c. 1890 - Rome

[i_vanquish_evil]

Van Helsing stomps into the large cathedral, mud slopping off his boots. He's wet and cold and covered in mud, all indicators of why he might be pissed off. He flings his sword at an apprentice and stalks across the lab floor to the Cardinal's office. Stopping just outside the door, he glares hard at it, raising his hand to turn the knob without knocking.

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[i_read.insanejournal.com]

A familiar head pops out from around the corner and gives a nervous little smile that is, nonetheless, also somewhat relieved.

"He's not in, you should know. He was called away on some rather urgent business."

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

He scowls at the door and lowers his hand. The scowl gets turns on Carl, but not because of anything he's said. "Figures," he mumbles and flicks mud on the Cardinal's office door. With a heavy sigh, he stalks past Carl toward the long, dark corridor that leads to his quarters. This mud and demon sludge has got to go.

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

Carl trailed after him, leaving a few napkins at first before just catching up to him with a towel.

"If you could-- come here, Van Helsing, really, you don't have to be covered in mud and uncomfortable. I'll draw you a bath, of course, but it would be nice if you actually let me keep pace."

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

"The bath is this way, Carl," he snarls, gesturing dramatically down the hallway. His breeches are tight around his legs from the water and the sludge, his boots squelch on the floor and his coat is heavier than normal from the same water and sludge that's everywhere else. He has no interest in talking about the ludicrous mission he was sent on, how much time it wasted and how he was almost killed three times. He just wants to be out of the mud and sludge and filthy clothing.

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

"Yes," he said, longsuffering, as he finally sprinted ahead of him to offer the towel. He thought better of it after a moment and just started cleaning off his face. It wasn't much, but it was something.

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

He tries very hard not to glare. "Can we not do this in the hallway?" he asks. Not that his sense of modesty is much to contend with, he would gladly strip in the hallway, but he has heard rumblings that the others prefer that he not meander about the hallways of the Order naked.

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

"There, better, yes?"

And then the little friar was missing, having zipped off somewhere.

Of course, he'd be at the baths with a tub of hot, sweet-smelling water waiting for him when he got there. Said tub would even be out of the way and behind a door for Van Helsing's comfort. But Van Helsing was welcome to think differently.

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

He's far less successful at withholding the growl bubbling from his chest. But, he follows the path left by the friar. An invisible path to most, but a trail Van Helsing knows how to follow.

His head is pounding from angrily clenching his teeth for the last four hours and he wants nothing more than to sleep for a day. Unfortunately, he won't be able to sleep while he's covered in filth, so he needs a bath first. He'd seriously considered just dropping all of his clothing in a trail from the hallway to the baths, but decided against it, knowing Carl would not only have to pick up each of those articles of clothing, but then explain the reason why those charged with cleaning were having to do extra work when they could be inventing or researching. The man isn't cruel. Grouchy and loud, but not cruel.

His clothes end up piled by the door - maybe in hopes of keeping others out - and he waits, naked, by the bath until he's informed that it's ready. He doesn't want a repeat of the incident from several weeks ago when he leapt into a chilly bath that was not designed for human immersion.

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

"It's steaming, Van Helsing, which means you can most certainly get in," he said, collecting the clothing from the ground.

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

He tips his nose over his shoulder to watch the small friar, who never looks small when he's giving instructions, only when he's under the harsh glare of anyone who is not Van Helsing. He can't recall having ever seen the man shrink in fear from him, except while he was under the influence of the werewolf. That still bothers him from time-to-time, though not as often as it used to.

"If you're leaving the room for a moment, I'd rather wait until you return. Drowning isn't on my list of goals for the evening," he explains, his voice low.

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

He snorted.

"I'm not even letting you out of my site within feet of a bath. Letting you drown isn't on the list of goals for the evening either."

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

"I'm not sure if you're concern is touching or scary," he says and sits on the edge of the tub. "Get over here... if you're staying, that is."

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

He looked at the edge of the bath, then Van Helsing, before walking over still clothed.

"Of course I'm staying. And it's my concern either way."

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

"Uhm hm," he tacitly agrees before curling his hand around Carl's neck and drawing him close for a kiss. "I know I smell like filthy mud and demon slime, but either take off your clothes or I'm dragging you into the bath with me as you are."

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

He was dazed for about a half a moment before he started to scramble out of his clothing. It was folded carefully before--

"You're sure no one else is brave enough to bother with you at the moment?"

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

He arches an eyebrow at Carl. "I left a swath of rage and muddy slime down the hallway. If anyone is brave enough to step in here, so be it." His hands start at the friar's waist and slide upward, over his chest to his shoulders, his neck, his face, drawing him in again. "Get in the damned bath with me."

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

He gave Van Helsing a long suffering look.

"As if I'm not looking out for our safety," he said before slipping into the bath with him, hoping the mud might be somewhat medicinal.

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

He drags the friar close to him, positioning him over his lap. "Shut up and kiss me, Carl." He doesn't want to talk anymore. He wants to relax.

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

He wanted to argue and give him one hell of a tongue lashing and if he hadn't come in covered in mud and blood and all manner or terrible things, he would have. But he had, which meant the monster was dead and that he was alive and that was enough to celebrate about that he simply did as he was told, perhaps with a bit more urgency than Van Helsing might have expected.

Then again, it was the same urgency that presented itself whenever he came back from a mission, so perhaps not.

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

This. This is what he needed. Hot water that's almost too hot to stand and the kiss of his lover while the mud and gore washed away. Aside from the two of them being naked, there wasn't much he would consider scandalous going on, excepting the fact that the Order seemed to frown heavily upon two men having any sort of intimate relations. A position he, himself, was never fully able to understand. Carl had started out a somewhat clumsy, yet knowledgeable sidekick, but it was only a matter of a few months before Van Helsing realized that he felt more than friendship between them. And even that had grown over the past few years.

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

He pulled back to breath before resting his forehead against the other man's.

"I sincerely hope you don't get a mission anytime soon."

Which was the only thing he was going to say to indicate just how much he'd missed the other man, how worried he'd been.

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

He snorts. "If I do, I'm telling them no," he states firmly. He's not sure how much he actually means it. He tends to get stir crazy quickly. That coupled with the tendency of the Order to shove training and boring battle planning sessions on him, makes it unlikely that he would turn down a mission. Though, there is the possibility he would ask to bring Carl along for his expertise and weapons ingenuity.

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

"No, you won't," he said knowingly with a small smile. He wouldn't be-- Van Helsing if he turned down work.

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

"Doesn't matter. I'm not going anywhere right now." He kisses Carl again, keeping him close. Right now, the only place he figures he's going is hell, if the Almighty makes his return appearance right now and, at the moment, he's too damned tired to care.

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

"I should hope not," he said with a faint smile.

"The bath would be much colder?"

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

"Was that supposed to make sense?" he asks, not sure his tired brain is keeping up with all the parts of the conversation.

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

He peppered the other man's throat with kisses.

"There's more than one way to be warm. Or cold."

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

"Indeed there is," he sighs softly, leaning his head back against the edge of the tub. "Which one did you have in mind?"

[i_read.insanejournal.com]

"Not really interested in being cold at all," he insisted as he moved to straddle the other man's hips.

[i_vanquish_evil.insanejournal.com]

Van Helsing rolls his eyes a little, letting his hands come to rest on Carl's hips. "Not really what I meant. I assumed you were aiming for heat, so what did you have in mind to keep me warm?" he asks.