S.O.B. (Mordred)

[Mordred Le Fey]

Mordred snorted at her remark, giving in to the giggles again. "I am definitely not saying it wouldn't be the highlight of my week." He grinned, winking at Aiden. "Isn't that every guy's fantasy?"

As he watched Aiden fall off the sofa, Mordred was rendered completely useless by uncontrollable laughter. He slid down on the sofa, unable to speak for a good few minutes while Aiden laughed from the floor.

Taking some deep breaths, he tried to calm down as Aiden spoke again. "I'm never one to shy away from a challenge." He grinned, drinking the last of the rum in his glass. He picked up the empty bottle again as he waited for her challenge, trying to pour more into his glass and being disappointed with the single drip came out. He knew a spell to refill these things, he was sure he did... he racked his brain trying to think what it was, and as he stared at the bottle his eyes glowed gold and... the bottle exploded.

He looked at Aiden as she issued her challenge and smirked. "You want to know my deepest, darkest secrets, Aiden?" He raised an eyebrow. "Alright... I hate peas." He started laughing again, but the laughter faded fairly quickly.

"A secret..." He muttered, studying a shard of broken glass from the bottle. "I think I love her." He said quietly.

[Aiden Mumble]

Aiden was slow to react to the explosion, raising her arm just in time to guard her face from a few bits of stray glass. If she got cut, she didn't feel it. Something that would have totally freaked her out under normal circumstances seemed amazing and hilarious now. A few more strings of laughter followed the bursting of the rum bottle, but she came down quicker this time. She stared at the place where the glass had been, her excitement waning into fear. If Mordred could do that to a bottle, what else could he do? Was he going to hurt her? She felt a rush of paranoia, but was saved by a distraction in the form of Mordred answering her challenge. Aiden had forgotten she'd done that for a moment.

Aiden scoffed playfully. "Thatsnot a secret." she slurred. She took in a sharp breath, hoping to sound more sober on her next attempt at speech. "It doesn't count, you have to try again!" she demanded, finishing her last bit of rum and placing the glass on the ground beside her. Hadn't Aiden already made it clear she'd figured Mordred and Meredith were in love? It was obvious! Mordred wouldn't have thrown her out at 1am if his emotions hadn't freaked him out. Aiden knew about being freaked out by love. She considered herself an expert at the moment and his love for Meredith was old news. Aiden wanted to learn something new and entertaining! Not to mention she'd rather stay off all topics involving love.

[Mordred Le Fey]

How was that not a secret? Mordred hadn't even admitted to himself, far less said it out loud, so how could anyone know - and wasn't the definition of a secret? He scowled at Aiden, irritated at her dismissal of the biggest reveal he'd ever given anyone. "Fine!" He said sulkily, before getting up and heading upstairs in search of more booze. He rummaged loudly in his room, finding that exceptionally expensive bottle of scotch, and heading back downstairs with it. He grabbed two new glasses from the kitchen - even in his inebriated state there was no way he was going to contaminate this manna with the cheap crap they'd been drinking so far.

He sat back down and poured two glasses, handing one solemnly to Aiden. "This is probably the best scotch you will ever drink in your life, so savour it, and when I freak out in the morning that I actually opened it and shared it with you, just keep out of the way until I've calmed down." He wouldn't let her take the glass until he had finished speaking, holding it just out of her reach.

"I don't have any secrets," He resumed the conversation, taking a sip of the scotch and holding it in his mouth for a moment to savour it. Damn it was good stuff. "I'm an open book." He winked at Aiden.

[Aiden Mumble]

When he shot back at her with a single grumpy word Aiden contorted her face into one of bemused shock. She must have hit a nerve, though at the moment she didn't much care. It occurred to her briefly that despite the fact that she considered herself extremely intuitive, the fact that he loved her may have been a secret to him. In the morning she may consider this and feel a pang of guilt, but at present she couldn't understand why it was just as obvious to her as it was to him. However, it was silly, really, for her to judge. She was no role model when it came to navigating these types of things. She'd insulted, shoved, and done everything in her power to get rid of someone she cared about. Perhaps they had to go, but she was certain they would have stayed if she'd given them a chance. Now she was alone. Mordred was alone. They did this to themselves.

"Sure, sure" Aiden laughed. She leaned forward and accepted the drink when he finally let it go. accepting the precious drink when he'd finally allowed her to have it. "I don't know, I could probably take you" She said with another giggle. Aiden knew full well that Mordred could probably accidentally bump her and she'd be out for the count, but it was amusing to think she could get in a few punches here and there.

