Xaviers!

"Are you sure I was visible?" He asked sounding skeptical. "Everyone in school knew what happened to me. No tutor would take me in the middle of a term. Plus he's seen me since then anyways, they all have."

"You could have been, I would not have noticed, I was watching ze show."

She listened, finishing off the last of her glass and placing it next to the empty pitcher. "Well, I believe you had said none of zem would have anyzing to do wiz you, no? He could easily have sun to anyone else in ze crowd if he wished to ignore you. Perhaps zis is his attempt at starting a dialogue and resuming a relationship?" Colette's accent was very thick, the girl actually having drank enough to really affect her. And there were pieces of orange and other fruits floating inside her head.

Or make a scene.

Basil didn't say it. Instead he said-

"Just think, if things had gone differently, you would have been here with a different boy and I would have been dancing around in my underpants for you."

"You zink zat anyone but yourself could get a girl like me into a place such as zis? Unless I too was on ze stage." Colette giggled at her own joke. "Zough I believe you must be a very good dancer Basil, perhaps you will demonstrate for me anyway?"

"Dunno." He replied. "Not sure you could handle this Adonis bod'."

Colette would have pointed out that at the moment, a striptease from him wouldn't have been very effective, what with him being invisible and all. But she managed to hold her tongue despite her buzz.

"I am tougher zan I look, so zere is no cause for concern."

"I think the more obvious problem Bobbie is how she's going to assess your twig and berries when she can't see them." A voice added to their conversation.

Being that both of them were tipsy and neither of them had abilities to tip them off even when they were sober, 'The Captain' had snuck up on the two of them and was watching them for just a moment to consider what kind of a relationship they might have. Once he was more or less properly informed, he decided to let himself be known.

Sidling up to Basil, he gazed at the gelatinous woman, a smirk on his face. The Captain leant in and wrapped his arms around Basil's shoulders like a hug, but he didn't take his arms away again, holding him.

"Who's your friend?"

"This is Madame Colette Astrid Madelaine Rosenhof.

Madame this is a mobile annoyance with a groping problem. I think they call it Kyle."

"Awwwww. Hurtful." Nevertheless he greeted her.

"Hello darling. It's nice to meet you."

Colette was a little bit flattered that Basil had memorised her full name, after all middle names were often overlooked and hers were not the easiest to remember. She would have to commend him on this later.

"It is a pleasure, Capitaine Kyle." Colette offered the man a gloved hand, as much to gauge this newcomer as to see Basil's reaction to whatever they may attempt.

"I must commend you on ze entertainment zat you and your crew provided zis evening. I have never attended a burlesque such as zis before and zoroughly enjoyed myself. Such a lovely combination of nostalgia and... what is ze word? Not depravity... a nicer word zan zis. Cheeky?"

Kyle gave her the polite handshake, not the polite false kiss that Basil did around new ladies.

Basil reacted by using Kyle's now weaker grip on him by trying to worm away but Kyle tightened his other arm around the young man's lithe frame, and brought his hand back as quickly as he was allowed to, seemingly to recapture Basil but there was the possibility it had a just a bit to do with Colette.

"Au contraire Madame." Kyle replied, mocking shock, then turning his head to look at Basil. "Depravity is the best. What have you been teaching her Basil?"

"Basil has been nozing less zan a gentleman, in addition to a very patient and caring friend. I am very lucky to have him in my life, as are all of his friends."

Colette stressed that last bit of her sentence a little too much, perhaps the alcohol in her system didn't allow her to be as subtle as she normally would have liked.

"You know Basil, zere are many girls on campus who might enjoy activities such as zis. Perhaps we can form our own little troup hmm? Master Benson and his staff of maids and butlers." She tittered softly, amused at her own idea.

If Kyle noticed the slight, he didn't respond to it verbally. He did start squeezing Basil though.

"Okay seriously mate you are entirely too close to me. Personal bubble."

Kyle took his hands off and splayed them somewhat defensively, despite his smirk. He listed to Colette closely.

"Oh I'm sure the University would love it when they found out a staff member is running a striptease with the students." He chuckled a bit despite himself.

"Well..." He interjected, folding his arms one over the other. " I'm sure a certain type of viewer would pay top dollar for that sort of a thing. There's an ass for every seat they say."

"Indeed. In an age of global media and travel, nationality is no longer exotic. A brave new frontier of sensual forms is available, should one have ze foresight to be ze first to take zat bold step."

Colette took the opportunity offered by Basil's bare shoulders to scootch her chair closer and drape her arms around him. "Of course, not everyone is as open-minded as ozers. But to each zeir own, no?"

Unlike Kyle, Basil seemed fine with Colette on him. But he had his reasons for that, as usual. He wrapped his arm around her waist.

