Chapter Text
“How does it feel?”
Sitting on the floor, Trevor looked up at Adrian and Lisa in slight defeat. “There’s still that pain.”
“That’s to be expected. We’ve only just started the exercises.” Trevor had been performing a variety of complicated stretches that Lisa had appointed as an exercise to get his motion back to normal. Trevor had scoffed when he first heard it. But then he finally got back up and that dull pain in his spine had made every motion stilted.
"Recovery time is complicated," Adrian reassured him, but a glimmer of worry still lingered in his eyes. One that had never fully faded since he first saw him again after the attack
Lisa nodded. “He’s right. And the magic healed you tremendously. This is nothing but a small bump to getting your range of motion back.”
“I know.” He smiled at their support. “Let’s start again.”
—
“Tired?”
“A bit.” He admitted.
Adrian hummed from his place beside him on the bed, sitting atop the covers and watching him closely.
“I’ve had serious injuries that weren’t treated with magic. I know it’ll heal fine but…”
“But?” Adrian prodded softly.
“It’s never been after something like this.” He admitted. “In a hunt, I knew how many I was up against, if I got rid of them all. I’d go home injured, sure, but in victory. But this… doesn’t feel like one.” He looked at Adrian. “What if we missed some?”
For a moment, Adrian said nothing. He pulled the cover higher over Trevor’s body and didn’t take his eyes off the stitching. “I know I killed every vampire in that field. I know I might have missed one whilst running back from the forest or one ran from me in it but there is a victory here, without them.”
“What?”
He smiled softly, lifting his gaze from the stitching to meet his. “You survived. And I can’t bring myself to regret the decision of not leaving one alive because of it.”
He swallowed. “Me either,” he whispered.
Adrian watched him a moment longer. Then said, “It's late. You should get some rest.”
“I don’t want to sleep right now.” He admitted. “I feel that’s all I’ve done lately.” His mind inexplicably landed on something else. “Can you read something?”
He blinked. “Read something?”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “A book. That way you’d be doing all the work and I simply sit back and listen.”
He knew Adrian would rather he sleep and rest but he stood up instead. The sight made Trevor’s chest twist. “Very well. Give me a moment to go to the library. The only ones here are science books.”
Trevor glanced at the armchair, the book he'd seen before was gone. He grumbled inwardly. He had a feeling that whatever Adrian had been reciting while he was unconscious had come from it.
“Sure,” he said instead and watched Adrian speed out of the room. Not a minute later, he was back, holding multiple small, leather-bound books against his chest.
“What are those?”
“Collections of poems from around the world. Courtesy of my father.”
Trevor pointed an accusing finger at him. “You’re using this as an opportunity to make me fucking, enlightened or something!”
Adrian raised a brow. “If you mean, educated in the arts, yes. I am.”
“We saw that play together,” Trevor said. “I was educated.”
Adrian’s gaze shuttered and he looked away for a moment. “The play was adequate, I only—”
“Adequate?” Trevor couldn’t help but feel a sting at that. He’d found the theatre and gotten them tickets only for it to be adequate?
Adrian must have noticed his reaction because he spluttered, “No! It was good. Really. Truly.” He laid a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know if I ever thanked you for taking us there—”
“You ran out before I could even say anything.” He pointed out. And he still didn’t know why.
Adrian stilled. “I did and… I’m sorry. I just— had a lot on my mind.”
He hummed. He did seem distracted when it ended. And then after… “Fine. But you really did like it?” He asked.
The hand on his shoulder tightened. “I did. It was very entertaining and it… gave me a lot to think about.”
Trevor nodded. “The ticket boy told me it had symbolism that philosophic people enjoyed. Thought it’d be right up your alley.”
Adrian chuckled, eyes bright. “I am glad you thought of me.”
He spluttered. “I—well…yeah. I did” He huffed.
He smiled but then it went softer. “I mean it. And I should have told you. I know how much effort you put into it.” He hesitated, then added, quieter, “It meant a lot to me.”
Trevor wanted to hold onto his indignation but how could he when Adrian looked at him so earnestly? “You’re forgiven.”
He grinned. “Thank you.”
Trevor waved a hand to the books. “Educate me further then, I guess.”
Adrian sat beside him on the bed, Trevor shifting to make more room for him.
