(Untitled)

[acarelesslife]

The worst things happen when a person's guard is down. Horror and evil, after all, can spout from innocence - ignorance, better named. It was a lesson that Leon Tallis had not learned in the first twenty-nine years of his life. Laughing at the follies of the world and ignoring your own missteps, that was the rule he had lived by. It had served him

Comments

[emilyiris]

The chocolate hits Emmy in the forehead and she blinks at the man who threw it at her. It falls down on the floor.

"Ow!" says Emmy and rubs her head forehead, staring at him. "Owww! Not supposed to throw things!" Her little lip starts to stick out. "Throwing's naughty."

[acarelesslife]

"Oh, hell-" Leon had barely looked up before tossing the chocolate, for he had only seen the shadow in the door and thought to get it out of his hands as quickly as possible. He had never thought it might be a child. "Damn, um. You're right, you're right, that was... very bad of me and I shouldn't have done it. Er-" He went over to wear the candy bar had fallen and knelt to retrieve it, which also brought him eye level with the poor girl. He did his best to look contrite. "I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me?"

[emilyiris]

Emmy pouts at him and rubs her nose with one of her hands.

"Say sorry," she says pointedly. "Or m'tell Mum."

[acarelesslife]

"I am very, very, very sorry and do hope that you can some day forgive me, miss." He felt a small grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. Leon did feel badly, but she was no worse for wear. He would have offered her the candy, but the amo bar was something he would not wish upon anyone.

[dinnerfor1_girl]

Sally crouched in order to catch the candy, curling it up against her chest and staring at it warily, eyeing him with a rather doubtful look. "Is this a message that you think I need to gain weight? Or that I need to lose it?"

[acarelesslife]

The expression Leon shot her was far from amused, which was rather unusual for him. "It isn't a message about you at all, Sally." He sounded tired and sunk into a chair at the table, eying the crate as if it was something more sinister than a small crate of chocolate bars, chin propped on the heel of his hand. "I'm not certain one could actually classify it as food, anyway, so it will probably do no harm to your figure."

[dinnerfor1_girl]

She studied the thing, flipping it back and forth and examining it before sitting down next to him and sliding the bar across the table in his direction once more, pursing her lips slightly. "Well, whatever it is, it's not exactly packaged liked the most appealing product in the world," she said dismissively. "What is it?"

[acarelesslife]

"It's a candy bar. Chocolate, in theory." Leon didn't make a joke about the awful name, didn't even try to hide his discomfort in a dismissive grin. With lots of people he would have done that, but now he didn't, and wasn't even sure why. "I knew the bloke who manufactured 'em. Made a fortune, the bastard."

[turnthebadinme]

The warning came a bit too late for Serena to make a proper catch, but she managed to grab hold of the bar, gripping it quick against her chest, eyebrow arching. There was confusion in her smile even before she lifted up her hand to see what she held. "Rainbow Amo Bar?" she read. "Leon, didn't your mother tell you not to play with your food?" She wasn't sure what else it could be, despite the unappetizing name.

[acarelesslife]

"I'm not certain it's actually food." Leon leaned back against the edge of the table and smiled ruefully, but it was a smile that did not quite reach his eyes. "Well, I'm certain there's got to be some kind of food in it, but no chocolate. You'll have to forgive the name, Paul never had much imagination. Actually, you don't have to forgive the name at all, it's awful." And for a moment the smile was gone entirely, replace for a moment with an uncharacteristic grimace.

[turnthebadinme]

Serena hadn't considered that it might, in fact, belong to Leon. She'd assumed that it was just one more thing given to them by whatever gave them the rest of the food in their stores. Still, though she'd never been the brightest or cleverest, she was fairly good at reading people, and everything here indicated that, not only were the bars Leon's, he was less than pleased by their appearance. Instinctively, recalling her own gift from the place, she softened. Walking over, she laid the bar back in the crate, having no particular interest in trying it. "Something from home?" she asked, voice light.

[acarelesslife]

Leon shrugged. "I suppose." When he had seen it sitting there, he had not quite thought of it as one of those things from home so often spoken of with dread. "Though if something's going to start sending me things, they might have started with one of the bottles of brandy I was saving for a special occassion and not bloody imitation chocolate."

