Meeting Someone New (Camille and Alyosha)

Camille sat curled up in a large armchair as he read, his small frame almost drowned in the sinking pillows and the blanket draped over his lap. The fire roared in the grate, though the night was fairly warm, the air dry and comfortable throughout the large room.

The house had been quieter than usual recently. Jace had been around, but he hadn't seen him as much as he used to. Part of him was lonely, but another part of him just adjusted to the new way of life. Even if that was fairly alone.

Alyosha had left his dog with Noah.

He wanted to spend the next couple of days cooped up in the library with a few really good books.

The had gone to the kitchen had gathered enough snacks to last him a few days and a few bottles of whatever he could find so he didn't end up dehydrated. He managed to pick up some coke, some lemonade and some water.

The Necromancer smiled brightly as he found the library.

What did he want to read first?

"Mythology," he decided out out, looking around curiously, wondering where the section was in this huge library.

The boy froze as he caught a glimpse of the man out of the corner of his eye, the book falling from his hand, tumbling to the floor with a loud thud. His hands trembled motionlessly in his lap as he sat frozen like a rabbit in the headlights.

That had looked like Sergei. Exactly like Sergei.

Taking a deep breath, he stole another glance at the man, craning his neck a little to see him better. It... it looked like him. But it didn't smell like him. There was a stench of rotting and death coming from this man that wasn't like the musky, sweet smell that Sergei had always had.

Unless Sergei had been living in the catacombs since the fire.

He didn't know if he should leave or stay. If it was Sergei, he should leave, he knew he should, but part of him still wanted to see him. He felt like since Sergei's death... or supposed death, or whatever it was... there had been a hole in his life that needed filling.

A place for someone to love him? No. Not that. More like... a place for a Master-figure. Someone to control him. He felt so lost being free sometimes.

The Necromancer jumped when the book fell to the floor, turning around swiftly, his hair flying out around him.

He cocked his head to the side slightly, watching the boy watch him.

No, he had made that mistake before. He looked young but he was probably older than him by a number of years.

"Hello," he greeted, lifting a hand to wave at the boy, smiling brightly at him.

His posture relaxed a little as the man turned around, catching sight of his face. No, it wasn't him.

A weird feeling twisted in his stomach, unsure of whether to feel relieved or disappointed. It would have been nice to see a familiar face, no matter how terrifying that face may have been.

Camille bent down to pick up the book, placing it gently in his lap as his fingers ran over it, almost stroking it as he tried to distract himself, staring at the front cover.

He knew it wasn't Sergei, but whoever it was, he looked one hell of a lot like him. It almost hurt to look at his face, they were so similar.

"Hello." he replied awkwardly, not making eye contact. He didn't want to be rude, it was just that they looked so similar that it was hard to ignore.

He pursed his lips when the boy returned his greeting then looked down at his book.

All right then. He knew when people wanted to ignore others and return to their books. He acted just the same when he wanted to be left alone.

He was polite as a matter of course then he just ignored the world to lose himself in his books.

The Necromancer turned back to the shelves.

"I am Alyosha." If he wanted to reply he would.

He felt a pang of guilt as the man turned back to the shelves, pulling his legs up to his chest to curl up in a ball as he always did when he was uncomfortable.

No. No, he had to be sociable. Or a least try. He didn't want to hurt Alyosha's feelings.

"Camille." he returned with a smile, though it was less aimed at him, more spoken as though he were addressing his knees.

He still couldn't bring himself to look at him, but he could try to hold a conversation at least.

"Sorry about... this..." he gestured to his eyes. "It's a... um..."

But he wasn't sure what to say. He couldn't tell a complete stranger about Sergei, no matter how much he looked like him. And he didn't want to lie either. So...

"...thing..." he finished lamely, fiddling nervously with the book in his lap.

Thing?

That was... descriptive.

What was this 'thing' that made the boy not want to talk to him?

His need to be reading? Lyo could understand that. When he wanted to read he wanted to be left alone.

"Is a pleasure, Camille."

Zut. Now he thought he didn't want to talk to him.

Camille forced himself to raise his gaze and look at the man's face. It made him uncomfortable. It made feelings bubble to the surface. Not just feelings of pain, nervousness and fear, but other feelings that he was not comfortable with. Especially not with a complete stranger.

But his eyes were blue. Not brown. He would focus on that difference for now.

"So... you are new here?" he asked, still toying with the leather bindings of the book.


(Translation: "Damn")

Alyosha looked up when Camille spoke.

He turned a soft smile over his shoulder and gave a nod.

"Yes, I just came here few days ago." His accent was thick, lining each word as he spoke. "Is nice here.

So far the mansion and the one person he had met were nice.

He liked this place a lot so far.

The boy flinched inadvertently at the accent. Everything was too familiar. The looks, the accent.

But there were differences. This man's eyes were blue, his scent was different, he seemed gentler... although, he supposed, even Sergei had been gentle at the beginning.

He didn't want to dismiss Alyosha on account of his looks, but it caused a whirlwind of tormented emotion to be whipped up inside him once more.

And he didn't know if he liked it. But then, he didn't know that he didn't, either.

"You are from Russia?"

Alyosha nodded.

"Yes. I grew up in Novosibirsk."

A very large city. But it was okay. The city was dangerous but he had made his way just fine.

