Chapter Text
The journey from the restaurant to the hotel had been exactly the level of exhausting Rashid had come to expect from assignments with Raglan James. Raglan always insisted on driving, and driving like a pack of dogs were nipping at his heels seemed to be his default. He whipped around the final corner, sliding into the underground carpark of the hotel and Rashid winced as he felt the rims of the wheel under his feet catch on the high curb.
“It’s a rental” Raglan had laughed when Rashid tried to bring it up in the elevator to their floor. “It’ll give them something to remember us by”
The hotel room the Talamasca had provided for them was typically sparse. Two single beds backing onto an all too thin wall coated in peeling wallpaper.
Almost as soon as the door had opened Raglan was lounging on the bed closest to the door, shoes still on. Rashid winced at the thought.
Approaching his own bed by the small window overlooking the city Rashid carefully began unpacking his case of things. His iPad, his glasses case, his sleep clothes, all precisely placed along the foot of the bed. He liked to keep his things in order, perhaps a holdover from the meticulous organisation he orchestrated for so long in his role in Dubai, but he liked to think it was his own thing. Not part of the cover, just how “Real Rashid” really liked his life to be. In control of it all, the dolls in his game playing exactly the part they were supposed to.
Looking over his shoulder he could see Raglan entranced with flicking through the channels on the old wall mounted tv, fixing on one for a moment before sliding his hand back across the remote to move to the next.
Unshakeable, Rashid thought to himself as he gathered his things and headed to change in the bathroom. They had just interrupted the dinner of two vampires, entirely unnatural killers, who could have decided at any point to make them the main course and Raglan couldn’t have looked any less troubled by it all. Even after his time in Dubai, Rashid could never entirely shake the feeling of being prey under the gaze of vampires. He supposed it could be because he saw the overconfidence in the eyes of Malik and the others like him. Those who didn’t know they were about to find themselves loose-limbed and dazed as their lives were drained out through their necks. He kept his confidence quiet and calm, not willing to look weak, but inside his stomach still turned and flipped when he met their supernaturally bright eyes.
In the cramped bathroom adjoining their room he looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was still perfectly in place at least. Talamasca image unaltered. He liked to maintain his image whenever he was “on-call”, even when they were resting, but it was increasingly difficult with the repeated late nights and early mornings that came with following Lestat’s manic dance over North America. At least in Dubai he could get a full “night’s” sleep. The bags that had made their home under his eyes were largely hidden by his glasses at least. He could get away with it for a bit longer before he would have to reach back into his emergency make-up. He was sure Raglan would have something to say the first time he noticed, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear it.
He changed into a plain white t-shirt and sweatpants, smoothing over his shirt with his hand and folding his old clothes into a neat pile that could be stored in the designated section of his case until he had the chance to have them laundered. Only a little while longer until their plan should be falling properly into place and he would have the chance to rest.
Suppressing a yawn at the thought he opened the door back into the bedroom where his eyes were immediately drawn to his bed. Raglan had clearly given up on his perusal of what 5am freeview had to offer and had found something far more entertaining to do, lying upside down, hanging off the end of Rashid’s bed, his quick fingers dancing over the screen of Rashid’s iPad.
Raglan’s eyes flit to his for a moment before refocusing on the screen, and Rashid saw the beginnings of a sly smile creep across his face.
Sighing, Rashid places his things back into his case slid under the window, picking up his glasses case from where it had flown across the floor, surely from an over-eager jump onto the bed.
I’ll have to change my password again then, he thinks to himself, watching Raglan flick through the photos he had saved, mostly of plane tickets and hotel bookings for work. A few of the views from rooms just like this in cities he had been dragged to by his job. He liked to remember it sometimes, the peace between the fear and endless watching.
His eyes were drawn to the slow sunrise outside the window, the lights of the city dimming.
“Rashid…” Raglan dragged the name out, waiting for the man to turn in response before continuing,” I heard a little rumour about you…” His eyes sparkled behind his glasses, now sliding slowly upwards off his face as his smile widened.
