Fandom: Dalmatian, E.R. mv & teaser-pics (Magic AU)
Pairings: Simon x Inati ; Simon/FemOC/Inati ; YoungWon (Dongrim) x Fem OC
Rating: PG-13 (violence x sexual themes)
Chp WC: 5,220

Summary: Nearly immortal with the amount of raw power they possess, the Dogs of St. Aggie's have a very specific job to do: guard 's no simple task when it's the things that haunt the nightmares of children that they're supposed to be guarding her from, but their biggest challenge by far is grappling with their personal feelings towards her, and more importantly, towards each other …

A/N: I'm actually not sure what category this fits into (notes at the bottom), so I've stuck it here, but I hope you enjoy reading it anyway!

{聖の家: 奈落の番犬} (naraku no banken)

The House of Saints: Hell Hounds

~Claimed~

It was his job to lurk.

As a Watchdog of St. Aggie's, Simon's whole purpose in existing was to lurk.

Watching from the shadows, from the darkened corners of the school, Simon's job was to lurk and ensure that none of St. Aggie's special students stepped out of line. He was also supposed to keep an eye on the residents, staff and students alike, of St Aggie's that didn't know they were special.

Milly was one such resident, one that Simon had taken a particular interest in.

Millicent LeBourghe didn't know her full name, and she didn't know a thing about the powers lying nearly dormant inside her, the swirl of energy that drew Simon to her like a magnet. As far as she knew, she was just a maid, a baby dropped on the doorstep of one of the world's greatest schools and taken in by the goodness of St. Aggie's Staff Council.

When Simon padded silently into the kitchen, Milly was up to her elbows in flour. She was pounding out the last batch of biscuits for the morning's breakfast, the students of St Aggie's would be up and asking for them in about an hour. Simon wasn't asking.

He took one of the biscuits that had come out of the oven in a previous batch and ripped it in half. The steam of the still-warm biscuit blew across his face as he bit into his stolen treat. Milly heard the crunch of it between his teeth and whipped her head around in surprise. "Geez, Simon!" she panted, "You almost gave me a heart-attack."

Simon smirked at her, his teeth unnaturally white and gleaming in the fuzzy golden light of early morning. "We wouldn't want that, now, would we?"

He leaned his hips back against the counter, facing Milly as she turned back to her work. With Simon less than a foot away from her, his black button up hanging open as usual, Milly found it difficult to concentrate. Simon unnerved her.

Out of the corner of her eye, Milly looked Simon over as she worked. The intricate tattooing on his chest and neck had always been fascinating and unsettling at once. It called to her in a way she didn't understand, and nauseated her at the same time. Simon could see it in her eyes as they combed over him with subtlety a normal person would have missed. He knew that it was her latent power sensing his own, attracted to the thrill of Power and revolted by the black ooze of the binding spells inlaid into his skin.

Simon knew all about her internal conflict, but he didn't say anything. He couldn't. It was part of the bindings tying him to St. Aggie's. He was little more than a guard dog, bound by a master's will to keep Milly in the dark.

However, even if he'd been able to explain it to her, Simon wouldn't have. It was too much fun to watch her struggle with it inside of her, the reactions her body was having to him drove her insane and amused Simon to no end. He was just flirty enough, just cold enough, just aggressive and shy and sweet and suggestive enough to keep her right on the edge of horrifically muddled. His favorite little game with his favorite little toy.

Milly finished up with the biscuits and slid the tray into the oven. She went to wash up, running chilly water over her skin and trying to keep herself calm as Simon came over to stand behind her. She jumped when she felt his fingers brush across the back of her neck, teasing at the strands of her short red hair that has escaped their tie.

As Milly fought to keep her heart-rate steady, she dried her hands and shivered as she felt Simon yank the tie from her hair altogether. Puffing out around her face, the bright scarlet of her hair resembled a lion's mane, fierce and dripping with regal power yet cute and fluffy at once. Simon chuckled when she turned around and moved his hand to cup the side of her face. His thumb ran over her cheekbone. "You missed a spot," he crooned, sweeping the streak of flour off of her face with a sensuousness disguised as helpfulness. She practically shivered at his touch.

