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 Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 4:46 pm
It was getting late and the streets were emptying out. Christiana had only been in the city for a couple hours now, and she was already overwhelmed by everything, The people moved so quickly, and a little rudely in her opinion. The signs were in a language she couldn’t read and there wasn’t a single familiar face. She was in the middle of this plaza that was unlike any she had at home, well, not home anymore. Christiana made a promise to herself that she was never going back there, and she was going to keep her promises from now on.
Her bag was heavy on her shoulders. Christiana supposed it may have been a little foolish to simply leave home without properly packing, she wasn’t even sure she had packed underwear, just a few shirts and skirts. She at least had a credit card and she supposed once she found a place, her parents could send her the rest of her belongings.
s**t, a place to live. This is why she wasn’t impulsive, this is why her life had plans and routines, it’s because when you’re impulsive, this happens. You end up in a city thousands of miles from (not) home without a place to live or even a means to communicate with people. And there were so many people, she was lost and there was a statue of a giant dog, who the hell puts a dog in the middle of a plaza? Gods and goddess, yes, famous rulers, sure, Olympian athletes, why not, but a dog? It didn’t stop Christiana from leaning up against it in the hopes of trying to catch her breath and her bearings in her new surroundings. She was maybe seconds away from sliding down and crying.
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Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:23 pm
Ashton had to admit that he wasn’t in the best of moods, but he was getting better. Throwing that old man out on the street and then dragging him to the airport had taking a lot of energy, but also kept him from shoving his cello down his throat. He didn’t really deserve the light punishment that Ash gave him, but Finnegan likes to check up on all the neighbors and if he noticed Ashton’s cello in the guys neck he was bound to get suspicious. Not that he thought anything about walking around without a shirt on still wet from the shower.
If that guy did anything more then ogle Ashton would have picked up his gun (something he has not done once since he left London) and shot him in the groin. Ashton might not be able to ever act on the feelings he has for Finnegan, but that didn’t mean that he would let other people hurt him. He had a possession streak a mile wide when he needed it. It must have come from growing up in such a huge family, even thought he wasn’t related to any of them, they were all still family to him. Back home in London.
No. London wasn’t his only home, home was where the heart was wasn’t it?
Ashton snorted to himself as he strolled through the square, he nodded his head at Hachiko when he noticed a girl standing there looking out of place and scared. He debated for half a second before walking up to her, she looked lost and at this time of night that was dangerous.
“Are you alright miss?” Ashton didn’t really like speaking in Japanese, he liked his own language or Gaelic much better than the vowels that made up the language. He gave another look at the girl and repeated in English, “Miss?”
She didn’t look like she was from anywhere around here, maybe he could help her?
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Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:31 pm
The man’s voice startled her. She hadn’t expected anyone to pay her much attention seeing as she was sure other people got lot all the time, (probably, most likely), and she wasn’t any different. The first words he spoke sounding strange coming from a mouth attached to his very not-Asian face, it didn’t suit him at all, she thought to herself. The words had to be Japanese, considering they were in Japan, but there was no way to even fathom what he might have just said. The English was a bit better. She was no proficient in it, but she could get by.
“Si? Y-es?” She answered in her thick Italian accent. He voice tentative, it was a strange place filled with strange people and it was getting dark. Christiana didn’t quite know what to expect, and that was what was really scaring her.
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Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:51 pm
********. Ashton winced. She was Italian? He didn’t think Finnegan even knew Italian. Oh boy, at least she seemed to know English?
“Are you lost? Do you need help getting to your hotel?” Ashton knew just about anywhere she could be staying, or could. She didn’t look like she had a lot of money on her and if she didn’t know the language that limited her options. Hopefully she could speak enough English to get them somewhere.
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Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 7:05 pm
Christiana took a moment to process the man’s words. She knew English, you had to in order to survive in the tourism business in Italy, but it didn’t stop her from being shaky in her grasp of the complex language. She floundered a bit trying to find the correct words in a language she hadn’t used recently.
