Chapter Text
"Hey, sweetheart."
Two words make Laurent feel like the floor might crumble from underneath him. Just two words to destroy the work he’d started to put in not to fear every sound he heard around the house. The bedroom door rattles behind him as Damen leans back against the door. The change of clothes in Laurent’s hand now lay on the floor where he dropped them in shock. He can’t move or breathe so he just stands frozen and petrified facing his bed.
"Damen." Laurent breathes.
"It's good to see you, Laurent." Damen doesn't even have to do anything because upon hearing the sound of his voice, Laurent's body has seized up. His mind tells him to do something, scream for help, call the police, anything but all Laurent can do is stand frozen in the middle of his room. What could he do that Damen couldn’t stop though? Damen stands leaning back against the bedroom door watching Laurent frozen and petrified in the middle of the room.
"You got out," Laurent says with a shaky voice.
"Of course I got out, I have shit to do." Damen takes a step forward and Laurent's body begins to tremble. There's no fighting back now, the cuts over his body may be closed up but his leg muscle has yet to regain much strength and he's lost so much weight Damen could easily lift him with no problem. Laurent feels a strong hand suddenly run over his shoulder tracing the XIV carved there. "You know how many days it's been since I've seen you? I’ve missed you."
"What are you doing here? Are you here to finish what you started?"
"No, but I am bringing you with me." Damen steps closer so his chest sits against Laurent's back with his arm wrapped around Laurent's waist. His hand travels down into Laurent's pocket, taking out his phone and wallet and tossing them on the bed. "Or what's left of you at least. I heard Jord has been sleeping here, he hasn't done a very good job taking care of you, has he? It’s okay, I’ll fix it."
"I'm not going anywhere with you," Laurent says in a burst of confidence.
"Oh, aren't you?" Laurent suddenly feels the gun being pressed into his side. "Either you come with me willingly, or, I start killing people and make you watch."
"You wouldn't, they'll catch you if you shoot that."
"Oh, will they? Then how did I get out? If the police were competent enough to catch me twice I wouldn't have escaped in the first place. And do you really want to risk that? How about I show you I’m not bluffing.” Damen grabs Laurent under the arm and pushes them towards the window. After a moment of looking outside together, Damen points out a young girl walking down the sidewalk with her mom. “You’ve never seen me shoot a gun so you can use your imagination. If I wanted to I could shoot both of them right now, and I hope you know I’d make sure you saw that little girl’s brain sprayed across the sidewalk.”
“Don’t hurt them, please. This is between us, so don’t bring them into this.” Laurent snaps and tries to turn his head but Damen holds Laurent’s chin so he can’t look away. The little girl skips down the sidewalk ahead of her mom and stops to pick up a flower she found in the grass.
“You come with me willingly and it won’t come down to that. I enjoy a willing victim, the only part of killing her I would enjoy is the look of horror on your face. You have no idea how much I control, they will never find us again." Damen grabs Laurent under the arm and drags him out of the bedroom and down the hall to Auguste's room. It happens so fast Laurent drops his cane on the way leaving him limping after Damen.
"What are you doing?"
"I need something better to wear." Laurent is finally allowed to see Damen and sees how ill-fitting the outfit he must have stolen is. The sleeves on the shirt he wears are tight and stop high up on his wrists, the pants are too small and show off his ankles. It's a miracle Damen got out of the courthouse looking like that without anyone questioning him. Only when Damen starts digging through Auguste's closet does Laurent's anger show itself.
"You don't get to touch his stuff." Laurent lunges at the gun with all force he can, only to be slapped hard across the jaw with the barrel and sent tumbling to the floor.
"Don't try that shit on me, you're too weak to raise a hand against me right now. I'm sober and I've spent the last ten weeks with nothing better to do than work out. While you, seem to have decided to go on some sort of hunger strike," Damen says calmly. On the floor, Laurent wipes away the blood from his lip with the back of his hand and keeps his eyes directed at the floor to avoid watching Damen touching Auguste's things. Damen throws clothes out of Auguste’s closet onto the floor behind him and all Laurent can do is watch the items land in front of him. The idea of Damen wearing Auguste’s clothes after murdering him in such a horrific way is vile to Laurent. After a few minutes, Damen walks back over in a new outfit and lifts Laurent off the floor under his arm. "Time to go, we have places to be."
