OOM: Anita & Damian
[[ooc: The following was written in GoogleDocs with Anita-mun. Yay collaboration! ^_^]]
Following her confrontations with various people, Anita finds herself trudging to the room Jean-Claude shares with Damian. She doesn't figure she'll be seeing the master vampire for a while yet, as he's distinctly missing now that she comes to the room. He and Richard both. The room is empty. She thinks to prod at the marks, see what each of them is doing, but she decides against it, shutting herself off from them as she flops onto the bed. She still needs to talk with Liz, Jason, and Damian. They'd all been a part of this fucked up conspiracy, and she has no intention of letting any of them get away with it.
Though words from the various conversations do tug at her. Micah forced her to allow Nathaniel back into the pard and the house, Jean-Claude and Richard had pointed out why she was truly upset over it all, and Asher and Nathaniel had shown a solidarity she'd not expected from the wereleopard. She'd been so sure Nathaniel would have chosen her. So sure.
Instead, he chose Asher.
And her heart aches a little at that, and while she has the urge to poke at the wound, she turns a blind eye to it. Whatever makes her heart hurt over Nathaniel is best left untended.
Damian appears rather abruptly through the door, his hair tossled as if by a rough wind. The vampire has been enjoying the clean air outside, so his appearance is rather rumpled. When he looks up from the floor, sensing an unexpected heartbeat, he stops dead in his tracks. Anger is rolling of Anita in waves, and he instantly pulls himself into that quiet place of calm that he has learned to retreat to when he scents trouble.
"Mistress."
Anita sits up on the bed, eyes narrowing. "I thought I told you to not call me that," she snaps.
"My apologies," Damian offers. "Old habits die slow deaths."
"You've been lying to me, Damian," Anita says, standing up. "All of you have. About Asher and Nathaniel."
Anita's displeasure simply radiates off her as she steps a little closer to the vampire, and Damian's initial thought is quite simple: Fuck. He doesn't know how she found out about them, but it doesn't truly matter. Anita knows, and now all they had been working toward with one another is in jeopardy along with the other relationships. At least, that is what Damian assumes based on how livid the woman is.
"I have kept information from you," Damian admits calmly. There is no reason for him to be dishonest now. "Nathaniel did not wish for me to tell you, so I made the decision to honour his request."
"It's unacceptable," she growls. "I should have been told."
"You have been told." It's a poor argument, yes, but it is a simple truth Damian thinks important.
Anita shakes her head. "Before now. Before I fucked Asher!"
Damian's face is a calm mask, though inside he is frowning in concentration. "Are you saying you would not have attempted to save Asher's life if you had known that he was sleeping with Nathaniel? Would it have truly made that much of a difference?"
"Maybe," Anita says, her voice a little choked. "But the choice was taken from me because you were all hiding it."
He can't really argue that point. The choice had been taken from her, but with the past firmly in the past, it makes little difference now. "I did not deem it my place to inform you, Anita."
"None of you did. You all betrayed the trust I placed in you," Anita snaps, stalking away.
Damian is quick, and his long limbs help him overtake Anita in a split second. His hand darts out, catching her wrist before she is out of reach. The contact zings through him, temporarily stealing his breath away. "Anita," he manages after recovering.
Anita stares at him, her flesh tingling where his hand grips her wrist. She takes a deep breath. "You can't sugarcoat this, Damian. You lied. You made a choice for one of my leopards without including me in on the decision. We're supposed to all work together, and all of you -- all of you -- excluded me."
"Do you want the full truth as I see it, Anita?" Damian asks quite bluntly. It's obvious that he isn't about to sugarcoat it. If Anita wants the truth from him, he will give it, and he knows she won't like it, but at least it will be her choice, right?
"Yes," Anita says, her voice a little rough. "I want the truth, Damian."
Damian gives her a curt nod and begins. "I have known since it began between them. Nathaniel worried about your reaction because he knew you would react precisely as you are right now, whether they told you immediately or kept it to themselves to see how far things might go. I kept what he told me in confidence because he is my friend. They are intimate. They are in love. They have exchanged two marks and will forever be bound to one another, whether you like it or not. That is the truth, Anita. You do not have a say in who Asher chooses to be his through the marks, nor should you. It is a very personal selection made by a master vampire. He has chosen Nathaniel. Nathaniel is happy about the choice. You can either live with their partnership or you cannot."
She vaguely remembers Nathaniel mentions marks. "Two marks and none of you thought to tell me." Anita yanks her hand from his grasp, glowering at him. "I told Nathaniel he was no longer welcome in my home."
