"Blondie, you still do," Lestat is a fucking mystery to Daniel still in most ways, let's be real, "and if you don't continue to know him he's probably going to explode like the world's glittery-est IED."
A man like a teakettle. Screaming when left alone for too long, and the timer on it goes much faster when you stop paying attention. Armand, though. The person Daniel saw immediately is starkly different than the person Louis met in Paris, is different than the person that Louis shared a life with for nearly a century. And the person Daniel saw is turning out to be more real. What does all that mean?
Nothing good. Possibly interesting, but Daniel is trying very hard not to turn this into a thing where he ends up thinking of Armand as somebody he can get an angle on and figure out. It's easier to keep this facade up in front of Louis, where he can just be angry about everything, where he can't take mental notes on Armand's otherworldly oddities.
"Yeah. That's what I was worried about. I'd like to avoid intervening. Are we on the same page there?"
Lying sucks and Daniel is bad at it, but if they just don't mention it, maybe Armand will continue to ignore him. Hiding a surprise body every so often it's the worst he could be made to endure. Here's where he has to hope Louis doesn't find a new path to guilt, by the way, and put together that Daniel's 'It's fine because he can't fuck with me' line is pretty feeble in the face of Armand actively fucking with him.
A reassurance that carries more weight coming from Daniel. Daniel has a gift for insight. He has seen what Louis didn't, couldn't.
He can let this deflect the most immediate of his worries, for the moment.
"I don't want him hurt," Louis says. Agreement.
Louis can't pretend to know Armand, to know what he would do. But he thinks there must be some resentment, some fury, for Lestat in all of his. Maybe he would be another way in which Armand punished Louis for the wreckage of their long companionship, punished as Daniel was punished for his role bringing it about.
"We should keep it at least until we leave the city," Louis proposes. "Things are more difficult in less populated areas. We'll have some distance from him."
Though what is really difficult for Armand, who walks in the sun?
The faintest tinge of skepticism, but it's not directed at Louis. The whole situation makes him uneasy— too many variables. A part of him wishes it would happen when he was alone, but he doesn't understand that desire. He should want it all to stop, for Armand to vanish.
Right?
(He should ask more about the bond.)
"If anything else happens, if there's a need to explain— you know, that's fine. Path of least resistance away from conflict. Don't put yourself in any danger, either."
The words coalescing so smoothly, instinct bypassing conscious thought: Armand has never hurt me.
Louis has to struggle to swallow it back. (Struggles with the parts of him that believe it to be true.) Looks away from Daniel, reorders the lay of his fingers over his knee. Little movements, none of which manage to detract from the statue-like quality of Louis' affect in this moment.
"I'm not in danger from him," Louis says finally. "I'd like to be certain the same is true for you."
A slippery motherfucker, Armand. Even after all this, and they know, each victim is sitting here and thinking I'd probably be fine. Morons.
"Hey." A little lean forward. Daniel fixes Louis with a look. "I know you can kick his ass."
Which is not him fooling himself, he's pretty sure. Armand may be capable of more, but is he capable of getting there first? Of not hesitating, before Louis just lets go? Armand seems to have hesitated over everything, all the good things and the worst things, drawn it out and hedged his bets. (Except turning Daniel. He had gotten up and walked towards him without pause—)
"But that's still fucking yourself up more over this guy. Okay? I don't want either of us to be there. I don't feel threatened by him, I promise you. Maybe that's fucking bonkers of me, I don't know. But let's get through it. I want to have hope about it."
That Armand has forgiven him the role he'd played in breaking apart what Armand had held for seventy-seven years? For tossing that script onto the table?
Has he forgiven Louis for casting him out? For seeing him and all that he'd done, and refusing to be lulled back into complacency?
Would he forgive Lestat for being easily found?
Louis thinks no. But it is as he said. How well does he really know Armand, even after all this time?
"I'm hoping that you don't have to continue in a fucking ping-pong game of abuse."
Vampires make it complex, but the heart of it is tragically simple. Daniel spotted it when he was a stupid kid. Louis got his heart broken over his first love. Now he knows he probably broke Lestat's heart, too. That their relationship was mutually (if still lop-sided) abusive. His relationship with Armand was, too, even though it expressed itself in a very different way.
"You didn't kill Armand. You walked away from that and towards healing. Is it childish of me to hope that can be the trajectory? For everybody?"
