[Hubert only hummed a polite acknowledgement, falling to silence and turning to tiredly watch the fire.]
[He did not get back to the faun about his proposal the day after, or the next. It was several before Hubert brought himself over to Lorenz' dwelling in the evening, thick-cloaked against the new barrage of winter, knocking on the door.]
[Hubert... didn't look better, exactly; his eyes were still uncharacteristically dark even by his normal standards and his features joylessly dour, but he did at least look put together. That might be the best one could ask for, given the circumstances.]
[Lorenz looked nothing short of surprised when he opened the door, already starting to settle in to his comfortable house clothes after spending the blustery day working the counters at DiplomaTea. The Camellias he had chosen for that day, bright and festive, still adorned his antlers even though his hair was loose and unbound.]
Please, do come in. [He said quickly, ushering the wizard inside.] The weather's terrible. If you had warned me, I would have put on something warm for when you arrived.
[The black cat, no longer a kitten, appeared from the shadows and quickly approached Hubert. It weaved itself between Hubert's legs before Lorenz caught on, with a quick!]
Oh Claude! Can't you let him inside before you give your greeting?
Impeccable hospitality as always, but quite unnecessary.
[Hubert glanced down at the approaching cat, and his mouth would have quirked downward if it weren't perpetually halfway to a scowl after Edelgard's departure. Honestly, he didn't understand everyone's obsession with naming their animals after their acquaintances—even if Edelgard's selection for the Aegir hound was apt.]
I will never understand why the cats of this world are so drawn to me. [The mage doesn't greet him, but he neither shoos the cat await, either. He only goes about unfastening his cloak and hanging it.]
Your terms, [Hubert answered plainly with the dull cadence his tone had taken in the last couple weeks. He sat as indicated, facing the fawn and his young cat wiggling for attention.]
A term I have treated with utmost gravity, which is why I did not answer you sooner. As I said, rest does not come easily to me.
[It hadn't for a very long time, even before this world.]
[Lorenz said, running his long fingers in tight motions around the cat's ears while they spoke. The black cat leaned into the touch, eyes closed in apparent enjoyment.]
I do. It's the most practical option. There is no Monster in these lands that I am currently better acquainted with, and Bonding with a Witch would be self-sabotage at this stage. The fact is that I cannot carry on under these conditions without burdening Leslie.
[Unflinching, unhesitant. Even if Hubert didn't necessarily like the circumstances he was forced under, he was above all a practical man. Results mattered, not his personal sentiments.]
I cannot pretend this hasn't been hard on her, but she is resilient. Lady Edelgard arranged to leave her with parting words in this precise scenario.
As for a Bond... I cannot say for certain. I was under the impression she had a recurring temporary arrangement with a man called Hector, and she does have a familiar. We haven't broached the subject recently.
That's quite a gesture from Lady Edelgard. Surely, she's been a fine guardian for this troubled young woman.
A recurring arrangement is better than none, and that is a relief to hear. Had Lady Edelgard not been returned to your timeline and Leslie was still unbonded, I would have sought Lady Edelgard's and your own permission to ask if she would consent to my Bonding with her until a better one was found. She... deserves quite a bit better than her own world has allowed her, and it's good that she is finding it here.
[Lorenz sighed.]
So the only one with troubling affairs in this matter are the both of us. There's no denying your analysis so I'll be succinct:
I accept the arrangement of whatever you deem comfortable for yourself, Hubert. This is business, and we need not cause each other unnecessary trouble over it.
[Hubert breathed quietly, not strongly enough to be a true sigh. He wasn't without his reservations in this, but...]
Very well. I intend to take the duties of a Bonded seriously, considering the consequences of for us both should it go poorly. If I could maintain a healthy Bond with Petra, I doubt this will pose difficulties.
[To a degree. With Petra, he'd only had a debt. This... held vulnerability. Tremendous vulnerability, something he was reluctant to share even with Edelgard.]
[But the fact of the matter was he had no choice. Hubert removed the small, palmable vial from his coat.]
But even expecting no difficulties, I prefer to approach this with caution. I trust you feel the same?
[To ensure they weren't too wildly mismatched before they permanently bonded.]
[Hubert hummed an acknowledging note as he removed one glove. Then, he broke the seal and downed approximately half the little vial. Without further ado, Hubert offers the silvery potion, and by extension, his bare hand.]
[The cycling of magic was even more important than any potential emotional balm, particularly for a Monster. Hubert had his familiars, at least.]
