Re: The Cat: Rae and Kratos
The move to English was further disconcerting. His eyes could not narrow any further, and he felt the conversation chill on his flesh like a corpse. He set his hands on the edge of the bar, both of them, hard gray flesh and rough callous. He leaned, not with the intent to intimidate, but with a sign that the conversation had his investment, and he had no fear of it. His shoulders bunched up as he hung his weight from them, and finally (finally) he blinked.
He did not switch to English. He did not want to become less understandable. Quite the contrary. He said, "I see. I do not ask this way. I tell you, and then if you also want it, you tell me. It is not an asking. It is not a favor." It was a long, discomfiting speech for him.
The door beyond the bar opened with still more patrons there for the game, and he pushed away from the bar, effectively ending the conversation. "I am here, until dark, that day," he told her. If she wished to come, she would. If she did not, then she would not. "If you wish to be wanted."
Then he moved away, steps heavy, to finish his shift.