Uh Huh

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Norte"]

Space travel could be lonely.

Moving from this world to that, finish the job, move on. It was necessary. Sure. But that didn't mean it wasn't annoying sometimes. For one reason or the other the HoloNet ads-service seemed to be aware of the conundrum. The amount of blind date-night pop-ups rushing my screen was annoying. Interesting. But annoying. Eventually I decided to bite, because honestly the last job had been concluded a week ago.

Now it was just a matter of killing time.

Nar Shaddaa had plenty to do.

So.... why not. Was there some kind of rule that said you couldn't try out one of these blind date chit? No! It was perfectly normal. Yes! Exactly. Perfectly normal. I kept reminding myself of that all the way towards the designated bar. All the way towards the counter, where I leaned, before accepting a... name sticker. I accepted it. Looking at the other figures around, making sure they were also pressing it on their clothes.

It.

Really seemed to be the thing to do.

I sighed, but put it on, before ordering a drink.

If I was going to be walking around with a heart-sized name sticker, I might as well have a drink to go with it. I flopped into one of the open chairs, nobody sitting on the other side yet, but that would presumably change soon.

It would be fine.

Right?

 

[Aristotle Tater]

Long day.

Long week.

Could go on but why?

The job was done and that was all that mattered. Sitting in a bar on Nar Shaddaa wasn't my ideal choice as far as ways to spend an evening went, but sometimes you worked with that you had. The alternative was sit around the empty room at the safe house until my pick up time tomorrow, but since the only risk to the mission was dead now, body buried beneath half a mountain of trash behind a particular Hutt's syndicate hole there was just no reason to. It had turned from safe house to crash pad and I hadn't brought a book.

'Sides, had one of those rare itches for company. Didn't have to be anything serious, hell, better if it wasn't. A conversation over a drink would probably be enough to remind me why I hate people as a general rule and leave me all set for a month or so. Used to go back and forth between calling it introverted or straight up misanthropic. Which it was depended largely on the day, so eventually I stopped trying to figure out which it was and just ran with it.

Yet every now and then I'd still get hit with those rare moments of loneliness and end up doing the same thing I could have done in an empty room, but instead surrounded by other people. Something different, but couldn't be sure if it was an improvement.

The bar was honestly more crowded than I'd expected it to be on a weeknight. Weird energy too. Rather than the low buzz of a regular crowd there was a certain charge. A waiting buoyancy and nervousness. Like thirty people all waiting for a blind-karking-date.

Right on the money, as it turned out.

"Are you here for the event?"

Just about to step past the first table on my way to the bar when I got pulled up short by an aggressively cheerful voice.

"The what now?"

"Of course you are, who else would come to drink alone on a Taunsday anyway," the man tittered.

The expression on my face didn't seem to impact.

"Here's your name badge, fill it out! We'll get started in a few minutes."

He shoved a sticker at me- heart shaped, the size of my palm. Glancing around it was obvious what it was for. Some sort of date event. It explained the excited nervousness most of them were giving off in waves even I could feel.

"No, I'm not-"

"If you want to participate, yes," he said firmly, pointing a pen at me and then batting his eyes. It wasn't personal- he was clearly batting for the other team.

I almost retorted with a 'who said I wanted to participate' but he continued before I got a word in.

"Just put your name and grab a complementary drink before we get started, honey," he said with a wink.

Sold.

"Okay yeah sure, whatever."

Card was scribbled down without a second thought. It was the personal name I used, on the rare occasion I used one. That was fine here too. Affixing it to the front of my shirt and offering a casual, if bemused salute to the man who'd roped me in, I headed toward the bar. Didn't take long to secure a drink. As promised, free. Everyone? Or just the ladies? Wasn't sure it mattered too much since I was benefiting from it either way.

Everyone was still milling about. Like a bunch of ducks wondering when someone would start throwing bread and not wanting to miss it. Well, almost everyone. Sidestepping and sliding between to people, I snagged the chair opposite another sticker clad individual- those things really stood out from a distance, didn't they- before settling down there.

"I assume," I said, taking a sip, "that it's not against the rules to talk, just that everyone else is too nervous about mucking it up before anything even starts."

Hey, I hadn't come for the event. If I was committing a gross faux pas I wasn't particularly fussed.

[member="Hiron Vizsla"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Norte"]

I had been sipping from my drink and waiting for the show to get started.

Before I realized it had started.

