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Post by Emilian Sota on Aug 9, 2017 18:16:23 GMT -5
Emilian did his best to ignore her blush-why did she have to look so similar to Adara?-and his best was quite good these days. Perhaps not good enough, though. Distance was something he understood. He'd helped bring Isolde home and keep her safe. He'd helped with the upkeep of the Blackwood-Hardt German properties. Basically, he'd helped as much as possible without being involved in their daily lives.
"I don't have lovers anymore," he said. It was the truth, more or less, and young lovers were pushed away even more. The last thing he needed was some young innocent thing to bring back old habits. "I can't just give you a free place to stay, either. You know that, right?" Was he really considering this? But she was lost and alone, and he'd been there more than once.
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Post by Ash Blackwood on Aug 9, 2017 18:19:28 GMT -5
"Well, yes, that's why I'm staying at an Inn," Ash said. It wasn't as though she'd come directly here. She'd made a stop first. "And... I don't know much about having lovers anyway, so I'm not going to push anything on you." She had not known he didn't have lovers. Who didn't have lovers? Besides her?
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Post by Emilian Sota on Aug 9, 2017 18:51:54 GMT -5
"So you don't want to work for me, and you don't want to be lovers, but you want to stay here," Emilian said. He sat back in his seat and crossed his arms. "You've got balls, you know? Not many people walk through someone's doors asking for a free place to stay." Especially not me. "You can work. Like I did. Like Michael did, and Dare did, and tons of other people have done who got disowned or whose families lost everything." She had to be lying about something. Someone with that hair and those lips and eyes was never innocent.
"I have a couch, and the man who used to do general upkeep here died recently, so there is an opening." The old man had been a bumbling fool anyway, and the couch was comfortable.
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Post by Ash Blackwood on Aug 9, 2017 20:04:27 GMT -5
Ash was blushing again—still?—but not quite as badly as before. She really didn't want to say this. "I didn't say I don't want to be lovers, it was... what I hoped for. But you said you don't..." And he seemed upset. "I like you, I wouldn't mind, and I don't need to... work." She sneaked a curious glance up at him. "Why don't you have lovers?" Her gaze dropped. "I'm sorry, you don't have to..."
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Post by Emilian Sota on Aug 9, 2017 20:24:57 GMT -5
Emilian hopped off of his stool and started to round the counter. His look at the last question was sharp. "Don't ask me about lovers," he said as he came around closer to her. "I have a spot on my couch for you, if you want it. It doesn't require sexual favors, but it does require you working in my shop. You can take this chance, this chance to drag yourself up from nothing, or you can leave my shop and go whore yourself on the streets of Hogsmeade. I'll promise you that Hogsmeade doesn't really have a thriving John community.
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Post by Ash Blackwood on Aug 10, 2017 1:38:30 GMT -5
Ash's face was red with fury, and before she could think, she pulled back her hand to slap the insulting bastard. She'd already told him she didn't need his couch, she'd already told him she had enough money to stay at an Inn, for a while at least, and he spoke to her as though she was filth. Did he really think her only choices were working for him or becoming a whore? Did he not understand that she had offered to be his lover, but accepted that he wasn't interested? She was taking her necklace, taking her money, and leaving. And she'd do everything in her power to counter the positive gossip she'd heard. Lisette wouldn't even know she'd left.
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Post by Emilian Sota on Aug 10, 2017 15:10:03 GMT -5
Within a second, Emilian's face burned and his gloved left hand had gripped the girl's slender wrist. It felt almost as though he could snap it like bird's bones if he moved his hand the wrong way. His eyes blazed as they sought out hers. "You don't want to be a person who hits me," he said low in his throat. The slap and the grab had brought them closer together, and his anger and the heat of her body combined to bring back urges he had repressed for years.
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Post by Ash Blackwood on Aug 10, 2017 15:16:09 GMT -5
Ash's knees gave out, and a soft whimper tried to escape before she closed her lips tightly. It was reflex to cower, to let the other person feel powerful. "Sorry, so sorry, please..." She muttered the words over and over, something that tended to make her sisters smug, make them let her go, declare her simple, and send her on her way.
