milliways_bar | (no subject)

Current Mood: content

Entry tags:

(no subject)

It is a content - yet still rather wary - Asher who enters the Bar this evening.

He looks around for Anita or Jean Claude, relaxing a little when he spots neither. The lack of wereleopards is less pleasing, though something he's willing to tolerate. Gaining a book and a glass of synthetic blood from Bar (He can feed off Nathaniel, amongst others, but there are other things he would prefer to do to his cat first, and those require blood), he takes a seat in the shadowed corner, curling up in a booth, gently toeing off his soft leather boots, bare toes tucked under the edge of a cushion.

[ooc: open to all 'til it falls off the front page. Slowtime in an hour or two.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nathaniel slowly comes down the stairs, dressed in only his pajama bottoms, his hair loose to hide the bite mark. He goes to the bar and quietly asks for more Gatorade.

The vibrantly colored stuff was disgusting and salty, but it did tend to settle his stomach, and after the bout of vomiting he'd done before brushing his teeth and coming back downstairs, he could use more.

He makes his way to the sofa with his bottle of Gatorade, curling up small in the corner of it and staring at the empty hearth, lost in his thoughts.

A familiar scent hits Asher, and he glances up, his countenance lightening as he spots Nathaniel.

He slides easily off his seat, catching hold of his boots in one hand and padding over to Nathaniel barefoot.

"Good evening, mon chat," he murmurs, dropping his boots to the floor as he sits down at Nathaniel's side, his fingers immediately moving to Nathaniel's loose hair, combing the strands idly.

The wereleopard practically jumps off the sofa, wide, lilac eyes staring at Asher.

"Asher."

Nathaniel is pale, a little drawn, with dark circles forming under his eyes.

The cat has been worrying himself sick.

Asher, of course, assumes any worry is due to Anita.

"Nathaniel," he murmurs teasingly, trying to lighten the mood, though the way Nathaniel jumps away from him has him drawing back, allowing his hair to fall between them, covering his face.

"I... hadn't expected to see you... yet," he murmurs, ducking his own head and hiding behind a thick curtain of auburn silk.

Asher frowns, reaching out to brush dark hair back, enough that he can see Nathaniel's face.

"Mon chat, what is wrong?" It seems like only moments that they were in Demeter's villa, baring everything to one another, and Asher is both confused and a little hurt by Nathaniel's behaviour.

Nathaniel looks away, picking at the lid of his Gatorade, and when he does, Asher's hand brushes his hair away from his throat, exposing the very deep puncture wounds from Damian's bite coupled with an ugly bruise around it.

"I tried to be good, Asher, I promise I did," he whispers, his voice quivering, belying the tears he keeps away from Asher's sight. "But it felt good, and when he stopped he touched me, and it just felt good. The worst part is, I can't be sorry. I tried to be, but I couldn't. He made me come, and I don't regret it, and you're going to hate me now."

"I could never hate you, cher," Asher murmurs, even as his face becomes still and blank, all emotion bleeding away. He recognises the bite, he's sure, though it's a little messy for his liking.

"Damian, yes?" He had asked Damian not to feed off Nathaniel, if it could be helped. It was not a flat 'no'; with their donor list still building, how could he deny Damian the chance to feed?

"There is nothing to regret." He gently combs his fingers through Nathaniel's hair, shifting closer to him on the couch, resting his forehead against Nathaniel's temple.

"Our gifts bring pleasure with the bite - to leave you wanting, after he had drank his fill, would be against our nature. We have been treated cruelly by our mistresses, pleasure withheld until we begged for mercy." He closes his eyes, a soft shiver running through him as memories flicker in the darkness of his mind.

"Neither Damian nor myself could do that to another. I cannot bring you with my bite, I see no reason to withhold that feeling from you if another can provide."

Nathaniel turns wet, confused eyes to Asher.

He doesn't understand.

"It wasn't about his bite. It's never been about the bite. I don't care if your bite is the most excruciating, unpleasurable bite in the world, it's yours and it makes me feel good. I did it because he was so hungry and afraid and my friend... not because I'd wanted to come."

He wants that clear between them now.