Daniel has ruined two marriages. He never beat the shit out of either of his wives (i dont actually know this im just choosing to trust itd have come up), but he was cruel, and unfair, and neglectful, and combative. Regular awful shit, without any nightmare supernatural shit. Maybe it's not comparable enough. But he has some real empathy here. Lessons learned much too late for his own attempts.
If I had killed him, he wouldn't have been able to hurt you.
That's not something Daniel is going to be able to hear. Louis' regrets are his own. He lets them slip away, leaving some space for fondness to warm his expression as he looks back at Daniel.
"No," Louis tells him. "Optimistic, but not childish."
What does healing look like for Louis? Taking the relief and understanding Daniel gifted to him and parlaying it into something else, a way he could move through the world, that is something Louis has no guidance for.
And Armand—
"I'm not going back to him, Daniel. But if he wants my attention, I'd sooner he have that than yours."
"You say that, but it was pretty unsettling watching him have your attention for two weeks."
Was Armand editing Louis' brain in realtime, right in front of him? So many odd moments. Loud arguments followed by serene evenings. A ruinous reveal transitioning into Louis being on the verge of forgiving Armand. Daniel has gone around in circles trying to decide if his own memory of those days in Dubai are all real—
And they seem to be, which is just fucking bizarre. He's had to decide that he thinks Armand simply didn't see him as a threat, because what else is the explanation, there. It seems unlikely that Armand enjoyed their hostile back and forths.
"But I'll lay off. I know you can handle yourself. Just... try to go on day by day, huh? Night by night, rather."
In the wake of this offering, Louis reaches over to catch Daniel's hand. Lace their fingers together.
"I ain't asking you to lay off. I don't think you're capable of it."
Louis had given Daniel a kind of gift, hadn't he? But the need to know is intrinsic. It had been there from the start. Daniel and his tape recorder, curious enough to accept Louis' invitation home.
Daniel will ask his questions. Louis has no desire to stop him.
"Just promise me you aren't going to try to placate him on your own. Please."
It's cute when his accent comes out. Even if makes Daniel thinks he is still very much spoiling for a fight. Nevertheless, what Louis says makes him laugh, because no. He probably isn't capable of laying off.
He squeezes Louis' hand, and then reaches out with his other to touch the side of his face. Holding there for a moment, looking at him.
"No placating. No fighting. Deal?"
is this bow territory or is there a little more gas in the tank?
Is this a habit forming? It's a welcome little touch, Daniel's fingers at his face. Prompts a slight smile, a loosening of tension in his body. Satisfied with the holding pattern they've established, that it will see them to the next stop on Daniel's tour at the very least.
"Yes," Louis acquiesces, the slight tip of his head into Daniel's fingers as he confirms, "Deal."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
A man like a teakettle. Screaming when left alone for too long, and the timer on it goes much faster when you stop paying attention. Armand, though. The person Daniel saw immediately is starkly different than the person Louis met in Paris, is different than the person that Louis shared a life with for nearly a century. And the person Daniel saw is turning out to be more real. What does all that mean?
Nothing good. Possibly interesting, but Daniel is trying very hard not to turn this into a thing where he ends up thinking of Armand as somebody he can get an angle on and figure out. It's easier to keep this facade up in front of Louis, where he can just be angry about everything, where he can't take mental notes on Armand's otherworldly oddities.
"Yeah. That's what I was worried about. I'd like to avoid intervening. Are we on the same page there?"
Lying sucks and Daniel is bad at it, but if they just don't mention it, maybe Armand will continue to ignore him. Hiding a surprise body every so often it's the worst he could be made to endure. Here's where he has to hope Louis doesn't find a new path to guilt, by the way, and put together that Daniel's 'It's fine because he can't fuck with me' line is pretty feeble in the face of Armand actively fucking with him.
no subject
He can let this deflect the most immediate of his worries, for the moment.
"I don't want him hurt," Louis says. Agreement.
Louis can't pretend to know Armand, to know what he would do. But he thinks there must be some resentment, some fury, for Lestat in all of his. Maybe he would be another way in which Armand punished Louis for the wreckage of their long companionship, punished as Daniel was punished for his role bringing it about.
"We should keep it at least until we leave the city," Louis proposes. "Things are more difficult in less populated areas. We'll have some distance from him."
Though what is really difficult for Armand, who walks in the sun?
no subject
The faintest tinge of skepticism, but it's not directed at Louis. The whole situation makes him uneasy— too many variables. A part of him wishes it would happen when he was alone, but he doesn't understand that desire. He should want it all to stop, for Armand to vanish.
