Dinah had taken quite a bit of adjustment with the new member of the household. With the wake of the surprise Baby and Dorian's trip along with her own instabilities had led to a strange mental state for the youngest of the D generation. She had taken to going down into the tunnel to stare at the restrained and shambling remains of their father, not trying to communicate, but slowly reconstructing the flesh as it rotted off around him. Today though she could feel it; one of the more malevolent of the deities that paid her attention, though not strongly. It itched in the back of her mind, though so far, the only outward expression of it had been when she had picked up her drink and stared at it, wondering what would happen if she let the whispered thoughts win and threw it straight into the face of the staff that had brought it to her, glass and all. For now, she was occupied, trying to use her fingernail to pry out one of the jewels embedded in the glass with utmost focus, to the point where some of the cocktail was spilling across the back of her hand.
Dangling from his left hand was a whisky straight, the crystal glass about ⅔ full. A cigarette dangled between two fingers as well. Work work work …had been left behind. He was done for the day absolutely, and it was time to loosen up and relax. Drystan found his drink and his smoke and then went searching for other things to add to his wind down of the day. This adventure took him first to the kitchen where he opened a cupboard, and reached way high up and in the back. A plain white dish with a lid, this is till he opened it and the blue tinge of a glittery buttery type substance revealed itself. Drystan had to use his middle and ring fingers to dig towards the bottom of the jar and scoop up the pixie dust concoction he’d made.
He had discovered that it contained its potency when mixed with a sugary pectin, but that just didn't seem quite right, so his next step had been to mix it with local honey. That was it! It held its potency, and actually made the honey itself potent as well with the ‘feelgood flush’ of feelings Eli’s dust provided.
He pulled his fingers out and covering the tips was a beautiful glob of pixie dust infused honey. It was still gold, mostly, but it radiated with iridescent blue. It looked as if a precious gem had been liquified. And the flavor? Perfection. No strange after taste, nothing to disguise the purity of the honey itself. It would dance across your tastebuds and begin its process of relaxation and also hyper aware of touch, with inhibitions being thrown away like yesterday's newspaper.
So back through the office he made his way, fingers stuck in his mouth as he nursed the honey glob from him, the inside corners of his fingers sticky from the jar. Around the corner to the stairs, where he glanced up but then caught the presence of Dinah in the next room and all of his problems were solved.
Dinah finally noticed that her cocktail was spilling and blinked, righting it properly and taking a drink. The footfalls behind her made her turn and when it was Drystan and not one of the other staff, she drifted in close and tucked herself close to his side, curling her free, albeit cocktail sticky hand around his middle. The other one, now her mission to dismantle the glass had been abandoned, had simply let go of it for it to smash onto the ground forgotten.
Drystan's presence made the strange itching a little more pronounced, and she smiled a little before burrowing her arms under his jacket instead.
He made his way towards his sister, dressed in a form fitting dress that he noticed immediately, seemed to have something wrong with her drink, but she figured it out whatever it was and just dropped the glass to let it shatter on the group as she curled up against him.
“Dinah, my love, if you don’t care for the drink, we can always fetch you something more suitable, no need to destroy the stemware.” He jested easily at her, after pulling his fingers out of his mouth, a bit of the glob still sticking to his fingertips. “It’s good to see you,...” He leaned his head down with arms spread a bit so that she could wrap herself around him and he could still hold onto his drink and the smoke and also not get her messy with the dust honey. He let go of the glass and flicked the cigarette to ash it and then it too broke free from his hand to be held by his mind instead. This made it all the easier to wrap his now free hand around her, to lay his palm flat and wide against the middle of lower back and slowly put it up till it was between shoulder blades where it was a simple thing to push his fingers and the pressure of his hand to massage her. “I know things are crazy lately but I’m so very happy to see you up and about and not hiding away or lingering too long…” He kissed the top of her head more than a few times and then just rested his mouth there against her, pulling her into him and relishing in her scent, her presence, aloof it making his inside dance and electrify the sensation he had at touching her, or she touching him.
Dinah made a soft noise in her throat and turned enough to catch the shattered glass in her peripheral vision "...I forgot I was holding it. and I like the breaking sounds" she murmured, smiling against his shirt. She pulled away just enough to lift her chin to prop against him, one hand reaching up to toy with his necklace instead.
"I try not to hide away. Some days it is difficult not to..." the fingers left his pendant to flick towards the ceiling. "The baby is sleeping. I have left Emily with him. She has been teaching me but...my focus is addled today." She returned to pulling herself into him, cheek against his chest "You aren't working today?" she asked curiously "...or have you been already? They don't leave you alone these days. We need to hire you a secretary."
A soft laugh rose up out of him and he shook his head. “It does have a …unique tone doesn’t it? If you need glasses for smashing, let me get some that aren't quite as nice as these though, the crystal has been with us for so very long.” He began to speak softly to himself, rolling ancient words off his tongue, repeating certain phrases before he let his hand leave her back for a moment to catch the item he had recreated through spell work. He had drawn power from the jewels and the aether that was now a constant flow around him. He held the empty glass out to show it off in front of her before letting it go to float to the nearby table.
“Emily hm? She is a good pick. She is very loyal. It’s …an honor for her to help care for the child.” These were the feelings he’d read from her in passing. He took in a deep breath and let the tingle trickle down his spine, “Already done for the day. I am trying to balance my work and play a bit better. Too much work was putting my mind in an awful spot, but I think I’ve finally started to figure out some things to help. No work past 6pm. Long breaks for lunch and relaxing. Taking a nap if I feel like it. Walking around in my skivvies or less is quite freeing as well.” He grinned wide enough to pull those laugh lines around his cheeks, and his eyes crinkled up at the corners as his teeth began to show. He laughed to himself and then stuck his sticky fingers back into his mouth to drag them down against his tongue leaving behind a sparking golden stripe.
