crucio (crucio) wrote in cwf,
@ 2010-08-04 01:42:00

open to miles and bae
Nikolai was probably one of the strongest sorcerers in the states. He took a bit of pride in that fact, and he always would. He didn't flaunt his power, he was more quiet about it, but it radiated off of him with ease. When he'd met Miles, he sensed a power within the boy that told him he could be great, and he immediately took him under his wing. And then they'd developed into a bit more than just teacher and student. When Miles asked Nikolai to get Bae out of the sex ring he was in, normally Niko would have said no. But Miles had hit a soft spot within him, so he'd done as asked and now the boy was traveling around with them. Niko never stayed in one place for long. He was wealthy, came from a long line of sorcerers who had a lot of money over the years that he'd inherited. He was an antique dealer, and he went all over to auctions.

At the moment they were in Boston. Nikolai had been out all day at an auction, and when he came home he was ready to just relax. He had on a three piece navy suit, and he was all ready undoing the buttons of his suit jacket to shrug it off as he stepped in the door and set his briefcase down. He could smell food cooking, and he knew Miles must have been busy in the kitchen. After shrugging his jacket off, he hung it up by the door and headed down the large hallway of the house they were currently staying in to slip into the kitchen.

"What are you cooking?" he asked, his British accent lilting through the air.

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impotentwaffle
2010-08-04 09:31 pm UTC (link)

Miles parents were well enough off themselves. They owned a winery in the Napa Valley and were successful with that. Neither were of the magical persuasion and Miles had been an anomaly from far back in the lineage. While his mother suspected something odd about her only son, Miles' father had no such inkling. The boy was trained in wine making and set off to school as soon as he was able. Strange things happened around him, but none so much that couldn't be hidden or controlled.

Working as a sommelier in a fine restaurant had brought him to Nikolai. He'd suggested a shockingly cheap pinot noir to accompany his outlandishly expensive dinner, a bold but savvy recommendation. Little did Miles know that his relationship with Nikolai would extend far past wine.

It had been a struggle to accept the truth of what he was at first, but as Nikolai took him under his wing, Miles wanted nothing more than to be as powerful as his teacher. Twenty-seven now and Miles was coming along nicely in his training. Much to Nikolai's grief, however, Miles had unabashed proclivities toward the (mostly witch talent) of potion making.

That's what he was doing now. "Um--" he began, looking for an excuse to jump out of the air at him for the large pot of boiling water on the stove and the cheese cloth full of herbs cooking in it. "A broth--for--um--soup." This particular soup, however, was the sort that could bring a person luck.

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crucio
2010-08-04 11:49 pm UTC (link)

Nikolai cocked his head to the side and arched a brow. The expression on his face clearly stated that he didn't quite believe Miles. He stepped closer and reached out to take a hold of the spoon Miles had been using to stir the concoction in the pot to stir it himself.

"I highly doubt this is really something anyone would want to eat," he said, "Even though it smells kind of good. I swear I should just start calling you Professor Snape," he added teasingly before he let go of the spoon and headed over towards the stairs so that he could disappear down into the wine cellar. "Where's Bae?" he called over his shoulder.

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impotentwaffle
2010-08-05 04:25 pm UTC (link)

Wrinkling his nose he made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. "Anything but Snape. That's the meanest thing you've ever said to me." He plucked the spoon up and stirred a few more times before covering up the pot and following Nikolai downstairs. Not surprisingly, the wine cellar was his favorite spot in any of the many houses Nikolai owned or rented. Miles never minded traveling so long as there was wine to be tasted. It made him feel at home.

"Swimming, I think. Or doing handstands. I don't know. Maybe he's stalking the back alleys of Boston drumming up rumors of escaped zoo panthers like he did in Chicago." Sometimes Bae wandered and not in human form. He always seemed to be two steps ahead of disaster, avoiding it but welcoming it.

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crucio
2010-08-05 11:52 pm UTC (link)

Niko was obviously amused by his joked, and when Miles came down the steps into the cellar with him, he glanced over at the younger man. To Nikolai, it was always hard not to call Miles boy or kid. Given the activities they often engaged in, it really shouldn't have been all that difficult at all.

