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Post by Blaise Park on May 25, 2010 4:50:20 GMT -5
It didn't take a genius to tell that Hitoshi didn't want him around. Even if Hitoshi hadn't said anything, Blaise probably could have gotten that much.
"Yeah, sure," he replied, smiling at Alex. Blaise leaned into him, softly pressing his lips against Alex's in a kiss that lingered just a bit too long to be a peck. "I'll catch you tomorrow, if you're not busy?" he said, something between a question and statement.
He smirked at Alex's roommate. "It was nice seeing you again, Hitoshi. Enjoy your book."
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 25, 2010 4:59:05 GMT -5
Alex intended to tell Blaise that tomorrow would be fine, tell him goodnight, and then calmly turn back towards Hitoshi once Blaise had left. He would have wondered what Blaise meant by again, and chided himself somewhat for presuming he wouldn't have found a way to antagonize Hitoshi anyway.
What came out of his mouth sounded more like "ah- yv-b-gzuuh".
He decided not to try to speak again until Blaise was out of the room.
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on May 25, 2010 5:14:44 GMT -5
Hitoshi flinched, about a thousand different ways to hurt Blaise flashing through his mind. He settled for glaring daggers at him until long after he was gone, and considered setting the door on fire behind him to make a point.
Once Blaise was safely out of earshot, Hitoshi forced himself to look at Alex. He wanted to ask why the hell Alex was interested in someone like Blaise, or ask about Alex's day, or complain about his sister, or...something. Instead, he stared at Alex blankly, unable to find his voice, wondering why he didn't just stay with his uncle for a few more days.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 25, 2010 5:31:40 GMT -5
As soon as Blaise closed the door, he sighed, and rubbed his face until he didn't feel like he was about to implode anymore.
He looked at Hitoshi and tried to look sympathetic, though pain and confusion began twisting around in his stomach. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean- that shouldn't have happened and I didn't mean to let things get awkward. Blaise is... I..." He buried his face in his hands for a moment and made a strangled little noise, then looked deep into Hitoshi's eyes, forgetting his internal script completely and letting his emotions show.
"Can we please be friends? I don't want to hurt you and you know that, but this is- this is not good for either of us."
Please don't try to hurt me back, either, he thought. It's selfish, but I don't know if I could take it.
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on May 25, 2010 17:34:11 GMT -5
It was incredibly hard to feel angry at Alex when he was looking at Hitoshi like that. Hitoshi dug his nails into his legs and tried to hold himself together. He wanted to spend time with Alex again, but he wasn't sure how much of it he could take.
"As long as you don't expect me to be friends with him," he said.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 25, 2010 18:06:04 GMT -5
Alex winced a little.
"I don't..." He sighed. "I'm sorry; I don't want to drag you into something again, either. And no, of course I don't expect you to be friends with him. I just want you to be happy." He winced again. That probably didn't help. "I mean... you know what I mean. You can make your own decisions."
"...This isn't making any sense, is it. How about I shut up and let you talk?" He smiled sadly at Hitoshi.
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on May 25, 2010 18:19:46 GMT -5
Hitoshi took a deep breath, looking down at his feet. "You wouldn't be... I mean..." His voice caught in his throat, and he distracted himself by running his thumbs along the side of his book.
"What do you want me to say?"
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 25, 2010 18:22:51 GMT -5
Alex tried to look at Hitoshi without staring him down."Well... is there anything you want to say to me? Anything at all. Or... we could just talk, like we usually do. About things."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on May 25, 2010 18:40:35 GMT -5
Hitoshi shifted around on his bed and made himself look back at Alex. He tried to think of something to say, but he knew it was going to be a long time before he could act normally around Alex again.
Every thought that flickered through his mind seemed to bring him back to Blaise, and how it had taken Alex very little time to get over him and move on to dating someone else.
