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Qadir, attempting to be a gentleman, had invited miss Crystal to join him for dinner at his house. Now, knowing how she was so intent on cooking dinner for him, Qadir included the option of her cooking a small entre and him cooking a small entre and then the two of them enjoying the other's meals. Whether Crystal brought anything or not didn't really matter, for Qadir had gone a little over-board with cooking and had made more than enough food to feed a small army. He couldn't help himself, he'd simply took a step into the kitchen and suddenly found a table full of food infront of him. If Crystal did bring him an entre, he'd surely only focus on that.

His house had been, well, tidied was the best that Qadir could describe it. It certainly wasn't clean, but there were places to sit and there wasn't anything cluttering upon the floor besides the usual suspects: chairs and tables. There really weren't any electronics to be seen for Qadir had never been a fan of tv (Have you ever tried watching tv in the middle of the night? Talk about boring!) and he really didn't have a use for telephones or computers. The strangest thing about the house was its continual struggle between modern and ancient, and ancient was apparently winning, at least from the sight of all the artifacts strewn across the walls and taking up space on tables.

Mostly unnoticed and off to the side was a plain looking card with 'Happy Birthday' scrawled across the front, seated upon a table that sported only the card. Inside was a quick, emotionless note from Qadir's employer, wishing him well and making note of him coming back to work relatively soon. The vampire had paid little attention to the card, but he couldn't in all honesty chuck the poor thing into the trash!

The vampire's sensitive hearing picked up the sound of her soft knock and he practically destroyed a few tables in his race to reach the door and greet Crystal. The sight of her when he'd finally reached the door was clearly one of awe, those amber eyes dancing with admiration at how well put together she'd made himself. Qadir was down right plain in his outfit of a black button up shirt and black slacks. If he'd known it was going to be a more formal event he'd have made it a suit and tie event.

"Come in, come in," he breathed with a wide smile, holding the door open for the woman one-handed. Qadir was still wearing his sling, but his arm was healing quite nicely and she may notice that there was no bandage peeking up over the collar of his collared shirt. Instead there was a scar upon the tanned flesh. Another month or two and the scar would be nothing more than an almost unnoticeable line upon the skin. Sometimes Qadir was very happy for the vampire in him - especially when it came to his healing.

Unfortunatly, the poison wasn't quite gone, but it took more for it to drag him down than it used to. "What did you make? I'm afraid I went a little over the top, but really, I didn't mean to." Qadir lead the woman through his house, past the small card on the table and towards the kitchen where the smell of breaded chicken and an assortment of vegetables wafted through the air. It was far from fancy, but once again, Qadir hadn't thought the event would call for formal food and attire.

Dark hair was tossed as the man shook his head with a flourish. "Not a chance! I'll eat nothing other than what you've made for me," he said, taking the package from her after he'd closed the door behind her and taken the lead to show her the way. It was true. Qadir did live alone. Likely it had to do mainly with the fact that Qadir simply didn't have any living relatives left, at least none that he was willing to approach and go 'oh, by the way, I'm your great grandfather times tewnty!'

The black lily cup that Qadir had bought so many, many months ago sputtered out grotesque red wisps, but the smell was warm and welcoming. It was easy to see why Qadir was so in love with lilies with the smell that lingered in the air and comforted and disgusted him at the same time.

As they walked through the home, Qadir would motion with one hand or the other, explaining this and that as they walked through. That portrait was from Egypt, that sword was from China. A good thing Crystal didn't have an interest in history or art to a great extent or she'd likely have been immobilized in the entrance hall with the overwhelming accessories.

Opening his mouth to say something, he was stopped short in both words and tracks when he saw her holding the car and looking at him with a look that the vampire wasn't sure he liked. "Oh, yea, you know employers. They want people back on track as fast as they can. Don't worry, I told him I wouldn't be coming back for quite a long time. I successfully informed him that there was something here that was more important than the job," he said, attempting to charm her out of her anger.

Qadir's mouth opened once more to reply, before her expresion and pose changed so suddenly. Oh...gods. What was he supposed to do?! Setting the meal she'd cook down, the man took a step towards Crystal with an outstretched arm. "Crystal...I," started, fumbling with his words and looking completely lost. The look. She was practically dragging him down into his own tears. His breath felt like it couldn't move from his chest, where it was tight and uncomfortable.

Anger was well and good. Qadir could take a woman angry with him, he could take a woman rushing at him with any assortment of weapons, but he simply could not deal with a girl upset with him, upset to the point where she looked like she could turn on the waterworks in any matter of seconds. Yea, so? His birthday had been yesterday and as usual, Qadir's employer had been the only person to remember the date. Even the vampire himself hadn't remembered about the damned day until the letter had been delivered. How was he supposed to tell Crystal of an event if the man couldn't even remember it himself?

"P-p-please...p-please don't cry C-crystal," he stammered, his voice just as sorrowful as her own. His hand trembled slightly as is hovered between them, unsure as to if he should attempt to comfort her or just not touch her. "I d-d-don't even remember my birthday usually. It-it's only my employer who ever re-remembers. I gues he has a calendar or something. You know I'd-I'd have told you if I'd-I'd known!" Oh god, a stammer. It was something few people had ever heard coming from the man who seemed like nothing could ever get under his skin. Well, let it be known that Qadir just crumbles when faced with a woman with a face like that and a voice that lashed out harder than a whip.

