Love Thirst

XVII- The Advances

"Italics"=Romanian

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Breathy sighs escaped from the pink lips belonging to Euthymius as his pale hands wrote his reports of recent missions in full detail with his favourite blue quill, hours passing by him in his office.

A full week had passed since his misunderstanding with Vladimir, the occurrence had taken over his thoughts and worries especially when he encountered the blond and something flashed in his eyes before running away to the opposite side of the castle.

Euthymius considered himself a focused individual, but something about the memory of fearful vivid eyes seemed to burn his every morning, afternoon and night, haunting him like a ghost.

He heard a knock on the door and by the enchanting smell of pine and mint, he recognised it was Stefan. "Come in." He answered immediately, after fixing his hair slightly.

When he glanced at his table, he noticed he had finished writing everything he needed and frowned slightly.

"Hello." At the sound of his melodic voice, his shoulders relaxed immediately, peering at him through his eyelashes in a shy manner.

The black-haired man pushed his papers to the side, and gestured for the brunette to sit across from him. "Hello."

"You've been very busy, I figured I would check how you were." Stefan confessed looking around the room before landing his big eyes on his mate who was watching him in interest.

A chuckle escaped him and he leaned his chin on his hand awaiting him in his desk."Yes, life with the Volturi isn't just of luxury, there's quite a lot of paperwork we have to fill out after each mission."  He relayed on him. "I apologise, lately I have been distracted from everything and didn't have time to visit you."

"Distracted? Is there something worrying you?" Obviously there was, but Stefan wanted to ask and help his mate who seemed to be frowning throughout the week.

"Well yes, however I don't want to bother you with my thoughts, surely I would bore you." He said lowly in a trance without realising he hadn't just thought it.

"Nonsense. I'm your mate, I'm here to help you if you wish, I couldn't be bored by anything you say." Stefan professed, placing his hand gently on top of Euthymius one.

At that moment the Volturi male felt his chest warm up and a small smile grew on his face before he cleared his throat.

"The other day, I was on my atelier, thinking of beggining a new statue." His eyes met with Stefan to make sure he was listening. "I didn't know what to sculpt untill Vladimir came in and I decided to begin a plan for his sculpture."He stopped watching his reaction, a bright expression on the brunet's face.

"That's great! It's a great way for you two to begin talking." Stefan exclaimed genuinely, squeezing his hand.

"Yes it is. We did talk for a bit and decided to take a small break so I took a cigarette and offered him one, problem is when I light up the flame on my lighter he goes into a panic attack and starts struggling to breathe. I try to help Vladimir but he rushed off and we haven't talked since, it honestly seems like he is ignoring me."

"Oh Euthymius." The romanian lamented and sighed before leaning forward slightly to start talking in Romanian. "Vladimir is afraid of fire, ever since your coven attacked ours in the middle ages, he is afraid of it and it triggers traumatic memories of the destruction of our coven. He gets flashbacks of being nearly killed and has to run when he sees flames."

His eyes widened and he leaned back in his chair, astonished. "Oh my." He murmured.

Suddenly his mind was brought back to the episode of a month ago when Aro had gathered with Vladimir and taunted him, crashing into the room and finding a lit fireplace and loads of candles surrounding the room. It all was coming into place, his brother knew of this fear and used it to taunt the traumatized man.

However that was pushed back when he remembered another episode revolving around fire and he slightly gasped. "Stefan, you say Vladimir has been this way ever since the battle with your coven?"

"Yes."

This is it. He stood up abruptly and grabbed a folder from the giant wooden bookcase behind him and opened it, flipping through it.

"What is that?"

"A report from a mishap." He said, scoffing out the last word. It was there staring at him on page 12. 'Vladimir held the torch to Didyme's head.'

He grabbed his head in bewilderment, before his now black eyes turned to his mate. "Thank you." He said before kissing his cheek and rushing out to find Jane and Alec.

Stefan held a hand to his cheek in pleasant surprise and grew a smile on his face as he leaned against the desk bumping against the folder. He turned his head from one side to another before closing the door and beggining to read it.

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Jane and Alec had just gotten back from their mission and were surprised to find the Head Guard awaiting mysteriously at the doors of their separate quarters.

"Master Euthymius?" Jane asked, frowning deeply as she often did.

"Is there a new mission for us? Alec questioned with a innocent look on his juvenile face, contrasting with the blood splashed on his cheek.

"No, no do not worry." Euthymius said, with his hands behind his back to hide the severe trembling of his fingers, his voice silky and natural (hopefully).

"Then what do you need?" Alec asked, not hiding the admiration in his voice, ever since the twins entered the coven it was obvious they saw Aro and Euthymius as role models, Jane choosing to fixate on Aro and Alec on Euthymius.

"Oh you see, I am choosing to let my sister go, I figure she needs to finally have rest and I must come to terms to the fact that she is gone." The sadness in his voice was genuine but his words were not, carefully thought as he waited for them to appear.

"I'm glad master." Jane commented, slight pity in her eyes.

"Thank you Jane. You both can understand how you would feel in this situation with the bond of true siblings." He added as a humbling factor to his speech. "However, in order to reach my peace I must reaffirm once again the role my mates had in her death."

Jane raised an eyebrow as Alec nodded along blindly.

"I want you to remind me who...lit Didyme on fire."Euthymius struggled to let out the sentence but managed to do it.

"Oh." Alec exclaimed.

"It was Vladimir." They affirmed in unison in a clearly rehearsed manner.

Euthymius eyes darted towards the ground and he tried to hide his smirk.

"Vladimir..."

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Liar Liar Pants on Fire. As you see this chapter was very special to further the investigation on Didyme's death and to be honest I am proud of this chapter. I hope you guys like it and as always I would like to read your opinions on it!

-in_obsequio