OTA: Robin in da club!

[goodfellow]

As much as Robin had enjoyed being in New York with Prometheus, he'd grown restless. And now that he was back in London, he realized how much this really did seem like his home now. He loved the city, he loved running the club. He even appreciated the friends that he had here, as much as he still attempted to keep them at arm's length.

Tonight, he made the rounds at Saturnalia dressed in an impeccable plum colored suit with a silver cashmere scarf hanging from his neck. He was already planning for a New Year's Eve party to celebrate the anniversary of that first "unofficial" opening of the club. Perhaps he could make it even better this time.

He was carrying a bottle of good champagne, still cold, and occasionally stopped those with empty glasses (of anything) and offered to refill them. Though now, he tipped his head back and poured some into his mouth before wiping it and looking pleased with himself.

Comments

[goodfellow]

"Oh, I get forced to my knees in all sorts of fun places," Robin assured him with a little smirk. "Most recently I've been in New York. But I'm glad to be home. You're right, it is much more comfortable."

[harrowgate]

"New York?" Felix nearly asked if that was where Robin was from, before he remembered that Robin was from the dawn of time. "I've never been," he said, because he'd never left the great island. He couldn't possibly.

"They don't have plush carpets in New York?" Felix asked, perfectly matching Robin's sweet tone from a moment before.

[goodfellow]

"Not like the one in my office," Robin said with a private little smile for Felix. "I specced that one out myself. I do so hate rug burns."

[harrowgate]

Felix decided to forget about Halloween in favor of a much more pleasant memory, sharing that knowing little smile with Robin. "For which I am eternally grateful. I would have been flayed alive if I'd gone home with unexplained abrasions." He lifted his glass in salute to Robin.

"So, are you going to regale me with your tales of conquering the boys and girls of the New World?"

[goodfellow]

"Oh if you want to hear tales I have thousands of years of better ones," said Robin with a shrug. "My trip was fun, but nothing out of the ordinary." He wasn't about to tell Felix that he'd followed Prometheus there. "More champagne?"

[harrowgate]

"If it comes with your company," Felix answered, somewhat playfully keeping his glass just out of refilling range. He couldn't play the game of keep-away his height might have normally afforded him with Robin. "If you'd prefer to dance, or chat, or gossip relentlessly about our friends, I don't care, but I'm stealing you for my own for at least an hour."

[goodfellow]

Robin let the bottle pause in mid-air, waiting patiently. "Well," he said, "I suppose that can be arranged. Does stealing me away imply privacy, or would you rather make a spectacle of ourselves?"

[harrowgate]

Felix offered out his glass, then, with approval. "We are observed," he answered mildly, which was code for Shannon is here that he hoped Robin understood. "So I expect, given the option, the spectacle is preferable to my disappearing without a trace. However, I've made it clear that I came to see my very dear friend Robin after having been bereft of his presence for months on end."

[goodfellow]

Robin's body language immediately cooled a touch. "I see," he said. "And is he hear because you dragged him along, or because he wanted to be witness to your encounter with your very dear friend?"

[harrowgate]

Felix reached out to guide the champagne bottle back toward his glass. "It was his decision. I believe he doesn't trust you around me, but then again, that means he also doesn't trust me around you."

He glanced up, and there was a bit of tightness around his eyes, tensing his smile. Although he and Shannon had grown immensely in mutual trust and communication, when it came to Robin, they were back at square one. It wore on him, to have worked so hard and truly earned so little.

"Come now, darling, don't freeze up on me," Felix went on, slipping into a coaxing purr. "I might start to think you only want me for my... assets."

[goodfellow]

Robin smiled serenely. "Oh, I think he'd be much more upset if he thought I wanted you for more than your assets."

He refilled Felix's glass.

"He's worried you like me. Well, that's one thing. He's also worried that I'm a better lover than him, but that's less of a worry and more a disappointment since we all know it's true."

[harrowgate]

"You've had significantly more time to perfect your skills," Felix noted -- because he was not about to confirm or deny which of them he considered a better lover. He accepted the champagne and took an appreciative mouthful. "And of course I like you, darling, you're a delight. We're friends, I think, and you're quite astounding in bed, but I'm not a complete fool. You don't want a relationship with me."

His pretty brow furrowed briefly. "You don't suppose Shannon doesn't know that?"

[goodfellow]

Robin rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter. Shannon probably thinks I'm some kind of incubus come to the earth to ruin his life. But if he thinks that you like me, that's all that matters."

He smiled, and reached out to finger a strand of Felix's hair. "Though the problem isn't that you want a relationship with me. It's that you don't want a relationship with anyone."

[harrowgate]

Felix's attention flicked from Robin's face to that fingertip winding through one of his red curls. His brows twitched together as if he wanted to frown, but didn't want Robin to catch him at it. He raised his glass to his lips to buy himself a few extra seconds of time, because that statement sat uncomfortably inside him.

"Whatever makes you say that?" Felix asked when he'd had a drink.

[goodfellow]

"Because you know you'll hurt him," Robin said bluntly. "You can't be caged, and all that. Frame it how you like. You have too much love to give, or not enough."

[harrowgate]

Felix arched a very skeptical, very expressive, brow at Robin. "Are you quite certain we're only talking about me? This sounds like just a touch of projection, darling."

[goodfellow]

Robin laughed. "Of course not only. I see myself in you. So do you, it's why you're so uncomfortable with this conversation."

[harrowgate]

"There's a compliment buried in there somewhere," Felix decided, not yet irritated enough to really start hissing. "I'm sure you realize that I've been in this relationship that you say I don't want for several years now. I should like to think I could disentangle myself from something that wasn't good for me."

[goodfellow]

Robin thought that Shannon was an ass, and so he wasn't so sure.

So he said nothing.

Except: "Do you want to dance?" and offered his hand.

[harrowgate]

Felix finished off the rest of his champagne, and his suspicious expression melted quickly into a smile like the sun rising. He placed his hand in Robin's. "I long for nothing more."

[goodfellow]

Robin put the champagne bottle on the ground and then pulled Felix out onto the dance floor. There was, coincidentally, a slow, sexy song playing, and Robin began to lead Felix into some semblance of a rumba. He was a good dancer.

[harrowgate]

Felix wasn't half bad, himself, even though the rumba wasn't one he knew well. Once he understood that Robin was leading, and stopped trying to lead himself, he relaxed into Robin's hold and glided through the steps. It was dark and they were close, and Felix draped an arm close around Robin's shoulders as they moved together. "You're good," he murmured, knowing that the words might be lost under the music, but Robin could read the shape of his lips and the confirmation of his touch.

[goodfellow]

"Yes," Robin agreed, his lips nearly against Felix's neck. He didn't often dance with men who were taller than him, but he still had no trouble leading.

[harrowgate]

Felix couldn't help smiling to himself; this was how he'd gotten in trouble the first time he'd met Robin. Things were different now, but dancing with the puck still felt like getting away with something he oughtn't be doing. Felix liked that feeling.

He kept just enough space between them for decency, but only barely. "So. Read any good books lately?" Felix asked, one side of his mouth curling in a taunting smile, voice sweetened with a breathless little laugh.

[goodfellow]

"No," Robin said. "They just don't make them like they used to." He dipped Felix, and when he brought him back up he closed that small distance that would have maintained decency.