|
Post by Ray on Mar 21, 2018 21:27:20 GMT -7
Adrian's eyes remain upon her until the door closes with a soft click, and he hears her footfalls drifting away from his flat. The smile softens and fades until it's gone all together, his eyes lowering to the floor for a moment. He knows he's letting himself walk into the lion's den. Knows it as sure as he's known the risks of every venture he agreed to. But he never was the smarter one. Setting Lexi's empty glass in the sink, he moves to his bedroom -- all other plans for the night dashed from his mind.
He flicks on the light, and looks down at his rummaged things. Things he had not looked at in years. With a slow sigh, he moves forward and drops to a knee, setting his things back in their place. He does not let himself look too long at the book, no longer than it takes to slide Katherine's picture back between the pages, no longer than it takes to set it within the trunk atop his broken bow and Fili's blade. But his hand falls upon the leather bound journal set aside, fingers skimming over its surface, over the golden lettering.
There and Back Again.
Pressing his lips flat, he picks it up, sets it inside, and closes the trunk tight.
He tosses and turns that night, dreams plagued with memories. Of dusted, hollowed halls. Of soft lips. Of dark hair. He does not wake until the sound of pounding at his door pulls him from the dark recesses of his mind, and he finds early light drifting in through the slits of his bedroom curtains. With slit, tired eyes, he looks towards the clock and sees the time.
And groans. Loudly.
Adrian does not bother grabbing a shirt as he hauls himself out of his bed, carrying himself towards the door, his short hair still finding a way to be a mess. As the second round of knocks bang upon the wood, he pulls open the door, and is somehow far from surprised to see Lexi standing there. A breath falls from his lips, mildly annoyed, having wanted to at least down half a bottle before she showed up looking so...chipper. He sets a hand on the door. "So when you said tomorrow, you meant six in the morning." He comments, lifting his brows at her.
He catches the way her eyes fall to his bare chest, all too aware suddenly of the few scars left behind from a hard youth. None more prominent than the ugly knot in his left shoulder. He's never been self-conscious about them. Never been even ashamed. But his brows twitch close at the strange expression that falls across her face. Not horrified, not even uncomfortable. Something else. She pushes passed him, and the short moment is lost as he lets his head fall back in mild exasperation.
Definitely a Stark.
"Come in, come in, make yourself comfortable." He mutters to himself sarcastically, and closes the door once she's made her way passed.
Her words come out in a rush, and he turns to look at her, trying to keep up, wondering if she's already had a bit of coffee herself. "They don't." He replies, moving on bare feet towards the kitchen she's already found herself in, "I do." He adds.
|
|
|
Post by Snowglobe18 on Mar 21, 2018 21:41:50 GMT -7
"Actually no I hadn't planned on being here this early but of course I got a call from my mother who decided she would ring really early and of course I ended up answering it and now I'm awake and here... why are you looking at me like that?" she asked and raised an eyebrow. It's definitely possible that she grabbed a drink from the minibar before she left the hotel and headed in the direction of the coffee shop. It is also possible that she was a little jittery from the coffee.
After the previous night she had definitely needed something to steady the nerves when she decided that she would head over to his apartment. Lexi had honestly assumed that he would be awake but right now he was looking a little disheveled and it was cute because his hair was in a mess. She took a seat and then put the coffee and food on the counter before pushing her eyebrows at him. "So you sleep well that is definitely something I will have to keep in my mind when it comes to vampires" she mutters to herself and chewed on her lip gently before taking a sip of her coffee. Needing it more than she realised right now.
Of course it's quite possible that she should already know that vampires sleep but she had thought that with them not needing the sleep then they would stay awake but clearly Adrian was different and used it to clear the cobwebs away from his mind and shut down for a few hours. "But you did say that you would give me some information on the Starks and it seems like the best time to do it so I'm not bugging you all day, after all the girl in the coffee shop really likes it when you go in so you have to keep a date" she grinned at him and removed her bag to put it on the counter and then removed her jacket too.
|
|
|
Post by Ray on Mar 21, 2018 21:51:06 GMT -7
His brow ticks higher and higher as she continues speaking, a smile worming its way to his lips as he watches her. It's been a long time since he's seen someone as flustered as she is right now, a long time since he's had more than a passing conversation with anyone, let alone one about mothers with a girl who brought him breakfast. Mahal, has he ever? So he watches her with a bit of amusement until she asks her question, more like demands it, and he has to hold back a laugh. "You're rambling." He tells her, flat out, never the one to really hold his tongue, and moves forward to take the second coffee. "Don't worry. It's cute." He sips at the coffee, hiding his smile.
