BACK TO FRASER'S FRACTURED FICTION

Complicated Lives, part 2

by A. Fraser and J. Hontz

Part 2

© Copyright 2005 A. Fraser and J. Hontz. with Amanda Rush as Nimue. All rights reserved.

The dinner was going to be a dignified affair; Michael had ensured that by inviting _only_ Adele. The twins had promised to be on their best behaviour, and Bess had, despite being incredibly busy at school, taken the plunge and come home for the weekend. She said she wanted to see the fireworks, but she, too, was dying to meet Guy. So far they'd only talked on the phone.

Mary, aware that her mettle as mom was being tested, had prepared a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Dessert, coffee, drinks, etc., would be served later when the Brotherhood and Nimue arrived.

Vivain and Galen, indulging in a bit of sibling pushing and arguing all the while, set the table while Michael tried to put Guy at his ease and Bess and

Mary put the finishing touches on dinner. All they lacked now was Adele...

--------------

Meanwhile, in Paris things were not going nearly so smoothly.

"Dammit!" Adele muttered, throwing yet another outfit onto the top of the pile of clothes already rejected and similarly chastened with profanity. "You're no help at all!" Adele added, whirling toward the bed where Julian was stretched out, fully dressed, his hands crossed behind his head, holding it up so he could see the full effect of each outfit on his roommate.

"And here I thought you were frustrated with your clothes, not me," Julian commented with a grin.

"Arggg," Adele groaned. "You look gorgeous in everything, and I expect in nothing as well."

"Would you like to see?" Julian asked with a leer.

"If I said yes you'd go screaming out of this room and you know it," Adele replied with a flip of her head.

"Alas, too true. You terrify me, Adele."

She came toward him and ruffled up his hair with her hand. "You truly are an idiot."

"Thank you. I work at it daily. I plan on becoming the perfect idiot. Practice, practice, practice."

"But what shall I wear," Adele wailed. "I don't want to frighten the boy half to death."

"True," Julian replied frowning in concentration. "He has been living on a desert island, no television, no internet porn, no Maggie..."

Adele turned around and stood with her hands on her hips. "Maggie. Oh, goddess, why have I ever agreed to this. Maggie and Nimue, two vivacious redheads. And then me, with my dull brown curls that have about as much fire in them as the charcoal they vaguely resemble."

"Oh, good Lord. Poor thing. So ugly, so plain, so shy, so pathetic....."

Whereupon she flew at him and landed on top of him pinning down his arms and the rest of him with her body.

"Do you care about her, Julian? Oh, I know you do. You pretend you are so hard-hearted and so emotionally untouchable, but she's touched you, hasn't she? Come on, tell me, or I shall tickle you until you beg me for mercy!"

Julian lay there limp as the proverbial ... no, we'll keep this clean ....wet noodle. "It is none of your business," was what he said, in that soft voice that told her she'd best tread carefully.

"Is too. Because I love you, Julian, and I want desperately to see you happy," Adele replied, suddenly serious.

"Well, you are old enough for your wants not to hurt you. Now do get dressed. You'll be late."

"Silly," Adele said as she stood up. "A witch is never late unless she chooses to be. I shall be exactly on time."

"Dressed like that?" Julian asked, as he turned over to lay on his side.

"Oh, I do want to not come off as some ...some..."

"Beautiful woman intent on laying the boy?" Julian asked innocently.

"Oh, stop it. Do help me decide," she replied, not looking over at him but instead down at the heap of clothes.

"Shall I dress you?" he asked.

"Oh, yes please. You have such interesting taste."

"Interesting?" Julian echoed. "Interesting? Good God, I've got to work harder on my image."

Adele, in her bra and panties, (ice blue lace) stood in front of him, her arms outstretched even with her shoulders. She closed her eyes. She felt a breath of breeze caress her body ever so softly, then her hair seemed to move in the breeze and Julian said, "All right. Try this."

She whirled around to the mirror. He'd dressed her simply. Ivory coloured wool slacks, a milk chocolate brown turtleneck sweater that set off her breasts with the merest hint of a caress. Around her neck hung a long golden chain holding a small pendant, a sapphire heart surrounded by diamonds; the sapphire's colour matched her eyes. Her ears were dressed with matching earrings. Her hair was pulled back from her face, creating a full cloud of dark curls that cascaded down her back, held in place by narrow and simple golden combs. The makeup was understated and made no attempt to hide the freckles across her nose that used to drive her mad. Even the lipstick was merely a hint of red.

