She found the topic slightly fascinating, but with the slight change of his expression and the vague details, she smiled brightly instead. "Huh, mahbe I'll hav' ta come an' watch it sometime." Since she wasn't sure how she would feel watching him, a change of topic became very appealing, "So, when ar' ya gonna ask me tha' question, hm?" A teasing smile spread to her eyes.

"Does this count as a question?" He chuckled a little, before asking what felt like another silly question. "Did you want to watch me duel sometime? Or would we have to make another bet on that?" He took another sip of his beverage, before cocking his head to side questioningly.

"Yanno Locke," she very cleverly avoided answering the question by batting her lashes, "ya dun always hav' ta make a bet wit' me. Mahbe if ya jist ask, I"ll say yeah."

"But I'm a gambler, Katarina," he said, trying to puff out his cheeks into something that looked like a pout. "It's in my claret."

"I's still a gamble if ya jist ask me. Ya dunno wha' 'm goin' ta say. Er kin ya read mah mind?" She tilted her head slightly and rose a blond brow.

At that, he promptly touched opposite sides of his head with the index and middle fingers on both hands, and squeezed his eyes shut as tightly as he could. "You're going to say yes, of course." He laughed as he opened his eyes and let his hands fall back into his lap. "But seriously...did you want to go see one of the duels with me? I'd recommend Magic, personally. Twilight Isle is...stunning, to say the least."

She laughed warmly at his "mind reading," a smile firmly in place even as he asked, "Yeah, 'd like ta go an' watch sometime. I mean, ya've seen two o' my shows, an' anotha one's comin' up real soon. Seems only fair." She felt herself blush, and took another sip, "Here, I gotta question fer ya. Guess wha' it is." A wide grin, gesturing to another show of his ability.

An ice-white brow raised, as he replied. "I have to guess the question you're going to ask me?"

Her lips quirked at the silliness, "Yeah." She was trying very hard not to burst into laughter.

He feigned an exasperated sigh, before hands went where they were previously, and his eyes fluttered shut. "All right...your question is...why haven't I asked more questions?"

"Nah, bu' I think tha' is floatin' around up there somewhere." She couldn't help it now, she was giggling. "Nah, I wanna know wha' ya said 'n evlish las' nigh'." She couldn't remember a single syllable, only that he had said something that went completely unknown.

"You are certainly most welcome." The wide, dimpled grin returned, as Locke took a larger gulp of the half-melted mixture of gin, tonic, and ice in his glass. He started to chew delicately on one of the partially melted cubes, like it was gum or hard candy.

Her grin eased into a light chuckle, relaxing when his face was no longer unreadable. "Ya sure ya didn' say anythin' else nice 'bout me?" Katarina batted her lashes again before giving a teasing wink.

He assumed the classic "Thinker" pose, head down, gloved knuckles resting on his chin. Then, he looked up, giving a vigorous shake of his head, though it was accompanied by a playful smile. "I don't believe I did. Just the three statements I told you about and translated for you now." His eyes narrowed just slightly. "Angling for another compliment?"

Her grin reflected a cat that had eaten the canary. However, her tone was completely nonchalant, "Mahbe." With a delicate shrug of her shoulders, she took another sip of her nearly empty glass.

He tried to match her voice, elbows now resting on the table and hands framing his face. "Elvish or Common?" Locke opened his eyes a little more, dark blue gaze fixed in her direction.

She pursued her lips for a moment, not realizing that he was going to actually say something, "Hmm, Common. Tha' way I kin understand it."

He had to resist the urge to lift his elbows off the table, the better to snap his fingers in disappointment. He did lean back a little, and let his lower lip jut out in something of a pout. "Are you absolutely, positively certain you don't want me to say something in elvish?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly, now reconsidering her first choice, "Only if you'll translate it fer me."

