3 o'clock things

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

It's a date, Niki might have rebuffed if his tongue had let him, but he has to remind himself not for the first time that for however handsome Sunjata is, however warm his voice or enjoyable his company, Heartless necessarily means that's as far as anything can go - even in the necromancer's fantasies, evidently. So he merely smiles and nods his agreement, raising a brow to hear - perhaps unsurprisingly, at this point - that the similarity had been troubling for Sunjata.

"I s'pose it would be hard seein' that in the mirror every time you looked," he says. "And I used to be curious, but now..." Niki shrugs. "If I'm meant to see them again while I'm alive - my parents, I mean - then Mort will make it happen. I don't even know where they're buried, though. If they even were buried." The Greatwood keeps them as far as he's aware, but Niki has no chance of finding out more than that without divine intervention. "...Are you feelin' a little better?"

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

Sunjata might have also suggested as much, were it not for the fingers of rawness still reaching through him, stealing away any charisma that had a chance of revealing itself. But he sinks into the pillows and feels the way his hands start to relax in the wadded up shirt, enough that he can sneak one arm – the lightning scarred one – up under the pillow to be more comfortable as he peers at the other man and listens.

“It was.” He agrees, before drawing silent to paint the little picture that Niki paints. And he’s left mulling over his silent thoughts as Niki asks if he’s feeling better, and those dark steel eyes of his snap back to the sharp panes of the necromancer’s face to answer. “Yeah.” He says in a soft sigh. “We had a lot of orphanages in Korofi, too, but for vastly different reasons.” He winces slightly, but does manage a small twitch of his lips. “Did you have anyone at the orphanage that you were close to?”

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

"Oh?" Niki responds, curious. "Were your orphanages not for children who'd lost their parents?" He's very likely missing the point through a mix of alcohol and miscommunication, but the question makes it through his lips before he can consider stopping it. Smiling a touch to hear that Sunjata is feeling less fraught after his nightmare, though, as the other man continues to get comfortable Niki does the same automatically, laying down fully in bed and angling himself towards the other man a little to keep talking.

It's been years since he's thought properly of the orphanage, honestly, Niki frowning as he casts his mind back. "A couple of kids," he admits. "I lost touch with one when he got taken on to work on skyships. The other, she ended up in the Undercroft as an archivist. We lost touch a few years ago after I..." He scrunches his nose, the memory sudden and unwelcome. "I couldn't give her what she wanted, put it that way," he makes himself say, the words tapering off on a tired sigh.

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

“Well, when put like that it’s the same.” Sunjata pauses, as if trying to figure out how best to explain the situation. “There was a rule that my father enforced. A noble family had to have a son and a daughter, one each. And if there were any duplicates, they were taken to the orphanage.” It’s as barebones as he can explain it, but even in the dim light Sunjata wonders if Niki can see the frown that crosses Sunjata’s face with the thought. “It wasn’t something my family dealt with, but, I saw others have to go through it.” And it was awful.

But it also brought up the fact that those kids had to grow up in an orphanage without all of the wealth and typical loving families they otherwise could have had, all because they’d already had a girl or a boy to continue each line.

He draws quiet as Niki talks about the orphanage, though, imagining it in his mind when he hears the first one worked on the skyships. The second he can get the gist of what he’s saying, nodding a touch understanding. “Oh, I see.” No judgement, just a calm understanding. After all, gods knew upon arriving in Caido, Sunjata hadn’t realized the true reality of his sexuality, not until he’d had the chance to experiment. “So.. Just men, then?” He asks, curious and completely open, and he even offers his own little tidbit to make the question seem a little less intense. “I didn’t really know I also liked men until after I got to Caido.”

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

"Y'know, the more you tell me about Korofi the more I'm glad you're not there any more," Niki mumbles, frowning to hear of the sorts of orphanage Sunjata had grown up learning about. "Even if the library was pretty an' the rain sounded nice," he adds. He almost includes the gun, but he isn't quite so wasted as to not have realised the Heartless didn't seem to be a fan of it (or at least not a fan of being shot by it, which, fair enough).

