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Brian came with a louder noise than he had any right to, moaning and throwing his hair back, and pulling Kravitz in tight with his nails raking hard down his back, drawing lines against deep coloured skin, cumming white against the deep grey of his stomach as his hips twitched, shaking as Kravitz rocked his hand inside... |
Kravitz pulled out of him, reaching for a napkin and wiping his fingers off, sitting back a little and watching how Brian lay exactly where he was and shut his eyes, trying to breathe it off. Kravitz chuckled, leaning over to kiss Brian’s forehead. |
"You’re very pretty when you finish," he murmured, stroking Brian’s hair out of his face again. |
Brian made a weak noise of protest. "I’m always pretty," he said, in a disturbingly thick accent. |
Kravitz chuckled again and reached for another napkin, wiping the residue of the oil between Brian’s thighs and the pale lines of cum on his stomach, glancing at Brian as he lay back with his eyes closed, breathing deep. |
"You can’t fall asleep here," Kravitz said, balling up the dirty napkin and putting it with the rest, vanishing them with a flick of his wrist and reaching for his shirt, pulling it back on. |
"Thatingo skra," Brian slurred, waving his hand dismissively and rolling his R’s. Kravitz blinked, and it took him a moment for him to realise Brian wasn’t speaking common any more. |
"Speak common," Kravitz said, patting Brian on the thigh and raising his eyebrows. "I know you can." |
"Skidek epa pha, ana phumtim purtum," Brian added, cracking open an eye just barely, looking immensely smug. Kravitz thought back to a stint he’d had in the Underdark, when he’d had to herald over a big volume of souls, and learned a little of the language to help things along. Brian had just said "Do you speak Drowic?... |
Kravitz took Brian’s jaw in his hand gently. He murmured in low soothing tones, in his best mimic of Brian’s accent. "Skidek part apham." Or, "Yes, I speak Drowic." |
Brian groaned, leaning up the tiny distance required to kiss him again, slinging an arm around his neck and drawing it out, long and lazy. |
"Why are you so well travelled? It is not fair," Brian muttered, stroking a hand through his hair and looking at him with heavy eyes, lashes low. |
Kravitz smiled, leaving Brian to come back to himself as he broke away to grab his pants off the floor. He picked up Brian’s undershirt and held it out to him. Brian batted it away, disgusted, laying back on the table and shaking his head. "Oh, no. That is not happening any time soon." |
"Brian, I can’t have you wandering the stockade naked." |
"Do not worry, I’m not wandering anywhere." Brian wiggled his fingers in a wave goodbye, eyes shut, trying to sink into the table. "I was somewhat out of practice, I believe, and now my legs do not work." |
Kravitz sighed, glancing at the entrance to the hall. There shouldn’t really be anyone present in the stockade. There were no other reapers and her majesty was attending business in another plane. He could never predict how long that would take, though, and he was fairly sure She’d want words with him if She came back ... |
Kravitz made a sharp scooping gesture and all their things disappeared from the floor. Chairs tucked back in with a scrape, place settings shuffled back into place around them. He picked up his cloak and threw it back around his shoulders, fastening it, and walked over to Brian. Something flickered over Brian’s face wh... |
"I was just joking," he said. "I will walk, if you need me to." |
Kravitz realised, with a sickening drop in his stomach, that Brian thought he was going to be sent back to purgatory for being awkward. |
Moving closer, he kissed Brian’s forehead, stroking his hair and setting a hand on his shoulder. "Relax. I’m going to carry you to my room." |
Once Brian had a chance to process that, he nodded and fixed a smile back in place, though it seemed a little uneasy with some of the lingering panic. Kravitz looped an arm under his legs and one around his shoulders, hoisting him up. |
Brian seemed, almost instantly, to relax. His head rested against Kravitz’s shoulder, his arms curled in his lap, and he leaned into him, eyes half shut. This was preferable to the table, he thought as he curled up tighter, cheek resting against the rumpled cotton of his shirt. He noted that Kravitz didn’t have a heart... |
He wrapped a strand of Kravitz’s hair around his finger, humming to himself, glancing about when he was brought into Kravitz’s room. The door clicked shut behind them and he was set down on the cool sheets. Brian grinned, looping his arms around Kravitz’s shoulders when he tried to pull away. |
