Lonely Monday Morning on Library

Tarquin

September 06, 2006 8:25 PM

Lonely Monday Morning by Tarquin

Waking up alone sucked. Ok, not quite alone. But with a cat draped across your face rather than with your boyfriend. He missed Danny. He was lucky, compared to Declan, he knew that. But the bed was big, empty and cold without Danny. Sometimes, when they woke up, Danny's head would be on his chest, other times he'd have rolled over in the night. And Tarquin, waking up without him close enough, would roll over and wrap his arms around him. Or if he was already lying against him, he could just lie there for hours and not get bored - he knew he could, although he never had to, because Danny always woke up, always gave his head a little shake, and then leant up and kissed him good morning. Yesterday morning had been the last morning they'd woken up together...

Tarquin woke up with the warm sensation of Danny's head on his chest. He brought the arm Danny was half lying on around his boyfriend's shoulders and held him close, stroking his hair gently. As he came to, he put his arm across Tarquin's chest.

"Morning," Tarquin said softly.

"Mmm," Danny agreed sleepily. After a pause, he added "If I get up, I'll have to leave. I don't want to."

"I don't want you to either," Tarquin replied, sliding the hand that had been playing with Danny's hair over his hip and resting it in the small of his back. It fitted there perfectly.

"Really?" Bright blue eyes opened and looked up at him.

"Of course not. Why would I want to?" He'd asked it rhetorically, but when there was another pause, Tarquin had to prompted him, "Danny?"

"Maybe," he shrugged, "so you can spend time with you new, intellectual colleague. The one who likes everything you like."

"I hope he doesn't like everything I like. I don't want to have to fight for you," Tarquin said, trying to keep the mood light.

Danny made a small huffing noise and rolled onto his side, facing away.

"Hey, are you serious?" Tarquin asked, propping himself up on an elbow.

"I dunno. Yes. No...I don't- It's just... weird. And he gets to stay with you and I don't."

"Oh no. No no no. I'm the paranoid and insecure one. You can't take that away from me." Resting his chin on Danny's shoulder, Tarquin saw him grin slgihtly. "Daniel Martin Fox, are you jealous?" he asked, putting an arm around Danny's stomach. Danny couldn't help but grin at Tarquin using his full name, and The Serious Voice. But he still felt unsure.

"I know you wouldn't, but... he's all.. clever."

"So are you."

"Not as clever as him. He's all... debonair and Professor-y." If Tarquin was going to get insecure about pretty boys taking Danny, it was perfectly fair for him to worry about intellectuals charming Tarq away with their wit and sparkling conversation and love of Oscar Wilde. He didn't think Tarquin would leave him, not really. He wasn't even sure he was worried about there being a spark with Declan - there were plenty of guys he was friends with without fancying. It just felt strange, and he didn't have time to reconcile himself to it, and figure out whether he was comfortable with it. He just didn't want to leave with it playing on his mind, because then he'd definitely get wound up.

"You're clever, and you're beautiful. You've got everything."

"Only as long as I've got you," Danny relented, rolling flat onto his back. He reached up and ran his fingers through Tarquin's long, dark hair.

"And you always will," he promised.

"Well," Danny grinned, pulling Tarquin towards him, "You'd better come here and make me believe that."

"Gerrof, Oscar," he muttered, dislodging the supine feline. "I'm getting your breakfast."

Once his duties as slave to Oscar had been attended to, and he was showered and dressed in his usual top to toe black, Tarquin wandered into the main area of the library, a highly sugared cup of comforting tea in his hand.

He sat down at the library reception desk - he wasn't really a breakfast person, he might grab some toast or a muffin from his cupboard when he felt like it - and opened an anthology of Keats. He couldn't mope around his office or quarters all day missing Danny. People needed books, returns needed shelving... He would have to sit and mope at his desk instead. \n\n

13 Tarquin Lonely Monday Morning 1464 Tarquin 1 5

Declan

September 09, 2006 8:13 PM

I name you the eighth dwarf... Mopey. by Declan

Declan woke up far too early Monday morning to the sound of a cat's insistent, raspy meow in his ear. He rolled over with a muffled oath and cracked open one green eye to glare at the gray cat. "Beast," he muttered mutinously, throwing the covers off and padding barefoot over to his outer chamber, where he magically refilled Twitch's food and water dish. The cat remained where he sat, peering appealingly up at the young professor. "What do you want now?" he asked. "You already woke me up at... oh hell. Six? I don't have a class to teach until two!" And all his lesson plans were done... and classroom set up... he'd been planning on sleeping well through breakfast, truth be told. Not up at this ungodly hour.

Twitch twitched, then cocked his head in a way calculated for maximum feline cuteness.

Declan sighed. "Fine, fine. Tuna it is." He opened his lone, enchanted cupboard and withdrew a cold can of fish. Fifteen minutes later, Twitch was satisfiedly licking his chops over an empty plate while Declan, showered and shaved, was pulling a charcoal gray turtleneck sweater over his wet head. Little curls of hair clung to his forehead and temples annoyingly, and he swatted them out of the way after pulling on a pair of black trousers.

