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Post by Miss Jack on Dec 10, 2008 16:59:58 GMT -5
His eyes narrowed. Why was he retreating?
And then he felt the cool brush of Mary's fingers over the back of his neck, and then the familiar, stinging warmth as the disease penetrated his body. He looked at her, trying to work up a proper expression of anger, but the sleeping sickness was already taking hold. He wavered-- the effects of the curse in the circus faded, and then disappeared entirely as he slumped, unconscious, to the ground.
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Post by Jules on Dec 10, 2008 17:08:33 GMT -5
Cal, as the Egyptian woman, grinned at Mary, clutching her neck. "Nice guy you've got there. Almost killed me because you saw us. You should feel flattered, he didn't want you to know since he figured you might get angry and do something like this." She waved a hand carelessly to the unconscious figure of Vince. But before Mary could launch herself at her, she disappeared.
Mary blinked and sighed, eyes trailing down to Vince. It took a while to yank him back into his bed, although she wasn't careful. She didn't care if he got hurt. Although she reluctantly treated the burn on his hand. It looked pretty nasty. She was wrapping gauze around it when she saw him twitch and she knew the disease was fading. Mary froze for a moment, unsure if she wanted to run or stay. But she had to finish the bandage, at least.
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Post by Miss Jack on Dec 10, 2008 17:17:42 GMT -5
Vince was awake, but he couldn't quite get his eyes to open. They felt like bags of sand on his eyes. After a few more attempts, he managed to creak his eyes open, some of the mud in his head clearing. His hand felt like it was on fire.
His hooded gaze shifted to Mary, and at first his expression warmed seeing her, and then recollection returned and he grimaced. "What happened? Where's Calcifer?"
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Post by Jules on Dec 10, 2008 17:24:15 GMT -5
In other circumstances, she would've administered her special kind of pain killer, but at the moment, she took a grim satisfaction from knowing he was hurting, probably a whole hell of a lot. She didn't answer, didn't even look at him.
"I don't know much about burns. You might want to take a look at it after. I don't know if I did it right." She stood and moved away from the bed. "And don't worry, I'll be gone as soon as a I can." She'd already found the bag she'd used to move out to the first time and now she began filling it with her stuff collected from around the room. "You won't have to endure me much longer." Her voice tickled painfully at her throat, like each word brought tears closer to the brink. She was trying really hard to seem like she didn't care, and despite her cold words, she knew she was failing miserably.
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Post by Miss Jack on Dec 10, 2008 17:30:58 GMT -5
He stared at her for a moment, uncomprehending. The dark lines around his emphasized their expression of confusion and horror. And then he realized... Mary had only seen Calcifer as the woman, she had no reason to believe...
He pushed himself up, too fast, and wavered, catching himself with his bad hand. Colors spotted through his vision, but he sucked in the pain and stood up and grabbed Mary's arm.
"No," he said with a hint of desperation, and then deciding a command wasn't the best way to keep her here, rephrased, "You don't... it wasn't..." He realized quickly he didn't know how to rephrase. "I thought she was you," he finished helplessly.
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Post by Jules on Dec 10, 2008 17:54:04 GMT -5
Mary flinched. "Don't touch me." She attempted to yank her arm away from him, she didn't care if she had to dislocate her shoulder to get away. She couldn't stand the look of confusion on his face, like he couldn't comprehend why she was upset. She knew Vince wasn't sensitive, but surely he realized cheating on her was something that would send her off. And after it had been such an arduous journey for them.
She made a noise of inarticulate rage. "SHE LOOKS NOTHING LIKE ME. I know you think I'm stupid Vince, but I'm not retarded."
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Post by Miss Jack on Dec 11, 2008 0:37:17 GMT -5
"I know you're not stupid," he said angrily, "And neither am I. Why would I make up such an excuse? It was that insufferable Satan clone. He can shapeshift. When he came in, he was you, and when you came in, he was her."
He paused, exhaling a shaky breath, he moved to touch her, but drew back, not wanting to see the look of hatred and revulsion on her face again. "I'm not lying," he said evenly, but it was forced, as if it was a supreme effort to keep any inflection out of his voice. "When I lose you, it won't be because of a childish lack of self discipline on my part."
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Post by Jules on Dec 11, 2008 0:53:22 GMT -5
She stared at him a long moment, wanting very much to believe him, to just accept his excuse, not question anything. "So you didn't notice when the woman on your lap suddenly became a gorgeous Egyptian woman?" Mary winced, the image of them on the chair seared into the inside of her eyelids. The way his fingers had dug into a waist much small than her own. The blissed out look on his face. The passion. She felt, for the first time in a long time, sick to her stomach.
