Till you drop

Shylock's eyebrow rose as Jane spoke to Kaiden. She always did know exactly the right thing to say.

"Pleasure," Kaiden managed to convey that if anyone was getting pleasure out of this meeting, it wasn't him. Obviously, he really had been taking lessons from his parents, even if he did complain about them far too much for Shylock's ongoing sanity.

"Jane, Kaiden; Kaiden, Jane," Shylock said by way of introduction.

"You realise you have this entire cafe and the street staring at us?" he pointed out to Kaiden. "So whatever you're about to tell me better be something that can't wait until tomorrow night."

Kaiden was upset. Good. That's obviously what Shylock had wanted, after all. She could admit to feeling a strange sense of pleasure at having been the one who caused it. Yes, Jane enjoyed that quite a bit. Plus, she was helping her friend, which is what really mattered. Obviously.

Shylock's comment made the blonde smirk and look down at the table to try and hide her lifted eyebrows. In the end, she couldn't help herself.

"You two have plans tomorrow night?" She asked innocently. "I'll be sure to let him go on time."

If she hadn't been so thoroughly amused, she might have winked to show that she was joking. It wouldn't be too out of the ordinary to spend time with him, though, and Kaiden didn't know she was playing it up. He looked sufficiently jealous, though. Enough to sit down - perhaps in an attempt at avoiding those who were looking at him - and move his chair away from Jane (and thus, closer to Shylock). A slow smile curved her lips, suggesting that she didn't feel very threatened.

"So," she offered up, "how long have you two been, um... Getting up to things?"

Shylock had never seen Jane in femme fatale mode before, because - erm - she'd never tried to seduce him. That would be weird.

She was totally good at it. Miles better than his sister, which was saying something. Jane took her time, whereas Destrey had a habit of getting too impatient and just demanding whatever she wanted. Thus such incidents as offering to screw a gay man into a table. Apparently. He'd heard. He kinda wished he'd been there for that one.

But Jane hadn't finished. Shylock spluttered out a laugh when she coyly asked how long they'd been getting up to things. Seriously? Getting up to things? Oh, but actually...

"I bet you'd like to know what kind of things we get up to," he shot back at her, ignoring Kaiden entirely. "Let's just say there's a lot of... equipment... involved."

He glanced at the other man. It hadn't escaped his notice how close Kaiden was sitting, or the way his hand rested on his knee, fingers fidgeting but if Shylock was any judge he wouldn't actually touch him in public.

"How long has it been, babe? Maybe a month? Not long enough to be exclusive, I mean, you haven't even told your wife yet, have you sweetheart?" he smiled.

Jane should have blushed, probably. Normal people would have blushed. But Jane just laughed. Equipment. Merlin, she didn't think she wanted to know. But she was definitely all for people doing what made them happy until they found whatever it was they were after, so she couldn't exactly fault them for anything. Particularly not when one of them was her friend.

Her eyebrows did lift at Shylock's questions for Kaiden, but only just for a moment. She was quick to make her expression neutral again, noting that she, again, wasn't one to judge. It was entirely plausible that she had helped someone cheat on their spouse before, and Jane just hadn't been aware of it. She didn't ask too many questions.

Kaiden looked thoroughly unimpressed, and Jane half expected him to refuse to answer entirely. Instead, he decided to either humor Shylock or try to bother Jane by answering.

"My wife would hardly care. She knows there's nothing between us."

"So why hide, then?" Jane cut in, studying him curiously.

Kaiden frowned deeply, leaning forward as though it might threaten her into backing off. "Let's just say certain people wouldn't think it's suitable."

He put a hand on Kaiden's sleeve.

"Chill," he ordered. "That's also the whole reason we can't sit here doing soppy, coupley stuff, so stop being an arsehole."

Well, that and Shylock didn't like Kaiden enough as a person to properly date him. But Kaiden didn't need to know that.

"You know how purebloods are," he said to Jane. "Everyone knows it happens, and it's all fine so long as it's all rumours and nothing is ever confirmed."

"From what I can gather, they don't have a problem with same sex attraction as such, just with the idea of their linage coming to an end. So someone like Kaiden here ends up in an unfortunate situation."

Now, he turned back to Kaiden.

"Did you really come over here because you wanted to chat or something equally thoughtless?" he asked. "People are not supposed to see you and I together, and besides, Jane and I were just about to leave."