kayames

[kayames]

"Fortunately, so I am." There's this weird kind of comradery amongst misfits, it's not in the clothes or how eloquent they are, it's in the posture, it's in the eyes. It is something that he has always found deeply recognizable in other people, like his own sharp edges brushing against theirs or the feeling that they're both standing there at arm's length from one another at all times. Afraid to let people too close, afraid to let them see under the surface. Kay thinks it's in how people speak, the self aware sometimes self deprecating humor. He doesn't know the blonde that well, not really, but he feels that familiar tether between them. The way she so casually speaks about the horrors she's endured spoke volumes and he doesn't know if the pang he feels in his chest is sympathy, horror, or relief that she's safe now. But because he is who he is and because he understands deflection, the corners of his mouth quirked up into a smirk. "I know a particularly good one that slowly recedes hairlines each evening until there's nothing left. Not the best one in that situation, but it's probably one of the most satisfying spells I've come across." There's a brief pause and Kay glances to his nails, his cuticles already picked apart on the journey over. "Every time I set a fire, I expected you to turn up. When you didn't, I knew something was wrong."

Kay had clearly chosen the wrong footwear for a day on the beach. She looked down at the small mound of sand that emptying his boot had produced. It reminded her of an ant hill, but was blown away with the first breeze that blew in from over the water. “I am something of an acquired taste,” Juneau thought aloud, leaning back against her thin shoulders. “Mostly acquired by head injury, or just being very, very jaded.” She glanced up at him, watching him from the corner of her eye. 

They would be leaving soon, but she didn’t feel any particular urgency to get up and rush to the ship. The survivors had been found–and whether they needed to be ferried back to the mainland in batches or they were all plucked from the island at once, they would leave soon enough. “What could you possibly have to panic about now?” She wouldn’t tempt fate by saying that things couldn’t get worse; they could, and much worse at that. But the threat seemed quelled at least for the moment. “My secret is: when I was stuck on the ship, they locked me into a special little cage like a rabid dog.” Perhaps the Kossith weren’t too far off base with their assessment of her. “And sometimes I would pass the time thinking about what kind of curse you would put on the Kossith to get back at them if you were in my shoes. I didn’t think about it very often, but when I did, it helped.”

[kayames]

DYLAN O'BRIEN American Assassin (2017)

[kayames]

"I can't like watching you work?" It's honeyed but it's genuine, with his lower lip jutting out in a pout that only lasts seconds before it's replaced by a smirk of amusement. The proximity might have been something he should have done a better risk assessment on the situation; he was close which meant that Aegean was just as close, they were evenly matched. Kay's free hand rested flat on the front of the other thief's chest as his eyes glanced behind him to look into the open lid of the box. His attention snaps back to the other witch as their noses brush and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as if he's been shocked. Briefly his brow furrows and the hand going for the box abandons it's task to instead cup the side of a stubbled jaw. It's new, it's nice, he definitely wants to mouth along it. "What if I told you I found this one already pretty fuckable?" Canting his head just a little, he turns Aegean's face this way and that gently, his thumb along his cheekbone. "Be a damn shame if I couldn't see it." His eyes are green, even in the lowlight they're striking and even with the fresh stubble, there's something so endearingly boyish about him. Risk assessment shoots up in his head, but Kay doesn't move from the warmth of the other's body against his, he keeps Aegean between him and the vanity and all the lightning in the air around them. They're still sharing air, and because he is not one to be outdone and not one to cave first, he bumps his nose gently to his fellow thief's, forehead resting against his.

He intended to avoid Kay, spotting him earlier while beneath a veil of invisibility. He couldn't afford to get hot and bothered tonight of all nights. Then again, Aegean wouldn't give Kay a second thought if he wasn't a witch after his own heart. Breaking into a room he shouldn't have been in to take something that belonged to another? Yeah, Aegean was white-knuckling the edge of the vanity from the tension before Kay got close.

