11. Confessions

Morgan remained silent as Missus Taneki returned with a steaming basket. She smiled politely, placing it on the table before lifting the top to reveal a heap of large dumplings. His mouth watered as Aaron plated several for each of them, pouring a bit of sauce into a small dish before passing it across the table.

They ate in silence for a time. His tastebuds sang with every bite as the tangy sauce mixed with the juice and spices of the meat beneath the steamed shell. Aaron finished his plate with haste, though his eyes never seemed to leave Morgan. Likely because he wanted his story, but the man seemed to be deeply enjoying the look of pleasure on his face while he ate.

“Come on, Morgan. Give me something.”

Morgan swallowed and pushed his plate aside. He wiped his mouth with a napkin and heaved a breath. “You try to arrest me, and I’ll introduce you to Loretz.”

Aaron slapped his knee. “Ha! I knew it! Tell me! Please? For my own closure, I swear!”

Morgan cleared his throat. “I met someone. A woman. Peter Dorian’s mother.”

“The last victim.”

Morgan nodded. “I couldn’t stand it. That monster took her whole world from her. She was so broken. So hopeless. Crying in the street and begging for help.” He chose to leave the part about the ECPD out, not wanting to sour the mood like he had the night after he’d found Aaron. “When I tracked down Peter’s body, I only knew it was him because my spell led me there. He was beyond recognition. I hoped I would find something of the killer’s, anything that I could track so I could end him right then, but he didn’t leave a trace. Just a violated, mangled corpse.

“So, I went back to the Manor. Daphne helped me to distinguish his patterns. He never hit the same district twice in a row, and he seemed to favor the North District, only moving to another area to try and throw off the police, we assumed. I collected anchors from each of the hottest clubs in the district. He’d recently killed once in East and once in Central, and he never stayed away from the ND for more than two kills. Daphne hacked the feeds, and I watched the cameras nonstop for three days straight-”

“Three days?” Aaron gasped, “No sleep?”

Morgan waved him off. “I have a bit of an aversion to sleep. That’s why I don’t have an implant, actually. Not about to let someone knock me out.”

You’ve never even admitted that out loud to Daphne. Why are you so willing to spill your guts right now? Snap out of it before you let something serious slip!

Aaron raised a brow.

“Do you want to hear this story or not?” Morgan snapped, and Aaron gestured for him to continue, “Then came night number three. Daphne’s facial recognition software picked Loretz up the second he walked out of the alley where he parked his van. I glamoured myself up in the flashiest outfit I could, trying to stand out-”

Aaron chuckled softly.

“What?” Morgan scowled.

“It’s just... have you seen you? You could dress like the nomads that set up in the West District, and you’d still make the cover of Avante.”

Morgan rolled his eyes. “You’re getting your story, Officer Jones. There’s no need for flattery.”

“Seven hells, Morgan. Would you stop calling me that?” Aaron huffed, “We’re on a date. An actual date. You even let me hold your hand. Would a little familiarity kill you?”

“Maybe. You don’t know.” Morgan smirked, but Aaron glared. “Fine. Aaron. I just happen to find the title a bit... seductive is all.”

“Oh.” Aaron’s scowl broke, morphing into a light blush. “Well, in that case...”

Morgan laughed through his nose. “Anyway, it took all of five minutes for Loretz to spot me at the bar. Against everything I hold dear when it comes to alcohol, I ordered a fishbowl—some blue abomination with candy in it. It worked like a charm. I turned my head for thirty seconds and the man spiked it.”

“So, you pretended to drink it and then what?”

“I didn’t pretend,” Morgan said, “I drank it. Tasted like unicorn piss.”

“You- you willingly drugged yourself?”

Morgan sighed. “I’m a seventeen-hundred-year-old witch, Aaron. The magic in my blood burned away that synthetic shit before it left my throat.”

Fuck.

Aaron choked on a sip of his tea. “You’re how old?”

Good job, le Fay. Why don’t you just head over to the nearest news station and make a public announcement? Buy a billboard for shit’s sake.

“Rude.”

“Shut up, you know I didn’t mean it like that.”

They were quiet as the information he’d let slip settled between them. He was finding it beyond difficult to stay tight-lipped around this man. His belly was full, the atmosphere had lulled him into a place of serenity, and he was feeling positively drunk on Aaron’s adoring stare. He broke into a snicker.

