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 Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 10:39 am
Freshly showered, Eion sprawled languidly on Ren's sizable bed. His arms stretched up over his head, which was haloed in wet, black curls, hips canted with a twist of his spine, and feet together at his ankles near the pillows. Seldom did he see moments like these, where he could idle in rich comfort without the pain of perpetual burning.
He wanted to doze off, possibly curl up against the boy and nap for a few minutes, but two distinct problems opposed the idea. The first: Ren didn't strike him as the cuddling type, preferring business and pleasure and the pleasure of business (he did not, so far as Eion knew, partake in the business of pleasure). The second: a recent conversation had been oscillating in the back of his mind, its problems going both unidentified and unsolved, which oft kept him awake. Neither problem trumped the other.
So his attention roamed the room, over the endless expenses his family couldn't have afforded, as he searched for the white-haired boy that owned it all. Who better to talk to, he supposed, than someone so self-made that he must've had impeccable social skills?
"Ren," he called, his voice a margin hoarse. "Want your help with something. Had a conversation that went badly; don't know where I went wrong." He sat up, reluctantly, on his elbows. Strange feeling for them to sink into the sheets and mattress.
"Wanted your help figuring it out."
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Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2022 4:40 pm
Ren was absolutely not the cuddling type. He could cuddle, but he would also be playing on his phone or maybe prop his laptop on little spoon’s hip to try and get some more work done.
Apparently that wasn’t romantic or whatever.
He was on his phone now, with his back against the headboard. With his hair down it was long enough to fall over his shoulders.
While he heard Eion’s question, he didn’t look up. He was busy typing away an email, but eventually glanced up to flash the dark haired youth a smile.
“Fire away,” he prompted, word choice entirely purposeful. “What was the conversation about?”
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Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2022 6:49 pm
Eion blinked at Ren over the course of three long seconds. His mouth pressed into a line.
"Don't know," he answered after a beat, and looked away to a gossamer-framed window. "Was supposed to be about the Princess Jet kept." But they hadn't gotten that far, hadn't finished the small talk portion that people fancied. Maybe he'd tried too hard to come off friendly, or personable, for as much as he was a person.
Which was, he supposed, half as much as everyone else.
"Visited Jet. Said his office was nice. Asked him how he was settling, if it suited him or if he'd started baking with Axinite.
"Said 'fancy bruises'. Then he pried about a Database entry." His fingers curled into fists against the sheets, his left hand looser than the right.
His wandering gaze found Ren again, face underlit by the wan glow of his cellphone screen. "Left before I could say anything worse.
"Been thinking about it. Still unsure what I did."
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Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2022 6:56 pm
Ren’s smile faded, but only slightly. He’d seen the fancy bruises Eion sported, knew that something had happened. He wasn’t Axinite’s voluntary gofer for nothing. He’d read the database entries himself. It was a courtesy, since he didn’t want Axinite joining the premature grey hair club by having to reformat all of Albite’s entries. Or anyone else’s.
“How are your fancy bruises?” he asked as he reached out and helped himself to brushing the back of his fingers lightly against Eion’s cheek.
He knew he was getting a little off topic, but despite his sometimes lackadaisical attitude about things, he did care about Eion. He might not be privy to every mission Faustite was on or everything he did, but a part of him thought that Eion preferred having someone who didn’t know everything he did in the Negaverse to talk to (among other things).
“Why didn’t you say anything worse? I’ve seen you spit fire before. Probably would have felt better just letting everything out, Ei,” he shrugged, and then ruffled his hand through Eion’s damp hair before he could fuss about it. He decided to not ask about the Database entry. It wasn’t important.
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2022 5:47 am
"Fine," he mumbled. Sitting up at the touch, he took up the boy's hand and interlaced their fingers. Pressed his lips against the tight bone lattice. "Taking forever to fade." He let go.
