Can’t Outrun Your Past [Griflet]

[lucan]

“Don’t you want to enjoy life? And before you say anything else about Maria she is neither here nor there. What you need is a real woman.”

Lucan could’ve half laughed at this if he wanted to. “And what is your definition of a real woman then brother?” he asked. To be honest he wouldn’t be surprised if Griff pointed to the barmaid who’d just brought them their drinks. Lucan decided that when Griff decided to answer this, he’d down his drink as quickly as he could. “Besides, why are you so keen to help me find a girl? It’s not as though I could make her happy” he rolled his eyes, “nor keep up a conversation with her either”.

On the subject of Elaine, Griff turned quite defensive. Obviously she’d sided with their father on this occasion, whereas other times she may have not. Griff wouldn’t be sitting opposite him otherwise. He decided to drop that subject for now; after all he appeared to be avoiding a lecture from his older brother. Instead Luc chose to trace circles in the wetness left by the drinks on the tabletop. Hearing his brother sigh he looked up. "I promise to try and start a new life and spend my days bored out of my skull doing some mundane job in order to serve the greater good instead of enjoying myself. Happy now?”

“Not in the slightest” Lucan narrowed his eyes a little, “You need to start taking your life seriously Griff – otherwise it will be the death of you”. It would, of course it would. Either Griff would drink himself to death or die for getting himself into some kind of trouble, and it appeared that trouble always found his brother.

Griflet didn’t want him to leave. This was new. "That is an altogether ridiculous suggestion. What am I going to do if you just leave?” his brother scoffed. Lucan rolled his eyes. “Oh im sure that you can find something or someone to entertain you – you’ve got this far on just that haven’t you?”. He pushed back his chair and rose, throwing a small purse onto the table. “This will tide you over for a few months or so – I’ll look into finding work for you…see you around brother”.

He didn’t want to appear uncaring but Lucan knew that his brother wasn’t interested or bothering to look after himself, so why should he have to be the one to do so. He was helping him out by giving him money and finding him work and that was it. After that Griff would have to make it on his own.

[Griff Aubert]

Griff smiled and leant back on his chair. There was an infinite amount of answers to this question, and he was more than certain he could bore Lucan with exactly what his idea of a woman was, but they didn’t have time, and Lucan couldn’t afford to be picky so there was no point filling his brother’s head with ideas that would never amount to anything. “Well it’s certainly not Maria Howard. A real woman wouldn’t be so desperate, or obvious, or miserable, come to think of it.” He left it at that because his brother did not at all seem in the mood for discussing women, which was a shame. Griff was left rather perplexed by his brother’s next words. Did he really have so little self-confidence? In that case, he definitely needed Griff’s help. “Oh cheer up.” He patted Lucan’s arm in what he hoped was a sympathetic manner. “The right woman is out there, you just need to find her. And learn how to talk to her.” He grinned, “Come on, stop being depressed. It’s boring.”

Griff sighed and rolled his eyes. He had no idea what exactly it was that Lucan expected of him. He had already made it quite clear that he had no talents whatsoever (apart from seduction and charm, but they were more innate qualities rather than talents) so he could hardly become enthralled at the prospect of being stuck in a boring job he wouldn’t be able to do. “I do take it seriously!” He was acting like a spoilt child but he didn’t care. “I just can’t do anything so you’ll excuse me for not being ecstatic at the thought of hard work and failure.”

He snatched the purse far more eagerly than he should, it was hardly the action of the son of a duke, but he didn’t have anything, expect the clothes on his back. It was not a time to be vain and well-mannered when you’re practically begging. “Fine, leave me.” He said bitterly, holding the purse tightly. “I’ll just sit here. Alone. It’s fine!”

[lucan]

Maria Howard. Lucan had to shudder at the name. Griff was right; it certainly wasn’t a girl like her. “I do remember she was just as sour as her attitude” Lucan recalled, “and I really have no idea why father thought that it would be a fantastic match – if the whole thing had gone through – lord help me – then I reckon that we would have both just made each other as miserable as the other.”
Unfortunately his brother was right. Lucan sat back and crossed his arms, “Im basically married to my job – that’s enough for me” he smiled to himself.

“You won’t be a failure” Lucan replied a little more softly this time, “you succeeded in hunting me down – and I suppose that was hard work in itself”. He was sure that Griff really didn’t want to commit to working or earning it for himself – he could see it in his brothers eyes. Never the less, Luc wasn’t about to give up on Griff.

As Luc got up he rolled his eyes. Griff wasn’t going to change for anything or anyone; instead he chuckled at his brother’s words. “Oh im pretty sure that you won’t be alone – have you seen the look that barmaid is giving you?” he raised an eyebrow, “You could never be alone Griff – it’s not in your nature.”
With that, Lucan turned and headed for the door. He wasn’t going to stick around and wait for some sardonic comeback. Griff was quite capable of taking care of himself…until the money that Luc had given him was gone of course.

[Griff Aubert]

Not sure what you want to do with this thread as Luc’s going to the door. Are you tying it off in your next post, or do you want me to edit this one?

Griff laughed at Lucan’s words, remembering just how fun Maria Howard turned out to be. Well, it would have been fun for him, watching Lucan slowly turn insane being married to her. Maria Howard had never struck Griff as someone who liked to enjoy herself, and unfortunately (or, actually it was more likely to be fortunately) Griff hadn’t had the chance to change her mind. But, she was a thing of the past now, reduced to a figure of ridicule for the two Auberts to laugh at.

Married to his job? Lord. Lucan was in need of Griff’s help, it was much worse than he had thought. No man was ever “married to his job”, unless there was something wrong with him. He narrowed his eyes at his brother, as though just that action would answer that question. After a moment, he gave his brother a look of sympathy and said, with quite some confidence. “Don’t worry, Luc. I’m here to help you, within a week you’ll be fending women off with your sword.” His unintentional euphemism caused him to stifle a laugh, “Or something else…”

Yes, Griff thought, rather cynically, I tracked you down because you’re my easy-life option. Griff’s sole motivation for finding Lucan was to ask his brother for help, not a job which he would just fail at miserably. For some reason, however, Lucan was choosing to ignore this reason. “I will, you know it, I know it, whoever employs me will know it, so why waste my time?”

Griff did not appreciate the eye roll from his brother. His feelings were completely justified, and not something to be treated so casually. At Lucan’s words, Griff just stared at him incredulously. “The barmaid? Are you serious? Come on Luc, have some standards!” Perhaps after Maria his standards his attitude towards woman had become slightly skewed, they’d have to be if he seriously thought that barmaid was worth the effort. He chose to ignore the latter part of his brother’s speech. ‘His nature’ was not something he liked to dwell on.