[closed] Nothing's what it seems to be, I'm a replica, I'm a replica.

[amberdrake]

Who: Amberdrake, Genjo Sanzo
What: Stuff and things.
Where: Drake and Sanzo's current place in Ludmead.
When: Today.
Notes: --
Warnings: --

Braving the trains and then giving massage all day every day one right after the next like he's some kind of massage factory is taking its toll on Drake. He hasn't been sleeping well, despite his excellent company at night, and his reaction time has slowed down juuuust a hair.

Just enough for him to be home during the late afternoon, for once, sitting at the tiny dining table with his head in his hand and an ice pack held against his eye.

Comments

[sanzo]

"Idiot," grumbles the priest, but without any force. For him, it sounds almost fond.

[amberdrake]

Amberdrake finally lowers his hand, although it's just a natural movement and not a withdrawal. "Are you able to fire that thing without destroying anything?" he asks, going back to the very... uh... green and white elephant in the room.

[sanzo]

"Yes, but it's pretty disrespectful." Sanzo peers up at him. "Why?"

[amberdrake]

"I've never seen it work except when distracted by trying not to get killed by something," Amberdrake says thoughtfully, because he's trying to apply kestra'chern knowledge to his own paranoia. What would he tell anyone with an experienced-based fear of something that won't hurt them? To deal with it more in a controlled way, so that experience isn't just worrisome.

"I thought seeing it without that would help, but it's not vital."

He's going to have to get over it one way or another. Time is going to be a big element either way.

[sanzo]

"You'll see it eventually. If I fire that thing, anything that likes magic -- or hates it -- will know for miles around, and I don't want annoying people stopping by."

Sanzo shakes his head, and gives Amberdrake's black eye a meaningful look.

[amberdrake]

"A good point," Amberdrake admits, and lifts the end of it again. Sanzo can feel, no doubt, the nervousness that spikes through him whenever he so much as looks directly at the thing, let alone touches it. It never shows physically.

"If this thing is so irreversibly tied to you as you say, I will do my best to get over my fear of it."

And he bows quite smoothly to place a kiss on the parchment-that-isn't.

[sanzo]

Now, Sanzo reaches out, to carefully cup the back of Drake's head. He makes damn sure not to brush against that bruised cheek and temple.

"A lot of things are irreversibly tied to me, fancy that. The gods bless me with many gifts." It's heavy on the irony, but it's sort of true.

[amberdrake]

It effectively leaves Drake stuck in that bow, unless he wants to break away. Which he doesn't. He lets the end of the sutra drop back into place, though, so it's not literally still in his face.

"You're really something else, you know," he eyes Sanzo sidelong, but with a faint smile, "I've noticed the lifebond."

[sanzo]

Sanzo opens his mouth, and then closes it, and it's another minute before he grunts, "No idea what you're on about."

But he doesn't move his hand away.

[amberdrake]

"If you want me to stay this close," Amberdrake chuckles very softly, "you should at least let me sit down. I'm an old man, you know."

Truthfully, his back isn't in the best shape these days! There's already a rather awful twinge starting up in his spine. It's part of what's been slowing him down, all the wear and tear is beyond what simple relaxation techniques and hot water can really keep up with.

[sanzo]

Sanzo releases him, but only to slide his hand over Amberdrake's back. "That's not like you," he remarks. "You know..."

He hesitates again, and then offers, "Don't get too used to it, but... I know some of what you do. But not as well as you. Show me how to... fix your back up, too."

[amberdrake]

"Doing nothing but massage all day, every day, is wearing me down rather quickly," Drake agrees, "it was tough to do too many of them in a row even ten years ago." It's a lot of work!

And now he's doing many a day, many days in a row. It's no surprise that he's starting wear down more than he can keep up with. And he doesn't particularly want some random stranger trying to fix him up... especially not here in Baedal. There's a reason he's mostly fine with Sanzo seeing him with a black eye, and yet doesn't want to go out for the next few days and let anyone else see it!

As for that offer: "You continue to be full of surprises," Amberdrake notes, quietly startled, "even Winterhart has never offered to do such a thing." Score one for team 'cranky monk'. Of course, Drake wasn't kidding about needing to sit down soon, between his back's building twinge and the way leaning down is making his injured head pound...

But Sanzo's got a hand on his back, and Drake's not terribly willing to pull away from it.

So, he simply sits down on the younger man's lap, like it's the most natural thing in the world to do. Straddling his thighs and the chair, of course, because he's not going to sit sideways and twist to look at him. That would just be asking for his back to get worse.

[sanzo]

Sanzo's eyes widen as his lap becomes a chair! He holds still for a moment, for the feeling of being trapped is very strong, but he takes a deep breath and it eases away.

A few years ago, even one year ago, he might have reacted with violence. Being pinned down-- that still comes back to him in nightmares, sometimes.

But this is Drake, not some rapist thug, and he is in Baedal, not Shangri-la-- but it doesn't mean that such things come easy to him, not even just sitting there and being affectionate.

