He lit a cigarette, swinging his legs up on to the desk where his ankles mingled with stacks of parchment and bottles of various coloured inks.

The study was a mess. To be fair, the rest of the flat wasn't all too different. His  living room had become a space for Samhain preparations - covered in the eagle feathers for Johann's costume or the gleaming green scales of a norse wyrm. Most of the paperwork from yesterday's debriefing was still in the kitchen, having accompanied his meals, and there was of course the mountain of fur slumbering away heavily in the bedroom. Ira had left her huskies with him this night.

Whiskey's response to this was that the three dogs should altogether occupy the very comfortable master bed. So the study it was, all books and sheets and half empty liquor bottles.

Balfour drew in a breath of smoke as he read through a proposal for subset Hippogriff reservations in the north east. He wasn't looking quite himself, in boxer shorts and unbuttoned shirtsleeves. A pair of dark rimmed reading spectacles were balanced on his nose.

"Bloody ridiculous," the wizard said to nobody in particular before plucking a quill from behind his ear to cross out several lines on the parchment. "Imbecile."

It both irritated and amazed him to no end that anyone on level four possessed the time to write nonsense, with all the disasters that had fallen into their laps this year. But this was part and parcel of heading the Beasts Division. If he wanted to get any real work done it was easier to blaze through heaps of proposals at a time and safeguard larger chunks of time for Mrs Lanningham to organise.

One of the Fates - Lachesis, he supposed - was curled up in his lap. "Waste of paper. It's a good thing you can't read." Balfour informed the cat as he tossed the parchment aside. "Isn't fit for lining your litterb--" he paused, lifting his head as he heard the front door close.

The ceiling jellyfish glowed a warm, fond shade of orange at the lift of anticipation in his chest. He'd not seen Johann last night. "In the study!" he called out without daring to move, lest Lachesis decide to exercise the right to flex her claws.

It had gone half nine by the time he let himself into Balfour's flat, stealing up from the second floor. He felt better for a bit of a walk, a shower and a fresh set of clothes after being away. International floo powder got everywhere. Showers did nothing to wash away tired eyes, but they did help to calm tempers.

Balfour's flat was bigger than his own, but about as messy, Johann reflected, at least this week it was. Johann had moved in with precious little (he'd lived out of a bag for near two years) so much of what he had was now forming piles in one room of the more modest Atreus flat on the second floor.

His eyes quickly swept in the state of the place, looking for changes since his last visit before he'd made the trip to the Cayman Islands in pursuit of his late father's dodgy accounts. The jellyfish were orange, he smiled to himself as he glanced up. He hung his coat up in the hallway, it had been slung over his arm, and slipped his feet from his shoes. He'd brought what he needed for tomorrow with him, a moment saved if he happened to be short of time getting to platform seven and a half in the morning.

A glance into the bedroom, just long enough to drop his bag there, confirmed the bed was entirely occupied by canine companions. Ira was away. Didn't mean she wasn't watching though.

"Still working?" He asked Balfour softly, alighting at the study doorway, fingertips brushing the frame. "Trying to get everything done as you're missing Monday?" His feet negotiated a route around the room until he was behind Balfour, resting his hands gently on his lover's shoulders. He spied one of the Fates in his lap as he lowered his head to press his lips to Balfour. He'd missed that scent, and it successfully chased away the lingering memories of brine in his mind from earlier that night. He'd missed Balfour! It was increasingly hard to consider nights on his own.

"I feel the same," he explained, more in reference to trying to get everything done, "Shall be good to forget it all for two days." He left another kiss on Balfour's neck, "Looking forward to meeting the clan."

He tilted his head back as Johann leaned in, making a perfectly impolite sound of satisfaction at the other man's lips.

It was nice to have another human being around the flat these days. One could only get so far chatting to cats and newts and eerily empathic jellyfish. Balfour put down his quill, reaching for one of the hands at his shoulders to give it an affectionate squeeze. Thoughts of ill-planned proposals and ailing Hippogriffs drifted further from mind even as he answered the queries with blissfully closed eyes.

