thefirststark | Mixed Muses: The Morning After

She does this quite often herself; the garden and grounds are her favorite places at the mansion. She just watches her shoelaces dangle for a long, quiet moment before speaking up.

"So...if I went with you through your door, do you think you'd want me to be invisible?" She doesn't remind him that she could still talk to him and no one would be any the wiser.

He struggles to get a good grasp, and uses that as an excuse to be quiet while he thinks.

"It might make things easier. Less questions. But it wouldn't be fair to you."

Alisa almost says exactly what she thinks for a moment: that nothing about where he comes from is going to be fair to her.

"And if I'm visible, how is that going to affect you?" If people talk, if someone sees her not entirely remembering that they can't really act on anything discovered or done in the Bar at the end of the cosmos. She assumes he's following her through that train of thought as she watches him.

"I would have to explain who you are. And we don't have many colored people at my firm." He pauses. "That sounds awful."

"It doesn't sound as bad as you think it does," she says, not really angry. Not even a little angry if she's honest, because she knows in some aspect what hiring colored people would do to a firm like Stark Industries in the decade Howard's living in currently.

"I think it might be better if I stayed invisible," Alisa decides out loud. "It's not like you can say I'm your long-lost relative." Or whatever it is people use as an excuse to not say something worse.

"And I can't say you were an army buddy, like Gabe Jones." He finally reaches the branch she's on.

She just chuckles at that one and offers him a hand to steady himself. "You can't really say much about me," Alisa murmurs. "At least not out loud."

It's probably a good thing she doesn't mind that.

"Do you think of yourself as a soldier? I mean in the 'running around spying makes you a soldier' sense?"

The view from here is nice. In many ways.

"Not really," she says, considering. "We're...not really in a war. I don't think I'd make a particularly good soldier anyway."

"Fair enough.

"But who are you spying on?"

"No one in particular yet," she says. "It's just...practice, in a way. I'm good at being invisible, and silent, but keeping that up and paying attention to everything else going on in a room or a conversation isn't easy."

"I would imagine that. I sometimes have trouble paying attention to one conversation if my mind is on something else." Like science!

"Do you do that often?" she asks, amused at the idea. It seems like so many of the people she knows can be distracted by their interests--and she's not excluded from that group by any means, but it's easier to notice habits in other people.

"Get distracted."

"It depends on who I'm with," he says flirtatiously.

"And it depends on what I'm working on at the moment."

Alisa looks over at him from where she's seated on the branch with an equally flirtatious laugh. "Am I distracting you from something?"

"Not at the moment.

"But I would not mind if you were." He's not steady enough for a hug, but he does take her hand.

She can't help but think it amusing that he looks so unsteady, and takes his hand as she tells him as much.

"Like I said, I don't climb many trees." Maybe he's been missing something.

"Maybe you should," she says. "It's fun. And hey, height advantage."

Being of fairly normal stature herself, most men are taller than she is--Howard included. Sometimes she likes not having to look up at people. "If you want to, we can get down. I just thought the view was pretty." Being several feet higher than standing on the ground gives them a pretty view of the lake, only a little choppy in the breeze.

"I think so." You would think that a man who flies planes would do better in trees.

"Sorry," she murmurs, sincere but still a little playful. "I didn't think you'd be uncomfortable up here."

"Neither did I." He leaps back down, and lands awkwardly. "I never climbed many trees, I guess."

Alisa pushes herself off the branch and lands more or less on her feet, brushing herself off. "I think staying on the ground might be best for the rest of the morning."

She wants to kiss him again--it was quite a nice experience, really--but she isn't honestly sure how to go about it again. "I really like the way that jacket looks on you."

"Thanks." Maybe he wore it because he expected that reaction? "You did say you wanted to see me in something more casual."

"I did," she replies with a smile. And because she's feeling buoyed--the morning hasn't gone badly by any stretch--Alisa leans over quick;y and kisses his cheek.

It's not as intimate as it could have been, but she's working on it.

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