@mandatorybedrest challenged me to do 1. don’t leave + Aecious in 3-10 sentences. I. I tried. These two are so complicated that it’s really hard, but I did my best. Warning for unrepentant angst here, though, bc I know the person who requested it is a fan. (I couuuuuld be convinced to fix it if you want, though; just let me know.)
This is super off-brand for me omc. Here goes.
Vicious had been awake for a damn good while, listening to Aegis shuffle around with all the grace of a child trying to sneak food from the kitchen for the first time, when the room suddenly fell quiet again. But, he noted, Aegis hadn’t gone back to bed, instead standing by the door in silence that stretched like a spider’s web that shivered when he took a deep breath but didn’t break.
“Aegis,” Vicious grumbled, not opening his eyes, though he grew tense under the blanket, “go back t’ fuckin’ sleep.”
Another breath, this time sharper, like it had gotten caught in his throat (and Vicious couldn’t help remembering just a few hours before, the way that Aegis was open and vulnerable under him in a way that was almost shameless, completely unlike him and yet so delicious that Vicious hadn’t questioned it). But there was nothing else to fill the space between them, no footsteps, no reaching hands, no understanding. And wasn’t that fucking hilarious, because Vicious was pretty sure he knew it was the stupid ex-knight’s stupid guilt finally catching up to him, making him think shit like how he couldn’t be here working with his antithesis--like they were even so different anymore--or maybe how he couldn’t be around the kids--like he wasn’t young enough himself that his life could be a tragedy--for fear of ruining them like those bastards in the palace.
Vicious had fought those battles all before, and if he hadn’t won yet, he wasn’t going to. So he swallowed down the words in his throat, from the most eloquent and cruel argument he could manage to a simple, Don’t leave, and waited until Aegis seemed to assume he was asleep again.
Click. And then steps, disappearing like the trail of a fallen star.