He's still glancing away from Sunjata when he cuts through the necromancer's inference with the blunt sort of question that, in truth, is exactly what he needs, and although he bites at the inside of his cheek as if the words are difficult to find, he nods nevertheless. "Mm, seems that way," he mutters, because he's only done enough with the fairer sex to know what doesn't work.

"Yeah? Was Korofi against that sort of thing too?"

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

“It did have its upsides, even if the downsides were more like the side of a mountain.” He admits with a soft huff, warmer now and actually closer to a laugh than he’d gotten to since he’d woken up in the nightmare. “Aesthetically it was pretty and nice. The rest of it was terrible, though.” He hums softly, shrugging a little.

The conversation shifts to something more interesting to the Heartless, though. And he quietly watches Niki’s face as he looks away from him and answers the blunt question. He sees the nod and the agreement, though, and he nods all the same to the next question that leaves Niki. “Oh yeah.” Sunjata says with a quieter laugh. “It was punishable by death if proven. So… I mean, I’d look, obviously, but never acted on anything.” He shrugs his shoulder a little before burying half of his face into the pillow. “Took me a while to figure out how to act on it here, too. Seems like I do best not making that first move.” He rolls his eyes playfully, warmer now that the conversation is pretty far away from the mansion and with a somewhat relatable conversation to Niki.

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, see, I'd take an ugly city that treats people like people any day of the week." Niki says, wagging a finger towards Sunjata. Luckily, by and large Caido seems to be both aesthetic and functional, though the necromancer would be the first to admit his limited travel experience until very recently. "At least with the House of Midnight, you can still enjoy the good parts but not have to be there properly," he considers, remembering the bookshelves and city skyline through a rain-peppered window that Sunjata had shown him before.

To hear that his preferences would have been punishable by death, though, doesn't raise the bar for Korofi in Niki's mind, but as the Heartless continues it's the necromancer's turn to scoff out a warmer laugh. "It's acceptable here an' I still don't even like talking about it, let alone acting on it. Best just give up now, mm?" On what he doesn't dare to say, shifting enough to roll onto his back and run the fingers of both hands through his hair before settling into the pillows.

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

“It is nice. When it’s not surprising me in the middle of the night.” He sighs a little dramatically, snorting softly as he starts to relax. And while he spends this moment recalibrating his mind, he watches Niki in quiet surveillance with the dim lighting of the room still Greatwood-ified.

He realizes that Niki is inexperienced more than he’d thought as he offers his quiet explanation – because as he listens to the explanation Niki offers while he readjusts in the bed on his back and runs his hand through his hair, there’s gears turning in his mind. “Nah. I wouldn’t give up.” He murmurs softly, considering his word carefully. “You’ve gotta try stuff out at least once.” His voice lowers almost in a conspirator’s hum.

He considers Niki briefly before he’s shifting in the bed as well, rising slightly against the pillow as he wars with himself on whether or not to act on the impulse that bleeds through him. He decides in a split second to dive in anyway, because it’s probably better to ruin things now while he doesn’t have a heart to truly feel it, if it goes that way. He props himself up on an elbow, leaning over Niki in the dark with the background of the crickets and frogs humming in the background. Maybe it means something extra that he chooses to do this while Niki’s got all of his scars out on display, but rather than delve into the quiet intricacies of it, Sunjata moves quickly.

His hand is warm where it gently caresses the necromancer’s cheek, angling him slightly so he can claim a chaste kiss. And as he starts to withdraw, he remains hovered enough to shoot him a smaller, more personal smile. “If I overstepped or you hated it, you can absolutely hit me with your cane.” Frey would probably approve of this little experiment, right?

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, so people keep tellin' me," Niki mumbles, but between not wanting to feel like he's got to buy his intimacy at a brothel and being self-conscious about his body, that's much easier said than done. Unless you're Sunjata Wrenzaok, apparently, because suddenly as Niki glances back up his field of view is all grey eyes and freckles, softly lit by the glow of fireflies and flickering sconces. He can smell whiskey and sandalwood against the warmth of the other man's hand, feeling heat flood his cheeks beneath Sunjata's fingers, and he's got barely a chance to snatch in a breath before the other man's lips are pressing against his own.

