Chapter Text
Madeleine is cuddled up next to Claudia, who is resting peacefully. She absentmindedly scrapes her fingers gently along the edge of Claudia's jawline, humming lightly to herself. An old childhood nursery rhyme she used to share with her sister. The memories are less painful now, for Madeleine. She talks openly with Claudia about her sister, Aimee, and her parents, her human life in France. Even against the natural reticence that comes with sharing one's own trauma, Madeleine is blunt and honest about her past pain. How tuberculosis ravaged her family and left only her alive. She even talks about the war. The horrors she remembers personally. The horrors she experiences after the war ends. She appreciates Claudia listening, with rapt attention and eyes wide with a wonder that could make children envious.
Claudia shivers a little, then whimpers which causes Madeleine to pause and look down at her sleeping beauty. "What thoughts stir in that pretty head?"
Madeleine lets her guard down a little, peering into her girlfriend's thoughts. They have a habit of chasing each other telepathically, so it almost never feels like an unwelcome intrusion. This time, Madeleine is met with vivid memories, if not a little exaggerated in how unsettling they appear. Madeleine can hear Claudia yet is unable to see her. It dawns on her that she IS Claudia. Or that she's looking through Claudia's eyes.
She sees a man. A vampire. Madeleine immediately thinks he would be attractive, if not for the sinister sneer he wears draped across his face.
"I think you still need to learn some manners, girl. You're still so impolite... I'm almost starting to think you LIKE being punished," the man jeers relentlessly, flashing his teeth and then it strikes Madeleine like a knife in her side.
This man... No, this BEAST haunts Claudia in her memories. In her own body. He invades what should be a fortified and safe place for Claudia, even in a confusing and frozen, never growing and never changing or aging body. To have her soulmate be further robbed of her choice, in a life already marred by stolen decisions. The thought sickens Madeleine and fills her with unshakeable grief.
She rips herself free of Claudia's night terror, staring down at the beautiful woman in her fitful sleep. "Claudia, wake up. Mon cher, open your eyes. You're safe."
Claudia awakens as if startled or struck, nearly knocking Madeleine off their shared bed. "Wh-what is it? Is everything okay?"
Madeleine almost giggles at how magnificent Claudia looks, even when rubbing sleep from her eyes and reaching out to check on her. For a moment, the worry on her lovely companion's face is enough to brush aside the vision that previously clouded Madeleine's mind. "Claudia, are you alright?"
Madeleine physically feels Claudia's hackles come up, and though she has no intention of prying further into Claudia's mind, that option is taken out of the question when she almost hears the door to Claudia's mind being shut, locked and chained up. She cannot hear her girlfriend's thoughts, and the silence is alarming, damn near offensive. Claudia becomes icy in her demeanor and Madeleine stiffens in response.
"What did you see?" Claudia whispers, her tone flat and voice almost inaudible to a mouse's ears, but she knows Madeleine can hear her.
Mirroring her, petulant in her own attitude, Madeleine shuts off access to her own mind and the silence in the room matches their own internal quiet.
"Madeleine, tell me what you saw!" Claudia demands, but her voice does not rise much more in volume.
"Claudia, who is he?" Madeleine tries.
"I'm not going to have this conversation with you, Maddie!" Claudia hisses, turning away from her.
"Clau-"
"No!" A door slams shut, and Madeleine sinks back onto the bed.
Hours of staring glumly at their bedroom wall. Madeleine notices a bit of paint chipped away near a corner of their dresser in their shared boudoir. She laments her own foolish curiosity, tugging nervously at a few strands of hair that dangle in front of her eyes, irrespective of her trembling hands that kept running through her hair. She burns through an entire pack of cigarettes, waiting for Claudia to return. It's barely an hour left remaining before sunrise, and Claudia is still out. Madeleine frantically rises to her feet and paces the living room, telepathically crying out desperately for Claudia to return. As if to answer her silent prayers, the front door opens and Claudia stumbles in, covered in blood. Madeleine gasps and rushes to her.