"Mmm. All done for the night now," he lowered his legs off the table while Lachesis - sensing a shift as she always did - leapt off and sauntered towards the exit with her tail in the air. "They're looking forward to meeting you. You're going to like it up there. I can show you the house. My old bedroom. My old bed..." smiling at the notion, he trailed off pensively. Nathaira never even took down his posters.

Odin, a holiday was badly needed. Perhaps even a holiday from this holiday. They still had to walk the livestock. And there was grandfather Balthain to handle. And the tree burning.

Balfour blocked those thoughts, frowning momentarily as reached to gently take Johann's chin and tip it into a chaste kiss. He picked up the mild scent of soap. Nice, clean smells that gave him a terrible impulse to tarnish the purity. His tongue licked pertly at his partner's lips before pulling away. Really. This was too much. He was starting to feel like a prurient youth, the way Johann tasted.

Was it reasonable to crave a person? Did he care about being reasonable?

"Have you had a long day, then?" Balfour pushed up his spectacles to rest properly and watched through them while he  took in little details about Johann - mostly noting the tired eyes, now a familiar sight. "I'd pour us a drink but I'm saving my liver for the weekend."

As he leaned over the back of the chair, Johann's eyes snuck a look down to admire Balfour's bare strong legs propped up on the desk. He had found places good to kiss on those in his explorations over the past month and a half of being with the other wizard. Down went the quill, all too easy to distract Balfour.

A hand found his as he gently applied his thumbs to knots that were always to be found when Balfour had to tackle paperwork into the evening. They and the little frown lines that appeared beside the tips of his eyebrows behind the glasses were consistent.

Away went the cat, down came the legs. Johann rubbed again, attempting to ease a knot, but feeling it would require a bit of work to release. A glance across the desk picked out headings of hippogriffs, and he averted his eyes, remembering that some of Balfour's work he was not meant to read.

"I look forward to it all." He assured Balfour in a quiet voice, letting go and sinking down beside the chair on his knees, propping his elbows on the left arm of the chair to regard Balfour on a level. He came willingly as his lover touched his face and closed his eyes momentarily for the kiss, feeling every concern of the past few days start to leave him. The cheek of the tongue induced a grin and a shake of the head.

"No, that's quite alright with me too." Johann agreed, "Wise idea from what you describe." He sank back to sit on his heels, toes cracking as his feet stretched after all the walking.

"Long couple of days." He admitted. "I did go to the Caymans in the end." Johann had mentioned to Balfour previously about searching for strange accounts his father had held, nothing too specific, just to explain his sudden obsession in chasing the fictional details of wizards and their finances of late. "I'm sure they're beautiful to visit at leisure, but a necessary visit." He rubbed at one eye, "Only what with the time difference, no time to sleep, and I've been out to see more clients tonight after I got back." He dropped his hand and smiled, giving a shrug. This was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Heard your briefing went well." He perked up, "Vaccination the only solution. Expire though, such a word from such a mouth." Johann narrowed his blue eyes a moment, only meaning to tease Balfour a little. The word was exact, but when it came to animals, some of their colleagues were a bit soft. "Margo and the team did a great job. You lead them well." He reached out and squeezed Balfour's arm gently.

"Was that the highlight of your Thursday and Friday?" He asked, eyes not leaving Balfour's face, watching for those little frown lines when they spoke about work.

His eyes followed Johann's movements, dropping from that face to his elegant legs as they folded back on to the carpeted floor. It might have been difficult to pay attention to anything else if it weren't for the other wizard's deep voice, his pleasing cadence. As soothing in conversation as it was in recitation.

Balfour smiled sympathetically at him, as amused as he was intrigued by the backtracking of Wolfgang Storm's extensive financial histories. It struck him as a curious ambition but he didn't dwell on the idea. There was something ominous about exploring the pasts of a parent.

Who knew what you might uncover.

"You can sleep as soon as you'd like," he offered as he scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I need to walk the dogs first. Lazy bastards." All they'd done today was romp and rest.

An eyebrow went up in surprise at the mention of their division debriefing. Well. It had been a crowded meeting, certainly, but not to have seen Johann! He often laughed at being accused of having beasts on his mind and little else whilst at the Ministry - perhaps they were right. Possibly all for the better. A guilty look crossed his face. Seeing Johann would have been terribly distracting.

