Who: Archie MacMillan and Isobel Egg
What: Laying down some ground rules, yo!
Where: Isobel's studio
When: Err, today!




Izzie had done a lot of research on love potions these past few weeks. She'd read up on how long they took to brew, which kind were legal, and how easily could they be slipped into someone's drink. She'd come to find, that it was rather hard to take a love potion unknowingly, and that even the strongest one didn't last for more than a few days without it being replenished.

So---as her hands clumsily unbuttoned Archie MacMillan's shirt, the thought that he must have developed a new kind of love spell to use on her came to mind. There was no way she wasn't under the influence of something, because this was far too ridiculous to make any sort of sense. This had to be a record for them (no--her and him, there was no them); she'd been in her studio redecorating, and Archie had dropped by, offering a helping hand. Wand. Whatever.

And now they were snogging in her office, scattering papers all over the floor.

He had to be a love potions master.

It wasn't as if Archie didn't feel guilty enough already.

He had, after all, metaphorically decimated (and literally decimated, given the redecorating) her studio, arrested, asked her out on a date, slept with her, done various others things in manner of terrible, horrible, no good, very bad behavior.

So when Archie had stopped by, wanting to offer his aid wherever she could most use it, he didn't think she needed a hand with that. But of course, in a way that was becoming shockingly habitual, their latest encounter had appeared to be taking a turn for the hormonal.

Again.

And all Archie could think while he was mindlessly... manhandling this poor woman who tried very obvious to make it plain how much she despised him (although, he had to admit, that thing she did with her tongue didn't really help her argument) was about Malcolm and Psyke and Izzie yelling at him and his parents asking him when he was ever going to settle down, and how much he liked it when Isobel Egg got that glint in her eye as she was prepared to yell at him and he broke away rather abruptly, partially-unbuttoned shirt flapping uselessly, and sputtered, "No. More. Sex!"

Oh, didn't that come out well.

She must look quite the sight, as her already haphazardly put together bun felt like it was ready to go tumbling out of its holder. Isobel eyed him carefully, round eyes narrowed in suspicion. Now, this wasn't making any sense. They'd never really discussed things before, just sort of...had their way with each other, and then went on with their day. That was it. Izzie wasn't exactly proud of randomly having sex with a man she barely knew (though, each time they met she did happen to find something out about it), but she didn't think that it was too horrible, seeing as he was actually rather nice and had a good job and---all that stuff she really didn't care about.

Right.

"Er---"

Izzie straightened her shoulders, grabbing the hem of her shirt and straightening it out to regain some sort of normalcy during this now very awkward situation. Fine.

"Who said there was going to be any sex?" she said snippily, eyes darting away from his.

He gave her an accusing look. "Because there's always sex."

Archie ran a hand through his hair despairingly, hoping it would help him sort out his thoughts so he could finally find what he wanted to say. "I--what I mean to say, Isobel, is that... I do like you, contrary to whatever prior actions I-- and I don't want to do this with you anymore-- I mean I do!" Merlin, this was coming out all wrong. Bringing this subject up in the midst of heated kissing, while good in theory, left something to be desired when it came to functioning trains of thought. "But not like this. I'm tired of casual and meaningless and--and I do want something more. So I'm putting my foot down. You can have all of me, or none of it."

Oh fuc--did he seriously just give her an ultimatum here?

Now he had to re-assess exactly who was wearing the pants in this quasi-relationship (he was alarmed to find that they were both wearing trousers, so his idiom did nothing to help steele his nerves).

It took a lot of effort to not to stick her tongue out at him, or to retort that this could have been interrupted and not have ended up in sex because she did have a class in half an hour, but--he started talking right away and Isobel couldn't help but listen and pay close attention.

He was utterly confusing. First he didn't want to do this, then he did, and then he didn't. But he did, but not like this.

But now that he'd finished his rambling and his roundabout explanation, it became quite clear what Archie wanted. Izzie's eyes widened as it hit her, because she honestly hadn't imagined that he---he fancied her? She should've seen that, with the birthday gifts and the...stalking, but it was different to actually hear Archie say it, that it was now something she wasn't just assuming.

Huh.

"So--you...want to..." she had to make sure, because she didn't want to completely get this wrong, because that was possible. Her lips pursed, but only because she was trying not to smile. "What, are you asking me to be your girlfriend? You're not doing a very good job of it. Stopping the sex, and all."

Well, yes, that was an oversight on his part, but dammit when else was he supposed to bring it up! There was just "bad time" and "worse time," so far as he was concerned.

He almost told her that, but figured it might detract from the point he was trying to make and failing miserably. "Well, yes, I suppose I am asking you to be my girlfriend. It's just--I mean, we don't have to do anything differently, it's ju--titles. I like titles. I think titles are nice."

Archie was almost afraid to ask the next part, but figured he had just gone through all the trouble of verbally castrating himself in front of her, he might as well man up a little and try to salvage the situation. "So... what," he cleared his throat, "what do you think?"

God help her, he was being adorable. Izzie wanted to whack Archie upside the head, for making her smile and nearly blush at how cute he was being, because honestly. They were adults. This shouldn't be such a nerve wracking experience. Yet there he was, looking absolutely terrified. Isobel supposed that they hadn't had the best of conversations over the past few weeks--months, whatever it had been, but--

--she had been shagging him, right?

"I think--that's fine," she said with a nod, feeling her heart start to race a bit more, and she couldn't look at him. Oh, goodness. She was just silently teasing him for being silly about all of this, and she was the one getting embarrassed. Isobel ducked her chin, taking a breath before finally looking up.

Damn him for turning her into a blushing school girl. Izzie's hands reached forward to start unbuttoning Archie's shirt again, "Though---things better be different," she said slowly, "Seeing my boyfriend once every two weeks for an hour isn't what I call a healthy relationship."

Archie tried to contain his grin. He tried not to turn gloaty all of a sudden, tried to not be smug, tried not to be so unbelievably relieved that she hadn't kicked him out.

But he was all of those things, and a whole lot more, anyway.

He pulled her closer by the waist, hands running slightly up and down her sides. "You can see me as often as you like," he promised, before kissing her.