fallingbackup | The time of our great undoing

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[fabulae_victoriana]

The time of our great undoing

When Kevin woke up alone for the first time in months, he knew almost immediately that Glen was gone. If he were still human, he'd have looked everywhere for the man until he'd at least tracked down one of his Chains, and gotten confirmation from them that he was no longer in the world with them. But as it was, he could smell that the very spot he was laying on was the spot where Glen's trail had gone cold. The duke had vanished from the bed they shared as the knight slept.

That was well over a week ago now and in his head, Kevin's been lost ever since. He's done the best he can to take over Glen's duties around the house, and the Jabberwock, for whatever reason, has let him do it. But no matter how he tells himself that he's only minding things until Glen returns, and that he will, the atmosphere in the house rankles against him. Young Gilbert doesn't accept him -- not like this. The little Lacie pities him for the depth of his sadness; Lottie scoffs at him for thinking he can even attempt to fill Glen's shoes, even if he knows perfectly well he's only providing a poor substitute. With every day that passes, he feels more and more withdrawn, and so, when he can, Kevin escapes. He can be found wandering the city, now and again, letting the noise of it drown out his own thoughts. Or he can be found patrolling the fences around the farmlands as usual, perhaps in the hopes that the familiar solitude of it will help keep him in his right mind. But the truth is that Kevin hasn't felt this out of place and unsettled in at least a year, since he'd come to live in Glen's house in the first place. He'd thought he was home at last, that he'd found a new family and even a little peace. Now, it seems that all of that peace was in Glen all along, and Kevin has no idea when or if the duke will return.

But the most upsetting part of it all is what he does know. If Glen has really gone home, he's no doubt living through the Tragedy. Right now, somewhere, Kevin's Oswald is staring at the man who's broken his heart, there are swords raised between them, and the duke is maybe just realizing that he's going to die on that blade because Jack Vessalius never did love him enough.

And Kevin can't do anything about it.

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The knight grunts. The truth of the matter, of course, is that when a Kevin runs off on his own, it's because he doesn't want to be around people. But it won't do any good at all to say this, because Lacie lives with Asshole, and so Lacie knows that perfectly well and already doesn't give a crap. He's strong enough to pull away from her, but if she's feeling stubborn, he's not sure he could pull away from her Chain.

Most importantly, he just doesn't have the heart right now to fight her over it.

Obviously the best solution here is to just go home with her, and slip out while Asshole distracts her doing Asshole things. So he follows her at last, though he makes it clear that he's going to go at his own pace, and he tries to tug back his arm.

Lacie walks in silence, brooding over her brother's disappearance. How could she not have known? She feels bad about it, and she hates when she's made to feel bad about something.... She barely notices when they arrive at the skull-adorned wrought iron fence, opening the gate to lead him to the door without a second thought.

Even before they've made it up the front walk, there's an excited barking, Beastie knowing his beloved girl-human is home. With its fresh repairs, the house is the best-looking one on the otherwise-dilapidated street. The porch even has stairs, now.

Edited 2014-02-16 09:31 (UTC)

If Kevin notices or cares about the changes to the house, he gives no indication of it, but he does walk a little slower once they're past the skulls. It's occurring to him now that using his surlier counterpart as an escape route means interacting with said counterpart. And their dog. In their house.

This is undesirable, and the knight loses heart with efficient speed. He doesn't want anybody. He just wants Glen.

But there's no backing out now; he can't think of any excuses quickly enough, though he wracks his brain for something feasible. He'll just have to hope that Asshole isn't in the mood for anybody but Lacie, and shoos him out quickly. He'd been reasonable enough on Kevin's territory, but now Kevin is on his, and he doesn't even think to question the wolf part of him that fully expects the other man to be on his guard.

Lacie pushes open the door and stands aside to let Kevin in. Beastie, on the other hand, promptly romps out, barking a greeting and jumping up at the both of them for pets... Until he realizes it's another boy-human. He peers up at Kevin, tilting his head and goes to sniff his feet. Then he promptly remembers this is the Growly One and scampers back inside.

Lacie snorts, and leans to call into the house for her Kevin to hear.

"I've brought home another live one! This one stays, at least for dinner."

"Is it housebroken?" Kevin calls back. Emerging from the hallway to see what horror Lacie is about to turn his evening into, the swordsman pauses in the doorway, staring at his other self with an eyebrow raised dubiously. But the other Kevin, the one who is still a knight, only meets his gaze for a moment or two before he looks away, clearly disinclined to tolerate the scrutiny.

If it were anyone else, he'd be belligerent. If the other Kevin were in any other mood, this one wouldn't want him around. But he clearly isn't up to fighting, and Kevin knows that Lacie is well aware that the Kevins don't tend to mix when left to their own devices. She wouldn't have brought him home if she didn't feel strongly that he needs to be taken care of tonight.

"...close enough," he relents, retreating to the kitchen. Beastie follows along at his heels, giving an obvious preference to the proper boy human, whose growls are weenie and meaningless.

