RP ~ Finding Ynez

[on_holy_ground]

After his return to New York, Darius left things alone for a week or so, feeling it was best to let her come to him rather than for him to search her out. However, his need to know why she left grew stronger as each day passed. The note did give him a fairly good idea, but he still wanted to hear it from her directly. Eventually though, his ability to wait her out failed him and he hired a man to see if he could discover where she might have gone.

It was about a week after that that the man returned with what he had discovered. It seemed that Ynez had continued to use her credit cards after she left Rome, and had left a trail that had led to Madrid, then London, and just recently right back here to New York. As far as the investigator could tell, she was still here in the city, and her most recent purchases put her in the area close to her apartment.

Darius paid the man, then immediately left to find out if she was indeed, back home. He made his way to her building, then to her door, and after a moment's hesitation, he finally knocked. Now, he simply had to wait to see if anyone answered.

Comments

[ynez-castillo.livejournal.com]

Ynez sighs. She rests her head against his chest to hear his heart beat, steady and strong. Immortal.

"She was a powerful witch, very powerful. She lived in the mountains in a little town in Puebla, in Mexico. The only time she came to America was for my quinceañera. She was very tied to the old ways. Where she came from was where the family had always been, from the very beginning."

She smiles, remembering her abuelita.

"I used to spend the summers with her, her and my grandfather, until he died. He was a dreamer, too, in his own way. That was what led him to her. He dreamed of the woman who was meant for him. He was from Mexico City, his family was very rich and cosmopolitan, but he threw it all away to go into the mountains to find her. And she wouldn't leave, so he stayed with her his whole life. They were very happy together. They had ten children, my father, my aunts, my uncles. And that's the generation that came to America, one by one they came over the border and disappeared into Los Angeles and built a new life together. And that's where that part of my family comes from."

It's not just a physical space, oh no. It's historical and spiritual and part of every day of her childhood, stories about the family back to the beginning of the Third Age.

[on-holy-ground.livejournal.com]

He listens intently, not as familiar with the histories of the New World as he is with those of the old. His hand however continues to softly stroke her hair, even as he absorbs the information.

"You miss her."

[ynez-castillo.livejournal.com]

"I do, yes. Very much." Ynez sighs a little and snuggles closer, liking the way his voice vibrates through his chest when he speaks. She could get very used to this.

"She was very special to me. She taught me so much. I was always glad to go see her."

[on-holy-ground.livejournal.com]

He nods slightly, because he had seen enough bereaved people over the centuries to know how difficult it was to lose someone close. He had even lost people that he cared deeply about himself, so the sense of loss was one he knew. However he had never felt the ties of family, even in his youth.

"There are times when I wonder what it would have been like to have a family such as that in my own life, so forgive me if I ask about your own. It is mostly curiosity about such ties."

[ynez-castillo.livejournal.com]

"Oh, Darius." Ynez pulls away enough that she can look up at him. His eyes make her lose track of her thoughts for just a moment, but only a moment. She's dreamed of blue eyes for weeks now, and thought about them while awake. She hadn't expected to see his eyes again.

"There's nothing wrong with asking and nothing to firgive." She raises a hand to touch his cheek, amazed at her own daring. "I'd like to think you'll have every opportunity to get as sick of my family as I can get, and to love them, too."

If they accept him, once they accept him, he'll have strength at his back that he never imagined.

"Some day I'll take you to San Mateo Zinacapan, and you'll see where I come from. Okay? It isn't really glamorous at all."

[on-holy-ground.livejournal.com]

He looked down at her, smiling softly at the touch of her hand to his cheek. It was unexpected, and quite welcome. Being with her had done more to bring out the light quickening that still pulsed within him than anything else. It was something that had come as a complete surprise to the darker half of his nature.

"I know something of unglamorous beginnings, so I would like to see where you came from, since I cannot really show you my own."

[ynez-castillo.livejournal.com]

"We'll go to Paris," she says. "That will be something. I'd like to see it the way you do."

A little tentatively, she traces the outline of his lower lip with her thumb. She's dreamt about his mouth, too, surprisingly and irritatingly sensual dreams.

