True Faith pt2

True Faith pt2

Just as the dark haired boy finished speaking, he noticed his brother closing the book he’d been writing in, and watched him tuck it neatly under his arm. Lucien’s eyes finally moved from their focus, upwards, to meet the other boy’s gaze. His dark blue, almost navy colored orbs radiated the same warmth and energy that Nikolai’s icy-bluish greys seemed to. For a moment he hesitated, as if lost in examination of his brother’s features, before he answered. The face before him felt oddly familiar to the boy, but aside from the obvious, he couldn't piece together any other explainations for the feeling.

“Ah… sure… I have a few bags to get out of the trunk, and I doubt mother would exert herself enough to be of any use.” He said just before taking a stand beside his sibling. His words were plain, and loud enough for his mother to hear, but she seemed to pay them no mind.

Lucien was noticeably shorter than his counterpart by several inches, and everything about his features seemed to be at contrast with the other boy’s. His hair was bright blonde and well combed in an almost painfully neat manner. He wore a starch white, button up short-sleeved dress shirt and a pair of khaki shorts to match, which left his legs bare and exposed. On his feet were a pair of fairly large, sturdy tan and white hiking boots. His attire might’ve been seen as uptight by some, and he even could have passed as some model for expensive clothing, but Lucien would have been completely unaware of such a judgment. He paused to reach back into the car to retrieve another item, a crimson colored school uniform jacket, which he promptly tucked under his arm with his journal, then lead his brother around to the back of the car just as their mother spoke again.

“Where’s your father Nikolai? Is he too busy to come and greet his youngest son? I swear, that man…” She cut off her thought and tossed down her only partially smoked cigarette.

"No, he was doing last-minute preparations,'' Nikolai replied with a lie. He wasn't in the mood to explain why his father had waited until the last minute to brush up and get ready.

Lucien glanced over at his mother with an expression which would typically denote that he was slightly annoyed. He was already standing at the trunk of the car, and seemed to be waiting for something. “Mother please calm yourself, and open the trunk if you’re going to be of any use.” he remarked, finally at the end of his patience. "And stop littering" he added in refrence to the tossed cigarette.

Nikolai smirked at this and seemed rather amused, just as the trunk popped open with a click. He was already beginning to like his sibling counterpart, mostly for how the boy spoke to their mother.

Inside the trunk were three rather large black suitcases, all presumably filled with clothes and small personal possessions. Lucien placed his jacket and journal on the roof of the car and attempted to grab two of large suitcases and lug them out of the trunk by himself, but they proved to be a little more than his small body could handle. This left him resolving to come back and retrieve the third.

“We can just come back and get the last one” he said as he looked over to his brother and spoke to him more directly and respectfully than he did his mother.

"No, no,'' Nikolai replied, affectionately amused with the boy’s adherence. He grabbed the third suitcase and carried it in one arm. ''Here, I'll get that too'' he said, taking another from his brother, determined to make the boy feel welcomed.

“Wow” Lucien murmured, obviously impressed by his brother’s strength. He then grabbed his jacket and journal off of the car once more and double-checked the trunk to make sure nothing was forgotten. He then moved back to his door to shut it, “That seems to be everything” the boy murmured and glanced over at his waiting brother.

Nikolai nodded, and used the bottom of one of the suitcases to close the trunk, which caused an alarmed expression to radiate from their mother, no doubt concerned for the welfare of her shiny vehicle. This was something that Lucien expected, as he could be seen grinning amusedly. Nikolai ignored his mother and moved himself past his sibling. He began to lead the way to the house, back across the concrete walkway.

Lucien, now behind Nikolai, had a chance to get a complete view of his brother’s attire. The clothing and the way he dressed weren’t anything that he hadn’t seen before, but he knew that some kids from the private catholic school he went to would make fun of people who dressed that way, with some terribly rude remarks. Lucien however, never really approved of such treatment. To Lucien, it gave his brother a sense of personality, versus the carbon copy clothing he saw worn on a daily basis.

All the while, Nikolai was musing over the same notions. He was not accustomed to seeing someone so neatly dressed and with such politeness. He'd never seen anyone dressed like Lucien, nor had he ever seen someone that young being so enlightened in vocabulary. A calm smile crossed his expression while his nerves settled at the hope that this wouldn't be such a bad situation afterall.

As they reached the closed front door, Lucien had the idea to open it for his brother, whose arms were full. But just as that moment, their Father, dark haired and dark eyed, made an appearance and opened it for them. This would be first time Lucien could remember ever laying eyes on the man, as the adult shot a forced smile at the boy and patted him on the head.

“Hello Lucien.” The man spoke in an almost rehearsed manner.

Their mother chimed in as well almost simultaneously, and it was like a double team on the poor Lucien “I’ll call you when I get home and we will iron out the details. I love you honey!” At the same time he found his head squished under the force of his father’s hand and had little time to absorb what his mother had just said, so he simply nodded in reply and concerted a forced “Hello…” to his father. He was already anxious to get away from their parents.

