[LOG] 10.
Just after dinner tends to find K'aus relaxing in some fashion after a long day, mostly he'll just linger in the cavern after everyone's trickled off to do something else. Just as common though is a trip down to one of his two favorite (public) hangouts (lurk points) and tonight the lucky winner is the Sandbar with its usual crowd. How long he's been here is a measure of how many drinks he's had and what he's doing. At the moment there's an empty glass on his table and another one half-full in his hand, but that doesn't really mean anything if the bussing staff is up on their game. His other hand entertains a book; yes, glasses.
During this time, Loe tends to, well, it could be anything. Sometime she races around to finish up the day's work, other times she's back in her office, plotting and planning, sometimes she disappears to who knows what solitude and sometimes, like so many, like, K'aus, like tonight, she ends up in the Sandbar. There's no fanfare for her arrival, bare feet quiet on the boards, order placed without incident. Now she stands facing the bar, elbows perched on the counter with her weight pushing her shoulders up. Like a dancer at some of exercise, she stands on one foot, lifting to her toes and setting back down again, over and over while she waits.
K'aus is facing the door for some reason. It's been long enough since someone came or something so he looks up over the words on paper to watch Loe walk through and watches her some more on her way to the bar, not far away. His mouth curls. A beat later he's leaning on the bar next to her, on an elbow like her, and he's setting a piece of coin down when the bartender comes back with her drink. "Hey yeah, it's on me pal. Thanks." But after, besides for as long as it takes to give her that small, polite smile, he doesn't linger. He's returning to his table to sit again, pick up his book, sip his drink.
With her head bowed forward a moment ago, now it turns as she looks at the man who's shown up at her side. Her smile spread, quiet and sly as always, and her gaze slides over his face. Loe is about to say something, but she's too slow and instead she just gets to watch him head back to his table and his book. And she does watch him. A few moments later, her drink shows up and K'aus's marks pay for it. Since he was so kind to cover her drink, one might think Loe would head right over there, but instead she turns her back to lean against the bar and just looks at him from across the room, that contemplative bit of wry smile still lingering on her lips.
And K'aus is a devoted little reader in spite of the fact that he can /feel/ her watching him. She'll see his eyes moving behind the lenses, maybe, the gentle rise and fall of his chest and the way he cradles his drink there because maybe the outside is nice and cool and he's feeling a little warm. His throat moves when he swallows and at one point he takes a deep breath and turns the page one-handed. And then, her reward, the corner of his mouth pulls up /so subtly/.
She does see it, or maybe she imagines it, that little hitch in the corner of his mouth. Maybe it's for what he's reading, not for the tingle of her eyes on him from afar. As so often happens, she doesn't get to watch much longer. Loe's approached by a young woman who works in the laundry and now she stands there, sipping her drink, listening to the girl talk and flicking her glance ever so often to the brownrider with his book. Does she start to seem eager to get away from her companion? Why yes, yes she does.
It's entirely possible K'aus cares very little that Loe is even in the same room as him. Maybe all of his reactions have been to the reading material and nothing more. But when Loe is accosted by that laundry girl that little up ups a little more, he's almost half-smiling now. One of the Sandbar's waitress types swings by his table with a fresh drink and sets it down; she receives his tilted back glance while she walks away but escapes unmolested. Surprising. He downs the rest from the glass he holds and replaces it with the new one and so his little game continues.
It's all over Loe's face, not that the laundress bothers to notice. Loe, she wants out, she's putting on a show of being politely interested, but meanwhile searching for the first available exit. And then it comes. The laundress invites Loe to sit with her and Loe apologizes. "I'm actually here with someone. Or, well... he bought a drink so I should probably say hi." Then, moments later, the laundress has returned to her table and Loe is slipping into the seat across from K'aus, drinking, leaning forward and talking all at once. "I almost called you my date. That's how badly I did not want to hear another word from that girl." Terribly unflattering, but there's a teasing twist to the way her smile curls. "What are you reading this time?"
He puts some effort into acting surprised when he finds himself in her company, looking up and lifting his eyebrows all at once. Well hello. 'That girl'-- he looks for her but she's gone back to wherever she came from so he looks at Loe instead. "I can only imagine how hard that would have been for you," he says, tone all dry. The book in question folds closed and finds a place out of the way to be while K'aus takes a drink and answers. "It's the second in the series, same one the other one came from." And indeed it is a matching little book with red cover and undoubtedly somewhere in there lies a black ribbon, marking his place. "So I've never been someone's almost-date. What's that look like?"
"Talking. And probably some intent gazes." That's what the almost-date looks like. Loe delivers the description over the rim of her drink. "Think you can handle it?" Sip. "So what happened? You're sitting alone tonight? Not feeling up to the hunt? Or is the book some sort of lure, trying to pull in some mousy, brainy type." She's restless tonight, even though she's sitting, there's little stillness. She crosses her legs beneath the table, lifts her posture and her chin and scans the room for the mouse.
