The Light

Going back out into the real world after they’d lost Petyr had been hard. It wasn’t like an illness, or even the loss of a parent. What had been taken from them obvious the moment they looked at Destiny. She had hidden the lingering signs with a glamour, erasing the curve of a body that hadn’t been able to protect their son at the last, the shadows that arced under her eyes. Still, it hadn’t been enough to stop the pitying looks, the sympathy. He’d had it easy, Grey knew that, the only people he’d had to face the handful of staff he employed at the hotel, the ones he’d let close enough to see any of his business.

Time moved though, months trailing on where the loss remained a hollow in his chest, the remnants of the life they should’ve had scattered around them, between them, just waiting to be seen out of the corner of their eye, or to be tripped over. Grey had practically seen them as he’d negotiated Destiny’s birthday. The expectations of their lives here putting more of those road blocks in place. Some part of him had wished he could close the door to most of it, shutting the two of them up in the apartment again so they could celebrate this without those responsibilities slipping around wrist and ankle like shackles.

Enough.

The people who’d snuck looks at him as he’d strolled out of the elevator, seemingly without an ounce of bother to him about whether or not they were judging could whisper behind their hands and sulk about their boss slipping out hours early. Maybe a couple of them would start laying money on when her homicidal boyfriend would let those tendencies swallow her up. Hopefully Hart would just choke on it. They were all just game pieces at the edge of a board none of them knew the lay of. The only one on the board who mattered had seen how it had all spread out and had stayed with him, patient and understanding through the worst his life could bring to her. After all of that Destiny deserved a little of the sparkle, the more.

He saw her jump through the glass of the door, felt it in his chest, swept away then as that smile broke out, all for him. It flickered, like it always did with the nerves that bit out of concern for him. He could’ve looked over his shoulder and singled out Hart, proving that the man had about as much power over him as one man had over the tides of the world, but the man wasn’t worth even that. Grey smiled, a reassurance that the arrow points of their looks hadn’t even snagged the fabric of his suit. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune be damned. His fortune was right here, glancing at the box he set down before she pressed her lips to his.

Settling himself on the edge of the desk, he let his hand drift down to take hers as her arm brushed his leg. He lifted it to his lips, humming lightly against her knuckles as she called him a superhero. There hadn’t been much of that when he’d been a kid, although it’d been everywhere since – some guy in a red metal suit, another one throwing around a shield like some sort of Roman gladiator, although he practically had the stars and stripes stamped on his arse to ruin that image. ”It felt like the least I could do since I couldn’t sneak you out of it altogether. It’s been that bad hmm?” The muscles in his jaw twitched as he glanced at what he’d set the box down on. The temptation was still there just to knock the whole lot on the floor – that he’d close the blinds for.

Looking back up, he let his thumb drift over the back of her hand, a slow caress of the knuckles he’d kissed. Destiny’s gaze had gone to the gift – the one he obviously hadn’t wrapped himself. It wasn’t everything. More a precursor to the more – he had to keep the sparkle going all night after all. ”I hope you’re not planning to. That’s part one. Open it.” There’d been a tradition to things, the one she’d taught him as they’d drifted through what they had been before and after that gulf of heartache. So far it had stuck, for the most part, but this was the twist in it. He’d seen the dress, silvered like the dust he imagined drifting from Destiny with every expression of joy, with every laugh and smile, had wanted to see it shiver around her as he made her happy tonight.

She came to her feet then, pressing into him Grey turned on the corner of the desk, bracketing her somewhat with his knees as his arms slipped around her waist. Like this they were almost nose to nose, close enough to it for Destiny to easily rest her forehead against his. ”My pleasure,” he rumbled softly, touching his lips to the corner of her mouth as they hovered there, eyes locked so close he could see every strand of blue woven into the irises he could fall into like the deepest lake on earth. ”I love you too, and that’s why I wanted to. You’ve spoiled me rotten, twice over. It’s time to return the favour. A rescue, a little pixie dust and … a whole night without any of this. You ready for a whole fairytale?” His hands slipped down to her waist, fingers toying with the fabric there, like he could peel away the work and take them straight into it.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 951

Baubles and glitter – it didn’t take much to convince them you belonged in their world. He’d watched, studied, working his way up until it wasn’t just the fake at his wrist or spread over his shoulders. They could see that, smelling it a mile off like they were the ones with super senses, dismissing you at the slightest sniff. It was always polite, of course, but the sort that came with that edge, like their lip would twitch into that sneering curl at any moment. The fact that it had all only gone skin deep – or boxer-brief deep – hadn’t made a difference to them. What they saw was all that mattered and he had been happy to drape his entire world in it all without a second thought.

