[ closed / ongoing ] - the morning after.

[myscarsmiles]

WHO: Kristoph Gavin [myscarsmiles], Rhode Kamelot [dolcezzamacabra], and Mazikeen [daughterinexile].
WHAT: Kristoph returns home with his rescued hostage; his consort is not pleased.
WHERE: Kristoph and Mazikeen's home.
WHEN: Day 32-33, following Rhode's rescue.

Comments

[daughterinexile]

When she arrived back home, Mazikeen had half a mind just to crawl straight into her bed and call it a night. Her entire body ached but not in a bad way, mind you -- muscles sore and parts of her bruised. Sparring with Kira was always a challenge, but tonight their late-night session had become rather rigorous. As much as she enjoyed lying next to Kristoph, the thought of doing so in a state like this -- skin flushed and marked and smelling of another man -- seemed rather crass, even for her own taste.

Moving through the darkened house by touch alone, she decided at the last moment to detour to Kristoph's bedroom for a moment. Given the late hour, she imagined he would be fast asleep; there was no light creeping out from beneath the door.

She paused, her attention suddenly focused on the suit that hung outside of his door; its ruddy stains, its smell, were undeniable. Kristoph, she thought inwardly, her eyes narrowing. There was a considerable amount more blood than she would have normally expected, but instead of worried, she instead felt jilted -- knowing full well there must have been another hand who had split it.

Grabbing the suit by the hanger, she moved quickly into the room without sound flicking on the light with one hand, and brandishing the bloodied mass of clothes with another. She scowled, her eyes narrowed in the sudden light; she didn't bother for him to wake properly before speaking.

"Well well, 'when the cat is away...' Seems a rather trite sentiment for you, my love?" she said sharply.

[myscarsmiles]

Kristoph hardly ever had a problem sleeping, though for whatever reason he had difficultly drifting off. His mind lingered on Gin for what seemed like an eternity - despite how much time he spent with him, and how high Gin had climbed in such a short time, and his own talent at information-gathering, he knew almost nothing about Ichimaru. It was frustrating, and it kept him from rest.

And quite suddenly, the lights flared. Startled, and drawing a knife from under his mattress, he squinted at the sudden entrance, holding the hilt loosely. Even in his terrible vision, he could see the half-white, half-pale, and he switched hands with the blade and put his glasses on.

"You startled me, Mazikeen..." He put the blade back under the tiny sheath, and smiled, crossing his arms. "And yes, I do think so. You look upset."

[daughterinexile]

"Observant as always, mein Herr," Mazikeen sneered and, stalking forward, pushed the soiled suit at him accusingly. She opened her mouth to speak, but then paused. The effect of red smile painted on her mask was broken by the downturn of her true frown.

In truth, Mazikeen was unsure of exactly how she felt in that moment. Whether it was anger or jealousy or fear that she, on a evening of such selfish indulgence, had been replaced. "What--" The hand that she held outward to Kristoph trembled, but she did not let her expression betray her weakness. "What have you done?"

[myscarsmiles]

"If you stain my duvet cover or get blood on me with that, I'll be very upset." His tone was dismissive, and he shifted to avoid being hit by the bloody suit.

A pause.

"Gin Ichimaru and I had to rescue Rhode Kamelot. She'd gotten herself kidnapped again. It appears she is indeed everything I - and I imagine, Ichimaru - guessed she could be. It's simply, ah....latent." He tipped his head for a moment, studying her in silence. His eyes dropped to the tremble in her hand, and he wrapped both of his around it. "It appeared you were indisposed, and I did not think it was necessary to bother you."

Scared. Mazikeen was scared. How amusing, he thought, though he hardly allowed it to surface.

"It was only a small errand, but it seems Miss Kamelot is as fond of gore as Mr. Ichimaru is." His face creased into a frown, and he squeezed her hand in a comforting sort of gesture. "Are you all right?"

[daughterinexile]

It would have been easy for Mazikeen to yield to Kristoph in that moment, to allow the softness and the warmth of his hands to soothe her. But this was not something casual, not some small indiscretion. She allowed her expression to grow dark, her eyes hard, and she forced her enclosed hand to still beneath Kristoph's fingers. She did not, however, pull away.

"Such foolishness. Such selfishness," she said through gritted teeth. "To allow a Monacello to draw his blade alongside you. Tell me, what indulgence did he allow you for such a lapse in your judgment? Surely you must come at quite a price."

You swore, is what she truly wanted to say. Swore you would never need another blade but my own. Looking away, she turned her face towards the window, allowing Kristoph's gaze to see only her mask. The hand pushed towards him now dropped back to her side, slipping now from his grasp. Her fingers clutched knuckle-white around the hanger. When she spoke again, she did not allow her voice to betray her disappointment. "I do not exist to be indisposed, Kristoph. I exist merely to serve you."

A small pause, then quietly.

"You truly are completely faithless."

[myscarsmiles]

"Mazikeen," his voice was patient as he spoke, and he glanced at her, trying to meet more than her mask. His expression was soft. "There are many things that I will change to suit you. I would never let anyone else here, at night, to tell me I was wrong. You are the only one." He rested his hands in his lap, and, as his failure to look her in the eye became apparent, simply looked at his nails.

