JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
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Post by JOHANNA BAI on Sept 13, 2022 20:00:54 GMT
Lincoln didn’t see her as a mother figure, although there was something yielding in Linc’s expression as he opened the door to her. She’d expected to see Magnus there on the other side of the door, a little rumpled by the day, like the polish had tarnished a little as the hours had stretched on. The boy had been there instead, his eyes darting away from hers for a moment as he mumbled something about Hector clearing the club out for the night for something with Magnus – it seemed as though it were part wake, part birthday celebrations, all of which Linc seemed to want to avoid.
He hesitated for a moment before he took in the bags she carried and stepped back. The anger and frustration and radiant hurt that had rushed at her in the alleyway when Linc had gone missing seemed to have faded in the months since, leaving behind a young man who seemed to still be a little hollow with sadness and vulnerability. Jo knew it would’ve been the same thing she’d been eaten up by when she and Ananda had ridden away from Cambaluc in the middle of the night. Lincoln might not have been looking down the barrel of an arranged marriage and decades of being crushed down into the perfect wife, but he had his own nightmares and she’d heard some of them rolling from the boy’s room in that handful of days she’d stayed here with the two of them. Her hands wrapped around Magnus’, his head drawn down to her shoulder as she’d tried to offer up comfort and that promise that things would be alright again.
Maybe they weren’t entirely there yet, but Linc had settled on a stool in the kitchen to watch her as she slid things into the fridge – to be prepared later, when there was a greater chance of Magnus actually rolling in the door while it was hot. She knew Hector, knew that the former pirate would likely have Magnus licking the bottom of a barrel of particularly fine rum before he was done with him.
Traces of amusement had finally tugged at Linc’s face as he’d described Magnus’ reaction to the news that morning. The house had immediately been filled with a pall of grief that made it seem as though the Queen had been Magnus’ mother, not just the monarch of the country he’d just been in and out of over the centuries. Unsure how much detail Magnus had gone into with Linc about his own history, Jo had just chuckled. Elizabeth was closer than that, thanks to the blood that had tied together Magnus and Philippa. History and the inter-marrying of aristocracy had tangled those threads, but there was one there that had been strummed by the death of the Queen.
Sweeping away the thought, and the pit it put in her stomach, Jo had dusted off her hands and had thrown herself into making some sort of dinner for Lincoln before he slipped out to see Cassie – more tangled threads, but obviously the two of them were working on picking those knots out. She’d been washing up the dishes from the grilled cheese sandwich she’d thrown together at his behest, when he’d slipped out the door with a quiet ‘goodbye and good luck’. Jo’s lips curved faintly, there was a good heart at the core of all those fracture lines that still ran through a child whose biological parents hadn’t been worthy of the name.
Alone in the house, Jo had gone to work. Fingers dusted with flour worked the batter for the honey cakes she’d baked for Magnus whenever she’d heard that the King and knights were due home. They’d gone into the oven, filling the house with the scent that cut her deep with nostalgia. The potatoes had gone in half an hour later, stirred through with the oil and herbs. They could be reheated if necessary, the same with the carrots and parsnips she glazed. The peas, the steaks, would go on last minute, once he was back through the door, perhaps propped up at the table, his system burning through the bottles used to toast the death of the Queen. If it was anything like the mourning that had rolled through the empire when the khan had died, something would be needed to fill the void pouring out all that sadness.
Jo dried off her hands, lingering at the kitchen table, staring at the small bag that sat at one corner of it, lost in thought. England hadn’t been her home the way it had been Magnus or Kaegan’s and any good will she’d had towards the Queen had been shattered when she’d felt the woman’s fangs at her throat, but there were memories tethered there, good ones that she had wrapped herself in during the centuries that had come afterwards.
