ALEX+RAVI; the saga continues pt3

[fadedsoldier]

Who: Alexander & Ravindra
When: Last Wednesday, night after Ravi visited Godric.
Where: Abandoned house on Willow St.
Rating & Warnings: PG for swearing, none!



Ravi felt like the entire conversation with the Magus had been a disaster. Logically, he knew that wasn't true. He'd only made one mistake, and he'd gotten some decent ideas out of it, but still he couldn't help but feel like a complete and utter failure for having made that one mistake. He kept going over it in his mind, and going over the potential conversation with Alex and all the ways it was absolutely guaranteed to turn horrible the moment he mentioned this.

Again, it crossed his mind to just not show up, but he felt like if he did that, he'd never see Alex again. Even the worst fight they'd ever had was better than never seeing him again.

So Ravi was there fifteen minutes early, waiting inside the abandoned house for his vampire friend to make an appearance. On the floor in front of him beside the lantern he'd brought was a bag with a set of new clothes and the hat he'd promised to get, as well as the spare ledger Amelia had given him, and one of her special pens (carefully isolated from anything it could ruin by leaking, of course). He was so anxious about how the conversation would go that he was on his third cigarette by the time Alex appeared.

The normal protocol when it came to spit fights between Alex and Ravi was a complete heel-turn the next day, as if they hadn't just tried to punch each other's lights out twenty-four hours ago. It wasn't an attempt to ignore their problems, but rather that they would forget the problem entirely and move on, spot cleared out for their next inevitable argument.

Tonight was a deviation from the norm, as that spot had yet to be cleared completely. Alex landed behind the house, outside of any lightsource, and returned to his human form. With a lingering sense of resentment from last night's conversation that he knew to be childish, he crept up the steps and paused in front of the door way. "Good evening, Vin."

Ravi's eyes snapped up as Alex spoke. Fuck, it sounded like he was still angry. Yup, worst case scenario was about to happen, here. He mentally steeled himself for an eventual fistfight.

He responded with the same, "Good evening," in Hindi, which he hadn't meant to but whatever, Alex hopefully remembered the phrase. He nudged the bag toward Alex with his foot. "Your hat."

He wasn't angry, Ravi! Just sulky. The Hindi greeting caught him off guard. He blinked, then looked down at the bag. A hat!

He looked back up at Ravi with a grin. "Invitation?"

The grin was a good sign. That caused a fluttering of hope. He took the cigarette out of his mouth to respond, so it wouldn't come out mumbled. "What, once was not enough? Get in here."

"If only," he said with mocking wistfulness, stepping inside. (The condition didn't bother him. Not yet, anyway, since he wasn't making a habit of entering homes.) He crouched down to pick up his hat, then placed it on his head, shifting it a few times. "Not bad, not bad..." he murmured to himself, then turned his attention to the rest of the contents. It was just like Christmas! "Ohh, an entire new set of clothes! I only asked for a coat. Vin, you're too good, ah?" Alex stood, new shirt in hand, and proceeded to shrug himself out of his currently 'borrowed' oversized one, some loose dirt falling onto the decaying floorboards.

He was paler than last night, having been too moody to eat. Alex never claimed to be wise.

So the invitation had to be given for each visit. Interesting. He filed that knowledge away in case it ended up important later. "Yes. I could not let you go on looking like that." He gestured to the grimy clothes, leaving a trail of smoke in the process.

Oh wait Alex was changing now? Here? Okay so it wasn't strange for men to dress in front of each other in the barracks, but Ravi had been living outside the barracks for fifteen years and this was Alex. He barely even noticed that Alex looked paler tonight than he had last night; too busy staring at the rest of it. He was too surprised to even try to be subtle about it.

"I solemnly promise not to wear these to sleep," he said in a tone so grave it could only be taken as a joke. At least he had the decency to turn his back to Ravindra when he slipped out of 'his' old slacks for his new ones. They were a little loose at the hip, but Alex wasn't about to complain. He turned back to face Ravi, tugging at his slacks one more time before looking at him, a genuine smile on his face. "I am in your debt, Vin."