Damen drags Laurent through the apartment grabbing a few things on his way through, a shirt from Auguste's room that he rips into a few pieces, one of Auguste's hats and sunglasses, a change of clothes for Laurent, a throw blanket from Auguste’s bed, and the keys to Auguste's car. Using the blanket to keep the gun hidden, they cautiously make their way downstairs to Auguste's car. Lucky for Damen, Laurent could barely walk so going down the stairs it looked like he was just helping Laurent safely get downstairs. Once outside the walk to the car is terrifying when they have to walk right past the little girl and her mom. When the little girl stops right in front of them to pick up another flower, Laurent feels the gun press harder into his side. The rest of the walk to the car is terrifying but they make it there without a word to the girl. Laurent is tossed in the backseat of Auguste’s car where the pieces of the shirt are used as a blindfold and to tie his wrists behind his back. He is not given the comfort of laying on the backseat but instead is thrown on the floor and covered with the blanket.
"Not letting me see where we are going then? Nervous are we?" Laurent sasses from the floor.
"Sorry sweetheart, that was the last you'll see for a while. Can't have you know how to run away can I?" Damen hops in the front seat and takes off fast, not caring that Laurent cannot brace himself. Damen avoids all of the main highways or driving through towns so he doesn't have to worry about anyone seeing him. He is only driving about an hour out but by the time he takes all of the side streets and wastes time driving all the way around towns, it takes just over two hours to get there. "Sit still until I come back, you won't get very far if you try to run. I’m still watching you."
"You are the one with the gun," Laurent mumbles into the floor. Parked a bit in front of them is Nik in an old pickup truck. When Nik sees Damen hop out, he does too and they meet up at the end of his truck.
"Did you bring what I asked?" Damen asks.
"Are you sure you want to do this? We can still get rid of him you know? Kill him now and leave him with the car. For fuck's sake don't kill him and just leave him here. I don't care what happens to him but I don't think this is a good idea." Nik isn’t sure he wants to be involved in this. Damen killed all those people and Nik had no idea about it, but they are still friends and he promised to be there for him. When he found out what Damen was arrested for he was horrified, over the years he knew Damen had killed a few people but that was for the job. Drug dealing, especially at the volume they did, comes with a price and that means people die. But Nik had only killed one person before and that was only because they almost killed him. It ate him up for years after and he couldn’t imagine hurting a person the way Damen had so many times.
"Did you bring what I asked for?" Damen asks again, ignoring everything Nik said. Nik sighs, digging a small bag and a water bottle out of the truck and handing it over to Damen. He watches as Damen breaks one of the pills grabbed from the bag and mixes it into the water. Quickly Damen hurries back over to the car and pulls the blanket and blindfold off of Laurent's face, leaving him lying on the floor so all he can see is Damen's face hovering over him.
"That was a short drive. Do you think you're far enough away to hide from the police?" Laurent sasses right away.
"Not quite, Your Highness, but I'm sure you're ready for a change." Laurent is lifted to sit on the backseat but the blanket is thrown over both of their heads like a tent so Laurent can’t see anything. “You’re drenched in sweat, drink some water first.”
“It’s really hot being covered by a fucking blanket for this long.” Damen brings the water bottle to his lips and Laurent drinks almost the whole bottle before pulling back. What Laurent doesn’t know is what Damen put into the water. If Damen is going to travel any further with Laurent, he can’t do it with him conscious, and slipping something into his water is the only option.
“Better?”
“It’s still hot. What was that?” Laurent makes a disgusted face and coughs. “What the fuck did you put in that?”
“Just water it's probably just an old bottle, just relax for a few minutes. I’m going to move you soon and it should be better there.” Damen moves Laurent down to lie on the floor again before getting back out of the car.
“Did you give it to him?” Nik asks.
“Yes, just give it a few minutes now.” About fifteen minutes later Damen heads back to the car, finding Laurent had already kicked the blanket down to his feet and managed to slip his blindfold off.
“You son of a bitch.” Laurent mumbles when his eyes flutter open.
"No hard feelings, sweetheart. As I said, I can't let you see where we are going."
