Leon Almasy (martyrformylove) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2011-04-10 16:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | #solo, 2009-08-15 |
All I want to do is trade this life for something new
Who: Leon Almasy and his familiar, Kupo (NPC)
Where: The Almasy house
When: Afternoon
Note: The links to the pictures are NSFW, kay? Kay.
Cael was back.
It shouldn’t have bothered Leon much. He was, after all, glad to know his twin wasn’t actually dead like everyone told him he was. They might not always be on speaking terms, but he always thought he’d know if something had happened to Cael, and he’d blamed the coma for why he hadn’t felt this. But Cael was back, and Cael was with Viuly. It was like punching him twice - first in the stomach, learning his twin was alive, and then in the face, seeing him with the girl Leon wanted.
Leon didn’t know which hurt worse - the fact that she’d been with Cael while he was in Mexico, or that Viuly ran right back to him the moment he was back. Trying not to think about it didn’t help, and so Leon did the only thing he thought of - he withdrew for a while. He didn’t leave town, he’d promised Viuly he wouldn’t, but he also hadn’t turned his cell phone on since Monday, either. Somehow, he didn’t think he’d missed any calls either.
A lonely fire elemental was a miserable fire elemental, but Leon did not feel like dealing with people right now. Actually hadn’t for the last few days, since Cael and Viuly came back to the house. He knew his brother had been around the house since then, because it was all Cid could talk about, but Leon made a point not to hang around any of them. Hell, if they wanted to find him, it wasn’t like he was hiding, though he had spent a good chunk of time curled up in his fireplace, letting the fire wash over him. There were only two rooms in the summer house that were off limits to the other members of the Almasy family, and that was his bedroom and his darkroom. If he wasn’t in one, then he was in the other. It wasn’t hiding if everyone could easily find him - even if he might greet them with a fireball to the face.
His photography was one of the few things that set him apart from Cael, a real talent that no one ever really thought about, but Leon did. His pictures were his prized possessions, and the ones he was currently developing were no different. Even if he didn’t really want to see the subject in them at the moment, but he did at the same time. Viuly. These were the pictures he’d taken the last night they’d spent together.
They weren’t proper, no. But there was beauty in them, a raw energy Leon could feel leaping off the paper. Viuly looked alive, more so than he’d seen her in a long time. And there was a definite sense of pride he felt at being able to capture that passion in a single shot. Anyone who thought he wasn’t going to amount to anything had clearly never seen his photographs. A cocky statement, to be sure, but Leon knew it to be truth.
Taking the finished prints with him, Leon went upstairs and out onto the back deck. He couldn’t hear anyone else in the house, and for the moment, he liked it better that way. Lighting up a cigarette, he sat down on the stairs, looking through each picture he had. Cael would flip his shit if he ever knew Leon had these. Viuly knew they’d been taken, but probably thought Leon would never do anything with them. She was damn wrong about that.
Those things are going to kill you, you know.
“Fuck off, Kupo.” Leon had barely noticed his familiar come over, but he could see the hawk out of the corner of his eye, perched on one of the porch railings. He blew a puff of smoke in the hawk’s direction, and the squawking noise Kupo made was almost brought a smile to Leon’s face. Almost. “No one asked for you to come here.”
Once the smoke had cleared out a bit, Kupo crept closer - as close as he would dare to, given that his charge was a trigger happy fire elemental with the military training to back it up. I was beginning to wonder if we’d lost you to the depths of the house forever. You could have let me inside, I would have kept you company.
“Sorry, but no.” The hawk didn’t count. Ever. If they weren’t bound to one another, Leon would have preferred to be without a familiar all together, even if Kupo meant well. He didn’t need anyone hanging around him, seeing how well he did with Viuly. You know she loves you, he reminded himself. Even when she loves him, too. Of course. Because there was nothing Leon could do that Cael couldn’t do better, even when it came to women.
Ah, so it’s the girl again. Kupo tilted his head to the side, staring at the pictures Leon held. Is that her?
Normally Leon was somewhat protective of his art. The pictures he took for clients were one thing; the ones he took for himself were another altogether. He didn’t explain what each one meant to him, because that secret was his and his alone. He wasn’t about to explain the how and why behind these ones, either, not even to his familiar. Kupo could look all he wanted, though. He tilted the photos forward like a poker player revealing his hand, face expressionless.
He knew the hawk’s vision was perfect, and that he’d see, well, damn near everything. You took pictures of - whaaaaat? Kupo’s wings flapped, the closest he could get to properly expressing the freakout going through the familiar’s brain. OH MY GOD! I can’t see that! I mean - no! Put it away! Why would you take pictures of that?
And for the first time in days, Leon laughed. “You’re such a fucking prude,” he said, shaking his head. “You and me are going to have a long ass life together.” He did as Kupo said though, turning the pictures back towards himself. “Maybe I’ll tell why when you’re older.” Or not. Kupo shouldn’t hold his breath on that.
Kupo didn’t answer, but instead gave him the hawk equivalent of a dirty look before taking off into the sky. Better off that his familiar left him alone. He understood the whole amp-your-powers-and-be-your-protector bit, but he had guns for that. Kupo would be back, he always was. Until then, Leon took another drag on his cigarette, looking back at the pictures again.
He should probably give a set of these pictures to Viuly. Let it serve as a reminder. He didn’t know if he was ready to actually talk to her yet - he would be eventually, and in spite of all that had happened, he did want her. More than was probably healthy for him. He just needed to make sure Cael wasn’t around when he saw her next, because if last time was any indication, he didn’t want to deal with another fight on his hands.
Putting out his cigarette, Leon headed back inside, headed back down to his darkroom. If he worked the rest of the night, he could have those pictures done today. Then it would just be a matter of getting them to Viuly.
Hell. Leon couldn’t stay in the house forever. This was as good a reason as any. And the look on her face would totally be worth it.