Ren was someone more challenging for him to understand, which lessened the pressure to try to understand him, predict him, and deduce ways to keep him interested. He'd thought, initially, that he kept failing to hold Ren's attention — the boy gravitated unfailingly to his phone, a tablet, a smartwatch, likely had a ******** smart screen built into his fridge to display stock values while he grabbed breakfast. He'd thought he was a flavorless distraction.
Because people were faulty, fickle things. And Ren was, undeniably, a people.
But the tablet, the phone, the watch, the calls, the nipping from here to there — this was Ren's normal, yet he chose to spend his slivers of free time with Eion. And that hurt for how cute it was, more than his black eye when it swelled, more than his wrist when that Saturn Knight shattered it. But Eion couldn't say as much; he wasn't sure how.
Sitting up fully, Eion's fingers pressed gentle circles into his left wrist. He shrugged lopsidedly, though he leveled Ren a lidded stare for fussing with his unruly hair. "Don't know. Part of me feels different around the Sovereigns. Part of me was still raw.
"I lost —" Swallowing back the words, Eion forced himself to exhale.
Shook his head. "Might've gotten skewered if I did. Read he beheaded someone at the Hilltop." He snorted something soft at the irony; did Jet know it was Dia de los Muertos? Faustite had only known from overhearing a few gossiping Lieutenants.
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2022 8:22 am
He didn’t say it, but he was thinking really hard about how he would like to beat the ever living s**t out of the Saturn Knight who hurt Eion like this. Despite having a few new powers, he doubted his magic was going to be strong enough to take out a Knight. He would just have to get better.
Ren tugged at Eion’s hand once he sat up, trying to coax him closer, to pull him into his lap. It was easier to see Eion’s expressions that way. Easier to keep him from trying to dart away or hide under the covers or behind a pillow. He even copied the gesture Eion offered, by pulling his hand close enough to press his lips to Eion’s laced fingers in his own.
Except he gently nipped at them as well. Ah, not enough to bruise, but to keep the mood hopefully light.
“Sovereigns,” Ren snorted and rolled his eyes. “What’s so different about them? I haven’t seen them do anything more than bake cookies. Maybe indulge in some drinks. Pass out medals. It’s like any other organization. The higher you get to the top, the less work you have to do.”
In general, sure. He wasn’t going to mention how he never stopped working. He worked harder now that he had farther to fall. He didn’t know what the Sovereigns did other than channel Chaos, but he knew they wouldn’t have that power if they were going to waste it sitting around all day.
Or maybe they would.
“We’re talking about the same curly haired kid, right? Always got a sour look on his face? Like he’s trying too hard?” Ren snorted again and tilted his head to the side. “I heard he beheaded someone too. Someone who purified a few minutes before they got the ax. Think he was trying for Hessonite’s position? Not that it matters. That’s your job now, isn’t it, Mr. Special Operations? Are you trying for Hessonite’s position? If anyone asks, I didn’t say it, but I’d back you,” he said with a cheeky wink.
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2022 10:39 am
It was easy to lie back against Ren's lap (and it was ever a novelty to him, how others felt so warm to Eion). He scoffed for the bite, feigned some lukewarm offense. Pressed a one-fingered salute against Ren's cheek.
All the boys he'd been with were so startlingly different from each other; while he once thought that Ren was most likely to screw him over for something fresh and new and better, Eion either knew better now, or didn't care anymore. Must've been both, he thought. Even if Ren undercut him for a chance to get ahead, Eion knew he'd find it charming somehow.
Even his teasing incensed Eion in ways that he couldn't call unpleasant, even if he didn't know what to call them.
"This'll sound stupid," he warned. As he spoke, he followed his words with subdued gestures from his left hand. "Their auras, they —" Brows furrowing, he paused. His attention roamed the bedroom while he looked for an answer. "— irritate me? Like my youma half gets pissed off and cowed. Mmm, that's not right, but…" How else could he describe it?
He drew his lip into his mouth and chewed it until he gnawed an epiphany out of it. "They're stimulating. Overstimulating. Gets harder to concentrate, control myself." Or rationalize, he figured. Maybe that explained the dumb decision to act personable, instead of keeping his meeting to efficient, spartan business.
