Lo isn't impressed. (thedemonlo) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-09-15 22:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, lo, sebastian vael |
Who: Lo and Sebastian Vael.
What: Friendly chat over curry.
When: Sunday afternoon, 9/15.
Where: Lo's office.
Rating: PG-13 for swearing.
Status: Complete!
Sebastian felt like getting out of the office for lunch that day, but Penelope was tied up with some conference at Stark. Bah. So, the next best option was Lo. He’d arrived at the office bearing bags of fresh curry from the Indian takeaway near the office - hopefully Lo would eat it - and figured he’d see if the man was available.
Lo was in his office, sitting and going over a few legal briefs. Boring stuff, estate law, but he did it for his clients to make himself a loyal, one stop shop. He liked that they used him for everything. When he heard his secretary telling him that Sebastian Vael was here, he grinned at the interruption and told her to show him in.
Sebastian stuck his head in, smiling. “H’lo, mate. Wanted to get out of the office, so figured I’d bring you lunch in yours. How’s things?”
“Good, good! And if you like, we can always go out for lunch.” Lo wondered if he’d squired him overseas yet. “It’s dinnertime in France.”
“If you want, though I did bring curry.” Sebastian had forgotten that Lo could just jump them anywhere. It sounded strange, but rather marvellous.
“God, I could murder a curry. It’s this damn body temperature thing, I eat like it’s my job now.” He laughed, shaking his head. “You’re too kind. Sit, sit, here I am nattering on. How are you?”
“I’m all right.” Sebastian said, shrugging. “Can’t complain. Had a good date the other night, having a good day at work. A problem I feared would happen never did quite come through. You’re well, you said?”
“I’m fantastic. What sort of problem and who was the date?” Lo took out the food containers from the bag and began sorting through them, divvying up portions.
“Oh, Penelope.” He smiled a little. “And the problem was at work; I thought I’d been booked for two places at once, but one event was cancelled. No real harm done.”
Lo noticed that smile and pointed, grinning. “Right, your girlfriend, yeah? And that’s a good thing, I hate when I overbook.” It was why he tended to not book at all, to just let people find him.
“Not sure if I’d say girlfriend,” Sebastian corrected, opening the plastic tin of curry. “God, that smells good.”
“Considering you smiled like she is, I hope you’ve told her she’s not yours.” Lo sighed happily as he tucked in, tie over one shoulder so he wouldn’t spill.
“I don’t know, does it need saying?” He didn’t like all those labels.
“Sometimes, yeah. Do you want her dating other people?” Lo nibbled a bit on his food, then smiled at Sebastian. “If she was doing with another man what she does with you, how would you feel?”
“Sick to my bloody stomach.” He had to be honest.
“And I’m nearly certain she feels the same way about you - what woman wouldn’t? Just ask her, make it official. Labels are there so that people can easily reference things like that. You’re her boyfriend - so she knows when some other guy hits on her she has to turn him down. And vice versa.” Lo shrugged. “My boyfriend and I just talked about it one night over dinner, and then we don’t bring it up anymore. I think I tell him once a month I love him. We’re just not that way. But we had to talk about it once when I asked him to move in.”
Sebastian shook his head.”It’s just silly, though. I mean, I suppose I can discuss it with her, but I’m not at university anymore; girlfriend sounds as though I’m eighteen again.”
“Whatever word you want to call it, then. Your lady friend. Your woman. Doesn’t matter.” Lo waved a dismissive hand and ate some bread.
“I’m hesitant.” Sebastian said, shaking his head again. “It isn’t some commitment-phobia thing. I just don’t want her harassed, and if I say she’s my girlfriend, the paparazzi will pick up on it. Somehow. They’re like bloody devil’s magic. They hear everything.”
Lo blinked. “Well hell, that’s my job. I could stop them.” He grinned broadly. “That is literally my job, you git.”
“You’re too fucking expensive.” Sebastian grinned, ducking the incipient smack.
That made Lo laugh out loud. “Only for assholes! You’d get friends’ rates, they’re more than halved.” He winked at Sebastian, shaking his head.
“You must work with a lot of arseholes.” Sebastian laughed, but he soon grew serious. “I don’t know, mate. I’m just ... what do you think ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend’ means? A lot of the time it means you love them, and I’m just not sure of that yet.” He wasn’t opposed to the idea by any means; he just wasn’t sure it was the right time yet.
