Sebastian | Oliver (trickarrow) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2013-05-04 20:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | green arrow, mystique |
Who: Sebastian & Sera
What: An impromptu reunion
Where: The Aria
When: Recently, before the Crane-poison
Warnings/Rating: Nada!
She didn't love living in a hotel. The opulence didn't make up for the general nothing. Her rooms could belong to anyone, and they could belong to no one. They were not like the old, old hardwood things at home. There was no breeze off the Amalfi coast, and the bells of the Vietri sul Mare did not ring morning, noon and dusk. The sounds of the brightly flashing machines didn't carry to her suite, but she wished they did. She didn't like the nothing of thick walls. She missed her family, and she missed the simplicity that allowed for writing on the beach and walks over uneven stones and between walls of cream and white. She missed the place that made her feel normal, that kept the darkness that lived within her at bay. In her dreams, she saw blue, blue waters, and she felt the rocking of the Fiori's boat, and she could see the jagged coastline in all its muted glory. She missed it, and more than once she wondered why she'd come here. She worried that it was a mistake.
She tried to tell herself that it was a good experience, coming to this place. She could learn to hate it and, in learning to hate it, she could cast off the final feelings of sadness regarding Sebastian. The words in her journal had gone from mashed together misery, to introspection, to regret. She liked to think she was improving. She'd asked that question on a forum the evening before: Am I over him?
None of the responses had proved satisfactory.
Melancholy, she forced herself to find a meetup online. She bypassed the Shattered Hearts meetup, thinking it too obvious, and she settled on the Dungeons and Dragons: Knights of Sin City group instead. A pair of European skinny jeans and a snug boy's teeshirt in bright green later, she exited the elevator that led her out into the first floor of Aria, where the slot machines sang and made everything a little more tolerable.
She was, she reminded herself, a new woman. Brave! Long hair cut pixie short and a fearlessness in her step. It almost made her feel fearless, and she stopped to chat with a cute tourist, one who told her she was cuter than anyone he'd seen in Vegas.
She smiled, and she flirted. Maybe she felt molto fearless then.
Slowly but surely, the Aria was beginning to feel like his. The staff was beginning to know who he was upon sight, and the layout of the hotel and casino was becoming more and more familiar every time he took a tour through the building. Logically, he realised that he didn't have to keep a constant presence at the hotel as the owner, because that's what the staff was there for, to run the place. This was why there was a board, why there were managers and general managers, accountants and hospitality. He may have owned the place, but they made it happen. He was just the bank behind the scenes. But still, Sebastian enjoyed walking the floor, talking with the concierge, the housekeepers, everyone who helped this place maintain its reputation, because he was, after all, a people person. He enjoyed people, enjoyed their presence, enjoyed talking and socializing, soaking up the energies that made him keep running. That was how Sebastian Vance-Price did business.
So it was no surprise that he was taking a tour of the building yet again. A nod to the valet as he handed his keys off, and he was walking inside, dressed smartly in Armani, the picture of perfection in the suit cut precisely to his person. "Just taking a look around," he assured the concierge that bustled up to keep pace with him for several steps. "Nothing to be alarmed by." And the smile on his lips, forever warm and kind, matched the words he offered. And it would have been a routine walk, like any others, had he not heard a familiar voice, one that would always be with him no matter what.
Almost immediately, brows knitted together in worry, his steps became quicker, and he zeroed in on the source. Had she not been talking, smiling, even a laugh, it was likely Sebastian wouldn't have even noticed her presence. The long brown hair was gone, and it was as much of a surprise as her presence in Las Vegas was. "Sera?" Sebastian asked as he approached, a slightly wary look in his eyes. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe it was just a coincidence. But the last thing he needed right now was the presence of the one whose heart he broke in the city where he was attempting to start his life with another.
She'd heard whispers since she'd arrived about the hotel being owned by a mafia family. It was whispered like it was something romantic, something that belonged in the novels that Sera devoured during a long summer, thrilling too much at the violence safely nestled between the pages. Perhaps she'd never feared Sebastian's future as much as she ought to have done. But she'd been crafted in violence, hadn't she? Born with pine boxes looming in the too near distance for everyone she loved, she'd some terrible sweet love affair with dark things, hidden beneath the sweet appreciation for Disney and cat memes.
She'd heard whispers, but she'd not expected Sebastian.
She recognized his voice first. She recognized that wariness second. The pleasure of finding him was dulled by the realization that he'd not wanted to be found.
She bid farewell to the man she was speaking to, and she turned to face Sebastian fully. "Ciao, Sebastian. Come stai?" she asked, as if he hadn't broken her heart and left her drowning for a spring in her own sorrow.
His hands were clasped behind him as he watched her bid farewell to the man who had kept her company as he approached, and as she turned to face him, there was nothing Sebastian could do to ease the ache in his heart. He would be a liar if he said that he did not still love her, though it was easier to deny when she wasn't standing in front of him. "Sera," Sebastian responded, lifting his chin slightly before he gave her the smallest of nods. "I'm well," he added a moment later, because how else could he put it? Easy lies were unproblematic to maintain, and he doubted she would probe too closely at his words. "A bit surprised to see you in the city, though." For a moment, he hesitated, weighing his options as how best to proceed. He could not deny her presence here, but how much could he safely acknowledge without putting his relationship with Nell at risk?