"It'd be cool if you actually heisted a site before I did for once, but I kind of like it this way too. You must really enjoy watching me steal circles around you," he teased back, doing his best to not be unnerved by the idea that Kay entered the room out of lust and not business. Of course, Aegean could see Kay reaching for his true objective in his periphery, which admittedly was a turn on. Kay being hot and distracting but still prioritizing his steal? Yeah, he had to lick his lips because he was beginning to feel a little thirsty. "I'd be careful if I were you. You were really late so I've finished up here already. I wouldn't touch the rings in the box, I added them myself." Aegean wasn't at this noble's party for a thieving contract, on this night he wore the mask of an assassin. He simply needed to put it on. "Puppeteering the fall of an entire house is hard work, so you should plan to make yourself scarce when you've got what you're after. Tonight will get … messy, but until then I could really use you, Kay," Aegean says, his voice soft as he cranes his face closer into the other witch's. Their noses brushed and he could practically taste the heat flowing off of Kay's lips, but even as his eyes shimmered with longing Aegean broke into a grin. "I'm in the middle of crafting a new face and I need you to tell me which is the most fuckable."

[kayames]

As if to drive the bit home, Kay reached and took off one of his boots only to upturn it. A bit of sand trickled out of the leather and his nose wrinkled a bit at the sight. From ship to shore, he'd been more concerned with moving and getting on with it than worrying about casting a quick spell to keep his favorite footwear safe. "Hate to break it to you, but I kind of like your shitty attitude." He points out as he does the same thing to the other boot before his fingers stretch over the pair and magic pricks at his fingertips. No time like the present and he glances sideways at her as he weaves, the spell water proofing but most importantly sealing off any more sand from getting in there.

"And yes, everyone was panicking. I'm panicking right now." Though he felt more at ease than he had in months being there beside her, even if he is out on some island every deity had seemingly forgot. "I implore you to tell me, lest I continue to panic."

It would behoove her to remember that no one was required to come rescue any of the survivors of the Kossith ship, but Juneau had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from teasing Kay about the sight of him crossing the shoreline. It was clear he hated the setting, his discomfort clear as day. As much as Juneau was loath to admit it, it made the fact that he’d even shown up to help with the effort slightly more touching. And she hated all the sentimentality that came with knowing such a thing. 

“Really? I think you’re just glad to not have to walk on the sand anymore,” Juneau hypothesized aloud. But she turned her body to face him from the large, sunwashed rock she rested on beside him. They would be leaving the island soon, and she was grateful for it. “In who? Me? People are usually trying to get away from me and my shitty attitude,” Juneau reminded him though she only half-believed it now. “It couldn’t be that boring back in Lysara, weren’t you all panicking or something?” She had heard inklings of the threat against Haven, and her pessimist’s attitude told her that the Kossith wouldn’t have stopped at Haven’s borders if Aurea hadn’t put down their Arishok. “Want to know a secret?” she dangled before him.

[kayames]

A smoke break interrupted by a cat wasn't an interruption at all and the moment the displacer beast bursts from the shadows of the back alley, Kay is kneeling down and fishing a couple of little dried pieces of salmon from inside his coat. "An hour, why?" He looks up from the absolutely gorgeous specimen that was Basarab to the dhampir whose company she kept. For Casimir, he'd pack everything up and do whatever the hell he needed him to do, he owed him that. Even though the other man might not see it that way, Kay didn't think he was ever going to let go of the regret he had for the way things had fallen off between them over the years. "What's happened?" His tone is soft as his fingers stroke the soft shadowy fur behind the displacer beasts ears but his eyes are on one of the few people left he considers close, concern evident on his face.

starter for @kayames.

where: kay sweetie where are you

when: current plot drop but canonically before news of the imploded ship has dropped

note: clown car assemble !