As he lowers the cup back away, the heat of it still upon his tongue, he shrugs a shoulder. "Like I said. Vampires don't." He repeats, looking to her. "But I...like routines." He says, simplifying it as best he can without rambling himself.
He snorts at the mention of the girl at the coffee shop, setting the cup down upon the counter. "Which one? Abigail or Maisie?" He asks in a bit of a tease, giving her a momentary wry smirk. "Let me get dressed. Then we can talk." Adrian says, still very much aware that he's only half-clothed and straight out of sleep at the moment. He turns away, hand trailing from the counter as he moves towards his bedroom door.
|
|
|
Post by Snowglobe18 on Mar 21, 2018 22:03:32 GMT -7
Lexi huffs out a soft laugh when he says that she's rambling and how it's cute. It definitely wasn't cute. She was probably a mess but she guessed that that was down to the fact there had been a bit of drink that had passed her lips before she even got herself here. She was starting to wonder if she had a problem. Maybe she did have a drink problem but she had always thought that it would be coffee and not knocking back alcohol at 5 in the morning. She gives a soft smile when he said that he liked routines and she was the same but of course she wasn't a vampire... that was taken by one of her ancestors.
He then asked which girl it was before letting a smirk pull at his lips and she laughed softly. "You are clearly a flirt if you don't know anyone's names" she said and then nodded when he said about getting dressed and she watches as he moved away from her. Her honey coloured eyes were watching him and she bit down on her lip and before she could even stop herself she let a small voice say "You really don't need to get dressed" she huffed before shaking her head. Lexi had to admit that Katherine was an idiot to let him go because that was one hot vampire that she would definitely like to sink her teeth in too and she wasn't even a vampire.
At that thought she grabbed her coffee and took a sip of it before shaking her head once more. Lexi wasn't here to flirt with anyone but to gather the information that she needed and once she had it he never had to see her again but for now she looked around the kitchen and chewed on her lip. She started to wonder why he even had a place if he would never eat in it, after all vampires didn't eat food so she guessed that if she moved through the kitchen she wouldn't even find anything in the cupboards. She guessed that would be hard to explain if he ever brought anyone back and from what the girl had said the day before... clearly he didn't invite any women back to the apartment.
|
|
|
Post by Ray on Mar 21, 2018 22:16:40 GMT -7
Adrian pauses at his bedroom door when he hears her quiet voice behind him, a little despondent at the idea of him getting dressed. It catches him a little off guard, especially after all that's happened during the last twenty-four hours. Flirting with his ex-lover's doppelganger is not what he set out to do when he offered his help. Just the thought makes that weird feeling return. Like this is all some game set upon him. But he exhales half a breath of a laugh despite his reservatons, and steps into his room.
He grabs the first t-shirt he can find, pulling it over his head and trading his sweatpants for jeans. He's shoving his fingers back through his hair, trying to tame it somewhat, when he returns to the kitchen only moments later. Lexi is still sipping at her coffee, and he reaches for his own as he leans forward to rest his elbows and forearms onto the counter top.
"So," he says, lifting the cup near his mouth. "Where exactly do you want to start?" He asks, looking up to her. "I do have to warn you that I was drunk for most of the time that I knew the Starks, or...pissed off for the rest of it, so my memory might be a little hazy. But I do remember enough. Mostly how fucking cold it was." He mutters that last part before taking a sip of the coffee, tempted to toss in a bit of Dutch courage if he's going to get through this.
|
|
|
Post by Snowglobe18 on Mar 21, 2018 22:27:53 GMT -7
Lexi looked over when he comes back into the kitchen and she puts the coffee cup down on the counter. He was sadly dressed. But she didn't let that show on her face because the last thing she came here for was to end up liking a guy. She hadn't long finished her marriage, well nearly a year ago but whatever. Either way she wasn't looking to start anything with anyone. That's why she was on this quest for, to keep herself busy and away from the thoughts of Jake. Jake who sometimes would text her and who she had been tempted to say that she still loved him and even when she got drunk she had drunk dialed him but she was more embarrassed than hurt after that.
In the end she just made sure that she couldn't find the number of her ex husband.
The other time she would stupidly send herself messages and thinking that she was sending them to someone else. That's how badly she got drunk sometimes back home.
She reached into her bag and pulled out a pad and pen and looked up at him. "Anything you can tell me that would help, the rest I can try and look up other ways just as long as I have the important facts then I should be able to put the rest together" she smiled softly and put the pad down on the counter and moved her strands of dark hair back to behind her ear as she waited for him to tell her something. Anything. Her honey coloured eyes on him. "And then I can be out of that tussled hair of yours and away from your really fine body" she said and grinned up before raising an eyebrow at him.
