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Chapter 50:
The male watched as Bish counted out their money, thankful that the BatCave paid immediately, instead of just cutting a cheque. 'Now all I need to do is get four hours tonight and I'll be set.'
Bish thumbed through the colorful notes and separated them into three stacks, he handed the larger to the male. "Hope it's enough, Side Strike," he joked. "Cause I need my cut for rent."
"Ye lost thet poof job o' yers over ta tha department store counter did ye then?" Gaff ribbed.
The male slipped out without being seen. They wouldn't worry; he'd always left that way. Back in the Den again, he was enveloped in the dim light and wildly diverse crowd. Pulling his shutters down to hang around his neck, he took in the colors and depth that he had needed to give up in order to play under the focused lights of the stage.
Immediately, several Vampires came under his observation. They looked like they would be easy, but a promise made to Starch needed to be kept. The Exotic deserved that much.
He took a slow breath and split his focus. The Vampires were pointedly not interacting over by the curved stairs to the balcony. A few dominantly Vampire Exotics had congregated by the bar, and a few were on the dance floor. The female was standing over by one of the pillars that supported the balcony. There were two Hags at a table to her aft left and a Full Were at her far right, directly to her right a Nymph-and-Furry hybrid carried a tray of drinks to the waiting table of—'What am I doing?!' He shook his head and made his way to the booth where he had left Starch, and Black.
Starch and Lenore were talking with Black, and seemed to have found a way to explain to him that he needed to use a low voice when he spoke.
The male gave a slight nod to Black, acknowledging his presence, before turning to Starch. "You said you wanted to see me before I got to the other things I need to see about." Starch smiled. He curled his fingers in a sort of 'come here' gesture. 'What is it? If he wanted to talk in private he would have left the booth…' Curious, the male leaned in.
There was a tiny click, and a foreign weight was added to his collar. "What?" Starch held up the end of a fine silvery chain. With his eyes the male followed the chain to its end. "You put me on a leash?!" He hadn't been able to keep his voice down and a pair of passing Vampire wanna-bes glanced over and offered envious smirks.
Black began laughing, hysterically. The male glared at him, then Starch, back and forth for a while. "I can't decide which of you needs dealing with first," he finally hissed.
Starch tucked his hands into the pockets of his charcoal grey lab coat. The end of the leash was around one of his wrists. "Just relax and enjoy the atmosphere."
"Oh, Rip! You and she came as twins!" Tala squealed as she and Lupin approached the booth.
"She?" The male raised one eye brow.
Tala awkwardly waved one hand in the air as she tried to explain. "Uh, she, the uh the she like you… uh, I don't know a name for her." She looked to Remus for help.
Lupin shrugged, "The wrong one's wearing the makeup." He and Black started laughing at his comment, but Lenore perked.
The male relaxed, so much so, that it caught Starch's eye. "Oh," the male sighed. "You mean Sev. Yeah, hiding these clothes is hard enough. A larger wardrobe would get found."
Lenore grabbed Tala's arm before the She-Were could take the seat Lupin had pulled over for her. "Come on." She smiled too brightly and called back to the men, "Uh, girl time!" And she drug Tala off, whispering in her ear.
"Now," the male grumbled, "I think we're all in trouble."
"Why?" Lupin asked, uneasily.
The male shifted on the bench, he felt the leash pull a little and tried to fight the urge to yank on it. "I have found, that whenever people are making an effort to exclude me, I am in for a very bad time. And they are excluding all of us."
Starch caught his friend's attention with a frantic wave. "Sev?"
"You've had your allotted point for the night," the male grumbled. He snatched a piece of, suspiciously red, ice from Starch's glass and carefully kept it from touching his blackened lips as he popped it into his mouth.
The Exotic raised his hands and, by default, the end of the leash. "Ok, I'll stop at one."
-'--,------
Lenore, Tala, and the female found a fairly secluded corner at the farthest end of the counter in the women's loo.
Under the carefully arranged lights, set up to illuminate only those in front of the mirrors, Lenore turned to the female. "Your makeup, it's Muggle isn't it?" She asked.
