[Carter Chevalier]

Grinning back at her, Carter unlocked the heavy wooden door, refusing to swing it open just yet. Instead, he had to give his attention back to her, kind as her words were.

"Hey, these are legitimate stone walls." He replied, waving his key in her direction idly. Even he had to admit that masonry wouldn't initially seem to suit his interest. Every other piece of property he had a name to was as sleek as she expected. "But the whole place has an eerily earthy feel. So I suppose the interest makes sense."

Drawing the front door open finally, he reached for the nearby light switch and stepping through. He held the door open for her, waiting past the brink for her to follow suit. Stepping in immediately gave way to the living room, seating centred around the fresh stone fireplace.

"Perhaps I'll give up my glamourous life and... Be an Oregon farmer instead." He mused, laughing to himself as he watched her again; "But then, I'd need a new home with much more land. What a dilemma."

[Luxanna Cross]

She wasn't sure what he meant by that, but she didn't ask. She figured that was yet another thing she came to find out eventually. Instead, Lux smiled. "As long as it makes a fitting home for you, that's what matters."

When the open door was opened to her, she didn't hesitate to walk through. Her green eyes took in the room. She chuckled softly. The French sure loved their fireplaces.

She turned to look at him as he spoke, mouth quirking upward into an amused smirk. "Getting your hands dirty like that? I wouldn't believe it even if I saw it with my own eyes." She couldn't quite help her eyeroll at his last statement. "A proper first world problem, that."

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter was grateful on some level to be able to humour her. He supposed that was all part of spending time with someone in a pressure-like setting that was a date.

"Consider that I wouldn't have to touch an ounce of dirt, my dear." The world would move itself around his needs. Such was the way with many things in his life, both pertaining to his power and not.

"But I mean that it's a very earthy home." He added, pointedly slapping his hand down against a cool rock that helped shape his precious fireplace. "Sure, metal gives the same sort of vibe, but its highly mutilated by human design."

[Luxanna Cross]

She watched him for a moment: she supposed it was hardly something to be surprised at. Here was a man with enough money to move heaven at earth by sheer will alone. And that was before even knowing what his ability did.

Instead of saying anything, though, she simply shook her head in amusement.

Turning her attention back to the fireplace, she nodded: she hadn't known him to care about such things. "Hm." She mused. "Why does it matter, though?" She asked out of nothing more than curiosity.

She shook her coat from her shoulders and draped it over her lower arm. "I mean." She looked up at him again. "Why do you care whether nature or humans designed it, shaped it?"

[Carter Chevalier]

Why did it matter? It was actually a very good question. Here was someone who never gave her an ounce of caring for such things in the past. She probably only knew him to care for his brother in this life and that was it.

"I don't know, I suppose it all boils down to a feeling." He admitted to her then. In any other instance, the power of moving even man-made things from earthly creations absolutely made him feel like a God. He'd never shied away from its strength before.

"It's easier to connect when fewer hands have molded the work. It feels just a bit more genuine than a heap of metal that's heated and treated to serve its built purpose." Reaching out, he eased the coat from her hands and was already taking steps to hang it up. "Don't get me wrong; I never thought I'd like anything less than an apartment on the eleventh floor overlooking the city. But the feeling I got when I walked in here was... Inspiring."

[Luxanna Cross]

It was such a foolish feeling, she realized: she envied him. She'd never felt anything like it in her life. Letting her hand drop as he took her coat, green eyes took in the room once more.

She'd never pegged him to be so deep. Yet another realization she could add to the list of things she'd learned already tonight. She doubted it would be the last.

"I wish I could have seen it." She said with a small smile. "Both your reaction, and through your eyes." She looked at him, smile growing. "Show me more." She wanted to see it all, if only to latch onto the feeling he'd gotten. "Please."

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter looked at the way she smiled, taking in the genuine expression given to him. She was usually so quick to quip him for a lot of the things he said, but this was a little serious note he wasn't quite used to from her. It was nice, to say the least.

With a small nod, he indicated down the hallway, but he took steps that way first. "There's only one other room that really matters, and it's not my bedroom." He pointed out with a laugh.

Swinging to the left, he dragged a door open and flicked the light on. Various canvases laid against the wall; some empty, some half finished. Two sat on the pair of easels in the middle of the room. "This is where I paint, mostly." He said finally, "It gets great light during the day."

