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[illithidnapped]

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[notathreat]

[Clearly.]

You know what.

[illithidnapped]

[Petulant as a child dragging its heels:]

I'm a vampire, not a mind reader: no, I don't.

[notathreat]

Oh, bullshit--

[Yeah, she sounds pissed.]

Did you think I wouldn't find out?

1/2

[illithidnapped]

2/2

[illithidnapped]

[Strewth.]

...ah. Did she...

[notathreat]

Yeah. She did. And I'm the one who talked to her, so don't get any ideas about fucking around.

[Ellie sounds bitterly angry, and tired, and maybe a shade hurt, though she's trying to ignore that part.]

[illithidnapped]

I didn't— [He cuts himself off with the faintest scoff of indignation: it's difficult to lock horns across the crystals without the benefit of seeing one another. It's even worse to have to do it right on the heels of everything else.]

All I said was for her to leave you alone. That she needed to keep her damned mouth shut, or I'd take matters into my own hands.

[All right, maybe he'd said a little more than that. But still.]

Clearly she didn't listen.

[notathreat]

[She knows why he did it. And hell, she'd probably do the same if the situations were reversed, she could hardly do less, but- fuck, it hurts, and she doesn't know why. And the way he argues it just pisses her off more.]

I didn't need you to fucking- go behind my back to try to protect me.

[Ellie cuts off, and takes a painful breath.

Oh. Oh.

There it is.]

[illithidnapped]

[He can hear her breathing. The way it starts, sharp as anything— and then stops completely, hitching high and harsh, cutting away from anger into—

Into something he recognizes far too easily.

He's careful in the seconds that follow, voice gone entirely feather-light.]

...Ellie?

[notathreat]

Just don't-

[Ellie pauses, shuts her eyes on her side of the crystal's connection, her heart racing, rushing in her ears as she pulls herself back together.]

Don't lie to me.

Not about that.

[illithidnapped]

[The temptation's there, pressed to the edge of his tongue. He could say it was harmless, that he never set out to hurt her, or to do anything but ensure they'd both be on their best behavior.

Instead his fangs grit where they're pressed tight against one another, silence settled so heavily across his shoulders that it almost feels like a shroud.]

All right. [Set down like stone, and just as weighted.]

I won't.

[He doesn't promise. Doesn't swear it. But in his world, oaths and apologies are only ever false flattery. Entirely empty at their core.

So he chooses not lean on them now.]

[notathreat]

[She doesn't miss the lack of a promise, or the heaviness of his words. Just like she didn't miss the way he called her by her name, or the quality of the silence now.

Ellie swallows back the feeling, fights it down, and takes a deep breath. Lets her fingers relax from where they're biting into her palms.]

Okay.

[illithidnapped]

[Okay.

And he takes it as a sign that this is it. This is as far as the both of them can crawl tonight— between his fear and her own, and the exhaustion that it brings, dragging them both down to the barest marrow of themselves.

All he offers is a low sound. A kind of hum in concession. Or finality. Or...whatever this is they're trading off when everything else is done and dusted.]

Goodnight, then, darling.

[A pause, before:]

Sweet dreams.

[notathreat]

Goodnight.

[They both sound wrenched dry. Neither of them have anything left tonight. She's not upset anymore, not really. Not in any way that won't boil off overnight.

Still, she's unlikely to sleep for hours yet, her thoughts a fuzzy static.]

You too. When you get there.