|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 10:25 pm
"Vim, vim!" Cain scolded Luka for his carelessness, shaking his head. The shadow had been searching through the room - and turning up nothing - when his friend had knocked the statue over. If Kali caught them, then they'd never get rid of all the evil jars!
"Vi vi!" But where WERE they? He couldn't fathom where she could have hidden them...
Lance did his best not to show it, but Viktor had definitely hit a sore spot on him. School had never been one of his favorite things, but the fact was that he COULDN'T go to school - rent and food took up most of the funds that he and Charlie had, so saving up wasn't really an option, and there was no way in hell that his father had ever put money away for him. No, all the money in their home had gone towards alcohol, though he definitely wasn't about to bring that up.
"I can't afford it." he finally said simply after a moment, hoping that Kali's uncle wouldn't push the matter. Really, he didn't want to get onto this topic."I would if I could, but it's not something that I'm able to do." He hoped that maybe Viktor would leave it at that, but somehow, he doubted that the man would.
As for plans for the future, she wasn't entirely sure of what to say. What was he supposed to say? He was a kid living on his own with a crazy roommate and a shadow! Lance supposed that all he could do was be honest though - and if Kali's uncle didn't like it, well, that was his problem. "Well, I'm hoping that the band'll do well, but if not, just getting a steady job would be a plan I guess."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 9:58 am
Disapproval settled on Viktor's face as he watched Lance, and listened to his explanation.
There was, Viktor believed, always a way. If he could get from the slums of Aekea, to the heights of Durem, run a company and manage all fifteen of the factories that were under their control, then one kid could manage to get his a** a scholarship and do some good for himself. At least, that's what Viktor believed.
"A...band. Right." He swirled his drink around in his glass, watching Lance still. "I'm sure that will go...wonderfully." Veiled sarcasm touched his voice as he brought the cup to his lips.
"What about your family?" He wasn't judging the boy based on his family, but it was always a possibility. Viktor hadn't had support from his family, but he did know that many of the kids who dressed like Lance did, dressed like that for attention. They were spoiled rich kids, whose parents owned large cars and gave them everything they wanted. He had known his type, when he was in college.
And he couldn't stand them.
"Didn't they save something for you? Or did you abandon Mommy and Daddy's house to make your own way, running off to become the next greatest musician in Gaia-"
"Why does it matter?" Kali said, cutting Viktor off coldly. "They're actually doing quite well. How many gigs did you have this month, Lance?" she smiled at him, and not at Viktor. "Like, four? That's really great."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 10:56 am
Lance had been expecting the disapproval from Viktor. He didn't particularly care about the sarcasm either. If he wanted to be a judgmental a*****e, then that suited the black-haired boy just fine - it wasn't like he hadn't encountered people like that before, and he supposed that it was to be expected when one dressed like he did. Physically, he did fit the description of spoiled teenager who thought that their life was tragic despite how good they had it. Unfortunately though, Lance hadn't had the luxury of being spoiled. Quite the opposite, really.
Despite trying to keep his demeanor, Lance stiffened visibly when Kali's uncle asked about his family. What about them, huh? It was starting to seem like Viktor WANTED to pick a fight with him, and Lance was starting to grow very, very tempted in responding. This man, Kali's uncle or not, had the GAL to assume that he knew about what kind of environment that he'd grown up in?
Fine then. He could play that game.
"That right. It'll be five when we do the one next Saturday." At least, in all of this, Kali was defending him. For that, he gave her a smile - he'd kiss her later for it, when her Uncle wasn't there to strangle him for trying. He did, however, take the time to respond to Viktor's question. "Save something for me? No, not really." Upon finishing that statement, however, the boy seemed to pause, as if contemplating something. "Or wait, no, that's not quite true. 'Daddy', as you put it, gave me a nice scar." Now, he didn't want Viktor to pity him, nor did he want to see a shock factor come out of the man. No, at this point, he just wanted to make the man shove his foot into his own mouth. Lance was willing to put up with a lot of s**t, but this was where he drew the line. "That's probably not what you meant though, huh?" Had Katia and Dimitri not been there, he could have gotten quite descriptive about what 'Daddy had saved for him' - however, the fact was that they WERE there, and he wasn't about to get into that kind of conversation with kids in the room. They didn't need to hear about s**t like that, even if their father WAS being an a*****e.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 12:58 pm
Even Viktor was not so much of an a*****e to continue that particular topic of conversation. Dimitri looked up, questioningly, having had missed Lance's response. He knew his Father was being a jerk, and had chosen not to listen.
Katia, on the other hand, heard and understood. She looked over at Lance with wide eyes.
"A...scar?" She asked softly. Viktor tensed.
"Never mind it, Katia. Eat your dinner." He said to her, and she looked down. Lance's dad had hurt him? That wasn't nice at all. Daddies were for hugs, and protection. Not...
