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Post by Nicolas de Lenfent on Mar 29, 2009 18:04:25 GMT -5
Nicolas shrugged, still smiling just slightly. "No idea." The modern language came unexpectedly easily to his lips.
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Post by Armand on Mar 29, 2009 18:22:46 GMT -5
Armand's gaze slanted to the side as he thought, as though looking for inspiration. "Are you hungry?" he asked, with lovely detachment considering what had happened last night. "You may take the boat out if so."
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Post by Nicolas de Lenfent on Mar 29, 2009 18:32:10 GMT -5
Nicolas was still smiling, still oblivious as to what had happened the previous night. "Yes," he said quite easily. "Will you come with me and watch?"
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Post by Armand on Mar 29, 2009 18:38:10 GMT -5
"Are you so certain that's what you want?"
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Post by Nicolas de Lenfent on Mar 30, 2009 7:00:56 GMT -5
He shrugged easily, not in the manner of one uncertain, but just to suggest a carefree yes.
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Post by Erin Harper on Mar 30, 2009 7:26:53 GMT -5
Fine. He'd stay in the boat. Or not. "All right."
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Post by Nicolas de Lenfent on Mar 30, 2009 11:29:44 GMT -5
Nicolas smiled again and stood, picking up his violin and leaving vampire-swiftly, ghost-softly for the boat, expecting Armand to follow.
Time to repeat yesterday's events. Without at all recalling, even, really, subconsciously, that any repetition at all was occurring. Aside from the fact that he was in pristinely new clothes Armand had bought for him, and his hair had been shorn in such a modern fashion, and he might have been any other fashionably pouty young scholar visiting rich godfathers in the shopping paradise, the sense of deja vu would undoubtedly be striking.
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Post by Armand on Mar 30, 2009 15:45:28 GMT -5
It was for Armand, who disregarded it very deliberately as he walked with Nicolas to the boat. Nicolas was walking the way without his lead, completely unconsciously, Armand noted, and it made him smile a little, with only an edge of bitterness. If he were like Nicolas, or like Lestat, if he were less controlled, less aware, Armand wouldn't be able to stand this. He wouldn't be able to stand the thought of the exact same thing stretching out in front of him- a boat trip, Nicolas playing in such an intimate fashion as he believed it was the first, looking up at him so openly, so eagerly, and then the boat Armand would draw to feed them- it would seem unbelievably unbearable. Good thing Armand could, then, and that he would, and that he did as he untied the boat at the dock and steered it away.
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Post by Nicolas de Lenfent on Mar 30, 2009 16:07:52 GMT -5
Indeed, it followed almost precisely as things had before, the only difference being that Nicolas tonight perceived that they had been together much longer than he had the previous night, and therefore felt more at ease, which perhaps lessened the madcap nature of his intensity and his sense of intimacy as he played the violin this night, although perhaps that intimacy itself was enhanced. He played an extremely sweet and merry song for Armand, light and frothy and aiming to please rather than to seduce, with perhaps greater control over how much of his own feelings swept into the song.
The change in hairstyles did make such a difference. Of course it brought them closer, at least in his mind, but it did not provoke the same need to prove that closeness, to gaze into Armand's eyes. Another time, perhaps. They seemed, tonight, to be dressed up for someone else's eyes, for this was not how he'd dress for Armand himself, and therefore intimacy was something personal, not to be revealed to anyone else. But Nicolas, after all, did not reserve personal things for an entirely private sphere, and still seemed to be playing his heart out for Armand in a terribly affectionate manner as their boat drifted.
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Post by Armand on Mar 31, 2009 7:00:17 GMT -5
Armand, for his part, was less affected than the night before, or less considerate to appear so. He did not stop to tilt his head to Nicolas' music, or sit opposite of him to listen, but sat sideways in the captain's chair kicking the heel of one foot gently and erratically against the plastic base. His hands were folded very simply in his lap as he threw out his call over the water and waited. Now and then his gaze transferred to Nicolas, and he would watch him for a while, and then look out to sea.
And soon enough there was a boat. It was smaller than the one the night before; a pleasure craft for the tanned middle-aged couple who had taken it out that night for wine and conversation, and maybe something else, and now stood limply- he with his crisp white golf shirt at the wheel, and she with the limp blonde hair at the side, watching them with empty eyes as Armand steered their own boat to meet them.
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Post by Nicolas de Lenfent on Mar 31, 2009 7:43:22 GMT -5
Nicolas again tilted his head and gently replaced the violin into its case, watching momentarily the couple on the boat, and then glanced back at Armand. How strange, really, if you thought about it suddenly, as he suddenly did, to notice that he was really in the body of a child, steering.
"Which one?" he asked in something of a whisper, as though the prey was not meant to hear.
((7 POSTS AWAY FROM CONQUEST!!))
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Post by Armand on Mar 31, 2009 7:50:06 GMT -5
Pulling along-side now, close enough for a vampire to jump. Armand didn't lower his voice like Nicolas did, because it didn't matter. "They're both for you."
(( I think you're more excited about this than I am. ^_^ ))
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Post by Nicolas de Lenfent on Mar 31, 2009 8:52:44 GMT -5
"Sweetheart." He pressed a cold kiss to Armand's cold cheek before jumping into the boat very quickly and with perfect silence. Having caught the scene of the blood, his interest in Armand's watching him already completely gone from mind.
It couldn't have been more than fifteen or twenty minutes later that Nicolas, having dropped both bodies very gently into the deep, dark water, jumped back into the boat, thoughtlessly sitting beside Armand, and leaning over to whisper with now-very-warm lips against Armand's ear, "Armand, I love you," before slipping to his knees in the boat and reaching for the violin again.
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Post by Armand on Mar 31, 2009 10:01:53 GMT -5
Armand shifted under the idle affection- what a perfect contradiction. Perhaps he was never to hunt in front of Nicolas again, if doing so caused such irrational bitterness, and refraining kept him content. He wondered, not having experience with Nicolas and his mannerisms fro such a long time, whether Nicolas would ever remember the first night, or if he’d wiped it completely from his mind- how often this would happen, how frequently and whether it was an automatic defense.
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Post by Nicolas de Lenfent on Mar 31, 2009 10:07:20 GMT -5
Nicolas slipped back into the effortless languor of playing, conscientiously and fastidiously playing a requiem that was just serious enough to be, from a vampire's perspective, light and upbeat - naturally, he did not mourn their deaths, not when they had caused him such joy. It was very easy to feel that they could keep this up indefinitely - as long as Nicolas had this, he might remain content, even though there were the obvious faults, such as the memory loss, the bipolar behavior, and the too-affectionate smiles. And if he were to be this easily made placid, pacified, surely Armand would not mind his presence.
It was also easy to recall that it had seemed like that two hundred years ago, as well.
((FOUR TO GO!))
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