The corners of Aaron’s lips tugged up, and in seconds the two of them were hunched over, clenching their stomachs as laughter brought them to tears. Morgan’s stomach ached, but he couldn’t stop. After cackling to the point of exhaustion, they grew still, just staring across the table into one another’s eyes.

Aaron reached out, offering his hand again, and Morgan obliged with a coy smile.

“So, all the stories about you are true, huh?” Aaron whispered, “You really are an Ancient.”

Morgan nodded, biting his lower lip. He felt safe with Aaron. He wanted to trust him. He wanted to tell him everything.

Sensing his hesitation, Aaron reached out across the table, taking both of his hands. “I told you, Morgan. You don’t have to tell me anything you’re not ready to.”

“Aaron, I- I do want to. I shouldn’t but...” Morgan steeled himself. He pulled away to unbutton his shirt, and Aaron’s eyebrows jumped. “Oh, that’s not happening yet, Officer Jones, but you’re welcome to enjoy the opening act.”

Aaron laughed, flushing as Morgan peeled the left side of his shirt back.

“I was asleep,” Morgan continued, “For a very, very long time. Everyone treats me like I’m this old, wise creature. Like I’m some great mystery, something to revere and fear all at once. But the truth is I’m just... me.”

Morgan lifted his head to look at Aaron, wanting him to feel the weight of his words. Needing him to understand that he was just a person. If he was going to do this, tell Aaron the truth, he needed him to know how very far he felt from this legend he was supposed to be.

“I’m still a twenty-three-year-old guy. Or twenty-eight now, I suppose, I just haven’t aged. I know things that no one on earth does, and I have immense magical power, but all of that is only because I’ve lived for as long as I have. I woke up in my tomb five years ago. And everything about my life from back then, all the important details... they’re gone. I don’t remember faces, or kinships, or even how I fell asleep.”

Aaron scooted his chair to sit at his side. He reached out to trace the lines of Morgan’s broken rune, sending chills across his skin.

“I changed the world’s perception of myself,” Morgan went on, “Made everyone forget who I was. My speech, my mannerisms, all of it, hidden for five years under this rune. It was long enough that those habits became permanent. I already lost so much of myself, and then I surrendered the rest without knowing it. But... that blackout a couple of weeks ago-”

Aaron met his eyes. His hand stilled on Morgan’s bare skin.

“I did that. Not on purpose, mind you. Esotech had possession of my old grimoire, and when I reconnected with it... the power it released, that caused the blackout. It broke my rune, and now... the world is beginning to remember.”

Aaron calmly moved Morgan’s shirt back into place, fastening the buttons with care. Morgan stared down at him, the scent of sandalwood and citrus filling his nose. Aaron reached the second to last button and looked up to him, only inches from his face, grazing his shoulder with his fingertips. “Seventeen hundred years,” Aaron whispered, “That would make you-”

“My real name...” he said quietly, their faces so close he could dip down right now and kiss him, “Is Morgan le Fay.”

Aaron took in a sharp breath, searching his eyes with a hint of fear in his own. Morgan had always aimed for fear. It’s what he wanted to see in the eyes of everyone at the mention of his name. It was his shield. His fortress. But seeing it in Aaron’s eyes hurt.

“I wouldn’t-” he choked, looking away, “I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to leave. I can teleport home.”

“Morgan le Fay...” Aaron whispered.

Something about the way his true name left those lips sent a storm raging through him. He swallowed back a breath that caught in his chest as the man gave a gentle tug at his jaw, drawing his face back to his.

“I’m not afraid of you.” Aaron smiled sweetly with his eyes. “I never have been, and I’m not about to start now.”

“You should be.” Morgan released a nervous laugh. “I scare myself sometimes.”

Aaron shook his head, leaning back in his seat. He wrapped an arm around Morgan’s waist to pull him close, heat building between their flush bodies. He looked up to the sky with a calm breath, and Morgan followed his gaze.

“Finish telling me about Loretz?” Aaron rumbled in his ear.

Morgan nodded, resting his head on Aaron’s shoulder as he resumed his tale. “He chatted me up, letting me finish my drink. I intentionally started slurring my words and acting off balance. I had to-” Morgan swallowed, revolted by the memory. “I had to act like I didn’t care, but he wouldn’t take his hands off me. He kept grabbing me. Everywhere. He even forced his tongue down my throat.” He inhaled a shaky breath, and Aaron’s grip on his waist tightened in a protective way that was more than enough to comfort him.

