Engagement Party (Fic)
Sep. 23rd, 2022 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
re_gretaGreta Age 20
"I could have made you love me. It would have been easy. Start slow, build up the dose so it feels like it's something natural. I have half a dozen recipes. The right one and it would feel like getting to know me had actually gotten past the emotional barriers you built up over time and left you more vulnerable and open to connection."
Her words are soft and crawl along his skin like spider legs. He didn't know she could be this type of quiet. Dangerous and yet somehow still soft as they continue to dance. The fact that anyone around them might hear her is terrifying.
"You would believe you could actually feel for someone again and maybe this plan of yours, this scheme, wouldn't have to be a scheme at all. That perhaps you could actually mean all those sweet words while still getting access to the power and influence you wanted. No one would actually have to be hurt."
She lets the mask drop. The smile and softness and humor are replaced by a woundedness that runs all the way through her. It is absolutely chilling as Graham realizes he has been swimming in deeper water than he realized, but he can't stumble or stop. Their waltz feels like the only thing saving him from when the other shoe drops.
"Maybe you could have actually been a better man," a pause for a shrug, "or at least a better man for me. I could tell myself that I would have used that power and leverage to build to a crescendo where I would eventually make you crawl over broken glass, but you had me pegged from the start. I never would have hurt you. I would have been good to you, Graham. It would have been a good life. A happy one, even. Because I would have been good to you."
His arms tighten around her because this sounds like goodbye and the room is full of sharks. The room he had wanted to be in so badly has become dangerous outside of her protection. Fucking Jasper is leaning against a column looking hungry. The twins are hovering, bright and insubstantial as moonlight, ready to reclaim Greta and pull her back in the fold. Leaving him alone. Vulnerable to other less savory ends.
"You still can be. We still can be good together." He sounds harsh to his own ears, rasping with none of the nonthreatening charm he had used to overwhelm her defenses. To make her feel special. Fuck, that was where he cocked this up, wasn't it? Making her feel something rather than giving her breadcrumbs, but too late for that. "This doesn't have to be embarrassing for you."
She laughs, and it is sharp and bitter and every bit a witch's laugh. It has never been been so clear to Graham that he had forgotten what she is. What else had he missed?
"You think I care about being embarrassed? I loved you, and you made sure I would because, what? I seemed like the easiest way to join the family? Pathetic and powerless, barely a member myself?"
"You don't know what it's like to be a necromancer. How hard it is out there to be without protection, how little it matters if you're gifted if you don't have connections to the right family. I never meant to hurt you, but I didn't have a choice."
Desperation should make him ugly, if things were fair, but it doesn't. It just makes him look human and vulnerable in ways that tug at her heart. She hates how much she still feels.
"You always have a choice. And if you had been honest, I would have helped you. Because you are talented and handsome, and I am soft and lonely. That's what you told her, right? To make me not really count." She lets go of him, refusing to keep up the dance. "You weren't wrong. You weren't kind, but you weren't wrong."
He tries to move her, but she's a big girl, and there's no way to keep things elegant. Jasper starts walking with purpose and the twins have shifted from hovering to floating in their direction. Graham blanches, and Greta hates herself.
"Run. Now. I'll distract them for the moment, but you need to leave the city. Hell, I'd recommend you leave the whole coast. I may be the embarrassment, but I'm their embarrassment. And you set yourself up to made such a good example of. Now go."
He pauses, a deer in headlights, then flees. Just watching him move makes Greta damn herself for a fool for believing that he could have ever felt something for her. How could she ever think that she could actually have this engagement as something special and sacred of her own? Hell, she had to use a magic to get the courage to confront him at all. Just a silly garden witch. Not beautiful. Not powerful. Not a real Horn. Just re-Greta.
Well, at least no one will be surprised when she makes a scene.
"I could have made you love me. It would have been easy. Start slow, build up the dose so it feels like it's something natural. I have half a dozen recipes. The right one and it would feel like getting to know me had actually gotten past the emotional barriers you built up over time and left you more vulnerable and open to connection."
Her words are soft and crawl along his skin like spider legs. He didn't know she could be this type of quiet. Dangerous and yet somehow still soft as they continue to dance. The fact that anyone around them might hear her is terrifying.
"You would believe you could actually feel for someone again and maybe this plan of yours, this scheme, wouldn't have to be a scheme at all. That perhaps you could actually mean all those sweet words while still getting access to the power and influence you wanted. No one would actually have to be hurt."
She lets the mask drop. The smile and softness and humor are replaced by a woundedness that runs all the way through her. It is absolutely chilling as Graham realizes he has been swimming in deeper water than he realized, but he can't stumble or stop. Their waltz feels like the only thing saving him from when the other shoe drops.
"Maybe you could have actually been a better man," a pause for a shrug, "or at least a better man for me. I could tell myself that I would have used that power and leverage to build to a crescendo where I would eventually make you crawl over broken glass, but you had me pegged from the start. I never would have hurt you. I would have been good to you, Graham. It would have been a good life. A happy one, even. Because I would have been good to you."
His arms tighten around her because this sounds like goodbye and the room is full of sharks. The room he had wanted to be in so badly has become dangerous outside of her protection. Fucking Jasper is leaning against a column looking hungry. The twins are hovering, bright and insubstantial as moonlight, ready to reclaim Greta and pull her back in the fold. Leaving him alone. Vulnerable to other less savory ends.
"You still can be. We still can be good together." He sounds harsh to his own ears, rasping with none of the nonthreatening charm he had used to overwhelm her defenses. To make her feel special. Fuck, that was where he cocked this up, wasn't it? Making her feel something rather than giving her breadcrumbs, but too late for that. "This doesn't have to be embarrassing for you."
She laughs, and it is sharp and bitter and every bit a witch's laugh. It has never been been so clear to Graham that he had forgotten what she is. What else had he missed?
"You think I care about being embarrassed? I loved you, and you made sure I would because, what? I seemed like the easiest way to join the family? Pathetic and powerless, barely a member myself?"
"You don't know what it's like to be a necromancer. How hard it is out there to be without protection, how little it matters if you're gifted if you don't have connections to the right family. I never meant to hurt you, but I didn't have a choice."
Desperation should make him ugly, if things were fair, but it doesn't. It just makes him look human and vulnerable in ways that tug at her heart. She hates how much she still feels.
"You always have a choice. And if you had been honest, I would have helped you. Because you are talented and handsome, and I am soft and lonely. That's what you told her, right? To make me not really count." She lets go of him, refusing to keep up the dance. "You weren't wrong. You weren't kind, but you weren't wrong."
He tries to move her, but she's a big girl, and there's no way to keep things elegant. Jasper starts walking with purpose and the twins have shifted from hovering to floating in their direction. Graham blanches, and Greta hates herself.
"Run. Now. I'll distract them for the moment, but you need to leave the city. Hell, I'd recommend you leave the whole coast. I may be the embarrassment, but I'm their embarrassment. And you set yourself up to made such a good example of. Now go."
He pauses, a deer in headlights, then flees. Just watching him move makes Greta damn herself for a fool for believing that he could have ever felt something for her. How could she ever think that she could actually have this engagement as something special and sacred of her own? Hell, she had to use a magic to get the courage to confront him at all. Just a silly garden witch. Not beautiful. Not powerful. Not a real Horn. Just re-Greta.
Well, at least no one will be surprised when she makes a scene.
