An Elf in the Wolf den.

Tyrael sat upon one of the large leather couches, his legs crossed over one another as he propped a book upon them, his posture was relaxed yet dignified.

His stormy blue eyes were focused only on black lettering on the page, it was a book written in Elvish, a rather surprising find considering that very few Elves had lived here.

His long slender fingers flipped the page, he always dealt with books very carefully, he hated seeing them torn and crumpled by clumsy hands.

Though his focus was set on his book his long pointed ears were always alert for the presence of others, only the tips of them visible from under his dark teal hair.

Zakhar strolled down the halls towards the library slowly, nose buried in his book.

He had tried to hold out until he had gotten to the library and staked out a nice seat in front of the fire, but he hadn't managed to do so.

The Lycan crumpled and rolled the corners of his already severely dog eared book as his eye passed over the faded words.

He almost bumped into the door frame as he came upon the library, but managed to safe himself from doing so by the skin of his teeth, eyes flickering up for a moment in his reading to notice the wooden frame mere inches away.

Zakhar cleared his throat as he stepped around the door frame and sidled into the library, nose once again in book as he headed towards the comfortable leather chairs circling the large cracking fire.

Silver hit his nose first, followed closely by Elf. Joy.

He glanced up at the Elf sat on one of the chairs and sighed. He didn't want conflict at the moment. Perhaps if he ignored the Elf, he'd be left alone? Perhaps.

Zakhar dropped himself onto one of the couches heavily with a little grunt before he stretched out, legs crossing at the ankles, propped up on the arm of the couch.

His ears twitched as heavy footsteps sounded in the silence, accompanied by a man clearing his throat.

His eyes stayed on his book but he inhaled a breath through his nose, a Lycan, he could tell that much, they always seemed to smell of fur regardless of how long it had been since their last transformation, the scent just radiated from their skin.

His swirling blue-grey eyes glanced up at the Lycan for a moment, lingering on the man's face.

Even from this distance he would see the colour difference in the man's eyes, probably blind in one of them, and scars marked his face, how grotesque.
Lycans we always such rough beasts, in nature and appearance.

He stayed silent, his eyes returning to his own book but his ears stayed focused on the man, he'd know if the Lycan made a move, he didn't trust these creatures, he had reason not to.

Tyrael knew better than most what a Lycan could do, underneath his clothing his chest was riddled with faint scars from dealing with them, it was rare in his line of work to get through it without ended up with a few claw and teeth marks.

His eyes flickered up to the Elf after a few moments of fidgeting and shuffling around to make himself comfortable.

Zakhar's head cocked to the side, his hair sweeping with the movement.

The man was handsome. He had the same natural beauty in the way he held himself and the strong features of his face - not fierce and sharp like most Lycan and Vampires were known for - that all Elves seemed to have. He was beautiful His face wasn't marred with scars or impurities, his eyes were clear, his expression was smooth and peaceful.

But the twitching of his ears shattered the idea of peaceful tranquillity about him. The Elf was scoping him. Listening to every movement he made to make sure he wouldn't attack.

How amusing.

He could feel the Lycan's gaze on him, the man was hardly being subtle about it.

The Elf contemplated getting up and leaving, finding somewhere more private to relax but he knew the wolf would see that a some sort of victory over him.

No, he was here first so he intended to stay here until he was ready to leave.
He wondered if the Lycan had noticed yet, they could smell fear on a person, that scent would be completely absent at this moment.

Tyrael held no fear of wolves, he was cautious around them, because anyone with enough brain cells to be able to walk and breathe simultaneously should be.

Zakhar gave a soft hum when the man didn't react to his obvious staring.

That was no fun.

His gaze turned back to his book as his feet worked on pushing his boots off of his feet. Zakhar usually wore heavy, unlaced combat boots. Today was no exception.

The boots colliding with the ground with a dull thud one at a time. He stretched out his now free toes as he leaned back and rested his book on his chest, losing himself in his book once again.

