I Like To Duel It Duel It! (Bri and Dick)

After the shopping trip she apparated the two of them back to her mansion and they landed on the path smoothly but Briony's legs still buckled a little as she landed, not nearly as used to it as she should be she continued her walk after a brief glance at Richard.

Placing her wand on the door and muttering again it swung open to reveal an empty house, she heard Kayla a little way off inside, probably cleaning and she stepped into the warm living room flinging her coat down on the sofa again.

"Are you sure you want to duel? I will win."

Richard chuckled a little as he walked into the now empty house,

"Now this is a duellist's house..." he mused playfully as he followed her into the living room. He smiled a little and rolled his neck muscles a little,

"I think I can give a fair showing." he replied as he began to roll his shoulders, "My master loved to duel me. Said it made him feel young, because we just ran all the time."

He frowned a little,

"So the whole house?"

Briony smiled as she saw him warm his muscles up and she thought that it might not be such a mad idea and she tried to relax the tension in her neck a little by rolling it around. She looked at Richard and she had a glint in her eye, one that he hadn't seen before, she was going to win, she had to.

"What spells aren't we allowed to use? The Unforgivables and that's that?"

Briony took out her wand and she readied herself for the duel, even if Richard did have the advance in build and speed she knew every inch of this house and she would exploit her strengths.

Richard raised an eyebrow,

"The whole house?" he asked, surprised, "You're giving a Transfiguration master free reign over an arena this big?"

He shook his head,

"Well at least I'll have lots of things to use." he muttered before shrugging, "You can throw the Big Three at me if you want, although I've never been especially good at them myself."

He slowly slid his leather coat, which he had slipped back on for the trip, off so that it hung off of his left arm by the sleeve. He raised he wand to her in the tranditional salute,

"You can go first."

Briony raised her arm as well in the traditional stance and she smiled delicately tying her hair back from her face a smirk on her face, she wondered of all the spells in the world which should she use? Which would bide her an amount of time to get somewhere where she had an advantage?

"Very well, stupify!"

Briony almost grimaced at the weak first attack, she didn't want to go outright the first thing she did so she merely ran past him keeping her gaze on him, she ran up the stairs swiftly, not tripping on anything and she waited at the top turning a corner. Seeing what his next move would be.

Richard chuckled at the weak first attack, swinging the leather coat in front of him in circles. The red spell went into the material of the leather and harmlessly fizzled out, having him a dead material. While he was negating her first spell, he watched out of the corner of his eye as she fled up the stairs. With a grin he threw the coat up into the air and flicked his wand repeatedly at it.

The leather coat flashed briefly before reforming into the form of a hawk, which dove at Briony as he cautiously made his way up the stairs, a flame spell building at his wand tip in case the hawk died faster than expected.

Briony glared as the bird swooped down at her, with a growl she muttered:

"Avada Kedavra!"

She watched as the bird hit the ground dead and she stamped on the stairs so that they became nothing but a flat steep slope, she saw the fire spell building at the tip of Richard's wand and grinned:

"Aguamenti!"

Briony cast the spell, just in case it missed it's target she quickly formed another attack, for a split second she wondered what spell she should use then she quickly aimed her wand a little higher over Richard's head and yelled:

"Serpent sortia!"

Watching as the snake flew out of her wand tip and towards Richard's face.

Richard waved his wand to flick the remaining water from it and looked up as the snake materialised. He growled deep in his throat and weaved away from it at the last second, causing the snake to slam into the floor instead of his face. Deciding to start taking the duel more seriously, he stuck his left hand in his pocket and withdrew it, now wearing a leather glove. He waved his wand as he launched himself into a sprint up the stairs. Drawing back his left hand, the top of the glove extended into a blade, becoming steel instead of leather.

While Briony's attention was probably on his changing glove, Richard fired off a simple banishing charm at her legs in an attempt to take her out at the knees.

Briony growled, she saw that her snake hadn't been effective and she quickly took in what Richard was doing, without fully understanding what he was doing she saw the glove conceal maybe a knife of some kind but as he got closer she ducked and swerved to avoid the blade and kicked him hard in the back of the knee cap.