"A fair bargain. Let's see..." The elbows were now removed from the table, as he slowly and arrhythmically drummed his fingers on the table. Finally, he spoke. "Cormlle naa tanya tel'raa." He adjusted and readjusted each finger of his gloves once he was finished talking.

She tried not to stare at his mouth as he spoke the language, to try and learn the motions from observation. She didn't dare try repeating it back to him or saying it outloud, so she finished her drink and smiled, "An' wha' does tha' mean?"

It was a repeat of his earlier behavior, but upon the repetition, it might've been clearer what he was doing when he made his face more impassive, his tone less expressive. The way he was conducting himself, clearly at odds with his usual openness, seemed protective. He sat far back in his chair, eye contact broken by occasional glances over each of her shoulders. "It means 'Your heart is that of the lion.' "

Her fingers played with the stem of her glass, watching the difference in his demeanor again. It brought an absent chew to the corner of her lip as she thought upon that difference. However, his words brought her out of those thoughts and placed a warm smile on her lips. "I like tha' one. I 'pose this means I owe ya a free one, doesn' it?" She seemed to rather like that idea despite the word, "owe".

[And like a switch had been flipped somewhere inside him, Locke seemed to return to normal, shifting a little closer in his chair and smiling. "Only if you feel the desire to."

It was rather uncanny, watching the visual switch of his expression. Katarina realized it reminded her of a performer. "Do ya wan' on' 'n Common.. er.... Common?" A saucy sort of grin.

"I will select...Common of course." His grin in return was cheeky, accented by dimples.

"Excellent choice." She leaned forward then, giving a blank stare over his features, trying to decide what would be the object of her compliment. Finding what she was thinking of, she smiled and held his gaze, "Yer eyes show th' deep colors an' depth o' a perfec'ed ocean."

"Thank you most kindly, Katarina. Indeed, you are far too kind." The tone of voice was playful, almost flip, but the wattage on his smile clearly decreased with the compliment, to something that seemed a little more natural, less forced than the bright grins he usually flashed.

"Yer mos' welcome, bu' it ain't a kindness ta say wha's true. Leas' it shouldn' be." Finding that she was still fidgeting with her glass, she set it aside, "I think i's yer turn ta ask a question."

Something she said made him laugh a little, before he quickly clarified himself. "It sounds like we're playing a game of Truth or Dare, mate."

"Tha' dun sound anythin' like Truth er Dare." However when she rethought her words, she could have seen it. But instead of correcting herself, her grin went sly, "Does this mean I ge'ta ask th' question firs'?"

Locke waved his hand in the air in theatric circles, before pointing at her. "Ask away, mate."

It was one of the only times she was glad to be out of the first spotlight, "All righ' then, truth er dare?"

He wrinkled his brow, studying her intently. "Um...dare?" He batted his eyelashes, for added effect.

"Hmm." She chuckled at his look and rubbed her palms together, looking around for some sort of inspiration. "Okay, I dare ya ta dance 'round all these tables," gesturing to the ones that had people sitting around them, "wit' an' invisible partner."

"Got it." He got up from his seat, reaching down to grab the nearly empty glass and drink the rest of his beverage. He put one arm on an invisible shoulder, the other on a hip, then started to twirl around the tables. Some of the patrons seated outside ignored him or looked away, but those who looked at him with gaping mouths and wide eyes received a wink and a grin from the ice elf, before he spun away from their table. Once he felt he had made the rounds, he settled back into his seat, wiping his hands on his pants. "Whew."

She was impressed with his immediate acceptance of the challenge. She laughed at his stance with a person that wasn't there, and watched his rather graceful movements through tables. More laughter came and was covered by her hand as she watched others react in surprise to his imaginative dancing. When he returned, she gave him a grin and a wink, "Nice form."

He pointed a gun-like finger at Katarina, accompanied with a wink. "Thank you most kindly. Your turn. Truth...or dare?"

She pretended to be hit by the gun-like finger at her heart with one hand, and put the back of her other hand across her forehead. She laughed lightly before straightening in her chair. "Truth."

