Bound

Brown. Almost everything about her seemed to come back to that. Brown.  Her hair, her eyes, maybe even her complexion, if she ever got more sun – right now she's more olive-toned than brown, though. Then there's the bricks of the house she had to heartbreakingly leave behind in her youth, the bricks of the house she had to quickly desert to save her ego, the bricks of this new house she recently moved into... why is she going on about bricks again? Anyway, what got her on the subject of brown would be the bee that's fast approaching her. It was mostly brown and it seemed to buzz towards her with purpose. Oh. For others, magical education at Scholesort felt like a distant memory. For one Mercureme ‘Remy’ Tillman, it felt as if it were yesterday. Especially with the familiar Baying Beemail that was dropped and was now buzzing in her outstretched hand. “Bloody he- what the heck!” Remy held the slowly enlarging scarlet envelope a full arm’s length away from her face. As one of her childhood best friends – along with his mischievous older brothers – frequently received these kinds of messages from their mother while they were in school, she knew the dangers of these little buggers. The more she waited to open it, the bigger and louder it would get. Despite that knowledge, though, she still waited a little too long. Getting lost in thought over what she could have done recently to warrant it, while peering into her still steaming mug of morning tea. So, without warning, the letter burst out with a very shrill and very vocal, “Remy! I think I’m going to die! I need you in my... my room right about now! I can’t hold it any longer!” As the letter tore itself into pieces, the puffing and sizzling sound of its dramatic end in self-combustion covered the quiet sigh that signaled abrupt departure of its recipient. *** “Cally! Are you okay?” Remy frantically looked about as she materialized into being in her friend’s room, looking for any sign of struggle. When she found nothing other than her friend’s own struggle to keep the smile off her face, she fell onto the nearest object willing to take her weight – an old trunk serving as the coffee table. “You almost gave me a heart attack, you witch. Morgana, was that really necessary? Why would you send a Baying Beemail so early in the morning?” Receiving her friend’s exasperated look with a roll of her eyes, Callista Hermin slowly raised her left hand in answer. Along with a barely audible, “...hardly early anymore...” “Oh my... Cal! When?” Remy seemed to levitate off her seated position as she pulled the brilliant cut diamond ring closer for inspection. Focusing on her friend’s welling eyes after a moment of acknowledgment to her other best friend’s choice of rock. “Last night... Rem, I actually wanted to tell you then, but he advised me to wait until this morning to drop the bomb,” Cally dreamily reported through a wide grin, her face glowing. “Well, he probably wanted you to himself for a while, too,” quipped the back-to-busily-scrutinizing-the-ring Remy. “And that.” Cally quickly agreed with a wink. “Honestly, a normal beemail would have done the same, you brat,” Remy halfheartedly chided. “When? How? Where is he now?” Quickly getting over her fit of pique as she couldn’t stop the silly grin overtaking her. Remy had anticipated Gabe’s proposal, but she hadn’t expected it to be so soon after he told her he was going to do it. Get a load of that, Gabriel Former, savior of the Magical Community, tying himself down to one woman. The papers are going to have a field day with this news. “He says he got called in to work by the Minister. I think he just said that because he sensed my desperation to talk to you, though, and wisely kept himself out of the fray.” Cally’s smile rivaled Remy’s as she referred to her fiance. “And, I’ll only give details if you agree to resist teasing my occasional lapses in concentration,” she added. “Oh, you mean when you inevitably stare goo-goo-eyed into space?” Remy couldn’t resist getting one in. “You’ve certainly reeled me in at the suggestion of one of those randomly happening.” “Rem!” Cally leveled a playful swat to her friend’s arm. “Of course, I want details, Cal. In fact, I’m demanding them.” Remy gathered her friend in a short, impromptu hug. After a brief spell of squealing and hopping on the spot, both women calmed. Remy eagerly pulling her friend down opposite her to settle on the plush couch. *** While the girls contentedly chatted themselves hoarse, the newly-affianced Gabe entered his office and greeted his partner. “Oi, Former, you’re early for lunch! Late for work... but, still, early for lunch. Had a great night, I suppose?” said partner answered him. “Can’t complain.” Gabe let lose a smile so wide his partner could only shake his head. After maneuvering through the mess that was his side of the office, Gabe plopped himself down behind his cluttered desk – the myriad of papers that covered almost every available surface on his side of their small office fluttered as he did so. This was quite the contrast to the neatness on the other side, which only had a lone picture frame and a single file folder on the desk – the photo was of a peaceful sunrise over the lake and forest at Scholesort. “Really, Former, you should clean that mess up before your woman sees how much of a slob you are,” Gabe’s partner gave him a wicked smile. “Did you really think I’d let her step foot in this, my male domain, DeBana?” Gabe copied his partner’s tone and ending with his own devilish smile. “Let her? So you don’t plan on ever letting her know what you do exactly? Or, for my sake, even let her clean your mess?” Drake shook his head gently, his platinum blonde hair swaying lazily along. “Of course, she knows... I just... blot out details here and there. I’ve had enough about hearing how I’ve had too much adventure in my life already from her mom, that being an Aigiser isn’t the safest job in the world, and why do I even have to do it.” Gabe tried to nonchalantly explain as he gathered a few loose papers to him. “Besides, I’ve grown quite fond of you picking up after me. Want to help me now?” He