Just that nobody really was interested in making the first move and out themselves. Except me, apparently, because I was sitting like the dumb chit I was. Or maybe I just wasn't as concerned as the rest of them. A little bit of A, little bit of B, maybe. There seemed to be some sort of invisible wall between the two sides (women on one, tittering to one another, men on the other and separate from one another). But that was honestly how it always went in my experience.

One side saw support.

The other saw challenges.

That made one part strong and the other part self-destructive. Kinda stupid, really. Before I could take another sip and call it (I was really expecting some more action) someone sat down in front of me. She was all dark eyes, dark hair and bemused expression.

I let her words sit there for a bit more, taking a sip from the glass as planned, before shrugging.

"Too nervous or hoping they will be the ones being approached, instead of the other way around." Card. Card on a card. That was amusing. "I'd introduce myself, but then I'd be suggesting you can't read." H I R O N was clearly settled on the other sticker. "So, what is an interesting lady like you doing here? Don't seem to be like your scene." Neither of them were, honestly. But I was more obvious about it than her though. Soldier was written all over it.

Even if soldiering wasn't strictly what I did.

 

[Aristotle Tater]

I hadn't taken a good look when I'd aimed at the chair. Now that I settled down in front of him, however, it was obvious that he was a honey. Hadn't been why I'd sat there but damned if I wasn't going to enjoy the work in front of me now that I was here.

"Would be awkward if I couldn't, yah?" I said with a chuckle, eyes flicking down from his face to his chest. Hiron. Name and accent practically screamed Mandalorian. This was kind of outside their wheelhouse, wasn't it? And then-

I laughed, head tipping back and eyes closing for a moment.

"Really? That's the line you're going with? 'What's a nice place like you doing in a girl like this?'." The juxtaposition was deliberate, illustrative rather than mistake.

"Could say the same about you," I responded over the edge of the glass before taking another sip. A little sweet, mostly tart and biting, the drink coated, going down easily. A good pour by the bartender though, good mix without being too weak or too strong. Good drink.

He wasn't a casual operator. That much was clear. Oh he was relaxed and at ease, but I knew those lines. Eyes flicked down, catching the calluses on his right hand. A lot to see if one was looking, and I didn't just mean signs of what he was.

"I'm really just here for a drink and some conversation." A smile. "Can't say the same for everyone here though. At least, a willingness to start the later."

[member="Hiron Vizsla"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Norte"]

The laugh was answered with a smile of my own.

Another shrug, smaller and more casual for this one, less pronounced.

"Don't worry, I pre-wrote all of it, gonna get worse, before it gets better." I realized the game two seconds after I slipped into it myself. The fact that she stuck out like a sore thumb here.... wasn't because she was gorgeous or anything like that. She was like me. No. Hmm. It was a bit muddy here, hard to get a good beat on her and that was what made this interesting all of a sudden. Part of me wanted to probe further. See just who this face really was.

But then.

I pushed that aside.

This wasn't a night to uncover mysteries and figure things out. Miss me with that chit. "Could just be an act of mine, eh? Act more to entice." Maybe there were books on that sort of stuff. How to act like a soldier with a troubled past. Coax in all those women who wanted to fix broken wings.

That made me snort.

Head tilted as a bell sounded somewhere in the background. Finally the others began to fill the tables, conversation starting almost immediately after that. Feverish almost. Hurried. Like they would miss a train, if they didn't rattle off whatever things they had come up with in that thin space, where nobody had been forcing them to act yet. It was... odd to see. My eyes left her for a bit, studying the crowd around. "Odd, aren't they? On their own accord... nothing. Moment the bell goes and they get permission? They rush in like piranhas."

Eyes back to her.

"Just a conversation and a drink, Card?"

Holding her there.

 

[Aristotle Tater]

"Worse? Lawd have mercy. Appreciate the warning," I chuckled, raising my glass in a bit of a salute before taking another sip.

Even I had trouble sometimes, separating out the 'real' from the persona. I'd been wearing masks for so long, figuratively and literally, that I'd forgotten what the face under it really looked like. 'Card' was an affectation just as much as 'Norte' was, but a more comfortable one. One that read as genuine. A veil perhaps, rather than a mask. Under that?

Well, most people didn't try to peek and that was for the best.

'Card' was real enough that people tended to stop digging once they hit that layer (assuming they reached that point at all). No reason to look deeper. It was the way I liked it, and it worked well in my favor.

I snorted into the drink, looking back up at him over the room.

