Outside Voorhees Hall, Columbia University, New York, Thursday

[sampippy]

What was a girl to do when her first year of college was about a week away from being over and she was desperate for one last boost in coolness in the eyes of her peers (namely, her three roommates)? Why, obviously the answer was to invite a guy over! Specifically, a guy she'd slept with like a year ago and who she - let's face it - barely knew aside from that. But he was impressive! Or at least impressively hot, and, also he was nice even if Xanthippe was loathe to admit that was a positive quality in anyone.

So she'd invited Hyacinthe over for a visit. And she'd gone and picked him up on the edge of campus and walked him through it and now they were here, right outside her dorm. It was one of those imposing brown brick buildings, old as rocks and heavy with history.

The sign outside said VOORHEES HALL.

"So, yeah," she said, looking up at the building. At her side, her fingers were fidgeting with the edge of her overly lengthy sleeve. "This is where I live now."

In a building with her last name on it.

[ooc: NFB due to distance, and for the boy mentioned!]

Comments

[sampippy]

Yeah, Xanthippe was confused. "So, what, there was like a scandal?"

Because she knew all about those.

[vrajna_kralis]

"...That's one way of putting it," Hyacinthe said quietly. "'Tis an unpleasant story. Due to the nature of my conception. I'd not force you to listen if 'twould upset you."

[sampippy]

"You don't have to tell me." Even Xanthippe had enough awareness of things outside her frame of reference to figure out things were serious. Like, capital S Serious.

She brought her hand up and gingerly brushed her fingers over his chin. "But, like, you can."

[vrajna_kralis]

Hyacinthe caught her hand and brought it up to his lips to kiss. It gave him something to do while he figured out the easiest way to explain it. "I do not know my father," he said at last. "Nor does my mother."

Which probably explained most of what happened, though hardly all. Still, it was enough, for now.

[sampippy]

"Oh," Xanthippe said, her brow furrowing. That didn't seem so bad, lots of people in the New York social scene had dubious parentage --

Except then she put this information together with what he'd said just before, and her eyes widened some. "Oh." Yeah. "I'm sorry."

[vrajna_kralis]

"But worst of all, the Tsingani had strict rules about what defines a woman's laxta--her purity. Her worth, as though such a thing could be counted and valued like coin." Hyacinthe's fist clenched in the sheets. This had been a truth of his entire life and yet it still infuriated him. "Sleeping with a gadje merchant--a foreigner--made her lose hers, though 'twas not her fault. So they mourned her as lost and moved on without her."

He lay there in angry silence another moment before sharply shaking his head and looking back at Xanthippe with apologetic brown eyes. "I'm sorry, cherie," he murmured. "Hearing such an unpleasant tale of woe was not why you asked to share my company."

[sampippy]

"Hey, no," Xanthippe said, much softer than she would've expected herself to sound because soft was still a pretty new thing for her, just in general. She'd chewed on her lip a little, watching his anger, and now she slowly moved to run her hand through his hair. "No. You don't have to -- I don't care."

Wait, that came out wrong.

"I mean, I don't mind. It's... I wanna know things. About you." And it was true. Seemed to surprise even her, a little.

[vrajna_kralis]

Hyacinthe rumbled a low laugh, but some of the tension in him eased a bit. "You have simply to ask," he told her. "I am an open book. Someone exaggerated and fanciful, but open nevertheless."

[sampippy]

Xanthippe's hand settled against the side of his neck, but her fingers stayed tangled in his hair. "I like that," she admitted. "We don't really do honesty here."

In her circles, she meant. Or the ones she used to move in, anyway. She was still trying to find her place.

[vrajna_kralis]

"Why not?" he asked. "I mean, I could tell ten million lies, but why bother? All that would do is leave you wanting someone who isn't really me. How is that good for either of us? You'd want a figment and I'd never know whether you could ever care for me or only the illusion I'd crafted to fool you."

He was speaking of himself but meaning her.

[sampippy]

Xanthippe got that, kinda, and she was also kind of grateful for it? It meant there was a crucial bit of feigned distance between her and the thing that probably wasn't a very good trait to have.

She shrugged. It came out looking helpless. "Image is everything around here. Or at least around, like, Manhattan. Where I'm from."

[vrajna_kralis]

Hyacinthe liked Xanthippe. He'd never set out to be deliberately cruel to her.

