I come from the water

i don't know where home is, but i suppose it's anywhere i go that's any good at all

"A real good thing." Nate repeats again, leaning and pulling Sunjata up to him for a proper kiss, short and sweet, and leaning just in time to look absolutely scandalized at the mention of bribes. "I thought you were supposed to have my back cause you loved me?" He tips his head back, a light wrist coming to rest against his forehead, the perfect picture of a lover spited. It only lasts a moment, before Nate is popping up again, leaning in. "How would I go about bribing you, huh?"

His bait worked like a charm, Sunjata's grin matched, almost outshone by the one that spread over Nate's face. "I was twelve, and I don't know what it was, but everything had gone from shit to worse. Dad was either blacked out or pissed, and I didn't see mom for days sometimes. Me and Bart had gotten into a fight, and he'd fucked off to someone else's house for the weekend, and left me alone." There's a moment pause, to let the gravity of the situation a younger him had been in sink in. "I decided I wasn't going to spend the weekend dealing with this shit. I got a bag, and filled it with food, and the things I thought I might need." Mostly useless, in hindsight, but that wasn't important. "Once I had everything, I just slipped out the front door, and into the streets."

NATE

I saw the crosses of empty cathedrals whose prospects were hanging out in bars

Nate tugs at him, leans toward him and pulls him up just enough to place a kiss onto the Attuned’s lips, just as short and sweet despite the fact it feels so long and slow to Sunjata. But the next comment that slips Sunjata’s lips has Nate’s face shifting, an amusingly wicked grin spreading across Sunjata’s face. “Oh, I do. But bribes are easier to blame.” He offers, reaching up to pull Nate’s wrist to his lips, pressing a light kiss to it before his gaze finds Nate’s again. “Mmm, well… I can think of a few ways.” Despite how hard he tries – and try hard he does – he can’t get the grin to shift to a smirk.

It remains as he focuses on the story, pausing only to reach over and set the cigarette into the ash tray, leaving both hands empty as he reaches for the Ascended again. And he nearly absorbs the story – finding just how closely Sunjata related to that statement. Not quite the blacked out parts, but at least the pissed parts – how his mother would also disappear for a while. As he listens, he props up a hand beneath his chin, giving Nate his full attention, hanging onto every word that leaves his lips. “Where’d you go?”

SUNJATA

i don't know where home is, but i suppose it's anywhere i go that's any good at all

”A few ways?” Nate purrs, a cant in his brow as he lets his wrist be taken.  There’s no struggle at all to summon his own smirk, wicked and teasing. ”Care to elaborate?” His fingers stretch out stroking along Sunjata’s face, then pressing back to tangle into the attuned’s hair, tugging just a little bit.

There’s a few moments, where Nates words pause, stretch out, moments to let Sunjata shift, moments to simply let a bright gaze roam over the attuned, taking everything in, committing it to memory. He can only stall for so long though, before he has to continue, to respond to the question. ”There was a bridge into another state, right by my house. I thought,” and he has to laugh while he says this, because it’s so ridiculous, ”I thought that was all you had to do to get a fresh start. Go to some other state.” He shakes his head and sighs gently. ”It only took me about an hour to get over the bridge and into the city, and I just started walking.”

”I didn’t realize I was lost until it started getting dark.” It’s a little more solemn sounding, but the easy smirk hasn’t left his lips, and laugh lines still crinkle his face. ”I thought it would be a great idea to climb in a uh, like a drainage pipe? A big one, that went under a road. There was a dip in it that I crawled past, and it was blocked on the one side, so it seemed safe, right?”

NATE

I saw the crosses of empty cathedrals whose prospects were hanging out in bars

“A few.” Sunjata replies with that wicked grin, his own voice humming a bit deeper with it before Nate’s face splits into a similar smirk. The care to elaborate has him taking a quick inhale of breath, eyes scanning Nate’s face as the Ascended’s hand strokes along his face, trailing up to dark hair and tugging a bit – enough to elicit a small ‘mm’ from his throat, a light nuzzle of his head into the touch that lasts only a small amount before he’s pressing a kiss to Nate’s chest. “Most notably, however, with that wicked mouth of yours.”

The seconds of pause feel like an eternity for the Attuned, even more so as he shifts to wait and listen in quite intently to what Nate says about his first attempt at running away. The idea of states makes sense to him, something similar to the dividing counties of his own in a way, so he nods along with it, offering a quiet laugh at the mention of starting fresh while remaining in the same country. Sunjata wouldn’t have been able to get away with it, so he only imagines Nate’s struggle would’ve been similar.

Even with the solemn tone to Nate’s story, Sunjata keeps the edge of a smile on his face, settling as he focuses on the Ascended – until his eyes grow wide with a small amount of surprise. “You didn’t.” He hums, propping his head up again on his hand, scanning Nate’s face and watching for the shifts in it, the way the story begins to unfold.

SUNJATA

i don't know where home is, but i suppose it's anywhere i go that's any good at all

It's so easy to read Sunjata's face like this, to follow the path of his eyes, the shift in his throat as his hair is tugged. They're really going to have to do this again, to play with it a little bit. In his minds eye Nate can see lazy days in bed, using his wicked mouth every way imaginable. "Maybe I'll go out of my way to get into a little trouble with you." Nate chuckles, wrapping his arms around the attuned in a tight hug, in lieu of pulling him up again. "Just so I have an excuse to see what works as a bribe."

