Alex made an indistinct noise into the blankets.
Horace flew over and landed on his shoulder to preen a different part of his hair than Julian was petting, which actually helped. He sighed deeply and let himself enjoy the attention for a few more minutes before the eating noises started to slow, then levered himself upright before he ended up licked by freshly-flavoured cat tongues.
"Share a shower?" he asked, giving Julian puppy eyes.
Julian grinned. "Yeah, love, share a shower."
Once they were refreshed and ready to go, this time in a dressed-down version of their nice daytime clothes, with waistcoats but no jackets, sleeves rolled up, and collars open with no cravat, they made their way out into the chillier hallways and down tothe dining room, where the sideboard was laden with food as fresh as anyone could want.
Alex was suddenly ravenous, and he could feel it redoubled through their bond. Horace was perched on his shoulder and trilled happily, garnering a few strange looks, but he did not care. All he cared about was getting himself a giant plate of food, and then, when that was gone, refilling it.
He and Julian went for the end the plates were at and started going methodically down the sideboard, taking everything that seemed like it was going to give the most energy for later. Pastries and meats, soft cheese and bread, crumpets and jam and honey, and more breakfast meats, along with some fried tomatoes and mushrooms in a separate little bowl. Once he had all he could reasonably carry, Alex found them a spot at the big table and went back for tea for them both, finding a giant carafe of it already made up as though some servant had read his mind.
When he returned to sit, Julian was just settling in with juice for them both, fresh-squeezed and smelling like an orangerie. Alex couldn't help but kiss him, no matter who was watching, before sitting and handing over his tea.
"We might survive today," he said, "if we can eat enough before they pack it all away."
"Lucas told the servants to keep feeding us whenever we ask," said Julian. "One of them told me last night."
Alex chuckled. "Trust Lucas to be a good host even to hungry mages. All right, so, what do we have to do today?"
"You should go listening in the drawing room," said Julian. "It'll be all muddled now probably, but no one's been in there since last night, hopefully."
"Lucas will want it open later, probably, so I should clear it for him," agreed Alex. "Okay, that's enough to start with."
He turned his attention to the food with great concentration, methodically and neatly making his way through the whole plate full before coming up for air to find Julian wasn't far behind.
"I'm going to go get more," said Alex, kissing Horace's head where he'd transferred himself to Julian's shoulder. "Want anything?"
"Nah, I'll go again in a minute," said Julian, tilting his face up for a proper kiss. "I can really feel that we're muffled from the Source today, all that snow."
"It's a wet blanket, for sure," agreed Alex, going back along to the somewhat-depleted sideboard for another giant plate full of goodies.
"How's the investigation going?" asked Leslie Winston-Smythe, sidling up to him at the buffet.
Alex disguised his eyeroll by looking away to get another big slab of bacon. "It's going," he replied with a shrug. "I can't really discuss it."
"It's not like you're really an agent," said Winston-Smythe, still prodding. At least it was only verbally.
Alex chose not to dignify that with a response, skipping the rest of the meats and moving down to get more of the delicious tomatoes and mushrooms, which he slathered on his plate this time as he'd also skipped the pastries in favour of the more sustaining savouries.
Winston-Smythe didn't pursue him, but when he came to sit he found Renee Winterson on Julian's other side.
"So, I was thinking that you two could interview all the servants to see who's been acting suspicious," she said, clearly a big reader of detective novels.
"Nope," said Alex, popping a bite of fried bread in his mouth.
Julian chuckled. "Don't mind him, he needs at least two more cups of tea before he's fit for company. But he's right, we don't have the energy and expertise, nor do we want to distract Chudleigh's staff from their duties."
"Oh, I suppose that's a consideration," she said, digging into her much smaller plate of food. "I keep going over it in my mind, but I can't think of any specific moment anyone was near Wicket's drink, you know?"
"You'll only drive yourself mad that way," said Alex dolefully, before eating yet more food. "Julian, will you bring us more tea when you're up?"
"I don't know why you didn't," said Julian with a fond look, "but of course I will."
Alex sighed and swallowed. "I got latched onto by Winston-Smythe."
"Oh, have I, should I go?" asked Winterson, fluttering now.
