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Post by Snowglobe18 on Dec 31, 2017 0:37:48 GMT -7
Katherine sat down on the bed for a moment and put her shoes down on the floor, she was tired but it seemed to be deep and it felt like an exhaustion that wasn't likely to go away any time soon. She heard Adrian's door shut and she sighed under her breath before running her hands through her hair. She had laughed for the first time tonight but she also gave Adrian a soft kiss on the head and that was something so unlike her because she had kept herself reserved, kept herself away from feeling anything other than the guilt that still didn't leave her behind.
It never let her rest but that might be down to the fact that she didn't feel like resting. Didn't feel like forgiving herself just yet.
After a moment she finally stood up and grabbed her night dress before she got out of her clothes. Katherine put the dress on a chair that she could only just about fit in the small room before sliding the night dress down over her arms, her chest and then her hips and letting it fall. With her eyesight she didn't need to have any light in here so she pulled back the covers and then got into bed, her dark hair falling all over the pillow like a dark halo.
Katherine laid there for a moment with her arm behind her head and she watched the ceiling and sighed under her breath. Slowly she moved her arm down and then closed up her eyes. The darkness taking her into the land of nod.
Her hand grabbed the sheet as she turned her head a couple of times. "No" she said in her sleep "don't" she settled for a moment and then it happened again, Drake's voice coming across to her even in her sleep. The look of glee on his face at the fact that he had messed Katherine up, that he had played a game with her and she had lost so badly, it came through to the back of her eyelids and they started to flutter.
Katherine started grabbing the sheet once more. "No, please don't" she called to him in her sleep as he ripped Jon's throat out. "Drake don't" she screamed and reached out for him she wanted to wrap her hands around his throat and kill him herself but she knew she couldn't. She knew that things like him never died. Her hand caught on something and then she woke up into the eyes of Adrian, she was holding onto his wrist.
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Post by Ray on Dec 31, 2017 12:23:34 GMT -7
Sleeping is not easy, even with the liquor swimming heavily in his belly. He tosses and turns for a short while, failing to get comfortable on the thin mattress of his bed, failing to find the ease to drift off. After a while, he gives up, falling flat upon his back with the blankets pooled over his abdomen, eyes staring up towards a dark ceiling. He can hear the world move around outside their walls. The faint cry of a baby a few houses down, the scuffle of stray dogs in an alleyway, the heavy clopping of a horse drawn carriage in the street. Even when the world sleeps, it's not quiet. Not like it used to be.
The forests of Rohan were alive too, of course they were. Loud with the rustle of wind through leaves and the close-by hooting of owls and the chatter of nocturnal animals drawn in by the fire burning their sausages to ash, if they weren't paying close enough attention. He'd carry on conversation well into the night, mostly nonsense, mostly fantasy, and Fili's laugh would echo against the trees and the rocks, loud and clear.
But there always came a point where the entire world seemed to settle. The wind halted. The animals returned to their burrows. And the crackling of fire died low as their own eyes began to droop. And in that moment, silence reigned over the wilderness. Warm and heavy. As if none of the world existed beyond the reach of the firelight.
Now he hears everything. Every creak, ever mouse scattering through the walls, every distant voice, every beating heart. The world always exists. Always waiting just beyond the edge of his peripherals.
He exhales a slow breath, looking up, his own palm resting upon his shirt-covered chest over the hollow and silent place in his rib-cage.
A voice breaks through the noise, familiar, close, quiet. Adrian lifts his head slowly, brows pressing close as he rises to rest upon his elbows, looking towards the closed door of his bedroom. Across the hall, through the walls that divide them, Katherine's soft pleas seem to chase away all the rest of the static around him. It's a murmur at first. The cries of sleep. But as the minutes tick on, her voice grows louder, more desperate. Her voice rings loud and clear through the apartment, a wretched please don't, and Adrian is kicking the blankets off of him before the last syllable leaves her.
He crosses the hall quickly on bare feet, pulling open the door to her bedroom and moving quickly to the bed she writhes upon, Drake's name falling from her lips in anguish. He reaches out to shake her awake, to draw her from her dream, but before he can even touch her, her hand is suddenly grabbing tight to his wrist, strength digging her fingers deep, eyes opening wide and wild in fear.