"Thanks." Her voice was a carefully controlled sound, forced away from being breathy by sheer will-power.

Milly looked up into Simon's dark eyes, searching for the answer to a question she didn't know how to ask. Simon's eyes were intense, swirls of something far deeper than mere emotion. Milly could lose herself completely in them. And Simon knew it. For his part, Simon hid behind his eyes. Opening his soul, or rather the black boil that barely qualified as a 'soul', to Milly was not an option for him. If he looked into her eyes, really looked, she could have destroyed him. Her innocence, her kindness, her genuine concern . . . it seared the writhing black inside him; the hate, the pain, the anger, Milly's attentions made it all burn.

"Simon."

The quiet moment had stretched passed its natural bounds. Milly had given into him, so close to completely that Simon was practically incensed with the interruption. Just a few more bloated seconds stolen from reality and he would have had her. Simon's teeth clicked together as his mouth snapped shut and his lips pressed together in a tight line. He knew the oh-so friendly bark that had shattered the breathless silence all too well.

Letting his hand fall, brushing along Milly's bare arm as it did, Simon looked over her shoulder to eye Daniel standing on the scullery stairs. Daniel wasn't top dog in this neck of the woods, but he was much higher up the ladder than Simon. Disobeying him wasn't an option.

As Daniel stepped further into the kitchen, Simon spotted Jeesu and Dongrim hanging back by his flank. Simon eyed the trio, holding back a snarl. They always came trotting by just in time to ruin his fun.

"Inati wants to see you," Daniel barked, his voice controlled but obviously furious.

Simon stepped back as Daniel approached Milly. He refused to bow to Daniel, to fully submit to him. But there were fights he knew he couldn't win and he wasn't suicidal. With Dongrim and Jeesu there to back Daniel up, Simon pushed down his resentment and resisted the urge to lunge for Daniel's throat the moment he looked away.

In a fluid transition of roles, Daniel turned to Milly and Dongrim shifted to keep pushing Simon backwards from her. Daniel flashed Milly his signature smile, the soothing expression of sweetness and goodwill that could make the knees of any girl on earth go weak with ease. "We have to steal him away for a little while, Milly," he cooed.

"It's okay," Milly returned, smiling back. She was fighting to get her heart-rate under control, to regain her breath. "You guys have even more work than I do!"

"You take care, now," Daniel commanded sweetly, turning to eye Simon with a decidedly less friendly demeanor. Behind him as he moved to head out, Jeesu and Dongrim pounced on Milly, giving her tight hugs and smiles like lost little puppies that had found their owner. They warmed her up, brought back the vibrancy of life in motion that Simon had somehow set on pause.

"We'll come back this afternoon," Jeesu promised.

Dongrim agreed, "It'll be fun!"

"I'll be looking forward to it," Milly insisted. She passed each of the duo one of her special biscuits. She made them every day for the guardians of St. Aggie's. Simon would have had his own if he'd ever bothered to announce himself before he started eating. She also gave Dongrim Daniel's, knowing that he would be sure to give it to second in command of St. Aggie's security squad.

The cuddly behavior of Jeesu and Dongrim had successfully distracted Milly from Daniel as he latched onto the back of Simon's shirt collar and dragged him from the kitchen with no small amount of force. Daniel kept his hand on Simon until he'd dragged him over to a secluded courtyard, one with no observing windows and the acoustics to ensure that any ensuing sounds wouldn't make their way back to Milly's kitchen.

"She's off-limits," Daniel reminded, throwing Simon back.

His body slammed into the masonry of the courtyard as Dongrim and Jeesu showed up to play. "I forgot," Simon growled, looking around. It was more of a pen than a courtyard, with only one way out; a narrow passage guarded by Jeesu.

Dongrim and Daniel were the two Simon was most concerned with at the moment however, as they were the ones circling for the attack. They wouldn't kill him, their leader wouldn't allow that, but a maiming was certainly in store if Simon didn't keep on his toes.

