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Post by Roderich Edelstein on Mar 22, 2010 1:12:16 GMT -5
Roderich paused on the top stair and checked behind him, waiting to see if the Prussian was going to follow. With a sigh of relief, he continued down the stairs alone, one hand against the rough stone to support himself. Everything else in the house had been a childhood memory, every other room had something attached to it... but the room they had been in, the room with... that man... Roderich saw no reason why he would know about it. Carefully pushing down his hope, he gagged as he entered the room, keeping his eyes averted from the fresh corpse in the corner.
These were the books that belonged in the other room, he decided, perusing their leather-bound spines crammed tightly in every shelf. These, along with others, seemed to be historical texts and volumes on magic, for the most part. As he crossed the room to examine the shelves on the other side, his attention was arrested by the map on the wall above the dead man. Though it was now blood-splattered, it was obvious it had been well-taken care of. Reaching into his own inner pocket, Roderich drew his map and compared it, eyes flicking between the two. There were additional marks on the map hanging on the wall, obviously added later with a wide black brush. Roderich's eyes narrowed, and he pulled a stick of charcoal from his inner pocket to copy the marks on his own map.
Pocketing the map, he returned his attention to the shelves, searching for a particular volume he remembered once being in the other room. As a child, he'd been fascinated by the tree-like structures within this particular book, and now that he'd lost everything, the book was only that much more important.
A book of family trees and histories.
Hunting with increased fervor, Roderich scanned every shelf, refusing to give up until he found what he was looking for. Fingers ran along gold-leafed titles as the faint echo of thunder could still be heard outside until the very last shelf, where he finally found what he was seeking. Standing on tiptoe, he reached up to snatch the book with both hands, yanking it off the top-most shelf where it had been shoved on its side, almost as if it had been an afterthought. Book in hand, Roderich crossed the room and pulled out the chair from the desk, shoving other books to the side as he sat and carefully opened the precious volume. He could barely smell the blood within the room as he poured over page after page, quickly skimming them over until he came to the last few pages. He checked the small cameos more closely, reading each name, hoping for a spark of memory to attach to a face.
On the last filled page, the line ended abruptly with no picture at all above the scrawled name, Roderich Edelstein. Almost not daring to look, Roderich glanced at the two lines directly above it.
Immediately, Roderich slammed the book closed and clenched his fist atop it. "No... no..." he whispered angrily, squeezing his eyes tightly shut to avoid looking at the corpse lying sprawled beside him.
Above the name of his father was the cameo of the man he had killed. His face was rounder, his eyes less manic, but without a doubt, that was the man. But perhaps the most crushing blow dealt yet was the absence of any cameo or name from the other side... his mother's side. In a fit of rage, Roderich had the urge to tear the pages out and shred them into tiny pieces.
With a kind of vain hope, he opened it again, flipping through listlessly. There were no other Roderich's in the book, but... he froze, finger over the cameo of a kindly smiling man. He'd seen this face before...
Adjusting his glasses, he stared down more earnestly. It wasn't until he glanced down at the name that it connected. He'd seen this man before; a little older, but still recognizable from the portrait in Gilbert's home. Frederick...
With a snap, Roderich closed the book and tucked it under his arm. Lips twitching, he stood and stared at the other man before forcing his eyes away. Taking his already-ruined coat, he used it to smother each of the torches in turn, slowly plunging the room into utter darkness. In the doorway, Roderich inclined his head once before turning to walk back up the stairs, trying to swallow the tangled mess of feelings in his heart.
A smile crossed his face as Gilbert all but ran down the stairs, obviously pleased with himself. "Come, Gilbert," he invited, his smile a bit strained. "It is still raining outside, and this castle is giving me chills." As if to accentuate his words, a crack of lightning was clearly visible through the window, followed almost immediately by the answering smash of thunder. "I'll change while you get a fire started in the study, yes?" Roderich set the book down on a side table and slowly took the clothes from the other man's hands. "I have some things to talk to you about."