"Mm." With little heed paid to the insults, Eion nodded. "That's the one."
He knew the one who purified, too, but Ochre was better left to another day. Perhaps Ren would think him deep and mysterious if he parsed out those little secrets. If he hadn't known Axinite any better, he'd suspect Ren's closeness to the General-King granted him unwarranted access to Eion's files. But Axinite was more professional than that, and Ren had better things to do than read the gossip rag that was Eion's personnel file.
He choked on a thought at the mention of taking Hessonite's position, and sputtered his bald shock at the boy. "Think I'd ******** combust if I had to do that. Burn down to ashes. Too much to learn and I'm not any good at it yet. Combat training's rough, my punishment proposals're too excessive." He sighed as he laid the back of his hand against his forehead. "Don't know what Jet was trying for, but I thought orders were to subdue. Must've hated spineless redheads."
Wait — maybe that was it. Jet hated spineless redheads, and Faustite was spineless, and his hair faded to molten colors at the ends. Had he reminded him of Ochre?
Or had he always held Faustite in such low esteem?
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2022 6:14 am
“More excessive than beheading?” Ren hummed, pulling one of the pillows down so he could get more comfortable with Eion against him. “I think he hates traitors. Or maybe just Senshi,” he shrugged, not really thinking much about it. Definitely had nothing to do with spineless redheads. Maybe headless redheads -- oh, no that was probably too soon to joke about. He had no idea who the Senshi was.
“Besides, if he hated spineless redheads, he wouldn’t follow Axinite around like a lovesick puppy.”
He said what he said. That didn’t mean he was any less loyal to the General King.
“Look, Axinite is great at his job, but anyone can admit that he should probably be doing a little more. He used to be Spec Ops, right? And now he panics over anyone who goes missing. He should maybe put the cookie pan down and do some more badassing. Or something,” Ren shrugged.
“Can you ask a Mauvian to make you something to help with that sensation? Or, uh, any of the random alien dudes that are showing up. What about the one who gave you your anti-burning corset? Maybe he can find you something that will make it easier to concentrate. If not, I’ve got a cocktail of drugs you can try. Do they even know you feel overwhelmed around them?”
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2022 7:16 am
"Depends on your perspective." Eion shifted onto his side, facing Ren's core (which was, he thought, the real gem in the room). "Hate senshi, too. Especially the Negaverse ones. Cursed vending machines, always showing off their snacks, never giving them up for anything." Nails trailed a gentle path up the boy's abs until his fingers pressed flat over the center of his chest.
But his wrist hated the angle, started complaining with all its soreness.He retracted his hand, curled it in a heap on the bed next to Ren's thigh.
While he hadn't said that Ren characterized Axinite accurately, he didn't deny it, either. Had to kill a short-lived chuckle, instead, by reminding himself that it took the Queen to make him talk to his ex-boss. He wondered, too, if Jet was Axinite's shadow because he didn't know how to handle the myriad problems walking through his door without beheading them, too. Then he realized he rather wished Jet did — they'd be a few heads short, but the recruits would shape up.
And if Faustite was beheaded? Her voice was clarion as ever: 'nothing vital there.'
"Thought it was Hessonite's job to do the badassing. You think he's spineless, buy him a new spine with your disgusting bank account. Buy me some organs, too. And new office furniture."
Eion hummed over the question. Took up Ren's hand while he thought about it, pressed the balls of his thumbs in meaningless, meandering lines over the back. "Don't know, never thought about that." The cats — Haymitch was struggling with the reinforced tablet tech, and Tama would sooner put his fire out with cat piss than offer help. He could outsource, but cats were even more cheeky and capricious than humans.
"Almadel?" He looked up at the boy. "Haven't seen him in a while." Not since he was run through, and summoned the self-impressed drink of water accidentally. "Could try all of them.
"Don't know if they know. Don't say anything about it. Maybe they sense it, somehow, and my irritation becomes Jet's irritation. But…" And he meandered to the other side, now on Ren's palm. "Should concentrate on what to do next. How to… apologize. For whatever that was."
