thenearshore | Someone passes // And while I wonder // If it is he,

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Someone passes // And while I wonder // If it is he,

Who: Yuri & Ukoku
What: Ukoku's drinking and talking to the moon, Yuri's picking up the pieces.
When: [shrugs and make s 'i dunno' noise] the 4th going into the 5th i guess
Where: Ukoku's temple
Warnings: Ukoku?

[Nothing with Ukoku was ever straight-forward or simple, Yuri should have known that. Yuri did know that, really, so why was it she got the mad hope every time that she might finally get actual answers?

Something something true madness being repeating the same thing and expecting a different outcome something.

It had started with a text earlier in the day, sent from Yuri to Ukoku, with a picture attached of one of the many pictures she'd taken of the strange chalk drawings and formulas found on his floor the one day. I have a few questions. She had to concede defeat here and go directly to the source, since her attempts at studying on her own hadn't gotten her anywhere.

Though she'd been informed to stop by later, she hadn't been able to actually get over until really later, the moon nothing more that a sliver of silver cutting through the sky. She teleports in, landing softly on the steps leading up to the temple and wrinkles her nose, already able to pick up the scent of alcohol.]

...Ukoku...?

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[She stares at him a moment, before coming over and placing the corner of the pillow she's holding in his hand. Alright, alright, she won't throw pillows anymore. He's drunk and she probably shouldn't be so mean.]

[ With his head covered he can't see it, but it takes him about half a second to decide that's a pillow. Nah.

He pushes his shield aside and rakes his hair back. ]

Why can't they be on the floor? [ He tosses the one he's holding at her legs, smiling crookedly. ] Who're you making it more comfortable for?

That's not where they go. [But it's said with more of an exasperated sort of fondness than any actual irritation. She bends and picks the pillow up again, setting it on the bed.]

I'm making it comfortable for you, of course. Who else? Do you have someone else here I should know about? [She glances around, eyebrows raised in a 'well?' Expression, like some secret girlfriend's going to come waltzing out of a hidden closet or something.] Get her to take care of you. [Her tone is light, obviously joking.

Also don't push your hair back like that and look at her what is wrong with you.]

[ He is innocent! ] It's just you.

[ And maybe Guy, but who's counting. He pauses to look out the window, craning his neck—even Koumyou's on vacation for a few days.

He wriggles back into the pillows and grabs a blanket off the bedframe (where it was kind of piled in a heap; he's an adult). ]

You're out so late. Won't your shinki be worried?

[She looks at the blanket and holds her hand out for it. Do you want her to tuck you in too? She has a brief idle thought of 'why is he wearing his clothes to bed?' before the next second following up with 'no he should definitely keep wearing all his clothes to bed' and trying not to roll her eyes at herself.]

Sometimes I take prayers on my own, without him. They're... [Yuri pauses, wondering how to properly explain.] private things. I don't like having an audience. So, I'm sure he's a little used to it. [There's a strange implication there that she's willing to lie to her shinki about where she is and what she's doing when Ukoku is involved, and Yuri pauses to reflect on that.]

Though I suppose I could just tell him the truth. It's not like we're doing anything I have to hide... [She frowns, a bit perturbed that her first instinct was 'cover up' instead of just 'tell him I'm helping a god friend' or something.]

Edited 2016-10-25 16:47 (UTC)

You should tell him whatever's easiest. [ Whether it's a lie or not. He has all kinds of great how-to-be-a-bad-friend advice like this.

He hands her the edge of the blanket (and manages to not look like he's two seconds from a bad joke at her expense, mainly because her purpose in asking for it isn't immediately obvious and he's a little curious). ]

[She takes the blanket and then just stands there a moment with a peculiar look of defeated resignation on her face. She stares at the blanket and her own hand like somehow it's betrayed her, because she hadn't thought this all the way through. It was silly.

She rests one knee against the bed and pulls the blanket up to drape over him more, but stops short of actually tucking him in. Instead she tosses the rest of the blanket over his face, smiling just slightly in the barest hint of moonlight offered.]

