_mess with her she'll *mess* you up!

[Ginny Weasly]

((Closed until such time that Xaver gets on and posts for me.))

She knew it could very well be the hormones.
But she didn't care.
Ginny picked up the small glass paperweight sitting on her desk and threw it hard, at the wall.
She took a grim satisfaction in watching it smash.

On the desk lay a letter, which she now turned to and ripped up. Crumpled it in her hand and watched as it burst into flame. Then she threw the ashes as well.

The silent house seemed to mock her silent outburst.
So she screamed.

All the frustrations of the past year let out.
Raising a small child who was actually smarter than she was. Her job. The Ministry. Conan. Mahn. No sleep on account of being pregnant. Everything.

She stamped a foot, storming from the living room into her room, walking past a mirror. She caught a glimpse of herself. She looked crazy. Her red hair was frizzy, staticky. Her eyes were surrounded by dark circles from lack of sleep. She wore thick sweatpants, probably an old pair of Xaver's and a huge thick white sweater. She was freezing.

Once in her and Xaver's room, she took pleasure in pushing things off her dresser top. Watching them smash to the floor. The small crash didn't satisfy her. She wanted noise!
Cody wasn't home. He was with her brother Bill and his family.
To the zoo or something.
She had no clue where Xaver was.

The house was too quiet. She felt alone.
She screamed again, remembering the stupid letter.
She went back into the living room, swiping all her papers from her desk.

"I hate that stupid-" She couldn't figure out what to call the person of whom she spoke. She paused, standing in the middle of her destruction. Her fists were clenched and she seemed to be thinking.
She couldn't seem to come up with a name bad enough.

[Xaver]

"I hope you don't mean me, dearest."


Xaver stood at the entrance of the hallway, where he'd remained when she'd stormed past, not even seeing him in her flurry, though that wasn't hard.
His form of still and silent was far more pronounced than someone's of human nature would be. Xaver wasn't human - far from it. Despite the majority of his anatomy being strikingly identical to that of a mere man. Though, even then, he would have stood out among mere men, his handsome features only ever shadowing woes that centuries had tolled on him. On his soul.

His dark, obsidian black hair had grown out a few inches from the short buzz cut he'd had recently, and his raven locks were slicked back over his head now. Clad in dark shoes, faded jeans, and a large black button-down coat, he was dressed more warmly than his usual for the wintertime. Naturally acclimated to colder conditions, extreme heat actually made him sick..

Xaver set the minute red box of dark chocolates he'd been holding on the nearest lamptable, and began stripping off a pair of brown leather gloves, tugging at the finger ends while his gaze never left her, his dark blues watchful and calculating.

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny froze, turning her fiery eyes onto Xaver. She stared at him, not knowing how to respond.
She didn't want to be pulled from her tantrum just yet.

Finally, she found her voice.
"No, I don't mean you!"
She spoke as if he were incapable of giving her this much anger.
"I mean that stupid, ignorant-" Again she couldn't come up with a good enough word.

She clasped her hands together,squeezing them tightly. Her nails dug into the tops as she continued to squeeze.

"Conan."

She spat the name. It wasn't rare.
He'd been after her for months to announce Cody as the official heir to the throne in Romaina.
He'd hit her years ago, and even though she had taken her revenge in tenfold a few days after the fact it still galled her.

She tried to suppress another scream of anger. It didn't work very well.
She was probably over reacting.
It was probably hormones.

But Ginny really wanted to wring someone's neck at the moment.

[Xaver]

Xaver blinked when her burning gazed moved over him, his heart strumming an irregular pattern into the underside of his chest. His adreniline kicked up a notch, and it took a breath to subdue the immediate reation of his own. He could feel her emotions, as easily as he could see them written plainly over her pretty face. Even if empathy didn't dominate any of his skills, it was still a sense he harbored - and her fierce emotions were as powerful as a strong blow to the mind, or nose.
He brought up his shields a notch, just to block the waves of her anger.
Question was in his dark blues at her retort, a raven eyebrow arching as she ranted - but when she spoke that single word, that name, his eyebrow settled and his features molded into a face of living stone.

Biting back his own few choice words of the man his wife was almost definately rightfully pissed at, Xaver made a mute nod, taking a breath to calm himself.
To settle nerves that were already far too worn and brittle.
To supress emotions that had already ravaged him through the day, and would do no good entering this situation.

