3 o'clock things

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

"Not to brag?" Niki repeats with a scoff of laughter, having to tip his head back a fraction to peer up at Sunjata through his fingers, given the other man's place propped against the headboard. The amusement fades, of course, as his drunken mind ties together the implications, and he remembers belatedly the reasons for a few of the Heartless's visits to his home in the Greatwood, not to mention, y'know, his title of The Heartless.

"If it helps, I dunno if I actually like my own company or if I'm just really used to it." How in the world that might help is beyond Niki, but he's well beyond social lubrication by now, so the words flow as easily as the alcohol did earlier. "Maybe it's different if you've been alone more'n you've been with other people. Sorry, though. It sounds hard." Probably for both of them, not that he can realise as much currently.

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

relive who i've been at my worst,
every single night, looking for a distraction

“You heard me.” Sunjata retorts with a soft snort, even if he’s trying his fucking hardest to not let it become another little sad hour – because that’s how it always seemed to go, because he can’t talk about anything other than misconceptions or his exes, or how he can’t wait to finish this quest with Frey so he can drink and feel again.

He tries to keep it locked behind his teeth with the way he chews on his lip, glancing down at Niki when he tries to help – and really, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Given how many shots Niki had, it’s no surprise to him that he can’t piece it together, like he’s on a different wavelength. “I like your company.” He offers out, like a quiet little protest. “But yeah, I’m pretty sure I do it to myself so it is what it is.” Sunjata shrugs lightly, hunkering down in the bed a little more, continuing to nibble on his lip.

the flood

waiting for the sun to rise
pretty sight for some hollow eyes

totally sniped from odd ilu

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

"Well, good," Niki says, his boyish smile visible even through the mask of his fingers. "I like your company too, even if you're unfairly handsome and I never know where to look, and you get yourself into really ridiculous situations." His tone never strays beyond amused and affectionate, just in case Sunjata thinks its a slight, and now that the world had started to keep still a little more, he lets his hand slip from his face to rest atop his chest, the other still buried in his hair.

"It is what it is," he echoes with an unimpressed scrunch of his nose. "I dunno if I believe in that. If I did, I'd have prob'ly died when I was a kid." Scoffing, he nevertheless supposes that it might be different for Sunjata, glancing up at the other man properly. "You're sad," he says suddenly, like his mind has just connected the dots between all the things the other man isn't saying.

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

relive who i've been at my worst,
every single night, looking for a distraction

A small huff of a laugh leaves him, hearing Niki’s affectionate and playful voice reaches him, regardless of the slurring that accompanies it. It isn’t a slight, but for all the compliments he receives he’s still terrible at accepting them. “I do, don’t I?” He admits, slouching a little more as Niki gets more comfortable, finally succumbing to sinking down in the bed to rest his head on the too plush emerald pillow, twisting to face him.

“Oh, well, we’ve got that in common.” He admits to the necromancer’s scoff. “I got put in a lot of shitty situations.” The whole swim trial before the real trial, Sunjata’d had a number of times his father tried to fuck him over.

Ah, but with Niki’s realization? His steel gaze isn’t focused on Niki when the answer comes, looking anywhere but the other man’s face. “A little, yeah.. That’s normal for me. Don’t worry about it.” He strives for a smile, a poor attempt at one that he’s hoping the shadows of his face from the lanterns might keep it from being the false smile it is.

the flood

waiting for the sun to rise
pretty sight for some hollow eyes

totally sniped from odd ilu

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

"Mmmhm," Niki says in ready agreement, fingers drumming against his chest as he tries to remember Sunjata's various escapades - and that's only since he's known him. "You met me getting lost in the woods, I found you on a bench after a fire, you showed up at my house after getting drunk on a boat... M'sure there's more." He grins, but even if they sound lighthearted when he lists them all out, very few of them are.

The other man has become strangely horizontal in the time he's been talking, Niki forced to shift a bit on the bed to face him properly in a way that doesn't make his head swim. "Me too," he mumbles of shitty situations; the scars that cover his body are clear evidence of that much, after all.

"How come?" he asks rather than not worrying about it, Niki's face half smooshed into one of the pillows now as he rolls enough to continue talking with the Heartless. "If it's my fault, I'm sorry. I dunno what I'm sayin' right now, to be honest."

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

relive who i've been at my worst,
every single night, looking for a distraction

“Hmm, that is a lot.” Even if it wasn’t the entirety of the issues he’s had. He can’t remember anything more than what Niki’s listed out, but to be honest he’s not really looking or thinking that hard about it. Because his mind is flooded with the fact that he does enjoy spending time with Niki, evident in how he’s started to orbit him much easier now that he lives here – evident in how he’d made sure there was a house that would be perfect for him to stay in so that he wouldn’t be yet another person he’d gotten to know that inevitably left him in the end.

