Afterparty

[toooldforlosing]

Raylan survived an entire night of being trotted around the party as Hasi's escort without doing anything embarassing, or getting attacked because he was mistaken for someone else. On the whole, he considered this a win.

The truth was, in his work, he'd occasionally been to a fancy party, but always as the outsider. It was work. Boys from Harlan county did not get invited to that sort of party as a guest. It didn't bother him, but it left him feeling a little displaced. (Of course, with some of the people he'd met and seen at the Xanadu affair, he could have been bright green and no one would have batted an eye. It did make a bit of difference.)

Even so, he was glad enough that it was over. He'd had... quite a bit to drink, though his steps were steady enough. Hasi probably knows him well enough by now to tell he's feeling the alcohol a bit, but he's still in control. Maybe glad he's not driving home, but more or less fine. Even though he's quiet, he's relaxed, and with no idea of packing it in just yet.

"I'd ask your place or mine, but frankly, you don't want to see mine. Hell, I don't want to see mine."

Comments

[toooldforlosing]

His look mirrors her tone.

"I think he's allergic to cops."

He sounds more amused than anything.

[norea]

"I bet you're already pretty acquainted with that type." They reach her door, and this time she doesn't feel the need to hide the click of her lock that necessitates no key. He already knows.

[toooldforlosing]

"You might say. But not dangerous, except to people's wallets and their sense of self-respect."

He'd seen the damage con men could do - he wasn't about to say harmless. Hardly. But not violent, and that was something.

[norea]

"Maybe. You never know." He's probably right - Charlie strikes her as a shady character, but not a sadist. Probably. She does tend to have a sense for sadists.

"Little does he know, I'm even more trouble than the worst of criminals," Hasi asserts, backing up into her apartment and tugging Raylan with her by the jacket-front. "You could pretty much use me as a weapon in the field."

[toooldforlosing]

He chuckles, letting himself be tugged. "Won't argue that one. Seen it in action."

[norea]

The door swings shut behind him, and she preoccupies herself with shrugging off her coat.

"It probably won't be the last time--God, you know, much as I love fancy clothes, it's almost as much fun to finally take it off as it is to wear it--"

[toooldforlosing]

"Always felt bad for women having to wear those shoes. I mean, don't get me wrong, I appreciate 'em as much as the next guy, but it can't be fun for you." He takes his hat off - he's been here enough it probably has a Place now.

[norea]

"Beauty is pain, they say," taking the aforementioned heels off, one hand balanced against the wall, glancing half-up to smile at Raylan. "Fortunately I like that kind of thing."

[toooldforlosing]

"The shoes, or pain in a general sense?" He asks it lightly, though they've touched on this before.

[norea]

"Both," she says, with certainty, straightening up.

"Though I know the latter doesn't make you too comfortable."

[toooldforlosing]

"Hell, I don't know," he says, frankly. "A little. But physical pain's one thing, and I can understand that. It's just that sometimes I feel like fifth grader where all the rest of it's concerned."

"All the rest of it" here encompassing subspace, magic, the nexus, and flying whales.

[norea]

"You shouldn't. I'll let you in on a secret." She meanders into her living room - Huan is on the floor nearby, watching them peacefully, as he is now fairly used to Raylan. "The people who are used to that stuff are usually so emotionally fucked that that's all they know how to do. Trying to navigate social politics in a realm where they can't just blow something up with a half-thought is impossible for them."

She tucks her legs up when she sits on her sofa, reaching for her cigarettes.

"It's more admirable to do it straight. Scarier." This doesn't quite address the subspace, mind. "That's why I tried to have it all cut out of me, actually. Didn't work, but I gave it a shot."

[toooldforlosing]

He comes to sit next to her, slipping off his shoes. (He'd loosen his tie, but he didn't wear one.)

"I think there's a middle though - gotta be, right? I mean, it's like with regular violence. Not everyone's so far removed they don't know how to fire a gun, but not everyone's a psychopath, either."

[norea]

"You're right." The metaphors they use are telling, she knows, but she's more interested in curling up against Raylan's side than considering that for too long. (Her cigarette is conscientiously transferred to the other hand, and kept aloft, naturally.)

"The middle would be good. 'Happy medium.'"

[toooldforlosing]

"Yeah. Ain't it always," he says, with a wry smile that suggests just how seldom anyone he knows ever gets there.

"Still. Getting there, I guess." Being okay with magic, he means.

[norea]

"You're doing pretty well." She rests her head against his shoulder. "Sorry I have so many secrets, Raylan."

[toooldforlosing]

"Hey. Everyone's got secrets. Yours are just a little more unusual than most." He slipped an arm around her. "At least measured by my yardstick of 'usual.'"

[norea]

"Now if you meet any more witches you can be totally bored by them," she says, with a lazy little grin. "You've already met the strangest of the bunch."

Truer than she'd like to be, at least in her home.

[toooldforlosing]

"I'll be sure to be entirely unimpressed, next time."

It's safe to say that Raylan doesn't picture an influx of witches into his future life. Never say never, of course, but...

[norea]

"Damn right." She exhales smoke, and then ashes out her half-finished cigarette. Hasi slides neatly into Raylan's lap, facing him, with the grace of a girl who is not drunk enough to be prevented from doing what she does best ('occupying male attention,' specifically Raylan's at this moment).

"So. You survived socializing. Think the evening was a success?"

[toooldforlosing]

"No one got punched." Which is more or less his definition of a successful party. "You have fun?"

His smile suggests that, even if he didn't, he's pleased enough with his current situation.

[norea]

"Always." She loves a party - and that one was pretty classy, compared to some she's been to. Even the drama was generally not the cruel, catty kind you'll find at industry get-togethers.

She leans close but doesn't quite touch - aside from how she's on his lap.

"Were you concerned someone would get punched?"

[toooldforlosing]

"No more than at any gathering where there are that many people and that much liquor," he said, agreeably.

He leaned in a bit but didn't quite close the distance. "Why, you didn't think it was a possibility?"

[norea]

"I was distracted by my company," she says, innocently, and kisses him for just the barest brush of a second- it's entirely playful. Taunting, in fact.

[toooldforlosing]

"I'm going to egotistically assume you meant me specifically," he murmured, as she did have quite a few people who might have counted as "company" over the course of the evening.