"It helps distance the subject-" Balfour explained his choice in the word, conscious of how the other dragon handlers had not approved. "- at least emotionally..." he trailed off and took the hand on his arm, fingers intertwining. "They held up well. I'm proud of them."

This was the only place he could say that with full honesty. Balfour loved the people in his division and he trusted them implicitly, though he rarely said it to their faces beyond professional banter. Better not to inflate those egos. Some day he might tell Margo. She'd call him overemotional, probably.

The thought was interrupted by Johann's question. Reacting, the ceiling jellyfish underwent a change - their mixture of amorous pinks and fond oranges gleamed a shade of worried blue. He looked away and shifted his position in the chair uncomfortably.

Right. And they were having a perfectly lovely time, too. "I suppose it was. I had dinner with Ira last night, hence the huskies. We were down in Slandermouth." He stared into space, jaw taut as he paused to make a decision. The truth. Was Johann asking because Arcturus had already told him about their run-in?

He forced himself to look back at the dark-haired man and studied his face distractedly - curious for a reaction. "I ran into your-" it was only by the grace of Freyr that the words old flame did not recur. "- ex yesterday, in Diagon Alley. Had a quick chat. He's an interesting one." To say the least.

From the rate at which Arc had left the cafe, Balfour could only surmise that the Healer utterly detested him.

The direct question had been posed absolutely innocently, so Balfour's shift surprised Johann. He inclined his head ever so slightly to the right and continued to study, his smile diminishing.

Dinner with Ira, well, one felt like they were on the menu some days. He was sure that dinner was perfectly polite and normal between tenant and landlady, or rather landlord as they both called her.

"Didn't go to that Ascendio Italiano place did you? I remember seeing it when I…" He stopped, Balfour was staring up and Johann's eyes followed, the jellyfish had turned blue. He frowned, and lifted his other hand up to rest on Balfour's knee, concerned.

"I ran into your ex yesterday, in Diagon Alley. Had a quick chat. He's an interesting one."

He hadn't seen that coming, and as such his eyes sprang open wider and he inclined backwards ever so slightly. His hand gripped Balfour's hand and his lover's knee as he did.

"Oh, I see." He replied, giving himself an extra moment to consider a response. "He, er, may not have known that you knew, that we er…" Johann swallowed, colour ever so slightly tinging his cheeks. "I haven-"

He stopped himself from instinctively lying.
"I saw him a few hours ago," he admitted, eyes lowering to Balfour's lap rather than meet his partner's gaze, cheeks still a little pink. "I'm filing his customs papers to bring his Malaysian research back, dropped by Diagon Alley to check some details of the shipment." He glanced up, eyes apologetic, "He didn't mention it to me." But it explains a few things. He let out an irritated sigh - not at Balfour, more at the thoughts of his anger on leaving Diagon at about eight thirty coming back to him when he had just felt it ebb away.

"When you say 'interesting', you didn't," he leaned forward slightly on his knees, fixing Balfour with both eyes, "mark your territory so to say, did you, because there's really no need - we're just friends, if you can call it that lately, he's more a client, and I don't think of him in any way like I do you." He lifted the hand from Balfour's knee, the fingertips reaching Balfour's chin. His face was worried, as he pushed the irritation further down.

He felt a strange, sinking sensation in his gut as soon as Johann failed to meet his gaze.

A few hours ago? Balfour felt the grip on his knee, saw the apology in the other man’s eyes - genuine as expected but laced with irritation that he couldn't identify as part of their own exchange. Somewhere in the back of his mind a mellifluous, meandering voice made an inquisitive sound - not quite suspicion. Interrogative. He kept it there. That was for the Haunting Hour, not this.

“I’m not surprised he didn’t mention,” he commented in a slightly amused undertone. Either their encounter had left an altogether unremarkable impression on Arcturus… or the exact opposite. Either way it didn’t seem like his companion knew the Healer’s mind any better than he did on the matter.

It would have been wiser to let sleeping dragons lie. Balfour untangled his hand from Johann’s and moved it to the one on his leg, feeling oddly disembodied from the act as he smoothly ran a thumb over those pale knuckles.

