Echos of a fateful meeting

[Feleti Eidothea]

Cain who had been ever so slightly peering over his book quietly watching bastian's reaction seemed satisfied. He was indeed a loving and protective father, but also a man with a colorful past. He could spot a true infatuation from a false one. It seemed that for now bastian had passed whatever bar of approval it took to be considered safe.
Leti who had been pouting at the other man's easy going chuckle until it turned into more of a pained wheeze. His expression instead replaced with the usual look of extreme concern. Reflexively he reached out to gently place a hand on bastian's shoulder and simply nodded.

Cain cleared his throat, pointedly closing his book and sighed "Theese old eyes just can't read in the dim like they used to. Suppose these tired bones should turn in." Then he stood grabbing his cane and began to hobble off deep into the cave.

Leti watched him go with a slightly bewildered look. What mixed signals, first he won't stop warning not to get attached now he isn't even trying to stand in the way. It was odd but leti wasn't about to complain, he was sure that cain had his reasons and that if leti needed to know then he would. He set what little progress he had made aside and moved to help bastian walk to the bath room.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

The soldier didn't telegraph his emotions very obviously. Emotional distance was a self defense but he couldn't help the way he looked at Leti even though he struggled to put that look into words. He touched a hand to Leti's in appreciation and reassurance that he wasn't dying. Because that was necessary.

Cain seemed to understand more than Leti, at least outwardly. Regardless, both of them assumed he was asking for one now when he had meant it as a joke. Because last time Leti had given him a bath... Well, clearly he couldn't use bath time as a code.

He watched Cain leave and then blinked at Leti, confused, but he moved willingly. They didn't go back to the bedroom. "Leti, I did not mean right now..." Not that he was opposed to a bath but he was opposed to his implication over it. As much as he wanted to be in the mood...

Well, Leti had said no funny business. And some personal time was exciting with or without funny business.

[Feleti Eidothea]

Leti blinked in slight surprise it hadn't occurred to him that bastian might be associating bath time with their little flings. To him the bath was a place of healing first and foremost. He took a moment to catch on as he met bastian's apologetic tone with a lack of understanding. If cain had caught on that bath time was a code then he had managed to read bastian's signals better than leti.
He started off with "But it hurt ri-" then the implication dawned on him and he flushed a bit. "I said not to get ideas!"
Leti added in mock exasperation though he couldn't deny the idea was appealing.
He supposed that made sense now that he realized both had happened whilst changing bastian's bandages.

The healer wasn't used to being able to make such implications in the first place. If he stopped to think about it, he might think they had moved awfully fast. However, it wasn't as though he could slow down after getting so attached.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

Bath time meant relaxing and being close to Leti. But in this instance, he had used the phrase to mean more active relaxing. Unfortunately, as much as he wanted that right now and couldn't resist looking at Leti with a slightly predatory gaze, he wasn't capable. Physically, anyway. It was all the more awkward because he hadn't had a problem the first two times and even Cain's suggestions only encouraged him.

The inability wasn't a new experience for the soldier.

"A little," Bastian admitted to the unfinished sentence and meant it honestly. "I cannot help it," he also admitted.

He didn't have a baseline to establish how the speed of their relationship had advanced and whether it was normal or fast. It seemed slow if he compared it to his two forays with prostitutes. But he was mostly positive those were not good reference points. Not after he kept thinking about Leti like he had.

"I cannot do anything 'funny' right now, anyway, Leti," he attempted rather awkwardly to explain.

[Feleti Eidothea]

Leti offered a sympathetic chuckle "I know..." He was well aware of bastian's physical limitations. It was the main reason he had been worried. Though maybe the warnings had really been more for himself given that it had been he who tempted them both into their tryst both times.
He helped bastian to sit on a stool in the bath room so that he could set about readying the bath. He poured the remnants of the heated water from the kettle but in general the water wasn't much above room temperature. Various herbs were thrown into the water and then turned to glance at bastian as if saying 'ready?'

