Realistic or Modern Afraid to Fall in Love

[ireadtoomuch]

Plot:
A is your classic good girl in college, she gets good grades, gets along with almost everyone she encounters and even though she is rather silent, she has her group of friends. B is the new one, a troublemaker who has been kicked from every school he ever attended and sticks to himself most of the time, unless he's getting into fights with others. The two become partners for a project and eventually, expecting everything but that, start to fall for each other. Yet, B seems to be fighting against himself, one second seeming so sweet and nice to A, the next second he turns cold and distant. He's afraid to fall in love, after the last time had ended in a disaster for him, but, as A and B grow closer and Christmas time is coming, he admits that he has no family to celebrate with, after A asks him for his Christmas plans. After hearing that, A short-handedly invites B to come with her to visit her family and celebrate Christmas with them. And when A's ass of an ex appears on the doorstep and B 'saves' A from him, he finally seems to find his place.

 

[ireadtoomuch]

Scarlette Rosewater

Details:

• DOB: 23 August 1995, 23
• Gender: Female, Heterosexual
• From: Seattle, Washington
• Job: College Student
• Reputation: Bookworm

Physical:

• Nationality: American
• Hair: Ginger
• Eyes: Heterochromic (One Brown, One Gray)
• Body: 5'2", Curvy, 135 pounds
• Style: Casual, and sometimes Edgy. Often seen in heeled boots and a lot of black.
• Appearance: Freckles, fair skin, brown and gray eyes, long, curly, ginger hair. Has an industrial piercing. Looks like a cinnamon bun.

Personality:

• Strengths: Knows lots of weird facts, sweet, helpful, jokester.
• Flaws: gets flustered easily, scatter-brained, can be naïve, can be oblivious at times.
• Hobbies: Reading, writing, cooking, collecting coffee mugs.
• Faves: Chow Mein (Food), so many Books, Greek Mythology (Subject), Comic Books.

History/Bio:
Scarlette Rosewater came from Seattle, WA, moving to Los Angeles, CA with her father and younger sister after her mother passed away. She is one of two children, her younger sister Tessa, being 12 years old. Her family is close with each other, though like any other family, disagreements happen.

 

[Celestiel]

Where's the 'good' in 'goodbye'?
Where's the 'nice' in 'nice try'?

x

Name: Altayr Duchannes
DOB: December 23rd 1993, 25 years
from: Paris, France
Job: College Student, part-time car mechanic
Reputation: troublemaker

Nationality: Iraqui & french
Hair: Jet black
Eyes: deep brown with golden amd green specks
Body: 6'2, athletic
Style: edgy, a lot of black and grey, ripped jeans, always wears a leather jacket
Appearance: tall and athletic, tan skin, no freckles, beard shadow, tattoos on both shoulders and arms:

Strengths: honest, loyal, creative
Flaws: closed up, withdrawn, hot-headed
Hobbies: playing the piano & guitar, singing, painting, drawing, working on cars & bikes, exploring, freerunning
Faves: broccoli pizza, Ravens, Puerta Oscura & Dream Circus (books), Greek mythology (subject)

History/Bio: Altayr is the son of a french man and an iraqui woman, and used to live in Paris with them, as their only child.
They however died in a plane crash on their way to their annual holiday in the USA when he was fourteen.
Having no family left- as all his grandparents died before that and his parents both were only children- Altayr spent his last 4 years till legal adulthood in an orphanage in Paris and moved to Detroit shortly after his 18th birthday. At age 21, he moved again, to LA, where he works as a car mechanic part-time and studies Greek mythology.

 

[ireadtoomuch]

"Come on, Tessa!" Scarlette gently shoved her younger sister out the front door as she struggled to pull her sweater over her shoulders and carry her backpack at the same time. She could hear her keys jangle in her sister's hands as the blue Honda Accord chirped to unlock, and they both threw their school stuff in the back seat as they climbed jnto the car.

Tessa's school was on the way to the university Scarlette attended, so she had always been in charge of taking her younger sibling to school. She waved goodbye to her sister before driving off to her own class. Scarlette kept glancing at the clock, worried she was going to be late. Both girls had slept in that morning, so both had to rush to get ready for the day.

Once her car was parked, Scarlette grabbed her bag and briskly walked towards the Science building. She held the door open for a few students before walking in and taking a seat towards the back of the class. Thank god, she thought to herself as she sat down. She hadn't been late.

