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]

"Lucky thing. It and the hat are pretty much constants." And he leans up to take a real kiss, because "not long" was the answer.

[norea]

Hasi is pretty much content to engage in breathless making out for a while, but eventually she breaks away, significantly more ruffled:

"I think my dog is judging us."

...mind you, she says it muffled and mostly into the underside of his jaw, as that is where her mouth is now. Ahem.

[toooldforlosing]

"As he does," Raylan concedes. "I'm still not sure he thinks I'm good enough for you," he adds with a bit of a smile, hand sliding up her side.

[norea]

"Well, he doesn't like anybody except me and Wes, really. Nature of the breed." Huan gives up on his owner's chastity and tromps out of the room - he'll bother her for affection later, and he's got food and water in his dish. Maybe Zabi will come and sit on him, she does that sometimes.

Hasi's laughter is (possibly distractingly) dimmed by the fact that she's moved down to the side of Raylan's neck. Deftness with navigating sofas is a learned skill she can employ even when a tiny bit intoxicated, apparently.

"I seem to be surrounded by difficult men of a variety of breeds."

Not that Raylan's ever been all that difficult with her, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to gather the potential.

[toooldforlosing]

"I'm not difficult," he protests, lightly. "Why does everyone always say that?"

The question may be a little disingenuous. But he does shudder pleasantly as her mouth moves down his neck.

[norea]

She pulls back just enough to meet his eyes (he may protest that, as well), her expression fond but highly amused. "You know exactly why people say that, I suspect. But you've always been very easy-going with me--maybe because I'll only take you exactly where you do want to go. Eager to please, that's me, right?"

Saying things like this is why she's constantly in trouble with men, for the record, but it's sincere, if that makes it better. (Worse.)

[toooldforlosing]

"Plenty of girls are that." ...Raylan. "But you're more clever about it than most, I grant you."

He considered her for a moment. "If it ever stops being fun, tell me and we'll stop." Generally, he means. "Too much unpleasantness in life, to go adding to it."

[norea]

That surprises her a bit, but she takes the time to consider it, despite her semi-inebriated state, and then nods. "I don't see myself wanting to stop, though." But then, she derives enjoyment from the smallest of things. "The same goes for you too, though, okay? Given some of my predilections. And my bucketload of secrets."

He's not inclined toward some of the things she likes, and that's fine, but does have a tendency to persuade people toward just giving it a little try. Hasi might not be the best representative of what she is, but leading men into temptation is one thing she does do very well.

[toooldforlosing]

"Alright," he says, amiable, before leaning in to kiss her throat.

The agreement is well meant, but it's based on wanting to stop, it could be quite awhile before Raylan calls 'uncle.'

[norea]

She tips her head back to accommodate his mouth, with a pleased little sound-- somewhere in the back of her mind, she is aware that they might have more to discuss, but he's good at that and she is distracted.

Later. Surely.

[toooldforlosing]

Later does come, eventually. Quite a bit later, at this point, but Raylan was happy to take his time. It had been a long night, and they could both stand to relax some. Even after they're a bit less... intensely involved in one another, he lets the silence linger for a little while.

[norea]

Eventually, Hasi has acquired a robe from...somewhere, which is her typical thin, silk, and overpriced sort of thing - the label says 'Carine Gilson,' and it's white. She sees no reason to bother with anything underneath it, cinched at the waist, and is in the process of sliding a hand through her hair when she resettles with Raylan. Tiredly, understandably.

"You want a drink?" She pauses. "As soon as I can move."

[toooldforlosing]

He chuckles, slow and rich, and shifts to accommodate her rejoining him. "Only if you're getting yourself one anyway."

Raylan has had quite a bit of booze over the course of the evening, even if it has been a little while since his last drink.

[norea]

"In a minute." She sighs, tucking her knees up and tipping her chin to look at Raylan sidelong. "I need a manservant or something, I swear."

[toooldforlosing]

"Mm. Enchant Huan to turn into a footman for a few hours each night, like a sort of Cinderella thing," he suggests, idly.

[norea]

That makes her pause for a second, though she's half-smiling, in a lazy kind of way, leaning her head on Raylan's shoulder. "Cinderella was never my favorite fairy tale. Snow White, that one's okay- and, um...Little Red Riding Hood."

She's focused mostly on nothing in particular, half-closing her eyes. "Scheherazade's my favorite, though. Did you ever hear that one?"

[toooldforlosing]

He thinks a moment. "That's the one where she keeps telling stories so she doesn't die?" Vaguely, is the answer.

[norea]

"Yes. Basically, she is a hostage- see, the king has gone mad, as a result of his brother betraying him with his first wife- they mutinied against him. So every night he takes a new bride, and every night he ends up believing that his new wife is a traitor. Scheherazade eventually volunteers to be his next wife believing that she can stop him from killing any more of her friends."

She's good at story telling - which is what earned her the nickname Scheherazade in the first place, one Hyde gave her. (Along with many others.) "She tells him a new chapter in the story every night, for a thousand and one nights, and by the end of it he's cured and no longer mad and they have children. Which means, of course, she slept with him when he still was teetering on the precipice of murder."

Thus the similarities to herself and Hyde. "She's a bit more ingenious than the average fairy tale heroine, I think."

[toooldforlosing]

"She sounds clever," he agrees. "Much better than the kind that ends up asleep for a century."

[norea]

"That one is fucked up," she says, decisively. "They really sanitized fairy tales when Disney hit - I don't think I like it. I like all the violence and sinfulness; makes it have more of an impact."

Of course she says this.

[toooldforlosing]

"I somehow don't remember much violence and sinfulness in mine, growing up." He knows, of course, in an abstract way that those versions exist, but he'd never had much familiarity with them. Then again, he hadn't been that big into fairy tales even at the age where he was given them.

[norea]

"Well, some of it is metaphorical. Like, um...Little Red Riding Hood, that one's the most transparent." She grins, playful. "Little girls must beware of handsome, wolfish men saying sweet things; guard your chastity."

She tips her head back against the sofa.

"I obviously didn't really take that morality tale to heart, though."

[toooldforlosing]

"Well. I'd say depending on the version, it's a bit more cautionary for the wolf. He's the one who gets a stomach full of rocks." Alright, so this one, he's heard.

[norea]

She makes an amused little scoffing sound, sitting up straighter to regard Raylan. "You think so? So what's the moral of the story, then, 'don't hit on pretty girls in red?'"

[toooldforlosing]

"Don't do anything that makes people think little girls need rescuing. I think that's a pretty sound moral," he says, with a smile.