Lexi might not be looking for anyone but that didn't mean she couldn't flirt with the hottest guy that she had seen in a while.
|
|
|
Post by Ray on Mar 21, 2018 22:44:10 GMT -7
He watches as she pulls free a pad and a pen, far more prepared and ready for this than he would have ever anticipated. Adrian finds his brows darting high as he looks from them to her face as she smiles, waiting eagerly. Mahal, what has he gotten himself in to. He remembers enough. Plenty. More than he'd care to admit. But he's not sure all of it will give her any sort of satisfaction or dreams of a happy ending. None of their stories ended quite the way most tales of heroes and knights and dragons do. Especially not the Starks.
And then she makes that comment, more than a bit flirtatious, and an amused smile tugs at his lips as he looks towards her. "Going to add that bit to your notes?" He asks, nudging his chin towards the pad. "Adrian Durin, fittest body in London?" He teases lightly, smile pulling a little further. "Poor shame he's eight-hundred years old." He adds, and stands straight, sipping at his coffee once more.
He shakes his head at himself, knowing he should not be encouraging any of this. Adrian can nearly feel the smack on the head his brother would have dealt him if he were still alive. The chastising look. The stomped foot. Maybe he needs someone to start doing that for him again. Knock him back in line. This girl is throwing him through too dangerous of a loop.
"Anyway," he says, clearing his throat and setting the coffee down onto the counter. "Sadly, there's only a handful of people who would able to fill in bigger pieces about the Starks than me, and I'm not really on speaking terms with any of them." He continues, returning to business at hand. "Winterfell and the Starks aren't going to be found in any history book in any library. War and time have turned them to ghosts. Much like my family." He adds on without really intending to. "But I can..." He reaches a hand out towards her, asking silently for the pen and paper. When she gives them to him, he leans down to quickly sketch out the direwolf sigil from memory. "I am no artist. That was...that was someone else's talent, but..." he turns the pad back to her when he's finished. "That was the symbol of the Starks." He explains. "A grey direwolf."
|
|
|
Post by Snowglobe18 on Mar 21, 2018 23:01:03 GMT -7
Lexi laughs when he teases her and she has to admit that she likes him like this, light and not the shell that he had been the night before. Not the one knocking back the whiskey as he spoke about Katherine. This was much better than what she had seen the night before. She then wrote down on the pad "Adrian Durin, fittest body in London" she grinned up at him and made sure that was underlined at the top of the page. More than that she raised an eyebrow when he said that he was eight hundred years old. That was definitely some age gap between the two of them.
"Lexi Richards" she said introducing herself once more "definitely not eight hundred years old" she teased. In fact she wasn't even thirty which was a good thing because she wasn't ready to hit that age just yet. She never wanted to think of herself getting old.
Adrian got back to the matter at hand and then she frowned a little when he said about the fact that he wasn't on speaking terms with the people that knew more about the Starks and she guessed that was Katherine but she didn't feel like going to the woman who had broken his heart or even who she looked like because that would be one awkward conversation. One awkward visit that she hoped never to have to make. Then he said about his family and she watched him and knew it must be tough living all these years and watching his family die, Lexi wasn't sure she could do it herself. Wasn't sure she could watch those that she loved age and die while she stayed the same age, the same youthful look on her face.
He then reached out and she handed the pen and paper over to him and he started drawing but it was only when he turned the pad back to her that she realised she had seen the image of the direwolf before. Twice. Her heart pounded hard in her chest and she reached into her bag and pulled out a journal and a necklace. She opened the journal to the page of where the direwolf was and turned it for him to see and then she put the necklace out for him to see.
"But if that's the direwolf," she pointed to the grey direwolf on the necklace before she moved her finger over to the other "then what is this... could it be two family sigils together? Like when a woman or man marries into another family" she mutters and looked up at him. Amelia had made sure that there was a piece of cloth in her journals of the grey direwolf and clearly would use it for bookmarks but the necklace looked like it celebrated the coming together of two noble families and if one was the Starks then what was the other. But if the necklace was from Amelia then could the other be the Isildur family that she had married in to after her first husband had died.
His last name was Durin too... but her second husband had the first name of Durin... all of it was confusing to her.
|
|
|
Post by Ray on Mar 22, 2018 7:00:39 GMT -7
Adrian watches her a littler curiously, seeing the surprise upon her face and hearing the sudden pound of her heart. He stands a little straighter as she digs into her bag, and watches her pull free two objects. With a bit of rifling through her book -- an old one, the leather still whole but aging more and more by the day, a familiar sight -- she turns to a page where a scrap of a Stark banner falls free. His brows furrow, looking between it and the necklace she eagerly shows him, questions quick upon her tongue.
