The Lost Art of Secrets Part II
Title: The Lost Art of Secrets
Author: firefox1490
Artist: dragon_gypsy
Fandom or Original: Original
Type: (fem)Slash
Word Count:
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Valentine and Narcissa
Warnings: None
Summary: Valentine lives a pretty boring life in a mostly boring town save for the towns eccentric loner Narcissa. While working on a class assignment about this history of her town Valentine comes across a picture for several years ago of Narcissa looking exactly the same as she looks today. Intrigued by this Valentine sets out to find of everything she can about her towns special resident. And its a lot more interesting than vampires.
Valentine rolled from side to side in her bed attempting to find a comfortable and cool spot in her body warmed sheets. Finally she threw her covers off and got out of bed padding bare foot across her room to pull on a discarded pair of track pants. Grabbing a matching windbreaker, her keys and her cell phone she stuffed her feet into her sneakers before leaving. Creeping down the hall and down the stairs Valentine made a brief stop in the kitchen and left her parents a note saying she was going for a drive that she had her cell phone.
Backing out of the drive way, she drove the familiar roads to a familiar house. Once parked she leaned forward in her seat to look. She got out of the car and stood there contemplating going to ring the bell. Her watch told her it was quarter till two but somehow she didn’t think the time of night would bother Narcissa.
“Are you going to stand there all night or are you going to come in?” Narcissa said, suddenly startling the ever living crap out of Valentine.
“What?” Valentine squawked.
“Come in side,” Narcissa said, walking around Valentine to the house.
“Come in side said the spider to the fly,” Valentine muttered as she stood for a moment confused before clicking the lock on her car and hurrying after her through the open door. She found the blonde in the foyer waiting for her giving her an expectant look.
“Is this the part where I guess what you are?” Valentine asked, glaring half heartily at Narcissa who lounged comfortably on the sofa.
“If you want,” Narcissa replied with an elegant shrug that could have meant anything, “I trust that you’re smart enough to figure it out.”
“So why don’t you just tell me.”
“Now where’s the fun in that?”
“Do I get hints?” Valentine asked.
“If you want.”
Valentine watched waiting for some sign or for Narcissa to say something but she did nothing.
“Well,” Valentine tapped her foot.
“Look at me,” she said, “Really look at me.”
“That’s your hint? Look at you?” Valentine asked, annoyed but did as she said anyway.
“You’re a very rude little girl.”
Narcissa was short, blond and had eyes of a undistinguishable color. She was pale and in a way pretty but there was nothing truly remarkable that Valentine could discern. Before she could demand a better hint, Narcissa shifted in a way but without moving. Valentine watched transfixed as suddenly Narcissa wasn’t just blond, but it was as if her hair was legitimately the color of the sun glowing and bright in a way that made it hurt Valentines eyes to look at, her eyes suddenly seemed huge and Valentine could see now why it was hard to tell her actual eye color, it was because it was a mix of green, blue and grey swirling together. And her once simply pale skin glowed softly as if she’d swallowed a white light and it was illuminating her from the inside.
“Fairy?” she whispered covering her eyes with her hand to protect them against the glow.
“Got it in one,” Narcissa said with a laugh taking steps towards Valentine but she in turn backed away.
“Are you saying that you’re a fairy?” Valentine said her disbelief obvious in her tone, “Where are your wings?”
Narcissa threw her head back and laughed, “No, faerie, the things you’re thinking of are Pixies.”
“There’s a difference between faerie and fairy?” Valentine said still shocked.
Valentine only got the hints because she’d spent a summer of her life obsessively researching fairies. It had happened in a roundabout way where she’d decided in a childish manor to convert to Wicca and set about researching which, lead to its history and looking into old pagan religions, Western Europe and subsequently fairies.
“I’m not the Disney kind, I’m the kind that eats small children at night,” Narcissa said with a shrug and a smirk, “Come along the hall is no place to have this discussion.”
The shrug infuriated Valentine while the smirk frightened her down to her bones. Rubbing her arms as if she were cold as Narcissa took off down the hall and up the stairs leaving Valentine to trail behind her. Every once in a while she’d look around but there was nothing really that stood out as odd, nothing that said a faerie lived here.
Narcissa stopped in front of a door and gave Valentine enough time to catch up with her before she pushed the door open. Following her in Valentine saw that they were in a huge bedroom.
“Come sit,” Narcissa said motioning to the large bed that took up most of the space in the room.