added with an impish grin. “Gads, no! And I’d lose that expression, were I you, it is not a pleasure to look at.” Drake pointedly rolled his eyes before stowing the last folder in his desk drawer. As he pushed away from his table, he surveyed his now-humming partner, “Are you up for some lunch, then? You did come early for it.” Gabe’s grin grew wider. Drake snorted as he stood. “I am rescinding the invitation, though, if you don’t stop grinning like an i***t. Unless, of course, you happen to have plans with the future missus?” He superciliously c****d one pale blonde brow, silvery eyes lighting up as he saw that his intuition was right regarding his partner’s lifted spirits. “I knew I wouldn’t get that past you.” Gabe shook his head in amazement. “Besides, she’s probably detailing last night to Remy right now. I do not want to disturb that.” He stood and staggered quite a bit as he maneuvered right back out of his clutter. “Remy? Remy... Tillman?” Drake said softly, his face losing its friendly smile. “Uh huh... didn’t think you’d forget her that easily. It was only last week that she brewed us that potion for those nasty dragon cuts.” Gabe heartily thumped the other man’s shoulder. Although, that might have been because he almost toppled over the spare Verity Lasso seeming to slither out of his desk. “Oi! You okay, mate? You look a little... weird... not that you didn’t already.” He added one more whack to his partner’s back, forcing Drake out of his momentary abstraction. “Yeah! Fine... sorry, I just remembered that stupid mission. If that Stupid Hermin had told his brother about it instead of us, I wouldn’t be drinking vials of the damned potion every night.” Drake deftly covered up. Gabe shook his head at the old moniker his childhood best friend had unfortunately gotten at school. Although, it did seem appropriate after what he got him and Drake into recently. “Well, you’re not alone in that department, remember? You’re just going to have to blame it on the day job.” Gabe shrugged and cheerfully sauntered ahead while Drake magicked and warded their door closed. “I much like blaming it on Hermin... makes it easier to come to work,” Drake caustically retorted, as he followed his partner slowly though the bowels of the Ministry. How Stu Hermin and his partner’s fiancee came from the same parents still boggled him. However, despite his efficient reasoning, the real cause behind Drake’s uncharacteristic ‘weirdness’ was actually hearing himself speak her name aloud, albeit haltingly. It was a name he only ever thought of in the shadow of the dark, in the safety of solitude. He’d repeated it in his mind so many times but could count on one hand the times he’d articulated it these past several years. The name of the face he could not forget. And if he was a deep thinking man, he’d have to grudgingly admit that it was the name of the one he harbored deep, unexplained emotions for. The woman he could not possibly have as he is. It was pathetic, really. But for him, it was not only last week’s unfortunate dance with a dragon that the woman had taken part in saving him. There were probably countless more. But one incident stood out clearly. He shuddered to remember it but could not find it in himself to forget. *** It was the night of the final battle that earned Gabe his status in the Magical World. The night where destinies were fulfilled. It was chaos at ground zero. The quaint town in the valley below their school grounds were littered with casualties and debris. Everyone who stood up for their cause, or was magically persuaded to, were battling it out. Drake DeBana was one of them. And it was on this night that he took off his mask and faced the real world; faced the man who led him to believe a lie, a man who had died at his hands. What made him feel worse was that he had felt nothing after he had taken his life. He had felt empty. He had felt alone. Allowing himself to finally fall to the ground and breakdown, a pair of concerned brown eyes had witnessed his transformation. He had suddenly felt those eyes on him amidst his despair, baring him naked, and he had chanced a look into those eyes. In those depths he saw what he had never seen in others, what he could only label as a look that he had never previously experienced in his once ordered but, he realizes, limited world. It was then that Drake somehow knew that she had changed him. One look and she had saved him from further destruction. Saved him from taking his own life. With the clarity of hindsight, Drake could now understand that she had given him his first taste of something very foreign to him. Despite the wealth of pity that accompanied it, and the fact that it was too intangible for him to decipher, her compassion still had such an impact. Since then, he had tried to recapture the comfort that he felt those eyes had offered him. And, though it warred with his need to forget the moment as it was instrumental in his attempts to move on, he couldn’t leave it to the ether to be washed away. He wanted to remember, but needed to forget. *** Shaking his head to bring his mind back to the now, Drake was having a hard time forcing himself to focus on his partner’s retreating back. Eight years had passed since then, but he still longed for those brown eyes to look at him in the same way it had that day. He had not seen her for so long that he’d forgotten what shade of brown they were, not that he had really made an effort to commit that fact to memory before. With that thought, he finally came crashing back to the present. Gads, it’s a good thing his partner had never learned to pry into his mind, or he will never live down the sappy drivel he’d thought through. Finally catching up with Gabe’s long strides, the partners walked side-by-side to the designated Dematere point to get to their usual lunch place. They’re early enough that the sight of them together did not cause the usual ruckus it usually did. And so, with a dematerializing sigh, Drake left the Ministry grounds with the final thought that he probably needed Remy in his life. Unfortunately, it was a need that had a slim chance of fulfillment.