The female was still eyeing her skeptically. She hadn't heard the plan yet, but the two women were excited enough to make her nervous. "Yes, it's Muggle."
Tala jumped in, "Could you summon it here?"
The female gave a careful nod. "Yes, would you like me to then? Or do you have another reason for asking?"
Lenore laughed, "Yes, please. I'm sorry, I'm no good at secrets, or pranks. I didn't mean to keep it from you as well." She went on to explain her idea.
Raising a closed, and half-gloved, fist the female gave Lenore a small smile. She carefully opened her fist above the counter, and an array of black makeup fell out.
Lenore immediately grabbed the quick drying nail polish while Tala boosted herself up to sit on the counter. Leaning closer to the mirror she started applying the eyeliner.
"Lenore," Tala spoke carefully, so as to keep from poking out her own eye. "Why are you doing this, not that I think it's a bad idea, but I know Remus won't complain…I just can't see Starch being thrilled though."
"Oh, he won't be." Lenore blew at the nails of her left hand. "But I owe him at least this shock for surprising me with this place, on our anniversary."
Several long minutes later the women returned to an empty table. The female leaned in to the booth and inhaled the lingering scents. "I highly recommend we leave him and Black alone." She stated. "But Lupin and Starch will be easy to find."
-'--,------
The two women disappeared into the throng.
Black looked down into his drink. "I- I'm sorry, about—"
"Shut up Black," the male snapped. "You didn't care when we we're in school and you don't care now. All you ever cared about was your own amusement, and running from your own fears. I'm sick of being surrounded by people remaking the world to suit their preferences."
"No I didn't care then," Black snapped back. "But I'm trying to stop reacting out of what I used to be, and start new."
His eyes glimmered with a dim blue light. "You've been talking with Lenore," the male accused.
"Forget it." Black grumbled. A few tense moments ticked by before he tried again. "Ya. I talked to Lenore," he admitted. Turning his glass and watching the oddly shaped ice pieces bump into each other. "She said I probably harassed you, sometimes, when I thought it—you were Snape. Did I?"
The male took several slow breathes as memories of being teased and publicly humiliated, beaten up or having assignments destroyed the day they were due, and countless silly stupid things that adults are supposed to have outgrown, flickered at the edges of his mind. 'Control it. If he wakes up here, I'm out of options.' "I'm not talking to you about childhood angst. And stop making stupid distinctions that mean nothing. Black you were against me as soon as I was sorted, because of my House you felt justified in doing anything you wanted. And you claim Slytherins are the arrogant ones." He winced inwardly. That last comment shouldn't have been said. It would only get Black onto a different aspect of the same topic.
The male nearly sagged with relief when Starch stepped in. "Hey, Lupin. You interested in seeing the balcony level?" The Were quickly agreed and the male Garom had to stand up from the booth to let Starch out. Before he left, Starch turned to Sirius and held out the loop of shiny metal at the end of the leash. "Black, you keep with him. Don't let him palm you off to the female."
Confused, but sensing that there was a gravity motivating the request, Sirius took the loop, but held it awkwardly.
'Great,' the male sighed. 'He gets me out of having to put up with Black's response, and leaves me with him.' "What are you drinking?" He tried. It would be a safe enough topic, the male assumed.
Lost in thought, Black absently fingered the smooth metal of the leash. "You're too comfortable with this," he held it up.
The male shrugged. "You killed most of whatever it is within me that can feel humiliated. I feel a level of stress over it, but I'm dealing with it. Lets walk," he offered. He could smell the indecision in Black, but the man reluctantly stood and they abandoned the booth.
Quietly the male Garom led, even though Black still held the end of the leash.
"Did I, ever hurt you?" Black asked the question as though the idea gave him pain. "I mean, I never even had a clue you were there…"
The male groped for an answer that would lead to a new, safer, topic. "You broke my nose. I guess I was too young, it never healed right." His left hand came up and the first two fingers ran over the crooked bend in the bridge of his nose, "It's not that it hurt more than the other stuff, it's just that I'm scarred by it." He added, in a detached undertone, "Scars are to be avoided, they make you distinct."