"Shuddup! I just don't want you to fall behind." He hides his discomfort and his fondness behind the usual gruffness, well aware that the kestra'chern can feel it all. But he leaves his hand on the bigger man's back, though it gripped hard for a moment when Drake first sat down.

[amberdrake]

Ah, but Drake has long pushed at Sanzo's boundaries. And everyone else's, really, within reason and once he knows how far he can push without adding to old traumas. It's what he does. This is the job of a kestra'chern, even with those who aren't -- strictly speaking -- clients.

Why else is Sanzo able to make contact semi-casually at all? A few years ago, he never reached out to others except in moments of extreme stress.

"Of course, ke'chara," Amberdrake is quite willing to play along, and doesn't react to that briefly-clenched hand at all. "It's still a novel offer, even so, and not something I would take for granted."

[sanzo]

Unsure about how to respond with a Drake in his lap, Sanzo nods awkwardly and sits there like a very bony, monk-shaped lump.

The way they're sitting is disconcertingly intimate, and though they've shared intimacies before, it's no easier now, when there's time and bullshit between them.

"Hn."

[amberdrake]

But Sanzo's hand hasn't moved, so Amberdrake is content to stay where he is for the moment! Sure, the monk has probably just forgot it's there in his awkwardness, but all is well in Drake's world at the moment.

His back and head both hurt a lot less now that he's sitting. Although he does lean forward very briefly--

--to snag the ice pack off the little table and put it back on his eye. Because the swelling is starting to return and it is made of ow.

"So this dojo you found," Drake just keeps on acting like this is just a normal thing he's doing, "does it already have living space, or was it just somewhere people trained?"

[sanzo]

"I think the teacher might have lived there. There's no room for attendants, though."

Sanzo both likes and dislikes servants; the convenience of having pointless busywork done for one is undeniable, but the bullshit that comes along with having them is, too.

In any case, it means that the place isn't be the sprawling complex in Haven, or his temple in the Capital back home.

"It's got a courtyard and four hallways, and rooms off those. No pond, but a sand garden. Wood floors inside, paper panels. None of that gaudy gold stuff like the other place."

[amberdrake]

"Modern plumbing, I hope?" Amberdrake hazards, "although if there isn't, I'm sure we can have it installed."

He is not living with buckets and fire-heated tubs, thank you. If he has to give up having most of his family here, he's going to at least have hot water coming out of pipes. And drains!

Even his little office building in Haven, long before Taiki had fused it with the bathhouse, had had impressive plumbing. It's one of the few off-worlder conveniences that Amberdrake really approves of.

[sanzo]

"I'm not sure. I don't know how much of that this place," Baedal, "Has, though an ofuro and a well aren't so bad."

These are what Sanzo is most used to, and even he can deal with pulling up well water now and then.

[amberdrake]

"Mmhm," Amberdrake quirks an eyebrow... the one over his good eye. The other is covered by his ice pack and the hand holding it on. "I'll take care of that part, then," because while he thinks a soaking tub is a fine thing to have around, having to fill it from a well (and then heat it!) isn't happening.

"Not having a pond is a good thing," he mulls the information over aloud, "with the way reflections work here," ponds are nice and all, but so is having less things crawling into the place.

[sanzo]

"Yeah, but the water masks the noise outside." But Sanzo's expectations have been low, so he doesn't seem too disgruntled.

"Maybe a fall to break up the surface..." If they put one in, anyway.

[amberdrake]

"Maybe," Drake smiles a little wistfully at that, "I'm not sure exactly how it works, this reflections thing. But I can ask around before we get to that point."

Look at them, planning somewhat into the future. But there's no telling how long they're here for, or how long things may stay the same, so they may as well.

And truthfully, guilty as it makes him feel, Amberdrake has a hard time feeling restless about that. He's needed back on his world, to be sure, and he knows Sanzo is needed back on his, but...

But he's had plenty of time being away from the monk with no hope of seeing him again. Ten years is a long time.

Speaking of them being separated again... "I have a bit of an odd request for you, ke'chara."

[sanzo]

"Hm?" Sanzo blinks up at him.

[amberdrake]

"The ring you gave me, it's starting to wear down," Amberdrake lifts his free hand -- the one with the ring -- in illustration. And sure enough, ten years of constant wear has worn down the engraving quite a lot. There's dings and dents in the edges, too, that have smoothed down.

No sign of tarnish, but the ring has definitely aged. Silver can only withstand so much.

"I could be sent back to my world, or you could be sent back to yours, or both, and we may never see each other again," Drake's tone is quite sober, as though he's not sitting on Sanzo's lap for this conversation. "I'm going to want to retire this thing so it doesn't break in five, maybe ten years. Maybe sooner, considering how many crazies I've had to retrieve it from..."

He's getting to a point, eventually!

[sanzo]

"I can just..."

Sanzo has other rings! Refusing to dwell on all the horrible might-be's, he just reaches with his free hand to rummage up a sleeve.