#fateboundfang

"It's my duty to protect you."

"It's alright, big brother." Hel's words come gentle, knowing. She laid a hand just below his shoulder. Uncharacteristically warm. Part of her lamented the distance between them. The lifetimes that held them apart. But she had always loved him fervently; The brother she adored and looked up to more than all the others.. She loved him enough to even let that distance grow. Of the mind that dissociation could spare him the brunt of what felt like their familial curse.

"We were gods."

Her head fell slowly to the side, a single blink of her eyes the only remark of her confusion before brows furrowed together and she shook her head with deliberate slow motion.

"We were children," she firmly replied. "Gods, maybe - in time. But we never got there." And the truth of that remark was punctated in the fury budding on her too-young face. They were saplings, pulled from the dirt and left to wilt and dry on hot concrete. Half kept promises and unfulfilled dreams.

Her left hand curled so tight in a fist, she felt the slick of blood burrow under her fingernails.

What a dramatic way to announce you have gained self-awareness. A breath passed before Lucien responded, not out of hesitation but out of some unspoken understanding. His gaze lingered on the horizon where sky and earth bled into one another, the kind of view that looked permanent until you blinked and realised everything had shifted. ( Change didn’t always come with thunder. ) Sometimes it crept in beneath your skin, familiar things turning foreign without ever moving at all. That was the worst kind of shift. The kind that left you standing in the same place, only now it didn’t feel like yours.

‘Isn’t that always the way?’ he murmured, barely glancing toward Ivar. ‘The furniture’s all the same, but suddenly you can’t stand to sit in the chair.’ A curl of amusement tugged at his mouth, though it never reached his eyes. He leaned back on his hands, letting the silence settle around them. ( Inside, that sarcastic voice ran sharp: Gods, if he had a coin for every time someone thought stasis was safe, he’d have built a kingdom of liars by now. No one was ever truly untouched. Even the immortal bled in places too small to see. ) Still, something in Ivar’s tone kept him from dismissing it entirely. Maybe it was the way it wasn’t quite a complaint. More a confession. And those? Those were rare currency. 

‘Different doesn’t always mean worse, but it does mean you’ll have to learn the rules all over again. Welcome to the fun part.’

do i ship our characters together?: yes | no | not yet but maybe soon

would i like to ship with you?: yes | maybe, i'm willing to try | no

type of relationship i could see: childhood or high school sweethearts | exes | engaged | married | long-term relationship | crushes | unrequited love | fling | long distance | online relationship | just dating | new relationship | toxic lovers | friends with benefits

tropes i'd enjoy writing for them: friends to lovers | enemies to lovers | exes to lovers | fake relationship / dating | forbidden love | grumpy and sunshine | star-crossed lovers | surprise pregnancy | second chance | soulmates | amnesia / mistaken identity | forced proximity | secret relationship | slow burn relationship

would i rather plot first or jump right in and see where it goes?: develop their relationship first | jump right in | something in between ( both! both is good! )

what now?: let's plot something | send me shippy memes | i'll send you shippy memes | write me a random starter | i'll write you a random starter

The house had no business still standing.

Moisture clung to the walls all while paint sloughing off in soft, rotten curls that littered the floor. The air inside was cold, thick with mildew, dust, and something faintly coppery that made Mercy’s nose wrinkle.

She didn’t remember deciding to come here, only the pull. The quiet certainty that if she didn’t follow it, something worse would follow her instead.

Outside, the streetlight flickered once… twice… and steadied just long enough to reveal a figure standing at the edge of the courtyard. Long coat hanging from his frame, a grey hat pulled low. Features blurring the longer she stared, as though the dark refused to finish drawing him in.

The light went out.

And when it came back on, the figure was gone.

Mercy froze, every instinct screaming at the silence around her. For the first time since stepping inside, doubt crept in. What was she doing in a place like this, in a room like this? In a place that felt less abandoned and more… hungry?

The knock came then.

Not from the front door.

From somewhere deeper inside the house.

Someone was in here…

It felt almost as if someone had anticipated her entry.

As if someone had plotted to lure her down here.

Her breath caught in her throat, her mind stirred, sharp and disorienting, clouded memories rushing through her mind all while her instinct told her to get out of here.

Whatever was here didn’t need an invitation.

Of course not.

This was an abandoned home after all.

Katherine's small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. The vampire couldn't help herself. Her entrance had to be known. "Did you miss me?"

The month of December had always carried something almost magical about it. Human-made magic, really. Strings of warm lights, shop windows glowing late into the night, the illusion of harmony that came with winter and shared traditions.

But there was nothing harmonious about this particular night.

At least not for her. And certainly not for the two barely conscious bodies sprawled on the cold pavement behind her.

Fresh bite marks stained their necks, blood still dark and wet against their skin. She didn’t need to crouch down or inspect them closely to know what had happened. She wasn’t new to this… Someone had fed, quick and careless. And for whatever reason, had decided to leave them behind. Either they would bleed out… or survive, if help arrived in time.

Luckily for them, she had.

She hadn’t wasted a second dialing 911, reporting blood in a shady back alley and distant screams.

A small lie, necessary, and it would at least keep her from having to explain or expose the actual truth.

Needless to say, she didn’t stay to watch the aftermath.

Instead, she followed the trail.

Tiny droplets of blood dotted the ground ahead, faint but noticeable. Whoever had fed hadn’t been as careful as they thought. But after a few streets, the trail thinned… then vanished entirely, as if it had never been there at all.

That should have been the end of it.

Except it wasn’t.

She could still feel something.

Her senses tickled the way they always did when something wasn’t right. And the farther she moved toward the edge of the city, the stronger that feeling became.

She slowed her steps as the realization settled in. There was a vampire nearby, of that she was certain. But not a fledgling, not newly turned, this presence felt old.

That was enough to set her nerves on edge.

The tension spiked when something shattered in the distance. The sharp sound echoed through the quiet streets, pulling her to a stop. She turned instinctively, heart beating just a little faster now.

“Hello?” she called out, the word leaving her more cautiously than she liked.

Silence…

Still, the feeling remained persistent, like unseen eyes fixed on her back. Her hand slipped into her purse without conscious thought, fingers closing tightly around the wooden stake hidden there.

She moved on.

By now, she’d entered the abandoned stretch of the city, where grand villas stood empty and forgotten, their luxury long since swallowed by emptiness and neglect. Buzzing streetlights flickered overhead. Somewhere far off, a car sped past, but the sound felt distant, irrelevant.

Shes a little smug as she looks over at him and offers a shrug.

"Maybe, I don't think it's my worst quality." She chuckles. "I just think, as a part of this town, you should come to the little festival we do every year for christmas. You can come with me if you want. It will be fun I promise, I'm not taking no for an answer."