'd have realized how hurt the boy felt by this change and how much he considered himself to be the cause.

Nobody seemed surprised that he left some time after, not even Val, still preoccupied with his "what if's". It took a while for Val to realize he just brought upon himself what he feared the most; loneliness.

Thanks to his cunningness developed over the years and some friends in the right places, he managed to locate the boy once again. Unfortunately, the poor kid was used as a bargain tool between two groups, and from the sounds of it, things were not about to be settled through words. When push came to shove, Val jumped right in the middle of it.



He had to. He'll explain it to him, how he had to do it.
Val wasn't usually like this, but this was different. This boy was different. He needed to know how much he means to Val and how there was no other way but to make him his.
Val's.
Only way for him to be left alone, for others to stay clear, for he is now claimed by one of the longest-living vampires in this city, and that is a force you cannot reckon with.

He'll hear all that and more, and they'll start a new chapter together... As soon as he turns completely.
Until then, Val will follow from the darkness and keep an eye on him. Shouldn't be much longer now...



In the end, he came to Val, as it should be; it's always the sire they return to, not the other way around. But as he stepped in front of Val, there was something off. The way the boy grinned; it seemed unnatural. The way his pointed teeth shone; expected - yet violent, in a way.
The way his eyes looked...

Val grinned back, but it was a fake grin. Deep inside he trembled, his mind desperately trying to reason that which was in front of him.

It was his boy, yet it wasn't. It was a beast wearing his skin.

"My blood is your ink. Let us write a new future together."

It was wrong. It was all wrong.