They halted before a large clear tube that ran through the floor and up to the balcony. It was filled with water and had been charmed to remove the distortion that curved glass is supposed to have. In the water filled cylinder a Mer lazily swam past on her way to the tank on the upper level.
"I remember his eyes," Sirius did not look at the male as he spoke. "His eyes were black, when I hit him that time. But it was your nose that was broken."
"Black, give me the leash." The male could make no sense of the ramblings. "It's just a symbol anyway."
"I don't understand." Deep in thought, Sirius absently played with the handle of the leash without looking at it. "The Plasti-juice shouldn't work that way…"
The male kept his voice low. "Black, that leash could not hold me. If I chose to leave, I could. Starch…wants me to stay, so I will. Give me the leash."
With a slightly uncomfortable expression, Sirius wavered. "He gave me the leash for a reason… No," he corrected himself. "He put it on you for a reason. What was he telling you?"
"Give me the leash." The male couldn't find the energy to argue more than he had been all night. His shoulders dropped a little and he looked down toward an invisible spot on the floor. "It's an escalation of our argument. This," he half heartedly indicated the steal colored line that connected them, "is how serious he is about it. The next level of escalation would be something I am not willing to endure."
"How do I know you're not just using me?"
The question was too obvious. It was a plea for reassurance of safety. He couldn't offer what Black wanted, it would be counter productive for them both, but he could offer the truth. "Black, I can promise I will use you. But I can also promise I will never abuse you. That is the best I can offer for reassurance, and still tell you the truth." The male let his statement hang in the air.
Staring at the shiny, silvery, metal a moment longer, Sirius handed the fine chain over without further comment. Releasing his consuming need of absolute certainty in the same action.
The male passed his right hand through the loop and stuck both hands in his jacket pockets. He felt almost obligated to acknowledge Black's sacrifice with one of his own. "I don't want to see you." He watched the Mers going past on their way to the various tubes and tanks set up for their convenience. "Seeing you, interacting with you, forces me to remember those things that I would rather not have to think about. I'm avoiding you because you are a reminder I cannot ignore. It's also why I am trying so hard to drive you away. I expect that Lenore said something like that to you about me, or yourself, or both of us."
"She also said that she was surprised you had made the effort to take me as your Mark, impressed that you were still fighting the darkness." Sirius glanced over, then returned his attention to the cylinder. "She also said that you are giving up."
The male shrugged in response, the shiny chain swayed with his slight movement. Trying to balance everything was getting awkward, he could feel himself releasing control of certain things as the attention was needed elsewhere. "You and I…you were nineteen, I was eight. That is an irreconcilable gulf. You were testing your new, mature, self. I was laying the foundations for mine. Your scars were carved into the mind of a young man, mine into a child."
Black turned to look at him again, a Goblin, passing a nearby table, dropped his drink when a Full Were Fox's tail was jerked out from under his foot. Someone changed the direction they were walking, so they could see what was going to happen next, Black glanced down but still faced him. A few Vampires had entered, rather old ones to judge by their Manna Signatures. The female was in a crowd, he could only feel her; she was too far into the fog enshrouded dance floor to be seen. She had been with Lenore and Tala, but she had come down from the balcony alone.
Black spoke softly. Partly asking himself, but asking the male too. "If you could go back, and change it all, erase it so it never happened… Would you?"
He answered having, consciously, caught only the intent behind the question. "I have felt a moonbow arcing out from a Brazilian waterfall. I have smelled the sighing of long grasses on the plains of Kenya. I have tasted soft Tasmanian rain falling on my closed eyelids…would I erase the hot summer days when I screamed silently until my mind was raw, because there was no one there to care if I had bothered to make a sound. Erase all the years I spent beating myself with hate and hope, because I wanted to take the place of a dead boy, in my Master's heart… Would I give it all up? That is a question that should never be asked of madmen." With a tiny, bitter, twist of one corner of his mouth, he added, "Or, their delusions."
A Velvet turned away, she had been eyeing Black, but as he swayed, slightly, with the music, the bead in his hair caught a glimmer of light. She wasn't interested in dealing with a Mark. Or, more precisely, she did not wish to bother with a Mark Keeper.
