Re: Shadowcrest: Sam & Louis [1/2]
His smile turned inward when she insisted he was sweet, embarrassed. "I don't know about that. And you're both my siblings, as strange as that always is to think about. I want both of you to be happy, and if I thought one of you was ruining the other, I promise, I would say something."
Sam rattled off a list of all the things Louis didn't do, the things that made his argument invalid. "I've certainly made people cry," he said. He was healthier, but it was obvious that he hadn't come through any of this unscathed. It felt good to pretend everything was normal, just for a little while. But he hadn't forgotten the blood, or the crying people, or the shrieks of burning and boiling men. Those images would always live in his mind, and it had been better when he couldn't remember them.
It was only the curious sense of detachment he'd felt as they all died that kept him sane, the knowledge that he had been little more than a puppet on a string. Without an emotional stake in what was happening at the time, the wounds were shallower than standing in front of Micah while he promised Louis would never find his brother's corpse.
But he wasn't about to tell Sam that. "You haven't been kidnapped by a cult lately, though, you have that on me." He patted her ankle, and he smiled a little, but it didn't work as well. He tried not to think about a year of silent screaming where no one had been able to hear. The panicked helplessness in his few moments of clarity - that had been the worst part. He could tell himself now that the nightmare was over, but someone had taken his soul out of his body, and that wasn't something one glossed over lightly. "You have, far and away, had a more difficult time of things than anyone else I know," he said, meeting her gaze again, slate blue and intent, no hint of gold or anything out of the ordinary. "You need to stop thinking of yourself as a catastrophe that conscripts aid from your friends and family, and just as someone who's had a rough go of things, and who's loved enough that the people they care about volunteer to help them."
God, Louis could hold a grudge. He'd held one against Iris for years now. And she was his sister. Woe betide Meredith. He didn't believe for a moment that she'd misunderstood anything - even if she had understood perfectly well, why would anyone wish for someone else to propose to them? It didn't add up. He did chuckle drily, though, when she remarked on it being fucked up shit. "I know. I noticed."
How did they get him? His laughter faded. He hadn't thought much about it since he'd put the pieces of his memory back together. He hadn't wanted to.
"I...was going out to a bar," he said, slowly. He was telling the story to her, but he was also remembering as it went along. "I never made it inside the place, though. There was a line, and the bouncer was picking and choosing from the crowd, and I wasn't in the mood to beg. There was another man there, he walked up around the same time I did. In retrospect, he must have been following me all the time. He asked if I was going in, and I said no, I wasn't going to bother with it. So he asked if I wanted to go somewhere with him instead."
By now, his cheeks were slightly red. In any other context, the story might have had a happy or simply embarrassing ending, and the shame coloring his cheeks would have seemed less dire. "We were all in the news before the crime family thing collapsed. You remember. People recognized us on the street. I suppose it isn't surprising that the type of men I like was public knowledge, no doubt there was a tabloid spread somewhere in our imaginary pasts." He leaned back against the couch, staring at the ceiling. "He was tall, and had dark hair, and he was good looking. He reminded me of my ex. That should have been the first red flag.
"We went down an alley and he got me up against a wall. I was already a little drunk, enough not to think about how stupid I was, and he was very nice looking. I think I said something about how old fashioned all of this felt, having a quickie in an alley, and he hit me with something."