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2022 1:14 pm
If anyone asked Ren (they didn’t) he would also say that his core muscles were something to admire. He’d put a lot of work into making sure he stayed in top shape. He might not have been the most skilled of fighters, but he had plenty of endurance.
And for good measure, he made sure to flex some of his muscles while Eion was getting all touchy with him.
“This cursed vending machine thinks he’s given up plenty,” he scoffed, but his tone was that of amusement. And since Eion was going to be rolling around on the bed on his side, Ren made a point to shift onto his forearms and roll over on top of Eion. He wasn’t putting any pressure on him! Just kneeling on either side of his hips as he playfully pinned him down. If Eion wanted, he could easily push him away with little resistance from Ren.
“I haven’t seen Hessonite doing anything either,” Ren shrugged. He decided against pointing out that at least Axinite was leading missions into the Rift, but that would kind of go against his spineless observation.
“He didn’t retaliate when you left, did he? Jet, I mean,” Ren hummed as he traced invisible lines along Eion’s shoulders and arms where he could reach. “Maybe it’s a good thing he’s so new at the General King thing. And good thing no one treats the Negaverse like a military structure. I mean sure it’s supposed to, but--” he paused to whistle low and amused.
“Walking out on a superior officer? Even I’m not ballsy enough for that. No wonder the kid is stressed. Everyone is used to seeing a curly haired, sour faced general, but now he’s a General King. Maybe he knew you didn’t respect him and was defensive. Or maybe he was nervous about being a disappointment. I don’t know him very well. Or at all. But wasn’t he the one who carried you out of the Farnsworth building? And he did get a promotion, so he must be doing something the Queen approves of. Maybe I should start cutting off traitor’s heads…” Ren hummed thoughtfully. If it was a faster way to get him to his next promotion, it was worth considering.
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2022 4:19 pm
Eion grunted under Ren's weight, made a quarter-assed attempt to escape from underneath him. Always a great view to see Ren on top of him like that, he thought.
"Think you're right. Need to convince other vending machines to put out like you." He still nursed a lovely little pipe dream of unwrapping Fafnir like a gift, or getting to know a few of the ones on other teams. Too many boys in the Negaverse that he hadn't yet met.
He was content to touch and be touched, for as long as his glamour held. He grew tired, however; they didn't have much more time to fuss around with each other. Wishing he was more human for moments like these hadn't earned him any more than wistfulness; with all the recent roster changes, he grew anxious over parting moments. Would there be another time? Would Ren be around in a week? Boy was climbing the rank ladder, but what if someone felt threatened by his advancements and got rid of him? What if it was something more mundane, like a car crash?
Eion caught up Ren's hands after a time, fit them together with his own. He tugged on them, gentle in his insistence, to invite the boy to lean down and meet him where he lay.
Brows furrowed, he paused before he spoke. "Left because I respected him. Doesn't need my miserable little breakdowns dumped in a chair by his desk. No one asks for that." Except Axinite, he supposed. "He saved a soldier. He deserves the soldier, not the sulky boy behind the fire." He sighed. "But the sulky boy keeps coming out, displacing the soldier. Should figure out how to apologize." However that could happen. If that could happen.
"You were just promoted and you're already coveting another promotion? Enough beheadings and you might get Hessonite's spot, play boss to the rest of us lackeys." While he wanted to chuckle, he could only manage a teasing smile. "Need to devise a fire axe out of your magic, first."
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2022 4:35 pm
Ren shifted as his hands were tugged, following Eion’s invitation closer, although he couldn’t help but sigh.
“You’re not a soldier, Ei. Is that what you’re trying to be?” he frowned, his own brows furrowed in a similar fashion to Eion’s. “You’re not a sulky boy, either. You’ve been through s**t. And if I can find a way to buy you organs that won’t just burn up, I would.”
But they both knew that anything Ren happened to buy on the black market would just turn to ash if they tried putting it inside Faustite.