Lacie gives a satisfied nod and closes the door behind herself and their unwilling guest.

"Come on," she says to him, nodding toward the kitchen and following her Kevin and the puppy. Once she catches up, she murmurs two words into her Kevin's ear, knowing they'll explain as much as needs explained.

"Oswald's gone."

She turns back toward their guest.

"What do you want with the chicken?"

He hears, sensitive ears picking up on the words easily, but he cooly ignores them. Even if he didn't want to keep the extent of his wolf senses to himself for the most part, he is a Kevin. He is an expert at pretending that things he does not wish to confront are not there.

"I'll eat anything," he answers absently, lurking by the wall instead of moving to sit at the table. "...except rabbits."

The answer, peculiar as it is, brings a soft snort from Lacie.

"Well, no rabbits, it is."

She turns to her Kevin, looping an arm through his. Between the two of them Beasty worms his way in to plop himself down so that he's effectively sitting on Lacie's feet and leaning against Kevin's leg's. The werewolf's presence has unnerved him a bit.

"What do you want, then?"

"The still-beating hearts of the people I hate," Kevin says flatly. Behind him, the other Kevin snorts, very softly. Wiggling his besocked toes, just to irritate the dog, he adds, "Barring that, I suppose that spicy rice stuff you make will do."

Edited 2014-02-20 05:05 (UTC)

This gets a laugh out of her and she leans up to nip at his ear. "Later." she whispers sultrily.

Slipping away while Beastie tries to twist around and nip not-so-sultrily at Kevin's toes, Lacie proceeds to get to work. A pair of chickens are transported from the ice box to thaw, and she starts to pull out the necessary pots and pans.

"Rice it is!"

Kevin commences amusing himself by antagonizing Beastie, something he often does while Lacie is cooking. Sometimes he works with the dog, training the puppy to behave himself, but other days he just roughhouses with him, and that's what he chooses to do now. But even as he sits himself down on the floor and foils the dog's attempts to get up off of his back when Kevin pushes him, the swordsman is extremely conscious of the other Kevin, lurking silently by the wall.

It doesn't escape him that they have essentially switched places. When Kevin was recovering from his death at the Baskerville farm, it was the two-eyed one who was at ease and comfortable, carrying about his business while this one remained quietly off to the side. Now, the other Kevin is on his territory, and is reacting much the same way. It's a little annoying to understand so well, but precisely because he understands, he knows that the other one is being respectful, in his own way. And he must be thinking much the same things, and wishing he could escape.

Well. The resident Kevin doesn't particularly favor the idea of the other one casting his gloom about the place. In a rare stroke of kindness, he says abruptly, "We've books in the sitting room. Down the hall." Sure enough, after a moment's hesitation, the knight takes the opportunity to escape and slips down the corridor.

Clyde the dead stuffed peacock is in the sitting room, too, as it happens, since it's one of the only rooms that's been completely fixed up as of yet. So there is that.

Meawhile, Lacie busies herself about cooking, though she is unusually quiet, lost in thought. In another life, in another world, Lacie wouldn't have been able to empathize with Kevin, or at least not as well. But here, having found a love of her own and that love being with a Kevin, she understands more of what he's going through than she otherwise would. (More than she's entirely comfortable with, to tell the truth. It's a messy business, letting people in.)

So, she cooks quietly, and plots. What can they do, to distract him? Food--even if she is a good cook--will only do so much. This calls for something drastic. Something...

An idea dawned.

"... Do you remember what we talked about, last All Hallows?"

"Ghosts coming through doors?" asks the swordsman.

Yes, he remembers. The dubious but thoughtful look on his face gives him away.

Lacie shoots him a Look of her own, but his expression is enough to keep her from making a snide remark. Instead, she continues putting together the rice dish and continues as if he's given her a proper answer.

"Well, what do you think? He could probably use it."

"Sure, but he won't go for it," Kevin answers. "You know what -- I'm like. When I'm like that. You'll have to seduce him, and my being here will complicate it. He won't want anything to do with me and he won't want to touch you because you're with me."

He falls silent for a moment, considering. Beastie tries to get a hold of his hand, and the swordsman sweeps the wriggling little dog up into a hold that totally isn't a cuddle.

"...better feed him first," he concludes.

"Here and I was going to drag him up the stairs and leave the chicken to burn," Lacie says, tartly, but she grins over her shoulder at him all the same. Putting a lid on the pot of rice, she turns and makes her way over, amused at the sight of him (not)cuddling their puppy, who lets out a yip and promptly attempts to lick Kevin's face.

"He might be surprised to find that he wants what he thinks he doesn't." She reaches up, fingers entwining sensually in his hair. "You didn't think you wanted all of this, at first."

(After all, she hadn't either, at least not consciously.)

"...there was very little that I wanted at all."

