Who: Alexander and Chloe What: An interlude Where: The gardens at their estate When: Recently Warnings/Rating: Some kissing, nothing more.
The evening was warm even after the sun had gone down, but the breeze was cool against her bare arms, providing some relief from the day's warmth. The gardens were fragrant, and Chloe sat on one of the benches, her eyes closed, hands curled loosely in her lap. There was a lot on her mind as of late, and prominent in her thoughts was her brother, Alexander.
She was confused by him more often than not, her feelings for him, and with the way that he treated her, it was even more confusing. There was no doubting her affection for him, her love for him, but she wondered what sort of future they had together. There were still those that hated them, after all, and their identities were certainly compromised within the community that existed upon the journals. But Alexander… he was safe. He would not harm her, and that was part of the reason she stayed with him, her love filling up the rest of the reason.
The cool glass that had been brought to her, filled with ice from the icebox, was rolled against her neck, pressed against her pulse, an attempt at cooling a body that was too warm.
As soon as the sun set, Alexander was moving through the house, following Chloe's scent to the back door. He opened it and paused, simply watching her from the open doorway, the twitch of her muscles, the roll of her head, the sweat that marked the nape of her neck. She might not have been the sister that he fantasised about through his teenage years, but that didn't mean he didn't love her.
He did, in all the ways deemed both acceptable and unacceptable by society. But they were Murphy's, and he existed so far beyond societal norms that to think of himself as being subject to them any longer was almost laughable. Be like the sheep when you wanted to be amongst sheep.
Alexander preferred sheep as prey. He left the doorway quietly, keeping his pace slow as he approached her from behind and ran cool fingertips from the far point of her shoulder, over the angel wing's of her shoulder blades, below the pearls of sweat and through the lines of cool water traveling her spine. "Hello, Chloe."
She hadn't quite gotten used to her brother's silent way of approach that he had adopted recently, so when he came up from behind and touched those cool fingers to her shoulder, there was no helping her jump of surprise. Chloe stilled soon after, though, her heart pounding a furious rhythm, the cool glass of ice lowered as she let her chin dip towards her chest, relishing the cool touch he offered. "Good evening, Alexander," she said softly, her voice just above a whisper, quiet in the evening air. After a moment, she turned towards him, twisting upon the bench she had settled upon, her face tilted up towards him. "You need to not surprise me like that," she chastised him a moment later, a smile upon her lips to soften the words.
Just as there was no stopping her jump of surprise, there was no helping how he heard the change in her heart beat, the whoosh-whoosh of her living blood through her veins. He didn't have to strain to hear her either, not like he might have a few months ago. "I'll try," he said with an answering smile. He would need the practice for when they finally moved away from this place. Somewhere more modern perhaps, for her, though he felt quite at home here with the quiet droning buzz of cicadas and gulping trill of bullfrogs. He could hear the deer, the raccoons, the possums all beginning to wake and move through the underbrush with the falling sun. His fingers drifted up, lazy lines drawn with his fingertips up her nape. "Have you thought about where you want to go?"
His touch sent shivers down her spine, goosebumps rising upon her arms as she ducked her head to allow him more access to her skin. It was warm out, the breeze just enough to make the world a little more tolerable, but his touch helped even more. "Somewhere closer to our home," she answered. "I miss the conveniences of the modern world," Chloe added a moment later, closing her eyes as she released a breath, the rhythm of her heart calming slightly as she urged herself to relax.
"Mmm." It came out as little more than a huff of air from Alexander. Chloe was always the one that liked things polished and new, pristine and ordered. She was stainless steel and white marble, while he was dark, old woods and granite. Yet, they met. First in Vegas with the doors closed on what they were doing, then here, under the illusion that they were no longer siblings but lovers who chose to be together. His hand slid into hers as he lowered his body to the bench beside hers. "You would. Do you want to go where Jude is? His time is closer to our old one, if that is your preference."
As he sat, she moved to lean against him, head upon his shoulder, dark eyes closed against the world around them. He was cold beneath her, and she wasn't quite used to that yet, but she didn't move from where she rested, preferring his presence over any discomfort the chill might have brought. "He seems happy there. I would like that," Chloe answered, her voice quiet and easy, the pace of someone relaxed and trusting.
It was easy to slip his arms around her, a motion borne of familiarity as they came to rest on either side of her waist. She was warm in his arms, like all living things were, and this close he could hear her heart, smell the blood that rushed so close the surface of her skin. "He does. We could go there, or somewhere else, even more modern if you prefer." It was a peace offering, a compromise. They had spent so long here where he favored it, it was only kind that she pick their next destination. "We could go wherever you like," he murmured as he bowed his head, cheek to her temple, and breathed in the scents of her: living warmth, the flowers she kept in her room, the herb water she used to clean her hair.
The way he opened up the world to her with the offer of going anywhere made her feel comforted and safe in a way she wasn't entirely sure how to deal with. As much as she wanted to say she wanted somewhere modern, shiny and new, she knew that he enjoyed these older places as well. The place where Jude was, from what she had heard, seemed like a compromise between his desires and her own, and she wouldn't see him uncomfortable wherever they ended up. So Chloe shook her head slightly in the negative, turning in towards him as he bowed his head. "I think it would be a fine place for us to go," she murmured softly, turning slightly to press a kiss wherever she could reach, warm lips against cool skin.
His eyes closed at the kiss and he gave a quiet hum of agreement. Jude's door then. "I'll start making the arrangements." There were things he required: a basement, a coffin, that one could not find so easily. Being close to a waterway was of vital importance, and a city far more important than a small town. A small town would notice how many people went missing in a week, a city had far more that could go missing before suspicions were aroused. Bodies were easily disposed of in water as he'd already found to be true, living this close to so much of it. His fingers came up, curled in the bleached strands of her hair, rolled the glossy strands on the broad flats between his knuckles.
The quiet confidence in his voice, the lack of argument, it was enough to soothe her as he played his fingers through her hair. She was quiet after that, a hum of enjoyment at the touch, her lips pressing another kiss to another patch of cool skin, still not entirely used to the feel of him beneath her lips now. He had been a familiar thing, warm and soft, but that had been replaced with something cool and hard, and though she enjoyed both, it was still something she was not used to. "I do love you, Alexander," Chloe said softly, her voice pitched just above a whisper. "And I appreciate all that you do for me."
"As I love you, Chloe," he returned, just as quiet. When he had come to Las Vegas, his eyes had been on Eloise, not on her. She was the surprise, the one that caught him unawares, and now the one that felt her lips to his throat, warmer than he remembered. Everything warm felt warmer now, the difference pronounced between the memories he had and this moment. "We needed this time away." A statement, not a question. They needed to bubble themselves off and live far from the craziness of Las Vegas, if only for a few months. "Are you ready to emerge? I think you far more a beautiful butterfly than I am."
Chloe didn't say anything for a long while, simply basking in the moment, in the simpleness of this little time with Alexander. She didn't require anything else other than this, and her breath was light and even as she leaned against him. "I don't believe I'll ever be quite ready, but I am ready for change." This place was nice in its own way, but she desired something else, something more, and perhaps the door that Jude called home would be enough to satisfy that desire.
"But I don't want to talk about that now. Right now… I just want to be with you." And she turned to kiss him lightly, lips lingering, and even though some might have called their relationship wrong and disgusting, Chloe simply didn't care. For her, it was all that she needed.