INT - Petit Cafe, Victoriana, day
Dorian invited his sister out to the Petit Cafe, something he'd not done in a long time, but he had a good reason. He'd made some arrangements this morning before his ride, and was going to surprise her. He had a secret supplier of goods who'd be able to whip up ingredients to help ease the food supply problem for a day or two, and to create one of Dorian's favourites, a mille-feuille. He'd also brought ahead a few bottles telling them he'd be back later to partake. One of the many benefits of the family name was being able to more readily convince people to make special arrangements.
Thus he was able to come back to the spot with her, giving his twin the boon of having a clean brother to walk beside, arm in arm through Victoriana. True, when Dorian wasn't seeing to family business on that side of town he often was in the Seiiki instead, but the English side of town had its charms. Like the French cafe. Being a known entity due to the family name meant sometimes people whispered as Windgraces passed. He, for one, mostly ignored it, even tried to pretend he never noticed it, and found it truly delightful when someone he met didn't already know him by name or face. Boundless mystery that it was, Callisto's town was only so big, afterall.
The walk wasn't a long one from their home, and Dorian alternated between chattering about the ride and commenting on some bird they passed, and quietly listening to her or simply enjoying being in her company.
Once they'd arrived at the spot, he'd say, "Ta-da!" And open the door for her to walk in. The person behind the counter whom he'd seen hours ago got a big wink from behind Di's back. The place was bustling a little bit more than it had been of late because today they'd had materials to produce extra good smells, drawing people in. Even with the fog being what it was and making everything feel a bit more desolate.
Dinah had made herself presentable enough for a trip out when invited by her brother, and she had agreed without any protests to follow along with him as he led her by the arm. She hugged onto him, either deaf to the whispers or uncaring about them, listening happily to her brother's chatter.
When he presented the busier-than-anticipated cafe with such flourish, she giggled and stood on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek. "isn't it busy? It's so nice to see~" she held onto his arm again as she followed him inside, giving his bicep a squeeze.
"you arranged this?" she asked him with interest, sidling herself against his side. "Where would you like to sit, brother mine?"
Dorian grinned more profoundly, showing teeth, as she secreted a squeeze of his arm, and walked her to a certain free booth. Once there, he offered to help her perfectly capable person onto the seat before taking up a position opposite her, one where he could watch the door, with the wariness of a guard dog. He really wanted to sit beside her, but with appearances needing to be what they were, he let it be. He'd have to play the old game of sneaking caresses, which almost made it a little more thrilling than usual. He'd sneak back one such caress of her arm when getting her to her seat. He'd then go to the other side and slide in, gazing at her for a long moment before answering her question. It was a loving gaze, one where he just enjoyed seeing her face, her form in a more novel setting. The place had the most vague traces of Paris to it, so he thought she'd be safe. He admitted with a certain amount of pride at making her smile lighting up his face, "I did, well not by my own merit, but by Drystan's ingenuity, if I am rather honest. He rather proved another merit of an education such as the two of you possess. The pair of you are truly incessant wonders."
No one came to see what they wanted, but the staff were already preparing what had been asked for prior.
Dinah smile grew impish at his touch, the secret glances of affection before propriety would need to take precedence all over again. She let him settle her into the booth seat, a little less used to booth-seating than the usual sort of chair, but she reached a foot beneath the table to rub just the once against his leg. There WAS a little paris about the place but she was keeping it under control beneath the pleased expression on her face. She tilted her head at the mention of Drystan's ingenuity but she beamed.
"he's a smart boy. he's been reading so much just lately, it's good to see him taking his studies so seriously" she said proudly. "I told you, some people just learn differently than others do. It's amazing how not beating the bloody hell out of a student encourages them to learn" she laced her fingers beneath her chin leaning on top of them as she watched him across the table.
"I was wondering too. your armillary. If you might be more inclined to the more practical side of things. Artifacts. amulets. things like that. you saw when I made that ring, do you think it would be possible to do for you?"
Dorian's grin tightened in his cheeks impishly too, as she commenced with the footsie before he could. The tips of his ears went pink while she spoke, and he'd explain further, "I don't know what it's called but he did the old Jesus trick, but better." He lifted one ring-bedecked hand beside his head, snapped his fingers and continued, "Presto! Whiskey. When he showed me. I can tell you I do not have a head for that sort of learning Latin." He had Spanish and French, sure, but not perfectly on either front and largely as a result of being exposed to both after being educated in them. Even he had to learn that stuff, the French from tutors employed by his parents and the Spanish by the crown for his time in the royal navy. He could hear his sister say a thousand times that some people just learned differently but having been told something more negative to the tune of 'you're a dolt' by his father would take a lifetime of dislodging. Thankfully, he had that long and longer to look forward to. That long and longer to enjoy a life beside the woman accompanying him.
