Chapter 16: Tea and Tension
Aylin walked up the flight of stairs to Rocinante's apartment, one hand in her pocket while the other casually held the strap of a duffel bag over her shoulder. They had planned to meet up a few hours before heading out to sea toward their next assignment, hoping to come up with a working plan. Rocinante had wanted to leave work together that evening, but Aylin had some last-minute things to take care of and assured him that she would be there as soon as she had finished. He'd reluctantly agreed to go on ahead of her when she had reminded him to take extra time and make sure that he had everything he needed for the mission.
Reaching his door, she paused to knock a couple times, although the sounds within told her that he was inside and likely in a rush to get his things together. Aylin snorted to herself in slight amusement, hearing a loud 'thud' as something heavy hit the floor.
"Be there in a—OOF!...second!" There were sounds of scrabbling and scrambling, then a glass breaking. Rocinante finally opened the door, hunched over due to his immense height and rubbing his head with his free hand. "Come on in, Lin…. Er…sorry the place is such a mess!"
"No different than usual," she remarked with a smirk as she stepped inside.
He gave her a sheepish grin before getting back down on his hands and knees, sifting through the pile of clothing that covered much of the floor.
"THERE IT IS!" He shouted in triumph moments later, snatching it from beneath a large pair of jeans. "My damn belt!" He snapped it together a few times before tossing it into his bag.
Aylin noticed that on top of the bed—which was a tornado of pillows and sheets at the moment—was a long, flat bag for Rocinante's suit. At least his formal wear hadn't gotten crumpled amid the chaos of his search.
Rocinante kept making blowing sounds every so often as he gathered up his things. Aylin waded over toward the kitchen, heading toward the stove to make some tea while he continued to scramble about.
"I hit my damn head twice as much as usual today," he remarked, pausing to blow at the bangs that settled over his eyes once again. "Bah. I've been meaning to get a haircut, but work's been so crazy…and then afterwards I just see your face and I forget about anything else." He grinned cheekily, a light pink blush dusting over his cheeks.
"You mean you can actually see at all under all that shag?" She set the kettle onto one of the burners and then searched the cabinet for clean mugs, trying her best not to let that compliment get the better of her. When there were none to be found, she reached into the sink to clean a few of them while the water reached a boil.
"Yeah, I mean I can see well enough to tell how cute you are…"
At once, Rocinante slipped into a little fantasy world where he could sidle up behind her, place his arms around her waist and kiss her neck or shoulder as he said this. In reality, his face began to burn even hotter. He coughed just then and promptly dove for the floor to retrieve one of his shoes under the bed.
Aylin was glad to be facing away from him at that moment so that she didn't have to explain the fiery red tint her cheeks had taken on. And, yep, there was that annoying flutter in her chest again... She turned off the sink, setting the clean mugs onto what little space was available on the crowded counter and doing her best to appear completely casual.
Rocinante hit his head as he emerged from beneath the bed. "OUCH! Ugh…Lin, I'm a wreck. How am I supposed to go to this fancy function when I look like a hobo…?" He sat back against his bed, the entire thing shifting across the floor from his weight as he blew at his bangs again.
She had to chuckle at that comment, finally turning to face him across the small room, studying his appearance for a moment. He truly was beginning to resemble a human mop.
"Well, I suppose we'll have to clean you up a little, then," she said with a half shrug. "Do you have a pair of scissors anywhere? I'm not exactly a barber, but I used to cut my kid's hair and she didn't get teased on the playground afterward so I'm inclined to believe I'm decent at it."
Rocinante smiled. "I do have a pair around here somewhere, but do you really trust me to find them?" He laughed aloud. "This whole place might come down if I so much as touch them, but…I think there's a pair in one of the drawers. Either the kitchen or the bathroom." He played with his bangs a bit more while she busied herself with searching for the scissors. "This kinda makes me feel like a kid again…"
Childhood moments he knew he'd rather not remember flashed before his eyes, taking all the emotion from his face. He became very quiet, save for his slightly quickened breaths, trying to will away the memories; the hatred in the villagers' eyes, the loss of his mother, the murder of his father, the unbridled rage roiling within his brother...
Aylin's voice broke through his thoughts just then. "Found them! Not sure why you decided they should belong in the silverware drawer," she added with a slight frown of confusion. The tea kettle began to whistle just then and she plucked it from the hot burner, setting it onto an unused one to keep warm while she worked. "Anyway, this would probably work best if you stayed sitting on the floor," she said as she started toward him, grabbing a used towel that was draped over a broken chair.
