"Lucky," Ray enunciated, deepening his voice as if he were a commentator as he followed Asher through the crowd. "Adverb. Noun? ...something. Definition: having good luck. Fortunate, successful, prosperous. Example: Ray is going to get lucky tonight." He was joking but that still didn't prevent a little color rising in his cheeks.

"Does Ray have selective memory issues along with the tendency to talk about himself in the third person?" Even though February was months ago, it was pretty hard to forget that the last time Ray had nearly gotten lucky, he couldn't go through with it. And there might have been some sappy thing with a ring involved, but that was one of the details Asher preferred his own selective memory issues to go ahead and forget.

Fraser had clearly instilled some long-lasting manners into his friend because Ray found himself holding open the door to the Compound for Asher.

"Ray's lost you," he replied curiously, stepping back to let Asher go first. "Age before beauty."

"Stop it," Asher demanded as he headed inside, not making it clear whether having doors held open for him and being called old or Ray insisting to call himself by his first name was what he was taking issue with. If Ray were smart, Asher figured he would just assume it was both and he wouldn't have to worry about either anymore.

"Still lost," Ray admitted, holding his hands out as he followed. Maybe deep down he wasn't but it was safer to think that he was. If he patched up that selective memory then there was a fairly good chance he'd start obsessing over the boat trip in February again, and he'd spent enough time already fixated on things like that over the past several months. "You have a habit of confusing me."

"It's a good thing you don't have to figure things out for a living..." What with living expenses being nonexistent on the island along with the lack of any major crime. Maybe he was just rusty, but Asher had known Ray from day one, and he couldn't remember ever really being too impressed with the man's ability to put two and two together. "You confuse yourself. You're either thinking too much or not enough, but I'm definitely not doing anything."

"You are," Ray argued, coming to a stop perhaps a little too close to Asher. "You just don't know you are." Which didn't mean Ray thought he was entirely blameless when it came to his own confusion, but he could confidently say his current predicament led straight back to the other man.

Gradually tilting his head, Ray dropped his gaze briefly down to Asher's suit before flicking his eyes back up. "Which am I doing now? Too much or not enough?"

"I'd know," he countered in absolute confidence. "Because I'd be doing it on purpose, and I'm not. You already admitted you sucked at this, that's just more proof."

If Asher glanced downward, it was just to makes sure Ray's feet were both firmly on the floor while he was that close. He didn't particularly want anymore kids in the future, but that didn't mean he wanted to take anymore abuse below the belt, either. "Too much if you're going out of your way to ask me."

It was a strange feeling, being only one of a few people inside the Compound right then. There was plenty of noise from outside but inside it felt eerily quiet. Ray looked around them to see just how alone they were.

"What d'you suggest?" He wasn't so oblivious as to miss the irony in asking another question about how to ask fewer questions. It was just another dysfunctional aspect of their acquaintance. "Less thinking, more doing?"

"I suggest you learn how to answer questions like that by yourself. Fast. But sure," Asher said breezily with a hint of a shrug. "If you find that's what works for you." He just hoped less thinking didn't actually mean no thinking at all.

"Just don't go offering me any jewelry at the end of the night."

"Hey, that was a nice gesture," Ray interjected, even if defending his loved up self felt weird. He wasn't ready to think about the possibility of the ring pact coming true though.

Nice gestures didn't only have to be down to island magic and Ray figured one of those would be a welcome change from fists and insults. He swayed forward a little and lowered his voice. "I can do you another one tonight if you want."

"No one's disputing that," Asher insisted, sounding more or less sincere in his statement. However nice, though, he didn't necessarily want a repeat performance.

"What, something that tops this afternoon? Good luck there," he said, sarcasm more than evident as he smiled around his fangs.

Ray rocked back with a blink of surprise, having expected some incisive comment about his so-called 'nice' gesture. Asher agreeing was a little unnerving, knocking him off guard for a moment.

"You snooze, you...get hijacked," he replied, gathering his wits slowly. At least it had been something different from the mundanity of the everyday. He grabbed Asher's hand and started heading towards the kitchen. "Come with me."

"I haven't changed my mind about you cooking for me since this afternoon," Asher complained as he was pulled along. Especially not when they had just come from a party with enough food to feed a... well, small island. "Or baking."

Turning, Ray continued backwards at a slower pace and gave Asher a puzzled look. He didn't let up on the tugging though. "Are you woo-blocking me?"

