"Nooooo," Nicholas complained, "just, ugh why did I say that?" He'd have blamed Virgil, but this time it was all him. He needed to find himself someone to semi-regularly hook up with.  It was a lot of work having to start over with someone brand new whenever he was in the mood.  Maybe he could get a few friends with benefits.  Only having one was how he'd ended up in a relationship. And Nicholas did not want to become a serial-monogamist.

"I need to see if I can get out of working Halloween night.  I wasn't thinking when I volunteered for night shifts this week.  Damn full moon." That still wasn't an assignment he could easily get out of. If he'd been thinking, he'd have opted for a sleep-deprived week of working the full moon and partying on Halloween.

"One of these days I'm going to figure out how not to be curious about what you are working on." Mostly he tried not to think about the work done on level nine.  Or that it existed.  Though sometimes his own job demanded he do Mysteries' bidding.  Still he wanted to know what his friend worked on.

Technically, if all went well, he would be free on Halloween night to join celebrations at Stardust or on Diagon. But Virgil had no idea what Wednesday afternoon held in store and wasn't willing to bet on anything.

"It's rarely as mysterious and adventurous as we make it look," he wrinkled his nose at Nick. "But it's always so interesting. And mad. I couldn't really decide between Nine and Stardust for a while but..."

Virgil shrugged happily. Before he dated Cepheus, he had been juggling trainee work with the odd theatre obligation; being in a relationship forced some sense into him. You can't have your cake and eat it. Decisions needed to be made eventually. And he chose Mysteries.

"I'd best get down to it," Virgil stretched his arms, languid as a cat. "Let's go dancing again when we're free?"

It would be a nice release from the work ahead.