Aug 22 17:20:24 105 PA
From Chronicles
The current game time is: Sat Aug 22 17:20:24 105 PA.
The evening rolls in steadily, the work day ending for the majority of Kingsdale. For Desmond, it occupies the end of the bar. He sits quietly at his place, leaned forward with his elbows laid into the bar itself, his hands wrapped around a glass of ice water. He ignores the din of the place, the chatter, the laughter, the occasional bump from one of the rowdies next to him. It rolls off the big male as he waits silently. Patiently. Expectantly. Almost time.
The time passes, and ten minutes after the time, Aimee arrives. The normal hurricane is missing and she slips behind the bar with a small smile to her supervisor. She turns to the bar, letting her eyes flicker across its length, checking for empty glasses, customers waiting...and then they rest on Desmond. A faint flush rises in her cheeks and she makes her way over to him. "Mon chat."
"My Flame," Desmond replies when she sights him, the warm fondness still there, even if he keeps himself more composed than his norm. When she first arrived behind the bar he did see her, though he waited. Letting her show her demeanor first. As she comes closer to him, he turns one of his hands from cupping beside his glass to laying with an inviting palm up, the chill of the glass lingering. "You did burn quite bright the other night," he observes steadily, eyes lingering on her.
She hesitates for a moment before putting a hand in his, giving a sigh as she leans on the counter. "Well, mon jumelee, he always knows how to make me lose my temper." She speaks softly, her tone sad and affectionate, mingled. "I can't believe Felicia is dead. I thought those two would settle down and have so many babies." She shrugs lightly, "I can't believe he is taking those drugs, imbecile."
Desmond nods his head slightly, musing her words quietly for a few moments. His fingers gently enclosing her hand, cool palm stealing a little warmth. "I know this woman not, but it is sad when two who were one are parted. But I can understand his chosen path in part. To feel one is not strong enough.. not good enough because they have failed the one who is most important to them." His gaze is a meaningful one. "It can drive one to wild acts to prove themselves.. to be better."
She nods slowly, before squeezing his hand. "I'm sorry I didn't come home, I wanted to think a little." She uses her free hand's fingertips to brush a curl from her eyes, to tuck it behind her ear, her lashes covering her eyes. "A couple of years to live, it isn't enough. Even if he stopped now, ..." She sighs again, resting her chin on her free hand. "I imagined him, when things were not so good, living with her and the babies, and going to church..."
"I understand you as well," Desmond replies to her in a low rumble. "There is no need to apologize." A pause, some thoughts flicking behind those expressive blues as she speaks of her imaginings. "A simple life. And a good one, by the sound," he agrees quietly. "Though there is time. There is always time. For him to consider what path his life will take. There are those here who are chemically augmented. Some of the bouncers. They talk of their path at times. Of detox, as they refer to it. Perhaps he will see that as a favorable option in time, despite what he will lose because of it."
She gives him a small smile at the instant forgiveness, one that leaves green eyes unlit, unwarmed. "Perhaps. He is stubborn, mon chat, and I am not certain he would change his mind. Perhaps he thinks he will be with her afterwards..." She shakes her head quickly, frowning as someone calls for a drink. She moves then, releasing Desmond and moving with a quick bright smile to greet the man, to serve him.
"Then he should be shown what is to be had in this life," Desmond rumbles lowly as she is drawing her hand away, released without resistance. And as she goes to do her job, he dips into a comfortable silence. Occupying himself with a draught from his water, patient in letting her focus on her work for the moment. Even turning his head to watch her go on about her task with a simple appreciation in his eyes.
She flirts easily with the man as she pours his drink but the smile doesn't reach her eyes. She swaps glass for credit stick, talking quickly as she charges it and returns it. She glances around before returning to Desmond's end of the bar. "Perhaps. I think he is more able to love than I, mon chat, more of the type to find the one true love." She shrugs lightly.
Desmond receives her words with a subtle frown and a slight shake of his head. "You love quite easily, Aimee. I do not know why you would say such as this." He does have a soft sense of bemusement about him at that, adding. "But even if she was a true one for him, it means not that there will be none who can ease him. Nor that he might be reminded that she would not wish him to throw himself away."
The current game time is: Sat Aug 22 18:30:29 105 PA. Aimee leans her elbows on the bar, resting her chin in her hands. "I love easily but I don't love just one person so completely, mon chat. I love you, and I love mon minet, and I loved Kelley..." She shrugs lightly, "I love Roulin a little too. Mon jumelee, he loved her. Only her, and there was never anyone else.!
Desmond shakes his head slightly. "He must love you, you are kin," he rumbles lowly. "Nor am I one to think that there is never a chance. I did think before that I would never care so deeply for another. I know now that is untrue. I will not say this will be for him, but even if it is not, there is you. To show him that there is more for him than to wait to go to her."
She shrugs a little, "Twins love and hate each other always." She comments softly, glancing over her shoulder to check the bar. "But, I think I need to find him and talk." Her eyes snap a little, the fire rising again, "And perhaps make him explain what he has to judge about me." She frowns slightly at that thought and doesn't even look down at her clothes, the jeans where a short skirt was yesterday, the looser top where the bodice had been.