" Good to see you Bobbie. Glad you enjoyed the show, but if you'll excuse me others need my attention too.

The fans await." He remarked, and left them alone.

Colette gave Captain Kyle a little wave as he left, able to speak in a softer voice now that she was closer to Basil's ear.

"He seemed a little... jealous, perhaps?"

"Considering he was convinced we were going to run away together to the tune of shoving his tongue in my mouth when we were fourteen?

Yes, that's probably right." He laughed.

"You want to stay and get more drunk or shall we head home before we can't find our way home?"

"Oh my, I suppose zat would make one a little jealous. Zough he seems to have taken rejection well. I do not know how well I could recover from doing somezing so bold."

Colette mused on Basil's proposition for a moment. "Well ze entertainment is over. I suppose zat home would be for ze best, unless you have some other little secret in store tonight." In truth, she was a little afraid of being in London late at night.

"Not any I think you'd agree to just yet." He laughed.

Standing up, he wobbled a bit as he did. Apparently his mouth held the beer better than the rest of him did.

"Oooohhh. This's... something..." He said, trying to remain composed.

"Zen we will just have to save zem for next time, no?"

Colette slipped out of her seat, the woman much more stable in her heels than her date, but then again she didn't have any bones to prevent her body from squishing and leaning whatever direction she wished. She draped Basil's arm over her shoulders, making it look as though it were a casual embrace on his part rather than her helping to carry him.

"Zere, how is zis?"

"Mmmm better. You lead." Basil stated, feeling fully OK to allow Colette to shove him in whatever direction she intended to. Thankfully, you didn't go out the in door, so she didn't have to fight against an incoming crowd with him and he more or less walked himself once righted.

While they did need to wait for a moment while some kind of bounce made sure the coast was clear, the two were let out of the bar discreetly. Making himself rather comfortable with his arm around her shoulder, Basil started humming.

Colette found the cool darkness of the night air rather shocking, her body having become accustomed to the warmth of the speakeasy's interior. It certainly was a way to wake a body up though considering she'd drank a table's worth of booze that evening it wasn't quite enough to kill her buzz. Her heels clacked on the sidewalk as the pair of them walked in the general direction of the train station to try and catch a ride back to campus.

"Declaring your love for a little brown jug?"

The tune he'd been humming to himself was of a rather well-known saxophone solo. Once she'd asked what he was singing about, he started swaying back and forth on her in a rhythmic manner as if he were dancing.

"I feel so unsure, as I take your hand and lead you to the dancefloor.
As the music dies, something in your eyes,
Calls to mind the silver screen and all it's sad goodbyes."

Colette didn't recognize the song Basil was singing, but given her upbringing that wasn't a surprise. She did her part by swaying with him, though trying to keep him from swaying too far and falling into traffic.

Unfortunately, placating him by swaying along seemed to only strengthen whatever spell the alcohol and the music in his head had on him. He went to whisk Colette so they were slow dancing, whether she was really feeling the inclination to or not.

Also, he was getting louder. That kind of louder people get when they're intoxicated.

"I'm never gonna dance again
Guilty feet have got no rhythm
Though it's easy to pretend
I know you're not a fool
Should've known better than to cheat a friend
and waste the chance that I've been given
So I'm never gonna dance again, the way I danced with you!"

Colette was whisked to the side, not so much dancing as struggling to keep up with basil while keeping him on his feet, the girl trying not to squeal too loudly.

"Basil you silly boy! We're going to miss our train!"

It seemed as if no fucks were given about train schedules as he released her, but then went to go be dramatic and weird slightly away from her, moon walking himself up the street towards the station, his fingers snapping to keep time as he went. And then it happened again. Basil was visible.

As he danced himself down the street managing himself around objects and the occasional other human being, he completely skipped a portion of the song as one did when their memory skills were being impaired.

"Tonight the music seems so loud,
I wish that we could lose this crowd,
Maybe it's better this way,
We'd hurt each other with the things we wanna say!

We could have been so good together!
We could have lived this dance forever!
But now who's gonna dance with me?"

It ended with Basil getting intimate with a lamppost, hugging into it with a drunken grin.

"Pllleeeeeeasssseee staaaaay!"

Colette started after Basil but decided it was better to hang back a bit and let the lad tucker himself out, though she at least stayed close enough to make sure he didn't wander into traffic. It wasn't until it looked as though he might slip down the entire lamppost that she again touched his shoulder, helping to keep him upright.

"Well zen, I suppose you will be taking me dancing on our next date, yes? Or would you razer ze street light accompany you zat evening?"

Basil made a face as if he might genuinely be considering the lamp-post's possible attributes, his hands shoving himself upright as he held it's trunk between them, he tilted his head and assessed-

"Nah, too... pole-y?" He decided in a rare show of lacking words.