His eyes snapped back up to Alex's face. Right, talking now, uhhh... He paused for a minute to take a drag on the cigarette--smoking could be so convenient for buying time!--and blew the smoke out as he answered, "No trouble. There was more in there for you." He gestured to the bag.

The pen wasn't particularly notable until you used it, but the ledger was decorated with colourful polka dots, courtesy Amelia. Ravi was pretty sure he'd only have to say the name to explain that one.

"Oh?" He lowered into a crouch again to see. "A journal?" he asked, turning it over to see the back. Both sides, covered in dots. He tried to come up with a quip, but found himself at a lost. Ravi presenting him with a journal. It was as mystifying as if he had presented Alex with celery. "What for?"

"One of the Hour's new inventions. You write in it, people can see and write back." He paused, glancing at the cover again, the hint of a smile at one corner of his mouth. "The decoration was Amelia's choice."

A low sound of awe escaped his lips as he listened to Ravi's explanation, flipping through the pages. They were blank. So he could communicate with Ravi through these without endangering either of them, how convenient! But they would have to come up with a code... Hm. Polka dots, they weren't his first choice, but...

... "Amelia did!?" Suddenly, his book was glowing and polka dots were 110% brilliant, amazing, the best decoration to ever decorate. He grinned stupidly down at the ledger, thumbing its edges. Something from his daughter. He felt the back of his eyes grow warm.

His smile grew at the look on Alex's face. At the same time, he felt a dull ache in the pit of his stomach. He didn't want Alex to take Amelia away from him. Even though she was Alex's daughter, he'd raised her. He felt possessive.

"She works at the Hour," he said. "Clockwork, mostly, but she also invents other things, and lately she has started decorating ledgers for people." He couldn't have hidden the pride in his voice even if he'd tried.

His forehead crinkled at that. "The Hour, you say?" He hadn't expected his daughter to be under the employment of the Vanjalists. He wasn't sure he liked it. "Around Others?" Others that, as Ravi had just said last night, were far more dangerous than he?

"Yes, a few. She is friends with a naga, if she is not lying to me. You know how--" Oh. Ravi stopped, mid-vague-wave, and let his hand drop. Alex didn't know how Amelia could be. His brow furrowed and again he used the cigarette as an excuse to consider his words in a few seconds of silence.

"...Anyway. I have other things to discuss with you. I spoke with the Hour's Magus today."

"No. Hold on," he said, getting to his feet, ledger in hand. "I know how what? I've never met a naga before, Vin, you know that. Half-man, half-snake? Aren't they dangerous?" Alex shook his head, folding his arm across his chest and placing his free hand on his lips. "Did the Hour tame it?"

Alex had misunderstood where Ravi had been going with that sentence completely.

...Not how he'd expected Alex to respond, but he really should've. Had it really been so long that he'd forgotten these intricacies of Alex's character? At least he felt like slightly less of an idiot for his slip-up.

"No, no," he corrected. "Naga are good, not dangerous like you think. They bring rain and make rivers flow." Of course they could be very dangerous when angered, but he wasn't going to mention that part.

Alex: being an oblivious idiot so you feel less like one.

He regarded Ravi with a silent look, not entirely convinced. "How long have they been friends?" Or, for that matter, "Haven't you met him?"

"Mn." He shook his head. "She does not introduce me to her friends." With a wry smile and a shrug, he added, "I am too intimidating."

He uncharacteristically did not find that amusing. "You should meet him for yourself, Vin, make sure he's not a threat to her," said Alex, frowning. How could Ravi be so careless?

"Everyone knows better than to fuck with Sergeant Naran's goddaughter," he replied. "And besides, I trust a naga more than I trust a human."

