Rating: PG-13 for slash connotations
Pairing: K/N -- like I can write anything else.
Status: Completed. Short story.
Archive: Nifty, KaosOnDaTrain, BSBSlash. Anywhere else, please ask first. I just wanna know where this story is being posted. Oh, and, of course, at my page (www.geocities.com/sdlucly/)
Warnings: First of all, in case any of you actually read this, it is slash. Just give it a minute and you'll realize it is slash. My muse, in this case, was actually very strange in itself. This story is a combination of a scene in a book I was reading and this particular subject my friends and I were discussing a couple of weeks ago. It's funny how one thing links with the other and you end up having a story.
Feedback: Yes, please. This story is my personal favorite and I'd love to hear what you people have to say about it. Flames, should you feel the need to send them, will be cheerfully placed in the chimney so I can be a little bit warmer in this damn horrible and just freezing winter. Goddamn the fact that my study doesn't have a thermostat and I just can't take my comp over to my room.
Disclaimers: Don't know them. Don't own them (not for lack of wishing, that is). Don't even want to meet them. I don't need Kevin to tell me that he's married and probably has never stared at Nick for hours at a time. I don't need Nick telling me Kevin is far too old for him and he'd probably be with someone around AJ's age. shrugs I don't need reality, thank you very much. I've got enough reality with the fact that college started back on August 20th.
Thank yous: First and foremost, to the lovely girl that was send my way when I got in college. Karen, you're the only one who can keep up with my stories at the rate I'm going. You're awesome girl. You know I get weird and freaky from time to time and you still put up with me. Amazing.
To Jon, you know you're great. You just know it. I know you know it. giggles It takes one to know one. You said it babe.
Now with the story...
Enlightenment By M. F. Luder
There were lights around the room and people talking amicably. The night was warm and tender, with a soft breeze entering the crowded room through the windows that opened to a huge garden. Laughter and conversation could be heard all over the place, the party's host lost in the ocean of people.
Kevin wandered over to one of the waiters making their rounds through the room. Smiling at the young man, Kevin picked up a glass of champagne. The dark haired man had never been very fond of hard drinking, but a glass here and there was never taken the wrong way. Especially now. It seemed like the only way out of his deep and overwhelming thoughts seemed to be either drinking or working. Even whenever he tried to lose himself in music, he could feel his mind going into overdrive as all this thoughts he could dream about, that would just pop out in the back of his memory, let to the same thing. He had tons of unfinished projects scattered all around his small study, papers with untouched lines, single words on whole and empty pages, doodles on the corners and on the sides, meaningless paragraphs that even he couldn't understand.
It had been weeks since the last time he could feel at ease in the solitude and emptiness of his house. That was why he had taken to spending so much time with the guys, at least when he was with them, Kevin didn't have to think about it. He didn't have to torture himself. Because lately every single word he said, every single look and meaningful glance seemed to be directed only towards something in particular, and that scared him. That scared him to no end.
Kevin just couldn't understand how something that seemed normal and an every day thing had changed over night into something so... deep, so profound, that his senses would just go into overload and his mind would shut down completely. Often nights more than not he would find himself laying on his bed, the red numbers of the clock ticking by, looking at the ceiling being haunted by images and dreams. Images and dreams he shouldn't be having. Ideas that should be forbidden by his mind and subconscious... or conscious. He didn't know anymore.
The older man shook his head slightly. This was exactly what he was talking about. He couldn't even go ten minutes without thinking about it, without falling into the deepest abyss of his mind and trying to survive all the feelings that seemed to be consuming him ever so slowly.
Looking around the room, into the faces of people he had either met or was bound to meet at some point during the night, he found one that he was already used to. Walking by the side of his friend, one of the three anchors he had leaned against for the past days, Kevin smiled.
"Howie," Kevin said as he approached the host of such thronged gathering. "Good party man. There's so many people I've barely seen the rest of the guys."
The twenty seven year old turned around from the lady he was talking to and looked at his older band member. "Kevin, my friend, it's good to see you." Taking a step forward, Howie patted Kevin's shoulder friendly.