He came close but stopped himself at the last minute. Of course he would be afraid of her. "It took you almost two centuries to be able to even touch me longer than a second. I used to think it was just you, I knew you weren't fond of touch in general, of getting close. I didn't realize you were just like everyone else. How do you stomach your disgust for me when we kiss?"
She sat down because she was feeling a little quaky, but when she realized it was the chair they'd been in, she sprung up from it violently enough to tip it over. "You thought she was me? Do you really know me so little that someone who's never met me before, posing as me, allegedly, can fool you?" She sighed and bit back tears.
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Post by Miss Jack on Dec 11, 2008 1:09:32 GMT -5
He wanted to tell her that he had noticed the difference, but he knew it would sound like another fumbling excuse; trite, and ultimately irrelevant to the true problem.
He physically took a step back when she asked how he stomached her. "You clearly don't know me any better if you actually think I would do this," he countered. In the centuries they'd lived together he'd never entertained a woman--- why would he do so once they were together? "I've never been disgusted by you." A kiss born of love was something he'd never hoped to experience, and had, with her.
He didn't know what else to say, and truthfully, he was losing his will to try. He'd known this would happen eventually. It was only a matter of time before he found a way to drive her off, or before she realized she could have something better.
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Post by Jules on Dec 11, 2008 1:25:06 GMT -5
"I saw you Vince! I saw you "actually doing" it. I saw the way you were holding her, I saw your expression." She took a deep breath and moved to sit on the edge of the bed. "I don't understand." Mary muttered. She looked up at him, hoping he had some magical answer than excused him from all responsibility.
It wouldn't be like Vince to cheat, she knew that. But she'd seen it with her own eyes. "Explain it to me then. Why I shouldn't be upset you were passionately kissing another woman?"
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Post by Miss Jack on Dec 11, 2008 1:40:59 GMT -5
"I thought it was you," he snarled. "I hold you that way. I look at you that way."
He moved to the edge of the bed; he didn't sit, but he crouched in front of her. "If I came into your room, and I kissed you, with my body and my warmth and my smell, would you push me away if something felt off and tell me I was an imposter? Or would you assume maybe I might be upset, and that's why it felt different, or maybe you would doubt your ability to claim to know someone's kissing style so well because that's not something you notice, or maybe.... you were just... an idiot."
His shoulders slumped slightly. He'd never said so much at one time in his life-- and never so rambling and incoherent as that.
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Post by Jules on Dec 11, 2008 1:56:41 GMT -5
Vince continuously surprised her in this relationship. She placed a hand on his shoulder, tentatively, still half-expecting him to reject her touch. "I'm sorry I infected you. You were scaring me. I uhh, destroyed some of your books." She wanted to kiss him, but she fully expected him to become enraged when he noticed the pile of empty bindings and ripped pages.
Let's just say she wasn't counting on putting away her bag just yet. "I believe you. Why did this...Calcifer, do this?"
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Post by Miss Jack on Dec 11, 2008 21:19:36 GMT -5
He cut his eyes to the remnants of Mary's temper, torn between feeling amused, angry and proud. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," he murmured to himself.
He liked the feel of her hand on his shoulder, the familiar weight.
A black look passed over his face and his eyes narrowed. "He wanted to screw with me."
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Post by Jules on Dec 11, 2008 21:52:39 GMT -5
Mary slid her other hand under his chin and tilted his face up so she could look him in the eye. When she'd interrupted them the second time, when he'd looked ready to kill Calcifer, there had been such depth of rage there. She'd only seen it one other time, when the rebellion was storming the circus. It wasn't as bad now, but she could still see it lurking and it concerned her.
"Really? Cause it just kind of looked like he wanted to screw you. He makes a very pretty woman. Is that why you got so angry? Vince..." She smiled sadly at him, her hand sliding up to cup his cheek. "Let it go?"
She felt a bit of a hypocrite asking that of him, because although she wasn't mad at him anymore, and although she believed him, she still couldn't erase the image in her mind of them together. It still made her sick. "And what did you mean by 'When' I lose you'?"
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Post by Miss Jack on Dec 13, 2008 12:03:50 GMT -5
The blackness simmered slightly, to a more stormy gray, and a tick appeared in his clenched jaw as he considered her request. If anyone else had asked, it wouldn't even be up for consideration, but he felt his hold on her hung by a fraying thread, and he didn't want to snap it so soon. "Nobody screws with me," he said, but it lacked the fire he had intended, sounding more resigned than anything.
His eyes softened --or as much as they could-- at her last question. "I'm not a fool," he said quietly. "I know how I am."
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