Nicodemo Malaspina (nicodemo) wrote in lightning_war, @ 2008-09-03 01:45:00 |
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Current mood: | angry |
Monday night, 14 September 1942, at Malfoy Manor in Cornwall...
The debriefing session had essentially been over as soon as they’d raised Londinium. Once Yvon and Alessio stepped out of the Floo in the kitchens, it was explicitly over. And after Lucius had finally agreed to go to bed, Yvon, Alessio, Nicodemo and Dracaena were left alone together, drinking coffee and eating pastries, trying hard to stay awake and focused.
Nicodemo got up first and went straight to his brother, cupping the back of his neck and just looking at him, holding him at arm’s length. “You’re all right, it doesn’t hurt? Everything’s sound?”
Alessio nodded, smiling a little. “I can go up and down stairs and everything. I’m okay, really.”
“Do you think I’d have let him leave if he weren’t recovered?” Yvon asked, smiling wryly.
“No,” Nicodemo admitted, ruffling Alessio’s hair affectionately.
Alessio made a little face, trying to smooth it all down. “He just can’t ever take anyone’s word for anything.”
“Apparently they let you leave unrecovered,” Dracaena said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe they let you work.”
Yvon put his arm around Alessio to keep him calm. “We couldn’t just walk away from that mess, Maman. You know that.”
Nico rubbed his jaw for a moment, his expression stony. “You were at death’s door this weekend. And you haven’t been doing much better, Alessio. And so this is your solution to the problem, doing emergency work when there were rescue workers on the way? Did you think they’d just pick you both up when you fell over along with the rest of the wounded?” His voice was curt and clipped. Dracaena frowned, but she took his hand under the table, hoping that if she could keep him centred he wouldn’t blow up.
Yvon sighed heavily. “In case you haven’t noticed, there is absolutely nothing wrong with either of us now, sir. And I have taken vows, even if Alessio hasn’t yet. I’m well aware that I’m no good to anyone if I exceed my limits, but I also think I know them well.”
Dracaena looked up at him sharply; she wasn’t angry, but she wanted to make sure he heard her. “If anything happens to me…you will be a ruling prince, and there will be no queen. Unless Liane has hidden depths, which is not a thing I should like to depend on, given how little we know about her. I should have made that clear before I left for Germany, and Lucius suffered for that. He is too young to rule—he is barely old enough to command at all, and you did not see what it did to him! And Gabrielle is too ambitious, even with St John and Julian looking out for him. Do you understand what this means?”
Yvon bit his lip; Dracaena could see he was biting something back, and she was grateful for the effort he put into it. Finally he just said, “Thanks for the warning, Maman. But you’re not going to be hurt, and you know that. You’re very well protected here and nobody’s going to let anything happen to you.”
“She is very well protected and no, we’re not going to let anything happen to her, but that doesn’t mean you should take foolish risks,” said Nicodemo. “Either one of you.” He couldn’t quite keep from scowling. Didn’t Yvon realise that Alessio would fucking kill himself if anything happened to him?
“It was my job,” said Yvon. “If I’m expected to leave my work behind to be prince full-time, someone needs to tell me that and I need to know why, because this country needs me at my post. I’m one of the foremost experts in emergency, field and intensive healing this country has. I can’t serve in the field any more, but I’m needed at Mungo’s. And so is he.” He glanced at Alessio. “I wasn’t being foolish. We’re not cleared to return to work; I understand that’s why Priscilla sent us back—but if there’s no-one to do it but us, then we can’t refuse.” He got up and looked out of the window, longingly. Sometimes he loved the Bois, which after all had given him life; and sometimes he just felt trapped in it.
Alessio nodded, still quiet and keeping close. It was hard to know what to say when Nico was upset and so was Yvon. “We just wanted to help,” he finally managed.
“I know,” said Dracaena. “But I thought I might lose you both just yesterday. You shouldn’t have been in Londinium when the lightning struck. I know what Luce told you, what I said, but Lavinia told you something else, and she’s the diviner, not him! The diviners have been going mad this week. The royalty of the south, and the royalty of the north, are in danger. That’s why I’m keeping Lucius out of school and why I want you to stay home. Alessio, you’ve dreamed of this!”
Alessio’s cheeks flushed. “They…they were just dreams, fuzzy and I didn’t…I mean, I dreamed about Lucius!” He’d dreamed about Lucius commanding. Maybe the worst was over?
