Aidan sat back, arms crossed nonchalantly, as Raven opened her laptop with a slight measure more force than was completely necessary. A grin fought its way across his lips; Aidan was having far too much fun needling his companion. 

"Enjoying yourself over there?" Raven asked, not lifting her eyes from the screen of her laptop as her fingers flew across the keyboard.

"How could I not be, gazing upon such lovely features?" Aidan replied; he wasn't even bothering to hide his grin anymore.

"Well, you certainly learned all your lines straight out of the book, didn't you?" Raven shook her head, eyes still firmly fixed on her laptop. "Looks like all of the innovative genes went to your brother." Her gaze flitted to his, and Aidan read a hint of smug inclemency in their ingenuous depths. "Of course, that was already rather obvious."

For the first time, Raven's barb had landed. Not that Aidan would let it show.

He leaned back in his chair, hand over his heart. "You wound me, fair lady!" He grinned lazily. "However, I suppose that such minor discomfort is but a little price to pay, in return for the sight of such unfailing pulchritude."

Raven's eyes flicked back to his momentarily, incredulous. "Don't attempt Shakespearean vernacular, please. And you didn't deny it," she noted, eyebrow raised mockingly.

"Deny the lack of originality?" Aidan shrugged. "I see no reason to justify myself to someone who is resolved to refute my reasoning."

Instead of seeing the momentary flicker of annoyance that Aidan was expecting to glimpse, Raven smiled and lifted her hands briefly from her keyboard, clapping them together in a slow motion that dripped with sarcasm.

"Finally, he bites." She lifted her gaze to his, amusement and condescension layered in her stare. "Should I consider that a step forward or a relapse?"

Aidan's lips lifted languorously. "How can it be a relapse when I've never bitten you before?" He blinked lazily, daring her to reference the double meaning of his words.

Raven smiled thinly, declining to acknowledge his innuendo. "A step forward, then." She returned her attention to her laptop. "The day that you decide to cut the shit and stop hiding behind brash facades and cocky innuendos can't come soon enough," she muttered under her breath, but not so low that her words were inaudible.

He paused, debating as to which insulting phrase of her sentence he should respond to.

One corner of Raven's mouth pulled up in a smirk at his momentary silence, the snicking of her fingernails against the keyboard of her laptop the only sound for a short while. "And here I was, with such high expectations of a Stone. At least now it's confirmed that your brother built the reputation, and you merely feed off it."

Aidan had to struggle to wrestle the muscle feathering in his jaw under control, even as he admired Raven for her successful manipulation of his emotions. "You may be a bitch, but you're a damn savvy bitch," he said, almost ruefully.

"Your compliment is appreciated." Raven's lips tilted farther upwards. "Another step," she murmured. "Only twenty minutes in and we've already made more progress than we have in the past twenty hours. At this rate, you'll be spilling your deepest, darkest secrets to me by the time we've landed." There was the faintest hint of a singsong tune to her words.

"I'm afraid you'll need to do a more than insult me to become privy to my deepest, darkest secrets." Aidan grinned indolently. "Shocking, I know."

Raven's eyes flicked laconically to his, amusement still playing minisculely at the corner of her mouth. "Oh, we'll see about that."

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A/N:

Banter, banter, a dash of mental manipulation, and an extra helping of banter. So delightful, isn't it? Vote, comment, and feel free to PM me if you want because I love hearing from you guys! Oh and most importantly, I hope you have a lovely day ^.^