RPG - Anton & Sulli 3

[timbits_tootsie]

Sullivan listens to Anton’s even, deep breaths with eyes closed and a little smile on his mouth. They are sweaty and sticky from more than just oil, but he’s happy to stay on top of him, molded against his body.

Sleep won’t come to him, though.

It doesn’t take long for the old familiar unease at being in a wide bed to seep in. But he thinks,

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[antonnachzehrer]

He wakes sometime around early morning.

The first thing that registers in his mind is that he feels hot and there's something heavy on him. The second is that he has a splitting headache, which is only making the former worse.

Slowly, wary of unwanted light, he cracks his eyes open.

He comes face to face with a head of coarse red hair, and something in his gut clenches funnily.

{Okay, that's fine. I'm going to be pretty busy anyway. The train was horrible and it smelled, and the AC went off sometime during the night which was fucking fantastic. But Luxor is pretty, if extremely hot and dry.}

[timbits_tootsie]

Sullivan feels Anton stir, then slowly wake up. His head hurts, but not terribly so, contrary to what he had expected from all that brandy. Oddly enough, the memories of last night are very vivid and very much intact, and that puts a warm blush in his cheeks.

Should he let him know that he’s awake? Should he pretend to be asleep? Something heavy and tight lodges itself firmly in his gut when he thinks of how Anton surely must regret this.

Better to get it over with, he thinks.

He presses his face to the man’s throat, murmuring quietly, “I’d move, but I’ve kind of got a hangover, and I’m not sure I can.”

(Sorry you had a bad night, love :/)

[antonnachzehrer]

He considers answering, but that would require movement, and he's not quite sure he's up to that right now. Instead he makes some sort of vague noise, and lets his eyes slip closed again.

Sullivan is a warm, heavy weight against him, and he can't seem to deny, even to himself, how nice it feels.

{It's okay. I'm just glad I'll being going home soon; Egypt isn't as nice as I thought it was going to be. The sights are amazing, but all the street hawkers and carriage people and the countless number of creepy guys that try to hit on me is too much. :/}

[timbits_tootsie]

Instead of an angry outburst, all he gets is some sort of noise, perhaps of acceptance, perhaps not, before Anton relaxes again, and he breathes a sigh of relief and lets himself relax, too. Long fingers slip into the man’s hair to curl around the strands, trailing gently through it.

This time, his eyelids glide shut, and soon Sullivan is sound asleep and more at ease than he has been for a long, long time.

(Creepy people hit on you? Because you're white? I know my sisters got hit on in Turkey and Thailand :/)

[antonnachzehrer]

He can't fall back asleep; his head aches too much and he's once again acutely aware of the pain in his limbs, but it's muted, which counts for something. Instead, he unconsciously threads fingers through Sullivan's hair, repeating the motion rhythmically as he ponders the situation at hand.

{Pretty much; apparently there's a stereotype here that all western (e.i. Caucasian) woman are easy, so they're always making rude comments. It doesn't help that a lot of the tourists here don't make the effort to dress modestly, and some woman (particularly, so I've heard, the Russian) sometimes even encourage the behavior. They are, and I quote, "very very easy".}

[timbits_tootsie]

At some point, Sullivan rolls off him and curls up to his side, head resting on Anton’s chest.

He dreams of Nathaniel and of Frikk, of memories warm and precious, and every once in a while he mumbles something and tries to creep closer, half smiling even in his sleep.

It’s sometime in the early afternoon when he wakes, disoriented but warm and happy. Anton is right there with him, though sitting with a book in hand, stroking his hair with the other. He blinks. As the fog of sleep lifts from his mind his mouth goes suddenly dry.

They kind of look like lovers right now, don’t they?

“Hey,” he says, very softly, and peers up at him, unaware that he looks almost fearful.

(Horrible tourist behavior does not help correct stereotypes and misconceptions, indeed :/ And I also heard that about Russian women. God, I'm wiped. Been working so much. How are you, love? We can talk more frequently next week, I hope?)

[antonnachzehrer]

Anton blinks slowly, and looks at him. He says nothing, simply regarding him for several long moments as he tries to get his thoughts in order.

Finally, he turns away, closing his book softly and setting it down on the bed. He looks out at the wall, not quite able to meet the boy's gaze.

"Alright," he says quietly. "When this... mess with Usoa is finished, I will consider..." He pauses briefly, the words feeling heavy and foreign on his tongue. "A relationship."

