Prompt #070

[paceisthetrick]

Title: Black Mirror
Author: Pace is the trick
Fandom: Twilight AU
Pairing: Edward/Carlisle
Word count: 500
Prompt # 070

 

“This proves nothing,” he tossed the photograph onto the table. “The film is clearly defective.”

Carlisle smiled, amused and bemused at the situation. He had only ever had to try and convince humans he was one of them. “Alright, then, what do you need to see?”

“I could stake you but that would put you in the ER and it wouldn’t be fun for either of us,” Edward laughed.

“No,” Carlisle concurred. “And it would only break your stake. Other ideas?”

“You could drink some blood, but I was already in the mood for a nice, rare ribeye tonight.”

“Edward, be serious. I am baring my soul to you and you are mocking me.” He had no idea it would be this difficult. He’d spent centuries carefully cultivating the façade.

“I could burn you with a crucifix, but that borders on kinky and I’m not sure how you’d react,” he stuck out his tongue.

Carlisle sighed. Imp! “I wear my mother’s at all times,” he pulled out the silver chain to reveal the small cross. “It is the only memory I have of her.”

Edward was suitably chagrined. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean – “

“It was 372 years ago, Edward,” he said quietly.

Edward eyed him thoughtfully. “You’re serious about this.”

“Yes,” Carlisle met his gaze calmly.

Edward opened his mouth, exhaled, and closed it again. He shook his head. “I don’t know what to think. I’ve known you for two months, you seem normal, nice. We seem to have a good thing going.

“I have to ask what would make you say something this -- ” he struggled to find a polite adjective, “outlandish.”

“I say it because we have known each other for two months, I am nice, and we have a wonderful thing going. And because I will not deceive you.”

Edward was silent.

“Edward, in all this time, all the times we’ve been, laid together, you’ve never noticed? I have no heartbeat.” He stretched his arm out across the table, wrist bared. “Feel my wrist. I have no pulse. The blood inside of me is not my own.”

Edward eyed the ivory hand uneasily. “Wh-wh-wh-why -- ” he closed his eyes to regroup. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I told you. I won’t deceive you. For me, nothing about who or what I am changes anything, what I feel for you. But -- ” he inhaled deeply. “I need to be fair and allow you to make that same decision, fully-informed.”

Edward was speechless, his eyes registering first disbelief, then shock, then dismissal. “So,” he began again at last. “If you’re a vampire and you’ve been alive all these years, what exactly have you been doing?”

“I’ve studied, honed my skills. I chose medicine because I believed I could serve mankind best in that capacity.” He watched Edward closely. The mere possibility of rejection made his mind quake.

“No,” Edward shook his head, his eyes narrowing slightly. “I meant, who were you dating before me?”