ic contact;

[originallutece]

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[roseblooms]

I think I'd like to break in, if it's all right with you. The challenge would give me something to think about.

I'm trying not to indulge in the whim of shutting down and seeking to feel nothing at all. But it does seem a bit masochistic, forcing myself to feel so happy and so awful all at once.

[originallutece]

You hardly have to force yourself. Not around me, anyway. I'm not going to judge you if you'd like to be bitter for a fair bit.

[roseblooms]

...I agree with it, you know. That it's the right thing to do.

It's completely detrimental to my own self-interest, but I wouldn't feel any sort of satisfaction in seeing Keiko's feelings hurt.

[originallutece]

I know.

[It is the right thing to do. Of course it is, and perhaps that's why it's so stunning to him: it goes against his very nature. Demons don't act unselfishly. They don't do the right thing, not when it hurts them so badly in the process.]

But it still hurts, even so.

[roseblooms]

Worse than a sword through the stomach.

(Before you ask, yes, I am speaking from personal experience.)

[originallutece]

Yes, I rather remember you mentioning that. It sticks out in the mind.

[. . .]

I won't force you to make a choice right now. Nor will I force my company on you if you truly don't wish for it. But if you do break in: tell me?

[roseblooms]

It sticks out more in the abdomen, I assure you.

...Will you forgive me something, Rosalind?

My answer is yes — I'll tell you, whatever it is I do. But forgive me something first.

[originallutece]

All right.

[roseblooms]

You mentioned a minute ago, your willingness to indulge me a certain measure of bitterness.

There's a favor I want to ask of you, but I don't know how to ask it without running the risk of being cruel.

[originallutece]

. . . you don't want me to speak of Robert.

[roseblooms]

...Well.

It's more that I don't...want to smell him on you.

[originallutece]

[YOU KNOW, THERE'S REQUESTS YOU'RE PREPARED FOR AND READY TO GRANT . . .]

I beg your pardon.

[roseblooms]

In your defense, I suppose it IS a form of speaking, albeit in scent instead of in words.

[originallutece]

Kurama, we share a bed, and I mean that chastely: we sleep side by side. There's very little chance you're ever not going to smell him on me.

Or is it primarily sex you're fussed about?

[roseblooms]

Are you asking me if I can tell the difference between the smell of chastity versus the other alternative?

Is that really a question you WANT an answer to?

[originallutece]

I rather think you've answered it.

[Good grief.]

What precisely is it you're asking me to do, here?

[roseblooms]

I'm not sure I even know myself, really.

The night I was attacked, after he destroyed my room, I convinced him to stay with me. I remember I all but made a nest of his bed and just...huddled there, like a kit in a den.

I keep thinking of things I've grown accustomed to and realizing belatedly that this likely means I'm not allowed to have them anymore.

[originallutece]

For now.

[It isn't that she's unsympathetic to his plight, after all.]

You're a tactile person, Kurama. For now, yes, I think things will rather edge towards one extreme, but it won't last. You'll be allowed to share a bed with him again, or hold his hand, or whatever other physical expressions of platonic affection you two have shared in the past. You'll be allowed that once more, once it won't hurt you both.

[roseblooms]

And Keiko. I don't want any of this to hurt her, either.

...

If you were in her place, her situation — would you hate me?

[originallutece]

Keiko is a much kinder person than I am, Kurama. And Yusuke and she don't have the same relationship Robert and I do.

[So yes, she would hate him. She's loathe him, because the Luteces don't share well with others, not in the least. (And yet then again: would she hate someone her Robert had chosen? If he presented it well, if he took her hand and kissed her and said, look, look who I found for us . . . mm. Perhaps. Certainly it's something worth thinking about).]

But I don't think she'll hate you, no. She may be a little cold for a while, but it's as we said before: Yusuke isn't a prize. This is as much on his head as it is yours. If she's going to hate one of you, she'll hate both of you, and I don't think she will.

[roseblooms]

Regardless of whether that's true or not, Rosalind, you're my favorite precisely the way you are.

[originallutece]

Is that so? I'll have to tell Robert, he'll be immensely jealous. But who wouldn't be?

[roseblooms]

I think your Robert is getting a bit fed up with me, frankly. He'll never manage to pay off his tab at this rate.

[originallutece]

The competition is good for him. It keeps him sharp. Although if you don't waive his tab soon, I'm going to be quite cross, Kurama.

[roseblooms]

Oh, rest assured, he's been making a good faith effort. I've been finding quite a bit of use in his knack for getting around from place to place in a hurry.