"However, if you are so upset by my....relationship with Mr. Ichimaru, I apologize, for this time I will not bend. He is far too fascinating to leave for something was meaningless as his loyalties. My judgment did not lapse, and he did not compensate me for what I did. He is equally as ruthless and murderous and masked and ambitious as I, and I respect him for that and work with him when our motives are the same. Though we are enemies from different houses, we are both capable of seeing past all that drivel; he is as much of a foreigner in Monacello as I am in Vescovo. Likewise, his alliance to the family is not for the sake of the family, it's for the sake of him and his own power, and that he works with me is a symbol of that. In this particular matter, we're very similar people."

He paused to organize his next set of thoughts, tucked hair behind his ear, and began to speak again. "If you have some sort of paranoid idea that I am going to set you aside for Ichimaru or Rhode, you need not worry. Miss Kamelot is a pawn of the lowest sort, though, admittedly, she's is too far gone to Gin's side for me to have any more effect than I have had on her, it seems that I shouldn't let my work go entirely to waste. As for Ichimaru himself, he is a worthwhile opponent, and an interesting acquaintance and one of the few people besides you who understands the elegance of a well-worn mask. He could never serve me - he's far too bloody and aside from that, I imagine he could never be as loyal as you have been. Even after all these years of you being so faithful and loyal, it is difficult for me to work with someone else - even when that someone else is you, my darling. Though I've improved - obviously - old habits die hard. I know that I am not the kindest nor the most respectful or the most gratuitous, and the fact that you have remained with me all this time is an incredible tribute to you, and speaks nothing but ill of me."

He looked up at her again, and reached to touch her shoulder with just the pads of his fingers. Not an order, merely a request. "As for my faith, it lies with us. And that is all."

[daughterinexile]

Mazikeen stood very still as Kristoph spoke, and closed her eyes, allowing his explanation wash over her. There was nothing to be said in response, of course, Gavin's words, his will, were absolute.

"To think that the both of you would lay down arms for the sake of some kind of vicious kinship, then the fox is as foolish as you." She laughed bitterly. "Oh my. What a pair. You deserve each other then."

She allowed herself to drop down onto the edge of the bed, folding the suit in her lap, bloodying the front of her dress. "Your humility is ill-fitting, Kristoph," she said warily, defeated. "It has never suited you, especially now."

She turned towards him now, leaning into his soft touch, her eyes hidden behind thick lashes and her gaze focused now on his mouth.

[myscarsmiles]

"I think we do, yes." He laughed, softly, but didn't want to bring up Ichimaru anymore tonight. It was very clearly a sore subject, and though (sickeningly enough) he would have liked to discuss the matter with Gin, he'd have to put that off till sometime later. He set the though aside.

Instead, he pushed the duvet away and slowly moved over to her. He touched her face gingerly and sought her eyes again. "I'm sorry I upset you so deeply. I want you to know that you will always be my sword."

And with that, he kissed her.

[daughterinexile]

Of course, Mazikeen knew, that eventually it would come to something like this. Kristoph was, after all, her greatest weakness. No matter what trespass, what indulgence Kristoph asked or took from her forcibly, all of her anger and resentment withstood no chance against this intimacy.

It was, after all, the thing that made her love him in the first place. Small moments of his kindness, his closeness -- genuine or otherwise -- strung together like precious jewels on a chain, the weight of which she wore heavily around her neck and her heart like a noose.

She let him kiss her, accepted it, but did not return it. One hand slowly came up to cup Kristoph's face lightly, as if somehow her fingers would able to tell how much of him in this moment was his mask.

[myscarsmiles]

For everything Kristoph did to infuriate his consort, he did hold a certain sort of affection for her. And although it may not have mattered, in the long run, whether Mazikeen was infuriated with him or not as long as she stayed, he didn't prefer when her sadness consumed her. She was a better person grinning - even scowling. Upsetting Mazikeen was one of those things Krisoph preferred to avoid when he could, unless there were other circumstances; last night had just been that. So, he did want to cheer her up and apologize for his transgression, at least, on a couple of levels. He pressed their foreheads together, looking at Mazikeen unflinchingly.

"Tell me what I can do to atone for my transgressions, mein liebe."

[daughterinexile]

"Do not speak as if you would give anything so freely, mein Herr. We both know that such is not the case." When she spoke, Mazikeen's voice was unkind, but only towards herself.

Pulling away, she studied his face in the warm glow of the overhead light, her worn fingers tentatively touching smooth, unblemished skin. There was concern couched deep within Kristoph's expression, the slightest creasing to his handsomeness that betrayed some honest affection. It made moments such as these all the more worse, for it was to those tiny remnants of true emotions that she clung to.

Her hand drifted downward, along Kristoph's jaw, the length of his neck, until finally resting on the collar of his shirt, which it bunched into a fist and pulled him suddenly forward into another kiss. "Remove your mask," she whispered, her lips brushing against his. "Show me your true face, indulge this small intimacy, and all will be forgotten."

[myscarsmiles]

Out of all the problems Mazikeen brought Kristoph, it was these sorts of requests that annoyed him the most. Though he kept that frustration deeply hidden - even deeper than Mazikeen could search, probably - her obsession with his true self was obnoxious. His mask did not want to be removed unless the situation required it - this at will change that she demanded for every apology from rudeness to leaving her in the dust got on his nerves.

With a little internal sigh, he realized that such was necessary. Though he had wondered if perhaps he should, ah, let her go - occasions always arrived that proved her a necessity to him. But if he had too......So here he was, nodding just a fraction. "First, would you change into something less stained, my dear? Is this too rude a request?"