Juneau was his main priority, but as Casimir possessed any inclination to drift towards any help, he came to realize how many too were likely taken. As such, he'd turned to Fiore, Drystan as an extension, even Aegean; none seemed taken by the idea of genuinely helping beyond any recon, but Casimir also hardly blamed them for wishing to stay far away from the Kossith. What they could be capable of was a fate worse than death, chained by an a'dam that subjugated one beyond simple compulsion; Juneau's message had been a fleeting goodbye, but there was still pride within Casimir that believed he could save his friend.

Basarab had taken a liking to Kay, which made this somewhat easier, the shadow of a displacer beast almost proved to be a bargaining chip when it came to the witch and Basarab was just fine, for the time being, to be utilized as such.

So long as the witch indeed had more salmon treats.

A few steps behind Basarab, Casimir watched as she lunged from the shadows, a guttural snarl that simmered to a hollow sound indicative of a purr, her head cocking to the side as she studied the witch pinned beneath her paws, sniffing for treats mostly.

Casimir emerged from the shadows next, he couldn't help but possess that flair of dramatics even as time wore thin, "How soon could you be ready if I needed your help with something urgent?" It would be suffice to say that maybe he underestimated Kay, turning to the witch last when he should have been one of the first Casimir asked.

[kayames]

The knock at the door sounds and Kay pauses, his pen dripping ink across the page he'd been scribbling notes down on. The whole place is crawling with wards now, far more than they'd had before Araceli had disappeared. When he'd gone with Casimir to the wreckage, he had not found her, he'd found a handful of people he knew, but Araceli hadn't been among them. He knew she was alive, he refused to believe she wasn't. The one thing they'd always had was a home of their own, regardless of anything that happened to either of them, they always showed back up on their doorstep to the other. So he'd gone home with high anxiety and a heavy heart, practically jumping at every little thing. Sitting there on the second floor, too caffeinated and a little high, Kay reaches out with his magic to the wards at the door and exhales slowly. And then he is moving so fast that he nearly trips over his own feet on the stairs. The door is thrown open and Araceli is promptly pulled to his chest and he thinks he's hyperventilating a little, but he tucks her head under his chin and tries to just focus. "I knew you'd come home."

who? @kayames where? Their Apartment in Aventia when? About a week after the ship went boom

Araceli is grimy, dirty, and sticky. It’s been a week since the forsaken ship had gone up in flames, and the dip on the ocean that followed had done nothing to improve her mood. The week that followed wasn’t any better, as she struggled to piece together where to return, when her mind was still broken down in pieces. Making her way back to Lysara proper from the Queenset Isle Sylvie and her had washed up on had been an obvious step, but from there, she had struggled to find her place. She knew that at some point she would have to make it to the Tower, to try and get a witch to look at her fractured mind, but before she could even attempt to do as much, her feet had taken her to a Warding Stone and towards Eterna, further into the city and to a front door that seemed oddly familiar. 

It took her a long moment to realize that it was her place, and another for her to gather the courage and knock. It felt as if she would find a key part of her behind the door, but she can’t explain why. 

“Hello?”

[kayames]

Kay looked down at the bundle offered to him and his brows raise and he chooses to keep his sarcastic comment to himself. Drystan of all people had reason to doubt his competence and yet he of all people knew he kept bringing in money somehow. "Expose man doing shitty things, put the dogs down for a nap, got it." He sets the bundle into his inner coat pocket alongside the treats he has there. "Supposedly a while back he bought the lady of the house some ridiculous gems. I plan on replacing them." If Drystan was going to open and honest about the job, then he could let his own agenda be known. "Should be in the vault." The shrug he gives is casual before he's making a little flourish and ducking his head as if to indicate that he'd allow Drystan to lead the way. Look at him, always the gentleman even when other gentlemen had little faith in him.

Drystan didn’t dignify the drink comment with more than an eye-roll and a scoff.. He dropped into the alley behind the building without breaking stride, adjusting the cuff of his sleeve as he moved along the shadowed wall. At least Kay had made the jump—graceless, but functional.

