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Continuation of Blood Past, Foster Future

A

Azuriyuu

Star
Joined
Jan 10, 2009
DarknessEmbraced666 said:
Alexandria shrugged off her leather coat before hanging it on the back of one of the chairs in the kitchen and she moved over to the fridge where she pulled out a bottle of water. She turned to him as he asked about his room and she nodded as she opened her water and took a drink. "Right this way." she said to him before leading the way back down the hall away from the kitchen towards the living room where she turned down the only other hallway in the house. Down the hall was a bathroom and a closet on the left then a bedroom on the right with another bedroom at the very end of the hall.

She stopped infront of the bedroom across from the bathroom and she entered, looking around the almost completely empty room. "This one will be yours." she said to him. "I wasn't sure what sort of things you liked, so I had it painted white and you can change it as you wish." The only thing in the room was a five piece bedroom set. The furniture was made of solid cherry oak, but it all had an oriental style and design to it.

The headboard of the bed had dragons engraved into the wood with what looked like some kind of Asian symbol in the four corners that were ment to bring peaceful sleep and keep away any bad dreams. The matress was bare, but sitting in one of the corners was a set of white sheets and a comforter with a pillow, but it was all packed up so it wouldn't absorb the smell of the paint. The dresser, desk and side tables were designed much in the same way as the bed. "I wasn't sure if you would actually come home with me, but I had ordered the bedroom set just in case. I was told you liked oriental things and I saw this."
Click to expand...

Bartiel followed silently when he reached the bedroom where he would be staying. He kept his hands behind his back as he stepped quietly, seeming to be taking in the sights, although he let out a slightly displeased grunt as he approached the bedroom, not yet seeing into it, the scent of the paint in the air already disturbing him just slightly. When he looked into the room, though, he paused just a little bit, hesitating for a moment when he saw the room.

To say that it was everything he wanted in a bedroom wouldn't be truly accurate, because it wasn't. It was more. The redhead was caught breathless for just a little bit as he gazed into the room, stepping in. Reaching up to plug his sensitive nose, he desperately forced back a slowly oncoming headache, looking around for a moment before turning back and giving a soft smile. Leaving the room, he stood directly facing Alexandria. For a moment, he remained silent, his eyes facing hers' without saying a word, before he decided to speak up.

“...Thank you,” he said with a very slight smile, before looking back in... although his eye twitched. “...Although that paint smell is really fucking me up. Do you have some place I can lay down?” he asked. Apparently he was very sensitive to such a scent.
 
Alexandria felt a wave of relief wash over her when he smiled at her and she softly sighed with a small smile. She was worried for a moment that he really wouldn't like it. "Yeah, you can rest on the couch for now." she said gently. She would of placed a hand on his back but she didn't know how he felt about being touched. "The whole house is open to you except for my bedroom and the small office back by the kitchen." she said as she led him towards the large living room. "Please don't go into the office. It's a mess and I have important files everywhere from my work."

She stopped next to the couch and leaned against the back of it with a soft sigh. "You can eat anything you wish in the kitchen, I don't really mind. And you can watch anything you want on TV. There's a movie collection in the small cupboard in the corner." She looked at him with a small smile before shrugging. "I really hope that you at least enjoy your stay here a little."
 
Bartiel nodded and gave a weak smirk when she said that he could rest on the couch. “Thanks,” he murmured softly as she said that the house was open except for her bedroom and the small office by the kitchen. Following her, he found himself entirely curious exactly what was in the office and his instincts to explore prodded him and told him that it might be worth checking out, but he forced those curious instincts back, instead focusing on Alexandria as she led him to the couch.

Sitting on the couch, he let out a soft, relaxed sigh as she mentioned that he could read watch TV. Thinking about it as he laid back for a moment, he shrugged. “I didn't really have a TV when I was young, so I prefer books,” he said. Truthfully he sometimes liked movies, because he used to go to the movies every Sunday with the first parents who adopted him, but for the most part he was a book guy. “Mind if I go to the library tomorrow?”
 