"Act more what? Cheesy? Cause that's what lines like that are. Unless you are a pizza I dunno if that'll entice anyone."

The words could be insulting if the tone hadn't been relaxed and teasing.

"Mmm, depends I suppose," I replied, canting my head to the side. Didn't pretend I wasn't looking him up and down. "I don't have high expectations of the evening. Though, I'll be honest, I didn't even know this was happening here tonight. Got shanghaied in when I walked through the door. So, depends on who I meet I guess. I'll settle for good conversation and a drink, and since I'm already getting both of those things, evening has no where to go but up, eh?"

A grin, morphing into a suspicious but mock hopeful look.

"You're not a pizza right? Because that could change my mind about my expectations." I expected a shake of the head or something like that. I had my theatrical sigh a 'shame' holstered and ready to draw.

[member="Hiron Vizsla"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Norte"]

"I am nothing if not honest."

Usually.

I didn't actually enjoy to lie all that often. It got messy and confusing, especially when you needed to hold all those lines in your head the entire time. Felt like it would burst your brain, honestly. I answered the salute with my own and smiled a bit.

She seemed... fun.

Amusing and snarky and entirely self-assured. The question how much of that was real and how much was actually projected.

I SNORTED at that reply tho.

What a lady. "Could be one. For the right price, yeah?" Now that was cheesy and I raised my eyebrows at her. A challenge to do worse than that. Because honestly her routine wasn't all that buttery either. Maybe smoothness wasn't really a job for the soldiers of this world.

"The next line suggests I should ask you what your hobbies are."

I let that one sit there for a bit.

Then laughed. "You could also ask me a question, then I will weigh if I feel like answering it." Head tilted a bit. "Unless you want to count the pizza as one."

 

[Aristotle Tater]

Nothing if not honest.

Uh huh.

I made my life on lies, and honey, I'll tell you something.

So does everyone.

Big ones, small ones. Didn't matter. Everyone did. Just the way of things. Wasn't anything personal, least not on my end. Some people lied on purpose for a reason. That was better, in my opinion, compared to the people who lied without thinking about it. Or worse, without realizing it. Those people were the worst.

Didn't get to use my holstered response. In fact his caught me enough by surprise that I almost choked on my drink.

First thought that crossed my mind I opted not to give voice too. Having a habit of thinking before speaking was important and boy howdy that was not how I wanted to open things up. I laughed, half at him, half at myself, shaking my head as the sound died down into a chuckle.

"Bet you're an expensive pizza, probably come with the works," I said instead of the first one.

There were times I could play it smooth. If I had to. But I was off the clock right now, so why? Smooth was a mask that took way more effort than it was worth without a reason. Just didn't come all that natural.

"Hang on, did you get a cue card or something for the night? Or was that just for the guys. We get free drink, you get a list of things you should ask? Or is that your pre-written script talking?"

I settled back in the chair, almost putting my feet up on the table then thinking better of it and crossing my legs instead.

"Well," I said slowly, passing my drink off to the other hand. "I travel a lot. You know the whole 'go interesting places, meet interesting people' schtick." That line of course continued with 'then kill them,' when you were part of a particular crowd. Still suspected he was. "I like to read, play a couple of card games." A slight smirk. I meant actual cards but also games of my own sort. This wasn't one of them however. A pause, as if thinking. "Amateur bird-watcher. Keep a list. You'd be amazed.... if you were into that sort of thing anyway."

All true. Hey, I didn't say everyone lied ALL the time.

"Same question then, if that's in your script."

[member="Hiron Vizsla"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Norte"]

"Few people can afford me, this is true."

The tone was completely dead-pan and snark in kind, but it had two layers there. Leaning heavily on the latter meaning which honestly amused me a lot. Frankly, it probably amused me too much, considering it was my own joke, buuuuuuut that's life for ya. "That being said-" I reached out for the marker on the edge of the table. Gripped it and managed to write something in the corner of my stamp. She would only see what it was once I put down the marker again.

-30%

In the corner of it.

"I offer a complementary discount that will expire by the end of this conversation."

The sudden shift back to the cue card and drink made me chuckle though. "Nah, still my pre-written lines, I think the others here are stumbling in the dark." Mischievous smile playing right there. "I like to be prepared before going in, you know?" The host of things she liked to do.... surprised me. Very normal stuff for the most part. Nothing that triggered any alarms. Well. Maybe the bird watching, that was something..... new. Never had actually met anyone who did that.

Always imagined it to be middle-aged divorcees with nothing to lose anymore.

