Edward-Carlise Historical OOM's Two

[themidnightson]

Time is inconsequential to them.

Time bends and breaks and folds in their different world.

There is no falling asleep, no waking up, only the times when Carlisle works or the time when they cannot be outside in the sunshine or time to hunt again. The rest is the same endless, spinning free open time, that hasn't closed since Edward opened his eyes in that small dank apartment. The same endless, spinning free open time which will be afforded to him for all of eternity.

---

Time is inconsequential to them.

They are both at the beginning of something terrifyingly and wonderfully new.

Carlisle counts the months and keeps track while Edward delights in an endless exploits of an edgeless world. They hunt wild game across the border in Canada, and aside from Carlisle showing up one last time to the hospital to resign his position and make sure Edward Masen's death certificate is never filed, they abandon Chicago entirely. There is nothing left there but dying people, and while Carlisle is still drawn to easing the burden of those suffering people, his action that night has already chosen who he will help first.

It's an entirely new world. A century had come and gone since Carlisle had anything resembling a peer and never had he had a companion who brooked no complaint at his habits, nor whom had chosen to resolutely follow them alongside him. Edward, free of all but the faintest, blurry shadows of life behind him, found himself in a leisure he'd never known.

---

Time is inconsequential to them.

Especially in those moments right after they've glutted their fill for the evening. When everything is smooth and calm, surrounded by the unquiet nature that is aware of the monsters in its midst.

Sitting on a boulder, Edward fingered the rip in his bloodied shirt, unnoticed earlier in his enthusiasm for the fight and subjugation of the now still and empty carcass of a large elk. "I think we could leave now."

Comments

[ofthefamily]

"I'm not sure."

Carlisle's thoughts are still scattered. Some small section of his mind flings a thought to running towards his old neighborhood. See what is left standing, even though it's ridiculous to assume anything is.

"I should scout and find some place where we can have a level of privacy for hunting. You can come with me, but if you'd prefer to sightsee..."

[themidnightson]

The division of thoughts is disheartening. Not that it exists, but because in a large part he's created it and he's hardly certain where things will shake out. Carlisle had not seemed shakable before now.

Edward feigned for speculative, eyes narrowing on a distant point. "I hadn't looked at all of the others. There was a leaflet for Buckingham."

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle nods. "It's a worthwhile stop. Why don't I see what is out there for us to pursue this evening, and I can meet you at the palace?"

Carlisle turns to leave, but stops before picking up speed. I wouldn't leave if I thought you needed round-the-clock supervision.

The older vampire heads away from the city on the lookout for both a private place to hunt and something potentially appealing to even make the effort palatable.

[themidnightson]

He's not positive he's the one who needs the watching, even though it's ironic that in response to the words his first reaction is to dart a look at the people nearby and take a breath in.

Then to look back to empty space where Carlisle had been.

Edward listened to him through the tumult of everyone else around him, even as the voice was drowned the further it got. More of a hum than told him it was fading than a sound he could pin point.

Then gone, swallowed into the multitude again.




He looked out toward the teeming masses, toward the direction of the assumption, and then turned back, hand pushing the door to the livery back open.

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle never heads to the district he'd pointed out to Edward on the map.

It takes some investigating, but he does finally locate some open land. He spins on his heel and heads back to the city proper.

As much as he trusts Edward, it makes Carlisle anxious to be away for very long. He'd never expected turning someone would feel like this - it wasn't something Carlisle knew from experience.

[themidnightson]

His walk back to the library is a touch speedier than it should be, but no one is paying him much mind. His gait was slower down the aisle to the case he hadn't been near himself.

It's image in his mind was Carlisle's. Even looking at it with his own eyes, it was superimposed with the echo of Carlisle's emotions. The reality a shadow before the first introduction.

After a brief pause to orient where the thoughts and people in the room were, Edward broke the seal around it easily and lifted the glass case top off with one hand.

A small parade of doubts, against the backdrop of earlier conversations (of their nature, of the lies the world assumed, of not being evil), showed only in the sudden stillness of his other hand when he reached out. Before he finally pressed two of his fingertips to the old cross.










He's waiting, conveniently, in a place where Carlisle will be able to find him easily. He's outside, leaning against one of the trees. Anyone might look worried about being told to stop that, but he was relaxed studying the building.