It felt as if they had a routine in a way. Despite bastian having been conscious for a lesser part of it.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

Leti knew? "You..." And then he realized maybe it was for the best if he didn't explain and Leti believed whatever he believed. It was less embarrassing to put his inability down to his injuries and not the fact that he couldn't get aroused even though he wanted to very badly.

He didn't like easier. He wanted Leti to understand that he enjoyed their relationship just as much as the white haired man. That he was just as willing a participant. That he was more than just a participant but actively instigated. That he wanted to pin the guy to the floor or the wall and have his way with him.

But even thinking that wasn't getting the personal reaction he wanted. Bastian couldn't explain and then not be able to perform without sounding like he was lying. So he kept his mouth shut and watched Leti prep the bath. Later. Leti wasn't going anywhere and neither was he.

Bastian nodded at Leti's questioning look and let the man help him out of his robe and into the tub once more. He almost knew the routine. It was getting easier at least, even after everything.

Room temperature or not, it was still nice. He closed his eyes a moment and then a thought occured to him. One that hadn't before, for good reason, but did now for an equally good but entirely different reason. It capture some of his need to show Leti he wanted him, at least, if not in the way he really wanted.

"You should join me."

[Feleti Eidothea]

Leti was taken aback from bastians intimate suggestion. To think they had gone from bastian being abbraisive about sharing the bed to wanting to share a bath. He flushed and stammered for a moment but he certainly wasnt going to say no.
He offered a suggestive smile and then moved back to slowly slip out of his robe. He wiggled out of his trousers with a teasing motion. He wasn't very good at not giving ideas.

He slipped into the bath next to bastian without a word and his hand found it's way to his chest out of habbit.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

Bastian looked over at Leti as the man stammered and wondered if maybe baths were too...sacred or something. Leti had shown him that bathing was an intimate process. If they could hold each other while he slept, and he almost slept in the tub, then he wpuld like to also hold Leti in the tub. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time the soldier had misunderstood something and attributed meaning to an action that was not there.

And then Leti smiled and he put those thoughts put of his mind. Or more aptly they were replaced by others as he watched the man's hips move back and forth. He had to force himself to look away because as much as he liked the instigating from the young man it was still frustrating.

He sighed slightly. "Your mouth is saying 'Do not get ideas,' but your body is saying the opposite," Bastian informed Leti, shifting slightly so he could put the man on his less injured right side and wrap his arm around his waist. He closed his eyes again.

"I imagine it echoes a lot in here."

[Feleti Eidothea]

Leti settled against bastian and chuckled "I s'ppose the warning is more for me." He didn't actually mean to behave....so scandalously, it just sort of happened. Even when he thought ahead he ended up premeditating something saucy.
"I would say 'we had better be quiet then' but....then my mouth would be matching my body." He replied a bit jokingly.
He hummed absently finding a strange calm in sharing the soak. It was a different kind of closeness than sharing a bed.

Whatever conflict Leti had with whoever Bastian was back in the capital seemed to have faded away. It seemed like a distant after thought now. He wanted to enjoy the warmth of bastian close to him here, now.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

It was starting to get awkward talking about it without capitalizing on anything. He provided Leti an amused and distracted grunt that might be taken for agreement.

He more than enjoyed the man's natural proclivity to strip provocatively. Maybe it would be better if he said as much.

He closed his eyes again to enjoy the moment and try to forget about everything else he wanted to do right now while they were both naked together. Even having Leti pressed up against him like that wasn't doing what he wanted and he ended up shifting as if trying to get comfortable, less able to relax than he had before. Bastian found an outlet for his restlessness in caressing his companion's side. That seemed to help take his mind elsewhere for a while.

He attempted (or maybe pretended) to try to sleep.

[Feleti Eidothea]

Leti rested his head on bastian's shoulder and closed his eyes.
He reached out with his gift seeking that now very familiar connection and pouring his magic into it. It was nice to be doing so without the sense of urgency, just him and bastian and the water. He could feel bastian's steady, slightly labored breathing as if it were his own.
Having bastian here and healing him had been more than a journey in romance, it was also the most he had ever used his gift. He was growing closer to knowing his limits and seeing what it could really do. How familiar he had become taking hold of bastian's life force was a bittersweet feeling. It made him feel closer to the man than anyone he had ever known. Yet he also knew that this closeness was a direct result of how often bastian come closed to slipping through his fingers.
Each heartbeat felt a bit like a reassuring victory. He could have fallen asleep like that....but he resisted the urge.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

Bastian found something increasingly intimate about Leti's touch. Or maybe it was the bath. He hadn't entirely paid attention to the man's healing process because he didn't really understand, but now, he was starting to connect dome dots. The water was important, but not so much as Leti.