He felt like a fortunate man, which he was, and his smiles rested easily on his stubbled face, even as he answered further, moving his hand to tap a meandering rhythm on the tabletop with his fingertips, "I can try, but... I suppose I would need to practice. But aren't the books terribly complex and the... all the... words you need?"
Dinah canted her head to one side and she smiled again and she laughed gently.
"Transmutation. or transmogrification, depending on the substance. but Drystan is better than jesus because he won't just stop at morality tales for people who shan't listen" she lowered her hands to the table, patting her fingertips to the wood of the table.
"Latin isn't so difficult. A lot of poetry sounds lovely in latin" she added as a playful afterthought, but she grinned again and gave his leg another little rub with the side of her heel.
"Everything needs practice, doesn't it darling? some of the books are terribly complex, but I could teach you. Learning from me would be far better than learning from the books, don't you think? it doesn't always need words. but words can help focus, it can help... clear your intention and solidify it. Magic, darling, is nothing more than enforcing your will upon the world and making the world listen"
Dorian listened to her attentively, drinking up her words. He'd nodded in agreement about learning from her while the entirety of his ears went red against her teasing little under table touches. After a moment of looking past her to watch someone walk out of the place he'd pull his focus squarely onto the golden eyes set in her face again and respond, "I suppose if you are doing the teaching I would learn anything at all, really. I would try anyway. You do have a way of helping me understand things. But only if you are sure that you have time for another student, and one much less gifted than Eli."
The agreement to become her pupil came to a sudden halt though he'd opened his mouth to speak further, because a server was bringing them things. To each of them went a narrow but tall tumbler filled with ice, bubbly water, and vodka. Then each of them had a mille feuille set before them with its delicate layers and cream filling with feathered frosting, alongside little forks to spear them with. All the while, Dorian was waggling his brows absurdly for providing her with the sorts of things he thought she'd appreciate, like a retriever bringing back a duck, only much much less bloody and much much sweeter. And boozier.
He'd move forward to the edge of the booth seat so that he could reach under after spreading out his napkin and graze her knee with his fingertips. He'd settled his legs so that they were arrayed like a zipper with hers, alternating and granting her venturesome foot ready access. He'd pipe up again when they were gone, "Latin is not so difficult for you, or your brother. It is notoriously difficult to learn! You forget that you are abnormally brilliant, not just well educated. But we should do it. You will put a... I don't know... a lesson together for me?"
He raised his glass so as to toast to this arrangement. Even if it meant work that was not his forte, it meant time with her, so he'd welcome the challenge.
Dinah clapped her hands delightedly when he agreed to learn from her and she nodded cheerily. "I dont think you will struggle at it. I will teach you, any time. I just don't want to make you feel put upon with such a thing. But... I think you will excel in the practical side of things once you have the hang of things" she agreed, pausing as the server approached with treats and she beamed again, curious at the fizzy glass, even though the pastry was a welcome sight. Taking a sip of the glass had a quirk of surprise touch her lips but she giggled again.
"thank you, dorian darling" she said softly, letting him skim her knee and she grinned, closing her ankles around his to keep his foot trapped.
"Latin is no harder than english and you speak that as your mother tongue. you do not need to learn it as a language, you need to remember how to pronounce certain things as rote, and know what that means" she explained with a little bob of her head, picking up her tiny fork, toasting him back at his gesture.
"generally I would think of it as... sort of like a recipe. Only it's very variable. Or perhaps...dance steps, but with a combination of items and words rather than physical movement."
Dorian drank to their agreement, looking a little uncertain around the brows as he thought about what to him was a daunting task. Diving headlong into battle with an animated corpse's monster form: no problem. Diving headlong into the study required to do magic: one trepidation bearing Dorian. His ears yet burned red.
He'd also agreed to magic lessons though because he had faith that his twin could do anything, even teach him. With an out loud laugh over his foot being caught up, he set his glass down. Then he picked up his little fork too, and drove it's edge in about a third of the way down the bar of the dessert to break off a rather large bite. While he did this, he warmly responded, starting with a cough of acknowledgment that he enjoyed the little under the table game, "A-hem, I would like to... oh I know! Maybe I could make something protective for Hiromi. She is protecting Llywellynn, and that puts her in the line of all manner of strangeness."
That said, he'd chomp down the mouthful he'd broken off. The pairing was an odd one, a cocktail and a pastry like this but he did not care about more than seeing delight in her eyes.
Dinah took far more tiny little wedges of her pastry, starting at one of the corners and working across, in rows of neat little separated slices. His
uncertainty was picked up on and she gave him a reassuring smile, and she nodded.
