Phryne

[st_unning]

After finishing up a pleasant chat with Ignis and making his way back to his room, Alcuin flopped down onto the bed and read a bit more of Twilight. It did not get better.

He stared up at the ceiling for a moment, thinking through the day again. Mind turning with possibilities for the spa. And occasionally drifting to remembering his hands on Ignis' skin.

He'd brought a few items of different types with him, intending to investigate further what they were and what they were made out of. He was going to crack this face mask thing. But in the meantime, he found himself getting up and opening the bottle of massage oil to inhale the scent again - vanilla and jasmine. Ignis had seemed to like it.

He closed it again, and then picked up the telephone, dialed the number for Phryne's room.

"Hello, Phryne," he said pleasantly when she picked up. "Are you busy?"

Comments

[st_illunsmeared]

Although it wouldn't be honest to say she'd been waiting for Alcuin's call, Phryne had been prepared for it and even expected it. While she had gone to find Jack, it had been for a brief parley, as though she had some choice clue to share, and a bit of banter.

So when Alcuin called, she was in her room, reading, and considering what utility she might have in this Inn. "I ought to to say yes and preserve the illusion that I am forever at work on something, but as it happens, I'm quite free."

[st_unning]

"Would it be inappropriate for me to offer you a massage again?" Alcuin asked. "I could use the practice, and besides - I did promise."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Certainly not, at least not when we're speaking of me." Phryne beamed into the phone, pleased to find she might have something lovely to do with the late afternoon after all. "When were you thinking?"

[st_unning]

"I was thinking now, if you like," Alcuin said. "We could go back to the spa if you like, though you're also welcome to just come to my room."

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"Your room sounds lovely," Phryne responded after a brief moment's thought. She preferred the privacy, if there was to be conversation along with the massage. "I won't be five minutes."

[st_unning]

Alcuin hung up the phone and set the massage oil aside on the table. Then he also put the copy of Twilight face down on the dresser.

When there was a knock at the door, he opened it and let her in. "Hello!" he said happily.

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"Hello, Alcuin." Phryne leaned in to kiss both of his cheeks continental style and glanced around his room again. It improved on longer acquaintance, but only by virtue of her ability to ignore it.

"Just us?" she teased, eyebrow lifted and mouth quirked in a lightly teasing smile.

[st_unning]

"Oh, should I have asked Jack?" Alcuin asked, wondering if this seemed inappropriate. It didn't occur to him she might be referring to someone else.

[st_illunsmeared]

Phryne blinked and warm laughter spilled from her lips. The idea of Jack here, whether to receive a massage or to converse with her while she did... Her darling, straight-laced inspector. He would, if she asked him, she had no doubt, and she might have were they not already sleeping together, but now it seemed merely an unnecessary affliction.

"I meant Ignis, darling. You seem to be seeing a lot of him lately."

[st_unning]

"Oh." Alcuin laughed. "You thought he might be here with me. I... no. I mean, yes, we have been spending a lot of time together, I suppose. But you should not necessarily expect to find him in my bedroom."

[st_illunsmeared]

"No?" Phryne raised an eyebrow as she looked around for where Alcuin might intend for her to settle. "I felt certain the attraction was mutual." She had, rather, been teasing, but if Alcuin was inclined to talk, she saw no reason to stop him.

[st_unning]

"Oh..." Alcuin looked slightly sheepish. "Ignis has not... he may indeed be attracted to me, but he has not acted on it. And after what happened with - well. I don't want to risk our friendship."

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"If you're waiting for Ignis to act, you may be waiting nearly as long as I did for Jack," Phryne replied, not unkindly. And deciding that Alcuin was unlikely to be bothered by it, began to strip down. "Where do you want me?"

[st_unning]

"On the bed is just fine, if you're comfortable," said Alcuin.

Then as he watched her he hesitated before saying, "It isn't just that. I just don't... I don't have a lot of experience with this."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Face down or face up to begin," she asked, when she'd draped her clothing over the arm of a couch and begun moving toward the bed.

Utterly unashamed of her nudity, she glanced back at him. "Experience with what, precisely? I'm pleased to help if I can."

[st_unning]

"Down," Alcuin said. He was a bit surprised when she stripped entirely, but then pleased that she felt so comfortable around him. And she was beautiful, of course.

He went to pick up the bottle of massage oil. "I've never been with anyone simply because i wanted to. Aside from Anafiel, and I was in love with him first for years."

[st_illunsmeared]

Thus directed, Phryne settled herself on the bed, tucked a pillow beneath her cheek and lay her arms along her sides.

"Was it forbidden or did you simply never have the desire or opportunity?" Rather than provide cultural commentary or superfluous advice, she elected to seek a fuller understanding of the situation.

[st_unning]

"Not exactly forbidden, but... frowned upon, perhaps. And to be perfectly honest, I was too consumed with wanting Anafiel to think much about anyone else." As he spoke, he poured oil onto his hands and rubbed it between his palms.

[st_illunsmeared]

"I see."

Phryne fell silent for a moment, considering what it would mean to only have wanted one man and to have been discouraged from from pursuing others in D'Angeline society. In her own, it would be a common state of affairs. How had she learned to pursue sexual relations?

"Most of us do learn by trial and error, I'm afraid. Often quite a lot of error. The place to begin, I suppose, is with what you want in the situation."

