from the east

She kept her arm around his waist, happy to see him pleased with her responses. She really loved how he liked to dance. He liked to show her off too it seemed, which was quite cute to her. “Ummm… well didnt we hunt some nights ago? Those drunkards that were beating the homeless ones… hmmm that was several weeks ago hm? ”

“It certainly was.” He raised his brows, concern pooling in his gaze as he looked over at his maker. “We were still in Aachen then. My beloved, we are in Seville now.” Arjun gently placed a hand upon hers. “We’ll go back inside. We’ll change into presentable attire, and I’ll bring you the finest blood you could desire.” He led her back to their town house, a palazzo style building comprised of sprawling apartments all joined together into one complex.  

Yoshimi let out a pensive sound, a soft little hum passing through his slightly parted lips. It was not as easy to offer Arjun advice for a situation he was not quite familiar with. Not often he was one to mingle with group of immortals, thus his opinions could not be made based off on his experience. 

Before he could offer his response, however, Arjun’s statement drew a sympathetic smile from his lips, and he was quick to dismiss his concerns with a light shake of his head and by resting his palm on his cheek, his thumb idly stroking the cool skin beneath. 

“I am not one to offer judgments,” he said calmly, reasoning with patience. His dark eyes were serene, twin pools of an obsidian riverbed. “But I would hardly find them disagreeable. Japanese bath houses follow a different policy, however. They are meant to soothe the tiredness of the body and mind. Therefore, I was wondering if a private oasis would attend to your desires in a more efficient manner? It would make a place for respite but for recreation as well, as you mentioned. Although, the difference, I believe, wouldn’t be that significant.” Yoshimi fell silent for a moment, his fingers withdrawing from the man’s face. “Your eyes were particularly melancholic,” he mentioned quietly then, and the smile on his lips mimicked the sentiment. “But I had no desire to pry in the private matters of your heart. I own no right,” he let out a contemplative sigh, his demeanor delicately brightening up. “I am satisfied enough with simply offering you a pleasant distraction from them.”

“I have been private all my life.” Arjun said. “I would like to be open now, easily accessed. I have always preferred excess, in all forms. I should not deny myself these pleasures. Someone has to remain a constant in this world, and it might as well be me.” His humor was hard-won and ill-rooted. Perhaps Yoshimi’s quiet assessment had struck a nerve with him, pricked at some hidden pride, but he did not grow callous with his young lover for it. His smile was gentle, lenient. 

“You notice so much and say so little.” Arjun hummed as he finally tightened his grip on the other man again to pull him back in, flush against his chest. “Still I must thank you. You were a comfort to me from the night we met. Your company eases my old heart. And whatever else there is at work within me, it needn’t concern us. It would only detract from the pleasure we share. And where my venture is concerned... I will go on ahead, no doubt, as I best see fit, but I value your thoughts on the matter. I have a practical mind but no experience. I would care to hear what you have to say once the building process begins.--For now, let me look at you.” His hand finally came back up to rest against Yoshimi’s jaw, his fingers aligning elegantly with the curve of it. A smile began to bud in his eyes the longer he let his gaze rest on the other. 

Her grin bloomed after his and she wrapped herself around him to listen. “Alright, I’ll dance with you. And drinking will be good, we can find good blood, I so love the way you are with good fulfilling blood in you…. and I do love that burgundy dress. We have that ruby and black stone necklace dont we? I want to wear that too.”

“Not a thing else” she agreed and went with him happily. She wonderd over his proposal but couldn’t hide the little disinterest seeping in, “Go out?….” She was almost always in the mind to stay in, content to have him close, their attentions full of each other. But he did sway her a little with the worry and reward aspect. “Do you like how I look in those things?” She did indeed like having him both put it on and take it off.

His palms had slid down his chest as Yoshimi listened carefully to Arjun’s deep voice in explanation, and his obsidian eyes, inevitably so, widened in slight admiration. The other’s speech was inspiring; as much as he was invested in mingling with mortals and immortals at his own accord, Yoshimi had never entertained the idea of aiding his community in such a way, at least not more than what was expected from a common citizen in circumstantial events. 

Thus, his amazement was merely honest, and that display of character was yet another impression Arjun had left on him, a permanent mark in his core – not quite an easy achievement. Altruism, especially amidst his kin, was nothing short of a commendable trait.

“Yes, I have. Occasionally.” He agreed softly, his smile discreet grew slightly as once more he pended his head to a side. “Is there where you require my advice? If, perhaps, I would recommend it?”

“Not at all.” Arjun smiled, and had the grace to seem chagrined at his own rashness. “The venture is already underway. I would rather ask you if you have any advice on how to go about it. Mind you, this establishment is meant to cater to our kind, not mortals. I know what desires and needs dictate my nights, but what of all the rest? I would like to offer a wide array of possibilities for my patrons. It should boast the complexity to rival ours.”