As she slipped his arm over her shoulder he pulled her against him, burying his face in against her hair with a deep breath. He held her there for the longest time, her pinned against him and his own form curled down against her own to compensate for the height difference. How was he supposed to know she was teasing? She'd looked so honestly upset at him and honestly he would have probably looked the same way if he'd found out she'd deliberately with-held her birthdate from him. But Qadir hadn't meant to! How many birthdays had passed before he stopped counting? How old was he now? What year was he born? All that stuff had just become unimportant after so many years, lost to the sands of his homeland the same way the people he loved had been swept away.

After a long time Qadir apparently felt able to talk without sounding like an idiot and he pulled back with another dragged breath. The look of concern that she wore for him was equally as heartbreaking, but it wouldn't send him into that same stuttering pit as before since he wasn't the direct cause this time. "There's no reason to forgive you dear, you've done nothing wrong. I should have told you yesterday when I found out it was my birthday. If I'd have known how badly it would hurt you I would have done anything to fix it. I'm so sorry," he cooed softly to her.

Fingers brushed through her hair, inspecting those looping curls with his eyes since he couldn't bring himself to look at her directly in the eyes just yet. Another look into that cloudy gaze would likely send him stuttering once more. "How about this. Over dinner, you can ask me anything you want and anything I feel comfortable answering I'll tell you. I only ask that anything you ask and I don't feel I can answer you don't take it personally. There are just...there's things in my past that hurt too much and they will always hurt." Someone had lied to the world when they claimed time healed all wounds. Perhaps another reason Qadir lived alone was that he would never be able to handle someone knowing what happened in the daylight hours, the time he should have been sleeping peacefully.

The man couldn't help but laugh at her question, shaking his head as he flashed her the wide smile that reflected in his eyes, just like she'd asked, though it hadn't been because of her desire that it was there. He could smile for her with little insistance. Now that he was back to himself and she wasn't looking so forlorn the smile came easily to him. "You know that there's a smile for you whenever you want one my dear, as well as anything else you could ever ask for." Qadir gave her another quick hug before turning slightly and leading her once more towards the kitchen, his arm still looped protectively around her.

The too-large-for-its-own-good table was half covered with more of those strange and wonderous trinkets collected over the years, but the other half had been thoroughly cleaned and at one corner were two seats accompanying fine china, a vase of roses and lilies (an odd flower combination but not a horrific one) and two candles dancing nerrily with just the slightest breeze. Ok, so, one part of the dinner had turned out rather foral, but the rest was rather simplistic.

"I didn't know if you liked white or red wine, or if you even liked wine at all, so I didn't put out anything to drink but water. Would you like me to get you something to drink besides water? I'll be having a well aged Merlot if you'd like to share that with me," he said, fingers brushing through her hair again. He couldn't help it. Besides the fact that he simply loved her hair, he was also wondering to himself why she wasn't wearing the trinket he'd gotten just for her.

Qadir pursed his lips slightly as he thought, considering what the food called for. His food wasn't all that over-powering and so a nice strong Merlot would go just smashingly with it, but spicy food? "Now that you mention it, I think I'll stick with water," he said with a laugh and a light shrug of his shoulders, wincing slightly as he jostled the arm that should not be jostled. It hadn't hurt or anything, but it wasn't pleasant. Uncurling his arm from around her he reached for the basket and began unloading it on the table.

Brows lofted as he watched her dig into the bosom of her dress. Qadir could only stand a blink. And then she produced something wrapped in white. Not that he had any clue as to what she was going to do sticking her hand down the front of her dress, but he was thankful that it was only a wrapped bundle of some sort. Watching her lay the item on the table and unwrap it, he remained expressionless at the sight of the clip wrapped up.

True, she was clearly taking care of it and keeping it close to her heart, but still, why had she not worn it for him tonight? His thoughts were stopped as she held out the ring to him and he blinked before picking it out of her hands and holding it up to the light to re-read the inscription before chuckling and handing it back to her. "Are you sure you want to know? It certainly takes away the fun of imagining just what an ancient king might have to say to his queen." Qadir placed the ring back into her hand gently. "I'll only tell you if you tell me what you've dreamed it would say. And if you've not dreamed about what it would say then what are you hoping right now it will say?"

The vampire laughed as Crystal mused over the phrases on the ring, shaking his head slightly as he watched the ring instead of the girl. "Of course it's romantic," he said before blushing ever so slightly and reaching up to brush his hand through his hair with a soft, "Not that that's why I gave it to you of course. I just thought the black stone and the way you were always wearing blue it just reminded me of you and so I thought I'd give it to you since I don't have anyone else really to give gifts to. Not that I don't have anyone to talk to but it fit you so well I just..."

Qadir realized he was rambling and with a cough he shut up, collected his thoughts and continued with, "It says eternally bound. The king proposed to his queen with the ring and they lived together happily for all their lives." The man felt a little bad about the fact that he was sort of a grave robber, but he usually calmed though upsetting thoughts with the fact that if it wasn't him salvaging these items, keeping them safe and restoring the, someone else would take them and they would not treat them as well as the vampire clearly had.

As she put on the ring and pulled out the hair clip Qadir put on an innocent look. "Ah, is that the reason? And here I was thinking you just disliked it so much you were hiding it away from everything," he said with a smile, reaching out to take the clip and step closer to her, finding a few good locks of hair and clipping the moon into those dark locks. Each of the small globes were wrapped around a different curl and as soon as they'd been finished getting wrapped they began to glow with a soft white glow.