Who: Darius Delacreaux & Audrey Leradine What: Unintentionally bumping into a familiar face Where: Mage’s Guild When: Right before this [backdated] Rating: PG (v. minimal cursing bc lol aud) Status: Complete
In all honesty there was no need to be so worried. So what if she was late? It was the Mage’s Guild Council that wanted to talk to her. They’d wait a week if they had to—at least this was something Audrey kept repeating in her head in hopes it’d soothe the knot that was starting to form in her stomach. Audrey had been intending to keep her summon a secret, but things couldn’t be helped if Merri had seen it along with those two fighters. Why did she think he’d keep it a secret. It wasn’t like they were friends or anything, besides they weren’t going to lynch her. If anything she could understand why they’d want to talk to her, especially after it was their previous Sage that had almost flattened out the city.
Could that have been a summon? If it was, why was it so wretched? Shiva wasn’t like that. Shiva was— “I’m so sorry!” Audrey had cut the corner and it had felt as though she ran in a brick wall. Rubbing her hand over nose, she couldn’t help but scrunch it as she blinked open her eyes and looked up. Oh shit.
Generally when people ran into Darius around here, it was because they were running off to another class, or where a Scholar sent on some crazy errand which… Well, Darius could remember those miserable days. Admittedly, the woman who taught him hadn’t been utterly terrible, but he knew others that hadn’t had it quite so lucky either. His hands instantly snapped out, trying to grab ahold of the person’s shoulders to assure they wouldn’t go stumbling backwards.
However, the voice, and the feel of the body under his hands, and…. Damn it.
“Don’t worry about it.” Darius was quick to dismiss before releasing his grip on Audrey. “Just be careful, yeah?” There was no anger, no chiding in his voice, just… A simple statement with a bit of concern.
Audrey struggled with her words but instead of flapping her mouth around, trying to form something she smiled and nodded. "Yeah," was all she was able to squeeze out. One of her hands came up to rub her upper arm. "Running off to do errands?" She fed him words not necessarily wanting to know what he was up to. Especially if it was with—"Do you know where the Guildmaster's office is?" Audrey had an idea, but it would be best she didn't waste time being lost in the tower.
“Work.” The single word of a statement seemed to be all he felt was needed with a shrug. Darius was well known for her penchant to always have something that needed his attention, but with all the pain, loss, injury and death that had occurred… If there was a white mage who didn’t have their schedule full now-a-days there never would be. Though, her next question caused his forehead to crinkle slightly, seeming to find the thought of her visiting the Guildmaster’s office rather out of place.
“Uh, yeah.” Shifting Darius turned, pointing down one of the nearby hallways. “Go down that one until it splits, then go left. Another left at the second hallway you come to, and then the office should be on the right.” It seemed simple enough to him but… He’d live here more than half his life at this point. It was hard to get lost.
His directions seemed to tangle in her mind, and she blinked looking over his shoulder in the direction he had pointed. “I see,” she whispered, eyebrows knitting down in minor confusion. “So left, left, right. Can’t miss it,” she repeated his instructions. Her eyes glanced up at him, and she offered him a sincere smile. “Don’t overwork yourself, okay?” A hesitant hand came up to pat is upper arm. “I shouldn’t keep you.” Her smile forced itself a little bigger. “Be safe.”
“You got it.” The words were as much for him as they were for her. If she had it, he didn’t need to walk her there, didn’t need to spend more time pouring over how she might be or might not be, didn’t need to worry about her getting the wrong impression, or others getting it for her, and… Darius gave a simple nod to the next question. “Sure.” A non-committal response seemed best in this. Though, at her next words he couldn’t help but pause. Nodding his head, a hand reached up, patting her upper arm in return.
“Yeah, you too.” With his gaze dropped off to one side, Darius stepped around Audrey, and shifted to keep moving on because in this sort of situation, what else was he supposed to do?
Audrey had made it down the hallway before her mind had gone blank. With the stress of having met him, meeting with the guild council and Shiva’s words echoing in her mind his directions had gotten scrambled and thrown to the wind involuntarily. “Darius?” Audrey’s back was still to him, in fact she wasn’t even sure if he had already turned the corner before saying his name. Stepping slightly so her gaze could see him, a hand came up to scratch the back of her head sheepishly, eyes diverted to the floor and away from him in embarrassment. “.. I forgot already.”
It would be easy to pretend he didn’t really hear her, to keep walking, to just focus on what was ahead of him instead of the frustrating, and complicated feelings that weighed down the pit of his stomach with frustration, and some despair. However, regardless of himself when she spoke he stopped walking away. He didn’t want to stop, but also didn’t want to go. Maybe she’d finally fucking apologize for all the shit she’d fucked up, but… That seemed like…
Directions…. Right.
His back remained turned, even if he was stopped in place. “Down the hall, left at the split, left at the second left, first office on the right, can’t miss it. Got a big sign on the door.” A beat. “You’ll be alright.” His stance shifted, and Darius’ adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. There was a hundred things he could say to her, conversations he could try to broach, but instead he simply finished with.
“Sorry, gotta go. Work calls.” Because in the end, didn’t it always?