The Coniflict Explanation ( Cern / Vin ) 8

[Shava]

Vincent had chosen a corner of the courtyard easily seen from both the castle entrance and the outdoors and wide enough for two to sit in without being near at all either. It was going to be a tricky meeting for sure, especially as he had to be very very careful how he handled her little brother. While he was sure logic wise he could easily dominate the other boy, he needed something more subtle in the extreme. Unfortunately, he did not have the time to craft something truly epic and convoluted, but he had to try. Thus he sat there, wand up his sleeve and looked out into the tree border, separating the courtyard from the lawns and thought, carefully.

He hadn't been there but an hour when the younger man entered from the castle and stared at him warily. Vin resisted turning even though he felt the focus on him and knew eyes were upon him as the sound of someone walking through instead came closer. Then he did turn his head and nodded at the young man approaching. Cern for his part hesitated mid step, almost as if he wanted to leave quickly. "Alright, Moon, I'm here." Vin motioned at the other space, leaving it up to him how far he sat away and nearly grinned as the boy chose the farthest corner. It was amusing how easily it was to gain a reputation in this place... "I appreciate you coming, Summerby, I really do. I don't want to cause your sister more pain then this stress has already caused her." Cern frowned, sure that was a poke at him, but Vin held up a hand to forestall comment. "I don't want this to turn into a blame game, Summ-- look, can I call you Cern? It would be a lot easier. That's a mouthful of a name just like mine. Call me Vincent if that's okay with you."

Of course, it made things much easier. Cern nodded and said "All right, M-- Vincent." Nodding, Vin let it pass; it didn't solve anything, it just made it easier to deal. "Right then, I don't blame you for your reactions, okay? If it was my older sister Char I'd be mad as heck and worried as hell about her being with anyone. Fortunately for me, she's not settled down yet. But although I have not asked Keela about it, I suspect you are going entirely off rumors, right? Any facts directly? Observation?" Scowling at the immediate thrust into the heart of his weak point, Cern objected on general principals. "Maybe so, but there's more then rumors. There's also eight girls I've heard about who've been talking. So the rumors have teeth." Vin shook his head amused and annoyed at the same time. "What if I told you only two of those have teeth? The others are making up stuff with no basis for proof? And I'm not denying those two, mind you, I hadn't met your sister at that point. At least three of them are from the same time as the real two."

Cern frowned. "Now, add into that that in the dorm I have enemies. I don't give a damn about all the pureblood nonsense, but I have a family line to keep up for my mother's sake, not my dad's. See, my grandfather locked her into a real mess of a curse which I'm not going to explain cause it's none of your bees-wax, but if I don't keep the line going she dies." Now Cern's eyes opened wider and Vin nodded. "Seriously? What father does that to his--" Vin interrupted, mostly because it would be something he didn't want to get into right now. "Oh he was more then a jerk, trust me. Mom spit on his grave and got the headstone removed. ANYWAY, that's just to say I don't give a damn about the blood mess, but then again I don't have a choice. I planned on going to another continent to find a wife cause really, politics of blood here is a mess." On that Cern actually felt the same not that he had ever expected to hear it from a Snake.

"So we came into conflict when your sister decided to kiss me while she was skipping stones. Did she tell you that part?" Surprised, Cern shook his head a moment. "Wait wait, she said about the kissing, but skipping stones? What?" Vin nodded, "I'd never seen it done. I was down there sitting in the quiet when I saw her skipping stones. Caught my attention as I'd never seen it done before." That made Cern tilted his head, getting into this without meaning to. "Never skipped stones? Man, I've been doing that since I was little!" 'Not as well as Keela...' he thought to himself. "Yeah well, it was new to me. Anyway it caught my attention and I asked her about it. And we got started talking and then out of the blue I must have done something, who knows what, she suddenly all out kissed me." He shrugged, giving the other an apologetic look.

There was no need to explain why he mentioned it. Even as guys on opposite sides of the fence they both knew what that one meant!

"So that's how it started. I've been very careful to not push her and she spent most of the last year not understanding why I was still interested." They traded a look of such sameness that Cern had to shake his head to remember who he was talking to and about what. It seemed surreal to be here with a guy he thought was really nasty bad and hear him coming across like a semi-normal guy caught in a situation. Cern could almost sympathize, almost. But it was his sister after all...

[Shava]

Cern was finding himself more comfortable then he had imagined and it irritated him. In an effort to take back the high hill, he said accusingly "But you have seduced her, Vincent, I'm not sure I can forgive that." He didn't dare mention he thought Kee was really in love, that would be as much a betrayal as anything else he could do. "You pursued her into giving in, that's what you have done. How can I pass that up? I can't." His opponent looked at him across the bench and shook his head again; Cern had so few experiences with the opposite gender not being his sister that it was almost embarrassing in a way. He had to be old enough; what made him so shy? "I keep forgetting, Cern, that you are in your first relationship. You really don't have a clue about reading women who are not related to you." Cern colored, embarrassed, but Vin waved away a response before he could make one.

