Ace
Professor
Vampire
Passion rules us all
Posts: 495
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Post by Ace on Dec 13, 2005 14:21:59 GMT
Ace sat staring into his drink, feeling his body almost quiver with guilt. Her words were devoid, meaningless - why was she even saying them? She could say what she wanted to him, but he had only ever had to look into her eyes to see the truth. And now, he knew she was regretting ever knowing him.
Before he could stop it, before he could stop acknowleding his tortorous thoughts, a tear welled and escaped from one of his eyes. He closed his eyes. No more would fall. No more.
He looked up at Rose. Could he blame her if she did regret everything? "I... am not your everyday Vampire. This is true. But I still suffer. We were born to suffer, it is our place on this earth, to suffer and to induce suffering upon others. Rosie, god..." He looked away now, fighting harder than he had ever fought in his life from betraying anymore signs of weak, humane emotion. "I never wanted you to suffer."
Ace took in a deep breath, and made weary eye contact with the bartender, who had been watching the pair from his stand behind the bar. Almost guiltily, the bartender made some more drinks and brought them over while Ace spoke again. "I thought, if I could show you everything, you could be different, we could have been so different than them. I wanted it to be different for you."
He broke off, sighing, not really sure what he was saying, or if it was anything resembling what he actually meant to say. Why was Rose comforting him? He didn't deserve it.
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Rose
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Gray Dawn Breaking
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Post by Rose on Dec 16, 2005 20:52:53 GMT
Uncertain of what to do with herself, she withdrew, taking her elbows off the table, leaning against the cushioned back of the booth.
His emotion, no matter how frantically he hid it, dissolved that careful facade in front of her eyes. It had been a facade she had poked at and chipped off of back in the days when no one was watching from behind the Hufflepuff Common Room door. She had been restless then, constantly stubborn in telling him, over and over again, that being a Vampire did not put him in a box. He had come in on his first day, obviously distraught of being sorted into such a mundane house, and promptly made a vein somewhere in Rose's forehead begin to throb. Oh, with such passion they had despised each other. Rose had always thought, though never out loud, that she had hated him more passionately then she had loved him. Her love had been delicate, tentative, a liberating breeze on the skin of the ocean.
And the way his cheeks shone in the dimly lit tavern scared the remains of the breeze within her into anger.
"Listen to me." She told him sharply, leaning back toward him with such a fierce expression that the Hufflepuff Prefect danced in her eyes. "You aren't goddamn listening to me. As usual, I imagine, you never listen to anything but that novel in your head. Get your romance novel, brooding, doomed version of our lives out of your head, you idiot, and listen to me for once!" With a pause in her words came the softest sigh of relief to have broken the wall that kept her words from pouring out.
"You know me. You know me far better then I have ever allowed myself to think about. Why would I tell you not to regret it if I regretted it? I'm pretty sure I've been a blunt person my entire life, Ace. And I'm pretty sure I've always been a passionate person - a person who can box you around the ears and grin. I know who I am - and there are some instants when I know this is where I should be, and they make up for days of doubt. I know what I am, Ace. But what the hell are you?"
She took her fresh drink and downed half of it, mostly because she had ran out of words but the fire blazed in her ice veins. Setting it down, she muttered, "Hufflepuff, through and through."
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Ace
Professor
Vampire
Passion rules us all
Posts: 495
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Post by Ace on Dec 20, 2005 23:35:19 GMT
Ace couldn't help the grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth. She had broken him now - the guilt he felt was, in an instant, gone. Why should he feel guilty? She had agreed to a life as an immortal, she had promised to spend an eternity - a real, infinite kind of eternity - with him, and there was no blame on him for that. He'd been imagining having this conversation with her, in the back of his mind, for years... to actually be having it, he'd forgotten she was even there, to eager to rush out the words he'd been biting back for shame.
Relaxing finally, Ace leant back in the booth, raising a casual eyebrow with a smile.
"Hufflepuff through and through all right," he said with an inward chuckle. He was trying not to be too pleased that they had sliced their way through the awkward silence, but it was difficult. The shock of seeing his wife was slowly ebbing away, and was replaced by more of a distant bewilderment. "But I am only so because you made me that way, cutie." The affectionate term slipped out before he could stop it. Remembering how she had reacted to his casual terms of endearment when they had first met only caused him to grin more.
"I don't know what I am or where I'm going, why you're here or why I found you - I can't be bothered with the questions anymore, Rosie. I mean Rose." He shook his head. "Questions only lead you down places you don't want to go. I don't want answers. I just want here, and now. And from what I've seen so far," his green eyes roamed over her once more, "- I'd say you felt the same. So screw the past and f*** the future, we've got tonight."