“You want me to get in bed with you?” Valentine stood near the door giving Narcissa a look, her eyebrow raised in question.
“Or you can stand there,” Narcissa shrugged, again in a manner that meant nothing and everything at the same time, “I don’t care either way.”
Valentine stood there awkwardly for a moment while Narcissa arranged herself in the bed leaning back against the mountains of pillows. She’d pushed the duvet down to the foot of the bed displaying the red plaid flannel sheets on the bed. Valentine smiled amused by the common looking sheets on such a magnificently decadent looking bed.
“This is a large house, it seems pointless to heat the whole place so it gets cold from time to time. Hence flannel sheets, practical and warm,” Narcissa said.
“Come sit,” she repeated patting the spot next to her.
As if under a compulsion Valentine jerked forward towards the spot on the bed.
“Why’d you pick Padget?” Valentine asked as she sat down.
Narcissa gave another one of her shrugs, “It’s close enough to the city that I could go whenever I please and small enough people hardly noticed me.”
“I thought faerie didn’t like iron and other man made things?” Valentine asked running her fingers through the free strands of Narcissa’s hair.
“The young ones don’t,” Narcissa replied leaning into her caress, “It’s complicated, with each new generation they grow more tolerant of manmade things. At the same time the old we grew we too get more tolerant, there’s just a strange in-between that have issues.”
“For someone so old you sound very modern,” Valentine said, scooting closer so she could run her hands through Narcissa’s hair.
“I’ve had century’s to adapt,” Narcissa pointed out.
“Have you always been here?” Valentine asked, “I mean the books only show you starting in the 1900’s but,” she trailed off.
“We as a people left our home land somewhere around the 1400 your time,” Narcissa explained, “It was complicated we fought all the times so in the end we went our separate
“We’re are you from?” Valentine asked, having unraveled the last of the braids stoking Narcissa’s hair barely fighting the urge to rub her face in it.
“The place that was my original home no longer exist but the place I took and kept my name from was a small Italian island near Sicily,” Narcissa trailed off.
“Is it because you’re a fairie that I can’t stop touching you?” Valentine asked.
“Yes,” Narcissa replied, “Its an allure that we, I put out to calm people, its sort of like why people always want to pet cats no matter how angry they look.”
“Why are you talking to me?” Valentine asked.
Again a shrug was her only response.
“Will you answer all my questions?” Valentine prodded.
“Yes, I guess,” Narcissa said.
“Okay,” Valentine sat up more looking directly at Narcissa, collecting her millions of questions.
Hours passed and eventually Valentine ran out of questions and began to doze off on the comfortable bed. Narcissa in turn laid down beside her watching her waiting for the inevitable next question to come. However, a few minutes passed and Valentine didn’t ask any new question Narcissa poked her in the side and only got a soft snore in reply.
“You need to leave,” Narcissa said suddenly sitting up.
Groggy Valentine sat up and blinked confusingly at her, “What?”
“You can no sleep here, you need to leave,” Narcissa repeated, getting off the bed and collected Valentines things.
“What?” Valentine repeated.
“There are rules, don’t eat the food a fairies, don’t ever ask a favor of a fairies, don’t sleep in fairies,” Narcissa said in a rush tossing Valentine her things.
“How long have I been here?” Valentine asked, “In real world time not farie time?”
Narcissa shrugged, “A few minutes maybe thirty to an hour real world time, it depends I don’t have any control over time here it flows as it pleases.”
“It feels like it’s been hours,” Valentine said.
“When you leave your body will accommodate for the shift and it will stop feeling like so long,” Narcissa told her as she handed her, her jacket.
Valentine took the jacket shrugging it on and zipping it, “Is this it?” she asked.
“No,” Narcissa replied, “You may come visit whenever you like I guess. I wouldn’t mind.”
“You should come to town,” Valentine said as she bent over to lace her sneakers, “So people can stop thinking I’m obsessed with our crazy resident.”
Narcissa frowned at Valentine, obviously unsure of the relevance, letting out a breath she replied, “I will think about it.”
Valentine nodded knowing that was the best she’d get. Opening the door, Valentine paused looking back at Narcissa before stepping out into the chilled air. It was still obviously night outside, showing no signs of anything more than a few seconds passing since Valentine entered the house. Stepping out onto the porch Valentine spared one last look at Narcissa who stood in the doorway watching Valentine look at her.
“I guess I’ll see you around,” she said as she walked backward towards her car.
Narcissa didn’t reply simply waving before closing the door and reappearing in the window watching Valentine climb into her car.
