uncharted territory

who: brett and eris
where: their new place
when: eveningish

It was getting on towards evening when Eris arrived at Brett's apartment building. She'd had a busy day. She'd done a little checking, gotten her own files in order (or, as much order as a woman with brain damage could get them in), and she waited to see if Jakob was going to do anything rash, like have her killed in the night. Or in broad daylight, either way, really. She'd gone, and gotten her business license, or at least, she'd put in for it, it would be a few days before it actually arrived and was cleared. She'd also went and talked to her girls, giving them the go ahead to start getting themselves clients. But she got that done. Really, she got about as much done as she could possibly manage on her own.

Then, and only then, when she was less paranoid that she'd be shot in the back and things were squared away, did she seek out the wayward boyscout. She'd specifically dressed well today, partially due to the need for a veil over the hat she wore while she was doing things in town, and partly because she'd wanted to show up looking good. It wasn't red, it was solid black, the only flares of red on her person being her lips, her nails, and a ruby necklace she'd gotten when they'd grabbed things from Babylon. It was simple, a teardrop stone at her throat. It didn't entirely distract from the remains of the bruise he'd left on her neck, but it did a little. She'd even refreshed her perfume before she headed up the steps, She knocked, stepping back, waiting.

Brett's apartment was dull in the fading light, the blinds draw, the light off. The place was as much of a mess as a soulless, impersonal apartment belonging to a naturally tidy man could actually be. Dirty dishes lay in the sink, a paper discarded on the floor. The man himself was slouched on the couch, looking like he hadn't moved since he'd gotten back yesterday morning, though the truth of that was belied by the dishes. He'd clearly eaten at some point, though 'cooking' appeared to have been an optional extra. There was no sign he'd been drinking though, and the radio was on low in the background. He ignored the knock at first, then finally called "It's open." A trusting line, maybe, but he wasn't entirely a fool. His right hand held his gun, tucked down by his side, and he eased back the hammer. Just in case.

She was surprised. Really, Brett sitting behind an unlocked door just didn't seem to make sense to her at this point in time, so it was with a moment's hesitation that she finally turned the knob, and opened it, half expecting to run into some hostage situation. But no. Or, no, that wasn't what it looked like immediately. She supposed there could be people hiding in the shadows, but she kind of doubted it. Even if the place did look messy, considering. Frowning slightly, she glanced around first, to be sure she wasn't missing something, and then she stepped fully in, shutting the door behind herself--and locking it, just in case. Keeping her eyes on him, she reached up to remove her hat and veil, letting her hair tumble down over her shoulders. "You look like hell, baby." she said to him, tone light.

He looked up, raising his eyes to her face. He didn't look surprised to see her as he let the hammer slide silently back into place and let the gun rest back down again. "Well, according to some, I look better... How was it you put it?" he asked, not quite recalling her words. Only that she preferred him when he hadn't shaved for a day or so. He doubted that she'd remember either, so moved straight on with barely a pause. "Slightly roughed up, maybe?" he suggested.

She didn't remember exactly, but the cue he gave led her to what she would have said. "Rough around the edges." she said, crossing the room to stand in front of him. "And I do happen to like that, but that, along with your surroundings..." she glanced around then rested her gaze on him once more. "You look like you've had better days." she finished. "I see we've taken to....wallowing?" she suggested with another quick glance around. "Has something happened that I should know about, or are you waiting for the axe to fall?"

He was wallowing, but he didn't like having it pointed out to him, especially not so bluntly. "What do you want?" he asked her, deciding not to actually answer her questions. If she was going to be blunt, then he was going to be damn well blunt as well and see how she liked it.

Oh goodie, they were back to the part where he was just cranky with her. Fabulous. "I thought I'd come by to tell you I've spoken with Jakob." she said, moving to lean against the arm of the couch, not quite sitting there. "I didn't offer up any explanations why the plans were changing, so our plans don't need to change. And, theoretically, he'll not take retribution out on me." She actually wasn't entirely certain that was going to hold. Really, really not, but she didn't want Brett worrying about it. It was her problem. She'd deal with it. Clearly, he was worrying enough all on his own. "So...you're free to do what you want." she told him. "Whatever that might be. No strings."

"There are always strings," Brett pointed out, almost dully. "How much weight do you put on 'theoretically'?" he added, after a moment's pause. He was trying to work out if she was being honest, or just brushing things off as though they weren't important.

"Not anymore, there aren't." Eris told him. "You were quite upset over the fact that there were some before, so...it's done. Taken care of." she said, turning to walk towards the sink, pausing to crouch down for a moment to pick up the paper that was on the floor. "It's what you wanted. Now you have it." She set the paper on the counter, and eyed the sink. He was usually a bit better than this, even if he didn't have her around anymore to do the little things for him. Reaching out, she started running water to do the dishes. "I talked to the girls earlier. Told them to start going about getting clients. They seemed rather eager." Was she rambling a little to fill the silence, and such? Yes, yes she was.

Tit for tat - he hadn't answered her questions, now she wasn't answering his. Still, it irked him - he was in the kind of mood to be predisposed towards taking offense, something he did easily at the best of times. "How theoretically?" he asked, again, turning enough to watch her, though he didn't comment on her cleaning up. He didn't like having things left lying around, he'd just been stubbornly and bullishly not doing anything recently - a protest against life itself that had hit in a wave of depression he wouldn't acknowledge.

She bent to grab the dish soap from beneath the sink, and started in on that. She stood back and headed more towards where 'her' room used to be. Which was less a room and more just a place that had a bed, and a curtain run along one side to separate it from the living room. Another day she would have asked him to get the zipper for her, but not today. She slid her shoes off, and then her dress, laying it out carefully on the bed. It left her in a full black slip, which was much more acceptable to do dishes in than a silk dress. Then she went back to the sink. "Drop it." she answered, tone really indicating she wasn't keen on telling him, or screwing around with the arguments today.

It took him a moment or two to work out what she was doing - and then a moment still longer to work out why she was doing it, but once he did, he finally stood, crossing to the sink. He took her hands and pushed her surprisingly gently away. "I'll do this," he told her, an assumption that she'd just move meaning that he was already reaching for the first dirty dish.

She didn't protest him taking her hands, but she also didn't quite move as she was meant to. "I've already started." she said. "And even changed for the occasion. I've got it." she said. Maybe it was part of that familiar sort of atmosphere of his place, where she'd stayed for what felt like a long time. The only place that had felt safe to her in a long time. It still felt that way, even if she understood quite well that it wasn't and never had been, it was just a place. Still. There'd been little things she'd done around the house, like the dishes, or mending his clothes, that occasionally, she wanted to do again, because it had a strange sort of calming affect. She wasn't sure why it did, just that it did, and since she had the opportunity, she'd been going to take it. Plus, it was fixing one part of his environment that she considered off. While she didn't expect that it would do anything to help the situation, she still felt compelled to do it.

"You don't have to do my dirty dishes in your underwear, Princess - you'll get messed up," he told her, not giving either. He was already messed up, in any number of ways, but specifically in that he was still wearing yesterday's clothes. She'd come round all spruced up, or so it seemed to him. And the fact that she'd taken off the dress to do this said it was a nice one. Anyway, they were his dishes, his mess to clear up. She'd already been clearing up far too much of his mess, the mess caused when he didn't want to go with her plan. The mess she said she'd taken care of, but wouldn't actually talk to him about.

"Now, I know that my memory is spotty at best these days, but I'm fairly certain that I recall this being a voluntary process, and not anything that at any point was something I 'had' to do." Eris said to him. "And I hardly think doing a few dishes will really mess me up. I'm not that fragile or well put together that I can't manage this." she continued. "Besides. I've already taken care of everything I needed to today. Even if I do take a little of the shine off, at the moment, it won't actually matter." Even if she'd come there all shined up for him. Seemed every time she did that that he wasn't in a frame of mind to appreciate it. "Go have a bath or something." she suggested.

"What've you done?" he asked her, knowing that part of that involved talking to Jakob, and the girls. But he didn't really think she would have needed to get all dolled up to talk to some those girls - they weren't exactly the types who required it, or, at least, he hadn't got that impression, though he had to admit that they'd gotten giddy when they'd been shopping for glad rags. Like little girls playing dress up.

Eris drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Do you want a full account of my whereabouts for the day?" she asked him, though it was rhetorical. "I got files in order, as much as I could, I spoke to the girls, and I put in for a business license. It should be in in a few days." she said. Which also, technically, didn't require getting dolled up. It was dealing with some clerk who was in a constant state of vaguely annoyed, and didn't do anything but hand you a form, then take it back when you were finished.

"No, sweetheart - don't think you need to account for me. Just a question," he told her, with an edge to his tone. "Wondered what you'd done to mean you needed to get all pretty that way." Not that she wasn't normally, of course. He thought she was, anyway. "What, you wanted to distract Hollis from thoughts of what he could do?" he asked, acknowledging at least to himself, if not to the world, that there was a hint of jealousy there at the thought.

Eyes widening just a touch, just for a moment, Eris eyed him. Now he'd said previously that he may be a bit jealous at parties and the like, where people would be undoubtedly trying to get her attention, but this was different. And, really, the first time she'd seen it, so it was interesting. Instead of actually answering the question, she kept her eyes on his features, leaning her back against the counter. "Are you jealous?" she asked, tone light.

"This isn't about me," Brett retorted, figuring she was just turning things round again. Another question she didn't want to tell him the answer to. Which generally meant that the answer wasn't something she wanted him to hear. So, he took the worst from that, figuring that there was something there he wouldn't like, though, even now, there were limits on that. A security of knowledge about what she wouldn't have done. He trusted her, to a certain extent. But he was still jealous at the thought - even if all she'd done was gone there and flirted, he didn't like it. He wouldn't tell her not to do it, because sometimes things needed to be done, but he didn't like it.

"It is now." Eris told him, still keeping her eyes on him, fascinated. "Answer me. Are you jealous?"

He looked at her, not happy about being pushed that way, about her pressing on the subject instead of answering his question. "...Yes," he admitted, eventually, clearly reluctantly. giving in on their little standoff.

She didn't say anything immediately, though she kept her eyes on his, and she reached up to brush her fingertips up the side of his neck, towards his cheek, the stubble rough against her fingers. "I saw Jakob yesterday." she told him. "So no, I wasn't going for distracting him." Plus, Hollis wasn't a man who was easy to distract in the first place, it wasn't something she'd really go for. If she was looking well put together in a meeting of theirs, it was because she wanted to project that professionalism, the idea that she was still a force to be reckoned with, not because she wanted to use it to other ends.

All that, she'd made him answer when she had to have known he wouldn't want to. And just so she could tell him it wasn't relevant anyhow. He jerked his face away from her fingers and turned away. He didn't like being played.

He was very, very touchy today. She wasn't even positive what she'd done that time. But since he'd turned away, she turned towards the dishes, to start in on them properly. "What exactly did I do now?" she asked, after a few moments, giving him a second to...do whatever it was he was doing. Sulk? Pout? Be angry? Something.

He didn't answer for a moment, then he turned back. "Did I give you the right answer? Was that what you were looking for? I've told you before that I would be - but, what? Were you after that little piece of actual proof? Is that why you just didn't answer the damn question? Why you just left me standing here believing something that wasn't true?" He didn't sound angry, but there was an edge, a touch of bite to his words, though his voice wasn't at all raised.

"There wasn't a 'right' answer, Trent, it wasn't a test." Eris said, concentrating on the dishes, or, that was what it looked like. That was where her eyes were. "And yes, you told me before. I'm sure you're aware there's quite a bit of difference between being told something and witnessing the truth of it." she said. He was someone who needed proof. He, she was quite positive, would understand that well. "And I asked you a question in return. You asked me one. I didn't know that meant it was solidly in your mind, a belief." She set a few clean dishes in the empty side of the sink, to rinse. "Did you think I'd actually do that?" she asked. "That I'd go there to...what, flirt? Try to pull one over on him through sexuality?"

"If you thought it would work, yes," he told her. He was sure of that. if she thought she could get what she wanted by fluttering her eyelashes and wearing the right outfit, yes, he thought she'd play that card. And he didn't like the idea, but, equally, he knew he wouldn't stop her. That was part of what this was all about, wasn't it? Playing the right part, having the right image, using everything that you had at hand to get where you wanted to go.

"Well, it wouldn't on him." Eris said. "He doesn't sway so easily. And if I can avoid that sort of thing, I will, because I don't want to start getting into situations where I'm expected to do things I'm unwilling to do." she added, rinsing the dishes she'd done, and she set them on a towel next to the sink. "But the idea...it makes you jealous?" she asked. She didn't look over her shoulder, but nearly did. Instead, she was just aware of where he was behind her.

