Julian Blackwood (synapticstatic) wrote in nybynightic, @ 2021-06-22 05:12:00 |
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Anything being called a Red Blood Supermoon Total Lunar Eclipse didn’t sound good for any Malkavian. The blood of the clan of lunatics was too easily swayed by the pull of the moon at times. Blood Moons. Supermoons. Neither sounded good and it had been a couple of years since Julian had experienced a Blood Moon and given how shuttered he had been back then it was hazy as to whether it had made things worse for him or not—chances it had.
There was a chance this time it would be different though. Julian had an idea he was toying with.
“Micah,” he prompted in case the other was busy with something important at the moment. Julian sat on the couch in the Prince’s office. It was late enough at night that they were unlikely to be disturbed by anyone else. It was reminiscent of other times before when he’d occupy Micah’s couch late in the night while the Ventrue would work. Only Julian hadn’t been sitting idly by. He had been doing some work of his own.
The one good thing about becoming Prince? Micah could foist off work meant for him to others now. He didn’t do it often, of course. Since if other people messed up, he had to pick up the pieces left behind anyway and that usually infuriated him and also made it all that much harder to complete the task at hand. But still, the option was there. And it was that option that was precious sometimes.
Especially in cases like tonight, where Micah knew that there were certain exigencies that could crop up. He had made alternatively arrangements, delegated much of the tasks he could trust to others to oversee, leaving only the most crucial things behind, a bare minimum really.
By the time Julian appeared on his couch, calling out to him, Micah was more or less in a position where he could free himself up with a moment’s notice.
He signed a document with a flourish— there was more of that now that he was a Prince, something he regretted but which was also important, appearances were key in his position—before looking up at his Malkavian. “Is it starting?”
For a moment Julian just looked at Micah, unable to help the small upturn at the corner of his mouth as he did. The fact that he knew Micah would drop anything at a moment’s notice if it started bothering him too bad made Julian want to go over and kiss him and just curl up in his lap. It was that reason that he didn’t. Why he had wanted to try and work through this without relying completely on Micah has he had the last one but still have the Ventrue close by in case he needed him.
“Not yet and so far keeping my mind occupied with other things is helping. Which is what I wanted to talk to you about.” Julian glanced back down at the tablet in his hand. “I’ve been researching this and looking at the time table. There’s a fifteen minute window during the actual eclipse that I think I can use.”
His gaze raised back up to Micah’s. “I think I may be able to use those fifteen minutes to push out. Search like I have before but possibly with a farther net using the influence the moon is having on the web. On my own mind.” Stretching that mind out even farther to see if he couldn’t pick up more on the hunters or SI.
Micah, needless to say, didn’t like the sound of that. He was well aware of how far Julian was already stretching himself currently. To have to do even more—particularly at a time like the Blood Moon where Malkavians were most vulnerable—it didn’t sit well.
The dislike was plainly visible on his face. Micah didn’t bother hiding it. There was little need to hide anything from Julian at this point. Everyone else outside the room knew that they functioned as a unit. And within the room, well, Micah hoped Julian had some kind of idea what he meant to the Prince by now.
“It’s too risky.” His tone was flat, unwilling to entertain the idea. Even if he knew Julian was still going to try. “We don’t have many resources. But we have enough that you shouldn’t always be taking on such unnecessary risk to yourself.” Micah wasn’t proud of the fact that he’d had to use Julian’s abilities far too often in his pursuit of power for himself. Even if the goal had been somewhat for good intentions, it still didn’t excuse putting Julian at risk as much as he had. But the benefits and consequences of that were plainly apparent. It’s just that now—after all the dust had settled—there was little need to continue. Not when the asking price was too much.
Julian wasn’t surprised that Micah wasn’t in favor of it and he hadn’t even heard the catches to the idea—the finer details that had the Malkavian bringing it up in the first place. It went beyond just being vulnerable to the Blood Moon itself.
“I know we have better assets than before out there searching that will be able to hunt them down sooner or later but this way maybe I could find out more of what they know without having to wait.” It had been so quiet lately that it was almost worrying—at least to Julian. He had to wonder what they were up to that had them not poking and prodding at the Kindred but were rather allowing them to resettle their power base. One that was becoming more powerful than the one they managed to almost topple over.
What was it that they were up to on their end?
Of course curiosity had killed the cat and who knew how many lives Julian had used up by now.
Micah’s brows hadn’t unfurrowed in the slightest. Instead, hearing the insistence in Julian’s tone, it only grew deeper. It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate Julian going the extra mile for all of this. It was precisely because he did that he couldn’t allow Julian to continue taking those risks. It was too high a price to pay.
“I’m not ready to risk you on a ‘maybe’, Julian.” Micah was looking straight at Julian as he said that. He could only hope that Julian would see the sense of his words.
When there was no immediate acquiescence from the Malkavian, Micah fought the urge to sigh. He put away the rest of that significantly diminished pile of papers and got to his feet, circling around the large mahogany desk and coming to where Julian was on the couch. “Do you not see what everyone else sees now? You are, for all intents and purposes, an extension of me now. Your actions represent mine. Your well-being is mine too. Would you allow me to risk myself for something in which the outcome we cannot be certain of?”