“I know,” said Dracaena, “but you didn’t…you didn’t see what Lavinia Scalara showed me today.” She winced. “The wards over Londinium aren’t supposed to fail like that, and there was a direct hit that only barely missed you both!” She swallowed. “They may have been aiming for you, Yvon. They may have been aiming for Kyteler, too—they got the house right behind his—but they may have been aiming for you!”
Yvon went livid, but he didn’t say anything, only looked down at the floor.
Alessio could feel it and he winced. It was like a wave of heat washing over him: anger and guilt, horrified guilt. He didn’t know if it was his or Yvon’s, but his stomach ached, and he wanted to retch. All of that suffering and destruction, just to get at the two of them? People had died for them and they hadn’t even known. “It…they…you do want us to stay here and not go back to Londinium, don’t you?”
“I’d like that. But I want you to move into the townhouse at Widdershins Court, if you won’t stay here,” said Dracaena, glancing at Nicodemo. “The wards are better and there’s a direct gate home in it, and we finally got that bitch and her elves out of it.”
“We’re not saying you need to be a full-time prince. But you have to take sensible precautions,” Nicodemo continued. “It’s a far sight safer to be in the townhouse for both of you.”
“Fine,” said Yvon, and he meant it; it was better than he had expected. “I don’t mind living in the townhouse. We can even stay here ‘til the end of the week, but we need to be left alone a bit.” He swallowed. “You have no idea how much I hate the idea that what I have just seen was done to get us. As if I didn’t have enough on my conscience! I don’t want anyone else to die so we can be alone, but as much as Lucius missed me and as worried as you’ve been for the last two days, we still have a lot to work out on our own.”
“I don’t know that it was aimed at you,” Dracaena demurred, seeing their faces. “People did know that I was expected to be in Londinium this afternoon…it could have been me, but somehow they knew a Malfoy would be there, whether or not they knew which one. It’s not your fault, caro, but they say the crown is heavy for a reason. You are going to be targets for the rest of this war. Nobody knows why that spell went as wrong as it did, your brother says he didn’t mean to kill you, but he very nearly did. And so. You are targets. As I am. As Lucius is, and even Charis, Domitian, Liane.”
“I have to sit down,” said Yvon. He felt ill. Alessio didn’t need to be told twice, immediately pulling the chair out for Yvon to sit down, frowning in concern. Yvon slumped into it, burying his face in his hands. “I never wanted to be prince.”
Dracaena sighed. “When I was your age, I didn’t even want to be here. I wanted to sing in the opera and be a condottiero’s woman. At least it is something constructive that you want to do! But I was still prince, and now you are, and I am so sorry for that.” She meant it, just as she’d meant it when she’d told Lucius she was sorry for what had fallen on his head that day. But her sorrow at both of those things changed nothing.
Alessio stroked Yvon’s arm, trying to soothe him. There was nothing he could say. He’d wanted the big destiny, and every time he turned around, he was confronted with new reasons to wonder why. Yvon looked up at him and managed half a smile. “I can bear it,” he said. “But only with you at my side.”
“I’m never going anywhere else,” Alessio promised in a whisper.
Yvon took his hand and squeezed it, hard. “Mine.” He looked up at Dracaena. “Nicodemo was only a child then. How did you do it?”
“Badly,” said Dracaena. “I was a disaster, which is why I met so much resistance upon my return.”
Nicodemo kissed her temple gently. He didn’t think there was anything he could say about this, about being sacred royalty. Sometimes, he knew his own limitations.
Dracaena looked at him fondly, then turned back to her boys. “Yvon Tielman, where is your cloak?”
“It burned with Nicodemo’s flat. That’s where we were, when it hit,” Yvon said quietly. “You see I’m not quite fool enough to take him to a public house.”
Nico frowned at Alessio, who ducked his head. “It was safer, you have to admit that, I mean, it could’ve been so much worse,” Alessio tried to explain.
Yvon sighed. “Alessio, don’t. It is not our fault that Grindelwald throws lightning around even if it is at us, she’s right.”
Alessio nodded and quieted.
Nicodemo rubbed his face, shaking his head. Of course they’d gone there. It felt like Yvon had been making a point, having Alessio there, but there was no point in fighting about it. Everyone being home and safe was the important part, and he managed to tell himself that without grinding his teeth. “Well, it’s a good thing I don’t plan on using that flat again, I suppose.”
“I wish I’d known you were contemplating that,” said Dracaena, sighing heavily. “I would have told you that Charteris has had people in and out of there for quite some time; Teresa Silveira told us about it. Fortunately we have come to a sort of accommodation with him.” She frowned, though. She still didn’t like it.
