[Balthazar Sebastian]

He could have apparated, but Balthazar like prolonging his trip home from the Ministry as much as he could. He had absolutely nothing waiting for his return, except perhaps a bottle of firewhiskey. Yes, Balthazar drank now. Maybe it was because he was still incredibly heartbroken, maybe it was because he realized that he was probably destined to live the rest of his life alone, he had no idea. He just knew he was a miserable son of a bitch and there was nothing that would exactly change that.

He stopped inside a cafe and ordered himself a coffee, black, to-go, then took it with him as he continued down the streets of Little Whinging, attempting to reach his goal, the small rowhouse he'd purchased for himself straight out of school. He hadn't wanted to be a burden to the Sebastians any longer, and though they had pleaded with him to stay, Balthazar had convinced himself that they were better off without him.

He hadn't made it to the major residential area yet. At the moment he was walking down one of the main streets, and he was not alone. The muggles who populated the town seemed to be taking advantage of the cool and crisp night air, taking walks with their loved ones, going to the cinema... anything they could think of that would give them an excuse to be out of their houses. Balthazar stopped, considering whether or not he should treat himself to dinner in one of the cozy looking pubs, or if he should continue with his plan to eat once he returned to his home. He'd choose the latter of course, because eating at home, alone in front of the television, was a lot less embarassing than sitting by himself in public. He sighed to himself, inaudibly of course, and shrugged his shoulders in a somewhat dejected manner before he continued walking, his eyes focused straight ahead of him in order to ignore the looks he was getting. The looks, of course, because he was impeccably dressed in a custom made Armani suit and matching shoes, and compared to what the rest of the people out and about were wearing, he stuck out like a sore thumb.

[Ariadne Fayl-Dagli]

Walking was something Ariadne always did with pleasure. Walking while pursuing dreams of a life-time was simply amazing. It did all seem like a dream. She had traveled all around Europe, going with the flow, taking one profession after the other, following a string of events and people from one country to the other, switching between identities just for the fun of it, working as a waitress, a singer even a muse. She smirked at that thought as she remembered Tom, the Muggle composer who had declared her his muse because he wanted to "capture that magic that you have to possess, dear".

And just when she was beginning to grow tired of it all, a letter came. A letter that informed her of a distant relative's death and of the considerable amount of money he had left her with. Money that meant that Arry could fulfill her last dream: open the bookstore-caffe she had always dreamed of, a place where she could spend the rest of her days in bliss, surrouned by two of her favorites things: books and hot latte. And now, here she was, walking the streets of Little Whining, searching for that perfect spot to open her bookstore.

It seemed like she had it all, didn't it? Of course she did. Of course she did. She kept saying it to herself again and again, because, if there is one thing Ariadne was good at, it was pushing back her problems. Hiding her true feelings even from herself. And if she was to be completely honest, she would admit that this crazy adventure her life had been ever since she graduated was nothing but an attempt to forget. She had been distracting herself by any means possible from the thought of...

She shivered and removed the pencil that had been supporting her hair into a loose bun. Her hair fell all around her shoulders and almost down to her back, providing her with some extra warmth. Her thin floral dress was obviously not the right thing to wear, even if it did reach down to her ankles.

The pencil slipped from her fingers and she bent down to pick it up. And when she got up again, she froze. Because right there, coming from the opposite direction, directly, I repeat directly towards her was no other than Balthazar. Balthazar Sebastian. What are you to do now, Arry? Run? Sing? Find a random artist to become his muse?

Arry just kept standing there, looking at Balthazar approaching, seemingly in deep thought. Had he noticed her yet?

[Balthazar Sebastian]

Balthazar hadn't noticed her, he was so deep in his own thoughts that he'd just continued looking forward. He knew his way around the area so well, and was so used to people avoiding him that he barely needed to pay any attention at all to where he was going. Unfortunately, it was because of this that Balthazar walked straight into his ex girlfriend with enough force to actually knock her down. Whether that happened or not, we'll leave that up to you. We do know however, that he ended up spilling his hot coffee in her direction.

Balthazar, as smart as he may have been, was not good in these kinds of situations. He didn't register the woman's face at first as he tried to make an incredibly flustered apology and reached for his handkerchief, but then it actually hit him.

You.

Was all he could say as he stared at Ariadne. Admittedly his jaw had dropped and he was completely dumfounded as he continued to hold his handkerchief out to her. If you decide to say she'd fallen, he was extending a hand to help her up as well, the bottom line here though was that Balthazar had quickly become paralyzed with a feeling he didn't even know how to BEGIN to explain at the moment.

