[closed/complete]
Characters: Agravaine (nevermercy) and Pheme (scandalmaker)
Date/Time: Tuesday, 09/13 (backdated)
Location: Agravaine's apartment
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Agravaine's mouth. Pheme.
Summary: Agravaine meets the niece he never knew he had.
Standing outside the door to her uncles' apartment, Pheme took a deep breath. She considered herself to be many things - cunning, fearless, and smart among them - but at the moment she was feeling more nervous than she could ever remember. Even her first plane trip hadn't been as scary as the idea of introducing herself to the uncle who apparently had no idea she existed, and while starting high school wasn't exactly a picnic it wasn't as tough as getting to know a guy who seemed to radiate anger.
Still, there was no delaying the inevitable - he knew she was coming, and the sooner she knocked the sooner she could give him the letter and hopefully he'd understand. He had to.
~*~
Judging from the drink currently being tipped back into Agravaine's mouth, he wasn't really in the mood to understand anything. His older sister had a kid, and he'd never known. Fucking hell, how long had he been an unknowing uncle? There had been mutual estrangement when she'd left for school in Louisiana, but his brother at least kept in touch once in a while, mostly on holidays and his birthday.
The second the kid was gone, he was going to call up Naomi and ask her what the fuck she was thinking sending her kid to New York City to find him.
~*~
Having been staring at the door for long enough to get a few curious looks, Pheme's mind was finally made up. Raising her fist, she gave the door two quick knocks, stepping back so that she'd be in plain view once the door was opened. The guy had shown that he was a big talker on the forum, and she took that to mean he was probably tall as well, and she didn't want him to claim he didn't see her.
While she waited for him to answer the door, she wondered how he'd react when he read the note. She had lied when she told him she hadn't read it, but he didn't need to know that.
~*~
The remainder of the vodka and Coke was downed the moment the knock sounded, and lowering the glass down on the table with a clink of ice, the knight pushed up to his feet. Must've been the girl. How old had she said she was again, turning fourteen soon? So she'd be a short little brat.
But he wasn't expecting just how short when the front door was unlocked and tugged open. His line of sight went right over her head, lowering to her face only after he realized he really was dealing with a shrimpy kid. Dumb silences weren't his thing, so he raised both eyebrows.
"Kid."
~*~
Her frustration at the way his gaze went right over her head for the first few moments was almost palpable as Pheme crossed her arms over her chest and resisted the urge to say something or tap her foot. It occurred to her that he might be doing it deliberately, but she had no way of being sure.
Instead, she waited for him to actually notice her, offering him a tight smile when he finally did. Between his raised eyebrows and the curt way he greeted her she could tell she was in for a long night. Uncrossing her arms, she offered him a quick, sarcastic wave, holding out an envelope.
"That's me. You gonna invite me in?"
~*~
"Can't just hand me the letter and get it over with?" was the first thing Agravaine shot back, less in irritation. He leaned an arm up against the doorframe, blocking her entrance. But she was small enough to dodge inside if she was brave enough, or stupid enough.
That was when he noticed the little suitcase, pint-sized and perfect for the shrimp. The hell.
~*~
"Don't you got any manners? Y'all should at least offer me a drink," was the answer Pheme delivered with a smirk. She studied him for a moment, taking in the size of the gap in the doorway. Grabbing her suitcase handle, she maneuvered it in front of her, and used it as a battering ram to push past him.
"I'll put the letter on your chair, where's your bathroom?"
~*~
Agravaine might've been over six feet tall, but it didn't mean he could anticipate every move from a smaller person. She'd managed to shove her way past him, but before she could stroll away any further, he sank his fingers into the back of her tee and held tight. "Not so fucking fast, tater tot," the knight growled, unwilling to be overthrown by someone who was almost one and a half feet shorter than him.
"You want manners? Here." She was eventually released. "Bottle of vodka on the table if you want to down that shit. You feel like you're brave enough to resist chasing it down with Coke, go wild."
