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"Hey! I am ******** worth stealing out of this place! You can't even imagine firebrand." Waru groused from the entryway, all grin as he watched Faustite make a quick tour of his place, which gave him enough time to compulsively lock up after them.

The mention of break in's...and he'd not had an issue with it, but most people looked at him just the one time, and if he stood out on his back porch long enough...and it helped that he wasn't home often at all. Waru didn't believe he was paranoid, so much as he believed he wasn't stupid enough to live in this area and pretend like that sort of thing it couldn't ever happen if he started having anything nicer than a pull out couch and a card table as possessions.

"No, on the break ins - I'm a pretty good deterrent on my own, visually speaking, better than a pitbull on a chain." Waru took time and checked the back sliding doors - the pole still in place, bat where he'd left it leaned against the corner of the connecting wall. Kneeling up on the couch and shoving an arm down the back of it - his sweet, illegally gotten, sawed off was still there.

Even if he was the fools gold of treasures. He still considered himself to be one. Also, he wasn't stupid enough to keep anything of excessive importance in his home. It was a place to sleep, shower, eat. Life happened outside of his house. He figured there could have been a things in the back of his closet that were worth actual money, but who the hell'd go digging in there.

"Yeah the uh, the wisps kinda ******** my place up. Little orb-lite terrorists, I swear...." the laugh inherit in that, noting every little statement, expressive distaste that lived in Faustites tone...Eions..Whatever.

Waru ******** loved it.

"The couch is a pullout..I had an air mattress at one point, but yanno. I don't really do much sleeping on it anyways. I'm busy." The absolute truth, busy not sleeping because there was so much else to do, and he'd never needed much sleep. He had a linen closet - and a closet closet. If he felt like it he just made up the couch when he needed to, but it was comfortable enough as it was. There was a stacked dryer and washer unit in a locked thing on an attached shed on the side.

As Waru spoke he circled back around to Eion, eyed him making himself at home, all up on his ******** table like a perched cat who'd strutted in and taken ownership - like he didn't want to touch the floor - but also wanted to make a statement by sitting anywhere, but the couch.

"I'll fix the tile eventually, buy a new bed on the next paycheck if its an issue, wouldn't want you to feel put out by my lack of homekeeping. Are you hungry?" and Waru was going to get something out of his own damned fridge.

Let Eion sit all pretty and untouchable atop his table. It was a good enough view for Waru.

"I know the cookies were good, just seeing the star-show made it worth bringing 'em to you." and he grabbed a six pack of something light carb'd and golden out of the fridge, pulled a bag of thick navel oranges with it. The oranges went on the counter, and the six pack got placed deliberately next to Eion like a challenge. "I'll start stocking up on the snacks, if you're coming over's gonna be a regular thing. I eat well." Waru hummed thoughtfully, digging out a fat juicy orange. The rind split easily beneath a thumb nail, a light scent of citruis that filled the small space as he started in on peeling it away from the fruit. The motion practiced delicacy, clearing peel and pith in one.

Food was where a good portion of his earnings went, he didn't eat like s**t, it was his one caveat to living like he did. Everything else could go, but his food habits would die with him.

Waru nodded along to Eions sage advice, he'd honestly left a pile of towels over it for a while, then considered a floor mat, before settling on the concept of just tearing the rest of it out and laying down some cheap linoleum. It wasn't like he had a landlord he could call on the regular. Least not one who would eagerly come down and do it for him. He was happy enough to have a place where his only requirement was to have the money available sometime within the week.

Having some form of security in the way of not having to worry whether or not he was late on things - it wasn't much, but it was a nice reprieve in some ways. Especially since he was paying to live in a barely maintained shoe box.

"Just being courteous firefly...." and Waru left the peelings to collect in a coiled spire on the counter and sucked a sticky citrus droplet off of his thumb while he considered Eion a little more thoroughly. He wondered how he could possibly be cold in the middle of summer...

Promptly rethought asking, because - firebrand - and it answered something in his mind about whether or not Eion would run as hot to the touch as the flames he'd given off when being 'himself'.

Waru carefully peeled one of the plump orange slices off, and tucked it between his teeth as he turned to toe the refrigerator door open, carefully eyed the contents within, and ultimately settled on a pan of no bake peanut butter protein bars he'd left in the fridge to cool from the night before. If the way the firebug had taken to the cookies in his office was any indication, Waru imagined he'd enjoy the chocolate coating.

The fridge kicked firmly closed, he drug out a wooden spatula alongside a bottle opener from a side drawer - and deposited them neatly atop the tray. Silent about the way Eion had struggled with the bottle, Waru wasn't enough of an a** to comment on the obvious amusement of the guy trying to use this body the way he might have used his other one - telling little mannerism's that had carried over.

Instead Waru quietly deposited the tray and it's accoutrements on Eions other side.