Ace raised his glass and then took a gulp, inhaling sharply as he slammed the glass back down on to the table.
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Rose
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Gray Dawn Breaking
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Post by Rose on Dec 21, 2005 21:52:24 GMT
For someone destined to live an eternity, this single moment between them was suspended in the air. Dangerously. Entrancingly.
"Hear hear!" She called, unashamed because of the noise elsewhere in the tavern - in fact, some middle aged wizards at the bar raised their glasses absently and drank to Ace's words. A delicious grin spread across her face and she mirrored his motion of downing her glass with a jerk of her wrist. The brazen alcohol danced passionately down, her eyes burned slightly. For all the talk, the ridiculous guff that she found newly spilling out her lips, covering the fragile little girl, she wasn't as entirely familiar with firewhiskey as she liked to let on. His words made her bold, but uncertainly so. Here he was - this love, this stranger, this puzzle, grinning at her. Challenging her. She leaned forward, loose waves slipping out of hold and falling around her face like a halo - Strangely fitting, her smile widened.
"Questions are always for tomorrow's." She agreed, her eyebrows flicking up in ill contained excitement as her eyes drove into the piercing green she had only been able to remember in dreams. "Let's just live tonight." Live had come and crossed her lips in a moment without registering, and once it had, the corners of her eyes showed a mischievous smirk. Her humor told her not to take it back.
She ripped her eyes away from his to glance toward the bar. "I think we need another round of drinks."
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Ace
Professor
Vampire
Passion rules us all
Posts: 495
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Post by Ace on Dec 24, 2005 12:48:39 GMT
Ace grinned irrisistably at Rose. "Absolutely."
He saw the alcohol affecting her, and wanted to tell her that it was normal, it was affecting him too, but didn't want to break the moment that had captured them. His words were beginning to soften and melt into each other, and his inhibitions had all but disappeared completely. He waved to the barman for more drinks, and watched with a sly smile as he saw the barman give them a larger shot of alcohol than they had had before.
"Thanks," he said quietly, as they drinks were set down in front of them. He lifted his gaze to Rose's again, held them for dangerous moments he knew he'd tuck away in his memory. "So, Rosie... Rose. If we're living for tonight, what would you like to do now? Drink the night away in the company of your estranged husband?"
Ace laughed on the last word. It was still surreal to him, knowing they were bound together not only in blood but in the human ties of marriage. He sat back and watched the curls as one by one they fell gentle around her porcelain face, resisting the habitual urge to tuck them behind her ears.
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Rose
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Gray Dawn Breaking
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Post by Rose on Jan 4, 2006 23:11:54 GMT
"I was thinking that, or trying to get a tan." Rose looked back at him, wrapping her fingers around the fresh glass. Her eyes grew more more mischievous by the second and the two sharp points of what could only be her fangs. Her face hung well in the dim light of the tavern. She was supposed to be here. If blood actually ran through her veins, she'd swear it was actually fire. "But seeing as the sun won't be about for a little while, I guess I'll settle on the former."
She took another drink, closing her eyes as her face tilted upward. Beneath her eyelids, behind her eye sockets and a skull - thick, durable, as requested- a brain was working overtime. And when she set her glass down, her eyes locked on his again. The drink isn't the only intoxicating thing here. She ran her thumb over her bottom lip to dab away any offending drops of the firewhiskey.
"If tonight is only, well, tonight - clearly we need to set a few bound rules." She said, squaring her shoulders with a temporary facade of business before she giggled and leaned forward against the table again. "I'll go first. You may add the second, but I get the third!" She set down the guidelines and moved on without waiting for consent.
"One." She said clearly - the whiskey taking longer then expected to soften the edges of her words. "No worrying about consequences." She declared. This was for her. She didn't have a single thought of him as she made this rule. For, even under the influence, she knew she would worry. Worrying wasn't supposed to be a part of the new her, and she banished it to the corners of her mind whenever it made an appearance. She was banishing it further now. She didn't want to regret anything, and the best remedy to this worry was to eliminate the ability to regret.
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Ace
Professor
Vampire
Passion rules us all
Posts: 495
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Post by Ace on Jan 7, 2006 10:47:40 GMT
"Rules."
Ace smiled despite himself. It was clear to him that the alcohol was beginning to affect dear little Rosie's system, and he was rather enjoying it. A little voice in the back of his mind was even wondering why they had never done this before... Shaking it off, he listened to her first rule.
No worrying about consequences. Well, that was something he could do. In fact he couldn't remember the last time he'd genuinely been worried about the consequences of his actions. He'd had to behave himself as a teacher now, sure, but still he'd bent quite a few rules since taking his appointment at Magic Horizons. He grinned easily and nodded at Rose, accepting the first rule. "All right then. No worries whatsoever."