Kevin laughed at Howie's choice of words. 'Good to see you', like they hadn't been seeing each other a lot more in the past couple of weeks than on their other breaks. Kevin had been hanging with them so much he was surprised the guys hadn't asked him about it. Sure, they hang out together, but during their short breaks, they'd usually go to visit their families. But Kevin had taken refugee in his friends. And, if the guys had noticed, they hadn't questioned Kevin about it.
Smiling at his friend, Howie turned to look at the lady that was standing by his side, sharing a smile on her nice and gentle features. "Kevin, I wanted to introduce you to Ariadna, an old friend of mine from back in college." Motioning of the endearing woman to take a step forward, Howie continued. "Ariadna Parker, my friend and bandmate Kevin Richardson."
Kevin turned slightly to look at the girl Howie was talking about. Her long wavy ebony black hair hung loose on either side of her face, soft waves that seemed to form as the breeze run through her locks that were pushed back behind her ears. A pair of tender but deep black eyes embellished her face as they shone with laughter under the chandelier light, emphasizing her freckles and high cheekbones. She was wearing a simple but elegant navy blue night gown that accented her perfect curves, the low cut showing just about enough of her white milk skin to make it look endearing, but not too provocative.
"It's a pleasure meeting you Mr. Richardson." The woman said with a soft smile playing on her lips. Her eyes seemed to dance under the light that seemed to be reflected in those pools of depth.
"Kevin, please." Kevin didn't think he could let this lovely woman call him by his last name. She seemed fairly young, even younger than Howie himself, and it just didn't seem right.
Tilting her head to the side, she nodded. "Then Kevin it is. I hope you call me Ariadna." Her voice was slow, calming, with a southern drawl he couldn't quite put his finger on.
Ariadna focused her coal black eyes on his sapphire green ones. And she saw something swirl through them, a darker shade of green taking upon his eyes for just a split of a moment, and then, it was gone. But, for her, it was enough.
"So, you met Howie here in college," Kevin said as he dropped his arm around Howie's shoulders, "How come? Did you major in music as well?"
A ghost of a smile appeared on her lips, but she didn't answer. Her shinning eyes seemed to tell you she knew a secret you were never to find out, that she knew something about you.
"No," Howie answered instead, "Ari here is a Civil Engineer major." He finished with a smile, knowing just how much Ariadna hated the shortening of her name.
The young girl groaned -- and that relaxed Kevin in a way, the fact that she could show emotion besides just smiling that ghost smile of hers and being totally calm and collected in front of them -- but laughter could be heard in her voice. "Howie, you know I hate that awful shortening of my name."
Howie laughed at how predictable she was, not having changed in the past eight years he had not seen her, and waved it of. "We met through a common friend, Dave actually," Howie continued as he turned to look at Kevin, who nodded at the mention of Dave -- one of Howie's friends back from college, a music graduate as well who they met a couple of years back. "They had a class together..." Howie started snapping his fingers in a reminiscent manner of his, "Which class was it?"
"Psychological Analysis." Ariadna supplied, "He missed like two classes and asked me for my notes. And that, my friend, was the beginning of a long and pretty nice friendship."
"Psychological Analysis?" Kevin repeated, somewhat surprised an Engineering major would take such a class. People who went to science usually didn't take subjects outside their major, right?
Ariadna nodded, and was about to say something when Howie cut him off. "Actually, Ari here, even though she loves Engineering, she's got this... fixation for Human behavior. She took most of Psychology classes."
"I liked it, Howie, there was nothing wrong with that." Ariadna's tone had changed drastically, showing a subtle anger mixed with tiredness.
"I'm not saying there was anything wrong with that." Howie argued back. "We never did."
Ariadna sighed softly, the air leaving her lungs through her slightly parted lips. "Yeah, right. You always did. You and the guys."
"It wasn't like that," Howie tried to convince the young girl, not really wanting her to believe something that he knew wasn't true -- or at least he thought wasn't true. "We just... we just couldn't understand why, studying Engineering, you could read so much, or like letter's courses."
"I did Howie. Period. It shouldn't have been a matter of discussion whenever we were all together."