She took a sip of the drink and was surprised to consider the difference between what they'd been drinking and this. She tried to take her time, but it was so smooth she ended up taking a large gulp instead of sipping it. No secrets? Aiden nearly choked. Everyone had secrets. He was just being a party pooper. Fine, if he didn't want to talk about anything else besides his new found love then that's what they were going to talk about.

"Alright 'open book'..." She began. She pulled her legs in out of the splits and sort of climbed the ground toward him. She hosted herself up and sat back down on the table so she was facing him and weirdly close. She narrowed her eyes at him, taking a moment in her drowsy head to try and think through what she wanted to say. Was this really a good idea? Her mind kept going of the rails every time she started to think it wasn't.

"Why did you kick her out?" She said, this time without laughter. This was a serious matter, she at least knew that. She took another sip of scotch, but didn't take her eyes off him.

[Mordred Le Fey]

He laughed out loud at her suggestion that she could take him. "Please, I've been training in combat since I could walk. No chance you could take me, but I'd love to see you try." He held us his glass to her, laughing as he took a sip. "Of course, if it's the other kind of 'taking' you're talking about, I won't put up a fight." He winked at her.

It felt so good to be sitting like this, drinking with someone who seemed pretty similar to him, with nothing hanging in the air between them. It felt like everyone he came into contact with at the moment had some kind of connection to Meredith, and walls and barriers were going up between him and the people he cared about. He felt like he was treading on eggshells around so many people, but here, tonight, he didn't have any of those hang ups. He was grateful to Aiden for that, and for drinking with him and keeping him company - not that he'd tell her that. He got the feeling their relationship would rarely get touchy-feely in that way. No, the way things were right now was ideal.

He watched her move out of the splits again and couldn't help but be impressed. He'd always wanted to be with a girl that flexible... he shook the thought from his head. As she sat on the table in front of him, he pulled back slightly; she was incredibly close. He could smell her hair - which smelt really good - and he had to lean back slightly to remind himself to take it easy here. She was close enough to kiss.

Her question stalled him. He stared at her, looking her straight in the eye and didn't speak for a few moments as he tried to figure out the answer to her question. It was so complicated, there were so many reasons, so many things he could say... but how much of it was the truth? He took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair.

"Because I love her." He said with a shrug. "Because I was trying to protect her."

[Aiden Mumble]

Aiden vaguely noticed him draw away and thought maybe she should follow suit, but the thought passed as quickly as it came and she remained still. Her eyes locked on his. He had nice eyes and something...something else. The was a honesty in his eyes that perhaps she hadn't thought she'd see there. She frowned slightly at his answer. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, it wasn't exactly a wrong answer. Perhaps she was hoping for a joke, or for him to get riled up. Aiden always found a thrill in making people mad, it was a guilty pleasure. A satisfaction that came with the security of being justified for being defensive. If she could get someone fighting, no one could blame her for defending herself. Still, Mordred did not get mad or push her away he spoke a truth that she'd never been brave enough to speak herself.

"Yeah...yeah..." She said softly, her eyes dropping to the ground. She'd never allow someone to love her, she was a mess. She could barely handle herself, let alone try to bring someone else into the mix. Being in a relationship would mean holding tight to someone else as she sunk to the bottom of an ocean. It would be blissful until they hit the ground and found they could no longer breathe. Then she'd be responsible for her own destruction as well as the person she'd brought into her disastrous life. At least living like this had its perks. At least she could drink and talk with people like Mordred.

Aiden smirked at this thought, bobbing her head back up to look at him. "We're dangerous people, you and I." She remarked, with a hint of flirtation in her voice. She hoped this would mask the truth. That she meant dangerous in a way that wasn't so exciting. Still, she was close, her knees against the seat he was in. In this drunken state she still knew she wasn't going to sleep with him, but it was fun to edge toward it. Just another distraction.

[Mordred Le Fey]

He could feel her breath on his face as she spoke, she was so close to him. He found himself leaning into her, her knees between his legs - he would barely have to move and he could be kissing her. He found himself studying her as she looked away, her skin, her hair, her long eyelashes sweeping over her cheeks as she blinked. He would be lying if he tried to deny that she was beautiful.