Grey looked up from the box to Destiny as her brush off of his question about her work day became an all out squeal as he’d opened up the idea of opening the box. The Grey Haven was just as much a front as anything, even if he’d slowly become accustomed enough to it all to find something uncomfortable in places like the motel. This was more, a deeper concern that had him looking and pushing that same off-kilter feeling until something had clicked. He’d wanted this, to see Destiny lit up with that pixie dust dancing around her again. The shadows had dimmed it for far too long, including the one cast by that pathetic arsehole sitting outside now. Wrapped around her, clinging and cloying, trying to choke them both.

The corner of his mouth curled up, his smile easing into the kisses and the gratitude that bubbled up in Destiny like the champagne would later. Her laughter fizzing as the alcohol stripped away all the lingering shadows, dark fingerprints on Destiny’s essence erased. His arms squeezed her closer, the fizzing already starting deep down in his chest as Destiny’s affectionate compliments. The Tom Ford suit was no longer like riot gear, shielding every tattered, scarred part of him deep down inside. ”You haven’t seen what it is yet,” Grey kidded, humming lightly as he let her pull away. It had been right though, those tiny pieces inside of him clicking into place with a Rolex’s delicate precision, certainty leaving him asking the clerk to box it up, with the heels that would go with it tucked beneath the tissue

Half turning towards her, Grey watched her, not the box. His eyes narrowed faintly at the question. Time had been a strange nebulous thing his entire life – twisting in strange ways to torture him by slowing down to an eternity at the worst moments, those happy ones seeming so brief in comparison. ”Almost three,” he confirmed. He would’ve said they’d been busy, but half the things that had stretched it out were memories that would thicken those shadows and he didn’t want them rushing back today. ”Cause…” Grey agreed slowly. He didn’t finish the thought, just smiled molasses slow as he took the top of the box and set it down against the side of Destiny’s desk. ”You’re cute. I saw it and … I wanted tonight to have that edge, you know. Something shiny, something amazing. All pixie dust and wonder.” He probably could’ve quoted Peter Pan, but even that carried some of those fingerprints now. Grey caught her as she leaned into his side to kiss his cheek, his hand on the outside of her thigh, his lips skimming her ear before she went darting off.

A glance over his shoulder showed the blinds dropping. Hart would probably be choking, debating if he could get away with bursting in here. Some excuse on his lips, those squinty little eyes shooting him daggers out of suspicion. Every word Leah had whispered in his ear echoing around in that cavernous space (where independent thought had ceased to exist). Grey hummed, looking down before he planted a hand back in a clear spot, like he’d recline there and they’d confirm all those suspicions. ”They oughta keep their noses to themselves, although, since it is your birthday.” He clucked his tongue, stretching back then with his head thrown back, draped, displayed, an exhibit that wasn’t going any further here tonight – later though, the plans spinning out into something special.

He caught every item that was stripped off, folding them neatly, tucking what still carried Destiny’s scent into his lap as he straightened up. The temptation was there to wrap his arms around her again, skimming the dress back off with the cool touch of the silk on the backs of his hands and the warm kiss of her bare skin against his lips. Grey caved as Destiny turned for him, pressed his lips between her shoulder blades, then again at the nap of her neck. ”It looks incredible, you look incredible,” he murmured as she turned, the skirt flaring out around her. Heat rose up in his chest, banking like there were coals in there. His eyes crinkled at the corners. ”How about we say I’m sick? I think I might be … you know … getting a little feverish, needing someone to take care of me.” Grey puffed out a breath, pretending to fan himself. He dropped his hand away, plucking the heels from the box to hold them out.

