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 Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 1:06 am
Was she really doing this? Daphne looked at her phone for a long moment, the ridiculously grinning face that was the caller ID of Elzo Xanis as it dialed in his number. He was going to pick up in a minute. It was too late to hang up and pretend that she'd never called, it would already show up on his missed calls. Maybe it would go to voicemail.
Like she was ever that lucky.
It was a rather amusing parallel to the first phone call she had ever given him, laying on their previously shared massive bed, dressed to go out (swapped the sweatshirt for a sweater that was actually a dress) and cursing herself for a fool. The voice answered on the other end wasn't the impersonal recording of a voicemail message. It was the voice of the man she still, after all their problems, desperately loved. "Hey, it's Daphne." Duh. He knew that. Stomping on her stupid mental voices of doubt and frustration, she barreled on.
"I got the flowers and I was wondering if you wanted to get coffee or something. Shufflepucks, like old times. We need to talk anyway, somewhere that we won't fight. I think it's a good idea." Really, Daphne wasn't entirely sure that going to her favorite place that would be fairly crowded was going to prevent the argument. But it would keep things...reasonable. He also wouldn't be able to get hands on her.
That was pretty important.
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Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 1:31 am
He hadn't expected her to call him. In fact after the first week, he expected her to want to stab him or maybe send him a time to get rid of his things from the apartment. He'd been a rock headed fool, and he still was. He'd gone and chose the worst timing ever to tell Marlo the truth, the whole truth. His time as senshi was his only comfort, falling back into that careless ability to fight, to laugh. To risk his life and just not think.
The phone call had almost gone unnoticed, until the name got him jumping. A date. Well, a meeting. He dressed in a pressed shirt, nice but casual pants, taken a shower, he wanted to win her back. To see her would be the first step, but he still hoped for just one last touch, a kiss. Something. He wanted back in her life again. So sitting in the cafe, he had gone ahead and paid for her drink, ordered her half a dozen rolls, paid extra to have daisies drawn on them.
He wanted to be back by her side. Even if she just wanted to talk...Elzo could still hope for more.
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iStoleYurVamps
iStoleYurVamps
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Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 1:42 am
The contrast between the pair of them would have been laughable. Daphne was standing across the street for a long few minutes, looking at him sitting in a window seat with the cooling food and coffees, waiting and looking for her. Elzo was cleaned up, looking like a ******** fashion plate for 'casual sexy male monthly' or something stupid like that. Eyes darkened and narrowed at where her thoughts were going. What did it matter what she looked like? It wasn't like this was a date. It was just her meeting him for coffee and asking him to stop sending her things.
Especially things she liked.
Schooling her mind, her heart, and her face to be calm and unmoved the ragged Daphne walked into the cafe, taking her seat rather casually across from her husband. "Thank you for agreeing to meet me here. I could have bought the drinks though. My job covers that much at least." Though the latte was appreciated. It gave her something to do with her hands so that she didn't play with the crystal sitting solidly between her breasts on top ofthe sweater where he could clearly see it. It did nothing, however, to lighten the shadows under her eyes, the fact that her hair looked like it hadn't been brushed in forever and a day, that she'd lost weight when she was the sort of girl who fought for every pound she had.
"I wanted to uhm...thank you. I love the flowers but you knew I would. Have you been by the apartment when I wasn't around? I noticed that things seemed untouched." Casual. Calm. Miserable.
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Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 2:05 am
When she entered the room did she know how it made him feel? To see the doors open and look at the person you loved the most, and yet couldn't touch, couldn't hold? It was painful, but then again, he'd brought it on himself. Sitting upright he took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. "Consider it a mindless favor. Less time waiting at the counter, more time we can spend-" He wished he could say with her. "-talking."
He sipped his coffee and saw the blue gem, the memory of it resting around her neck for the first time...He shook the thought from his mind. She had wanted to talk. So did he. "Er-" So far, so good. "You're welcome." He was a ******** master speaker."I er..haven't been at the apartment. Been living at the hotel." A genius with words. "You been doing well? Eating right? Not spending hours on the computer?"
......So smooth.
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iStoleYurVamps
iStoleYurVamps
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Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 10:31 am
Awkward. It was so painfully, horribly, stilted and awkward between them! There was a bit of horror in Daphne's mind at how absolutely terrible this was, to sit here and talk about what the other was doing, where he was staying, in the stiffest manner possible. Elzo had never been a Victoria to talk about anything and everything but since her change there had been no secrets between them. She'd talked about her school and her job, the people that came into her life, and he'd reciprocated.
