Needle in a Haystack [Torin]

[Aurin]

The Velvet Cabaret
16 Searing 121

Someone had already come to relieve him, but Aurin just sat at the bar with a nice concoction of whiskey, chocolate schnapps, fortified wine, and cardamom bitters. It burned, but it was only at first and then it just warmed the throat and the belly like a friendly hearth fire. He would smile and wave where necessary, but those who were currently on duty did a fair job at fielding most of the attention so those who were not could relax a little before finding their own beds or other delights.

Perhaps he used a bit of his trick to blend into the crowd, a subtle bit of Masquerade. He certainly used his other trick to watch how the energy of the crowd actually flowed. Though it was no longer his priority to locate and deescalate trouble, he was management and so it was always at least a priority. One of the new girls, a fine dancer, came and asked him a few halting questions and he tried to set her at ease, though arm her with what she needed to know to thrive here in what could be a party, but could also be shark-infested waters.

She smiled and walked off, a bit more confident than before, which drew eyes to her. Confidence was like that.

He listened because he always listened, but he was waiting for another presence to make itself known. Aurin couldn't actually go home to seek his bed until Torin returned with his new key. It had been a good gift, he thought, access to Aurin's home, trust, and the chance to do a bit of metalwork specifically for Aurin. The lad did enjoy being of service, which helped Aurin to master him properly. Some people needed someone to follow. Aurin didn't normally think of himself as a leader, but he was taking to the role suddenly.

There were plenty of conversations within earshot and he was a past master at dividing his attention between several, passively listening until something caught his interest and focused his attention. It might make for a good test of Torin's perceptive skills to have him try to suss a bit out before they went off to whatever sins awaited them that night.

A smirk slid over his face as he turned his head toward the door, aware of Torin's presence before he was even visible.

[Torin Kilvin]

Once the master of the house had returned to the teaching forge, and all the raw materials he'd brought had been unloaded, the eldest of his runeforge apprentices had given his report as to the running of the place while his teacher had been away. The man had nodded through it, asking a question here or there before telling Torin he was free for the evening. Nodding his respect was automatic, he did not particularly care for the man personally but he wasn't actually cruel or bad, only not as warm as might have been wished. Of course, if he had been Torin might never have met his real master.

Heading back to his room he fetched the satchel he'd worn the night before, only switching the dirty things in it out for clean ones. He had a free day and he hoped Aurin might begin to teach him the hand-to-hand self-defence they'd been talking about since Glade. There had been little time between the business of that season, Torin's preparations for launching out on his own and Aurin's work to begin his own business, but they made time for each other wherever they could.

Swinging the pack over his head to rest on his right hip he started the walk he knew well by then. Thoughts filled him, of what was to come, a little of what had been. It would be Ash again before he knew it, his final year as an apprentice would be at an end and it would have been a year since he'd been home.
The thought settled oddly, off-kilter. Without the person who had made the village he'd spent almost his entire life in a home, it just didn't feel like one anymore. The forge and shop he'd spent his life working and living in since he'd left didn't feel like one either. He seemed to be between homes. This led to him thinking about what sort of a home he wanted to make for himself, for the slowly growing number of people he cared for, would want to invite into a place that was his own.

Hope was a new thing inside the boyish man. As a child he hadn't fostered it, only let things come as they would without thinking of the future at all beyond what was needed to function. When he'd moved to Kalzasi proper he had hoped to go home to his master and join him as a journeyman but had repressed it because it only made him so badly homesick he'd cried. Now, well, now there was a whole new world inside him.

The thoughts tumbled over each other in comfortable circles as he dreamed his steps away until he found himself at the entrance to the little side alley that led behind the Velvet Cabaret. He went a few steps inside just to make sure Aurin wasn't waiting for him at his cottage, then moved around the back to the entrance there. He was known well enough at least that they didn't turn him away. One of the cook's girls whispered to another and they both giggled but she also was kind enough to direct him to the bar with a toss of her head. His keen ears caught something that sounded like 'Aurin's puppy' before he got close enough to the main room that the noise drown the two girls out.