Viktor looked over at Lance, wondering how to do this.
"I...apologize. I didn't realize-"
Kali, whose mouth had become a thin, angry line as soon as Lance spoke, slammed her hands into the table.
"No! No, you didn't realize, because you wouldn't speak to me about this whole ******** dinner charade. You were too busy planning how to be a complete and total a*****e. Had you LISTENED, I would have WARNED you, and this wouldn't be a complete DISASTER!" She shoved herself away from the table, tossing her fork down onto her plate with a clatter.
"You know, I don't even know why I bother! Between you pretending you're my father, and Katia pretending she's the secret ******** service, I'll NEVER get a nice night with Lance. I don't know why I even BOTHER" She sniffled. There was only two ways this could possibly get worse, and those were if Luka had done something too, and Viktor opened his stupid mouth again.
Unfortunately for him, Viktor did the latter, hoping to apologize to his niece. He hadn't meant for this to happen. He had only been protecting her. Didn't she see?
But she didn't see. She didn't give him a chance to speak. As soon as he opened his mouth, sparks arced at her fingertips, and the container of sour cream exploded like a geyser. Turning, she stormed out of the kitchen, running up the stairs as her tears began to fall. God. How stereotypical was she? Bursting into tears and running up the stairs. But how much did she care?
Very, very little.
She got to her door before the second worst thing happened. Reaching out, already murmuring the words to dispell her magic, she heard a raucous shatter.
Silence, for a moment. Then she threw the door open.
Luka hovered triumphantly over a job, in his opinion, well done. As opposed to searching endlessly for the jars, he had simply taken all of the jars in Kali's room, and smashed them against the floor. Yup! It was brilliant! It hadn't taken long to load up her comforter and use it as a sling of sorts to carry it, and together, he and Cain had been able to hit it hard enough to smash them.
Kali stared, horrified, as bright colors of paints and potions mixed together on her quilt, magic sparking and changing before her eyes. Dangerous stuff; and the exact reason she had locked Luka out of her room. Well. Part of it.
Luka looked up as the door slammed open, squealing as he spotted Kali. For a few moments, nobody moved...
Then she screamed. Luka bolted.
The magic potions and components beneath him flared as she yelled, and he grabbed Cain, zooming past Kali and out into the house, rolling and tumbling into the chandelier. It swung, but thankfully did not fall, suspending both Shadows in mid-air. The red headed mage spun, magic trailing after her fingers, and shot a bolt at them both. Mid air, it changed, transforming into an acid green bubble. It wrapped around both shadows, and then it was solid.
They were trapped
The whole house seemed to shake with the force of it as she slammed it shut, dropping to her knees with a sob to clean up the mess the Shadows had made. A pity she couldn't clean their mess of an evening.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 9:35 pm
Well, it seemed that he'd managed to swiftly end that conversation. This fact didn't leave Lance feeling particularly satisfied, but he was glad that the topic had been dropped - he didn't particularly like speaking about his family. It wasn't normally a pleasant thing to speak of, which was why he hadn't bothered to bring it up with Kali before now.
Honestly, this was one of the last places that he'd wanted it to show up in conversation.
Now, Lance may have accepted Viktor's apology if he'd had the time to listen to it. As it was, he was more concerned with making sure that his girlfriend was okay as Kali got up and stormed out of the kitchen. He was out of his seat and following after her less than a second later, feeling a little guilty - perhaps he should have held his little backlash back, if only for her sake. She'd been so excited about tonight...
Lance passed both Luka and Cain entrapped in some kind of green sphere, and immediately knew that Kali's night had PROBABLY just become about ten times worse. The Gothic boy ignored the two shadows' pleas for aid for the moment, - they probably deserved to be stuck in there anyway - finding that he was more focused on the fact that he could hear Kali crying in one of the nearby rooms.
He quickly found her trying to clean up some mess that he didn't doubt that Luka and Cain had some part in making and was immediately next to her, pulling her into a hug before kissing her head - if Viktor walked in and saw him, then he could suck it. He was going to bloody well hug and kiss his girlfriend when she was crying, dammit.
"Shhhh, I'm sorry..." He hadn't felt this bad in a long time - the last time was probably when he'd accidentally let Charlie sleep with that one girl that he'd brought him during one of his drunken stupors. Not that he'd ever bring THAT up...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 9:55 am
Kali let Lance hold her, wiping her potion covered hands on the floor before curling into him, wrapping her arms around her waist.
"I-it's not your fault." She sniffled, pressing her face into his chest. "I'm s-sorry he's such a d**k. H-he..." The rest of what she said was lost as she sobbed, hugging him tighter.
The mess of potions still swirled together on the floor, though a lot of it was being dissolved by a small green vortex. Kali sniffled, and the vortex rippled, clearly controlled by the young mage.