Daphne was even about to teach him how to play WoW.
Picking up one of the cinnamon rolls she couldn't help but crack a smile at the shape the dripping white icing had originally taken. Daisies. He knew her weakness and was trying to exploit it in the gentlest ways possible. It was cute but it wasn't going to work. Pulling it apart and sighing at the taste, she couldn't help but send an impish grin his way. "I don't spend all my time on the computer. I go to work." Then came back home to start the cycle over.
She had some catching up to do anyway. Cataclysm had been barely touched in content save to power her characters to the new level ceiling, then abandoned. Her life had turned upside-down and Elzo kept her occupied when she wasn't home alone. Now it was perpetual. The thought that he hadn't been by to get any of his things bothered her.
"You should come get some stuff." She stressed the word because it was painfully obvious to her, if not to him, that they weren't fully over. Daphne wanted him in her life, wanted him back, but only if he could compromise with her on the Negaverse. More cinnamon roll made its way into her mouth, the awkward posture relaxing under her favorite food. "Underwear, clothes, you shouldn't have to buy all new." Feet tapped the ground thoughtfully.
"I work in the afternoons except on Mondays and Wednesdays. The locks aren't changed or anything." It was a risk, telling him that. Daphne relied rather heavily on the idea that Elzo would respect her wishes and her space, despite the fact that he was the one paying the rent. She was working on that though, she really was. "Oh! That reminds me." Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a folded and slightly rumpled check.
"It's for the rent. I'm living there, you're not. It's fair."
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 12:53 am
As he watched her, he felt those emotions bubbling up. All the warm fuzzy feelings he got around her. She was the one who could make him smile with each moment, and here he was in a moment where there was just about nothing to smile for. They were alive, healthy, free of the war that had dragged them both apart and together again in what seemed like an endless cycle. A deep breath, stirring his drink, Elzo tried to think of a way to earn her forgiveness. He'd been the idiot again, and was feeling the burnt of his regret now. Only he could take something that had been perfect, and ******** it up to the level which he had. "The candy shop right?" He felt guilty when he realized it was a question. The fact he'd never gone to see her at work, to not be absolutely sure of her life...
He wanted back into her life again. He wanted to know what had changed. What she did, what she wanted to do. He wanted to keep everything he ever promised her. The picnics outside of the city. The wedding they had planned, the beach...those were his promises. Things they had wanted, and now he spent his nights alone, wondering if he was just a fool for thinking someone like him could have it so easily.
When she offered him the check he choked on his drink outright, coughing as it came up. "What-" He looked at her, confusion on his face and in his eyes. Then it came up, a bubbling chuckle. A slow rise, until it was an outright laugh. "Daphne, I am fine with my things. I have my basics, and as for rent I never considered it my apartment. I always thought of it as our apartment." Leaning back the smile faded. "I...I just want to be back in your life again." He reached out to hold her hand.
"It doesn't matter if I can't save them. I saved you, that is what matters to me. You're what matters."
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iStoleYurVamps
iStoleYurVamps
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 1:54 am
Fingers tightened on her cup as Elzo laughed, trying not to let her face show how truly embarrassed and insulted she was by his laughter. Couldn't he see that she was trying to do this right? Her apartment, his apartment, their apartment, what did it matter? She was living there and he wasn't so she should be paying the rent. Mooching off of the Xanis family fortune when she wasn't exactly a real member of the family, nor was she allowing her tie to them into her life at the moment, was intolerable to her.
Fingers tightened on his own when he took her hand but it wasn't for the reasons that he thought. Extracting her fingers and shaking her head, Daphne looked down into her coffee. "I'd love to have you back Elzo. It's lonely without you at home and I love you." When her eyes raised they were clear and serious, though her expression was morose. "But you still haven't realized the problem. What makes me so much better than them? Did you ever think that I might have recruited some of them? Doesn't that make me worse than some?" They were going to fight again.
She should have known.
Unwilling to sit and fight over this when the wounds were still fresh, not wanting to do further damage to an already hurting relationship, Daphne stood. Fingers pushed the check closer to her estranged husband, bag slung over her shoulder. "Just take the check. Bank it in a savings account, buy a cat, do whatever with it if you don't want to pay the rent with it. I'm not going to mooch." There was a short internal debate as she stood, twirling a loose blue strand around her finger.
"I'll bring your things by the hotel. Don't make me track down Marlo and badger him into being the middle man, none of us will be happy with that." Honestly, it was the only threat she had. A pretty poor one at that. Without really waiting for much more she turned on her heel and walked straight on out. The plate of cinnamon rolls was untouched except for a half-picked apart one that remained on the table. Things were dire.
