Litebrite
© Velluto Rosso
il_tratidori@yahoo.com
Spoilers Up To: Blood and Gold
Rating: PG
Status: Complete
Characters: Marius & Daniel
Summary: How Mar came to take care of Dan.
The boy, whom Marius found ironic to call thusly after invoking the memory of that eternal youth, his child, had a charming way about him, for a leprous dog. Loyalty in dogs has made their existence important to mankind. This one, however, falls apart even as he keeps to his duties. No longer with Armand, the boy Daniel found himself without purpose but not without existence. Armand, it seemed, was convinced that Daniel was fine on his own. Armand was wrong.
Daniel. Daniel who wandered with great effort. Was there anything in his mind? Marius feared what he saw before him, more so than he had the blank stares of the Queen and King. Daniel was not unresponsive, as other vampires so often became. No, he moved. He kept moving though he had no real motivation to do so. He did not need reason.
Before him, in a most unfortunate display, lay the ravaged victim of Daniel's pain. The friends of this mortal were only momentarily terror stricken, staring at the monster who even now stood over the cadaver, close to weeping. He had not been careful, and blood was everywhere. It covered him even as he was still in the thrall of having received the precious substance inside himself. Now those mortals were headed towards the public areas in search of some authority. No matter, though. No matter. Marius saw to it these mortals came to a swift end, all joining their friend. Daniel merely watched. It was entertaining, really, something he might want to see again. If he could find a remote, rewind the tape. In fact..oh, but his tape-recorder was gone. He had sent it sailing, and now when he thought he was through with such things, he suddenly wished to hear his life narrated back to him.
"Daniel?" Marius was quite gentle with his words. "Where do you sleep now?"
Daniel hardly seemed to be there with Marius, lost in his own thoughts of who he might find next. He went for those impish ones, those that might play some sort of game with him. Every vampire had a way to choose his victims. Daniel chose those who loved his illusions, his fine white skin and shining nails. The goth children, the unwanted street creatures who had no home to go to, even if there were a physical address waiting for them. They came to him, enchanted, and made their childish demands. It was all great fun, for both sides. And then came the vicious lashing out, the moment when the game became all too real for the victims. But for Daniel it was nothing.
He woke from this stupor, as best he could, with Marius shaking him. They must leave. The police would come, and Daniel should find himself in danger. 'Will you listen?' Daniel heard the question over and over, not listening to anything else. It was a lovely question. Would he? He didn't know if he could. But if he could, would he? Oh, it was a fun question. Marius seemed to be saying something else then, but Daniel didn't catch it.
"You're that guy. I remember you. Blond ... velvet. You." He smiled as he reached for Marius' outer garments. That gray cloak, he knew it. That was what he was wearing. Daniel knew this. He held tightly to this fact. Marius didn't seem so amazed by this, however. He seemed irritated, hurried, angry. Daniel didn't want to listen to him if he was going to be like that.
"I don't want to go anywhere. Don't need to. This street is mine, I found it."
"You must leave. You are running a reckless course."
Daniel wouldn't look at Marius, not into his eyes. He didn't want to see anything worthwhile. There was nothing there, anyway.
"Daniel!"
Marius had taken Daniel by the hand, leading him as a lost child. Marius knew that Daniel lived in an unsafe manner, completely unprotected. His continued existence in such a place would not do. He took Daniel to a safe, secluded part of an abandoned building and questioned him there. Not that Marius needed answers, for he could find so many without bothering to ask. But he needed someone to talk to, as usual. Company was scarce enough these days. More than that, he could see Daniel slipping into madness as surely as if he were to have the physical signs of an illness. He would bring Daniel back to reason, if such a thing were possible.
Daniel was unresponsive to Marius' prodding, preferring instead to be lost to his thoughts. His thoughts were his own, he knew that much. He had learned so much and now wished only to know those things that rattled inside his head. He told Marius, 'Fuck off.' He said other things, but that was one he liked most. It was so poignant. And Marius couldn't do that anyway. When Marius asked him questions he didn't listen. Not until Marius repeated them often enough. He let Marius question him, interrogating him. Like a mother. Like a spy. But vampires aren't spies, Daniel knew that.
Daniel didn't protest when Marius took him elsewhere and told him which coffin to use. He didn't protest the next night when Marius changed his clothes for him, all the while asking more questions. He didn't think of leaving, either. His games were getting harder to play. The mortals were becoming more suspicious, and the young things he played with were getting suspicious. They told their friends. They talked to anybody. Some, when they came to find him, called him Jack. Like Jack the Ripper. What a thing that was. Finally, Daniel raised no protest when Marius took him to a city far away. Traveling was interesting. He remembered traveling for Armand...with Armand. But that was a different game. He couldn't play that one anymore. Getting on a plane now was too hard, too many mortals would know him under those fluorescent lights. And he'd get hungry on the way, and how would the stewardess react when, asking if he wanted a snack, he killed her? Well, obviously she'd be dead, but she would have some kind of reaction before that. Or maybe he could kill the passenger next to him, so that he could see what she'd say.
Marius set out clothes for Daniel. That was familiar. Marius gave him a room to stay in, with a new tape recorder and word processors, notebooks and everything he could have wanted when he still worked. Daniel never touched them. Although he did draw on the paper once or twice. But he never touched it. Marius was angry about it, so much that one night he simply took all these things and threw them away. He tried vainly to know what Daniel might wish to do, to see if there was anything at all Daniel could take an interest in. He was relentless in his questions, just as Daniel was flippant and seemingly clueless. Marius took to leaving him alone even with the danger of Daniel wandering into danger, if only to escape from being pulled too far into this same madness which had such a hold of Daniel.
Daniel enjoyed looking in shop windows while they walked along. He asked Marius to meander with him while they hunted, sometimes before, sometimes after. Usually before, because it was a more public place, and Daniel was so often a noticeable mess after hunting. He would look at the dolls with their hair and think of Claudia and Louis. He would think of Armand, so much of Armand. Though Armand was not that tiny, he knew. Eventually he decided that no, Armand was not like a doll. Dolls break. He would think of Armand when he saw the closed circuit televisions, the books, the closed signs. Sometimes he looked at the airplanes and had to be taken away forcefully because of the impending dawn.
Inexplicably Daniel one day took an interest in a train set. He remembered the Time Bandits. "Little Tiny People Hitting Each Other." He remembered flying, looking at the tiny trees and lakes and rivers. There were trains, too, and it was better before landing. Sometimes Armand was on the planes, but he was usually there on the ground. He had more to do on the ground. And their planes, everything they had together. It was better to see it through those planes, traveling without any hope of getting off.
Happy that Daniel would do anything besides staring and sitting, Marius complied with even the smallest request. Daniel could fill the whole house if he wanted, Marius didn't care. He even joined Daniel in the beginning, sometimes painting those things Daniel found more difficult to do. Often it was easier to manage Daniel when Marius joined him. He would subtly encourage Daniel to finish so that he could go out to feed. Marius organized everything so that it was easier to put away. Daniel was apt to be so engrossed in his projects that he refused more than once to enter his coffin when sunrise was near. He would say, 'Only another five minutes,' or, 'I just have this last tree to finish,' which would lead to whole new forests springing up.
Now and again Marius would long for something more to this. He would leave the paints aside and try to question Daniel. But it always went the same way. "The ideas you have." He couldn't be persuaded. And yes, what ridiculous notions he had, Marius would think. "He's right. Ridiculous thing that you are, Marius. No better than Daniel." And then everything was just fine.
The End