Both Alike in Dignity

A/N: Wedding was great! I now officially have four brothers opposed to one. And two sisters, though I had those before lawl. Big family. Lots of bickering this chapter, which is always fun to write. Hope you guys enjoy. Leave a review and get a piece of wedding cake. ;D

Word Count (overall): 16617
Word Count (this chapter): 1557
Updates: Mondays and Thursdays

Chapter Nine


Sebastian slipped his glasses into place and resigned himself to looking like a complete idiot. Looking at himself in the mirror, he almost considered just getting a bad sunburn. He was wearing a long white raincoat, a rainbow scarf, a pair of huge sunglasses, a red baseball cap and a yellow umbrella. Sebastian was pretty sure that Jasper had done it on purpose. He scowled at himself. This was ridiculous. He would be getting some very strange looks.

This was exactly why he didn't like to move around in the day. Some vampires didn't mind, but Sebastian hated being the centre of anyone's attention. Dressed like this, he was pretty sure that near everyone they crossed would stop to stare at him. Just the thought of being the subject of that much scrutiny made him uncomfortable. He marched out of the motel with a scowl on his face.

“You look really, really stupid,” Jasper said, helpful as always. He scanned Sebastian quickly and smirked, his eyes flashing with amusement.

“Yes, thanks for that,” Sebastian snapped back. Jasper had definitely done it on purpose. He looked way too smug.

They set out for the train station together, looking about as different as two men could; Jasper was tall, broad and normal whereas Sebastian looked like he wanted to run up to a playground full of school children and wave his genitals at them.

Sebastian sighed and resigned himself to the looks he would be getting. There was absolutely no way that he'd fit in today, and he just had to try and do this as fast as he possibly could. He would be ridiculed no matter what.

It was a huge relief when they got on the train – it was far too hot, and his extra layer to barricade him against the sun's rays really wasn't helping with the heat. He was sweating hard by the time they took a seat, and he immediately started divesting himself of clothing. He felt like he was about to pass out from heat stroke.

“What're you doing?” Jasper asked, his eyes widening. “What about-?” He gestured out at the daylight, looking like he half-expected Sebastian to burst into flames at any second.

Sebastian rolled his eyes, the motion hidden behind his dark glasses. His eyes were too sensitive to take them off. He knocked on the glass pointedly. “It's like sunburn,” he said. “You can't really get sunburned though glass.” He shrugged, feeling a lot better now he didn't look like a freak.

“Oh,” Jasper said. “I was looking forward to watching you stalk around like some kind of perverted freak for a while.” He grinned.

“I knew it,”Sebastian said, leaning forward with his elbows on the table between them. He narrowed his eyes at Jasper. “I knew you bought all that shit just to make me look like a lunatic.”

“Well, maybe if you didn't act so uptight all the time, it wouldn't be so tempting,” Jasper said, smirking.

“You're such an asshole,” Sebastian said, leaning back in his chair again. He would get Jasper back. Somehow. Sooner or later, Jasper would pay. Especially as he had to put all this shit back on again when they changed trains.

---

Paris was a busy mess of people, bustling and crowded and dirty. Sebastian felt unclean as soon as he stepped out onto the crowded station platform. At least here he could probably pass his 'clothing' off as some kind of odd fashion statement. He could barely hear over the hundreds of footsteps echoing all around him, hundreds of voices, flushing toilets, people consuming and hurrying and getting from once place to the other as fast as they possibly could.

It took Sebastian a second to tune his hearing back to bearable levels after the relative quiet of the train. He winced hard as some kid wailed off to the right. Finally, he got it under control. “Do you think Blaine will still be following?” he asked. It seemed ridiculous that Blaine would follow him all this way... but then, it wasn't just about him, now. It was about Jasper, too. And he had a strong feeling that Jasper wasn't telling him something important.

“...huh?” Jasper asked, looking around the crowded space with eager interest, his nose practically twitching. He focused on Sebastian for a split second before his gaze snapped away again. His brain caught up with the question. “Oh. Probably.” He took Sebastian's elbow in a firm grip and started to walk him toward the station's exit.

For once, Sebastian didn't try to pull away.

“I am... was, I guess. I was a member of his pack. I mean, he could've given up, I guess. But we really pissed him off. And I know he could track us this far if he really wanted. So better to be safe than sorry, I guess?” He gave Sebastian a charming grin. “We just keep a step ahead. It'll be fine.”

“For the rest of his damn life?” Sebastian asked, glancing paranoidly behind him, like he expected Blaine to appear from thin air and grab him. “I don't want to run away forever. I thought if we got out of the country that would be it.”

“Look, it's all about being unpredictable,” Jasper said. “Tracking is slower than running. If we're unpredictable, he won't be able to guess what we're doing next, and the gap between us will get longer and longer until we lose him.”

“How will we know when we've lost him, though?” Sebastian asked.

“We won't,” Jasper said. “That's something we'll have to worry about when we come to it, so just shut up and let me deal with this part for now.” He pulled open the door and tugged Sebastian onto the crowded streets of fickle Paris.

“I don't even know why you're bothering,” Sebastian mumbled, struggling to get the ridiculous umbrella up so he could shield himself from the sun. Just his luck that every place in the damn world was sunny on the one day he actually had to go out during the day.

“Sometimes I don't know why, either,” Jasper said back, his voice dark.

“Then why don't you just leave me? I can take care of myself,”Sebastian snapped, pulling his arm out of Jasper's grip violently. He scowled down the long, endless street. Fucking Paris.

“Yeah, I saw that when I first met you. You were really taking care of yourself,” Jasper growled. “He'll fucking tear you apart. Maybe I wouldn't have bothered if I'd known all this was gonna happen, but I can't just... fuck it. I'm committed to it, now. And I'm not leaving. So get over it.”

“I never asked for this,” Sebastian said. “I never asked for your help.” He fell into brooding silence, staring down at the pavement as they walked together through the streets. At least the people gave him a wide enough berth. Probably thought he was insane. “What if we just fought back?”

“No,” Jasper snapped, immediately. “We don't know who he's brought with him or even how far away he is or if he's even coming. I don't wanna risk it. Now are you gonna help me look for somewhere to stay or do you wanna fry out here? I'm starving, and vampire steak is sounding pretty good right now.”

“You're not in charge,” Sebastian snapped. “You don't get to make all the decisions.” Except finding somewhere cool and not in the sun seemed like a good idea anyway.

“We just need a motel room or something, chill.” Jasper paused. “I hope you speak French.”

Sebastian just stared at Jasper. That was just great. He didn't even know how he had been dragged into this mess. He'd minded his own business for most of his life, and now here he was, on the run from some psychotic werewolf bent on revenge. It was fucking ridiculous. It was like some stupid horror movie. The kind that he would never, ever watch.

“I speak French,” he said, his voice crisp. “Bit rusty, but I should be able to get by.” It just seemed fucking stupid that he was in France, trying to 'get by' on his archaic French with a werewolf looking after him. Fuck. Sebastian sighed. “You ever been to France?” he asked.

“No,” Jasper said, glancing around him. “Never been out of the country before.”

“Oh, great. Really. That's just great,” Sebastian said. He scowled. They couldn't even get a taxi – they hadn't exchanged any money at the station. Maybe he should just walk into something pointy and wooden, put himself out of his misery the old fashioned way.

“Okay, first we need some money so we can actually pay people and do shit,” Sebastian said. “There are always places near train stations, so if we just look around...”

It didn't take them long to find a map. Sebastian eyed it, following it with his finger. “Alright, follow me,” he said. At least he wasn't following Jasper around like a lost kitten, this time.