[Ariadne Fayl-Dagli]

Remember what we said, about Ariadne's talent to distract herself from her real problems? Well, there you have it: Balthazar was right there in front of her, addressing her with nothing but a "you" and what she was thinking of? What spell to use to clean the coffee he had spilt on her dress.
Yet, talents have their limits which is why her voice was shaking as she managed to utter

Hello Balthazar.

She just stood there for a good thirty seconds unable to speak, just looking at him, when suddenly, her talent kicked in again and her mouth started talking on its own

It's been quite a while, hasn't it? What have you been doing? I just came back from...from well everywhere. Where are you headed at? Have you had dinner yet? Would you like to go have something to eat?

Way to go for being the cool one. Why yes, look at Arry, she just came back from her journey around Europe ooh, how fancy does that sound, and she's so comfortable with seeing Balthazar that she even asked him to go have dinner with her like the old acquaintances they are and...wait

DID SHE JUST ASK HIM TO DINNER? As in, GO SOMEWHERE AND SIT DOWN TOGETHER? FACE TO FACE?

As the terror from what she had just done took its time to seep in, all she could do was stand there and hope that what was going in her mind didn't reflect on her face.

[Balthazar Sebastian]

Thankfully Balthazar managed to shake himself out of the stupor he was in, but as she talked, he continued to look at her in disbelief. Was she really asking him to dinner? Talking to him as if they'd just happened to run into each other after only a week or so of not seeing him? As if she hadn't completely broken and shattered the only sembelance of a heart he'd had and then walked out of his life completely only a few years ago? That bitch! Balthazar shook his head.

No. No. You don't get to do this.

He said resolutely, then pushed his way past her again and started walking quickly away from her. His mind was running a million miles a minute at the moment and he wasn't even sure if he was capeable of coherant speech at the moment. Still, he stopped and turned back to her, taking a few steps in her direction and glaring at her.

You're not here. Go. Go away and don't talk to me. You're not here.

He didn't know if he was saying it to try and convince himself that he was just hallucinating that she was there, or if he actually wanted her to leave. If he took time to be honest with himself, he would have admitted that he wanted nothing more than to be cuddled up in bed with her, safe in the covers from the world around them, but no. That couldn't happen and never would. She'd lost her chance for that. He turned from her and walked in the direction of his home, not knowing what the hell he should do right now, but thinking to himself that he could have probably handled that situation a lot better.

[Ariadne Fayl-Dagli]

At first she was shocked and she took a step back, as if he had hit her. She hadn't expected a hug of course but...they were all grown up now, they could at least act civilised!

And then the memories kicked in. Memories of how they had broken up. His refusal to open up to her, his fits of anger after each time he did allow her a glimpse into his soul. She was proud, she had always been but in her desperate attempts to get closer to him, she had done the closest thing to begging she had ever done in her life.

And then the night of their graduation. Their huge fight. Her running away from him. her hurt feelings, she could deal with. Her hurt pride, she could not.

Oh yes. They were nothing like "all grown up". In fact, Ariadne was barely older than sixteen as she shouted behind him

" What? WHAT? You want me to run after you? I don't remember YOU doing your work out when it was time to do so!"

[Balthazar Sebastian]

Balthazar spun around to face her again, looking the closest to distressed as he had in a long while. He hated that she could do this to him, rile him up to the point where he actually thought he could completely fuck up anyone or anything that deigned to get in his way.

I don't want you anywhere NEAR me! You made it VERY clear the last time we saw each other that you wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. If that means I was supposed to chase you, then I don't know what fucking planet you think we live on, but it's not how things work around here!

He spat at her, the fire that ran through his blood seemingly burning in his eyes at the moment. To be honest, he felt faint, and as if he needed to get some water and a bed as quickly as possible if he didn't want to stress himself out to a point of near oblivion. He tried to remember the breathing techniques Kiera had taught him to prevent him from overreacting, but right now he was at the point where all he could do was stand there and seethe at her as his face got redder and redder, trying to remember to relax, and that he was in public and shouldn't be causing a scene.

[Ariadne Fayl-Dagli]

And there was Balthazar Sebastian, telling her how things work in the real world. Did she need to remind him who was the dysfunctional part of their relationship? Who was the one who completely failed to communicate, the one who who took out all the anger for failing to do so, on her? And yes, of course she had expected him to run after her, she had been running away from a man who seemed ready to hex her into oblivion or even worse to knock her unconscious with his thought.

She looked at him, ready to spit out all her anger at him, just like he had done, but sje stopped and took a big breath. She wasn't going to give him the pleasure of seeing how much he had hurt her.

Well, YOU made it very clear that me being anywhere near you would mean being knocked unconscious, didn't you. I guess you couldn't stand the fact that SOMEONE would actually be near you, near your thoughts your true thoughts, your true self. And maybe you were right, Balthazar, maybe I should thank you for pushing me away from you because honestly, I would be a miserable person just like you now if you hadn't.