Now Damian frowns. "That house is as much Nathaniel's and Micah's home as it is yours. Unless you are being vindictive, it is not solely your choice to make."
"It is solely my choice." Anita takes a step or two back. "I will not encourage lying."
"So being thrown out of your house and life is the punishment for a lie by omission?"
"A lie is a lie, Damian."
"Then you might as well know that I am building a relationship with Nathaniel myself."
Anita hears nothing but white noise for a moment. "You're... what?"
"You heard me," Damian says plainly instead of repeating himself, unflappable as always.
"No." Anita shakes her head. "Absolutely not, Damian. I forbid you from doing such a thing!"
Damian goes still and quiet, completely lifeless before his human mistress. He stares at her, and the vibrant green of his eyes is somehow cold, the emotions within too complex to read or fathom.
Anita points at him. "Don't look at me like that."
The order is direct, and Damian is compelled to follow it. It isn't really a choice; he simply does it. The movement is still rather unnatural, though, as his eyes snap over to a different location without any other part of him moving a hair. The intensity of his eyes doesn't lessen. In fact, it only grows stronger, deeper, and colder.
His silence unnerves Anita and, after a few more moments of the unnatural quiet, she snaps. "Say something, dammit! You have a tongue, vocal chords, speak!"
"I didn't think it possible," comes the immediate response to her command. "You're acting like Her. The first hint of my pleasure, and you twist it into something barbed and poisonous." His eyes snap back to her so fast that it seems like there should be a sound accompanying the flash of green. "My body is yours to command, Mistress. My soul is yours to call or kill. You can forbid me to act. You can abuse the power that keeps me bound to you until I am nothing more than a slave in chains, but my heart is something no force of your power or will can so much as touch."
Anita's eyes never leave his face. Even though she knows the vampire is trying to suppress it, she can see the emotions bubbling up and making his inhuman face that much more frightening. His fury surpasses her own, she thinks, and his biting words were like blades against her skin. "I am... nothing like your previous mistress," she whispers.
"Prove it," he all but hisses at her, commanding and begging in the same instant. "Prove it to me, Anita, because I cannot survive another like Her."
"How am I supposed to prove something I don't even believe I need to prove?" she demands.
The question seems to break something inside Damian, because his rage seeps from him, bleeding out until all that is left is a frightening resignation. "Be kind. Don't take away the one... shred of happiness that I have found in befriending Nathaniel." He takes a step back from her, and it causes the door behind him to close. He leans against it, his arms limp at his sides, his head bowed forward in a way that forces him to look up through strands of crimson to retain eye contact. "You wonder why we don't tell you, Anita. This is why. Instead of sharing in the things that bring us the most joy, you forbid them. When all you do is punish our honesty, how can you expect us to want to confide in you?"
She swallows and licks her dry lips. "If you want to be Nathaniel's friend, I have no objection. He needs friends. He needs people who love and care for him, will protect him. I won't take that from either of you."
There is a glimmer of hope in Damian's eyes, but he squashes it before it can take root. Hope is a luxury he can't afford. "And if that love, care, and protection extend to physical expression?"
Anita throws up her hands in exasperation. "You're not even gay, Damian!"
"No, I am not," he readily agrees.
"Then why would you even ask about... sex... with... Nathaniel?" she manages to get out.
"Because I don't have to be gay to be attracted and drawn to another male." Damian rights his head enough for Anita to see the elegant arch of one eyebrow. "All your prestigious schooling, and no one has explained the sexual spectrum to you?"
A blush creeps over Anita's features. "You've not shown any interest in men." He'd been one of the few, actually, from Belle's line. "I have no idea why we're even discussing this."
Oddly enough, seeing Anita blush helps Damian regain a certain sense of control and calm. "I don't have an interest in men. I have an interest in Nathaniel. And it has become your chosen topic because I asked if you would banish me like you have Nathaniel if our friendship becomes more physical, and you are unable to answer." Plain and simple.
"You wouldn't ask on an 'if', Damian," Anita mutters, beginning to pace again. "And I didn't 'banish' him. Don't be so melodramatic. Micah and I have spoken, come to a compromise about Nathaniel and his... living arrangements."
"A compromise you would never have made unless Micah opposed you on the matter."
Anita gives a curt nod. "He did. As did Richard and Jean-Claude."
"Do you ever get the feeling that it isn't me who is being melodramatic, but you?" Because let's face it, Damian is the least dramatic of any of the vampires in Anita's life.
