The courtesy afforded to Aaron had clearly outstayed its welcome as Varis mocked him and closed the distance between them with a dangerous look in his eye. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up when the Count unexpectedly weaved his fingers through his hair, pulling Aaron down to his level. He froze like a bird caught in a cat’s teeth as Varis whispered in his ear, pulse quickening nervously at the suggestion therein. As close as he was, Varis could probably
smell the blood that coursed urgently through Aaron’s veins as his heart thundered in his ears in a very unwelcome combination of confusion and fear.
Then, as quickly as he had come, Varis was gone, and Aaron could breathe again. He barely heard the rest of the Count’s commands but immediately set about fulfilling them anyway, eager to do something, anything, other than standing at attention. Only when he could no longer hear Varis’ footsteps down the hall did he allow himself a moment to center himself, leaning on the desk and letting his head drop, briefly consumed in a combination of confused anger and relief. He ran his other hand through his hair, rearranging it where the Count had tousled it, and rubbed his ear as if to scrub away the feeling of Varis' lips.
What the hell was that? Only when he finally relaxed did he notice how tense he had been throughout their exchange; he could feel the tightness in his chest begin to loosen and the muscles in his neck complained as he stretched them. Was this how his life would be from now on, a constant state of nervous uncertainty? Varis was unpredictable and seemed to delight in Aaron’s discomfort. He hesitated to make judgements after barely a day of knowing the vampire, but at that point, what other conclusions could he draw?
He scooped up the letters on Varis’ desk with near-trembling hands, taking a few long breaths to steady them. Speculation like that would do nothing but drive him crazy, Aaron knew, and he did his best to focus on the task at hand. Organizing the letters into a neat pile, he set out down the hall and out the door to deliver them.
The cool night air was welcome on his flushed cheeks and he was thankful for the darkness as he strode out with long steps into the night, depositing the letters to the groundskeeper and to Lady Sinnenodel into their own mailbox and tilting up the indicator. Then it was straight to the other noble dorms’ boxes, each one getting a letter with the appropriate name.
When the last box was closed and the indicator adjusted, it was time for Aaron to go back to his new home, to his new master. He took his time going back, his meandering steps a stark contrast to his former urgency, and turned his eyes skyward. His favourite constellation, Orion, hung massive and bright in the sky, and Aaron used his walk to admire it. The cool air and the majesty of the night sky did wonders to calm him down, even as he neared the stone wall surrounding the property. For all the stress he’d just gone through, he never once considered leaving. Regardless of the fact he’d be easily found if he did, the idea never even crossed his mind. To Aaron, servitude was a way of life - the only way of life, in fact, he could imagine for himself. In his mind there simply was no alternative; running away for him seemed as impossible and pointless an idea as taking to the sky by flapping his arms.
When he finally did return, locking the door behind him, Aaron made for his room. He relaxed even more once the door was closed, and he went about his morning routine more or less automatically, mulling over the night’s events in his mind. If he was going to do well - and indeed, even be happy - as Varis’ attendant, he had to learn not to let his discomfort get the better of him - or preferably, learn not to be uncomfortable in the first place. Of course that was easier said than done when the man who essentially owned him was whispering lewd suggestions in his ear, but he hoped that had been an unusual tactic to try and get a rise out of him. He would have to learn to handle the way the Count spoke circles around him. Perhaps, he thought, he’d get used to it. Perhaps for now Varis was just trying his boundaries, and would back off as they got accustomed to each other. Surely the up-and-coming protege of Lady Sinnenodel had better things to do than constantly toy with his mage.
The thought brought Aaron a strange comfort, that he might be left alone in favour of more pressing matters. Nonetheless, his profession to Varis had been true; he truly did want to live up to the Count’s expectations. He
wanted to impress him. Despite the way he’d been toyed with and treated so far, Aaron was a devoted man; devoted to his service, and devoted to his master. Serving and serving well was what Aaron thought to be his calling in life. To him, there was honour in service. A certain dignity. Those values had been instilled into him from childhood, and into his family from the earliest days of the Treaty. Indeed, if he were suddenly free, as the humans were or even the vampires, he probably wouldn’t know what to do.
It was those values that were at the core of the conflict raging inside him as he slipped into a pair of pajama bottoms, opting to stay shirtless, picked a journal and a pen off his bookshelf and made his way to his remarkably large bed. He wanted to be a good attendant, but the human inside him bristled at the disrespect. He knew it was a ridiculous gripe; he would be justified in his annoyance if it were a human or a fellow mage to treat him like that, but he knew he had no real claim to any standard of treatment when it came to vampires. Whatever respect or consideration he got was a kindness on the vampire’s part. He’d been raised around exceptionally kind vampires, but he knew he should know better than to expect the same treatment from the rest of the world.
When he finally collapsed into bed, he considered writing his usual nightly entry in his journal, but ultimately decided against it for now and put the journal and pen on the bedside table. His mind had been running around in circles all night, and the very thought of putting those thoughts to paper right then was exhausting on its own. It was earlier than normal for him to be going to bed, but the night’s events had taken a toll on him.
