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"Mine was a demon..." he said quietly, staring down at the floor with a distant look of heartbreak and longing. "The most beautiful creature I've ever seen..."
He looked up suddenly, as though snapping out of a trance, a slight blush on his cheeks. "I'm sorry... You didn't need to hear that... Probably didn't want to either..." He gave a weak, awkward smile and headed for the door of the room. "Thank you for the book," he said quickly, leaving the room and heading towards the stairs. |
Chrys opened his eyes again. And he couldn't get a word in before Zaitsu went dashing out of the room.
"Uh...you're...welcome...?" He sighed and stared up at the ceiling before calling out, "Leaving for the night?" |
He stopped, hanging his head a little, then returned to the door, cracking it open a little. "Unless you want to watch me make an absolute fool of myself..."
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"Fool how?" Chrys asked him, sitting up and tilting his head to one side in inquisition. "Because, personally, I've seen some pretty foolish things. I must say that being upset isn't at all foolish, it's a bit normal, to be precise." His brow furrowed in concern.
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"Well... It's just that... It's kind of embarrassing..." he said, his head hanging. "I mean... It was so long ago, but I'm still not over any of it... I desperately crave him, even though he won't have me... I must be really pathetic for that, and I really feel stupid when I start feeling that way in front of other people..."
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"Well, at least you're not making giant glass spheres and dropping them on top of people's heads off the Notre Dame de Paris...." Chrys slid up to a standing position and walked over to Zaitsu, taking his hands and pulling him back until he could sit him down on the bed. He knelt in front of him and released once of his taloned hands only to cover Zaistu's eyes with it.
"If you cry, I won't see it," he said gently. He gave the fingers he held a gentle squeeze. |
"If your hand is too loose, my tears would slip through. And even if it was tight enough to keep that from happening, you'd still feel the dampness on your hand. That's just as bad as seeing, maybe even worse."
He smiled weakly, reaching up and gently pulling Chrys' hand away from his eyes, looking up at him with his currently ice blue eyes. "I'm not really one for physical contact... Not unless..." his words fell away from him and he took a deep breath. "Not unless you're who I love, and I'm sorry, but you're not." |
Chrys shrugged.
"Yeah, alright, I can respect that." He stood up once again pulling his hands away. "Then I'll leave so you can 'make a fool of yourself' where I don't have to just stand by and watch. Pardon my selfish abruptness but I'm not very good at comforting others." He turned and exited the room, pulling his cigarettes out of his pocket and lighting one up. "I don't love you either, if it makes you feel any better." He moved towards the stairs with a final 'goodnight' and then vanished down the alleyway that was damp with the evenings rain. |
He sighed, lowering his head and getting up. "I wasn't asking for comfort..." he muttered after Chrys was already gone. He put the book back on the shelf and went up to his room for the night.
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Mona scrubbed a wet rag over the bar and dried it off with a wave of her light-enveloped hand. It still bothered her that the place was as empty as a mummy's skull. She sighed out a gray cloud of paprika scented smoke and then shook her head, wandering over to the stage and pulling herself up onto it.
"This seriously is not turning out how I hoped it would...." |
Zaitsu entered the bar from the outer door, after having not been around the last two days. A thick canvas messenger bag fell against his hip and upper thigh, hanging from his right shoulder. He headed to his room in silence, not even bothering to look at Mona as he passed.
About twenty minutes after Zaitsu had passed through the bar, another man entered. His eyes were a medium shade of blue, his hair long, black, and pulled back, though his bangs (which were just as long as the rest of his hair) were out and lying against the sides of his face. The man was pale, though not nearly as pale as Zaitsu was, and he didn't seem to carry the emotional weight that the other man did. They looked a little similar, as though they might be cousins. He held himself with a sense of business and pride; like a man that knew how to get things done, and how to both give and take directions. Looking around the bar, he decided which table to sit at, walking over to a table near the corner of the room on the right side of the door. Sitting down what looked like a semi-soft briefcase that he wore as a messenger bag, he opened it and pulled a few folders out to look through them in the silence of the bar. |
"Evenin', Zaitsu..." Mona said gently, though the man made no acknowledgment to her. She shrugged and then pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket, lighting one up.
And after a while, that other man walked in and went about his own business. She tilted her head to one side and shrugged, taking a drag as she walked over to him. "Hey there. Can I get you anything?" |
He looked up at her, blinking once or twice. "A glass of red wine would be wonderful," he said in a somewhat deep, calm voice.
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"Yeah, sure. Pinot? Merlot? Sherry?" She pulled a couple bottles out of nowhere and displayed them on a nearby table in the respective order that she named them.
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"Merlot, please," he said with a hint of a smile, still looking up at her.
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"Mmh." She picked up the proper bottle and poured him a glass that appeared from the atmosphere. "Enjoy. And let me know if you want more." She took a drag off of her cigarette and then dipped her head a bit with a slight grin.
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"You wouldn't happen to have food here as well, would you?" he asked, picking up the glass and taking a small sip of the wine.
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"Of course," Mona said, nodding. "What would you like? Ask for anything, I'll make it happen." She made the other bottles vanish and then took the cigarette from her lips, exhaling smoke into the air quietly.
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"Something both sweet and savory, if you don't mind. With as few preservatives as possible, and no monosodium glutamate. Other than those specifications, I don't really care what it is." He smiled a little up at her, then returned to looking through a folder and took another drink of his wine.
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"Huh." Mona turned and headed towards the kitchen, kicking the door open with her foot. "Shoulda held on to Gaeb, he'd fix me right real quick," she muttered to herself. She started pulling pots and pans and whatnot out of cubboards, during every now and then.
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Zaitsu came down into the kitchen to find himself a hard plastic bottle and fill it a forth of the way with water. Going to the freezer, he added several ice cubes, then opened the refrigerator to fill the rest of the bottle with orange juice.
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Mona glanced behind her.
"Hey, Zaitsu," she called to him, "you can cook right?" She stood up, a puddle of pans at her feet. |
He took a drink from the bottle, then looked up over at Mona. "Yeah, I can cook," he said blankly.
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Mary had been quietly sleeping on the couch in the corner of the bar for a while now. She sat up as she heard some noise and lazily woke up. She went to the bar and looked around for Mona. "Mona? are you here?"
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Tefla Agata
Quote:
A last slow drag, the sound resembling something like the rasp of beetle wings, the tug and pull of waves on a rocky, barren shore...or hell, something poetic like that, right? The full lips pursed themselves in exhale and a satisfied smirk, the broad shoulders arching as he reached to snub the cigarette out along the bottom of his shoe. A careless flick of the smothered ember out into the dark, trailing away as a spot of burnt light. And sailing with it, the last bit of illumination that had highlighted the sharp cheekbones, the look of amusement that drifted in and out of eyes the same color of the small bits of ash that clung to his fingertips. Now, in the darkness, the scar that trailed nastily down the side of his neck had slipped out of notice. Carefully-trimmed nails scratched it lazily, the skin still tender, even for him. Despite the scent of smoke that nuzzled around him, he could more than easily pick out the scent of holy fire, the sass of jasmine. Tefla smiled again, this time a little more genuinely. "Mona, Mona, Mona... How mad are you going to be at me?" And at that thought, the grin grew. ((To one special someone out there: Surprise. To everyone else: Yes, I have an exemption, and I'm looking forward to being impressed. Nice to meet you.)) |
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