Andrei frowned, and the expression took some time to steep, developing onto his face with a graven solemnity, but not marring its basal structure by much.
His smile was a constant flash phenomenon, but his frown was a slowly gathering twilight. It was rare, and transient, and not often observed.
"I didn't know," he said.
No, he hadn't known. But it just seemed to follow, didn't it.
And now Aryol was cavorting like a puppy at the feet of its master. Andrei half wondered if Viktor carried Aryol's still beating heart in his ammo satchel, like a huntsman in a dark fairytale.
A talisman.
"So he has a piece of you now," Isaev reflected, tonelessly. "Whether or not he chooses to believe it. Maybe he prefers not to believe it."
His jaw lifted.
"But I believe it. He's your son, Irinarhov. Blood cuts the same cloth. If you saw my brother, you'd know him for mine. Or vice versa. Apples and trees, but not apples and oranges, Kassian Dmitrivich."
Andrei shook his head.
For someone with the eyes of a raptor, Aryol had the attention span of a crow. He had already forgotten the novelty of possibly seeing his only fleshly relative, as soon as Viktor had waved a shiny object.
Callow, shallow and young. He knew the type. Disenfranchised, eye taken with every older man whose path he crossed, searching in vain for a father figure unknown- and unable to change his modus, even now that he'd beheld the missing link to his life's broken chain.
Did Aryol not wonder what Kassian had been to Viktor? Did it not strike him at all that this man might well have been his father's lover? Did it not give him pause? At least pause before slavering over him unexamined?
"Perhaps I was wrong to waste your time, comrade Kasya," Isaev said, clearly. "It must be a coincidence. Upon reflection, I do not see your...character."
He clapped his hands together briefly and shoved them into his coat.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-08-28 06:18 am (UTC)His smile was a constant flash phenomenon, but his frown was a slowly gathering twilight. It was rare, and transient, and not often observed.
"I didn't know," he said.
No, he hadn't known. But it just seemed to follow, didn't it.
And now Aryol was cavorting like a puppy at the feet of its master. Andrei half wondered if Viktor carried Aryol's still beating heart in his ammo satchel, like a huntsman in a dark fairytale.
A talisman.
"So he has a piece of you now," Isaev reflected, tonelessly. "Whether or not he chooses to believe it. Maybe he prefers not to believe it."
His jaw lifted.
"But I believe it. He's your son, Irinarhov. Blood cuts the same cloth. If you saw my brother, you'd know him for mine. Or vice versa. Apples and trees, but not apples and oranges, Kassian Dmitrivich."
Andrei shook his head.
For someone with the eyes of a raptor, Aryol had the attention span of a crow. He had already forgotten the novelty of possibly seeing his only fleshly relative, as soon as Viktor had waved a shiny object.
Callow, shallow and young. He knew the type. Disenfranchised, eye taken with every older man whose path he crossed, searching in vain for a father figure unknown- and unable to change his modus, even now that he'd beheld the missing link to his life's broken chain.
Did Aryol not wonder what Kassian had been to Viktor? Did it not strike him at all that this man might well have been his father's lover? Did it not give him pause? At least pause before slavering over him unexamined?
"Perhaps I was wrong to waste your time, comrade Kasya," Isaev said, clearly. "It must be a coincidence. Upon reflection, I do not see your...character."
He clapped his hands together briefly and shoved them into his coat.
"What say you?"