“Him?” Yvon made a face. “I don’t see how you can deny that Charteris might have done something to affect you,” he told Nicodemo. “As important as I am, she’s more so, and nobody’s closer to her.”
Nico sighed. “I don’t think they have, I don’t think they’d be that foolish. It would be foolish and obvious and dangerous. And they don’t do obvious.”
Yvon went red again, took a deep breath, and sighed. “Sir,” he said softly, “you had best hope you’re right. Because if you continue to put off being seen, or you refuse entirely, and you hurt either Maman or Alessio as a result of something they’ve done to you? Best hope it does for you. Because otherwise I might.”
Dracaena made a strangled noise at him, and the scent of burnt honey surrounded her. Yvon just looked at her, silver-eyed and calm.
Nicodemo glanced at her nervously. That scent sent a shudder down his spine and set his teeth on edge. “I’m going to go,” he said quietly, looking back at Yvon. “But I still think you’re wrong.”
“Fine,” said Yvon pleasantly. “This will allow you the pleasure of getting a clean bill of health and rubbing my nose in it. I will permit you to give me as much shite as you like over this, provided I know that the people we two love best in the world are safe.” He glanced up at Alessio, smiled, and then continued: “If you want, you can go to Laurens. Then I’ll get double rations, I’m sure.”
“As tempting as that might be, the thought of spending more time with him than strictly necessary is not an appealing one,” Nicodemo said, scowling.
“Fine,” said Yvon. “Miranda and Yang are probably better with this sort of thing, anyway. I could do it myself, but after the experience I had with Portia, I’m disinclined to make that attempt.”
“No offence, but I don’t particularly want you poking around in my head,” Nicodemo said, and he managed not to be biting about it.
“No offence, but it’s mutual,” said Yvon.
“None taken,” Nicodemo replied. “But I’d like to speak to you privately.”
Dracaena’s eyes widened and she began to object, but Yvon stood up. “Fine,” he said, leaning over to kiss Alessio’s cheek. He followed Nicodemo out of the room. Once they were several doors down, he waited for Nicodemo to cast the Silencio and then looked up at him, arms crossed across his chest. “So. You’re going to keep looking at me like that till the end of days if you don’t say whatever it is you keep wanting to say. Fine. I’ll listen.” Yvon shrugged. “Just don’t say it in front of Maman or Alessio. They always get hurt when we f—when we argue,” he finally corrected himself.
Nicodemo sighed softly and resisted, somehow, the urge to grind his teeth. “We’re not going to argue in front of them, no.”
“Are we going to argue? Is there something we need to argue about?” Yvon asked, with a casual toss of his head to get his hair back out of his eyes. “There are a lot of things I’m sorry for. He knows it, too. I don’t particularly want to discuss them with you. Do you really want me to?”
“I really don’t want the intimate details of your personal lives, but I appreciate the offer,” Nico said dryly, then he looked at Yvon for a moment, as if taking his measure, his jaw set. “I just want to make sure you and I are clear on a basic fact. If the same sort of nonsense goes on this time that it did the first time, if you hurt him, I don’t care what rules of hospitality I break or curses come down on my head, I will take it out on your hide and that’s the end of it.”
Yvon looked at him. “You know, the only thing that bothers me about that is the implication that you care more about Alessio than you do about Maman,” he said quietly. “I can’t promise you that this is going to work because frankly, I am not the only person who has a say in how it works out. But I can promise you that I won’t make the same mistakes I made before, because I’m not an idiot.”
Nicodemo arched an eyebrow. “You would manage to pull that interpretation from the statement, wouldn’t you? I know you can’t promise it’s going to work. I’m not an idiot. I just don’t want to see this same song and dance happen all over again in a couple of years.”
Yvon groaned. “Look, Nicodemo, that’s not going to happen, but you’re not the only one who’s concerned. For all my faults I never made him watch me marry someone else, nor did I ever marry anyone and treat her like a potted plant, nor did he ever find out who my lovers were from the papers or paid detectives. I made some terrible mistakes, but so did you. You’re worried about him? I’m worried about her. She gave me a home when I had nothing. She’s the only mother I ever had.”
“Do you want me to flinch and apologise? Swear that I’ll do better? Grovel a bit, perhaps? The person who needs to forgive me has done that. Whether or not you deign to do so really doesn’t bother me one way or another. My brother cares about your opinion. I personally don’t, which I suppose might come as a shock to you,” Nico told him coolly.
