Alexandria "Circe" Wilkes-Gibbon (ophic_bloodlust) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-08-18 22:40:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-07-23 |
There are mofoing snakes on this mofoing plane!
Who: Antonin/Circe
Where: Hospital > Home
What: HEY LOOK REUNION TIME!
Scarlet Oak wasn’t Antonin’s favorite place. Sure there were interesting things and plenty of vampires to keep his skills honed in on, but it was missing a lot of things from home. Like home itself. The environment and the pubs and most importantly of all, it was missing her. Antonin had done alright with not thinking about the things that he had left behind to basically follow Zaviar but it got remarkably hard with time. He even lost his desire to play with his knife because even that had become attached to her. Nothing seemed quite as fun with her gone and more than once Zaviar had remarked that he needed to cheer up because he wasn’t as interesting when he sulked. Antonin had insisted he wasn’t sulking.
Not that it mattered because he’d received the best news ever - Circe had finally gotten the offer to come work in the states, in Ann Arbor, and she was actually there. Antonin wished he’d been able to go greet her when she arrived but work had been far too busy with all of the killings so he’d needed to wait. But this afternoon he was free and he’d wasted no time driving to the hospital. “Where’s Dr. Wilkes work?” he asked the first nurse that he saw, getting a strange look in return. His charming grin had come out and he’d corrected himself quickly, “Dr. Wilkes-Gibbon then, if that’s any better for you.” Thanking her for the answer he’d gone off in search of Circe, stopping when he saw an all too familiar gait down a hallway. Someone who looked like she wasn’t used to walking.
Most people who knew Circe, or Alexandria if she was going by that here, wouldn’t even dare to do exactly what was going through Antonin’s head. But he wasn’t most people and before he could stop to think he had stepped forward and slid his hands around her waist. “Who’d have ever thought I’d find a snake tending to the Yanks,” he laughed quietly, breathing in the scent that was her underneath the clinging ones of the environment. “Haven’t eaten any have you?”
Circe worked mostly in a laboratory, studying blood specimens under a microscope and making notes. She saw patients once in a while, those who knew she was working quietly to help their species. Today, however, she was assigned to work under another doctor and got turned into the grunt, running errands and silly things like that. It made her bristle angrily because she did not like walking...and she was kind of hungry. It was difficult to pass by the nursery without desiring to devour one of the quiet little things in the cribs. She had plans, though...but she should wait lest they begin investigating her.
Hands in the pockets of her lab gown, she stood outside a patient’s room, waiting for one of the humans in her list of today’s visits to die or at least do something interesting. All her visits so far had been checking blood pressure and bowel movements. That was excessively boring and there was nothing to do but sit here until she actually had to go check on Mr. Wallace or...Wallis. One or the other, whatever. Inconsequential little humanoid things she didn’t care about. She was here to take care of other lamiae, not wipe human noses. She sighed before she started walking again...to get attacked.
Her first instinct was to grab the knife in her pocket and slide it out but she stopped right before she stabbed him when she realized who it was. Her left hand raised to touch his cheek as her right slid the knife back into her pocket. She turned her head so she could press her cheek against his face. “Hmmm,” she smiled. “Only two...and they were pretty old,” she teased. “How did you know I was here? Did you read my mind from several miles away?” She was joking, of course. After that initial meeting, she had allowed Antonin into her mind once in a while, very rarely, when she chose to actively open her mind to him. But she never really wanted to have him constantly listening in. “I told you I was learning to take care of my own. What are you doing here?”
Seeing the flash of a blade, Antonin fully expected to feel that bite into his flesh and was surprised when it didn’t. Someone seemed to be in a good mood and he wasn’t going to complain when she wasn’t even attempting to pull away, pressing more into him instead. Either she’d mellowed or she was just as glad to see him as he was her, but he wasn’t going to look into her thoughts to find out. That was a lesson he’d learned years ago and he didn’t particularly feel like having it retaught.
“I’m sad that you did it without me around, you know that’s my favorite thing,” Antonin mock-sulked. “I’m here because they had a job for me, and Zaviar came here... you know.” They’d all fallen under some strange sort of spell almost and he couldn’t help but want to be close enough to the other man to at least know what he was doing, maybe even help. He could prove to be valuable. “Plus this was the area nearest a hospital and I knew that you wouldn’t want to be somewhere without one. Couldn’t just leave and not think about how to get you here with me.” Impossible thought. Those rings she wore didn’t mark her as his, but they both knew so much better. Gibbon was just something that had to be put up with. He hadn’t said exactly how he knew that she’d be here, that’d be giving away all he’d done, but either she’d figure it out or ask again. He was a bit busy smiling against her cheek before kissing it lightly.