Talking. Intent gazes. Check and check, he starts with the second one, smiling that little smile and taking his glasses off and tossing them over by the book so he can prop his chin in his palm and gaze at her. Intently. And with eyes like his, he's successful. "Hm. I don't really go for types. They get boring. Besides, maybe I'm waiting for someone. Maybe you're sitting in her seat." Not that K'aus is all that concerned, if that's the case. A girl in the seat is a girl in the seat. "What about you? Am I the best you could do?"
"I'd think types would make it less boring, somehow. Help institute a little variety." She adopts his pose, chin on hand, green eyes staring back him. "Every fourth day, you corrupt an innocent flower. Every seven days you go for one of those tough, tomboy sorts." As for the girl picking this seat. "You bought me a drink. Maybe I'm cheap and easy," she says, all the while her voice soft, in volume as well as tone. "Were you waiting for someone?" She doubts it.
"I'm more inclined to think you're all innocent flowers prime for the corrupting, if that's what I do," K'aus shares with a little headtilt. And again he affects surprise: her, cheap and easy? "If getting you to fuck me was as easy as getting you a drink I think we'd have gotten it over with by now, honey." Finally he breaks their little intent staring contest to lean back and stretch his arms over his head. "I guess you'll have to wait and see. How's that sit with you?"
Gotten it over with? Loe's mouth curves sly again. "That's why it's funny. Because you're quite certain at this point that it isn't at all true." Just before another sip of her drink she tacks on: "Besides, I agreed to this bet." Then comes the drink, then the shake of her head as she swallows. "Wait and see if you're expecting someone? If they show up? What if she sees me here and turns around and walks away? What if she figures she can't compete and gives up? I'm a patient woman. I can wait quite a while."
With his hands clasped in his lap and his posture a little slouched, K'aus sits there across from her and cherishes her a little. Like only the older, bored sort of man can. "What if what if what if?" He's mocking her with her own words, albeit gently, but he smoothes over that with this. "If she sees you here and walks away then I move on, if she figures she can't compete and gives up then maybe she would have been boring. Maybe she doesn't actually exist and you're getting yourself all worked up over nothing. What bet?" Leave it to him to address things as he wants, not necessarily as they should be.
"I'm not worked up. I'm entertained," Loe corrects with the toss of her hair. "I like what if. I like... would you rather." She goes to lift her cup and then pause and frowns at it. "I also like straws." And there isn't one. Which makes her pout a pretty pout just for show, just for her audience of one. She sulks back in her chair. "Oh, I got into this bet with one of the weyrlings on who could go longer. There's no way I'll let him win."
Oh, entertained, of course. The eyebrows say it all. Her lack of a straw inspires a small struggle within his head: to please her or not to please her. Ultimately he must decide not to, or at least not /now/, because he doesn't get up. But he does make a vaguely sympathetic face, just for her, just before he narrows his eyes. "Who could go longer... Wait, without fucking?" If he's right, and it doesn't really matter because it's happening anyway, he adds, "I'm intrigued." And quick, as during that waitress's passing their table he reaches out to pluck a straw from one of the pockets of her apron without even looking and passes it over between two fingers.
Perfect. A straw. Loe leans forward to take it from him, to give him a saucy grin in return. She also puts the straw to her lips to blow a narrow stream of air at him. He can have that too. Then the straw goes in her drink. "Without fucking," she confirms. "Technically without an orgasm involving another person. Is it intriguing?" she asks, dubious that he must really think so.
Delightful. K'aus closes his eyes with a neutral smile in place until she stops the thing with the straw already and looks at her like 'better now?' While idly watching her straw placement he replies. "I find the idea of two people essentially ruling out all possibility of fun for each other intriguing, yes. Why don't you just get married or have a kid or something, it's less entertaining but you'll get where you wanna go. So nobody can come. But technically you can still fuck if the fucking's bad."
Loe's eyebrows draw together just a beat before her nose wrinkles. "Is that the only thing that's fun? Just fucking? I don't see what getting married or having kids would have to do with any of it." She shakes her head, certain he's got it all wrong. "There's no sex -and- no doing something with another person to have an orgasm. You know, to stay in the spirit of the thing." She goes to take a sip, through her newly acquired straw, and then stops herself. "Why I am trying to explain this to you, of all people?" She snorts at her own mistake.
There's a moment right after the 'just fucking?' in which he gives her a very unreadable but very different sort of look. He's still wearing it when she goes on to further explain the terms of this bet she has going on and remains still when she snorts, except there's a little knitting of his brow for that. "And what pray tell is that supposed to mean."
This time the twist of her mouth isn't one of those evil little smiles. It's more like a thoughtful grimace, downturned and hesitating. She looks across the table at him and his unreadable expression, her own eyes narrowing slightly. Then she shakes her head and smiles, quick, effortless, meaningless. "That it's not the sort of bet you'd bother with." Aw, isn't that generous and judicious of her. Diplomatic even.
For whatever reason he grins, big and white with his sharp pointy canines and his smile-lines. Something is very amusing. K'aus shifts too, gripping his biceps in either hand and tilting his head a little. He tries to seal that grin but fails. "You don't wanna hurt my feelings."