Black was trying, for a moment, to let the answer pass by. He fought down that urge and forced himself to look at it honestly.
The male felt his struggle and the resolution, there was a modicum of reassurance in the fact that he was not the only one having trouble facing himself. Which is probably what made him think of Black again, think deeper, deeper than he knew the man would be comfortable with, 'But, then he isn't supposed to be comfortable. Neither of us are.' "Want to get a drink? I need to do something or I'll just zone out on the crowd."
---'---,--------------------------
Starch led, a more than willing, Lupin up the curving staircase, to the balcony, also known as The Ledge. 'Being in the middle of such an emotion charged argument had been making the Were too nervous.' Starch thought. 'He would have said something, in defence of his friend, and the male would have reacted for them both. It would have undone everything Lenore had tried to tell Black.'
The railing, from which you could overlook The Den, was being leaned upon, or over, by several people, and ignored by many others. There were no booths on the upper level, only small tables with one or two seats. None of the chairs matched each other or their tables; it was a common theme throughout the BatCave. At the center of each small round table was a clear bowl of blackflame burning with a deep purple light that colored everything familiar with odd shades.
Starch glanced at the Were Wolf following closely behind him and saw the words on his shirt blazing like white lightning. why bother? Lupin's skin was a deep purple-black, thanks to the blackflames. His own flesh, usually ashen grey with a faint trace of the pink it used to hold, now had a ghostly silver-pearl shimmer.
Choosing a table near the rail, that had no indications of being claimed for the evening, Starch pulled the closest of the chairs out, then sat in the other. Lupin took the hint and sat across from him, facing the rail. They sat in silence for several minutes while Lupin took in the view.
From The Ledge, side rooms and alcoves, that were concealed from those actually in The Den, were visible. All that could be seen of the maze of other rooms were the dark open doorways. Starch pointed out a few of the rooms, The Green Room which wasn't green, The Pit actually a small series of interconnected chambers, The Air Line which was essentially a giant tank for the Mers and anyone interested in getting wet…
"Why couldn't he just accept Sirius' apology? Why does he always have to react so…" Lupin's warm amber colored eyes were a fiery orange in the light of the blackflame on their table.
Raising one hand in a casual gesture, Starch waved over a young man carrying a tray of empty glasses. He ordered another glass of chilled blood, Human plasma without platelets this time. With a look, he offered Lupin the chance to place an order, the Were requested a scotch on the rocks.
"He doesn't understand a great deal that you take for granted," Starch began. "And yet, he understands so much more. Black may have been apologizing, but you must admit, it was motivated out of his own guilt, not out of any wish to atone for the pain he had inflicted." He was surprised when the Were remained thoughtfully silent.
"I want to defend Sirius," Lupin said after a while. "But you're right. He spent half his life in that damn prison. He's trying to pretend like he's the same as he used to be, but…I haven't seen it, but it had to affect him—right?"
"They were both in prisons for about twelve years. Both locked behind bars, Black's were vertical, his were horizontal , but the idea is the same." 'Just how much do I say? How much will it take, to make him ask the right questions? I'm just not as good at this as he is…'
"When you handed that leash to Sirius, you wanted him to keep it for a reason, didn't you?"
Starch jerked out of his own thoughts and tried to remember if anything had been said to instigate the change in topic. He came up with nothing and returned with a question instead of an answer.
"Why, do you ask?" The Were pointed toward the railing behind him, so Starch turned in his seat and tried to find what had prompted the odd segue.
"By the Mer-tube over near the other stairs," Lupin indicated the direction again.
This time Starch caught sight of the male and Black. They were in a deep conversation, 'Of an emotional nature, if the way he is trying to distance himself is any indication.' Then the odd gleam of shiny metal caught his eye. Black had given up control of the leash.
Their drinks came, and with some minimal interaction with the person carrying the tray and then the obvious tasting of their drinks being required, Starch took his time before replying to Lupin's earlier question about the leash.