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Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:15 pm
She didn't let his hand just rest on her own. He didn't even get the chance. She pulled away from him, and he was left, sitting the table, over half of the roll untouched. Over half. Either they changed the recipe and it sucked, Daphne was sick or she had just flat walked out on him. He'd had one that morning, meaning that no, the rolls were fine. Also also didn't see any signs of illness in Daphne. Which left the third and final option. The one Elzo dread more than almost any other thing. Daphne leaving him.
Any reason it could be but the very notion she didn't want him, was just unthinkable. She was his other half, All the past leading to the present, all roads ended with her and him and a happily ever after. That was what he wanted. That was the plan. Their fairytale ending. The prince was here now and he'd found his princess and taken her from the other castle. But said princess wasn't happy with her prince. And the prince had yet to fully understand why.
"Daphne." She got up, walked out the door. Jaw dropped. And almost throwing his coffee to the ground in his rush, Elzo was bolting after her, grabbing the check just so he could shove it back at her. It was an endless cycle for them. She would run, and he would chase. Daphne was the nymph, and he was beholden to her. Countless myths had this story, the man chasing after the beautiful elusive bride. So many ended in tragedy. Something Elzo would never accept. Not for them. That wasn't going to be their ending. Not in this life time.
"Daphne!" Running to her side, Elzo grabbed her arm. He was tired of running after her. He was tired of them fighting. Why couldn't they just- "Stop this. You know the risks involved. You know what must be sacrificed- for ******** sake, Tanxanite wants more then to kill us for what we did. She wants to destroy us. Utterly and completely. Should we save her then? And what of Wolframite? You heard the tape Daphne." He was hissing at her, cloaked whisper. "They're sick. They don't want an antidote. They enjoy being sick. They prey on people, and just-" He was frustrated.
"You are better then them because you never fell into that abyss. There was always good inside of you. They don't have that. They're sick, and can't be cured because they want to be sick." Elzo's logic was flawed and skewed. Love was a force that had opened his eyes before, yet now, he had used it to blind himself. Now, the light that had illuminated his thoughts burned him and cas him in shadow. He'd yet to understand the love of his life, and just why his love now could not be by his side as he so desperately desired.
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iStoleYurVamps
iStoleYurVamps
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Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 8:43 pm
Why couldn't he see? Why was he so blind?! They were supposed to be different weren't they? Weren't they supposed to want to help? There was a dark voice in the back of Daphne's mind that reminded her that she had been told this. Charonite had told her that the senshi wanted nothing more than to destroy everyone and everything that stood in their path to dominance. She could never forget it; it had shaped the road she had walked for almost two years. Castor had pulled her off of that path hadn't he?
Or was he simply walking the mirror of it?
Discarding all forms of kindness the bluenette squared her shoulders to look Elzo straight in the eyes. "You sound just like them. That's what they say you know." Daphne's voice was quiet, harsh with the power of her recitation. "They only want power, they only want to destroy this world, they're mad with their special magic. If we don't stop them...they'll kill us all." She didn't even try to step away, just stood stock-still in his grasp like a statue.
"Did you even consider that they are lashing out because they hurt? Do you think they chose this path? Tanzanite who died and was brought back to live a life she never asked for? Wolframite...he lost his eye to you. His eye! I lost a kidney to someone...I don't even know!" Conviction was turning into hysterical anger with a tinge of heartbreak. He didn't want to understand so he wasn't going to.
"Tanzanite won't kill me Elzo. She would have killed me a long time ago if she wanted me dead." Eyes closed with a weariness felt down into her bones. Daphne didn't want to fight anymore, she just wanted to live her life as quietly as possible with as little pain as manageable. Not this tearing, gnawing, burning betrayal that was sliding through her gut. Maybe she had, once again, charged into life with foolish abandon. Maybe if she'd stayed where she was Tanzanite would have that little bit of humanity left.
She'd been getting better. Daphne could remember that much. But not anymore. All vestiges of humanity had been erased with that last scream on that horrible night she'd emerged from the ruins, carrying that poor Lieutenant. Seeing Lina Knight and letting the blue-haired traitor realize that this was her punishment. Tipping the scales, Cosmos had said.
Maybe this was the other part of it. No happily ever after for Lina.
"I don't want to fight anymore Castor." Her voice was so soft, so broken, so defeated. So unlike her. "It kills me to fight with you." A hand raised so softly to his cheek, so softly. "I love you so much. I thought it would work."