"Hey, hey hey," Adrian says, voiced hushed, his other palm hovering slightly over her. "It's just me, it's me." He reassures her, and her eyes focus upon him, "You were dreaming, it's me."
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Dec 31, 2017 12:37:09 GMT -7
It took a while for her to focus, it took a while for her to finally see that it wasn’t Drake, there was no bleeding Jon. In her room it was just herself and Adrian and he was looking down at her with a worried expression and slowly she let his wrist go as she calmed down. Everything around her seeming much more calmer than it had in her dream.
She had been back at the estate in London, watching drake and Jon and she had wanted to kill him but he always got her first. Katherine thought her dreams wouldn’t get worse the longer she stayed away from Jon or even London. Always making sure she had no contact with anyone she knew, staying off the grid and making sure that the two of them were safe.
She felt like she was getting worse, like her mind was starting to mess up again because of what happened.
Katherine slowly sat up and put her arms around Adrian needing someone to hold onto her for a moment, needing someone to hold on too. She put her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes because right now he was the only one to calm her down. She gripped hold of his shirt at the back, her dark hair falling around her shoulders in a curled mess but she didn’t care that he was seeing her like this. He had seen her far worse than this.
“I thought I was getting better” she said softly against his shoulder. “I thought everything was starting to feel better but it’s not” she said and there was a slight shake of her body from where she had started to cry.
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Post by Ray on Dec 31, 2017 13:02:34 GMT -7
Her grip loosens from his wrist until it falls away all together, her features beginning to relax out of terror as realization returns. Adrian lowers his hand, but continues watching her with a hint of worry reflecting in his eyes. He knows what she dreams about. Knows it just as clearly as the name he heard her scream. And while he has no way of knowing the true horror of it, no way of knowing what happened at the estate, he doesn't need the details to understand her pain. He was the same. After Durinhall. For weeks, months, the nightmares would find him in the late hours as the pain flared in his shoulder, turning his whole arm numb, turning his mind back into the battlefield they'd fought through. Sometimes he still dreams of it. Of the smoke. Of the arrow. Of the poison that had dripped through his veins, burning a path through him.
It's not the same. It's not Drake. But it haunts still.
He sits upon the edge of her bed carefully, remaining for a moment just until he knows she's okay. Katherine sits forward, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face into his shoulder. Adrian hesitates, not used to this. For the past few years, Katherine has kept her emotions under a tightly sealed lid, hiding herself away when it becomes too much, flinching away from any sort of physicality. He'd gotten used to it. Gotten used to keeping his distance. To telling jokes rather than asking her if she's okay. To sweeping London under a rug for both of their sakes.
But she tremors with a sob, and Adrian presses his lips flat before he wraps his arms around her as well, holding her against him, letting her cry.
"You're safe here," he tells her, trying to remember the words Fili used to tell him, "I know that doesn't stop of the dreams but...you're safe."
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Dec 31, 2017 13:22:15 GMT -7
He wraps his arms around her and speaks and for a moment she wants to believe that, she wants to believe she is safe. That both of them are safe. Katherine knows that Drake won't bother her again, he had damaged her and laughed in her face over what he had done. It was everyone around her that was going to have to pick up the pieces of what happened, everyone who was going to have to watch her go downhill over everything. Maybe that was also why she distanced herself from Jon, so that he didn't have to see her like this.
The silence lingers between them for a moment and she knows that she can't cry everything out because they would be here for years if that was the case. Adrian continues to hold her and for a moment she is glad that he's here, she's glad that there is someone here that can help her through this. They both have things to run from in London and maybe that was why they were together still. She even liked his company even if Katherine never told him so, never told him anything because it was safer that way. Safer to keep him away than to let him get close to her like before.
After a while she slowly lifted her hands and head from his shoulder and back before starting to move away. Katherine looks at him and then sniffles loudly and guessed that she looked a mess. But she was sure that it didn't matter to Adrian what she really looked like right now.
She looked at his face and swallowed hard before, trying to get rid of the lump at the back of her throat before she then put her top and bottom lip against his top one softly and kissed him. After a moment she pulled back and looked at him and was ready to actually apologise for doing that.
