Random 44

Sylvie walked up to him after a moment empty-handed, and pointed a thumb at the sleepers. "Do you think I can leave him here? They seem comfortable, and I don't know if he'd like if I dragged him outside now." She had thought what she'd said about him liking anyone who gave him food had been an overstatement. Not finding Auker thoroughly unnerved interested her way more that that diary.

"Will she find him inside her robes in the morning?" he asked a little jokingly, reacting to the question and only then to the realisation that Sylvie was... well, yes. He found a smile of some sort, and it widened when he glanced at the dragon and the priestess.

"Depends how long the rests of the fire keep warm. Probably not," she answered entirely seriously.

"That's fine. I think she'd find it amusing anyway... strange woman," he said. He then shook his head and went to collect his raincloak and hat again. And the messenger bag, before he forgot that.

Sylvie got a heavy pan from a hook on the wall, and put it over the collected papers. That should do the trick.

Then she got her own cloak, and they left again.

"I should get her a kitten when this is all over," Sebastian said once they were outside, offering an arm again as they walked out of the alley. "It wouldn't probably be quite the same, though..."

"Or maybe they'll get along so well he'll want to stay, and she'll let him."

Sylvie smiled and took the offered arm. She suspected the first time had been an impulse to grab him to stop him from running off and causing some disaster.

"Depends on how she wakes up, I guess," Sebastian smirked, looking left and right just before they turned. It really had been a productive day -- he hadn't been expecting anything like this, not after how slowly things had progressed thus far. It wasn't exactly new -- and thus surprising --, but a pleasant turn of events nonetheless. It was then that he realised he wasn't all that certain about the time of day anymore. Those damned clouds and the damned rain made it difficult enough. "How is Old Ivy?"

Sylvie considered a moment, suppressing a yawn.

"The house is still standing, and as far as I know the roof's still tight. It's a bit of a problem getting into the yard, though. The entry had dirt ground, which is mud now."

He nodded, making note of the yawn. Mud was... happening, yes. He honestly didn't want to even try travelling right now. "How about the family, then?"

Sylvie considered the last chat about the weather they'd had. "Business is slow, as for any, I'd imagine. Gemma and Riya are worried... I'm not sure if Garren is really less so or pretending for their benefit. I'm not sure about Mael, he spends so much time with his girlfriend I don't see him much."

Sebastian frowned. He had half been expecting something light or possibly irrelevant -- but it just turned out that he had been fooling himself all along. It had been more or less a week now, hadn't it? "I don't think I can blame him, really," he said and looked around, drinking in the sights.

Water everywhere, bits of wet ground where there weren't puddles, wet windows, doors, walls and roofs. That summed it up pretty nicely, but then there was this stink he didn't know what it was. Even if they stopped this before it was far, far too late -- and he suspected it was very near --, there were going to be a lot of mosquitoes around.

Sebastian looked vaguely angry. But it just wouldn't do. He tried to wash that face away and put on some calm.

Sylvie didn't react to the remark about Mael; it made so little sense she took it for an articulated random noise.

She saw rather less, or at least less detail in the gloom, but mostly she carefully refrained from thinking about the idea that it might already be too late.

When they finally reached old Ivy, there was still light in the shop, aven though it was closed already.

Riya sighed happily. She had mopped up the floor, wiped the dust and in general put everything back to normal. She was a happy girl for now. Now she could make some tea, have a snack and get back to reading. Mael was going to clean tomorrow, period. It just wasn't going to do anymore.

The Old Ivy's daughter looked at the door, briefly wondering if she ought to bar it. But Sylvie hadn't come back yet. It was just the same as Mael, she assumed, running around with someone 'special'... or something like that. Whatever. It wasn't --

The door opened. "It took you... oh. Hi."

"Hello," said Sebastian.

Riya was instantly reminded of something she had overlooked. Sylvie would drag in more water. And mud.

"Hello," Sylvie echoed, and stopped dead a step into the room, realising the horrible significance of the mop, and added a "Sorry". She had scraped the worst of the mud off, but, well.

Turning to Sebastian, she said, "When should we meet again?"

He looked outside and thought about the question. How to answer that? Luckily it came out automatically. "Oh, just get enough rest. I'll probably be looking into a few things in the morning anyway," Sebastian said and looked back at the two. He pretended he didn't see the look on Riya's face.

Riya got ready to mop again, silently amused. She interpreted the look outside in a very specific way. This was totally worth the mud.

Sylvie didn't catch the look, or at least what was behind it.

"Mh, just... take care you don't fall into a midden or something." It came out as an attempt at a joke you noticed halfway through was stupid.

She wadded up her cloak with the inside out and the hem at the centre, hoping to keep it from dripping too much.

"What, no staying for tea?" Riya asked out of the blue. "I was going to make some."

"It's not that far," the ingrained response came, along with a pleasant smile. "Thanks anyway."

"Ah, come on," Riya said. You just didn't get people this alien around very often.

Sebastian wouldn't have been surprised by any of her reasons for inviting him to stay. He looked at Riya, then at Sylvie, and shrugged. "If you let me clean after myself while you make the tea."

"I'm not sure," Riya said, frowning. Oh, but yes!

"Ah, come on," Sebastian said.

Sylvie was meanwhile leaning against the doorframe and getting off her boots. Her socks were damp, anyway, so the state of the floor didn't make much of a difference.

She gave Riya a partly peeved and mostly amused look - stop pretending already.

Se-Kai? Well, him staying might help get rid of Sylvie's having no idea what to tell her when she asked where they'd been today.

Riya tried to look like she hadn't even noticed Sylvie and said chipperly: "All right, then! I'll go get started. Don't worry about anything but the floor, okay?" She began heading for the kitchen, humming happily.

"Sure." Sebastian, trying to once again return to his more relaxed persona as Kai, did away with his raincloak and hat first, taking quite a while with his boots.