Work Text:
“And you’re sure you will keep out of trouble? For me?” Eva asks as they walk toward the gas station near Jasper’s haven.
Jasper chuckles. “Well, considering trouble usually finds me…” he trails off, familiar with the reaction the response will get, and Eva pulls them to a halt, tightening her grip on his hand as she turns to glare up at him. He smirks and leans to lay a kiss on her forehead. “I promise to do my best to stay out of trouble. Besides, I’ve already told Victor and Nelli I will be working on something and will be unavailable for their usual shenanigans.”
Eva resumes walking, allowing their hands to naturally swing with their movement. “And do I get to know what this special project is?”
“It’s nothing, just something I said to get them to leave me alone while you’re gone. I’ll probably work on my Sumerian, check the traps. Some standard Haven maintenance,” Jasper assures her as he opens the gate he had installed in the perimeter fence a while ago. He had told Eva that it was to make it easier to come and go, and while that reason was genuine, he had really done it so Eva wouldn’t have to keep crawling through the hole he had made in the fence.
Eva smiles at him as he holds the gate open for her, and once he secures it behind them it’s a relatively quiet walk until they reach the parking lot of the gas station, where the Wyrd sisters’ van already parked and waiting.
As they approach, they see Violet in the driver's seat with Hester next to her in the passenger seat, and they both wave at the couple with small smiles. Kyoko is standing outside near the driver’s door frantically waving with a large and excited grin on her face.
“Good evening ladies, are we ready to go?” Eva asks as they reach the van. She has an indulgent smile on her face as she sees how excited Kyoko is, her blonde and blue locks almost vibrating with energy.
Violet leans her head out of the window and goes to respond, but Kyoko beats her to it. “Heck yeah we are! Three days away without needing to deal with the boring shop. Ooh, Eva can you teach me some wards while we’re there?” she asks with as much enthusiasm as she can manage, her smile large and bright as she bounces on her toes. Violet and Hester both have fond expressions on their faces at Kyoko’s exuberance, happy that they are finally able to take their younger sister out.
Eva laughs at the young vampire. “We will see how the weekend progresses, Kyoko,” she says, nodding before she turns to Jasper and pulls him closer by his hoodie so she can more easily meet his eyes. Jasper goes willingly, bending down just a little, and holding her gaze.
“Please, be in one piece when I get back,” she says quietly, her brow firm and eye contact strong, and he knows he will be in quite a bit of trouble if he throws himself recklessly into danger while she is gone. He already causes her enough worry, and doesn’t want that stress to worsen for her while she is gone.
Jasper bends until his forehead touches hers, noses brushing, and chuckles, “I will be. You keep yourself safe too?” She nods and he leans just far enough away to brush his lips against hers, and he feels her beginning to sink into it.
“We’re still here!” Violet calls out loudly, and they startle as she suddenly lays on the horn, pulling apart to see Hester shaking her head at her sister from the passenger seat.
“Come on love bats, break it up!” Kyoko shouts, clapping once as she moves around the van to open the rear doors.
Jasper lets out a small growl and huffs in mock annoyance as they pull away from each other, while Eva lets out a small chuckle and accepts her bag when he hands it to her. After a small tug where he playfully refuses to release his grip on the bag, she finally begins to move away, holding his gaze until the last moment. With one more fond smile and a mouthed ‘I love you’, she climbs into the van, but not before she sees Jasper return it.
As the doors slam shut, Jasper turns to look at Violet where she’s smirking at him from her window and tilts his head questioningly. She returns it with a nod before settling back in her seat and putting the van into drive, and then they are taking off into the night, tires crunching on the asphalt as they go.
He stands there and watches until the tail lights of the van disappear from view, and then his gaze moves to the sky and tracks the position of the moon. He only has a limited amount of time to do what he needs to do tonight.
Jasper lets out a long unneeded breath. He obfuscates himself, and instead of going back to his haven, he turns and heads into the Valley.
