Topic: sticks a n d stones

[Xaver]

The Cat that was now in it's alternate, enormous form, hissed a cackle, as the twin, standing, giggled to himself.
"I'm afraid, then, priss, that you may just be late.."
His gaze flickered back and forth, steadily, from Ginny, to Xaver, resting, pointedly, atop Xaver's head after a moment.
"Nice haircut, Xian. Seems they did get to you, after all."
He grinned.

Xaver's jaw clenched, but he bit down the anger that was so sudden to rise, not liking the ease in which he was provoked.
"What is your purpose?"

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny sighed, rolling her eyes, but not moving otherwise. She still stood a good three feet from Xaver and Cody. But she didn't want to move. Moving would entail letting the cats in on how she moved, the ease and athletic ability would surly let on how much of a fight she cloud put up. She knew how to use the element of surprise.
"Priss? Shut up, you stupid puddy cat." She said it like a child would purposely. Undermining their entire being with lisped words.

Cody clung tightly to Xaver, saying nothing, remembering how his mouth had done damage during is last run in with the creatures.

[Xaver]

The Cat in feline formed pinched his nose in distaste, sitting on his haunches directly across from Ginny.
"Don't tempt this puddy tat to shut your mouth," he said darkly, furry lips not shaping the words easily, but his speech just the same.
He looked at his companion.
"You know, I've never seen a female with red hair. Think we can cut some off and take it back to show?"

The standing Cat caught the dangerous twitch in Xaver's stance, and shook his head once, sharply, though his gaze lingered on Ginny far longer than it should have, before returning to Xaver.
"Our purpose isn't of harm. We know this is neutral territory. ..But I have for you, Monsieur, a gift. Will you accept it?"

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny smiled wanly at the one who suggest they cut off her hair, "Want a piece? Go fetch my hairbrush." Ginny was quick witted, and couldn't keep her mouth shut. She was used to annoying enemies with her words, to aggravating them so much that they made a mistake. Words were just another weapon to her.

She glanced at Xaver, tilting her head as thy asked if he would accept a gift.

Cody smiled proudly at his mother when she retorted the cat who tried to frighten her.

[Xaver]

"What is it?"
Xaver glanced at Ginny, himself, both proud, and bemused, by her words. She was who she was, and didn't mind telling anybody where they could stick it.
He loved it about her.

The cat patted his pocket.
"It is not in my power to disclose that to you. By spell, I can't tell you. It is you, who must accept or decline this offer. ..That is all I can say."

The other, the one across from Ginny, rolled his eyes.
"You bloody humans and your disgraceful disrespect."
He had no clue about witchcraft, or wizardly.
"You are perfectly suited for this rotten bird. There's a reason we still call the bastards the fallen, you know. Want to know why?"

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny grinned, lightly, though her eyes smoldered. By calling the Fallen bastards, he was calling Xaver and Cody bastards. That didn't sit well with her. Still, she wouldn't let him know easily.
"Probably for the same reason cats are called girl thingy's." She smirked, "Another form of the word coward, don't you know."

She chuckled at the cat, "Disrespect I have for you, because you have the same for me. I respect no one until they respect me."

[Xaver]

The Cat in feline form bared his teeth at her unsult, long, pointed and full in the powerful set of his jowels.
"Bi-ch."

Xaver's wings shook with the effort it took to not charge them.
"Set the item on the cobblestone, at your feet - and get the flying hell out of here," he hissed, tones low, and dark. "And if I ever see hint of your tails again, I'm going to skin you. Neutral territory or not."

It wasn't just a threat.
Xaver meant it.
The standing Cat caught on.
Snarling, he went to his twin, and planted a hand atop his head, removing a small, boxed item from his pocket, and kneeling to set it down. When it touched the street, the pair disappeared.

The tenseness never left his body.
His gaze fixing on the small parcel, he tilted his head.

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny let out a low, dark chuckle once the cats were gone. She shook her head, smiling.
"And I actually like cats."

She too looked towards the parcel, watching it and analyzing it. She was curious as to what it was, but was in no way going to touch it.

Cody was the first to speak about it, "Aren't you going to open it Dad?"

[Xaver]

Xaver stared at it for a long moment, Ginny's comment bringing a low chuckle to his lips.
He had many birdlike qualities.
It just wasn't in his nature to like cats.

