#walotte

Her finger lulled over the rim of her glass ever so carefully. Far ahead of Walter in number of drinks but they both felt the same. In a response to their silence and tipsiness, they giggled at one another. Ever so awkward in the most delightful of ways. Her glass was pushed to the side.

“Hey~”

She suddenly cradled her chin in her hands. Emerald eyes squinted but the mischief that lied inside were seen as if it wasn’t night. He knew for the good of the both of them that he really should take her back to the room they were staying in. For hours they had been at the bar of the hotel, talking as if they hadn’t known each other for decades. Already having mentioned to one another that they should go up, they went on. But now, the German nymph suddenly had a change of air to her.

“Hmmm?” Walter hummed. If he ever muttered a word more, it’d come out in a slur.

“You know vhat vould be crazy?” A barely held pause was offered before she quickly cut him off before he could even attempt to answer, “If ve vent and got married right now!”

The sweetness of the memory, her smile, the way she suddenly seemed impatient as he would later tease her into letting him actually run off to a courthouse, was sapped from him as soon as the chilling air of the house came through. Now alone in his appointed handler’s house, hindsight felt much colder. A million wonders of what he could have done better to not be in the situation then. The only thing that comforted him was that it was better than a year ago. He knew that vaguely familiar warmth better now that he was with Judith. No longer in a cell or consistently poked and prodded by researchers daily. He at the very least had a comfortable coffin, a decent sofa, his own shower, and a closet. Still, it felt empty. Being a vampire made him realize just how painful it was to not be held by a warm body. He could call his doll that had been haunting him, but he felt it’d only inconvenience her. It was only nine in the evening, barely the morning for him but likely a few hours into her sleeping.

Still, his mobile was whipped out. Not to attempt it. Walter only rolled through the numerous texts they had sent to one another. Sure texting had never been a thing for either of them, he never predicted how dry those texts would feel. An ounce of life dropped into him every now and again when he found her everyday “good morning”s and “goodnights” alongside the occasional paragraphs of how happy she was about how he seemed to be feeling better. Of course, chalked in, was the bold, “I love you.” Part of him itched at whether or not when she claimed this or reciprocated his, whether it was to keep him regular or she really had kept all those feelings after what he put her through. Either options laid him a bed of misery that he refused to lay in yet.

He reached across the couch in the black silhouette that encompassed him only to grab a quilt folded on the other side, undoing it to drape it over him. It was a half hearted attempt at soothing himself. Just when he went to retire his phone to the side of him.

riiii-

A contact of the woman of the hour flashed on the screen and his thumb pressed to accept to call as soon as it registered. A few blinks were made as white noise played out of the phone till he found the courage to bring it up to his ear.

heavy touches on what seemed to be blankets rustled into his end of the call.

”Hallooooo?” A familiar voice distorted slightly from the speaker called out for him to answer. The playful greeting teased the corners of his lips to smile buy it also felt all too sudden.

“Lottie?” He greeted her back in question, receiving a titter in return.

“Mhm, the one and only~”

He could hear her grinning.

“Unless- im not… you don’t talk to any other ones right?” Her voice shifted to him for reassurance.

It was an ask he never imagined having to answer. Swallowing softly he gave a, ”Why but of course.”

”……you promise?”

….

”…yes- now what do I owe the pleasure of receiving a call from you so late? Shouldn’t you be asleep?” Walter let out a breath like the woman was already starting to give him gray hairs again from her current attitude. “Is everything alright, doll?”

“Oh…hmmm ja” her answer was delivered with an absent mind. The silence Walter left was filled with humming. “I only miss you.”

Only. It was such a bold word descriptive for the one sentence he never wanted to stop hearing from her.

“Uh- love, could you repeat that for me?” With the sound of lotte’s lip making a slight poppysmic made him quickly add. “I’m rather rural so the service isn’t very good”

“I miss you, Walter C. Dornez” With the way she purred this simple statement, he may as well have pinned him with nails to where he was. Her inflection was that much more there. Unlike them, it never did get old.

“I…I miss you too.” Though thrilled to hear it, his melancholy was obvious. What he wanted was not to lay in his coffin during this night but to share the same bed with her once more. Even better, an even larger coffin for the both of them. Not that she would mind, he always knew she was far too eccentric to turn that down.

“I have something to tell you”

”Oh?” The sudden shift to seriousness left Walter a little colder than before. A hand went up to smooth back the loose strands as a force of habit. She did just say she missed him? It couldn’t possibly be anything bad right?