“Si signore, I believe I am lost.” She stuttered out weakly. She didn’t mean to show such weakness, but Christiana was exhausted and just wanted to curl up a sleep and forget the past few weeks had ever happened. She looked up at the man, trying to get a read on his trustworthiness, but her vision was blurred by exhaustion.
“So tired, signore, I have not found a hotel, is there one near?” She asked, fatigue weighing each word with her thick Italian accent. Christiana didn’t care where she ended up, as long as it had a bed.
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Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 5:19 pm
Ashton smiled gently at the poor girl. She looked ready to keel over where she stood. He glanced around again and noticed that some people were staring at them, making a decision he touched the girl’s elbow and turned her down a road to the left. The street that wouldn’t bring them to a hotel, but to his rundown apartment that he shared with Finnegan.
“I don’t think you are in any state to order a room miss.” Ashton tried not to speak too fast and kept out as much of his accent as he could, but when he was in a bad mood or just pissy it seemed to come out when he didn’t want it to. “My roommate is an idiot who can speak a bunch of European languages, hopefully Italian, so he, we, can get you settled in the morning.”
He wanted to call Finnegan to warn him that they are coming over, but he was still working and he wasn’t sure how the young lady would take him talking on the phone in Gaelic so she didn’t understand what they were talking about.
The stuff from the old geezer needed to be taken out of the room next door too. He would do that when he got the poor girl settled down.
“My name is Ashton,” He turned to look at the girl as they crossed the road onto the street where his apartment was. “What can I call you?”
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Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:10 pm
Christiana flinched at the initial touch to her elbow, she didn’t normally let people touch her, at least not until she had learned to trust or even like them after a time. But given the circumstances and her state of mind, she obediently followed where Aston led her. She could barely register the changing scenery as he led her down a different road. All Christiana could think of was curling into a nice warm bed.
So she nodded along silently as he talked. Only a few words actually registered in her head, ‘order a room’ and ‘roommate’ as well as ‘morning’ were a few of those words. Finally when she realized that he had introduced himself did Christiana actually become aware.
“Christiana, signore, that is my name,” she answered before stopping and removing her elbow from his grasp. “Where are you taking me?” Her eyes had gone steely. “I will not be taking advantage of signore, I can help myself.” Her body posture would say otherwise, but she would not go down without a fight.
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Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 5:53 pm
Ashton blinked a bit and then smiled sharply. He liked that she had some bite to her, but it still wasn’t enough to fend off everyone that would be looking at her. If his heart wasn’t set on the opposite kind of person he would have looked twice. The Italian was really quite pretty.
“Christiana then.” Ashton just looked at her as he walked along her. They just needed to turn the corner and then they could see the building that Finnegan and he rented a room. Ashton actually owned the whole building, but that was a present from his father and he wanted to keep his family and social life as far away as possible.
“You are quite beautiful and you wouldn’t be able to survive one of these hotels without knowing Japanese. They are bloody vicious to tourists.” Ashton’s lip curled when he spied the old geezers stuff still at the bottom of the stairs, but quickly schooled his features when he saw someone leaning over the ruble. “The person that used to live next to us had to move suddenly and we have an extra cot that you could use. I wouldn’t throw you to the wolves of Tokyo until you are aware of your surroundings.”
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Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:19 pm
Christiana continued to follow Ashton. She was glad he had seen to respect her need not to be touched. She was still a little uncertain of his intentions though. Most men did not see a young lady clearly weakened and vulnerable and think completely altruistically. He seemed to be still talking to her, that was something Christiana would have to continue to remind herself. She could not simply shut out the world because she no longer saw her place in it.
The compliment he paid her startled her; beautiful was something Raffaele had called her. She took a moment to compose herself before speaking once again. “Signore, I do hope that you do not think that my beauty, as you say, would interfere with my ability to, as you say, survive. I do have skills that would protect me if need be.” She said in such a tone that it was a threat to Ashton as well as a simple statement of facts.
