Not a Date..But Kind of a Date?

“Well, I wouldn’t want to take away from your quality time with your brother,” Mercury told him playfully when he teased her about only giving a call when he was feeling lonely.

She opened up about her interest in hearing a bit of what Vandrad had opened up about with the genuine goal of merely wanting to see what all he was up front about and how much of it he had swept under the rug to try to save face. Unsurprisingly, a great deal of it had been fairly correct. Vandrad had learned a long time ago that Mercury was going to wind up telling her version of the truth sooner or later, so it had behooved him to simply be honest from the start and get certain stories out of the way from his own perspective, before Mercury could taint the tails with her own flair. But there had certainly been a number of stories where the prince had opted to fall short of the full truth, leaving Mercury cackling with glee as she happily filled Gren in on the other sordid details that his son had left out.

All in all, they wound up talking until it was time for the restaurant to close, with the waiter bringing them their check which Gren dutifully snatched up before Mercury could even get the chance to sneak it. And by the look in her eyes, she had been planning to, but he managed to be the quicker one. He paid for the meal and the two of them stood to leave, him slipping on his coat even as she reached into her clutch and pulled out a crimson colored shawl made of a nice, thick wool that she wrapped around her shoulders. They made their way outside, Mercury once more doing as she’d done at the Order and playfully slipping her arm in his to walk beside him as they aimlessly wandered down the street in a slow gait. He offered to keep the night going by looking for some place to get a nightcap and drink a bit more, which certainly sounded fine to her. According to him, he’d offer to bring her back to his place but that consisted of little more than a cold room back in the Order that, by his own words, wasn’t exactly the most riveting place for continued engagement.

She hummed with thought. “Well, I actually know of a place we could go that’s got a decent selection, and best of all: it’s free. Little more of a private joint, and we can stay as long as we like. It ain’t around here, but if you’re feeling brave and adventurous I can get us there in a snap.” Mercury turned to look up at him, shooting the much taller man a sly little smirk that promised trouble. It was about as much of a warning as he was going to get if he wanted a chance to back out of finding himself alone with her in a more intimate setting. Presuming he agreed, she’d grin with delight. “Alright, then. Right this way, Big Daddy.”

Letting go of him momentarily, Mercury reached into her clutch once more and withdrew a small device that looked similar in shape to a gun, but clearly wasn’t designed to shoot bullets or any kind of offensive magical energy. The gun itself was also a bit big to have been able to fit in the small purse, but she pulled it out from the space all the same. Adjusting the settings on a couple of the dials, she pointed to an empty space ahead of them and pulled the trigger. A green blast of energy shot from the muzzle and expanded into a wavering emerald portal that was just big enough to fit two people in side by side. Slipping her arm back in his, she lead him through it.

On the other side, they stepped into what appeared to be a decently sized work room. The lights switched on the moment they arrived, even as the portal snapped shut behind them. A small panel on the wall beeped lightly; some kind of home alarm system. Mercury easily stepped over and punched in the code to reset it and turn it off. There were a number of tables and workbenches littered with tools and gadgets, including what looked to be some kind of duel bladed weapons that were most of the way completed. A short set of stairs led up to a door which Mercury led the way toward, taking him up to the next floor where the surroundings gave what to the more common areas of her home.

To the right was a modest sized living room with a decent sized sofa and a large lacrivision on the wall. There was also an electronic keyboard piano set up in a corner, and against one wall was a small personal bar that boasted a fair number of bottles and some glasses. To the left was a kitchen that wasn’t the most luxurious of spaces but certainly had enough room to move around without feeling cramped. The kitchen was open to the living room, giving an otherwise small space a comfortably open feel. Beyond the kitchen was a glass sliding door that opened up to a somewhat spacious porch, though what lay beyond of the landscape was currently too dark to see very well. The only other things of note in the area were the front door, a small dining area with a table and some chairs, and another set of stairs that presumably led up to one or more bedrooms. Aside from furniture, there really wasn’t anything that one might assume to find at a home, such as pictures or too many items of sentiment.

Tossing her shawl and clutch on the counter, she shot him a small wink before nodding over to the bar for him to go take a look. “I don’t have everything under the sun, but I’ve got a decent selection of most basic stuff… rums, whiskeys, scotches, gin, vodka, wine, champagne… There’s also some beers in the fridge if you wanna take a look at those. Feel free to browse. You can have whatever you like, and don’t be afraid to open a new bottle.”

