Just Say the Word [Finn]

[Arvælyn]

"A man with priorities." Arvalyn noted, as he raised his glass to meet Finn's across the table with the satisfying overtones of crystal meeting crystal. "I knew I liked you, Finn." He grinned against the rim of the flute as he took a dainty sip, and placed it down up right of his place setting.

"And I'll be truthful with you, Finn, I will." Arry promised, sounding almost apologetic. "It's just... When you've been playing a role day in and day out, the way I have, for several years? You forget the truth. You don't just assay the role, you assume it." He shrugged one shoulder and parted his lips to speak on, but allowed Finn to continue instead. And he was glad he did, for the sweet, sweet words that poured forth were unlike any he'd ever heard cast his way. They sounded like something out of one of the melodramas he so adored at the Golden Peacock. People didn't talk like this, but he wished they did and fantasised that he lived in the play and merited such words. His face contorted a bit and he raised the serviette from his lap to his face.

"I'm sorry." He said, his voice cracking slightly as he buried his face momentarily in the cloth. It was only a trice, and then he lifted his visage with a smile and just a hint of pink to his eyes.

"You are... Just surreal, Finn. No one speaks to me that way." People had tried, but never so effortlessly. And never in a context where he had any reason to believe them.

"Don't be embarrassed to get ahead of yourself with me... with us. It's nice to indulge in the notion of a future shared with someone special. We're both grown men and know the reality of things, but... For now, what's the harm in supposing the best is yet to come. Besides..." He grinned, "The more I hear of your fantasies about us, the more I'll know how they mesh with mine."

[Finn]

Finn's smile didn't waver at Arvalyn's dive into his napkin.

"I hope you'll be patient with me, though," he said, setting his flute down, fingers toying with the stem. "I haven't truly spent much time thinking about having a partner. It has always been a matter of me proving that I belong out there singing... First to my parents, but then to myself. There might have been a few flings that could have turned into something. I might not have made space for someone else in my life, whether because I was too poor, too focused... I might talk your pretty ears off about all of this. All of my feelings as they arise. Trying to understand, you know? Myself. And us..." His smile went a little funny at that; not bad, just trying it on for size.

"And I know we are both still busy people, so I will make an effort to carve out time for you that isn't specifically related to music, and I hope you will do the same for me, and let me know early if you feel like I'm failing in that... or anything... so I can try to do better before things get bad." His brow furrowed a touch. He had mostly escaped the drama of romantic relationships, but he had seen how complicated they could become from the outside, and how people with the best of intentions could fail so hard while trying so hard.

"And if... your feelings change... or don't grow into something... I hope you will tell me sooner rather than later." He fidgeted more with the stem of his glass. "I seem to be better at singing about feelings than understanding them from the inside, so..." He shrugged one shoulder, still smiling.

[Arvælyn]

"It may surprise you to know I have a very patient heart." Arry offered, mildly. He may have been impatient about his career and its adjacent ambitions, but when he was fond of someone he was very forgiving. He'd spent years riding the tides of Aurin's affections undaunted until very recently. Comparably, Finn's affections seemed stable without being predictable. Of course that could be due to the novelty of it all, but whatever the case it was pleasant and refreshing. Altogether new for him.

"Don't hold back on my account." Arry suggested with a chortle, "I'm used to being the prolix one, and I'm eager to learn whatever you're keen to share. I guess... In some, remote way I've dreamt of having a partner. In my life, I've mostly only had one person at a time I was close with, though I couldn't call any of them partners, per se. I was cordial with others all throughout, but I didn't rely upon them. In the book of my life the chapters would be based around whose orbit I was in at the time." He blinked, "That probably sounds scary. I promise I won't leech onto you straight away, I just... Like you say. I'm just trying to understand myself and us..." He trailed off.

"I'll do my best to be as honest and forthright as possible with you, and I hope you'll be the same with me. I'm told I can be quite a handful, so let me know if I'm being off-putting. If I've adapted into an entire new persona, I'm confident I can evolve into someone compatible with you." Perhaps not the healthiest of sentiments, but honest and forthright it was.

He glanced up, as the waiter returned once more to attempt to take their orders.

"Ah, yes! Sorry." His eyes darted back down to the menu, "I'll go with the, uhm... I'll have your noodle special, please." He said, casting a smile up at the waiter that might have seemed flirty because he was consciously trying to look sexy for Finn even whilst addressing the server.

[Finn]

The minstrel was quiet then, considering what Arry had said while he flirted with the waiter. That didn't bother him. They were both performers and there was a charm to flirtation, to mild wit and banter. But he wondered if he had ever lived in someone else's orbit or if he had always been a fixed star on his lonely path through the cosmos. To be fair, he only vaguely understood how the cosmos worked and how the magi and brightest minds had calculated and seen how all that worked. He probably ought to read more so he could form a proper metaphor, whether in song or in speech.