Without waiting for an answer, Roderich offered him another smile, still slightly distracted. Venturing into the main hall, he tucked himself into an alcove and shrugged off his jacket, wincing at the scrape of fabric against wound. With some sadness, he folded his violet jacket carefully and set it on the floor. Gilbert had managed quite a find, he admitted as he shook out the long-folded clothes. Bringing them to his nose for a quick whiff, he raised an eyebrow. They had manged to escape the general mustiness of the rest of the house, leaving only the faintest scent of mothballs. Shaking his head, he quickly removed the rest of his clothing and tried on the white clothes.
The sleeves were a bit long, but that could be easily fixed with some quick tailoring. Roderich looked himself over and nodded slowly with a smile. There was even a white cravat to match the jacket. He carefully wrapped his old clothes together in a bundle and gently pushed them into his knapsack. That was going to be about it for the knapsack, but as he threw it over his shoulder again, he consoled himself by promising to wash and repair the other clothes as soon as possible.
Re-entering the study, he smiled at Gilbert and picked up the book. "How do I look?"
------- orz One-thousand-word reply is one thousand words long. /ded
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Post by Gilbert Weillschmidt on Mar 22, 2010 7:29:38 GMT -5
When Roderich came up the stairs, Gilbert couldn't help but wonder why it seemed there was something off about the look on Roderich's eyes. The names of different emotions shifted through the Prussian's mind, but he couldn't find the right one to properly fit what he saw. The brunette was smiling, and that much was able to ease the albino's worries, but the book tucked under the other's arm quickly replaced relief with mild concern and curiosity. If Roderich had found something useful, then that was all the better... but what if it was something bad?
Scolding himself for thinking too hard on something he knew almost nothing about, Gilbert followed after his contractor silently, glancing around the study once more. His eyes shifted to the book once it had been set down, and, for a moment, he considered quickly leafing through it while Roderich changed, but the promised, "I have some things to talk to you about." kept him from doing so. Regardless of what he wanted to know or thought, it was Roderich's history, not his, and he respected the brunette (though he wouldn't admit it verbally) too much for that.
While he waited for the brunette to return, he made his way over to the fireplace, carefully using the metallic tools off to the side to push the ash as far to the left as he could. There was a fair pile of the black dust accumulated together now, but if left room for the Prussian to toss in the makeshift firewood he'd created from breaking apart the tattered remains of a table missing a leg. It only took him a few moments to get a fire going, and he regarded it with a proud look. Tonight would be much warmer than the nights they spent outside, which was good. While the cold did little to effect himself, keeping Roderich warm was more than appealing and he happily set about setting up the brunette's bed (as it didn't seem like the rain would be stopping until very late that night).
Hearing the brunette re-enter the study, he turned, opening his mouth to remark on his 'awesome use of wood and fire' and show off the make-shift bed he'd make from his own bedroll (which he didn't need, anyway) and a few pillows and blankets he'd found behind the room, but the words quickly died in his throat. The mental image he'd made for himself of Roderich in the clothes did nothing to justify the real thing, and Gilbert found himself struggling to make his voice work again. His mouth opened and shut several times, giving him the very convincing appearance of a fish. His chest swelled and sent of wave of bizarre emotion down to his stomach.
"You, uh..." he trailed off, feeling his cheeks began to heat up. The urge to turn away and cover the sudden obvious gesture was high, it drove him mad that only Roderich seemed to be able to pull such an emotional response from him over such small things, but he quickly shook his head and found himself smiling gently. He crossed the room quickly, carefully bringing up a hand to adjust the angle at which Roderich's cravat was hanging, and smoothed down the dark collar. Neither gesture needed to be done, but it gave Gilbert a sudden giddy feeling that made his smile broaden.
"It looks... really awesome." Somewhere in the back of his mind, a few teases had formed about how feminine the clothes seemed and Roderich's girlish figure, but they suddenly seemed less important. "They suit you." It really... brings out his eyes. Gilbert noted silently. They look even more beautiful than... He stopped the thoughts before they could finish and scolded himself. He couldn't be thinking like that, not about Roderich. It was wrong, and if the brunette found out, he'd be repulsed. I can't... lose him. I can't...