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Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 10:29 pm
She might as well have slapped him in the face. Or punched him, given her past forms of rejecting him. But this wasn't like the past, this wasn't over a misunderstanding. This was him not understanding. This was him, unable to understand her. Her brown eyes spoke on a deeper way then her words. She was looking at him, and in the pools of honey, Elzo saw himself reflected, and his reflection wasn't of a man he wanted to be. It was kind of man he hated. It was the kind of man he didn't know. But he had his face. He had his eyes, and Elzo voice died as he looked into her stare and saw all he was and at the same time, was not.
He wasn't the man she needed. It was what he saw, what he heard. This Elzo wasn't the one she needed to be by her side. She loved him, wanted him, but she needed him in a way he wasn't able to provide. Not as he was now. Not as he held her and refused to let go.
"Tanzanite-she should have just let that b***h die! She shouldn't have gotten up! Wolframite- he, he was going after Chronos! I couldn't just let him attack her! I had to do it- He-
She was right in her way, and bitterly he couldn't deny it. How many agents had he simply not questioned as he cut them down? How many had he simply killed and walked away? So many. Each death was on his hands, some figuratively, some literally. He was the monster to them, just like they were monsters to him. But he couldn't seem himself as equal to them. He couldn't because he wanted to be justified, he wanted so desperately, to be right.
A deep breath, and his blue eyes were cast to the earth. "Don't run from me Daphne." Elzo's grip loosened. "Don't run from me. Don't leave me. Just-" Gingerly, he touched the shining blue gem hanging from her neck. "Wait for me." Part of him knew he was wrong. So very wrong, but yet he wanted to be right. His pride and stubborn nature was both a gift in the face of adversity, however it was also his curse. He blinded himself to things, simply because he wanted to be blind. But if he chose to remain blind-
-All the stars in the night sky might as well have all been satellites and he'd never be able to spot the difference.
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iStoleYurVamps
iStoleYurVamps
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Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 10:43 pm
Everything loosened in her chest when he asked for the one thing she could give him right now. Give him time? Time was the easiest thing in the world because there was just so much of it. Daphne had wanted to pull, to run, when Elzo had tried to justify doing what he had done. Hadn't she been doing the same thing to herself about why she left? Because she wanted to change, because she was better, because she could help. It wasn't her fault what happened to Tanzanite, it was Metallia's doing! But no. It was all her fault, all her doing. Tanzanite's suffering was her penance for all the things she had done wrong.
The pain in Elzo's eyes was another part of that. It made her question everything sometimes; why was it only ever pain she could see herself reflected in? Never could Daphne see herself so clearly as in the eyes of someone she had hurt. This time though it wasn't just her. She told herself that over and over every night, this wasn't just her fault. She was willing to compromise in so many ways, yet it was Elzo who would have all or nothing.
Muscles relaxed as arms wrapped around his neck, holding on tight for a moment. The fragment of unknown crystal was pressed between them, heart to heart without realizing it as she clung. "I already waited a thousand years." Arms slipped away so that she could look up at him, solemn and honest.
"I want to make this work forever. I do. But right now it's not working and until then...I'm not going to let us live together and fight until we hate each other. I love you too much to let us destroy what we have like that." Go figure, Audrey Collins the Wise? The Strong? Victoria would be staring like she'd seen a ghost in that moment before beaming with pride.
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 12:08 am
Elzo loved her. He had loved her and there was no doubt he'd love her until they were broken and lost to the cauldron but even then, his soul was tied to her's, to love her's.
But in that moment, in Destiny City, Elzo felt farther from her than he had in a long time, his lack of understanding an impassable wall of pride. Stubborn pride. Holding her close, he savored the scent of her, the smell of her hair, clean and like the flowers she so loved. He cherished the way her body fit so perfectly into his. He missed these small things, even the sound of her voice. He just missed having her in his life. But Daphne, brilliant, wonderful, and beautiful Daphne, the woman he fought for and waited over a thousand years for...
And he needed to let her go. Hands shaking just slightly, they dropped to his side as he nodded his head. "I love you." A step back and he almost couldn't speak, couldn't feel anything in his body but raw pain. "I..I guess I'll need to think for a while." They had to part, so they could be together. "..." Blue eyes raised and he gave a sad smile. "I...I'll make it work." His pride, his determination, he refused to give up. Not even on himself. On them. "I promise."
Step by step he walked back to his hotel. He made no plans to cash the check.
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iStoleYurVamps
iStoleYurVamps
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