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

[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.