I'd Be Under The Sea - Closed Tag

[Sett Richmond]

Sett wasn't an obsessive man. Ask anybody who knew him and they would laugh and say he was the least bit obsessive person ever. He was a little bit too laidback for that kind of behaviour.

But the night after he found Thomas Lajoie's Visa card, he had done everything he knew to find out the man's name, address and workplace. It was borderline creepy but then again, he was only doing it to do the right thing. He was really going to just return the man's card.

His place of residence wasn't so far from the bar and within a couple of minutes, Sett found himself in front of a non-descript door to the apartment off the address he got. He knocked on the door, hoping he got the right address.

A few seconds later, the door opened to a beautiful woman who had a scowl on her face. "Hi," Sett gave her a big grin only to be responded to with a deeper scowl. "Who are you and what do you want?" She sounded fairly American but there was a faint trace of a French accent and Sett figured, this couldn't be a coincidence.

"My name's Sett. I'm looking for Thomas?" Sett pronounced Thomas' name as it was spelled and not the correct pronunciation. "Sorry there isn't a Thomas here." The woman kicked the door closed and left Sett a little disappointed. "Well that was a waste of time." Sett scuffed the floor and turned to leave.

[Thomas Lajoie]

The music in Thomas' room was playing loudly enough to allow for him to dance about his room as he cleaned, and was upbeat enough to do the same. Thomas loved the location of his new apartment, and his room was pretty decent too, but he wasn't used to staying in a room he could call his. In residence, he never really felt at home - it was made very clear that you were only using the room at Hammel for the duration of your study. Nothing more. His room here, however, was his sanctuary - and he was going to keep it clean.

The shorts he was wearing were knee length, and were loose like basketball shorts. They were solid black, which matched the black socks on his feet. The shirt he was wearing had long since been removed while he was cleaning, and used to be whipped over his head in the heat of a sexy dance move he was trying to pull off. In actuality, he just succeeded in knocking over his lamp. After picking up the mess, he heard another bang in the apartment, and turned off his music to hear what it was.

"My name's Sett. I'm looking for Thomas?"[/i]
"Sorry there isn't a Thomas here."[/i]

What was she thinking?! Thomas ran around his room contemplating what to do. He didn't know a Sett, but what if this messenger was here to tell him something important. What if they were giving him a cheque!? WHAT IF THEY WANTED TO TELL HIM HE GOT A PROMOTION!? Thomas decided he was going to pursue this messenger, and as he reached for the doorknob to open the door, he realized his arm, and subsequently, his entire body was uncovered. If he left his room without a shirt, he would get a snide mark from Sloane. If he took the time to find one, he might miss this person. Sass or Pass. ..... SASS.

The door to his room swung open and he bolted through the apartment, shouting as he went. "QU'ESTCEQUETUFAIT,SLOANE?!JEM'APELLETOMUSSENANGLAIS!?" He reached the door and swung it open, catching a glimpse of his visitor, and feeling his heart sink.

The bartender? His features were different than he remembered - less blurry really - but he was just as good looking as Thomas remembered. What was he doing here? Maybe he was trying to be cute? No, he was attracted to women. Thomas had grabbed his arm and flirted pretty hardcore with him. He was here to kill Thomas. There was no other option! THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T FALL FOR STRAIGHT PEOPLE.

Thomas mustered up the words to speak, and stood in faux confidence at the door, like prey trying to convince itself that the hunter wasn't going to win. "'Ello. What are you doing 'ere?" he said, his chest rising and falling as he tried to catch his breath.

[Sett Richmond]

"C'est vrai! Thomas n'habite pas ici!" Sett heard coming from inside as the door closed. But the voice before was what he was interested in. Sett didn't really understand much French but he did hear the word Thomas and English in there somewhere so he must be at the right place.

Especially when the same voice spoke again. Sett turned and was not disappointed any more when he saw Thomas shirtless, trying to catch his breath. "Hi. Thomas, right?" Sett said, turning around fully and walking up closer to Thomas, still pronouncing the other man's name wrong.