“Now, what do you need this for again precisely?” Victor asks, tossing a set of keys into the air and catching them with a smarmy grin on his face. He’s standing behind his desk in the Sky Box of his club, Maharani, while Jasper stands in the doorway staring at him with narrowed eyes.
They had already discussed this, and Victor had agreed to lend him one of his trucks for the night, He should have known that Victor would be annoying when he came to retrieve the keys.
On a normal night Jasper can tolerate his shenanigans. But tonight, when he is on an especially tight timeline, he has very little patience for the man.
Jasper continues to stare him down, hoping he will give up the game and simply hand over the keys he came for, but Victor just continues to toss and catch them with one hand, a look of glee on his face. Jasper begins to get frustrated and lets out a growl that could rival himself when frenzying with the teasing that Victor is putting him through for this.
This lasts for several minutes, and then a sigh comes from another end of the room where Nelli is set up on one of the sofas.
“Victor, just give him the keys. He seldom asks for anything, the least you can do is spare him the extra headache,” Nelli calls out from where she’s lounging with a fashion magazine in hand. This is probably the most relaxed Jasper has ever seen her, heels off, legs curled under her, and wearing a sweater - comfortable but clearly still designer. He goes to meet her eyes and she gives him a wink, a signal that their agreement is clearly good to go and that the item he requested is in place.
Jasper knows that the price that he is paying is pretty steep, and he hopes that it is worth it. Nelli had asked for his assistance on this matter several times before, and he had been able to rebuke her in the past. But for what he needed her assistance with… it just wasn’t something was going to be able to handle on his own.
“Now where is the fun in that, my dear? You are clearly right, he does not ask us for anything almost as a rule. So when he does, it means I need to have a little bit of fun!” He goes to toss and catch the keys again, but Jasper growls and uses his supernatural speed to run over and grab them out of the air before Victor can catch them again, and then he continues to speed right out of the room.
With a huff of frustration, Victor yells after him, “You’re welcome!”
Nelli only chuckles and continues to read her magazine, turning a page, and Victor crosses his arms and looks at her.
“You know what he wanted the truck for, don’t you?” Victor asks teasingly.
Nelli looks up at him with a gasp. “Victor, darling, don’t you think if I knew I would have already been holding it over him?”
“Yes.”
“Well you’re right, and the payoff I’m getting in return for my part in this is worth more to me than the payoff of telling you.”
Victor sits back into his chair with a huff, and Nelli giggles from behind her magazine.
“Can I just say -” Annabelle huffs as she maneuvers her end of the heavy item, making sure not to knock it into the wall, “That it’s really cool that you asked me to help?”
She has thrown off her customary red leather jacket - not due to being sweaty, but more wanting to keep it safe in case she were to fall into the gutter that is the LA river.
Yes she is pretty strong, but doing this for hours on end is beginning to take a bit of a toll. This isn’t just moving furniture into someone’s house, unfortunately. With the path they have to take, it’s more like moving furniture into a 6th floor walk up. Moving everything from the black box truck, down to Jasper’s front door, and then down the stairs and through the passage to get into his actual front door. Luckily they’re in the dry season, and the already small flow of the river has decreased to nothing.
Despite all of this, the young brujah is genuinely excited to be helping Jasper with this. For one, he rarely ever asks for help. And two, it will be great material for helping Kyoko write some of that fanfiction about Jasper and Eva that she has been screaming about forever.
The nosferatu just grunts as they maneuver the dark wooden wardrobe into his bedroom, still not in the mood to respond to all the chattering. As they set it down and gradually move it into a standing position, it’s clear the design is a stark contrast to the bland Ikea wardrobe he has had since his first year living in this place. He hadn’t even chosen most of the furniture here, he had simply told Isaac what he had needed for his Haven after doing enough work for him.
The entire room has undergone a huge transformation. It’s no longer just the basic twin bed, wardrobe, and single nightstand, and he hopes Eva will like it. He knows in the past when he has simply just made decisions for her it hadn’t gone well, but… he had planned this for quite a while, pulling as many ideas from her own Haven as he could.
