Ari/Aspel (+Ric) | 2:00am
Ari hadn’t expected the expression of concern, and felt almost guilty for a moment for having interrupted a moment which had, perhaps, not needed her in it. Fortunately, the worry faded soon after, replaced with an amusement she had thought to invoke in the first place. A problem for another time, perhaps, but not now. “I suppose, if pressed, I can name one or two likely reasons why,” she responded at length.
“Let’s see,” she added, putting on a thoughtful expression, though her eyes remained amused, “we can certainly scandalize at least half of the attendees in one way or another without much effort at all. The rumors still need feeding, and we’ve quite a wide audience here which we cannot always reach in other ways. And I imagine, as we are at a ball, you might consider dancing with me.” She was quite tired, it was true, but she had taken every opportunity to dance that she could grasp. They had been few enough, all things considered; Lav aside, most nobles turned up their noses at dancing with the hired help (though she had neatly maneuvered the Kapur boy into it all the same).
“I would offer to keep you company in a drink,” she finished, “but alas, I’ve one more set to play yet, and with the lateness of the hour I will really need all my faculties to manage it.”
“One or two?” A curious quirk of brow would be given. “Just what precisely have you been doing to my poor, poor brother now?” Was there something else she was unaware of at this point that perhaps she should be? Aspel couldn’t help but wonder precisely what Ari had been getting up to with her standard trolling of everyone around her at this point. “I am uncertain his poor psyche can handle quite the breadth of tricks and turns as I have become accustomed to with you.” A playful smile lingered at Aspel’s lips with her commentary. It was a good thing her and Ari were standardly around similar mentalities or perhaps she would have been sent running for the hills some years ago at this point.
“Mm, I suspect that would not be terribly trying, no.” The idea of scandalizing at least half of the ball was quite tempting, but some little piece of Aspel felt that maybe, just maybe, perhaps, that might not be the best of ideas while in this particular location. However, scandalizing some of the ball? Completely reasonable; they still did have a game to play and reputation to maintain. “A dance?” Something devilishly mischievous flared in the smith’s voice. “Is that all you ask?” There were plenty of other ways they could make this evening terribly entertaining but perhaps… Starting off with a dance would be best.
“Ah, well, I do believe there are only so many times I should be carrying you home after a night of debauchery, no?” Which, while the memories remained fresh of just how that night had gone and how Aspel had rather liked it, there were other ways to stir just as much interest, of this she had no doubt.
Shifting, a kiss would be placed against Ari’s hair before Aspel stepped back, offering an upturned palm out to the other woman with a definite playfulness slipping in with her amusement. “May I have this dance?”