- Why am I here? Valek wondered, sitting back in his lawn chair and closing his eyes. Half slouched as he was, with his arms crossed, he looked almost as bored as he actually was. Why do I continue to attend these family reunions? There all the same. People get together, pretend to remember each other's names, lie about keeping in touch, just to repeat the process next year! I don't know 3/4 of the people here, and the ones I do remember, I wish I could forget! Valek opened his eyes and frowned at an overweight, wrinkled aunt with too much lipstick who'de walked up to him to pinch his cheek, and leave some of that lipstick there as well. "Isn't he so cute! Why if I was a few years younger..." If you were a few years younger, I still wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole Valek thought to himself. He had to admit, at 20, he was indeed very "cute." Raven black hair and eyes a shade of green you only found in the rainforest, his well toned body was more than just "cute." His great-grandmother had been Asian, and Valek retained a few hints of the accents, which was just fine with Valek. He shuddered to think he might have turned out like cousin Drew, with his ketchup red hair and buck teeth in desparate need of some floss, had his great-grandfather not married the Asian beauty. Valek removed the white lace handkerchief from the inner pocket of his jacket and carefully removed the lipstick from his cheek. If I get kissed one more time, I'll... Wait! Who was that? Valek had seen just a glimpse of his cornsilk yellow hair. Probably one of his cousins boyfriends, but his cousins didn't date guys who had that beautiful of hair. Where was he? Where did he go? Valek stood and wandered over to where he had glimpsed the boy. Not by the shabby excuse for a buffet table, or by the stairs, wait! There he is again, by the fountain. He had his back turned toward Valek, and Valek began to approach him, but was intercepted by another aunt, this one older and uglier than the last. As Valek turned his gaze to try and escape the old hag, he lost sight of the boy, and when he looked back he was gone. No! Where did he go this time? Valek searched high and low, through the large crowds of people, receiveing many pinches and kisses, and "How are you, my dear! So glad you could join us this year! My, Josey, see how the boy has grown? What a hansom young sprite he turned out to be."
Valek had finally given up, and was no longer searching for the boy, but searching for a way to escape this charade of madness! He slipped into the large hedge-maze, hoping to find a hiding place amounst the twisting, turning paths. Valek walked until he could no longer hear the dull roar of the gossiping family members, and the only noise was the rustling of leaves in the breeze, and the songs of small sparrows. Valek turned a corner, and there he was, the young blonde hair boy. Valek stopped as the boy looked up to meet the visitor of his hiding place. He was sitting on a stone bench, looking quite peaceful and relaxed. He sat with his arms and legs crossed, the expression on his face one of uncaring tranquility. The boy had eyes the shade of green only found in the purest of emeralds catching the suns rays in their depts for the first time. The boy was shorter in stature than Valek by maybe a head, and his youthful face told he was a few years younger, as well. Valek was surprised to relaise that the boy was absorbing Valek much the same way Valek was absorbing him! Valek was the first to break the silence. "I don't mean to intrude..." The boy shrugged irrelevantly. "Might I join you?" "I don't own the garden, I can't say where you can and cannot stay." The boys words were cool, but at the same time he slid from his possition in the center of the bench to one side. Valek sat at the other. "Peaceful here, no?" The boy shrugged. "Anythings better than that mob." The boy gestured in the direction the reunion was taking place. "Indeed. This functions are so pointless." "No," the boy said, "they have purpose. They convince these mindless idiots that they're not 'bad people' because they'de rather eat dirt than look at their family members. They'll grin and bare it for the few hours that these things last, and then their concsience will be sated until the next year." Valeks first impression of the boy was that the boy saw the bad side of everything, but also that he saw what lay beneath the surface and was not satisfied with only the candy-coated top. He thought things through thoroughly, and he didn't care to hold his tongue for anything. Valek was impressed. What moronic ditz had roped this young stallion? What could he see in any of Valek's mindless family members? "What is your name?" Valek asked instead. "Leopold, and you?" "Valek. You speak your mind freely, don't you?" "Always. Why should I care if what I say steps on someone else's toes? That's their problem, not mine. I also do as I wish, before you ask. I do and say what I want, and I couldn't give a flip if anyone says differently." "Well, what do you do when someone DOES take offence of you?" The boy, Leopold, turned and looked at Valek straight in the eye. "Have I offended you?" Valek shook his head. "Then it doesn't matter, does it?" Valek smiled. A boy with brains. Valek felt his heart skip a beat. He liked the boy more and more as he talked with him. They discussed a great many things in the few hours they spent together. Valek had not felt so at ease with anyone since his mother died when he was 12. The boy came out of his cold shell as well, and Valek discovered he had an odd sort of since of humor, which would have seemed rude to anyone else, but which made Valek only smile. Leopold was a satirist. Valek learned that the boy was 17, as well. Valek could have broken the stone bench they sat upon when he saw that scabby old aunt turn the same corner he had earlier. "Valek, my dear, everyone was missing you! It's almost sunset, come, come inside now." Valek had to bite his tongue to keep from telling the old woman off. "And I see you found our young Leopold as well. Shame on the both of you for running off like that! The family was worried." It was Leopold who spoke up, casting his face downward and closing his eyes as Valek had recognised he does when about to say something offending or frank. "The family would love nothing more than to see me vanish into the distance, and never come back." "Leopold! You hold your tongue before I box your ears!" Leopold frowned, looking back up at the aunt. "Excuse me, Valek," he said, "but I can't stand nosey old hags who won't mind their own business." The aunt really got into a huff then, grabbing her breast in surprise and looking like an old hen about to fuss as Leopold stood, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and headed for the direction of the party. "Why, the nerve!" the aunt was saying now. "If it wasn't a sin, I swear I'd advise Lilian to disown that boy!" Valek stood. "Lilian Faircloth?" Lilian Faircloth was Valeks 4th cousin. "Why yes, yes of course Lilian Faircloth." "You mean to say that Leopold is Lilian's son?" "But of course, Valek, don't your recognise your own kin?"
