FLASH FORWARD [Open to anyone CLOSE to Alexandra]

"You-" she felt her pocket, it was indeed empty. "What the hell is your problem?"

Unintentionally, her voice rose just above the ordinary volume, and Misery had to take a moment to calm again, before continuing in a whisper. In that moment, she summoned up such a glare that it would have burned through walls, was such a thing a possibility.

"Why do you take everything I say as an offense? Aren't I the hurt party here?"
She saw them. Saw Ryo and Cazz again, burning as brightly as ever inside his mind. When did that idiot get a permission to cry? Misery wanted hers, too.

Yet as he rid his features of emotions again she felt nothing but disappointment. She wanted to go back to being the friend he could rely on, and ask the most ridiculous or most dangerous things to help with, to perform, and laugh it off even if they went wrong.
"So give it. Shove it up your arse. Drape it around your neck and drown yourself with it. See if I care."

"What is my problem?" he restated, an angry glare on his face. "My problem is you. Every time I see you, you are either drunk, about to get drunk, or waking up with a hang over the size of that big head of yours." It was true, he could not stand seeing her, or Leoine for that matter drinking, because they drink it in excess, but that was not his real problem was. His real problem is, after Cazz did what she did, he would not allow anyone close to him again, because that always ends in disaster,

"The words that sprays out of your mouth, are always full of bile and disgust. You have little respect for others, because you have no respect for yourself, and I am tired of listening to it."

(Drink in excess...? I'd specifically written before that this was the first time she'd gotten drunk in years. Just a point of information)

Alexandra had not been asleep at all. The effects of alcohol had worn off completely as she over-heard their argument. She stood up swiftly, all dizziness forgotten and she strode to the door and opened it. Her eyes were cold, showing nothing. After these years of being hurt and having Luke play the victim, she was getting tired of having to pick up the pieces. Always, he put the blame on someone other than himself.

"If you feel the need to continue insulting the one friend who has remained steady in the tide of changes amongst us, I am afraid you shall have to revise your past thoughts and words. I am tired of having to play the middle-man between you two." her words whipped down the hall through the open door.
"We are in our mid-twenties. Leave these childish feuds behind if you please." her wand was out, gleaming in the dim light.

"Hn," a noise left her, close to a stifled laugh, soon transforming into a couple of bitter chuckles. "Charna's guts, Brown! And here I thought, in so many years we've known each other, that you actually learned something about me. But you never even bothered, did you?"

"Well then. This problem shan't bother you any more. I'll stay out of your sight completely. I respect those worthy of it. And this is how much I respect myself - I shall not be an object to be toyed around with, played for a friend and overall insulted. This problem-"

She took a couple of steps towards him, closing off the distance between them. Her - not much, but still - shorter frame glared up to his, as she made care to make every word clear.
"Not. Your. Problem."

Ena's voice registered in her mind, but Misery paid it no further notice for the time being. Her eyes were searching through the man's almost desperately, trying to find the Xander she once knew. Not the stranger that stood before her.

(That drunk comment is a bit much..)

(Yeah... If Luke doesn't suddenly have an epiphany, I'm afraid Alexandra will have to kick you out until you cool down.)

(Hey, its been Eight years since we rp. We jumped in the future, and I do not know every detail, okay. I am just winging it. lol)

Alexander was not threaten to how close she was, or the glare, who could make the sun seem dim by comparison. For the moment, it was only him and her speaking. No sound, nor voice came through, registered to him, only hers.

A nagging feeling he had, every time he saw Misery, came twirling at the pit of his stomach. Usually he could ignore it, dismiss it, but it was coming on stronge. Stronger than he felt before, but his anger masked it. "Even If I do not see you walking through these halls, still your stench remands."

(I did mention it earlier^^)

Her fist clenched on her wand but over the years she had learnt patience. Seeing two of her closest friends from Hogwarts fight this way both pained and angered her to see. The banishment had not ended for Misery, so she invited her to stay eight years ago. It was safer for Luke to stay at her house than anywhere else, so she invited him as well. But she wanted peace. After working so hard to get peace in the Order, she had found it mattered little if she had none at home. Yet if she stopped the argument before it's peak, this would continue to no end.
'Yet again, I shall pick up the scraps. As I have time and time again. And Misery wonders why I have no life outside of work.' she thought grimly.

