Da Capo (Manifesto)

[Zhenya]

Adrian fell into an easy step beside her, not that she particularly expected otherwise of him. Zhenya wrapped companionably close, her palm smoothing the expensive sleeve of his suit, warm from the body within. He wore deepest blue, like the promise of an evening sky darkening to the charcoal night of his shirt, and he smelled divine. Good business didn’t have to be wrapped up in a pretty package, of course; Zhenya’s vanities were not so frivolous, just her preferences. But it certainly didn’t hinder. Adrian Kane made a rather beautiful accessory.
 
“If it’s been a while it’s because you are always so busy, Adrian. One would think you had forgotten the dearest of your friends.” The admonishment had no bite, just the tease of long acquaintance. In business Zhenya was known to be as ruthless as a warrior queen, but in social niceties she was genuinely warm, and her favourites inevitably met at that crossroads. She leaned closer for a conspiratorial whisper. “Now that would depend, no? Are you tempted?” Her eyes upturned, all darkened tease. She was flirtatious without being salacious, and her smile twitched with fond humour. Her attention held all the warmth of the sun, but she was a married woman, after all.

He fell amongst them with practised ease. Zhenya watched the drink delivered to his hand with a trifling suspicion for its content. It was her habit to come to know the small routines of a person. She could be relied upon for discretion, of course, but it did not mean she would not tease him with an amused and knowing look for the presumption of such staid restraint.

Meanwhile the conversation flowed unobstructed by the commotion from the door, dutifully ignored whilst security handled the intrusion. Jivana's heir hovered nearby, enthralled by whatever it was he flipped methodically in his hand. Such a delightful boy. But she rather doubted Emilio would approve of the young men currently creating quite the boisterous scene in an effort to garner his attention. Cruz Vega was very young, perhaps not even out of his teens, and he might not find much to amuse him in Block 1, but he was welcome to hide amongst them whilst he recovered from his clear mortification.

A curl of seidr arced the object high the next time it left his hand. It glinted like metal as it spun, its onward journey intended to bring him a little closer.

As for Natalie, by the manner of Adrian’s smile she suspected he recognised her. England was such a quaint little place, or so it seemed to her. She had wondered curiously if they might know each other. Little in Natalie's reaction suggested it to be the case, though it was difficult to tell. She was unruffled as a breeze upon a frozen lake. 

“Natalie was about to regale us with stories of her most recent trip outside Moscow. I so rarely get to travel these days that I am forced to live vicariously instead through the adventures of others.”