"It ain't, but I can improvise just for you." I thought about it for a moment- tilting my head, before making a decision. Most of that sounded like the truth. So. "Well, surprise surprise, I travel around too. Never really stick to one place for long. This is my...." Leaning back a bit and thinking about it.

The job had been the day before yesterday.

Which meaaaaaaant-

"Day before the last night, I figured I'd hit the museum tomorrow. They have an exhibition on stolen art." With actual literal stolen art. That only happened in Nar Shaddaa. "I fly a lot, just for fun's sake. Got a skiff back on my ship, whenever I hit an ocean world and I love to dive too. For all the exploration in space we do... you'd be surprised what is hiding deep underwater." Nails scratched a bit against my jaw, while watching her reaction at the same time.

Pretty eyes.

"Play holochess sometimes, read during downtime too. Hrm."

I leaned in a bit, elbows against the edge of the table.

"Pittin or akk dog?" Lazy smile there. Cheese.

 

[Aristotle Tater]

"Mmm I'll keep that in mind," I murmured into my drink. So a mercenary. Made sense. Either that or he was insinuating he was an escort. Which seemed less likely. A glance up and down. Not impossible, he could make bank on that if he wanted to probably.

"Probably too rich for my blood still, but I'll take it anyway," I said with a smirk. Leaning over and reaching slightly, I slid the paper over to my side of the table with my index finger.

Business and pleasure kept separate. But he was clearly aiming at the later not the former, so the dance continued.

"Preparation is good," came the agreement with a small smile. "Gotta know when to follow the plan and when to say kark it and toss the script in the air though."

Halfway through my drink and slowing down. Plan wasn't to get chitfaced. Not that a couple of drinks would do that, not with my augments. But they didn't quite mix with alcohol in different ways and I respected that. No need to piss off the inner workings of my body more than necessary. I respected them and they respected me.

Most of the time.

"Diving, huh? Never tried that." Genuine interest there. I wasn't an experience junkie, but there was something to be said for new ones.

Especially when they were a potentially useful skill.

"An exhibit on-" a pause and then a laugh. "It's Nar Shaddaa, of course it would be on stolen art. Too bad I'll be heading out before opening, bet that's a treat."

When was the last time I'd been to a museum? NOT on business? Couldn't remember. Had I ever been? Must have. But maybe it was in those musty, shadowy regions of my memory that were simply easier not to go poke around in too much. That was fine.

At the next question though, I made a face.

"Neither. Messy, smelly. Animals are for looking at from a distance or in cute pictures. I don't want fur on my couch." Not that I had a couch, but the point stood.

My turn again. I nodded, chin pointing in the direction of his glass. He asked a fluff piece so I followed that cue. "Poison of choice?"

[member="Hiron Vizsla"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Norte"]

"No? You should sometime. It is very helpful for a surprising amount of things."

From deep-cover assassinations, infiltration.... but also stamina. A host of things it could improve, if you were looking for it. I sipped from my drink, draining the last bits, before offering a grin. "Maybe I will show you sometime." If there was one thing I loved to do? It was.... well, some would call it showing off, but honestly there was just something fun about sharing a passion with someone.

Making them passionate about it too.

Because if you weren't passionate about anything in your life? Were you actually really living it?

A shrug-

"I expect a lot from it. I once tried to attend a Fondorian art gallery." Brows winkled at that memory. "It was a bunch of numbers splattered across a blank piece of paper. The Fondorians were cooing over it." It had gone over my head, honestly. Later I had listened in to their discussion. Apparently it had been an erotic composition of the alpha-numerical body.

Whatever that meant.

Her question had been expected- not the exact one, but the depth of it.

You get what you ask for, no? "I like cocktails, honestly. Whiskey sours are all good and well, but sometimes you just want a Bloody Mary to top things off, you know?"

Leaning back I thought a bit about my next question.

Then smirked.

"Three minutes are almost over. Next question- ready to take this to the bar?" Honestly nobody else looked really interesting from where I was sitting.

 

[Aristotle Tater]

"Maybe you will."

Probably not. Oh, there were a couple people who I'd seen more than once. Wasn't even that I specifically avoided that sort of thing. Just that there was nothing I had on the table outside of an evening, and I was perfectly fine with that. Not everyone was, but that wasn't my problem.

I paused for a moment to eyeball my drink, then look back up at him.