Walking towards his man he grinned helplessly until he was close enough to say,

"Hello, bad man, I..." He blinked hard when the man turned toward him, then frowned. "A...Aurin?" A part of him was sure he was looking at the man that his world now revolved around but it also didn't look like Aurin. Or, it did look like Aurin, but not perfectly so.

[Aurin]

At Torin's look of caution, he reached out and gently encircled his wrist with his hand and pulled him close, whispering in his ear, "Just a trick of mine to blend in," he assured him. "I might look funny because you were actually looking for me so your eyes keep trying to slide past me and it wars with your intention to see me. Just relax and your mind ought to make peace with it."

He nipped Torin's ear.

"Find the quiet within you and then let your ears hear everything around you," he said quietly. "Don't judge what you hear. Just let it pass through your mind. When you hear something that connects to something, your mind will note it. Otherwise, you are just letting information pass through you. A part of you will never forget it, even if you don't actively remember it."

His hand brushed Torin's backside.

"If you can tell me someone's secret, I'll take you home with me and we can wrestle naked."

Aurin liked to think he wasn't just a teacher, but a fun teacher. He almost promised he wouldn't distract Torin with any sort of molestation, but that wouldn't be any fun and if he was going to play his masquerade trick to blend in, he might as well enjoy doing things that nobody would notice when normally they would. And he didn't think Torin would mind him making it more difficult to concentrate and, if he did, his whines could be quite amusing.

"You have five minutes to suss out a secret. If you can't, I'll make you take me home and then take yourself home." With the motivation provided, Torin should have no problem focusing. After all, the tip that might lead Aurin to acquire some interest in the theater next door had come from the innocent blacksmith.

[Torin Kilvin]

It was Aurin's voice, that made it easier for his instincts to accept and obey. His mind slowly relaxed into the idea that Aurin could look different and still be himself. It was odd, like trying to get used to walking with your vision sideways, but he adjusted after a moment. The bite sent a shiver through him and he bit his own lip to keep from saying anything or making any sounds that would draw attention.

Then again, perhaps it wouldn't have really, considering the level of noise and just where they were in general. He glanced around, following the movement of bodies in the room as a general thing, like watching a school of complicated fish as he listened to his instructions. He had come assuming the redhead would want access to his house back right away, had looked forward to the quiet comfort of the cottage. They had spent the evening prior sleeping wrapped close in the tiny bed the cottage boasted though, so he wasn't clingingly desperate. Yet.

It had been almost a season since Aurin had set him to listening and he thrilled to be back into the game. It wasn't a game, the adult part of him knew it for training, but it felt like a game, one with surprisingly high stakes for him personally. While he wasn't ready to beg or drag Aurin into their little sanctuary he certainly did not wish to spend the night alone after walking all the way back to his own empty bed. If he let himself worry about that he would be wasting time he would need, so he put the idea away and let himself relax deeper.

Listening to people was quite like listening to aether, or, it wasn't the same but his mind was able to sink into it in the same way if he let the two feel similar. Turning away so he was facing the room he let his eyes unfocus a little and his mind wander the currents of conversation. Aurin was behind him now and didn't seem content to leave his boy to the work he'd been set. The distraction was nice, kept him from concentrating too hard on any one set of voices.

He cast his net, mind flitting from one group of speakers to another until he caught on something interesting. Like a hummingbird or a bee, he would stop on anything that sounded promising, linger long enough to taste what was hidden within, then move on. When Aurin's voice pulled him back into himself it took him a moment to reorient, like a lesser version of the daze he passed into after a runeforging.