Idly, he wondered if he could make the man annoyed enough to snap at him with little actions that would grate of peoples nerves. Shuffling around excessively, making small noises as he read, turning his pages as loud as he could, tapping his fingers on the covers of his book.

Tyrael’s ears twitched slightly as the boots collision with the ground broke through the silence, the Lycan was removing his shoes?
The Elf was less than impressed by that, did they not even have manners enough to stay dressed whilst indoors?

He was determined to ignore the Lycan, the last thing he needed was a pack of angry Lycan after him the day he moves in.

Already he was quite impressed with himself, this was the first time he had been in a room with a Lycan that didn’t belong to his clan.

For lack of a better words, at the moment they were ‘equals’ that thought made him grimace internally.

He held no hatred for their race, he was just not overly fond of them, after having such a bad history between their races it was hard to accept that it had ended.

Zakhar began humming a soft, obnoxiously cheerful tune as he read.

Let the attempts at annoying the Elf begin. He was greatly anticipating an amusing reaction to his attempts.

As usual, he rolled and crumpled and tore the corners of his pages as he read the old Russian words on the yellowed pages, reciting them mentally. He knew every word of this book. Given a pen and enough paper, he'd be able to rewrite it down to the last symbol.

As he read, the sort hum slowly increased in volume.

The Elf held back a cringe as the Lycan began to hum, was the wolf really trying to provoke him? He had been pleasant enough to ignore him instead of stirring up trouble and he is repaid by having the man knowingly pester him.

He kept his eyes on his book, the features of his face still smooth and unchanging, his body relaxed against the leather seat.

The humming got louder and the sound of tormented paper reached his ears, a pet peeve of his.

At that moment he wanted to ditch his book at the Lycan’s head, but that would crinkle the pages, hardly worth the trouble.

Instead he endured, reading the Elvish text intently.

His humming kept up as he turned the page, the bottom of the paper catching on his clothing and screaming in protest as he drew it over the fabric and smoothed it against the pages he had already read, the bottom of the page now torn and deformed.

He glanced up at the Elf for a moment, a little grin forming before his expression smoothed out and he turned his gaze back down towards his book.

Zakhar shifted a little, the sound of fabric rubbing against leather filling the air as he stretched his legs and gave a soft moan.

The sound of tearing paper made the Elf’s ears pin to the side of his head. Trees had died to make these books, the least people could do was treat them with a little respect

Mentally he was growling, growing more annoyed by the man’s presence the longer he stayed here, the Lycan seemed incapable of remaining silent and what had been a rather pleasant evening had been ruined by his obnoxious behavior.

He wanted to take a deep breath but he knew that would alert the Lycan to the cracks in his demeanor.

Instead he turned the page of his book, his eyes scanned the words but he was no longer paying attention to them, his focus only on remaining calm.

His nails began tapping on the hard cover of the book in the same tune as his humming.

Zakhar was surprised with how well the Elf was holding onto his cool. He had done this before with many people and they hadn't lasted quite as long as had.

The Lycan was impressed.

His humming paused, but the tapping against the cover of the book continued. He began clicking his tongue every time he read a sentence, bouncing the book on his chest idly.

Tyrael’s jaw clenched slightly as his nails began to tap on the book, this was becoming unbearably annoying, he was not a patient man in the slightest and this was definitely testing him.

The tongue clicking was asking a little too much of him, he shut his book roughly, with an audible snap as the pages hit against one another.

His long fingers gripped the bridge of his nose as he took a deep breath; he had to get away from this insufferable man before he lost it.

Rising to his feet he walked over to the place where he found the book, placing it back on the shelf before heading towards the door.

Zakhar gave a small noise that could have been the start of a victorious chuckle.

He had won; Tyrael was five shades of pissed off with his small annoying actions that had driven him to try and escape.

He watched the Elf push the book back into its space on the bookcase then head towards the door to make a great escape from him.

"Leaving so soon?" he asked, his voice friendly as if he hadn't just spent the last twenty minutes annoying the man. "Weren't you enjoying your book?"

