In The World But Not Of It | Headcanon | Fictlet
Once he’d overcome his initial reticence of crowds after so long in near isolation, Daniel’s zeal for exploration was almost uncontrollable. Once Marius had allowed him the freedom to venture through the city unaccompanied, he’d busied himself the best way he could think of as a distraction from his fraught and confused feelings for the older immortal; by plunging into life, much as he once had with Armand, but now he too was unrestricted and unfettered by the mortal coil.
He wandered for hours amid street fairs and markets, dazzled by multicolored linens, hanging displays of fruit and flowers, by street vendors that dipped candles by hand as tourists watched. He purchased little cups of the various local foods just to carry them in hand and smell the different scents, poked and prodded the contents to examine the array of textures and colors each had, the way sauces congealed, noodles tangled, how fried things sizzled for a few moments after leaving the oil and left a greasy slick on the papers they rested on. He held parrots and monkeys on display for entertainment or sale, touched feathers and fur, he wound a monstrous snake around his shoulders and paid the 10 reais for a Polaroid of it.
And once he’d learned enough of the local lingo he struck up conversations with anyone who would pay him the time of night; it didn’t matter the person’s status or gender, so long as they were willing to talk. He learned of the countries politics, of urban legends, of local histories. All of it fascinated him.
But at the end of the night when he returned, there was never enough of it to keep that feeling from returning the moment he saw his companion, those blue eyes making him momentarily forget almost everything he’d gone out and experienced.
