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The emptiness of the museum at this hour made the entirety of the place come alive in the night. In the Winter Masquerade, this was a place that had seemed too filled with other faces, bustling with countless silhouettes that forced you to find anonymity in a crowd.[break][break]

In solitude, you could foster intimacy.[break][break]

His soft, low voice served as a pleasant background underscoring their walk throughout the grounds, and Elisabeth found herself content to listen to him describe the many facets of his place of work. There was something enjoyable about hearing an intelligent man discuss his passions of choice.[break][break]

It endeared her, to hear such a youthful excitement from a man so learned and experienced.[break][break]

The clearing in the biome, twinkling with low lighting, caused her to pause mid-step, a moment's surprise reflected on her face. The thoughtfulness of the gesture had been unexpected; that didn't mean it was undesired.[break][break]

"Thank you," she managed to say politely as she took her seat, suppressing the confusion that had briefly risen to the surface. After all, he hardly knew her. Impressing her hardly seemed a matter of grave importance.[break][break]

The pearly-white wings of his Vivillon distracted her from that thought, alighting to perch on his knuckle. There was something sweet in the gesture of such an airy, delicate creature poised on a large, masculine hand.[break][break]

"A curious name, to be certain," Elisabeth replied, amusement flickering in her eyes. "Better than Odysseus, I should think."[break][break]

Far better to be the sorceress than the ensorcelled, hm?

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He'd been watching, of course. Waiting for her reaction to his planned surprise. Gideon was expecting mild shock, pleasant excitement. What he found, though - at least initially - was confusion twisting at her delicate face.[break][break]

It disappeared as quickly as it came, but it was a curious note filed away in the recesses of the professor's mind. [break][break]

Their conversation soon continued in mutual geniality, however, with a knowing smirk being goaded onto his lips by her comment.[break][break]

"Perhaps," He countered, a curious glint in his eyes; a play at devil's advocate followed as he added, "From what I recall, Calypso acted out of a long-starved love. Lonely for millennia until Odysseus came along."[break][break]

The snowy VIVILLON alighted from his knuckle, injecting a natural pause in Gideon's commentary. After a moment he continued, saying:[break][break]

"Both are pitiable figures."

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"That's an unusual perspective," she observed, watching the Vivillon wing away with mild interest. Her emerald eyes flitted back to his umber, examining him. "I find Calypso is usually villainized for her part in events, not pitied."[break][break]

She folded her hands in her lap, something in his words affecting her more than she had expected them to. A puzzled look entered her expression, wondering.[break][break]

"Do you relate to that?" Elisabeth asked him suddenly. "Feelings of loneliness, I mean."[break][break]

It felt like an oddly vulnerable question, now that she had spoken it aloud.

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"Villains are often born from pitiable circumstances, no?" Childhood trauma, neglect, negative environmental factors. There were so many things that could meld a person into someone evil. Few were born that way, Gideon presumed.[break][break]

He moved to sit beside her, the small outdoor table the only barrier between them. Although there were treats aplenty for the two to enjoy, the professor didn't indulge. He'd rather focus on her and their conversation.[break][break]

Especially now, when it took a more vulnerable turn.[break][break]

GIDEON GRAVES ruminated on his answer for a moment. He was unsure if he should respond truthfully - it was a first (second?) date, after all, and they were just now getting to know one another.[break][break]

But he didn't want to lie. Besides, something in the way Elisabeth Fiorelli regarded him told him she would commiserate with his feelings of loneliness.[break][break]

"... I suppose I do." He paused again, averting his eyes to his left ring finger for a fleeting moment.[break][break]

"I used to be married." Gideon confessed quietly. "We've been divorced for several years now."[break][break]

"I haven't really dated anyone in that time. Not seriously, anyway."

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"A shame then that villains detest being pitied most of all," she quipped, studying him. Her question had invoked a pensiveness in him that privately surprised her; his depth of thought before answering intrigued her, attention sharpening as her eyes maintained their keen focus.[break][break]

When he spoke, the softness of his words felt at odds with the man speaking them aloud.[break][break]

Seeing this, her own demeanor softened in kind as she followed his gaze to his unadorned hand.[break][break]

"I was married once, too. My late husband passed away a little over a year ago, now."[break][break]

No ring betrayed that truth of her, this time. That truth was buried in Kalos, and its final memento lost to gather dust in a garden that was not her own.[break][break]

"Endings are always difficult, no matter their reasoning. New beginnings are easier, in some ways. Hoenn became mine."[break][break]

Her smile was faint, peeking through with a genuine thoughtfulness as she drew closer to him. Her voice lowered to a hushed tenor, enticing him to lean towards her to listen.[break][break]

"We don't have to be serious tonight, you know. There's something to be said for exploring possibilities."

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"I'm sorry for your loss."[break][break]

Yet another thing they had in common, though this was not necessarily a happy point of connection. [break][break]

It somehow relieved Gideon, however, to know that they could commiserate - even to just a small degree - about the dissolution of a marriage. The unique sort of loneliness that manifests after the loss of someone you'd pledged to spend the rest of your life with.[break][break]

Still, a fleeting thought came and went as she divulged a bit of her story: Only a year and already dating?[break][break]

Gideon shrugged it off though, his attention wholly captured by the lowering of her voice and the conspiratorial shifting of her body across the small table.[break][break]

What Elisabeth Fiorelli said made the professor blush — inwardly. Outwardly, a devious little smirk crossed his lips. It was not unlike the smirk she may remember from their initial library meeting.[break][break]

The gesture was more meaningful now, somehow. Suggestive, even.[break][break]

"Then let's not be serious." He agreed. "I have a few possibilities in mind, too."[break][break]

Gideon leaned in then, matching her energy. They were much closer now, the atmosphere decidedly more intimate after the shift in their conversation.[break][break]

"But I'd love to hear your thoughts first."