Loe smiles right back, though hers is a touch more scolding, like she assumes she's being laughed at, assumes she's been caught. "Well, I always tell people that I'm a very sweet and considerate person. It's not my fault they don't always believe me." And that notion does make her smirk across the table at him. "Are you surprised?"
"I think so. It's hard to tell." What does 'surprised' mean anymore to someone like him? "You don't have to be sweet and considerate with me, sweetheart. I'm pretty sure I can take it and you're only lying to both of us. Let me guess, you can't imagine why you would be trying to explain a hands-off bet to someone who obviously doesn't see anything beyond the next available cunt," special emphasis, "right? Or maybe it's not that, maybe that's too easy, maybe it's something else." K'aus takes his drink as if he's just remembered it and sips.
Loe looks to the side, like she considering the accuracy of this. And then, "Yes. I think you have a tendency to masturbate with live women. Not only is getting laid all you care about, but I don't think you even enjoy it. You probably get more satisfaction blowing your nose." Almost without skipping a beat, "Do you want to get a plate of fries?"
There it is again, that grin. It's entirely naughty and amused and gosh, she's just so /darling/. While his hand swirls the ice and drink in his glass around he says, "If I don't enjoy it then what's the point? C'mon, let's get it all out on the table." His other hand taps knuckles on that very thing before he straightens in his seat and turns to scope out a waitress. Which is sort of a yes. When one is within range he waves her over, makes the order and turns back around to face Loe. K'aus, making things happen, watches her. Intently.
"I guess you just don't know what else to do," Loe answers him with a shrug. "Habit? I don't know. Maybe you don't notice." She watches him, considering something else without saying it, observing without paying attention as he places the order for their food. When he turns back to watch her in return, her expression has gone flat, serious, like she's forgotten to include that hint of something naughty to her countenance.
Again, 'surprise' isn't a very familiar thing for him so he doesn't really express it, but that she's looking so un-Loe does give him reason to pause, to look at her perhaps differently, less weighted and more... probing. It comes off as intense, but he can't help it. His mouth opens, a thought occurs, he narrows his eyes. "How about this. You can ask me ten questions, they can be anything you want, I have to answer them. You can use 'em now or whenever, they can be about anything, about anyone. But whatever I say you have to accept as the truth."
Ten questions, free questions, perks Loe up without delay. That spark of intrigue comes back to her eye, and it looks like she's quite favorable to the rules, at least until that part bit. Then she's cocking a brow at him. "Why does that need to be a rule? Do you think I inherently don't believe anything you say? That I think everything is a lie? And how can you force belief? Even if I said 'oh yes, I believe you' it wouldn't necessarily make it true. I can say 'this drink is red' and I could act very much like that's the truth. But I'd know it's not. It doesn't change anything. Do you want me to lie to you?" She drinks that not-red drink and then adds. "Also, none of those count as part of the ten. That would be lame."
It's a good thing she added that disclaimer at the end because K'aus has been ticking off her questions on his fingers. He's holding up a whole hand's worth by the time she's done and banishes them all while he smirks. That hand reaches for his drink so he can take one and consider. Once he's swallowed he acquiesces. "Fine, it isn't a rule. But if you ask follow-up questions those count as part of the original and limited ten. Better?" Their fries haven't come yet so he takes a deep breath and folds hands in lap again and smiles benignly across at her.
"Better, I suppose. How do we know when they count? Do I have to specify? Or will they all get used up on boring, friendly things like 'what are you reading' and 'how's your drink'? And who gets to choose? Me or you?" Loe takes another drink but, having reaches the end, the straw just makes loud burbling noises. "Do you want ten questions too?"
"I think we're both reasonable enough to know when a question's a boring, friendly question. Small talk doesn't count as part of the ten, and beyond that... I get to choose. Otherwise there's nothing stopping you from trying to find a loophole and there's no question about what's considered boring or friendly. And I think the question," aha, "there is do /you/ want me to have ten questions too." K'aus takes another drink and glances away from her for just a brief look-around. He did say he might be waiting for someone.
"No, I think the real question is... why do you want me to have ten questions. If there's something you want to tell me, why not just tell me?" She lifts her drink. No. Nothing left. She shifts impatiently. "What if I ask ten questions and never get to the thing you wanted me to ask? What if I don't ask any? If there's nothing I want to know?" What if she doesn't ask any questions? Fat chance of that.
What if there's nothing she wants to know? "I really don't think that's possible. Look, I'm giving you ten free questions I can't avoid or lie about," with a muttered 'that you know about', "and you're really looking a gift horse in the mouth here. I don't care if you don't want to play, it's no skin off my back. You need another drink and our food's up." How'd he know? Must be some sixth bar-sense. It urges K'aus up out of his seat and over to the bar to collect their fries and order Loe another thing and him another thing though he only returns with the basket. A beat behind him though, that waitress from before shows up with their drinks and he largely ignores her.
She gives him a look, it's one of those wry smiles that also says 'yeah yeah, make a big show out of how much you don't care. I won't say anything'. That kind of smile. As he walks away, she reaches for his book with one hand and for her pocket with the other. By the time he returns she's pushing his book back into place and sticking a pencil behind her ear. She needs her fingers free to snag a fry. But now that he's back, she just looks across the table at him, studying him, small grin quirked, as the drinks come. And then the waitress leaves, "I think she was checking you out."