"Here-try these." the words half muttered as he sucked the slice down and chewed through it. "Didn't do a thing--" nothing that he hadn't already done to himself some night before, nothing dangerous, and if Faustite hadn't noticed?

That was just fine with him.

He'd gotten his own private show, a worthy reward for all the stress of going through with things "--I'm just talkin bout your eyes Eion..which..I kinda miss the glow." they were so dark now, his eyes, his hair. Other cute little markings that would never had shown on Faustites form. Like looking at two different halves of the same coin.

"Still pretty either way - with or without it..." and Waru plopped himself down in front of Eion on the carpeted floor, legs sprawled loosely beneath himself as he worked off another slice, kissed more juice of it from his fingers and asked "Speaking of pretty? I've got some pretty good questions to ask you." a knowing grin at his own stupid joke, toying with teasing the man, if only gently "Unless you've got somewhere else to be? Know this isn't your tous les jours spiel, playing building inspector, but since you're here... " a one sided shrug while he slowly chewed through another slice.

Waru snickered softly, endlessly pleased with the look that overtook Eions face, he wanted to memorize it, have the whole of the image burned into his brain. The very instant Eions eyes had widened and he'd wiped his face on his damned throw, Waru couldn't have cared about the drool, he was just happy to see Eion genuinely excited over something. It was ten-thousand times better than seeing him eating the cookies ever could have been. As nice as the star show was, the view before him was better.

"Figured you had a sweet tooth.." the words purred softly, while Warus mind drifted to what sort of creams and the like he could get Eion into. Little debis, eclairs, he made a mental grocery list for the future - calorie loaded sweets to have ready and on hand - while his own hands busily sectioned the remainder of his orange, until he had the whole thing in nice, easy to consume slices.

Eion had given permission for questions, and it wasn't the first time he'd encouraged Waru to ask things, it was just the first time like he felt he wouldn't burst from trying to come up with what to ask - the flood of questions had been given time to narrow into things of actual importance - and while he was still tempted to ask something stupid. How old are you, what's your sign, favorite foods, where do you live? He knew those things didn't really matter in the grand scheme - he guessed the firebrand was old enough, looked it, acted like he'd lived a hundred life times already.

"You remember the dragon guy right? ********, a*****e orb dealer..." and Waru ate another slice, licked his lips after "I've been thinking about him, and the Rift. How ******** little I know about anything and everything bigger than me. I need more info on Senshi s**t - if I can ask you about it...or if you could recommend one of the cats?" As much as Waru didn't mind being ignorant of some things - knowing things like that, couldn't have hurt him any. The world was bigger, the Rift, the Wisps. He knew he needed to broaden his view point.

"I want to be useful - to you -" and he stressed that, emphatically "- I need an insight on all this 'homeworld magic nonsense', and like...whatever else is up there that might threaten us down here, because that guy? That guy felt like a threat." Oozed threat, and Waru normally liked to flirt, especially with danger, but with him? It'd felt wrong, like he was a small insect being toyed with by the hand of a god. Only barely tolerated because he had something the guy wanted.

"Also - addendum to the question - though it's more of a request? Next time you head out there, to the Rift, I wanna come with." he'd never been more terrified in his life, for his life, with the exception of the little contest they'd had over the wisps. He'd liked it though, and all the parts he hadn't enjoyed about it, he wanted to conquer. "I swear I still have nightmares about that hall - so yanno - absolutely have to go back through it sometime." and Waru held a pair of slices between his teeth briefly, sucked on them absently even as he kneeled up briefly to reach around Eion and grab himself one of the drinks with the bottle opener.

He made mental notes. Locked the name of the other Senshi away, hid the fact that he enjoyed the notion there was no immediate cat on offer beneath a nod and a 'so be it' shrug; he'd work to find one himself - maybe.

The feel of Eions halting grip - his own damned food plucked so neatly from between his teeth. He swallowed the juicy tips down and let his wide eyes rove up to meet the closed bliss of Eions own. Dark iris's blown enough to eat the white sclera surrounding them; as his brain nearly burnt out trying to process what had just happened.

'Little s**t ate my fruit..the coy ******** thought followed by an inlay of sensory input and intrusive wants - soft - strong - cold - more.

So Waru paused briefly, noted with shock how much colder than Faustite the temperature of Eions skin was. Shades above ice in comparison to the black top searing heat he'd been before. The whole of his body temperature different, cooled, normalized. Waru breifly lamented the loss. He had grown to enjoy that heat in settings - like being beneath different temps of blow-dryer for any extended time.

The lament was quickly buried by the encroaching thoughts of possibilities - all sorts of endless possibilities. He could touch Eion now, and in turn Eion could touch him back. Could hold and let it linger without fear or flinch.