"Okay, boss lady." He grinned again, Aylin's presence pushing all the bad thoughts away. How did she do that to him? How did she always make him feel like he belonged?
He became very aware of her proximity as she wrapped the towel around his neck and he leaned over to push away some of the junk that was on the floor to give her better access.
"Sorry about the mess, I was kind of procrastinating."
"I can see that," she murmured, only half listening as she evaluated the state of his hair. Kneeling on the floor so that the two of them were nearly facing each other, she reached up to briefly run her fingers through his blond mop, examining the length before letting the strands fall back into place. She swallowed, doing her best to keep things professional while she avoided looking directly into his eyes. "So...how short do you want it?"
"Hmmm, just a little off the top would be fine, and this…" He reached up to brush through his bangs. "Cut short enough for me to see. Don't make me bald, now!" He joked as he tried not to concentrate too hard on how close they were.
Aylin's lips pulled slightly into a smirk as she reached for the comb nearby. "Are you sure we can't use you just once to dust the ceiling first?" She grinned as she set to work, combing through his unruly locks first before she began trimming off the ends with the scissors.
Time passed in mostly silence for the next several minutes, the only sounds in the room comprised of their breathing and the gentle snips from the scissors. Blond pieces began to litter Rocinante's shoulders, and gradually more of his face became visible again. Finally Aylin moved on to take a bit off his bangs, sitting back on her heels as she gently took a tuft between her fingers. She cut just enough so that he would be able to go about his business without constantly having to brush it out of his face, leaving it long enough to fall over his eyebrows. That was how she'd always known him to look, and she supposed she couldn't imagine him any other way.
Nearly finished, she set down the scissors to take some strands of hair from either side of his head, eyeballing their lengths to be sure she had given him an even cut. It was then that her eyes chanced upon his, and her heart did a flip as she realized with a start that his gaze had been on her at that exact moment.
Rocinante's cheeks flared pink again as he locked eyes with Aylin for a long moment. He'd been watching her carefully the whole time, enjoying the feeling of closeness with her. Her nice gesture had felt incredibly intimate to him, and although he wanted more, he respected her too much to try anything. Every advance he'd ever made was always dismissed or thwarted, but always for practical reasons. She'd never actually said 'I don't feel that way about you'. It was always 'We can't because…' and then she would insert some reason; her priorities within the Syndicate, the supposedly inappropriate age gap between them, her daughter being her number one concern, their friendship potentially being jeopardized... Aylin always managed to come up with some reason and then immediately changed the subject. She was clever in her avoidance of that particular conversation.
Still...for all the reasons she came up with, none of them ever seemed to have anything to do with the two of them being incompatible. He knew he shouldn't dare to hope, but he couldn't help it.
He reached up and wrapped one of his massive hands gently around her wrist, intending to pull her hand in for a kiss. "Lin," he whispered huskily, his eyes never leaving hers.
Something about his voice and the way he spoke her name sent a ripple through every nerve in her body and she barely held back a sudden shiver. Her cheeks heated up upon the feeling of his warm hand enveloping her wrist, drawing her closer...
Aylin visibly swallowed, feeling herself unable to look away from his gentle gaze; warm, brown eyes full of affection and always some degree of intensity, reflecting his passionate nature. If she were being honest, she found them quite lovely.
But this couldn't continue. The small voice in the back of her head nagged at her, telling her that it wasn't right and it could never work...nor should it. There were too many complications. She drew in a careful breath, catching a whiff of his scent as she did so, which did nothing to help her resolve.
"Roci..." Aylin cleared her throat and managed to avert her eyes. It was as if she'd been in some sort of trance. She took a moment to gather her wits, forcing herself to think about the night ahead of them instead of the things her body was tempted to do at that moment. She sat back, chancing a glance at him once she felt she was a safe distance away. "Hmm...maybe you should have a look in the mirror and make sure I did alright..."
Rocinante let his hand slip gently from its hold around her wrist. She'd hesitated. Was that a good sign? The barriers between them had seemed to be weakening, but she'd put them back up just as quickly.
He forced the disappointed look off his face as he stood up, cracking his back and then immediately hit his head on the ceiling. "DAMN! I guess we'll get to use my head as a mop after all…I'll be right back." He ducked into the bathroom examining his now neat hair, his eyes once again visible and he fluffed it a few times.
