[closed] Knock Me Out & Watch Me Drown

[lotusmesenpai]

Who: Kanda & Itsuki | Kanda & Lavi
Where: Eulogy and Noah (their ship)
When: Week 2, Night of Day 2
Summary: Monks are useless so it's time to find alternative sleep methods.
Restrictions/Warnings: Cursing, because Kanda.

Comments

[inksplashes]

[ He meets disbelief with a knowing curve of his lips, a quiet but insistent deflection of the accusation in that false frown. Palmistry is hardly the strangest custom of divination he's studied, but he can understand how someone less ingratiated with history--less concerned with the culture of humans, as it were--might perceive the practice.

(It's silly and esoteric, but that's why he chose it as the topic of this sleepy sermon. Something so far removed from either of their lives that they need not think of how their past sins have stained the lines of palms in red.

A fantasy befit for sweeter dreams than either of them might have.) ]

Hm..

[ Lavi twists their twined hands again, turning Yu's palm enough to place it in his periphery as he regards the lines with a manner most scholastic.

(He thinks not of the closeness of this action or the ease with which he'd instigated it, content to ignore the potential implications for this moment. It's rare, this capacity to simply focus on the present and not look at each action as a series of consequences yet to occur, but it's always pleasant when it surfaces.

And always, he'll realize much later, when he's in close proximity with this man.) ]

According to your heart line, you should let your partner read and nap for at least three weeks of a month in order to have a prosperous fate.

[ With this his seemingly serious manner breaks again, grin twisting on the corners of his mouth. He turns Yu's hand quickly, drawing it back to his chest to lay it flat and obscure the potential of having his 'work' checked.

(Clasped with mock-conviction, he becomes acutely aware of his own heart beat beneath their hands, the rhythm speeding up and echoing in hi ears.) ]

Nope, no peeking. That's exactly what it says.

[lotusmesenpai]

...Three weeks, huh?

[There's a clear trace of amusement in Kanda's voice, the hint of laughter pulling at the corners of his lips - right before he pulls the hand on the bed away from Lavi's and sits up, shifts around enough to lean over the redhead.

Blinking, he watches as his own hair shifts, watches the strands slide across the back of Lavi's hand, still securely holding his own over his partner's heart before they settle in an inky pool. Sitting up too fast, he quite nearly looses his balance, the blood rushing to his head with the shift, but he manages to keep himself (mostly) steady.

Enough, at least, to tear his gaze up to meet a verdant one, the smile breaks free, small and crooked as Kanda arches a brow.]

I think the interpretation is suspect. I might need a second opinion.

[Later - that perpetual later, the one reserved for if or when he faces these not-so-subtle shifts between the two of them - he'll wonder at how comfortable these light touches, this closeness.)

For now, though, he's content and feeling almost playful, despite the sleepiness starting to weigh heavily upon him. ]

[inksplashes]

[ Was three pushing it a bit much? Perhaps he should have said two and a half, that sounds more reasonable to slavedrivers like Yu. Wry grin ever in place, he starts to offer this counter when Kanda suddenly shifts, moving unevenly to right himself.

(That happens often, doesn't it? Lavi has never had many qualms about talking over someone, but he quiets when Yu moves or means to speak, defers to the other man's presence without any conscious thought.)

His free hand twitches with the intent to provide aid, but he stills it, closes it into a loose fist to prevent traitorous digits from acting of their own accord. If Kanda falls over then it's his own damn fault, he is not a child to be minded or protected from his own rash impulses.

That, after all, is the decision he'd made when Kanda had first hatched this plan and sought out Itsuki's illicit affairs. He would let his partner make his own mistakes and say nothing for it, offering reprieve only in the most dire of situations.

But all of that, burned into his mind and written into his resolve, falls quiet in his mind. He looks up at Kanda with a frozen smile, chin slightly tilted, curiosity clear but heavy with reserve.

(Reserve from what? He dare not say, nor think, but there's something nervous and almost uncomfortable in his gut just now, twisting in on itself. Anxiety of a sort, but also excitement.

Lavi banishes further analysis on the matter.) ]

Nope, no can do.

[ His voice is a little too soft for the playful rebuke the words are meant to contain, but he catches his stride again, hand tightening around the one he holds captive. Shifting up slightly on his elbow, his lips take on a sly edge as he shakes his head, ignoring how the increased proximity seems to make the fluttering in his stomach that much more intense. ]

Like I said, old practice. Thousands of years. Very few experts outside of myself. You'll just have to take my word. Three and half weeks of sleep and books for a prosperous fate.

