"I -" he begins, caught off guard by the question. But this is a barroom, they're here to drink, and their little trip to the baths have them time to sober. "Yes. Thank you."
It's reasonable for her to get up and kind of her to fetch the next round. Nothing about this should be a concern to him. The slightly unsettled sensation in his chest isn't an instinct worth listening to - but it is there.
And so he lets her go without hesitation and only looks a little nonplussed, and when shes away, he only gives his shirt collar a single, surreptitious sniff. (Awful, as he'd expected. Perhaps that's the problem.) By the time she returns, he's pulled out a scrap of parchment and the stub of a charcoal pencil from among his things. The beginnings of a sketch - likely abstract to anyone not intimately familiar with the inner workings of a pepperbox - are taking shape, if more shaggily than usual.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2025-05-23 03:53 pm (UTC)It's reasonable for her to get up and kind of her to fetch the next round. Nothing about this should be a concern to him. The slightly unsettled sensation in his chest isn't an instinct worth listening to - but it is there.
And so he lets her go without hesitation and only looks a little nonplussed, and when shes away, he only gives his shirt collar a single, surreptitious sniff. (Awful, as he'd expected. Perhaps that's the problem.) By the time she returns, he's pulled out a scrap of parchment and the stub of a charcoal pencil from among his things. The beginnings of a sketch - likely abstract to anyone not intimately familiar with the inner workings of a pepperbox - are taking shape, if more shaggily than usual.