"Why do you try so hard to get in trouble?" Daniel asked, a bit of the genuine sweet side he'd shown Milly seeping into his words, even as his frame remained tense and ready for a fight. He was fighting purely for the good of the pack.

"Milly's a nice girl," Dongrim snarled, his own natural sweetness twisted into protective violence as it turned to hatred and an acute grudge against Simon.

Snorting, Simon sniped, "Oh, is the big bad wolf caught up in some puppy love?"

Dongrim bristled. Simon smirked. "Too bad you can't have her," he spat nastily, flexing his claws at his sides.

In a fraction of a second Dongrim lunged at him, teeth bared, claws reaching for the soft skin of Simon's throat. Simon retaliated instantly, having known that Dongrim would be the easiest to bait into attacking. At the only entrance to the courtyard, Jeesu faltered as Simon wrestled violently with Dongrim.

Throwing him a look, Daniel rooted Jeesu to his post.

Jeesu and Dongrim might have been closer than brothers, even by pack standards, but that was no excuse for disobedience. If Dongrim couldn't take care of himself, he didn't deserve his rank.

Simon had latched onto Dongrim's long hair, tearing furiously at it to bring the warrior within range of Simon's knees to jab up into his gut. Twisting in Simon's grasp and howling with pain and fury, Dongrim slashed blindly at Simon's face. He landed a smarting blow and managed to break free.

At that moment, Daniel stepped in to send Simon careening back into the wall with a heavy thud. The two combatants stood opposite each other, panting heavily and glaring daggers across the neutral zone. Daniel smacked Simon again, harder than strictly necessary to subdue him as punishment for baiting Dongrim. As hard as Daniel was on his members, demanding that they earn their rank, he was sympathetic to the affections Dongrim held for Milly.

But Inati was not to be defied.

Simon could read it in his face, this moment of internal confliction.

"So, how about it, Beta," Simon goaded. "You content to just let Inati call the shots?"

Daniel didn't react. He was used to Simon's snide remarks on his compliance. Inati was good at his job, which sometimes meant that he lacked a certain something that could be called humanizing. Milly was moderately terrified of him.

It didn't matter though, because as much as Daniel knew that Dongrim would take care of Milly, keep her safe and sound and happy, he also knew that Milly belonged to Inati. The Alpha had laid claim to her, and that meant without question that she could belong to no one else.

Simon laughed harshly, recognizing the malcontent resolve in Daniel's face.

"Where is our fearless leader, anyway?" With the fury of his packmates pressing down on him, suffocating him, Simon couldn't sense Inati's location.

"None of your concern," Daniel returned coolly.

Simon's smile widened, his teeth bared and threatening even as he grinned with genuine amusement. "So, not with Milly, then."

None of the three reacted to Simon's statement more than the resigned twitch of Dongrim's jaw. Simon's head lolled back a bit, overcome with the hilarity of the situation. "You're all so gung-ho, here, ready to rip me to shreds for playing with Inati's chew toy, and the boss-man's off messing around with some other little plaything! Inati's good little soldiers, you three are."

Daniel grabbed Simon's shoulder and flung him at the opposite wall, rising to his provocation for the first time in a long while. He was not just a mindless servant, not merely a dominated dog following orders. Daniel followed in Inati's line because he trusted the leader. Inati had his faults, but he was the best there was at the job. Strong, fearless, loyal in his way; he was a good leader, and truly good and kind under the thick layers of steely disregard that covered his tough love.

The brief attack winded Simon, but Daniel didn't engage him like Dongrim had. He was too good for that. Simon coughed and rubbed the blood from his chin with the back of his hand. "You look bothered, Jeesu," Simon called, looking smugly over Daniel's shoulder. "Why don't you come and play?"

Jeesu hated to see his packmates at each other's throats like this.

Dongrim and Daniel were testy with each other this week, despite being old friends that respected each other's rank and power. Dongrim was Daniel's direct subordinate, after all. More than rubbing shoulders with Daniel, Dongrim had even raised his hackles at Jeesu more than once, not least because of the wedge that was Milly which Simon was using to push them all apart. Jeesu had his orders though, and he would not disobey.

