Best Served Cold

Despite her initial reaction of fear and shock upon finding some of his sketches, Ariadne found herself standing outside the door of Cygnus' London flat sooner than she'd expected. She hesitated with her hand over the knocker, wondering if it was really a good idea. Sure, she could take care of herself, but things could get messy quickly, getting too involved...still, she had to know why he'd had those pictures of her.

Three short knocks announced Ariadne's presence. There was no way of knowing whether Cygnus was home or not, so she simply stood and waited, heart thumping in a confused mixture of anger towards Corvus and anxiety for the unknown.

Cygnus was home. At it was, Cygnus was just coming out of the shower when he heard the knock on the door. He wasn't expecting anyone. He quickly put a towel around himself, grabbed his wand by the dresser and looked through the little hole through the door.

He was surprised, more than surprised really, stunned, to see Ariadne Grey at the other side of the door. He figured the night that they spent together was the last time he would ever see her. So the mere fact that she was standing behind his door made Cygnus throw caution to the wind and opened the door.

"Ariadne?" He didn't bother to hide the surprise in his voice.

Of course Cygnus would answer in a towel. Ariadne swallowed slightly and quickly looked up to his face, trying not to get distracted.

"Cygnus," she said simply, with an attempt at a friendly smile. "Did I interrupt something?" Just looking at him right now, when she was so angry at Corvus, was difficult. She kept her eyes on his, their blue colour a constant reminder of the truth.

In Cygnus' shock, he had forgotten that he was in fact wearing nothing but a towel. He turned a slight shade of pink as he realised this and cursed himself for not grabbing his robe or something else. Well too late now, you've made your bed, now you have to lay on it.

"No," his voice cracked. He coughed. "No I just got out of the shower." Way to go Captain Obvious, as if you're wet hair and the towel wasn't clue enough. She isn't stupid you know.

"Please come in," Cygnus ushered. "I'm just going to get my robe." And without waiting for a reply, he left, went to his bedroom, grabbed his robe, secured it around his waist and headed back out.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?" Cygnus blurted out.

Ariadne remained standing in the entrance awkwardly while she waited for Cygnus to return. Unfortunately his question was not one that could be answered easily, even by herself. She wanted answers, she wanted revenge, she wanted many other things that she couldn't identify-- and she couldn't quite identify which she wanted first.

"Have you been following me?" she asked, going for the answers first. The most important thing was to find out whether or not Cygnus could be trusted in anyway -- she needed to know whether Corvus' deceptive nature was a family trait or an acquired one.

"What?" Not for the first time that night, Cygnus was surprised and confused. "Why would I be following you?" She left him. He didn't know where she went. He did go back to the Hog's Head to see if she would be there, but alas no luck. He tried for a couple of nights, but decided to give up. But that hardly counted as following right? In his shock, Cygnus didn't notice Ariadne evaded his question.

Ariadne looked frustrated at Cygnus' answer, beginning to wish she'd brought some veritaserum with her. It would probably have been more effective to seduce the answer out of him somehow, but she was too jumbled up to focus on pulling that off at the moment. She decided to confront the issue head on.

"Cygnus, I found your sketchbook. I know you didn't just pick me up at random at the bar. Did you know I was going to be there? Have you been following me?"

Ariadne was three for three in imparting shock and confusion to Cygnus. He didn't even register the fact that she had to have gone through is stuff to find his precious sketchbook.

"No! I..." He couldn't tell her the truth. She would have thought he was crazy. Well he supposed that was probably better than the stalker she was making him out to be. The wall that should have been there to protect his inner-most secrets seemed to be absent as he looked into her eyes.

He sat down on his couch, his hands on his head, effectively looking away. He sighed. "You're not going to believe me."

Ariadne followed Cygnus to the couch, removing his hand from his head and turning his chin so that she could look him directly in the eyes -- less a gesture of tenderness than her simply being direct.

"Tell me," she commanded, still grasping his chin, firmly but not uncomfortably tight. "Iwhether job to decide whether I believe it or not. But I want the truth."

