Echoes

Out of her mind with jealous Krista probably would’ve said he couldn’t have recognised hope if it slapped him round the face. Maybe he wouldn’t have done, but you learned pretty on with the madams that it wasn’t worth having any. Hope didn’t have one of the women claiming him as hers, it didn’t save him from being dragged up the gangplank either. It just left you vulnerable, like the soft spot on the skin of a bit of fruit, a little wound that just left you rotting inside more often than not. Saying that, Mal found he had to push the unfamiliar feeling uncomfortably down in his throat as Krista mirrored his move, her fingers stealing to her chest like she was looking for her own half of the necklace. Maybe Pierre had been as shitty at compelling her as he had been at creating hybrids. That wasn’t a chance he could take now though.

Like a kid trying to coax a stray dog towards himself, Mal coaxed Krista towards the car. She was apologising again for not remembering him any more than before, but the flash of his badge seemed to be melting away any resistance to getting in a car with a complete stranger. ”Bye!” he called out to her friends – although his expression sharpened at the bloke, his shoulders stiffening. If he was there sniffing around Krista in the hopes of something then he was shit out of luck. He’d have put an arm around Krista if she wasn’t likely to bolt away from him, a claim on her that would’ve had her all lit up like he’d got down on one knee and proposed before – a public acknowledgement of his feelings for her. Oh my!

It felt as though it was that past Krista that had got in the car with him. She was nervous enough to toy with her t-shirt, but she babbled all the same. Questions spilling out of her mouth in the way they always had done, although this time it wasn’t about what it was like to be a pirate (as though being a sailor automatically made you one) or what it was like to have lived five thousand years ago. She filled him in on school, all those little details that he usually let waft right over his head. At least she hadn’t started gabbing on about Kitty, who’d probably celebrated Krista’s bought of amnesia and his sudden absence from her life. She was gonna choke once Krista strolled back into that dorm room full of love for him again.

Her nerves seemed to set in once they reached the church, and honestly, he couldn’t blame her. His own fluttered in the pit of his stomach in a way that had him wanting to tear them out. Maybe it wasn’t his that he was feeling, since Pierre had revealed the bond between them he’d been second guessing almost everything that had passed between them. That relief that came as she took his hand to get out of the car and kept holding it had to be hers.

”Pierre’s gonna keep his teeth to himself,” he warned as the threat slipped out. If he didn’t then he was gonna have them all repeatedly plucked from his mouth with a pair of pliers, vervain poured into those bloody holes in his gums to make sure they couldn’t close up. Dark eyes narrowed warningly, the expression only softening again as he shot Pierre a sugared smile. ”Mate, pal, mon ami, however else you wanna say it.” Mortal enemies who’d fuck each other over at the slightest provocation.

Mal’s lips pursed as Pierre already tried to get his elbow in. ”Oi, less of that thanks,” he grumbled, shooting Krista an apologetic smile as though Pierre was just a friend having a laugh about how bloody bad her taste in men was. He puffed a breath out, looking back at Pierre, who now thought he was holding all the cards with this. ”Yeah, yeah, Tuesday, 10 o’clock. You think I’m not gonna keep my word? That’s just insulting.” His lip curled, but he took the offered hand all the same and shook it. Would be eventually squirm out of all of this? Absolutely. He had to keep a good show up for now though, because … oh, there it was.

The little pet names had him wanting to rip Pierre’s tongue out of his mouth, but Mal kept his hands to himself, nodding at Krista as she glanced at him. It was gonna be all alright, because the frog here knew just what was gonna happen to him if he didn’t do what was asked. She yelped, trying to pull back. The nerves spiked in him again, a tremble in his knees that wouldn’t steady. ”It’s alright, love, just let him.” His breath hitched in his chest, feeling as though he might drown if the memories Pierre ordered to be freed didn’t surface. They exploded out of him as Krista pulled herself away, her eyes immediately finding his.

”Krista?” he asked lightly, unsure if she was seeing him past that sheen of tears. She sputtered, as though she’d been the one drowning, what came back in a tidal wave ready to spill out of her. Pulling away, Krista tucked herself behind him, clinging onto him like she used to, as though one hand on his just wasn’t enough. Mal’s brows drew together, his head turning, his gaze staring down at her, just waiting. ”Krista…” he croaked again. What else could Pierre have stuffed into her head before he’d shown up with River and his expendable little soldiers that first time? He’d told her to remember what he’d had her forget but still…

The sound of his name on her lips almost had tears in his own eyes – Krista, definitely Krista feeling through him, he hadn’t cried for himself in two centuries. That love that she’d thrown back in his face when she’d lost her shit over him sleeping with some woman months before she’d come crawling into his bed shone in her eyes with those tears. ”Did you ever think I wouldn’t?” he asked, turning towards her to settle his other hand at the back of neck and draw her into him. ”You’re my girl and I wasn’t gonna leave you with them. You alright, love? You’re safe now. Pierre’s not gonna touch you anymore. You’re safe and I’m never goin’ anywhere again.” He should’ve winced at the lie, but he was pressing his lips to the top of her head, skimming them over her temple before he turned his head towards Pierre. ”You’ve got what you wanted out of me … you wanna toddle off now? Give us some time. I’ll see you Tuesday, yeah?” He could’ve squirmed out of that too, one way or another, but he wasn’t about to toss Krista to the hyena again.

Keeping hold of her, he started to back towards his car. The faster they were out of here, the faster he could check for himself that Pierre really hadn’t left any sort of a booby trap in her. If he had then he’d probably want them to stay put, just to watch his old friend get his heart blasted away when it blew.

