light comma sticks (ex_myth87) wrote in regulation, @ 2008-04-24 19:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | dreu desmarais, elodie desmarais |
Who: The Desmarais. All of them.
What: Great-granddaddy Dreu comes by with his new mate during a game of Scrabble.
Where: Mayfair, London
When: 24th April
Rating: PG-13
Status: Closed; Complete
A few more minutes passed in silence as they watched the pair play, and Aurel continued to watch Dreu warily. Lo had taken a liking to him, but he was wary, and he wouldn't let her be hurt again. His daughter's brush with death was still too recent for him to release his grip and ease the protection over her.
Parrish, comforted but still tense, tentatively reached out so he hand covered Dreu's arm. And in the barest of whispers he asked him, "Are you happy?" He wanted him to be. And he seemed to love his new mate as he had loved Alaire, which made him glad. He deserved that. At the same time, he almost felt homesick because of it.
"Yes," Dreu said, fingertips brushing over Parrish's wrist, then his knuckles. He thought of apologising again, but he held his tongue, relaxing a little more. "Very." Isore cast a look in his direction then, missing the moment that Rives placed an extra letter in his holder, removing one that obviously wasn't to his liking.
He watched, maintaining contact with his son before murmuring, "She is well?" He indicated Élodie, brows quirking slightly. He hadn't seen the attack himself, it had taken place during the day, but he'd heard enough, gathered enough information since then to know that things were complicated at best. Aurel seemed to think she needed protecting still and Dreu could only approve of his actions.
"So am I," he told him, his smile proud as he thought of his family, the loved ones that filled the room. They were perfect. "Even moreso now that you've returned. Don't leave, Dreu," he told him softly, his eyes pleading. He wasn't sure if he would be able to deal with that now that he was back in his life.
Parrish's eyes followed his gaze to where Lo was relaxed against Aurel, her eyes closed under lids that twitched. She was dreaming again - or seeing his dreams. He wasn't sure how healthy it was for her, but she insisted that they were the best part of her life now. "She's strong," he told his father. "Still a little weaker than before, but not as troubled. It's complicated." She broke the pact. "How did you know?"
"How did that s get there?" Rives demanded over his voice, and Parrish turned toward the commotion, where Isore was shrugging innocently. He had to admit that he was an excellent actor.
"I watched," Dreu replied, eyes caught on the bickering now taking place over the board. He supposed the degree Isore had received from his school - Acting, or something to do with Theatre - in Los Angeles had paid off in the end. "I listened. You know it's impossible for me to move in daylight now, but Isore helped me gather the information, our... we have human... assistants... they helped as well." Anne and Bridget had had been dedicated to them for years now, both middle aged and more than competent.
"Isore, if he's as curious about the 's' as he seems to be, you should ask Rives about the 'r' over there to the left. He's better at slight of hand than I think you're giving him credit for." Dreu watched his mate's brows rise speculatively, meeting Rives' across the board.
He turned to look Parrish in the eye, his expression eased of most of the tension he'd felt when he rang the doorbell earlier. "I'm not leaving - we're not. I promise."
"I'm sure that we have a lot to discuss," Parrish answered, both in response to being watched - why hadn't he come sooner if he knew where they were? And also about their human 'companions'. He wanted to show Dreu that it was possible to live as they did and remain safe - that it was the better option, but he would need time to discuss the with him. "When we're alone," he added with a slight nod toward his children before turning to press a kiss to Lise's hair. She would be there, of course, just as Parrish assumed that Dreu would being Isore - there were no secrets between him and his mate, and while he tried to remain as honest as possible with his children, sometimes it was better for them if they didn't know everything.
"Cat," Isore said finally, his two remaining tiles laid out on the board, connecting to the 'a' in gauge. It was a simple word, but it left Rives with five tiles and Melisande laughed a little in amusement, they weren't used to seeing him lose.
Rives however, sat back and began to tally up their points, "Doesn't mean that you -" but he finished the math halfway through his sentence and frowned. "Oh hell." But his dismay was short lived, and after a second he was smiling broadly at the newcomer, "That was a great game - really. Do you know backgammon? We'll have to play that next time," and every good-natured he clapped Isore on the shoulder before moving to put the pieces away.
"Wait," Lo muttered, snapping out of her reverie and turning her focus on the game. "Rives lost? Seriously?" She looked at Aurel who nodded. "Goodness, Isore, I think you're my new favorite person."
Isore beamed. There was really no other word for it. His smile stretched over his face and Dreu was sure it wasn't possible for his mate to be happier. "I think you're all my new favourite people," he said, then turned to answer Rives' question. "Oh, yes - backgammon and I are very good friends. It's the first game I ever beat Dreu at. He says that cards don't really count as a game, but he conveniently forgets that for the first few decades, he made up the rules to half the games we played as we went along. You know, rulebooks are incredibly useful when you live with a man who's nine hundred years old..."
Dreu spoke into the silence that followed his the younger vampire's words, saying simply, "Every rule was valid at one point in time. It's not my fault that humans changed them as they went along."
