The Sun Also Rises

It was, Dorian had decided, a veritable form of torture to so force him to sign so very many pieces of paper! His poor wrist, he was sure, was rapidly beginning to suffer beneath the weight of the sheer amount of dips and loops within his signature. Sebastian had been insistent that he so read every single document before he signed it- as had once been the Monarch's habit and yet, this evening, Dorian was perhaps inclined to admit he had given in to merely skimming those papers upon new legislation, tax reforms and that report in mandatory vaccines the Italian government was attempting to construct into written law. How many pages that report had! Dorian so hardly un-interested, rather, he was curious to those results, the suggested outcomes and not the several pages beforehand that spoke of in depth legal legislation that accompanied such a law. Sebastian, he was sure, would appreciate that legal discussion far more then himself. Dorian, in that moment, briefly considering having that paper sent to his husbands desk even if only so he might relive it from his own presence. Then again, to do so would surely be merely a roundabout attempt to lessen his own workload at the expense of his lover. Ah, how very irritating those morals attimes! Dorian so prompted to chuckle at his own mental consideration for the evening before applying his signature to yet another document. Such work, in the least, so often proved distracting in his lovers absence. Dorian so otherwise prone to miss Sebastian's company and the simple sounds of the vampire moving about that otherwise near too-quiet house.

That work was returned to for fifteen more minutes. Dorian so only just having begun to dread reading that new page of documentation when that rap upon his door so prompted his attention. Prescott, ever alert to whom entered that office, rose readily from his bed. That brindle Cursinu having grown substantially over those past months. He would surely never rival Maxwell for weight and yet the dog had grown taller then his black and tan companion. Dorian's soft utterance for whomever was at the door to enter so momentarily saw Charles appear in that doorway, the Monarch glaning near expectantly at the manservant as he insisted Sebastian had returned. That very news alone prompting a soft simper to the Fae Kings features before Charles continued to linger. The manservant seeming to debate that further speech before at last suggesting that Sebastian appeared 'put out'. A frown of his own so readily found his features as Charles stepped out of the office, that door closed behind him as Dorian so further puzzled those words. Put out? Hmmm. Perhaps he had not managed to find a suitable meal, elsse the Press had hounded him thoroughly and in a fashion he found disagreeable for 'hunting'. Such things tending to perturb his lover and yet it was distinctly rare for Charles to make mention of such obscurities of character.

The sound of that shower turning on so resigned Dorian to his seat for a further twenty minutes or so. The Monarch wholly content to leave the vampire to enjoy his shower interrupted before seeking his company. It was only once that shower was shut off that Dorian rose from his chair, the Monarch no sooner having opened that office door then the sound of a woman so calling his husbands name seemed to echo through that home. That voice so surely not that of Elizabeth. A look of surprised confusion had managed to find its way to the Monarch's features now, Dorian readily taking those stairs upward and towards that bedroom he shared with his husband only to find Sebastian standing within the hall attempting to comfort a vampire woman whom so apparently believed she was dying.

"Bastian?"

That single utterance of his husbands name so surely acted as both greeting and question all at once. Dorian's silver gaze shifting from his lover to the woman and back again. A certain degree of wariness so afflicting his figure at the sight of the second vampire, one he had so decidedly not met before. He so hardly feared the woman in any sense, his trust in Sebastian's choice of guests in their home wholly implicit and yet it was terribly rare, in any sense, for Sebastian to keep vampiric company at all outside of Arlo. Dorian distinctly aware of that unknown vampire in every sense. Along with the notion she did not look particularly ...healthy. Even by pale, vampiric standards. The Monarch's figure so came to stand beside his husbands own, Dorian so attempting to replace that look of surprise with a small, polite simper, those age-old manners so quickly taking over as he regarded the woman a final time, his head affording her that polite nod of greeting and those genteel words before his attention returned to Sebastian.

"I do not think we have met before. I'm Dorian, Sebastian's husband. It is a pleasure to meet you. Charles did not say you had brought company home this evening, Sebastian. He said you were feeling rather out of-"

That very sentence was abruptly cut short as Dorian's hand merely came to rest of his husbands arm. Sebastian's skin near uncharacteristically hot to the touch. The heat from the shower so surely not having lasted this long upon him.That distinctly unusual temperature so prompting the Monarch to lift his hand once more. That look of confusion returned to his features.

"Darling, you are unusually hot."

Even after Sebastian had fed his body did not retain this level of heat! Dorian so eyeing his lover near critically once more. Sebastian appearing almost...flushed all over. Such a look so terribly obscure upon a vampire. Dorian's gaze shifted once more to the woman, her own features appearing much the same, her eyes ringed by dark circles, her face drawn. Truly, were he not to know better, he might even have thought she looked...sickly.

"Sebastian, your companion and yourself both appear a little......out of sorts. Are you quite certain you're alright? You look- different."

'Different' was, perhaps, the most polite word that came to mind in a situation in which he was rather certain his husband and their guest looked more akin to 'awful' then 'different'. That ready concern so clear upon the Italian Fae's features.

Dorian Ellington-Aragona