The door was still shut when he walked out, his arm around Destiny’s waist, he could almost see Hart’s nose pressed to the glass though. Just watching. Grey smiled to the rest, raising a hand to wave at the receptionist as they paused for the elevator. Let them talk, nothing was breaking tonight’s spell. He felt it like that pixie dust tingling over his skin as his hand settled on Destiny’s thigh for the drive. His fingers tracing the pattern on the dress, pressing it into her skin. Secrets had always been his thing in a way, but these were a different sort, refusing to spill on a chuckle and a wink instead of that tight lipped wave of fear. Out of Mystic Falls, to the next town, a quiet restaurant on a side street, its front windows lit up with a cloud of tiny fairy lights. ”It’s not a ball,” Grey said lightly as he shut off the engine. ”You think it works for a fairy tale though?” That same tiny pit opened up in his chest, the one that had twitched open when he’d handed over the dress, waiting for that tick of everything slotting into place just right. The restaurant opened just for them, a bower of plants and flowers inside and the table for two at the centre of it all.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 1113

He’d seen the light in Destiny dim before – usually with his hand unintentionally on the control, crushing it out of her with the darkness of his own life – but it had been worse in those long months after they’d lost Petyr. It was worse than Tinkerbell fading, this wasn’t about belief, there was little he could do to bring it back. For agonising days on end he’d thought he would lose her too and end up back in that darkness alone – grieving, filled with a madness and anger that had consumed generations of his family. Grey had found that it terrified him. Even after it had started to come back, there were moments that would have it guttering, but, not tonight.

Seeing her blush in her office, seeing her fill with joy as she’d opened up the dress, the shoes, as she’d realised he was trying to fill her day with fairy dust, it had been like a promise that the light would never go. It glowed in her, bleeding through into his world until he wanted all those shadowy corners gone. Getting rid of the druid might’ve taken care of most of them, but loving Destiny would do the rest.

The jokes, the joy, the laughter, kept them rolling through the drive to dinner. No sponge baths or nursing tonight, just the continued sparkle of that magic he’d tried to have reflected in Destiny’s smile and the restaurant. Her fingers had brushed back and forth on his arm, the same way his hand on her leg. He didn’t have to look down to imagine the sparks rising from it, filling the car behind them. They were exploding from Destiny as he pulled up in front of the restaurant. Grey’s smile slowly grew, the light filling that hollow inside of him that was constantly filled with doubt. His gaze drifted over Destiny’s face as she turned back to him, all those little signs of excitement shining bright. ”Just like you,” he murmured, reaching for her hand to draw her knuckles up to his lips. Every step of this had been planned with her in mind.

He was a little slower in getting out of the car than she was, climbing out with Destiny already there. She slipped her arm around his, tugging him towards the restaurant in a way that had him chuckling. ”This is perfect,” he filled in for her, feeling that hollow slam shut again as he reached up with his other hand to brush the tip of his thumb under one eye – carefully, make up smudged easy. Grey’s hand flattened on her cheek as she puffed into his chest. He dropped his head, pressing his lips to the top of her head, murmuring into the tumble of her hair. ”You’re welcome. It’s all for you.” All because of her. He could’ve done gloss before, something impressive, but there would’ve been no heart beneath it, because there hadn’t been one before that light had filled his chest. That had been crushed out of him while he was still in nappies, ground to dust in the hands of his sister.

Knowing he’d done right in putting that new found heart to use tonight, Grey followed Destiny in. He gave her a little tug towards the table, pulling the chair out from the table for her. Again he bent, lips finding her bare shoulder as he tucked the chair back under. ”Maybe some of them might be … but no. That’s not dinner,” he promised. Some of them would be going home with them though, uniformed minions scooping them up to bring that life and light back to the apartment. Berlioz might water a few of them, but they’d deal with that then.

Grey rounded the table, slipping into his seat as the waitress, dressed in a green uniform of course, emerged from the forest to lay the first course down on the table, the plates filled with a splash of those petals, bright against the morsels of confit duck and pomegranate that studded the salad. ”Thank you,” Grey murmured, nodding to the woman as she poured glasses of wine from the bucket that stood on a vine wrapped stand beside the table. His gaze returned to Destiny immediately, the corners of his eyes crinkling with his smile. ”You read my mind. After I saw all this, I figured it could do with some of it. They’ll bring most of it tomorrow. We’ll get the place turned into a forest.” Perfect for the faerie that had descended on his life.

The smile that had been turning on and off since he’d walked into Destiny’s office turned on full wattage. He reached across the table to take her hand a moment as the waitress retreated – discretion absolutely included in the service. ”You wanna try some?” he asked, tipping his head towards the forest. Some were probably edible, but not to the level that the duck was. Not playing it off too seriously Grey squeezed her hand and then picked up his cutlery, scooping a morsel of the duck and some of the bright pomegranate seeds onto the fork to offer it up to her. It wasn’t the first time he’d eaten this richly, but there was something to be said about sharing with someone who would light up over every mouthful of it.

