(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]

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.

But there was nothing but the echo of recognition of 'my Tale' and the emptiness of his expectations felt hollow, like a magician inadvertently dropping the card up his sleeve, magic gone. There was no reason for her to press up against his thoughts, coyly curling herself into them until the separation between 'Velvet, the shy Librarian' and 'Scheherazade, mistress of stories' became a porous substance, blending the two until they were inseparable.

Wasn't quite what you were supposed to think, sitting on the edge of your seat - Alex could feel the hard line of seat-end against his back, pressing back courteously to give her space, room.

"Hi," he said with a reluctance that wasn't explainable, to her anyway.

[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."

[kingofstories]

"We." The word sank heavily down between them, as divisive and undeniable as a wall. "No. I can't say I have."

[scheherazading]

Oops. Velvet cringed internally, but outwardly she pretended she hadn't noticed. He didn't dwell on it; neither would she. "You should! I know it seems like a touristy type of thing to do, but it really isn't, and some of the art in there is amazing." A beat, and she amended, "It is a little steep if you aren't a student, though."

[kingofstories]

"Not a student. Not got the cash to throw at an art show," he wasn't dwelling per se. Just about certain who 'he' had been if she wasn't answering the question. And there was no budget to go and see it. Not now.

[scheherazading]

"It's not..." Velvet cut herself off, deciding that perhaps going on about the differences between a museum and an art show wasn't really the best tactic at this time. "Yeah, it's expensive. I only make it there a couple times a year anyway."