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Post by Teja on Mar 2, 2016 13:16:44 GMT -5
By the time Teja arrived at Adrian's house, she regretted ever going. Only the fact that she'd travelled so far to get here and would have to travel still more to turn around and go home kept her going onward, in spite of her unease.
The moment she'd escaped Johannes von Krolock's arms she'd thought, I must go to someone. Adrian! I've got to go to Adrian - but now she didn't want to tell anyone. How could anyone ever respect her or treat her like an adult if she told them of that encounter? She'd gone back to him, in Johannes' words, and now - confessed some kind of love to him. Her mind had only substituted Adrian, she thought now, because she couldn't bear the thought of looking at Loki after having done this. Loki was so much better than she deserved. He hadn't been, once, he'd been another budding supervillain; but he'd changed and he'd grown so much, she was so proud of him - and to repay him like this.... She couldn't even follow that train of thought mentally.
Maybe she'd feel better once she finally saw Adrian, though she vowed to bury the topic of Johannes. I just won't go back to him.
He'll be angry again if you don't,[/i] said another, even stronger voice in her head. Don't pretend you don't know that. If not for Loki, he'd have permamently disfigured Adrian. Johannes almost laughed asking about him, and he had no idea that he'd been healed. Remember too how he called you a tart? Now that he's gotten you to say you love him he'll be three times as angry if you pull the same sort of shit.
But the result wasn't to rebel this time. With sad, exhausted resignation, she thought, I'll go back to him. He might make me sleep with him again, too. But only if Loki doesn't have to know... only if Loki doesn't have to know how weak I am... I can do it.
Forcing herself to be pleasant - Adrian couldn't know, either, it wouldn't break his heart but he would certainly never respect her again - she knocked on Adrian's damn door.
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Post by Daniel Dreiberg on Mar 2, 2016 13:35:38 GMT -5
Dan had been pacing.
He was slightly nervous about his date and he was second guessing himself. He wasn't quite sure he was charismatic enough for Regina, she was so beyond his level, so confident and sure all the time and he wasn't sure he wasn't going to embarrass himself. Although he'd been in a few relationships the last time he'd asked someone out he was just out of college and it turned out to be a disaster.
This is a mistake, what is the end game for this? Get to know each other? She knows everything about me.
He checked his hair in the mirror, although he didn't have to leave for a good hour, and tried smoothing back a few curls that had come undone. He was wearing black slacks but he'd yet to put on his shirt so when he heard a knock on the door he had to scramble and grabbed his undershirt, which happened to be the tightest black tank-top in the world. He called out to whoever was beyond the door that he was coming and opened it before he remembered to check "Hello-" he took immediate notice of who it was and smiled gently "Oh hi."
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Post by Teja on Mar 2, 2016 14:34:56 GMT -5
((lol Dan lol))
Teja took a startled step backwards when the door opened and it was not Adrian.
"Oh," she said, so surprised that her thoughts of her recent encounter left her mind, like a good scare getting rid of the hiccups. "You must be Daniel, then."
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Post by Daniel Dreiberg on Mar 2, 2016 14:44:26 GMT -5
"Hey I didn't mean to scare you" he replied with concern "I kinda threw the door open there didn't I?" He paused for a second leaving a weird silence before he adjusted his glasses "Oh yea, that's me, Teja right?"
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Post by Teja on Mar 2, 2016 14:58:40 GMT -5
"Yes, that's right."
She didn't want to stare, so she couldn't quite keep her eyes on his eyes. Except there was nowhere else to look, and she had been curious about him.
Adrian had talked about his lover Dan and his unshaken admiration of Adrian, though several years older, as younger-looking, smarter, and all-around better than he was, but Dreiberg looked as ridiculously young as Adrian did. She could tell his hairline had probably been lower once, his temples uniformly dark brown, but nothing in his face looked like anything but laugh-lines, and men could grey or get receding hairlines at younger ages. Just as Adrian often looked to be at least ten years younger than he was, Dreiberg looked mid-thirties.
Of course that body helped to give that impression....
"I'm sorry, I came to see Adrian but I didn't think to call ahead - he's not home, is he?"
