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Complexity
By : TwilightScribe
Category: Twilight Series > Slash
Views: 3825 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or make any money from this story.
Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
Title: Complexity

Fandom: Twilight series

Pairing: eventual Marcus/Seth

Part: XIV. A Little Night Music

Prompt: 022. happy

Words: 4317 words

Summary: Volterra was his prison, an entire city, but it didn't make up for the fact that he was alone and tortured. There had to be something to make this death sentence worthwhile.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight series, and I don't claim to own it either. It belongs to Stephanie Meyer, and I only write these things to satisfy the muses and make nothing from it.

XIV. A Little Night Music
There were a few people out on the streets in Volterra when Marcus and Seth arrived, but they looked around themselves nervously and seemed to be in a hurry to get wherever it was that they were going. A few of them looked at Marcus with lingering eyes – probably because the vampire wasn’t exactly dressed in what could be considered modern casual attire. Seth didn’t really mind it too much, but he made sure to stick as close as possible to Marcus’ side while trying not to seem clingy. Or jealous.
“Do you think those murders have anything to do with why the city’s so empty?” Seth glanced around as another pair of people ducked into the doorway of a townhouse.
“The last ones were only a mile from here; people are definitely worried that the… murderer will come here next. The fact that there are no patterns to these deaths doesn’t help their fears either – the police have no leads and a lot of it has been hushed up.” Almost unconsciously, Marcus reached out and took hold of Seth’s hand, lightly tugging on the appendage as he led the wolf to their destination.
Seth smiled, “Are we in a hurry too?”
“Somewhat.”
“That’s not really an answer.” Seth rolled his eyes and slipped his hand out of Marcus, only to retake it in a much more comfortable and natural way. He gave the surprised vampire a playful grin before giving the hand a squeeze.
If he could have blushed, then Marcus’ cheeks would have been a lovely shade of light pink at that moment.
The bookstore that Marcus favoured was just off of the square, and even though it was late at night and with the threat of a murderer lurking in the shadows, there were still a few tourists ambling about. Seth stopped to look at the various building around the small square including the Palazzo dei Priori which he did stop to ask a few questions about.
Marcus answered them as best he could, and once again he felt a pleasant warmth surge up in his chest when he saw Seth’s expression of rapt attention. It didn’t take too long until a comfortable silence settled over the pair.
Eventually, Seth broke it, his curiosity overcoming him, “So, where is it exactly that we’re going?”
“There are a few more contemporary book stores here in Volterra,” Marcus explained. “But most of them only carry titles in Italian and they can be a bit of an annoyance if you want to order anything in another language. The place that I’m taking you too mostly specializes in older volumes, but the shopkeeper is an old friend – he would have no problem with ordering in books in English for you, if I was to ask.”
The mention of the shopkeeper being an old friend of Marcus’ surprised Seth quite a bit; he hadn’t thought that any member of the Volturi would consider a human a friend. For one thing, a number of them didn’t seem to think too highly of the human race as a whole; and for another, Aro didn’t seem like the type to encourage familiarity with people who had such short existences.
“That doesn’t seem like something Aro would allow,” was what Seth finally said.
Marcus shrugged, “Aro is of the notion that fear is the best way to control people instead of basing a relationship on faith or friendship. He might not approve of this friendship – but after a while, he conceded to it being a ‘necessary’ evil.”
Gently, Marcus steered Seth down a narrow side street that was just off of the main square. The street itself was mostly dedicated to residential buildings, but the old wooden sign which announced the name of the book store still hung over a rather old but well-cared for shop. Above it, several windows looked out over the street – an apartment for the shop-keeper and his family.
Opening the door, Marcus let Seth step in first, following the young wolf in. The chimes above the door tinkled softly as the door opened, and then again when it closed behind them.
Sebastian looked up from his register as the two of them walked in; he smiled at Marcus, although the vampire could detect a curious glint in his gaze as it shifted from him to Seth. He never brought company, so it wasn’t surprising that the old man would want to ask after the young man who Marcus had brought with him this time.
Leaning down, Marcus whispered into Seth’s ear, “Go and look around, if you see anything that you like or are curious about, come and ask me. I need to talk to the shopkeeper for a few moments.”
