Birkin quickly glanced down at the hand holding his tie. "Wouldn't it be the right pull in this particular case?" The scientist chose to simply widen his smirk and raise an eyebrow, daring Stein to continue. Just how was his current experiment going to react to that little catalyst he wondered. Shame he didn't think to bring his clipboard to take notes.

"And I'm fairly certain this has very little to do with Vanessa's influence over me. I highly doubt she even knows I'm here."