For Emcee

[onceaviking]

Eric's room is neat, cool, and quiet.
He turns the light on as he steps through the door and it bathes the room in a soft glow.

The bed is made. White Egyptian cotton, a blue bedspread . it reminds him of waves.

He turns and looks at Emcee. Quietly.

Comments

[onceaviking]

"And as all the resident experts would tell you, if you were to say anything along those lines, it would only be positive proof that I have indeed brainwashed you to be my willing victim," he says. Blandly.

He finishes doing up his pants and heads out of the door. Leaving Emcee behind.

He shouldn't be willing to. But it is only Mausi. There's no harm done,

[i_am_your_host]

Unfortunately Eric makes a good point. He sighs and rolls his eyes.

"You would think people would give me more credit than that."

After Eric leaves, and he's left alone in the room, he sits for a moment in the quiet stillness. It's rather nice of Eric to do this.

Annnd then he quickly discards the word 'nice.' Along with 'thoughtful,' 'caring,' and 'considerate.' None of these words apply. He's being practical, and Emcee has no problem with that.

Getting to his feet, he pads around the room naked, collecting his shirt and coat off the floor; admiring the carved chairs, and the framed picture of moonlit ruins on the wall; and taking a closer look at the little Viking ship model on the desk. It now makes him think of Athelstan.

[onceaviking]

Eric returns a little while later, with a brown paper bag and a pair of trousers quite like the ones on his floor, but new.

He drops the paper bag on the bed.
"It's roast beef," he says. "It seems like it's popular."

He wouldn't know if it is any good of course. But their human employees seem to favor that sort of thing.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee doesn't realize how famished he is until he smells the food.

"Oh, thank you, darling, it smells delicious."

He immediately opens the paper bag and finds a wrapped sandwich cut into halves, but instead of eating it the normal way, he picks out a piece of warm, sliced beef with his fingers and pops it into his mouth.

"And thank you for the new trousers. This may not be the first time I've eaten meat while naked, but such habits die hard."

[onceaviking]

Eric rolls his eyes at him and settles down on the bed.

"And no one has questioned you lately?" he then asks, continuing the conversation from before he left. "About possible mind control?"

[i_am_your_host]

He gives him a cheeky grin before popping another bite of meat into his mouth.

"Mind control?" he then says, shaking his head. "No, that hasn't come up. And nobody has questioned me, although I have recently spoken about you to some people."

After another bit of beef, he unfolds the new pair of trousers and steps into them.

[onceaviking]

"I am guessing it hasn't been the priest you've been conversing with," Eric says, dryly.
Seeing as how they both know where he stands regarding Eric Northman.

He crosses his ankles and puts his hands behind his head.

[i_am_your_host]

He snorts a little, as he buttons up his fly.

"No, not him. The last time we spoke, I had a time of it debating the concept of your personhood. That you may not be biologically human, but that you exhibit more of a semblance of humanity in choosing to not kill me than those actual humans who attacked me in that alley, yet he would defend their existence more than yours. It was just a lark to see what he would say, but I really do not get him sometimes."

Smoothing out the fabric of his trousers (which sag a little over his hips, but that's the way he wears them without suspenders), he decides that it's a perfect replica of his old pair.

[onceaviking]

Eric - doesn't know what to do with that.

He doesn't need others defending him. The very thought is laughable.

And yet -

He is not used to people seeing him.
He doesn't know what to do with that.

So he ignores it.

He nods at Emcee's trousers. "I asked for some that looked like your old ones," he says.
He can't really tell if he's succeeded.
He's not good with clothes.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee won't talk more about anything that Eric decides not to respond to (nuanced as he is in the art of conversation), and instead smiles at him.

"Thank you, darling, they'll do nicely."

He sits cross-legged Indian style at the foot of the bed with the sandwich and paper bag in his lap.

"And then there was Athelstan," he casually remarks, before helping himself to a strip of beef and a piece of bread. "He just wanted to learn more about sex."

