The Age of The Masrui

“Why’re you helping me?” Karsi asked softly as she took the clothes, the acts of kindness genuinely baffling her.

"Oh uhm..." Marlowe hesitated, shifting her weight a little bit uncomfortably as she wrestled with how honestly she should answer. Looking her up and down briefly to try and work out if she could trust her, before settling on a very undetailed; "Once I needed help, and no one gave it so... I make sure I do."

“When I get my bag later from my brother I’ll make sure you’re compensated for it... thank you.” Karsi gave her a small smile before heading off to the bathroom to change.

Marlowe smiled warmly at that, continuing her way into the kitchen and filling up the kettle with some water to make some hot drinks for them. Glancing over her shoulder briefly when she heard the door open and her brothers footsteps approaching. "Hey Dorian, you want a drink?" She asked.

Dorian had pulled his hat off as soon as the door had closed behind him, brushing his fingers through his black hair to try and tidy it up again. "I thought we'd agreed to have less and save the milk."

"Come on, it's freezing." Marlowe frowned.

Karsi came out in the black jeans and the white jumper, having fixed the wig at the side of her head so nothing was on show. “You really are my size... never worn anyone else’s clothes before.”

Dorian clenched his jaw when he spotted Karsi, quickly putting his hat on back over his hair and tucking it in as best he could. Though, he probably wasn't swift enough to stop her from noticing. "Oh, Marlowe, you never informed me we had a guest." He sneered.

"Oh, Dorian, you never asked." She hummed with a mischievous grin, maintaining eye contact with him as she poured the milk into the drinks. Hitting his hand away when he went to pick up a cup, "Nu uh, we had to save the milk, like you said so there is only enough for mine and Karsi's drink."

"Ass." Dorian muttered under his breath.

Marlowe turned her attention to Karsi properly then, "I'm glad, at least you'll be a bit warmer now. Here..." she wandered over, offering her one of the cups of coffee.

“Thanks , appreciate it” Karsi hummed as she took a sip. “Five grand be enough for your trouble? She offered casually, pretending not to notice Dorian’s hair as he put the hat back on, not wanting to receive any comment on her own.

"Oh no I nev-"

"Barely," Dorian interrupted, eyes lighting up as he heard the offer. Lips curling upwards in a smirk as he crossed his arms over his chest; "You clearly don't see how much we have compromised by simply letting you in here, yet alone lending you our things and giving you some of our precious resources and based on that bag of yours that measly offering is just loose change to you."

"Doria-"

"Quiet." He almost commanded.

“I can extend to ten but with that offer you’d have to sign the NDA - I was never here, you don’t know me... you never sold me any drugs, we didn’t sleep together, if any of the above happened... no it didn’t etcetera. The usual.” Karsi shrugged, seeming almost more at ease with Dorian’s attitude, it being what she was used to.

Dorian shrugged his shoulders almost boredly, wandering over to his coat and taking out her bag. Sitting on the edge of the sofa as he opened it up, though before he could peak inside he had been hit across the back of the head with a hardcopy book and in that momentary lapse of concentration Marlowe had snatched the bag off of him and dropped the book onto his lap instead.

"Ignore him," Marlowe frowned, walking over to Karsi and offering the bag out to her. "We don't want your money, he just gets carried away with himself occasionally. You can stay here as long as you have to, the sofa is a pull out. Those people - "

"Her family."

" - treated you atrociously. Your safe with us until you can work out what you want to do."

“It’s fine honestly, he’s right. You’ll both probably be stalked for a week if I’m seen with you.” Karsi shrugged and grabbed the bag, taking out her cheque book and another piece of paper - the NDA - handing it over with a pen for them to sign before writing out the cheque. “Who am I making this out to?”

"Dorian Lux Mi-"

"No one," Marlowe interrupted, going to rip the NDA up but changing her mind - having no idea if they cost anything to print so instead folded it neatly and offered it back to her. "I mean it, Karsi. You won't be seen with us, we'll be careful. Put it all away, sit down... lets all catch our breath for a moment."

