#im probably gonna write whump with vivienne lmao

[kavalyera]

𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝 ?

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 : Two friends meet again as kindred in an unfamiliar world

𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 : oc x oc, can be read as romantic or platonic, use of filipino words, emotional comfort

An embrace was painful, and living beyond that—knowing that one has a second chance was even more painful. David didn’t want to be embraced. He didn’t want to become this, he’d much rather die in the fire than become whatever the Anarchs and the Camarilla thought him about to be.

His motorcycle set aside, and David is looking over the Pasig on the Binondo-Intramuros Bridge. He has a short while before he’s back on the run again, on the run from everything. The Camarilla, the Anarchs, and his fellow clanmates.

He wasn’t—in his own thoughts—meant to live this long.

How long has it been since his embrace? Seven years maybe. Maybe eight. Time passes by with no reason and David doesn’t care much about it anymore. He’s grown past being that kalye kid that they say keeps fighting. Maybe he’ll turn back to God if God listens. Maybe he’ll listen, the Father almighty is just like his own father. Powerful, neglectful, significant in the eyes of others. He’s been abandoned in more ways than one—

“Oks ka lang, pre?” You good, bro? Asks another voice that’s all too familiar. David almost flinches when a hand touches his back, resting near the back of his neck. It’s almost instict to fight or run.

“Marianne?” David looks up at her and there she is again. Marianne. Mary. Marie. Anne. Mars, as their classmates once called her from elementary to senior year of high school. She hated that nickname, it was “too overused” she frequently said.

“I’m May.” She sits down next to him on the edge of the bridge, her forearm resting on her knee and the other foot dangling off the bridge, her sandal seemingly about to fall into the river but it doesn’t.

“Why are you here?” David asks.

May looks at him, taking his red tinted glasses and the world is clear and bright again. Manila in the night. There was her again, wearing his glasses and had seemingly changed herself. She was different, but still so familiar.

“I heard you died. I didn’t want to miss your funeral, you know?” May replies back with. “I went there, they told us your body was burned. I cried a lot, I remember our math teacher from grade-ten was there. Sir Oscar, yata.” Sir Oscar, I think.

“Miss niya ako?” He misses me? David asks back in return. “Di ako naniniwala sa ‘yo.” I don’t believe you. David smiles. Of course he knows Sir Oscar.

Sir Oscar was always a good man. David couldn’t bring himself to visit the old man past his retirement. He didn’t want to bring chaos to an elderly man’s life, he had a wife and kids. Well, his kids were grown and were in different places. His wife was dead, the man was living in peace, close friends with the teachers he called his coworkers still.

“Of course he misses you, whenever no one was raising their arms he called you back then ‘cause he knew you’d always get the answers right.” May says. “I thought you died.”

“Well…” David looks at her.

Does he really want to tell her what he’s become? In an instant, he was in agony, sharp burning engulfing him whole. His arm, he remembers, felt so cold from the burning sensation that it hurt. He was a tough boy, everyone knew that. But at that moment, David cried. He felt tears as pain washed over him. He was not tough at that moment.

“I heard you were making a name for yourself.” May says. “Tondo made you their Baron.”

David’s eyes shoot up to her back from the black waters of the Pasig river in the night. She knew of Barons, she knew of the Anarchs, she knew of the Camarilla.

“Hm?” David asked back for her to clarify.

“I got embraced.” May said. “Gangrel, or however you say it.”

“Oh, right.” David nodded slowly.

Cars passed by behind them. Manila was glimmering as the lights from buildings seemed to twinkle like stars in their warm, golden lights. Some were cold lights, cold and harsh.

“I’m a…” David rolls his hand. “Brujah.”

May snorted. Then she laughed. They both laughed. David found himself laughing with her and suddenly they were high school students again coming back home after a long day of quizzes, shit-talking, and writing lecture after lecture in their notebooks.

“Mangkukulam?” A sorcerer? God, David wishes. It’s probably much better than feeling the urge to resolve everything with his fists.

“I wish.” David shakes his head. “That’s Tremere, I think.”

“Ah.” May clicks her tongue, tilting her head to the side. “How have you’ve been?”

“On the run, and stuff.” David says. “I don’t…”

He’s not sure. He doesn’t know why he doesn’t like kindred life. Everyone else seems different, like they’ve settled into this reality of theirs fairly easily and David, even with being crowned Baron of Tondo, he still doesn’t seem to know what he is or what he wants exactly. He doesn’t know what to do, he’s alone, he’s afraid. He knows those three facts all too well.

“I’m not sure.” David says.

“Ohhh….” May replies back with. “On the run, why? What happened? They didn’t tell me anything, they just told me they made you Baron of Tondo.”

“De Silva doesn’t have an official blood hunt on me yet but it’s clear she wants me dead.” He puts it simply. Crossing her path is a death sentence on its own.

The entirety of Manila is a Camarilla paradise. Every kindred coaxed into submission by the higher authority, forced into obedience through fear and lies. David is fighting a losing game, he knows that. Fighting against a city with monsters much older is a loss.

“But why are you still here?” May asks.

David thinks. Why is he even in Manila? Everything was without a label and yet everything was tying him down to Manila.

“I need to try.” David says. “Try and fight. I’m not going to let Prince de Silva have total control. I’m not gonna let her have that peace of mind.”

May looks at him through his red tinted glasses, before she rests her head on David’s shoulder. “I’ll join you. You don’t have to do it alone.”

thank u sm for reading ueue ! ^_^