~*~
Pheme hadn't expected her little stunt to go off without a hitch, she knew there was no way he would accept her steamrolling her way into his house that easily. He'd procured a good grip on the back of her shirt, enough so that she had a moment of worry that he'd rip her clothing. She wisely stood still. "What's with you and the nicknames, Jules," the mini-goddess asked with a grin clear in her voice. She refused to let him think he had the upper hand for long.
"No fooling?" He was quickly becoming her favorite relative. She picked up the bottle, nodding slightly. "The good stuff, too. I'll hit that after I get back from the toilet."
~*~
That last part hadn't come expected, and it showed in the way Agravaine's eyebrows went up just slightly. He'd anticipated something along the lines of an 'ew, gross' or maybe some sort of refusal regarding her mother not letting her have alcohol. He was already underestimating her. But what did it matter? She'd drop off the letter and then be out of there.
He toed the door shut, not moving to lock the deadbolt. "Fine, knock yourself out."
~*~
Leaving the letter on the couch as she'd said she would, Pheme ran off in search of a bathroom. She assumed that he'd read the letter while she was in there, so she took her time. Once out, she gave herself a quick tour of her new abode before heading back out to the living room. "Should I grab a glass or drink straight from the bottle?"
She had never had vodka before, but there was a first time for everything. "Did you read that letter yet?"
~*~
During the time that Pheme had disappeared, the abandoned Agravaine snatched up the letter, ripped it open, and dropped down to the couch to read it. And he hadn't liked a single word of it. Every sentence brought a darker shadow to his face, so that by the time the letter was over, he wanted to rip it apart. Only his poor self-restraint could take credit for keeping his fingers from shredding the letter.
As she showed herself again, he stood, face drawn into an angry scowl.
"What the fuck is this shit?"
~*~
Waiting for an answer from Agravaine, Pheme had been standing poised to either head back into the living room or to go into the kitchen. At the sound of his voice and the anger behind it she blinked in feigned confusion, the urge to give a sarcastic answer fought down as she took a few steps towards him. It took a lot for her to feel genuinely afraid, and while she would never admit it she was feeling that way right now.
She knew what the letter said, and yet she wasn't sure what part made him so mad.
"What part?"
~*~
"What part?" Miraculously, the knight hadn't begun yelling just yet, his usually gravelly voice staying as such. "How about the 'Hi Julian, haven't seen you in fucking years, want to take care of my kid that you don't know about and see if you can't find out what idiot I let knock me up'?"
That hadn't been the phrasing at all -- in reality it'd been pleasant and cordial -- but paraphrasing made it a whole lot simpler than reading it out loud.
~*~
"Oh... that part." Sighing softly, the goddess kept her gaze focused on her feet as she found a place to sit down. She had no idea what she could say to him at the moment, the fact that he very obviously didn't want her here weighing heavily on her shoulders and effectively shutting her up for now. "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was that bad."
It was true, when he put it like that it seemed a lot worse than the flowery language her mama usually used. "So, does this mean you don't wanna keep me?"
~*~
Following her last words, the letter was subsequently rolled up into Agravaine's fist, but at least not ripped up. "Listen, you're not some stray I picked up off the street. You're a human being. You're a fucking preteen, for fuck's sake. You have people to take care of you. You think my sister can ship you with a letter to me without first telling me beforehand that I'd have to play babysitter, and that I'd be okay with it like it's no big fucking deal, I have nieces over all the damn time?"
He briskly ran a hand through his hair, already hating this moment. Hating, most of all, how he didn't want to simply boot her out on her ass. A thought then occurred to him.
"Who brought you here? Cab?"
~*~
Wincing at his rant, the annoyance in his words hitting Pheme's ears like a ton of bricks, she drew her knees up to her chest. "She sent you a letter, over a month ago. It's not my fault that she didn't know you moved or something. I can't go home, and the friend of hers I've been staying with is already sick of me, but if you don't want me here I'll find someone else. If my daddy's name is in that letter I'll try him, I bet he's nicer than you are anyway."
She had no idea if that was true or not, but she wasn't fond of sticking it out somewhere she wasn't wanted. She had some money left; she wasn't hopeless.
"Yeah, I paid for it myself."