Alexandria smiled at him and nodded slightly. "You're welcome." she said softly while looking around the the living room. It was only then that she noticed that her house looked rather unlived in and she frowned slightly. She hoped that having a teen in the house would change that. Leaning against the back of the couch next to where he was sitting, she smiled at Bartiel.

"Sure, that's fine with me." she said to him. She brushed her bangs back from her face and smiled once more before looking up at the clock with a sigh. "I'm going to either order out or cook something to eat. Is there anything in particular that you like to eat?"
 
The redhead looked at her as she looked around. As she smiled at him, he quietly watched his adoptive mother. The woman was a beautiful woman when she smiled. He kept quiet about that fact, though, not wanting to open that much of his opinion open to her....quite yet. He was thankful to her in many ways, but he remained cautious. So many people gave him smiles on the surface but growled at him after they got to know him. Remembering that, for a moment his expression dulled...

But in the past he'd made a vow to not go into an emo-y, wangsty brooding state, so instantly he sharpened his face back into a relaxed, semi-smile. When she asked if there was anything he wanted to eat, he paused. “Hrm... How about some kind of salad? I ration the amount of meat I eat for health reasons,” he explained, rubbing the back of his head.

“I especially eat a lot of cheese and milk because my body has a problem processing calcium. It's not a big deal, I just have to saturate my blood with the stuff or my bones won't absorb it properly,” he explained.
 
She noticed his expression dull a little before he smiled a little once again and she slowly nodded. "Sure, I'll be able to put together a salad." she said to him with an understanding smile. "Anything in particular you want or don't want on it?" She made a mental note to buy real cheese and milk. She tended to buy soy products insted of things with milk since she was lactose intollerant. Once he was done telling her about why he ate alot of cheese and milk, she nodded again.

"I'm going to go on a shopping trip either later tonight or tomorrow evening to get more groceries." she said to him. "You can come with me if you want or if you don't, you can write up a list of things you'll need. I don't buy stuff with milk since I'm lactose intollerant, so I'll be sure to pick up some milk and cheese for you."

Alexandria knew that she was going to have to change a good bit of things in her life and she accepted that. It was one of the things that came with having someone else in her life. She also knew that plenty of people would be upset and angry with having to change how things were, but it was easy to see that she was accepting of it.
 
He shrugged when she asked if there was anything he wanted or didn't want. “I'm not too picky, but... croûtons! A good salad has croûtons! Or something crunchy, anyways,” he said, giving a decisive nod, trying to look wise as he crossed his legs while sitting on the couch in a 'wise man' pose. His eyes opened afterwards as she said that she was lactose intolerant. At that, he paused, opening one eye and sitting back.

“It's alright if I go without for a few days – I just have to take a calcium supplement,” he commented with a light frown. For whatever reason he found it easier to just eat right than to remember to take a supplement every day, but he'd have to try. Looking at her, he noticed how willing she seemed to just change things, his expression being one of examining for a moment.

After the moment passed, Bartiel spoke up. “Why're you so friendly and helpful, anyways? I mean, I like it, but it's...not what I'm used to,” he said, trying to be polite instead of saying it was weird.
 
She softly laughed and shook her head slightly in amusement at his decisiveness, brushing his bangs out of her face. Alexandria somehow knew that she would enjoy having him around, even if they might have a small fight or something once in a while. She slowly nodded with a small smile. "Alright. But I have to go to the store anyways. I'm running low on my favorite candy." she said with a wide grin. "Dots and caramel clusters." She offered him a childish grin before softly sighing.

"You mean weird." she said with a chuckle. "You don't have to tiptoe around things with me." Slowly, Alexandria moved around around the couch and sat down next to Bartiel with her hands folded in her lap. "Bartiel.... when I was younger, not much younger then you are now, I didn't have people there that cared for me and when I got into trouble.... there was no one I could turn to. I want to be here to help you if you need it."

Slowly, Alexandria looked up and gazed at a picture on the wall. It was the only real family portrait that she really had. It was before her life went down hill and she made mistakes that she had regreted her entire life.
 
