Another silly-o'clock story, bit mad, no idea what I was thinking. Enjoy anyway.
Thanks to Werepuppy for convincing me to post it... Well, thanks I think.

Disclaimer: None of this is mine, thankfully.

Bertrand remembers – with perfect clarity – the night Vlad mastered telepathy at last.

It had been a long day – Bertrand was still mildly annoyed that they had to be awake in the daytime at all, anyway, but today he'd had classes from 9 to 4 and they'd all decided to push their luck – and all he'd wanted was to collapse into his new coffin. The Chosen One had sat him down a few weeks beforehand and pointed out that since it was obvious that he was going to be sticking around for a while, it might be wise to actually put a coffin in his room and stop hiding away in his shroud in the training room. Bertrand had agreed, if only out of relief that he wasn't to be sent away in disgrace.

At any rate, all he'd wanted was to sleep. But when he got into his coffin and closed his eyes, he found a pair staring back at him from the darkness. Instantly familiar blue-green eyes bored into him from behind his own eyelids; it was unsettling to say the least. He was still wondering what the proper reaction to this was when Vlad's voice brushed through his mind like a lover's whisper carried on the slightest breeze.
'I need you, Bertrand.'

He'd leapt from his coffin, barely pausing to throw himself back into his clothes, and raced up to Vlad's room; it had to be pretty urgent if his student was calling for him through telepathy. He didn't even bother knocking on the door, proceeding instead to knocking on the coffin lid when he realised there was no immediate danger present in the rest of the room.

For a moment, there was no response, and Bertrand began to fear that he was too late, that the Chosen One was dust and his assassin already fled. Then the lid flew open to reveal a confused-looking Vlad, who quickly sat upright and folded his hands in his lap.
"Bertrand? What's going on?" His tutor frowned.
"You… Telepathy. You said you needed me." To his surprise, Vlad looked mortified.
"You heard that? What else did you hear?"
"Nothing, just-"
"Because it's really not how it sounds, I mean it is, I do need you, but I… if you're not interested I'm not gonna crumble to ash, so you don't have to worry, I just… I really, really wanted you just then and I obviously wasn't thinking…"

Bertrand stared at him for a moment, suddenly horrified as he realised what he'd actually walked in on.
"You weren't calling me-?"
"No." His student looked away, suddenly reluctant to meet his eye. "I was just…" He trailed off, but they both knew what he'd been doing and who he'd been thinking about while he did.

"I… apologise for my interruption." He began backing towards the door, but Vlad called out to stop him.
"Please don't be disgusted." Bertrand shook his head, making sure to meet Vlad's eyes as he began backing out again.
"I'm not." And then, as he reached the door, "I'm flattered." Then he shut the door behind him and raced back to his coffin room to curse his own foolishness.

Well, 'mastered' might have been overstating it a bit.