Hi all! I was just bored and this kinda popped into my head... divine inspiration or what?
Please don't sue me for that god and anyone else whose characters I've borrowed.

Marius

I gazed at his wily curls blowing softly in the adriatic breeze. A memory stirred from another time when I was a different person with no real
cares at all. How naive I had been then despite all my learning and wisdom. It was a time of few worries and though my decision to make him one
of the living dead was agonising at the time I look back on it now with a kind of contempt for it was so straight forward and to such a pleasurable end at least compared to the events that followed.
Armand turned to face me. Stood there on the bridge of sighs gazing thoughtfully into the canal he was the perfect picture of loveliness
and I lusted after him quite shamelessly. but he was not my amadeo of times gone by. The childhood innocence was all but gone, burnt out of
him I suppose. Though on nights like these I had to pinch myself in order to remember that it really was the 20th century and that I was not still in my Venician paradise of 500 years ago.
These little excursions of ours had become more and more common place over the past couple of years. Armand was reverting back to his old
self according to Lestat whatever that was. Sometimes this was to my utter delight and other times it filled me with dread.
But here we were, nineteen minutes past midnight my wrist clock informed me on the twentieth of January 2001 stood as days of old on the Bridge of Sighs though Venice was a shadow of her former self. A mere spectre of the might and glory she had once possessed,
"What rogue thoughts trouble my master tonight?"
I shook my head out of my mummuring gaze and looked deep into the deep black eyes of my Amadeo.
"I'm sorry caro, I was years away, what did you say?"
"What is wrong with you Marius?"
I sighed quietly, I had heard him wrong... no more master but simple Marius and it was my own folly and that alone which heard it any different.
"Oh just regrets my darling and what ifs and if onlys, it's this place and the company" I smiled fondly at him,then leaned in closer and whispered softly.
"If you could erase all that has happened and go back to a night in 1498 would you?"
He seemed puzzled for a second then shook his head softly,
"Is that truely your wish Marius? how I wish I could fullfil your hopes and dreams but it is beyond my power. Anyhow, I am not sure I would have it that way.."
"You would not desire it?" I inquired, half offended.
"To have never met Lestat? Surely you would not have it that way. My dark brother at least deserves some credit"
He smiled and couldn't hold back a grin at the thought of some of Lestat's antics.
"and Danny.." he whispered and gazed at a ring on his finger. A gift from the infamous Daniel Molloy I would guess.
I smiled inwardly at Amadeo's rather obvious preference for blondes, gentleman death preferes blondes, I had heard Lestat say once. Quite probably he had a point.
"Fate sometimes deals a cruel hand Marius, you know that as well as I, but we survived it didn't we? We are reunited and safe"
"I am fortunes fool Amadeo and I wish it was not so."
I reached out to touch his face and stroke his soft skin. I felt him whince at the name Amadeo and wished I had not been so careless with my speech.


Armand

So here we were, full circle and gotten no where in 500 years, only backwards. How I wanted to run to his arms and be his pocco Amadeo again and maybe this time forever, but the cobwebs of my past blinded me and held me back. I could never figure out if I was the spider or the prey. We began to walk down off the bridge. Marius wanted to take my hand, to be my shepherd yet again, I could tell this without reading any thoughts. It made no difference to me and so I gave him my hand and allowed myself to be led for his sake. He seemed satisfied, but still continued to gaze at me with all the burning fires of lust. How I wanted him in that way, but I wondered if my icey heart could ever be melted again. And what of Daniel or Lestat, didn't they have equal claim over my soul?
"Let's go down to the water's edge" I said and Marius didn't seem to object.
I sat on the bank of the grand canal, dangling my feet over the side but the tide was too low for my feet to get even damp. Marius knelt down beside me his hands hovering over my face and hair. He was itching to touch me and as I gazed at the reflection of the stars in the ebony water there was a judder of memory of time gone by,
"Why so hesitant Marius?" I leant my face into his waiting cupped hand and he began a sustained attack of kisses which part of me wanted and the other half felt obliged to reply. Though Marius' kissed loosened my bonds so to speak, I never quite was able to shake off the shackles of time and circumstance.
Marius leant in with an increased intensity and I was beginning to loose myself in him. Armand was screaming that this should not happen but Amadeo was loving every second of his attentions.
I inched away from him but he refused to subside. I ducked back so quickly that before knew it I was falling just a little way before being surrounded by the dark cold liquid blackness of the canal.
I felt shameful for shunning Marius like that, as he was only trying to show his love and affection for me. I wanted to stay in the water a little longer just to clear my head and work out what I would say to him.
I swum down, or what I thought was down, but pretty soon I couldn't find up or down and all directions I swam led nowhere. I had never imagined the canal was so deep. The ice cold water started to penetrate my vampiric numbness and I became affected as would a mortal by the water, slowly my vampiric eyesight
failed me and all i experienced was cold heartless oblivion.