Leaning close, in what he knew would look like a public display of intimacy, and, he supposed, was one, he said,

"The Lord in the blue coat wants the lady he hired for the night to be his sister, uhm, pretend to be his sister?" He wasn't sure it was a secret, the things one might be inclined to hide elsewhere were blurred in the Cabaret,
"I don't think your cook likes the group at the table in the far right corner," The serving women seemed to be fine with serving them compromised vittles so perhaps they deserved the treatment, "And..." He hesitated, cheeks pinking because he felt like he was about to say something rude about a woman he didn't know but, "The Lady in pink, the older one who just slipped into the back rooms, I think she wants a lot of men to treat her like she's a... like she works here, only mean."

[Aurin]

It was nice to be able to rest his hands on Torin's hips and rather lazily let his gaze wander around the room. He could see how his touch titillated the blacksmith's aether, which was gratifying, though he made himself keep tabs on those conversations he had been monitoring, not worried that bold gazing would attract attention, screened as he was by a bit of magic.

They were still tricks to his mind, not proper magic. Proper magic was huge and awful, but he could do a few things that were useful, and that was enough. In theory, he might teach Torin the trick of sensing; he remembered how it had been done to him, though he wanted to wait, practice, and know it better before he did so. Perhaps once Torin had time to ride out the strange sickness that would follow. They might even schedule it so he was in his new forge but not already overwhelmed with work orders as Aurin was certain he could be if he marketed himself properly. If he didn't know much about the actual arts of blacksmithing and runeforging—proper magic if ever there was one—he could at least advise on the business side of things, effectively pulling a forge into his budding keiretsu with some investment.

When Torin began to report, Aurin compared what he brought with what he had already observed himself. And now, he could also observe how Torin's aether reached out into the world, even just for mundane perceptions. It was strange to think that all life was interconnected, but the trick told him so and he knew it was a true sight.

The lord in blue's proclivities were hardly a secret among the staff of the Velvet Cabaret, but they were valued for their discretion. He spun Torin around by the hips so he was facing him. His little masquerade reached out to include Torin now, so the wheat-haired young man ought to see Aurin clearly now. He smirked.

"Sounds like you and the lady in pink have some things in common," he noted drily. "It would be best you keep all that you have observed a secret. Some people are free with their desires here. Others want to maintain their decorum and only explore those things in private, and we are paid well for our confidence. But those secrets could certainly be useful if you needed to put pressure on them for anything..." He couldn't really think of a reason why Torin would, though.

"And I don't know if the cook is the one who hates that table or the servers themselves, but I'll have to speak with them and make sure they aren't putting our clients at risk—even the annoying ones." Of course, Lunaria wasn't above messing with annoying clients from time to time, but that was her prerogative. Aurin would most likely just make sure the staff were more close-mouthed about what they were doing if they were going to do that.

[Torin Kilvin]

Torin did not have any tricks, none beyond his eyes and ears and the good sense the gods gave to what men would pay attention. He knew nothing of Aurin's mind when it came to gifting him magic, and he did not think of what he did as having magic at all. He worked with magic, coaxed it, but none came from him and none came into him. In his mind, he was a simple man, a craftsperson like most men who, by luck or love, had received an education in a useful trade. No rune burned his skin and he had no thought to trying to buy or beg his way into one, it never even tickled at the back of his mind.

Aurin wanted him, could be felt close and distracting behind him, hands warm on his hips, it was all the magic the very young blacksmith ever expected to have for his own, and in that hope he was happy.

When he was spun and teased he flushed harder, glad Aurin looked like Aurin now but embarrassed by his words.

"Not by a lot of men, just you..." He was going to go on but the growingly familiar smirk stuck his voice in his throat and made him begin to swell thinking of it. He cleared his throat and looked around as if the patrons and workers of the establishment would all have paused in their activities to notice, aghast, what wouldn't yet be seen by even the most observant eye. Aurin might know, tucked between his knees as Torin was, but a couple of deep breaths settled him again as he was instructed again.