"That could be dealt with easily, scenario - me, ripping your nose off," her glare faltered as she got lost in the thought, apparently quite satisfied with that sort of arrangement. "I mean hey, I could always leave, but what fun would that be?"

Letting herself fall into shadow for the most part, Misery only let some of her facial features show, her eyes glowing at him daringly. She still stood close, a half-smirk gracing her barely visible lips while she spoke, "Finally, if you so desperately wish to avoid me, you can always do the leaving part."

"COULD YOU TWO JUST FUCKING KISS AND MAKE UP ALREADY?" she yelled, not able to handle things anymore. "I'm tired of this. What's been going on for both of you to be so hostile? Luke, it's more than just Cazz tearing you up. It's been seven years. Misery, the awkwardness doesn't just extend to 'not knowing' him anymore. What's going on?" Alexandra demanded.

"You know full well I am wanted, not only by the Death Eaters but by the Ministry of Magic in four other countries," his anger flaired up. He took a step forward. Not even six inches a part. "You would like to see me kill. Wouldn't you? Goodbye 'Xander'"

"You-" But he never finish what he was saying. It felt as if a truck rammed him in the stomach. Surprise of what Alexandra was saying. "You-" his voice was shaken more than it had been in awhile, but still no complete sentence formed.

(Why do I suddenly feel all the pressure's been carefully packaged and sent to my care?)

"I said my goodbyes to you long ago," she conquered, the frustration and the hurt she'd been trying to deny all building up and threatening to shatter her voice. Her stance. "There's been dozens of reports of your death, here and there, wizards and witches either boasting or wishing for it to be so. Or have you not already calculated the impact it had and has on your supposed friends?"

The yell startled her, and Misery let the shadow abandon her, standing unprotected between two fires and seeing no escape from her current position. The idiot man before her looked surprised, and the idiot woman behind her demanded answers Misery had no way of answering.
"You stay away, you hear?" her voice cracked, coming out weak and fearful. What kind of bizarre scenario had she found herself in?

He wanted to argue some more, but his voice got lost in the shifting tides of what was transpiring before him. The fires of anger turn to ash and soot. The blood drain from his face, making him ghostly white. He was squeezing his wand so tight, that his fingers started to tingle.

"What?" was the only word he could mustered toward Alexandra.

(Because it WAS until you sent it to mine... And I shall now send it back to Luke'sXD)

"You two have some serious explaining to do. Now would be a good time to start." she growled quietly. Alexandra wasn't sure who the last comment was for, but at this moment in time, she honestly didn't care. If they didn't explain their behavior before dawn, she would have to pack her bags and spend at least the next week at the Order until they sought her out and explained things. She didn't ask for much, but what she did ask for she had to drag out of them.

Hearing Luke, she rounded on him, "What is going on?" she pronounced each word with deliberation.

(Aha. I like this arrangement.)

Pressing her lips into a tight line, Misery turned, moving away from the man and glancing up at Ena. "You really have great timing."

Well, at least no one got hurt... much. She refused to look back, now that she had stepped away, but kept an ear open in case he had something smart to say in reply to Ena's inquiry. Which she doubted. Not really, but that's what she told herself. Also, made a note to herself to slip away when possible, hoping to avoid that sort of interrogation.

He wanted to say 'none of your god damn business,' but `it got stuck in his throat. Finally he got enough courage and demeanor back, and said, "It is nothing," in a very emotionless voice. Like always he was being evasive. not wanting to talk was for him the best medicine, but that nagging feeling was still present in the pit of his stomach.

"It's never anything is it? Nothing makes you insult your most loyal friends." she retorted coldly. The grip on her wand grew tighter as she restrained her anger further.

Anger heated up once more, but it was mixed more emotions that he could not describe, but his voice remand steady, calm. "That is my point exactly. I am curse. Everyone who was ever close to me, is either dead, insane, or fallen. Everything I touch turn to ashes, and I will not allow my problems befall on you," his eyes turn to Misery, quenching the heated anger instantly. "And you."

