Would you love a Monsterman? (Avdol x Polnareff)

Heart to un-beating heart

Despite the embarrassing bumper sticker, Polnareff drove on towards Fresno. As they drove out of LA, the urban sprawl retreated, soon replaced by suburbs- terrifying in their clone-like sameness, like an army of little identical houses and blank green lawns. The suburbs soon petered out, and by the time that they had reached Sulphur Springs, it was nothing but mountains and trees. Polnareff fiddled with the radio, and found a station playing sweet, mushy love songs. The night air was warm and sweet, like a spoonful of wildflower honey, and the two men were happy to sit in companionable silence as they drove on. Polnareff's mind wandered to a film he'd seen back in the 90s, in which the female lead had said that being able to share silence was the sign of finding someone truly special, a cigarette clasped in her glamorous fingers as she did so. It seemed to him that those words were true, as he'd never felt safer than by Avdol's side.

Looking over to the vampire at the wheel, Avdol gave a soft smile. The fact that he'd found someone to talk to- the first person in 4,000 years to do so with him- was in itself a relief, but the fact that the said person was also happy to simply spend time with him, and even offer him a place to live? Avdol had never known such kindness before in his life. Whenever Pharaoh or his queen had done anything kind for him, there had always been strings attached. In fact, everything they did had strings attatched- tell their fortune or they'd cut off his water rations, read their palms or they'd make him sleep outside in the dust. To simply have someone do something nice for him because they genuinely wanted to was alien to him, totally unknown. And yet here he was, sitting in a newish car with a lewd bumper sticker, driving through California on a warm October night. Life was good... and yet Avdol still carried that past misery within his chest, weighing him down like a chunk of lead.

Signs advertising corn mazes and "pick your own pumpkin" patches cropped up along the roadside as the car headed towards Fresno. The buildings grew taller and taller as they approached, and Polnareff found an all-night car park deep in the forest that surrounded the city. After paying for the fee and (unsuccessfully) parallel parking, Polnareff sat back, and looked at Avdol.
"What's eating you?" He asked. Avdol's usually serene face was marked with worry.
"Nothing. I'm a preserved mummy, maggots can't get to me." He replied, trying to steer around the subject. Polnareff wasn't fooled though, and raised one eyebrow.
"You know what I mean, Momo. You look worried." Jean said, taking the mummy's bandaged hand in his.
"I... I...." Avdol took a deep breath, then the floodgates broke and he let out what he'd been bottling up.
"Are you only nice to me because you want something out of me?!" He blurted out. He couldn't cry as he was too dried out, and yet the mummy visibly crumpled into a ball, hands over his eyes. Polnareff was shocked at his usually calm companion showing such an outburst of pure woe, and immediately went to hug him.
"Avdol, no! I'd never do that!" He cried, hugging the mummy close.
"That was such a stupid thing to say! I'm... I'm sorry for bothering you, and I'm sorry for being so stupid!" Avdol spluttered, covering up his emotions the way he'd been forced to as a child.
"Momo, you're not stupid. You're a psychic, your knowledge is potentially infinite! And I'm nice to you because it's the right thing to do, and you deserve happiness." Avdol looked up at Jean, and took a deep breath.
"I was always told to hide my feelings and not show any emotions. I was told that it was weak and stupid to feel sad... I guess that stuck with me. Sorry." Being nearly constantly berated as a child had led to Avdol compulsively apologising if he'd done something wrong, as he felt that he was to blame.
"Don't apologise, you've done nothing wrong. And I won't ever leave you, or force you to do anything, Momo. I'm your friend- it's what I'm here for." Polnareff hugged Avdol again, and the mummy smiled through the pain.
"A friend... my first friend."

Polnareff pulled off from the hug, and looked Avdol in the eyes. He needed to share something too, something that had hurt him every day for hundreds of years.
"You're not the only one who blames themself when something goes wrong. I... my sister was killed by the vampire that turned me into what I am today. I was a knight, I tried to protect her- but it wasn't enough. Every day I've blamed myself for her death, and I see it as my duty to keep her memory alive. I've never talked about her, though. I'm the only one who remembers her at all- our village was wiped out by the plague."
"What was her name?" Avdol asked.
"Sherry."
"Then she can live in my mind as well. I won't forget about her, although I never met her- that way, she'll never truly be gone." Polnareff wiped a tear from his eye, and looked up at Avdol.
"I... I should talk about her, really. If I die, her memory will go with me. I'm gonna tell Joseph, Jotaro and Noriaki about her when I get home, so that she'll live on in their minds as well."
"Nobody's really dead until they're forgotten, Jean-Pierre." Avdol said, his hands on Polnareff's shoulders.
"Speak for yourself... my heart doesn't beat and I have no relatives alive to remember me."
"As do I, Polnareff. But you are still living to me, as I could never forget about someone as special as you."

Polnareff was stunned by these words, and wiped his face with his fist.
"That's beautiful, Momo. And how could I ever forget about you... Mon Momie"
"And I'll always remember you, Ahati."
"Ahati... what does that mean?" Polnareff asked.
"It means soldier... but it can also mean my knight in shining armour."
The vampire blushed at this, then cleared his throat and turned to his companion.
"Well, it's only midnight, and there's a few hours until dawn. How about we go cheer ourselves up and find a late-night cinema?"
"Sounds like perfection." Avdol replied. They got out of the car and locked it, only for some teens in a convertible to honk at them the minute they saw the bumper sticker. Polnareff sighed, and gave an angry hiss.
"And remind me to do something about that damned sticker!"