Arry seemed to him to be the person with gravity, so to speak, but then they were both rather young. He remained bemused until he felt the waiter's eyes upon him and Arry had turned to look quizzically back at him.

"Oh, my apologies," he said quickly, "I'll have the tteokbokki, please."

"Excellent, sir." He topped off their glasses of wine. "I will deliver your order to the chef."

"My apologies," he reiterated, this time just to Arry. "Sometimes I get lost in my thoughts. And I hope you don't feel as though you have to mold yourself to me. That is, I already like you. And I want to know you better." He smiled. "Musically speaking, this is an improvisation, yes? We just have to listen and pay attention and hopefully when we play off of each other, it will be beautiful. We don't have to play someone else's music. We're writing our own. Together."

His smile wavered a little, not sure if his sentiment was overly flowery. He took a sip of his wine to steady himself. While Finn knew that Arvalyn was, in some ways, an act, it could still be difficult to match his confidence.

[Arvælyn]

"You seem so..." Arry paused to ponder the proper term, "...not anxious, so much, but, um... deferential?" He rested his eyes on Finn's to gauge whether he grasped the meaning Arry was seeking to impart.

"It's refreshing, in a way, but you needn't be overly cautious. I'm rather infatuated with you at the moment, so it would be an uphill battle to put me off you at this phase." After all, he'd freshly pulled away from his prior celestial body and was actively attempting to enter this new orbit.

"So far I think we're, at the very least, playing in the same key... even if we're both still finding the rhythm in this new tempo." He bit his lip and reached for his wine, consciously trying to take small, delicate sips so he wouldn't look like a lush, even if his instinct in this setting was to drink the nerves away.

"So, um... Do you have any other suitors or anything?" He glanced down, "Not that I expect you to devote yourself solely to me... Not straight away, at any rate, but well- I think it's only fair I be made aware of my competition." That might have been a telling turn of phrase, but Arry attributed the decline of his prospects with Aurin to an interloper, and if there were others in Finn's life that held similar roles, he would prefer to know sooner than later.

"Or just, I guess, in general, you know? Is there anything you think I should be warned about you? Are there any skeletons in your closet or are you just the perfect, handsome boy I've been crushing on all these months?"

[Finn]

"You've also already made a good impression," he said with a smile. "I mean, here we are, right?"

Finn was also trying to pace himself with the wine. He didn't know if Arry would want to stay and linger over desserts and digestifs or if he would want to be escorted to Finn's rooms above the Crown and Lion to make things physical or... what, really. It seemed as though Arry's romantic and sexual life had been circumscribed by the Cabaret, which was no longer the case. Finn didn't want to make any assumptions, so he was just playing things safe. Regardless, he didn't want to make a fool of himself by drinking too much too quickly.

"No other suitors, no," he said. There never really seemed to be enough time or, if there were spare time, he was exhausted. Even today, he was running mostly on strong tea and nervous energy. Wanting to be totally forthcoming, he glanced up, making some calculations. "The last time I... Hm, I fooled around with a friend in early Glade. We met back in Ash when I was foolish enough to join a party going down into the Warrens on a quest. I thought... bards go on quests and then chronicle them. Anyway, I've accompanied him down into the Warrens since to give aid to some women who found themselves astray and set upon by beasts. He did most of the fighting and I helped them escape." He spread his hands, not really knowing if Hyoga intended anything beyond what had already happened. Last he heard, the Avialae was headed to Zaichaer.

"We discussed one secret on the roof..." He rubbed at his undercut, the hair long enough to hide his rune. "Ah... I work part-time at a scrivener's shop. I don't know that magic, but I get a discount on my quills and parchment. I live in the Low-City." Perhaps some of this Arry already knew; he couldn't remember what details of his life he had shared because they had been more focused on sharing intimate emotional things that had worked themselves into their song.

[Arvælyn]

"Here we are." Arry agreed with a good-natured chuckle, and traced the base of his wine flute with one finger, though his eyes remained on Finn.

"A friend, eh?" Arry did feel a pang of jealousy, which he immediately acknowledged was stupid beyond reckoning when he'd been a literal prostitute concurrent to the incident Finn was describing. The scowl that had begun to form quickly transitioned into an inward grin, and he actually laughed aloud at himself.

"Well, I can 'ardly judge you for what you did in Glade when I was charging by the hour, innit?" He hoped Finn would laugh along with the self-deprecating one-liner, but he closed his fingers around the stem of the crystal and took another sip of wine just in case he wasn't amused.

"Honestly, I'm more alarmed to hear you ventured into the Warrens! I 'ope you've gotten that shite out of your system..." It seemed Arry was getting settled into their groove enough now that his natural dialect of markedly common Common started to reveal itself. Or maybe it was just the wine. "I'm not keen to be widowed at nineteen." He chided as he drew the drink from grinning lips.