It's true. Kevin had known he was throwing his life away when he made that Contract, but his desire to have his family restored even if he never got to see it had been enough. Even before he'd known just how badly he'd failed, the completion of his task had left him negligently suicidal, placing no real value in his own life and having no plans to move forward. Sooner or later he'd have found some fight to get into, no doubt; stopped bothering to eat or sleep and just let himself go. It's still only Lacie that keeps him from doing that.

The swordsman reaches out, wrapping her hair around his own fingers.

"He knows exactly what he wants. And it isn't here."

"He wants escape. He's like you, that way. We can offer him escape." She leans forward, brushing her lips along the line of his jaw. Between them, Beastie struggles and yips, wanting to be part of all the affection. Smirking, Lacie darts in and licks Kevin's nose.

"Just not the kind you get, alone."

Turning, she goes to stir the rice.

A few minutes later, having heard the voices fade from down the hall -- he's been hovering, not wanting to get too close, not wanting to overhear whatever they have to talk about because he's sure that just now it's him -- the other Kevin appears in the kitchen doorway.

"You have a dead peacock in your library," he observes.

"That's Clyde," answers his one-eyed counterpart, calmly. "I killed him because he was the prettiest peacock of all."

The knight opens his mouth, finds he has no way to argue with this logic, and shuts it again. The dog is glaring at him from his almost-twin's arms, as though he is infringing upon cuddle time simply by existing in the same room. Obviously the library is safer, dead peacock notwithstanding. He retreats, intending to go back there until dinner is ready.

Even as Kevin moves to retreat again, Lacie can't help but burst out laughing at the ridiculous exchange. Suddenly, she hopes they can persuade the younger Kevin to stay more than the night. If she can get more deadpan comedy out of them, she's willing to lobby for it.

"Go to the stairway and look up!" she calls after him. "Then you can meet Asshole Bob!"

Perhaps they can tell the story of how Asshole Bob got his hat--or, rather, what happened to the man who'd owned it, first. This thought puts a small, faintly demented smile on her lips straight through to setting the table.

"No, that's alright," Kevin answers, and then he totally goes to look. Later, he will refuse to ask about the hat. It's the principle of the thing.

Depression notwithstanding, he eats well at dinner, even if he sort of keeps to his own little corner of the table. These two have been around him at dinnertime before, having stayed with the Baskervilles on the farm and all. So they're well aware of Kevin's wolfish manners, left over from his injury, when he hadn't had a reason to be proper at the table and had made habits for himself that still stick with him. Even so, he's a guest in their house now, so he politely tones it down. He sits properly in his chair and doesn't curl up in it, uses the silverware, and paces himself such that he finishes eating around the same time they do -- even if he polishes off a whole chicken on his own and he's the reason there isn't going to be any leftover rice this time.

As the meal draws to a close, though, he plucks at his napkin and wonders how he's going to get out of here. Thanking them for the meal is in order, and showing gratitude is dangerous where Lacies are concerned. Plus, he's not sure what excuse he can use to leave and actually get away with. The both of them will see right through him, and Lacie in particular would probably spot it a mile away if he made himself out to have duties in her brother's absence that better suit others in the house. No errands to run this late, other people to watch the Brat, no one who would mind his being out late...hn.

Lacie, who'd been watching him devour the meal with increasing admiration--after all, her own appetite is nothing to laugh at--sits forward, smiling a bit. She can guess at what he's thinking, and she's not about to let him get away with getting away, no matter what reason he might suggest.. She props her chin in her hands, smiling at him.

"So, you'll be staying the night," she says, with pleasant finality. "There's a room upstairs."

Of course, the one she has in mind is actually her and her Kevin's room. But if she tells him that before they've got him up there, they very likely won't get him up there, at all.

"...um," says the two-eyed Kevin. "Actually, I --"

"Can we just skip this bit?" the other Kevin says suddenly. "The part where you try to protest and it's a waste of time because Lacie always gets what she wants sooner or later anyway."

The knight slowly turns a nasty look onto his double, which the swordsman returns blandly. But the younger Kevin doesn't have a good comeback for this, a clear indication that he knows exactly what grownup Lacies are like, in addition to the younger one he has attached to him. So they just stare at one another, until the grumpier of the two sniffs dismissively and the werewolf tilts his head back in an unconscious imitation of one of the other's movements.

Down on the floor, Beastie wuffles around, looking for dropped morsels.

Edited (...not on the -- not on the door.) 2014-04-10 21:09 (UTC)

Lacie, hearing the puppy, casually slips a few pieces of chicken under the table for him. Considering the battle won, she stands and strolls over to the werewolf. With a bright smile, she slips an arm through his and casts a look that's part gratitude and part conspiracy at her partner in crime.

"So, we should take you up and show it to you," she says to the younger Kevin. "Help you get settled in."

He catches that look.

"Ohhhhh, no you don't. You're not fooling anybody, you two have some sort of plot." Casting a sour look at the both of them, Kevin plants himself all the more firmly in his chair -- and he's stronger than the both of them, so they're going to have to use other means to get him out of it. Unaware that he's only damned himself to earlier action, he grouses, "I am staying right here, or I am going home, one of the two."

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