“But bloody hell I’ve missed you, Circe.”
There were switches in Circe’s brain that no one had the access to, not even her. Lucidity and insanity were separated by a fine line that had no clear trigger. By the nature of her madness, the sterility and safety of the hospital often kept her in line and good with patients, though she’s been known to delight in the strangest of cases. Needles still give her cause to start but as long as they are not approaching her skin, she manages to keep her calm and even use them on others. Especially use them on others. And, the one other thing that helped...though not quite as reliably so was Antonin. Nevertheless, most often she was in both worlds, dancing on both sides.
She let him kiss her cheek before she turned around to face him, pressing her forehead against his. She wrapped her hands behind his neck and laughed without context. “Yes, you followed your other little snake, the one you love more,” her voice was the steely one of her temporary lapse into the darkness. “Does he still play with fire?” A teasing lilt. She kissed him, lips crushing onto his. And then she bit down on his lower lip - hard enough to draw blood. “You disappeared. You left me,” her tone was still steel. She hissed into his face before a calm composure settled back over her features.
“I’m working right now,” she said with a gentle smile, as if nothing strange or out of the ordinary had happened. The blood on Antonin’s lips was ignored as she giggled - actually giggled - before turning around and walking down the hall. “You should be quiet...Mr. Wallis could die any second.” A beat. “You want to watch?” she smiled before she floated down the hall. Well, as well as anyone who didn’t like their legs could float at least. He had missed her, he said. She didn’t respond just yet. She stopped in front of her patient’s room and double-checked the name and attending doctor. She didn’t take a look at Antonin before waltzing into the room.
Wincing only a little at the tone in Circe’s voice, Antonin was nonetheless hard pressed to keep a grin off his face when he felt her lips and teeth against his lower lip. A few drops of blood was nothing, the back of his hand came up to wipe them away as he waited for her to finish her accusation. “Madeleine’s here too, so he’ll always play with fire,” he replied to that first, a safer ground that wouldn’t set off some switch most likely. “And you know I don’t love him more, don’t say things like that, it’s upsetting.” Just admiration and respect and all of that. She knew that. Not that she’d have much room to talk because unlike him she had gone and married someone else. Antonin was still not sure if he had fully forgiven that or just didn’t care. Probably the second. A little ache came from his lip where her teeth had gone through but it was ignored, just a small thing.
His pale eyes went to the man in the bed of the room she’d slipped into and her flipped his wrist dismissively before folding his arms over his chest and sinking into one of the chairs nearby. Just because she was working it didn’t mean he was going anywhere. He’d come to see her and dispell those terrible thoughts she had that he’d just left her. As though he could. If he didn’t love her and know that she danced a line between sane and insane then he would have remarked on how she’d left him first, in a way. Those damned rings. “I was hardly gone a few months. And you know,” here he paused, smile back on his face because he couldn’t help it. Circe was right there, finally, and smiling was impossible to keep from doing around her. And again, she was working but he couldn’t help himself and he was out of the chair and at her side, fingers touching the smoothness of her face. “And I spent the whole time finding a way to get you here. You know, offers like yours don’t grow on trees but it’s so easy to blackmail doctors with my talents.” A smirk now and he shrugged. “You’re welcome.”
Circe picked the man’s chart up and read quickly to refresh her memory. She recited out loud for Antonin’s benefit (and amusement). “Vargo, oh, Walzer came in four months ago to have an aneurysm removed, did not wake up after surgery, body functions relatively normal though comatose,” she finished, dropping the chart back into place. She sat next to Mr. Walzer and checked both his eyes (unresponsive), his heart monitor (erratic, but normal for him) and his catheter (empty). He had one niece as his next of kin who lived four towns away and faxed the hospital a DNR form. He was sixty-one and no one would care if he lived or died. Circe turned to look at Antonin who sat by the door before she turned around and switched his heart monitor alarm off.
She pinched the IV that led into his arm, leaving a small gap of air in the stream. Taking out a vial she had been carrying in her pocket, she showed it to Antonin as he came up to her. “A nice little Beaked Sea Snake only this tall,” she gestured somewhere about her stomach as she leaned against Antonin. “She came to pay a visit with her mother...little thing had a toothache. I told her to go to the dentist but to keep her fangs out of the way...though not before she had given me a little sample to prepare antivenin with. She took out a sterile syringe from the box kept by Mr. Walzer’s bed. “I won’t need all of it.”
