You?

Eighty years was plenty of time to lose track of someone’s life. Lawrence had lived an entire lifetime since their parents had popped the ring on his finger and sent him off to be someone else’s problem, somewhere else. Just as she’d lived her own in almost as time. Two kids dead within a handful of years would’ve been a tragedy to anybody but their parents had seemed to shrug off their undeath like their biggest problem with it all was finding a regent for the coven. No tears, no broken hearts, no long period of mourning for anyone but the two of them.

A handful of months was plenty of time to catch up on at least the broad strokes of those eighty years. Lawrence’s time in New Orleans, his move here, his best friend who – and it hadn’t been a purposeful two fingers up at Lawrence, she’d had no clue who Teddy was at the time – had ended up in her bed. Her decades spent out in the wilderness, Josiah – God how her heart had ached to talk of him again – the village, the badge, her decision to do something more that had led her right to the club and the reunion with her brother that Phoebe had thought she’d never see.

They were as close as they had been then but they didn’t live in each other’s pockets, despite Lawrence perhaps wishing she was a little less bullish about working her way into his life from time to time. It wasn’t lucky for him that she’d started turning a deaf ear to the word don’t before she was even out of diapers. Don’t didn’t get your ring back and it didn’t send you scurrying away from the door when it turned out your rat of a big brother had somehow caught himself snarled up with someone with a child.

As Lawrence failed to appear immediately at her yell of his name, Phoebe looked back down at that tiny form. Peanut butter smeared cheeks bulged with a grin, equally smeared fingers closing around hers in a way that had her squelching back an ew. Phoebe’s heels skittered a little at the doorway like she’d find herself slamming up against that invisible wall that kept vampires out of the homes of unsuspecting meals on legs. The child tugged and she was two steps into the apartment before Teddy appeared. Interesting and horrifying all at the same time – either short stuff here was the youngest vampire she’d ever seen or someone savvy had put the apartment in his name, not realising that the childish welcome was going to blow the doors right open.

Those amber eyes settled on Teddy, dipping from the damp spotted t-shirt to the towel and the bare legs and feet beneath – surprisingly smooth in contrast to the pelt on his chest. Amusement pulled at her mouth faintly as she ignored his presence for a moment to dip her head towards Teddy’s child. ”Are you now? I was too. I think daddy might be out.” And had been long enough that he was relatively dry, although those curls were still wet and tight. They’d have curled cool around her fingers if she’d slipped in the way she had done that night.

Her smile curled tighter, her hand swinging the child’s lightly. Lawrence had obviously kept what was going on from both of them, although, in Lawrence’s defence (not that he deserved it, the rat!) he hadn’t known she was going to appear. ”Hi,” she chimed lightly. She didn’t let Lawrence off the hook, just smiled down at the child as he offered her some of what was spread all over his little urchin face. ”I’d love …” Some. Along with an explanation for just why her rat bastard brother had finally chosen now to keep his mouth shut. Had he been trying to scheme his way right to this?

As though the pet name rolling through her head had summoned him from his bed, Lawrence finally appeared. The greasy grip the child had on her was leaving her cringing, her lip trembling as it fought not to curl in disgust at the situation. Phoebe let the boy guide her into the kitchen, casting a look at Lawrence over her shoulder. ”There are a lot of things Lawrence has been keeping to himself,” she said sweetly. As he tried to cut off the urchin’s offer of something to eat, Phoebe clucked her tongue. ”Uncle Lawrence is confusing Auntie Phoebe with the sister he didn’t try hiding things from. I’d love some.” No, no, actually she wouldn’t, but she wanted to see Lawrence twist and as long as he did she could put up with the … ulk. The minute her hand was free she was wiping all of this off on Lawrence. Rodents were supposed to like peanut butter weren’t they?

Phoebe settled her other hand on the child’s hair for a moment, one seemingly clean spot on him. She bent slightly. ”It’s OK, you go do what Uncle Lawrence says. I’ll come visit later hmm? See that fort?” After she’d paid Lawrence back and gotten through the absolute awkwardness of coming face to face with the man she still hadn’t let down lightly (it wasn’t like she’d actually promised to).

