less than dope

Sleep well. Love you.

If Zoey had been staying the night, the words would’ve been whispered against her lips, her shoulder, her hair, before he flicked the lamp off. Alone in his bed after a rare night spent alone these days, Will had typed them into a message instead. He wasn’t sure when he’d crossed the line where the words had started to come so easily again, instead of being wedged in the cracks of his broken heart. After their marriage had fallen apart it had felt unfair to think them, let alone say them aloud. He’d put someone else, something else before her and that meant he had no right to use those words with Zoey again.

Will flipped off the lamp and settled back against the pillows, his gaze on the wall that separated his office from the bedroom. Packing his mistress away had felt like clearing an obstacle from the path their relationship was taking, one that Zoey hadn’t even known had existed. Locking the drawer on the paperwork he’d put together for upcoming heists had been easy, one twist of a key and it was all back in his hands. Telling Lex hadn’t been so easy. Zoey believed Lex idolised him, but it wasn’t hero worship that had brought Lex to Mystic Falls, it had been the chance to put his skills to use, ripping off the rich assholes who bought tragedy in the form of stolen art. Perhaps he should’ve hooked Lex up with one of the groups hunting for these pieces officially. He’d likely have hated it, especially if they forced him into an office. It was better than sitting on his hands, chomping his way through endless packs of candy in frustration.

Sleep dragged him under slowly. The bed felt too big without Zoey there, his senses constantly reaching for something that wasn’t there. In the first few weeks after he’d moved out of their apartment, he’d slept on the couch in the hotel suite he’d been staying in. An absolute waste of money, but every time he’d tried to sleep in the bed, he’d found himself turning towards the empty space that should’ve been hers in the night. Coming to Mystic Falls had changed that, a fresh start, an apartment completely free of any memories of his married life, yet now he was doing the same.

Muzzle flare flashed in the darkness, rapidly morphing into flames that wreathed the man standing before them. Will threw himself down around Zoey, drawing her in close to his chest. His other line of work had finally caught up to him, caught up to her. Hands ran over her before he scooped her up into his arms, trying to steer around the flaming body. Broad shoulders and muscled chest a shield between the nightmare and her. The same nightmare he’d had a hundred times since. Sometimes it shattered with the crack of gunfire, others with Zoey’s screams as something else rose up in the dark.

The staccato sound of his phone woke him this time. In the dark he fumbled for it. The station, maybe. Zoey, more likely. His heart already climbing in his throat Will fumbled for it. Zoey’s father’s decline was being measured in ragged steps, each one taking more of a toll on the people who loved him. If something had happened in the night…

He squinted into the dark, letting out a groan as he saw the unfamiliar number. It was local. Unlikely to be anything to do with Zoey’s father. Maybe work. ”Hello.” His sleep filled voice creaked out, his eyes closing again as he flopped back against the pillows. Lex’s voice almost had him thumbing the phone off and tossing it aside. Yo. Ridiculous.

”You’re where?” Clear as a bell now, Will’s voice snapped out. He’d still had Lex running down leads close to the end. Pulling together information on systems that he’d intended to slip past without any issues. The voice in Lex’s head that obviously hadn’t heard a word he’d said about stopping had whispered in his ear like a devil on his shoulder. Go and pull off your first solo robbery. It can’t be that hard. Only it clearly had been.

Throwing back the covers, Will climbed out of bed. He pulled on dark jeans, a dark shirt. Boots. The bag tucked on the highest shelf at the back of the walk-in that he hadn’t planned on using again any time soon. ”You mean you triggered the alarm and now you’re stuck?” Will puffed out a breath through his nose, trying to keep the thin trace of glee from his voice. While he’d have happily seen Lex finally realise it wasn’t as easy as it looked, this wasn’t the way he wanted it to happen. All they needed was the sheriff’s department being alerted to the triggered alarm. It would only take Zoey minutes to put together what was going on.

Months ago he’d memorised the layout of the house and now Will was moving through it in his head as he slipped into the elevator, thumping the button for the garage level. The signal crackled, undoubtedly half blocked by the metal shell of the elevator. ”There’s no electricity to zap yourself out of there?” he asked, frowning. ”I know they’re not very twenty-first century, but there are things called doors, you know. Even thieving scumbags have them. It’s the middle of the night, he’s probably asleep. If you’re quiet enough you should be able to tiptoe past without waking him up.” Only if it was that simple Lex would’ve eventually figured it out. He might’ve had tunnel vision when it came to technology, but Lex wasn’t an idiot. Something had gone very wrong with the theft and now Lex was the one trapped, waiting for him to come and rescue him.