"You forgot your card back at the bar the other day. I'm just returning it." Sett pulled out the thin plastic and handed it over to the other man. "I'm Sett by the way." He grinned, still holding the card up.

[Thomas Lajoie]

Another signature eye roll was performed as Thomas heard his roommate shout back to him. Thomas could appreciate sarcasm and accuracy, but this girl took it to another level. Regardless, his mind was occupied by thoughts of Sloane for a brief moment, returning to the bartender standing before him. Thomas was fighting a smile for a couple reasons. Firstly, he didn't want to seem pleasantly surprised at the idea that a stranger had found out where he lived. Secondly, he didn't want to add to the man's clearly thriving ego. When the man asked if he was Thomas, the smile could be held back no longer, and spread across his features in the goofy way it always did.

"Toe-mah." he corrected, quite nicely, making a backwards gesture with his head. "'ence the confusion." And suddenly it all made sense. He had come to give him his Visa. The fluttering in his heart became pained, and he was reminded once more of the man's disinterest in Thomas. He was just being a nice, slightly invasive, person. A person named Sett.

Thomas took the card from his hand, playing cool and not registering an ounce of disappointment. Who gets disappointed when they find out they aren't being stalked?! "You know, Sett, most people just cut these things up." he added, raising his eyebrows and allowing the side of his mouth to peak into a half smile. He flipped the card between his fingers, awaiting some explanation as to why he was on his doorstep. Some reason other than returning the card. Something. Anything.

[Sett Richmond]

Thomas had an expressive face. Sett learned that the first time they met. To be frank, Sett wasn't the best of character judgment but he was starting to learn how to read people by how they express themselves. Through their eyes, their gestures, their lips...by God, Thomas' lips were full.

But as Thomas tried to sustain the smile on his face, Sett could actually see the strain in the other's man's cheeks. Tics don't lie, Sett thought to himself with a grin.

When the other man corrected Sett's pronounciation, the bartender made a small noise of sudden realisation and nodded. "Alright then, Thomas." Sett repeated the name, rolling it in his mouth just to get the feel of it. "I can get used to calling you this."

Sett raised an eyebrow at Thomas' remark. He didn't even think of that. Of course, at that moment in time, he was a little preoccupied with the thought of seeing the Frenchman again so cutting the card didn't even occur to him. No use lying to him now. "If I cut it, I wouldn't have been able to come here to see you now would I?" He asked, his raised eyebrow accompanied the smirk on his face.

[Thomas Lajoie]

Hearing Sett pronounce his name was not helping him maintain a distant, carefree facade. As it stumbled through his lips, Thomas could feel the need to swallow gather in his throat. A pang of jealousy also surfaced, knowing that the french man could never add the same sex appeal to such an English name as Sett had to his. It would be blunt, contorted, and goofy. It wouldn't be smooth, and slow, and... pardon me?

Did Sett just say he could get used to saying ANYTHING to Thomas? As in, subtly mentioning that they'd see each other again? Thomas took a mental breath and realized that he was a bartender - and that people frequented the same bars all the time. Sett could get used to calling him by his proper name because Thomas would obviously be back in the bar again. There was no romantic connotation to any of this, at all -

- OH COME ON. COME TO SEE HIM?! Thomas' cheeks flushed immediately, unable to hold back the whirwind of positive and anxious bodily responses he was attempting to surpress. The heat in his cheeks frustrated him considerably, seeing it as a sign of weakness. Especially since, if he couldn't subconsciously control the blood, he could of used his powers. It was too late now, but Thomas played it off as if nothing had happened. Sett wasn't going to work him into a tizzy this quickly.

"I suppose you wouldn't..." he said, maintaining eye contact with Sett. It was so hard to focus on his eyes when his mouth, and his neck, and his chest were so close by.... Thomas cleared his throat. "Well, was it worth the visit?" he added, failing miserably at the cool guy act. You'd think, with the French known for their romantics, the boy would have some game.

[Sett Richmond]

Most oblivious to the internal conflict Thomas was experiencing, Sett was pretty certain it was illegal to stay out of the house shirtless for any longer than five minutes. Especially with a body like that. His eyes must have strayed downwards in his flirtations more than five times, a record Sett didn't even know he was trying to break.

