AW 6

[19:53] Distance was made and just as quickly was closed.

Always did they deny others, their care and friendship. Walls protected them and kept them safe from an awkward encounters, awkward friendships. Love was always out of the question, never considered and no time would be allowed for it to ever get the chance.

They're afraid.

If close, people will see what they shouldn't. Jianyu wanted to be seen be no one, known by no one. It's why they live no where.

He's called a chicken, a wuss, a coward and he is, even if moved to them quickly, brought himself close. Was he desperate for warmth that he'd demand it from someone so cold?

What do they do as he draws nearer? It felt like time slowed itself. Their chest rose and fell a bit quickly- He came into their space, their bubble.

Jianyu visibly tensed, unable to run and flee. Before they knew it, he had stole a kiss from lips already warmed by his own and his words.

They're both seconds.

Lips met each other properly and their home felt eerily silent. Ringing in their ears is the sound of their heart pounding against their ribs.

Stunned- What happened to the snake?

Like before, the air felt heavy but in solitude it isn't subtle nor suppressed. With him leaned on top of them, his lips pressed on theirs, something foul came into the room. Feasting upon their fear.

More than ever are they afraid. Would Avlainn hate them? Would Avlainn hate them? Would Avlainn hate them?

Against their better judgement do they return this gesture. What he wanted was trust? No, he hadn't proved himself trustworthy but he put himself in a bad position.

Tangled up with a snake in their abode, they may as well wrap around his snake and wring the life from him... But they don't, though something akin to it lurks around him, it aims to suffocating in feeling.

They push into him, massaging their lips into his as best they could. It's clear they're new to this, a mere novice but the more they indulge, the more scared they feel.

Will he run now? Will he be someone they can trust?

The hand free from Yuri's own and the dagger touched his chest lightly... as something dark ran rampant around the two of them.
(Jianyu Xi)
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[20:16] Where one's fear was the source of a growing, vile strength, the other's was something they braved by pulling, borrowing from a realm they had never gone to.

The sickening taste of the occult spilled within their kiss. Helheim's gift was burning without restraint right against his skin, against his person, eating away at who he was with each passing second. Yuri could feel this maddening dance invading his head. That touch, that press of their hand against his chest, even if light, lit ablaze something the knight had felt before.

The bite from that hound back then, the one that Jianyu had pulled Yuri away from carried the same kind of vile darkness. Back then something had been awakened within Yuri, within his young heart. It reared itself everytime that he fought against the occult, everytime he would come across something that carried the stench of evil upon its form.

It had bloomed again when Jianyu carried that same stench back in Nysea. A fury. A wrath that Yuri hadn't been able to control, brought forth by the spirits of the past. By his ancestors. By what he had decided to see as his parents looking over him from the other side.

He'd told Jianyu about that push, hadn't he?

It came at full strength when his mind was being infected by that venomous, horrible influence. Energy coated against his formed and burned away the mana that attempted to pierce its way through his heart, to damage him. It shielded him. Overloading his circuits and pulling from that spiritual past, though this time without the feeling of a hand pressing up against his back.

It would be odd if his deceased elders were to encourage this endeavor.

An azure light ate away, fought with the horrible influence that had filled the air and replaced the pleasurable scent of incense. It fought, violently, and full of anger...

... so that Yuri may just indulge in this moment. In this kiss. In this rough game of love. An exchange between those who were far too afraid to reach for the top.

A break in the lip-locking was made, only for Yuri to whisper something down low, something that may just... reach Jianyu's heart.

"Don't stop."

Their united hand was handled as he'd try and wrestle away the dagger from Jianyu's grasp, to throw it off to the side without a second thought in order to interlock fingers with them.

That push of his crossed the line of spiritually manifesting itself as he physically pushed himself against the Shengese, aiming to either drive them to a wall or topple them over to the ground despite his smaller stature.

Another kiss.

This one given with the full extent of Yuri's strengthened form. Braving through his fears and allowing himself to go towards a path that may not be the most noble, the most appropriate, the best, yet, it was real.

He may be second right now.
They may be second right now.

But there was a reason the tortoise won over the hare.

His hand upon their shoulder slid closer to their neck, thumb brushing up against their cheek. His lips pressed up tightly, inexperienced yet doing their best to show that this was true. That there was no trick.

That he'd fight against that darkness within if it meant he could reach someone like Jianyu.
(Yuri)
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[20:34] How free they felt when their fear gave form. Did he remember their talk a while ago? Years ago, actually, though memorable as desert heat blew with the wind.

Speak louder, drown out fear with something else.

Beneath it all they were so terrified that it soon drove them mad. Climbing from their cowering self came that from Helheim itself. Vile to the core, sickening and twisted.

