LOG: Arrangements

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Marius finally comes face-to-face with Jennie's father. And a hypothetical situation becomes a real one.




The man was unfamiliar, tall and well-built with graying black hair and bright blue eyes. He brushed bits of snow off the shoulders of his coat and pulled off his other glove, stuffing it in his pocket. His companion was a very tall skinny girl with short brown hair and identical blue eyes. Both were well dressed, and judging from the panicked look Jennie'd had while passing Marius on the stairs, they had to be her father and sister.

"I'll be back in a sec!" she called over her shoulder, "Gotta pack a few things.." she disappeared into the student wing.

Marius watched his friend's rapidly disappearing back head up the stairs, then let his eyes track inexorably back to the strangers. The pair's genders and ages, distinct lack of mutant auras, and the look of utter terror on Jennie's face meant even Marius could fail to draw an inference as to the newcommers' identities.

Ah. Family.

Marius froze, his hand clenched around the smooth wood of the banister. It wouldn't be rude to turn around and walk swiftly back up the stairs. Jennie was already well in retreat, and after all, those below had no idea of his identity. Marius could only imagine this was a positive thing, as one of the riders that was sure to accompany that identification would be "boy no doubt previously identified to you as one responsible for your recently-discovered daughter's abduction." The man who was certainly Jennie's father did not look particularly threatening, but all things considered it was very likely there was no person on this earth he should approach less. The intelligent thing to do was to leave immediately, all the better to avoid inevitable explosion.

"Ah, pardon me," Marius said, releasing the banister to take himself the rest of the way down the stairs, "but would I perhaps be addressing Aristotle Niarchos?"

Ahh, I'm meant to be the pretty one anyway.

The raised eyebrows Marius received in response from the man was a gesture that Jennie herself often did. Usually right before she was about to issue a scathing comment or a smack. The man turned to his daughter.

"Olivia, perhaps you could go and help your sister pack?" Ari said.

"But--" The girl looked from her father, to the boy on the stairs and back. She sighed. "Right, fine, fine." She darted up the stars, pausing to give Marius one fleeting look before passing him and disappearing after her sister.

"You would indeed," Ari said, his British accent was clipped and proper. He smoothed his jacket with one hand. "You have me at a loss, I'm afraid?"

Well. If it were now or never, it may as well be now. His life's motto.

"Marius Laverne." The flippancy that usually accompanied an introduction was completely nonexistent. The boy's head dipped once, yellow eyes not leaving the older man's.

"At your mercy," he said quietly.

Ari crossed his arms and looked at the boy. Several seconds passed in silence as the man regarded Marius severely with eyes that were somehow the exact shade of blue as his friend's.

"So, you are Amanti's son." he said finally. The boy did look like his mother, except for the nose and eyebrows. "I received a telephone call from her just the other night, the pretense was of course, business, but in reality it was about you."

"Eh . . ." Threats of homicide he'd been prepared for. The news of contact between his mother and a man whose daughter had met with inadvertent abduction, however, were somewhat less so. Particularly as said mother had expressed little in the way of interest one way or another when he had called to cheerfully inform her he would not, in fact, be returning to Brisbane for the holidays. Mum, what the sod -- no, wait. I shan't even attempt to tread the convoluted path of maternal reasoning.

Marius tried to cover his shock with flick at his too-short hair. "Right. Well, she does derive such pleasure from expounding upon my breathtaking stupidity to third parties. As it is generally deserved, I cannot say as I find myself in doubt as to the content of the conversation."

"I believe the words 'bloody idiot' and your name came up in conjunction far too often." Ari shook his head. "I must confess, suddenly things make much more sense." He looked up towards the student wing where Jennie had disappeared to for a few seconds. He then turned back to Marius. "I don't profess to know your exact reasons why you felt it was such a good idea to do all that you did, and it's simply astonishing to me that you lasted as long as you did. But while I do not know my oldest daughter as much as I would like, I will try and trust her judgment," he nodded to Marius.

"You're missin' nothin' about the exact reasoning. I was quite intimately involved an' even I cannot now say there was any sort of comprehensible logic at work. As for your eldest daughter's judgment, I can submit only that Jen is made of mercy." Marius rolled his neck uncomfortably and stuck his hands in the pockets of his slacks. "Odd how so many say upon the meeting of my mother that my actions miraculously become far more explicable in retrospect. Dare I even ask the primary thrust of the intervention, no doubt delivered in her own special Way, which effects all the delicacy of a sledgehammer to the face?"

Ari sighed. "She asked, in her own way, that I check up on you in light of the fact that you will not be seeing her for your holiday. I am going to go one step further. If you are not doing anything else, I would like for you to join us."

The boy's mouth fell open, just a little. Then it snapped shut. "Ah . . . eh," Marius repeated. His head tilted slowly. "No offence is intended to your offer, sir, an' certainly it is not my place to question the machinations of my brilliant and devastatin' mother, but would my presence at the family gathering not be somewhat awkward? An' I do not now speak of the hovering sword of unintentional abduction."

"Unfortunately my offer is not without an ulterior motive. I have a mother-in-law who has never ceased commenting upon your surprise visit to my home in June. She also has misgivings about my insistence upon treating Jennie as what she is, a member of our family. I present this invitation for Jennie's sake, as I'm sure you will provide a welcome buffer. And I get the added bonus of tormenting my mother-in-law," Ari said, with a small smile that on a man of lesser stature would have been considered evil.

Marius remembered going to visit Jennie's father just before the track of his life had taken its sharp turn for the wall -- and, months before, Greece, and the family of her mother. Spending his holiday in the company of a man who had every reason to hate him was not a scenario he had envisioned . . . ever. But while the situation they'd discussed had been hypothetical, he had made a promise to Ari's daughter. And he'd already been bad friend enough for a lifetime.

Right, then. Two for two it is.

Marius grinned, removing his hands from his pockets. "Well, then. As it is after all for Jen's sake. An' I must say I find your ulterior motives strikes far less terror into my heart than would the willingness to do mum's bidding. Very well, then." One hand raised haltingly, then stopped. Marius hesitated, eyes falling for a long moment to the scar that scored his palm. Then, wordlessly, he took a few steps forward and offered his hand to the older man.

"I am at your service," Marius said.

Ari took the offered hand and shook it firmly. He then took a step closer and put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Also, if you ever do anything that brings harm to my daughter again, intentional or otherwise, mark my words, they will never find your body." He gave Marius's shoulder a friendly pat and then checked his watch. "You should perhaps pack, we will be gone for a few days."

"Yours is a perfectly reasonable proposal," the boy smiled, unperturbed, as experiences at the school aside, seventeen years of Amanti Laverne in his life did not make for squeamishness at threats of bodily harm. "No worries. I have become an astonishingly light packer."

Marius withdrew his hand from Ari's grasp and rubbed it against the other, the scar tissue on his palms sliding against each other slick and numb. "Right then. All is in readiness. Now, perhaps someone should tell Jen."