He blinked and nodded when she mentioned her favorite candy. Candy is the rot of nutrition, he almost said, but he refrained, since he indulged in sweets occasionally. But for him, chocolate was to be consumed like regular people drank wine, to show how often he ate sweets. Still, when she said weird, he chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Fine. It's weird. Not bad, but still, weird,” he said to her before all of a sudden he felt her move closer.

He stiffened up for a moment. He was always cautious of people coming too close, but he allowed her to approach his person so closely to speak up as she folded her hands into her lap. For a moment, as she gazed at the picture on the wall, he looked up and saw her family. After a moment, he paused, before reaching into her lap and grabbing one of her hands. He brought her hand up in his and bowed his head low. “Thank you,” was all he said softly while holding her hands in his. Her skin was...soft. Soft, compared to his fingers and hands which were calloused and hardened. The back of his hands were scarred as were his arms, a symbol of the time in the earlier part of his teenage years when he lived in a gang-controlled part of town and stood up for himself. The softness of her hands caused his pale cheeks to just barely become a tint pinker.

“Well, if you're going to help me, I'll help you,” he said, letting her hand go. “My power isn't much, but it's still yours to use if you need that little bit,” he said, looking at her for a moment before looking away to hide the blush on his cheeks.
 
Alexandria made sure to stay far enough away from him not to over crowd him but close enough for him to hear her as she speaks to him. She softly laughed when he chuckled and nodded slightly. But when he took one of her hands into his, she tensed a little. It had been a long time since anyone had touched her in any way and she wasn't used to it. Alexandria felt her cheeks redden a little as she blushed and she nodded slightly before softly sighing.

"You're welcome Bartiel." she said gently. As he held her hand, she couldn't help but to notice how rough his hands were and she moved her fingers a little to touch his skin curiously. The woman looked up at him as he spoke and released her hand, which she placed back into her lap. "I am grateful for your offer Bartiel." She looked up at her family picture again and stared at it for several minutes before smiling and finally saying. "I think I'm going to enjoy this change. It's about time I did something anyways."
 
The redhead didn't seem to respond to the feeling of her soft fingers moving against his rough hands, although he did note the feeling, and he actually enjoyed it slightly. He hadn't noticed the reddening of her cheeks, more focused on his own embarassment and shyness. In response to her words, he spoke up. “If the body and the condition are unchanging and stagnant, the mind and soul rot,” Bartiel said coolly. It sounded pretty smart, and he did believe it. For a moment, he continued to stay right there, remaining calm in the silence of the moment.

...Until his stomach growled. At that, he blanched slightly. “Y'know, it completely ruins the effect if I say something awesome, and then my stomach growls,” he said with a frown, shaking his head. “Can we order out now?”
 
She remained silent as they sat next to each other before looking over at him as he spoke. Alexandria thought about what he had said. To her it did make sense and she actually agreed with it. Slowly she nodded with a gentle sigh and she brushed her hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. Then his stomach growled and she giggled softly with a smile. "You're right, it does ruin the effect." she said to him before nodding. "Yeah, we can order something out."

She stood up and stretched with a soft sigh. "Come on, lets go look at the order out menues I have in the kitchen." she said and turned, walking out of the living room and down the hall to the kitchen where she opened one of the drawers and removed several menues. There was pizza, italian, thai and chinese as well as a menue to a sub shop.
 
Bartiel nodded and smiled sheepishly as he watched her go to the kitchen when she said that she had some order out menus. He raised an eyebrow, wondering exactly why she had so many order out menus, but she must have eaten in a lot. He wondered why; she didn't seem like the type to stay inside all the time and just order out. She was too thin and pretty to be that type of person.

Taking the thai menu, the redhead looked it over for a short period of time before pointing out a few items which were of interest to him before giving the menu back to his adoptive mother with a very soft smile. “...I eat asian cuisine a lot,” he explained.
 
Alexandria looked up when Bartiel entered the kitchen and she smiled gently as she laid out the menus for him to look at. She leaned against the counter and looked at what he was pointing out on the menus and nodded slightly as she wrote down what he had pointed out, along with a couple of her own choice of things. "Understandable. Asian cuisine is one of the better cuisines, though I myself tend to favor Greek food." she said to him before shrugging.

