Make My Heart a Better Place (Part 3)
Title: Make My Heart a Better Place; Part 3 of ???
Rating: R
Warnings: Slash, Some Fluff, May Get a Little Dark Eventually (my work sometimes does), and the fact that I'm going to take quite a few liberties with Godric and Eric's respective histories. Fair Warning
Disclaimer: They're not mine. If they were? Canon would say that Godric is still be around. *sighs dejectedly*
Pairing: Godric/Eric
Eric POV
He didn't have as much as Eric thought he'd have. Someone so wealthy, and he had so little in the way of personal possessions. A few articles of clothing in various shades of white and grey. A small box of decorative jewelry that Eric had the impression Godric only wore when he absolutely had to, which also held a few random trinkets and keepsakes that would have been worthless to anyone else, but meant a great deal to Godric.
The way he held the box on his lap the entire trip told Eric that much. Looking out the window, feet planted on the floor, and dressed so plainly....
...Pam was going to go into convulsions at the lack of color--and then insist he'd been a bad son for leaving his maker so 'horribly behind fashion-wise'.
Or something.
He mentally shuddered at the thought of seeing her credit card balances over the past days. And then mentally shuddered at paying her credit card balances from over the past two days. Pam was lazy, but loyal...
...and she loved to spend his money.
Sookie's sitting two rows back, reading some Harlequin (Romance) novel while Bill looks as enjoyable as ever to be around. If he were human, Eric would swear he was either constipated or just constantly annoyed. At Eric, most of the time, which brought him no small amount of pleasure. It was just too easy to get him riled up.
But Bill and Sookie would have to wait. They could go back to their little po-dunk town and Eric would deal with them later. Right now, Godric was more important, and Eric had decided it was about time to deal with it. Time to deal with the bonemelting sadness--and then the apathy--that his Maker had been enduring over the past many, many years.
The drive to Fangtasia was shorter than the drive to Bon Temps, and Pam was playing bouncer again at the front door, so they were alone in Eric's office. Chow had taken their bags--assumedly to where Eric himself slept. Godric would be staying there until they could find him a place of his own--as soon as Eric was sure he wouldn't try to kill himself again.
"How long?"
It's a question asked by a powerful person being held against his will. Why he'd submittedto this, Eric had no idea, but there had to be a reason. The only thing Eric could assume wsa that his point had gotten across to the Elder vampire, and his maker was giving him a chance to make his life worth living again. Giving him a chance to make him see how much he was needed.
Such an old vampire with respect for humans as well as vampires. A vampire with the power to snap a woman like Lorenna in half, and yet he hadn't--merely because it was his choice not to. A vampire who had things to say that others might listen to, just because of his advanced age. Titles and positions were nothing compared to two-thousand years of experience, regardless of what Nan might believe..
Wisdom like Godric's didn't come along every day.
"I don't know."
Honesty. Eric owed him that much.
The box was still in his hands. Resting on his knees. Fingers idly scratched the edge of the wood as though he were nervous, though Eric was aware that he wasn't. Godric didn't get nervous. That wasn't a nervous movement.
It wasn't even defeated.
It was just a movement.
"You still have your duties as Sheriff here. I expect you to not neglect them."
Eric raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't planning on neglecting my duties. I am not the only vampire here."
"I noticed." Just a sentence.
The distaste for 'Fangtasia' was so subtle, someone who wasn't his child wouldn't have heard it, and indeed Eric hadn't heard it either He'd felt it. It wasn't that Godric was so refined that he felt it tawdry, even. Godric was just...above it. Above the gluttony and the decadence of everything on the other side of that door. He had no interest in it, and as such would likely spend very little time out there.
Amongst them.
Amongst those who came here for a glimpse of vampiric power and cold, barely covered flesh. He wanted a deeper relationship with humans than that of predator to prey, and Eric could respect that even if he didn't quite agree with it.
"What will I do here?"
"Whatever you like, Godric. You aren't a prisoner."
It was Godric's turn to raise an eyebrow, and a person would have been able to feel the power shift in the room. One moment, Eric was in charge and the next Godric had pulled it all toward himself. Used it to is own advantage. Just that one movement of raising an eyebrow, and once again Eric was the 'son' again.
"Do not patronize me, Eric. It doesn't become you."
"I'm not patronizing you, Godric." Eric stood, and even with that slight form incapable of filling the chair he was sitting in, staring up at him curiously, Eric was still the child.
Even standing as solidly tall as he was.
"I brought you here because you have nothing in Dallas. You're free of your responsibilities, and I wanted to give you a place where you might find yourself again."
"And you think I can do this in Shreveport." A slow blink, even as he looked up. Anyone else would be complaining of the crick in their neck. Or being loomed over.
Godric just looked...amused, in a way. As amused as his impassivity would allow him to look under the circumstances. Humoring a diluted child.
That's what that face was doing.
Humoring him.
"Now who's patronizing who?"
Nothing more than a stare. Two or three blinks, all the while with that same expression on his face. That 'amused' stare he offered to Jason Stackhouse when the dimwit 'apologized' for what the Fellowship of the Sun had done. As if he'd been anything but one of their brainwashed automatons. As if he'd had any control.
"You realize how insufferably adorable that expression is, right?"
There it is. A reaction. Though not the one Eric was hoping for. No anger. No shock.
