Welcome to Gaia! ::

With Yin gone back to the actual hot springs, Alex found himself wondering what exactly the point of all of this was. With an inward sigh he shuffled forwards, eyeing the spring with chunks of ice floating in it. Reaching out with one toe, he tested out the water. It..was probably colder then he really cared for, so he brought his toe back out and shuffled towards something else. There was one that wasn't steaming, but also lacked the chunks of ice floating on it's surface. He tried his foot in that one next.

The water wasn't warm, but it wasn't ice cold either. It was almost like it was room temperature (which in this room, was quite cool). Finding that at least satisfactory, he sat on the edge then slipped his way fully inside...

...and sunk like a stone to the bottom.

Luckily he didn't sink far, since it wasn't overly deep. Also if he stood up and reached up with his arms, he could still grasp the edge of the rock pool and haul himself out so it wasn't a big issue. Sometimes being a little on the tall side had it's perks.

Though he felt really silly, standing at the bottom of the pool like this, glancing around at the water distorted rocky walls, breath held, mop of hair floating above his head. It hadn't really occured to him that his dead weight would not allow him to float on the waters surface like others would be able to do, and this pool had no rocky out croppings for perching on.

It was somehow peaceful, though, and Alex found his mind drifting in the tranquility of this place. He began losing track of time, and it wasn't until he finally snapped out of this strange semi-conscious state that he noticed the rotting skin on his hands looked more white then usual, pale and wrinkled and possibly a bit water logged. He figured it was probably a good time to haul himself out, and so he did so, water coursing down his incredibly thin body as he pulled himself back onto the ledge. A quick glance around showed that the cavern was still empty, and Alex pushed himself back to his feet so that he could wander over towards the actual hot springs again and see how Yin was doing.

When he eventually made his way back into the steaming and humid room, the heat hit him harder then it had before, since he was coming out of such a chilled room. He visibly shuddered, not enjoying the change in temperature at all. It took some time wandering around, wet foot slapping and squishing against he cavern floor and skeletal foot scraping along, before he spotted Yin. He made his way over to him, sitting down directly behind him, one leg folded beneath him, and, scooting forward, he dipped his skeletal leg into the water next to Yin's arm, and feeling a little silly, reached forward with his hands to cover the weremantis's eyes.

"Boo." He said, cheerfully, grinning in spite of the disgustingly horrible humidty of the room.

Perhaps Alex should have had the foresight to realise that his hands would be ice cold, especially after soaking in the cold water of the not-so-hot springs for however long he had been in there. He was a little chagrined that he hadn't thought of that, when Yin pulled quickly away from his hands. He quickly pulled them away, and set them down on the floor to each side of him. He gave the other boil a sheepish and apologetic look, and murmured a quick, "Sorry," While kicking his leg back and forth slowly in the water.

"Stealth training? Sounds...difficult." He confessed, his facial expression becoming one of distaste. "Besides, I don't know if any amount of training would improve on my clumsiness." He looked down and to the side, at one of his hands, becoming thoughtful for a moment. Pulling his leg back out of the water and scooting to his knees, he pushed himself to be more beside Yin then behind him, and steeling himself, plunged his hands into the steaming hot water with a grimace.

It burned. It really really really burned. But he could handle it. It wasn't like it was going to light him on fire or anything. It was just...painful, which was odd since most things didn't really cause the zombie pain. Pulling his hands out again, he watched the steam rise off of them. Did they actually have...a little more natural color then usual?

Weird.

He then reached out and set one of his hands on Yin's shoulders, pretty much ignoring the question about the not-so-hot caverns in favor of this odd experiment. "How does that feel? Better?"

Oh, that class. Well, Alexander supposed he might be willing to give it a go. Worst thing that could happen is that he would fail, and then he could at least tell Yin that he'd tried, right? And who knew, maybe if he did do it enough times he could improve on himself. Now if only he weren't so turned off by the notion of actually doing the work to get himself there....

His hand was still giving off small wisps of steam, and he smiled as Yin lowered his face down, just barely brushing his cheek against it. It made his heart ache a little, knowing that he couldn't be like this for Yin all of the time. That most of the time his touch would cause the mantodae discomfort instead of pleasure. That was a depressing thought, so he let his hand slip off of the shoulder and down into his lap, where his eyes also followed. He bit down on the inside of this bottom lip, suddenly sad.

But how could he stay that way for long, with his boilfriend pushing himself out of the water to sit beside him on the rocky ledge. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and saw the hand suddenly there, facing palm up, in what Alex assumed was an invitation. With a small smile, he reached over and placed his hand in Yin's, then leaned against the other boil, tilting his head to the side to rest on that awfully warm shoulder. Pushing boundries?

Always.

"It does bother me, but it won't kill me." He responded. "I just want to be able to please you, so if that's what it takes, then I'll do it..." Like the stealth class, the training, and the showering, and buying gifts for Princess Eva. He didn't have to like it, it was just enough that YIn did.

Alex was actually pleasantly surprised when Yin didn't move. He never knew what to expect either, or what he could get away with before the other boil became too uncomfortable. This one small thing felt like almost nothing to Alex. It didn't feel intimate to him by any means, though if he knew that's how Yin viewed it he might not have done it to begin with. But he didn't know, so he remained where he was, pressed up against the weremantis's side, feeling the warmth of him as the coldness of his own body practically absorbed it. When he did pull away, it was more for fear of making the weremantis too cold then fear that he might be making him feel uneasy.