He felt himself inhale sharply as she brought her head back up and looked at him, and he smiled at her comment. She was right. He still knew so little about her, but he could sense it - there was something about her, had been from the moment she walked through the door a few days ago. He was drawn to her, but not in the way he was drawn to Meredith.

He held up his glass in a toast. "To being dangerous." He said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper as he found himself leaning closer and closer to her, his eyes on hers. Before he knew what he was doing, he was kissing her, his hand snaking around the back of her neck.

[Aiden Mumble]

Aiden wasn't feeling so great anymore. The drastic change in emotion had forced her to center on some of the ways her 120 pound body was reacting to the equivalent of almost a dozen shots and a quality joint. So, when Mordred whispered in response, her heart wasn't just pounding because of him. She felt like she was falling sideways, but the unbalance only heightened the beautiful tension between them. She didn't say anything in response. She couldn't think of anything, her wit finally failing her. All of her focus remained on staying upright and keeping her eyes on Mordred. They shared a connection that Aiden couldn't explain. Two people caught in an explosion of their own creation. Everyone could see the fall out and chastise them for making such a mess. However, only they knew the reason they lit the match in the first place.

She could see the next match in her head as he drew closer. She could see her next disaster right in front of her and, yet, she savored the idea. Sure she'd have a hundred new people angry with her, but then she'd have a hundred new people to fight, to hate, to help her keep her cover. She was too drowsy to consider the worse she might feel about this tomorrow. Besides, he looked like such a good kisser.

She was right. Everything seemed to speed up once his lips touched hers, all questions moot in the heat of the moment. Did it even matter who she was kissing? It felt wonderful. She leaned into him heavily, hungry. She pushed herself forward, crawling on top of him. One hand moved to rest on his shoulder the other she placed on the arm of the couch for support. This was a mistake. Or, perhaps, a godsend. A piece of broken glass cut into her hand and it shocked her into pulling away. Hissing, she leaned back, still sitting in his lap. She stared at her hand, not bleeding terribly, but still not very pretty. She suddenly felt faint. A combination of the night's events catching up to her.

"I think..." she said, swaying "I better go to bed." There was no flirtation in her voice this time, just utter exhaustion. They had gone hard very fast and Aiden was spiraling downhill. She crawled into he remainder of space on the couch and almost imminently blacked out.

[Mordred Le Fey]

It was the wrong thing to be doing, it was so very, very wrong, but in this moment, as he felt her respond to his kiss, he didn't care. He needed the human contact, he needed to feel someone in his arms, pressing against his body, and she was filling that role. He leaned back as she crawled on top of him, dropping his glass and enclosing her in his arms, his hands moving across her back as he hungrily kissed her, wanting to devour her entirely. His hands began to move downwards, one hand on her thigh, the other on the small of her back, his eyes closed as he allowed his passion to take over.

And suddenly she pulled away. He opened his eyes, confusion on his face, his eyes questioning why she had stopped kissing him, when he looked down and saw her hand, blood seeping from a cut. He moved to take her hand in his, to check the cut, when she spoke, her voice different. He looked at her, and saw the colour seeping from her face as she moved off his lap. Before he could say a word, she had passed out beside him, and he slumped back on the sofa, all the energy and passion from the last few minutes gone.

What had he done? He leaned forward, covering his face in his hands as the magnitude of what had just happened sunk in. There he went again, hitting the big, red self-destruction button and watching his life blow up in his face. He glanced over to where Aiden lay, feeling an odd rush of affection towards her - not the lustful hunger he had felt moments before, but something different, something more akin to how he felt when he looked at his sister, or Tristian. Rubbing his face, he stood slowly, making sure not to disturb her, and quietly cleaned up the broken glass from around the sofa. He went upstairs and grabbed the blanket from her bed and a first aid kit; when he came back downstairs he gently placed the blanket over her, before cleaning her cut and putting a plaster on it, as gently and softly as he could so he wouldn't wake her. Filling a glass of water, he left it on the coffee table beside her, before turning the light off and making his way up to his room, closing the door and collapsing on his bed, spread-eagled and staring at the ceiling.

He wouldn't be surprised if he woke in the morning to find Aiden's room empty, and to be living alone once again. He wouldn't blame her either. He sighed deeply, feeling an aching pain in his chest that had nothing to do with the drink or the drugs. He could feel his heart beating against his ribcage, and a part of it willed it to stop, to be still, to silence to nothing.

He didn't know what to do anymore.