By the time the plates from the main course had been cleared away, and the dessert – birthday cake of course, rich with cherries, chocolate and cream – had been set discretely on the table, it felt like the whole place was alight with those sparks. They trailed along the branches that spread up to the ceiling, seeming to dance in the air like fireflies in time with the quiet buzz of music that suddenly hummed out of the trees themselves. Grey got to his feet, offering up his hand. ”May I have this dance?” he asked softly. They’d lost themselves in each other before, but so much had still been between them, a bubble that had now evaporated so there was no barrier. Just the love Destiny had drawn from him wrapping around the two of them like the perfume of the flowers.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 1034

He'd felt it each time she’d left – the bareness he hadn’t cared about before, creeping in until the entire place had seemed empty and void of the light that flared now here. It had been all he’d known, through dozens of hotel rooms in the last decade, in the farmhouse that should have felt like it was filled with layers of his family’s history. The only thing it had ever contained was the ghosts of the past, maybe not even that now if the pack had torched the place to the ground. Being used to it didn’t mean that it all hadn’t changed when Destiny had thrust that first burst of light into him. Now he was the guy who’d developed a taste for stake from his first taste of a porterhouse after a lifetime eating nothing but gruel. Rich and perfect, all he ever wanted when that hunger burned again.

Grey was taking his fill now, watching Destiny take hers from what he’d prepared. He might’ve tasted it all over the years, working his way up from the microwave ramen that was all he’d been able to afford at the start, but there’d been something there flattening it out the whole time, those tiny subtleties missing until he could taste them through someone else. She was drinking it up, the nuances of her enjoyment written unashamedly over an expressive face. He smiled, glancing aside as she indicated the wine stand, made to look as much a part of this as everything else. A picture that wouldn’t have been the same without her in it.

The food was another aspect of the adventure, the familiar wrapped by the new, the special, scattered with the colour and light from the disco ball of Destiny’s excitement. ”Really,” he promised, taking a sip of his wine – as good as the bottle that had been brought to the Grey Haven for his approval. ”I’m gonna leave all of that to you. They’re yours to choose and place.” The staff would make sure they were taken care of if he asked. Life and death were literally in the palm of the hands that were clasped, but none of his fingers had ever been green. Black maybe, from what he'd gathered, but not stained with the verdancy that probably came easier to Destiny. The light and the dark right there.

Her laughter slid like that light over his skin, the doubt in her voice leaving him amused. Grey scooped up a morsel of it, offering it up like one of those ancient servants with the grapes, plump and ripe, hopefully approved of when they popped on her tongue. ”Probably better than you’d expect.” Hopefully. This had all been about the special, but there were still faint threads of doubt tightening in his gut. Grey watched as she sampled carefully, those threads giving way as she grinned, that hum sawing through them as he made a sound of agreement himself. ”It’s all gonna be amazing.” Now he could say it with certainty. The mouthfuls from his own plate confirming it. The chef had been the right choice, the entire thing inspired in a way had him wondering if he could poach them for the hotel.

The promise was kept as each course rolled through. It could have been a half dozen more, the tasting menu that had been offered first seriously considered before he’d pared it down. He’d gone out of his way to make this special, but there was a point where it was enough – the food reaching it with the cake. Grey slumped back slightly, feeling the press of the indulgence against the waistband of his pants. ”What’s the point in a birthday without a little overindulgence?” A big statement for someone who hadn’t really had one until she’d made one for him. Grey’s eyes settled on her, his lips caught in that faint curl of deepest satisfaction. ”It still looks perfect on you.” The night was still perfect, and was going to remain that way if he could pull off the rest of it.

Subtly the restaurant seemed to darken until the tiny lights were all the illumination they had. Grey stood, watched the confusion filter over Destiny’s face in that light until she got what he was offering. Yes. That acceptance, like all the others he’d ever had from her, sinking into his skin, adding to that satisfaction, stoking the need and desire for this, for her, so that it burned in his chest as he drew her up and close. Maybe the edges of their lives were still nibbled away by what lay outside, part of the core of it hollowed out, but for a moment it could be filled with that light and warmth. Filled with Destiny.

