Author's Note: For those that asked. I tried to hurry just for you, even if it wasn't very fast. Happy Holidays!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Mentalist and would not be foolish enough to claim to.
Careful to keep his eyes from lingering on Lisbon too long, Jane led the winding way to his one-room tent near the edge of the games section and presented it to them with an extravagant bow. Which did exactly as he had intended.
Lisbon rolled her eyes at his showmanship, but she was smiling and her eyes were still sparkling with good humor. She peeked at the sign in front of the entrance and snorted. "Of course."
It read, 'Boy Wonder: Youth Psychic.'
He just grinned in response and without answering the exasperated sigh, he swept the curtain up into its tie out of the way so they could come in.
As she entered, Lisbon stared around at the room with interest. "Nice." She fingered the tablecloth, with its shimmering gold thread embroidery. Her eyes were dancing as she glanced back up at him. "You get a lot of customers?"
He shrugged. "A fair few. Enough to bolster the carnival's intake."
"Yeah, nothing like a psychic to bring out the freaks." Mashburn said, coming in the tent behind them, his voice raised a little with a hint of bitterness. He didn't seem particularly pleased at being ignored by his date in any way.
Jane chose to ignore the surly teenager in favor of watching the other.
Her eyes moved down across the crystal ball and then up at him curiously, expression conveying a silent question.
Trying to suppress a gleeful smile, he instead managed to give an agreeable nod to her.
Slowly, her fingers stroking the smooth surface of the crystal, she asked- "So, what? You do fortunes and stuff?" -though she didn't seem like she was making fun of him. Only that she was naturally curious and skeptic.
He couldn't help but smile even wider. As it turned out, he loved skeptics and curiosity, like her protective streak, was a good attribute to possess. She was impressing him more and more the longer he knew her. "Mostly, I read tarot cards and do psychic readings. 'Read minds', so to speak."
Lisbon grinned and shook her head. "Are you like one of those psychics they have on TV? The ones that say they can talk to the dead?"
Attempting at delicacy, Jane slid thoughtfully around the table. "Very occasionally, some people have asked me to make contact with deceased loved ones."
Her expression dropped slightly, face shifting into purposefully emotionless as quickly as he could blink. She turned away on the pretext of scanning the room more thoroughly but he could see right through that.
Jane tried to follow her gaze, but he wasn't very successful as she turned her back toward him. "As long as people feel better for the experience, I feel I've done my job." Troubled by the shift in the conversation, he spared a look at Mashburn, who was still lingering in the entrance.
There was a smug smile crossing the kids face. Slowly, Mashburn made a gesture for him to continue and crossed his arms, like he was just waiting for Jane to hang himself.
He wasn't going to be outed that easily. "Sometimes, I've found things that people have lost, or given them insights into themselves. Things that maybe they already want to change when they step inside. It varies." He shrugged one shoulder as he spoke. His casual tone brought Lisbon's eyes back on him and she gave him a tiny smile, as if saying she wasn't mad or even as upset as she seemed. Jane knew a lie when he saw one, so he tried to give her some assurance, some clue as to what he did. "People think all sorts of things in their heads and convey them with their eyes and their bodies even when they aren't aware of it. It's my job to see that and bring it out into the light." Seriously, he met her gaze by dipping his head a little. "I'd never try anything someone didn't ask me to. Being curious, doesn't mean I'd pry or be able to know everything about a person. Trust me, I learn just enough, no more." That aught to assure her he wasn't trying to pry into her head and her secrets, even if he was, in a way. Only in the normal, accepted way of prying.
Her frown lifted a little and she was watching him closely, clearly open-minded and -hearted enough to be willing to hear more.
"I may take their money, but I'd never intentionally hurt anyone."
That brought back her smile, even if it was faint. She looked like she might even believe him, but she was guarded as always, so it was hard to tell. Still, she nodded in acceptance.
"I'm sure you're very... gifted." Mashburn said sarcastically, obviously sore that he'd managed to repair what he'd almost ruined.
Jane leveled a look at the guy smugly. "I am."
Mashburn's eyebrows rose. "Modest too. For someone that works out of a smelly yurt."
"Walter, lay off." Lisbon shushed quietly.
But Jane wasn't done yet. "If I cared what people thought of me, I might be a little insulted that you so doubt my abilities."
"Oh, I don't deny you're perceptive." Mashburn conceded. "But you're also a fake. You have this certain... charlatan air about you. It's really quite amusing." He smiled, baring his teeth. It wasn't meant to be friendly, no matter what it might seem like.
"Oh? Maybe you'd like to see a demonstration?" He glanced at Lisbon, who was watching the both of them with hooded eyes, keeping her thoughts firmly to herself. She probably didn't approve of their attempts to one-up each other. He returned Mashburn's smile regardless with an unpleasantness of his own, all of it shrouded in mannerisms. After all, he could play with the best of them, no matter how high-brow, and this kid was no different than his older counterparts. Just with less experience. "How about it, Walter- want to give it a try?"
Mashburn shook his head. "Sorry, I'm not into all that mystical goop."
Jane let his grin widen noticeably to goad him on. "Come on. What could it hurt?"
Looking him up and down, the teenager shrugged lightly, still smiling as he took a step closer. "Alright." He sat in the chair across the table. "So, do you need my palm or something?"
Lisbon drew closer too, face still wary but curiosity officially peaked.
"If you want, but it's not necessary. I'll just do a reading on you. You tell me whether I'm right or wrong, but don't try to lie, I'll know."
"Oh, I'd never lie." That smile was getting more carnivore-like as time went on.
Jane matched his hostility and his posture. "All I have to do is dig a little into your subconscious for this. You don't mind?"
"Not at all. Could be fun." Mashburn said with a grin at Lisbon.