Gren took some time to look about the place curiously, which Mercury made no attempt to stop him from doing. Since she had very little by way of personal effects, and she certainly didn’t leave out anything that could tie her to her alien heritage, there really wasn’t anything too personal for him to stumble across. “Yeah, it was very generous of her,” Mercury told him when he complimented the house, her demeanor shifting slightly from teasing to something a little softer. “If I’m being honest, I had a difficult time accepting it. She’d already been giving me a lot of things before that, despite my rude entrance that you’re already aware of. I could deal with the clothes and the jewelry and stuff, but the house kind of threw me off. Ever had teased me the day before that Themmy would give me one, and I thought she was joking. Needless to say, I no longer question the lengths du Wolffs will go to when it comes to charity.”

A wry smirk crossed her face. Even months later, it was still a bit strange to her to have her own home. Truthfully, it wasn’t until recently that she had finally moved in and started living there full time, due to the distance between Bellum and Fiore. It was the whole reason why she’d worked on building her translocator using some of the research from Silver Wolf’s libraries, so that she could actually live in the home instead of letting it collect dust. Mercury invited him to take a look at the selection, letting him know he could have whatever he wanted. He took the opportunity to do just that, asking if she was interested in anything. “Whatever you decide to pull out is fine. Surprise me.”

Deciding she may as well be comfortable at home, she took the time to slip out of her heels, taking the tall shoes and setting them off to the side by the front door where they were out of the way. It didn’t take him very long to pick something, and soon they both had glasses in hand, though not before Gren took the time to take off his jacket and hang it from the back of a nearby chair. His shirt looked like it was about fit to burst and Mercury took another mental screenshot to send to Monica later. “Stars above, how do you even manage to get any clothes on over all that muscle without the fabric pulling apart at the seams?” she asked him with a small laugh.

As he asked her about the device she’d used to get them there, Mercury led him over to the livingroom to sit on the sofa, respectfully taking one corner and leaving him plenty of room to sit without forcing her way into his personal space -- as tempted as she was to do so. “Oh, well shit. If I had known that, I would have pretended not to have anything. Can I get a redo? I can pop us right back outside the restaurant…” She grinned at him before continuing on. “Yeah, that’s the translocator I made. Pretty nifty, huh? I made it cause I was spending far too many hours in a day traveling to the same places over and over. Silver Wolf and Fairy Tail ain’t exactly close, so it’s saved me at least an hour of sleep every morning which is great. Plus, it let’s me actually live here instead of just… longing for it from afar. Not that I mind my room in Silver Wolf. Up until recently, my small suite there was the nicest place I’d ever lived. But in the choice between a bedroom and a house, I can’t really bring myself to say no to the latter.”

Gren brought up the work room in the basement, inquiring a bit into her projects. “I’m always working on a lot of things. I’m in the middle of some upgrades for my pistol. It needed a fierce cleaning after all the stuff in the graveyard and I figured that was as good a time as any to see about installing some modifications to give it a performance boost. I’m also working on a chip set of lacrima based software that should boost some of the programming and hardware on my computer. The one that was sitting out was another weapon I’ve been building from scratch that’s almost complete. I admit, I work on a lot of weapons. I have a lot of fun designing and testing them.”

Tucking her legs up underneath her, she got comfortable turned on the sofa to face him, one arm lounged over the low back of the couch while her free hand held her drink. “You know, it occurs to me that you’re my first real house guest. Obviously Themmy’s been here, and Vandaddy walked through the place with me after I first got it, but I didn’t actually start living here until a couple weeks ago when I got my teleporter working regularly. I’m afraid I don’t have much by way of entertainment outside of the booze and sass.”

Gren admitted that he still had yet to meet Themesycia’s siblings, but he had met Vincent. It was the first that Mercury had heard the name of the du Wolff patriarch, though she knew the story of how Gren had met the man fairly well. Or at least, Themmy’s version of it. According to him, Vincent was also an exceptionally charitable man that didn’t believe his wealth made him better than anyone else, always giving away whatever and whenever he could. As such, it made sense to Gren that the kinder man’s nature would have been inherited by his children. It did make Mercury wonder though… if he had been a man of such outstanding character, how in the world had he wound up with someone as cruel and callous as Vandrad’s grandmother?