"It's not going to be a problem, if that's what you're asking," he told her. He wasn't entirely convinced that was what she was asking. He thought that possibly she was just being intrigued with the concept - she'd shown interest in the fact before. He thought that possibly she just liked the fact that she could do that to him, get that rise from him. In a way, choosing to take it that she was questioning whether, professionally, it could cause problems, was him giving her the easy way out, the first signs that his depression and bad mood were beginning to wane. "I know you have your limits now. I know you have things you won't do. I'm not going to stop you from flirting with other men if you need to to get things done."

She didn't say whether that was what she was asking or not. Instead, she just pulled the drain in the sink, and washed her hands, taking her time doing that. "Good to know." she said at last, reaching for another towel to dry her hands, all the while she kept her back to him. "There'll be a fine line." she said. "Between being able to flirt, and your image. If you let it go on too much, you'll lose respect. We'll have to figure it out as we go."

"Way I see it, there'll be enough men out there with an idea of what you used to do to mean that I won't have a problem with that line for a good long while," he told her. They wouldn't be walking it - they'd be leaping over it and he'd establish his reputation knocking them firmly back where they belonged.

She turned then, setting the towel down, and she leaned her back against the counter again, watching him. "I suppose so." she said, not discounting his statement. They would still have to see how it went, how things really played out. She was struck then with another little wave of anxiety, knowing full well that things...they didn't always go as planned. Hell. Her entire deal getting Brett out of the situation he'd been in was more than enough testament to that. And she was still aware of all of her shortcomings. Still, she said nothing.

"You applied for a license?" he said, after a long pause. The way he put it, it was clear that he was leaving that conversation and going back to what she'd mentioned earlier, that they'd got sidetracked from. That she'd done that, and that she'd talked to the girls, were the first real signs that they were back on course with everything, as far as he was concerned. He liked the sound of that.

"Yes." she answered, moving away from the counter. She headed back over towards where she'd left her dress instead. "Should be in shortly. Then everything's taken care of. It won't take long for the girls to find clients, and...then that'll be that. We find the next high society function, attend, and go from there." And hope it doesn't all crash and burn in the meantime. Which she wasn't entirely convinced it wouldn't. Sometimes it felt like eveything was so precarious. Hell. Even just dealing with Brett on a day to day basis sometimes felt like a new and challenging puzzle, every time. Unfortunately, it wasn't always one she was terribly adept at.

"Did you visit the place I rented?" he asked her. He'd written down the address for her, and she must have kept that - he figured she would have needed it for the license. She could have gone looked round - though he really hoped that she hadn't. Somehow, he'd wanted to show her round himself. It had been his contribution to all of this, something he'd worked hard on. He wanted to be there when she saw it for the first time. He wanted to be able to judge how well he'd actually done.

"No." she answered, though she didn't say why. Which was because she wanted him to take her there. She couldn't necessarily have stated why she really felt that was important, but it was. She didn't want to go there herself. Maybe it was partially because it was meant to be their place. So, they should go there together. She wasn't in the mood to overthink it, really. She just got her dress back on, and again, some other day she might have had him get the zipper for her, but today she didn't, she just twisted her arm behind her back to do it herself, and then she slipped her shoes back onto her feet, the heels making her taller.

He watched her get dressed once again, of half a mind to go over and help her, but there wasn't much to it, and she managed just fine without him. "When did you want to go?" he asked her, instead, staying over by the sink.

"I suppose whenever you see fit to take me." Eris said, turning back towards him. She took a moment to smooth her dress down, even if it didn't quite need it. Still, she did anyhow, it gave her something to do. Like she wound her hair up, and went to get her hat again.

He was aware that he was really in no fit state to go uptown right now - especially not when compared to her. Somehow, now that he was up and about, and with her looking all dressed up in such a way, he felt more down at heel than ever. "I can take a shower," he told her, as though that was an answer to a question she hadn't asked.

"I have the utmost faith in your ability to do as such." Eris told him, heading more towards the door. She paused when she was nearer to him, though she was still out of touching distance, by a few feet, even. "Is that relevant? Because I believe I was greeted this evening with 'what do you want'." she said. "And now that I've told you what I wanted to tell you, and done a little tidying up..." she trailed off, leaving it open ended so he could either say what he really meant, there, or let her leave.

"If you just wanted to leave me a message, you would have given it to Ginger," Brett pointed out to her, referring to his downstairs neighbour. "And if you'd come to do housework, you would have changed before you got here. Anyway, you said that you were waiting for me to take you - and I can't turn up like this. I'll need to shower first. And change - unless I'm keeping you from pressing plans, of course," he added, not quite sarcastically, but he did assume she had nothing on.

"As it happens, I don't." she said. Not that she ever had plans. The only plans she ever had these days had everything to do with him, even if they weren't necessarily with him all the time. "Are you done being petulant with me?" she asked, crossing her arms just beneath her chest, after she put her hat back on, though she didn't draw the veil down again. "Have you time for me, and I'm not just here to interrupt your own riveting evening?"

She just got a look at that, but he didn't add in a comeback. Tit for tat again, but this time he could take it. "You want me to go take a shower, or not?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow. They could always do this another day. He hoped not though - it hadn't been on his list, but now things were where they were, he wanted to solidify the ground that seemed to be forming underneath his feet again.

"Take your shower." she said, smiling at him a faint trace of it, but definitely there. "Just don't shave." she added, walking towards one of the windows, so she could gaze out of it, one wrist clasped in her opposite hand behind her back. She wondered if he'd shave just to spite her. It was possible. But still, she had to mention it. "I'll be waiting." she said, as if she had all night, there wasn't any rush. Which there wasn't, but still. She said it so he'd know there wasn't a rush.

It crossed his mind, as he walked to the bathroom. He'd planned to shave, planned to go uptown all spruced up to the standard she was, because he figured it was the done thing. And then she mentioned him shaving. Or, rather, not shaving. Which, really, he'd rather, since he hated shaving. But, that would mean he'd be doing something because she asked him to. Though it would be what he wanted, and if she thought it was alright, then he didn't have to think about what was suitable for the environment they'd be going into. But still, he'd be doing what she told him to - since he'd heard it as an order, rather than a request.

He hated that she could get his head going round in circles like that, and he tried to shut it out by stepping under the hot spray and soaking himself for a while. He took his time about things, and when he got out of the shower, he stood in front of the steamed up mirror for a moment or two, before wrapping a towel around his waist and hanging another across his shoulders and down over his chest. Between the two, they mostly covered up his burns - he couldn't face putting dirty clothes back on again now that he was properly clean - but he knew that the scars on his lower legs and up the middle of his chest were more visible now than they usually were. Then again, so were the tattoos that ran up his arms - she liked them, maybe she'd be distracted during the time that he headed between the bathroom and his bedroom. He knew there was only one way to find out as he headed that way.

She did turn to look as he came back out, internally smirking and amused that he hadn't shaved. She'd almost banked that he would have just so he wasn't doing something just because she said to. But she watched, expression something edging towards appreciative as he did. She saw more of the scars, but then not so long ago he'd shown her the entire set. So, she was prepared for that. What she didn't get to see were the other tattoos he had, and she did, in fact, like them. She liked his ink in general, and had even said as such. She also let her eyes follow him, even moving to keep him in view when he headed into his room. Though she expected that he'd shut the door on her any moment now.

He did, though he didn't latch it, just pushed it to. he still wasn't comfortable with her seeing him, for all it would be nothing new now. He didn't expected to be able to get over that consciousness about his body, about what he considered to be the ruin of it. Most of the time, he wasn't even trying, but walking around just covered in towels was actually a big step for him. After all, it wasn't strictly necessary. It had been a voluntary thing. Still, he dressed quickly, though with some care. The new suit, a crisp white shirt. Polished shoes. A silk tie in a bluish-green colour. He loosened it at the neck slightly as he walked back out to join her.

She really wanted to push the door back open again, but refrained from it. It just meant she walked back towards the window again, and clasped her hands behind her back. When he came out, she smiled, that appreciation there again, only clearer this time. Walking up to him, she reached up, and adjusted his tie a little bit, mainly just to do something, get closer than she'd been as of yet today. "You look good." she told him, ticking her gaze up from where she'd had it on the tie. "Very nice." There were a few reasons she told him, made a point to tell him. A good part was the simple fact that it was true. But beyond that, she wanted him to know she thought it. She knew how self conscious he was, and sometimes, she liked doing what she could to combat that. Even if it wasn't a cure or anything, she believed in positive reinforcement.

When she'd stepped in to adjust his tie, he'd slid a hand to the small of her back, just resting it there. He could have done more, pulled her in, kissed her even, yet he didn't. The jealousy of earlier had ebbed away, but the petulance hadn't, entirely, which meant that that won out over any residual need he felt to place his mark on her, even if it was just by slightly marring her lipstick. Instead he marked how he felt by refraining from doing that, just looking down at her instead. "Then that makes two of us - you ready to go uptown?" he asked her.

Eris smiled at him. "I am, Mr. Trent." she said, tone playful on the edges. "Shall we?" she asked, moving to take his arm, so he could escort her. She had to admit, a little part of her was excited. It was likely silly, but she was. It'd be the first time she was uptown in a long, long time, and even if she wasn't going to be socializing with anyone, she'd be there. She'd be outside, on Brett's arm, someplace that wasn't abandoned, or hidden away. And maybe there'd be a rumor or two that someone saw a ghost. She was just fine with that. But seeing the new place, that too held an allure for her. A new start, a new place, it was coming together. Well. Hopefully.

He looked down at her, then snorted a laugh that surprised him, feeling the novelty of the situation. Just for that moment, he could appreciate that - the path that led him to being suited and booted, to having a beautiful woman on his arm, about to drive to a posh place in a nice building, with a concierge service, ahead of starting a business that would mean he had to go out into society on his own merits. Him. That guy. For just that moment, he could consider that, ignoring the reasons why, ignoring the things hanging over their heads, ignoring the fact that, more than likely, it would end up with them both dead in a ditch somewhere. Just for a moment - and then reality hit back in again. As he lead her out of the door. As he had to stop to collect his gun on the way. Nothing in life was ever that simple.

The ride over was one that seemed long, even if she knew it wasn't overwhelmingly so. Traffic wasn't as bad as it was usually due to the abhorrent weather, and once you hit uptown, it thinned out more. Less taxi's choking the streets, less people who could afford to be spending their time in the area. They passed the empty shell of Babylon, and she absently considered yet again, burning the place down. Just starting a fire and letting it go. She didn't voice the thought, though, knowing if she went through with it, it would be without him. It would be personal, something she did on her own.

But eventually, they were there, pulling up outside the building he'd chosen. This was it, her entrance into a life that wasn't necessarily her own anymore. There was a them to consider, a we that was going to have to be allowed for. It was a little terrifying. At the same time, though, it didn't kill that little bit of strange excitement she felt. Glancing in his direction, she smirked faintly as the door man came and opened the door for her, reaching out to help her out.

Brett left the keys to his car in the ignition. He'd found out before that the vehicle would be parked for him, though it did fell against the grain to leave it to someone else. There was a natural lack of trust. Still, he knew that those were the accepted rules and he had to go with them if he wanted to play the game. He wasn't a big enough player yet to completely disregard them. Possibly he never would be.

He walked round to the sidewalk, joining her, noting how much she just looked in the right place here. She'd never looked like she belonged in his world. Not really. Even when she wasn't all dressed up, she'd always seemed to him slightly out of place. Maybe that had been entirely down to the brain damage, but he didn't think so. He nodded to the doorman as he took her arm and they headed inside.

Eris was looking around as they went, though was mindful not to look like she was just off the boat or something. just taking in details, really. There was a light smile on her lips as she did that, taking in the lobby, the man behind the desk there, seeing where the elevator was. She also had to glance at Brett, watch him out of the corner of her eye, seeing how he was doing. She did have to wonder if he wanted to show off the place. After all, he'd put the work in, this was all him.

Brett was saying nothing. He was still fairly impressed by the staff that came with the building - just their very existence. It was something he'd never experienced in his early years, and even working with the O'Malleys, most of his duties had been in the back rooms of bars, or down at the docks. There'd been a few times he'd had to accompany higher ups to posh places, but not on what could be called a regular basis. And then, well, his attention had been on information gathering whilst looking like he'd had his brain removed at some time in the past and on not getting himself caught and killed. It didn't make for really taking in the surroundings. Now, he wanted to know what she thought, but he was making himself go back to that mindset. Not giving anything away in front of people who might be watching. So, instead, he walked her at a reasonable, but not too fast, walking pace to the elevator. They could talk upstairs, when they were alone. In the meantime, he hardly even glanced in her direction, his pokerface firmly in place.

She was amused. Greatly so, even. He was keeping his face straight, that was for sure. Stepping into the elevator with him, she waited for him to give the elevator operator the floor number. Which was some kid, that looked like he was oogling her while trying not to look like it...and failing miserably at that last bit. But the lift was clean, and smelled like it was regularly given said cleaning. It was more than could be said for some buildings, really.

