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Dite's Decadent Delights, Tuesday Afternoon

Raven was running a little late (which she totally blamed on being distracted by being emo about a boy) when the time came to head to work, so she teleported herself to the store instead of walking, which could be why certain people in the back room didn't hear her come in.

She flipped the sign to "Open," scritched Hercules, and tried to remember where she'd tucked away the book she'd been reading. Purely for research, of course.

[Minor OCD ~~on the way~~ is up!]

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For them who know who they are.

For your shopping and empath-embarrassing needs.

To stop the world from falling out of the post.

It wasn't entirely clear whether they would have heard her come in anyway. They were otherwise... engaged.

But not too long after Raven's arrival, the door to the storage room opened and Max (who was, fortunately, wearing pants) walked out backwards with his shirt in one hand. The reason for this became apparent once one realized that he was pausing in that doorway to lean into a very impressive kiss which he was sharing with a certain goddess of love.

Raven had found her book and was researching when she heard the door. She glanced toward the storage room, thinking perhaps it was Lady Aphrodite, or that Hercules had somehow pushed opened the door. She was not expecting half-naked Max. Or any sort of Max smooching Aphrodite.

She'd become better at compartmentalizing what had happened in the Other Fandom and separating vampire!Max from this Max, but then again he wasn't half-naked! when she was training with him. Flailing gears began to engage. And while the atmosphere of the store was always charged with feelings of...affection, she shielded herself and blocked it out normally. Normal, however, did not cover Max and the Goddess of Love and tongues down throats and that was Raven getting quite a jolt of emotion and flailing and falling off the stool she'd been perched upon.

The noise of Raven falling off the chair startled Aphrodite, and she pulled away from the kiss in surprise. Looking past Max she spotted the girl on the floor and stepped around her guest.

"Raven? Are you alright?"

She was mildly embarrassed at having forgotten the time, and that Raven would be in the store today. But maybe this would be a learning experience for the girl. Raven had been asking questions lately.

Max turned at almost the exact same moment the goddess did. Which led to him staring.

The first response to run through his head ("would you care to join us?") he was going to write off to his proximity to the goddess of love. But he couldn't come up with a decent second response because... well... he didn't have enough details about what had happened to Raven to know how this would affect her.

So he just smiled mildly and decided that he'd let Aphrodite take point on this one.

Well, at least Max knew her name now if he was paying attention.

"I am all right," Raven said, getting to her feet and righting the stool and averting her eyes as much as she could. Her cheeks were a delightful shade of red. "I was merely surprised."

"Are you sure?" The way Raven was avoiding looking at them made Aphrodite doubt her words, but since she couldn't ask more without embarrassing her employee, she changed tactics. "Okay."

Turning to Max she said, "This is Raven, my employee. She works the shop on Tuesdays. Max, Raven. Raven, Max."

Aphrodite, awkward. Hello!

"Raven," Max inclined his head slightly, not even realizing that this was the first time he'd said her name. "It's good to see you again."

...

This was going to make Thursday's session very, very awkward, wasn't it? Especially since Raven's pale skin made the flushed look more than a little bit alluring.

Stop that, she could sense that! Which just made her blush all the more. And wonder just how much did it suck that she only picked up on those kind of feelings from someone who was a teacher and looked like the vampire who horribly traumatized her to boot? So. Not. Fair.

Whoa, train of thought getting derailed.

"I am acquainted with Professor Maximus," she said faintly. "He has been helping me experiment with my gifts" -- not that kind of experimentation! -- "and heal some of the damage that was done to me in the Other Fandom."

"Oh, that's great, you two know each other! Wait. Professor Maximus? You never told me you worked up at the school."

If they knew each other, then why was Raven still staring at the floor like that?

And gifts?

"You have gifts?" That was to Max. She knew of Raven's abilities. "You're a healer as well?"

"I have numerous gifts," Max couldn't help but saying with a slight leer. "But among them is something similar to Raven's empathic ones. But I have more experience than she does, so we've been probing her abilities together."

"And I do have some healing gifts," he admitted. "But... I'm not very subtle with them."

Raven would prefer it if Max did not used the word "probe" when referring to her. She would also prefer it if Max put on his shirt because OK, she had happily stared at a shirtless Tim Riggins, but he was a boy and Max was...not.

(She may have sneaked a peek or two and then looked away and tried hard not to flail because the conflicting emotions were freaking her out.)

"I am sorry," she managed to stammer. "I did not realize anyone was in the back room" -- or what they were doing but now she couldn't help but think of it -- "and you surprised me when you came out."

