I drip and I pour

SUNJATA

the flood

you killed a man there, and i cried
but the rain masked the hurt behind your face

It was a long night – a long night of saying next to nothing after leaving the remains of the Deadiron Ranch. He’d done his best to help her hands retrieve a few of the livestock that had bolted when the fences burned, but it certainly wasn’t all of them and it adds to the rest of the failings he’s become uniquely aware of.

It’s early the next day, having made his way to New Haven once there was nothing else he could do and he wasn’t willing to stick around to be a dartboard for Colt any longer. Covered in soot and ash, smoke clings to his skin and clothes despite the passive magic that might change the outcome of that. At any rate, he looks like a mess even if he doesn’t fully smell like one – wishing for the umpteenth time that there was something strong enough to take the edge off and quietly cursing himself again that he’d become too strong to be able to self medicate the way he used to.

So he’s found his way to the courtyard, hidden from the clouded light that pours through the town, nearby the Sunbean where he thought he might be able to drop by and snag some coffee or something because it was obvious he wasn’t going to get any sleep. Sat on a wood bench, his dragon wings droop behind him like a pool of leather, flat across the ground. It’s early enough that nobody has ventured out too much yet, not that Sunjata thinks he’d care much to be viewed like this (it’s a lie, because he does, but fuck he’s exhausted).

Fruitlessly rubbing his palms against his ashy face, he eventually settles on pinching the bridge of his nose with his eyes closed as a few tiny raindrops begin to fall from the clouds that had formed.

And fuck, if he doesn’t think that’s horribly ironic.

by the way, dear, we're alive
and it hurts 'cause we survived it

NIKI

Niki has been preparing for his trip back home to the Greatwood, but for how long he'll continue to call the forest home is anyone's guess at this point. After his initial meeting with Sunjata at the House of Midnight, his time at the rodeo and his get together with Kaisel, the necromancer has spent a lot of time in New Haven as if to start viewing it as a place he might live rather than somewhere he's merely visiting. And he hasn't been disappointed either, though he's had to remind himself that the sharp scent of fire and smoke in the air is seasonal rather than permanent.

Even if it had been particularly acrid last night.

It's still early but he's nevertheless up and about; he'd encountered the Sunbean on one of his first outings in New Haven, and has been a regular there ever since for strong coffee and decent breakfast. He's just passing towards it, in fact, when the sight of an obvious someone catches his eye on a nearby bench. With no one else around, the sky clouded over and starting to spit rain, and the Heartless looking as if he's just lost a fight with a burning building, it's all but impossible to miss him.

"...Sunjata?" Niki's voice is almost tentative as he pauses and changes direction, cane clicking gently on the path as he heads for the bench. "Gods, are you alright?"

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

SUNJATA

the flood

you killed a man there, and i cried
but the rain masked the hurt behind your face

He lingers, even as the rain continues to start its ironic pitter patter. He hardly feels it with everything else that’s going on, letting it drip into his hair and down into his face, smearing little tracks into the ash and soot that’s clung to his face. He doesn’t hear the click of Niki’s cane immediately, too drawn into his own thoughts and memories, replaying the argument and wondering if he should have done more.

Wondering if maybe he should have swallowed his pride and taken the blame, because at least he was good at that.

His name registers, shown in the rustle of leathery wings that still remain draped down his back and against the ground. “Hey Niki.” He says a bit wearily, wiping his face and looking up toward the necromancer. All it does is smear the wet ash around his face, clinging to his fingers to darken them, and it makes a striking appearance to his eyes that are just as grey as the clouds ahead, staring starkly back at him in a cool almost lifeless hue. “Now’s not really a good time. Sorry.” He aims for an apologetic smile, but it falls flat as he tugs his gaze away to look up toward the sky with the clouds that shift ever so slightly, allowing a bit more rain to fall.

by the way, dear, we're alive
and it hurts 'cause we survived it

NIKI

"Oh, I - of course," Niki says immediately, taking Sunjata's comment as a polite dismissal. Which, given his drooping wings, ash-streaked face and otherwise forlorn appearance, the necromancer ought to have read the room much more quickly than that. And yet, as he goes to back off and the rain begins to fall in earnest, he can't help but force himself to stay put. Looking the way he does, Sunjata almost reminds him of their first encounter in the Greatwood, and it has Niki biting the inside of his cheek not to let etiquette win this round.

