world falling to pieces

The pillow beside her had still been smooth when she’d woken that morning, but at least she knew who she’d been seeking out when she’d woken curled into that side. She’d smoothed a hand over what been his spot as she’d gotten out of bed. It was easy to picture him there now, the way she’d wake up with his arms around her. At least part of that vacuum inside of her filled in, the cold not as bitter anymore. Mikey was home. Mikey was safe.

It galled her to think about even consider thanking Tobi for it, he deserved it though. Maybe a year from now the tiny dust motes of memories would’ve coalesced into some tangible though, but it would’ve been too late. Those things hadn’t just been gathering people into their little waiting room, some of them had been killed there. Mab swallowed hard, heading for the shower. You couldn’t fight to get people back you hadn’t known you’d lost in the first place.

With Mikey back life had slipped right back into her normal routine – with those occasional thoughts about him, the ping of a message just a part of that. Shower, coffee with whatever she could pull together for breakfast, another trip out into the town, trying to pull on the strings of the web she’d strung up here to trap St John. There’d been word of an ancient society of vampires in town. If there was anybody who could shield St John here it was likely them. Even the Augustines would be wary of tangling with a group that had been established hundreds of years ago, supposedly by one of the Original family. Even if it was just a bed time story to scare baby supernaturals into behaving, she was going to be cautious. There was enough trouble here in town after all.

Wrapping a towel around herself, Mab padded across the bathroom to grab her phone. Mikey. Her lips curled. Lunch at the diner had been on the schedule, just touching base, reassuring herself he hadn’t gone again, just watching him work if that was all she was going to get. Or not. She thumbed back a quick reply to tell him to come over, then rushed into the bedroom to get dressed.

Coming back can’t have been easy. His brother and the girlfriend had to have realised that Mikey was gone when he came back. There was no way she’d been the only one to feel that hollow inside when he hadn’t been there. He’d slept with his future sister-in-law after all, that gave you a connection, even if you’d done everything possible to change it afterwards. It was just a matter of timing and opportunity, that was all. She’d had Tobi and a way to bring him home.

Her hair was still damp when Mikey got to the door, falling to her shoulders in waves to frame the smile she offered him as she opened it. The laugh that followed was low and warm, her hand lingering for a second on his arm as she patted it. ”You’ve saved me enough. We’ll just call this paying that favour back.” He could’ve left her at Whitmore when the alarm had sounded and he’d realised she’d drawn him back into trouble, or when she’d found him at the ball. Each time Mikey had stuck it out though and for once she’d felt like she had to do that for somebody else in return.

Mab sank onto the couch next to him, like she’d done dozens of times when he’d been staying with her. ”That sounds ominous,” she murmured, her brows drawing together. Propping an elbow against the back of her couch and resting her head against her palm, she studied his face. Last time he’d come here like this it was looking for a couch to sleep on because the ugly truth had spilled out between him, his brother and the Italian girlfriend. She hadn’t been able to offer that really, but she’d given him a safe haven. When it came to giving him a job, she just couldn’t. Dragging him into the trouble that continued to thread its way through her life wasn’t fair.

”Kace isn’t back yet?” Fuck. Look how long it had taken her to even start to suspect that there was something missing in her life. If Kace didn’t have family here, would Mikey’s memories of him be enough in the end? Maybe not. From the sounds of things Chase hadn’t picked up on his brother being gone – Mikey had missed more than a day’s work after all. ”What does he know about when you were gone?” Mab asked lightly. ”He’d get it, wouldn’t he? It’s not like you’ve purposefully dropped a job. What happened, it’s literally erased all of that.” Like her memories, like Kace, maybe it would come back a bit at a time, but until then Mikey was left living in the rubble of his life as it had been.

Tagged: MIKEY BUCKLEY * Word Count: 834

Fear for what could happen to Mikey if she let him too deep into her life had left her cutting him out of the plan to spring Enzo in the end. There was a good chance Mikey would’ve turned down a request for a little more help anyway – he’d still hated her on the night she’d lurked just a few yards into Whitmore House – but even if he’d softened then, Mab knew she couldn’t have dragged him into it. One good man had already died because she’d drawn him too deep into her great-grandmother’s vendetta. Joseph had volunteered for it, playing bodyguard for her for months before things had begun to shift. Mikey hadn’t though, she’d taken advantage of him and guilt had cut at what was supposed to be a heart of stone after.