“Who’s putting ideas like that in your head? That you’re a soldier and you can’t let your human emotions get the better of you?” Ren couldn’t help but ask. There was more to Eion, of course. But he didn’t know all of the details. And he had a feeling that Eion didn’t want to tell him. But there had to be a time that they figured things out. Otherwise there would just be more botched conversations with others.
“And how many others have you walked out on during conversations?” Knowing Eion? Probably a number of them. He doubted Jet would have been the first.
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2022 6:58 pm
Thrilled that Ren followed, he sought to steal a kiss. Something sweet, something soft, something of a souvenir to hold through the bitterness of their coming conversation.
And it was a bitter thing, and a hurtful thing, and Eion felt the old friend of a vice begin to close his throat. He swallowed, consoled himself, told himself it had to be so. Told himself he had to listen, even if it hurt. Even if he didn't want to give himself permission to feel that hurt, or acknowledge all the pain he so carefully filed away in the bones of his flawed body.
"If I'm not a soldier, then what am I? A weapon?" The edges of his sentence sounded harsh, jagged, but there was a desperation in his tone that belied his retrained crisis,
"Doesn't matter who put them there, does it? That was how I was trained. What got me this far. And there's…" He scoffed at himself, unlaced a hand from Ren's to wipe at his eyes. "So many who validate it. Who don't question when I leave, who don't call me back, so I always thought…" Wasn't that what he was? A soldier, a youma, a General. The sum of all his mistakes and achievements.
There was no more Elex, so what else could he be?
"Don't know," he answered after a beat. "A few. Axinite, Kamacite, Lysithea. Always seemed the better choice."
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2022 4:52 am
The kiss was sweet and soft, as was the expression that settled onto Ren’s face. He didn’t take offense to the sharpness in Eion’s words.
And then he reached up to pull Eion’s hand away from his eyes as he wiped them, leaning closer to place a kiss there instead.
“You’re a young man who has been forced to do unimaginable things by people who only see the value in soldiers and weapons. And it does matter who put them there. It matters because it’s what shaped you. But you are what got you this far. Your damn stubbornness.”
Ren shrugged, but he didn’t seem to have any intention of getting up. Eion couldn’t run away from this conversation unless he decided to break Ren’s trust by powering up and, after sufficiently burning him, teleporting away.
“I can’t speak for any of them, but maybe they wanted to give you some space. Maybe next time tell them why you have to leave and let them decide if it’s worth incurring your wrath because,” he paused to whistle again. “If it were me, I would let you go in a heartbeat,” he said as he made no effort to move. “I might have fire magic, but I’m pretty sure I’m still flammable. Maybe those who let you walk out are smarter than I give them credit for.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2022 4:54 am
He hated himself for how he was so easily bought by affections. They were gifts given freely, and he gave them as freely as he got them, but so much of this conversation could've been avoided if he could've said enough, stripped off his civilian glamour, and left.
But here he was, half pinned, half doted on, all uncertain.
The kiss was why he stayed, he told himself, as he looked at the headboard. Wondered how much Ren would detest him if his glamour started to slip. They still had time, but weariness warned him of it.
Three hours would never be enough.
"Not just me." Would've died, he figured, if not for some of the others. Ren, of course, and Albite. Alkmene, Ashanite, Celadonite. Before them, Kamacite and Lauri. Before them, even Chrysocolla. He knew it was evasive and choosy, answering lie that, but it was easier to deflect. Tell himself the discomfort in having such a conversation could be averted by simply answering the wrong question.
This time, he had tried to move. Better to extricate himself now, than accidentally let his glamour fall and prove that, yes, Ren was every bit as flammable as he suspected. Unfortunately for Eion, he wasn't made to effortlessly bench press Ren off of himself. "Guessing there's fifteen minutes.
"Suppose there's that. Could try it on Jet, see if he beheads me for it." Might provide Ren with some exciting new methods of use.
If he were drunk he had a few choice words for his boy. Sober, he simply added, "And… Thanks, Ren." And he breathed a sigh as his throat began to open up again.
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