Pulling back slowly, he turned and made his way back over to the bed he'd set up, sitting down on the far corner to stare into the fire. He'd acted before thinking, yet again, and now he was regretting it. The more affectionate his gestures got, the more confused and corrupted the albino felt. He wasn't used to feeling the extent of human emotions, as when he was still a human himself, he'd never felt much beyond the more negative side of the spectrum. Now that he was beginning to feel what he assumed was the other half, it scared him. "You wanted to talk to me about something?" he asked, trying to distract himself from the thoughts racing through his mind too fast for comfort. "Sit down and tell the Awesome Me what sort of weird shit you found while nosing around. Did you find a history book with me in it? I'd get a good laugh out of that." -------- >>; Don't feel bad. XD Awesomely long reply is awesome. The one I gave you with Gilbert's history broke 1,500.
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Post by Roderich Edelstein on Mar 22, 2010 12:03:16 GMT -5
Roderich smiled at the other man's gesture and cast an appreciative glance toward the fire and bed that Gilbert had set up in his absence. Declining to comment and boost the other's already nigh-insufferable ego, he simply crossed over to sit beside him. "As interesting as that would be, no, I did not." With the fire blazing in the fireplace, he could comfortably remove his new jacket and set it near the pillows, smoothing the vest underneath.
"The man downstairs was my... my..." Roderich swallowed hard and forced himself to continue, "My father." Fighting to keep his hands from shaking, he opened the book to the last marked page and showed the other man. "I will need to go through more of his things at a later date, but I think you should see something first." His voice firmed as the topic shifted away from himself.
Flipping through the worn pages, Roderich found the one he'd seen earlier and showed it to Gilbert. "This... this wouldn't happen to be Frederick, would it?" [/blockquote]
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Post by Gilbert Weillschmidt on Mar 22, 2010 12:16:15 GMT -5
Gilbert grinned, amused enough with Roderich's answer. He shifted closer, gently pressing his shoulder to the other's as he noticed a slight tremble in his contractor's hands. It didn't take a genius to know the brunette was still uneasy about all that happened, and the Prussian was doing his best to make it better. He wasn't good with human emotions; just barely enough to tell one from the other.
"Frederick...?" he repeated, giving Roderich a small frown. "Why would the old man be in..." Gilbert trailed off, staring down at the book in shock. Something thick caught in his throat and twisted violently in his chest. Kind eyes he'd grown to adore as a father stared back up at him, faded and unmoving, but recognizable none-the-less. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, half-expecting the image to suddenly change and turn into something different; like a cruel of the light.
"But... how?" His face twisted in confusion, looking up at Roderich as if the brunette might suddenly know the answer. "How can he... but... the old man was a vampire. He turned me! Two-hundred years ago... Even if... he never mentioned a family..." He gazed at the small image, eyebrows furrowed as he searched his memory for an answer as if he might suddenly remember something. "...He's a vampire in that picture, too... isn't... he?"
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Post by Roderich Edelstein on Mar 22, 2010 12:54:20 GMT -5
Roderich followed the other's stare and lightly tapped the date beneath the picture. "It says that he died... over three hundred years ago." Breath hissing between his teeth, he glanced up at Gilbert. "He must have been... But look." Moving his finger, he revealed a small charcoal dot beside the picture. He traced his finger to point to another picture, several years previous. "There are markings beside several of these pictures... you don't think..." Eyes wide, he stared at Gilbert with shock. "You don't think they're all vampires, do you?"
That was impossible! Now that the other man had been confirmed as Fredrick, Roderich trailed the lines of brothers, fathers, mothers and sisters. Sure enough, however distantly, Fredrick had been a member of his family. "He was marking them," Roderich said with some faint wonder. "They... My father must have been... he wanted to be a vampire." He hurriedly pulled the map from his pocket and smoothed it out over the book. "These places had been marked on his map. Do any of them... look familiar to you? Can vampires even have children? How is this possible?"
Vaguely, Roderich could tell he was getting slightly hysterical, but he couldn't calm himself. He didn't even know if he wanted to calm down. "How can there be vampires in my family? How could that necromancer be my father? How can this be my home?" His fists clenched with emotion. "This isn't what I wanted..."
But really, what had he expected? A fairytale ending of the prodigal prince coming home to be welcomed with open arms? Things like that didn't happen in real life. "Should I even keep looking?" he whispered hollowly, resting his elbows on his knees and burying his face in his hands. [/blockquote]
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Post by Gilbert Weillschmidt on Mar 22, 2010 14:16:01 GMT -5
Carefully pulling the book into his lap, Gilbert trailed a pale finger along the lines, stopping at each marked picture in turn. Just by looking at them, abnormally sharp features, beautiful looks, and slender faces, it was easy to tell between vampire and human, especially in the pictures. His eyes lingered on Frederick's name, slowly following the line to which it connected to another picture of an equally inhuman person.
