He listens as she talks, still fixing her with a bitter stare all the while. His eyes dart around her face, observing her but also certainly scheming up his reply. Finally Lawrence scoffs, a half-laugh despite it all.
"You're going to give me orders?" It's almost funny. Almost. "No, we are going to carry the instruments outside so everyone can enjoy the music they're looking forward to, I'll play the violin for everyone who's waiting, and then I'm coming back in here. You can stay out there with them all night for all I care, but before we go I'm setting a few things straight."
This time when he gestures it's without the wild anger. He points a stiff hand toward the doorway and says, "My family has no respect for my brother. Even if they think they do, they don't. They want reality to be something it's not. They want him to be some fake idea of what he should be that they've cooked up in their heads. And maybe I'm a cynical mother fucker, but I'm not going to buy into their shit, and I don't like watching his so-called friends buy into it either. Tonight you had a choice of who to side with, and as far as I'm concerned? You picked wrong."
For once since he called her to the castle his body language and his tone relax. "Now," he says, his voice soft and casual. "I don't like your whole..." He motions vaguely to her. "You. Everything about you is what we grew up distrusting. Rich folks, foreigners, over-educated, you name it. But I'm gonna go out on a wild limb here and guess that you and my brother have already had this conversation. Pretty often, I bet, because I heard Anna bitching him out about disrespecting his rich friends at least once. Despite everything that I will always dislike about you two, my brother cares for the both of you. He talks about you both constantly. And one of you – and you're saying it is not Viatorus – he describes as the kind of person he wants to tell his secrets to. You might not know him well enough to know, but for my brother? That's huge. He trusts you to defend him when he's not around to defend himself. He sees something in the two of you that makes him want to love and be loved in return. And you're implying to me that you care about him in some way, too. Now, I see no evidence of that, but I will try – try – to take you at your word and assume I was wrong in every way about who you are and the nature of your relationship with my brother. On one condition."
He nods his head in the direction of the door. "After you walk out that door, decide whose side you're going to be on. You can either go back to doing what makes the family happy, or you can do what would make him happy. Call him by the name you know he'd want to hear even if everyone cringes when you do it. Stand up for him even if you think other people don't want you to. Because that's what friends do. And if you can do that even once I'll let him know that dinner went great, and I'll even tell him I was the asshole who blew his top for no reason, which I'm sure he'll believe. But if you can't do that, I'll tell him what I feel I saw tonight and we'll see what he decides from there. Now do we understand each other?"
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2017-04-16 03:17 am (UTC)"You're going to give me orders?" It's almost funny. Almost. "No, we are going to carry the instruments outside so everyone can enjoy the music they're looking forward to, I'll play the violin for everyone who's waiting, and then I'm coming back in here. You can stay out there with them all night for all I care, but before we go I'm setting a few things straight."
This time when he gestures it's without the wild anger. He points a stiff hand toward the doorway and says, "My family has no respect for my brother. Even if they think they do, they don't. They want reality to be something it's not. They want him to be some fake idea of what he should be that they've cooked up in their heads. And maybe I'm a cynical mother fucker, but I'm not going to buy into their shit, and I don't like watching his so-called friends buy into it either. Tonight you had a choice of who to side with, and as far as I'm concerned? You picked wrong."
For once since he called her to the castle his body language and his tone relax. "Now," he says, his voice soft and casual. "I don't like your whole..." He motions vaguely to her. "You. Everything about you is what we grew up distrusting. Rich folks, foreigners, over-educated, you name it. But I'm gonna go out on a wild limb here and guess that you and my brother have already had this conversation. Pretty often, I bet, because I heard Anna bitching him out about disrespecting his rich friends at least once. Despite everything that I will always dislike about you two, my brother cares for the both of you. He talks about you both constantly. And one of you – and you're saying it is not Viatorus – he describes as the kind of person he wants to tell his secrets to. You might not know him well enough to know, but for my brother? That's huge. He trusts you to defend him when he's not around to defend himself. He sees something in the two of you that makes him want to love and be loved in return. And you're implying to me that you care about him in some way, too. Now, I see no evidence of that, but I will try – try – to take you at your word and assume I was wrong in every way about who you are and the nature of your relationship with my brother. On one condition."
He nods his head in the direction of the door. "After you walk out that door, decide whose side you're going to be on. You can either go back to doing what makes the family happy, or you can do what would make him happy. Call him by the name you know he'd want to hear even if everyone cringes when you do it. Stand up for him even if you think other people don't want you to. Because that's what friends do. And if you can do that even once I'll let him know that dinner went great, and I'll even tell him I was the asshole who blew his top for no reason, which I'm sure he'll believe. But if you can't do that, I'll tell him what I feel I saw tonight and we'll see what he decides from there. Now do we understand each other?"