Just in time she cast 'Protego' to counter the attack from his wand that he launched at her and she quickly regained her composure and quickly yelled:

"Confringo!"

She didn't look to see if the spell had hit it's mark but there was a loud crash so it had obviously hit something, Briony apparated downstairs into the front room where she drew out one of the daggers from the mantle and shoved it into her pocket.

Richard had rolled out of the way of the attack on his knee but in his haste he'd fallen to one knee for a second too long. He managed to move his body out of the way but the confringo spell hit the wall beside his face and that section of wall exploded outwards, propelling pieces of wood and plaster into his face. He roared loudly, mostly in anger although he did now have a rather heavily bleeding cut above his eye. Watching Briony apparate, he scowled to himself and ran over to her apparation point. Just before he reached it, he began to spin.

Apparating at the same place as Briony allowed him to follow her to her destination and he was still spinning as he arrived, but he was releasing a fire spell at the same time. A tongue of flame spun off of his spinning form in waves, making his idly hope that the house was warded more heavily against such attacks when in duelling mode.

Briony looked and she used aguamente again when she saw the fire coming from Richard's wand but she wasn't able to stop all of it only a the flames going directly at her. It was then that she realised what room they were in and without knowing why she jumped in front of the fire in an attempt to stop the flames, she was a little burnt but it was worth it her Grandmother was safe.

Briony let out a cry of pure anger and she got right up close and punched Richard in the face, lashing out with her leg to kick him and sending a wave of crucio his way. For extra measure she sent a blast of everte statum at his chest hopefully knocking him backwards. As soon as he was distracted she got the dagger from under her sleeve and thrust it upwards, sliding it against his skin.

Richard arced his back as, in his attempt to avoid one of her punches, he'd taken the crucio to his thigh. He refused to cry out, even as he fell to the floor writhing in agony. His veins began to show up against his skin, several of the smaller ones bursting under his skin as the spell ripped through his nerves. The spell cut off as she didn't hold it up but he hissed in pain as he received a nasty cut along the length of his chest.

With his recent exposure to the torture curse fresh in his mind, Richard's mind reacted instinctive to being attacked. His eyes flashed slightly as his mentally switched from fight to kill. With a roar, he sent a powerful cutting curse up at her in a wide arc, allowing him time to roll away from her and flip slightly onto his knees. From his position on his knees, he slashed his wand repeatedly at her, sending a barrage of minor cutting curses at her before making his way to his feet. Without a second thought he rushed forwards, jabbing repeatedly at her with the transfigured blade on his left glove. Without checking to see if he'd hit her at all, he waved his wand upwards, causing a thin wall of stone to rise up between them. With a scowl he jumped back and pointed his wand at the wall,

"Reducto!" he shouted, adding extra power behind the curse to shatter and splinter the stone wall into Briony.

Briony didn't let her guard down and as the cutting curse was sent up at her she managed to deflect it with protego but as soon as she had done she looked for a way of attack but something had seemed to have snapped inside Richard and he sent lots of cutting curses up at her, she couldn't deflect them all but she managed some and they were either sent behind her or to the side. She got two nasty cuts to her stomach and she roared again.

The wall was blasted into her and while she was waiting for another attack she was able to make a weak transfiguration of herself lying on the floor, you couldn't tell it wasn't her from where Richard was and she quickly apparated away. Looking behind her she let her jaw drop, the picture, was torn, her Grandmother was gone, nothing there but a blank black canavas.

She didn't stay in the same place for long she apparated back up to her library and mostly healed her wounds on the way, they were still tender and sore however she let her sadness turn to anger and she readied herself for another attack.

Richard sent a weak banishing charm at what appeared to be Briony's prone form and growled when it crumbled into nothing. He shook his head and was about to stalk out of the room when he happened to notice the damage that his cutting curses had done to the wall. And to a certain painting.

He stopped in his tracks, his eyes going wide as he lost the crazed tint to his eyes.

He'd slashes the painting of Briony's grandmother.