"Oi! Knock it the fuck off down there! People are trying to sleep!" A brutish looking man called out from a window of a bedsit.

Basil disappeared.

This time, entirely. Not just the body, but no suit, no coat, no shoes or manbag. Nothing.

Colette turned to see where the voice had come from, and when she turned back for Basil, he was gone.

"Basil? Basil! Where are you?"

The voice calling out to them was belonging to a man-bulk who apparently just wanted to get some rest. He seemed just as confused as Colette when Basil just disappeared, but he didn't go back inside.

Basil too was confused when Colette started acting like he wasn't there. Had he strayed too far away? Was his suit too dark in the night?

Colette wouldn't see him, but after a moment she'd hear a familiar voice behind her encouraging - ' go love, go!' quietly in her ear, his hand against the small of her back.

Colette was in a bit of a panic. She'd turned her back to Basil for just a moment and then he was gone. And in her confused and nervous state she felt an unseen hand touch her and his familiar voice in her ear. Of course she whipped around to see where he'd gone, and upon not being able to find the source of the command she followed it... sort of. She was stumbling down the sidewalk, turning herself around as she did so in search of him and calling out his name. Alcohol was definitely a factor.

Something quite weird was going on, and the bruiser disappeared into the darkness of his bedsit. Perhaps to hide, perhaps to call authorities. Perhaps both.

Colette's confusion was also sending him into a bit of a panic. " I'm right -"

And then it hit him. He couldn't see himself. And then he began to hyperventilate.

Feeling light headed he grabbed her for support, though that probably didn't keep from scaring the shit out of her.

"Don't let go of me!" He pleaded. "I might not come back!"

Colette let out a shriek before she heard Basil's voice, the girl wrapping her arms clumsily around his invisible form. The force of her run and his additional weight caused the two of them to spin in place for a couple of revolutions before slowing to a spot. Recognizing the fear in his voice she closed her eyes and rubbed his back, counting on her to know where he was by what she felt rather than what she could or couldn't see.

"I'm not going anywhere, and neizer are you Basil. I'm right here and so are you."

Basil snuggled into her arms rubbing against his back and clung onto her as if he was going to fall if he didn't.

"...Alright...Let's just... get back to the station..." Basil replied, trying to not let his voice break.

Colette continued to hold this invisible form with both arms as the two of them retraced their steps from earlier that evening, which would be a somewhat comical appearance to any passersby that late at night. That was if anyone had really cared, at that late at night most people were either too absorbed in trying to get home or were themselves blotted. The two even crossed in front of the Cutting Edge, the restaurant from earlier that evening. Colette stopped for a moment, staring inside at the dark and still interior.

"Basil, are you alright to wait for just a moment?" Colette asked, a gloved hand slipping into her little purse to rummage around for a moment.

Basil panicked at the question, but it was hard to tell now since his words were the only thing to give Colette any indication of his mental state, and his words contradicted his thoughts on the subject.

He didn't want her to let go of him. He knew he was weak, but he didn't want her to know it as well.

"I think so..." He replied, after assessing several other responses and finding them lacking.

Colette was certain to keep one arm around Basil, she only needed the other one free anyway. From her purse she produced a simple black tube, the end of which she pulled off with her "teeth". And then she did something Basil had never seen her do before. The distance between her glove and her dress grew wider as she stretched her arm upward to scribble on the sign over the restaurant door, until a large black "N" obscured the first "t" in the word "Cutting". Satisfied with her handiwork, her limb retracted back into herself; Basil might notice a feeling of her "swelling", the sensation of some of her mass receding more easily missed.

"Zere, now I am satisfied. Zank you Basil, for being so patient." She held out her hand for him to take, her other arm still wrapped around his invisible form.

Distracted by his lady friends vandalism, Basil scoffed under his breath as he was gently lead away from the restaurant and what she had done.

"You know there's cameras all over this city, don't you Madame Banksy?" He replied, sounding amused.

"Well, zat would be a problem if I spent much time in ze city, wouldn't it? Zat and if it were not so easy for one to change to no longer match a description, non?" Colette giggled softly. "No, I do not zink any charges would be pressed. After all, when ze question of why someone would commit such an act is asked, ze answer would result in perhaps a little negative press in some small circles, which I believe zey would razer avoid. Besides, it is not as if I broke a window or somezing.

"Oh my, living in such close proximity to London has had a razer negative effect on me, has it not? I am becoming quite ze hooligan."

"That or you're being exposed to too much of my potty mouth." Basil countered.

"Oh no Basil. I have not yet had nearly enough of your mouz."

She probably didn't mean it the way it sounded.