chatime | ✧ — peach iced tea.

[ THAT'S CHEATING?

okay. sure. if thorns is allowed to cheat, so is elysium. there's a split moment's shock followed by a tug on thorns' hand at three—he is not letting thorns have the final say (kiss) in this? after, and only after that kiss will be step out into the rain first.

brat. ]

[ OKAY. is this a competition?

off they go! thorns squeezes his hand as they go. they are so fucking wet almost immediately. it's a good thing they left when they did or else they might have been still on the farm when this happened and that's even further away from their place. ]

You're going to get sick....

[ what isn't a competition, man. they end up having to go through so many puddles, too. the things you miss not being in a city: concrete sidewalks. ]

Just warm me up when we're back and I'll be good to go!

[ ignores how thorns is cold. irrelevant. what matters is that he warms the heart. ]

[ they have so much mud on their shoe and bottom of their pants and are soaked so thoroughly that they are going to be dripping puddles. it's fine.

thorns just excepts what elysium says and wonders if he should just start a fire to warm him. ]

Will do.

[ two different thought processes. ]

[ one is too literal, the other is too figurative. but it's fine, elysium will just make sure they both warm themselves up by this fire…

they do, unfortunately, have to deal with the sorry state of their clothes. the innkeepers look thoroughly unimpressed, scolding them not to track mud inside, and then look at them expectantly to

strip.

elysium, for obvious reasons, is not particularly keen on this idea and tries to laugh it off, but the innkeepers aren't joking, their seriousness hanging in the air like a weight. uh oh. ]

[ okay. thorns needs to kill these guys...?

he grabs elysium by the shoulder and pushes him towards the direction of where their room is. ]

Take off your shoes. I'll clean up the mess so you guys don't have to worry about it.

[ HOW IS HE GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER!!!!!!

unfortunately

elysium is thinking the same thing when the older man decides to stand in their way. he simply pats him on the head and says he's a shy guy despite how it looks; they'll leave the floors better than they left them and strong arms his way around.

it kind of works but not really. when they're through the doors, elysium gives thorns a side-eye… ]

[ they murder and then they run, easy.

but for now they can just make it to their room and shut the door behind them. sadly this means they can't immediately jump to canoodling and will have to quickly get into other clothes to run out there and clean. they can have a proper shower afterwards. ]

Do they ask all of their guests to strip?

We don't exactly count as paying guests, mi luz.

[ they're a little more than just friendly, but they're far from being considered family. he shuffles out of his shirt and pants and starts by toweling thorns dry, thoughtful. ]

I doubt they suspect anything, but these things add up. [ … ] My reluctance to show skin. Then, when it gets warmer, people will probably find it strange that I stick to long sleeves.

[ he smiles a little thinly then takes another towel to work on himself. ]

Well, let's just start with cleaning up.

[ alright... the pro to moving to a small town is that the chances of running into anyone you're trying to avoid greatly diminishes. the con is that it means the people in said town are more likely to pay attention to you, while in a city you could live next to someone for years and not know a single thing about your neighbor.

thorns wonders if their stay here will have to be shorter than planned. ]

... Right. We can volunteer to do some extra chores to appease them more.

[ this is an awful feedback loop considering the less time spent canoodling the worse their moods get. but this is their reality until they find a more long-term fix to their problems; it was already somewhat of a miracle the first town they'd stumbled upon had been friendly enough to take in strangers.

more work it is!!!!!!!!!! he hates it here. he pulls himself together for the actual work and having to face their benefactors, but as soon as they're beyond closed doors? they have stress to get out. ]

[ the way i had no idea notifs were down because i don't look at plurk enough

but at the very least there isn't really anything that they can't do that gets asked of them, and in the grand scheme of things, it's easy work for them. but it's still time consuming and that is annoying.

so once they're back inside, thorns immediately kisses him. ]

Hey.

[ the way i've been passed out the entire time too

but elysium immediately swaddles thorns in his arms because that's baby… ]

Hi. I think it's time to elope again.

[ did they ever stop eloping. they literally have not even been apart for a full day and he's already like this ]

They're being really pushy considering how helpful we are.

[ it is funny because the town would genuinely be saddened if they suddenly up and left, considering how much work they do for everyone.

but they cannot handle being inconvenienced this late into their spiral. ]

It'll be their loss. No chance in hell they're finding better labourers than us.

[ he gives thorns another kiss before smooshing his face into his hair… the one thing about how hard they've been working is all the freebies they get—so while meagre, at the very least they've been able to stow away what they have made. ]

… But our situation's better than before. We have clean sets of clothes and pocket money.

[ he pauses. ]

Would we be taking the Doc with us?

If we can, I'd prefer to.

[ personal feelings aside, it would be useful to have an animal that's built for carrying things. thorns doubts they'd be able to keep it their entire journey depending on where they're going, so they may need to offload docybara at a farm somewhere eventually while traveling, but until that happens it'll be a benefit. ]

Yeah? Trying to make the wandering apothecary and his assistant vision a reality? Instead of taking our vacation, we can try building out a wagon suited for it or retrofit whatever we get our hands on.

[ they don't strictly have to stick to thorns' medicines (and poisons), but calling themselves merchants doesn't sound quite right. still, their wide skillset will inevitably lend them to an almost eclectic inventory; they can get a lot further with the barter system the more they have to offer.

this does bring up the one thing that's been weighing on him, though… ]

Uh. I do feel like I kind of have to ask. What are… y'know… the withdrawal effects if we ever run out of its stash…?

[ watches as the answer is that it's irrelevant because they will simply just never run out ]

We just won't run out.

[ he says this so confidently when there is actually no way to be sure this is the truth.

thorns needs to start being insecure about things he has no business being sure about. ]

[ he nips at thorns not in the cute kissy flirty way but annoyingly. ]

Are we going to have to wrestle a burdenbeast.

Aren't you strong?

[ so

they may. but thorns is so very confident it won't come to that even though, again, he has no way of predicting what their future supply will be. ]

[

help.

he rubs thorns' cheek like he's polishing a particularly shiny stone. this is… amore ]

But you're a lot stronger than me. Aren't you?

[ his bbbb larp ]

I am.

[ please at least hesitate a little bit before agreeing to that. however he is distracted by the cheek rubbing. ]

Do I need to take care of it for you?

[ adorable… the rubbing turns into pats. thorns his therapy urchin. ]

Not for me, but…

[ he kisses thorns' cheek. what does he mean, not for. ]

You're pretty sexy when you're in your element.

[ the element being wrestling oversized rats. okay ]

[ this is actually, objectively, an incredibly unsexy image, but thorns is not going to argue with him when he seems pleased. ]

Are you saying that just to flirt with me?

[ okay. maybe he is going to argue just a little. he does not appear to mind despite this though. ]

[

he goes back to petting as that seemed to be more distracting. fucking help. ]

No… [ yes. ] Who wouldn't think your Destreza isn't attractive? Not that they're allowed to when they aren't me.

[ pat pat. ]

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