He considered the information presented, new and old, and how it reflected the boy across the table from him. He wasn't just interested in the content of Finn's response, but also why he selected those particular tidbits.

"Got it." He replied with a sharp nod, "So you are the perfect, handsome boy I've been crushing on all these months. Glad we got that squared away. So, what's your ring size?" He giggled, "I kid, I kid!" He promptly added, blushing at having made such a brazen, stupid joke. He launched quickly into another question in hopes of eking past that joke without comment from his date.

"So do you see yourself having kids at some point, or just churning out song babies? I can help fertilise the latter, but the former might take some alchemy..."

[Finn]

"Is it terrible that I was half hoping you would offer an hour or two to sweeten our previous arrangement?" he asked, fully flushed but daring to be honest. "I mean, I don't know. The thought had crossed my mind is all." He took another drink of wine — not quite a gulp, but erring toward it. "And I would have come tonight even if you were still working by the hour. I would just have questions because while I'm sure you are used to navigating that, it would be new to me.

"And, well, I had heard that several doughty warriors would be present so I felt safe enough. I just hid behind the Shinsei at first, then there was another Avialae, an Ork, the mage whose shop I work at... And others. But at least you'd be a young, beautiful widow and could easily find another." He laughed.

"Oh Gods," he said, laughing again and definitely taking a gulp of wine this time. "I'm not averse to being a father and having a family, but it isn't something I'm planning to do until and unless I have more stable income and own a home with space to grow a family. If I marry someone without a womb and we want children, there are always orphans. I know the Temple and other organizations try to manage that unhappy population, but children ought to have a place where they are loved." He paused, realizing he might be treading on dangerous ground given what little he knew of Arvine Venasyr's past.

"I'll be putting all my generative power into music and making money for the time being. Tell me if I talk about money too much. What's that saying, though...? 'When bankers get together, they discuss art; when artists get together for dinner, they discuss money.'" He smiled apologetically.

[Arvælyn]

Arry covered his mouth with his hand, and did his best not to cackle gracelessly in so fine an establishment, but it was an uphill battle. His shoulders bounced, fighting against his attempts to temper his laughter, but when it died down enough, he replied:

"Don't think it didn't cross my mind, as well! I was trying to seem like a serious performer and not just a prosty hobbyist prevailing upon your time and graciousness." He shook his head, "Besides, I didn't know whether you fancied lads." Though he did have the whole sensitive artist thing going for him, which rather served the stereotype in his head if not the reality.

"Well, if..." He leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially, "...we enter into an intimate relationship, I don't wish for you to feel as though I can't divorce sex for work from sex for pleasure." He was recalling Aurin's explanation for never initiating, "There were sundry reasons I wanted to retire from the life, so don't think I'm giving you full credit, but... I don't think I'd have been able to properly date someone if I were still in it." He took another sip of wine and realised it was his last. How had that happened?

"I've never really imagined having children, don't worry. I was only asking because you're a sweet farm boy, and fatherhood seems to be something sweet farm boys dream of. But I guess the big city's gotten to you with the bright lights and famous friends... I mean the Shinsei, not myself, though I'm working on it..." The waiter returned to freshen his drink, and he straightened up in his seat.

"Thank you." He winked, before returning his golden gaze to Finn's features. Gods but he was handsome. "I'm going to be rich someday, and you'll be a kept bard never having to worry about money again. Just guest lists and flower arrangements."

[Finn]

"Lads, ladies," he said amiably, shrugging his shoulders. "That's not a thing I'm picky about, though I'm obviously picky about some things or I might be more active in that sense..." He smiled.

"I can see how dating while doing sex work could be confusing or difficult, but I haven't really done either so I can't speak from any sort of experience. I hope that if we enter into an intimate relationship that you don't pretend to enjoy it on my account, but that we figure out how to do it so we are both enjoying ourselves." He smiled self-deprecatingly. It wasn't that he thought he was bad at sex, but rather that he didn't know the logistics of relationships. Those weren't so much the themes of songs.

Finn chuckled. "We didn't have a farm. I mean, we had a few animals and a garden, but that was so we didn't have to buy all our food from someone else. So I know how to shoe a horse and milk a cow, but I'm not a farm boy."

But he was smiling, not offended, just pointing out inaccuracies.

"Gods, it sounds nice to not worry about money, but I think I would get so bored being a kept songbird." He laughed. "I just have always assumed I would work. I'm just hoping that the pay will get better, more stable, and that I can save. Even entertaining the idea of a family is a luxury that I would have to build toward. Not that I'm intent on building toward it, mind. But you brought it up. I mean, it has always been a possibility in my head, but not a sure goal I'm aiming for. Does that make sense?"