The Prince
IsabelleB.
Needs Must When The Devil Drives (Concerning The Way To Govern Cities Or Principalities Which Lived Under Their Own Laws Before They Were Annexed)
Summary: Sebastian was never an angel. Kathryn was never the devil.
Recap: In the present, Sebastian Valmont has met an inquisitive man that he has nicknamed 'the Armani man'. Sebastian grudgingly decides to share his whole life story with him. In Sebastian's retelling of his tell, we have just reached the part where Sebastian has chatted up our charming Kathryn Merteuil and has decided to win her at any cost. Even though, he knows she has a boyfriend. They have finally kissed but are both using each other. How is that, you might ask?
--
"...A prince becomes poor and contemptible or, to escape poverty, becomes rapacious and hateful. Of all the things he must guard against, hatred and contempt come first, and liberality leads to both." – Machiavelli
If flames could fumed from Sebastian's head --
The Armani man continued to laugh at his sad pathetic story and Sebastian was livid. "Have I said fuck you lately?" Sebastian hissed, rising his middle finger. "Because if I haven't, I've been meaning to."
The Armani man laughed harder. "Sorry, Sebastian. It's just – I never expected you to be the romantic type."
Sebastian instantly changed the mood when his eye got eerily sober. "I wasn't."
"Explain," the Armani urged, handing Sebastian another beer. "I mean, there must have been some reason that you waited. You knew about Kathryn for five years before that point."
Even with his judgement impaired, it angered Sebastian to talk about his feelings for Kathryn; even harder to talk of their time together before the animosity began to take over. Because even though he tried his hardest to win Kathryn over, his intentions for her had never really been pure. He knew about her from before. Like he said, he had met her when he was thirteen. He didn't know her name, or her family back then but he had always kept her in the back of his mind. It wasn't until he was pushed into a corner that the thought of Kathryn had resurfaced.
It was the reason he had come to New York.
The reason he refused to let go of Kathryn. The reason he had used Kathryn. And Annette.
"My family wasn't exactly confident in my future," Sebastian started. It was a long story and it all had to do with the Valmont name --
--
Valmont, Come over to my house again and I'll cut your balls off.
– Love Kathryn
Sebastian frowned as he folded the note into his pocket.
"What's wrong, Valmont?" Blaine asked him.
She ignored him, Sebastian answered silently. His mood was so foul, he could barely process Blaine's question. He thought that kissing Kathryn would make life so simple. He thought she'd hear his bullshit story of the first time they met and it sweep her off her feet.
He was wrong.
As soon as he had kissed her, she ran off in the direction of his doors and didn't so much as answer his phone calls as he repeatedly called her. By the next week, he could hardly contain his anger. After a week of being ignored, he decided to make a quick trip to Kathryn's townhouse. He didn't plan to actually see her. In fact he hadn't even made his presence known. He parked his Jaguar across the street, and simply sat there. Secretly, he wondered which part of the multi-million dollar mansion was hers, and if Pierce Bush was there at that very moment to share it with her. After a couple of minutes of wishful thinking -- Maybe a glimpse of her ? -- he nostalgically turn his car on again and rode off. Little did he know at the time that Kathryn had been watching him the whole time, maybe even more ingrainedly than he had been.
He hadn't known until he opened his locker this morning to find the note that Kathryn had left him. By that point, all the scorning and scowling she had directed to him started to make sense.
"It's nothing," Sebastian replied back smoothly, hoping Blaine would drop the subject before he got the back end of his temper. A whole week, he thought to himself. For a whole fucking week, she hadn't talked to him. Even worse, she had downgraded her anger to a note.
"It can't simply be nothing," Blaine commented. "You're upset and there's a big vain pulsating on your forehead."
"I said it's nothing!" He yelled back. His mood was far beyond anger, far beyond frustration. He had never begged for a girl's attention before. He was above that. More so than that, he was Valmont. Everyone knew the Valmont family.
They were rich in art; rich in culture; rich in the french political system; rich in heritage; rich in real estate; rich in business – blah, blah, blah. Just plain rich. But as Sebastian sat in the school hallway brooding, he remember the one thing they weren't rich in.
They had failed to be rich in was heirs.
As the only son in Edward Valmont, Sebastian stood to inherit everything. That was, of course, until the family realized he was a fuck up. At the age thirteen, (and some would accredit Lauren's debutante ball as the start of his bad behavior) Sebastian had spoiled the family name. As a result, his grandfather had created a clause in his will. He still wanted to give Sebastian everything he owned but he required Sebastian Valmont to be married before inheriting his family's large endowment.
Sebastian's grandfather was cremated with pure hate in everyone's eyes, to say the least.
The family was outraged. No one had the authority to touch the money, except Sebastian. Not his father, or uncles or half-wit cousins. It was his or bust. That made Sebastian a very powerful man. It was Sebastian's personal responsibility to allocate the funds to the rest of the family as he saw fit. He had the power to give money to, or take lands from any other member of the family. He had power to do as he pleased, pending the enormous detail that he be married first.
Yes, it is not a misconception. He had to get married, first.
And with that very important detail in mind, the Valmont family had taken a large interest in Sebastian's social life. They had tried to fix him up with more girls than even he had the stamina for. They would introduce a girl to him. Of course, he took advantage of their gold digging tendency to spread what he had already deemed as their widely open legs. Many respectable girls had ruined their reputations trying to possess him. The line of prospects had shortened. He had gone through every pretty family friend, and debutante in all of France. No one seem to have caught his attention.
The more girls he bedded the less interested he was in getting married. Truth be told, even if he had found a suitable girl he wouldn't have gotten married. He was only eighteen, though that detail didn't carry much weight with his family. The second reason was that his father was forced to work to make a living. His father hated working and Sebastian loved forcing him to go to work. It kept his father clear from his mother's path.
That was until his mother died.
Cancer. His mother's departure was so sudden. Sebastian had never expressed love to anyone but if he had, it would have been to his mother. She had took care of him– defended his actions even when he didn't deserved to be defended. He respected her for that, even though she was a incompetent drug addict. It was the reason he chose to be with her until the end. On her death bed, she had asked of one thing from him.
She wanted him to get married.
That was when his thoughts traveled onto a girl he had met five years ago. A girl who with just a few words had fundamental changed who he was. It made him think that she could do a lot more for him. With that very thought, he booked himself a first class tickets to New York on a quest to find her. His father and new stepmother insisted that they followed.
So there you had it. He was no angel at all. And as Blaine waited patiently for him to confess his love woes, he felt sorry for the guy who thought he had actually grown some feelings. He was cold, calculated, and manipulative. He had plans, and the part in which he was nice had ended.
As Annette walked down the hall to greet him, he was ready to flip the switch on these idiots.
And they never saw what was coming--