kingdomdressing | (no subject)

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[ Open posts. Open posts forever.

aprincess is playing on a large playground, wearing an adorable dress. There's all manner of outdoor toys with her, and she's occupying herself blowing bubbles into the wind.

dawnrise is... well, she's not in a dress, but she's not in jeans. It's a black skirt. For once. Before anyone panics, she's wearing a normal t-shirt ~~with Mickey Mouse on it~~, and her legs are covered. They're just covered by thigh highs. She's hanging out in the kitchen, which is piled with a mess of ingredients for pizza.

And then there's this guy.

hallowedshore has been gone for a couple days, but he's back now. He's walking down the hallway headed toward his room, dripping water all over the place. There's a steady trail of it from a nearby shower, and it looks like he took one fully dressed. His expression is blank and he smells unpleasantly of blood (which has stained his clothes), ash, and smoke, but not nearly as much as he did. ]

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[...okay, that makes her pull back enough to look up at him.]

How the hell did you get parasites in your head? Also it's pretty obvious what you wanted to do, actually.

[He looks really reluctant to tell her.]

I guess you got the gist of it.

[she scrutinizes him closely, and then detaches from him to take his hand and pull him towards her apartment.]

Come on, you need chocolate really badly, and then you're gonna tell me what happened, because in case you forgot, I am basically the last person who's going to judge you for being stupid.

[He resists the pull for a split second, then follows obediently, sighing kind of loudly. For Aden.]

I'm not worried about you judging me. Whatever. Chocolate sounds great.

Whatever it is that's making you not want to tell me. Besides, you're soaking wet and you look like shit.

[the door to her apartment is still open, so in they go! surprisingly (or not), there's a familiar lady-hyena curled on the couch, her head on the arm closest to the door. she sits up when they come in, and sniffs curiously at Aden.]

Look, it's not--

[He stops short when he sees her there, looking to Inaya and then back.]

Hey.

Dad thought I'd like some company, since I wanted to stay here so I could take care of your animals as much as I could, and I didn't know how long you might be gone.

[she lets go of Aden to close the door and then vamoose to the kitchen to get chocolate and also maybe a towel. Itoko blinks calmly at Aden.]

It's good to see you back in one piece, cub. Your family missed you.

[Aden watches Inaya go, then turns back to the couch and raises his eyebrows at Itoko. He's also sticking his hands in his pockets, because he's a hell of a lot like his mom sometimes.]

How long was I gone?

Two days. That's getting closer to someone having gone home, so you can understand why they were so worried.

[Inaya comes hurrying back, putting an extra-large and already opened bar of chocolate into Aden's hand, and then unfolding a towel and draping it over his head so she can dry his hair (like he's supposed to somehow put up with that and eat chocolate at the same time).]

No time jumps for me. I think I've been asleep those two days.

[She gets such a look of gratitude for that chocolate bar, he's either snapping back to himself really quickly or faking it really well. Probably more so the latter, but anything's possible. He'll wait until she's done before eating though, and make a sour face in the meantime.]

[she leaves the towel draped around his neck when she's through ruffling the fuck out of his hair. he can get it out of his eyes himself; she feels like she's intruded enough into his personal space so soon after... everything, really. he still seems off, and she respects that. so she'll be moving over to the couch to lean on the back and scritch under Itoko's jaw, which gets rumbling and blissful stretching.]

I wouldn't mind sleeping for two days. Did it feel like less time to you?

Not really.

[He does reach up to push his hair back automatically, and his knuckles look slightly bruised, like he was punching something with no give to it. (He was.) But other than that he's physically fine, he just feels like... He doesn't even know what he feels like. A third of that chocolate is gone in two big bites.]

[she's glad to see that! but now things are slightly awkward, because she doesn't want to bug him by asking him again what the fuck happened, and conversations shouldn't be had with both people standing anyway, and wehhh.]

All of your critters are fine, by the way, as far as I know. Some of the bugs probably ate each other, but Oliver and Sophie and the bats and things are fine.

[He would sit down but, y'know, wet. And it's her place. If it was his he wouldn't give a shit, but... Again, he looks grateful, about the critters this time.]

Thanks.

[she stares at him for a minute, and apparently she's either more upset than she was letting on or the fact that he's back now has made her realize that she should be upset:]

For fuck's sake, Aden, would you just sit down and talk to me? I don't care if you get anything wet, obviously.

[maybe she's PMSing. the point is that she has said "fuck" perhaps two other times in her life, and only one of them was probably even around another person. she's slightly flushed with embarrassment over even losing her temper that much, but her ears are back again, and she gestures at her front, which is pretty soggy from hugging him.]

[He drops to sit on the couch immediately, eyes twice as wide. He's not surprised by her anger, but he's surprised at how at surfaced. He shoots Itoko a look too, but he's not asking for help or anything. He's wondering if she saw it coming. He's calm, still, because he's Aden, and he's not waiting for her to sit down too. She might not want to!]

...there's not much to tell you. I got parasites in my system and next thing I know I'm a monster. More than usual.

[Itoko totally saw it coming. she's the one who's been dealing with Inaya crying and ranting and not eating enough out of worry. Inaya sits down, though, crosslegged and turned so she can face him; Itoko leans against Aden's shoulder to help him dry off.]

How'd they get in you? I know it's not that they randomly attacked you, you have better control over your stuff than that.

[He would feel really really bad if he knew she'd been crying. More than a little, anyway. The lack of eating properly would make him frown. Big time frown. But right now he's making a face that suggests he knows exactly how stupid what he's about to say is.]

I swallowed them.

[she's staring at him again. she looks incredulous, because she knew boys were stupid, but not that stupid. she also looks like she wants to slap him again, but her face does a weird kind of grimacy thing and then she's laughing in mixed relief and outright amusement that it's such a dumb reason. the rest of her body language, if Aden couldn't hear her, would point way more towards sudden and slightly hysterical crying.]

[Oh god please no, don't be broken. He looks even more obviously guilty now, practically wilting.]

Hit me again if you want, I deserve it. I wasn't paying attention and mixed up the containers and then shit hit the fan. I don't even properly remember all the shit I did, but I'm so sorry I hurt you.

[she shakes her head furiously and then buries her face in her hands, not making any noise at all now. she doesn't stay like that long, taking a few deep breaths and then moving her hands away; she looks calm again, but her eyes and cheeks are damp. there's obviously a lot of pent-up shit at work here, and she's attempting to keep most of it contained.]

Maybe later, I can still see the mark from the first one.

[He smiles, but it's a kind of sad smile and not one that regularly finds its place in Aden's expressions, ever. He feels so bad, about all of this.]

Okay.

[He nods his head at her, then holds his hand out. Speaking of marks.]

Let me see your arm.

[this could be partially fixed with an extended cuddling session ~~and perhaps some unexpected kissing~~, but again, she's not going to inflict that sort of thing on him right now, no matter how much she might like to. she looks a little surprised, but extends her arm so he can see.]

[It would surprise the hell out of him. But anyway. He transfers the remaining chocolate in his mouth to hold it with his teeth, so he can hold and move her arm with both hands to look over the bruises. He seems to be concentrating on the one on the lower part of her arm, but if the one on her shoulder is hidden by sleeve it'll be pushed up gently so he can get a look there, too.]

[her expression goes a little blank as he looks at the bruises, but she doesn't try to pull away or anything. she's wearing a loose t-shirt today, so he'll have no problem with the sleeve. the bruises really do look awful, but they don't feel as bad as they look. she won't even have any scars from the biting part, thanks to Kai's healing.]