He would snarl though. Jeesu would voice his distaste for Simon's actions, for his own limited position, and for Inati's absence until the world came crashing down.

Daniel's look didn't silence him, but it subdued him to a quieter discontent. Dongrim glared sideways at his superior, throwing in his lot with Jeesu. Daniel bristled.

"Enough."

Inati's booming voice, sounding from behind Jeesu, spooked all four of the members inside the courtyard. Silver haired and steely eyed, Inati stepped onto the scene with a terrifying calm, towering over his squadron's squabbling members.

Dealing out a sharp blow to the back of Jeesu's head, Inati made him whine in a brief moment of fear and agony. He skittered across the courtyard in complete submission, taking up a post beside Dongrim as Inati stared his pack down.

"That is enough," Inati said, his voice quiet and filled with an Alpha's full power and fury. He stared each of them down, making each member of his unruly pack flinch.

"Jeesu. Dongrim. Perimeter," he commanded.

The two in question dipped their heads. Jeesu slunk by the leader untouched, but when Dongrim passed, Inati lashed out at him. Two sharp blows, extremely painful but not even slightly disabling, met Dongrim under Inati's castigation. After a moment of panic-fueled short-stride scampering, Dongrim was able to lope easily beside Jeesu to carry out their patrol mission.

"Daniel."

"Sir."

"Search Milly's wing for black magic; there've been intrusion reports," Inati commanded. As Daniel dipped his head and moved to slip by the leader, Inati grabbed his arm tightly. "Stay out of sight."

"Of course."

There was a moment when Inati squeezed Daniel's arm hard enough to make a normal person wince. Daniel stood his ground. He may have had disagreements with Inati, but he was not disloyal and he would not be guilt-tripped. "Good boy."

Daniel was off and running immediately, needing to blow off steam before he went into stealth mode for his mission. Inati could really do with some lessons in healthy interpersonal relationships. If it wasn't for his unquestionable power and his deep down well-meaning, Daniel himself would have ripped the leader's face off.

Back in the courtyard, Inati and Simon were staring each other down.

Inati made his move in a burst of violent movement as Simon choked on the blood Daniel's pounding had made well up in his mouth. In a flash, Inati had Simon pined up against a wall by painfully firm hands pressing back on his biceps with his heels lifting slightly off the ground. Simon laughed, more of a cough than not, and spat blood over Inati's shoulder as the leader put his teeth right by Simon's ear.

"She's mine."

"You just love saying that, don't you?"

Inati nosed at Simon's throat, reminding him that life and death here could be decided with less than eleven pounds of bite-force. Simon laughed, rolling his head back to give Inati all the access he could ask for. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed tightly. "It just kills you, doesn't it? She's yours, she's yours, but she doesn't trust you. She won't let you in, will she? You're the big black dog in her backyard, Inati. She'll leave you food every night, but she'll never leave the door open."

"Then tell me, Simon," Inati huffed, his teeth scraping against Simon's cheek. "If you're the family pet, how come you're so hell bent on trying to bite the hand that feeds?"

"Don't tell me you're concerned about her, Inati," Simon crooned, amused. "Who's the bitch I smell all over you? Hmm?"

Inati adjusted his hold to slam Simon into the stone wall again. Simon just laughed. "What? You can have your fun, but the rest of us aren't allowed to play around? How is that any sort of fair?"

"Not with her. None of us are allowed to play with her," Inati snarled. "It's in the job description, remember?"

Simon shrugged. "Why is that again?"

His bored voice was meant to antagonize Inati in every possible way.

Inati's nails dug into the skin on Simon's arms, just hard enough to draw pinpriks of blood. "Why her?"

"Pardon?"

"Why her? Of all the rules you could break, of all the ways you could try to piss me off, why her?" Inati growled.

Laughing again, Simon whipped his legs up, wrapping them around Inati's waist and pushing off the wall with his back. In the tussle that followed as the pair fell to the ground, both sides received painful blows. Inati ended up pinning Simon below him, a fact that surprised neither of them.

"Because it hurts," Simon said in a pained laugh, replying to Inati's question at last. "It hurts you that I can waltz in and toy with her all I like, while you have to stay at arm's length."

