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 Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 7:27 pm
"Da, Valeriu," he corrected automatically, sinking his chin down to rest it on his knees, keeping an eye on any other cars. "My name is not that hard to pronounce, is it?" he wondered curiously to himself. Now that he thought about it, even his parents had only called him by his full name half the time.
As they slowed, stopped, paused at the intersection, Valeriu nodded, eyes dropping from the road to the glovebox in front of him.
"I v'on't," he acceded quietly, picking at a rip in his jeans thoughtlessly. "Quinn and I...are not on speaking terms, I suppose," he shrugged as nonchalantly as he could, even as the rip widened. "He is afraid of me." Shaking off the fog that was trying to lure him back to sleep, he turned to stare inquisitively at the strange man of mystery.
"You said you v'ould tell me, about my parents," he reminded the man, eager to turn away from the subject of Quinn. "They v'ent missing, you know," he informed him. The man had only seemed to be in contact with his family when he was way, way younger - he probably didn't know. "About a year ago."
He'd tried looking, had run through every avenue he knew of and learned of, to no avail. But now, now -- he had new information. About their secret lives, about what might have happened.
"So tell me everything you know, please," he asked, though it was more of an order. He wasn't going to let this opportunity slip through his hands. He settled back in his chair, though he didn't relax the grip he had on the seat.
He grinned, slightly, and it was not quite the innocent smile he usually wore; but one he had most certainly learned from his god.
"Or I v'ill not leave the car."
Or I will hunt you down and make your life hell until you spill your guts.
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Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 9:46 pm
It would be too hollow to try to pretend that he cared whether or not Quinn had friends, so Nathan kept his mouth shut, accelerating with the green light and taking another turn. They were getting closer now-- traversing the city in car always shortened trips by an amazing amount. He let out what he thought was a thoughtful “Hmm”, however, to fill the silence. If he had left that as it was… He would look as heartless as he felt when it came to his family.
Valeriu, however, dived into deeper waters. No matter what, Nathan could not keep himself from looking heartless when it came to those two. When it came to Andrei and Dana… He was nothing but a heartless monster.
“Is that so?” He feigned ignorance, his hands tightening only a fraction on the wheel, “I’m sorry to hear that. I dropped out of contact with them a while before that.” Mere minutes before it had happened.
He had to keep his face glued to the road. One look, and it’d be over. He’d snap, and tell the boy everything.
And so, in order to avoid reaching the destination, and having no reasonable distraction, he took another turn-- a detour. He could allow himself enough time to feign proper driving habits, while avoiding the look on Andr-- No. Valeriu’s face.
“I don’t know that much.” He started, his face dropping into a frown, “But I know that your parents were devoting a lot of time to their jobs before we broke it off. I know that they often did things like product deliveries, and high stakes bargaining.”
“But I really don’t know about anything that might relate to them disappearing. Unless it’s some kind of prolonged business trip. But last I checked, Dana was pregnant-- she wouldn’t have been able to go on any trips.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he was gauging the boys reaction.
“You have a little brother or sister now, don’t you?”
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Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 10:00 pm
Product deliveries? High stakes bargaining? He was mystified, and the baffled look showed on his face.
He'd never realized those jobs were so dangerous as to require guns. Lots and lots of guns.
He frowned, biting his lip thoughtfully, eyebrows digging down as he thought. No, no extended business trips - something else had happened. It was starting to get more and more likely that they were in another city altogether.
"Da," he answered distractedly, looking up again to peer out the window. The people went by too fast, and his head spun with nausea just to look. He blamed it on the drugs, and buried his nose back into his knees. "Sydni, she's almost two, now. Birthday in December," he elaborated, automatically smiling in fondness at the thought, like a would-be father. She was old enough to appreciate her birthday, this time around. Then he frowned, and sighed in exasperation. "Although she acts like she is two already. Little hellraiser."
She was obviously picking that up from Tezcatlipoca. The man was probably indoctrinating her with all his evil evil-ness.
Wait. Did he seriously just think that?
His eyebrows drew back up. Evil evil-ness. Yes, yes he had thought that.
He definitely blamed the drugs.
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Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 11:04 pm
He couldn’t help but chuckle at this, the idea of Andrei getting a dose of his own medicine by a toddler was certainly amusing.
But-- Andrei was gone.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you more.” He wished that there was different information to give, “But if you need any help getting by, or taking care of your sister…” His voice began to trail off.
No. That was a stupid thing to say. He wasn’t even able to take care of his own children, let alone Andrei’s. Valeriu wasn’t stupid enough to believe comforting words like that. And no matter how much Nathan might like to overtly help the children, it was just asking for trouble.
“Well,” The car ground to a slow halt, “I think we’re here.”
Now please, just get out of the damn car and forget about this.
Forget that you ever ran into me.
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Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 11:16 pm
He blinked at the strange man, Nathan, and grinned.
"It's okay, I think I can handle it," he reassured confidently. "Thank you for the offer, though, Mister Nathan." Hell, he'd been handling two girls.
Well. Sort of. Tepin wasn't so easily handled anymore.
He hastily added, "But I might take you up on that v'hen Sydni turns into a teenager." And that mere thought alone was more terrifying than he'd realized. One girl hitting puberty was more than enough for Valeriu's lifetime. Two, and he would be fleeing out the door.
He let out a grateful sigh of relief when the car finally stopped, unclenching his stiff fingers from their deathgrip on the cushion and unfolding his legs. Outside the window, blessedly stationary, was his familiar home and steps. He was more than eager to hobble up to bed and sleep the rest of the day.
Carefully prying open the door to the little car, he slid on out, closing it just as carefully and leaning down to beam through the window.
"Thanks for everything, sir. Take care." He didn't know why the man avoided his family, and he wouldn't pry - he just hoped, one day, he'd be able to return. With that he patted the door, straightened back out, and walked to his steps (quite drunkenly, and he couldn't figure out for the life of him why the world was swaying back and forth still, but he managed to get up the steps).
Coincidence was strange. Maybe, someday - they'd meet again.
For now, he had to remember how to open his door.
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