An arrow pointed toward his "father", and after careful observation, he noticed that several other of the paired dots had one-way arrows as well. He gulped thickly and set the book down on the carpet in front of them, trying to ignore the sudden violent urge he had to throw it into the fire. "I think... the arrows are meant to show who turned who into a vampire." Gilbert muttered, pointing to the member of Roderich's blood-family whom was connected with Frederick. "That means that..." A long time ago... someone in his family turned the old man into a vampire and... indirectly saved my life.
Swearing quietly, Gilbert pushed his hat off his head and ran a hand through his hair. He had never even thought of the idea of how closely his history coincided with Roderich's. Part of him was thrilled at the idea, while another, smaller part, didn't know what to think. He'd never enjoyed being a vampire, not since he'd lost Frederick, and a sudden rush of anger was aimed at the various dot-marked images, but it faded almost as quickly as it had come. It wasn't the fault of the Edelstein family, and, even if he'd never look at it that way, it would be blaming Roderich in the long run.
With a quiet sigh, he picked up the map Roderich had been looking at early and carefully looked over the markings. Small numbers appeared under each dot, the first number "1" marked with a small "x" and the word "changed". He frowned, narrowing his eyes as he leaned closer and tried to figure out why the location struck him... and then it clicked. His gaze quickly shifted to the number "2", then "3", "4" and so forth. Each mark made the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach grow stronger, and it wasn't until several minutes later that he found his voice. "Roderich... this..." he pointed to the first marking.
"This isn't... it's a tracking map. That... that's where Frederick found me and..." he trailed off, leaving the rest of his sentence implied. "And the rest of them... they're where we traveled. In order. He even has some of the cities double-marked where we went back and..." he gulped, pointing to the name of the town he'd met Roderich in. A red "x" marked just short of where his house was with the words "nest". His father was.... tracking me?
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Post by Roderich Edelstein on Mar 22, 2010 15:54:55 GMT -5
"That... that's impossible." Roderich looked over the other man's shoulder at the map and frowned, glancing back up at the other man. "Why would he follow you?" Swallowing his own self-pity, he studied the map with a deepening frown. "None of this makes any sense..."
Closing his eyes, Roderich leaned back against the pillows and sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose beneath his glasses. "We have to comb through this house to find any record he might have left. A diary, a log... something." He heaved another sigh and sank back into the blanket before sitting back up. As much as he'd rather just lay back and go to sleep, there were still things to be done. "Come on, there have to be some small animals in this castle. Let's find you something to eat."
With a small smile, he offered, "And why don't you show me what you've found around here, okay? Maybe we can find something that will make sense of all this nonsense." [/blockquote]
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Post by Gilbert Weillschmidt on Mar 22, 2010 16:13:11 GMT -5
"I can find food on my own, you know..." Gilbert muttered, pushing himself to his feet before turning around and offering Roderich a helping hand. The brunette looked exhausted, and the sun, at least going by the windows, was just starting to disappear behind the horizon. He would have much preferred going on a food hunt alone, but he knew better than to argue. He'd lose in the end if Roderich decided to turn it into an order, and it was easier to just avoid the fight. "Just take it easy, alright? We can always search in the morning before we leave. I can take the strain, Roddy... but you... Don't forget, you're human."
Slipping a stubborn arm around Roderich's shoulders for support, he lead the brunette out to the staircase that he'd taken to the upper levels earlier. He urged Roderich to go first, but wasted no time in following him as they made their way up. "I did run into a library and study on the second floor..." he explained quietly, tugging the brunette slowly in the direction of said room. "They were together in one--books on the left and the desk and crap on the right. It looked important. The door was locked, but I kinda broke the knob. Ha, guess I don't know my own awesome strength~"
As they walked, he carefully watched the floors and air for any signs of animals. While he vowed not to take from a human, fresh blood from animals was never something he'd turn down. It was warmer, and it tasted better, but he avoided it in hopes of restraining himself and creating a temptation for it. "It's this door here," he stopped, pointing to a large mahogany door with a broken knob. "Just push it and it'll open. Maybe there's something useful?"
