(Untitled)

[tooktheblack]

There was a reason the direwolf was the sigil of House Stark: sheer stubbornness. Jon had run across that many times before now, certainly, but it was never quite so evident as when Ghost had managed to streak his fur with dirt and leaves and bits of gore from some kill in the jungle (monkey, Jon suspected, not that he'd ever seen one outside of a

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[highf]

Those who claimed that the imagination was always more powerful than reality were surely mistaken.

For all the times that Kurt had found himself falling for someone by his side, falling when there was no chance, falling when the man's affections were turned elsewhere, he didn't very often tried to tie sentiment to the physical. Didn't spend days dreaming of anyone's pectorals or abs, didn't flutter in the same way that Tina Cohen-Chang did after hooking up with Mike during Asian summer camp. To him, it was details like the height of one's cheekbones or the straight edge of a jaw that stood out, a well-tailored suit being just as attractive as any amount of skin might prove to be.

Supposedly. Theoretically. But, apparently, he had never witnessed a man bathing his dog.

Caught between endearment and something else that he couldn't quite define, Kurt took in a slow breath before he carefully made a quarter-turn, careful to keep his gaze slightly off as a flush rose to his cheeks.

"Need any help?"

[tooktheblack]

"Kurt! Yes, actually, I was just waiting for Ghost to get tired of me running after him for a bath and was having a swim. If you can get him in the water, it'd be appreciated. I did manage to get a little soap on him," Jon said, laughing at the absurdity of all of it.

"Neither of us are particularly fierce right now, are we?"

[highf]

"This... seems like a plan doomed to failure," Kurt whispers to himself, under his breath, even as he tries to keep a bright smile on for show, like the prospect of splashing about in the water next to a gorgeous man with the aim of pinning down his dog isn't overwhelming at all. Not one bit. Nope. A soft and slightly unsure laugh falls from his lips, but soon enough he's at the edge of the pool, staring down at the water, then at his clothing

[tooktheblack]

"The box is fickle on the best of days. I stripped down for much the same reasons," Jon said, smirking a little and whistling for Ghost. He darted a little closer to the edge of the pool but still seemed wary; Ghost had no love for soap and water, at least not now.

"If nothing else, we can just have a swim and ignore Ghost until he comes back around for attention, right?"

[highf]

"Y-yeah," he nods, yanking his gaze away from the direwolf and letting it settle on Jon again, resolutely staring up at the fine, dark curls that frame the man's face and the length of his lashes (just as dark as the hair) rather than anything below the general collarbone area. He knows his limits. And Kurt's not the type to push them when it comes to something like this, where he's almost certain that he'd be barking up the wrong tree, anyway. More important than that is maintaining the friendship, even if he'll need to give himself a smack upside the head now every time memories of today come up. "Yeah, we can totally just have a swim, have fun, Ghost will probably see that there's nothing to be afraid of at all."

Lips tentatively curving in a smirk, Kurt glanced over to the giant canine. "I mean, he does seem pretty scared right now of the water. Surprising."

[tooktheblack]

"Everyone has their weakness," Jon said, laughing it off. "It's more he wants to be difficult simply because I was trying to keep him from scaring off small children with a bloody muzzle."

It was a bit stupid, maybe, but it had given him something to do to pass the afternoon and that was a luxury in and of itself.

"At least you can actually swim here without freezing to death. At Winterfell, we could only ever manage in the hot springs or during high summer and even then, it was still cold. Only Northerners can handle that."

[highf]

Kurt wrinkled his nose in distaste. Only recently, he'd come across a girl skinning a rabbit, right out in the open, hands bloody and smeared with a deep red color, almost like that of wine- at least, to Kurt's nearly untrained eyes. He didn't have a problem with such slaughter, and thought that PETA was not only superficial for only picketing the rights of the furry and the fuzzy, but to see it was still something he hadn't grown accustomed to. (He never did accompany his father to the butcher's, no matter how strong the occasional hankering of barbecue was.)

"Ugh, yeah, I can see why you did," he agreed, shuddering momentarily before he swam further into the pool, pedaling the water. "I definitely can't complain about the water here, though. It's incredibly clear and clean compared to what I'm used to back in Lima, and the general climate is pretty predictable. Both good things."

[tooktheblack]

"Robb, my brother, says it snows here. Can't imagine it, it's too hot, but I can't help but trust him on that."