You should go to sleep. You're going to have a hangover in the morning. [And then, because she hadn't thought to ask before, she leans down some, bracing one hand against the mattress, and picks the corner of the blanket up to peer under it at him, curious] Why were you drinking so much tonight anyhow?

[ He leaves the blanket over his face until she lifts it up. Hi, just leave him here to suffocate. He hums in thought, reaching back to try and work the silly yellow elastic out of his hair. ]

It was helping me think.

[ And if she believes that, he's selling a super cool bridge. ]

[Yuri sighs and pulls the blanket back a little, moving to kneel on the bed so she can reach him easier. She bats at his hands--stop before you yank half your hair out--to take care of the stupid hair-tie herself.]

Do you want to try again?

[Yeah not buying it.]

[ He doesn't miss a beat: ] It was helping me think.

[ He tried again.

He probably shouldn't be making bad jokes when her hands are in his hair, but it's fine. Actually divulging any truths here is obviously not on the table. ]

Edited 2016-10-26 16:37 (UTC)

[She tugs sharply on his hair and then mutters a completely fake 'oops' as if somehow it's the hair-tie's fault.]

Fine, pretend to be mysterious a while longer. You're not cute, you know.

[She finally gets the hairtie free from his hair and sits back on her knees, holding it out for him to take. Why is it yellow? Why are there bananas?? Why is he like this.]

[ He says nothing to that.

Instead he reaches out and threads his fingers through the loop, shifting against hers, twisting around them, slow and deliberate, until the elastic is far enough over his knuckles to roll down to his wrist.

Then he takes his hand back. He's watching her, still, as he curls his arm under the pillow.

Cute is definitely not a valid description. ]

[Yuri inhales sharply, once, and finds herself holding her breath. It's stupid, such a little thing shouldn't shake her, but there's something about the silence and his stare that threatens to undo her.

She pulls her hand back to her lap, suddenly very aware of where she is and everything seems too-- much. Like when she activates her abilities and everything seems to jump into sharper focus. She reaches out, her fingertips brushing against his hair to move it away from his face and her touch lingers, uncertain.]

You're drunk. [She mutters it like she's trying to remind someone--him or herself, or maybe both. Or maybe he's not nearly as actually drunk as she'd like to think he is. She doesn't know anymore.]

That's absurd.

[ One hand skims across the landscape of sheets and pillows to rest next to her leg, fingertips light and warm against her skin.

He's drunk, but he'd probably be doing this anyway. ]

[She looks sharply at his hand, feeling strangely disappointed that he's stopped there, and mentally chastising herself for thinking it in the first place. But then, what did it matter if she did?

Yuri sits up more and leans over, one hand still on his face, the other braced against the bed for balance, and kisses him without preamble. It's an experiment, maybe, just to see, because typically Yuri doesn't go for spontaneity.

He tastes like alcohol and she wrinkles her nose slightly when she pulls away, trying to calm her racing heart.] You should sober up first. [Before they actually do anything--if they ever actually do anything. But she'll use his drunkenness as an excuse for now.]

[ He's still, for the most part, tolerant—if she's experimenting, he's allowing it—but he reaches up for her anyway, too slow; his fingers get as far as trailing through her hair as she pulls back. ]

I'm not drunk!

[ He can protest this all night. Eventually, it'll be true. He stops tracing feathery circles on her knee to pat the mattress next to him. It's probably a joke. ]

Mm-hm.

[It's an indulgent, sure, sure whatever you say tone. She glances to the offered place and knows she should say no and go away, but--

She shifts and lays down anyhow, telling herself she's just humoring a drunk. She can leave when he's asleep, maybe, and go back home to Neji's judgmental glare.

...Or maybe not. That can be put off, probably. Yuri sighs lightly] Go to sleep.

[ Well, it was a joke. This is a dubious idea on someone's part, maybe. He throws the blanket over her, too, and snakes his arm around her back to settle at the curve of her hip.

