prohibitions | When love became an act of defiance

While Jonathan has no idea of the depth the other's anger towards this came from, he still respects the other to keep to his word in never mentioning it again, "I understand."

He's not about to force that Abel stick to the schedule to a T, so he merely listens and watches as the other crosses things off for the day, making some sort of note to avoid them in the future. Depending on what they were, of course.

The valet is quick to follow after Abel downs his tea, having some sort of idea of how the day would go but also unprepared in a sense for it.

Its not an unfamiliar atmosphere to be a part of, its just Jonathan has no real idea of how to interact in such settings. It was fairly easy to blend in with the walls and seemingly disappear, much how his past bodyguard jobs relied on him to be. Granted, this was a tad different. He couldn't be completely invisible, seeing as he needed to be available at a moment's notice or take notes in the meetings.

For the social engagements, he held back. Simply observing and noticing how different Abel interacted with people when he had to versus when he was alone with him. It was almost like he was a completely different person.

Had Jonathan's role in life been switched with someone in Abel's conversational circle, he might've enjoyed being charmed by the other man. Some part almost wishes he was, just to see what that would be like but he stays quiet and makes an effort to stay out of his own head. Abel didn't need to catch those thoughts in particular.

For everything else, he was still quiet. Offering no input or opinions, he didn't speak unless he was referred to and even then he kept whatever answers short and to the point. He's almost glad when they start the drive back the estate, allowing himself to relax a bit as he stared out the window into the night until the familiar lights came into view.

While he lets Abel go on ahead, he's stopped by a member of staff to tell him that dinner would be brought up if they wanted it, to which he nods. It was a long day and while the meetings and socials had some food provided, it wasn't grand meals and he was quite hungry. He couldn't vouch for the same for Abel though, some tea and food might do him some good.

In the comfort of his bedroom, he's quick to plop down on the bed, the ladies chirping at their owner's return and want for attention.

Abel seems to do any of the social or work engagements on his schedule, but it's easy to note that he absolutely skips any classes his father has put on the list. He simply did not care to waste his time going to classes where he probably already excelled at the material or because his father was possibly being petty. And he was surely being just as petty by wasting the man's money on tutors he didn't ask for in the first place.

The man seemed to flourish in a social setting. Witty remarks and gentle laughs that were just loud enough to seem genuine, but not enough to be obnoxious. He seemed very in his element and the man easily knew how to sweet talk his way.

It's no surprise given that he knew exactly how to charm someone if he knew what they were thinking, after all.

Things were amiss though. The way he sometimes clenched his jaw a little too tightly. How he dug his nails into his palms sometimes. Just small things that are unnoticeable to most, but could be picked up by someone closely observing him.

It was easy to pick up the man wanted to be anywhere but where he currently was.

So of course he quickly scurries to his room as soon as he can.

It's a bit of time before there's a knock. But the knock is coming from the door between Jon's and Abel's room. A moment after, Abel pushes the door open a bit. He doesn't quite look at the other and drums his fingers against the door for a moment. "Jonathan."

After spending the day watching and listening, he's started to notice some of Abel's habitual tells if he solely focused on him for an extended period of time. They changed either in conversation or with the setting but they were still there and that only added to the confusion he held surrounding the other.

Abel was this enigma that he still didn't know how to figure out.

Jonathan is surprised at the knock on the door when he notices it wasn't coming from the one facing the hall but rather the one joining their rooms, "Come in," He calls out before propping himself up on his elbows, just in time to see Abel push the door open.

It takes him a minute to sit up proper, thinking that something might be wrong. Also realizing this was the first time Abel had ever referred to him by his name since he got here.

"Did you need something?" He asks softly, unsure of what to expect the other to ask of him. Was he here to take him up on his offer from earlier?

The Brit was dressed down more than Jonathan probably has seen him. He's still wearing his clothes from the day, but his jacket and vest was discarded and he had undone the buttons on his sleeves.

He looked tired.