On his side now, head half buried in the pillow too with a gaze that won’t focus on the necromancer’s face, Sunjata hums a soft note of agreement. “We’re still here, though.” And that has to say something, demigod status or not.

But Niki continues on, asking, and it’s half expected until the idea is put out there that it was Niki’s fault and his gaze snaps up to the necromancer with a shake of his head that only ruffles his hair and wrinkles the pillow. “It’s not your fault.” He says quickly, just to try and get that idea out of the necromancer’s mind. “Today was actually one of the nicest times I’ve had in a while.” It comes out so easily that it certainly doesn’t seem like a lie.

As for why he’s sad, he’s not sure he can describe it. Not even sure where it came from fully, whether it’s Niki’s scars or the fact that he’s had such a good time and he knows it’s about to come to an end because morning will come before they know it and he’ll be expected to be busy again running the region and the House of Midnight in an attempt at a distraction. Filling his time with everything else so he isn’t alone with his thoughts. "I don't know how to explain it."

the flood

waiting for the sun to rise
pretty sight for some hollow eyes

totally sniped from odd ilu

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

"Mm, you're a busy man when it comes to gettin' in trouble," Niki agrees, having learned that much about Sunjata within days of meeting him. (It's not the only thing he'd learned about him, for which he's grateful, but it still stands out, sorry Jata). Huffing out a long sigh, his nod of agreement makes the world ooze to the side a bit, so the necromancer puts a stop to that quite quickly. "Still here, an' still in one piece," he declares, before interrupting himself with a scoff of dark laughter. "Well. In pieces, but they've been stitched up to look like one."

The surprise that flashes across his expression is youthful in its honesty, Niki's lips twitching into a smile that's unexpected even for him. "Yeah? I had fun too. Though I dunno what was so nice about watchin' me get trashed. Some would call it bullying." Not Niki, but someone, somewhere, probably.

But then Sunjata falls quiet and morose in that way he does sometimes, Niki regarding him through hooded blue eyes, before he reaches out to promptly (and sloppily) tap at the Heartless's forehead, like he can knock the thoughts back into order. "Then don't," he offers. "You can just... be sad, for as long as you need to be sad. It's not a crime."

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

relive who i've been at my worst,
every single night, looking for a distraction

“Haven’t seemed to slow down in my years, either.” He says playfully, like he’s a seventy-year-old man, immortality be damned. Either way, they face each other in the little cave of the fields of King’s End meshed with the rain and general gloom of the Greatwood, in a bed far to large and comfortable. And at the comment that Niki gives, Sunjata’s not too sure how far to push him in asking about it. But it makes a whole lot of sense when it comes to the pieces stitched together, the Creature to some Frankenstein he isn’t entirely sure is Niki or someone else. “Is that what happened to your leg, too?” He ventures quietly, unsure how to proceed along what feels like a really delicate conversation, especially with Niki as he is.

He’s stunned momentarily by the surprise that flashes across Niki’s face and the smile that blooms there, boyish and sweet and a lovely, almost unprompted thing. “I guess it was just nice to share some time with you.” Comes the easy admission, the shrug of a tattooed shoulder.

It’s easy to let the worry pick back up, to seep back in, because for as much as Sunjata’s patched himself up from wounds both caused and not caused by him, he’s unfortunately left spaces for it to continue to leak in, regardless of how many conversations with Frey he’s had. Yes, he’s had a new idea for his life, but there were times like this where he can remember what the good times were like and how they’ll never be here again.

The tap to his forehead sparks a little flash of that passive magic, lightning illuminating them briefly as it races across his face and he’s already trying to bury his face into the pillow as if to stop it from blinding Niki – too late for that, unfortunately. “Sorry.” He says suddenly, muffled by the pillow, completely avoiding the honesty that Niki offers him, the space to be how he is, even if he wants to be or not.

the flood

waiting for the sun to rise
pretty sight for some hollow eyes

totally sniped from odd ilu

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

"Where's the fun in that?" Niki scoffs, though it's easy for him to say something like that given how little trouble he gets himself in compared to the Heartless. The rain seems to redouble its efforts in the brief silence - a subconscious effort by the necromancer, because it's almost certainly still snowing in reality - and as Sunjata asks a question that has come up dozens and dozens of times in Niki's life, he might surprise the other man in his easy and frank shrug.

"I dunno what happened to it," he says, glancing down at his right leg as if it might answer the question itself. "My parents died when I was really small. Apparently it was like that when I got to the orphanage. I dunno if I was born like it, or..." He shrugs again. It either hadn't healed right or was never right to begin with, apparently. "It's fine like this. Only really a problem when I put weight on it."

Glancing up just in time to be unexpectedly dazzled by the scar that lights up on Sunjata's face, Niki huffs a surprised laugh and rubs at his eyes. "It's fine. You didn't do it on purpose." Presumably, anyway. "And it was nice to spent time with you too." Still is, in fact.