Karsi regarded her almost suspiciously as she took it back, looking between the both of them. “I won’t be here long, just let me look up the nearest flight out to Switzerland and I’ll be out your hair.”

"Good luck with that, we don't have internet access." Dorian hummed, leaning his head back to look up at the ceiling. "If your going back to the boarding school you mentioned I doubt that is a good idea, that's the first place they'll know to look for you."

“What do you suggest I do smartass?”

"Wait it out, go somewhere they would never expect you to be - a two bedroom apartment in the city centre of example - and wait for their little search party of end. At least until we can think of a more concrete plan." He shrugged.

"We? All you wanted was her money a minute ago." Marlowe frowned.

"And you won't let us take it, so, we may aswell help her instead of let her throw herself back out to the wolves." Dorian shrugged, adding to Karsi, "Your brother is terrible, when you went off he criticised you rather than your mother. The way he was peacekeeping with that jacket around you I assumed it would be your side he was on."

(( Giving the guinea pigs a clean out so will be slow ))

“He’s grown tired of me - he usually is on my side. But all our older brothers have had their weddings arranged for them and they dealt with it - as in they mostly all have seperate bedrooms to their wives and have affairs and I have more illegitimate nieces and nephews from strippers and groupies than I can count using hands and feet - he doesn’t see why I can’t do it. They all went willingly like sheep to the altar, married nice girls from nice families that made dad richer and less likely to be challenged. Mads wants to save the world with his do gooder doctor bullshit so dad gave him a free pass. Dickhead.”

"If the coward can't go and be married off to some pompus chick then he doesn't have the right to judge you for hitting out. Stick with us for awhile, we'll come up with a plan to get you away from them all together."

"Money isn't important anyway, not in the grand scheme of things."

"I don't know, I'd kill to go on a jet ski one day." Dorian chuckled.

“You’ve never - “ Karsi cut herself off, suddenly aware of her own privilege. “He’ll be worrying, I know what he’s like, he’s just tired of it all the time. He’s basically my glorified babysitter. It’s not his fault.”

"Mm, I know what that is like." Dorian mused, "I am also a glorified baby sitter. As you can see, little miss over there would be lost without me keeping the two of us safe." he chuckled, grabbing a cigarette and a lighter from his coat pocket and lighting one up.

"That is how it is meant to be but after your episode at the funeral you will find that it is me who looks after you." Marlowe retorted, "You going to offer her a smoke or are you going to be selfish?"

"Only if she signs a NDR - A? Whatever it is." Dorian joked.

“Funeral for your parents I’m guessing since they disappeared from the pictures, what happened?” Karsi asked, tact not being one of the things she learned at the prestigious boarding school she mentioned.

"The Masrui." Dorian answered, barely loud enough to be heard. Getting to his feet and heading over and pulling himself up onto one of the counters near an open window.

"Your observant, working that out just by pictures." Marlowe smiled. "We don't talk about any of it much," She told her, adding quietly, "Dorian has hang ups about the details of it."

“We’re forced to be in our pictures and you can tell, your parents don’t look forced in yours. They look happy to be there - do you miss them? Some of the other kids would cry at night when they didn’t have their parents but me and Mads had a nanny. Our nanny died like two years ago and I think I felt grief... the therapist said it’s why I did a shit load of extra coke that week anyway.” Karsi shrugged. “Did they read you stories and shit?”

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's hard, losing anyone - a nanny can be as close as a parent I suppose, they are tasked with all the same roles that a parent would be, right?" Marlowe asked, hanging Dorian's coat up so there would be room for both herself and Karsi to sit down on the sofa. Tapping her fingertips against her knees, she eventually answered every question in the correct order; "We miss them, we always will but it gets easier to live with every day. Mother read us stories, daddy worked a lot so we didn't see him much but when we did then he would always take five minutes to play a card game with us."

“That sounds nice - how come you can hack it better than he can?” Karsi looked toward Dorian.