Chapter 40: Confessions.
"I'm not going to let you die now that I have you back!" Toby shots out of his seat at the mention of Milo dying.
"Sit down and listen till the end," the human rolls his eyes and the Light Fae is forced to oblige. "I'm not going to die for good. Listen, according to the ancient grimoires, a spirit without an anchor stays lost between times and realities. If each one of you mark me, and with your powers combined, you will be able to guide me to the exact time and place where it all started. I can just go there, warn you about everything that will happen and your past selves will make the right choices!"
"Why don't you just go to your past self and prevent him from capturing Milo?" Arrow inquires curiously and the human shakes his head.
"For the four of you to guide my spirit, you will have to focus on the first time we all saw each other, otherwise, you could mess up and just toss me somewhere in-between the realms." Milo explains and they all nod in understatement.
"So if you warn us, I wouldn't consume your soul, Victor wouldn't send you away with London and Malcolm will never see you, therefore he won't be marking Victor against his will and he won't torture us." Arrow nods in understanding and the human finds himself compelled to add.
"And Elijah will be back." He looks at Victor as he says that, making the warlock's eyebrows furrow with confusion.
"What do you mean-...." He stops talking as the meaning of the words crash down on his heart. "He killed him," the words are spat like venom but all Milo could do was nod.
Arrow and Toby gasp in horror and London asks for some time with his husbands, Milo obliges, telling them he'd be waiting in the green house while they get time to grief and talk properly.
Half an hour later, the door to the green house is pushed open just as Milo starts to lose his patience and he is surprised to see Arrow standing there with a mug in each hand.
"Wanna go for a walk?" Arrow suggests as he hands one of the two mugs to the shorter male.
"Is it poisoned?" Milo lifts and eyebrow as he sniffles the hot chocolate he was just offered, making the vampire roll his eyes.
"I'm past the stage of wanting you dead." He reassures him with a small smile making the human huff at him with a smirk.
"Yeah, I still wish you killed me rather than the hell I've been through," Milo's dark humor to escape his trauma doesn't go blind on Arrow who looks down at his mug as if it began the most interesting thing in the universe.
"About that..." Arrow starts with the intent of apologizing but the human cuts it short.
"Listen, I hate you for what you did, I still picture myself torturing you to death before I go to sleep." He laughs at the last part, enjoying the look of terror in the vampire's eyes. "But I don't have the energy to hate you or carry the guilt of hurting you. We have a chance to fix all this and do the right thing, so let's make it count." Milo sips some of his hot chocolate as he starts to feel awkward from Arrow's intense stares.
"I'm sorry Milo, I don't know what you've been through and I'm afraid that after you change our timeline, we won't share the same memories but there is something I have been wanting to tell you since the day I consumed your soul." Arrow starts confessing by putting his cup on one of the shelves that carried pots on them.
"I'm sorry for destroying your life, I'm sorry for blaming you for everything that happened to my marriage when honestly, it was falling apart way before you came around. I was too scared and too much of a coward to admit my mistakes to myself and you were an easy escape, you seemed expandable and I wanted to throw all my worries with you, I believed that somehow, harming you would make my relationship better but I swear, I never intended to screw you up this much, I am sure you'll never forgive me, neither should you... I deserve my karma. Everything that's happening to us is our own fault and we are finally realizing that. In fact, we wouldn't have made it so far without you."
Arrow stops talking for a second and goes on one knee.
"And for that, I promise to protect and serve you for whatever days I have left, and I will lay down my life for yours if it ever goes down to that."
Milo is frozen in his spot as he watches the man kneeling before him, he couldn't believe the man who was just defying his proposition a while ago was now pledging his allegiance to him, he just declared him as his protected which was pretty common amongst vampires, a vow of life that they took more seriously than anything.
"Arrow..." Milo is at loss of words as he looks at the offered hand to him and after bugging for a couple more seconds, he decides to take it and pull Arrow up, declaring that he accepted his pledge. "That was unnecessarily dramatic," he tries to hide the spark of his eyes by looking behind the man yet Arrow's light chuckle breaks him out of his daze.
"I have a long road towards redemption but you just helped me make the most important step,"
They talk some more about what happened during Milo's disappearance, on the awful torture Malcolm made them go through and the madness that Toby suffered from due to the bond.
Eventually, they go inside and the grim atmosphere reminds them of Elijah's death but Victor invites them to sit down and he is the first one to break the silence.
"If we are going to do this," he looks at Milo and they all follow his stare, "I refuse to leave any secrets between us, anything that could risk destroying the trust we have in each other, so you better speak now... We will go in turn and everyone who has something to say shall say it without being judged or hated for it." He looks at each one of them with determination and they all nod.
"I'll go first," London starts and steps in to sit by Toby's side. "I screwed up guys, I kissed Milo when we were in New Orleans which is basically cheating, I also cheated with Malcolm after I stormed out of his apartment and he followed me. I was the one who brought him into our lives by trading Milo for the magic to finish Elijah's serum, Milo who I eventually fell in love with and whom I deeply hurt," his eyes look from the human to Victor and Arrow, "I'm sorry for my husbands whom I treated poorly with my selfishness, I was only thinking of myself but never of what you were feeling or what you wanted, I'm deeply sorry for that and I hope that you will give me a chance to redeem myself."
