Picking Up The Pieces

[vincent_amora]

So... that was it. He wasn't an Avenger anymore. Vincent felt very uncertain, about almost everything. He'd already spoken to Bruce, and consulted with his academic advisor about temporarily scaling back his course-load. He had an appointment with Stark at the end of the week to discuss his position there. Audhild was going to be well-educated and provided for. He'd even worked out a grocery list for the next few weeks and fully cleaned the apartment.

He'd done everything he could think of, he'd been so intent on putting this off.

He picks up the phone and dials a number that he'd resolved not to for some time.

"Hello... Roxanne."

Comments

[vincent_amora]

"Kristoff, I--" Vincent runs a hand through his hair. "I think I need to be around someone before I... do something unwise. Are you busy?"

[ngm_adults]

"First, where is Audhild? Second, if I am comfortable with the answer to the first, there is nothing I cannot handle later."

[vincent_amora]

"Audhild is receiving private instruction, from an accredited professional I personally vetted and screened--" magically and mentally, but he doesn't want to get into that right now. "--in unarmed combat. She wanted to have something to learn outside of her schooling, and rejected the suggestions of piano or dance or something like that." He shrugs to himself. "She wants to be a warrior. I have her under several different alarm spells, and a remote observational drone is with her as well."

[ngm_adults]

"Excellent. Rather than ask you to set foot on even figurative Latverian soil, would you care to meet at the only place that makes decent banitsa in this city?"

[vincent_amora]

"That will be fine." A pause. "Thank you for the consideration... I'll see you there shortly."

He decides to walk and take public transit, rather than fly or teleport. He'd rather he give his stomach time to stop churning before walking into another eatery.

[ngm_adults]

Kristoff orders tea and banitsa, and stands when his brother gets there until he's seated, because that's how he rolls.

"How unwise?"

[vincent_amora]

"I had to think about whether calling you or drinking again was what I really wanted to do..." He sighs heavily, nodding to Kristoff as he seats himself.

"I... met with Roxanne today."

[ngm_adults]

"I am grateful that you are not an idiot. And how is Miss Danvers?"

[vincent_amora]

"She's... doing better. She's got the life back in her.

And she's with someone else now." He says conversationally, falling into solemnness.

[ngm_adults]

"Ah. Tea?"

[vincent_amora]

"Please.

I... said something to her... and even just as I was second-guessing why I said it, she... she accused me of saying it just to make her feel guilty. To manipulate her.

Just a moment after I'd been thinking it could work that way... that it was what either of them would do. My parents."

[ngm_adults]

Kristoff pours the tea for both of them.

"Did you apologize for being inappropriate?"

[vincent_amora]

Vincent thinks over his exact words, then shakes his head in the negative. "No. I explained the reason I was asking. The reason I'm almost sure I was asking." He takes the teacup between his hands, focusing on the warmth of it.

"I had to think very hard about Audhild afterwards. Remind myself that she still needs me to keep things together. To not make any more mistakes." Absinthe being foremost among some of his recent mistakes.

[ngm_adults]

"Why are you almost sure?"

[vincent_amora]

He sips his tea. "Because even before she replied, the thought had already crossed my mind of how the same words could be used as manipulation. There's a chance I was doing it unconsciously.

I wasn't expecting us to become lovers again. I just wanted to see her... maybe take in dinner and a movie together."

[ngm_adults]

Kristoff sips his tea in silence.

[vincent_amora]

"I was prepared for her to say no... really I was. I just.. I thought she'd gotten better on her own." His grip on the cup starts to tighten. "I didn't realize there was... that there was someone who was able to do what she didn't think I could."

[ngm_adults]

"You think the fact that she's reached the point where someone else can make her happy means she was inaccurate in saying she needed time alone?"

[vincent_amora]

"It means I am not sufficient to the tasks I've set before myself. I can't let that happen again."

And oh dear but being bitter over someone else solving a problem they couldn't has a certain hereditary bent, doesn't it?

[ngm_adults]

"Why did you kill your father?" Kristoff asks him abruptly. "Yes, I know, unsuccessfully, but in your mind, you did."

[vincent_amora]

Vincent lifts his head, surprised by that question, but he finds no reason not to answer. He largely considers all that far behind him.

"I had decided that he was wrong. He kept talking about 'when' we would return to Earth. I decided the planet was similar enough to Earth, for my purposes anyway."

He pauses, and gives a flat gaze. "And yes, I realize now how foolish thoughts of ruling the world are.

He'd grown old. I thought he had let the planet domesticate him. I had decided to be true to my nature, such as it was, and I knew he'd be the biggest obstruction to that.

So he had to die.

I had simply... done the math."

[ngm_adults]

"Interesting." More tea. "Being true to one's nature is an... interesting topic."

[vincent_amora]

More tea is good.

"I don't even know what my nature is anymore."

[ngm_adults]

"So you've said," Kristoff says, and something in his voice is ... off. Not his usual even-ness, but not showing what most people would call emotion either.

[vincent_amora]

"I'm sorry to put this on you. I'm not your responsibility. I just... I didn't think anything good would come of me being left to my own devices after that meeting.

I won't tie up your time for too long."