Clarity in darkness | LaFerry oneshot based on prompts
#29 and #32 requested from these prompts, feel free to keep them coming!
29: “I thought you were dead."
32: “I think I’m in love with you and I’m terrified.”
AN: I'm not 100% happy with how this turned out at all, but I've had this in my inbox since forever so I had to do something xD
It was after the hell-opening, after the Dean left Perry’s body, and LaFontaine found themself laying on a bundle of blankets among the rest of the students from the pit, though slightly apart from the crowd, closer to the wall than the others.
They didn’t remember much, honestly. Well, much, but obviously there was a gap after the searing pain in their left eye left them physically and mentally in shock for a good… well, they were still in shock, really. Seeing Perry wake up again had been the first thing to shake them out of it, and her leading them back to “civilization” had been a daze. They weren’t sure how much in touch with herself she felt, either. So far she’d helped them better their bandage, wordlessly, and found some painkillers they had on them and made them take them before curling into their side. They weren’t sure if she was sleeping or not, but they’d sort of blacked out, so they couldn’t be blamed for not paying attention. The small changes in the light the evening sun was casting into the pit told them it hadn’t been that long since they laid down, and they knew the stabbing pain in their eyesocket and brain was an obvious reason as to why they weren’t able to sleep for that long at a time. They turned their head to find Perry, head resting on their shoulder and eyes set on her twitching hands. She was completely ruining the probably invaluable gown the Dean had chosen for the opening by laying on the ground, but it wasn’t like they cared. She looked so scared.
LaF swallowed hard. She’d been gone so long that it was a relief to see her twitchiness back, but at the same time it almost made them feel sick inside to think of how she must feel. “Hey, Perr…”
She flinched slightly, but managed a small smile as she looked up at them. “Oh thank God, you’re awake…”
“Was I out for long?”
“Not that long, though you’ve lost a lot of blood, so I worried. But I didn’t want to leave you.” They heard a quiver in her voice that broke their heart. She hadn’t wanted to leave their side, not again, and it had overpowered the part of her telling her to go and get help.
“I told you it would be okay. I wouldn’t risk serious damage more than already caused now, we…” their voice caught in their throat now, too. “You’ve already been through too much.”
Perry bit her lip, eyes cast down as if they couldn’t see the tears gathering in them.
LaF’s head almost felt like it was on fire when they started to move, but they didn’t care, shifting to wrap their arms around Perry tightly. She started sobbing quietly against their shoulder, and they mumbled into her hair quietly. “I’m sorry Perr...I’m so sorry.” They heard her sobs increase, and their heart broke all over again, but as they felt her clutch their clothes and her body tremble helplessly, they knew exactly what she wanted to say, and it hurt more than their empty eyesocket ever could. She was in shock, too, she was in pain, and she had been through more than they could imagine. They remembered Laura complaining about a headache after the Dean spent ten minutes in her head… Perry had had the Dean in her head for months.
She kept sobbing quietly, but started mumbling through it. “It was just so dark and so quiet, quiet except for when she talked to me, when she’d say just horrible things… she said nobody was fighting for me, that… she said that she killed you, that I killed you... I thought you were dead…”
LaF’s working eye was tearing up, too, the other experiencing the burning pain of severed tear canals. “I’m alive, Perr, I’m okay, I’m okay… and so are you.”
She shook her head slightly. “I’m--”
“No, of course you’re not okay now… but I promise you, I won’t let anything like this happen to you again. Ever.” And they meant that promise. Nobody was going to take Perry away from them again, ever. They felt her nod against their shoulder quietly before they both fell back into silence, LaF closing their eye and focusing on stopping the tears that were making their eyesocket hurt even more. They noticed Perry’s breath evening out as they did, and they even managed to doze off again for a bit, only to be woken up by a few softly spoken words by their side a few moments later.
“I think I’m in love with you, and I’m terrified...”
They froze, holding their breath. She was what now? When they realised she wasn’t going to continue talking, they opened their eye to look at her, laying by their side, still curled into them. “What are you terrified of?”
She jumped, yelping loudly. “LaFontaine!”
They smiled a bit, trying not to hurt the eye. “Yup, right here next to you, sleeping very lightly.”
“How much of that did you hear?” She sounded terrified now, too, voice small again. They swallowed, ‘cause, well, they may have heard her, but believing the words wasn’t gonna happen. That would just be too much.
“You… said that you think you’re in love with me?” Ah, right, they were probably delirious from the pain. “I know I’m in a ridiculous amount of pain, but I don’t think I imagined it…”
Perry looked away, avoiding their eye(s). “Y-you didn’t…”
Their breath caught in their throat, head spinning for a whole new reason. The fact that they were in love with her had just become something in the background at this point, since it had been going on for years and they’d accepted that she would never feel the same about them… except that wasn’t the case, apparently? “Whoa…”
She kept looking away, face deep red. “Forget I said anything, LaF…”
Nuh-uh, no way. “Perr…”
“I mean it, I--- I didn’t mean for you to hear. Nevermind, okay?”
“Perry, no… how… how long have you…”
She sighed heavily. “Known? Spending several months in darkness inside your own mind makes you think about things.”
“And you thought about...me?”
“Of course I did. I had to, I couldn’t stop thinking about what she was going to do to you, and I wasn’t even sure what my last words to you had been, didn’t want to know what she’d said… I guess I knew that if she dug deep, she’d tell you, so I had to tell myself.”
Their heart was beating erratically, and they simultaneously wanted to kiss her right there but also kind of shout it from the rooftops. “She wasn’t that vocal with me. She just kept saying things about how she’d never give you back…” They saw Perry twist her hands together and stare at them, and they knew exactly what she was thinking. “Perr, you know I’m in love with you too, right?”
Her head whipped around dangerously fast to frown at them, lips parted slightly, trying to form several different words before what came out. “I--what?”
“I can’t believe you never noticed, I mean, it started in high school. I knew you wouldn’t have taken it well and didn’t think you’d ever feel the same, so I just waited and hoped it would pass, never did, though.”
“You… you were in love with me? All this time?”
“All along, Perr…” They swallowed hard as they saw something in Perry’s eyes change, and their heart almost leapt out of their chest when she suddenly cupped their cheeks and pressed her lips against theirs. They had to remind themself to keep breathing as it felt like every little feeling they’d ever had for her flared up all at once, a shiver running down their spine as their head swam. Holy shit.
It was a moment before she pulled back and gazed into their eyes, not moving her hands from their cheeks. “I… I made a lot of mistakes before. You know that. I just don’t want to hurt you, not again and not like this, and now I’m just w--” she was silenced abruptly when LaFontaine leant in and kissed her again. She let out a soft breath and kissed them back for a second before they pulled away, smiling brightly at her.
“You don’t need to worry about hurting me… I’ve been in love with for years, I think I can handle you loving me back.”
Papa Hollis: “And this might be so shoking to you, but murderous vampire wasn’t exactly what I had in mind!”
This. Never. Gets. Old.
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