Annexed: IC Inbox

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

Hi, this is Marc. Leave a message. If you want to get in touch with Steven, leave a message, too.

Comments

[scarabwings]

"You can, but it'll cut down the urgency a bit."

Suren glances back as rounds the top landing into the upper hall. There are only two doors, one on either side of the hallway. "You haven't been paired long, have you?" he asks. And then utters an embarrassed little chuckle, though there's no answering flush to his cheeks. "Of course, you couldn't have been, could you? Unless people tether to each other where you're from?"

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

"Month and a half," Steven admits sheepishly. "We've both been here going on six months, now, sure, but Layla thought-- well, nobody knew if it really worked the same way for people not from here, right? Figured we might as well test it. And what d'you know, it does work the same way for people not from here. So yeah, it's still pretty new."

He's aware of the honesty thing now. And he's trying to be careful. He's proud of himself just then for not mentioning Marc. It was, after all, as much Layla's thought as his.

[scarabwings]

"Bold," Suren says. "It's an exciting time, though, getting to know each other all over again."

The door on the left cracks open, and Layla pokes her head out, smiling when she spies Steven at the top of the stairs. "Oh," she says. "You ran into Suren. That's handy - I was hoping to introduce you two."

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

"Exciting, sure, maybe terrifying," Steven says before the door opens, but then he smiles more brightly at the sight of her, padding over readily. "Layla, hi. I cheated a little, Suren told me what floor you were on. But I found the building! And I probably could've found you with him, but he was very nice, too."

[scarabwings]

"Next time," Layla says, catching hold of one of Steven's hands, and rising up on the balls of her feet to press a quick kiss to his cheek, a physical reflection of the warmth he'd beamed along the tether.

"I brought the draft papers," Suren says. "Why don't you show him around, and take a look over them. If everything looks all right, you can bring them by the shop this afternoon, and we'll hammer out the rest of the details."

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

"That sounds like a great idea," Steven says, swinging Layla's hand a little with excess energy, before holding out his other for the papers in question, since he's closer to Soren still. "Thanks very much for considering us."

[scarabwings]

"You seem like a lovely couple," Suren says, and places the slim folder of documents in Steven's hand before retreating back down the stairs.

Perhaps to see if he can coax the cat back out of the bush.

"See you later," Layla calls after him, then tugs Steven through the open door. "Come on. I think you're going to love this place."

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

Steven tucks the papers under his arm and obediently follows Layla in. Once the door is shut, he flicks his hand in what Layla will recognize by now is a dispell magic gesture, and the ears and cat tail from the night before reappear. The tail gives a little fluff before settling.

"Phew. Do you know how uncomfortable holding an illusion over someone else's spell is?" he says more than asks. "That feels much better."

[scarabwings]

The corners of Layla's mouth crimp as she fights not to grin at the sight of that fluffed-out tail.

"And here I'd thought you'd managed to get an early reprieve," she says, and reaches up with her free hand to absently smooth his hair down where it lies in slight disarray around the previously-invisible ears. "I don't think you need to hide them around here, though. Anyone who's not in on last night's festivities will probably just assume it's a Heba thing."

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

"No, no, just me seeing if I could, mostly, since-- Oh." He stops short and blinks a little, ducking his head into her touch. He wonders if some of that is the cat thing, or if it always feels that nice to have someone pet your hair. "Oh, that's nice."

[scarabwings]

Her hand stills briefly at that first 'oh', until he leans into her touch rather than flinching away. She resumes gently tidying his hair, the brief flicker of worry at her end of the tether fading into warm fondness.

"If you start purring, I'm not sure I'll be able to keep a straight face," she warns.

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

"I don't think I can purr," Steven says, keeping very still under her ministrations. "Though I haven't tried, either. You could do that all day, though, and I guess we could find out." Though they do have an apartment to view. He really shouldn't stand here all day and let her fuss with his hair. "Does Marc like it when you do this?"

[scarabwings]

Layla makes a small, amused sound in the back of her throat, not quite a laugh, but definitely in that family. "I'm pretty sure you'd get a crick in your neck in the first half hour," she says, mock-rueful. "And yeah, sometimes. Depends on his mood a bit."