[Even a half-Bond could be refreshing. After so long with true Bonds, the stop-gap potion was jarring, like the haphazard stapling of two souls rather than something seamlessly woven together. Once Lorenz had his half, even with the muffled nature of the temporary link, he'd be able to easily feel Hubert's turmoil. Given the man's state for the last while, it's not a shock that he'd been deeply affected by the departures—but so little of it, relatively, touched the surface. He was in agony. A screaming roil of loss, grief, and loneliness sat under the surface of sour apathy, and also something much keener and much older, like a ill-healed wound that'd been torn open again.]
[The depth of such internal wounds upon Hubert's soul initially took Lorenz's breath away. Going in, he had anticipated Hubert would have depths much deeper than he showed, but the sheer intensity was nearly a shock to the system. There was pain greater than what Lorenz had anticipated.
Pain to the degree that he had not quite felt anything similar.
His own edges were frayed after being Bondless for months, held together by potions supplied by the Coven, lunar trysts with others in a similar state, and his own stubborn will to not surrender so easily. The initial pain of losing bonds so suddenly had ebbed into a lingering discomfort-- nothing he couldn't cover with practiced smile and a day of keeping himself busy. His own vulnerabilities and a desire to be seen lingered in his actions.
The sudden sense of connection brought with it a sense of relief on it's own, and it stirred up his drive to fuss over and try to fix what was wrong.
But, there was no fixing this. Instead, Lorenz sat with Hubert in the place he was, neither pushing nor pulling in any direction.
This was a Choice. He was not going to steer the course any more than necessary.]
[For someone who behaved so emotionlessly and valued logic, Hubert was a terribly emotional man.]
[There was... something comforting, even in the shoddy link. Even if nothing else, the ever analytical part of his mind appreciated the insight into Lorenz's self—but it was a two-way street, and the discomfort of being seen far outweighed that particular benefit. Instead, Hubert closed his eyes, focusing on the tenuous connection and turning a blind eye to both of their vulnerabilities.]
...It helps, [he murmured.] And it doesn't. [A small shake of his head. Like a child that had lost something sentimental—another object, even if exactly the same, soothed the loss, but wasn't that one that had been lost.]
[But it's strangely comforting to have that presence in his head again, a feeling once so alien and wrong.]
It's not unlike the loss of a limb, and being given another. An unparalleled boon to have the chance to carry on, but the substitute does nothing for the wound itself.
[He uttered with a quiet sympathy in his tone. While the Golden Deer as a collectively barely held a candle to the sheer vibrance of Edelgard's presence and personality, their absence in this realm was had left Lorenz adrift-- nothing compared to the dynamic they shared, and nothing could replace that.
And yet...
With Hubert there was a unique dynamic, and one that Lorenz was protective of in a similar manner. Neither of them could replace what they didn't have, and yet...]
No one is asking you to, either. Each Bond is different and unique, and I do not dare to compare myself to anyone you have known-- as I do not compare you to others that I have know.
[There's no malice in that. To Hubert, it was simply fact, and even without the factor of Bonds themselves, no one could compare to Edelgard. Or Petra, for that matter, even if this was not the Petra he'd known for years.]
[He sighs.] I am... satisfied if you are.
[Satisfied was too strong a word, but the semantics mattered little. There were no immediately, glaring red flags, and if a Bond did alleviate his affliction... there wasn't much of a choice, from his perspective.]
[The connection lacked the feverish intimacy and vulnerability that dominated his Bond with Lapis, compounded by her strange manner with people and her obsessive way of protecting what she deemed 'hers'. Yet, it also lacked the dubious consent and the sheer level of frustration that had dominated his Bond with Sylvain.
It was simply business with someone who was upfront about the sort of person that they were.
That alone was Enough.]
I'm quite satisfied, Hubert. You are... like a breath of fresh air.
[He knew that storms lurked within Hubert, just as they did within himself... but it was nothing unforseen.
For the first time in a long time, there was no undercurrent of something only nature could control lingering in the background.
[No, they weren't unforeseen. The exact intensity of those storms might be guesswork, but the past year in this odd land had done well to expose the both of them to each other's turmoil.]
[The Bond would only make it closer from here on out than either of them liked. But it was no less necessary for it, and if Lorenz consented to harbor Hubert's current emotional suffering in the back of his head, that was enough.]
Not a phrase that's ever been applied to me. [He shook his head, standing.] I will see you at the Coven, then?
[There was nothing unexpected here. Hubert was nothing if not himself, and for a person who had lived in a world steeped with deceit, that alone was a privilege to experience.]
Indeed, I'll be meeting you at the Coven. This should certainly be a good partnership for the both of us.