"I think it's cheating, though, to reference rules for chess that haven't been used since the sixteenth century." Isore's tone was completely reasonable as he spoke and Dreu found himself shaking his head slowly, a laugh teased from him despite himself.
"Says the man who's spent more than half his life cheating humans out of their money at the card tables?"
"That's honest cheating," Isore said, his expression taking on one of hard-won dignity. "Nothing at all like what you do with your blinking in and out and moving things around. That is truly unfair."
Dreu just shrugged. He couldn't deny it. When things truly looked desperate, he'd sometimes resorted to using such methods to at least bring a game to stalemate. It should have been more embarrassing that his mate, a man so significantly younger than he was himself, could defeat him at almost every game they played. Turning to nod toward Parrish, he murmured, "Yes, much to discuss."
Isore distracted the others, for which Dreu was grateful. It was strange, feeling so incredibly old. Usually his age didn't even register for him, he simply was. But being around so many young, it was suddenly highlighted and he realised that there were a great many things he did, had done, that they couldn't even begin to understand.
"Blinking?" Lo asked, her voice carrying the thoughts of everyone around them. "You can - really?"
"He's very old, Lo, you know that our powers develop over time," Parrish told her calmly, although even he was intrigued. Still, he didn't want to embarrass Dreu with questions. And if there was one person in the room who didn't understand tact, it was his Élodie. "The history buff is also too curious for everyone's good sometimes."
"Oh hush, Parrish," she told him. "I'm just saying what everyone else is thinking. Someone has to." Turning her attention to Isore she asked, unsure of the other man's age, "Can you blink? Or do you cheat in other ways?"
"I'm only 185," Isore said, shrugging. "I can't do anything interesting yet - but I'm much better at honestly cheating than he is." He gave Élodie another wide smile, then shrugged. "I can teach you slight of hand, if you don't already know it. Dreu says there's no point in trying to teach him things he learned in the thirteen hundreds, but you know... I'm fairly certain things have changed so far as cheating goes. He's just lazy."
Dreu's expression didn't change even the smallest bit, but somehow he managed to convey how sceptical he was of his mate's words. "Yes, but I don't see you attempting to use modern weapons. You're the one who's ridiculously attached to your six-shooter."
"A Colt," Isore said, moving over to where Dreu was sitting on the couch and sitting on the floor beside him, shoulder pressed to the older vampire's knee, "Is a thing of beauty. Modern weapons are flashy, but nothing can compete with a newly cleaned, single-barrel - I still remember my first Colt. The detail on the grip..."
He sighed happily and Dreu just shook his head, tweaking one of Isore's ears before looking toward Élodie and saying, "Yes, I can blink... it's useful in some instances, but a fairly innocuous ability."
"Maybe if Rives knew words like 'innocuous' he wouldn't have lost," Lo answered with a grin directed at her brother. Who only muttered for her to 'shut it' in Japanese, causing her grin to widen.
She turned her attention to Isore then and shook her head, "You can keep your Colt all you want, I prefer the Remington models. The Smith & Wesson was the best gun I ever owned. Made me feel like a cowboy everytime I touched it," she smiled wistfully and added, "may it rest in peace."
Parrish sighed and turned to look at Isore and Dreu, "Please don't try to talk about weapons with Lo if you ever want a moment of peace and quiet. Guns and cars - it's better to avoid them unless you want to hear her go on and on and on as if they were her children."
"That Mustang was my child, thank you very much!"
"See what I mean - I think she keeps photos of them in her wallet." Aurel had to laugh at that, mainly because it was something she would do, which led to her slapping him lightly on the head for not taking her side in things.
"I think it's safe to say that I'm the only one in the room who actually was a cowboy," Isore said, still grinning, "And while Smith & Wessen are certainly remarkable, nothing rivals a Colt."
"You were a card shark, not a cowboy," Dreu said, but he smiled nonetheless. He felt... better. Calmer, in a way, despite the tension still in the room.
"You saw how many show-downs I had," Isore said, his tone placid as he leaned his temple against Dreu's thigh.
"Yes, all of two."
Isore just snorted, nudging Dreu's calf with his elbow before tipping his head back to look at Parrish. "Do you have games every night?"
Dreu knew that they didn't, but he didn't bother interceding. While he watched, Isore often entertained himself, so he wasn't quite as aware of the family's chosen pastimes as Dreu himself was.
"You're too pretty to be a cowboy, Isore," Lo told him with a grin. Cowboys were dirty. His morals might have been unclean, but she doubted he was.
Parrish laughed at that and shook his head, "She has a point, you know, but no, not every night. Once a week or so. It keeps us close. I know that's cliché, but I think that spending time together playing games is important for bonding. Other nights we do other things - hunt, work, watch movies. You're welcome to come over any time you want, of course, no matter what we have planned."
"I was an accomplished cowboy, thank you," Isore said, managing a display of rather remarkable aplomb. It was spoiled, though, when he ducked his head and laughed. A moment later, he looked back toward Parrish and said, "Thank you."