INT - The Apothecary; Early Evening
Hector had just closed the shop. He'd flipped the sign around and then sat down in his 'new' chair. It wasn't new at all. An old lady had offered it in trade for her medicines. Hector jumped on the chance to trade and promised the woman he'd do her refills for three months. He absolutely loved this chair and the best part...it was haunted. Inside the little skull was a spirit named 'Steve.' He'd been with the old lady's family for centuries. He doesn't get separated from the chair. He was literally made into it. But that was just fine because he could sit there and watch over the store. The crystal beneath the skull glowed and the jaw of 'Steve' went 'clack' as teeth knocked together. A bit of green smoke rolled out of the skull's nostrils and a deep raspy voice purred to the lightly dozing Hector. /'Someone's coming.'/ Hector blinked his eyes open and stretched like a cat. "Mmm, thanks Steve."
Drystan walked up to the front of the store and saw the “Closed” sign, but could clearly see a napping Hector inside. He smirked a little and gave a soft knock on the door. “Singing Telegram!” He called out, and took a step away from the door.
Hector grinned at the sound of Drystan's voice on the other side of the door. He lifted a hand and made a little 'come' motion and the door unlocked, swinging open to bid the eldest Windgrace entry. "A SINGING telegram? Oh my, do please come in. Now where did I leave my change purse....I want to leave hard working young men BIG tips." He teasingly started to pat himself down like he was looking for money on his body. He patted his front down to his knees and then reached to grab his own crotch suggestively. The new rocking chair rolled forward and promptly pushed Hector right up out of it and to his feet. He gasped in shock at first and then started to laugh.
Drystan Windgrace had stepped inside and stood with his feet together just on the other side of the counter, one hand on his stomach the other behind his back, prepared to sing -- when Hector's chair yeeted him right out of it. "Hahaha....seems your chair doesn't like your sense of humor, or has it not seen the giant tip you actually have? No offense chair, but it is kinda huge." He laughed, not being entirely in on the joke, and thinking Hec had just gotten shoved by a ghost or maybe even tripped.
Hector placed his hands down upon the counter and looked over his shoulder with a quirked brow. Clearing his throat he motioned between Drystan and the chair. "Drystan Windgrace, love of my life...this is Steve. Steve...this is Drystan. I've only been gushing about him all day. Nothing serious." He winked back to Drystan, waving his hand again to make sure the door closed and locked. He walked around the counter and leaned to kiss the other. "Mmm, missed you. Did you get my note?"
/me opened his eyes wider at Steve. “Oh. Hello, …Steve.” He turned his body and lifted his arms out towards Hec as he came round the counter, but his eyes stayed on Steve’s sockets. “Hm.” He turned and looked at Hector and kissed him in return, giving him a warm hug, rubbing his hands up and down his back, “I sure did, didn’t have to even read it!” He smiled some and let his breath out through his nose. “And though your tone was there, I still hated having to wait to hear what you had to say, because it sounded somewhat daunting the longer the hours drew, in my head at least.”
Hector smirks looking over his shoulder to Steve and then back to Drystan again. "The short story. A woman is down on her luck, pulls this old thing out of her attic to see if I'd accept it as an 'antique.' Irony is...the chair's haunted, so of course I accepted it as payment. He's going to watch over the shop for me when we're all busy Nice fellow, though I suppose it's a bit awkward giving you The Eyes while SITTING on poor Steve." He chuckled again and then leaned into the hug, squeezing at Drystan and turning to kiss his temple before drawing back. "Eh, it was all right. I've had time to go over it in my head a few times. A bit of rehearsal. I just...really want to get this right and have it come out the way I mean it." Shrugs and slides his hand down Drystan's arm to take him by the hand. "And I promised you dinner. Come on, let's head up. I can talk and cook at the same time."
/me ‘s brows stitched together in the middle and his mouth went sort of flat, but he nodded anyway, letting Hector take him by the hand and guide him towards the stairs. “Cheers, Steve..” He said before they rounded and up they went.
Once there, Drystan took a seat and cleared his throat and put a smile on, actually tried it out while Hector's back was turned, then did it again, but put more effort into it and left it there like that. “So collecting chairs, making new friends, work work work!” He huffed a little laugh and folded one long leg over the other.
Hector once inside the apartment above, he immediately went to work. Extra virgin olive oil into a pan, garlic, onions, mushrooms, pesto. Boiling water and some pasta. He put the kettle on and started to make tea, giving his butt a little wiggle before looking over his shoulder with a quirk of a brow. "No reason to be horribly worried. I just..." Deep breath in and let it out, turning around to lean his back against the cold box. "Last night I snapped at that boy over calling your magic upsetting. There are a few things specifically that make me angry in the bad, where did chill Hector go? Statements like those are one of them. But as I sat there last night it occurred to me, while someone being startled over the magic you wield is absolutely offensive to me...I have merely accepted that people call what I do, terrible, frightening, unnatural, or even unholy." He shook his head. "I...don't want to be like that anymore. I do not want to stand by and accept that the minimum necessary to maintain positive relations is sufficient to sustain something when I always give 210% of myself." Deep breath, turning to stir things. "We on the same page so far?"