"Oh yeah? Think I should fuck her? Would you like that?" Dirty little Loe, says /his/ look. He reaches for a fry, too, and for his book with the other hand. Don't think he didn't see that weird little thing she was doing. "What's goin' on there," he wonders around the fry poking out of his mouth, which he encourages further in by tilting his chin up and using a complicated lip and teeth combination to fold it in.
"Maybe you should. Isn't that what you do? And you walked away from that girl the other night. The one who had your glasses. Are you under the weather?" Loe wonders, lifting a brow. "Maybe you should fuck her. Do you want me to watch? Would that turn you on or do you think it might just make you nervous?" She eats her fry and around it asks, "What's going on where?" And in his book, beside the black ribbon, on the page, in pencil: Loe was here. <3
While he's flipping to that page, "I guess it must not be just about the fucking then," in a wry voice because didn't she just assume that's what he was about? Finding her little note and squinting to read it without his glasses, K'aus looks at her after like 'really?' "You know you don't have to write me little love notes. I'll let you watch. Want me to go grab her? We could all go up to my place, I could strip her down in front of you on the couch, eat 'er out, make her come right there. Do you think that would turn /you/ on?" Otherwise there might not be a point. "Thanks," he adds, closing the book on her <3 and pushing it out of the way like he couldn't care less. Another fry.
Loe lets her eyes cut to the waitress and she considers all of these things that K'aus says. "No," she answers, as simply as if he'd offered her a sandwich instead of a very different sort of dining experience. "I don't think it would. It doesn't sound very... hot. It sounds like... I don't know, after that you might cut her toenails or brush her teeth." She sets her elbow on the table, chin in hand against, eats another fry. "So what is it? If it's not all about the fucking? What's it about? Why waste your time eating fries with me when you could be securing an easy lay?" She sucks a bit of grease and salt off her forefinger.
She can say whatever she wants but K'aus has this knowing little smile on his face. "Maybe I'd brush her hair." She didn't think of that one, did she. And somehow, he makes that mundane task sound like the dirtiest of things. K'aus is chewing on another fry when she asks... all of that so he doesn't answer right away. Swallow, "Before I answer questions 1-42, are any of those your ten?"
"I don't know. Do I need to make any of them one of the ten to get you to answer them?" Loe wonders. She eats another fry and the next one she considers for a second, before eating that too.
He considers, both her question and her and her fry, with his eyes on the table between them. Eventually, thoughtfully, "I don't know what it's all about any more than you do. It's life. It's my life." More specifically. "I like women. I like the way they smell. I like you." Now K'aus will look at her, reach for another fry. "I think you think I'm more complicated than I actually am."
She looks at him, serious again. "I don't think that's true," she says, rather quietly, like perhaps she really is, still, trying not to hurt his feelings. She must think he has them. Loe's eyes drop back down to the fries and she aborts her reach for one more, istead sitting back in her chair again with her drink. Which part doesn't she think is true? She doesn't specify. "What do you want me to ask? When you imagined it, when you thought to offer it, what question did you think I'd ask?"
He keeps eating, mowing down on fries in between her questions and through them, making a little noise for her comment. It doesn't matter to him which part she doesn't think is true, he's said it and maybe his lack of response might be enough to prove them true instead. He's taking a few drinks to wash all the potato down with by the time she's come to her other, sigh, questions. K'aus really is handling them all with the patience of a thousand men. "I didn't. Easy. I thought you might appreciate it, being able to ask me anything you want with a guaranteed answer. Maybe I want you to realize that this is what there is." And he holds his hands up, presenting himself to her. "I am who I say I am, even when I'm not saying. And you're looking for someone else in here and I'm all alone."
Loe takes a breath and she closes her mouth. No more questions. Maybe it was the sigh, maybe that it was her questions that inspired the offer of ten freebies. Either way, Loe goes quiet, except to say. "Sorry." She takes a sip of her drink and pulls the pencil from behind her ear to slip it back into her pocket.
That leaves them both quiet, K'aus looking at the table again and scraping mashed-up fry from between teeth and cheek with sweeps of his tongue. After a measured breath he lets his eyes shift to their corners and notes, "I think people wish there was more to me. I think it would help them... deal with me." Looking at her he adds, "I know what people think about me. I know what they see. Hell, I agree with them."
Loe nods, the slow bobbing sort, the extra touch of a little smile to show she understand, a little sympathy tossing in too.
Sympathy. Wrong move. It, coupled with her enduring silence, does more than just rub him the wrong way, and since his go-to is usually anger... "Great." With a rough shove he pushes himself out of the seat and reaches for his stuff, glasses and book, with grasping hands.
There's a flash of something confused and alarmed in her eyes, but whether or not it lingers is a mystery, since Loe is then looking down at the table, a hand slipping into her hair to cradle her forehead. She still doesn't say anthing, though her other hand makes like it might reach for the book or the glasses or maybe his hand, though the motion is abandoned long before it can become anything other than a little forward shift.