 

[Celestiel]

"Altayr, isn't it time for you to get to work?", Tori, his coworker- asked while Altayr was fixing the engine of a car that had been involved in an ugly frontal crash.
As he straightened up to have a look at the big. Old clock hanging over the garage's entrance gate, he hit his head against the open bonnet and growled a silent curse- just before a dreadful expression settled on his face upon realizing that he indeed would be late.
"Ugh... Did I mention I hate going to school?", He sighed, whereas Tori just smirked wryly. "Wow, it's your first day and you are already unmotivated. Why did you even sign up then?"
Altayr groaned silently. "Because I love Greek mythology! I just don't like being expected to socialize..."

Honestly, Tori was his best and only friend, and that had only happened because the two had shared a room and a dream in the orphanage they had grown up in.
They had moved to Detroit together and shared an apartment and had never parted since. And even though he rarely showed it, Altayr was really thankful for having Tori as a friend.
"I know, I know", Tori sighed theatrically and smacked Altayr and smacked the heck of his head with an oily towel.
"Branque!", he chuckled, pushing his friend away before he grabbed his backpack and raced his age-old DeLorean to campus.

About ten minutes after the lesson had started, Altayr came into the room quite leisurely and mumbled a silent excuse to the teacher, who just gave him a look like 'seriously? Late on your first day?' but had apparently given up on scolding students.
Instead, she turned to the class.
"So this is the new student I mentioned", she announced, motioning towards Altayr who stood there and looked at the class with an utterly disinterested gaze.
"Mister Duchannes"- she spoke it like Ducain- "I just announced a project which will be done in groups of two. As you seem unable to maintain the slightest motivation to do something for your grades, you will work with Miss Rosewater."
Altayr frowned. Was she really trying to pair him up with a 'good student' to teach him a lesson?
Jesus was this preschool?
"Fine", he said shrugging and took a seat next to the girl the teacher had pointed at.

"Such a cool one, eh?", Some random guy on the left said tauntingly and promptly fell of his chair as Altayr had punched his side hard enough to make him lose his balance.
"Shut the fuck up", he grumbled at that guy before turning into the direction of Rosewater.
Mh, she indeed was quite pretty...
"So what's the project about?"

 

[ireadtoomuch]

Scarlette was already scribbling down ideas for the project when she looked up as a student walked into the class. Inside her head, she laughed at the student. He was new. She'd never seen him before. How is someone this late to their first day of school? She shook her head and started to bite the tip of her pen in thought, her foot drumming against the floor. She looked up when she heard her name being spoken, and her expression fell flat as she realized what was going on. Oh no. No, no, no, no. This is not happening.

Scarlette slid down in her chair, hoping she could turn invisible and this 'Mister Duchannes' would go away. She squeaked in surprise as he decked the guy on the left of 'Mister Duchannes'. She didn't know his first name, but she sure as hell wasn't going to call him Mister Duchannes. Then he turned around and talked to her. G r e a t. "It's uh-it's about different species and how they're organized. We just have to present it and make a slideshow." Her cheeks burned at how flustered she was, but in her defense he'd literally just hit someone and even worse, the teacher didn't give a shit. "I um, I already made a list of some plants and animals 'cause we have to do both." Her handwriting was an elegant cursive, but it was clearly legible. "If there's any plants or animals you like, we can add them to the list."

 

[Celestiel]

Altayr nodded faintly at Rosewater's explanation and yawned not that silently before he got down to work.
He shouldn't have pulled that all-nighter in the garage. He really shouldn't have, but that job had been due today and he couldn't probably ditch school to finish it till today evening.
Tori would lynch him.
He yawned once more, pinching the root of his nose, and ran his hand through his hair.

"Shouldn't be that hard", he said, his french accent unmistakable, yet not ridiculous sounding. "So we got Plantae and Animalia. I'm not sure on the plant side- but for animals we got subspecies Aves, Ichthyes, Mammalia, Reptilia and Amphibia and-"
He broke off, frowning slightly before he just crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.
He had that from his mother.
She had been a biologist and he had spent hours in her study with her, brooding over classifications and disambiguations. These days though, he tried to avoid the topic, even though he did find it fascinating, just because it made him remember all the hours spent together; hours that he'd never have with her again.

Altayr let out a surprisingly sad sigh, his brown and golden eyes closed for just a second, before he focused on the project again.
"We should also divide the fish-group in lto cartilaginous and bony fish..."
He raised one eyebrow at his partner, his expression ridiculously serious. "And kittens. We need to add kittens."

 

[ireadtoomuch]

Scarlette blinked in surprise as her new partner not only was able to read her handwriting, but started reading off her list in a strong French accent as if he understood everything.