"Yes I did have a reason in giving the leash to Black. I gave it to him as a physical object that could be used to represent his control over the situation. By giving it over to, the male, he has also given up his own uhm, safety net." Starch sipped at his glass of thin yellowy fluid. He hated using terms like 'the male' but Lupin needed the identifier. "The rest of the meaning of the leash is a private conversation between us." He looked away. It was also not a topic he intended to discus.
"Lupin…" Carefully he broached a new subject, one that had no bearing on certain other -touchy subjects.- "I have tried to keep from being overly concerned with the politics of your world. The politics of the Dark Side are hard enough to keep up with. But there is something that concerns me, on your behalf by the indirect connection of Tala."
He waited for a response; Lupin merely came to attention at the mention of the She-Were's name.
"There is a Wizengamot vote coming up, something to do with the mandatory registration of Half Weres. They will vote on the use of registration tags, and licenses. And probably an annual fee to keep everything current," he added with carefully constructed flippancy. "You are about to experience persecution like you have never dreamed. I've seen this…fanaticism, come and go. But I have never been subject to it."
"Why?"
"Simple, I have no rights to infringe upon, no rights to take away. I have no medical practice. I have a well known name, a solid reputation, and a lot of stolen equipment."
"And you're telling me this because?"
This time Starch motioned toward something behind Lupin. He couldn't see her, yet, but he could feel Lenore approaching. It was an assumption, but a safe one, that she was coming because the female had followed their scents, and that Tala would also be with them.
He coolly took a sip as Lupin checked over his shoulder. 'Probably smells her already," Starch mused. The dim light was no problem for his dark-adapted eyes, but he refused to accept what he had seen for that brief moment when the population of the balcony had randomly parted enough to allow him a glimpse of Lenore.
When they were close enough, Tala darted around the female and flung herself onto Lupin's lap.
Starch ignored them and blinked up at his wife.
"Lenore?!" He would have tried to keep at least a cool façade, except that it would have failed anyway. "You. Lips. Black? Why?!" Tala and Lupin had the indecency to break off their cuddling to laugh at his awkward moment.
"But Starch," Lenore put on her best pouty face and dropped her head to look at him through her lashes. "You were fine with this horrid black dress…"
"See, there's a deference there," he said, making a quick dive for the shreds of his usual composure. "Little black dresses are not the same as black paint on faces." It was most likely due to his being raised and surviving the historic periods when makeup was either not worn, white face powder, or red based rouges and lip colorings. But, whatever the reason, black, and any other non-red makeup, still bothered him.
Lenore leaned down and placed a soft kiss on his pale lips with her own ebony colored ones. "Do you really mind, all that much?" She teased.
"Ask me again?" In reality he wouldn't have objected to any color at this point.
Giving it careful, and unnecessary thought before leaning in for another kiss, elicited more giggles from Tala. When Lenore did, again, place her lips on her husband's, their link opened and she was surrounded by the strong arms around her waist and the love that he held for her alone. Not a trace of any of the women before her and not even a flicker of the male Garom touched the piece of his heart devoted to her.
Starch shuddered. The chill that passed down his spine had echoed through their link and Lenore pulled back with a question in her eyes. She had felt his immediate association between the telltale energy of a newly arrived Ancient, and the meeting he had hastily arranged to hold that night.
"Should we leave?" Lenore asked quietly.
"No." He said after a short pause. "Maybe when LaCroix gets here, not until we start our meeting though." The energy shift would draw the male. He didn't like the idea of allowing Lenore, or any of the others, to wander around the BatCave without himself or one of the Garoms watching over them.
The male led Black up the stairs toward The Ledge. He hesitated, one foot about to touch the next step…there had been an impression of smoke, but it was gone. His foot came down and he continued up. 'If it were real smoke,' he reasoned, 'everyone would know about it. The Weres and the Vamps… No one is panicking.'
"You ok?" Black asked as they finally made it to The Ledge.
"Just wonderful, and you?" he answered sarcastically. The dry crackle of burning wood was unnerving him. "Need to find Starch…" The sound faded too, but not as quickly.
"Going to tell me why," Sirius asked without enthusiasm.
