Crossing A Line

[Lupus Jameshill]

@'Daniel Merricks' December 8th

If emotions had physical manifestations, Lou's anger would have transformed into a thick, black cloud, large enough to block out the entire small room of the cottage he was currently in. He couldn't even put into words how frustrated he felt, how absolutely betrayed. Daniel was the one person he had actually trusted, since obviously his parents weren't going to tell him anything no matter how much he pleaded. But Daniel--he'd thought that Daniel was different. He'd been part of the whole string of things that had lead to Lou being imprisoned in a cottage for five years, yes, but only because he was getting paid. Daniel had been the one to finally tell him something about Xena... Lou would never have imagined that he'd also been screening his mail, until confronted with the evidence of such in the form of Theo's testimony.

Being in Daniel's room was definitely an invasion of what minor amount of privacy the two of them had, living in such a small cabin, but at the moment Lou didn't care. Those were his letters, damnit, and if they were still here somewhere, Lou was going to find them. He'd already riffled through all of Daniel's drawers, pulling apart folded stacks of laundry and shoving everything about, and was on his hands and knees pulling the man's shoes out, one by one, to check whether anything was behind them when the door opened and the man himself appeared.

In any other circumstance being caught in the act of such egregious snooping would have merited at least an apology, but there was no way in hell Daniel was getting one of those from Lou any time soon. "You've been stealing my letters," he accused harshly, still on the floor. He didn't bother to try and explain where he'd happened upon that piece of information. "Where are they?"

  

[Daniel Merricks]

There was a ruckus coming from inside the small cabin. Daniel, freshly back from Hogsmeade had stood in the main doorway where he saw the door to his room wide open, and just beyond that was in disarray. Had robbers come to take what measly belongings scattered the house? No, nothing was taken or really trashed in the main living space. Only his room seemed to be the target. His heart dropped to his stomach. Lou.

And there Lou was. In Daniel's bedroom, going through what few belongings he had, but everything had been torn from its proper place. His heart was racing and before he could get a word out, a beyond angry Lou had started bellowing. Daniel refrained from eye contact, staring at a somewhat clean piece of floor near the other man. He swallowed in the face of the accusations, not knowing where to start. Someone had to have told him, but Daniel couldn't figure out which person that knew of the letters would have told Lou.

"Not stealing," he said defensively. "Protected, hid, what-have-you."

Daniel wasn't going to fight. Once Lou had an idea in his head, that was the end of the story. Daniel couldn't just avoid his accusations. He fully entered the room and approached his bed. He knelt down and reached under, paused for a moment, before retrieving a small chest from a hiding place Daniel kept secret. Other items had also been hidden with the chest, but Daniel knew that Lou would want this one, he was't interested in anything else.

The man slowly took out a key ring from his pocket, several keys jangled as he gently separated the one he needed. "Your mother and I had an agreement. You were not to receive mail from anyone from your past without her discretion. As far as I know, these senders were not authorized by Mrs Jameshill," he said, voice calm. He inserted the key. "The chest will not open with magic, and I have the only key, also magic-repulsing. A gift from your mother."

Daniel paused, not wanting to unlock the chest, quickly withdrawing the key as he second-guessed himself. "You may not like what these letters say. Do you still wish me to open the chest?"

  

[Lupus Jameshill]

Lou was so angry that he almost wanted to throw one of the shoes in his hands at Daniel, and he might have done it if he didn't realize before he'd even fully formed the thought how utterly childish that was. He was the wronged individual here, not a toddler throwing a tantrum, and he wasn't going to lend any credence to Daniel's side of this argument by devaluing his own point.

"Stolen," he affirmed in a tone of quiet rage as he watched the other man move to his bed, an area that Lou hadn't gotten around to looking yet--whether he would have found the chest on his own, or whether it was magically hidden, he'd never know. In any case, it sounded as though he wouldn't have been able to force his way into it, which he really ought to have expected. If his mother was behind this, of course she would be thorough--she had left no stone unturned in ensuring that his entire life was destroyed before his eyes. And it had to be his parents, he knew now that Daniel said it--the man he'd lived with all these years would never have undertaken on his own to do something so utterly malicious, so malevolent.

"Of course I want them," he said, dropping the shoes and climbing to his feet to get a better view of the little chest. "Their a part of my life. My life, which you had no right--no right--to take from me, no matter what my damned mother said about it."