Rehabilitation

[Saiketsu]

"It's a burn, Nadie," Pierre said patiently. "I can't just magically heal from it, you know. It's doing better than anyone was expecting."

He listened to her comment about Odessa without expression, trying to find a sturdy way to finish the bandage that began at the crease of her elbow and spiraled up to part of her shoulder. Normally, he would feed back into the thought that all Odessa did was hurt everyone around her - it was certainly something that he personally believed in. But hearing it from Nadia's mouth was something strange for him. The bitter taste of her words hit him hard, and a pang of guilt struck him briefly before he shoved it back. Especially now that he had just snapped Odessa's neck and laid her out like some deranged doll thanks to his quick thinking.

"Who knows, Nadia. Maybe this is the thing that will make her learn." He finished bandaging her and gently took her hand of his shoulder, lingering with it in his own hand for too long to be just a casual touch. Pierre didn't release it unless she made a move to remove herself from his.

[Harlequin]

Nadia did not make a move to take her hand back. Instead, after a few silent moments looking down at the place where their skin touched, she squeezed his hand, and pulled him toward her, none too gently.

She caught his mouth with hers, twining the fingers of her good hand into that blonde hair. She was sick to death of talking about Odessa. Of bickering. Of this dance they seemed incapable of breaking out of.

[Saiketsu]

Too many years of hoping without expecting this left him unprepared for her mouth on his. A mix of feelings bloomed in his chest and he was drinking in her passion. Happiness, relief, anger, frustration. The blood that he drank that night filled his cheeks and all of a sudden nothing mattered by Nadia.

Saudade.

He was guilty of this every time. He wanted to believe this would be the beginning of a new part of their relationship. He wanted to believe that she was enjoying herself enough to stay this time. He wanted to believe that Sonya had finally burned Nadia's last bridge. He wanted to believe that she was his and his alone, now and forever.

Pierre wrapped an arm strongly behind Nadia's back and pulled her into him as if there were no time - and all the time in the world - lost between them. He knew it wasn't the case. He kissed her deeply and his heart ached to be hers again.

[Harlequin]

She let herself be pulled closer, back bending like a willow bough beneath his touch as her fingers tightened in his hair -- not hurting, but needing. Her other hand rested on his waist, then bunched in his shirt, tacky, drying blood sticking to the fabric. There was an urgency to her kiss, as if she'd lose her nerve; as if she'd remember why she'd denied him all these years and push him away again.

But Sonya was as good as dead in the next room for now, and Nadia wanted, for the first time in a long time, only what she wanted.

After and eternity, she broke the kiss, but pressed Pierre's forehead to hers. Her eyes opened and slid sideways, landing on poor, blind Damien. "Do you need to...?" She let the question hang, breath heavy with it.

[Saiketsu]

She had always fit so perfectly against him and her presence now was no different. He wanted to ignore everything else but her, the urgency to convince her to stay with him competing with his need to do right. Pierre glanced at Damien as well, sitting across the room, blind and trying to mind his own business as Pierre and Nadia shared their moment. Damien looked like a teenager, even more so as his feet didn't quite touch the floor, his head down and eyes glazed over. The moment struck him with an awkwardness that wasn't there when Nadia had her lips on his again.

Pierre sighed, fearing that he might lost this moment with Nadia with his words. "Yeah, I have to..." He smiled wryly and pulled himself away from her with much reluctance. The Frenchman lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her fingers like he had when she was his before. "This conversation isn't over. But I have to pick these pieces up now."

[Harlequin]

When Pierre pulled away, Nadia released him. If her mother hadn't spilled the blood she'd drunk earlier, her cheeks would have flushed as he kissed her fingers, each in turn. So familiar, and just a little sad.


She leaned back into him, close enough that her lips brushed the shell of his ear, her breath cool against his skin. "Tell me where to wait for you."

He murmured an address back, and Nadia felt a key pressed into her palm, retrieved from a pocket. Pierre would feel her lips curling into a smile against his ear.

Closing her fist over the cool, jagged piece of metal, Nadia left him to attend to his sire. She knew the way.

[Saiketsu]

His lips had moved before he could get control of them, telling her his newest address at the Riverfront Lofts. No, he had to care for Damien. No, he had to pick up the mess that both Sonya and Damien had left behind after their clash. No, he had no car with which to get to his own home; Camilla was still parked outside of Stakes and Sticks where he had left her at the beginning of this wild night. 

Something red and hot flared in his chest as she pulled away from him with his keys, leaving him alone with his Sire.

----

Damien did his best to not listen to their private moment, focusing instead on the blood that was filling his mouth and coating his dry throat. Rejuvenating, his eyes tingling dully as the blood worked its way through him. His headache lessened with each gulping mouthful of chilled blood. Lovers' words he couldn't quite hear, murmurings of lips against other lips, and unnecessary breaths told him to keep his attention to himself for the moment. Not long ago, Damien would have purposely made a noise to remind the two of his presence.

He heard Nadia walk down the hall away from them - passing the room in which Sonya lay without hesitation - and ascend the stairs. A sigh from the blonde and then Pierre came towards him, his steps significantly heavier than Nadia's, more familiar to him. "Give me that," his fledge said and Damien felt the empty blood bag tugged from his hand patiently. "What a night," he said to himself, sounding overly worn. Damien stayed silent for a long moment as Pierre moved around slowly, rattling drawers and plucking cabinets open as he went about his clean up. The elder vampire felt awkward, useless.

"What did you do to Odessa?"

A pause and another sigh, one with an overtone of guilt.

"I saw you drop to the floor and I ran to you. Odessa saw me and tried to take me out too, but Nadia got in her way. So, I came up behind her and snapped her neck." Another pause as Pierre paced the floor, putting items that had fallen on the ground away. "She almost took Nadia's arm off, Damien. She's getting bad."

Damien said nothing, taking it all in.

"Listen, let's get you upstairs. That way you can at least be somewhere familiar." Damien felt a hand under his arm and instinctually hopped down off the table, relying upon Pierre's hand for balance and direction. They walked the hallway together with Damien in front, taking the stairs slowly with a hand on the wall for support. Once upstairs, he heard the lock on the cellar door close heavily.

"She won't be awake for at least another day or two," Damien said finally, lowly as Pierre steered him towards the couch in the family room that smelled faintly of Rachel and Delilah. "Are you leaving now?"

Pierre hesitated, "N-no, I-I'll be staying for a while. You need the help."

"Help doing what? Sitting here with the dog while Odessa sleeps? Go. You have other things to take care of." Damien smirked, glad. Pierre began protest but Damien insisted. "If you have the chance to go make things right with her, take it. She probably needs you right now more than I do." There was a long pause before Damien felt himself be wrapped in Pierre's arms in a sweeping hug that caught him quite off guard.

"Thank you."

"Go. But before you do, bring me my phone and dial Rachel for me."