Right?
(He should ask more about the bond.)
"If anything else happens, if there's a need to explain— you know, that's fine. Path of least resistance away from conflict. Don't put yourself in any danger, either."
No intervention from Louis either.
no subject
The words coalescing so smoothly, instinct bypassing conscious thought: Armand has never hurt me.
Louis has to struggle to swallow it back. (Struggles with the parts of him that believe it to be true.) Looks away from Daniel, reorders the lay of his fingers over his knee. Little movements, none of which manage to detract from the statue-like quality of Louis' affect in this moment.
"I'm not in danger from him," Louis says finally. "I'd like to be certain the same is true for you."
no subject
"Hey." A little lean forward. Daniel fixes Louis with a look. "I know you can kick his ass."
Which is not him fooling himself, he's pretty sure. Armand may be capable of more, but is he capable of getting there first? Of not hesitating, before Louis just lets go? Armand seems to have hesitated over everything, all the good things and the worst things, drawn it out and hedged his bets. (Except turning Daniel. He had gotten up and walked towards him without pause—)
"But that's still fucking yourself up more over this guy. Okay? I don't want either of us to be there. I don't feel threatened by him, I promise you. Maybe that's fucking bonkers of me, I don't know. But let's get through it. I want to have hope about it."
Stupid. Stupid. But nobody can see the future.
no subject
That Armand has forgiven him the role he'd played in breaking apart what Armand had held for seventy-seven years? For tossing that script onto the table?
Has he forgiven Louis for casting him out? For seeing him and all that he'd done, and refusing to be lulled back into complacency?
Would he forgive Lestat for being easily found?
Louis thinks no. But it is as he said. How well does he really know Armand, even after all this time?
no subject
Vampires make it complex, but the heart of it is tragically simple. Daniel spotted it when he was a stupid kid. Louis got his heart broken over his first love. Now he knows he probably broke Lestat's heart, too. That their relationship was mutually (if still lop-sided) abusive. His relationship with Armand was, too, even though it expressed itself in a very different way.
"You didn't kill Armand. You walked away from that and towards healing. Is it childish of me to hope that can be the trajectory? For everybody?"
Daniel has ruined two marriages. He never beat the shit out of either of his wives (i dont actually know this im just choosing to trust itd have come up), but he was cruel, and unfair, and neglectful, and combative. Regular awful shit, without any nightmare supernatural shit. Maybe it's not comparable enough. But he has some real empathy here. Lessons learned much too late for his own attempts.
no subject
If I had killed him, he wouldn't have been able to hurt you.
That's not something Daniel is going to be able to hear. Louis' regrets are his own. He lets them slip away, leaving some space for fondness to warm his expression as he looks back at Daniel.
"No," Louis tells him. "Optimistic, but not childish."
What does healing look like for Louis? Taking the relief and understanding Daniel gifted to him and parlaying it into something else, a way he could move through the world, that is something Louis has no guidance for.
And Armand—
"I'm not going back to him, Daniel. But if he wants my attention, I'd sooner he have that than yours."
no subject
Was Armand editing Louis' brain in realtime, right in front of him? So many odd moments. Loud arguments followed by serene evenings. A ruinous reveal transitioning into Louis being on the verge of forgiving Armand. Daniel has gone around in circles trying to decide if his own memory of those days in Dubai are all real—
And they seem to be, which is just fucking bizarre. He's had to decide that he thinks Armand simply didn't see him as a threat, because what else is the explanation, there. It seems unlikely that Armand enjoyed their hostile back and forths.
"But I'll lay off. I know you can handle yourself. Just... try to go on day by day, huh? Night by night, rather."
no subject
"I ain't asking you to lay off. I don't think you're capable of it."
Louis had given Daniel a kind of gift, hadn't he? But the need to know is intrinsic. It had been there from the start. Daniel and his tape recorder, curious enough to accept Louis' invitation home.
Daniel will ask his questions. Louis has no desire to stop him.
"Just promise me you aren't going to try to placate him on your own. Please."
no subject
He squeezes Louis' hand, and then reaches out with his other to touch the side of his face. Holding there for a moment, looking at him.
"No placating. No fighting. Deal?"
is this bow territory or is there a little more gas in the tank?
"Yes," Louis acquiesces, the slight tip of his head into Daniel's fingers as he confirms, "Deal."
🎀