history of a feeling

Anybody else he would have been telling them to get a grip, grieving the Queen's death, but he had respect for Magnus. He respected Magnus' desire to grieve a woman who he hadn't even served. Hector had never grieved a person since Evelyn died. That had been enough pain to last him a lifetime. After she was taken from him he spent months trying to deal with the heartbreak that soon seeped into years and the first person he thought to turn to was Magnus. Not only did he understand the heightened emotions, but he knew how it felt to lose someone you loved more than anything else in the world. Magnus didn’t exactly give Hector the answer he wanted. He wanted to hear it would all disappear one day, but instead, he would learn how to live with the void left behind by Evelyn.

It was unfortunate that she passed so close to Magnus’ birthday, leaving a grey cloud hanging over the day, but Hector would try his best to make sure his friend still enjoyed his day.

There was a small smile on his face as he watched Magnus enter the building. There was no blaring music screaming through the speakers and no bodies congregating on the dance floor or at the bar. God knows what the other staff was doing with their night off. Hector didn’t give a shit so long as none of them walked through the front door. It was time for the grown-ups to have some wind-down time, away from the kids, although he was fully aware that Hannya superseded him in age by centuries. She still acted like she was sixteen sometimes though.

A promise was a promise to some, something which could never be broken, but for Hector, it was always people dependent. If he had the slightest incline someone was about to screw him over he made sure he got there first. It was exactly how he’d secured the bar and club, by screwing someone over, but it was evident from his first meeting with the previous owner that someone was about to betray the other. Hector stuck the knife in first, with a grin on his face as he twisted the blade deeper.

Magnus took a seat next to Hector, a hand resting lightly on Hector’s shoulder with emotions written all over his face. “Save your tears.” For someone whose emotions were permanently on the highest setting, Hector genuinely couldn’t remember the last time he’d shed a tear. There hadn’t been many people or things in his life over the past few decades that he truly cared about, but all that had changed over the past two years. Those he cared about had started to trickle back into his life. Magnus, Luc, Pierre.

“Both. It’s not every day you turn seven hundred and… thirty…” He started laughing softly, “It all blurs into one after a while.” Centuries of friendship had flown by. Hector braced himself for talks about the Queen. It was inevitable. He reached for Magnus’ bottle, pulling it from his hand to crack open the lid. He poured his friend a drink as he listened intently, nodding slowly. Hector pushed the glass across the bar, returning the bottle next to Magnus. “Yeah. She had a good run, but we knew this day would come, just like the ones before her and the ones after her.” He grabbed his own bottle, twisted it open, and poured himself a drink. “When are you thinking of heading back?” He took a sip of his drink, resting the liquid on his tongue for a moment before swallowing, “Why don’t we make a trip of it? Cause recently I’ve been thinking of closing the bar for a week or so and taking the staff on holiday somewhere… might do everyone a bit of good getting away from this place and having a break.” He knew the staff thought Hector came across as an uptight boss who rarely let his hair down, which was far from how he wanted to be.


MAGNUS DAYNE

Seeing Magnus filled with emotion as Hector delivered his birthday present to him did tug on Hector’s heartstrings a little. They were rusty and almost solid, but still had some movement in them. It would take an almighty yank on them from someone important to bring tears to his eyes.

Seven hundred and thirty-five years old. It was bizarre to comprehend the fact the pair had been alive so long and lived through so much. In the blink of an eye they would have celebrated Magnus turning eight hundred years old. “Soon we’ll be a thousand years old… which unnerves me.” He confessed as he glanced down into his drink for a second. At what point would they cease to exist? Surely they didn’t have an infinite amount of years left on Earth. Whenever he reminisced about the old days it filled him with a sense of nostalgia, but also a fraction of exhaustion. He had lived through thousands of days with no end in sight leaving him feeling unfulfilled at times and constantly chasing the next high. Mystic Falls was the high he was currently riding. The bar, the club, the money.

His friend could have sat there and shed a thousand tears and Hector would have still comforted him even if he didn’t wholly understand why Magnus was crying over the Queen being dead. It was a sad event, but not worth slipping tears over, but again he was happy to sit there and offer Magnus a shoulder to cry on. There was a sense of empathy buried deep down inside, saved for those who deserved it. People like Magnus. “The day Lady Di died was a sad day… and now Charlie is stepping up. I was never a fan of his.” But they’d been around long enough to know that's the way things went. Soon Charles would be another name on a gravestone somewhere.

Hector was preparing himself to take another sip of his drink when Magnus spoke. The glass halted just before his lips, “You had children?” He placed the glass back down gently, glancing at Magnus with a look of disbelief on his face, “I’m sorry you’ve lost a relative… all the more reason to head over to England.” He tipped his glass toward Magnus before taking a large mouthful of alcohol and refilling his glass. “Let me know when the funeral is and we can watch it at my apartment… Linc can come too.” If the baby vampire wasn’t yet to be trusted to be left alone in fear Magnus may come home and the walls were covered in blood. Hector had seen the twitches in Lincoln recently whenever blood was present, but that was for Magnus to deal with.

He wasn’t sure on what scale the others would keep each other company, but Hannya would be elated to keep the men company whilst Magnus and Hector do a bit of sightseeing. “I think I need a bit of holiday too.” Being a business owner was something he was born to do, but it was draining. He laughed at Magnus' comment, “Compel yourself a few humans to look after the place.”

Hector nodded, “Early October sounds good to me. I’ll have a word with the staff tomorrow.” He lifted his glass up, titling it toward Magnus, “Here’s to Elizabeth. May she rest in peace.”

MAGNUS DAYNE - wanna wrap up with yours?