It lasts barely more than a few seconds, but even that is a lifetime to a man who has never realised the meaning of touch-starved until right this moment. It isn't as though Niki has never kissed or been kissed, but it is his first time experiencing it with someone he finds genuinely attractive, and by the time Sunjata draws back he's sure the Heartless will be able to hear Niki's pulse hammering loud enough for the both of them.

"I didn't hate it," he whispers, voice low and rough with a mix of liquor and confusion, his hand sneaking between them to ghost against the demigod's jaw. "Do it again?"

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

In fairness, Sunjata’s heart is thundering, too. For different reasons, because it wasn’t his first time kissing a man, but it was his first time being impulsive and doing it when he wasn’t entirely sure how it would be received. And looking down the barrel of a potential retaliation of getting it wrong, he’s infinitely relieved that Niki doesn’t immediate resort to getting away from him.

Niki’s cheek is hot under his hand and in the low dim light he can see the rabbiting pulse against the necromancer’s neck. And to hear the whisper that he didn’t hate it, Sunjata loosens a breath of sandalwood and whiskey between them to feel the other man’s hand ghost against his stubbled jaw. "That's good." He manages softly before the request is made.

He doesn’t verbalize the answer, but it’s clear when he leans in again that it’s a resounding yes. This time it isn’t as unsure, it’s softer and curious, testing the waters in the slow and gentle kiss pressed to the necromancer’s lips while his thumb strokes softly against the abandoned’s sharp cheekbone.

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

Sunjata leans back in before Niki's mind can properly catch up with his mouth, which in this case is something to be grateful for later. Meeting him with less surprise and more active encouragement this time, the necromancer has only the most vague input in what his limbs decide to do; the hand at Sunjata's jaw slips into the back of his hair as lips and tongue begin their slow dance, the other skimming along his scarred side to rest against his bare chest. If he angles himself closer he's unaware that it happens, only noticing when his lungs scream for breath that he's entirely forgotten to supply them with oxygen.

Gasping softly as he parts from the Heartless's lips and gazing up at him with a haze of alcohol mixed with the first flush of arousal, it's with a soft and breathless laugh that Niki opts to keep his hands back to himself. Words tangle in his throat before they ever make it to his lips, because despite the carnal urge for more, he knows he's neither sober nor brave enough to cope with anything further, but he's not sure what to say in the silence that opens between them.

"I'm really drunk," he blurts eventually, because apparently that is the best his mind can come up with.

Great job, Niki.

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

For someone who had explained they weren’t well versed in this, Sunjata thinks briefly that Niki might be a liar. He sinks into the kiss with all the slow exploratory attention that’s only a fraction broken up with by the hitch of feeling the hand slip away from his cheek to tangle in his hair at the back of his head. It spurs him on, soft and gentle and equally panting as much as Niki when the kiss breaks for air.

Sunjata’s flushed, too, the sea of freckles along the bridge of his nose and dusting along his cheeks are almost hidden in the flare of red on his face, and he shoots a lopsided smile back at Niki when he hears the breathless laugh. His hand slips away from Niki’s cheek but not before he’s brushing some of the dark strands from his face, then uses it against the other side of Niki’s head to prop himself up.

He hears the blurt that leaves his lips and Sunjata huffs a soft and breathless laugh of his own, lowering himself slightly above Niki, not enough to blanket him and squish him, but enough that they remain close. “I know, I should’ve probably waited.” He murmurs, kicking himself mentally for jumping the gun so quickly. “But I wanted to. And we don’t have to do more than this.” He explains, as if it’s just occurred to him that Niki might assume it goes into deeper territory he’s not prepared for yet. But, as if to punctuate it, Sunjata’s head tilts just enough to press a kiss to his shoulder, shifting to lay back on his side but close enough that his arm drapes over Niki’s chest and the heat that radiates from him can be felt against Niki’s side like a beckoning call.

the flood

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

totally sniped from odd ilu