i played the sleuth and i found the clue

SUNJATA

the flood

i still get a little scared of something new
but i feel a little safer when i'm with you

Another bark of laughter leaves Sunjata in a cloud of white, arm still tight around his husband as they walk. “Fine. But only because you said it so nicely.” His grin is crooked and he flashes a wink Nate’s way, before the Korofi floods the air between them. It makes him pause briefly, arm squeezing around Nate as he tilts his head consideringly, gaze focused on his husband. “ek hou ook van joune.” It comes out velveteen and sweet, a smooth hum on his lips.

But then they’re walking toward the Kraai, after Nate’s shaken out the snow from his boot, Sunjata focused on the path they take that he doesn’t quite hear or further understand the confirmation from Nate. But the doors are there, Sunjata unlocking it and slipping inside, waiting for Nate before he locks the doors again. “Did you come here during your adventure?” He asks, glancing toward Nate as he moves to the back of the bar.

He grabs a few glasses, a smoky whiskey that was one of his favorites here, pouring about a knuckles depth of it into both glasses before he slides one for Nate and moves to shed his jackets. “Oh, we have a gift from Ronin by the way. It’s a special ring, just requires a little bit of blood. You’ll see.” He murmurs, fishing into the pocket of his jacket, reaching for the ring the Dark Star had given him. He returns to lean against the bar, grabbing a knife behind the counter that he might use the tip to prick his finger and let the drop of blood fall onto the ring to be absorbed. And then he hands the ring out for Nate to take, smile positively childish as he waits for Nate to put it on.

falling doesn't feel so bad
when i know you've fallen this way too

- NATE -

all we are, we're distant stars
lost in the dark, i know how to part

A hand reaches up to try and waft away the cloud of white billowing from Sunjata, trying to stop it from blocking his view. And if the ascended strokes along the attuned's jaw while clearing the air, then thats his business. "Asking nice never works." There is no small measure of surprise in Nate's voice, no small measure of wonder. It gives way to a bright laugh though, as his compliment is returned. "Ja, natuurlik." Nate does his best to exagerate his own accent over the korofian, a harsh drag over the already harsh words. Not quite honeyed, but filled with love nonetheless.

"Tried to." Nate says softly, still stuck staring at the bar, his voice almost distant, a retreating back about to crest a hill. "It was locked, but... there was a woman with a dragon. She helped me, I think." His head tilts to the side, focus breaking as Sunjata moves around the bar. "She tried, at least." Following along after his husband, the ascended watches the drinks being poured intently as if expecting them to burst into flame. And once it's poured, offered over, its scrutinized again, before Nate tips the drink into his mouth, holding it for a moment before he swallows, trying to savour it.

Mention of a gift has Nate perking right back up, ash tinted memories pushed aside for this. "A gift?" A brow cocks, adding to the question, backing it up, in a way. "What's the gift for?" He watches the strange little ritual Sunjata performs, head cocking this way and that as he tried to work out what the trick was before it happened, and all but recoiling when the ring is offered at first. But Sunjata is smiling, and the attuned wouldn't do anything to hurt him, to put him in danger. He accepts the ring, tries to pull it onto one, two fingers, until it finally slips snugly onto his middle finger.

His hand comes up, turning this way and that to examine the ring before a too-bright blue gaze focuses back on Sunjata, Nate's cocked brow asking what the trick was.

searching high and low for life
a paradise, a light in your eyes

SUNJATA

the flood

i still get a little scared of something new
but i feel a little safer when i'm with you

A soft brush of his jaw has Sunjata humming a quiet laugh, one more so to himself as the words reach his ears. ‘Obviously.’ Always enough to amuse the attuned, the way Nate seemed to shift the tones of Sunjata’s native tongue with his own accent, with his own turn of phrases. But he listens instead as Nate explains that he’d tried to get in before – a brow lifting briefly at the mention of a woman with a dragon who tried to help. “Well I’m glad she did.” He hums, unsure where Nate would be if someone hadn’t stepped in while he’d ventured out here on his own.

As for this part of it though? He tries to make quick work of putting up his coat, of fishing out the ring and adding that drop of blood to it so it might work – and Gods how he hopes it works and he doesn’t simply look a fool. But he trusts Ronin, and it’s a gift far greater than he could have ever imagined.