"Your sister wasn't running from me, Cern, she was running from facing herself." that stopped the boy with confusion easily. Vin didn't let it last long. "You didn't experience the kiss. It was full of her very real emotions cause she didn't know anything about holding back. Most of the time we were just friends and she was trying to not be found, I think she was trying to figure out why she was feeling the way she was. When we got to talking, she realized how much we think alike on things, that we love a lot of the same things." He was still leaning back against the stone relaxed, watching the other mull all this over. So far he had managed to put them on even ground, throw a lot of Cern's emotions out the window with reason, but it wouldn't last forever. It gave him however a place to strike at the heart of the matter though and that was what Vin had needed from the beginning.

Before the other could work his way through all the logic, Vin spoke, leaning forward, his hands palm up as if beseeching the other to listen which said body language did very well. "Cern, I think your sister is the one for me, I really do. Since that first kiss I have not seen any others, have avoided girls who approached me about possible dates. Every restriction she has placed on our friendship I've accepted. I've never tried to pressure her into doing anything but spend time around me, get to know me better. She now knows things some of my siblings are not even aware of! Now does that sound like a user, a guy out to ruin a girl's reputation? Does that sound like the guy from the rumors you keep talking about? No?" Poleaxed again for the second time in twenty-four hours, Cern had already heard and seen that Keela was in love with Vincent without a doubt in his mind. Hearing the description of what Vin was saying made him think twice about him as well. If he wasn't in love, and he hadn't said that Cern noticed, he was fixated. "But..." It just didn't seem right, he knew he must be missing something! "But you slept with her! you seduced her somehow!"

Vincent laughed, not cruelly, but with both amusement and the sound of growing success in it. "Oh Cern, she didn't tell you?" The other boy hesitated, on the edge of belief and looking for something to grasp onto. "She asked me to. She was the one who asked me if it was all right if we slept together." It was so believable and unbelievable at the same time, Cern's jaw dropped open and he just stared at Vincent, unable to struggle against this really surprising information. "I made her promises early on that I would never push her into anything she didn't really want unless she was avoiding me. She was always in control of the brakes, always. If she ever had told me to stop something I would have, instantly. The only kind of partnership I want is one based in trust. Those past relationships were wasting time, looking for the right girl." He shook his head and faked a sad look, very believably.

"I regret those, a lot," he blatantly lied, concealing the look on his face. "I was bored and they left themselves open by expressing interest in me, looking for more. I took advantage of them, Cern, it's true. I didn't care about them in the slightest besides what they could do for me." Truth mixed with lies made it very easy to establish one thing and then believe the whole as Vin well knew. "But Cern, Keela is everything! She's fun and clever and going where she wants to! She's already making steps to do what she loves and I want to be there for her, help her stretch for those experiences of a lifetime! I love her independence, her kindness; I want to be there for her so she can feel free to lean on me while taking life by the horns!" He let his face light up more, though he didn't realize how much it showed. Vincent wasn't so much in love with Keela that he couldn't still manipulate, he just ignored what that manipulation was releasing in himself as well.

He was smart enough to know the only way he could keep a girl like Keela for sure was to be in love so there was no fakery in his voice and actions. He understood about the human mind and a woman's instincts enough to let himself be vulnerable in that part of his mind and heart, to shield only the long term planning part of his mind. While not as skilled at compartmentalizing emotions like the great Draco Malfoy could, he could do some of it and he set aside his logical mind to guide the rest. Control, it was about control in all things and all ways if possible. And that was why he let himself slide into feeling love, to fall into her more and more while keeping part of himself a bit free. And it worked in that his body language in his face and emotions rang truer then a con artist could achieve because there was no semblance in this part. Vincent Silver-Moon was in love with Keela Summerby and Cern could not help but read that now that his eyes were open enough to see for the first time.

"But you do realize it's still in her court, right?" Vincent said, his light dimming a bit as he looked at Cern. "I can tell she is not sure yet, she still hesitates and I let her. I've offered to tell her anything she wants to know, but she's afraid to ask I think. I'm there for her Cern, one hundred percent" another lie "but until she believes with her mind not just her heart how can she accept me for who I am? Yeah, I know the reputation of my house and me, but you have Slytherin aunts Cern! Have they ever treated their family bad, or do they protect you more fiercely against others? Don't they defend the ones they love, their family, with all they have? So what makes you think I can't be the same? Why don't you grant me that same faith, Cern, believe that I am worth being loved and just maybe your sister has done what you thought impossible?" The boy stared at him for nearly ten seconds before Vincent saw the flush come up his neck and knew he had scored a deep point and one the young man now felt immensely guilty over...

And just like that, it was all over. Touchdown. There was clean up still to do, of course, but he'd broken the younger boy and knew it, cracked his faith that he was right and could now use that guilt to head the other way, turning Cern around. What better tool could he hope for but the girl's own protective brother? No spells, no blackmail, no torture; he had the boy now on his way to being convinced and only with the power of his mind. Vin felt a second thrill starting down deep, even if this domination was not going to be as complete as keela's would be eventually...