"And you are...French?"

Was that accent French?

"That is where?"

He put the book aside, placing it down gently on the coffee table. It was only distracting him.

His legs slowly unfurled as he started to become more relaxed, settling back into the chair. The man still made him nervous, and he could feel himself trembling a little, but he was slowly getting used to seeing a face so like Sergei's in front of him again.

He either wanted to run, as fast as he could, or cling to him, to cry into his shoulder as though he were the lover and Master that he had lost. It was so easy to see Alyosha as Sergei. But he had to stop it. It wasn't normal.

"Yes, but I have been in Italy for quite some time." he paused, a hand running through his hair stressedly. "I..."

He forced the sentence out through the lump catching in his throat.

"You look a lot like someone I used to know. He was from Russia too."

"Is big city in Serbia."

It was the third biggest city in Russia. A very large place.

Alyosha smile softly. He had guessed right with France. He was pleased for that. He could still pick up accents.

"Someone you know?"

His brows furrowed. Alyosha wasn't the sort of person that could be confused with someone else. He was tall and muscular. Not a common trait. High height wasn't one reached by many.

A big city? Camille flushed, feeling ignorant.

He had never really explored the world around him. He had never had an opportunity to. Other countries were just places on maps, little squiggles drawn in coloured ink on parchment, drawn by a hand that he would never know, as much as he would never know those countries. He had read books, and they seemed far-away, foreign, strange, fairy-tale lands where he could imagine starting anew, no problems like before.

China, India, Australia, Egypt, America... They were just words. But he didn't want them to stay like that. Not forever.

He ignored the question and shifted, now in a cross-legged position, like a child waiting for a teacher's instruction.

"What is Russia like?"

"Is..."

He pursed his lips.

He hadn't much enjoyed his time in Russia. he had been a part of some not very nice things that had ruined his enjoyment of the country.

"Is busy. Nice for some, not nice for others."

He was very much a part of 'others'.

He nodded slowly. Much like everywhere else then, he supposed. Of course it had been stupid to romanticise an entire country in his head.

Quite childish, really.

"You didn't like it, then?" The note of disappointment was quite obvious in his voice.

He had wanted to see the outside world as somewhere to escape to, somewhere without suffering, pain or corruption. It would be so much easier to keep a naive, childish view of the world.

"Why? That is, if you don't mind me asking."

"Was okay at times." When he wasn't with the gang he had quite liked the country. But he had been with the gag for a large portion of his life.

"I did not have best luck."

He didn't want to talk about his past.

He had come here to escape it and escape it he would. He wouldn't say anything about his past and the bad situations he had been in in his past.

Bad luck. Camille knew only too well what that was like.

His eyes studied the man closely when he stopped talking.

So Alyosha didn't want to talk about it? That was fair enough, he supposed. There were a lot of things that he himself didn't want to talk about.

But it didn't make it any easier to trust him.

The boy shifted uneasily in his seat, curling up a little more. This wasn't Sergei, he knew that, but were they related? Was that the reason he didn't want to talk about himself? They looked similar. Too similar.

No. He was being neurotic.

"I am sorry to hear that."

"Is my own fault. You have nothing to sorry for."

He had gotten himself into the mess with the Mafia; he had caused his hatred for the country in recent years.

The Necromancer made an excited noise in the back of his throat as he stumbled across the mythology section.

He scanned the books slowly, taking his time in deciding which book he would read first. He would be here for a few days so he could read a fair amount of books before he returned to his room.

And he was sorry for being so awkward.

He always managed to be like this around people, new or not, and it was one of the many things he hated about himself. It was one of the things that made it difficult for him to make friends. Really, it was a miracle that Jace had stuck around for as long as he had.

He sat there silently for a moment, watching the man flick through the book.

"You..."

The boy paused, trying to think of something to say to alleviate the tension weighing between them.

"You like mythology?"

His bright eyes flickered over his shoulder and he gave a nod.

"Da, I like Mythology very much."

He loved being able to look through old stories written centuries ago and see what people thought of the world and why things happened in the world so many years ago.

It was interesting. He would happily read through every book on mythology he owned a hundred times over and not get bored.

"Do you?"

"Yes." he paused, thinking it over. "Well, I like books in general. Norse mythology's good, though."

He remembered day after day when he had just sat reading for as long as he possibly could, hiding behind the heavy velvet curtains of the mansion where he and Sergei had used to live. All cinders now, of course.

Reading had been a good escape. It was a way to make himself believe that he was somewhere else just for a few hours before he had to go back to their room and face his Master again.

Even now, it was one of his favourite hobbies besides painting.

"What have you got there?"

"All Mythology good if you read it."

He loved all types of mythology. It was interesting seeing how different cultures thought.

Alyosha loved all types of books, anyway. He didn't even have to know the language the book was written in to enjoy it.

"What have-? Oh." He lifted his arm, drawing attention to the back settled in the crook of his elbow. "This? Food."

He was going to be here for days. He didn't want to risk starving himself just because he got too into reading a book.

"Seen any books you like?"

He was slowly starting to feel slightly more relaxed. It still felt weird to look at Alyosha, but if he concentrated on the things which made him look different from Sergei, or if he averted his eyes a little, it wasn't such a problem.

Looking directly at him made him uncomfortable, but although he looked the same... this man's character seemed to be different.