lessons in listening to your heart
Happy (early) Birthday, @kaytikazoo! This fic is very heavily influenced and inspired by this poem by @theycallmedizzy, and some of the lines made it into the headers of each section with altered pronouns for polyship reasons.
Summary: Behind every powerful man is his even more powerful best friend and the people he's not supposed to love.
Warnings: mentions of abuse, general Alistair related nonsense, threats of violence, discussion of (but no on-page) torture and unethical science
Words: 11,318
Leopold-centric, DoctorStaticQuake, some Leopold&Ophelia friendship, angst with an implied happy ending
Sneak Peek:
The doors slid open to reveal a long hallway of offices, the building full of identical hallways with identical tile floors and identical beige walls. It was where his father was assigned, so it was where all of their meetings were, and his apartment, though private and his, had to be within a certain radius. In case something happened was the usual excuse, but he wasn't stupid, despite what he'd been told over the years. It was to keep an eye on him, make sure he didn't step out of line, make sure every choice he made was the right one and not one that would interfere with everything his father had accomplished.
Making his way down the hall and toward the familiar office, Leopold braced himself for the next hour of his life. The rules could get more lenient, or they could get stricter with the freedom the rest of his life had taken on, and he never knew what to expect. Being the son of Alistair Fitz opened many doors, and it was the reason he got his position in one of Hydra’s labs so easily after he was done with his exams, but it came with some downsides, too.
It came with bruises and scars and tears that he had to hide. It came with rules and regulations so he could maintain appearances. It came with giving up every other emotional tie lest he forgot how he got to where he was, where all of his accomplishments were rooted, who he owed for all of it.
[ read on ao3 ]