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Only a year, and already dating.[break][break]

In so many ways, that span of widowed time felt longer and shorter than that all at once. She hadn't imagined herself committed to a man for some years now, despite the longevity of her marriage.[break][break]

Shackled to a man, maybe. And addicted to the thrill of freedom that came after her release.[break][break]

"You certainly have faith in my imagination."[break][break]

She sidled closer to him, leaning into the moment as her smile widened. No such shyness took hold of her; when being someone else, someone protected by her own insignificance, it was so much easier to perform the part she wanted to play.[break][break]

It felt safe, to be brave.[break][break]

"I think," she began, dipping her head lower so that she murmured in his ear, "you are tempting me into thinking about skipping this lovely date you have planned, to enjoy dessert first."[break][break]

A hand gently skimmed across his thigh, the contact brief and fleeting as she let the implication speak for itself in the silence. Her smile possessed a wickedness in its gleam, subtle but present as she read his response.[break][break]

"But I'm in no rush if you aren't. There is plenty of time to enjoy one another's company, don't you think?"

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Dessert?[break][break]

Now, GIDEON GRAVES was no tepid virgin, nor a young man awaiting some fairytale soulmate. He was very much a pragmatist – one with physical needs that hadn’t been met in quite a long time. So, Elisabeth Fiorelli’s temptations were not something he could logically refuse. Not that he wanted to, anyway.[break][break]

She’d been on his mind for quite awhile now. Especially after playing her Rondez-view of Luv 18+ DLC route (a gag gift from his brother Gunner Graves). At the time Gideon couldn’t believe he’d stoop as low as playing a game with her likeness, but now the idea of her in his bed was a thought he couldn’t shake.[break][break]

There was no need to rush, of course, but no need to hold back either. [break][break]

“Dessert sounds delicious…” Gideon agreed, his low timbre brushing against her ear in kind. “How about I give you a ride home? We can pick something up on the way.”

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"I take it that patience isn't a virtue you possess, then, Dr. Graves."[break][break]

Not that she minded. Things were easier, the simpler you made them.[break][break]

Her home had been cultivated in such a way as to banish thoughts of her previous life entirely. Here, the pleasant aroma of wafting flowers and the dim-lit interior of her cottage fostered a secluded, intimate atmosphere; at night, it felt as if they were cut off from the rest of the world.[break][break]

She reclined in the threshold of her bedroom as she assessed the man she'd lured into her home. Emerald eyes met his umber with silent invitation, daring him with a mocking smile.[break][break]

"I believe you said something to me once about ungentlemanly intentions. Why don't you enlighten me on what, precisely, yours are?"

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"Let's just say... it depends on the situation." Gideon replied, a low chuckle rumbling out from deep within his chest as the pair rose from their seats. They left with his arm around her waist.[break][break]

The Insectarium quickly gave way to a cozier setting within Petalburg Woods. From glass dome to earthen cottage, temptation and anticipation grew inside GIDEON GRAVES. A need long suppressed urged him on — all the way to Elisabeth Fiorelli's bed.[break][break]

"Gladly..." Where she withered into the comforter, he followed, but not before unbuttoning his shirt and letting it fall to the floor.[break][break]

"Let's start here..." Gideon was positioned over Elisabeth, arms at either side of her, taking in all of the beautiful woman beneath him. He edged back then, sidling her underwear down her legs as he did so. "And I'll work my way up."[break][break]

To say he'd been starved was an understatement. But he'd slake his hunger at the font of her body and purge her of any restless desires of her own. [break][break]

Theirs was a union unrivaled in Gideon's estimation. God, he hoped he'd never have to want again.

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A decade starved of genuine care and affection had left her with a void of wanting.[break][break]

He didn't need to know what it was she needed from him -- how much she needed it, even, or why. In this fantasy, she could be someone simple and uncomplicated. It was enough to be the person he wanted her to be for a night.[break][break]

"So long as you finish what you start," she'd replied, smiling up at him devilishly, "you can work your way wherever you like."[break][break]

There was a sincerity to him she enjoyed. Not to say he wasn't a complex man -- he was, of course, with his own hurt and his own betrayals from a marriage that had shadows of its own -- but he held no great power over her, and importantly, he was someone whose needs she felt she understood.[break][break]

This was a physical attraction, first and foremost, to her mind. He enjoyed her, and she enjoyed him. The mystery of who one another was remained enticing enough for the game of cat-and-mouse to continue.[break][break]

The longer they could prolong that, she believed, the more successful this partnership would be.[break][break]

He held her with a peculiar kindness, a sweet tenderness that manifested in his every movement as he loomed over her. Not so long ago, she would have distrusted such a thing, but she understood now this simple truth: men loved to believe these lies as much as she did.[break][break]

And she believed his, wholly, in this moment.[break][break]

All of her being responded to his desire, the way a harp sang and shivered beneath a musician's deft touch.

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