So he's unimpeded and has both of those things in hand quickly. Without another word, without noticing her intentions, K'aus straightens to leave (run away from her) the Sandbar and that waitress behind him.
During this time, Loe tends to, well, it could be anything. Sometime she races around to finish up the day's work, other times she's back in her office, plotting and planning, sometimes she disappears to who knows what solitude and sometimes, like so many, like, K'aus, like tonight, she ends up in the Sandbar. There's no fanfare for her arrival, bare feet quiet on the boards, order placed without incident. Now she stands facing the bar, elbows perched on the counter with her weight pushing her shoulders up. Like a dancer at some of exercise, she stands on one foot, lifting to her toes and setting back down again, over and over while she waits.
K'aus is facing the door for some reason. It's been long enough since someone came or something so he looks up over the words on paper to watch Loe walk through and watches her some more on her way to the bar, not far away. His mouth curls. A beat later he's leaning on the bar next to her, on an elbow like her, and he's setting a piece of coin down when the bartender comes back with her drink. "Hey yeah, it's on me pal. Thanks." But after, besides for as long as it takes to give her that small, polite smile, he doesn't linger. He's returning to his table to sit again, pick up his book, sip his drink.
With her head bowed forward a moment ago, now it turns as she looks at the man who's shown up at her side. Her smile spread, quiet and sly as always, and her gaze slides over his face. Loe is about to say something, but she's too slow and instead she just gets to watch him head back to his table and his book. And she does watch him. A few moments later, her drink shows up and K'aus's marks pay for it. Since he was so kind to cover her drink, one might think Loe would head right over there, but instead she turns her back to lean against the bar and just looks at him from across the room, that contemplative bit of wry smile still lingering on her lips.
And K'aus is a devoted little reader in spite of the fact that he can /feel/ her watching him. She'll see his eyes moving behind the lenses, maybe, the gentle rise and fall of his chest and the way he cradles his drink there because maybe the outside is nice and cool and he's feeling a little warm. His throat moves when he swallows and at one point he takes a deep breath and turns the page one-handed. And then, her reward, the corner of his mouth pulls up /so subtly/.
She does see it, or maybe she imagines it, that little hitch in the corner of his mouth. Maybe it's for what he's reading, not for the tingle of her eyes on him from afar. As so often happens, she doesn't get to watch much longer. Loe's approached by a young woman who works in the laundry and now she stands there, sipping her drink, listening to the girl talk and flicking her glance ever so often to the brownrider with his book. Does she start to seem eager to get away from her companion? Why yes, yes she does.
It's entirely possible K'aus cares very little that Loe is even in the same room as him. Maybe all of his reactions have been to the reading material and nothing more. But when Loe is accosted by that laundry girl that little up ups a little more, he's almost half-smiling now. One of the Sandbar's waitress types swings by his table with a fresh drink and sets it down; she receives his tilted back glance while she walks away but escapes unmolested. Surprising. He downs the rest from the glass he holds and replaces it with the new one and so his little game continues.
It's all over Loe's face, not that the laundress bothers to notice. Loe, she wants out, she's putting on a show of being politely interested, but meanwhile searching for the first available exit. And then it comes. The laundress invites Loe to sit with her and Loe apologizes. "I'm actually here with someone. Or, well... he bought a drink so I should probably say hi." Then, moments later, the laundress has returned to her table and Loe is slipping into the seat across from K'aus, drinking, leaning forward and talking all at once. "I almost called you my date. That's how badly I did not want to hear another word from that girl." Terribly unflattering, but there's a teasing twist to the way her smile curls. "What are you reading this time?"
He puts some effort into acting surprised when he finds himself in her company, looking up and lifting his eyebrows all at once. Well hello. 'That girl'-- he looks for her but she's gone back to wherever she came from so he looks at Loe instead. "I can only imagine how hard that would have been for you," he says, tone all dry. The book in question folds closed and finds a place out of the way to be while K'aus takes a drink and answers. "It's the second in the series, same one the other one came from." And indeed it is a matching little book with red cover and undoubtedly somewhere in there lies a black ribbon, marking his place. "So I've never been someone's almost-date. What's that look like?"
"Talking. And probably some intent gazes." That's what the almost-date looks like. Loe delivers the description over the rim of her drink. "Think you can handle it?" Sip. "So what happened? You're sitting alone tonight? Not feeling up to the hunt? Or is the book some sort of lure, trying to pull in some mousy, brainy type." She's restless tonight, even though she's sitting, there's little stillness. She crosses her legs beneath the table, lifts her posture and her chin and scans the room for the mouse.
Talking. Intent gazes. Check and check, he starts with the second one, smiling that little smile and taking his glasses off and tossing them over by the book so he can prop his chin in his palm and gaze at her. Intently. And with eyes like his, he's successful. "Hm. I don't really go for types. They get boring. Besides, maybe I'm waiting for someone. Maybe you're sitting in her seat." Not that K'aus is all that concerned, if that's the case. A girl in the seat is a girl in the seat. "What about you? Am I the best you could do?"