"We didn't mean for it to happen," he whispers, looking at Asher. "At least, I don't think Damian meant to do it. I've been left wanting so many times, Asher, one more wouldn't have broken me."

Asher lifts his hand, gently wiping away Nathaniel's tears away with his thumb.

"It is alright." Of all the people to be explaining cheating to, Asher is perhaps the most understanding. To him, and Jean Claude, pleasure is a part of feeding. And having Nathaniel, trembling and aroused, seen how beautiful he is, Asher cannot wholly blame Damian for being unable to resist.

Nathaniel furrows his brow, utterly confused.

"You're... not going to yell at me? Send me away?"

He would have asked if there would be a beating, but Asher had firmly told him before that he would never strike Nathaniel in anger.

Asher shakes his head firmly.

"Non, cher." He uses the leverage of his fingers in Nathaniel's hair to tug his leopard closer, kissing him sweetly. "You have done nothing wrong."

New tears fill his eyes, but it seems like a huge weight has been lifted off of him. His shoulders don't seem as slumped. Nathaniel bows his head, resting his brow against Asher's chest, and just quietly cries.

"I thought..." He sniffles, his hands braced on Asher's thighs. "I thought you... wouldn't want me anymore... giving it up to Damian because of a feeding..."

Edited 2009-07-27 20:57 (UTC)

Asher pulls Nathaniel into his lap, not caring if Anita should come in. Soothing his leopard is far more important.

"It would take far more than a tumble with Damian to make me not want you," Asher murmurs, gathering Nathaniel's hair together, winding loose strands around his hand, holding Nathaniel close.

His free hand strokes up and down his leopard's back, long soothing pets as he kisses the top of his head.

"I love you, Nathaniel," he whispers.

Nathaniel wraps his arms around Asher's neck and rests there, crying softly, squeezing his eyes tight when Asher says those words. It takes him a little while, with Asher's petting and presence, before he calms down, becoming a limp, snuffling mess in Asher's arms.

"Not even my Dad said that to me," he whispers finally, fingering tangling in Asher's beautiful hair. "I love you, too."

Asher kisses Nathaniel's temple, his cheek, the tip of his nose, wiping away the remnants of tears on his lover's face, pulling out a silk handkerchief for Nathaniel to clean himself up a little.

"Come, let us go to bed," Asher murmurs. "I wish to hold you, without being wary of Security." Just lying together, holding each other, will soothe them both far more than hours of sitting together on the couch. Asher wants skin against his, wants to not have to worry about Security, or Anita, or any of the other myriad things that threaten their oh-so-fragile relationship.

Nathaniel nods, using the handkerchief to wipe away his tears.

"I was sleeping with Moon and Jason, but then I was sick, and Moon doesn't really understand it. I didn't want her waking Jason, so I left."

Which meant, Anita thinks he's with Jason. They could spend the night and day together, if Asher wants.

"I like laying with you. It's soothing to feel you close."

They didn't have to have sex, but just having his nude body against Asher's calmed him in ways there were no description for.

"I'd like to go to bed," he sniffs, looking up at Asher.

Asher smiles a little, the thought of having Nathaniel to himself all night, in his room, filling him with warmth.

"For me, too," Asher murmurs. "I love your skin against mine, mon chat." He strokes Nathaniel's face with the backs of his fingers, letting his arm slowly slide away from around Nat's waist, coaxing him to stand so that they can move.

Nathaniel gets on shaky legs and picks up his Gatorade.

He gets an amused smile, wiping once more at his nose.

"I like that you touch me so much. Don't stop doing it?" he asks as he steps back so Asher can stand too.

Asher stands, immediately twining his fingers with Nathaniel's, tugging him gently towards the stairs.

"Never, I promise," he murmurs softly, kissing Nathaniel in the doorway, before leading him upstairs, towards his room and comfort for them both.

There is a Micah.

He's currently absorbed in the thought of going back to St. Louis, with the rationalization that if everyone is here, they're not back there.

It's appealing.

Asher is almost of the same opinion, though he would hardly share such a thought. He glances up, watching Micah pace through the bar.

"You're staring." He took a seat, dropping lightly into a chair not far from Asher.