"warding is a good thing to learn. Amulets of it are going to be a grand thing to learn" she agreed, though she pulled a little face at the notion of Hiromi protecting the Esher widow.
"doesnt she already live with people? I know that Eli lives there. Is Hiromi her nursemaid?" she asked with a little scrunch of her nose and another sip of her drink. "because she almost definitely needs one. She spoke to me about her 'curse'. when things aren't quite so...drastic in order of priority I might oblig- oh! Did I tell you, professor Dashrix wrote back with regards to the butterfly wings? He should be able to provide me some" she beamed excitedly. "we are so close, darling. so so close. The fog will be gone soon"
Dorian dispatched two thirds of his dessert while she spoke, chewing around grinning and trying with his free hand to get his very warm fingertips to her sweet little knee again. He'd shake his head about Esher's living situation vis a vis Hiromi and intended to answer on that front, but the news about Dashrix made his grey eyes widen. "Is that right? The... what was it? A zebra butterfly? Blimey Di! We're almost--almost big bloody heroes. Not that we'll get any renown, but you know." He didn't need to be glorified through the streets. In fact, as he'd think to her, <If I were to really impose my will on the world, I would change it so we could do as the pharaohs did. And marry. I do not think there is a spell for that though.>
He grinned wickedly after speaking to her mind, but stanched that boyish crescent by taking another great sip of the vodka tonic. He didn't wiggle his captive foot too much because he was happy for the game. Happy enough to wiggle, but not seek freedom.
Dinah picked at her own food like a bird, even with the glorious sweetness she had missed, she didn't exactly have much of an appetite. She would eat it though, absolutely every scrap. She beamed and nodded, her smile creasing a little further at the feel of his fingers on her skin.
"the black-veined white butterfly. Professor dashrix mentioned that the females rub the particles from their wings so they become almost transparent. doesn't that sound lovely?" she forked another little piece of cake, eating that when he projected his thought into her mind and her smile turned wistful, nodding her silent agreement.
"that would be nice" she said softly. "The capacity for..normalcy. I think I would like that quite a lot" she murmured, scooping another tiny forkful and reciprocating the wiggle of his foot. "I do wonder..if you ever married. how much of the other family members would be invited? we would have to build an entire new mansion to house them all"
Dorian realized he was talking to Di about butterflies in a Paris themed cafe and for a moment he was worried, but he knew the surest path to upsetting her was showing that so he quickly rejoined, petting her knee once more, "I can hardly imagine what a delicate lace that would be... I should think the worst of them would surely show their faces when one of us marries. That is how they earn their ranking. Like cousin Lindsey, he was always rotten, and a quarter as clever as he thought he was." That particular cousin grated on Dorian the last time they'd met. His least favorite family member was dead already, and he'd looked at Di wrong a few hundred years past. He couldn't even remember that one's name. They even outranked Charles because whoever he was, it was a distant enough relation that he did not have the corpse to thank for his life. It was sticking in his craw for a moment that the name wouldn't come to him, but he let it go in favor of asking, "Do you want a large wedding? Big confection of a dress? A choir and orchestra, all of the works?"
When he had asked he'd spear the last third and start chomping that down, with his eyes fixed on hers. He'd tug at the hem of her dress before taking his hand back to himself to lift his napkin to dab at his mouth. His fork hand was busy setting the fork down and pushing away the empty little plate to one side of the table.
Dinah, surprisingly, didn't seem to be affected by the notion of the butterfly-paris connection. had she noticed? it was hard to tell on her face, but she had indeed put two-and-two together. Strangely, it didn't seem to be pressing her into the usual despair.
"it would be like lace, wouldn't it? just transparent held together with the black veins?" she pursed her lips at the mention of cousin lindsey.
"is he the one with all the freckles? The one who laughs like a braying seagull?" she pulled a face. "he was thick as a boulder, that one." she agreed, sipping at her drink at the question of weddings.
"Large? possibly. Showy enough that people would know of it. An orchestra would be lovely too, but no choir. Choral music tends to all sound the same to me." she mused. "honestly I had never really considered it. but I'd not want some..giant puff of a dress. I would look utterly ridiculous. Like a dropped cupcake" she tittered, lifting another scoop of her own. She was making progress, albeit nowhere near as quickly as her twin.
"what of you, darling?"
Dorian settled the used napkin back onto the table in a heap, and expounded on the terrible cousin, having nodded in reply to her questions about which one he was, "You know he asked me for a loan to invest in a business he wanted to start. I asked him what it was and you know what it was? Selling snake oil. Literal snake oil. Fucking idiot."
