unlikely acolyte

days passed, francesca was restless. she no longer spoke of these nightmares that once plagued her, drained her face of all colour as the topic passed between them at breakfast. in fact, she seemed almost eager to kill time, the girl would practically live in the library, flitting between bookshelf and desk, her face always buried in a different tome; all old and leather-bound, some having intricate gold lining on the spines.

it was nothing too out of the ordinary for her, as gabriel thought - he knew her well enough to recognise this as one of her "phases", for lack of a better word, where she'd become so utterly engrossed in something that it became the near exclusive topic of conversation with her - and if she was asked, god forbid, to elaborate on said topic, her eyes lit up in a way that rivaled the sun and stars, her brain positively buzzing at a million miles a minute. one would wonder how she even has the capacity to store so much information, and her guess was as good as anyone else's.

that current topic, of course, was vampires. but it seemed.. different, this time. usually, and gabriel could testify to this, francesca would be restless with anticipation in wanting to spill her heart and soul on every little detail of what she had read the day before, or sometimes even bringing her research along with her to the dining hall, eyes laser focused on dated texts despite all orders from the teaching staff to put it away. she didn't even hear them half the time, nothing else existed when her entire self was absorbing information like a sponge. but no - this, was very different. instead of the usual eagerness to tell her brother all about what she was reading, she kept it all to herself. locked safely in the depths of her mind, like a middle school girl with her beloved diary of secrets. basically, if he so much as walked by the girl whilst she had a book open, he'd often get startled by the abrupt noise of it slamming shut, dust getting everywhere with the amount of force she put into it. she was dead set on keeping whatever information she picked up private, like it was some sort of life changing revelation. god- knowing her, she probably thought it was. the more protective she was, the more suspicious her brother grew, prying eyes probably trying to catch her off guard.

simply put it, what got him most intent on finding out just exactly what she was playing at, was when her stand began snaking its way up the walls at any sign of company, watchful eyes scoping the area like a hawk.

he had decided to ask her about it one long overdue, rather muggy tuesday.

"fran," he caught her arm, stopping his sister in her apparently hurried tracks. "could we chat, for a second?"
she turned to face him, brushing the creases out of her skirt. she had her leather satchel across one shoulder, a mixture of schoolbooks and old scriptures weighing it down.
"you're not in trouble, don't worry-- i just wanted to ask about something."
she raised her eyebrows slightly. "you sound like a teacher." he rolled his eyes at the comment.
"just come with me," gabriel sighed, grip still firm on the girl's arm as he essentially dragged her through the first floor corridor.

his brisk walking suddenly grinding to a halt at an unoccupied corner almost had francesca fall over, it was so abrupt. she protested, insisting that she's "not a ragdoll," and that his pace was "unreasonably fast enough to leave skid marks". gabriel sighed at the comments, unamused as always.

the girl glanced up at her brother once they stopped, the latter not making eye contact as per usual. he didn't really look at people unless necessary, or when it was deemed polite - admittedly, she was in the same boat; it was natural for either of them to just look anywhere other than the person they were talking to, really.
"can this be quick?" she huffed. "i'm in between classes, you know."
gabriel rolled his eyes. "since when did you care about getting to class on time?"
"i don't. but i know for a fact that you do." she grinned, lightly jabbing gabriel with her elbow. he simply scowled in response.

an air of silence lingered between the two, gabriel's restlessness still very evident in his features. wouldn't he have chided her about how she never takes anything seriously, how needlessly annoying she can be, by now? she bit her lip.
"go on, then. what were you going to ask that was so important, anyway?"
"your dreams," he replied, without a beat. detached. didn't care. the way he almost switched off his emotions as soon as he got to where he wanted in a conversation was irritating. she couldn't read him for the life of her, god. fuck off, gabe. "the recurring ones. can you tell me about them?"