Ari ♫ ♪ ♬ (gracenotes) wrote in emillion, @ 2013-07-25 21:14:00 |
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Aside from the brief brunch two weeks back, Ari had not seen Bella in close to a month, and even their network communication had been sporadic at best as the corsair flew in and out of the city on business and Ari’s show opened and ran. Having heard that they would actually both be in the city - and free from other engagements - this week, Ari had quickly offered to host dinner at home. Judging by the sorts of questions Bella had been asking her in their last conversation, honesty would demand a moducm of privacy. She had tidied as best she could, which was to say that nothing was on the floor that should not be, even if the shelves were crammed with books and knick-knacks, and the surfaces of her dining and coffee tables were mostly clear. She had followed the perfunctory cleaning by ordering dinner from a nearby restaurant, choosing shrimp panzanella over her usual default from the Tipsy Sheep’s kitchen, which she could admit held no benefit aside from being quick and convenient. She had unearthed a bottle of wine, too, at which she had stared longingly before sighing and resigning herself to water. Fortunately, the show would be over before much longer. Her door and windows were open to catch the surprisingly cool breeze as afternoon turned to evening, and she sat cross-legged on the couch, strumming through a particularly tricky passage in her latest song scroll and waiting for her friend to arrive. Now that life was a little less hectic for her, Arabella was looking forward to spending the next couple of weeks in the city. After weeks of flitting back and forth between various locations, transporting people and goods alike, all she wanted to do was relax, do a little shopping, and catch up with her friends. First up on her list was Ari; she hadn't seen the bard in weeks. And if the rumors were anything to be believed, Arabella had clearly missed quite a bit. While Ari was providing dinner, Arabella had no intention of showing up to her place empty handed. She was armed with a bouquet of orchids and a box of fresh pastries from one of her favorite bakeries when she arrived on Ari's doorstep. She gently rapped on the open door before she stepped inside, grinning when she spotted the younger woman perched on the couch. "Well," she said brightly, crossing across the room so she could give Ari a quick kiss on the cheek. "Reunited with my favorite scandal causing Ordalian at last." Ari returned the kiss with a grin. “Really, I had no choice but to cause a scandal in order to get you to come and see me,” she quipped. Setting aside her mandolin, she stood to take the flowers and headed to the kitchen to dig out a vase. She owned twice as many vases as plates, so it was really just a matter of finding the right one. She had flowers far more often than the sorts of company who required matching flatware. Once the flowers were taken care of, she set them in the middle of the table. “Hungry?” she asked cheerfully. “Or would you like to interrogate me on my scandalous doings first? Not that you can’t interrogate and eat concurrently.” Bella placed the box of pastries on the table as she sat down, crossing her legs. Her mouth curved into a playful smile as she looked at Ari. "Scandalous doings first, food later," she replied. Bella didn't want to admit that this recent bit of gossip had preoccupied her day, but — Aspel and Drake. If there was any truth to it, Arabella would be considerably impressed. Propping her elbows up on the table, she leaned forward, resting her chin in her hands. "And do not leave out a single detail or I'll never forgive you." “Oh, I suppose,” Ari drawled, pulling out a chair for herself and sitting down to mirror Bella’s position almost exactly, down to the playful smile. “As I told you on the network, enough of what you’ve heard is true, although I can’t be certain exactly which variants have piqued your interest.” Some of them were a little more outlandish than others. The political ploy bit had her hackles up, if she had to be honest about it, but the rest seemed harmless enough, and she had diligently been feeding the rumors at every opportunity, which had turned out to be quite a bit more fun than she had anticipated. “Let’s see... the short version of the story, then: we ended up spending the majority of the afternoon together at the Festival of Lions, people decided to be moronic — par for the course, really — and at Aspel’s suggestion, we decided to have a bit of fun with things. It hasn’t taken much pretending, granted,” she added airily. “I am quite fond of both parties.” Arabella nodded along as Ari spoke, listening to her with great interest. The political aspect of the rumor barely registered with her; anyone that knew Arielle Chiaro could tell you how laughably ridiculous that was. But the rest of it certainly seemed plausible enough; she was unsurprised to hear Ari say it didn't require much pretending. Bella assumed it didn't take much pretending from the other two members of the triangle, either. How could it? They were all considerably attractive people. One part struck her as odd. "On Aspel's suggestion?" she asked, arching an eyebrow. "I admit I don't know her all that well, but she strikes me as a very private woman. Encouraging the rumors..." Bella trailed off, then made a nonchalant gesture with one of her hands. "That's just very surprising." Ari’s smile went from playful to self-satisfied, and her tone was rich with amusement as she responded, “Aspel is... fond of games.” A light laugh. She had only recognized not long ago how very true that was — and just how much she stood to benefit from the fact. “And the more ludicrous the rumors, the less those who know her will put stock in them. As for the rest of the populace, who cares what they think? Although,” she added, with another laugh, “it does have the additional benefit of terrifying Rictor, which I must admit holds its