1. Chapter 1 (1/1)

finally another piece of du fortunesa. ok, so it's very short, but i think it kind of came to a natural end. there will, no doubt, be more.

disclaimer: i own nothing. no matter how much i wish.

"bertrand, my boy. how the devil have you been? i thought you might be ill, when you left so suddenly the other evening." the vampire hadn't been expecting to be handed such a convenient excuse, and seized it gratefully."yes – i think i just needed to sleep in my own room. you know how travel is, i'm sure." jim nodded sagely, then glanced along the corridor to where vlad, fresh from the weekend, was pulling books from his locker."vlad looks a lot healthier today. the time off must have done him good. your influence?" bertrand merely shrugged diplomatically and went to disappear into the classroom before turning back towards his fellow teacher.

"jim," he began, then hesitated. it didn't take long for his curiosity to win out. "do you know why erin noble left?" his fellow teacher pulled a thoughtful face."hmm, erin noble... ah, yes, she transferred due to a change in family circumstances, i believe. it sounded as if they'd just up and moved. i can only assume they found somewhere larger, so that there was room for the girl as well?" bertrand nodded his thanks; it seemed that he was going to have to get a straight answer out of vlad, then.

he waited until the following afternoon, when vlad emerged looking slightly more rested from his coffin, and proposed a quick training session."it's saturday, it's probably the best day for it." vlad agreed readily enough and they headed down to the training room that was bertrand's exclusive domain. "before we do anything else, though, i want to make sure you're alright."

vlad frowned, sensing a trap."you want to make sure..." his expression cleared into a weary sort of resignation. "you want to know about erin." bertrand frowned."if her departure is bothering you, and i know it is, then yes. i want to know what happened.""and you want to know if she's going to turn on us?" bertrand didn't bother to confirm that. "she won't. she's just gone.""gone where? and why?" vlad scowled, but he seemed to realise bertrand wasn't going to drop the subject.

"to stay with the slayers and work on the truce. there was an argument, we

oke up, she left, she's not coming back. happy?" that was all he was going to get. it would be enough for now, bertrand supposed."fine. now what's all this studying been about?""you're always telling me i have to work on this whole chosen one thi-""not all day and night. and you usually ignore me anyway. so what's going on?""yeah, i ignored you and you left. so i thought maybe if i worked really hard you'd want to come back. only then erin left, and you still didn't come back, so i worked harder." he paused, then continued. "she shouldn't have said what she did." that got bertrand's full attention."what did she say to you?"

vlad shrugged."she said 'good riddance'."