[log] but if you have to move your best friend's body you're on your own
With Cordelia's eulogy finished, arrangements for the funeral finalized with it only days away, Caius has been occupying himself with everything else that needs to be done before they leave on the 27th. He's not selling the house, but he's not keeping it up while he's still in the states more often than he isn't, either - all of Cordelia's things ( Read more... )
"The den--Caius, are you sure you don't just want to get movers?"
Mina does not understand this, and looks up at him with one hand balanced on her hip. They can have other people do these things, Caius--she doesn't necessarily object to manual labor, but this strikes her as unnecessary. Mina prefers a life of directing everyone else to do what she tells them, though. Still, she's dressed accordingly: in (very short) dark green cotton shorts, a short-sleeved, pristine white button-up, and, presently, bare feet, her long black hair swept into a ponytail.
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"I don't need movers, Mina," Caius says, folding a photo album under his arm with a hand on the door, about to go and get those other boxes. "I'll get them when I want the boxes put into storage, but I'd rather do this myself - you said the den?"
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"I did, in fact, say the den, thank you for paying attention," she confirms, sidling up to kiss him. Mina is usually reasonably affectionate, but more so lately--she really does want to ease his grief process as much as she can. And...perhaps liberal application of her body is an unusual method, but Mina is an unusual kind of woman.
(A "bold coquette," by some descriptions.)
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Caius appreciates that - probably more than he says. He holds his album behind his back and wraps his other arm around her, kissing back-
Until startled slightly by the bell from the front door. "Oh, for God's sake," he mutters, when it rings again.
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"Ignore it," she teases, pressing against him, "it's probably just another gift basket, they'll leave it on the steps."
Mina brushes her lips along his jaw, then moves into pulling herself up onto her toes to kiss his mouth again.
Then there's the sound of a woman clearing her throat. Mina sinks back down to her flat feet, glancing toward the source of the voice. Who, exactly, is rude enough to just come marching in when no one answers the door? (She'd have someone punished for that, 98% of the time.)
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Caius mutters fuck against the side of Mina's face and turns to greet his elder sisters with an ever so slightly flat sort of smile. "I was about to answer," he says, in spite of the fact he was about to do no such thing. (He stays slightly between Mina and the two of them, though for whose sake here he's not entirely sure.)
The disapproval is practically palpable, but he was expecting that. "You didn't bring her with you, Caius. Not to Cordelia's funeral."
"Adrianne, I'm standing in my fucking living room."
Family! Enjoy it!
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"Actually, I'm in town on business," Mina contributes, mildly, "it's good to see you, Mrs. Phillips, Mrs. Quentin."
Mina's manners are so perfect and so catlike and so contained in their ease that it seems like at any moment she might leap forward and snap Adrianne, at least, up in her jaws and eat her whole. So Caius is probably making a very good decision in staying between them.
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The rest of the week here seems to be stretching out interminably long in front of him all of a sudden. Adrianne presses her fingertips to her forehead and sighs, while Irina acknowledges the greeting with a tight one of her own.
"Don't start," Caius says, warning. "What did you want?"
"We came to see how you're doing," Irina interrupts, smoothly. The expression on Caius's face doesn't invite speculation on how that's turned out to be.
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"I'm taking very good care of him," Mina promises, pretty smile lighting up her face briefly, as she rests one proprietary hand on his arm, "isn't that right, Caius?"
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Caius matches her hand on his arm with one on her back, possibly in part so he can keep her next to him and at least five feet away from his sisters. (He's making a mental note, right now, to never under any circumstances leave the three of them alone together. Mina would win, and he does love Irina and Adrianne.)
"You've been very patient," he says, the hint of a dry tone almost imperceptible. "...why don't we all sit down."
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"Of course," Mina agrees, readily. For the record, she will sit close to Caius she's pushing the boundary of 'being on his lap,' and she fucking knows it.
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Adrianne looks dubious and Irina looks like she'd probably be the same way if she weren't set on playing mediator between her sister and her brother (you can tell she's the middle sibling, regardless of whether or not Caius is inclined to act like a younger brother), but they sit, and Caius leaves his hand on Mina's knee.
"I've got most of everything organized at this point," he says, evenly, aware that 'we' is a word liable to incite another argument.
"How long are you staying in town for?" Irina asks, studiously ignoring their proximity.
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"I've got our apartment," our, deliberately, "until the 27th...but Caius, you probably won't get out until the 28th, I suspect?"
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Oh, this is going well, isn't it. Caius presses finger and thumb to the bridge of his nose, on the pretext of thinking about it. "I'm aiming for the 27th right now," he says, "but we'll see what happens."
"Then back to DC?" Adrianne, now, at least briefly discards her animosity for Caius's companion to say, with some concern, "You're not going straight back to work, are you?"
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"We could go to Mexico," Mina suggests, mildly, and at Adrianne's look continues with a slightly gentler tone.
"Look, Adrianne--Irina--I realize we're never going to be friends, but...despite my obvious opposing side to Cordelia, I didn't want anything like this to happen to her. I wanted things to go amicably, when she was ready to let go." And it's insane, it's sort of disturbing, how sincere she is--only Caius will know she's lying, and the reality of her hand in Cordelia's death.
"And I do love Caius," which is truth, as he knows, "so I'll do my best to take care of him. You can believe that."
Her smile is tentative, sweet, almost, and beseeching: "We can have a truce for now, can't we? Given what's happened?"
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Caius's fingertips dig into Mina's knee, ever so slightly, even if his expression is a level match of cautious optimism.
"We're going to have to, aren't we," Irina says (half sighs, really), after a long look at her younger brother. Adrianne seems to be building up to something, next to her, and she cuts through, "Everyone's emotions are running high this week, I understand that - Caius, I'm going to call you later. I think it'd be best if we let things settle for now."
"I can take perfectly good care of myself, I don't need to be divided up between conquering women," is his slightly withering contribution, albeit said with affection. "Adrianne, I'll take a while off-" which he hadn't actually planned to do, "-and next time we'll be more civil."
Call first. For the love of God, call first.
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