"Your birds. You said I could meet them anytime," Abel starts. He pauses though. "Is now not a good time?" Abel had intended to be nothing short but completely nasty and spoiled and rude to the other. But he was also tired and stressed out and the idea of interacting with another living creature that he couldn't read the thoughts of was also terribly alluring.

He wouldn't say he was an animal lover, but he was fond of them nonetheless. Abel fusses with the hem of his sleeve absentmindedly. "Nevermind, I should leave you be. It's been a long day," he says suddenly changing his mind.

He blinks in surprise that he'd actually take him up on the offer but before he has a chance to give his answer Abel is already trying to backpedal. After the day they had to go through, how could he say no?

Jonathan pats a spot on the bed before he moves to stand, "I offered and really anytime is a good time, plus they are dying for some attention," he smiles at the other before walking over towards their treat bag first, grabbing a few pieces before he held out one for Abel to take.

"Kiwi really likes treats and scratches underneath her beak while Beau likes to do her own thing until she decides she likes you. If they poop on you, I'm so sorry about that." He rubs at the back of his neck, hoping they won't. That would be embarrassing.

He heads over to their cage to coax them out as they took up spots on his arm. "Alright, ladies, you guys have to be nice, okay?" He coos at them before taking a seat next to the other.

Kiwi was a richer green coloring with a touch of red-ish orange around her beak while Beau was more of an light aqua blue with a touch a peach around her's as Jonathan introduces them individually.

He gets them onto his finger before placing them on Abel's shoulder and at first they sort of look at him, Kiwi gets closer and picks at his shirt while Beau is trying to travel down the other's arm towards his hand.

They helped him a lot when he was living alone and maybe Abel needed some of that sort of company too.

Abel quietly shuts the door behind him and sits down where the other had patted at. He looks a bit unsure about the whole thing. This wasn't really the type of social interactions he was used to. Dealing with delegates of all kinds? Easy. Normal socializing? Completely out of his comfort zone.

But there seems to be some genuine joy in Abel's eyes as he looked at the two birds. A bit of life that wasn't quite there before. Almost childlike innocence even.

He lets the two birds do what he wants, although he holds his hand with his palm up and open with the treat in it; curious if Beau was after the treat in his hand. The metal cuffs on his wrists were more obvious with his shirt sleeves unbuttoned at the cuffs. The engravings were more noticeable too.

"You've had them for awhile?" He holds up his other hand towards Kiwi. The Brit won't mind if she nips at them honestly.

Beau patters her way towards Abel's wrist, stopping at the metal cuff to tilt her head to look up at him, chirping something fierce before continuing down towards his hand to where the treat sat. Eager to get to it before Kiwi realized it was a thing to be had.

Jonathan noticed the cuffs and the engravings when Beau stopped on it, tilting his head in curiosity but choosing not to inquire about them. It... wasn't his place to do so. He glances up at the question.

"A couple of years now. I didn't take well to living alone at first and every other animal at the shelters didn't quite like me, except for these two." He smiles softly as he watches the birds interact with Abel, they seemed to like the other by his observation.

The reason other animals like dogs and cats didn't like him seemed to be something only they could sense or maybe they smelt the hyena on him and decided it was best to stay away from him.

Kiwi stares at the hand presented to her before she uses her beak to help herself get across to the hand, walking over to Abel's fingers before fluffing herself up, softly chirping.

"They can be pretty noisy sometimes but at this point, I've kind of drowned it out." He chuckles, noticing that the other seemed happy despite the tired look to him at the moment.

Abel is surprised Beau didn't try attacking the cuffs, honestly. It wasn't going to be effective in anyway, but he would thing the shiny metal might attract enough attention for the bird to wanna peck or tug at it.

Then again, Beau probably really wanted the treat sitting in the palm of his hand, so he can't be too surprised. Priorities, after all.

"You seem like a person where animals would flock to you." It's not really a comment meant to insult the other, although it could easily be taken that way given he had insulted the other before. The man just seemed to give off a friendly enough vibe to attract.

