[RQ] and the rest is rust and stardust

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

"Ha h--oh fuck--" Danta's victory, as it happened, is entirely short lived, because in Asta's scrabbling, the spider limbed Ancient successfully manages to hook an arm around his calf, and the Maverick is left toppling into the water after him. Luckily, it's with choked out laughter that he hits the pool of crimson, flailing to try and grapple onto one of the smaller boulders that had allowed the butcher to haul himself out of the water in the first place.

"Have mercy--" he's calling, assuming Asta is seeking him out for retribution, and if the butcher looks as though he's getting too close, Danta has no qualms about trying to splash blood into his face to allow him to swim away. Not that there's far to go - the pool isn't infinite, after all, and given the roar of the water at their backs, they're somewhat restricted in where they can run and hide.

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// we haven't won, and if we win, //

Rising to the surface after definitely feeling the connection and the movement of water from the Maverick falling in alongside him, Astaroth isn’t too keen on letting him slip away this time. The butcher rises, this time blinking through the blood as his hair is properly fucked up again, it’s nothing that the taller Ancient cares about as he zeroes in on Danta clinging to the rock he’d used to climb up on the boulder in the first place.

Of course, his antlers poke out of the water as the dead giveaway of his location, even as the rest of him remains beneath the surface not unlike his lial shift would do, enough that even with the splashing of blood from Danta as he approaches doesn’t do much to ward him away.

In fact, before Danta can even make his great escape, Astaroth blinks through the splashed blood, rising out enough from the water to reach for his arm and to pin him back against the boulder, making them both cling to it as the blood laps against their bodies. “You want mercy, do you?” He says in a tone that’s deeper and rougher, but the glint in his eyes is just as playful as before.

Astaroth

// and if the morning light sets in, we've cheated fate again //

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

"Hey, no fair--" That's to Asta having a naturally longer reach than Danta, because if he'd just been a couple of seconds faster he'd have been able to slip away. Alas, with the butcher snagging and pinning his arm, he's left pressed back against the boulder and gazing up (and up) at the other man as he rises out of the water enough to join him. With rivulets of scarlet still running the length of his body and lending a ruddy shimmer to the diamond of his horns, the two of them look more like something out of that one part of Baldur's Gate a horror movie than anything else.

"I mean, I did," he purrs, raising his eyebrows and looking Asta up and down as if questioning whether the alternative might be much better if the butcher is going to manhandle him like this. "What does mercy entail?" he asks, as if this might be something he can customise to his whims after unceremoniously shoving Asta into the water.

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// we haven't won, and if we win, //

Accurately pinning the Maverick and hearing the no fair comment, Astaroth peers down at Danta as his figure casts a shadow amongst the shorter, blonde Ancient. The both of them coated in red and dripping into the rest of the pool below them, and the butcher shifts a little to better pin him with his body rather than just an arm.

His head tilts, sharp tines of his horns dripping blood as his grin is equally as sharp as it is bloody. “What do you think it entails, darling?” He asks with his own purr, that same playful glint in his gaze as his tail sweeps under the water to wrap around Danta’s leg, another point of contact. “Shall I release you to allow you to be more of a menace?” Raising a brow, the butcher’s grin twists into a smirk.

Astaroth

// and if the morning light sets in, we've cheated fate again //

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

Feeling all of a sudden as though he's about to become Dantalion rather than Danta, the Maverick is nevertheless still feeling like a lot bit of a shitbag, such that his smile as he gazes up at Asta is one of casual arrogance. "Releasing me would certainly be a mercy," he agrees, his own tail flicking this way and that, the spaded tip slapping against the scarlet water. "I'm not sure what else you could plan to do with me otherwise."

The butcher is not known to be merciful, after all. Stepping forward as best he can, bringing them almost chest to chest, Danta tilts his head until their lips are mere inches apart. "Then again, I really am a bit of a menace, aren't I?" As if to prove it, the Maverick attempts to shove off from the boulder and send them both careening back into the water, whether or not they can stay upright.