The moment the child was gone, Phoebe gagged slightly and stepped closer to Lawrence to wipe the peanut butter off against his shirt. She’d have asked for Teddy’s towel if they’d been alone but this was awkward enough as it was with the spectre of her big brother right there. ”No, you didn’t,” she chided with that faint saccharine tone. ”Seems like you’ve forgotten to say a lot of things.” Forgotten with double quote marks around the razor sharp word.

Her eyes drifted pointedly to Teddy, softened slightly as they lit on him. ”Like the identity of your new room mate. I take it he didn’t tell you that I like to drop by and keep an eye on him when he said yes to this?” Her brows hitched, her whiskey eyes cutting sideways to the rat for the moment. ”You’re looking well.” There was a hint of warmth in her throat as she looked back to Teddy, her smile creasing as she took another look at him in the towel and t-shirt and remembered the lines of all that lean muscle when she’d peeled his clothes away that first, and only, time.

Tagged: TEDDY AARONSON & LAWRENCE MURPHY * Word Count: 1076

He had never been a huge fan of children, probably detaching himself from them on the realisation he would never have his own but he’d warmed to Julian pretty quickly. The first few times he visited Teddy’s apartment he would react just as Phoebe did, however he was much better at hiding his disgust as Julian reached up to say hello to him. He didn’t want to upset Teddy by jumping back immediately, so he would remain glued to the spot with a fake smile on his face that over time became genuine. On the other hand, his sister wore her emotions on her face and he knew she was dying to get that slimy substance off her hands as soon as the child broke free. She should have been thankful it was only peanut butter and not something else.

He stepped back from Phoebe after she’d wiped her hands on his t-shirt. His jaw twitched, trying not to snap in front of Julian especially as she claimed he had been hiding things from her. Hardly. He was just cautious with what he told her, given the situation. He did it for Teddy more than Phoebe though. He knew his friend wouldn’t have reacted well in an awkward situation, but now it had been forced upon him.

All of this could have been avoided if Lawrence had apologised to Teddy sooner, told him his sister was back and introduced the pair before they met elsewhere and hooked up. It made his stomach flip whenever he thought about it.

Lawrence wore a forced smile on his face until Julian disappeared into his bedroom. Once the door clicked closed it dropped from his face. Both of them had a look of irritation on their faces as they looked at him. Like any of this was his fault. The pair of them exchanged words about Lawrence as if he wasn’t standing there in the room with them. “I assumed you knew she would be coming around sometimes.” Surely Teddy had some common sense rattling around when he offered his spare room to Lawrence. He looked over at Phoebe, “Sometimes… not all the time… and you don’t need to keep an eye on me. I managed to look after myself perfectly fine for the past… fuck knows how many decades.” Perfectly fine was a slight exaggeration considering the number of times he went over the edge. An edge he was now teetering on with Hannya in his life. He was the one who needed to keep an eye on Phoebe. Partying every weekend in the club, kissing various different people, dragging herself home at sunrise. Granted, he wasn’t all that surprised given how rebellious she’d been as a child but it still didn’t stop him from worrying about her. She would

There was a roll of his eyes when Phoebe complimented Teddy, like that was going to make everything okay. The tension was growing with each passing second and Lawrence felt like he was the only one who could do anything about it. He despised how everything had transpired. When he came over to Teddy’s apartment and told him about his sister he imagined they’d all be good friends. Movie nights at Teddy’s apartment or brunch at the Grill. Instead his best friend and his sister wanted to avoid each other like the plague.

“Look. You two need to sort this out because I’m not gonna keep tiptoeing around because you both got drunk one night and… y’know… please.” His gaze immediately darted over to his sister, eyes widening slightly telling her she was the one who needed to apologise. Teddy had nothing wrong in this situation, everyone knew that.


PHOEBE MURPHY - i said poor teddy but actually poor lawrence </3

At any other time Phoebe would’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with her brother against anybody else. The rest of their family was literally and figuratively dead to them, and had been from the moment they’d sent their children out into the world changed, with nothing but a bespelled ring on their finger, but even before they it had been the two of them holding the line against the family expectations. Perhaps one day Lawrence would still have ended up leading their coven and she would have sprouted a half dozen children to make sure the line didn’t peter out, it wouldn’t have changed the bond between them too.

