A Moment of Stupidity Part 2 Chapter 9

[eiahmon]

Title: A Moment of Stupidity Part 2: 1,094 - 1,120
Rating: R for language, and mentions of RAPE and M/M SLASH. Don’t like, then don’t read.
Disclaimer: Castlevania and its characters and situations are the sole property of Konami. I am making no money or profit off of this fanfiction and no copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: AU. What if Joachim Armster had lived through his fight with Leon Belmont? What might have been different? Well hang on, because Joachim is going to tell you all about it. From his kidnapping and forced turning to his rescue from the ruins of Walter’s castle, and from Trevor's birth and to Richter's death of old age, he tells all - and blames it all on Leon while he's at it.
Section Summary: Part 2 covers the twenty six years between Lament of Innocence and Leon’s death.
SPOILER WARNING!!! Spoilers for many of the Castlevania games!!
WARNING!! This fic my offend the religious! Read at your own risk!

9.
All Good Things

Life continued on for the next 19 years. In the winter of 1,105 Kalina gave birth to a daughter that she and Leon named Sara, after the woman that Leon had loved so dearly. I was surprised that Kalina would name her daughter in such a way, but I shouldn't have been, with her giving nature. It was actually her that had the idea to give their baby girl that name.

Once again, I was named godfather, and Kalina, Leon, and I shared a secret joke on the clergy, who had no idea that the man holding the baby at the font was a vampire.

Leon and I trained together less and less as he mastered the techniques that I taught him and created a few of his own. He continued to keep the nuisance vampire population down, and it was for that reason that the council agreed to leave him be. As long as we didn't make nuisances of ourselves or aid and abet his former friend, then Leon would leave us be. It helped that he still knew of only Kerwin, Matatias, and myself.

Elias grew into a fine young man, that, upon reaching the age of 13, began to join his father on vampire hunts. He knew what I was of course, and he took it at face value when it was explained that not all vampires were evil monsters and that most just wanted to live their lives with their families.

Sara grew into a blue eyed, strawberry blond beauty, and Leon ruefully commented that he was going to have to teach her how to fight, simply so she could beat the boys away. I reminded him that he had a whip for that, and he laughed and seemed to be taking the idea seriously.

Other than at council meetings, the only vampires I had regular contact with were Kerwin and Matatias, which suited me just fine. While hearing Ladislas torture Actose that one night had given me some grim satisfaction, I knew I didn't want to encounter either one of them again. Actose and his children weren't seen for several months after that, and we all figured it was because he was nursing his wounds and taking out his humiliation on his children. As for Ladislas, he may have been grateful towards me for saving Rachim, but I was sure that Silvanus had the right of it when he told me not to expect any favors in the future.

*****

In the late fall of 1,118, when Leon was 46, he returned home from a several day long hunt, pale and tired. Kalina managed to convince him to eat a little supper and bathe, but then he went straight to bed. I saw him the following day, and I could smell the sickness before I even entered the room with him. He was sitting in a chair in his study, pale with bags under his eyes, and his cheeks were flushed with fever. He tried to act as though he was fine, but it was obvious to everyone, especially me, that he wasn't. Kalina had been trying all morning to convince him to go back to bed, but he stubbornly refused. Finally, she turned to me for help, and I sighed and simply picked Leon up and carried him to his bedroom, despite his protests. I plopped him down on his bed, quickly stripped his day clothes off (Which made him blush furiously), dressed him in his nightshirt, and tucked him in. He protested and tried to get up, but I simply held him down with a single hand.

"You are ill ,Leon, and you are going to rest." I said firmly.

"I'm fine, Joachim." he insisted "Now let me up."

"Leon, you are sick, and you are going to stay in this bed until I say you can get up. Is that clear?"

"Damn it, Joachim, I'm not your child. Let me up!"

"Go to sleep, Leon." I said firmly as I willed him to sleep. Abruptly all the fight went out of him, and he flopped down bonelessly as my magic put him into a deep sleep.

Leon slept deeply throughout the day, not waking until well after nightfall. When he woke, he was shaking from a chill and burning up, and only then did he admit that he didn't feel well. Kalina and I managed to get him to eat a bowl of stew and drink some water, and then he went to sleep again.

But he did not have a restful night. Kalina later said that he tossed and turned most of the night, and though his fever was high, he shivered constantly and curled close to her, looking for warmth. Sometimes, he made little noises of distress: small whines, cries, and whimpers, and despite Kalina's best attempts to soothe him, he did not quiet down until the first grey light of dawn peeked in through the windows.

I returned not long after, and Kalina went about her duties as lady of the house, even though I could tell she was exhausted. I stayed with Leon, not caring one bit about the consequences of the two of us being seen in the same room together for so long. For the first few hours of my watch, his sleep was deep and untroubled, and he woke in the late morning and drank some water before going to sleep again.

"You'll feel better soon, Leon." I said softly as I reached back and gently smoothed his sweaty blond hair back from his face. He made no indication that he heard me, and I only hoped that I was right.

He woke in the middle of the afternoon, and he complained of a sore throat, and I noticed that he had two swollen lumps around the top of his neck along his jawline. I lightly touched one of them, and he winced in pain. He refused to eat, but he did drink some water, though it was painful for him to swallow. He did let me take a brief look into his mouth, and I saw pus in the back, while his throat was a bright, angry red. He was hot and sweaty, and he looked so miserable.

"Would you like some of my blood?" I asked softly "Just a sip would be enough to break your fever and make you feel better."

He shook his head adamantly. "No, Joachim. You have stolen blood in your veins, and I don't want any part of that."

"You only need a few drops."

"No, Joachim."