"Sounds like an unhappy way to live," he said instead. "I would rather no image at all, I believe. There are always people eager to befriend you for their own ends," he said with the voice of wry experience. "I'd rather some few of those who befriended me did so genuinely."

[sampippy]

Xanthippe snorted. It was also on the wry side. "People here don't even wanna be genuine with their faces."

So much plastic surgery. So much of it.

[vrajna_kralis]

"'Tis not my place to decide," Hyacinthe said, reaching over to brush his fingers across her cheekbones, "but I like your face. I hope you'll keep it."

[sampippy]

Either he really had a knack for making her flustered, or... she was just easily flustered. It was probably a mix of both.

"Well I'm still, like, pretty young," she said, her chin tilting down along with her gaze, like that could hide her smile. "So it's not like something I've been considering or anything."

[vrajna_kralis]

"And I'm sure you'll still be pretty even when you're not-so-young," he said, leaning in to help her hide that smile by kissing her.

Seemed appropriate, no.

[sampippy]

Oh, it was. It helped Xanthippe relax, see? Kind of. Or at least she responded to it a lot more easily than she had to his compliments. The hand at the back of his neck even pulled him closer.

[vrajna_kralis]

He moved into to kiss her deeper, his hand sliding off her cheek and into her hair and mouth opening over hers. He licked at the seam of her lips, asking to be let in, pressing his body against hers.

[sampippy]

Xanthippe shifted closer and moved to hook her leg over his hip after only a little bit of noticeable hesitation. Progress!

And she responded eagerly to the deepening kiss. It was easy to follow his lead in that, and to let her tongue slide against his once she had.

[vrajna_kralis]

Hyacinthe was willing to work with hesitation. Especially when it led to eagerness down the line. He curled his tongued around hers, holding her closer still so he could feel her whole body pressed against his. His free hand stroked up and down her back, more relaxing than enticing, even as his mouth devoured hers.

"You promise to reward me with more kisses like these," he said, breaking away for a moment, "and you may ask me anything you wish."

And then he was kissing her again, hard and certain.

[sampippy]

It was a good thing he went right back to kissing her after he said that, because Xanthippe would probably have said something embarrassing in return. Or at least very stuttery, which to her was the same thing. Her brain didn't seem to work too well around him.

Which was too bad for those questions, really.

But she could pull herself together enough to get a few teasing nips in, her teeth finding his bottom lip here and there for a second or two.

[vrajna_kralis]

Hyacinthe was willing to forgo all questions in exchange for teeth. He was a very simple man, okay? And seducing--or being seduced by--Xanthippe came ahead of conversation, even if only by a slow margin.

He let her play for a few moments, then pulled away again. "You seem like you're feeling a touch more adventurous," he noted, voice warm with approval. Then he wrapped his arms around her and rolled until he was on his back and she above him. "You lead now," he urged softly. "Be curious. Explore. Take charge, Xan. I want to see you own this."

She was going to end this weekend a little more confident than she entered it, if he had anything to say about it.

[sampippy]

Xanthippe laughed at being rolled over like that, and the thrill of it was powerful enough that she only looked a little sheepish at having laughed louder than she'd expected to.

And just like that, she was on top of him. Huh. She bit her own lip, for a second - then, planting her hands on either side of him, leaned over him until she could press a kiss against his forehead.

It had just always looked like a cute thing in movies to her, okay, so she figured, why not?

And she murmured, "Why's your name Hyacinthe?"

[vrajna_kralis]

"Because my mother loved the flower," he said, grinning up at her. "There was a bush of them that bloomed all spring long outside the apartment she lived in. She swore the scent helped her morning sickness abate and eased her loneliness. So when I was born, she dubbed me after the thing she loved most about the city that was now her home."

He leaned up and kissed her. "Why is your name Xanthippe? 'Tis a Hellenic name, is it not?"

[sampippy]

"Yeah, it's like, super Greek," Xanthippe murmured, mostly against his lips. She lingered there for a moment, choosing that over adding anything else - at least until she pulled away, pushing herself a little more upright. "Think my mom picked it 'cause she wanted it to be, like... a strong woman's name, or something."

Xan wasn't sure it fit. Sometimes she wanted it to, though, and that was probably a good start.

"'Cause Xanthippe was Socrates' wife." She pushed her hair behind her ear. "But, like, no one can pronounce it," she added, now with more of a drawl. "And the people who can, also love telling me how, like, OG Xanthippe was a total shrew." A beat. "Or that it means 'yellow horse'."