Brett lifted his eyes to watch the indicator move until they got to the right floor, then dropped them again as the door opened. He always wondered if he was meant to tip the elevator kid, but didn't - a natural disinclination to let anyone know where his wallet was, rather than any actual mean streak. He led them out of the elevator and waited for the doors to close behind them, leaving them in a small entrance lobby before the rooms he'd rented. there was nobody else on their floor. Only then did he turn to her, a slightly questioning, almost expectant look on his face as he tried not to look too much like he was desperate to know if she approved.

Eris, for her part, gave a rather delighted little laugh, and she turned to him, grabbing him by the tie, as she pulled him down a little. "You," she said, tone warm, amused, pleased. "Have done a very good job, Mr. Trent." she told him. She was smiling, watching his eyes, searching them. Just the building itself was great, but the full staffing, that was important too, and even if she hadn't seen the rest of the rooms and the like--she was impressed.

There was a flash of relief in his eyes for a moment before he covered it, choosing the other of two possible ways to go and easing himself and his tie out of her grip and back slightly. "You want to see the rest?" he asked her, handing her a set of keys which he'd fished out of his pocket.

She reached for the keys. "I do." she said, looking around again, reaching up to take her hat off, and she dropped it right on the floor where they stood, an act that was really mostly just something that said the place was hers. Theirs, and she could do what she wanted here. Then she walked forward, looking at the different doors. Spinning on her heel, she looked back towards him. "But I want you to show me." she told him. It was official. She was in a rare, very good, upbeat, playful kind of mood. Sure, sometimes she sort of hit little bits of that, but tonight, right now...it was a high.

Brett watched her for a second - he was sure that he'd never actually seen her act like this. Ever. he wasn't entirely sure how to take it, but in the end, he quirked a kind of smile and, picking up her hat, nodded in the direction of the door straight ahead. "This way," he said, heading over.

She looked back at the door he indicated, then walked towards it, looking through the keys to see if she could find the correct one. Which would take a minute, but she didn't ask for help. She just tried keys til they fit, thinking to herself that he was going to have to do the key thing if they were locking up all the rooms. She'd never remember the keys well enough. But she unlocked the door, then stepped back so he could open it.

It was the door to the office, the main place where they'd be conducting the business from. It was furnished in a professional, is somewhat bland, manner. Enough, but there were no frills and flounces, no personal touches. Brett had rented the place furnished, but even if he hadn't, he wouldn't have been able to do any better - in fact, it was possible he wouldn't have furnished it to this standard. Interior design and he were fairly non-compatible.

She walked in, heading over to turn the desk lamp on, and she looked around. "Very nice." She said. "Of course, we'll have to decorate, at least a little. But I can take care of that." she told him, looking back over her shoulder at him. She let her fingertips slide along the top of the desk, liking the feel of it. Then she turned, and sat on the desktop, facing him, light mostly on the desk blotter, giving her a dim if warm glow. She crossed her legs, and gazed at him, smiling. "I like it." she told him.

"As long as I don't have to pick out curtains or whatever, you can do what you like with it," Brett said, though maybe not as brusquely as he intended - he was still entirely thrown by the mood she suddenly appeared to be in, by the way she was acting. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, though not necessarily in a bad way.

She laughed a bit, tilting her head back to let her hair fall behind her shoulders again, and she gazed at the ceiling. "You won't have to pick out curtains." she assured him, sounding amused. "I'll do all that. I have some ideas in mind, regardless." she added, leaning back on her arms, eyes still on him. "It's a nice space. It feels right." she told him. "What are the other rooms?" she asked, though she didn't get down off of the desk quite yet.

"There's a storage room, a smaller office, and then the other door leads back to the apartment," he told her, not wanting to give too much detail when she'd want to see them for herself, and he'd show her. That said, the storage room was little more than an empty room with a couple of boxes in it, and the little office was just a plain space with a desk and a couple of chairs.

She wondered if there was a reason he wasn't joining her in the room, or he was keeping his distance, but she didn't ask at the moment. Instead, since he wasn't coming over, she got back down off of the desk, and headed back towards him. "Show me the other rooms. I like knowing a space." Nevermind she'd probably forget what was behind some of the doors.

He was still holding her hat in one hand, and he'd not taken his eyes off her, watching her with his head tilted ever so slightly, considering her as she looked around, moved, even just sat still. It was gently fascinating, though he couldn't really define why. He wasn't trying to either though - right now, things weren't going down the drain, and there wasn't a huge fight going on, so he was just leaving it at that. "Sure," he told her as she reached him. "You wanna pick a direction, or just follow?" he asked, giving her that option.

Eris hummed a little to herself as she considered, then she looked back out into the hall. "I'll follow, for now." she told him. Mostly, she didn't want anything to bring her down at the moment, and she didn't want to do something silly like repeat a door or something, not realizing she'd already seen something. And while she didn't think she was that bad, she was in an new environment, and therefore she wasn't positive that she wouldn't. So...she went the slightly safer, less potentially buzzkill manner.

He reached out and took the keys from her, swapping for the one to the storage room. He figured they could start with the dull and work up. "I was thinking," he told her as he led the way. "We should mark these, and the doors, matching symbols or something - so you'll know which is which. I was going to, but so far I haven't been able to come up with something that you'll know, but that won't be stunningly obvious to someone deciding to break in." Still, his mind had been going over it.

"You have?" Eris asked, an immediate, knee-jerk reaction. If she'd had a second to think, she probably would have schooled herself a little, not just blinked and sounded so surprised. But it did surprise her. And there was something sweet about it. Something just inherently sweet that it was unfamiliar, but anything but unwelcome. "I...thank you. I'm sure we can come up with something." What, she didn't know, but they could discuss it. Mostly she was just taken by the gesture itself, by the fact that he'd been thinking it over for her. It made her want to walk up and kiss him, though she didn't. Not just now, anyhow. They didn't generally do that sort of thing, or, they didn't yet, anyhow. She wasn't even sure how it might be received.

Brett wasn't sure how to take her surprise, so he simply ignored it. outwardly, anyhow. Inwardly, he wondered at it - it itched at his consciousness. But then, they didn't usually talk about the things they did for each other. And he'd brought this one to her attention. He excused it because it was a plan he had no solution for, and maybe she would have an idea. that was all. It hadn't been meant to surprise her - it was only sensible. It would make things more secure and give her more freedom. It made sense. After all, she'd always said she wasn't a pet - she didn't need him to look after her. "Yeah, we'll come up with something," he told her, concentrating on opening the door to the storage room, his back to her.

Her eyes stayed on him. She didn't let them stray, not to the building around them again, or the doors, or anything else, even as he opened up the room, which turned out to be small and empty. Still, she took it in without really looking at it, more interested in him at the moment. That urge to do something physical was still there, possibly push him back against the wall of the tiny room and then give him the kiss she wanted to. It was safe to say she was distracted, at any rate. Just not unpleasantly so, which was kind of new.

He didn't notice that she hardly glanced at the room, because he still wasn't looking at her - a sudden change from minutes before when he'd been unable to keep his eyes off her. he didn't want to consider the surprise he'd seen there. It left him feeling like he'd put a step wrong, slightly foolish. "Yeah, not much to see," he said, shortly, pulling the door shut and locking it again. He figured that it'd get full of something, given enough time.

Eris clasped her hands behind her back, and stayed where she stood, which she knew was just a little in the way of one of the other doors there. Her eyes were still not moving away from him. "We can lock bad little boys in there when they misbehave." she said, tone light, teasing. Amused. Even if it did light on an issue in her head. "Can't have the girls getting roughed up. Did you ever hear about what I did to the only man who ever thought it a good idea to do something like that at Babylon?" she asked, voice very light.

He looked at her then, his expression turning wry as the answer came straight to his lips without going through his brain first. "Tied him down and cut off his balls with a straight razor?" he suggested, only half joking with the possibility. He could imagine it.

She smiled, laughing a touch, but she shook her head, eyes heavy on his. "No. Nothing so messy." she said. "I dragged him out front, and pinned the offending hand to the wall with a dagger, in front of everyone. The rest of the girls, the rest of the clients, anyone who was walking by at the time... It made an impression. People remembered it. And even if they didn't, they remembered that I wasn't someone to fuck with." she said, voice getting lighter towards the end.

He considered that, then shrugged. "Wasn't that far off," he decided. He'd figured it would be something violent and at least a little bit bloody. "I take it he wasn't anyone important?" he asked, more to get a better handle on how much she'd fuck with people to get them to play by her rules than anything else.

"He thought so." Eris said. "Middle town government. Which was also why I wasn't brought up on charges." she said. "And it's a lot different, a hand versus the part of a man's body they're most loathe to lose." she said. "It sends a different message, too. If I'd gone for castration, it would have sent a little too much fear throughout the public. No one would come to a brothel where someone'd literally lost their balls. It had to be just enough that people would know that the safety of the girls was higher than theirs, and the rules weren't just polite suggestions."

He could agree with that, so he didn't argue it, instead just nodding as he unlocked the next door - the one to the smaller office. It was a room that was clearly set up for function rather than show. Practical, fairly bare, unadorned. Brett stood back so she could look around. "Apparently this room has some soundproofing. It's designed so someone can work quietly, no matter what's going on outside," he explained, though his mind had gone immediately the other way when he'd been told that. That if the room was soundproofed, then all sorts could be carried on inside that the people out in the main rooms wouldn't know about.

She walked in, and looked around, smiling a little as her mind went to the same place. "Or, alternately, things could get a little crazy in here and no one would be the wiser." she said, looking back at him. "But I'm sure you thought about that already." she said, figuring with his background with the O'Malley's, he'd had to take things like screams or gunshots into account when doing certain things. "Interesting." she said. "And possibly a good thing to have on hand, just in case." She didn't know what they might need it for, but she liked knowing it was there. Better to have it and not necessarily need it than the other way around.

"I did," Brett told her, actually biting back a follow on question about whether she was surprised about that. He didn't want to fight with her right now, especially not when it would be him picking the fight. He'd been looking forward to showing her round, and then there'd been her behaviour when they'd got here. He didn't want all that to crash and burn. "Works either way," he added.

She nodded, smiling again, and heading back over to him. She stepped in closer than she had since they got there, though didn't touch him. Even if yes, that urge was still there, still lingering. It hadn't dissipated and she was vaguely surprised about that. "It does. Very nice little feature to have on hand, as it were." she told him. "What's next?" she asked, gazing up at him through her eyelashes.

He looked down at her and pushed everything else away. He just wanted to be here, right now, saving the best - or, at least, the most significant in his mind - until last. "There's just the apartment, really," he told her, though they'd rented some rooms for the girls as well. They were on another floor though. They were just what they were, he hadn't given that much thought to them. His tone was falsely nonchalant. After all, this was where they were going to live. They'd lived together before, of course, but this was different. This was much more 'together' - for all that they could dress it up as part of a business relationship. For all they didn't talk about what was between them. At the end of the day, they were sleeping together, and now they'd be living together. Boundaries were getting very blurred.

"Show me our apartment." she said, ticking her eyes between his, amused sort of expression still on her lips. She reached up, almost touching the side of his neck, and then seemed to think better of it, and instead, she walked past him, looking back at him over her shoulder. "Lead the way." she told him, and she let that little thread of excitement she was feeling seep into her tone. Just a little, just enough so he'd know it was there.

It was there again, though not as clearly as before. That spark of life that he didn't normally see, and he wasn't even sure that that was what he was really seeing. It was just that whatever it was, it was normally not there. Not absent, necessarily, because that would suggest it was missing. No - this was more of an addition. Whatever it was, he knew it had him hooked, curious, intrigued. Something, he wasn't entirely sure what. It made him want to respond, though he knew he was still holding himself back on that. He always held himself back. "Course," he said, after a pause. He almost took her hand, to lead her, like she'd taken his arm before. But he didn't, instead walking around her and over to the final door.

She followed, falling into step behind him, so when he did open the door, it could be more like a presentation. Why she wanted it that way, she didn't know, and she wasn't examining. Though she did try to mark the door in her mind, even if she wouldn't necessarily remember it any better for the trying. Eris stood there demurely, and waited for him to unlock the door and turn on the lights for her.

There was more to this one, as he knew before he opened the door. Two locks, for one - a normal lock and a deadbolt. Both keys on their own separate keyring, attached the the main lot. The other was the fact he headed in before her, turning on a light to reveal a corridor, deeply carpeted, the walls a cream colour leading down a narrow passageway that clearly ran the length of the main office wall. The rooms of the apartment seemingly were in back - the door may have run off the initial reception area, but the rooms themselves were a walk away.

He led the way down the corridor, stopping before yet another door and unlocking it. One lock, this time, opening the door to the actual apartment. It opened into a large room, the darkness of it broken only by the failing light of the setting sun, stealing in through the floor to ceiling windows in one wall of the large room. It was sparsely furnished, begging for additions. A sole couch, three-seater, stood in the middle of the floor, between two windows. A chair sat off to one side. A coffee table that had seen better days stood in front. Off to one side, against the wall, was an ancient dining table with four chairs, to the other side, an archway led through to a kitchen, and another door - closed - led to what Brett knew was the bedroom and bathroom. The apartment was the weak spot, but then, nobody else would see it, as far as Brett was concerned. And, as far as he was concerned, they could make do. The lack in the apartment had always been the reason that he'd got a good deal. He just hadn't told her that. He'd hoped that she wouldn't mind. That she'd see potential. That they could add as the money came in. It was still the significant part, in his mind. If she could just see past what it was right now.