Howie was about to say something else, tell her that it was never like that. Sure, it was weird for someone who loved what she was doing as much as Ariadna, to go to classes that her curriculum didn't require, especially classes people with the Psychology curriculum didn't even like. However, the young girl cut him off.
"You know what," Her tone changing once again, her voice dropping a couple of octaves, letting Kevin believe she could reach most of the notes in the scale, if she really put her mind to it. "Lets just forget it, ok? I don't wanna talk about that."
Howie sighed softly at her words. She wasn't leaving it at this point because there was nothing else left to say about it, she was leaving it like that because she didn't want to dig further into what she thought was truth. And, not for the first time since he had met her about ten years ago, Howie thought there was more onto it that she led on. "Sure, if that's what you want."
She nodded, her head barely moving at his words.
Kevin had been watching this whole scene and, even thought he really didn't know Ariadna that well at all, he could see her tender brown eyes had taken a grayish shade. That reaction was something totally unexpected and, to him at least, quite frightening.
"Hold on a minute D, lets rewind, shall we?" The silence that had fallen upon the group of three friends was something Kevin wasn't liking at all. Besides that, he had gotten lost at some point about half an hour. "You said Ariadna is a friend of Dave and you met her through him, right?" He waited long enough for Howie to nod before continuing. "Now, what was Dave doing in Psychological Analysis?"
Howie laughed at Kevin's question, forgetting for a moment the eating feeling that Ariadna was hiding him something, knowing the older man was totally right. Dave was a man to whom studies meant going to classes to fall asleep. "Well, he needed three extra credits, and he thought the class would be easy. You know, just tendencies. To either say the truth or not, that kind of stuff."
"He got a surprise?"
"Hell yeah! As far as Dave told me, he was dead stunned about the class. Almost failed." Howie turned around, smiling softly at Ariadna, who smiled back at him, as he dropped his arm around her shoulders. She flinched under his touch, but he was already used to that. Whenever one of the guys would hug her, she'd flinch, but relax after a minute or two. Neither of then had asked her about that, not really wanting to get in her private business, but it had always been something Howie had wanted to find out. "Ari here had to help him to pass the exam."
Ariadna was able to give the two men a small smile, however, that smile just didn't reach her eyes.
"Hey, I was about to ask you, who did you come with? It's been ages since the last time I saw you girl, I totally lost track of ya." The question had been bothering Howie for the longest time. He hadn't invited her, not that he wasn't glad she had come -- on the contrary, he had been stunned when he saw her --, it was just that he couldn't figure out how she had known about the party.
"Jonathan invited me. He didn't have a date for the party, and thought I could use a night off. And, of course, see you in the process." Her tone, once again, had changed. This time, however, it changed 180 degrees. Her voice was teasing, her eyes gleaming with laughter and an uncanny amount of innocence projected in them.
"You stayed in touch with Jonathan?" Somehow it didn't surprise Howie. Jonathan was the only one from the whole group that ever did get close to the younger girl. The two of them became fast friends and, it was to obvious, they'd stay friends through the years.
"Yeah," Ariadna smiled slightly, her lips twitching up in a ghost of smile, "We used to email each other about once or twice a week, but the last couple of months we were just way too busy. I almost lost touch with him, but about a week ago he wrote me telling me about the party. He thought I could use the time off and, of course, see you in the process. He was the one that convinced me about coming back to Orlando."
"Where have you been living?" Kevin heard the words in the air before he was even able to think about it. It surprised him the fact that he wanted to know about the younger girl, even though he had just met her.
Howie smiled and nodded, wanting to hear the answer as well.
"In Chicago."
"How long you've been living there? After I graduated, I didn't hear anything from you."
"A couple of years," Ariadna answered her college friend. "I left a couple of months after you. I was able to finish my major at Duke. Jonathan was the only one who knew about it."
"It's great you stayed friends over the years. Really neat." Howie looked at her, his dark brown eyes gazing right at her soft black ones. "You two were always really close."
"Yeah, you could say that."
Howie saw her smile slightly, her eyes hard, and he knew she wasn't gonna say anything else. "You always knew he was a nice guy, a total gentleman. The same way you knew Dave was a slob."
