July 1, 1892 — Bartonburg North

Victor didn't get invited to parties in Bartonburg often, but when he did he liked them. Even though he wasn't actually much farther from his family home in Wellingtonshire, having crossed from one neighborhood to the next and walking amongst houses that looked very little like his own gave him the feeling of distance from the rest of his life. It was as though this was a self-contained bubble, and nothing that happened here would have any impact on his day to day life back home. It was freeing, in the same way spending the day at Excalibur had been, before he'd aged out of the club last summer. This particular party was a lovely one, too; the owner of the house was married but the wife was out all weekend, which meant the man who lived here really didn't care what happened to the place. Victor had been for an hour already and had gone through several rounds of cards before he tried to refresh his glass of wine and found the bottle empty. That was a trap, apparently — the host declared that since he'd picked it up, he was now responsible for fetching more bottles from the wine cellar.

Armed with rather vague directions, Victor set out into the rest of the house. Before he could find a door to a wine cellar he instead found Fisk — coming back from the lavatory, if Victor had to guess. In any case, he seized on the chance for company immediately.

"There's supposed to be a wine cellar down this hallway somewhere. Be a friend and help me find it, won't you?" he called. It was phrased like a question but it wasn't, really; he expected Fisk to come with him.

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Leonid Fisk Clarissa Cosgrove

  

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Leonid had been more or less enjoying himself though he was a little hyper aware about the presence of certain individuals. Ever since his encounter with Emrys Selwyn he had been realizing that some interactions here and there might have been a little more than what he initially had thought they were.

He had gone off to the loo and was returning to where the party was when he came across Daphnel. His mind harkened back to that hospital visit. Had that brushing of the knuckles been a flirt or just a healer checking his handiwork? That had not been the only thing about that visit that had him pondering though. He wished he could just ask but he didn't know how that might go. What if he was wrong and he ended up just messing up a friendship when there was no need to?

"That sounds more like a demand than a request," he said teasingly as he fell into step beside Victor. "Maybe we should just hole ourselves up in there and have the wine to ourselves." He was joking of course.

  

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"Depends on what he's got squirreled away down there," Victor returned with a chuckle. "If the wine's good enough, maybe so." Of course, they'd have to find it first, and if he did end up hiding out and splitting bottles of wine with Fisk someone would probably come looking for them sooner or later. Well, actually, probably no one would come looking for them, focused as everyone else was on the card games, but someone would eventually come looking for more wine and the gig would be up.

There was a time when Victor would have been a little leery about getting caught alone with Fisk. In the aftermath of Fisk's hospital visit where Victor had tended to him, he'd kept a bit of a wide berth at future social events, just in case Fisk had any inclination to make things more awkward than they had to be. Nothing like that had ever happened, though, and it had been long enough that Victor was fairly certain the other man must have forgotten all about it. He'd probably forgotten about it two days later; he certainly hadn't picked up on it. In any case, Victor had stopped worrying about Fisk bringing it up roughly a year ago, and had no qualms about going on a hunting expedition to fine their host's wine cellar now.

"It's a good thing no one's home," Victor said as he opened a door at random, peered inside, and then closed it again. Laundry room. "Don't have to worry about offending anyone peeking in the wrong rooms."

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"I hope he has something high quality and delicious," Leonid mused. He was no expert when it came to alcoholic drinks but he did enjoy a premium brand every now and then. Especially if it was from Jewell's.

"That's true," he said as he peeked in another room that seemed to be a guest bedroom. "Though I personally wouldn't have anyone traipsing around my house for wine if I'm the host." Then again, they were all friends here so he supposed that made some difference.

  

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Victor laughed lightly at Fisk's remarks. "I wouldn't trust a pair of gents from the club in my wine cellar," he agreed. "So maybe that's a sign there's nothing very good in this one. But our host was up two galleons when the wine ran out, so maybe he just doesn't want to risk his luck."

More likely he didn't trust that his cards would remain unmolested if he left the room. Victor would have been tempted to peek, and he surely wouldn't have been the only one.

He tried another door and revealed a walk-in pantry. Victor moved down the hall slightly and opened another, which led to a staircase. "Ho, here it is," he announced. The stairs weren't well lit — there weren't any lights that Victor could see past the door at all — and he peered down into the shadows to try and determine how deep it was. "I think, anyway."

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"Sounds like him," Leonid said in amusement when Daphnel hypothesized why their host had sent Daphnel in his place to go get more wine.

"Marvelous, I have always dreamed of breaking my neck in a wine cellar," he said in jest as he peered over Daphnels shoulder into the staircase awaiting them. "Maybe we should hold on to one another or something to make sure we don't end up tumbling down."

  

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Victor glanced over his shoulder at Fisk with an amused smile. "I think that'll only make us more likely to fall, unless you're offering to carry me down piggyback."

He might not have turned if he'd realized in what close proximity that put their faces. Victor hadn't realized that Fisk would be right over his shoulder trying to get a better look at the cellar stairs, but there he was, mere inches away. Victor tried to pretend he didn't notice the proximity, and therefore didn't move away... which, he quickly realized, was only increasing the awkward tension he felt about it. Fisk may not have noticed (he hadn't before), but for Victor this was entirely unsustainable.

"Heh," he voiced, finally deciding that it would be better to move away — and slipping off the top stair in the process.