"Feeling adventurous, eh?" He leaned back in his chair, mulling the possible questions, hands folded behind his head. The chair legs lifted off the ground for the moment, before they settled onto the sidewalk with a light *thump*. "Okay...what is the most embarrassing thing that you have ever had happen to you?"

"Mos' embarassin'? Ya mean I gotta pick only one?" She linked her hands together and absently tapped a knuckle against her lip. "Well, growin' up a group o' us girls would go ta this lake an' go swimmin' every summer. Lot'sa people used th' lake, bu' we'd go durin' the nighttime ta hav' it all to ourselves. When I was 'bout.. oh, fourteen er so, I met up wit' mah girlfriends an' we'd all.. " now she was reconsidering her memory choice, but continued anyway, "ya see, we were all sneakin' ou', so we couldn't go home wit' wet clothes.. so we didn' wear any. Coupla minutes later, Jo, Cal an' a bunch o' otha guys came, stole our clothes, an' ran 'way." She chuckled now, "we all had'ta walk naked as a jaybird ta mah aunt's house ta git our clothes back."

Locke brought a gloved hand up to his mouth, to try and stifle the laughter that was bubbling up from him. He failed, and eventually removed the hand, letting himself laugh until there were nearly tears in his eyes. They spilled out slowly, then froze just below his eyelids, where he wiped them off. "Terribly-terribly sorry, mate. But that is just too rich, by far. And terribly mortifying, I am sure. I hope you were successful in getting revenge on them." He let his lips curl up into a wicked grin.

She didn't seem offended by his laughter, and even joined in with it. "Oh yeah, I did. Tha' was one o' the reasons tha' he didn' let me win yesterday." She wasn't going to share that story though, since it was not part of her embarrassment. "Yer turn - Truth er Dare."

His spin from a gambler's perspective caught her interest, and she placed that information aside to try and remember for later. "Yeah, tha' makes sense. I mean, 'n th' end, ya still git th' same thin', yanno? Dun really matter why er how."

"It is what you do with what the world gives you, for good or for ill, that makes you you, savvy?" He cracked the knuckles on his left hand, then the right one, unintentionally punctuating his words.

She cringed slightly at the sound of the cracking bones, "Savvy." She replaced the look with a grin, "I thin' 've prolly caused 'nough trouble tonigh'. I'll take a truth."

A cautious look suddenly crossed his face, eyes narrowing for a moment, then reopening. "Are you going to get revenge on me, somehow, if I ask something too personal?"

She held up her hands to signal peace, "Nah, cross my hear' an' hope ta die. Ya kin ask anythin'."

With everything cleared away, he shifted to a roguish grin. "Who'd you first snog, mate?" He hid his mouth behind the sleeve of his suitcoat, to stifle a smile and laugh, though his eyes still gleamed with mischief and mirth.

She could tell by his face that it was meant to me something funny, but she gave a confused look, "Snog?"

He just closed his eyes and puckered his lips in response. If that didn't get the point across, well...

"Oh!" She laughed as the look on his face explained everything, "My firs' kiss. Let's see, my first kiss was wit' this guy named Gary. I guess he was dared ta do it afta on' o' my performances. I smacked 'im afta tha'. 'Course we were friends afta tha'." She laughed warmly at the memory.

"You hit him?" He arched a brow. "That doesn't seem terribly sporting."

"Well he didn' ask fer my permission. Jist came up an' helped himself." She wagged a finger, "Tha's nah th' way it should work."

"If we blokes had to ask for permission every time we tried to snog, we'd be laughed out of the bloody building, and our lips would be terribly lonely." He feigned a swoon, then chuckled warmly at the thought. "It's all about the element of surprise, and romance, and all that bloody malarkey."

"Well, he go' th' surprise down jist fine, bu' was missin' everythin' else. I's differen' if yer seein' and goin' steady wit' someone. Nah jist some random person yanno." She grinned and winked, "Now I wanna know 'bout yer firs' snog."

