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[atowncalledtreffy]

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[draculabutbackwards]

He reacted to a medicinal dose of chicken soup as though I was trying to trick him into a blood debt. It wasn't much of a deduction.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Let me guess. "What do you want for this?" and aggressive flustering.

[draculabutbackwards]

So it's a pattern, then.

[atowncalledtreffy]

No, but I know the type. Poor kid.

[draculabutbackwards]

I think I've got the hang of not throwing him immediately on the defensive now, but I didn't expect soup to be such a point of contention.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Did you serve it to him with a slice of condescending pie?

[draculabutbackwards]

No, that's the habit I had to break. We were both trying to be the only clever, mature person in the room at each other for a bit. Counterproductive.

[Adrian can be a bit slow, but he does get there.]

He's basically me without a decent childhood. All the same bad habits, none of the tempering influences.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Oh, I didn't think he was as bad as that. I like him better than I like you, for one.

[draculabutbackwards]

Of course you do. He has at least a few years before he's up to putting your cavalier ass on the ground.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Are you going to teach him how to do that, or am I? You with your manners, and yet you suckerpunched me in the face.

[draculabutbackwards]

What are manners but situationally appropriate behavior?

[atowncalledtreffy]

So we agree. We both teach him.

[draculabutbackwards]

Strictly speaking, one of us has a noble name and a family crest, and the other was raised more or less as a feral cat. You seem far more qualified.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Hate to be the one to tell you this but you have a family crest too, idiot. And feral cat? Really? After all your cracks about me smelling like something a dog rolled in?

[draculabutbackwards]

"That's just Father self-mythologizing." Adrian waves a dismissive hand, and if it's a little slowed down by weariness, it's as lofty and dignified as ever. "If you're around long enough and unconcerned about ruining things, no one's going to stop you naming a stupid castle. There's no governing, no commerce, none of those ties that actually make the whole thing meaningful. Hell, before me there's no lineage. Plenty of nobles may be useless at it, but they're supposed to be part of something, not just parasites with nice stonework." Might have touched a nerve, there.

[atowncalledtreffy]

"Well, how the fuck do you think we got our crest? Same way your dad did; we killed a load of people."

He's delighted that he can actually argue this point a little: it's completely the opposite from the side Trevor usually takes. And he doesn't want Adrian slipping into that state of depression. Dracula, of all the nightmare people, warned him about this. Trevor knows that state intimately.

He reaches over to prod Adrian's shoulder.

"There's more evil in the world than just vampires. You don't get the monopoly on ancestral guilt."

[draculabutbackwards]

Adrian shoulder-checks him gently in return, because he wasn't going off a cliff that particular time, he was just annoyed on account of a few personal frustrations. And trying to keep Belmont distracted and content. In which he is succeeding. He may not exactly be getting any better at people, but he's improving at the management of the few he likes. "No, but as the sole representative of my line, I do have undisputed priority when it comes to taking the piss."

[atowncalledtreffy]

He chuckles, fully distracted; good job, Adrian. He almost claims to be the sole representative of his own line, but there's that realization that he isn't, anymore. Somewhere out there Sypha's got the sole representative well in hand.

"Is this how you're going to be around my kid? Hunter's good practice. All his screaming and diaper-changing's already been over and done with."

[draculabutbackwards]

"I'll have all the practice I need either way. Turns out wandering orphans impress like baby ducks on the tall sword man who makes monsters into mincemeat." A subject he can only treat with the distance of a joke because how the fuck is he going to do that. "Not that even Hunter could be half as stubborn as any creature spawned by you and Sypha."

[atowncalledtreffy]

Trevor gives a laugh, soft and easy and openly mocking.

"I fucking would have when I was that age. Oh my god. You have a little tribe of followers."

He's so delighted to hear this.

"So you're not the sole representative of your line after all."

[draculabutbackwards]

He has carefully avoided any mentions of filial overtures from them or him. Stop calling him out like this. "I'm a port in a storm. Hell, I can't be all of ten fucking years older than a few of them."

[atowncalledtreffy]

Trevor knows Adrian too well by now to not call him out on every little thing.

"That's how it starts." He says with all the sass and knowledge of his few years over Adrian. "You have a big fuck-off castle that any ten year old would love exploring. You protected them from monsters. They've got no parents so they're not going to go traveling far. And you've got a sword, and you're half vampire? Throw in a litter of kittens for them and you're the whole package."

[draculabutbackwards]

"The kittens are an idea. Keep them a bit busy." Adrian was never indulged with a pet, unless you count the bats. He doesn't quite get how they work, charming as he finds Lucy in appropriate doses. But. He has no idea what to do with children. Kittens is an idea.

[atowncalledtreffy]

He raises his eyebrows, a question burning in him;

"Have you turned into a wolf in front of them yet?"

[draculabutbackwards]

Adrian frowns and, after a moment, shrugs. "There were a lot of little attacks between what was left of the village and the castle. Maybe?" Shapeshifting is a normal reflex. He doesn't remember it any better than every particular sword swing.