His arms slipped around her waist, his head dipping towards her until he could see nothing but her happiness and that constellation of lights in those warm blue pools. ”Whatever it’s supposed to be, we’re gonna find it together,” Grey swore, his palms pressing into the small of his back as she rose up on her toes. There was still that opaque film of grief around the two of them, but for tonight that light shone through it, revealing the blessing that had created it in the first place. ”I was the lucky one. You finding me that day changed everything – this happened because of it.” And for as long as he could, he would be thanking her for it. Gratitude didn’t come easy to him, maybe not to any Maddox in living memory, but he felt it in the kiss, in the continued press of Destiny against him, her head resting there right above his heart.

Grey laughed softly as it seemed to induce a yawn. ”Hey.” His voice was rough, his shoulder shrugging just enough o jostle her a little as she swayed. ”It better not be, there’s still more to come and you kinda need to be conscious for it. We can do it here … or at home … it’s entirely up to you.” If it was home, he’d scoop her up, the floaty silver fabric draping over his arm as he completed the Prince Charming act by carrying her back to the penthouse door – with a break for the drive, of course. That was mixing the fairy tales beyond what was probably allowed, but who said he had to be a purist?

The box he drew out of his pocket to hold up as continued to sway with her contained something that looked like something out of Peter Pan, worn around the kids’ mother’s wrist, chased with Victorian sentimentality, crowned with the forget-me-nots that had inspired the message freshly engraved within. A ghra, my love. The dates bracketing it, the night she’d found him, the one their hearts had been torn out, leaving the love that had brought Petyr to them exposed by his loss. The two nights that had changed everything.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 1163

The Maddoxes weren’t a family gifted with luck. Cursed, perhaps, damned by whatever stupid thing (and it had to be something stupid on one side or another that catapaulted all of this) his ancestors or the Druids had done, but any luck he’d had bled out with his mother. After that it had been a series of near misses, his own caution, the strength he’d had long before he’d taken more of it from others, pulling him through instead of luck. Until Destiny.

If he could’ve before her, he’d have gone back, trying to find some better future for himself by unstitching the past. Go back to that first stupid mistake, stopping whichever arsehole had started it all. Make his future branch off from there and maybe end up with stable, sane parents, and Leah as nothing but the bratty daughter of the Alpha instead of the destroyer of his world (thankfully she’d got no further than Oppenheimer in that endeavour). It would have stopped all the blood shed, all the death, given him what he hadn’t known, and would have cost him this.

Grey dipped his head as Destiny nuzzled into his chest, lips brushing her hair, the warm skin of her temple. When your son was taken it was near impossible to say that there were things you wouldn’t do – he'd have given his own life to save Petyr’s, would’ve sacrificed every ounce of humanity he had left to tear apart the threat that had come for him. He knew Destiny would’ve done the same, but the world didn’t work that way. ”I wouldn’t change anything that gave me you.” And Petyr. He wouldn’t thank Leah for anything, her bloody touch costing him far more than it had given, but that touch had guided them, tearing away those scarred pieces of him holding everything back.

Now he was bare to her, nothing standing between them as they drifted around the small space that had been cleared of tables and enclosed for them. No reason to hide or to spare himself. The druid was dead, Leah seemingly under some rock a million miles from here too, licking her wounds or biding her time, it didn’t matter either way. They were free to build the life they should’ve been able to have before those claws raked it again. A home, a family of sorts with Berlioz, and that hole still hollowing out their hearts.

Tonight was all Destiny had deserved – meticulously planned, each detail chosen with how it would make Destiny light up again in mind. Little steps, twirled through in those heels. Guile a thin veneer as he smiled back at her, only a hint of smirk in its roguishness. ”More,” he confirmed. ”Just a couple of things. We’ll do one here, one at home, save your toes. We’ll take the pretty with us when we go.” He would at least, the pixie dust floating around her again after those months of it all being too dim. Basking in it left him lighting up again, what had come to fill his heart spilling out on a wave of it. Written in the old-fashioned curlicue script that’d seemed fitting, all that meant the most to him immortalised in the etched silver.

Her hands fell away from him and if this had been some cookie cutter Hollywood rom-com he’d have sunk down on one knee under all those lights to open the box and reveal the gold band that would’ve taken this a giant leap forward – one he wasn’t sure either of them were steady enough to take yet. This … this was right, a slow step forward, one that wouldn’t leave them stumbling again. Grey’s hand came up to settle gently at her elbow, cradling it all as she looked at the bracelet, taking in all that he was trying to say with those engraved lines. He watched her taking it in, her brow furrowing as she traced the letters, the numbers, the flowers.