So Waru held still, knelt up a little further, bent his elbows to rest on the table top, and leant them on either side of Eions knees. Ever so gently framed him in with his body, a loose cage that could easily be broken if Eion shifted to do so. The bottle of alcohol and opener alike, remained held unopened in his left, and in his right the orange slices. Waru held them up like a treat, fed on the sound of joy despite Eions complaining about how good the food was.

"Mmhmmm....such a s**t trade off. The Rift though? If knowing more about it'll keep me alive..." A lazy shrug where concern should have been, Faustite hadn't seemed weak to him, but who knew how strong the guy could truly be. Waru wasn't his generals personal trainer; wasn't going to nag him about his stats.

"Yanno, I don't wanna wander in by mistake and waste all your efforts..Specially since I don't think I'd get past those ******** beyond the glass." and Waru thumbed one orange slice just under Eions nose, a scant bite away from his lips. Apple and Snake alike beseeching Adam himself to take a bite and spill. "Those things...I'll take the youma over whatever they are, any godamned day."

Strickenized

“If ignorance kills, then I’m a dead man walking” the quip soft, accompanied by a sharp intake of breath, a following stillness.

Waru was listening - yet not. Catching Eions words as if from a distance, rather than a warm breath against his ear. Youma- Rifts - Starseeds - Eions gentle weight and delicate grasp. Lithe little thing that took what he wanted, and did as he pleased.

‘Could bring you down on me.’

The thought, unspoken, clawed at the inside of his mind. Swam the murky dark seas therein like a shark; hunting for blood already spilt. His tongue laden with silent curses like prayers and it took all of his will to withhold every debauched and filthy thing, every plea or praise. Eion commanded his full attention -begged- simply by way of being, that Waru worship at the alter sat in his lap bodily; rather than with simple stupid words.

The way he fit just there - king on a throne - and Waru felt owned in way's he never had before. Felt good about it even, because there was no pressure for anything more. Just Eion existing in his space, pliant, soft, and speaking. His wit sharpened tongue was a blade Waru would happily have slit his own throat on; if only to hear more of it. Even if the knowledge would have been lost on him.

Anything in his hands was forgotten, set deliberately aside, because he was going to have them full- and he was careful then - so very very careful - because he had no rules for this. What Eion wanted - what Faustite wanted - aside from pouring important information into his colander of a mind.

“Not a ******** clue firefly, but you go on ahead and enlighten me. What are youma?” And Waru wasn’t sure if he was breathing, not wanting to upset Eion from his perch - to scare him off from speaking.

Waru didn’t know anything outside of his own body, not even the most basic inner workings of the Negaverse. Nothing outside the rote methods for competing his tasks. Let alone a single thing about youma, because the first two things he’d ever learned about them, were also the last two things he’d learned. That initial information had been enough to put him on a path that led to deterrence.

A: they would kill him
B: he couldn’t have one
C: so why should he give a ******** beyond that had held no interest for him. Not the Rift. Not homeworlds, not other Senshi or climbing the ranks.

Until Faustite.

And Waru knew he was ******** - smitten six ways to Sunday - doomed to a purgatory of his own making. Eion in his lap - human warmth and comfort. Faustite - a literal atronach, who burned alive just beneath the surface of that.

'Careful'

The cautionary little sirens blared in the back of his mind, and for once he listened. Crossed his arms around Eions waist in a loose embrace. An ever supportive circling of warmth, only should he need it.

Waru hummed softly, the sound burnt sugar rich, and nodded in understanding; if not in total agreement with the statement.

Eion sounded so sure in his own beliefs. Except everything Waru had seen, however limited a glimpse, made him want to debate the facts of it. Maybe they weren’t ‘people’ anymore, but he didn’t believe youma were dead either.

Faustite certainly felt alive to him, had all the seemings of something living. Ate, burned, bled - even if it was black ichor and tar. Even if the purpose of it, consuming oxygen and fuel, was similar to a fires need for the same things.

An approximation of aliveness, but if the differential was sentience? Waru was sure the creatures in the void beyond, thought and felt. Even if those feelings and thoughts all had a singular focus centralized around hate and destruction.

It was still something.

Maybe it was the starseed thing? Like how Faustite had spoken on rebirth, and similarly hinted at a true death, if one died in very specific ways.

Then there was Eion - and he sure as <********> felt alive in Warus arms, felt more than human enough to him in that moment. Regardless of it being a guise.

Waru let it go for another time, let it all melt into something warmer - like syrup. Eion was definitely tipsy, but he was also himself, Waru could no more ignore his demand than he could a sirens call. All the want he’d harbored and held at bay culminated into a moment where he could take all of it for himself.

The sticky caramel thoughts bled into the heat of his touch. Movements languid as he pulled Eion some measure of closer within his embrace and settled him there. Pet the wide flat of his palm up Eions spine, to cradle the back of his skull and rub the pads of his fingers errantly through the downy hairs at the nape of his neck, thread them up to clutch near his scalp and tilt his head just so.

