Axel King {likes random nudity} (nomoreclothes) wrote in reduxpitch, @ 2016-05-26 01:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | !thread, character: axel king, character: laurel fawley, location: diagon alley |
WHO: Axel Not-A-Fawley-Anymore and Laurel Fawley
WHAT: Run-ins with the ex family
WHEN: Wednesday, 25 May 2002; evening
WHERE: The Hound's Pint, Diagon
RATING|STATUS: Feels | Completed log
Everything seemed to be going Axel’s way lately. The girl he loved had feelings for him and was willing to give him a shot, they’d kissed and hung out, and they were even going on a date the following evening. He had a job he loved with people he cared about. His life was full of good things. That was why he wanted to meet some of his non-band friends, to tell them about these good things and catch up. They often went out to different pubs, and it had been a spell since he'd been to this one. He'd always like the owner so he wasn't really sure why they didn't meet up there more often. Ah well, such was life. He seemed to be the first to arrive, which was both surprising (because Axel was hardly on time to much of anything) and not surprising (taking into account who he was meeting), but he wasn't bothered. He just sat himself at the not-yet-crowded bar and waited for the bartender’s attention. When she finally came his way, something about her seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. “Whatever you've got on tap, surprise me,” he told her. --- It was a moderately busy evening. There was just enough downtime to allow her mind to wander to the problem of exactly how the mermaids broke into the pirate ship, considering they’re aquatic, and why none of the pirates caught them. She was sure there was a very easy solution, and she would get to it when she got to it. For now, there was a man calling for her attention, so she filed away the mermaids and made her way over, putting on her best professional smile. She nodded at his request and grabbed a mug. As she was filling it with a deep amber ale, she eyed the customer. She’d seen him somewhere before, she was absolutely sure of it. But, of course, given the nature of her work, it was entirely possible that she’d just seen him here at the pub. That was probably it. She set the mug down in front of him. “Anything else?” -- Axel was still eyeing the girl as she placed the mug down on the bar. The more he looked at her, the more familiar she seemed. He just couldn’t quite place where he might have seen her before. She didn’t appear to recognize him, so he didn’t think she was a fan he’d met some time; it must have been somewhere else he knew her from. Well, he’d just have to sit and figure it out while he waited for the guys. “Not at the moment, thanks doll,” he replied with a smile, and took a drink from the glass. He let her go about her work, serving and doing whatever it was she wanted or needed to do on her semi-busy night. He kept himself occupied with the lyric spiral he kept in his pocket for occasions such as these, but penned a note to his friends after he’d been there for twenty minutes without seeing anyone. By then, his drink was also gone, and he was bored. “I’ll have another one of these,” he told the girl when she came back. Not being able to figure out where he knew her from was starting to bother him, so Axel had to ask, “Do I know you from somewhere? Other than here, I mean.” -- Laurel snatched up the empty mug and carried it back to the taps. She considered the question while she refilled the glass and then slid it back to him. She retrieved a glass for herself, which she filled with water, and leaned on the bar across from the stranger. “I don’t think so?” She said slowly, taking a good long minute to study his face. “I thought maybe you were just someone who came in here a lot, and that’s why I thought I recognized you.” She shrugged and straightened, tipping the water glass back and taking a good long drink. Running about and talking to people and handling beverages was thirsty work. “But if it’s not from here, then I don’t know.” She tilted her head slightly. “What year were you?” -- Recognizing Axel wasn’t really that special a thing these days, but the fact that they both seemed to know each other led him to believe that they actually did. Or had, at one time or another. Now he was intrigued. Well, he’d been intrigued before, but now he didn’t think he could let it rest until he found out what it was. “‘91. What’s your name, pretty lady bartender?” Because that would help most. He almost didn’t want to give her his name, partly because he didn’t know which name to give her. If she was familiar with Quake, the name Axel could end in crazy fans, but he also didn’t like to be known as a Fawley, so if that was how she knew him, then..well they’d cross that bridge. -- “Oh,” she replied, almost sounding disappointed. “You left before I even started, so that can’t be it.” But names were good. Names were helpful, and if that didn’t answer the question, then nothing probably would. “Laurel,” she replied. The surname could be provided if he asked, but she wasn’t in the habit of giving her full name out to random bar patrons, especially when they came in flirty flavor. She was used to that sort of thing, the looks and the comments and the casual questions and hints that maybe she could find good entertainment after work. She’d become quite good at the polite laugh and blush, but had never done anything to encourage those folks. So, it was entirely possible that this guy was just trying an angle, so first names only for now. -- Oh. Laurel. Axel knew immediately where he knew her from, and it felt like the floor had fallen out from under him. This girl in front of him, the one he recognized, who recognized him...was his baby sister. Whom he hadn’t seen in about a decade. Axel hadn’t actually seen anyone still ‘in’ the family in almost that long. Clearly Laurel didn’t actually know who he was, or she’d want nothing to do with him. “Ah. Well. That would explain it.” And since Axel didn’t really have any interest in getting to that part of the reunion, he reached into his pocket and pulled out enough money to pay for both his drinks, and put it on the bar. “See you around, Lala.” The nickname slipped out before he knew what was happening and he cringed, because she’d definitely figure out who he was now. Until he’d gotten himself kicked out of the family, Axel had been the only one to call her that. As far as he knew. -- There was a name that Laurel had not heard since she was a tiny first-year. She’d adored her big brother back then, when he was her hero and she’d begged him for stories about the school, when she wanted to follow him everywhere and be his quiet, dreamy shadow. And then he was gone, and no one said the name anymore. It had been given to her by someone who was wicked and didn’t love her and had only pretended and didn’t ever want to see her again, because why else would he go? She very slowly set her glass down so that it wouldn’t fall and break, while her other hand rose to cover her mouth. She just stared at her brother, finally seeing what she’d been unable to before. Those eyes, that was where he was. The rest, the hair, the clothes, they weren’t what she’d remembered, but it was in the eyes. She was silent for a full five seconds before she tried to speak, though only jumbled-up stammering came out. What was she supposed to say? Confront him about why he left? Forgive him for leaving her behind? He certainly looked every bit the hooligan their mother had painted him to be, but Laurel had come to realize that not everything her parents ranted about was the truth of things. Finally, as tears threatened to well in her eyes, she turned and headed for the back, shoving her till keys at the first server she passed on her way toward the door to the kitchen. -- Her reaction was exactly why Axel kept the deepest parts of himself protected. He’d known that if she found out who he was, she would reject him all over again. Obviously she hadn’t rejected him, but in rejecting their brother for basically no reason, their parents had rejected everything he stood for, and he’d had little choice but to leave. At first, it had seemed like the easiest choice, leaving a repressive, close-minded family of crazy ideologists. But after moving out of the house and in with his brother, realizing he’d never see the only other member of his family he gave a shit about was harder. He’d thought a lot about looking for her, over the years. The urge had been stronger in the beginning, and dulled over time, the longer he spent away from them. He figured their parents would have told her lies about them, reasons why they left, why she should hate them. Maybe they told her the truth and she hated him anyway. That, he assumed, was the reason she’d never sought him out. Either way, between the look on her face and the fact that she all but ran away from him without saying a word, told him everything he needed to know about how she felt about him and his absence. And it hurt. He’d ignored it for 10 years because the reality of it was a horrible feeling in his stomach. It just plain sucked. If anyone wanted to know why he pretended he didn’t care about anything, that was it. Axel stood and watched her go, staring after her for a long moment before he, too, turned around and left. He had a date the next day to start preparing for anyway. |