So he hands off the ring, his hand slipping back to the glass he’d poured, tipping his own back while Nate inspects it, setting the glass down and watching as Nate finds a finger that the ring fits on. And when his husband’s gaze finally meets his again, almost quietly asking for what the trick was, Sunjata grins to Nate. What do you think, skatjie? Comes the soft purr through the attuned bond, though his lips don’t move.

falling doesn't feel so bad
when i know you've fallen this way too

- NATE -

all we are, we're distant stars
lost in the dark, i know how to part

”Pemota didn’t like her. Or her dragon.” It’s the one thing he really remembers clearly, his companions worry and mistrust, sitting in the back of his sick mind like a sore spot, a place he can’t help but poke again and again. ”I’m glad too. I... didn’t want to be here.” It sounds like a weak excuse, considering he’d made the choice to wander, to walk away, but even that hadn’t really felt like a conscious choice, merely a thing that was happening to him.

There is a tingle in the back of his neck as words that are not his, a voice that is not his drifts into his head. It would be alarming if it wasn’t obviously Sunjata, but even that knowledge doesn’t stop the confusion, both of Nate’s hands moving to pat at his chest, check that he’s still human. Well, human shaped.

But his shape is still his own, and there’s nothing else that’s changed except: The ring? It’s... doing this? The question is silent, testing the idea, but as soon as it’s confirmed Nate is going to surge up, almost over the bar, and wrap his arms tightly around the other man, worry about the liquor completely forgotten.

searching high and low for life
a paradise, a light in your eyes

SUNJATA

the flood

i still get a little scared of something new
but i feel a little safer when i'm with you

“I’m glad you made it home.” He murmurs, softly, glad that despite the adventure his husband had taken he’d ended up back with him in the end. That’s what mattered didn’t it? Not the worry that plagued Sunjata all those days of imagining Nate as a figment after the house, unsure and unwilling to return to the burned carnage to find him there. He’d made it out and it was his sickness that plagued the both of them, played tricks on them.

Even though Nate’s still sick and Sunjata has his moments of relapse, at least he has his sanity for the moment to keep them together, to keep Nate from straying. And with that, the ability to accurately give a gift that felt like it could change everything between them. So he watches as his words filter over, through the attuned bond to Nate, Sunjata pausing to take a sip as Nate’s hum filters through his own mind and he knows it’s worked.

The glass is set down right as Nate’s surging toward him. Arms wrap around him and Sunjata returns it, pulling Nate up and over the bar to the other side with him so he might bury his face into the crook of his husbands neck. It’s the ring. He rumbles through the bond. Only I can hear you through it, though. A small tidbit of information. But Remi made it for Ronin before Remi became what he is now and before Ronin got his shift. So. Next time we see him we have to thank him. Because what a wonderful gift it was, a door open for the both of them in a far more intimate manner than he could have ever anticipated.

falling doesn't feel so bad
when i know you've fallen this way too

- NATE -

all we are, we're distant stars
lost in the dark, i know how to part

Nate’s glad he’d made it home as well, glad someone had come looking for him. Glad there had been a beacon to follow home. And Nate can’t even remember if he’d thanked her. What a terrible uncle he is. It’s a thought that comes and drifts away again, thankfully unable to stick.

Especially not as his mind opens up, a flood of emotion racing Nate towards his husband. It doesn’t feel quite as robust as the real deal, but perhaps that’s just him, just the sickness. Doesnt matter. Don’t wanna talk to anyone else. He doesn’t even need to think the obviously his mental tone carrying it easily. It takes a moment for him to settle, now firmly planted on the inside of the bar, on the bar. Sunjata’s head comes to rest on his shoulder and Nate curls around him like a perfect puzzle piece, finding a comfortable place with his lips pressed to the other mans skin.

Of course we do. Nate agrees immediately, a half shaped thought of some kind of dinner, some kind of drinking, taking shape then fading. They're good people. Renin and Romi. A snort of laughter leaves him, though Nate truly isn’t sure why it’s wrong, why it’s funny. You’re still better though. Legs wrap around the other man, keeping him close, pulled in against the counter.

searching high and low for life
a paradise, a light in your eyes

SUNJATA

the flood

i still get a little scared of something new
but i feel a little safer when i'm with you

There’s a warmth that spurns in Sunjata’s chest when Nate’s next assumed  obviously is heard, a low chuckle leaving him audibly, not through the bond. But it doesn’t matter much, not as he’s shifting Nate over the bar, settled there comfortably and tucking his head away into the crook of his husbands neck, eyes closing, no words needed to move his lips when he could simply think them to him. It’s easier that way, closer that way.

