[Benny/Ravi] - an overdue visit
Who:
Beniamino
Ravindra
When: Last night, June 26th
Where: Inanna's
Rating & Warnings: PG-13. Hookers.
whoreswhoreswhoreswhoreswhoreswhores
Benny's day had taken a surprisingly upward turn. He'd still been sour about Lord Medellos' poor idea, and spent most of his morning helping to tidy up the place with an eye trained to the door expectantly. His revenge was nowhere near as terrible as Gomer and her powders, but there was still something satisfying about leaving a man poor, hungover, and stiff the next day. When his Sergeant had darkened the doorway, well. He'd promptly forgot about Lord Medellos and the ledgers altogether. It laid forgotten on his nightstand.
Now he dozed in the aftermath, a terrible habit for a whore. A client could leave without paying or do much worse to him, but he could hardly help it. It was a natural effect of being tired, warm, and comfortable when there was a lull in activity. No client had ever had a problem shaking him awake for something so far. The smell of burning tobacco roused him from his micronap with a yawn, and he stretched out on his stomach with a humming sigh. Ravindra and his cigarettes were a familiar and welcome sight. He'd spent time scheming ways to get the man to share more details with him days earlier, only to forget the next morning. At least they could talk now.
"You're still here," he sighed with a lazy smile and tucked his hands under his chin. "I must not have been asleep long."
"Long enough to start snoring," Ravi replied, with a sidelong glance at Benny. A good-natured jab, only because he knew the reaction it would get.
The truth was, he kind of just wanted to lay here forever. He didn't want to have to walk out of Inanna's, back into his real life, back into his loveless marriage, back to his oblivious friend, back into his stressful job, back under the duchess's watchful eyes. It was a good feeling to be lying in bed next to someone who cared about you, even if it was soured by knowing they only cared because you paid them to.
He what? Benny's mouth fell open, brows flattening in not-quite mock offense. "I do not snore!" Maybe he did. But how would he know? Nobody had ever complained, at least. There was that. Pride soothed, he propped his chin in his hand glanced to the cigarette in Ravindra's grasp, bottom lip slipping out further than the top. "Can I have one?"
It was like being the worst sort of addict in his line of work. Too cheap to buy his own drug of any kind, he simply begged them from all those around him. It worked fairly well. "And then you can tell me what all that was about." His Sergeant was usually down to business during his visits, equal parts forceful and giving. Today had been no different when it concerned getting to the business, but he couldn't help but notice a certain aggression and fire to his actions. "Are you all right?" Maybe it was just a pity fuck for his dead friend, or he'd stubbed his toe before he'd stepped inside Inanna's. You never knew, in his line of work.
His indignation was adorable. The pouting, too. It made Ravi smile, and he handed over his own cigarette without a fuss.
Was he all right? The smile faded; he folded his hands over his stomach, staring up at the ceiling. "No," he admitted, without thinking. He immediately regretted it, because now he'd have to explain it, and he knew Benny didn't actually care. A relationship like this was so misleading; he kept tricking himself into thinking there was emotional intimacy to go with the physical intimacy, and then remembering that wasn't true. "Never mind," he added. "It is not important."
His eyebrows lifted as he watched Ravindra clam up, taking a drag from his cigarette. Tighter than a frog's ass, he'd told Shiri. He hadn't been wrong either. Many conversations started and ended like this. "Here," he murmured, and handed the cigarette back. His feet pushed against the bed so he could shift himself closer to Ravi. He stretched out alongside the other man, elbow bent to support his head. The fingers of hisother hand traced along Ravi's arm.
"Are you sad about your friend? The one that died?" Benny studied the sergeant's face carefully. "You said you couldn't talk about it, but you're allowed to be sad, I think."
He took the cigarette back, took a long drag, and let it out slowly. He wanted to talk about it. He really did. But Rasmus and Damica (and Alex) were the only people he could safely talk to about it. Anybody else he couldn't trust not to spread the information, either purposefully or accidentally, and with him being close enough to trouble already, he wasn't going to risk it.
So he answered with a simple, "Yes," and left it at that.
