Work Text:
“Stay away from me!” Matthew snarls at you at the entrance to his building. Your mouth falls open in absolute shock at his command. “I don’t want to see you here ever again, do you hear me?”
“Matthew, what is going on with you?” you plead, voice involuntarily cracking. “This isn’t like you! Talk to me.” You attempt to put your hand on his arm, but he yanks it away and makes a threatening growl from his throat. The vampire’s electric eyes are fierce and warning - a vicious sight.
“You don’t know me.”
You can’t possibly understand why he’s pushing you away like this. He very nearly told you he loved you only last night. You just knew it. The words were there on his tongue waiting to be flicked off and officially let your heart glow. As you said, this isn’t like the Matthew Clairmont you know. Unless…
“You’re doing this on purpose,” you realize aloud. “You think pushing me away is better so that you won’t feel guilty when you can’t protect me.”
“(Y/N)!” he raises his voice at you, and truthfully it startles you, but shortly after the start it gave you dissipates, your body turns very much to “fight” mode rather than “flight.”
“Matthew!” you shout back, “Just because you try to hurt me to get me to leave you, doesn’t mean I will! Leaving won’t protect me any more than staying!” Taking a defiant step toward the seething vampire, you look him straight in the eyes - a dangerous move on its own.
I can’t risk the chance of seeing the woman I love die before me. Never again, you read his thoughts.
“Hey, look at me,” you told him, daring to guide his chin with your fingers to face you and gripped the shirt that clung to his chest in your fist. “I know you’re afraid, but I’m not. I’ll be strong enough for both of us, but you are not going to walk away from what we have together. I’m sure as hell not. You hear me, Clairmont?”
At this point, you’re just as fuming as the biochemist, not even caring now if he attacks you out of sheer instinct. You weren’t going to take this issue lying down. Not when love was on the line.
Then you sense a change radiate throughout Matthew from his core outward. His jaw visibly loosens, and his shoulders relax.
“(Y/N), it’s not wise for us to be together. For so many complicated reasons I cannot even begin to name.”
“I don’t care,” you say through bared teeth, “I love you, dammit, and there is nothing on this earth that will stop me from being with you. You’re stuck with me, Matthew, and may the universe help the poor souls that try to take me from you.”
You’re too caught up in the emotional moment, and reach up to kiss the man who towers above. You pour everything into the kiss, the happiness, anger, sadness, fear, and most importantly, the love you hold for him. When your lips come apart, Matthew tilts his head down so that your foreheads touch. You inhale his toxic cinnamon and clove scent.
“Christ, I’m so in love with you,” he breathes out, finally uttering the words you’d long to hear out loud instead of constantly swirling inside his head. “You stubborn girl.”
You give a little tug of his shirt still balled in your fist and shoot him a smirk.
“Hey, birds of a feather and all that.”