"Probably," he agreed, "Or hiding outside of a steakhouse for scraps," he added before he chose a bottle of vintage red. "It's a good thing he has such excellent self control. You know how often I try to cloak him, though? It gets tricky when I don't know where he is."

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impotentwaffle
2010-08-06 04:49 am UTC (link)

"Perhaps you're only making the situation worse when you try to protect him. If he got caught, he wouldn't think he was so fantastic at hiding." Bae walked around as if he was a stealth master, never knowing that a great deal of the reason was Nikolai. "It might knock him down a peg." Miles considered the possibility and sighed. "But then we would have to break him out of the zoo. And by we I mean you, of course." Miles did indeed have a great deal of potential, but he had a hard time focusing and channeling his power. The training was slow going.

He examined the bottle that the man had chosen and nodded a silent approval.

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crucio
2010-08-06 05:29 am UTC (link)

Niko laughed softly, then shook his head as he leaned down to brush a kiss against Miles's lips. He let the kiss linger and he pressed himself in close to the boy before he pulled away.

"He would create unbelievable chaos in a zoo," he announced before he headed up the steps and back into the kitchen to find a corkskrew. "I take it that you'd like some wine as well?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder at Miles.

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impotentwaffle
2010-08-06 05:48 am UTC (link)

"I'm in a constant state of wanting some wine," he smiled, a little dozy from the kiss Nikolai had just given him. With this man, it was always like the first kiss and Miles never got over that feeling. Sometimes, he felt like he was too vulnerable to him, but he wasn't about to change the way he felt.

"Did you find what you were looking for today? Anything special come up?" He always like hearing about the curiosities that Niko procured.

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crucio
2010-08-06 06:14 am UTC (link)

"I found some old pocket watches from the 1920s," Niko replied as he worked the wine open and started to pour them both a glass. "And some lovely jewelry from the 18th century," he added with a warm smile, obviously quite pleased with himself. "They're in my briefcase by the door. "I wasn't really looking for anything, I just went around to a few auctions to see what was there. Most of the things they had was utter rubbish."

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	impotentwaffle 2010-08-06 07:12 am UTC (link)
	"Rubbish," Miles repeated, liking the sound of the man's accent and verbiage. He took his glass of wine and went to grab the briefcase, bringing it back into the kitchen to set it on the counter. "I don't suppose you heard any news of Mason's whereabouts? Bae is getting restless. I think he might set off on his own to find him." And Miles didn't want that. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

crucio
2010-08-06 07:27 am UTC (link)

"I wish Bae had something of his, it would make it easier to do a location spell on him," Niko said as he leaned against the counter and sipped at his wine. "Or a vile of his blood, but why the hell would Bae have that?" he added with a heavy sigh. "I could maybe use Bae as a channel, but that's so difficult. He has to be extremely open and I might see things he'd rather be kept private."

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impotentwaffle
2010-08-06 06:11 pm UTC (link)

"The last thing Bae is is open," Miles said as he opened up the briefcase and glanced through the things that Niko had purchased. Every so often, he hoped that he'd bring home some magical artifact that they could decipher together. He loved nothing more than spending hours sitting in a cramped work room with Nikolai, running tests on an antique to see if it could be controlled.

He sighed. "We'll find him eventually. Bae knows that."

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crucio
2010-08-06 07:08 pm UTC (link)

"Well, if he wants me to find Mason faster, he better suck it up and learn to be open," Niko said with a frown as he opened the fridge up, debating on cooking or ordering out. "We will find him eventually, but it could be a hell of a lot sooner than later if he just - gave me something."

Though, really, Niko could understand why Bae was so secretive and why he didn't want anyone poking around inside of his head. The kid had been through a hell of a lot and Niko sometimes forgot that because Bae could fool the best of them and see well adjusted.

"What should we do for supper?" Supper, not dinner. Nikolai always called it supper.

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impotentwaffle
2010-08-07 06:51 am UTC (link)

Slipping into the kitchen with secretive grace, Bae ran his long fingers along the edge of the counter. "Suck it up," he spoke quietly as he frequently did. "That's a horrible phrase, you know. Vulgar." He had a way of taking everything to its sexual meaning, or its lowest denominator. His entire world had been only those things for so long. And yet he had a way of being judgmental about it as well.

