Chapter Text
“Hurry, Guillermo! They will not hold the train for us. It would be too heavy to hold back,” Nandor told him as they sprinted towards their terminal. His Jansport bounced behind him every time his boots hit the pavement, the knapsack not too full of his personal belongings besides some of his soil, a few books, and his favorite dagger. Guillermo had told him they wouldn’t let him through with it but rescinded his statement after a quick wave of Nandor’s hand and some compelling words.
The sound of wheels scraping against the concrete echoed in Guillermo’s ears as he tried to keep up with Nandor’s long-legged strides. His suitcase caught air every few steps whenever it hit a crack in the ground or other pieces of debris, but his sole focus was on getting them to the train on time. “I’m trying, Master, but you’re too fast for me,” he got out through labored breaths. The chilly wind whipped around them, its bite stinging Guillermo’s face as he tried to pull his jacket around him more tightly.
Nandor stopped, Guillermo nearly plowing into his back at the abruptness. He stole a glance around and, finding the platform mostly empty save for a few straggling passengers, flitted behind Guillermo, outstretching his arms. He wrapped them around Guillermo’s chest, lifting them just a few inches off the ground. Guillermo scrambled to grab for the handle of his luggage, Nandor waiting for him to do so before flying them both over to their designated gate. It was none too soon as the train pulled up not a minute or two later, Guillermo smiling up at Nandor in a silent thanks for the act.
The doors opened to let the pair on and in a bold move of confidence, Guillermo took Nandor’s hand in his and led them down the aisle. “Do you want the window or the aisle?” he asked in an effort to distract himself, to not hyper focus on the fact that Nandor had squeezed his hand when they got to an empty row.
“Window,” Nandor mumbled while Guillermo stood aside for him. He broke their contact to take his seat, sliding awkwardly down as his backpack prevented him from laying back. Guillermo couldn’t help the little smile that formed at the sight. Nandor could be ridiculously endearing without even trying. When he noticed Guillermo still standing in the middle of the aisle even as the train had started to move, he raised a brow, gesturing at the empty seat. “What is it?”
Guillermo shook his head and averted his gaze, hoping he hadn’t given himself away and that Nandor couldn’t tell he was already dreaming of all the things they’d be doing together on this trip. “Nothing. Let me take that for you so you’ll be more comfortable,” he offered, already reaching for the handle on the backpack. Nandor shrugged it down off his shoulders to help, watching Guillermo as he lifted first the bag and then his suitcase up into the overhead compartment. He absolutely wasn’t staring at the sliver of skin peeking out from underneath Guillermo’s shirt as he raised his arms, and he definitely didn’t play it off as Guillermo finally settled in next to him, pulling out his phone and his earphones to lay on his lap.
His phone opened with a few taps as he pulled up their itinerary. Nandor looked over his shoulder, fascinated by the wealth of information on the tiny screen. “I realize I have no idea where we are actually going, since you planned all of this. What is our first stop?” he asked, glancing up at Guillermo.
Clicking the screen off, Guillermo laid his phone down again, his demeanor suddenly shy and almost…nervous. It was a far cry from his behavior during their fight, when Nandor was hard as a rock due to Guillermo’s prowess and his imminent victory. Nandor thought he wanted to see more of that domineering side of Guillermo, the memory of it nearly distracting him from Guillermo’s answer. “…thought we could visit my mom’s place in the Bronx first, since she’s so close,” he said. “She should still be awake. I, um, wanted to say goodbye and you know…taste her food one last time before you turn me.” His eyes were lowered, hoping that Nandor wouldn’t have any objections to it.
To his surprise, Nandor clapped an eager hand down onto his thigh. “Yes!” he agreed emphatically. “That is a great idea. I only wish I had had the opportunity too before I was horrendously forced to become a vampire against my will.” He cut himself off immediately, retrieving his hand from where it had settled on Guillermo, almost drawing into himself completely.
Guillermo watched him carefully, unsure of what he could say to make Nandor feel better. His eyes drifted down to his lap where he lifted his phone, shaking it invitingly. “Wanna listen to some music? It’ll make the time go by faster,” he offered with a sweet little smile.
Nandor seemed to consider this for a moment before shrugging one shoulder. “I suppose,” he agreed, taking the left-sided earbud offered out to him. Guillermo put the right one in his own ear and scrolled through his song collection before finally settling on Cemetery Drive. He hoped Nandor would be receptive to My Chemical Romance, considering their whole aesthetic was vampire chic, too.
Settling back into his seat, Guillermo closed his eyes, listening to the song and just enjoying this closeness he was finally able to have with Nandor. No interfering vampire roommates, no dangers to worry about. Just him and his Nandor, starting a journey together around the world. The thought kept the smile on his face even as he started to drift off to sleep. He shook himself awake, wishing to keep Nandor company on the train ride, but Nandor leaned down to speak to him in a hushed voice. Guillermo tried to hear him over Gerard’s crooning.