Eris liked the feel of having to go through several locks and a corridor before getting into the apartment proper. That, she could appreciate very very much. As a woman who'd been attacked in the night and nearly killed, and irreparably damaged in the process...security was something she was always going to be keen on. When she got to the apartment itself, her little smile didn't dim at all, and she walked ahead of him, into the space, looking around. She spun in a little circle, taking it in. Sure, the place was a little bare, but then, so were both of their places at current, now weren't they? And she could always decorate that, just like she planned to decorate the office. It could be something that got built up, someplace that they made theirs, as opposed to just trying to fit into a space that was already done. So, Brett got his wish. Eris did see it for the potential.

When she turned back to face him, that smile was still there, only it was wider. Instead of just a little bit of the excitement she was feeling showing through, she let it out entirely, letting him see it. Letting herself experience it, even, since it was still new on her. But there was something genuine about it, something almost bordering on innocent, even if she wouldn't ever apply that word with herself.

He walked forward, towards her, slowly. "I know it's not much..." he began, though he didn't finish off that sentence, leaving it hanging. She didn't look disappointed, or disapproving, which was good. In fact, she looked entirely the opposite, which he hadn't dared hope for. This whole thing, their plans, for most of the time it had felt to him like an uphill struggle, with fights and obstacles every step of the way. Now, here, alone - for the first time, she really looked like she believed in everything, like she was excited about the future. It made a change - mostly, he figured, she didn't believe she even had a future.

She laughed. "Not much?" she asked, spinning around again and stopping when she faced him. "It's perfect! It's everything we need." she told him. "Besides. We can keep adding to it. It's a far cry better than either one of us has at the moment." she pointed out, not getting closer to him, having him come to her, but she hoped he got closer, that he didn't keep the distance up. Her smile was still present, not leaving her face at all, and at no point was it forced. "Don't sell yourself short, Baby, you did well."

There as still part of him that hated the praise. Like he was some kind of performing animal - but what that part of him hated about it was that he appreciated getting it. He liked being told that he'd done something right. That was the part that found it humiliating, the almost glow he felt when she praised him. That wasn't right, he was harder than that. Still, right now, that part didn't win over against the part that was far too busy watching the change in her right now, appreciating that. "We can do this," he told her, as he reached her, standing in front of her. "We can really do this." He was certain of it, right now. Everything else they'd work out, but they would work it out. They would make this work.

Being in the environment they were going to work from, she could believe that better than she ever had been able to before. And granted, she'd changed her point of view on things. She'd realized that she needed to look at it all from a different direction, to focus herself in ways she hadn't ever done before. But this, being here, in this building, knowing the place she was standing was theirs, that she had a foundation again...it felt different. It felt more real. She could appreciate his words just then, they articulated a lot of how she felt. When he reached for her, she stepped in close. With the heels she had on, she was a little closer to him than usual, but still, not that much. Not enough that she didn't have to step on her toes to brush a kiss across his lips, allowing herself to finally do that, even if she'd wanted to since they'd been downstairs. It most certainly wasn't the sort of tone that they usually went for. There wasn't anything rough about it, it wasn't biting. It didn't come with anything but a soft breath, and the brush of her lips against his.

He'd almost expected the difference. She was, after all, so different, right here. Right now. And he didn't try and take that away, responding to the kiss far more softly than he normally would, though without a moment's hesitation. He kissed her in a way he hadn't kissed anyone since he'd been a fresh faced teenager, new to his uniform and still in love with life. Those days were long gone and he wasn't trying to recapture them, but it just felt right in that moment.

Part of her was waiting for him to change it, to put it more on his level, or, possibly less on his level and more accurately, more on the level he could handle. But he didn't. Instead, he kissed her back, returned it with something along the same lines of what she was putting into it. Eris gave herself time to appreciate that, to not rush through it, or draw it to a close until she'd been able to appreciate it. It was drawn out, and she lightly rested her hand on his chest, slowly starting to take a light hold of his lapel, to help keep her balance. When she did end the kiss, she didn't so much let go or step back, she just started to get back down off of her toes. But even that was kind of a slow process, not one she was in a hurry to complete.

The moment wouldn't last, he knew. And really, he didn't want it to last. If it lasted, eventually it would dawn on him and then things would start to get awkward and uncomfortable. It had happened before, after all. A moment could be a moment and he'd let it be, but he wasn't going to try and extend it. So he let his hands linger on her hips as she let herself back down again, but he didn't bend to kiss her again. Instead, he held her gaze, and then looked away for a moment just long enough to purposefully end the moment in a non-forceful way. Bring it to a natural close. "Did you want to start moving things in tomorrow?" he asked her.

There was a part of her that was a little disappointed that he did that, that he ended it, but she knew why. There were still issues there, and they weren't going to evaporate overnight, if they got better at all. So, she let it happen, even if she would have really wanted to continue with it. "Yes, I would." she told him, nodding. "I don't remember where you have the rest of the things we took from Babylon, but getting those here as soon as possible would be good. And I don't have all that much at the loft." And she wouldn't be crying over leaving that place behind, either.

Brett gave her a knowing look and nodded towards the bedroom. "Everything you had from Babylon's already there," he told her. He'd done that as soon as he could, figuring that silks and satins and whatever else her clothes were made out of didn't do so well in a warehouse, especially not when he'd had to store them so they couldn't be found. Fucking faffy things to hang up they'd been as well.

She looked up at him, grinning, laughing that little touch again. "Really?" she asked. And then she kissed him again. This time it was more like a little flurry of affectionate, appreciative kisses. It was harder to resist when she was right there. "Thank you." she said. "I am very appreciative." she murmured, still in close, brimming with that good mood. "You want to show me the bedroom then?" she asked.

The little kisses, now, they threw him. And made him feel a little uncomfortable, as though he didn't quite fit in his own skin. Or, rather, that he should be someone else. He wasn't a guy that got cute, affectionate behaviour towards him - or if anyone had ever tried it, he'd gone out of his way to make damn sure that it stopped and never, ever started again. But he didn't want to do that with her, which left him without an available, acceptable reaction, a fact which meant that he turned almost flustered and backed away a little. "Sure, this way," he said, some of that gruffness appearing, though it clearly fell short of what he would normally have gone for. Fucking women. Or woman. Or her. Damn.

She didn't say anything about the pulling back, or the tone. Eris was in a mood she was pretty sure she'd never experienced in her entire life, and it was going to be a little harder than that to knock her out of it. Besides, she was also aware that she was being flirty, and generally? They didn't do a lot of flirty. Flirty implied playfulness, and neither one of them were all that taken with it. But at the same time, right now, it was just how her mood was going. Maybe it was the result of her brain damage, just in a more positive manner than usual. She knew she didn't have the best control all the time, maybe this was just one of those times. Only instead of drowning in the blackness that overshadowed her existence...it was something else. Either way, she fell demurely into step behind him, letting him lead the way as she smiled.

He stood back a little as he opened the bedroom door, letting her go in first, for all that she'd been following him around. It would give him time to try and catch up. Sometimes, he thought he was there. This mood she was in - at some points, he liked it. When he could stand back and watch her, he liked it - liked seeing it on her. It suited her, to his eyes. She looked good with it. He just didn't know how to handle it when she got closer, when that playfulness and seeming joie de vivre was directed right at him. It called for a response, he knew, but it wasn't one he could mirror. He couldn't let himself go in that way - if he would admit it to himself, which he couldn't, he would admit that it terrified him, so he held on tight to himself, keeping it all in, feeling safer watching from a distance, wanting that distance right now so he didn't break her, break this mood that looked so good on her.

Eris walked into the room, and reached for the light switch, flipping that on. She smiled up at the light, which had a pretty glass covering over it, patterns set into the glass. The room was pretty big, open. Against the far wall, was the bed, which was a rather large one. Not a king, but larger than both her bed and his. The bedframe was wrought iron, turning and twisting around, in a sort of vine-like pattern. The floors were hardwood, and she saw two doors. One she was guessing was a closet, the other a bathroom. There was a wardrobe in the room, and two night stands, but little else, it being about as bare as the rest of the apartment, if slightly higher class with the bed frame. She walked in, then turned to look back at him. She said nothing, just smiled. Happy. Then she slowly fell backwards, dropping onto the bed, laughing to herself again. she gazed up at the ceiling, where there weren't cracks and leaking places, like the loft. Where it wasn't dingy like at Brett's. It was a wholly different place. And she liked it.

Brett stayed back, leaning against the doorpost, just watching her. He wondered if this was something entirely new, or just a side of her he'd never seen before. He would never have imagined that she could be like this. He'd always seen her as being at least as deeply cynical as he was, and he couldn't imagine himself being like this. He quirked a slight smile as he watched, enjoying it and not entirely able to keep that hidden.

She laid there for a few long moments, just letting herself bask a bit, before she rolled onto her stomach, and propped herself up, eyes back on him. She said nothing again, but she caught the smile on his lips. Bending her knees, she crossed her feet a the ankles, and let them sway back and forth lightly.

"Nobody else comes back here," he told her. that hadn't been planned, not something he'd even thought about before the moment he said it, but the words felt right the second they left his mouth and he knew he meant it. This was their private space. It might not have been, but it was now - something he blamed firmly on her behaviour right now.

The smile didn't at all drop from her features. In fact, it might have slanted it towards even more amused. "Yes sir." she said, tone playful, but she nodded solemnly as well, a single incline of her head. She meant it, that much was clear. Yes. She could very much agree that no one else came back here. That this was their place, and no one else got to see it. She was happy with that.

He couldn't deny that he liked that, that response coming from a her with that tone and that look, even if it was overlain with that mock-severity, he could see beneath that to what was really there. The whole package appealed to him, though it was in a way that kept him still by the door, unable to actually act on what he was experiencing. He felt the twin, yet opposing, drives to move the subject back onto a more professional, copable level, and to keep things going just how they were, even if there was nothing he could get himself to do with it. In the end, he did nothing at all, frozen with that sense of indecision.

She kept watching him, not saying anything else for a moment. "Have any other orders for me?" she asked, tone that lightness that suggested she was kind of hoping he'd come up with something else for her. Even if it was made up off of the top of his head. "Any other directives I need to follow, rules I need to abide by..." she trailed off, clearly giving him her undivided attention, feet still swinging back and forth, in a slow if evenly timed arc.

He considered that, but reached a wall that he couldn't think past and, before he knew it, he shook his head. "No," he told her, his voice sounding a little off to his ears. He couldn't - it didn't feel right, as though there as a gulf between him seeing something, him knowing that he liked, what appealed, and between him actually being able to act on that at all. "No, that's it," he told her, fairly sure that, right now, that wasn't what she wanted to hear and feeling a rise of something approaching guilt at not being able to give her that. He hated that, that feeling. He didn't want to feel that feeling, encroaching onto what had actually, so far, been pretty damn positive. He pushed it away, straightening up, habitually blaming her for causing all of this. "You should check out your dresses - I might have fucked something up," he told her, looking away.

Eris did feel that little flash of disappointment, but it was washed over after a moment by something else. She'd noticed the little ripples of it but had mostly been ignoring them or the like, but well...here it was again. And he was still far away, and now he was changing the subject and looking away. She sat up, curling her legs to her side, and she gazed at him for a long moment. At first, she said nothing, but then she stood up and walked closer, though it was to turn off the lights. "I don't really care about the dresses." she told him, tone light. Off, most certainly. Not anywhere near where it had been a moment ago.

The room was plunged into an almost-dark, the only light now coming in a strip from behind them, through the doorway from the main room. It left his face in shadow, but highlighted her as he looked at her. He didn't say anything, just watched her. He knew she didn't care about the dresses. He didn't either. But they were better than the alternative. He didn't even really know what the alternative was, couldn't quite mentally grasp what his issue was here, but it was there, lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce.

She gazed at him for a long moment, then turned and walked back into the shadows. Her heels clicked against the hardwood floor, and she traced her fingertips along the wall, knowing there was a door on the wall somewhere, and going to find it by feel. Or, that was her plan, anyways, even if mostly she was just putting distance between herself and Brett. If she didn't, she was going to start demanding answers, and right now she didn't know if she could deal with it. Not when everything had been feeling so nice. Part of her really didn't want it to break like this, but it was. But did that mean she had to go make it worse?