“Some of these were leaflets that my father bound together for a region or place. Others are from poets that gave him multiple pieces.” Adrian pulled one out. “I’ve always liked this one.” Adrian recited it aloud, and Trevor listened to the tone of his voice, smooth and rich, like honey.
“It sounds pretty.” He said.
Adrian chuckled. “The basis of all poetry.”
“I think I could come up with one.”
He grinned. “On what?”
He thought about it. “Weapons.”
“The glorious whip, hm?”
“Fuck off. What would you write poetry on?”
Adrian paused. “I don’t know.” Somehow Trevor got the feeling that it was a lie.
Trevor grabbed at a random book and flipped through it, skimming over the contents until he read a random passage aloud:
Life with the beloved companion is greater than eternal life
Esther appears like the morning star, shining bright as the moon and the sun
Something shook in him as he read the words. “See?” He forced out. “Pretty words again.”
But Adrian was staring at his hands, a blank expression on his face. “Hey,” he nudged him. “What’s wrong?”
He blinked. “Nothing. Nothing. I just remembered something.”
A horrible thought came to Trevor as he looked back down at the poem. Beloved companion “Oh. Fuck. Sorry, this must remind you about your parents.”
Adrian smiled sadly. “A part of it, yes.”
Trevor ventured hesitantly. “What’s the other part?”
The door opened and Lisa poked her head in, smiling at the sight of them. “Not asleep, yet?”
“Not yet.” He smiled. But he turned to Adrian, still waiting. “The other part?”
But Adrian only shook his head.
— —
Trevor had to stay in the lab for a while.
He hated it for two major reasons; one, he was treated like an infant and two, they had withheld solid foods from him for the majority of the week.
Again, like an infant.
When Trevor stated the comparison, Adrian smirked and proceeded to feed him more soup whilst making the whooshing noises that parents do for their children. Trevor would nearly have knocked the spoon out of his hand if it weren’t for Adrian’s quick speed.
It was only Adrian’s promises of garlic bread that sated him.
They were now still in the lab, performing one of Lisa’s assigned stretches for his spine.
But all it took was practice. And with the pain decreasing immensely every day, it was easier.
He loved magic. Without it, Trevor knew he’d need months of rest to regain his strength and move as he had previously done, not simply this mere week.
He also knew without it, his spine might not have healed at all.
Adrian still handled him like he was glass.
“I’m fine, Adrian.” He said again as he began another stretch, enjoying the strain in his back as he moved.
Adrian, who had been a metre away from him at all times and watched him intently said, “I know.”
He raised a brow. “I don’t have any difficulty moving.”
“I know.”
“I can probably fight a werewolf in top form.”
“...I know.”
“Ah!” He pointed a finger. “You hesitated there.”
He scowled. “Just a week ago your spine—”
“Yes, a week ago. Have you forgotten I was healed with magic?”
“How could I?” He responded sullenly, eyes averted to the floor.
He shifted, exhaling sharply. “Sorry. You know I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know.” He sighed. “I apologise for being so… overbearing.”
“Hey,” he frowned. Did he have to remind him that while Trevor had been injured, he was still unconscious, and it was him who had to carry his injured body in, who had to wait to know whether he’d even survive?
“You’re not overbearing. You’re worried. And that’s fine, Adrian.” He said softly. “I’m just… not used to sitting around. I like to move.”
“I know.” He smiled. “It seems to be a Belmont trait from what I recall during our wedding.”
He huffed. “Have to keep moving during hunts. Could be killed otherwise.” He paused. “About my family. Has Dracula…” He trailed off, knowing Adrian knew what he meant.
Trevor already knew the answer from his grimace. “He’s still keeping the aviary under lock and key.”
“Bastard.”
“Quite.”
Dracula had forbidden Trevor’s family from knowing his condition, something that had angered all other residents of the castle. From what he knew, Lisa had refused to speak with him until he came to a compromise. He hoped it worked.
He knew what Dracula thought would happen. That his family would attack thinking Dracula had harmed him himself or he orchestrated the attack but it was so ridiculous he wanted to shout at him.
Henry always saw reason. He wouldn’t act so rashly.
He sighed. “Fuck. I’d like to see them again.”
Adrian watched him closely. “I shall do my best to contact them, I promise. In fact, do you remember our time in the aviary together? When I told you about my friends who had to leave after the wedding?”