Letting his weight settle on Simon's chest and watching as Simon's cockiness wilted slightly as he fought to breathe, Inati rumbled above him, "Should I hurt you then? Do you want me to tell you about all the little things I can do with her in the dark? Things that you're not allowed to even dream of."

"She won't let you in," Simon insisted.

"She won't be able to keep me out," Inati countered, a snarl rising in his words to imply his meaning.

As Inati's smug grin broadened and the pressure of his claws digging into Simon's skin increased, Simon howled, "You wanna bet on that?"

"She won't fight me, not like she fights you," Inati growled.

"She fights herself with me," Simon spat back, bucking his hips up to unseat Inati. The pair rolled over each other again in a struggle of teeth and claws and blood-boiling fury.

Pinning Simon down again, Inati demanded, "Why? Why do you waste so much effort on doing that to her?"

"You really don't get it. It's not about her. It was never about her," Simon replied. "It's always been about big bad you."

Inati's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"For every bit she's disturbed, you start climbing walls all the sooner," Simon explained smugly. "Make her feel a little bit eerie, like someone's watching, and you suddenly get so pissy, it's a wonder that even sweet little Danny-boy doesn't tear you to pieces." Simon coughed at the end of his speech, but he managed to finish by choking out, "It's hilarious."

Inati lifted one of his hand from restraining Simon, dragging his nails along his arm just forcefully enough to cause pain without drawing blood. At Simon's collarbone, Inati pressed harder, scratching a deep red score-line along the sensitive skin. It made Simon writhe in pain beneath him, refusing to cry out.

The moment Inati lifted his hand, pressing it back to Simon's arm quickly to prevent retaliation, Simon spat at him, the bloody spray landing on his cheek. "You have no idea how much I hate you."

"Why?"

Simon stared stonily up at Inati, silent for once. No longer smug or superior, the only emotion in his eyes was rage. It was like he hadn't been called up from the Pit, as if every day at St Aggie's was just another day in Hell. The energies roiling beneath the containments inked onto Simon's skin told the same story.

Inati let go of him, sliding off his body in a heavy, weary motion. Simon didn't move. Both spent the next few moments panting and struggling within themselves. Maybe it was that Simon had been the last created, maybe it was that his rank left him the closest to destruction, but he was clearly standing on the surface with a part of him left in Hell. Maybe it was Inati's fault, maybe it was St. Aggie's, it might have even been Milly's, but regardless, the pseudo-life Simon had been given was not one he wanted to keep.

When Inati stood up at last, Simon told him, "You should just kill me now."

"No."

"I'll push you to it eventually."

"I won't kill you, Simon."

"Everything you do kills me."

Inati ignored him and turned to leave.

"Have fun with Milly," Simon spat just before Inati turned the corner.

Simon had guessed correctly, Inati's destination was the laundry room where he knew Milly would be holed up at this time of day. She was knee deep in sudsy water when he arrived, looking like an abused puppy in the doorway.

Milly noticed him immediately. "Inati? What happened? Are you hurt?"

Grabbing one of the rags she'd finished rinsing, she stepped immediately over to him, wiping gingerly at the blood on his face and the scrapes on his arms. Inati shivered under her touch, it wasn't the chill of the damp cloth but the tingle of her power.

"How did this happen?" Milly wondered softly, having gotten past the initial burst of questions. She was now crooning to him like he was a wounded animal, dangerous but something she couldn't let to die.

"It's nothing," Inati managed. "Fights happen in this line of work."

"Shouldn't you go to the infirmary?" Milly could see that most of his wounds were superficial, but this was the first time she had ever seen him so battered.

"The attack was aimed at this side of the school, I wanted to make sure you were okay," Inati responded, his curtness softened as much as he could will it to.

"Really?" Milly was taken aback. Inati had never seemed the sort of person to worry about others, aside from his squad-mates. He had his job and he did it, but not out of concern for the people he ended up protecting. Or so Milly had thought.