Just that endlessly frustrating smirk.
"That's why I do it."
Rating: R
Warnings: Slash, Some Fluff, May Get a Little Dark Eventually (my work sometimes does), and the fact that I'm going to take quite a few liberties with Godric and Eric's respective histories. Fair Warning
Disclaimer: They're not mine. If they were? Canon would say that Godric is still be around. *sighs dejectedly*
Pairing: Godric/Eric
Eric POV
He didn't have as much as Eric thought he'd have. Someone so wealthy, and he had so little in the way of personal possessions. A few articles of clothing in various shades of white and grey. A small box of decorative jewelry that Eric had the impression Godric only wore when he absolutely had to, which also held a few random trinkets and keepsakes that would have been worthless to anyone else, but meant a great deal to Godric.
The way he held the box on his lap the entire trip told Eric that much. Looking out the window, feet planted on the floor, and dressed so plainly....
...Pam was going to go into convulsions at the lack of color--and then insist he'd been a bad son for leaving his maker so 'horribly behind fashion-wise'.
Or something.
He mentally shuddered at the thought of seeing her credit card balances over the past days. And then mentally shuddered at paying her credit card balances from over the past two days. Pam was lazy, but loyal...
...and she loved to spend his money.
Sookie's sitting two rows back, reading some Harlequin (Romance) novel while Bill looks as enjoyable as ever to be around. If he were human, Eric would swear he was either constipated or just constantly annoyed. At Eric, most of the time, which brought him no small amount of pleasure. It was just too easy to get him riled up.
But Bill and Sookie would have to wait. They could go back to their little po-dunk town and Eric would deal with them later. Right now, Godric was more important, and Eric had decided it was about time to deal with it. Time to deal with the bonemelting sadness--and then the apathy--that his Maker had been enduring over the past many, many years.
The drive to Fangtasia was shorter than the drive to Bon Temps, and Pam was playing bouncer again at the front door, so they were alone in Eric's office. Chow had taken their bags--assumedly to where Eric himself slept. Godric would be staying there until they could find him a place of his own--as soon as Eric was sure he wouldn't try to kill himself again.
"How long?"
It's a question asked by a powerful person being held against his will. Why he'd submittedto this, Eric had no idea, but there had to be a reason. The only thing Eric could assume wsa that his point had gotten across to the Elder vampire, and his maker was giving him a chance to make his life worth living again. Giving him a chance to make him see how much he was needed.
Such an old vampire with respect for humans as well as vampires. A vampire with the power to snap a woman like Lorenna in half, and yet he hadn't--merely because it was his choice not to. A vampire who had things to say that others might listen to, just because of his advanced age. Titles and positions were nothing compared to two-thousand years of experience, regardless of what Nan might believe..
Wisdom like Godric's didn't come along every day.
"I don't know."
Honesty. Eric owed him that much.
The box was still in his hands. Resting on his knees. Fingers idly scratched the edge of the wood as though he were nervous, though Eric was aware that he wasn't. Godric didn't get nervous. That wasn't a nervous movement.
It wasn't even defeated.
It was just a movement.
"You still have your duties as Sheriff here. I expect you to not neglect them."
Eric raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't planning on neglecting my duties. I am not the only vampire here."
"I noticed." Just a sentence.
The distaste for 'Fangtasia' was so subtle, someone who wasn't his child wouldn't have heard it, and indeed Eric hadn't heard it either He'd felt it. It wasn't that Godric was so refined that he felt it tawdry, even. Godric was just...above it. Above the gluttony and the decadence of everything on the other side of that door. He had no interest in it, and as such would likely spend very little time out there.
Amongst them.
Amongst those who came here for a glimpse of vampiric power and cold, barely covered flesh. He wanted a deeper relationship with humans than that of predator to prey, and Eric could respect that even if he didn't quite agree with it.
"What will I do here?"
"Whatever you like, Godric. You aren't a prisoner."
It was Godric's turn to raise an eyebrow, and a person would have been able to feel the power shift in the room. One moment, Eric was in charge and the next Godric had pulled it all toward himself. Used it to is own advantage. Just that one movement of raising an eyebrow, and once again Eric was the 'son' again.
"Do not patronize me, Eric. It doesn't become you."
"I'm not patronizing you, Godric." Eric stood, and even with that slight form incapable of filling the chair he was sitting in, staring up at him curiously, Eric was still the child.
Even standing as solidly tall as he was.
"I brought you here because you have nothing in Dallas. You're free of your responsibilities, and I wanted to give you a place where you might find yourself again."
"And you think I can do this in Shreveport." A slow blink, even as he looked up. Anyone else would be complaining of the crick in their neck. Or being loomed over.
Godric just looked...amused, in a way. As amused as his impassivity would allow him to look under the circumstances. Humoring a diluted child.
That's what that face was doing.
Humoring him.
"Now who's patronizing who?"
Nothing more than a stare. Two or three blinks, all the while with that same expression on his face. That 'amused' stare he offered to Jason Stackhouse when the dimwit 'apologized' for what the Fellowship of the Sun had done. As if he'd been anything but one of their brainwashed automatons. As if he'd had any control.
"You realize how insufferably adorable that expression is, right?"
There it is. A reaction. Though not the one Eric was hoping for. No anger. No shock.
Just that endlessly frustrating smirk.
"That's why I do it."