She was expecting to have to give him the lecture of how she wouldn't pick up his slack, but the night before the project was due, she would cave.

He seemed to get frustrated part way through the list, and leaned back in his chair. She suddenly realized how long his legs were, and she automatically looked down at her own legs. Scarlette had the long legs of a dancer, from her mother, but she had her father's grace--none.

Then the newcomer started to bring up fish, and she was yanked from her thoughts as she heard the word- "Kittens? You want to add kittens? You're joking?" She looked over at him with an eyebrow raised, and she had to push up her glasses as they started to fall again.

 

[Celestiel]

"of course I'm kidding", Altayr grumbled wryly, slightly rolling his eyes.
It wasn't that she was going on his nerves or anything, not at all.
But he had to make sure to eliminate all possibilities of getting involved with anyone in any way.
He just didn't want to get high hopes just to be crushed again. He had barely overcome it the last time... And he was sure he wouldn't make it another time.
Still though... He did feel sorry for being that gruff to her...

Leaning a little closer so he could have a look at her list, he rested his chin on his hand and skimmed the lines.
"Good thing this is supposed to become a slideshow, I'm quite good with PowerPoint. Maybe we could also provide a little example for finer classification in a single species..."

When his phone vibrated in his pocket, Altayr quickly good it behind his etui and unlocked it.
That was the first time since he had arrived that an honest smile lit up his face and made him seem like a completely different person.
A message from Toni, in French, telling him that the car they had been working on was all finished and the customer was beyond happy with the result.
He wrote back a short reply in French as well before he went back to the project, his face turning serious again.
"What's your name, by the way?"

 

[ireadtoomuch]

Scarlette blushed at how brusque he was, but rolled her eyes in response. This is going to be a long ass project. When he started to lean closer, Scarlette tensed up. Depending on who it was and how close she was to someone, she could be picky about personal space invasion, and this guy was far from nice, so she didn't want him anywhere near her personal bubble. Though she did get a whiff of drool-worthy cologne. Stop, he's a dick, remember?

When he started talking, Scarlette started to doodle in her notebook and just grumbled under her breath, "Yeah sure, whatever you'd like. As long as you don't punch me too." He soon became preoccupied with something on his phone, so Scarlette started writing down different species that interested her. She wrote down one reptile, mammal, aquatic animal, bird, and insect. If her partner didn't like monitor lizards, tigers, jellyfish, owls, or tarantulas then he could help with the list. Scarlette was so distracted thinking of the different animal species she liked, that she hadn't noticed him turn back around, and she barely caught him speaking to her. "What's your name, by the way?" Scarlette lifted her head up and looked at him, then pointed to herself in shock. He was asking me? "Scarlette Rosewater. My name is Scarlette. What's um, what's yours?" She didn't really want to give him her name, he'd been rude to her thus far, but if they had any hope of getting this done, she had to.

 

[Celestiel]

"Pleasure", Altayr said when Scarlette told him her name, actually sounding gentler than he had intended to.
It almost was like he only knew rudeness and friendliness, but nothing like neutrality in between.
"I'm Altayr. Duchannes. And why in all worlds should I punch you?"
He really didn't know what to do right now.
On the one hand he was afraid as always... But her comment had hit him worse than he would've expected. It wasn't like he enjoyed being the 'bad guy', but... It wasn't that easy.

Altayr was distracted from his somber thoughts when he noticed the animals Scarlette had listed- and a wide grin spread on his face completely unexpectedly.
"Owls are awesome. We used to breed rare kinds and released them to increase the number of wild individuals. We once had this blind greater sooty owl. Malou. Of course we couldn't release her, but she was so awesome, like-"
He broke off all of a sudden, realizing he had just dropped his cover completely for a second.
What the hell?
His eyes met hers for a moment and he looked away instantly, as if he didn't dare looking someone in the eye.
"I mean-... I like them. Tigers, too...", He muttered and grabbed his pen.
"Can I help you with that list somehow-?"

 

[ireadtoomuch]

Scarlette raised an eyebrow and looked at him with incredulity. She had to push up her glasses again, then settled for just taking them off and leaving them on the desk. "You punched that guy next to you in an open classroom, I don't know what the hell you will and won't do." She shrugged and took of her jacket, revealing a t-shirt that had two test tubes on it with the words 'Don't Overreact!'

