His grin widens, moving obligingly at the jab of her finger. Always a strange realization: he's missed this specific thing she does. It doesn't dampen the brightness of his expression.
"Your fingers are sharper than I recall," he tells her. It has the tune of a compliment, somehow. "Come, stand here with me."
An unspoken invitation to participate, even if it steers them back to where he'd been standing, innocuous in the shade of several larger buildings. His gaze sweeps across the storefronts, finding nothing but peaceful comings and goings, and returns to looking at her.
"How long has it been? I recall last time you left me to pay our tab."
And she's charmed. She always expects to hate how charming he is, and then he's there in front of her and it's entirely different. She makes sounds of annoyance, but that's all they are.
"Some time," she shrugs, "and if you cannot get out of paying a tab, it's your own fault."
She closes the small distance, standing nearer to him. He's charming, yes, and yet the smell of wet leather and mud matted into furs is hardly erotic. She rolls her eyes. "So now you need a business partner, hm?"
The complaint is not really about the tab, but perhaps that she beat him to disappearing. He'd lingered, how embarrassing.
"I will need a business partner in a few hours, maybe. We can only hope to be hired, you know," Aleksei mock-laments, feigned distress settling into amusement as he continues, "Of course, I remember very well that I do not qualify as business partner."
Is this romance? Invoking their wedding vows? Surely it counts as a vow, in which Svetlana vowed Aleksei was never going to have more of a say in her business than he already did when he was dropping sacks of rattling goods onto a crate in exchange for coin.
"Oh, you remembered! And there I'd worried you were too thick-headed."
Definitely romance.
"I'm sure we can align our interests in the short term." Another jab to the same shoulder, in roughly the same place. "Especially if it gets me on a ship out of here."
He can be on the ship or off it, but she suspects he'll want to have a quick getaway. Who knows, maybe he knows a path through the woods that would work; she isn't picky.
Depending on how long they manage to exist in each other's presence, the jabs will lead to a little bruise. Aleksei knows this. He remembers what clings on after she's gone.
"Well," Aleksei says, drawing out the word to the point of (further) obnoxiousness. "It so happens I do know of a kindly man with a boat of his own. Very safe. Even for me and my thick-head."
In which me stands in for fucking thief.
"For my darling wife, I am sure the captain will make extra room."
Because of course it is not only Svetlana. It is Svetlana and whatever she is holding, trying to move out of this place to wherever she is heading to next.
"And this kindly boatman," Svetlana leans in a bit closer, her hand finding Aleksei's shoulder. It would be a swoon, if her thumb weren't pressing into that same spot. Nose nearly touching his, she says, "how much will he charge?"
A low, considering hum as he bumps his nose against hers.
"Ten percent."
Talking around the question of what she's holding, the value of it, where it's going and to who. Aleksei sways into her briefly before swaying back enough to see her face. The dig of her finger is coincidentally undisturbed by the motion.
"Maybe a little more, depending."
On all the unknown factors Aleksei deliberately isn't pressing her for. These are two different ventures, technically. They've just happened to share the same exit point.
His answering smile is all teeth, bright and easy and fond, telling everything even before Aleksei can hedge his way to some kind of straightforward request. He sways back in towards her, hand coming up to pinch her hip.
"Ohh, so generous, husband mine." She answers his pinch with another pinch, this to his arm. "So good a deal, I'd be a fool not to take it."
Faces close together, she can smell his breath, and somehow it isn't foul. "Luckily," she runs her free hand down his back, rocking him closer, "you can't run off and steal what I'm moving."
"Oh, that only happened once," Aleksei protests. "And it was all returned, when we realized."
A wave of his free hand, dismissive. A minor mishap, and more or less corrected at that. Aleksei can count on his thumbs how often he and Yevdokiya have returned stolen goods.
When he kisses her cheek, there's a light graze of teeth. Just so.
"And it cannot be said we didn't make it up to you."
"So kind." But she leans into the kiss, just slightly. Finally, she stops abusing his shoulder, so her fingers can trace invisible lines into the column of his neck. "It's a deal, Alyosha."
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"Your fingers are sharper than I recall," he tells her. It has the tune of a compliment, somehow. "Come, stand here with me."
An unspoken invitation to participate, even if it steers them back to where he'd been standing, innocuous in the shade of several larger buildings. His gaze sweeps across the storefronts, finding nothing but peaceful comings and goings, and returns to looking at her.
"How long has it been? I recall last time you left me to pay our tab."
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"Some time," she shrugs, "and if you cannot get out of paying a tab, it's your own fault."
She closes the small distance, standing nearer to him. He's charming, yes, and yet the smell of wet leather and mud matted into furs is hardly erotic. She rolls her eyes. "So now you need a business partner, hm?"
no subject
"I will need a business partner in a few hours, maybe. We can only hope to be hired, you know," Aleksei mock-laments, feigned distress settling into amusement as he continues, "Of course, I remember very well that I do not qualify as business partner."
Is this romance? Invoking their wedding vows? Surely it counts as a vow, in which Svetlana vowed Aleksei was never going to have more of a say in her business than he already did when he was dropping sacks of rattling goods onto a crate in exchange for coin.
no subject
Definitely romance.
"I'm sure we can align our interests in the short term." Another jab to the same shoulder, in roughly the same place. "Especially if it gets me on a ship out of here."
He can be on the ship or off it, but she suspects he'll want to have a quick getaway. Who knows, maybe he knows a path through the woods that would work; she isn't picky.
no subject
"Well," Aleksei says, drawing out the word to the point of (further) obnoxiousness. "It so happens I do know of a kindly man with a boat of his own. Very safe. Even for me and my thick-head."
In which me stands in for fucking thief.
"For my darling wife, I am sure the captain will make extra room."
Because of course it is not only Svetlana. It is Svetlana and whatever she is holding, trying to move out of this place to wherever she is heading to next.
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no subject
"Ten percent."
Talking around the question of what she's holding, the value of it, where it's going and to who. Aleksei sways into her briefly before swaying back enough to see her face. The dig of her finger is coincidentally undisturbed by the motion.
"Maybe a little more, depending."
On all the unknown factors Aleksei deliberately isn't pressing her for. These are two different ventures, technically. They've just happened to share the same exit point.
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She sways with him like willow branches, eyes keen, smile half teeth.
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"You pick up the tab, at the next place."
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Faces close together, she can smell his breath, and somehow it isn't foul. "Luckily," she runs her free hand down his back, rocking him closer, "you can't run off and steal what I'm moving."
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A wave of his free hand, dismissive. A minor mishap, and more or less corrected at that. Aleksei can count on his thumbs how often he and Yevdokiya have returned stolen goods.
When he kisses her cheek, there's a light graze of teeth. Just so.
"And it cannot be said we didn't make it up to you."
More or less.
no subject
Unless something better comes along.