Still sitting in the same spot, Aylin let out a long breath, her shoulders slumping as she finally allowed herself to relax. She stared after him for a moment, watching as he admired his haircut in the mirror before she tasked herself with putting away the scissors and dumping the scattered bits of hair into the trash.
"You did a bang-up job, Lin!" Rocinante announced as he sauntered to the kitchen where Aylin had begun to set up the tea service.
"Glad to hear it," she said, managing a smile as she slid a cup across the table toward him. The tea water had sat just long enough so that it wasn't going to burn his mouth when he inevitably paid no heed to its temperature.
Rocinante started adding several sugar cubes into his cup until the container was half empty, earning a quirked eyebrow from his partner.
He offered a sheepish grin. "So when are we meeting Denise, again? I still have a few more things to cram into my bag…"
Aylin glanced down a moment as she pulled out her pocket watch. "About half an hour," she replied. "How much more do you need? We'll only be away for a few days. Hopefully," she added, recalling a streak of bad luck not long ago in which none of their missions went quite as planned. "Looks like you've got your suit already. And you'll need a change of clothes, definitely your weapons, and...did you need to pick up anymore cigarettes?"
"I have my weapons, and I've stocked up on cigarettes. I'm just missing my other shoe…" He pointed down to his feet, one of which was missing the aforementioned shoe.
Aylin snorted in amusement. "Come on, I'll help you search…" She left the table and began to circle the room, glancing around for any sign of the shoe. It couldn't be terribly difficult to spot, considering the size of it. Her thoughts began to wander as she dropped to her knees to peer beneath his bed, thinking about how massive his feet were and wondering before she could stop herself whether or not the old adage was true about men with big feet. Her face flushed and she became so distracted that she bumped her head on his dresser. "Ow, dammit..."
Rocinante was almost instantly at her side, having thrown himself across the room. "LIN! ARE YOU OKAY?"
Thoroughly embarrassed, Aylin nodded, rubbing at the spot on her head that would surely become a nice lump by morning. "I'm fine, it's nothing. Ah...on the bright side, I found your shoe," she added as she spied it between the dresser and the bed at that moment and knelt to retrieve it. "What do you do when you come home anyway, violently kick your shoes off in whichever random direction?"
"If I said yes, would you slap me?" He chuckled. "What can I say, I'm a bachelor!"
"Like that's any excuse." Aylin sighed and shook her head, although he could clearly see amusement in her expression.
They returned to the kitchen table where Rocinante added even more sugar to his tea, then stirred it with tiny spoon that looked hilariously small in his hand.
"So you wanted to brief me, right? Let's hear it. I'm actually really excited—it's my first mission as an official Escort!"
"Excited isn't really a word I'd use," she remarked with a wry smile. His enthusiasm for this job was often an enigma. Nevertheless, it was time to talk strategy. Aylin leaned against the counter as she reached for her warm cup of tea and then proceeded to give him a much more detailed description of their assignment.
The circumstances this time were rather unique. Recently, there had been rumors floating around the Syndicate ranks; whispers of a traitor in their midst. Aylin had heard talk of it as the paranoia began to spread like wildfire. Several missions had been seemingly sabotaged over the last few months and cargo had been stolen. Meanwhile another organization—an older, yet smaller group who referred to itself collectively as the Hive—had reaped the rewards for completing those jobs instead.
Aylin was reminded of the first assignment that she and Rocinante had worked together. The mercenaries who had sailed away with the Alfredo Family's cargo... The event seemed suspiciously connected to the happenings as of late. Back then, she had been willing to believe that the mercenaries were simply untrustworthy, however recent evidence was starting to make her think otherwise.
Furthermore, word from the Inner Circle was that one of the Syndicate's most trusted Scouts had tipped them off regarding a mole among their ranks. That particular Scout had provided a second tip, informing them of the place where the mole would likely meet with a select few Hive representatives.
That was where Aylin and Rocinante came in. They were tasked with attempting to discover the identity of the supposed mole, to uncover more information regarding the deal with the Hive, and then to proceed with sabotaging it from there. Denise de LaCroix was to accompany them and advise them during the mission, depending on what sort of information they could glean.
With so much up in the air, there was a lot that could go wrong. Aylin only hoped that they would be able to rely on the Syndicate Scout's intel. They surely had an advantage over Hive in sheer number, but the other organization was older and its members more experienced. They would probably be expecting the Syndicate to make a move.
She and Rocinante would have to take extra care to keep their heads down and their guards up.