"I'd think types would make it less boring, somehow. Help institute a little variety." She adopts his pose, chin on hand, green eyes staring back him. "Every fourth day, you corrupt an innocent flower. Every seven days you go for one of those tough, tomboy sorts." As for the girl picking this seat. "You bought me a drink. Maybe I'm cheap and easy," she says, all the while her voice soft, in volume as well as tone. "Were you waiting for someone?" She doubts it.
"I'm more inclined to think you're all innocent flowers prime for the corrupting, if that's what I do," K'aus shares with a little headtilt. And again he affects surprise: her, cheap and easy? "If getting you to fuck me was as easy as getting you a drink I think we'd have gotten it over with by now, honey." Finally he breaks their little intent staring contest to lean back and stretch his arms over his head. "I guess you'll have to wait and see. How's that sit with you?"
Gotten it over with? Loe's mouth curves sly again. "That's why it's funny. Because you're quite certain at this point that it isn't at all true." Just before another sip of her drink she tacks on: "Besides, I agreed to this bet." Then comes the drink, then the shake of her head as she swallows. "Wait and see if you're expecting someone? If they show up? What if she sees me here and turns around and walks away? What if she figures she can't compete and gives up? I'm a patient woman. I can wait quite a while."
With his hands clasped in his lap and his posture a little slouched, K'aus sits there across from her and cherishes her a little. Like only the older, bored sort of man can. "What if what if what if?" He's mocking her with her own words, albeit gently, but he smoothes over that with this. "If she sees you here and walks away then I move on, if she figures she can't compete and gives up then maybe she would have been boring. Maybe she doesn't actually exist and you're getting yourself all worked up over nothing. What bet?" Leave it to him to address things as he wants, not necessarily as they should be.
"I'm not worked up. I'm entertained," Loe corrects with the toss of her hair. "I like what if. I like... would you rather." She goes to lift her cup and then pause and frowns at it. "I also like straws." And there isn't one. Which makes her pout a pretty pout just for show, just for her audience of one. She sulks back in her chair. "Oh, I got into this bet with one of the weyrlings on who could go longer. There's no way I'll let him win."
Oh, entertained, of course. The eyebrows say it all. Her lack of a straw inspires a small struggle within his head: to please her or not to please her. Ultimately he must decide not to, or at least not /now/, because he doesn't get up. But he does make a vaguely sympathetic face, just for her, just before he narrows his eyes. "Who could go longer... Wait, without fucking?" If he's right, and it doesn't really matter because it's happening anyway, he adds, "I'm intrigued." And quick, as during that waitress's passing their table he reaches out to pluck a straw from one of the pockets of her apron without even looking and passes it over between two fingers.
Perfect. A straw. Loe leans forward to take it from him, to give him a saucy grin in return. She also puts the straw to her lips to blow a narrow stream of air at him. He can have that too. Then the straw goes in her drink. "Without fucking," she confirms. "Technically without an orgasm involving another person. Is it intriguing?" she asks, dubious that he must really think so.
Delightful. K'aus closes his eyes with a neutral smile in place until she stops the thing with the straw already and looks at her like 'better now?' While idly watching her straw placement he replies. "I find the idea of two people essentially ruling out all possibility of fun for each other intriguing, yes. Why don't you just get married or have a kid or something, it's less entertaining but you'll get where you wanna go. So nobody can come. But technically you can still fuck if the fucking's bad."
Loe's eyebrows draw together just a beat before her nose wrinkles. "Is that the only thing that's fun? Just fucking? I don't see what getting married or having kids would have to do with any of it." She shakes her head, certain he's got it all wrong. "There's no sex -and- no doing something with another person to have an orgasm. You know, to stay in the spirit of the thing." She goes to take a sip, through her newly acquired straw, and then stops herself. "Why I am trying to explain this to you, of all people?" She snorts at her own mistake.
There's a moment right after the 'just fucking?' in which he gives her a very unreadable but very different sort of look. He's still wearing it when she goes on to further explain the terms of this bet she has going on and remains still when she snorts, except there's a little knitting of his brow for that. "And what pray tell is that supposed to mean."
This time the twist of her mouth isn't one of those evil little smiles. It's more like a thoughtful grimace, downturned and hesitating. She looks across the table at him and his unreadable expression, her own eyes narrowing slightly. Then she shakes her head and smiles, quick, effortless, meaningless. "That it's not the sort of bet you'd bother with." Aw, isn't that generous and judicious of her. Diplomatic even.
For whatever reason he grins, big and white with his sharp pointy canines and his smile-lines. Something is very amusing. K'aus shifts too, gripping his biceps in either hand and tilting his head a little. He tries to seal that grin but fails. "You don't wanna hurt my feelings."
Loe smiles right back, though hers is a touch more scolding, like she assumes she's being laughed at, assumes she's been caught. "Well, I always tell people that I'm a very sweet and considerate person. It's not my fault they don't always believe me." And that notion does make her smirk across the table at him. "Are you surprised?"
