Seeking Eternity

Follow my Lead

Two nights later Yuuri contacted Victor, asking him to come to his apartment where they could speak privately not knowing what to expect.   Though he had insisted on the rules, Victor had always been expert at getting his own way.   

He had to try.   

There simply was no other choice.  

"This is my home,  one of many  in this building where we choose to live.  Yakov Feltsman bought this building some decades past and turned it into viable living spaces for our kind, " Yuuri said  as he led the way through the doorway.  "If I had not encountered him only a few short months after my arrival in this city I'm not sure where I would be now.  He is our benefactor and the reason many of us survived to see this very night.  Have you spoken with him yet?"

Victor had been glancing around at the large apartment, most of it existing in a massive open space surrounded by  tinted windows looking out at the city in the distance.  A door led to the only separate area, most likely the sleeping room.  

"No, I have not.  I wanted to talk with you before anything else."  he said,  it had been all he wanted when he came to the club.  Well, it was the first thing he wanted.  

The second thing he wanted returned from shutting the door and made himself comfortable on the couch facing the windows.  

"You really should, he will be insulted if you delay too long." Yuuri  told him, observing Victor's reactions.  "He also gives excellent advice, even if we often ignore it. He insists the trouble we cause him will only age him faster."

"If this vampire is so ancient then why do you lead the clan?"

Yuuri shrugged.  "Yakov is, in his words, far too old to deal with everything.  He seeks a comfortable existence now."

"You live here alone?"   Victor was asking as he was still wandering the apartment, though not daring to open that one door.  

Yuuri had to smile quickly at those words.  "I have for some years now.  Yakov and his business ventures have been beneficial in more ways than we expected.  Minami's attention is diverted elsewhere lately."

Victor seemed pleased hearing that.   Considering everything Yuuri and others told him of this vampire Victor decided he would definitely talk to him.  Later.   Right now he was glad to finally be alone with Yuuri once again after only a couple nights.   He walked over to where Yuuri sat on the couch,  wanting and needed to be closer.  

The ring remained there on the one who kept him connected to this existence,  the one force that had propelled him forward through all the time since he'd first met that lost child in the woods.   He reached out to take that hand in his own, holding it tight.

"Do you know how much I've missed you?"  Victor held onto his hand, bringing the ring to his lips and kissing it while his gaze never left Yuuri's.   

Yuuri eyed him suspiciously before replying.  "You're not staying. "  pulling his hand away.

Victor looked positively dejected at his words.   "I still must repay your kindness toward me."

He was completely impossible,  Yuuri thought,  but he didn't wish Victor to change everything that made him who he was.   He just wanted to help Victor make a few alterations.  

"Have a seat Victor,   I brought you here so we could just relax and talk.  "  Yuuri said, shaking his head slowly in amusement.  "What I did before," he hesitated a minute before continuing,  deciding on his words   "I wanted your full attention.   For too long things just happened and I let it go on when I should have stopped.  Part of the blame is mine in all of this.  "