"Too many Vampires up here, there's a meeting going on." He could hear Black's response clearly enough, he also knew he wasn't supposed to have heard it. "Relax, you've already met them. Back in Toronto."
The male noticed, with more than a bit of appreciation, that the female had arranged everyone from their party along the railing behind Starch. Starch was sitting opposite the Ancient, LaCroix. While Lacroix's Childer were forced to arrange themselves behind their Sire, in the middle of the walkway. They were being bumped and separated by everyone and anyone who wanted to pass by. A wonderful set up, in his opinion. Even if a Clan war with LaCroix was hardly a possibility, the tactical advantage of the easy escape that the balcony railing provided would occur to the former Roman soldier.
Making sure to push between every Vampire he could, and the Sire they were there to back up, he pulled Black with him to the far side and joined the others by the railing. The interruption he caused was enough to make the negotiations pause.
"Necro, and Sirius Black," LaCroix's accent less voice was edged by annoyance. "If that is the rest of your party…" He waited for an objection from Starch before continuing. "Then shall we complete the transaction?"
"Of course." Starch spoke with equal reserve and none of the frustration. He held up his left hand, the female immediately pulled two rolled parchments from an inside pocket of her dark green duster. She placed them in Starch's hand and resumed her –ready- stance, arms loose at her sides and feet spread apart just enough to enable her to leap/kick/duck/run/whatever might be needed.
The contracts were then passed to LaCroix for his inspection.
"Standard language for this sort of second party exchange, doves' blood on velum written with a gold nib on a Crested Roc feather quill, and so on." Starch went over the obvious points and managed to sound bored while doing so.
After reading the documents LaCroix produced a quill from one of the inner pockets of his suit coat. Nipping his own wrist he wet the tip of the quill with his own blood and signed his name at the bottom. Starch withdrew a quill from one of his own pockets and copied LaCroix's actions signing his own name beside the other's.
"Lo-Jack," LaCroix called the young Vampire forward. He handed his quill to the blond.
Lo-Jack took the offered quill and nipping his wrist signed the second contract only.
The male fought back on the simultaneous urges to lick his lips over the tension in the air, and bat at the flames that kept springing up at the periphery of his vision. The negotiations were over the contracts had been signed and the Credit owed to Starch had been paid. At an empathic signal from their Sire, the other Vampires dispersed. LaCroix rose and made an elegant departing comment or two, and everything was nearly back to the way it had been before the leash had been clipped to his collar.
Black was the first to speak after the Vampires had gone. "I have no idea what just happened. Is anyone who did understand it going to tell me, or is this just another one of those wonderful things I'm going to have to ponder for the rest of my life?"
The male smirked at the question. Then a flame came a little too close and he flinched. Starch had seen his reaction and was giving him that concerned look that he hated so much. "It's noting." He rubbed at his eyes, but open or closed it made no difference, because the flames weren't real. Snatching up Starch's copy of the document, he handed it to Black.
"These look a little like the ancient Phoenician runes I remember…but maybe, a different dialect or something." Sirius squinted in the low light. "What are they?"
Starch's eyebrows rose. "I'm impressed, but he always said you were good with Runes. They are from a people that had a great deal of trade with the early Phoenicians. I suppose they had an influence on the language."
"Which one?" Black's eyes jerked up from the velum scroll.
"I wouldn't be surprised if the influence went both ways," Starch replied a bit taken aback by the strong reaction.
"No, I mean which one of them said I was good at Runes." Black clarified.
The male rolled his eyes and winced again at the flickers of nonexistent flame.
Starch's focus was divided between Black and the male. "Oh," he laughed at his own slip. "Well, both of them at different times. He's the one that said it as anything close to a compliment though," he said with a nod to the male.
Before the male could interrupt, Starch was off again. This time directing a question at him instead of Black.
"Are you willing to take the money?"
'A new topic, yes. But it's more difficult to handle than the previous.' "Do we have to go into this now?" He indicated the people around them, hoping Starch would be willing to put the conversation on hold.
"You want that leash off, I want to make sure my friend is safe. Easy trade."