“Well, you have fun with that,” Seth replied. He was already distracted by the masses of books both new and old that were stacked and shelved everywhere inside the rather cluttered store.
Still, it had a feel to it that Marcus hadn’t seen duplicated anywhere else. As well, Sebastian was one of the nicest humans that he’d had the actual pleasure of meeting in a very long time. Aro might not have approved of him knowing, but Sebastian was comfortable with the fact that his best patron was a vampire – an extremely ancient one. He never made any moves to reveal this fact to anyone else; this was what had guaranteed his own continued existence, as well as what allowed Marcus to keep coming back.
Marcus hadn’t felt the need to explain that he had known many of Sebastian’s forefathers. He’d been purchasing his books and documents from this family for many, many years.
“Ah, it’s good to see you again Marcus,” Sebastian greeted. His smile was warm and welcoming, as was his voice which was rough with age; his English had just the slightest traces of an accent to it. “It’s been a few months; you’ve been busy, though, I guess.”
Affording the old man a smile, Marcus replied, “A bit, yes.”
“That’s the first time I’ve ever seen you smile,” Sebastian remarked, clearly surprised by the transformation of the vampire in front of him, even though he didn’t obviously show it. He’d never seen Marcus come in with anyone before, much less heard him speak with any emotional inflection in his voice – if he spoke at all. “Something’s changed.”
“A lot has, actually,” Marcus replied almost distractedly. He was watching Seth browse through the aisles, a wistful smile on his lips as he watched the young wolf trail his fingers along the bindings. Every now and again, he’d pull down a particular one that caught his attention, turning it over in his hands before opening it and taking a look inside.
“So, who is this young man you’ve brought with you? He’s clearly not one of your own,” Sebastian was still smiling, and while he would have hopped up to sit on the counter in his youth, now he just leaned his elbows on it.
“His name is Seth,” Marcus replied slowly, carefully weighing his answer. “He caught Aro’s attention, and so, he had him brought back with him.” Marcus quickly added, “He’s American.”
Sebastian nodded complacently, “Yes, yes. Native American if I’m not mistaken – you can tell, he’s got the skin tone and the features. You seem rather attached to him Marcus, I haven’t seen you ever bring someone here with you.”
“I – yes.” Marcus stumbled for words, another first. “I’ve grown rather attached to him over the months he has been with us.”
“That’s good, everyone needs someone,” Sebastian replied. “Fia has been asking after you again – she wants to have you over for dinner or at least to come visit.”
“How is your wife doing?”
“Well enough; the arthritis has been getting to her, but she’s still as talkative as ever. She misses having the kids around, but they’re starting to become a little too much for her,” Sebastian replied conversationally.
Thinking it over, Marcus was careful with his reply, “Perhaps I will accept your invitation, but not at this time.” He cast his eyes back over to Seth, “I would have to ask Seth if he would be… agreeable to it, but I think he would enjoy it.”
“I would enjoy what?”
Both men turned to look at the young wolf that had just joined them.
Seth was looking from Marcus to Sebastian, eyes lingering a bit longer on the former, he repeated his question, “What would I enjoy Marcus?”
Before the vampire could respond, the elderly human beat him to it, “Ah, my wife has been asking after Marcus here. She would like it if he dropped by for dinner sometime, preferably this week.”
Finding his voice, Marcus continued, “I was just saying that I would need to ask you first; that is, if you would like to come along. I would… be much more comfortable if you were to come with me.”
Unexpectedly, nervousness churned at Marcus’ insides. He wasn’t exactly sure why he had said that last part, but it had been out before he’d been able to think of all the ramifications of it. But then again, he was having some problems lately with keeping some things from spilling past his lips; especially where Seth was concerned.
With Seth, honesty always seemed to be the best policy. And besides, Marcus didn’t really think that he had it in him to lie to the young man – he’d always had some difficulty with it before – and he saw no reason to deceive him now. And even though Seth would probably never admit it, Marcus just knew that Seth would like to get out of the palace and spend some time with living, breathing humans – even if Marcus was present also.
“Sure, that sounds good to me.”
Sebastian was grinning hugely at that response; it was clearly the one that he wanted, “I’ll let the missus know then. Is Saturday good for the two of you?”
“That would be fine,” Marcus replied. He was smiling again as he tilted his head to look down at Seth, “Seth?”
“Whatever’s fine with you Marcus.”
There was a twinkle in Sebastian’s eyes at the exchange, and he nodded his head, “Good, good. I will tell Fia to expect the both of you then. Come by around seven, we’ll be expecting you, alright?”
They both nodded.
“Good, and just what can I do for the two of you?”