His eyes snapped up at the accusation, playful and with a distinctly sharp gleam. Well. Possessiveness wasn’t something he’d been accused of before, although not because he’d never felt it. He didn’t believe that people could own one another in a relationship; this went against the grain, considering their proclivities, but it was at the heart of his intellect.

In some ways, the conscious line that separated them from beasts.

“If I wanted to mark my territory,” Balfour leaned into the touch meaningfully. “It’s you I would mark, not him. I might have come on a little strong but he’s a grown fellow, you know. We didn’t behave too badly.” He kissed Johann’s fingertips and then flashed his teeth in a fashion that hardly advocated good behaviour. “I was very civil. Shook hands, and all that.”

Not exactly the epitome of gentility but as close as he could be under the circumstances.

Balfour didn’t like the worried look on the wizard’s face and would have gladly tried to remedy it through some intimate act of distraction - if it weren’t for a lingering query. He slid his hand up to tenderly take Johann by the wrist. “So. Would you have told me about seeing him earlier,” his grip tightened, and he kissed Johann’s fingers again without breaking eye contact. “…if I hadn’t brought it up?”

Johann was still worried, especially when Balfour mentioned they didn't behave 'too badly'. Balfour's thoughts of bad behaviour were way beyond what Johann understood Arc's to be - of the two he considered Arc to be rather more conservative in his views. His gaze fell to his fingertips as Balfour's lips kissed them. The action made his skin prickle pleasingly.

"Good, well that's alright then." He uttered quietly in reply, more to try and convince himself that a meeting between past and present would be cordial. Balfour would almost certainly have sized Arc up just in case he was particularly attractive, that was the natural reaction wasn't it? He'd have wanted to know what Johann had seen in the healer.

The question came quite unexpectedly, and Balfour's grip on his wrist meant the question could not be sidestepped. He had very nearly denied seeing Arcturus earlier that night, his tongue had been one step ahead of his morals.
"Of course." He replied, though there was a strange stress in his voice as he watched Balfour kiss his fingers, and he wondered if the hand gripping his wrist might feel his pulse quicken. "Just perhaps not at exactly that moment."

He made a conscious decision to never bring up Sunday, but he would probably have to politely turn down any future invitations from the Hollingburys until things settled. He'd had enough doubts at the time.

"Do you mind if I speak with him once in a while?" He'd been about to phrase it as 'see him' but that had seemed all the more involved.

Balfour sensed something unusual in the response but he couldn't tell if it was only because the question had been unexpected. He remembered himself presently and released Johann's wrist as his expression went vacant all at once. It wasn't the idea of speaking to Arc - it was that they'd reached a point at which this seemed like a reasonable thing to ask one another. The jellyfish bobbed above the desk in gradients of orange and curiously neutral white.

He looked at his partner with quiet eyes, spectacles slipping down his nose. "It doesn't concern me. I don't-- shouldn't have an opinion either way. And you don't have to tell me whenever you do speak to him, if you don't want to." The tone of his voice was careful and clear, walking on broken glass. "I don't mean to be so... beastly."

A tired, self-conscious smile. Beastly boy. He reached out and ran his fingers through Johann's curls, wondering what went on inside that head. Multitudes of wonderings and wanderings in languages he barely understood. Ira once told him that you can never really tell what another person is thinking. You only had to accept them for what they put forward.

And he liked what Johann put forward.

"He's very handsome." Balfour bit his inner cheek thoughtfully, considering their subject in a different light. "Arcturus, I mean. I don't think he approved of my appreciation. A shame really~" he ran his hand down along Johann's jawline and traced it. "Clearly I have a weakness for flustered wizards."

It didn't escape him that Johann - or past lovers - had taken notice of the partiality. That never mattered- it cost Balfour nothing, or at least nothing he could anticipate at this very moment.

Whereas Johann was anticipating a response to suggest Balfour was less at ease, he was surprised to hear a careful, open response. Though despite it, he understood enough to know that one shouldn't dwell in the past too much when in the presence of the present, and for all intents, future.

"You're not beastly." Johann assured him swiftly. "I was just curious, I didn't mean to imply anything sinister."

