log: Samuel and Rowan
Who: Samuel and Rowan When: soon after Samuel is brought to Thierry's Where: library in the mansion What: Rowan and Samuel meet. Awkward times ensue. HINT: this icon is totally appropriate Rating: PG-13 Status: complete
Samuel wasn’t entirely sure what he was supposed to do now.
He was at Lord Thierry’s and had been given permission to heal there. He hadn’t signed his life away to Daybreak, and he’d made it pretty clear he was mentally completely out of it, and not really wanting to talk about politics like that. He told the witches who healed him what had happened, and for now they let him rest. And that meant he was bored. He knew what Thane wanted him to do—goad Lord Thierry and hold hands with the Daybreakers—but contrary to popular belief, Samuel didn’t do everything Thane told him. Especially after that little stunt. Sam wasn’t about to switch sides completely or anything, but he might try and make Thane’s life harder.
But for now, although his injuries were mostly healed, he was actually in pain and didn’t want to think about that for a few hours. He was also bored, but didn’t feel the desire to actually associate with people here. There were humans here, for crying out loud. Ew.
So he hobbled around the mansion, looking for an empty room where he could find something to do. He found his way to the library. There was a comfy looking couch and books, and he might not be a particularly intellectual guy, but at least he wouldn’t be bothered here.
He sat on a couch, propping his leg up as well, and grabbed the nearest book from the towering bookshelf.
Rowan was in more or less the same position. She'd come to Las Vegas in a rush, driven as much by her own urgency as Mary-Lynnette's worry over her soulmate. But her brother was alive and safe, and now she was just sort of... here. With the Daybreakers, who didn't seem to have any sort of organized plan other than hunkering down and waiting for the best. This didn't seem good enough to Rowan. And yet she hadn't spoken up, because it wasn't like she was some master of strategy.
Which was what had brought her to the library. Thierry had a sizeable collection, and she'd just finished reading through Caesar and was looking to replace the book before moving on to Sun Tzu. The library also had the benefit of usually being quiet and unoccupied. Except that today it wasn't. Rowan turned the corner to the familiar couch by the bookshelf and found it occupied by an unfamiliar young man.
"I'm sorry to disturb you," she said abruptly. "I wanted to put this back and I'm afraid it belongs behind you."
The Daybreakers were pretty stupid, at least according to reputation. Maybe Rowan would be helpful. Not that Samuel would suggest any such thing. Staying out the way was really the best idea.
He was entirely engrossed in his book, which was clearly so enthralling considering he was all of one page in and had already forgotten what it was once Rowan interrupted him. And really, if he was going to be interrupted by anyone, at least she was hot.
He looked behind him at the empty spot to verify her words. “Ah, so it is. No bother, really.” He grinned, holding out a hand to take the book from her. “How was it?” The book, that is. Maybe he should switch to it.
Rowan raised her brows slightly. "It's Caesar. My opinion on how it is hardly matters, does it?" She offered him the book. "The translation is quite good, though, if that makes a difference."
Samuel sat up a bit at that reply. He was expecting something more along the lines of a simple good or bad. Color him intrigued. “I would think your opinion would be the most important thing.” Maybe not to him per se, but in general. Why else would she read unless she enjoyed it? Or, like him, was very, very bored. But he took the book and skimmed through it, setting on his lap the copy of Plato’s Symposium he had happened to pick up. Apparently he had sat down where the very old classics were.
"One girl's thoughts on a text that's thousands of years old? Yes, of course, my opinion is very important," Rowan said dryly. She glanced at the book he'd been reading before abandoning it for Caesar and added, "Of course, now I'm not able to ask what you think of your book."
“It very well might. You might be the best reader of Caesar since Caesar,” Samuel argued, raising his eyebrows. “And if you didn’t have an opinion, it probably wasn’t worth the read.” That was sort of the point of reading, right? He took English courses in school. They were always talking about thinking about the text. But then, he wasn’t a very good student.
He smirked at her next comment. “Well, that’s just as well. I barely got started, so my opinion really wouldn’t help.”