.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.
Sebastian had several older works of a few authors tucked away onto a little shelf in the back that looked a little neglected. Not very many people came to him looking for modern English texts – most people read the best sellers and others in Italian – so he didn’t really have any in stock. The few that he did had come to him second hand.
From the small selection, Seth had found a few copies of some of Stephan King’s older books, along with a few of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series. He’d given Sebastian a list of his favourite authors, and the elderly man had promised to order in as many of their books as he could; in English of course.
All in all, it hadn’t been a bad evening.
“We should do this sort of thing more often,” Seth said as they stepped back out into the square. His hands were once again entangled with Marcus’, and he was letting the vampire gently lead him along; his stomach had made its hunger known as they’d exited the small bookstore.
That made Marcus smile, “I’m sure that while Sebastian might enjoy seeing more of us, he wouldn’t want to see that much of us.”
“You need to work on your humour.”
“I know, you have made that painfully obvious Seth.” Marcus didn’t have much of a sense of humour – he could understand sarcasm and knew when someone was trying to be funny, it was just that the intricacies of doing that himself escaped him. “Although, I don’t think that I would ever be considered a comic genius.”
“That’s fine with me.” Seth shrugged, “Anyway, what I meant was that we should go out like this together more often. I like spending time with you.”
It didn’t escape Marcus’ attention that Seth’s cheeks had turned an almost delicate shade of pink at that, and to him it seemed as though he’d just received confirmation that the attraction he was feeling wasn’t completely one-sided. After all, what he’d felt earlier had proven that almost beyond a doubt.
“I’m glad to hear that.” His tone was sincere, and filled with a mixture of emotion ranging from gratitude to a deep sense of love and companionship. Now Marcus couldn’t imagine himself without Seth in the picture; the young man had become a rather permanent fixture in his life.
“So where are we going for dinner? Or are we going to head back to the palace?” While the two of them hadn’t stopped walking, Seth was now looking up at Marcus instead of where he was going.
Softly pulling Seth out of the way from walking into a lamp post, Marcus replied, “Obviously you’re hungry. What kind of host would I be if I didn’t make sure that you were fed?”
Not pointing out that he wasn’t so much of a guest of the Volturi but a prisoner, Seth nodded and followed the vampire, “So we’re going to get something to eat?”
“Yes, I have the perfect place in mind.”
Even though Marcus didn’t need to eat, he was so familiar with the layout of the city and its restaurants and little eateries. Ever since they’d left Sebastian’s shop, Marcus had been running through all of them, weighing the pros and cons of each before nixing most of them. Eventually, he’d settled upon a place that was a well-known attraction for the young lovers of the town, but it wasn’t too popular with the tourist crowd.
“Benvenuto. Quanti nel vostro partito?” The host was a young man who was smiling at them charmingly. He was dressed simply in black, but there was a hint of refinement to his clothing too; at the same time, he was attractive enough but he was no match for Marcus’ pale beauty.
Despite its reputation as a ‘lover’s haunt,’ Marcus had been there once before. Aro had been trying to convince a young lady to join them, and this was the location where he had invited her to meet them. What Marcus dimly remembered about the place was that the menu – when he’d glanced at it – had quite a bit of variety to it and that the atmosphere was enjoyable.
And maybe he had picked it because he wasn’t ignorant about all of the attention that he – and more specifically – Seth had been given throughout the evening. He was smart enough to recognize the stings of jealousy.
“Solo due. Preferibilmente da qualche privato.”
Since he’d been speaking Italian for centuries by that point, Marcus had long since lost his typically foreign accent. Then again, Italian had been one of the first languages that he’d picked up on during his younger years as a vampire.
The host picked up two menus from the stack on the front table, glancing quickly at a diagram of the restaurant and all of the tables, “Segumi allora, per favore.”