"No." Though she's beginning to think so. "He will stay at the Circus for a month, with Asher or in a room Jean-Claude gives him, I don't care. In that time, I will... try to figure out what this ultimately means, and if I can come to terms with it. I don't fuck men who fuck men, and that's been a rule I've held onto for quite some time, but... but..." Anita sighs, shaking her head. "I need time."
"You need time to work your way out of the pristine, white box your modern upbringing has left you with." He says it without a shred of malice or judgement, just understanding. Some of the newer members of his former mistress' kiss had a spectacular amount of difficulty coming to terms with the vastness of sensuality and sexuality to be found in the vampiric world. She Who Made Him thought they were all the more fun for that, though, as it made their terror more acute during the torture. He forces his thoughts away from those horrific memories. There are more important matters in the present. His own problems aside, he is still Anita's vampire servant, and he feels compelled to point some things out. "How will you feed your ardeur, with your pomme de sang too far away to help?"
Anita sits heavily on the bed. "I'm pretty sure you, Micah, Jason, and Jean-Claude can help me manage," she murmurs. "Until we figure everything out."
"Me?" Damian asks a bit hesitantly.
She looks up. "Do you object? I don't think I'm ready to have intercourse, but I can feed from Nathaniel without that, so I can't see why it's not possible to do the same with you."
"Object?" he asks, as if the concept is laughable. "No, I don't object. Not at all. Feeding on us though, all of us..." The smallest of frowns curves his lips downward. "It will not work for long."
"It will work long enough. Two available during the day, two during the night. We'll manage," she assures him.
Damian has his doubts. Feeding something like the ardeur on those with close metaphysical ties works about as well as trying to sate the bloodlust with animal blood or blood from other vampires. It simply doesn't satisfy the way it should. With all the arguing they have done so far, however, he doesn't feel like pushing it. It's a minor problem compared to the other messes. If it becomes a major problem, then priorities may shift. For now, he just gives Anita a small gesture of approval... not that his approval means much.
"I'll come to some sort of decision regarding Nathaniel by the middle of next month," Anita says. "I just need to sort through it, Damian, and I can't do that with either Asher or Nathaniel around. I can't. If you want to be Nathaniel's friend, I won't stop you, as I said, but... don't fuck him. Not yet. Not until I decide how I truly feel about Asher and Nathaniel's relationship."
It's a direct order, so it isn't like he will disobey her. On the same token, however, he knows that bedding Nathaniel would make many problems at the moment, and he doesn't want to cause everyone more strife. He nods his agreement. "I will do my best," he promises. After a few seconds of silence, which seem to stretch for an eternity, he adds, "I was hasty to equate you with my former mistress. You frighten me. Your power frightens me as my past makes me fear the future." He doesn't offer a true apology, but the explanation is a courtesy, a show that the trust between them still holds, however tenuously.
Anita sighs, rubbing her eyes with her fingers. "I don't want you to fear me," she says, tired. "I don't want the people I care about to be afraid of me."
"There is no easy remedy," Damian reasons quietly. "You can't change that you are powerful any more than you can change my past. At the moment it is unimportant. What is important is that you rest, clear your head, and bring the calm, pragmatic attitude from your crime scene investigation to the muddled situation when you wake up."
"I need to go back downstairs and wait for Micah," she says, standing up again. "He was going to talk to Asher and Nathaniel, and then meet me in the bar."
"Very well," Damian sighs, straightening and stepping to the side so he isn't blocking the door. "If you need my help, my touch, or my opinion on anything, then you know where to find me."
Anita crosses the room to Damian, cupping his face with a hand and rising up onto her toes to give him a chaste kiss. She needs to touch him, even if only for a moment. "All I want from you, Damian, is that amazing patience I know you possess."
That she initiates contact with him should please him, but it also makes it strikingly clear that he needs to touch her even when they argue. It's disheartening to know that, for better or worse, he is bound to her, and that feeling mixes with the spark of happiness at the compliment in her words. In the end, all he can manage is a small, sad smile, and his hand rises to grasp hers at his cheek. "You have it," he whispers.
He's given another brief kiss, and then Anita ducks her head, reluctantly draws away, and slips out the door.
Left behind, Damian has little to do other than await the results of the others' consultations. Crossing to the bed, he sheds his clothing without much thought and slips beneath the covers. With everything swirling around him, he feels numb. But numb is good; numb is easy and safe, and for now, it'll do just fine. His shower forgotten, he simply stares blankly at the ceiling and waits. It's all he can do.
