Zaviar Abdella (firststrike) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-10-19 14:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-07-30, madeleine, zaviar |
Always knew I had the answer - but I didn't understand the question
Who: Madeleine and Zaviar (plus their familiars)
When: Early evening
Where: Madeleine's home
Warning: NSFW
Calm? Superficially, yes. On the surface, Madeleine was just busy. Dressed in as close to her scruffs as she was ever going to get, she was jumping between rooms, trying to take on every possible chore at once. The laundry was done, the dishes were all clean, the kitchen had been mopped and fresh wood had been brought in for the fire. She had even changed the water in Althea’s bath despite the fact the snake never seemed to use it and they weren’t quite on speaking terms. A closer look at the distance between elemental and familiar, the odd silence in the house and the temperature that remained high even though the cause was seemingly distracted -- details easily missed that filled in more gaps than Madeleine would have appreciated had she noticed.
‘You need one of those things that tells you the temperature,’ Althea stated, hanging from the upstairs banister rail as she watched her elemental continue to burn off energy with pointless tasks. ‘Then perhaps people would have an idea what kind of mood you’re in.’
“Or perhaps they could just ask you,” she shot back, wiping sooty hands on her jeans yet again while she replaced the logs in the fire, “since you seem to have entered the business of disclosure. Which you do marvellously, by the way.” Reminded of why she had been angry to begin with, she ripped the pins out of her hair and started afresh, trying to annihilate fly-aways.
‘You should sit down for a while.’
“And you should keep your bloody thoughts to yourself.” But since neither were apparently going to happen any time soon, the snake needed to shut up. Preferably before she lost her temper entirely and successfully committed suicide indirectly.
A mood was not the proper way to describe what Zaviar had found himself in after he discarded his phone. Discarded was, of course, the nice way of putting it since he was going to need to go by the cell store for a new one. Apparently no one knew how to make a cell phone that could withstand being crushed in a were’s hand. Because Zaviar did not throw things against the wall. He was slightly tempted to do it but Knight had remarked on how illogical that was and, while Zaviar was not in the habit of listening to animals, he had nonetheless just dropped the remains of his phone on the counter and left. With Knight trotting at his heels because his familiar insisted on not letting him just go off on his own right then.
Knight could not, however, go into the store with him and so Zaviar had left him sitting outside while he found something that he hoped Madeleine would like. He could imagine what her temper might be like after having to deal with her cousin - he assumed she had been dealing with her cousin judging by the texts from Antonin that had ended with his phone destroyed - and he did not want to go in completely unprepared. “And why am I even doing this?” Zaviar asked himself and Knight as he stood a few feet from Madeleine’s door, rectangular box in one hand while his other was firmly in his pocket, jaw only slightly clenched. Like he was going to war or something.
’Because you know it’s a good idea. And that you should. And you’re afraid of-’
“If you want to sleep inside ever again you will not finish that thought.” Not a threat, a promise, and Zaviar waited until Knight inclined his head before he walked up and tried the front door. Which was unlocked. ’She might need to stop doing that.’ Closing the door behind him, Zaviar tugged at the collar of his shirt if only because it was a little warm. His inner snake gave a massive sigh of approval at being somewhere so warm again. Opening his mouth for a moment he was slightly relieved to find that while there was a lingering odor of death it was not exactly fresh. It was easy enough to find Madeleine though. “Your door was unlocked.” So clearly he had let himself in.
Call it vindictive -- petty, even -- but Althea watched Zaviar and Knight enter the house and proceeded to do precisely what she had been told. She kept her thoughts to herself, knowing that she could probably start a fairly accurate countdown of just when Madeleine’s mind tried to curl in on itself. A few moments later, she felt the jolt of surprise and ignored the demands issued regarding warning her about visitors. No, the shock was exactly what she needed. Even if it might drive her to combust.
Having been lost in her own thoughts that mostly centred around how she had managed to get so much soot everywhere and continue to clean at the same time, Madeleine had not noticed the presence of anyone else until Zaviar spoke up. Already far more highly strung than was healthy, the whole of her had jumped and nearly sent her head-first into the hearth. Suddenly exasperated, relieved and a little nauseous, she stared at the ash covering her hands for a moment and just wiped them on her jeans. Again. Faced with what Antonin and Althea seemed convinced was the root of half of her anxieties, she was doing her utmost to just... not think. Or speak, apparently, because she was doing a very good impression of being mute. “I really should start locking that,” she answered eventually and somewhat absently. “Can I get you anything?” The hostess was a convenient, if not easily broken, facade in that no one could really accuse her of being insincere about it and it actually served a purpose. Knight probably needed a drink. She definitely needed to not think about why Zaviar was here. Antonin was a dead man walking. ‘He was only trying to help.’ Knowing that had been shared with everyone, Madeleine’s face hardened slightly. The world had no need for telepaths.
’You’ve been letting her get dirty,’ Knight remarked to Althea. Dirty was not quite the right word though, it seemed more like soot and Zaviar was certain that it stemmed from the fact that she was playing with things in the fire. Antonin had really gotten to her after all. Which he had known, the topic was not exactly one that could be brought up and have anyone simply expect calm and rational behavior. Though he had not quite expected to walk in and find Madeleine acting like this. ’Mine broke his phone. I think that they have some severe issues, don’t you agree?’ Althea was far more reasonable than her counterpart, and than his own for that matter, and so Knight went to be where she was instead of near their wards.
“Thank you, but no,” Zaviar responded. He had not come for something to drink or eat. He was still debating why he had come but the heat and the fact that Madeleine had soot in various locations. Though with her being a fire elemental things like that could almost be expected. “I...” Hmm. What was he supposed to say? ’Give her the box, start with that.’ Pretending that the idea had been his own instead of given to him by his familiar, Zaviar moved closer and extended the box containing the snake necklace he had picked out. It seemed like a reasonable sort of thing to give and much better than flowers. Like she had been given by whoever. And no, Zaviar had not considered that the man she smiled at had done it - yes he had.
’Antonin said you were jealous.’
Althea gave as close to a telepathic snort a reptilian familiar could give. ‘I didn’t letallowpermit her to do anything. This is what happens when she is left to her own devices.’ She paused. ‘Clean house, sooty elemental.’ It should have been a physical impossibility, but apparently Madeleine had it down to an art. ‘She nearly set the door-frame on fire.’ That was an agreement. They had issues. And they were issues Althea did not understand.