Nikolai sighed in thought and led the boy into the front room, past their father. He wasn't particularly proud of his house, but he was proud of the work that he put forth to 'shine' it up a little bit. The illuminated lamp glowed softly, causing light to filter through the colored glass and produce rose-like shapes of yellow on the walls. He led the blonde boy through the living room, and finally to the stairs that went up to the second floor.

Lucien followed his brother through the house and examined the interior curiously as he walked. The piano was probably the most noted because he was very adept at playing the instrument and thought later to play for his brother. The smell of cleaners bombarded his nose quickly and he grinned to himself slightly, obvious that their attempts to make the place clean and ready for his arrival went on until the very last minute. He felt somewhat honored and welcomed due to this fact.

Nikolai continued rather hurriedly up the steps, trying to get past that obstacle as quickly as possible. His bedroom door was towards the end of the hallway and was one that was partially open, so he pushed it with a slight kick to open it the rest of the way. He immediately set the bags down by the door carefully, in case something fragile lay inside. He was rather considerate of his younger brother it seemed.

Lucien moved into the room past his brother and laid the bag he was carrying out on the only bed in the room.

''We will... figure out sleeping arrangements when it comes time, I guess,'' Nikolai said with a weak laugh. ''Maybe I can get another mattress from Daniel” he added in absent thought.

“Not to worry.” Lucien replied as he turned to face his brother. “I don’t want to rob you of your bed.” He paused in thought “Perhaps I could sleep on the sofa until better arrangements come about. I will bring the issue up to mother when she calls later.” He took a few moments to admire the room before he allowed himself to really settle into the surroundings.

"No, it's okay." His brother responded with a bit of a grin. "I rarely sleep on it anyway" he assured and pointed out the neatly made, hardly touched state of it.

Lucien was listening, but was rather distracted while exploring the room with his eyes. The loft was indeed quite large, and there was plenty of room in it for both of them to have separate beds. Around the space hung posters that displayed various favorite bands of the young Nikolai, all of which Lucien did not recognize, save one poster that hung over the head of the bed. This particular poster depicted a scene with an angel, and was a subject matter that the blonde boy was familiar with. Black cloth lay over his nightstand and book-shelf, both of which were crowded with novels and other works. A stereo with six speakers spread out across the room was to one corner, and two windows in total, bathed the room in a welcoming light - their dark curtains pulled to the sides. It could have been rather obvious by now that Nikolai did not like color, or simply did not have a taste of it on himself or his personal space.

The room itself smelled not at all of lemon scented cleaners like the rest of the house, but rather of dried roses, chamomile, lavender, and other similar, herbal scents. This was perhaps from the incense in holders that lay scattered around on the dressers, night stand, bookshelf, and window sills. Two of the holders still had burning incense. The scent was much warmer than the artificial scent of the polish, and far more natural in feel.

''Nikolai! Are you making dinner, or--'' the man yelling from downstairs sounded abruptly cut off. ''Argh. Damned cat!'' He added just a moment later. The sound of paws on the hard-wood stairs could be heard, and a small creature darted through Nikolai's open door and between Lucien’s legs to hide under the bed.

''Awww...'' Nikolai to the small animal and chuckled before he called back to their father. He leaned himself out into the hallway to reply ''I thought that maybe I could take Lucien out and show him around the neighborhood, and... Maybe eat during?” Nikolai paused and finally pulled back into his room to address his brother directly. “That sound good to you?" He asked his seemingly distracted brother, who had barely even noticed he cat darting between his feet.

Lucien was rummaging through the suitcase he had placed on the bed, and appeared to be looking for some unnamed item. He heard what his brother said but was choosing to not respond until he found what he was retrieving from the bag. His brother watched patiently curious.

“I would like that” Lucien finally replied before turning around to face his brother once more. He held an object in his hands – A small stature of an angel with a dragon coiled around its feet. The head of the scaled beast was raised upwards and in contact with the angel’s affectionate hand. Lucien held the statue out towards his brother. “I got this for you” he said with a slight smile.

A blink and then a puzzled glance followed as Nikolai removed the statue from the blond boy’s hands. The material it was made from at first appearances would seem to be some sort of wood, but the statue was much heaver than looks would have him believe would have him believe. He was paused for several moments to examine the piece and had been caught off guard by the gesture and felt a little guilty that he hadn’t bothered to get anything in return. However, he now resolved to do that later.

“I hope you like it” Lucien spoke again, interrupting the other boy’s appraisal of the object. “I wasn’t sure of what to get you, so I took a guess. I’m fond of angels, and I hoped you might be as well.”

“I- Yeah I like it” he grinned fondly, a response to being pleasantly caught off guard. “Its beautiful” he added in approval before he placed the statue on his night stand amongst the clutter of CD cases, candles, and burnt incense. “And yeah, I like angels too.” He motioned towards the poster that hung over his bed.

Lucien smiled wider and gave a slight nod. “I’m glad you like it. I also have a lot of incense with me as well, and I can already see that between us we will have a rather large collection.” He grinned fondly and was beginning to rapidly relax into this new situation with his brother – the stranger that was quickly becoming one of his closest friends.