chatime | ✧ — peach iced tea.

[ they aren't exactly putting their heart into the chase either, taking a few half-hearted steps before giving up. over his shoulder he calls for them to check out the part of the ship they'd helped fix and apologises for the trouble, which only leaves them looking even more confused. can't have anyone taking their credit…!

it doesn’t take long before they lose them completely, and by the time they manage to duck around a corner and shake them off— ]

See? No point overthinking it.

[ smooches thorns' cheek. good job. ]

[ well, he won't explain what he was actually thinking about.

thorns returns the kiss and then steps back to look around. where are they, anyway... ]

Should we look around?

[ being a port city makes it easier for them to continue to disappear into crowds. but as much as he'd like to dive straight into exploring— ]

Our disguises first? Dye and a change of clothes? [ before they travel too far and leave too much of a trail. ] The river branches off into smaller streams through the forest; we can check if there's a good spot for us to get to work there?

That works.

[ hm...

it will be faster to find a shop selling clothes, so they will hit that up first. sorry, thorns is going to have to temporarily abandon slutty clothes for a little while and chooses something oversized again with a wraparound cape.

it will be best to go to another shop for the dye. elysium can pick the color he wants. ]

[ 'temporarily abandon slutty clothes' like he is taking prolonged dot damage over it. okay. elysium just picks up another zip jacket since he'd been seen in the one thorns bartered for, but squares it away nonetheless. he traded an entire ring for it…

at any rate, practicality is irritating, but necessary. they can duck into a drugstore selling cosmetics; elysium snags two boxes of black dye easily enough, but the third and fourth take longer. his eyes flick between the shelf of colours and thorns himself. ]

Your hair already looks brown in the sun… [ mumbles. ] Should we just pick a lighter shade? Bleaching it entirely will take too long and wreck your hair. Who knows when we'll even have the time for masks…

[ he frets for another few minutes, torn between making thorns an abyssal hunter white or just a softer brown, before conceding. white hair is eye-catching in its own right, especially when the person in question is an aegir. ]

Okay. The extras are for if stay anywhere long enough to need to touch up our roots.

[ thorns thinks he really should have just shaved it all to have made this gone faster.

hmmm. he buys a bigger bag than the one he has. the turmoils of having to travel with everything you own but quickly... ]

Where are we going to do this?

[ thorns has never dyed his hair before (on purpose and not during an experiment gone wrong) so he is not sure how long this process is and if they need to do anything specific for it. ]

[ how can they have matching braids if thorns is bald ]

We'll have a chance as we head further into the countryside. Too close to the city and someone’s bound to stumble across us… [ there is simply too much traffic too and from. ] We can save on an inn, too.

[ on the bright side, elysium had the foresight to bring their collapsible tent. on the less bright side (or maybe it's a brighter side…?) there is only a single set of bedding. ]

If we're avoiding roads, it'll be a long trek before we hit our first village. Was there anything else you wanted to pick up?

[ hmm. they stole enough food to last them until then, and they have their medical supplies since it would have been extremely stupid to not have grabbed that from the hotel. thorns wants to get elysium a better weapon but he will concede that has to wait until they have more funds because it's not a priority as long as he currently has one. ]

... I think we're good.

Okay.

[ so begins their cute and wholesome travel montage! one where they aren't running for their lives. elysium slips easily into the role of tour guide, as he always does; the prosperity of yan makes foraging for simpler nutrients easy, and on top of what they have they really could've picked worse for directions to stow away in, plucking berries as they wander along, up until they find a stream for him to rinse them clean against the current.

thank you!! miss shu!! ]

Goji berries. [ he pinches one between two fingers, holding it up to thorns' mouth. this falls under minimal flirting, apparently. ] Say 'ah.'

Ah.

[ they are so annoying.

but he opens his mouth and lets himself be fed. the single blessing is that they are no longer forcing other people to witness them doing things like this, so being on the run does some good in the world. ]

Now you're spoiling me...

There's no point in being together if we don't.

[ he slips another berry past thorns' lips. then another. he'll keep going for as long as thorns indulges him, he's gathered more than enough by now.

still, it's nice. they have a destination of sorts—somewhere to lie low, pick up work, and let the heat of their disappearance fade, but the specifics matter less than the fact they're headed there together. he smiles to himself as he pops a berry into his own mouth. ]

What are you going to do for me?

You want more?

[ this is the greed they talk about in the bible.

also, what happened to the minimal flirting? literally the only thing they are being stopped from is banging like crazy because they don't have that many changes of clothes. ]

Things taste better when they come from you.

[ he's not even sure what 'more' is in this context but he's saying yes anyway

this is beyond the bible they're playing straight out of satan's guidebook. ]

[ thorns doesn't think this is factually true but instead of explaining how taste works, he will feed elysium some berries like a good boyfriend.

... fiance. oh my god when are they getting married. ]

Better?

[ they have been engaged for however many comments by now i don't know what to tell you.

he does the thing where he deliberately licks any juice off of thorns' fingers. ]

Yeah. Definitely sweeter.

[ what is marriage but a piece of paper. they've been acting like they've been married for years since forever ]

[ hmm.

he just reinserts his fingers into elysium's mouth if he tries to pull away.

again, this is not the time or place for this, but here we are. thorns is just going to challenge the notion that they can't flirt. ]

[ oh.

the funniest thing would be if they were doing it on the side of some road, but no, they're at least covered by foliage so the likelihood of anyone driving by and having to witness this is low.

should they be getting distracted like this? his expression seems to suggest he's thinking about it. but then he commits to it anyway because it's what thorns seems to want, so he closes his eyes and runs his tongue along the length of one finger before moving onto the next. okay. ]

[ elysium no, you had the chance to be responsible.

but it should be okay if they only take a few minutes to enjoy themselves...? what better way to motivate themselves than to give themselves a nice break to rest. this is resting.

it's only when elysium gets to every finger that thorns removes his hand to replace it with his own mouth. hi. ]

[ when has elysium been responsible any day of his life in this timeline

he licks into thorns' mouth, keeping thorns close even when they pull apart. ]

Do you get what I mean now?

I think I may need a few more examples.

[ and then it starts raining to get them to stop doing this. ]

[ he is mid-next example when the rain happens and he's just like. okay. looks up to the sky. blames the sky. he is now a hater of the sky. ]

Can you make cover with the Corazonix…?

[ just thinks it can do everything now ]

Are you going to ask me to make a house next?

[ he sighs, and then just grabs elysium's hands and goes to try to find some trees with thicker branches and leaves they can hide away under for now. ]

I guess we should have gotten umbrellas.

[ the world clearly didn’t consider that being stranded in the rain leaves them with little else to do but flirt just in a different place. having to move five or six steps, oh no…

elysium draws thorns against his chest, resting his chin atop his head. ]

If we find a nice lakeside to settle by… maybe? We could build a lab, a garden, even a coop. It'd be nice——having a place we could really call home together.

[ don't say coop, thorns is still trying to figure out how he can go and get his chicken back. he has not forgotten his child after they had to abandon so many other ones... ]

Do you have a particular place in mind?

[ if they want to stay in yan or go elsewhere... ]

Not particularly… somewhere with a milder climate would make things easier for us, though. So I guess staying here could be an option.

[ their chicken that won't be born for another few years if they're sticking to the original timeline and conditions thorns please. they'll have to get a new chicken. it won't be as beloved as the first child, but its siblings will just have to live with that.

he thinks about how this just outright rules out iberia. fuck iberia ]

But we should stll see what other places have to offer first. Maybe there'll be one that feels right to you.

[ lmao ]

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