{I think everybody's heard about Russian woman. :/ I'm alright, but very glad to be going home now. Egypt was not nearly as nice as Israel. And I will be back home on Sunday, so yes. :3}

[timbits_tootsie]

The words won’t sink in, at first. He stares, thinking he heard him wrong, but the look on his face tells him that Anton is serious.

He sits up in bed, his shoulder and leg touching Anton’s, and lets his head drop to rest on the man’s shoulder. “Okay,” he whispers, and his fingers brush over the back of Anton’s hand, slipping between them to twine their hands together tightly. The seconds pass in silence, and Sullivan kind of likes it this way, when it’s quiet between them.

“I’m…I’m going to make some tea.”

Giving the hand a squeeze, he slips out of bed and puts his pants on, then leaves without looking at him. If he did, he might have crawled right into bed with him again just for the comfort of it.

(Awesome :D By the way, is tiramisu hard to make?)

[antonnachzehrer]

He watches the boy go, then leans back against his pillows and lets his eyes slip closed, thinking that he really has no idea what he's getting himself into and shocked and perhaps a little scared that he doesn't really mind.

{Um, I don't know. I've never made it. :D;}

[timbits_tootsie]

Downstairs, Sullivan sits cross legged on the kitchen counter and waits for the tea to heat up, lost in thought and shock still. Then, as the implications and possibilities of a relationship with Anton slowly dawn on him, he starts shivering from toe to head, momentarily too emotional to know what he’s really feeling.

“Bloody Jack. Bloody fucking Jack.”

A smile lifts the corners of his mouth.

(Hehe, alright. I'll go look up a recipe. Oh, I hope Ariya slept soundly the night before. Sulli was probably kind of loud, XD.)

[antonnachzehrer]

Ariya returns from the market to hear noise coming from the kitchen, and when she strides in, Sullivan is sitting on the counter, a wide smile on his face. He looks... happy, to say the least. There is something else there as well, something she can't name, but knows it to be something good.

She thinks back to when she tried to bring Master Anton breakfast earlier this morning, and found them curled up around each other.

"Did you sleep well?" she asks as she sets her bags down on the counter.

{She slept fine, but she does know what happened, as you can see. :3 I'll be on for a bit love, we've got to wait to check in and the airport has free WiFi!}

[timbits_tootsie]

“Yeah,” he grins. “Yeah, I slept…I slept really well. Here, let me give you a hand.” He slides down from the counter and takes one of the bags before she can open her mouth to say anything, and goes about putting the contents away.

“Think you could whip up some food for Anton? I’m not sure if he’s eaten anything yet. He was pretty hungover this morning, I think, when we woke.” The words slip out before he can stop them, and he blushes fiercely.

(I love your airport :D And I really missed Ariya.)

[antonnachzehrer]

She pauses in her movements for a moment, flushing at the thought of what must have transpired between them last night, but she resumes them quickly, not quite able to make eye contact. "Of course," she says, putting the last of her items away before going over to the icebox and pulling out a container of soup to reheat.

{Me too.}

[timbits_tootsie]

Embarrassment makes him blush even worse when she averts her eyes from his, but the whistling kettle interrupts the awkward moment. He leaves it on the stove and takes down two cups and hoists himself onto the counter again to wait for the soup so he can bring it upstairs in the same go.

He watches her in silence, itching to speak up but not knowing what to say; there are so many emotions bubbling up inside of him that he is hard pressed to keep quiet.

It occurs to him that he hasn’t felt even remotely close to this happy since…since he was in love with Frikk.

[antonnachzehrer]

The soup takes a little while to heat up, and in the mean time she begins cutting up vegetables and meat for a stew later tonight. When she deems it ready, she pours the soup into a bowl and sets it, some silverware, water and the tea on a tray. "Here," she says, still not being able to look at him. "Do you need anything else?"

{Sulli's supposed to remember Christmas time soon, right?}

[timbits_tootsie]

”No, this is fine. Thanks, Ariya,” he says, flashing her a smile, and takes the tray. “Frankenstein told Anton that he wanted him to try walking on the leg today. He’s coming by later, I think. Apparently he had something to show me. So, um, unless Anton chases me off, I’ll be upstairs, I guess.”

He can’t help but wonder if last night hurt the man’s leg, though. It was pretty…intense. He shakes his head, trying to clear he images from his mind, and leaves.

(Yep. Time wise I think they are at the start of December right now, though? Sulli's going to get withdrawn and sad as Christmas approaches, since he gets homesick. It'll be fun to write Ariya and Sulli shopping for presents!)