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Date Posted: 22:04:06 01/24/02 Thu
Author: Rowan Silvertree
Subject: A word from the wise
In reply to: Marz 's message, "Temptation island" on 10:35:31 01/24/02 Thu

Rowan frowned when he saw Corum get up and leave instead of join Tia in the water. Either the kid was seriously missing some vital pieces in his head…or else someone had come to call him away. Probably that ever-popular Marz Nightcrawler friend of his. He shook his head sadly. On second thought, anyone who would voluntarily leave a girl like Tia for the company of friend had to be at least halfway bonkers. Course, Marz himself was fairly easy on the eyes, too, but he doubted Corum was the type to notice that sort of thing.

He watched Tia by herself for a while, until she, too, eventually got out of the pond. For a brief second, he was inexplicably angered again. Here she was, stripping down to her underclothes to go for a swim with Corum, but she acted utterly insulted when he only teasingly suggested she put on the outfit that she herself had bought!

“Women!” he muttered to himself, rolling over and resting the back of his head on his hands. Sheesh, if she preferred the scrawny kid to him, then so be it, but hell, why she’d have to go and lead him on so much? Rowan could handle playing the jilted lover role, especially when he hadn’t even made it to the frigging lover stage yet. Half the time he was the one doing the jilting anyway, so he knew the drill pretty well by now.

“You have to help me figure something out.”

Rowan sat up abruptly, staring at Jeremy who had appeared out of nowhere to sit beside him. Mutely, he accepted the chocolate candy bar and listened to what the kid had to say. He almost choked on the candy when Jeremy related how he’d boldly stripped his clothes off and got into the lake with a naked Marz, where he then proceeded to wash the older boy’s back.

Holy Mother of shit, the kid’s got guts! he thought, gazing at him with wide-eyed wonder. But then he paused and thought about himself when he was Jeremy’s age. Sweet lord and lady, he’d had his fair share of powered white hands slapping him across the face for his randy efforts. Every now and then, someone would pull through and take him up on his offer, but his luck only increased with age and experience.

And then, of course, there were the other times. The more painful experiences, and even, though not very often, the downright heartbreaking ones. Rowan could admit that he knew what it was like to lose his heart and never, ever get it back. It was just the way things went, sometimes. But how to explain that to Jeremy? He sure as hell wouldn’t have believed it at his age.

When Jeremy went on to describe how Marz had kissed him, Rowan closed his eyes and sighed. That definitely wasn’t good. He knew without a doubt that Marz did not love Jeremy, that he was head over heels crazy for that damned dragon. For whatever reason, Marz had simply taken advantage of the situation, which was not only cruel of him, but downright heartless, not to mention unfeeling, immoral, unethical—and exactly what Rowan himself had done back in one of Kazabet’s guestrooms.

“Ah, hell,” he muttered, running his hands through his hair. He played with one of the feathers on the end of a tiny braid for a few seconds, musing over in his head what exactly he was supposed to say here. Jeremy wanted him to say that this was it, this was the sign that his attentions had finally been noticed and reciprocated. Never mind that Marz had come to his senses (an image of his ornery little lover’s pretty face flashing before his eyes, no doubt). Never mind that Jeremy had been pushed back and firmly rejected, if the kid was telling the story right, anyway. He wasn’t going to see it that way.

“Look,” he began slowly, setting the rest of the candy bar aside. “I’m going to tell you how Marz really feels. Because, believe me, I’ve been in his shoes plenty of times before.” Concrete examples probably wouldn't help, plus he didn’t particularly want to bring up any old yearnings of his, since they weren’t exactly the most comforting things in the world for him to talk about.

“First off, I can promise you one thing, which is definitely true for me, probably for Marz, and more than likely for most other people, too. If I’m standing there naked, and some pretty young thing bounces up, strips his clothes off, and offers to get in the water with me, nothing in twelve hells is going to possess me to say no.” He took a deep breath and thought about that for awhile. Maybe there was one tiny difference there. “The problem is, Marz is supposedly in love with someone else.”

Jeremy nodded eagerly at that, making Rowan grin despite himself. He reached out and ruffled the kid’s hair, laughing softly.

“Yeah, but he kissed ME, Rowan!” Jeremy cut in, a smile lighting up his face. “Maybe he’s starting to fall in love with me and just feels guilty about having to break up with Tristan!”

“Oh, come on,” Rowan said, laughing again. “I kissed you, but that doesn’t mean I’m in love with you, does it?”

“But not like that!” the kid persisted, his voice starting to sound a bit whiny. Rowan rolled his eyes, realizing that this was going to be a lot harder than he thought at first. “You should have seen how he was looking at me! He was so into me, like he wanted me, right then and there!”

“Yes!” Rowan said, started to get frustrated. “He wanted you, Jeremy! When you take your cloths off and rub a creamy bar of soap against another person’s naked body, that’s going to happen sometimes!” A very unappealing little pout came to the boy’s face, giving Rowan a strong urge to slap him silly a couple of times. “Just because Marz let you get into the water with him—just because he let himself kiss you—just because he probably wanted to do more than kiss you, doesn’t mean…doesn’t mean he’s in love with you, kiddo.”

He frowned sadly at his young friend, patting him consolingly on the hand. Jeremy still didn’t look even half-convinced, but Rowan just didn’t know what else to say. “Marz isn’t going to fall in love with you, okay? Sure, maybe you can tempt him far enough so that it’ll make you feel happy, and wanted and loved, but it isn’t going to change the feelings he has…the feelings he already has for somebody else.”

He sighed and held Jeremy’s eyes with his own, waiting for some sort of response. “Please tell me you understand what I’m trying to tell you, this time,” he finished, hoping he finally had gotten his point across. A lot of people would have laughed at Jeremy’s troubles, but Rowan wasn’t one of them. He knew well enough what it was like to be his age, and to have all these feelings and urges that you didn’t know what to do with half the time. The very last thing you needed was to have someone you’d come running to for help to laugh in your face for doing so.

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