divorcing: (0)
helen of troy. ([personal profile] divorcing) wrote in [personal profile] followups 2024-10-22 12:06 am (UTC)

Here is death, waiting for him in Daniel's mind.

Louis' heart aches for it, for this resignation. For Daniel thinking he is going to die and accepting it, dispassionate. Still unable to consider a world without Daniel in it, even now that Louis is assured it will never come to pass. (Is this Armand's idea of a gift?) His fingers bracket Daniel's face, stood so close their breath mingles, noses brush, Louis disregarding personal space on the far side of the fountain.

Breathe, Louis instructs. They are no longer in a blood-soaked hotel room. The air is clean, the fountain behind them a waterfall of sound. Louis' mind opening up, steady. Familiar terrain, perhaps. There are only two others who might claim to know Louis as well or better than Daniel does.

Called it peeling back, when I first started out hearing them all around me, comes this murmur. I didn't think it'd come to you so fast. Peel back on me. I'll keep it quiet.

Louis, who wished for death so differently than Daniel did. Who turns the face of a gray-haired man in Daniel's mind back and forth, lets it drift beneath the surface of his thoughts.

Says aloud, "Use me to orient yourself, while you get your bearings."

While Louis tries to pluck up some relevant memory, something like instruction. Here is Lestat, pivoting round on a lamp-lit New Orleans street. Here is Armand, lounging in bed, eyes alert. Lessons overlapping, linked in Louis' mind.

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