Gideon

Jason started to snore. He didn't often, but Gideon wasn't surprised, considering he smelled like he'd been swimming in a brewery. He rolled Jason onto his side and pulled the covers up around him, and Jason mumbled and burrowed deeper into his pillow. His right arm was marked with admittance stamps from the various places he must have visited tonight, and Gideon felt a brief pang that he couldn't have spent the night with his fiancé, celebrating.

Technically, he could have gone, even though vampires couldn't drink alcohol, but he'd thought it would be good for Jason to spend some time with his human friends. Gideon always missed him, though. It felt like his very essence, every single part of himself, was tangled up with Jason, and when Jason was away, nothing felt quite right.

Gideon climbed into bed on the opposite side, and ran his thumb along Jason's cheek. "I'm glad you had a good birthday," he whispered, even though Jason couldn't hear him. "But you're going to have the worst hangover of your life when you wake up."

Leaning over, he kissed Jason's forehead. At least Gideon was here to take care of him.

The sound of soft groaning woke him. All the windows in Belle Morte were covered with UV-blocking shades, but a glance at the clock on Gideon's nightstand told him it was 11.a.m. Jason had managed a solid seven hours sleep, but, judging from the sad noises coming from his fiancé, it hadn't done him much good.

Gideon rolled over, careful not to jolt Jason.

"Good morning," he said.

Jason had pulled the covers up until they covered most of his face. His eyes were still exposed, and they looked mournfully up at Gideon.

"This isn't a good morning," he grumbled.

"How do you feel?"

Jason closed his eyes and sighed. "Like someone's repeatedly taking a sledgehammer to my skull. What the hell did I drink last night?"

"Everything?" Gideon helpfully offered.

Jason groaned again.

Gideon climbed out of bed. He'd anticipated this – apparently twenty-firsts were now considered an important milestone – and had prepared accordingly. He filled a glass with water from their en suite and brought it to Jason's side of the bed.

"Can you sit up?" he said.

Jason managed, stealing Gideon's pillow, so he could prop himself up. His face was pale, his blond hair a mess.

"What's that?" he said, looking at the paper packet in Gideon's hand.

"Rehydration sachet. Roux recommended them. Hopefully they'll make you feel better." He tore open the packet and emptied the contents into the glass of water, stirring them with the spoon he'd brought up from the kitchen last night. "Drink this," he commanded, pushing the glass into Jason's hand, "and take two of these." He popped two painkillers out of their blister packs and put them in Jason's other hand.

Jason mustered a shaky smile. "It's almost like you knew I was going to come home a drunken wreck."

Gideon smiled a little. "I prepared for the worst case scenario."

"Oh, this is far from the worst case scenario," Jason said, sipping his water. "That would be you having to carry me to the bathroom so I can throw my guts up."

"I'll do that if necessary," Gideon said, sitting on the side of the bed.

"Even if I throw up on you?"

"Even then," Gideon assured him.

Jason drank some more water. "Hopefully we won't need to put that to the test, but I doubt I'm getting out of bed anytime soon."

"That's alright. I can bring you anything you need."

Jason took the painkillers and drained the last of the water, pulling a face.

"Roux also said that you should have something to eat when you woke up," Gideon said. "Do you feel like you could cope with breakfast?"

Jason considered it, then pulled another face. "Like I said, not leaving this bed anytime soon."

Gideon took the empty glass and put it on the nightstand. "I'll bring it to you."

"Breakfast in bed?"

Gideon nodded.

Jason's blue eyes went all soft. "I really love you, you know."

Gideon smiled and leaned in to kiss him, but Jason put a hand on his chest. "No kissing until I've brushed my teeth. I feel like something crawled into my mouth and died," he said.

Gideon kissed Jason's knuckles instead. "I'll get you something to eat, and then we can worry about oral hygiene."

"Okay," Jason murmured, settling back in his pillows.

He'd probably fall asleep again after he'd eaten, and if he didn't, Gideon would stay in here with him. They could have a cosy, lazy day watching the television that Jason had insisted they install in their room after he'd moved in. Gideon was getting better at using it, though sometimes he didn't understand why the remote needed quite so many buttons.

"I won't be long," he told Jason.

It was past breakfast-time – at least for the donors currently living here – and too early for lunch, so the dining hall and the small kitchen beyond the ballroom were empty. Gideon had the whole place to himself.

He already knew what he was going to do – bacon, which Jason loved, along with hot toast and scrambled eggs and –

Gideon froze.

The kitchen was one of the most modern rooms in Belle Morte, primarily because it was for the human staff who prepared the donors' meals. Vampires rarely came in here – they had no need to. Gideon had no idea how to use any of the polished metal appliances staring back at him. More than that, he had no idea how to cook.