If he had been a human, or a regular elf, he would've blushed bright crimson. Instead, his skin flushed a dark purple, before he suddenly, sullenly folded his arms across his chest and shook his head petulantly. "No."

"Wha'? Whay?" She seemed genuinely surprised at his response. The only indication that it was a sensitive topic was the change of his coloring.

"Your story was funny. Mine is somewhat...embarrassing."

She blinked, completely unmoved, " 've shared th' mos' embarrassin' momen' fra th' depths o' my soul." She debated pushing the matter, not wanting to offend, but she was curious to where the line was, "C'mon, ya kin tell me."

He sat there for a moment, apparently pondering something from the way he was almost nibbling on the index finger of his glove. "Maybe not embarassing so much as personal. I...can't remember if I ever told anyone this before."

Now she was feeling guilty for pressing the matter. It was going to make her uneasy, not knowing which topics and questions were acceptable to bring up. "O' course ya dun hav'ta tell me if ya dun wan'ta."

"No, it is quite all right." His memory kicked in, and the story soon followed. "There was this bird, Toria. She was a couple of years older than me, and a form ahead. We'd played hooky together a couple of times before. Well-" And here's where he sucked in a deep breath. "I may or may not have decided to crash a party, and she may or may not have been there, dressed fitter and sharper than I had ever seen her, and I may or may not have been shoved into a closet to play 'Seven Minutes in Heaven' with her."

She was trying to think of this game, knowing that she knew what it was, but retrieving the information took a few moments. "How'd ya crash a party?" She focused on that rather than the actual event of the game to maybe relieve the feeling of sharing the personal story.

"I'm Locke D'Vestavio. Even as a teen, I was quite the charmer. I just told the bloke at the door I knew somebody, and Bob's your uncle." His own cleverness brought a beaming smile to his face.

She laughed warmly, before pointing a finger to him, "See? All these charm o' yers jist gets ya inta trouble. I told ya it jist kin't be resisted."

"I looked so bloody ridiculous back then, I'm surprised anyone would've even wanted to snog me." He giggled a little in return.

"Who doesn' look ridiculous durin' those years?" She sent him a sidelong glance, "Well, mos' o' us do. 'm sure ya weren' too differen' fra th' res' o' us."

"Picture me in a leather jacket, fingerless gloves, ripped-up jeans, and boots. Snarling all the time." He took a moment to look around, noting that the music had not only stopped, but that some of the musicians with smaller cases were carrying them out the front door. "It would seem our musical accompaniment for the evening is vanishing."

"Snarlin'?" She tried to picture it, "I do hav'ta say I dun thin' tha's th' bes' look fer ya." At his words, she also looked over to see the musicians leaving. "Hmm, ya dun thin' I scared 'em all 'way, do ya?" Of course she hadn't, but their departure signaled that to her surprise, they had been outside talking for quite some time.

"And unfortunately, I fear that I must leave, for I have work early in the morning. But I had an aces time here tonight. Perhaps some other Tuesday, we can repeat this endeavor?" He let his eyes widen, but not in the usual puppy-dog style.

"O' course we kin. Bu' we gotta go ta yer sushi place firs'." Stretchin' her legs under the table first, she then made a move to stand, "When did'cha wan'ta do tha'?"

"Whenever works with your show schedule. I work 9-5 during the week, and have the weekends free, for the most part. I'm easy to please."

She tugged some of her hair over her shoulder as she tried to rearrange her schedule, "I definitely kin do Sunday, bu' I'll let'cha know if I kin squeeze 'n somethin' durin' th' week." Her bright smile returned, "I had a real fun time tonigh'. 'm glad tha' we tied." A clever grin.

"Me as well." He stood up, pushed in his chair, then wordlessly offered her an arm.

Still smiling, she took his offered arm and led them away from the dying colors of the Jazz Cafe.

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((adapted from live play))