( closed ) googles "song lyrics about spas"

[champions]

WHO: Marisol & Nikos
WHAT: RECONNAISSANCE and SPY WORK about the NECROPOLIS (not remotely, at all)
WHEN: a time, a place
WHERE: Antiva
NOTES:Marisol is the worst

Ah, home. It was a relief to be Antiva again, even if it was to be only brief. She had contacted her Uncle Ruy on behalf of Araceli and the Inquisition, and in return had requested a visit. They are only on the way to the visit, and she may not have mentioned that aspect of the journey to Nikos. Truthfully, she won't make him visit her uncle, dread pirate, but then... she might. Surely a pirate lord would fit well with his ideologies of people who give up family privilege.

Surely.

Anyway, here they are, wrapped up in hot towels on two beds within whispering distance of one another if they are careful, masks being slathered on their faces, and cucumber slices placed over the eyes.

She told him that if they were careful while they were here, they might overhear information invaluable to finding out more about who ordered the Necropolis disaster and orchestrated it - blackmail material, mostly. And if they do, that would be great, but actually she lied. This is just a cousins bonding day, because Nikos needs to learn about self-care.

"Remember," she says, relaxing into the steam, "whatever we want to use for leverage needs to be good."

As if he needs coaching on spy work.

Comments

[exsecutus]

Nikos likes Antiva better than Kirkwall. And he theoretically likes pirate uncles better than his regular noble uncles, though he only has the latter, and would need to borrow Marisol's if he wanted the former. Which he doesn't, really. And he will be irritated when he finds out he has been roped into anything of a family reunion, even if it is on the side of Marisol's family that he does not share.

Nikos likes Marisol best of all of his relatives, which is why he is tolerating this at all. There is something about the indulgence of a spa that rubs raw against everything he stands for.

But. Nikos is in Antiva for his cousin's sake, and for the sake of the information that they will overhear. He has a packet of papers to deliver to Malandra, on behalf of Caspar--who he has not told Marisol about. Nor does he intend to. The steam unknits the muscles of his shoulders. The attendants did away with the worst of his stubble, before they would put the mask on him. That was unpleasant. He is a bad shave.

"Thank you," he says, in a flat undertone. He can't see her--the cucumber--but he knows where she is, and can direct a scowl toward her that she, likewise, will not see. "This is my first time."

His shoulders have unknit a little more. This is unfair.