"I never said I didn't have an opinion," Rowan replied, smiling a bit. "I merely said that mine didn't count for much. There's quite a difference." She shook a bit of hair out of her face and looked more carefully at this boy. "I suppose if I wanted a more authoritative opinion I could ask Lord Thierry. Surely he knew Caesar, or was in his legions or something."
Rowan leaned against the shelf opposite, folding her arms. "I suppose not. Should I check in when you've gotten a bit farther along?"
“And I politely disagree.” He smirked. Samuel really was all about the individual. It went with his whole theory of use or be used. Everyone looked out for themselves, so clearly their opinion was the most important. He was only a little surprised he was carrying on such a conversation; he tried not to really go on about things he actually believed in. That was just asking for trouble. But he supposed she was hot, so there was no real harm in chatting so much. He was even trying to be a little polite. The realization of which made his thoughts come out a bit more jumbled than usual.
“Do you really know Lord Thierry—oh, hell, am I being rude? Do you want a seat? I was just resting my leg here—I don’t even know what your name is,” came out fairly quickly, as he sat up to move his leg off the couch. Plato, sadly, fell to the floor when he moved. Woe. The latter was unintentional, but he was hoping he’d come off as more cute and less dorky.
"Then we'll have to leave it at that, I suppose." Rowan's lips quirked slightly; it wasn't a smirk, exactly, but something akin to one. Who was he, and why was he so nervous around her? Sure, the Redferns could have that effect on people, but if he was here he had to be fairly used to the unusual sorts that made up Circle Daybreak. And he probably didn't even know she was a Redfern.
"You don't have to inconvenience yourself," she said, faintly amused. "I don't know Lord Thierry, though I've met him. And you're not being rude." She stooped and picked up the book, offering it back to him. "I'm Rowan."
There were really a lot of reasons for him to be nervous. He hoped he wasn’t showing his actual nerves, though... that actual concern he had because he didn’t want to show people what he was really like at all.. Hell, he would much rather she knew that he had worked with Thane than anything about what he was really like. But maybe if she thought nerves were due to her being hot, that would be okay. Hot women made men nervous all the time.
But whatever she thought of him, she seemed to be amused, and Samuel was pretty sure that was a good thing. “Are you sure, I’m just taking up space. I’m Samuel, by the way,” he was leaning down to pick up Plato’s Symposium at the same time, hand accidentally touching hers. Or maybe not so accidentally—remember, she was hot.
But in the next instant, he was recoiling like he had been burned, blue eyes narrowed and not quite so jovial anymore. He had no idea what just happened, but it was like a spark went right down into his soul, and his whole mind opened... just for a moment. That really pissed him off.
Rowan had been about to reply with another witty remark; instead she was left stooping on the ground, mind reeling and her skin feeling like it was on fire. She was pretty sure she recognized this from all the stories she'd heard. And Samuel seemed less than pleased at the effect. She reached tentatively for his hand, then drew hers back and stood up. "Oh, hell," she said abruptly. "I suppose you felt that too?"
Samuel still looked a little annoyed, but there was some more confusion now.. Really, he’d like to go back to the witty remarks and simple desire to make out and maybe sleep with her. Now he had no idea what was going on. Well...he actually still had the desire to sleep with her, but it was somehow different now. He didn’t like it. “What did you do?” What? He clearly hadn’t done anything unusual! It must be her.
"I didn't do anything." Rowan frowned. She wanted nothing more than to just hold him as tightly as she could, but his accusatory tone was keeping her back. "We're soulmates. That's what that was."
“...what?” The words coming out of her mouth were logical themselves. The sentences had fine form. But, um, soulmates? Curiouser and curiouser.
"The soulmate principle. Are you another newly made 'shifter or something? It's rampant these days, it seems like everybody has a soulmate." Rowan shut her mouth with an audible snap. "We're bound together. Can't you feel it?" Like an invisible silver cord running from her mind to his.
