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A new twist, a left turn, and he didn't quite remember this wall? Whatever -- for once Albite wasn't headed to Axinites, or Kamacites, or --

Fafnir's new office? Yeah, ******** no to that. Not just yet. He would go eventually, he'd tighten his corset laces n suck in a deep breath and bridge that deep, dividing gap he felt stretched out treacherously between them. Because he'd always be fond of the man. Even if it turned out Faffls hated him? He could never hate him back, held too much respect for the poison possessed dragon -- would always be admiring and awestruck by what lay beneath the surface-apparent beauty therein.

He thought of the others often. Loudly. Paused midsection and surveyed which angled corner to slip around....

Hell he could've gone off n found Bloodstone. Not even to talk, no, just for the sake of looking the man in the eyes until he cracked a deeper frown n pointed something sharp his direction - a loud action over the strain of silence - or even the blaring loudness of his own typical noise. For all that Albite was irked by the news concerning that one, he couldn't blame the guy. He liked Bloodstone for his thousand-sword-cuts worth of daggered honesty. He'd encouraged Faustite to see him...

He sidestepped that path, all the other forks in the rivery road open to him and walked on; hoarding base bit's of energy he didn't need and could've spared on teleporting. Never would he not like walking the length of the place, no matter how much time it took to make his way down torchlit steps, and through polished stone halls.

He considered deeply what he wanted out of this, his wanderings in search of what exactly? Briefly found himself accompanied by Cerb's shadow at one point; the tri-headed-ibis from hell gently plucking at the noisy drag of dreads that swayed in his slow-paced masters wake. Of course his soul-bonded, his thoughts, his distracting imaginings fell away entirely once he was outside an office filled with an Auric presence he knew all too well. It tasted like space, tingled like fire whipped into a frenzy, filled with red earth and sass. Taenites very being was so different from Kama's blinding beams and sun-spangled silks--

Heh, how Tae-tae's existence had been a lingering prickle of interest since before the scar -- Faustites first since coming back from the beyond, wasn't he? How loud that presence had grown, in the most subtle ******** ways, background noise as the man seemed to be when he wasn't turned up to a ten at any of the Rift meetings. But Faustite wore his ring proudly, and that? That was a lovely bit of surprise, the kind Albite just had to acknowledge aloud at this point.

Maybe there was something about Senshi who's minerals hailed form meteorites that attracted them to danger, to chaos? They didn't need Senshi roots, or some starbodie named after them, they were spacefaring already. Had landed on Earth as if by some grand and glorious design. So it made sense to him that they didn't fear ******** all -- courted death and rolled their eyes at it's threats -- stood in its way before doors made to devour them specifically.

Yeah, he'd visit Kama after, just to say 'hi', but right now he was knocking as if it were a new skill he'd just learned. Felt Cerbs presence vanish after a few careful pecks; love taps given by hooked beaks beneath an unblinking gaze of eyes so blue he might've believed them blind. Sept he knew better with Cerbs, b*****d saw all, was being damned polite enough to leave without menacing him for treats..

"Olly-olly-oxenfire---anyone in here?"

"Holy s**t, there's a list of rules here!? Well ********, but I'm in trouble then..." mock shock and awe as Albite vaguely wondered if the rules were on a plaque somewhere, or etched in stone? Written on 2ply to be flushed and rewritten whenever most convenient for those in charge? Whenever someone took a s**t -- that was probably when it'd have been most convenient -- and the idea of Alcohol being forbidden fruit was amusing enough that his mind just sort of ran with it. He thought of how dull Lep's hospital reveal would've been without it, how badly some small bit of 'feelgood juice' in a bottle was needed, because sometimes cookies just didn't have the kick in the teeth a person was looking for!

Much as Albite loved Axinites fruit -- and scones -- and chocolate chips...

Did Axinite make pies? Would he ever foray into the realm of baked goods beyond those he could produce 'en mass quantities? Was the secret ingredient starseed sprinkles.....

Wait, no, focus, drinks! Flexing -- drinks -- rules!

"Though if there are rules against it? I guess you'll have to read 'em to me. It's my one weakness -- well, one of my many weaknesses -- reading comprehension, great abs, biceps the size of your head. Just -- so many weaknesses," like his taste for fiery boys with razor-wire mouths n tongues coated in the finest silver, and Albite did take the gentle come-on in stride. Liked the playful wink and offer to relax for what it was; and ********, he could stand there ogling the whole of Ren's tricked out office while flexing!