By the time the door clicked open, Jo felt the shroud Magnus seemed to have wrapped himself in slither around her. No big grins that would have come the night before as she rose. The smile was gentle, slanting as she drifted towards him. ”Hi,” she breathed, stopping inches from him before she leaned in to touch her lips to his cheek. ”I’d say happy birthday, but sorry for your loss feels more appropriate.” God bless the Queen and the man who’d probably lost count of the number of birthdays he’d rolled through, just as she had. After almost seven hundred years of celebrating them alone, they started to slip away – another day, no reason to break out the candles or make a wish, not when all that she had wanted then had been all those centuries away. Now a box of them lay on the counter, their presence on the honey cakes later in jeopardy for the moment.
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MAGNUS DAYNE
Vampire
Posts: 95
Played by:
Julia
"You waste time trying to get people to love you, you'll end up the most popular dead man in town."
Last seen Nov 17, 2024 15:53:50 GMT
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Post by MAGNUS DAYNE on Oct 1, 2022 0:08:21 GMT
 ━ evil notions come free ━
Every so often, he had to remind himself of what was waiting for him at home━who. Jo had been there for every moment following Linc’s… slip up. She was continuously a steady shoulder for him when Magnus was typically that for others, and he appreciated that━appreciated her. But there were a thousand other feelings thrown into the mix that Magnus couldn’t quite begin to organize. Not now, anyway. Not today.
The last mile or so was conquered in a blur, and eventually, Magnus was stumbling into the house, throwing the door closed behind him. He wanted to see her━he hadn’t seen Jo since before it happened, and he needed her. Linc thought it was funny, a joke━something humorous about the old man crying over the Queen. Just because the little shit had no culture didn’t mean no one else did; besides, it stretched far wider than that. But Linc only knew pieces of Magnus’ past━when he wanted to listen━and he was sure the boy doubted a lot of it.
“Joha━” Magnus began to call out, but then he spotted her already approaching. He all but dropped into her arms, throwing his own around her far smaller frame, hiding in the expanse of her neck. If he could tuck himself there, where it smelled of nothing but Johanna and honey cakes, then this might all go away.
Wait… honey cakes?
He felt her lips on his cheek before slowly drawing back, away from his safe haven, and looked into her eyes. “‘M so glad yer ‘ere.” His words were somewhat slurred, but he tried his best to keep his composure. It took a lot to get sloshed when you were more than seven centuries old, and it wasn’t so nice to be stumbling around in the company of a lady, but Magnus figured he had an excuse for the day.
“Thank ya,” Magnus sighed, resting his forehead on hers. “‘M sorry for th’state o’me. Promise I ‘aven’t spoiled my dinner. Hector…” He puffed━another thing that needed no explanation━and opened his eyes to follow that smell again. It brought back vivid memories of returning home from war, sometimes with new wounds etched into his skin, other times with no evidence of where he’d been opened from neck to spleen. “Are those…” Magnus tipped his head back to find her eyes again, his hands, steady and gentle, cupping her cheeks. “You made ‘oney cakes.” He croaked, eyes brimming with tears. “I’m so glad you’re ‘ere.” Magnus repeated, this time with far more enunciation and a wide grin on his face━something he hadn’t managed since news of Her Majesty’s passing.