Author: firefox1490
Artist: dragon_gypsy
Fandom or Original: Original
Type: (fem)Slash
Word Count:
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Valentine and Narcissa
Warnings: None
Summary: Valentine lives a pretty boring life in a mostly boring town save for the towns eccentric loner Narcissa. While working on a class assignment about this history of her town Valentine comes across a picture for several years ago of Narcissa looking exactly the same as she looks today. Intrigued by this Valentine sets out to find of everything she can about her towns special resident. And its a lot more interesting than vampires.
Valentine rolled from side to side in her bed attempting to find a comfortable and cool spot in her body warmed sheets. Finally she threw her covers off and got out of bed padding bare foot across her room to pull on a discarded pair of track pants. Grabbing a matching windbreaker, her keys and her cell phone she stuffed her feet into her sneakers before leaving. Creeping down the hall and down the stairs Valentine made a brief stop in the kitchen and left her parents a note saying she was going for a drive that she had her cell phone.
Backing out of the drive way, she drove the familiar roads to a familiar house. Once parked she leaned forward in her seat to look. She got out of the car and stood there contemplating going to ring the bell. Her watch told her it was quarter till two but somehow she didn’t think the time of night would bother Narcissa.
“Are you going to stand there all night or are you going to come in?” Narcissa said, suddenly startling the ever living crap out of Valentine.
“What?” Valentine squawked.
“Come in side,” Narcissa said, walking around Valentine to the house.
“Come in side said the spider to the fly,” Valentine muttered as she stood for a moment confused before clicking the lock on her car and hurrying after her through the open door. She found the blonde in the foyer waiting for her giving her an expectant look.
“Is this the part where I guess what you are?” Valentine asked, glaring half heartily at Narcissa who lounged comfortably on the sofa.
“If you want,” Narcissa replied with an elegant shrug that could have meant anything, “I trust that you’re smart enough to figure it out.”
“So why don’t you just tell me.”
“Now where’s the fun in that?”
“Do I get hints?” Valentine asked.
“If you want.”
Valentine watched waiting for some sign or for Narcissa to say something but she did nothing.
“Well,” Valentine tapped her foot.
“Look at me,” she said, “Really look at me.”
“That’s your hint? Look at you?” Valentine asked, annoyed but did as she said anyway.
“You’re a very rude little girl.”
Narcissa was short, blond and had eyes of a undistinguishable color. She was pale and in a way pretty but there was nothing truly remarkable that Valentine could discern. Before she could demand a better hint, Narcissa shifted in a way but without moving. Valentine watched transfixed as suddenly Narcissa wasn’t just blond, but it was as if her hair was legitimately the color of the sun glowing and bright in a way that made it hurt Valentines eyes to look at, her eyes suddenly seemed huge and Valentine could see now why it was hard to tell her actual eye color, it was because it was a mix of green, blue and grey swirling together. And her once simply pale skin glowed softly as if she’d swallowed a white light and it was illuminating her from the inside.
“Fairy?” she whispered covering her eyes with her hand to protect them against the glow.
“Got it in one,” Narcissa said with a laugh taking steps towards Valentine but she in turn backed away.
“Are you saying that you’re a fairy?” Valentine said her disbelief obvious in her tone, “Where are your wings?”
Narcissa threw her head back and laughed, “No, faerie, the things you’re thinking of are Pixies.”
“There’s a difference between faerie and fairy?” Valentine said still shocked.
Valentine only got the hints because she’d spent a summer of her life obsessively researching fairies. It had happened in a roundabout way where she’d decided in a childish manor to convert to Wicca and set about researching which, lead to its history and looking into old pagan religions, Western Europe and subsequently fairies.
“I’m not the Disney kind, I’m the kind that eats small children at night,” Narcissa said with a shrug and a smirk, “Come along the hall is no place to have this discussion.”
The shrug infuriated Valentine while the smirk frightened her down to her bones. Rubbing her arms as if she were cold as Narcissa took off down the hall and up the stairs leaving Valentine to trail behind her. Every once in a while she’d look around but there was nothing really that stood out as odd, nothing that said a faerie lived here.
Narcissa stopped in front of a door and gave Valentine enough time to catch up with her before she pushed the door open. Following her in Valentine saw that they were in a huge bedroom.
“Come sit,” Narcissa said motioning to the large bed that took up most of the space in the room.
“You want me to get in bed with you?” Valentine stood near the door giving Narcissa a look, her eyebrow raised in question.