He's better than you give him credit for, Fiore muses in his head. Drystan ignored him.

“I hope you have something for them,” he muttered, glancing sidelong at Kay before fishing a small cloth-wrapped bundle from the inner lining of his coat. “Mix this in with whatever you’ve got. It'll knock them out cold—won’t kill ’em, just make ‘em nap hard for a few hours.”

He pressed it into Kay’s hand without breaking pace, eyes flicking up toward the balcony above. “Heard this guy keeps more than jewelry and blackmail in his vault. Someone’s been paying him for documents—maps, patrol shifts, weapon shipments. I need to know how much he has. If it’s legit. I’ve got another job that could use the intel."

[kayames]

Person: @vuldak-juneau Location: It's an Island Kay has come to realize two very important things on this trip. One, was that he was far more worried for everyone than he would physically let on. And two, he fucking hated sand and would be pouring it out of his boots later. It's not just Araceli he's after though, there'd been those he'd seen around Eterna who'd outright just stopped appearing and every missing face was anxiety inducing. It's irrational, people headed out to go across the water all the time, went on an adventure or two, but losing people, even if it was just a familiar face and not someone he knew personally, was a hard concept for him to grasp. "Well, boy am I glad to see you." Casimir had found the blonde and Kay had sat down to perch himself on a rock beside her. Cas could go do the big damn hero thing, he was there for support and to settle his own mind. "Can't believe I had to come all this way to find interesting company."

[kayames]

Person: @aegeanxcalla Location: Yeah it's another heist attempt "You know, I'd say we should stop meeting like this, but I kind of like it." Because it's impossible for him to go to a gathering of people without poking around in their valuables and apparently Aegean has the same urge. It's a considerably smaller house than the last one, no sprawling mansion, but it is still a noble's house and he's there to rub elbows. Because if Belladonna never set foot in Lysara again, someone was going to have to take care of that bar. And that someone was going to be him. Which meant he was going to need considerably more gold than he had at the moment. Which meant he really hoped Aegean hadn't beat him to the jewelry box on the vanity in the corner of the room. That Aegean is very close to, and so Kay keeps walking into the room, let's the door close behind him, and abandons all sense of personal space. "What am I late for this time?" They're practically chest to chest despite his casual tone, as Kay reaches behind him to tip the lid of the jewelry box open.

[kayames]

"If I'm not being efficient on a job it's on purpose." He's not going to argue, they're a team on this one. When he was going solo on something he only had to worry about himself, when he was with someone he didn't like, he only worried about himself. Every so often he did come across someone he did actually like who needed a hand and Drystan sat somewhere in that territory. Even if he totally believed one could fund an exit with charm and eyeliner. "We get in, we get out, I ask you out for drinks afterwards, you laugh at me again." Kay offers a casual shrug of his shoulders after jumping after the other, his landing a little less graceful and on his knees, but he thinks little of it as he rises to his feet and keeps close to Drystan. Underneath all of that professionalism he knew there was something, but he had suspected maybe Drystan was getting his kicks down at the brothel on the corner and only able to get his rocks off if you were telling him what to do. Not criminal activity. "Heard this guy keeps hunting dogs." And he had treats on him because he wasn't about to be stopped by a puppy. He needed to rob someone with a cat.

Drystan didn’t flinch at the cigarette stomp, the grin, or the flirt. If anything, his silence stretched just long enough to make it uncomfortable—before he adjusted his gloves and started walking toward the edge of the rooftop without so much as a backward glance.

“I figured you’d piece it together eventually,” he said coolly, voice still layered through the mask’s modulator. “You’re not as stupid as you act.”

He vaulted the gap to the next building with practiced ease, landing in a crouch before straightening and continuing without waiting. “And yes, I do this for the money. Wars are breaking out like mold in summer. Extra coin buys distance if I need to disappear overnight. Can’t exactly fund a clean exit with charm and eyeliner, can you?”