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Post by Roderich Edelstein on Mar 22, 2010 22:15:55 GMT -5
"You would destroy a door instead of opening it..." Roderich smiled to let him now he wasn't annoyed and followed the Prussian's suggestion, entering the room. Almost immediately his nose was assaulted the smell of musty books and crumbling pages. These were nowhere near as well-kept as the books downstairs, but the shelves were just as crammed. From the thick layer of dust covering everything, it was obvious that no one had used this room in a long time. "I don't think the door was locked," he added, quirking an eyebrow at Gilbert. "It was probably warped shut."
Crossing to the desk, he forced open a desk drawer with some difficulty as he shuffled through the papers spread across the top. None of this had been touched in years... there were letters dated from more than thirty years ago splayed across the desk. The drawer he opened was full of quills, bottles of ink, and spare sheets of parchment. Shuffling through them, his fingers hit upon something in the corner of the drawer, like a knothole. Tilting his head in curiosity, he pulled out the papers and other writing implements, feeling again. There was definitely something there.
With a jerk, he yanked the drawer free and ran his fingers across the smooth wood. "There's something in here..." The weight was far more than that of just an empty desk drawer. Carefully prodding the knothole with his finger, Roderich jolted backward as a spring mechanism triggered a false bottom from the drawer, revealing a title-less book bound in red leather.
With a glance at Gilbert, he carefully opened it to the first page, revealing several handwritten paragraphs dated from fifty years ago. "Today is my fiftieth birthday," he read aloud. "And yet I look no older than thirty. Immortality is only the first step..."
"I sometimes wonder if I'll be lonely, being the only one alive and watching everyone else pass away. What will they make of me? Will the ordinary humans grow suspicious?
I doubt it. There will always be a charm to ease even the most worried face.
The two vampires I had been tracking for the past year have been reduced to one. The fools were tasked to bring the creatures in, not kill one and get themselves killed by the rest. From the survivor, I learned his name is... Gilbert." [/color] Roderich's eyes flew up to stare at Gilbert, left speechless.[/sub][/blockquote]
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Post by Gilbert Weillschmidt on Mar 22, 2010 22:50:22 GMT -5
"It's a diary...?" Gilbert asked quizzically from the other end of the room. He recognized the thickness and binding of the book with ease. He'd had one of a similar make a few years ago, but it had long-since been filled and now resided in the library of his inherited home filled with various other journals. "No offense, your old man didn't peg me as the type who wrote in one. He seemed more of a..." The words trailed off as he stepped up behind Roderich, peering down at the book.
Something in his stomach plummeted as he heard the end of the opened entry. Pale fists clenched tightly as he resisted the urge to punch the nearest surface, glaring at the book as if it were the one that had wronged him. "...It's that... fucker's fault that the old man died?" he growled, plucking it from Roderich's hands. "As if fucking stalking me wasn't enough!? He killed my-!" The rest of the sentence caught in his throat as the albino stared down at the pages of the book. Different emotions seemed to be shooting through him, one after the other as he tried to resist the urge to rip the book to shreds. His temper was getting the better of him again and he knew it. He needed to calm down.
"...Roderich, you're awesome and all... but you're old man was a fucking twisted bit of work." He turned the page, reading the next entry silently, as he didn't trust his voice to work without shouting at the moment. His fingers clenched tightly around the book, making his already pale knuckles turn white in the strained effort to keep control.
"It seems that my trackers have lost the survivor. Whoever this 'Gilbert' is, he is good at making himself disappear, but he is young. That will make him careless and compulsive. He isn't used to being what he is yet, and the trackers say he looked barely more than twenty. He couldn't have been a vampire for very long. He would still be considered a fledgling; that is my advantage.
I knew his 'father' figure, and through sympathy, I can gain his trust. From what I have gathered, he has very little trust in anyone, and with Frederick now gone, he is mentally vulnerable to most anything. All I need to do now is find him. Once I have done that, capturing him will be easy. A little blood should be enough to get him eating out of my palm, though from what my various trackers have said, he doesn't seem to drink from humans. I could use that to gain the upper hand as well.