Having determined that his hair's probably as neat as it's going to get - and recalled now to self-consciousness - she takes one last gentle pass before dropping her hand to cover his instead, so that it's sandwiched between both of hers.

"Let's take a look around, hmm? I really do think you'll like this place."

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

"Yeah, well, everything with Marc depends on his mood a bit, don't it," Steven comments, but straightens obligingly and lets her tow him further into the flat, looking around with interest. "It's not as cluttered as it could be," he says charitably. The huge windows really do help it feel more airy.

[scarabwings]

"Good to know that whole forced honesty thing hasn't affected you much," Layla says, tone slightly teasing - but not, notably, indicating much in the way of disagreement.

"I've seen worse - I remember when one of my father's mentors passed, we helped clean out his place. There was one room, just...wall-to-wall newspapers and old magazines, dating back to the 1940s. I think some of them were even older than he was. But this place does give off a little bit of a 'prick your finger on a spinning wheel' vibe, doesn't it?"

She pauses to crouch down and peer at a little stone carving of a winged lioness - not a sphinx, but close enough to catch her attention.

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

"I mean, I didn't even notice it until Marc told me about it this morning," Steven admits with a little shrug. She was more right than she knew with the whole "honesty is more of a you thing" comment: Steven can't really lie to save his life, and it mostly doesn't even occur to him to try.

He peers over Layla's shoulder, but when he can tell there's no real magic on it, drifts over to the window to peer out the windows. "Is there anything bad about this place? That you can see? Besides needing to clean it out. Which, as far as I can tell, isn't really a bad thing."

[scarabwings]

"No," Layla says, and reaches over to tap the little lioness on the nose. It rouses to life, shaking its head and then clambering down from the shelf to slink over and bat at the laces of Steven's shoes.

"As far as I can tell, it's pretty close to perfect. Wait 'til you see the bedrooms."

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

Steve jumps a little, tail fluffing out suddenly, but when he looks down and see what it is, he calms down again and drops to a crouch. "Hello little fellow! Is this you, Layla?" he asks. "Or did we wake something up?"

[scarabwings]

"Just me," she admits. The little statue does a credible impression of a cat stretching, then peers up at Steven as Layla closes her own eyes, looking for a moment just through the stone.

"I'm getting a bit better at fine manipulation. Though that would be useful, wouldn't it - actual animated stone sentries."

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

"That's mental," Steven comments, but with a smile, reaching down to scritch the little stone sphinx's ears. "That's such an amazing power, you know. I don't know if they tell you that, but seriously. Wow."

[scarabwings]

"It comes in handy," Layla says, smiling a little at the referred sensation - strange, but not unwelcome. She makes the little sphinx rub its cheek against Steven's fingertips, like it's scent marking him.

"I don't think it's especially impressive by local standards. Bit more versatile than it seemed at first, though. I'll take that over flashy any day."

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

"I think it's impressive, and who cares about flashy anyway?" Steven says, loyal and honest, because he can't not be honest. He smiles down at the cat, and adds, "I think you're impressive."

[scarabwings]

"This from the man who's already memorized half the magic library." Her tone's gently teasing, but her side of the tether is pure fond warmth. "You're sweet."

The little statue nuzzles his fingers again, and she opens her eyes, letting her senses return mostly to normal so she can appreciate the scene.

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

He scritches the stone cat a little more, not looking up to see her watching. "Not half the library," he protests, amused. "I still have a lot to learn. Which is fine. What would life be like without lots left to learn, after all? Pretty boring, I bet." He picks the stone sphynx up and finally looks back at Layla. "Maybe we should get a real pet," he suggests. "Not right away. But eventually."

[scarabwings]

The little creature's paws flex against his palm, kneading without the prick of claws that would come along with a real cat, then curls up, wings daintily folded, nose tucked beneath its little stone tail.

"Maybe," she says. "You know, I've never actually had a pet. Helped look after livestock on a few expeditions - there's no way out of that part of the chore rotation - but that's not quite the same thing."