Well, fine. That was one form of emotional/behavioural cover brushed off in one go. It said far too much that Madeleine was already trying to think of ways to dodge any approaching questions or probing comments. And if sentences could be finished then she would be much obliged -- and not nearly because it was actually unsettling for Zaviar to leave them as just a beginning. Unless it was some kind of obscure threat, which she doubted, else that ‘I’ would probably have been her name. And just the thought of him using that particular device made her cringe. Eyes landing on the box, she paused in a suitably awkward confusion. She understood that she was supposed to take the box -- I am not stupid, Althea. -- but her hands were covered with... Oh, god almighty. The only thing stopping her from pinching the bridge of her nose was her attempt at scrubbing the soot onto her jeans instead of her hands. They were eventually skin-coloured again, if not a little red from the friction, but she managed to get her head into gear long enough to accept the box with a small smile. She didn’t quite understand, if she was honest, not that there was necessarily any monstrously complicated reasoning behind it. People gave gifts, even oddly sentimental ones that seemed to kick the awkward tension from her face when she opened them, but she wasn’t a gift-y person. She was the one who drove other people away as though it was her mission in life. Because it sort of was. “Thank y--” That would have been a perfectly sincere display of gratitude had she not almost choked on Knight’s words. Any blushing lost its effect when the colour drained from her face and she automatically turned to look for someone to glare at. “Did he.”
‘You know full well he did.’ Althea wasn’t letting her get out of that one. ‘Amongst other things.’ How many other things, she couldn’t say. Once Madeleine had declared her a traitor, she stopped listening.
“Can--” Her voice was unsteady and she was having issues making eye contact, but she still forced herself to talk. “Would you mind helping me with it?” See, she could behave normally. Even if she wanted to sedate Zaviar’s familiar.
’I wonder what it’d be like if Antonin was permanently broadcasting their thoughts to one another,’ Knight remarked as he stretched out on a step with his face propped on his paws. ’I bet there would be an explosion of some sort within ten minutes, don’t you think?’ Knight knew it was a bad idea solely because the last thing that was needed was for Zaviar to lose his temper, but then again the dog had never actually borne witness to Zaviar in his hybrid form and he rather thought that he would not like to overall. Would he remember that he could not hurt him then? Good thing to think about. When the full moon came he was going to need to remember to be anywhere else. ’And he did. With other things that made Zaviar... upset almost. Don’t look at me like that, lad, you were upset. Sort of. In your way.’ Had he been Zaviar then he would have wanted to go chasing after a cat or something to get the frustration out.
“Yes,” Zaviar responded to Madeleine’s question instead of anything his familiar had said. Yes, he was here to deal with all of that but it was a little difficult for him. This was not what he was used to doing. Not at all. It was outside his range of comfort because there were certain things he had really never thought he needed to do. Like tell Madeleine how he... no, he did not think he needed to do that. Nor did he think she was actually going to get jealous because he showed interest in someone else for even a brief moment. He picked the necklace up, undid the clasp and stepped around to Madeleine’s back so he could fit it back together. She was extremely warm to the touch. Better than a heat lamp. “Do you like it?”
‘He would burn the moment they realised what he was doing.’ Because Zaviar did not seem the type to lose his temper quite so quickly, though he was well equipped with fists and the strength that apparently all weres had. But blows could be dodged if you heard them coming first. ‘Assuming Zaviar would not mind, that is.’ Althea wasn’t entirely sure what kind of authority the weresnake actually had over any of them, but she had just accepted it as fact. His logic often seemed reasonable, at any rate. But then she was a snake too. ‘The necromancer upsets people too easily,’ she remarked absently. So why didn’t she dislike him again?
It didn’t occur to Madeleine that the necklace was a perfectly justifiable reason to lose eye contact until her shoulders relaxed. Cold fingers. She was being an idiot. She knew that. Unfortunately, she didn’t know how to function any other way. For a fire elemental she could be remarkably non-confrontational until she was angry with the person she was suppose to be confronting. Except there was no real confronting here. She wasn’t entirely sure what this was. ‘The beginning of the result of your cousin’s intervention?’ While well-intended, that was not what she wanted to hear. Antonin needed to be shot. There was too much tension in the air for her to think about much else. “Yes, I do -- of course I do,” she turned around with a bemused and half-formed frown. Apart from the fact he should know her well enough to know she wouldn’t wear anything she didn’t like, she wouldn’t have already taken to fidgeting with it either. Which was actually something she hadn’t realised she was doing. She spent a good two minutes looking very much like she had something to say -- and expression she found completely infuriating on everybody else and fully expected it to be irritating Zaviar. But it the words wouldn’t move past her teeth when she wanted them to there was very little she could do about it. Sticking her hand in the nearest flame, she found a spot on Zaviar’s shoulder to bore holes into, adamant that the next time her mouth opened, sound would actually come out. “And yes, I was.” She sounded defensive and she knew it, but it wasn’t something she could change now. “Actually, I was rather hoping the ground would swallow her and that she’d slowly suffocate, somehow taking Calvert & co. with her, but that’s neither here nor there.” The last part sounded rather more like herself. ‘That’s better.’
’You don’t need to tell me that, I’ve lived with him,’ Knight remarked with a shake of his head. He had seen the affect that Antonin tended to have on those around him and he believed that maybe it was simply a telepath thing. If you could read someone else’s mind then it was easy for them to irritate them. He was quite certain that familiars did that to their wards all of the time. ’It’s because he tells things as they are and they don’t like having them voiced. Especially people like those two who keep all of them inside.’ Knight had been around Zaviar long enough to know how he operated and saying things like what Antonin seemed to want him to was simply not done.
Zaviar was used to silence, though seeing Madeleine fidget like that with a look that clearly said she had something to say was not what he was used to. Normally she said what she wanted when she wanted. Or so he had always believed. Now he was starting to wonder if maybe that was not quite the case and how many things had gone unsaid in all of the time that he had known her. ’You could ask her.’ Knight’s suggestion went unanswered. Especially because Zaviar was now presented with something else - the fact that Antonin had been right. Zaviar had had no reason to doubt his words but now he had been given absolute confirmation of the fact and how was he supposed to talk about anything else when it was right there? While Zaviar was good at getting around things, this was... different. Knight might have been right when he remarked that shrugging things like that off was what got him into trouble he did not understand. His tongue flicked out, catching the faded scent of another snake as well. Alexandria? “Why?”