"Claudia, what happened?! Are you okay?"
Claudia shrugs away from her and sighs. "I'm fine, you don't need to mother me or be gentle with me, I'm not a fragile little girl!"
Madeleine is taken aback by the response. "Fragile? I don't understand. Claudia, why are you being this way? It was just a dream, and I was worried about you!"
Claudia distances herself from Madeleine even more, glaring at her. "I don't want to fucking talk about it! I'm entitled to my privacy!"
She's shouting now, and Madeleine decides to leave her alone for a bit. "I'm sorry, Claudia. I will leave you be."
Claudia sulks into their bedroom and opens the lid to her coffin. She and Madeleine often sleep together in their bed with the windows blacked out. Though they have the coffins because old habits die hard. She angrily scribbles in her journal, noticing the blood underneath her fingernails. The feeling suddenly makes her nauseous and she gets up to scrub herself clean of the night's victims. She walks past Madeleine without a word but gives her an apologetic look over her shoulder before shutting herself in the bathroom and turning the water up as high as it would go. Lamenting Madeleine's hard work on her bloodied dress as she peels it off her body, Claudia steps under the stream of water and watches the blood wash down the drain. She catches herself wishing she could wash the feeling of him away with it. The thought is revolting, and she shoves it back down deep into the ocean of her subconscious. She doesn't know when it starts, but she realizes that bloody tears are mingling with the blood on her skin. Sinking down and curling to rest her chin on her knees, she lets the tears flow silently and hopes that she's quiet enough to avoid disturbing her companion.
As if the universe itself exists to spite her, she hears the bathroom door creak open slightly. "Claudia?"
"I'm fine, Madeleine!"
Madeleine can hear it in the quiver of her voice, that she isn't fine and she contemplates coming in to sit beside the tub. She ultimately decides against it. She just brings in a fresh towel, lays out a glass of wine on the sink for Claudia, then walks out of the bathroom and lounges helplessly on the chaise lounge, taking up her sketchbook and drawing out more outfit ideas for herself and Claudia. She can already guess that Claudia is mentally giving herself lashes for getting blood on the dress, as it is Madeleine's favorite on her. She truly considers it her greatest creation, and only simply for the fact that she is not responsible for creating Claudia. Non, she has Louis and Lestat to thank for that.
Speaking of which, she is planning to meet with Louis at some point in the near future. Louis often broods over the bonds that sires and progeny develop over time, and he openly expresses to her that he wishes for their bond to be different. Madeleine can basically parrot word for word, the speeches Louis launches into every time they see each other. Admittedly, they are less frequent now, but only due to the fact that Louis and his husband are often traveling for tour, since Lestat has a taste for the rockstar life and of course, he and Louis are basically attached at the hip now that they have a therapist they can see virtually, and Louis has a curiosity for what tour life is like.
A buzzing sound reaches her ears, and Madeleine runs to the bedroom to grab her cellphone. "Bonjour!"
"Hey Madeleine, Lestat and I are back in town and were wondering if you and Claudia want to meet tonight!" Louis' soothing voice comes through.
"Oh, hello Louis! Oui, Claudia is taking a shower but I'm sure she would love to see you both!" Madeleine tries not to let any worry leak into her voice.
Unfortunately, Louis picks up on it anyway. "What's going on? You two have a fight?"
Madeleine's voice lowers. "Non, er well... I don't know what to make of it. She was dreaming, and I saw a man in her dreams. Louis, I think he- I think he hurt Claudia."
Louis is silent on the other end of the line, for a long time. It makes Madeleine worry even more and she runs a hand through her hair nervously before reaching for her pack of cigarettes. Even though she has virtually no negative consequences for smoking now, she has been trying to cut back on the habit for a little while. "Louis, are you still there? Is there something you know?"
"Claudia will tell you in time, if she wants. I'm sorry I can't say much more than that, Madeleine. We'll see you both later tonight. Get some rest, you're both up too early anyway." He ends the conversation curtly and hangs up.
"I could say the same about you two," Madeleine says defiantly, though the sentiment is more to herself.