JOHANNA BAI |  |
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JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
|
Post by JOHANNA BAI on Oct 10, 2022 20:09:54 GMT
By the time someone had put an end to the woman who had stolen what had been her mortal life, she’d been thousands of miles away. Jo hadn’t heard her husband’s voice break with grief at her loss, hadn’t heard Magnus’ break over Philippa either. She’d imagined it once she’d heard the news, the way the tears would’ve burned in his eyes, the shared melancholy between him and Kaegan over what, really, had been the widowing of both of them. Her losses had been felt at a distance, tears shed into the sheltering hugs of her sister-in-law. The fifteen extra years she’d been gifted of her marriage, her children, not enough. Ananda’s death still raw, adding to those wounds that had cut deep. It had been alone that she had ridden back into Cambaluc. Alone she had been for seven hundred years afterwards, the pain slowly bleeding away, until the scar that had grown over it had peeled away at the first sight of Magnus again. Jo felt that part of her ache with a fresh wave of grief as Magnus fell into her arms. His grief was fresh, the bite of it a different kind to the sort she had seen on his face when he had come to her to try and find Lincoln. This wasn’t fear, it was loss, the sort she wished it was within her to ease. Her hands came up to settle on his broad back, her lips finding the side of Magnus’ head as he settled there against her neck. The queen hadn’t been hers to grieve the same way that Magnus did, but she felt a small measure of it filling her – more for him than for her Highness. Soft, unintelligible murmurs of Nikudarian words, long remembered from her childhood, were whispered into his skin. She had done the same for her children, for Kaegan, that small part of who she had been before they had found their luck running out at her grandfather’s door remaining. Like the honey cakes, they were small parts of her treasured, held onto like little treasures, kept close to her heart for just her to see … until now. Her lips brushed Magnus’ cheek before he drew back. Jo’s hands slid down to curl around his biceps, one corner of her smile lifting the same way – soft as his eyes, although those were looking a little worse for wear (like they’d done back when he and Kaegan had been young, staying up half the night drinking by the fire). ”I’m glad I am too.” Although this hadn’t been a trip to see him to ease the grief that had to be chewing at him with vicious teeth. It had been for happier reasons, although those could always side aside to make room for the harder emotions. Magnus was holding it together well, although she could smell the liquor and the sadness lifting his skin as he came back to her, his brow resting against hers. Jo slid her hands back up to his shoulders, one arm curling around them while the other hand brushed those gilt wave, a little worse for wear now, back behind Magnus’ ears. ”You haven’t spoiled it, it’s not even ready yet,” she promised. ”No apologies, at least not from you. Hector? He can apologise later.” She wouldn’t wring that out of him for being a decent man on this occasion at least. Thumbs circling in the hollows beneath Magnus’ ears, Jo pressed another kiss to his cheek, a reassurance. She’d have been worried if that grief hadn’t cracked his shields at least a little. Keeping those walls up made a thousand times worse, driving the wounds deeper, leaving them to fester until they broke free in the way Lincoln’s had, the poison that had slowly leached through the boy’s system pouring out after he’d killed the people in the alleyway. Jo’s smile brightened as Magnus drew back this time, the question half formed on his lips. She rocked back slightly on her heels, pride in her eyes as she tilted her head in her touch like she was gesturing to the oven. ”It wouldn’t be a celebration with them – even though I couldn’t go and gather the honey myself.” They wouldn’t be quite the same, but few things were now, the world had shifted over those seven hundred years, the two of them slowly changing. ”Hey,” Jo said softly, seeing the tears brim in his eyes. ”I wouldn’t miss your birthday … I’m just sorry that I didn’t hear the news before I came. Lincoln told me. We’ll raise a glass to her … once we’ve raised one to you. Now … presents first or one of those honey cakes?” Storm cloud eyes narrowed faintly, her grin echoing Magnus’ though. A layer of the warm and tender wrapped around the bruised part of Magnus’ heart, affection wrapped up in the froth of orange tissue inside of the white bag – lucky colours in Cambaluc, ones that symbolised peace, joy and content and the pure heart she knew lay in Magnus’ chest, even if it ached for today. |
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MAGNUS DAYNE
Vampire
Posts: 95
Played by:
Julia
"You waste time trying to get people to love you, you'll end up the most popular dead man in town."
Last seen Nov 17, 2024 15:53:50 GMT
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Post by MAGNUS DAYNE on Nov 2, 2022 21:18:40 GMT
━ evil notions come free ━
Hands that could be so fierce touched him softly now, lips pressed to his cheek in a way that reminded him what it was like to earn a woman’s love. Receiving something so warm and wholesome made him feel incredibly lucky, even at a dark time such as this. He knew it was far more real than anything most women nowadays could produce, and━if they could━they wouldn’t offer it to an old man such as himself.
And none of them would make him honey cakes, not like Jo would. A dish he thought he’d never have again after they lost her, one he’d eventually forgotten about, except at the oddest of times. Their smell brought the nostalgia back in full swing, hitting him like a pound of bricks on his head━in the best way.
“I’m sure they’ll be just as delicious. Thank you,” He sighed softly, beaming at the batch on the counter before finding her eyes again. Beautiful, just as they’d always been, and comforting, just as they always would be.
