starmark | IC Inbox

[He comes to a slow halt, arms hanging strangely at his sides like he isn't entirely sure what to do with them; what he wants is to keep moving forward and ultimately wrap them around Rohan, but he doesn't, in favor of just kind of standing awkwardly there instead.]

...I think that right now you want to kill him because he hurt you. Not because of the rest of it. I think...you hate the way he made you feel right now, and it feels like if you take it out on him, that will go away.

I don't think it will.

[ One by one, Rohan sets down his palette with his tail, followed by each brush in his hand finding a home on or near the easel. Once his hands are free he picks up the glass from the windowsill. ]

How do you think I am supposed to make it go away? [ He sips away at his glass. ] No matter how much I dislike someone, I would never go out of my way to betray them. Josuke is no exception to that rule. I set a lot of things aside to coexist with him here when I didn't have to.

I'm not going to cry myself to sleep because of what he did. I am going to take it as personally as I need to. I despise the way he made me feel. It's reminding me of why I never trusted him in the first place. [ After another sip, he offers the colorful glass out toward Jotaro. He'll know what's in it. ]

He threw the inkling of forgiveness I was beginning to feel back into my face. After all of it, he still hasn't told me WHY he made the decision he did. Just pity-party garbage about how stupid he was. That doesn't help me.

Edited 2016-09-25 02:30 (UTC)

[He takes the glass, spending a second glancing everywhere except at its contents, and seems to hesitate before ultimately reaching a decision in favor of the inevitable. A second later, he's drinking, from the opposite side of the glass as Rohan's been using.]

Maybe he doesn't know.

[He closes his eyes, still not looking at the glass.]

I'm going to talk to him. I have a feeling he'll tell me what he does know, if I ask him the right way.

He doesn't know why he did it, you mean? It sounds like a simple thought process to me.

[ Unconvinced, the naga wants to reach out again for either the glass or Jotaro's hand but does neither. ]

The thought process being: Don't rub elbows with a mass murderer. I don't know what's so hard about that. If you hear anything from him that might convince me to change my mind, spin it with all the gusto of a gospel choir.

[ A beat. ]

Miss Hiiragi brought me new wine glasses... She just left. [ He points to where he has the other three set out in the light around one of his black-filled mason jars. There is the teal one in Jotaro's hand, then a fiery orange one, a royal purple, and an emerald green. The last item between the glasses is a vintage perfume bottle sealed with a wax-covered cork. ]

Aren't they nice?

[ Is he trying to change the subject? ]

...I guess that explains the box I saw on the counter. Where'd she get these? They're nice.

[He idles a minute, taking another few sips before returning the wineglass to Rohan again.]

I've talked to her now. She said you painted her, she was the blue and red gargoyle?

[ He nods. ]

That's her. She's a firecracker-- pun not intended. [ Wew. ] Her timing was less than idea but I suppose I appreciated her company for once. That bottle over there...

[ He uncoils and leaves roughly half of himself still by the window to fetch the bottle. ] This is a wound sealant. She said that it works on everything from shedding scales to a slashed jugular.

She is usually awful to me. It's mutual most of the time. I don't know why she felt like extending kindness when all I did was put her crazy ex in his place when he impersonated her on the network.

It's like Opposite Day around here. [ He picks up his head to look over Jotaro's face. Hopefully nothing has gone opposite with him either. ] I don't like it.

I don't feel like this. Ever.

I think that's exactly she felt like extending kindness.

[And now at last he makes his way over, making his palm go pleasantly warm before it makes contact with Rohan's skin and scale near his shoulder.]

Do you feel like...you know. Being close to me, for a while?

[ He doesn't freeze up like he normally would at being touched a little suddenly. There is no start in his shoulders or his tail and he simply looks across the way with his eyes focused more on Jotaro's cheek or over his shoulder as usual. He might be in better control of every other 'power' he has but the petrifying people thing doesn't go away.