"We do not have to talk about it," he says eventually, of the inferno-shaped elephant in the room, "but would you like a cup of coffee or anything? I was just going to the Sunbean for breakfast. It isn't far." Visible from where Sunjata is slumped on the bench in fact, Niki angling himself slightly towards the cafe. "Or I could bring you something out, if you do not want to go anywhere."

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

SUNJATA

the flood

you killed a man there, and i cried
but the rain masked the hurt behind your face

He expects the Abandoned to leave – expects to hear the click of his cane against the slow drizzled pathways as he goes back onto his day. It doesn’t come, though, like there’s a breath held of decision making that Sunjata isn’t sure which he’d rather have. The company? Or misery? Misery did love company, didn’t it.

Niki’s voice breaks over the silence that Sunjata’s stewing in, the offer like a branch granted for him to not have to sit there quietly alone even if it seemed like that was exactly what he wanted. And it wears on him – wondering just how long it’ll take before Niki thinks he’s too much too. No longer the Flood that drowned with more than just water, Sunjata the Heartless might live up to the reality he could be truly cruel.

It isn’t like he wants to be, though. He knows that. And Niki hasn’t done anything at all that would warrant the brunt of that ordeal. So he takes a slow and deep inhale, his chin lowers from facing the sky and his wings rustle to shake off the rain before they tuck back in and he stands – exhausted both physically and mentally, stepping over to Niki without the smiles he paints on like the mask he’s using is already cracked so it wasn’t worth the effort.

“Sure. I’ll join you.” He says softly, using some of his water magic to snatch the rain that’s seeped into his skin and clothes and hair and away from Niki, ensuring they’re dry by the time they reach the Sunbean.

by the way, dear, we're alive
and it hurts 'cause we survived it

NIKI

He doesn't expect the other man to agree in the end; steely and silent even up until he gets to his feet, whilst Niki has spent enough time around Sunjata now to assume certain things, it would be a stretch to say that he knows him, really. And for a moment he thinks he might have stepped too far and that he's about to see the flare of a demigod's temper, but no. Sunjata does agree, however quietly, and the necromancer offers a soft nod and begins to walk them in the direction of the cafe.

"Oh, thank you," he says as he realises the moisture is being wicked away from his clothes and hair, smiling up at the Heartless and reaching for the door to the Sunbean to open it and step inside. "I can ask for a cloth or a bowl, if you wanted to clean up...?" It isn't as though he's short on water, and Niki is about to say so before realising the other man might not actually know how he looks at present.

"It is just... there is a lot of ash." He gestures to his face and clothes.

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

SUNJATA

the flood

you killed a man there, and i cried
but the rain masked the hurt behind your face

The walk is mostly quiet – Sunjata finding himself as the last person that would be conversational at this point in time. But to Niki’s thank you, he manages a quiet “you’re welcome” that he quickl draws quiet from yet again. The door is opened and he steps inside shortly after Niki does, looking up to look at the too bright interior – optimism etched into the corners of the yellow vibrant inside and the peppy blonde behind the counter.

He tears his gaze away from Caly to look toward Niki with the comment, spying the gesture, and while he’d known he hadn’t looked great he isn’t sure a bowl and a cloth is enough to make him somewhat presentable, but he nods either way. “I can get them if you want to find a seat.” He offers instead, glancing toward the back of the café where it was quieter and the design of the building seemed less loud.

Parting from Niki, it’s almost as if Caly knows ahead of time – and a grateful nod is granted to the young woman as she produces a bowl and at least three cloths just in case he needed them all, before she gets to work on their coffees. It gives Sunjata a break to go and see where Niki’s chose to sit, and with a flick of mental magic his wings vanish into nothing but quiet puffs of ash as they retract back into him. He sits more comfortably without the weight of them. “I think I got your coffee right, but if I didn’t I’m happy to pay for another one.” He doesn’t have much reference to go off of aside from the day he’d gone a bit too far and he’d noted mostly the color of Niki’s coffee to try and guestimate what it was.

by the way, dear, we're alive
and it hurts 'cause we survived it

NIKI

Offering a polite smile to Caly as he steps inside as well, Niki glances over his shoulder in time to see the rain start to come down in earnest. It's enough to make him wince at the thought of Sunjata still being stuck out there, but it also makes the interior of the Sunbean seem even more cheerful - something the man beside him doesn't appear particularly thrilled about. "I... if you are sure. Thank you," he murmurs again, following the Heartless's gaze and instinctively heading towards the back of the cafe.