“I pretended to start passing out, and the second I went limp he carted me out the back door. Nobody gave us a second thought—just like the rest of his victims. He took me around the corner a few blocks away from the club. When we got to his van, he dropped me on the ground to open the doors. I got up while his back was turned and...”

“And?” Aaron’s breath rustled his hair.

“I, uh... I turned him into a fish.”

Aaron jerked back in his seat. “You- what?”

“What?” Morgan shrugged, meeting his eyes. “He ruined my fishbowl. It seemed appropriate.”

“You didn’t even like the fishbowl!” Aaron gaped at him.

“I didn’t. It was horrid. But it’s the principle. He ruined my drink.”

“You couldn’t have just... I don’t know, set him on fire? Turned him to dust? Broken his neck?”

Morgan blew an impatient breath through his lips. “Absolutely not. Sweet oblivion would’ve been a reward. I turned him into a disgusting bottom feeder, kept his human mind intact, and I left him alone with his psychotic thoughts in a bowl on my desk.”

“Wow.” Aaron exhaled with a slow shake of his head, sinking back in his chair. “You’re right. You are the worst, Morgan Fell.”

“Told you.”

“The meanest-”

“Yep.”

“Most wicked-”

“Mhmm.”

“Completely twisted-”

“Like I said.”

“Unbelievably beautiful soul I have ever met in this gods-damned city.”

“I did try to- what?” Morgan stared up at him with an open jaw.

Aaron chuckled at the look on his face. “You’re a fucking Ancient, Morgan. You have all that power, all that rage and ferocity, and you used it to bring justice to a woman you saw crying in the street. Because you couldn’t stand to see her lose her son, her whole world, and let it go unpunished.”

“What?” Morgan sat back to look at him better. “No! You’re missing the point!”

“Your point, maybe. I’ve made mine.”

“No. Aaron, I am not the person you’re trying to make me out to be.”

Aaron folded his arms over his chest, looking unimpressed. “Charles Furlong.”

“That psychopath was killing helpless cats! For fun! I turned his deranged ass into a juicy rat and hurled him into an alley full of ferals.”

“Travis Janney.”

“The hardware doc that was killing his patients with faulty implants? You know he went and harvested their bodies in their own homes after they died? That trash went into the compactor, along with his janky tech.”

“Chase Blanchard?”

“Ooh...” Morgan breathed in a descending note, “That was actually Daphne. Minister Calkins hired him to take me out after I messed up his plans to ‘relocate’ people in the West District with his new zoning laws.”

“No way.” Aaron was enjoying this far too much.

Morgan was loving it.

“Wait... Calkins? The one who mysteriously lost his entire campaign fund right before the season started?”

“No, no.” Morgan pressed a finger to Aaron’s lips, shushing him. “We’re talking about Blanchard, remember?” Aaron scowled, but Morgan continued with a smirk, “He approached me at a club where I’d just dropped off a payload. We hit it off and I was exhaustedfrom the job, so... I invited him back to the Manor.”

Aaron set his jaw, chewing his lip with one brow raised.

“Don’t be jealous, Morgan said, snickering, He died before he got into my pants.”

Aaron snorted.

“Anyway, Daphne wasn’t around when we got there. Chase must have thought it was only the two of us in the house. I took him out onto the balcony with a couple of drinks, and Daphne came into the living room. She was about to step away, when she saw the guy tip a few drops of something into my drink while my head was turned.”

“People really like to mess with your drinks, huh?”

“I know! What is wrong with the murderers here, right?” Morgan sighed. “Turned out to be Belladonna. Would’ve been interesting if Daphne hadn’t shown up. I’ve been resistant to the stuff since Camelot.” He ignored the look of confusion on Aaron’s face. “Daphne charged out onto the balcony. She’d been practicing her alteration magicks, and without even forming a plan, she just... poof. Solid porcelain.”

“You- you have an assassin statue somewhere in your house?” Aaron sputtered, “Is it next to the serial killer fish, or do you keep that one in the gallery?”

“Hey, don’t knock the décor.” Morgan gave him a playful slap on the thigh. “No, I’m kidding. She didn’t even explain why he was suddenly made of the same stuff they used to make toilets out of before throwing him over the balcony.”

Aaron’s eyes bulged as Morgan made a whistling sound that ended with his impression of shattering glass.