Following her confrontations with various people, Anita finds herself trudging to the room Jean-Claude shares with Damian. She doesn't figure she'll be seeing the master vampire for a while yet, as he's distinctly missing now that she comes to the room. He and Richard both. The room is empty. She thinks to prod at the marks, see what each of them is doing, but she decides against it, shutting herself off from them as she flops onto the bed. She still needs to talk with Liz, Jason, and Damian. They'd all been a part of this fucked up conspiracy, and she has no intention of letting any of them get away with it.
Though words from the various conversations do tug at her. Micah forced her to allow Nathaniel back into the pard and the house, Jean-Claude and Richard had pointed out why she was truly upset over it all, and Asher and Nathaniel had shown a solidarity she'd not expected from the wereleopard. She'd been so sure Nathaniel would have chosen her. So sure.
Instead, he chose Asher.
And her heart aches a little at that, and while she has the urge to poke at the wound, she turns a blind eye to it. Whatever makes her heart hurt over Nathaniel is best left untended.
Damian appears rather abruptly through the door, his hair tossled as if by a rough wind. The vampire has been enjoying the clean air outside, so his appearance is rather rumpled. When he looks up from the floor, sensing an unexpected heartbeat, he stops dead in his tracks. Anger is rolling of Anita in waves, and he instantly pulls himself into that quiet place of calm that he has learned to retreat to when he scents trouble.
"Mistress."
Anita sits up on the bed, eyes narrowing. "I thought I told you to not call me that," she snaps.
"My apologies," Damian offers. "Old habits die slow deaths."
"You've been lying to me, Damian," Anita says, standing up. "All of you have. About Asher and Nathaniel."
Anita's displeasure simply radiates off her as she steps a little closer to the vampire, and Damian's initial thought is quite simple: Fuck. He doesn't know how she found out about them, but it doesn't truly matter. Anita knows, and now all they had been working toward with one another is in jeopardy along with the other relationships. At least, that is what Damian assumes based on how livid the woman is.
"I have kept information from you," Damian admits calmly. There is no reason for him to be dishonest now. "Nathaniel did not wish for me to tell you, so I made the decision to honour his request."
"It's unacceptable," she growls. "I should have been told."
"You have been told." It's a poor argument, yes, but it is a simple truth Damian thinks important.
Anita shakes her head. "Before now. Before I fucked Asher!"
Damian's face is a calm mask, though inside he is frowning in concentration. "Are you saying you would not have attempted to save Asher's life if you had known that he was sleeping with Nathaniel? Would it have truly made that much of a difference?"
"Maybe," Anita says, her voice a little choked. "But the choice was taken from me because you were all hiding it."
He can't really argue that point. The choice had been taken from her, but with the past firmly in the past, it makes little difference now. "I did not deem it my place to inform you, Anita."
"None of you did. You all betrayed the trust I placed in you," Anita snaps, stalking away.
Damian is quick, and his long limbs help him overtake Anita in a split second. His hand darts out, catching her wrist before she is out of reach. The contact zings through him, temporarily stealing his breath away. "Anita," he manages after recovering.
Anita stares at him, her flesh tingling where his hand grips her wrist. She takes a deep breath. "You can't sugarcoat this, Damian. You lied. You made a choice for one of my leopards without including me in on the decision. We're supposed to all work together, and all of you -- all of you -- excluded me."
"Do you want the full truth as I see it, Anita?" Damian asks quite bluntly. It's obvious that he isn't about to sugarcoat it. If Anita wants the truth from him, he will give it, and he knows she won't like it, but at least it will be her choice, right?
"Yes," Anita says, her voice a little rough. "I want the truth, Damian."
Damian gives her a curt nod and begins. "I have known since it began between them. Nathaniel worried about your reaction because he knew you would react precisely as you are right now, whether they told you immediately or kept it to themselves to see how far things might go. I kept what he told me in confidence because he is my friend. They are intimate. They are in love. They have exchanged two marks and will forever be bound to one another, whether you like it or not. That is the truth, Anita. You do not have a say in who Asher chooses to be his through the marks, nor should you. It is a very personal selection made by a master vampire. He has chosen Nathaniel. Nathaniel is happy about the choice. You can either live with their partnership or you cannot."
She vaguely remembers Nathaniel mentions marks. "Two marks and none of you thought to tell me." Anita yanks her hand from his grasp, glowering at him. "I told Nathaniel he was no longer welcome in my home."