Niki selects a booth against one of the walls mostly tucked away from the rest, dismissing his cane back into the ring on his finger and sidling into his seat to wait for Sunjata to join him. And when he does, sans wings but equipped with a bowl and a few cloths, he offers hm a small smile and gestures to the seat opposite. "I will be happy with whatever you decided, I am sure," he assures him. "Though I should have been the one paying - I am the one who offered to get you a coffee."

And he's only now realising as much, Niki rubbing at the back of his neck and nodding at the bowl as if to give himself something to focus on. "I can help, if you like? Or I bet there is a mirror in here somewhere..."

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

SUNJATA

the flood

you killed a man there, and i cried
but the rain masked the hurt behind your face

He is sure, and he nods to Niki with the ghost of a smile on his face as they part and he makes the order and collects the bowl and cloths. Sure that the blonde would know where to find them, he departs and finds Niki settled in a booth that’s tucked away from the rest and manages to exhale a soft sigh of relief at the sight of it. He slips into the seat opposite, bowl set on the table followed up by the cloths in their still neatly folded pile, while he conjures some water to fill the bowl.

“I wouldn’t be so optimistic, but I do think I got it close.” He offers, looking up at Niki with a small snort and a shrug to the fact that Niki should have paid. Sunjata doesn’t mind either way, really.

He snags the rag and dips it into the water, ringing it out and swiping it on his face initially, running over scars and freckles that have been hidden beneath the thick of smoke and ash despite the rain’s best attempts. It isn’t enough, and it catches in the nooks and crannies of his scars, even as he dips it in the bowl again to try and go for round two. “You can help if you want to.” He offers back at Niki, his grey gaze settling on the necromancer like a blank slate.

by the way, dear, we're alive
and it hurts 'cause we survived it

NIKI

"I am quite a simple man with my coffee order, thankfully. But I will drink whatever is put in front of me," Niki assures him, watching as usual with quiet interest at the magic that spills from Sunjata's fingertips, the bowl soon brimming with clear water. He glances away so as not to openly stare as the Heartless goes about wiping off his face, but at the sound of his voice his attention returns front and centre - enough to see the tracks of black ash still caught in scar tissue and around his eyes.

"Of course," he says, unbuttoning his coat and shrugging out of it to set it on the booth beside him. Without thinking he pushes up the sleeves of his charcoal grey sweater to grab one of the other rags, dipping it in the bowl of water and squeezing out the excess. "Would you mind closing your eyes for a moment?" he asks as he reaches across the table. Providing Sunjata is happy to comply, Niki cleans away the streaks and smudges with a deftness and care that suggests a surprising amount of practice.

"...There," he says when he's finished, sitting back with a smile. "Found you." Under all the ash, he means.

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

SUNJATA

the flood

you killed a man there, and i cried
but the rain masked the hurt behind your face

He’s about to get to put his money where his mouth is as Caly arrives and sets the mugs of coffee on the table just before Niki’s about to get into the thick of helping him out. Almost as if knowing that they might want some time alone, the blonde leaves them with a kettle of hot coffee to refill their cups as necessary and a little bowl of creamer and sugar should they choose to add them. Niki’s coffee is black as can be, while Sunjata’s harbors some sugar and some cream – a hazelnut scent wafting from it as he glances over to nod to her a quiet thanks and she departs.

His attention returns to Niki, though, as the jacket is placed down and sleeves rolled up – immediately noticing scars there he’s never seen before. Actually, if he’s being honest, this is the most amount of skin he’s seen from the other man, but he draws no attention to the fact it’s there either way. He liked scars. He had enough of them to make up for most people, he’s pretty sure, and he’d be damned if he was caught shying away from them. Instead, he leans forward to get better into Niki’s range, eyes shutting without any fanfare.

