#amand

"So, pretty boy?"

"No, not your body."

A look of genuine confusion crosses her face for a split second. "Not my body? I don't sell dope, you'll have to find someone else for that."

"You misunderstand. I want to buy your company."

"You want to buy my company to what, hang out?"

"Essentially."

She raises an eyebrow at him. "How much are you paying me?"

He retrieves five, crisp one hundred dollar bills from his wallet and hands it to her, assessing the array of emotions passing across her face in quick concession. So expressive, this girl.

"Holy shit! Put that away!" She hisses, batting at his hand as if to vanish the bills by magic.

He holds them out in front of him, patiently.

She takes them with an aggravated sigh, stuffing them into her bra with little ceremony. "Alright, where are we going?"

"When was the last time you ate?"

Armand slips into the bedroom to find Louis sprawled over the bed.  He’s reading The Ethical Slut  and seems completely absorbed in it.   Armand crosses the space to the bed and climbs up to swing a leg over Louis’ lap.  Louis glances over top of the book.  “Something you want?”

He’s smiling, so Armand thinks he probably has an idea what he wants.

Armand plucks the book from his hand and skims the pages.  “Fighting is the ultimate act of intimacy,” he reads aloud.  Considering the fights he’s had with Daniel, Armand can understand the train of thought.  There’s something violently intimate about a person knowing precisely what to say to destroy you.

“It makes sense in context,” Louis says and rests his hands on Armand’s waist.  Armand carefully marks Louis’ place and sets the book on the nightstand.  He dips down and begins sucking kisses along the edge of Louis’ jaw.  Louis hums contentedly and threads fingers through Armand’s hair.  “What’s got you all worked up?”

Armand nips behind his ear, then soothes over it with his tongue.  “I was watching our old videos to decide which one to send Daniel.”

“You mean our sex tapes.”  Armand had gone through a phase where he liked recording himself.  Louis had obliged him.  They have actual physical tapes from the 70s somewhere, though Armand has digitized his favorites.  

“Mm,” Armand says, and gets distracted for a minute by Louis’ neck.  It’s a nice neck.  He mouths kisses over it and just lets his fangs scrape along the flesh.  “I chose the one we made for Daniel for his birthday one year.  Do you remember?”

He had ate Louis out until he came, then fucked him until he was hard again, then sucked him off.  He’d told Daniel if he could watch the whole thing without touching himself, he’d do the same to him.  

Louis hands slide under his shirt and along his sides and his head tilts back invitingly.  “Why don’t you remind me?”

/

Daniel doesn’t download the attachment in the email.  He doesn’t trust it.  

“...you can stay here indefinitely until you finish the story.”

He glances over at Lestat who’s sitting across from him.  He’s immaculately dressed and in person Daniel can admit he has a sort of magnetism that could draw someone in.  He still doesn’t like him much though.  “Yeah, no.”

He’s not staying in the same house as Armand any longer than he has to.  

“Louis likes having you here,” Lestat says.  Daniel can’t tell what he’s thinking.  

“He needs enrichment in his enclosure,” Daniel says dryly.  The penthouse here feels a lot like Night Island.  A gilded cage.  It has everything Louis could want, everything he could need.  Why would he ever have to leave?  Armand’s there to take care of everything.  

It feels sickeningly familiar.  

These vampires keep mistaking codependency for love.  Well, Daniel wants no part in it.  

“He needs an interior designer,” Lestat says, then turns a blinding smile towards Daniel.  “Surely this is not how the imp decorated with you?”

It isn’t exactly a smooth segue into prodding into his relationship with Armand.  

“He had a new style for every apartment,” Daniel says, waving a hand around.  “Minimalism is probably his latest thing.” 

Lestat casts his eyes around the living room with distaste.  “You can help him redecorate when I take Louis from this place.”

There it is.

“You think my being with Armand would leave Louis open for you,” Daniel says.  “You should ask Louis about us.  I won’t be the reason he leaves.”

Lestat pulls a face.  “Yes, yes, you were their pet.”

“I wasn’t anyone’s pet!”

Lestat slides to the edge of the seat and meets Daniel’s glare with twinkling eyes.  His hand comes up to rest his fingers on the outside of Daniel’s knee, stroking ever so gently.  “But what a fine pet you’d make, Daniel.  Louis wants to keep you, you know.”

Daniel’s about to say something scathing when Lestat’s voice enters his mind “Would you like to make Armand very angry?”

“Almost always.”

“Then play along, pet.”