"Yes, the clock insisted on telling me it was not yet five forty-five. Rather stubborn, the clock is."

"That wicked misbehaving clock."

The bus arrives.

"Eventually it learned its lesson and showed the correct time, though."

"Good for it."

She boards the bus, considers the available seats, and elects to remain standing.

Then he probably will, too. The wistful look at the kneeling pad lasts less than a second and could very well just be her imagination.

"If you prefer Mexican to Indian there's a decent Mexican place right here, by the way, the Indian place is close but I'm flexible."

"I'm pretty indifferent to food choice."

"Indian it is, then."

The Indian place is a buffet-style restaurant. Most of the food is unsuitable for hand-feeding, but there are kneeling cushions.

...does Edie look like she'd like it if he used the cushion?

Might do.

Then he'll kneel.

She smiles at him.

He grins and bats his eyelashes at her.

Grin gets slightly smirkier. 

Of course, he's going to have to get up from kneeling in order to get food .

Yeah he is. But he'll be able to return, yes?

True.

So there he is, kneeling very innocently next to this gorgeous astoundingly hot dom. So innocent.

Innocent. Of course.

"So, what do you like to do when you're not thinking about magic?"

"Read. I like reading a lot. And I like meeting people and going out. But I think about magic a lot."

"Makes a lot of sense."

"How about you?"

"I read, and I think about magic a lot, and I try to convince mages to learn de-aging, and there's a couple of low-commitment social justice groups I'm a part of."

"Oh?"

"A subs' rights/switches visibility group and an anti-racism one."

"At Selene?"