"Let me get out of my work clothes," Kravitz said, setting his hands on Brian’s wrists and easing them from around him. "I’m not going anywhere." |
Brian murmured some disagreement, muttering in Drowic and stretching, yawning wide enough to show off his back teeth. He shifted, enjoying the feeling of clean, soft sheets under him and cool air around him. He moved under the covers, watching as Kravitz undressed again, setting his rumpled clothes aside in a basket an... |
He came to the bed, shirtless, smiling to himself at the sight of Brian swaddled up in a comforter, white hair spilling out the top across black pillows, huddled in a small corner of the bed. Lifting the sheets, he clambered in behind Brian and edged closer, pulling the comforter around himself and wrapping an arm gent... |
"Do you sleepwalk?" Kravitz muttered, opening an eye and noticing the angle Brian’s ear was sticking up at, smiling to himself and reaching up to stroke it back. |
"Not that I know of," Brian mumbled back, shuffling until his back pressed against Kravitz’s chest, head down with his arms and legs tucked in. It was so easy to put an arm around the whole of him, pulling him close. |
"Good," said Kravitz. "You might scare someone." |
"Rude," Brian said, muffled through a yawn. "Who are you expecting to see around?" |
Given there was only one other inhabitant of the stockade who was allowed to roam freely, there was only really one answer to this question. And he didn’t especially want Brian to run into Her, particularly not shirtless and dishevelled and unannounced. |
"Nobody especially," Kravitz said, fingers trailing over Brian’s arm, trying to remember the last time his bed had felt this comfortable. |
Kravitz didn’t sleep. Not ever, not any more. His body wouldn’t shut down like that. But he could relax with his eyes closed and let his thoughts settle. His mind eased into the soft tide of Brian’s breathing, the regular rise and fall of his shoulders, and his fingers wove up and down his arm, lulling him into somethi... |
His waking was less so. |
Brian’s breathing became erratic. His chest fluttered, hitched. Kravitz opened his eyes to see the back of Brian’s head, his hair in tangles. Kravitz shuffled upright, watching over him. His outline was silvery in the dark of the room, the starlight of the permanent night filtering in through the windows. |
Brian twitched, face wrought up, lips quivering and fingers moving to weave something with feverish intensity. Kravitz leaned closer, setting a hand on Brian’s shoulder and brushing Brian’s hair out of his face so he could breathe clear. |
"Brian?" he murmured, voice gentle as he squeezed his shoulder. "Brian, wake up, you’re having a ni-" |
Brian’s eyes flew open, starkly white in the dark of the room, waking with a harsh gasp and throwing an arm in Kravitz’s direction, fingers curled to claws. His palm glowed a bright desperate white, and Kravitz’s eyes went wide as a bang like the heavens falling echoed around the room. Brian had cast magic missile at t... |
Kravitz grabbed Brian’s wrist, nails digging into the skin as he focused his energy on reversing the flow of the magic. His eyes were bright as he glared at Brian’s hand until the pool of magic in his palm burst and dissipated, the streaks of magic splashing harmlessly against the ceiling, bursting into a shower of spa... |
Kravitz breathed hard, teeth gritted, looking back at Brian who shivered in place, teeth gritted and hair flung over his face. He slackened his grip around Brian’s wrist just gently, leaning away. |
"You. Had a nightmare." |
"It’s you," Brian said, voice thick. "I thought. I... You sound different." |
Kravitz frowned a moment, before he realised he hadn’t put the accent back on. "Oh. It’s, uh. It’s fake." |
"What?" Brian’s voice swelled with so much emotion that it was frankly alarming. |
Kravitz let his wrist go. "It’s for work. I put it on when I started and it just stuck, I’m sorry-" |
Brian burst into a sob, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking, covering his eyes with his hands. Kravitz blinked, brain screaming so many different things at him as Brian screwed his hands up, body wound and tight, shoulders heaving with sobs. |
"There there. It’s OK. I can put it back on. It’s... It’s alright." He put a hand on Brian’s shoulder, patting gently. |
Brian hugged Kravitz with enough force that the wind went out of him, and he was left leaning against the headboard with a wet face pressed against his shoulder, hair strewn over every bit of him and the sheets wrapped around them awkwardly. He put an arm around Brian, stroking down his spine as Brian sobbed against hi... |
