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[illithidnapped]

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[altusimperius]

"I... suppose."

It sounds right, and Bene's not about to wax poetic about the matter, seeing as he's personally one of the topics on which Riftwatch's leadership tends toward the conflicted.

"In case you're thinking of agitating," he adds, with a quirk of his eyebrow, "I don't recommend it."

[illithidnapped]

“That sounds like the advice of a man that’s been burned before.”

Long lashes flutter for a moment, not innocent, only grazing along the concept of sympathy— before shadowing the red of his eyes, lips twisting faintly by the barest degrees.

“Or...watched someone burn, maybe.”

[altusimperius]

"Maybe."

The resulting smile is coy, evasive, but the whole situation is still-- and perhaps always will be-- too raw to properly joke about, as far as Benedict is concerned. It can be funny when he's no longer in danger of paying the ultimate price for fucking it up, which is to say, probably never.

But he's still his mother's son, and Byerly's attaché, and he's not too oblivious to model the behavior of those cleverer than himself.

"A fascinating subject, which is ultimately none of your business."

[illithidnapped]

Evasiveness, and kittenish at that. If ever a predatory glint existed in his eyes— and it certainly does, mind— it’d make itself as present now as it did back home over the faintest scent of blood in the air.

He does so love a good game.

“Is that how you speak to all your allies, I wonder?”

He’s measuring him now, this wisp of a man before him: the weight of his stance, the set of his smile, how closed his posture— even where his eyeline rests. Footholds no doubt exist somewhere.

[altusimperius]

It's strange to Benedict how that glint in Astarion's eyes brings to mind his mother in one of her moods, a notion that grips his heart and leaves him momentarily pinioned with uncertainty, a butterfly stuck to a board.

He's spent so much time digging so deep, looking for a way out of this particular deep-seated paralysis; he's in Diplomacy, he should be able to handle situations like these. If he were Byerly, he'd have already deflected, turned it back on Astarion.
But he's not.

"...only the especially nosy ones," he replies, with far less confidence than he wants.

[illithidnapped]

He sees it, right there in constricted pupils. In stiffness, something that proves Benedict’s on the back foot. Hardly a middling parry. No real bite.

How precious.

“And with flattery, too, I see.” Said as he rises, all smooth movement, for the sake of prowling nearer to his quarry instead— testing the waters of proximity, and how they might tip the scales, so to speak.

[altusimperius]

Though tempted to take a step back, Benedict holds his ground, instead becoming all too aware of how heat rises into his face (and possibly elsewhere) at the invasion.
He's not inexperienced in these matters, per se, but handling them while sober and attempting(?) to fend them off is an entirely different beast from drowsing stoned and drunk in a pile of other handsy youths. He's blushing, he knows it, and the moment isn't unwelcome so much as unprecedented. He's at work.

"--well," is all he manages to say, finding his gaze lingering on the delicate structure of Astarion's face, the intriguing little points of his canine teeth, the pale strangeness of him.

[illithidnapped]

Honestly, if he had an ounce of decency in him, he would feel ashamed for playing such an unfair game— but it’s so early, and he's so bored— and he’s keeping his own claws sheathed, at the very least. For the sake of one very, very rabbiting little mouse.

"Well what, sweetheart?"

He isn’t purring, but his voice has gone low and throaty all the same, cutting a near line to it when he reaches out with delicately poised fingertips to just barely nudge the underside of Benedict’s chin. The pads of his fingers a touch cooler than they ought to be.

"I know I've got the ears for sharp hearing, but you don't seem to be saying much of anything anymore."

[altusimperius]

Benedict's mind races through all the potential responses and finds nothing even bordering sensible; the little graze of fingertips against his chin has him uncomfortably aware of his own heartbeat, the warmth of the blood flowing to his cheeks, ears, and below.

It's been a while. And this man is no Colin, almost his polar opposite, but in their shared lucidity that makes him all the more intriguing.
Vibrating with tension, one hand moves to lightly grip Astarion's arm at the elbow, making as though to pull him closer.
Where's the person who was so charming at parties, Bene thinks, and who is this idiot fumbling about like an adolescent?

[illithidnapped]

The whisper he offers is given so near to Benedict’s cheek that spent breath likely pools against it, the faintest scent of leather oil and lilac clinging to the air:

“If I was your enemy, dear heart, you’d be dead by now. You do realize that, don’t you?”

At that grip on his arm, the laugh he offers is as secretive as anything else in this moment, flashing the full edges of his fangs as his nose crinkles. The fingertips at Benedict’s jaw flick, gingerly knocking away all that focused attention with an almost playfully chaste affection.

“And everything in this office would be mine to rifle through as I liked.”

There’s a wink as he withdraws, letting his arm drag against Benedict’s grip.

“...drawings included.”

[altusimperius]

A quick exhale, and Benedict is sufficiently Shaken; he looks like he doesn't quite know what's happened when Astarion withdraws, but the one thing that's clear is what he may have just put at stake if the man is to be taken at his word. Even joking about the possibility of having sold out his entire division his him like a splash of cold water, clearing his head momentarily, at least enough to know better.

"...but you're not," he breathes, a nervous little smile twitching at the corner of his mouth, "are you."

[illithidnapped]

His own smile, tamer now, flexes in a proud little flicker.

No, Benedict. He isn't.

"I imagine you'll do better next time."

He's taken up space at the edge of that desk again, idly drawing deft fingers along its faintly dusted corner before one rises to meet his lips, the universal signal for a hushed mouth.

"Our little secret."

[altusimperius]

But nothing happened, Benedict wants to say-- nothing fell into the wrong hands, no secrets were told-- but still he feels shame rising in him at the sight of that hushing finger, and all at once it's as though something did happen, if only because for a stupid instant he thought he'd get lucky.

Maybe Mother was right about him after all.

"...I think you should go," he says, the lusty intrigue draining from him as surely as wind leaving the sails of a lost skiff.

[illithidnapped]

"Well. And here I thought we were having ourselves a lovely little conversation— getting acquainted, becoming fast friends."

He looks sullen, Benedict. You've wounded him: one hand pressed across his frigid heart, chin settling low into the ruffed collar around his own neck.

"But I know when I'm unwanted. I'll do as you ask."

[altusimperius]

Benedict looks sullen right back at him. It hurts me more than it hurts you, really.

"I'll... see you around," he murmurs, wistfully. Next time. Maybe when there are fewer compromising documents around.

[illithidnapped]

“I’m sure.”

There’s no bow, no flourish— only that hand still left clasped across his chest as he backs out the door.