"Please not again," Laurent squirms around as Damen picks him up. His blindfold is pulled down around his neck but it's pretty pointless now because his head falls limp on Damen’s shoulder. He fought hard to keep himself awake but it didn’t take long for the drug to take hold and pull him into unconsciousness. Damen slowly carries Laurent over to the truck, the blanket Damen grabbed first dangling at his waist. They make it over to the truck and Damen carefully lays Laurent down on the back seat before running back to the car for Laurent’s clothes.
"You're an idiot you know that? He's the reason you're in this mess in the first place." Nik snaps as Damen walks past him to get back to Laurent. Watching Damen go through the motions of drugging Laurent made Nik hate this even more. He doesn't want to hurt this person, he just wants to help his best friend. This was not part of the deal at all, Nik may be a shitty person too but he's not into hurting innocent people. Laurent got himself into this mess to begin with but Nik doesn’t want to be the one to help Damen drag him back into it.
"If you didn't want to get involved, all you would have had to do was say no when I asked for help," Damen says cautiously, shifting Laurent on the seat better. Nik has no rebuttal to the statement, so he just glares and crosses his arms. “Turn around, he needs to change.”
"Excuse me?"
"You're the one who told me he has to stay under the seat. So do you want to smuggle him across the border in a fucking suit? Because if not, turn around, now." Nik sighs and walks away to the back of the truck with his back facing Damen. In hindsight, it probably would have been easier to try to make Laurent change back at the apartment, but Laurent most likely would have never listened. Undressing him is the easier part, the hard part is trying to move Laurent's arms around to get them in the sleeves without letting him fall back over. Once Damen gets him changed into a thin t-shirt and a pair of shorts he leaves him lying on the seat so he can bring the old clothes to Auguste's car. Damen leaves the keys in the car with Laurent’s clothes and does his best to clean off the interior of any of his fingerprints, unnecessary, but a habit at this point. By the time he gets back, Nik is finishing putting Laurent under the back seat behind some boxes. They both hop in the car and head out, driving the same way Damen had driven avoiding anywhere the police might be out looking for Damen. Nik refuses to speak for a long time, just staring straight ahead and avoiding saying anything which is very out of character. "You're mad at me."
"No shit." Nik snaps.
"Why?"
"You tried to kill him, Damen. You killed all of those people and what did they ever do to you? There have been plenty of times people have tried to kill you and I understood, but Laurent didn't do a thing to you." Damen stays quiet for a long time, staring at his hands in shame. That was the first time Nik had ever said Laurent's name and it was to scold Damen for hurting him. "Hell, I thought you were in love with him. I’ve never seen you act like that with someone, honestly, not even Jokaste."
"I am in love with him." Damen spits out as soon as Nik finishes his sentence.
"No, you're not, you wouldn't do something like that to someone you love. If you loved him you would have done everything to protect him, not try to kill him so he can't leave you. You don't know what love is."
"How would you fucking know?" Nik's cheeks flush and his jaw clenches tight. “You’ve never been in love.”
"You'd be surprised." Nik mumbles.
"Whatever, I really don't care what you think anyway." Damen spits. His frustration towards Nik is misdirected considering the risks Nik puts himself in for Damen regularly, especially this time.
"Yeah, nothing new there," Nik mumbles to himself. “Do you even know how many people you’ve killed?”
“Forty-two,” Damen says flatly. Nik is so stunned by the quick answer he doesn’t know what else to say. He wasn’t expecting an answer, at least not one that seemed so certain. Neither of them says anything for a long time after that and just drive in silence.
A few times throughout the day they have to stop so Damen can drug Laurent again and make sure he is still doing okay. Now that he is still mostly unconscious Damen switches to injecting him in the arm so he doesn’t have to worry about Laurent choking on the water. His body was hot and sweaty from hiding under the backseat for so long. They have kept him tucked under the seats to keep anyone driving next to them from seeing him unconscious and to keep him hidden if they got stopped by the police. At one point Damen sits on the floor in the back for an hour to fan Laurent so he doesn't get too overheated. The two drive all day, getting only about half as far as Nik could get on any normal day just because they couldn’t take the highways. They eventually decide to stop at a house Nik had asked permission from a friend to borrow for the night when he realizes he can barely keep his eyes open anymore.
