PHOENIX. [sequel to 067]

19. the moments before.

it's been a few days since dottore and you had pleased each other, and so far, you didn't mind giving yourself to him. you were so vulnerable then, so under his control, and you haven't regretted it a single bit.

the days pass all the same, on a schedule. in the mornings and most of the afternoon, you'd be with zandium. the therapies seem to have been helping, as your movements were gaining in speed and weren't as awkward to perform. it was rough, at first. the first time you met zandium, he asked you out the bat to do difficult - for you - tasks, such as running and skipping. he said it was for him to see how bad off you were, but now? he's doing it all over again.

   "i need you to run, baby boy," zandium sighs as his hand rests on his hip. that clipboard of his clung onto his side tightly with the same hand on his hip, as if he's expecting himself to use it at some point or another.

  ".. nuh uh," you shake your head to each of its sides slowly as he speaks. running is off the table completely; you already fell so much when trying to jump, alone.

  "i won't tell zandi- dottore, sorry, about how much you fall," zandium sighs after correcting himself.

you couldn't help but raise a brow at the name, but you know you wouldn't get an answer out of zandium if you were to ask him. zandium is a nice person, of course, but he hardly talked about himself. he always made it about you, and when you'd ask about him and his life, it always shifted back towards you. so, this probably wouldn't be any different.

  "it's really fast walking, that's all you got to do baby boy, c'mon," zandium says as he tosses the flimsy clipboard off towards the side, "i'll do it with you. you can hold onto me while we do."

a sigh draws from your lips before you and him run together. or well, he runs, you trial behind him. your hand drapes itself around his waist to hold onto him as you attempt to move your legs in the same motion as him. so far, you didn't fall.

you didn't fall, and that's something. if you're to be honest with yourself, you expected to fall. you expected that you would fall over, even when you held onto zandium. you struggled with walking at a faster pace, but you did do a while ago, so you assumed this would fall, naturally.

   "see? look at you go, baby boy, you're doing so good."

 

a sigh draws from dottore as he quickly flips through his wardrobe, full of purely different styled lab coats. if you didn't know any better, you'd say that being a scientist is his only personality trait.

   "fuck, my darling!" dottore calls out to you as his head snaps his head back towards you. an unpleased look appears on his face, "can you help me?"

  "with finding a different lab coat to where?" you comment as you get off from his bed. the bed is more like your bed, now, as it's where you mostly dwelled when you didn't have the energy to go anywhere else.

you've seen most of this place while dottore was busy and you had the free time. sure, physical therapy is exhausting, but the progress you were making was letting you find all sorts of little secrets. like how some bookshelves were doors, or how some of the larger paintings hide a locked trapdoor. you would explore said areas, but you didn't want to get lost.

but you definitely made a note of them. you practically knew where the ones, that you found, are by heart. the false bookshelves are often thinner than the rest, or they seem a little out of place with a different shade of wood.

    "with helping me get dressed. if i don't 'look appealing' for this little dinner that witch planned, i'm fucked," dottore grumbles, mumbling under his breath about the dinner and the tsaritsa, you assume.
  
   "why does it matter?"

    "the other fucking archons are coming."

    "why? that's stupid."

     "do i look like i know? honestly? do i?" dottore groans as he finally yanks an article of clothing out of his closet, holding it up to his chest, "yes? no? ugly?"

     "it looks fine, you're fine," you reassure him as you draw close to him. in a few seconds your hands are on his chest, and your lips are planted on those pale cheeks of his.

     "well, if you keep acting like this, my sweet boy, then i guess i am fine," dottore hums as he tosses the clothing aside to wrap his arms around you. his fingers trail down your back slowly, while the other pushes you further towards his lengthy body.

   "i swear i remember my sweet boy from somewhere," you admit to him with a small sigh. it's true, everytime he calls you it, you feel like there's a reason you remember those words, specifically. you wish your brain would recollect the memories, like how they did in dottore's office.

though, you read in a book somewhere, that sometimes the brain refuses to remember traumatic moments. you read that in a specific book, one about psychology you found near zandium, and the line just sort of stuck;

  "the human brain is full of great wonders and one of the biggest, is it's defensive mechanism, blocking out traumatic events in its' memory."

you highly doubt dottore ... did anything traumatic to you, with how he acts with you now, but perhaps someone else called you it? that could be the case. you don't know, not for sure, at least.

    "i called you it all the time, darling," dottore hums as he places a few quick pecks to your lips. it doesn't take long for him to shift his attention back to the wardrobe and away from you, "do you think too much black would be poor for a dinner? well, i'm forced to go. it doesn't fucking matter."

   "wear what you want," you shrug your shoulders.

    "you know how to behave, don't you?" dottore questions. a small groan leaves his throat once he doesn't get a concrete response from you, "don't speak unless spoken to at the dinner. you ... weren't originally going to be invited, but you were in the meeting, and the tsaritsa wishes to show you off with how i resurrected you. so keep quiet, okay? the other archons won't care about what you have to say."

   "you're being ... awfully rude, all of a sudden."

    "you'll get used to it."

_____

small filler <3
but anyways, back to plot-y
OH and there's going to be a special lil thing for 067 almost having 10k and for this fic almost having 5k 💞
thank you all sm for all the support honestly, im glad you all love this series as much as i do
xoxo salem