It was a question that Mercury wanted to pose to see if he knew anything that could lead her to an answer, but she held her tongue. The Xocili wasn’t sure if Vandrad or Themmy had opened up to his father about the abuse he’d suffered at the hands of his grandmother, and there was no way to confirm whether or not Gren knew about it already without bringing it up. And that was one story Mercury would not tell. Vandrad had never talked to anyone in his life about what had happened to him save for Mercury, and the Xocili wasn’t about to betray that trust. Not in a thousand years.

So she left herself to her own wonderings, instead remarking upon the tightness of Gren’s shirt. He laughed and admitted that he apparently had to have the seams magically sealed so that they wouldn’t give way, and that despite the fact that he was already shopping at stores that sold clothing for larger men. He assured her that while they looked strained, it was actually quite comfortable. “Oh, well that’s a shame. Here I was hoping that if I found a way to jump scare you or something, you’d twist too hard and rip right out of it.”

He brought up her work room and some of her projects, and the Silver Wolf ace did her best to give him an idea of some of the stuff she did without being too forthcoming with some of the details, if only because many of those projects would require her to go more in depth about her alien nature. Which was a shame, because she truly did like talking about engineering and the types of work she did. But he seemed pleased with the information she had to lend, even going so far as to suggest that he might commission something from her as well now that Curse was broken -- the sword that Mythal had typically used up until that point. Gren was in need of a new weapon, and he fancied the idea of having something made especially for him by a woman such as herself that was well versed in the field.

Her eyes practically lit up. “I would love to make you a new weapon,” she told him. “Any ideas of what you’d want? I’ll have to let you take a look at some of my stuff so you can get an idea of the scope of what I can do. In fact, if you ask nicely, maybe I’ll let you help me test the new set down stairs. They are for your son, after all.” She grinned at him. Mercury had actually been working on the weapon for the prince for quite some time, wanting to gift him with something worthy of his abilities that would help him push his limits further into new territory, something as technologically advanced as her own weapon was. She just had been trying to figure out when and how to present it to him, though Vandrad’s family had solved that for her by alerting her to the upcoming Christmas season.

She lamented not having too much to offer as a hostess with Gren being her first true guest, and he laughed, assuring her that the only thing he needed to entertain him was her. He was, however, touched at being her first and teasingly wondered how they might celebrate the occasion. Her trademark sly grin peeled its way onto her face. “I can think of a few ways,” she told him craftily, very much looking like a woman that was considering closing the distance between them on the couch and getting a bit more intimate.

And then, as quickly as the look had come, it was replaced with something far more innocent. “How about some cards? A friend from the guild gifted me with a poker set as a housewarming gift. I haven’t even opened it yet.” Presuming he was amenable to playing, she’d set her cup down on the coffee table and stand up to wander into another room to fetch the kit. She returned with a small box and sat back down, opening it up to reveal a small set of clay poker chips and a deck of cards inside. They worked together to agree on the worth of each colored chip and the version of the game, as there were several variations of poker and she wanted to make sure they played one that both of them knew fairly well. Once everything was confirmed and the chips and cards were dealt, it was game on.

Apparently, it had taken Gren some time before he came into possession of Curse. Cael was the older of the two brothers and thus was the one to inherit the weapon. However, when Gren was promoted to sergeant with the Rune Knights, his brother gifted the weapon to him in light of the promotion. Or at least as much as he could give the weapon away. Apparently, Curse was a sword that biometrically connected itself to the members of the Ragnos line upon touching it, and as such Cael could never truly give it away, but it seemed he was pretty confident that he wouldn’t ever have a need to summon it away from Gren. But at the time, it seemed Gren had been using a double handed hammer that had been engineered in such a way as to give it extra power even beyond what he himself could physically deliver. That was the type of weapon he voiced an interest in, something that might take him back to the roots of the kind of fighting he used to do before Curse became his main weapon.

Mercury rubbed her chin in thought. “A big ol’ hammer, huh? Never done a hammer before, so that would be a real treat. I’ll start brainstorming some designs and see what I can come up with. At the very least I can absolutely make something with some thrusters on it that can give you that extra power you’re used to having, but I’m an overachiever so I’m sure I can come up with some additional features to take it to the next level.” Her mind was already churning with some possible concepts, and Mercury had to greatly resist the urge to start talking shop right there and then. There would be plenty of time for her to figure out those kinds of details for him later, but right now she had other priorities in mind. Namely, some quality alone time with Gren.