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Post by Ray on Dec 31, 2017 13:46:14 GMT -7
She says nothing, but continues to cry, letting her emotions slip free openly for the first time in a long time. Adrian rubs at her back gently, letting the silence build between them. He's never been very good at the comforting thing. He could talk his way out of any situation, but he finds himself at a loss for words when someone else is in pain. Fili was better at that. He always knew what to say, when to say it. So Adrian just holds her. Just waits. Feeling the dampness grow against the shoulder of his shirt.
Katherine draws away after a long moment, and Adrian lets his hand slip from her back, falling to the blankets of her bed. Her eyes are red and swollen and streaks of tears stain her cheeks. Crying has never been pretty. Not on anyone. Even less so when the tears are the result of genuine fear and agony. And knowing that only makes his chest tighten a little more with sympathy. It's easy to forget how badly someone is hurting until you seem them in a moment like this, fragile and emotions laid bare.
He tries to think of something to say, tries to remember more of Fili's words, but those thoughts are cut short. In a fraction of a second, her lips are pressing against his, so soft and so light that if he had blinked, he would have missed it. It's not the first time they've kissed. Not even the second. But back then, it had always been out of a want that wasn't necessarily restricted just to each other. It had simply been sex. The other completely interchangeable if someone else had been there in their place.
But this...this is different. Vulnerable. Delicate. Not born of heat or desire or flirtation.
When Katherine pulls back, Adrian just looks at her for a moment, surprise widening his eyes, his lips parted. "I..." he begins, just at a loss for words as before but for a different reason, "I could make tea."
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Dec 31, 2017 13:59:04 GMT -7
Katherine watches him, watches as his eyes widen in surprise and for a moment she looks down at the cover and then he speaks about making some tea. She pushes her eyebrows together before looking up at him. She pulls her lip in between her teeth and chews on it for a moment, if she's being honest Katherine expected something other than him speaking about making some tea.
She turns away from him for a moment and pulls her pillows up so that she's sitting comfortably when she leans back and looks at him once more. "I'm sure tea would be lovely" she admitted and then cleared her throat. "If I could drink it" she might be able to keep her drink down mostly because of the fact that she forced herself to keep it down but other things were a loss to her. Eating wasn't one of those things she could do just yet either but she was hoping to pass off as a normal human being but for now she was just taking everything one step at a time.
Keeping alcohol down had seemed a lot more important than actually drinking tea, she never had the taste for it. Katherine reached up and moved her dark hair from around her face before looking around the room. If she was honest the room didn't seem so scary when she was awake and away from the dreams that seemed to plague her mind night after night, only tonight had been one of the worst.
"You don't have to stay, I'm going to stay up for a little while and then see if I can get some more sleep" she wasn't sure if that was the truth right now but she didn't mind if he left her to it.
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Post by Ray on Dec 31, 2017 14:20:00 GMT -7
"Right, course." Adrian says, bouncing his head a little as the reminder of what they are hits him all at once. Drinking liquor is one thing. It fills a need they'd otherwise find in the veins of bystanders, fills their stomachs and dulls their minds. And though Adrian has found ways to eat, it's not the same as it once was. Most things taste like ash upon his tongue, or sit heavily in his stomach, or leave him with the annoying reminder that it does nothing for him but follow a routine he hasn't needed to keep in centuries. Tea is one of those last things. It's never been the same as it once was. It's never as good as the tea Bilbo made.
"I don't think we even have tea," he admits in a murmur, rubbing gingerly at his forehead. He drops his hand back to his lap and gives Katherine a small apologetic smile.
It slips free when she speaks, the moment lost, an easy escape presented to him. But his heart sinks a little nonetheless. "Okay," he replies after a beat, nodding once. He opens his mouth to say something else, but nothing falls free. So he just looks down, sets his palm over hers, and gives her hand a small squeeze. "Try to rest." He says finally, his hand slipping away from hers as he rises to his feet. He moves towards the door, rubbing at the back of his neck. With one final glance back, he steps out into the hall and closes the door behind him quietly.
Sighing out a breath, he turns for his own room, feeling more awake now than he had before all of this. But he hesitates right in front of the open doorway, teeth clicking closed and hands balling into fists at his sides. He turns to look back at her closed door, shoulders slumping down a little, knowing he could have handled that better. Could have said something. Could have done something.
But he hadn't.
