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[greatestgood]

Comments

[chambermusicandtenpins]

As if you would not be using such rewards to bribe me just as well.

[greatestgood]

That's your fault for being attracted to me.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I suppose it is. Pity that I can't help it.

[greatestgood]

Is it really a pity? I promise to make you feel really good.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[That earns him a small laugh.]

You've already been quite successful at that.

[greatestgood]

So you know I'm not lying.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Oh, I'm very aware that you are not. Delightfully so.

[greatestgood]

Then I will be waiting for you, dear Professor. Ready at my desk.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Bent over it, no doubt.

[greatestgood]

Are you already dreaming? I don't mind being fully prepared for you.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I merely guess at what ideas you might have already had in your head. But I certainly would not mind your preparations.

[greatestgood]

I think I can arrange myself enticingly - at your desk or mine. The lesson can be slightly delayed.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Why do I suspect you might use such enticement to push aside the lesson entirely?

[greatestgood]

I can't be blamed. Once you start teaching, I will want you.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I think you would want me even if I wasn't.

[greatestgood]

That's true! But I want you even more when you're official.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

You like the idea of seducing me away from my responsibilities.

[greatestgood]

I can't deny that. Maybe I am a demon.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Or perhaps you have been starved for my touch and are making up for lost time.

[greatestgood]

That is a distinct possibility. Germany lacked you; France lacked you. I stopped feeling much of anything.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[Gellert can't see it, but Albus wears such a pained smile at that.]

I'll bring you back to feeling, then.

[greatestgood]

I do fear it. What will I do if I lose you again? [The thought makes him sick.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I don't know. [And he dares not tell Gellert the thing that has tugged at him, the sensation that soon he will find himself at the docks no matter what he desires.] But you have me now, and I have you. I've no intention of wasting that.

[greatestgood]

[His brow furrows and he murmurs:] I am working on the wrong projects. I need to dissect the docks and discover how they operate. Then I could keep us here.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

You are helping a friend. And she needs help. You are doing the right thing. The rest can wait.

[Because even if he told Gellert the docks were tugging at him, Li had said she only had a year, maybe less. It would be pure selfishness on his part to insist that their priorities shift.]