“Lincoln,” He scoffed, “Boy thinks I’m bein’ an old, sentimental royalist. I am one, but it isn’t…” about that. Magnus shook his head, knowing Johanna would understand without the explanation. She was there.
His hands dropped from her cheeks to her shoulders as he sucked in a breath he didn’t truly need, blue eyes ticking over to the honey cakes again. “‘Ard t’choose.” He chuckled wearily, “I think I’ll go with ‘oney cakes first, been waitin’ seven ‘undred years to try ‘em again.” And he was sure there was no present in the world he hadn’t had once before.
Slowly, Magnus let one palm slide down to clasp Jo’s hand, leading her to the counter where the box of honey cakes sat, practically teasing him from across the room. With one hand, he peeled open the box and took advantage of the small dessert plates and pie server already set aside. Magnus set one on a plate, slid it in front of Johanna, then got one for himself. Once they were both served, however, all manners disappeared as soon as Magnus had his honey cake. He went in with his fingers, practically shoving the soft, warm bun halfway down his throat. He didn’t have the willpower to savour it━they could do that with the rest of them. Right now, he needed something that would warm him to his core, though it was obvious that Jo herself was the only one capable of that.
Making a humming sound of pleasure that radiated from his chest, Magnus finished his honey cake and was left wearing a broad smile. It tasted just like it had the last time she’d made them for him when he’d returned from battle, and Magnus was sure there was no other food like it. Human food didn’t have the same effect anymore, but this? It never lost its ability to cheer him up.
His hand made that slow journey up to her cheek again. Without words, he admired her, and thought about kissing the taste of honey from her mouth. It was still such a strange feeling━wishing to romance his best friend’s wife━but they weren’t those people anymore; it was simply just hard to forget. “Thank you.” Magnus croaked again. Even the liquor and grief wouldn’t sway him into capturing her mouth now. He would be mindful of himself in her presence, especially on a day like today.
Sucking the last of the honey from the tip of his tongue, Magnus stepped back and moved slowly to the table, standing over the brightly coloured present. He felt like a child on show, ready to flash a smile in return for whatever he was gifted. Magnus had more faith in Jo’s present-picking abilities, but after more than seven hundred years of opening gifts, it was always a little redundant.
Until he parted the orange tissue paper and lifted the heavy item from the bag. Magnus’ face lit up immediately, fingers that’d touched just about every substance on Earth tracing the stone as though it’d crumble in his hands━the same way he’d touched her. He knew immediately how authentic it was, how old, and turned it over to confirm his suspicions. A trading seal, one she likely would’ve found over the years━a priceless, prized possession. Everything he’d ever said about previous gifts was wrong━this took the (honey) cake. He knew what it was to Jo, what it meant to her, and he felt so grateful to share in it.
“Perhaps I’ve exhausted this by now━but thank you.” Magnus carefully set it on the table, and if he was throwing out everything he knew about birthday gifts, then all sense of politeness could go, too. He moved for her swiftly, wrapping Johanna in his arms and pulling her into him, and laying all his love and passion into her lips. The lingering taste of honey was there between them, but so was his gratitude, and that nostalgia again. If their night ended right here, he still would’ve regarded it as the best birthday he’d ever had.
“This day would’ve meant nothin’ without ya, Jo. Nothing.” He whispered the words against her lips like a promise, an assurance━every part of it was true. Magnus loved the time he’d spent with Hector today, but nothing could compare to this.
JOHANNA BAI | |
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JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
|
Post by JOHANNA BAI on Nov 15, 2022 22:48:05 GMT
The promise had been heavily wreathed in humour. Hector might still have been a pirate – there was no changing a leopard’s spots, even when he’d had centuries to do it – but this was one time she wouldn’t cluck her tongue at the man. He’d been prepared to celebrate a birthday that might have gone without note anyway, but on a night when grief was wrapped around Magnus the way humour had her words, he’d stuck with Magnus. A little balm for a wound she was sure Magnus would feel for as long as the Queen’s closer family. That grief never healed entirely, your world could grow around it, continuing to spread out to cover the centuries and the world, but that pearl was still at the centre of it, never forgotten, the pain never leaving you entirely.
