almost_knightly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
almost_knightly) wrote2011-07-13 02:42 am
almost_knightly) wrote2011-07-13 02:42 am
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Photo album spread out on my bedroom floor...
There was nothing remarkable about the day when Break got up this morning. There was nothing remarkable lying in wait in his bathroom, and nothing remarkable between himself and the kitchen, and nothing remarkable between the kitchen and the library.
The library, however, held something new today. It was lurking on the bottom shelf, easily missed but for Break's habit of crawling around on the floor -- a large binder, sedate red leather and several inches wide.
Break knows that binder.
Fingers shaking, he snatches it up out of the shelf. He fumbles it, and it falls open, and the first thing he sees is Faneuil Hall at Christmas, covered in snow. Below that is a photograph of Shelly, his own Shelly, dressed in winter clothes and laughing with Sharon when she was still small, and there's his ponytail in the photograph next to it because no one could ever get him to look at the camera that first year and he's seen these pictures a thousand times --
He slams the book shut, suddenly unable to look. A cruel gift, in a way; there are days that he wonders if he'll ever see this place and these people again. But on the other hand, now -- now he can show people, he can let them see things he's only described. It's as precious as it is mean.
Gathering the photo album up close to his chest and clutching it as though he's afraid it'll vanish, Break leaves the library, in search of some of the people he trusts most.
[ooc: Locked to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hadengineered, retraced, of_murder, standstilltime, smallkindnesses, info_barma]
The library, however, held something new today. It was lurking on the bottom shelf, easily missed but for Break's habit of crawling around on the floor -- a large binder, sedate red leather and several inches wide.
Break knows that binder.
Fingers shaking, he snatches it up out of the shelf. He fumbles it, and it falls open, and the first thing he sees is Faneuil Hall at Christmas, covered in snow. Below that is a photograph of Shelly, his own Shelly, dressed in winter clothes and laughing with Sharon when she was still small, and there's his ponytail in the photograph next to it because no one could ever get him to look at the camera that first year and he's seen these pictures a thousand times --
He slams the book shut, suddenly unable to look. A cruel gift, in a way; there are days that he wonders if he'll ever see this place and these people again. But on the other hand, now -- now he can show people, he can let them see things he's only described. It's as precious as it is mean.
Gathering the photo album up close to his chest and clutching it as though he's afraid it'll vanish, Break leaves the library, in search of some of the people he trusts most.
[ooc: Locked to
hadengineered, retraced, of_murder, standstilltime, smallkindnesses, info_barma]
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[He sinks into the chair, sitting on his knees and smoothing his hands over the cover of the album. Then he glances up at her, questioning. Really, he feels about as awkward as she probably does, trying to ask if she wants to see any of his life back home.]
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That's from Liam's graduation party, when he got his master's degree.
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[If she turns the page she'll be treated to the sight of Liam in a long black robe and a truly idiotic-looking flat-topped hat with a tassel hanging from it. There are several pictures of him in it, because everyone made him stop and pose, it would seem. But he doesn't look entirely ecstatic, and Break is nowhere to be seen.]
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[There's a distinct note of pride in his voice as he says this.]
Nope. No servitude system in my world, remember? He lived wiv Barma before he and I moved in togevver, but it was more like the dad-Barma here wiv the tiny Liam.
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How does Liam keep his sanity?]
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Yeah. Right when he graduated my hypoglycemia was acting up and Shelly didn't want me living alone anymore, and since he was just out of school, it was cheaper for him to split the rent and just use my furniture instead of buying his own right off.
[He turns the page to reveal pictures from the day they moved into the new apartment. Everyone had come to help, and afterward Shelly had pulled out the funniest photographs. There's one of Gilbert and Oz and Alice carrying the couch together -- Gil and Oz on one side eyeing Alice in disbelief as she holds up her end of the couch on her own -- and one of everyone pausing to have pizza for lunch. Break, the spitting image of his younger counterparts, sits in a chair and directs everyone else while Gilbert yells at him. Liam crawls around under his desk to set his computers up and Alice sprawls out on the couch for a nap like she owns it.
The very last picture, and Break's favorite, is of the giant pile of no less than twelve boxes labeled "books". He and Liam stand on each side of it, posing to look sheepish even though neither one of them was even remotely sorry about it.]
...then we just never split up.
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...Oh, well. I guess if it's convenient... [Unrelated men co-habituated at home as well but if the arrangement lasted for many years rumors started... Gil clears her throat, not that she ever be so invasive as to speculate. She chortles at the picture of Alice.]
Still bossy, huh?
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Always. She's a lot better about it now, though.
[Speculate all you like, Gillie; he finds you Gils and your shock to be amusing, now that he's willing to be open about being in the relationship in the first place.]
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[Break wonders, sometimes, about the full extent of Oz's happiness. There's a distance to him, at times. But whatever his major problems are, they certainly haven't stopped him from living a full life yet.
Break moves to turn the page, but hesitates suddenly, remembering something.]
Ah -- we adopted a kitten a bit after this, and she got a lot of attention when she arrived. Shall I skip those photos?
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We weren't expecting to get an sort of pet. But I found her out in the rain one night and she was all cold and alone and scared. I couldn't just leave her.
[He moves dutifully ahead, however, and ultimately winds up in a section devoted to Christmas with Liam's family. These make him smile; it was the third year Liam had brought him home, and the year before Break had fallen ill. Shelly had demanded photos.]
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She walks back to the table.]
Hm? Is this at Yule?
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Mmhmm. We mostly call it Christmas, at home. I spend it wiv Liam's family.
[Indeed, the very first photo on the page is a group photo of the main family -- a very tall and pleasant father, a delightfully cheery mother, a stern elder brother, and three younger ones that range from normal to surly to downright odd; the one has a streak of blue in his hair and earrings just like Liam's. Liam and his brothers and his father all look very alike.]
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You spend time with his family...?
[She, she's not quite sure how she should interpret that. If it was the Rainsworths it make sense but why would he be so close to Liam as to spend time with his family?]
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Mm. He's taken me home wiv him every year for the past -- oh, seven?
[The eldest brother, as some of the next photos would have it, has a family of his own -- a wife and two little girls. The smaller one evidently has a thing for Xerxes, as there's a picture of her in his lap with a book called "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" open in front of them. It's funny, really; around the mansion, it's common to see children hanging all over this Break, but in the photograph he looks just a little like he has no idea what to do.]