…

“I had… so much drinks today!” Lotte exclaimed in a sigh. “And my head is spinning..” Her voice became quieter, “I…I need your help..”

His brow cocked at this. Not that he didn’t know she wasn’t obviously legless from her previous line of questioning. But what was she expecting him to do right then?

He could vividly imagine her, which wasn’t unlike how she was. Weakly cast over the bed like the heroine of a soap opera with her robe tied but very much open on top.

“Walter?”

“Yes?”

”I love you.”

“I love you too,” he echoed back at her.

“Mein Liebling, warum sagst du das so traurig?” A genuine question that escaped her more like a whine. “Ich will dir sprechen aber deine stimme hört als es tut weh”

There wasn’t a nice way of saying he hoped that all of this unrestricted loving wasn’t the result of wine. It felt like the bare minimum to ask of her and yet still so taxing after all that he put her through.

“Sprich über deinen Tag. Ist June gut? In deine letzte besuchen, war sie sehr nervös aber sie mehr sprachen.”

He leaned his head back and thought about his handler.

“Ah…ich gehe nicht draußen mein Zimmer zu oft.”

“Du bist wie ein Teenager” Her tone suddenly sounded so scolding. She blew out sir puffed up in her cheeks with a small grumble. “Leave your room and come to me in London dammit!”

While humorous, her request still wounded him.

“I would if I could..” Walter reminded her of his current predicament in the gentlest way possible while still keeping himself at the very least respectable. As much as he had previously, imagining her never compared to seeing and feeling her in front of him. As a young man he yearned for the day he was able to keep her at his side for more than a day and somehow after managing to keep her by ball and chain, he lost her. It was his fault. But it also couldn’t be. He’s set out traps before as a butler. Mice were able to wriggle out occasionally, so how was she any different? Not as a pest but as a creature small enough to hold. One that if he was as gentle as he wanted to appear to be, she’d let him take her into his grasp. Yet now, she was out of it. Not by her on volition.

What he’d like more is to be able to say it was neither of them, rather they were destined to be caught in this together. It was after all, a trap that was set decades before.

“Hmmm.. I should visit you tomorrow, yeah?”

“Hm?” His humming was quick to her suggestion. “As in…?”

“I'll fly there!” she added in a much more sure tone. As darling, as it was to hear her sound nearly like how she was when she was young, able to travel at a drop of the hat, she had much bigger responsibilities the next day that she was choosing not to allude to.

“Well.. that sounds lovely. But it may be a little sudden. I do live with two others now. As much as I’d love to tend to you…” a sudden itch of realization that their talk may not be so private, “in a more physical sense- Perhaps we can organize this rendezvous another time.” After finishing this explanation he let out a bit of a breath of satisfaction. He was rather pleased with his answer up until it was met with a stifled giggle.

”is that so?.. Does little red require time slots now?” Her joy continued to become a little louder after this. “How romantic; promise me we won’t have an audience since I’m apparently planning to suck you off the same way I would call to get a doctor’s appointment.” He laughed, not because he found it as funny as his very tipsy foil, but that it was better than to just boil red in a slight shame at his attempt to disengage her from.. he wasn’t sure. It all felt awkward when she did visit. “You should give the werewolf popcorn beforehand, that is if he even would eat it.”

“You’re on a roll tonight.” Walter’s smile was there but gritted a little as he was dug into.

“I know! What can I say, I’m a woman of many talents.” She boasted and added, “Funniest German in the world you could say.”

”I’ll give it to you only because I don’t have a good lot to pull from.”

”How generous of you, Mr. Edil-Dornez, do I get a reward for my achievement?” Lotte pressed before going a little harder. “How do you plan to tend to me oh so physically and sweetly when I'm the flesh?”

His shoulders slanted back against the warm of the couch leaning his cheek against the phone. His phone was about as warm as him now.

“We could start by letting me have a nip at you.. only for a taste” slipped from the artificial vampire as an attempt to lure her further. She hummed on the other end of the line as if to ponder his suggestion.

“Hmmm, I’m not sure if I could let you. You know- I was once married to a vampire hunter and he told me a thing or two about the dangers of letting one near my neck.” He suddenly became all too aware of how cold he was.

“Well if he isn’t there anymore,” He swallowed, feeling as if he had downed a rough liquor. It certainly burned like one. “I suppose you won’t have anyone to protect yourself from me..”

”I guess not~”

It was so playful and yet now he felt so out of place in their back and fourth. Did he really belong there? Of course he did! That’s his wife…But once?