[st_unning]

"Love as thou wilt, is what blessed Elua bid," Alcuin said with a little smile. "I suppose I ought to remember that. Though after what happened with Vax - well. He was so kind about it. I suppose I have no reason to think Ignis would be any different, if he is not interested."

[st_illunsmeared]

"If Ignis has an unkind bone in his body, it most certainly won't reveal itself in connection with you," she informed Alcuin as she stretched luxuriously and then settled into stillness again. "As a matter of practicality, a formal courtship probably isn't necessary, but it wouldn't hurt to ask him on a date."

[st_unning]

Alcuin laid his hands on Phryne's back then, and began to gently sweep his palms over it, spreading the oil.

"A date," he repeated, as if it were a foreign concept. "I... what would we do?"

[st_illunsmeared]

"Have dinner. Go for a walk. Teach him to dance if he doesn't know how," Phryne murmured languidly. "Anything can be a date with the right person." It made her smile to think how many dates she and Jack had been on before they ever acknowledged an interest. And then she had a brilliant idea. "In fact, if you tell me when you'd like to do it, you can leave the rest to me and Dot."

[st_unning]

Alcuin began to massage her back in earnest as he spoke again after a brief hesitation. "That's very kind of you. It's only that the idea makes me so nervous, and I'm not entirely certain why. I've just never done this before, I suppose. I'm accustomed to... knowing what I'm doing."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Surely you didn't always know," Phryne murmured, body relaxing and tension releasing under his hands. After a moment, she added, "I'd wager Ignis has no more knowledge than you." His service to Noctis had doubtless not left time for courtships.

[st_unning]

Alcuin knew there was a saying about the blind leading the blind, but suspected that would be in very poor taste.

"You're right," he said. "One does have to learn things." He found a tense spot under her shoulder and worked it out. "Like this."

[st_illunsmeared]

"If this is any indication of your ability to learn, you've nothing at all to worry about." She turned her head to offer him a fond smile and to say, in a different, less didactic tone, "You have lovely hands."

[st_unning]

"Thank you," Alcuin said softly, and very nearly found himself adding 'my lady' to the end of that but bit it back just in time. "I think you would like Terre d'Ange."

[st_illunsmeared]

"I believe I would." If her household and Jack were with her. "If it isn't too painful, I would love to hear more about your home and what it was like."

[st_unning]

"It is not painful to remember some things," Alcuin said gently, as he smoothed his hands expertly over her back, down to her waist, briefly at the curve of her hips.

"I have told you about the Night Court," he mused. "Did you notice that they are all named for night-blooming flowers? Adepts of Naamah... as they receive patron gifts, they repay their debts, and as a symbol of this, the flower is limned on their backs. It is called a marque, and when it is complete, they are free of any obligation to their House and may stay or go as they please."

[st_illunsmeared]

"And how does one become an adept?" Because this was not something he'd discussed with her before and it had seemed invasive to ask.

[st_unning]

"There are different ways," Alcuin said. "Children are often sold to houses, or grow up there. But everyone must enter Naamah's service willingly. I did not belong to a house. I... was rescued, I suppose. And I gave myself to Naamah's service, perhaps not entirely for the right reasons, but I was willing."

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"Children may not become adepts, I hope?" Her tone remained mild, because she didn't believe this world Alcuin had told her of would value children so little that they might be sold into sexual slavery, especially when rape was the highest form of blasphemy.

[st_unning]

"What?" Alcuin's eyes went a little wide. "No, no. Most adepts' virgin nights are their sixteenth birthday, or shortly after." And in Terre d'Ange, this was the age of adulthood.

[st_illunsmeared]

Phryne nodded and reached back with one hand to pat his where it rested on her back. "I was almost certain that was the case, darling, but I've had a recent run in with men who didn't believe as we do."

[st_unning]

"Children cannot consent," said Alcuin quietly. And then, he added just as quiet, a confession, "There are things about my culture that I recognize may still seem troubling from the outside. I can even see some of it myself. How if the story of Anafiel and I were told in one of those paperback novels - it may seem as if I was used."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Do you feel you were used, darling? If not, I'm not inclined to judge." She patted his hand again, and then returned it to her side so she didn't undo the good work he was doing. "But every culture looks peculiar to those on the outside. I'm listening to learn, that is all."

[st_unning]

"I... did not do anything I was not willing to do for love," Alcuin said after a moment, as he found a knot of tension near her shoulder and began to ease it apart. "But he did not know I only did it for him. Not until it was too late."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Mm, I see what you mean about not doing it for the right reasons, but, darling, is not the central precept to love as thou wilt? It seems to me that if you completed your marque for love of Anafiel, you did precisely that."

The knot he'd found beneath her shoulder blade smarted terribly, but she bore it easily under his talented fingers.

"Had Anafiel known, he might have made a different choice for you, and so might you have. But he didn't know, so you loved him the way you could."

[st_unning]

"Thank you, Phryne," Alcuin said. "That is a very nice way to think about it."

After a moment, he raised his hands from her back. "How is that?"

[st_illunsmeared]

Phryne stretched languidly and smiled. "Wonderful. Thank you." Of course, now she would have to move and to lie here lazily seemed like all she wanted in the world.

"I really would love to hear more of D'Angeline culture, though, hmm? Perhaps over a drink or another time?"