"It’s alright. It’ll be OK," Kravitz said,curling his fingers in Brian’s hair. "I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t think we’d be spending so long toge-" |
"It’s not about the accent you fucking idiot." Brian choked on a teary laugh, looking up at Kravitz. "You scared me. I’m not used to waking up with people, I..." He sobbed again, knuckling at his eyes. "You know." |
Kravitz felt his heart clench when he realised how long Brian must have been alone for. At least a year, if he’d only just died. Alone in that cave with his pet spider. He’d seemed uncommonly sociable. There must have been something extraordinary keeping him there. Or maybe something keeping him from the rest of the wo... |
"I see," Kravitz said, voice low and soft, noticing absently how low Brian’s ears hung, nearly brushing his shoulders. Gods, he was the picture of unhappiness. Kravitz pulled the comforter properly around the two of them and, after a moment of indecision, flicked his wrist. Another comforter flew from the chest, unfurl... |
Brian stopped sobbing long enough to run his fingers over the edge of it. He sniffed. "W-what kind of material is it?" |
Kravitz smiled, pulling it closer around them. It was heavy, warm, and smelled like the warm space between worlds. |
"Silk, spun around wool from Pan’s own flock, dyed with oak galls and knitted on lady Istus’ own needles. The filling is first-shed raven down. It was a very extravagant first Candlenights present under my new employment." He ran a hand over it, and noticed how Brian snuggled under it a little tighter. It was comfortin... |
"Because my lady simply does not know how to chill," Kravitz added, revelling in the fact that it earned a burbley little chuckle. |
"Does she know other colours than black exist?" Brian mumbled against his chest, up to his eyes in the blanket. |
"I think she lives in denial. If I tried to bring a chromatic scatter cushion past the portcullis I feel like it would incinerate in my hands." He stroked a hand gently through Brian’s hair, watching as his ear twitched a strand off it. "Are you alright?" He murmured, watching him fondly. |
"Yes. Quite. Just a fright." Brian closing his eyes again, breathing deep. "It’s quite an adjustment. Being dead." |
Kravitz nodded. "It is. But you’ll be alright. It’s not so bad as everyone makes it out to be." |
"Your death is different to mine," Brian said, voice muffled. "You have favour. Duty. I’ve got that still whiteness to go back to." |
Kravitz took a moment, nodding to himself. "You lived well." |
"Not well enough." He shook his head, squeezing Kravitz tighter. "You don’t remember anything about your life, do you not? You don’t get regrets." |
"I would love some regrets," Kravitz said, voice soft. "You have memories." He stared at the blanket, swallowing, taking a deep breath to steady himself. "I get to serve until I outlive my usefulness. And I don’t know how long the reaper before me lasted." He didn’t know how it had ended, either. Probably when they had... |
Brian kept the peace a moment, letting it stretch out like a yarn being woven, stretched thinner and thinner. "It is hard not to want when the alternative is nothingness." |
"You didn’t move over all the way," Kravitz told him, stroking his cheekbone. "That’s not the afterlife. We are the judges, we hold those unworthy of passing on." |
Brian glanced up, shifting under the blanket. |
"You get to go again." Kravitz said, grazing his fingers over his jaw. "We don’t hold you forever. Your soul recuperates in the sea, fixes itself, releases its grudges, and goes again." |
Brian’s eyes shone in the dark of the room, his hand tight against Kravitz’s stomach. |
"Will I remember you?" Brian murmured, looking up to him wide-eyed. |
Kravitz shook his head, just slightly. "If you hold on too tight you can’t go back. You can’t be anchored in this plane or you won’t pass all the way back. If everyone was trying to find each other the world would just be people desperately searching for each other, dying, and trying again. You have to go fresh, new, a... |
He could see Brian’s eyes getting wet, and stroked his cheek. |
"I’ll find you. If you’d like." |
Brian swallowed around the lump in his throat, nodding. "I’d like that." |
"Try for a proper courtship this time?" |
Brian chuckled, covering his mouth with his hand. "How will I look? Can I make requests?" |
Kravitz laughed. "I can’t guarantee anything." |
"But what if I’m some hairy dwarf with a bad accent? You’ll take one look at me and turn around to find some other drowic hussy." He batted Kravitz on the side. "What if I’m ugly?" |