"But I used to fuck with you all the time," Alex said, furrowed brows relaxing as he remembered that time he included a few additional ingredients to Ravi's tobacco. Man did he get the beat down of his life after that, verbal and physical. He grinned at the memory. "Did you gain some kind of terrifying reputation since I was gone?"

Oh man Alex don't mention that, you'd piss Ravi off all over again.

"Yes. Since I made sergeant, people find me very terrifying." It was hard to tell when Ravi was joking and when he was serious, sometimes. He sounded lighthearted about this, but it was the truth. "I am quiet now. Somehow, that is more scary than being angry all the time."

His brows shot up. Sergeant? Alex had to check himself. Of course Ravi being sergeant now shouldn't come as a surprise. It would be more surprising if he hadn't worked his way up after all this time. But quiet? "You just hit me in the face like you always do last night," he protested, a little disbelievingly.

"I can't help it!" He shrugged. "Something about you just makes me want to punch you in the face. It is nothing personal, you know."

Alex clucked his tongue in disapproval. "You're just jealous that my face is prettier than yours."

"Yes," he agreed solemnly. "You see right through me, dosta."

He lowered his gaze to his fingernails, running the pad of his thumb against them absently. "One of the many skills of Alexander Varista..."

The talk of the Magus had completely slipped his attention. (Actually, it never really held it in the first place.) If Ravi didn't get back to the topic, Alex would continue to lead them astray (unintentionally, but he was good at conversational tangents.)

Yeah, so was Amelia. Ravi was still in practice with that one. He didn't even try to be subtle about the shift. "But anyway, as I said, I spoke with the Magus about you today."

Even if he had tried to be subtle about it, Alex's reaction would have been the same. After a pause, expression now guarded, he asked, "And?"

"And he told me that you are welcome at the Hour. They will protect you if you let them."

There was a pause while he finished off the cigarette and ground out the remains under his boot. He didn't look up. "And I sort of mentioned that you were Amelia's father," he mumbled.

Welcomed... uh huh. Protect... that's nice. Mentioned he was Amelia's father... okay.

Okay no.

Voice flat, expression not unlike someone speaking slowly to an idiot, Alex said, "Why." That was stupid. That was dumb. That was unnecessary. That made things potentially more complicated. That was unwanted in the first place. "Why did you do that."

He winced and still didn't look up. "He asked your name. It slipped out. I had to explain."

Alex ran his hand down his face, letting out a low groan. "Viiiin." He took a half step forward, arms expanded at his sides. "You could have given him a false name! You could have just given him my first name! Even that would've been better than this." And while Alex's paranoia and strong desire to keep his identity hushed was not founded on any fact or evidence, he was still of the firm belief that the less people who knew about his existence, the better. "How trustworthy is this man?"

"I know, I know." He held up his hands, motioning for Alex to calm down. "I feel like an idiot already. You don't need to make it worse."

He hesitated. How trustworthy was the Magus? He didn't rightly know, but he definitely shouldn't say that. "...I trust him already to keep my goddaughter safe. I think trusting him to keep a secret is a step down from that."

He threw Ravi a suspicious stare, then clipped his hands behind his back and began to pace in a circle. Ravindra had a point there -- Amelia's safety was of greater priority than the secret-keeping of his identity, but. But still! This was also the same man who housed who knows what sort of creatures within the same confines of where Amelia worked. (Alex was unaware that she also lived there, which was currently a good thing.) Was he even sane? It was only a matter of time before their hospitality towards Others was embraced and taken advantage of by the wrong crowd. According to every folk tale he knew of vampires, Alex was a part of that wrong crowd. If they were willing to offer him shelter and protection, then who else? What else?

Finally, he came to a stop and let out a loud sigh, shoulders slumping with the export of air from his lungs. "I find it difficult to believe that they are willing to house me without some sort of reason. Something to their benefit." He folded his arms across his chest, frown deepening. "Are you sure they simply don't want to use me as a scapegoat for that lord's death?"

