Plans

AN: This is part of a series, so I shall explain the characters:

Ailill-- "I", the mage prince; in love with Aidan

Aidan-- a half-vampire; in love with Ailill

Daniel-- Aidan's son from another dimension. That's just complicated. (And no, his mother is not Ailill. That'd be silly.)

Zedanei-- the mage king; Ailill's father

"her"-- Daniel's mommy

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All along, I’d had a plan. I mean, it hadn’t seemed like I had anything in mind for the future, but really I did. I even wrote down my plans for the future in a black and red notebook.

I was twenty-one and he was seventeen. It was criminal. It was socially unacceptable. It was right.

I’d soon turn twenty-two. I knew what he was planning, but I didn’t let on. It would be special, I knew. As special as it could be.

When he was eighteen, we’d move out. Together. We’d live in a lovely little house in the city, hunched between a nice bookstore and a romantic French restaurant. Would we get married? Maybe. If we could. Either way, we’d exchange rings as a symbol of our love. Because love was all that really mattered.

When we got settled in our house, we’d get a cat. Because he likes cats. A very cute cat with big green-yellow eyes, and he’d probably give it a disgustingly cute name. Then, of course, I’d have to kiss him on the cheek— because he’s just so adorable… which, of course, would lead to more kissing, and then Fluffbunches would be completely forgotten. Hopefully we’d feed poor Fluffbunches before I started kissing him. I wouldn’t want Fluffbunches to starve to death waiting for us to feed him.

When he was twenty-five, and I was thirty, we might start adopting some brats. Cute, well-behaved brats, though. He might like children, but I certainly don’t like them. Or at least the ones who call you names and kick you in the shins before running away. Our children will have good manners. We’d raise them with love and compassion and all that stuff Aidan knows about that I don’t really understand because my daddy was just a little crazy and was too busy being diabolical to give me fatherly love… and when they turned eighteen they’d leave and go on to do miraculous and important things and we’d get Father of the Year awards… OK, well, maybe not.

By then, he’d be forty-five or so, depending on how many children we adopted, and I’d be fifty. Of course we wouldn’t look that old—no, we’d appear to be in our late twenties. That’s thanks to the magic of humanoid aging. Anyway, though, we’d retire from parenting and whatever else we’d been doing and spend the rest of our lives happily together. Our kids would visit us on Sunday afternoons and eat lunch with us.

We’d live an idyllic life until we died at exactly the same time, several decades later. Maybe even a century later, I dunno.

…But so much for my carefully laid plans.

I licked the blood from my lips, glancing down at my stomach. It was funny, how I couldn’t move. Well, not really funny. There’s nothing amusing about having a sword through your stomach that is also conveniently pinning you to the wall.

“Daddy…” I choked out, coughing theatrically (and also because the blood pouring from my mouth wasn’t too keen on making a peaceful journey down my lips, but rather tried to get stuck in my throat). “…I… I know you never really loved me… but I didn’t think you hated me… enough to kill me,” I said weakly, turning my wide amber eyes toward my father, King Zedanei.

Yes, people. That was guilt. I’d offer to teach you just how to pull off something like that, except that in a few minutes I’ll be dead.

Zedanei stared at me, his whole body shaking violently. “W-what? What are you doing with that sword in your stomach? Did… did I do that? I couldn’t have, I couldn’t have, I couldn’t have… I…” With a strangled yell Zedanei covered his head with his hands and ran from the room.

…Wow. That’s an interesting spot on the wall. It’s shaped like a bunny rabbit. Footsteps were racing toward me, but I didn’t recognize the sound of the tread, and so I knew it couldn’t be Aidan. Instead, when I looked up, I saw a very pretty red-haired boy. I’d be lying if I said he wasn’t attractive, but really—Aidan and I are criminal enough for me. Oh, and the fact that I’m helplessly in love with his father would also prevent that… tee-hee.