Balfour's hands on his head made his eyes half close involuntarily, enjoying the touch. Those fingers were so very good at knowing exactly where he hoped they might go. Then again he was finding it increasingly difficult to think of anything of Balfour he didn't like.
"Here," He uttered softly, and reached up to take Balfour's spectacles with care, "you look far too serious with those on."

As Balfour continued, Johann was quiet and still, eyebrows a little raised. Balfour's glasses still folded in his fingertips. Arcturus had always maintained he wasn't handsome, and he wasn't in the conventional symmetrical proportions and text book definition of it - rather more for how he held himself and what he said. But then again Balfour had only met him after Malaysia - where he was a little more well built, and rather more assertive rather than the meeker shadow from the start of the year.

"… for flustered wizards."

A month and a half together had allowed Balfour to become ever so proficient at instilling just that reaction in Johann, and he laughed as he felt the heat in his face.
"Perhaps it is I who should be worried about you eyeing up healers." He replied in a low voice, reaching past Balfour to place the glasses down on the desk with a long arm, enjoying the opportunity to get closer for a moment. He had been craving Balfour's voice, and his touch without realising the extent while he was away.

The movement brought him over Balfour's lap, though he was still balanced on his knees on the study floor. Their faces were close and their eyes met. Johann claimed a kiss, more out of reassurance for them both, his hands pressing on Balfour's thighs as his weight came forward. He quickly became greedy.

He had to recline a little a few moments later, bottom lip between his teeth, breath a little less settled.
"Ahh," he sighed a little, remembering himself. It was far too easy given how he was sat, to have fun. "Best walk the hounds before it's too late I suppose. I'll give you a hand, and by that," his fingers gripped Balfour a moment in comedy, "I mean you can laugh very hard as one of Ira's huskies takes me for one." Damn those dogs. He would have to wait.

For a fleeting moment, he felt frighteningly naked as Johann slipped off the glasses. Moreso than when they had unmasked themselves in September.

His ears burned and the sensation passed - although not quickly enough to anticipate the following kiss. Balfour moved into it, happily distracted, legs parting unconsciously at the hands pressing down on them. If he had felt possessive of Johann before, the feeling did not survive their show of affection. It disappeared at the taste of Johann's mouth and his mind wandered into singularly carnal territory.

When the the wizard pulled away, it was all Balfour could do to laugh at the change of subject.

"You're a fucking tease, you know that?" he said it adoringly. "But a wise one. Let me get some clothes on and we can get the dogs ready." Careful not to tread on anything precious, he hauled himself to his feet - tousling Johann's curls on his way out of the study.

---


It was getting nippier outside than most would enjoy. Balfour had managed to find a pair of jeans unsullied by cat fur, and he wore an old khaki peacoat buttoned all the way up; just the right amount of layers for when they found themselves on the steps of Atreus. Ira's bone white huskies were fastened to matching navy leashes, each in the charge of either wizard.

Whiskey never needed one. The German Shepherd had trotted ahead of them freely, black fur stark beneath the golden street lamps of Knightsbridge. He seemed to know exactly where they were going.

Automobiles went whirring by at a typically urban pace, oblivious to the residents' building.

"I think that's Ivoire that you've got." Balfour mused as he allowed Sangre to lead them down to the street. They could never honestly tell which was which - the dogs were identical. If pressed, one only had to call them by name. "He's been a good boy today. Shouldn't be any trouble. Shall we go by the shops?"

The opulent boutiques littered around this part of town were all normally closed by this hour but it was a pleasant distraction to stroll by their lavish window displays. Certainly he didn't mind a distraction now that they were away from the tempting intimacy of close proximity. Balfour offered his spare hand for Johann to hold.

"Mhm," Johann replied to the declaration, though he hadn't meant to be in honesty, his mind had made the connection to the bed with the three dogs piled on it. The way he felt, if he got into bed he would try very hard to stay in it to rest his bones, even if he could not find sleep.

It didn't take long at all to co-ordinate them all out of the door and out into the street. Johann cautiously scratching the head of one of Ira's huskies (which one he was still trying to learn) on the way down in the lift as it shed white hair on the bottom of his coat.