"I think so. It's hard to tell." What does 'surprised' mean anymore to someone like him? "You don't have to be sweet and considerate with me, sweetheart. I'm pretty sure I can take it and you're only lying to both of us. Let me guess, you can't imagine why you would be trying to explain a hands-off bet to someone who obviously doesn't see anything beyond the next available cunt," special emphasis, "right? Or maybe it's not that, maybe that's too easy, maybe it's something else." K'aus takes his drink as if he's just remembered it and sips.
Loe looks to the side, like she considering the accuracy of this. And then, "Yes. I think you have a tendency to masturbate with live women. Not only is getting laid all you care about, but I don't think you even enjoy it. You probably get more satisfaction blowing your nose." Almost without skipping a beat, "Do you want to get a plate of fries?"
There it is again, that grin. It's entirely naughty and amused and gosh, she's just so /darling/. While his hand swirls the ice and drink in his glass around he says, "If I don't enjoy it then what's the point? C'mon, let's get it all out on the table." His other hand taps knuckles on that very thing before he straightens in his seat and turns to scope out a waitress. Which is sort of a yes. When one is within range he waves her over, makes the order and turns back around to face Loe. K'aus, making things happen, watches her. Intently.
"I guess you just don't know what else to do," Loe answers him with a shrug. "Habit? I don't know. Maybe you don't notice." She watches him, considering something else without saying it, observing without paying attention as he places the order for their food. When he turns back to watch her in return, her expression has gone flat, serious, like she's forgotten to include that hint of something naughty to her countenance.
Again, 'surprise' isn't a very familiar thing for him so he doesn't really express it, but that she's looking so un-Loe does give him reason to pause, to look at her perhaps differently, less weighted and more... probing. It comes off as intense, but he can't help it. His mouth opens, a thought occurs, he narrows his eyes. "How about this. You can ask me ten questions, they can be anything you want, I have to answer them. You can use 'em now or whenever, they can be about anything, about anyone. But whatever I say you have to accept as the truth."
Ten questions, free questions, perks Loe up without delay. That spark of intrigue comes back to her eye, and it looks like she's quite favorable to the rules, at least until that part bit. Then she's cocking a brow at him. "Why does that need to be a rule? Do you think I inherently don't believe anything you say? That I think everything is a lie? And how can you force belief? Even if I said 'oh yes, I believe you' it wouldn't necessarily make it true. I can say 'this drink is red' and I could act very much like that's the truth. But I'd know it's not. It doesn't change anything. Do you want me to lie to you?" She drinks that not-red drink and then adds. "Also, none of those count as part of the ten. That would be lame."
It's a good thing she added that disclaimer at the end because K'aus has been ticking off her questions on his fingers. He's holding up a whole hand's worth by the time she's done and banishes them all while he smirks. That hand reaches for his drink so he can take one and consider. Once he's swallowed he acquiesces. "Fine, it isn't a rule. But if you ask follow-up questions those count as part of the original and limited ten. Better?" Their fries haven't come yet so he takes a deep breath and folds hands in lap again and smiles benignly across at her.
"Better, I suppose. How do we know when they count? Do I have to specify? Or will they all get used up on boring, friendly things like 'what are you reading' and 'how's your drink'? And who gets to choose? Me or you?" Loe takes another drink but, having reaches the end, the straw just makes loud burbling noises. "Do you want ten questions too?"
"I think we're both reasonable enough to know when a question's a boring, friendly question. Small talk doesn't count as part of the ten, and beyond that... I get to choose. Otherwise there's nothing stopping you from trying to find a loophole and there's no question about what's considered boring or friendly. And I think the question," aha, "there is do /you/ want me to have ten questions too." K'aus takes another drink and glances away from her for just a brief look-around. He did say he might be waiting for someone.
"No, I think the real question is... why do you want me to have ten questions. If there's something you want to tell me, why not just tell me?" She lifts her drink. No. Nothing left. She shifts impatiently. "What if I ask ten questions and never get to the thing you wanted me to ask? What if I don't ask any? If there's nothing I want to know?" What if she doesn't ask any questions? Fat chance of that.
What if there's nothing she wants to know? "I really don't think that's possible. Look, I'm giving you ten free questions I can't avoid or lie about," with a muttered 'that you know about', "and you're really looking a gift horse in the mouth here. I don't care if you don't want to play, it's no skin off my back. You need another drink and our food's up." How'd he know? Must be some sixth bar-sense. It urges K'aus up out of his seat and over to the bar to collect their fries and order Loe another thing and him another thing though he only returns with the basket. A beat behind him though, that waitress from before shows up with their drinks and he largely ignores her.
She gives him a look, it's one of those wry smiles that also says 'yeah yeah, make a big show out of how much you don't care. I won't say anything'. That kind of smile. As he walks away, she reaches for his book with one hand and for her pocket with the other. By the time he returns she's pushing his book back into place and sticking a pencil behind her ear. She needs her fingers free to snag a fry. But now that he's back, she just looks across the table at him, studying him, small grin quirked, as the drinks come. And then the waitress leaves, "I think she was checking you out."