It was, in fact, easier to do than walking and chewing gum at the same time. Hardly required any attention at all for him to shift, n preen and stare at the whole of the room. It was stunning, sound proofed, missing only a polar bear rug and rotating bed draped in red satin-- All the little ways it reminded him of Ren's home. The obvious ways the man clearly liked certain parts of himself out and on display. That 'no-expenses-spared' but 'this place is just a front' veneer. Money was an object. Ren, though? Ren was the centerpiece in every room. No matter how backlit and big-dollar-signs everything else in there seemed to be, Albites eyes always fell back to Taenite without fail.

The place hadn't burned to the ground so maybe Eion hadn't been, otherwise that glass was reinforced as ******** -- which -- coulda been! The fireplace by far was the nicest touch, Albite was happy to hardly need one what with his own personal firepit in reach and all call nigh 24/7 and some odd 365 of the year.

"Like congratulating people? A-whole-nother-weakness of mine. Cause I saw the ring, Tae-Tae. ******** elated for you two!" lauded with love, praise, tinged with Faustites own teary happiness as he'd shown the thing off. The word itself he'd stolen from a book not his own, it was Emmy's or that Webster-miriam-dictionary guys. He was happy to get it right in context and sentiment as he was to whistle low before the reflective glass; some black labeled bottle that promised honey'd notes n was darker than the color of his own eyes. He nodded at it like a kid in a candy store, not a single drop of subtlety to be had.

He rolled his eyes for the wink, even as he blushed while imagining using the mans office for anything other than it's intended purpose. Oh -- he could think of all the different ways Ren could be useful. Liked the ones where he was talking best, sometimes, because Ren could always talk a good game. Waru liked listening--- to him -- to Eion-- the shiver inducing cadence, the promising tones; when the words were just as good a run up as engaging in the act itself was bound to be.

Then Ren caught him the ******** up--said things that left him staring yards into nothing beyond the glass cased offerings of 'drunk slow' and 'drunk quick' so readily on display.

"I can't either---"

Eion's delicately carved bone sat like a brand around his finger, hot to the touch even though it was cold as the dead, light as a feather. He almost forgot he was wearing it sometimes, then he'd look down, and even glamoured up? He'd be reminded of it's macabre beauty, struck breathless by it's weight. The time and effort Faustite put into making so unique a thing--proposing it to him without proposing at all--nothing of them spoke of traditions crafted by the living, waking, human world.

They did their own thing. Always had, always would. Labels were for people people, maybe? Albite thought he understood them better than Faustite at times, right up until he didn't and then he stopped caring entirely because they were bound together as a star-consuming-monster and monster-consuming-star. A Senshi and a Youma-- Albite wouldn't've had it any other way. Hadn't considered any other marriages save that first one....

So Taenite's offer caught him especially off guard. He must've briefly looked like a bird slamming into a window pane, where the glass was far to clean and so he hadn't even seen it coming up he'd just kept flying straight into it, slack jawed, stuttering.

Now he absolutely needed a drink, because this? Oh, the ways it felt like too much and not enough at once. All the ways Waru wanted *more* than just a sly side eye and casual offer -- like Taenite was asking him him about his favorite flavor of cake instead of eternity.

Knew it was more n just something so simple as that. That Taenite wasn't offering just to be showy, not just because he could. He was a deeper being n all his surface charms...

"Our Firebrand looks good all jeweled up n gaudy though, doesn't he? Should be draped in trinkets, dripping with them till they weigh him to the floor. I want him to have ten-thousand rings and then ten-thousand more after that. Not that he'll ever be satisfied with that alone, but? That's part of the appeal..." albite swallowed, even as he turned to face Taenite fully, to really just -- have his fill of looking while he sized the other man up.

