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It seemed Eion had spoken first — had voted to ******** talk things out. Waru had never loved him more than now, for making the attempt. Trying, always trying. And Waru took the smack as his due with a pleased grunt, a falsely-apologetic look for the well earned sting. A look that quickly became an unreadable sort of emotion on his face as held his breath and paused when Eions tremulous fingers came out and slashed fresh, breathless words into the space between them.

He bit his lip and waited before throwing them all out, ******** — sat with them and thought about how he was going to translate all that emotion and a name into sounds — into the words and the sounds that Aelius needed to hear — because he got it. Could feel an old, thousand-marching armies stepping over the face of a crushed man argument rearing itself if allowed. A miscommunication brewing if taken wrong. Knew how he would’ve taken his boys words if he’d heard them—

And pressing a kiss into Eion’s hairline he decided to say them that way, as he heard them, as himself. Knew that if Eion wanted to correct him, well and truly? The man had a thousand different ways to make himself known, felt, heard. If ever his boy decided to get creative with it?

“N’imma pear-a-phrase some of this mildly. S’necessary— So you stay — please? Jeezuz, n you…” a soft slant of a look dancing between Aelius form n Eions, “…you can keep smacking me cause it’s kinda hot.” As if he expected another, was inviting it, a poor aim to diffuse whatever bomb he feared he’d be working on. Skilless, but with all good intent behind his attempts at handling so delicate a thing.

“He says ‘I don’t understand what that means’,” offered verbatim because that part was easy, because he could see the flustered edge of the words like butterflies snapped up by mantis claws; they needed to be said, to be basted in empathy. The way he, for the first time in a long time, lamented Faustites missing voice, if only on Aelius behalf. “He’s asking you t’clarify. With descriptors n’s**t. *Who* you miss— that if it’s ‘Elex’—“ And Waru finger spelled the name to match, made that part clear and slow as he had before, learning the alphabet style, “then he’s sorry for the loss of who he was to you, before. N’for not knowing how to help if that’s the case.”

Molasses slow the bit the tip of his tongue, blinked and stared across at the man who’d finished his whiskey like it’d teleport him far away from the stress of this.

“But he doesn’t think that’s what you mean, right? Wants you here same as me—” and Eion could nod, shake his head no, flip them both off at the same time if need be. “So just….you can say more, huh Aelius?” and he checked with Eion, looked for his boys approval as he plodded over the end of his sentence. Looked to Aelius as if he could encourage him to give in and give it up, just by hoping for it hard enough.

The kiss was soft, hopeful, necessary — Eion didn't smack Waru for that. But the boy soon earned his beleaguered, vengeful look and yet another smack on the tit for being so base in the middle of a perfectly serious conversation.

Then Waru got the gist out of his message, largely unchanged. Earned another look for using Eion's words verbatim like that. He did assent that he didn't know if his own assumptions matched what Aelius meant, and that the boy should stay and explain himself, so he gave a brief nod as he looked to the boy.

It was all a bit of a shitshow, he knew. He could only hope that draping his words in Waru's voice and endless optimism would soften Eion's sharpness enough that Aelius wouldn't be so hurt by it. That he'd actually stay and make the effort to sort himself out — to sort what lay between them. And while Eion couldn't figure out how Waru managed it, he appreciated that his husband knew a way to invite Aelius to stay without pinning that flighty boy's hands to the table with a pair of forks. If it were left in Eion's hands, he wouldn't have known what else to do.

Eion slouched a touch into Waru's arms and reached for his wine again. Took a sip while Aelius started to explain. His attention fixed on the boy, his gaze as intense as it had always been. Sucks for Elex, he thought blithely.

There wasn't any of Waru's incessant blatherskite peppering into the conversation, all his crosstalk dried up for the moment. Aelius fidgeted with his hands.

It was instinct that told him to retort. That if Aelius didn't try to worm his way under his skin and play disingenuous with him, then Eion wouldn't have walked out. There was a slight tremor in his hand where the rage stirred in him, so he set the glass down and clenched his jaw.

Yes, he could smack the s**t out of that boy. Everyone at the table knew he could. The problem was, it never smacked sense into him.

He nudged Waru to ensure he was paying attention. Free of the glass, his hands set into motion. This will sound blunt. Need you to help clean it up.

We can try again, but with conditions. Don't be disingenuous. I can't read minds, so tell me what you want or need. And stop ******** off when we misunderstand each other. He looked at Waru, as if to inquire if he caught all of that.