“Or you can stand there,” Narcissa shrugged, again in a manner that meant nothing and everything at the same time, “I don’t care either way.”
Valentine stood there awkwardly for a moment while Narcissa arranged herself in the bed leaning back against the mountains of pillows. She’d pushed the duvet down to the foot of the bed displaying the red plaid flannel sheets on the bed. Valentine smiled amused by the common looking sheets on such a magnificently decadent looking bed.
“This is a large house, it seems pointless to heat the whole place so it gets cold from time to time. Hence flannel sheets, practical and warm,” Narcissa said.
“Come sit,” she repeated patting the spot next to her.
As if under a compulsion Valentine jerked forward towards the spot on the bed.
“Why’d you pick Padget?” Valentine asked as she sat down.
Narcissa gave another one of her shrugs, “It’s close enough to the city that I could go whenever I please and small enough people hardly noticed me.”
“I thought faerie didn’t like iron and other man made things?” Valentine asked running her fingers through the free strands of Narcissa’s hair.
“The young ones don’t,” Narcissa replied leaning into her caress, “It’s complicated, with each new generation they grow more tolerant of manmade things. At the same time the old we grew we too get more tolerant, there’s just a strange in-between that have issues.”
“For someone so old you sound very modern,” Valentine said, scooting closer so she could run her hands through Narcissa’s hair.
“I’ve had century’s to adapt,” Narcissa pointed out.
“Have you always been here?” Valentine asked, “I mean the books only show you starting in the 1900’s but,” she trailed off.
“We as a people left our home land somewhere around the 1400 your time,” Narcissa explained, “It was complicated we fought all the times so in the end we went our separate
“We’re are you from?” Valentine asked, having unraveled the last of the braids stoking Narcissa’s hair barely fighting the urge to rub her face in it.
“The place that was my original home no longer exist but the place I took and kept my name from was a small Italian island near Sicily,” Narcissa trailed off.
“Is it because you’re a fairie that I can’t stop touching you?” Valentine asked.
“Yes,” Narcissa replied, “Its an allure that we, I put out to calm people, its sort of like why people always want to pet cats no matter how angry they look.”
“Why are you talking to me?” Valentine asked.
Again a shrug was her only response.
“Will you answer all my questions?” Valentine prodded.
“Yes, I guess,” Narcissa said.
“Okay,” Valentine sat up more looking directly at Narcissa, collecting her millions of questions.
Hours passed and eventually Valentine ran out of questions and began to doze off on the comfortable bed. Narcissa in turn laid down beside her watching her waiting for the inevitable next question to come. However, a few minutes passed and Valentine didn’t ask any new question Narcissa poked her in the side and only got a soft snore in reply.
“You need to leave,” Narcissa said suddenly sitting up.
Groggy Valentine sat up and blinked confusingly at her, “What?”
“You can no sleep here, you need to leave,” Narcissa repeated, getting off the bed and collected Valentines things.
“What?” Valentine repeated.
“There are rules, don’t eat the food a fairies, don’t ever ask a favor of a fairies, don’t sleep in fairies,” Narcissa said in a rush tossing Valentine her things.
“How long have I been here?” Valentine asked, “In real world time not farie time?”
Narcissa shrugged, “A few minutes maybe thirty to an hour real world time, it depends I don’t have any control over time here it flows as it pleases.”
“It feels like it’s been hours,” Valentine said.
“When you leave your body will accommodate for the shift and it will stop feeling like so long,” Narcissa told her as she handed her, her jacket.
Valentine took the jacket shrugging it on and zipping it, “Is this it?” she asked.
“No,” Narcissa replied, “You may come visit whenever you like I guess. I wouldn’t mind.”
“You should come to town,” Valentine said as she bent over to lace her sneakers, “So people can stop thinking I’m obsessed with our crazy resident.”
Narcissa frowned at Valentine, obviously unsure of the relevance, letting out a breath she replied, “I will think about it.”
Valentine nodded knowing that was the best she’d get. Opening the door, Valentine paused looking back at Narcissa before stepping out into the chilled air. It was still obviously night outside, showing no signs of anything more than a few seconds passing since Valentine entered the house. Stepping out onto the porch Valentine spared one last look at Narcissa who stood in the doorway watching Valentine look at her.
“I guess I’ll see you around,” she said as she walked backward towards her car.
Narcissa didn’t reply simply waving before closing the door and reappearing in the window watching Valentine climb into her car.