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 Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 6:20 pm
Aludra's nerves were making him frantic enough that he could run up a wall and still be disquieted. The greed / humility boy was pacing back and forth in his father's apartment, wanting to crawl out of his skin as he waited for Vincent to show up with his younger brother, dreading the conversation he was going to be having with the other male. He had to come clean, especially as a result of recent... events between himself and his Facility-sweetheart, ones that he felt bound him to cutting off this relationship rather than the other. After all, he hadn't so much as hugged the other boy, let alone kissed him even once. But still, it wasn't fair. Even he didn't want to give Vincent up, greedy monster that he was. He could only imagine how the other boy felt, without even having to be making the choice.
As usual, he'd set out food, preparing for the possibility of Fitzroy coming over later in the day, and had a stack of movies and games on the table that were set for the younger age range, things like Chutes and Ladders and Candyland as well as more complicated games like Life and Monopoly. After all, you never really knew with Facility kids, whether or not they would have some strange kinds of interest or a higher level of intelligence than most other children. And he'd never before met Kaleb, so he didn't know. The one thing he did know was that the boy's combination was two-thirds Adelle, which meant he made sure to have plenty of different things to do.
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Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 2:47 pm
Vincent was pleased that Aludra had agreed. He had finally gotten tired of babysitting his younger brother alone. Surely it would be more enjoyable while babysitting with a friend? "Come on Kaleb, we're going to be meeting up with a friend of mine," he said. As expected, Kaleb hid behind his older brother. He hated meeting new people; though he seemed to have a natural talent for socializing--one quite like the one Vincent had. Maybe he would be able to tell Aludra about Ebony; he was sure his friend would be happy for him. Wait. Maybe not. Aludra was greed, just like Vincent was. He didn't want a repeat of what had happened between him and 'Zuba. What if Aludra thought he was being stolen away?
Awkward. This would be harder than Vincent had thought. He didn't want to lose a friend over a girl--no matter how pretty she was. The spawn led Kaleb to Aludra's apartment. Maybe he would avoid the subject entirely. Or maybe he would mention Elisabetta instead. Or maybe...
"'Cent, you all slimy," said Kaleb, looking down at their hands. Indeed, Vincent's hand had gone sweaty with nerves. "Icky. I no hold your hand, 'Cent." The toddler let go of Vincent's hand, and instead took hold of his brother's shirt to make sure he (Vincent) didn't get lost. "We there?"
"We're here," Vinny agreed with a smile. "Come on, I know he'll like you."
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Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 2:33 am
Aludra tapped his foot nervously on the ground, waiting for Vincent for a bit longer before his nerves got the better of him. He went back up the stairs and into his room, shuffling around a drawer full of papers covered in chess strategies. Finally, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and smiled softly, hopping back down the stairs and already feeling better. The lighter came out of his pocket and was kept between two fingers as he pulled out a cigarette. However, when he opened the door, it was to come face-to-face with Vincent, whom he stared at blankly.
That was before an obviously fake and nervous smile sprouted up on his face. He shoved all of the items previously in his hands into the pockets of his jeans, not even bothering to put the cigarette back in the box. "Vincent, er, Vinny. He-hello there." He laughed a nervous little laugh, the anklewing and shredded portion of the other one fluffing up. "My sincerest apologies, I wasn't expecting you. I mean, I was expecting you, I just-" he stopped himself and shook his head, chuckling good-naturedly. "Apologies once again. I'm a little... off..."
It wasn't until then that he noticed the little boy who was holding onto Vincent's shirt - he was an adorable little thing. Aludra squatted down in front of the little liberality boy and smiled softly at him. "Hello there. You're Kaleb, if I'm not mistaken. I'm Aludra. Pleasure to meet you."
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Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:25 pm
Vincent was mildly surprised; okay, that was an understatement; really he was rather shocked to see his friend with a cigarette. He decided not to mention it, and gave the other spawn a smile. "Hey Ludra," he greeted casually. "Off, huh?" He leaned forward, "Probably because of what you're smoking, if you ask me. They kill brain cells, you know; if they don't kill you first." Vincent had obviously gotten the 'don't smoke, it's bad for you!' lecture from his mother.
