The Duke's Passion

The banquet was a disaster, but not the bad kind of disaster. Everyone had drunk until they dropped. I worry about the food storage of the third squadron as every single one of them held their liquor for too long. 

"Do you remember the time you came to me drunk?" I asked, turning my head to Sam, who was walking towards me. Sam raised his shoulders, sitting beside me on the small porch.

"Hmmm. Maybe?"

A weak chuckle slipped past my lips as I gaze ahead. "That time, you are so drunk you spouted all that nonsense."

"I don't speak nonsense, my dear."

"Just how many barrels of wine did you consume that night to get drunk?" I asked, ignoring his last remarks.. "I'm pretty sure you drank just the same amount as them, but look at Ra over there. He couldn't go back to his room and just dropped."

I jerked my chin towards Ramin, who was lying where we had the party. He looked pathetic, but I was glad that he had finally had some fun, as he had been training tirelessly.

"Well, I'm too old for those youngsters to get me into that state," Sam replied arrogantly. "If you're talking about that time you barely entered the manor, well, I didn't have that much."

"Then why were you so drunk that time? Were you faking it?" I turned my gaze back to him. Sam pressed his lips into a thin line, cocking his head at me.

"I was intoxicated with love... if that is what you call it. I mean, I like you that time and love you even more now, but I couldn't grasp that foreign emotion." Sam carefully raised his hand, staring at his palm. "It is a feeling I never felt before, and I didn't know what to do with it. So, instead of doing something that might make you hate me, I drowned myself with alcohol to quench that seemingly insatiable desire to have you right there and then."

"I was in danger and I didn't know I was."

"You are always in danger as long as I'm with you." Sam cocked his head back to me. "You got to live with it. I don't plan on letting you go just because I didn't want you to get tangled up in more problems."

I chuckled, rolling my eyes. "I am the problem. My origins were."

"Exactly." He nodded. "Even so, I want you to stay with me forever."

"I will stay with you forever, Sam." I pursed my lips, moving closer to him as I rested my chin on his shoulder. "Just don't leave me again."

"I won't, never." He shook his head, tucking my hair behind my ear. "But still, you can't stay with me forever... at least, not as a human."

His last remarks silence me because it was the subject we barely touched before. Was my deal with Stefan bothered him?

"For you to bear Stefan's heir, he will have to turn you into one, Lilou." So it bothered him, I thought. "If I woke up a little late, will you let him turn you into a vampire?"

"Jealous?" I drew my head back a little.

"Of course." He shrugged. "Grimsbanne already reeks of your blood. And you don't have any idea how I've been restraining myself smelling your faint scent in these people."

"Restraining? Why are you restraining yourself?"

Sam's eyes glinted as he leaned forward to my side and whispered, "Because I can't blame you. I was asleep, and you did what you did to protect everyone. However, I don't know how long I can restrain myself, Lilou."

"But I had to give them my blood," I replied as he drew away, staring deep into his eye. "It's not that I don't trust their strength, but I need them."

"To deceive Stefan?"

"To annoy Stefan, but there's one person I had to deceive, Sam." I raised my hand, cupping his jaw as my eyes fixed on him. "I think you can guess who are the actual threats in here."

"Alphonse?" he raised a brow, and I nodded. "I'll give them my blood, save yours. You're already pale."

"Sam, if you can smell my scent in them, do you think your brothers won't recognize yours?" 

"What do you mean?" he tilted his head to the side, pointing at his black hair. "Aren't you curious how the hell Klaus didn't recognize me despite all that blood I shed last week?"

My brows furrowed, as that didn't occur to me. I was so busy the past week, and so I didn't have the time to dwell on it. 

"But I need to make them smell like me, Sam." I still argued back because that was crucial for me.

"Well..." Sam sized me up, brushing my jaw with the back of his finger. "Just a drop."

"A drop?"

"My blood doesn't have a smell. Klaus didn't know that, but Alphonse will get suspicious if blood doesn't have a scent." Sam explained, nodding in agreement. "Why don't we... share our blood? A drop of blood from you as a fragrance."

"You're saying I can still give them my blood?"

"As I've said, just a drop. I will only allow it and share you until this ordeal is over." His tone grew solemn, leaning a bit as he looked at me in the eye. "Your blood is good, but letting them have mine is better."

I pursed my lips into a thin line as what he said could be true. However, how would I know it wouldn't strain him?

"The second slumber helped me recover," Sam explained, taking notice of the doubt in my eyes. "It's been two years, Lilou. I just want to return to our menial life together, and that is now very clear to me."

A weak smile resurfaced on my lips as Sam rested his forehead against mine. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath, and nodded lightly.

"Let's unleash all the craziness now and return to that life, my wife," he suggested under his breath. "Once this is over, let's start a family."

A family... that was what I had always wanted. The way he had said them now was enough for me to recognize the fuel of his motivation. 

"Let's do that," I whispered back. "We'll do all that."

"I'll make sure we will," he promised, cupping both my cheeks. "I won't disappoint you this time."

Just like that, time had passed in a blink of an eye and it was almost the start of winter once again.