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Post by Dorian Humbert on Nov 30, 2016 0:32:14 GMT -5
Dorian left Christine like a coward, unable to face her or accept what he had done. She is a child, he insisted to himself repeatedly as he paced in front of his couch, a nearly empty glass of bourbon in his hand. It was his second since arriving at home and fifth for the evening. It was far from his last.
He had enough sense to phone in to the office before his words became too slurred. He would be unable to come in to work the following morning, claiming to be ill. It was the only time since joining the Auror force that he had faked an illness to get out of work, but you couldn't call in sick with a broken heart.
Dorian spent the rest of the evening drinking himself into a stupor, finally passing out on the couch with an empty bourbon bottle next to him.
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Post by Aleksandra "Lex" Eiriksen on Nov 30, 2016 0:49:44 GMT -5
Lex knew where Dorian's spare key was located, which was odd as the man was too meticulous to ever lose his actual key. She wasted no time using it and for the second time that day she barged into one of her brother's domains.
She just opened her mouth to call out his name when she caught sight of him on the couch. Her next observation - the empty bourbon bottle - led to the conclusion that he was either sloshed or about to have the worst hangover headache.
She stood there with her hand on her hip. She wanted to yell at him and demand he fix things with Christine before it was too late, or perhaps it already was too late and so she wanted to yell at him for letting it happen in the first place. But he appeared so broken and miserable she didn't have the heart. Instead she conjured a hangover potion and went to his kitchen to get a glass of water setting both on the coffee table in front of him for when he woke.
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Post by Dorian Humbert on Nov 30, 2016 1:00:45 GMT -5
The sounds of Lex's aid was magnified in his drunken slumber and he woke suddenly as she set the water glass on the table. He was still drunk.
He stared at her, not quite able to process why Lex was with him. Had he been so drunk and heartbroken over Christine that he had called Lex to fill her place? "What're you doing here?" he said, his proper English slurring slightly.
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Post by Aleksandra "Lex" Eiriksen on Nov 30, 2016 1:36:29 GMT -5
Luckily Lex couldn't read Dorian's thoughts otherwise she would have been both repulsed and insulted.
"I came to make sure you were not drowning at the bottom of a bottle." she lifted the now empty bottle in front of him, "Apparently I arrived too late."
She slid the water and potion toward him.
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Post by Dorian Humbert on Nov 30, 2016 1:42:17 GMT -5
"Far too late," he retorted as he pulled a second, half empty bottle of bourbon from behind one of the couch cushions and pulled the stopper.
"But what are you doing here?" he asked. She should have been on her way to work by now.
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Post by Aleksandra "Lex" Eiriksen on Nov 30, 2016 1:47:15 GMT -5
She gave Dorian a dirty look as he pulled out another bottle seemingly from nowhere. Between her two brothers she was having a rather terrible morning.
"I heard about last night's incident..." she began in a delicate tone. She knew that he didn't like talking about Christine, and heaven knew Lex wasn't at all delicate when it came to pushing boundaries.
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Post by Dorian Humbert on Nov 30, 2016 1:52:54 GMT -5
To that, Dorian took a long sip from the bottle he held then stared at the liquid inside as he spoke. "Tales of my shortcomings," he commented before taking another drink. He didn't want to talk about Christine. He didn't want to talk at all. He wanted to drink until he passed out again.
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Post by Aleksandra "Lex" Eiriksen on Nov 30, 2016 2:01:22 GMT -5
"What I can't figure out is how Christine went from being assaulted last night to waking up half naked next to my brother this morning. Care to fill me in?"
If he was going to pout, she was going to give him something to pout about. Perhaps it would also be a wake up call.
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Post by Dorian Humbert on Nov 30, 2016 2:08:04 GMT -5
Confusion was scrawled across Dorian's face as he struggled to comprehend what Lex was telling him. Confusion turned to anguish as he realized he had pushed her right into the arms of another man. A jackass of a man at that.
"She was with Alek?" The hurt in his voice was clear, though his words weren't quite so.
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Post by Aleksandra "Lex" Eiriksen on Nov 30, 2016 2:16:09 GMT -5
Dorian's expression wiped away the smug look she wanted to wear at finally getting a reaction from him.
She sighed deeply.
"Drink this. And this." she said handing him both the water and the potion.
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Post by Dorian Humbert on Nov 30, 2016 2:26:01 GMT -5
He released his grip on the bourbon bottle which fell against his leg, the liquid inside sloshing around. He took the potion she offered, then the water. He sulked as he did so.
"She wanted me to dance with her," he said after a lengthy silence. Internally he was flogging himself for refusing to dance with the woman he loved, then he berated himself for loving her in the first place.
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Post by Aleksandra "Lex" Eiriksen on Nov 30, 2016 2:32:33 GMT -5
"And you couldn't just dance with the chit?" she asked incredulously crossing her arms over her chest.
She stared at him then relented, "Sorry."
And she was sorry. She didn't want it to be more painful for Dorian, but clearly her twin was being an ass, and her older brother was being obtuse. Between both of them her one and only friend was going to be crushed, and she had been through enough.