They mused briefly about how they might spend the rest of the evening together, and rather than come up with something illicit as he likely expected her to do, Mercury suggested playing cards. Gren was open to the idea, stating that he did enjoy playing and that it had been quite a while since he’d played. As such, his first couple rounds were probably going to be not great. “If it makes you feel better, I’ve really only played a couple times, so I really don’t have a ton of experience.” With a grin, she wandered off to collect the set and returned with it, working out the details with him on what version they would play and how much the chips were worth. They settled on Talonia Hold ‘Em and passed out the cards.

It did take him a couple rounds to get back in the swing of it, true to his word. Mercury did her best to go easy on him, but unfortunately she was practically a living, breathing cheat code when it came to gambling and card games. She could easily read someone’s vitals to see if they were bluffing or not, and even though she didn’t actively do so, her computer brain made it difficult if not impossible to not count cards and calculate odds. Between her elevated skills and Gren’s somewhat rusty ones, it didn’t take long before the older man was a bit behind and at risk of losing all his chips to her. In fact, he didn’t currently have enough to make her call, let alone to have enough buy in for the next ante. He looked back and forth carefully between his hand, the river, and Mercury, trying to decide what to do before voicing that he didn’t have many options due to his low amount of chips. He’d have to go all in, unless she was willing to accept some chump change out of his pocket.

Mercury grinned as he chuckled, thoroughly amused, but after a moment of contemplation another idea came to mind. She paused as if in sincere thought about how best to proceed, looking at the bets in the center and at the cards out on display, before finally looking up at him. “Well, unless you got a fair amount of jewel in your pocket, I’m not sure spare change would be enough,” Mercury told him. Lifting her gaze to him, she eyed him for a moment before a little smirk worked its way onto her face. “That shirt looks pretty expensive, though. I’d say it would adequately cover the call.”

The Xocili didn’t take her eyes off of him even as she lifted her glass to her face and took a slow sip from her whiskey, giving him a devilish stare as she waited to see if he would take the bait and sink into the debauchery of a little strip poker. Whether or not she had intended it to come to this all along was anyone’s guess, though if Gren was good enough at reading people as he seemed to be he could likely surmise that she’d always planned on trying to make another move on him, she just was much more teasing and patient about it than Monica was.

“I’m sure we can come up with something adequate for payment,” she told him, shooting him a sly smirk. But truthfully, Mercury was very excited about working on a new weapon for him. She could already see ideas forming in her head for the types of things she wanted to try blue printing and experimenting with, and if it weren’t for the fact that he was sitting here with her looking like a silver fox dream and flirting like crazy, she probably would have already mosied down to the lab to get started.

Truthfully, Mercury really had only played poker a couple times, but she was genetically designed to be a quick learner. Her ability to calculate and read in a gambling situation was unparalleled and a bit unfair, and to her credit she was trying not to use most of those skills, but it was difficult to simply shut off certain parts of her brain. After all, while she was essentially a computer, she was still a living person -- she couldn’t just turn off all of her software and programs. They were an integrated part of her. And true to his word, Gren was a little rusty, so between the two of them it wasn’t long before he was almost out and joking about any last second bailout options.

So, being the minx she was, Mercury upped the ante in a more suitable way by suggesting his throw his shirt into the pot. The look he gave her sent ripples down her spine, the man removing his glasses temporarily to shoot a considering and playful smirk at her before “lamentably” conceding and opting to play along. With a self satisfied grin, Mercury watched him loosen his tie and start to undo the buttons on his shirt. She continued to sip her whiskey meticulously as she watched, tilting her head and not hiding the fact that she was enjoying the show as he slipped the garment off and set it on top of the chips. Stars, he was so ripped. It was criminal, or if it wasn’t then it should be. “Mmmph,” was her only comment, wordlessly voicing her appreciation of the sight. Gren had been pretty close to bare after the fight with Faera, of course, but even Mercury had known that wasn’t really the time to make a deal out of it, so this was really the first time she had the chance to look and actually enjoy it -- and boy did she.