‘Humans,’ Althea started, pausing before she continued, ‘And were-snakes and necromancers and... snake-people-things that aren’t were-snakes... are confusing.’ That really was all she had to say at present. It was beyond her how things could not just be said, though she realised why that was Madeleine was so annoyed with her. It didn’t mean she was going to stop any time soon.
Why? Why. Why? It was, really, the one question that jealous people did not want to answer. Invariably, the answer given was irrational. Or if it did not begin as such, it would be by the time the person who posed the question had finished putting holes in the logic used. With her palm pressed to her face while she tried to think, her other hand continued to toy with her necklace as though it actually held the answer. Or was capable of answering for her. It wasn’t going to, though. There was little point in simply not answering, either. It would only annoy him, which would make her feel worse and she had arguably already admitted the hard part. People only ever got jealous when they felt that someone or something was threatening their... well, possessions. Zaviar was no possession, but. But. And I swore so faithfully I would not be doing this to myself again. Ever. Bugger. You only felt threatened when you believed you had something to lose. That admission in and of itself should have been enough, she tried to reason, but it was absurd answering the original comment and then not giving an answer to the question. “Because you--Althea. Be quiet.” Deep breath and start again. “Because you were staring at that telepathic woman--and before you point out how stupid I can be, I have already received at least two lectures on snakes staring.”
‘Strike and Circe stare too,’ Althea added. ‘And so do I.’ Obviously.
Arm wrapping around her stomach defensively, Madeleine chose that moment to stare at the floor. Wooden flooring could not give you strange looks or visually confirm that you were, indeed, an idiot. She could do that much herself.
Knight agreed. And yet here they were in order to help keep them safe. Because without them, who would open the cans full of the delicious food that he could not get to himself? ’They have a few upsides and besides all of that, they keep us entertained. I don’t think any animal I know would ever go through such a complicated sort of mating ritual.’ Nor would a snake be going after something that was distinctly non-reptilian but, Zaviar was not quite fitted to the typical view of a snake in quite the same manner as, say, Althea. But still it added to the fact that humans and those who were human in shape went about things so oddly.
Zaviar had been fully aware of the fact that he was staring - they were his eyes after all, he had simply not expected it to bother Madeleine as much as it seemed to have. Or at all since, as she said herself, she knew that snakes stared at things. ’But you know that’s not why it bothers her.’ Not his own thoughts, those belonged firmly to Knight and how a dog managed to have a firmer grasp on the situation than him was either alarming or a good thing. Zaviar would have to give some thought to it at a later time. This was simply... not what he was used to. It was as simple as that. Madeleine had been the most serious thing he had ever had and he had never been informed that there was a need to label anything. Or commit. Or any of that. Shifting slightly he reached up and rubbed at the back of his neck when Madeleine looked at the floor, but only for a moment before he resumed his still stance. “Madeleine, even if I was staring at another woman that is not an indication that...” What was he supposed to say? “You don’t need to be jealous.” Why do I have to say that?
’Because clearly she’s not aware. Act a little normal for once.’
‘Complicated mating ritual...?’ Maybe the penny just finally dropped. Maybe she’d known the whole time and just really didn’t want to think about it. Or maybe the sudden rush of what couldn’t really have been embarrassment (because despite her ability to play the lady she was quite brazen) from Madeleine tipped the scales of thought in the right direction. Those mental images, though, we not something she needed. ‘I wish you hadn’t said that.’
Madeleine’s familiar-induced blush was immediate. Was she embarrassed? No, not exactly, but that was not something her familiar needed to know or think about and it just did not seem appropriate right now. Her face did not need any extra colour added to it. It did not help that the whole of her just tensed all over again when she heard her name. Because her name meant he was answering and she wasn’t necessarily prepared for that. So she busied herself with pulling the pins out of her hair and letting it down again. It had curled. She hated that. ‘Stop deliberately thinking about unimportant things.’ She also hated that her familiar was being so bloody rational. Chewing on her lip and shaking her hair out at the same time, she looked up with what she hoped wasn’t any kind of anxiety. It was bizarre how the answer that you wanted to hear could be the one that made you feel the most ridiculous. Madeleine was fairly sure the blood supply for her whole body was making a pit stop at her cheeks. Biting down on the inside of her lip, she cringed at herself. Right. So you’re part snake and I’m just an idiot. Wonderful.
Now she was embarrassed. In an oddly justifiable way. “And I get an A-star in rationality.” Excellent.
‘You’ve never been rationalsensiblecalm about him. Stop trying to glare at me, I know you can’t see me.’
’What, you didn’t realize it?’ Knight seemed, and was actually, surprised. He had thought that Althea was intelligent if a little different when it came to how she spoke about everything. He had figured it out after Zaviar’s first visit to the fire elemental after her arrival, and really, it did not seem that hard to piece together. Maybe it was just a snake thing because he and Antonin understood it perfectly fine and Althea had to spend as much time around Madeleine as they did Zaviar.
Madeleine was so red, Zaviar was not sure that he had ever seen her quite that flushed before. Yet another moment for him to be grateful that his body did not go betraying him in quite those same ways because he had a worming feeling of something somewhere and, had he been anyone else, he was certain that he would have at least turned a little red. Instead he was trying to figure out the exact reason why Madeleine was that red. He had heard the conversation and... okay, maybe it made sense. “Your cousin... he seems to think that you need some sort of... verbal...”
’I’ve never heard you stammer over speaking before. Can I tell Antonin when you let him come home?’
He could not damage his familiar. “It bothered you when I left England, according to Antonin. Why didn’t you tell me?” Zaviar could not be expected to read people’s minds, or even understand what went on in them since they never operated in a way similar to his own.
‘It seemed perfectly reasonable to assume he was talking about using her as a perch,’ Althea answered a touch indignantly. Well, it did. And she hadn’t been corrected, so how was she to know?
Of all the people she knew, Antonin had to be the telepath. It didn’t matter how many times Althea repeated that he was only trying to help -- it did not make him seem any more helpful. If anything, he was becoming less helpful by the second because there was more. What had that psychic bastard actually said? She would have asked, but she wasn’t all that fond of imparting exactly what he said to her. Contrary to the beliefs of her familiar, some things needed to be kept a secret for the good of her sanity. ‘Ulysses was a step too far.’ Well, at least they were on the same page.