Gesturing for them to follow, the host led them into the restaurant and towards the rear of it. In the back was an area where there were several tables that were tucked away into little alcoves. Each one was set for two people, and it was into one of these that the host directed them. His smile was warm and just a smidge flirtatious as he looked at Seth.
Luckily, he didn’t see the rather dirty look that Marcus was giving him behind his back.
Once they were seated, the host seemed a little dejected, but he kept up his cheery tone of voice, “Il tuo cameriere sarà con voi prossimamente.”
“Grazie.” Marcus’ voice was a little tense as he replied.
The host shot Seth one more look – this one much more obvious – before he turned away and left, looking a little put off. He just couldn’t compete when Seth wasn’t interested in him at all.
“Wow, this place is really nice,” Seth spoke in a hushed voice as he looked around the restaurant. “Have you ever been here before?”
“Once,” Marcus replied cryptically. “I thought that you would like it – their menu has quite a bit of variety to it.”
“You do realize that you’re going to have to translate for me because I have absolutely no idea what most of this says.” Seth gestured to his menu which he’d opened; while a few words leapt out at him, much of it was complete gibberish to him. “And how are you going to avoid suspicion? You don’t eat.”
“I thought that you could eat for more then one person.” There was a tiny hint of amusement to Marcus’ voice – he knew about Seth’s voracious appetite.
At that, Seth blushed again, “Well, then maybe you should order the same thing as me so that it doesn’t look too suspicious.”
“Perhaps,” Marcus acquiesced. “Although, I think that maybe it would be best if I ordered something different – that way you can experience a little more of what this place has to offer.”
“Fine, whatever you say. You’ll still have to order though, because I don’t have any idea of what they’re offering.”
Marcus smiled a little, eyes darting over the menu, “Well, you’ll still have to give me some idea of what you’d like – despite what you may believe, I can’t read your mind Seth.”
“Whatever’s good; I actually don’t really have a preference when it comes to food. I’ll eat pretty much anything.”
Instead of the waiter the host had promised, a pretty looking waitress appeared alongside their table. She short of that average pretty that a lot of young women had – nothing about her really stood out, but at the same time she didn’t look plain. Her smile, though, was warm and welcoming.
“Buona sera. Posso offrirle gualcosa da bere?” Her voice was soft, and her eyes flickered between the two of them – although they lingered just a bit more on Marcus.
Turning to Seth, Marcus asked, “What would you like to drink Seth?”
“Am I even legal in Italy?” Seth asked, glancing down the menu to the section at the bottom that read ‘Bevande’ – and he was assuming that was drinks because he could recognize a few of the logos that decorated the list under it. Realizing that Marcus might not have understood his question, Seth quickly clarified, “I mean what’s the drinking age.”
“Sixteen, why?” The question confused Marcus just a little – but then he remembered that he’d never actually asked how old Seth was. He had always assumed that Seth was at the very least in his late teens.
“Oh good – I can drink then.”
Marcus stared at the young man for several long seconds.
Blushing, Seth replied, much softer this time with, “I was just asking because, if you want, you can order wine or something for us and it wouldn’t get us into trouble with the law or anything.”
“Seth, you know that I –”
“I know that, but Rose always used to say that the smell of wine was a lot nicer then any of the other drinks that restaurants served – especially if they tended to be the more high end ones.”
Marcus paused to think. What Seth had said was the truth – even if he couldn’t actually drink it, he did rather enjoy the smells of both food and cooking, and wine was included in that. At times it just served to remind him of what he lost, but at that moment, he was quite sure that it would just bring back a few good memories.
Reminiscing didn’t seem like too bad of an idea.
He turned to the waitress, “Avremo una bottiglia di la specialità della casa, per favour.”
She scribbled that onto the notepad in her hand and winked at him, “Scelta molto buona. È tutto qui?”
“Sì, grazie.”