CAN HE EVEN PETRIFY SOMETHING THAT IS ALREADY TECHNICALLY A ROCK??? ]

Are you asking for a hug? [ Since that word is VERY out of Jotaro's vocabulary. Snakebutt is already sliding across the floor a thousand feet away from himself, making the executive decision to make lumps of coils around the gargoyle's feet. ] I would like that. [ Rohan doesn't wait for an answer and slowly lurches forward to not really embrace Jotaro as much as he sort of sets his forehead between his chest and his shoulder. He can stare there instead as the rest of him hugs at his ankles. ]

I have a question. And don't make fun of me for it. I'll kill you too.

[ that's the spirit, rohan. ]

I'm sure I can manage to hold back the urge to make fun of you, no matter what it is. Go ahead.

[He says, as he completely ignores the question of whether or not this is a hug entirely, in favor of focusing on the important part, which is gathering Rohan in and setting his personal body temperature to "low gentle heat", which makes him sound more like a clothes dryer than a gargoyle.]

I'll listen, whatever it is.

[ That phrasing isn't comforting?? He takes Jotaro's blunt weirdness for what it is. He's awkward and not as well-adjusted to conversation as his counterpart back home. It has its charm in small doses. Grain of salt, etc. ]

When you say it like that, how could I possibly be worried? [ He rolls his eyes tiredly and still does not look up. Talking right into his shoulder. ]

Do you feel the same way that I do? About--... [ This is so stupid and he knows it. After his conversation with Josuke during their sleepover, he feels moderately compelled to ask based on lack of restraint. ] You know...

About...?

[The problem, he thinks to himself, isn't that he can't figure out how to finish that sentence; on the contrary, it's that he can think of entirely too many ways to do it. Do you feel the same way I do about me? About this? (About Josuke, possibly, but that doesn't seem like it's a point Rohan wants to focus on all that much right now.)

He runs his hands down Rohan's back, skimming the warm palms over the planes and ridges of his spine.]

...I think so. I don't know if it's exact — I don't have any way of knowing that. But...I think it's pretty close.

About the us situ--... [ You know what? That's acceptable. The answer he gets is good enough for him when he absolutely has to remind himself of who he is talking to. He shouldn't need to remind himself anymore. That falls on him. Rohan turns his head, setting his cheek to the warmth there that he can feel is making himself sort of sleepy.

Sleep?? A riled-up Rohan winding down??? ]

I'll take 'pretty close'. Anything concrete will do after today.

[ On a sigh, he shifts with a nod. A sensation in his shoulders has him running cold(er) for a split second that prompts the rest of him to squeeze up--... When he relaxes, his scales begin to shift colors unbeknownst to him. The black patches have bloomed into splotches of dull, pastel green from his shoulders to his tail. They might run colder under Jotaro's hands for a moment. Once they have changed completely, they assume their normal temperature again. ]

You wouldn't lie to me.

Yeah. I thought so.

[He, too, adjusts slightly, watching as color ripples through Rohan's scales — green this time, rather than the purple he'd seen before, and it makes him wonder what might be causing the difference between the two — and adjusts his body temperature in response to the brief flickers of chill when he feels them.]

You're turning colors again.

[And maybe that's not really relevant, but it's easy to say, and every word comes heavily-laden with unusually deep affection. Jotaro, under normal circumstances, is usually the furthest thing from open with his feelings, but this time there's no mistaking them — and, as usual, they're coming in a different language than the spoken word.]

I like us. ...This. I don't have to be able to find the right words for what it is to know that it's what I want.

[ I like us. ]

I like us too.

[ It's all he feels he needs to reply with. The more concise they are, the better they function together overall. One of them is wordy, the other is not. Meeting in the middle works out.

Rohan Turns his head and straightens up without pulling too far. His arms have turned green. He treats it like he has seen it before. ]

I'm tired. That's what it's telling me. [ He implies that there are a few more colors with that. ] I've overworked and I need to go to bed. [ Now he HAS to admit it when his own scales are going to out him. His gaze hops to Jotaro's face. ]

Shall we?