She would take it for him if she could, sharing the weight of it, but it would not be hers the same way, not the way the two of them had grieved Kaegan alone. That connection between the two of them broken for so long, not by Philippa, not entirely at least, but by the hands of time that would not likely find either one of them any time soon.
Jo supposed she had tried to erase a few of those centuries with the cakes, stretching back so far that she’d almost turned to slap hands away from the cakes as they cooled. Kaegan and Magnus as bad as the children really. Her lips had curled, her smile softening as she tilted her head now, her heart as warm as the cakes themselves. ”I hope so,” she said softly. Lincoln had eyed them, not as much with suspicion as confusion perhaps. Not a birthday cake, not smothered in frosting thick and sweet enough to choke you, but more meaningful. ”Isn’t just that,” she said, hearing the end to the sentence even as he cut off. ”He didn’t see, he doesn’t know what it’s like yet, to realise that one of those threads woven from your life is left adrift.” She wondered a thousand times if there was some great-great-twenty-times-great grandchildren out there. It had felt almost unfair to look, as though she would end up imposing on people who had no idea she had even existed, with the royals there was no way to avoid it.
It hadn’t been the intention for the night, but Jo hoped she could help anchor all those trailing threads and ease the heartache for a time. Jo chuckled lightly, letting him guide her over to the counter, his hand clasping hers, warm, solid, a connection through the threads their lives had first knotted together in a kitchen far more primitive than this one. ”Always a sweet tooth,” she murmured. It had been cook’s prerogative to steal a swipe of the batter as she’d begun to scoop it out into the wrappers. Jo settled back against the counter, watching Magnus as he plucked a warm bun for himself, pride heating her like one of those huge stone ovens as half of it disappeared and that hum slipped out. ”Good?” she asked, stealing another bite of her own. She chewed slowly, swallowing as Magnus’ hand found her cheek. Fingers still faintly sticky with the honey rose and curled around his wrist as he croaked his gratitude to her. ”You’re so welcome.” She would bake them a dozen times over this month, care and love mixed in, that balm for a broken heart again.
Brushing the backs of her fingers against lips that still remembered the feel of his on hers, the imprint lingering. She drifted towards the table as Magnus immediately went from sweet treat to gift. Jo clasped her hands in front of herself, pride swelling in her chest. You didn’t need the favour of a Khan to trade these days – although paying your taxes was always appreciated by the government – but the seal had been everything to her father, and to her, paying her way across the world to find that the new home she had imagined in her grandfather’s keep had vanished with his death. There had been another though. Arms thrown open wide, a family, love. For centuries she had thought it erased with time, but it stood before her now, so familiar, picking through the tissue until he lifted the seal free.
Would he recognise it for what it was? Doubt bit for just a heartbeat before his face was lighting up and hers followed. Magnus was touching it reverently, turning it over in his hands. Seeing the gift, appreciating it in a way Linc wouldn’t have understood if he was here – seven centuries was well beyond the boy’s comprehension for now. ”Not at all. You’re welcome to it all. It’s been too many years since we could…” Celebrate. The way they would have done if both had continued to really breathe, if Philippa hadn’t twisted both of their lives.
Air seemed to flood into her with the rush of Magnus towards her. Like she could truly take it in again and hold it in her lungs as lips found her own. Jo threw her arms around him, something squeezing, heating in her chest and in the kiss. Those centuries vanishing, changing, what was real, what was theirs twisting like those threads to produce a different woven pattern. Tears shimmered in her eyes – not sadness, joy that they could do all of this together. Jo brushed her fingers up that broad back, curling around his neck with those gold strands of hair brushing their tips. ”Happy birthday,” Jo breathed against his lips. ”It means everything being here with you. Finding each other again.” What was shared between them again, warm, not hollowing. Wanted. Her lips found his again, the taste of honey sweet on her tongue as it licked into his mouth. Tasting grief and time and affection swirled with it like it had all been stirred into the batter. That affection lingering like her hold on him.