Admittedly, Madeleine was finding the stammered sentence difficult to register. Zaviar didn’t stammer. She didn’t think he had done since she had met him -- not without having someone actually interrupt his speech, which generally didn’t happen and didn’t count as stammering. That wasn’t question she was prepared for, though. Madeleine wasn’t the kind of person to live in the past. She would remember things occasionally and reflect, but as far as her general frame of mind was concerned, that question was addressing ancient history. “It wasn’t my place to keep you,” she answered rather weakly, gaze glued to the toe of his shoe, “Not if you needed to be somewhere else.”
‘Not if you didn’t want to stay,’ Althea translated. This would have been so much easier if she and Knight just did the talking.
Knight could not help himself. The situation was serious and all, he completely understood that, but what Althea said was just too much and he buried his face in his paws and laughed at the idea of Zaviar wanting to use Madeleine as a perch. ’That’s priceless, I’m going to have to remember that. Did you know that she thought that, Madeleine? I suppose it could be considered accurate in a way...’
This was most definitely not Zaviar’s forte. He did not know what to say, how to think, what he was really thinking. And he was not sure how to react to Madeleine being so... quiet and... she almost seemed small when she said that, looking at his shoes like she was. And really, Althea said it better. ’That’s because she’s a familiar and we talk better than you lot.’ Zaviar wished that Knight was right there so that he could go and flick his ear. Or something like that to show the bits of irritation that were building up. Irritation that was hard to keep hold of with how Madeleine looked. Leaving England had been something that he was certain he needed to do because the United States was his home and where he had left all of the people he had bitten, but it had not been exactly easy and he had regretted a few things. As much as someone like him could regret anything. “Had I known it mattered so much then perhaps I would have stayed, or seen if you wished to come.” Instead of staying and marrying some water elemental who had dared to hit her. He would never have done that. Granted, he also had been younger then and not completely sure of anything other than what he wanted to do when it came to the human problem. Get rid of it. Zaviar had been certain that was just exactly enough and it may have been.
’She came back though, hmmm?’
Zaviar’s eyes flickered over towards the stairs, knowing the familiars were somewhere on them, and he sighed. One step and he had his fingers under Madeleine’s impossibly-warm chin and lifted because she should not be looking at the floor. “What do you want from me?”
Glancing in the general direction she assumed the familiars were, Madeleine shook her head in resignation. “Yes, I knew she thought that and she was just fine thinking that. But if this means she’ll stop asking inappropriate questions, I’m relatively grateful the penny has dropped.” If and relatively being the operative words.
‘How was I to know they were inappropriate questions?’
That went unanswered. Madeleine was already preoccupied with how she was supposed to react to that. She had plenty of regrets, they just had a very limited shelf-life. When they stopped being relevant enough, she dropped them. She did not forget certain events had taken place, or she would never be able to bring them back up again in arguments to prove her point, but they lost their sting. Zaviar never lost the sting, but he was a person and not an event. The events surrounding him still stuck out in her head, but they still followed the same set of rules as everything else. Except Zaviar was right there, which meant everything pertaining to him was relevant again and... some things, she was realising she did not necessarily want to be reminded of. “Then that... is my failing. I should have made it more obvious.” The sentiment was more than appreciated though, and she took the luxury to dwell on it for a moment before it was filed away in the big box labelled ‘Past Tense’.
Having her line of sight changed for her was something she was actually used to -- although depending on the individual, her reactions differed vastly. She still looked at him with eyes that were impossibly wide for someone who spent so much of her time narrowing them in annoyance. That question -- it was impossible to give an adequate answer to. He was asking her to articulate something she wasn’t sure she could fully figure out on her own. After a few moments of her eyes flicking around as though she was trying to follow her trail of thought, she frowned. The question didn’t have a set answer. “You,” she started, fingers going to her necklace again as though it was some kind of talisman. “But nothing you’re not prepared to give.”
’I think that’d be just as awkward,’ Knight replied, turning his head to lick at a spot in his side where he had rubbed up against something. However it seemed like maybe his ward was finally getting to things as he should and did not need the constant hand-holding and coddling... yes he did. Knight sighed to himself but kept his eyes open so that he did not have to struggle with the temptation to just go to sleep.
Zaviar nodded, but there was no reason to add anything. She knew where he stood now and he knew that... maybe she had not wanted him to, but it did not matter. It had happened and he could not turn back time, nor would he if he could. There were things that he had needed to accomplish and he was not quite sure that he would have gotten them done with the distraction of Madeleine. ’Though you know, she can help a lot.’ Yes, he knew that, Knight knew that he knew that but Zaviar was trying to not feel anything about that. He did not do regret well, but neither was he sure of what to make of what Madeleine had said. “Me,” he repeated. Lucky for him his voice was staying smooth and the brief interlude with stammering he had not expected was gone. There was nothing dignified or him when it came to his speech being interrupted, but it was not like him to shift slightly either, though at least he managed to keep a steady gaze on Madeleine. If she thought he had stared at that other woman then what did this qualify as? “How do you know what I am or am not prepared to give? Antonin’s never probed for that in my mind.”
’You are making this so much more difficult. Is it on purpose?’ Knight stretched his jaws in a yawn and stood up, padding down the stairs and sticking his head through a few pieces of wood to look down at them. ’He thinks of you as distinctly his already.’
‘How do you do that without tastesmellsensing everything you’ve been near?’ It was a mammalian habit that Althea did not understand. She was well aware that their senses worked very differently, but the concept was enough to make her pull a face. If it were even possible for her to do so. And fur held in more smells than scales. She knew because she could smell Knight.
Yes, you. Madeleine was ignoring her familiar’s babbling and a little past judging Zaviar’s body language. Especially since her own was not as generally expected. She hadn’t set anything on fire, had only reached for a flame maybe twice, and while she was hardly neglecting her element, she was not controlling it properly either. Somehow, during this conversation, the upstairs hearth had been lit. ‘That is what happens when you don’t pay attention to the downstairs hearth.’ Rather than flaring out into the room, it had just gained in height. She wouldn’t have been all that surprised to discover there were flames coming from the chimney. “I don’t,” she answered honestly. “Nor would I ask Antonin for any aid in the matter if he had. It’s a matter of trust, not a menu.” Perhaps her cousin had been more help than she was ever going to willingly give him credit for, but she would never exploit that kind of ability. Well, not like that anyway.