"And Rome. I'd like to go back to Rome. Just not the way it was. Okay?"

[on-holy-ground.livejournal.com]

He nods, actually liking the idea of showing her some of the other places that he had been through his eyes. They had done that a bit in Rome, but things had gotten uncomfortable before they had gotten very far. Perhaps one day he could show her the places he had been in China and Africa as well.

When her finger traces his lip though, he catches his breath for a moment, and just savors the light touch.

[ynez-castillo.livejournal.com]

Her mouth suddenly feels dry. Nervously, she licks her lips. She wishes she knew what he was thinking when he nods. What is that expression in his eyes?

She continues to stroke his lower lip, hypnotized. She has a feeling that if she looked away from his eyes, she wouldn't be able to look at anything but his mouth.

"Where... where are you staying?"

[on-holy-ground.livejournal.com]

He can't help but to lick his lips a bit, as she to brush her fingers along his lip, and for a moment it may have touched her skin.

"A hotel about two miles from here."

[ynez-castillo.livejournal.com]

Her heart starts hammering in her chest. She swallows.

Without stopping to think, she says, "I want you to stay here. With me."

[on-holy-ground.livejournal.com]

He hadn't really been expecting her to ask him that, despite how well things had gone here tonight. His voice is soft when he asks her, "are you sure that's what you want?"

[ynez-castillo.livejournal.com]

Her nerve nearly fails her.

"Of course. I miss you, Darius."

[on-holy-ground.livejournal.com]

He smiles, and lifts one hand to gently brush a tendril of hair back from her face and tuck it behind her ear. "Then I would be more than happy to accept your offer."

[ynez-castillo.livejournal.com]

Ynez leans her head slightly into his hand, smiling. Stars in her eyes? Just a few.

"I'm glad. I'm so happy you're here."

[on-holy-ground.livejournal.com]

It's been a very long time since anyone looked at him quite like that, and the last time it had been someone he had wished had not done so. This time though, he was warmed to his core to see it.

"I am happy that I am here as well, and that you are here with me. I missed you more than I can say."

[ynez-castillo.livejournal.com]

"You can say it as much as you want to. I won't object." She wraps her arms around his neck and hugs him. "I feel the same way. I'm so sorry for leaving like that. I won't do it again. I was just so ashamed for feeling the way I did."

[on-holy-ground.livejournal.com]

He wraps his arms around her waist and holds her, as he looks down at her. "I can understand why you would feel that way."

[ynez-castillo.livejournal.com]

"Can you?" She looks at him curiously, wondering what it is that he sees in her to make him feel the way he does. There's no way she's going to ask. She's afraid to know. "Please, just be patient with me. I'm not..."

Ynez doesn't want to list all the things she's not. If he hasn't figured it out already, then she doesn't want to be the one to tell him.

"Do you find me attractive?"

That one slips out before she can stop it.

[on-holy-ground.livejournal.com]

He finds himself wondering what it was she hadn't said, and was getting ready to ask when she came out with the question. It caught him a bit by surprise, although he can't say why that is exactly.

"Of course I do."

[ynez-castillo.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry, that wasn't fair." Ynez pulls away from him just when she wants most to hold him tight. "You couldn't possibly say 'no' in this situation. So that's like blackmail."

[on-holy-ground.livejournal.com]

He reaches out and pulls her close to him again, not wanting to lost that contact at the moment, and wanting her to know that he didn't consider it to be blackmail at all. "Ynez, I would not tell you something that I did not believe to be true, even if I thought it might upset you."

[ynez-castillo.livejournal.com]

"Really?" She spreads her hands against his chest and contemplates them for a moment before looking up into his eyes.

"Are you really, truly not a priest anymore? Nowhere in your heart?"

[on-holy-ground.livejournal.com]

Darius pauses before answering, because that is a very hard question for him to answer at the moment. So many things are conflicted in his life at the moment, and that is the main one.

"It is a complicated situation, but I would not say that he is completely absent."

[ynez-castillo.livejournal.com]

He? Ynez's brow creases. That answer just confuses her more.

"What does that mean?"