"I’ll take my chances," Kravitz said, stroking his hair back and cupping his jaw. "I don’t think you could ever be ugly. You’re not cruel." |
"I burned off my sister’s hair when we were fourteen. Not entirely by accident." |
He looked so comically guilty that it was hard not to laugh. |
"Maybe a little ugly," said Kravitz. |
He was so immensely affronted that it was impossible not to give a little chuckle. |
"I suppose we’ll just have to make the best of it as you are now," Kravitz murmured. Brian gave a tired little eyebrow wiggle. "Until next time. You’ll be sitting in a bar after a hard day and a dashingly handsome man from out of town will buy you a drink, and nobody else will seem to pay him any mind." Kravitz smiled,... |
Kravitz looked down at Brian with glassy eyes. |
"Maybe we’ll be happy." |
Brian fell asleep with his head resting against Kravitz’s chest, listening to hopes for another life, and the life that the stranger in the bar would lead with his lover. And when he drifted off, his soul drifted away. He turned to white wisps, grudges and vices melting away, and when Kravitz woke up in the morning his... |
He dressed, picked up his scythe, and went to talk to his Queen about a three-headed bounty, with a grimoire left on his bedside. |
The house lay in darkness. On the outside, it looked like a normal house, almost aggressively so. Ordinary in the extreme, fitting in with its neighbours to the point that the only difference was the number 4 next to the door. |
Inside the house was a different matter. Oh, it looked normal enough to the casual observer – couches, a table, pictures on the mantlepiece showing a big man, a thin woman and a beachball which on closer inspection might resolve into a young child, around the age of 6 or perhaps a little older. His size made it difficu... |
It was not until closer interaction with the family that lived here, that one might notice the other little boy. The one who was in none of the pictures, and who moved through the house almost like a ghost, leaving as few impressions as he could. This boy's age was likewise difficult to guess, as painfully thin as he w... |
On this particular night, the little black-haired boy was sitting on his mattress in what passed for his room, the cupboard under the stairs where his aunt and uncle made him sleep. He was hugging a formless grey pillow to his chest, biting his lip in an effort not to cry. He had learned a long time ago that tears led ... |
He was distracted from his tears when he heard a wheezing, grinding noise filling his cupboard while a wind picked up out of nowhere, ruffling his hair. When all was calm and still again, there was, impossibly, a blue box standing in his cupboard, taking up most of the space. The boy stared at it, while listening despa... |
Not that he would be able to get inside. The strange box was quite completely blocking the cupboard's door. |
Satisfied that nobody would come running, the boy looked more closely at the box. It was blue, with wooden panels, nearer the top glass panes, above that letters and at the very top a light which had pulsed with the same rythm as the wheezing sound, but which was now dark. The boy sounded out the letters, the way he'd ... |
The box's door opened, and there was muttering on the other side. There was someone inside. Because... because of course there was, why not? Nothing could beat the box actually appearing in strangeness. The boy strained his ears to hear what the voice was saying. |
"... don't understand. Should I check the dimensional control again, old girl? It's been holding up quite well though, and I checked it not that long ago, so what has affected your outer dimensions like this? Let me check out there, you might just be environmentally challenged at the moment." |
The muttering stopped, and then the owner of the voice stuck his head outside the box's door. He blinked for a moment, focused his eyes on the boy regarding him solemnly, and grinned. There was nothing malicious in that grin, either, just pure joy at meeting someone. "Hello there!" the head said. The boy cocked his hea... |
"Wait, one moment. Let me just..." with a grunt and a twist, the head was followed by the rest of the man's body. He was tall and lanky, and the predominant impression was "brown". Brown hair, brown eyes, brown pinstriped suit with just a splash of red at his feet. "There, much better. Talking always goes better if you... |
The boy was not quite sure how to answer that question, not having much experience with other dimensions of any kind, so he stayed quiet. The brown man luckily did not seem to actually expect an answer. "So, I seem to have got lost. Could you tell me where I am?" |
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