“I--” Madeleine blinked. “Really?” Her tone was curious, trying not to sound too pleased by that remark. It had come from Knight and the familiars seemed to know their minds better than they did -- and Althea had a gift for removing any frills used -- but she wanted to hear the confirmation from Zaviar. Only in part because it almost made her feel stupid for making a deliberate effort not to lay claim on him. Even if part of her still insisted it was presumptuous.
’Because I’m not a snake,’ Knight replied calmly. Sure he tasted things but they did not taste badly and besides, it was interesting. Just like how everything smelled interested even if humans shied away from it. Which he did not understand even a little bit. Snakes were such odd creatures. A thought he made sure to keep from his present company and his ward since they had that in common. And he had been the one to end up with a weresnake while the snake got a fire elemental how?
“You could ask me,” Zaviar suggested almost off-handedly. Why would he just offer that information up? He was the one who had come over and said that and his familiar had gone and shared how he thought of Madeleine, though really, he had thought that went without saying. Because really, was there anyone else in the world who upon seeing for the first time again after several years he would have attempted helping empty a pond and then done as she wished? As you did too. The answer was no. “But yes, I do, is that such a surprise?” It was why he had not appreciated hearing that someone else bought her flowers or thinking about other men smiling at her and getting smiles in return. He was not exactly possessive, there were just certain things that caused his non-existent hackles to rise. ’You’re welcome, by the way’. Zaviar did not think it necessary to point out that he had yet to thank anyone for anything.
The hand that wasn’t clinging to her necklace for dear life had successfully knotted its fingers in the baggy thing she was wearing over everything else. He made it sound so easy, but it just wasn’t the kind of question you asked. ‘Why not?’ It seemed rude. And inappropriate. It was also invited, though. “Then... How much are you prepared to give?” And more to the point, did she want to hear the answer? This was where she repeated the part about not putting figurative but nevertheless vital internal organs out for other people to steamroll over them. That answer was one she wanted. She could feel her face flush -- again -- and tried not to smile immediately. Part of her brain was quite adamant it would let her behave like a teenager. “Well. Retrospectively, perhaps not.” The morning she received those flowers was not a fond memory, even when Gibbon was cut out of the picture and while she had been perplexed at his reaction to the idiot at the debate, it made a little more sense when she actually took time out to think about it. And she shouldn’t be feeling smug about it.
It was probably a good thing that Madeleine was a fire elemental because for other people it was probably not possible to blush as much as she was. Or it was, but Zaviar had never witnessed it. He was not the sort of person who actually made people blush unless it was because they had said something stupid. Which... they did have a habit of doing that a lot. What if I say something stupid? Yes he had invited the question but Zaviar had not quite been sure Madeleine would actually ask, or what she wanted to hear for that matter. And Knight, despite his constantly running figurative-mouth, did not seem to have an answer for him. Of course not, when Zaviar actually wanted an opinion there was nothing for him to offer and when he did not want to hear anything there was always something there. “Enough,” he said after a moment, only just realizing that his hand was still against her jaw. “More than whatever that water elemental gave.” What exactly was a label for that? Zaviar had never gone through with labeling things like this and it was not high school or university, where something like ‘steady’ seemed reasonable. “I don’t know what you want.”
’Wow, you’re so good with this talking thing.’
“You’re already more than whatever the water elemental gave.” Which, if it hadn’t been said with such a Gray tone, would have sounded corny. In Madeleine’s opinion it did anyway, but she was telling the truth. “Even when I’m jealous,” she added after a moment’s thought. It only really highlighted what Anthony -- who appeared to have never really had a name to Zaviar -- was honestly lacking. She had not managed to care enough to ever get worked up over tiny, ridiculous details. And yet the reptilian staring pushed all the wrong buttons in one moment. “And I think you’re looking for a definition that doesn’t necessarily exist.” Words didn’t always mean anything. the rest of the time they didn’t mean quite what you intended. They lacked the right undertones, overtones and between-the-lines meanings. “I just want you.” Maybe she wasn’t thinking entirely straight, or perhaps either Althea or Zaviar was rubbing off on her, but it seemed quite straightforward to Madeleine. You, and the right to get irate when someone sends you flowers.
No, the water elemental did not have a name. He was the water elemental who had dared to marry and then harm Madeleine, and past that he was a dead man walking who should have been grateful that Zaviar was incapable of writing his own curses. Dead Man Walking, that could be his name if he really wanted to have one. Otherwise it was undeserved. Though despite that brief trailing off of thought - that was almost reprimanded by Knight - Zaviar found a slight smile tugging at the corners of his lips at hearing he was already more than whatever had been. He shrugged his shoulders after a moment, realizing that he was smiling. “You can have what you want, but only if I get what I want in turn.” He did not necessarily believe in playing fair since it never worked out right, but sometimes he liked the idea of it. Then, because simply standing there and smiling like some sort of an idiot was about to bother him in a minute, he stepped in until he could feel the heat emanating from Madeleine. “Deal?”
If she were honest about it -- and, actually, she was -- Madeleine did not always believe in playing fair either. If you had the ammunition, you really ought to use it. Her finger itched to reach and touch that smile and -- no, she wasn’t entirely sure what was wrong with her, but if Althea did not stop pointing out how odd her behaviour and thoughts were becoming, she was going to get the creature lobotomised. “I think I can work with that.” Did she sound like a teenager? ‘... I can’t confirm or deny ...’ She hoped not. She had no right to. Not to mention how bloody ridiculous it was. Then again, there was no one here to actually witness it past the familiars. And some things aren’t to be shared, now, are they? She took Althea’s silence as some kind of reluctant concession -- ‘Stop thinking at me and pay attention to what you’re doing.’ -- and let herself finally forget that the familiars were even there. “Deal.” She really needed to stop biting her lip. She hadn’t done it that much since she was seventeen. One would think almost ten years of life experience would change certain reactions.