"Bloody Vampires! You can't negotiate with them Black, they don't get it at all."
"Not going to work, my friend." Starch shook his head. "They are barely aware of us as it is. We're more private right here than in one of the back chambers of The Pit. Now, if you accept the money everything is fine. If you insist on dragging this out I'll leave that leash on until Monday."
The male slouched into the seat that had been LaCroix's during the negotiations. "This friendship that you are constantly offering, it makes no sense, but some of the things that you say seem related somehow. Is this related to your friendship?" He asked the question with an air of defeat, but he wanted to know what Starch would say.
He knew the Ancient understood him well enough to read how eager he really was to have an answer, even if he couldn't bring himself to express it openly. 'Open expression of your true emotional state makes failure of the mission inevitable.' Starch was waiting for eye contact. Fighting down another mantra, 'Eye contact is either an invitation or a threat. Neither is to be made lightly because both exact a price,' he glanced into the grey eyes so focused on his own. Taking slow breaths he calmed himself.
"Yes," Starch watched him carefully. "This is related to the friendship I have for you, and the love." He placed a thick Muggle envelope on the small table between them. "I offer you the money you need, because I love you. It is a free gift. Nothing else."
His dusky blue eyes had no problem processing the blackflame light so his pupils remained fat and round, the inner fire of his eyes remaining dampened. "Then how can you freely offer me love?"
Starch actually smiled, "Because I choose to love you. No other reason than that."
Smoke again, and the noises. It was enough of a distraction without devoting all of the attention that he was, to the meanings behind Starch's answers. He was only intermittently aware of the rest of their party talking at another table; they had managed to order some food and were trying to show each other how to use chopsticks. Frustrated at the way his attention was wandering, and the fact that, because of his lack of attention the team was that much more vulnerable, he growled softly.
"Is he dreaming?" Starch asked gently. As though afraid of speaking to loudly.
He smiled inwardly at the mere thought of Starch treading softly in fear of anything. "A nightmare. Nothing I haven't seen a thousand times." He shrugged. "It's just, I'm surrounded by people, and seeing things that aren't here is a bit much."
"Take the money." Starch said, again.
"You choose to love me." He rubbed at his temples and ducked his head as he spoke. "Because you choose to love me, you are obligating yourself to feel a desire to see me safe and well. This desire, which you chose to obligate yourself to, is motivating you to sacrifice of yourself for what you believe will help me. Aye?"
"Aye. You've got it as clearly as I can make it for you." Starch waited patiently.
'But then he can afford to wait until Monday.' He suddenly grabbed the envelope of money and jammed it into one of his pockets. "I chose to trust you in that crypt, you didn't earn my trust it was freely given. I don't understand this love, but I understand the boundaries. There are none."
Starch reached across the table and unclipped the leash.
He had to get the loop off his wrist but then the whole mess went back into Starch's pocket and he immediately turned his collar so the buckle was in front. "Not playing that game again," he muttered.
Starch laughed and dropped the obscuring barrier he had placed around them. "Come on, let's get you something to eat." He stood and adjusted his dark grey lab coat. You need to eat more," he joked. "Your hip bones are showing clearly enough that an x-ray would be a second opinion."
He followed Starch to the group of tables where the others were eating, and he really had intended to eat, just like Starch had advised…but the female looked up at their approach. Then she smiled, at him. "Want to dance?" He said the words before they had registered in his own mind.
"Wouldn't that be wrong?" She asked with a tilt of her head.
Something reacted to her look, and he had to clench his teeth over his first response. "They're twins, we're not."
Only Starch and Lenore saw them leave, Black Lupin and Tala were busy eating and laughing.
Lenore reached out her hand, Starch immediately took it. 'That was a significant exchange, wasn't it?' She asked him.
Starch framed his thoughts as clearly as he could. 'The significance was in his expressing something so independent from what Snape would desire. But the bond they'll create, buy synchronizing and harmonizing their movements, will be very important…'
"When they fight,' Lenore finished the thought/statement. 'Because they will.'
'Because they must.'Starch tugged at his wife's hand and pointed down into The Den, where the male and female twined themselves around the music, and each other.