“You should sleep, Guillermo. I know you must be very tired,” Nandor pointed out.
Guillermo shook his head, stifling a yawn even as he did so. “I’m okay. I don’t want you to be alone–”
Before he could even finish saying it, Nandor snaked a hand behind his back, bringing Guillermo close and letting his head rest on Nandor’s shoulder. He took his hand back again, laying it on his lap as he looked out the window at the passing environment.
Guillermo stared up at him for a moment, trying to will his beating heart to ease the fuck up a bit, before he nuzzled against Nandor’s broad shoulder once and closed his eyes.
They flew open again as he felt Nandor’s fingers graze against the side of his hand – a subtle, comfortable touch before he finally settled on top of it. Guillermo tried not to lose his cool, but he couldn’t help the nervous fidgeting anyway, unsure if he should return the gesture or not. Nandor tapped the top of his hand with his index finger and Guillermo flipped it over, their fingers intertwining automatically. Guillermo traced Nandor’s ring with his thumb, the gesture being the last thing he remembered before drifting off to sleep.
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After a short transfer, which they had almost missed since Guillermo nearly slept through it, they were back on the bus heading for Silvia’s place.
“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Guillermo murmured sleepily, blinking up at Nandor through bleary eyes after they’d settled on the new train.
“What am I, your cuckoo clock now too?” Nandor asked him, the roughness of Guillermo’s voice from his drowsy state almost outweighing the desire he’d had to keep Guillermo asleep on his shoulder. He had swiped a map from the station before they’d gotten on, actually looking it over this time but failing to notice it was upside-down.
Guillermo couldn’t stop the snort of laughter just from hearing Nandor utter the ridiculous phrase. He reached over to turn the map the correct way before pointing a little distance past where their arrival station was. “She’s not far from here, maybe a fifteen minute cab ride. Then we can catch the bus to Penn Station and get a train to DC,” he explained, the route sounding like a foreign language to Nandor, whose experience didn’t vary from the oceanscape. Guillermo looked at him for any kind of a response to the plan.
Nandor stared back at him blankly. “I trust you to get us wherever we are going,” he reassured, and Guillermo had to look away to hide the lovestruck expression written all over his face.
Using the stylus Guillermo had got Nandor since he had no body heat, they played a rousing game of Words with Friends on Guillermo’s phone that Guillermo unsurprisingly won before the train was coming to a stop, the time on his screen reflecting a few minutes past ten at night. He retrieved both of their bags and flagged down a taxi for them, Nandor showing obvious discomfort at having to ride in the back of one and not even be allowed to eat the cabbie. Guillermo promised him to find someone else who was not dependent on them getting to their destination.
As Guillermo stood outside, staring up at the building under the pale moonlight, he couldn’t help but think he should have thought this through first. Not the vampire thing – he was still more certain of that than anything in his life – but how to explain Nandor to his mother. Nandor stood next to him, waiting patiently for Guillermo to decide their next move. “Guillermo? Are we going in?” he asked after a few minutes of no progress.
“Yeah, we are,” Guillermo answered, strained. He willed himself to start the journey into the apartment complex before stopping again, turning around and facing Nandor, exhaling a heavy sigh. “Would you be willing to do something for me and not ask me why?”
Nandor raised a brow, skepticism evident in his features. “Depends on what it is,” he replied uncertainly. Guillermo bit his lip, his nerves on edge and his anxiety telling him not to even bother asking, but he couldn’t think of any better way to try and explain what Nandor was doing with him on his mother’s doorstep.
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“It won’t be too long, and then we can go and you can switch back, okay?” Guillermo told the bundle inside of his shirt pocket, who squeaked back at him in annoyance. He slung Nandor’s backpack over his shoulder and pulled his own suitcase behind him as he went up the flights of stairs to his mother’s floor, Nandor able to hear the thump of Guillermo’s racing heart as he assumed they were approaching the right place by the way it sped up. Nandor, even in bat form, was the only thing keeping Guillermo grounded right now as he knocked on his mom’s door, pleased to hear the shuffling behind it as she answered.
“¡Memo!” Silvia’s voice sounded from above, Nandor feeling himself be pressed against Guillermo’s chest as he was pulled into a tender hug. Their voices were a little muffled and they spoke in Spanish anyway, Nandor completely lost on their conversation. “¿Tu jefe te hizo irte de nuevo? ¿Vas a quedarte esta vez?” she asked as she noticed the bags accompanying him.
Guillermo shook his head, hoping the smile he gave her wasn’t too sad. “No, mamá. Me voy de viaje por, um, trabajo y quería despedirme.” He shuffled inside the apartment at her invitation, putting the backpack with his suitcase and sitting at the table.