Annabelle continues talking as they head back toward the truck for some of the last pieces, thankfully the smaller ones. “Things must be getting pretty serious for you to change the Batcave this way. I don’t think Batman ever did anything to make Catwoman feel at home.”
“Well I… certainly couldn’t do all of it by myself,” he said, turning and giving her a toothy grin, ”And could you really picture Victor or Nelli doing this? Both of them would probably be afraid of breaking a nail.”
Annabelle laughs, shaking her head as they reach the truck. “That’s true. Though Victor would have probably tried to like… direct from the sidelines or something.”
Jasper chuckles, reaching into the truck to grab some rugs, but Annabelle grabs his sleeve before he can. “Seriously though Jasper, it’s really awesome what you’re doing. When we first met you were so dark and broody, and… Well I mean, you’re still dark and broody. But… I don’t know, Eva just seems to have had a good effect on you. And I’m happy for you both.”
Jasper fiddles with some of the fringes on the rug. “Well, Eva… I have never met anyone like her. Not even when I was alive. She… doesn’t care about what I look like on the outside, just who I am on the inside. And… I want to try to be better on the inside. For her.” He swallows hard and goes to gather some of the rugs into his arms and turns to Annabelle, “Come on. I’ve got some stuff to do the next couple days before she comes back, and I want all of this inside tonight.”
He begins to head back toward his Haven, and Annabelle is quick to grab a heavy box before hurrying after him, “Wait, you have another surprise for her? Jasper?! Jasper, wait, I wanna know!”
The next day, Jasper jolts awake, discomforted by the lack of a weight he has become used to and the change in texture around him. He looks around quickly as he tries to reorient himself, and finally comes to himself.
The one benefit of the sleep of most kindred is that during the day, most of them can just forget their troubles. The problem is, when waking, it’s almost like they never slept at all.
The nervousness from the last three days hits him full on, and he begins to go over everything in his head, making sure that he hasn't missed anything. That everything was perfect.
After running through the checklist several times, he finally raises himself into a sitting position and drags a hand down his face. It has been an excruciating three nights without Eva, but luckily she would be returning early in the evening, a mere handful of hours away, and so he rises to finish up the final preparations.
As he moves to his wardrobe and pulls out the clothing that he had already picked - with one of his customary hoodies on over the preplanned outfit so that Eva hopefully would not catch on to anything out of the ordinary - he thinks on all the changes that he had made to the Haven.
In truth, it had taken months of planning. Squirreling away items and hiding them at separate locations, digging through goodwill donation boxes and eventually acquiescing to talking to some of his companions when certain things were not easily obtainable. In particular, the centerpiece had been extremely difficult to get a hold of. But even he has to say it was worth volunteering for Nelli’s special Halloween Fashion Show… probably.
He takes a deep breath as he stares at his reflection, tucking in his shirt and removing some lint that doesn’t exist before zipping up the hoodie and turning to leave the room.
He begins to make his way through the Haven, adjusting an item here and there. Checking his phone to verify the time Eva said she would be back, he starts making his way out of his haven, heading outside and towards the agreed-upon drop off location.
The air is crisp on his walk, the sky clear of any clouds, and he tilts his face towards the sky. It reminds him of one of his favored memories with Eva, where she had taken him close to her own Haven.
After grabbing a blanket and some of her books they had laid out on the edge of a clearing nearby, with him propped up on a tree with Eva laying her head on his thigh. They had read a bit before setting their books down and simply looking to the stars.
Stars had never been much of a pursuit of Jasper’s, but Eva had spent many nights under them. She pointed out the most popular constellations like Ursa Major and Minor, Orion’s Belt, and then moved to some more obscure ones. She had even tried to show him ones that she had made stories up for on her own.
He had tried to look at the stars and follow her hand as she had traced them, but he couldn’t help but let his eyes drift to her face as she continued to speak.