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no subject
Date: 2020-12-16 06:05 am (UTC)[He did not get back to the faun about his proposal the day after, or the next. It was several before Hubert brought himself over to Lorenz' dwelling in the evening, thick-cloaked against the new barrage of winter, knocking on the door.]
[Hubert... didn't look better, exactly; his eyes were still uncharacteristically dark even by his normal standards and his features joylessly dour, but he did at least look put together. That might be the best one could ask for, given the circumstances.]
no subject
Date: 2020-12-17 03:26 am (UTC)[Lorenz looked nothing short of surprised when he opened the door, already starting to settle in to his comfortable house clothes after spending the blustery day working the counters at DiplomaTea. The Camellias he had chosen for that day, bright and festive, still adorned his antlers even though his hair was loose and unbound.]
Please, do come in. [He said quickly, ushering the wizard inside.] The weather's terrible. If you had warned me, I would have put on something warm for when you arrived.
[The black cat, no longer a kitten, appeared from the shadows and quickly approached Hubert. It weaved itself between Hubert's legs before Lorenz caught on, with a quick!]
Oh Claude! Can't you let him inside before you give your greeting?
no subject
Date: 2020-12-17 04:44 am (UTC)[Hubert glanced down at the approaching cat, and his mouth would have quirked downward if it weren't perpetually halfway to a scowl after Edelgard's departure. Honestly, he didn't understand everyone's obsession with naming their animals after their acquaintances—even if Edelgard's selection for the Aegir hound was apt.]
I will never understand why the cats of this world are so drawn to me. [The mage doesn't greet him, but he neither shoos the cat await, either. He only goes about unfastening his cloak and hanging it.]
Have I imposed?
no subject
Date: 2020-12-18 04:33 am (UTC)[Lorenz said with a chuckle, scooping up the squirming feline before taking Hubert toward the kitchen.]
Familiar company is hardly an imposition. Since Lapis went back to... wherever she was before she arrived, it's been quite quiet in here.
[Drawing a seat for himself at the modest table, Lorenz offered for Hubert to do the same.]
What brings you here this evening?
no subject
Date: 2020-12-19 01:47 am (UTC)A term I have treated with utmost gravity, which is why I did not answer you sooner. As I said, rest does not come easily to me.
[It hadn't for a very long time, even before this world.]
no subject
Date: 2020-12-19 05:16 am (UTC)[Lorenz said, running his long fingers in tight motions around the cat's ears while they spoke. The black cat leaned into the touch, eyes closed in apparent enjoyment.]
And your efforts are admirable Hubert.
Now, tell me: do you still feel the same?
no subject
Date: 2020-12-19 06:24 pm (UTC)[Unflinching, unhesitant. Even if Hubert didn't necessarily like the circumstances he was forced under, he was above all a practical man. Results mattered, not his personal sentiments.]
no subject
Date: 2020-12-20 04:39 am (UTC)[Lorenz asked quietly, partly to assuage his own guilt over not checking up on her more frequently.]
She's been here for some time... has she found herself a Bond?
no subject
Date: 2020-12-20 04:53 am (UTC)As for a Bond... I cannot say for certain. I was under the impression she had a recurring temporary arrangement with a man called Hector, and she does have a familiar. We haven't broached the subject recently.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-20 05:07 am (UTC)A recurring arrangement is better than none, and that is a relief to hear. Had Lady Edelgard not been returned to your timeline and Leslie was still unbonded, I would have sought Lady Edelgard's and your own permission to ask if she would consent to my Bonding with her until a better one was found. She... deserves quite a bit better than her own world has allowed her, and it's good that she is finding it here.
[Lorenz sighed.]
So the only one with troubling affairs in this matter are the both of us. There's no denying your analysis so I'll be succinct:
I accept the arrangement of whatever you deem comfortable for yourself, Hubert. This is business, and we need not cause each other unnecessary trouble over it.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-20 05:54 am (UTC)Very well. I intend to take the duties of a Bonded seriously, considering the consequences of for us both should it go poorly. If I could maintain a healthy Bond with Petra, I doubt this will pose difficulties.
[To a degree. With Petra, he'd only had a debt. This... held vulnerability. Tremendous vulnerability, something he was reluctant to share even with Edelgard.]
[But the fact of the matter was he had no choice. Hubert removed the small, palmable vial from his coat.]
But even expecting no difficulties, I prefer to approach this with caution. I trust you feel the same?
[To ensure they weren't too wildly mismatched before they permanently bonded.]
no subject
Date: 2020-12-21 04:29 am (UTC)[Because the vulnerability was there for the both of them, and it wasn't a look that Lorenz was comfortable wearing before others.
