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Oct. 21st, 2010 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mnt_raphRighting a wrong is often times hard enough. When you're righting a wrong that's solidly embedded into how you see and carry yourself, it's damn near impossible. And that just the task set before Raph; righting a wrong that is...him. It's every fiber of his being. It's...the tree to his forest. The existence of water to his fish. The...well, you get the idea.
Raph had been stewing over Alanna's words for some time now. He'd killed many a bottle of Sam Adams in his attempts to see things from this completely new-to-him point of view. It was working, but...wow was that work slow going, and even as he did so he knew the hardest trial was yet to come: how best to approach Abigail. The hours rolled into days, and still he had made no headway into how to confront the woman he loved,...the woman he had inadvertantly wronged. Until one day, when he could stand the separation no longer, he returned to Tortall.
Standing outside the door to the barn where he knew her daily routine would most assuredly place her, he takes a deep, calming breath.
Instantly a memory from a few days previous surfaces.
Raph was helping Mike with dinner preparations, ie: setting the table, when suddenly he threw caution to the wind and asked his brother:
"How would you go about apologizin' to a really really angry woman?"
"Oral sex. Lots oral sex," replied his hedonistic youngest brother, without so much as missing a beat.
Raph had no words.
"But that's just me. For you?" Mike continued, ever unflappable. "I'd suggest something a little more Pop Warner and a little less Varsity. Flowers? Coupon for a free kick to the nethers?"
"I hate you so much right now."
"I know. But if you're asking me for advice, you clearly don't hate me nearly as much as Abigail hates you right now."
Mike wasn't wrong. Infuriatingly, he usually never is.
Which is why, as he pushes open the barn door, he's carring a Star-gazer Lilly in one hand.
Raph had been stewing over Alanna's words for some time now. He'd killed many a bottle of Sam Adams in his attempts to see things from this completely new-to-him point of view. It was working, but...wow was that work slow going, and even as he did so he knew the hardest trial was yet to come: how best to approach Abigail. The hours rolled into days, and still he had made no headway into how to confront the woman he loved,...the woman he had inadvertantly wronged. Until one day, when he could stand the separation no longer, he returned to Tortall.
Standing outside the door to the barn where he knew her daily routine would most assuredly place her, he takes a deep, calming breath.
Instantly a memory from a few days previous surfaces.
Raph was helping Mike with dinner preparations, ie: setting the table, when suddenly he threw caution to the wind and asked his brother:
"How would you go about apologizin' to a really really angry woman?"
"Oral sex. Lots oral sex," replied his hedonistic youngest brother, without so much as missing a beat.
Raph had no words.
"But that's just me. For you?" Mike continued, ever unflappable. "I'd suggest something a little more Pop Warner and a little less Varsity. Flowers? Coupon for a free kick to the nethers?"
"I hate you so much right now."
"I know. But if you're asking me for advice, you clearly don't hate me nearly as much as Abigail hates you right now."
Mike wasn't wrong. Infuriatingly, he usually never is.
Which is why, as he pushes open the barn door, he's carring a Star-gazer Lilly in one hand.
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Date: 2010-10-22 10:47 pm (UTC)And while he doesn't think Raph would ever actually lay a hand on his sister, he's felt first hand what the Shang is capable of. This is why he takes the gifted sword from behind the bar out with him to the yard.
"Oi! What's all this then? Why don't we take a step back so that cooler heads can prevail."
Which is a hell of a thing to say when you enter a fight armed, but Thomas is hoping the sight of the sword will remind Raph more of his promise to them than of an attack on his person.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 10:52 pm (UTC)"That so."
Beat.
"Family is different," she reminds Raph. "Well, mayhap you'll just have to be dealin' with mine for now."
no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 11:20 pm (UTC)"This ain't got nothin' to do with you, Thomas. Lower the sword an' go back inside before you get hurt."
The growl is aimed at Thomas, but Raph hasn't taken his eyes off Abigail.
Get hurt.
Hurt yourself.
Same difference ...right?
no subject
Date: 2010-10-23 12:04 am (UTC)"Not going to happen, Raph."
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Date: 2010-10-23 12:22 pm (UTC)Stubborn to her core, Abigail lifts her chin and gives Raph a withering look, feet planted in the soft dirt by their door. She won't desert Thomas, and the message couldn't be more obvious: It's time you cleared out for a while.
"You've got some thinkin' to do. Best get started somewhere you won't be distracted. When you can understand why I'm unhappy without shoutin' at me about how I should be done bein' angry about it, and say you're sorry without actin' all frustrated, you know I'll have an ale waitin'."
There. That's as much of a concession as he's going to get right now.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-23 01:38 pm (UTC)Of course, before Raph can get to Fine he has to pass the potential for violence first. And for what feels to him like a long time it almost seems as if that were some unsurmountable act.
It would be so easy. Just a few simple motions and Thomas is disarmed, on the ground, and potentially in a lot of pain. But no...no. That will. Not. Help.
He tells this to himself over and over. That. Will. Not. Help. His jaw clenches tightly, and his nostrils flair as he exhale the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
Without breaking eye contact, Raph throws down the flower as if it were one of his smokebombs, reaches into the neckline of his Tortall Appropriate shirt, and retrieves his Security badge. He's knows it's wrong to bring a door here right now, but right this second he doesn't care. Right this second he wants to hurt her just as much as he's being hurt.
Right this second he's all for seeing her stubborn, calling her bluff, and raising.
And then...nothing happens, at least nothing that Thomas and Abigail can see. The door only appears after Raph has given them a very curt ceremonial bow and put his hand on the knob. And even then it's just the door. When opened there's nothing behind, and yet the moment he crosses the threshold both he and the door are gone. All without so much as a sound, save for the lingering impression of chatter somewhere off in the distance.
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Date: 2010-10-24 12:16 pm (UTC)All this time he could do that?
Abigail takes a deep, shuddering breath and stares at the spot formerly occupied by Raph.
I love you too, you inconsiderate blockhead.
Mustering some small measure of nonchalance, Abigail swoops down on the flower and clutches it tightly, further crushing its stem. The look she gives Thomas asks -- no, demands -- that there be no questions just yet.
"Those layabouts inside aren't going to feed themselves, are they?" she snaps, lifting her chin as she stalks inside.
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Date: 2010-10-24 10:36 pm (UTC)Of all the things Thomas was expecting to happen after taking his Raph's sword and using it to defend Abigail, Raph disappearing into an equally disappearing door was certainly not on the list. Bleeding to death in the dirt was second to arriving in time to watch the two lovebirds make up, but the thing with the door? Kind of blindsided him.
This is why he has not a word to say as his sister turns to him before retreating back into the house. It's only after he hears the latch of the back door click shut that he manages to find words, and they're stolen from the man who just made the most amazing exit Thomas has ever seen.
"Fucking hell."