When Damen carries Laurent inside the old house he's still completely unconscious. Damen, however, is going to sleep at some point so just in case Laurent wakes during the night Damen slips on what could only be described as a leather collar around Laurent's neck. To that collar, he attaches a chain that he keeps locked to the house's radiator. Obviously, Nik had to bring this. It made him nervous bringing the collar not knowing what it was for but now it’s revolting to watch it in use. This time when Nik feels uncomfortable with Damen's decision he just keeps his mouth shut knowing it will have no effect. Putting a collar on Laurent like he’s a dog makes Nik’s stomach turn in disgust.
"What is your plan with him?" Nik asks.
"I don't know, I'm letting him wake up a little and I’ll try to make him eat something." They both sit around in silence for a few hours. Nik ate a small meal from some of the supplies in the truck and laid down to sleep but ended up just lying there. Damen sat on the floor with Laurent's head in his lap.
"Eat something Damen you didn’t eat today," Damen just shakes his head and stays put, running a hand gently through Laurent's hair admiring the boy he has missed so deeply. As soon as Laurent showed the first sign of movement Damen went to work cooking him dinner. Laurent won't be fully aware of what’s happening when Damen feeds him so Damen cooks a bowl of soup just to be safe. By the time he comes back Laurent's eyes flutter open and closed in confusion as to where he is. Carefully he helps Laurent sit up and lean back against the wall. Still half awake he feels at the collar around his neck in confusion, pulling at it like it itches but unaware of what it is.
"Sweetheart, I made you some dinner. How about you eat something for me?" Damen brings a spoonful of soup to Laurent's mouth but he turns his head away and whimpers. He's still delirious from the drugs and leans forward to lie on Damen's shoulder. "You can go back to sleep in a minute, just eat a little for me, please."
"Damen, I've been driving all day. I know he needs to eat but please, I need to sleep." Nik says sitting up from his makeshift bed.
"You've slept through worse," Damen says. He pulls Laurent off his shoulder and leans him back against the wall again. This time when Damen comes in with a spoonful, Laurent takes it. He takes in a few mouthfuls before he starts fighting Damen off again. Damen realizes he’s not going to get any more down so he switches to a bottle of water laced with enough drugs to keep him unconscious until morning. After laying under the back seat in the truck all day, Laurent has to be dehydrated. As soon as the water touches his lips he grabs Damen’s hands and drinks half the bottle before he pulls back coughing. "There you go sweetheart, that will make you feel better. Let’s get a little more food in you though."
"Stop," Laurent mumbles as he leans forward to lie on Damen's chest again. They sit like this for a few minutes with Laurent barely conscious and no idea what he's doing but Damen enjoys the feeling of being touched regardless. Laurent whimpers as if he’s crying but no tears come.
"Alright sweetheart that's fine, time to go to sleep," Nik watches in disgust as Damen lays Laurent down in the blanket and uses his sweater as a pillow. The whole time Laurent fights being laid down but he’s still not very awake so it does nothing.
“Help," Laurent lets out a soft whimper as he realizes what Damen did to him. A brief second of lucidity gives him enough time to realize what he just drank and the feeling draining from his fingertips. His fingers desperately grab Damen's shirt as if it were his last lifeline with no other place to look for help. His eyes are wide staring up at Damen but he doesn’t have enough control over his body to sit back up. He fights for a while, trying to drag himself back upright but only managing to roll over. Damen is doing his best to respect what he knows Laurent would want but there’s only so much he can do. After a few minutes of watching Laurent try to drag himself away, Damen slides over and pulls him back where he was before.
“It’s alright, just go to sleep.” Damen hushes him and runs his fingers through Laurent’s hair again to keep him relaxed. After a few minutes of whimpering and fighting Laurent lets go of that feeling of clarity and closes his eyes to go to sleep. Within a few more minutes, he will be unconscious anyway.
"You've put him through so much," Nik says. "He's never going to be like he was before."