Mouth pressed into a firm line, he finished peeling off his gloves, setting them on the table beside the chocolates, then brought his pale, wide hands to the buttons of his coat.
Slowly, calmly sliding them open.


"What did he do?"

That was the only way about it really.
Ginny wanted as much to do with the man as Xaver did.
And Xaver wanted to watch him burn in the deepest pit of hell..

Conan had done something.
But... What?

[Ginny Weasly]

"He's SUING me!"

Ginny was a small being, and to hear the anger come from her seemed unnatural. She stamped a foot, looking like a two year old who had their toy taken away.

"Suing me for not announcing Cody! Suing ME because I don't do anything for the kingdom!" She jerked her desk drawer open, ripping it out and dumping the contents on the floor. Out fell thousands of papers. All had her signature on them somewhere.
Her legal papers for the kingdom she ruled over.

"See this?" She spread her hands over the pile of papers, "This is me doing nothing!"
She kicked at the pile, only managing to slip on the papers.

She fell on her butt, hard.
It would have been funny.
Except she seemed to accept the fall and crossed her legs. That and in her current physical state, falling down could result in bad things.
Luckily, not this time.
Systematically, she began to pick up papers and shred them.

"He wants me to do something? FINE! I renounce my position! See how the sack of-" She jumped words, unable to keep on one sentence in her anger. "Hope he rots in-"

Ginny was obviously not thinking rationally. Shredding those papers could have her tried in court for destroying possible evidence were something to happen. It could be bad.
Not only that, stressing as much as she was at the moment was bad for the baby she carried.

There was a loud pop and a purple envelop appeared in Ginny's lap. For the second time in the past five minutes, she froze. She simply starred at the envelope, her face changing. First from anger, then to surprise. Then back to anger.
It was a Ministry envelope.

She picked it up examining the outside as if that would explain why it was there. It was addressed to 'Mr. & Mrs. Xian'.
The Ministry obviously recognized their marriage..but was that good?
She glanced up at Xaver, mute now as she tore the envelope open, quickly scanning the letter that she pulled out.

Where she had been angry before, she was now irate.

"Those BASTARDS!"

[Xaver]

Suing?

Xaver blinked.
Ginny continued to storm over the desk, and wreak havoc on its contents, and still Xaver made little in the way of actual movement, his gaze being the only thing reflective of the quick, and deadly instincts he possessed.

He had been in Ginny's world for years now, time and time again growing accustomed to her lifestyle, the human way of living... However, there were still many things that evaded him. Many things that he had not picked up in the process, and were somehow lost in translation between his world, and the one he now called home.
Suing, was one of those itty bitty things he'd never picked up on.
Centuries behind him, you think he'd have studied a little harder.

Ginny slipped then, and Xaver jerked into motion, worry setting heavily into the devastatingly handsome lines and planes of his features - features drastically sharpened by his short haircut, to enhance the more predatory angles. Ginny was carrying the newest addition to the most tender spot in Xaver's heart, in her belly, and, as the paranoid bird that he was, any fall evoked a panic in his heart, whether he showed it or not.

"Gin-"

He was interrupted by a loud pop, and it took more than a moment to soothe the immediate tensing out of his muscles, and defensive rush of adrenaline through his system. By that time, Ginny had torn open the letter.

Xaver rolled the wide breadth of his shoulders, shrugging out of his jacket, then he draped it over the table, over the chocolates, and moved to Ginny. Slowly. Movements gentle, and almost absorbing. Knowing her temper, feeling her anger, and lacking the knowledge of what to do, about what was going on. He knelt, behind her, and despite her anger, and the vigor of the fury of which she literally shook from, he wrapped his arms around her, under her arms. One arm gently circling her ribs, and the other hand brushing over the growing swell of her belly.
"Shh.."
It was neither a demand, nor even a suggestion - simply a murmur of comfort.
Reassurance.

His chin met the curve of her neck, and he tilted his head, and planted a kiss to her temple, his eyes watching her hands, and skimming the paper between them.

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny crumpled up the letter before he could get more than the first two lines in and threw it. Completely upset, she burst into angry tears, covering her face and leaning against Xaver.
"The Ministry wants to take Cody away from us!"