Downstairs, Viktor sighed, holding his forehead in his hands. Dimitri stayed where he was, but Katia ran away from the table, up the stairs, to stare at Luka and Cain. Luka spotted her and chirped, reaching out and begging for her help. But Katia couldn't even dream of breaking one of Kali's enchantments. Helpless, she looked back at her cousin's room...and decided against it.
"It serves you right, Luka. Whatever you did, it wasn't nice at all. You stay up there until she decides to let you down." She told the shadows, before hurrying back downstairs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 7:58 pm
Lance held Kali for a moment, not bothering to move from the spot that he was in, before finally shifting so that he could pull the redheaded girl up into his lap. Gently, he rocked her and kissed her head, trying to calm her crying. "It's okay. I'm not...mad." Not at her, anyway. It wasn't her fault. The black-haired boy was still a little irritated with Viktor, but that would pass eventually. It always did - he wouldn't have been able to stand Charlie otherwise.
"...how about we do something tomorrow? Just you and me." Now, coming from Lance that could have easily meant sex - however, he actually meant some form of date. Something that - hopefully - her family would not feel the need to butt into and mess up for them. "How does that sound to you?" If not, they could always plan for another night. He didn't doubt that they could think up something...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 8:46 pm
Kali sniffled, rubbing her eyes and considering his offer. Something, just the two of them. Exactly what she wanted.
Wow. Was she becoming the needy, spoiled girlfriend?
It didn't bother her right now, though, because that was exactly what she wanted.
"That...that sounds good..." She said softly, sniffling again and squeezing her eyes shut as she leaned against him. Whatever it was, as long as her stupid family wasn't there...
Sighing, she wrapped her arms around him, snuggling into the crook of his neck as she turned to straddle his waist. Tears fell, slower than before, until finally they dried up into nothing. She was tired. Cranky. Comfy. She didn't want to move.
A soft knock at the door made her raise her head, but she did not turn. She waited, listening to the silence, and then-
"Kali..."
"Go away" She snapped, pushing her face back into Lance's shoulder. He was the LAST person she wanted to talk to right now. "I don't want to talk to you." she grumbled, her voice muffled. Somehow, though, Viktor heard her.
"You don't have to." He said. "I'd like to speak to Lance."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2010 8:17 pm
Lance would have been perfectly content to remain where he was. Really, he didn't actually have much wish to leave, and was quite happy to have Kali in his lap. It gave him time to think about where he'd bring her anyway - dinner always seemed to go badly for them, so perhaps he'd take her to the movies...he got a discount there anyway. He'd have to think about it. The black-haired boy wanted it to be a GOOD date, something that Kali would enjoy. "Awesome."
A knock jerked Lance from his thoughts however, and an irritated voice complained in his head - really? Did someone REALLY have to come here and ruin his little moment? God damn, he was starting to hate family members - not really, but they always seemed to have bad timing.
Dark eyebrows shot up in curiosity as Viktor stated that he wanted to speak with him. Really? With him? Suspicion rose immediately, but he reluctantly began to untangle himself from his girlfriend. "I'll be back in a minute..." he whispered, not wanting Viktor to hear before he kissed her forehead. The Gothic teen got up off of the floor after another minute and went to the door, pulling it open and slipping out before shutting it behind him. He swore to God, if this conversation went like the last one had-
"You wanted to speak with me?" While Viktor was still an intimidating presence, Lance seemed to have gotten over that little fact - at least for the moment, anyway.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 8:17 am
As Lance opened the door, Viktor spotted Kali on the floor, pushing her vortex around and cleaning her mess. He would have to apologize to her too...but that would be much harder, and take longer. Apologizing to Lance would come first.
He waited until it was closed behind the boy before raising his hand; not to strike him, but to extend it forward. Words were for board meetings and people like Markham. To Viktor, a hand shake, or clasping forearms meant so much more.
He still wasn't pleased with Lance. He didn't approve of the things he had done with his niece. But he did respect him. He was polite, despite how much Viktor had been acting, and he obviously cared for Kali. Many would have been too afraid to leave the table and go after her with Viktor glaring a hole into the back of their head. But he hadn't given Viktor a sideways glance as he hurried after her. He'd been a bit...touchy, when defending himself, but he had every right to be. And Viktor had to respect backbone. No boy who sat and took it would be good enough for anyone in his family.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 4:36 pm
Lance wasn't entirely sure of what to expect from Viktor. He wasn't sure if he was going to be apologized to, threatened, or if the man was planning to do something else. He soon got his answer as the man held a hand out to him, clearly offering for Lance to take it. The black-haired boy understood what Vikor meant by it accepted the gesture after a moment.
He knew that Viktor probably wasn't happy with him, but there wasn't much that he could do about what he and Kali had done now - and she wasn't going to be stopping any time soon with her, quite frankly. Not that he'd be stating that to Viktor, but the two of them were at a truce for now, and he'd go with it. This was probably as good as their relationship was going to get, if he made any guesses.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