He hadn’t been bargaining on the tears. The gentle ssh whispered out, his head dipping so he could press a kiss to her brow as she sniffled. ”Yeah,” he murmured. ”Forget-me-nots for Petyr, for us, ferns for fidelity. A promise on both fronts.” To remember, to hold on no matter what else tried to tear them apart. Lips curving faintly, Grey slid his hand down, brought the other up to clip the bracelet together for her. His thumb traced the line of it until she lifted her hand to turn it this way and that. ”You’re welcome. I’m glad you liked it, this is … new too.” Buying for someone who meant something. He’d wined and dined before, had Catia buy baubles to distribute as gifts, had bought for her a time or two, but it was always something he didn’t remember later, a trinket recommended by a sales clerk. Not something for his …

”A ghra,” he repeated, breathing the words against the top of her head. His arms wrapped around her, keeping Destiny close to his chest and the heart that he’d placed in her hands the first time he’d said that word to her. ”It means my love. Malcolm didn’t teach me much other than how to be what he was, but he told me she said it to me. My mum, the first time she held me. A ghra.” Her family had been Irish by all accounts, people whose lives hadn’t been darkened by any sort of misery until she’d fallen in love with the wrong man. ”I love you too.” The words came easier now than they had the first time he’d sobbed them out to her, grief still a ragged wound tearing his heart apart without his sister setting a single claw on him.

The slow swaying started again as he lifted his head. Eyes scanned twinkling boughs of greenery, picking out one of those scented blooms before he reached up to pluck it clear of its stem. He brushed Destiny’s hair back from her temple with the back of a finger, tucking the flower into the dark tumble of her hair, its white petals standing out in contrast. ”Let’s get you off of your feet, finish this up at home.” Their home. In the sort of Disney prince way that felt like it belonged, he slid his hands down, swept Destiny and that froth of silver fabric up into his arms.

Like the waiter had been expecting it, he appeared at the door to open it. If it had been one of those films there’d have been a carriage waiting outside to carry them home, driven by mice brought to life by a faerie’s magic wand. The car was gonna have to do, even if he couldn’t curl up with Destiny yet. His hand was in hers most of the ride, his thumb and fingertips finding the cool bracelet from time to time, squeezing hers again as they arrived at the hotel and he was sweeping her up in his arms again. Catia wasn’t at the desk to see him carry Destiny through the lobby, it was one of their staff, purposefully blind and infinitely discreet. Grey met Destiny’s eye as they stood in the elevator as it glided up towards the penthouse. ”Will you make it our home? Move in with me?” he asked. He knew the apartment had been her safe haven from what that son of a bitch had done to her and there were memories ingrained there, but every inch of his place had been engraved with Destiny now, the same with the bracelet was with their story, and he hated the way those lines had blurred when she wasn’t there.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 1285

There hadn’t been a flicker of warmth in Malcolm’s expression as he’d muttered the Gaelic phrase. The blue eyes he’d ended up inheriting had remained cold as ice as he’d tossed it flatly at him. You were her heart, a-graaaaa…’. The word drawn out, strangled by the cackle of bitter laughter that left him shivering. It wasn’t something you said so frigidly. You whispered it, feeling that candle light flame burn in your chest rise brighter as the person who had your heart responded with tears and croaked gratitude. Grey’s smile curved against Destiny’s temple, imprinting it all there. If the last couple of years had proved anything – through the rollercoaster like twists and turns of pain and joy – it was that he had been capable of breaking the vicious cycle that had left a child to grow up in a house filled with insanity and grief.

Destiny had always been the one to exude those tiny sparks of light, but Grey felt like tonight he’d finally created a few himself. Glowing around them, inside of them, spilling out the door as he scooped her up to take her home, to their home. It filled Destiny’s face – no longer just reflecting in the tears that had filled her eyes as he gave her the bracelet – sparkled in her giggle, and glittered over the dress as he swept her up to carry her out. It lingered around them in the car, feeling like it was in the air around them, riding on the scent of the flower he’d plucked from the bower of plants to tuck into her hair.