It sought to eat him whole and they themself. Consumption of fear, exploitation of every doubt, every angered thought. Would they swallow him whole?

Not yet, it seemed... Around his frame sparked to life a beautiful azure. Did he seek to protect himself? Helheim whispered to him so clearly- It stemmed from someone he clearly desire, someone who wore rubes that made them look cute, had a face he thought was pretty with features foreign to Esshar, a body he had pressed himself against and pinned to a tree.

He'd be swallowed if they're afraid.

But lips part, he whispers- It felt like a plea if anything. Hands join one another and the dagger left their grasp. Where would he take this? What did he want?

In this state, they could only give into their fears, this closeness and potential bond. The push and force from him nearly made them topple onto the floor but the pair instead move towards the wall. Their back pushed against it and yet another kiss is stolen.

Breath hitched, their face burned, body trembling. He was fearless in this moment, fighting a wrath born from their terror. It's like a time before but, such a madness truly was foreign, as they said.

It's unlike this now. Their mind felt in tatters, torn asunder but his grip kept them grounded, tightly pressed lips kept gasps from slipping out.

New, terrifying, embarrassing.

So far for trust, for... something that isn't love.

Yuri loved Aeliana.

Venom slipped into him with every second their lips locked- Could be become immune to it, do this feeling he seems to get when he's with Jianyu? He's had a taste, would be enough or would it kill him?

Lips leave his, breaking this tight bond for a mere moment but words are still close and against his skin. "I won't love you, Yuri..." Jianyu repeats this for him. Words shake but... they slowly return to him, to this new, strange bond.

What truly lead him here? To them?
(Jianyu Xi)
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[20:48] "Me neither." He promised himself. He promised them. He couldn't fall for someone so vile, after all. This... this was just the second choice. It's what he wanted to believe, and yet, that bond between them only grew stronger by the minute with each ferocious twist of fate.

Each push Jianyu's influence gave out of fear was matched by Yuri's bravery to climb past that fear. To see what was on the other side of this horrid summit. That push against the rough walls showed it best, showering the Shengese with this aggressive protest of both mind and body.

They had awakened something within him, more than the mere taste for the forbidden fruit. The more they feared and their presence grew, the stronger he felt that link with those spirits who safeguarded his life many times over.

A toxic relationship that served to fill more than merely a need, it strengthened them both. Through fear and bravery, respectively they grew more anxious, more worried about what would befall them, while he only grew more bold.

The hand by their face lowered itself, gripping upon the garments that he called beautiful. Pushing, pulling, tugging around in a manner that showed both a lack of experience in the matter and served to test the waters of where they would draw the line.

.. if they even wanted to draw such a line.

His lips broke from theirs, only to fall upon Jianyu's cheek twice over, moving down to their neck soon after. A warmth grazed upon their skin gently as he approached to drop kiss after kiss upon a place that could not return such.

Just how far would he take this?
Just how far would they let him?
(Yuri)
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[21:07] As in he wouldn't love them either? He shouldn't but he's indulging in what would leave him in trouble, a world of trouble. Kissing and entangling himself with those he vowed to fight and fend off, dangerous humans who allowed Helheim's influence but--

Jianyu has never seriously hurt any of Nysea, like they vowed before. Does that vow make more sense now?

Not a soul would be harmed by them as best they could. Should fear not flare, or anger, or hate. It's potent, raw as they live through a nightmare.

Both discovered and close to another. It's an aggressive sort of dance between these two. They burned all over, color more than tinted their cheeks, their face. Was this a price they pay for awakening a confidence in Yuri?

Seeped now in that of their own making- The lips of a poisoned young man on theirs. Jianyu felt so tense, like lungs had restraints and their heart knew none.

His hand left their faceand went for their garments and more did they freeze, yet against their will do they also trouble. Once tightly tied fabrics loosened quite a bit. He's edging close to a line that shouldn't be crossed.

Not with a man they can't trust.

But what exactly is beyond that line? They aren't too sure but it involved that went further than this. The loosening revealed, somewhat, a loose white shirt beneath their robes with more modest curves some sort.

Breath hitched once more as he pulled away and they're giving time to catch themself, this breath that felt stolen. He met their cheek, then their neck...

The hand matched with his sought freedom and rose to grip at his shoulder, tight. "--Yuri."

Dark ebbs try to consume azure. There's a battle, there will always be one with these two. "You don't... love me..." Jianyu made sure to remind him with a quiet whisper.

"I don't love you." Still though do they tremble in his hold whilst against the wall. "Don't do something you feel like... you need to do." For reasons of spite, for reasons of comfort and warmth. How could he possibly feel warm when with them?

Their gaze met him, chest still rising and falling a bit quickly. They're still scared. Will he tell after this? "Go home, Yuri..."
(Jianyu Xi)