Claudia comes out of the bathroom, wrapped in her towel and comes over to give Madeleine a kiss on the cheek. "Louis and Lestat want to come see us?"
"Merde, how did you- Right, I forgot," Madeleine sighs, reaching to extinguish her cigarette.
Claudia smirks and takes the other woman's hand gently, bringing the cigarette to her own lips and taking a long drag, turning to blow the smoke away from their faces. "You should know by now, superhuman hearing."
She plants a soft kiss on Madeleine's lips and goes to change into her pajamas.
Madeleine tosses her phone onto the chaise lounge and stands to join her. The buzz of a text message brings her attention back to her phone, and she unlocks it to find a text from Louis.
She smirks and selects the notification, while murmuring to herself, "Welcome to the 21st century, monsieur du Lac."
Louis can carry on forever about the "inconveniences" of modern technology and how surveillance has "doomed both human and vampire-kind to be crushed under the oppressive thumb of power hungry and insecure dictators". Madeleine much prefers Lestat's perspective on the matter; he's not as preachy and doesn't mince or floralize his language on what he thinks of governments or rulers, the like. He would opt to call them "creepy pricks and assholes who are screwed up tighter than a nun", and it would make Madeleine giggle.
She wonders what Claudia is currently thinking, and her girlfriend's voice pushes open the windows and doors of her mind, slipping in and wrapping itself around her in a comforting hug.
You coming to bed? Claudia inquires.
Yes, mon amour. Just give me a moment. Comes the reply.
Madeleine takes a quick shower and then walks into the bedroom, to be greeted with the sight of Claudia sitting on top of their coffin, wearing a shy grin. "Is everything alright? Between us, I mean."
"Oui. I apologize for intruding; it was not my intention. If you don't want to talk about it, that is fine. I'm concerned but I want to make sure you are aware that I will not push or nag you about it, as long as you are being safe. You scared me, being out so close to sunrise. I was about to come out and find you. I thought you would... I worry that Armand was right."
Claudia stiffens at the mention of Armand. "Right about what?"
Crossing her arms defensively around herself, Madeleine huffs and steels herself for another argument. "The night you and Louis asked him to make me a vampire, he said that you would one day throw yourself into a fire."
The memory of that night flashes back and Madeleine subconsciously rolls her eyes. Armand, grilling her as if he knows everything about being a vampire. Only for him to be so self-deprecating and needlessly self-righteous in his religiosity. No wonder his band of merry idiots fell apart at the mere mention of a different existence. And at the hand of Lestat de Lioncourt, no less.
"I have no intentions of killing myself, Madeleine. I want you to know that. The life we built here together, I wouldn't want anything else for myself. I know you worry about it, and I understand how you feel. I felt the same way, wandering with Louis all those years after we-" Claudia cuts herself off, but Madeleine knows what unspoken words hang in the air.
They don't really speak about how Louis and Claudia plotted to murder Lestat, but Claudia did tell her about what eventually led herself and Louis to France. The atmosphere no longer feels very uncomfortable between the four vampires anymore. Their first meeting was worse than rigor mortis, the silence filled with anxiety before Louis breaks through the tension by introducing Madeleine to Lestat.
Now, it feels like a joyful reunion between friends or family whenever they all see each other.
Madeleine still holds a grudge against Armand for his part in nearly getting herself, Claudia and Louis killed. Lestat saving them all certainly helps in Madeleine's first official impression of him. Though Lestat makes it clear that he doesn't want her to thank him for it, and he would rather not speak of the events at all. The same applies to Armand but for altogether different reasons, though neither Madeleine nor Claudia feel any obligation to coddle Armand's comfort in the same way they choose to respect Lestat's.
Claudia slips down from the coffin and opens it, holding out a hand for Madeleine to take. Madeleine obliges and Claudia helps her into the coffin and climbs in beside her, cradling her close and kissing her. "Good morning."
"Good morning," Madeleine replies, closing her eyes to let sleep carry her away to her own dreams and memories.