It probably wasn't the best idea, but Henry felt better about Tony potentially making fireworks with his magic in his place. Nonetheless, he did move the laptop out of the apartment temporarily into the safe, moved the furniture so that most of it would be hopefully out of the line of fire and got out a broom and dustpan in case of breaking glass. And that, at the moment, was all the preparation he could think of to make.

All right, so the stripping idea wasn't the best, but attempting to distract Tony while Tony attempted to cast spells wasn't a bad idea. And he could keep himself under control, not use any of the greater than human abilities at his command... at least at first. Later, no doubt, Tony would be coming up against more magical threats, so more magical practice would be warranted.

They had in Toronto, anyway. He couldn't imagine things in Vancouver would be any different. Like called to like. Vicki, no doubt, would have something to say about it.

He did still miss her.

Tonight was for Tony. Tonight, Henry leaned back against the couch and sprawled, took up the couch not just with his body (which wasn't terribly big, after all) but also with his presence. Adopting the kind of casual sensuality that he used when he meant to seduce someone, because it was at least a place to start. "What kind of spell did you have in mind to cast?"

It was possible you could define her tugs this way and that on the captured threads of his emotional strings as manipulation, but Melissa figured it was fair enough given that: one, he knew she was doing it; two, it was her only way of leveling the playing field; and three, he'd been the one to bring the full realization of her skill out in her anyway.

If you want your muse to get a present from mine for Christmas, comment here.

Feel free to use this for other muses that you know I have that I don't make such a post for.