#Vetinari: everything is a well oiled machine and then there's Downey staging coups & suggesting we recreate the Ankh-Morpork empire for Fun

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

Chapters: 37/44 Fandom: Discworld - Terry Pratchett Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Lord Downey/Havelock Vetinari, Downey/Others Additional Tags: let your dad die energy drink is a direct inspiration for my restarting this story, everything is a poison, it's the dose that matters, Family Issues, Period-Typical Homophobia, Classism, AM is an early modern city, and so the values/social norms reflect that, Not Beta Read, We Die Like Men, Downey POV, Significant Age Difference, between downey and one of his past Decisions, like. Significant., it's very very May-December, typical sex acts you'd expect in this sort of thing:, Anal, Fingering, Blow Jobs, etc. - Freeform, some slurs show up in a sibling fight, there's potential dub-con - depending on where one's personal line is drawn Series: Part 3 of coveting desperate things Summary:

After No More a Desolate Thing Downey and Vetinari are muddling through this thing called a ReLaTiOnShIp. Unfortunate segues into the past which runs parallel to the present occur namely because families are a sticky business, always, and things that happened thirty years ago have a strange ability to cycle back through your life. Oh, and there's been a death.

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Obligatory Excerpt: 

‘Sir?’ one of the students Downey is expected to mind comes up to him wearing a comically serious expression for someone who is ten and no more than four and a half feet tall. ‘Sir, I’ve a problem with my room.’

‘What’s that, then?’

The boy has a head of tightly cropped curls, dark eyes, and skin a deep charcoal, how it is in places in Klatch and Howdaland, also up in Genoa. His accent is one Downey cannot place, but it is a pleasant lilting thing. With continued gravity that does not sit naturally on his childish face, he motions for Downey to follow him to his room.

The boy has been granted a single room, which is rare for first years who often share with a roommate. Clearly someone of wealth or rank or both. Or, rather, the boy’s father is. In the room, Downey casts about but he finds nothing out of place.

‘Well? What seems to be the matter?’

‘I need a proper table, sir. For Frank.’

‘Frank?’

The boy gestures to a small glass bowl on his desk. Inside it is wilted lettuce and a stick. Up the stick crawls a small, garden variety brown snail.

Frank the snail makes an appearance. (I realize that Frank the Snail is a Niche Content Reference for literally one (1) person. Whatever.) 

Also we see Downey doing his first (disastrous) day teaching some snotty first years! Then we get some Downey & Vetinari content wherein they both say “I suppose it would kinda suck if you died” to one another, which is tantamount to “maybe we’re in love” for these two.