He fluffs up the side of Kiwi's neck with one of his fingers. His mother had birds before and he had played with them before, so he knew how to interact with them. Perhaps he missed them. Abel idly wonders what came of them, since his mother and him hadn't interacted in quite awhile. "They're quiet to me. I can't read their thoughts," he says simply. He didn't care about how much external noises animals made because external noises were far easier to deal with than voices pounding against his head.

Beau certainly had her attention on the treat, even though she doesn't spend a whole lot of time on it. It doesn't take long to put a decent size dent in the fruit-seed treat before she decides to do something else instead.

She chirps again before taking a few moments to preen her feathers and go back to exploring. Its then that the metal cuff really catches her attention. Beau leans down and starts to tug on it, thinking it might be a toy.

"You'd think. Some do but the majority don't. I don't blame them really..." The latter part of the sentence comes out softer than the rest of it was. Because really, who would want to friend something bigger and more predatory than itself?

Kiwi tilts her head, closing her eyes at the scratches, letting them happen for a bit.

"Can you only read people's thoughts?" Jonathan asks, he can't imagine what sort of thoughts animals would really have but to hear the other's abilities stopped at animals was interesting in itself.

Edited 2019-06-04 07:10 (UTC)

Abel doesn't seem too bothered by Beau attacking the silver cuff on his wrist. It was pretty scratched up already as is. He also knows that there's nothing she can do anything to it other than scratch up the surface, so it matters little to him what she does to it.

Jonathan might be too keen for Beau to possibly damage it though.

He glances at the other for a moment, but he doesn't comment on it passed that. Abel merely returns his attention back to Kiwi, since Beau was easily entertaining herself at the moment. He gives Kiwi a few pets with his index finger.

"Naturally, yes. Similar minds and wavelengths as my own make it easier. If I were to try and listen to them, I probably could parse some thoughts out." He pauses for a moment. His hand stills. "I don't make an effort to do it."

Jonathan does give Beau a little poke after awhile, thinking she's spent enough time trying to figure out Abel's cuff. She, of course, chirps loudly and turns to look at her owner before she immediately goes back to what she was doing.

Instead of tugging on it, she hits it with her beak a few times and tilts her head from side to side, deciding it really wasn't an interesting toy and moves on entirely. She walks up Abel's arm, gripping his shirt with her beak along the way.

Jonathan gives a small nod in understanding, it was starting to make more sense to him. It made sense that trying to read a non-human's mind would take more effort. If it was possible, at all.

In the file he was given, Abel's abilities were listed in bullet points with little, if any, information under it. He felt this was one of those rare moments where he could actually learn more about the other, "To read in general?"

Kiwi gives a series of soft chirps, completely content with the attention and very much not wanting it to stop. When Abel's hand stills, she finally opens her eyes, shifting in her spot.

Abel scoffs with an amused expression when Beau seems to find that they aren't fun toys at all. "Sorry darling, but that isn't much of a toy. Nothing fun about it." Even if they were, he thinks the birds would bore of them quite quickly.

He returns his attention to Kiwi and resumes giving her gentle pets and scratching her neck gently. "It's what people would call it being a natural at it or perhaps a prodigy," he says sourly. It didn't matter what one would call it because it didn't change anything. The fact that it was innate and that it was strong and that it meant he naturally just picked it all up.

That he wasn't particularly fond of it at all. "I can hear every one of your thoughts perfectly, just so you know. Better to be honest, since I'll know what's on your mind anyways." It isn't really said as a threat.

Jonathan's expression softens as he watches Abel's. The longer he spends time with the pair, the more he sees just how different the other tends to fluctuate in a day. Compared to the morning, the way he was at the social events to now, all of them seem very different.

"She has an affinity for the shiny. Kiwi, not so much." Had he not poked her, she likely would have spent longer tugging and pecking the cuffs until she abandoned them on her own.

Once Beau reaches Abel's shoulder, she sits there for a few moments, ruffling her feathers before deciding to fly over to the top of Jonathan's head, nearly getting lost in his hair.

"Oh no, you don't. I don't need you deciding to poop in my hair, Beau." Jonathan says as he reaches up to coax her onto his finger, which Beau is very displeased about and chirps loudly before reluctantly stepping up onto his finger.