She moved out of the shaft of light and he tracked her, now no more than a shadowy figure in a blackened room. He could only make out where she was when she moved. He didn't know what she was doing, and he couldn't bring himself to ask. He almost felt like he didn't have the right, not when she walked away. When she'd switched out the light, he'd expected something different, he'd expected her to come closer. Some of his issues, at least, were stemmed in the light, and it wasn't uncommon for them to be in darkness. But then she'd walked away, which only served to increase his inability to process the situation.

Finding the door, Eris felt along til she found the knob, and she turned it, testing which way the door swung. Turned out it pushed in, so she did that, stepping inside, trying to feel the room out with her senses without turning out the light--which of course didn't really work, because she wasn't exactly psychic. Still, she didn't turn the light on, she felt around a little, til she brushed her hands up against material, and she figured this was the closet. Not feeling the need to really explore that, she came back out and shut the door, leaning against it once it was latched. She looked over, still seeing his shadow there, blended in with the rest of the wall. Questions rose up in her mind, but she didn't voice them. But there was a part of her that was pushed back down now. The excitement, the happiness she'd been feeling, it had all quieted down, silenced itself.

He heard the click of the door, figured out what she was doing. And she felt the need to do it in the dark. Which he assumed was because of him. He stepped back, into the light from the door for a moment before he turned and headed out into the living room, blinking slightly in the seemingly bright light. He'd dealt with this all wrong, he knew that. There'd been something, and it had been a something he couldn't deal with. And now it was broken in the dark, and he hadn't even really even known what it was. He sat, blankly, down on the only couch in the room, staring at the wall.

She watched the doorframe for a long moment after he departed. She didn't hear him leave, but he'd left the room. She went about finding the other door, still not turning the light back on, and she found it easily enough. When she got into that one, she shut the door behind herself, and turned the light on--though she held her arm up over them for a moment so she didn't blind herself. Then she looked around the bathroom--which was quite nice. The bathtub was large, a claw foot one, and the room was nicely done. But it had lost it's magic with her. A few minutes ago she would have found delight in it, tried the fixtures, looked into the mirror. But there was something missing now. Shutting the light off again, she exited the room, then headed towards the bedroom door, even if she wasn't entirely certain what she was doing next. When she got there, she saw Brett sitting on the couch, across the space. He didn't look like he was doing anything, just...sitting and staring. Which reminded her a little too much of how she'd found him today.

He heard her heels, clicking on the floor, but he didn't look round. He'd managed to shake everything off before. Or, maybe, she'd just managed to push it back with her behaviour. She affected him, he knew. From the moment she'd come into his life, she'd been doing that, in one way or another. But, right now, it was clear that the effect had only been temporary, and he'd broken it. He hadn't wanted to, but, apparently, in trying to avoid that very thing, he'd done it anyway. Maybe if he didn't do anything at all, it wouldn't make anything worse.

Eris remained where she was for a few long minutes, studying him. She definitely didn't like seeing him like that. Like he'd been when she found him, not here, not now, not when she'd thought he'd pulled out of it earlier. He'd seemed okay, he'd seemed...better. But right now, it looked like nothing had happened, that he could well have been still sat at home alone, with a gun.

That was a mental image that gave her chills. And it had her moving towards him, pushing her shoulder off of the doorframe, and she crossed to him, no longer seeking that space. But then, her focus had shifted. She'd been feeling hurt, feeling the loss of her mood there, feeling like he was rejecting her, and now? Now she wasn't paying attention to any of that, she was honestly worried about him. Worried in a way that left her with a lingering edge of fear, somewhere deep in the back of her mind. This isn't going to go well. she thought. And part of her wondered if she shouldn't just go for pissing him off immediately, since that seemed to be his default. But in the end, she didn't. She went for something else first, even if she was fairly certain it wasn't going to work. "If I ask you what's wrong, will you tell me?" she asked him, voice soft. Light. She stepped close, but not too close. Enough so she was looking down at him, but she'd have to stand closer if she wanted to touch him. Mostly, that distance was to keep herself in check. He'd held himself back this entire time, and she'd been fighting urges to get closer. She wanted to give him what he seemed to need, not fall victim to what she desired.

I'd need to know what that was, if I was going to tell you, Brett thought to himself. He did know, some of it, but he didn't think he could necessarily explain that - or know if he wanted to explain it. Expose himself like that. "Probably not," he told her, glancing her way, but not quite meeting her eyes. He didn't want to register the loss there, the absence of what he'd seen earlier. That would just make things all so much worse.

Was there a drink cabinet in this place? Whiskey anywhere? Wine? Anything? She made a quick glance around, but her favorite crutch wasn't anywhere to be seen immediately. So, she abandoned that line of thought instead. She remained where she was, still watching him. "Why?" she asked first, before anything else. She felt a whole lot like she was walking on thin ice, here. That if she stepped wrong, everything would break apart. It wasn't necessarily an unusual sensation, but it was new to have it stemming from where it was. That was what was really concerning her.

Brett shook his head, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, hanging his head slightly as he looked down between his legs at the floor. Responses came into his mind - a lot of them were rejected immediately and out of hand. Some of them made him sound like a whiny fucking bitch in his head and he would never be that. He'd prefer to leave things hanging than be that. Others left him far too open. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell her, he acknowledged. It was that he didn't know how to without making himself look really bad, and probably really pathetic. He shook his head once more and made himself stand, made himself look at her, raising his eyes stubbornly to meet hers. "Sorry I killed your mood," he told her. He hardly ever apologised, but, right now, it was the best option available to him - and he did, in fact, mean it.

It was surprising that he apologized. In fact, the last time she remembered him doing so was when they'd been at his place and she'd been about to leave and oh, possibly never speak to him again. It wasn't something that he did often, even more rare than using her name. She didn't quite know how to respond to that for a moment, even if she didn't let her eyes stray from his. "Accepted," she said, though it was clear there was more to that. "...but that's not really what I'm worried about right now." Which was possibly her way of letting him know she was worried without actually saying it flat out.

He got the wording. They were riding lines tonight, apparently. He wasn't going to call her on it with his response, though he did want to tell her not to. Not about him. He didn't want anyone's worry, or pity, or concern - not even hers. "It's not necessary," he told her, as close as he could come to that line. Not openly acknowledging the subject they both knew they were talking about.

"A lot of things aren't necessary, that doesn't mean they don't happen." Eris said, not pointedly. Plus, she could argue the point about whether or not it was warranted, but she didn't. "I've never seen you like this." she said, voice mildly quieter. She'd not seen him like it and she didn't especially want to see it again, either. She still wanted to know what was going on, what this was about, what...just what. Before, she could kind of understand, he'd been about to walk out he was so upset with her about how things were set up with Jakob. But she'd fixed that, right? She'd made it better? But this, here...she didn't know.

He looked at her, and again the responses rose and were rejected. "Something new for you then," he told her instead. Offering up explanations, doing that voluntarily, that would make him weak, unacceptable so. That would be making himself vulnerable. Right now he couldn't deal with that vulnerability, so he fell back on nothing, closing down yet further, even though he knew that it had to be the wrong thing to do. He didn't know how else to react.

"Yes, it is." she said, not really going with the bait there, though part of that was because his tone wasn't biting enough to roll with it. His job was to take every little thing and get offended, and while she knew she could do so as well, she was slightly better about it than him. "I don't like it." she said. "It's...concerning." That wasn't quite as mushy sounding as 'worrying'. "You were like this when I saw you earlier, and it was clear to me that you've been doing more or less nothing since I last saw you. And then we get here, and--" she broke off, not even sure what to say, there. Could she bring up that she knew he'd been smiling? That he looked better earlier? Or the flipside of that, where he was being deliberately distant? Neither seemed like the best option.

"I'm glad you like the place," he told her, still with that same, almost bland tone. He was having a difficult time with tone right now. Tone needed emotion and that was all walled away right now. But, for all that, he wasn't lying - he was glad she liked it, he'd seen that she did, he'd watched her. And whilst he couldn't tell her what was wrong with him right now, that was part of it. He figured she would probably think that he was changing the subject, but he wasn't - that was just an acceptable response in a minefield of everything else.

She did take it as him changing the subject. And not very well, either. "Well, you certainly sound it." she said, wanting to walk away, but at the same time, there was still that concern running through her. And while he wasn't used to dealing with things like this, really, neither was she. Sure, she'd been there for her girls when they wanted someone to sob to, but that was feigned. This was real. And as it was, it was much more difficult to deal with. Plus, it wasn't like she was seeing him being an emotional wreck...he was just...almost not there. Like he'd checked out a bit ago, and hadn't actually returned. That was a difficult thought for her to deal with as well. It wasn't like she hadn't seen people crack before. "Is this where everything changes?" she asked, that sort of clicking into place and she asked it before she thought better of it.

He hadn't expected that response. A lot of the time, Brett dealt with matters by being able to predict how people were likely to react to any given situation and being there before them. For years now he'd used it to effectively pull people's strings, to goad them into a reaction, to push them away, or get them to walk away. But here, now - he hadn't expected her to say that and, for a moment, he frowned at her, clearly thrown, something coming back. "Everything changes?" he asked her, not knowing what she meant by that.

Well, fabulous. Now she had to explain herself, and she wasn't even sure how. It was one of those instances where you knew what you meant--but explaining it out loud was going to be tricky. She finally looked away, feeling vulnerable, and she wished she'd checked her mouth a little there. Thought before speaking instead of just saying what crossed her mind as it did so. "You brought me here, and you've been keeping your distance. Wouldn't even enter the bedroom with me. You aren't saying a whole lot, and now this...is this where everything changes? Where you put down new lines?" Because she wasn't planning on it. But that didn't mean he wasn't. "Is this where I'm just your partner now?" she asked. "I've--I've never done this. I've never had a partner before. Associates, maybe, but nothing like this. Nothing where it's me and someone else, and it's equal. I just--I don't really know what's happening right now." she admitted. And to think, she'd been so happy earlier. Honestly happy, even if it was a foreign emotion to her.

"No, Princess - this isn't where I'm just your partner now. Things aren't going to change like that," he told her. He might not know everything, but he knew that much.

To her, 'like that' meant they'd be changing some other way that wasn't addressed yet, but she didn't know what to say to that. "Then what's going on?" she asked. "What's wrong? I know something is, I can see it." Even if he at least stopped sounding like there wasn't the slightest bit of investment in his words. He sounded confused now, which made her think she'd really just not explained herself well at all. Not really surprising, that.

He swallowed slightly, knowing he was going to have to try and put something into words here. "...You looked good. In there, in here - before, like that," he told her, edging around the things he'd felt. "I was... It was a better view from back here," he told her, changing what he'd been going to say. It wasn't all of it, not by a long shot, but it was something.

Well, at least it was a start. He wasn't not telling her anything, or walking out. Though, part of her realized, walking out would be a much more difficult process in a place with elevator people and doormen. They talked. Rumors would run like wildfire. And she really needed to focus on other things just now. What he said surprised her a little, mostly because she hadn't thought about anything like that, and wouldn't think he would either. In the end she said what had immediately come to mind, the knee-jerk response. But even after thinking it through, it was the most honest one she could give. "I wanted you there with me."

"I know you did," he told her. That much had been stunningly obvious - and that had been part of the problem. He didn't know how to deal with that, how to react to that. They'd hit those issues before, at other times. This was just another example of it. She'd been happy, and he just didn't know how to do that. It seemed strange, to realise that. Strange that something as simple as 'happiness' should be inaccessible, but, apparently, with him, it was something he couldn't do. Even if he wanted to.

"So why did you stay back? Why was it a better view from there?" she asked. Though the obvious, and really callous answer was that he'd wanted to deny her something, and wanted to watch the result. She didn't think that was the case, though, which was why she didn't accuse him of it. Brett was a lot of things, but that would have been especially cruel. And while sure, he'd been cruel to her before...she didn't see it being the case here. She couldn't find a motivation for him to do that, and he did need motivation. Or, that was how she saw it.

"The quality of the view has nothing to do with what you wanted," Brett told her, though his tone wasn't pointed. He was quiet for a long moment, then took a deep inhalation of breath. "I... Didn't want to spoil things," he told her, his expression and tone acknowledging that he was very aware that he'd done just that anyhow. Fucking pathetic - accomplishing what he'd wanted to avoid just by trying to avoid it. And she was meant to be the broken one.

A frown flickered over her expression as she took that in. "...why would it have done so?" she asked, tone light. It was pretty clear she didn't understand that, couldn't make the connection there, even if she was trying. But it didn't make sense to her. A good lot of things didn't make sense to her, but she really wanted to figure out how to make them make sense. Doing that, however, that was just...she didn't know. She definitely needed help, because she was lost.

It took him a moment to get himself to answer, and when he did, his voice was on the quiet side. "You looked so happy, Princess. I've never seen to you like that before." He stopped, not even sure if he should carry on there, that line of vulnerability drawn, that wall stopping him, there keeping everything in. He wouldn't go past those. He couldn't - even if he wanted to, he couldn't. "You know me - you know how I am. I'd take that away." He couldn't do happiness, he didn't know how to react when he was even faced with it. It had been nice to watch, compelling even, he just didn't know how to handle it, except to break it apart.

