(Untitled)

[scheherazading]

Who: Velvet Lyon (Scheherazade), Alex Chase (King Shahryar)
What: Meeting on the subway after her afternoon at the Met with Murdock.
Rating: TBD? PG-13, probably, because Alex has a mouth on him.

Comments

[kingofstories]

Wandering thoughts. Far enough away to almost miss that the train had drawn up and the kid who'd been behind him steps back was now pushing past, elbows and artfully trailing striped scarf and iPod jammed in, unaware of surroundings. Alex jostled on, breathing in the scent of stale bodies and reconditioned air with a sigh of gratitude for plastic seats and the act itself of sitting downDon't carry a fancy bit of paper stamped with gold saying you'd been at college and you were errand boy in a silk tie that felt like a noose; a delayed execution by fifty years of being trapped in an office, behind a desk that felt too small to fit and photocopying useless bits of paper for kids younger but with the all important 'BA', magical letters, post-name. The office was one of a nondescript name, marketing firm that was bland enough not to command attention of anyone but not piss-poor enough to be infamous. It was a job, a job with a paycheck that came each month and with each signed contract, he felt as though he'd written off his soul to pay

[scheherazading]

Weaving in and out of her ruminations upon the art she'd seen that day, were just little observations about the people surrounding her in that car. People watching was something Vel did constantly, without even thinking about it. She took note of the way the girl with the red backpack on the far end of the car was standing, slouching, shoulder against the pole, but her head tilted in the opposite direction, tired but alert like a sentry on duty. A man's choice of socks - mismatched, bright colors, slacks raised just enough when he sat to show. Idle little fascinations with small things, a moment spent on spinning a reason and a why and a how, and then her thoughts moved on

[kingofstories]

There was a different sort of tug to a Tale of your Tale. Different little catch in the throat, twist in the gut. It felt, usually like being punched unexpectedly, attention dragged unwillingly to a person who quite often, he didn't feel like paying attention to. Accompanying the sensation came a prickling of knowing; quite different from an 'ordinary' encounter with a nondescript Tale. He could feel it, beneath the numb weariness of the mindset of a journey home and without meaning to, sought out the reason for it this time

[scheherazading]

Automatically, Velvet smiled back, small and shy befitting chance encounters on a subway car, before she realized the sarcasm in his greeting and looked down into her lap, where her hands played with the strap of her bag. They hadn't had a very... well, civil conversation since she'd lashed out at him, and oh, how she regretted it. Yet, she'd apologized, and she wasn't really sure what she was supposed to do next - not in terms of putting their friendship back on track, or in terms of their current meeting.

The 1 train rumbled and shrieked into the next station; the woman sitting on Alex's left got up, and Velvet mirrored her. Where the other woman got off the train, Vel took her place, sitting gingerly next to Alex, offering a thin-lipped, apologetic smile. "Hi."

[kingofstories]

He didn't know why he expected her to be different, but he did. A tumult of memories pressing against his head insistently, pushing themselves through the membrane of truth and now as he looked at her smile, and he expected to feel that reflect in the inborn Tale reaction. Some measure of certainty, who she was, who he was, played out as it had done because it was meant to, unavoidably driven by a physical reaction

[scheherazading]

Oblivious to the maelstrom inside Alex's head, Velvet could not address any of his Tale related anxieties. She could only sit there, hesitating for a moment more than was really acceptable in most social situations, pausing for just a bit too long while she tried to find something to say. Comment on the weather, gorgeous after torrents of rain? Mention how particularly bumpy this ride has been? How has he been, what has he been up to? The options fell flat and stale on her mind's tongue, so instead she bit her lip and looked askance, at the filthy floor of the car. "I really am sorry I said that. You know that, right?"

[kingofstories]

Right. An apology that had come with all the halting hesitancy of someone who wished they'd never said something worth an apology, to begin with. Remorse bubbled hot, rising an apology of his own to his lips before Alex knew it was there.

"I do. Apology accepted and all that," he said, more formally than he meant, tugging the knot of his tie loose in a fretful jerk. It felt even tighter.

But it doesn't mean it hasn't happened, an incessant little voice whispered in his ear. It doesn't stop what happened after. She just doesn't know

Alex studied a chewing gum wrapper with all the attention paid to grand masterworks in museums.

[scheherazading]

"Yeah, that's what you said," Velvet said quietly, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

She went quiet, again, defeated. It had been what he'd said, over the Compendiums, and even though he said 'apology accepted', he still acted like an unprecedented jerkwad to her, and it didn't seem like she was making much headway. So, she just sat there, quiet for a while, letting the subway jerk her back and forth in her seat, until, finally, after another stop, she leaned back against the wall with a sigh.

"You really don't have to worry about Murdock. I don't know why you have to be so antagonistic towards him."

[kingofstories]

There was no way to construct an explanation, this he knew. No way explaining hostility and resentment that he had become host to something that hadn't been as expansive as before. But the urge to do so, to apologise - in fact to prostrate himself before her and to feel guilt for causing her problems, left a sour taste coating Alex's tongue that kept him silent for long minutes.

"I don't like him. And I don't trust him." He was inherently untrustworthy, and had a roving eye uncontained to one Librarian, a present girl. Even if he wanted no part of Scheherezade, he didn't want her hurt exactly. Just less inclined to fall for the witless burblings of an idiot who couldn't contain himself. It stung his dignity, deep down.

[scheherazading]

"Trust him with what?" she asked, turning her head to look at Alex for the first time since she came over to sit by him. Her tone was mild, curious, but she was watching him carefully, now.

[kingofstories]

Small controlled shrug, a precise measure of up-and-down, shoulders engaged in a minute movement. Not likely to share.

"Anything. Something I should be worried about?" He speaks off-hand, words tripping off his tongue as easily as if blithely unconcerned. The notch of seriousness is as he looks back. Watches back. For signs that might worry.

[scheherazading]

Again, Velvet was quiet before she replied, but not out of hesitancy this time. Rather, she just regarded Alex for a moment, searching his face as objectively as she might wonder about what the teenaged kid across from them was thinking about with his tongue peeking out of the corner of his mouth. But, of course, she didn't know that boy, and she did know Alex.

"No."

[kingofstories]

"Right." Either agreement or dismissal, it wasn't fully apparent from Alex's flat response, but the way he folded his arms, tight against his body said something, at any rate.

[scheherazading]

It was the very briefest of sensations, nothing compared to what she'd unwittingly unleashed upon Alex's conscience. One little syllable, ambiguous between approval and disapproval, tone flat and mien stony; it sent a shudder of dread down her spine, lodged deep in her gut. The fear she'd lived with and repressed for a thousand nights and night, so very long ago, came back, suddenly, and went away just as quickly.

Barely there, even, except for a shiver on a packed, overheated subway car in a sweater, coat, and scarf. The train pulled into the station, and Velvet fought the urge to run off it, though her stop was still a bit aways. It was just Alex, after all. Just Alex. Just Alex being... well, Alex.

But, she couldn't think of anything to say.

[kingofstories]

He looked across at her and for a moment, one long moment, there was a flicker of something. What to call it, he didn't know; a prickle at the back of his throat, a sensation akin to dissatisfaction and he shifted uneasily in his seat, sloughing off the feeling as though sliding out of a jacket to leave behind.

"Where've you been?" Striking stilted conversation.

[scheherazading]

"The Met," Velvet replied, grateful for some semblance of conversation. It was all kinds of wrong, Scheherazade sitting next to Shahryar, silent. "We went to go see the exhibit on Modern Photography, it was quite good." She turned to look at Alex, "Have you been? To the museum? Since you've been in New York, I mean."