“¿Es un viaje largo? ¿Has comido?” Silvia asked as she was already pulling a few containers of food out. Nandor took the opportunity while she was distracted to poke his head out and look around, Guillermo gently pushing him back down into his pocket when she faced him.
“Sí. Muy largo.” He normally would have offered to help her out, but with Nandor in his pocket, the last thing he needed was to frighten his mom if she spotted a bat in her apartment. “Todavía no, y…¿crees que puedo llevarme algo de comida?” Guillermo requested, trying to hide the hitch in his throat.
Silvia slowed down, fixing her son with a knowing look. She probably couldn’t have guessed everything that was going on, but Guillermo had showed up late at night telling her he wanted to say goodbye and asking for food for the road. It was eerily reminiscent of his announcement to her more than a decade ago, but he had always come back, so she wasn’t as concerned that she would never see him again. “Por supuesto, mijo,” Silvia agreed. She gestured towards the short hallway, pointing at his old room. “¿Puedes quedarte la noche?”
“No, lo siento,” Guillermo answered with a shake of his head.
“Por favor, Memo. No sé cuándo te veré la próxima vez,” his mother insisted, tugging on Guillermo’s heartstrings, and she had let him in this late at night and was going to feed him. It wasn’t like he was the only one involved in the decision, however.
“Ya vuelvo,” he promised, taking his phone out for show, heading to his room. He closed the door before reaching into his pocket and placing Nandor on his bed, waiting for him to shift back into his human visage before addressing him. “My mom wants me to stay the night,” Guillermo informed him in a quick breath.
Nandor lounged on his bed, laying on his side as he looked up at Guillermo with a shrug. “Okay,” he agreed.
“Okay?” Guillermo repeated. “You’re…fine with that?”
“It is only an extra day, Guillermo,” Nandor mused, and he actually didn’t sound bothered by it. “We will have all the time together when I turn you. Go and be with your mother while you can.” His voice was tender, soft, like he really cared about Guillermo and his wants and making the most of his time while he was still human.
Guillermo took a deep breath and nodded, the huge smile on his face being reward enough for Nandor and his generosity. “Thank you, Master. We can cover up the windows for the morning once she goes to bed.” Nandor waved him off with a hand as he reached his other one out, Guillermo stepping forward to place his phone in it. “Don’t play anything too loud,” he warned before going back into the kitchen.
Guillermo’s phone warned of a low battery and the screen reflected that it was shortly after one in the morning before he finally returned, the two bags in tow along with a handful of blankets. He placed the backpack on the dresser before hanging the blankets up over the windows, ensuring that no sunlight would be getting in once the sun rose. Nandor handed him his phone back as Guillermo stifled a yawn, tilting his head to the side. “So, did you want to grab a bite to eat tonight?” Guillermo offered as he plugged his phone in to charge.
“It can wait until we are on the road again. I think you deserve a quiet night in without having to worry about me,” Nandor replied. “So, try and get a good night’s sleep so you are able to spend the day with your mother.”
“Really?” Guillermo asked, trying to keep the disbelief off of his face. His eyes narrowed as he pulled the bag of Nandor’s soil out of the Jansport. “Are you being so nice to me because I almost kicked your ass?”
Nandor bared his fangs in warning, but his tone was flippant. “No! I simply don’t wish for you to regret your choice, alright? I want this to be a…pleasant experience for you, and most importantly, one you are absolutely sure of.”
It occurred to Guillermo that Nandor had never gone out of his way to make sure anyone else he had turned had had their fill of being human. The gesture was sweet, in a way. “Well, now that you mention it, I’m exhausted,” he conceded, pulling his glasses off. He placed the soil underneath one of the pillows on the bed and plucked the other one off of it, throwing it to the ground and spreading out the last blanket next to the bed.
Nandor watched him, puzzlement evident in his features. “What are you doing?”
Guillermo looked over his shoulder. “Oh, I mean, I don’t have a coffin for you but my bed should be okay. God knows it’s stiff enough,” he said before covering his mouth and lifting his hand in the air in apology as Nandor hissed quietly at him. “I can sleep on the floor. It’s fine.”
“I am not kicking you out of your own bed,” Nandor told him firmly. “I will take the floor.”
“No, I insist–”
“I insist that you stop insisting,” Nandor told him, already beginning to take off his cloak as he stood.
“Maybe–” Guillermo began, his own nerves cutting him off, but his tired state wasn’t having him think clearly anyway and his judgement wasn’t the best as he continued. “We can share?”
Nandor eyed him, holding his cloak out between them like a shield before he finally lowered it, folding it and placing it on top of the dresser. “I don’t see why not,” he answered slowly. “Are you a cuddler?”