Don't you recognise your own kin? Those fatal words repeated over and over in Valeks head like a broken record he couldn't stop. Don't you recognise your own kin? "Say it's not so, please tell me it isn't true." Valek leaned his forehead against the cool glass of the fullsized window in front of him. The reunion had ended hours ago, and after leaving the maze, Valek could find no trace of the boy Leopold. Now Valek was back in the solace of his apartment. His apartment wasn't something grand or coveted. It wasn't wrought with crystal chandeliers and golden stair cases, like the homes the rest of his family preferred. It was a simple bachelors home, with enough living space for him and maybe another, but Valek hadn't found anyone to occupy the second bedroom of the apartment, and was really looking for one, either. The furniture was sparce, a couch and armchair semi-circled around the cold fireplace, a fashionable rug in between in center. No TV. His kitchen consisted of less, one bare table and two chairs. His cabnets were empty as well, as was his refridgerator. His bedroom was another matter, though. King sized bed covered in black silk, black sheer matterial hanging from the canopy. Valek had purchased it when he had been feeling particuarly rowdy. Don't you recognise your own kin? It had been so perfect! Why did he have to be related to the boy? He had had so many plans... Valek opened his eyes and looked down to the number scribbled on his white lace napkin in black ink. On a whim, Valek had asked the boy for his phone number. The boy had given it without a second thought. Did he know they were related? Did he care? Or had he thought Valek was simply being a good cousin, taking steps to truly stay in touch. Why hadn't Leopold been present at the reunions all these past years? Valek felt sure he would have remembered the boy had he seen him. Then Valek remembered something about one of his cousin Lilian's children being sent off to a private boarding school due to misconduct at his public school. Valek also remembered hearing something earlier today about Lilian's kid being kicked out of there too, after only a few years of attendance. Valek assumed this was Leopold. Valek lifted his head from the glass and let it fall against the window again, harder this time. It had been so perfect...
Valek. The man with raven black hair, forest green eyes. The only one out of all those morons at the reunion who wasn't sucked into the mindlessness of it all. Other than me of course. Leopold lay in his bed, hands tucked behind his head, staring at the ceiling. He was restless. He had been thinking of Valek all night. Finally! Someone with some goddamn since! And that face... That is the face of a god, not a member of the Faircloth family. Leopold frowned. He knew Valek was his cousin, he'd seen him before, years ago, before he had been shipped to that dull boarding school. Even then Leopold had know the boy would grow up to be beautiful. He'd been beautiful as a child, unlike Leopold. Leopold had looked like a starved baby duckling next to Valek. Though he had always managed to be a little short for his age, his arms had been to long, and he had been to skinny, so he managed to look lanky. And since he had gotten into a fight with a school mate some years before, one of his front teeth had been missing, though now his parents had payed to fix that problem. Leopold had always felt like the ugly duckling at social events, so usually he would find a hiding place to lurk until his father came looking for him. But now things were different. The sun had bleached his hair into a lighter color, his tooth was fixed, and though he still remained a bit short, he had at least filled out some thanks to all that time he put into weightlifting. He still didn't compare to Valek's godliness, but then again, he never would. Leopold thought he would die when Valek asked him for his phone number. Or was he just playing the same game as all those other mindless twirps in our family? No, Valek wouldn't do that, he's to smart to care about conscience and the like. As for Leopold, he had no conscience, or if he did, it was very small. Leopold just didn't care what others thought, and to hell with them if they want him to act differently. He is who he is, and he'll be damned before he lets anyone change that. Leopold turned on his side, resting his head on one arm and tried to sleep, but his thoughts kept returning to that beautiful black hair, those deep green eyes which had listened to Leopold. It takes some serious listening for one to see it in their eyes. Valek had seemed, no, he had been completely tuned intto Leopold. When was the last time anyone had listened that attentively to Leopold? When was the last time someone had actually found his sarcastic jokes funny, and hadn't ridiculed him for his frank tongue. Had anyone ever? Valek had. Valek. The beautiful god-like creature. The emerald amoungst all the drappy dirt of their family. Valek, his cousin. His blood and kin. This was Leopolds last thought as slumber finally claimed his mind.
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