’I’m going outside,’ Knight declared suddenly. ’It’s too hot for me.’ He glanced at Althea as he started down the stairs. ’You should come too, it’s not like you’ll freeze to death.’ And he had a distinct feeling that Zaviar did not want him around right then. Zaviar had actually stopped paying attention to the dog, he had gotten very good at shutting any and everything out of his head and if he could get rid of his own thoughts than those of a dog with an occasional Scottish accent was not that hard.
This whole thing was odd, and Zaviar could not figure out if this was what he had come over for or not. Not that he would actually admit outside of his own head that he had come over because of something Antonin had said, nor for the worry that there would be another water elemental. Zaviar did not do things because someone said he should and he did not worry about losing things because he had nothing to lose. Though apparently he was being faced with something that he did have to lose and it was a completely new feeling. And he had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to deal with it, though he did feel a little assured of the fact that she was not going to... was he? For once, I think I’m thinking too much. And something in his chest felt tight. “Don’t bite your lip too hard,” an absent remark, thumb sliding up to touch said lip. Had he really just made a commitment to something outside of himself? He had. “I think I’m done standing up.”
‘Of course I won’t freeze to death. The torches are lit.’ In true emotional fire elemental form. Anything that could be burned was already burning and had been for a while. But heat rose... or something, so Knight would still be fine. ‘I need to remind her about the landscapers,’ Althea remarked idly, aware that Madeleine wasn’t listening at all, probably wouldn’t notice if she screamed down the connection, and that the garden was a mess. But she wanted her tree now -- yes, that tree belonged to her -- so she followed the dog without really thinking about it.
Releasing her lip, Madeleine wrinkled her nose. She hadn’t really registered that pain, but then she was distracted and she had always found childish gestures like that quite grounding. Something that suggested she was currently grounded, but she wasn’t certain she was in the slightest. There was a strange kind of... silence. It was not a lack of noise, necessarily, nor a lack of tension. But it left her with the distinct impression that this was usually where she filled in gaps with her own talking and got herself stared at for wishing the death of someone who was not yet due to die by Zaviar’s reckoning. It if was a sense of calm, then it was a false one, because her element had been making its presence well and truly known for quite some time. She was, perhaps, a touch concerned -- though concerned wasn’t really an accurate enough word -- about Zaviar. He wore quiet very well, but this was a different kind of quiet. At that remark, she smiled, suppressing the urge to laugh. It just seemed such a... No, she didn’t know the word for that either. They also were stood in the middle of her lounge. “Would you like to choose somewhere to sit or shall I direct you?”
Ignoring the sudden lack of familiars - not that they had ever been really visible since both had been intelligent enough to make their little remarks from a hidden location - Zaviar tried to remember how he was supposed to act. He was reminded forcibly of a time when he had been younger and faced with a family actually equipped to take care of him, he had not known how to react to them for the longest time. Granted he had had awhile to adjust to Madeleine but it had been different when he had not actually had to acknowledge certain things. Easier. And apparently not the right way to go about things at all. “Last time I let you choose we ended up on a hearth,” Zaviar pointed out. Sure it had been perfectly nice at the time but he did not care all that much for the idea of one right then. “If I don’t miss my guess then there’s a fire burning up there already.” Had there been a fireplace in the bedroom? The downside being that moving meant he was going to have to stop touching her. “Did you have anything else you needed to get done?” No harm in checking, he was really just trying to make his mind work like it was supposed to.
Madeleine opened her mouth to defend that first choice, then promptly shut it again, turning pink. It was a better colour than red, perhaps, but that was irrelevant. Back to fidgeting with jewelry that she was already what she would usually insist was too attached to, given that it was metal. That reasoning was for former wedding rings only. Rings that she wasn’t sure had survived being handed over to Lila. That she wasn’t thinking about. End of the discussion that she wasn’t having because Althea wasn’t listening. Alright, Madeleine wasn’t used to apparently being alone inside her head any more. “It is.” One hand went to her hair almost distractedly, “I wasn’t paying it much attention.” Still wasn’t, actually. It was really rather difficult to, in all fairness. “I should probably tone it down a little...” Half of the candles flickered out -- some had already burned out, but wax did have a habit of drowning the wick. “I--... No.” And she didn’t feel like admitting the house had not needing cleaning to begin with. Especially not since her fiasco with the fire had actually messed part of it up at one point, as made evident by the general state of her.
Just because Madeleine was a fire elemental did not mean that the hearth was always acceptable; snake or not Zaviar did not exactly think of close proximity to open flames as a good idea. Just heat - and she happened to provide that wonderfully depending on her mood. “Then if you’re done...” Zaviar reluctantly moved his hand away from Madeleine’s face and moved towards the stairs. Part of his mind reminded him that he had a meeting with the principal of his new school to prepare for tomorrow, but it was a very small part and besides, there was a distraction stood right there. Sooty, beautiful, fidgety and decidedly his. He shook away the smile that he had not invited onto his face and reached out to tug her along with him. “Though maybe you should think of locking the front door.” The last thing that needed to happen was for Antonin to come and see what his little meddling had done.
She decided against pointing out that she had technically been done with the actual house itself the moment he turned up. It seemed inappropriate. One hand reached out to the hearth -- a completely redundant gesture she had not needed since she was far younger -- almost physically starving the fire of energy until it was nothing but glowing embers. She didn’t like letting fires die, but this one wasn’t dying. It was just under her control. For a moment Madeleine just squeezed the hand that intended to pull her elsewhere until she registered what had actually been said. “Oh -- Bugger.” Keys. She’d left the keys somewh-- ‘Kitchen. Corner unit.’ She had wanted to bolt into the next room for nearly the entire conversation, but when she finally got round to it, she was just glad she wasn’t wearing shoes. She had too many keys and didn’t know what any of them were for apart from the locks around the house and her car, but that was of no interest to her as she went through the lock and deadbolts with all the efficiency of someone who had spent any amount of time in the ‘dodgy end’ of London. It didn’t explain her recent neglect, though. “I’m done.” Althea. Remind me to murder my cousin before Gibbon gets there.
Zaviar waited relatively patiently while Madeleine found the keys and locked the doors. He had always been good at being patient when the situation called for it. Though he was not at his most patient just then, all of this talking and revealing and acceptance causing his mind to be on overdrive and he really wanted it to stop doing that. The longer he thought the more things he was realizing, like some sort of a little wall had come down somewhere in his brain, and it was simply too much to handle at once for someone who was very used to boxing everything up and keeping it put away until such a time as he was ready to deal with it - which was usually never. “Good.” That ridiculous smile was back on his face and he found himself reaching out for Madeleine’s hand again. “You know, soot almost suits your face, perhaps because of your element.” He shook his head as he found the door to the bedroom. “Better than dirt, at least.”
