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Mistakes. - Tempest
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Post by Tempest on Jun 23, 2011 19:40:34 GMT -5
Nikolai woke up from a heavy sleep when he heard movement from his bedroom. Centuries of survival, even under the influence of alcohol, had made sure that this ability to wake up quickly and completely was honed to perfection. He groaned at the stiffness in his limbs and sat up. While a couch was better than where he'd spent his time sleeping when he had left mankind, it still caused fleeting soreness when he had to move again.
Thanks to his unique healing capacities, the pain was gone almost as soon as he stood up, rubbing his shoulder and yawning. He tried to remember the last time he'd ever had an overnight guest and found himself at a loss. What was it that people did for others who slept in their bed?
It had been such a long time since he was human, moving into that mode of thought was a sluggish process that only unearthed upsetting memories. He murmured, "She might be hungry. Humans eat breakfasts regularly." With that, he went into the kitchenette to see if there was anything he could scrounge up for his sure-to-be-hungover house guest.
He found frozen bacon, a carton of eggs, orange juice, and some very very stale bread. He pursed his lips and decided that the bread could be taken off the menu.
Several minutes later, he was attempting to cook. Unfortunately, dragons prefer their meat raw and he had no idea what to look for to make sure the food was cooked thoroughly. Smoke suddenly filled the area as the bacon caught fire.
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I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart - I am, I am, I am. |
Thunder Goddess
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Post by Seren on Jun 25, 2011 5:10:44 GMT -5
Martina had just been sitting there, when suddenly she smelled smoke and the young woman jumped up in surprise. Rushing into the kitchen, she laid eyes on the scene - goodness what had this man been doing? Having had quite a bit of experience with kitchen fires, Martina spotted the bacon as the source - and instead of grabbing some water - she threw a plate over the bacon.
The woman was fairely happy she knew how to react in these different situations, and as she checked to see if the fire had gone out - she then turned to Nikolai... the morning groginess still apparent with her person. "What the hell are you doing?" she asked him, her voice hoarse and her eyes just a bit red. "You don't have to cook..." A second passed though, when a sudden realization hit her.
"I'm in an apartment... with you... why is that?" she suddenly asked, looking around the apartment then bringing her attention back to Nikolai. Her head thumped too much to ask anymore, and slowly she went to go sit down in one of the chairs in the kitchen.
[ooc; I assumed it was a grease fire, and that there are chairs in the kitchen. ]
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Post by Tempest on Jun 25, 2011 7:20:50 GMT -5
Nikolai may have been startled by the fire, but he was even more startled by Martina's swift response to said fire. He gave the woman an apologetic smile, "That was supposed to be breakfast for you." He looked sadly at the pan and turned off the stove. He raised his eyebrows at her. "Is it not a conventional thing to do for a guest?"
Nikolai felt a sudden surge of compassion for Martina. He knew what not remembering was like. It was unsettling, sometimes dangerous, usually frustrating. He filled a glass with orange juice and placed it on the table near her. He didn't know if Martina even liked orange juice, but he wanted her to consume or imbibe something with some caloric value seeing as how she'd vomited up her last meal last night.
His silence stretched between them before he finally answered, "You do know you were very drunk last night, correct?" He poured some water into a glass for himself and sat down across the small, round kitchen table from Martina. Nikolai felt that some caution was necessary, but he didn't want her to think that he had taken advantage of her situation. "I do not know where you live to drop you off, so I gave you my bed to sleep off the alcohol and I slept on the couch."
He wondered how much of her behavior he should mention, but decided that, in the end, she probably didn't mean to kiss him last night. He wouldn't mention that and risk either enraging or mortifying the woman. Nikolai knew that she needed to know the other stuff, the stuff that might come back to haunt her, so he added, "When I found you at the bar, you had started a brawl and there were a number of unsavory characters out to put you in your place." He smoothed his shirt, realizing that he had not changed clothes since yesterday. The cloth smelled like smoke and alcohol.
Nikolai took a long drink of his water before returning his attention to Martina. She looked delightful, but he masked his interest in her behind a blank expression. Despite her behavior of last night, she had never shown him anything but a passing physical interest. He'd considered the potential relationship over when she'd rejected him in favor of Soren. On that note, "You told me that Soren had used you. Would you like me to go rip his head off, Headmistress? That offer still stands."
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I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart - I am, I am, I am. |
Thunder Goddess
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Post by Seren on Jun 28, 2011 19:43:42 GMT -5
Martina frowned for a moment as she realized she had been a little bit of harsh toward his hospitality. "Yes, it is... It just depends on the guest." She said to him - and as he placed the glass of orange juice near her, the woman took the cup surprisingly graciously and sipped on it as Nikolai contineud to talk. Sighing lightly as he told her that she had started a bar fight, she figured that she would at some point need to go and apologize to the bartender and offer some money for whatever had been broken.