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

relive who i've been at my worst,
every single night, looking for a distraction

Content to let the conversation melt away over the trouble Sunjata tended to get into in favor for focusing on one of the hardest questions he’s found it in him to ask. And honestly, he’s surprised at such a frank answer, no apprehension in it just general understanding that it’s never quite been right. But he nods his understanding, working his jaw, the side that’s buried in the pillow. “Oh. That makes sense.” He says a little dumbly, chewing on the inside of his cheek. He thinks about saying how he’d gotten shot years ago, how the healing had been hard there too despite having the best doctors available and no magic to miraculously heal anything.

But he doesn’t, because the necromancer’s tapping his forehead and Sunjata’s face is flashing like a lightbulb half dead sparking to life with the touch. He can hear the laugh despite how he buries his face into the pillow and tilts his head back slightly to look over at him and see him wipe at his eyes. “I’m glad.” He murmurs softly, gently as he tries to pull himself back together, shifting back onto the pillow a bit closer to the Abandoned and appearing somehow rather small with the way he’s hunched onto his side, a leg curled in. “I can be a lot sometimes, but I've been trying to be better.”

the flood

waiting for the sun to rise
pretty sight for some hollow eyes

totally sniped from odd ilu

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

"Mm, more or less," Niki agrees of his leg, casting a playfully disdainful look down at it as if daring it to explain itself. "Either way, it's been with me like this since I can remember, so..." Shrugging, he lets the explanation taper off. Not quite it is what it is, because whilst he understands the limitations it causes, he's learned to negotiate around them as best he can, but something akin to it.

He glances back up in time to find Sunjata closer somehow, the necromancer blinking a couple of times as if to try and rearrange reality a little better (difficult when he's still half dazzled by the sudden light show). At his remark, though, he can't help but let out an undignified snort. "Who told you that?" he wants to know. "You've not been a lot since I've known you, an' I've seen you at parties."

Alright, maybe scooping him up and taking him to bed could be considered a lot, but in the overall scale of Flora's party, it probably doesn't even make the list for weirdest shit that happened.

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

relive who i've been at my worst,
every single night, looking for a distraction

“And magical healing doesn’t touch it?” He asks curiously, unable to help himself. Not even sure if Niki had tried and it hadn’t worked or if there was another reason. Maybe he didn’t want it fixed, and that’s something Sunjata can also understand. He probably could go through all the trouble of removing scars and the trauma to his body – like the tendons in his mouth where the wound had sliced through – but he hadn’t wanted to change those either.

He settles in, though, watching in the low light as Niki blinks away the lines that likely remain behind his lids from the lightshow he’d unintentionally offered, just to hear the snort that leaves him and the way it sounds so effortless and real. “Did it occur to you that I might’ve been on my best behavior?” He asks, bouncing his scarred brow and letting a small smile break through the dredges of everything else weighing him down.

the flood

waiting for the sun to rise
pretty sight for some hollow eyes

totally sniped from odd ilu

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

"Nah," Niki says of magical healing, shaking his head and mussing his hair further against the pillow. "Either it's s'posed to be this way or I think I'd need to break it in a lot of places to have it healed 'properly', and... I dunno. I don't wanna risk losin' what I got." Healing, magical or otherwise, is not infallible, Niki has learned, and he isn't keen to tempt fate.

But then Sunjata is claiming to have been on his best behaviour, and the necromancer can't hide his grin even if he'd wanted to. "Your best behaviour had you turning up on my doorstep, drunk, in a snowstorm," he points out, shaking his head and only half regretting it this time. "Nah. Sorry, you're just not as much of a problem as you think you are." And believe him, no matter how it sounds, it's actually a compliment.

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

relive who i've been at my worst,
every single night, looking for a distraction

“Yeah, that’s a fair point.” Sunjata admits, not hiding the wince as he thinks about the implications of it. Wisely, though, he keeps the thoughts to himself that bloom – of just how much worse it could be if healing didn’t work. Though, he supposes if Niki had gotten close enough to a god, they might have the best odds with fixing it or a better reason and understanding to leave it how it is.

The grin that sparks across Niki’s face is vibrant and infectious, Sunjata’s blooming in response in a lopsided stretch across his face only half hidden by the pillow. “And I was very polite about it.” He protests, right as Niki’s certainly not taking his shit. It sparks a soft laugh to leave him, gentler, conceding the point on it because otherwise he’d strive to try and tell Niki all the reasons why he was wrong about it.

Because this was fun and easy and they really didn’t know that much about each other yet, and he’s positive all it would take is a little bit of time for Niki to realize Sunjata isn’t as great as Niki might think. “Well, I’m bound to believe you some time in the future with how many times I’ve found myself here, huh, therapist?” In Niki’s bed or his home, that is. Without anything else aside from his company.

the flood

waiting for the sun to rise
pretty sight for some hollow eyes

totally sniped from odd ilu