Laboratory Beta
“Is the truth so bad? Can I not just admit that I have no real reason for wanting you to stay beyond the fact that I’d like you to? That I just don’t want you to go?”
The query was asked with the greatest innocence, the youth genuinely seeking an answer as he scanned her face. Was he supposed to lie to provide reasons why she should stay? No doubt if someone else had been present, he would have found excuses tripping eagerly off his tongue because it was only natural that he’d have to lie. However, they were alone together now, they had an understanding — or so he’d thought. Now he wasn’t sure if there was some unspoken rule that he’d missed, some need to provide falsehoods when they could both see through then, or was that the point? The blond frowned slightly, thoughtful and somewhat puzzled.
Were they getting a little flirtatious? It was a laughable thought no doubt given everything they’d gotten up to today but it was something that he found himself considering. More than that, it was something to which he had no answer. The young man thought he understood flirting, in theory at least, and he’d probably engaged in it on more than one occasion but it was behaviour he’d picked up, learned to mimic and then twist into something that seemed to be his own. Unfortunately, Fionn’s imitation wasn’t perfect, which meant that he used the wrong words at the wrong times, setting the wrong sort of mood. It was why he so frequently managed to be inappropriate, not truly understanding why something didn’t fit. The young man had probably learned to flirt and no doubt, he managed to use it the right way at the right times most of the time, but he probably managed to use it all wrong more often than was wise. The only problem was that he had no idea when he was using it and when he wasn’t. For him, humour and flirtation were probably closely intertwined.
That fact that the servant didn’t always understand what might be underpinning his speech probably accounted for a high percentage of the punishments he’d received since his gating, and possibly for many of those that had occurred before he came to Brunnhold.
Maybe they’d been doing quite a bit of flirting and he’d been slow to pick it up, at least for the most part. It was times like this that the youth felt remarkably dense and probably justifiably so.
His admittance regarding why he didn’t want to be alone could hardly be constituted as flirting though, not when he was guilty and at least a little miserable as he thought of the pit of despair that he wanted to avoid for the time being. There was definitely a beat of time when they were both too quiet, downcast as he reminded Aurelie of her own grief and he felt something twist painfully within him, regret tightening around his heart because of what he had said so thoughtlessly without any real consideration for her own feelings. Fionn hadn’t meant to have misery snapping at both their heels.
An apology came readily to his lips, only bitten back reluctantly because he feared making things worse by drawing further attention to the kenser in the corner. He need not have worried though, not when he could make poor, teasing remarks and prompt the kitchen maid to say the most delightful things. Either of them could cause the mood to dip but it seemed just as easy for one or other to buoy it back up again. The redhead probably didn’t even think of herself as being particularly cheering but Fionn certainly appreciated it as he found himself grinning broadly, lips drawing back to reveal slightly uneven teeth.
“If my standards are strange well… you’re the one who said so, not me,” the middle Madden quipped, chuckling at his own humour as she visibly squirmed. He really wished she wouldn’t do that — wiggle that way — while she was in his lap but he couldn’t deny that he also appreciated it, the way she taunted and titillated without having the least bit of awareness in all of Vita. A maddening creature truly, but ‘moony’ was a label that he was more than willing to embrace if she drove him in that direction.
“It was a joke though. Obviously. Not uh… not about you being attractive, that’s not the joke, just Keyes- If you don’t think I find you attractive then I don’t, eh… I don’t know how I can make it more obvious. But I’m attracted to you, I think you’re pretty and I would happily spend hours looking at you, houses because you’re deliciously expressive and maybe if I look long enough…”
He trailed off, raising a hand and seeming to trace the shape of her face in the air, wonderingly. He didn’t know if he’d ever be able to draw that face, didn’t know if he’d ever grow good enough to draw her or anyone else for that matter. People were exceptionally difficult to capture, too complex. Perhaps he should try drawing his own first.
“I know I’m attractive and I’m at least a little vain but I’m not as attracted to myself as I am to you,” he explained with a snigger, watching as she rose.
The young woman seemed flustered and self-conscious, momentarily unable to drag her gaze away from the flesh revealed in the open slit of his shirt. The teenager looked down, gazing down his chest to his navel, trying to see himself through her eyes. He thrust his lips out, twisting them pensively as if shifting something around in his mouth. Then instead of straightening his clothing, he tugged his shirt free of the waistband and undid the final buttons, displaying the firm planes of his torso, unblemished on this side, unlike his back.
He leaned forward, head cocked as he considered what she was looking for, noting that the only thing missing was her shoes before he looked down, questing fingers reaching under the couch on which they’d both sat. Bending, he retrieved first one shoe and then another, the two unmatched because one was his own, and stuck his hand back under in search of- There it was!
“Looking for these?” Fionn asked, producing her shoes with a flourish and a fresh grin, mischievous now. He sat back, resting the footwear on his knee, one hand keeping them in place while the other stretched along the back of the couch. With the buttons undone, his shirt flared open wider.
“I’ll let you go, if that’s what you want, lovely.”
Okay, this was definitely flirting. He thought he understood this time around.