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Post by Emilian Sota on Aug 10, 2017 15:27:37 GMT -5
The response surprised Emilian for only a moment, but a moment was long enough to pause the building desires. His blood still raced through him as he reached out his other hand to support her. "I'm sorry," he said, the burn on his cheek ignored for now. "I won't hurt you." He wouldn't, couldn't, shouldn't, wouldn't. The years had been him trying to heal himself, and he focused on pushing away that evil part. Wasn't the evil part a huge portion of who he was, though? Who was he without that bit? He briefly closed his eyes against the torrent of thoughts.
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Post by Ash Blackwood on Aug 10, 2017 15:35:51 GMT -5
Ash jerked away from him, then turned, shivering, and began to collect her belongings. Her eyes were wide, lips slightly parted, and she didn't say a word. Ashes, Ashes, you fall down! She was stupid and she never should have tried this. What had she been thinking? Obviously she hadn't been. To show up at the steps of someone she knew nothing about and had never met before? Had she hoped he'd fall on his knees and ask to marry her? Her?
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Post by Emilian Sota on Aug 10, 2017 15:51:53 GMT -5
Now there was a girl panicking in front of him. He should let her leave. That was the right thing to do, to let her leave, to let her go somewhere else and deal with her issues in another place. Or he could help her, try to calm her and eventually connect her with the good side of her family. Neither involved him dragging her to bed, and neither involved him being a neutral party, he thought. He was too close to the Blackwoods now to just ignore one.
"Let me at least mend your necklace before you disappear," he said. It seemed a good way to buy some time to think and also do good for the girl.
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Post by Ash Blackwood on Aug 10, 2017 16:00:26 GMT -5
Ash dropped the necklace and the coin pouch back onto the counter, then lay her hands across one another as they hung against her thighs. She gave no other sign that she'd heard him, and had pulled deep inside herself. Ashes are what's left behind when the fire's gone. So is Ashby. Ooh, Lissy, we should use her to make soap. We'll boil her with animal fat. Oh, she's fat enough, look at her face!
Be quiet, be still.
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Post by Emilian Sota on Aug 10, 2017 17:32:08 GMT -5
Emilian didn't know what to do at that point. He knew that Adara would retreat sometimes, go into a little safe place in her head, but letting her into his head was always dangerous. Rather than try to figure out a fix as they were, he pulled his hands away carefully, letting them hover as if she were a porcelain egg. "I didn't mean to scare you," he said, "but this is who I am, and if you wanted me to give you what you want, you would have to accept that."
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Post by Ash Blackwood on Aug 10, 2017 17:41:27 GMT -5
What did she want? Did she want to be here? With Lisette? No. Lisette wouldn't have stopped, wouldn't have apologized. She'd have kept going until she felt like stopping. Her children would have kept going until Lisette got tired of listening.
This is who I am.
I'm sorry. I won't hurt you.
Hadn't he, though? She thought a moment, moved her wrist slightly. It didn't hurt anymore, there wouldn't be bruises.
Let me at least mend your necklace.
I didn't mean to scare you.
If you wanted me to give you what you want, you would have to accept that.
This is who I am.
The thoughts didn't rush through her mind. She turned them over carefully, letting them absorb. He'd been furious. He'd said mean things.
Ashes, ashes!
He'd apologized.
Her gaze lifted, and she looked at him curiously. "Thank you," she said softly.
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Post by Emilian Sota on Aug 10, 2017 17:46:16 GMT -5
Emilian avoided her gaze and nodded, then turned to round the counter. In silence he lay the necklace out again and arranged his tools, but he stopped before he had even started with any actual work. It wasn't that it was a simple fix, it wasn't even that he would have to remove his glove to get the grip and feeling he would need, it was that this girl complicated his life the second she walked through his door, and that she would see the ring on his finger.
"It won't take me long to fix this," he said finally, as he drew the glove from his scarred hand and set to work on the necklace.
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