Gren picked his cards back up and they continued the hand, which Mercury won again. She collected the chips and the shirt, happily setting the still warm garment down next to her and patting it like a prized trophy. That was, until he pushed it even further. The older man suggested that if they were to play strip poker, that they should just go for the gold and really play it, completed with the traditional rules: No bets each round, just whoever loses has to remove an article of clothing. Jewelry counted, which made sense because otherwise all it would take was for her to lose one round and then it would be over already, and that was not suspenseful or fun in the least bit. He admitted it wasn’t exactly the most strategic suggestion given his luck so far, but the fun for him was mostly in the risk. “Well, I am a risky woman myself, if you hadn’t noticed. But I can’t say I wouldn’t be interested in seeing the rest of those clothes come off, so I’m gonna agree before you change your mind.”

Grinning, she handed him her cards so he could shuffle the deck back up, his card skills having been slowly returning to him as the game went on. Soon enough the hands and river were dealt and it was time to continue with their game and its new rules. And surprisingly, Gren got back a lot of his game after that. If Mercury didn’t know any better, she’d think that he had played her and passed himself off as a novice in order to orchestrate a revenge win streak, but his losses earlier had been quite genuine. Still, even with her computer brain she was having trouble calculating the odds accurately, or even reading some of his bluffs. He wasn’t annihilating her, but he was at least winning back most if not all of his chips and bringing the game back to a more even plateau.

Granted, he lost all his clothing during that time, much to the Xocili’s delight. And of course she had no problem with the hands that she lost, more than happy to tease him as each little piece of jewelry was removed before it finally came down to her dress. And oh, she was such a tease, Commenting about how she needed his help to remove it by getting the zipper for her. She could of course handle the zipper herself with her magic, since it was made of metal, but he didn’t know her magic. In fact, at this point Mercury wasn’t sure if he knew she actually had any or not because she wasn’t sure what anyone told him of the fight in the graveyard. But even if they did, she had primarily used her light and lightning based components, not the others, so as far as she could calculate he wasn’t aware that she had control over metal. Either way, she would lure him into helping her out with it, lifting her long hair out of the way so he could reach the zipper without it getting caught in her hair. At that angle and range, he would also get a coincidental look at the single, precise, sliver of a scar on the back of her neck that was the only such blemish to her flesh. Then, once the garment was loosened and he’d gotten an ample, up close view of her bare back, she’d be as bare as him.

And yet, somehow, still managing to maintain her self control. For a woman as clearly flirty as she was, and clearly capable of sleeping around rather than just being the world’s biggest tease, she was surprisingly adept at drawing everything out and not just jumping the gun or caving in immediately. And it seemed he was the same way, provided he was actually interested in seeing this game through to where it seemed to be leading. But truthfully, he had not confirmed yet how far he was willing to go, and she already knew that he greatly enjoyed being an incorrigible tease, with Monica being the prime example. It was entirely possible that he was just teasing her too and that he had no intentions of doing anything more than that, which would both impress and depress her.

But now they were at an impasse. All that remained upon Gren was his tie, which was frankly a good look for him. With no other clothing remaining, there was nothing else to strip, which meant that the rules needed to change again if they were going to continue playing. Letting his gaze trail over her for a second, he playfully inquired as to what they would wager with now. Mercury considered him briefly, sipping from her whiskey and letting her own eyes roam him as she contemplated their situation and where to go from there. Between the two of them, the bottle of whiskey was all but gone at this point, but as always she was still completely sober. “Well, I guess that depends on what you are willing to wager,” Mercury told him, flicking her gaze back up to catch his with a look that was half teasing and half genuine inquisition. “Really the only place to go from here, as far as I can tell, is… favors. But that is a slippery slope, and once we’re on it I imagine that the cards will be quickly forgotten in lieu of an entirely different game, anyway. So I guess the real question is: Where do you want to go from here?”

She was certainly putting him on the spot a bit, looking for a more concrete affirmation of where this was leading, or if it was leading anywhere at all. Mercury was not the type to force anyone into anything, and she knew more than most that flirting and teasing and playing didn’t necessarily make it right to assume something was going to happen, even with them both naked and clearly enjoying themselves. They had reached the point where she needed to know what he wanted, and while it was vehemently clear that she greatly wanted all of the agonizingly playful coquetry to culminate into something, it was also clear that she was choosing to respect his boundaries, whatever they were, and was essentially giving him one last out to decline if he truly wasn’t interested in something happening between them. Particularly since it seemed those kind of activities were swiftly becoming imminent.