one shots (remington leith)

death

warnings: cheesy, mentions of death obviously.

My best friend, Remington. He was keeping something from me, he told me everything, I obviously knew when he wasn't.
He had been distant around me recently, at first I thought I did something wrong, and when I asked him his answer was true; it was not my doing.
But when I asked exactly what it was, he always just said "nothing." But I knew he was lying.
I would be lying if I said I didn't have a crush on Rem, but I mean, who didn't? He's perfect.

It was cold outside, the snow was falling to the ground hard, and it was beginning to get dark, but I needed to know what was going on, so I told Rem to meet me for coffee, I wanted to tell him about an idea I had, which was also a lie. It took a bit of convincing, which was abnormal, but he agreed.

When we got to the coffee shop near the forest, I saw him walk around the corner and toward me.
I hugged him, he hugged me back, his black skinny jeans and black coat, matched his dark wild hair and smudged liner around his eyes. His hug was awkward, he wasn't giving it his all, this was also new.
I sighed deeply, and grabbed his wrist.
We needed to be alone to talk about this, something was wrong and maybe he was too nervous to share it with other bodies so close by.
Not only was the weather below freezing, but so was his skin, it was frozen.
He didn't seem to mind though.

I walked until we were surrounded by trees. He obliged to my direction, and his wrist was limp in my hand, he didn't care to hold mine back today.
I was worried about him, I needed him to tell me.
I felt snow fall onto my eyelashes.
I turned around to face him, but didn't let go of his wrist, he had no body heat. "You need to tell me what's going on Rem." I spoke softly, but sternly.
His dark irises seemed darker than usual. "I need to deal with this on my own, it's okay y/n." His voice was low. But I didn't let up, "Never do you have to go through anything alone, I want to help you, it's what I'm here for, you need to trust me." I batted my eyelashes to clear the snow from them, looking up into his impossibly dark eyes.
"What happened?" I asked, my voice was slow.
"I'm not- the same- I can't....-I don't want to scare you." His voice was rigid, his eyes flickered from my eyes, to my lips, to my neck, to the ground.
He sounded like he had finally found the reason for not telling me.
"Scare me? I'm not scared of you Remington." My tone sounded like I thought he was joking, but my answer was definite.

His dark irises darted up to meet mine again, they looked orange. I blinked hard to see if I was seeing it properly. And the more I looked the more red they became "Maybe you should be." His voice growled a little, I felt a tang of fear shoot up inside me and I narrowed my eyes, what was he getting at? What was going on? My hold on his wrist allowed me to study his movement, he hadn't tried to pull away, but his skin was so impossibly cold, I couldn't feel a pulse.

He let me move my fingertips around his wrist,
And still-
no pulse.

My breath drained out of me. My lips parted to speak and my fingers fell from his wrist.
He had no blood pumping through his veins, no heart beat.
I could say nothing. It couldn't be true.
But I could hear his voice in the back of my mind, he knew what I was thinking.
'You're right' it said.

Skin like winter,

eyes like fire,

pulse like death.

Vampire.

"You have every right to be afraid of me." Remington's voice was low.
"Do you understand why I distanced myself?" He asked me, and before I realized it I was unconsciously taking steps away from him.
I willed all my fear to drain from my body, and my feet to stop moving, but I couldn't.
I did understand. He knew I understood.
"So you w-wouldn't hurt me." I spoke quietly.
He stepped towards me, he nodded, looking down. I wanted to not be afraid, but I was.
"You can be scared, I know you are, I am too-" his voice was quiet.
My back hit a large tree, the contact making me almost shriek, and he stepped dangerously close to me. "You know you can't tell anyone." He put his hand on the tree beside my head, I felt my lip tremble in fear and frozen breaths, my eyes wide as saucers. I tried to nod. Was he threatening me? I couldn't even try to not be scared, It was radiating through me. pumping through me like running water.
He raised his other hand and gently moved my hairs behind my ear, exposing my neck. I was petrified, I was too cold and scared to even move.
He studied my eyes. As he looked down on me, I could feel my heart beat in my head, I know he could feel it too.

"I promise you I will never hurt you." He whispered, his irises shifted back to their normal brown colour, that colour alone almost made me feel better, but watching it change didn't make me feel entirely safe.
My breath hitched quietly, and he placed his hand on my cheek, gently and then I didn't have to force it, all my fear melted away.

This was my best friend, the first person I had truly fallen in love with, and death couldn't change that.

He leaned in and his lips met mine, I kissed him back carefully, and when I pulled away he put his fingers under my chin to meet my eyes.
"I promise you." His voice was sincere. I still couldn't find words to speak. "Thankyou." Was all I got out.

"For telling me, for protecting me, for loving me,
-Just thank you." He could read my thoughts, I could feel him saying. 'I love you'

I shook with a cold shiver and he smiled lightly.
"Let's get you some hot coffee." He held out his hand and I placed mine in it.

I had so many questions to ask him, and as we walked through cold snow I felt no fear, my best friend was a vampire and I felt the safest I'd ever been.

And we walked home, one beating heart and two bodies.
We were eternally combined from this moment on.

May death never stop you.