He laughed, and traced a finger around the rim of his glass, trying to think of a good rule for the night ahead.
"OK... I think I've got one. No lies," said Ace, looking at Rose directly with his unbreakable piercing stare. "If we're asked a question, we tell the truth. No dodging subjects, no bending the truth... upfront and honest. No lies."
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Rose
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Gray Dawn Breaking
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Post by Rose on Jan 7, 2006 22:17:44 GMT
Rose nodded at his rule. "No lies." She repeated solemnly, though her inquisitive mind was poking her in the shoulder, demanding what questions would be asked in the coming evening. The years between, where they had lost each other - they had been a brutal journey for her; at times physically, but mostly mentally. The demons she vanquished and the ones that still haunted her - the ocean - one pair of dark, smoldering eyes that contrasted painfully with the man who sat across from her.
Was she ready to tell the truth?
Looking at the man, his internal clock literally frozen before her, she had to be. No regrets, she reminded herself. To fear the second rule of the evening would be to directly violate the first. Her hair, having been pinned up at the beginning of the evening, but now they were beginning to fight their constraints and trail along the edges of her face. For a moment, and a moment only, she looked like an angel who had fallen from her graces.
"Three," She hasted onward. "No more of that bleedin' guilt you were spouting earlier!" She slammed her palm lightly on the table, though their glasses still jumped a little. She grabbed back her glass protectively. "No guilt, for things past," she made a point of looking hard at him - her intense gaze not compromised by the alcohol. "Or present."
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Ace
Professor
Vampire
Passion rules us all
Posts: 495
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Post by Ace on Jan 7, 2006 23:35:37 GMT
Ace laughed so hard he almost spilled the drink he was holding. He tried to take her intensity seriously, but he was having far too much fun enjoying the much more aggressive, passionate Rose that was spilling out of the frail little Vampire right now. He was looking at her with new eyes; eyes he was allowed to keep only for tonight, though, naturally.
With a wry grin, he leaned back again. "OK then. I have an excuse to feel no terrible or soul-shattering guilt. Thank heavens for that." He winked, chuckled some more, and took a huge gulp of his drink. "So, tonight is all light-heartedness and frivolity, then? My favourite."
He sighed - still smiling, but sighing. It was going to be a difficult evening no matter how many rules they put on the table, and he could see that Rose knew it too, or she wouldn't have even brought up the rule idea.
"I think, my dear, it's going to be quite a night," he said, with a knowing nod. He went to drink some more, then made a small noise of disappointment when he noticed the glass was already empty. "Oh. Out of drink already. Same again, Rosie - sorry, Rose - or would you like something a little different this time? My treat." He winked and grinned, not entirely unaware of the swooning fourth-years at the next table.
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Rose
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Ex-Student
Gray Dawn Breaking
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Post by Rose on Jan 11, 2006 18:16:21 GMT
"Sure." Rose answered briskly. "You know better then I do. And, after all, tonight should be about new things." No matter how many times her eyes floated over his face, it didn't feel real. And that wasn't the alcohol talking, either. "Or old things, transformed to be new." She didn't know what she wanted to come of the night, and she told herself not to think about it. She did know that she was different - had to be different, because she didn't know if she could handle stumbling again.
The buzz of the firewhiskey took the edge off of heavy thoughts, and she smiled at him - a lover's smile. She shook her hair back off of her delicate, pale shoulders, and lifted her face to the ceiling of the tavern. At some forbidden hour in this slowly growing night, she knew that this tiny box would be buckling around her - unable to hold her swelling soul. And then she would take to the streets, and to the darkness, and to the unknown.
"So, you're popular with the students, of course." She observed as she noticed a small pack of girls a few tables behind Ace's shoulder. "You know you always were popular, despite the brooding and the," she twined her wrists in front of her face dramatically. "But this is fitting for you." She drummed out a tune on the edge of the table with her thumb and index finger.
"You look like you've done good for yourself. Am I wrong?"
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Ace
Professor
Vampire
Passion rules us all
Posts: 495
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Post by Ace on Jan 11, 2006 19:20:45 GMT
Ace shrugged and smiled easily. "I guess you could say that."
He broke off to beckon the bartender over and order a huge pitcher of a drink that was bright red and somewhat dark tasting. Ace couldn't place his finger on the exact concoction, having never tried this drink before, but was content with it. He knew, however, that he wasn't as used to it as he was to the firewhisky, and it would therefore have a greater impact. He sighed heavily as he poured Rose a large drink to match his own and pushed it towards her.
"A lot happened to me, though, since... well, since you... left." Ace studied her face for a moment, knowing that for the rest of his strange and long lifetime he would remember the way her curls fell about the shoulders that were a lot paler than the last time he had seen them, kissed them... "Most of it not good. I died twice." The Vampire laughed. In his drunken state, it seemed funny enough.