Sett's eyes were fully drawn to the still rising and falling chest on Thomas to realise that the younger man had replied to his flirtations. He had to fight every response to move his eyes further downwards to keep up with this inane conversation.

Thomas' question made his smirk widen. "I'm not leaving yet, am I?"

Sett stepped forward, liking the fact that he easily towered the half-naked younger man and looked down at him. "You make it a habit to leave the house without your shirt, Thomas?" Sett purposely breathed out his companion's name.

[Thomas Lajoie]

It was difficult to focus on a person's eyes when they kept looking down at the rest of you. Sett must have looked down at Thomas' feet the whole time. He was sure that's where Sett was looking, because if it wasn't his feet, it was his shorts. And if he were looking at his shorts, Thomas was knees were about to buckle, and we couldn't have that.

All Thomas wanted was to make the teeniest, tiniest fracture on the boys skin. To be able to control his heart beat, and make him as nervous as Thomas was right now. He could feel Sett's heart now, Thomas focusing on it's steady beat, feeling in him the build toward something. Thomas also felt a strange pulling, as if Sett's heart was being pulled by something, strained to keep something up. This of course was completely erased from his mind the moment Sett stepped in front of him.

Thomas face was so close to his chest, so he turned it upward to keep himself from focusing any longer on his heart. The ceiling of his apartment complex was gone, and in its place was Sett's gorgeous eyes, subtle pout, and sporadic hair. Thomas could feel the heat from Sett's body - or perhaps Thomas was really that warm. His whole body seemed to flush as his blood rushed to the surface of his skin, the boy's entire being trying to convince his brain that the only thing it wanted was to make contact. Thomas would not grant this request. He couldn't, after all, without risking Sett fleeing. Thomas couldn't watch Sett leave angry.

Being this close gave Thomas an excuse to watch Sett's lips move as he spoke. The frenchman fought the urge to mouth what Sett was saying after he had said it, and spoke without thinking. "Do you make an 'abit of undressing people with your eyes, Sett?" he asked. Every red flag was going off in his head as he said it, but he had to know if he was making this all up. If it was just him thinking about the other's mouth, the line of their collarbone, the roughness of his hands...

[Sett Richmond]

Sett couldn't quite explain why he was having difficulty getting his heart rate under control. It wasn't like he was new to this sort of thing. He really wasn't. College had been Sett's training ground for this exact same thing. He didn't even remember being this lightheaded when he had first started out. The thought that this younger man could have possibly been a body controlling meta didn't occur to him and frankly, he would be thoroughly disappointed if all he was feeling was just a part of a joke the smaller man was playing on him.

As it were, Sett was finding it difficult to think straight as his animalistic instinct basically drove him to move even closer, sniffing the other male out. It was an instinct Sett thought he had full control over but as evident in this very situation, he obviously did not have control over it with this man.

Thomas' question brought him back to the present and the smirk just grew even deeper, if it were at all possible. "I do, Thomas. Frenchmen exclusively." He replied. A slow purr emanated from Sett's throat and he knew it wouldn't be too long until Whitey made an appearance. This was not a good thing by any measure and Sett wanted to stop it but he was way too deep into this mode. It was mighty hard to turn back. Unless Thomas was smart enough to push him away.

As it were...

[Thomas Lajoie]

The air in the hallway was still, and there was nothing to be heard. Nothing but the beating of two hearts, the rush of two vascular systems, and the thick accent that hung on every word that left Sett's pierced lips. Thomas was afraid he might lean too far one way or the other - get too close and make a wrong move, or move away and make Sett think he was out of line. Thomas couldn't move away. This was too much to pass up.

As Sett moved closer, Thomas felt the breeze pick up, only realizing that it was a deep inhale from the boy across from him. A sniff, he supposed, taking in the air around them. Subconsciously pulled from the moment, Thomas began to worry if he smelled, or if the building had begun to smell. One of their neighbors had a habit of boiling cabbage and it really had a habit of staying in the hal-

His voice pulled Thomas back into focus, and he looked back into the man's now fixed eyes as they stared down at Thomas. They were so intense, so unmoving, as if they were sizing him up. In an instant, something began to change in the complex system standing before him. His blood vessels were dialating, and his heart was not responding at a normal speed. The whole network, the entire system, was beginning to... change.

