jask

Carefully, Essek wends his way past the other tables and chairs. He hesitates when he finds himself standing behind a familiar head of red hair, now liberally streaked with gray. He doesn’t know why he is doing this, really. He isn’t even in a particularly teasing mood.

Oh, well. He’s gotten this far, he may as well commit to it. 

At the moment, he appears to be an attractive male human, all light brown eyes and heart-shaped mouth. Just this side of intimidating. A small scar over one eyebrow for good measure. He knows what would be most appealing to the object of his affections.

Essek clears his throat. His disguises have gotten much better over the years out of necessity – today, his accent is his best approximation of Fjord’s. 

“Professor Widogast?” 

It takes a few moments, but Caleb eventually looks up from his book, blinking owlishly. “Yes, ah, hallo.”

“I don’t mean to interrupt,” Essek says, putting on his most charming smile. “Only I couldn’t help noticing that you’ve been sitting with an empty cup for a while now. Would you mind if I joined you?” 

“Oh. No, not at all. Please have a seat.” Caleb glances at his cup in confusion, as though he’s completely forgotten about it. Chances are, he has. “That – that is very kind of you, Herr…?”

“Frederik,” Essek says smoothly, taking the seat catty-corner from Caleb and placing the cups down between them. This table really is quite scandalously small. If Essek moves any closer, their knees will touch. His mother would be incensed if she saw him right now, and isn’t that a delightful thought? 

cute difference in their stance, from this scene:

Quick redraw of a screencap I really like lol