The poison went into Mr. Walzer and Circe watched with faint amusement as it seeped into his blood stream. The convulsion was involuntary, muscle spasms beyond his actual conscious control. Circe pressed the button on the wall that led to the nurse’s station. “Mr. Walzer in 5642 is having a seizure. He is DNR; do not send a team. I will stay with him until his last breath and sign a certificate if necessary.” It was quick, considering the amount Circe had shoved up his arm. She picked his chart back up. “Time of death: 4:31 P.M. Cause of death...cardiac arrest.” She dropped his chart at the foot of his bed as she walked up to Antonin and snaked her arms back around his neck. “You’re welcome,” she smiled.
While Antonin didn’t give a damn about this man or his vitals, he did listen to what Circe was saying. And it suddenly got interesting when he figured out that she intended on killing him. Oh yes, that was his Circe, always doing things she shouldn’t be. Not that he was going to object and he didn’t say anything as she prepared to do her little deed. Though knowing that Scarlet Oak, or at least the nearby area since this hospital provided service for so many, had a population of lamia that knew about and made use of Circe and her skills was good. Meant that maybe she was able to keep from getting bored too often.
The feeling of death in the room, no matter how recent, was something that Antonin doubted he would ever stop appreciating. It was simply one of those wonderful things that he didn’t see the sadness in. Oh yes if someone he cared about died there would be a problem but that wouldn’t happen. Not before he did. That was one of his benefits, the short lifespan. “What a lovely present,” he chuckled as he slid his arms back around her waist. It was a familiar gesture in several ways and one of the reasons he always did it was because he knew how little she liked standing on her legs. He didn’t like making her, not when they bothered her so. That and he knew she liked touching him right now or else she wouldn’t have come so close.
“Did my little snake miss me?” he asked, kissing the tip of her nose. He knew the answer, or suspected he knew, but he wanted to hear it. Some things were just nice to hear out loud.
She pressed her face into his shoulder, breathing in the scent of him. Of course, she didn’t smell like most people, but she wasn’t quite in the mood to lick him...and seemed inappropriate at her place of work, though the idea of Mr. Walzer observing was somewhat intriguing. She let him press her against him because it took a lot of weight off her legs and was comfortable for many reasons. She adored her necromancer. Pulling back, she touched the side of his face and sought out his eyes. She pressed her forehead against his and found her peace in his blue eyes.
Circe laughed as his kiss tickled the tip of her nose. She twitched it a little before coyly responding, “I don’t know~ Why don’t you ask him?” she responded. Zaviar was a were cobra, which made him a little more than awesome in Circe’s book, but still not quite as awesome as if he were a lamia. She called him Antonin’s little snake at times to spite him. She curled her fingers in his hair, just touching and feeling and remembering what he felt like. “Hmmm,” she breathed against his cheek. “My Antonin.” A strange shiver ran down her spine as she said the words, the rings around her finger feeling as if they were tightening around her.
It was hard to say what part of the world Antonin loved most, but he knew it all boiled down to the woman against him. Maybe most of all when she looked at him like that and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was stable in that moment and there with him. Just with him. He didn’t have to ask to know that her eyes didn’t calm or her body relax with Ulysses. She probably also didn’t tease him about other people. Antonin didn’t fully understand why Circe could be so spiteful about Zaviar, though he got some of the reasons, but he accepted it. Because otherwise it’d be a topic to argue over and he didn’t like those. He preferred smiling and getting her to laugh with instead of at him.
“Yes,” he agreed when she called him hers. He was, through and through, and they both knew it. He didn’t know when exactly it’d become true but that didn’t matter so much. It was wonderful to feel her touch again, one his face and in his hair, something he’d never managed to get enough of. “Yours first, Circe, and most. That’s why I got you here... away from him.” Antonin wasn’t even a little secretive about his contempt for Ulysses and the marriage that he didn’t understand, didn’t want to at that. “Just us like it should have been.” He could’ve been happy like that, though he was happy with what he had. Antonin was easy to please like that. Turning his head just a little he brushed his lips against hers several times, fluttering kisses he had always found amusing. “Did my Circe miss me?” Yes, he needed that answered and would continue asking until it was. Stubborn was another trait that popped up sometimes.
She smiled widely when he affirmed that he loved her more than Zaviar. It isn’t entirely clear why she was the one who was insecure about the strength of his commitment when she was the one who was married to someone else. Nevertheless, the fear was still strong within her that he would leave or die and then she’d have to go back to Ulysses. The thought brought back the burning sensations in her veins and she dug her fingers into his shoulders as the memory coursed through her body. She pressed her cheek into his shoulder. “Just us,” she agreed as the phantom pain abated. “Just us.”
