Office Hours [All Day, Tuesday]

[doubleohblonde]

Bond had missed his office hours the day before due to a short head cold, and was holding them today instead.

Of course he seemed more interested playing on his computer than actually working.

Those poor soft toys.

Comments

Afternoon [11-Mar]

[doubleohblonde]

...

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

When Seely hadn't shown up yesterday, Aravis, naturally, had gone looking for him. None of his things had been disturbed (at least, not until she'd looked through them) and he hadn't taken any clothes or anything as far as she could tell. And he did not come home that night.

So, naturally, Aravis leapt to the most logical conclusion.

"What did you do with him?"

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[doubleohblonde]

Bond looked up from drugging the sheep and minimised the browser window. "Who am I supposed to have done what to?"

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"Seely. Where is he?" she asked, her voice shaking with the slightest onset of her temper. "Don't play innocent, you've done something to him and -- and so help me if you've hurt him."

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[doubleohblonde]

"I can assure you that I haven't done anything to your young man," Bond replied absently, restoring the browser. Oh dear, he hoped he wasn't going to have to give the sheep electroshock. "Maybe you've just tired him out."

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

Aravis stared for a moment before picking up a pen and flinging it at his forehead, just to properly get his attention. "I haven't tired him out, he's missing, you jackass."

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[doubleohblonde]

"Do you mind?" Bond asked, catching the pen.

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"I mind as long as you hold out on telling me where he is," she snapped.

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[doubleohblonde]

"I don't know where your young idiot has gotten to," Bond replied, enunciating each word slowly and careful. "Nor do I particularly care where you might have misplaced him."

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"Don't call him that!" she yelled, picking up another pen and throwing it at him. "I haven't misplaced him, you stupid son of a jackal, he's been taken, don't you understand?"

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[doubleohblonde]

Bond reached out and caught that pen too. "Even if he has, I didn't take him," he said, in that same slow, deliberate tone. "So stop being such a brat."

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"Don't call me that!" she shouted, starting to get a touch hysterical. "You took him, I know you did, and it's because of the stupid thing with your car and I thought we'd paid well enough for that."

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[doubleohblonde]

"I will call you a brat if you act like one," Bond ground out. "Which you are. If I had taken your idiotic young man, it would defeat the purpose to lie to you about it."

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"He's not idiotic, and I'm not being a brat. I'm being someone who was severely abused and made to excessively pay for a crime last week, and forgive me if my trust in you has just slightly been marred by this experience," she spat.

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[doubleohblonde]

Bond looked at Aravis coldly. "If you think that was severe abuse, you have no grasp of the concept whatsoever."

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"You do not know my past, sir, nor do you understand the impact that your actions had. You could not have devised a better torture than to make me bind someone," she said quietly, coldly.

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[doubleohblonde]

"You're wrong about not understanding the impact," Bond said flatly. "You don't think I didn't bind your hands because I thought you'd just lie there like an obedient child, did you?"

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"But you made me do it to Seely, anyway, and now you've hidden him away somewhere," she said just as flatly. "There is a line between just punishment and cruelty, and I foolishly thought you were done toeing it last week."

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[doubleohblonde]

"And since you obviously got the point of last week's exercise, why would I need to do anything further?" Bond asked. "Regardless of what you might believe, I am not a cruel man, I take very little pleasure in the idea of torturing some young fool while babbling like a B-grade movie villain."

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"All I know is that he's gone, and you're the only one with motive," Aravis said quietly.

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[doubleohblonde]

"I don't have a motive," Bond said coolly. "I said I'd consider the matter done with after last Wednesday, and I meant it."

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"And I didn't think you could be as cruel as you were last Wednesday, but we're all full of surprises, aren't we?" she said sardonically.

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[doubleohblonde]

"If I was planning on being cruel I would have killed him while you watched, slowly," Bond replied, matter-of-factly, before he could stop himself.

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

Aravis froze, perfectly still and wide-eyed as the shock of what he said hit her.

That didn't last long, and instinct took over. Aravis closed the distance necessary and swung her hand at his face as hard as she could.

And, momentarily, longed for a blade.

Re: Afternoon [11-Mar]

[doubleohblonde]

As soon as he'd said it, Bond had remembered he wasn't talking to a grown woman able to more than hold her own, but rather a frantic teenager, barely more than a child.

Which was why he made no move to stop or avoid her hand as it connected with his cheek, leaving a red mark.