Her face had lit up as she told him the different stories, eyes alight and filled with joy. She would catch him not looking where she was pointing and lightly chastise him, shifting to nudge him as if to physically push his attention back to the sky. This process had repeated several times before he took her hand as she reached for him and began to slowly kiss each of her fingers, moving up to her hand… then her wrist… and all the way up her arm before finally reaching her lips. They had spent the rest of the time before dawn with him showing her his appreciation with the lesson.
As he reaches the agreed-upon location, he finds a bouquet of flowers wrapped in simple brown paper behind a tree, which he had arranged with Annabelle and Mark. Bending to retrieve them, he begins to inspect the bouquet, seeing red roses, white carnations, a little bit of yarrow and ivy sprinkled in, and sunflowers. He removes a small dead leaf from the bundle and then continues making his way towards the meetup point. If his heart could still beat, he is sure it would be pounding in his ears with how nervous he is.
He obfuscates as he gets closer. The familiar white van is already parked there, and Eva is standing outside of it speaking with the Wyrd sisters, all looking relaxed after their time away. As he gets closer, he can see Kyoko has seemingly noticed him as her eyes go comically wide, and he holds a finger up to his lips. Within a few moments he is behind Eva and about to wrap his arms around her, and -
“Hello Jasper,” Eva says, smile clear in her voice.
Jasper huffs and then drops obfuscation with a toothy grin as she turns around and eagerly moves into his open arms. He wraps them around her in a hug and lays his chin on her head as she rests hers on his chest, taking in an unneeded breath to pull her scent in, having missed it the last few days. There is an overtone of the woods, but under that, lavender and roses. With the changes he had made to the bedroom, he hadn’t even had the benefit of her scent lingering on the sheets to tide him over the last few days.
“Ahem,” comes from Violet, and they both pull away slowly to look at her staring at them with a raised eyebrow, Kyoko next to her barely restraining her glee.
“Seriously, it seems like the more time goes on, I just ship you harder!” Kyoko exclaims, her hands clasped under her chin as she stares at them.
Eva lets out a sigh. “As you said this weekend, Kyoko. Multiple times. Violet and Hester, thank you for allowing me to join you for the Carna event. I hope you all have a good evening.” The last two in question nod their heads as Kyoko lets out a groan and makes her way to the back of the van.
“Hey Jasper, take it easy on Eva when you guys get back. No breaking the bed!” Violet calls over to the two with a grin. Hester smacks Violet in the shoulder for the comment, but has the same teasing smile herself.
Eva lets out a small giggle as Jasper just stands there searching for words that are not coming, and they watch as Violet laughs while putting the van into drive with Kyoko’s giggles audible from the back of the van, and their laughter can still be heard faintly as the van disappears into the night.
Once they’re gone, Eva then turns toward him and finally notices the bouquet he is holding, having somehow escaped notice during their first embrace.
“For you, my dear,” Jasper says with a small bow as he presents the flowers to her, finally overcoming his speechlessness.
She grins as she takes the bouquet from him and brings it to her face to smell, and Jasper’s heart swells as her grin widens as she sees what’s in it.
“This is a very thorough story you are telling here, Jasper,” she teases.
He begins to fumble, “Well, uh, I mean you were gone for three days… and… I just wanted to make sure you knew that you were missed.” He leans to pick up her pack, and then offers her the crook of his arm, which she takes after pressing a kiss to his cheek.
They begin the walk back towards his Haven, the moon hanging high in the sky and providing a bit of light to go by.
“Well, you have definitely conveyed that very well. Hopefully I will be able to be as… thorough of a storyteller when we are back in the Haven.” Eva grins devilishly as she looks to him for a reaction.
All he offers is an unneeded swallow at the suggestion in her tone.
She hums at not getting the intended reaction. “So what did you do with yourself for the last few days?”
“Not much, just kept out of trouble as requested. Annabelle joined me for a bit actually. Overall, a… peaceful couple of days. How was your outing?”
“As expected. A few dozen kindred swapping wards, dancing around the fire. Kyoko was actually quite interested in our… love lives. More so than normal.”
“Well, this will be a bit of a break then.”