He watched the duo carefully. Would have felt like a stranger looking into a loving couples window if it weren’t for WAru trying to bridge that gap in as best a way he could. Subtle nudges under the table and warmth filled eyes kept Aelius grounded enough and the jealousy at bay. Plus, laying out a soulful truth helped temper him even if he felt remotely ill. Even the liquor couldn’t stave off the sickening pit in his stomach as he watched as Eion processed what he said, seemed to grow even more tense with jaw set, tendons protruding from a face that was honestly too thin even for the slight boy.

What was….confusing though was how Waru brightened. Aelius had been preparing for harsh words, a declaration that there was a disinterest in him anymore. But Waru…sweet, gentle Waru was throwing him looks and signs that said otherwise and it didn’t make sense.

When the words finally tumbled out, Aelius was visibly shocked. “Try again?” He had held onto hope that that was an option for them. Grasped onto those tethers like a life preserver to keep him afloat in the months since Eion had walked out of his apartment, ring strewn on the floor like some piece of garbage. And here he was being offered that second chance. He could make amends. Prove to Eion that he was genuine in their relationship and wanted to continue on as they had. But that was the problem wasn’t it? They couldn’t continue on as they had. The stipulations put forth, very valid ones, said as much.

Aelius took a deep breath. “I love you. I do. I don’t think anything will ever change that.

“But the day you say you want to try again, I want you to look happy about it.” He offered a small, if sad smile. “I want you to want to do this and right now, the way you’re sitting there so incredibly tense looking, I don’t think you want this. Not yet anyway. And, please correct me if I am wrong. If I am wrong then we can do this. I will jump in full force, but…” He glanced down to his hands that still remained clasped together, if a bit more tightly than before. The self-soothing motion of his thumbs had stilled though, leaving him to ground himself with no physical stimulation. His body was so incredibly tense and tight as he prepared himself.

Determined to look Eion in the face as he spoke his words, he lifted his head and gaze to the boy. his boy. “I don’t know if I am ready to honor your conditions. I want to, I want to promise you the world, but promises are easier to break than years of learned habits. I want to make sure that when I accept that second chance you are giving me, I am in the best place to actually give you everything I can. And right now, I don’t think I can do that. I am still healing and I am not naive enough to think that I am better enough to not let myself fall back to how I was. Not yet. I will, that is one promise I will make right now. There’s a lot for me to learn yet and I am determined to be better, but it’s not now, not yet. I don’t want to squander the chance you’re giving me. I want us both to be happy and right now, I don’t know if that’s possible right this minute. So, I am willing to wait for the second chance if you are. Knowing that it’s possibly there on the table is an incredible feeling.

“So, would that be acceptable? Waiting?”

It was probably the most truthful Aelius had been about his own mental state, ever. Even to Waru. But considering the leap Eion was willing to take, Aelius felt it deserved a truthful response. It was a risk certainly. Eion could revoke his offer or lash out at him, but it needed ot be said. Aelius wouldn’t have felt comfortable saying yes, especially considering the condition having been laid forth right from the get go. Still, he felt uneasy and his gaze shifted from Eion to Waru quietly pleading for something, anything to keep himself anchored.

Waru melted into the look Ei’ gave him instead of away from it, nosing a grin into his husbands hairline while wondering with something like macabre whimsy if, were his boy been fire instead of flesh in the moment? Would he have managed to come away from the table unflayed, with his bones intact? If the restaurant n Aelius could’ve survived the nuclear fallout that came in the aftermath.

He supposed he’d have to keep wondering. Today they all continued living on, and he continued loving, loudly, how he got to be both sidecar-passenger and the center of attention all at once. He snorted, even, for how the acid dimmed into primness, into a more pleased sort of look across his loves face. The way Aelius looked somehow both freshly slapped and quasi-confused, those pretty, pretty, begging eyes. All his thick, saccharine sweetness, a balm for sanity. Asking for so much and so little— negotiating terms like he’d been placed in front of a firing squad. Which– Waru found his own idiotic wordplay funny enough that he stifled laughing at his own damn self; under bitten lip and a warm inhale through his nose. Tugging on Eions endless, absurd layers, there had to be skin under the hem of something somewhere–something he could pet at more firmly as he took on more of his boy's slight weight.

