Welcome to Gaia! ::

Aleksy is in the studio when he hears the knock. Or rather, he hears Laika barking at the knock. For a moment, he considers not answering the door: chances are that it's someone he doesn't want to see. But there's also a chance that it's Thorne, who is back in Ashdown now, and whom Aleksy very much wants to see.

He slides off his stool and goes to see, pausing to peek out the window. Something in his chest dreads seeing Jeremiah again--something in his whole body dreads it--but something else wants him to return. Aleksy gets so ******** hungry sometimes. But that's a small, small part of him: he would rather die than have what happened a week ago happen again.

It's Thorne. All this agonizing is ******** pointless. Aleksy puts on his gloves, pulls the long sleeves of his shirt down to cover his skin. Once he's secure--no chance he'll hurt anyone--he unlocks the door, opens it, and regards Thorne with a wary gaze. "Didn't I give you a key," he asks. That's about all he can manage; the relief at seeing Thorne crashes into him and he looks away, eyes burning. "I am sorry for bothering you on your vacation."

Aleksy steps back to let Thorne in, one arm gesturing limply: be my guest. come in. He has a hard time walking into places he hasn't been invited himself, lately. An unnatural hesitance. It seems natural to extend the invitation. Like it should happen, even if Thorne has the standing invite.

He perches on the couch, careful and self-contained.

"I died while you were gone," he says, "when... you were..." He tilts his head, bird-like, uncertain how to proceed. "I didn't say. I thought you had more important things to deal with. I think I died. I'm not sure." He examines the grain of the floor. "So I'm a vampire now, I think."

By now, Aleksy should have been up in Thorne's personal space. He stays on the couch, small and shielded by his arms wrapped around his knees.

Aleksy smiles thinly. He has tiny fangs, which are adorable, or would be in another situation. "I do not eat anymore," he says, stilted, slowly. "Not food. I eat... energy, I suppose. By touching people. I'm working on controlling it. It's hard. I don't like it."

He looks down at his knees, covered by his hands, hair in his face. "I'm sorry. I thought..."

Is this a different body than the one in which he'd been born, if Thorne found his body in the mirror house? He remembers that hell. He wants to reach out, but even just a stripe of skin could hurt Thorne. "That place was horrible," he says. "Those reflections. I heard my mother there."

He glances at Thorne, just for a heartbeat. "Wings?"

Aleksy laughs, and he hooked his hair behind his ear. He inches a little closer, his big sweater tugged up just for extra security. "Um... I'm not... sort of. I'm still full from Jeremiah..." It hurts to say it like that. It's also not strictly true. Aleksy's eyes have shadows beneath them and his cheekbones are more prominent, but it's not anywhere near critical yet.

His dark eyes stay on Thorne, a smile in the corners of them.

Aleksy watches this and his eyes go wide. He's just got teensy fangs that rip open his lower lip and pointed ears he has to hide with his hair because they're just awkwardly shaped enough that he can't explain them with plastic surgery. "They're beautiful," he says. "You're beautiful." Thorne has always been lovely, though. Aleksy is envious about that.

"They look like galaxies," he says.

"I'd like to draw them sometime," says Aleksy. "To draw you again. I missed my favorite model." He smiles, reaches up to brush a gloved finger over those fawn spots. They're new; Aleksy both loves and hates them. Because Thorne's right there, he doesn't need to hate them. But they remind him that Thorne wasn't, once. "I like them because they are you," he said. "Not sure if they would suit another as well."

"If you get confused again, I'll remind you," Aleksy promises. It is a horrible thing, to lose oneself. He never wants it to happen to Thorne again. "Will you stay for a while? I missed you."

It bears repeating, is all.