"My own loves the kind that's unquenchable so the people I love in turn? Should burn equally as hot n wild," the words supplied with heat and tease, as no one else had ever offered him a damn thing quite like this. Oh, there were feelings, friendships, good times, lifetimes! Yes! They had that, gave that willingly. Offered their hearts wholly and their beds wholesale! But the promise of another ring to wear? That hadn't come up yet, insofar as even Albite hadn't' considered the possibility of it yet, short sighted as he felt he was to have not...."N I know -- you're hot n wild Tae-tae, but I can't say I ever expected to get an offer from you? Are you sure..." and Albite knew Ren wasn't some easily smothered maiden, that the Ring had to mean more n just the fact that Ren had the money to spend on it.

"Are you sure when it comes to me? Like, that you really want everything me wearing your ring's gonna entail....." slow n serious as he closed the distance between himself and the other man. He was going to have to make Taenite chose a drink on his behalf, to make full use of the aesthetically pleasing display of his office, the makeshift fire, the cozyness, and tell him honestly all the things they'd clearly needed to go over from 'Go'. It'd been a long time coming.

"M'not quite like our Firebrand, not for this."

Taenite wasn't a shark---or a dog--or---

He was a force of nature. The kind Waru was and wasn't familiar with all at once. That was about the only ******** thing Waru could think to compare Ren to; how the silver-fox lacked the 'rip-tide spit you out in pieces' pull that some of his other loves held. He was his own thing entirely, free to do what the ******** ever, hungry for more - always - always - more. Whipped winds that twisted in ways so unpredictable Albite wondered that he hadn't gotten whiplash from talking with the man before! Not the way he was now, having him so close; feeling seen, wanted, hungered for.

Being offered a ring.

"You forget I'm a Senshi--heh--that we're Senshi, right?" because being human, gorunding as it was, was boring. It had become an existence secondary to wearing the glamor a henshin provided. His world had become so much smaller of a thing to live in since becoming 'Albite' and while at first he'd snarled for the idea of that (those old limitations he'd falsely perceived) gnashed at the bit n burden of responsibilities, mourned the tediousness of grunt work n being looked down upon for bearing a hole in his chest. Ever since meeting Faustite? Nembus? So many countless others on either side!! Getting a fire lit under his a** that meant making an effort to actually learn something about himself, the stars, everything---

He didn't lament it anymore. Found nothing lacking for how he could fill every space with people he could love eternally instead of only for a minute, a night, a weekend. His world was smaller now by choice, the echoing vastness of infinity lay within arms reach if ever he wanted for it. How he felt all the more joy for having just one more choice to accept or deny at whim.

"M'made to burn fast n bright right now. So that when I die? My future incarnations will have something worthwhile to look back on. A good lesson. There's always gonna be a piece of me living on, m'always gonna be Praxidike at heart--quite ********' literally. In this life, n'integral part of whoever rides this Starseed in the next. Whatever kinda existence they get born into? Some of it's still gonna be me n mine........" the run-on exchange of words dashed by colorfully by desire mingled with amusement, all the things Albite could've gone on about forever. All the ways he liked *hearing* how exquisite a taste Taenite thought he was -- the desire to ask fore more pretty words burned nice n low in his veins, simmered there as he looked down into Ren's eyes longingly.

"But since I'm Albite right the ******** now? Yeah...I want that ring...I want your ring, Ren." the concerns clearly heard, shoved aside, so Albite could find places to slot his arms around the well trimmed man who smelled of summer-baked skies n finery. Could twine his calloused, searching fingers in silvery threads of too long hair. "I want it badly as I wanna be hollowed out with the kinda love only the hottest fires bring, so I can be filled up with something better.....become someone better....." for himself, for the people he invested his time in, whatever desires they held in him. Even if it was only companionable noise and surface-friendship. The idea of being a mold strong enough to hold others in, an iron cast reservoir repaired with gold, inlaid with something far more beautiful than his own perpetual flaws that he knew he suffered.

"C'n I ask only that we wait till after---after everything with Eion cools down? I don't have to receive anything properly, presentation wise, I don't ********' care if you leave it on my countertop with a note stapled to it. But if I have to attend a wedding n a funeral all at the same? That---that might just break me. Cause I wanna take what I want in the middle of the best kind of time..." he didn't want it to seem like he was turning Ren down, he wasn't, couldn't bear to, not when the offer was so enticing! The timing of it all rankled some small fragile part of himself though. Edged a rough bit of lingering anxiety labeled 'what the ******** if'; to become widowed by the first love while taking on a second so brazenly---

Even if Eion wouldn't've minded? Even if Waru wanted Eion to have every man he desired on his arm right the ******** now! He couldn't do that with himself.

