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 Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:03 am
"Professor? Professor Larine?"
A gentle hand pressed on the large door and carefully, so carefully, creaked it open, marveling at the poor varnish job. And the way Larine organized his room--he had to push with most of his strength to get the door open enough to squeeze in. God--how did Greg BREATHE in here?
Wait....
He referred to the Professor by his first name.
Well, dammit.
"Larine? Are you in here?"
He wasn't particularly here for a long chat--simply to give the Offensive Head a required polite thank-you for the treats he'd been recieving--strawberry wine, strawberry this-or-that, some pastry. He'd thought it might've been one of the enchanted students at first--but one talk with Tycho and the child had spilled all, about how Professor Larine carried around a bag and walked into Dante's office, and how curious he had been to go inside and see the things on the desk....
Dante had rewarded the child by giving him only two detentions for intruding without permission. Of course, he was doing the same--but hey, the human liked him, right? With a fiery passion that was almost annoying, right?
...Atara anin, what had he gotten himself into?
"OW!!!!"
Dante let out a few more curses as he grabbed his hip, slightly doubled over from the pain of running into the very sharp corner of the nearly-buried desk.
Something fell off--a picture frame...?
Dante picked it up.
The picture on the front was...a girl. A very sweet-looking, blonde, blue-eyed girl. Her face was tilted up, slightly away from the viewer, and her mouth was open in a kind of laugh, revealing perfect pearl-white rows of teeth, a faint blush painting her high cheekbones.
A finger was reaching down to caress a blonde strand and get it out of her face.
Dante was so enchanted and intrigued he did not hear the door open a second time.
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 2:59 pm
Greg knew right away who it was in his office. He would recognize the dower black robes, straight brown hair and relatively short, for an Elf, stature of Dante from the back or front. Although he supposed that it wasn’t that hard to do… Even so he was surprised to find Dante in his office. He had seen how the other professor kept his office. Neat. Clean. Sterile. He didn’t think that someone like him would ever come into his office which was… well… not quite so clean.
Either way he was happy to have the Elf here and was sure going to make something out of it. Especially now that he had managed to sneak up on the Elf unaware.
“So then,” he said right into the Elfs ear as he wrapped an arm around his waist in a playful manner. “What good natured God or Goddess,” Greg himself had had a mother who had believed in the Great Mother. He had been brought up the same, but had a healthy respect for all religions whither they were centered around men or women. “sent you, the amazing Dante, to my, the poor professor Lariens, office?”
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:21 pm
Dante's reaction was instantaneous, whirling around and grabbing Greg's wrist the minute he'd finished. "Do NOT touch me," he hissed, eyes narrowing. "DO NOT."
He then let go and returned both hands to the frame. "...who is this?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:51 pm
Greg rolled his eyes as Dante grabbed onto his wrist and hissed at him. He had done it before and he was sure that he would do it again. He had this problem with people touching him.
As Dante let go of him Greg looked back to the frame… and then his breath hitched for a moment. He opened and closed his mouth once before answering.
“She was a politician.” He said, coldly. “She rallied for the aliens to be set free and was assassinated because of it.” He said. “Now give it back.” He grabbed for the picture.
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Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 10:33 am
Dante stepped deftly out of reach, still fascinated by the picture. Greg had this problem with touching people, it seemed, and he was not about to let the human get his way.
"She seems very happy. So who was she to you?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 7:07 pm
Greg grabbed onto Dantes arm with one hand and took the frame from him with the other hand. He didn’t saw anything at first, just let go of Dante and then placed the picture back on the desk.
“She does seem very happy.” He said. “But she’s not anything to me. She was a politician who I admired and who I was supposed to protect. Nothing more.” He said with an off handed shrug even as he glaned at the photo out of the corner of his eye.
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Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 8:19 pm
With a growl Dante grabbed Greg's wrist back and snatched the frame again, dodging nimbly out of the Professor's reach. "You think with all the torment I put up with from you, you could at least afford me the dignity of an honest answer," he said in a cold, scathing voice.
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Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2006 5:45 pm
“And you think that with all the torment that you put me through with your ignorance of everything I want you to notice you could at least ignore the things that I want you to ignore!” Greg snapped back, grabbing for the other professor once more. “I would think that you would be able to leave old wounds alone.” He stopped grabbing for Dante and simply gripped at the edge of his desk as the Elf evaded him.
“I need not tell you who she is. Now, please, will you give me back my picture?”
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Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 9:16 am
Dante's eyes burned. "All the torment I put you through? That is a tall order coming from you, Professor Larine! You apparently do not know when to leave well enough alone, do you? Goddess, I cannot go a single DAY without you trying to harass me for some reason! You seem to have no concept of personal space, you're insistent on acting like an idiot around me, and you have yet to take me seriously when I tell you to leave me alone!!!!
