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last online May 15, 2024 18:03:02 GMT
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Jul 15, 2020 20:04:21 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2020 20:04:21 GMT
Expecting a firm "no" right off the bat, Ezra was slightly caught off guard by the iconic hum. Arching a brow, he could feel his heart pick up just slightly and knew therefore that Rhys could as well. Taking another bite, he chewed slowly, giving a small smile to the other man.
The suspense was drawn out- something he noticed Rhysand seemed to love doing to him -until finally it wasn't and he gave a soft laugh, swallowing. "I'll have to figure out which box has my reading glasses in it." He half-joked, smirking. There was a subtle sense of relief that washed over him, despite the outward cunning.
Curling into Rhys' side, he finished one of his sandwiches, the sly grin still perched on his lips. "Is there a dress code I should know about, Mr. Scarborough?" He asked, just as Jonah padded into the living area with his old toy.
Ezra watched the shepherd move over to the new dog bed, sniffing it, before circling and laying down with the stuffed bone between his paws. His smile turned softer then, and he glanced back at Rhys, nodding at the canine. "Looks like he loves it."
| . . . I can't begin to let you know just what I'm feeling . . . Séance @rhysand |
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last online May 15, 2024 18:03:02 GMT
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Jul 15, 2020 20:27:19 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2020 20:27:19 GMT
Rhysand couldn't help but quirk an intrigued brow at the mention of reading glasses, biting the inside of his cheek at the image he immediately had of Ezra wearing them, and only them, in his brain. The other man curled against Rhys's side, then, and he shoved the last of his first sandwich in his mouth to cast one, thick arm over Ezra's thin shoulders.
"Is there a dress code I should know about, Mr Scarborough?"
Rhysand's chest rumbled in a growl. Ezra was rubbing fire in his wounds, calling him that after such a cheeky question. And he knew he was being cruel, which just made Rhys burn hotter. Rhysand's grip on Ezra tightened, his lip peeling back to bare his teeth. He suddenly had the idea of a "no clothes on in the apartment" rule, and was about to put it into effect-
Jonah popped in, and the dog was so damn cute without even trying that it helped Rhysand wrangle some of his self-control. Just like his owner did with seduction, Jonah stacked cuteness on top of cuteness, curling onto his new bed. Rhys's snarling expression softened back to neutrality, but his grey eyes betrayed just how much Jonah liking his new bed affected him.
The two men finished their lunches and Rhysand moved the plates to the sink, where he rinsed and dried them. He put them in the cabinet and turned to find Ezra waiting there. Rhys leaned back against the cupboards, bracing his palms on the countertop for a second. "Before we can start work, there's something we have to do."
Rhysand stood straighter, and leveled a finger, pointing past Ezra's shoulder. "Get on that bed, Mournspire." The grumbled order wasn't up for negotiation. When Ezra turned to oblige, Rhys made sure to smack his ass for good measure.
He had his shirt and trunks back on and was just stepping into his pants when his phone lit up. Rhysand looked down and grunted. "F**king finally," he said, and like he often did, Rhys completely forgot he was trying to dress in that moment, instead opening the email from his client and scrolling through the information and attachments. "Looks like we can get to work- Or... different work," he added, smirking, but not looking away from his phone. | . . . My head was war. My skin was soaked. I called your name 'til the fever broke . . . Omen @ezra |
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last online May 15, 2024 18:03:02 GMT
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Jul 15, 2020 21:39:31 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2020 21:39:31 GMT
For the moment it seemed he was saved, at least long enough for them to finish their lunch. Ezra's heart softened alongside Rhys' expression, and he started on his second sandwich, burrowing closer to his lover as he did so. Despite the teasing, he was genuinely enthused about the chance to work alongside the older man. Especially with something that wasn't so personal.
Trailing after Rhys, he leaned against the door frame, watching the other man wash up their dishes just as he had not long before. The domesticity of that moment pierced through him. Idly he remembered a time not all that long ago when he thought he'd never experience feelings like these again. It seemed as if just when he thought he couldn't fall harder, he did, and the aftershocks just grew even more intense as time went on.
His eyes met Rhys' as he turned, but not before taking in the scene before him, with the older man braced against the counter and eyeing him. Ezra realized that during his contemplation, he'd drifted closer and was standing only an arms length away now. An deceptively sheepish smirk curled at his lips at the command, and he gave an obedient nod before turning, throwing a feigned, scandalized look over his shoulder at the smack.
--
Zipping up his jeans, Ezra stepped over to the closet, digging one of his flannels out of the box he'd pushed in there the other day. Hearing Rhys' voice, he automatically hummed in response, shrugging the flannel on and ambling over to his lover's side.