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MAGNUS DAYNE
Vampire
Posts: 95
Played by:
Julia
"You waste time trying to get people to love you, you'll end up the most popular dead man in town."
Last seen Nov 17, 2024 15:53:50 GMT
|
Post by MAGNUS DAYNE on Nov 28, 2022 18:11:33 GMT
━ evil notions come free ━
He was happy here, in his home, with Johanna in his arms and the taste of honey cakes (and her) on his lips. Magnus wasn’t sure if there was a time he’d ever felt such pure happiness━one he wouldn’t look at later on and realize was perhaps not the greatest choice. There was nothing wrong about this… save for the fact that Johanna was his best friend’s wife.
But Kaegan had died centuries ago, and there was no use stopping themselves from enjoying the blessings right in front of them. Magnus was sure Johanna knew the same━their age had taught them as much.
Magnus nodded gently at her words, agreeing more than words could ever testify. She connected their lips again, and the arms circling her squeezed gently, a palm sliding up to press between her shoulder blades. He was still the same man she’d known seven lifetimes ago, and the fact that Johanna was a woman from the same era meant this would progress slowly. Magnus was happy with that, though━he respected it, and her. And their long-awaited reuniting wouldn’t be tarnished by a few quick moves by a man with impeccable patience. He would rather suffer the gruesome deaths he’d inflicted on his former King’s co-conspirators.
And that meant letting her go. Controlling himself, just as he’d preached to his son, especially when it came to the other sex. Magnus was not about to tear open Johanna’s lip, but his lectures would still stand.
He kissed her once more, pouring into it all the passion, love and appreciation he could possibly muster up━because Johanna deserved it all━Magnus eventually slipped his mouth from hers. With a hand rising to cup her cheek, he grinned into her gorgeous, stormy eyes, and slowly moved away, though it pained him.
All contact slowly bled away until Magnus only held her hand, and, eventually, they had to separate to finish dinner. Magnus put the seal in his office with pride of place on his desk, still grinning from the aftereffects by the time dinner was served.
Seasoned potatoes, steaks, peas—everything was perfect. It was delicious, and yet, Magnus couldn’t stop tasting honey buns. And Jo. Perhaps he never wanted to stop.
He’d thanked her at least a few more times before dinner was over. “Sincerely,” He mumbled, “I couldn’t think ‘f a better meal… or better company.” He reached across the dark, wooden table and slipped his hand over Jo’s much smaller one, squeezing softly. “Especially when it soaks up the bottles Hector ‘ad me emptyin’.” Magnus chuckled, feeling significantly less drunk (and upset) than he had when he’d first stumbled through the door.
“What ya said earlier, Jo. I… could never ‘ave imagined we’d find each other again, but I’m so grateful we ‘ave. And I won’t let ya go.” Magnus smiled almost solemnly, not only for what they’d lost in the centuries since they’d seen each other last, but for what this meant for them moving forward━for what they’d become after this.
His eyes ticked from hers to the windows, finding an incredible darkness beyond them. Next, his gaze jumped to the digital clock illuminating from the stove, and found it was far later than he’d expected. “Especially not tonight.” Chuckling lightly, his eyes drifted back to Jo. She was more than capable of handling herself━they were immortal, after all━but that didn’t change Magnus’ thought process, nor the way he’d treat a woman like Johanna. “I won’t ‘ave ya goin’ ‘ome at this hour. I’ll sleep on th’sofa, you can ‘ave my bed.” Her hand was brought to his lips, where he kissed it just as gently (and politely) as he would’ve seven hundred years ago. Ah, even a hundred years ago, when men still treated women properly━and women still carried themselves with respect.
And a perfect end to a perfect evening. The best meal, the best company━facts he’d already shared with Jo━and finishing with them under the same roof. It could only be made better if he could retire for the night with his arms wrapped around her━completely innocent, of course━pretending as though they could truly warm one another. Magnus wouldn’t push, however, as they were still figuring out the parameters of this relationship.