A annoyed sneer graced his lips as the Lycan spoke, his back was to the man so his let his expression match his mood for a split second before turning around to face him, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, his lean body looking relaxed and calm.

His usual calm façade was masking his emotion as he lips showed the slightest of smiles.

"Not particularly, I find the author rather obnoxious, his writing style irks me, too cocky for my liking."

He replied in a deep, soothing voice. It was not the author he was describing, rather the man sitting in front of him.

His stormy blue eyes showed no hit of his annoyance, the Elf was a wonderful liar.

"You read a lot of book before deciding his style irked you." He gave a pleasant smile, his head cocking to the side.

The man had easily read half of that book. If a writing style annoyed you, you'd be able to figure that out in a few chapters and stop reading before you got half way through the book.

How would the Elf react to Zakhar calling him out on that?

Hopefully not very well. Watching him get angrier and angrier would be amusing.

"He seemed alright at first but as the book progressed he got more irritating, it simply got to the point where I could no longer be bothered."

He replied with a slight shrug, again he was describing the Lycan.
The question didn't manage to catch him off guard, more often than not Tyrael usually had a retort.

He knew the Lycan was purposely trying to rile him up, if that's what the Lycan wanted then he would deny him a reaction.

"I hate books like that."

His eyes twinkled as he sat up, feet dropping to the floor with a thud, still crossed at the ankles.

"Will you not search for another book? I would if I was met with disappointment of bad book."

Zakhar leaned back against the couch, tossing his book aside carelessly.

"As do I."
He replied, running his hand through the short layers of the front of his hair.

"I don't think so, that last book left a sour taste in my mouth, I'm done reading for the night, I'd rather go for a walk, I've got a lot of the mansion to explore still."

He wanted any excuse to get away from this man, he had taken an instant disliking to him and had no desire to remain in his company.

"So if you will excuse me."

He added, heading towards the door as he slid his hands to his pockets.

Nu-uh. He didn't want this to end so soon.

"I think I'll join you," Zakhar said standing up and straightening out his waistcoat and shirt.

He wanted any excuse to stick around the Elf and cause as much trouble as he could. Annoying the Elf was proving to be a very fun thing and he didn't want to leave off so soon.

He strolled forwards, leaving behind his boots and book. He'd come back to pick them up later.

Internally Tyrael groaned and cursed, hissing at the Lycan in annoyance, though his external appearance remained composed, his smile even widening a little.

"Wonderful, it would be nice to have some company."
He impressed even himself with how sincere that sounded, despite how much he wanted to leave the man's presence.

Swallowing his annoyance he walked towards the door that led outside, the Lycan following behind him.

"I've been meaning to see the gardens."
Now that part was the only thing he had said so far that wasn't a lie, he was an Elf after all, he would be spending most of his time out here perched in a tree or wandering about.

Zakhar grinned at the Elf as he fell into step with him.

The more bullshit Tyrael spouted, the more impressed he became. Not many people could spout that amount of utter shit without showing visible signs of doing so.

"Gardens are beautiful. So is forest." He loved the forests in the grounds.

Plenty of prey, a river to drink from, beautiful views if you went looking for them. He couldn't ask for anything more in a forest than that.

"I'm glad to hear it, I'd be disappointed if such a place had a sub-standard gardens and forest."

He made his way out into the gardens, with the Lycan following him, the man's presence was annoying him to no end but he would endure it for the sake of harmony.

If all the Lycan here were like this man he didn't think he would be able to live here without making a fair amount of enemies.

Zakhar gave a nod.

He had worried about whether or not the forest would be satisfactory for him and Lino to spend their full moons in. He had been pleased to see how large the forests were in the mansion grounds.

"Zakhar Avdeyev."

He hadn't introduced himself yet, had he?

"Tyrael Otakar."
He replied simply, perhaps he should of been a little more wary of throwing his last name around.

If any supernatural spent time in Eastern Europe chances were that they may have heard of the clan due to their prowess in the slavery business.

He shrugged that thought off, he was an Elf, family pride was intertwined in his species, if anyone had a problem with his heritage he could not care less.