“Oh. Yeah, I do.”
Adrian smiled. “They will be coming back soon.”
His brows rose. “Really?” He smiled in response to Adrian’s excitement, wondering what they’d be like. He hadn’t spoken to them during the wedding. Thinking back, he didn’t speak much to anyone who wasn’t his family or Sypha’s.
“My father asked them back after the attack.”
He hummed, “Any help to find out who the bastards were.” Any help other than his family, he inwardly scowled. “But they can’t stay here? The castle is only open to family members.”
“I think my father will use the attack as a cover if it’s found out. It wouldn’t break any agreements from the pact.”
Trevor sighed. Dracula had everything covered.
Maybe Adrian saw the defeat on his face or something else because he straightened. “I’ll speak to him again now. Maybe there’s something in the pact that I overlooked or—”
“I want to talk to him.” Trevor blurted.
Adrian blinked. “Oh?”
“Yeah,” he shrugged. “This is between the two of us. I don’t want you to keep being a messenger bird for us.”
His lip twitched at the comparison. “I see.” But he hesitated. “I do not know what he will say.”
Trevor waved him off. “I can handle Dracula.”At Adrian’s raised brow, he added, “I’ll slide in Lisa’s name. Should make him back off.”
He huffed, “quite.”
Trevor went to say something else but the door swung open and Lisa strode in, papers stacked in her arms.
“Ah,” she saw Trevor stretching, “good. I’ll examine you again.”
Adrian looked at him. “I’ll go and…” speak to Dracula.
He nodded. “Thanks.”
When Adrian slipped out, Lisa was already ushering him back to the bed. He sighed.
Lisa prodded at his back. “How does this feel?”
There was only a mild sting along his spine at her touch with the instrument. “Fine. Barely anything.”
“Good. You’ve progressed very well.”
“I aim to please.” He turned his attention to her. “Does that mean I can return to my room?”
She hummed. “I’d have no reservations but… Adrian might.”
He sighed. Yes. Adrian might.
Trevor didn’t mind the hovering or the fretting touches or the forceful feeding of soup. He liked it when Adrian was here. He liked speaking to him. Seeing him.
Making sure he was okay.
He liked it when Adrian sat on the bed and they chattered, deep into the night. He liked it when he brought a book up with him from the library to read when Trevor, plagued by dark thoughts and memories, couldn’t sleep.
He liked everything.
Except being held hostage in this room.
“You don’t need his permission to leave,” Lisa said lightly.
“I know. I just… he’s still worried. And I don’t want him to be.”
“I think that as long as he keeps seeing you in this setting, he’ll keep being worried.” She rested a hand on his shoulder. “You just need to remind him that it’s what you’d like to do.”
“I don’t know if—”
The door swung open again and Adrian smiled as he saw him.
“Well?” Trevor asked. He came back quickly.
“He said he’ll see.” Better than no, he supposed.
Adrian looked questioningly at his mother. “How is he?”
“I’m right here.” He complained.
“Nothing to worry about. I’d give another week for the pain to disappear completely. Especially with the exercises.”
Adrian nodded, coming to his side as Lisa went to leave. “I’ll see you both at dinner.”
Trevor watched the door close and immediately turned to Adrian. “Lisa said I can return to my room.”
Already, he saw the hesitation on Adrian’s face. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
He scowled. “Why?”
“The lab has all the equipment we need if something happens and—”
“ Nothing is going to happen. Didn't you hear Lisa?”
“I did but there are still…” Adrian kept talking, and Trevor sighed.
“I want to be back in my room.”
“I understand but—”
“I want to go.”
“But you—”
“I don’t want to be here.”
“We—”
“I don’t know why you’re arguing like you won’t be there anyway. We had a deal, remember?” He flicked Adrian’s forearm, reminding him about the night in his room. “Unless you’re going back on it”? He added, smirking lightly at Adrian’s reaction.
“No!”
“Then let’s go.” He made to stand when Adrian pushed him back down by his shoulders. “Adrian,” he warned.
He faltered. “Let me get the room ready first. You can’t be there covered in dust!”
“It can’t be that dirty,” he said but Adrian practically ran out of the room, shouting at him to wait a few minutes.
Trevor sighed.