She didn't speak for a few moments, watching him. It was new information. She did know how he was, but only in regards to intimacy. Where they couldn't do anything resembling sweet, or gentle, because he'd psych himself out far before it got to a point where anything happened. "I don't know that you'd take it away." she told him first, because that was true. She also took a step closer to him, but not within range yet, just a little closer. "And I've never felt like that before." she added. "No one's seen me like that." She could own up to that.

He didn't try and move away, or stop her getting closer. It was like before - when she'd turned out the lights, when he wouldn't have minded if she'd come over and she didn't. Sometimes he wondered if it would be easier if she took the steps, if all he needed to do was react. He didn't know how that would go, but he was willing to find out. But, then again, all he'd had to do before was react, and his reactions hadn't been the right ones, so maybe that would be a vain hope. "It's a good look on you," he told her, honestly, wanting to say something.

"Seeing you smile is a good look on you." She said in return, though not just because he'd said the first to her. She did sort of wonder how that worked, what she might appear like, how it differed from other moods, but she'd never really know. She'd have to take his word for it. Taking another step forward, she watched his eyes. "And thank you." she added. "...for everything. Not just the compliment. This?" she said, glancing around before returning her eyes to his. "I appreciate this. I like it here. That's all you."

He held himself, tensing slightly as she said what amounted to nice things about him. It wasn't quite like before, but it was approaching that line, that place where he couldn't handle things, and he was really trying to hold it together, to not not know what to do. "Needed to be done," he told her, falling back on making it about business, even though she'd told him her concerns earlier on. He didn't know what else to say.

She saw him tense, even if she took another step towards him. "Maybe." she said. "But that doesn't change the fact that I like it here. I like the space. That you did something really, really good here." she added. "I don't really care that it was out of necessity. You could have got something far different. But you didn't, you got this place." She paused a moment, biting at her lower lip for a second before saying the rest of her thought, even if she wasn't one hundred percent sure she should. "I like having a foundation again. Feeling like I'm someplace..." she hesitated over the word, then sighed, looking away, drawing her fingers through her hair. "Safe."

"You feel safe here?" he asked her. he took the question because it was, in itself, safer ground for him. It was something that could be talked about without him needing to express anything that he couldn't, backing away from those vulnerabilities, back onto more acceptable ground.

She nodded. Possibly not fully safe, no where was fully safe, but she felt better here than anywhere else. Which possibly, she should express. "I feel safer here than anywhere else." she said. "And this place, it's nicer than anywhere I've been beyond Babylon, but at the end of the day, Babylon was a hotel, not a living space." she added. "This is...different." She slid her arms up to hug herself a little. "It's also not really the point." she added. "Why do you think you would have ruined things if you'd joined me?"

And there they were, right back on the topic, just as he'd started to think that they were safely away from it. Sneaky bitch. He looked away for a moment - it was either that or glare and he was actually really trying right now. "Do you honestly, really think I wouldn't?" he asked her, his tone sounding like she should already know the answer to that one. Deep down inside, anyway, down past the wants and the wishful thinking, to where she really knew what he was like.

She thought about the question, even if she recognized that it was him turning things back on her instead of answering her question. She took another step closer, and now she was close enough to reach out and touch him, even if she didn't. "I think I wouldn't want to deny you the chance, just because you might." she said in the end. "And up until right now...I hadn't considered you would. I know you...shy away from certain things. However usually that's much more wrapped up in physicality. Not beyond that."

"We've never got beyond that," he pointed out to her. It wasn't like either one of them tended to go around being positive and optimistic and generally excited about the world and the future or anything. "You wouldn't want to deny me the chance - and I wouldn't want to deny you the chance to be... You were happy. I don't know how to do that," he admitted, abandoning everything else and just going for the blunt truth.

"Well, maybe you don't, but that doesn't mean you don't try. Or not try, as it were, because it shouldn't be something you have to put effort into. And if you can't, then you can't. But we're in this together." she told him. "We decided that, we're going through with things, it's not just me, or just you, we're in this with one another." she stopped a moment, lining up the rest of her thoughts. "I don't like the idea of you holding back just because you're under the impression it'll ruin something for me. It's not your style, for one."

"I know it's not my style," Brett told her, aware that that was just another entire issue in and of itself. Because his style was all based around not giving a flying fuck what people thought of him, or how they reacted to how he was. Or no - that wasn't right. He sometimes cared about what they thought, because he wanted them to think negatively about him - sometimes he was invested in making sure that they hated him. Possibly it all meant the same thing. He wasn't a guy who cared if people liked him, if they wanted to hang around. That wasn't true here. Suddenly, with her, he had something to lose. That was a new thing for him. "Anyway, it's not just about you. It's not just because I thought I'd ruin something for you. I'd ruin something for me as well," he admitted to her, though that admission was much more reluctant.

Well, that made her feel a little better. That it wasn't all about her. That she could accept easier. "What would you be ruining for yourself?" she asked. If she could latch onto this, understand it, she could figure out what to do with it. Or, that was her running theory, anyhow, and she was sticking to it, because the alternative wasn't acceptable to her. Not knowing how to deal with something was pretty common with her these days but she didn't want it to apply here.

"Told you - I enjoyed the view." he'd taken something from that, even if he'd been almost entirely incapable of sharing it with her. The smile, that was as much as he had managed - and that only because he couldn't hold entirely back. He'd wanted to be there with her, he just hadn't known how, his emotional walls being far too well developed and having been in place for far too long. But that didn't mean he hadn't appreciated it, experiencing it all by proxy, through watching her.

Taking that in, she wondered who would win in an issues contest. At the moment she was willing to bet he would, even if that was almost a ridiculous concept. "But you didn't want to become part of it." she said, though it wasn't really a flat statement, it was put out there so she could be corrected if she needed to be. She wasn't sure, really, and didn't want to guess. Not right now. No, guessing wasn't anything she was happy to do with this whole situation. She wasn't trying to go for insight, or anything else, she'd much rather have the actual answer.

"It's not a matter of 'want', Princess," he told her. If it was just want... Well, he didn't know whether it would actually make any difference, because he didn't know how to do this. There was just a whole lot of 'don't know' going around.

I thought things between us were a matter of desire. Eris thought, but didn't share. It wouldn't be fair, she knew that. So, she held that back. "Implying it's a matter of can and cannot." she said, again with that same tone that suggested she was trying to understand, but was willing to be corrected if she got it wrong.

Right then, he didn't want to be here. He felt that urge to turn and walk out, just to remove himself from the situation. Because he wasn't going to go with the urge to snap at her for no reason - he'd mostly gotten himself out of that habit with her. He still picked fights, from time to time, but it was less often than it had been. He was learning, though he didn't have the self-awareness to consider it like that. It was, for him, simply that the urge to piss her off in order to get himself out of an uncomfortable situation had been replaced by the occasional urge simply to walk away - though even that was an urge he very rarely went with. It was still there though. And it was there right now. And, again, he held it, but didn't act upon it. "It's a matter of I don't know how to do that," he told her, right up against that line now, overly aware of that fact.

Nodding, she added that into her assessment of everything. She didn't speak immediately, really milling everything over. "Do you have to know how?" she asked finally. "I know you don't exactly let go very easily," Since he couldn't even seem to do so in the heat of the moment, where it was likely the easiest time ever just to stop thinking and go with the flow. "But it's not really a matter of knowing how to do something. I've never felt like that before, and I didn't feel the need to overthink it. I just...I felt good. I was actually excited about things, and I've never really had that. And if you'd have asked me yesterday if I thought that was in the cards for me, I would have told you no."

"...I'm pleased. I - I believe in all of this. I, I just, I..." He didn't know how to describe it. It was like he could see all of the reactions she'd had, and he could even appreciate that he could be feeling them as well, that he could be right there with her, but when he reached for them, they weren't there. Or there as a block that stopped him reaching them. It wasn't that he felt differently about everything, that he viewed things differently, he just couldn't feel that way, apparently. he couldn't even put the theory of how he thought he should be feeling into words.

Brett wasn't one overly taken with stammering, so that needled at the little ball of worry that she still held onto. Even if he'd started talking, and wasn't just staring or speaking so flatly anymore, it was another symptom. And while she didn't really realize she was doing so, she was noting all the little distress reactions. It was something she used to do, to monitor how close to cracking someone was, so she could push things around in different directions. Now, it was just making her all the more aware that something was wrong. She let one of her arms loose from where she'd had it wrapped around herself, and reached out to lightly brush her fingertips over the back of his hand. "I'm listening." she told him, tone quiet.

His jaw flexed as he forced himself to stop that - to stop fishing for words he didn't have. Better to stay silent than to not be able to complete a fucking sentence. "It felt good," he told her, at length, once he was sure that what he said would come out the way he wanted it to, once he'd decided what he could and would say, and say with some kind of dignity. "I wanted to show you this place myself. I'd been looking forward to it. Before the other day..." he told her, allowing himself to trail off there, because they could both acknowledge that there had been major road blocks in this route, but if they could just ignore those for the time being, things would make more sense. He didn't want to go into how things had been for him in the between times. "Well. Yeah. And I appreciated your reaction. I didn't expect it - like I said, never seen you like that before. But-" He smiled slightly, without really realising that he'd done so, thinking about how she'd been. He'd hold that memory. "-I liked it. It felt good, watching you like that. Seeing how you were. I could almost feel it. But I couldn't actually feel it. And when you tried to pull me in, I..." And that was where he faltered, because those words were missing, the words to be able to accurately describe feelings he didn't have.

The fastest way to get someone to stop something was to point out they were doing it, so when he did have that little smile on his face, she didn't say anything, she just noted it. It was a touch surprising, considering they were in the middle of what could only be described as a difficult sort of talk, and yet there it was. Not lingering, but it made an appearance, which to her said something. When he trailed off, she thought over the context, trying to figure out where he was going with it. "...you didn't want to not fit in with the rest of the picture?" she suggested lightly.

"I didn't want to break things," he said, though it wasn't phrased as a correction, simply another way of viewing things. "I - anything I could have said. Or done. I would have taken something away from you then. I couldn't have added to that."

She finished stepping in close to him, not up against him but a slight lean would do that. That close, she could smell the soap on him from his shower. She wasn't entirely sure what she was going to say. She understood what he was getting at, or she did as well as she could when she didn't feel the way he did. She could piece it together just fine. "I still want to share things with you." she told him. "I don't want to be the only one. We're supposed to be in it together." It wasn't anything phrased as an accusation, or even in such a fashion to make him feel guilty over things. It was just an admission to how she felt about it. Pushing up on her toes, she brushed a kiss against his throat, before letting herself back down again.

He caught her half way down, a hand in the small of her back, leaving her not quite able to return to a proper standing position as he looked down at her. "Princess - you need to face the fact that I'm not always going to be able to give you everything you want," he told her, feeling a disappointment in that fact as he spoke that was entirely new. Before, he would have simply considered it a fact of life. Now - now he felt an edge of regret about it.

She reached up to rest a hand against his chest, looking up at him. "That doesn't mean that I give up on things so easily." she said. "Or that things can't or won't change." she said, because hey. They were a rather perfect example of how things could change. They were sort of continually evolving, something she was aware of, and even more so at the moment, tonight, how things went. Where they were heading in the future, the fact that there was apparently going to be a future, even if she'd not especially wanted one. There was part of her that wanted to express faith in him, but she wasn't sure how to do it. Instead, she went for a slightly less on point track, but one that rode the same lines. "Til I get undeniable evidence that it's never going to happen, I'm going to keep wanting what I want. Maybe someday I'll get it. No one ever got anything or did anything without being persistent." The other part of what she said was there just to let him know she wasn't actually planning on giving up there. That she'd be willing to go through things with him, even if it wasn't easy, because maybe eventually there'd be something else.

"Bull headed and stubborn," Brett added, a little wryly. He felt that she was wrong in her belief, that that was never going to happen, but he didn't try and dissuade her. He'd been trying to avoid picking a fight all night and he wasn't going to start one now. He could, he knew, he could see the buttons he could push, but he didn't. He'd already ruined things enough without that. he wondered if he'd ever see her like that again. She'd said she'd never felt that before. Maybe tonight was just a one-off. Maybe that was it, game over, end of story, and he'd never get to see that again.

She nodded, smiling at him, and while it wasn't fully a devlish smirk, there were hints of it there. She also pushed back up on her toes a little more, since he hadn't let her go yet. She kind of liked when he did that, even if he'd only ever done so once or twice. "Unapologetically." she answered him. Yes, she was, in fact, bull headed and stubborn. But so was he. In fact, he could be even more so than she could at times, even if she would have said that was impossible a while ago. Still. They both had that kind of personality, where despite what could possibly be termed better judgment, they went ahead with whatever anyhow.

He kissed her then - not softly, almost tenderly, like he had done earlier, but neither was it as pressing and forceful as he usually went for. This time, it was somewhere in between, unthoughtout beforehand. He wasn't entirely sure where he was taking things, it just seemed right for the moment.

