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[malicieux]

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[transfundere]

Could you perhaps make your way to my cabin? There's something I'd like to show you.

[malicieux]

Conveniently I was just thinking I’d like to come around. I will be there shortly.

[transfundere]

Excellent. You can meet Lottie as well.

[malicieux]

{ … }

Ah. The cat.

{ At least it’s a French name.

In not too long, Lestat is at Reid’s door. Before any sort of pleasantry and greeting can be said, he’s making his way to the sitting room with more purpose in his usually nonchalant demeanour. }

I have nothing to give you.

[transfundere]

[ Reid had just been standing up as he sensed Lestat at the door but as he strides in, he sits back down and reaches up to pet the cat on the head. She's sitting on his shoulder, curious at the new arrival: a little grey cat with bright yellowgreen eyes. ]

I... did not think you did. Nor did I need anything from you, my friend.

[ Moving right along as he gestures to his little friend. ]

This is Charlotte, though I've come to call her Lottie more often than not. She's a little shy but I'm sure she'll come to regard you as a friend as well.

[malicieux]

It isn’t the point whether you expect it or not. I’ve nothing to return your gestures and -

{ A brief pause where he regards the cat, if only because he’s bristling at being open about something, and vulnerability is the entire problem here. }

I do not like to feel I’m in the debt of someone. It is a precarious position.

[transfundere]

[ Reid will glance over at the cat to see if she's doing anything that he might be especially bristly about before gently lifting her off of his shoulder and attempts to put her in his lap. She does not find this acceptable and immediately hops back up to his shoulder.

Lestat might recognize the sigh of tired acceptance and the little chuckle that shakes his shoulders before he's letting out a much deeper sigh. ]

There is no debt, my friend. What gestures I make are for your comfort, true, but you have hardly asked for them. To hold them over your head would be nothing short of emotional extortion, something I've no interest in.

[malicieux]

I don't know how to navigate good intentions.

{ Which he's loathe to admit at all, but this frustration has been eating at him for several days. If there was at least something he could provide in turn, some grand and unnecessary gesture of his own, it wouldn't seem so bad.

As it is, Lestat is simply more aware than before that he's reliant on someone other than himself, something he's never had to be for many, many years. }

I can tell you're being honest with me but it does little to quell my annoyance.

[transfundere]

My suggestion, then, is to simply accept them for the result of my affection for you and my desire to make you feel welcome in my home and my life, as this is all they are.

[ Another attempt at moving the cat and another failure; she's now curled up with her face smushed up against Reid's neck on one side. He gives up again. ]

All I seek is your company, Lestat. Spending time with those I'm fond of is, to me, quite valuable. And the gift of time, endless as it might be for both of us, is still something I very much I appreciate.

[malicieux]

But why?

{ If Reid detects a little touch of anguish in his voice, he won't be mistaken. All of this is well and good, and no one really should have room to complain about such things. Lestat, however, isn't no one, and he was quite literally killed with kindness. }

What have I possibly done to be the object of affection and fondness?

{ Which is wholly contradictory to the way Lestat presents himself, and he's aware of that. Tomorrow it's likely he'll go back to basking in the attention, back to his teasing and his flirting, but for now he'll stand in the middle of the room and be perturbed for little reason. }

[transfundere]

[ Reid isn't entirely surprised at the response, any of it, but his voice is more gentle than he means it to be as he answers. ]

Does it surprise you that it is nothing that you have done, precisely. That you need 'do' nothing?

[malicieux]

Yes.

{ Lestat's tone is agitated, quite the opposite from Reid's own gentle one. He's done nothing in the past and received no fondness. He's given his own grand gestures and received no fondness. There is no reason at all anyone should give it to him if he hasn't somehow pulled it out of them, nor is there reason to suspect it should last long.

He mutters to himself in French and throws up his hands in both annoyance and exasperation as he takes a seat on the chaise lounge. }

What did you want to show me?

{ He can't chase the terseness out of his voice, but he can at least try and change the topic. It's clear he'll get nowhere with Reid and his infuriating but honest intentions. }

[transfundere]

[ It makes him blink, because he'd almost forgotten the message at this point, before he gently scoops his cat off of his shoulder so that he can shift and pull out his communicator. She's already hopping back up while he looks for it to show Lestat Shaw's message. ]

Do feel free to read the whole of my conversation with her.

[malicieux]

{ He gets up to take the communicator, and paces the room as he reads it. Of course, it does nothing to ease his current mood, but he does let out a scoff as his goes over the brief discussion. }

She gives me too much credit.

[transfundere]

She thinks herself impartial and clearly isn't.

[ Which is something of a hasty call, but he's no stranger to making them from a short conversation or two. ]

I've a copy of the note I put in the ledger if you'd care to see that as well.

[malicieux]

Will it further my annoyance at your charitable good will?

{ Regardless, he does want to see it. He wants to know what's being put out there about him.

Lestat passes back the communicator. }

I'll see it.

[transfundere]

[ He'll gesture to the communicator. ]

The most recent picture of the lot should be it.

[malicieux]

{ He'll take a look, then, and read it over at least twice. }

A true defender of my honour.

{ And, again, why?

Underneath his bristling, Lestat's quite touched by it, and a part of him is grateful for it. }

It's been a century and a half since I've been so at the mercy of others.

[transfundere]

So I imagine.

[ It is something he's very aware of. Seeing Elisabeth and hearing some of the Ascalon Club going on, even the talk of Aloysius Dawson... the powerful take powerlessness hardest of all because they are not used to it. ]

We are in this together, Lestat. And I won't let anyone here act differently.

[malicieux]

Of course. Of course.

{ Lestat returns the communicator, all the words he's read tucked carefully away in his memory to turn over later. }

You have a return on your investment in me. The sooner I find my rehabilitation, the sooner you get your wish.

[transfundere]

My sister.

[ He takes the communicator and tucks it away as he lets his hand settle on the cat. ]

My sister, her husband, and my young nephew. That is my... 'wish', as it were. [ A breath in and then out. ] I admit that at first, I thought only of bringing her back, but to ask her to live beyond her child once again seemed cruel beyond measure.

[malicieux]

I can't say I'm surprised.

{ It seems a very Reid thing to do. Lestat has no idea what he'd wish for, if he were a warden by chance. }

I wonder, if I accomplish the feat of graduation, if my second chance will take me back to Paris in 1794, or to New Orleans in 1940.

[transfundere]

From what I understand, that is up to you. Do you know which one you'd prefer?

[malicieux]

{ It's something that causes his pause. The idea of living out a normal life, to the end of his days a mortal man, with no certainty of what the days might bring is tempting. More tempting is the company he kept and the people he saw as a family.

But who is he fooling? There's only one option and both his heart and head know it. }

New Orleans. If only to dance once more before history repeats itself.

[transfundere]

Because it is your wish?

Or because you see it as your fate?