"Anita came back." He loved her, honestly;, but sometimes it was just...a fight. She didn't sleep with vampires, and had entirely too many reservations about Asher and Nathaniel for anyone's good. But he could hardly hold the kind of grudge Liz did, and Jason seemed to. Sometimes, really, it was just a headache.

"With such loveliness to look at, can I be blamed?" Asher murmurs, a smirk curling one side of his mouth, teasing.

"She always comes back," something which Asher occasionally finds incredibly vexing.

Micah barely smiles in return, though he heard the tease. "You know I love her. She brought Jean-Claude with her," he says softly, caught between sprawling out to stretch and curling up to indulge his feline side.

Asher nods. "I have seen them both. Jean Claude was almost surprised by the bar." While he's not nearly as comfortable with Micah as he is with Nathaniel, Asher is growing more used to being around the leopards, and their need for touches and pets. If Micah is close enough, he will happily offer scritches.

He is, but the leopard isn't making any moves to have Asher give touch. Him simply being there already makes Damian twitchy. "I saw. And got the offer to get French lessons," he says, almost amused. The concept does really make him laugh, if only because they're from the Master of the City, whose lover is also his mate.

Can it really get any more convoluted, considering the circumstances?

Asher arches an eyebrow.

"From Jean Claude?" He asks, amused and surprised at once. Trying to explain the complicated relationships that connect everyone from St Louis now in Milliways would involve several diagrams, a lot of patience, and the ability to think one's way round a corkscrew.

"I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be humorous. Might have misinterpreted," he sighs, stretching over the back of the chair and just sort of...laying that way. "How're things with you and Nat?"

Shut up, it's comfortable.

Asher arches an eyebrow, though he has long since ceased to be surprised by the contortions that the leopards all seem to be perfectly comfortable in.

"Well, no thanks to your Nimir-Ra. She has relented, a little. I am no longer required to have a chaperone, should I wish to spend time with Nathaniel."

"I heard," he sighs. "I wish I could keep her from considering doing all of this. Especially considering our Pards have merged and she really doesn't have to do it all now."

Though that, apparently, wasn't going to happen anytime soon. But he did love her.

Asher shrugs. "If you succeed in changing her, you will be a stronger man than Richard, or Jean Claude." It really, really wasn't going to happen, in other words.

Wry smile. Asher might be able to see it.

If he can't he'll certainly hear it. "I'm already bigger."

Asher smiles slyly. "So I have heard." Anita seems to collect men who have nothing to be ashamed of in the bedroom; himself included, though Anita has never been close enough to tell.

"Word travels fast," he murmurs, eyeing the distance between his chair and Asher's.

He gives a shove with his foot and moves it a foot or so closer. Withing arm's reach. "You been taking care of my omega?" He'll play with Asher a little, prod him about Nathaniel, and be happy with that much.

It's a step. "We got her to sleep with Damian in the bed with us. Nat and I. Mostly Nat."

"Would I be content talking to his alpha if I had not?" Asher asks, arching an eyebrow. This behavior he understands; it's Anita's kneejerk refusal that bothered him.

"I swear to you I will never do anything to Nathaniel that he doesn't want. Nor anything that will harm him." Harm and hurt are two very different things, of course.

He very nearly snorts. "I'm fine with you giving him what he wants. Or not, as is your perogative in bed," Micah says. "I'm only teasing. I want him happy as much as you do, and if you're the one that gives it to him, far be it from me to argue."

The leopard looks from Asher's face to one hand, not currently giving scritches. There is a problem with this, somewhere. "I get the feeling you'd be confident and positively charming no matter what you'd been up to."

Asher smirks a little, waiting for Micah to move that little bit closer.

"True. But nonetheless, Nathaniel is quite content."

Streeeetch.

Nudge nudge.

"That, I'm glad to hear. I saw the hair clasp you had made...it's very fitting. Planning on collaring Nathaniel?"

Asher laughs softly, reaches out.

Scritch scritch.

"..." Asher scritches rather than answer. He's not likely to talk to Micah about it, considering he hasn't even discussed it with Nathaniel yet. When he does (as he plans to), Micah will no doubt be one of the first people to know.

Micah purrs, and lets it go.

He'll find out when it happens, if it happens. "Good..."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only