He could almost see the gears turning in Alex's head. The question he finally came out with wasn't surprising, but it caught Ravindra off-guard nonetheless. "Research. They study Others," he answered.

Pause. He glanced away. This was the other potentially-stupid part. "And... I did not mention you were a vampire, so I doubt that is his intent."

He narrowed his eyes at Ravindra's answer, then all but gave him the squinty distrusting look of detectives at the second part. "Neither of those things pleases me," he said, refusing to let Ravi get away with not looking at him. "My knowledge of research is cutting things open. Usually while they're still alive. Granted, I'm sort of both, but that doesn't make me feel any better. And." Here, it was clear that he'd rather trust a hungry beast with his safety than the Vanjalists, "what does it say of them that they would extend an invitation to me when they don't even know what I am?"

Nope, Ravi still wasn't looking at him. He'd known this was going to go very poorly, he shouldn't even have bothered. He desperately wished he could just erase the entire conversation and start over, or at least disengage. He shoved his hands in his pockets and glared at the ground and didn't say anything.

"Vin," he said sternly, a tone alien for him. "If you're going to do things concerning me against my wishes, the least you could do is look me in the eye when you deliver it."

Ravi raised his head, turning the glare on him. Still didn't say anything, but there was his damn eye-contact.

He lifted his chin, returning the glare. Somehow, this did not make him feel any better. It was Ravi's refusal to answer him. Ravi always had an answer for something, just that sometimes his answer came in the form of a fist or a kick. This was something different and it grated on his already grated nerves.

"Right," he said curtly, bending his knees to scoop his old garments into the bag. "Thank you for the clothes. And the journal. I suppose if you have any other bits of news you can let me know with that." Alex had no intentions of accepting the Magus' offer, but perhaps it wouldn't hurt to see the place for himself. It had almost been twenty years, after all. Maybe the place had changed. Not in a way he would have liked, if this conversation was any indication.

Dammit, no. That wasn't how he wanted this conversation to end. He was angry, mostly at himself, but he still wasn't going to just let Alex walk out on him.

"Stop." He stepped forward, grabbing Alex's sleeve to keep him from leaving. He wasn't making eye-contact again, but this time it was because if he did he was pretty sure he'd stop talking and punch Alex in the face. "I want you to have the Hour's protection because I think I need your help with the investigation."

He stopped, glaring over his shoulder, but it lessened a fraction when Ravi spoke. "The investigation?" he asked warily. "What for?"

"Because I need to know if it was really a vampire who killed Myron," he said, still not looking him in the eye. "I want you to look at the body."

Ravi's refusal to make eye contact was really starting to piss him off. "While you look at everything but me?" he growled, shrugging his arm roughly from Ravi's hold. Regardless of what he said or would say, though, Alex would end up taking a look. He couldn't not.

He let out a harsh sigh, more an irritated huff than a sigh, really. Why did everyone have this huge hangup about eye-contact? He grabbed Alex's collar and yanked him down to eye-level and glared him straight in the eye, face-to-face, for a good ten seconds of silence. There's your fucking eye-contact.

He let go. "Happy now?"

Alex glared right the fuck back for those ten seconds. Hmph!

"No," he said, brushing his shirt off, "but I'll look at the body. Where is it?"

"At the station," he answered. "But not now. I have to think about how to bring you in. It would be easiest to have you as a consultant from the Hour, but I won't force you." He didn't make eye contact when he said that one, but it was the dismissive sort, the upward glance to the side, the nonverbal, 'that's okay, really, I don't care even though I do.'

He wanted to say 'can't you just lie and say that I am?' but even Alex knew better than to mix lies with guard duty. "Then tell me what about the body was unusual. Maybe I don't have to see it." In fact, Alex began to wonder why Ravi wanted him to look at the body at all. It's not like he was well-versed in blood-sucking monsters and could name the culprit with just a glance.