"Oh yeah? Think I should fuck her? Would you like that?" Dirty little Loe, says /his/ look. He reaches for a fry, too, and for his book with the other hand. Don't think he didn't see that weird little thing she was doing. "What's goin' on there," he wonders around the fry poking out of his mouth, which he encourages further in by tilting his chin up and using a complicated lip and teeth combination to fold it in.
"Maybe you should. Isn't that what you do? And you walked away from that girl the other night. The one who had your glasses. Are you under the weather?" Loe wonders, lifting a brow. "Maybe you should fuck her. Do you want me to watch? Would that turn you on or do you think it might just make you nervous?" She eats her fry and around it asks, "What's going on where?" And in his book, beside the black ribbon, on the page, in pencil: Loe was here. <3
While he's flipping to that page, "I guess it must not be just about the fucking then," in a wry voice because didn't she just assume that's what he was about? Finding her little note and squinting to read it without his glasses, K'aus looks at her after like 'really?' "You know you don't have to write me little love notes. I'll let you watch. Want me to go grab her? We could all go up to my place, I could strip her down in front of you on the couch, eat 'er out, make her come right there. Do you think that would turn /you/ on?" Otherwise there might not be a point. "Thanks," he adds, closing the book on her <3 and pushing it out of the way like he couldn't care less. Another fry.
Loe lets her eyes cut to the waitress and she considers all of these things that K'aus says. "No," she answers, as simply as if he'd offered her a sandwich instead of a very different sort of dining experience. "I don't think it would. It doesn't sound very... hot. It sounds like... I don't know, after that you might cut her toenails or brush her teeth." She sets her elbow on the table, chin in hand against, eats another fry. "So what is it? If it's not all about the fucking? What's it about? Why waste your time eating fries with me when you could be securing an easy lay?" She sucks a bit of grease and salt off her forefinger.
She can say whatever she wants but K'aus has this knowing little smile on his face. "Maybe I'd brush her hair." She didn't think of that one, did she. And somehow, he makes that mundane task sound like the dirtiest of things. K'aus is chewing on another fry when she asks... all of that so he doesn't answer right away. Swallow, "Before I answer questions 1-42, are any of those your ten?"
"I don't know. Do I need to make any of them one of the ten to get you to answer them?" Loe wonders. She eats another fry and the next one she considers for a second, before eating that too.
He considers, both her question and her and her fry, with his eyes on the table between them. Eventually, thoughtfully, "I don't know what it's all about any more than you do. It's life. It's my life." More specifically. "I like women. I like the way they smell. I like you." Now K'aus will look at her, reach for another fry. "I think you think I'm more complicated than I actually am."
She looks at him, serious again. "I don't think that's true," she says, rather quietly, like perhaps she really is, still, trying not to hurt his feelings. She must think he has them. Loe's eyes drop back down to the fries and she aborts her reach for one more, istead sitting back in her chair again with her drink. Which part doesn't she think is true? She doesn't specify. "What do you want me to ask? When you imagined it, when you thought to offer it, what question did you think I'd ask?"
He keeps eating, mowing down on fries in between her questions and through them, making a little noise for her comment. It doesn't matter to him which part she doesn't think is true, he's said it and maybe his lack of response might be enough to prove them true instead. He's taking a few drinks to wash all the potato down with by the time she's come to her other, sigh, questions. K'aus really is handling them all with the patience of a thousand men. "I didn't. Easy. I thought you might appreciate it, being able to ask me anything you want with a guaranteed answer. Maybe I want you to realize that this is what there is." And he holds his hands up, presenting himself to her. "I am who I say I am, even when I'm not saying. And you're looking for someone else in here and I'm all alone."
Loe takes a breath and she closes her mouth. No more questions. Maybe it was the sigh, maybe that it was her questions that inspired the offer of ten freebies. Either way, Loe goes quiet, except to say. "Sorry." She takes a sip of her drink and pulls the pencil from behind her ear to slip it back into her pocket.
That leaves them both quiet, K'aus looking at the table again and scraping mashed-up fry from between teeth and cheek with sweeps of his tongue. After a measured breath he lets his eyes shift to their corners and notes, "I think people wish there was more to me. I think it would help them... deal with me." Looking at her he adds, "I know what people think about me. I know what they see. Hell, I agree with them."
Loe nods, the slow bobbing sort, the extra touch of a little smile to show she understand, a little sympathy tossing in too.
Sympathy. Wrong move. It, coupled with her enduring silence, does more than just rub him the wrong way, and since his go-to is usually anger... "Great." With a rough shove he pushes himself out of the seat and reaches for his stuff, glasses and book, with grasping hands.
There's a flash of something confused and alarmed in her eyes, but whether or not it lingers is a mystery, since Loe is then looking down at the table, a hand slipping into her hair to cradle her forehead. She still doesn't say anthing, though her other hand makes like it might reach for the book or the glasses or maybe his hand, though the motion is abandoned long before it can become anything other than a little forward shift.
So he's unimpeded and has both of those things in hand quickly. Without another word, without noticing her intentions, K'aus straightens to leave (run away from her) the Sandbar and that waitress behind him.