Picking up the paper with their order written on it, she moved over to the phone and dialed the number for the restraunt. After a moment of silence, she heard the phone ringing before it was picked up. She leaned against the counter with her back to Bartiel as she quickly gave her order to the man on the other end of the phone. Finally she hung up and tossed the paper into the trash. "Okay. They said the food will be here in about twenty five to thirty minutes." she said.

She moved to where her purse was laying on the table and she picked it up, pulling a twenty and a five out of her wallet. "I'm going to go change and take a quick shower. If the food gets here before I'm out, could you give this to the delivery man?" she asked him politely.
 
Three months had passed since Bartiel moved in with Alexandria. A three months where he was honestly...happy. He'd been a bit shy with his foster mother for quite some time, not really knowing how to respond to her, although since she treated him with respect, he also respected her. He cleaned up after himself, he thanked her after his meals, and he tried to be polite. The only thing was that he was slightly distant.

This distance was easily explained by the fact that after a couple days, he'd developed a crush on 'mom'. It was sort of dirty, and a bit perverse even, but...well, he didn't feel bad about it. It was natural for guys to have attractions to older, mature women, and it wasn't as if they were related at all, right? There were a few problems, one being that he didn't have any other women to look at, the other being that his thoughts didn't go away.

So he found himself looking at his 'mother' more and more, feeling slightly more fusturated every time, knowing he couldn't do anything about it other than jerk off more often to try to take care of his lustful mind. Something he did often. At the moment, though, he wasn't thinking of his mother, pleasuring himself. At the moment, he was doing something entirely different.

Stepping out of the shower, Bartiel dried himself off, smiling a bit. He'd invited a cute girl from school over for a date. She said she'd meet him at his place, and he'd started dinner and everything. Some considered it odd that cooking was one of his hobbies, but he didn't scrutinize what other people enjoyed, so he wouldn't let them scrutinize his hobbies. After brushing his hair and pulling it into a simple braid, Bartiel left the shower wearing nothing but a towel, going to his room in order to change into a pair of slacks and a dress shirt.

Leaving his room, the young man returned to the kitchen. Just half an hour, now!
 
Over the past three months, Alexandria had adjusted rather well to having her foster son living with her. She planned her schedual carefully so that no matter how busy she was at work, she always had plenty of time for him in the evenings and weekends. Because of their medical situations with him needing plenty of milk and calcium and her not being able to drink milk, she labeled things in the fridge that had milk in it or didn't have milk in it so that they wouldn't grab the wrong thing by accident.

But even with how well things have gone, they've had their moments of fustration with each other but they quickly passed over. At the moment she was sitting in her bedroom with files sitting around her and a laptop in her lap. She worked at the local special needs centers. Alexandria could hear Bartiel moving around the house and it made her smile.

The woman thought that it was nice that her foster son had a date with a girl from school and it actually made her happy that he was comfortable enough with her that he invited a girl over. Standing up, she grabbed her water bottle from her bed side table and headed out to the kitchen to refil it. Alexandria had promised to stay out of sight for him so that he had some privacy with the girl he liked and she would keep to that promise.

Entering the kitchen, she smiled when she saw how nice he looked. "You look nice Bartiel." she commented as she walked over to the fridge and refilled her water bottle. "I'll be out of your hair again in a moment. I'm just refilling my water bottle." She smiled at him before looking down at her bottle and moved it, twisting the cap onto it. Taking a long drink from it, she sighed happily before raising the bottle in a sort of toast. "Well, have fun and if you need anything, I'll be in my room." she told him before smiling again and leaving the kitchen, heading back to her bedroom.
 
Bartiel almost jumped when Alexandria told him that she looked good. He'd been so nervous, he just gave the softest of smiles as she said she was just refilling her water bottle. “Alright. Take care,” he said, smiling a bit as he sat at the table, waiting for 7 o' clock to show up. Sitting, he focused forward. He'd had candles for the table, and he had prepared a good sized meal, just for the two of them. Fidgetting, the redhead waited...

And waited.