Desmond leans forward slightly, extending a hand to rest on her shoulder gently. "Often, in the heat of the moment, we say that which is not true to our hearts. Go to him with no anger, meet those words and look behind them, to his truth." Said as steadily as before, easy concepts for the likes of he. "I have not seen him since the day before, but if I do I too will seek his truth. As he is of your blood, I would understand him as well."
"Non, he says the things he knows will needle me." She comments, her mouth curving into a smile. "We used to fight when I lived at home, oh, all the time." She shrugs lightly, "He is annoyed that I think he is an imbecile for taking the drugs, and so he needles me." She laughs, ruefulness in her eyes. "So, it was a surprise for you, my twin?"
Desmond bobs his head once. "I had not thought deeply upon your family. And had not expected any would come to be here." He pauses at that, the subject itself bringing a sense of curiosity to his eyes that betrays the myriad of questions that flit about in his mind. He wonders aloud, "Have you other siblings?" A brief pause before he adds, "In truth, there is much I would ask, but.. this is not the place for such personal matters. But perhaps later you might indulge some of my questions?"
Aimee tucks her hair back behind her ear, her smile quick to rise now. "A few perhaps, here or there..." She comments softly, tilting her head. "Perhaps tonight, Ragnar and I can tell you over dinner." She lets the smile fade slightly, considering his first words. "I hadn't expected any to come here, everyone is so settled and happy and..." She shrugs again, lightly.
"But you were not?" A gentle question, in so much as Desmond's deep voice can be gentle. His hand slipping from her shoulder as he settles back, letting it turn palm up again. Inviting, but not demanding. "If such a thing were true, it feels odd to be pleased for such a thing. For had you too been pleased and settled, we may never have met. Strange it is, the way things turn out. The good to bad, bad to good. All woven together."
"I always thought there was something more, elsewhere." She replies softly, putting her hand into his. "Just, restless." She shrugs lightly, and at his words, a soft blush rises in her cheeks, and she lowers her lashes. "True enough, mon chat. You would probably be with the so worthy Katsumi." She flashes him a grin that holds an edge, watching him through her lashes.
Desmond considers that potential quietly, musing what might have been. "Perhaps.. perhaps not," he decides after that period of consideration. "She has needs I could not provide for. But I am content." His fingers closing over her hand again, giving hers a soft squeeze. "Perhaps I would have simply loved on before truly settling in this place. Perhaps Kesslan.. perhaps another.. or none at all. One cannot truly predict, as I have found." He lifts her hand then, fingers relaxing to open up the back of her hand to a gentle brush of his muzzle, his other hand lifting to enclose her own between his afterward. "So it is for him as well, even if he does not acknowledge it. We should make him welcome. Embrace him and show him there is more yet to have here. That is what I plan to do in the now."
She lets him kiss her hand, watching him with amusement in her eyes, and something a little softer. "Perhaps." She comments softly. "He is still an imbecile for using the drugs." She laughs then, tossing her head, pushing the softer moment away as she turns away to serve someone, the flirtatiousness rising once more, bright and shiny.
"We all act foolish at times," Desmond offers as she goes off again. Letting his mind slip back to his own moments of that as he observes her through the latest batch of drink orders. The time us used to consider those things he would consider and attend to his water a bit. He'll still have that thoughtful look in his eyes when she returns, his arms shifted again, crossed over the surface of the bar, bracing a slight forward lean.
Aimee serves the customers quickly with that bright smile on her lips, exchanging drinks for credits before she turns back to Desmond. On her walk along the bar, the look in his eyes draws a wary one into hers and she rests elbows on the bar, her chin in her hands. "What?" She asks softly.
Desmond takes that common moment before giving his response, rumbling at his more discretionary volume level. "I am merely considering the future and what is to be, now that he has come. It does not change our path, I would say, but it leads one to question where he will fit with us. There is the guest room if he has no lodgings of his own.. and perhaps he might enjoy working at the nightclub that will come to be in time. Things such as that, which one comes to consider. They need no answers in the now, but they are things to muse."
"He'll be trouble and there will be fights if he lives with us." She warns softly, the corners of her mouth quirking, leaving dimples. "and he will cause mayhem, and trouble. I wonder what Kid will make of him..." The mischief that rises in her eyes may be the same trouble and mayhem he has in his mind, that she refers to.
Desmond shakes his head slightly. "I did not mean for an extended time.. until he is settled. To be honest, I do not know his status. But if he is in need, I would not turn him away. Regardless of the troubles that might come." His brow furrows as she muses over Kid, ending with another shake of his head. "I know her not, I could hardly guess."
Aimee gives him a grin full of mischief and turns away to serve a group of people, laughing and joking with them as she pours their drinks. A glance at the clock and the lunch time rush is began.
Desmond does note the increasing activity and her need to work and focus. But he does wait patiently for a little while longer, to get her attention one more time for a farewell and a note that he will soon be at home before he finishes off his water and takes his leave of the tavern.Tags:aimee, desmond
