See Me After Class

[ngm_adults]

It was their usual study session. Audhild was coming along well. Right now, she was slowly reading aloud from one of the Leonora Hornblow nature books and asking questions.

Sometimes problematic questions.

"I assure you, Audhild, the kiwi is still a bird."

Comments

[vincent_amora]

Once Kristoff had shown up for Audhild's tutoring, Vincent had excused himself to run an errand. Just a quick stop at the liquor store that doesn't bother with ID's as well as they should on the way home for one bottle of absinthe. One of the only things he's found that doesn't need copious volume to put him at ease and push the things he doesn't want to be reminded of out of his head.

Really, just one bottle.

~~~

He holds the case against one hip as he gets out his keys for the apartment. He hasn't been able to bring himself to move, for fear of upsetting Audhild even further than Roxanne's absence already has, but the threshold still makes his skin crawl. He manages to get inside and heads for his room to buckle down on a term paper and a tech proposal for Stark.

He's not weathering the daylight as well as he'd like, but it's not like he's still drunk. He certainly has looked better though.

[ngm_adults]

"They do. And yet, they are feathers all the same, merely branching differently than most," Kristoff maintains calmly. "They have lost their wings...they haven even lost the muscles that would allow them to flap them. But they remain birds."

And Vincent came in. Looking like something that cat dragged in, except that no Doomstadt cat would have such poor taste.

In fact, he looks like ... Kristoff inhaled deeply. ...The very faint hint of anise.

"...Stomach problems, Mr. Amorason?" he asks drily.

[vincent_amora]

Vincent stops in his tracks, turning his head to give the older man an even look. (As even as he can manage since he's now facing the window and the rays of the accursed day-star.)

"This is for medicinal purposes, yes."

[pintsizedbruiser]

"Vincent?" She looks distressed. "Art thou well?"

He looks sick. This isn't good.

[ngm_adults]

"Audhild, I have a suggestion. It will allow you to practice forming letters, spelling, and analyzing arguments. Please write down everything that is strange about kiwis while Vincent and I discuss his condition and make sure he is drinking enough water."

[vincent_amora]

Vincent's gaze narrows and he puts the case down on the kitchen island, resigning himself to whatever line of questioning is coming.

"That will be very good practice for you, Audhild."

[pintsizedbruiser]

She gives them both a glance. Are they trying to protect her from grown-up talk? Probably. She smiles softly and nods.

"Okay. I'll need to read it again I think," she puts the book flat on the coffee table and turns the pages back with care.

[ngm_adults]

And they'll step right into Vincent's bedroom. Kristoff spots the radio and turns it to a station that quietly plays whalesong. Just in case. Then he speaks quietly.

"You appear to be in terrible condition and seem interested in becoming more so."

[vincent_amora]

"I'm fine, physically. Just a little overworked is all."

Vincent avoids Kristoff's gaze. "I'm still perfectly capable of taking care of Audhild.

[ngm_adults]

Silence.

[vincent_amora]

It's a harshly familiar silence, from Vincent's childhood. One he knows from experience that he can't out-wait.

"Dr Vernard... have you ever been dumped?"

[ngm_adults]

The slightest, nearly-imperceptible (but not quite) flinch.

"Once. Quite some time ago. A difficult time. And... I see. My condolences on losing your young lady. Normally, I would say that as a man you had the right to ruin yourself if you so chose. But you abdicated rights like that when you became our sister's guardian."

[vincent_amora]

"I just... need to be able to not think about her now and then." Vincent tries to explain, still not meeting Kristoff's gaze, but peripheral vision catches the near-flinch.

"A drink now and then helps. It's just temporary."

Which is what they all tell themselves.

[ngm_adults]

"Yes, Vincent, I am certainly going to trust our sister's welfare to someone spouting alcoholic cliches who cannot look me in the eye like a man."

[vincent_amora]

And at that, Kristoff will most certainly find Vincent looking at him, as he stands up abruptly.

He's giving him That Glare.

[ngm_adults]

"Thank you. Devel, you were starting to scare me. Wanting to be Stark is all very well if you like that sort of thing, but there are limits. Alcohol is not a valid coping mechanism. And memory is not something to reject. You have your own mind. You know who you are. That is not something to throw off to buy a moment's ease... and another, and another."

[vincent_amora]