Now Damian frowns. "That house is as much Nathaniel's and Micah's home as it is yours. Unless you are being vindictive, it is not solely your choice to make."
"It is solely my choice." Anita takes a step or two back. "I will not encourage lying."
"So being thrown out of your house and life is the punishment for a lie by omission?"
"A lie is a lie, Damian."
"Then you might as well know that I am building a relationship with Nathaniel myself."
Anita hears nothing but white noise for a moment. "You're... what?"
"You heard me," Damian says plainly instead of repeating himself, unflappable as always.
"No." Anita shakes her head. "Absolutely not, Damian. I forbid you from doing such a thing!"
Damian goes still and quiet, completely lifeless before his human mistress. He stares at her, and the vibrant green of his eyes is somehow cold, the emotions within too complex to read or fathom.
Anita points at him. "Don't look at me like that."
The order is direct, and Damian is compelled to follow it. It isn't really a choice; he simply does it. The movement is still rather unnatural, though, as his eyes snap over to a different location without any other part of him moving a hair. The intensity of his eyes doesn't lessen. In fact, it only grows stronger, deeper, and colder.
His silence unnerves Anita and, after a few more moments of the unnatural quiet, she snaps. "Say something, dammit! You have a tongue, vocal chords, speak!"
"I didn't think it possible," comes the immediate response to her command. "You're acting like Her. The first hint of my pleasure, and you twist it into something barbed and poisonous." His eyes snap back to her so fast that it seems like there should be a sound accompanying the flash of green. "My body is yours to command, Mistress. My soul is yours to call or kill. You can forbid me to act. You can abuse the power that keeps me bound to you until I am nothing more than a slave in chains, but my heart is something no force of your power or will can so much as touch."
Anita's eyes never leave his face. Even though she knows the vampire is trying to suppress it, she can see the emotions bubbling up and making his inhuman face that much more frightening. His fury surpasses her own, she thinks, and his biting words were like blades against her skin. "I am... nothing like your previous mistress," she whispers.
"Prove it," he all but hisses at her, commanding and begging in the same instant. "Prove it to me, Anita, because I cannot survive another like Her."
"How am I supposed to prove something I don't even believe I need to prove?" she demands.
The question seems to break something inside Damian, because his rage seeps from him, bleeding out until all that is left is a frightening resignation. "Be kind. Don't take away the one... shred of happiness that I have found in befriending Nathaniel." He takes a step back from her, and it causes the door behind him to close. He leans against it, his arms limp at his sides, his head bowed forward in a way that forces him to look up through strands of crimson to retain eye contact. "You wonder why we don't tell you, Anita. This is why. Instead of sharing in the things that bring us the most joy, you forbid them. When all you do is punish our honesty, how can you expect us to want to confide in you?"
She swallows and licks her dry lips. "If you want to be Nathaniel's friend, I have no objection. He needs friends. He needs people who love and care for him, will protect him. I won't take that from either of you."
There is a glimmer of hope in Damian's eyes, but he squashes it before it can take root. Hope is a luxury he can't afford. "And if that love, care, and protection extend to physical expression?"
Anita throws up her hands in exasperation. "You're not even gay, Damian!"
"No, I am not," he readily agrees.
"Then why would you even ask about... sex... with... Nathaniel?" she manages to get out.
"Because I don't have to be gay to be attracted and drawn to another male." Damian rights his head enough for Anita to see the elegant arch of one eyebrow. "All your prestigious schooling, and no one has explained the sexual spectrum to you?"
A blush creeps over Anita's features. "You've not shown any interest in men." He'd been one of the few, actually, from Belle's line. "I have no idea why we're even discussing this."
Oddly enough, seeing Anita blush helps Damian regain a certain sense of control and calm. "I don't have an interest in men. I have an interest in Nathaniel. And it has become your chosen topic because I asked if you would banish me like you have Nathaniel if our friendship becomes more physical, and you are unable to answer." Plain and simple.
"You wouldn't ask on an 'if', Damian," Anita mutters, beginning to pace again. "And I didn't 'banish' him. Don't be so melodramatic. Micah and I have spoken, come to a compromise about Nathaniel and his... living arrangements."
"A compromise you would never have made unless Micah opposed you on the matter."
Anita gives a curt nod. "He did. As did Richard and Jean-Claude."
"Do you ever get the feeling that it isn't me who is being melodramatic, but you?" Because let's face it, Damian is the least dramatic of any of the vampires in Anita's life.
