IC Inbox

[knowmyplace]

text // audio // video // action

Comments

[knowmyplace]

He sinks down onto the grass with him and spreads his fingers across it.

He can do this. He's - clear and he's free and he's fine. "Then lie down and watch the stars," he tells him, settling down on his back to do the same. "Tell me how they sing to you."

[deuceoftears]

Jedao tucks himself against Iago's side, so that he can feel the barely-real edges of him, the surface as well as the weight, the soft warmth of skin at his wrist, impossibly dry for water and salt, the weave of his clothes. He breathes, matches their breathing together.

"Like -" he hums, and croons softly, vowels rising and falling, simple undulating rhythms, resonating chords splayed across time. "The dance," he murmurs after his voice starts to get scratchy. "They spin. Their far-off light is the flare of a skirt swirling out as they spin, and burn, and shine."

[knowmyplace]

"They do," he agrees. "For all of us." He takes a breath, lets it out, feels Jedao's chest rise and fall in tandem with his. He curls his arm around him, toying gently with the ends of his hair. "What does their dance say?"

He speaks softly, barely above the strum of a guitar a million miles away on a stage that they'd never be able to reach.

[deuceoftears]

"Alive," Jedao says, feeling suddenly breathless, a little too loose to explain better, like watercolor overflowing the lines of a sketch, untethered to the outlines of his own skin. The endless crush, the endless bursting-forth, the seething forge sizzling and turning over and over and over, the plunging warp, nestling sharp and deep into the fabric of the world, like a ring clasped in velvet, like a brooch in an eye, the helpless effulgence of pouring-out heat into the void, spilling its weightless curving arcs up and up the deep well of their gravitational beds, the effortless endless flinging-off of glittering glory, in every direction, perfect, replete. The burning up of their own life, the perfect balance, the lambent crown.

"Alive, alive, alive. Every feeling. The deepest rest, the most urgent effort. Falling into themselves. Pouring out of themselves. Dying, changing, burning. Alive, alive, alive."

[knowmyplace]

It isn't about explaining; it's all poetry and nonsense to Iago, though there's something of crumbs of truth to be found. Still, he holds him close as he talks. Still, he keeps a tight grip on him as they lie there. Still, he doesn't let him go, as if he might float away and into trouble if he does.

He turns and kisses him again. "It's beautiful," he mutters. "Like sand sifting through your fingers on its way to the river. Like water that clings to the leaves in the dawn."

[deuceoftears]

Jedao kisses him back, sweet and slow and deep, then beams at him.

"Yes." Yes, like that. He has seen few dawns from the ground, but he has loved them all. "I should show you skydawn. When we go back. The blaze of light kissing the whole curve of a world at once."

[knowmyplace]

"I'd like that," he assures him, though he isn't certain how much he will remember from this moment of lucidity. "For now, stay here," he encourages him, gently trailing his fingers along his shoulder. "You should try and sleep."

[deuceoftears]

Jedao hums in pleasure, soft acquiesence.

"You'll hold me?" It feels so good to be held right now, to be touching, pressed close and present, an anchor as his mothsense flutters on the vast winds of the crowd.

[knowmyplace]

He doesn't let any hesitation show. "I'll be here," he promises. "I will hold you as long as you wish."

He doesn't want to let him go. Maybe he wants to indulge in the touch himself.

[deuceoftears]

He nestles in a little more, letting his eyes close, letting his mind drift. He drifts a little bit literally, too, occasionally starting to float for a few seconds until Iago tightens his hold and tugs him back down - at which point he always settles again, even as he drifts into true slumber, his body reflexively trusting the arms around him, content to be bound by them.

[knowmyplace]

Iago manages to stay awake for the most part, keeping Jedao literally grounded. The first time it happened, he was startled enough to almost let him go, but he flexes his arm around him and smiles as he settles in right beside him again.

Despite himself, despite his talk and his thoughts and his worries and his arrogance, he's - relatively happy here. Confused as to why he didn't completely give in to him. It would have been easy; he can see that now.