As Nikolai mentioned Soren though, her eyes snapped up at him and her fingers gripped the cup she was holding. Rubbing her eyes, Martina shook her head "You don't have to call me Headmistress... and I don't care what you do... just don't do it anywhere near the school." She had given up on attempting to hold Nikolai back from this, figuring her energies were best channled somewhere else. She had ended whatever had been the thing between her and Soren and the older woman was just in general worn out form it all.
Sighing heavily once more, Martina finished up her glass of orange juice - looking up at Nikolai for a moment. "You seem to take care of me a lot," she said to him - the comment acting like just a passing thought. This wasn't the first time he had given her a bed to sleep in and to top it all off hadn't done anything that she didn't want. It made her think, and wonder more about Nikolai and as she watched him her fingers tapped idly against the cup she was holding. "Am I really that valuable to you?"
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Post by Tempest on Jun 28, 2011 19:58:39 GMT -5
Nikolai nodded slightly. He would have to remember that not all human guests required morning nourishment. Did that mean he would stop offering it to Martina? No, of course not. Then Nikolai realized that he had just assumed that she would stay with him in the future. A frown furrowed his brow and went into a thoughtful silence.
At her suggestion that he not call her headmistress, Nikolai shook his head. "No, I feel I must or risk perpetuating a mindset that you so vehemently disliked. When you gave Soren my gift to you, it represented his suit's victory over mine and effectively cut the ties of familiarity between us." He wondered why she had changed her mind about him killing Soren. Whatever his rival had done, it must have been truly terrible to make sure wash her hands of his safety. He rubbed the back of his head, causing the unruly hair to stand up. "I shall try to arrange matters so they do not spill over into your sphere of influence. I cannot promise anything, though, if I am forced into my... alternate form."
Nikolai didn't answer her last question, nor did he respond to the comment she'd made. He just leveled a steady look at her and stood to place his empty water glass in the sink. After a heavy silence, he asked, "Do you drink coffee? I know Emilio left some instant and some Cuban somewhere in the cupboards."
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I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart - I am, I am, I am. |
Thunder Goddess
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Post by Seren on Jun 28, 2011 20:10:48 GMT -5
As Nikolai spoke, Martina looked up at him with a surprised expression, "What are you talking about? He gave me a knife to look at for a second and then I gave it back to him... I never gave him any weapon as a present." She looked sorely confused at this, wondering if she had been right to feel as if someone was watching her when she had been on that date with Soren.
Martina didn't respond to his comment about his alternate form, instead her mind was still stuck on what he had said before. What could have possibly made him think she had given anything to Soren? Frowning heavily, Martina looked down at her glass and then looked back up at Nikolai once more. "I don't drink coffee that often," she said to him lightly.
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Post by Tempest on Jun 28, 2011 21:06:06 GMT -5
Nikolai turned, his expression becoming stormy. "So you are telling me that the dagger I left specifically for you, in your office, somehow came into Soren's possession without you having given it to him?" He was clearly getting angry, but even he was not sure who he was supposed to be angry with.
He stalked over to the table with all of the grace and leashed power of a jungle cat. His eyes were blazing and coffee was as far from his thoughts as Cuba from Japan. He placed both of his hands on the table in front of Martina, then realized that she was probably not directly to blame. With that thought, he turned away from her again. She had still gone on a date with his rival. Did that not reflect an active choice on her part? With a dark air, he said, "It hardly matters. I will retrieve the dagger when I take care of Soren. As far as you're concerned, Headmistress, I shall not violate your choice. You might fall into my keeping periodically, but that does not reflect any active decision on your part and I consider it part of my duties as an honorable man and your employee to make sure you are not a danger to yourself. When you kissed me last night, I considered it a product of the alcohol, not your wish." His previous desire to avoid mortifying her was forgotten in his anger.
He glanced at her before leaving the kitchenette in the direction of his bedroom. "Fire me if you must, if it makes you feel safer. Also, the shower is yours if you want it. You may have as much privacy as you desire. I can even leave the apartment if my presence makes you uncomfortable."
Perhaps he was being overly-dramatic, but he was in one of the darkest moods he had ever been in. This dance with Martina was making him feel old and he had a score to settle with Soren. Perhaps contributing to the mood was the knowledge that if he shifted into dragon form for the fight, he would lose some of his memory. Perhaps he felt apprehensive that the memories he stood to lose were in the form of the woman sitting in Emilio's kitchen.
He felt like roaring. So he did. The sound was entirely inhuman and full of pain, and anger.