Tagged: KRISTA MAY & PIERRE BAUDELAIRE * Word Count: 1215

Even if Pierre had still been yapping about terms and how he wasn’t gonna be fucked over again (and let that be a warning to him because there wouldn’t be a third chance to make an I’m sorry for not taking care of you, diddums stick), Mal was sure he wouldn’t have heard it. He wasn’t watching Krista, enraptured at the sight of her love for him filling up a face that had been all too blank and empty since Pierre had pulled his little vampire magic trick and wiped him out of her brain. It was making suer the little frog had croaked exactly what needed to be to unlock the memories that had been sealed away.

Pathetically Pierre had held onto his bitterness over what had happened in San Francisco for more than a century. Dragging it around like a millstone around his neck. He coulda shrugged it off, especially once he’d been turned (you’d have thought he hadn’t had his life saved by it with the way he went on). Flip off the switch, stop giving a shit that someone else had been the architect of your eternal life. There was a big wide world out there, one he wished Pierre would fuck off into now.

Mal’s shoulders tensed, as though he could feel the burn of Pierre’s gaze between his shoulder blades, seeking out that weakness that Krista had obviously put in him. He’d have said it was Krista’s fear bleeding through into him as it had done before, but doubted she thought her heart being some sorta impenetrable fortress whose drawbridge had just been blown wide open by some bastard (a French one at that). Every word that slipped out of his mouth was probably fluttering straight to Pierre’s ears and the son of a bitch would be gathering them up like ammunition to make sure he didn’t squirm out of their little deal later. That was a problem for future Mal though. Krista was the one right in front of him now.

She was too quiet – always dangerous with her. He squeezed the back of her neck lightly, like he could forced the words out, but they didn’t come until Krista had squeezed herself tight against him. Her chin came up eventually, his thumb skimming over the side of her neck before it settled beneath the hinge of her jaw. One corner of his mouth quirked up, shrugging off that little white lie with the sort of positivity he knew she’d drink right up like he did her blood. ”Never,” he echoed back at her.

Air wasn’t exactly a necessity anymore, but Mal found himself sucking it in like it was as Krista admitted how just what she felt, how missing him felt. Had it been that way in those days she’d spent with Pierre, waiting for him to turn up or had she still been steaming mad at him then? If she had, it was gone now. ”Never again,” Mal croaked against her mouth. Another promise he couldn’t keep, but they were easier words to get out than the ones Krista had desperately been waiting for him to say. Those stuck fast now, unfinished feelings still too rough around the edge for him to even consider trying to see the shape of any of them, except for his relief.

Come Tuesday all of this was gonna be tossed back at him, but by then his skin would be thick as whale blubber – and Pierre sure as fuck didn’t have a harpoon big enough to get Moby Dick here. Leaving him to ponder over his Ahab like plans, Mal got the two of them out of there.

His hands were on the key, trying to gun the engine and get out of there when Krista leaned over the console. Oooh, yeah, she was definitely back to her old self. He should’ve nudged her back a couple of inches, got the car going before Pierre went and changed his mind, but he was going with the pressure of her hand, drinking in that kiss like he was going to her blood later. Mal chased it until Krista had to pull back, nipping at her lower lip before she went from rampant Krista to bashful-got-a-million-questions-bubbling-in—a-mostly-hollow-head Krista. ”You don’t wanna go back to your dorm room?” he asked, his brows drawing together faintly despite the relief that boiled in his gut. Thank fuck for that, it meant that Kitty wasn’t gonna crawl up his arse about getting his fangs into Krista again.

”You know I did, love,” Mal puffed, his lips curling into a sweetened smile. ”I came lookin’ for ya before, didn’t I? Had my little reminder right ‘ere, but it wasn’t enough. I needed to see ya like this.” Wanted the clingy, loved up Krista back, the one that’d happily trot straight into his bed, even the one who’d do anything possible to make sure he barely had the chance to walk past a woman in the street, let alone say good mornin’ to her. His hand abandoned the fumble for the keys and snaked up between them to pat at his chest and that little bump tucked away beneath.

It covered hers a moment after, squeezing before he was back to starting up the car and pulling out. He checked the rear view as they went, making sure that Pierre kept his word and kept his distance. The road was clear, the route back to Mystic Falls and the motel presumably safe. ”I told ya, Krista, I never woulda done. I was comin’ lookin’ for ya when we got the call. Even then I wasn’t just gonna walk away.” And that was stretching the truth, weren’t it. He’d been huffy because Krista hadn’t come crawling back like he’d thought she would, it had taken River’s worries to really shift his brain into ‘what if’ mode. Then the flutters of panic ha started to hit.

Jesus. Mal clutched for the wheel as Krista decided to liven up the ride back into town. He knew better than to say it out loud now, and honestly, he didn’t want her pulling away, huffing over him taking the Lord’s name in vain or whatever it was. ”You really wanna thank me for it ‘ere?” he asked. Sucking in a breath, Mal did a quick scan of the road ahead before he was settling a hand at the back of her neck again, his thumb brushing over the delicate point of her chin, the corner of his mouth as his smile twitched back into place (echoing what was going on with other parts of him). ”Really did miss you,” Mel breathed. Let her draw what she wanted out of that statement (cause he really wasn’t sure of the exact shape of it himself). Finding out that he was tied to Krista in more ways than what’d been the usual had him second guessing every little feeling that popped up in him.

Tagged: KRISTA MAY & PIERRE BAUDELAIRE * Word Count: 1163