As he tended to do, or so the younger man noticed, Rhys was distracted mid dress. It brought a fondly amused smile to his lips, and he took over from where Rhys left off, pulling up his trousers and deftly zipping and buttoning them as he'd done with his own, listening as he went. "Hopefully my skills are transferable." He answered absently with a grin and stepping away before adding, "What's our first step?"
| . . . I can't begin to let you know just what I'm feeling . . . Séance @rhysand |
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last online May 15, 2024 18:03:02 GMT
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Jul 15, 2020 22:48:59 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2020 22:48:59 GMT
"There are three main parts that make up PI work," Rhysand started answering. He looked down, surprised for a moment that his pants were up, then he gave a soft look at Ezra, stuffing his phone in his back pocket. Rhys turned and lead the way out of the bedroom, down the micro-hallway past the bathroom, through the kitchen and into the common room.
"One of those is the first step: searching." Rhysand grabbed his leather jacket and Ezra's denim one off of the single bracket they shared next to the door. Passing the other man his, Rhys shrugged on his own, patting the pockets to make sure his keys and wallet were still in the interior pockets. "For the client's ex, this time."
It seemed like the obvious course, but that didn't make it wrong. Rhysand needed to get eyes on the guy, try to see if there was anything immediately triggering with his behavior. Possibly try to nail down a pattern or habits for him and plan the next step from there. His client didn't know much of his day-to-day, because they'd separated four months ago, so Rhysand and Ezra had some work ahead of them.
"C'mon, Mournspire." He ushered Ezra and the freshly-leashed Jonah out of the apartment and locked up behind them. On their way down the building's stairwell, Rhysand smirked crookedly to himself. "You think we'll finish this case without me having to save your skinny ass?" he asked. To most his tone was as dead as ever. Ezra was, historically by that point, the only person, period, who would've been able to detect the sly notes in it. | . . . My head was war. My skin was soaked. I called your name 'til the fever broke . . . Omen @ezra |
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last online May 15, 2024 18:03:02 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2020 3:12:00 GMT
His singular response to the soft look was a quick peck to Rhys' cheek, smiling. Following behind his lover, he grabbed Jonah's leash wordlessly, fastening it to the shepherd's collar before slipping his shoes on, nodding thoughtfully as the older man spoke.
Gathering his phone, keys, and wallet, he took his jacket from Rhys and shrugged it on over the flannel, looping Jonah's leash around his wrist and stepping out the door ahead of the other man. For a moment Ezra got hung up again watching Rhys, not in the hollow way he used to, but with palpable fondness and adoration. As they began moving to the stairwell he looped his arm through Rhys'.
He met the teasing remark with a glare, smiling ruefully at the older man. "What can I say, it's a nice ass." He replied, throwing his own sly look as they walked through the lobby and out the door onto the street. In effort to be slightly more fair and well-behaved, he took two cigarettes from his pack, handing one unlit to Rhys before lighting his own and offering the lighter.
As they started to walk, Ezra leaned against his lover's arm, looking thoughtful again for a moment before it changed to an almost desperately serious expression, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk and raising his hands to Rhys' cheek and the nape of his neck. "Hey," He started, pausing for a moment to meet the older man's eyes. "I love you."
"I know you can't really promise me anything, and it wouldn't be fair of me to ask you to, but...I...don't want to lose you." He admitted, feeling his eyes get a little misty at the words, voice straining. Ezra dropped his hands, moving instead to pull Rhys into a bone-crushing hug. "It might never even come up again but...just...please stay safe. I know you can handle yourself, I don't doubt that. But just...humor me, yeah?"
| . . . I can't begin to let you know just what I'm feeling . . . Séance @rhysand |
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last online May 15, 2024 18:03:02 GMT
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Jul 16, 2020 17:34:27 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2020 17:34:27 GMT
Ezra was probably trying to behave, or be kind to him, handing over a cigarette like a normal person for once. Rhysand knew this, but still was irrationally disappointed when he took the smoke and perched it in his mouth; childishly grumpy that he couldn't taste Ezra on it, like usual. Nevertheless Rhys accepted the lighter. When he'd lit up, Ezra was attached to his arm, leaning against him, and rather than interrupt, Rhysand dropped his lover's lighter into his own pocket for the meantime.
His radar and other senses picked Ezra's change of body language before his eyes did. Rhysand stopped, the other man's hands - on his neck and cheek - turned him. "Hey," Ezra said, lamely. Rhys knew there was more coming, and his typical glower was flavored with one arched brow to show his curiosity.