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I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart - I am, I am, I am. |
Thunder Goddess
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Post by Seren on Jun 28, 2011 21:42:09 GMT -5
Martina jumped up as Nikolai yelled at her, indignation clear in her voice "What the hell are you talking about? I never got any dagger from you besides the one you tried to give to me directly. " She folded her arms infront of her chest, but as he continued on one of her eye's began to twitch in frustration. First he was obvious about pursuing her, and then out with this Soren fellow he suddenly gives up? Martina was baffled, but followed after him as he continued and as he spoke of her kissing him - she was only surprised for a second.
It was though, his last comment that got her the most. Frustratingly, she moved infront of him to block off his path. "I don't get you, first you want me so bad and then suddenly you don't want at all. You're not fair at all you know that?" It was with those words that Martina grabbed a hold of Nikolai's shirt, pulling him down a little bit to her level - while wrapping one arm around his shoulders she pressed her lips against his.
While everything about him frustrated her at the moment, it was of course from the first time they even started talking that she couldn't bring herself to completely deny him all together. Into the kiss were all the emotions she couldn't possibly say.
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Post by Tempest on Jun 29, 2011 21:27:50 GMT -5
Nikolai was going to take her up on her argument of being not fair. He was angry enough to do so. Moreover, he was angry enough to be blind to the fact that he'd cherished her once. He probably still cherished her, but his internal dragon was crying for blood and it didn't matter whose.
The kiss confused him immensely. What right did she have to draw him back in? Fire spilled from him and into her, in exchange for the weird set of emotions she felt like expressing in such a way. It felt good, but it also made him even angrier, if that were possible. He kissed her more fervently, maneuvering them so she had her back to the wall.
He eventually came up for breath and growled in the interim, "Not fair? My dear, you are a hypocrite. You allow physical contact one day, then not the next. And anything I do seems to be against your wishes. I'm not fair, then, if I react to such rejection?"
He kissed her again, insistently. He could feel his horns growing, and so made an effort to try to calm down somewhat. This entire situation could only be made worse if he shifted inside Emilio's apartment.
||I hope this is okay. You weren't online to ask. I'll revise if it's necessary.||
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I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart - I am, I am, I am. |
Thunder Goddess
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Post by Seren on Sept 4, 2011 7:07:59 GMT -5
Before Martina had a chance to respond to him, Nikolai kissed her again and it was after this one that she was left speechless. He seemed to becoming more fired up than usual, she sensed this more so through his body heat than the actual kiss they were sharing and as she brought her hands up to the sides of his head - she felt the horns for a moment and began to absorb his power once again for a moment - only allowing it to happen for a second so she wouldn't overwhelm herself.
Gripping his shirt as she felt her back against the wall, Martina had no idea where this would be leading and her mind was so caught up with the intensity that all thoughts of their arguement before drifted away.
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Post by Tempest on Sept 6, 2011 20:30:37 GMT -5
~Time Skip!~
Well, that had been something. Random bits of carpet and furniture were smoking slightly, giving the entire apartment a hazy air that made the entire situation seem a little less than real. Which could very well be the case since Nikolai had not expected this to happen in the foreseeable future. He'd need to learn some control if he ever expected this to happen again, or else he'd run the risk of burning down the building around them (though he'd gotten the hang of things about halfway through.)
Somewhere along the line, he'd misplaced his shirt and jeans. Oh well. Boxers were okay. Nikolai was in a surprisingly mellow mood now, perhaps because he was no longer feeling as frustrated as he had been feeling.
His arm tightened around Martina, who fit at his side as well as one piece of a jigsaw puzzle fit the adjacent piece. This felt right. Even though it was all so new to him, something about it resonated with an inner energy. He felt alive, but not in the usual way. He grinned and blew a smoke ring up into the air above them. His throat was a little raw from the fire-breathing, but he didn't mind. Nothing could get under his skin at this point.
"[Untranslatable term of endearment], can I get you anything?" he asked in a husky murmur. Would he do anything to protect and safeguard this person? The answer was an undeniable affirmative.
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I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart - I am, I am, I am. |
Thunder Goddess
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Post by Seren on Sept 9, 2011 10:29:55 GMT -5
As an arm tightened around her, Martina briefly roused from her momentary dozing - the older woman realizing that she had no idea where any of her clothes where. Bringing one hand up to touch Nikolai's jawline, she yawned briefly "No, I'm fine." Martina said, actually feeling completely relaxed for once. Her muscles were sore, but the spot she was laying in right at that moment felt like the spot she could stay in forever.
Letting the hand she had on his jawline drift down to his chest to trace lines all around it, Martina couldn't help but wonder if this kind of thing was just... supposed to be. She sighed heavily and laid her hand flat on Nikolai's chest, closing her eyes once more - stuck in her own thoughts.
[ooc; Oh, we might as well end this soon. x.x I'm sooo braindead with this thread.]
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