Tagged: LEX CAMERON * Word Count: 975

A quiet life with Zoey had been a dream for the future from the very moment he’d fallen for her. Their own home, kids who would know that both their parents loved them, parents who would raise those kids themselves instead of palming the job off onto hired servants (or potential future wives depending on your perspective), a marriage that would stretch out for decades instead of breaking records if it hit five years. He’d had that dream right in the palm of his hand before he started to pluck years off of it like petals from a flower with his behaviour. Losing it had been the worst day of his life. A taste of it again when it had seemed so long gone was a gift he had never expected. His voices were still poised, ready to nibble away at its promise with each fresh robbery, until Zoey’s kidnap had left him closing his fingers tightly around it again. Perhaps the desperation to continue undoing the damage Dalton had done to this world would push him back to the work eventually, but until Lex had called, he hadn’t intended that day to be any time soon.

Will sighed heavily as the bag thumped with a familiar weight against his ribs. He switched the phone from one hand to the other, a frown erasing the lines sleep had carved into his face. A quiet life was likely Lex’s worst nightmare. There could only be so many hours a day even he could spend staring at (or zapping around inside) a computer screen before his eyeballs fell straight out of his head. Lex seemed to need a constant supply of sugar, artificial flavouring and excitement to keep him functioning and his decision to step back had robbed him of one of them. A sane person would’ve gone base jumping or on a weekend bender to Las Vegas, Lex had instead decided he could play Batman just as well as he could Robin.

The apartment building was silent as he slipped through it, putting all of those skills he had learnt over the decades he’d been doing this to use in not letting his neighbours know that he was going to rescue his partner in crime from an attempted robbery (even if the asshole being robbed deserved to lose the last remnants of a stolen life he’d gleefully paid for). ”Use your words,” Will reminded him tightly. ”Fucked is rather a broad term.” Especially from Lex who probably thought that anything created before the year 2000 was something to look at with disdain.

Still, the description was enough to tug at the line of guilt that had wrapped itself around him like barbed wire on the night he’d let Lex down by quitting on him. Maybe Zoey had been right and there was more idolisation to all of this than he’d allowed himself to see. He hadn’t wanted a partner, let alone one more excited about the idea of breaking into people’s homes than he was. Hurrying into the car to try and get the line back to full strength, Will thumbed the phone into hands free mode and deposited it on the dash. ”There’s no electricity running out of there? How’s that possible? How are you even calling me if there’s no cell signal?” He’d seen what Lex had done with a cell phone when he’d killed the guy who’d hurt Zoey, if he was able to use his, then he should’ve had an easy way out.

Lex continued to explain, not all of it actually making sense. A closed circuit, he got that after years of breaking them to get into places. Wires and alarms, just as easy. ”Don’t!” Will barked, speeding out onto the street and immediately heading in the direction of the Nazi’s house. ”If he caught you in his little trap, he’ll have set back-ups up too. I want to get you out of there without having to face that son of a bitch down.” Amusement fluttered in as Lex whined, relief edging in with it. Lex couldn’t have been that badly off if he was able to bitch about old people.

”It’s called a land line,” Will joked softly, slipping through street lights without pause, trying to make it to the house in record time. He’d pull his ID if there was anybody out on the streets tonight. ”Did you sprain a finger having to twist it to dial?” He supposed it was an old rotary phone, something you needed to get hands on with to tap, unlike cell phones and all that modern crap.

The apology stuck in his throat at Lex’s cry. The guilt was back, wrapping like a lasso around his chest, threatening to tear him in two as it pulled at him. ”You know why,” Will said quietly. The car whipped out of Mystic Falls, heading down rural roads towards the Nazi’s home. ”They came after her because of me. I can’t keep putting her in trouble. Would you have gone playing thief tonight if they’d taken Winter?” Surely Lex had enough feelings towards the girl to recognise what that fear felt like. ”It wasn’t supposed to be forever, but I guess I should’ve known you were going to grow impatient eventually. I’m almost there.” The assurance came wrapped like an apology.

Minutes later he was pulling the car off road. A quick trek through the woods and he was approaching the house Lex had slid into like a breeze just a short time ago. ”Do you know if anybody else is awake in there? Have a got a clear path through to the room?” Lex might not’ve been able to read the myriad of rooms through the light bulbs, or however else he managed it, but he still had his ears – and a partner who wasn’t as incompetent as he looked. Having worked his way past the front door, Will wove his way through the house, finally reaching the study he would’ve stripped of the stolen paintings. He’d gone silent on the phone the moment he was inside, but now he wrapped a knuckle feather light against the door.

Tagged: LEX CAMERON * Word Count: 1028