He took breakfast in his room - tea and toast, as always - and wearily perused Lady Windermere's Fan. After about an hour, his still-sleepy thoughts began to wander. Play. Oscar Wilde. Tarquin and Danny. No - just Tarquin now. First day of school again.

Well, that was something to do. He doubted the librarian was awake yet - certainly no one sane would be - but he might as well head down to the library. He remembered well how horrible the first morning without Michael was, when he used to Portkey around the world to various observatories. It always helped to have a friend there. In his case, it was always Maggie - but who would stop by to cheer Tarquin up, he wondered even as he moved out of his rooms and down the hall towards the library. Possibly that Kiva woman, the Care of Magical Creatures professor - they had seemed to have a friendly relationship. Still, more the merrier.

The library was quiet when he entered, but - much to his surprise - not abandoned. Tarquin sat at his reception desk, slumped over some volume or another. Declan smiled a little sympathetically; the other man was practically exuding loneliness.

He made his way quietly across to the desk, feeling as though in the early morning silence he should whisper. He didn't, but his voice was rather quiet, and somewhat hoarse as it always was in the mornings. "Tea already?" he asked with a small smile, catching sight of the cup. The subtle smell of the dark liquid wasn't without its relaxing effect though, not even upon Declan. "Mm... simple pleasures. The last refuge of the complex," he said, paraphrasing their mutual favorite author.

"How are you holding up, mate?" he asked then, with well-intentioned concern.\n\n

0 Declan I name you the eighth dwarf... Mopey. 0 Declan 0 5

Tarquin

September 13, 2006 8:15 PM

Everyone who's seen 'Green Wing' knows the eighth dwarf.. by Tarquin

OOC ... is called "Twatty". I decided not to bother with Midterm tea, as Kiva was away over the break, so we would have got no reply knocking at her office door. If I get uber bored (unlikely - much in the way of packing to do) I may go back to it.

IC
Tarquin gulped at the warm, comforting tea, his eyes trailing over 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci', and trying not to let his melodramatic side compare himself to the poem's poor, desolate knight. Danny had gone home. He hadn't seduced him and abandoned him without hope of happiness. Turning the page, he found himself confronted with 'The Eve of St. Agnes', which definitely called for making another cup of tea before getting stuck in, and perhaps a breakfast biscuit or two too. It was as he placed Keats, face down, on his desk with this thought in mind, he caught sight of Declan making his way over.

"The fact you happened to catch me without a cup the first time was the freak accident. You musn't expect to see me without one very often," he smiled, in response to the accusation. "I think I'm about due my second, in fact. Can I get you a cup?" he offered.

"Oh, I'm... I'm fine," he shrugged. Declan seemed to be good at very blunt yet inoffensive ways to the point. "Better now you're here," he added, before realising how stupid and... well, couply that had sounded. "It's just nice that you thought to come and see me," he clarified. Unless Declan was just here for book research and had happened to see what a sorry state he was in. But his statement had implied otherwise, and Tarquin decided to just bite his tongue and not double, triple and quadruple guess everything for once. What he really wanted to say was something to show he knew he shouldn't be moping, and he realised how stupid it was for Declan to be comforting him, but... well, he didn't really have the blunt but inoffence approach down. His way tended to be more blundering and catastrophic. "It was a fun Christmas, and I wouldn't skip it to avoid feeling melancholy afterwards. I can't complain," he added simply. \n\n

13 Tarquin Everyone who's seen 'Green Wing' knows the eighth dwarf.. 1464 Tarquin 0 5

Declan

September 13, 2006 9:49 PM

Twatty? Murhur. Can I call you that from now on? by Declan

Declan smiled when Tarquin alluded to the love of tea that Danny had made blatantly clear in the Labyrinth Gardens, and couldn't help but hear his sister's voice in the back of his head, constantly asking him if he fancied another cuppa. "It'll be just like home then," he commented a little dryly, but still with the same smile. "And yes, I'd love one. My second too, actually."

His smile widened and softened at how Tarquin answered his second question. Declan was a people person, there was no doubt about that - and even though he was nearing that tragic thirtieth birthday, it still gave him the warm-and-fuzzies to know that someone appreciated and even looked forward to his presence. His smile became a little wry as Tarquin added a clarification, and he bet he knew exactly what the shaggy librarian was thinking - goodness, that sounded inappropriate for one man (in a committed relationship) to say to another (who wasn't the other half of said relationship). "Don't flatter yourself," he said with just a touch of teasing sarcasm. "I just came down to find some... Keats?" he asked, looking at the cover of the book Tarquin had closed. He smiled again. "Nice.