Yet, as Lawrence attempted to throw both her and Teddy under the bus over what was obviously his screw up, Phoebe smiled victoriously over Teddy’s grip. She smiled sweetly at her brother, as it to say see – your problem! Only it wasn’t, not really. Lawrence had made it hers – alright, maybe she’d made her own when she’d left Teddy in her bed that morning after – but him being Teddy’s best friend was what had added the thickest layer of awkwardness here. There wasn’t room for the two of them in Lawrence’s life if there was this minefield between them.

Phoebe might have been focused on herself the majority of the time, or seemed to, but Teddy’s cringe hadn’t escaped her. She wasn’t impervious, despite those appearances. They had to find a way through here, today preferably, she wouldn’t shuffle back out of her brother’s life or act like whole parts of it didn’t exist because she’d damaged a few egos.

Her fingers in Teddy’s towel were her anchor here until this was thrashed out. Phoebe’s brows rose, her lips curving with Teddy’s attempt to classify her as an intruder. As though Julian hadn’t invited her right in. ”Lawrence,” she shot back, her tone far sweeter than her brother’s. ”Do you want to remind Teddy that I can’t go where I’m not invited, or should I?” Like Teddy would’ve forgotten what vampirism was like. Being wanted by a child and two grown men were very different things, of course. She hadn’t ghosted the child – that would’ve been a cruelty she wasn’t capable of, no matter what feelings Teddy thought she had towards the boy. Or lack of them.

Discomfort seemed to be working its way deeper than just how far her fingers had invaded, enough that Teddy tried to pull away from her. Not so clingy now, was he? Phoebe made a little hushing noise, like she was trying to soothe a fractious child. Her thumb joined the connection, brushing in an arc towards his belly button as Teddy clutched at the towel. ”Careful,” Phoebe sing-songed. ”It’s getting a little … slippery in here.” Especially for Lawrence in a room where his footing as the centre of this little triangle was suddenly growing treacherous.

Her head tilting, Phoebe sharpened her smile at her brother. Lawrence hadn’t hidden much from her, except for this little development, which made the whole thing all the more suspicious. ”It’s really not that painful,” Phoebe muttered lightly. As though her opinion were a bear trap and stepping into it would sever a limb. ”Weren’t you the one to tell me we all needed to communicate more, Lawrence?” Of course at the time it had been a shove towards her calling Teddy and patching all of this up before it got this far, but that was just splitting hairs. The only thing doing much on the concealment front in the kitchen now was the towel and its abilities on that front were dubious.

Hazel eyes started to drift down Teddy’s chest, towards that scatter of dark hair she mapped on her way down the last time, disappearing beneath the top edge of his towel. A study that was cut off with Lawrence’s complaint. As though what she was doing hadn’t been painfully obvious, Phoebe’s gaze snapped back up to her brother’s. ”As you reminded me, there are these things called phones now. I get that one finger’s lighter than the others but all it would have taken was six little words … Phoebe, I’ve moved in with Teddy. See, not hard?” Something was though and Teddy was uncomfortable with it … unlike the last time.

Sighing heavily, Phoebe considered drawing her fingers back. She tapped her fingertips against the taut surface of skin and muscle, rolling her eyes eventually before she met Teddy’s. ”Did I ever say I didn’t have a nice time?” Semantics again. After the morning after she hadn’t said that she had. ”My plan?” Forced.

All of this had grown twisted and bitter, like thorns working their way deeper until you’d almost tear your skin to get them out. ”I would’ve hoped it was want more than forced, but I guess I read everything with Teddy wrongly,” Phoebe said, her voice almost cold as she tried to hide the fact that both of them had merrily jabbed those thorns deeper, like they wanted to make sure she could feel it. ”Oh, don’t you worry. When Lawrence wants to see me, he knows where I am … without roommates to worry about.” Just that empty room that Teddy had filled for a night.

Phoebe gave the top of Teddy’s towel a fond little tug before she let go and went to step past him. Shoulders back, head up, like all of this rolled off like the shower water that had beaded and worked its way down Teddy’s skin. ”I’ll let the two of you patch this up. I know where I’m welcome … it was a pleasure again, Teddy.” She patted his chest as she slipped past, barely enough room in the doorway for the two of them. ”It was a pleasure meeting you too, Julian. Sorry I can’t stay.” Pausing at the boy’s bedroom door she smiled, wiggling fingers at him. Intruder indeed.

Tagged: TEDDY AARONSON & LAWRENCE MURPHY * Word Count: 987