Once I have manged to befriend him, I'll make it impossible for him to say no. If I can manage to trick him into a contract, he will be mine. I've always wanted a pet, and what better than one that could give me the final key to immortality? To make me live forever? I want this one for my own... no matter what it takes."
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Post by Roderich Edelstein on Mar 23, 2010 9:42:37 GMT -5
Roderich read silently over Gilbert's shoulder, letting him finish the entry before gently taking it from him and flipping through the rest, skimming the remainder of the diary. "It seems," he said finally, voice slightly hoarse with emotion, "That he wanted to expand his rule over the entire country. It's all here. Planned alliances, calculated murd--" he couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence in light of the revelation about Frederick. Instead, he set the diary down on the desk and gently laid one hand over Gilbert's. "I can't do this anymore. Please... let's go downstairs and rest."
Though he wouldn't admit it, the scratches on his back were starting to burn. He wouldn't put it past his... the necromancer to ensure that his undead servants were diseased, or at the very least, they likely weren't the cleanest creatures. He didn't want to worry his companion overmuch, so all he said was, "Let's go... if you have any more of that ointment, I wouldn't protest you using it." The last thing he needed was a fever to strike him from a dead man's revenge.
"Tomorrow," he added, setting the diary down and exiting the study, pausing with one hand on the banister, "I'm going back into that downstairs room. There should be more of his diaries there. I'll leave this upstairs room to you." With that, he continued down the stairs to the study with the fireplace, shrugging off his new coat and glancing over his shoulder. "Can you put more of that ointment on for me? I'm afraid I can't reach it myself." He started unbuttoning his vest to lay it on the bed. [/blockquote]
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Post by Gilbert Weillschmidt on Mar 23, 2010 11:10:41 GMT -5
Gilbert snarled quietly, his fingers twitching violently as he glared at the floor. Anger pulsed through his body, making his head spin as he tried to focus. Roderich's voice echoed somewhere in the back of his mind, and it was all that kept the silverette from going on a rampage. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself and followed wordlessly downstairs, pushing the words of the diary to the back of his mind.
"It's still hurting?" the Prussian asked when he re-entered the study, a worried look crossing his crimson hues. He wouldn't have put it past Roderich's father to poison the claws of his minions, but, thankfully, he'd seen no signs for that yet. The albino knelt beside the bed without any argument, carefully helping the brunette remove his clothes as they went. His face twisted in pain as he stared at the blood, but he ignored the thoughts of food and began to dig in his bag again. The ointment was meant to numb and remove pain, but not clean. Happily, he had a fair amount of medical supplies that he'd taken to carrying on his person since the incident in the cave.
"Lay down," he ordered quietly, easing Roderich down to his stomach. "It'll sting, but it needs cleaned, so try not to pansy-out on me too much, okay, Roddy? The Awesome will fix you right up~" It wasn't that he wanted to tease the Austrian, but it was better to make someone laugh in a situation that involved pain, rather than point it out.
Reaching into his bag, he produced a small bottle of clear liquid, a special alcohol for cleaning wounds, and tugged the white cravat from his neck off. He soaked the fabric, carefully wiping the excess blood from Roderich's back before moving to clean the wounds, re-soaking the cravat as necessary and made sure that each cut was cleaned before moving to the next. When he finished, he applied the numbing ointment for a second time, nodding in satisfaction as the bleeding stopped. That should be enough to avoid infection, but...
Wordlessly, he grabbed the other's shoulders and pulled him back up into a sitting position. White bandages were pulled from his back, and he moved closer, carefully unraveling the white gauze and began wrapping it around Roderich's middle. Each time he'd lean forward to pull it around his chest, Gilbert would lean lightly against the other's back, his chin resting briefly on Roderich's shoulder before he would pull back again. "That should do it..." He tucked the end of the bandage in, his pale fingers lingering on the Austrian's back. "...Any better?"
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Post by Roderich Edelstein on Mar 23, 2010 21:07:32 GMT -5
Roderich snorted through his nose at the other's nonchalant manner, but laid down on his stomach as bidden. He closed his eyes, feeling his muscles relax as Gilbert ran his fingers along his bare back, wincing as he gently but firmly cleaned his wounds. He was almost disappointed when Gilbert finished bandaging his back, feeling his fingers still lightly lingering. "Thank you," he whispered, turning and laying a hand across his abdomen to feel the bandages. "I look somewhat ridiculous," the faint tone of a bemused laugh could be heard hovering in his voice. "Bards aren't supposed to have to deal with bodily injury."