His eyes widened in shock. Apparently he doesn’t often see people pinned to the wall, with swords through their stomachs. Pity. It’s quite a creative way to kill someone, really. Father gets a couple points for thinking of it. The uneven, tottering run he broke into as he rushed to my side was almost comical…

…God, I want to cry.

“Hello,” I said, tasting the blood on my lips as I did so.

“Ailill!” he cried, his voice coming out high-pitched and screeching. He yanked powerfully on the sword, but I weakly put a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t bother; it won’t work. Besides, I’ll die faster if it comes out… and I want to see Aidan before it’s over…”

Daniel’s eyes were filling with tears, but he finally nodded. “Did Zedanei do this?” he asked quietly.

I nodded.

“…I love you, Ailill…” he said. I raised an eyebrow. “In a platonic, brother-father-uncle-y way. I… oh, why did it have to be this way?”

Giving a half-hearted shrug, I turned my head to the door Zedanei had left by. “You should go.”

“…yes. I should.” Daniel harshly rubbed the tears away with his fist, before standing on tiptoe and kissing my cheek. I put a hand on his back—it was the best imitation of a hug I could manage.

“And don’t worry,” he said, pulling back and turning away, “Aidan is on his way.”

I dully watched him leave, then twiddled my thumbs mentally and waited for Aidan to arrive. My heart soared as I heard the familiar, uneven pace that meant only one thing—my Aidan had come. He stepped through the door a moment later, and I heard his short gasps. He had run the whole way.

Sapphire eyes dilated in horror. “Ailill…” he wheezed.

I opened my shaking arms to him.

“AILILL!” he screamed. “No! No, no, NO!” He crashed into my arms in an instant; more blood was squeezed from my body upon impact. It dripped from my mouth into his hair as he pressed his face against my neck.

“It’s OK, Aidan… it’s better this way…”

He stared at me, tears running down his face. “How? HOW COULD THIS BE GOOD?!”

“…This way, you don’t have to choose. You can be with her.”

“I don’t want to be with her if you’re dead!”

“Aidan…” I warned, but it came out more as a piteous squeak.

“…I love you,” he whispered, voice full of suppressed emotion. The blonde squeezed me tighter, causing my chest to constrict painfully. I realized that my organs were beginning to shut down.

“…so much,” I said, brushing my lips against his forehead. Standing on tiptoe, Aidan leaned up and pressed his lips firmly against mine. There was never even the pretense of keeping our mouths closed—the precious time we had was fast running out as it was. It was invasive, all of it, and he clung tightly to me, slender fingers curled in the locks of my hair.

He gagged on the blood in my mouth before deciding he should lap it up before it fell from my lips…

Feeling the end had come, I gently pushed him away. Aidan had cried even during our kiss, and the evidence was on both our faces. Weakly I trailed a finger across his cheek, trying to wipe the tears away, but finding that my fine motor skills were pretty much gone as I ended up somewhere near his chin instead.

“…now smile,” I rasped, my voice barely audible over his harsh breathing.

“What?”

“Smile… I want my last memory of you to be a smile… one of those beautiful, true smiles that I hardly ever get to see anymore…”

“I can’t smile, Ailill… not while you’re dying…”

Tears finally blurred my vision. “Please, Aidan… I need… to see… your smiling face…”

Aidan did his best to smile through his tears. “I’m trying really hard, Ailill.” My upper half pitched forward as my strength atrophied, and Aidan caught me awkwardly. “…I love you so much more than I could ever let you know, Ailill,” he whispered, and I finally saw his lips part to show his teeth. “I love you, love you, love you…”

I felt my lips upturning slightly, because I couldn’t manage anything else. “…Seeing you smile like that… I don’t care whether I can get into heaven or not… because… you’re my heaven… Aidan…” I gasped out before black dots filled my eyes and the warmth of Aidan’s body seemed to get farther and farther and away…

Aidan’s distant scream of despair was the last thing I heard.

This was certainly not part of my plan.