Altayr's voice changed as he started to talk about owls, and Scarlette's expression softened at how enthusiastic he'd suddenly become. Huh, he has a nice voice when he's not being surly. She watched him as she listened, and was shocked when he suddenly stopped talking and picked up his pen. He looked into her eyes, then looked away before she could even discern his eye color. "Yeah, sure. Add whatever you like." She slid her notebook over to Altayr, then sat in silence for a few seconds before speaking up. "So you said you used to repopulate owls? That sounds really cool. The weirdest pet I've ever kept was a chameleon. How long did you do that for? Or was it a family thing?" She tapped her pen as she talked, the tapping keeping rhythm with the speed she talked at.

 

[Celestiel]

"I just made it clear to him that I won't take his shit comments!", Altayr defended himself, the frown on his face deepening as he crossed his arms- but let out a silent snort at the sight of her shirt, trying really hard to hide his amusement over it.
Yes.
Yes he did like nerdy humor.
"And I thought all the chemistry jokes Argon", he said and would have immediately slapped himself if he had been alone.
That joke had been horrible.

When Scarlette slid her notebook over to him, Altayr chewed on his pen thoughtfully for a moment before he started to sketch a rough plan for the slideshow.
"Here, I was thinking we could use different background colors. Blue for fish, maybe, and so on. And fitting blending, like this wave-effect..."
At her question, he looked up from their notes once more, his eyes darkening slightly in sadness.
"Yeah, I was born into the buisness, grown up with all kinds of owls. They're one of my favorite animals. it used to be a family buisness, till the acci-... Till I moved to the states. But I still have Malou. But how do you get your hands on a chameleon??"
Even though he didn't want it, he couldn't help but be intrigued by Scarlette, and he just couldn't keep his rough behavior up as he would have liked to.
"Do you have a pet right now?"

 

[ireadtoomuch]

Scarlette looked down at her shirt and the corner of her lips turned up in the ghost of a smile at his joke. She listened carefully to Altayr as he gave off ideas, but she became curious when his expression changed. Scarlette noticed he had started to say something, but she couldn't make out what it was. "You can get chameleons at pet stores that sell reptiles," She pulled out her phone and scrolled through until she found a picture of three bearded dragons. One had an orange tint to it, and the other two were normal colored. "The orange one is mine, his name is Alduin. It's from a video game I played called Skyrim. The middle one is my dad's. Her name is Liza, after my mom Elizabeth. The smallest one is my younger sister's. Her name is Merida, like the Disney princess. My sister's obsessed with her because I have the same hair as her."

 

[Celestiel]

Altayr looked at the picture, but his gaze was distraught, his eyes narrowed.
She had a family.
Of course, probably everyone here did, and then there was him, an orphan with no one left.
His last seven birthdays had gone by uncelebrated.
If he'd, just hypothetically, have a girlfriend sometime, there would be no one to introduce her to, no one to ask humiliating questions and no one to celebrate the slowly approaching Christmas Eve with.
He hated this time of the year. His birthday was just one day before Christmas Eve and as Tori always traveled back to France to celebrate with his family, Altayr was all alone. He had stopped decorating long ago and if someone would enter his apartment on Christmas Eve, they would find a single candle, let alone a decorated tree.

"Let's just focus on the project...", He said coolishly. "... Please."
It wasn't that he wasn't interested in her bearded dragons, those animals were dope, but all the family stuff didn't help his annual winter depressions at all. Summer was better. Summer was far away from the accident, his birthday, Christmas or any other events that needed to be celebrated.
"Tarantulas", he read the last animal on her list and involuntary shuddered at the thought of those eight-legged abominations. "Ghastly little things..."

 

[ireadtoomuch]

"Hey, don't hate 'cause they have eight," Scarlette shot him finger guns, then shifted in her chair and she drew a line down the center of the page. "Okay, so we have an easy list of animals. I know a decent amount about plants, so if you want I can just do that part. Like there's a plant that smells like rotting carcasses to attract its own prey. It's also the biggest flower in the world." She started to ramble.

In her free time, Scarlette liked to go to gardens and draw or do homework. She scratched down different names of plants: some flowered, some were trees, bushes, or vines, some were colorful, some regrew after winter and some didn't. She'd have to write down their scientific names later for her own referece, as her partner probably didn't know much about flowers. "How many did we want to pich of each category? Two animals and two plants, and if they needed more, they could always pull from the list.