“One of the people who needs to forgive you has done so; the other, who is my friend, is in no position to. It might come as a surprise to you that I feel exactly the same way; the person who needs to forgive me has done so.” Yvon shrugged. “Clearly neither one of us is satisfied. I can’t imagine that it has been any less painful for you to see what I put him through than it was for me to take my mother to your wedding to my best friend.” He took a deep breath. “I almost stood up and objected. I still wish I had.”
The corner of Nico’s mouth twitched. “That…might’ve turned out to have been for the best for everyone,” he admitted after a long moment.
“I couldn’t figure out what I should say. Or if they’d listen. And Lala Parkinson scares the shite out of me. And Lucius was there, which I suppose is why I didn’t, but…it’s no excuse,” said Yvon, his cheeks dark red. “I think we’re even. You have no idea how sorry I am that I hurt him the way that I did. I was out of my fucking mind at the end of the war and when they left me, I was furious with both of them but even angrier with myself.” He swallowed. “Is that what you wanted to hear? Because that’s the kind of thing I want to hear.”
Nicodemo nodded, looking away from Yvon’s face. “We should’ve owned up to everything. Kept working to free Ercole but been honest about what was going on between us. And I picked Portia for the wrong reasons. Mostly because I was very, very sure that she would goad Dracaena into stopping me. When that didn’t happen…I wasn’t going to humiliate her and cast her aside. I thought I could serve her ambitions and her mine. It was a bad choice, and I owe her for it.”
“You have no idea how relieved I am that you’re doing the right thing now,” Yvon said quietly. “I just want her to be happy. And…I worry about you and Alessio. If you’re jealous of me. He told me something. Or rather I figured it out and he didn’t deny it. We don’t have to talk about it. I know it won’t happen again. I just want to know you don’t want it to.”
“No,” Nicodemo said firmly. “Never again.” He sighed. “I just don’t want to see bruises on my brother ever again.”
“Good,” said Yvon, and glanced away for a moment. “It’s no excuse, but Alessio started those fights, and he left his share of marks on me. Unless…” His voice trailed off. “I don’t know how to explain this. Or even if I should. But the way that you look at us sometimes, there’s something you need to know. I am not like Ercole. I don’t…” He sighed, and shook his head. “I don’t know how to explain this, without telling you more than I want to say and more than you want to know. But except for that horrible year right after the war, most of the marks I left on Alessio were wholly consensual.”
Nicodemo rubbed the back of his neck, equally uncomfortable. “I think I understand what you’re getting at.” He knew that Alessio wasn’t Dracaena, and liked the games that Yvon liked to play much better than Dracaena had liked some of Ercole’s games.
Yvon frowned. “Alessio likes things the way they are,” he finally said. “And really, no matter who he was with, it would be that way, or it wouldn’t last. I suspect Valeria might be a lot worse than I am, eventually.”
“Well, she’s sixteen and quite possibly my daughter, which means she might have inherited my overbearing tendencies,” Nicodemo admitted quietly. “I just want you to be good to him.”
“Then we want the same thing,” said Yvon. “I want to be good to him.”
“We do, then,” Nico said with a nod.
“I also want you to know that while I do take full responsibility for every mistake I did make,” Yvon said softly, “we were manipulated, and Alessio made some mistakes of his own. He knows that, even if you don’t.”
“I know he made mistakes,” Nicodemo bristled. “I’m not that oblivious.”
Yvon nodded. “We all have.”
“Yes. Yes, we all have,” Nicodemo agreed.
“So are we going to be able to get along? Because I think Maman and Alessio would probably like that.” Yvon leaned back against the wall.
“I suppose we can manage civil at least,” Nico said, a touch of humour in his voice.
“We wouldn’t want to frighten them by suddenly being overly friendly,” Yvon said, with a sly half-smile.
Nicodemo chuckled. “They’d assume we were possessed.”
“No, the Ziteks are busy tonight,” Yvon said dryly.
When they returned to the room, Dracaena and Alessio were having a good-natured argument, which appeared to be about Jameson Wilkes. “That Wilkes must be useless,” Dracaena said, frowning. “You don’t do well under his tutelage.”
Alessio’s cheeks flushed and he ducked his head a little. Nico just touched one fondly and resumed his place next to Dracaena. Yvon sighed. “Wilkes’ whole work is predicated on acceptance.”
“What kind of healer works from acceptance?” Dracaena grumbled.
“His cases are different, it’s just…different,” Alessio protested softly.
“Quite,” said Yvon. “It’s a different approach. I fight for things. There are cases that just doesn’t work for, but…they really aren’t the ones you are best at, Alessio.”