Her eyes went back to his in the middle of his reply. She nodded and leaned closer to him so he could take her where needed. He was always the reasonable man. “… not a cycle…” she maybe had other things to say but they left her. Her ire had burned down and the heartbeat of her love eased her back into contentment. “Have I had a short temper lately?” Her hands wandered over his clothing. There was too much of it, all of him was covered it seemed and she found it annoying. She went to his hair instead, fingers pressing into his scalp, she loved how his dark tresses moved over her fingers. It was like a dark stream.

When his maker lavished upon him her attention and affection, Arjun smiled. It was a subtle expression, that slit itself apart on the edge of his fang, but it shone with self-assured appreciation. How else should she treat him? He cupped her cold pale cheek with his hand. 

“Not with me, and what else is of any concern to us?” He asked her. Then he plucked her fingers from his hair and pulled her along, away from the frantically beating hearts of the young ones that had upset Pandora so needlessly. She was deceptively fragile in her moods, her sentimentality and ego. One could look upon her and only see the weeping statue, not the carved marble underneath. 

The tenderness in the gesture brought a delicate smile to his reddish lips and a faint warmth to his cheeks with the blood easily accumulating there, giving it further color. He listened to Arjun’s words with undivided attention, the motion of his hands behind bringing a slight soothing sensation that made his shoulders relax. 

“Advice?” His quiet voice parroted curiously, eyes peering up to look at him once more; his curiosity was genuine, and displayed clearly on his facial traits. “I’m flattered you would turn to me for such a thing,” he smiled gracefully, and at last decided face the other by turning in his hold, dark orbs meeting his with a slight tilt of his head to the side, hands resting on each of Arjun’s shoulders. “I will be delighted to help in any way I can.”

“You will see why.” Arjun laughed quietly. It was balm for his soul, Yoshimi’s presence, his easy smiles, the plainness of his kindness. Especially in recent years, he found himself a man tightly wound, a man behind a mask. It did him good to test his skills in authenticity. His young Japanese friend was, perhaps by nature or experience, capable of extracting genuine feeling from Arjun. 

She still frowned as he pulled her to him, looking over his beautiful calm face, so large and so soft seeming, “… not to ruin a lesson-” she pouted. “What if its not enough? Vile things like that have no respect for anything much less caring to treat innocent humans in any kind of gentle way, quite the opposite they probably torment them.” Her face went serene finally though she gazed past his shoulder thinking of all of the awful things she’d seen their kind do to innocents.

He quivered unconsciously in his hold at the graze of his fangs, his fanning breath and the drag of his tongue; how could he not, with his throat under the panther’s maw, with those gentle but devouring lips provoking him so deliberately? Oh, but that embrace comforting, tender; a contrast Yoshimi was rather fond of.

“My senses are rather dull compared to yours, it seems,” he replied with a light chuckle himself, the other’s sound giving him further, discreet shivers. Yoshimi was easily toyed with in this predicament, but there was no use in pretending he could uphold his composure, unless he desired to tease the other in turn.

He tilted his head up, lips parting as they pressed on the underside of his chin, his nose slightly brushing at the side of his jaw and on his dark, kept beard. His fingers had reached the side of his cheek in a fleeting caress. “Or you simply possess a natural talent to surprise me.” His voice was melodic, mild and with a provoking undertone. Subtle.

Arjun caught Yoshimi’s ghosting fingers at his cheek, wrapping them up in his bronze grip. He took his fingers to his lips and pressed a kiss to his glass-slick nails. They seemed like night and day, enthralled by their reunion. Beneath his jaw the small electric jolt of Yoshimi’s mouth primed his senses for more intense attention. But all in due time.

“I might surprise you yet again.” He said lowly. As Arjun spoke his hands slid up the clothed slope of Yoshimi’s back to disappear beneath the fanned out curtain of his hair. “I did not only call you for pleasure, though rest assured that your company provides me with nothing less.” He quirked his lips into a small smile. 

Arjun merely lifted his hands, as if Pandora was a rearing horse that he tried to stop from running amok. “Calm yourself, Pandora.” He implored her, his fingers brushing against her shoulder as she whirled away in her agitation. He took a step to follow her.

Yoshimi had felt it, felt the blood rushing beneath his lukewarm skin, the small jitters of his heart and the slight disruption in the flow-- But as the other pointed out, unexpectedly, a mild chill ran down through his spine. His voice close, his breath closer; a caress on the crook of his neck. His cheeks were as rosy as the plum blossoms that peeked through the branches by the end of the winter.

“... You caught me off guard with those lips of yours,” he replied softly, a reasoning amidst those gentle delights. His smile was discreet, abashed. “It is a wonder it didn’t stop completely.”

At the base of Yoshimi’s throat, Arjun’s lips split into a fanged smile. His teeth were daggers, filed to points, and they pounded in eager anticipation of the rushing blood he could smell beneath the silken barrier of Yoshimi’s skin. But he only kissed him, teasing him with his tongue, the rasp of his canines. Then Arjun pulled back, his arms wound around the younger vampire’s midriff, like roots growing around a statue to break it. But he was gentle, so gentle, even when he mimed the conqueror.