Abbernathy and Magick's End |Trilogy Now Complete!

(22) - When the Curtains Blow -

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IN NO WAY was Axion unfamiliar with threats. He'd had daggers trained at his throat, sword tips poking him in the chest (ruining some of his favorite vestments), and fists flung at his face. Poisons slipped into his cups and death mixed in with his desserts.

And yet, he never expected a ladle to cause his end. But one was aimed at his face, wielded by perhaps his most fearsome foe yet. 

Leo did not look happy. In fact, her expression was rather bland - no seasoning of contempt, disdain, or hatred.  Her skin was smooth like an eggshell, disturbed only by a smattering of freckles. Her dark eyes were no more keen to reveal her true feelings than his were. 

But he knew there was no escaping. Forgetting to swap Evernight scraps with hemma currency was a slight oversight. Nothing he couldn't remedy once back in Ean. All Leo had to do was believe in him, and his promise of future payment. 

She proved far shrewder than he thought possible when she'd given him his check as well as an ultimatum - either pay for his meal or be hauled off to the dungeons by guards all too eager to see him spend his nights in cold and squalor. 

While he was no stranger to dungeons, Axion rather enjoyed when his movements weren't restricted by chains and his toes weren't nibbled on by rats, and he wasn't forced to relieve himself in an already full chamber pot. 

Leo motioned toward the sink at their right, where a mountain of dishes awaited him. Grimacing at the bubbling, gurgling water, and crust-studded plates, he muttered, "You can't be serious."

She thrust the ladle forward, the rounded bottom smacking him between the eyes. She lowered her arm, and now that the ladle had done its job - presumably to make Axion aware of the conviction of her threat- she tossed it into the sink. It smacked off a tea cup and saucer precariously balanced atop one of the many mountains, the whole thing succumbing with a tremor. Dishes and plates and crumb-coated racks dove into the murky water and had Axion not been so spry and effortlessly agile, a drop might have sullied his shoes. 

"I'm most definitely serious, Axion." Leo rolled her chair away from him, her black hair, done up in a ponytail, slapping against her shoulder. 

Axion thought her hair rather pretty, like the Evernight's sky. Admittedly, Axion thought all of Leo was rather pretty, and while ruminating on the ways in which she was -- the freckles across her nose and decorating her cheeks much like his stars, her rounded face and slightly crooked nose. The way her nostrils flared just the slightest at her agitation, something he was sure she wasn't aware she did. If she had been, she probably would have demonstrated even more restraint as Leo seemed steadfast in not wanting to show emotion -- a curious thought came into being. 

He'd much like to see her smile. Not that she was some worthless hag elsewise, but the urge to see how such a thing shaped her face was there. Stronger though was the desire to be the reason of her smiling. A silly, childish notion he knew, one birthed from selfishness that would never manifest into reality.

Leo thrust a pair of blue, elbow-length gloves into his chest, bringing him out of his thoughts. He glared down at them, the color -- a pale sky blue-- the texture - rigid and unforgiving. Truly a horrible item of clothing.

"Clean every dish, then I'll consider your tab paid in full." 

Axion's stars pulsed with alarm. A planet, circling his neck, disappeared, no doubt dying from disgust. Careful he didn't breathe deeply enough to defile his lungs with the sour, rancid air, he said, "Me do commoner's labor? My suit will get ruined." 

At this, Leo's mouth cracked open, the corners of her lips rising like the morning sun. But as quickly as her smile had shone, it had fled, chased behind an impenetrable wall of indifference. "How could your suit possibly get worse?"