Disclaimer: How would a person get to own a series written by someone else? Would you buy it or something? ...I don't even have enough money to buy the Darren Shan Saga/Crique Du Freak volumes so I guess I shouldn't talk. No, I don't own the characters or plot of Darren Shan Saga/Cirque Du Freak. As much as I would love to.
Chapter 15: A Happy Ending
I was in pain. So much pain. I groaned. What was with this? Everywhere hurt. Why was I in pain so often anyway?
I moaned as the mere act of rolling over onto my side caused a horrible mixture of pain, exhaustion and stiffness to spread through my body.
"You're exaggerating," said a familiar, annoying voice. I groaned in frustration.
"Yeah? I'd like to see you deliver a kid. It's like squeezing a tennis ball out of your penis," I snapped. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw him wince, then start to laugh. Seeing him laugh made me smile and I lifted my head to get a better view of him. He was sitting in an armchair, holding our beautiful baby boy in his arms. It just looked so right, so natural, even on Steve who I'd never expected to be parent material. I felt a little envious. Had Steve and our son formed some kind of deep bond while I was out? Would our little boy even still remember me?
Steve seemed to sense my ugly jealousy, and held out our creation for me to hold. I took him and cradled the little bundle to my chest.
"Hi, honey," I crooned, rocking him back and forth. He gurgled happily. I sucked in a surprised breath as he chuckled babyishly, his blue eyes shining brightly and hands flailing in the air as he tried to touch me. I kissed his forehead, and he grabbed onto my hair and tugged it gently.
Steve watched me silently, a content smile on his face. He seemed so at ease, so happy. For some reason, it filled me with joy. Was all the hatred really gone?
"I picked a name," He informed me with a cheeky grin. I lifted an eyebrow, wondering why that would be accompanied with cheekiness.
"What'd you do?" I asked suspiciously.
"Oh, nothing," he waved the air dismissively. "Just named him after a special someone."
Both my eyebrows shot all the way up. "A...
special someone?"
"Mm-hmm," Steve hummed happily. He was enjoying my reaction.
"And who exactly could that be?" My voice seemed to have gone dangerously low.
"Drink some water so you can spit it all out in surprise when I tell you, like in those shows we used to watch," he joked, pointing to a glass of water on a table nearby.
"Steve..." I growled, glaring at him. Our baby seemed to have noticed my change in mood, tugging at my hair more frantically. I stroked his cheek soothingly.
"Guess," His eyes were practically sparkling with humour.
I pursed up my lips as I thought. Then gasped. "No.
No,"
"Yes," he grinned.
"
No!"
"Yes."
"Argh, no! No! Why!"
"Yes, yes, and who knows?"
I groaned. "You did
not name him
Larten!"
"And what if I said I did?" his grin was so wide, it resembled that of the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland.
"
Nooooooooooo," I moaned. My son started to laugh at my reaction, his giggles so adorable that I couldn't resist smiling at him.
"I'm just kidding," Steve said, rolling his eyes. "Seriously. You're such a drama queen,"
I glared at him. "Then? What's his name?"
"It's Laris," he said finally. I blinked in surprise. He watched my expression carefully. "What do you think?"
"It sounds... surprisingly good," I said truthfully. He grinned.
"It was Gannen's idea," he shrugged. My eyebrow shot up at that. "Apparently it means 'cheerful' in Latin."
"Huh," I said in reply. "Are you okay with it?"
He looked at me quizzically. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, you hated Mr Crepsley, didn't you? Are you okay with naming him after someone you hated so much?"
"Hmm..." He hummed thoughtfully. "You're right. I did hate him very, very much. But when I really think about it, it's cause of him that we're here like this right now." He placed a finger in Laris's grasp, Laris's tiny hands gripped onto it, fisting it tightly. "So I guess I don't mind so much. Besides, you loved him a lot, didn't you?"
"Yeah," I answered, a mental picture of my old mentor appearing in my head. "Yeah, I did,"
Silence fell as we both contemplated the past, the present and most importantly - the future. The only deviations from the silence was the occasional gurgle from Laris.
Then Steve got up from the chair he was in abruptly, removed Laris from my arms and placed him in a cot next to me. I hadn't even noticed the miniature bed, it's bars closing in on the sides like a mini prison. Both Laris and I protested the separation, Laris making low noises of protests and flailing his arms again.
"Aw, Steve..." I pouted, my arms reaching out for my baby.