They pass the rest of the journey in silence, just enjoying being in each other's company again. Gradually Eva’s hand moves from the crook of his elbow to grasping his own hand, twining their fingers together. He feels his nervousness slowly begin to disappear as her thumb rubs slow circles into the top of his hand. He briefly stops them to look into her eyes, highlighted by the moon above them, and the last of his fears slowly slip away as he moves in for a brief kiss. When he pulls away, he pushes back a small lock of white hair that had fallen into Eva’s eyes and gently pulls to resume their journey.
The rest of the walk is short, and Jasper moves first to open the heavy entry door to the primary hallway before pausing in front of the door to his Haven. He performs the correct configurations, but then stops short of opening the door and instead turns to face Eva. She raises a curious eyebrow at his actions.
“So before we go in I… have a bit of a surprise for you. Close your eyes for me?”
“What exactly have you planned, Jasper?” Eva asks with a grin, her eyes lighting up.
Jasper grins back, “Well that would be telling. Now please, close your eyes?” She complies with a tilt of her head and he turns back to open the door before moving to guide her over the threshold from behind.
Laying his hands on her hips, he gently applies pressure and moves her further into the room, careful as he guides her. Their movements are fluid, and he slowly pulls her to keep her from continuing forward when they reach the center of the room. He leans over her shoulder to whisper into her ear, “Ok… you can open them now.”
The nice thing with vampires is that their eyes do not take much to adjust to sudden changes from light to dark. However, that does not help Eva in this case, as she is immediately assailed by an almost completely changed Haven.
Some things have remained the same. The basic Ikea couch and end table, some of the light fixtures… the book cases ahead through the passway are also the same.
But now… now the floors are laden with multiple persian style carpets covering the hard concrete. A pale yellow throw blanket is draped across the back of the dark blue couch, and one of the end tables has an empty vase on it, made predominantly of clear glass but swirled with all the colors of the rainbow. Straight ahead where there used to be a blank wall is… some kind of workstation? The table is long and darker wood, and on top there is a hot plate and even a bunsen burner, plastic drawers across one side with what already seem to be some supplies hidden away and a few of her books she had left here, piled up neatly on the right. To the left of the table, there is a retro style mini fridge, and on the other side a small indoor grow station, already filled with a few hardier living ingredients such as nightshade and lavender, with several jugs of water stored underneath.
Eva slowly moves to try and take it in, mouth hanging open in surprise. “Jasper… what?”
He cautiously moves to her side and takes her hand in his. “You have been spending more time here and I know… before, this place has been very much for me. Now I want it to be… more us. I know underground is not exactly your first choice, your place in the park is obviously much more open, with more nature… so we could of course stay there sometimes as well. But… I want this to be your home too.”
He can't help but ramble a bit as he tries to decipher her reaction. Her mouth is slightly dropped and eyes are wide, seemingly trying to search for words that just aren’t coming. “Here, I want to show you something else before the library.” He takes the flowers from her and places them in the available vase, and then slowly pulls her to the left where the door to the bedroom is.
The door is already open and the changes here are slightly less overwhelming, but nonetheless obvious. The bed is larger now, covered in red sheets with black pillowcases and a white knit afghan folded across the foot of the bed. A large armoire has joined Jasper’s more simple one, open and already displaying some of the clothes she had left here. A small matching vanity is in place against the other wall, with a white cushioned bench.
Eva turns to Jasper, trying to keep in some of the emotions lest she become a mess. “You really didn’t have to do this Jasper. This… I mean this has been your Haven for years! You changed all this… for me?”
This is something that she simply could not comprehend. When she had followed Katya back to the Chantry, everything was how it was, and for Katya there was no changing that. Eva had simply needed to adapt, and when she was gone, the expectation had been the same. No room for individuality. It was only when she was on her own that she was able to show some expression again. But here, underground, after only several months…
He takes both her hands and looks into her eyes as he brings them to his lips. “I know I can be a little… single minded, sometimes. I’m not always good with emotions, whether it's recognizing them, or feeling them. But I am serious when I say I want this to be your home .” The emotion in his voice when he emphasizes the word home is clear enough that Eva can understand the conviction and seriousness he is trying to convey to her. “Now, if you follow me… there’s still the library.”
