Hai Yun Li

"Habotai? Now that's an interesting choice."

Her shoe left his leg entirely. For a moment too long it seemed that he might not have redeemed himself at all.

"I like Georgette myself." Hai Yun pressed her little finger to her lips with her smile. "But I can see it could be a little too much. Especially if we need to keep things interesting."

The long chilly moment of absence would be replaced by warm pressure against the inside of his knee, gently. It would not take him long to realise she'd removed her boot and it was her bare sole against his trouser. He would feel her trace a short line down the inside of his calf before slowly, sensually departing, enough to let the echo of the muted pressure linger upon his skin.

She picked up her glass and drank from it, finishing it in the chatter of the bar. "So, how far below is your gaze going next?"

He lowered his gaze, ears warm, endeavoring not to picture her in Georgette silk - a fabric that could leave very little one's imagination.

There was no hesitation or reticence in Hai Yun. Virgil had long realised his attraction to older wixes who knew what they wanted and acted on their desires, yet he was still made diffident by forward behaviour. Perhaps he wouldn't feel like that in any other place but they were in a crowded bar on a Saturday night and he was halfway hard under the table. So.

"You..." he laughed, cheeks pink and brushed a hand through his hair. "You want me to guess at what sits closer to your skin?"

Virgil's smile widened, boyish. "With a figure like yours, Hai Yun, I don't think I'd wear anything at all underneath."

If one of the other Unspeakables heard him over the din of the bar, they would no doubt roll their eyes or exchange knowing looks. What of it? A whole year away at CAWW and he was still an insufferable flirt.

"Like I said, I'm a sensualist," he added with a countenance of pretend-innocence, as if a halo might appear above his golden crown.

Hai Yun Li

The corners of her painted lips curled upwards in delight. "I left that question up to your interpretation and the fact that you've given that answer tells me what you have in mind."

She moved her glass aside, out of the way between them, and looked straight at him. "Do you have anything else in mind? I'm curious to know."

He met her direct gaze for a moment and then lowered his own, not quite shy but in that neighbourhood of feeling.

"I find that to have specific expectations can... take away from the experience," Virgil answered as he studied his own hands. "What I have in mind is simply the notion of a private setting, intimacy."

His words got away from him like they always did when he was high, freed from having to behave overly casual. V glanced back up at her with a thoughtful smile. They were at a junction. He wanted and she was humouring him for now - this wasn't an unfamiliar situation.

Some years ago he had taken quite a chance propositioning Balfour and Johann Spectre, and Virgil could still remember that feeling of being humoured. Until it wasn't just that.

"Do you prefer specifics?" he asked Hai Yun, curious. "Do you like to hear a wizard ask for what he wants, exactly?"

Hai Yun Li

Hai Yun lowered her head and looked up at him as if she were glancing at him over the top of a pair of imaginary glasses. "I do like to hear a... wizard's desires specifically," she replied, "but it's not an obligation. I think the right word would be confidence, Virgil. I like a man who tells me he knows what he likes, and then we can see where we go from there."

She looked back up at him with a smile. "It's better to not hold one's partner to such expectations even before the necessary preliminary formalities have taken place. Much more flexible, like you said. But sometimes it's nice to know where one is heading in advance."

With a barely audible scraping against the wood, she pushed the empty pint glass away from her, leaving the gap between the two of them unobscured. "A journey must have a destination, its passengers must be willing to reach it. It need not be in full detail, but a bird does not fly without intent."

Well, if ever there was a wizard who knew what he liked.

"You've provided me with a wealth of metaphors," he laughed, delighted. "I'll mix them up if I try to play this game of words. All this kelp in my head. Let's see if I can at all speak plain..."

Virgil adjusted his position to lean forward and rested chin in hand as he considered Hai Yun. His bottle of sparkling water was still full and chilled, though it had formed a thin layer of condensation.

"I like to gratify my partners," he ran his finger through the condensation - drawing a curved line against the green glass. "And I suppose that could mean a variety of things. Playfulness, servitude."

It felt strange to speak in so stately a way. Virgil wiped his finger on the collar of his tee and smiled. "I get off on getting people off. And I like being looked at. So it depends, doesn't it?"

Hai Yun Li

"Suddenly speaking so plainly." Hai Yun gave him a smirk. "You needn't play along with the metaphors. Like I said, I prefer when a wizard knows what he wants. What he likes. I'm not asking for more than that."

She tapped a finger against her lower lip thoughtfully. "And you did. So my question now, perhaps, should be... what do you want now?"

"Now?" he repeated, glancing around them.

Yuan Bo had yet to return - if he intended to in the first place - but they were still surrounded by Saturday night bustle, other Unspeakables, sloshing beer tankards, music overhead. Their conversation was a bubble of deliberate, provocative calm in all that.

The wizard turned back to Hai Yun. "Privacy of sorts," V decided thoughtfully. "Would your compatriot mind if we abandoned him with my compatriots for the rest of tonight?"

Hai Yun Li

Hai Yun laughed when he used the word abandoned, but let him finish before answering. "Yuan Bo will be fine. I'm sure he'll be delighted to take a break away from my presence. He was trusting you to succeed, after all - you don't need him. He doesn't need us around."

She straightened up gracefully, running a finger along the border of her collar. "Privacy will do, Virgil." The smile she gave him was genuine, sincere this time.