“Didja think we’d say no—” nearly sardonic, laced with surprise. Including himself into the equation even though he knew what Aelius meant, who the point was aimed at. “And now you’ve got him *talking* – with big words even — fyi, Aelius? The words with middle fingers in ‘em mean something like ‘********’. But so does this,” he teased as he freed his other hand just long enough to copy the one motion he knew well. Played with it because it was easy to do, because there was something both sinful and seedy about it, because there was never a bad time for a lesson. <********, m’gonna butcher some of this,” his apology in advance, now that both boys were on stable ground n sayin their many pieces “He doesn’t want’chu to assume his thoughts, either. S’better when ask. Which I second that’chu should, Aelius! Only I’m allowed to be the a** round here. I’ve got the patent on it…” and he’d distracted himself, dropped the thread in glancing between Eion and Aelius and–

“He was dealing with a useless, ugly, vest pattern…” the momentary frown for knowing that was wrong, out of context. “Er…bad thoughts? Bad thoughts! The old kind.” and so he simplified in his own low-tiered linguistic way. The rest seemed easier, felt familiar in the conversations he n his boy sometimes had. “So don’t feel insulted, he’s not humoring you. He’d never– he'd tell you to go ******** yourself if he felt that way.”

“So? If you need time, take time. This isn't a mission with a deadline. He won't–” Waru tsk’d softly, at himself for knowing the word wasn’t the word but not knowing how to say that word all fancily. His eyes said ******** as his mouth ran on, as he tripped over his own emotion for how sweet the two’ve them had been where he was held in regards, seemingly all damn night! “Hold a grudge against you for wanting to better yourself first. Anhd— awwh…okay..thats ******** sweet Ei. If you two keep saying nice things I might catch fire all my damn own…”

“Jeeze–alright–alright–if I’m helping you? If you feel that way cause he thinks it sounds like you do, then we can keep doing that, yeah? No need t’switch s**t up. Ei’ figures I’m better with the patience adultr—affair? Affairs! Better with that s**t than he’d be. Cause if he can't ******** it or beat it to death….” the slow back of his mind realization that it would’ve been easier to break someone out of jail, through a brick wall, than get beneath the swath of endless heat-encompasing layers his boy had damn near swaddled himself inescapably into. His fingers enjoyed the distraction, the way his lips did flapping, the way he caught a breath that ended in a laugh edged with harsh hope and hunger all in one.

“We don't have to be strangers, though.”

Words he purred as he kicked out at Aelius shin, gave the man a look full of knowing. Because what was wrong with being friends? Couldn’t learn without them! Couldn’t evolve, or become more, or – and ********, did he want to see if things could happen this way? The way it maybe should’ve from the start!

“Nothn’ wrong with friends….there doesn’t even have t’be any ********. I’m proof that it’s possible! And–yannooo–a good way t’go about things fragile as this is, maybe?” he hedged his own hope with a shrug of his own, lobbing the ball firmly into Aelius solidifying court once more.

Waru wasn't as adept a translator as Headache, which led to Eion rolling his eyes when Waru said vest pattern. 'Bad thoughts' was good enough; he couldn't be picky unless he wanted to use a pen and spend all the time it took to write that s**t out.

Which he didn't. He'd rather spend that time finishing off his glass of wine and getting himself to the beginning of a buzz. It proved a proper distraction while Waru butchered his way through translating and Aelius got time enough to mull it over. During that time, Eion wished to be anywhere else — even playing desk jockey in the Negaverse if it meant an out from a strenuous conversation.

All the while, Waru kept peeling up the layers and the cold began to seep in through the layers he had left. At once, Eion tried to brush Waru's searching hand away. It, too, was something of a distraction.

'Friends' was an idea that Eion hadn't considered. When he mentioned not being strangers, he was thinking that they needn't pretend they didn't know each other, and Aelius didn't have to avoid him at all costs. That they could work together as needed without treating the occasion like a punishment. 'Friends' hadn't begun to cross his mind, so he looked at Waru with a curious sort of reverence for how his boy had nothing but good ideas when it came to this interpersonal nonsense.

Waru was s**t with youma in the way Eion was s**t with people, but their strengths covered each other's weaknesses.

My body language won't tell you everything, he advised Aelius. Thinking about it, he added, You're right, though. We could all die at any minute. Why the ******** would I waste my time on something I didn't care for?

Eion was uncertain what to say about being friends, though. He was less practiced with friends. Seldom did he have friends at any point of his life. He'd have to ask Waru what friends did, then make time to do those things with Aelius.

Best we wrap up here, then, he signed, then laid his napkin on the table. Go somewhere with stronger alcohol.