Absent-mindedly squeezing his hand again while her free hand ruffled her hair, Madeleine tilted her head at that remark. Truth be told, her mind was tired from the events of today, but any soot that was not rubbed into seventy percent of the surface of her jeans was news to her. “There’s soot on my face.” She sagged a little in a bodily ‘you are kidding’ with a smile that wasn’t sure whether it wanted to laugh or despair. Had it been there the whole time? And he had not told her? Had he been anyone else, she would not have believed him, but at the moment she did not believe he would lie about something like that just to see her reaction, however comical she knew she could be. Looking down at herself, she pulled a face. She was too old to look like she had been slowly burning down her brother’s old tree house. “I need a shower,” she said with a definite sulk, having noticed that there was a tide line of soot on her knees where her jeans finished. This was undignified. Even if Zaviar didn’t seem to mind. She did.
This seemed to be one of those times when Zaviar should just keep his mouth shut so that Madeleine did not go thinking about an appearance that did not actually bother him. She looked sort of cute, especially when she was sulking, but after a reluctant moment he accepted the fact that if she thought she needed a shower then she was going to take the shower. But when it came to fire elementals and showering it was never one of those time-consuming ordeals. Sighing, he turned and rubbed at a dark patch on her cheek before nodding. “Then go take your shower.” More time with his thoughts. Not a lot of time, now if she was a water elemental... Then he would probably have considered going along. Letting go of Madeleine’s hand he reached down to undo his shoes, wondering if he could avoid thinking by concentrating on little things like that. And maybe finding a bottle of wine for Madeleine’s benefit if she expressed a desire to have any. ’For someone whose your age you’d really think that you’d be able to handle things like this better.’ Here Zaviar had thought that Knight had a shred of decency somewhere in his furry body and had gone and stopped listening in on his thoughts. ’I will soon. Right now it’s funny to hear you thinking that fast. Can you do that all the time?’
She hardly needed permission to get a shower, and that wasn’t exactly permission at any rate, but Madeleine still left Zaviar with a fairly content half smile. It quickly deteriorated into a small frown of determination as she stripped on the way to the shower, clothes leaving a trail of chaos in her wake. Of course, they would be snatched up again the moment she stepped out of the shower because she hated the mess, but right now they were irrelevant. As was closing the door behind her -- she had never bothered before, there was little point in starting now. Showering and bathing in general had become something of a necessary evil for her. She used to just find them tedious. Now she grew agitated when she couldn’t turn the heat up as much -- it’s not that she could not withstand higher temperatures, her skin just didn’t seem to like it from that particular element -- as she wanted and anxious when her shower took longer than she anticipated. Having perfected the art of somehow showering the whole human body at once, she was finished before her internal clock hit five minutes. Though that didn’t include the location of shampoo, etc. And her towel. The temporary disappearance of which still had her pouting when she re-emerged, knotting the towel and picking up her cast-off clothes simultaneously. And shutting the bathroom door because she didn’t want her bedroom steaming any more than it may already have done. ‘I am certainsurepositive there is a joke in that somewhere.’</i> Never in a month of Sundays was that getting a response. “I’ve finished being awkward,” she offered almost sheepishly, aware of how unnecessary half of her behaviour could be.
There were a lot of instances when Zaviar got accused of doing something that he did not even realize he was, but right then he was fully aware of the fact that he was staring as Madeleine made her way to the shower. What? It helped calm his mind. And he needed that, Knight’s remarks about his thoughts going faster than they ever had helping nothing at all. Go figure that the one time he actually wanted his familiar to babble on about something he was not doing it. Probably on purpose. ’This isn’t exactly the sort of thing that you need my help with. I think it’s interesting to watch you go and figure things out and then realize how to deal with them. Go on, think about it all on your own. You’re a big lad. I don’t want to hear what you’re thinking when she gets back out. Humans.’ Zaviar glanced out the window and shrugged, stretching out on Madeleine’s bed to stare at the ceiling until he heard the sound of the shower shut off. At the sound of Madeleine’s voice he turned his head, one corner of his mouth tugging up in a smirk. “You’re definitely not sooty anymore. Planning on joining me now?” It was her bed after all. “I know you’re not putting those back on.”
“No. No, I’m really not.” In answer to the last comment, though Madeleine’s eyebrow was still raised at the question. It didn’t stop her expression from jumbling up slightly as she wrinkled her nose at the clothes and moved to dump them in the laundry basket in her closet. For some reason, this was one of those moments when she wondered what his reaction would be if she got an inappropriate tattoo without telling him. Not that she was about to give some kind of grand unveiling, because the curtains were open and she wasn’t brazen enough to--well she was brazen enough to flash her neighbours, but didn’t particularly care to. Closing the curtains with one hand, she felt to see how damp her hair was. It wasn’t. Her head turned to aim another raised eyebrow at him, though it was with clear amusement. He knew she couldn’t just refuse. That was her bed and the guest room wasn’t properly furnished. She wasn’t sleeping in a room with no real furnishings. Especially not with him there like that. ‘How do you manage to make getting into or onto your own bed complicated?’ The familiar had a point. So she dropped the towel and seated herself on the edge of the bed -- she needed to make certain those tide marks were gone -- but not before throwing said towel at Zaviar with an innocent smile. He was closest to the radiator.
’Now what am I supposed to laugh at, she closed the window!’ Knight almost sounded like he was bothered but it lasted maybe half a minute before he burst out into laughter and Zaviar firmly shut his familiar out. Probably for the rest of the night this time. “Knight just complained about the window,” Zaviar said calmly as he plucked the towel off of his face and stretched it out over the radiator like he was certain Madeleine wanted. Even if that innocent smile of hers was not believable for a second. Once the towel was gone he sat up, stretching out even though he had only been laying down for a moment, shifting to prop his chin on her shoulder. “Innocent is not your best look. Are you deliberately taking as long as you can to do something as simple as lie down?”