The words that came next startled Rhysand, widening his grey eyes. He was still turning them over, processing them, when Ezra clung to him, wiry arms digging into his torso in a fierce embrace. Rhys reacted a half-second late, broad hands resting on Ezra's narrow, bony hips. "Hmm," he started, basking in the contact and the emotions flooding out from between his ribs at what Ezra was asking him.
"I'm not going anywhere," he rumbled against Ezra's cheek. "I just found you." Rhysand didn't bring up the irony of the situation - it was Ezra who'd been, historically, the more reckless of the two. Imprisoned twice. Abducted once. It didn't bear mentioning. Rhys knew where Ezra was coming from, and reassuring him was all he cared to do.
"And I love you, too," he murmured, little more than a whisper. "Now c'mon." Rhysand started to pull away from Ezra, then stopped. He caught the other man's face in one hand and stole a soft kiss, running his tongue over Ezra's bottom lip before he separated. Then he snared their fingers together and guided them forward.
- - - - -
"This is the only habit the lady said he probably wouldn't've changed," Rhysand explained. They were sitting at some rickety, weather-worn tables in front of a deli, splitting a cold-cut sandwich that Rhys had bought from the place to avoid being chased off their sidewalk. Across the street was a barber shop, its iconic red, white and blue-striped cylinder creaking in Rhysand's enhanced ears as it rotated. | . . . My head was war. My skin was soaked. I called your name 'til the fever broke . . . Omen @ezra |
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last online May 15, 2024 18:03:02 GMT
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Jul 16, 2020 20:38:53 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2020 20:38:53 GMT
Whatever fear had gripped him for the moment seemed to pass, or at least fell silent when met with reassurance. Eyes falling closed, he lingered in the embrace a little longer until Rhys began to pull away, only to be caught up in a sweet kiss a moment later. Ezra let the gesture swipe away at any lingering nerves and fear, as if knocking down cobwebs that had accumulated within, before they parted.
- -
"I just remembered, I need to get a hair cut soon." Ezra replied, smirking playfully. His part of the sandwich had been picked at, mostly so that he could offer some of the cuts of meat to Jonah sitting at their feet. He offered another bite to the shepherd, scratching him behind the ears with quiet praise.
For the most part he'd been attempting to be slightly less annoying and irritating, but admittedly, there wasn't much else to do between spoiling Jonah and playing footsies with Rhysand under the table. So, Ezra did what he did best, and filled the void with bits and pieces of conversation as he sat and ate and picked at his half of the sandwich.
With a careful glance at the barber shop, he noted the sedan pulling up to parallel park on the street, hazel-green eyes moving to Rhys just after. "Think that's our guy?" He asked, taking a bite of his sandwich and arching a brow. Out of his peripherals, he noted a man getting out of the car, and with a quick sideways glance, snorted. "Oh god. He needs to get a new barber."
| . . . I can't begin to let you know just what I'm feeling . . . Séance @rhysand |
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last online May 15, 2024 18:03:02 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2020 2:06:56 GMT
"You f**king kidding me?" Rhysand said with a grin toward Ezra. It was never this easy. Historically. Private eye work was like pulling teeth, in his experience, and when you ran out of them, you put them back in and started pulling again. Was Ezra some kind of sexy-ass lucky charm? "Yeah, it is," he said as the door to the sedan opened and a man slipped out.
He gave a little huff of humor at Ezra's joke, both of them staring at each other and avoiding looking across the street. "Your job is to sit here, lookin' pretty, get pics and the plate numbers. I'll be right back." Rhysand slipped off of his chair casually, like he was just finished having a meal with an acquaintance and, hands shoved in his pockets, jaywalked.
On the other side of the street, Rhysand disappeared from view, even to Ezra. In reality, the second he could slip between the close-pressed brownstone buildings, he did, and made it into the back alley running behind them. Rhysand stopped at the door to the barber and pulled out his phone as a cover, just in case. Rather than go inside the barber shop, Rhys stood there...
His ears strained, working through the various minute sounds of the city around him, reaching through the muffle of the bricks of the building he was behind... And brought into focus the voices of the barbers and their customers inside...
- - - - -
Twenty minutes later, when Andino's ex had climbed back in his sedan and drove off, Ezra got a text: "Pryce/27th" - the name of the nearest intersection of streets to the right. At that corner, Rhysand stepped out from under a shop awning where he'd been checking his phone, blending seamlessly in on the edge of the milling foot traffic.