"Actually, I did have an ulterior motive for coming, other than access to your apparently infinite tea supply," he said laughingly. "I was planning on spending the morning asleep, but Twitch decided to act as my alarm, and after an hour of lingering over breakfast... well, I got bored. Then I thought I'd pop down here, just on the off-chance you were already up. Morning person?"\n\n

0 Declan Twatty? Murhur. Can I call you that from now on? 0 Declan 0 5

Twa- I mean Tarquin

September 14, 2006 1:00 PM

I was actually intimating that I would be the 9th dwarf by Twa- I mean Tarquin

Tarquin pushed open the door to his office, kicking a door stop underneath it whilst he brewed the tea. He thought he caught a trace of sarcasm in Declan's voice, when he told him not to flatter himself. He was fairly sure he was joking, and he definitely didn't seem to be laughing at Tarquin, so it wasn't worth getting in a flap and trying to backtrack.

"One of the many reasons we should force Muggle literature on Purebloods," he nodded to the Keats comment - a very strong reason, in Danny's mind, "Perchance is your ulterior motive connected to that subject?" he asked, re-emerging from the office and holding out a mug designed after the fashion of a Penguin book cover (one he thought Declan would appreciate, as it was Wilde's 'The Importance of being Ernest'). His own mug was rather less cultured, depicting a cartoon figure holding a mug, with the words 'Ahhhhhh, tea' underneath him. "Can I interest you in a breakfast - or perhaps brunch, to you - biscuit?" he asked, proferring a tin which held a large assortment, and picking out an all butter Danish biscuit for himself.

"No," he replied, when Declan asked if he was a morning person, "fellow cat owner," he grinned. Right on queue, a slender grey cat stalked out of the office. He walked with a regal air, and jumped with the utmost elegance onto the desk, to scrutinise Declan, whom he had missed meeting when he had previously visited.

"'The only thing worse than being talked about...'" Tarquin muttered, mostly to the cat, whose ears he gave an affectionate scratch. The depth of Oscar's reaction extended to a long, blissful blink, before he returning to stonily surveying this new interloper. "Meet Oscar," he added to Declan.\n\n

13 Twa- I mean Tarquin I was actually intimating that I would be the 9th dwarf 1464 Twa- I mean Tarquin 0 5

Declan

September 14, 2006 8:35 PM

Sure you were. by Declan

Declan lingered between the circulation desk and the opened office door as Tarquin disappeared through the latter and set about preparing the tea. This seemed to be the correct decision, as, in an astonishingly short time, the librarian reappeared with two mugs and a tin of biscuits. He smiled at the image on his own mug--Wilde references abound today--and took a sip, making a grateful humming sound as the hot liquid slipped over his tongue. "Perfect, ta," he said, and gratefully accepted a biscuit. Maggie always said he'd never outgrown the eating habits of a teenage boy--any and every excuse to eat, he took.

His ulterior motive... well, there really hadn't been one, had there? But Tarquin seemed like the self-effacing, quiet type, and in Declan's experience people like him were often uncomfortable with the sort of implied compliment in 'I came to see if you were okay.' "I'm afraid to say I don't know much of Keats. Really, I love Muggle literature, but I'm abominably behind in my studies," he said with a small smile. "A little Shakespeare here, a little Longfellow there - some Garcia Lorca, now there's a fascinating fellow - and of course, the Wilde... any recommendations for further reading?" he asked.

His smile twisted into an outright grin as a cat pranced out regally and leapt atop the desk, to stare at Declan in that I'm-so-much-better-than-you-it-almost-hurts way that all cats seem to have perfect from birth. Tarquin scratched the cat's head and introduced him as Oscar.

"Pleased to meet you, Oscar. Deck, if you will," he said, extending one hand forwards for the cat to sniff, close enough for Oscar to reach without straining but far enough away to be safely ignored (or pulled away in case of claws). "Rather reminds me of my own cat, actually... though more graceful," he said, smiling fondly at the feline before him. "Twitch always seems to be knocking something over." \n\n

0 Declan Sure you were. 0 Declan 0 5

Tarquin

September 18, 2006 1:03 PM

Be nice, I'm having a traumatic time IC and OOC by Tarquin

"Oscar never knocks anything over, unless he means to," Tarquin stated. At this comment, Oscar's tail swept around, almost whipping the librarian's cup of tea - it was snatched away just in time. Tarquin put in his place, Oscar deigned to lean forward and sniff Declan's hand. If this Twitch character was a clumsy beast, without poise and elegance, the similarity to his fine self could not be very much. He assumed the other cat was merely grey. They two of them probably didn't smell anything alike, either. Humans were so thoroughly unobservant about creaturs other than those of their own species.

"Sure thing," Tarquin nodded, at Declan's request for Muggle books, "It's a bit of a treck though, I'll warn you. The previous librarian didn't seem to be much of a fan, the Muggle section of the library's in the furtheset corner - it was covered in dust too, when I got here. And behind a rope with a little sign saying 'DANGER - unstable ceiling overhead, do not enter this section' on it." He shook his head. During his explanation, he had perched on the corner of his desk and had begun stroking Oscar, who - although he remained refined in every gesture - clearly adored the attention, "Of course, I've got a fair bit in my rooms. Do you have a period or genre in mind? I mean, I feel everyone should read 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Frankenstein' in their life time, but they cater to two very different tastes." \n\n

13 Tarquin Be nice, I'm having a traumatic time IC and OOC 1464 Tarquin 0 5