Una Noche

"'Passed'?" Caius let out an incredulous huff. He just shook his head. Of course it was a test. Wasn't everything in his life?

"You're really going to take my shirt?" he asked, smirking slightly. "What about your dress?" He moved to the side of the pool and hoisted himself out, rising to his feet and glancing about. "... where is your dress?"

The man turned back to face her, his brows raising and expression mildly alarm. "What - I'm not sure... Merlin, you live for trouble, don't you?" Caius asked. He gave a laugh. "Fine. But first..." Pulling out his wand, he murmured a drying charm on the shirt and then on his trousers. The clothes were a bit rumpled, but at least they weren't soaking wet.

"Better," he declared.

Bonnie yawned into the back of her hand, pulling her legs up and out of the water. She was Strawberry Blond again after he looked away, shorter the second time, and her eyes flashed emerald as he spoke.

"It may or may not have self distructed. I'm not actually sure. Wasn't watching it. I was swimming remember?" It wasn't exactly that she put emphasis on the word, just that she said it differently, in a different accent perhaps, one could say, but it still sounded like English. Maybe the only emphasis was the flash in her eyes and the knowing smirk that came with it. You never knew, with thieves. "Perhaps it walked off?"

Her eyes swept the pool area, suddenly irrepressibly wary. It was, however, completely controlled, her emotions snapping back into place as easily as her mask did.

"If you have to live fore something, why not make it trouble?" The accent was back now. Usually it took much less to get back into character, but she was running on fumes. The real reason she had come to this party in the first place.

Free food.

But if the plan went right, she'd leave Cai and the party altogether, no stop at the food table necessary.

She was overthinking it.

Standing, she grinned as her shirt was dried - it was no longer his, now that it was in her possession - sauntering over to him and wrapping her arms around him. "For this to work..." Her eyes glinted, and she grinned. "You need to have a hickey. And i'd love a matching one. For authenticity." Nodding, she smirked.

"Your dress self-destructed or walked away?" Caius echoed, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Despite his tone, the man was far less skeptic than he had been someone else.

She was the redhead, again. Caius concluded that he truly did prefer her blonde. Not that it was any of his business. He'd only met her one time before, after all.

The man let out a laugh as she wrapped her arms around him. "Why do we need authenticity when you have no intention of being seen, again?" Caius asked. "At least, that's what I would assume. Surely you'd have accomplished your incentive by now. Though," he brought his lips close to her ear, "I must caution you, if you've... borrowed anything from one of my relatives or an old family friend, they will come after you."

Bonnie pouted, though the corners of her lips twitched upward. "You misunderstand me." She teased. "You can not be seen with me because of what I am. I am a thief, you are a bounty hunter. We belong to families as such. It would be... unconventional to be seen together." She shrugged a shoulder, not at all as concerned with convention as her persona, Lydia, was. "But, I am only one person." She smirked then, a sly sort of grin taking over her face as she gazed up at him. Her eyes' mischievous sparkle was no less daunted by their emerald color as she waited for him to show that he'd caught on.

"Besides." She continued, after blinking a few times, reminding herself that staring into his eyes would not help her plan. "Lydia is a much better match for you than I am anyway." She shrugged again, before rising to her tiptoes and pressing a lingering kiss to his throat. "So... how bout that hickey?"

Caius raised a skeptical brow at her. "Do you honestly believe we can claim a higher moral ground?" he grinned in amusement. "You really know few bounty hunters if you think that we do. It's a very thin line to cross, between your profession and mine. And if anything, a bounty hunter has less claim on morals than anyone.

"You make us sound like cards in a game," Caius remarked, preventing his breath from hitching again through an effort of will. Taking her by the shoulders, he moved her to an arm's length away. "Perhaps another time," he said. "Now, did you wish me to escort you out?"

"It's not morals that are at stake here." She murmured, running her fingers through strawberry blond hair and glancing around once more. She gave a short laugh, looking up at him with a smile. "How many bounty hunters would I want to become acquainted with, then? Wouldn't want the skewed view prey gets of a predator."

"Aren't we all?" She murmured, pouting elaborately as he distanced himself from her. "You're quite clueless for someone with an IQ that's clearly through the roof, you know that right?" Crossing her arms over her chest and huffing slightly, she ducked under his hold and toward the doorway, grabbing his hand in the process and tugging him after her. "Of course you'll escort me out. Aren't you the proper gentleman?" Pausing at the doorway, she looked over the pool room again, suspicious even in their apparent solitude. Something seemed... off.

She was probably just imagining it.

"We're going to make a scene." She decided. "Well, not that big of a scene, considering that your guests are probably at each others throats by now, but a scene nonetheless. I think I want another cookie. Those were really good. Where did you get them?" She glanced over her shoulder at him as she retraced their steps back toward the ballroom.

Cai smirked. "I suppose not," he conceded.

"I simply choose not to view the world that way. If that is how you define the world and the people in it, then I suppose I am naive," Caius replied. He allowed her to tug him towards the doorway, not missing the suspicion with which she regarded the room. He tucked the information away for later consideration.

The man just shook his head. "I'm sure my mother would love that," he remarked. He was being perfectly sincere. Claudia Raske often wished her sons would be the cause of more scene, Cai in particular, it often seemed.

"I don't know. My mother and her personal elf made all the arrangements."

"Oh, stop doing that. Loosen up a bit, won't you?" She tugged on his hand a bit, glancing over her shoulder again. "You shouldn't take everything so literally. It's got your views all one sided." She nudged him with her shoulder as they started up the final set of stairs. "And cutesy."

Pausing just before the door that would lead them back into the party - from which raised voices could still be heard - Bonnie tilted her head to the side, intertwining her fingers with Cai's. "I hope we don't get shot." She murmured. "That would ruin my evening." Without further words she pushed through the doors, bare feet padding over tile as she made her grand enterance.

The girls noticed them immediately, either falling silent or making disapproving sounds that were most likely fueled by jealousy. Just as Bonnie liked it. Rising to her tiptoes, she brushed her lips against his cheek, lingering long enough to whisper a farewell into his ear and move through the crowd toward the exit.

Time to disappear again.