She allows him to lead her back out into the hall, huffing a watery laugh. “I am not sure how much more I can… take…” she trails off as they reach the aforementioned room.
While overall the room hasn’t gone through as many large changes, there are certainly many small things that she notices immediately. A couple bookshelves that had previously been empty are now occupied by a record player and a few records. She can tell simply from the colors on the spines they are probably copies of ones she has in her own collection. Jasper’s workstation has been tidied and a photo of the two of them from one of Nelli’s parties lays on top, and near it is one of the most plush armchairs Eva has ever seen. She is almost positive it could fit two people, with a multicolored throw blanket across the arm. To the left is… a white spinet piano?
“Jasper, how did you...?”
He grins, taking in her surprise and squeezing her hand, uncharacteristically bashful. “Well I did say Annabelle visited,” he said, leading her to the armchair and gesturing for her to sit, and she nearly collapses.
He leans down to slide her ballet flats off her feet, and as he rises lays a gentle kiss on her lips. Before she can truly savor it he is gone, moving across the room towards the piano.
“Eva, I am better for having met you, and… this is an attempt to help show all of that. You have helped me get in touch with my humanity in ways that I thought I never could, and I… wanted to share a bit of my past with you, but kind of…combine it with a piece of your past. I, um, learned piano growing up, and you once told me what your favorite song was from before you were embraced.”
He pulls out the piano bench, but before taking a seat, he removes his hoodie and reveals the black dress shirt and white and red paisley vest he has on underneath. There is a pause as he lifts the cover of the piano keys and slowly moves his hands into place. She always told him he had a musician's hands.
There is no sheet music, and he stumbles on the first few notes before falling back into the practiced rhythm. And once he does… Eva gasps audibly and brings a hand to cover her mouth.
It’s strange at first hearing it played on piano, the original version had such a large variety of instruments. But as he moves through the first bridge she instantly recognizes it as Strawberry Fields Forever. The tone of the song overall has a bright disposition and reminds her of her days sitting out in the fields on a blanket, just letting the music overtake her. A small part of her cannot believe he remembered their conversation, so used to the way Katya would barely remember any of the music they had listened to at Woodstock together. The other part of her, the part that has been growing gradually over time, knows that Jasper probably remembers every important tidbit she has said over the course of their relationship.
As he plays and the minutes pass, he is moving with the music and seemingly getting lost in it, and she is getting lost in him. As he caresses the keys and gets pulled into the upbeat parts of the songs, and then as it begins to near the end he seems to almost release that energy into thin air.
By the end of the song, blood tears are slowly leaking from her eyes and she rises barefoot and pads over to him. He hasn’t moved since the song has ended, hands still hovering over the keys as the music fades away.
She takes his face in both her hands and slightly turns it towards hers, leaning down and taking his lips in hers. There is no urgency to the kiss as her lips caress his, no dominance as she doesn’t demand entrance. He shifts his body so he is straddling the piano bench with a leg on either side, and Eva stands between them. As they pull apart, he moves instinctively to catch the blood teardrops before they can stain her white dress.
The moment hangs between them, not heavy, but like that bridge between where you think a song ends and where it actually ends.
Eva whispers, “No one has ever truly allowed me into their lives like this, Jasper. They have pulled me into theirs, tried to make me fit like a misshapen puzzle piece, but this… a simple thank you does not seem enough.”
He nuzzles his nose against hers. “I feel the same. I was… a bit of a husk before you came into my life.”
Eva moves to take both his hands in hers and slowly rises, pulling him up from the piano and starting to walk backwards through the library and in the direction of the bedroom. “How about instead of telling each other… we show each other?”
He grins at her, saying, “I think I might be able to get my point across that way.” She smiles back, and he squeezes her hand again before allowing her to lead him into the bedroom that is no longer just his, but theirs . .
-FIN-