ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN

[tehpuck]

Holly? Trouble? Whoever is poking around the apartment? Hold my calls. I'll be... dealing with some business, today.

I'll be out.

All day.

It's very important business. Paramount, I would say.

Those of you who need to reach me, you know who you are, and how you can. That is, if I don't... reach you first.

Comments

[ishiah]

[It's rare that Ishiah has had to eject himself from the bar for being bad for business. He is, however, distantly and disappointedly aware that gazing longingly into someone's eyes is an intimate activity, not best suited to customer relations.

Refuge, then, and where better than another bar. The Coliseum, while not an establishment in his style, has private booths in the back. Bringing paperwork, nursing his usual glass, studiedly not even checking the colour of the waitresses eyes, he settles in for a dull, if productive, evening.]

[tehpuck]

[On the other hand, Robin had to eject himself from his own apartment rather often. Sometimes for curses, or for real business, or other matters entirely, he lived in the apartment, but it was not his home. And he had to disappear from it more often than he would've liked for it to be even that.]

[And where did he usually go when he needed to get away? Once, months ago, he'd gone to some auspiciously named bar, he couldn't really recall it's title, only that it reminded him, fleetingly, of architecture he'd grown overfond of, years and years ago. Now? He'd always gone to Lux.]

[Not tonight.]

[So, backtrack. Robin's mind may not remember, but his feet did, and hurried footfalls find The Coliseum. Not bothering to fuss with the attendants or wait to be seated, Robin brushes by the bar, and heads straight to the back tables. There should be secluded enough.]

[Company will just leave him disappointed.]

[Earthbound.]

[ishiah]

I'm fine.

[Ishiah raises a hand without looking up, the only occasional pitfall of the place being 'checked up' on from time to time. His glass is still quite full and he attempts to stay the question before it's asked, feathers rustling irritably at his back.]

[tehpuck]

[Table picked at random, Robin sits down with a thump. It's a game of chance, he knows, but honestly, who would sit around inside of a bar they didn't own when they had wings to fly the sky with? You'd have to be an idiot-]

Oh, for the love of Hera's- [Hera's what is muffled by Robin, more specifically, Robin's hands when he cradles his hands in them. He's looked up to see inspect the table fate has handed him (finally) and found...]

[An idiot.]

[ishiah]

[An idiot already half to his feet and gathering the papers from the table into a manageable sheaf.]

No, no need to apologise for the intrusion. I was just...

[Reaching across the table for the last document folder and making the horrible, horrible mistake of glancing up.]

Just...

[Staying exactly where he is, bent across the table, and with the perfect view.]

[tehpuck]

[Robin's eyes, however, aren't staring back at Ishiah's. Though the Peri admittedly does have some very handsome eyes, Robin is currently more concerned with those perfect wings.]

...Just.

[It isn't even a question, or an annoyed invitation to continue. It's just all he can say, every other part of his inertia is centered soully on the feathers, the lay of them, ruffled and some not, and still misplaced, and always perfect.]

[He's hardly even aware of the hand already reaching out to touch one.]

[ishiah]

Mm.

[Ishiah nods, agreeing with he doesn't know what. It's better than repeating himself again. Edging forward just a fraction - too close and the colour loses its definition, too far, its intensity, he reaches up to still Robin's head exactly where it is.]

What are you-- [looking at is cut off abruptly as fingertips curve over the crest of a shoulder.]

What do you think you're doing?

[tehpuck]

[Hands shoot back like they'd been burned, and Robin is gone.]

[Except he can't quite leave. He knows he should, and yet...]

[The alternative isn't so terrible. Now, pressed up against the back of the booth, jaw clenched and face tense, he's as far away as he can be from Ishiah without being far away from Ishiah.]

Nothing. Go, why don't you, I... [Did his wings just twitch? Zeus. Do that again.]

[ishiah]

[Twitched, flexed and shook themselves out, scattering the stray stuffing from a featherbed in the process. Ishiah had every intention of going, of course, although as he stares across at Robin - acting, as usual, like the recalcitrant toddler that he is - it strikes him that he shouldn't have to.

And that going would mean looking away.]

I was here first, you'll find. Take your own leave, Puck, you're far more practised at it.

[tehpuck]

[And now Robin has a conflict on his hand. He wants to leave, but he can't, and the view really is perfect, if he could just touch one...]

[His hand twitches. If he were less off his own game, he wouldn't have flinched at that comment, either.]

I c-[an't.] can understand feeling refused to a toddler in my presence, but please, do try to restrain yourself from using arguments salvaged from a sandbox. I was here [Born, he means. And he's pretty sure he's right, to boot.] first, so do shove off.

[ishiah]

[And the comment wouldn't have been so harsh were Ishiah not unsettled. He notes the twitch and folds his arms, jaw set.]

The earth isn't given you by divine fiat because your feet brushed it first. And you want to talk about childish arguments.

[In a move that isn't immature at all, Ishiah sits down on the edge of the table. He's only proving a point, after all. And still decidedly uncomfortable with that just happened.]

I'm not going anywhere, Robin, I came here to work.

[tehpuck]

[And Robin is a stubborn bastard. He grips the table-- but if it's to keep his hands from shooting out without his permission again or to maintain ownership of the thing, he isn't sure.]

Well. I'm not leaving. [But he doesn't have such a good reason as Ishiah. He came here to escape the other, after all. And now, it seems, he can't escape at all.]

[ishiah]

Then we're at an impasse. [Ishiah leans forward in what he intends to look like a challenge, but is really a poor excuse. Just close enough, again.]

Could you try to blink less?

[tehpuck]

I-... [And this leaves Robin flustered... which of course causes a fury of blinking and nervously looking away. Really, he would be better at this game if the wanting, always present but always easy to ignore, was not so awaiting under already thin skin.] Would that cause you to disappear? Because that is the best way to bribe me, at the moment.

[ishiah]

No, but it would... [No, no. That's the opposite of what he wanted, which admittedly does seem to be the way between them, but today the frustration with it is getting to him that much more. His fingers tighen around the edge of the table, resisting temptation for all of a minute before he reaches to turn Robin's head back toward him.]

I just want you to look at me. What bribe will it take?

[tehpuck]

[A pensive, momentary frown as Robin slowly starts to put peices of today's puzzle together. Ishiah... wants him?]

[...well, of course, he's Robin Goodfellow, everyone wants him, but... wants him to look at him?]

[With an impish grin, he stares straight into Ishiah's eyes, eyes wide and gaze full. Let's test these waters.]