"I never said that about Dave." Ariadna interjected. She would never say something like that of a friend. She could think about it, but never say it aloud.
"No, but you knew it."
"How was she to know Dave was a slob?" Kevin questioned as he looked at both of them. "He looks so like an A student. Sure, he's anything but that, but he sure has the looks."
Howie shrugged. "Beats me. All I know is that she knew," he smiled at his younger friend, his eyes shining lightly. "She's always been very good at judging people's character. She's got this... this sixth sense about stuff like that." Finally he was able to bring the subject without looking too suspicious about it. He had been wanting to talk with her about it for the past half an hour, just didn't know how to start.
"Howie--" Her voice was cold once again, a loud warning in her tone. Ariadna wasn't gonna talk about it. Not in a place like that, not in a situation like that. And most certainly not with someone she had just met by her side, even though she kept having these... flashbacks of lights in her mind when it came down to Kevin.
"It's true." Howie turned to look at her, his eyes daring her to deny it.
"Sixth sense?"
"Yeah," Howie turned his attention to Kevin this time, planing on answering his question and asking Ariadna about it in the process. "One time--" He was about to tell Kevin about that time when she told Lucas, another friend of theirs, not to worry about something the group had no idea what they were talking about, saying that everything would work out. To have faith. Later they had found out that Lucas had been worried about his mother, who was having a biopsy that very same day, fearing she might have breast cancer. It had turned out it was benign and they were able to extricate it. But Lucas had been scared. He had been terrified. And Ariadna had known.
However, Howie's tale was cut short as a waiter tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to look at the young man who let him know there was a problem in the kitchen.
"I'm sorry," he said to his friends, "I'll be right back." Smiling at Ariadna and Kevin, he left.
"Sixth sense?" Kevin asked again, but this time he directed the question right at the younger woman.
Ariadna waved it off dismissively, not wanting to give it much of attention. "It's nothing."
"A sixth sense can be many things but not nothing. What was he talking about?"
Ariadna sighed softly. This was exactly why she didn't want to come to the party. Even though she had never let the guys into her further knowledge about human behavior, they had found out enough about it the couple of times she let it slip whenever she was worried about one of her friends. "It's..." she started slowly, "it's just this ability I have to understand people a little bit better than the rest."
"You can't predict the future?" Kevin asked with a small smile, trying to make a joke out of the comment.
To his surprise, she chuckled. "No, I can't predict the future."
"What can you do?" His question was innocent, really wanting to know about this very intrinsic friend of Howie's, not knowing how in the world Howie had never told the guys about her.
"I just..." She let her voice trail off slowly, trying to come up with the exact words to express what she wanted him to know, "I just see things under a very different light."
"Really?" Kevin tilted his head slightly to the side, his eyes meeting hers. "What do you see?"
Ariadna smiled gracefully, her eyes starting to shine under the chandelier light once again -- just like when Kevin first saw her. The young girl locked her gaze with Kevin's deep green eyes. Once again, she was able to see the same thing she had seen when they first met. It was there, she knew it. It was there... waiting for her. For him to realize it. Her eyes nor her smile ever faltering, she took his hand in hers. Her thumb moved over to Kevin's right palm. With circular movements, Ariadna started applying some pressure in the touch.
Sapphire green eyes seemed fixed with coal black one. Kevin couldn't help but stare at her, barely blinking. The contact flesh to flesh that she was making with him, even as subtle as in only her finger on his hand, was deeply and surprisingly calming. He could feel his breath taking a steady rhythm, his heart beat slowing down until the pulsating vibe of the blood was barely felt under his skin. Every sound in the room evaporated in thin air. Even the air seemed to stop moving, leaving only Ariadna and him inhabiting at that moment, in that very same place.
Black eyes pierced deeper into green ones. Her iris contracted then expanded slightly, barely visible to the untrained eye. Her gaze was hard as steel, deep as the ocean and burning as fire. Her fingers, never once, stopped moving. The contact, in this particular case, necessary.
And then it started.
Ariadna could see the green pools she was staring at widen with surprise and anticipation. She could see Kevin's green eyes darkening deeply, taking an almost grayish color. Doors opened at her insistence. Muffled sounds became clear in the dark night. The shadows surrounding the facts were brushed away by a soft sigh. Letters rearranged themselves into understandable words.