Morgan looked back to Aaron, relishing the impression of horror mixed with satisfaction on his face. “We boxed most of the pieces up and left them on Calkins’s doorstep, but I still find one every now and then in the grass.”

Aaron huffed a laugh with a shake of his head, pulling him close with an arm around his shoulders. They looked up to the sky once more as they sat peacefully, tucked against each other. Morgan didn’t know what a date was supposed to be like, but he could get used to this.

“Thank you,” Aaron said softly, “For opening up... for trusting me.”

Morgan nodded into his chest, breathing him in. “So, what now? Down to the station?” He held his hands out together at the wrists.

“Nah.” Aaron chuckled. “That place is no good for a date.”

Morgan lifted his wrists, trying to make a point. “I don’t know, Officer Jones. I’m a pretty bad boy. I can think of a few ways we could end the night there with a bang.”

Aaron held a hand over his face, his skin turning crimson beneath his fingers as he shook with silent laughter. Morgan chuckled wickedly.

“You are bad.” Aaron pressed a kiss into his hair. “And pretty.”

Morgan breathed contently. He thoroughly enjoyed watching the man blush like that, and he racked his brain for all the lewd innuendos he could think of, storing them away. He was in absolute bliss, curled up like this beneath the stars. Aaron shifted, making Morgan groan. He didn’t want to move. Ever. They could stay here eternally, a permanent piece of the scenery in this tucked away haven.

“Well, what do you know? Morgan Fell is just a soft, little cuddle bug underneath that prickly exterior.” Aaron poked him in the side.

Morgan recoiled, slapping his hand away. He stood, pretending to storm off. “Cuddles revoked! All memory of this night will be wiped from your mind. Aaron who?”

“Wait...” Aaron grabbed his hand to pull him back into his arms, swaying on the spot in a dance. “Are you wiping my memory, or yours?”

“Mmm...” Morgan thought about it, latching around Aaron’s waist. “Just yours. I’m keeping this forever.”

Aaron’s chest shook beneath his cheek. Morgan noticed a bit of pressure against his hip. He smirked to himself, pleased that he could so quickly send the man’s blood to his groin, but he didn’t want to ruin the moment by drawing attention to it and embarrassing him further.

“This is magic,” Aaron whispered, “Why were you so afraid to come out with me tonight?”

A wave of anger surged through him at the question. He tried to bite it back, but it bubbled to the surface. After trying to be good, refraining from pointing out Aaron’s hard-on, he was about to spoil the mood anyway. He couldn’t stop the words. It was like something inside was out to ruin this for him.

“Who said I was afraid?” he growled, “Did Daphne-”

“Hey, hey-” Aaron cut him off, cupping the back of his neck to press him into his chest. “No one said anything. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Morgan huffed in frustration with himself, and he let the spark in his gut die out as Aaron held him tight. What did it matter if they were talking about him? He knew they both cared about him. He knew they meant well.

And how the hells did Aaron rein you in just like that? What is this man doing to you?

“Sorry,” Morgan said, muffled against Aaron’s body, “I don’t know why I’m scared. I think that’s just it. There’s so much I don’t know, Aaron. Have I done this before? Have I let someone get this close to me? I can’t remember. Was I really as awful as the stories say?”

Aaron threaded his fingers into his hair, causing Morgan to melt against him as they continued to dance. “Well, they clearly got some of the details wrong. Before tonight, if you had told me who you really were, I might’ve believed it. You, up in your tower, the whole city afraid to even say your name. I might’ve believed you could turn against your own brother like that-”

“He wasn’t my brother,” Morgan mumbled, half paying attention because Aaron’s fingertips running over his scalp was like a hit of some dangerously addictive drug, “We weren’t even related. I was just some kid Uther took in to pay a debt to my noble parents when they died.”

“But here with you, now?” Aaron continued, “There’s no way, Morgan. Not a chance in any heaven or hell, that you are anything but beautiful—inside and out.”

The words shattered something deep inside him before healing all at once. Tears suddenly threatened the corners of his eyes. He blinked them away furiously, not wanting Aaron to see, but the man’s shirt was already wet beneath his cheek. Aaron pulled back from him slowly. Morgan could see the sadness in his eyes, but he smiled, and for that Morgan was grateful.

“Come on,” Aaron said, tapping his comm a couple of times, paying for their dinner before taking Morgan’s hand to lead him from the courtyard.

“Where are we going?”

“I think you’ve done more than enough sharing for tonight.” Aaron beamed. “My turn.”