The only really sexy part of her wardrobe were the stiletto heeled dark brown boots on her feet.

She examined herself in the mirror and sighed. "See, I knew you'd understand."

An overly full chocolate brown cape appeared from thin air and draped itself about her shoulders.

"Now do get the hell out of here so I can relax. Have a good time!"

She ran to him and threw her arms around him, kissing him on his cheek. She met his eyes. "Julian, would it kill you to tell Nimue you've missed her?"

He shook his head. "No. But it might kill her. Now get thee gone!"

Adele stood up, waved a tiny wave then blew a kiss at him, and disappeared out of her room with a small pop.

Julian shook his head, examined the wreckage of the room, stood, and sauntered out to the hallway. He was grinning as he descended the steps down to his study. He did not want to be handy when Mabel the housekeeper saw the mess Adele had left.

Now he just needed to get thoroughly drunk. That way there'd be no room for disappointment if Nimue decided against dropping in.

______

None of the Fairlawns had taken any great pains over their sartorial preparations for the night. The twins had, as a great concession, agreed not to wear sweats or jeans, but that was as far as either parent cared to push them. Bess, showing her greater maturity at nearly 26 (and the thought of that gave Michael heart failure... his little girl!), had put on a blue skirt and white sweater. Mary had on a fairly simple green dress, and Michael wore slacks, shirt and the tweed jacket that Mary desperately wanted to throw out.

Guy, on the other hand, had spent an hour staring at the limited selections available to him in his closet. As he had no money he didn't have a way of expanding his sartorial holdings either.

He'd sighed, and having seen what Michael, Mary, Galen and Vivain wore (being entirely besotted with Bess already, he hadn't noticed a bit what she was wearing - he'd been too busy getting lost in her eyes) he finally decided on the one pair of dockers (tan - we all know vampires won't wear tan) and a deep wine coloured fisherman's knit sweater that had shrunk in arm length so Mitch had offered it to Guy whom it fit nearly perfectly.

He finished re-braiding his warrior's lock for the tenth time then walked out into the living room looking for all the world as if he were calm and collected. Hah!

Galen and Vivain, both in trendy teenage wear, heard the bell, and fought each other for the privilege of answering the door when Adele arrived. Galen, by virtue of scrambling over his sister's outstretched leg, won.

"Whoa," he said to the vision on the doorstep.

Adele smiled down at them. Not very far down at all. They'd sprouted up to nearly her height.

She threw out her arms and Galen and Vivain rushed into them.

"Oh, I've missed you two ragamuffins. Tell me all about school!"

Thus it was that Galen and Vivain were regaling Adele breathlessly as they towed her into the living room where the rest of the family - and Guy - awaited her.

Guy had hurriedly stood. All that formal training. Michael stood too, but since he came up to only Guy's shoulder it really didn't make that much difference (Druid dig).

Adele, whose eyes had been on the twins as they delighted her into hiccups of laughter, only belatedly looked up to see Guy standing there.

She stopped mid-laugh. Then she smiled. Guy's knees got weak and his tattoo immediately rushed into formal mode, making red, black and gold swirls cover his entire face. The Aum symbol left where the tattoo normally sat, throbbed golden.

Well, at least it hid his blush, he thought.

"Didn't you meet him at the New Year's Party?" Vivain asked.

"I don't think so," Adele replied. She thrust out her hand toward Guy who almost stepped back a pace.

Michael rushed into the breech. "Adele, Guy Wolfe. Guy, Adele Blakesley."

Guy a bit hesitantly took her hand in his. He nearly raised it to his lips but was poked in the side by Galen, who'd been at pains to tell him that nowadays men merely shook hands with ladies.

Guy spared a momentary glance at Galen then instead shook Adele's hand once, then released it. "Namaste," he murmured, forcing himself not to bow to her.

Adele's eyes crinkled up as she smiled at him.

"Hullo, Guy. I'm so glad we finally will have a chance to talk." Then seeing Bess, she hurried over to give her friend a hug. Then Michael and then finally Mary, who'd exited the kitchen to say hello.