“Yes sir“ and it was likely the only time he’d ever deferred to using any form of proper ranking in his speech, the words spoken cocksure and saccharine sweet. Waru would never say no to such a request so bluntly put, and bent himself to the task like taking on another order - a command. One he could commit himself to happily with plush lips and a hint of teeth because he wanted more.

Entry, conquest, control.

He wanted to see how far the banked fires of Eion, would flicker and bend, before roaring back and burning through him alive; like so much kindling.

The shudder that wracked his frame as he chased every press and pull of Eions form with one of his own, held him close enough that he could have been a brand, a second skin. Readily gave him something solid and warm to writhe against. He answered bodily, every pliant, keening, cry for more; like a rolling tide inexorably pulled to shore by the moon.

Waru was voracious in his apatite's, but that had always been true. He didn't deal in half measures or half assed attempts - not when it came to the things he cared most about. A physical outpouring of want as good as a flame - and himself the gleeful moth eager to self-immolate on it; too drawn by the light of it to have done anything else.

A hissed intake of breath, he'd lament for the break in contact there, the loss of soft bite across his lips, because he would have happily drowned in the kiss. Was convinced that the only air he needed to breath in that moment could have been filtered through Eion.

He let him pull away though, ran short nails up across and over Eion's slightly bowed head. Soothed with thumbs at his temples. While his chest heaved, starved breaths and racehorse fast heartbeat just beneath those delicate pale hands with perfectly long fingers...

"Would'ya lookit me, ******** distraught over how carried away you are. M'gonna weep over it even..." the words a hushed goad, as if he thought it'd gain him more. He wanted to shake Eion, body and soul. Shred every hint of hesitation away with his bare hands. Claw it all out to make him hollow, until he could pour himself into the space that remained.

The urge to run with it, race ahead like his pulse raced every time he stared down Faustite..those ember eyes...

Waru rumbled a dissenting humm, took a moment to run tongue over gleaming teeth as he sucked the taste of Eion from them, heat, citrus and the bite of ale. Relented in chasing it down - down - and in until Eion tasted of nothing but himself; because Waru had always been the type of man who licked his plates clean. Who drank the marrow and swallowed the bone all in one bite.

Waru wasn't sure if he needed a sign, a bat signal, a baseball bat and a cave. What magical words would have shown Eion how many ******** he didn't give - If he needed to divide by zero - to expound upon the sucking void of black holes- if he needed to read a book until he was smart enough to go off on how little he cared so long as his firebrand kept going.

It was impossibly hard, because it would've been the easiest ******** thing to roll Eion, to pin him there to the carpet uncaring of its age - drag him down with him and get the same kind of dirty together; until there was no telling one apart from the other.

He could behave though, could be good, courteous, and polite; even if waiting made him want to tear into the throat of something living. Rip it's pulse out and reward himself that way for managing the kind of self-restraint it was taking to sit pretty and let Eion breathe.

"Just, ******** hell firebrand---"

'Then shut me up Eion'

The dare died on the tip of his tongue, was doused under the liquid warmth of Eion's slight smile. A hint of rare glee that slipped through a crack in the shellac lacquer shell of the form that housed Faustite. Eternal flamebrand General, poise and power all in one, volatile, and deadly. Except when he smiled, and the way it quicked the edges of Eion's mouth made him want to kiss it away. Capture and pin it there with his lips until he could make Eion smile with the whole of himself; drag more laughter out of him even if it was at Waru's own stupid expense.

He'd bled and burned for worse things. To do it for this man would have been all pleasure, whatever the cost.

Waru endured, thousand watt grin on display as he snorted gently at the comment, at Eion's brief flirt with mirth. Swallowed down the groan and whine that wanted to escape when he moved. Levered himself up, and he felt cold without Eion there, lighter and empty and he wanted to drag him back down and cage him there..

'Godamned ******** firebrand, such an absolute tease!'

"I'm sorry...what? I know you're buzzy fireball, but you're gonna have to elaborate on that. Eternal what..peace...afterlife, damnation, wedded bliss?! You've got all the big words, ex-freaking-pound a little for me." the words a growl, gravel and frustration packed into a hot noise full of want. Ready to foam at the mouth and bark for how little sense that statement made to him, when he was sitting right there, ready as he ever could have been to just --- t a k e ! ! !

He kept the bitching brief and mostly trapped within his mind. He could manage himself later in the halls of his own thoughts; had more than enough imagery to fuel his imagination for everything that could have been for the next millennia.

If Eion wanted him to be a thing...if he was laying out a challenge? That he couldn't have a real taste of that sweet hellfire until he was a godamned Eternal.

Game on.

So long as he could get the rules of it out of the steadily swaying, leggy length of a man, he'd set himself to it. A chance at even a single night with him was a hell of a motivator.