Summary: Daniel is planning an addition to his model train set, Marius offers him encouragement, buying him some accessories for the addition. They have lived together for some four years, and little interaction has been had under the weight of their pasts. The weight presses in...
Relationship:Ā Armand/Daniel Molloy
Characters: Daniel Molloy, Marius de Romanus, (Armand is mentioned)
Additional Tags:Ā Angst, Blood, Mentions of Death, Aftermath of Violence, model train sets, Scrabble
This takes place after the events of Queen of the Damned, and in response to the below prompt from @superhiki for the @vcsecretgiftsā exchange of 2020 on tumblr.
Sorry for the late delivery, I had only intended for this to be 3-4 pages, and it overflowed! I really enjoyed writing this, Daniel's voice is sassy and fun, under all the angst, he's so lovable. If you enjoy reading this half as much as I enjoyed writing it, then it'll be a win.
Credit is also due to my collaborator Rebness (@wicked-felinaā), and for my cheer squad @lestvtā, @codenamecesareā, and @sanguinivoraā (this last person, certainly not least, who gave me the draft for the opening paragraph and concept!).
@superhikiā's prompt:
"Iām always a fan of Armand, Daniel Molloy, Pandora, or Marius. Ā
Personally, I love āāāmadāāā Daniel when he is crashing (held captive?) at Grandpa Vampire Mariusā ridiculous home in whatever frosty part of the planet heās at in Blood & Gold. Danielsā obsession with model trains, jokes about model trains, and all dopey train paraphernalia is 10000% hilarious to me and will be enjoyed. Especially if Marius is involved and overtly annoyed by Danielās fascination. Extra Bonus Points if there is a Christmas Village (WITH A TRAIN) involved. That is the best piece of canon material Anne Rice ever wrote about a single vampire and is tragically under exploited in this fandom. Iām laughing just thinking about it. As a grown man who has spent his entire life bouncing between niche obsessions (much to the chagrin of my entire family) this is up and away a home run, hilarious/endearing bit I cherish about VC."
Daniel had decided to add a zoo.
The southwest corner, he'd build a set of raised tiers, then the various enclosures, allowing plenty of room for the N gauge model trains, of course. Heād have to strip out the grass and dig into the area that had been the swell of a mountain to do it, but major surgery on the understructure had never bothered him. Ā Daniel was a āMeasure once, cut twice," kind of architect.
Marius had known about this decision without a word passed between them, and about a month ago, silently came into his room and handed him a lunch-sized paper bag of a few animals to start with, those that needed outdoor enclosures. Daniel immediately thought about snakes. He probably hadnāt gotten snakes. No sense in buying snakes for a herpetarium, there would be no windows to see in! Did hobby stores even make snakes? Or spiders? Spiders would be too small for even a model Z set, Daniel scoffed at the very idea.