Guillermo had to stop himself from laughing. “I don’t think so,” he answered truthfully, not exactly having any experience in the last decade or so. “It’ll be a tight fit, though. Are you sure you’re okay with that?”
“Yes, just quit asking and go to sleep already. Yeesh,” Nandor assured him. He settled down on the side that was closest to Guillermo’s charger. “I will be playing Angry Birds while you slumber.”
Climbing into the bed next to him, but making sure not to be touching any part of him, Guillermo reached over and plucked the phone from his fingers for a moment while he set his alarm. He handed the phone back to Nandor and pulled the covers up around himself, laying back on the pillow and turning his back to Nandor. “Goodnight. Don’t forget to turn my screen off.”
Nandor was already too engrossed in the game to utter more than a reciprocal goodnight.
————————————————-
The early morning’s sun rays had only started to barely shine when Guillermo heard his mother yell in fear, on high alert immediately as he sat up in bed. Something held him back, and when he realized it was Nandor’s arm thrown across his chest, he didn’t even have time to silently scream about it before he was pushing it off of himself. Nandor stirred beside him at the commotion, his eyes barely open as Guillermo scrambled to stand up.
“Guillermo, ¿quién es ese?” Silvia demanded in a panic, and it was then that Guillermo realized he had forgotten to lock the door and his mother had decided to surprise him with a nice breakfast. She held the plate close to her chest, a few pieces of food already having fallen to the floor as she’d jumped.
“Mamá, cálmate,” he tried to instruct as Nandor sat up in the bed, still groggy at the wake up call.
“¿Él es tu novio? ¿Un intruso? ¿Cómo entró aquí?” came Silvia’s follow up barrage of questions. Guillermo turned to look at Nandor in a panic, addressing him directly.
“Make her forget she saw you,” he told Nandor hurriedly.
“Perhaps we can just explain–” Nandor tried, his voice scratchy from sleep.
“Now!” Guillermo snapped as he grabbed the handle of the door.
Nandor looked unsure, but waved a hand out in front of himself anyway. “You will forget ever seeing me,” he commanded before Guillermo was leading his mother out of the bedroom, and when he didn’t come back inside, Nandor figured it had worked. He didn’t have much of an option other than waiting for Guillermo to come back, so he rolled over to Guillermo’s side, enjoying the warmth radiating from the spot and falling back asleep.
Hours must have passed before Guillermo was gently rousing him, a large container of food in his hands that he set on the nightstand. “Time to head out,” he told Nandor, the terror on his face from the morning non-existent now. “Bat form again?”
Nandor obliged, the puff of smoke clearing to reveal his tiny bat body, waiting on the bed for Guillermo to finish packing up all of their things and cleaning up the room, leaving it spotless. When he removed the blankets from the windows, Nandor saw that it was night once more. He wondered how things had worked out with Guillermo and his mom when Guillermo scooped him up, placing him in his shirt pocket once more for transport.
He heard an exchange of goodbyes between Silvia and Guillermo and felt another long hug shared. The click of the door signaled their departure. Guillermo reached into his pocket and gently took Nandor before tossing him out into the open air, Nandor once again taking his human form as he ruffled out his hair. He eyed Guillermo suspiciously as Guillermo held out his cloak for him. “Did everything work out?” he asked carefully, taking the cloak in hand and fastening the button above his chest.
“Yeah. Sorry, it’s just…remember when I told you my family believes your private life should stay private?” Guillermo asked as they started the journey to the subway. Nandor waited a moment then nodded. “Well, I wasn’t ready to explain why there was a guy twice my size in bed with me.”
“They are not okay with this little, insignificant fact about you?” Nandor asked for clarification.
Guillermo hesitated to answer. “They might be, but right now, it’s like…Schrödinger.” At Nandor’s utter look of confusion, he tried to clarify. “It hasn’t ever come up, so I haven’t needed to worry about it.”
Nandor nodded in half-understanding, more out of solidarity than anything. He waited while they walked in silence for a minute before asking what he thought was a casual question. “Do you think you will ever introduce me to them?”
Guillermo swallowed roughly. “Um, maybe. That’s kind of a serious thing people do, when they’re serious about the person they’re…with.” He glanced away, Nandor’s reaction to what he’d said hidden from his view. He tried to lighten the situation with some humor. “With my luck, they’re also descendants of Van Helsing and might just end up trying to accidentally kill you.”
“Of all my familiars, I had to get stuck with the one with fucking vampire hunter genes,” Nandor lamented, but there was fondness clearly shining through in his voice.
“Bazinga?” Guillermo offered with a laugh. Nandor joined in, their laughter echoing around them in the night, the chilly wind accompanying them as they finally set off to start their journey around the world.