"Of course I did." Nate chirps back, sounding almost cocky about it. And god, he had been, at the time, he'd wondered why everyone didn't just run away. And then the cold set in, and the damp, and bugs and rats. He doesn't give voice to those parts, though they show in the flicker behind his eyes, just before he keeps speaking. "When it got light again, I tried to crawl out. Tried. The way the pipe was bent, I could climb in, but it was too tight to get back out."

There's a deep sigh, Nate's eyes growing a little distant now. "I was stuck most of that day. I guess I picked a really shitty place to get stuck, lots of cars going by, but not a lot of people." Maybe this story isn't quite as fun as he'd thought it had been. Usually he's a lot drunker when he tells it, and it sounds stupid, funny. Now though, he can remember how scared he'd been, how keenly he'd thought he was going to be there forever. "The uh, police ended up getting called. And the fire department. I still didn't get out until the next morning, and it was a big news thing by then. I was on T.V.!" This comes as an uptick, a hard shove back into joviality, clear blue eyes focusing on Sunjata again.

NATE

I saw the crosses of empty cathedrals whose prospects were hanging out in bars

“Mmm, well, can’t wait to see what you do.” He murmurs with a light laugh, settling into the arms that wrap around him tightly, focusing on the strong and steady pillar beneath him, nuzzling into him as the smirk fades for his focus on the story. And really, there’s a surprising amount of parallels between what Nate went through and what Sunjata had.

And the more he scans Nate’s face, the more he can see those familiar shadows creeping in. It causes his hands to lift again, reaching to cup Nate’s face, to run his fingers sluggishly slow through dark hair, stroking along his cheekbone with his thumb as he resonates.

But when the smile blooms along the Ascended’s face, his own grows a small amount more. “A video star in the making, huh?” He offers with a light laugh, trying to keep the lightness to the tone. “Did you at least get a warm place to sleep after that?” He prods gently despite internally knowing it shouldn’t be something he asks. Without the filter of his mind to judge his words before they escape, he focuses on the answer, hoping for something good to come out of the attempt to run away, but not holding his breath.

SUNJATA

i don't know where home is, but i suppose it's anywhere i go that's any good at all

The hands in his hair pull Nate this way and that, the smile on his face only growing as thumbs smooth down along his cheeks. He's faster than Sunjata normally, if he really tries, but with the other man affected how he is, it's not even a struggle. His lips brush against either wrist, a soft hum of amusement coming with it.

Something a little more crooked creeps into Nate's face as his stoned sunshine plays along with his tone, his newfound brightness. "Man, I wish. Can you imagine this face on the screen all the time?" A brow quirks, lips twisting into a smirk as Nate pulls a face meant to be an actors unaffected smoulder. But the question has his face dropping into something a little warmer, a little more human. "My mom came and got me. Took me to my grandparents. Bart too." Nate shrugs, the gesture easy. "I guess... something happened when they called the house. I never actually heard what it was, but... dad wasn't there when we finally went home, week or so later." Maybe not the best result, but it had felt pretty good in the moment.

NATE

I saw the crosses of empty cathedrals whose prospects were hanging out in bars

It’s a surprisingly amusing gesture as his hands run through Nate’s dark hair, tugging his head this way and that. It sparks a quiet hum of a laugh to slip from his throat, before he’s settling enough, leaning into those light kisses to his wrists before he comments on being on the screen. There’s a softness to the look he gives Nate after, before his own smile shifts toward a well practiced version of his own.

Though it’s something far more stoic, something quite like a poster child of strength as opposed to the smolder Nate gives. “I’d pay a lot of money for that. Luckily for me I get to see it every day.” The stoic look shifts immediately to a grin.

And then it softens again as soon as Nate continues the story, instead it has his gaze turning more narrowed and focused. “Oh?” He hums thoughtfully, wondering what it could’ve been that kept Nate’s father away. But there’s a more distracting question that crosses his mind. “What was your mother like?”

SUNJATA

i don't know where home is, but i suppose it's anywhere i go that's any good at all

Whatever the look that crosses Sunjata's face is, it's a far cry from his own easy smirk. Nate reaches up thumbs tracing over the attuned's cheeks in a mirror of his earlier gesture. But where the other man's fingers had been gentle, almost soothing, Nate's tug at Sunjata's cheeks, pulling his mouth into a wide, forced grin. "I'd pay a lot of money to not see you make that face again. What was that?"

It's his turn to narrow his eyes, a low hum leaving Nate as he considered the question, tried to sort his own emotions into... something. "She was... she was nice. I remember her taking us to church, and to the beach when we were younger." His brows pulled together as he tried to pull more together. "I mean, she would snap at us sometimes too, but... not in the same way. And I think she was the reason we spent our summers with our grandparents." Nate shifts, working his jaw. There had to more he could say, but... none of it really came to mind.

