LOG: Piotr and Clarice

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Back-dated to yesterday after this log happened


Clarice heard Piotr screaming at Illyana as she headed up to his room and nearly dropped the cookies and milk she was carrying. He just did what?! "Fuck," she muttered to herself, teleporting herself back down to her room to pick up some more stuff.

Piotr carefully picked himself up from the floor and dragged himself into bed. He wasn't crying, which was actually a suprise, and just lay in bed with his face in his pillows thinking about what he'd just done.

Carefully, Clarice made her way back upstairs, "Piotr?" she called, softly at his door, "It's Clarice."

"Come in," he muffled from his pillow. He flipped himself into a sitting position and took a few deep breathes as Clarice entered his room, the adrenaline still rushing through his veins.

"I brought comfort food and Pearl Jam," she said, setting the things on a table and rummaging around for some glasses, giving the older man some more time to calm down.

"Thank you, Clarice." He looked up and smiled a little. Had he really disowned his own sister? No, that blonde, teenage walking-mystery was not his sister. "Can you please close the door?" he asked.

She did and sat down crosslegged on his bed with the cookies. "I heard you yelling," she stated without preamble, handing him a cookie.

"Yes, I was arguing with Illyana and I couldn't handle what she was saying to me, so I reacted, quite loudly I'm sure," he mentioned while keeping a fixed gaze at the door. He munched on his cookie and continued to avoid direct eye contact with Clarice.

"She has a tendency to say exactly what you don't want, doesn't she?" Clarice thought out loud, "Then again, I don't think she realizes that not everyone is an unfeeling ice-bitch."

"Ice-bitch," Piotr chucked. "I never seem to handle things too well. I was hoping that my time away would have helped me control some of my outbursts, but I couldn't hold back on Illyana. I loved her too much and was too hurt that she didn't want anything to do with me." He held out his hand for another cookie.

For the moment, she left his outbursts alone, she wasn't alwys known for her emotional control either, "Piotr, ever consider that she doesn't know you? I mean, you said you didn't know her anymore, but couldn't that go both ways?"

"Oh, she seemed to know me pretty well by the way she was calling me names and such. I probably made a fool of myself as always," he began to sulk. The cookies weren't helping.

Clarice handed him a glass of milk, wondering if he had any alcohol around and if she could keep him from drinking it, "What did you expect from her, Piotr?" she asked him reasonably, lifting his chin to look at her.

He couldn't help with perk up when he looked at her cute, purple face. "I was expecting coldness, but I was hoping for some sort of kindness or some connection, but she doesn't want that or anything to do with me."

It was all Clarice could do not to roll her eyes at both Rasputin's, as much as she was friends with Piotr. "Illyana doesn't want much to do with anyone, remember? Piotr, try to be reasonable. She has done nothing that even hints that she has a kind bone in her body. You're all upset over something you expected."

Piotr just stared dumbfounded at Clarice. He certainly wasn't expecting that comment to come out of her.

"What?!" she asked when he hadn't said anything, "It's true. I mean, Piotr, she's not seven any more. People change and not always the way you want them to. I don't like Illyana, but something made her this way and you can't expect her to suddenly pretend ten years of her life never happened."

What she was saying sounded extactly like what Illyana was saying moments earlier, but perhaps Clarice said it the right way, because Piotr was hit with a brick of realization. "I'm not asking her to pretend that ten years of change never happened, I just wanted her to trust me with what she was feeling, and I wasn't ready to accept that she didn't want that. I just...just hate her now. I hate her attitude, I hate her mockery, I hate her downright coldness to myself and everyone around her. People have been breaking their backs trying to help her fit in after being stuck in a demon-world for the past ten years, but since she's so uninterested in that she might as well go back."

This provoked a little smile from Clarice, who agreed with almost everything he said. She leaned over and hugged him tightly, wishing that he wasn't hurting so badly. "I know...but maybe disowning her was a little harsh? As much as you hate her now, she is still the only sister you'll have. I don't know what I'd do if my family disowned me."

"I don't want a sister like that and she certainly didn't seem too interested in being related to me so I did her the favor," he scoffed.

Clarice shook her head, "No you didn't," she said with conviction, "You took the easy way out for you both. Now she has no reason to try and neither do you. Relationships take work, I've learned that here. We wouldn't be talking right now if they didn't."

She paused, taking a bite of a cookie to organize her thoughts a little better, "You don't have to like her, Piotr," Clarice told him softly, "but I know you love her."

Those are the words. The words he didn't want to hear, but needed to hear so badly. Piotr complete broke down crying in front of Clarice. It stormed over him without much warning, so he was completely caught off-guard. His sobbing was quiet and sincere as what he had done fully washed over him.

Clarice held the larger man in her arms, letting him cry and baptise his her shirt with his tears. "Shhh," she murmured.

He held back a few sobs to mutter, "You've been very nice to me Clarice, but I think it's time for me to be alone. Thank you very much for the cookies and the CD. I'm sorry I had to be like this in front of you. Please don't tell anyone..."

She snorted, rubbing his back and letting him go, "Tell what? Listen to the album, really listen. The entire album is a guy trying to come to grips with his family."

"Thank you," he sniffed. He stood up and led Clarice to the door, gave her a big hug and shut it slowly behind her.