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 Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 11:31 am
"Glad to hear that." Damian nodded in answer, putting away the rest of the dishes and starting the dishwasher. "Shall we go back in the living room, then ?"
Oh, Xavier was very well aware of what his father was doing there. "No pictures, dad."
"Aw, but that's most of the fun..."
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:59 pm
Bell giggled a little. Ah, back to the ego~ Surely his father wouldn't show anything too embarrassing, right?
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 3:12 pm
That was nothing particularly incriminating in most of the photo albums. No naked baby pictures and all that, but yet... yet at the same time, there was. There was a part of himself that he hadn't really spoken of with her yet.
But he figured that it would need to be done. And so, he sat on the couch, and did - said nothing when his father pulled a massive photo album from under the coffee table. Half these photos would incriminate Tallulah as well, which was perhaps the only good thing in this.
"Make my death quick and painless, executor." Well, not literally nothing.
"You'd think im throwing you in a pit of acid." Damian rolled his eyes, grinning.
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 3:27 pm
If he thought this was bad, at least she wasn't furthering his embarrassment with any PDA. But then again she wasn't that mean! So when she sat, she merely folded her hands in her lap and gave a soft chuckle. She couldn't say much that wouldn't be later considered hypocritical.
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 3:38 pm
And that was then that the pictures started, that the album opened, revealing the memories within. The usual pictures that were in everyone's album - at the hospital, the first christmas, things like that. Damian had a story for every picture, and seemed more than willing to recount them at the barest sign of Bell's interest.
In some of these early pictures, there was a woman - a pale blonde with vivid, emerald green eyes. Xavier looked away every time she came up on the photos, drumming his fingers against his leg. Clearly, this had been what he hadn't wanted to re-visit tonight.
His mother.
Tallulah crept her way into the pictures quickly enough, and with a startling frequency - no wonder they considered themselves brother and sister. He got a little older every few pages - and then, past the pictures of his first day of school, the blonde woman was gone, as if she had never been there at all. Xavier looked entirely too sad and serious for a child in the next few pages, sometimes pictured with a worried-looking 5 years old Tallulah, who then probably did not understand why her big brother acted the way he was.
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 3:46 pm
All Bell could think was that Xavier and Ainsley would have a lot in common. At least, after she sorta pieced things together. Bell, not so much. She had been too young to properly remember her own parents when she'd been shipped off. She was sure though knowing and then losing was ten times worse than not knowing at all. Though it still ticked her off that anyone could just leave their child.
All in all she mostly kept silent.
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 3:56 pm
And it seemed just fine that way - Xavier was also mostly silent, until --
"Oh god." He suddenly said. "This thing."
'This thing' was, by all appearances, an extremely dorky first pair of glasses at age eight. There was nothing else on that page that could warrant such a reaction. It looked completely ridiculous. This was perhaps the closest thing to a completely embarrassing picture they'd come across, and Xavier was facepalming - yet laughing at the same time.
"Needless to say... Saying I spent that year shoved in a locker is not an understatement."
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:02 pm
Bell couldn't help an amused giggle, "People actually do that? The whole, shoving in lockers thing? I figured that was just on TV." Though, then again she supposed the stereotype had to come from somewhere. Wait...elementary schools had lockers? Huh...go figure. At least it shouldn't have been too uncomfortable a fit, unless lockers were a lot smaller than they looked on TV...or at least the elementary school ones. She could imagine, though, Tal beating up the bullies, or releasing poor Xavier from his locker prison.
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:14 pm
"Yeah, they do." The question had somewhat surprised Damian, but not Xavier. And then, as if he had read her mind - "They look a whole lot bigger from the outside, before you ask."
There was no mention of Tallulah the rescuer, but was one really needed ?
The pictures continued on - him getting glasses that looked much more respectable the next year. First Meadowview uniform at 14 with a 13 years old Tallulah in Knightside uniform looking a little pouty. When Damian went to turn the page, through, Xavier stopped him.
"Okay, for your own state of mind." Oh god. "The next page ? Done entirely to piss off my mother."
Damian's expression changed - oh, yes, it was that picture, wasn't it ? It was amusing, looking back, but living it had been a nightmare.
"And I promise on the well being of my cat that you will never see this particular hair color on me again. Okay, im good."
And then the page was turned. Was there anything that could have truly prepared Bell to her boyfriend, circa 2007, with below-shoulder hair dyed electric kool-aid blue ?
Probably not. It was ridiculous. It beat the glasses, easily
"I still say you looked like a douche." Damian was adamant.
"That was the point, dad !"
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:27 pm
The disclaimer made her curious. There wasn't much she could do to piss of, well, she didn't know her mum, but to piss of her dad,..well, sell the business. And it wasn't like she could do that unless he gave it to her. Rebellion? Bell hadn't ever had a chance at it.
"Ah, youthful rebellion and the embarrassment thereafter~" Bell grinned. Envious? Maybe a little.
The color...was certainly interesting, "Of all the colors to choose from...." Bell shook her head, amused.
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:33 pm
"I picked it myself. It was that or fire truck red." Oh yes, his master plan. He remembered every second of it. But red had always been Sarisa's favorite color, and well... While it could have probably looked even more ridiculous, he hadn't been about to give her the satisfaction.
Bitter ? Who, him ? Never.
The rest of the pictures were, thankfully, quite normal - and soon enough they ran out.
Damian, however, seemed to have another idea. "Just a second, kids..." He pulled something else from under the coffee table - a camera. "Now huddle up all nice and close, yes ?"
Oh god. Well, of course he would want a picture, in hindsight it was so obvious !
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:39 pm
"No neon green? Road cone orange, or bright purple?" Bell teased, trying to come up with other horrendous colors. Bell had never done anything with her hair aside from the occasional trim. Then again she had once been threatened be a room mate that is she ever did anything with her hair to cause it damage she would haunt her forever. Ghost-Nappa style.
Soon enough, and quite predictably, a camera proceeded after the pictures were through. Thank goodness her cheeks seemed to keep that natural blush.
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:49 pm
He tried to imagine himself with neon green hair. Really, he did - but it was nearly mind-shattering, if his expression was of any hint. He wasn't sure if he could have lived with himself with neon green hair. Seriously.
Thankfully, this wasn't the moment that his father chose to snap the photo - no, he waited until Xavier had straighted himself out and slid a little closer to Bell before snapping the picture.
"Ahh, here we go." Damian was very proud of himself, of course. "Now, im pretty sure you two have things planned that don't need to include an old tagalong." He winked.
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:57 pm
Part of Bell did not what to know what kind of assumptions had been made.
Honestly, though, not knowing when her sister would arrive had kinda stopped her from making too many plans, even though she had totally said she wouldn't put her life on hold simply because of her father's incompetence... It wasn't like she could punish her little sister because her father, or rather his 'people' had neglected a key piece of information.
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 5:02 pm
The look on her face was priceless - it did really make him wonder... Though, ah, this wasn't any of his business, not really. Xavier was certainly old enough for this kind of thing, if that was what they wanted.
Xavier, for his part, leaned in close to her - on the pretense to brush away a lock of hair from her face. "He didn't mean it like that." Was what he whispered, through, and of this he was certain. He knew his father well enough to be able to say this with complete certitude.
Well, at least the meeting hadn't been a complete train wreck... or so he hoped that Bell didn't think his father was clinically stupid.
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