3. Chapter 3 (1/1)

sorry this has taken a while to materialise; real life happened. if it makes you feel better, the people waiting for smitten to update have been hanging on way longer. anyway, enjoy!

disclaimer: not mine.

ingrid.

he crossed that out.

dear ingrid.

too sentimental; he crossed that out too.

to ingrid.

that just sounded wrong. malik crumpled the piece of paper he'd been writing on, throwing it into the fire with the rest, and started again.

ingrid,

firstly, my writing is perfectly legible. i get it if you want to throw around insults, but try to stick to the ones with some accuracy to them. the truth always stings harder than fiction, you know that. next time, try 'you're too good-looking, everyone must hate you' or 'curse your irresistible charm'.

it was at about this point that he remembered he was trying to get back on ingrid's good side, and being his usual... self-assured self might not be his best course of action. he took a moment to think before he decided what to say.

i'm not sorry for trying to take the place i thought was mine. it just got out of control. i never wanted to hurt you - but you have to try to understand, i was raised by my insane mother, nobody else, and for 300 years that was it for me. can you blame me for wanting a family?

i am sorry, though, that it all went so horribly wrong between us. i wish we'd had a chance.

yours,

he remembered his promise not to sign his name just in time, and turned the comma into a full stop. he slipped the letter into an envelope, addressed it, and stared at it pensively for a moment. he knew he should just put it in the nearest postbox, but...

well, he told himself, he didn't have a stamp anyway. he launched himself into the air and went to slip his message into the letterbox at the gates of the dracula mansion. it took a lot of effort not to linger, but then he reasoned that vlad lived here too, and it was probably not a good idea to wind him up again just yet. he made it back home in record time and sat, wondering if he'd said the right things.

he'd just have to wait to find out.