Kevin froze in his spot. Something was wrong, he knew that. Something was definitely wrong. He could feel his limps going numb, his hand tensing up under her touch. His heartbeat, not so long ago calm, speed up in a matter of seconds.
She could feel herself entering the securely kept chambers of his mind. She could almost see herself entering through the guarded threshold and into the privacy of his thoughts. It was so powerful, it seemed to consume her. She had seen it before a lot of times, especially in the latest years during the traveling her work obliged her to, but never this strong. Never like this. A burning fire seemed to ignite as soon as she entered deeper into the room. It surrounded her quickly, trying to obfuscate her enough so she wouldn't be able to continue her search. But she was stronger. A lot stronger now.
Kevin's breath was caught in his throat as he finally realized what she was doing, what she was trying to do, and he needed to stop her. She was going so deep into his soul, he knew she'd see everything that had been running through his mind the last couple of months. He knew she was looking right into his soul. She was parting the close walls he had built for his own protection with so much easiness, it was right down amazing and almost impossible. She was entering her mind like walking into a garden, and that scared him. Fright captured his heart as he tried to close himself up, not to let her in. Her finger on his palm was suddenly too hot for him to be able to endure it, confirming his suspicious. He tried to jerk away his hand from her touch, but she caught him with both hands. His eyes still on hers, their gazes never once interrupting, he knew there was this blank light -- very much like an aura -- coming from their joined hands.
He tried -- he forced himself -- to close his eyes, to break the contact in order for her to stop, but it was just impossible. It was as if he couldn't help but surrender himself under her scrutiny, under her search for something he knew she'd find. His lips started to tremble, parting slightly as a soft breath left his lungs. His throat seemed dry, the air making its way out forming a small could of gas and smoke, visibly in the coldness of the environment that surrounded the both of them. His fingers were too numb for him to feel them in his hands. His heart contracted forcefully, blood pouring out of its chambers and into his veins rapidly, his pulse accelerating immensely.
She was close, and she knew it. She was so very close that joy captured her heart like never before. This was what she had been looking for the past few years. This was what had kept her going on living when force left her body and soul. Every time she had helped someone in the past, had been preparation for this day, for this opportunity. It made her strong enough to be able to fight against his strong will, to banish the walls around his feelings, protecting them from the outside world. She knew she was very close to accomplishing what she had to do.
The knowledge of his fear didn't go unseen by her. She knew. She knew everything now. But fear was a small price for what she knew would come. He had to see it. It had been right under his noses all this time, and he just had been too blind to see it. That was why he needed her. He needed to have his eyes open to the truth. And that was why he ended up meeting him in this very unusual situation.
He had just not wanted to see it. He had just gone right through it, never once looking back at something that should have caught his attention at the very beginning.
Ariadna took another step closer, moving further into his mind and soul. Wind took a quicker pace in the small compartment of his psyche. The murmuring of the air deafened her for a second, her eyes and mind the only powers she had left to use. The wind was even stronger now, her clothes blowing behind her, the force of it pushing her back. But she wouldn't let go. Not now. Not when she was almost there.
Then it opened.
Freedom took over everything that had been securely locked out of fear. White translucent wind seemed to surround her and capture her in the sweetness and tenderness of its knowledge. Ideas started overflowing her as seconds turned into minutes. Images of years of friendship appeared in front of her eyes and showed her the truth behind the lies. Ideas that seemed to have been surrounding his mind and confusing his psyche were finally understood by her soul. Short scenes of his every day living were brought to her attention as they played slowly in the present. Simple touches and shy glances were seen with knowing eyes. Laughter and cries from soft eyes relished and consoled by him revealed unspoken words to her willing ears. Wildly beating hearts and sweating hands finally found their cause. Meaningful comments and whispered words finally turned into common language.
Everything just fell into place.
As a tender smile appeared on her lips, a smile like never before, her usual cold black eyes actually sparkled brightly on their own. And if someone, someone who had known her before that day, was to see her at this very same moment, they would have know something was different in her. Ariadna herself could feel tears pricking in the back of her eyes and sheer bliss touched her heart. She had found her calling, her reason to live, and that amazed her to no end.