~*~
So she had nowhere else to go. Fucking brilliant. Agravaine didn't care if the kid -- niece, his niece -- thought he wasn't nice. His goal in life wasn't to make people happy, and anyone who expected that didn't know him well enough.
The letter was tossed onto the couch next to the little blonde. "His name's not in there. What does she think I am, a goddamn detective? If she wants a cop, she should've gone to my other brother." Who happened to be in another state, but that was beside the point.
A breath was taken in, then exhaled out.
"Stay the damn night. The extra bedroom's full of shit, but just shove it off the bed. I'll call my sister in the morning." That vodka bottle was snagged at.
~*~
This wasn't exactly how she expected this meeting to go. At all. Pheme knew full well that her uncle obviously could give a shit as to her opinion of him, but she took a bit of comfort in the fact that he wasn't a complete moron like her step-father.
If he thought she would pick up the letter and read it he was wrong. "But you said she wanted you to see if you could find out what idiot knocked her up, and you'd need a name for that. Maybe I've got his name in the folder I was supposed to give you..." She pulled her suitcase over and opened it, pulling out a manila folder.
Handing it over to him, she didn't dare smile.
"I don't mind sleeping out here on your couch. I gotta be up early for school anyway." Looking up at him, she nodded slightly. "Thank you, uncle Julian."
~*~
The look he gave her wasn't quite a glare, but it wasn't entirely happy either. That folder was wordlessly snatched from her fingers once the vodka was out of his hands, and unimpressed, he began to flip through some of the pages.
Arron. The name was extremely familiar, but he couldn't place it. And the pictures, they looked familiar as well. Who was it? Agravaine didn't have a fucking clue, but apparently his sister wanted him to find out. He shook his head in disapproval, closing up the file. It'd get looked at in the morning, if he was feeling fucking generous.
"Whatever. You want a blanket, find one yourself. I have work in an hour." Under most circumstances, he might've been a touch more respectful. But he was pissed at his sister for dropping this kid off with him. With her not checking in to see if he got that supposed first letter, for thinking he had the time, patience, or dedication to find the guy who stuck his dick inside of her.
But Shrimpette was fucking cute, anyway.
Date/Time: Tuesday, 09/13 (backdated)
Location: Agravaine's apartment
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Agravaine's mouth. Pheme.
Summary: Agravaine meets the niece he never knew he had.
Standing outside the door to her uncles' apartment, Pheme took a deep breath. She considered herself to be many things - cunning, fearless, and smart among them - but at the moment she was feeling more nervous than she could ever remember. Even her first plane trip hadn't been as scary as the idea of introducing herself to the uncle who apparently had no idea she existed, and while starting high school wasn't exactly a picnic it wasn't as tough as getting to know a guy who seemed to radiate anger.
Still, there was no delaying the inevitable - he knew she was coming, and the sooner she knocked the sooner she could give him the letter and hopefully he'd understand. He had to.
~*~
Judging from the drink currently being tipped back into Agravaine's mouth, he wasn't really in the mood to understand anything. His older sister had a kid, and he'd never known. Fucking hell, how long had he been an unknowing uncle? There had been mutual estrangement when she'd left for school in Louisiana, but his brother at least kept in touch once in a while, mostly on holidays and his birthday.
The second the kid was gone, he was going to call up Naomi and ask her what the fuck she was thinking sending her kid to New York City to find him.
~*~
Having been staring at the door for long enough to get a few curious looks, Pheme's mind was finally made up. Raising her fist, she gave the door two quick knocks, stepping back so that she'd be in plain view once the door was opened. The guy had shown that he was a big talker on the forum, and she took that to mean he was probably tall as well, and she didn't want him to claim he didn't see her.
While she waited for him to answer the door, she wondered how he'd react when he read the note. She had lied when she told him she hadn't read it, but he didn't need to know that.
~*~
The remainder of the vodka and Coke was downed the moment the knock sounded, and lowering the glass down on the table with a clink of ice, the knight pushed up to his feet. Must've been the girl. How old had she said she was again, turning fourteen soon? So she'd be a short little brat.
