If You Don't Come Back--a Forever Knight story By April French Author's Note: Yet another songfic inspired by a Meatloaf song, this time by "I'll Kill You If You Don't Come Back." Kinda speaks for itself, doesn't it? So yeah, the song's not mine, although I did make a few creative adjustments to the lyrics; neither is LaCroix (unfortunately...). Praise, comments, criticisms and kudos are all delightfully accepted. All nasty flames with be fed airline food. This story will be archived at my site, http://www.geocities.com/runeshard/fkficindex.html. Permission to archive is given to FKFIC, FKFIC2 and the FTP site. All others wishing to archive must first bribe me with spicy peanuts. ~~~ If You Don't Come Back (1/1) Paris, 1993 LaCroix's fingers drummed irritably on the arm of his first-class seat, impatient for the plane to take off. He had been convalescing in Paris for seven months, under the care of friends... His upper lip began to curl. Convalescing, from wounds that should never have been inflicted. Certainly, not by . "From the minute I turned and laid my eyes on you I had no eyes of my own" When he had confronted Nicholas last year, his judgment had been clouded. He had been so certain he could 'persuade' his wayward child to return to him. So certain... "I was blind to the world--you were too good to be true But you were something to see--so very young and alone" Had that been his mistake? His certainty that Nicholas was still only a child? As the plane finally began its ascent, LaCroix discarded that notion with a flick of his wrist. Nicholas a child. In thought, word and deed, he was nothing but an ignorant little boy, proud and stubborn. "And I still don't believe the way you turned on me Now where's that boy that I knew?" Ungrateful little bastard. "I gave you somewhere to live and then somebody to love You gave me nothing but trouble--man, I've been such a fool" Eight hundred years of struggle, sacrifice and toil, all for the love of Nicholas. <> And a flaming torch to the chest. "You gave me nothing at all--now let me give it to you You taught me how to be cruel--now let me try it on you" He was a hard-nosed taskmaster and he knew it. He had always been so. But sometimes... sometimes he wondered, if Nicholas had not been such a difficult child, would he have been an easier master? LaCroix was certain of that. "How do you abuse me--let me count the ways How many hours in how many days" LaCroix's arms came up of their own accord and closed around his chest. He had scars. Well, they all had scars, didn't they? LaCroix corrected his thought--he had scars, most from his mortal days in the military. Only two had been acquired afterward, and both were over his heart, one on top of the other. Wood was the only thing LaCroix knew of that could permanently disfigure a vampire--even the wounds left by crosses and holy water were fleeting, if painful--and he had twice been staked through the heart. "How does it amuse you--let me count the pain How many rules breaking how many games" The first time, Nicholas had been the one to remove the agonizing wooden shard. In return for something, of course. If there was one lesson that Nicholas had absorbed, it was 'Never do anything without getting something in return.' That had been a gut-wrenching decision for LaCroix--allow Nicholas to pull the stake out, but let him leave; or die the slow, lingering death that otherwise was sure to be his fate. Either way, Nicholas would be lost to him. But if LaCroix lived, he might someday get his son back. The second time, of course, Nicholas had nearly been the death of him. Nearly. Nearly. Not that the boy had cared... All LaCroix's reports from Toronto indicated that Nicholas was getting on just fine without his master. But he could not allow that. "You got your ass out of gear and your soul out of whack Go on and take all your stuff--don't even bother to pack" Perhaps it would be better to simply throw in the towel, as the saying went, and let Nicholas go. But that option had never once crossed LaCroix's mind. It was unthinkable. Nicholas was his son, his creation, and as furious as he was with the boy--as badly as he desired to see Nicholas pay for the injury he had inflicted--he would not give him up. "In every way I want you out of my life--" The hard pink scar tissue would never go away. "But I'll kill you if you don't come back I'll kill you if you don't come back" Not that LaCroix would admit it out loud, but he missed his son. His bright smile, his buoyancy, his impetuous nature. His mercurial temperament. "And in the pit of the night you used to pull me so close And then you'd hold me so tight And in the wink of an eye you used to give me it all And with a kiss in the darkness you'd deliver the light" In a life that was never dull by any stretch of the imagination, Nicholas had made LaCroix's life infinitely interesting. There were times when seeing the world through his son's eyes had had the double effect of making LaCroix feel young and fresh again, while at the same time reinforcing his superior status as the elder of the two men. The father. The master. "And in the pit of the night I hear you laughing so loud I hear you laughing at me Oh ain't it funny and sad the way I fell for your lies The way you fell into love and then you begged to be free" But those times were always short, few and far between in a thousand lives of conflict. The number and variety of tricks that the golden child had used to escape from his master was astounding, and no matter what LaCroix said or did, Nicholas always ran away again. "You gave me nothing at all--now let me give it to you You taught me how to be cruel--now let me try it on you" It was rather discouraging, at times. LaCroix thought, as the plane began its descent into Toronto, "Somebody bless all those boys that I never have met But damn you and curse you after all that you've done" LaCroix had never been one to walk away from a challenge. "You're the one boy I'll never forget You're the one boy I'll never forget" At any time in his life, LaCroix knew, he could have had a hundred sons more loyal and more grateful than Nicholas would ever be. "Somebody bless all those boys and everything that they do But damn me and curse me for still needing you" But no other son would ever be Nicholas. "And I'll kill you if you don't come back I'll kill you if you don't come back" Resolutely, LaCroix stepped off the plane. ~Finis--May 18th, 2003~ ===== ~Forever Knight: The Sons of Lilith~ http://www.geocities.com/runeshard/fkficindex.html ~The Corvina~ http://www.geocities.com/runeshard/index.html "And we shall exist by amusing ourselves, by dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes, by complaining and quarreling with the pretenses of the world..." --"The Flash of Lightning" by Arthur Rimbaud