Still angry beyond belief, she sobbed into her hands, not having any clue where to start first. Conan was suing her, and the Ministry was now intending to investigate them for child abuse. It was too much to process, and she had no idea what to do.

"What am I going to do, Xaver? He's suing me for so much money! And they want to take my son from me!"
She couldn't stop sobbing, it was a bit hard to breath. She was still shaking from anger, still ready to lash out at the next thing that sparked her temper.
But, for the moment, all she could do was cry.

"What am I going to do?"

[Xaver]

She began to cry, and Xaver wrapped his arms more completely about her, drawing her into the circle of his embrace and holding her close.
Breathing in deeply her scent, and pain.

"What are we going to do, you mean."
An arm still around her, he ran a hand through the long, silky locks of her radiant red hair, pressing a kiss to the crush of her ear.
His voice, became little more than a fierce whisper.
"We. No matter what happens, you are not alone in this."


It just wasn't right. Conan, the bastard.. And now the Ministry again?
What had they ever done so wrong, he and Ginny, but fall in love, and start a family?

Why did the world hate them so much?


Xaver closed his eyes, and pressed his face into the warm slope of her neck, fighting back the anguish that clenched his throat, and stung at his eyes.
He had money. Power. Strength. Knowledge. A heart full of newfound feeling.
But he had not the ability, to make the hopelessness go away. To kiss away the pain of that which he couldn't fix.
What was going to happen?
And more, what could he do?...

[Ginny Weasly]

After a few minutes, Ginny's sobs subsided, and she leaned back against him. She wiped at her cheeks, the hot tears leaving tracks on her flushed cheeks.

"I know, love." She said, her voice slightly raspy. She cleared her throat and sagged against him, tired now.

Exhausted from her tantrum, she stared out over all of the papers she'd shredded. She placed her hands over his, frowning.

"What can we do?"

[Xaver]

Her crying subdued, she leaned more fully into him, and Xaver shifted, sliding an arm under her thighs and the other around her lower back, bringing her flush against the wall of his chest and easily rising. He lifted her without so much as a breath of protest, careful of her middle, and he cradled her slender form against him as he moved with quick and light feet to the couch. He sat down with that same careful precision, then, her still on his lap, held her close. His arms encircled her, his fingers laced and folded over her stomach, and his chin rested atop her sweet-smelling head. He wasn't able to see her face, but just as well, she wasn't able to see his, and the utter turmoil that was written deeply into his features.

Obsidian eyebrows drawn into a frown at his forehead, he sighed, a slow and fatigued sound that spoke the weight of worlds.

"..I am not sure, dearest.."
His tones were very low, and quiet, tinged with the taste of the thoughts working furiously in his head.
"If worse comes to wear, I have money.."

Xaver clenched his jaw.

"It should not be about the money."
An unchecked, and completely inhuman growl sounded in the depths of his throat, and he shook his head, though mindful he was resting it on hers.
"It is outlandish. Dispicable. To exploit a child for means to expire a need."
His tones became shades rougher, thickly lilted with his foreign accent, and all the more emotional. Emotion that, until very recently, had been in a dormant state. Emotion that, since its release, had made Xaver as a leader, and a King, a father, and as a man, much stronger.
"Our child."

He bowed his head, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, and mustering a heavy, controlling sigh, reeling in the ends of a barely managed fury. Ginny's scent, the feel of her, the sound of her even heartbeat, soothing back the instinct to rant, rave.. punish. Those bastards..
How dare they?!

"They will not take him."

Jaw clenched, Xaver straightened, holding her tight as he shook his head.

[Ginny Weasly]

"Of course they will not."

Ginny was just as defiant as he was. Her tired voice cracked as she made the angry remark.
Oh, they could just try to take away her son.
They wouldn't get one foot through the door.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, and settled back against him. She was tired from all her running around and yelling. Being angry is exhausting work. For the moment, just being held by Xaver seemed to help make the problems more manageable.

"Conan wants us to announce Cody...all we have to do is prove that it's in Cody's and the kingdoms best interest to not announce him...."

She sighed, bitting her lip, "And the Ministry really has no proof of abuse...they can't take him away. Not legally."

