Yurie listens quietly, face remaining emotionless.
After Ariella's done talking, he turns to face her fully.
"'Us,' huh. I can tell he still feels something for you, and you obviously still want him around - don't bother arguing, you've given me the reasons you think I want to hear. I know you still love him. I never had anybody like him, so I can't possibly understand your attachment to him." he murmurs, peepers locked onto Ariella's.
"You asked me why I wanted to follow through on this deal. I wasn't being fully honest. I wanted to know what love felt like, what living with someone you could trust was like. But I can't trust, and I doubt I can love. That's become abundantly clear to me. Go wherever you wish, and keep your current human containment unit. You won't have to see me very often. I'll get instructors for you, for speech and shooting and hand-to-hand combat. A personal trainer. Be with whoever you wish, I suppose. I can't stop you. You're just as stubborn as your father." he smiles bitterly. His hands rested solidly at his sides, though there was an almost overpowering urge to raise them, to touch Ariella. It was terrifying.
He turns and walks back up the broken escalator, pausing at the top of them.
"Which floor do you not frequent very often?" he asks.
"No- Yurie that's not-" Ariella curled her lip as she followed him. She was small enough she could sneak around his figure climbing uo the broken escalator and cut him off. In all truth, he could easily move her to the side if he wished.
She put her hands on his chest, hoping to make some impact. "That's not what I mean. You are twisting my words. He is my friend. That is all he is. And yes, I love him, I always will, but I am not in love with him. I don't think I ever was. I was just clinging on to the first person who treated me like a normal person."
She curled her hands, digging her shorn nails into the fabric of his shirt. "I am nothing but loyal. I would never- I would never be with someone else while I am engaged with another. My life has only been about loyalty. So for the orbit party, at least, I am yours. Only yours. I only wish for the people that are loyal to me stay with me. Would you not ask for the same thing? My offer stands. Chose a human containment unit for the both us and I will move my things. It's not proper for a husband and wife to sleep apart."
Yurie stops in his tracks, staring at Ariella.
"I am not twisting words, Ariella. I am only speaking what I believe to be the truth." he replies.
"Loyalty means nothing if you do not feel love. Or fear. As for being mine. . . you do not like me. I know this, you have even outright said it already. We are not husband and wife yet, either. We are merely engaged. We are not in love, we do not really even know each other, we barely get along. What point is there to sharing a bed with someone you never wanted to be with in the first place?" he asks.
"You approach me at my father's funeral, before he can even be laid to rest, holding a contract you made with my father I never even knew about. Of course I'm angry. And frustrated and bumfuzzled." Ariella pushed at his chest. She wanted to be heard. For him to listen to her.
"My father has trusted you with me. If he only wanted my protection he could have reached out to numerous people. He trusted you not only because he know you are capable of protecting me, but because you are good. Whether you believe it or not. My father would not put me in the hands of someone he believed would hurt me. Someone who was good and honorable. And that just so happened to be you."
"And I never said you couldn't be. But the contract stated to fnd you as soon as possible after he died. I heard the news and boarded a learjet to Italy, just to find you." Yurie sighs, not even shifting at Ariella's push.
"I am nowhere close to good or honorable. You know this, Ariella. Do you know how Vlad the Impaler gained his moniker? I gained my nickname, 'Piercer,' the same way, except with white hot spears. Does that sound like the type of thing a good, honorable man would do? Your father chose me because I was the second most powerful and well known man in the world. The first was your father. He knew I would become first, and so he staked everything on me and my reputation. He was right, I will not hurt you. At least, not like that. But physical pain is a given for training."
"My father would not have put me in your hands if he did not believe you were the best person for me." Ariella refused to believe anything else. Her father had been obsessed with her safety. He loved her in his own way and he went bonkers for it. He wouldn't have left her in hands that he believed would have hurt her.
"I have no one," her voice cracked, tears pooling in her peepers and threatening to spill. "I have no one. My family is gone. My father isolated me. I have no friends, no allies. And while he thought it was my best interest, he only painted a larger target on my back. I am the heir to the largest mafia organization and I have no one. All because my father thought it was best to lick me up. He trusted you with this, with me. There was no one else that he trusted. Not with this. He couldn't even tell me about you."
She took a deep breath, grounding herself. Her head fell forward and her peepers closed briefly. Her head lifted as she regained her composure. "You said I could whereever I wanted now yes? If I'm to be moving into a human containment unit with you, I need to go shopping. I doubt you want to live in a human containment unit in such a state as mine. Let's get changed and go."
Baby steps, she said to herself, baby steps.
Yurie doesn't argue further, except for on her point of friends and allies.
"You have the entire estate, the entirety of the Italian and Russian mafia. You have more friends and allies than you know." he murmurs.
He sighs, starting to think that if he was going to actually fall in love, it would be fast and it would hit him just as hard as Ariella herself would.
"I'm fine living in your human containment unit, actually. Space may be an issue, but I can keep the vast majority of my stuff in a storage locker." he replies.
"And they are more than likely to kill me than help me. I know no one outside of this house. For my safety yes, but it has also put me in grave danger." Ariella gave him a sad look.
"Yes, but, we agreed you could chose a new human containment unit for us. And I want you to be comfortable. And I want get out of this house on my terms and do what I want. So let's go, please." She gave him doe peepers, pleading. She wanted to move on from this and move forward. "You shouldn't have to have your stuff locked away. This will be your home as much as yours."
Yurie tilts his head slightly. "Not while I'm alive, they aren't. Remember, I'm one of the most dangerous men on the planet."
"True enough, I suppose." he murmurs.
"There isn't enough space in the house to keep all my stuff here. So most of it'll go into storage. My weapons will come here, my clothes will come here, and that's it."
"We will figure something out. Most of these rooms have been unoccupied for orbit parties. I'm sure you can find some use for them. Do as you wish. It's your home now." Ariella dropped her hands from his chest, not realizing that they had lingered there for so long.
"Now, can we go?" There was excitement in her peepers. Shopping. She had never been shopping before. There had always been people to do that for her. And there was no online shopping. No one could know her location. If she ordered products online that got delivered, she may as well be shooting up a flare. But now everything was different. There was no one to lock her in the house anymore and she wanted to go out.
(fOuNd It HAHA!)
Yurie simply watches Ariella fr a moment before turning away slightly.
"Yes, we may go." he says.
Ariella nodded and turned. "There's a number of rooms here. You said you preferred rooms in the middle of the house yes?"
She turned down a hall and another until they stood in the center of the mansion. "Take your pick."
Yurie looks around at the rooms and barely even makes a conscious choice.
"Third one down, on the right. Spacious, enough human containment unit for both of us, and there's a trapdoor for easy escapes."
Ariella blinked at him. How did he know all of that? She supposed he had been in the house once before but still. It was unsettling.
"Alright. I'll ask the staff to move my things in there." She tucked her hands behind her back. "They can help you move as well, if you'd like them to."
