All the Lovers [Finn & Arvalyn]

[Arvælyn]

"Oh..." Arry frowned, "Trust is hard for me." He watched Finn's hand as it played along his wrist, and he placed his own atop it, closing his soft fingers around calloused ones.

"I need to confess something to you, Finn." He knitted his brow, "So you know that I trust you and that I genuinely care about you." He took a breath and shut his eyes. "My background isn't as... glamourous as I've made it out to be. Since I came to Kalzasi, I've adopted a persona. Something closer to the me I want the world to see than the one who arrived here. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the character that even I forget it's a concoction." He closed his fingers more tightly around the human's hand,

"I hope you won't hate me for being untruthful as I was getting to know you. Part of it is for my own protection, but... I'm not from Sol'Valen, I'm from Antiris. I grew up in a slum there with my father. I didn't really know my mother, but she appeared the day he succumbed to his infirmities to give me this... And, I mean... I don't know her. Maybe I am incidentally some long lost noble bastard and that's why she's kept away for all these years. Maybe I have some grand destiny I don't even know about yet and you're the key to unlock it. But the fact of the matter is, I don't know. What I do know is that I was just a thief in Antiris before I came here and reinvented myself with Aurin's help. Lunaria liked the idea, because it meant the venue could charge more to spend time with me if I was some elegant foreign peer fallen on hard times, but I'm not Arvalyn Val'Cithaeron. I'm Arvine Venasyr." His eyes darted up to get a gauge on Finn's expression, before sharply returning to their hands.

"I'll understand if you hate me for lying, but please don't tell anyone..."

[Finn]

His eyes widened a bit, but he didn't pull his hand away as he processed this new information. It made a certain sort of sense. The first time they met, it did seem as though Arvalyn was trying a bit too hard, whereas most nobles were more comfortable in their superiority. He had written it off, of course, in the moment, because everyone was different, but several little things ticked off in his mind, oddities about his friend that now made more sense given context.

"That... actually makes a lot of sense," he said. "Like a more exaggerated version of me trying desperately not to seem like a country bumpkin when I first moved into the city. But I'm glad to know you, Arvine Venasyr. Whether I call you that in front of anyone or not."

Finn's smile was gentle. He had found that his rune didn't grant him empathy; he just had it and the rune helped him believe what he sensed rather than second guess himself.

"Thank you for sharing with me. I'll keep your secrets if you keep mine. Perhaps we'll even end up a new order of Leh'anafel." He smiled again. There was a part of him that wanted to be special, just as Arvine had wanted to be Hytori nobility. The narratives they came up with in their minds could be soothing when the reality was harsh. He took a sip of the bottle and then tilted it toward Arvine with a raised eyebrow, willing to feed him a bit since both his hands had Finn's between them.

"There isn't a whole lot left. Are you sure you want to be spending your big night up here with me instead of with your adoring fans?"

[Arvælyn]

Arry heaved a sigh a relief, releasing breath he hadn't even realised he'd been withholding since loosing the wind he'd expended to explain himself. Finn was true to form in his response. Sweet, thoughtful and consoling. He was a rare creature as far as Arry's circles went- He was consistent. That was more than the half-elf could even say for himself, but it was the very trait that had brought him to the point of confession (with the aid of a uniquely intense experience and sense of connection derived from tonight's performance.)

"Thank you." He said, softly, squeezing Finn's hand and smiling across the little gap that parted their faces in this position. The neck of the bottle appeared in that valley and Arry nodded, parting his lips to accept its mouth. He tilted his head back and raised his tongue to stop the wine from sliding right down his throat and choking him, but he did dribble a bit at the corners of his lips- giggling as he dipped his chin down to wipe it against his shirt.

The expression that answered Finn's question was quizzical at first.

"I will never understand 'ow someone I think so much of can think so little of themselves." He was starting to drop the pretense in his speech patterns now, as well. "There's no place in Ransera I would rather be, right now, that on this rooftop with you." He was overcome with emotion. Now even more so than earlier, because not only was he still riding high from their performance, but he'd also made his confession unscathed. His truth had been met not with scorn, but with apparent gratitude.

With the bottle out of the way, Arry leaned forward to close the distance between their faces with an impulsive kiss. Not a deep, demanding kiss, but a chaste, lingering of soft, pursed lips that smelled of the wine that had just dribbled across them and not quite dried from a quick graze across the fabric of Arry's shirt.

[Finn]

Whatever he might have said was stopped up by Arvine's mouth. He had almost jokingly replied with an working-class Antiris dialect. He had almost explained that he was honored, but that crowds were quick to forget their adulation.