She kissed him back, arms sliding up around his neck as she did so. And, even if part of her was aware he was most definitely going to either end this, or crash and burn it, considering the tone--she let him keep that lead, set it how he wanted it. She complied, not trying to shift it in any specific direction, not wanting to. She wanted to see what he'd do when left to his own devices on it, especially in light of their conversation.

He savoured the kiss, drawing it out, though all the time he felt that end point nearing. Knew that there was a time limit before things had to stop, because he wouldn't be able to bring himself to carry on. Still, he acknowledged that and he drew it out right up until that point, and only then did he draw back. "We need to talk about the information you have on the Commissioner," he told her, knowing and acknowledging he was entirely changing the subject here.

She stood back, a little, sighing just a touch, because that had been nice, and she would have liked to continue--but she knew when she got into it that there was that point. Now if she could keep pushing the line a little at a time... just not tonight. Still, there was just enough she expressed to let him know that she would rather do other things and not abruptly start talking about the commissioner--but she said nothing there. She did go to sit on the couch, though, sliding her shoes off, and she curled her feet up beside her. "What do you need to know? I put together a few more things, just...odds and ends I had, and put them in a file for you."

He was well aware of what she'd prefer to be doing, even before she sighed. And, if he were honest, he was right there with her on that, but being honest and being able were, apparently, two different things for him. Two broken people talking about how to break someone else. Maybe. Hopefully - the bastard deserved it. Possibly the bastard had had a hand in screwing Brett's life over in the first place. He'd contemplated that, since he'd found out. That maybe the commissioner had been involved. But whether he had been or not was immaterial. The bastard was crooked and the bastard would pay. "I want to make sure you're okay with me delivering them to the Echo. Any last minute words - now's the time to say them," he told her.

She looked up at him, and stayed silent for a moment. Then she answered. "This is your thing, your move. Anything you do, I'll back." she told him. "If you want to go to the Echo, do that. About the only thing I have to say I said before--don't give anyone the original or only copy of the files. Give them copies."

"I know you'll back me, that's not what I asked," Brett pointed out. "Last time we talked about this, well, you've talked to Hollis since. I want to know whether you have anything to say on the subject. Other than just give them copies," he added.

"Last time I went and made decisions about things, it went fairly wrong, didn't it." Eris said. "I'd rather not make the same mistake twice." Even if she had been able to fix it. Kind of. Maybe. Hopefully. In theory, anyways, and til she got wind of evidence otherwise, that was her story and she was sticking to it. "Maybe with this, you should just do what you're going to do, and leave me and my influence behind."

So, she still thought he was doing the wrong thing. That's what he took from that. But she was letting him do it anyway - and he wasn't going to change his mind in any event. He knew he'd just prefer it if she agreed with him. Clearly, that wasn't going to happen. "I'll make sure we have at least a couple of copies," he confirmed for her. Hell knew, that could take him a while, but he'd figure it out.

"Good." She said. In reality, she did think it was the better move. there was less chance of a cover up with the Echo than city hall. But she was still aware how blindsiding it was to realize that her doing something she thought was right turned out to be so fantastically wrong. Therefore...yeah. She was a tad gunshy at the moment when it came to things like that. "I'd try and make sure that files got to a few different people in the building, just to have a better bet that it'll get to someone who'll hunt it down, not bury it because they're on a payroll."

"Right. And there's a couple of names on the paper I was thinking of sending it to," he told her, though that hadn't been a long term plan, just names he remembered as people who were or could be considered to be annoying in a 'won't let this go' kind of a way.

"Then you sound like you've got it well in hand." Eris said. No need for me on it. He was getting it done on his own, figuring things out. She was just very very aware that she'd crossed the line before without even recognizing it til it was pointed out to her, so yeah. There were some pretty big blocks in her mind on that sort of thing. They popped up fast, and were going to be hard to get around.

He nodded, not bringing up her involvement again, since she'd made it clear that he was on his own in this one. He would have preferred her there with him - like she'd said before. In this together. Just, apparently, not in this particular part. "Gonna try and get everything done in the next day or so," he told her. Faster, if he could, but he wouldn't let his wish to get this done get in the way of being careful and doing things properly. He didn't want this to be able to be traced back to either of them. Not this one.

She nodded. "Alright." she said. The next few days. Then there'd be a shit storm, and...who knew what else. Suddenly, she was wondering if she'd told Jakob they were doing things at any specific time, but couldn't remember. It had her looking away, even if she said nothing. Had she? Was there a timeframe to work within here? She didn't know. She didn't think she'd do something like that, but she couldn't be sure. Then she was thinking about the doors down the hall, and she was trying to recall which ones were which, and then she realized she might not even remember how many doors there were to start with. She looked again for a cabinet, where there might be something to drink, but hey look at that. One hadn't magically appeared.

The whole thing was an anticlimax. Everything, really, but especially this. Or, no - not an anticlimax, something that had been spoiled. It had been good. It had been everything he'd thought it could be and more. More than he could cope with, clearly. And now, now they were just sitting here and he didn't know if she felt it, but he felt disconnected. He didn't know what to say, and the silence stretched.

Is there anything to drink here? she thought, but didn't say. She kind of suspected that the reason she didn't see a liquor cabinet was because he'd specifically not wanted one, because he tended to not want her to drink. She also felt the silence, the disconnection. Or something. Something that was just not quite right, even if she couldn't have said what was right. Standing, she went to stand by the window, finally gazing out at the view they had now. It was a pretty one, one of the types where all the bright lights made the city look less horrible. Less dirty, less a teeming pit of damnation. She could see her own reflection faintly, a doubled sort of one, since the glass in this building was a lot better than at the loft. thicker. Her gaze drifted though, focusing not on the lights, or the city, or herself, but on him, in the room behind her.

His eyes were on her back, on the way her hair fell in waves down her back, unaware that she was watching him in the reflection. He left it a moment or two, then stood, crossing to join her, though he remained behind her, standing just behind her right shoulder, his chest brushing her back, his left hand rising to rest on her hip as he looked over her shoulder now and out into the night.

She wondered, just a little, when that had happened. When they'd got to a place where he found it okay to do that, and not only alright, but that he'd go through with it. She wasn't complaining about it at all. In fact, it was nice, in it's own way. She leaned back against him just a little, letting her head fall back just enough that it rested back against him. Her eyes were still on his reflection, even if it was closer, and he'd be able to see that she was watching him, not the city. Well. If he looked, he'd see.

He did notice, eventually, as he scanned across the view and suddenly caught her gaze. He held it, silently, watching her watching him, unmoving. Outside, it began to rain, the wind blowing it in gusts to rattle against the window panes.

She didn't try to look away when she was caught, not so much minding that he did catch her watching him. That even with a beautiful view, her attention wasn't wavering from him. Saying nothing for a while, she just kept watching him, mind on him but unfocused. She wanted to ask him what he was thinking about, but in the end didn't. She let that silence stand, even if she wanted there to be something else beyond the silence right now. They needed her record player. Music would have been nice.

He held her gaze for as long as he could, and then looked away, dropping his hand at the same time and easing himself backwards. He looked out at the pouring rain. "Did you want to stay here tonight, or should I take you home?" he asked her, not necessarily referring to right this very moment, but eventually a decision there would have to be made.

She turned to look back at him over her shoulder, disappointed he was pulling away. She didn't know what she might have wanted him to do--or no, she did. He just wasn't going to be doing that. He'd kissed her earlier, twice, in that manner that was unusual for him, but always dead ended. And usually she was okay with it. Tonight, though, there was a part of her that wanted it more. "Where are you staying tonight?" she asked, figuring that his answer would dictate hers.

"I don't know yet," Brett admitted to her. Some of that would depend on her. Some of it would depend if he could remember if that copy place down on Fourth stayed open all night or not. It was late already now, possibly what he had to do would simply have to wait until first light.

She nodded, then looked back out the window, even if she wasn't really looking at anything. Quiet for a few moments, she answered eventually, tone light. And a bit of the fact that she was feeling off leaked into her tone, even if she tried to edit it out. She didn't do a very good job. "I don't want to stay here alone." Which wasn't her asking him to stay, or anything else, she was just letting him know.

He looked at her again as she looked away, this time focusing on her reflection, so that he could tell if she looked at him again. "You don't have to," he told her, which wasn't saying he'd stay, either. It was simply a statement of fact. And it wasn't saying that he didn't want her to either. Which he held back.

She did tick her gaze back to him again, though she looked away again after only a moment. Then she moved away from the window, walking into the apartment farther, veering towards the little kitchen area, which was much better than either hers or Brett's, like the whole of the apartment was. She looked around it, though didn't turn on the light, recognizing she was putting distance between herself and him. Things felt off. They felt wrong. And she didn't know what to do about it, but getting all clingy and girly and weak probably wasn't the answer. Besides, she'd felt on and off kind of rejected in general tonight, that wasn't helping her headspace.

He was aware of her moving around, and, after a moment or two, he turned to watch her. It was a while before he said anything though, as he thought things over. But even then, he wasn't entirely sure he considered the thought before he said it aloud. "What's the appeal?" he asked her. "Of the dark? Of walking away and wandering about in the dark?" She'd done that before - she'd purposefully switched off the lights, made things difficult for herself. She, who had problems enough already.

She didn't answer immediately. Mostly because she had to think out the answer, and what was and wasn't acceptable to admit to. In the end, she came back towards the archway, and she leaned her shoulder against the side, knowing she wasn't lit very well where she was. "You fare in the dark better because it means I can't see you." she said, tone light. Quiet, but not a whisper, just softer than her usual speaking voice. "Maybe there are times when I want to disappear." Which was about as good an answer as he was going to get, because the rest of it was more complicated, and she didn't know if she could unknot that particular mess in her head.

"In the dark, you can't see my scars," he pointed out to her. "I have something to hide." He'd seen her - she didn't. Not unless you counted the ring around her neck, which she couldn't really hide in any event. And he didn't count that, they'd discussed that. That aside, she was pretty much perfect, physically. He thought so, anyhow.

"Maybe you don't need scars to still want to fade out." Eris suggested, tone the same. She had her arms around herself again, and she was looking towards him but not at him. Enough that she kept him in view, but there was no eye contact, and it was clear she wasn't looking for it. Like she'd showed him, she was using her peripheral vision to keep an eye on him. "Maybe I do it when I feel like I have."

He looked at her for a moment, then nodded, once. "I'll be out front," he told her. If she wanted to hide, she could do it so much the better if he just wasn't here at all. That's what he took from it. Turning, he started towards the door that lead forward to the offices, leaving her behind.

She didn't say anything for a few seconds, a little shocked. Why, she didn't know, but it was there. "If I wanted you gone, I'd tell you." she said, moving to follow, though that was mostly because she had no desire to be there without him. "Have you never just needed a few moments?" she continued, feeling even more that light under-edge of rejection, even if she knew that was probably not what was happening.

He turned back, raising an eyebrow. "So, what - you want to hide, to fade out, but you want an audience for that?" he asked her, an edge to his tone. "Sounded to me like you wanted to be alone - so, leaving you alone. Didn't realise I was meant to just stand there and watch you trying to be invisible." He snapped his mouth shut, overly aware of his own tone. He'd been trying to avoid that tonight. Fuck. He sighed and ran a ragged hand through his hair. "Look, I... Take all the time you want," he told her, changing his path to head over to one of the windows, leaning against the wall, facing firmly away from her, and looking out at the stormy night. It was his version of a compromise.

"No, I don't need an audience." she said, stopping where she was as he walked towards the window. "And I'm fairly certain you missed the part where I said that sometimes I do it when I already feel invisible. Leaving really doesn't help that much." she told him, and now it was her turn to head towards the door. "Nevermind. I'll just take a cab back." she told him.

"I said I'd take you home," Brett told her when she said she'd get a cab. He didn't get how they got to him trying to give her some space when he'd felt like that's what she'd wanted to her walking out and flat out leaving. He'd thought they'd got past that part, but they always seemed to end up back at the same point, didn't they? With one of them leaving.

"I know." she said, looking partially back at him. "Do you really want to at this particular moment?" she asked. She'd forgotten she'd come there with a hat, so she wasn't looking around for it, or anything. And she wasn't actually entirely sure where she was going. But she'd find it, right? Eventually. Or maybe it was just a straight shot to the elevator. She didn't remember that either.

"Not really," Brett admitted to her. Really, right now, what he wanted was for her to stay here, for this whatever it was that had come up to resolve itself or go away somehow. For him not to feel that disconnect, like things were off course once more. That was what he wanted, right now at this particular moment. "But you're the one that wants to leave."