That brought him down from his adrenaline-fueled rage faster than any calming potion or cheering charm. The crash from the adrenaline high shook his body, rushing to the pit of his gut. He bent over and vomited a little as the adrenaline rushed out of his system, hurting his system as it left. It was pulling himself out of the bent position that he noticed something which he'd not noticed in his adrenaline fueled state. The cut that Briony had managed to give him was deeper towards the bottom of his stomach, which was now bleeding rapidly. Strangely he could still feel no pain from the wound. Numbly he reached down at touched the deeper end of the wound. His fingers came back almost black with blood. With dulled curiousity, he leant forwards to try and see into the deeper part of the cut. His sense of balance had apparently left him, causing him to fall to the ground on his side. His addled brain couldn't work out what the problem was however until he saw a slither of bone and something slightly pink in the deeper part of the gash.

"Oh right..." he gurgled, blood leaking from his mouth now, "It's my stomach..."

Briony had waited there for a good few minutes and there was no attack coming, she wondered if he was having trouble finding her she would soon put that right, the state of mind she was in she was up for killing anything and anyone. Softly she walked back down to the living room and saw him lying on the floor, she merely stood there and glared at him, waiting to see if he was going to move but the blood leaking from his mouth suggested not.

"You are a fool."

Briony said coldly as she walked into the kitchen, going to the cupboard and getting out her bottle of dittany. Roughly flipping him over she poured some onto his wound and watched as the flesh healed, when she was satisfied she walked out of the room and left him alone.

Richard hissed lightly in pain as his wound forced itself closed. He didn't watch at Briony left the room, he simply looked up at the ceiling. He was only just starting to feel his legs again. With difficulty, he sat up. Even just sitting caused his world to spin and he found himself gasping a little as the nerves throughout his body protested, reminding him of the crucio he'd caught to the thigh. One look at the now torn portrait forced him to push himself further.

Holding onto the sofa tightly, he slowly pulled himself to his feet. He wavered on the spot for a minute before making his way over to the fireplace. Staggering drunkenly, he had to lurch forwards and grab hold of the mantle to keep himself from falling into the fire itself. Swallowing a little, he looked up at one of the torn halves of the painting, where he saw the top of a cowering woman's head. He bowed his head,

"I-I'm s-sorry..." he almost fell over again, but forced himself to look up into the frightened eyes of the old lady in the painting, "I-I'm s-so... ah... s-so sorry..."

Staggering away from the painting, he picked his coat up from off the floor, having reverted back to being a coat from a hawk. He slowly put it on before he very unsteadily made his way out of the room to find Briony. Finding her, he stopped, his words failing him. Unable to think of anything else to say he managed to stutter out,

"I-I'm s-sorry... I have... hurt you...la mia rosa..." he muttered before reaching into his pocket to try and find something to turn into a portkey.

Briony growled as she heard him talk to her grandmother, she slapped him across the face, her eyes filled with silent rage her voice tinged with it as she almost spat out.

"How dare you speak to her! How dare you!"

Briony tried to contain her anger but she couldn't she could see that Richard wasn't feeling very well and a small part of her told her to calm down and sort this out but the main part was screaming at her to punch his lights out. She looked at the painting and she saw that her Grandmother was still there and a wave of relief washed over her, she did not however calm down.

"I let you into my house, I trust you, and this is how you repay me? Twice Richard. Twice in two days you have destroyed me! You lied to me. You said you'd protect me, and you haven't you've made everything WORSE!"

Briony screamed this last word and punched the wall crumbling the plaster.

"What do you have to say?! Huh? You dare to call me your rose after what you've done to me! Explain how any of what you have done had been protecting me! TELL ME!"

Richard felt his level-headedness return in a rush as she screamed at him,

"I DON'T KNOW!" he screamed, backing away from her as he did so, "I don't know..."

He looked at the cuts he'd given her and he felt tears well up in his eyes as he took a deep, gulping breath,

"I want the best for you... but all I seem to be able to do is hurt you." he closed his eyes, "I want to protect you and I have failed."

He swallowed hard,

"It's just like before..." he muttered, his memories rushing at him, causing some of the tears to leak out of his eyes, "I love... and it hurts people."

He opened his eyes and slowly took out his wand, making slow circles with it to heal the cuts he'd given her,

"Twice I have broken you." he closed his eyes, "I accept that. That is my only regret in this life."