The touch is nice, even if the reasoning for it is less than. That’s a thought he clings to like a lifeline, a buoy in the ocean that bobs and weaves with the torrent of his soul. He tracks the other man’s motions along his face, against the scars that bisect one of his eyebrows, the gnarled one along his cheek, the fair few of ascended bite scars on his neck that glint silver in the lower lighting back here. Only when Niki speaks does he open his eyes, blinking him back into focus and feeling already a little bit better to see Niki’s smile back at him, the found you like he’s been lost.

He thinks he has been lost for a while. But he doesn’t focus on that comment – its something he can dwell on amongst the rest of everything, but it lightens him quietly enough to offer the necromancer a small tug of a smile on the corner of his lips. “Thanks. Already feel a bit better.” Not enough, though he doesn’t say that. A little bit wsa still technically better.

by the way, dear, we're alive
and it hurts 'cause we survived it

NIKI

Murmuring a thanks to Caly for arriving with their drinks, Niki will have to remark on his coffee order afterwards unfortunately. For now he's thoroughly distracted by the sex Frey demigod leaning across the table and into his space, and whilst he's able to complete his task with as much care as for anything else he puts his mind to, there's no denying that he'll be seeing freckles like constellations in his mind's eye for a long time afterwards.

Quickly dropping his gaze as Sunjata's eyes open to focus on rinsing out the cloth, he sets it and the bowl to one side so as not to risk knocking it over. "You are welcome," he says, swallowing hard and paying particular attention to the pot of coffee and their mugs now, like it will provide a distraction from the sudden heat in his cheeks. "It is always funny how even small kindnesses for ourselves can make us feel better," he remarks, reaching for his coffee and smiling wryly down into the cup.

"Black and unsweetened. I told you it was a simple order," he says through a quiet laugh. "Thank you, though, for remembering."

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

SUNJATA

the flood

you killed a man there, and i cried
but the rain masked the hurt behind your face

Niki doesn’t meet his gaze when he peers back at him, too busy cleaning off the cloth in the bowl and Sunjata finds his attention drifting to the coffees instead, like it was an easier thing to focus on than the sudden fact he misses the warmth of the necromancer’s touch, however brief it had been.

“Yeah. Funny how that works.” He murmurs, corralling his own coffee toward him to blow on to cool down a touch more before he takes a sip about the same time that Niki does. The laughter warms him almost as much as the coffee does, finding the corner of his lips quirking up a little higher to hear the answer. “I couldn’t really remember if there was any sugar, but I knew it was black.” He says it as a deflection – that he’d rather have been wrong and have no sugar in it so Niki could add some if that’s what he preferred, but he is happy to know that the coffee is just right. “You’re welcome, though.” He tacks on in case it wasn’t obvious.

Setting the mug back down, he collects the rag and water again, working on the arm that harbors the tattoos – left handed as he is, he works it up and down the navy tattoos of waves and swirls to try and swipe off more of the black. His skin beneath where the water drips temporarily swirls further, like the tattoo on his skin is alive only briefly – but his fingertips are tainted black with his passive magic from the liquid regardless, not washing away until he’s fully dry.

by the way, dear, we're alive
and it hurts 'cause we survived it

NIKI

"Perhaps a reminder for the future, mm?" Niki raises his mug in a playful toast before bringing it to his lips to blow on the hot liquid. He almost adds a tongue in cheek remark about Sunjata's decision to sit outside in the rising downpour and where it would rank on the ladder of self-case, but he quickly opts for silence instead, remembering the strangely forlorn expression on the demigod's face when he'd first noticed him in the square.

"As I said, I would have accepted whatever you had ordered - I am not one to cause a fuss, and coffee is never bad," he continues, "but I still appreciate it. You have... hazelnut in yours?" He's guessing based on the smell of it, but by that point Sunjata is reaching for the cloth and the water again, Niki absently sipping at his drink and expecting... well, nothing truly marvellous, which is why the sudden dance of ink on skin catches his attention.

He sets his mug down slowly, not realising he's staring at first, and when he clocks himself it's with an awkward and apologetic laugh. "Forgive me," he says quickly, "I just... have they always moved?" Sunjata's tattoos, he means.

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!