He glanced over his shoulder just as Kay made a show of batting his lashes again.

“And for the record—attraction is a liability. That’s why your picks are sloppy and your exits are slower than they should be. You’re too busy trying to be admired to be efficient.”

[kayames]

"Mm, some kind of sadist, huh?" They're like minded enough, but Kay sees what Aegean describing as something....Well actually he quite liked seeing a spectacle himself, but it'd been a while. There's a bit of a spark there in his chest at the idea of it, getting away with something by pinning it all on someone else only to watch the consequences unfold. It was the kind of shit he pulled when he'd still been under his family's thumb, stirring things up only to sit back and watch all of them struggle to put things back together. "Technically," Sitting up somewhat, Kay casually looks about the room and there's a lot he could take from it. Nobles loved their fancy little expensive trinkets, just a couple would fetch a decent price and yet he is more interested in the man behind the desk. For Aegean this was work, for him at the moment, it was play. "I'm here with an ex. Which means I'm probably the masochist in this situation." Casimir and him would not work out, they hadn't worked out, there's affection there between them but it's different now.

"Not need, want. Any two-bit thief can sneak off with some loot they swiped. True artistry is all about the performance and follow-through. When I've finished a job and pointed all the evidence at someone innocent, I didn't just get away with it. I created something beautiful to watch from the best seat."

Aegean was loyal to no member of the Trio more than the other, but his contracts for the Spider have increased his proficiency with sabotage. When people were cornered by a mountain of fabricated evidence, Aegean could witness firsthand what people were truly made of. Either they toil until they go down or they someone beat his game, proving that they're worthy of being exploited by the witch in the future. He liked Kay, so was it any surprise he wanted to see firsthand how the other danced amidst chaos and accusations?

While Kay played with his face, Aegean's deft fingers opened his shirt a bit until his fingertip stroked between the other's collarbones. As opportunistic as he was, he wouldn't miss this chance. "You know, you couldn't stop me if I want you to go down for my fun tonight. What if I'm buying time and waiting to spring a trap? You ever think about that? You could already be my mark," he throws out cheekily, his voice low while his grin remained cheshire and bright. "The fact that you think I could ever disappoint is insulting. When are you going to learn I'm very good?"

[kayames]

It's not that the please isn't pretty enough, it's that Kay can't let him off the hook that easily. And also this was probably the most fun he'd had in the last six months aside from the whole goose heist situation. Because Aegean doesn't fluster, each time he opens his mouth is an attempt to one up him and he is more than willing to meet the challenge. Most importantly, it's a distraction, one with a boyish grin and long lashes. Not bothering to back away from Aegean being up close and personal, Kay turns his head to take another drag from his cigarette. When he exhales, it's only slightly off to the side of that grin. And with the acceptance that the only thing that mattered was the two of them in that room. No missing roommate, no missing boss, just two thieves and tension that he could cut with the knife in his pocket. "You know I'm flattered you think so highly of me, but I still don't know why you need a fall guy at all," Shifting his weight, he's well aware he reaches with his free hand to cup the side of Aegean's face, turning it slightly as if appraising it. That smile really was something, went all the way up to his eyes. "unless you're planning on failing. In which case, I'd be quite disappointed in you."

Again, Aegean has to refrain from rolling his eyes. Except this time, his stiff jaw and slightly narrowed eyes convey more genuine emotion regarding the implication of Kay's words than intended. Beyond the fact that "family" was a concept he placed no stock in, Aegean had a particular bone to pick with the queendom's privileged class.

Something dark flashes across his eyes as his palms slide apart on the desk's surface, slowly leaning him down. "It's not enough to take from these people. You've got to either fuck with their wealth, fuck up their spaces, or fucking take their lives otherwise what's the point?"