Miles smirked a little and drank his glass of wine. "We should make corn on the cob so that we can watch Bae try to deep throat it again." While he had encouraged Nikolai to save the panther, that didn't prevent him from growing to dislike him a little over the time they'd spent together. He was so broken and Miles had a hard time understanding how to fix him.

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	crucio 2010-08-07 07:30 am UTC (link)
	"Now now, be nice," Niko told Miles. Miles may have swayed Niko to save Bae, but the moment the sorcerer saved the panther, he'd grown a bit protective. Of course he was protective of Miles as well, even more so. But he wanted for the two to get along. "Where've you been off to, Bae?" he asked as he went to grab a menu for Italian food. "Are you hungry?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

impotentwaffle
2010-08-07 06:12 pm UTC (link)

They got along like brothers. Perhaps they were too close in age, or Miles had some deep seated fear that Nikolai would fall for Bae in the long run. But sometimes they got along, sometimes they didn't. Miles frowned when he was told to be nice and he poured another glass of wine, drinking it immediately.

Bae quirked a brow at the wine drinking and then looked back at Niko lazily. "I'm always hungry," he said matter-of-factly. "And I was exercising." That word could mean quite a few different things. His earliest memories had been performing tumbles for a pleased street crowd. He'd been very little. What kept him sane through the years was continuing to practice that skill that he believed connected him to his family roots. So either 'exercising' meant handstands and flips, or it meant he'd been running about the neighborhood in animal form.

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crucio
2010-08-07 11:25 pm UTC (link)

Niko decided on what he wanted before he offered the menu over to the other two, and he leaned back against the counter as he went silent. He was thinking about a way to find Mason that wasn't so invasive to Bae. He sipped at his wine, and after a moment he lowered it.

"I think I have a way to narrow down the search for your friend," he said, wetting his lips. "I can do a spell to locate those of your kind. I imagine there's probably less than fifty in the States, probably only a handful really. We'd just have to go to each location to see if it was Mason or not."

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impotentwaffle
2010-08-08 04:53 am UTC (link)

"That's a lot of travel," Bae was good at pointing out the obvious. He could never quite imagine how well off Nikolai was because money had never been something that belonged to him no matter how much he worked. The concept of money was strange.

Miles was up for travel and he supposed that this plan was the next best thing. "Or you could just open yourself up, Bae, and we could go right to him," he reiterated.

Bae didn't even acknowledge that statement as he looked over the menu Nikolai had handed him. He decided on a large pasta dish and an order of breadsticks. Experience taught Miles that that order was for Bae alone and even trying to touch his food would result in a frightening growl.

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i think mason got sold to someone and then he ran away - he'd not leave bae voluntarily

crucio
2010-08-08 05:01 am UTC (link)

"Well, I travel a lot anyway. It's the only shot we've really got," Niko told Bae as the panther wrote down his order.

Niko slid the menu over to Miles then, and he let his gaze sweep back to Bae with a frown. Bae was so... quiet. And calm. Niko supposed it came from years and years of practice. Be seen and not heard, that kind of thing.

"Miles, make the order," he told his boyfriend before he pulled his wallet out and handed it over. "I'm going to go work on this spell for a bit."

He disappeared for a while, and just a bit before the food arrived he came out of his study and went into the living room where he heard the TV going.

"Thirty-four," he said with his hands on his hips. "There's small little pockets of them scattered around. Only a few on their own, so I think we should go to the places where there's just one first, since you said he was sold alone - right Bae?"

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sounds good!

impotentwaffle
2010-08-08 04:03 pm UTC (link)

Miles liked setting up tv trays and eating in front of the television. Not that he didn't like conversation, but he liked how casual it felt to zone out in front of a cooking show. He also had an affinity for Cris Angel and David Blaine programs, amused by their stunts and magic tricks. He was flipping through the channels now and Bae was lying on the couch with him. Apparently they were friends again because Bae was curled up close.

But when Nikolai mentioned pockets of werepanthers he sat up. "They told us there weren't any gatherings of our kind. They said we liked to be alone." And Bae had believed them. He'd been told that his family selling him had been normal; that they didn't want him and it was natural.

