For Emcee

[onceaviking]

Eric unlocks the door and waits for Emcee to enter first.

The bedside lamps are lit. The rest of the room is dark.

Comments

[onceaviking]

Eric holds out his hands in a look at me gesture.

[i_am_your_host]

"But you wear it so well," he quips.

He does wear blood splatters well, actually. Somehow.

"You told me once that when you were human, you would bathe in ice cold water, and then jump into a hot spring. Should we do that?"

Eric would be able to handle it far better than Emcee, but he's willing to try.

[onceaviking]

"No, we'd spend time in a sauna and then go swim in the icy lakes," Eric says, as he turns on the shower and begins to scrub at the blood on his abdomen.

[i_am_your_host]

"What's the difference?" he asks as he steps into the shower after him. "It's going from one extreme temperature to the other."

[onceaviking]

"Going from hot to cold is invigorating," Eric tells him. "It builds character."

[i_am_your_host]

"Oh, I see," he says, smirking as he scrubs his face and neck clean. "Well, I would be content to have the sort of character that likes to be warm and lazy."

[onceaviking]

Eric huffs a laugh and puts his head under the spray, scrubbing his hair clean.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee likes making Eric laugh, however small and for whatever reason. Just to see the flash of his teeth in a smile and not as a precursor to biting him.

He ducks in nearly under Eric's chin to catch a stream of water as he runs both hands through his hair, sweeping it back.

[onceaviking]

"Remember to go in slow," Eric tells him. "I'd rather you don't faint."

It would be such a hassle.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee snorts a chuckle.

"I am not that delicate."

Compared to Eric, everyone is delicate, but still.

[onceaviking]

Eric raises a skeptical eyebrow at him.

Then he lathers up - and rinses off. Efficiently..

[i_am_your_host]

He raises an eyebrow right back at him.

"I am not!" he insists, as he also lathers up, though he takes a little more time.

"You may still be able to knock me over with your finger, but my threshold for pain has increased significantly since I met you."

His tone is half blaming, half thanking.

[onceaviking]

Eric smirks.

"That's what often happens," he says, as he steps out of the shower.
"Pain tolerance, gag reflexes, I help people out with all sorts of shit."

Smirk, smirk, smirk.

[i_am_your_host]

"Oh, I lost my gag reflex long before I met you, darling," Emcee assures him, because Eric can't do all that smirking by himself.

He turns off the water and follows him out into the steam-filled room.

[onceaviking]

Eric walks ahead of him and settle down at the edge of the pool before sliding in.

All the way in.

As his head disappears under the wate, it rather gives the illusion of the pool being bottomless. (It isn't).

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee follows, already shivering slightly as the water cools on his wet skin. He waits as Eric slips into the pool first-- and submerges himself completely.

Carefully going up to the edge, he peers into the water.

[onceaviking]

Eric is a pale presence beneath the rippling surface.
With his eyes closed, he looks like a statue, its beauty distorted by the water.

Then he slowly reemerges, using only his legs and what updrift the is in the water.

[i_am_your_host]

He's never seen anything so eerily beautiful before, and he stares until Eric rises and breaks through the surface. He meets him with a beaming, awed expression.

He would kiss him but that might be too forward.

"It must be quite deep. Is there a ledge I can sit on?"

[onceaviking]

Eric wipes water off his face and nods at the right hand side of the small pool.
"There," he says, "but it really isn't that deep at all."

He doesn't seem to notice the look on Emcees face.

(He has).

[i_am_your_host]

Eric looks like a merman with his blond hair and broad, glistening shoulders just breaching the surface of the water.

"I can't see the bottom. The illusion is wonderful, though."

Emcee moves over to where Eric indicated and carefully sits on the edge, lowering his legs into the water. He gasps a little at the temperature, but it's more soothing than scalding. Sliding into the water, he exhales a breathy moan at the sensation of being completely engulfed in heat.

"Ohh, this is marvelous..."

[onceaviking]

Eric smiles, seemingly pleased that Emcee gets it.

There's no smugness in the smile.

"I know," he says.

The steam softens the vampire hardness of his features. As does the smile, small as it is.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee sinks down up to his ears as he perches on the ledge of rock, bobbing slightly with the gentle movement of the water. Gazing across its surface through the haze of steam, Eric is...a vision.

He knows it's an illusion. He knows his senses are still heightened from vampire blood. He knows Eric really doesn't have to do anything to turn him on.

He vaguely wonders if Eric can hear his heartbeat under water.

"Oh, it's so much better than just sitting in a tub of hot water. This feels natural. The heat and the steam are very-- penetrating."

[onceaviking]

Eric's smile widens.

"Yes," he agrees before adding, "I can tell."

So maybe it's the heartbeat or maybe it's the way Emcee's skin is heating up or maybe it's just a guess.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee's skin is indeed heating up, what with the way Eric smiles.

Eric is hot no matter what, but in this light, in this shimmering dark water, in this enveloping steam...

"You are just so fucking beautiful, darling."

[onceaviking]

Eric blinks, slowly.

Then he moves the very short distance to Emcee and presses against him, running his lips along his jawline.