"A whiskey sour is a cocktail, not a fancy one I'll give you. Simple but easy to drink," a wide grin, "Like me." Nothing at all like me. "But I feel you. Bloody Mary always strikes me as a morning drink though. You ever have a Tatooine Sunburn? Chit that's a one way ticket."

By my tone and a follow up low whistle, it was clear that wasn't what I was about. Huh now there was a question, could I even get drunk? Or would the implants get too pissed off before that point? No idea. Didn't want to test it either.

"What do you mean, three minutes-"

A bell chimed. All the women started to get up. Well that explained it. Clean cup clean cup move down, huh?

Craning my head, I looked up at the woman hovering, a bit fitfully, by my elbow. Watched her glance at Hiron, then back down at me. Working up the guts to say 'excuse me' probably or something like that. I just shook my head.

"Um."

"Nah, skip."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm not gettin' up. Head down to the next one."

The confused look on her face was honestly worth it anyway. With one arm draped over the back of my chair, it was obvious I wasn't going anywhere. It took a moment, but eventually she moved on, to the next table. Turning to look back at Hiron, I shrugged.

"Like I said, I got shanghaied into this. Musical chairs isn't really my game. But having to repeat that spiel every three minutes sounds obnoxious. So if you're done with their game, Mister Bloody Mary, the bar it is."

[member="Hiron Vizsla"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Norte"]

"Oh, yes, I'd tell you what happens when I have had two of them in a row. But."

Head tilted.

"I think that would get me arrested to be honest." That could have been an exaggeration, if not for the fact that most of the things I have been up to since I left Clan Vizsla all those years ago.... would probably get me arrested. Tried in a tribune. Executed. Imprisoned. It all depended on what star system would be able to pin it on me. And which would try me right after that.

About to explain what I meant-

CHIM

What happened next was amusing as feth.

It took me a lot of effort not to laugh at the expression of the poor young lady. More likely than not she hadn't been expecting this, when she strolled on over. "Heh, that was very strict. I liked it." A smirk there, before nodding once and stretching just a bit. Then. Plopped right up on my feet. "Yuh, leggo, miss Whiskey Sour, I want at least one more drink, before I start hitting on you in earnest."

A wink there, before I strolled on towards the bar.

 

[Aristotle Tater]

"Get you arrested? Now I have to know, sounds like a story and a half."

The glass in hand was holding steady at a third or so. Standing up easily, rolling my shoulders to ease the knot that always settled in between them when I was in public, I glanced up, then down, then up again.

"You're taller than I expected," came the observation. "Never judge a man when he's down, hmm?" A smirk, leaving the double meaning.

We got some funny looks as we headed to the bar. A couple of 'can they do that?' expressions that I found endlessly amusing.

"So is the second drink for maximum flirt in your script? Or just need it cause I'm so strict and you need to work up the nerve?" Tossed over my shoulder at him as I led the way to the bar, I knew he could see just the curve of my smirk. That is, if his eyes weren't looking at other curves.

Reaching the bar, I pivoted slightly on one foot, settling my hip against it. Booted foot coming up to rest on top of the low rail that ran around the bottom edge. The bartender appeared at my elbow.

"Just a soda for me, but I'll buy whatever he's having. He needs it for his script."

[member="Hiron Vizsla"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Norte"]

I settled down next to her.

Only a breath away.

Hip checked against the bar, before I bounced it right back at her. "Makes my tongue a bit more loose. Very handy for a plethora of reasons." Oh, my attention had been on a lot of curves. Woof. Yeah. It had taken quite the effort to pull it right back towards the bartender. Slow enough she might have caught the clinging attention for a moment or two more than was proper.

Such was the way of things.

"Whiskey sour? Let's."

As we waited, I leaned in just a little bit. As if I was about to share a secret with her. "Let's just say that I could have opened up my own art exhibition on Nar Shaddaa during that night, yeah?" A wink, before I pulled back a bit.

Not as much as I had leaned in though.

Inch by inch claiming that space between us.

 

[Aristotle Tater]

Confirmation of the direction of his gaze. Just a flicker as I turned around and caught his eyes again. A faint smirk told him I'd noticed.

A thief huh? Just a story to set up a line in his script later? Or actual info. Wouldn't have pegged him as that sort, but then that was a hard line to throw down. Stealing wasn't just something one sort of person did. Still though, wasn't expecting that.

Drinks were deposited and I paid, as promised, credit chit pushed across the bar. Same finger moving across to push his drink toward him. Leaning in on my time now before back out again.