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poor bae bae haha mason is gonna call him that

crucio
2010-08-09 02:47 am UTC (link)

"I'm sure they told you a lot of things to keep you in line, Bae," Nikolai said with a soft frown.

It was a sad thing to think there was human trafficking going on in the world. Both for humans and supernatural beings. The sorcerer who Niko had bought Bae from was very intelligent, powerful, and resourceful. The only reason he'd let Bae go at all was because of his age. Most people liked the young ones. The vampire who'd bought Mason had been very, extremely wealthy. Little did they know Mason had run away, gotten away, and found protection in the Portland pack.

"We'll find him," he added, wanting Bae to know that he meant it.

The doorbell rang just then, and Nikolai went to go get his wallet from the kitchen so that he could pay for their food. Moments later he returned to set everything down on the coffee table, leaving it for Miles to dish out so that he could go get some more wine for the two of them.

"Would you like some wine, Bae? Or something else?" he called over his shoulder. They had a lot more to discuss, but they could eat and talk at the same time.

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I can't seem to comment to our other two threads. It gives me a "site down" message :[

impotentwaffle
2010-08-09 03:10 am UTC (link)

Bae shook his head and stayed curled up on the couch. He really didn't like thinking about all of the lies he'd believed back when he'd been in captivity. He didn't like to think how easily he'd been controlled just because they'd got to him when he was young. He was a powerful creature and yet he'd gone along with a lot of horrible things.

Heading into the kitchen, Miles sighed. "It'd be so much easier to prevent bad things from happening if we could all be honest about what we are." Miles had faith in the human race and didn't think that they would reject supernatural beings if given a chance.

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stupid scribbld >:|

crucio
2010-08-09 03:14 am UTC (link)

Even though Bae had shaken his head no, Niko still got a bottle of water out of the fridge for him. He glanced over his shoulder at Miles as he entered the kitchen, and a faint smile settled on his lips.

"You're optmism is adorable, but we'd be in big fucking trouble if we were exposed," he said, "Can you get some plates and silverware?" he asked as he started to pour them some more wine. "He's in a mood tonight," he added quietly.

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Can you still get to them? Maybe copy/paste the last comment from each and make new posts? If that's

impotentwaffle
2010-08-09 03:28 am UTC (link)

possible/convenient from where you're at right now. I don't know if it's just my account or those posts or what]

Miles had grown extremely accustomed to doing what Nikolai said. It was imperative to his education to be dutiful and focused. It had easily sifted down to everyday life as well. Sometimes he wondered if he ever got boring because he rarely argued with Niko's instruction. Getting the plates and silverware, he laughed a little. "I'm not nuanced enough to notice his change in moods. How can you tell the difference between somber, sober, and morose?"

When he got back to the living room, he noticed that Bae was sitting up. If the man ever stopped eating--then Miles would worry.

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crucio
2010-08-09 03:50 am UTC (link)

"When you get the hang of reading auras, then it'll be a lot simpler," Niko told Miles as he carried the wineglasses in one hand, balancing them with expertise, and the water bottle was in the other.

Once they got into the room, he handed the water off to Bae and then had a seat beside Miles. He set their wine down and got the plates situated, along with the siverware, while Miles got everyone their respective cartons. Niko never liked to eat out of cartons. Bae didn't care, and Niko pretended not to notice when the panther didn't bother with the plate Miles had brought out.

"So you and Mason, were you best mates?" he asked as he got settled, casting a glance over at Bae. He wanted to know the connection. Were they just close friends, something more? Family, even? Bae never said much, just that he wanted to find this other panther.

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impotentwaffle
2010-08-09 04:31 am UTC (link)

Bae pursed his lips at the question. It was so much easier for him to not talk about Mason and he'd stuck close to that during his time with the two of them. But he supposed it was only fair that he give them something. He was grateful, he just had a hard time showing it.

"He's my best friend," he nodded. His only friend. "I met him when I was twenty one. I guess--we really didn't know each other for very long before he was sold." It had only been two years, but it had been an intense two years and Bae had become very protective of the other panther.