I sighed in resignation and helped him lie back down. Soon he was asleep, and I wondered if he was going to get through this. A few hours later, he began to shift uncomfortably in bed, and a few minutes later, he abruptly sat up and was sick all over the blankets. I went over to him and picked him up out of bed and called a servant to change the bed, mentally commanding her to ignore that her master was being held by another man. Leon, for his part, was so miserable that he didn't care. He allowed me to change him out of his sweat soaked gown and wipe his face and hair with a damp cloth. I then wrapped him up in a blanket and held him while I waited for the servant to finish.

Kalina came in as I was putting Leon back in bed, and she told me to go hunt if I needed to, that she would sit with him the rest of the day. I lightly kissed Leon on the top of his head, which surprised him, and then I went to go hunt.

Over the next few days, Leon worsened, but no matter how awful he felt, he refused to take any of my blood, no matter how much I tried to convince him. He would not eat, and most of the time any water that he drank would be vomited back up within an hour or so. He began to complain of a headache and muscle aches, and sometime they were so severe that they kept him awake.

Kalina and I tried to keep his spirits up, but it was plain that he was not going to get better on his own. Even she tried to talk him into taking some of my blood, but he would have none of it. He refused to allow Elias and Sara into the room, so they wouldn't catch whatever he had, and we tried to keep him up to date on whatever they were doing. We told him about the local girl that had caught Elias' eye and about the young man that had been a little too persistence in trying to get Sara's attention. She had ended up slapping him so hard that she nearly knocked him off his feet.

Leon smiled when we told him things like that, but he didn't laugh, and it was clear from looking at him that he just didn't have the energy. Talking had become painful for him, so he spoke only when necessary, and his throat caused him so much pain that we often had to force him to drink anything. He tried to hide it and put on a brave face, but I knew that he felt terrible, and that he was frightened. When I sat with him, I always stayed close to the bed, sometimes holding his hand, sometimes holding him on my lap when I knew no one would be coming in to bother us. He seemed to crave the contact, for not once did he protest or fuss about being held in such a way.

Being held, either by myself or Kalina, also seemed to help his fever dreams. He had nearly scared us to death the first time he had screamed in terror in his sleep, and I had wondered for a brief moment if that is what Kerwin had felt like whenever I had had a nightmare all those years ago. Leon would never tell us what he had dreamt about, but they left him a shaking, crying mess, and it always took him a while to calm back down enough to sleep. I decided if holding him kept them away, then I was going to do so, and damn what the church and everyone else said.

As Leon’s health spiraled downwards, despite his protests, I began to seriously consider forcing some of my blood down his throat. I admitted as much to Silvanus when he came for a visit at Kerwin’s house one afternoon, and his answer surprised me.

“Don’t do it, Joachim.” he said gently “I know you mean well, and that you only want to help him, but he has told you no.”

“But he’s going to die, Silvanus.” I protested and to my surprise, I felt a few tears well up in my eyes. Silvanus reached out and gently wiped them away before he took me by the shoulders and looked me in the eye.

“He has refused your offer, child. He has told you no. If you go ahead and give him your blood, then you are betraying him, and he’s already had one friend betray him. Do you want to make it two friends?” I shook my head miserably. “Then go to him. Stay with him. Hold him when he is upset or frightened. Let him know that you’ll be there if he needs you. Do not ask him to take your blood again, but tell him that the offer stands if he changes his mind. At least then you will be of some comfort to him as his life comes to an end.” I nodded in understanding, and Silvanus wrapped me in a hug. “He is your friend. You love him don’t want to let him go, but that is how life goes on.”

Later I returned to Leon’s house and did what he suggested.

“I won’t ask you to take it again, Leon.” I said softly as I bathed his sweaty face with a damp cloth “But if you change your mind, the offer stands.” He smiled weakly at me before he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

Over the next several days, Leon deteriorated even further, and I only left his side when my thirst could not be ignored. He became too weak to sit up, then he couldn’t raise his head off of the pillow, then he became unable to swallow. He would no longer allow Kalina into the room with him; he told me in his weak, rasping voice that he did not want her to see him in such a state.

“Let her remember me as how I was before.” he whispered just before he laid his feverish head against my chest and went to sleep. By then, he had lost a great deal of weight, and his cheeks and eyes were sunk in from having no water.

Three weeks after he first fell ill, Leon was lying in my arms sleeping, while I listened to his faltering heartbeat and his raspy breathing mixing with the sound of the rain outside. Every now and then I could hear distant thunder, but there was no lightning yet. I had him wrapped snugly against the chill in the air, but I doubted that he was feeling it. I could feel him growing cold as his body began to fail, and I knew he wouldn’t live to see the dawn.

Despite his wishes, Kalina, Elias, and Sara had come into the room earlier, one at a time, and they told him that they loved him and told him goodbye. Sara had even kissed him on the forehead, and all three of them had been crying when they left the room.

Leon shifted ever so slightly in my arms and whimpered, and I gently shushed him.

“Joachim?” he said feebly, and even with my enhanced hearing, I could barely hear him.

“Yes, Leon?”

“Please take care of them for me? And tell them that I love them and that I’m sorry.”

“I will Leon, though there’s nothing to be sorry for. Now rest. It’s okay for you to let go.” I lightly brushed my lips across his forehead. “I love you.”

He smiled a tiny smile and relaxed in my arms. Barely a minute later, his breath hitched once, and then he breathed no more. A moment later, his heartbeat ceased to sound in my ears. And then the only sounds in the room were my own tears mingling together with the raindrops outside as I held him to me and began to cry.

Chapter 8  -- Part 3 Chapter 1

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