Thomas' eyebrows furrowed in concern, and placed his hand on the man's chest, over his heart as he spoke. "Is everything okay in there?" he asked, looking up with big doe eyes in place of the sexy glare that once filled his features. He tilted his head to the side and wondered what could possibly be happening. Perhaps he should call 911.

[Sett Richmond]

He hadn't realised the younger man was privy to his impending shift via blood circulation. The shifter's eyes dilated at the voice coming from the other man and purely out of instinct, his hand reached out and slid across Thomas' bare front, ending dangerously close to the hem of his shorts.

The growl that came after was beginning to awaken Sett to Whitey and he looked up at Thomas, suddenly not able to form words other than a series of growls and purrs. Whitey needed a big distraction, something to jar him back to being Sett and until that happened, Thomas was probably going to get a front row seat to the freak of nature that defined Sett.

He just hoped Thomas wasn't one of those humans Sakhmet had mentioned the last time they talked about shifting. It would not end well if he was.

[Thomas Lajoie]

Thomas eyes' widened at the sensation of Sett's hand on his chest, feeling every inch of his palm when it made contact. He wasn't necessarily hating the idea of being touched by Sett, lets make this clear, but Thomas was sure he was just bracing himself - that any moment now Sett was going to fall to the ground and have a heart attack. Instead, however, Sett's hand slid down his chest, onto his abs, and began to inch near his pelvis. The animalistic noises coming from this throat were enough to send the message loud and clear.

Sett wanted to sleep with Thomas. This sort of news was what Thomas was kind of hoping for this whole time, that the gorgeous taller man was drawn to him. His heart, however, was not feeling the way it should. He felt cheap, as if he sent off some kind of vibe telling the world that any stranger could show up at his apartment and get laid. He also felt violated, the man's hand expressing the lack of respect he had for any of Thomas' boundaries. He thought Sett was charming, and sexy, and.. well, the list went on - no person could behave the way he was and get their way. It was embarrassing, and Thomas felt a bit like crying.

He grabbed the taller man's hand and threw it back his way, reaching simultaneously for the doorknob behind him. In one swift move, he ducked into his doorway, looked back at Sett, and slammed the door as hard as he possibly could, and smashing his hand into the lock to secure it.

"YOU KNOW, THE AMERICANS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE ASSHOLES." he shouted, the end of his word breaking as Thomas' eyes began to water. He kicked the now closed door and slammed his back against it, sliding down to sit on the floor with his hands in fists beside him. He slammed one down in frustration, and banged his head against the door. How fucking embarrassing.

A man hunted him down and made moves on him. He wasn't a Disney prince. Why the hell would he think Sett was there to sweep him off his feet?

[Sett Richmond]

Unaware of what Thomas was thinking or feeling, Sett actually let Whitey control his body until the younger man slapped his hand away and slammed the door. The sound and vibrations that came from the door was more than enough to bring Sett back. A small curse flew out of his mouth when he heard what Thomas yelled from inside.

"Thomas," Sett called out raspily, his throat trying to assimilate to being that of a human's again. "Thomas, that wasn't me. I'm sorry. I got carried away." Sett knocked on the door a couple of times to get Thomas' attention.

The thought he got from this incident was finally crawling up to Sett and he found himself unabashedly dumbstruck. After years of being able to control his shifts and letting the animal in him free, being around Thomas had put all that effort to waste. Sett was actually unable to control himself around the younger man. How odd.

"Thomas, I'm sorry." He tried to knock one more time but the door was suddenly opened and the woman from before came out, glaring. "Hey asshole, leave. He doesn't want you around." She yelled before slamming the door shut one more time in Sett's face.

The usually care-free young man rubbed his face roughly with both palms of his hand and cursed softly before walking off, completely dumbfounded how in the hell all this actually happened.

[OOC: Woot woot! Wrappity wrap ^^]