Circe raised her head to look at him and let him kiss her. His teasing little butterfly kisses. An almost childish giggle escaped from her lips when he stopped to ask a question. She smirked a little and turned her nose up haughtily. “Yours?” she asked petulantly. “Hm! Am I really? When you simply up and left me in London?” She wriggled free of his grasp as she walked around the dead man’s bed, putting some space between her and Antonin. She wasn’t upset. She didn’t really even know how to feel properly upset anymore. She was teasing...for the most part. “Where are you staying now?” she asked, looking at the dead body between them. A beat. “When’s the last time you raised someone?” Circe had read that necromancers needed to practice regularly or bad things happened. She had never been concerned for Antonin because he was fond of his powers...but once in a while she checked. Just to be safe. Could have been the doctor in her...could have been the lover.
He didn’t know what she was thinking, but feeling Circe press into him caused Antonin’s grasp to tighten almost automatically. As though he sensed her discomfort and wanted to keep whatever it was from bothering her. Though he sighed and ruffled his hair when she slipped free again and put the bed between them. “I explained that,” he said patiently. Trying to stay patient. She didn’t seem to want to let that go and it seemed such a minor thing to him. If there was anything in their relationship that should be a sticking point then it was the part where she was married and it definitely wasn’t to him. “You left me first,” he reminded her in a very quiet voice, his serious voice, the one he didn’t use with her often. If there was a reason to question whether she belonged to him then it was those damned rings she was wearing.
Feeling almost petulant, Antonin crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged. “Just the other day, there’s plenty of things to play with here.” A nice cemetery, people always dying from this or that and dozens upon dozens of vampires to play with. Sure that meant possibly risking their ire but it was kind of funny to rile them up, okay really funny. “And I’m staying at Zaviar’s because it’s cheap, I’ve got my own room and it means I don’t have to hide any of my powers. He doesn’t care if I play with a dead dog in the backyard. Which was just a couple of nights ago, so you don’t have to worry about me keeping up on my practice.” It was better before she went and pulled away, he’d never understand why she had to do things like that. “Do we really have to argue about anything right now? I thought you’d be happy to see me, not nitpicking. Come back over here already.”
Circe pressed her palms against the wall behind her to maintain her balance. She curled her left hand into a fist when he accused her of leaving him first, which wasn’t exactly true. She was confused at the time. Very much so. There had been chemistry, of which there was no doubt, but he had been distant as well. He had never pursued her in the manner she expected...and her mother had been wary of the match because he was not a lamia...and she was looking forward to little lamiae grandsnakelings. Nevertheless, when Ulysses had appeared out of nowhere and had wooed her the way she expected to be wooed and the bones had said yes and, of course, his eyes...it had taken Circe a long time to realize that while the color was the same, the love in Ulysses’ and in Antonin’s eyes had been two very different loves.
When he crossed his arms and told her that he was staying with Zaviar, she couldn’t quite control a rather loud hiss as she displayed her disapproval. Another person with a much broader sense of the world and of self would have realized that they were being completely unfair, but for Circe, there existed a much narrower scope. She glared at Antonin until his next few words about how he’d rather not be arguing cut to the quick and the marble of her face broke as she tried to control her emotions. Her beeper went off as someone in the hospital needed something but she simply ignored it as she looked at him with big eyes and worried her lower lip.
He’d known the effect that his accusation would have and yet he’d said it anyhow, unable to help himself. He didn’t want to admit that it still stung to think about or that it bothered him that she’d stick to his wrong doings and not admit her own. So he pushed those aside and allowed himself to be amused at her hiss. Antonin had always thought that at least Circe got along with Zaviar, forever underestimating her jealousy. Undeserved jealousy. If she was going to be jealous of something then it should be the women he’d gone to when she wasn’t around - oh wait, she probably just bit those. Not that Antonin was going to bring that up, not now, it didn’t matter.
But then her mask broke and she started biting at her lip. Antonin had told her to come across the room but before he realized he was moving he’d gone around the bed to her, taking her right back into his arms. “I’m sorry I said that,” he apologized, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “But you’re accusing me and I really did all I could... I haven’t enjoyed being away from you, Circe, please don’t stay mad.” Pulling back he offered a smile that reached his eyes. “You know you want to let me make you smile.”
If she could have, she would have cried but Circe’s tear ducts had dried up a long time ago. She hadn’t cried since after her third year with Ulysses, when he had finally figured out that she was cheating on him and had hurt her to the point where he had nearly drowned her. In Circe’s mind, she was still married to Ulysses, which was why she still wore his rings. It didn’t mean much to her in her day-to-day life, but she had promised to have and to hold until death parted them...and promises were something of a very big deal with Circe. Especially big, ol’ official ones made in churches, while she tried not to cry from the holy water the priest had sprinkled on the rings or from the presence of so many holy objects around her, suffocating her. Even her mother and brother had refused to attend, so it had simply been Ulysses and her, along with two witnesses in the tiniest chapel in the church.