“Oh?” he responded, knowing that ignoring this particular problem is very unlikely to allow him to get to bed any sooner.
“Yes. I heard… and I know you’ll deny it, I know you Rashid,” he almost giggled, his strange accent dancing over the words,” I heard that you were flirting with our Mr Molloy tonight. On the job and everything”.
So not something he’s heard then. Rashid knew Raglan was watching the concert hall from the comfort of the car, his laptop, carelessly discarded in the passenger seat, still had the page open to a particularly unflattering CCTV angle of the stage when Rashid had finally gotten free of the sticky floors and panting crowd.
“Flirting to get an invite to dinner… not Talamasca protocol” he stretched out a long finger and waggled it disapprovingly, eyes darting across Rashid’s face for any sign of a reaction. Rashid was too well acquainted with Raglan’s games to give him any.
“I was simply inquiring if he would be meeting Mr Du Lac, and if so, where. Reminding him of the contract he signed when we published his book.” Rashid kept his tone steady, trying to convey a complete apathy towards Raglan’s idea of fun at this time in the morning.
Raglan rolled over quickly, almost jumping to his knees on the bed to meet Rashid’s eye level.
Still wearing his shoes, Rashid noticed, tensing his jaw a little.
“That’s not what it looked like,” Raglan smirks, “leaning over like that, fluttering your eyelashes at him like you were!” As if to emphasise his point Raglan reaches up to cup his own chin in his hands, a mimicry which had Rashid wincing a little at the memory. So maybe he was flirting a little, maybe he noticed how Daniel seemed all too eager to indulge the “daddy issues” fantasies of Lestat’s groupies and he saw a path to an easier night. What’s the harm in that? It got the job done didn’t it?
“What was it you said to him?” Raglan is almost panting now with the thrill of chasing Rashid down the path to shame, “Oh, Mr Molloy, don’t you want to see if Real Rashid is as good as the facsimile?” he puts on a girlish voice, giggling in earnest now at his own imagining.
Rashid could see there was no easy way out of this now. He would either have to acquiesce, look as put out and embarrassed as Raglan wanted him to, or…
“I told him I liked his glasses, back in Dubai.” Rashid cut through, voice almost startling himself. “I said I liked the “sexy professor” look, that it reminded me of what I’d be willing to do for extra credit”.
Rashid watched as Raglan stopped laughing, his face changing slowly to the look he only gets when he’s engrossed in something.
Swallowing, Rashid continues “And that I thought his hair completed the look. A real silver fox…” he augmented the performance with a bite of his lip, matching the one he had given Daniel earlier when he had, admittedly, leaned a little too hard over the railing to push Daniel’s eyes towards the line of his neck.
Raglan had really quieted down now, his body almost frozen apart from the stuttered rise and fall of his chest.
Rashid pushed a smile down and traced his eyes over Raglan’s own thick framed glasses and silver hair.
“Why, what would you have had me say to him?” he teased, feeling Raglan’s gaze falling heavy over him as he bent to place the glasses case on the bedside table before turning back to face the older man.
“I would…” he starts, almost with his usual confidence, “I would have simply informed him we would be watching him, wherever he and Louis ended up. Forever.” he followed, his voice fading as though he himself was aware of how his stuttered response lacked his usual charm.
Maybe not so unshakeable after all, Rashid thinks to himself, finally letting his smile show as Raglan stands from the bed and straightens his suit a little more aggressively than necessary.
“Goodnight Raglan.” Rashid replied, sitting against the headboard and picking up his now discarded iPad, closing out the countless tabs now cluttering his perfectly ordered browser history.
“Yes. Goodnight Rashid” his voice sounded clipped to Rashid’s ears, and his quick exit towards the bathroom gave Rashid the chance to wallow a little in his own success. Maybe he would have some games of his own to play from now on. Might be worth this mission dragging on a little longer.