Grayson Wilkes (glovesmandatory) wrote in valesco,
@ 2008-02-27 19:03:00

Entry tags:

Backdated to Monday afternoon-ish - Ophelia!
He hadn't been in a terribly good mood for the past few days for obvious reasons. Losing a little less than half of your blood did that to a man, he supposed. It wasn't so much the fact that he'd fought with Amery (they always fought, and he'd always had a horrible temper) but that he'd fought with him in a public place. It had been stupid, really, and he knew that -- the fact that Mackenzie was the one who had found them was even worse. His chest was still reasonably sore and he was going to have to explain to Ophelia eventually about why they fought, right?

That meant he had to figure out the reason - just another pain in his ass. He frowned to himself and stepped out of the bathroom in a pair of slacks and little else. His shirt was still hanging up in the closet because he hadn't wanted it to crease while he was in the shower.

Grayson was determined to completely ignore the fact that today marked the not-so-pleasant one-year anniversary of their ... Not!Wedding. Yep, there was no way that he was going to bring it up. He'd just have to cleverly distract Ophelia so that she didn't bring it up either.

"Have you spoken to your sister lately? It would get a bit creepy, I'm sure, if I owled her myself to ask." Which didn't mean that he wouldn't do it - just that he wouldn't tell anyone.

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glovesmandatory
2008-02-28 04:19 am UTC (link)

Grayson nodded. "I should stop by at some point." Today, maybe, but he wasn't about to run away from this unfortunate anniversary. The only way to actually get over it would be to work through it, right? Or pointedly ignore it for the rest of their lives.

He sighed, bringing his fingers through his hair and stepping back from her chair. He sat down in the chair next to hers and resisted the urge to make any irritated noises. Instead ... well, he would attempt to ask her something. "Would you disapprove if I replaced one of our house elves? The new one is not working out." By 'replace', of course, he meant 'dispose of and then replace.

Said house elf came in with his tea and Grayson picked it up with a venomous glare, shaking his head. "We are going to have to invite your brother and his wife over eventually. I am not familiar with ... dinner parties, but." It seemed like the proper thing to do. They'd had the house long enough, after all, and they'd had very few guests.

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primrosepath
2008-02-28 04:54 am UTC (link)

Ophelia shook her head, giving him a quick glance as he sat down. "No, I don't mind," she said, just as the house elf in question walked in. It would be a lie to say that she didn't feel bad for the poor creature, but it would be an even bigger lie to say that the elf had been particularly good to them. At least not to the standard a house elf should be.

Funnily enough, a year ago, she wouldn't have cared. A year ago, she would have probably tried to save the thing.

A year ago, she had been a much different person.

Ophelia rested her hand under her chin and resisted a sigh--there it went again, from thoughts of a house elf, right back to 'a year ago.' It seemed like everything today reminded her of this anniversary, the curse she supposed she had to bear for trying too hard to not think about it. "I don't think we need to have a full out dinner party to invite them over. With Gwen and Luciana around, they're a bit past needing something so dignified as an excuse to escape to eat dinner with us."

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glovesmandatory
2008-02-28 05:03 am UTC (link)

He smirked. "I suppose that's true." The fact that his mind took a leap from what they had been talking about moments ago to the thought of children ... well, that said something about him, he supposed. They had both been different a year ago, he thought. A year ago he had wanted to strangle Ophelia, a year and a half ago he would have. The fact remained that she was one of the few people that he could stand being around and that for some reason she had come back to him. Grayson knew he didn't have the right or the means to argue that.

Sipping his tea once before he turned to Ophelia more fully, he let out a sigh. If it was just going to be an elephant in the room, honestly, it would be better to talk about it ... but he certainly wasn't going to be the one to bring it up. "..." Grayson opened his mouth to say something and then closed it again before thinking better of it, "I love you. You know that, don't you?" Because hell if he'd ever actually ... said it ... out loud.

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primrosepath
2008-02-28 05:18 am UTC (link)

That had certainly forced her to look at him, and she didn't even care that she couldn't help but do it in a slight whipping around motion. Whatever Ophelia had been expecting him to say, it certainly wasn't that, especially not today, especially not... well, fuck, ever. It wasn't even that she didn't think he did, it was that Grayson was just one of those people that didn't say things like that.

So, this was a bit of a shock.

She blinked at him a couple of times, as if trying to figure out if she had heard correctly or not, and then slowly, the side of her lips curved up just noticably. Specifically not an 'oh-my-god-you-really-love-me' smile, but indeed an appropriate 'oh-my-god-you-really-said-you-love-me' expression. "I think you've required that I manage to figure it out on my own," she replied. "So yes. And I love you too." Which he should have known--she'd told him several times, despite that there hadn't been any particular return sentiment.