Guy looked relieved to be spared the brilliance of Adele's smile and sank a bit uncertainly back to his seat.

He looked relieved when Mary, Bess and Adele, talking a blue streak hurried back into the kitchen to finish the preparations together. Michael was left holding Adele's cape.

He met Galen's grin with one of his own, and went to hang up the item in question. A fairly short time later, they were called into dinner by Bess.

Guy's tattoo had returned to its normal state by the time they were all seated at table. He was praying desperately that it not reveal any upset he might experience as he made an attempt to talk to two beautiful women.

Actually, he didn't have to work hard at small talk. Adele, despite the appearance of ditzyness, was an experienced hostess and set him surprisingly at ease quite quickly. Despite his fears of embarrassing himself, he found himself relaxing and holding his own with both Bess and Adele. The young ladies laughed easily, teased the twins mercilessly, and Adele spoke a good deal about Paris and her classes at the Sorbonne. Bess chimed in with intriguing bits regarding her schooling. The dinner was excellent and the spirits of the attendees were as well.
But after Bess and Adele began talking about the future and what their plans might be, Guy found himself feeling morose.

"What is it?" Mary asked him. The girls were busy talking between themselves and had missed the quickly hidden betrayal of his feelings.

"It is just.." he began.

"Do you miss your home, Guy?" Adele asked.

"Parts of it certainly," Guy responded.

"If you really want to go home I'm sure between Ray and Julian they could send you back," Adele added. "And Julian sends his regards and offers whatever assistance you might need that your friends here might be unable to offer you. Although truthfully I can't think of what that might be."

"Please tell him I thank him most sincerely. But it is necessary for me to either decide to make a clean break with the past and form a new life here, somehow, or to request assistance to go home."

Mary reached out to him and said softly, "We are so happy to have you here. Please don't think you must go because you are accepting too much of our help."

"Alas, I am, you know. I've no money to support myself. I'd like to see these schools the ladies speak of but have no way of attending such places, nor I expect do I have the necessary educational background to do so. It is most... unsettling."

"And is not something that must be decided tonight. For tonight we have a guest and very shortly will have many more. I think I hear footsteps already, the footsteps of eager men and perhaps a few eager women," Michael said.

"Yeah!" Galen piped up. "I wouldn't mind seeing fisticuffs!" At the look his father gave him he added, "Well, it is a cool word!"

"It had better not come to that," sighed his mother. "Go let them in, Galen."

The Oakwoods Boys, all neatly dressed although Gideon had actually foregone a tie, were the first members of the Brotherhood to arrive, greeting Adele with hugs; perhaps a bit too enthusiastically on Mitch's part. But then, they'd shared danger and adventure in Paris (and no, we're not telling you how that story ends just yet.) Next to come in was Francis; he'd taken some effort with his appearance and was wearing clean, untorn jeans and a button-down shirt; no sign of his leather jacket or engineer boots was to be seen. He gave Adele a slightly wary hug. Maggie, Nicholas, Pandora and little Aisling all came in at once; the little boy made a bee-line for the twins and they were instantly pounced on. Michael had to go and answer the door to let in Ray and Estella, nobody was surprised to see Ray in black or Estella in her usual semi-gypsy style clothes. The noise level began to rise considerably in the living room.

"I don't see anyone tall, dark and handsome with a rose in his teeth," Adele complained to Gideon.

He laughed, making a few heads turn because it was such an unusual sound. "Oh, Alexander is coming," he assured her.

"We told him we'd make his life hell if he didn't," Josh added with a grin.

Sure enough, there was another knock on the door and Mary went to answer it this time. She stood back, laughing helplessly, to let in a tall, dark, handsome vampire with, yes, a rose between his teeth. He held a bouquet of another dozen roses in one hand; with the other, he swept off his own cape and handed it to his bemused hostess.

He strode over to Adele, bowed, handed her the bouquet and spat out the rose from his mouth.

"You wouldn't believe how foul that tastes," he said, grey eyes twinkling. "Alexander Philippe Goldanias, at your service."

Adele rescued the spat out rose, and lifted it to her lips. She was suddenly blushing. But she was smiling too.

