Day 265 - Friday, September 12th

[papalobo]

[A Chinese man who is definitely a mature adult and not a teenager checks in to the Hyatt, one of their more exclusive rooms, along with his half-white half brother who is also certainly not a teenager and most definitely not the notorious gang leader wanted on suspicion of a September 11th New York City bombing in retaliation for an angry rogue sect of anti-American zealots.

The entire suite floor has been rented out, and it requires a special key card in the elevator and on the stairs to enter that floor. But they can rent one of the still very luxe rooms directly beneath.

A familiar white limo is in the car garage, though the opportunity to gawk or investigate is slim, between the security cameras and live guards.

There's still no contact from Max, but the Department of Homeland Security has become involved, and has begun to enter Ash's territory with intent to arrest any known figures within his gang to bring in for questioning.]

Day 284, Wednesday, Oct 1st

Comments

[sentimentalstoic]

[He blinks at that, as if realizing he'd missed an opportunity to say it and tease Ash further about his fondness in return.]

As fun as that is to imagine, you're not that delicate.

[jadedlynx]

Why would that be fun to imagine?

[sentimentalstoic]

[Finally letting go of Ash's hand, he reaches to muse the top of his head delicately, as if he had an injury there to nurse as well.]

Imagining you going from flustered to at ease over me is very appealing. It's almost a shame my turn towards decadent entertainment hasn't completely weaned me off of reality, and that I like the you here more than the you in my own mind.

[jadedlynx]

The me in your head would've died before we met so I'd better win out.

[sentimentalstoic]

The you in my head contains multitudes. He's a layered individual.

[jadedlynx]

He sounds too busy. I'm glad I'm not him.

[sentimentalstoic]

So am I. The one in my head, I wouldn't be seeing until after Thanksgiving.

[jadedlynx]

Thanksgiving? What has him that busy?

[sentimentalstoic]

[He merely nods looking surprised that much is even in question.]

[jadedlynx]

Are you just going to ignore the 'what'?

[sentimentalstoic]

[It seems so obvious he presumed it was rhetorical, but if Ash insists. One hand draws from the water to begin enumerating with a finger for each.]

Classes you have to attend for attendance, social obligations for this new side of your life, social maintenance with the street urchin lifestyle you maintain as double duty, legal matters relating to the two sides of that life, the similar mirror of obligations and duties at the higher level which the Monsieur had handled until his death...


[At five, he pauses, to see if Ash would like him to keep going. He does have another hand.]

[jadedlynx]

Why is that Ash still involved with Dino's business?

[sentimentalstoic]

You aren't oblivious to its connections to your street gangs, your legal protections, and your identity. Unfortunately, some kind of proof of existence as a legal entity is necessary in the life you've chosen to humor, here.

[jadedlynx]

[ He doesn't mean the illegal part. ]

How your Ash manage to skip this part?

[sentimentalstoic]

He hadn't. It's why if everything went according to my expectations, we wouldn't be dating until near Thanksgiving.

It was even possible that if we didn't manage by mid-December, it would be until March.

[jadedlynx]

[ It's not often that things went against Blanca's expectation. ]

So what made reality and fantasy different?

[sentimentalstoic]

I'm here with you, for one.

[jadedlynx]

That's the outcome, not the catalyst.

[sentimentalstoic]

The outcome is the important part.

[jadedlynx]

[ His head returns to the reclined position. Even if there are limits to which he can allow touch, Ash is nude, laying back without worrying about modesty. ]

Let him out for a little while. We'll tag team.

[sentimentalstoic]

[Blanca's hand settles on the edge of the tub, leaning, letting his eyes skim over that battered, bruised body again. Despite the discussion being on how his expectations had gone wrong, he is, unfortunately, a man who can read an entire story off of very little. Ash's body is a high density language, conveying a Homerian epic of abuse detailed in their markings.]

"Let him out"?

[jadedlynx]

[ The markings tell a partial story. Where they put pressure, what kinds of positions they preferred, how often and how many. Some things can't speak. The damage done to his mind by crude insults and disgusting instructions will forever be silent. ]

The Ash in your head.

[ It'd been a joke. ]

[sentimentalstoic]

[It isn't physically written onto his body, but Ash has been battered enough, and Blanca a skilled enough 'reader' to read between those lines, to know by Ash's own reactions.]

And have him suffer an inferiority complex? I'm not as smitten with him as I am with you, but I hardly hate him.

[jadedlynx]

It's his punishment for waiting this long to take over.

[ He frowns even with his eyes closed. ]

But I already have enough to deal with handling your other suitors.

[sentimentalstoic]

[With Ash's eyes closed, he allows something of a cynical smile. Neither the real Ash, nor the Ash he thought of when trying to predict him, were particularly forward enough to call suitors. Neither had anything to earn, or to prove.

It was at least in part because Blanca himself spared few pains to let Ash know, often with flamboyance that would make Cirque de Soliel blush, has was especially smitten. If anything, it was so overstated that any doubt would merely be that some of it was empty theater, but he liked to think he 'put out' in more than words well enough when the time came.

Even if he can't seem to do much more than talk now. The bath is Ash's own, and drawing it, putting out a bit of oil, some salts in the bath to soothe without risking anything that could react with his injuries, but it's not quite 'the dawn aurora live in the skies off the coast of Ash's ancestral homeland.' No, not even with the salad.

Either way, that Ash considers himself even vaguely in a category of those who have an errant little crush or two on an attractive, competent older man, with no real regard for him other than being a stage onto which to project their own ideals, is amusing. Even if said with a hint of sarcasm.

They're not exclusive. Nothing has or will stop Blanca from humoring them if it suits them. He has always been an obliging sort. But there's no obligation, to Ash.]

"Other", is it?