In the end, it would be both of their intensely private natures that would do them in.]
I intend to take the duties seriously as well. This is not an endeavor to be taken lightly.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-21 05:00 am (UTC)[The cycling of magic was even more important than any potential emotional balm, particularly for a Monster. Hubert had his familiars, at least.]
[Even a half-Bond could be refreshing. After so long with true Bonds, the stop-gap potion was jarring, like the haphazard stapling of two souls rather than something seamlessly woven together. Once Lorenz had his half, even with the muffled nature of the temporary link, he'd be able to easily feel Hubert's turmoil. Given the man's state for the last while, it's not a shock that he'd been deeply affected by the departures—but so little of it, relatively, touched the surface. He was in agony. A screaming roil of loss, grief, and loneliness sat under the surface of sour apathy, and also something much keener and much older, like a ill-healed wound that'd been torn open again.]
no subject
Date: 2020-12-22 04:45 am (UTC)Pain to the degree that he had not quite felt anything similar.
His own edges were frayed after being Bondless for months, held together by potions supplied by the Coven, lunar trysts with others in a similar state, and his own stubborn will to not surrender so easily. The initial pain of losing bonds so suddenly had ebbed into a lingering discomfort-- nothing he couldn't cover with practiced smile and a day of keeping himself busy. His own vulnerabilities and a desire to be seen lingered in his actions.
The sudden sense of connection brought with it a sense of relief on it's own, and it stirred up his drive to fuss over and try to fix what was wrong.
But, there was no fixing this. Instead, Lorenz sat with Hubert in the place he was, neither pushing nor pulling in any direction.
This was a Choice. He was not going to steer the course any more than necessary.]
no subject
Date: 2020-12-22 06:00 am (UTC)[There was... something comforting, even in the shoddy link. Even if nothing else, the ever analytical part of his mind appreciated the insight into Lorenz's self—but it was a two-way street, and the discomfort of being seen far outweighed that particular benefit. Instead, Hubert closed his eyes, focusing on the tenuous connection and turning a blind eye to both of their vulnerabilities.]
...It helps, [he murmured.] And it doesn't. [A small shake of his head. Like a child that had lost something sentimental—another object, even if exactly the same, soothed the loss, but wasn't that one that had been lost.]
[But it's strangely comforting to have that presence in his head again, a feeling once so alien and wrong.]
It's not unlike the loss of a limb, and being given another. An unparalleled boon to have the chance to carry on, but the substitute does nothing for the wound itself.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-24 03:46 am (UTC)[He uttered with a quiet sympathy in his tone. While the Golden Deer as a collectively barely held a candle to the sheer vibrance of Edelgard's presence and personality, their absence in this realm was had left Lorenz adrift-- nothing compared to the dynamic they shared, and nothing could replace that.
And yet...
With Hubert there was a unique dynamic, and one that Lorenz was protective of in a similar manner. Neither of them could replace what they didn't have, and yet...]
No one is asking you to, either. Each Bond is different and unique, and I do not dare to compare myself to anyone you have known-- as I do not compare you to others that I have know.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-28 04:21 am (UTC)[There's no malice in that. To Hubert, it was simply fact, and even without the factor of Bonds themselves, no one could compare to Edelgard. Or Petra, for that matter, even if this was not the Petra he'd known for years.]
[He sighs.] I am... satisfied if you are.
[Satisfied was too strong a word, but the semantics mattered little. There were no immediately, glaring red flags, and if a Bond did alleviate his affliction... there wasn't much of a choice, from his perspective.]
no subject
Date: 2020-12-29 01:09 am (UTC)It was simply business with someone who was upfront about the sort of person that they were.
That alone was Enough.]
I'm quite satisfied, Hubert. You are... like a breath of fresh air.
[He knew that storms lurked within Hubert, just as they did within himself... but it was nothing unforseen.
For the first time in a long time, there was no undercurrent of something only nature could control lingering in the background.
This would certainly be enough.]
no subject
Date: 2020-12-29 01:57 am (UTC)[The Bond would only make it closer from here on out than either of them liked. But it was no less necessary for it, and if Lorenz consented to harbor Hubert's current emotional suffering in the back of his head, that was enough.]
Not a phrase that's ever been applied to me. [He shook his head, standing.] I will see you at the Coven, then?
no subject
Date: 2020-12-31 04:40 am (UTC)[There was nothing unexpected here. Hubert was nothing if not himself, and for a person who had lived in a world steeped with deceit, that alone was a privilege to experience.]
Indeed, I'll be meeting you at the Coven. This should certainly be a good partnership for the both of us.