"This is going nowhere. You know what," Misery gave the slightest of shrugs, casting her gaze towards Alexandra. "Just leave it be. The day this begins making sense, I'll be able to say 'I'm too old for this shit'."

Now addressing the man, but still not looking his way, "I'll honour my end of bargain and stay out of sight. You just keep... doing whatever it is you're doing with your life."

His curse statement sparked irritation within her. Who was he to speak of curses? Each name in her family was a curse of it's own, and every child fought against it. Who was he to simply give up, under a superstition of that sort?
"Perhaps you should have sought a counter-curse, before locking yourself away to despair. If you were blind to see that you were hurting us more by doing that, then.."
She had nothing more to say to him.

(gotta go now. Just imagine Alexandra seething silently in the background. You know what to do Luke. Love you all, bye~)

(Somehow that sounds ominous..)

He shook his head. "I never once wept for losing Cazz. Never wept for what she did to me, Never spiral out of control when all around me, things started to crash around me..." He wanted to stop but as he said out loud, "Misery deserves to know." His heart was beating fast, his throat was dry as the sahara desert, but he went on.

" After losing all that, I sought the only person, who has knew me the best. I sought you out. You the one that did not let me go down this path once again, but-but- than it started to change. I kept on denying it, pushing it away, ignoring it, but it was this nagging feeling, so I turn to what I promise Aly along time to her. I ran from you, to keep the Oaths I gave to her, to shield me from those feelings. I was afraid of them, and what they meant. I was afraid of you, so I turn to my work. The tool I became good at under your guidance. Used my skills, to help bring piece to the world, but also to shield me away from you."

He sighed as his rant came to a close. The only thing he had left was. "I thought you deserved better than me, Misery."
(told her she is trying to play match maker. I guess I will appease the audience).

(Fanservice! For.. the one fan xD)

"Why?" the first word that she spoke slowly as he fell silent. "You loved her."
It was true that Cazz did her share and quite a bit of terrible things, but they were still lovers. Lovers always stay in each other's hearts, no matter what or who comes after. For a reason, at least, to remind one that they'd changed, for better or worse, having known that person.

Misery though over his words again. They seemed so... unreal. To realize what she knew until then had been a lie... a pathetic attempt to push her away, but not actual hate... was that it? And afraid of her... just what sort of person did he think she was?

"I do deserve better," she decided finally, lifting up her gaze to meet his. "The way you've been treating me this past years, Maker knows I do deserve better than you. Therefore the only problem I suppose there is-"

"I don't want better."

"For a time I thought I was. I thought the earth did not move without her say so, or the stars twinkled just for her. But remember when you told me about your adventures years back, the places you have scene, buildings in their height stood grand, but over they years it chipped away leaving only ruins left behind. Even though I denied it to myself, deep down the truth was their all along, I just needed to see it for myself."

Once again, Alexandra's glares where not their, the rain drops or the thunder storms could not be heard. He and Misery was all that mattered.

For the longest time after these feelings for Misery started to flourish exponentially, he ran, for the reasons why he stated earlier, because of the curse, but also he did not want Misery to be the rebound girl, that everyone always falls back on to 'recover.' To him that was worse than distancing her from him.

"I am sorry. I will let you-" but he had to do a double take. Did he hear right. "What?" But Luke knew perfectly what came out of her mouth.

(this makes me so happy)

Alexandra stood there not daring to believe her ears. Perhaps she and Ouriel were right after all despite their occasional doubts. The vice-like grip on her wand had slackened and the expression of irritation faded into a near happy smugness.

(Too bad. By tomorrow all it is will have become a diiiistant possible memory. Or future possible memory. Whichever. It sort of clashes with another idea of yours truly.)

Brushing a strand of her fair hair behind her ear, Misery let her gaze fall, once more feeling rather awkward.
"I don't want it," for her, just Xander, the simple Xander was the best she could get. Not a handsome gentleman to treat her like a princess. Not a nice company to offer pleasant conversations every once in a while. She wanted - needed his stubborn nature, the smart replies, even the arguments. Not large ones, but debates over things they were both familiar with and could keep up without really getting mad. Most of all, his smile. The one that said 'hey, we've lived through things so far, how hard can pulling through this one be?'

"I suck at feelings. You know that, right?"