"My poor sergeant," he crooned and dipped his head to press his lips to Ravi's shoulder. Wine, he suddenly remember. He was going to try and put something Ravi's drinks. He lifted his head to glance around the room, then felt an overwhelming sense of laziness and dropped the thought. The sergeant didn't even drink much. His head fell back to his hand with a quiet sigh.
Everything was harder with Ravindra. His fingers continued to wander slowly up to his shoulder and then his neck, pausing to trace the shell of his ear. "And you're in danger, aren't you?" His bottom lip slid out again as he smoothed a finger over each of Ravi's brows in turn. "What would I do, if I never saw these again?"
Ah, he was letting himself get too comfortable. He liked the attention too much. The light fingers tracing over his skin, pleasant as it was, only served to remind him that it was the kind of touch he'd never get from Alex, and so all it left behind was an ache.
He caught Benny's hand, not harshly but firmly, and pushed it away from his face. "No more danger than a Guard normally is in," he said, finality in his tone (even though it was a lie). He was pushing Benny away with his words, too, but that was what he did. He hated this feeling of wanting. Alex left him wanting a physical connection. Benny left him wanting an emotional one.
The hurt that flashed over his features was almost (almost!) genuine when Ravi pushed his hand away. He tucked it against himself uneasily for the moment, unsure of what to do next. He could have had wine by now, he reminded himself. His toes curled and his legs tensed as if preparing to move, then relaxed again. Curse his laziness. Ravindra was warm and soft, even if he was currently prickly. If he let the conversation lapse into silence, he knew he might fall back to sleep.
"I do worry for you, you know," he said softly and placed his hand back on Ravi's upper arm.
A noncommital, "Mm," was the only answer to that. He wanted to believe it, but he didn't. 'You only worry for your income,' flashed briefly through his mind, but he wasn't in a poor enough mood to say it.
He didn't want to make this uncomfortable, though, because he still didn't want to get up. Benny was his escape, and he wasn't ready to leave it just yet. He held the cigarette out to Benny again, head turned just far enough to look at his face. (It was such a pretty face.) "Don't," he said. "I have lived this long with such a job."
That pretty face was looking at Ravi with a mild pout, light brown eyes round and doe-like. "It's still a dangerous job." He took the cigarette without protest, his eyes drifting to the wall across from him as he exhaled smoke. Many believed whores were masters of manipulation - himself included, sometimes - but he believed short of prying Ravi's jaws open now and forcing his tongue to move, he wouldn't get anything from him like this. A different tactic, maybe.
"Mobs and things nowadays. I'll worry whether you tell me to or not, love." The thought of the mob triggered something in his brain. He floundered for a moment, mid-drag of the cigarette, before he let that thought go, too.
Love. Ah. It was just talk, but it made the corner of his mouth pull up in a smile anyway, though he quickly forced his expression into something else. "Yes. The city has grown dangerous," he agreed. "But it is not myself I worry for. My goddaughter is a Vanjalist--" But he cut himself off with a sigh, turning his eyes away. He was saying too much. Benny didn't care. It was foolish to keep talking.
Ah! That's what he'd been about to think about. The ledgers. Benny smiled widely, proud of himself for remembering. "I could have guessed, sergeant." He looked only the tiniest big smug as he went to pull another drag off the cigarette, then pulled a face. It was nearly finished and the taste had grown old and awful. He hauled himself up from the bed, leaning over Ravi to put it out in an ashtray. He grabbed his ledger from the table as well and pushed himself up to a sit, covers pooling at his waist.
Careful to flip past the pages he'd written in already, he thumbed backwards until he found what he was looking for. "So Uncle Ravi says I need to find somebody to practice with so I don't get rusty," he read slowly, grin softening to a smile when his eyes darted to Ravindra. "If I had to guess anyway, love. She mentions you with every other breath." It had been cute to see, but he would never tell the sergeant that so directly. "It's endearing."
He watched Benny as he leaned over for the table, his eyes on the boy's bronze chest and stomach, resisting the urge to push him back to the bed and run his hands over him. Then, catching sight of the ledger as Benny pulled back, he raised an eyebrow and pushed himself up to a sitting position as well.