He turned off the lamp to his side, letting the room plunge into darkness, setting an alarm on his phone to 7:15pm before putting it away as well. When he rolled onto his back, staring up at the total darkness, a different thought entirely came to mind. A thought of long white hair and pretty sapphire eyes looking up at him without malice, of a soft pale hand in his and a gentle voice he could still hear in his head saying a name he couldn’t seem to forget.
Lilie.He just tried not to think of the vampire’s hand that had weaved its way through her hair like a snake in the grass. He would have preferred it if that hand had been his.
~ / / / ~
The day eventually passed, sound sleep turning fitful throughout the day as Aaron tossed and turned, not really sleeping but not really awake. He didn't dream, but he was restless nonetheless until his 7:15 alarm finally pulled him all the way into the real world once again. Not one to stay in bed after waking up, he got up and immediately went about his evening routine, showering, brushing his teeth, and the like. He didn't need to shave tonight, which gave him some extra time to look over the contents of the envelope on his vanity. As he pulled on his clothes (a pair of khakis and a rust-red cardigan over a white button-up) he skimmed over the letter and focused on the schedule, taking a picture of it with his phone once he was done in case he needed a reference later.
It was about 7:45 when he left his room, noticing immediately that streams of deep orange sunlight lit up the hallway from the living room. With sudden urgency Aaron rushed to the living room, quickly securing the heavy velvet curtains over the windows. Varis must have forgotten to close them before he went to bed, or maybe he'd expected Aaron to do it. He made a mental note to make sure they'd been taken care of at the end of the night; the last thing he needed was Varis bursting into flame on account of an oversight.
He did hold open the last curtain for a second to admire the orange and red splash of the sunset over the trees. If he was one for visual arts, it was a scene he would have gladly painted. But he'd never been much good at that, and he didn't want to keep the curtain open much longer in case Varis emerged early from his room and got a face full of ambient sunlight. It definitely wouldn't reflect well on him.
The sunlight seemed to be caught in his eyes for a second in the form of a faint yellow glow as he turned them away from the sunset, disappearing after a few blinks. Once he'd secured the last curtain the room fell back into blackness, and Aaron had to use his phone flashlight to find the light switch. When he flicked it on, the room gradually brightened with soft off-white light, which he recognized immediately to be from full-spectrum bulbs. A nice touch, considering there would be mages living in these dorms who needed some replacement for daylight, both for their physical health and their mental well-being. It was also nice to know Aaron wouldn't need to set up his own lights, which was always a pain. He guessed that the regular student dorms had them as well.
He took the time with the house empty to explore a little more. He was familiar with the study, but he looked around the dining room, the sitting room, and the kitchen, finding everything lovely. He particularly liked the light colour scheme of soft whites and golds. The house wasn't overly large; a good size for two people but snug enough to be comfortable. Overall, he quite liked it, and some of the excitement he'd felt the night before about living on his own was starting to creep back.
After he'd finished exploring the house, he heard a deep rumble outside followed shortly after by a sharp knock on the front door. Brow furrowed, Aaron checked his watch as he walked to the door. It was eight o'clock on the dot, and the memory suddenly returned to him about the food delivery he was supposed to be expecting. Sure enough, when Aaron opened the door he was met with a middle-aged woman in a leather jacket holding an insulated delivery bag in one hand and a clipboard with the other.
"Sign there please." she stated flatly.
"Oh yeah, of course," Aaron replied as he scrawled his signature where the woman indicated.
The woman made an affirmative noise somewhere in the back of her throat and opened the delivery bag, carefully pulling out a warm paper box that smelled of strawberries and a metallic pouch of coffee and thrusting them into Aaron's arms.
She turned and left, mounting a motorcycle at the curb, as Aaron arranged the box and pouch on one arm.
"Thank you!" he called after her, just before her motorcycle roared to life.
He went back inside, closing the door behind him carefully so as not to drop his packages, and made his way to the kitchen where he set the box down on the counter and went about getting the coffee machine running, skimming over the instructions on the pouch as he did so. Once he had the coffee machine bubbling away, he opened the box on the counter, greeted as promised by the sweet aroma of strawberry danishes. There were two of them, fairly large, golden and overflowing with cream cheese and syrupy strawberries. The smell filled the kitchen and Aaron felt a flutter of excitement; he didn't normally get to eat decadent foods like these.
The coffee machine beeped softly and he rushed over to it, pulling a mug and a small plate from a cupboard and taking a seat at the kitchen island once he had his coffee in hand. He pulled over the danish box, put one on the plate and started eating the other. Much to his delight, it tasted as good as it looked; a pleased little smile curled the corners of his lips as he chewed, careful not to get any crumbs on the counter.
As he ate he pulled out his phone, skimming over the morning news. There wasn't anything special, mostly headlines about the current Council negotiations and some gossip about the new Academy students. Apparently word had already gotten out that one noble from each house would be there this year, and there were some rumours that the royal family had made a "contribution" as well that Aaron wasn't particularly fond of. He didn't let it get to him; gossip would fly no matter what. The articles were mostly speculation and the mage tired of them quickly, but there wasn't much else to look at.