NATE

I saw the crosses of empty cathedrals whose prospects were hanging out in bars

As soon as Nates hands rise to his own cheeks, Sunjata’s expression softens. A snort leaving him as his cheeks puff up briefly with the question. “It’s the stupid Senzaok face we had to learn for portraits and statues.” He rumbles, a huff of a sound that’s both amusement and frustration crossing him as his steel gaze lands on Nate again. “Unyielding, I think is what my father said it was. ‘To make them comply.’” It starts off normal, ending with a deeper tone as Sunjaya mimics his father’s voice — rough and hollow and unfeeling. But it dissipates when he focuses on Nate again, lips parting before the Ascended is pulling at his cheeks and Sunjata gives in.

But then the question of his mother has Sunjata stilling, giving Nate his entire focus. “That’s… Something.” He admits softly, at least having an out of sorts. “My mother spent most of her time in her rose garden.” He offers, trying to relate some small amount. “We never really… spent time together until after I turned seventeen.” Another brief pause as he considers. “But there was this man that was in charge of the library. And after I won the trial and mom got me out of my spiral of that… I think she might’ve bribed the man. He used to let me into the restricted section.” There’s a small grin that crosses his face suddenly with this.

SUNJATA

i don't know where home is, but i suppose it's anywhere i go that's any good at all

"The Senzaok face, huh?" Nate pulls the other mans cheeks wide at that, smiling properly as he does. "I'm sure the people loved that." But the tone that enters Sunjata's voice has him faltering a little, familiar, but not quite. There was more anger in his own father's voice, more of an unsteady roughness. He shakes it off quickly, a wide grin on his face to greet Sunjata when he looks up again. "I still have other faces I like better."

Nate licks his lips, glad that something in the little he'd had was relatable. And he offers the other man a lopsided grin. "I could never really get close to her. I think... she saw a lot of my dad in us. In me." It was a fact that stung, even though it had never been said out loud. "My mother left, just before I turned eighteen." He admits, a strange kind of balance there, a reversal. It's the last thing he says about himself, before he focuses back on Sunjata completely, zeroes in on the little grin. "What was in the restricted section?"

NATE

I saw the crosses of empty cathedrals whose prospects were hanging out in bars

He pulls Sunjata’s cheeks wide, fiddling with the sound he makes as he fights to try and get his lips to work the way he wants them to. His voice shifts a small amount, a huff of air leaving him as if he’s pouting. “Apparently it looked too much like my fathers for people to get used to it.” He manages with a bit of a crooked smile trying to form. “Got my mom's eyes though, that helps.” He winks before falling a bit more quiet, a bit more touched at Nate’s comment as evidenced by the slow and soft smile that crosses his face.

It doesn’t last, however, as Sunjaya moves on to explain his own mother as he listens to Nate explain his. His brows furrow together a small amount, unable to really understand. Sunjata’s mother had never loved his father, but had loved him dearly, even if the jawline was the same, the way he was built. Perhaps Sunjata just had far more of a conscience, a bit more of her she could see. “I’m sorry.” He offers quietly, prepared to mull it over before Nate’s questioning the restricted section.

And boy isn’t that a story. The grin flashes across his face once more, taking a deep inhale of breath. “Okay, so, get this. My father was so paranoid of a resistance brewing he had a library specifically for finding out how the ones in our world started, so he could do the opposite of it. Squashing out the resistance where he could. That summer before I started enforcer training was spent squirreling them away and researching.” His grin grows wider, far more amused with himself and what he’d gotten away with.

SUNJATA

i don't know where home is, but i suppose it's anywhere i go that's any good at all

Nate squints, trying to see another person in Sunjata's features, trying to imagine the eyes different, and failing. There's too much love in him to ever see a monster in the other mans face, though he can empathize with the idea somewhat. "I'm the spitting image of my dad. Down to the eyes." He scoffs, rolling said eyes, and leaning in to press their cheeks together, a quick closeness, a palate cleanser of softness, to get the bitter taste of his past out of his mouth, his mind.

It's all Nate can do to shake his head at the apology, pushing past it. It was something he'd accepted a while ago, though there were still some resentments surrounding... everything with his family, but he didn't have the drive to detangle them all right now. Not when he can focus on Sunjata, on his story, on the near insane paranoia of his father. "That just sounds like a bad idea." He points out, the reason all wrapped up in the story. "I guess all that studying came in handy when you actually got out from under his thumb, huh?"

NATE

I saw the crosses of empty cathedrals whose prospects were hanging out in bars

As Nate recollects the spitting image, all Sunjata can do is stare briefly at Nate — trying to picture a different man, unable to come up with one just as Nate does to him. But their cheeks are pressed together and Sunjata’s nuzzling his head into Nate’s, an entirely feline gesture, with a ghost of a smile edging his lips. “I don’t think he had your tattoos, though.” He offers as some solace.

But then he’s explaining the restricted section, and Nate’s comment has Sunjata grinning. “Wasnt it?” A huff of breathy laughter leaves him. “Oh, it did. That plus knowing the plans ahead of time. My father, despite what he thought of himself, was incredibly predictable and emotionless. The resistance used to say that if you cut him he’d bleed oil.”

SUNJATA