It doesn't take him long, for obvious reasons, to fall asleep. ]

[She was going to leave. It would've been easy to just teleport herself away and back to her place, but she'd gotten comfortable and the thought of 'in a few minutes' never came true.

She moves to him while she sleeps, her guard dropped and her mind automatically seeking out the quiet of his. The dark of it is still strangely comforting in ways she should probably be more concerned about.

Instead Yuri reaches for him, fingers curling into his clothes, clinging like he's the tether she has to this world. Which, honestly, probably isn't a good indication of anything. Oops. But it's a rare, empty sleep and she's grateful for it, sleeping soundly through the night.]

[ He's awake first. It's too early (regardless of what time it is), and his fingers under the hem of her shirt would be nicer if his arm weren't asleep.

After a second he gets up, disentangling himself, and climbs unsteadily past her—which is somewhat unnecessary, but he's hungover, enjoy—and disappears into the corridor. ]

[She grumbles unintelligibly in protest, turning as he moves; her hand unconsciously reaches for him, fingers brushing against his clothes, but unable to find purchase before he's moved out of her range.

When her arm drops, hand dangling over the edge, she forces herself to start waking up and taking stock of the situation. Had she been reaching for someone? She totally had been. Yuri frowns lightly, feeling like she hasn't gotten nearly enough sleep to be functional for this, and turns back over, burying her face in the pillows.

She has the passing, absent thought that it smells like Ukoku and--

Ukoku.

Her eyes snap open and she stares at the wall in frozen mortification. She was still in his temple. In his room. In his bed. Yuri sits up and looks around, suddenly remembering everything that led up to it and the fact her plan of leaving once he was asleep had never come to completion thanks to her falling asleep herself.

Fuck.

She'd kissed him, right? That had happened. She presses her fingertips to her mouth and blushes and frets-- this would only be awkward if she made it awkward, but it was a little awkward and what was she supposed to do now? Try to explain herself? Never bring it up again in the hopes he won't remember through the haze of alcohol? Maybe she should leave. She could leave. But she can't just walk through the door (briefly, in her head, a montage of trying to sneak her way out of the temple through the front door like it's some ninja stealth mission from a video game; she's got a heart meter and everything).

No, no, front door was out, he'd catch her, probably and then she'd have to explain that. So no front door, which left...The window!? Was there a window she could climb out of? Was that somehow less awkward than trying to waltz out the front door?

it takes another moment before she suddenly sighs deeply and pinches the bridge of her nose. Teleport. She was a god, and she could teleport. Why did she always forget that? Fuck. She takes a breath and lowers her hand, already beginning to think of her temple. That'd be the best place to go. And then she could just pretend a good chunk of this night never happened. Perfect.]

[ Ukoku shuffles back in at that inopportune moment, of course, barefoot in his rumpled clothes. His glasses are still on the floor; he's involuntarily squinting at her from across the room for about three different reasons. There's a tall glass of water in his hand.

Finally he gives her a crooked smile. ]

Did you forget you were here?

[ He doesn't wait for a reply. He's heading toward another dark doorway, unbuttoning his shirt with his free hand. ]

[There's a sharp inhale as he re-enters, startling her. She pulls the blanket up instinctively, then looks at it with a mildly accusing, exasperated look. She's fully clothed, what is she even trying to cover?]

I, ah... [Yeah, she forgot. She runs a hand trough her hair and looks around, absently reaching out to grab his glasses and place them somewhere safer near the bed, up off the floor, so they don't get accidentally stepped on.] Sorry. I didn't mean to stay.

[She glances up and-- was he undressing? Yuri freezes, eyes wide and she actually glances around the room as if to silently ask 'is this for real?'] I should-- I have to get back home. [For some reason, surely, and she stands abruptly] ...You should try drinking a little coffee. It'll help with your hangover. [There. She's helped him out, she has a...decent.. Enough excuse to leave. There was closure! She doesn't hesitate then to teleport away.

She'll contact him later to make sure his hangover's doing alright, but in the meantime she's going to drown herself in holy water, bbl.]

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Someone passes // And while I wonder // If it is he,

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