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Since... well... since...

Nevermind that.

Enough to say that of late, Autsu had been training harder than ever, putting in hours every day at the unit, dancing at knife point with Avrin, pushing himself to be better, to not only have his body, but to own it, to own its every movement. There was a grace to him now, what would be called confidence if that confidence hadn't been so recently cut away. He walked with the air of one hunted, haunted, but not as if he were afraid. More like he was waiting to kick the s**t out of whatever he thought was after him.

At the moment, he wore only a pair of jeans, and his black skin and short blue hair was soaked with sweat. There was a shallow red slash across his chest, which dripped blood fitfully. He came in from the back, clearly headed toward the kitchen. Clear cool water... that was what he needed.

And then... Kian. The boy/man literally stopped in his tracks and stared across at his friend. And an infant?

Emotions struggled across his face, until, at last, he found joy.

"Comrade! I am glad to see you." He was, at the moment, feeling good for the most part. Exhaustion relaxed him.

"And you obtained a child." It was phrased as a statement, but none the less, there was a space there, an invitation for Kian to give him some information about the unusual girl. He knew his friend had many siblings but he'd never seen him carry them with him before.

Considering the other a moment more, he managed to regain his former pace, his former path. "I am bleeding on the floor," he explained, as he passed through the open doorway into the other room.

He needed a moment, a chance to deal with this... change in the pattern of his day.

As he poured himself a glass of water and held a washrag to his chest, he called back over his shoulder toward his friend, "Would you like anything comrade? For yourself, or the infant."

So, Kian was here. Of course he was. This was his place too. It had not been too long since they'd last seen each other. But it'd been long enough. Things had changed. And he had no way to tell his ally of those changes. Somehow, this dishonesty seemed more of a betrayal than the mere secret of his attraction.

"Avrin and I were sparring. He is... much better than I." A sigh there, perhaps of frustration. He so wanted to get the better of the other man, but as yet, he was only finding new versions of defeat. "It is only a cut, but if you think there is a need for treatment..." He inclined his head, indicating his willingness to incline.

Having Kian's fingers so near his chest brought goosebumps to his flesh. He could only hope the boy wouldn't notice. Perhaps he could somehow blame the cut.

Lifting his eyes, he trained his attention on the girl. Now, labeled as one of them, she was of greater interest. It was not that Autsu disliked those who were not criminals, he simply felt no obligation to them. As a criminal, Dee claimed a part of him, demanded a level of his protection. "It is good for her, and us. Now we need not hunt her, and she will be among those who understand."

A moment, "Hello, ally. Though I do not think you speak the language yet. I did not."

He did not, of course, talk to her as a child. He knew clearly enough that a grown mind likely labored behind her gaze.

A response. That surprised Autsu. He had not been so clever as to quickly understand his father's words. And perhaps it had not helped that his was a family prone to much silence. It showed cleverness in this one, and that was a good sign. Still, her stillness was almost strange. He remembered his own second infanthood. He had bee filled with anger, raging in any way he could. This silence, maybe it too was a sign of intelligence.

Kian's return pulled his attention away from the young girl, back to matters of more immediate concern. He did not pull away when Kian tended to the wound, though he did let his breath escape in a brief hiss at the stinging. Unpleasant, but needed for healing. Similar to many things. And yet, he'd discovered, not all pain healed. Sometimes, it just hurt.

"It seems you have not been without excitement." The shirtless teen responded, with a sideways glance toward Dee. "She is a bright one. You brought her here to see the Unit, then?"

Pulling back from his friend, in what he hoped was a natural movement, he took a step back toward the living room. "We are done in here, yes?"

Like Kian, Autsu chose to perch instead of sitting on the couch in the normal manner. For his part, he sat on the back, his wings half open, his feet on the couch cushions. "I am sorry comrade. It did not seem fair to expose her... difficulties. I did not realize it would upset you."

He had not been particularly disturbed by her strangeness. It was not hate she emitted, or any other darkness. She had felt calming to him, comforting.

As too his looks... well...

He ran his fingers roughly through his short hair, tugging at the ends. Did he look so bad as that? He had not payed much attention to his appearance of late, more interested in building strength than keeping groomed. And he had not been sleeping over well, though it was not sleep that bothered him, only the moments that lead up to it. The silence left too much time for him to think.

Narin had said to wait... wait... and now he was left wondering, 'how long?' If his lover was truly coming for him, as he said he was... then how could he do anything but wait on edge, for that moment when he arrived? And what would he do when he did?

"It has been... I have been preoccupied." How on earth could he explain? He couldn't. "And training. I am getting better, though I'm still not as strong as I could be."

Autsu lifted his pale blue eyebrows at Kian's gentle scolding. Was this what he was staying here for? To be nannied by his allies? Certainly, no one at home had acted in concern for him, not really. But then, he was a soldier, and they had known better.

Did that mean he didn't like it?

What did it mean that he had to ask himself what he liked?

God, he was tired.

"I have not wished to sleep much, lately. It is not dreams only..." His wings rustled as he tried to find words he was comfortable with using. "That I do not seem to be able to tire myself out enough."

This was true. He was trying to make himself so tired that he simply passed out, without all the uncomfortable drifting of thoughts that came before true sleep. Many of those thoughts were about Kian. Did his friend knew what a problem represented?

Probably not. Autsu was barely able to conceptualize it himself.

"You should come and sing me to sleep, if you are so concerned." A slight smile, the expression of someone playing with fire.

The word Autsu wanted here was <********>. But that word, untaught to him, and therefore unavailable, did not come to the fore of his mind. So he thought in his first language, a string of curses at the image conjured here.

Play with fire, and burn. Gods could be burn. Kian hadn't always been good at this game. Not intentionally. What had changed?

Absently, he reached down to brush his fingers over Dee's bald scalp, the motion intended to be affectionate, but also to fill the space where no words would come.

"You heathen." Well, why not, if this was the game they had decided to play with each other. "My father keeps the house cold, comrade. You will regret your lack of sleepware."

There was, of course, an expected next step here. And it was Kian's turn to walk. Would he go there? Did Autsu want to know the answer to that?