Antonin’s arms went around her and she merely tucked her arms in and let him hold her. Sometimes she was pathetically fragile and right now she felt like she could break with the slightest gust of wind. She let him kiss her forehead and listened as he spoke, but the damage had been done and her mind had wandered off. “Yes,” she agreed, smiling slyly as she spoke. “Yes, yes, make me smile. A curve on my lips painted on,” she said, the steel edge back in her voice. She rose to her tippy toes and pressed her face against his cheek, breathing in his scent before she licked the side of his face. “Taste of death,” she muttered incoherently. “If the living taste of death, what do the dead taste like?” she asked, glaze over her eyes that saw him and everything beyond.
And she was gone. Antonin knew it the moment he saw that look on her face and only practice kept him from sighing at the realization, kept the look off his own face that wouldn’t help anything. He really did know better than to press any of her buttons. Fierce as she had once been and could still be there was always that risk that something would tumble wrong and she’d break. Antonin disliked a lot of things but there weren’t very many that he hated, but one of those things was Ulysses for what he had done to her. Yes, Circe had married him, but he’d still done it and Antonin couldn’t stand that knowledge. Of course he still loved her as much as ever but that didn’t mean he stopped wishing she was as she’d been before. More stable.
“Only the living like me, and we taste like the dead so they taste like us.” Not like there were a whole lot of necromancers out there in the world. Antonin was fine with that, he liked being unique. Carefully, moving slowly just so that she didn’t startle, Antonin freed one arm - wasn’t like she weighed too much for him to hold just that way - and stroked the sight of her face. “Circe,” a whisper and her kissed the side of her face before saying it again, this time kissing the other side. He doubted that she’d come back after that but he’d try for a little bit, see how she reacted and if he got injured for his troubles. Nothing would really surprise him at this point.
Antonin kissed her cheeks, which some part of her enjoyed and made her heart beat a little faster, but this side of her was reacting to muscle memory and the responses of her subconscious as opposed to more conscious decisions. She turned her head around and tasted the air. “Tastes like death,” she repeated, as she turned to look at the dead body that was slowly rotting. “Let’s get out of here,” she told him, tugging his hand almost playfully, pulling him towards the door. Circe’s shift wasn’t really scheduled to end for another four or five hours, but she was in no position to heal and taking care of a bunch of sick humans was the last thing on her mind right now.
She led him outside of the room and away from the nurse’s station, where two male nurses were preparing to take a body to the morgue and another was looking for an errant intern, who was not responding to her pages. Dragging him along, she made way for the stairs at the end of the hallway, which was an interesting choice for the girl who could hardly walk along a flat surface. “Quickly now, time is ticking and we must get there before the time runs out,” she told him, steel and joy clashing in her voice. She turned to look at him. “They’re waiting on the other side. For us. Hurry, we have to get there.”
Once again Antonin didn’t allow himself to sigh. The sights and smells associated with death were things he was more than familiar with, he lived for them. They meant that the world was still going the right way and he still had things to play with. Sure there was nothing wrong with killing some here and there but it was so much more convenient when it was already done for you. He wasn’t going to object to leaving the hospital though, especially with Circe like this and him probably not even supposed to be there. Didn’t really matter to him, he had ways of getting out of things, but still. Better to be out and with just Circe than with a bunch of others.
“And where it is we’re going, love?” Antonin asked, tone laced with the patience of someone used to dealings with people who weren’t all there. Not that he was himself but he didn’t have to deal with his crazy moments, just Circe’s. He wouldn’t have tolerated anyone else’s. “You can’t be hurrying us towards that other side, we’re too young for that and I’d miss you over there.” Because he’d be dying first, no question in his mind. Everything he’d ever read or heard pointed towards a short lifespan no matter how much he practiced and he’d yet to find a cure for that. And, as he’d teased Circe a long time ago, she wouldn’t know how to fix it. “Wherever it is you won’t be much use fallen down the stairs, don’t trip.” Last thing they needed was for her to break a leg or a hip, and she probably would if she fell down.
She pushed the door open and stood on the landing. She looked up at the floors above them before returning her attention to Antonin. She shook her head, “You’re already headed there,” she told him, stepping up to him and cupping his face in her hands. “You can’t go without me,” Circe complained, eyes wide and seeing for miles. “No, no, no~” she sang. “We’ll go together. Because you won’t leave me. You won’t. You wouldn’t,” the last statement almost sounded like a threat, but who knew what Circe was really trying to say in that moment? It was difficult for anyone to understand and the speaker herself was out of touch with her own brain, so she couldn’t tell you either.
