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 Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 10:39 am
"I rather like surprises, you have been a large one and I am enjoying it very much." He stated, raising an eyebrow at the comment. They were going to have very few secrets eventually, but he did not want to ruin every surprise in one night. He usually went into things all guns blazing, but maybe this required a bit more tact - They were not in any rush, he would just have to curb his enthusiasm. If nothing else, this meeting had proved to him he had some restraint, for not at least.
"So you would like to design clothes, have a brand, a boutique?" He could imagine her in such a setting, dressing mannequins with a long length of tape around her neck. Maybe she would even work at catwalks one day, the sky was the limit at her age. He had contacts back in Los Angeles, if she was able to get her creations in shops out there she would see everyone in the public eye wearing them.
Though she seemed to have almost given up on the possibility. He could feel his heart getting heavy as he exhaled the white smoke. Dreaming is what had kept him sane all these years, whatever he wanted to learn he had done and it had made his life magical. He did not want Zoe to live a life she had resigned herself to, he wanted to grab her and tell her that she could hope. Until then he would hope for her, encourage her to fight for the thing she loved.
"Don't ever give up dreaming Zoe. Your life is yours and when your parents are long dead and you are old, you will wish you did so much more. You might not even get to be that old - So I think you should start putting those dreams into practise now. Nothing is more important, not even their approval - and even if we never become a thing, if you need a place to escape you can always run away and join the circus." He smiled, he had made that promise to someone before. If her world ever came crashing down on itself and she had to start again after cracking from the pressure - there was sanctuary to be found here. Everyone had their breaking point.
"You might have never thought you could have the career you wanted, you might have never thought you were allowed to love somebody. But you can." He ran his fingers through his fringe and took a sip of his drink. He wanted to help her, he did not know how he was able to do something about her situation but it hurt to know that is how she lived her life. Heck, he might not be in the best situation but at least he had always been able to be true to himself. He could not imagine the pain that came with not being able to. This girl, was stronger than she might think and all he wanted to do was cut the string binding her wings.
"Would you like to help us make our costumes? It might not be the fashion you like but my mother is constantly switching up our looks to stop things becoming old news." He suggested - his mother always had tables at the back covered in fabric and accessories. Zoe might feel right at home there, and maybe getting her head down and doing what she loved would spark some inspiration and give her the opportunity to dream again.
"I am living my dream. I perform here in the Freak Show, I play music from time to time and have a small but loyal fanbase, I work at the bar. I spend my time around friends and have the opportunity to travel where I want. I have my own place whilst being close to my family. I could not ask for more, whatever I want to do I do without hesitation
... And if you are my wife you will live that way too."
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 11:00 am
Wife. Husband. The words flashed like floodlights through her mind and she was filled with the stark reality of what that meant. It startled her enough that a small blush, faint and almost unnoticeable against her olive skin, sprawled over the apples of her cheeks. She could banter with him all she wanted to, she could keep the conversation light and playful and distracting, but the gravity of the situation remained. And yet, she realized the anger she had when her father first told her was dissipating. Rurik wasn't a bad guy, even if she knew she couldn't judge him entirely on first impressions, and there was a warmth and acceptance here that she had never felt. It made her nervous, in a way, as someone that had been raised in a cold environment with little empathy. Would she stand out too much? "I play guitar," she answered softly, her eyes staring down at low-burning coal of the hookah, entranced by the thin line of fire along one edge, "and I sing a little." It was a momentary distraction from what he'd said, as if she were entirely ignoring the way he had addressed her on purpose. She realized she was afraid of a world, in a way, where people might expect her to live and feel and be free. The unknown was always terrifying, even if she ached to break free of a world based in rules and balance. She closed her lips around the pipe and drew a deep breath in, exhaled, and finally brought her eyes back up to look at his. Honesty was important between them. "I know I seem very in control of myself, but the reality is that I haven't made decisions for myself in such a long time, that I've stopped thinking that way. I'm not tortured, or hurting. I'm in the last stage of my grief, and all of this," she waved her free hand at the room around them, though she meant all of it - including him, "is not what I was expecting. It's like asking me to take a step backward in the process and that is more frightening than if you'd just been.. well, if you'd just been another boring politician's son." Yet there was a small smile creeping to her lips and she leaned forward, partly to look at him, and partly to grab her drink again. She clasped it between her fingers and swirled the liquid for just a moment, feeling the swill of it in her grasp. "I haven't been frightened by anything in a long time, not even nervous." The smile broke into a soft and disbelieving laugh as she brought the rim of her drink to her lips and took a long draw, like a woman starving of thirst. "So thank you, for making me remember." She settled back into the loveseat, but this time kept her fingers around the now half-full glass. "I'd love to help your mother with the outfits here, I was already admiring the work on them while we were talking before."