No one was perfect, though, and not even Aegean could begrudge Kay for his poorly nurtured connections. The moment of candor passed but he didn't pull back, close enough now to pull Kay's smoke through his nose and blow it back at him in a little poof. "I can't keep doing all that if I take unnecessary risks. I don't accept blame for things I can place on another's shoulders, and I treat my fall guys very well. Plus, you're much better with your tongue than I am. Use that. Pretty please? For me? It'll be worth your while..." Aegean could do adorable too, a grin worth a million gold plastered on his lips.

[kayames]

If Kay hadn't thought his vision was one of the few things that wasn't wrong with him, he'd think this was some drug induced hallucination. But he also didn't imbibe when a job was going on, not to that point at least. No, before him on the rooftop is definitely his accountant and he stubs his cigarette out with his boot as a grin stretches across his lips. "So you're telling me I can't have any fun? I'm guessing you do indeed do this for the money." What an interesting turn of events, he could pull himself out of his misery to follow Drystan around even if it meant keeping the arson to a minimum. "But this makes you considerably hotter and I am intrigued, I will behave." He still makes a point to bat those big doe eyes at Drystan anyways before making a vague 'after you' motion with his hand.

who: @kayames

where: the rooftops of the docks

notes: drystan's little secret gets figured out

Boots scraped softly against the ledge behind him. He didn’t need to look to know who it was; the timing and the posture alone gave it away. Of all the people in the Guild who could’ve been assigned to this run, of course it had to be him.

Drystan didn’t sigh—he was too disciplined for that—but he felt the sigh in his bones.

“Lovely,” he said, rising smoothly to his feet, voice flat and clipped through the modulator in the mask. “You.”

He didn’t use Kay’s name. Didn’t want it to linger in the air, didn’t want to offer even the smallest thread that could unravel the carefully sewn reputation of The Lure.

“We’re not here to flirt with guards or flash that expensive grin of yours at locked doors,” he said, turning to face him fully now. “I scoped the place already. Two sentries on the east balcony, one rotates every seven minutes. A service entrance in the back with a busted lock—we’ll go in there. We’re in, we’re out, we’re paid. If you can manage to keep the dramatics to a minimum, this’ll be over quickly.”

[kayames]

"Well, I make you money and I get to flirt with vampires for tips, this is a mutually beneficial relationship." Setting the wine bottle back down, he leans some more against the bar and picks up his own glass. Kay likes Belladonna only because he needs to be on her good side, and he has to respect her hustle. She's not so much a capitalist as she is an opportunist and he knew that selfish people lived longer. He would know, his grandmother was still kicking.

“Obviously after the number of guests increased,” she drawls playfully, eyes constantly flickering around the room as she took in all the new flock Kay had so kindly drawn for her. A few of them looked weak-willed enough to break, while others looked like a challenge. She welcomes both types with open arms, always willing and ready to spend some time cultivating the little seedlings into proper caustic roots. Turning back to Kay, she takes the wine offered and takes a slow, careful sip. “I am a proper capitalist, after all. Anyone who draws in more business is in my good books. Specially if they do it as happily as you do.”

[kayames]

"I thought you would never ask." For a brief second, he thinks about offering the other witch something from one of his jacket pockets, but he thinks better of it. Alcohol first, recreational drug use later, there's something weirdly innocent about Adrian somehow. Something in the eyes, he thought, not that they weren't haunted, but that they were that of a perpetually kicked puppy. Kay had seen the other man on that heist, he'd been looking around at the wild lot of them with those sad eyes wide. Without hesitation, he looks his arm around the bend of Adrian's elbow and turns them towards the libations being offered from Dragon's Draught. "Color me intrigued, did you get up to something even wilder than letting loose a goose with several heads into the city?"

"Kay," Adrian greeted, the name stated in a more curious manner as the witch held out a bag of gold which certainly was not his. A brow was raised, finding it rather humorous, but his bitch face was at a constant eleven so it was often hard to tell. His brows instead furrowed as Kay asked this; Adrian had wondered how to possibly tell Jamie and Juneau without them looking at him incredulously or laughing their heads off and here Kay was clocking it immediately. Adrian's shoulders relaxed a touch, and a rare, appreciative, smile bloomed on his expression, "Of anyone who could believe something like this, it would be you. Though I think we need a drink first."