Tracing the contour of the side of Antonin’s face, she followed his jawline down towards his chin and then back up to just behind his ear. She dug her nail in hard enough to hurt him and then kissed the area in apology. Coiling her arms around his neck again, she tiptoed to cover his cheeks with little kisses. “We should go together,” she told him. “I can’t be without you again,” she insisted, nipping rather harshly on his ear. “You must take me with you when you go,” she repeated.
Sometimes he really hated that she knew he had a short lifespan. But there hadn’t been a way to keep it from her after she knew what he was. Though it was almost adorable to hear her complaining that he couldn’t leave her, not again. Circe’s little touches were appreciated, his hands going back to her waist to help keep her braced. And because, well, Antonin really had meant it when he said he’d missed her, that meant everything. Maybe especially her too-hard touches, bits of pain he’d never mind. His fingers pressed harder into her waist, one dancing up along her back just because it could. As morbid a conversation as this might have seemed to anyone else he didn’t even bat an eyelash at it. Death was a thing that happened and, well, needed to be accepted. Even if he didn’t want to think of Circe dead. Possibly the only person in the world he didn’t think would be better that way.
“I won’t leave you again,” Antonin promised. “You can come with me wherever I go, but if I’m already gone how can I take you?” As much as he didn’t want her dead he wanted even less for her to be there without him when Ulysses was still alive. He didn’t deserve her in the first place and definitely not without someone there to really make sure everything was right. A nail traced a light line up the back of her neck and into her hair when Antonin spoke again. “But we’re not going yet, okay? We’ll stay here a little longer. It can’t be that bad since we’re together.”
His promises were all she needed to hear. If he promised it, then he would do it, wouldn’t he? Circe was convinced he would. She nodded appreciatively, glad that he did say that she could go wherever and whenever he went. They’d never have to be apart again. “We’ll stay if you want to,” she said agreeably. The manic switch was interesting to observe in that only a few minutes ago, Circe had been pushing away, deliberately using Antonin’s departure from London as an excuse to argue...and, now, she was practically - no, actually - begging him to never leave her again. Circe was insane on several levels, but on all levels she was quite enamored by her little necromancer.
Circe resumed her nipping at the base of Antonin’s neck while she tangled her fingers into his hair. “I want to go home,” she told him, not really sure what she meant by home. She just knew somehow that home meant she and Antonin could be alone together, and that was all she needed right now. She didn’t want to be bothered with her lab coat, her beeper or her duties to the hospital. Dr. Alexandria Wilkes-Gibbon loved working at the hospital and helping treat sick lamiae, but Circe only wanted to be snuggled up next to a warm body belonging to Antonin. Romance was hardly the word for what Circe and Antonin shared but it was easily a form of love without question (albeit somewhat strange and highly unconventional).
Antonin’s smile returned when he heard that. Instead of arguing and bringing up the fact that he had left she was going along with never wanting him gone. He much preferred her like this instead of wanting to argue. Nipping at his neck with her fingers tangling into his hair... it was hard for a moment to remember that they were still in the hospital. Until she said that she wanted to go home. She’d either get mad if I suggested where I live or delighted. A flip of the coin that he didn’t want to land wrong way up because he wanted to take her away from the hospital with him. Away from all of the people and the temptations and her job.
“I’ll take you home,” Antonin offered with another smile, untangling her fingers so that he could help her down the stairs. No she wasn’t injured, but he liked the excuse to touch her and besides, she had weak legs. “Maybe watch one of those snake shows.” Giant snakes were amusing and he wouldn’t really watch it anyway, Antonin knew, he’d be watching her and remembering all the little things he’d been away from too long. “Is my home alright for you? I promise it’s just us.” Zaviar would be out and about like he usually was during the day, maybe over having time with Madeleine again. Whatever, he wouldn’t be at home and that meant Antonin and Circe could just be alone, which he had no doubts she needed and knew he needed.
Taking his arm, she allowed him to help her down the stairs. “Take me home,” she echoed as they walked down the couple flights of steps that would lead them out to the parking lot. They were lucky that they only passed two orderlies smoking in the stairwell and they wore much guiltier looks than either Antonin or Circe. She gripped the edge of Antonin’s shirt as they went down and down and down. “Just you and me, like it’s supposed to be,” she pointed out as they continued down the steps.