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 11:30 am
"So you're a musician? That was unexpected, what kind of music do you like to play?" He was curious, he would have expected her to say that she played the Piano or Violin, but the guitar even in its most classical form was very rock and roll. All of a sudden he wanted to hear her play, if he had a guitar near by he would have offered it to her - but alas all of his were back at his apartment and he did not think she would want to sing on request. She did have a lovely speaking voice, he could only imagine it translating well.
He listened to hear words carefully as she spoke, about how she lived her life and the way she had been taught to think. Rurik finished off his drink and put down the pipe with a small sigh. This was scary to her? A little too much of a culture shock, he thought. Rurik pulled his long jacket off of his body and held it as he walked over to Zoe; revealing tattoos spread across his arms. Song lyrics could be found on the inside of his left arm and on the opposite side, over his shoulder black silhouettes of birds flew upwards towards his neck.
"I am not a politician's son, I am the son of a Burlesque dancer and an Information Broker." He laughed and shook his head, putting his coat around her shoulders and pulling it over her head so she could not see him. Rurik kneeled down and held her hidden head softly as it to stroke her hair through the material. She seemed to be having a very intimate moment with her own thoughts, it might be better if he was not staring at her as she reflected on them. It was okay to be scared; but she had already admitted she always seemed in control, it must be uncomfortable for her letting that image go.
"Hey Zoe, they can not hear us outside. If you want to yell about all the things you hate you can do - or if you just want to scream that is okay too, heck you can even cry if you need to. Then we will carry on - it just seems that you never really get the chance, and it is bad for you to keep it inside. No judgement I promise, I do it sometimes too." He stated, pulling her head to rest on his chest.
"You are not going backwards Zoe, you have been going that way for a really long time, you have only just realised it."
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 12:14 pm
As she saw him start to drape the jacket over her head, she almost objected, until the dark material fell across her eyes and she found herself in a calm world of darkness. It was nice, all of a sudden, to have her senses turned off - it was like a forced focus on her own thoughts, alone without really being alone. His voice drifted through the dense material and she let him lull her enough to lean into his chest. She supposed it must have been an odd sight to see, him stroking her head through the thick material and her covered in layer upon layer of skirts and jackets. But in a way, it was nice, and she relaxed her body enough to lean against him. Scream? Cry, even? She shook her head beneath the jacket and a soft, muffled laugh bubbled up from within it. "Maybe I'll scream one day," her voice, muted but sure, "but not right now. I don't think it's something I can do on a whim." But she did remain there, relaxed in his arms and drawing a few deep breaths down into her lungs, ones not filled with the smoke of the pipe. When the air beneath the jacket became stifling from the warmth of her own breath, she reached up finally and pulled it down her back to reveal her face and slightly disheveled hair. Even the smoke-hazed air of the room felt chilled by comparison, fresh and inviting. Her head lolled against his chest, but she didn't look up at him, just let it cradle against his skin as she listened to the thump of his heartbeat beneath his ribs. What a nice this was becoming. She remembered his question from before, about the music. The hand not still holding her drink lifted and pressed into his chest, feeling the strength of his lean muscles beneath the v-neck. They were such different people to be thrust together and yet, he was willing to give comfort to someone that was essentially a stranger. It was hard for her not to feel that edge of uncertainty at the proximity between them but, she supposed, she had gotten closer with men and women alike in shorter times just to steal comfort of a different sort for herself. This was tangled in feeling, and futures, though. "I play acoustic only, most of the time, and anything that has a lot of feeling. I guess you'd call it Indie, kind of." She tilted her head finally to look up at him, cradling her neck against the swell of his shoulder. "Let's talk about anything that isn't serious, okay?" Her bright eyes searched his gold ones and a small, faint smile tugged at her lips. "There's enough of the night left for a good time."