Bartiel kept his enthusiasm up even as Christine was fifteen minutes later. Then thirty minutes late. He frowned and put some stuff back in the oven to stay warm. When she was fourty-five minutes late, he laid his head against the table. At an hour late, he grunted a bit, going to his room to grab a book. Half an hour later, he'd read two chapters, and was growing increasingly flustered. He tried calling Christine. No answer. He sighed. Another fifteen minutes. He tried calling again. Another no answer. Frowning, he paused, blocking his number then calling.

“Hello?” he heard on the other side. At that, he hung up. For a moment, he paused, before slumping in his chair. He'd been had. She'd agreed to the date just to mess with him. Weakly, Bartiel stood up, numbly dragging himself to his adoptive mother's room, knocking on the door. “You can come out if you want. She's not coming.” He tried not to sound bitter as he said it, but wasn't all that successful.
 
Over the next hour and a half, Alexandria partially listened for the sound of knocking on the front door or the doorbell. She didn't want him getting hurt but as the time went by, she was sure that what she feared would come true. Sighing, she finished an entry on her computer and closed the file, placing it onto the finished pile before starting work on another one. Alexandria yawned softly and took another drink of her water as she read through the file now in her lap and she typed in the correct information needed in the computer.

When Bartiel knocked on her door and told her that the girl wasn't coming, she felt a pang of sadness shoot through her and she frowned while closing the file in her lap and placing it onto her laptop keyboard before carefully climbing off the bed. She opened her bedroom door and looked up at Bartiel before sighing softly. "I'm sorry Bartiel." she said softly.
 
Bartiel frowned a bit when she said that she was sorry. “No, I'm sorry I kicked you out of the front room...it's just....AUGH!” he yelled out suddenly, violently kicking the doorframe to her room, angrily. 'Kicking the walls' was Bartiel's default 'I'm pissed off now' behavior. “I made a nice dinner! I got out candles! I even dressed up nice! Goddammit!” he cussed, before going on to repeat such a phrase in chinese, only even more vulgar... before he slamming his head agitatedly against the doorframe. Although he looked uncontrolled and furious, he was more dejected than anything else.

He regathered his temper, and stood up straight. “...No, it's fine,” he said, looking into Alexandria's eyes slightly dully. “She was a popular girl. I...should have expected this,” he said, before shaking his head. “...Anyways...I'll...go clean up the kitchen...Yeah.”
 
Alexandria jumped with a soft gasp when he kicked the doorway, some of her long bangs falling in her face as she gazed up at him with wide eyes. She stood there in silence as he let his anger out by cussing and she jumped again when he slammed his head against the doorframe. Sighing, she shook her head before reaching out and gently taking his hand and gently pulling him out into the living room. "Sit down Bartiel." she said softly. "The kitchen can wait for now." Without waiting for him to sit down himself, she slowly sat with her legs folded beneath her and she pulled him down to sit with her.

"Bartiel.... what that girl did was a very shallow thing, I'm sure you already know that. But trust me when I say that girls like that aren't worth getting upset about." she said softly. She was gently holding his hand in hers as she spoke to him. "Popular girls are very high matainance, mean and vain. And no matter how popular they are now, no one will remember them in fifteen years." Alexandria smiled up at him and glanced at his forehead where he had hit the doorway and she looked concerned for a moment as she looked at the red mark. "Are you okay?"

Alexandria was obviously worried about him and it was easy to see that she cared about his health and his feelings.
 
Bartiel didn't care that he slammed his head harshly into a doorframe. He also didn't care that, just barely, it was leaking a small amount of blood. When he was pulled down and given her talk, he almost growled at Alexandria. “I damn well know about popular girls, okay? I know all about them, and I don't look at them,” a little white lie. He did look at them from time to time, although that was a little rarer than him looking at the shier girls.

“But she showed interest in me. She didn't just ask me out once, because I turned her down at first. She convinced me that she could be trusted. That she could be different. But they're all the same,” he said, his eyes and his tone falling as his thoughts spiraled downward. The emotion the boy showed wasn't despair, but it was similar. “I'm sick of people. I'm tired of cowards and liars...” he said, clenching his free fist, but still holding onto her hand without crushing it.

