Can you not hold a conversation? Oui…I will stay…as long as you can stay awake.

Of course…  I am still alert.  The fatigue has not yet set in, and you know that I shall hold out as long as I am capable of.

Have you been content, ma belle?

Non. You have still not bought the property you promised me. But, I suppose that can be forgive should you make haste in doing so.  And you?

No ghosts have come to greet me this evening. I do not know if I should mourn their passing or not…

Oh Louis, spoken as if you have ever truly stopped mourning us. You are in a perpetual state of...

Can you not hold a conversation? Oui...I will stay...as long as you can stay awake.

No ghosts have come to greet me this evening.  I do not know if I should mourn their passing or not…

Oh Louis, spoken as if you have ever truly stopped mourning us. You are in a perpetual state of mourning. Had you been a woman I am sure you would own a collection of lachrymatorys.

I think of you, and you appear.

I have missed your presence.

I am the Devil by your side. And you, my demon king. I have missed you as well, so much as I can miss. Tonight seems like a poor night to summon haunts.

No ghosts have come to greet me this evening.  I do not know if I should mourn their passing or not…

Oh Louis, spoken as if you have ever truly stopped mourning us. You are in a perpetual state of mourning. Had you been a woman I am sure you would own a collection of lachrymatorys.

Losing your mind? As if you have not already lost it to melancholy. You’re a bore.

-sigh- What do you desire this time, Claudia?

What I did last time. Your time and energy. I grow more fond of you with each visit. *smiles*

I have missed you.  It has been some time.

It has been. How are you, Louis? Have you been resting?

Yes, well. You aren’t the only one.

I am sorry.

What good do apologies do, Louis?

They do nothing to change what has been done.

I would not be seeing you and thus losing my mind if that was not the case.

Losing your mind? As if you have not already lost it to melancholy. You’re a bore.

-sigh- What do you desire this time, Claudia?

What I did last time. Your time and energy. I grow more fond of you with each visit. *smiles*

Yes, well. You aren’t the only one.

I am sorry.

What good do apologies do, Louis?

They do nothing to change what has been done.

I would not be seeing you and thus losing my mind if that was not the case.

Losing your mind? As if you have not already lost it to melancholy. You're a bore.

Yes, well. You aren’t the only one.

I am sorry.

What good do apologies do, Louis?

Yes, well. You aren't the only one.

Have you, or are you just saying that to placate me?

I want to do to you what time does to the human heart.

I want to kill you, over and over, without missing a single beat. 

— © 2014 Maza-Dohta  

Headcanons.

“But Claudia."  He protested finally then, his voice tired, words slurring into one another.  So entirely tired, he was, his whole body weighed down by it.  It felt so similar to way the death sleep paralyzed them throughout the hours of the day, yet the sun was still hours off.  Two more hours, he should have to the night.

Rousing what little energy he had, Louis lifted a hand to her cheek, brushing against it with the back of his fingers.  ”You do not need to worry so.  I can keep you here.  You will be protected.  I would not allow anyone to harm you.”  Not again, no.  Never again.  He owed it to her, all of it.

She kissed him, soft lips pressed against his, so reminiscent of their final years together.  She had done this often, and he had been quick to brush it off, to not allow himself to notice how she lingered, the hurt in her eyes when he did not reciprocate her actions in the way she desired.  Lovers.

His energy left him, eyelids heavy as he stared at her blurred figure.  Sleep, yes…  He so needed it.  Louis dropped his hand from her cheek, now so fatigued that he could not fester the strength to hold it still.  The sun was hours off, but he needed to slumber.  Her soft voice spoke of the ground, and for the second time in the only a few short months, he found himself reminded of his recent yearning for it.  How lovely it would be, to simply not think for nights, months, years, embraced in the arms of the cold earth.

He wished only for her to be content, for it was of his own fault that she had lived in misery.

"I'm not worried, Louis." She said softly. "But you will do as I say. I want a home of my own, and someone to keep it." She smiled at him as he began to nod off, his eyelids dropping over his green eyes. "Louis." She called. "Go to your bed. It's no good, you, dozing off here. The sun is bound to catch you." She stepped away, little feet making the smallest sound against the carpet before she began to melt away.

"I will see you again soon, Papa." Her grin was a strange mixture of emotion. Amusement, pleasure and mischievousness fought one another before she became transparent as a veil and was gone, in form, altogether.

"Go to sleep father. We have much to prepare and you need your energy." Her little voice called beside Louis's ear. Another pressure, a final kiss, was dropped to his cheek before she left completely, the movement of a curtain the only clue as to the direction she drifted.