Finding Eleni here had been worth it all. The dread of coming here. Seeing faces he had rather all left in the past. Living once again under Armand's roof. He felt extremely uncomfortable here, felt the discomfort gnawing at his ankles like rodents. He felt like an animal trapped in too tight a box. But he needed answers. And safety and for that he had to endure and remain a little longer.
One reunion had been enough for one night. After speaking to Eleni and having shown enough vulnerability for a lifetime, Everard had gone out into New York the rest of the night to get a breather. To get away not from her, but the others, only to return at sun down when half of them had already been in slumber.
But Eleni had said he- she was here too. And so the next night, at waking and after feeding, Everard tried to find her in the too familiar, feverish and stifling cacophony of immortal heartbeats and finding her in a corner of the garden, just slipped out of sight. Quiet, in thought and divorced from the rest. Some things would never change.
But they had, hadn't they. Everard, now decked out in luxury fabrics and gaudy jewellery, everything forbidden by the rules of old, while she wore the clothes of a woman, which would have been unthinkable at the time. It did not surprise Everard in the slightest but it was still a sight to behold. Even when observed from the back.
"Got into any fights lately?" he asked casually, keeping a respectful distance. If she held any resentment towards him for abandoning them, that was her right. Just as it would have been Eleni's, but she had almost wacked him over the head for even suggesting he 'left them behind'. But in practical terms, he did. But he did not need forgiveness. But he also did not need a fist to the face right away, so keeping a good few feet between him and Eugénie seemed the wiser option.
@ombre-du-vampire