And then Benny read one of his goddaughters entries. TOTAL. BONERKILL. There was a brief reaction of disgust, which quickly turned to irritation. He slammed the book shut in Benny's hands, giving him a stern glare. "Don't," he said. Don't bring her in here and make me think about her right after I was thinking about fucking you again, what is wrong with you.
Benny flinched when the book was slammed shut, startled. He had been expecting some embarrassment, yes. But that? No. He stared at the sergeant with wide eyes for another beat, then slowly moved the book out of his grip and slid it off the edge of the bed. That had been the wrong tactic, that much was clear now. He couldn't help looking like something of a Guilty Dog as he shifted restlessly, scratching at his upper arm while he tried to think of something to salvage the situation.
Did he have to look at him so sternly? Benny had never quite had a parental figure in his life, but he could imagine this was like it. "I only meant it as a joke," he said slowly, his tone soothing. "Something to make you smile." He tilted his head and let his eyes wander what bits of Ravindra that were exposed, forcing himself to smirk. "I wish I knew what I could do to loosen you up a bit."
Benny's reaction made him feel guilty. That surprise was genuine, not something calculated to get a response. But Ravi was not good at feeling guilty, it only made him angry with himself for doing whatever it was he felt guilty about. His stern look didn't fade and he didn't acknowledge Benny's wandering eyes. "I don't want to think of my goddaughter when I think of you. Don't bring her in here."
"Of course not, love." Was he no longer in trouble? It was hard to tell. Ravindra's face hasn't changed. "Forget I said anything," he said quietly, and raise a hand to push back through the other man's coarse dark hair. It was like soothing a child, or a wild animal. He'd told Gomer that Ravi was like a mute tiger, hadn't he? The thought made him laugh as his fingers moved downwards to his ear.
"Why don't you tell me what you were thinking a little while ago?" It's what he was being paid for after all, wasn't it? He drew his fingertips down the line of Ravindra's jaw, and then lower. "Before I started to snore." He couldn't help looking briefly offended at the idea that he did snore, but his intentions were clear.
His expression softened with a sigh, and he took hold of Benny's hand again, this time to hold it against the headboard as he leaned forward to press a kiss to Benny's lips.
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Beniamino
Ravindra
When: Last night, June 26th
Where: Inanna's
Rating & Warnings: PG-13. Hookers.
whoreswhoreswhoreswhoreswhoreswhores
Benny's day had taken a surprisingly upward turn. He'd still been sour about Lord Medellos' poor idea, and spent most of his morning helping to tidy up the place with an eye trained to the door expectantly. His revenge was nowhere near as terrible as Gomer and her powders, but there was still something satisfying about leaving a man poor, hungover, and stiff the next day. When his Sergeant had darkened the doorway, well. He'd promptly forgot about Lord Medellos and the ledgers altogether. It laid forgotten on his nightstand.
Now he dozed in the aftermath, a terrible habit for a whore. A client could leave without paying or do much worse to him, but he could hardly help it. It was a natural effect of being tired, warm, and comfortable when there was a lull in activity. No client had ever had a problem shaking him awake for something so far. The smell of burning tobacco roused him from his micronap with a yawn, and he stretched out on his stomach with a humming sigh. Ravindra and his cigarettes were a familiar and welcome sight. He'd spent time scheming ways to get the man to share more details with him days earlier, only to forget the next morning. At least they could talk now.
"You're still here," he sighed with a lazy smile and tucked his hands under his chin. "I must not have been asleep long."
"Long enough to start snoring," Ravi replied, with a sidelong glance at Benny. A good-natured jab, only because he knew the reaction it would get.
The truth was, he kind of just wanted to lay here forever. He didn't want to have to walk out of Inanna's, back into his real life, back into his loveless marriage, back to his oblivious friend, back into his stressful job, back under the duchess's watchful eyes. It was a good feeling to be lying in bed next to someone who cared about you, even if it was soured by knowing they only cared because you paid them to.
He what? Benny's mouth fell open, brows flattening in not-quite mock offense. "I do not snore!" Maybe he did. But how would he know? Nobody had ever complained, at least. There was that. Pride soothed, he propped his chin in his hand glanced to the cigarette in Ravindra's grasp, bottom lip slipping out further than the top. "Can I have one?"