"But for now, yes, I'm settled and relatively content. I'm not sure how long I can keep myself here before I go out of my mind again, though. It seems to happen on a regular basis. But what about you? I'm guessing this is no permanent position for you, here?" He raised a brow, questioning her silence more than her answer.
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Rose
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Gray Dawn Breaking
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Post by Rose on Jan 11, 2006 21:59:33 GMT
"Whether or not it's permanent, it's always home." Rose told him, smiling into the new drink placed before her. She took her time to try out this new liquid on her tongue, because she was avoiding the question she had sworn not to lie about.
"I don't know." She told him frankly when she set the glass back down. "I've just recently realized how much I love to travel, but - " She jerked her shoulders up. "This place is so familiar, in the most disorienting way. The urge to bolt is - it's there. But I think - maybe, maybe there's something here for me, still." She dragged her fingers over the rim of her glass slowly. "But, you know, maybe not. You know, Ace? I think I...left, because I was suddenly so disenchanted with a place that had once been so powerfully enchanting. I wanted to see if it had changed back - if the magic was back." She breathed hard. "And even if it is, it's a different sort of magic. It's darker, now. And I haven't decided if that's okay with me yet."
She chewed on her bottom lip, her eyes going up to his for a moment before diving back down as she grappled with hesitant words that didn't want to leave the fortress of her mind. She didn't want anyone to go blowing holes in it.
"You don't - do you - er. Do you want me here?" She asked quietly.
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Ace
Professor
Vampire
Passion rules us all
Posts: 495
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Post by Ace on Jan 11, 2006 23:06:08 GMT
Ace inhaled sharply, caught by the rules of the evening. No lies, and no guilt. Chewing on his lip, he caught it, and it began to bleed in slow, oozing blobs of deepest crimson.
"Erm... I don't know what to say," said Ace quietly, mentally having to force himself once again to leave Rosie off the end of his sentence. He had to try and push his whisky-sodden mind to examine the depths of his feelings towards his wife - his beautiful wife, who was looking so hopeless across the table. His instinct to protect her and guide her was still so strong, so raw, that he couldn't trust his answer on that alone. Could he have her here, living so close to him? It threw out too many questions... what would their relationship be, how would they act towards each other, what kind of life could they lead?
"It's a difficult question. I want you here if it's what you want." He said, deliberating carefully so that he couldn't accidentally lie. "Me... I'm easy. My life here is simple, and you being here wouldn't change too much..." He said it like a fact, but in his eyes there was a question as he searched Rose's preoccupied face.
Would it?
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Rose
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Gray Dawn Breaking
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Post by Rose on Jan 13, 2006 15:31:50 GMT
"I don't want to be such a complication to your life, you must know that," she declared abruptly, after taking a few necessary moments for Ace's words, and the questions behind them, to sink into her skin. His voice, braving past the tough leather-skin armor she now dawned, wound tightly around the alcohol and the night, the past and the present that resided there. She looked from him to the ceiling to the tabletop and back, pressing her thumb to the inside of one wrist in quiet desperation to convey her thoughts.
"I don't want to be that woman with Ace, that vampire that Ace got sloshed with, that girl, that - wife." She managed a sharp intake of breath. "But that's what I'll be when those fourth years go home tonight."
She clutched the back of her neck, knitting together her fingers at the base of her skull. "I can't be your reason for trouble when I've got enough troubles of my own. I'm not an extension on somebody else - maybe I used to! Maybe that's why I worked so well with you! But right now, starting now, and forever - I am too big to be just a branch of someone else's life." She drew in a breath and her eyes leveled on the green-eyed vampire once again.
"I don't want anything more from you that we can't both handle. I've learned to - to handle myself, quite a bit of the time. I just don't know if you can, as well."
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Ace
Professor
Vampire
Passion rules us all
Posts: 495
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Post by Ace on Jan 13, 2006 16:20:06 GMT
The corners of Ace's mouth turned up slightly.
"I've changed, too," he said quietly, his eyes not on Rose but on his own finger that traced round and round the edge of the glass he was drinking from. "I know that it might not seem that way - given that this is the only way I know how to be around you. The way I was. I'll learn, given time... but I have changed, and that person, the one I am now, can handle himself very well. Hell, I'm a Professor. Does that say nothing about who I've become?"
He raised his eyes to hers and smiled, a reassuring smile. No matter what, it promised without a word. We'll be okay.
"I guess it's a case of not who we were, at all," he concluded, waiting for approval in her eyes. "But rather, who we are now. And whether there's a way of fitting around each other's lives without slipping back into who we were. Am I right?"
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