Celebrity

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras lets the university have hold of the necklace again so they can finish learning everything about it. He'll start molding it when the Dean's learned all of its quirks - trying it now could accidentally make some aspect of it worse. Besides, it takes time, it's not like he can manage any progress in the time that it'll take for the Dean to identify anyway. Best to know where he's going when he starts going there.

News spreads pretty quickly about the knife's new location at the bottom of the ocean. Aldaras and Sintre become celebrities, along with being rich. Sintre is nigh-impossible to find in his hermithood. Aldaras - is not. The necklace is his. The mission to go encase the knife in concrete was organized by him. He's now deemed to be an important person, and as bewildering as that is, he works to roll with it.

He ends up invited to a party. It's the type of party with lots of important, famous people attending. He can bring one guest with him.

Right, he knows who he wants to bring, but first he has to ask her. Time to go find Annie.

Comments

[keep_busy]

"Thanks. Shall we?"

[touchedinthehead]

"Yeah."

And: party.

[keep_busy]

Annie talks to people and eats tasty food and politely declines to dance and seems to have a reasonably good time!

[touchedinthehead]

What a coincidence! Aldaras does all of those things, too. Though declining to dance is for different reasons.

"That was surprisingly fun," he declares, when they are all out of party and going home.

[keep_busy]

"Yeah," she says, looking up at him thoughtfully.

[touchedinthehead]

"I'll let you know if I'm invited to another?"

(He doesn't realize what other reasons she might have for the thoughtful look.)

[keep_busy]

"Yes, do."

And then she stands on tiptoes and puts her hands behind his head so she can tug him down and kiss him.

[touchedinthehead]

Oh.

Aldaras tells his brain to kindly shut up for a little while and just kiss Annie. He's quite gentle about it, and lets her set the stage for how she wants the kiss to go, but - kisses.

[keep_busy]

Apparently the agenda for today is a couple of brief exploratory kisses and not thorough makeouts, but she is smiling when she sets her heels back on the ground.

[touchedinthehead]

That is a statistically higher number of kisses than he was expecting to get in the timespan of ever, he is totally fine with brief exploratory kisses instead of thorough makeouts.

He touches her cheek with a thumb and smiles back. Lovey look? Lovey look.

[keep_busy]

"Thanks for the invite. Home we go?"

[touchedinthehead]

"Home we go," he agrees, sounding like his head's up in the clouds, running an expedition to find the promised land of fairies and candy or something else that's delightful. He's probably not coming back down to this planet for a while.

[keep_busy]

And so they go.

She holds his hand.

[touchedinthehead]

Eeeee! Hand holding! Kissing! Annie in a gorgeous dress! This is the best day.

[keep_busy]

She kisses him again before she lets herself into her house and shuts the door.

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras happily kisses her back, and then heads home and flops in his bed.

The next day is less wonderful.

It starts with a phone call, followed by, "We're terribly sorry, but the artifact you left with us has been stolen." Then, even better, "The thimble, too."

Shit.

Aldaras says he has to go before the receptionist can go on her tangent about how they 'Have the best minds' looking for it. Because he needs to call Annie. This is information she needs to know. Not just because it's important, but because it's the thimble, and his necklace.

He hangs up on the receptionist with only a necessary explanation (he can throw the 'keeper' excuse to make her go away: it's even true) and then calls Annie.

[keep_busy]

"Salutations?"

[touchedinthehead]

"Salutations. Both the necklace and the thimble are missing. Probably stolen."

[keep_busy]

"...Shit."

[touchedinthehead]

"That was the word I used, too."

[keep_busy]

"Do they know how? When? Any idea who or why...?"

[touchedinthehead]

"Some time last night - they don't know how. Or who, or why. Or if they do, they haven't told me."

[keep_busy]

"Shit. On campus I can just - keep well away from any walls thick enough that I wouldn't hear the tic, but if it's been stolen - it could be anywhere, they could be gagging themselves or stuffing their mouths with caramel if they're willing to steal the damn thing in the first place -"

[touchedinthehead]

He winces. "Yeah. I - since I'm a tracker and immune to mind reading anyway, I'll look for it myself. But I might not find it quickly, or even at all. I - what do you want to do, Annie?"

[keep_busy]

"Flee the country?" she says weakly. "I - that's probably an overreaction. I can't stand - thinking about somebody watching me think -"