branquignole | Demon's Lexicon Fanfiction (Reply)

You guys, this was immensely difficult. In German, I have all these words floating round in my head which makes it considerably easier to write in that language than in any other, but in English, I have to search for the words a lot longer. But I did want to participate in the Demon's Lexicon ARC contest (it would've been stupid to not even try), and since neither drawing nor vid-making are among my special talents, I decided to go for fanfic. Unbeta'd, so if you find any mistakes, you're welcome to point them out to me. :)

Nick knew that Alan was weak. He had seen it plenty of times, when the lines of Alan's face blurred with tiredness, when he had to sit down while cooking and the tomato soup boiled over, when his body went all soft and limp against Nick's. It felt good, putting his arms around Alan, shielding him, folding himself around Alan like a second jacket. It was like sword practice, only that Alan, who could be a lethal weapon at times, was like a heap of warmth in Nick's arms. He was useless.

It made Nick want to protect him. Because all Alan had ever taught him, all that was imprinted in the place where Alan's voice lay like a tiny treasure, made him throw his instincts to the wind when he looked at Alan's smaller form, this helplessness with a shock of red hair. It left Nick wondering if he had somehow picked up how to be human.

Nick was a lot more aware of the glances Alan shot him now. When he had been younger, he had thought it was foolish concern for him that lay in Alan's gaze, but now he was not so sure of that anymore.

"Are you scared of me?," he asked Alan one night. The words came out slurred as though he were drunk and didn't know how to use them properly anymore. He was about to change a lightbulb (with hands that weren't his but he still knew how to use) which had been flickering for quite some time and was on the verge of dying on them. Alan looked at him with his huge honest eyes and Nick knew he was going to say, "of course not" or something similar, so he cut in before Alan could even answer his question. "You should be, you know."

"Of course I am," Alan said, his voice thin and somehow tinny. And because Alan was Alan so much it hurt, he added, "but it was me who raised you which means you can't be too bad." The light flickered and Nick looked at his own reflection in the lightbulb, a face that did not belong to him, heavy with indifference.

I don't usually write fanfiction because I'm of the opinion that it's not something I'm good at (and I'm too lazy to practice), but since it's only short-fic, I decided I could do this ~~to you~~. :)