"Yes, Sir. I wouldn't talk about this sort of thing with anyone but you." The same sentiment as his previous sentence in a much different context but the theme was there, 'only you'. He meant what he said about not sharing though, he had been raised by a man who thought gossip to be a wicked thing that ruined communities and the lives in them. Torin had himself seen the truth of the condemnation a few times in his youth and would have trusted his first teacher even if he had not. Helping Aurin was not gossip though. He gripped Aurin's leg, not hard, but not playfully either.

"Please, I don't want to get any of the girls into trouble." They worked hard, front of house or back of house, or back-rooms, and the last thing he wanted was the make the lives of those who already had a hard time harder. "It wasn't anything dangerous. Just rather unappetizing." He grimaced a little. Then turned his attention back to his own service,

"Did those count as secrets?" He leaned in boldly for all his schoolboy blushes, and whispered, "Will you take me home and be mean to me?"

He had things he wanted to tell Aurin that were not related to the thoughts flowing through his mind at the moment.

"I have things to tell you. Not secrets, or, well, sort of secrets but not that kind. I was hoping I could stay and tomorrow we could find somewhere you could begin teaching me to be a good protector?"

[Aurin]

Aurin smirked at Torin all through it, though there was a warmth to it.

"Not looking to get anyone in trouble except perhaps you," he promised. "But why wait until tomorrow? I could take you home right now like you asked and we could wrestle." His smirk sharpened and he doused his throat with the remainder of his drink and slid off his barstool to sling his arm around Torin and head toward the door. They were of a height, so it wasn't awkward. They were both broad-shouldered, though Torin's continued to put on bulk from his work at the forge. If they were to wrestle, Aurin was going to have to fight dirty.

Good thing he always did.

Under the aegis of his Masquerade trick, nobody paid them any heed. But he paid all heed to those around them; just because their eyes slid off the pair like water off a duck's back didn't mean he wasn't always aware of his surroundings. His ears plucked bits of information from out of the air until they were out in the alley behind the Velvet Cabaret and walking toward his cottage. Summer nights could still be brisk this far north and he held Torin close. If he teased, he was amiable enough until they reached his door.

Then, with little warning, he shifted his weight and shoved Torin against his front door. It wasn't hard, but it was abrupt. And then he leaned his hips against Torin's rear, effectively pinning him to the door. It wasn't violent enough to be considered unarmed combat, perhaps, but it was either a prelude to that or foreplay. When he kicked Torin's feed into a wider stance and dug his hips into Torin, it might have felt a bit more like the latter.

"Are you going to unlock my door," he growled into his ear, "or did you want me to unlock yours right here where people might see?"

[Torin Kilvin]

The boy bit his lip and nodded at the threat that was an offer, lowering his eyes a moment before they were drawn helplessly back to the redhead's face. He wasn't sure what sort of wrestling Aurin had in mind, and after the long day he'd had at the forge, Torin wasn't sure he'd make a good showing of himself if there was to be a lesson that night. He wouldn't mind losing, more especially since he'd never joined into wrestling games as a boy and hadn't the first clue what to do with his body during such.

It was interesting, and frankly really nice not to be noticed as they left the Cabaret proper for the quieter space out the back door. He was used to people looking at him. They looked in all sorts of ways but rarely could he enter a room and go unnoticed. Aurin similarly attracted the eyes of all, unless, it seemed, he did not wish to. It felt good to be tucked close under his man's arm, comfortable and stable in ways he was growing to rely on in his everyday thoughts. So, he was taken all unaware when the position changed suddenly just outside the cottage door. He gasped out, losing some, but not all, of his air as his from was pressed against the wood painfully. There wasn't much pain, not enough to make him think he'd done anything wrong, just enough to quicken his blood. He was learning to tell the difference.

The pain Aurin had given him early that morning made itself apparent as his feet were kicked wider and the hard-muscled body pressed close, which, in turn, made the ache in the front of his body flare harder. He made a sound, not any sort of sound he had a name for. An expression of pain that also wrapped gratitude around the surprise of being suddenly in the position.