“No!” he snapped back quickly, as if insulted at the very idea of being made. He was proud of his heritage, okay? He just didn’t like to talk about it with other people. Except for how right now he very much wanted to tell her everything. If that was supposed to be comforting, it wasn’t. It was terrifying, because Samuel Lanner didn’t get involved with people, certainly not some Daybreaker who wanted to make friends with humans, and certainly didn’t let some principle run his life.
“I should go.” Because that would clearly make this all go away. He got to his feet a little too quickly, and his injured leg made him wince and stagger slightly. Great get away, right?
"Then you had to have heard of it before." Rowan watched him get up. "You can't run away from this. Not that you can run anywhere right now," she added. When he staggered she reached out to steady him. She was just trying to keep him from falling! Really!
“My parents didn’t tell me anything about the Night World. They didn’t want any part of it.” God, why was he telling her this? It wasn’t like it sounded like some big secret, it just felt like one to him. Maybe he said it because she was touching him, and it was really hard to focus on other things with that going on. He was equally torn on whether to kiss her or push her away, his better judgment wanting the latter, while the rest of him wanted the former. He’d also wanted the former for longer, so maybe it wasn’t a surprise when he pulled her close to him and pressed their lips together. There was no hesitation there, just Samuel’s natural passion for life. God, he loved her. He didn’t know her, but he loved her, and that was crazy. That’s what made him push her away just as roughly as he had pulled her towards him.
"That's - that's so sad," she said, wondering, as he spoke. She wanted to ask him more questions - where he'd come from, what he was like, what he did - but then he kissed her and it was like she could see his mind opening before her like a flower, just for an instant, all the wondrous history of his life unfolding in her mind's eye.
And then he shoved her away and Rowan was suddenly furious. Before she knew what she was doing her hand had flashed out and slapped him soundly across the face. "What is wrong with you?"
Did she really have to ask what was wrong with him? For a moment, he had seen inside her mind, and that was frightening. Why didn’t that seem to bother her? She seemed to enjoy it, maybe because she was a vampire and used to that whole psychic thing.
But the slap shocked him enough to shut up his mind for a moment, and normally he could have handled it, but with his leg and other injuries, he fell right down onto the floor. He admired her strength and self-reliance for a moment before he mentally yelled at himself for admiring her. The last thing he needed right now were reasons to love her. “I don’t think this is going to work out...” he said slowly, propping himself up on his shoulders. Ouch.
Rowan looked contrite as soon as Samuel hit the floor, and she knelt down next to him. "I'm sorry," she said sheepishly. "I'm behaving rather awfully." Why was she apologizing? He was the one who was acting like an ass. "It's not a matter of working out," she added. "We're stuck with each other. My brother's soulmate kicked him in the shins when they first met." As if that was helpful.
She was serious about this. Oh, goodness. And he didn’t want her to be apologizing, since she’d really done nothing to apologize for. He was the ass. “I...” He didn’t want to hurt her, but he didn’t do honest with people. “Like I said, I’m out of here.” He was being brusque. He knew this. Maybe he could keep this up long enough so she’d hate him and he wouldn’t want to kiss her again..
Rowan rocked back on her heels, watching him. "Of course." As soon as you get off the floor, she added mentally. Could he hear that? She wasn't sure. "But as I said, you can't run away from this. And I'm staying here at Lord Thierry's for the time being, so perhaps we'll run into each other again and we can discuss this when you're less moody." Blunt, but he was frankly irritating her right now.
“I’m not moody. And I’m not going to be at Thierry’s long, so I wouldn’t worry about running into me again.” Each word hurt to say, and he could only hope it was hurting her, too. They would hate each other and be apart and his life would be back to normal. At least he could tell himself that lie until he believed it. And hey, he got to sitting up. That was a start.
"I hope that's true. I'd hate to think that I'm irrevocably tied to a petulant child." Rowan raised one eyebrow, then stood up. "I'll see you again." She could see right through his attempts to be hurtful, so they slid right off her like harmless raindrops. "Like I said. We'll discuss this later." And she walked off, only remembering later that she hadn't collected her book like she'd meant to.