“I used to have Lindsay Lohan. So yes.” Lo leaned back, shaking his head. “I think it means that you’re dating exclusively. Just that. When you say you love someone, that means you love them.” Scud had been Lo’s boyfriend first, loved one second.
“If that was the definition, I suppose I could be pleased enough.” Sebastian nodded. “I just don’t want to lie to the woman. It’s cruel.”
“So don’t lie to her. Be honest. Just don’t ... not say things.” Lo shrugged, leaning back and taking out a cigarette. “Do you mind?” He handrolled his, but not everyone liked the smell.
“No, go ahead.” Sebastian was still eating. “Won’t I sound like a right tit if I’m utterly honest?”
Lo lit his cigarette, then pocketed his antique petrol lighter. He liked the way the gas smelled on his fingers. Thinking to himself, he shook his head. “No. If you say that you don’t want to see any other people and want to see where the relationship goes, that’s honest and fair. People can’t expect more than that in a relationship, can they?”
“I hope not.” Sebastian sighed. “I just don’t want her to laugh at me. I have this reputation, and the idea of me settling down always gets me laughed at.” Maybe it was unjust to Penelope, but he worried about her not believing him.
“Has she ever done that before with you?” Lo blinked. “She must be something, for you to go all starry eyed just at the mentioning of her.”
“No, but I’ve never said ‘right, let’s not see anyone else’ to her.” It wasn’t Penelope, it was saying that to a woman.
“No, but she might think you’re still sleeping with the tristate area.” Lo smiled. “I did until this very moment.”
“Did you now.” Sebastian laughed. “Well, that is a problem, as I’m actually only sleeping with her at this given moment. Well. Not at this moment. I don’t have the ability to astrally project, though that would be rather handy.”
“While that’s very clever of you to say, you should probably tell her. Just send an email or something.” Lo couldn’t help but smirk. “Trust me, one discussion now will save you an all out fight later on.”
“I’m bad at fighting.” Sebastian finished his curry plate, setting it aside. “Also just bloody awful at being ... ” Committed? Avuncular? “It’s all just awkward. Ugh. If I tell her what I want, she may very well tell me to piss off.”
“Very good, you’ve defined a relationship. She could tell you to piss off tomorrow just because the wind blew the right way or she fucked her boss on his desk or her mother dies and she can’t handle it. You don’t know what tomorrow may bring, so you’d damn well best tell her you value her enough to not bugger any other yon wee lassies,” Lo drawled, mimicking Sebastian quite capably.
“You stop that.” Sebastian pointed, though he was amused. “Though I do hope she never shags Tony Stark, as I think Pepper Potts would kill her. And I’d regret that.”
Lo winced. “Okay, fair point.”
“I’ve never met the woman, but everyone says she’s formidable.” Sebastian chuckled. “And I can’t speak for those who like blokes, but Tony Stark looks a bit ... twitchy to me.” Nervous. Not a bad thing, but maybe difficult to deal with.
“He’s got about a dozen irons in the fire at any given point. He makes my schedule look simple.” Lo shook his head. “But you’d better take my advice. I know about these things.”
“Sit her down and tell her ‘now, I don’t want you dating anyone else or I’ll die’ like some university swot?” Sebastian sighed. “I know you’re likely right, I’ll just feel a complete git.”
“So just mention it as an aside while you two are watching something with aliens in it.” Lo winked. He was well aware that Sebastian was a huge dork.
“D’you know, that might work.” Sebastian blinked. If it wasn’t the main focus of everything, he’d feel less stupid. And he knew the man was right, he just didn’t want to have it feel like a sodding proposal.
“I’m not suggesting you build it into a huge affair, but simply mention it.” Lo shook his head. “It’s not a huge deal, but it’s just something that should be known. Much like where you got this curry.”
Sebastian chuckled. “The curry is from Taj Mahal, over on Applegate. Silly name, yes, but brilliant food.”
“I pass that every day and never stop in. Stupid me. Then again, I can always pop over to India now whenever I want, seems rather silly, doesn’t it?” Lo shook his head. “Sometimes it baffles me.”
“I forget that you can do that.” Sebastian shook his head right back. “Seems mad to think about.” He wouldn’t mind that power himself; he could always pop back to Scotland to see his family if he had it.