Cygnus didn't pull away from her touch and in fact welcomed it. He sighed deeply again preparing himself. "Before that night..." Cygnus said slowly looking at Ariadne's face for any hint of an expression. "I've been having dreams about you. I didn't know who you were, besides the fact that you were beautiful. In fact, I was convinced my mind just made you up. I didn't really think anything of it but they started to reoccur more and more. That's where my sketchbook came in, I decided to draw you - well the image of you I saw in my dreams. Then I met you in that Pub, I don't know... I thought it might have meant something. But you were gone when I woke up, I almost thought that night was a dream as well."

Cygnus brased himself for her reaction. Well, it was nice knowing ya.

Staring directly into Cygnus' eyes as Ariadne was, she searched for any hint of deception. The way he met her intense gaze unflinching and seemed to welcome rather than shy away from her contact seemed to suggest he was speaking the truth. She frowned, indeed sceptical of his explanation.

"You...see me in your dreams?" she confirmed, arching an eyebrow. "That seems...unusual. Any theories, now that you see that I am not, in fact, a figment of your imagination?"

He sensed her skepticism but didn't know what else to tell her.

Cygnus shook his head. "I haven't a clue. Believe me I've tried to find the answer. Well... there is a glaringly obvious one I suppose." He didn't know if she would appreciate a joke when she was trying to figure out whether he was a stalker or not, but decided to throw caution into the wind and go for it. Besides, the joke wasn't entirely false. It was a theory. "You and I are meant to be." He shrugged and grinned to ensure he meant it as a joke - after all, he really didn't want to scare her off again.

Ariadne just laughed and released her hold on Cygnus's face. His response probably shouldn't have been at all comforting considering her previous worry, but a new thought had just occurred to her. They'd known each other before, hadn't they?

"I'm sure you must have just remembered me from Hogwarts. Brains can do strange things, bring up old memories you didn't even realise you had. You must have seen me somewhere in a crowd and your brain was trying to remember where you recognised me from...the subconscious works in strange, mysterious ways," she concluded, satisfied with her explanation for now. She fought the sudden desire to run her fingers through Cygnus's still-wet hair; they were still seated in fairly close proximity to her and the smell of soap and shampoo was strangely appealing.

Cygnus nodded in agreement, though he couldn't quiet silence a feeling that told him flat out she was wrong. There was another reason for his dreams. Presently though, he didn't quite care.

"So, is that the real reason why you're here? You wanted to know if I was stalking you?" Oh Merlin, he desperately hoped not.

Ariadne bit her lip, fleetingly wondering whether going any further was a good idea or not. Once could be a mistake...this would be different, knowingly seeking out Cygnus. But she was tired of Corvus flaunting his conquests in front of her, and Cygnus' resemblance was comforting enough that she could put aside her usual intimacy issues, and she wanted revenge. She was tired of being toyed with, and Corvus should know by now that she could give as good as she could get. The fact that she was in turn toying with Cygnus didn't even occur to her, and if it had, she probably wouldn't have be bothered by it.

"It was a reason I came," Ariadne replied, shrugging. "But...no, it wasn't the only reason." She gave in to her impulses and raked her fingers through his wet hair, looking into his eyes again. "I wanted to make sure, first..."

Cygnus half closed his eyes at her touch. She was intoxicating. He didn't know how else to describe it. Somehow, the alarm signals in his head were on a vacation every time she would trip it. Things that should have bothered him about her, didn't. Maybe he was just blind.

"Satisfied?" He left the question ambiguous.

Ariadne chose to ignore the question, instead throwing caution to the wind and kissing Cygnus full on the mouth. That would probably do for an answer, anyway. She shoved him back on the couch roughly and climbed onto his lap with a fierce look in her eyes that showed her to have gotten over her earlier hesitation.

Cygnus recovering from yet again shock, though to be perfectly honest, this was the smallest of the past hour, returned the kiss with gusto.

Cygnus' eyes matched hers with intensity, though his was a lot gentler. His desire was there, but his actions were softer, more tender as if he was afraid to hurt her. He didn't consider, she might hurt him.