She was quiet for a few long moments, trying to figure out what that meant. Or if it meant anything at all, because it could just not. Maybe she just wanted it to. For him not to want her to leave, or...something. Eris really wasn't sure at this point, she felt very spun. Like her own judgments were very much in question, and she couldn't trust any of them. She did know that she didn't really want to leave, she wanted things to stop feeling fucked up. But she didn't know how to correct anything, and his behavior was kind of a mystery to her at current. Damnit. "I'm capable of getting myself home. You don't have to go out of your way." she told him, going with how things felt, like no, he didn't want to take her home, that might be more time with her or something, but he'd told her he'd take her home so was going to go through with it.

"Wouldn't be going out of my way," he responded, feeling like she was trying to give him an out that he didn't want. "If you want to leave, I'll drive you home." Home. It was strange how that word was meant to mean something specific, have some greater meaning other than the place where you lived. Apparently. For Brett, since his aunt had died, home had never meant much to him. It had never had that further meaning. It had just been somewhere to go and sleep, somewhere to keep clothes. This place was meant to be home. Or going to be. He'd given his notice on his apartment a few days back. He had it up through next week. yet here they both were, not even able to spend an evening with each other and one of them was trying to walk out. Soon neither of them would have anywhere else to go.

Eris sighed, and stood there for a few long moments, crossing her arms across her stomach as she tried to get herself to think properly. She wound up saying something that went through her mind, even if it was ill advised. "No one messes with my head like you do." was what she said. And after she recognized that she said it, she reached up to drag her fingers through her hair, and she knew she needed to say something else with that. It wasn't a statement you could just leave hanging. "Sometimes things get so messy I can't pick anything out anymore." she added, quietly. "Right now feels like that."

"If it makes you feel any better, you manage to do exactly the same to me," Brett told her, taking the fact that she wasn't actively trying to leave as a possible sign of progress. Enough that he gave her that one, an honest answer of something he normally would have tried to keep to himself. Or waited until he would be able to call her a 'contrary, confusing woman' in the heat of the moment.

She gave a short, humorless little laugh, looking away before looking back to him. "No, that doesn't really make me feel any better." she told him. "I'd rather not spin you like you spin me." she added. "Whenever you do this with me, I just...don't know anything anymore." she admitted, not sure if that even made sense or not but it was the truth, so she put it out there. It left her feeling vulnerable, but it was possibly better than her leaving and being awake the rest of the night, wondering where he was and if she'd seen him again.

He wondered what the particular 'this' was, or rather, where it stemmed from for her. He knew where it had started for him - her making it quite clear that he was on his own when it came to the information they had on the Commissioner. That that was separate to her claims that they were in this together. Even with everything else... They'd talked about everything else, at least some. But that he'd felt very shut down on and things had just gone downhill from there. "What do you want to know?" he asked her.

"I don't know." she said honestly. "I know I want to stop feeling like everything's fucked up?" she suggested. But she didn't know how to do that. And just a flat 'everything's fine' wouldn't do it, even if he did tell her that. "But I don't know what I want to know. I don't know what might make things..." she trailed off, looking away again. Lost. She really felt like she didn't know what was really going on. Like she'd missed something vital, and didn't know what it was, hadn't even caught it at the time.

He looked at her for a moment before speaking. "I know you think I'm doing the wrong thing, playing this the wrong way, going to the Echo - but I can't change my mind on that," he told her, bluntly. If that's what it would take to make things okay between them right now, if that was what would stop things being all weird and fucked up. If that was what was actually needed - he still couldn't do it. He wouldn't.

A frown flickered over her features. "...where did you get that?" she asked. "I don't think you're going at things the wrong way." she said, now feeling really lost. Though because this was wholly unexpected, it knocked her slightly out of her mindframe. Much more into 'huh?' land but that was better than 'drowning in unknowns' land. "I think you'll have a better bet with things there than city hall. There's got to be at least one reporter there who'll jump at the opportunity to break a story that groundbreaking."

"But you don't want anything to do with it," Brett pointed out, frowning back. "You said - you near as damnit put it that I was on my own in this one. After saying less than a damn hour ago that we were in everything together, you made it pretty damn clear that this one was just me. So, no, I don't take away from that that you wholeheartedly approve with what I'm doing here," he told her. That she did was, in fact, news to him.

She kept looking at him, that frown still present, as she tried to figure out how to respond to that. "I--" she started, then stopped. "Brett, the last thing I had a hand in, the last thing I made decisions on in regards to you was the polar opposite of what you wanted. You told me that I'd done it all wrong, that I was controlling things, manipulating, that you didn't have any choices, and I never even knew it could be looked at like that. I did things my way, and apparently? My way isn't on the level, even if I thought I was doing something good." She looked away. "...I believed in that. In what I was doing. I believed that it was for the best, that it was going to be a good thing, that it was going to help you, more than anything else. That it would give you your life back, or at the very least, give you options you didn't have before, you could go off and live whatever life you wanted." She fell quiet again for a moment. "And then I told you, and...I don't know where I went wrong." she admitted. "And I don't want to do it again, but since I don't know where I went wrong..." she trailed off, hoping he'd be able to fill in the rest of the blank there.

"That's where you went wrong. You came up with a plan to change my life. You put the whole damn thing in motion. You played it through. And then you told me. Told me how my life was going to change. How things were going to be. It could have been exactly what I wanted and I still would have been pissed at that - do you get that? But that doesn't mean that you can't say a damn thing, or have an opinion, or anything else. Just - don't go unilaterally deciding things about my life for me. You always liked pointing out to me that you weren't a puppy. Well, neither am I. You got something about my life? You talk to me about it first, before you go making plans. And tonight -I wasn't asking for decisions. I was asking for opinions. You're good at this stuff. You've got more experience than I have. yeah, I managed to get information, but I never did anything with that until you. You know how to get this done, I'm just kinda flying by the seat of my pants here." He paused, before making himself continue. "I could do with some advice, and I could do with knowing that you don't think I'm just gonna fuck everything up and you're just letting me do that because you've made some kind of a decision not to get in my damn way." His tone had started firm, but by the end, it had eased off a little, sounding just a little tired.

"I did try talking to you about it. And every time the subject even remotely came up, the only thing you would say was that it was impossible. That nothing could be done, that it was over, that I was stupid for even thinking it might be something that could be overturned." Eris said. "You never said it wasn't something you wanted, you just...shut down. And shut me down while you were at it. I did try. You just weren't listening." She moved then, to lean against the wall, feeling the need to have something at her back. It put her a few feet farther from Brett to do it, but she kept her eyes on him. "For you, I was just talking a fairytale. Some pipe dream that couldn't be achieved. For me...I wanted to do something for you. I wanted to give that to you, give you your life back, as much as I could. I didn't imagine I'd be around for much longer anyways, and didn't want to leave you with nothing, not when I could see ways to get it." She was quiet again for a moment, knowing there was more there, but she didn't give it voice. Not right now.

"For flying blind, you're doing well." she told him, looking towards the floor. "You aren't making poor decisions. You're doing things how I'd advise you to. I don't think you're going to fuck everything up. You don't need me." she said. "You're doing quite well on your own." And that actually encompassed more than just the part about his plans for the Echo and the files. He'd gotten this place, which was perfect, or what she considered perfect. It was what they needed, with just enough room to grow that they weren't going to be stuck. He was, in fact, doing just fine without her influence.

"Neither of us thought we had a future," Brett pointed out. "And I still say you can't give me my life back. Not that life - I don't want it. It's been too long and too much has happened. But - you were right about one thing. There can be a future. And this, all of this - that's it. And I would never have thought of it. Any of it. If it hadn't been for you. Where I am now? Is a lifetime away from where I was when I found you. So, you wanted to do something for me? You've done it." He stopped short of the rest, of telling her that he did, in fact need her. He felt he'd said quite enough already.

She didn't say that she'd thought her future wasn't going to happen because she hadn't actually expected to live this long. And that the thought of living still sometimes terrified her. That if she let herself think about things, her condition, everything, that she sometimes just wanted to curl up and cry. Which really wasn't her style, so instead she poured herself another drink--only here, she wasn't able to do that. She heard the last part, though, and that sank in, enough to quiet her some. In the end, she nodded, still mostly looking at the floor, unsure what to say now.

He took a breath and then headed over to her, stopping within reach, wishing she'd actually say something. He clearly wasn't very good at reading her, that much was sure. He wasn't clear what to take from her silence. He didn't like her silence and he answered it with one of his own, in the end saying nothing at all.

When he got closer, she looked up at him, and in the end, she went with her impulse, instead of trying to kick it down. She reached out, taking his hand, and she tugged at it slightly, a non-verbal indication she wanted him closer. Still not knowing what to say, she didn't try to force herself to come up with something, considering she didn't trust herself not to say something that would make it all worse.

He stepped into her as she did that, standing right before her, his hand in hers. As always, he towered over her, even though she was slightly taller than usual in her heels. Still, he was aware of the wall at her back, and the fact that if he moved any closer, she'd be pinned. He didn't, instead stopping, looking down at her. She still wasn't saying anything, and he still wasn't confident of what to take from that.

She watched his eyes, and finally went with something to say. Something that had to do with what he'd just told her, and possibly it had wider meaning as well. "Is this where you want to be?" she asked him, tone light, quiet. Soft, but not really weak. There was no expectation for an answer there, she just wanted to know. He'd said he was a lifetime away from where he'd been when he'd found her. But that didn't necessarily mean it was a better one. Just that it was different. So, she asked.

"Yes," he told her, his voice simply, plain and very certain. There was a lot he didn't know in his life, but he knew that much. Wanting to be here was one of the handful of certainties that had led to him refusing the plan she'd put in place for him. That had guided his reactions even before he'd worked out what he wanted to do there. Everything had been done on the basis that this was where he wanted to end up.

There was a little rush of relief through her, even if she wasn't terribly happy about it. She didn't want to be feeling relieved. Because she took from that that he wanted to be there with her, even if that wasn't the question she asked, and it was unfair to assume that, and everything, but unfair as it was, that was what she took from it. She couldn't help it, that was what she gathered. Nodding once, she pushed away from the wall, closer to him, and she pushed up on her toes to kiss him, even if she used her free hand to tilt his face down by the chin. She wasn't overly concerned with checking her tone, even if it was another one of those Brett didn't handle especially well.

And for the third time that night, he was kissing her that way. Technically, he knew, she was kissing him, but it was returned. It would be good, he knew, if he could hold onto it, if he could just let things go. If there wasn't that in the back of his mind. Because it felt good, it felt like things weren't quite so fucked. She kissed him like that and, in that moment, everything was better. But, for him, being in that moment, experiencing a kiss like that, it was tainted with the knowledge that it wouldn't last.

She didn't wait til he had to end it. She wanted to get lost in it, wanted to go with things, draw it out, see how far she would get, but she didn't. Because then it would leave it on him, and he would. There wasn't some other ending there, he always froze up. And she didn't want him to have to cut it short this time, she did it for him, even if she didn't especially want to. She stayed close when she did trail it off, and he got two softer, shorter soft kisses that spoke of the fact that she wasn't enamored with the idea of stopping, but she did so anyways.

He let her draw back when she did, getting what she was doing and being strangely grateful for it. He felt some of that pressure ebb away, though he wasn't entirely sure where to take things from here. But she seemed to get that, what his issues were here. Maybe it was okay that he didn't have the answers.

She looked up at him, and said nothing for a moment. "Have you decided where you're staying tonight?" she asked. Because she still wanted to tailor her decision to what he was doing. She didn't want to stay there without him, even if it was kind of ridiculous. It was still there, and she knew if she did stay without him, went against that, she'd just not sleep. So, she might as well go with the better option, and just ask him, and go from there.

He considered his answer, and how best to word that. In the end, he went with the simple - honest, but not too exposing. "I think that really depends on you," he told her, moving his hand to her hip and resting it there.

She quirked a half smile at him. "What are my choices?" she asked. "I don't want to stay here without you. But if you are staying here..." she trailed off. She was a little surprised that his answer depended on her, but by the same token, hers was swayed by his, so maybe it wasn't so odd. Possibly just odd for herself, like this entire situation was. She'd never have even been capable of the kinds of things going on in her life now, not before the attempt on her life. But now? Well. Now was different.

"I could stay here," he confirmed to her, noting the smile and almost smiling himself - it didn't quite reach his lips, but it was there behind his blue eyes. "If you were staying here. It would be an option." It hadn't been something he'd planned - staying here tonight. But then again, it wasn't something he'd been looking to avoid either. And given the weather, going to find out if that copy shop was open really didn't appeal.

"Considering the fact that I've no real wish to go back out into the cold," Eris started. "And that I rather like this place, I would think staying here is a viable option." she told him. "Let's stay here." she told him. There was a smirk on her lips, and she pushed up on her toes to give him another kiss, even if it was a touch quicker than the others, and less sweet. Then she turned towards the bedroom, trailing her hand out behind herself where she still lightly held onto his. "Oh, and Brett," she said, looking back over her shoulder at him. "At some point in the future, I do expect you to tie me to that bedframe." she told him. And while her tone was light, matter o fact, her eyes had that devlish glint to them, the curve of her lips did.