He’s worried. Trevor reminded himself. Worried.
In the meantime, he looked over the lab, grabbing anything that had found its way there during his stay and wrapping it in a makeshift blanket bag to take with him.
Seeing that a few minutes had passed, he shrugged and made his way out of the lab, cursing when, as he just passed the doorway, one of their books fell from the makeshift bag.
Trevor sighed and went to pick it up. He paused.
Lightly, he traced the stone floor, more specifically the marks etched into it. Scratches, it seemed like, long and unpatterned, seemingly rushed. They were on the floor in front of the door and looking at the door, he noticed there were a few scratches on it too, though not as much as the floor.
He was so distracted to trace it, he didn’t notice the large shadow covering him.
“Belmont.”
He straightened quickly, turning and stopping at the sight of Dracula, looking blankly down at him from his massive, fucking height.
“Dracula.” He readied himself, holding himself straighter. They’d never had an interaction just by themselves. Lisa and Adrian were always there as buffers. But he wouldn’t let that deter him. “Adrian probably told you but I want access to the—”
“Do you know how those came to be there?”
He blinked. The fuck? “What?”
He inclined his head. “The marks on the floor.”
Trevor looked down again at the long scratches. He shrugged. “Adrian said you do experiments here. What? An animal that escaped?”
But Dracula chuckled. “Not quite.” He stared directly into his eyes and lifted a clawed finger at his body. “Your surgery took four hours. Spinal injuries are always difficult to measure. It’s not as simple as saying a spell to repair damage.”
“Right? Lisa said that.” What was the point of this?
“Adrian wanted to be there but he was too emotionally involved. A distraction. We had to send him away as we operated.”
He swallowed.
Dracula continued, voice smooth yet eyes impossibly heavy, “Imagine my surprise when I opened the door and found him here, on his knees and waiting for you.” He sighed. “I’d sent him away to clear his mind and yet there he was, as close to you as he could be.”
Trevor was frozen. Adrian…
“You’re a distraction, Belmont.” Dracula scowled and suddenly felt impossibly angry.
“What the fuck does that have to do with anything? Fuck you!” He pointed at him. “I saved Lisa’s life you fucking piece of—”
Dracula held up a hand and Trevor halted at the sight of his long claws. “I’ve been told I ought to lead with what I mean.” His eyes flicked down to Trevor’s outstretched hand and caught on his ring of all things and after a moment, he sighed. “You saved my family. Twice. I recognise the debt and I make clear my intentions of repayment.”
Trevor didn’t know where to start processing any of what Dracula said but his mind catched on repayment.
“The aviary!” He blurted. “I want to send a letter to my family.”
His eyes narrowed. “We don’t know what their response will be. I can’t risk my family's safety again.”
“Henry wouldn’t attack because of this. Hell, he’d probably bend the pact, same as you might I add, and send some reinforcement for us.”
“ He might, yes.” At Trevor’s confused expression, he paused. “Any movements we make will alert any enemy watching us.”
“If there is one.”
His eyes twitched. “Better safe than sorry. Your family's location is constant. This castle can and has been moved. My forgemaster's location is foreign and changing. Difficult to track. The Belmonts are the weak link here. Any trace will be uncovered from them.”
He scowled, mouth open and ready to argue. He snapped it shut. Because as much as he hated Dracula, he was right.
He sighed. “Let me at least write to them about anything else. They’ll grow suspicious if I don’t. Adrian said I’d been unconscious for a week.”
Dracula seemed to mull this over. “Fine. But you will show me the letter beforehand.”
“Fuck no!”
“Show it to me.” He repeated. “Or you will have no access to the aviary.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Fine,” he muttered. “I’ll write one by tonight.”
Dracula straightened and it seemed the atmosphere around him lightened with him. “Good.” Another glance at the floor and he left, in his usual dramatic manner of cape and speed.
Trevor hated how much he wanted a cape like it.
He stared at the floor and after a moment, bent to inspect it again. He traced the scratches, all his fingers set over the markings and moving with it.
He imagined it. His surgery and Adrian being pulled out.
Adrian, kneeling here, hearing whatever was being done to him inside and unable to intervene. Adrian, being locked out for hours and hours. Adrian, kneeling and head bowed. Nails extended and carving into the floor out of fear and frustration.
Trevor exhaled shakily.