It was like being the worst sort of addict in his line of work. Too cheap to buy his own drug of any kind, he simply begged them from all those around him. It worked fairly well. "And then you can tell me what all that was about." His Sergeant was usually down to business during his visits, equal parts forceful and giving. Today had been no different when it concerned getting to the business, but he couldn't help but notice a certain aggression and fire to his actions. "Are you all right?" Maybe it was just a pity fuck for his dead friend, or he'd stubbed his toe before he'd stepped inside Inanna's. You never knew, in his line of work.
His indignation was adorable. The pouting, too. It made Ravi smile, and he handed over his own cigarette without a fuss.
Was he all right? The smile faded; he folded his hands over his stomach, staring up at the ceiling. "No," he admitted, without thinking. He immediately regretted it, because now he'd have to explain it, and he knew Benny didn't actually care. A relationship like this was so misleading; he kept tricking himself into thinking there was emotional intimacy to go with the physical intimacy, and then remembering that wasn't true. "Never mind," he added. "It is not important."
His eyebrows lifted as he watched Ravindra clam up, taking a drag from his cigarette. Tighter than a frog's ass, he'd told Shiri. He hadn't been wrong either. Many conversations started and ended like this. "Here," he murmured, and handed the cigarette back. His feet pushed against the bed so he could shift himself closer to Ravi. He stretched out alongside the other man, elbow bent to support his head. The fingers of hisother hand traced along Ravi's arm.
"Are you sad about your friend? The one that died?" Benny studied the sergeant's face carefully. "You said you couldn't talk about it, but you're allowed to be sad, I think."
He took the cigarette back, took a long drag, and let it out slowly. He wanted to talk about it. He really did. But Rasmus and Damica (and Alex) were the only people he could safely talk to about it. Anybody else he couldn't trust not to spread the information, either purposefully or accidentally, and with him being close enough to trouble already, he wasn't going to risk it.
So he answered with a simple, "Yes," and left it at that.
"My poor sergeant," he crooned and dipped his head to press his lips to Ravi's shoulder. Wine, he suddenly remember. He was going to try and put something Ravi's drinks. He lifted his head to glance around the room, then felt an overwhelming sense of laziness and dropped the thought. The sergeant didn't even drink much. His head fell back to his hand with a quiet sigh.
Everything was harder with Ravindra. His fingers continued to wander slowly up to his shoulder and then his neck, pausing to trace the shell of his ear. "And you're in danger, aren't you?" His bottom lip slid out again as he smoothed a finger over each of Ravi's brows in turn. "What would I do, if I never saw these again?"
Ah, he was letting himself get too comfortable. He liked the attention too much. The light fingers tracing over his skin, pleasant as it was, only served to remind him that it was the kind of touch he'd never get from Alex, and so all it left behind was an ache.
He caught Benny's hand, not harshly but firmly, and pushed it away from his face. "No more danger than a Guard normally is in," he said, finality in his tone (even though it was a lie). He was pushing Benny away with his words, too, but that was what he did. He hated this feeling of wanting. Alex left him wanting a physical connection. Benny left him wanting an emotional one.
The hurt that flashed over his features was almost (almost!) genuine when Ravi pushed his hand away. He tucked it against himself uneasily for the moment, unsure of what to do next. He could have had wine by now, he reminded himself. His toes curled and his legs tensed as if preparing to move, then relaxed again. Curse his laziness. Ravindra was warm and soft, even if he was currently prickly. If he let the conversation lapse into silence, he knew he might fall back to sleep.
"I do worry for you, you know," he said softly and placed his hand back on Ravi's upper arm.
A noncommital, "Mm," was the only answer to that. He wanted to believe it, but he didn't. 'You only worry for your income,' flashed briefly through his mind, but he wasn't in a poor enough mood to say it.
He didn't want to make this uncomfortable, though, because he still didn't want to get up. Benny was his escape, and he wasn't ready to leave it just yet. He held the cigarette out to Benny again, head turned just far enough to look at his face. (It was such a pretty face.) "Don't," he said. "I have lived this long with such a job."