After a moment of stopping to regather his breath, he looked at Alexandria. “You're different, though. You aren't a coward,” he said. He'd hoped that the girl who was to come over would be more honest and true, but here he was, in his foster mother's room, throwing a a tantrum. Hah, I'm pathetic, aren't I?
 
Alexandria looked down and sighed as he spoke to her and she tightened her grip on his hand a little. "Bartiel... you deserve so much better and so much more." she whispered. "And please don't take this the wrong way, but beneath your rough exterior and your rebelious nature, I think that you're a very kind sweet guy." She ran the fingers of her free hand over the back of his hand that she held.

Noticing the blood on his forehead, Alexandria frowned and reached over, taking a tissue from the tissue box on the nearby table. "Please, hold still." she murmured. "You're bleeding." Gazing up into his eyes, she looked pleadingly into them before slowly reaching up and she tenderly wiped the blood away from his forehead. But when he said she wasn't a coward, she froze and looked into his eyes again.

"A coward..." she murmured before giving a soft humorless laugh. "I spend most of my life playing the coward Bartiel. For me... it was the only way for me to survive." She lowered her hand and looked down at her lap before running her fingers along the hem of her shorts. "Sometimes a person doesn't have a choice. It was not to long before you came to live here that I decided to stop playing the coward." She ran her fingers through her bangs before tucking them behind her ears.
 
Bartiel looked at her as she gripped his hand. That was enough to make him focus on her. He had to chuckle in response to her saying he was sweet. “I don't think so... or if I am, my flavor is more like sweet and sour sauce,” he commented jokingly, although he did think that to be a better analogy; sweet, yet sour and bitter.

As she grabbed the tissue, he almost hissed a little as she wiped it up. “Stop it. It's fine, really...” he said, but he made no true attempt to stop her, sitting there when she took care of his injury. He didn't care about it, even though he eventually would go disinfect it himself. As she froze, though, he noticed that all of a sudden she changed the way that she looked, and seemed to be a little distant.

For a moment, when she gave her short words, he frowned a bit. This time, it was his turn to grab her hands. “...Running away isn't always an act of cowardace. You're right; sometimes it's all you can do. Although the fact that you stopped running and decided to adopt me proves you aren't a coward,” he said. The way she phrased it made it obvious to him that her act of ceasing to run was adopting him. “It's not my place to, since you haven't wronged me, but I forgive you,” he told her, looking her straight in the eyes, his large, warm, firm hands enveloping her soft ones as he looked her in the eyes, practically leaning in close to her, his own eyes full of seriousness and conviction.
 
When he grabbed her hands she softly gasped and looked up at him as he spoke to her and she stared into his eyes, her green eyes wide. She noticed how his larger hands engulfed her smaller ones and she gazed down at them with a small smile, her small fingers moving a little to softly touch his palm. When he said that he forgave her, even though that there was nothing to be forgiven, it felt like weight had been lifted off her chest and she softly sighed. "Thank you Bartiel." she whispered to him while looking up into his eyes.

As she looked into his eyes, she couldn't help but feel a spark of attraction for the young man that was supposed to be her son. He was very attractive and handsome in her opinion and she thought that any girl would be lucky to date him. Though she could never really say it to him. She also had the urge to just lean in and kiss him which made her cheeks color a little as he leaned in a little and she couldn't break her gaze away from his.
 
Bartiel looked at her as he felt her fingers moving along in her palm. He even smiled a bit as she whispered. Suddenly, he too felt the spark. Slowly, he leaned in, just a little closer, feeling that same urge as his heart began to race. He almost did it, too, but then he realized exactly how dumb that would be, before he quickly turned and gave her a kiss on the cheek, then a kiss on the other one. “...Er, it's a french thing,” he said as he pulled away. Of course, he never mentioned being at all french before, so it was just an excuse. “I mean, since I'm mostly irish, which are often mixed with the scottish, and the gaelic blood is also sometimes French, y'know?” he said, making excuses for himself.

Pulling his hands away, Bartiel paused, looking at his mother before he spoke up. “...I made enough for two, if you want. I didn't use milk or cheese in a lot of the stuff, so it won't bother your lactose intolerence,” he said, standing up, trying to shove off the thoughts he had.
 
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