Re: Great Minds (OPEN)

by **Leopold Kraken** Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:29 am

He didn't know why but talking his problems out with Willow actually seemed to have helped him. Leopold wasn't about to try it out again anytime soon though. It felt too strange to be at someone's mercy while you were pouring out your secrets and your damnable heart.

Seeing her looking and rubbing at her lower arm, Leopold looked at what she did for a second. He then immediately reached out and pulled her sleeve up without giving her a chance to stop him. Leopold paused when he saw the bruises,

"You are not a fighter Willow. And the heart's pain is not physical." he noted before looking up at her with rather hollow eyes, "Who hurts you Willow?"

Seeing that she seemed to have not taken his message seriously, Leopold grinned wider. That was good, it meant she wouldn't see it coming,

"Well not my way apparently. I can't seem to keep a friend longer than two days... they're so fragile in some ways." he half-joked before grinning, "Why thank you Willow. That means a lot to me."

by **Willow Hartman** Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:35 am

Willow gasped when Leopold pulled her sleeve up and her arm towards him, it was so very personal to do something like that, it was something that she wished he had not done and now she would have to explain it away to Leopold...

Who judging from what she had heard about him, would not take the news well and might even hurt Gervais.

"Ah uhm, that's nothing I'm fine really." she smiled gently, obviously lying through her teeth "It was just an accident, silly me I knew that it was a mistake to go in there in the first place."

Blinking a little bit, Willow bit her lip and she wondered if she was going to last longer than three days? Hopefully she would, but, she didn;t think she was the exception to the rule.

"Well hopefully I could break that cycle, if you would like to be friends with me..." she asked hopefully "Why don't we meet up next week? I could take you around to my house and we could hang out there."

by **Leopold Kraken** Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:22 pm

Leopold looked up at her when she gasped but then returned his gaze to her arm. It was covered in brown and purple bruises. He immediately noticed that this was not a professional beating, which made sense since she seemed too peaceful for war or killing, and that she had been trying to defend herself. When she tried to lie to him he looked at her with narrowed eyes,

"Do not lie to me about violence Willow. If there is one thing I understand it is the language of violence." he stroked her arm gently, "And your arm speaks of suffering. Entrapment. Within your own home perhaps? I do not know. But I do know that all damage to your arms is defensive. You did not retaliate. Why?"

He looked at her for a few moments before nodding,

"You will last much longer. My Mistress was the main reason why I couldn't keep friends for very long." he explained before tilting his head to the side, "How would we... hang out? Would we dangle ourselves out of the window and hang on the ledge? Or would we be hung up on a washing line like muggle clothes?"

by **Willow Hartman** Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:30 pm

Willow made a small noise a bit like a whimper when Leo continued to look at her arm, she really didn't want to have to explain it to him, but she couldn't lie again, it had made her feel bad just doing it the last time she had done it.

Blushing a little when Leopold stroked her arm, Willow bit her lip and wondered what on Earth she was going to say to him;

"W-w-well I don't really like violence, I'm...I'm not a violent person, it's not in me to hit someone back, and he doesn't mean it." she said, rather pathetically trying to stand up for Gervais in his absence.

Giggling a little when he seemed to take the meaning of things literally, Willow shook her head, maybe she would have to make sure that she used literal expressions so he doesn't get confused;

"No no no I mean just spend time together." she smiled "If it sounds like something you'd be interested in."

by **Leopold Kraken** Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:38 pm

Leopold could tell by the whimper that Willow wasn't about to lie to him again. She didn't seem to either be brave enough or foolish enough. There was also the fact that he believed that the simple act of lying itself was something that Willow would find herself uncomfortable with. He didn't understand why, it was something that was natural after all.

Seeing that she was blushing for some reason, Leopold stared intently into her eyes as he continued to stroke her arm gently. He wanted to know why her cheeks looked redder now as well,

"So this man hits you and you feel no desire to hit him back? This is strange to me." he admitted, blinking and asking innocently, "Is it the right thing to do? To hit a woman? I was under the impression it was bad."

There it was again, that giggling that she seemed to like doing. It rather intriged Leopold truth be told. His Mistress had never giggled after all. When she explained it he nodded,

"I would like that." he paused, "Why did you not just say that instead of giving me a riddle about hanging without hanging?"

by **Willow Hartman** Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:48 pm

Willow bit her lip and she didn't know what to say to Leopold when he asked her if it was right to hit a lady but she was distracted by the stroking to her arm, she felt her cheeks flush even more and for some reason she didn't want to move it away from him.

Maybe it was because he was showing her a tenderness that Gervais had withheld from her for so long.

"W-well no you aren't supposed to do it, and it is bad." she said quietly, looking down at her lap for a moment, she stopped herself from saying that it was most of the time her fault. She had accepted that now.

With a happy smile Willow placed her other hand on top of Leo's that was stroking her arm, and she chuckled a little bit;

"I'm sorry, it's just a figure of speech, I'll make sure to keep those to a minimum now." she smiled gently "So, you're okay now? What are you going to do about your problem?"

by **Leopold Kraken** Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:55 pm

Leopold didn't know much about the world seeing as he'd spent much of his existance trying to remove people from it. Both as a human the first time and then as a wraith the second time. It was strange but he had always noticed that if a man hit a woman he was treated with scorn. He had come to understand that it was a bad thing. Even his Mistress had suggested that it was a bad thing.

And there was that colouring of her cheeks again. He wasn't sure how she did it but her cheeks were a lightly red now. It was rather interesting to him,

"If it is bad for a man to hit a woman then why does this man hit you Willow? Surely that would make him a bad man." he reasoned before frowning, "I have not done what this man has done... terrible things but I have not hit a woman as he has hit you."

He had been stroking her arm again and hadn't really noticed until Willow's hand had touched his own again,

"Please don't. I would rather you kept using them, they help me to understand people when they speak better." he told her quietly before shrugging, "I do not know what I shall do about my problem. Perhaps I shall just let it run its course for now..."

by **Willow Hartman** Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:13 pm

Willow felt tears pricking the corners of her eyes and she blinked rapidly trying to stop them from coming through and spilling down her cheeks, it was so hard to hear these questions directed at her, and there was no room to say that what Gervais was doing was correct.

"Uhm...I have to go." she said hurridely.

Standing up and breaking the contact between the two of them Willow gave Leopold a shaky smile, and she quickly wrote down her address on a peice of paper, handed it to him with a flourish and then bent down to kiss his forehead again.

"I think that sounds like a wonderful idea Leo, but if you ever need me that's my address so you come and talk to me whenever you want, and maybe you'll drop by next week?" she asked hopefully.

With that she turned on her heel and waved at Leo before beginning to walk out of Der Akademie.

by **Leopold Kraken** Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:16 pm

Leopold saw the beginnings of tears in Willow's eyes and was unsure as to why they were actually there. He was just repeating some of the things he had heard after all. All evidence pointed to the man who had hit Willow being a bad man. Was he wrong to point that out somehow? Perhaps people didn't like to hear it,

"Oh... so soon?"

Leopold let out a small whine of annoyance. He had been enjoying stroking her arm gently. It gave him practice at being gentle and it felt quite nice to be able to do so without being told he was getting soft like with his Mistress. When she kissed him on the forehead he blinked a few times,

"Alright I shall call on you soon alright?" he told her before giving an awkward wave. He paused when she was gone and looked at his hand, "What are you doing up there waving? Let's just go kill some people."

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