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Post by Daniel Dreiberg on Mar 2, 2016 15:08:35 GMT -5
"Afraid not" he smiled his cheeks pushing up his glasses just a little "um but you're welcome to come in and wait for him, I'm sure he'll be around soon." He didn't notice her eyes, but he did notice her face, she was just as beautiful as her pictures, maybe more so.
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Post by Teja on Mar 2, 2016 15:22:44 GMT -5
Teja excused herself as she entered, generally being a petite, flighty person who didn't like to take up a lot of space or stand too near people, and thus, when walking by someone, disliked it.
She'd seen Adrian's place, of course, she'd come to his flash sale with Loki - that seemed ages ago, with a different Loki, and to be honest, a different Adrian, who was more facade than the man she'd partially fallen in love with. It looked vastly emptier and yet somehow fuller - more lived in - now, what with the addition of a lover and a grown daughter. She was also aware that Meg Giry, the pregnant and stubborn as a bull teenager Teja had met at the Gala, lived here. How much time had Loki spent around Adrian, talking about what a nag she was, that he'd gotten to know Meg? She was relieved beyond words that Loki had a life outside of her. (And now she had one outside of him, but it wasn't half so innocent or good...)
"I'm sorry for dropping by like this, you must be busy," she said automatically, realizing she was wrong the moment she said it. Adrian had told her about Dan, independently wealthy owl-scholar who hid out at his home and tinkered around with his incredible equipment when he wasn't writing academic papers. The odds of him being busy were very low.
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Post by Daniel Dreiberg on Mar 2, 2016 15:28:07 GMT -5
"I haven't been busy in many years" he laughed, making sure to give her as much room as he could and closed the door with a soft click "but thank you for the concern. I have a- I'm meeting with someone in a little over an hour, I've mostly spent my time pacing and drinking coffee."
He followed her in to the house and stuffed his hands in his pockets "You'll have to forgive the frightening amount of mugs and journals, I'm amazing at forgetting my cup and then going in to the kitchen only to grab another one."
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Post by Teja on Mar 2, 2016 15:32:11 GMT -5
She caught him catching himself, and understood what it meant, but didn't think on it much. Adrian was seeing other people too: her, as a matter of fact.
"No, it's nice," she said, meaning it. "I've been here before, when Adrian lived alone. It looks like that's probably no good for him, though I expect he'd stubbornly deny that."
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Post by Daniel Dreiberg on Mar 2, 2016 15:35:33 GMT -5
"Oh absolutely, although when he lived alone he spent more time at his office than here, now he sometimes eats breakfast" he chuckled "it's an improvement."
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Post by Teja on Mar 2, 2016 15:36:42 GMT -5
In California they'd had breakfast nearly every day. She felt a bit proud of that now.
She shook her head fondly. "He's like another android. No wonder David adores him."
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Post by Daniel Dreiberg on Mar 2, 2016 15:48:56 GMT -5
Dan flashed on the image of the android that worked for Adrian and laughed; he faintly remembered buying weed off of him once.
"Close enough to" he grabbed a couple of the empty mugs and brought them in to the kitchen filling them up with water and a little soap and leaving them to soak.
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Post by Teja on Mar 2, 2016 15:49:47 GMT -5
Teja drifted after him, leaning hesitantly in the doorway.
"I sort of imagined meeting you under different circumstances."
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Post by Daniel Dreiberg on Mar 2, 2016 15:50:37 GMT -5
"Oh?" He grabbed a towel and began drying off his hands.
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Post by Teja on Mar 2, 2016 15:59:12 GMT -5
She noticed the breadth of his palms, the watch on his wrist (nice, leather wristband, well-made, also worn and tarnished), the width of his wrists and forearms. He was stockier than Adrian, but just as much solid muscle. It was weird to think of him as a formerly-retired vigilante; he didn't seem like the sort, but then again, what was the sort? It was also hard to imagine him mentoring Megan; he had to be really patient.
"Something carefully arranged down to the last minute detail by Mr. Likes To Arrange Things In Detail," she said casually, trying to not seem awkward about the relationship they shared.
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