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 12:54 pm
"Zoe, you are so wonderfully strange." Not being able to show feeling on a whim. He shook his head and pondered it, Rurik wore his emotions on his sleeve. When he was angry he would yell, when he was upset he would make sure people know and when he was happy he had the most loud and obnoxious laugh. They came from two very different worlds and were raised to do very different things, it was alien to him how the paths of such polar characters could cross and tie together. Would two people like that ever be able to mesh together romantically? Should he even be thinking like that - if he were to go ahead with this agreement he was not going to force Zoe to be with him, the freedom to pick her partners would always be hers.
She leaned on him, was she tired maybe? It had been a pretty exhausting night. "I am having a better time than you could imagine. I am really enjoying getting to know you Zoe. Even the serious stuff." He admitted, letting the jacket fall from her back and onto the loveseat behind her.
HIs hands moved from her head to rest on her shoulders, holding her in a fixed position so her eyes could not leave his. "Well then, next time we meet up why don't we go and see a band play? We can visit the clubs or if you prefer - you can pick who we go and see. You can even come here before hand and see me perform my show, watch me make a complete jackass of myself on the stage." He suggested with a small wink. He did not know very much about indie music, but if she was into then then it was something that he would have to learn a little more about. Stepping into her hobbies and influences might even be fun and open his eyes to new things.
Still, indie? Really? He was much more of a metalhead.
"For now why don't I get us fresh drinks, and we can go and dance around downstairs until we get tired? I will even introduce you to some of my friends and colleagues and later I will talk to my mom about you coming to help in her textile studio."
He continued, listing things they could do to waste the night away, maybe they had spent enough time alone with each other for one night. He did not want to strangle her with his presence.
Rurik leaned forward, and quickly landed a small kiss on the end of his nose, almost tenderly. "You will have to forgive me my dear, I already resisted once. I think we should get going before my restraint decays even more, you do look really pretty tonight."
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 1:12 pm
" I'm strange?" She countered, immediately, bringing a bit of her playful edge back to her voice. A thin brow arched at him as she gave him a pointed stare, smirking up into the gaze he had forced her to hold. But she couldn't deny the truth in everything he had said. Unintended bleeding hearts or not, she had gotten a first real, true taste of who he really was and everything that was important to him. She wasn't sure if they were going to mesh yet, if this was going to be more than a friendly arrangement, but she didn't have to know yet. She thought he was pretty hot and the idea of kissing him intrigued her as clearly as it did him and for now, maybe that was all she needed to know. "I'd like that to see you perform, actually." The bright eyes of hers narrowed on his in that predatory look she'd first had in the car, when he'd pushed his limits with her. She was obviously thinking something that she wasn't sharing with him, but whatever it was, she was amusing herself. The only saving grace was the gentle kiss he pressed into her nose - making her laugh gently beneath her breath, and causing the look to soften. She pushed herself slowly to her feet and stretched out her arms and legs like a feline, the muscles tensing and then nearly vibrating as shivers crawled down her spine. She took a last sip of the sweet one he'd given her and set it on the table, then carefully removed her own jacket and set it on the back of the couch neatly so his mother might find it later. The blood in her veins had already become too warm for a leather jacket in doors - and she, for one, was accustomed to the heat of a dancing crowd. "Hurry up and make those drinks, then, so we can get lost in the crowd down there." Dancing until they lost themselves together was a sweet end to the first night.
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