Green eyes swept over him as she sat at her end of the couch – it should’ve been strange how quickly they’d settled into both that and having sides of the bed, but it felt good instead, like she had an anchor in her life. Even when Mikey had left, this was the spot she’d retreated to every night, her head lolling against the back of the couch when they’d called each other, her eyes drifting to the other end of the couch like he’d appear there at any second. She’d have wondered if throwing open the doors on her life had been done out of that guilt, but it wasn’t that. Doing him a favour had rapidly turned into wanting Mikey there.

Unpacking the reasons why she’d been the one to remember him had felt too daunting. If she started trying to pick it apart there was a chance what was between them would shred like a tissue and Mikey would be out in the cold again. He still seemed to be working his way around the edge of his life, trying to work his way back in, bringing back what had been taken from him and that included Kace. So much of what had been happening for him was dependent on the guy he’d left behind.

”You want me to come with you?” Mab asked lightly. The corner of her mouth twitched up for a moment. ”That’s what I do for a living … track people down.” Her track record with St John himself didn’t reflect all the others she’d found and taken care of. A moment later she was frowning, concern tugging at her stomach for a moment. ”Are you sure he hasn’t been taken too? It’d explain why he’s not there.” Maybe that would’ve made it easier on Kace on the inside, but it would be a far more concerning sign for the rest of them.

That blissful ignorance had gone pretty far when it came to Mikey’s brother. Maybe he would’ve remembered him in a day, or a week, but there was a chance that Chase would never had realised that he’d had a brother. The thought hollowed her out and left her swallowing back the faint taste of fear. ”I’m sure he must’ve been suspecting something was up,” she started. ”Just a sense that something was missing, that someone was meant to be there with him.” That had been how it had started for her, although it was harder to explain to Mikey how she’d roll over in bed, desperately reaching for someone who hadn’t been there. Friendship didn’t necessarily come with those feelings after all.

And there was the ominous. The concern bit harder, furrowing her brow as she shifted on the couch, inching closer to Mikey. He’d given her hints about what had happened before, snapping at her when it’d seemed like the cops were gonna come chasing them down for what had happened at Whitmore. It’d sounded like Mikey wasn’t unfamiliar with the law then. A teenaged delinquent maybe, trying to claw his way up now. A bad guy turned good. ”Nothing’s too complicated to work out somehow,” Mab said softly.

Invisible claws raked at her chest and stomach, that taste growing stronger in her mouth. Was this where Mikey started to withdraw? You’re too much trouble, I can’t be around that. It wouldn’t have been anything more than she might’ve deserved. With anybody else snark might’ve bubbled up to cover the doubt, but as Mikey spoke Mab sank into silence instead. Her gaze latched onto his as he spoke, holding him there, until he pulled away, like he couldn’t watch the bombshell of his criminal history hit.

Slowly Mab shifted on the couch, rolling closer to him to settle a hand on his arm. If he was gonna try and leave because she hadn’t given him an answer, he wasn’t gonna be able to go anywhere. He didn’t get to tell her something like that and then let his own fear drive him out the door. ”You think I’m in a position to judge anyone for their past?” Her voice was hoarse, her fingers squeezing his arm. His skin was warm under her touch, his muscles firmer now he was awake. In sleep the walls Mikey seemed to have thrown up around himself melted away and it was just him that she’d curled around.

”I don’t hate you for it either. You were protecting your brother, that’s nothing to be ashamed of.” But he’d thought that would be enough to have her tearing herself away. Maybe some women would, but they hadn’t stood over the corpses of the things that stood between them and the freedom they’d been desperate for since birth. In a way she’d been in a cage the same way Mikey had been. ”You didn’t have to tell me, not then, not now. Either way it makes no difference to me. You’re still the same guy who called me on my shit when I tried to drag you into it. You’re a good man Mikey and you’re trying to do the right thing now.” After a second she moved again, turning towards him more so that she could cup his jaw with her other hand, trying to get him to look at her again. ”Are you still on parole for it?” Either way it wouldn’t matter to her, but it would matter to the people trying to keep him on the straight and narrow – out of trouble, in a job that didn’t exist right now.