When he'd been human, cooking had been the work of women or servants. Maids had kept his family fed, and it was understood that when he took a wife, it would be her job to cook for him. He'd never even learned how to boil an egg, and then he'd become a vampire and there'd been no need to learn because he could no longer eat human food.

Gideon's heart sank.

How could he have been so stupid?

He'd been so caught up in the idea of cooking Jason breakfast in bed that he had completely forgotten that he'd never cooked a thing in his life and had no clue where to start.

Hesitantly, he started opening cabinets, studying the various pots and pans inside as if they would somehow tell him what to do.

Bacon was normally cooked in a frying pan, wasn't it? At least that was something he could do. Although . . . how long was he supposed to cook it for? Did it need to be seasoned? Did he cook it dry or was he supposed to put oil or butter or something in the pan first?

He felt a stab of frustration as he turned a frying pan over in his hands. This was something that humans did every day of their lives, and he felt like an idiot for not knowing. He'd have to fetch Renie or Roux and ask them for help.

"How's Jason this morning?" Seamus asked, coming into the kitchen behind him.

"Hungover," Gideon replied, and Seamus chuckled.

"Shocker." He started for the fridge, then paused and looked curiously back at Gideon. "What are you doing in here?"

Gideon looked down at the frying pan that he was still holding, then back up at Seamus.

"Making breakfast for Jason?" Seamus guessed.

"Yes, but . . ."

A moment of silence passed, and then Seamus's expression cleared. "You've never cooked before, have you?"

Gideon shook his head.

"Okay, then." Seamus took the pan from him. "Good thing I'm here."

He didn't cook for Gideon. Instead, he showed him what to do, from perfectly frying the bacon to seasoning and scrambling fluffy eggs and toasting the bread a rich golden brown. As the bacon sizzled in the pan, Gideon felt a pang of regret that he couldn't share this with Jason.

When he'd been human, bacon had been one of his favourite foods, and even though it had been the better part of two hundred years since he'd eaten it, he still missed it sometimes. It would have nice to have breakfast in bed with Jason.

But that was something they could never have.

As a vampire, Gideon could never again eat human food, and, one day, Jason would give it all up to become a vampire too.

"Thank you," he said to Seamus, as the other man handed him a tray so he could carry the food up to his bedroom.

"Any time," Seamus said.

Jason was sitting up when Gideon returned. He'd obviously managed to drag himself into the shower – his hair was wet and he'd changed into a fresh t-shirt and pyjama trousers. He was still pale, though, his eyes still tired and bloodshot.

He brightened when he saw the food.

"You're an angel," he said. "You did it all this yourself?"

"Seamus helped," Gideon admitted.

Balancing the tray on his lap, Jason picked up a rasher of bacon with his fingers. Gideon joined him on the bed.

"We're the same age now," Jason said. "In human years anyway."

Gideon smiled a little. Although he was relatively young compared to some of the vampires in Belle Morte, it was a long time since he'd felt twenty-one, the age he'd been when he became a vampire. "It's not quite the same, is it?"

Jason shrugged. "Next year I'll be older than you."

"You keep telling yourself that."

Gideon didn't ask how old Jason planned to get in human years before he'd let Gideon turn him into a vampire. It would happen when Jason was ready, and not even Jason knew when that would be. It made no difference to Gideon, not anymore, because he knew it would happen. Jason would become a vampire and they'd spend the rest of their lives together, and it didn't matter how old he was in human years when that happened.

Jason tossed the remote at him. "Your turn to pick a film. But make it something easy. I really don't want to use my brain, okay?"

This wasn't the life that Gideon had ever thought he could have. Lying in bed with the man he would soon marry, was the sort of quiet bliss that he'd once felt he could never experience, and now it was the only life he could ever imagine.

"What?" said Jason, realising that Gideon was looking at him. "Have I got crumbs on my face?"

Gideon shook his head and leaned over to place a soft kiss on Jason's mouth. "I was just thinking how happy I am," he murmured.

Heat sparked in Jason's eyes. "You know, I'm still waiting for the birthday sex I didn't get last night."

"You remember last night?"

"Not all of it, but I remember that part, because I was really looking forward to coming home and getting you naked."

"There's time now," Gideon said, brushing Jason's lips with another kiss.

Jason slowly smiled. "And I'm definitely up for it this time. Pun intended."

Gideon took the empty breakfast tray from him and set it on the floor, out of the way. "I wouldn't want to disappoint you twice in a row."

"No," Jason agreed.

Keeping his eyes locked on Jason's face, Gideon slid down the bed and under the covers. It was still his birthday weekend, after all.

Next week, we're going to start exploring how Isabeau and Ysanne met, and I can't wait to share their story with you all :)