[kayames]

"'Friend' is putting it lightly, she's family." He says it as if it'll earn him some kind of sympathy point, though he doubts it. But that's part of the reason he likes Aegean, he doesn't seem to have such ties. It's probably not fair to the other man to have this image of him in his head that is the ideal thief. In Kay's defense, he thinks it has to do with the fact that he has seen Aegean on the job more often than not. So he likes to dream, sue him. Making a point to sprawl some more on the surface of the large oak desk, he leans back, an elbow resting on the wood as he takes a second to bring his cigarette to his mouth. Exhaling smoke, he takes his sweet time in lolling his head to look to Aegean behind the desk. "Are you telling me you're going to fail and therefore need a scapegoat?" The pout that graces his lips is playful, just the tiniest bit condescending. "And here I thought you couldn't possibly need my help considering you're so sneaky." He makes good use of those damn doe eyes his father gave him as a smirk settles across his lips. "You'll have to make that please a little prettier."

Aegean had to physically force himself not to roll his eyes at the word "friend". It was unsurprising; Kay was charming and had the kind of connections that could make someone as antisocial as Aegean enviable. However, words like "favors" and "friends" made him want to gag when spoken with sincerity. "Sneaking? Sure, that works too. But the real fun comes from walking into places you're not wanted without a single protest. You're the first person tonight who's laid eyes on me and actually seen me. Count yourself lucky."

Because Aegean was a delight, even when he utilized one of his many tricks against people. Especially then. He didn't care what others had to say on the matter. "Standing me up to hang with a "friend"? You couldn't afford what it'll cost to make up for that. Why are all the men in this queendom so awful?" he jests in response, his improvisation and wit as sharp as ever thanks to his Harmonium education. Though, Aegean was weighing Kay's utility against the jackpot potential. He would've had to work much harder to get it alone, but if he could rope in another, then maybe… "What did you come up here to look for anyway? I mean, there are a few valuables, but the big ticket items are all locked away in a vault somewhere." Baiting, fishing, and tempting all in a few breaths, even someone like Kay who knew him well enough was subjected to Aegean's dishonest nature. Trust was a fool's game. "You look good tonight. Good enough to be my fall guy in case things get hairy," he says, leaning closer across the desk, unfazed by the wafting smoke. Not that things ever got hairy when Aegean was working a job. Despite what he may have seemed, he was a professional. "You're the one with friends here, they'd vouch for you anyway. Do me a favor and level the playing field by taking the heat. Pretty please?"

[kayames]

"I meant into business, not a date. But...." Kay's expression goes from satisfied to feigned innocence, his shoulders raising in a shrug. It wouldn't happen, Drystan's too hard to crack for that kind of thing, at least at present. And while he was pretty confident in his skills to really press in and pick and prod at people, the other man was good at what he did and he wouldn't risk driving him away. Or it was more like he respected Drystan enough to not bother him in such a way. At the moment. Tucking his cigarette behind his ear, Kay rose from the armchair and made his way towards the door. "I'll think on that, the business thing."

END

Drystan’s expression didn’t so much as twitch. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.” He delivered the lie with the same practiced ease as he balanced ledgers—smooth, effortless, and completely unconvincing to anyone who actually knew him. Which, fortunately, no one really did.

His gaze flicked over the other man as he settled into his little performance, all easy confidence and raised brows. Unfortunately, Kay paid well. Very well. That was the thought that anchored him, that kept his expression smooth, his tone amicable.

Drystan even managed a smile.

"Anytime you need someone to go over numbers or ensure everything remains strictly legal," he said, voice perfectly even, "I’d be more than happy to schedule an appointment."