He shook his head,

"I've killed people, in bad ways, but I feel more regret for hurting you than for killing them. I feel more regret for hurting you than having to kill two of my sisters, to spare them being raped by my brothers." he blinked his eyes clear of tears, "I know what I did hurt you Briony. So I ask you to forgive me."

He turned away slightly,

"I know that is not going to happen so I would ask you to kill me." he breathed in deeply, "I fear I cannot live without you Briony. I told you that I loved you and I meant it. From the bottom of my soul, I meant it. If you ask me to never so much as look at you again... I will obey. But I will die, every second I live knowing that I hurt the woman that I loved."

He turned back to her,

"So I ask you simply... forgive me. Put any provisions on it you want but forgive me, please."

Briony listened to Richard talk and with every word all she seemed to do was get more and more angry and upset with every syllable she heard. She looked up into his eyes and her own were more filled with tears now than with anything else, she wanted to forgive him she really did but she didn't know if she could bring herself to trust him again after she had been upset by him twice in the past two days.

Briony flinched when he brought out his wand, she didn't know what he was doing.

Sighing a little she collapsed onto the floor, her knees bent at an awkward angle and she buried her face in her hands. Without meaning to she let everything out, all her anger now turned to sadness, the air rang with deep sobs and they racked her body as she choked them out of her throat. Deep rolling tears fell down her face and landed on the carpet.

"I want to, I want to so badly Richard but...I'm afraid. I can't do this any more. I just can't! Please, please forgive me but I need a little bit more than your word to forgive you. I don't know what I need exactly but, I can't trust you...not for a while at least."

Briony took deep breaths trying to calm herself down, there were no more sobs but the tears kept coming down her face.

"It's frightening Richard, I shouldn't mean that much to you! We met two days ago...I never believed something like this could happen but now it has it's scary. I never expected to love anyone this quickly..."

She wiped the tears, but of course, she still had more to say.

"What about me has caused this drastic turn around? Surely I am as at fault as you, the painting I suppose can be fixed but I shouldn't have stabbed you."

Briony sat there on the floor for a while before she stood up shakily and walked over to the portrait, she couldn't care less about her own wounds, there were more that she had concealed, she hadn't wanted Richard to see how much he had hurt her. When the wall had broken on top of her the wounds in her stomach had opened up and while she apparated she made them worse once more, little cuts became bigger and had bled somewhat.

"Shhh, everything's alright." She muttered to her grandmother

Although he'd been trying to prepare for it, her declaration of mistrust cut him deeper than any knife could have. He physically winced at her words before trying to reign in his emotions, something which required him to take several deep and shuddering breaths,

"I understand..." he whispered eventually, the words seemingly burning his tongue as he spoke them. He didn't want to lose her trust! If he lost her trust then how could she ever love him? He swallowed a little, "When you figure out... what it will take for me to trust you... tell me and I'll gladly do it."

He gave a hollow chuckle, the sound acting more as a way of vocalising his hurt than as an expression of mirth,

"You're frightened?" he sighed a little in relief, "I'm glad I'm not the only one then. I was afraid the day we met. From the moment I met you, I felt a strange stirring in me that I hadn't experienced before. By the end of the first night my feelings had welled up and come to the front of my mind. I automatically went into a panic and that was why I left disengaged that first night. After that... well it was like I was in a haze. I had accepted this wealth of emotions I felt around you and it made my mind unfocused. Then later, my blood, snapped me out of the haze and into a much more simple mindset. I was afraid of the malestrom of emotions I felt around you and I latched onto the simpler emotion in my fear. It is the greatest mistake of my life."

Richard shook his head sharply,

"No!" he closed his eyes tight, "Please don't ever blame yourself for my actions. My actions are my own and only I am responsible for them. You are responsible... only for removing the block I'd put on my emotions to keep myself from being hurt. You are responsible for setting my soul free and allowing me to experience the purest emotion of love. You... are the single greatest thing that has ever happened to me."