But he wasn't expecting just how short when the front door was unlocked and tugged open. His line of sight went right over her head, lowering to her face only after he realized he really was dealing with a shrimpy kid. Dumb silences weren't his thing, so he raised both eyebrows.
"Kid."
~*~
Her frustration at the way his gaze went right over her head for the first few moments was almost palpable as Pheme crossed her arms over her chest and resisted the urge to say something or tap her foot. It occurred to her that he might be doing it deliberately, but she had no way of being sure.
Instead, she waited for him to actually notice her, offering him a tight smile when he finally did. Between his raised eyebrows and the curt way he greeted her she could tell she was in for a long night. Uncrossing her arms, she offered him a quick, sarcastic wave, holding out an envelope.
"That's me. You gonna invite me in?"
~*~
"Can't just hand me the letter and get it over with?" was the first thing Agravaine shot back, less in irritation. He leaned an arm up against the doorframe, blocking her entrance. But she was small enough to dodge inside if she was brave enough, or stupid enough.
That was when he noticed the little suitcase, pint-sized and perfect for the shrimp. The hell.
~*~
"Don't you got any manners? Y'all should at least offer me a drink," was the answer Pheme delivered with a smirk. She studied him for a moment, taking in the size of the gap in the doorway. Grabbing her suitcase handle, she maneuvered it in front of her, and used it as a battering ram to push past him.
"I'll put the letter on your chair, where's your bathroom?"
~*~
Agravaine might've been over six feet tall, but it didn't mean he could anticipate every move from a smaller person. She'd managed to shove her way past him, but before she could stroll away any further, he sank his fingers into the back of her tee and held tight. "Not so fucking fast, tater tot," the knight growled, unwilling to be overthrown by someone who was almost one and a half feet shorter than him.
"You want manners? Here." She was eventually released. "Bottle of vodka on the table if you want to down that shit. You feel like you're brave enough to resist chasing it down with Coke, go wild."
~*~
Pheme hadn't expected her little stunt to go off without a hitch, she knew there was no way he would accept her steamrolling her way into his house that easily. He'd procured a good grip on the back of her shirt, enough so that she had a moment of worry that he'd rip her clothing. She wisely stood still. "What's with you and the nicknames, Jules," the mini-goddess asked with a grin clear in her voice. She refused to let him think he had the upper hand for long.
"No fooling?" He was quickly becoming her favorite relative. She picked up the bottle, nodding slightly. "The good stuff, too. I'll hit that after I get back from the toilet."
~*~
That last part hadn't come expected, and it showed in the way Agravaine's eyebrows went up just slightly. He'd anticipated something along the lines of an 'ew, gross' or maybe some sort of refusal regarding her mother not letting her have alcohol. He was already underestimating her. But what did it matter? She'd drop off the letter and then be out of there.
He toed the door shut, not moving to lock the deadbolt. "Fine, knock yourself out."
~*~
Leaving the letter on the couch as she'd said she would, Pheme ran off in search of a bathroom. She assumed that he'd read the letter while she was in there, so she took her time. Once out, she gave herself a quick tour of her new abode before heading back out to the living room. "Should I grab a glass or drink straight from the bottle?"
She had never had vodka before, but there was a first time for everything. "Did you read that letter yet?"
~*~
During the time that Pheme had disappeared, the abandoned Agravaine snatched up the letter, ripped it open, and dropped down to the couch to read it. And he hadn't liked a single word of it. Every sentence brought a darker shadow to his face, so that by the time the letter was over, he wanted to rip it apart. Only his poor self-restraint could take credit for keeping his fingers from shredding the letter.
As she showed herself again, he stood, face drawn into an angry scowl.
"What the fuck is this shit?"
~*~
Waiting for an answer from Agravaine, Pheme had been standing poised to either head back into the living room or to go into the kitchen. At the sound of his voice and the anger behind it she blinked in feigned confusion, the urge to give a sarcastic answer fought down as she took a few steps towards him. It took a lot for her to feel genuinely afraid, and while she would never admit it she was feeling that way right now.
She knew what the letter said, and yet she wasn't sure what part made him so mad.
"What part?"