/me took a deep breath and held his thoughts, and just nodded. “Mmm hmmm… I understand you so far.”
Hector made sure nothing was burning and then turned back to clear his throat and swallow. Taking another deep breath he began again. "As I sat there and listened to him, watched his mannerisms and drank in the scope of the curse...I could see the two of you sleeping together. I wasn't jealous, I do not really get jealous, but I did have a wave of unease. I started thinking about all the relationships that I have ever been in and I always ALLOW myself to be pushed out. I accept being 'second'...I accept well, anything really. I'm ALWAYS understanding. I mean to the point it...it's not healthy for myself or the person I'm with. Because I realize now being so adamant that I 'don't care' what the other person does, it might give the impression that I actually don't care about them, don't want to possess them and so on and so forth. The truth is so very far away. I DO want to possess. I want to own, I want to collar, I want to subdue in all the worst ways possible. The very magic I wield by design is meant to be a constant temptation. You are the greatest temptation. I could give to you unlimited power forever and always by allowing myself to become a Lich. I could give you EVERYTHING and I want to so very much, but I know deep down it's not what you truly want and not what is best for the world in its current state. Anyways, back to the smaller scope...relationships in general. I love you and I want to be number one. If you want to screw around, or even make a thruple or a damned harem. /I/ desire to be number one." Bites his tongue, his hands shoving into his pockets to hide that he was trembling just slightly. Like asking for what he wanted in this way was...scary.
/me brought his hand up to rest over his mouth as Hector spoke, leaning his head to the side. He listened intently, dropping that smile shit as soon as he started in again, and the eyebrows were again stitched together and his forehead wrinkled. His other hand simply held himself around his stomach. He was guarding himself even if he didn’t have to, just because he didn’t know where all of this was leading. When Hector finally had his say and shoved his hands in his pockets, he blinked a few times and pressed his palm against his mouth, rubbing at the stubble on his chin, letting out his breath. “Well, first of all, thank you for speaking your mind. That seems like it should be an easy venture, but it is not. Especially when asking for something and you aren’t used to asking for it, for yourself.” He nodded a little and pulled his hand away from his face and instead used it to push some hair behind his ear and adjust himself a bit in the chair. “I’d like to address just..a couple of things, if that’s okay?”
Hector immediately felt terrible and wanted to start apologizing, but he bit his tongue and merely nodded. He offered a smile when the other thanked him for speaking in his mind. It had been difficult and he still wasn't sure that he didn't just fuck everything up entirely. When Drystan asked if he could say something Hector blinked and nodded furiously. "Oh yes of course! Please...go ahead..." Checks on the food real quick.
/me drew in a breath and sat up straighter, not having had the time to think about this for hours, he simply had to take the time now, to choose his words carefully. He didn’t speak up last night, and everything seemed fine, and it was fine, but there was something he felt he needed to clear up. “So yesterday, when I gave my little, show of talent to Mr. Song, I pushed a breeze his way, and then lifted the kettle. I wanted to be sure he understood that it was being caused by me. But what happened was that I threw the poor lad and his little snake for a loop. I think the man sees and feels, like the snake does, just as the snake can hear and speak through him. They have somewhat poor eyesight from what I understand, snakes that is, and rely upon heat signatures and smells in a natural gust of wind. He would have felt, smelled, and seen the breeze coming, and he did not. He was honest to goodness, taken aback because he was befuddled. He never meant to insult me. I wasn’t insulted.” He paused and let out a breath. “Instead, you were. You were for me. For my entire family. You attacked him like you wanted his blood on the walls, and I understood why. It bothered me, because I’m quite good at speaking up for myself when needed. I am also not used to having anyone to be my, …guardian, as it were. So, I let it go, and it all worked out, …though whatever opinions Mr. Song has of you or anyone else, he can mind his forked tongue while he is on the clock or under my roof - if he has one. The tongue, I didn’t notice.”