He nodded slightly towards the painting,

"If you'll let me... I'd like to repair the painting." he swallowed a little, "I also know a little blood magic... it will protect her from any spell for as long as the caster lives. I might not be around forever but I'd like to offer the protection to the painting. I have wronged a kind old woman as much as I have wronged you."

Briony shook her head frantically and stayed in between him and the portrait of her Grandmother no way was he going to touch that! Not again, not in a million years. She would repair it herself by her own hand, and she could perform some blood magic but it wasn't really needed as long as she was around this painting would be. She would do anything, to protect it. She should have put some sort of protective charm on it, but stupidly she hadn't.

"No. Thank you. I'll do it myself."

Briony took down the painting gently from the wall and smiled at her Grandmother as she did so, placing her on the sofa and looking all over her room for her wand which she had left somewhere. Finding it eventually she had to stop take a deep breath and wait for the pain in her stomach to go before moving again. She hoped the look of pain on her face wouldn't show.

"If you want to be useful. Clean up your puke, that's one thing I cannot clean. Makes me feel sick."

She tried to smile but she was in no fit state to. Her Grandmother was the most precious thing in this world to her and she had almost lost her, twice, in the space of 10 minutes. Sighing she turned to Richard, thinking she had better say what was on her mind.

"I love you too, you know that, would you still be alive now if I didn't love you? No. I just...don't know what to say or do to be honest. What now? Do we go back to normal?"

Richard silently waved his wand at his earlier mess, vanishing the vomit with the silent cleaning spell. He looked at the painting for a second or two before closing his eyes and letting out a sigh,

"Do you really think we could go back to normal?" he frowned slightly, "I'd love to go back to how we were just a few hours ago. But... I think that stray cutting curse has changed things."

He looked at her with a weak smile,

"You know I love you. You know I'm sorry." he sighed a little, "It depends entirely on whether or not you can look at me and see the person who loves you and not the person who hurt you."

Briony couldn't possibly feel any lower than she did right now, she had ruined everything that she had between her and Richard in about an hour and soon he would be leaving not wanting to spend time with her any more and it would be all her fault. There would be nothing she could do about it.

"If, if you want to go, I wont blame you. I want things to go back to normal I really do...because, to have felt like this, and to loose it because of something I've done or something I've said will be unbearable."

She looked deep into Richards eyes and walked up to him, she placed her hands on his chest and moved them up so they connected behind his head and she stood on her tip toes, hugging him softly. She knew that it was a complete accident what he did, the painting could be fixed and he knows that she is annoyed. They'd be fine.

"You are, no matter what you do, always the man I love in my eyes."

Richard sighed a little and shook his head a little,

"I've told you Briony... it is nothing you have done, it was my fault. It was my action and my mistake." he closed his eyes tightly to keep from crying, "I don't want to go. God... it sounds so selfish but I don't want to go."

He stiffened slightly at the hug initially before he relaxed into it a little. Her words however, broke through the bank of his emotions and he found himself hugging her closer as he began to sob and cry,

"I-I don't d-deserve y-you..." he managed to get out from between sobs, "I've done bad things... not just to you but to other people... I don't deserve you... I'm not a good enough person for you..."

He pulled himself back a little, still crying but no longer sobbing, and cupped her cheek with his hand,

"I don't deserve you... I love you so much but I know that I will never be good enough for you. But..." he smiled a little, "I swear I'll try to be good enough for you."

Briony was shocked when she heard Richard begin to cry, she couldn't help but wonder if she had been a little too hard on him, a little too harsh. She sighed a little and hugged him tighter, laying her head on his chest and listening to his heart beat, as he talked Briony found herself becoming a little bit cynical, these were the things she wished people would say to her but they never had. Richard obviously meant it but, still, Briony didn't know how to react.

"Then stay Richard, stay with me."

Briony said simply, smiling into his hand as he cupped her face, she gently kissed his hand and to stop any more emotional outbursts she stood up on her tip toes again and presses her lips to Richard's. She placed her hands on either side of his head and kissed him deeply, nipping his lip slightly.

"Que sera sera." Briony grinned "What is done is done, let us not suffer for it any longer. Richard we have both done wrong, we have both killed if anything we are both deserving of each other, the difficult times we have been through."