Her hand never wavered in the sweet touch that was held to the older man. Her finger kept its steady rhythm on his palm as her own heart seemed to jump at the happiness that consumed her.
"I see," she started, her voice quivering slightly as she fought the tears that were threatening to leave the confinement of her coal black eyes. She was barely whispering, and she wasn't sure if it was either by the emotion put in her tone or by the fact that loudness wasn't needed in that moment when everything just fit. "Soft blue eyes, pearl white skin and blond locks."
Kevin's own eyes fixed with hers as her sweet voice recounted images from within his heart. From within his soul. His usual ideas and confused feelings where shown to him so simple it was just impossible not to understand. Not to embrace. And his own eyes started filling with tears, mirroring hers, as he looked at himself in the pool of darkness that was in front looking right back at him.
His lips parted slightly, drawing into a soft breath as he tried to handle everything that had just been thrown to him. To deal with the knowledge that was sent to his heart and surrounded it with a tenderness and fuzziness never felt before.
His limps recovered from their momentary numbness as everything attacked him at once. His heartbeat still held a quick pace, but he knew it was from different reasons than before. The sounds around the room came back in a split of a second and surprised him all of a sudden as he felt himself being thrown into the reality lost not so long ago. The chattering of the guests surrounded his senses, the loudness of itself deafening as his ears seemed not accustomed to it.
Kevin tried to form words in his mind, trying to project them through his throat and pronounce them, but they were lost at some point in his psyche. Everything seemed unnatural and unusual for the older man. Nothing was the same, and that scared him. But when he looked into the depths of the black oceans in the face of the woman who had opened his mind to the infinite of the universe, he found understanding. Comprehension. Tenderness. Love. So many things that he was sure hadn't been there before, not even a minute ago -- or it was maybe a year or a century ago as his sense of timing seemed deeply skewed --, shone so brightly it was almost blinding.
No words were said between the two figures standing in front of each other, their hands still held together. Short but slender fingers kept playing on the long and strong palm. Green emeralds gazed down at dark pools.
Ever so slowly, Ariadna turned to her left as she broke visual contact. Her head was tilted to the side, a soft smile present on her lisp as she found what she had been looking for -- or what had been looking for her --, as another force seemed to captured her attention and her heart. Recognition drawn into her eyes, her grin brightening at the sight.
Kevin couldn't help but turn as well, hoping to see what had caught her attention in such a moment when he was so sure everything around them had lost its interest he wouldn't have noticed if someone had been calling out his name. His own eyes widened with surprise as his breath was caught in his throat. His heartbeat would have quickened if it wasn't in the verge of going off of the charts.
About twenty feet from where they were standing, three other figures were talking amicably, laughing at something the older of the two men had said. The woman standing with them, champagne glass in her hand, giggling softly. Placing his arm around his wife, the shorter man continued laughing at the inside joke.
Kevin blinked a couple of times, not really sure how he could still breathe when he could feel his lungs burning fiercely inside his chest. His lower lip started trembling slightly, not really from the cold air that had run through the room, but from an emotional impact. He started biting the inside of his cheek, a nasty habit he'd had for as long as he remembered and hadn't been able to stop, not even after all this time. Kevin's eyes were fixed with the taller man of the two of them. His laughter, even though Kevin himself couldn't hear it, seemed to ring in Kevin's ears, a musical sound that would placed a soft smile on his lips on any given occasion.
Ariadna gazed at Kevin, her own coal black eyes shinning with a calmness she knew she had never experienced before. Kevin was totally transfixed as he watched the younger man with tender eyes. The connection was visible for her, the feelings the dark haired man had running through his veins and heart at the moment gazing back at her on the moisture of his green eyes. Finally, she had done something right. Something she could feel proud of.
Kevin moved his eyes from the figure who was obvious to their gazes on him over to Ariadna's. His eyebrow shot up slightly, his head was tilted to the side, a question shining in his eyes.
