Gwynn (dame_du_lac) wrote in carpediem_rp, @ 2015-08-30 19:29:00 |
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Entry tags: | character: adrian battye, character: narissa smith, thread: complete |
Who: Adrian and Narissa
Where: Smith Home
When: Sunday 30 August, Evening
Warning: None
Status: Closed, Complete
Adrian had left Jackson playing. He was lost in the music, and Mom would make sure he got home when she locked up at the end of the day. Adrian wanted to make sure his little sister was feeling loved. She'd been very quiet since the attack. And even as caught up in his own, personal stuff as Adrian was, he was aware of his sister's unusual behavior. She was quieter than he was used to. He knocked on her door. "Come swimming, Sissy."
Narissa heard her brother come in, though she didn't come out of her room to greet him like she usually would. She didn't really want to have to talk about things with what had happened with Violet, and so avoiding things so she could think was helping a little. Adrian calling her to come out lured her from her room at least and she offered a faint smile. "How are you doing?"
"Missing you," Adrian replied, oddly relieved she was able to be lured out. There was always the small fear he had - even with his sister - that he wasn't worth being around. A swim at least was unusually difficult for his water-child sister to resist. He wasn't afraid of using that to his advantage.
"I'm around. You've been with Jackson." Narissa shrugged one shoulder and tucked back her hair behind her ears. "You've been busy so I didn't want to bother you." Because it was true. He'd been around his friend and she didn't want to interfere.
"Jackson is around a lot." She'd always been willing to hang out with them before. Adrian had no idea quite how much she'd seen and heard. "You aren't a bother… You're always welcome to hang out with us. But he's still playing, so can I tempt you out to the pond?"
"Yeah. I don't know. Don't want to intrude." Because it seemed like there was something different happening now between them. "The pond would be nice." Because she loved swimming no matter what mood she was in.
"Why would you think you were intruding?" Adrian asked, not completely aware himself of the shift that was occurring. Nari was far better at people stuff than he was. "Go change… Hurry up!" Adrian teased. It was easier to focus on that than whatever his sister was worried about. He could draw out what was bothering her when they were in the water.
"I pay attention?" Narissa raised a brow slightly at his words, as though implying that she knew something he didn't. After a moment though she nodded and headed back into her room, changing into her bikini quickly. Swimming would be nice, and maybe she could spend some time not thinking.
Adrian frowned at her pronouncement. Paid attention to what? What in Merlin's name was she implying. He was still puzzling it when she reappeared. Swimming would be easier than making sense of her when she was being cryptic. "You're still my sister," he offered, reassuring her, but also himself.
Narissa raised a brow again. "You didn't notice. Wow. Just... I've been hiding in my room and even I've figured it out." She ran her hand through her hair and shook her head at him. "Wow. He totally just went head over feet for you and you have no clue? How? I mean... He's gone entirely sober, or did you miss that?"
Adrian was perhaps a little slow, but he was not so distracted that he hadn't realized Jackson was sober. He didn't attribute it to his friend being - as his sister said - head over feet. Jackson knew that Adrian was having a hard time personally, and he attributed it to that and to the injury Jackson had just received. "Yea, he has, but it has little to do with me," he argued. "He always cuts down when he crashes here. And he was injured last weekend… I think that had an effect on him… It had an effect on all of us."
"Cuts down, yes. But he's completely without. I haven't even seen him have anything but water and juice since he came back." There were a few times she'd been out to get food and all and so she noticed, and at meals too he had stayed on juice or coffee. "And yeah, last weekend absolutely had an effect on him. One on you too, I think. You don't like him back or something?"
Adrian was slow now. He didn't think about being liked liked. "He's my best friend." Of course he liked him. "Has been for years." What was she implying? He dove into the water, surfacing a distance away. There were other issues that were weighing on his mind that he was just as reluctant to talk about or think about.
Narissa was vaguely shocked. When he swam away she splashed at him. "You cannot possibly be my brother and be this slow. Have I taught you nothing? Merlin, Adrian! He wants you!" She shook her head. This was one thing that she knew how to identify perfectly and she couldn't see how her brother didn't see it.
Adrian frowned. Her words hit a little too close to home. He wasn't her brother, and for a brief flash that pain was visible in his eyes. This week had destroyed that illusion more for him. And then of course Nari was being entirely ridiculous. Not that he doubted her in general, but she didn't know everything that was going on this week, and so was misinterpreting what she saw. "It's not that, Sissy. There's more..." Adrian shook his head and sighed. He couldn't hide it from her. "Come here." He opened his arms for a hug, knowing his physical sister would react better if he was there to reassure her.
Narissa frowned, concerned as she swam closer and hugged him. It felt like something was more wrong than what she'd said and his words had only confirmed that. She didn't know what it was but it had her confused already. "What's wrong, Adi? What happened?"
Adrian wrapped his arms around her. Still, he hesitated. As soon as he spoke, things with Narissa would change just like they did with Mom and Dad and even Jackson. He took a deep breath, "My father found me," he finally whispered to her.