"Shhh," he said, placing a finger to my lip. His eyes bore into mine, then, with a smile, he removed his finger and moved to kiss me. It started out chaste and innocent, and escalated from there. I jolted suddenly, realising something, and pushed him away as gently as I could.
"Steve. We can't," I said, my breathing heavy from the air-deprivation.
"Why not?" he whispered, running a finger down my cheek. I shuddered involuntarily.
"Because," I said, taking hold of his finger and removing it from my face. "We're siblings. It's wrong."
"What makes you think we're siblings?" He grasped my fingers instead, bringing it to his mouth to kiss it.
"Um, Mr Tiny's our father?" I said in a flat voice, snatching my fingers away. His eyes narrowed at the mention of that name.
"You really think Des Tiny slept with our mothers? Because really, that's the only thought that really disgusts me," he replied.
"Well... Probably not, cause if he did, he'd probably be found out by our mothers. He probably found some other way to inseminate them-"
"Exactly. That means Des Tiny created us. He's not our father," He replied. I opened my mouth to speak, but he continued. "God created the world. He is our 'father in heaven'. That doesn't stop us 'children' to continue breeding like rabbits, does it?" I frowned, seeing unexpected sense in his words. Probably due to how much I wanted him to be right.
"But-" I muttered.
"Plus, the only reason incest is wrong is because it causes the children to have diseases and genetic problems, right?" he replied. Hesitantly, I nodded. "Laris seems to be fine."
"Yes, but-"
"Darren Shan, I love you," he told me, placing both palms on either side of my face and pulling me closer so that his forehead was resting on mine. "I love you, and nothing is going to change that. Not the fact that you're physically younger than me, nor the fact that we share some similar genes,"
"A lot of similar genes," I corrected him. He rolled his eyes. I grinned and pecked him lightly on the lips, unable to control myself any longer. I loved this man so much. He moved his right hand to my neck and pulled me closer.
I moaned into his mouth as he reached his tongue into my mouth, tasting me. I wished I had the sense to brush my teeth when I woke up, but Steve didn't seem to mind, as could be seen by the way he eagerly ran his tongue over every corner of my mouth.
Suffice to say, we had a long make out session. We didn't go any further with Laris in the room - though Steve obviously wanted to - and it wasn't until much later that we stopped to watch Laris snoring lightly. Steve sat behind me, with me settled comfortably in between his thighs and against his back.
"Steve?" I asked in a low voice.
"Yes?" he replied.
"What now?" I turned to look at him.
He was watching Laris intently, with that fatherly love that seemed to take my breath away.
"I'm not so sure," he answered cautiously. I had the distinct feeling that he was hiding something.
"How's the whole situation with the warring clans?" I asked cautiously, wondering what exactly he was hiding and how I could draw it out. "And the vampets and vampirites?"
"Tense," he answered. "They're maintaining a temporary truce, and tolerating each other because of what happened between us. Still, I have no idea how long it'll last. There's been too much bad blood for too long,"
"Yeah..." I agreed. I guess with every silver lining came a dark cloud. I thought that with Steve no longer hating me like this things would've been solved, but it was too late. Too much had happened. "Is it possible for us to have peace?" I sighed under my breath.
"Probably. Eventually," Steve shrugged. I glared at him, irritated by his nonchalance. He just shrugged again.
"Are Alan and Tommy okay?" I asked, realising that I had done very little to save my friends, and feeling extremely guilty about it.
"They're fine. I drugged them well. We placed them somewhere public so that they could be found. They remember being drugged but not the whole...
mess in the theatre," I lifted an eyebrow at that oversimplification, but said nothing. "I wasn't going to hurt them, you know,"
"I know," I told him with a smile.
Once again, we were deathly silent, with nothing more to say for now.
I swallowed a lump in my throat, then asked a question I'd wanted to ask for a while now. "Um.. Has Laris shown any signs of inheriting any of our...
special traits?"
"If you mean vampiric or vampanezic traits, no. Wait. Well... Not really, at least."
"Not...
really?" I repeated.
"Yeah. I mean, he does have a penchant for blood, but I'm half-sure he doesn't actually need it to survive," Steve shrugged. I was starting to get really irritated with all his shrugging.
"You fed him
blood?" I spat out, my temper flaring.
"He wasn't drinking the milk! And you've been out for a while. In case you haven't noticed, there's not really anyone else around here who could breastfeed him. And plus, it was Evanna's idea." Steve protested quickly, shifting the blame conveniently. My temper died down as rapidly as it had risen.
"How's Evanna?" I asked.