He shook his head. "No, you would have to see it." Even though he could explain all the ways the evidence didn't add up, it would be impossible to figure out whether a vampire had really made those wounds without seeing them firsthand. "It is either the work of a vampire or someone trying to make it look like the work of a vampire, and I need to know which. I am beginning very strongly to suspect that it is the latter."

"Why do you think that?" If he could avoid going to the station and avoid affiliating himself with the Hour, the better for him.

"Because it does not add up right." He sighed, looking to Alex with an exasperated tilt to his head. "I have already explained this once today, I don't feel like doing it again. I will show my notes to you later and you can see yourself what does not add up."

His answer was a rough grunt. "I do not want to continue meeting here, night after night. Someone is bound to notice the light and you are keen on having it." After a long, painful pause, Alex all but ground out, "I will go and see the Magus." At the very least, he could see for himself the head operator of the Hour. But the research? No, he had no intentions of submitting to that.

YES! That was a win. He didn't want to keep meeting here, either. And the only way to get Alex to stop thinking he had to keep himself a secret was to get him under the Golden Hour's protection.

All he said, though, was, "Alright. Good." And then a pause, and a puzzled look. "And I cannot see without the light. It is dark at night." He pointed it out like Alex was an idiot for not realizing the obvious.

Whatever, Ravi, he can totally sense the victory running through your head and he is Not Happy with it.

"But I can. Or do you not trust me?"

His eyebrows rose. "You can?" And then the realization; he threw his hands up, eyes rolling skyward. "Of course you can. Vampire. Never mind."

He smirked. Then, "I won't be coming into the city, then, unless you have need of it." And while he did intend to do so, it was inevitable that he would find himself missing the familiar streets of Tyrol and end up paying a visit to her. Not including one to the Magus, but Alex didn't want to dwell on that at the moment.

Ah, not what Ravi wanted to hear, but he understood why Alex said it. And he'd said he would talk to the Magus, at least, so maybe he'd change his mind.

"What name will you use on the ledgers?" he asked. "I will write you."

He rolled his eyes up, biting his lower lip in thought. "Ah... Anders?" He looked at Ravi. "Anders Brown." Brown was so boring, no one give it a second glance.

Wait. "Why do I need a name?" he asked, forehead creasing in confusion. "Can't I just write without signing anything?"

Anders? He arched an eyebrow. Leave it to Alex to come up with an obvious pseudonym like that. He didn't say anything about it, though. Nobody would see an Anders Brown and think Alexander Varista. "No, it does not work until you write your name on the first page, and it signs that name next to what you write."

His brows rose. So that's why Ravi's ledger had been flooded with signatures. Alex had just assumed everyone was signature-happy. "Do your guardsmen or family... even Amelia -- won't they find it strange if you ask someone they've never met to meet you? Or hold conversations with? Or have you become chatty since I've died?" After all, Ravi had never been very social before. Did he have a social life outside of work now?

He folded his arms, raising an eyebrow again. "Chatty? Me? No. You can write so that only the person you are writing to can see it." He explained how to filter posts.

By the end of the run down on ledgers, Alex had to admit that he was impressed with the Hour's invention. It made things so easy! He could write to the Magus instead.

In a better mood than when he'd came, though his stomach was now home to the dread of speaking with the Magus, Alex extended his hand to Ravi for a departing handshake. "Well then, Vin."

A handshake. That felt too much like a good-bye even though Ravi had just explained how they could keep in touch. He took the hand, but used it to pull Alex into a quick, one-armed hug. It was hard to force himself to do even just that, but he really wanted to, really really wanted to, so he just ignored the nagging feeling in the back of his mind that told him it was a stupid thing to do.

He stepped back, not looking at Alex's face again but this time because he didn't want to see the reaction on it. "We will talk later, yes? Good night, Alex."

Another hug? Alex began to wonder what had softened the Sergeant so. "Good night, friend."

He left the house, wondering how difficult it would be to carry a bag as a flying rat.