"Yes, sounds like a good plan." He tugged gently on the lead in his right hand, still not quite as adept at walking them as Balfour was. Thankfully Whiskey wandered without direction ahead of them. Johann wasn't sure what he'd do if either Sangre or Ivoire got loose, and he didn't like to think too hard about Ira's response either.

At Balfour's offer of a hand, the corner of Johann's mouth curled into a smile, glancing from the hand to his lover's eyes. Bookended by white huskies they made for a sight as they walked along, negotiating a little London traffic to make their way.

"In the twenties in the Caymans." Johann grumbled, "and here it's meant to rain all weekend." At least the weather up in Scotland was forecast to be drier, though much cooler. They rounded a corner, the shop windows spilling light onto the pavement up ahead.

"Did you really?" He asked all of a sudden, lacking any context to what on earth he meant, once again his mind jumping from one thing to the next without realising he hadn't verbalised anything.

Johann turned to look at Balfour as he asked, his shift drawing their clasped hands back a little, only to be interrupted by Ivoire stopping dead to sniff a lamppost with intense interest, Johann oblivious until he had to stop dead, missing Balfour's puzzled expression in response.

"Come on!" He called to the dog, adopting the more upbeat, encouraging tone for it that sounded peculiar, and tugged, willing it on.

"Think he's handsome?" Johann clarified once the dog had caught up beside them again, tugging towards the next lamppost, tail wagging. His eyes followed the huskey before eventually turning back to Balfour to examine his expression.

"Because he doesn't consider himself handsome, and he's not in quite the way you are handsome, I agree. He's quite…" Johann raised the hand with the lead, gesturing down his face and forcing it straight a leaden as he did, only to have to grasp at the lead again as it was tugged. "… wooden. I enjoy your face," he paused, screwing up his own, reconsidering how he'd put that, "that didn't sound complimentary, I mean, your face is very expressive, and I prefer that. You can convey humour in a glance to me, we don't have to speak." As they came beside a brightly lit window it was more obvious his fluster in explaining this. "I'm making a hash of this, I fear," he admitted to Balfour, biting his lip.

Generally speaking, he preferred having company whilst walking the dogs. Even if it meant the chore took longer.

Balfour allowed his attention to wander as they approached the shops - instinctively giving or restricting Sangre's pull on the leash - and he wasn't entirely listening when Johann asked his question. For a moment he assumed he had missed some part of their conversation, and he turned away from a fine display of cashmere-lined coats to give the other wizard a confused look.

Ivoire never appreciated being ordered about but he rejoined his brother and the two wizards, continuing the trend of lamppost inspection. They would become bored after another three or four.

"I did. Or do, rather, unless Arcturus has significantly changed in appearance since yesterday afternoon." Balfour replied in a dry voice and was glad not to be in the flat, where a soft tinge of jellyfish green might have given him away. "He's a stately sort of handsome. A shame if he doesn't realise it."

He suppressed a smirk, remembering how the Healer had sunk into his seat and scarf when they'd met. Disappointing. Balfour had rather hoped he would rise to the banter, even if he did enjoy making the other man a little nervous.

The dogs pulled again, this time both together as they tried sprinting towards the end of the block where Whiskey had run ahead. He glanced up distractedly and pursed his lips into a sharp whistle. Whiskey halted all at once, admonished, waiting for them to catch up at the intersection of closed cafes. Good boy.

Balfour squeezed Johann's hand and met his gaze with an overfond expression. "Thank you. I enjoy your face as well," he said soothingly. "More than handsome." If he was feeling any braver he might have said the truth, that his partner was categorically beautiful and a pleasure to touch.

They were out of doors, unfortunately. Talk like that could only lead to public indecency. He stopped walking once they'd reached the drawn shutters of the Italian coffee shops and the huskies began investigation of a muggle traffic device, miraculously managing to convey their owner's pureblood haughtiness. The leads tightened and slackened whenever they circled it.

"Perhaps Arc is better at words-" Balfour wondered out loud as he considered Johann underneath the streetlight, frowning the way one would at a vexing equation. "- and doesn't need to rely on being... expressive, without them." He forgot about the dogs temporarily and closed the gap between them, kissing Johann lightly on his cheek. "But please. Keep making a hash of this, as you say."