At the sight of the older man's relief, Vincent executes what is possibly the definitive double-take of his life. He even blinks and takes a half-step backwards.

"For goodness' sake, Kristoff, didn't it occur to you I might have put you into the wall for that comment?" Vincent mumbles, quietly and incredulously, as he regains his train of thought.

"I'm not certain I do know who I am right now... Chronologically, Roxanne was the third great influence in my life, after my parents, and not counting Ultron. I became a better person while I was with her."

[ngm_adults]

Kristoff shrugs. "I have excellent medical care, and Audhild would be less frightened by the sounds of violence than your erratic behavior." Yes, for Kristoff, this covers the whole of that potential problem.

"If it was solely because of her, then we do have a problem, yes."

[vincent_amora]

Vincent sighs and sits back down, running a hand through his hair. "I've been able to keep myself together in front of Audhild and at work, but.. I just don't know how to deal with Roxanne not being in my life anymore."

Because just asking someone for help is much too obvious.

[ngm_adults]

"Go on," Kristoff says simply.

[vincent_amora]

"You... have him. Someone that anchors your life completely. I have Audhild now, but Roxanne has been there for me practically since the day I tumbled into this world.

It's about as significant a loss as I could imagine."

[ngm_adults]

"You have my sympathies. Go on."

[vincent_amora]

He begins pacing as he continues. "She... she wasn't a hero like anyone else I knew... well, except maybe Mr Storm's son, but he was a moron.

She had a good heart, but not so good it made me feel inadequate to be around her. She and I meshed well together... we were two ids aligned well; and... that turned into something more."

[ngm_adults]

" 'Ah, first love. When you know someone so beautiful,'" Kristoff quotes. " 'That you forget, they aren't there just for you.'"

[vincent_amora]

Vincent cringes. His brother sister's tutor has an increasingly annoying tendency to say accurate things, it would seem.

"I just... she told me I didn't do anything wrong. That she loved me. So why? What is so wrong with either of us that she can't let me help her?"

[ngm_adults]

"Because the women have loved and may have loved us are not something we can fix, Vincent. Sometimes their personal problems are, in fact, personal on a level that has nothing to do with us."

[vincent_amora]

"I'm one of the, at least, thirty smartest people on earth, an accomplished sorcerer, a demi-god, and most importantly of all in this instance, her lover. I'm supposed to be able to fix everything, or at least be allowed to try!"

He's practically throwing a tantrum at this point, which is the most communication he's allowed himself up until this point, to be honest.

[ngm_adults]

"All right. Let's consider it. Suppose we were commissioned with 'Fixing Roxanne Danvers.' We run the equations. We cast the diagnostic spells. The solution is clear: Roxanne must spend time alone, without a lover, to better come to terms with the problem. Your course of action then?"

[vincent_amora]

Once again, Vincent is stopped more abruptly than he was prepared for. His jaw clenches and a gurgling noise comes up as he practically chokes on his indignation.

[ngm_adults]

Kristoff has stood under his father's gaze, and his father's temper, for 23 years. He holds fast.

"Let us hear it, Mr. Amorason. Because this is not a hypothetical. Miss Danvers has clearly reached this solution through her own methods. And if you truly respected her enough to have loved her, you have to accept that her methods were valid for her needs."

[vincent_amora]

Vincent lets out a noise that is somewhere between a huff and a snarl.

"..." He has a false start at saying something, before another pause, and looking away from Kristoff.

"Audhild still needs me." He simply says.

[ngm_adults]

"Indeed," Kristoff agrees blandly.

[vincent_amora]

"..what did you do when you were dumped?"

[ngm_adults]

"One glass of brandy, I will admit. One complete overhaul of the Doomstadt Hospital. And then I put the fear of Doom into the Ambassador of Croatia, but that was in the national interest as well as cathartic. And then I kept going. Forward momentum; that's how one finds one's life again"

[vincent_amora]

Vincent goes quiet again.

"I do have a lot on my plate to throw myself into...

And Audhild has been asking if you'd like to accompany us to an amusement park."

[ngm_adults]

A pause. "...I wish to accompany the two of you, yes."

[vincent_amora]

"I'll let you know when I work out a schedule." And, unless he's stopped by Kristoff, Vincent will turn off the radio and go see how Audhild is doing so far.