The young woman nodded once, and then disappeared around the wall at the end and probably into the drinks alcove. It didn’t take her long to return, a bottle in one hand and with another waiter in tow who was holding a little bucket of ice in one hand and a stand for the bucket in the other.
The waitress popped the cork out of the bottle, and poured a little into the two glasses in front of the two men. She smiled broadly at them as she set it into the bucket, “Siete pronti per ordinare ora o volete qualche minuto in più?”
Giving her a charming smile, Marcus shook his head a little, “Non ancora del tutto.”
The waitress nodded and disappeared again, this time heading towards the front of the restaurant where she probably had more customers waiting.
“You seem to be attracting quite a bit of attention,” Seth said evenly, setting his menu down on the table and watching Marcus as his gaze casually flicked over the menu. “Whenever I go out with you vampires, I always seem to have to compete.”
At that, Marcus raised an eyebrow, “I’m not quite sure that I understand you.”
“Well, all of you seem to get the same reaction from humans in that they clearly think that your kind are the most attractive people that they’re ever met – though I can’t say that I blame them. And then I’m just the plain one. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I always feel a little out of place whenever I’m out and about with you or Heidi.”
Surprised at the confession, Marcus peered over at the wolf, noticing the way his cheeks were coloring yet again. He couldn’t help but marvel at how the young man’s features were thrown into rather sharp relief by the flickering light of the candles which were set on the table between them. While he wasn’t quite sure that he was on stable enough ground to say so yet, but he thought that Seth was the most attractive person he’d ever met – he would say beautiful, but that didn’t seem like quite the right word to say to a young man.
“I certainly don’t see you that way,” he said at length. He felt unsure about how to word what he wanted to say next, and fell silent.
“You seem like you have something else that you want to say.” Seth smiled warmly at him, curiosity flashing in his eyes.
If he was human, Marcus would have been blushing, “I don’t believe that I could picture someone else at my side, other than you.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” There was a feeling of finality to that word.
It was surprisingly easy to be honest with Seth; Marcus didn’t feel as though the young wolf would fault him for saying something. It was a very strange feeling, but it was uplifting and comforting at the same time – not having to hide things from someone, to be able to be honest with them.
It wasn’t something that Marcus had experienced, not even with her had he felt like he could be completely honest. She hadn’t known about his past; it just wasn’t something that Marcus had felt comfortable talking about with anyone.
He hadn’t wanted her to know his shame, his loss.
“I’m flattered, then.” Seth decided that he wasn’t going to tell Marcus just how he felt about being at the vampire’s side and how he felt about belonging there. Because just like Marcus, he didn’t think that he could picture himself at anyone else’s side but Marcus’.

.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.
For the record, the legal drinking age in Italy is sixteen – I went and looked it up, just to be sure. Research is fun.
As always, comment if enjoyed.
Twilight.
Italian Translations:

Benvenuto. Quanti nel vostro partito? : Welcome. How many in your party?

Solo due. Preferibilmente da qualche privato. : Only two. Preferably somewhere private.

Seguimi allora, per favore. : Follow me then, please.

Il tuo cameriere sarà con voi prossimamente. : Your waiter will be with you shortly.

Grazie. : Thank you.

Buona sera. Posso offrirle qualcosa da bere? : Good evening. Can I get you something to drink?

Bevande : Beverages

Avremo una bottiglia di la specialità della casa, per favore. : We’ll have a bottle of the house speciality, please.

Scelta molto buona. È tutto qui? : Very good choice. Is that all?

Sì, grazie. : Yes, thanks.

Siete pronti per ordinare ora o volete qualche minuto in più? : Are you ready to order now or do you want a few more minutes?

Non ancora del tutto. : Not quite yet.
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Complexity	By : TwilightScribe Category: Twilight Series > Slash Views: 3825 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or make any money from this story.

Complexity