The redness of the other boils face didn't go unnoticed, however, but instead of making Alex feel bad it for some reason just made him feel rather amused. The words the weremantis spoke warmed him up on the inside, making him realise just how lucky he was to have him. "I Know," He said, nodding his understanding, "And I appreciate it." He finished, giving the mantodae a large smile.

Alex could think of many things the weremantis could do for him, especially in the suddenly teasing mood he found himself in. But he wouldn't voice those things out loud. At least, not yet anyways. Not at this more fragile stage of their relationship where Alex was still learning what was acceptable and what wasn't. Besides, he had a feeling if he said anything it would mean a one way ticket towards ruining the nice moment they were currently having.

So instead, he kept his mouth shut for a time, until those urges to say something ridiculous passed and he was able to instead come up with, "Let me know when you're ready to leave. I can walk you back to the monster dorms and we can call my mom on the way."

Alex didn't get tired per se, so if he knew Yin's logic, he might have laughed a little at the other boil. As it was he was just too impressed with how good the weremantis was taking things, from the physical contact to being in Alex's cold room...it really showed that he was putting a serious effort into things and the zomboil really appreciated it. He wouldn't begrudge the weremantis another dip in the spring to warm up after Alex had forced his chilly temperature on him. So, with a return squeeze of the hand, he let go and scooted back from the hot spring,

"Why don't weeee...go back to my room and pick up Fei, and maybe a couple of my books. You can actually just wait outside where it's warmer. Then we can go back to your room for the night?" Alex smiled, perfectly content with this decision as long as Yin was okay with it as well. Which...of course he would be, he always was, wasn't he?

He watched the weremantis submerge himself in the water, shuddering inwardly when he thought about what that must actually feel like, to be in that kind of heat, full bodied. He pulled his knees up under his chin and waited, arms wrapped around the front of his legs. When Yin finally pulled himself out of the pool, Alex stumbled to his feet and trailed after him. He'd been out of the not-so-hot spring long enough that his body was dry, and his hair was getting there, but he'd still need a towel since his shorts were still soaked and dripped on the floor as he walked along.

Once back in the shower area, Alex found a stack of towels and grabbing one, went off to where he had left his clothes to get changed.

Some time later he shambled out, fully clothed and hair properly towel dried and tousled. Before he left, however, he paused, as though thinking about something, then shuffled over towards one of the showers. He stood to the side when he turned it on, so as no to get wet, and waited until the water was hot before putting one hand under the blast of heat. It hurt, just like it had when he'd put his hands in the hot spring, but he knew what to expect this time. When he felt he had left it long enough, when it looked like his hand held some natural color again, he took it out, and grabbing his towel, dried his hand off. He knew it wouldn't stay warm for long, but he shuffled away and to wherever Yin was hiding out. When he found him, he slipped his somewhat warmed hand into the weremantis's.

"Ready to go?" He asked, looking down at the other boil with a large grin.

Yin would never know Alex's mysterious ways! Though really, if he just put a little thought into it, he would have probably figured it out. And so, the two exited hand in hand, Alex content to know that for once, he wasn't freezing the mantodaes claws off in the process. And Alex would hopefully never be dumb enough to show how much it actually hurt to get his hand to such a level of minimal warmth. If Yin told him to stop....ya, he probably would. The need to change small things to make Yin's experiences with Alex more pleasurable was so not worth the cost of having a highly upset weremantis. But for now, he could do this, this one small thing, and feel like he was giving Yin back every piece of gratitude he could spare to show him how much he appreciated him.

When the reached the entrance, they stopped, and Alex slipped his hand away from Yin to shove into his pocket. "I'll uh....well, I won't say I'll hurry, because that would be a lie." He grinned. "But I'll go as fast as I am able?" The hand didn't stay in his pocket for long, as he pulled it out, along with his phone that he'd remembered to grab earlier.

"Here, why don't I call my mom now, and you two can talk while I'm inside?" He didn't give the mantodae any time to protest, as he slid his thumb across the screen, tapped at it a few times, and then held it up to his ear and waited.

"Hey mom! Ya, I'm fine, how are you?" He glanced towards Yin, giving him a half smile and holding up a finger as though to say 'wait'. "That's great. Hey, I've got Yin here if you'd like to talk to him." There was a surprised silence on the other end of the line, but his mom said that yes, she would actually like to speak with him, so Alex held the phone out towards Yin.

"Here, just, talk in it the same way I was." He had no idea if Yin had made any advancements in technology recently, or if the other boil had every used an eyephone beyond looking at the pictures Alex had pop up on screen for him. "And try not to drop it." He cautioned with a warm smile.

Alex caught the sullen look, and it just made him grin more, and then when Yin gave him 'the look' he just shrugged, still smiling, and waved silently before turning and shuffling off towards the dorm, hands in pockets, though perhaps moving a little faster then usual. He didn't want to subject his boilfriend to too much time on the phone with his mother, after all! Especially with how nervous the other boil sounded just saying hi.

Meanwhile, on the phone with Yin.

Alex's mother had to suppress a small laugh of amusement. She could, of course, hear the banter back and forth between her son and his....best friend? Still only that as far as she was aware of. Maybe Alexander just needed another pep talk to give him the boost he needed. The thought that Yin might reject her son never crossed her mind, and even if he did well...at least Alexander could stop hiding and torturing himself with maybe's. It would really be for the best.

She put all of this out of her mind for the moment, however, because she had a weremantis to interrogate.

"Hello, Yǐn Cáng." She said, in her usual sweet but not overly so voice, though she made a note of the questioning tone in his. Was he really so frightened of a phone call, or was it just her that intimidated him?

"I trust things have been going well for you?" She asked, hoping to sound pleasant and non-threatening. This boil really just needed to relax!