And the younger girl understood clearly. But there was no real answer for him, at least not from her part. It was just like... like something -- the very something that had forced her to dig into the depths of his soul -- that had made her turn around and made her eyes find the form standing on the other side of the room.
Ariadna let the corners of her mouth twitch up in a loving smile, her heart beaming with joy. Not speaking a word, knowing it wasn't really needed, she turned around once more. Her heart seemed to speak to her high volumes, like never before. Everything going around her was understood a lot better than only minutes ago. If she had been able to show him something, something that had always been in his heart, but he had only denied himself to see, then he had given her something back as well. He had given her the power of a higher understanding. Not only an understanding of the human nature in a deeper level, but an understanding of herself as well. And for that, she'd always be grateful.
Kevin followed her gaze once again, his eyes landing on the same figure than only minutes before. But this time something changed. This time something most definitely changed.
Kevin saw Nick turn around from his conversation with Brian and Leighanne. Brian's arm was still around the small waist of his beautiful wife as he kept telling Nick something that only the three of them could hear, Leighanne laughing softly while taking a small sip of her drink. A sweet and tender smile found its way to the young blonde's lips as his baby blue eyes found Kevin's sapphire green ones. Nick tilted his head slightly when he recognized the form of his older friend, his confidant, his protector, his big brother, one of the men who meant the most to him. Seeing Kevin there, standing on the other side of the room, Nick tilted his head to the side, his grin intensifying as the seconds ticked by. Lifting his right hand, Nick waved at Kevin, his blue eyes never wavering or breaking contact with Kevin's green ones.
The older man, the supposed more mature and wiser man, felt frozen in his place. Now, barely minutes after, he could finally understand why that smile and those eyes would make him feel all giddy and fuzzy all over whenever Kevin laid his eyes upon them. It was amazing how everything around him -- and especially inside him -- had changed in so little time. How the profound knowledge of a younger girl had taught him so much. A second later, Kevin lifted his hand as well, waving back. His lips were twitched up in a soft smile, his dimples showing slightly.
Nick wrinkled his nose, grinned once again, before turning his eyes back to Brian and his attention to the older man's words on the what AJ had done that morning. His own hand had a tight hold on his glass of champagne, glad Howie hadn't put much of a fight when he said he wanted to drink, even though he wasn't twenty one yet.
Kevin's eyes were still fixed on Nick's form, even though the younger blond wasn't looking his way anymore. His breath was caught in his throat. His hand, still lifted slightly at shoulder height, was numb in its place, his fingers closed together, not really in a tight fit, but just enough so his fingertips were touching his palm.
Knowing he would need time, the length of which not really something she could guess, in embracing completely the feelings he was now aware of, Ariadna took one last look at the man standing in front of him before walking away. Her steps were slow and confident, the smile on her face still visible not only in her lips, but in her eyes as well. Her movement was graceful, her legs swaying her from side to side, as she walked over to where she had last seen Jonathan, planning on telling him she'd rather go back to his place now. She knew he'd understand. As she approached her old friend -- who was talking with a very cute guy --, hating herself from having to interrupt him, she let her smile grow. Kevin would probably look for her, that much she knew. He would for her, wanting to know how she had seen so much in him, how she had known. And if he did look for her, then she'd explain. She also knew that he'd be able to find her if he really wanted to. Not only could Kevin ask Howie for Jonathan's phone number, but also Ariadna knew Kevin would find her, because now they were linked. How? She wasn't sure. But they were. And this was something new to her as well, never experiencing such a connection with someone she had seen into.
And, as she crossed the large room, high chandeliers illuminating the open space, Ariadna was able to see in the reflection on one of the floor-to-ceiling windows the dark hair man, still standing in the spot she had left him, his hand still shoulder high, his eyes fixed on his younger friend on the other side of the room. In the back of her mind, wherever she could go when her eyelashes closed and her psyche let her into the depths of her very own imagination and soul, Ariadna could still see soft blue eyes, pearl white skin and blond locks.
Hope you guys liked it. Hope you didn't get too frustrated. I've been told it'd had that effect on some people.
I hope to hear from you and see what you thought about it. Send me a post at jmfluder@hotmail.com
Take care and investigate.
M. F. Luder