[ofthefamily]

Edward hears Carlisle before he sees him.

I found an appropriate location, Carlisle starts about a mile away. Several minutes later, he's behind Edward. "Did you amuse yourself while I was away?"

[themidnightson]

"Well enough," Edward admitted, standing back upright. He glanced over, with the faintest edge of a smile. "I think I prefer the space and the gardens to the crowds and the building."

[ofthefamily]

"So not much in the way of city life for you in your future," Carlisle returns amiably. "Where are we to now?"

[themidnightson]

"As though it would stop me," Edward said, challenge in his scoff to the first words. He refused to think about failing. (At least more than he already did.) Especially with the example of the possibilities afforded standing next to him.

"I was thinking about run," he followed those words up with though. He reached up a hand, with a graceful gesture toward his head. "To find some quiet."




Cause that wasn't also convenient or nothin'.

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle stands back, inclining in nearly a bow. "Lead the way, young sir."

[themidnightson]

There was a reluctant look that turned out far better than he hoped when effecting it.

"I had intended I might meet you back at the room."

The kind that was sheepishly trying not to be personal or too embarrassed. Perhaps it was better for the lack of being very well done, given the expression it labored to be.

[ofthefamily]

Something's going on, and Carlisle doesn't know what.

"Why?"

[themidnightson]

"For the quiet," Edward said, glancing off toward the newest crowd just then emerging from the monumental building. Though he meant those words in an entirely different way inside his head, than it would be taken in the reference of the conversation.

He looked back, "Unless it inconveniences plans?"

[ofthefamily]

"No, we can certainly go back to the room."

Carlisle is now officially suspicious, but not in a menacing way. Edward has never given him cause to be overly wary.

[themidnightson]

Edward pulled his hands out of his pockets. "I'll meet you there when I'm done then."

[ofthefamily]

Done with what?

Carlisle doesn't wait for an answer but spins on his heel and heads back at a brisk pace towards the room.

[themidnightson]

Done with running. Obviously.

Edward did run off in the opposite direction, but only to round the city headed to the same place on a different, out of the way, path.

[ofthefamily]

"Oh, did you meet back up with your brother?" the woman at the front desk inquired politely.

Yes indeed; something is definitely up.

Carlisle retreats to the room that they've rented, happy to see that the extra they had paid secured them an untouched room at the end of the day. There is nothing out of place; nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the cross from a glass case in Guildhall propped up ever so politely against the drawn curtains of the small window.

The vampire just stares at it for a moment, dumbstruck, clueless as to what to think.

[themidnightson]

It takes a good while before Edward returns to the area their hotel was in. His round about route back chosen specifically with that purpose in mind. There are some things which deserve a privacy he can not give except with distance, or absence.

He gets lost for a while, anywhere but 'quiet,' at the same time listening to the thronging crowds of people he passes and ignoring them for his own thoughts, as best he can given that even his are a single voice in that chorus, too.

The stops are brief between where he started and where he'll stop. A statue off to one side. A print shop. A gallery's walk. A long line of flowering bushes. A derelict old building. A child who dashes near enough to him to surprise him. A small play house.



But eventually it leads back to the same place.

Where he approaches at a calm walk considering that he can't bring himself to regret it or not to hope that it wasn't wrong.)

[ofthefamily]

Edward has to be in the area by now.

Edward, come back to the room. I'm not going to be angry.

It's simple and sincere, but possibly with too much of a practiced edge to sound completely easy or carefree.

[themidnightson]

It's also phrased in such that, while it makes Edward almost smile to hear, also makes him wonder how long Carlisle's possibly been calling out to him before he got this close.

He passed the woman at the desk with a polite nod.

"I'm here," he said quietly, when he knew he was close enough to be heard through the building. There was no point in pointless concerns being formed. His entrance to the room was easy, and flourishless, even for having a new piece of paper in hand.

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle is still looking at the cross.

"Thieving is also bad." Pedantically.

[themidnightson]

"I'll remember that next time," Edward said, curious but not abashed. Though he had stopped and was looking at Carlisle looking at the cross.

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle doesn't ask if anyone saw Edward. He knew what Edward's answer would be, and he knew the truth. Two different things.





"You didn't have to."