She also oh-so-subtly tried to kick the copy of Bound By Honor: An Erotic Novel of Maid Marian under the counter so they wouldn't know what she'd been reading. Researching.

"That's my fault." Aphrodite managed to look mostly contrite. "I really should have taken him back to my place, but . . . things . . . kind of got heated really quick."

Without thinking, she ran one hand down Max's still shirtless chest. Realizing what she was doing, and who she was doing it in front of, she quickly pulled away and motioned to Max's shirt.

"As for you, Professor, I know all about your other gifts. Someday you'll have to tell me more about your empathic ones."

Right. If they could keep their clothes on long enough.

Max leaned slightly into her hand before he realized what he was doing, then followed her gesture to his shirt.

Oh... right... he wasn't wearing it. It wasn't that Max was self-conscious, exactly, but he hastened to pull it back on because of all the people he didn't really feel comfortable seeing the mass old whip scars across his back... well, Raven was near the top of that list.

"Perhaps I could provide a demonstration sometime," Max suggested. "I think you'd find some of them quite... stimulating."

Max decided that he needed to cool down, so he reluctantly stepped back from the goddess and glanced over at Raven. "Sorry to interrupt your reading," he said in what was a blatant attempt to make things less awkward.

Of course, that just made her blush more. "A romance novel," she said. "Is what I was reading. For...research." And she totally wasn't taking notes to ask Aphrodite about things she didn't understand.

It took her some effort to get her shields in place due to being so flustered (Professor Skywalker would be so disappointed in her) (if he knew -- and mentioning it to him next week was so not on the top of her list), but the touching and the "stimulating" and the fact that she knew what he could do with his powers still had her rattled. She was going to need some hardcore meditation tonight.

Perhaps hardcore was the wrong word.

Romanc-- riiiiiight. 'Dite nodded, one eyebrow raising, but she said nothing. Yet.

There was something . . . off about Max at the moment. The first time they'd been together at the store, there had been a customer there as well, and he'd barely blinked. Now he seemed rattled, if only minutely.

"Well! Max! Wasn't there - Didn't you say you had to . . . " Okay, so she wasn't being so subtle at the moment, either, but Aphrodite felt like she had to do something to bring down the color in Raven's face before the girl burnt up from the inside. "Come on, I'll walk you out."

She smiled at Raven as she reached for Max's hand. "Back in a minute."

Max chuckled and flashed her a grin. "Yeah. Stuff to do..."

He let Aphrodite lead him to the door and paused before leaving. He leaned in to give her a quick kiss, on the cheek this time, and spoke softly into her ear. "She met another version of me in that other world. It makes things... awkward between us. It might help her to talk about it, though, if you can convince her to do so."

He didn't think that was a betrayal of Raven's confidences. And the girl did need to talk about it.

Back at the counter, Raven busied herself tidying up, most definitely not eavesdropping, empathically or otherwise, on Aphrodite and Max.

The goddess's eyes went wide at Max's words, and she heard again Raven's voice telling her My experiences there were not good and left me somewhat damaged. She desperately wanted to ask what Max might have to do with that, but didn't dare do so in front of Raven.

Instead she gave Max a nod, brushing her lips over his. In a whisper of her own she said, "It just so happens I have nothing to do this Friday. If you'd like to display any of your other gifts, come see me. I'm sure I still have a few you haven't seen."

Then she winked and held the door for him.

"Considering how long it's been since my last visit, I believe that returning Friday is an excellent way to make up for lost time," Max chuckled. He darted a quick glance at Raven, then offered Aphrodite a bow and walked out.

"I'm looking forward to it," he tossed over his shoulder.

After Max left, Aphrodite took a moment to close the door and inhale deeply before turning back and approaching Raven at the counter.

"I'mmmmm . . . really sorry about that. I should have totally been more aware of the time. Really sorry, Raven."

(ooc: If you want this in a different thread, let me know.)

"It is your store," Raven said, a little more composed now that Max and his half-nakedness was gone. "I apologize for interrupting you."

[is fine! :) ]

"Well, yeah, but it's your workplace, and you shouldn't have to deal with stuff like that. Won't happen again."

Next time she'd just zap them to the hotel.

Aphrodite leaned on the desk, her hands playing with one of the toys she kept to amuse Hercules. "So, Max is working with you. Is he a good teacher?"

It wasn't what she wanted to ask, but maybe if she went the long way she'd have better luck.

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Dite's Decadent Delights, Tuesday Afternoon

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