Internally, Circe struggled to flip the switch back and find herself again, but her brain was running off in several thousands of directions and the words just flowed without much thought to them. She wanted to be out of the hospital already so she could just be with Antonin and have him hold her...and not to be bothered by the sterility of the hospital. She tugged on his shirt to make him hurry, which wasn’t exactly brilliant because she was setting the pace with her odd gait.
Antonin didn’t look guilty at all because he didn’t feel guilty for any reason. Circe was his and anyone who disagreed could just go to hell. “You and me,” he repeated with a nod, kissing the top of her head as they stepped out into the rain. Not knowing where she had parked and figuring that he could just bring her the next day or whenever she had to come back, Antonin guided Circe towards his car. “You’ve just got to let go for a moment so I can drive the car.” Still seemed weird to go to the left side to drive, messed up Yanks. Breaking Circe’s grip gently he opened the door and helped her in before hurrying to the other side.
“See?” he said when he was in, grinning brightly as he buckled and started the car. “Right here.” He even held out his left hand so that she’d know for certain he was there. “Do you need anything while we’re out?” Polite to ask and Antonin was nothing if not polite when it came to certain things like Circe.
The flat, even surface was a relief on several levels. It meant she didn’t have to deal with steps anymore and it also meant that she would soon enough not have to walk at all. Antonin brought her to his car and she slid in. She wouldn’t have been able to tell him where she parked anyway. It was in the general direction of the employee parking spaces in that general area over there. As she got in, she curled her legs up underneath her and molded into the seat. She agreed internally with Antonin, sitting on the right side meant she was supposed to be driving and the cars came from the wrong way. Insanity. She was suddenly tired and she wrapped her arms around herself instead of the seatbelt (because she wasn’t quite lucid enough to consider that).
Leaning her head against the back of the seat, Circe turned to watch Antonin as he started the car and began pulling out of the parking lot. Her eyes heavy, she closed them. The rain was making her sluggish. She didn’t like the cold because it slowed her down. She sighed gently as he asked her if she needed anything. “Everything I need is right here,” she responded, reaching out to give his right hand a squeeze before she started drifting off. Goddamned rain. It had been the exact same in London, with her limbs slowing down and making going home that much more difficult.
When Circe closed her eyes Antonin reached over and did her seatbelt. He wasn’t a bad driver or anything but he was a cop and some habits just didn’t go away because you didn’t worry about yourself. Death was coming early for him but he didn’t want it coming for Circe first. Not at all. He wasn’t actually sure he’d know how to survive without her anymore. Shuddering against the thought he focused on driving, knowing that Circe wouldn’t be much for conversation with the rain. She’d never been partial to the cold and he found himself wondering how she’d be able to get through a Michigan winter when she didn’t even do well in London.
Twining his fingers through hers, Antonin smiled and lifted her hand up to kiss the back. God but he’d missed her. Her sanity and insanity, he didn’t care, it was all Circe and that was what mattered. “Right here,” he repeated, saying nothing else until he’d pulled up in the driveway. Shutting the car off he slipped out and over to Circe’s side, opening the door and gathering her up easily. No she wasn’t a child and yes she was completely capable of walking but he liked carrying her. “Here we are,” he murmured, opening the door and carrying her right ti his room. There was a TV there. Luckily Zaviar kept the house warmer thanks to his being a snake and so Antonin didn’t think he needed to mess with the thermostat. “Not much, but it’s home.”
She woke when he pulled her out of the car but it wasn’t until she was enveloped in a much warmer environment that she properly began to stir again. Circe noticed she was in someone’s arms. There was a brief moment of paralytic panic as she, for a moment, thought she was in Ulysses’ arms being carried back to their room after he tried to drown her in blessed water. Her heartbeat soared as she tried to find her limbs and then - she smelled him. She let out a long breath of air as she sighed. Antonin. She curled her fingers around the front of his shirt and rubbed her cheek against it, trying to create some warmth. That’s right, she was safe now. Safe.
Circe smiled against his shirt when she finally opened her eyes. “Home,” she repeated after him, agreeing. She had her house where she had her cushions instead of a bed but there was no meaning to a shelter unless someone you truly cared about was there. And home was where the heart was. She looked up at Antonin and tightened her grip on the front of his shirt. Right now, he was where her heart was and so wherever the necromancer was, there was Circe’s home. “Shows about big snakes,” she yawned, though life was beginning to creep back into her limbs and the rest of her body. It was nice and toasty in his room.