He drifts back a step, and sits upon the floorboards beside her door, leaning against the wall, head resting back. He draws his knees upwards and drapes his arms over them, listening to the quiet as the seconds tick on.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Dec 31, 2017 14:36:01 GMT -7
Katherine couldn't help the small smile that pulls at her lips when he says about them not even having tea, she knows that she blindsided him with the kiss and she never meant too but at the same time she wanted to feel his lips under hers while she let Drake's face slip into the back of her mind. He gives her an apologetic smile and she gives him one too. But hers was more for the kiss than it had been for the fact that she couldn't drink tea, whiskey or anything else like that was the only thing that would dull the world around her long enough to be able to see some sort of light at the end of a dark street.
He put his hand over hers and she let her thumb stroke his for a moment before she nodded. "I'll try" she admitted and looked up at him. She probably didn't look as wild as she had before but she was aware of the fact that her cheeks were still tear stained but that would have to wait. Adrian rises to his feet and lets his hand fall from hers and she puts her own back against the covers as she watched him leave her room.
She cleared her throat and looked around the room to make sure that no one was in the room with her and for a moment she continued to sit there before leaning forward and pulling the pillows back down and she sank back down into the bed.
Katherine was worried about falling back into her dreams just in case Drake was there waiting for her again but she was tired, a tiredness that she couldn't seem to get rid of with anything else and before long she slowly slipped back into the land of nod.
She slept so much more better the second time around than she did the first.
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Post by Ray on Dec 31, 2017 15:57:46 GMT -7
The rest of the night passes slowly, Katherine remaining quiet in her room, the world falling back to its usual routine. Adrian falls asleep without realizing it, his head resting back against the wall, his eyes slipping slowly shut. He dreams of the same thing every night, the same faces, the same room. The fire burns low in the hearth, the sky is light outside of the round window, the voices filter in around him -- familiar and warm.
Thorin smokes a pipe as he sits upon the couch, polishing his long unused sword with careful, scarred hands. His hair is grey at the roots, but still long like a mourner's veil down one side of his face. Bilbo reads with his nephew, a little black-haired boy with blue eyes huge upon his face, an orphan like them, but an orphan with a home. Fili sits close, close enough that Adrian can almost swear he feels the fur of his coat brushing against his shoulder, close enough that he could swear he smells the leather. He laughs, low and soft, and reaches out to tickle the little boy's foot. They all look the same, untouched photographs moving around him. He looks to his own hands, but they bear no gloves, no grime of the wilds. He still sits in his button-up shirt and black pants, still feels the shorter strands of his hair fall into his eyes, still feels the absence of a beating heart in his chest.
He looks up, and the room is suddenly dark and empty, the hearth cold, the furniture covered in dust, the sword broken upon the ground.
Adrian wakes slowly, feeling light upon his face. He squints his eyes open and pulls in a deep breath as the world fills back in around him. Through the newspaper on the windows and small slit in the curtain, sunlight streams in dimly. The sounds of the city outside their door return to his ears, loud and abrasive.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Dec 31, 2017 16:14:03 GMT -7
Katherine's eyes slowly open and it takes her a moment to realise that she's in her room in the small flat they had in New York. Sometimes she woke up like this, woke to find that she couldn't remember where she was but then it all comes crashing back like waves on a beach. For a moment she lays on her side and listens to the sound from outside before she rolls over onto her back and looks up at the ceiling.
The night before starts to filter in through her mind and then she remembered the kiss she gave Adrian and winced because the last thing she wanted was for it to get awkward between the two of them. In the years that they had left London she had kept him at a distance and in the space of a few hours not only had she smiled and laughed she had also kissed him. Katherine ran her hand over her face. "Oh god" she muttered to herself and shook her head. She could blame it on the dream or even on the drink but him being a vampire would know that she was lying.
Maybe there was a part of her that wanted to feel a man's lips underneath hers for a little bit but Adrian had spoke about making some tea so that sort of put an end to that and maybe it was a good thing. Katherine hadn't touched a man in a long time let alone kissed one.
She got up from the bed and grimaced as she looked into the mirror at her state and knew she would have to make sure that she looked better when she left the flat today. Katherine pulled a hairbrush through her hair quickly, her curly hair falling down over her shoulders and settling against her breasts. She moved to the door and pulled it open before looking around and heading in the direction of the small bathroom they had.