Satisfied for the moment that Inati wasn't going to bleed to death, she scurried over to the basket she'd packed for lunch and pulled out the honey-baked biscuit she'd tucked inside. Shyly coming back to Inati, she proffered it up to him. "Thank you."

"It's my job."

"No, thanks for being concerned about me."

Inati awkwardly took the biscuit, marveling at it and wondering if he ought to eat it right away. It smelled amazing. Daniel had always brought him one of the things that Milly made, knowing that Inati would never ask her himself for one, but this biscuit was fresh, only a few hours out of the oven. Taking a cautious bite, Inati practically melted in the sudden burst of bliss. At least, Inati thought it was bliss; having never experienced the sensation, he couldn't be sure of his accuracy in naming it.

It was a short lived experience as a shadow caught his eye.

Simon was standing outside the window, hidden from the eyes of any human. He was fuming at Inati's place with Milly. It was so distracting that Inati almost missed Milly's question of, "Is everyone else okay?"

"Yeah. Everyone's fine. Simon was a little beat-up, but he'll recover in a few hours," Inati responded, looking over Milly's shoulder directly into Simon's eyes.

"Oh." Milly's demeanor instantly took up the conflicted vibe Simon always provoked.

Inati noticed. "If you need to get back to work, I can go." Go kick a bad dog.

"No." Milly said quickly. "It's fine. You shouldn't be walking around anyway. It's just . . . I'm sort of worried about Simon, he doesn't seem very happy here.

"I can try talking to him about it later," Inati promised coolly, intending to do nothing of the sort.

Outside, Simon bristled. He glared at Inati and vanished into the shadows. Inati calmed down quickly once he sensed that Simon had truly moved off.

"Thanks," Milly responded, calming down as well with Simon's absence. "Why don't you make yourself comfortable? I like having people around to talk with while I work."

Inati hesitated. He had a job to do; things to take care of, places to go. But he thought about what Simon had said, about how Milly wouldn't let him in. Simon was wrong. Milly left the door open every night, he was the one who never stepped through it.

He would deal with Simon later, with all the problems that Simon represented.

For now, Inati would tackle his own problem. He had claimed Milly as his own, untouchable to the rest of the pack. But as of right now, Milly still didn't belong to him in any solidified way. He could fix that, and would with time.

"Sure, I'll stick around for a little while."

The Alpha ended up staying for hours. Evening was beginning to settle in as he was called away. Inati and Milly didn't talk much; Milly actually forgot he was there a few times. He sat in an out-of-the-way nook as she worked, listening as she hummed and went about her duties. Everything was as it should be: peaceful, calm, and she was happy and content.

When Milly spotted Inati, she smiled at him sweetly and he knew she had forgotten he was there. He forced himself to return the smile. His unease with it wasn't that he was hurt by her forgetfulness, but unease with the fact that she had smiled at him at all.

Inati was an existence that she was not meant to be close to, not meant to even acknowledge. Her warmth towards him was startling.

As evening approached and shadows lengthened, Inati made to slip away. Milly noticed his movement. He made a quick excuse and slipped out the door, vanishing into the ether of the night the moment he was out of Milly's sight.

She sighed as if she sensed just how completely he had left her.

Daniel was watching her through the window from the blackness across the courtyard. He didn't know what to do. Milly was perturbed, that much was obvious. She'd never spent so much time with Inati before and yet she didn't know him any better for it now. She wanted to embrace his presence, like she had with his subordinates, but something stopped her. Daniel wanted to help her somehow, but he didn't know what she needed let alone if he could give it to her.

"Hey, Milly," he said, materializing just outside the doorway.

"Daniel!"

Smiling sweetly, he asked, "Did I startle you?"

"Well, at least you did it from the door," she replied with a laugh. "It was almost a knock, which is more than I can say for most of you."

"Inati's trying to pound some manners into them," Daniel joked, concealing easily how accurate his word choice was for the situation.

Milly smiled. "He was here this afternoon, you know," Milly told him, folding up the last of the cleaning rags.

"I had no idea," Daniel lied smoothly. "He must have a soft spot for you."

As Milly looked out the window, wondering, Daniel came to stand beside her. She relaxed into his presence, leaning against his shoulder without a thought. Milly trusted Daniel completely.

