[It's unconscious, when he does it. The pause between those tiny rhythmic sounds left empty for just the length of a heartbeat before Julian's long fingers pick it up once again, though his countenance remains something unreadable, giving absolutely nothing away. He's had some practice perfecting that poker face.
And it's just as well, because so much of what Asra says is enough to make things turn over in him, and it takes every ounce of self-restraint he has not to shift in his seat and look entirely flustered until after the magician has made his guess. Once he has, however--
--colour spreads from the tips of his ears to the bridge of his nose, all those softly prodding comments finally catching up with him, Asra thinking him too kind to be a deliberate seducer of wives, but foolish enough to get entangled in such a situation (entirely true, all of it), the incident on the desert island happening almost exactly as Asra describes, and the comment about Pasha...
He does shift in his seat now, and whilst his tone is entirely indignant, he fails to pull it off.]
Look! I could be a...a...well all right, no I couldn't. Not deliberately.
[He runs a hand back through his hair, looks away.]
no subject
And it's just as well, because so much of what Asra says is enough to make things turn over in him, and it takes every ounce of self-restraint he has not to shift in his seat and look entirely flustered until after the magician has made his guess. Once he has, however--
--colour spreads from the tips of his ears to the bridge of his nose, all those softly prodding comments finally catching up with him, Asra thinking him too kind to be a deliberate seducer of wives, but foolish enough to get entangled in such a situation (entirely true, all of it), the incident on the desert island happening almost exactly as Asra describes, and the comment about Pasha...
He does shift in his seat now, and whilst his tone is entirely indignant, he fails to pull it off.]
Look! I could be a...a...well all right, no I couldn't. Not deliberately.
[He runs a hand back through his hair, looks away.]
That round goes to you, then.