"I thought you wanted to sleep." Damen lays down next to Laurent and puts all his focus on the soon-to-be unconscious boy next to him. All day he was worried about Laurent overheating in the car, but now in this old house with barely any heating, he fears Laurent might freeze. His body trembles from the lack of fat on him to help keep him warm. Damen knows that Laurent would never want to be touched if he was awake but with the temperature in the house dropping fast and not many other options left, Damen crawls under the blanket with him. Almost immediately Damen can see a difference as Laurent's shivering slowly fades until it completely stops. Knowing how Laurent would feel about this he keeps his body just barely close enough to give off heat for Laurent without being too over-the-top clingy. He spends a long while lying in the silence of the house watching Laurent sleep. Breathing and his pulse are monitored with only a hand wrapped around Laurent’s wrist. It’s another hour of admiring and monitoring before Damen decides he needs to try and sleep too. The three sleep through the night and Damen is ready to go by sunrise even as Nik drags his feet from exhaustion.
Traveling all the way to Ios with one man who can't be seen and his unconscious hostage takes a lot longer than it should. Every few days they stop and hide out for another few days to make it harder to track where they are. When they get to the border they have to wait four days for Nik's friend to be on guard so they can get by without questions. Smuggling two people across the border is surprisingly similar to smuggling drugs, Nik's friend doesn't ask questions and gets him through before anyone else has the chance to look through the truck and find the two boys hiding in the back.
Past the border, it takes another week to make it all the way to Ios. Once they came close to being seen and Damen made them hide for three days. Two of which Laurent completely refused food in his half-drugged state. Damen never let him out of sedation enough to understand where he was or what was going on around him but just enough so he could eat with the help of Damen. After so long under sedation and his complete refusal of food, Laurent had lost enough weight for his ribs to poke out of his sides and his collarbones to be completely visible as if you could wrap your hand around them. Nik was horrified at what Damen had done to this boy who had such a healthy physique back in Vere and now looked like a starving child.
"We need to make one more stop on the way," Nik says. The road they had been on was not well traveled so they didn’t have to worry about seeing people. But now Nik turns off the road into a town and Damen’s instinct is to panic. On the outskirts of Ios are many smaller towns with not a lot of traffic flowing through them. The area Nik decided to drive them into is not very populated but Damen still flinches at every car that drives past them.
"Where?"
"The store, you need to make him eat when he wakes up. He looks disgusting. I'm buying him some food." Nik parks in the back of the parking lot at a grocery store in town and quickly runs inside to grab some food for Laurent. Damen sits with Auguste's hat pulled down and sunglasses on, slouched in his seat so no one notices him. The area they are in is not very busy so no one comes close enough to the truck to see Damen. But Damen is a naturally anxious person so when Nik takes more than a few minutes to come back out he starts to panic.
"What took you so long?" Damen snaps when Nik finally gets back in the car.
"Did you not see all of the shit I bought your boyfriend? I was only inside for ten minutes, give me a break asshole." Nik takes off quickly but Damen still sits with his head down in fear of someone seeing his face. Even as they get closer to the house and further out into the wilderness with no one around for miles Damen still sits with the hat pulled down. "Damen, no one is going to see you anymore. No one lives around here you know that."
"I'm just trying to be safe." Another hour of driving and they pull up outside two small cabins in the middle of an Akielon forest only a short hike away from the sea. Nik takes priority in opening up the house and bringing in some of the food that needs to be refrigerated. Damen however immediately goes to pull Laurent out from the back seat. He slowly walks him inside and down the hall to the bedroom.
"Fucking finally," Damen says, carefully laying Laurent down on the bare mattress. Damen takes the end of the chain attached to the collar around Laurent's neck and locks it to a hook in the wall next to the bed.
"You really think that's necessary?"
"In case I'm not here when he wakes up, he should be fine but I don’t want him hurting himself because he doesn’t know what he’s doing." Nik just stares but doesn't disagree, Damen has a good point. There’s still some more to get done around the house before it can be considered liveable. They already have most of the furniture they need stacked in the living room because Nik called some friends and had them deliver it to the cabins. It took these friends a few days to get the electricity turned back on since the cabins had been vacant for years. The two of them bought these cabins years ago and fixed them up just in case something like this happened and they needed to hide from the police, this wasn’t exactly what Nik imagined they’d be needed for though. He does wonder if Damen has had this planned for a long time, maybe that’s why he wanted these from the start.
"I hate that I'm saying this, but you should probably keep him asleep until we are done getting the house set up."