For Sinric

[hot_water]

[OOC: From here.]

Tahno's rooms are gigantic. They're more a collection of suites, an apartment decked out in deep purple and black, with white and silver accents. He selected dark wood furniture with clean lines, with no slats or wicker to catch on clothes or skin.

He leads Sinric through the common room with its own bar to the bedroom with a stone, gas-operated fireplace and a sumptuous bed wreathed in black silk. "Make yerself comfortable," Tahno drawls, letting go of Sinric's hand.

Comments

[hot_water]

"If ya feel like fallin' asleep, that means I've done a good job," Tahno drawls pleasantly. "I won't mind if ya do."

When the candle is ready, he dribbles and pours the melted oil on Sinric's back. The liquid is a bit waxy, bit once Tahno sets the emptied plastic aside and starts working on the androgyne's shoulders, it becomes creamy, like a lotion. It also smells heavily of vanilla.

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric gasps softly at the oil touches his skin, the feeling so reminiscent of other things. But the smell is so sweet, so soothing and Tahno's sure, strong hands warm his pale skin.

[hot_water]

Tahno gently pinches the muscles supporting the nape of Sinric's neck against his shoulder. Tahno gradually increases pressure in his pinches, performing lifts.

[thewidewideworld]

The touch is strange, snd Sinric has always been sensitive about his neck but he breathes slowly, trying to relax into it. He trusts Tahno, deeply for someone he has not known long.

[hot_water]

"So tell me about yerself," Tahno drawls, dragging his knuckles up and down on either side of Sinric's spine. "What's yer favorite food?"

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric can't help but chuckle at his question, so seemingly from the blue. "Only of you will tell me likewise."

He considers. "I have many favourites, all depending on so much. The day, the weather, what is in season. I love summer fruit most of all. The way cherries taste and the way pomegranate seeds feel. The smell of fresh strawberries."

[hot_water]

"I like seaweed noodles with tomatoes and oil," Tahno drswls, teasing the knots out of Sinric's back. "I have a haunt back home--Narook's Noodlery--that makes the best kind. Maybe we'll have to get some fruit after we're done here."

[thewidewideworld]

"I have eaten tomatoes but not seaweed." He muses. "Perhaps, if you still wish to take me to a party in your world, you can share some with me?"

"My turn." He smiles. "Where is your favourite place to be?"

[hot_water]

"Oh, definitely," Tahno drawls cheerfully, stroking Sinric's back with constant pressure from his thumbs. "My favorite place? I'd have to say the probending arena, because that gets my adrenaline pumping."

He laughs softly. "What's yer most treasured possession?"

[thewidewideworld]

On that he has to think for some moments. "I have four." He lifts his ankle, making the fine chain of silver bells around it ring. "The first gift my master ever gave me. The flute I played tonight which I carved with my own hands. A tiny dragon carved from jade with ruby eyes that was a gift from Yan. And the tattoo on my hip. For each of them is a different part of me and my life."

[hot_water]

Tahno glances at his hip to see if the tattoo is visible. "That makes sense," the waterbender drawls, working the heel of his hand into a particularly stubborn knot. "Those are all small things, things ya can take with ya wherever ya go. Good call."

He runs his knuckles down either side of Sinric's spine. "I don't have any possessions that I'd call my most treasured."

[thewidewideworld]

Not from this angle as it's on the front of his pelvic but when he rolls over, it will be clearly visible.

"My bells and the jade dragon I had kept here, along with a stash of jewels I thought I might need the trade of one day. My flute was lost to me until today when the bar gave it back to me. I suppose that means it has been destroyed in my own world, almost with many other things."

"The tattoo was all I carried with me and I have been grateful for it. There were times, so long away from this place I feared I had lost mind, that it had all been a dream. The tattoo was something real. That I could see and feel to know it was never just a dream."

[hot_water]

"That's too bad," Tahno drawls, gently dragging his thumbs down Sinric's back. "I'm sorry yer stuff got destroyed. But I'm glad you have yer flute back. That probably holds a lotta good memories for ya. So you got the tattoo here? Who gave it to ya?"

[thewidewideworld]

"It was the first thing I ever made with my own hands. My tutor believe the play something, one had to know it, to understand it. My brother Probus and I laboured for months, learning from the finest artificers in the city to make our own. I am no skilled craftsman and I found it very hard but the first time we played them for our master." He bites his lips, smiling richly. "I have never felt so proud."

He nods at that, reaching back to still Tahno's hands a moment so he can roll over enough to show it. Two birds - a raven and a dove, stylised in flowing lines graces the shallow dip of his pelvic bone, so near the fine thatch of blonde curls that all but hides his tiny, dormant member.

"It was done by two I hold very dear here. Two whose lives and histories are entwined with my own. We are of the same world, but of different times. As they are my future, I am their past. Knowing that, gave me a future to believe in when I could not imagine surviving beyond my master's rule."

[hot_water]

"Do ya think you'll ever make a new instrument?" Tahno drawls, his gaze flicking to the tattoo. He wants to reach out and run his fingers over the birds, but he doesn't dare.

"That inkwork is gorgeous," Tahno murmurs. "I'm glad ya had that comfort while ya were stuck in your world. How long were ya away from the bar?"

[OOC: Good night, lovely!]

[thewidewideworld]

"I don't know. Perhaps."

He can read Tahno's desire in his eyes and takes Tahno's hand, moving it to the tattoo in a permission to touch. "I was away four years. The first year was... perhaps the hardest I have ever known."

The skin under Tahno's hand is smooth and porcelain white, the bone close to the surface where he has lost weight and not regained it.

[hot_water]

Tahno rubs his thumb over the tattoo, tracing its contours. "I'm sorry," he murmurs, shaking his head. "That sucks. But things have improved since then, right?"

[thewidewideworld]

"It has taken time. And this place has helped." He brushes his fingertips over Tahno's cheek. "You have helped. Very much."

[hot_water]

Tahno turns his head to press a kiss against Sinric's palm. "I do what I can. Do ya want me to keep rubbin' ya down?"

[thewidewideworld]

He leans up to kiss Tahno softly before rolling back into his stomach. "Please?"

[hot_water]

Tahno smiles at the kiss. He squeezes Sinric's shoulders before dragging his thumbs down the muscles around the spine, gradually increasing pressure as he goes. "Thank you," he drawls, "for letting me pamper ya."

[thewidewideworld]

"It is not often anyone is willing the pamper me so." He reaches back to stroke Tahno's knee.

[hot_water]

"That's a damn shame," Tahno drawls, furrowing his brow. He starts out on the neck, moving inward with circular motions until his fingers on both hands are touching. "I'll just have to pamper ya extra to make up for it."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric answers with a low, soft moan, rendered speechless by the comfort of it.

[hot_water]

That moan brings a smile to Tahno's face. He closes his fingers and holds out his thumbs in a lobster claw shape, applying pressure in a twisting, lifting motion. The waterbender alternates hands in a windshield wiper movement.