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Post by Dorian Humbert on Nov 30, 2016 2:38:11 GMT -5
"You know I can't," he said harshly. It was the same response he gave to Christine the night before, but with more anger behind his misery. And he was angry. He was angry that he couldn't be with Christine and even more angry that Alek, who was only a year younger than Dorian, had taken advantage of Christine when she was hurting.
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Post by Aleksandra "Lex" Eiriksen on Nov 30, 2016 2:49:02 GMT -5
His misery was making it difficult to be angry with him, but she was angry too. She had told him many times that his objection to being involved with Christine was ridiculous, but she had come to understand Dorian as a man of deep principles. Even if those principles were ridiculous, Dorian wouldn't be who he was if he didn't stick to his guns.
How bloody annoying.
"What I know is that you love her, and you may have just lost her because of your principles that don't even make a bit of sense. What difference does her age make? She's seventeen not seven for God's sake. How old does she have to be? If she were eighteen? Nineteen? Twenty?" she asked watching him.
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Post by Dorian Humbert on Nov 30, 2016 3:04:37 GMT -5
The bedrock of his principles, when it came to reasoning away his feelings for Christine, was that she was too young and thus too immature to make the very adult decision of being with a man. Any man. But last night she proved that not only was she mature enough, she was capable of being more responsible than Dorian. Had Christine not stopped him he would have made love to her last night, and would have hated himself in the morning.
But it was morning now and the dawning light he still ended up hating himself all the while knowing that her age didn't matter to him. He loved her. But he had lost her.
"It doesn't matter," he said on a sigh. Christine had lied and broken his trust, but he could get past that. If he could overcome the feeling that he was a dirty old man lusting over a beautiful young girl, then he could get over her lying about her name and her family.
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Post by Aleksandra "Lex" Eiriksen on Nov 30, 2016 3:09:40 GMT -5
"Clearly." Lex said sarcastically though her eyes were sympathetic. She wanted Dorian to take action, to somehow defy his principles and try and win Christine back, but that wasn't who he was. Dorian was too noble to resort to the caveman instincts or rather animal instincts that flowed in his blood.
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Post by Dorian Humbert on Nov 30, 2016 3:13:10 GMT -5
"Christine deserves to be happy," he said a voice that said Dorian did not deserve as much. "If he can make her happy then so be it. Who am I to stand in her way? She's an adult, as you keep pointing out. She's made her decision."
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Post by Aleksandra "Lex" Eiriksen on Nov 30, 2016 6:07:31 GMT -5
Lex raised an eyebrow and leaned forward in the chair. She paused to catch Dorian's eyes, until she was sure she had his attention.
"Where was that logic when you were the one who made her happy?" she asked as though their previous conversations discussing Christine had been a giant chess game of logic and principles and Lex had just declared checkmate.
"Oh Christine deserves happiness, but not at the cost of your warped sense of nobility. She can be happy as long as that happiness is brought out by someone other than the man who claims to love her most."
Lex leaned back in her chair with a sigh and looked past him somewhat wistfully,"I can tell you this Dorian: you love that girl like the ocean loves the shore. You don't have the power to let her go no matter how strong your convictions are, she pulls you back. And the more you fight it, the longer you deny yourselves, the deeper the pain for both of you."
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Post by Dorian Humbert on Nov 30, 2016 16:29:36 GMT -5
"I had several hours to drink on it," Dorian replied, taking another swallow of bourbon and ignoring any dirty looks Lex shot his way. His logic was newly founded, but poorly timed. Clearly she wanted to be with Alek, she wasted no time in crawling into his bed which meant that she was not in love with Dorian as much as she claimed to be. It would be better this way.
"Yes, Aleksandra, I love her," he said, almost defeated. "I think about her every bloody day, but I'm not good for her. I couldn't be the man she wanted me to be. When those men assaulted her, I scolded her. Not them. Her. I don't deserve Christine, I can't make her happy. Maybe your brother can but I can't." As he spoke of Alek his voice turned bitter.
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Post by Aleksandra "Lex" Eiriksen on Nov 30, 2016 18:37:54 GMT -5
"You really are a bloody idiot." she said frowning at him. "She went to my brother after you - once again - rejected her."
She stood then, "But this doesn't have anything to do with being good for her or whether or not she wants Alek. The truth is you're afraid. She's the first person you let in since that awful tragedy with your parents. Then she too was taken by a dark wizard and you blame yourself."
Lex was sympathetic. She blamed herself at first when Christine had been taken; she also blamed herself for some of her father's atrocities and some of her brother's as well. After her friend had died at such a young age, Lex had been terrified to let anyone in or appear soft in front of her father ever again, she understood Dorian's fears.
"And you worry that if you allow yourself to be with her, that something else could happen and the pain of it would be unbearable."
She placed a hand on his shoulder, "The pain will be there whether you choose to be with her or watch her from afar. But this nonsense about not being able to make her happy, is nonsense. She's as miserable as you are and you are the only one who can end that misery, Alek can only take her mind off of it."
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