There was nobody out on the street to watch it spill out of the car with them, just the night manager inside. Grey kept up the Prince act, not blinking twice as they swept past the desk. A chuckle rumbled out of him once they were standing in front of those elevator doors, waiting for them to glide open. ”You’re blushing,” he crooned lightly. ”I’m pretty sure nobody saw.” Unless Leah was lurking again, waiting under her rock outside the motel for a moment to sweep in and try and claw more of that light out of his life. She’d blown her shot, taking Petyr from them, but leaving him and Destiny standing.

He finally let her down again as the elevator glided up towards the penthouse. Grey smiled down at her, wanting to see the light bloom in her the same way it had with every other gift tonight, wanting to bask in it. It came slower this time, his question drawing that ‘huh?’ out of her first like she hadn’t heard him. ”Move in with me, be here every night.” He wouldn’t ask her to give up what had been hers here, not when maybe there’d be one day where she had to escape this – as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t promise that his past wouldn’t boil up again – he wanted her to have that sense of safety when it had been taken from her so often before.

Still, he wanted to wake up with her there every morning. Curling into her at dawn, waking each other with lips and fingertips, love filling the room like the early morning sun. Padding out to the kitchen to fill Berlioz’s bowl with food while Destiny stretched out underneath the sheets. The coffee was about the only good thing he could make to take back to her, but even that was a part of that routine that he craved when that other side of the bed was cold when he woke up. Perching back on the bed to steal those last minutes they had together before work would pull them apart.

Begging wasn’t something he did under most circumstances, but he felt the words bubbling up in his throat like they would strange him with the wait. When it came, the yes popped that bubble, had his own eyes filling the way hers did. ”She was probably wondering whether or not to get my sanity tested if I was letting all that pink glittery stuff fill this place up.” It had always been the sort of blank space that good hotels were built around. No real signs of life where anybody else could see. What was hidden away was all smudged with the soot of a life that most couldn’t understand. ”By now she’s gotta know that you’re staying.” He brought a hand up to cradle her chin, brushing the tip of his thumb under her lip to trace the grin that beamed at him. ”It hasn’t been just my space since the first time you walked in there. There was always a little bit of you left behind, and I always wanted more of it.” More of her here, the love that had started to build around them in the wash of light that drove the shadows that had clung before away.

Grey let her tow him out of the elevator, watching her as much as he was the apartment. He’d anticipated that it would fill with more than the light, little bits of the life Destiny had lived before, what she’d lived with him, slowly cluttering up the surfaces. More of those little bottles and jars in the bathroom, on top of his dresser. ”They’re all yours to play with,” he promised, giving her hand a little tug to stop her before she could draw him into the bedroom, too deep into the penthouse for this last part. ”I hope you know that you can bring anything here. I want you to change it, to make it our place.” It hadn’t been just his in all that time, but now he wanted that to be obvious.

Someone had already made themselves at home here at least. Grey hummed lightly as Berlioz appeared. The clack of claws on the floor just another thing he missed when he arrived home and it was silent in here. Grey bent, running his hand over the dog’s head, scritching fingers just behind his ear, in one of those spots. ”Pretty sure they’re not the only ones,” he admitted, winking at Berlioz over the shared secret. He straightened up, hands finding her waist as she stepped back in to press that excitement against his lips with a kiss. ”Not regretting it at all. I love seeing you like this. Oh, that’s goooood.” He drawled the word out, chuckling even though his eyes narrowed in mock censure. ”You’ve been that for me, and that’s part of why I want you here. I’m greedy, I wanted pretty much to be all the time. I don’t wanna be guessing if I’m spending the night here alone.” He wanted to get on the elevator, knowing that either he’d be welcomed like this or she was on her way, filling the place with all that was good when those doors did swing open.

Bending his head, Grey pressed his lips to Destiny’s. He let his eyes drift shut for a moment, his hand smoothing up her back, over the warm bare skin between her shoulders to settle lightly at the back of her neck. ”It’s not done quite yet,” he promised. ”Gotta give you the keys to the castle.” Access to everything here because Destiny was the one who got it all. She understood, she loved him despite it and if anything happened, this was all gonna be hers. He backed them up slowly, in a slow swirl of bodies the same way there’d been when they’d been dancing in the restaurant, leaving Berlioz to weave his stocky little body against their legs. The box sat on the counter, ready for this. Topped with a silver bow and looking like the sort of thing you gave gift cards in – not that he ever had. Grey picked it up, holding it on his palm between them. ”This opens every door in here, in the entire building.” A master key to his home and the life he’d built.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 1336