"Aurin." He made the name into a groan of embarrassment and a request as he was instructed, fumbling into his satchel with the hand on the side of his body which now pinned the bag. "Yes, Sir."

His natural instinct to apologize was overwhelmed easily as his newly growing instincts for his man in particular overrode them. Fishing the key free he slipped it into the lock and was gratified when it clicked crisply right away. The door swung open and he strumbled hard through it, only catching himself when he reached the opposite wall.

[Aurin]

The next morning, Aurin woke up early to piss. He was pleased to have the day off, though, because that meant he could climb right back into bed with Torin. When the apprentice had his own forge, he wasn't going to need a furnace. He was one. That made living in Kalzasi's climate all the more comfortable, though. He dozed for a while, then rolled over to spoon the man, reaching under the covers to do things that would most assuredly wake him up.

"Breakfast," he demanded when he heard an appropriate gasp. Then he rolled onto his back and tucked his hands behind his head.

"Then I suppose we could wrestle properly since you want to know how to defend yourself, or me." It amounted to the same thing in the end. And the wrestling they had done the previous night was fun, but wouldn't stop an assailant.

He settled comfortably while Torin stoked the embers of the fire for hot water and heat. Aurin wondered if he would continue to want to serve when he became his own master, if he would become more independent once he got his feet under him. If he did, that would be fine. Relationships changed and even if Aurin wasn't the best at acknowledging relationships with titles, he recognized that this was one. There was a pang in his heart that Arry didn't feel comfortable with their friendship as it had been, but it had never been Aurin's intention to trap him in something he didn't want—from the very first, he had advocated for Arry's freedom.

But time would tell how things turned out. Perhaps they would find a new, happy equilibrium if things panned out for Arry and his minstrel.

In the meantime, he rolled over to watch Torin do things naked. It was strange, but with his trick, he could See how Torin's aether left a mark on the aether of the room. He rather liked the idea that it would take far longer for Torin's presence to dissipate than him leaving the cottage.

[Torin Kilvin]

Torin began to wake, slowly, when he felt the warmth that had been wrapped around him all night shift and move away. A little sound of protest left him, then he let his eyes work their way to open. They came clear just in time to see Aurin climbing back in with him, he smiled sleepily as the comfortable body settled back against his and let himself drowse comfortably. Not really asleep, but not wholly awake either, only enough to feel and enjoy the closeness. When confident hands found their way to sensitive parts of him he gasped and arched.

The demand made him groan but he was grinning too. Stretching tight enough to vibrate along the hard, long length of his body he yawned expansively till the look on Aurin's face threatened to roll him onto the floor. Standing while laughing he made a placating gesture,

"Yes, Master. I'm up, Master." The second part was obvious but if he was making reference to that it was only accidentally. Moving about the cottage in his skin taking care of the morning chores was familiar and pleasant. He was not expected at the forge that day but a day without any work in it felt emptier for him so he was glad of it. The cottage was not his home, but it was more a home to him than his apprentice room. He felt comfortable here and wanted for himself. Taking care of the cottage, and its occupant, in whatever small ways he could felt good, settling and whole.

Fetching things from where he knew they were, Aurin was fastidious with his things, he heated water to tea and for washing. He toasted bread, laying thin slices of white cheese over them so it melted into the crevasse, sliced fruit and more cheese, piled all of it onto a plate, and brought it over to Aurin with a mug of fresh tea. Kneeling beside the bed he ate with his hands and fed Aurin or let him pick from the array of food as he wanted. When the food was gone he fetched more hot water, soap, and cloth and cleaned them both, or they cleaned each other, which degenerated into other things quickly enough, much to his satisfaction. When they were cleaned and both hungers were sated he put everything away again and begin to dress.

"Will you teach me here?" The cottage was cozy but didn't have enough room for what he thought he was going to be taught. "I fought some as a boy, and did well enough once I started to grow, but I think that was more how much I grew than skill." It was mostly true, he had learned to fight more than one person at once and protect his back fairly quickly