 

[Celestiel]

"eh, two legs are fine, four, sure, six, meh, okay I guess, but eight legs are definitely one pair too much", Altayr said while he stroked a streak of his jet black hair out of his face and took off his black leather jacket, as it was quite warm in here.
Under the sleeves of his light grey Henley t-shirt peaked the feathers of his wings tattoo through, that reached from his shoulder blades to his elbows.
He just listened without saying a word when Scarlette got lost in explanations about that flower's stench and, well, hunting strategy?
"Two animals and two plants sounds good", he said nodding at her question. "We should definitely include owls, I know everything about them and-..."
He hesitated for just a moment, his expression thoughtful as he watched his hands, specifically the multiple long, deep scars, running down his entire forearm and hand.
"... Could we include French Hortensia?"
The way Altayr's voice had suddenly become unexpectedly soft and genuine made it clear that there was something behind this request he didn't mention, or didn't want to mention.

The ringing of the bell that ended the first two hours woke him from his thoughts and made him gaze quickly at his schedule.
"My next class is Greek mythology", he said, almost as if he was trying to distract from the previous situation.
"What about you?"
Altayr put his stuff back into his bag, grabbed his jacket and got up, only now really noticing the almost comical height difference between Scarlette and him. Her head barely reached his shoulder, him being about an entire foot taller.
"Uh-...", he muttered, awkwardly running a hand through his hair. "Are you coincidentally heading for the canteen? I don't know the way."

 

[ireadtoomuch]

Her gaze latched onto the ink peeking out from his shirt, then looked over at his face as he brought up hortensia. Hortensia...hydrangea! Scarlette nods with a smile. "Yeah, I actually have some in my backyard." When Scarlette stood up, she was too busy packing to notice how much taller he was standing up. "I have a break. I need to pick my sister up from school before coming back here for a math class." She swung her backpack over her shoulders, but it wasn't until he addressed her again that she looked at him. Her cheeks turned pink at how miniature she must look next to Altayr. She quite literally had to shift her head to look up at him. "I can show you were it is, yeah." Scarlette pulled out her phone, texting her sister she might be a few minutes late, then headed out the classroom door. She led Altayr down the hall and out of the building. The sun was out and it casted off her hair, giving it the look that it was on fire. "Greek Myth, huh? That's a cool subject."

 

[Celestiel]

During the entire walk down the hallways and outside, Altayr just couldn't shake the feeling that he had forgotten something darn important.
But for the sake of God, he just couldn't figure out what.
"Yeah", he said at Scarlette's comment about Greek mythology and looked up at the sun for a moment, before he focused on their conversation again.
"It's all thanks to my foster brother, he had this book full of Greek legends when we were kids. Tori-... Oh my God Tori!"
Realization struck him like a pick up truck when he finally remembered what he had forgotten.
"The assistant! Fuck!"
Not thinking, he hit the wall next to him before hastily dialing.
"Kyle? Why in all worlds are you answering our phone?... No no no you are the assistant, you are supposed to prepare stuff, clean up and shut up and stay the fuck away from our office!... Yes I AM your boss! Whatever. Get the airbrush station ready, I'll be there in two
hours and start on the Chevy right away... Because I say so! Do you want me to fire you? No? Then move your ass!"

steaming, Altayr hang up and muttered some silent curses before he remembered that he wasn't alone for once and cracked an awkward smile at Scarlette upon arriving at the canteen. "Kay, guess I'll see you tomorrow then? Ah, if something comes up with the project or so, just call me at ATD Motors, I'll be there the whole day after college."

 

[Celestiel]

[you still there?]

 

[ireadtoomuch]

The entire walk down to the Canteen, Scarlette kept glancing over at Altayr in their silence. He looked as though he were lost in thought or in another place, but she didn't want to startle him out of it. Scarlette flinched as Altayr had a look of surprise on his face and his voice got louder. She watched him as they kept walking, and reached out for him as he swerved towards a wall, but before she could grab his arm, he'd shouldered into it. She started to slow her pace once Altayr begun talking on the phone, yelling at his assistant apparently. She kicked tiny pebbles, trying not to seem like she was eavesdropping on his phone conversation, but with how loud he talked, Altayr made it fairly difficult. She looked up at him when he finally got off the phone, but he still had a tense expression on his face.

Scarlette sighed when he told her to call him if something came up with the project. He had seemed invested in it, but now it seemed like he was just dumping it on her. She nodded and waved then said, "Yeah, sure. Glad you found your class okay. Um, here's my number in case you have any questions." She reached out and grabbed his hand, scribbling her number on it with a pen she'd stuck behind her ear, then she spun on her heels to leave the campus.

She was exhausted by the time she'd gotten back to her house, but as she slipped through the doorway, Scarlette was knocked on her ass and showered with kisses. "Ace, down boy!" The Great Dane crawled off of Scarlette, but continued licking any bare skin he could find. Once she finally managed to push the beast off of her, Scarlette set her backpack down and went to the kitchen to find food, with the family dog trailing behind her.