Everyone nods, following the rule of making no judgment or comment on other's confessions and it's Toby's turn to speak.
"I marked Milo without his consent and forced him on you and forced you on him, my greed was what created this whole mess in the first place and I didn't stop to consider what you wanted, I manipulated London to leave with Milo hoping they warm up to each other and put both of them in danger... I'm sorry, I'm sorry everyone." He leans his head against Victor's shoulder who smiles at him and rubs his arm up and down gently before they start kissing and rubbing against each other.
"I never stopped dealing with drugs, I attacked Milo unprovoked and caused this whole mess in the first place, I gave him hell when he didn't ask for it without stopping to consider that neither did he want any of it. My actions not only hurt Milo but it's what made Malcolm want to retaliate by marking Victor, therefore, I'm sorry for that Victor!" He holds Victor's hand and the later simply nods while London stands behind Arrow massaging his shoulders.
"I kept hiding secrets and manipulating facts for my personal gain. I didn't want London to know about his heritage as I feared it would shake our unstable relationship furthermore and I wasn't ready to lose him. I sent him away thinking that it would be the perfect way to keep him undetected by the witches and ended up screwing it up more, I destroyed everything good we had when I kept hiding things from Toby and taking him for granted. I'm sorry Milo, for all the resistance you faced from me when all you ever wanted was to go on with your life."
Unexpectedly, those words had a big impact on the human was facing them, he never thought that hearing proper apologies would make him feel so much better in no time but he also understood that it was necessary for the ritual they were about to perform, he didn't know how much of it was sincere but he knew for sure that it sounded very genuine.
Just as Milo was about to speak and say what he had to say, a knock on the door interrupted their little discussion and London goes to check it out, only to be surprised by a very pissed looking Dark Warlock who meant business.
"Where is he?" Malcolm's breath is quickened as he tries to stare past the Hybrid but London stands his ground, not budging.
"He doesn't really want to see you at the moment," London quirks and eyebrow at the warlock, defying him for the first time ever since it all began.
"Do I look like I care?" Malcolm fist tightens around London's collar but they get interrupted before it gets heated.
"Let him in," Victor's voice is loud and clear from the living room, making London roll his eyes and stand down.
"Mistletoe," Malcolm snickers as he enters the living room and Milo tilts his head to the side, avoiding eye contact with the man, "You want to get rid of me," Malcolm chuckles as he sits by Milo's side on the sofa.
"That's not-" Milo starts to think of a lie to prevent him from spoiling their plans but he is surprised by Malcolm's hand gently engulfing his.
"It's okay," the Dark Warlock nods, his heart aching at the thought of what he was going to say next. "For the last few months, I did everything I could to find you but I never asked myself what you wanted. It never occured to me that you would anything different from me and I fucked up big time," he looks at Victor while saying that, his words carrying a double meaning which was the closest thing to an apology Victor was going to get.
"I want to make it right to you, so whatever it takes." He looks back to Milo, holding his small fist in both of his hands.
"Whatever it takes? Even if it means you will most likely not know I existed in the first place?" Milo quirks his eyebrow and looks at the five faces around him.
They were his tormentors, they took away his life, they forced their choices and desires on him and their actions caused him to go through hell.
Each one of them managed to screw him up worse than the one before.
But deep down, he knew one thing for sure, they were the key to his salvation and if working alongside them was the key to his freedom, he was ready to play his cards.
Malcolm stays silent for a while, not knowing what to answer to that, he hated the idea of not knowing his mate was out there, he wished for nothing more than to be with him every second of everyday but he knew that it would be for the best after Milo goes in detail about his plan of using his lack of anchor to go back to a different point in time and prevent all the mess from taking place.
"What's meant to be, will always find a way." Malcolm speaks after falling silent for too long, "I only hope that I make the right choices the second time around."
Milo couldn't help but admire Malcolm's will to make things right, especially when he knew how he was doing it for him.
"Can I ask for a favor?" London breaks the silent as he moves to Milo's other side, making the human nod. "When you go back to warn us about our past, leave out the part about what happens during our trip together, I want to keep that memory..." London pleads with pained eyes and he pulls him into his arms. "Make sure you take me to that coffee shop again," he murmurs into his ear as a single tear runs down his cheeks.
Milo's heart breaks at those words as he understands London's words, it relieved him to know that he cherished their time together.
"I promise you, big guy!" They both chuckle in tears at the nickname, the same one he called him when he challenged him the first time.
"I love you, weakling!" London rubs his nose against the youngest as he says the magic words for the first time.
Milo's heart was racing, his hands started to shake as he lifted them up to cup London's face when suddenly everything around them seemed irrelevant.
Both of them were crying, not because it might all be gone once their mission is done but rather the fact that they had no bond to blame for the way it felt, it was too painful to admit but they had grown attached, each one of them in a different way.
"I love you too," he breaths against the older's lips before crashing his own on them.
And that's how the human and the hybrid came to realize that they needed no bonds to fall.
Published: June 28th, 2021.
Edited: not yet.
So.... We are 10 chapters away from the ending, if I do double updates it will be over in five days.
I can't believe it's almost finished. Aaaarag!!!!