She looked uncertain. "What are you going to read from him? Some kind of secret?"
"No, no." He waved that away. "I'm just going to get a read on his personality." Jane slid the cards and crystal ball aside, looking into Mashburn's eyes. "I'm gonna ask you some questions, alright?"
"Ask away."
"What day of the month were you born?"
"The fifteenth." Mashburn answered without hesitating.
"Favorite color?"
"Red."
"Food?"
"Pasta con formaggio basilico, a specialty at the White Light. They have this sauce that is utterly decadent." He grinned confidently.
Tilting his head, Jane watched as Mashburn unconsciously mimicked him. Perfect. "You've gotten everything you ever wanted your whole life. Born rich, you've inherited your fathers ruthlessness and your mothers vanity, for which you also have intense resentment toward her. She steals too much of the lime-light, doesn't she?"
Mashburn's smile slipped faintly.
He continued. "You're egotistical and just hate to be ignored." A glance at Lisbon showed a slight frown creasing her brow, but she didn't interrupt and he didn't pause long enough to get a read on her. He was busy.
"That's it?" Mashburn seemed wholly unfazed by his assessment. "This is how you work your magic? You play mind games with people?"
"Of course. The mind is the most powerful thing in the world. I did tell you I mostly read minds, did I not?"
"Anyone could guess all that merely by looking at the way I dress. You've provided no great insight. It's nothing more than a parlor trick."
"Insight? Is that what you wanted?" Jane chuckled. "You should have said so. Let's see." He looked into the guy's eyes more intensely, watching the minutia of little things Mashburn gave off despite his remarkable control of himself. "You think you sweat too much and have tried multiple ways of hiding it."
Mashburn finally frowned a little and stole a glance at Lisbon before blanking his expression.
"You've also got mild dirt phobia, and your issues with your mother stem more from her affairs behind your father's back than anything to do with your own relationship with her." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lisbon flush with embarrassment at what intimate things she was hearing. Perhaps he was taking this a little too far.
Meanwhile, Mashburn had paled slightly in confirmation but was quick with the rebuttal. "And yet, despite all that, I'm the one out on a date with Miss Lisbon, when it's you that has the crush on her."
Jane winced.
Direct hit.
He would admit it stung a little, but it also galvanized his relentless tromping of this guy and whatever hold he had on his Lisbon. Without thinking, he blurted out the first thing on his tongue. "And the only reason you asked her out is because you want to sleep with her."
Mashburn's expression darkened with anger at losing, a frown springing up in place of his cocky grin. Yet, somehow, he also seemed to have an aura of victory about him. Bittersweet, but victory none-the-less.
Having caught up with his own tongue, Jane blinked owlishly for a second and looked suddenly at Lisbon.
She had her jaw clenched tightly, her eyes conveying her hurt before she turned and stormed out the entrance without looking back at either of them.
He started after her, but stopped and cursed vehemently.
"You know what? I like you."
Jane turned back to Mashburn angrily.
The guy was leaned back, casually resting one arm on the back of his chair with his ankle draped over his opposite knee. "You're like me, only more intelligent and less jaded or ruthless when it comes to romance." He looked up and smiled. "It's interesting."
"Anything for a thrill, huh?" Jane said bitterly, whacking his crystal ball in frustration and knocking it to the floor. "I'm not as interested as you are, you know. Just because there's not a lot that excites you anymore, doesn't mean I don't already have my hands full."
Thoughtfully, Mashburn studied him. "I upset you with my attitude?"
"Upset me?" Jane almost laughed. "No, and it's not just your attitude either. Do you irritate me a little? Maybe."
"Why's that?"
"You're entitled and rich. Arrogant."
"When do you get to the bad stuff?" Mashburn asked, amused.
Jane found himself shaking. "She isn't any of those things. Not even remotely."
"So?"
"You're wrong for her!" He thudded the table and leaned closer on his palms.
Mashburn just watched him. "And you're right?"
Jane looked away. It was taking all his control to stop himself from yelling at his companion some more in anger.
"Look, I'll admit, you were right about me. You beat me- that's impressive."
"You're admitting my superiority?" Jane asked caustically. Suddenly he wasn't in the mood to hear it, or to care.
Grinning, Mashburn tilted his head back and forth. "I know you're a charlatan- as I said. You size up people's weaknesses and then you give them the rope to hang themselves."
"Oh, you make it sound so cool." Jane spat.
Mashburn shrugged. "I don't know why you try to be a good guy, some hopeless quest for redemption maybe, I don't really care. All I do know, is myself. You're the one that seems to be in denial."
That made Jane pause.
"I'm cunning and I hate to lose, but when I do, I do it right." He stood. "So I'll tell you something in return for the entertainment, even if it did cost me a chance with Miss Lisbon. She has a damaged intensity that's quite attractive, but you'd be wise to be more careful with her. She doesn't take hurt lightly- and you did. Hurt her, I mean. In your attempt to hurt me."
"That's your advice?" Jane asked, unimpressed.
"Just a free piece of information. My advice... is to go after her."
Jane pulled back a little, surprised.
"If you really have as big of a crush on her as I think you do, go after her and apologize. Don't let her shut you out. She'll try, in order to protect herself. You've no idea how long I had to work just to get her to agree to a date." He smiled ruefully. "But deep down, she wants to have someone closer to her. Someone that isn't her brothers. So try. Oh, and take care of her. Whether I just wanted to sleep with her or not, doesn't mean I'm cruel. She's got enough going on in her life without all this."
Grimly and slowly, Jane nodded. He didn't really know what to think about what the guy had said, but he was willing to accept any help he could get right now.
"Good luck." Mashburn slipped out of the tent and Jane just stood still as he disappeared into the crowd.