"Wanna offer you a grand sorta consolation prize for being patient with me now, though. If you're game---tho m'not sure your office is the place for it...might ruin something...." soft heat wrapped around the offer, because Ren's lips were impossible not to stare at, so close, to trace with his eyes even as he wanted to part them with his tongue; to own them with his teeth n see what he got back for daring to try and stake a claim of his own.

Of course the ring would've been Taenite, Albite couldn't even begin to imagine anything more fitting then that. The most brazen sort of claim, bold, expensive, full of sharp metallic patterns from the very stars. He knew how he'd poured Faustite into his boys ring -- hadn't even realized the thing was a green mineral till he'd seen it! Though once he had? How perfect was that, green flames embossed in rock, one of Waru's personal favorite colors besides blacks and burnt oranges. He'd had it woven round purples -- hues of his team -- hues of his heart.

He didn't admonish Taenite for his lack of interest elsewhere, in the outer systems n stars, he found it poetic even. How focused the man was on the here n now. What Albite knew he struggled to manage even in keeping up with sentences, with thoughts, Taenite had mastered twice over. That Ren was able to so well keep track of himself n his own desires -- keep them in line -- it made the man before him even more worth hungering after.

Worth waiting for.

His Tae-Tae -- heh -- their Ren -- shared n shared alike and Albite exuded excitement from his very pores; practically vibrated where he stood for how he caught Taenites promising grins, such a tease....

"I ******** love it--s'perfect from you, all secretly poetic n such. The way you're such a presence n most wouldn't even know it," but Waru knew, that Faustite had fallen into Ren before he'd even been a blip on his boys radar. That space to earth and grounding and on fire were terms that all made sense when he thought about them. Some weird thought experiment of connections that made sense in his head n his head alone.

"The second mines ready I wanna see it--hey!" the whispered words so close that he shivered for them, reached for that kiss, and the way Ren caught his neck and dragged marks over his pulse line before dancing playfully away had him gasping -- wide eyed, wanting, and realizing he should maybe be handing that consolation prize he promised over with some ******** speed. "T e a s e--you like being in charge though, huh? Setting the pace--" and his eyes screamed 'Eternal Albite at Your Service', because there was lots of space in that office to kneel. He sure as hell thought about saying it aloud. Even as the magic beneath his skin roiled for wanting to snag, hold, and pull Taenite right the hell back. He'd ask first though, always ask, even if the fiery little minx was daring him to try for it.

"Uh-huhn, f'you're with me Tae? Won't ever have to be acting. S'the last thing I want from you----now, roleplay?" Albite snorted softly even as he said the words, full of mirth for the little dance, the effortless way Taenite lured him in and kept just out of hand. He ran his eyes over all those slim lines swathed in sheer cloth, and embroidery. Found the man a detailed display of 'expensive' even as a Senshi, and wanted so very badly to ruin that desk he was pressed against.

Such a ******** tease!

Albite found him frustrating and worthy of adoration all at once, wondered if he'd ever find out exactly what it was that lured his Firebrand back to Ren time and again-- Wasn't the money, probably wasn't even the abs. Okay, could've been the abs, but? It didn't really matter though, not just then, not when what mattered most was the fact that they were both apparently on the same page where Faustite was concerned.

The belief of life -- the way he saw all the mans words shape out 'he's not dying' without saying them properly. Heard the unspoken between. Taenite wanted Faustite alive, he realized, and that in itself was a relief. The other mans determination, his surety -- so ******** sure in fact that he was ready to propose on the spot -- but also willing to wait until after Faustite was 'better'. For Warus sake, he thought, and not because anything was going to go wrong between now n then....

Because nothing would go wrong, everything would be fine, Faustite wasn't dying.

"You 'think' -- but don't you wanna be sure, Tae-tae? Take some proper measurements, since we're all agreed on it now..." spoken low and enticing, slow steps to close more inches while watching for the next move -- he wanted Taenite to be sure. To explain it in details. To pick a finger or slot the newest ring round Faustites own like an additional cage; metal around bone around flesh and the idea of it all was so pretty in his head when he thought about it for half a second.

Just as pretty as Taenite was in person--