“It is a bit. Is there anywhere you’d like to go? If you ever want to go see your family, I can take you. I know you must miss them.” Lo didn’t mind playing taxi.
“Oh?” Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “That would be nice around the holidays, maybe. It’s kind of you to even offer. Kind of you to put up with a git like my humble self.”
“It’s only for a minute, tops,” Lo chuckled. “Not a huge burden. And I do consider you a friend, silly.”
“Aw.” Sebastian batted his eyelashes. “I feel so loved.” He sighed. “But I do appreciate your advice with the lady friend.” Lo was right, of course. He just didn’t want to think about it. But just slipping it into conversation made him feel less awkward.
“And I have been working to keep you out of the papers, you know.” Lo folded his arms, smirking a little to himself. “You’re welcome.”
“Have you now? I hadn’t noticed.” Sebastian waited for the demon to glare before laughing.
“Hardy har har.” Lo flipped Sebastian off, lighting another cigarette with a smirk.
“What have I done that’s needed keeping out of the papers?”
“Oh, people have started to notice you’re not fucking LA. They assumed you’d take two weeks to mourn, then all of a sudden flood the streets with your semen.” Lo took another drag of his smoke. “Or something like that. They’ve noticed they’re not noticing you.”
“Oh. I see.” Sebastian raised one eyebrow. “Despite your charming metaphor, I suppose I could always try to act like a monk? Because I mean, regardless of what I may say to Penelope or not, I do not want her harassed.” He’d wind up in trouble if she was.
“Don’t worry. I leak a story about you and a randomly picked model under my care every two and a half to three weeks according to a randomization program I have on my computer. Looks like you’re womanizing the county down.” Lo winked at him. “They think it’s just a rumor and good publicity by random journalist error, you and your ladyfriend can have sex anywhere in the OC while being delightfully unmolested.” Lo couldn’t help his fingersteeple. “I know. I’m a genius.”
Sebastian looked at him with something between admiration and worry. “You might put just a bit too much time into your job, you know.” He kidded.
“Actually, I just bought a three dollar program off of the internet. It takes two seconds.” He smiled and shrugged. “I work smarter, not harder.”
“Clearly. I’m still impressed.” Sebastian laughed. “Not sure what that says about me.” He looked over at the man - the demon, he remembered, impassively smoking. “How are things with your laddie, speaking of relationships?”
“Really good. I moved him in. Never thought I’d like shacking up so much, though I think it’s easier when you’ve got a five bedroom house with wings.” If he and Scud didn’t want to see each other, they didn’t really have to.
“I daresay.” Sebastian filed that one away for later - if things kept going well and eventually Penelope might be able to move in with him, that was a perk. “Why do you own such a bloody great house, if you lived alone beforehand?”
“Location. It’s insanely private, so I got to do whatever I wanted. Skinny dipping in one’s own pool should be an affair that doesn’t get caught on camera.” Lo shook his head. “It’s this damn town.”
“I suppose that’s so.” Sebastian had never actually skinny-dipped in his own pool. Yet. “This town is no worse than London, to be quite honest. Can’t have a bloody moment’s peace, there.”
“I’d imagine it’s worse for you over there. You’re more famous.” Lo shook his head. “I’ll pop you into your estate directly whenever you want me to pop you over.”
“In Scotland, you mean? Because I need to get back to the office, not go home.” Sebastian smiled. “As always, m’lad, you’ve been a font of wisdom.”
“I can pop you over there too,” Lo shrugged. “Whichever.” He reached out to shake the other man’s hand. “It’s my thing, it’s what I do. And since I’m a shitty demon, I hate fucking lying.”
Sebastian appreciated the firm handshake. “I’ll speak to her. I promise. I just didn’t want to make some big fucking to-do about it. Doing it quietly seems just fine.”
“I teach you something new every day, huh.” Lo smirked. “Go on now, go be adorable and Scottish somewhere else, you young asshole.”
“Oi. Treat me with respect, I brought you bloody curry.” Sebastian joked. “You don’t have to pop me back if you don’t wish it; it isn’t too far back to the office.”
“Oh, I don’t mind.” Lo stood up, tapped Sebastian’s hand, went with him to his office, then went back to his own before the other man could speak on it. Because while Lo might not be a very good demon, he was an excellent troll.