Kaleb was tempted to hide behind his older brother when Aludra addressed him. He looked up at Vinny, who nodded. "I Kaleb," he said with a nod. "You not as cool as 'Cent say," he added rather bluntly. "'Cent got a gi--" Vincent covered Kaleb's mouth with a clawed hand.
"So..." Vinny started. "How are you Ludra? I haven't seen you in a while."
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Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 12:29 pm
Oddly enough, Aludra had not at all gotten the 'don't smoke, it's bad for you' lecture. Rather, he'd gotten something on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, at least in his world, which was a lecture about how he shouldn't stress as much as he had been through his preteenage... months. As such, his response was blunt, if not a little sharper than he intended it to be.
"Better than an ulcer. I unfortunately was required to find something to aide me in reducing stress levels after I ended up in the hospital as a result of the aforementioned ulcer," he replied almost coldly, wincing a bit at the way his voice sounded and inviting Vincent into the apartment. "Aden turned me on to smoking. Worry not, as I do not smoke inside of the apartment. I plan on quitting once I'm able to control my stress levels properly. Recently, however, I have been much better. And yourself?" During the speech, a blush had risen to his face that he wished would go away. He attributed it to the half-sentence of 'Aden turned me on'.
The little boy's comment made him chuckle, glancing up at Vincent and shaking his head. "I am most certainly not as cool as ''Cent' said," he replied, nodding cooly and flicking his tail either way smoothly behind him. "He is cooler by far."
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:49 pm
Caught off guard by the apparent coldness of his friend, Vincent fell silent. He had never seen Aludra like this. "Oh, ulcers," he said with some understanding. "My dad had one once. I'm pretty sure it was a mixture of stress and using too much asprin, you know, though." He silently thought this Aden, whoever he was, was a bad influence. Though he wouldn't say that; he didn't want to upset his friend further. "I've been good--partly for reasons I wanted to talk to you. I saw Lira a while ago--she and Kaleb seemed to really hit it off."
Kaleb studied Aludra for a moment longer, and tugged on Vincent's pant leg. "'Cent," he started, in his matter-of-fact way, "he weird."
Vinny sighed. "Kaleb, this is Jake's friend. Be nice."
"He cooler than you, 'Cent."
"I know."
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 4:42 pm
Part of Aludra was surprised that Vincent had yet to make comment about his newly refined articulation; most of him didn't mind. "Make yourselves at home," he said idly between Vinny's statements, doing his best to keep his mind on the here and now and wanting this to be a little more comfortable than the three of them just standing and looking at each other. Not that people could normally get comfortable in his absurdly ritzy apartment.
Vincent's mentioning of Lirona, however, had that bitterness rising up again. "Really? Well, good to know she actually has oth-" he cut himself off, wincing again and realizing that he'd dug his nails into both palms with the baseless anger at the female. He smiled wryly at Vinny, surprised that the other boy hadn't left yet with how much of a d**k he was being. "Sorry, 'Ny. Lira and I aren't on the best of terms at the moment. I apologize if it sounded at all like I was angry with you..." he paused for a moment before grinning sheepishly. "Please say that such person is not what you were hoping to speak with me about."
When Kaleb made both of his cute declarations, he first nodded in agreement before being taken aback, laughing softly. "Don't be too sure about that, Kal. Er, Kaleb. I'm sure that I am not truly even half as interesting as I seem to be, not even half as interesting as 'Ny is," he replied 'simply'. He was good with kids - that didn't mean he knew how to talk to them.
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Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 7:49 pm
Vincent took a seat, staring at his friend for a moment. Seriously, what had gotten into Aludra lately? He really thought Aden, whoever that was, was effecting him in a negative manner. "Sorry, then. I shouldn't have mentioned it." The teenager had had no idea they weren't on speaking terms. Aludra had always spoken so highly of Lira before. At least, when Lira had been a boy, anyway.
"Nah. I thought you had something to talk about though? I wanted to tell you about a new friend of mine, really. Her name's Elisabetta. You might know her--you know, lust and diligence--er. Beautiful." And smart, and friendly, and every wonderful thing a girl could ever be. "She's perfect."
