"Hey," Damiano said quietly when Victoria moved against his shoulder and gave a small sigh.

They'd pushed two of the beds together so they could get some sleep without having to separate, and Ethan and Thomas had dropped off a while ago, but Damiano had been well aware that Victoria had not. He was tired, but he couldn't sleep before she did.

Victoria looked up at him from where she was lying flush against his side.

"Hey," she replied, just as quietly.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked.

They'd talked for a while after their reunion, but mostly it had been Thomas and Ethan dumping him in it for frightening them, rather than anything from Victoria's side. Leo and Sofia had given them some quick reassurances that Tera had been dealt with and then left them to get some rest.

At his offer, Victoria's eyes searched Damiano's face as if looking for something. He let her, never moving his gaze from hers.

"It was so easy," she said eventually. "Giving in to the hate, it was so easy."

Reaching out, he stroked her hair back behind her ear.

"When we were trying to contact you, it called to me too," he told her. "I think maybe hate is easy, because it can give us power when we have none. But, Vic, the important thing is, you didn't give in to it. For a while she overwhelmed you with her power, fed your darkest impulses, but you fought through it."

"Only because of you," Victoria replied, and Damiano reached out to gently wipe away the tear that ran down her cheek as she spoke.

"Everyone needs a reason to fight," he assured her, "we just gave it to you. You're so fucking strong, Vic. You were alone against a power hundreds of years old and you only wavered at the very end. We were there at the last round to help you find the spark again, that's all."

"Poetic bastard," she said, even as another tear escaped her.

"Heh, maybe we can get another album full of songs out of all this," he replied with a quick smile and the tiniest of shrugs.

Victoria gave a hiccup of a laugh at that, but more tears were running down her face.

"Sorry," she said, rubbing them away with the heel of her hand.

"Crying's good for us," he said, stroking her back in soothing circles, "my therapist always says so."

He pushed away the errant thought about what all of this would mean for that relationship. That was a worry for another day.

"If it makes you feel any better I'm probably about to cry too, so we can look like a wreck together," he told her, which elicited another tiny laugh. "You know I'm an empathetic cryer."

"You just don't like anyone else having all the attention," Victoria countered and he made a tiny scoffing sound, even though it came out more like a laugh. "I'm making your shirt all wet," she apologised.

"Meh," he said with a shrug, "you're the one sleeping on it."

She poked him in the side for that.

"You're an arse," she said.

"But you love me anyway," he responded.

"Fucker," was her instant reaction before she paused, "but, yeah, I do. More fool me. I love you all."

"And we love you, Vic," he told her, kissing the top of her head. "We're going to get through this together, like we always do."

"Yeah," she agreed.

Of course, this was nothing like anything they had ever faced before, but Damiano had faith in them. There was clearly a support structure to help them, and they had each other.

"Do you wanna have a try at sleeping now?" he asked. "I'll do my best to guard your dreams for you."

Victoria yawned, which he took as a good sign.

"Can take care of my own dreams," she replied around another yawn.

"But you don't have to tonight, Sorellina," he said and continued stroking her back until he felt her relax.

It was weird, but laying there in the dark, he thought he could almost feel the rhythms of his sleeping friends' minds. In the end that was what helped him let go as well and allowed him to slip into slumber.

~*~

The house was just outside Rome, far enough from the city that it was pretty isolated, but close enough to allow easy travel. Leo called it a halfway house. It was a place specifically to help those who had become vampires adjust to their condition before they returned to their lives. By all accounts that didn't usually involve all the drama they had been through, but no one was left to fend for themselves in the modern era.

As far as the press were concerned the members of Måneskin were at an incognito location getting over their injuries and the trauma of the attack on them. It wasn't that far from the truth. With how famous they were now, it had been impossible to keep what had happened quiet, but there was a cover story where Tera was a deranged rich kid who had decided she wanted Victoria for her very own. The rest of them had been collateral damage in her plan.

The climax of the story was that the police had unfortunately had to shoot Tera in the rescue.

Damiano didn't know what had actually happened to the female vampire or her partner, just that it had been messy. He didn't want any of the details either. Leo had given them a quick rundown at some point, but he'd only been half paying attention.

If he was honest, most of the day so far had been a blur for Damiano. They'd woken up and thank god, someone had found them some proper clothes. There had been lots of talking and arranging, but Damiano had had trouble following it. He did remember talking to his parents on the phone, but he had no idea what they'd talked about. There were protocols for family and the whole vampire thing, but he could have stamped all over them for all he knew.

"You, sit down," Victoria said in her most bossy tone.

Normally he would have rebelled, because that was just the kind of relationship they enjoyed, but having Victoria acting anything like her old self made him too happy. That and he felt like shit, so when Ethan walked past and gave him a gentle nudge, he folded onto the very nice looking couch.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" Victoria asked, bending down and giving him a critical once over.

"A bit," he admitted.

He honestly hadn't been trying to be a martyr, but he had to have been completely on edge. None of them had slept like babies, he knew that for a fact, because everytime one of the others had been disturbed, he had woken up. He'd mostly been able to get them to settle back down before they really awoke, so he wasn't sure any of them were aware of what a fractious night it had been. Well more like early through mid morning really.

"You should take a nap while we get settled in," Thomas said.

Now they were all ganging up on him.

"And what if I don't want to?" he responded, possibly somewhere on the other side of petulant-toddler.

"Count backwards from one hundred," Victoria said while giving him one of her hard stares, "you won't make it past ninety five."

"They said they picked up all our gear from the studio house and some from our places," Ethan piped up, "and we know how you like your stuff, so we can put it in a room for you."

Yep, they were all at it.

"Ugh," he said, throwing his arms into the air, "alright."

He could still be bratty about it.

Victoria gave him a half smile, kissed him on the forehead and pushed him down onto the couch. When she took off his shoes for him, he just went with it. He felt ridiculous because it was Victoria who had been the one kidnapped and she should have been the one they were babying, but apparently not.

He woke up a while later when a wet nose pushed under his chin. Opening one eye he looked down.

"Hey, Chili," he mumbled as Victoria's dog made herself comfortable, before slipping back to sleep again.