A medical emergency

[fadingworld]

A deep navy cloak hides his features and the more ornate tunic the courtesan usually wears to greet his clients. Mal hunches his shoulders and slides through the crowds hoping to avoid notice. He keeps his head down until he reaches the home of the doctor and wraps smartly on the door. "Open up," he calls in a voice that expects to be listened to.

How much time did he have? He could not have a client bleeding out. Not this one. Not one who had come to him for help, to be treated privately.

Comments

[fadingworld]

"I do feel lighter," he comments, turning his head from side to side. He runs his hand through his hair and turns to look at Regis. "How do I look? I am prettier, or have I traded prettiness for something more handsome and rugged?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

Having slid the sheet off, Regis takes a couple steps away and stands in front of Mal, studying him. He does look pleased. "I do think you have," he says. "You look maybe a little bit older, but I would say that to be a good thing."

[fadingworld]

"Older is definitely a good thing," Mal says with utter conviction. Looking younger than his years would be a curse when he wanted patients to trust him.

"Do you mind if I go and look in my mirror? I would like to see for myself." He grins, "It's weird to think that mine is the only opinion that counts about my looks now." That was almost completely true. he cared about what Regis thought.

[mandragoraspiritus]

"No, please do." For obvious reasons he never have any mirrors around for himself but he could certainly understand Mal's own curiosity.

While Mal goes to have a look, Regis fetches a broom to start sweeping up the black hair that now dusts his floor.

[fadingworld]

Mal darts off to his room. The braid goes in the space below the floorboards before he summons the courage to look in the mirror. He blinks, seeing a stranger reflected back at him. The face was more angular, the eyes had depths with more gravity in them than he remembered.

Overall he liked it. He looked more real and alive. Plus he won't have to spend as much time looking in the mirror.

He carries himself self consciously as he rejoins Regis. "You have improved on what people considered perfection." He comes forward to embrace Regis. "Thank you."

[mandragoraspiritus]

The first few hugs that Mal had given him had all but startled him, coming as rather unexpected. But now he has come to better understand that Mal is rather physical in how he expresses his appreciation, and so Regis finds it easy to gladly return the embrace.

"Perfection is but a myth and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, is it not?" He claps Mal on the back before they step apart. "Although I am rather relieved that you approve of it."

[fadingworld]

Mal laughs, "I made it my job to make it a reality. It was a fun challenge." He spikes his hair up by running it through and flattens it down again.

"If I had truly hated it, I could have covered it until it grew out again." He returns to grounding the herbs. "I think I would have been upset if I looked ugly to you."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis lets out something between a scoff and a chuckle as he gets back to work. "I do not think that to be at all possible." No, not even if he had shaved Mal's head completely and dressed him in sack cloth would Mal have been ugly.

[fadingworld]

Regis might only have meant it as a compliment but it does warm Mal's heart. "Really?" he asks. "What if I developed warts?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

"If you developed warts then I would naturally give you a cure for them," the vampire simply says, carrying on with his work. "Really, Mal. You are a beautiful man; you hardly need me to tell you that."

[fadingworld]

Mal crushes the herbs intently for a moment. "It might not seem like it to you," he says quietly. "But it is very different to hear it from a friend rather than it coming from a client or Madame. Your words mean something."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis hums softly, clearly thinking Mal's words over. "Yes, I suppose it would be different," he finally says with a slight, soft smile. Mal is beautiful sure enough, but the more Regis gets to know him, Mall is showing himself to be bright and kindhearted, with a genuine wish to help. Simply put, he is beautiful inside and out, something very rare in Regis' experience.

[fadingworld]

"You I trust," he says softly looking up, "You tell me the truth and not just what you need me to hear." He smiles sweetly at Regis, "You mean a lot to me."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Like it often is when Mal expresses his fondness for his master and mentor, Regis doesn't quite know what to say. A shy vampire, even with all his years. In some ways, well... Why not?

"That I can tell you, that I will never resort to any false flattery."

[fadingworld]

Mal accepts this. He would not have felt comfortable in the house if he had thought Regis would act more like a client. "Good. I think you would be honest even if it hurt me because it will make me stronger over time."

He smiles softly, "I can promise I will be a faithful companion, nothing about you will scare me off."

[mandragoraspiritus]

That statement causes Regis to pause, looking more serious.

"Mal, there is much of me that you have not yet seen, and I truly hope that you will never have to."

[fadingworld]

"If I do, I will remember what is at your core," Mal says simply, "A desire to do good. I know you will always come back to that."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis smiles a slight, somewhat sad smile. Sometimes Mal truly could be naive. "Ah, I often find myself wishing that things were as easy as you sometimes make them out to be," he admits."

He leaves the work table, going to the book shelves to retrieve one particular book. 'On Vampires' it says tooled on the back, and is teh most accurate account he knows of, not only in its facts but in it's illustrations. Flipping through the pages he shows some of the drawings to Mal. The garkain, the fleder, the ekimmara... Large, hulking beasts all fo then. Even when coming to the alp and the bruxa, though more human looking the women portrayed still looked like monsters.

"These are vampires," Regis says. "Lower vampires, admittedly, but still. Do you really think that my teeth would be the only thing to set me apart if I stopped pretending?"

[fadingworld]

Mal looks at the pictures, giving them each brief attention. It does not change his mind. "Looks do not matter," he says softly. "Abilities either, it is what you feel Regis, your actions."

[mandragoraspiritus]

It can't be as simple s that, Regis thinks. He thinks of Dettlaff and the one human he grew to accept, a human woman he gave his heart to, so completely. He had thought she had accepted him. In the end, her betrayal has unleashed such torment and ended so many lives, Dettlaff's included. In thinking of Dettlaff, grief and sorrow comes to the forefront, as it so often does.

"I hope you are right," Regis says, and for a moment he looks so very tired and weary. "I truly do."

[fadingworld]

Mal gets up and comes to brush a kiss over Regis' cheek. "I know I am," he says very gently. "Show me something you think I could not accept and I will show you otherwise."

[mandragoraspiritus]

The hugs Regis has gotten somewhat used to, but this small, slight kiss is new and he blinks in surprise at it. But even though he smiles at it a bit wider, there is still clearly something that weighs on his mind.

"May I leave the rest to you for tonight, Mal? I feel a need for some air." It is a statement of Mal's capabilities even after only two weeks, that Regis trusts him to handle this task by himself.

[fadingworld]

"Of course," Mal says easily and steps back to his work. He is enjoying the process of the work and he trusts that Regis will talk when he is ready. "I will say goodnight now and lock up when you leave in case I am in bed when you return."
He might not sleep though and lie there waiting for a sign of Regis return.

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis nods at that. "Goodnight then, Mal. And thank you. I will let myself in."

Without there being anything he needs to do or to bring, he merely leaves Mal there, slipping out the door and into the night.

Far later that night there is a sound as he returns, but not from the front door but rather from the attic.

[fadingworld]

Despite his best intentions Mal does doze on and off. The noise does draw him from the chair in the study and out. "Regis?" he calls softly, "Is that you?" If it was not, there was not much Mal could do to make himself scare to stay out of trouble.