Either way, having his hand on his chest was familiar and focusing on that point of contact helped him relax. Or maybe it was the magic he still didn't quite know about.

If he wasn't quite so much an existentialist, he might have shared some of Leti's thoughts. At the very least, he shared that feeling of connection, more than any he had felt before.

"I can never think about bathing without thinking about you," he mumbled into the silence. He meant it generally, as an understanding of his care and affection for Leti no matter what happened. There wasn't anything bittersweet about it to Bastian, at least not on the surface.

[Feleti Eidothea]

Leti chuckled "my apologies" he replied but his tone certainly didn't sound apologetic.
It was a nice thought in a way but Leti wasn't too sure it was the sort of legacy he had planned for. Even if it was a bit odd he knew what bastian meant by it.
That and he couldn't fault the guy, due to the nature of his healing process they had spent an awful lot of time in the water.
He lie next to bastian in the barely broken silence for a few moments. "I don't know that I'll be able to stop thinking of you." Leti wondered allowed his tone a bit more of a realization than anything. He had spent so much of his waking time with bastian now that surely when the man actually left every chore would be a reminder. Every time he drew bath, or made a meal he knew he would remember that it wasn't for bastian. He tried not to let that worry him, after all he understood without the man saying so that he had to return to his life in the capital. Surely a soldier like him was needed more there. Even if he selfishly tried to keep bastian here he knew it would eventually be dangerous for the both of them.
How strange it was that he had spent his entire childhood fearing the existence of some shadowy figure known as the wardens, but the second he could put a face to one he felt no desire to run.
Whatever fear he'd had at the notion of bastian's suspected other life had been crushed under his desire to see things through.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

He was entirely oblivious as to why Leti was apologizing. The strangeness of the tone he heard but didn't understand either. Perhaps he had said something wrong.

The man's following words, even with the delay, brough him to an understanding of sorts. Leti had not used a qualifier. Perhaps he hadn't needed one either, but regardless, his statement about bathing and swimming still stood.

Sebastian found Leti's words almost uncomfortable. Not because he didn't like the idea of someone thinking about him. But because he didn't know what to do with that sort of attachment. There were at once a million questions and none. His heartbeat leapt for a moment with the words and stayed that way, slightly stressed with the weight.

He didn't know what to say after that. But he was supposed to say something, right? He pulled Leti closer and mumbled somewhere between regret and teasing, "That is dangerous." It had nothing to do with what he was and everything to do with...well, himself. He certainly returned Leti's affection he just wasn't sure that would be...sustainable. Although he would never put it into a conscious thought, Bastian expected he would only ever let people (and himself) down when it came to their emotional needd, try though he might.

"You really are something," he mumbled and reached his other arm other to ruffle Leti's hair.

[Feleti Eidothea]

He wasn't sure what he had been expecting bastian to say. Or even if he had been expecting the man to respond at all.
But being pulled closer was nice. He almost felt like the guy had read his mind. which was a little unnerving, but not as much as the air of uncertainty and nervousness he had felt coming off bastain.
Leti didn't exactly plan to put a name to whatever it was they had..or rather part of him might have been avoiding it.

He took the ruffle with a smile and an easy laugh "you're one to talk." He supposed he had done a number of fairly strange things since they had met, even by his own standards. Leti let himself take in the warmth of the man beside him for a moment, simply looking at his hand on bastian's chest as if memorizing the sight of it.
He could feel himself gaining a bit of the fatigue from using his gift freely again and with a sigh he announced "alright, we had best get you out before you prune up." He joked as he gently disentangled himself to exit the tub. He turned to help bastian out.