Still, he can’t help the light snort that leaves him as Nate mixes up their names. They are, for all the things they’ve been through. He rumbles through the bond, tone a bit softer but like before his accent is thicker here. But as Nate’s legs wrap around him, his arms wrap around his husband tightly, pulling away slightly from Nate’s neck so he might peer up at him with a softer edge to the smile that tugs at his lips. Am I? Or are you just flattering me? He raises a brow in playfulness, doing nothing of the sort to keep the smile from spreading into a grin.

I love you, even if you're buttering me up. He sends over after a moment, of soft consideration, a warmth to his tone that he can’t quite otherwise express audibly that's edged in a hint of humor, of amusement.

falling doesn't feel so bad
when i know you've fallen this way too

- NATE -

all we are, we're distant stars
lost in the dark, i know how to part

There’s a single bubble of confusion as Sunjata laughs, the ascendeds head tilting gently, almost but not quite asking. The other man had to get the joke, cause Nate sure didn’t. Its good when people are good, even with bad. The feelings that come along with the statement are warm, even if they don’t necessarily shine much light on what Nate means. Can it be both? I... A feeling of embarrassment, Nate shifting just enough that his gaze is unreachable. I wanna say nice things about you, cause you’re nice.

It’s a confession that goes hand in hand with his next words, the ascended recovering quickly from his previous shyness. I butter you up cause I love you. Nate argues, managing to wink with just one eye now that his husband is looking up at him. The words are terribly soft though, a cup running over, spilling into the bond, not unlike the first time he’d shifted properly. Pure, overwhelming love spills from him, as fingers move to trace the attuned’s face.

Fingers shift down, along a stubbled jaw, a throat littered with silvery scars of past love bites, a chest that’s all tattoos and scar tissue. This is a path his hands know well, and yet every time feels like the first time. I never thought I’d be allowed to be in so much love.

searching high and low for life
a paradise, a light in your eyes

SUNJATA

the flood

i still get a little scared of something new
but i feel a little safer when i'm with you

He’s got a point, when it comes to good people being good even if there’s some bad. That was Sunjata’s life, really, a good heart filled with good intentions, a blood bath paved road to get there. There’s a crooked smile that remains on his face, however, as Nate’s shyness overcomes their conversation, Sunjata’s head tilting ever so slightly, sending back a feeling of overwhelming love.

But his husband recovers quickly, Sunjata’s arms wrapped around him, head lifting to peer up at the Ascended from their positions. I’d hoped that was the case. He hums back, a brief bout of amusement slipping from him but never outshining the happiness he feels when it comes to Nate, what he has, what they both have together.

He peers up at him, Nate’s hands roaming along his jaw and throat, his chest, and Sunjata releases his hold on the Ascended to run his hands up and down Nate’s side, shifting fabric with the pressure applied, gaze drifting to scan upon Nate’s scar, along the wild curls of his hair, that when the words hit him it takes him a moment – blinking briefly before he manages to catch a single electric blue again.

One hand lifts, then, moving to run his fingertips along a sharp jawline, before he’s slipping forward, leaning up to try and capture Nate’s lips with his own in the softest, most gentlest of kisses. It feels like a dream sometimes. And then I wake up and see you there and I feel so lucky, every time. The words are accompanied through the kiss, easier to not have to break away to speak, somehow far more intimate and meaningful in the Flood’s mind.

falling doesn't feel so bad
when i know you've fallen this way too

- NATE -

all we are, we're distant stars
lost in the dark, i know how to part

What else would it be? A rhetorical question, as much as he can still manage those. The reality is it doesn’t matter what else it might be, because it isn’t obviously. There’s no worry blooming in him as the attuned pauses looking him over. Nate can be very patient indeed, wrapped up cozily as he is in the pressure of Sunjata’s hands, the warmth of his gaze. There’s a sparkle in that one blue eye when they meet steel again, before the fingers on his jaw have Nate’s eye slipping closed.

Can it really be described as capturing if Nate all but swoons down lower, eager to lean against his husband, to melt into the inconceivable tenderness of the kiss. This is better than a dream. His lips curl, ever so slightly, the very edges of a smile added to the intimacy, though it’s hardly a drop in the bucket of affection. Its real. I’m here, and I have you, and I’m never gonna let go. Arms squeeze, for just a moment, adding to the promise.

Though, the seriousness with which Nate sticks to it is going to make getting anywhere but here a chore. At least there’s no reason to move for a good, long while.

Fin~

searching high and low for life
a paradise, a light in your eyes