She dropped Alex a curtsey. "Adele Celestine Blakesley," she replied gravely. Then she couldn't hold in her merriment any longer and her laughter rang out. "Oh, Alex!" She stood on tiptoe and place a kiss on his lips. It happened so quickly he could hardly react.

She danced away to come to a stop near Gideon, whose arm she wrapped around her own. "I'm so pleased you all came!" But her eyes returned to Alex for a moment as he moved to take a seat. She looked away however before he could catch her eyes. "Oh, it is so wonderful to see all of you!"

Bess took the roses and went to put them in a vase for Adele. Adele and she shared a quickly whispered conversation which left Adele with pink cheeks.

Guy, who'd met everyone already, was standing aside, leaning against a door frame, a bemused smile on his face. Francis joined him there.

"She's something," Guy breathed.

Francis nodded and sighed. "Something I'm not meant to have," he said. He shrugged.

Guy was unsure what to say to his friend so instead offered, "I notice, however, that the man she is currently embracing is..." Guy's voice trailed off. "I am not sure of the polite way of putting it."

Something like a grin began to pull at Francis' too solemn angelic features.

"Gay is acceptable," he said. "It's odd, but she seems able to get away with just about anything with Gideon. They all became very close in France. I understand that she and Genevieve are practically sisters now."

"Genevieve?"

"Long story. Anyway, if you think Adele is something, just wait til Nimue gets here."

As if on cue, there was a gentle rapping at the door.

Francis smiled at Guy and headed over to answer it; seeing that all the Fairlawns were occupied with the current guests. He yanked the door open with a flourish, and beamed broadly at the redhead on the doorstep. Nimue, dressed head to toe in black, leaned against the door frame. She wore black trousers that were fitted at the waist, low rise, and wide legged. Her black cap sleeve nicely snug t-shirt didn't quite make it to meet her pants, and a sliver of tummy and belly button were visible. Her hair was long, wavy and frumpled in that sexy bedroom style, her makeup was smoky, and she wore black heels.

She smiled broadly. "Hello, Francis. Anything of interest in your pockets these days?"

An alarmed look popped up on his face and his hands flew to cover his pockets. "You're not thinking. .."

She laughed at him. "Nope. Just couldn't resist teasing, is all. Although, I might want a little something for me later, just to ease the nerves."

"Julian?" He asked, as he ushered her in.

"Julian." She replied. She stopped, looked him over, and then pulled him into a hug. "It's good to see you again. I've missed you."

"This is Guy Wolfe," Francis mumbled when he was able to talk again.

It took Guy a moment to find his equilibrium but he finally managed a deep bow. "Namaste."
 

Nimue dipped her head politely. "Pleasure."

Adele could hardly help but miss Nimue's entrance since every male eye (and almost every female) eye was on her. She took pity on poor Guy who looked as if he'd swallowed his tongue, so she left Gideon with a squeeze of his arm, and walked over. While Guy's attention was locked on Nimue, Adele took him by the arm and leant into him.

"She won't bite, unless you ask her nicely," Adele said with a laugh in her voice. "Hullo, Nimue. I don't think we've ever actually spoken in person before. I'm delighted to meet you. It explains a great deal."

Francis looked confused. Guy looked terrified.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." Nimue said with a wicked smile, and winked at Guy. "But it is equally delightful to meet you, at last."

There was a brief pause as the two women sized each other up, and the men wondered just how in over their heads they were. Nimue broke the silence.

"I am actually on the lookout for Vivain. Would you care to take a turn with me, Adele? We can engage in some," She paused, "Girl talk."

They didn't get very far, however, before encountering their host and hostess. Michael held out his arms, beaming. "Nimue."

She melted into the familiar hug. "Tagd," she murmured. "I've missed you."

They pulled apart, and he looked her over much in the style that a father would look over his daughter.

"So there's a rumor going around that you're a man of much wisdom." She teased. "Care to impart a little on a wayward friend?"

He smiled at her and said, quietly, "Look both ways before you cross the street."

Mary gave Nimue a hug in turn. "Good to see you again," she said.

"And you," Nimue replied. "But I'm actually looking for your daughter."

"Which one?" Mary laughed, pointing towards Bess, who was flirting with Mitch, and then to Vivain, who was involved in a tangle of legs and arms on the floor with her brother and Aisling.

"The red-head," Nimue answered, shaking her own flaming locks.


 

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