John gawps, straightening in mingled shock and indignation as Martin recounts this—this alleged suggestion. An aborted syllable escapes him at 'spooky,' a word he bloody hates, and when Martin shifts into an outright impersonation to, apparently, quote him directly, he stops breathing for a solid two seconds before spluttering out an exhalation.
The worst of it is that it's so entirely outlandish that he can't imagine Martin making it up. His cheeks flush in mortification, and he accepts the bottle on autopilot, clutching it to him as if it needs protection. "I—th—" John starts, casting his mind back in an attempt to make sense of it. The implications must have escaped him at the time, which, embarrassing as it may be now that said implications are staggeringly apparent, isn't that hard to believe. He sets the bottle on the coffee table so he can bury his face in his hands, and that's when he remembers — not what he'd been thinking, but what he'd generally been up to at the time and what had probably informed such a ludicrous suggestion in the first place.
"I... I—I meant like a crime," he says, his voice strained in hapless protest.
no subject
John gawps, straightening in mingled shock and indignation as Martin recounts this—this alleged suggestion. An aborted syllable escapes him at 'spooky,' a word he bloody hates, and when Martin shifts into an outright impersonation to, apparently, quote him directly, he stops breathing for a solid two seconds before spluttering out an exhalation.
The worst of it is that it's so entirely outlandish that he can't imagine Martin making it up. His cheeks flush in mortification, and he accepts the bottle on autopilot, clutching it to him as if it needs protection. "I—th—" John starts, casting his mind back in an attempt to make sense of it. The implications must have escaped him at the time, which, embarrassing as it may be now that said implications are staggeringly apparent, isn't that hard to believe. He sets the bottle on the coffee table so he can bury his face in his hands, and that's when he remembers — not what he'd been thinking, but what he'd generally been up to at the time and what had probably informed such a ludicrous suggestion in the first place.
"I... I—I meant like a crime," he says, his voice strained in hapless protest.