He drew away, brow clearing. " It's very attractive."

"Perhaps Arc is better at words, and doesn't need to rely on being… expressive, without them." Johann gave Balfour a queer look but it passed the moment Balfour's lips touched his cheek. His mind was jumping from the situation earlier in Diagon to the news of Balfour meeting Arcturus, trying to piece it altogether while the lead of a dog absolutely obsessed with lampposts tugged at his hand.

"It's very attractive." Balfour informed him, and Johann's attention was completely caught by his appearance under the sodium lights, the peacoat collar framing the exquisite jawline he couldn't resist to explore with fingertips and trace his lips along when alone…

"I am beginning to believe you're rather biased on that subject." The linguist replied, recognising his mind was wandering. He stabbed his thumb on the button for the pedestrian crossing that the dogs were circling. He'd observed Muggles before doing the same, a press of the button changed the colours of the lamps and then the cars came to a halt if you were lucky. Only then you could pass to the other side. Try without pressing the button first, and the cars became rather more angry. They did not like to stop.

"And words were his thing, certainly not action." Johann muttered, irritation suddenly tinging his voice as he looked up across the road, waiting for the lights to change. His mind had gone back to the kitchen, as he stuffed Malaysian import forms back into his bag, unable to drag his eyes away from the sight of Arcturus kissing Elixa right in front of him. If it hadn't been so natural between the two of them, he'd have entertained the thought it had been to rile him on purpose. Without realising, his hand had gripped Balfour's steadily tighter as he considered it, eyes trained across the road but not really seeing.

The sudden electronic bleating of the crossing interrupted the conversation and on they went across the road as cars came to a halt willingly either side them on the damp tarmac.

"Well, at least I don't have to go to the trouble of introducing you at some point in the future," Johann shrugged once they were clear on the other side of the road. "It'll be your weekend for introductions instead," He suggested, mind swiftly turning to Samhain, but at least on this occasion giving some verbal indication to the change in conversation topic.

He smiled broadly at Balfour, more of a spring in his step,
"I am looking forward to putting names to faces, to meeting them all, and of course to see where you grew up. You say I should get there for about eleven to help?"

He stopped himself from saying anything as they crossed the street, automobiles purring impatiently as their headlights cast a glow against Johann's stark silhouette. The hand holding his was clasped with a tension he couldn't understand. Balfour let it, not wanting to press on the subject. People - at least one hoped - possessed a capacity for speech most creatures did not and if his companion badly wanted to say something than he'd have to trust that he would.

The change of subject came as both relief and disappointment.

"I'm accustomed to making introductions. We always receive someone new at Samhain, friend or otherwise, so you're really part of a tradition by now." Balfour explained without much thinking about the subject, mind elsewhere while they approached another block of shops. "And they're only going to have to reintroduce themselves at breakfast the morning after, the rate we drink."

Thinking about Halloween was equal mixtures of anxiety and excitement. Absolutely, bloody brilliant and fun. But also: preparing the celebration, burning the fucking tree, family farewells at breakfast, cleaning up. They would sleep like the dead on Monday night.

Balfour's eyes followed Whiskey as the German Shepherd stopped at the steps of an old fashioned toy shop further ahead. His lips were curled into a grim smile, he realised, and he tried to salvage it into something more cheerful.

"Anytime between ten and eleven, Knox ought to be on the estate-" he answered and gave Johann a searching look, trying to imagine what his sister would make of the other man. "- and she'll put you to work, I'm sure. Afraid I'll be there from dawn." There were grandfathers to accost and Hippogriffs to transport.

Sangre tugged at the leash abruptly but he wrapped it around his knuckle in one motion, tugging back to avoid being pulled forwards altogether.. His gaze didn't leave Johann, thoughtful. "Hopefully I'll be around to help with the costume. Can't say I expected so much of the weekend to involve putting clothes on." Balfour smirked and he finally looked away to consider a selection of winter overcoats in one of the shop windows.

"I hope you can swim, by the way. Clan does a tree burning every year and it's usually out on the lake, though some years we find it on the hill..." his voice took on a pragmatic tone, accent dipping into old territories.