Hector didn't know what Drystan was about to say, but it wasn't that. His eyes blinked a bit wide and then he turned pink in the cheeks. He blushed and shifted from one foot to the other. "O-oh, yes yes that makes sense." About why the snake was taken aback. He felt kind of silly, but then shook his head just slightly and stood up straighter. "I would never wish to upset you. Especially not over something so minuscule. I just...I want you to know, how much I WANT you." He swallowed. "And if you skull fuck a snake boy or anyone else for that matter...I please ask, after a nice bath so I don't die of poison." He smirked playfully before straightening up again. "Come to me, pin my arms behind me, bend me over without a word...jam your dick in my boy pussy and get it nice and wet." He swallowed and bit his bottom lip. "Then pull out and shove it in my ass all the way to the hilt. Fuck me hard, face down and ass up, pulling my hair and pinning me down. No sweet words, no reassurance, just own my body until you fill my guts. When it's over, pull me to you and kiss me deeply, stare me in the eyes and tell me that I'm your number one." He swallowed hard, Adam's apple bobbing up and down. His eyes had started to droop, the more impassioned and detailed he became about what he wanted Drystan to do to him if he ever was with someone else. He snapped out of it from a hot popping sound from the stove. He turned and quickly started finishing up dinner.
/me held up his hand as if to calm him, and he did indeed radiate his own calm, now that he knew what the heck was going on with Hec. He dropped his head and he wasn’t sure what he could do to make this man believe him when he said he understood. “I gave you a part of me. It's there, around your neck. It’s minuscule, I know. But there are only so many parts of me I can give away in a lifetime, even if mine is unnaturally long. Do you know how many times I’ve done that particular spell? Once. The owner? I’ve told you of her and no one else, and she’s been dead and gone, for so long now. This should tell you something already Hector. You’re already getting what you’re asking for. I love you. I love my family… but there is no one else to fall in love with. Sex is sex. It’s how it has been for me for hundreds of years, till just very, very recently.” He stood up, despite the other man tending to his food, and took a step towards him. “You’ve been my one, and you’ll continue that, no matter who comes and goes. Please trust me?”
Hector breathed out and nodded, turning his head to look over his shoulder with a soft smile. "I do believe you. Please, don't be upset. I had to do this. It was more for me and our relationship than anything. Yes, I was nervous and in the back of my mind there was that dread that I was asking too much...but I trust you." He reached up to grab the necklace that dangled around his throat. He gripped it tightly, lowering his head and feeling his eyes sting slightly. He nodded a few times and exhaled. "I might...sound a bit strange for a little while. I want to practice...trying to be good to myself. That's all." Strains the pasta and places it into a bowl, then starts dumping the home made sauce on top and tossing it around with the pasta.
Drystan Windgrace shakes his head. "I'm not upset. Why would I be upset?" He let out a breath and just turned to the side left standing there like a bit of a fool. He twisted his head on his neck and strolled over towards the window, and gazed across the way at the scenery. The graveyard. He had answered Hector the best way he knew how. He stared and then caught his own reflection in the glass, staring at himself for a moment before lowering his head and folding his hands in front of him. He was not upset, not at Hector yesterday, or Hector now, or Hector in a week. So why did he feel like he just failed? He was more confused than he was before, and the issue seemed to be settled. He looked up and watched a tree sway in the breeze. "I don't mind strange." After all, he was pretty strange when you came right to it himself. His voice was quiet, but he could feel it reverberating off the window and in the hollow of his chest. He just remained there stewing in his own thoughts.
It was Hector’s turn to furl his brows together in a worried sort of way. He swallowed hard and though Drystan said he wasn't upset, Hector had a sinking feeling in his stomach. He finished with dinner, carefully putting a large bowl of pesto pasta in the center of the table. He set the table for two and poured two glasses of wine before crossing the room to come up behind Drystan. He slid his arms around the other's waist from behind and put his chin upon Stan's shoulder. He gave him a tender squeeze and pressed a kiss to the back of his neck. "You ok?"
/me felt Hector's arms and his breath at his ear as he leaned his chin on his shoulder. “I think so. I’m overthinking things as usual. That’s all.” He patted Hector’s hands and turned his head a little and took a deep sniff in, “Dinner smells done, and delicious.” He smiled and uncurled himself from Hector, facing him and looking him in the eye. “Sometimes it’s hard to suss out feelings from worries and things that are tangible and what’s all in our minds. At least I do.” He pulled his mouth into a little smile and then kissed him softly cupping his cheek into his palm. “Can we eat?” His stomach gurgled then, as if to say, “fuck yeah it best be time to eat!” and he laughed a little.
Hector smiled as Drystan turned to face him, kissing him back softly. He nodded slowly, carefully taking both hands and brushing Drystan's hair back, tucking it neatly behind his ears. "OK. I'll let it go for right now. But talk to me if you need to. That was all I needed tonight. I just needed to talk that out. I needed to say it out loud. I never doubted, not really, but I'd also never asked. I wanted to ask...I wanted to ask for what I wanted and it be granted. Like wishing on a falling star. Silly...I know..." He leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together, holding the intimate motion for a moment before drawing back. He went over to the table and started to dish up pasta. "Come, come. Get over here and fill that bottomless pit of yours."