You turn green when you're tired? It looks good on you.

[Soothe, soothe. One of his hands slips back around and comes up to rest against Rohan's cheek, the rough pad of his clawed thumb skimming gently at the corner of his mouth.]

But you're right, I'd better get you home. You can fall asleep on my shoulder on the way, if you want.

[Given the lilt in his voice, that's not an outcome he'd mind all that much, or even to begin with.]

Are we taking the glasses and things too? Or am I just taking you?

[ The day Jotaro starts to mind carrying him is going to be a rough day. Hauling himself into town in the morning is hard enough!

His eyelids falling to the half, Rohan nods shallowly. ]

Green has always looked good on me. [ He only half-jokes. Jotaro will find the hand on his cheek covered with a green one. ]

Just take me and the bottle. That might be useful to keep around the house... [ IN CASE OF GOUGE-RELATED INJURIES... ]

Kiss me and let's go.

Most things look good on you.

[Idly, he's tempted to float something else, something clever about their forthcoming flight home like and you look good on me, but the urge to do so fades away when he takes into consideration how exhausted Rohan still looks, and how it's not really the time for humor of that particular variety.

What gets him, though, is how easy the order he's given seems. At what point, he wonders, did kiss me become such a natural part of their routines? When did it become commonplace? When did he start looking forward to it?

Regardless, it's easy to do, and Rohan is waiting.

So he nudges down, letting their noses bump and brush very slightly before tipping his chin for the kiss he's been asked for, soft and slow and his best attempt at being reassuring.

When he does pull back, he doesn't go far, and rests his chin on the top of Rohan's head for a second afterward.]

I've got you, Rohan. Relax for a little while. I've got you.

[ If Exhausted Green wasn't what he was presently wearing, Rohan would have appreciated the humor that Jotaro refrained from. Another day, another opportunity for the one-liners he is an endless fountain of.

A hand sets its palm against Jotaro's chest for the beat or two that the kiss lasts. It slips up when he pulls away, over his shoulder to support himself for coiling around him the way he always does. ]

I know. [ The world would literally implode if anyone saw him acting like THIS... It's the middle of the night, no one is here, and the down-low is not totally necessary. He wilts gently against him, burying his head against the gargoyle's wide shoulder. ]

Go on. Don't worry about locking up.

Just pull it shut behind me, then? Got it.

[It's easy and practiced, how he adjusts his balance and stance to compensate for Rohan hanging on to him, but tonight he takes a little longer with lingering over it — his adjustments more gentle, less methodical, less businesslike. He's always been better with tangible messages of affection than he has with verbal ones; tonight he's sending the same one over and over, that it's fine for Rohan to unwind and put himself in Jotaro's hands, because they're hands that are already ready and waiting to catch him.

And moreover, maybe he just wants this to last a little longer for his own sake, too — this moment with their mutual guards lowered, with their edges raw but their proximity like a balm to soothe it. He always feels better lately when he's got something to protect. So much the better in these rare cases that he actually knows how to get it right.

He carries Rohan back through the shop and carefully out the door, pulling it shut behind him before pausing to turn his attention to him on the shop doorstep.]

Ready?

[ Jumpiness has never been something that Rohan has sported well. Intense is one that he can do. Snappy. Jumpy is a No. He isn't cowardly and nor does he need to rely on constant reassurance to get himself through a rocky spell. This one is particularly rocky, and Jotaro is there to pick up the slack and make him feel less like a monumental failure should he go to pieces.

He won't go to pieces. Not Rohan. ]

I am. [ He replies to Jotaro's prompt, shifting his coils to get comfortably situated for the fly home. To believe he hated it. Rohan does one last thing as a gesture of thankfulness for Jotaro always doing what he really doesn't have to. A kiss is pressed to his warm cheek following a sigh. ANYONE ELSE would have called him out on not being the prickly, icy thing he is right now. That's why it's kept on the down-low and he never actually changes anything about himself too much otherwise... ]

Thank you.

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