Julian sighed and sat his tablet down on the table next to the couch before reaching out and taking Micah’s hand. Now that the Ventrue was this close he couldn’t help but reach out for him, to be touching him in some way.
“No, of course not.” And that was part of the reason he felt so driven to do this to start with wasn’t it? It wasn’t just the danger to all of Kindred that Julian worried about but the danger that all of that still being out there represented towards Micah, especially now that he was Prince. It was purely for selfish reasons as well. It wasn’t so that New York wouldn’t lose another Prince—one that was better than the last one. It was because Julian himself couldn’t risk losing him.
So the Malkavian understood completely where the other was coming from in him not wanting to take this risk.
But understanding was one thing. Whether or not he would do as Micah said was quite another. And with the tone that Julian adopted, Micah was sensing quite a resoluteness in Julian.
So he had to push. “And?” Because he needed Julian’s word on this. Or if Julian truly felt strongly that there was something to be gained from this, then they had to talk it out and agree on something. Micah wasn’t going to be blindsided on this. Not with something this important.
For a moment Julian had to debate whether if any possible outcome from pursuing this was worth it against the multitude of things that could happen if he did it. If things went wrong. If it would actually be worth trying to convince Micah that doing this was worth those risks. Julian’s thumb traced over the back of Micah’s hand and he chewed on his bottom lip as he thought it over.
He raised those bright blue eyes back up to look at Micah. “And I can’t say that doing this won’t possibly put too much strain on my mind and cause the pieces to start to crack apart again. Or shatter completely.” And he was holding them all together so very well on his own at the moment wasn’t he? As for the possibility of having to piece it all back together again after getting him this far, that was hardly fair to either of them. “So I won’t do it.”
It was a mark of how Micah hadn’t actually believed that Julian wouldn’t go ahead with it anyway—the way his shoulders were tensed, his brows still furrowed with disapproval. But the sudden acquiescence came unexpectedly. And he found himself on uneven footing. It took another second for the words to really sink in.
“You… won’t.” It started off possibly as a question. But by the end of it, he could see the answer written in Julian’s eyes. And the weight that had been on his chest lifted considerably. “Good.” He tried that out on his lips, and found that it stuck. “That’s good.” Readjusting his stance now, remembering that he was the Prince here, and perfectly capable of ordering someone to do something.
Except that was hardly going to happen. Not with Julian, at least.
There were other ways too that Micah could have used to ensure Julian didn’t do it. Domination. The blood bond. Both ways that Julian knew he wouldn’t use. That he wouldn’t have to even if Micah had felt inclined because the Malkavian wasn’t about to do something Micah didn’t want him doing and going ahead and doing it anyway behind his back was something that would never even cross his mind to do.
“I won’t,” Julian repeated just to reassure him as he watched the shift in Micah. He tugged on the hand he held, pulling the Prince gently towards him so he’d come sit down beside him. “I wouldn’t have brought it up if it was something I was just going to do anyway. And even I’m not crazy enough to try it on my own.” The time window for it being when the Malkavian would be at his most vulnerable and left the risk of snapping an already fragile mind even higher.
“It was just an idea. One I’m sure I’ll quickly forget if properly distracted.”
The rebuilding of their city had not come easily. There was much that they had accomplished, especially with Amadeus and other like minded individuals standing by Micah’s side. But there was still much yet to do. It meant a lot that for the long road, he would have someone he trusted to walk apace with him, and most of all, that this someone was Julian. But sometimes Micah felt like Julian might not necessarily know all of that.
Because you haven’t expressly told him so, a nasty little voice in his head whispered.
When Julian tugged at his hand, Micah went easily, taking up the space by Julian with a comfortable familiarity. He pulled Julian close, the same arm that Julian still held, and wrapped it around the other to encase Julian in an embrace a long time coming. “Just in case you ever doubted how much I need you by my side,” Micah began, voice deep and for once, slightly shaken. He wasn’t someone who resorted to words of endearment or flattery often--those simply felt too empty and superfluous to him. But the things he said, when he said them, were often so much more simply because of the weight and meaning behind them. “I do. I want you around for a very, very long time.” A touch softer, as if emotion had choked him up--as if that was a thing that could still happen to Micah--low and right by Julian’s ear.
Julian nuzzled his face against Micah’s cheek as he listened to what he said just as much as he listened to the things he wasn't saying. Lifting his head up he looked at Micah for a moment before kissing him.
"I'm not going—" Julian stopped in his reply. His physically going anywhere wasn’t the problem. They both knew that he'd never walk away from Micah. That he'd never leave in that way. But he was Malkavian and with that there were other ways for him to become lost to Micah.
And he had taking too many risks lately. It was already bad enough that someday his mind may get the better of him without him tempting fate so much now. "I'll start being more careful then I have been," he promised Micah. "So that I'm right here where you need me. Just as much as I need you."
Those words were a key to unlock the slight upwards curl of Micah's lips. It didn't get rid of all the threats. Julian, being Malkavian, was a timebomb in himself, but it got rid of some of Micah's most pressing concerns.
"See that you do," Micah said in response, sealing that promise with another kiss, pulling Julian closer still, this one with a definite promise of more, of longer, of a future for the both of them.