“Althea’s remarkably quiet, though I think she’s still uncomfortable about her mistake regarding perches. And he will have to deal with it, unless you’d rather have them open.” Though there was a chance Althea had actually fallen asleep. ‘Knight is too loud.’ Or perhaps not. Madeleine was vaguely amused by the fact he had automatically sorted out the towel rather than given her any kind of look that ought to be accompanied by a question mark of varying tones. And she objected to that. “It is one of my best, thank you. When I try properly... When I’m wearing more than a necklace.” As it stood, there was a chance she was currently lacking the mental capacity to be as convincing as she knew she had been in the past. On more than one occasion she had made the innocent look guilty. Turning her head to look at him, she smirked. “If I said no, would you believe me?”
If one thought about it technically then in some way it could be argue that Althea had had a good reason to think that way. Zaviar had agreed that Madeleine was comfortable... he had just not meant it in anywhere near the same way as the snake. Since he was fine with the windows and shades closed he made no remark on it. “At the current moment in time you cannot look innocent,” Zaviar pointed out, vaguely amused by the whole charade. His arm slid over her shoulder and he touched the necklace he had only just given her, the one that he had imagined she would take off when she undressed. Though it was nice to realize that she liked it that much. Zaviar even pretended to think for a moment about the question. “Not for a second. Having fun making me wait?” Thinking too much led to talking too much and Zaviar was quite certain that after all of this was over he was going to be left with a depleted word count for the next week.
Had she not already established as much, Madeleine would have at least attempted to sulk. As it stood, she had and she really had little else to do other than accept her current lack of -- ‘Shame.’ -- any kind of innocence. Her gut reaction to realising the continued presence of her necklace was noted was almost defensive and arguably childish. Yes, she was still wearing it. No, she wasn’t intending to take it off right now. What about it? ‘Don’t say that. I don’t think it would be appreciated. Not in that tone anyway.’ But that much stayed well and truly in her head, along with the acknowledgement that it was ridiculous. The rather more rational part of her brain just accepted it had been noticed and moved on. “Yes,” was the slightly smug and completely unabashed answer, though she still pulled her legs up onto the bed, shaking her hair out while she rest of her tried to stretch. She was as guilty of basking in heat as both Zaviar and Althea. Even if it happened to be mostly coming from her. Besides, the moment she’d been called out on making him wait it became pointless.
Zaviar had shut Knight out for a very specific reason - he did not need his familiar’s remarks on how Madeleine was behaving. He could guess at them well enough by now though, clear evidence that the creature affected him a little too much. But at least there was no voice inside of his head but his own. Which was remarkably silent for the first time all day. Sort of. There was still a sort of running litany over what he had said, what Madeleine had said, but it was more like a whisper now because he was an open admirer of the elemental’s lack of shame. That and his inner snake was giving approval to the fact that he was essentially in bed with a heat lamp. More like an open flame. “Are you quite finished with that?” An open flame that doesn’t actually burn.
‘The torches have gone out.’ Althea’s plaintive nudge did not move her elemental, who just pressed her fingers to her temple and tried not to roll her eyes.
Go to sleep.
‘Can we get an outdoors heat lamp?’
Yes. Now go. To. Sleep. Or at least shut up. The connection went quiet, if only because the snake knew which side her bread was buttered, in a manner of speaking. Right now, it paid for her to be quiet. “Finished making you wait or finished stretching?” she asked, falling still and returning her now completely undivided attention back to Zaviar. As far as she was aware, stretching was not a crime, but maybe she had been wriggling a bit. She always had been quick to grow restless. “Mm, though the answer is the same for both.” And the only part of her moving right now was her toes.
“I don’t mind you stretching,” Zaviar pointed out, head tilted to the side as he reclined back on his elbows, rather enjoying the view. She could do that however much she wanted and he would not object. Unless she threw something at him for staring - but if she was stretching without clothes on then he could not be held responsible. Just like he knew that all of the fire in the nearby areas tended to flare drastically when Madeleine’s mood fluctuated. Zaviar had a slight curiosity about whether or not he could actually cause her to light something on fire that she did not intend to one day. “But I really would rather have you up here. If you can handle that.” One of his eyebrows quirked up slightly as part of his mind made a note about how even his house was never this warm and if it was then there would have been less clothes involved. He was busy concentrating on something else, though.
It could not be said that Madeleine’s ego needed feeding, or that she would ever have self esteem issues. Even during her darkest days, she had never found fault with herself, though she had found plenty in everyone else. The smile that spread across her lips was something of a resounding ‘I know’. She looked good and she knew it, thus he could stare as long as he pleased. As long as it was at her and she wasn’t feeling especially irrational. Besides, if she had not wanted the attention, she would have covered herself up. She did possess nightwear, even if there wasn’t always much to it. Resisting the urge to request that he say ‘please’, she arched her eyebrow and moved over, dropping herself on her back beside him. Her pillow was flat, but she could ignore that. “You have claimed my bed,” she stated, amused. Claimed in that there as more of him than there was of her, so most of it appeared to be his by default. It was a good job she wasn’t naturally territorial, because she did not think she had a chance in hell when it came to throwing him out of it.
Zaviar appreciated being with someone who did not have self-esteem issues, because he doubted that he would have the patience required for constant reassurance and all of that mess. He liked the confidence. He did not, however, approve of where she had gone since it was not all that better than where she was in the first place. “No, I claimed you,” Zaviar corrected, sliding one arm under Madelene’s waist while his other went over, using that strength he was always glad to have to move her on top of him. A smirk played across his face and he kept a grip on her waist just in case she tried to move on pure principle. “That’s better, isn’t it?” Now she could say he had the bed since he was the one on it.
Usually, Madeleine would object to being manhandled. But Zaviar didn’t -- and had possibly never -- fit into her general criteria for lashing out at indignantly, she was in a good mood... and that was funny. It was the only time she did not mind being reminded that she was not as physically strong as everyone else. Not that she was thinking about it in any real depth whatsoever, because her initial squeak -- cold hands -- had dissolved into fits of laughter. Had she been significantly younger, or generally lacking in maturity, she would have demanded he do it again. Instead, she just thought it and tried not to giggle. “Quite. And yes, you can have the bed,” the amusement really wasn’t leaving her tone any time soon. “I take it I’m not going anywhere, then.” She poked gently at his hands, then rested her own on his forearms. She was fairly certain that they had already established any attempts at escape would be futile.