No. (Closed thread)

[Adara Snow]

Adara didn't want to be out of the castle, and it had nothing to do with the cold air and the even colder breeze sweeping in from the north. Emilian had insulted her, then asked to be left alone with one of his old friends, likely to do things she refused to imagine, and likely not for the first time since he'd left for Germany. Certainly not for the first time in their relationship.

She'd been staying to the castle, not a difficult feat, considering it had everything it needed inside the sturdy walls. The only difficulty was that Annabelle had gone missing again and Adara no longer wanted the book she'd borrowed. She knew that Anna's disappearances were often related to her store, so she was braving the outside to see if it was so this time as well.

She was dressed for a long walk, with warm stockings beneath a long wool skirt, her usual blouse beneath a soft sweater, and of course, the requisite lightly-heeled boots, black suede gloves, and a scarf wound around her neck beneath her cozy white fur-lined cloak.

She pretended that she thought her cloak would keep her hidden enough as she walked down the street as a slightly unladylike clip, the small hardbound book clasped between her hands beneath the folds of her cloak. At least if she avoided the far end of the street she should go unnoticed. He hadn't sent so much as an owl.

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian hadn't been worried when Adara hadn't come back the first day. And the second he had only been mildly concerned and a little frustrated. It wasn't until the third day that he had figured out that something was wrong. He couldn't for the life of him figure out if it was something he had done, or if she was just caught up in work. Either way, he was a little more scruffy looking than usual, and his shoulders were hunched as he headed toward the Three Broomsticks for a firewhiskey.

The white figure across the street was almost overlooked, but it caught the corner of his eye, and there was no mistaking who it was, even if her face was hidden from him. He stopped, ignoring the glare from the old man that had been walking behind him, then jogged across the street. "Adara?"

[Adara Snow]

The hair at the back of Adara's neck prickled, and for a moment she closed her eyes, trying to will herself to be strong. She would not let him convince her that it was nothing the way he had at Michael and Dare's housewarming. She gave brief thanks for the cold and for the layers of thick cloth she wore to protect her from it.

She wanted to keep walking, to simply pretend that she hadn't heard him and continue on her way. The book store wasn't too terribly far, and if Anna was indeed inside, she would have at least that much protection. But that went completely against all the rules so deeply ingrained in her. Adara stopped and turned, her expression politely blank, though her dark eyes held tightly to anger. It was that or feel the hurt again, and she would not break down, would not allow Emilian to comfort her and convince her again that he was, if not innocent than not guilty.

"Emilian," Adara said coolly, inclining her head in a perfectly proper, if distant, greeting. If she was no longer living with him, then she was simply Adara.

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian paused in going toward Adara with her greeting and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Where have you been?" he asked, his eyebrows coming together. He took a step closer and lowered his voice, "I missed you." He saw that anger in her eyes and searched in his mind, had he done something wrong? There hadn't been anything in the paper about him, he knew.

[Adara Snow]

After a matter of days? "I have only been at Hogwarts, Emilian. If you missed me so, then perhaps an owl would have been in order." Her voice was not sharp, but neither was it weak. She did not reprimand him and saw no reason to. He had never lied to her, never claimed that he would have no one else, had he? If he had, she certainly could not recall him doing so. But then, she knew somehow that Emilian's definition of truth was different from her own. It did not exist if he did not choose to mention it, which suited her well, since she did not want to know.

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian blinked at that and his gaze wavered for a moment. "I thought you might have been busy," he reasoned, though he saw how big of an error that was. "Why didn't you come back?" Mano really hadn't stayed too long, and Emilian had thought that Adara would come back soon, but she had stayed gone for much, much longer than Emilian had expected.

[Adara Snow]

"I believe I told you quite clearly as I saw myself out of your shop that you could have all the time you wished. Was I perhaps unclear?" Adara asked, keeping to the same polite, level voice she had begun with. After an insulting introduction and a dismissive request to be left alone, Emilian had neither helped her with her cloak nor paid any attention as she had left. It had been a slap in the face, to say the least. She had listened for the sound of his footsteps behind her and only heard the low hum of male voices.

[Emilian Sota]

"No, no," Emilian said, trying to think quickly about what had gone wrong. "I didn't exactly trust Mano, I just wanted a few minutes, that was all." He hadn't wanted anything with Mano, so it didn't occur to him that that could have been part of the problem. He had just wanted a few minutes to figure out why Mano was there and to get the man out of his apartment.

[Adara Snow]

Adara's eyes would have darkened further had they not already been nearly black. "Did it not occur to you that perhaps I could have spent a few minutes in another room? That you might have mentioned this few minutes or not trusting him rather than asking me only to leave the shop so that you could have time to catch up with an old friend? My deepest regrets for sounding presumptuous, Emilian, but there seem to be some discrepancies between our recollections. Would you like to correct me?"

[Emilian Sota]

"I would rather not have said I didn't trust him with him in the room," Emilian said, his mind latching on to the one thing he could argue to his favor. He got it, Adara was angry with him, now his only problem was how to get himself out of the hole he had unwittingly dug for himself. "I'm sorry, to be honest I panicked a little when I saw him there," he said, which was true enough. He didn't want Mano to be involved at all with Adara.

[Adara Snow]

Adara's head nodded lightly, though she was really not at all convinced. She had no personal experience to disprove the notion of panicking when one met an old friend, and though it did not seem right to her, she could not argue. Neither could she forget the other times she'd forgiven him, the things she'd thought over as she lay in her lonely bed, knowing only that he had made no attempt to call her back to his. Two months he had been gone, a matter of days she'd been back and already... There were only two conclusions that she could come to. Either he had lain in his bed alone and not felt that the effort of an owl was worth the trouble, or he had not been alone, after all.

"Tell me this, Emilian," Adara said at last, her voice lowering despite her efforts, "Why would you claim friendship with a man whom you do not trust, a man whose mere presence panics you so badly that you would sleep alone for three nights without thought of calling me to you?"

[Emilian Sota]

"Because Mano is like how I was before I met you," Emilian said, though he had the nagging feeling that whatever he said wouldn't matter much when she already had ideas in her head. "I didn't want him to be around you before I could tell him everything. He is a friend, but I didn't want him to try anything with you." He knew he wasn't going to be out of his hole yet, but he was working on it.

[Adara Snow]

Adara's brows rose a bit in gently feigned surprise. "Was he there so long, then? I am afraid that I am a bit confused by all this." Not at all actually, but Adara was determined to keep her distance, with her words at least. "And I must feel that I have failed you in some way if you were under the impression that even the devil himself could have been successful in trying something with me. But then, perhaps I am mistaken. Perhaps he would have overpowered both of us in those few minutes. Or was it the three days that you were protecting me from him?"

[Emilian Sota]

"What?" Emilian asked, confused. "I've not seen anyone since he left, and he left maybe a half hour after you did." He hadn't wanted Mano to do anything, including verbal prods at Adara. And without Adara there, Emilian had been able to tell Mano where he had been and why. Looking back, he was glad for another reason, he didn't care to have Adara there when he had seen those pictures.

[Adara Snow]

"So for all this time you have been alone, then?" Adara asked, only just keeping the disbelief from her voice. "All this time you were alone, missing me, understandable since you have been back from Germany for such a short time, and yet you did not think to send me an owl?" She had many more questions, but refused to ask them. She did not wish to know the answers and was unsure whether she could believe him if she were to ask. And she was showing enough emotion already. Adara straightened her spine and sought to relax her face.