Tagged: MIKEY BUCKLEY * Word Count: 1062

There were probably as many people in her neighbourhood back home as there were in the whole of Mystic Falls and yet she hadn’t found where St. John was cowering and Mikey was still trying to track down the one guy who could probably unlock all the current trouble in his life. It felt ridiculous. There were only so places to hide, especially when you weren’t looking to avoid being found. Enzo might’ve known that she was coming, or at least her great-grandmother was, one slow step at a time. He’d bury his head, trying to stay out of sight long enough that he could pull together a proper exit strategy. Kit had to be different. He had no idea they were coming, no idea someone was desperately trying to find him and that was the real problem.

Did his stomach knot when he walked through the door at work every day? Did he find himself picturing someone there in his life? Little flickers out of the corner of his eye, faint as a dream in the morning light. Did that hollow feeling creep in? The loneliness, the longing for something that felt like it was right there on the tip of his tongue, just out of reach. If he did, maybe just saying Kace’s name out loud to him would be enough to bring everything rushing back. ”He’ll have to go back there sometime. We’ll go every night if we have to, until he appears or someone gets tired enough of me to tell us where he lives.” There was an amused edge to Mab’s voice, but she was serious enough. Most people ended up giving her what she needed from them, apply the right pressure and for long enough and they had no choice.

She hadn’t been able to pressure Chase’s girlfriend the same way. The woman was Italian and just as sharp and stubborn as she was. Mab liked to think they’d left their meeting in the kitchen at a sort of stalemate, with both sides understanding the other, but things couldn’t be that way with Chase. Without him being aware of what had happened, Mikey had to tread through this delicately, she couldn’t be the battering ram that slammed through the middle of it for him. Mab’s gaze drifted slowly around Mikey’s face, following the granite lines, then the softer curve of his mouth and back up to his eyes. ”You can’t control what he’s already feeling. If he thinks something’s up, he’s gonna ask eventually. What are you gonna tell him then?” If his brother could see the Mikey she did he’d see that the blame didn’t lie with him, no matter what he believed had happened with the Diner.

The first time she’d laid eyes on Mikey she’d marked him as a bad boy in her head, imagining that those lines on his face were proof of a hard lived life. Now she knew she wasn’t wrong, but Mab had seen below all of that. It didn’t matter what the first impression of him had been. Mikey was a guy trying to turn his life around and the universe had fucked him over with it a second time., maybe a third, a fourth, a fifth, who knew how much hits he’d taken to end up here with another threatening to wreck the life he was trying to build.

Mab wished she could’ve claimed the same, but guilt burned in the pit of her gut as she reached out to stop him from bolting once the admission was out. She couldn’t free herself until St. John had been pulled apart like a spider by her psychopathic great-grandmother, but she could make sure Mikey didn’t stay trapped in a cage some evil son of a bitch had put him in. The corner of her mouth rose as he smiled weakly at her, the warm weight of his hand on top of hers a reassurance that he wasn’t going anywhere for now. Her thumb brushed lightly over the solid line of muscle beneath his skin.

A moment later the other was just below the corner of his mouth, her fingers settled against his throat, stubble pricking against their tips. His gaze met hers and Mab held it. Maybe after all he’d been through his eyes should’ve been hard as stone, but they weren’t, not when he was so open with her. ”You’re no threat,” she promised. ”No matter what you have to do to avoid going back into a cell, I’ll help you with it. I’m with you through all of this, OK? Even if I have to fake being your boss. I’m not gonna let them take you back there.” She wasn’t gonna lose him, not after all she’d gone through to get him back. Mikey being taken had proved to her just how much of herself she’d lose if he was no longer in her life.

The hollow inside of her had filled the moment she’d seen him in the train station. Throwing her arms around him she’d tried to keep a grip on it all, to stop him from slipping away again. Mab felt the press of it, of what she felt for him, inside her chest now, stealing her breath as she shifted her weight again. Her gaze dropped to his mouth a heartbeat before she leaned in, pressing her lips to his softly. They’d crossed a line by wrapping themselves around one another in sleep, but at least that could be blamed on an unconscious need for contact, this was a conscious move, a need she didn’t want to push aside anymore.

Tagged: MIKEY BUCKLEY * Word Count: 939