“We can’t save everyone,” Alessio said. It was awkward to talk about James and the work he’d done with him, as if it all weren’t good enough, especially with Nico around.
Yvon took a deep breath. “But that’s the thing about you. You always did before.” He tipped up Alessio’s chin. And you know you can, now, don’t you? “We’ll talk about it later.”
Alessio nodded wordlessly. Yvon started to lean forward to kiss him, but Dracaena and Nicodemo were watching them too intently. After a moment, he said, very softly, “I hope you weren’t too attached to the flat, Nicodemo.”
“Of course not,” said Dracaena. “You need to get warmed up, have a nice hot bath and some supper.”
Nicodemo still wanted to ask what on earth they’d been doing there, the words on the tip of his tongue, but the answer was far, far too obvious, and he really didn’t need to hear whatever smart retort Yvon would have for it. So he just shook his head. “So long as everyone’s all right, that’s the important part.”
“We’re fine,” said Yvon. “Aren’t we, Alessio?”
Alessio nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” said Yvon.
Nicodemo shook his head again. The peace in the room was fragile and they needed all of the peace they could get. “It’s fine. Go get cleaned up and dried off.”
“For the flat and everything, I mean…” Alessio started, then let the thought drift and die. Getting a hot bath sounded better than trying to explain.
“Alessio…we didn’t set the fire,” Yvon said gently.
“No, you didn’t. Yvon’s right,” Nicodemo agreed. “It’s fine, I told you. Don’t apologise any more.”
Yvon smiled at him. “Come on, love.”
Alessio nodded and took Yvon’s hand, managing a little smile in return. “Okay.”
Dracaena sighed and watched them leave. “Oh, boys,” she said wearily. “I was worried, but I shouldn’t have…at least not so much.”
Gently, Nico rubbed her arm. “It’s just good to see him walking again.”
“Both of them?” Dracaena said, hopefully. “I was so afraid I was going to lose him…”
“Both of them,” Nicodemo agreed.
Dracaena slumped against him, clinging. “My babies.”
“I know,” Nicodemo murmured soothingly. “They’re all right. Or they will be.”
“You fell in love with me because of Alessio,” Dracaena whispered, smiling a little.
“I did, I remember how good you were to him and how he took to you. I just…knew. If anyone could care for my little brother that much, I couldn’t help but fall in love,” Nicodemo replied, smiling back at her.
“Although I don’t think buzzing you on my broom hurt my case,” Dracaena said, a little more cheerfully. “We were such kids then. After the war I had to learn how to be a girl all over again. And you let me.”
“We were all young once,” Nicodemo said gently. “Feels like ages ago, sometimes.” He kissed her hand. “Lucius is still young. A little older after today. But I swear he’ll be buzzing his friends on that broom of his within days.”
“For me it comes and goes,” Dracaena said, nodding. “I felt so old when I was fifteen, and then when I was thirty and you were sixteen, I felt younger than ever. I’m sure I’ll feel young again when the babies come due but right now all my children are grown and there’s so much work to be done…”
“We’ll get it done. And I’ll take care of you,” Nicodemo promised her, kissing her temple. “I promise.”
“I know you will,” said Dracaena, and looked up at him, smiling. “But Lucius…”
“I don’t like the idea of sending him back to that school,” Nicodemo admitted. “But I don’t know what kind of options we have on that front.”
“Keep him home till we get it closed, like we’re doing with Ximena,” Dracaena said promptly.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Nicodemo replied with a little nod.
“He’s my heir. There’s only one of me. There are three adults and three children in my lineage, unless you count Charis and Liane as adults, and only one of us is breeding. And Domitian is treacherous.” Dracaena sighed. “I know he misses his friends but if Yvon will just stay here a while…”
“We’ll work on it,” Nicodemo told her, gathering her up into his arms. “Alessio might be the key to that lock, keeping Yvon put, we’ll work on it.”
“If Yvon stays then Luce will stay,” said Dracaena, laughing as she felt her feet come off the floor. She wished, just for a moment, that Nico would open the window and fly her right up to the room they were still sharing—avoiding the master bedroom. But it was nice being carried upstairs.
Nicodemo laughed a little. “Then we’ll get Yvon to stay. Somehow. And after that, I’m sure winning peace in Europe will be easy.”
“I love you,” said Dracaena, and rested her head on his shoulder.
Nicodemo grinned at her. “Good thing, because I am utterly in love with you.”
alessio, artisson, dracaena and nicodemo