Dinah nodded with a wry smile, turning herself so she could watch him recreate the glass again. The urge to slap it out of the air to break it again was high, but she resisted it, barely. She watched it float, fingers reaching for it before drawing them back.
"She knows how to raise a child. I will trust her judgment on how to do it." She pulled away from her brother and took a few steps back, perching herself on the edge of the orrery.
"Balancing is good. We need to see more of you without you being buried in work. Soon though, when your expansion is complete, it should mostly run itself, shouldn't it?" She had no idea, in honesty. "But you own the damned thing. At the very least you can take as long a break as you like, as well as walking around in your skivvies." she agreed playfully, kicking her heels back and forth. "We shall have to insist on you taking proper holidays too."
A good puppy dog eyed pout was in order when she stepped away to sit herself up upon the orrery. He only goaded her for a moment before replying to her question. “Oh yes, at some point, I will have far less work to do by myself, and many more employees to do all the laborious bullshit associated with running this behemoth. And it will only grow larger, and larger. The work I do now, will lay the groundwork for it running smoothly in the future.” He gave her a satisfied grin, watching her legs kicking back and forth. “I can take as long a break as I like. There is just a lot of movement and change right now. Hells, there is a lot of change happening outside of my work.” He flicked a finger up to indicate the baby. He stepped closer to her again, till he was up against her knees, pressing on them, leaning forward to plant his hands on either side of her, and get close enough to her face to let his nose graze against hers, his eyes filled with mischief. HIs hands moved up to her thighs, fingers splaying out like a fan so that he could really grab hold of her thighs, thumbs pressing upward and upwards towards the V where her legs met.
“*I* think I will insist on proper holidays, vacations, and time off in the middle of the day just because. And maybe every 8th Tuesday after August 9th I’ll take a half day..” HIs words fell into the scarce space between their faces, his lips idly brushing hers as he spoke, his eyes deep set into hers, heavy lidded and lost in the feelings he held so deeply for her.
Dinah tittered at his pout and she shook her head. "That expression doesn't suit you. The begging look." She shifted a little, leaning her weight against the planets closer to her, one arm draped over Saturn and spinning the rings around it with her fingers. "Will we have enough staff to cover it all? Or will you have to fetch some over from England? I'd imagine there will be plenty of takers" She glanced up to the ceiling at his flicked finger, watching it thoughtfully as if she could see through the floor and into where the baby slept. Focused enough that his closer approach snuck up on her and she smiled as she lowered her chin.
"You had better insist on those days. Make them do the work whilst you rest for once." She parted her knees the best she could without stretching her dress uncomfortably, and she lifted her lips that narrow gap of space to give him a brief, chaste kiss. "I shall be cross if you don't. We need you as much as they do. Likely more so." she murmured, combing her fingertips over his beard with a smile. "One day we will have to go down together and tell father your successes. He'll be furious."
He took in stride her demands of him. These were things he agreed with her on, so it was quite easy to abide by. “I will be hiring more people, and I will look of course in England, but I am thinking globally, Dinah. I will take the best of the best from wherever they happen to be from and bring them all under my wing, under the Windgrace name, and… possibly under our influence. A loyal employee would go a long way if they also follow our guidance.” Her lounging among the planets brought a satisfied thin grin to his lips.
As her knees parted, the thin smile grew, as he was able to sink his thumbs down deeper and when he reached the apex of their journey upwards he was able to feel her through her garments, and move the pressure of his thumb pads against her; up, back down again, both at the same time. He closed his eyes as she kissed him so gingerly, and his mouth chased after hers when she pulled away. He left his mouth hung open enough so that when he clamped his jaws shut and inhaled hard through them you could see the small tremble in his bottom lip.
“You…. you and Dorian ..and now the child, are my top priorities. What i am doing now is going to ensure that we will have a very ... easy life for a very long time. Time to explore hobbies, and ..special interests” His eyes lit up at the idea of going down with her to speak to what was left of Father. To tell him of the overwhelming success the company already had become, that his weakness and fear of change held us all back for far too long..” He let his lip curl and his brow became heavy while she spoke. But they softened, and transformed as he tilted his head to the side. “I’d love to show father a thing or two, I’d love to make him watch us fuck each other in madness, all the blood and unhinged feral acts that would have shocked and killed him in his life. Give him a real….good.. show.” He leaned over her and pulled a hand up to her throat to slide up and grab her by the lower jaw, and push his mouth against hers, kissing her is a messy hard and gasping kiss.
Dinah canted her head when he spoke of global and she smiled, humming and nodding. "I hadn't considered global. It makes sense. We should see if we can obtain the rights to another mine somewhere else. Is that even possible?" She tensed and sighed as his thumbs moved, nipping her lower lip and she squirmed just a little on the spot. She lingered after he kissed her, nodding at his words. Listening earnestly to his promises.
"I know you aren't doing this to feed your own ego. Gods only knows we have enough anyway, but we could always want more. " she agreed, pawing at his shirt as he spoke. She grinned, laughing softly.
"Darling you know full well that even the tamest acts would have killed him in life. Wretchedly uncreative." Her tone was playful, lifting her chin as his hand skimmed her throat and muffling the delighted sound as he kissed her. She threw her arms around his shoulder, neglecting the planets for now, holding herself tight to him.
((TO BE CONTINUED!))