"No." Though she's beginning to think so. "He will stay at the Circus for a month, with Asher or in a room Jean-Claude gives him, I don't care. In that time, I will... try to figure out what this ultimately means, and if I can come to terms with it. I don't fuck men who fuck men, and that's been a rule I've held onto for quite some time, but... but..." Anita sighs, shaking her head. "I need time."
"You need time to work your way out of the pristine, white box your modern upbringing has left you with." He says it without a shred of malice or judgement, just understanding. Some of the newer members of his former mistress' kiss had a spectacular amount of difficulty coming to terms with the vastness of sensuality and sexuality to be found in the vampiric world. She Who Made Him thought they were all the more fun for that, though, as it made their terror more acute during the torture. He forces his thoughts away from those horrific memories. There are more important matters in the present. His own problems aside, he is still Anita's vampire servant, and he feels compelled to point some things out. "How will you feed your ardeur, with your pomme de sang too far away to help?"
Anita sits heavily on the bed. "I'm pretty sure you, Micah, Jason, and Jean-Claude can help me manage," she murmurs. "Until we figure everything out."
"Me?" Damian asks a bit hesitantly.
She looks up. "Do you object? I don't think I'm ready to have intercourse, but I can feed from Nathaniel without that, so I can't see why it's not possible to do the same with you."
"Object?" he asks, as if the concept is laughable. "No, I don't object. Not at all. Feeding on us though, all of us..." The smallest of frowns curves his lips downward. "It will not work for long."
"It will work long enough. Two available during the day, two during the night. We'll manage," she assures him.
Damian has his doubts. Feeding something like the ardeur on those with close metaphysical ties works about as well as trying to sate the bloodlust with animal blood or blood from other vampires. It simply doesn't satisfy the way it should. With all the arguing they have done so far, however, he doesn't feel like pushing it. It's a minor problem compared to the other messes. If it becomes a major problem, then priorities may shift. For now, he just gives Anita a small gesture of approval... not that his approval means much.
"I'll come to some sort of decision regarding Nathaniel by the middle of next month," Anita says. "I just need to sort through it, Damian, and I can't do that with either Asher or Nathaniel around. I can't. If you want to be Nathaniel's friend, I won't stop you, as I said, but... don't fuck him. Not yet. Not until I decide how I truly feel about Asher and Nathaniel's relationship."
It's a direct order, so it isn't like he will disobey her. On the same token, however, he knows that bedding Nathaniel would make many problems at the moment, and he doesn't want to cause everyone more strife. He nods his agreement. "I will do my best," he promises. After a few seconds of silence, which seem to stretch for an eternity, he adds, "I was hasty to equate you with my former mistress. You frighten me. Your power frightens me as my past makes me fear the future." He doesn't offer a true apology, but the explanation is a courtesy, a show that the trust between them still holds, however tenuously.
Anita sighs, rubbing her eyes with her fingers. "I don't want you to fear me," she says, tired. "I don't want the people I care about to be afraid of me."
"There is no easy remedy," Damian reasons quietly. "You can't change that you are powerful any more than you can change my past. At the moment it is unimportant. What is important is that you rest, clear your head, and bring the calm, pragmatic attitude from your crime scene investigation to the muddled situation when you wake up."
"I need to go back downstairs and wait for Micah," she says, standing up again. "He was going to talk to Asher and Nathaniel, and then meet me in the bar."
"Very well," Damian sighs, straightening and stepping to the side so he isn't blocking the door. "If you need my help, my touch, or my opinion on anything, then you know where to find me."
Anita crosses the room to Damian, cupping his face with a hand and rising up onto her toes to give him a chaste kiss. She needs to touch him, even if only for a moment. "All I want from you, Damian, is that amazing patience I know you possess."
That she initiates contact with him should please him, but it also makes it strikingly clear that he needs to touch her even when they argue. It's disheartening to know that, for better or worse, he is bound to her, and that feeling mixes with the spark of happiness at the compliment in her words. In the end, all he can manage is a small, sad smile, and his hand rises to grasp hers at his cheek. "You have it," he whispers.
He's given another brief kiss, and then Anita ducks her head, reluctantly draws away, and slips out the door.
Left behind, Damian has little to do other than await the results of the others' consultations. Crossing to the bed, he sheds his clothing without much thought and slips beneath the covers. With everything swirling around him, he feels numb. But numb is good; numb is easy and safe, and for now, it'll do just fine. His shower forgotten, he simply stares blankly at the ceiling and waits. It's all he can do.