Despite her misgivings, she did continue to follow Ashton into the building and carefully pick her way up the stairs through the discarded belongings. Her upbringing, unfortunately, did not allow her to be rude in what seemed to be a genuine gesture of good faith. “I must thank-you, signore, for you offer. It is very kind of you. But I have no work and very little money, and I would not wish to burden you with a debtor.” Christiana said this with as much pride she could muster considering she was still on the verge of collapse. She would not let a situation where she was clearly at a disadvantage take away her dignity.
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Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:52 pm
Ashton barked a laugh her as they made their way up the stairs. He was glad that Christiana was still following him, because as much as she talked about going away there seemed to be something in her that just wanted to keep going. Ashton was glad that she could still threaten him, not that he would do anything to her.
Women in his book were untouchable.
And damn nasty little bitches.
“I meant nothing of the sort of course, beauty often means you have more to hide, why spend so much more time on how you look?” Ashton got his keys out of his pockets and swung them around as he led the way up the old stairs. There were strange stains and the wood creaked a bit but it held together and didn’t smell too bad. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, or like some of the other places around here. It was dirt cheap for a reason.
“Don’t worry about money just yet.” He waved a hand at the door he stopped at. “The guy who used to live here left in such a hurry that he didn’t even get his deposit back from the landlord, so he basically paid for you to live there for the rest of the month.” Ashton unlocked his door and threw it open. Finnegan wasn’t home yet, his shoes weren’t near the door. “You can stay next door until then if you want. My roommate and I can help you find a job or even a better place to live tomorrow. But you look like you need some food and sleep.”
He held the door open in invitation. “I might not be a great cook, but I can reheat leftovers and call for pizza?”
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 7:13 am
Christiana looked around her surroundings once again. She was in the process of convincing herself that Ashton was, in fact, trustworthy, even if only somewhat. There was something in his eyes that reminded her of herself. Lies came easily to a person with such eyes. “You make a good point, signore, beauty is quite the advantage for someone who wishes to hide something, but not good for hiding the person.” And unfortunately, she knew she would stick out like a sore thumb here in Japan. Especially in this complex where she apparently would know be living for at least a month. Her mouth curled up in distaste at the thought.
“I must thank-you again signore, this is truly giving of you, but I must insist that once I find work, I pay you back. I am not a debtor.” She looked at the indicated door where she would apparently be living, but her tour guide and now landlord made no move to show her where she would now reside, instead he lead her to his own apartment next door. Christiana was a little confused, wasn’t it normal for a landlord to give you a room and then not speak to you until your rent was due? And this man was even forgoing the rent! None of this was in any range of normal for Christiana.
But nevertheless she was Italian, and her mother’s daughter. Declining a dinner invitation without a reason like death was just not done. So she silently walked into Ashton’s apartment and took a glance around before saying, “I am curious as to whether or not the pizza here is any good. May I have a chair?” The exhaustion that she had felt was coming back tenfold and she really needed to sit down.
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 10:00 am
"It is more for hiding what you think yourself to be. To put on a mask that you want everyone else to look at." Ashton said softly thinking of all the masks that he puts on, and trying to figure out which one was really the mask. The man he is when hand in hand with death or the man in love?
Ashton waved a bit at Christiana as he walked right into the kitchen to check out the fridge. They have left over stew from when Finn had that huge project and wanted to eat on the go as well as having enough energy to get through the night.
After deciding that maybe feeding his guest left over Finnegan Stew wouldn't be the best thing (he likes to put soy sauce in it for some reason, he doesn't ask anymore about his roommates food tastes) and went to the drawer where they keep the take out menu.
"We out a lot more then is healthy." Ashton said as he pulled out the pizza menu from the brilliant Italian place down the street. "Go ahead and sit down. The kitchen chairs are sturdy and the couch smelled that way when we got it."