"But apparently you can't do that, can you? No, because you have to go gaga over an Elf who is hardly treated normally in this school save for Irame, Herei and Norman! All you seem to want is a pretty face to stare at.
"I'll grace you with that dignity no longer, Greg, and I refuse to play this game you bait me with. I will give it back if you tell me who she is. Is that your hand?"
His tirade done, Dante found himself breathing heavily and furious as hell. But he was beyond caring, at this point. Greg had pushed him too far.
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 7:09 pm
Greg just stared at Dante for a moment, then grabbed him by the arms, pulled him up against him and then kissed him. He knew that it wasn’t the best kiss that he had ever given. Their noses bumped as Greg was trying simply to make sure that he hit Dantes lips and Dante wasn’t exactly helping it. After a moment, Greg drew away and traced the outline of Dantes lips then let him go with a sigh. He didn’t say anything, but walked around his desk and heavily dropped into his chair.
“She was my wife.” He said finally, looking evenly at Dante. “Her name was Melinda, and she died years ago….” He looked at the picture that Dante held and then back to Dantes face. “And there hasn’t been anyone else that I’ve cared for until you… Now I am sorry that I am such a plague on your life, that you are so put upon by me, but I really did not know how to approach you. I haven’t had practice at tying to make people like me, just how to get them in bed. Since you don’t want to do either, then please just leave her picture on the desk, and you can leave. You won’t have to listen to my insesent chatter and you’ll be able to be all by yourself, which is what I suppose you want.” He looked down at the papers on his desk.
“Good day Professor Araquenosse.”
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Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 7:54 pm
Dante was furious as their lips met (and maybe a little panicky, too?), and to show such he swiped his hand at Greg's face, eyes blazing and narrowed, mouth open for a scathing--
And suddenly whatever he was going to say died on his lips as Greg explained it--who the women was, and things he rather did not WANT to know.
And when he was dismissed he had no idea what to do.
He looked from the picture in his hand to Greg, then back to the picture--then sighed a heavy, sorrowful sigh that held the pain of a thousand years. With a casual sweep of the arm he cleared a chair and propped the picture up, almost tenderly, a sort of unreadable expression on his face.
"...I had a wife too, once."
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Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:36 pm
Greg looked up from the work that he was pretending to care about and raised an eyebrow. He had thought that he was going to just have to sit there and listen as Dante walked out of the room, and he lost any chance to get Dante to even talk to him anymore. He thought that after that one kiss, which he had enjoyed despite Dantes inactivity, he would never be able to even brush against the other professor without being hit. That Dante was even there was good enough, that he was talking was even better and talking about something so personal was a very, very good sign. After Dante spoke though Greg didn’t know what to say for a moment.
“Well…. I never really thought of you as one who would well… marry… a….” After that Greg simply shrugged and waved his hands around. “Well she must have been a very lucky woman.” He said smiling weakly and trying not to sound as harsh and insensitive as he had mentioned marriage.
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Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:45 pm
Dante's face was not impassive, but his eyes glinted coldly at Gilanuir's comment. "It was an arranged marriage between two villages...my mother's and mine, that is. She was...a sweet woman. Quiet. She pulled my braids when I was little."
He stopped a moment, then looked away, not tearful, but his eyes were glassy with pain. "We were very close. Not what you would call love, but...we were friends. Very good ones. Good enough friends to get married and produce...an heir."
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Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 9:33 pm
“I’m glad that you at least liked her…” Greg said, unsure of what else to say at first, but then, when Dante mentioned the child…
“You… You have a kid?” He asked, looking surprised at that. He really hadn’t expected Dante to have had a child…. Then again he hadn’t expected for Dante to have a wife either, so maybe he should just stop expecting anything. He realized that he was still only staring dumbly at Dante and that he should probably say something. He also realized right around then that he had let his ascent slip, although he wasn’t sure if it had went to Irish or British, but he didn’t really care.
“So, just one?… Boy? Girl?” He asked, voice back to normal, but still sounding rather stupid, at least in his opinion.
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Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 11:20 am
"Yes. One daughter. A girl."
He paused, the wet look in his eyes becoming more intense. "Back...back in what you humans called...called the D-Dark Ages." ********, he was stuttering. Thrice damn this human for these memories, this pain.....
"We were invaded by a group of knights under the service of what you humans call the Church. They...they wounded her. A slice just between the shoulder and the collarbone, at the base of the neck."
He thought vaguely he heard something like a sob. "She...she died giving birth to Dveyr...m-my daughter. I couldn't stay there anymore." He was silent a moment. "...I'm not even sure if she's still alive."
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