Spring Forward, Fall Back (Alucard x Chubby! Reader)

Reader P.O.V.

Going to sleep last night proved to be nearly impossible with the excitement everyone showed at the prospect of leaving for my time soon. We talked of the clothing we would need and the foodstuffs we would have to go get and things like that, but the whole time those conversations were going on, I could feel Adrian's ramping anxieties and sadness breaking through the fog of happiness. I knew I shouldn't have said anything, but I could feel our ability to tell what the other was thinking and feeling was becoming much stronger. That meant that no matter how much I tried to hide from him, he would eventually have found out with my own thoughts straying toward the subject.

But it was the excitement that really had me on edge. I wanted to badly for everyone to enjoy my time and what it had to offer. Just the thought of taking them to a karaoke bar, or in Trevor's case, a bar in general. Or the indoor winter carnival. Or an arcade. Or grocery shopping. Or to a fancy restaurant so they can see that I'm not the greatest cook out there. The different things to do in my time would baffle and entertain them for days, and I couldn't wait to see the look on Trevor's face when he finds out there's more than one kind of ale. I almost clapped with glee at that thought, so I had to find something else to do quickly before the other's saw me and wondered if I was off my rocker.

I decided that I would start reading a different book from the library this morning. This way, when the others got up, they couldn't yell at me for worrying overmuch about making preparations. I walked into the library and stoked the embers from the night before, added a few bits of twig to bring the flames up higher before adding the larger logs. Once the fire was to my liking, I began looking through the shelves for something that seemed interesting. Being from my time has it's advantages, but made me wish for book jackets while perusing the tomes displayed on the shelves.

Brown leather in various sizes were all I could see some with the titles scrawled in golden script or some messy black ink, but nothing that really drew my attention. That was until I spied a small book bound in crushed red velvet. It isn't common for books to be this decorative unless it was a gift or specially requested, at least in this time. Naturally that was the one I had to read. After pulling the tome from the shelf, I moved quickly toward an overstuffed chair and made myself comfortable, the blanket from one of our many movie nights still sitting nearby became a cover to my lap.

The book was a collection of poems written in Latin, and beautiful ones at that. Of course I had never heard any of them before, but I they wove line after line of the silkiest words to invoke visions of love, romance and passion. I felt as though the imagery presented through each and every word could somehow become tangible and sweep me away into the private dreamworld the poet spoke of. It was breathtaking.

"My father wrote those to my mother," Adrian said softly next to my ear. I jumped in surprise even though I had felt the familiar tingle up my spine before he spoke. In my mind, I believed the sensation to be caused by the words alone and dismissed it as such.

"He was quite taken with my mother, to distraction is what he said. He would often recite poems he'd written to her throughout the day and then complain that she'd made him soft in the head. Of course she would just tell him that his poems proved that he had a heart and that he should share it more often."

"I will admit that some of the prose in here does border on sugary sweet, but it isn't horrible to know he felt so deeply for your mother," I said, smiling at the images Adrian built with his words. He moved around the chair, lifted me up and sat in my place. He then grabbed the blanket that had fallen to the floor and held it up around my waist. I looked at him with one raised brow only to have him give me a crooked smile before he spun me around with the blanket and sat me on his lap. He then used the blanket to ensure that I wouldn't be able to get up. Once I'd stopped struggling and laughing, on a chuckle, he continued.