Ashton grabbed the menu and placed it on the table and sat down as well. "Pick out anything that you want? I am going to get some pasta for Finnegan since he will be getting back tonight sometime."
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 10:38 am
“Your point seems valid, but I may point out that beauty as a mask fails in ways where you want to show others what you wish to be. In this way you reveal more of yourself than you hide. “ As she said this, she walked over to the closest chair at the table and collapse into it. Her legs seemed to have failed her. She let her head fall onto her hands on the table and closed her eyes for a few seconds.
“Anything is fine.” She murmured, letting her head fall further onto the table and she quietly slipped out of consciousness.
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 12:44 pm
Ashton was going to keep the beauty conversation going, because as much as Finnegan and him talk, they never broach the subject of masks. Which he really didn't know how he would talk about without freaking out to some extent. But when he glanced over to Christiana to offer some of his favorite dishes he found the girl passed out on his table. He called in the order of pasta for Finnegan and himself while he got a plain cheese pizza for Christiana when she woke up. And if she didn't like it then he would just eat it later. After making the call and sitting down for a bit Ashton contemplated moving her to be more comfortable or even move her to the strange smelling couch. But she looked like she could knock him around the block and he didn't want to make her uncomfortable in anyway. Running to the living room to grab a pillow so her neck won't hurt as much whenever she wakes up. He went to lift her head when the door slammed open and he dropped her the few ********>." He swore to himself because that would definitely wake her up and now Finnegan was home. He was supposed to be working for a few hours yet and Ashton wasn't quite sure what to do with this situation. And from the betrayed look and red glasses Finnegan also didn't know what was going on. ---- "Ashton." Finnegan closed his eyes and tried to hold back tears. Today sucked. Starting from the minute he went to bed and now to the moment he got home. It was looking up when he ran into the pizza guy on the way up the stairs because Finnegan saw that it was his favorite pasta dish (with extra broccoli and tomatoes) but now with Ashton looking like a child caught doing something he wasn't supposed to he wanted to cry. "We talked about this." Ashton blinked at his roommate as he came in the door and set the food down on the counter and walked into the living room. Finn didn't want to deal with the girl that his roommate brought home. He just wanted to come home, maybe eat some fatty food and then go to sleep. Cuddle on the couch if he made pathetic faces at Ashton enough. "This?" Ashton seemed confused before he looked disgusted and quickly went to explain himself. "She was just wondering around-" "You brought home a whore?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth he wanted to take them back. But the flinch that Ashton did made Finnegan feel maliciously better about his day. Ashton only looked wounded for a moment before his eyebrows shot together and he frowned. "Finnegan?!" He might have shouted, that was something they never touched, since they both swore off alcohol in the apartment.
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 2:04 pm
Everything came back into a sleepy consciousness when Christiana felt her head fall down to her arms again. She heard raises voices, but was not wake enough yet to understand what they were saying. She figured it must be her parents fighting again, or worse yet, her siblings simply existing. All she knew was that her head hurt and she really did not want to put up with the crap. She was tired and goddamnit, she wanted to sleep. She let out a soft groan, almost unnoticeable as she rubbed her head into her arms. It must be Marco and Vincente fighting again, she thought to herself. Only those two could fight and wake her up. They sounded a bit strange, but they were twins, they had their own language at times, for god's sake.
"Mios dios, chiuda in su, io stanno dormendo!" She muttered. Waving her hand at them. She let her head rest on the table for a few seconds more before looking up. Sleeping in the kitchen wasn't a smart idea, Soon her mother would come in and demand that she start the cooking rather than lay about being a waste of life and space or something.
When she opened her eyes, she quickly realized she was in fact, not at home, but rather in a stranger's house with two strange men. She immediately jump from the chair, sending it flying across the floor.
"Where am I?" She asked in Italian, "Who are you? What do you want? Why am I here?" She rattled quickly off in her native tongue. Her eyes wild with panic.
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