He listened to her with his face going wistful, keeping back the bitterness that he'd not get to be the groom in any possible scenario. He agreed again, with half a laugh in his voice, "You don't want just pounds of pearls and lace? Are you sure? We can get you the biggest dress you could imagine, you know. Have you carried in on a palanquin like a Sultana. But in all seriousness, I am glad you don't want a choir. It does all sound the same. Like being stuck in church, right? Hahaha Oh! I was thinking..." He was in a merry mood and glad to see his sister wasn't wearing all black, nor as melancholy as she'd been of late.
He'd bitten his lip as he'd trailed off, and when he did he was chomping on half a smile. Even the act of thinking so hard he had to move his face didn't pull the gladness entirely off of his expression. The result was boyish mischief let loose to inquire, "You have made some rather amazing enhancements to an already perfect form of late. I especially enjoy your eye colour." He was saying eye colour and trying really hard not to think about her nipples, because he had a reason damnit. It just took a little steering of his energies to his upstairs brain, "Do you think I could wear blue in mine?" He punctuated by widening them to show her as if she didn't know what they looked like already.
Dinah tittered and she smiled, shaking her head "...well in his defense... noone wants a squeaky, unlubricated snake, right?" she smiled in affected innocence, but she laughed again and she finished her pastry.
"Kyuu tenno would design my dress. Maybe in the winter so I could get married in furs. More a Tsarina more than a sultana" she mused, tapping her little fork to the plate as she finished, dabbing at her lips and folding the napkin again.
Closing her hands around the glass, she smiled as he bit his lip, giving his foot a squeeze between both of hers. reaching one hand's fingers up to touch beneath her eye.
"you like the gold? I thought it would be a good tribute to Helios" she straightened when he suggested blue and she beamed "I think blue would look splendid on you." she agreed excitedly "I can do that for you. However you wanted, whatever the shade. ah!" she clapped her hands gleefully.
"With you with blue, and me with gold...stan would have both of our eye colours in his, wouldn't he? Don't you think that would be lovely? Blue would be lovely on you. When we go home, we shall pick you a shade. It shan't hurt at all, I am getting a lot of practice at it~"
Dorian was lifting his cup to drink when she made her little snake jape and he almost did a spit-take. He was coughing the vodka and bubbles down and muttering "Bloody hell" over her remark. When Kyuu was mentioned Dorian nodded agreement that the local tailor of great status had earned it. He shifted his weight and moved his leg so that his trouser leg lifted and they achieved--scandalous--ankle on ankle contact. He'd murmur, "Tenno would make you something worthy. Good choice, my Tsarina." He'd pronounce those last two words with a horrible Russian accent. When his sister was delighted about helping him with his eyes and thought the colour was a good choice, he beamed a solar bright grin at her, and agreed, "Oh, we would have his eye colour together. That will be lovely. We should do something for him, don't you think? He is down on himself about the," he broke off to whisper, "Sara situation."
He couldn't think of how to cheer Drystan up, given his artistic temperament and particular tastes. He was literally a man who could get himself anything he wanted anytime he wanted.
Dinah 's smile turned triumphant at the reaction her joke had received and she tittered, sliding from her seat to join him on his side of the booth. breaking the ankle-on-ankle contact, but wrapping her arm around his and resting her cheek against his shoulder.
"I think he would like that. but... yes. we do need to do something nice for him. he's such a difficult person to pin that sort of thing on though, isn't he?" she wrinkled her nose at the mention of the Sara Situation and she shook her head
"it shouldn't even be that big of a problem.*one* housemaid out of how many?" she said wearily, but she hummed again. "we'll have to do something nice for him. Would it be rude to pry into his mind, do you think? Or should we just ask him?"
Dorian slipped his arm around her when she came over and held her irrespective of who might be watching. Didn't a brother have a right to embrace his sister with love? He'd sink against her in turn so there was no space left between them and just enjoy it for a moment. But at length, he broke his silence and explained, quietly, since he could given their proximity, "He has taken an Atlas-like weight upon his shoulders. Reminds me of someone else I know. We should do something... I think you can try to get it out of him, I have not the skill. If we ask him it'll ruin the surprise!" Dorian wanted it to be a surprise, like what he'd done for his sister today. "Well I suppose I could ask him what his favorite sweet is without raising suspicion, I am ashamed I don't know."
Dinah snuggled against his side, reaching to pick up her glass with the arm that wasn't entangled on his. She nodded again with a sigh.
"Well, when we get Wolf's skull, then we can make him something of it, perhaps. He and I are going to try to find a meeting with his patron soon. it might be a little... much for you, darling, but we will be safe" she promised, "but yes. we should do something nice for him. something good. something responsibility-free. I've mostly just taken to poking him full of holes. he's been making a lot more jewelry for that..." she trailed off, patting his hand.
"lets go. we should change your eyes."