His words confused her for a moment before she pulled him closer, resting her head on his shoulder. "Are you okay, Adi?" Because that was the most important thing. She would worry about how it affected things later. She wanted to know he wasn't upset or if he was before anything else.
"He came back… sobered up because I called him… because he saw me right after I took the test that proved it. I… don't know how I am. I never expected to find out who he was. Wallace never told him. He figured it out himself when he saw me at lunch with her. And… he wants to be part of my life." Adrian continued softly.
Narissa nodded slightly, her head still on his shoulder. "Is that what you want?" She didn't know exactly what to think about it all, so she would go by what her brother thought. "I mean, for him to be part of your life?" Because if not she would gladly tell whoever it was to go screw off and leave her brother alone. "It doesn't change things though, if you want to know him. You're still my brother and mom and dad's son. This doesn't change that."
"I want to be your brother." Her proper brother, not just her adopted brother. Adrian wanted Isolde and Jonathan to be his parents. Not Wallace and Tony. But that wasn't his life. Knowing his birth father gave a face to the man who was not his dad and made him real in a way he had never been before.
"There isn't any wanting involved. It's fact whether you like it or not." Narissa spoke softly but firmly in this. He was never anything to her but her brother and this wouldn't change that. "I love you, Adi. It's like..." A small thoughtful look. "If someone grows up with you, and loves you, and only knows you ever as a sibling, and then that person moves in with another family. Or gets married or something. Does that mean they're not your sibling anymore?" Because that was the best way she could think of explaining it to him.
"You don't have to like family." Adrian pointed out, still holding her. He knew she disliked Wallace. He didn't like her all the time either. But her comparison wasn't quite accurate. He did mostly get her point. She was always simple though about the fact that he was her brother. He sighed. "It's going to change things... Having him in my life." Just having him exist changed things. There was no point in pretending not to know - the truth could not be denied. And there was no way, given who his father was, that this wouldn't come out eventually. Hell, Wallace might be the one to go to the tabloids with the story. It would be better, easier if Adrian knew the man, and if he knew Adrian.
"Things will change when you graduate too, Adi. But you're still my brother no matter what happens. Just because you have different parents doesn't mean you're not." Because they had been raised as siblings and so she couldn't imagine them as not. "I'll always be your annoying little sister. No matter what."
Adrian hugged her. She was still Narissa, fighting to protect him from fears she couldn't take away. "Yea? You haven't been too annoying this week, hiding out like you have. So you can't possibly be my sister," he teased.
"Told you. You've been busy." A solemn nod, though the corners of her lips twitched a bit. "I'm always going to be your sister. Even when I'm ancient and not absolutely adorable anymore."
"I've been dealing with this, Sissy. He contacted me the day after the attack, and then we did the test midweek." He hadn't wanted to bother her with it. "And you'll be adorable even when you're old."
"It's okay, Adi. You could've said though." Her eyes met his and she smiled slightly. "I love you, big brother." Another hug was offered, her head resting back on his shoulder as she held him tight. He needed the reassurance, she knew, and she was more than willing to offer it.
"I didn't want to burden you with it, Sissy. You were shaken up by what happened this weekend. You did not want to deal with my insecurities." Adrian was wrapped up in his own issue but he wasn't an idiot either. Or at least not a complete idiot. "You obviously had enough going on."
"And you're still the most important thing." Nari fixed her eyes on him, her expression as close to stern as she ever got. "You are never a burden to me, no matter what." Because he needed to know and understand that.
"So are you, Sissy." He was as firm on that as she was. "And last weekend was…" It was a lot of things, really. "The older brother is supposed to look out for the little sister."
"And the little sister is supposed to make sure that her big brother isn't going mad from other things." She smiled at him slightly. "I'm here for you no matter what. You know that. You can always come talk to me about anything."
"You too. Even if you just want to talk about not getting to fight a Deatheater." Adrian was not going to let her silence go any more than she was going to let his go. Jackson hadn't been there the entire week, but she had been scarce the entire time. "Jackson wasn't the only reason you've been scarce."
"I know. It's more stuff I'm trying to figure for myself, honestly." She shook her head slightly. "People things, you know?" Because it was more her area of expertise, even if right now she was finding it all very confusing. "I don't want to think though right now. It's been all I've done for days."
Adrian arched a brow at her. "You don't let me get away with that excuse." She sounded like him honestly. "You are learning my bad habits, not my good ones." He hugged her again. "You are lucky I'm not the meddlesome, annoying little sister or you'd have to talk about it whether you wanted to or not."
"It's not something that can be fixed, so I just have to wait." Because Violet had wanted time. She just didn't know what to do in the time and she didn't really know how long to wait to see what happened either. "I'll be okay, I promise."
"Remember, the big brother is supposed to look out for the little sister… and the little sister can come to her brother with anything." That at least could be counted on, if nothing else could about his family life. And since it didn't seem like Sissy was going to tell him more, he dunked her.
"I know, Adi. You'll know first when I figure stuff out more for myself, I promise." Because he was the main one that mattered when it came to approval of her happiness. She came up after the dunking laughing and splashed him again, shaking out her long hair from her face.