Show time
A short to be extended at a later date.
He could feel her shaking with ill disguised terror. Not that he could blame her. Dominic knew more than most about what had happened with Cooper’s past and that was only because of the nights he had spent watching her, terrified while she slept. He still wasn’t sure if she knew that she talked in her sleep. He knew that the mere thought of being somewhere that mutants were even close to being caught shook her to her very centre. He couldn’t be having that. In one movement, he hooked his arm around her waist, pulling her close to him. It was the final nail in the coffin of his suspicions that she didn’t screech and push him away with a torrent of curses, but instead fell into the embrace and almost smiled. If he was honest with himself, Dominic wasn’t entirely out of the realms of terror himself and having Cooper so close was comforting.
To the world, it appeared as though the couple were the esteemed and yet wonderfully shy entrepreneur and his wife that the invitation that he held out presented them to be. New money, of course, but there was little to be done about that. In reality, Dominic and Cooper were as welcome at the exclusive and very likely human only party as a swarm of rats, but they had been asked to do a job as a favour and Dominic never passed up on a promise. He sincerely doubted his life honoured tradition of keeping promises now that he was faced with the full body scanner that faced them up close. There was no way of knowing whether it was just a metal detector (no guns allowed except on the hard faced armed guards, apparently) or whether it was one of those new machines that he had heard rumours of- the ones that could test for mutants without a sample of blood. Just one slip up and the two of them could be in a mess that he didn’t think he could get them out of again. It wasn’t an experience that he was used to and if it were up to him, he wouldn’t have been in it at all.
“Hi” He said, smoothly adopting his most favoured accent over his own. Unlike Cooper, to whom subtlety came to in only the smallest amounts, Dominic was convinced he could have been an actor, had his life turned out differently. If nothing else, he could affect many accents to a remarkably passable degree. His best and most convincing was a Londoner’s accent with a slight Bostonian twang, courtesy of his mother who had been brought up in London, before moving to the states as a child, before returning to Scotland. He didn’t think he could have forgiven her if he had been born and American. “I’m Dominic Xavier, this is my wife, Co- Coraline”
The moment they were out of earshot of the majority of the guests, Cooper pulled him down to her level. He didn’t exactly have far to go. While Cooper was small, Dominic was only a few inches taller than her, much to his annoyance. Being subtle for once, Cooper fingered the collar of his shirt, as though adjusting the line which brought her mouth close enough to his ear that she apparently felt comfortable enough to speak without being overheard. Even so, Dominic had to strain to hear her over the sound of the band that had begun playing behind them.
“Coraline? You’ve forgotten my name now? Jeez, Mac, I know you’ve not got much in there but I thought you knew that”
He dropped the fake accent for just a moment, giving the teasing laugh he knew infuriated her. A terrified Cooper wasn’t something that he could deal with. At least if she was annoyed, she would stop scaring him without even realising she was doing it. “These are toffs, Paddy, an’ Cooper is a strange name.”
She poked him painfully in the chest, while pretending to adjust his tie. “Let’s just get the kid and leave”