She reached up, rubbing her forehead, "And not illegally. They won't take him."
A statement.
A fact.

Ginny was worried, stressed. Tired. Upset.
And she was supposed to go get Cody soon.

[Xaver]

"Abuse?!"
The word was short, and bitter, and just as he'd taken it - as the most personal of insults.

Xaver had, since the day he'd arrived for schooling at Hogwarts, tried to remain as calm, and understanding as he could be. He even hid the true identity of what he was, for the longest while, for fear of sheer and utter rejection before he'd even managed to find a place for himself. It was true, he'd never really belonged.
Not until Ginny, anyway - and she had been his truest, and dearest friend in the new world, first.

He knew that people didn't understand who he was, and less, what he was - but his hopes, or dreams, that such feelings would abide over time, had come to the end of a slow, and somber turture, and execution. The trajectory of civility had come, finally, to a point where Xaver knew he was not going to be able to stand it, any longer.
Abuse. Abuse of his own child?
It was the worst sort of insult, of claim - and expecially to Xaver.
Especially...

"I swore the day I left my homeland for here, that if I would start a new life, I would do it better. If I had a family, I would treat them better than I'd been treated. I'd love them more. Be with them. Give to them.."
Handsome features pinching as his heart turned over anger, to despair, Xaver clenched his jaw.
"To think.. that.. abuse.. to Cody, or you?.."
He bit his tongue and looked to the side.

[Ginny Weasly]

"Not physical."
Ginny shook her head, "Mental and emotional abuse."

She gritted her teeth, "Apparently, encouraging a young mind to learn is against the law."

Since the day Ginny had discovered her son's intelligence, she had taught him everything she could think of. She wasn't like many parents, keeping things from him and telling his silly stories to tide his curiosity. She had told him the truth, or at least enough to satisfy him.
That included magic and martial arts as well.
She'd taught him everything, and what she couldn't teach him, she'd made sure someone else could.

"They say he isn't at the right level socially."

A sudden realization made Ginny sick, "If they can, they'll take both our children."
Her hand went to her stomach, as though she could protect the unborn. If there was anything that both angered and terrified her, it was the thought of losing her children.
Especially to the Ministry.

"If we can prove that his social skills are not lacking..."

[Xaver]

"Abuse is abuse. It doesn't matter what form."

Xaver shook his head, the oceans of his eyes dark, and hard.
"Don't they understand he is not human? He is only half from your world. Half of him is me - and I never have, and never will be socially adept to this world. We aren't human."
He wasn't questioning Ginny, particularly.
...Maybe just the world.
"Why is that we are expected to perform at human standards, when we are not human?"


Ginny touched her belly, and Xaver's stomach began an awful, malcontent churning.
"They wouldn't d-..."

Dare?
His subconscience reared its ugly head at the back of his mind.
Of course they would dare.

What wouldn't they do, to tear him down? What wouldn't they do, to tear his family apart?
A sick, hating, and eternally wounded part of him answered, with the most wrathful of answers.

Nothing.

[Ginny Weasly]

"They wouldn't be able to."

Without a doubt, Ginny would stop the Ministry. Or die trying.
But the chances of the last happening were slim to none.

Ginny stared off, across the room, becoming lost in her own thoughts.
How far would the Ministry go?
How far would Conan go?

He scared her a little bit, though she'd never admit it. He'd outsmarted her before, what would stop him now? In Ginny's unprofessional opinion, Conan was slightly off. Of course, she blamed herself for that. He had been normal until he'd met her. A normal, muggle boy.
And she'd dragged him into her world because she'd been afraid of living in it alone.

Ironically, she had never felt more alone than those years that she had been married to Conan Sulai.

She shook her head, trying to clear the cluttered thoughts. But they stuck like glue.

Ginny seemed to have a habit of leaving men slightly crazy. Conan had been the first. He had seen her kill people. It had drove him mad. There was Mahn, though Ginny got the impression that he was insane, not just crazy.
And Sirius...she hadn't made him crazy. As far as she knew.
But she had almost gotten him killed.

She bit her lip, rubbing her belly subconsciously. What would cause her to hurt Xaver?
She didn't want to hurt Xaver.
She loved him.

But she had hurt him.
And she had allowed others to hurt him...

Ginny shivered.