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// we haven't won, and if we win, //

It is truly everything that lines up to getting Astaroth precisely in that mood – the control, the blood around them, Dantalion. Yet, the casual arrogance is met with more amusement from the butcher as he cocks his head again, wild hair starting to dry in clumps of bloodied tangles. “I think it is the only mercy at my disposal right now.” Astaroth purrs playfully, distracted enough by how the Maverick leans forward, the two of them chest to chest, lips so close to each other.

And what a distraction it is, because half a second before Astaroth is ready to lean in and press a greedy kiss to the blonde Ancient’s lips, Danta’s shove has the butcher’s still slick fingertips loosening from the rock that had kept them upright, though it hadn’t freed the one from Danta’s wrist nor his tail wrapped around the other Ancient’s leg.

Sucking in a breath of air, Astaroth slips, stumbling back into the water with a bark of laughter, pulling the Maverick along with him.

Astaroth

// and if the morning light sets in, we've cheated fate again //

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

At least this time Danta is well aware that he's still anchored to the butcher, giving him time to steal a breath of his own before they crash back into the scarlet pool, and for any unfortunate that might come across them, gods but it will look as though a lial has caught some prey with all the thrashing about in the water. Still, managing to surface even with Asta snagged onto his wrist and ankle, Danta gasps in a fresh breath and tries to splash at the other man to get away.

That is, until he gets a better idea.

If Asta isn't suspicious of the way Danta suddenly stops fighting in the water, he really ought to be - the Maverick's aim now is absolutely to try and grapple his way onto the butcher's back where he can't be pinned or got, though there's a high likelihood of him failing (and/or drowning) before that happens. "You know," he quips out, even as he tries to playfully shove Asta's head under, "I'm surprised you even know how to swim."

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// we haven't won, and if we win, //

Blood splashes everywhere as the two Ancient’s playfully engage in the struggle of rising to the surface, Astaroth especially seeing as the air in his lungs have vanished with the laughter that had broken from him. He manages it, though, precisely at the time that Danta splashes at him again, tail and hand releasing if only to try and splash at him back. Only, as he opens his eyes and blinks through the crimson sheen, he notices Danta isn’t there anymore.

Taking in a breath of air as the other man grapples onto his back, wound perfectly around him to where he cannot pin him, Astaroth drops below the water briefly before pushing up and rising to get another breath, gasping out a “what makes you say that?” As his arms lift to try and grab at the hands trying to push his head under the water again, head tilting back to where the tines of his antlers might knock into the Maverick for an additional attempt to get him to stop trying to drown him.

Astaroth

// and if the morning light sets in, we've cheated fate again //

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

Letting his legs tighten around Asta's waist and barking out a playful curse as he's prevented from drowning the other man (as Climb tradition dictates, Danta would say, and he should know since he made it up in the last five seconds), the Maverick's hands are seized and he has to lean back out of the way of sharp horns. Snapping his teeth at them - and knowing it wouldn't end well - he relaxes at last in his attempts at violence. He doesn't get off Asta's back, though, intending on using him as a ferry around the crimson waters.

"Are you saying you did much swimming in Whitebrim?" He fires back with a raise of his brows, relaxing enough to loop his arms around the butcher's shoulders. "I imagine it would be a bit nippy to learn out on the Tundra." Which only means, of course, that Asta must have learned upon coming to The Climb, and gods, now he wishes he'd been given the freedom to see it happen.

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// we haven't won, and if we win, //

It’s a well fought battle, truthfully, because he’s managed to evade the accidental drowning in the blood water and also managed to entrap Danta’s hands enough that he has to lean back to not get stabbed or knocked into by his horns, and Astaroth finally starts to relax the second he feels the tension drop in the Maverick’s body.

Relaxing and letting him be ferried around, Astaroth’s hands slip from Danta’s arms to reach out for the rock they’d just been by, utilizing it to keep them upright and give him a moment to breathe and catch his breath. “Not in Whitebrim, Danta.” He says in a tone that seems to say obviously. “I never knew how until I became Ancient. And I quite literally sunk like a rock until I figured it out.” He admits, head tilting to keep his horns from poking the Maverick so that he might look up at him with a snort as he sees the blood staining the blonde of his hair and his face, melding with the kohl still around his eyes.

