#trinity gate era

💍 The Amethyst Ring - Part 3: Rings 💍

In 2013, Daniel is searching through Trinity Gate for something. Benji catches him and wants to know why he's looking through Armand's stuff.

I had so much fun with this because I think it's so interesting how Daniel sort of arrives and Armand has this new family unit who don't really know him and he doesn't know them, and it's just a recipe for awkwardness and hilarity. (Daniel's reaction to the stepkids is another thing we were robbed of in canon, especially because one of them has a podcast! But I digress.)

This was written for the @valenfangs prompt "Rings."

Short Excerpt:

Daniel pulled the box out of the closet and took it to the bed, opening it to reveal dozens of rings in a velvet case, each slotted neatly into place. He searched through the first layer, then pulled it up and set it aside. This box was large: it had three layers of rings and Daniel had seen another one just like it beside it in the closet.

“Those aren’t yours.” 

Daniel looked up to see Benji standing inside the doorway of Armand’s bedroom watching him reproachfully. He stood with his back straight to increase his apparent height and folded his arms over his chest. 

“I know that,” Daniel said, trying to swallow his irritation at this guy—this kid —acting like he’d caught Daniel out. “Obviously.” 

“You can’t just go through Dybbuk’s stuff,” Benji insisted.

Daniel snorted, remembering the hundreds if not thousands of times Armand had rifled through Daniel’s things as if they were his own. But Benji didn’t know their history beyond whatever Armand had told him. And given what he’d written in that damned book of his, he doubted it was very much, or very flattering. How the hell was Daniel supposed to explain? 

And then he wondered if Armand might actually mind. He wouldn’t have years before, but so much had changed. 

“I’m just looking for something,” Daniel said. “I don’t even know if he still has it, or if it’s here.” For all Daniel knew, it might still be in a drawer on Night Island, or Armand had thrown it into the River Thames when Daniel had left after their vicious fight back in 1994. 

“What is it?” Benji asked, sounding a little less offended at Daniel’s invasion of Armand’s privacy. 

“It’s a ring I gave him a long time ago,” Daniel said. “I wanted to get it engraved. If I can find it.”