"You're... doing that to yourself," Asher replied, refusing to repeat the words. "If that's what you're looking to do then you need to go find yourself a new target. I don't get wooed." Unless maybe the island was fucking with everyone again, but that wasn't presently the case.

"Alright, fine, I'm not wooing you," Ray shrugged in acceptance. Except that he totally was. Asher was right when he said he sucked at this but what he didn't completely suck at was wooing a woman. So as long as he thought of Asher as one of those, he figured he'd be smooth, suave and sophisticated again in no time. "I'm sending you subliminal messages instead," he said, lifting up his hand that was still holding Asher's.

"Then you're doing that wrong, too," he said, pulling his hand away as it dawned on him that he might wind up needing them both at some point if things wound up as they had the last time he'd followed Ray away from a crowd. "It's not subliminal anymore once you admit to it."

Ray couldn't help the amusement from showing on his face and he slipped his now free hand into his pocket, lifting his shoulders up to his ears briefly.

"And the list grows bigger," he mused aloud, dragging his eyes from the hand he'd let go of. "What am I doing right?"

"Nothing springs to mind." Asher crossed his arms over his chest when he answered.

"What are you doing? No, never mind... Why are you doing it?" He asked, deciding maybe it was his turn to think too much. Or maybe it was just enough.

Ray wasn't even sure he could answer the first question, let alone the second. Being put on the spot didn't help matters any either and now he pretty much had no coherent thoughts at all.

"Why d'you ask?" He stalled with a wavering gaze.

"Why do you avoid answering? Again." He'd avoided it back on the boat, too, and when Asher had managed to get something slightly resembling an answer out of him, it had been via a bunch of yelling and putting the pieces together for himself.

Apparently, Ray was suddenly incapable of giving a straight answer. It was sort of fitting, he guessed, but therein laid the problem: he was getting tired of guessing.

"Because I suck at this!" Ray exclaimed, getting more agitated. "We've already established that. What is this, an interrogation?" Because if it was, he was pretty sure he hated them.

He wanted to know what had happened to less thinking and more doing. Practically the whole Compound to themselves and they were probably putting it to the lamest use possible.

"Not much fun, are they?" Not that Asher actually believed that a whole two questions even qualified as a proper interrogation. Technically, it was just the one question, since he'd told Ray not to bother answering the first one. "You can dish them out but you can't take them? Shocking."

"This is not about my job," Ray warned, a pointed finger emphasising his words. "This is about you and the fact that, despite the risk to your manhood, you're still prepared to follow me to secluded areas. How 'bout you tell me why that is? Then maybe I'll see about coming up with an answer to your question." If Asher went first, then Ray didn't have to worry about making a wrong move and a fool out of himself.

"So you are just planning to take another shot at my junk again?" It might have been presented in the form of a question, but Asher managed to make it sound like pure accusation. And he might have put a bit more distance between them for good measure. "What are you, twelve? ...I asked you first."

"I'm not interested in your junk!" It was a clear sign Ray wasn't thinking before opening his mouth because his entire problem was that was he was little too interested in Asher's assets. "That's real mature. It take you the entire five hundred years to come up with that?"

"Oh, sure, you're quick with the comebacks." No, they weren't particularly good ones, but at least his mouth appeared to be working and he wasn't reduced to responding with shrugs of his shoulder, or worse, grunts. "Too bad you're not as quick with the answers."

"I don't know what you're asking me!" Ray admitted, finding it hard to control his volume. He had no idea what Asher wanted him to say. "Clearly I always say the wrong thing so excuse me for thinking it's safer to keep quiet," he added bitterly. It was hard for him to do that when Vocal what practically his middle name. He didn't think Asher appreciated how much effort he was putting into trying to avoid conflict and it showed on his face.

Asher wasn't sure if he'd been speaking another language or if Ray was just that stupid. If he thought about it long enough, though, he'd realized that he didn't really care either way.

"You want to keep quiet, then go ahead and keep quiet. But don't expect me to just stand here while you do it." If Ray really did have trouble understanding plain English, then there was the added bonus of a visual as Asher turned and started to walk away.

Ray's brow creased in confusion and he shook his head as if that would help it clear.

"Wait, what just happened?" He still didn't understand how their conversations could turn south so quickly. "Asher? Don't walk away from me!"

"Too late, already did," Asher called back, without stopping or so much as a glance behind him. "Dictionary's in the rec room if you still need it. Look up the word 'quiet', because right now, you'd make the worst mime ever." Just something else to add to the list of things he did completely wrong.