He took the phone away from his face for a moment. The illuminated screen shined on his face and when he glanced to the window, he could vaguely see the forms of invisible form from the light that casted onto it.

“Walter? Hello?”

He hadn’t asked since he had gotten out really. He never had the right moment to ask. What were they exactly? The safest he could assume was it was as right as rain as before even though he had been constantly reminded that everything was different. He no longer felt like the coffin he was sleeping in wasn’t his. Not even the living room felt like a big enough hurdle to sit and relax in. June, his handler, no longer was the stranger he initially considered her. That was never hard considering their ‘special’ circumstances.

“Walterrrr?~ Wally~”

He practically smacked the phone back up to his ear.

”Yes?-“

“Angel of Death~”

“Lottie- Would you let me ask you something?”

“Tommy boooy~ John Bullll-“

“Fuck me-”His voice rushed her to pay attention to him. “I don’t need you taking the piss at a time like this.”

“I’m only joking… no need to turn into a cockney bastard.”

…

”Apologies.”

”T’sall good!” She blurted out before yawning. “Now, what is it that you’re… undying… to ask me?” He left her to digest her joke. “Hehe..”

“I’m wishing you the best of luck when you perform your set next Tuesday.” Walter began before interrupting it so she could hijack him to another topic with, “Doll..” Another pause so he could swallow up whatever worth he had in this moment to hopefully display it and receive the words he was desperate to hear. “I’m aware our current circumstances are less than desirable. I haven’t exactly made it easy on you or our family in general….During vows we told each other the classic ‘till death due us part’.. but if I’m remembering correctly, now- I know they don’t really count-“ Nearly a century old and his mind was recalling it like he were once again in his 20s. “You went a tad off script after the fact and said I’m yours even in death.”

It didn’t take much time before he got a ‘mhm’ on the other end.

“Your skin may rot, leaving only your bones. The dust from them I will retire into a vase. Your soul, I will feel wrap around me when there is an absence of your form. I will wait love wholey and wait patiently to join you inspite of my mourn.”

Dead and still able to hear it from her like it was the first time. He must have looked the same as he did, speechless and without much wear. What he wouldn’t give to replace the nearly pitch black room decorated in boxes to be in Strasbourg. The warm lighting of the street lamps and windows hitting her beaming expression as she gave him poetry. In another rendition he would replace the person playing himself with the man he is now. At the very least then, he could live the rest of their time knowing he was honest with her in this world.

“Walter, what is it you wanted to ask me?” She sounded much more sober.

”Are you still willing to call me yours?” It felt a little silly then. As if he really needed that kind of permission after she had deliberately called him and had already told him what he had been wanting to hear for so long. The waters they were in were murky, comfortable enough he could traverse. He still was curious to see what was waiting below.

Whatever routine that the wine had strung her into stopped. An audible breath was taken in only to be exchanged with another that came out in a tremor.

”Yes.” She stated faintly. “You know I do anyways.”

”Yeah, I know.” He pinched at his temples and nearly rolled his eyes back into his head. He felt like a bit of a knob for asking. Ruining a perfectly good romantic moment for them all because he wanted a heart to heart.

“You’ve seen me, I still wear my wedding ring.”, Lotte practically chastised him, leading him to pout even more over his choice of words. “Are you afraid I’m going to be ripped from you?”

He puffed at this.

“Look- I reckon with you being as fit as you are, I wouldn’t blame some tosser for fancying you. Nah- is a shame they won’t have a chance if they try.”

“Oh-ho? You’re rather territorial over someone you weren’t sure if you had.”

…

”Yes, I do love you. Yes, Walter, I do consider you my husband.”

Noises of what must have been minor discontent occurred before he took a stiff upper lip from his teasing. “I love you too.”

“Great! Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I do have to be honest with you and tell you that I am being stolen away from you.” It was nonchalant and serious enough that he suddenly shot to sit up.

“By who?!?”

“Mr. Zs. I need to sleep. I know Asmo can autopilot for me while I mentally sleep but that doesn’t exactly extend to my body,” Lotte reminded. She yawned through a few of her words. Walter fell back into the position of laying back. His blood pressure wasn’t the thing he really wanted to rise when talking to his Lottie. “May I wish you goodnight?”

”I’ll allow it.”

”Thank you, Wally. Goodniiight~”

”Sweet dreams, Doll.”

“Goodnight, angel of death.”

That time, repeated once more, he heard a collection of voices that varied in pitch.