"Spring break is coming soon," he said weakly. "Are you..." Hitoshi faltered. It occurred to him that he and Alex would be sharing a room during the field trip. Worse, Hitoshi and Alex would be sharing a bed. An oversized hotel bed that probably could have fit Hitoshi's entire family, but it was still a bed. He felt his stomach tighten painfully.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 25, 2010 18:53:07 GMT -5
"Your aunt paid for my ticket, I'm not going to disappoint her. Besides, I wanted to go." He shrugged and smiled a little. "Well... hopefully we can be in the same room without drama by then? Or we can figure something out."
"Are you looking forward to it, other than that?"
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on May 25, 2010 19:17:33 GMT -5
"We're in the same room now," Hitoshi said. He wasn't going to point out that it wasn't being in the same room that was going to be the problem, or that as much as he was dreading it, he had no intention of trying to convince anyone to switch them around. He wasn't sure whether having a chaperone in their room with them was going to make it easier or harder to handle. He was thankful that, if nothing else, he wasn't rooming with his family.
"It might be nice to see the historical sights," he admitted. "One of the places we're supposed to visit is rumored to have been the grave site of Achilles. I don't think there's much there anymore, but... This is going to sound strange, but I really want to see that."
He flipped open his copy of The Iliad to the bookmarked, his gaze dancing across the page. "We read a few scenes from from Homer's Iliad a few weeks ago in Literature, and for some reason I keep coming back to it. And it's not all of it, just this one part, and I don't know why."
Hitoshi handed the book to Alex, the page open to the death of Patroclus.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 25, 2010 20:37:20 GMT -5
"Hm? Oh, that's Greek, isn't it?" Alex took the book and skimmed through it.
And he read.
His eyes skipped backwards to the conversation between Achilles and Patroclus, Patroclus begging Achilles to fight and finally borrowing Achilles' armor to fight with; skipped over the battle and the death of Sarpedon; on through the lists of the glories Patroclus earned and the men he slew, to the encounter with Hector.
He read Patroclus' dying words, foretelling the vengeance of Achilles, and swallowed. "This is a surprisingly emotional tale, for a war story." A wave of... something like embarrassment or guilt jittered under his skin. He wondered if this were supposed to be symbolic in some way.
Alex tried to smile. "It will be nice to see the ruins of what's supposed to be the birthplace of Western civilization, certainly."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on May 25, 2010 21:05:54 GMT -5
"Later in the scene Achilles calls on the gods Zephyros and Boreas to light Patroclus' funeral pyre," he said, taking the book back from Alex.
He couldn't quite make himself read the death of Achilles, as much as he tried. They had read it in class, and Hitoshi knew generally how the scene went, but the day they read it was the day after he and Alex had broken up, and he hadn't been able to focus much in class. But even after... There was something strangely upsetting about the scene. Every time he tried, he ended up slamming the book closed, or skimming it to the next scene, or staring numbly at the same line until his vision went blurry.
"Greek mythology is actually surprisingly interesting," he said. "A lot of people believe that magic, at least as we know it, has strong roots there, but there isn't really anything concrete tying them together."
This was...nice, Hitoshi realized. He missed talking to Alex about magic, and classes. Even if they weren't together anymore, it felt better having him as a friend.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on May 25, 2010 21:54:36 GMT -5
Alex chuckled nervously. "Hmm, I think I've heard those names before."
"So I guess that's a 'yes', you are looking forward to it." He grabbed his pillow and flomped over sideways on the bed, hugging the pillow and looking up at Hitoshi. He knocked his sandals off into the floor. "Why do they believe that, then? Sounds interesting."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on May 25, 2010 22:07:48 GMT -5
He shrugged and put the book back on his nightstand. "It's the heart of western civilization. You can see remnants of Greek myths and architecture in everything around you." He leaned back on his bed, folding his hands behind his head.
"Mage are notorious for hubris. It's only natural to think they would want to take credit for something as important as Ancient Greece." He smirked at Alex.
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