A decision of sorts made, Sebastian offered his arm to her. "Would you join me for lunch? We can talk. Catch up."
Oh, how bittersweet to hear him say her name. She had to blink, to remind herself that this was not a novella's reunion. He had wronged her, she told herself. She tried to stoke the flames of hatred, but it didn't work, and she ended up giving him a very genuine look, eyes deep and blue and wide. "I was looking for a friend of my sister's, and the search led me here," she explained honestly. He didn't know the circumstances of Carlita's death, and he didn't know about Angelo. He knew she was Fiori, and that her sister had died when she was young, but she'd never spoken of it beyond that. She'd thought about it. Every night, when she crawled into her bed, she'd thought about Carlita's death, but she hadn't spoken of it. And while he was right, while she did not probe, there was a slightly knowing narrowing of her eyes when he said he was well. "I'm not here to cause you trouble, amato."
She looked at his arm and, after a moment of hesitation and a crooked grin, one that was both sweet and teasing, she shook her head. "I don't think I should, Sebastian," she said, trying to keep her voice strong and determined. "It was very hard for me this spring," she said, not bothering to hide that truth. What was the point in this hiding? He had someone he loved more, and lunch would not change it. She squeezed the arm he held out, fingers warm and light. "Do you come here very much?" Because she might need to change hotels if he did. She truly hadn't come here to cause him distress, and there was distress in his hesitation. She had known his body well enough, once, to know what hesitation looked like on his naked skin, and she knew what it looked like now, beneath the glittering lights of the casino.
There was a mixture of reliefs that washed over him at the bits of information he was able to glean from those few words. Sera was not here because of him and lunch was something they could safely put off for some time without either of them feeling offended for it. Sebastian had offered on the basis of politeness, but he was entirely too weighed down with guilt when it came to Sera and the decision that had torn their relationship apart to sit for a polite lunch with her. If he had to, he would, of course.
As she squeezed his arm, he turned his hand towards her, reaching for her fingers to give them a quick squeeze before he released them, holding on only long enough to show that he did feel bad about what had happened between them. Sera had been nearly everything he wanted in a wife. She was sweet, kind, had a warmth that soothed him, and they complimented one another both in and out of the bedroom. But she wasn't Nell, and there was no woman who could compete with her. Perhaps if he had never come to the city, if he had never let Nell cross his thoughts again, they could have been happy together. But as it was, he had to be true to his feelings. "I do," Sebastian offered in response, turning to look out over the ground floor of the hotel, of everything that stretched out that was his. "I bought the place, actually," he continued, turning back to look towards her. "I closed on it at the beginning of April. The investment I was looking to make in the city in order to become independent of my family." She had known that much, the reasons he had for coming to Vegas when they were still together. But he had been careful with the details, divulging them only to his father, just in case things had gone sour.
She could see the relief in his eyes, and it made something churn in the pit of her belly, something hurt and wounded, and she pulled her fingers away from his arm before he finished the quick squeeze. She didn't want his pity. She didn't want him to feel badly. She wanted to ache to leave, to flow away like water. She looked out at the casino. "I heard rumors the mafia owned this place, but I didn't realize it was your famiglia," she said without accusation. Perhaps Sera had her own tainted, idealized view of the world, because she could see what his family was, and she could see the truth of things clearly, but she'd never felt a need to change them. In the end, the relief on his features when she'd turned down his lunch invitation stung too much for her to go into long discussion about his plans. She'd been so enamoured of him, so in love with the idea of her own love affair, that she'd never spoken plainly to him about his family and his place there, not wanting to threaten his love for her. In the end, his love for her had been of no significance in comparison to his love for another, and she was left there, with nothing.
She would need to find somewhere else to stay. She gave him a smile that was enigmatic, more reminiscent of the woman her sister had been, than of the girl Sera had been until that moment. She reconsidered the meetup she was to attend. Standing there, in the lobby of that hotel with him, it taught her things. She rubbed together ink-stained fingers, and she tipped her head as she looked at him. He had always been so handsome. "I must go, Sebastian," she said, his name reminiscent of an old, comfortable caress on her lips. "I have not changed my number. You may call me at times." It was an affectation, as if she bestowed a gift. She almost giggled.
"It's not the family that owns this place," Sebastian corrected gently, "it's mine. Though I suppose my name will forever be associated with them, won't it?" Seeing her here, it made him wish he had been prepared for her visit; perhaps then he might have had better words to offer instead of the clumsy, awkward things he had right then. But it could hardly be helped now. "Do take care of yourself, Sera," he said softly, taking a step back to allow her to take her exit. He still had work to do within the hotel, and could not leave simply because an old flame had shown up unannounced. "And you may call me as well," Sebastian responded. "My number has not changed, and I would still help you if you needed it." Ducking his head for a moment, his gaze lingered on her for several heartbeats before he turned, immediately joined with several of the staff at his side, staff who had been hovering several yards away as they waited for him to be done.