That feeling of wrongness sits with him, cold and hard in his chest, so he simply attributes it to not wanting to be caught out. Not wanting to destroy whatever goodwill he had accumulated.

He manages to doze off and on, though the moving people and aliens and - everyone - ensures that he doesn't actually sleep.

[deuceoftears]

Jedao wakes up with no high and no hangover, his strange version of immortality burning away all the effects of the dubious poisons when he isn't consciously stopping it from doing so. He just feels good, relaxed and rested and full of lingering connectedness, contentment, goodwill.

"I hope I didn't impose on you too terribly," he murmurs, as the dawn glows around them.

[knowmyplace]

Iago, in contrast, feels like he might rather be hungover. He's exhausted, the world seeming a little blurry around the edges.

"Not at all," he tells him and his smile is a little lopsided but completely, strangely, genuine. "How are you feeling?"

[deuceoftears]

"Lovely," Jedao says after a moment of thought. Beyond good. He feels lovely.

Jedao brushes Iago's hair back from his face and laughs gently.

"Thank you for staying with me. Would you like to go rest in a real bed now?"

[knowmyplace]

He leans into that touch. "I should, I should. But you are right that the ground is quite comfortable." He places a hand over Jedao's. "Are you offering to walk me to my cabin?"

[deuceoftears]

"You liar," Jedao says, utterly fondly. "I don't think you got any real sleep out here at all."

He pets a little more, indulging them both.

"I am, yes."

[knowmyplace]

Liar Jedao calls him and Iago smiles with warmth, finding nothing but amusement in the word.

He pushes himself up and away for a moment, stretching his arms over his head. He feels - sore in all the wrong places, but sleeping in a bed is exactly what he needs. "How do you wake so refreshed? Do you - recall anything of the evening?"

[deuceoftears]

"I remember everything," Jedao admits, pink tinging his cheeks, and the tips of his ears, a little bit of the dawn splashing him, embarrassed but not ashamed, still perfectly comfortable meeting Iago's eyes as he gets to his feet as well.

"So I know you've seen enough to guess that I'm not especially human."

[knowmyplace]

"I have met some exceptionally odd humans," he points out and stands, his eyes on that stain of pink on his cheeks for half a second too long. He looks away, rubbing the back of his neck. "But I can guess that you are much different than human."

[deuceoftears]

"Well, one of the...consequences, of what I am, is that I heal very quickly. Which, happily, includes both processing recreational toxins and apparently the aches and pains of sleeping on dirt."

He offers Iago an arm.

[knowmyplace]

He takes that arm. "Were you intending on being by yourself?" he wonders. "You were in no fit state, even as you are. Even with all the strange abilities you have."

[deuceoftears]

"I wasn't by myself. I was with everyone," Jedao says, and for a moment a little of the dreaminess slips back into his voice; he shivers happily with the memory. "But it was better with you there, because you knew you were with me."

He pats Iago's hand with his free one.

"You're very sweet to worry about me. If anyone meant me harm, they would have ended up very confused when they simply couldn't get to me. I was most in danger from poetic loneliness, from which you nobly saved me."

[knowmyplace]

That gets a laugh. "I had thought you would wish to return to a friend. A lover. Someone you have met on more than two occasions. I had hoped you would not fault me for staying."

He looks down. "It was selfishness, too."

[deuceoftears]

"Oh, good," Jedao says cheerfully, deliberately cheeky and bright, leaning over to press a brief, light kiss on Iago's cheek. "I like to be wanted," he confides, "And I did ask."

Selfishness is infinitely preferred over selflessly humoring him.

"Most of my friends and lovers had found other occupation, and my husband is being very responsible and getting supplies in the city. I thought it would be a nice time to simply...drink in the whole festival. And I did like that - but I liked it more with you there, too."

[knowmyplace]

If he has a reaction to the word husband, he doesn't show it outwardly. Instead, the blush that spreads to his cheeks and ears can be seen even underneath cheeks smudged with dirt.

"I enjoyed having you there," he admits. "Though I have found that your presence makes any moment brighter."