The Things Mortals Do [OPEN]

[Aro]

Aro wandered the deserted corridors of the Volturi's castle, the click of his heels echoing down the long halls as he made his way to the thick wooden door of his office. He avoided the areas that the thundering heartbeats of mortals occupied, not because of his thirst, but because of his ill temper. It seemed if it could have gone wrong, it did.

Take the copiers in the offices for instance. It seemed like the vile machines clogged or jammed at any opportunity. He couldn't count the times his long-legged secretary knocked on his office door to beg him to send the technician to fix the jam.

And while he was thinking about his office. Aro didn't spend much time there, since he usually sat on his throne in the main throne room, but his office was a retreat where he could still do business but escape the presence of the other vampires. Strange, but even Aro could grow weary of his circumstances.

His long, pale fingers tapped at the keys with a steady pace. He rarely glanced at the screen since he was faithful in his typing skills. Bright crimson eyes were instead locked on the manuscript he was faithfully translating from early Latin to Italian. Obviously, he could have tossed the document to a peon in the office area, but this was a source of comfort to him.

Ten minutes later he leaned back, arms crossing behind his head. A satisfied smirk crossed his face at his success at translating the ten page document without a single error. His ego thoroughly stroked, Aro opened the music player on his Mac and allowed one of Mozart's Symphonies to fill the small room.

Still leaned back, he closed his eyes to better absorb the music. Starting at his toes, Aro relaxed every muscle in his body. When another ten minutes passed, the leader of the Volturi could easily be called a puddle of stone. His mind was empty, devoid of any thought or mental chatter. It was a skill it had taken Aro decades to perfect as a mortal, but served him well during his long life as an immortal.

[Jane]

Jane had been wandering the halls of the Volturi home, keeping an eye on things, seeing who she could torture and such. Compared to the last "interference" with the Cullens, the Volturi world seemed rather dull in comparison. Though humiliating mortals was always fun, it did grow tiresome without some kind of new game. Eventually the sound of Mozart captured Jane's highly sensitive ears and she followed the music towards the farthest parts of the castle. It lead her towards Aro's office. She grinned. What could her leader possibly be up to at this hour? She knew things had been crazy in the "office" life of their work, but surely that wasn't enough to detain him in his office?

So Jane decided to barge into her leader's work area, surprised to find him away from the throne room for once. Her brother Alec had been seeing to the mortal employees and the rest of the Volturi had gone to feed. She had been left to her own accord. Jane walked into the office, and saw Aro leaning back in his chair, with what looked like a cat's large grin on his face. She hadn't seen that in a long time. "Well Aro, apparently all I need to make you happy is to play some Mozart." she said in her childish malicious tone.

[Aro]

Aro's eyes popped open as an all-too-familiar voice grated across his ears with all the pleasure of having one's fingernails removed. The Cheshire Cat grin vanished faster than a coyote under gunfire. The muscle in his jaw jumped as he composed his pale features into a mask of indifference as he leaned forward into a proper sitting position.

"True." He reached out with one long arm and switched the track to Metallica's "One", a track that he took a guilty pleasure in. One of the human guards had been listening to it one night as he slept, and Aro had listened to it.

"But if you get it into your little brain to play it in the throne room, you'll find I can be much worse than a pretty face." The implied threat hung under his words, iron under a silken blanket.

The music grew in tempo, the heavy guitar chords a sharp contrast to the soothing melodies of Mozart. He leaned forward even more, placing the weight of his upper body on his elbows, their points digging into his thighs. It made him seem a little less powerful, a stance he rarely adopted inside the Volturi stronghold. Aro's expression was still one of icy irritation, especially since the only reason Jane ever bothered him was when boredom struck.

"So what brings you to my hole in the wall? Normally I couldn't drag you here without Felix or Marcus wrangling you like a wild Newborn." The barb was intentional, one of Aro's favorite tactics to vent his irritation without resorting to violence.