~*~
"What part?" Miraculously, the knight hadn't begun yelling just yet, his usually gravelly voice staying as such. "How about the 'Hi Julian, haven't seen you in fucking years, want to take care of my kid that you don't know about and see if you can't find out what idiot I let knock me up'?"
That hadn't been the phrasing at all -- in reality it'd been pleasant and cordial -- but paraphrasing made it a whole lot simpler than reading it out loud.
~*~
"Oh... that part." Sighing softly, the goddess kept her gaze focused on her feet as she found a place to sit down. She had no idea what she could say to him at the moment, the fact that he very obviously didn't want her here weighing heavily on her shoulders and effectively shutting her up for now. "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was that bad."
It was true, when he put it like that it seemed a lot worse than the flowery language her mama usually used. "So, does this mean you don't wanna keep me?"
~*~
Following her last words, the letter was subsequently rolled up into Agravaine's fist, but at least not ripped up. "Listen, you're not some stray I picked up off the street. You're a human being. You're a fucking preteen, for fuck's sake. You have people to take care of you. You think my sister can ship you with a letter to me without first telling me beforehand that I'd have to play babysitter, and that I'd be okay with it like it's no big fucking deal, I have nieces over all the damn time?"
He briskly ran a hand through his hair, already hating this moment. Hating, most of all, how he didn't want to simply boot her out on her ass. A thought then occurred to him.
"Who brought you here? Cab?"
~*~
Wincing at his rant, the annoyance in his words hitting Pheme's ears like a ton of bricks, she drew her knees up to her chest. "She sent you a letter, over a month ago. It's not my fault that she didn't know you moved or something. I can't go home, and the friend of hers I've been staying with is already sick of me, but if you don't want me here I'll find someone else. If my daddy's name is in that letter I'll try him, I bet he's nicer than you are anyway."
She had no idea if that was true or not, but she wasn't fond of sticking it out somewhere she wasn't wanted. She had some money left; she wasn't hopeless.
"Yeah, I paid for it myself."
~*~
So she had nowhere else to go. Fucking brilliant. Agravaine didn't care if the kid -- niece, his niece -- thought he wasn't nice. His goal in life wasn't to make people happy, and anyone who expected that didn't know him well enough.
The letter was tossed onto the couch next to the little blonde. "His name's not in there. What does she think I am, a goddamn detective? If she wants a cop, she should've gone to my other brother." Who happened to be in another state, but that was beside the point.
A breath was taken in, then exhaled out.
"Stay the damn night. The extra bedroom's full of shit, but just shove it off the bed. I'll call my sister in the morning." That vodka bottle was snagged at.
~*~
This wasn't exactly how she expected this meeting to go. At all. Pheme knew full well that her uncle obviously could give a shit as to her opinion of him, but she took a bit of comfort in the fact that he wasn't a complete moron like her step-father.
If he thought she would pick up the letter and read it he was wrong. "But you said she wanted you to see if you could find out what idiot knocked her up, and you'd need a name for that. Maybe I've got his name in the folder I was supposed to give you..." She pulled her suitcase over and opened it, pulling out a manila folder.
Handing it over to him, she didn't dare smile.
"I don't mind sleeping out here on your couch. I gotta be up early for school anyway." Looking up at him, she nodded slightly. "Thank you, uncle Julian."
~*~
The look he gave her wasn't quite a glare, but it wasn't entirely happy either. That folder was wordlessly snatched from her fingers once the vodka was out of his hands, and unimpressed, he began to flip through some of the pages.
Arron. The name was extremely familiar, but he couldn't place it. And the pictures, they looked familiar as well. Who was it? Agravaine didn't have a fucking clue, but apparently his sister wanted him to find out. He shook his head in disapproval, closing up the file. It'd get looked at in the morning, if he was feeling fucking generous.
"Whatever. You want a blanket, find one yourself. I have work in an hour." Under most circumstances, he might've been a touch more respectful. But he was pissed at his sister for dropping this kid off with him. With her not checking in to see if he got that supposed first letter, for thinking he had the time, patience, or dedication to find the guy who stuck his dick inside of her.
But Shrimpette was fucking cute, anyway.