(no subject)
Title: Fool's Night.
Setting: Modern AU.
Date: 1st of April, 2009.
Summary: Tonight, they will change for the worse.
Warnings: Domestic violence.
He’s only just hung up on his last contact when he enters the house, the digital numbers on his iPhone reading 23.30. Officially, his day ended at 19.00. But the transaction between civilized deals and barbaric, South-Asian terrorist trading policies is a carefully balanced art - one he hasn’t entirely mastered yet, though the meeting tonight didn’t go entirely to hell. The Vietnamese were more than happy to cooperate but the price they were asking... He hangs his jacket away and toes off his shoes before walking upstairs, the house sparsely lit. Presumably, Mireille has gone to bed.
The past months, she’s become increasingly... persistent. Difficult. He probably shouldn’t be surprised at that; she’s her father’s daughter in many respects and a deep-seated sense of morality comes with the package, consequently. It doesn’t usually bother him. So long as she stays out of his business, it won’t become a problem. But these days, she seems unable to keep from asking questions. He’s gone as far as to move his arrangements out of the house as much as possible to spare her, but of course, at length, such precautions are little more than fig-leaves. If she wants to see, she’ll see. If she wants to get offended, he’ll have to deal with that in turn.
So far, he’s managed to outweigh her concerns with neutrality, waving away her questions and changing the subject. Preferring directedness in his approach to everything, however, this solution doesn’t suit him and tonight, he thinks he won’t have the patience for it. He’s too tired and too annoyed, stretching his network thin to accommodate their proposed demands. When he’s about to enter their small living room on the first floor, however, he pauses in the doorway. Watches her, cautiously, as she sits with her back to him by her desk, awake despite the lateness of the hour. If he could leave the room without drawing her attention, he would. Not even out of cowardice; but because he isn’t prepared to have this conversation right now.