JOHANNA BAI | wrap w yours? |
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JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
|
Post by JOHANNA BAI on Dec 21, 2022 18:40:39 GMT
Their hearts had broken, all three of them. Jo wasn’t about to believe that Philippa had been in possession of one, even before someone had killed her that first time. Had she felt a single pang when she had snatched away the life one of her kitchen maids might have had with her husband and children? If she had ever felt any, it would have been when she had done the same to Magnus. Giving them eternal life was not the gift some might have believed it to be. They’d had to walk away from the life and the love they had known, leaving a good man and three sons on their own. She had grieved for them all, for centuries. She had told herself that Kaegan would not have wanted her to. If her choices were between living and embracing this curse in a way to make it some gift to the world, and finding some way to end it, he would have told her to live. As he would have told Magnus.
Be happy. Love again. They had been hard lessons to embrace, impossible most of the time when there had never really been anybody to fill the hollows in her heart. So many pieces of it had been carved out, starting with the ones her parents had held. Kaegan, her sons, Ananda, Elizabeth … Magnus. Nothing but a shell left. Until the road. The irony of it had not been lost on her, roads had been the one constant through her whole life, bringing her home, carrying her away to a new life, bringing something back to fill her heart again.
It filled now, feeling as though she was a girl again with it pounding against her ribs with her first kiss. Jo sank into it and the gentle touch of Magnus’ palm against her back. Soft. Respectful. All that she had missed. Imprinted there as they broke and came back together again, all that had not yet been said poured into those points of contact. Jo could still feel his touch there as he drew back again and smiled at her, the boy she had first seen slinking into the kitchen right there in those summer sky eyes. Smiling back, Jo allowed him to draw away. As Magnus left the room to put the seal in his office, she headed back to the kitchen with her fingertips brushing her lips and heat rising in her cheeks.
The smile had been hard to smother through dinner, despite the pall that Magnus’ fresh grief had cast on the house when he had returned home. It turned shy with every thank you, her head dipping just far enough to have her hair sliding down to cover one cheek. She tucked it back again as she set her napkin down beside her plate. ”That man’s a menace,” she said lightly, her thumb brushing the side of Magnus’ hand as it curled over hers and squeezed lightly. ”I’m glad you had us both today though. I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else today, or with anybody else.” Some part of her ached for all the birthdays they had missed like this, but she wouldn’t have retreated any further down her road for anything.
She turned her hand over in his, lacing her fingers with Magnus’ to hold on tight. The night they’d met again she’d done that, trying to find the warmth that bled from him, holding on to the anchor of that part of her past. Now it was part gratitude, part promise. Her smile was softer than his, her own warmth bleeding through now. ”I’m so grateful too. I thought I’d always be alone, but … you’d have to fight me off now and we both know that’s not happening.” That wasn’t to say the universe couldn’t come up with something to tear the two of them apart, but she wasn’t going to sit here counting her blessings.
Jo’s eyes darkened, like the sky as she followed Magnus’ gaze towards them. She’d been afraid of the dark, or of travelling in it, but after the accident she had become wary at least. ”I won’t argue about travelling,” she assured him. Of course Magnus would have her safety at the forefront of his mind, even long before he knew what nightmares that dark actually held. Her lips pursed, even as his found her knuckles and she felt that kick in her chest. ”I will argue about that though, I won’t put you out. We … we can share.” There was nothing unseemly about it, no intentions of pushing them from a walk to a full out gallop. She rose, drawing with him. The plates were put in the dish washer, everything cleared away before silently, Jo trailed through Magnus’ home, his hand still caught in hers.
Upstairs she found his bedroom easily enough – all those days spent here while Linc was recovering had given her a level of comfort in the house. Now though there was a tingle beneath her skin, a crackle of awareness as she slipped out of her blouse, her skirt, leaving just the silk slip beneath to skim her thighs and cover the blush that rose beneath her skin. She drew back the covers, reached for Magnus hand as she slipped under them. Feeling love, the layers of it that had built from those first days of mischievous grins and the light fingers that had stolen buns out from under her nose in the kitchen wrapped around her like the covers and Magnus’ arm as she slipped under a few minutes later.
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