He wasn’t surprised.
Lily knew him fairly well. Knew what his habits were and what he liked and didn’t like. This move into Tilen was pretty far outside his normal tendencies.
“That obvious?” Felix asked, finally meeting her eyes.
“Only to me. Kit, too. Everyone else either doesn’t care, or doesn’t know,” Lily said, holding her hand out to him across the table.
Felix gave her half a grin and set his hand in hers.
“Ya got me there. Yeah, there is another reason. After everything that happened in Skippercity, I had to take a step back. Reevaluate everything. Figure out what was my weak point. Ask myself, if I started over today, what would I change,” Felix said.
“And what I found was that the one thing I’d change is my reliance on slaves. Sure, it’s a great way to hold everyone in check. Keep everyone in the same path. But all it would take for Skipper to end me, us, would be to make slavery illegal. And that’d be the end,” Felix said honestly.
“You mentioned something about that before, but I didn’t take it to the obvious conclusion. Outlawing slavery would… definitely hurts us,” Lily said.
“I know. It’s dumb, right? But that’s all it’d take. Hence our adventure to Tilen. If we can make this work, and it is so far, then all I have to do is change the contract everyone is on.” Felix shrugged and gave Lily’s hand a squeeze. “And there it is. I need to get this all hammered out. My only saving grace right now is how many people would be insanely pissed off if Skipper outlawed it today.”
Lily closed her mouth and opened it again, only to close it once more.
“I didn’t even think about it. It’s… such a simple thing to do, too,” she said finally.
“Yep. It really is. Like I said, the one thing I’d change would be that. But hey, most of the way there already. Kit is pretty sure we’ll have this all buttoned up in time. She’s been going over everything we need from a HR perspective. We’ll have the contracts over to you and your legal team by next week I imagine to finalize any of the wording and clauses. But enough of this, you didn’t ask me out here to talk about work, did you?”
“No. No, I didn’t. Not at all. I’m glad to hear that you’re being proactive though. Very glad,” Lily said, giving his hand a squeeze and smiling. “Now, how about we talk about something else entirely. Like that we’re going to go see some art from the Legion after this.”
“Art?” Felix asked, raising a brow with a grin. “We have art?”
“You said you wanted everyone to have a place. A position that fit them. If everyone earns the same, and costs are incredibly low, anyone can work doing anything without fear. There are a number of people in your employ who create art, write books, or make music,” Lily said, her teeth flashing as she smiled at him. “Kit took your meaning directly, and now we have many, many jobs that wouldn’t normally exist in a corporation.”
“That’s… actually rather interesting. I’d love to see it. You said we’re going after dinner?” Felix said, actually feeling rather interested in the whole prospect.
“That we are. Then after that we’ll see where the wind takes us. Legion is a city that doesn’t sleep since we have graveyard shifts in almost every department,” Lily said with an adventurous grin.
Felix wasn’t one to normally feel like he wanted to go explore the unknown, but right now, he was happy to be in Lily’s company, and let her dictate the pace.
Lily took a few steps out in front and held up her arms. “Well?”
“I had fun,” Felix said, nodding his head with a smile. They’d spent quite a while walking around the exhibit.
“That’s it? Just… fun? That’s all you can give me?” Lily said, exasperated.
Looking around Felix realized they were alone out here in the plaza. The art exhibit exit behind them wasn’t the same one they’d gone into.
An impromptu walk in the park, and a long conversation later, and they’d ended up on what seemed like the other side of the city.
Must be on the backside.
“Fine. You want to hear it?” Felix said with a chuckle. Taking several steps forward he caught up with her and slid an arm around her waist, drawing up close to her.
“I had a fantastic evening, Lily. One of the best dates I’ve ever been on,” Felix said seriously.
Lily dropped her arms around his shoulders and smiled at him. “Is that so? Does that come from a wealth of experience? Because I’m betting it doesn’t.”
“Har har. No, it doesn’t come from a wealth of experience. It does come from a genuine place. A realistic one. One that I have trouble expressing and putting into words. But I’m doing it, and will try to be more open with it,” Felix said, making sure he kept eye contact with her.
Lily froze up at that, her smile faltering till the point that she had a neutral expression.
“Really?” she asked finally.
“Yeah. Really. I mean it. I’m not the best at it, but I can definitely put in the effort. I want to put in the effort. You’re worth it. Especially when you’ve clearly put so much work into me and my needs,” Felix said honestly. “This isn’t something that you came up with on the fly.”
“No… it isn’t,” Lily said, not pulling away from him. “Then what would you say all this is? It’s not exactly a normal relationship. You have a Beastkin—a Wolf, no less—that you sleep with,” Lily said. Then looking down and to the side, she continued in a softer tone. “I’m not quite sure what to make of all this myself, actually.”
“I… don’t know. I don’t even claim to know enough to give an honest opinion. When it comes to you and Andrea, I… don’t have a plan or even a direction. I’ve mostly just been going along with whatever pace you two set. Or so it feels like at times,” Felix said.
Lily nodded her head once and then turned her face back to his. She gave him a lopsided smile and then a soft peck on the lips.
“Good. I think for now that’s the right direction. Now, unless you plan on causing a scene here and now, you should be letting me go so we can head back. I imagine that Andrea is probably waiting either to pounce on you, or chat me to death to find out what happened,” Lily said.
Felix didn’t really care for her response, but he could understand.
She was an independent woman who gained her powers through the death of others. Many others.
Her very nature had been changed as of late, and he couldn’t imagine she was in the most stable of mindsets.
“Of course. In this, you lead, I’ll follow,” Felix said.
“Just the way it should be,” she said, grinning at him.
Neither of them moved however, and Felix wasn’t about to be the first one to let go.
After ten seconds passed, Lily laughed softly and pressed her forehead to his.
“You can let go. I promise I won’t run, and this isn’t the end. I… just feel cautious all of a sudden. That’s all. I’m interested, obviously, and Andrea and I have talked about this quite a bit. I think I want a bit more time though,” said the soul-stealing sorceress villain.
“Yeah, not a problem,” Felix said and released her. “What did you—”
Felix stopped as his phone started to chime in his pocket.
“I thought I told no one to call you,” Lily said with a touch of heat in her voice.
Pulling out the wristband from his pocket he flipped it over. He’d pulled it off as soon as their date started just case he felt tempted to look at it.
“It’s… Kit? That’s odd. You’d think she’d be the one person to listen to you,” Felix muttered. Sliding his thumb across the screen he accepted the call, buckling it to his wrist.