[lotusmesenpai]

Three and a half weeks now? And more books?

[Snorting at that, he leans his free hand down beside Lavi's elbow, to better stabilize himself - and inadvertently closing the distance that little bit more between them. As he does so, a slow smirk pulls at his lips in answer to that sly expression.

(A look that, unexpectedly, he finds a little too enticing in this moment. One that is quite nearly enough to draw him even further in.)

Clearing his throat, he snaps his gaze up from the curve of Lavi's lips, the barest hint of something utterly unfamiliar - embarrassment at being distracted, at the alien flicker of anticipation teasing his awareness - tinging pale skin with the faintest hint of rose. There's a slight lift of his chin, as if defiant of the fact, though the smirk doesn't waiver. Much.]

So how does this improve my life, hm?

[His voice, lower than usual, is little more than a curious whisper. ]

[inksplashes]

[ It's panic, pure and inelegant in its truest form, which guides his reaction. One moment he's fighting off the nervous fliers in his gut and the next he's so close to Yu that he can feel the faint eddy of warm breath.

And that, although startling and a little awe-striking, is bearable. Liveable, if he just lowers his sight and ignores the way he can feel the other's dilated gaze studying him.

What's not tolerable, however, what spurs his anxiety into a childish pantomime and panic, is that blush.

(The science of as much is basic enough, he can trace its origins to reasonable conclusions--a drugged mind, an intoxicated body, the flow of blood mitigated by narcotics..

But none of that does a damn thing to explain why he can't seem to stop looking at the dusty spread of pink on porcelain skin. Nor, he fears, does it provide him much of an excuse when he feels the heat rising to mirror that tinge.) ]

Well, for one, it'll stop me from doing this.

[ Which is the extent of the warning Yu will receive before Lavi leans back and pulls the pillow from beneath his head to volley it into that overly distracting face. ]

Probably, anyway.

[ Voice a little singsong to hide the shake of it, Lavi grins triumphant, the nerves within him quelled, albeit barely, in his belated retaliation.

(At least he didn't try to pull Yu's pigtails?) ]

[lotusmesenpai]

[Way to go, Lavi. Just smack your actually drugged and sluggish partner without real warning.

With a (now) muffled curse, Kanda is graced with a mouthful of pillow and teeters on the edge of maintaining balance before losing the battle, arm giving way to knock him down, the hand holding his to his partner's chest not loose enough to allow him to pull away.

Instead, he falls forward, face-down in the pillow provided, arm half-sprawled over Lavi...

And it takes a breathless moment, before his body shift, sprawls alongside Lavi's as the muffled sound of wry laughter can be heard.]

Bastard.

[Rather than heated, his voice is warm, hinting at affectionate, and heavy with the pull of sleep. He takes a breath, lets it out with a sigh, eyes never opening...

Fading.

Strong fingers curls absently into the shirt beneath his palm, brows furrowing as he shifts his head in a lazy attempt to push his bangs out of his face (to no success). He should reach up, move it.

But there's a weight on his hand, and he doesn't feel like moving it. ]

[inksplashes]

[ Mice and men and all their best laid intentions. His move had been a careless rebuke, an exit strategy given physical form, and for what?

To clear his weak flesh of its impulses, to drive his undisciplined sight from the source of temptation that threatened to break the perpetual nonchalance of his facade. And it had worked, even if not as effectively as he'd have liked, because the rising blood in his cheeks settles, cooling the paths of its travel until the pink gives way to ivory once more.

But it was no less an exercise of futility, because what is granted in its wake is just as, if not more, intimate. A hand gathered between cloth and his own, a body warm and turned to him in its steeply purchased repose--at least, Lavi thinks, he is alone to contemplate these things.

(He could wake and stir Yu to steal his freedom back, but the thought of it troubles him more than the closeness of now. The goal of this all had been for this end: to grant Yu a dreamless sleep where he can find peace, and the face of the man turned to him is nothing if not a picture of released burdens.)

Finally, a sigh on his breath, Lavi twists just enough to alleviate the pressure on his back, squeezing the hand on his chest faintly before releasing it from his hold. He gathers the haphazardly placed notes from the bedside table, pausing to spare a last glance at his partner.

Softly: ]

See you in the morning, Yu.