That pretty face was looking at Ravi with a mild pout, light brown eyes round and doe-like. "It's still a dangerous job." He took the cigarette without protest, his eyes drifting to the wall across from him as he exhaled smoke. Many believed whores were masters of manipulation - himself included, sometimes - but he believed short of prying Ravi's jaws open now and forcing his tongue to move, he wouldn't get anything from him like this. A different tactic, maybe.
"Mobs and things nowadays. I'll worry whether you tell me to or not, love." The thought of the mob triggered something in his brain. He floundered for a moment, mid-drag of the cigarette, before he let that thought go, too.
Love. Ah. It was just talk, but it made the corner of his mouth pull up in a smile anyway, though he quickly forced his expression into something else. "Yes. The city has grown dangerous," he agreed. "But it is not myself I worry for. My goddaughter is a Vanjalist--" But he cut himself off with a sigh, turning his eyes away. He was saying too much. Benny didn't care. It was foolish to keep talking.
Ah! That's what he'd been about to think about. The ledgers. Benny smiled widely, proud of himself for remembering. "I could have guessed, sergeant." He looked only the tiniest big smug as he went to pull another drag off the cigarette, then pulled a face. It was nearly finished and the taste had grown old and awful. He hauled himself up from the bed, leaning over Ravi to put it out in an ashtray. He grabbed his ledger from the table as well and pushed himself up to a sit, covers pooling at his waist.
Careful to flip past the pages he'd written in already, he thumbed backwards until he found what he was looking for. "So Uncle Ravi says I need to find somebody to practice with so I don't get rusty," he read slowly, grin softening to a smile when his eyes darted to Ravindra. "If I had to guess anyway, love. She mentions you with every other breath." It had been cute to see, but he would never tell the sergeant that so directly. "It's endearing."
He watched Benny as he leaned over for the table, his eyes on the boy's bronze chest and stomach, resisting the urge to push him back to the bed and run his hands over him. Then, catching sight of the ledger as Benny pulled back, he raised an eyebrow and pushed himself up to a sitting position as well.
And then Benny read one of his goddaughters entries. TOTAL. BONERKILL. There was a brief reaction of disgust, which quickly turned to irritation. He slammed the book shut in Benny's hands, giving him a stern glare. "Don't," he said. Don't bring her in here and make me think about her right after I was thinking about fucking you again, what is wrong with you.
Benny flinched when the book was slammed shut, startled. He had been expecting some embarrassment, yes. But that? No. He stared at the sergeant with wide eyes for another beat, then slowly moved the book out of his grip and slid it off the edge of the bed. That had been the wrong tactic, that much was clear now. He couldn't help looking like something of a Guilty Dog as he shifted restlessly, scratching at his upper arm while he tried to think of something to salvage the situation.
Did he have to look at him so sternly? Benny had never quite had a parental figure in his life, but he could imagine this was like it. "I only meant it as a joke," he said slowly, his tone soothing. "Something to make you smile." He tilted his head and let his eyes wander what bits of Ravindra that were exposed, forcing himself to smirk. "I wish I knew what I could do to loosen you up a bit."
Benny's reaction made him feel guilty. That surprise was genuine, not something calculated to get a response. But Ravi was not good at feeling guilty, it only made him angry with himself for doing whatever it was he felt guilty about. His stern look didn't fade and he didn't acknowledge Benny's wandering eyes. "I don't want to think of my goddaughter when I think of you. Don't bring her in here."
"Of course not, love." Was he no longer in trouble? It was hard to tell. Ravindra's face hasn't changed. "Forget I said anything," he said quietly, and raise a hand to push back through the other man's coarse dark hair. It was like soothing a child, or a wild animal. He'd told Gomer that Ravi was like a mute tiger, hadn't he? The thought made him laugh as his fingers moved downwards to his ear.
"Why don't you tell me what you were thinking a little while ago?" It's what he was being paid for after all, wasn't it? He drew his fingertips down the line of Ravindra's jaw, and then lower. "Before I started to snore." He couldn't help looking briefly offended at the idea that he did snore, but his intentions were clear.
His expression softened with a sigh, and he took hold of Benny's hand again, this time to hold it against the headboard as he leaned forward to press a kiss to Benny's lips.
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