houseofcards_rp | [For Katya] Unexpected Visitors

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[For Katya] Unexpected Visitors

Even just a day away from everything was centering, and by dusk on Saturday night, Elisha was feeling much more...even than he had been. New plans and ideas were buzzing in his head, and while he'd promised to spend a weekend away from his work, his work was still on his mind.

Still, he'd gotten out a sketchpad and settled on the couch in the cabin he'd taken for the weekend, ready to turn off his brain and get to work on other work - a mural of Israel for Elani's festival, maybe a general world culture mural too. But then his phone rang.

It took a second for his brain to start translating the Russian, but the name Athena snapped his mind to attention. He'd left after she'd arrived, so he knew, of course. And was just as glad not to be anywhere near the inevitable Spade explosion.

"Why don't you come out here," he said after a moment in fluid Russian - still accented with Israeli, as it always was with that language. "I've got steaks. And vodka."

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Katya smirks. She had not attended that challenge, though she knew Noah well. She can imagine his shock that "namby pamby finger painter" had demolished him. "I sometimes think Deck pays far too much attention to weaponry and not enough to hand-to-hand. There are very few who offer sparring challenge."

"Time to smell the turpentine, Ilyusha? You make good point. There is too much tradition to pysanky and not enough room for expression. You would help me express myself?"

She might not be speaking solely of painting.

Elisha had done his hiding well in the Clubs. People had been worried for him when he challenged to Eight right after Andrew's assassination. And then he'd destroyed Noah, and they looked at him differently. Jared hadn't fared much better in knife-fighting, but then Elisha had spent years sparring with Victor Fox. Getting through those matches with a minimum of blood involved becoming very good.

"They like their swords on the Deck," he agrees. "Do you get bored with the parade of sword challenges in the Spades?"

Then he smiles a little. They used to flirt like this all the time, and it would go to it's natural conclusion. Somehow...he didn't want it to. Perhaps Katya had been right about he and Hadyn. "In art," he says. "I'd help you express yourself."

"I will hold you to that promise." The satisfied flash of her smile says he's confirmed something she'd only guessed at. "I did warn you, my friend. I am happy for you." They were friends, yes? She will be just as happy with a night of conversation and harmless flirting and his couch, though Haydn's absence now seems all the stranger.

"I had an odd request not long ago," she tells him, deciding to share since he had. "I do not know what to make of it."

"You did indeed." And he had some apologizing - and possibly maneuvering - to do when he got back, but he'd needed some time.

Some harmless flirting wouldn't hurt either.

He raises an eyebrow as he turns the steaks on the grill. "An odd request?" he asks. "What was it?"

The night air rings with her delighted laughter. "Oh, Ilyusha! Never change, zaichik. Take off your Ten face. I am not spilling state secrets.

"No, no, but it is very odd, you see. A kiss." She shrugs and sips her drink. "For birthday present--on cheek, very chaste. Had it been from anyone else I would suspect attempt to curry favor. It leaves me quite perplexed."

"A man can always hope, can't they?" Elisha says, but he just shrugs his shoulders. "A kiss, hm? Well, you are a very lovely woman, Katinka," he says.

"Perhaps this person is harboring a crush on his lady Queen." It was one of hers, wasn't it? Not that the Katya Fan Club couldn't be far-reaching.

"You may laugh, but it is all very strange. Men usually ask for more than to kiss cheek. That is something I can handle. I do not know how to stand on pedestal."

One corner of her mouth lifts in a wry smell.

"But I am certain I know how to topple off."

"And who is your adoring admirer," Elisha asks, stepping back from the grill to get the plates. "One of the younger Spades with a serious case of heroine worship?"

But he smiles. "Toppling down has always seemed like the easy part. The perch gets more precarious the higher you go."

"Exactly! This is why I am so good at toppling off, yes? It is also harder to stay put when one is liking high heels the way I do." One cannot rise much higher than Queen.

Katya tilts her head. "You are not to be gossiping like old woman, Ilyusha. I know you. I do not mind for myself, but other person involved would be devastated."

Once she receives acquiescence, she continues.

"Declan--Chives."

"You know I don't talk if there's no reason to." And this wasn't exactly something to be used as leverage for any of his usual maneuvering.

Especially not given who it ended up being, Elisha thinks as he blinks. "Your butler?" he says, tipping his head to one side. "That...is an odd request."

She waves a hand at him. "Do not sap all fun out of teasing you. And yes, my butler. I suspect he sees Queen more than Katya. I will disappoint him one day." This last she says a trifle sadly. Declan is one of few she can relax around. That will change once she no longer dazzles.

"Maybe you underestimate him," Elisha offers as he takes the steaks and vegetables off the grill. They'll have to rest of course. Enough time for more scotch. "It's possible he sees both the Queen and Katya, and likes both."

"Perhaps. Such things become more difficult the higher one climbs. Have you ever taken up with another Club?"

He has to stop and think about that. He hadn't slept with anyone the first couple of years. "A...few," he says. "Not in some time, though, I have to admit. It's nice to be able go home to another building."

Katya hunts in Elisha's cabinets and drawers until she locates plates and cutlery.

"This is true. No fighting for covers. No searching for wash room in dark. I find higher one rises, same suit becomes more difficult. There is always risk of pressure where it is not intended."

And the coat tail climbers, of course, though those are easy enough to spot.

"I found that myself." Opportunities for dating in the Clubs sort of dried up about the time he cut down Noah in one of the shortest krav maga fights he'd ever been in. And there's the fact that when you're in the same Castle it starts to feel pointless to walk down the hall to sleep.

And then suddenly you're living together. "But fortunately I always have the Spades and Hearts to turn to, right?"

"You never know, Ilyusha." Katya readies the salad, her tone teasing. "I am fickle woman. Victor, I think, you can always come home to. Do not be forgetting Diamonds. I understand their Jack is fond of dark men."

Jacks and Aces, Elisha, have all the fun.

"Oh, but he's left me for another woman," Elisha says as he slices the steak and piles pieces on a plate. "And given that she had me evicted while he was in the infirmary, I'm not sure I can count on his solace."

A shame, in that case, that Alexander and Argine didn't see fit to name him Jack. But then - he wasn't really surprised.

Katya tsks. "And she will not share? That is very bad of her. Poor, zaichik. If that is case I will have no choice but to console you. Perhaps I will take you shoe shopping."

"Some girls are just terribly possessive," Elisha muses and hands Katya the steak. "Nothing to be done about it. And I'm always glad to escort you on your trips to make the shopkeepers very happy." Even if shopping was mostly a required endeavor that he happened to be good at.

Katya sets the platter on top of the gathered dishes and carries everything to the table. "Ilyusha, I would not make you go shopping--unless it was for weapons. You are no fun to tease if you accept your fate so easily.

"Though I do not see why you do not enjoy shoes."

"You're a goddess, Katinka, truly." And he grins as they sit at the patio table. "It's just that the interesting ones don't come in my size."

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[For Katya] Unexpected Visitors

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