"That's..." he begins, taking the necklace from her, swiping his thumb across the metal. It still shines. Even after this long. But it's not the Stark sigil that keeps him pause, but the one behind it. A white tree. He exhales a slow breath, trying not to suddenly feel annoyed. Eight hundred years and he still can't escape that self-righteous bastard. "The sigil for Eoin Isildur." He tells her, glancing back to Lexi, a bit confused himself. "He and the Starks were friends, but... Usually this is not done unless two great houses come together in marriage. Which means..." He trails off, his eyes dropping to the book.
Setting the necklace back down, he reaches out with a hand, taking the book, skimming over the words. With careful fingers, minding the fragile pages, he flips through them, catching every few words. It's a journal. A woman's journal. Speaking of Rohan and Durinhall and...
"Mahal, of fucking course Eoin would name his son Durin." He mutters, a bit of old bitter feelings coming back to the surface. "Always had to butt his fat head into my family." He flips to another page, shaking his head a little. "So you're an Isildur too." He comments, flicking his brown eyes towards Lexi. "Poor girl. Where did you get this?" He asks, suddenly, trying to wrap his mind around all of this. Just the last two days alone have shoved him into a whirlwind of memories he was not prepared to entertain.
|
|
|
Post by Snowglobe18 on Mar 22, 2018 7:14:39 GMT -7
Lexi watched him, watched as he took the necklace and could see the bitter look on his face and she was more than sure it wasn’t for the fact that it was about the Starks but then after a moment she got the answer to the silent question that was going on in her head. He spoke about the coming together of two families and the journal was one of many but she had brought this one with her because it was more important than the rest.
The others read like sex journals but this one.. this one included Amelia’s darkest fears over losing Durin the same way she did her first husband. He said about the fact that she was an Isildur too and how he felt sorry for her.
Lexi couldn’t help but huff softly before looking down at the journal. The pages were fragile but the writing on them wasn’t. It was of a woman that was afraid she wouldn’t have her husband longer than five years, that she wouldn’t be able to give him a family but clearly that didn’t need worrying about because she was here and definitely from Amelia’s line. “Are you always so bitter about family lines?” She asked and raised an eyebrow at him.
She couldn’t help the smile that pulled at her lips but she slowly looked down at her pad and started writing a couple things about how the two sigils on the necklace were from two different families and what their names were and she chewed on her lip as she was writing. Something that she usually did when doing something like this.
|
|
|
Post by Ray on Mar 22, 2018 8:01:30 GMT -7
Adrian laughs a little, realizing that he is being far more bitter than necessary. It's not as if Eoin is standing here right now, with his smug face and beak-nose. The man has been dead for centuries, buried in the Hall of Kings, his name no longer even a footnote in modern history. And though he and Eoin never got along, never saw eye-to-eye, Adrian should know better than to disrespect the dead. Especially when Eoin had not been the worst evil out there.
"It's a long story." He tells Lexi, turning the journal back towards her, trying to shake the surprise off of his shoulders. "One you're not here to listen to." And one Adrian doesn't need to dredge back up centuries after the fact, when it had been nothing more than petty arguments to begin with. "But..." He says after a moment, inclining his head a tick to the side for a moment, realizing very slowly that this complicates things even more. If she is a Stark and an Isildur... that's two kingdoms of war and death and pain and long history that her lineage has trudged through. One he knows far better than the other. One he's not quite sure he's ready to talk about, even after all this time.
"Perhaps we should focus on the Starks first," he says, exhaling a mirthless and quiet laugh, looking back up to her. "Starting with Amelia then, I guess." He nods, glancing towards the journal, knowing that could belong to no one else. There was only one Stark daughter, only one heir to Winterfell and the North, a girl he knows Katherine has mourned every single day since leaving that place. "Katherine's daughter."
|
|
|
Post by Snowglobe18 on Mar 22, 2018 8:13:41 GMT -7
It was very strange to think that this man was the same one who had been there centuries before and how he was now going to be telling her off her family. She wasn’t expecting happy ever afters and rainbows because she’s knew that even back then things have had to have been bad and with two countries that no longer existed named in Amelia’s journals it was long to figure out just how it might’ve happened. Wars were inevitable and it didn’t matter who the ruler of the country was. If war happened then it happened.
Lexi huffed out a soft laugh but didn’t move her eyes up to look at him as she continued to write some things down. Eoin Isildur, Starks. It was something that she had never thought of before, how far her family line could go back but it wasn’t until she had found the journals in her mother’s attic that she realised things were definitely a lot more different now than it was back then. She looked up finally when he spoke about starting with the Starks and Amelia first.