Jon smiled but it was a bit sly. "You're not from Westeros, so you don't know what it means to a Stark to have snow. They've all got ice running through their veins. I'm a better aim with a snowball, though."

[highf]

He was starting to feel a little better about talking to Jon while... more or less unclothed. The water, being a pool next to the waterfall, benefited from shadows in the area rendering everything inside a dark, faintly green color, and the waves caused by him swimming from side to side were enough to break down anything which wasn't immediately obscured by the deep tone. Tilting his head back and forth, Kurt took more liberties as he swam through the water; he'd never been the best athlete in school, but in recent years, working up to the eventual goal of acting on Broadway had meant a lot more dances, training, and all in all, it was starting to show

[tooktheblack]

"Food gets scarce on the Wall in winter," Jon said, thinking about how he'd been concerned with having enough money to feed and clothe the brothers as well as the wildlings. "And winter lasts for years in Westeros. We were hoping it would be a short one but we doubt it; summer lasted for almost fifteen years, more or less. It will be long and hard and cold and soon the food won't even grow in the Southron lands, much less the North."

He paused, though, and looked to Kurt. "Which probably wasn't what you meant. Magic, well. I've seen some, even if I don't really believe in it."

[highf]

"Not... quite," Kurt nodded, though the movement was sheepish at best. While it was probably perfectly understandable that a boy of his demographic, from his hometown, would be sheltered enough never to think about the absolute need to collect crops and food in the wintertime, it still leaves him feeling that there's a great deal of care that he ought to better pay his words around Jon. It's not a matter of pity. The word doesn't even manage to cross Kurt's thoughts when it comes to Jon, so strong, so capable, so even-tempered in a way that Kurt can't imagine any of his friends being under similar circumstances. Instead, it's respect that Kurt most wants to pay

[tooktheblack]

"I believe it exists," Jon conceded, unable to deny that point. He'd seen Melisandre's strange rituals and knew that at least one person had died at the command of her word and her Red God. "It's more I don't believe in the gods that work it. The Old Gods don't interfere that much in the day to day business of men."

Maybe before, in the time of the Children of the Forest and the First Men but not since the time of the Andals.

"It's not something we usually discuss, anyway. Do you believe in it?"

[highf]

"I believe in magic insofar as I think people use it to describe things that they can't explain, or, you know. Want to attribute more to it than pure chance. I get that," Kurt replied honestly with the slightest of nods. He wasn't a guy capable of complete denial. Upon reaching his hands into the cardboard box and being able to yield any number of outfits, cardigans, even a few dozen pairs of nice shoes, it'd become impossible for him to reconcile the experience with all of those he'd had with boxes before. The island's clothes box was no normal box, just as its bookshelf had something else working for it, too, and the likelihood that it was all a trick of the light seemed highly unlikely to Kurt.

But the rest of it, far and intangible, couldn't convince him half as quickly.

"That said, I don't... believe in God. Or gods, as it is. I don't believe that any sort of divine hand, especially not a benevolent one, actually exists on Earth or in the beyond," Kurt shrugged. "Doesn't stop me from dressing up on occasion, though."

[tooktheblack]

"Everyone dresses differently here than I've ever experienced," Jon said. "Maybe it's the heat but it just seems...less modest, in ways. I've never been outside in short trousers and no shirt but that seems like common attire even for people who aren't swimming."

Jon imagined it was a function too of how society had changed. Westeros, it seemed, was very backward from a lot of places people came from, at least as far as the island was concerned.

"It takes some getting used to."

[highf]

Kurt couldn't help but let out a little laugh at Jon's observation, one which was all too true, and one which Kurt was prone to lamenting. Not that he minded a bit of skin being shown here or there, or that he wanted every last square inch of epidermis to be covered in cloth, but there was something to be said for taste, for the various ways in which one could manage the same amount of allure even when decently covered. When one could still seem fashionable, attractive, all without the desperation that seemed to come hand in hand with, for instance, the flirty little Cheerios skirts that some of the girls flaunted around.

Resting his arms on the bank of the pool, Kurt nodded vigorously. "Oh, believe me... it's not just the heat, for one, and two, I certainly wish that we could revert to the more modest days of old. Of course, which isn't to say that I'd hold a baring of skin against anyone, but there's an art to tailoring the clothes to best fit you and your personality."