Antonin had to admit that Circe was rarely what you’d call adorable. And by rarely he meant hardly ever, like as often as a blue moon, but when she was he couldn’t help but smile fondly. Yawning and gripping the front of his shirt was adorable but he wasn’t going to tell her. “Yes, big snakes, just like you,” he agreed as he untangled her fingers to set her on the bed. Glancing around he found the remote and clicked it on, scrolling through until he found National Geographic. Oh good, reptiles, that would have to work. Setting the control back down he kicked off his shoes and shrugged out of his damp shirt, not wanting to take any cold back into the bed where he’d left Circe.
Settling back in next to her, Antonin automatically reached out to pull her back against his chest. This was better than the hospital. No one else around, a nice warm temperature and a reptile show. He couldn’t find a single reason to complain and said as much. “You fit here, it felt empty when you hadn’t been here at all.” No, he didn’t care that Zaviar lived right down the hall, another person didn’t keep the room from feeling empty. It needed Circe for that. Not just some random woman, had to be her.
“I’m not five,” Circe complained as he set her on the bed. She realized that she had just slipped into another one of her episodes (as she had taken to calling them) but she was out of it now and he didn’t have to talk to her like she was a child. Circe made a face as she followed suit and kicked her shoes off as she watched him remove his. She also got rid of her lab coat (pager and all), dropping it to the floor before curling up on his bed and tugging on his blanket. Not that he was supposed to know she was all better. There was no way for him to know other than her actually having to tell him, but that didn’t keep her from just assuming he’d know.
Antonin’s skin was nice and warm, despite the wet shirt he had just had on. Circe rested her head and a hand on his chest, bringing part of the blanket with her. She had missed this. It had been a very small window of time for her to get to know Antonin well enough to simply be around him before she had married Ulysses - and then everything she and Antonin did was under the pressure of time. The hospital and her duties were far from her mind as a salamander ran across the screen and someone’s Australian accent spoke. She was just about to ask why it was always an Australian when he told her she fit. The statement warmed her more than the thermostat did. She looked up happily and gave his jaw a kiss. The desire to see him bleed was rising in her, but she silenced it for the moment. There was no need for that right now. Right now, they could just enjoy a nice television show. Ulysses was not coming any time soon. There was no rush anymore. There was no rush ever.
Well, except the fact that Antonin was scheduled to keel over and die before anyone was ready, but no one liked to think about that.
Choosing not to remark on the statement about how old she was or wasn’t, Antonin raised a hand to stroke through Circe’s hair. This was an oddly peaceful moment when they didn’t have to worry about anything. Her husband wasn’t coming home because this wasn’t his home. Zaviar could be but no one cared because this wasn’t his room and Antonin could have whoever he wanted there. Especially, he felt, Circe, because that would improve his mood and people had been remarking on that for awhile. Sure there were... other things, but he could keep his appetite in check in exchange for something like this. Something rare that needed to be cherished, even a black-blooded necromancer could enjoy these times.
“You’ll stay here?” he asked, twirling a few locks of hair between his fingers. He always could have looked into her mind to see but Circe didn’t always like that and he’d already upset her enough for one day. “At least for awhile. Not alone in some flat that doesn’t deserve you, never wanted you to do that.” It’d always been his intention to have her not just in Scarlet Oak but there for as long as he could. Provided that husband of hers never followed. He shouldn’t. Antonin’s grip tightened just slightly at the thought of him coming and taking away Circe and the sanity she had left.
Circe nodded and snuggled in even closer. Like it was even a question. Antonin could seriously have asked her jump off the edge of the world with him and she would have done it. It wasn’t even a matter for rational thought anymore. He had been with her when she was trapped in her own version of hell. He had been there patiently waiting for her while she was going through what Ulysses had put her through. He deserved her and all of her. He loved her in a way that even she couldn’t comprehend. She wrapped her arms tighter around him and pressed her cheek against his shoulder.
“I don’t deserve you,” she verbalized, surprised at even that. Circe was the proudest creature the world had ever known and for her to say the words startled even her. She pursed her lips as she realized they were perfectly true and twisted her body so that she was looking at Antonin instead of the television. If he wanted her, she would give him all she could...for as long as he cared to have her. It was his turn to be happy. This was his happy ending.
If Circe was surprised at saying it then Antonin was more shocked to hear it. “Ridiculous,” he scoffed, laying a kiss against her forehead before slipping a finger under her chin. “You deserve me and you have me, no need for that sort of talk.” Some part of him might’ve agreed. The part that spent time listening to rational thought and lines of reasoning but that wasn’t a very big part after all. He had Circe, he deserved her and so that meant she deserved him too. He didn’t want it any other way and pretty much refused to think of it in any other way. But he’d be all too happy to accept everything she had and intended on showing it when he kissed her. Forget the documentary, he had an infinitely more interesting snake in his bed.