Then he said about her being Katherine’s daughter and for some reason she felt a pang of sadness for the woman because clearly her daughter had been human and she had to watch her die. But she never let it show as she then cleared her throat “Amelia is fine” she nodded and then set her pen to paper when he started talking about the stark daughter. Clearly this girl had a colourful history from being the only daughter of Katherine and Robb stark to being the queen of the north.
“And then she married into the Isildur line?” Lexi asked after a moment and looked at the necklace “Two noble families coming together”
|
|
|
Post by Ray on Mar 22, 2018 13:23:38 GMT -7
Adrian grabs himself a beer from the nearly barren fridge as he talks, telling as much as he knows about Amelia, which to tell the truth isn't a great deal. He remembers the girl only when she was young, having seen her the few times he ventured north to Winterfell. Most of his time was spent either with the newly crowned King of the South, making fun of his fancy robes and his then-short hair, or out in the wilds trying to find some trouble to get in to. By the time Amelia was old enough to start learning from the septas, well...
He twists off the top with his palm, leaning back against the counter and shrugging his shoulder slightly. "I guess so." He murmurs, taking a sip. Adrian had been little more than a ghost by then. Suffering in his own starving agony. Pissed off at everyone and everything. What happened beyond himself blurred during that time. He nearly chokes on the laugh that threatens when she groups in the Isildurs with noble families, swallowing hard and pressing the back of his hand to his mouth to keep from spitting beer across his kitchen. He just cleaned, for Christ's sake.
"Noble?" He repeats, looking towards her with a spark of amusement in his eye. "The Isildurs were a great many things but they were about as noble as my l--" he cuts himself off short, suddenly remembering the company he's in, and lets his teeth click closed. There's that second smack across the back of his head that Fili would have delivered. "Nevermind." He huffs out a slight laugh and quiets himself by sipping some more beer. "You want one?" He offers, lifting his brows and glancing back towards her, giving the bottle a little wiggle in the air.
|
|
|
Post by Snowglobe18 on Mar 22, 2018 13:37:32 GMT -7
Lexi watches as he takes a drink from the beer that he had gotten from his fridge and she raised an eyebrow for a moment but she guessed that it didn't matter to a vampire what time it was because they would actually do whatever they wanted no matter the time. She then goes back to her pad and chews on her lip when he speaks about the Isildur's not actually being noble or at least that is what she got out of the whole sentence.
There was the amused look in his eye and honestly she wondered what he was like back when he was human. What did he do? What was he like? But she never brought herself to actually ask and even raised her eyebrow once more when he started to speak but cut himself off as if remembering who she was but she guessed it was mostly to do with the next word beginning with the L.
Adrian then asked if she wanted a beer and she moved her eyes to the bottle that he was wiggling in the air and was really tempted. "To be honest I had two bottles of whiskey from the minibar before I even came here so maybe having a beer isn't the right thing to be doing right now plus I have my coffee" she pointed to the coffee cup with her pen and leaned her elbows on the counter and she knew it was considered rude but right now she was in the company of a vampire and he has probably seen everything the world over so did it really matter what he saw from her. "Plus not everyone can drink before ten am" she teased softly and let a smile pull at her lips as she watched him for a moment. Her honey coloured eyes looking into his brown ones.
Then she realised that she was staring a little too much so she dropped her eyes down to the pad.
|
|
|
Post by Ray on Mar 22, 2018 13:50:11 GMT -7
He laughs a little, both surprised and impressed that she'd started drinking far earlier than him. Especially considering he had planned on being halfway through a bottle of the first thing he could find in his cabinets before she showed up on his doorstep, just to have the courage to talk about any of this. But it's been...easier. Than he expected. Far easier. "Needed a stiff drink before you saw my face again?" He asks with a joking lilt, smiling as he sets the lip of the bottle back to his mouth and swallows down a bit more. He can't blame her. A lot has happened in twenty-four hours alone, but she seems to be taking it all in good stride.
Their eyes catch for a long moment before she looks away, and he does to, swirling the beer in its bottle.
"So. What next?" He asks, rolling his tongue across his lower lip afterwards. "Don't know much about Robb Stark other than what was rumored about the Young Wolf. Katherine is...complicated. And that journal probably tells you more about Amelia's adulthood than I ever knew." He admits, pointing with the bottle towards the book still near her. "The one person who I know has spent his life cataloging it all and preserving what he can might not be so willing to chat on the phone with me either. But he might talk to you. If you want." He offers, though it gives him no pleasure to.
|
|