Marius

One moment he was tender and loving in my arms and the next he was gone with an almightly splash.I was heartbroken that he considered jumping in the canal a preference to my affections.
By the time I had come to my senses Amadeo had been underwater quite a while and I wondered and then worried why he had not surfaced. A state of panic set in and just before I was about to jump in the canal after him his body bobbed up a metre from the bank. I reached out to grab him, he was unconscious but otherwise unharmed from his little dip. I could hear his heartbeat strong as
always as soon as I touched him. Once on the bank there was a little coughing and spluttering and breathing was resumed as well.
From the looks of it, it was just an embarrasing incident, especially for me who felt ashamed and wicked for forcing my affection upon him. He started to stir and I said his name, his name to me anyway, to try and rouse him out of what had been essentially a shock induced sleep.
His eyelids fluttered open in true hollywood style and I breathed a sigh of relief. Even though my logical brain told me that Armand was a vampire and therefore could not die part of me had been out of my mind with worry.
" Grazie padrone..."
His voice was weak but perfectly clear, he spoke in the Italian of old and
my mind took a second to remember it. Amadeo continued to thank me from pulling him from the water in Italian, addressing me as sir or master throughout.
I was confuzed. I tried to reply to him in Italian but my words jumbled and I must have made little sense to him. Amadeo sat up, rung out his dripping wet curls, many of which were plastered to his neck ina most alluring way and asked me could we go back to the palazio so he could take a hot bath.
My shocked face must have concerned him greatly for he thought it necessary to lean over and kiss me, straight on the lips,
"Come master," he said, "I'm chilly now, let's go home and we can take a bath
together."
He winked a little at me and seemed hugely disappointed at my lack of reaction so I feined a smile back.


Armand

When I awoke from my stupor I was a little disorientated to say the least. My subconicious spoke in the old Italian of Venice and my mouth followed.
The language of my thoughts was once again transposed for use in conversation.
I noted the effect it had on Marius. An expression which could be described
as happiness whisked across his face. A vagrant thought crossed my mind as I remembered his earlier wish... to begin all over again. What if I could grant that wish to him, perhaps not in my heart but in his. My desire to please my old master was as ardent as ever and I decided I would indulge in his deepest and probably darkest fantasies for just a little while. I
pretended to remember nothing, paranoid that I would reveal some modern edge to my speech which would give me away. I spoke as little as possible as he half carried me back to our hotel.
Once we had arrived at the lobby I stared in wonderment minding not to over act and give the game away. While I was alone with Marius the trick could not be discovered. Even if Danny showed up on the scene it would still be possible, though Danny was invariably harder to fool than Marius to his credit. However should Lestat Prince of darkness and general annoyance turn up I would be discovered.
Marius pushed me gently into the lift and as it rose smoothly up towards our penthouse appartment I thought to him,
""Enjoy this little fantasy while you can Marius, for reality will soon
dawn as sure as the sun.""

Marius

Amadeo was in a state of confusion and so was I. The only thing I could think of was to escort him back to the hotel and we would take it from
there. I wanted to believe completely in the possibility that he had totally forgotten the past 400 years but my strenuous logic screamed that this was impossible.
He gazed around the lobby of the hotel and his wonderment seemed completely genuine but he was far too self assured in this brave new world and I knew he was lying. But it was a sweet and delicious lie and I fooled my heart
into believing it. He stared sweetly at me in the elevator, my vilanous virtue, and my mind raced with dispicable thoughts.
I held his stare a little too long, he probably knew that I knew of his deceit but he played on all the same.

Armand

The hotel room was as dark as we had left if some hours before but I hoped Marius' heart had been lifted somewhat. I had guessed now that he
had probably found me out but it seemed to me he didn't care. His Italian had taken on the "Padrone" tone and I relished in it. He was caring and kind and for this night I was going to believe that all the wrongs we had done each other had never occured. He began to strip away my wet and cold clothes, leaving them in an undignified heap in the centre of the room.
Next he walked into the lavish bathroom and filled the kidney shaped tub with soap and bubbles.
It was so easy really, to just sink back into being the old me, the young me as it were, without inhibitions I happily slipped into the bath beside him and snuggled against his slippery chest. Marius gently splashed me with
water and bubbles, whispering sweet nothings to the very air itself. He kissed the top of my head and i moaned in contentment.
"It was a nice idea Amadeo, but I think you were right."
His statement was insulated by the rising steam and it didn't register to me what he was saying for a couple of seconds. I laughed,
"So i couldn't fool you then?" I pondered a little disappointed that I couldn't have carried on the charade a little longer. He shook his head gently,
"For a while little one, I wanted to believe, but I can't deceive myself forever."
I smiled and although the game had ended I was still just as comfortable sat in the bath with him, him holding me close.
"So did the ends justify the means then?"
He thought for a while,
"Perhaps not justify, but definitely excuse," he finally decided,"though don't go trying to pull any tricks on me again ok, and no jumping in canals."
I smiled again,
"Well if this is where it gets me, I think I just might have to,"
I couldnt help but joke back with him but he seemed in a light hearted mood and took it rather well.
I didn't even want to think about what I was doing, as too much thought would invariably turn me against doing anything. I was impulsive by
nature and it seemed that this of all nights was when my nature would shine through. In the bath, with Marius, what would Lestat say? He would
make such gossip of it I decided to make sure he never found out. Though, if Marius and I were going to be any where together, the bath
was the most likely place. I needed this kind of intimacy with him, though my stubborn self was in denial. Of course the 500 year old in
me needed no such thing, in fact all that part really needed was a fresh supply of blood and a place to shelter during the day. The 17 year old boy needed much much more.

Marius

It was getting early and though I willed phoebus apollo not to show his head that day so I might have more time with my Amadeo It wasn't to be.
The bath water had gone cold again, despite my replacing it several times. Amadeo was already drousey and I relished the sensation
of carrying him in my arms over to the bed. His
hair stuck gently to the coverlet as I wrapped him up in duvet for the day. He turned to face me, his large brown eyes poking up from underneath
the sheets.
"Why did you pretend my Amadeo, when you knew I would not fall for it?"
I couldn't resist the question, it ran off my tongue incase my thoughts should come after it and keep it locked away. He smiled
"Oh tell me the truth about love?" he quoted W H Auden and sighed, I was puzzled as I struggled to remember the rest of the poem.
Armand gazed sympathetically at my confuzion,
"In the name of love then..."and this time he turned over and wrapped himself up in a cocoon, confidant I would understand him.
And I did.

finito