Instead, they were kissing. It wasn't the sort of kiss most people came to the Cabaret for, but he thought it was rather nice. After the initial surprise wore off, his own lips mirrored the slight pursing, and he didn't demand any more of the gesture either, though he did inhale through his nose, smelling the wine they had shared, a bit of clean, though nervous perspiration, and Arvine Venasyr underneath it all. When it was over, he didn't pull away. Instead, he closed the gap himself for a brief return gesture, then smiled.

"Somehow, it's easier to believe one bad thing about oneself than a thousand compliments," he said, his smile going sad for a brief moment. "But thank you. It is a lovely view." But he didn't look away. "And the stars too, I suppose."

Then he cleared his throat in a way he had warned Arvine several times over the months not to do too much if he wanted to baby his vocal apparatus. He squeezed his wrist and then gently extricated his hand, giving Arvine the bottle while picking up his lute. It wasn't meant to be an evasion, but it seemed like the right thing to do. He strummed an introduction he knew Arvine knew.

"Sing with me?" he offered. Then, softly, "Look at the stars. Look how they shine for you and everything you do. They were all yellow."

He was still looking at Arvine, who might normally protest that he was golden, which was true. All the same, Finn had seen him laugh in the sunlight, hair tossed like sunshine. Yellow could be as precious as gold.

[Arvælyn]

"Well, since all my compliments have been failing to get through, I had to employ a more... lips-on approach." Arry jibed, looking a bit bashful in the aftermath of the warm embrace. "That was a very stupid joke, I'm sorry." He said, chuckling at his own expense. Finn was so sweet it was hard to ever doubt his sincerity, and so even his lingering gaze might have made Arry's heart flutter a bit. But the smooth words that complemented those piercing eyes gave him proper butterflies.

"I think I'm a bit... turned around, this evening. Which isn't to say I regret anything I've done or said... You don't really allow for that. I only mean that I've been rather incautious. I've surprised myself and, I gather, you as well..." He trailed off as Finn reached for his lute. At first he wasn't sure whether he ought to feel rebuffed, but once more Finn allayed those concerns. Arry recognised the introduction in an instant and what a smooth segue it was from the compliment that set him swooning. He nodded, approvingly and bit his bottom lip, tipping his head down to conceal the breadth of his grin at least somewhat.

Finn took the first phrase on his own, and Arry joined him as he launched into:

"I came along... I wrote a song for you, and all the things you do and it was called Yellow." Arvine lifted his eyes to meet Finn's as he let the human take the pre-chorus, before Arry joined in unison on the soaring chorus- his voice melding with Finn's as he turned his wrist up again and let the energy coursing between them be amplified by the aether. With their eyes locked, his wordlessly asked Finn whether it was all right to do so.

"Your skin- Oh yeah, your skin and bones turn in to something beautiful..."

[Finn]

Finn's eyes gave consent even as he opened up his own channel through the rune. He wanted to hear Arvine's symphony in the music they made, and as rewarding as it had been to fashion a song together, it was a nice change of pace to just sing a song together that they both knew and apparently enjoyed. The song itself spoke of a deeper feeling than they shared, perhaps, but it didn't feel off. He had gotten the impression that Arvine was hung up on the house manager-cum-impresario, anyway. Finn wasn't the jealous sort, though. From what he gathered, the fox-faced man tried to do right by those under his protection, which was more than could be said for many of the people in the industry.

As Arvine's vocal coach, he couldn't help but smile at the seeming ease with which his voice began to soar. The trick was to put in so much hard work that it became second nature—not effortless, but seeming so. Arvine could've fooled him. They knew from experience now how to blend their voices into pleasing harmonies. Finn plucked and strummed the accompaniment and supported Arvine so his voice could soar. He seemed to enjoy the heights.

Then, as the song drew to a close, Finn brought it back down to the ground, slowing things.

"Look at the stars. Look how they shine for you and all the things that you do..." There was little ornamentation at the end, just earnestness. Perhaps that was artful on the part of the composer or intuitive on the part of the lutist. In either case, Finn smiled.

"It's a joy to sing with you, Arvine Venasyr. Thank you for sharing your voice with me."

[Arvælyn]

As the song slowed to its intimate conclusion, Arry sighed and released the aether he'd been manipulating with that breath. He felt as though he might melt into the crate he sat upon for how loose he felt from the shared experience. He perked a bit at Finn's expression of gratitude, and smiled.

"Nothing to thank." He replied, as he scooted from the crate down onto the ground and positioned himself between Finn's legs. He rested his cheek on one of the human's knees and looked out at the night sky and its endless sea of stars. In the distance he could make out a few figures of flying Avialae. Then, amidst all the bird boys, he saw what appeared to be a bug boy and blinked.

"Huh. You don't see that every day." He mused, before returning his thoughts to the present company.

"So, I wanted to wait until after we'd performed to tell you, but I've a bit of news." He lifted his head, and shifted himself a bit so he could look Finn in the eye.