own appeal — even if he should really know better.” Councilor Aspel Cassul didn't seem like the type that was fond of games, but Ari certainly knew her much better than Bella did. It was an interesting thing to note. Her teeth flashed in a grin at the mention of Rictor. "I didn't even think about poor Ric. His older sister and one of his best friends and another woman? I imagine the very thought must send him into some sort of conniption fit." Not that the Cassul siblings seemed terribly close. Rictor and Bella did not spend their time together talking about family matters, but that much she knew. Still, best friend plus older sister was obviously an awkward combination for a man like him. “He was certainly exceedingly awkward at me when I caught him en déshabillé in your kitchen,” Ari said with a giggle. “And that was before Drake. Which I do believe to be mostly a fabrication for the sake of the rumormongers, by the way,” she added. It had started somewhere, certainly, but the shocked and awkward look on Drake’s face after Aspel had kissed his cheek had spoken volumes. “They are playing at it rather convincingly for those who might not look too closely, I will admit. Really a valiant effort all around — we might all be actors as opposed to just me.” She took up the carafe of water on the table and filled her glass, adding, “There is wine breathing on the counter for you, if you would like it.” She took a sip of her water before continuing. “In any case, I am the beneficiary of all of this, in the end. It is true that I’ve been seeing both of them in one way or another since before all this, so I suppose your pride in my unexpected prowess can remain.” Arabella made a soft noise of agreement as she thought back on Ari & Rictor's conversation in her kitchen: what a delightfully uncomfortable conversation that had been. She almost felt bad for letting it go on for as long as it had. Almost. The poor Korporal was so easily flustered — she could hardly imagine how a conversation with Drake on the subject of his sister would go. "I would love some," she replied, standing up at once. Corsairs weren't known for turning down drinks and Arabella Alaire was no exception. She crossed over to the kitchen and began rummaging around for a glass. She switched back to the topic at hand as she carefully poured the contents of the bottle into her glass, her tone light and airy. "Well, who knows. Maybe all this play acting will turn into something else! That would be quite the story: we were all pretending to date and then we fell deeply in love with one another." “Bella, anything I could throw at you is breakable,” Ari complained. “I have no intentions of falling in love. Falling into bed, now, that I can do.” And really, that was the extent of what she wanted - and why it was proving to be so damnably difficult, she had no idea. “I’ll leave the romance to the bards’ tales. I’ll take simple, old-fashioned lust any day.” There was a pause as Arabella took a long sip of wine — it was delicious, of course. Ari had fantastic taste. "And there's nothing wrong with that," she agreed, smiling over the rim of her glass. "I certainly prefer it to romantic entanglements. That said, I do need someone to live vicariously through when I'm feeling especially romantic. Can you name a better person to live through than the young woman with two paramours? I certainly can't." “In which case, please feel free to imagine any number of fantastic and untrue things about me,” Ari told her generously. “Riding off into the sunset on snowy white chocobos as the orchestra swells and all.” She laughed at the mental image. “And that said, feeling particularly romantic, are you?” She put her elbow on the table, leaned forward to cup her chin in her hand. “Do tell me more. Maybe between the two of us, you’re the one with the real juicy secrets? My paramours and I can wait.” "If I have any juicy secrets, darling, I haven't discovered them yet," Arabella replied, brushing off the idea with another nonchalant hand gesture. It was true: Rictor was always there when needed, but that was purely physical. She was still interested in getting to know Darius, of course (only a fool would be disinterested in a man with those looks), but other than that? Her love life was quiet. Uninteresting. Bella was rarely the subject of gossip because there was never anything to gossip about; she preferred it that way. "And since you insist on changing the subject back to the completely uninteresting topic of my nonexistent love life, I believe it's time for dinner." That was all the signal Ari needed to begin removing covers from various boxes. Fortunately, the food still seemed to be warm. “If I’m coming across as evasive, it’s force of habit at this point,” she said lightly as she began to fill her plate. “You wouldn’t believe the questions and favors asked of me recently by perfect strangers, let alone acquaintances.” Appalling, really. That people thought she was some kind of mastermind, pulling the Fighters’ Guild strings, was incomprehensible to her. As though she would use such influence — if she actually had it — for people she didn’t know! She finished filling her plate and took up her fork. “You, of course, are deserving of nothing but the whole truth, even if isn’t nearly as salacious as either of us would like it to be.” She grinned. “My life isn’t remotely as interesting as people say, sadly — I must admit I’ve been groped far more frequently by my horrid co-star of late than anyone interesting. Still, ask away, but do eat before dinner gets cold.” Clucking her tongue in disapproval, Arabella gave Ari a surprised look as she filled her own plate. Certainly the woman with two paramours was faring well for herself in the bedroom. But as she speared a shrimp on her fork, she remembered what Ari had said only a few minutes ago: Aspel is fond of games. She wouldn’t have pegged the council member for a tease, but the night was full of surprises. This was going to be a very enlightening dinner. |