[Luxanna Cross]

Eyebrows shot up at that: She wasn't sure whether to feel surpised because of his past or stupid because she hadn't even considered it. Still, the brunette's lips quirked up in amusement. "Somehow I doubt that."

Following him, her amusement was quick to falter as she took in the new room he'd opened up to her. It was clearly the most personal room of them all and for a moment, all she could do was stare.

"You paint." She said, voice barely above that of a whisper, as speaking the words loudly would ruin whatever she'd earned for him to show her something like this. "Holy shit." She continued, before being able to stop herself.

She took a step forward, eyes moving around the room. Taking in every detail of it: words seemed to escape the brunette at that moment. It might have been a mundane thing for most, but she couldn't quite shake the thought dancing in her mind: extraordinary.

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter’s eyes were on her over the property he was showing off. It was rare for someone like him to be self conscious about anything in his life, and so he found himself more curious than anything else about her reaction. Her words were quiet in his ears and her eyes were wide. Somehow he’d managed to surprise her yet again; there was a little glory in that.

He stayed by the door as she walked in, letting her look at every single unfinished piece of work that awkwardly decorated the room. Like he was unhappy with every single thing he’d put to the canvas.

“I used to draw, mostly. Sketches and all that. My mother’s a famous painter, and that’s what my father built his business dealing, so it only seemed to make sense that eventually I’d take an interest in it.” He explained, well aware that she knew next to nothing about his family; “It’s just a hobby, though. Nothing great.”

[Luxanna Cross]

"What do you mean 'nothing great'?" She asked, head lulling back and forth. "This is amazing." She'd always marveled in these kinds of craftmanships. She looked at him then, finally able to pull her gaze away from the paintings.

"It's not like you to be so modest." Her expression softened; she wondered if it was so personal to him that modesty, or insecurity, found its way through the well-built guard of arrogance and confidence he usually wore. "You shouldn't be modest when it comes to this."

[Carter Chevalier]

Now that he had her eyes, it was perfect for Carter. He preferred the obvious kind of connection that he could read; trying to map how someone felt based on how they spoke was next to impossible in most instances.

"Everyone has a vice I suppose, my dear." He admitted then, with a small shrug, "I suppose a little lack in confidence about this is mine."

His shoulder hit the frame of the doorway then, arms folded. "I don't think it's bad, I just think it's not what I was made to do with my life." The pressure had always been on to study and take over the business built by his father. Getting distracted by something so seemingly trivial was just that; a trivial distraction.

[Luxanna Cross]

It wasn't for her to argue his choices, after all, though as tempting as it was. It wasn't her place to try changing his mind. In truth, it would be rather selfish of her.

"No one is made for one thing only." She said simply. "That's the beauty of having hobbies; you can have as many of them as you'd like." Another smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "Besides, no one likes their job. Not really."

"You can have it both ways, you know." She offered a simple shrug as she turned to face him, fingers interlaced behind her back and her smile grew into a sheepish grin.

[Carter Chevalier]

She wasn't wrong about hobbies. What Carter perhaps enjoyed most about her was her life seemed so simple. That simplicity was something that had never reached him, high as everyone held him.

And he laughed at the idea that no one liked their jobs. Personally, he liked not having to work while he studied. For that he knew he was particularly lucky.

"Is your life's calling to be a bartender, love?" He asked her then, eyebrows raising in a stint of amusement. At least he worked to lighten the mood, "You could have it both ways, too."

[Luxanna Cross]

"Who knows?" She offered. While she doubted in to be true, she'd hardly given herself the opportunity to even consider something that required much planning or thought. "If I don't continue down the path of pouring beer, I might never know."

The latter part had the brunette's earlier playful demeanor sombering somewhat. "I hope so." She tossed another glance at the paintings. "You should show me one of your finished ones some day."

[Carter Chevalier]

"I will. If I ever finish anything. I promise." Carter said with ease. And though he didn't seem the type to keep promises, he actually wasn't one to make them in the first place. That was far too dangerous to give people an easy way to be let down.

"Come on, there has to be more to you than tending bar and living with your father." At this stage in her life, they were the only two things he really knew about her. "You've got hobbies. You must do."

And he was hardly going to let up now; "What are they?"