001 [warning: sexytimes]

[seeagreatergood]

Happy Hour at Allen's is, as usual, loud with competing voices and scents, all of which are less important to Auggie than Annie and Jai's laughter and the second beer in front of him.

Well. Almost all. Occasionally Auggie cocks his head at the sound of heels or the floral scent of shampoo and listens to Jai and Annie's reactions. Jai has one chuckle for redheads and another for brunettes, while Annie has a groan for blondes that Auggie is told is rather hypocritical of her.

"Did the last three girls all have tequila, or was it just one carrying enough shots for her whole party?" he wonders.

"The last four," Jai corrects, audibly smirking. "Your nose must be getting tired."

"I don't get it. Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow -- you'd think people could hold off on the faux-Mexican debauchery until Saturday."

He hears Annie sit bolt upright.

"Oh crap, it's Friday, I have a thing with my--"

"Sister," Auggie and Jai chorus with her. Auggie grins, in spite of the dirty look he's sure she's giving him, and adds, "Jai, you owe me ten bucks."

Jai sighs and digs in his pockets. "Which ought to just about cover your cab ride." He slaps the money onto the table at Auggie's ten o'clock. "Annie, I'll walk you to your car, I'm headed that way."

"Now there's a Pyrrhic victory," Auggie says, with a sigh of his own. "Annie, did he really give me a ten?"

"Yes!" Annie says, laughing, and squeezes his shoulder as she stands. "You're so paranoid."

"I'm wounded that you don't trust me," Jai agrees, also standing.

"You'll heal, I'm sure. Have a good weekend, you two. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Same to you, Auggie," Jai says, with an eyeroll crystal-clear in his voice.

"That'll be a boring weekend, then," Auggie calls after Jai's cologne and Annie's heels, then turns back to his beer. Now where is he going to find a ride with all these tequila-soaked early birds?

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[seeagreatergood]

He chuckles and sets off for the front door. "I'll take a turn."

At the front door he lets go of her again to find the keyhole; fifteen steps across the lobby to the elevator, which is waiting on the first floor; he counts buttons on the inside panel to find the third floor, and listens to the whir of the elevator with satisfaction.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth decides that this is an excellent opportunity for another kiss.

[seeagreatergood]

Auggie is inclined to agree.

Pity it's such a short elevator ride, really.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

Yes! They hardly have any time at all for her hand to go interesting places.

[seeagreatergood]

But enough time for Auggie to acquaint himself with the back pocket of her pants.

Ding.

Well, briefly, anyway.

"First door on the right," he breathes against her lips before pulling away. He takes her hand to lead her out of the elevator and up to the heavy sliding door.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

She follows happily, nuzzling his jaw.

[seeagreatergood]

"You know you're very distracting," he comments, pulling the door open. It rolls back to reveal the living room of a nice apartment, tastefully decorated in a modern style with plenty of places to sit and talk. A white sculpture of Braille words dominates the brick wall to the left, hung over a state of the art sound system.

"I'd better offer you a drink before you start distracting me again."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"'Love'," she reads, smiling. "Have I mentioned you're sweet? Sure, I'll have a drink. What have you got? I believe you mentioned coffee."

[seeagreatergood]

His eyebrows go up.

"You did, but you didn't mention you read Braille. I've got coffee if you don't mind waiting for it to brew, water, a selection of liquor . . . orange juice, I think, maybe soda."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Tell me more about your selection of liquor. I'm surprised more people don't read Braille; it's everywhere and there's almost always a handy translation next to it."

[seeagreatergood]

". . . You, Elizabeth, just get more and more interesting."

He heads for his kitchenette. In here, he doesn't use his cane; the backs of the chairs serve to orient him.

"I have a bottle of very nice rum, vodka, and I think I've still got some Scotch. I think I have a bottle of red wine, too, if I can remember what I did with the corkscrew."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Very nice rum sounds perfect. I'm a bit of a cryptography geek," she admits, leaning on the counter island well out of his way. "Strictly amateur. I don't write papers on it lest the NSA offer me a job. An alphabet like Braille is just a very simple code; I couldn't help picking it up over the years."

[seeagreatergood]

Dropping his bag on the counter, he heads for a cupboard over the sink to retrieve two glasses.

"Cryptography, huh. Okay, so, two questions: one, have you read Cryptonomicon, in that case, and two, do you take your rum neat or mixed with something?"

(Cryptography. Interesting. Not that there aren't plenty of civilians interested in that kind of thing -- witness Walter Newman and his number station -- but it's unusual. He automatically files it away.)

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"That's another Stephenson, isn't it? I should check this guy out. And I tend to take my rum mixed with more rum."

[seeagreatergood]

"Yes, yes, and you got it."

The liquor cabinet is in the counter island. The rum bottle is peculiarly shaped (which is frankly part of why he likes it). He pours them each about two seconds of rum, which translates to about three fingers, and leaves the bottle out in case Elizabeth wants more than that.

"Here you go." He slides the glass across the counter to her.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Thank you," she says, brushing her fingers across his as she picks it up.

[seeagreatergood]

He leans on the counter and picks up his own glass, grinning.

"Should we toast something?"

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Mmm..."

She thinks about it.

"The awesome sex we're going to have?" she suggests.

[seeagreatergood]

Auggie cracks up.

"Hear fucking hear." He holds out his glass for her to clink.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth clinks it obligingly.

[seeagreatergood]

Mmmm, rum.

"So you know I like surprises in bed," he muses. "What about you? What do you like?"

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"I am also a fan of surprises, as it happens." Cheerfully shameless, "And I like the power play of getting somebody off as amazingly as possible."

[seeagreatergood]

"I can get behind that. In both directions. And maybe on top of and underneath it, too."

Going for broke, here.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

...She laughs, puts down her rum, comes around the corner of the counter island, and kisses him.

[seeagreatergood]

"--Mmmm."

He puts down his own drink, wraps an arm around her waist, and turns to gently back her up against the island.