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glovesmandatory
2008-02-28 05:26 am UTC (link)

Grayson couldn't help the smirk that tugged at his lips as he watched her. Oh, yes. He knew that he wasn't the sort of person to say something like that, but he was also the sort of person to seek out exactly the reaction that he wanted. "Yes," he agreed, "you've made that clear." And unlike himself, she'd verbalized it several times. Some part of him might have thought that it was ironic, telling her something like this on the day that she'd left him the first time instead of on, say, Valentine's day. Then again, Grayson had never really been typical.

He took another sip of his tea in order to hide his smirk as it widened. "I would ask you if you would like some tea, but at the rate this house elf goes ... you might be better off to get it yourself." Which was thoroughly detestable, obviously. At least he'd managed to get his own mind (and hopefully hers) off of the anniversary for the moment.

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primrosepath
2008-02-28 05:48 am UTC (link)

It was ironic, that he was saying this now. If she hadn't already come to the conclusion herself, she might have been suspicious that he'd only said it as a ploy to get her to stop thinking about the bad connotations of the day... but then again, if he wasn't prone to tell her he loved her on a normal day, to tell her today would have been even more unlikely.

Either way, he had still done well in the getting-her-mind-off-things department, as Ophelia found that it would have been very difficult to get the smile off her face at this point. She was even still looking at him, and straight in the face at that.

"I am not about to walk downstairs when we have an elf that should be doing it for me," she answered, resting her chin in her hand. "But as it is, I'm not thirsty--how soon is it that you think you can manage to replace this one?"

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glovesmandatory
2008-02-28 05:55 am UTC (link)

"Well," he smirked, "I should be able to have a new one by the end of the week." Whether he had to pitch a fit at the agency that handled house elves or not. They knew very well how alarmingly fast Grayson went through house elves, but they would never deny him. Grayson arched his brow and then actually let out some semblance of a chuckle.

He was immensely glad that the young woman in front of him had come to at least understand that house elves were subservient. Setting down his cup again, he turned more fully to Ophelia. All right, he had to keep her distracted. He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck and wet his lips, thinking.

"We should invite your brother over next week, if you like."

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primrosepath
2008-03-03 08:56 am UTC (link)

She pursed her lips and nodded. "Good. End of the week won't be too long to wait--as long as I don't get the desire to drink tea, I suppose," she mused aloud. It almost made her feel guilty that she didn't know the elf's name that they were about to banish from their service, but honestly, they'd gone through at least two already. It was almost becoming second nature to depersonalize the house elves.

Grayson was the one to blame changes like these to her personality, Ophelia had decided. Whether that was good or bad was a question that she had asked herself often, but rarely been able to imagine up an answer to. But then again--she was happy, being the way she was now, being with him, wasn't she? So really, how bad of a thing could it be?

Even if her brother had never been particularly happy about such things. But he was at least growing to learn to see her happiness and value that above his own opinions about Grayson; he'd been making great strides in that department as of late. A couple of months ago, she might have been much more afraid of Grayson's suggestion of having them over, but now--well, things were at least better than they had been.

"Next week would be good. He doesn't work late on Wednesdays, so maybe then. I could ask him to bring our sister, if you'd like." Ophelia smirked. So what if she couldn't help but think the way that Grayson and Gwen seemed to adore each other was just about the most adorable thing ever?

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glovesmandatory
2008-03-04 01:25 am UTC (link)

If he was to be blamed for the changes in Ophelia's personality ... she could also be blamed for any changes to his personality. Sure, there were considerably more subtle (he hoped) than the ones he'd incited in her, but they were still there. He caught the smirk and merely raised his brow, shaking his head as he looked over to her.

"If you don't think they'd be bothered by it," which was to say that yes, he'd been hoping she'd suggest that and he didn't much care if it irritated Caitlin and Ioan to bring Gwen with them, he wanted to see the young girl. Grayson would never admit to it, but he was ... fond of her. Despite popular belief, he didn't hate everyone except for his family and girlfriend (and besides, he found himself brawling with Amery more often than not). No, he just hated people who had already proven themselves unworthy -- and someone as young as Gwen still had promise, could still be ... molded to his liking.

He took a slow sip of his tea and settled back farther in his chair, relatively content. Being as emotional as he was (at least inwardly) meant that he experienced great extremes of emotion.

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