[piratekingswann]

Elizabeth did catch - she was a good catch mostly and she peered at her new acquisition and then at the vaguely familiar face who'd thrown it. She only recognised what it was because the island had provided chocolate in such forms at various holidays - quite unlike the chocolate she'd had at home.

"Isn't this quite rare," she said curious. And then she opened it and took a bite because she liked sweets and it was not as if there was any point in her watching her figure any more anyway.

[acarelesslife]

For a single moment that brought his heart to his throat, Leon thought it was Cecilia standing in the doorway. Her name was even on his lips. Only the day before had he learned of his sister's disappearance and he still felt too sharply the ragged edge where she was missing from his life. Her absence only stung all the more because he had never won his way back into her favor and probably never would have.

This is what seeing a ghost must feel like, he thought in a mad sort of way.

But this woman was blonder and younger, her movement not as graceful as Cee's were. He realized that it could not be her and a moment later thought he must be gaping. "I suppose," he managed and sank into the chair at the table. "Not promising it's very good."

[piratekingswann]

The look she received and the further reaction, reminded Elizabeth of where she had seen him before. "Still Elizabeth, I'm afraid," she said with a shrug. She took another bite of the chocolate, it was waxy and had an after taste that was unpleasant but as Elizabeth found herself perpetually craving sweet things and was bored with fruit she persevered.

"Is it some island occasion I'm unaware of," she asked. "Or this a present to you in particular?"

[acarelesslife]

"I know." Leon didn't say how he knew. He saw no reason to explain to a stranger that he would know from now on that any time he saw Cecilia's face, it was not really her. More than the disappearance itself, more than the damn box of chocolates on the table behind him, that fact would mock him for weeks, months, perhaps even years. But he buried his shock and ignored the way the very presence of the crate made him feel ill. "It's for me, but 'present' isn't quite the word I'd use. Terrible stuff. If it was the island providing it, I would have to have Words." He made a face to express his dislike for this particular chocolate.

[never_atone]

A bar of chocolate -- any flying object for that matter -- had been the last thing Briony had expected to encounter as she entered the kitchen. But there it was, sailing through the air at her, and she dashed sharply to the side so as to avoid being hit. The flat item hit against the ground with a dull patter, skidding over the smooth floor until stopped by the opposite wall, and Briony bent to retrieve it.

"Leon, don't play like that," she chided, the faintest of smiles beginning to form on her face. Cee gone, but she still had Leon; that was something to take strength in. But then she read the lettering. "You'll catch-- Oh."

Oh, it was not play at all. She lifted her gaze to her brother, a silent question.

[acarelesslife]

"Sorry," Leon said with a small grimace. "I wasn't thinking and and I, well-" He shrugged and smiled ruefully, though none of the smile was in his eyes. This was not Leon's usual slouching grin, as much as he was trying to mimic it. This was something forced.

"Just showed up. Some kind of gift, I suppose. It's only chocolate." The last was an assurance of sorts, but not one that was directed at Briony. It's only chocolate, he repeated inside his mind. Nothing to get in a bloody twist about.

As if to prove that it didn't bother him, Leon picked up another one of the chocolate bars and tossed it absently into the air. "How're you, sis?"

[never_atone]

"Fine," Briony answered absently, her real attention focused on her brother. It took a great deal to put Leon, ever affable and easy Leon, out of sorts, and Briony knew that the appearance of a large box of chocolate meant nothing to him.

"It's a rotten gift," she said, entering the kitchen proper. She replaced the colorfully wrapped bar on the stack from which it came. "But at least it will satisfy the sweet tooths of those who don't know any better."

[acarelesslife]

Leon snorted quietly. "I suppose so, eh? I pity the poor souls. Wonder what te damn things taste like, anyway. Vegetable oil and food coloring, it always sounded like a terrible idea to me."

He found it much easier to imagine the gift was so very terrible only because the chocolate was, and not because of the past mistakes they caused him to remember. Chocolate could always be turned into a joke.