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Post by Ray on Dec 31, 2017 16:27:58 GMT -7
He hears movement within Katherine's room, drawing his attention away from the noise coming from outside and towards the door sitting just next to his shoulder. All at once, memories of the night before return to his mind, no longer hazed by the liquor or the surprise of it all. Furrowing his brows a little, he presses his fingertips to his lips as the kiss filters back to him, the small confusion building back in his chest.
He hasn't been kissed like that in a long. Gentle and hesitant and coy. For the last few centuries, softness has not been something he's sought out. Softness seemed like the luxuries of someone else. Softness had been for Kili, not the vampire wearing his skin.
The door opens suddenly, and Adrian lurches to his feet like a man caught with his hand in the cookie jar. But Katherine barely acknowledges him, shuffling passed as Adrian awkwardly clears his throat and rubs at the back of his neck, mind going a mile a minute to think of a good reason as to why he'd been sitting outside of her bedroom all night, listening for her.
"Morning," he says, ducking his head a little and setting his hands upon his waist.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Dec 31, 2017 16:37:54 GMT -7
Katherine's mind had been elsewhere so when a voice filtered through to her mind she jumped slightly and honestly that was a hard thing to do to a vampire when their hearing was so good. "Bloody hell Adrian" she huffs out and puts a hand against her chest before clearing her throat. She probably would have noticed that he was there if her mind hadn't been elsewhere.
Then it took her a moment to realise that he had been outside of her bedroom and she pushed her eyebrows together before looking towards her bedroom door and then back at him. "Were you sat outside of my room?" she asked after a moment, her dark eyebrow up at the thought that he had been sitting outside of her room waiting for her to come out, maybe he hadn't. Maybe she had been overthinking it but he honestly didn't look any different than what he had been wearing the night before when he came into her room but then again neither did she.
At that thought she put her arms over her chest but it just seemed to push her breasts up more for him to see so she cleared her throat and put her arms down to her sides once more at the failed attempt to hide the fact that her breasts were pretty much pushed up to her chin.
Katherine pulled her lip in between her teeth and chewed on it for a moment. The night before had left her feeling exhausted to the point that she just needed to sleep for the next ten years or something.
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Post by Ray on Dec 31, 2017 16:49:43 GMT -7
Katherine jumps when he speaks, turning back to look at him as if she hadn't noticed him there before. A fact he probably should have taken advantage of, considering how quickly she puts two and two together. He glances down to the spot he had occupied for the last few hours, trying to think of a good explanation. The truth is not a terrible, not even an embarrassing one. But considering how distant he and Kat have truly been over the last few years, despite traveling the world together in order to escape the past, the decision to stay close in case the nightmares returned might come across worse than he intended.
He looks back to her, darting his tongue out to wet his lips. Only to have his eyes draw down to her chest when she crosses her arms quickly, pressing her breasts up. His brows twitch upwards slightly, eyes flicking up to meet hers, but she quickly unfolds her arms once more.
Adrian clears his throat, scratching lightly behind his ear. "I...was worried." He admits finally. "You seemed so...distraught, I didn't want to just...go back to bed as if nothing had happened." He sighs out a little, waiting for her to react poorly to that. He's not Jon. He doesn't exactly have the right or any reason to be concerned. "I only meant to stay for a few minutes, but I fell asleep." He adds on a little sheepishly, huffing out half a laugh.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Dec 31, 2017 16:58:57 GMT -7
Katherine waits for a moment and then he speaks about the fact that he was worried because of last night about the fact that she had been so upset and her features turned down from confusion to a soft smile. She looked back at the door of her room and chewed on her lip once more. If she was honest she had been distraught and while she hadn't meant to wake Adrian she was glad that he had been there to comfort her.
She had made sure to stay away from any physical contact with him. The last time she had held him was the night they had left London together because of how he had been, that was the night she said goodbye to herself too. Her life in London had been shut away and she turned into a ghost of her former self and made sure that she didn't look at him for too long.
"I slept better" she admitted with another soft smile and looked back at him. "Maybe you worked better than you think" she said with a soft laugh before looking down and moving a strand of her dark hair from her cheek. Katherine found that she hadn't been mad at all that he had sat outside of her room all night to make sure that she was alright. In fact she rather liked the idea of him doing it again but of course she didn't say that. She didn't say that she liked him sitting outside of her room to make sure that she was alright and chased away the demons that had taken root in her mind.
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