He's quiet for a moment as Abel talks, "Do you wish that sometimes you could turn it off?" Being naturally gifted with such a strong manifestation of an ability must put some sort of toll on the other.

He gives Beau a few scratches along her neck before he reaches over to see if she'd hop off to join Kiwi on Abel's hand instead.

"You're quite welcome to read me like an open book. Though, I can't promise it would be entertaining since I'm just a dumb dog." He comments back with no real bite but he hasn't forgotten that particular insult. While he'll try to be mindful of his thoughts, he really doesn't mind if the other hears them since a vast majority is him making notes about something in some form or another unless he finds something interesting or if he gets flustered, in which case that is a completely different story.

The man is quiet as he observes the way that Jonathan interacts with his birds. It's curious to him.

He's quiet for a little longer when Jonathan asks that question and he seems to consider how he wants to answer it. There was a lot that he could say about it and none of them good. There was nothing about it that he enjoyed. Having to constantly parse through thoughts that weren't his own. Memories even. The feeling that his mind wasn't his own.

Even if he ignored that; they've only ever brought him misery. He doesn't think there has ever been anything positive about them. "I wished I never had it, really." It answers the question, but it probably just raises more questions if anything.

"It's better if we don't get along," Abel simply replies with. He doesn't intend to apologize for it because it wouldn't really be genuine. His intentions were to rile the other up. To make them dislike him. He holds Kiwi out to the other. "It really is better that way."

Jonathan's gaze drops at Abel's answer, "Oh..." It answered one of his lingering questions that he had yet to ask. It also spoke a lot of Abel's feelings on the matter and he can only imagine what being around anyone must be like especially at socials.

This was their first real day together and he feels like any new information he learns about the other is completely turned on its head when Abel speaks or acts. He was an enigma that he couldn't solve or getting any sort of footing with.

It was rather frustrating the confusion he felt.

But then all he feels next is this twinge of guilt and sadness at Abel's words.

"I think what you need is a friend, Abel." He starts off with, turning his hand over slowly to get Beau to walk onto his palm so there was somewhere for Kiwi to walk onto, "It doesn't have to be me, if you don't want it to be but, at least, choose them."

Kiwi looks up at Abel before turning to spot Beau and patters her way over to Jonathan's hand.

"My offer still stands. That you can visit and spend time with them whenever you want to. Maybe they'll help like they did during this visit." He says as he looks up at the other, his features a bit sad.

He watches as Kiwi waddles over to join Beau on their owner's hand. He idly thinks the hilarious irony that these birds have more freedom than he does.

Abel merely gets to his feet and heads back over to the door that adjoins their room. He pauses for a moment when he turns the doorknob and pushes the door open a tad. The Brit turns for a moment to look at the other.

"Friends are a luxury, Jonathan. You don't easily find it in a world of shallow socialites," he says. His gaze lingers for a moment longer before he turns away. "It's a luxury that I cannot afford." Eventually Jonathan will leave, but Abel will continue to be trapped in this life.

"Good night, Jonathan." He walks through the door and shuts it behind him; letting the other mule over his thoughts.

Jonathan shifts in his spot as Abel moves to leave, having his body turned to face the other while he offers the birds one of the treats to occupy themselves for the moment.

He opens his mouth as if to reply to that but instead he's quiet. He's seen the world Abel is forced to interact in and the other might be right on that note. He honestly wouldn't be sure who to trust in a circle like that since he's sure most make friendships to only get ahead and won't hesitate to drop you at the slightest inconvenience.

"Good night, Abel." His voice is soft as he watches the other leave into their room.

Jonathan stares at the door, sadly, for a few long moments before he drags his attention to his birds. He flops back against the bed, an arm tucked behind his head as he places Beau and Kiwi on his chest, lightly scratching Beau's neck.

"Guess we'll be staying for the long haul then, ladies." He mutters to himself. Friends may be hard to make for the other but if he stays, maybe that would chance things. Only time would really tell though.

When love became an act of defiance

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