"Firstly, I've officially retired from my carnal career and will be focusing entirely on more mainstream forms of diversion. Secondly, it's looking as though opportunities will be presenting themselves for me at The Golden Peacock." He bit his grinning lip, and looked down a bit bashful about sharing hopeful news.

"Of course I'd love to bring you with me, if I'm able. I don't know if you aspire toward a legitimate acting career, as I do, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't had fantasies about sharing a larger stage with you as my co-star in some melodrama or other." He confessed, "Aurin took me to a show there once that had a human actor playing an Avialae. I don't know how they did it, but they even made him fly!" He beamed at the notion of being in some big budget blockbuster like that.

"Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is- Now that we've written and premiered our first song, I don't want to stop working with you. And, um... Now that I won't be a... Doing what I was doing on the side, I wondered if you might consider me..." He glanced down, "...Suitable."

[Finn]

Arvalyn's move was a surprise, but he didn't flail or anything. It didn't feel like a courtesan's wile, and he even brushed his fingers through that golden hair before catching himself and keeping idle hands busy with a meandering melody on his lute. Wherever the improvisation came from, it did seem to fit the setting with twinkling stars, the shapes of flying things, and two young men snatching a moment alone on a rooftop.

He kept playing when Arvalyn started to talk again, low enough that it didn't require competition to be heard over.

And of course he was happy for Arvine's prospects and flattered that he would want him to perform on larger stages with him, as well. It was something to consider, he supposed, though he wasn't sure that his ability to perform music would translate to being able to act on stage, especially with the classical, high stylized works that drew the most elite crowds. Then again, they always needed music. But the elf got on a sort of runaway coach of a monologue and it quickly turned more personal.

After a pause, the music still underscoring the night, he managed, "If you are asking me out, then you needn't have waited for a career change... And we've seen first-hand how busy we get, how difficult it can be to find time for each other... But I think I would enjoy spending time with you in other ways. If you're asking me out, I mean." He had been rather coy about it, which was funny considering Arvalyn had been rather blunt during rehearsals. Then again, Arvine was a different facet, and this was a different sort of thing to talk about.

"If you think I might be suitable." He grinned.

[Arvælyn]

Arry beamed throughout Finn's response. True to form, the human was as sweet and consistent as ever.

"I am." He confirmed, through his guileless grin, "I am asking you out." He gazed adoringly into those light blue eyes that had captivated him on stage during their duet. That was far from the first time he'd fallen into their depths, and now it seemed he had the go ahead to stare unabashedly at will.

"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I've had a crush on you for quite some time now. I know it's terribly cliché- you being the teacher, and I the eager pupil, but here we are." He chuckled, a bit self-consciously.

"And to be honest I kept hoping you'd ask me out, but I figured a nice boy like you wouldn't want to get caught up with a courtesan, as the Velvet Cabaret generously refers to us." He blinked, "I mean them. I'm retired now." He corrected, with a punctuating squeeze to Finn's calf.

"I just feel like we work so well together and my art is the most important thing in my world, so it seems natural to explore this thing we 'ave a little further. You implied, once, that I might be a muse for you and I'll confess you've sort of become one for me. Singing that song with you tonight, just kind of stirred something and I-... Well, I didn't plan this, I'll just put it that way. It just kind of spilled out like, well, this. I'm rambling again." He bit his lip and buried his face in Finn's thigh, realising the human had spent the past few minutes underscoring his prolix, overwritten monologues.

[Finn]

"Then I am accepting your request to go out," he said, trying to be a touch coy, but mostly just a bit silly. "I'll leave my lute at home and we can talk about things other than music. I mean, we can talk about music too, but we won't have to spend the time focused on anything but... each other."

There was a thoughtful chord change. "Sometimes I thought you might have taken an interest in me, but I think we both have flirtatious senses of humor so... you know, I didn't want to assume anything. Perhaps I ought to have listened with my magical ears." He grinned at his own expense. "And I didn't want you to think that I didn't take our work seriously, or that I was only helping you because you're so handsome... And your work never bothered me. If I thought about it at all in relation to... something between us, I thought that you probably didn't want a complication. I remember a woman who worked there a few seasons ago whose beau used to get drunk and jealous and show up fixing to fight..." He shrugged.

That wasn't him. They both knew it. But it illustrated the point of complications.

"And well, you know me better than most people now, probably. From all the things I sang and all the things that didn't make it into the song but I shared with you." He laughed again at his own expense. "I'm terrible at all this. Not out of malice. Just..." But words failed the wordsmith. They often did. The music played on, though, something gently vespertine.

A pause, then, "Where would Arvine Venasyr like to go on a date with Finn, who's so common he doesn't even have a surname?" Another pause. "Not where would Arvalyn Val'Cithaeron go. But honesty got us this far. Perhaps we should stick with it."