Kaleb looked doubtful. "Cent not 'teresting," he commented. He didn't think his older brother was interesting at all. Who did Aludra think he was trying to fool?
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Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 1:56 pm
Aludra simply observed Vincent, tail flicking back and forth gently as he did so. Already he didn't like the thought of this girl, or at least not the way that Vincent talked about her. But why shouldn't he? What did it matter if Vincent was thinking highly about someone else? Aludra didn't like being thought high of in the first place so it didn't matter. As he'd been telling himself for the past months as a preteen, he didn't matter. The boy bit his lip at that thought, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, trying to calm himself and rid his head of the negative, self-loathing thoughts that had gotten him in so much trouble.
"I've had a chance to meet Lissy before, although she was quite a bit too young for me to find her anything more than 'cute'," he replied, opening his eyes again to stare a little bit blankly at the short table that was sitting in front of his couch. Part of him wanted that statement to make Vincent feel bad. Most of him thought that was the most selfish thing that he had ever heard, especially from himself.
"Suppose there were things that I had some interest in speaking of. In particular would be Aden, although I have a growing itch that you have as little interest in hearing about him as I have in hearing about Lissy, if she's taken the same role in your life as he has in mine," Aludra explained, not approving of how harsh he sounded, but still being a little bit off from the idea that Vincent had found someone else, one, and it was someone whom he'd recently met who'd only been a child at the the time, two. That just didn't sit well with him, even if she'd aged since that period of time, which he assumed that she had.
The young man glanced over to Kaleb with a weak smile on his face. "I suppose not. Can't say that I believe him to be less interesting than myself, but if you think so, then I suppose that he isn't," he answered quietly, listlessly staring into the coffee table as though it would suddenly be engraved with the reasons for all of the emotions that were coursing through his veins.
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Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 3:05 pm
Vincent paused, stung. "She's grown," he said stiffly. "She's grown; and she's mature for her age." He couldn't help who he had fallen for. It wasn't fair for Aludra to treat him like this. It was as if they were only aquaintences rather than close friends.
"I suppose if you desire to speak of Aden, however much I believe him to be a bad influence on you even if you claim he's helped you; in ways I could have helped you without you getting lung cancer and whatever other slow deaths smoking causes, we may do so." His tone had become almost formal; something that only happened when he was attempting to cover other emotions. He was too humble to allow people to see how he was actually feeling.
Kaleb frowned slightly, sensing the tension between the two teenagers. He wanted to stop them, before they started arguing. "You guys are weird," he complained. "'Cent, this boring. We go home now?"
"We just got here, Kal."
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Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 3:18 pm
"I'm sure that she is." Likewise, Aludra's tone had changed as Vincent's had. He regretted this, all of it. He didn't want to be angry at his friend, he didn't want to be getting into the stupid complications of being a teenager, of dealing with the idea of relationships. He wanted his friends to just be his friends and he didn't want anyone else to impede on that. He wanted everyone that he could possibly have to himself and he didn't want them to be drawn away by females or by turning into females like all of the boys that he had ever. liked.
Except Aden. Aden hadn't run away. Aden hadn't changed. Aden would stay with him, stay for him, stay his... right?
It wasn't until that point that Aludra noticed the dark, wet tearstains appearing on his pants. Panicked and surprised by his show of emotion, he scrubbed the tears from his face. He shook his head, afraid to speak for a moment because he knew that his voice wouldn't sound as strong as he wanted it to. "He has helped. He's a doctor. Besides, would have picked up the habit from Haley's dad 'ventually, anyways..." he murmured, his voice raspy and full of the tears that would not stop flowing from his eyes.
"Sorry, 'N-- Vincent. Sorry. Doesn't mean to act like this. Just... maybe you should take Kal home. Will talk to you later, right? Just need a moment. Or few days. Is hard to think that someone else is... more important. 'Ludra isn't important, but, just..." he cut off with a frustrated noise, shaking his head. "Is being a stupid a** right now. Should go... go... go back home. Will talk to you later..."
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