Well. So much for not showing him how much he had hurt her.

[Balthazar Sebastian]

Though it hadn't been his intent, Balthazar had advanced on Ariadne and grabbed ahold of both of her wrists with a grip tighter than any man with good intentions should actually hold a woman with. He was completely furious at the moment right now and he was losing what little control he actually had of himself.

You NEVER wanted to be near me. The only time you tried to get involved in my life it was to tell me what I was doing wrong, and how I should be doing this and that and wondering why I couldn't be as fucking affectionate as Sacramoni or McPherson. YOU made me constantly feel like a failure. I still feel like a fucking failure because I couldn't hold on to the one person I actually love, and now you come back here and rub it in my face.

He wasn't making sense, he knew that. What he didn't know was that he hadn't used the past tense when talking about how he'd been in love with her, and that he'd actually admitted to the fact that she'd hurt his feelings back when they were in school. At the time he'd simply closed himself off to her, gone completely quiet and ignored her when she pleaded with him to tell her what was wrong. He'd thought, at the time, that she should be able to figure it out herself. Of course Balthazar hadn't taken into consideration that Ariadne had probably been as confused as he was. His grip on her tightened and his hands started heating up, but he took no notice.

[Ariadne Fayl-Dagli]

She violently shook her wrists away from his grip. She was so angry she failed to even notice the tense he used, the fact that he had quite plainly just told her he still loved her. She looked at him with her best Ice Bitch face.

Outrageous as it may sound to any person capable of logic thinking, I wanted to be near you. I wanted it more than anything else, I longed for it. What I got back was indifference and... and this

she said shoving her bruised wrists in front of his face.

You are pathetic, Balthazar. Truly and ultimately pathetic. It was not me who made you feel like a failure. Your denial to see that there MUST be something you 're doing wrong with people is what make you a failure. Don't you dare blame me for that. If anything, I did you all the good in the world by leaving you. Someone else could have learnt something from that.

she let a bitter laugh

But then again, someone else would have been able to recognise a woman who is nothing but madly in love with him, who tries nothing more than to get closer to him.

She turned to leave but stoped and turned towards him

And for your information, McPherson was nothing more than a friend long before you showed up and I always thought Sacramoni was a jerk. Idiot. I had eyes for no one but you. Fucking.Idiot.

she muttered the last words through her teeth as she once again turned to leave.

[Balthazar Sebastian]

Ariadne's words hurt him, but more than anything, Balthazar was completely shocked at the sight of what he'd done to her wrists. He felt beyond ashamed of himself, and though she'd only displayed them for a moment, he couldn't take his eyes off of Ariadne and the bruises he'd caused her. He listened to her rant, then simply stood and watched her as she walked away from him. The hatred he'd had for her over the past years was still strong, but was currently turning inwards and being directed at himself. Unfortunately, that meant implosion was eminent as he started trying to even out his breathing and regain some sort of composure over himself. That didn't happen though, and Balthazar's hands burst into flames, followed by his shoulders. He ignored it and took long strides to catch up with Ariadne. He shook his hand to turn the fire off and reached out to touch her shoulder, hopefully getting her attention enough to have her turn around.

I didn't mean to hurt your wrists. I'm sorry.

He said curtly, ignoring the fact that almost his entire right side was on fire at the moment. Thankfully all the clothes he wore were charmed to be flame retardant. Too bad the muggles of Little Whinging weren't exactly used to seeing men standing in the middle of the street on fire. He looked at her once more before hanging his head and turning back to walk down the street.

[Ariadne Fayl-Dagli]

And there was the fire again. Ariadne shook her head as she heard him apologise to her and focused on remembering all the times he had gone in similar fits of anger during their time together. If she didn't there was a huge chance she would run after him, hugging him, kissing him, trying to calm him down. She still hated seeing him like this. Still? No, no, noooo. She had nothing to do with him anymore, she had her own life and what a life it was, and he had no place in it, she was a grown woman DAMMIT!

NICE SUIT BY THE WAY


she screamed sarcastically behind him.

Oh GOD. She was sixteen.

[Balthazar Sebastian]

Balthazar rolled his eyes as he continued to walk, brushing his side with his arm to put out the fire as he continued to walk away from her. He had a lot of thinking to do, how to proceed now that Ariadne was back in town. The fact that she'd been in Little Whinging meant that she was going to be in the London area for a while - how he knew that, we have no idea. All he knew was that it was likely they would run into each other at another point in time, and that he couldn't be caught unawares next time. He had to be completely and utterly prepared so she wouldn't get the best of him again. He unlocked his door and dissappeared into his house. Balthazar didn't sleep a wink that night.