"Miss me?" he asked, without looking at Ezra. But he took his lover's hand when the crossing light turned white and started over the crosswalk with him and Jonah. | . . . My head was war. My skin was soaked. I called your name 'til the fever broke . . . Omen @ezra |
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last online May 15, 2024 18:03:02 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2020 2:37:05 GMT
"Mmm, I don't know if I can manage that. I'll try my best." He replied with a grin, watching Rhysand cross the street out of his peripherals until the other man disappeared before letting his eyes settle on the table ahead of him. On a napkin, he jotted down the plate number, stuffing it in his pocket.
The needling worry sunk in, and he tamped it down best as he could, taking his phone out. Normally, subtlety wasn't Ezra's strong suit. He made do, however, ordering a latte for himself. Feigning as if taking photos of the mug, he caught quite a few of the car, and of their mark once he'd started out of the shop across the street. As the sedan disappeared, his phone buzzed.
Stuffing the device in his pocket once more, he downed the last of his coffee and stood, Jonah getting to his feet just afterwards to follow. Leaving a cash tip on the table, he started down the street, keeping eyes and ears out for Rhys until he caught the older man stepping out from seemingly nowhere.
With a sly smirk, he glanced at their hands snared together before back to his lover. "Every second." Ezra answered, though there was a solid truthfulness to the words despite the cheeky tone. As they crossed, he fished the napkin out of his pocket, passing the item to Rhys. "I got the photos. I'll send them to you. How'd it go?"
Grabbing his cigarettes and the phone from his jacket, he patted for his lighter for a moment before remembering Rhys still had it. With a cigarette poised between his lips, he went through his phone once they were on the other side, selecting the necessary ones, and maybe a few unnecessary ones he'd taken of Jonah, before pushing it back into his pocket, just in time to hear the tell-tale sound of the lighter.
Glancing up, he met Rhys' eyes, before zeroing in on the flame ahead of him, his cheeks heating up subtly. Cupping his hands around it and lighting the end of his cigarette, he took a first drag, and smiled fondly, "Thank you."
| . . . I can't begin to let you know just what I'm feeling . . . Séance @rhysand |
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last online May 15, 2024 18:03:02 GMT
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Jul 17, 2020 17:12:37 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2020 17:12:37 GMT
Rhys took the napkin without looking at it and slipped it in a jacket pocket. "Fine," he grunted in answer to the next question. "Talked about basketball, mostly." Rhysand hadn't expected anything more. He was still floored by his luck at having the target pop up not even an hour into the stakeout. Getting actual info from eavesdropping on his time in the barber shop would've been a miracle.
Ezra slipped a cigarette in his beautiful mouth and Rhysand absently dug the lighter he still had out. He waited until his lover was putting his phone away again, then clicked the lighter into life, holding it in front of the other man. "Mmm," Rhysand offered as a 'you're welcome,' a warmth in his grey eyes that was reserved for Ezra and Jonah only.
They kept walking and with one hand Rhys scrolled through the pics that his phone buzzed with. His lips curled in a faint grin at the shots of the German shepherd. "Search and wait," he grumbled. Rhysand sent some of the pics off to a contact of his, double-checked an address from his client's email, then shoved the phone in a pocket again. "The two main steps. The third is when all the sh*t hits the fan."
Sometimes in good ways, others in bad ways. Hell, half the time sh*t hit the fan just to hit the f**king fan.
- - - - -
After that, Ezra, Rhysand and Jonah played human pinball, bouncing between seemingly random locations. Each time they stopped, Rhys would loom up to someone and ask for information on Cale Wagner, with varying degrees of success. It wasn't until Ezra started butting in, running that mouth of his, that people were a little more steadily forthcoming...
- - - - -
"That asshole? Comin' and goin' all hours of the night? I have babies who need their sleep - hell momma needs her sleep, too and-"
- - - - -
"Aah, yes. They seemed like a nice couple, at first. Kassandra, of course, is a lamb - and that girl of hers! I've seen pictures, you know. I have a Facebook account, and she's-"
- - - - -
"F**ker was always late with rent. Always paid in cash, but always f**king late. Not like he didn't have it on him when it was due, either. He's a big f**king spender at the local bars, everyone knows. Get Wagner drunk enough and the whole place gets free f**king rounds."
- - - - -
On and on and on it went. Until, at eight o'clock, a bag of Chinese takeout in one hand, Rhysand was opening the door to the apartment. "So was PI work as sexy as you thought it'd be?" he asked with a thin smirk. Everyone thought his job was so mysterious, like straight outta one of those f**king black and white private eye shows from the 50's. The reality was a whole hell of a lot more boring. | . . . My head was war. My skin was soaked. I called your name 'til the fever broke . . . Omen @ezra |
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