With a sigh, he turned fully around and faced the fireplace. "Gilbert..." he said softly, the flickering flame reflected in his glasses. "I'm... I'm really sorry for everything my family has done. I... understand that if, in light of what we've discovered, you want to leave tomorrow, I'll go with you." He snorted softly under his breath. "Who would have thought that, by looking for my own history, it's become so tightly tangled in yours?" The smallest of smiles, almost invisible, quirked his lips as he rested his head easily on the other man's shoulder. "If it had to be anyone, I suppose it's the best possible option." [/blockquote]
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Post by Gilbert Weillschmidt on Mar 23, 2010 21:29:16 GMT -5
"You look fine," Gilbert muttered with a roll of his eyes. "Once you throw your shirt and jacket on, no one will know you're wrapped up under it. You're like a woman the way you worry about your looks. It's ridiculous." In truth, the Prussian would have much preferred to see Roderich without the bandages, but healing magic wasn't something he was good at. When it came to injury, he normally just dealt with the pain or found something to eat. He healed quickly, but Roderich... Roderich was human. Fragile, and easily breakable. That's what scared him most of all.
If the wound had been poisoned, the albino would have been little more than useless, with only one means of saving the brunette that he would have never resorted to. Humans, while he did his best to help them, had never held face nor importance in Gilbert's life. He was close to no one, and therefore had no reason to risk anything when it came to them. Yet Roderich had some bursting into his life unexpected, and suddenly, death was a terrifying idea. He didn't want to lose the Austrian aristocrat he'd gotten so attached to in such a short amount of time. The mere idea of it made his mind stop working and his chest clench painfully.
"Don't apologize," he replied quietly as Roderich's voice pulled him from his thoughts. The anger that had been aimed at the Edelstein family was dying as quickly as the sun outside was fading. He couldn't have stayed mad at the other man, anyway. Whatever the feeling was, it made him care too much to hold a grudge over it. No matter how precious Frederick was to him; losing Roderich was sure to shatter him even more. "You're... not your father." His tone was quiet and soft, but held no malice. Only gentle understanding. "Nothing that happened to me was your fault... and I could never blame you for it. Grow a backbone, Roddy. Don't apologize for shit that isn't your fault. It makes you sound like a pansy."
Picking up one of the folded blankets at the foot of the bed they sat on, he wrapped it around Roderich's slim frame with a small smile. His arm worked it's way around the brunette's shoulders, and he quirked his head to the side to rest it on top of Roderich's. "Just rest. You need your beauty sleep or whatever the hell you call it." He paused, staring at the flames blankly before he added quietly, "And... we don't have to leave tomorrow. I swore that I'd help you through this... and I meant that. I didn't make that contract with you for shits and giggles. No matter how long you want to stay... you're stuck with the awesome me by your side until death rips you away--and I'll be sure to give him a damn good fight, first."
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Post by Roderich Edelstein on Mar 23, 2010 22:37:03 GMT -5
Roderich let his eyes flutter shut, supported by the other man's firm shoulder. "Why must every line out of your mouth be an insult?I'm going to go to sleep now," he murmured, reluctantly lifting his head from Gilbert's shoulder. "It's likely going to be a busy day tomorrow." Leaning back, he rested with a wince on his side, removing his glasses and burying his head into the pillow. "Do you think..." he added sleepily, "We could use the castle ourselves? It is still usable, after all... I never get rid of anything that is still useful..."
Snuggling his head further into the pillow, he frowned and clutched his glasses lightly in one hand. None of this was making any sense. He could only hope that tomorrow he could find something which would make some sense of this whole ordeal. Hopefully his... father... had kept diaries of the kind up until after he was born. Maybe even during the space when he couldn't remember anything. Biting his lip, he questioned whether he even wanted to know any more... but he would never have traveled this far if he was the type to give up easily, and it would be better to know... than not to know...
Hopefully sleep would come soon. Roderich didn't want to think about any of this for a few hours at least. [/blockquote]
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