[onceaviking]

Eric looks over at him, one eyebrow raised.

"Don't tell me you've gone and corrupted the little monk?" he says.
He doesn't sound anywhere near disapproving.

[i_am_your_host]

He returns the raised eyebrow, and adds a smirk.

"I wasn't the first one who got him into bed, darling. You opened that door for him. I just pulled him all the way through."

Another bit of meat.

"He was very curious. And eager."

[onceaviking]

"I hardly did a thing," Eric protests. "But I am glad to hear he wound up someplace - educational."

Smirking in return.

[i_am_your_host]

"Hardly?" he chuckles, shaking his head. Eric hardly ever does anything hardly.

"And I couldn't let him go off into the world with all his newfound urges left unmet, now could I?"

[onceaviking]

"Hardly. I merely showed him what someone should have showed him when he was ten," Eric replies.

"But you are right. That would have been cruel. And a waste."

[i_am_your_host]

He would say that was very nice of him to do, but he knows how Eric would feel about that.

"A waste of a perfectly good virgin?"

[onceaviking]

"Mmrhh," Eric purrs and it is definitely a loaded purr.
A happy, loaded purr.

He likes virgins.
You can tell.

[i_am_your_host]

That purr goes straight through him.

He knows how Eric feels about virgins. He was one, as a woman, in a way. And he remembers how it felt, lying on Eric's bed, about to be fucked and not knowing what to expect.

With a sudden flush of warmth, he exhales a short sigh and licks a bit of grease off his thumb.

"I'm surprised you didn't take him for yourself," he murmurs.

[onceaviking]

"Your first shouldn't be incomparable," Eric says, as if he is merely making a general statement. About the weather.

Smugness, thy name is Viking.

And it is far easier that to try and articulate the other why. The why that had perhaps also made him talk with Athelstan in the first place. About how to survive a Viking raid.


"I'm sure you've set the bar plenty high as it is."
Is that a compliment? Why yes, yes it is,

[i_am_your_host]

Eric's smugness is certainly a force to contend with, but Emcee thinks that it suits him. And it's hot.

Which is why getting compliments from him is such a flustering thing, and Emcee is hardly one to get flustered.

He's caught off-guard with a mouthful of food, and he would choke on his meat if he had a gag reflex. But as it is, he only coughs a little before swallowing, as his blood rises in a blush.

And false modesty is more his style than outright arrogance anyway.

"Darling, you're too kind," he purrs with a coy little smile. "But should the monk seek out other partners, I wouldn't mind coming second to you."

[onceaviking]

Eric smiles, letting his eyes linger on Emcee's heated skin.

It's a delicious blush.

"He might com to you again. He knows better than to explore too mush at home."
He'd even gone as far as to caution him himself.

It'd be a shame to loose a source of pure blood to a Viking's axe.

[i_am_your_host]

Eric has the smile of a Hollywood matinee idol. The kind that would eat you. But still. Dreamy.

Emcee looks down, as demure as anything, picking at what's left of his sandwich, still feeling Eric's eyes on him. And liking it.

"He certainly wouldn't be safe to experiment at home as he is here," he agrees, munching on a piece of bread.

[onceaviking]

"I told him not to," Eric says, telling him more than he had really planned to.

"Our society was not - permissible. As such."

The smile slips away as he becomes lost in thought. Thinking about what things had used to be. How Athelstan had tasted. The lingering taste of Emcee's blood and the scent of him, right there.

He's growing hungry again.

[i_am_your_host]

Eric is merely protecting a valued food source. That is all.

"I imagine not," he murmurs, glancing up at him. "But that is the reality of things. He is smart. He'll survive."

He finishes up the last bits of his sandwich and licks his fingertips, his tongue flicking out quickly like a cat's. With another glance at Eric.

[onceaviking]

And Eric's eyes return to rest right below Emcee's earlobe.
Heavy as his hands.

"Better now?"
You can hear the hunger in his voice.
The smell of food does little enough for him, but watching a body that's just taken nourishment in - now that is another matter entirely.