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   Leonid Fisk

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Leonid had not been expecting Daphnel to turn nor had he realized just how close their proximity would cause their faces to be. Leonid felt like there was a pause in the moment where Daphnel wasn't saying anything. And well, neither was he. He swallowed, grasping for words before realizing that he should probably just take a step back.

His eyes went wide as Daphnel slipped off the top stair and Leonids hit wizard training came in handy. He managed to get a good grasp of one of Daphnels arms enough to reach out and pull him back up by the waist with his other hand. Which resulted in the two men looking somewhat like they were dancing some sort of bizarre dance and so close in proximity that a blush ran across Leonids cheeks. "Well, that was a close one," he managed to say.

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   Victor Daphnel

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Fisk saved him from a nasty fall, but as Victor took stock of the position they'd ended up in, he wondered if he might not have preferred to have been at the bottom of the stairs. Mending a broken bone or two was a piece of cake compared to knowing how to diffuse this level of embarrassment.

"Quite." Fisk's hand was on his waist. On impulse Victor had grabbed Fisk's arm and now he could feel his biceps through the other man's clothes. For a beat longer than they should have, things just seemed to freeze in that position, and then Victor lifted his hand off of Fisk's arm — though they were so close there was no better place to put it, so he just ended up holding it in the air a few inches from where it had been.

"I've got my balance now," he pointed out with a tight smile. So you can let go.

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Leonid's feelings about the situation were not helped any by Daphnels hand going on his arms. He felt the oddest urge to flex which was not something he had ever done in his life aside from maybe joking around with his brothers about who had more muscles. This was all rather awkward but he kept his hold on the man until Daphnel spoke.

"Oh! Yes, right, of course," he stammered out as he slowly let go of Daphnel out of some combination of not wanting to and wanting to be sure his friends footing truly was secure once more. "So, uh, wine but let us tread a little more carefully step by step."

  

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Victor's stomach felt tight. "Yeah," he managed, then turned his attention to the stairs. He still couldn't see any way to light the cellar, so he fished his wand out of his pocket and cast lumos. The light from his wand barely penetrated the darkness below, but it would have to do.

He descended the stairs without incident and tried to determine the layout of the cellar. "You'd think there'd be a light somewhere. This place is too big for just a wand. And we won't be able to read any of the labels," he pointed out. "Maybe that's why he was confident sending us down without him. He knew even if he had quality stuff down here, we'd never find it."

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Leonid followed behind Daphnel, trying to get a handle on the chaos currently circulating through his system. Had that moment way back when been an opening? Would making a move of his own here mean getting to see what it was like to kiss Daphnael - or would it getting beat up or worse, getting ruined publicly? Not that being beat up would be a great sufferance given his profession but still.. He lit up his own wand as it became obvious how dark in the cellar it really was.

"I agree. Watch your step unless you want to end up in my arms again," he teased lightly (a light flirt, really), wishing it wasn't so dark down here so that he could gauge Daphnels reaction to his words better.

  

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What a choice of phrasing! Victor's cheeks colored and he looked back at Fisk to try and read his expression. Teasing, or...? It had almost sounded flirtatious, but Victor knew better. If Fisk was interested, he would have done something about it a year ago in that hospital room. So, other options: Fisk was making an innocent joke, entirely oblivious to the way it sounded; or he hadn't been entirely oblivious a year ago as he'd seemed and this was his way of hinting that he knew something about Victor that Victor would rather he didn't.

If he was planning to blackmail him, though, waiting over a year first was a funny way to go about it.

Victor laughed, mirthless and at least a beat too late. He'd have to assume this was just a joke, at least for now. Jumping to conclusions wasn't going to do him any favors — especially in a secluded, dimly lit wine cellar. Merlin.

He turned his attention to the wine and picked up a bottle, peering at the label. Best to get through this as quickly and painlessly as possible, he decided.

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Daphnel looked back at him and Leonid felt like he would have just laughed it off if he thought nothing of it. Maybe. Leonid couldn't be sure. It wasn't like he had a wealth of experience. He had no idea how to drop further hints, he was not used to being the one having to take imitative.

"Anything good," he asked, stepping close and reaching out under the guise of wanting to also observe the label. Really, he was looking for an excuse to lightly brush his hand against the other mans.

  

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Okay, what the hell? Victor knew that was flirtatious, because there was no reason Fisk needed to step this close to him and let their hands brush when he took a look at the wine. He had to know what he was doing. The question now was why. Why now, and why not then?

Maybe Fisk was trying to trick him into doing something more incriminating than the flirting in the examination room; the better to blackmail him or leverage that information against him in some other way. Maybe something had changed in the past year that had turned his disinterest then into an interest now. If it was the former, Victor needed to tread carefully; if the latter, he didn't want to tread too carefully and miss an opportunity.

Victor turned slightly under the pretense of giving Fisk a closer look at the wine bottle, which brought his shoulder briefly up against Fisk's chest. "A matter of preference, I think. I've never been partial to pinor noir."

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Leonid felt a flutter of excitement surge through his chest as the other man turned slightly, causing his shoulder to brush up against Leonids chest. They were the same height but for some reason, Leonid felt taller at the moment.

"Do you see anything else that might whet your appetite more?" Leonid asked, hoping he wasn't bungling up this whole flirtation thing too much.

  

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