Astaroth

// and if the morning light sets in, we've cheated fate again //

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

Rolling his eyes at the sass but nevertheless melting against the butcher's back as he makes his way back towards the boulder where they'd started, Danta shifts enough to let his chin rest on Asta's shoulder. "All the things I was forced to miss out on," he laments with a deep sigh. "To see you sinking like a rock..." Tutting and shaking his head, even as they reach their rest stop Danta is reluctant to part from the warmth of the other man's body; however pleasant the pool is given the temperature of The Climb, it still isn't exactly a hot spring.

"I learned here, as a child," he says, nodding around them. "With all the other kids of The Climb. We were all shit at it to begin with too, don't worry." That had been when life had been hard with Morax, but not the sort of difficult it had soon developed into. Shaking off the memory and leaning in to obnoxiously nuzzle at a bearded cheek in an attempt to clean off his face, Danta is soon hauling himself up onto the stone.

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// we haven't won, and if we win, //

“You would have never let me live it down.” He offers in the face of the tutting he receives from the Maverick. Anything that could be signified as a weakness or a fault was dexterously hidden away, allowing Astaroth the illusion of being perfect and unbreakable. Something that obviously wasn’t true, and in these past few seasons with Danta and Asta learning more about one another, the Maverick gets to see it first hand – the cracks in the butcher’s façade.

Glancing around once Danta nods to the areas around, he hums a note of understanding. “Yes but you were children.” A soft chuckle leaves him. Children, it made sense. Astaroth was already an adult by the time he tried to learn, and getting his gangly arms to cooperate in water was as much of a challenge as anything else.

Standing still in the water as Danta hauls himself up, though not before sharing some of the blood against his cheek, Astaroth pulls himself up and out of it after him. Though he doesn’t go too far – craving the warmth of the other Ancient’s body as well – the butcher immediately aims to wrangle Danta into a hug. "If it makes you feel any better, I did not get to enjoy this space as much as the others did, either."

Astaroth

// and if the morning light sets in, we've cheated fate again //

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

"I really wouldn't have," Danta agrees wholeheartedly; even now that he's seen that the butcher can swim without issue, had he been able to find out at the time about his lack of skill in such an arena, Dygra knows he'd have taken full advantage of it. "Mm, we were Climb children, though," he points out. Not that there are any around now to demonstrate, but to say that Ancient children were more feral than their adult counterparts is not far wrong.

Clambering up to sit on the hot expanse of stone where Asta had been resting before he'd been rudely interrupted by the Maverick, it's with an affectionate snarl that Danta allows himself to be wrangled into the other man's arms. "I don't think it makes me feel better," he admits, tilting his head back to gaze up at him. "It doesn't make me feel worse, though. And look now." He gestures to the roaring waterfall, the empty crimson pool.

"Not a soul around. All's well that ends well."

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// we haven't won, and if we win, //

Oh, Astaroth knows intimately the kind of holes Danta would have poked at had he a chance to. It’s why he’d never given anyone here a chance to see such things. “Climb children are just as feral as cannibal children, I will have you know.” He informs him a touch haughtily, before a laugh leaves him after.

Climbing up onto the rock after the Maverick, the butcher completely ignores the snarl he hears for the hug and warmth their bodies radiate from both the movement and the rock they’re currently lounging on. His arms wind around him and he’s half tempted to snap his teeth at him in retaliation for the snarl when the bright blues meet him, stronger now for the red that stains the Maverick’s face. Helplessly, he stares down at Danta, one hand lifting to run along the decorations nestled into the mess of blonde hair, before tracing along a rainbow horn, his finger leaving behind a line of cleanliness among the somewhat opaque hue of red that’s coated it.

“And you got to be frivolous for once.” Astaroth raises a brow down at him as if to see whether or not he did get to enjoy himself. Though, should the butcher assume, he would have to say the Maverick did solely based on how sore his body would be from all of the swimming and tangling and tackling.

Astaroth

// and if the morning light sets in, we've cheated fate again //