At Cody's comment, he gently released the boy's hand, stalking soundlessly toward the parcel, even as he lifted it off the ground with a thought, and slowly peeled away the covering. He reached it, as the paper wrapping fell away.
The necklace dropped, uncerimoniously, into the open palm of his hand.

It was one of the two identical necklaces that he and Kylie had both worn, that reflected in shades in the stone orb beneath a gold claw, their moods. Xaver had stopped wearing his, after his accident, because of his severe reaction to brushes with the normally neutral metal, and for the longest time, Kylie had worn both. She had given Xavers to Ginny, when she had first come to Hogwarts, back when Xaver and Ginny had both been students, but the other...
Xaver had thought the other, had been buried along with his sister.
He peered closer, reading over the minute script scrawled unprofessionally over the orb.
'Carpe Noctem.'
  Rise of the night.

In his own eloquent handwriting.

Xaver stared.

He didn't, to any degree, remember forging the words.
There was still a huge gap in his life, that he had no recollection of...
But.. why this?..

He blinked, shaking his head.

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny took the few steps between herself and Cody, kneeling down and giving him a huge hug. She knew he was afraid of the cat creatures. She looked to Xaver, recognizing instantly the necklace he had in his hand.
"Where...?"

Cody leaned around his mom, trying to see what it was that Xaver help and looked at with such surprise. And confusion. He looked closer, then smiled slightly. "That looks like the necklace of yours that mom has."

[Xaver]

Suddenly, Xaver felt very tired.
Sick and tired of the endless mind games, and all the puzzle pieces that made a picture he just couldn't comprehend.
Tired of all the pain.
Of being away from home too much, too long.
Tired of being tired, and hurting.


At Ginny's question, he slowly shook his head.
He didn't know..

"It's an exact replica of that necklace," he said mildly.
Even as he said it, he was staring at his fingers, the tips darkening to an ugly shade beneath the pendant. Reacting to the gold, even as he barely touched it. Feeling that familiar burn start to a sluggish, but powerful life.


"Where are we, to dinner?"

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny stood, taking Cody's hand in hers and walking to Xaver. In one swift movement, she leaned up, kissing his cheek, swiping the golden necklace from his fingertips as she did so and slipping it into her pocket.
The first she'd touched him since he's appeared behind them.

"I was planning on going home for dinner. Unless you can think of anything better to do."

Cody smiled, looking up at his dad, "Are you going to stay home for awhile?" How he missed his dad. Sure, his mom was cool to be with. And yeah, he had a lot of freedom for someone his age, but he missed his dad. Alot.

[Xaver]

Ginny kissed him, and took from him the necklace - and in turn, broke the weary, broken down line of thought, as well. His skin warmed where she touched him, his cold flesh a sharp contrast to her warmth. Goosebumps spread from the spots, and for a long moment, he remained very quiet, eyes following the two of them closely, the sharp cut of his hair enhancing the hawkish, predatory angles and planes of his face. Sharpening the dark slashes of his eyebrows, over the moody pools of his upset oceans of eyes.

"Home..." he said, very quietly.
"No amount of buying could beat that."

Xaver knew.
Sure, he knew life intimately and what it was like to struggle without a dime to his name. It was how it had been, when he'd first come to this realm. In his realm, however - he'd experienced every way of life through and by the people, though only through a fascade. As prince, then as kind - his true title had never left him, truly, without riches in the treasury. It wasn't the lifestyle he embraced - but he knew how life could be, well-off, as well as he knew the hard work of the opposite scale.

Home, though...

Xaver had only truly known home, with Ginny. And then, with Ginny and Cody.

Nothing, to him, was better than that.

Xaver looked down at Cody, meeting the young boy's eyes, his own gaze softening. He knelt, and drew the boy into a tight embrace, his heart beating a bruise into the underside of his ribs.
"As long as I possibly can."

All this leaving ...it was killing him.
Literally.
He wanted nothing more to do with it..

[Ginny Weasly]

Cody smiled, hugging Xaver back tightly.
"Good." He told him firmly.

Ginny smiled, even though she was still miffed at Xaver. The guy sure knew how to make her feel a hundred ways at once. Anger, love, affection, attraction, annoyance. He was a master at manipulating her emotions, even though she doubted he realized it.
"Yes, home. A simple dinner...then bed. I have work tomorrow, again."

[Xaver]

Xaver kissed the boy's forehead, then ruffled his hair as he rose again, fingertips still smarting painfully, but he dutifully ignored the fact.

He nodded at the inclined destination, but frowned slightly, as well.
"Work?"