"Is everything alright, Milly?"

She was barely breathing.

"Hm? Oh, yeah," she replied.

Across the courtyard, Simon was leaned nonchalantly up against the wall, fully visible in the fading light. Daniel was too well trained to bristle in Milly's presence.

"You know you can talk to us, right?"

Milly turned to face him, giving him a genuine and trusting smile. "I know."

Lowering his forehead to briefly touch hers, Daniel grinned. "Good. Don't forget it."

Daniel gave her a sudden hug, quick and firm. "We just want you to be safe and happy," he promised, releasing her.

"I know," Milly promised in return, feeling the warmth of his concern.

"Can I walk you back to your room?"

Milly laughed. "Don't you have a job to do?"

With a sweetly sheepish shrug, Daniel replied, "Maybe."

"The boss needs take a break now and then so I'm glad he stopped by for once, but you take far too many," Milly chided, smacking lightly at his shoulder. "You hang around here so much I'm surprised Inati hasn't fired you."

Shrugging again, Daniel replied, "My contract won't expire for a good long while, so I'm pretty safe. Besides, I like hanging out with you."

"Is that because I give you food?"

"Maybe."

Milly laughed again.

"Well, I give you extra treats for doing your job so well," Milly explained. "And since I'm gonna take a walk, head over to the main fountains or something, before heading back to my room, if you wanna walk me back you're going to have to wait quite a while and I don't think that constitutes doing your job well enough for a treat in the morning."

Defeated, Daniel hung his head comically. "Fine then, kick me out into the cold, cruel world. I can struggle to survive for one more day." He coughed and huddled his shoulders together around him, making Milly howl with laughter.

Breaking his charade, Daniel laughed with her. Then he ruffled her hair. "Take care, Milly," he instructed.

"You too," she responded waving him off.

Milly stood, staring after him for a moment. Then she glanced over her shoulder out the window to where she could still see Simon's outline. Her stomach flipped inside her, tension and butterflies, wariness and wildness. She didn't understand it.

Shivering slightly, Milly shook herself.

St. Aggie's turned the fountain in the front courtyard off at midnight, so if Milly wanted to catch it while it was on, by now she had to hurry.

Milly slipped out the back door, heading deeper into the labyrinth of St Aggie's Castle to navigate the long way around to the front courtyard. She made it to the fountain easily, the spectacular show of water and masonry. Milly had never understood the symbolism of the figures in the fountain, but she loved looking at them.

She sat on the lip of the fountain and dipped her feet in the cool water.

The hair on the back of her neck began to rise.

It was his job to lurk.

As a Watchdog of St. Aggie's, Simon's whole purpose in existence was to lurk.

Watching from the shadows, hiding in the Dark, Simon's whole reason for being boiled down to watching and protecting this one girl who couldn't even remember her own name. She was fragile, so easily breakable, that it could hardly be conceived that it was her power that bound the vile fangs of Simon's black energy.

Her innocence made Simon bitter.

In retaliation Simon made her uncomfortable. As more than an adequate bonus it bothered Inati to no end. It was Inati that bound Simon to his task.

It was his job to lurk.

And Simon would make sure that every day he did his job, everyone else had to live through the same Hell that he did.

~Pas Fini~

A/N: I honestly don't remember the story I based the off of. It's something I read when I was like seven, so I have no clue. (It may explain why I grew up to be such a crazy college student, but hey.) Anyway, the story came about when DMTN's ER video was released and I was making my way through SPN S03. Story startin' to make sense now? I thought it might. That's why it's been so hard to figure out where to post it. I had it on LJ for a while, but as most people know, LJ's not the most social platform. I put it on Tumblr too, where it got a great response, but anything on Tumblr fades away after awhile and is next to impossible to find again. So I'm putting it up here, mostly for me, so that I can comeback and read it whenever I feel like it, particularly when I don't have access to my hard-drive.

I'm actually pretty proud of this one, so I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. THANKS FOR READING!

(It's a four part story and updates should be every few days at most, I just wanna go through it again and edit!)