"Well if this is how loose your tongue is after one, I'm interested to see what secrets you'll tell after another," I teased, smirking. "Only what you want though, I won't press. Unless you like that but then you'll have to say." A single bounce of the eyebrows.

The jury was still out as to if this would be anything more than a drink and a flirt. That was just fine by me. Maybe yes, maybe no. Nice way to spend an evening though, no matter how it panned out. I was usually just as happy in my own company as anything else, but even I liked pleasant conversation sometimes.

Drawing my hand back from his drink I retrieved my own. Just soda, perfect. Maybe a second late, maybe not. No reason to piss anything off more than I might if this kept up.

"Think you've got my name now?" I asked, reaching up to peel the sticker off of my shirt.

[member="Hiron Vizsla"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Norte"]

The notice was noticed and filed away.

Just a wink passing between them.

I noticed you noticing me noticing. Just putting you on notice.... I noticed that too.

Fingers brushed when I accepted the glass, just a moment, just an itch, but it was enough. For now. "I usually prefer to be the one pressing, but-" Now the gaze sweeping up and down. Slow. Brushing. Noticing more. "Sometimes being pressed can be just as enticing." The taste of the drink surprised me a bit. I was used to whiskey, sour and a combination of the both.

This was a touch different though.

Pleasant all the same. I raised my glass at her, saluting the choice.

"Well, I like playing with cards, so I think I will remember yours just fine." Cheeeeeesy. But the glint in the eye told her that this wasn't a mistake. Just that this was the sort of humor I liked.

She could enjoy it... or not.

"Want to pull mine off, while you are at it? I have my hands full at the moment."

 

[Aristotle Tater]

"Well I'm strict remember? Said it yourself." A smirk over the rim of my glass before taking a sip. "Tables could get turned though, if the circumstances were right."

He was laying it on thick. Didn't mind. His interest was clear. Better than then wondering. Honestly if he hadn't been I would have moved on. Wasn't the sort to try to figure out another person, if they wanted a thing or no. Not off duty. Too much like work. Someone was interested or they weren't. That wasn't one of the games I liked to play.

Eyebrows went up at the retort about my name and I laughed. Speaking of games. This one? This one was alright.

"You're hands are full, yes," I said with mock seriousness. "What kind of card games do you like then?" I asked, trying to keep a smirk under control for a moment as I reached up.

Finger tip tracing the edge of the name tag, all the way around.

"Games of chance? Games of skill? Easy to win, or a challenge? Games for a group.... or a pair....." the smirk widened then. "Or solo?"

Didn't pull the sticker off yet.

[member="Hiron Vizsla"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Norte"]

Humming softly at the touch and the words accompanying it.

I hadn't known if she'd go for it, until she did and that brought on its own suggestions. "Mmmm, let's see..." My own hand slooowly reaching up, tracing the edge of her hand just as her hand traced the edge of me. Occupied hands indeed. "I usually prefer games of skill, something you work on. Until you are good at it and then can repeat... again, again... and again."

Leaning in a bit as I took her hand and helped her take the sticker off.

Slowly.

"Easy to learn, maybe. Hard to... master." Tugging gently at her hand to come just an inch closer. "Two is usually more stimulating, hm?"

Eyes brushing her lips just for a moment, before challenging her eye to eye.

There were reasons why I didn't usually do this. Always moving around. Busy. But when I did? It was more often than not plenty of enjoyment. That tight intensity, stretching it out, the silences heavy and loaded.

It was good.

 

[Aristotle Tater]

Yeah there was no mistaking him in this moment. My smirk widened a bit. Nail slipping under the edge of the name tag and slowly peeling it off. My gaze shifted to our hands, his slowly wrapping around mine, but I didn't miss the shift of his down from my eyes.

Goal oriented.

I liked that, but I also wasn't ready to end that game. The evening was enjoyable on its own. The word play, the verbal jousting. Easy and fun with just a touch of heat. There weren't a lot of things I did just for myself, but when I did, it wasn't with rushing in mind.

"I've found that my favorites are the ones you can't master. Always something new to learn. Sometimes you win.... sometimes you end up on your arse," I murmured, voice a little lower than before.

"Course, I also like to win, so you see the conundrum, hmm?"

Stepped in, but just the one, not giving more than that with the tug.

"Chess, card games, you're just a regular player aren't you?" A smile.

"Any other games you like? They've got darts and pool..... if you fancy a round. Winner buys the loser a drink?"

[member="Hiron Vizsla"]