"Not happy. She thinks Tiny's up to something,"
"Yeah, I do too..." Des Tiny. He was never going to quit, was he? Well, I suppose where there was peace, there was chaos. They go hand in hand. I wish they didn't.
"She told me about the Lord of the Shadows. She fears that Tiny might arrange for someone else to take that place." His eyes flickered to Laris. I couldn't help it. I sucked in a surprised breath, making a gasping sort of sound. Laris stirred.
"No. No." I felt panic begin to rise up, clawing up my throat, starting to take the form of a scream.
"Shhhh," Steve said soothingly, stroking my hair. "Evanna's doing everything she can. She swore to me that she'd do what she can to prevent it. Don't worry,"
I nodded, but couldn't help the panic that seemed to be festering within me. I continued staring at Laris, swearing to myself that I won't let it happen. Never. No way in hell. I'll do whatever it takes to prevent something like that from happening.
I swear it. Steve cleared his throat, interrupting my thoughts. "By the way..." he started, then paused.
"Hmm?" I prompted, the sides of my mouth curling up and my worry fading slightly at the sight of Laris's face being screwed up as he slept. He was just so... so...
cute.
"You do remember that you made me a promise, right?" I froze up. All my doubts and fears returned. I had just assumed that Steve had forgotten all his bitterness and hatred, and had repented. I forgot all about the fact that I'd actually practically sold my soul to him.
"Uh... Yeah," I said, biting my lip nervously. I made my grave. Now I had to lie in it. "I know. But just promise me one thing, Steve." I looked up into his eyes, lost in the sea of blue. "Take care of Laris. Don't... don't just abandon him, alright?"
Steve just stared at me for a while. Then he rolled his eyes. "You really are such a drama queen. Stop overthinking things,"
I frowned, feeling the skin between my eyebrows crease in confusion. "Wait. Then... What exactly do you want?"
Then he reached over, grinned, and whispered something into my ear, not unlike the way he'd informed me of his last great secret.
It was nonsensical. Nonsensical, amazing, wonderful, glorious. He watched my reaction with an expectant grin. I swivelled my head around to stare at him, ignoring the painful crick in my neck as I did so.
My mouth opened. Then closed. Then opened. Then a a strange incoherent sound escaped my mouth.
"Why?" I finally rasped, marveling at how dry and low my voice seemed.
"I'm not so sure. I've always been more of a last minute decision guy."
"B-B-But... Wha-?" I stammered incomprehensibly. "Is... Is it even... possible?"
"That remains to be seen," he shrugged. "But I guess I'll need your help."
I licked my lips and nodded. My heart had swelled up in joy, and all these weird choir choruses had flared up in my head. Unable to hold back my happiness, I threw my arms around the man I loved.
"Thank you, Steve. Thank you so much," I said. He tightened his arms around me possessively.
"You're welcome," he replied, his voice faking nonchalance, but his grip revealing just what he was feeling.
Little more than six months later.
"That is definitely
not a house," I told Steve.
"Of course it is. A little...
rough around the edges maybe. But a house nonetheless,"
"Nuh-uh. That," I pointed to the rundown building with the free arm that wasn't holding Laris. "is a shack. One that's about to fall apart,"
"It's perfectly fine! It was one of my hideouts before joining the vampaneze. And I can assure you, the beam that fell was a faulty one. The rest are fine. And I'm sure it'll look better after some tidying up,"
"The
what fell?" I exclaimed. He grinned and grabbed hold of my arm above my elbow, pulling me towards the haunted house. I struggled with him for a while before giving up completely and allowing him to just pull me away.
I was exhausted by the time we were done cleaning up. You may wonder how it's possible for a half-vampire to be tired just cleaning up a house? Well, that just speaks to how crappy the house was when we got it. Steve took on the carpentering role, doing his best to fix it up and ensure that nothing would fall on us as we were living in it. He may make jokes about loose beams and splattered brains, but he was unusually serious when it came to Laris and I being in danger. I have to say it's a nice change from the "I'll kill you!" attitude he's had in the previous years.
Life was nice. Life was good. Finally, after all those years of pain and suffering.
"Hey, you done?" Steve asked, peeking in from the doorway of the room I stood in, staring out the window as I contemplated how we'd gotten here.
"Yeah," I smiled at him. "Yes, I am," He held out a hand and I took it happily, enjoying the heartwarming heat of his hands.
A/N: I know, I know, I was practically grasping at straws when I wrote the excuses Steve was giving to Darren. I forgot that they were siblings, okay? I was writing them mainly to comfort myself... not that I disapprove about incest. I don't really care either way, actually.
